Chapter Text
Galina tried to breathe shallowly, but even so the pain crawls up her sides, reaches up into her brain and threatens to tear away every bit of professional remove she has built over the years.
“Stop fighting so much,” Yelena says. “Just tell me what you told SHIELD, and I’ll give you a cleaner death than you deserve.”
Galina struggles, as uselessly as a pinned butterfly. She’s no longer the fourteenth Black Widow, or a patriot, or anything else. She once threw away everything for a chance for freedom, and now she would do it again just to survive. Galina never thought of herself as anything special. She was too conscious of the almost-as-good girls that surrounded her, too conscious of the weight of her legacy. Chemicals paralyzing her unfaithful body, Galina doesn’t feel strong or dangerous or like one of the foremost spies in the world. She feels young, and scared, and, oh god, does she ever not want to die.
“I’ll tell you everything,” she says, unashamedly cowardly in the face of death. “Just let me go. I won’t go back to SHIELD. I’ll spend the rest of my life in a small town, and no one will ever know, Yelena.”
Yelena crouches down. “Your sins do not get forgiven,” she says.
Galina looks up at her. All she wants is one droplet of pity, one ounce of humanity she can touch. But Yelena is the most faultlessly loyal person she has ever met. She will never be able to convince her. The only thing in Yelena’s eyes is disgust. Galina looks up, sees her own death, accepts it, and does what she can. “They thought I was Mother,” she says. “I let them think it was true. They don’t know anything about the Black Widow program.”
“You are pathetic.”
“I deserved a real life,” Galina says, and closes her eyes, waiting for the bullet.
“I have not been a good mother,” a voice says, “but I draw the line at letting my daughters kill each other.” Galina’s eyes fall open in surprise, and she sees an unfamiliar sister.
“Who are you?” Yelena demands. “What are you doing here? This was supposed to be a solo assignment.”
Galina’s mind moves too slowly. Her words don’t make any sense…
“I’m not one of your sisters,” she says. “And if the girl wants out, she gets out.”
“Natalya Alianovna?” Galina whispers.
She crouches down. “I hear someone using my name, I get curious.”
“Natalya is dead!” Yelena yells. “Our mother was a hero and she die—.”
Galina spent her entire childhood in combat training. She was the best of her generation, good enough to be awarded the rank of Black Widow, but still she as never seen anything like Natalya. Before Yelena can react she has her gun. Yelena tries to counterattack, but Natalya pistol-whips her, and the fifteenth Black Widow, the best of her generation, crumples like so much wet newspaper.
“What did she give you?” Natalya asks her, like it was no big deal.
“Modified curare,” Galina answers. She recognizes the particular flavor of the paralysis; she’s had this drug used on her before.
Natalya injects her with the antidote, from Yelena’s kit. She helps her to her feet. “There’s money and a clean ID in my bag,” she says. “Take it. Live a civilian life, like you want. I’ll take care of this,” she says, nodding at Yelena, “and SHIELD. No one will come after you.”
“Thank you,” Galina says.
A very long time ago, Natasha ran away, knowing her daughters would be punished for it, knowing that they would be killed if they washed out of training or showed any signs of her rebellious nature. It was an act of monstrous cruelty and utter desperation, sacrificing her chances to help her daughters. For this particular girl, she can make up for that, a little. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here before,” she says. “Good luck with your new life.”
“Thank you,” Galina says again, hand clutched to her bullet wound, tears in her eyes.
Natasha nods, unable to swallow gratitude for her greatest failure, and turns back to the mess. There’s an easy way to stop SHIELD and the Red Room from looking for Galina: all she has to do is convince them she never disappeared.
Natasha goes back to Yelena’s kit, and carefully measures out and delivers a cocktail of drugs that will leave Yelena’s short-term memory hazy, muddled, and unreliable. She’ll dump the girl somewhere she’ll be found, and all that will be assumed is that she failed. It will be Galina who killed the support staff, but spared the life of Yelena, to whom she owes a familial obligation.
The second part is harder. Natasha has to infiltrate SHIELD. As Natasha Romanov.