DOD: Maybe so. But they’re also not going to force you into a permanent cover by taking your own brain from you, without even consulting you. That’s not how we usually do things in this part of the world, Agent.
ROMANOFF: Really, sir?
DOD: Let’s keep it to the inquiry, Agent.
ROMANOFF: Either way, I wasn’t thinking about myself at that point. I was worried about Alex and Ava. I wasn’t certain they could get themselves out of whatever they’d gotten themselves into since leaving the base.
DOD: Were you right?
ROMANOFF: I was close enough, sir.
LUXPORT BASEMENT ARCHIVE
ODESSA DOCKYARD, UKRAINE
Alex Manor. Alex Roman. Alexei Manorovsky. Alexi Romanovsky.
Alexei Romanoff.
A Romanoff.
Ava stared at him. The walls of the tiny room seemed to be closing in on them. Alex looked like he could not speak, he could not physically say the words.
Ava knew the feeling. Even when you only thought them in your own mind, some words still sounded like lies.
Is it true? Is it even possible?
She watched in sympathy as Alex slumped against the wall, letting himself sink to the floor.
Ava sat down beside him, gently touching his knee. “Do you think—could it have been—could that be you?”
“A Romanoff? As in Natasha Romanoff? And me?” Alex shook his head. “No. Not possible.” He let his head fall into his hands.
“Anything is possible,” Ava said gently. “You said that yourself. And it would explain the Russian.”
He shook his head almost violently. “I have a mother. She’s a travel agent. With a cat named Stanley.”
“But you had a dog named Brat.”
“We live in suburban New Jersey.”
Ava thought about it. “You remember Vermont. And the woods. And the snow.” She shrugged. “What if it’s not Vermont you’re remembering?”
He looked stunned. “My best friend is Dante. His dad is a cop.”
“Maybe that’s why. Maybe they’ve been watching you.” Ava sighed. There was one more thing. She felt like she had no choice but to tell him now. “When I dream, Alex, I think I’m dreaming through her eyes. I think Natasha Romanoff has been watching you.”
He didn’t answer. He looked like he couldn’t.
Finally he said the words. “Natasha and Alexei Romanoff? The Romanoff children? The Black Widow herself has a little brother? How is that possible?”
“I don’t know, Alexei.”
“What part of my life is real? Is any of it?”
She said nothing.
“If that file folder with my face on it is right, then everything else about my life is wrong.”
Alexei Romanoff.
Ava thought about it.
The two words made his whole existence a lie, and yet somehow, if they were true, they would also explain everything. Everything he’d ever wanted to confide in her.
The feeling that he wasn’t a perfect fit for his own life.
The fear that he had nothing in common with his mother.
The restlessness. The need to fight. The competitive drive.
Like a Romanoff.
Ava sighed, rolling herself to her side on the floor. “It could be worse. My mother is the physics mastermind behind O.P.U.S., according to half of those documents. That means I was my mother’s guinea pig.”
He pulled Ava’s head up into his lap. She curled up against his leg.
“That also means I’ve been blaming Ivan Somodorov and Natasha Romanoff for everything that’s ever happened to me, and all along it was my mother.”
Jet lag was hitting, and her eyes were halfway closed already. She felt his hand curl against her cheek.
“Get some sleep. I’ll keep an eye on the room. We can still get out of here before first light and avoid security.”
She nodded, exhausted. She was too tired to answer.
She didn’t imagine Alex would be sleeping, though. She knew he had too many questions—his mind wouldn’t slow down enough to not think them.
She had enough of her own.
If my mother is behind the O.P.U.S. project, why would she agree to use her own daughter like that?
Can she really be that much of an animal?
Does Natasha know all of this?
Does she know about Alexei?
And, most of all—
Can Alexei really be a Romanoff?
“Alexei. Alexei, wake up.” Ava slid her hand over his mouth to keep him from shouting out as he awoke. Her voice was low. “It’s time. We have to go.”
She pulled him to his feet. He woke up, all at once, grabbing his pack and stumbling after her.
She even heard a hoarse whisper as she fumbled her way to the stairs.
“Toropis.” Hurry!
“You’re speaking in Russian again,” Ava whispered over her shoulder, pausing as she began to climb back up the wooden ladder and through the trapdoor—the way out. “We both are, da?”
“Da,” he answered.
“Now we need to switch to English.” She yanked her backpack through the trapdoor after her. Alex followed. “Mostly because if they catch us, you don’t want to be able to understand a word anyone is saying. Got it?”
“Nemyye Amerikantsy,” he agreed. Dumb Americans.
Ava latched the shipping container shut behind them and ran through the warehouse, Alex following closely behind.
By the time they made it to open the warehouse door, there were at least half a dozen guards assembling on the dock.
“I guess they found our friend from yesterday,” Alex said.
“Der’mo,” Ava cursed. “There’s no other way out.”
“What now?” Alex looked at her. “And by that I mean, you want to take left, or right?”
She pulled an ancient-looking gun out of her backpack.
The one from her mother’s desk drawer.
“Ava,” he said.
She stared past him to the dock and the guards. She was already making the same quick calculations the Black Widow would have.
Grab their attention—
Focus them on you as the target—
Take One and Six out first—
Find cover while Two and Five get off a round—
Take position on the other side of the oil drums—
Alex hissed at her. “Ava, stop. You’re not taking on all those guys. It’s too risky, even with the QE link.”
“I can do it.” She looked at him. “I have to.”
“You’ve never even fired one of those things before.”
But she shouldered past him, aligning herself with the edge of the warehouse door. “Alex. I’ve got this.”
She wedged her pistol into the open doorway, raising it until it was level with her eyes.
She hesitated….
Closed her eyes.
Ready—
But before she could squeeze the trigger, an oil drum behind the guards exploded into a ball of fire.
A second oil drum exploded, and then a third.
The guards who were still standing went running.
“What?” Ava stood there, stunned. She pushed through the doors and out onto the burning dock.
Alex was right behind her. “Oh my God,” he said.
It was her.
Natasha Romanoff rolled down off the roof.
Alex watched as Natasha landed on the ground in front of them on two steady feet, sliding away her weapon. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to sneak up on you like that. I had the drop on them, so I took it.”
Natasha looked from Ava to the gun she was holding, finally taking in the scene. “Oh God. What are you doing with that thing? Put it down. You could have blown your own head off.”
Ava just stood there, in apparent shock. Alex, right behind her, found he couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. He could hardly register a thought, beyond the obvious.
Who am I?
Who is sh
e to me?
Then Ava grabbed Natasha and hugged her with relief. “Thank God.”
Natasha looked like she’d rather take a bullet, but she said nothing as she turned her eyes past Ava to Alex.
“Natasha Romanoff. Imagine that. What are you doing here?” Alex finally spoke.
He felt undone.
Hard and cracked and so hurt that it didn’t matter what happened anymore.
The dock was on fire around them, but Alex didn’t care if it burned. He didn’t care if it didn’t. He didn’t know what to care about.
The world had changed since he’d last seen Natasha Romanoff.
The world and his world and everything in it.
It was an entirely different place now.
And I’m a different person.
“This fire is only going to get bigger. We need to go.” Natasha looked over to Ava for help, but Ava said nothing.
“Alex?”
Alex raised an eyebrow, folding his arms in front of him. “Is that even my name?”
“Fine, Alexei. It doesn’t matter what we call you, as long as we get you out of here before the police decide to show up,” Natasha said in Russian.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Alex said. In English.
Natasha took a step toward him, her hands out in front of her as if to say, Take it easy. “I’m just here to talk.” Almost as if on cue, the flaming oil drums behind Alex exploded, sending smoke and fire to the docks around them.
He didn’t flinch.
“That’s funny. Because I’m sick of talking, sestrenka.” He moved toward her as if he was back on the fencing strip and trying to pick his attack.
I’m sick of lies.
Of confusion.
Of nothing making any sense.
Natasha seemed to know exactly what he was doing. “What are you going to do? Fight me? I’m a trained assassin, and you’re barely more than a child.” She backed away.
“Am I? Really? How would I know?” He closed the distance between them.
“Don’t be stupid.”
“But I am stupid. That’s the point, isn’t it? I’m so stupid I didn’t even know my own name.” Alex picked up a long piece of abandoned pipe from the dockyard debris and swung it. “I’m so stupid I don’t even know how I got this way.”
“Alexei,” Natasha warned. She grabbed a splintering piece of two-by-four just in time for Alex’s pipe to smash into it.
“My whole life has been wrong, even felt wrong. I have nothing in common with what I thought was my family. I get into fights for no reason, and when I do, I win every one of them. I’m restless. I can’t sit still. I think everyone and everything is an attack. And now I’m supposed to just believe that this is why? That you’re the answer to everything that has never made sense about my own life?” Alex swung again. “I don’t think so.”
Natasha ducked the pipe, extending her hands in peace. “Alexei. Don’t test me.”
“Why not? Here’s the whole test. It’s only one question. Are you or are you not my sister, Natasha Romanoff?”
“It’s not that simple,” Natasha said.
Alex swung the pipe again, lurching with the weight of the metal. “Oh, I think it is. I found my name on a list of O.P.U.S. test subjects. Only it was your name too.”
“I can explain, if you’ll just let me talk—”
“There’s nothing to talk about. It’s a yes-or-no question. Am I or am I not Alexei Romanoff? I have a right to know, don’t I? Who I am and where I come from?” He staggered toward her, swinging recklessly. “Da, Natalyska?”
“Careful, Alexei—” Now even Ava was starting to get nervous. She kept her distance, though; she knew better than to interrupt what was about to happen.
Alexei wagged the pipe in the air. “Maybe we should start with this one. True or false—the woman who lives in my house and pretends to be my mother?”
“Alex,” Natasha began.
He swung at her head wildly. “Ding-ding-ding! It’s true! She’s false!”
Natasha held out her hand. “Give me the pipe.”
“Now for extra credit—and this is a tough one. What is my own mother’s name?” He swung at her legs, but she leaped over the pipe.
“Who cares?” Natasha dropped the beam. Now she looked as angry as he did.
“Wrong answer!” Alex lunged at her, and she leaped away from him, grabbing his own pipe and smashing it down into him.
He smashed it back.
Natasha shook her head, pushing him off.
“Alex!” Ava shouted.
He heard, but he couldn’t stop. It was too late.
“If it matters, Alexei, I only just found out myself.” Natasha ducked Alexei’s next attack.
“It doesn’t.” Alex parried with a broken length of siding now, flinging it at her.
“I was in the dark too. It took me this long to put the truth together. And even then, it took breaking into my own classified file to get it out.”
“The truth? What do you know about the truth? You’re so good at lying you don’t even know when you’re lying to yourself.”
Alex was furious. He let go of his makeshift weapon and lunged at her—and she pinned him.
She tried again. “We both escaped from Ivan. As part of my deal with S.H.I.E.L.D.—and to keep you safe—our memories were wiped. They hid you in New Jersey for your own protection.”
“But our bond couldn’t be erased?” Alex scoffed.
“Something like that.” Natasha pressed his face against the dock. “But I have to say, your attack really isn’t so bad,” she said, twisting his arm behind his back. “For a kid.”
“For a Romanoff?” he said, laughing.
“For a little one,” she said.
“Better than when you stalked my last tournament?” He forced the words out through his gritted teeth.
“Somewhat. Marginally.” Natasha twisted harder. “Maybe in your footwork.”
“How long?”
“What?”
“How long have you been stalking me?” Alex tried to flip her off him, but Natasha smashed him back down. “And is it just at fencing, or do you also like to hang with the moms at my judo class?”
“Two years now. Mostly fencing tournaments. And your house. And the occasional party.” She shrugged. “I’ve been busy.”
He stared up at her. “Why? Why did you do it?”
She looked almost embarrassed. “I didn’t know why at first. I only knew that it was something I had to do. To be honest, I thought you might have been the son of one of my…targets.” Alex kicked at her, and Natasha pushed him back. “Which could have been awkward,” she added.
He sighed, holding up his hands for the moment. A sign of truce. “Listen. If I judo your ass will you finally tell me what’s going on?”
Natasha stood up, releasing him.
Alex staggered to his feet in front of her, boxing stance.
“I’m Natasha Romanoff. Nobody judos my ass,” she said. “Not even my little brother.”
Natasha knocked her brother to the ground with her left hook.
He went down hard and fast.
Ava was there with him a moment later. She looked terrified, and Natasha didn’t blame her.
Alex groaned, rolling to his side, holding his jaw.
“Sestra.”
Then his eyes rolled upward and he passed out.
The warehouse burst into flames around him, and without saying another word, Natasha Romanoff picked up her only brother and carried him into her life.
S.H.I.E.L.D. EYES ONLY
CLEARANCE LEVEL X
LINE-OF-DUTY DEATH [LODD] INVESTIGATION
REF: S.H.I.E.L.D. CASE 121A415
AGENT IN COMMAND [AIC]: PHILLIP COULSON
RE: AGENT NATASHA ROMANOFF A.K.A. BLACK WIDOW, A.K.A. NATASHA ROMANOVA
TRANSCRIPT: DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, LODD INQUIRY HEARINGS.
DOD: So the Romanoff family is reunited at last. God, I love a happy end
ing, Agent.
ROMANOFF: And yet here we are.
DOD: Why didn’t you disappear when you had the chance?
ROMANOFF: Because I wanted my brain back. Even if it had been wiped.
DOD: So a wiped brain is still better than an Entangled one?
ROMANOFF: It is if you’re a government agent.
DOD: And because you were a government agent, you knew your work wasn’t done?
ROMANOFF: Ivan was still out there.
DOD: And his Entangled test subjects?
ROMANOFF: At least a hundred more names, according to the files Alex and Ava stole from the warehouse.
DOD: A hundred potentially Entangled leaders of nations?
ROMANOFF: A hundred human land mines, buried for years across the globe, waiting to go off.
DOD: Forever Red, Agent?
ROMANOFF: No. Just forever Ivan the Strange.
DACHA ODESSA HOTEL
ODESSA CITY CENTER, UKRAINE
“No more secrets,” Alex said. “No more lies.” Alex and Natasha had spent the better part of an hour comparing notes. Between the files Alex and Ava had found, and the digital archive Natasha had found, there could be no doubting it.
Alexei and Natasha were brother and sister—the last of the Romanoffs.
“No more secrets,” Natasha agreed. But when was that ever something I could promise anyone?
A siren wailed in the distance. Politsiya. She paused to look out a dirty window, reinforced with chicken wire inside the glass. She could feel the cold seeping through the flimsy panes. They were sitting in a hotel room in the seediest corner of Odessa. The only amenity in the room was a trash can, and even that was chained to the floor.
Alex snorted from where he had flopped on the bare bed. “But you can’t give up the lies?”
Natasha pressed a half-melted bag of ice harder against her head.
Now she heard cursing. Russian. Ava was still trying to use the tiny shower in the next room. Natasha knew better than to try.
Even the cold water is colder here.
The silence in the room hung there between them. Natasha looked away from Alex awkwardly. She wasn’t used to this much…talking.
Her brother—Because that’s what he is, right?—rolled over, staring up at the ceiling. “You know, the last time I saw you, I thought I was an only child from Jersey. Now it turns out I have a sister from Russia and a girlfriend from Ukraine—”
Black Widow: Forever Red Page 21