Red Room

RR25 Phase 2

The moment Loki used his powers to give Natalia her memory back, the force pushed them to their knees and Loki was unable to remove his hands from Natalia's head. They were frozen in pain as the memory came back, and from the crystal on Natalia's wrist. The crystal recognized a new power and latched on, which in turn created a power current. Natalia couldn't move as she was thrust back in time.

1953

Natalia was getting restless as her training got even more restricted. She needed to move, she was feeling sluggish and it was messing with her head. The constant checkups were annoying as well. They always put her under and she had no clue what kind of tests they would run. The guards around the compound were always watching her as if she were going to escape at any moment. They never caught her at night though, she was better than them. It also made her sad that James was gone. She guessed with her restricted schedule they no longer had a need for the assassin team, and he got shipped to another location. He was gone shortly after Ivan was seen yelling at him the day she got kicked in the stomach. Accidents happen, so that couldn't have been the reason he was gone so it had to be because of her. She hated to admit it but they had started to become friends. They were the greatest assassin team in the world.

As she was doing sit ups one morning, one of the guards entered her room and forcefully pulled her along to another appointment. She had tried resisting the last two times since she didn't know what was going on. It concerned her when they switched to batons rather than tasers to make her comply. She felt too weak to fight back, maybe her serum was wearing off and they needed to constantly test her levels? That was the only thing she could think of. The familiar gray walls bored her on the way to the lab. The lights cast off a dreary glow and she thought of the whole place as a dungeon, and she was the princess in the tower. Some princess she was, she couldn't even fight back to her tormentor, Ivan. That man seeped evil and there was something about him that made her listen to his every word.

The medical lab was just another cell. Knowing the routine, she shook off the guard and made her way to the exam table. Dr. Andrei along with Ivan came over and she felt the familiar needle slide into her arm. Staring defiantly at them, she slipped once again into unconsciousness. What felt like moments later, Natalia woke up and kept her eyes closed like she always did to survey her surroundings. The only thing she heard was a newspaper page being flipped and she knew it was the nurse who always led her back to her room. She sat up and steadied her dizziness when the nurse took her by the arm and helped her into her room. Once the nurse left, she groggily tried to create a plan to find out what was going on. Later that night, she would sneak into the lab. She had snuck around many places in the compound, but she steered clear of the lab, it was too dark and evil. This princess was going to find some answers; all she needed to do was avoid the dragon and his henchmen.

It was a cold walk back to the lab. It seemed so much different when the corridors were lit in the daytime; she had to rely on her senses in the darkness. She passed no souls on the way so she continued her path. Loki was supposed to come tonight, but she had to find out now. "Sorry my friend," she muttered, knowing that he wouldn't hear. She reached the lab and found it to be locked. It was no surprise, but she picked it just like any other and got it open in no time. Quietly closing the door, she flipped the light on and took a look around. It was spotless, as usual, but the smell was still the same. She couldn't describe it, but it was the smell of death and metal. She wondered if all dungeons smelled like that, familiar yet unexplainable.

Natalia made her way over to the filing cabinet in the corner. All of the drawers were locked but like the door to the lab, she forced them open. Leafing through the files, she found hers. She sat it on the table and sat to read through it. The only thing that stuck out in it was letters and a number written in pen on the inside cover of her file. It read 'BWp2exp.' She raised her eyebrows in question as she scanned over the info. Finding nothing else surprising, she picked it up to replace it and a key fell out that she hadn't noticed before. She picked it up and turned it over in her hand. It was a small key to a safe or something. She then scoured the room for evidence of a safe but found none, it must be in Ivan's office. She pocketed the key and went to put her file back.