Chapter Twenty-Seven
"Alyona." Katya approached her just as soon as she was given permission to escort her to get her something to eat.
Of course, that's not what they were going to do, but Madame B didn't need to know that.
Katya needed to get her somewhere safe and far away from the Red Room. If Lainey was here, then that meant she hadn't come alone. None of the Avengers would have allowed that to happen.
She had overheard that a former pupil, Yelena, had been here, too. If Yelena had managed to get out once, she could do it again.
And maybe she could take Lainey with her.
The poor girl looked so lost, so traumatized by what had just happened.
Katya couldn't blame her. Lainey was only now starting to remember bits and pieces of her early childhood, but her mother remembered it all.
At least, what she had been there for.
She remembered when they had forced the small child to train for many hours, never stopping to think about what it could be doing to her body, much less her mind. She recalled hearing about the child's first kill, and the next one, and the next one after that, and so on.
And she felt her daughter's pain after every single one of them.
She remembered when they had been assigned to the mission in New York, and how stoic Lainey had become in just a year of them being separated. She remembered how resistant Lainey wanted to be about changing her name and speaking a completely different language.
She'd never forget how hard it was to deprogram Lainey out of wearing handcuffs to bed at night and how frustrating it was for the child. She'd never forget how confused she had been when her mother made a show of coddling her and giving her the affection she craved in public, all the while remaining so very cold at home.
Her memory never failed to remind her of the many training sessions Lainey had been put through back when they lived in that Brooklyn apartment.
The knife training, the martial arts, and the shooting exercises were the first to come to mind.
Her heart ached when she looked at the child that she carried, carrying a gun, all the while, knowing exactly how to use it. She felt terrible about having to send her out on small missions to get intel on some of their targets, for having her make friends with the son of two of those targets before Katya herself had to eliminate them.
Her friendship with Ben and May Parker had been fake; based on a carefully strung web of lies. But Lainey's friendship with Peter, that had been real, very real. She saw the way the two interacted and hoped with everything in her, that Lainey wouldn't be ordered to eliminate him, too.
They both had gotten lucky in that department.
But they were very unlucky in others.
Lainey didn't remember, but there were many visits from other spies from the Red Room. They came just to check up on the two for that first year and a half. They were sent by General Dreykov to make sure they weren't trying to defect or escape.
The visits began to grow far and few between, until they stopped completely. It took years for Katya to feel safe enough to even think about making a plan to escape. She knew they were still being watched, they both wouldn't be able to get out, but if she could make it so that someone could find Lainey, then that was all she needed.
She knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. was constantly on their trail, so she began to perform her missions carelessly, leaving subtle clues behind her.
Eventually, her hard work paid off and that was exactly how Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff put everything together before informing the rest of their team. Katya knew, she had been watching and waiting.
But Lainey didn't need to know all of that. Not now. It would come in due time, when her mind was ready for all of that information.
Right now, she was in a fragile state and she wouldn't be able to handle any of it.
"I killed her." Lainey's voice was just above a whisper and if Katya hadn't been trained to listen intently, then she would've missed it.
As far as Katya knew, Lainey thought that Svetlana was the very first girl she had ever defeated in the Red Room. The older woman knew that wasn't the case, but she had no idea that Lainey knew it, too.
"You did what you were ordered to do." She walked alongside her daughter's limping form, keeping her pace slow so that she could keep up. "You did what you had to do to survive. Svetlana knew that, and so did Irina. It was you, or them."
"But Ksenia..." Tears pooled at the corners of Lainey's eyes, but they didn't fall.
They couldn't fall.
"You remember Ksenia?" Katya furrowed her eyebrows.
"Yes...she was my friend...my first friend."
"I'm sorry, Alya." Katya didn't really know what to say to her. There wasn't really anything that she could say to make her feel better than she did now.
"She's gone...because of me."
"She's gone, because of the Red Room."
"But I pulled the trigger." Lainey elaborated, her accent slipped slightly. "And today...I didn't even try to fight back. I just...gave up."
"You couldn't have fought back if you tried." Katya told her. "And it's a good thing for you that you didn't."
"What do you mean?"
"Why do all those girls comply, Alya?" The brunette's own accent slipped to an even heavier one. "Fear? No. They physically cannot fight back."
"Huh?"
Katya stopped walking and slid a single finger down Lainey's nose. "Dreykov made it so that no one could ever harm him, Madame B, or any other superior through a pheromone. You take in that person's scent through your nose and it prevents you from being able to fight them."
"That doesn't sound real." Lainey raised an eyebrow of skepticism.
"Hit me." Katya shrugged.
"Huh?"
"Go ahead." The woman assured her. "Hit me. However you want."
Lainey gave her a look before raising her leg as high as she could in preparation to kick her.
But to her surprise, her leg stopped just short of Katya's arm.
"It is very real." Katya gently pushed the child's leg away. "And it keeps every widow in line. You had no choice."
Before Lainey could respond, the entire building shook and the lights went out. Her eyes widened at the sudden change in the atmosphere, and used the wall to steady herself before, what she assumed to be, the back up generator kicked in, restoring the lights.
"Baby? Where are you?" Yelena's voice crackled in her ear.
To Lainey's surprise, she could detect a little bit of panic in her voice.
"Where are you?" She questioned the blonde, holding a finger to the comm.
"In Dreykov's office, you were supposed to be here by now."
"How was I supposed to know?"
"She is fine, Natashka." Lainey swore she could hear her mother panicking in the background. "She's alright. She's on her way."
"Where are you supposed to be?" Katya asked.
"Dreykov's office."
Katya nodded and lifted the eleven year old up onto her hip, tired of watching her struggle to walk with the pain in her ankle.
The woman cradled her head and kept her gun close, weaving through the building to dodge anyone who may have something to say or even try to stop or report them.
She held Lainey tightly against her, unwilling to let anything touch her. Never relaxing until she reached their agreed upon destination.
The general wasn't in there, but Natasha and Yelena were.
"Natalia?" Katya called out for her, still holding onto her daughter. "I found her."
Natasha's eyes widened at the sight of the child in the woman's arms and raced towards her. She wanted to pull her into her own arms, but she also didn't want to steal this moment away from Katya.
Now that she knew the whole story, she couldn't place any fault or blame on the woman. She had just been trying to keep Lainey safe from the Red Room and its horrors. And she was doing it all on her own with no help from a single person, because she didn't know who she could trust.
Until finally, she decided to take a chance and trust that if she revealed herself, the Avengers would be able to save her daughter.
No.
Natasha couldn't be upset with her for that. She did her best.
"Go with your mama." Katya read her mind and handed the kid over to her. "It's okay."
Lainey wrapped herself around Natasha, holding her in a vice like grip.
She had been so scared and all she wanted the entire time, was Natasha.
"It's okay." Natasha rubbed her back, silently thanking Katya for what she had done. "It's okay. Mama's here." She could feel some of the injuries on the girl and grit her teeth at the knowledge that she had been hurt. "Mama's right here."
"Where did you find her?" Yelena asked, checking the child's ankle, ignoring her small whimpers in favor of making sure nothing was broken.
Fortunately, it was still just a sprain.
"Near the living quarters." Katya responded. "She was running from someone and I took her. We had a bit of an incident along the way."
There wasn't any time to actually get into talking about whatever that might be, but Natasha would find out soon enough. She could already deduce that it probably had something to do with a sparring session.
Lainey's troubles were not going to end when they destroyed the Red Room.
"Thank you." The blonde gave Katya nod. In the short time she had spent with Lainey, she had grown to love the little girl and she'd be devastated if anything happened to her. She was her niece after all.
She gasped as if she had just remembered something and pulled out one of those red vials. Lainey recognized it from when Dreykov's special project was chasing them for it.
The antidote.
Yelena held it up to Lainey's face and sprayed her, making her cough in surprise and try to wipe it away.
"Ssh." Natasha spoke softly to keep her still.
Lainey's eyes momentarily glowed before returning to their normal color, allowing her to glare at Yelena.
"I wasn't sure if you could be controlled, too, but I had a feeling...I was right."
Lainey continued to rub her face with her sleeve, only catching the blood from nose and lips on it instead of whatever was in that antidote.
As if pheromones weren't enough, Lainey had actually had a chemical that could've been used against her inside of her.
"I want to help you stop them." Katya spoke firmly, watching Lainey squirm. "I want Alya to live freely without having to look over her shoulder. I want them gone."
"We need to find Dreykov." Yelena spoke as the building began to shake once again. Part of the plan was for them to land the flying building safely onto the ground in order to get out once the job was finished, but things didn't always go according to plan.
Needless to say, the building was now descending into a controlled crash and they were running out of time.
"Here." Natasha handed Lainey right back to her biological mother. "Take her. I'm right behind you."
"Mama!" Lainey reached for her, but the woman wouldn't take her back. "Mama, no!"
"Hey, look at me." The redhead forced a smile onto her face, ignoring the blood that was steadily dripping from her nose as a result of her breaking it herself just to get to Dreykov, yet cringing at the blood on Lainey's. "Everything's going to be okay, remember? I wouldn't lie to you. I just need you to go with Auntie Yelena and Mommy for a bit and I'll catch up."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
As promised, Lainey stayed with Katya and Yelena, giving her mother time to catch up with them, and she did.
They all met up on the tarmac outside the flying, or rather, falling building just in time for the place to catch fire.
Katya made sure that Lainey had been shielded from most of the absolutely terrifying things that were going on, but the child figured out all on her own, that Dreykov was making an attempt to get away.
Of course, if he got away, then all of this was for nothing. Yelena wasn't about to let that happen.
"Yelena!" Natasha screamed in horror, watching her sister climb up onto the wing of the plane that was carrying Dreykov. She knew exactly what she was planning to do and she didn't want her to do it. "Don't do it!"
She was putting her life at risk.
But of course, Yelena had never listened to her big sister before, and she certainly wasn't going to start doing so now. "This was fun!"
"No!"
The younger of the two took her batons, attached them and stabbed them right into one of the engine fans, causing the entire plane to explode.
And at the very same time, Katya noticed that Madame B was attempting to escape via parachute. The woman had never cared much for planes, so she was taking matters into her own hands.
"Stay here, Kroshka." She set Lainey down, picking up a parachute of her own.
Madame B was not going to get away. She wasn't going to be able to touch down and begin torturing a new set of innocent children.
Not again.
Not if Katya had anything to say about it. So she sent Lainey a comforting smile and jumped right after her, just as the explosion went off, sending Yelena flying.
"No!" Lainey screamed for the both of them.
Natasha heard her daughter's cries and scooped her up onto her back, grabbing the last parachute that just so happened to be lying there, and jumped.
It wasn't going to be safe standing there for much longer, so the only option for Lainey was jumping. And it wasn't the first time she had been on Natasha's back, falling from a great height.
Lainey's grip around her mother's neck was tight, but not tight enough to choke her. Her stomach was doing flips inside of her body as they fell through the sky, passing clouds and shrapnel.
Natasha soared through the air, grabbing onto Yelena, somehow someway, putting the parachute around her shoulders and opening it, so that they were now falling slowly instead of hurtling towards the ground below.
Yelena, who had been unconscious from the explosion, opened her eyes, saw her sister and smiled.
She knew she'd save her.
What were sisters for?
Their sweet moment was cut short when Natasha seemed to catch something, or in this case, someone out of the corner of her eye and thought fast. "Take Lainey." She transferred the eleven year old over to her aunt, who held her tightly.
"Mama?" Lainey was no scientist, but she was pretty sure that soaring through the air without a parachute meant certain death when you hit the ground.
"It's okay." Natasha pressed a kiss to her bruised cheek. "It's going to be okay. Mama's gonna be fine. I promise."
Lainey sniffled, not really understanding how her mother was going to keep that promise, but trusting her all the same. "Okay."
Natasha forced a smile and let go, allowing herself to free fall.
"Loosen your grip, Baby, I won't let you fall." Yelena spoke after a while of gliding.
"Auntie Yelena?"
"Yes?" It was the first time Lainey had addressed her as such and Yelena couldn't stop that bubbly feeling from rising up to her chest.
"I didn't like it when you got hurt."
"I'm sorry I scared you. I won't do it again, okay?" Yelena had always been impulsive, even when she was a kid. But if it made Lainey nervous, she could get a handle on that.
"Okay." Lainey seemed satisfied with that answer. "I'm sorry I was mean to you. I like your vest."
Now seemed as good a time as any to have that talk.
"You're forgiven." She laughed despite their situation. "I know you like my vest."
"And I'm sorry I made faces at you and hoped you would go away." Lainey blurted. "I don't want you to go away. I was jealous because Mama loves you. It made me angry...but I should've loved you instead."
For a child, that was really profound and very mature. It couldn't have been easy to say, but it needed to be said.
"I'm sorry I riled you up. I was jealous, too. I haven't seen Tasha in years and then I saw you with her...I should've loved you, too."
"Do you love me now?" Lainey asked.
"I do."
"Me, too." She smiled, cuddling into her. For a second, Lainey forgot all about everything that happened in the Red Room and felt at ease in Yelena's arms.
"Baby."
"I'm not a baby."
"You are to me." And this time, Lainey didn't feel a burning anger rise up inside of her when Yelena mentioned it.
It actually felt kind of nice.
The two landed in a heap with Lainey on top of Yelena as all the debris fell around them. It took a quick second for Lainey to regain her bearings and when she did, she found her mother lying still on the ground.
"Go to her." Yelena followed her view. "I'm alright. Go."
Ignoring the pain in her ankle, Lainey did as she was told, running over to the woman, before collapsing right next to her.
"Mommy?" She cautiously poked her with a gentle finger.
Katya looked awful. She wasn't moving, her leg was bent at an awkward angle and she had blood dripping down the side of her face.
"Alya." The woman groaned, squinting as the sun hit her eyes. "My Alya."
"Mommy? Are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere else?" The child couldn't see any more weird injuries, but Katya had just fallen out of the sky.
"I won't lie to you, Kroshka. I've never been this injured….but it's okay." Katya offered her hand to the girl, which she took. "Dreykov and Madame B are gone. They can't hurt you or anybody else ever again, my love."
"Mommy….." The way Katya was breathing was making Lainey very uneasy. It sounded like she was struggling because she was in a lot of pain. "I'll get Mama. She can fix anything. You'll see." She moved to stand up, but Katya stopped her.
"I don't think she can fix this." She forced a smile. "You're so beautiful, Alyona…your father named you that."
"I know. He told me."
"He told you? He's alright now?"
"Yes."
"Good. You're in good hands. He loves you…." Katya coughed. "He named you Alyona, because you were a little ray of light in the dark, Red Room…..when we were on our mission, I didn't want to take that from you or him…so I gave you the name, 'Alayna'. I'm so sorry, I wasn't the mother you deserved. I wish I could've been better. I wish I could've gotten you away from all of this."
"I forgive you, Mommy." Four simple words, but they meant so much to Katya. "I know you did your best."
"Thank you, sweet girl. I love you, you know that? I always have and I always will."
"I love you, too."
"Natalia?" Lainey hadn't even noticed that Natasha made her way over to them, she was so focused on Katya. "Thank you for being the mother I couldn't be. Thank you for taking her in as your own."
"Thank you for giving her to me." Natasha placed a gentle hand on the woman's head to comfort her.
"Take care of her."
"I promise."
"Mommy?" Lainey furrowed her eyebrows, because this was sounding a lot like a goodbye.
She didn't like goodbyes.
"Kroshka, you listen to your mama and your papa for me, okay? They love you."
"Mommy?"
"It's okay. I'm okay." Katya assured her. "All I ever wanted was for you to be safe and happy. You're in good hands. You remember, it wasn't your fault." She reached up and placed a soft hand on her daughter's face. "My beautiful Alyona." She began to hum a lullaby she'd sing to Lainey when she was just a baby.
And the girl recognized it immediately. She thought she had never shared anything good with her mother, but in that moment, she was proven wrong.
Her mother really did love her.
Lainey's vision blurred with unshed tears as she rested her head on her mother's chest, hugging her. "Don't go anywhere, Mommy. We can still fix you."
But the humming stopped and she received no response. She sniffled and sat up, looking at the motionless woman before shaking her arm.
"Mommy?" She tried to get her attention, lightly shaking her arm. "Mommy, don't fall asleep. It's the middle of the day, silly."
"Alayna?" Natasha place a hand on her arm to stop her. "Honey…."
"Why's she sleeping?" Lainey asked, tears dripping from her blue eyes as she looked into Natasha's green ones.
"Alayna, she isn't sleeping, Honey." Natasha broke the news, though deep down she knew that Lainey already knew. "I'm sorry."
"No." Lainey breathed out, her lip quivering faster than she could stop it.
"I'm sorry." The redhead pulled her into her arms and just let her cry as much as she needed to. "I'm sorry."
Katya was gone.
Everything she had done, she did out of love for Lainey, right to the end.
"Everybody good?" Natasha asked as Melina and Alexei made their way over.
"I am clearly injured." Melina quipped before taking notice of Lainey's sad little face. "Come here, солнышко."
Lainey limped over to her and wrapped her arms around her waist, finding a familiar comfort in her. So much had happened over the course of a couple of days, so much had changed.
She needed Melina's familiar touch.
"You got something to say?" Natasha looked at Alexei.
"I'd just mess it up." He tried to tell the girls how he truly felt back when they had first arrived in the Red Room, but it didn't work out very well.
It was probably better for him not to say anything at all.
"Here comes the calvary." She motioned towards the many vehicles coming their way. The redhead had sent General Ross their location just incase Dreykov or Madame B survived the landing.
Because they didn't, and Natasha was a global criminal, she and Lainey had to get out of there.
Fast.
"So what's our plan?" Yelena asked.
"You guys go."
"That's insanity. We fight. We fight with you."
"We can't split up." Melina grimaced in pain, still cradling Lainey. Her leg was broken, but that wasn't going to stop her from fighting. "You're so pigheaded."
"You guys, go." Natasha smiled, feeling lighter than she had in a very long time. "Besides, if it can work out for the five of us, you know, there may be some hope for the Avengers." She pinched her thumb and forefinger together. "Just a little bit."
"Okay, well, if you're leaving, then I guess you should take this." Yelena unzipped her vest and handed it to Natasha. "I know how much you like it."
"Shucks." Natasha grinned, accepting the gift. "It does have a lot of pockets."
"Very handy pockets, yeah."
"Dreykov had widows implanted all over the world." She pulled a left over vial of the antidote out of her pocket. "Melina will need to copy the formula, but you should be the one to tell 'em it's over."
"Thank you."
"Alright, малышка." Natasha spoke to her kid. "Time to go."
"No." Lainey tightened her grip on Melina, unwilling to let go of her. She just got her back, she didn't want to lose her again. She already lost Katya. "I wanna stay."
Melina locked eyes with Natasha and silently communicated that she had it under control. She reached into her belt line and pulled out a sharp knife.
It was a beautiful butterfly knife and it looked very expensive. The handle was black with stainless steel Cyrillic words etched into it, and it looked brand new.
"I have been carrying this around with me for many years." She told the eleven year old, making sure that she could see it. "It reminds me of everything I had at one time. I have it all carved into it, see?"
Елена, Наташа, and Аля were the names on the handle.
"We've been apart for a long time, haven't we?" Melina smoothed some hair away from the girl's bruised face. "And I know you don't remember very much. You were young. But you should know, there was a never a time where I wasn't thinking of you."
"Pretty."
"I want you to hold onto to it for me." Melina pressed it gently into her palm. "Keep it safe. You can give it back to me the next time we see each other."
"Thank you." Knives had always been Lainey's weapon of choice and this one was special. It was Melina's.
"You're welcome. You take good care of it, okay?"
"Okay."
"Go say bye to Yelena."
Lainey got one final squeeze from Melina before she was sent off in Yelena's direction. The blonde gave no clue to how she must have been feeling, making the first part of the exchange quite awkward.
"Hey." Melina turned to Natasha as Yelena and Lainey said their goodbyes, taking the younger woman's hand. "You take care of yourself, okay?"
"Don't worry. I got this."
"I know."
Lainey and Yelena stared at each other for a moment, unsure of how to properly part ways. But then Yelena kind of just threw all caution to the wind and pulled the girl in for a bear hug.
"See?" Melina smirked. "And you worried they wouldn't get along."
Natasha had never verbalized her concern, but she guessed maternal instincts were what gave Melina a bit of a clue.
She had been very concerned for the two after witnessing their first interaction. Jealousy wasn't an easy thing to deal with, but it looked like the two had worked out their issues on their own.
"It's a shame to break up a set." She joked, silently promising that they wouldn't stay away for very long.
Now that Lainey and Yelena were actually getting along, she just knew they were going to give her grey hairs.
"You'll give Mischief a pet for me?" Yelena asked.
"Yeah." Lainey nodded, enjoying the hug. "You'll be careful?"
"For you, I'll do my best." The blonde nodded before bending down to her height. "Take care of my sister for me. She's a little lost without me, you know?"
"I know." Lainey giggled with her as they both looked at the woman in question.
"What're you two smiling about over there?" Natasha mock glared at the two, only to be completely ignored.
"You'll come visit me, yes?"
"Uh huh. And you'll visit me?"
"It's a deal." Yelena pulled her in for another hug and kissed her cheek before letting her go. "Get out of here, I never want to see you again." She stood up and pushed the girl towards Natasha.
"Bye." Lainey waved, allowing her mother to set her on her hip to alleviate the weight on her ankle.
She even fist-bumped Alexei so she wouldn't be leaving him out of the loop and the man beamed with pride.
But before leaving, Yelena turned around and whistled to her sister, who stopped and whistled right back, smiling at her.