aeipathy
(n.)
a consuming and alluring passion

•••

"I know now the incredible horrors of the Red Room and its products. But at the time, I craved for the physicality of it. The competition. It was a necessary part of of my life"

•••

Natalia did not sleep the rest of the night. Soon, the sun began to rise. And that was when another madame walked through the door at the end on the room. One by one she bent over to unlock each girl.

Judging by the pattern she was shown doing, Natalia would fall into the middle of the bunch.

Soon she was one bed away from Natalia. Natalia watched silently. Though she was nervous, she didn't reveal it. She was to the point in her life where it depended on it.

The bed before Natalia held a woman seemingly younger than she was. She was much taller with short, blonde hair and dark blue eyes. Her hair was done into to loosely woven pigtails. As soon as she was unlocked, she sat up straight in her bed, waiting for further instruction, just as she was supposed to.

No one made eye contact with the Madame when she unlocked them. Especially Natalia. As soon as her hand was free, she sat up to face the girl before, though still keeping her eyes on the floor.

<I saw you come in last night,> she whispered over to Natalia, causing her to break eye contact with her feet. She looked up at the young girl, surprised that she had spoken to her at all. The girls in Phase Two never spoke to her—besides Anastasia. And that was a different situation all together. <You got the ceremony late.>

<My group was falling a bit behind, I suppose,> Natalia said, not really knowing what the girl knew.

<My name is Yelena Belova. May I ask what yours might be?>

<Natalia Romanova,> she answered, wanting to rub at the area where where her wrist had been squeezed, but still unwilling to show weakness, she did not.

<I was told that Phase Three will be near impossible,> Yelena said with a straight face.

<Many will be broken,> agreed Natalia.

<Only the breakable ones,> added Yelena. <I, however, am made stone. What about you Natalia. What are you made of?>

<Me?> asked Natalia, stalling to come up with a better answer. <I am made of marble.>

Before Yelena could respond, the Madame ordered them to follow her.

In a single file line, they followed her to a large locker room of sorts where each girl was to be bathed, groomed, and get their teeth brushed, etcetera. After that was done, each young girl was given a skintight, athletic stealth suit to wear. They were then fed a nutrient rich soupy substance that didn't taste very good. Then were brought into very large training room.

In one corner, there was an obstacle course equipped with ropes to climb over and wire to crawl under among other things.

In another, there was four tables, able to seat ten. And in front of the four tables sat another with every type gun known to civilization sitting on top.

In the third corner, there were various devices and spy gear along with the same table setup as the guns and various types of hand accessible grenades.

And in the fourth corner, were ten dummies with targets painted on them. There was a table and the entire part of the wall that was lined with so many different types of weapons. Everything from stars to knives to automatic guns to bazookas. It was all there.

And in the center of the room was something that reminded Natalia of a wrestling ring. Only, surrounding the ring were various weapons not excluding things like baseball bats and vases.

On the ceiling was a beautiful mural, signifying the unity of the USSR and a organization called Hydra. Their flags were crossed in an "x" at the stake. The Hydra flag was black with a red skull with tentacles protruding from it, surrounded by the same color circle.

Natalia continued to gawk at it until an elderly man in Soviet uniform stepped from a room in the back wall, followed by, Madame B, Headmaster Alonya, a small misshapen man, and Ivan, to her immediate surprise.

Behind them all was a tall, looming man, who was truly scary. He had oily brown—almost black—hair that was quite short on top of his head. He seemed to be very young. Too young to be here in the Red Room as a trainer, thought Natalia.

But who was to talk? Here she was, a fifteen year old girl among 27 girls ranging fourteen to sixteen.

He wore a black combat suit with the left arm missing. Natalia figured the reason for that was the absolutely incredible prosthetic arm he had. It seemed to be an actual arm and Natalia could see that it worked like one when he made a nervous fist. This went hand in hand with his frigid, overwrought body language.

And the most intriguing thing about him was how he seemed depressed, angry, and apprehensive all at once.

The Madame, Headmaster Alonya along with Ivan and the mysterious man stood behind the Russian officer and the small man with glasses. The mysterious man however hung farther back from the headmaster, Madame B and Ivan.

"Welcome, young women, to Phase Three of the Black Widow Program," the decorated officer spoke. "I am Colonel Antov Luchkov from the Soviet Army. I am in charge of this organization. This—" he motioned to the small man with glasses.

"—is Doctor Arnim Zola. Hydra leader. They will be a very helpful ally to us in the future. He will oversee the science division." The doctor seemed overall uncomfortable in the situation, whether it be all the people he was standing in front of or it was that they were all murderers.

"And Headmaster Alonya Smirnov was kind enough to hide this program in the Bolshoi Theatre." Then he motioned to Madame B.

"This is Madame Ursula Barinova," he introduced Madame B. "But you go by Madame B, correct?" he asked, turning for confirmation. She gave him a slight nod.

"Madame B was already working for us here. She was Madame for the Advanced Division. Where young Natalia Romanova came from," he informed, gesturing to Natalia. "She will be the Madame for this 28. She will work with firearms and teach you all languages, histories, and sciences."

"And next to Madame B is Commander Ivan Petrovich. He is a prominent figure in our military. He was one of your handlers when you were young. He helped us found the Red Room when he found himself in the custody of a young girl during the second World War. He will be in charge of teaching you all the necessary lessons to be successful sleeper agents. He will also show you all how to use all spy gear."

Then he backed away so everyone could see who he was gesturing to— the dark man. But Natalia still couldn't believe that Ivan would betray her like that. If he hadn't lied, she would be proud to see her "handler" here to teach her her new profession.

"This young man is to be addressed as Soldier and none else. This man is a lot like the way one of you will be in the end," he introduced, putting his hands together as he spoke. "He can teach you all the subjects we have set up, but he will focus on Combat and Physical training. You will work with him in the ring, outside, and on the obstacle course. He will also teach plan strategy. No one is allowed to speak to him unless it is a question about the topic he his teaching. And this will be enforced very strictly."

Natalia couldn't help but find herself staring at the "Soldier". As he was introduced, he looked down at his feet in what seemed to be embarrassment.

Was this the man Madame B referred to as her "counterpart"? This broken shell of a man? Natalia could easily see that this man's soul was absent from his body. That or it was buried so deep inside that it may never see the surface again.

"Now girls. Let us refresh. A silent war is approaching. A nuclear war. Against none other than America. There will be no battles a soldier can win. What we need are spies. Spies that could never be suspected. Women. This new program will create female spies–sleeper agent hybrid more powerful than average men. The world will never see it coming. The world will hopefully not ever know.

"This program works as a sort of Natural Selection. Only the strongest, smartest, most beautiful, most worthy will survive. And the woman who will come out on top will earn the code name 'Black Widow'. As you go through training, there will be points where the Winter Soldier will take the girl of his choice on a rookie mission.

"Once a woman wins, she will accompany him on three missions: Assassination, Infiltration and Extraction, and Information Gathering. Once she has gained success for that, she will carry out the three types of missions on her own. Success in that is full graduation from the Academy into a Soviet/HYDRA Sleeper Agent."

Natalia knew she now had the look of the devil in her eyes. The one she saw in all the girls on her first day in the red room. She was ready to become the Red Rooms first and favorite success.

"Now for Madame B to speak," Colonel Luchkov said, stepping back for Madame B to take his place.

"You will refer to me as Madame B. I am in charge. We'll do this a bit different than the way you did it in your original 28. Instead of one teacher, there are multiple trainers. We will separate you all into a group for me, Commader Petrovich, and the Soldier. The training will be more intense than it has ever been for you. Sparring with not be the only activity that will put you out of this race. Now these groups I will put you in will stay mostly the same until they are too uneven. Trainers, please go to your site of work today."

Ivan walked over to the tables with all the spy-gear and the Winter Soldier stalked over to the sparring ring in the center of the room. His walk was absolutely authoritative. And even though his left arm (obviously heavier than his right) caused him to walk with a slight swagger, he still managed to intimidate.

The Madame approached the 28 girls. She split the girls into two groups of 9 and one of 10. She seemed to split them up evenly with talent and will. Natalia fell in a group of nine. Yelena was in her group.

"Natalia and Yelena's group will go to combat training. Dominica and Galina's group with gear and tactics. Darya And Valentina's group at weapons and basic knowledge."

Yelena and Natalia shared a nervous look. Natalia had not been the only one who had noticed the intimidating mysteriousness of the Winter Soldier.

But now that Natalia had made it this far, she had aeipathy for the Red Room.

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