CHAPTER 64

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[Torture LOG - TIME = 0:01:09]

The subject woke up in my torture room with a disoriented look on his face, fear and anger being the two emotions he presented. His heartbeat was above the average levels of a man of his age, which was a good indicator for what I was about to do. Granted, the elevated pressure could also be attributed to his unhealthy lifestyle.

I think I will start him with a simple method of torture. Beating him up.

[Torture LOG - TIME = 0:35:15]

The subject has yet to reveal anything; he had a relatively strong will, most humans would've broken by now, doing anything in their power to stop the pain, but he was not, he was afraid yes, but he was keeping his mouth shut, it was almost admirable.

Changing the method of torture to amputations this method promises better results; it usually works best on men.

[Torture LOG - TIME = 4:01:09]

I have amputated the subject's arms, legs, and reproductive parts, slicing them like ham while keeping him conscious. Remarkably the subject has yet to break.

Perhaps asking Charles to read his mind would be best, but... a part of me didn't want this game to end; it was empowering. The lines between the kind dad and the monster I was forced to become blurry in this room.

Changing method of torture to boiling.

[Torture LOG - TIME = 8:41:59]

Boiling the subject for four hours whilst barely keeping him alive with my powers worked; I suppose the constant input of pain did wonders for his stability, finally breaking him down.

Pleading for his death, a quick one, he sang with detail about the Red Room operation, telling me everything I needed to know.

A quick check with my satellite map to the locations he gave me proved he was being truthful.

I even completed a quest that had started during his torture, [Find out the Red Room locations and how they operate], I even got a few levels on torture for what I did to him, a rewarding day of work.

[Log end.]

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[Alex Walker POV]

Eight hours of torture later, and I finally had the information I needed. So, I acted accordingly, visiting each base and killing the operatives in cold blood. It was easy; unlike Hydra, the Red Room had a few bases, a dozen, so killing all the soldiers and the workers made for an easy quest.

However, while eliminating the red room had been an absurdly easy task, what came next was not; for now, I had a few dozen girls, some as young two years old and others as old as seventeen.

It was a rather difficult situation, sixty-one girls, some utterly loyal to their government, others happy for what I did; it was a very delicate situation.

So, I did the only thing I could, allowing those who wanted to be enslaved, be slaves, for only those who crave freedom can truly attain it.

Which left me with, in its majority, with the youngest girls.

Fifty-one girls.

Not a bad exchange, with only ten girls leaving to serve their oppressors; as for the ones that stayed with me, well, I had to be honest, I had no idea what to do with them.

So, empty of ideas, I bought an empty orphanage in England with the help of Fury, where the girls would reside for now until they were adopted. The orphanage would be run by SHIELD and me to avoid the girls becoming SHIELD's slaves, well, not that they had much to offer, for the majority, their training hadn't even started.

Needless to say, I would pay for the whole thing and would continue to pay until all the girls were safe. Giving the girls a normal life, at least as normal as they could get on the orphanage, as to why it was on England, well, it was to avoid Russia blaming the USA for the attack I had orchestrated.

Not that they would, SHIELD was not on top of that; I had to cash a few favors to have them be in charge though, the current director was not happy with my course of action, but was happy with the results, for no Red Room meant no super spies, according to him.

"The girl wants to talk with you," Bucky said as he entered my office.

"Which one?" I asked, looking at him.

"The big one," Bucky replied, as I gave him a look that said, humanize them, give them a name. "She doesn't want to share her name."

I suppose, in a way, a name holds power. "Ok." I sighed, opening a portal to their room. "Hi."

Yelena looked at me in fear, while Natasha looked at me like she was still trying to figure out how she felt about me, though considering she still appeared like a red dot on my map, I think it's safe to say she is not my friend yet.

"Why did you do that?" Natasha asked, her eyes scanning me like a cat looking for the right moment to strike.

"Enter the room with a portal? Or saving you?" I knew very well what she was asking, she wanted to know why I had saved her, but I wanted to make small talk.

"Saving us... me." Natasha replied as Yelena clung to her tight.

"I was once like you, well... not like you." I started trying to put words to what had happened to me. "I was kidnapped by an organization much like the one you used to belong to, but unlike the Red Room, mine was arguably much worse. I managed to escape; I managed to win my freedom back. So, I suppose you can say I sympathize with you."

"What will happen to us?" Natasha asked after a moment of silence.

"You could stay here and live a normal life if that's what you want," I replied, with just the hint of a smile. "Or, you could go with your sister to my orphanage and wait to be adopted; I really don't know, the choice is yours; that's the beauty of freedom."

"What happened to Da- Alexei?" Natasha asked, her voice going soft.

"We fought," I replied, scratching the back of my head; this was a tough topic; how do you tell someone you impaled the closest thing they have to a dad.

"You killed him," Natasha muttered, which made Yelena cry.

"No... he was still alive when I left the area, and considering his constitution, he will live," I said, trying to placate the girls; I mean, I really didn't know if the guy had survived, perhaps he did, perhaps he didn't; it all came to how good was his super-soldier body.

"I don't want to be here... I want to be with mommy and daddy." Yelena cried.

How to explain to a child his mommy and daddy had sold her to slavery. "The choice is yours, Natasha; whatever it is you pick, I will support you."

"Could I really... live a normal life?" Natasha muttered, looking at me with hope, fragile hope.

"Normal is... a wide range." I sighed. "Life in this world is never truly normal, but... we can make the best of it."

Natasha sighed, "I won't ever be truly free of them. Right?"

I looked at the eleven-year-old girl and said. "We are never truly free of our demons, but know they won't ever control you again; I mean, they would have to kill me first, let's face it, very few can accomplish that, and none of them live in Russia."

"I wanna stay... for now," Natasha muttered, and just like that, her dot changed from red to yellow, aka neutral.

"Then, welcome to the family."