Chapter 4- Stalingrad 1935

“1935?! But that would put you in your seventies, almost eighties!”

She just smiled and said, “Enhancers, as well as countless other experiments. Welcome to the Soviet Union Tony.”

They had made it.

“Come on Tony, let’s get out of this wind.” The wind was picking up and it was starting to snow harder.

It was almost unbelievable as to what the two felt. They were inside of Natasha’s mind but they felt as they were out in the real world.

“Hmmm,” Tony kept humming.

“What is it now.” Tony looked deep in thought.

“I'm just wondering something. It’s not important.”

“What is it?”

“Well, I was just wondering, if we died in here, would we die in real life?”

Now that was a serious question. “I thought no one can see us here since we aren’t technically, well, here?” Natasha was confused.

“Oh they can’t see us or hurt us, I was just wondering if we say, freeze to death. Fall off of a cliff, stuff like that.” He said all of this nonchalantly.

Natasha rolled her eyes at him. “Let’s not find out Tony. Come on, we are almost there.”

“Almost where?” he asked. He didn’t get an answer. They walked for another ten minutes until Tony saw light ahead. “Civilization! Maybe its warm there.” He looked to Natasha and saw her tearing up. “What did I say?” Again, she ignored him. They kept walking until Tony saw that it was a fire. There was a beautiful house ahead, and it was on fire.

Tony heard screaming coming from within. He couldn’t see anyone through the blaze. “Tash, who is in that house?” Before he could get an answer, he saw a little girl jump from the top story of the house into a snowbank below. He had to admit that it was pretty impressive. The little girl got up unfazed and ran a little ways to escape the intense heat. She had on no shoes and was not dressed for the intense coldness of the night. She had on the most terrified expression and tears were streaming down her face. The thing that tore at Tony’s heartstrings was the fact that her hair was a fiery red. The same color as Natasha’s. He looked from the small child to his teammate. She was on her knees in the snow just staring at the house before her as it burned to the ground. He looked back to the little girl and realized that she mirrored Natasha. They were both kneeling in the same position, as if Natasha was reliving this event. This is where the fear of fire had started. He couldn’t imagine watching as his parents burned alive and being able to do nothing about it.

“Мама папа вернуться к мне!” (Mama! Papa! Come back to me!)

Tony could hear the girl as clearly as if she was speaking English. That was the good part of Natasha working with him on the machine. Whatever was said in Russian would sound English to him.

The way the little girl screamed almost broke his heart. It was pleading and full of sorrow. He wanted desperately to comfort the girl, but he wasn’t really there. The little girl was crying and Natasha had tears in her eyes. She looked up at Tony and said, “This is where they burned my house down. My father offended them somehow and they got their revenge. Him and my mother died in that fire.” She looked over his shoulder and said, “And then he came, after he set my house on fire of course.”

Tony turned to see several men approaching the terrified girl. She didn’t move when one of them knelt beside her and talked kindly to the girl.

“Little girl, how did you escape the fire?” the man said.

The girl didn’t even look up as she told him that she had jumped from the third story window.

“You were not afraid little one?”

“no,” she said simply.

Tony could see that the man was impressed. He nodded to his companions and said to them, “we have found her.”

“My name is Ivan, Ivan Petrovitch. I am sorry but you parents are no more. Come with me little spider. I shall care for you.” The little girl looked from Ivan to her house, and then back to him. She took his hand and stood up. “I am Natalia Alianova Romanova and I’m six years old. I no longer have a life here. I will go with you.”

The way she said it was cold, as if her spirit was broken. Tony wanted to stop her, but knew he couldn’t. As he watched the two walk away, he took the crying Natasha into his arms and let her cry for a moment.

“That was you?” She nodded into his chest and then pulled herself together. She took the lead and followed quite literally in her own footsteps.

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They arrived to a military grade truck and watched as Ivan and Natalia got in. Tony and Natasha also pulled themselves into the truck and sat down for the ride. Natasha simply looked out of the back of the truck as they rode but Tony, he glared at the man seated across from him. He couldn’t help but notice the way he grasped the little girls hand almost possessively. As for the girl, there were so many emotions splayed across her face. Fear, pain, sorrow, hopefulness, and dozens more. She was no longer crying though.

An hour later, they pulled up to a large stone building. They had passed through heavily guarded gates. The gates were about fifteen feet tall and looked to be reinforced with razor wire. The group got out of the truck as well as Tony and Natasha. Ivan the knelt down to the little girls level.

“Now listen carefully, I have to place this sack over your head in order to lead you in there because it is top secret. But don’t worry; I’ll be holding your hand the entire time.” Natalia nodded to the man and allowed him to slip the sack over her head. Tony and Natasha followed behind as she was led into a building and down a maze of halls, tunnels, and stairways. Tony’s ears popped when they finally made their way to a small room deep underground. Ivan took the sack off of her head and knelt down beside her.

“Now, the only way you can stay here is if you pass a simple test for me. Could you do that?”

The girl nodded. She desperately wanted a place to belong since she turned her back on her old life. She was trying to be brave, just like her father had told her to be when they talked for the last time.

“Okay, now I want you to find your way back to the truck. Without any help.” Tony couldn’t believe it. He didn’t even know how to get out of there and he wasn’t even blindfolded. He noticed Natasha smile to herself. “Watch this,” she said.

Withought a word, the little girl turned and went back the way they came. She confidently led the way back through the tunnels, halls, and stairs and made her way back to the truck. She made it there without a single wrong turn or a slow to her steps.

Ivan clapped gleefully to himself and told her that she had passed. Then she noticed his features change. He became stiffer and the smile left his face. His eyes became menacing and little Natalia became scared. He had stopped pretending.

“You are mine now. Welcome to the Black Widow program young Natalia.” The little girl turned to run but was quickly caught by a large man behind her. She struggled for a moment before a needle was shoved into her arm. She then became unconscious and was dragged back into the building.

Tony was furious with the man as he followed them back inside. He quickly realized that Natasha was not with him. In fact, he didn’t even remember her coming back out with them. When they made it to another room deep in the building, he noticed Natasha sitting on a strange chair. She got up when they came in and watched as the little girl was placed in the chair.

“Where did you go?” Tony asked.

“I didn’t want to walk down those halls again. I hate them.” Tony simply nodded and waited with the rest of them.

“Hey,” he said. “How did you do that? Find your way back to the truck and all.”

“I don’t know. I could always memorize paths. That stuck with me even through the brain washings.’

After  another few minutes in silence, he asked Natasha what they were doing.

“They are waiting for me to wake up. But I’m faking it. I woke up about five minutes ago. My father said that whenever a person wakes up, they should wait to open their eyes. That way, you could gather information without anyone knowing. It was a game we used to play every morning.”

Without warning, the little girl shot up from the chair and ran to the closed door. Much to her dismay, she found it locked. She whirled around to face the men in the room and prepared to attack. One man grabbed her and she started to kick wildly. Ivan simply watched. She caught one man in the face and broke his nose. Tony was cheering her on until Ivan got bored and walked up and caught her by the throat. He picked her up and slammed her against the wall, all the while holding the small girl by the neck. “Now you listen to me. You will do as I say. I'm going to put you down and you are going to walk over to that chair and lie down. I will try not to make it painful unless you do something else stupid!” The man put her down and Natalia obediently walked over to the chair and layed down. A doctor then walked into the room and placed a contraption on her head and hooked her to a bunch of wires. The process took a while but it was finally complete.

“Nat, what are they doing to you?” Tony was deeply concerned for the child’s safety. But she would live through it he knew because he was standing right next to the grown up version of the girl.

“They are wiping my memory. They started with that machine and then turned to other methods later on when the machine broke and almost killed me.”

She turned away when the machine was turned on. Electricity shot through the machine and Tony watched as the girls back arched in pain. She let out a bloodcurdling scream as the last six years of her life were ripped out of her head. How could they do this to a little girl? She was only six!

Tony had to turn away from the girl’s immense pain. It was too much for him. When it was finally over, he looked back at her. She had blood pooling from her nose and tears of blood leaked from her eyes. She was unconscious yet again. They wanted her awake to make the process as painful as they could. They could have simply done it when she was out the first time. This place was horrible already.

“Did it work?” Ivan asked the doctor.

“We won’t know until she wakes up.”

“Fine,” he said. He walked up to the girl and whispered to her, “Welcome to Red Room.”

Ivan then told the men to bring her to her room. Once again, the two Avengers followed the man and little girl. Natasha wiped her eyes, not noticing that Tony saw her. He didn’t say anything though. The girl was placed into a room with no furnishings. The entire room was made of stone and was freezing. There was a small fire in the middle and a blanket in the corner. This was no place to live.

“This was my room for the next four years,” Natasha whispered. The girl was layed down by the small fire and then left alone. The two Avengers stayed with the girl for a while before they left. Mostly so Tony could wind down from his anger.

“Did the brainwashing work?” he asked.

“Yea it did.”

“But how do you remember?”

“I made them make me.”

Tony looked at her to explain more but Natasha just stared into the fire, just like she did every single night in that room.

“Are you ready to jump Natasha?”

She replied with a simple nod and then told him to jump to tomorrow night. Little Natalia wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon.