Chapter Text
Widow Born
I stood outside watching the Russian landscape in front of me. Though it wasn’t quite winter yet, the cold winds made it feel like it was. By now I was used to the cold though, especially during training days. You just learned to ignore it. There was a wide training field, made within a huge grass field next to a river. I would’ve called it beautiful if it wasn't for all the gross children crawling around in it. What was once a pretty field probably covered in flowers was now a wasteland.
A complex parkour setup was built in the middle of the field. It existed out of large pillars, rope bridges, big jumps and heights that should not be messed with. Oh and someone was shooting plastic balls at you to try and shoot you off. It would come as no surprise that most trainées usually got injured on this parkour. Which is exactly what the mentors wanted.
They started training the youngest at this parkour quite young, 8 to be exact. At 14 I considered myself quite the professional at it. I hadn’t been touched by a plastic ball in over a year, let alone fell off the pillars in over two years. According to the mentors I was training my speed now, my balance was already perfect but speed was everything. I know this parkour inside out.
That doesn’t mean I felt comfortable on the parkour though. One slip up and I could easily break my leg. Even worse, last year a young girl broke her neck. This parkour was not to be messed with. Luckily I had my ways around the parkour. Not always, but today was one of those days where the mentors were focussing on the young ones more. Leaving the older ones to do whatever we wanted. Especially with a big group of girls, they wouldn't notice me sneaking off towards the river. I had done it before, just sneak out when everyone was busy and hide behind one of the large rocks down the hill. It wasn’t long before I had snuck my way down towards the huge rocks, hiding behind them. As long as I wouldn’t try crossing the river, I should be fine.
To my surprise I was met with a dull looking turtle who had claimed my safe spot. My eyes went wide as I looked at the creature, I had never seen one before. I carefully approached it, it didn’t seem to be afraid of me. It just stared at me, not even trying to move away. I grinned at it, how was it not scared of me? I was a widow trainee, I could easily kill it if I wanted too. My mentors would even encourage me to kill it. Instead I sat down next to it, staring at it.
“What are you doing here?” I whispered towards it, my english thick with a russian accent. The mentors wanted us to speak in english whenever we could to practice, what better than to practice on then a turtle.
“I didn’t think turtles lived around here” the river was a big and wild place that did not seem like the kind of area a turtle would belong to, especially not in Russia. Wasn’t it too cold for turtles?
“Is that a turtle?” A sweet voice said behind me, I instantly turned around. Looking at a young girl, she was part of my group, maybe a year younger than me. How had I not heard her approach? I scolded myself mentally. If I was to be a great widow one day I had to hear people approach me, in whatever situation. I had never really talked to this girl before, she usually hung out with the younger trainees.
The girl wasn’t looking at me though, her eyes were fixed on the turtle. She seemed amazed by it.
“wow” she carefully approached it like I had moments ago. I was tempted to move in front of the animal to protect it. I did not know how dangerous this girl was. Like with all the widow trainees we were trained to kill, so what was stopping her from killing the turtle. What if she wanted to prove herself in front of the mentors.
“Why did you follow me?” my voice came out harsh and controlled. To make sure I sound like I should not be messed with.
The girl finally looked at me, she did not look intimidated by me at all, “I thought maybe you’d found a way out”
her voice was too sweet, alarm bells went off inside of my head instantly. A way out? Getting out was impossible, so impossible that I had never even considered it. Her saying that felt wrong, something was off about her. How could she even consider getting out? The mentors provided them with food, shelter and training.
“Why do you want out?” Curiosity had taken over. I had never been out, my whole life was training to be a murdering assassin. Out did not exist.
“I need to find my sister” The girl noted before she focussed her attention on the turtle again, trying to lure it over to her.
“I wish I had a shell I could hide in like a turtle has” she murmured. I looked at her, this girl seemed different than the others, she was so honest. It was unlike anyone I had ever spoken to. Widows didn’t talk about emotions or their wants. It felt dangerous and reckless to do so. Yet, this girl made more sense than anyone I had ever met.
“I want a shell too” I crawled closer to her and the turtle, letting my guard down a little. The girl sent me a small smile, realizing I wasn’t one of the hostile trainees.
“What’s your name?” she asked me curiously.
Before I could answer a voice shouted, “ANASTASIA”
I instantly froze, automatically my trained intuition took over. I jumped up, kicking the turtle as far away from me as possible. The girl yelped in surprise but didn’t say anything as she rushed up too. Before I had time to run back an old lady had appeared in front of me, Lady Olga, one of the mentors, definitely one of the more ruthless ones.
Chills went down my spine, we got caught.
“What are you two doing here?” Olga crossed her arms, her many rimples adding to the mean glare she was sending. I gulped, unable to do words. Olga terrified me. She terrified everyone.
“She was just showing me one of her moves” the other girl silently said, her wavering voice betraying the fear in her.
“one of your moves huh?” Olga spit. I hastily nodded.
“You can show her your moves on top of the pillars”
-
They both stood on a pillar high up in the sky. If either of them fell that meant for sure a broken bone if not worse. I looked down at all the girls looking up at us. The cold winds were felt even more this high up. If you weren’t careful it could throw you off balance. I focussed back on the other girl in front of me, damn her for starting about the moves! The moves were a thing the mentor trained every widow. They were fighting techniques used in various situations.
I was one of the few in my group who had already mastered them, many of the other girls envied me because of it. Bringing up the moves had been a bold move of the other girl, surely she knew what was going to happen now.
“Fight” Olga called out from below, my eyes widened, we could barely move without falling, no that was a lie. I could definitely move but moving meant fighting and fighting meant hurting this girl.
Being brought up as an assassin in training meant getting rid of empathy and hurting people. It was something so indoctrinated into me that it should be easy… but it never was.
Especially now when I was standing in front of the girl I still didn’t know the name of. Though she was getting ready in a fighting pose, trying to look all tough. I could see it in her eyes that she was absolutely terrified. And I was sorry for what I was about to do.
I moved efficiently and quickly, though the girl put on a good fight herself it was no match to my moves. With a quick kick and swipe I sent her tumbling off the pillar, no mercy. It was silent as she fell, no yell, no cry, no roar from the crowd. Just a thud of her hitting the floor. I couldn’t look in case she’d fallen on her head… like the other girl. As I climbed off the pillar I got an instant praise from Olga. She proudly put a hand on my shoulder and steered me through the crowd of girls who were looking at me silently. I couldn’t shake off the feeling of unease that I was feeling, like there were sand grains under my skin. I hated doing that to the girl. She was still on the ground, I couldn’t look at her. not now.
-
Night time is when all of them let their guards down. As if laying in the dark surrounded by dozens of other beds with kids had a sense of comfort. They were all in this together in a way. I laid there staring at the ceiling. The unease had not gone away. Sparring with other trainees had always been fine so why did I feel different about fighting with this girl?
There was a sniffling coming from a few beds to my right. It was nothing out of the ordinary to hear sniffling at night. It mostly likely meant a kid was crying or at least trying to hide their cries. This was nothing new.
Yet tonight I felt every sniffle in my bones. The sniffles all came from the girl I had grounded today. After returning from the infirmary she had gone straight to bed immediately. Her face was bruised and her arm was wrapped up in bandages. For the first time ever I had a really bad feeling in my stomach about what had happened. I had not wanted to hurt her. She had been the first person who had spoken to me from within her. No lies, no distrust. Though she had not known me, she had trusted me with talking about wanting to get out. Any other widow would tell the mentors about this conversation… but that felt wrong to me.
I didn't know what took over me but I silently slipped out of my bed and tiptoed over to hers. When I approached her bed her sniffling stopped, she’d heard me coming. She was hiding her head below her blanket.
“Hey” I whispered silently, not wanting any of the other girls to wake up. No response. I tried again, “Do you think the turtle is okay?”
It was silent for another moment, for a second I thought maybe the girl had fallen asleep. Then suddenly the blanket raised. In the darkness I could just barely see her face, she stared at me, fresh tears still in her eyes. Another wave of whatever the feeling was that made me feel bad came over me.
She motioned for me to climb into the bed with her. I quickly jumped in. Good thing their bodies were quite small and could easily fit.
The girl dropped the blanket over our heads like a cocoon keeping us safe from the outside world.
“I saw it crawl away,” the girl whispered. I nodded, that was good, at least the turtle got away.
“I’m Anastasia,” I told her.
“I know, you’re kind of a big deal,” the girl responded. Hearing that just confirmed what I already knew. I didn’t have any friends in this place because people were always talking about me behind my back. Jealous that at 14 I had mastered the moves, jealous that at 14 I could easily take a group of them in a fight, jealous that the mentors seemed to give me special treatment. Treatment that surely looked nice from the outside but in reality the treatment was awful and only separated me more from the group. I was one of the talented ones that the mentors had faith in.
“I’m Yelena,” the girl whispered. I sent her a small smile,
“Nice to meet you Yelena”
3.5 years later.
I was curled up in Yelena's bed, hugging her from behind. She always slipped into her friend’s bed at night. It brought the both of them a sense of comfort, knowing that they weren’t alone and had the other one. It felt normal.
I didn’t know where I would be without Yelena. Over the last few years she has been the greatest friend… and maybe my only friend. My hand found hers and wrapped themselves around it. Yelena responded by tightening the hold on her hand and pulling my arm towards her chest to hug it. A sense of comfort flooded over me as I nested even closer to her.
“Tomorrow is the day,” I whispered to her with a small smile. “Tomorrow” the soft voice responded.
Tomorrow was the day they escaped.
-
It was early morning. Yelena and I were on the training grounds.
The plan was simple, it was my birthday. A day nobody celebrated here. But it wasn’t just any birthday, it was my 18th birthday, meaning that I would get sent out on my first mission. A mission I wouldn’t even attempt to do because the moment I get out I’d find a boat and meet Yelena down at the river later today when she is supposed to go to the training field. A plan as easy as that but it filled her with dread. So many things could go wrong and I was valuable to Dreykov. I was still one of the best trainee widows in the group. Losing me would be like using a huge assist. I would definitely be hunted down for the rest of my life. But for Yelena, that was a risk I was willing to take.
Somehow Yelena seemed to sense my nervousness though,
“Hey, you’ll be fine” Yelena promised as she got into her fighting stance. We sparred every morning but over the years Yelena hadn’t been able to win once. She was a good sport though and kept trying.
“i’ll be fine” I responded, in an attempt to reassure myself. I mirrored her fighting stance. It wasn’t long before we were sparring. I was playing around a little, letting the fight go on longer than it should have. If Olga was watching she would’ve definitely snared at me. But I liked making Yelena gain more confidence by making the fight last longer. Over the years she certainly had become better at it.
Yet even after a while the fight had to end, I played a dirty move, a shift kick to one of her weaker arms, the arm that always seemed to get hurt in some way sent her flying against a wall.
“I’m sorry Yel but you need to be able to surprise me if you want a chance of winning” I grinned cockily.
“Surprise you huh?” Yel smirked, a smirk I had grown all too familiar with. It was mischievous, she was up to something. She carefully approached me. I just watched her, trying to calculate her move.
The fight was over, I had won so what was she up to?
She put both of her hands on my shoulders, I raised my eyebrow.
“What are you doing?” I wondered curiously.
Yelena just smiled, “Surprise you”
she then leaned in to kiss me. I instantly froze, I had never been kissed before. It felt soft and it sent spikes all down my body, good spikes. Spikes that made me feel something positive and comforting. Spikes I had felt before when cuddling up to Yelena at night.
Suddenly I was spun upside down as Yelena easily knocked me to the floor. Before I knew it I was laying on the ground staring up at Yelena who was smirking down at me.
“And they say you’re the greatest Widow”
I quickly scrambled up, reassuming my position as if nothing happened.
“That's not fair, you cheated” I called out. I’d be embarrassed for falling for such a trick but in reality I was confused. Confused about Yelena, had the kiss been genuine or a ruse to trick me?
“Yeah, well there’s more where that came from! But only after we have escaped today! I’m hitting the showers” Yelena smirked, sending her a wink before walking out the room leaving me behind all flustered. Yelena had flirted with me before but I never saw us be in a real relationship. Widows didn’t get into relationships, it wasn’t allowed. However, after we escape today, would we even still be widows? We would be free for the first time ever. Could a relationship be a possibility?
I was about to follow Yelena when an older Widow came in, “Dreykov wants to see you”
I sent her a stern nod, my face neutral. No trace of what happened moments ago left.
-
It was always nerve wrecking seeing Dreykov. He was the big boss, the terrifying man who would kill you if you did the wrong thing, made the wrong move. But also the man who gave us a home, who made sure we trained. He was the reason all of them were here.
Standing in front of him I locked all my emotions away, I needed to leave a good impression on him. Emotions were a weakness.
“Well, well, well, Anastasia Semenov, finally turning 18. You know what this means” His thick voice called out. He was holding a dirty cigar that stunk. I ignored it though.
“Your first mission outside of the red room! It’s a big day. You’re lucky, you’re one of the better ones so i’ve decided to sent you to America”
I frowned, that wasn’t the plan. Young Widows were kept within the country, at least for the first few years, you’d only get sent to other countries once you’ve proven yourself.
“I don’t understand,” I stated. This had never happened before, it didn’t make sense.
“You're good, kid. We need you for an operation. You’ll get a briefing on your way there. But first, your birthday present!” He clasped his hands together, his cigar nearly dropping. Birthday presents were unheard of, an uneasy feeling came over me.
With his free hand, Dreykov reached into his desk and pulled out a small USB. He dropped it onto the table and looked at me with a dirty smirk.
“What is th-“ before I could finish my sentence a syringe was plunged into my neck. I instantly lost feeling in my legs and dropped to the ground just before everything turned black.
10 years later
I was surrounded, trapped in a penthouse of a tall luxurious flat. My latest assassination had been in Las Vegas, but then for over a month I hadn’t heard anything from Dreykov. As if he had disappeared from the earth. It was strange to say the least. Not knowing what to do I kept my undercover identity. A wealthy lawyer by the name of Susan McDonald. The penthouse had a hidden weapon room and had cameras all around the place. Cameras that were telling me a group of people were coming up, more specifically women, armed women.
All I knew was that I had to kill them. I had to. Something in my brain was forcing me to.
I prepared myself, putting on my Widow suit and grabbing a gun from the hidden room. Once ready I flipped over a table and hid behind it, pointing my gun at the door.
I waited patiently. I wasn’t scared at all, they might have the advantage of being with more people, I knew I had the advantage of being far more skilled than any of them.
Suddenly a large bang went off behind me. My large window scattered into a million pieces and someone rolled through. I turned around, shooting bullets into the direction of the attacker. Ducking behind a new hiding place to throw the intruder off about my location.
Then it was silent. I peaked around a corner, there was no body and no blood. The intruder was still here.
I heard footsteps behind me and barely ducked out of the way of a punch being thrown my way. I reacted quickly, grabbing the arm, pulling it closer to me. The person lost their balance and I was about to raise my gun and shoot it from close range when the arm of the intruder that I was still holding suddenly released a strange chemical.
Confused, I pushed the arm away from me, ducking backwards behind a corner as if to cover me from any attacks, attacks that didn’t come. Finding a moment of peace, I dropped my gun and blinked rapidly as it felt like dust was stuck in my eyes.
Then, the invisible force that had their grip or me…. left.
The need to kill the attackers was gone. It confused me greatly. I carefully peaked around the corner, a woman was sitting on my couch. It was the one who had attacked me moments ago but now she was just… sitting there.
“What did you do?” I asked confused, I came out of the corner.
“Give you your free will left, you’re welcome. It was not my pleasure” The woman then stood up and was about to walk back to the door when I stopped her. Finally getting a good look at her. I recognized her,
“Yelena?”
Yelena just rolled her eyes and opened the door letting at least 10 more widows into the penthouse. They all instantly went to my weapon room to raid it… and I didn’t care that they did?
Yelena was on her way out though, walking over to the elevator of the building. I quickly pushed my way past the other girls and barely managed to slip into the elevator with my old friend.
I hadn’t seen Yelena since the day of my 18th birthday. I had so much to tell her but when I stood in the elevator with her I was at a loss of words.
“Dreykov is dead by the way” Yelena just casually said, looking straight in front of her, definitely avoiding looking at me. I stared at her, she was all grown up now, a proper adult and assassin. The last time we’d been together we were teenagers. Dreykov being dead almost seemed like a joke to me. Him dying was something all widows had dreams about but never seemed like a thing that would actually happen. Somehow he always survived all his assasination attempts.
“How did he die?”
“I killed him”
A moment before she added, “with help from my sister”
“You found your sister?” I had known how much she had wanted to find her back in the day. I honestly thought her sister had died and Yelena would never find her.
“yeah, no thanks to you” her words were harsh. I fell silent, not wanting to say anything that might trigger her. As if Yelena grew uncomfortable with the silence or if she felt bad, which was unlikely, she continued.
“Know Black Widow?”
My eyes went wide, “That’s your sister? An Avenger?”
“Yup, you're not the greatest widow anymore it seems” more shade.
“I never was” I just shrugged. Yelena scoffed as if I had said something dumb. I looked at her confused, she looked annoyed.
“What's wrong?” as if I had timed it with the elevator, the doors opened indicating we were on the ground floor.
“Fuck you” Yelena just said, walking out of the elevator in a hurry. I frowned, what had I done?
“We haven't seen each other in over a decade and this is how you treat me?” I shot at her, offended at why she was being so mean and distant.
She just ignored me. I followed her out of the building, I was surprised to see an airship waiting outside, more widows with weapons seemed to be protecting it. I noticed Red Guardian sitting boredly on a bench just outside of the building.
“This her?” He asked not amused, I didn’t know who he was talking about.
“All yours” Yelena just groaned, climbing onto the airship. I was about to follow her but suddenly Red Guardian was in front of me, pushing me back.
“Where do you think you’re going?” His words were hard. Nothing I wasn’t used to though.
“I’m a Widow, isn’t this airship for the Widows?” I deduced, all the girls I had seen so far had all been Widows.
“Dreykov is dead, Widows don’t exist anymore. Congratulations with your retirement, now fuck off” He pushed me again, this time I saw it coming and ducked out of the way. I was about to run into the airship but as if he had anticipated it he held onto my arm. His superhuman strength was unfortunately something I couldn’t go up against.
“I need to talk to Yelena”
“She doesn’t want to talk to you, bye” still holding onto my arm he threw me onto the floor away from the airship.
I was getting desperate now, “What am I supposed to do? I am nothing without the Widows” I had never been free before. Everything I had ever done was always for the widows.
Red Guardian just shrugged, “not my problem” he crossed his arms, there was no way I was getting through. I sighed, about to give up and leave when all the widows from my penthouse came walking out.
One of them spotted me and before I knew it all guns were pointing at me. They slowly approached me, their weapons still trained on me. Confused, I carefully raised my arms making sure they weren’t just going to shoot me.
As if Yelena had been waiting inside the entrance of the airship, she suddenly appeared again. Looking equally as confused as I probably did.
“What’s going on?” I asked, I had done nothing wrong… well I had done nothing wrong to the other Widows. These were my people, why were their weapons pointing at me?
“Did you find it?” Yelena asked one of the girls, the girl shook her head no, “the scanner leads to her, not the apartment”
Everyone looked at me, as if I was about to dramatically reveal something, yet I was still very confused.
“Hand it over” Yelena called out to me, I was surprised she was the one saying it, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she demanded one of them to ask me, with the way she was trying to avoid me.
“Hand what over?” I answered annoyed, this really felt like a betrayal of my own people, the second one today.
First the mind control, now this.
“The USB, give it to us and we won’t harm you” Yelena said, her voice stern. She was really threatening me now. I used to be able to read her but right now I had no idea what she was thinking or up to, it terrified me.
“Is that why you came here? For the USB?” I questioned, trying not to betray how hurt that was making me feel. Here I was hoping something inside of Yelena reminded her of our bond but I was gravely mistaken, it had all been for the dumb USB.
“Hand it over.” One of the other girls demanded. Yet I stood my ground, “What if I don’t?” there’s no way they would just kill me.
Losing patience, the Red Guardian came walking over. As a dozen guns were still pointing at me I couldn’t do anything but watch.
“Empty your pockets” he demanded. I frowned, he really thought I had the USB in my pocket?
I did what he asked, emptied my pockets, even showed him the inside of my sleeves. I did not have the USB hidden in any of my clothes anyway.
“She doesn’t have it” Red Guardian groaned, annoyed, he turned back to Yelena as if asking her what he should do.
“Take her in,” she demanded.