MONSTER --- natasha romanoff x fem oc

Chapter 1

 -------------------------

early 1995; set before The Avengers

--------------------------

One day, Freya was ten years old at the time, she came home from the small school in Sokovia to find her parents sitting together at the dining table, looking worried and stressed.

"What's wrong?", she asked. "Is it because I punched this Eric guy in school? You know, he was insulting Clary and I-"

"It's not that", her dad interrupted her. "Your mum and I decided on sending you to a boarding school."

"Wha- Why?", Freya asked surprised.

"We think it's good for you", her mum said. "A professor of this school asked for smart children so they can be educated better and I know that you are not challenged enough in your current school so it might be good to go there, so you can have better chances." Her mother looked at Freya with a fierce but also soft look. She knew that look. She couldn't change her mind.

Freya looked to the ground and asked: "When will I go?"

Two days later she stood in the doorway of the apartment, two bags with clothes and some pictures in her hand. She turned around and hugged her dad and then her mum.

"I will come to visit you in the holidays", Freya said and kissed her mum on the cheek.

Then she looked down to her siblings. The twins were now only six years old and stood hand in hand, with tears in their eyes.

"Pietro, Wanda, come here", Freya said, opening her arms. They both ran into her arms, giving her a long hug. "I will come to visit you. I will come back. I promise", Freya whispered into their ears, kissed her index fingers, and placed them on their lips, her left one on Pietro's and her right one on Wanda's. They did the same, so Freya had two little index fingers on her lips.

"I love you, little monsters", she said and went with her hand through the hair of her siblings. It was dark brown, just like her own. Freya waved at them one last time and got in the car.

This "boarding school" was different then Freya expected.

It was called "Red Room" and they trained her there in sword-fighting, shooting with guns, and hand-to-hand combat. She was forced to watch video projections like "Snow White and the seven dwarves", but they were full of subliminal messages like fear or pain. In the nights the student's hands were handcuffed to the bed frame "to prevent escapes", Freya was told. In the first week, Freya tried to free herself in the nights and shook and screamed, but no one came, no one helped. Her wrists soon had white scars.

The training also included intense ballet dance lessons, where they were ordered to repeat the routine over and over again, so she would become "unbreakable".

Sometimes, two girls were chosen to fight against each other. The winner killed the loser. Freya fought a few times. She never lost.

When she trained with firearms she often had real persons as targets. She never questioned why she had to kill these innocent people. She just did it and never resisted. After only two years she was one of the best students there. She never went home again. She forgot her promise.

Ten years after Freya arrived there one of the other girls told her that Madam B., one of the instructors, wanted to talk to her. She frowned but did as she was told. Still in her sweaty training clothes and her two swords in their sheath on her back, she walked to Madam B.'s office.

When she arrived, Madam B. was sitting behind her desk, her silver hair in a high bun, looking at Freya with a strict look.

"Good afternoon, Madam B.", Freya said while she was walking towards her.

"Good afternoon, Miss Maximoff", she answered.

Freya stopped before her desk and asked: "Why do you want to talk to me?"

"I just got a call from a ... doctor called Wolfgang von Strucker. He asked for the strongest student we have and I immediately told him it was you."

"It's an honour", Freya said. "But why does he want me?"

"He didn't tell me exactly what would happen, he just said he wanted to do some experiments and tests."

Freya swallowed her fear and hoped Madam B. didn't notice.

In the Red Room, it was very important to teach the students to not show their feelings, and right now it would have been really unuseful to show Madam B. Freya's fear. "When will he come?", she simply asked.

"Tomorrow. But I told him that you first have to go through the graduation ceremony."

Freya swallowed again and looked to the ground. She knew, at some point, she would have to go through it, but she hoped she would still have some time left.
"When do we start?", Freya asked and looked Madam B. in the eyes. She stood up.

"You know what I always admired about you? You don't ask questions about why something has to be done or if there is a way around it. You just do the right thing." She walked towards Freya. "It will be now. If you could follow me?"

Freya didn't even have the time to say something. Madam B. rushed towards her, took her arm, and guided her out of the room.

The last thing Freya remembered is her, lying on a cold metal table, driving into a dark room.