The Ultimate Fix-It Fic

6| Goodbye Again

Melina brought out her tablet. "Come in," she called out.

The door creaked open and a pig came trotting in like a dog.

Natasha stared at the animal in the dining room. "Did that pig just open the door?"

"Yes. It did." Melina leaned down to scratch the pig's head. "Good boy, Alexei. Good boy."

Alexei the man looked between Melina and the pig. "You named a pig after me?" he asked in disbelief.

Melina glanced at the man innocently. "You don't see the resemblance? See, he sits just like dog. Amazing." She tapped a few things on her screen. "Now, watch."

"It's a little weird, to me," Alexei the man muttered.

"Stop breathing," Melina said over him, a seeming command to Alexei the pig.

The pig grunted several times, and Natasha began to hear the similarities it had between the pig and her father.

"We infiltrated the North Institute in Ohio. It was a front for S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists. Actually, it was Hydra scientists at that time," Melina explained. "In conjunction with the Winter Soldier project, they had dissected and deconstructed the human brain to create the first and only cellular blueprint of the basal ganglia. Was the hub for cognition. Voluntary motor movement, procedural learning. We didn't steal weaponry or technology. We stole the key to unlocking free will."

The pig Alexei groaned and slumped onto the floor.

"What are you doing?" Natasha demanded, about the pig.

Melina sighed. "Oh, I am explaining that the science is now so exact, the subject can be instructed to stop breathing and has no choice but to obey." She looked disappointed that Natasha wasn't grasping the point in her demonstration.

"Okay, you made your point. That's enough." Natasha exhaled as the pig grunted normally.

"Yes, all right. Well, don't worry, Alexei could've survived 11 more seconds without oxygen. Good boy. Now, you go back, back home where it's safe." Melina patted the pig's hindquarters. "You go. You go back home, back home where it's safe. Good boy, Alexei." Melina watched the pig leave before turning back to the humans. "The world functions on a higher level when it is controlled. Dreykov has chemically subjugated agents planted around the globe."

Yelena spoke up sullenly. "And do you know who they test it on?" she asked flatly.

"Hmm... No. That's not my department," Melina replied.

Alexei chuckled. "Ah, come on, come on. Don't lie to them. Hmm?"

Melina frowned. "I'm not lying," she said.

"You're Dreykov's architect, huh?" The man shook his head and downed another vodka shot.

"What were you?" Melina retorted. "If I was his architect, you were his partner. You were his business partner."

"No, no, no. I was patsy!" Alexei banged the table. "Patsy!"

"Don't give me that–" Melina warned.

"He sell me ideology–"

"Stop with the politics," the Widow said.

Alexei ignored her. "All the while, bigger–"

"Shut up!" Natasha blurted out. "You are an idiot. And you're a coward. You're a coward. And our family was never real, so there's nothing to hold on to. We're moving on."

"Never family, huh?" Alexei chuckled. "In my heart, I am simple man. And I think that for a couple deep undercover Russian agents I think we did pretty great as parents, huh? Yes, we had our orders, and we played our roles to perfection."