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TALE OF THE
WAR-BORN CHILD

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Czarina's earliest memory was a white room. Four corners, all tiled with a small window and a door that everyday she wishes not to open. Because once it does, the horrors start and it won't stop until she is limp and strapped on a chair with lights too bright it burns against her head.

But one day the door brought something else. The doctors, what they called themselves, weren't alone that day. We have something for you. Behind the towering built of Doctor Eve and Doctor David was a child. The exact same height as hers, wearing the same grey pair of clothes she wore and a tag sticking on their left chest that says "Тема B". Subject B.

It was like staring straight into a mirror.

Czarina would have run and hid under her bed if she didn't remind herself that Doctor Eve doesn't like that kind of behaviour.

So even with the uncomfortable feeling blooming in her chest, she stood up unfazed and observed the features of the boy in front of her. They had the same, exact face except for a very few differences such as the color of their eyes and light freckles dotting on the boy's cheeks.

Czarina didn't need to speak first as Subject B was the one to break the unspoken curiosity between the two, asking - "Kto ona?" Who is she?

"Eto tvoya sestra! I on tvoy brat. A meet B. Vy dvoye brat'ya i sestry" She's your sister! And he's your brother. A meet B. The two of you are siblings.

Siblings. A family. Those were the things she had learned from the doctors that never left her mind ever since she heard about it. She always wondered if she had a Mama or Papa. And if she is going to ever see them. But the girl kept those questions with her and never spoke about it.

And now a boy who exactly looks like her is something that is called a twin. A sibling who's with her from the very beginning. Czarina politely accepted the truth given to her that day, she shook hands with him and smiled brightly like how she was taught by the doctors how to greet people. When they were left alone with new toys to play with, she couldn't ask for more. It was the happiest day she had in her entire life. The white room feels less lonely, and her days after that moment were more bearable.

She would patiently wait for the hour of the day to come when her brother would appear in the room with the doctors. Sometimes he had his own toys and books to share with her. Sometimes there were treats and food. Everytime he comes to the room Czarina forgets about the rest of the day, no matter how bad or horrible it was. After all she was happy, she had a brother and she wasn't alone anymore.

But it seemed like it was different for him. Despite how nice the things around them are, her brother had a lot of questions about it. He would ask about their parents, where they are and why they were left at the hands of the bad doctors.

Keep your voice down, they aren't bad and they won't like to hear that. She will always remind him and shush him down.

If they aren't bad, why don't they like my simple questions? He would only reply and continue talking about his curiosity about certain things that Czarina has never thought of.

Things that deep down the girl knows that doctors and scary guards would despise to hear and much more, entertain to give an answer. She had been through it before and it wasn't a pleasant experience for a child. So she never did it again. But obviously her brother knows about it too, he just persistently asks and wonders. That's why it wasn't a surprise that he has newer bruises in his hands and wrist almost every day and why he hasn't seen the sun yet, unlike her.

When Czarina follows and behaves properly she is often taken outside to watch the birds or in when the doctors are nicer, the thousand stars at night. For a child like her who was born in such a caged life, seeing the world beyond that four corner room felt rewarding for the goodness she had shown. So she obediently did what she was told, followed the rules they set, asked no questions or showed any form of resistance during tests and experiments. No matter how painful or horrible it was. Because after all, what was ingrained to her mind that obedience is rewarded, resistance is punished.

The only flaw in it was her brother's influence of curiosity. It didn't take long for her to start thinking the same way as he does. She started questioning how things in their life are. Where are their parents? Who are they? Why do they have to be locked up and put into a series of tests? Why are the doctors doing this? Why isn't she like those girls on the screen that play outside, who have friends and have a house to come home to. Why is her home a tiny, white room? Why is she even there?

Until the treats and toys, the trips outside, the beatings and screams weren't enough to put her in line anymore. The questions on the girl's mind were just too much to handle, she needed answers. She needed the truth about who she truly is.

Czarina would never forget about that day. Their 10th birthday. They shared a two layered chocolate cake paired with a gift that she never got to open. They wanted to escape, run away and find their parents. To live without the beatings. She remembers the struggle, the fight they had to put up at such a young age, the blood and pain that comes with it.

Czarina's hands were numb and all she could see were red. Raging and angry. All those years caged and beaten, she hated it. She wanted to leave the place. She no longer wants to follow them. She hated them.

They're ready. The smile on the man's face who wore a dark suit was impossible to forget. He stared at the two tiny beings in front of him with such demeanour and calmness like they didn't kill six guards that day. I'll see you again, twins.

And as the man faded away in that dark, long hallway. Czarina's hopes of escaping vanished too. The two of them were separated. She was taken by strange men who were much harsher and terrifying than the ones she met in the white room. She could only wish that it was all a bad dream and when she wakes up she's back on the metal chair, strapped against it as she waits for another test. But she didn't.

The girl woke up and was instantly dropped at the gates of a grand house with an enormous arch in front of it. She is then greeted by a middle aged woman with brown hair and piercing blue eyes that will turn out to haunt Czarina's mind for the rest of her life in that place.

Madame B. That's why they call her. She was the headmistress of the house that was in fact a home for hundreds of girls of different ages, some were the same age as her and some were much younger. She was left alone in her care, never to be taken back at her old home or to the doctors. That day the academy immediately became her new haven.

Or perhaps a new personal hell, with the girl once again falling back at the clutches of being controlled and treated no more than a weapon for destruction and killing. Like how she was always made for.

The Red Room did what the HYDRA doctors and scientists cannot do. Take full control of the girl and effectively use the only family she has as a leverage to comply with their orders.

Her time at the academy brought out the worst in the girl, the place sharpened the killer instincts the Madame claimed Czarina has always carried. She didn't have a name yet every girl on Red Room knows her, the whispers and rumors about the girl who's nearly invincible flutters everytime she walks past the long hallways. They would talk about how no one wants to pair with her in training, because the last girl who sparred with her slashed a blade against her chest yet the deep wound closed within a matter of minutes.

Even in the place of trained killers, Czarina was a stranger.

She was the odd girl with extreme abilities and no name. See? You're different from them, you're special. You'll deliver us to greatness. You're the future of the Red Room. The Madame will always tell her everytime doubt and questions seem to cross her mind. And once she spoke to her like that, Czarina believed everything she was told.

That the reason she and her twin were born was to atone the sins their parents did, they will rectify whatever mistake their parents made in the past. They will bring greatness once again, to the Red Room, to the Guardian and to the superiors.

All those training and fighting isn't for nothing, they are destined to destroy the enemies of their people. They will help in achieving the goal of bringing balance to the world. That is and what will always be their cause.

If only her brother was there to help her see through the walls of lies the Red Room intricately woven in order to keep her in line for their own vile purposes and beliefs. For the longest time it was what she looked and believed in. She put her life and faith on that cause with no question.

So when she was ordered to a mission as a thirteen year old with no assurance she'd come back, Czarina gladly accepted the fate she was yet to face.

The mission had simple orders, she will assist the Asset in retrieving an important package from a known inventor. Straight ambush, no witnesses. She had only a year out of the Red Room to prepare.

After almost a year of preparation on various facilities out of the Red Room with different men and soldiers, the girl finally met the Winter Soldier. The man she will join on the mission. It was clear by General Karpov that she will only be joining him to prove the Red Room's alliance in what they call the inner circle. Whatever it was, Czarina didn't mind that much. What she kept on her mind was that she represents the Red Room. And if succeeding on that mission will help them, then she will do it.

The Winter Soldier was different from the other powerful people she met. All of them had the brawl and strength to fight but no one lasted long enough to beat the girl in a spar. They all had their heads in the air to underestimate her. Making fools themselves by taking the girl so lightly.

But Winter Soldier was none of that. In a matter of two matches, Czarina was on the floor. Coughing with blood and a smile on her face after realising she finally found someone that's strong enough to take her down. And the Soldier seems to see it that way too.

In an instant, an unexpected bond that was too out of place in the world they live in was formed between the merciless, killing machine and the young girl with no name. Both were strangers in the place where they're from and both have a heart buried under all that programming. The only difference was he used to be a human, while she never had the chance to be one until she met him.

Do you have a name?

No. She answered in a small voice. The Madame told her she didn't need one as she could take the title of the Black Widow once she completed her graduation ceremony. A name will be useless in the Red Room. She is one of hundreds of faces that yet to become someone that will be the academy's pride.

Then what will I call you? He pondered, folding the last bit of the paper he's holding to form a beautiful paper crane.

Subject A. That's what they call me in the school. The girl admitted in a proud tone.

That's not a name.

So is the Winter Soldier. Yet they call you that, I call you by it.

A small scoff escaped the soldier's lips, amused by the girl's impertinent nature. Most people are scared and fearful of him, but not this girl who has an eerily familiar smile and laughter. A memory he swore he had seen before.

I'll give you a name then. So I can call you. He declared. Czarina. He spoke in a calmer tone as he handed the paper crane to her.

She took a pause in thinking about the meaning of the name. Royalty, a queen. I like it. She confirmed with a smile. And so that day the nameless girl became Czarina.

She got a name at the age of thirteen, on the mission that requires her to be nothing but a killing weapon. If it isn't some cosmic joke to gain something human in such a cruel moment of her life. The girl doesn't know if it was the name's meaning that gave her such power and strength but to be called by it. To finally have a name just like any human being around her felt endowing to the core.

Czarina didn't have the chance to thank the soldier for that. Their mission was a spur of a moment. All she can remember about that day was him going back to the facility with such a different look on his eyes. He didn't talk to her about anything except for the whole plan for the ambush.

After that night, the entire mission was a blur to the girl.

They brought back the package to General Karpov and Czarina was congratulated with her effective cooperation. She didn't have a chance to say goodbye to the Winter Soldier, all she had were the last words of reminder from him that says: "Never forget your name."

And she didn't. When she got to the Red Room she continued using the name given to her. Czarina. It's Czarina, that's the only name I will answer to. She proudly announced one day in the Grand Hall, after a recital practice when a couple of girls tried to address her as Subject A.

Of course the Madame despised her decision of finally taking up a name, but she eventually let the girl use it. You'll have to give it up in a year anyway, the graduation ceremony is almost here.

And she was right. Just after a year of having a name. The graduation ceremony for her came up. Unlike the other girls she had to attend hers at the age of fifteen, the youngest among the crowd on that day.

Do your best. You'll be part of the elite team after this. You'll be a black widow.

That day Czarina prepared herself for the worst to come. The Madame told her it was necessary for her to take her place in the world. To finally be the thing she was meant to be.

Twenty four girls. All the best among their batch, the ones who survived the nineteen years of training in the academy. All of them are determined to reach the last stage of the ceremony to be part of the graduating team. Czarina knows they will have to kill each other in order to do that, and despite having no attachments to any of the girls on the batch she has to fight. The child was so terrified, deep down she even considered not participating in it.

You remind me of someone. An old student of mine who didn't want to fight, not because she'll lose but because she knows she'll win.

Whoever that student was, the feeling they had was the exact thing that has been pounding against her chest the whole night before the ceremony. For the first time in the long time she cried in her sleep, all she could do was to wish that her brother was there for her.

You sleep now. I'll watch out for the doctors. That's what he'll always say whenever she whimpers in fear of the doctors hurting her. She missed him tucking her at the bed, she missed the warm hugs he gives when she's cowering on the corner. Most of all she just misses him. His mere presence would surely bring her comfort and peace.

But then, the morning comes and she's still alone. Without anything but herself to fight for her life at the ceremony.

At first stages all they had to do was a series of tests ranging from performing their ballet piece, answering questions from their superiors, to assembling weapons and sparring with the training guards. But every time she passes a level and leaves the room with a great remark, Czarina also knows she's getting close to what she fears the most.

I'll see you again, brother. And I hope you have a name too when that happens. It was what kept on repeating in her mind over and over the moment she stepped at the foggy forest where the last stage of the ceremony was being held.

It was the arena. The place they'll forever remember if they ever made it out of there alive.

Three days and two nights.

That was how long she spent on that little hell the Red Room created for them. And that such short period of time felt like an eternity to her.

Seven girls.

In the end she had the highest number of kills on the list, all because most of the girls targeted her to take down first.

For every soul she took. Czarina felt less and less the girl with the name and more of Subject A who took lives of the guards on that facility five years ago. She remembers all of them, their names, the sound they made on the verge of their demise, the fear in their eyes when they realised they weren't getting out of thar forest. How they begged for their lives. Every detail of it was imprinted on the girl's mind.

You always had it in you, Czarina. The Madame mocked with a disgusting smile on her lips. This is who you are now. You're a killer. You've always been.

Deep down she begged for it to be not true, that she did all of it because she was scared and she still wanted to see her brother. And not because she want those stupid title the academy wants her to carry. Because in the end it wasn't Madame's orders or the teachings of Red Room that flashed in her head when she was fighting to death.

It was just her. Her own voice, her own thoughts. She doesn't want to die yet. But after what she did it seemed like Czarina died there too.

What came out of the arena is something that's not human anymore, not worthy of any name. It was just a weapon that fully bent down to the ways and will of the Red Room.

You're unbreakable. You'll lead us into this war.