To say Melina was disappointed would be an understatement. The fact that Alexei was imprisoned here and hadn't escaped yet was the main reason for her disappointment. While it was one of the most remote and 'secure' prisons in the world. The security or what passed for it was a joke. The only thing that made this place hard to break out of was the location.

It had only been a few days since she was visited by that man. She frowned as she walked down the hallway towards Alexei's cell. She should have actually listened to what the man had to say, she should have used her training and collected as much info as possible. Instead she was unnerved by the man and his ability to read her so easily.

She shook her head as she stopped in front of Alexei's cell and looked inside. He was seated on his bed as he looked at a picture. For a moment she just watched him before she stepped inside as she asked, "What are you looking at so intently?"

Alexei's head snapped up to look at her, the hard edges of his face softened slightly as he recognized Melina. He held up the photo in his hands, it showed him and Melina with two young girls in front of them.

Melina sat down next to him as she asked, "He visited you as well?"

"Dah."

She studied his face for a few minutes before she asked, "What did he say?"

Alexei glanced at the woman next to him for a moment before he turned his attention back to the photo. He looked at it for a few moments and then said, "A job and a chance to see the little ones again."

"He offered the same thing to me. If I accepted, I was to meet him in the red room in a few days."

Alexei nodded his head as he said, "He told me I had till tomorrow and he would come back for my decision."

Melina glanced at Alexei then the photo in his hands as she asked, "Have you made up your mind?"

Alexei chuckled as he asked, "Have you?"

They lapsed into a comfortable silence for almost an hour. The only thing that happened was Melina leaning over and Alexei wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

Melina's voice broke the quiet atmosphere as she asked if a voice laced with trepidation, "Do you think it's really possible? That we could be together with the girls again?"

Alexei tightened his grip reassuringly on her shoulder as he said, "Let's wait here for him to come back and then ask him. If we don't like his answers, we don't have to join him."

Melina glanced up at Alexei as she asked, "What about the girls?"

"We will take them with us."

Melina frowned slightly as she said, "He's powerful, I don't think we can if he says no."

Alexei shook his head as he said, "It’ll be fine. He said he was like me, he has a hero complex. If he really does, he will let us have our girls."

After a while Melina laid her head back down on his chest as she said, "I'll trust your judgment then."

Melina and Alexei stayed up for the whole day and most of the night talking with each other and catching up. It had been a few years since they had last seen each other, but it almost felt like they never separated.

It was the afternoon when a portal appeared in the hallway outside of Alexei's cell and out of it stepped Ezekiel followed by Tao. Alexei was seated on his bed near one edge reading a book. Melina was laying across the bed and had her head resting on Alexei's lap as she was also reading a book.

Ezekiel stepped in front of the doorway and smiled when he saw them both as he said, "It's good to see you both again. I hope you had enough time to think about my offer."

Melina sat up and placed her book down next to the one Alexei had just stopped reading. They both gave Ezekiel a cautious look before Melina asked, "What happens if we don't want to work for you and just want our girls?"

Ezekiel paused for a few moments to think, he never really planned for them to turn him down. He did know it could happen, but he never really thought they would. He chuckled to himself before he said, "I guess I'll give you some money, so you can start a decent life somewhere."

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Now Alexei and Melina paused as they looked at each other, sharing a private conversation with just a glance. Melina looked back at Ezekiel as she asked, "Why would you help us if we aren't going to help you?"

Ezekiel smirked as he said, "It's what heroes do."

Tao smacked the back of Ezekiel's head before she stepped beside him and said, "The main reason is because we don't need you. The influx of girls will be a slight hassle to deal with at first, but we are more than capable of handling it."

Tao slapped Ezekiel on the chest as she said, "He was the reason we even came with a recruitment pitch. He thinks highly of both of you and recommended that you would both be perfect to join our team."

"Who exactly are either of you?"

Alexei nodded his head after Melina spoke and added, "What country do you work for?"

Ezekiel glanced at Tao as he said, "I am Ezekiel and this is the current Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth realm, Tao. Tao isn't her actual name though, I just call her that because calling her The Ancient One like everyone else takes too long."

As Tao glared slightly at Ezekiel, he leaned over a little, putting a hand next to his mouth and acted like he was telling a secret. But he actually raised his voice slightly as he said, "She may not look it, but she has protected the Earth from magical threats for over eight hundred years. She really puts the ‘ancient’ in The Ancient One." Ezekiel winked as he finished talking.

Melina glanced over at Alexei for a moment before she looked at Tao and asked, "He's not being serious. That has to be a really lame joke… right?"

Tao stopped glaring at Ezekiel as she said, "While my companion tends to joke around a little too much, he is currently speaking the truth."

Ezekiel raised one of his eyebrows as he said, "There is literally someone who flies around in a red and purple jumpsuit. Wearing a cape while acting like a Saturday morning cartoon villain and you are gonna ask if I am being serious?"

Ezekiel shook his head before he said, "Whatever, it doesn't matter."

Ezekiel turned slightly to look at Alexei as he said, “As for your question, we work for the betterment of the whole world, not just a single country."

Alexei frowned as he asked, "So you work for Shield?"

Ezekiel laughed as he said, "No, we work for ourselves. Technically the world doesn't even know we exist."

Alexei glanced at Melina for another moment before Melina said, "You are being very talkative for someone from a hidden organization. What if we don't agree to join you? Aren't you afraid we could leak information about you?"

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "No, we have a few ways to remove that information from your mind."

Both Melina and Alexei shared a concerned glance and tensed up slightly as they looked back at Ezekiel. Ezekiel raised his hands slightly as he said, "Look it's only a worst case scenario. Plus you would keep your memories, they would just be altered."

Ezekiel gestured at Tao as he said, "This conversation would change to something completely different and me and Tao would look like new people. I know that doesn’t sound reassuring, but we need to keep our secrets.”

Melina placed her hand on Alexei’s which made the man glance back at her for a few moments before he nodded his head. Melina then looked back up at Ezekiel as she asked, “What do we get if we join you? You said we would be reunited with our daughters, but you never said anything else.”

“That’s because you didn’t want to have a normal conversation with me the first time.”

Melina crossed her arms over her chest as she said, “I was on edge because you just showed up at my house randomly and could somehow read my hidden hopes I had buried in the back of my mind.”

Ezekiel gave her a deadpan look before he said, “Anyone with half a brain could piece together your hidden desire if they read your psych profile and found that photo album you didn’t exactly hide away.”

“I… I never took the time to think about it like that… That was a stupid mistake on my part.”

Ezekiel nodded his head before he pointed back at Tao as he said, “Yes, yes it was. It also helped that we looked into the future and were shown that in more than half of them, you both worked with us. Natasha joins us about ninety percent of the time and Yelena joins us about sixty percent of the time.”

Alexei’s eye’s narrowed slightly as he said, “You told us we could take our daughters if we refused to work with you.”

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, “You asked what would happen if you didn’t work with us and just wanted your girls. My exact answer was, ‘I guess I'll give you some money, so you can start a decent life somewhere.”

Ezekiel watched them for a moment and as soon as Melina and Alexei tensed themselves to possibly attack them, Ezekiel said, “The main reason I never said the girls were going with you, is because that is not my choice to make. Natasha and Yelena need to make the choice to join you or join us.”

Melina was still tense as she said, “They are just kids, they shouldn’t be allowed to make that kind of decision.”

Ezekiel gave a hollow laugh as he said, “You know damn well that any girl who has been in the red room for more than a year is not really a kid anymore. The fact that they just passed their ‘trust test’ just hammers that home.”

Melina looked down in shame as Ezekiel shook his head and said, “All of those girls are going to need a lot of work and therapy to become somewhat normal, Natasha and Yelena included. I plan to help them with that, but it would be easier if I had both of your help.”

Ezekiel along with Tao watched quietly as Alexei reached over and clasped hands with Melina as they shared a private conversation for a few minutes. Once done, Alexei looked back at Ezekiel as he said, “We will join you, but we want to be able to spend a lot of time with Natasha and Yelena.”

“Deal.”