Red Winter

Chapter Six - Back in Hell

Nobody says anything for a while. Bucky looks at everyone and they're all deep in thought. Natasha however, is on her fourth cookie, casually dunking it in her glass of milk. He looks at Steve and he too is thinking but unlike the others he's staring at Natasha while thinking. Bucky doesn't know exactly what the Red Room is but what confuses him is when he saw the fear in Natasha's eyes a while ago, he felt it too, and it was familiar just like everything else he feels that relates to Natasha.

Fury stops pacing back and forth and finally asks, "Four months, Natasha. You were there for four months. What happened in there?" 

They all turn their attention back to Natasha. Natasha takes a deep breath and with a comforting nod from Steve she begins her story.

Back in Austria - Nearly Five Months Ago

"Wakey-wakey, little spidey. Come and see who's here," a woman's voice mocks in a sing-song tone.

Natasha tries to open her eyes. She can hear the woman's voice, menacingly teasing her. She can feel her hands tied behind her back, each of her feet tied separately on the two front legs of the chair she's sitting on, and she can feel the massive headache splitting her head in half. She keeps her head down and even though things are blurry she can make out several pairs of boots on the cement floor. When she raises her head a little she makes at least five silhouettes of men, armored and armed. She blinks fast a couple of times in an effort to focus everything and when it does, her body tenses for a fraction of a second before her training could kick in. She composes herself, pushing every pain in her body in the back of her mind, as she comes face to face with the Woman.

"There you are. Hello, sister," the Woman says with a huge, creepy smile on her face.

"Who are you?" Natasha says softly and she sees the smile on the Woman's face fade and is replaced by hurt. What can this weirdo be hurt about? Natasha wonders.

The Woman takes a deep breath to calm herself and turns back to Natasha, "I forgive you, sister. It's not your fault that you can't remember. But please try. Look at me and try to remember." Natasha stares at her but remains clueless.

"LOOK AT ME!!!" the Woman screams at last. She grabs Natasha's face and pulls it close to hers, their breath mingling in the small space of air between their noses. 

Forced to look on, Natasha does what she's told and tries to remember where and when she's seen those brown eyes, sharp nose and high cheekbones aside from the photos she took from her apartment window. It wasn't obvious on the photos but Natasha notices that the Woman's thin lips curl at both ends, creating an illusion of a creepy smile. That's when it dawns on her. That creepy smile with that disgusting smell. I know her.

"Anya?" Natasha says softly. Anya releases Natasha's face and stands in front of her, pleased.

"That's right. Thought I was dead, didn't you, Natalia?" Anya crosses her arms and can't help but look a little too pleased at Natasha's confused look. Natasha tries to speak, ask or at least make any kind of sound but a thousand thoughts and memories come hammering her head. She tries to comprehend everything but her headache is back, like a huge dam breaking and releasing thousands of tons of water. Natasha screams in pain.

"I apologize for that, sister. It's the sedative they gave you. Don't worry, tonight you'll rest and then tomorrow, we'll have fun. We have a lot of catching up to do," Anya says and leaves the room followed by her guards. Natasha hears the metal door slams shut and knowing there's nothing she can do at the moment, she doesn't try to free herself. Instead, she focuses on managing her headache until she surrenders to the dark and cold of sleep.