"Family. Back together again." Alexi said as he picked up the glass that was set for him. lina had already filled up Natasha and Yelena's glasses again.
"Sure." Natasha rolled her eyes and felt that she'd been rolling her eyes a bit too much today.
They all toasted and drank the shot.
At this point, Natasha had had enough, "So, here's what's going to happen…" She started.
"You haven't aged a day since…" Alexi started flirting with lina, completely discrediting Natasha's words.
A few more monts later, their words started getting graphic, and both Yelena and Natasha were disgusted, "Ugh, can you please stop…" Yelena comnted.
Natasha tried to get the conversation back on track, "So here's what's going to happen—", "Natasha don't slouch" She was interrupted again. By lina this ti.
"I'm not slouching" She got defensive. Just because Natasha knew about the ntal manipulations didn't an that she was immune to them. lina's motherly figure was engraved in her mind for a long ti.
"You're slouching," lina stated again in a motherly tone. "Listen to your mother, Natasha," Alexi said. The whole table started spiraling down to a family argunt.
"Shut it, All of you!" Natasha snapped but it was useless, "What did I do?" Yelena asked. "Don't drink so much, Yelena." lina was fully leveraging her status in the minds of the two girls. "I'll do what I want," Yelena said.
"Tell where the Red Room is now!" Natasha had had enough.
Imdiately, lina's reaction was a scoff filled with derision. "Alexi, you rember when we used to tell the girls that they would be able to catch Santa Clause if they waited up long enough," lina said to Alexi.
At this point, Natasha was done. The situation was completely out of her control and the people in the room were doing their best to push her buttons. She decided to listen to lina while thinking of what to do later.
"Finding Dreykov is not a fantasy. It's unfinished business." Natasha said.
"You can't defeat a man, who commands the very will of others, Natasha," lina said to Natasha who had skeptical eyes.
"I'll show you sothing, Natasha. Sothing that will tell you just how out of your depth you are, going after Dreykov and the Red Room." lina understood that Natasha would require convincing and grabbed her tablet before tapping on it a few tis, "Co in." She said into the tablet.
There was the sound of the creaking of a door and a pig ca into the room.
"Did that pig just open the door?" Natasha asked, impressed.
"Yes, it did. Good boy, Alexi. Good boy." lina scratched it under the chin.
"You nad a pig after ?" Alexi, the Red Guardian, was offended.
"You don't see the resemblance?" lina said unapologetically, "See, he's just like a dog. Sits like one, acts like one, and everything." lina looked at Natasha and Yelena.
"Now. Stop breathing." She moved a slider on the tablet. And the pig stopped breathing. It was as if it didn't know how to breathe and was just looking up at lina.
"This is what the mission in Ohio was about. 3 years undercover. Acting as a big happy family with him and both of you girls. All to get the formula that could bring this to fruition. It was a front for Shield scientists. Or well Hydra. I'm sure you know more about it than ." lina looked at Natasha.
lina turned to Alexi who was still offended and said to him, "We didn't steal weapons or tech. We stole to key to free will itself." lina drank the shot and filled up her glass of vodka.
"All right, you made your point." Nat eyed the dying pig that was still not breathing.
"It's fine. Alexi could've survived for another minute or so." lina said and sent it away, "Dreykov has such chemically subjugated agents planted all around the globe that he can order around whenever he wants. It's completely out of your depth." lina stated.
"Do you know whom they used this stuff on?" Yelena interjected.
"Hm? No, that's not my departnt. But it's usually orphan girls with no one to look after them. They're the easiest to manipulate after all." lina didn't realize how each of her words was hurting Yelena more and more.
"Ahh. Co on. Don't lie to them. You're Dreykov's architect. You definitely know." Alexi said, "No I—"
"Shut up. You are an idiot," Nat said to Alexi, "And you? You are a coward." She snapped at lina.
"Oh, bullshit—" lina was interrupted by Yelena again.
"You know… those agents. Those agents that you chemically subjugated around the globe. Those orphan, easy-to-influence won. That was …" Yelena broke down as her voice started cracking, "And you," She looked at Natasha, "You got out. After you, Dreykov made sure that no one could escape. But you got out." Yelena blad Natasha.
"Yelena…" Nat said as lina brought her hand to Yelena's shoulder. But Yelena ignored Nat and shook lina's hand off before grabbing the bottle of vodka and getting up.
"I'll go after her." Alexi got up and went after her, leaving Natasha and lina alone to talk.
Natasha got up and lina followed after her, "What? You're going to do it alone?" lina asked.
"If you're not helping then I'll look for another way. You won't be the first mother that abandoned ." She said and looked at lina, only to see her stiffen up. Nat narrowed her eyes as she felt an old doubt surfacing in her mind.
"Right?" She asked lina again.
"I believe that you weren't abandoned…" lina trailed off, thinking about what to say.
"What…" Natasha had a dark expression and asked with a frigid tone.
"You were taken… Dreykov had this system that could determine if children had the genetic potential for his training. Your parents were paid off, I believe," She said, "But your mother. She was relentless. She kept snooping around." lina said.
"What happened to her?" Natasha asked with the sa frigid tone.
"Dreykov had her killed," Yelena saw the slight confusion in Natasha's otherwise cold expression and explained, "Normally a snooping civilian wouldn't warrant an execution. But as I said, she was relentless."
"That so, huh?" Nat's voice lost its coldness and was not flat.
"I'm… sorry. I've already inford the Red Room." lina finally stated, "They should be here any minute."
"I know," Natasha said with a smile, but her eyes were cold as she stared at lina.
"Hm?" lina was confused about how Natasha was so confident.
[Alex is she under control?] Natasha asked Alex.
[Nope, fully conscious. I've checked those pigs and the widow from before. They were all chemically subjugated. But not lina.] He explained to her.
"We're done here." Natasha walked to lina as the sound of whirring aircraft was heard from the outside.
Before Yelena could even react, Natasha reached her and shocked her, sending her to the land of dreams.
[Give her a few nightmares while you're at it, Alex…] She asked Alex. Natasha was unbelievably angry right now. She'd expected all of this from the start. But that didn't change the fact that she was disappointed and angry.
She didn't waste any ti before kicking open the door to the room where Alexi and Yelena were. She saw an unconscious Yelena who was sitting on the ground leaning against the bed and Alexi struggling to keep his consciousness while looking at the curtained windows where the lights were shining from.
"Go to sleep, Alexi. I'll be taking over from here," Nat said and within two seconds his resistance failed and he also succumbed to the drug that lina had fed them through the vodka.
Nat looked at Yelena and asked Alex, [Could you wake her up?]
[It'll take a minute.] Alex said as a tendril extended from Nat's sleeve and wrapped around Yelena's neck, forming a choker.
[Don't wake her up, yet… And what is it with you and chokers?] Nat asked as she was formulating a plan in her head that would get her access to Dreykov in the easiest way possible.
[I don't know.] Nat could imagine Alex shrugging as he replied to her question.
[I presu that you've already checked lina's mories?] She asked Alex.
[You know so well.] He smiled inwardly.
[I need concealed earpieces.] She told him.
[Behind the bookshelf right side, corner most cabinet. There's a set.] He said.
[I also need you to turn into lina, and turn her into .] She asked him.
[Easy.] He agreed as Nat went into the bookshelf cabinet and got what she needed. She'd already turned into lina.
[You have got to take over the Red Room.] Alex said to her in an excited voice.
[What?] Natasha asked while waiting for the cavalry to enter into the mansion.
[Nat. It's a fortress hiding in the clouds. Trust . We want it.] He told her.
[Why?] Nat didn't share his fascination.
[Think about it. What will you do with the army of mind-controlled assassins that Dreykov has under his control? It's practically impossible for most of them to live normal lives. We might as well take them in and use the Red Room as a base of operations. You could make them into a general cri-fighting division of the Avengers. The main team deals with large-scale threats while these girls who don't know anything better than to kill can put their skills to so use by taking a more street-based approach. It's a win-win.] He said to her, appealing to the person inside her who wanted to do good.
[We'll discuss this later.] Nat decided to think about it later.
And soon, Dreykov's Trickster Project walked into the living room where 'lina' was standing.
"Let's not keep him waiting," Nat said to the intimidating armored individual in front of her while copying lina's mannerisms. She'd observed her enough to copy her well enough.
***
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