Natasha was disguised as Melina, as Melina was disguised as Natasha. Natasha had an earpiece for her, Melina, and Svetlana but she knew what to do, and remembered all of Melina's instructions perfectly.

Right outside the door of Dreykov's office she took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and forced herself not to wonder where Svetlana was and what they might be doing to her.

Dreykov's office was a strange mix of old fashioned furniture and advanced technology, with a huge holographic screen in the wooden wall to one side and an old desk with a touchscreen for a top. The Taskmaster stood in the corner still as a statue, awaiting orders.

"My God." Dreykov says standing up. "Look at you."

His face had more wrinkles and his suit was sharper and more expensive and his hair was more gray than Natasha remembered. But the horrifying glint in his eye and terrible smirk on his face were the same as ever.

"So, uh, how was the family reunion?" He asks as he slowly heaves to his feet.

"Oh it was awful...They were so clingy, emotional and needy..." Natasha says switching to her acting mode of Melina.

"Ah, just like old times, huh? Yelena Belova? What's the deal with her? She was the only one affected, right?" He asks in the same creepy and awful smile.

"As far as I know, yes." Natasha says nodding firmly.

"These gasses and antidotes...they're a pain in my ass. It's a problem, you need to sort it out." Dreykov says.

Natasha sighs before continuing. "I have nine pigs that require attending in my absence--"

"Don't give me shit about your pigs." Dreykov says, waving to her to sit down in front of the desk. He was standing way too close behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder, grabbing her head and pulling it up against him.

"Cut her brain out." He says. "Identify the weakness." 

Natasha decided to press for what Dreykov knew as he circled around the chair and put both of his hands on the armrests, trapping her. "What about Galina and Svetlana?"

"They're nothing but traitors." Dreykov says. "They turned their back on their people, their blood. They had nothing. I gave them a home, and I gave them love..."

Natasha resisted the urge to punch his face in, saving the rage for when she'd need it later. It wasn't like she could punch him right away anyway.

Dreykov continues. "Put that thing in her you do. You know, chemicals. Turn her into one of your pigs, do the same with that Belova kid." He grins maliciously. "Can you imagine what I can do with not just one, but two weak and useless girls under my control?"

Natasha really wanted to punch him in the face now, more than before, plus throw up because of sickeningly happy and excited he was. "Wouldn't you like to speak to them first?"

"When you look into the eyes of the child you have raised." Dreykov explains. "No mask in the world can hide that."

Natasha didn't like where this was going, and when he raised his hand to touch her face and her hand shot out and grabbed his wrist to stop him, she knew that she had already fucked up.

Dreykov glared, as he's now suspicious now, and he moved his hand again. Unable to stop him this time, Natasha steeled her nerves as Dreykov tapped the button on the side of the face deactivating the mask.

The mask flickered and pixelated and Dreykov grabbed the edge of it and pulled it and the wig it was attached to off of Natasha's face, revealing who she really was.

"Welcome home." Dreykov says as Natasha jumped to her feet her mind was screaming 'Danger'!.

The Taskmaker whipped out their gun in a second, pointing it directly at Tasha's face. 

Dreykov raises his hand to them, signaling the Taskmaker to stand down. "Now, now, don't go breaking one of my new toys." He says and he turns to Natasha. "Is this your plan?" 

"My plan is to kill you." Natasha says simply.

"I'm alive." Dreykov says. "So what do we do now?"

Natasha glared at him. "What was my mother's name?"

Dreykov nodded. "Ah...Where we buried her, there was a tree...a pink blossom. Beautiful and there was a tombstone with her name engraved on it. What was her name?...Oh yes....Unknown..." He says smirking as Natasha's blood boiled.

"You don't feel anything?" She asks. "You feel anything when I killed your daughter?"

Dreykov chuckles. "Is this your haunted past?" He says standing up and walking over to the Taskmaster. "Thank you Natasha, you gave me my greatest weapon."

Natasha felt her stomach dropped as Dreykov told the Taskmaster to say hello, and they obeyed, taking off their helmet.

Underneath the helmet with a skull face on it, was a girl with brown hair and burn scars covering her face. Her eyes were cold and there was nothing but a dead stare as she looked ahead, unmoving.

Dreykov explains. "When your bomb exploded, it nearly killed my Antonia." Natasha takes a few steps forward staring in shock and horror.

"I had to put a chip in the back of her neck." Dreykov continues as he walks over back to Natasha. "Look at her. You find it difficult to look at her? I do. She watches everything, and she can do it. She is a perfect mimic." He says right in Natasha's ear. "And she fights just like you and your little friends."

Natasha asks as her voice is barely audible. "Can she hear me?"

Dreykov spat in her ear. "What? You want to make her feel better? Say you're sorry? Well you should've thought of that before you blew her face off."

Natasha clenched her jaw, forcing herself to focus, as she's keeping Dreykov occupied.

Dreykov sighs. "Enough of this bullshit." He waves Antonia away. "Get to work. I have rats in the basement, go."

Antonia put her helmet back on, and left without a word or so much as a bat of her eyes.

Once she was gone, Natasha whipped out her gun and pointed it at Dreykov's face. "That was a mistake." 

"Was it?" Dreykov asks, completely calm.

Natasha only smirks. "You just sent away the one thing that can stop me from killing you."

Dreykov chuckled. "Try then. Kill me. What's stopping you?"

...and she did. Natasha tried her hardest to pull the trigger, but her body was refusing to listen, and her hands holding the gun as it shook, as she tried to pull the trigger again.

"Is the safety on?" He mocks, taking the gun away from her with ease and firing it at the ceiling. "Try your knife."

Natasha whipped out her knife and attacked again, but her body froze a little less than a foot away from him. Again, Dreykov took the weapon from her with ease.

"How are you controlling me?" Natasha demanded.

Dreykov only smirked. "I'm not controlling you, Natasha. Well, not yet. But there is a pheremonal lock. The smell of my pheremones prevents you from committing violence against me." His hand moved, dangerously close to her face, and Natasha couldn't stop herself from flinching away, that being the only thing she could do to fight back.

"I am very disappointed in Melina." Dreykov said as he walked over to his desk and stopped behind it. "It's a shame I'll have to kill her. But no matter what I have two useless girls' under my control now." He says grinning. "I'm very excited to see what happens, I may just have myself a new Taskmaster."

Natasha was glaring daggers at him as her blood boiled. "If you touch them--"

"You'll what?" Dreykov asks, chuckling. "Kill me?" He pulls up something on his tablet as she bit her tongue to remind herself to stay focused.

"So," Dreykov says. "This was the big plan huh? Melina was going to lead the Red Room and hand me over to the authorities?"

Natasha shrugs as he taps a few things on his screen. "So what, you're gonna fold me into your pathetic little puppeteer act now?"

Dreykov chuckles. "Pathetic, huh?"

"What would you call it?" Natasha asks, and continues as he tries to interrupt. "When was the last time you had a conversation with somebody who wasn't forced to talk to you?"

Dreykov glared at her. "You ran away to fight in the wrong war. The real war was fought here, in the shadows. You will pay for your insubordination, through the two little useless girls I can tell you have attachments to her. And you may or may not remember but attachments in the Red Room are unacceptable."

"You didn't fight in the shadows." Natasha shot back. "You hid in the dark. If you touch Emersyn or Nevaeh, I will make you wish you'd never been born."

"Real power comes from indetectable influence."

Natasha leaned on the desk. "If no one notices, why even do it? You're nothing, you have nothing."

"There are fifty people on this planet--" Dreykov says before Natasha interrupts him mid sentence.

"Oh stop it!" Natasha says.

Dreykov jumped to his feet and roared. "Don't tell me to stop!"

Natasha fired back. "If I don't tell you to stop, how are you gonna know when to shut--"

Dreykov's fist shot before she could dodge and cracked across her face. She backed away from the desk panting. He walked around his desk advancing on her.

She held out her arms, taunting him. "Oh, come on. You think I can't take a punch?"

He punched her again, harder this time, but not hard enough.

She laughed. "Damn, you're weak."

"Weak?" Dreykov asks, getting angrier.

"Bet it's easier to be tough on defenseless little girls, huh?" Natasha taunted.

He punched her again, knocking her to the floor this time. He still hadn't punched her hard enough. She started to get up, and Dreykov kicked her down. Natasha slowly got up, wiping away the blood that started to leak out of her nose.

"You wouldn't be so glib if you had any notion of the scope I've built." Dreykov says, walking back over to his desk. "I own this world. Me."

"You seem desperate to impress me." Natasha says.

"I don't need to impress you, I don't need to impress anyone." He says pulling out a drawer in his desk and swiped his hand over it, letting the screen scan the ring on his finger "These world leaders, these great men....they answer to me and my widows."

On the opposite wall, a holographic screen lit up glowing bright red. On millions of pinpoints across the map, pictures of faces appeared attached to them. Each picture of a different girl's or woman's face.

"These girls were trash. They are thrown out into the street. I recycle the trash. And I give them purpose. I give them a life." Dreykov explains.

Natasha swallowed the lump in her throat, ready to throw up from what he was saying.

"It's my network of widows that helps me control the scales of power. One command, the oil and stock markets crumble. One command, and a quarter of the planet will starve. My widows can start and end wars. They can make and break kings."

Natasha says. "You control all of that from here?"

"And with you, and your two little useless girls I have down in brainwashing right now, the Red Room will be unstoppable. We will finally be strong enough to take complete control and step out of the shadows into the light using the only natural resource the world has too much of. Girls."

Natasha turns, as her rage is taking over. "All from that little console?" She asks, smiling.

"You find this amusing?" Dreykov questioned. "We'll see how funny you think it is when I have your little brats destroy you and then turn you back into one of my widows with her since you love them so much."

Natasha's eyes narrowed as she forced herself not to imagine what he was describing.

"Why are you smiling?" He asks.

"Don't take it personal." She tells him. "But uh, thank you for your cooperation." He looked confused and suspicious, so she continued. "You weren't quite strong enough, so...I'll have to finish it myself."

Dreykov laughed at her. "What are you going to do.?"

She slammed her face into the table, finally breaking her nose. She lifted her head and stared him down triumphantly, smirking. "Sever the nerve."

This hand shot out, reaching for his tablet. She brought her hand down, pinning his hand to the screen as her other hand flew out and nailed Dreykov square in the face.  He grunted, falling out of his chair, and landing flat on his back, holding his face. Natasha charged at him circling around the desk. She dropped down to his level, and sucker punched him in the face again.

Dreykov roared, and tried to fight back, but Natasha punched him continuously, letting out all the rage and fury that had been building inside her ever since she set foot in his office. Blood started to spray from Dreykov's nose and mouth, but Natasha didn't stop, nor slow down.

She kept punching and hitting him and she yelled at him, "Not so talkative now, are you?!"

"You took my childhood." She says. "You took my choices, and tried to break me. You tried to do the same thing to Emersyn and Nevaeh."

Finally she slowed her attacks to a stop, and grabbed his collar pulling him up to her.  In a dangerously low voice she says. "When I find Svetlana and Galina you better hope for your sake that not a single hair on their head is harmed, that there isn't a single mark on their body, and that there isn't a single trace of being hurt in their expressions. Because if there is, I will find you and I will make you beg me to kill you. No where will be safe for you, and when I find you, I'll use every technique, you drilled into my head to torture and kill and to destroy you."

She let him fall to the floor and grabbed his ring. The whole base was rocking and shaking and Tasha assumed that Melina had found a more creative way to get them to the ground.

"You're not going to hurt anymore; any little girl or woman ever again. Good luck in hell." She pulled out her baton, and raised it to him. 

When suddenly something sharp landed in her back latching on and yanking her away. She scrambled to her feet as Dreykov finally got up, and all of the widows marched in, with their weapons at the ready, focused on Natasha. 

"Nobody leaves this room until she's dead."

▷

hannah speaks!

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