Natalia
She awoke from unconsciousness like pulling herself free from a wet blanket. She heard a low hum around her and knew she was traveling. A plane?
"She stirs."
"Make her sleep again. Do not mark her. She is to be unharmed."
Russian. They're speaking Russian. Oh God, they found me.
A pinch in her arm, and then back into the abyss.
~*~
She awoke again, swimming up from the deepest recesses of unconsciousness slowly, instinctively afraid of what she was waking into.
The first thing that she was aware of was that she was restrained. Very restrained. Her arms and legs were zip-tied to a chair in several places, and the chair was too heavy to move. It didn't matter, she was too exhausted to move anyway. She vomited, turning her head to the side, trying to avoid being sick on herself.
"Yes, Natalia, you are sickening indeed."
She closed her eyes. That voice had haunted her dreams most of her life, and still did in times of stress. She had prayed so many times that he was dead. Oh how she prayed he was dead. But now she was about to be, and by his hand.
"Mikhail."
"Ah, I see you have not forgotten everything you were taught."
"I forgot nothing."
He backhanded her viciously. "You forgot loyalty, bitch."
She closed her eyes and took the punishment silently, as she always had. She prayed for it to end soon, as she always had. But she allowed herself to feel; she felt anger, and channeled her anger in a new direction now.
She opened her eyes and faced him.
"It is too late for you to learn to practice loyalty, but you will learn the price that those who do not practice it must pay."
She looked up at him, defiant. "I am not afraid of you, Mikhail. You cannot make me afraid anymore. I am not your little girl. I can kill you, and if you let me go, I will show you."
He laughed at her impertinence. "You could never. You, who learned everything from me! Or have you picked up a few tricks from your friends at S.H.I.E.L.D.? Or your freak buddies? That man you give your body to, the archer? Has he taught you?" She stared at him. "Oh yes, Natalia. I know everything. And you will pay for it all. When I find your friends, they will pay as well." Her eyes narrowed to slits and she curled her upper lip in a snarl. "You were my protégé, and you humiliated me. You will suffer. And so will they."
"Fuck you, Mikhail. You can kill me, but they will avenge me. They will crush you like the piece of dogshit that you are." She spat at him.
He stepped up and smacked her viciously in the face, then grabbed a rod and pounded her arms, face and upper body relentlessly. At every opportunity, Natasha looked at him, refusing to back down or show fear. For her impertinence, he slammed the rod across her eyes. He beat her without mercy for what seemed like hours but what was probably only minutes and quit only when the blood from her mouth sprayed and got on his shirt. Her face was bleeding horribly and her arms, chest and shoulders were screaming in pain. She whimpered but did not cry out. Natasha knew her nose was broken and felt sure that her orbital bone was broken. She was fairly certain her right wrist and left humerus were also broken.
"Ah, you mean to be tough? You will cry out for me. You will scream in pain, Natalia.”
“Go to hell, Mikhail, you coward.”
He roared and began to beat at her legs and ankles. She bit the inside of her cheek, tasting blood, unsure if it was from her bite or some other wound but willing herself not to scream or pass out. He went on and on, waiting for her to scream, bellowing when she did not even after he broke the rod on her kneecap.
He stopped, throwing the broken rod to the side, panting. ”This is limiting. Untie her, I want better access."
The zip ties were cut and Natasha pulled her arms to herself, cradling them. The zip-ties about her legs were cut and she was thrown to the ground. Mikhail began kicking her, and she curled into fetal position.
"Cry out, Natalia! Beg me for mercy!"
Natasha clenched her feet with all her might, felt a tiny crunch under her toes, and gasped out, "Never."
Mikhail screamed in rage and kicked her again, breaking her tibia. She moaned softly, and thought of Clint. His eyes, his beautiful eyes, and how she was going to die with him mad at her. She sobbed once. He kicked her again and again, calling her a bitch, until she went still.
He kicked her in the back one last time and said to his assistant, "Check her."
The man put his fingers to her throat, pulled his bloody hand back and said, "She is not dead but she is very close. Her heartbeat is almost gone."
Mikhail waved his hand. "Take her to the woods and throw her in the snow. The wolves will come and finish her."
Two young men loaded her into the back of a jeep, drove her three miles out, dragged her out of the car under her armpits, and left her for dead.
The cold snow startled her awake, and she opened the one eye that would work to take in her surroundings. She heard thumping in the distance, and what sounded like an explosion. She drifted off. The thumping got louder, then someone was touching her and it hurt.
“Natasha? Nat? Can you hear me?”
Her voice sounded like someone else’s, and from very far away. ”I'm dead, Cap. Tell Clint don't be mad."
Then nothingness.