Chapter Text
The world knew of Natasha Romanoff ever since the battle of New York, where she and five other avengers teamed up to take down the chitauri. For a woman raised and trained in an organisation filled with super-spies and assassins, it's not surprising that she has more than her fair share of secrets. However, there is one secret she would do anything to protect.
2002
“Natalia”
A voice rings out from the doorway of the ballet studio, where Natasha and nine other widows were dancing. She looks up immediately, holding her position, to see Madame B standing in the doorway with two guards
“Come with us”
Natasha follows them without question, knowing she’ll be given answers eventually. Or she won’t. Either way, she knows she has to do as she’s told. They arrive in an examination room, and Nastasha sits on the bed, waiting for instructions. Madame B stands in the corner as a doctor enters the room and runs some basic checks over Natasha’s body. When he’s finished, Madame B speaks up, getting straight to the point.
“We’ve chosen you for a new program to make the next generation of widows. We’ll be using IVF to create an embryo using your and a male supersoldier's DNA, which you will carry to term.”
Outwardly, Natasha keeps her expression blank, but internally she’s reeling from the information. She’s going to be a mother. Then reality comes crashing back down, and she realises she’s going to be forced to raise a child in this hell.
After two months, the IVF is successful, and the pregnancy test comes back positive. Natasha’s moved to a private room, and the doctors check up on her and her baby’s progress regularly. Then, nine months later, Natasha’s daughter was born on the 10th of August, 2002. The Red Room insisted on a Russian name, and Natasha chose Peyta Yelena Romanova, but silently also gave her an American one, Petra Romanoff. The Red Room doesn’t care about her middle or last name, barely even bothering to write down her first. For the first month, it was almost perfect. Natasha’s body heals while she looks after Petra, hardly being separated from her. Petra is extremely advanced, already supporting her own head, and being well on the way to rolling over. She cries much less than a normal baby, and looks at Natasha with an intelligence far beyond her age. But of course it doesn’t last.
Natasha returns to training a month after Petra is born. She knows she can’t argue, there's far more on the line now than just herself. But when she returns from her first day of training, Petra isn’t there. All Natasha can do is sit and wait, hoping the Red Room will bring her back from wherever they’ve taken her. It’s almost an hour later when a guard and doctor return with her, and Natasha almost collapses with relief. This continues for months and months. At two months, Petra can roll over and is getting closer to sitting. By four months, she’s sitting on her own, and her babbling is starting to sound more like actual words. Natsha spoke both Russian and English around her, so she was still unsure of which language she would speak first. She was happily crawling at five months old. At six months, she said her first word: mama. She was pulling herself up at seven months, and at eight was walking while holding onto furniture, and could say multiple words in both English and Russian.
One day, when Petra was around nine months old, she was returned to the cell crying harder than she had in months. Natasha immediately scooped her up and held her close, and tried to figure out what those monsters had done to her baby. She found a swollen spot on the back of her neck, and it looks like some kind of insect bite. After looking closely she realised that it's a spider bite. Petra had come back with a few different marks from where Natasha had assumed they had taken blood, but never something like this. Petra’s temperature had risen, but there was nothing Natasha could do other than hold her. Natasha held Petra close for three days as she cried and cried, and no one interrupted them, other than to deliver food.
After three days of fear and uncertainty, Petra finally seemed to calm down. Relieved, Natasha had tried to put her down, only to find Petra’s hand was sticking to her shirt. She looked at it, confused. Petra’s hand didn’t look like it was gripping her shirt at all, so why was her hand stuck? Natasha gently pulled at it, and with a giggle Petra’s hand unstuck. Confused, Natasha put her down, and turned away for a second to get her some food, since she had hardly eaten in the last few days. When Natasha had turned back around, Petra was crawling up the wall, giggling to herself.
In the days that followed, Petra would happily crawl around on the walls, although Natasha never let her get very high. She also broke multiple cups and spoon, easily bending them with her little fingers. She also developed tiny fangs, which seemed to be retractable, folding away behind her other teeth. When they were out, they dripped a venom that Natasha learnt quickly not to touch with her bare hands. Petra would also cover her ears a lot, so Natasha assumed her hearing, and other senses, had also been enhanced. She also produced what looked like some kind of webbing that came out of spinnerets at her wrists.
A week after what Natasha had assumed was an enhanced spider that had bitten Petra, Their schedules returned to the way they had been. Natasha, who had graduated from the training program when Petra was four months old, started completing missions, some that ran for days. Every time she was back inside the Red Room, Petra would be there, babbling happily despite the circumstances.
By the time Petra was one, She was happily walking and could speak both Russian and English in simple sentences. The Red Room had ruled that she was ready to start training, and decided that whenever Natasha wan’t on a mission, she would be the one to teach Petra. Almost every day, Natasha and Petra would train together. By the time she was eighteen months old, she could walk and run, and use a small knife, as well speak fluent Russian, English, and basic Mandarin. At two, she was learning how to use guns, and started basic hand-to-hand combat.
The day Petra turned three, she could use a variety of guns and knives, as well as using her fangs, which were extremely venomous, and was able to use her strength to her advantage in hand-to-hand. She had a knack for languages, so Natasha had finished teaching her Mandarin, and had started on French and Japanese. After their normal training, the guards led them both to a different room, instead of their cell.
Inside a man was sitting in a chair, bound and gagged. A guard handed Petra a gun.
“Убей его." [Kill him]
Natasha’s heart sank, but she nodded at Petra, knowing she didn't have a choice, and her baby had to kill this man.
“Yes sir” Petra answered confidently, and stepped forward, barely pausing before she shot a bullet right through the man’s head, killing him instantly. Natasha and Petra’s faces remained blank until they were escorted back to their cell, and once they were inside, Petra had started shaking. Natasha had immediately pulled the small girl into her arms, holding her as she sobbed quietly.
That day was the start of Petra’s career as an assassin. She was bought prisoners to both take out, interrogate, or both. Over the next year, Petra would kill at least once every few days, her kill count quickly rising. Natasha, knowing it wasn’t long until she was sent out of the Red Room for a mission, started preparing her, teaching her how to go undercover and blend in effectively. Petra learnt quickly, having her mothers talent. She became fluent in more languages, learnt more about combat, and was able to use her enhancements to her advantage in any scenario.
Before Natasha knew it, Petra had turned four, and she and Natasha were placed on a mission together. It was a fairly simple mission, given it was Petra’s first. They were tasked with killing a politician whose view didn’t align with what the Red Room wanted. They would attend a charity event as a mother-daughter duo, and would take out the politician and any witnesses at the first opportunity.
They were prepared quickly, each wearing a formal dress with multiple weapons hidden on them both. They arrived at the charity event, entering through the service entrance to bypass security. They mingled until they saw their target, and Petra, as per the plan they had already made, pretended to get separated from Natasha. She walked around for a minute, acting lost, before ‘accidently’ walking into the politician. He immediately knelt down to her level.
“Hi kid, where are your parents?” His voice was gentle,and he seemed to be comfortable talking to kids. Petra made her voice shake as she answered
“I-I can’t find my mummy. Do you know where she is?”
“Oh kiddo. What's your name?”
“Sofie” Petra gave him her fake name.
“Ok Sofie, do you know your mum's name? He asked gently. Petra shook her head, and started to cry just like her mum had taught her. “Shhh, it’s ok, you don’t need to cry, where did you see her last?” Petra pointed towards a door that led into a private room, and the politician held her hand and led her into the room. “In here hon?” Petra nods and the politician pushes the door open. As soon as the door shuts, Petra stops crying, her face going completely blank. Her mum wasn’t here yet, so she had to make the kill. The politician is confused, especially as Petra pulls out her gun. He doesn’t get a chance to say anything, as Petra immediately sends a bullet through his brain. She pulls out her comm and slides it into her ear.
“Дело сделано, мама” [It’s done Mum] She says.
“Молодец, маленький паук. Я буду там через секунду.” [Good job little spider. I'll be there in a second.]
Natasha walks into the room to find Petra leaning against the wall, not looking at the body. Natasha knew Petra hated killing just as much as she did, and for a second guilt at not being able to protect her daughter overwhelmed her. She pushed it into the back of her mind, and sent the signal to the Red Room, letting them know the mission had been completed.
“Нет свидетелей?” [No witnesses?] She asked gently, emotions held back for once the mission was complete.
“None” Petra answers in English, and they get the signal to move to the pickup point. They leave through the window, and meet the helicopter that takes them back to the Red Room.
After that day, Petra was sent on missions regularly. By the time she was 6, the amount of people she had killed was above almost every other widow, second only to Natasha’s, although it was getting close. She never failed a mission, successfully gathering intel or taking out a target with no witnesses or evidence. The Red Room gave her the code name ‘паук’, spider.