#alice face

[alice-m-fortescue]

[alice-m-fortescue]

au: marvel comics, black widow

"I’m one of 28 young ballerinas with the Bolshoi/I’m one of 28 Black Widow agents with the Red Room— The training is hard/The training is hard— But the glory of Soviet culture/But the glory of Soviet supremacy— And the warmth of my parents/And the warmth of my parents— Makes up for/Makes up for…"

Soviet Russia was no place for weak girls or their mothers.

Alice’s home burned down when she was a child. Her mother had refused to sell their small home or her late husband’s property so the men she’d turned away lit the flame. Alice’s mother was still inside. Soviet officials didn’t give it a second thought, a peasant with no standing, a fatherless child; she didn’t matter to anyone. Until a woman walked into the orphanage and changed her life forever. She was as elegant as a swan and as composed as a soldier and she offered Alice an escape.

She was taken to a home in Stalingrad where she was surprised to see other girls, both her age and older. All seemed to have the same look: anger, determination and strength. And Alice felt, for the first time, that she wanted that. She received training as a ballerina in the Bolshoi, rising in the ranks, until she was of age to become a member of the Red Room. It was her first night in Stalingrad that changed her completely, though. Alice promised herself that she would never be weak again. She would never be helpless, watching someone she loved burn– she would never fall prey to the violence of men anywhere.

But Alice didn't realize the cost of becoming a Black Widow.

[alice-m-fortescue]

[alice-m-fortescue]

[alice-m-fortescue]

 One day I will tell you what I've been. It will scare you.

Everything was different now. Alice had been prepared for this but it still didn't make it an easier pill to swallow. With Voldemort attacking the ministry, his own followers along with everyone else, she couldn't just do nothing. The Order was exposed and the world knew about the war.

There would be more death, more pain and suffering. More loss. Alice knew this was the cost of the war, she'd known all along and, somehow, she knew that it had been changing her from the start. She thought of all the loss that everyone would suffer and didn't feel anything at all. It would all be worth it, she told herself, if they won the war. And she was prepared to become whatever was necessary to do that. Even if it meant losing a part of herself.