The Irony of it All

33

Natasha watched silently as they brought Alexei out. Last time she'd seen him, in the transport, he was suffering from the withdrawals but he'd been conscious, with recognition in his eyes. There was no recognition now. Alexei was gone, replaced with the cold blood thirsty eyes of the Red Guardian. The scream that they'd heard previously, she realized, was the insanity serum taking effect as they injected him. 

       She shivered, but she managed to put her widow face on. If they thought that bringing her here to this room, facing Madame B., and bringing the man she once loved back to life in the form of a monster was going to shatter her… Well they were right, but she sure as hell wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of seeing her break. 

       "Is that?" Steve whispered from beside her.

       "Yep." And in true black widow fashion, she added, "Does it bother you that he's taller and more ripped than you are?"

     Steve stammered a bit before replying, "Actually I think I was still more of a catch than this guy before I got the serum." She snickered. After not seeing him in so long she'd kind of forgotten that he wasn't the blushing 25 year old from the 40's anymore. She couldn't believe it'd been 4 ½ years since he'd come out of the ice and she'd be lying if she said she didn't honestly believe she was mostly to blame for the solid 30 year old standing next to her. Ok, Tony's choice in gifts for Steve didn't really help the innocence. Even she had refused to explain a few of them.

       Back to the serious situation at hand: The Red Guardian was horrifying to look at. He'd been horrifying when she'd been with Clint in that alley, but now that she knew more of what was going on, that this was a man she used to know, things felt even more overwhelming. And right now, she felt very confused. Ivan had said something about entertainment. Well that didn't sound like something good to her ears. And now Alexei was here and she just couldn't put it together. What was the plan? 

     "I'd like you to meet the Red Room's pride and joy, the Red Guardian. He's not as effective as our Black Widow I'll admit. He's not very good at stealth, espionage, or infiltration." Ivan's ugly yellowed teeth bared as he cracked himself up. "But he's quite effective when we need to make an impression, don't you think?"

         He continued. "Project EAGLE was not successful in the way we wanted. The Red Guardian was created to be the counterpart of Captain America. 70 years of work from the finest scientists and we created this horrifically, beautiful creature that stands before you. However there is a flaw. Captain America's metabolism burns at 4 times the rate of the normal, average human. The Red Guardian's metabolism burns at 25 times the rate of the average man. If Captain Rogers did not steadily intake enough calories to keep up his metabolism, his body would begin to feed on itself. The same is true for the Red Guardian, but at a much faster and more intense rate. A few thousand calories are used up before they can even start to make an effect. Thankfully the serum gave him the ability to draw energy directly from humans, but even that is not enough as his condition progresses. He needs a source of energy that can replenish just as fast as it is taken. The Erskine serum was the perfect solution. In theory. We must test it out like any good hypothesis." 

       "Test it out?" She questioned, her mind still fogged.

        Ivan nodded to one of the men. She was suddenly grabbed and wretched out of Steve's reach. His fast reflexes reached out to pull her back but the men were prepared and held him back while Natasha was forced into a chair she hadn't even seen and bound by her legs, arms, hands, fingers, and loosely around her neck. 'Well they sure we're thorough', she thought. 

      "Tonight we will see who is the better creation. My Red Guardian vs. Erskine's Captain America." Things finally started to click together as Natasha started to realize what the plan here was. She couldn't stop herself from crying out.