Chapter Text
Asset B.W.A. aka bio-weapon arachnae, has had a tough life, even if he has just turned 9.
From the information he has slowly collected over the years being confined either by actual physical walls, or mental walls from his conditioning, he is a child between two people who were never supposed to have children.
His mother was a black widow assassin, an elite Russian assassination entity that is all female agents. The group made an exception to train B.W.A. from the age of birth for six moths of the year and when he was seven he was approved for his first missions, but he is still trained and taught by the black widows between December to July when he returns to his place at the Hydra facility in the Russian mountains.
His mother was allowed to raise him for a short while so the weapon could understand some basics of a motherly figure, but she was killed before his first mission so that he would have no connections.
He was told that his father was a shield agent who turned his mother to the enemy side with his skills in mental manipulation. His father might not even know about his existence, which would hurt very deeply if he wasn’t such a good soldier.
This secret relationship was a direct violation of the red rooms rules, and as punishment his mother raised him to be a killer, but B.W.A. wants freedom.
Today he is returning to hydra after having completed a mission.
He is not excited to see his handler, Mathias is what B.W.A. was told to call him, it's a dumb name, and sounds like a heretic who lives in a Dollar General, but B.W.A. would never say that to his face.
He is walked through the familiar sterile walls of the compound he has learned to walk, fight and think in by two armed guards. He would think that the security was unnecessary if he didn't know how to snap a man's neck with his legs by the time he turned 7.
Every 4 months B.W.A. has to be tested. Its a true nightmare, being strapped down and measured by his ability to heal or the scientists cutting his spinnerets open to check the physiology to be sewn together again and again, and then put in a too cold cell that he struggles to sleep in.
So When he reaches the familiar debriefing room where his testing is held each year to make sure he is in good enough shape for their missions he is shocked to see somebody waiting for him who is not Mathias, but a taller figure with tanned skin, and deep blue eyes.
B.W.A does not speak, he only stands at attention and waits for instruction from the strange man.
“Men I can handle it from here,” the strange man says to the two men by the door
“Sir I-” The guard that meant to speak out was cut off by the man raising his hand to cut off the guards
“I know about the weapons skills and strengths, I also know that he wouldn't try anything with a long history of lessons,” the man says in a manner that strangely doesn't make B.W.A.s sixth sense go off, more like the man's upset at the fact the boy had to go through the lessons instead of blaming him for them.
“Our comms are on if you need us sir.” one of the guards says and then they walk out the door as the strange man lowers down to look the asset in the eye.
“Hi, I'm Richard, what's your name?” the man says with a small soft smile.
“I am asset B.W.A 55810, the staff refers to me as B.W.A.” The boy covers his weariness at the man's question expertly.
“Well, that's a bit of a mouthful…” the man says with another sadder smile.
“You are welcome to refer to me in any way you like” B.W.A is used to being called by different names, the widows call him Spiderling when they are hidden away from others, and his mother when she was there years ago called him Pavsikakiy, he knows it translates to “he who stops evil” but he hasn't understood why his mother called him that.
“Well, what's your mother language?’ the man asks a lot of questions.
“Russian is my first language, but I also speak English, German, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Hindi, French, Sakovian and Portuguese.” the boy said all the languages as the man's smile grew.
“You must be very smart to know all those languages.’ Richard says in a not-quite condescending manner.
“I have been told I am highly intelligent.” the boy keeps himself in check hoping to not upset the man
“Well, Russian, how about I call you peter, like saint peters burg, but only in private ok,” he says with another smile that is too warm.
“Understood” B.W.A now peter nodded his head at the man who let an amused huff out in return.
“It seems you are in top shape, pete, can I call you Pete?-” A nod from the boy lets him continue. “Okay then i am your new handler and ill be oversseing your training from here on out, we have a month until we check progress and you and i run tests, okay ” the man says with a softer smile on his face than peter expected.
Peter nodded his head with determination in his eyes.
Then the training began and for once Peter wasn't scared of mistakes in front of his handler he doesn't know why but he was confident the man won't hurt him for mistakes.
Strange.
When Peter finished his training and began his routines for his dance his handler watched him.
Richard watched as Peter completed his Russian ballet forms to help with his flexibility, and he had a small sad glint in his eye. Richard looked as though he saw someone from the past.
As Peter finished his first day back at the hydra base his new handler gave him a small bit of new information, “there is a new sleeping quarters for us, it will keep you warmer so you can work better.” Richard smiled but his teeth were barred as though the way he described Peter’s uses were disgusting to him.
That night Peter slept in a room where he didn’t shiver for the first time ever and he was given enough food that he didn’t feel like he was starving.
—————
Richard, well Rick to most, hated this feeling.
Until a month ago he didn’t know he had a son, he only knew he loved a woman who disappeared off the face of the earth, and that even with his shield training he wouldn’t be able to catch a trained widow.
So when a month ago under his guise as a hydra operative he saw a file describing a child weapon born to the very woman he was going to leave espionage for he had to look into the case.
He was able to receive a sample of the child's DNA after having called in some favors from agents on both sides. When he ran the dna test against his, he lost his breath because he learned about his nine year old son, the one who is a trained kgb killer, and a trained spy with enhanced dna.
Richard only had access to files on the asset “B.W.A.” for nine years between July to December and then January to June was a mystery. The files stated that his son was trained in the same way as black widows, and his time in hydra is spent training with the best military contacts they have and the winter soldier.
While looking at the screen at shield headquarters in new york, he called his closest comrades in shield, ben parker- his big brother, may fitzpatrick-ben's wife and a skilled shield scientist, and strangely this one time he called on agent romanoff- the black widow.
That is how he ended up in this conference room, with the three, and having a near heart attack telling them they're gonna be an aunt, an uncle, and whatever Natasha wants because Richard doubts he could stop her once she's attached to the kid.
“What did you pull us in here for rick?” Ben says with little patience, having put things on hold for this.
“Have any of you heard of asset bio-weapon arachne” rick asks hesitantly
“I heard it was a punishment for one of the widows almost a decade ago, before i escaped and took out the redroom” natasha says
“Punishment for what?” may says with less grace than she meant for
“When a widow is trained they sometimes overstay the routine amount in the red room” Natasha's lips press into a line that shows upset “these widows handlers dont feel confidence in their charges abilities as fighters, either too compassionate or too weak.” Natasha doesnt look up from the table clearly thinking of all the girls who were not ruthless enough to survive the red room's brutal training.
“So what happens to these widows?” Ben asks natasha
“They get one single mission to prove they are as ruthless as need be.” natasha makes eye contact with rick knowing more than she should have “the widow that got the punishment was sent after a young new shield agent, who was undercover as a hydra opperative” natasha nods her head at rick, making may and ben look over at him with shock “she was meant to get as much intelligence from him as she could then eliminate him, but the widow ended up falling in love with the shield agent. That's all i know and that she was severely punished when the red room tracked her down, there was also a rumor that hydra was involved in the events”
“Her name was Mary, she had brown hair with auburn strands, and doe-brown eyes.” Rick said with pain in his voice.
“Wait, you were the target?” Ben says incredulously.
“Yeah, I was pretty new and had to prove myself with the more dangerous jobs,” Rick lets out a sigh that is simultaneously wistful and painful. “I guess I got in over my head, because they sent a widow after me.”
“Do you know what happened to mary?” Natasha asks, not unkindly, just curious.
“I didn't until recently, and I still had to piece it together” Natasha nods her head as may and ben lean in to hear more. “Right before Mary disappeared we found out she was pregnant, she was getting morning sickness and she just knew, of course with us being scientists, at least for our covers she took a test” rick lets out a flat humorless smile “ she was so excited she chose names right away, ones in russian” rick nods to natasha who grins in turn “ and american ones for the life he would get to live here” he say that while looking at his brother and sister in law.
“So what happened to them?” Ben says with worry coloring his tone for the woman who is meant to be family and the baby that he wants to spoil rotten.
“She died a couple years ago” Natasha cuts in with the harsh truth “normally when widows die nobody notices, we’re meant to disappear, but this wasodd enough to some one that i picked up on it.”
“I heard about it too, but what I did not hear about is that the baby lived,” Rick says with anger in his voice, which leaves the room dead silent.
“what ?” may gasped out in complete shock.
“The baby survived, the death of mary was to sever his connections, my son is the “asset bio weapon arachne” rick says with rage in his eye and fists on the glass table.
“Hwo do you know?” ben says with dread and curiosity at the possibility of finding his nephew
“I heard about the project through my latest cover in hydra. I called in favors to get the sample of his DNA, I already had suspicions from the timeline of events so I ran the sample to confirm my suspicion.” rick spits out through gritted teeth
“So what are we here for?” natasha says with suspicion
“I am at a position where i can take point on the experiment if the current handler were to….” he motions his hand in a way that insinuates what natasha is most skilled at
“Give me a name and a week ill have in a box by then” natasha says with too much calm to be joking.
“Mathias dume.” rick states then tacks on “ stupid name” rick looks away in a petulant manner, before speaking up again “i only have files for half of his life, in six month increments between july to december” he looks at natasha with sorrowful dread tinting his eyes “his base file does say that he was trained by bucky barnes from hydra but it also say that he has trained under black widows.” this statement makes natashas face pale with shock, remembering her time growing up as a widow is painful, and this revelations means that there are at least still remnants.
Natasha controls herself barely containing her upset and says “how could he be trained as a widow, the red room is gone.” she said with false certainty
“Help me get him out of hydra and we'll find out” rick states blandly, feeling cotton in his mouth for the pain his son must have gone through
“What did she want to name the boy” may cut in, hurt for a child she didn't know and attempting to stop any more painful truths coming to light for the time being, always the sweetest of any group even as an intelligence agent.
“His american name would have been peter, for russian, Pavsikakiy” rick says with a bitter sweet look in his blue eyes.
“He who stops evil, she had high hopes” Natasha says with a bitter yet sly half smile.
“He was going to be her redemption, or that what she told me when we found out” rick lets his head hang knowing the chance to be a mother -good or bad- was stripped from her when he lost her
—-----------------------------------------------
They finish the meeting and by the next month Richard has been moved to the russian base where his son grew up, where he gets to see his son for the first time ever.
Hes feels as though he has waited an eternity even to be in the same place as his baby, it hurts him to have missed the years with his son, the first step, that he knows were catologued to measure his strength, his first words that were recorded to set a path of making sure his intelligence met a cruel standard. But he is here and when rick and bens plan works, which come hell or high water will work, his son will be free.
His heart nearly stops when the boy walks in,with dark brown hair, and he's short enough to still hug mostly leg, and most notably, heterochromatic eyes, his mothers deep brown honey like color on his right and his father's stormy ocean blue on his left.
The boy is the most beautiful thing in the world, big round eyes, still puffy cheeks filled with baby fat and his fathers nose that makes Richard's chest almost push out in pride at his son's similarities to him.
The day is long and tiring, physically for peter who runs his routine training with fights against trainers, and mentally for rick, who wants to grab his son and run, but their is a small bit of joy in him, because once their free back in america, rick and peter are going to disappear into the shield building and escape hydra no matter what.
He's confident that this will work.
Absolutely positive.