Hot was an understatement. The place was scorching and swampy. The water was an opaque brown color and over it, thick layers of cracked mud caked the top. A pale yellow was the word to describe the color of the overcast sky.

Overall, Irena hated it. She hated the heat, and the color of the atmosphere, it gave her an odd feeling in her stomach.

"Ew, the air is sticky," Irena complained as her face showed a great example of what she felt.

Natasha chuckled at the girl's form of description. One thing about Irena that she started to notice is that if she didn't know what a word was or how to describe what she felt using technical terms, she was great at describing it in odd ways that made your think.

"That's called humidity Doll," Nat informed her.

At this moment in time, Irena regretted not staying with Maria, even if it meant technically staying alone because Maria was so busy at work trying to figure this whole Ultron problem out.

"I don't know what humidity is, but I don't like it," Irena concluded.

Nat scoffed and gave a small shrug. " Yeah, I bet, you definitely didn't get any of that in Russia."

"Nope, just snow pretty much," Irena said. "And 13 years of intense abuse."

"Twins." Nat deadpanned as she cocked her gun.

Irena did the same. They were entering the ship that the man from the file- Ulysses Klaw, was believed to work on. Their initiative was to get info out of him before Ultron could.

Natasha, Clint, and her would scale the top levels and strike from above while Tony, Steve, and Thor went to find Ulysses while Bruce stayed on the Quinjet. At least that was the plan. As soon as they entered the ship that was supposed to be bustling with workers and noises, Irena felt that something was off. It was quiet and almost completely dark.

"Something's not right," Nat whispered to the trio.

"You read my mind," Irena mumbled back.

As they got deeper the eerier it got. The silence slowly morphed into muffled words. A powerful voice boomed through the atmosphere when they finally entered the section where the voices resided.

As an unpleasant surprise, Ultron got there before they did. In front of a storage unit containing what looked to be multiple pill-shaped cases of metal- most likely vibranium, stood Ultron, two people Irena recognized as the Maximoff twins, Ulysses, and two other randoms.

"Oh well, this is perfect," Irena whispered as she threw her hands up in the air then let them rest to her side.

"Shit, Stark, Ultron's in the ship," Nat said into her comm.

"What's the play here now?" Clint asked.

"Same as when we came in, just a few added obstacles," Natasha replied as she looked at both of them.

As Irena took a closer look she noticed that Ulysses was armless, unlike his photo.

"Oh my god his arm got ripped off!" Irena whisper-yelled with the added rapid pointing of her finger.

Natasha gave her a firm look that was in between "good point" and "shut up if you don't want us to get made." At this look, Irena closed her once-open mouth and looked away sheepishly.

"Don't compare me to Stark!" Ultron yelled at a trembling Ulysses before he whacked him down a flight of stairs. The two randoms who were most likely his bodyguards followed.

"Oh," Irena said.

"It's a thing with me. Stark's a... he's a sickness!" Ultron exclaimed.

As if Tony timed it perfectly, he and his trio entered the scene.

"Oh Junior, you're gonna break your old man's heart," Tony said sarcastically.

"If I have to," Ultron replied as he and the Maximoffs stepped forward.

Irena, Nat, and Clint crept carefully to get a better look at what was taking place below them.

"Nobody has to break anything." Thor mediated.

"You've never made an omelet." Ultron joked.

Irena rolled her eyes. "He even has Stark's stupid jokes in his brain."

Clint chuckled at her words. Chances are Ultron knew that the three of them were here now that he'd seen Tony's team.

"Ah this is funny, Mr. Stark. Is what? Comfortable? Like old times?" Pietro Maximoff spoke up.

Irena wondered what he meant by that.

" This was never my life." Tony voiced as he looked down at the ground.

"You two can still walk away from this," Steve informed the twins. "We know you've suffered."

"Oh, we will," Wanda said with fake sympathy.

"So she's the witch they threatened to feed me to in the Red Room!" Irena told Natasha, happy to finally put a face to a name.

Clint's eyes widened and he looked to Nat then back to her. "Jeez." Was all said while he shook his head.

Ultron chucked at Cap's words. " Captain America, God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war." He said with disgust. "I can't physically throw up in my mouth but."

"If you believe in peace then let us keep it." Thor cut Ultron off.

"I think you're confusing peace with quiet." Ultron clapped back as he took another step forward.

Irena watched their conversation carefully. She kept her eyes trained on Ultron and the twin's limbs for any sense of movement to predetermine whether they were planning to strike or make a move.

"Yuh huh, what's the vibranium for?" Tony said in a dismissive tone.

"I'm glad you asked that because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan," Ultron said while he waved his hand.

Before he even finished his statement he had released a sort of warping energy ray that flung Tony back into the wall.

Irena's eyes widened in shock as she sprung into action and aimed her gun, ready to shoot. Tony and Ultron were now going at it in the air as they threw punches and bashed each other into the glass rooms.

Below the two, iron legions fought with Cap and Thor along with the twins.

"C'mon!" Nat yelled as she ran in the direction of the stairs that led under the current level they were on, most likely to the storerooms.

Irena dropped her weapon and started to run, Clint stayed behind to assist Team 1 from a different angle. She didn't know where she was going but she just followed Nat through the maze of turns and stairs. To add more misfortune, a dozen men started to flood the area obviously looking for a fight.

Three men ran at Irena at once, no doubtably as an attempt to overpower her. Irena easily knocked out the first one then maneuvered herself just right for the second man to trip off the first. When they were both down she sent a kick to their heads to ensure they lost consciousness before she dealt with the final man. 

He was a bit more skilled than his companions, he threw a few correct punches that were easy for the girl to dodge before more men joined their fight. She used the thigh of another man to kick herself onto the third man's shoulders and bludgeon his head with her elbows and gave him a nasty pistol whip before he fell.

For the last remaining men, all she had to do was simple little things kick in their knees, and throw a few hard punches before they were down.

When the chaos finally settled and all the men were unconscious on the ground Irena looked at Natasha. All Irena had was a bloodied lip but of course, Natasha had a spotless face.

Irena scoffed, "They never learn, they see their buddies get beat up but still come anyways."

"Yeah well, men are stupid." Natasha shrugged.

"And gross." Irena laughed as she stepped over a man's leg. "So now what?" She asked.

"You clear the right, I'll go to the left," Nat instructed as she raised her gun.

"Okay." Irena nodded and copied the redhead's actions.

"Be safe Doll."

"Me? Always." She winked and turned the corner.

Irena had done this countless times. The coast was clear, from what Irena could tell she and Nat were the last ones on this level. With her gun held high and her shoulders relaxed she walked on to the end of the hall. Everything seemed completely normal to her standards, she was slightly proud of herself as the sweep only took 2 minutes and she must've cleared about 5 rooms.

Everything was silent and perfect just as it should be that she didn't even sense it when Wanda Maximoff crept up behind her. She should've heard her, she should've been able to tell, she was trained to do so. But she didn't, and it cost her to be sent back to the place of her nightmares. The place that she dreamed of every night, the place that took everything from her, the place where she was raised.

In one simple movement of the young auburn-headed girl's magical hand, Irena Ivanakof was transported back to the Red Room.

ⴵ 

TW: RAPE || there are multiple tws for child abuse, rape, and SA and i just want to say feel free to skip this whole part I wouldn't mind one bit and it's not terribly important to the plot specifically for people who wanna skip it. Ily all and im so so sorry if these things trigger you for personal reasons. You are more than what happened, what happened doesn't define you. You're voice, your presence, YOU matter.

Irena's breath hitched as a cold and tingling sensation crawled into her mind. She felt unmade, not in control. Around her, her surroundings morphed into a place she knew all too well. She wanted to run and scream in panic. She needed to find Natasha, Natasha would know what to do.

As she walked back in the direction she came from she suddenly entered a room with a dozen televisions lined up neatly on the wall, in front of them were desks and juice boxes. In those desks were little girls, no more than 3 years younger than her. All the desks were occupied except for one, the one directly in front of her.

No, no, no.

Her heart beat wildly in her chest and her breath became harder and harder to inhale. She knew what this room was, she wanted to get out of this room, she needed to get out of this room. As she turned to leave she bumped into a figure dressed in blue. When Irena stepped back to inspect who she ran into, she felt their cold hand on her arm.

"Going somewhere Ivanakof?" Madame B rhetorically asked before she violently spun her around and threw her onto the computer screen in front of them.

Irena yelped and covered her face with her arms as she fell only to be met with little to no impact. Now she was somewhere else. She appeared to be strapped down on a table and dressed in a little gown. Familiar fluorescent lights flickered above her head she blinked.

It was only after she smelt the smell of intense antiseptic and mold that she realized where she was. Irena didn't even get the chance to jerk or scream because as soon as everything clicked, the same cold hand roughly crushed her mouth. She felt the same white-hot blinding pain she felt only 2 years prior rip through her.

She screamed and thrashed this time, unlike what took place during the actual event those fateful years ago. Irena cried and yelled. She yelled for Natasha and she yelled for Sam, she even screamed for Bucky who she hadn't seen in almost a year. She screamed and pleaded for them to stop but they didn't.

The pain didn't stop for two whole minutes before the scenery changed. Now Irena was in a chair in nothing but her bra and underwear. Once again strapped from the wrists and ankles, her mouth was gagged by a thick cloth that was rough on her tongue and gums.

The tears from the previous memory were still evident on her cheeks as she frantically looked around the dark room that was only lit by a single hanging light above her.

Irena looked to her right in a seemingly empty room and when she looked back to her left the room was now filled with a man in a General's uniform that was clearly from the Russian army. Behind him were two men in the same uniform with fewer medals and red caps, and behind all of them, in the very corner observing was Madame B, once again.

The men in caps both held what looked to be a wooden bat and rags.

Suddenly the silence was broken and the general spoke.

"Why did this mission fail? What went wrong?" He demanded to know as he took out her spit-soaked gag

Irena's confused eyes widened as she remembered what this was and when it happened. February 12th, 2013. She was instructed to eliminate a man in Shanghai, China who was transporting a powerful drug by putting it inside people's abdomens. Irena didn't know much more than that, just that she was to locate the man, shoot him and all of his illegal drug mules, and move on.

She had failed for a reason still unknown to her to this day. She just knew that one second she was lined up ready to take the shot, and the next second she was on the floor, and the targets were gone.

"I don't know," Irena answered as she shook her head desperately.

She knew what was about to come, but it wasn't even the worst of what happened this specific day.

With the rise of the General's hand, one of the red-cap men placed his rag over her skinny wrist and struck her forcefully with his bat. Irena let out a brief scream as the pain of her bone most likely fracturing flooded through her body.

This took place three more times. She was struck in the knee, shoulder, and jaw before the General instructed the soldiers to drop their weapons and recline the chair back.

Blood leaked from her mouth like a thick river of crimson. The pain was unbearable and the taste was vile.

Now she was on her back, defenseless and exposed. She knew what was about to happen as the General stood up. Irena shook violently as the feeling of vomit rose in her throat.

"Postupay s ney po-tvoyemu." The General instructed his men. (Have your way with her.)

No, no, no.

The girl thrashed her restrained legs and screamed as loud as she could as the General left and the men tugged at her undergarments. She begged and pleaded for them to not touch her, for them to not take what was left of her girlhood.

As one of the men's hands touched her soft skin the other took the last remaining bit of innocence she had left. Irena cried out and shut her eyes as the pain of being ripped apart shook her entire form.

She was defenseless and weak. All she could do was lay there and take her punishment. Irena closed her eyes and just prayed it would be over soon. This wasn't real, this wasn't real.

ⴵ

"Irena? Irena?" She heard a distant voice say.

"C'mon Doll." She listened to another.

As Irena blinked to regain control of her mind she saw Clint, crouched down in front of her with her hands over her which were roughly clutching her head. She was on her knees in a tight ball on the floor.

Her face was covered with tears and she still shook from what she had seen.

She didn't talk when she fully grasped that she was back. All she did was stare blankly at Clint and Natasha as she bit her lip to stop it from quivering. She panted and shook as Clint lifted her into his arms. Irena didn't even protest, she just let him carry her through all the chaos. She faintly heard Tony in her ear as spoke through their comms.

In her vision line, she saw that Natasha looked visibly shaken up as well, a bit more put together than she was but still, not okay whatsoever.

"Nat," Irena whispered so faintly that no one even heard her. Irena still felt like she was on another planet but she remembered everything that she saw. Everything that she worked so hard to lock up and never looked back.

Without even realizing it, Irena had turned her head into Clint's chest and started to sob.

She didn't hear anything after that. She didn't want to be awake, she just wanted to forget. The last thing she felt was what she thought was Natasha's hand take her's before she let the darkness take her.

───˖ ࣪ ˖ ࣪✦: * ˚ ✦ ───
2702 words ~ 11:38 pm
February 17th