Eliminated
Back at Melina’s house it was starting to get dark. Alexei and Yelena were bonding in another room. Well… Yelena was trying to get some alone time to process and Alexei was tormenting her in a fatherly way about irrelevant childhood stories. Yelena kept drinking, Alexei kept drinking too, after awhile the two of them were singing, but it stopped suddenly when an intense flash of blue light and the sound of hovering came down around Melina’s home.
Yelena jumped up.
“Get down!” Alexei said as he covered his head with his Red Guardian mask, protecting his fake daughter. Yelena lowered herself onto the ground and Alexei stood tall at the window.
“If Dreykov thinks…” he started to said threateningly as a wall of tranquilizer darts blew into the window knocking him out instantly. Alexei fell to the floor.
“Well.. I can’t say I didn’t see that one coming.” Yelena mumbled to herself as she quietly crept out of the room trying to avoid any widows. She held her gun high, slightly regretting how much she had to drink. As Yelena slowly moved around the house on alert, everything was too quiet. She took slow, determined steps but when she Natasha was knocked out on the ground she was shocked. Then she a heard a noise and she turned quickly, aiming her gun at Melina.
“Mom!” She said in a panic but was glad to see Melina was still okay and she lowered her weapon. She noticed that Melina had changed her clothes to help fight off the Red Room, she assumed. As Yelena lowered her weapon, Melina raised her wrist and shot her with red web giving Yelena an electric jolt and knocking her out.
“I’m so sorry. It will be okay.” Melina said as Yelena fell to the ground only feet away from Natasha.
Now that everyone was down, Melina confidently looked around. She looked proud as Taskmaster walked into the house silently, her face covered by her mask, she had taken care of what she needed to do, and now she had a delivery to make back to the Red Room. Taskmaster was standing fully masked in front of Melina. Melina looked up at Taskmaster with a smirk.
“Shall we get going? Don’t want to keep him waiting.” Melina said and Taskmaster nodded silently.
The girls and Alexei were loaded onto one of the helicopters to be returned to the Red Room once again, almost the same way they were once sedated and taken 21 years ago.
Melina took over the controls of the flight and Alexei’s body was crumpled on the ground carelessly, drastically different from the two girls, the property of the Red Room had to be cared for appropriately.
Despite the great number of darts injected into Alexei, he was a super a soldier after all and he started to wake up on the floor of the chopper. His eyes opened in a blur, he could tell he they were in an aircraft.
“Melina?” He asked shocked as she operated the system.
“We’re touch down in one minute.” She responded coldly.
“But .. we are going up?” He questioned like he was unsure of up and down.
“Yes, now you’ll see why Dreykov has been off the radar all these years.” She smiled as if she had pulled one over on everyone.
As the aircraft landed, Natasha and Yelena were still unconscious and removed by workers of the Red Room, Alexei was taken and Melina instructed the workers to confine them all on level 0. Melina and Taskmaster walked in perfect unison to a room that had layers upon layers of security until they were finally in Dreykov’s office.
Dreykov looked up eagerly, he was excited for the return of the two rogue widows, Alexei, and halting Nick Fury getting on his trail all in one day. He felt like such an accomplished statesman. Truly, no one could do more than he could.
As Melina and Taskmaster entered the office they were greeted by Dreykov’s smile. Melina much more than Antonia.
“Melina! How was the family reunion?” He said eyeing one of his favorites, she was no Natasha of course, but she was still decent. In his eyes Melina lived in Natasha’s shadow but she was of course, very skilled, knowledgable, and talented. She was always, almost as good, and he did spend a long time reminding her of that as Natasha rose to power and she faded into the background. Melina was always meant to be his star, the Iron Maiden, but she could not compete with the skill of young Natasha.
“Awful. Pathetic.” Melina rolled her eyes. “Clingy, needy, emotional, and the girls were also a drag.” Melina smirked and Dreykov smiled at her dig at the Red Guardian.
“I like your outfit, reminds me of the old days, you used to be such a pretty one back then.” He joked, his poor postured leaned over this desk and large out of shape frame huddled over himself.
“Did you take care of our Fury problem?” Dreykov looked at Taskmaster and his tone changed drastically, talking to her in a commanding voice like she was a worthless dog and she nodded.
“Did she call anybody?” Dreykov asked both Melina and Taskmaster.
“No.” Melina answered.
“She tried, I shot the phone from her hand before she could.” Taskmaster answered and Dreykov smiled.
“And the problem is..”
“Eliminated.” Taskmaster answered confidently.
“Good. That was a close one. Phew.” Dreykov wiped a fake sweat away from his brow jokingly. “So, Yelena, what’s the deal with her? She is the only one affected by that antidote floating around, right?”
“As far as I know.” Melina answered. Dreykov squinted at her.
“These antidotes, they are a pain in my god damn ass. It’s your problem, you need to fix it. I want it fixed now.” He growled at Melina.
“If you make a chemical, someone will always make another to counteract it. It’s the cold war of chemistry.” Melina explained and Dreykov narrowed his gaze at her.
“Or maybe it’s time to replace you, you’re old, outdated, maybe you lack the skill to counteract it.” Dreykov pointed his finger at her aggressively and Melina was silent.
“I have some weak widows lined up for procedure downstairs, cut Yelena’s brain out with the rest of them, figure it out, make my chemicals irreversible, you can’t leave until you do.”
“My pigs, they will need tending to in my absence.”
“Fuck your pigs.” He scowled at her. “This is exactly why you are no Romanoff. You’ll never be as good as her.” Alexei pointed at her again. “Prove to me you are as valuable as you once were.”
“Yes.” Melina nodded trying to suppress her upset.
“Don’t make that face at me. Know your place.” He ordered and she stood there still.
“What do you want me to do with Romanoff?” Melina finally asked and Dreykov nodded that she had fallen back into line like she was supposed to.
“That ungrateful traitor. I gave that worthless girl a home and she turned her back on us? She tried to kill us. She had nothing and I gave her every opportunity to succeed, she used me and then tried to waste me like I didn’t create her from the ground up. She’d be no where without me. Chemically subjugate her like the others, like your pathetic little pigs. Can you imagine what I’ll be able to do with an Avenger under my control?” Dreykov light up excitedly just thinking about the opportunities. He could get one Avenger under his control, he could probably get all of them.
“Go! Go get her set up, and don’t break her, she’s finally back at home, just like you, where you both belong.” Dreykov smile waiving Melina off.
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk to her first?” Melina asked as she narrowed her gaze and Melina took her hand and removed the photostatic veil that was covering her face, revealing she was Natasha.
Dreykov looked surprised but then unimpressed, he slapped his palm on his desk and laughed.
“This? This is your plan?” Dreykov laughed again at Natasha.
“No. My plan is to kill you.” Natasha squinted at him and she spoke in a threatening tone.
“Uh oh! Oh no! But.. I’m alive….” He taunted “So, what are you going to do now?” He snickered and then he poured himself a drink on his desk.
“I’ve been meaning to cheer you, you Natasha, you gave me my greatest weapon. You used to think that was you, and sure, you were special once. But, say hello to my real prize.” He gestured to Taskmaster. “Take that thing off.” he scowled at her and Antonia removed her Taskmaster mask. She stared straight ahead like she was looking at nothing and she followed commands without second guessing or questioning.
“Do you want one? You’re gonna need it to look at that face.” He asked holding up his glass toward Natasha and she was offended.
“When your bomb exploded, it nearly killed my dear sweet Antonia. She was so beautiful once.” He said taking a drink and glaring at his daughter’s disfigured face, scoffing at it. “Look at her. Look at that wretched face.” He mocked in a disgusted tone. “Do you find it difficult to look at your haunted past in the horrid face? You did that to her, my beautiful girl, you wrecked her. But I found a gift in the wreckage. I can’t look at her, but she is talented, she can watches everything and everyone and learns, she can fight anyone, anyone of your friends with the help of a chip I implanted in the back of her neck. She’s the perfect like copycat, she gave you a run for your money, didn’t she?” Dreykov laughed as he looked away from Antonia and at Natasha instead. He could not stand looking at his own flesh and blood so disfigured. “She finished off one of your friends today, imagine what she could do to the rest of them?” He smiled circling his drink in his hand. Antonia just stood there silently like she was a wall and not a person.
Natasha was disgusted.
“Can she hear me… can she hear you?” Natasha glared at Dreykov, his words were so awful.
“Aww, what, do you want to make her feel better? Tell her you are sorry for trying to murder her, that you aren’t really a child murderer. Tell her you re so sorry that her daddy is mean to her. I can’t love a face like that, no one can. If you didn’t want to ruin her life, you should have thought about that before you blew her face off.” He took another drink and Natasha looked right at Antonia.
“Don’t let him talk to you like this.” She encouraged and Antonia did nothing, she looked dead behind the eyes like she was nothing.
“You tortured your own daughter?” Natasha looked back at Dreykov.
“I saved her, I made her useful. I made her a weapon. If she can’t be a girl she can be a weapon. I gave her a role, a purpose, that’s what I do for wasted resources.” He smirked to himself thinking he was so smart. He finished his drink and then forcefully put his glass down he couldn’t look at Antonia’s face without a drink. His once gorgeous daughter ruined.
“Enough of this, go exterminate the rats in my basement.” Dreykov ordered Antonia and she put the mask back over her face and left the room.
“You’re disgusting.” Natasha growled at him as he sent her off like a pet after degrading her to her face and Dreykov laughed.
“What? What is she going to do? I could kill her and she’d stand there like she had a lobotomy drooling. That’s what she looks like after all the reconstructive surgeries, by the way. What did I even pay for?” Dreykov groaned like was pained.
“How dare you..” Natasha said threateningly.
“Does it make you uncomfortable seeing what you did to my child? Realizing what you sentenced her to? The only person you have to be mad at is you.” Dreykov pointed at Natasha. “I’m her savior, just like I was yours, saving you from your wretched, worthless whore of a mother. You still haven’t even thanked me.” He smirked at Natasha and she furrowed her brows at him, her hand clutching the handle of her gun.
“You know, you did just send away the one person who could keep me from killing you.” She gripped her gun.
“Do it then, I’m just sitting here, a helpless old man, take me out, what’s stopping you.” He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. “Finish your mission, Romanoff.” He waited patiently as Natasha moved in closer to shoot him but she was frozen. She kept trying to pull the trigger and nothing happened. Natasha looked confused and angry.
“Whats wrong?” He taunted. “Oh, I know, the safety is on, right? You women, sometimes you forget that.” He laughed. Natasha tried over and over again to pull the trigger and she couldn’t she grunted impatiently and he laughed.
“I’ll fix it for you.” He stood up finally and took the gun from her hand and fired it in the air. “Oh, not that, you still got a brain in there. That’s good, at least you have one for now.” He put her gun down on his desk.
“Hmmm…. Maybe try your knife?” He shrugged with a smirk and Natasha pulled out her knife and tried to stab him but again she wasn’t able to she looked confused. Her knife fell to the floor and she looked angry.
“Uh oh, you’re in trouble, better call Iron Man.” He snarked.
“How, how are you doing this? How are you controlling me? A forcefield?” She asked dumbfounded.
“A forcefield!?” He laughed a deep chuckle. “Oh, the Avengers have you all wound up.” He shook his head dismissively. “In fact, the science is far more simple than that. I am not controlling you, you are controlling you. It’s simple really, it’s a pheromone lock, you smell me it prevents you from committing violence against me.” He smirked.
“Should have brought my sniper riffle.” Natasha mumbled and he laughed.
“Now you’re thinking with that brain of yours—well of mine.” He shrugged and then he sighed.
“It’s really a shame about Melina, she was one of my favorites too, but I suppose she is getting old now.” Dreykov shook his head disappointingly. “This was the plan huh? Turn my Melina against me and get her to bring you here and then what? Have Melina land the Red Room and turn me in to the authorities?” Dreykov rolled her eyes at her dumb plan.
——————- EARLIER THAT DAY
After Melina revealed she alerted the Red Room when she first learned of their arrival Natasha frowned. She saw a call from Maria but it ended quickly before she could answer. Were they already outside? Natasha called back and Maria’s phone didn’t even ring.
“Why?” Natasha asked a bit heartbroken although she wouldn’t admit it.
“I am so sorry.”
“You can fix it.”
“They’re coming soon. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, we can make this work, if you really want to be free…” Natasha said exchanging a soft glance with Melina.
Melina thought about her options, this was probably the only chance she would ever have to be free of Dreykov. If anyone could help her escape him it was Natasha and Yelena.
“The only way for you to get to Dreykov is for you to be someone he trusts. I have some things that could help us…. But we have to move real fast.” Melina sighed and Natasha nodded, the two moved quickly and Natasha gave Melina her white suit while Melina gave her the standard black one. Natasha had one photostatic veil with her to evade authorities.
“I can do that.” Natasha smirked.
“Tell them to confine us on level 0, I designed the cells there and I know the way around and the way out” Melina explained.
“I only have one ear piece set.” Melina observed.
“Give it to Yelena. You can help her navigate.” Natasha instructed and Melina nodded.
“You won’t able to hurt him.”
“Not this again.” Natasha huffed as she tightened Melina’s suit.
“No, I mean physically, literally, it’s a pheromonal lock, all widows have it, if you can smell him, you can’t kill him. None of us can.” Melina explained as they both moved quickly to help each other.
“How do you get around it? Hold your breath? Block your nose?”
“Sever your nerve.” Melina suggested cautiously. “But, he knows that trick so make him do it to you. If you do it he will know you know.”
Natasha nodded as they both heard the the choppers hovering.
“You know, with men like Dreykov, they love to talk, they love to explain how right and smart they are.” Melina said and Natasha nodded again. “If you want the databases of all the widows, if you want the access make him show it to you, he’d love the chance to brag.”
Natasha smiled, she knew exactly what to do. The two women faced each other.
“I wanted your friend to leave, because I knew they were coming.” Melina added in as Natasha nodded.
“I get it.” Natasha just had to hope Maria was okay, she could handle herself, and she had her own network of people who always seemed to show up at the right moment—-which was funny to Natasha because to the Avengers that was the role Maria played often.
Melin and Natasha looked at each other and then embraced each other for real. They knew they had this one chance to get this right.
“When I get inside, I am going to activate my tracker and Ross and his people will come flying.” Natasha warned.
“They’ll get you too.”
“Well, if they do, that’s okay. This has to be done.” Natasha confirmed.
“There has to be a way to get that facility on the ground, right?” Natasha asked a bit weary.
“Yeah, once I am out of the cells I can activate the landing protocol, we’ll descend with the hour.”
“And then Ross can round Dreykov up.” Nathan nodded.
“And the vials?” Natasha asked as she held onto them.
“Instruct them to be moved into the cold storage room, it’s also on level zero. I’ll be able to get them, or well one of us will.”
“Are you ready?” Melina asked concerned as they were coming and Natasha placed the veil over her face.
“Are you?” Natasha asked back.
“No matter what, don’t let them take your heart.” Melina said as she used to back when Natasha was a kid. Natasha smiled.
“Don’t let them take yours.” Natasha said back in Melina’s voice and Melina smiled at her reflection for a moment as she placed a veil over her own face turning into Natasha.
——————— BACK TO PRESENT
“Yeah, that was the plan…” Natasha sighed and Dreykov looked disappointed in her.
“I expected better from you, did you expect to lose so many of your friends along the way?” He snickered.
“No, you got me.” She admitted disappointed and he smiled.
“Natasha, you should know better, I always win, I can survive your bombs, anything, always, and innocent people always pay for your bad plans.” He reminded.
Natasha rolled her eyes.
“So, now what? You’re going to force me to be one for your pathetic little puppets again?”
“Pathetic?” He asked offended.
“Is there something else you would call it?” Natasha scoffed.
He laughed at her. Was this really the Natasha Romanoff of the old days? Had the Avengers made her soft, unappreciative?
“What I would call it?” He asked shaking his head at her.
“God, have you ever had a conversation with someone that wasn’t forced?” She shook her head back at him and he scoffed at her this time.
“You know, people with real power, they operate in the shadows, that’s how wars are really fought, always have been. You should be smart enough to know that, I’d tell you to ask your friend about it, but oh, my Antonia took care of her, it’s too bad, she was also a pretty one.”
Natasha made a sour irritated face.”
“You don’t fight in the shadows, you hide in the dark.”
“The undetectable influence, so undetected that the Avengers, and even you yourself had no idea I was here for all this time.” He grinned at his success. “And now I am going to have an Avenger of my own.”
“Undetectable influence?” Natasha shook her head. “Please, if no one notices then why even do it? You are nothing that’s why you don’t show up on the radar.” Natasha rolled her eyes.
“Nothing?” He growled taking the bait, “There are fifty, 5-0, fifty people on this planet…” he started but she laughed.
“Oh my god, stop it.” She cut him off and he got up from his seat and hit Natasha across the face.
“Don’t you ever tell me to ‘stop it.’” He ordered like an abusive father.
“If I don’t tell you to stop then how will you know when to shut up, all you do is talk.” Natasha baited again and hit her face a second time. She coughed and folded over a bit.
“Please, this is like my warm up, you think I can’t take a punch?” She asked for more and he hit her again and she just stood there and took it unable to strike back.
“You’re so weak.” She laughed again grabbing onto her face where he struck her.
“Weak?” He hit her again and she fell forward. “Yeah, so weak.” He mocked.
“I bet it’s easier to be tough in front of defenseless and scared little girls, right?” Natasha continued to bait and mock him.
“I don’t know Natasha, you tell me, is that why you blow them up?” He snarked and Natasha was quiet as he raise his hand to strike her again and she cowered from it instinctively and he smiled, that was the reaction he wanted to see from all his widows, afraid of his hand at all times. Before he struck her again knocking her to the ground.
“That’s enough, for now.” He said putting this hand down and she grunted in pain keeled over on the floor now.
MEANWHILE ——————
Melina as Natasha and Alexei were on the ground of a cold and quiet cell on level zero as instructed by the fake Melina.
“Natasha, Natasha, Natasha….” Alexei mumbled to himself. “Who knew, who knew that Melina would betray us? Well, I guess your assistant knew… but what does she know, she’s just an assistant a good guess on her part, you are rubbing off on her.” Alexei nodded to himself and the fake Natasha was silent.
“I was supposed to be a hero, a big hero! But I can’t even save my own children.” Alexei said defeated. “I didn’t even save my own children when they were children! I just let them take you back to that place and take out your lady parts, I’m so sorry, I should have been your dad, your protector, your hero. So when you became a hero you could have said, I’m inspired by my dad! My hero, my dad! But instead, no, I just a coward, a pathetic loser coward, who let them take little girls. If you can’t even save little girls you are no hero, ever.” Alexei mumbled he was still a bit drunk. Natasha was still quiet but she was doing something on the glass wall and Alexei turned his head as he heard the squeaking.
“Uhm, how did you do that?” He tilted his head.
“Because I designed these cells myself.” Melina said turning to him and pulling her veil off her face.
“…. Melina…..” He froze. “You just let me bare my heart and soul to you about being a failed father? And it was jus you? This WHOLE time?” Alexei was stunned.
Melina snickered.
“Yep.” And she smirked as she put her earpiece in.
“You look great in white, just like when you were my fake bride.” He reminisced.
“Shh, shut up. I am on comms with Yelena.” She dismissed him not even taking his compliment.
“Yelena….” She started “Yelena, sweetie, it’s me, it’s your mom.” She called in and Yelena stuck down on the table with outline around her forehead of where they were going to cut her open.
“I always thought I would die some very cool way… like jumping off a bridge in an explosion on a motorcycle in a cool jacket. This vest, I mean it’s okay, but I guess when bought it I didn’t think I was going to die in it.” Yelena said to herself as she had been anxiously talking to herself as she awaited her death fully conscious, then she heard Melina’s voice.
“Whhhaaat?” She mumbled quietly.
“You have a blade in your beltline, hidden. Outside on your right hip.” Melina told her and Yelena reached down and brushed her hand over her belt stunned realizing she did have a weapon on her still. She pulled the blade out and started quietly cutting her restraints as the scientists were talking to each other not paying attention to the partially drunk former widow on the table who wouldn’t stop talking to herself.
Yelena then sat up from the table and the scientists jumped as she jumped off and started to attack them, they were afraid and started throwing devices and glass beakers tablets at Yelena and she jumped over one of the metal counters grabbing a scalpel and stabbing one of the scientists until he was disabled, the other one ran off quickly.
“You couldn’t have told me sooner? Wait how did I get this earpiece?” Yelena said just realizing now there was one in her ear but she was a tad out of breath.
“There wasn’t time, I take it you are free now?” Melina said like she talking business.
“Girls! My girls! Listen, listen to me, this could be my last chance, I am having trouble hearing you, I think I accidentally muted you and I can’t figure this thing out, but listen, Natasha, I need you to know I was a bad father, you deserve a good father, you deserved a hero I should have protected…”
“You don’t have an earpiece.” Melina cut him off rolling her eyes he paused as he was crying a bit once again pouring his heart out to no one.
“What!?” He asked astonished.
“She can’t hear you, you don’t have an earpiece.”
“Why not?!” He whined desperately.
“It wasn’t part of the plan.”
“Why not?!” He echoed his whine.
“It wasn’t part of the plan.” She repeated.
“How come I don’t get to be part of the plan…” he groaned.
“You’re drunk.” Melina shrugged.
“Actually, that was a good call on the plan.” He nodded in agreement.
“I’m out, where did he take the antidote vials?” Yelena asked through the ear piece.
“Natasha had them sent to cold storage, it’s not far from you, go down the hall, four doors down to the left, break in and grab them. He still had widows under his control so you need to expose them to the antidote break it before as many of them as you can so you can get the most use out of each vial.” Melina called in.
“Yeah, okay, run round find the antidotes get a trail of widows chasing me and then break all the vials and hopefully they won’t kill me in the process. Easy, so easy.” She nodded to herself as she followed Yelena’s instructions.
Melina and Alexei found their way to a control room and Melina sat right down and made herself comfortable getting into the system. Alexei hovered over her, rather bored considering how suspenseful the moment was.
“I’m bored.” He said like a child.
“Alexei, I am trying to think.”
“There’s nothing for me to do.”
“Watch the door!”
“It’s boring.”
“Alexei! Do you want to get out of here?”
“I want to help, I want to be useful, I want to be part of the plan. How come I am never part of the plan even when I’m not drunk? I can hack into a computer, I can press buttons.”
“Alexei you cannot do this.”
“Well is there something I can break? I want to do….”
An alarm started blaring and Alexei and Melina could hear footsteps running down the hall.
“Uh… someone is coming….” He muttered and Melina glared at him as if it wasn’t obvious. She threw a gun from under the control desk to Alexei.
“I need more time, if you want to be useful, hold them off.”
“You got it!” He said as he went out into the hall firing blindly and then took off running away from the door he was supposed to be guarding.
“No…!” Melina said quietly and hid behind the door and the officers chased after Alexei forgetting about the control room. “Okay, that worked okay, gotta give him some credit he deserves it.” She went back to the system trying to land the Red Room but she kept getting locked out or blocked. The alarm blaring was making it very difficult for he rot work around it.
“I got the vials!” Yelena called in as she left the cold storage room walking over some bodies she had to take out who were trying to deconstruct the antidote already. “It wasn’t pretty.” She made a face.
Melina realized she had to do something else as she saw more guards approaching and she knew she was out of time at the control system. She started to run into the engine controls, if she couldn’t start the descent with the computer she was going to have to try another way.
“I’ve had a bit of a set back… you have to keep going and get to the widows and help them on your own.”
The guards chased her down into the engine room and as she ran across it she realized she was blocked in from both sides.
“On the ground!!” The officers yelled at her and and Melina tilted her head, as she realized, that was a good idea, as she dropped down and then started firing at the control system for one of the engines.She dropped under the engine room as the guards fired at her.
“Okay, okay another change of plans….” Melina started in.
“Oh my god how many change of plans can there be?” Yelena sighed
“As it turns out, I may have destroyed one of the engines and now we are going going into a controlled crash, so uh maybe move quickly.” Melina announced to Yelena and she sighed loudly back to her mother.
As Yelena ran through the halls she could hear what she swore was the sound of Alexei grunting, as she turned the corner and brash panic she saw him fighting off some of the guards and she took one of the electro web bracelets she stole that looked just like Natasha’s and knocked the guards out quickly saving Alexei.
“I would have had it.” Alexei said as he looked at the half circle of knocked out guards on the ground.
“Looked like it. C’mon we gotta go, we have things to do and we are about to crash into the ground and probably die.”
“What?!” Alexei asked and Yelena grabbed his arm and started running down the hall. “We have to go this way.” She started running down the hall the way Melina had instructed her but as she turned the corner with Alexei she stopped dead as Taskmaster was standing in front of her.
Alexei and Yelena froze but Yelena noticed that Taskmaster had not done anything, she didn’t pull anything out or fire at them or move toward them. Yelena looked up a this giant being before them she was almost as tall as Alexei.
“I will protect you!” Alexei said as he went to stand in front of Yelena.
“You can’t go this way.” A female voice came from the helmet and Yelena tilted her head.
“That’s the way out of the basement.” Yelena said in a tense voice.
“They’re waiting for you. It’s a trap.” She warned Yelena and Yelena didn’t believe it.
Yelena shook her head no.
“You have to go the other way.” Antonia ordered.
“You’re tricking us, you attacked me and Natasha.”
“He knows, he knows Melina betrayed him and that Natasha and her switched places. He’s tricking you to make you think you know you’re way out.” Antonia explained cautiously. “They’re out there right after these doors waiting for you.”
Yelena squinted her eyes at at heavy taskmaster Mask and person before her, she just couldn’t tell if it was a trap or if she was helping.
“Have you been freed?” Yelena asked in shock and the Taskmaster mask nodded and Yelena tilted her head, this had a Dreykov level of deception written all over it. “How?”
———————— EARLIER THAT DAY (PART 2)
Maria cowered in the rolled over car for a minute trying to get a sense of what was happening. It was so disorienting being all turned around and flung around in the roll over. The door she was closest to she could not open as it had been impacted inward. The other door was facing the direction of Taskmaster. Maria did not want open that door. She could try to crawl out of the broken windshield but the glass had piled on the turned ceiling of the car where she was also crouched. She had to do something, and she had to do it fast as she could see Taskmaster’s legs walking toward the door. Maria reaching for her gun because that’s all she had on her, what she was going to do with it, she didn’t know yet.
Taskmaster started to open the car door closest to her and Maria started to shoot out the car window she was backed up against elbowing the glass of it so she could break out the other side. Natasha’s leather jacket was keeping Maria’s elbow safe from the glass as she busted out the window onto the ground as Taskmaster reached her arm inside of the car to pull Maria out of the car.
Annoyed that she grabbed nothing but air, Taskmaster groaned, she guessed it was round two of ring-around-the-car. How many tricks did this dumb woman have? If she jumped over the car again, would Maria dodge to one of the sides? That’s what she did before, that’s what she would do again. So, anticipating Maria’s moves that she had seen before she jumped up onto the bottom of the car to scan every side of it. She scanned each area surrounding the car and Maria was nowhere to be found. How did she do this. This was just a regular human woman.
As Maria heard Taskmaster jump she propelled herself backward back into the car which now had three open sides. She heard Taskmaster land on the flipped bottom of the car and she was actually standing right on top of where Maria was hiding separated by the car floor.
Taskmaster thought about this as she scanned the area and then she realized exactly where Maria was and she pulled out her sword and stabbed it into the floor of the car. Maria heard the movement above her and pushed herself out of the door that Taskmaster had originally broken open as the sword came crashing through the car. With the sword now making the car an unusable shield or cover for Maria. Maria was still on the ground as Taskmaster jumped down from the car hovering over her. Maria figured she did not have time to rise her gun before Taskmaster would kill her.
Taskmaster was so irritated, annoyed that this was even taking this long, this should have been a one and done kind of thing. Far more skilled people than Maria Hill had lost their hand to Taskmaster. They just didn’t have the insider information that Maria did know how to fight her. It really did make all the difference, but it was clear, in the end it really didn’t matter.
The skull face of her mask just glared down at Maria menacingly and it was clear Maria was all out of tricks. Maria moved her right arm slightly and Taskmaster did the same almost moving it before Maria moved her own. Finally Taskmaster bent down and pulled Maria up from the ground and Maria moved her gun to shoot her instinctively but Taskmaster knocked it right out of her hand barely even flinching as she pushed Maria’s back into a tree behind them.
Maria looked at the hand that grabbed her arm and noticed the control pad on her wrist but Maria didn’t have any hands to do anything about it. Taskmaster was grabbing one of her wrists so tightly it felt like she was going to break it but she had a far looser grip in the other hand and Maria realized that must’ve had been the hand she slammed into the car door, which meant whoever this was did feel some amount of pain in certain places.
“What does Nick Fury know?” A robotic like voice asked in a low tone and the fact this being talked did surprise Maria because she kind of imagined it as like a robot or some faceless nameless soulless being. As Maria hesitated to answer the grip on her wrist got tighter and Maria cried from the pain.
Just as Maria cried Talos in his traditional human form, jumped on Taskmaster’s back, again going for the helmet, he could just tell that was the key to being able to stop this unstoppable being as he could see there was a chip in the back of he neck that connected to the helmet.
Taskmaster grunted loudly as released Maria’s wrists from her grip and then tried to pry this man off her. Maria went fight for her gun and as Talos battled her from behind Taskmaster used her leg to trip Maria to keep her from reaching her weapon, knowing she was going to do that move.
“It’s on the wrist!” Maria called out to Talos as she fell to the ground.
Talos reached Taskmaster’s wrist and she turned quickly to fight him as she hustled to gothic off the back of her. Talos who gripped onto her wrist pressing a slew of buttons in and nothing happened. Then as Taskmaster reached over to pull Talos over her head and slam him to the ground, Talos used a device on his own wrist just like Natasha and Yelena had, that sent a electric web over her wrist pad, her mask came off her face and the electric shock temporarily disabled her from just pressing a button to turn the mask back on for the moment. Taskmaster yelled as she then threw Talos in her frustration to the ground and pulled out her gun to shoot him, but Maria shot the gun out of her hand, with precision that echoed the shot that Taskmaster at fired at Maria’s phone. The look of irritation on Antonia’s face as these two meager pests tested her and tried to bring her to a level playing field, she tried to put her mask back on as she turned her attention from the old man on the ground back to Maria and Maria held her gun right at Antonia’s exposed head. Antonia squinted at her as she tried to make an assessment and she started to walk toward Maria.
“You want to find out if you have a bullet proof skull?” Maria asked and Antonia stopped and stared down Maria, head on, once again.
Talos adjusted himself and found his gun on the ground near him and aimed it at the back of her. Antonia could not believe it, they got her helmet off and now they both had guns pointed at her head, and the two of them were broken, bruised, and bleeding, they were literally laying on the ground like bugs. Maria pulled herself up not taking her gun off Antonia.
“Well? Do it.” Antonia challenged. “It’s no good just standing there pointing it at me.” Antonia growled. “Are you gun shy?”
“Do I look it?” Maria asked back.
“That’s exactly how you look. You had no problem shooting at me when you couldn’t see my face. Now, what? You can’t look at the face of what you need to kill? Pathetic.”
“Do you want me to kill you?” Maria turned her head, she had to be egging her on for a reason.
“Oh, I don’t need to study you very long to know that you won’t.”
“Is that what you do, you study people’s moves so you can mimic them, your little helmet helps, or is it something else? You don’t have any talent or skill of your own?” Maria asked back.
“Who told you that?” Antonia pried any information she could get about what Fury knew was good for her to get back to Dreykov.
“I heard a rumor. Can’t mimic a car, though, can you?”
“You want to be rewarded for being barely clever? Pfft.”
“It worked, so I guess being barely clever is all you need to be brought down.” Maria snarked.
Antonia scoffed. She was calculating, trying to figure out her next move and she was using the conversation as a distraction but then Antonia paused, if she was using the conversation for distraction to plan… what was Maria doing? Mimicking fight moves was only a skill if the person you were going against was fighting, and if her opponent was just thinking, scheming internally she couldn’t copy that, Antonia knew it, and she knew Maria knew it too. Antonia knew her strength against these two was literal physical strength, which was why they worked so hard to disable her from being able to attack them and get her into a vulnerable place.
Antonia was thinking, from what she gathered, if Maria or whoever was helping her, wanted to shoot her they would have by now, but she also didn’t doubt that they would shoot her if they felt threatened or that they had to.
“I could have killed you already if I wanted to and I didn’t.” Antonia remarked and Maria believe that was true. “I need some information.”
“Have you tried just asking?” Maria snarked and Talos laughed under his breath.
“Where’s the fun in that?” Antonia mimicked her snark and Maria raised her brows because she was not expecting that response.
“You’ve been studying too many Avengers.” Maria rolled her eyes, talk about another group that wouldn’t just sit down and talk about it.
“Let’s talk then…” Antonia shrugged and neither Maria or Talos took their guns off her head but Antonia figured he wrist pad would activate again soon and she just had to wait these two out. Talos knew this and Maria did too.
Suddenly Antonia dodged to the side and Talos shot at her head but just missed, she pulled out her shield and Maria fired at her as she did and she dodged the bullets, Captain America style as she the jumped powerfully toward Maria and held her shield behind her head to block Talos’s bullets as she dislodged the gun from Maria’s hand—-with one hand. Maria kicked at her and she had little strength or resistance left to fight her off even though she was one handed. As Maria’s gun dropped, Taskmaster grabbed Maria by the neck as she felt the bullets fired into he shield behind her.
Taskmaster gripped Maria’s throat tighter and Maria clawed at her hands trying to find the fingers that were smashed in the door. Maria grabbed onto one, which she could tell caused some pain as Taskmaster’s grip loosened around her neck so Maria could breathe. Having never studied either of them, she did face some unexpected challenges, she wasn’t able to predict that many things, but she could tell she had to finish them, or at least get rid of one of the pests distracting her. If Talos made himself in her eyeline to save Maria, she’d take him out and by that time her mask would be back on and she could handle Maria too then. As Maria pressed hard into the injured fingers of Taskmaster, Taskmaster grunted. She only had one hand to choke Maria while she blocked her head from being shot. But she didn’t want to kill Maria, yet, she was just drawing Talos out from behind her. With these two, she had to think differently.
Maria used her free hand and reached into her back pocket and she pulled out the glass vial, in a desperate effort to just get Taskmaster to let go of her, she leaned forward forcefully instead of pulling away from her putting Taskmaster of balance for a moment and then Maria smashed the glass right in her face breaking the vial through the force. The glass cut into Antonia’s face and into Maria’s hand but Antonia barely noticed the cut as she absorbed the antidote from the vial and she let go of Maria and Maria fell to the ground again, taking some deep breaths.
Talos stopped firing as she dropped the shield and Maria. He could see the red dust and he was unsure of what had happened. Maria had no idea if that would work or do anything, but Antonia’s once hard and dead looking eyes looked much softer for a moment as she turned her head and looked down at Maria on the ground who had turned to her back.
“We’re trying to help you.” Maria explained desperately as she held her hands up that were covered in the red antidote remnants. Antonia paused and then looked over to Talos on the ground, who had stopped shooting at her, and seemingly did not fall for her draw out trick, which surprised her.
“Why?” She asked skeptically but in a nonthreatening way. Who would help her? No one has ever helped her. She almost couldn’t believe anyone ever would.
“Why not?” Maria asked her back in an out of breath voice and Antonia had no answer for that.
Antonia took off her glove and she wiped the blood from her face where the glass had cut her.
“I’m sorry I cut your face.” Maria apologized leaning upward a bit off the ground.
“It’s not the worst thing that ever happened to it.” Antonia sighed for a moment, all her raged had suddenly suppressed into calmness and she felt both confused and at ease.
“And that I … ran you over.” Maria made a face, at the time she didn’t realize she was dealing with a potential widow. She didn’t know who it was fighting her she just assumed it was the being Natasha and Yelena described from earlier.
“Sorry I tried to strangle you to death, and all the other ways I tried to murder you and your friend, and that I shot a bullet between your head and hand.”
“Oh, no it was a great shot, really. You could have taken the side of my face out.” Maria complimented as she stood up off the ground leaning against the trunk of a tree.
Antonia pushed her shoulders back and up like she was a bit proud, she almost never heard a compliment about her work and skill before. Not one about her own work anyway—she only ever heard she was a great device for her father, not a talent or skilled herself. She looked proud for a moment.
“We’re all friends now?” Talos asked rolling over from the ground and pushing himself upward. Antonia helped Talos up off the ground and she helped him sit on a on long and low tree branch in the woods that they had been fighting.
“Where is the second one of you?” Antonia asked Maria and Maria looked confused.
“There’s only one of me.” Maria tilted her head and Antonia looked at her just as confused.
“Oh…” Talos muttered and Maria shot him a look.
“You have to ask!” Maria made a stern face at him.
“That’s a strange thank you. And you know, I get it but, in the moment… it seemed like she was looking for you so…” Talos shrugged. “I just figured she’d go after what she wanted.” Talos thought he was being smart.
“I was.” Antonia confirmed. “You’re getting too close to Dreykov’s trail and he wanted you… eliminated.” Antonia shrugged a bit and frowned.
“I did get that sense.” Maria nodded.
“The last time Fury was on his trail … well… Natasha tried to kill him.” Antonia explained.
“So, who are you?” Maria asked.
Antonia was silent for a moment.
“Antonia …” she answered and she looked for a reaction from either Maria and Talos which she did not get. “Antonia…. Dreykov.” She added after the pause and then Maria had the reaction that Antonia was expecting.
“You’re his daughter? You’re alive?” Maria gasped.
Antonia sighed deeply.
“I don’t know if this counts as ‘alive.’” She made a face.
“You survived the bombing in Budapest?” Maria asked and Antonia nodded.
“I almost didn’t, I was so disfigured they had to reconstruct my face— or what was left of it. He couldn’t stand it.”
“Oh my god.” Maria gasped again. “You were injured, so he turned you into one of his widows?” She asked disgusted.
“Not a widow, he can’t have a widow or a daughter he can’t look at.”
“I think he was more angry at Natasha for disfiguring me than he would have been if she killed me.” Antonia sighed emotionally and both Maria and Talos looked horrified and angry for her.
“Natasha, she’s really is the daughter he always wanted, she’s perfect. He knows she’s here and he’s desperate to get her back. To finally have one he’s proud of. He calls her his blood, he never says that about me, calls me a machine, makes me keep my mask on all the time in his presence because I am so ugly and hideous.”
Maria shook her head no.
“It’s true. I’ve seen myself. I’ve heard those words everyday.”
“It’s not true. Just because someone says it, doesn’t make it true.”
“If I see it in the mirror myself does it make it true?”
“No!” Maria shook her head and Antonia almost laughed, she never heard someone so confidently tell her she wasn’t ugly hideous creature meant to be hidden from the world. “It really doesn’t.” Maria confirmed again.
“He used to love me, you know? Before this all happened. I do remember it. I didn’t about this world or the widows or the Red Room. My childhood, it was normal, I went to school, I would draw, read books. I took sailing lessons, dance lessons, I had a flower garden and I would make pressed flowers for my teachers.” A flood of emotion just poured into Antonia as she remembered her life before all of this, a simple, wealthy school girl life, carefree and she started to cry as she realized what had been happening to her.
“I haven’t read a book in 8 years… all he does is feed me videos of the Avengers fighting, over and over again until I’ve absorbed every single thing they can do. It’s not really me, it’s the chip in my neck, I see it, it goes into the chip an then I can produce it like a computer. That’s what I mean, when I say, I don’t know that I’m alive… am I really even human I don’t know because I don’t understand how it works. It doesn’t matter what I want to do, I have no thought, no anything if I want to do something else it just takes over and I do what it says.”
“That’s chemical subjugation, that’s how Dreykov controls who he wants, his widows, you, whoever. The red cloud, that was an antidote, it broke the chemical control of your mind and body.” Maria explained.
Antonia was silent, some part of her was relieved to realize she hadn’t wanted to be this, it wasn’t her forcing herself to do things for her father, it was her father forcing her to do them for him. She somehow believe it was the other way around and that something was so wrong with her. She would do it because Dreykov was all she had, her father, but knowing she wasn’t doing it to herself made her cry. She couldn’t understand it al these years, but now it made sense despite how overwhelming it was. She never thought about her life before until just now and it was like her old life was flashing before her eyes, her head filling with memories of what being a normal human child was like and how sharply it contrasted to this… this thing she was forced to be instead.
“After the bombing, I couldn’t be a child anymore, it’s better to have no child at all than one you can’t look at, I guess.” Antonia bit her bottom lip. “If I couldn’t prove myself in some other way he was going to kill me, get rid of me. I knew it, I could feel it. That’s why he did this to me, made me a weapon instead of a person.” Antonia frowned and then she looked at Maria.
“Are there any fathers who aren’t cruel disappointments to their daughters?” She asked.
“Not that I know of.” Maria made a face and Antonia sighed.
Talos coughed to himself and Maria looked over to him forgetting he was even still there.
“I guess I mean, not in my own personal experience.” Maria corrected remembering that Talos himself was a father of a daughter.
“Where is he?” Maria asked irritated at this awful miserable story and life this woman went through for no fault of her own.
“You can’t get to him.” Antonia shook her head, “but I can…"
“Do not go back to him, we can help you. That’s what we are doing.” Maria shook her head no. Antonia made a face at Maria like she was definitely going back even though she didn’t want to.
“Antonia, please, please do not go back there. What if he subjugates you again? He put a chemical agent inside of you, and a microchip.. don’t let him control you again.” Maria warned.
“If I don’t go back he will know I didn’t succeed. He’ll come after both of us. It's better if he thinks he’s ahead.” Antonia responded and Maria did know that to be true but the trauma was so unbelievable she couldn’t in good conscious not protest Antonia’s decision.
“You don’t have to go back, Natasha is going to…” Maria started, Natasha would take it down, Maria had every bit of confidence for some reason now.
“Natasha is about to be sedated and taken to him by Melina and then he’s going to subjugate her and and Yelena again, and send Natasha back out as an Avenger under his control. Like you wouldn’t even know it happened.” Antonia explained and Maria made a face of concern.
“If that happens, I’ll probably be able to locate more of the antidote..” Maria said cautiously.
“Probably?” Antonia asked tilting her head. “Do you want to take that chance?” Antonia questioned.
“There is more of it, Natasha and Yelena have it.” Maria explained.
“So Dreykov is going to have it then. He will destroy it or develop a counter to it or make it ineffective. I have to go back and I want to kill him.”
“I know he’s a monster, but can you kill your own father?” Maria asked.
“I can kill a monster, and remember, I’m not his blood, so he says.” Antonia said confidently.
“The chemical agent is gone, but the psychological effects remain.” Maria warned. “You don’t have to go back there, you don’t have to prove anything to yourself or anyone, you can just leave. We can find another way. We can save Natasha and take down the Red Room.” Maria tried to caution her, she was genuinely afraid for Antonia to return.
“Do you know where the new Red Room is?” Talos asked. “Killing Dreykov isn’t a problem if we can find him.”
“You won’t find him, the Red Room doesn’t have an address, it’s.. above the clouds.” She gestured upward and Maria made a face.
“Like a helicarrier?” Maria asked stunned and Antonia nodded. “That’s not possible. That would definitely come up on our satellites or radar.” Maria couldn’t believe that was true.
“Not this one, and it wouldn’t matter, even if you could get people there, he only lets in people he trusts, there’s so much security, layers and layers of it. I’m one of the only people he lets in and out. I have to use the trust in controlling me to my advantage.” Antonia explained.
Maria made a face. It had started to get dark and cold in the woods and they could hear choppers moving in close by.
“That’s them. You both have to leave, before they search the outskirts and find you.”
Maria was very conflicted she was worried about Natasha and Antonia returning to the Red Room and it was clear on her face that she did not think this was a good idea. It could go so wrong so fast, easily.
“I’ll try to help Natasha, if I can.” Antonia offered unprompted which surprised Maria considering the situation, and Antonia was stunned by Maria’s reaction.
“My father thinks women are expendable toys to control. I can’t really hold a grudge if one of them seeks revenge, I know I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” She shrugged there was nothing she could do about her past but she could do something about her future. Well, if she wanted to have a future she had to go take it from her father.
“Maybe don’t be here, showing off that you’re alive when they come.” Antonia reminded to Maria and Talos and she put her mask back on and stood up from the tree trunk she was sitting on.
As Antonia left back toward Melina’s house Maria and Talos looked very concerned.
“And maybe we should get some medical attention, yeah?” Talos asked.
As Maria moved from leaning off the tree she limped a bit and she looked over her shoulder that hurt so badly and she saw that Natasha’s leather jacket was shredded and wrecked on one side.
“Yeah, and a tailor.” She mumbled to herself.
———————————— BACK TO PRESENT (continues in the next chapter!)