The Widow's Daughter ✔︎

Chapter Forty-One

"My... my daughter?"

My mother's green eyes were full of conflicted emotions that churned and raged like the ocean in a storm. All the blood had drained from her face as she looked at Holly, and then me, and back to Holly again. She looked weak, like she was about to fall over, and her hands were trembling, the gun falling from her fingers and hitting the floor with a sickening clang.

"Mum..." I moved closer to her side and glared up at Holly, who I expected to be smirking. My sister's (and I use that term reluctantly) expression was very different - a mixture of confusion, wonder, and smugness.

"I suppose you're my mother," Holly said quietly. "Black Widow, isn't it? Natasha Romanoff?" When Nat didn't reply, she turned to Steve. "You must be Mr Rogers." She paused. "Huh. That really is America's ass." 

I could've sworn that, despite the situation, Steve chuckled.

"Oh, hi, Spidey," Holly continued, waving at Peter. "What are you doing here? Keen to impress my sister, right?"

"Enough, Holly," said Agnelsson, stepping in front of her. He dipped his head to us and began to slowly saunter down the stairs, his dark eyes gleaming. "I don't believe we've met, though I'm sure you've heard of me: my name is Doctor Kristoff Agnelsson." He gave us a tiger-like grin, blinding white teeth flashing dangerously.

I heard Nat and Steve let out a hiss the closer Agnelsson got, forming a protective circle around Peter and I, and, in turn, Fury, who was still unconscious and bound to the chair, his head lolled to the side. "We have to protect Fury," Peter said. I nodded and moved closer to him.

Steve pulled his striped shield out of... well, I actually don't know where it came from, but in that moment, I didn't particularly care. Assuming we survived today, I would confront him about it later. 

Ivan sneered at us from over Holly's shoulder. The three had moved off the high-rise and had formed a wall in front of us, Holly in the middle, the two men flanking her either shoulder. Looking at her up close, I could see that, even though she was wearing the universe's hottest dress and had the composure of a beautiful rattlesnake, her sea-green eyes held fear and nervousness, her skin glowing with the faint haze of sweat. 

"You're scared," I told her, my eyes not leaving her face.

Holly smirked. "You're the ones with the disadvantage, little sister," she said.

I scoffed. "Excuse me? You're outnumbered four to three, plus, we have S.H.I.E.L.D agents surrounding this mall as we speak, ready to burst in and arrest you any second now." I pursed my lips. "And we're triplets, Holly, we were born at the same time."

"Created, actually," corrected Ivan. "The Red Triplets were never born. You were created to be a weapon by the Avengers. There was no love in your creation - only ambition and greed." He spat on the ground.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nat tense, looking like she was about to kill Ivan. Her whole body was shaking and Steve held her back, wrapping his arm around her trembling waist.

"You're wrong," Steve said. "Natasha was distraught when the triplets were taken. We all were - all of us. I almost tore apart the entire building, I was so full of rage."

"And who are you," said Nat, her voice shaking but laced with venom, "to talk about love? You, Ivan, are a monster. You split up families, took away children... My life, and Kira and Evie's, and so many innocent girl's, was ruined because of you."

"Ruined, dear Natalia? Would you call your life with the Avengers one of ruin? You are only with them because of your strength and speed, qualities that I provided," Ivan growled, his moustache twitching and his pale blue eyes ablaze. "Without me, you would be nothing, Natalia." He looked my mother dead in the eye and snarled, "Nothing."

"At least I'm not a monster," Nat replied coolly. "I would rather be nothing than be you."

"Anyway," Agnelsson said. "Like Holly said before, you are the ones at a disadvantage. We have over a hundred agents patrolling these very halls with hidden weapons that will let loose their fire on command. Your own S.H.I.E.L.D agents are being killed as we speak. I was surprised you made it this far - the agents tailing you were given explicit orders to kill you. I'll tip my hat to you on that part, anyway." He smirked and mimed tipping a hat.

"Why did you do it?" Peter asked. "Why did you steal the Red Triplets?"

"Power, dear boy." Agnelsson sniffed. "I was a Stark Industries employee long ago, once, but Mr Stark was not a nice man. He cut my funds off when I failed to fix a tiny mistake, resulting in me without a job, slowly sinking into debt. I was a single father raising a newborn baby girl - you may have been acquainted with her. Her name was Tori."

I gasped, my throat constricting. Tori? Tori was this monster's daughter?

"I became homeless. Tori was only ten weeks old when it happened - and she was very sick, malnourished from never having a mother's milk. Just when I thought all was lost, I received a note from a man - Ivan. He said that if I were to give Tori to him and do one small task, I would have all my riches back."

I shivered. "And you did it." Nat hissed, anger and sadness blazing in her viridescent eyes.

Agnelsson nodded. "I was desperate. Tori was dying - if I gave her to Ivan, at least she would have a chance at life, no matter how horrible that life may have been for her. It broke my heart to see Tori being taken away, but it was for the best." He swallowed, tears pricking the corners of his dark eyes. "In order to fully reclaim my riches, I had to complete a task. The task Ivan had assigned to me was no small one - it was to steal the embryo of the Red Triplets from the Avengers Tower. When I took it, it was not three - rather, it was one baby, with far too much power surging through its veins. If I had not split it into three, the power would've consumed it, and it would have died."

"She," My mother's voice cracked. "She would have died."

Agnelsson waved her off and continued. "So I did. Three months after I had altered the embryo, three baby girls were born." He looked directly at me when he said this. "I named them Evelina, after the project, Holly, after the tree, which I had loved so when I was a child, and Kira, after the sun. In Russian, it means like the sun, and in Greek, it means lady. You are the lady of the sun." He chuckled. "I suppose that is pretty ironic, seeing as you have the power of darkness."

"It also means sparkle in Japanese," said Peter quietly. At my look of confusion, he shrugged and blushed. "What? It's a pretty name."

"I gave Evie and Kira to Ivan," continued Agnelsson, pacing back and forth slowly. "I told him there were only two, and that he could raise them alongside Tori. Even with all my riches returned, I was selfish - even more so than I was in the start, and that selfishness made me wish for a daughter again. Knowing that to get Tori back would be suicide and I would lose everything I had just gained, I kept Holly and raised her as my own." He looked at Holly lovingly. She scowled up at him.

"I let him keep the brat," snarled Ivan. "The Red Triplets reunited would pose a danger to us all. I made Kira and Evie think that Tori was the third triplet, and everything was going perfectly to plan until that idiot agent, Himara, butted in and wiped your memories." He spat on the ground. "Stupid bitch."

I glared at him. "Uno reverse, dumbass."

He looked confused for a second. "What is this uno reverse...?"

"Anyone with the tiniest bit of meme-lore knowledge would know," Peter countered. "Obviously, you've been stuck in the fifteenth century for too long, bud."

"Even I understand that reference, and I'm from the 1940s!" Steve said.

"Enough with the chit-chat," Ivan growled. "Once the Red Triplets are reunited, they would be able to form a power so large that it would destroy the universe and everything in it. The Avengers were looking to create a daughter - instead they created three weapons who would turn on them in the blink of an eye."

"And now that you've learned this," Holly finished, "I'm afraid you'll have to die."