Marvel Reborn: Gems Of Infinite Potential

Once Stick was safely locked away in cold storage, I went to find Elektra. I found her in the gym, smashing up the place, as she ranted and raged. "I want nothing more to kill that f.u.c.k.i.n.g bastard, and he denies me even that. All my life a f.u.c.k.i.n.g lie! Conceived to be a mindless tool, kidnapped and trained to be a weapon for someone else. F.U.C.K!"

"Oh boo hoo, at least you got superpowers out of the deal," Natasha snapped out. Elektra wheeled on her and attacked. The spar was brutal, but Natasha kept talking.

"I was taken from my parents at six, just old enough that I remember their love for me, and forced into the Red Room." Natasha dodged a punch, swept Elektra's legs out from under her, and moved to smash her leg down on Elektra's throat, only for Elektra to grab her ankle and toss her at the wall. Natasha spun in the air to hit the wall feet first and pushed back off, flying towards Elektra, fist extended even as she continued.

"You think your training with Stick was bad? I killed my first man at the age of seven and was r.a.p.ed for the first time at the age of eight. The other children and I trained together, lived together, ate together, slept together, and every year, we were thrown into a pit for a free for all that wouldn't end until half of us were dead. A thousand of us became twelve by the time I graduated at 16. I was the best they had ever produced, and I had earned it with the blood of people I called brother and sister." She tossed Elektra against a punching bag and then dodged as Elektra snapped the chain and threw it back so fast it blurred.

Natasha dodged and continued her rant. "And what was my graduation gift? Those bastards removed all of my eggs so that they could implant them in others, after artificially inseminating them with the s.p.e.r.m of the most exceptional males. They made me sterile and turned my potential offspring into nothing more than fodder for their abomination of a weapons program. After that I spent years as Mother Russia's," she spat as she said the name, "best infiltrator and assassin, and because of the indoctrination I had undergone I was happy to be used like I was. It was only when the KGB kill teams were sent to kill me because my handler had gone rogue and was selling my services, both lethal and s.e.x.u.a.l, on the open market that I managed to break my indoctrination."

Natasha managed to force Elektra into a submission hold where the stronger woman had no leverage to use to escape and said right in her ear, "So yeah, you had it bad. Your biological parents are immortal evil bastards of the highest order who had you solely for the purpose of making you a weapon, and yeah, you are going to kill them both one day. Your adopted dad kidnapped you and raised you as his own weapon before seeming to abandon you, and now you find out that he plans to body-jack the man you love, who has serious issues with your willingness to kill. Yeah, you got some kickass superpowers out of the deal, and no, they don't even begin to make up for the shit you went through. But whenever you are about to lose it and think you had it bad, remember that it could always have been worse. At least you weren't pimped out to a Chechen brothel at 17 to be gang r.a.p.ed."

With that last word, Natasha tossed Elektra away and walked out of the room, glancing at me as she passed but saying nothing.

'Worse than I thought, much worse. I'm going to have to talk to her about her past; that's not going to be fun. On the plus side, she is a lot closer to Elektra than I thought if she is opening up like that.'

Looking at Elektra just lying on the floor where she landed and silently crying, I moved slowly towards her, sat down, and pulled her into a hug.

I just held her for a while, providing simple human contact. "You will get through this, Elektra. You are too strong to allow anyone or anything to break you. I'm here for you, Natasha is here for you, Bruce and Betty are here for you, even Alkasha will support you. Yeah, the Hand are bastards, but we already knew that, and so what if two of them were your biological donors? You are your own person, not them. Yeah, Stick is a bastard, but you already knew that, or you wouldn't have authorized our grabbing him for interrogation. Granted, he is a bigger bastard than any of us were expecting, but it still doesn't change who you are. So are you going to let the Hand win? Are you going to become the weapon you were conceived to be?"

She was quiet for a long time. "No." It was soft but the conviction in that single soft word was as strong as adamantium.

"Are you going to be Stick's little attack dog?"

"No." This time louder and more vehement.

"Are you going to allow him to take the man you love away from you?"

"No." This time filled with absolute certainty.

"So what are you going to do to the Hand?"

"Destroy them root and branch so thoroughly that they will never return!" Her voice firm with implacable hatred.

"And your biological progenitors?"

"Let them live just long enough to realize who is killing them and why." Vengeance on her tongue.

"And Stick?"

"Figure out how to break his link to Matthew and then torture him until he screams for death, only granting it when his screams cease to entertain me." Her voice filled with all the pure hatred that she could muster, so much so that her eyes went black as night, and I could literally see the chi flowing through her with the n.a.k.e.d eye.

I nodded. "Good, please let me help. I have my own anger to work out, no one hurts those I call friend and escapes my wrath. Ready to stand up and start figuring out how to complete those vows?"

She nodded her head decisively and stood. "Yes."