"Are you sure you're ready for the world to see you as you really are?" Pierce made a cold jab at Natasha, she hesitated for a moment and then thought about it for a seconds. Looking up she glared at the biggest traitor SHIELD ever had.

"Are you?" she smirked at the dumfounded Alexander Pierce. Sure, everyone she ever deceived would know her real name and where she worked but it was all worth it to get rid of Hydra. She typed at the codes that she knew she hoped that Steve was succeeding at his task at taking down the helicarriers yet she worried for him.

Suddenly the room darkened and red lights illuminated the room. The screen that she was typing on shut off and several voices filled the room.

"Murder, that's what the world will see you as." Pierce's voice rang through the room. Looking around she realized she was now alone.

"You coward, insignificant little bug." A voice she prayed she would never hear again cut through the air- Loki's.

"Stop it…" she muttered. She backed away from the table and stumbled into the darkness. Looking down at herself she was out of the pantsuit she had disguised herself in and was now in her regular uniform for SHIELD.

"The only reason you are alive is because Barton took pity on you." Fury's voice was the next to attack her. She looked at her hands and they started forming cuts and gashes, spilling blood onto the floor.

"Please stop it!" she yelled. She gripped her hair trying to regain her sanity.

"Natasha…" a softer voice entered the room. For a millisecond Natasha was relieved until her gears started working that she recognized the voice. "Come here sweetie," fear spread through her chest as she looked around to try and find the source of the voice.

"You're dead… I killed you…" she stammered. She remembered every detail about that day. The bitter cold of Russia, the horrible pain that shot through her body because of several bullet wounds to her legs.

"You might have killed me…" the voice boomed all around her. "But I will never be dead."

"Ivan," she whispered to herself.

"Natasha!" hearing her name made her snap up and she drove her arm back ready to punch but not before she opened her eyes and saw Agent Maria Hill. Her eyes were big and she drew back a bit away from Nat.

"Sorry," Nat lowered her arm and started to breath normally.

"It's okay…" Agent Hill said with caution in her voice. Nat was glad she didn't push for any other explanation. "It's time to go." And with that she exited the room. Looking around her room Nat had grown used to the cozy small room over the last 3 weeks, but it wasn't the same as her old apartment.

After SHIELD fell nearly a month ago everything and everyone was in chaos. Only a few people knew that Fury was alive but wasn't coming back; last Nat heard he had been in Spain trying his luck at bull fighting. After that Maria Hill became the unofficial director for what was left of SHIELD and had to screen everyone to see potential Hydra agents that were still in the ranks. With the help of Steve and Nat they were able to find some pretty big chunks of agents still loyal to Hydra and threw them in government prison, all together they fired about 400 Hydra members they were sure of- there were still a few that they watched carefully.

When the government found out about all the secrets they had they pushed to arrest some of the agents that weren't Hydra conspirators, and that included Natasha. But after some pursuing (and maybe a few PowerPoints that explained how the world would fall into havoc without them) they finally took down the warrant for their arrest. However another secret that came out was that Phil Coulson was alive and well which caused a huge distrust in SHIELD, people were outraged that they weren't told that their partner, co-worker, friend was alive and well. Luckily his location was unknown so no one could track him or find him. And the final thing that came out of everything with the Hydra scheme were the amounting number of deaths but not just SHIELD agents but by the civilians that were unlucky enough to find themselves in the way of the falling helicarriers, or the falling buildings, or the Winter Soldier's rampage.

Natasha felt bad for all the people who lost their lives during this mess and yet she didn't feel guilty. There were only a number of things that Nat felt guilty about but by now she had trained herself to feel almost nothing during a kill and if that person had family- feel nothing towards them.

As SHIELD was slowly rebuilding some of the most targeted agents were sent deep underground into hiding and Natasha was one of them. She had spend the last month in this normal apartment building just outside of DC and was now being moved to upper New York where she would be staying with Clint somewhere.

Moving out of her bed and opening the suitcase she had been living out of she thanked the gods (quite specifically the Asgardians) that Clint was nowhere near DC when everything went down. From what she was told, which wasn't very much, that he had been in the Middle East helping take down a particularly dangerous terrorist who had shot a little girl in the head. He came back a mere day after everything went to pieces.

Nat could never forget the look of him running into the destroyed SHIELD building the look of panic and horror on his face. Sam Wilson had been there by chance, he was taking a walk away from the hospital for a minute when he found Clint running through the demolished building he once found comfort in.

Slipping on comfortable black pants with a tank top and a leather jacket she studied herself in the mirror and decided it was time to change her hair again and this time not just for her own amusement; she needed to change her look so that if someone came looking for her they wouldn't recognize her, hopefully. You could always use the face computer thing. The thought ran through her head. When she posed as the lady to infiltrate Pierce's meeting she had used the latest technology that Stark had build at the time. She could use it, but it didn't feel right to her. She was ok using it for missions but she wasn't ashamed of herself- so why hide her face? Plus if anyone did come and try to kill her they would have a hell of a time trying to do that.

Walking out of her tiny room she walked downstairs to see Maria, Clint, Sam and Steve all sitting around a table eating. She would admit it was an odd sight to see but she didn't mind- it was their little piece of peace while everything went on. Glancing at Maria Nat couldn't help but notice how much older she looked by just being director for a few weeks. She rarely got any sleep and when she did it was always light and not that long.

"Nat come on you have to try Sam's pancakes." Clint insisted and patted the seat next to him. God love Clint, even when the world seemed like it was in turmoil, he was still his goofy dorky self. "Dude what do you put in here? God's tears?" Clint continued to stuff himself.

"Just an old family recipe my mama taught me." Sam smiled. Nat took a seat down by Clint and helped herself to some of Sam's pancakes. The apartment complex they stayed in was old so it had a community kitchen that everyone used; the only other people in the complex besides them was an old lady- Ms. Teeton who rarely ever came out of her room and a young couple trying to get on their feet which they never saw much of. Nat felt a little sad since it was their last day here.

"I need to talk to you guys about what is going down this afternoon." Maria sat down with a cup of coffee and didn't touch any food on the table, Nat noticed that Sam looked a bit disappointed that she hadn't eaten his pancakes. Nat cut and ate her own and Clint was right- they were the best pancakes she ever had.

"I'm assuming it has something to do with what we are going to do since SHIELD is gone." Steve was very cold as he said it. Out of everyone that was going to continue working for SHIELD (which was only about 10% of the people that they had post-Hydra takedown) Steve was the one that took it the hardest. Steve never knew but after they visited the old army bunker Nat had done some research on the woman in the photo Steve had stared at and discovered it was Peggy Carter was one of the founders of SHIELD along with a few other including Tony's father. Nat then quickly deduced that Peggy and Steve had something going on when he was frozen in the block of ice. Maybe that's where he would disappear to every week or so…

"And you would be correct." Maria set down 5 files which SHIELD's office symbol on it, one for each other them including Maria. "These, are your new aliases. They weren't easy to come up with so don't fuck them up." She passed them out and Natasha hesitated to open hers. What would she be this time? A striper, governor's mistress, daughter of the famed Alfred Hitchcock? The list when on and on and she had no trouble fitting into her new life.

Finally opening it, it revealed all of the standard things you would find in a file- official name, date of birth, level status, and status as an agent just general things like that. She flipped to the second page and say a picture of a small white house on a big patch of land- it looked like one she'd dreamed about a little girl. She read the information that now was her life.

Name: Mrs. Lillian Randor

Age: 26

Occupation: Local farmer, artist and dance instructor

Location: 1393 Willow Peak Ave, Avoca, New York

Hobbies: Sketching, cooking, running, hiking

Likes: Animals in general (mostly dogs), sunny days, campfires

Dislikes: Semi-trucks, long road trips

Skills: Former high school ballerina, can work farm equipment,

Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Personality: Nice, whole-hearted, outgoing but sometimes overbearing

Natasha read and re-read her new identity, when SHIELD was going to make you a fake person- they made sure they did it thoroughly. Under the papers was a New York driver's license, social security card and a credit card.

"You have new bank accounts under these names and your money has been transferred into there. I'm afraid that this is as far as we can get, I don't know the next time we will discuss the future of SHIELD." Agent Hill kept a stern face and folded her hands on the table. "You each will be near each other so if there is anything to go array then help is not too far away- it may be the only help you will get until we a standard system down." The words hung in the air like heaps of smoke- hard to take in and keep down. "You will leave in 1 hour so I suggest you pack and get situated. I'm sorry that you have to be thrown out into the world like this and I wish you all the best until I see you again." She got up and walked out. By this time Clint had eating his pancakes and they had gone cold.

"Were are you stationed Natasha?" Steve asked her. Clint put his elbows up on the table and kept his head down at the file, Nat highly doubted he was reading it.

"A place in New York called Avoca. Doesn't seem like a big place." Nat looked at Steve put kept a side view of Clint.

"Sam and I we're in Prattsburgh New York, and I have map," He showed them with a flash of it. "They don't seem too far off from each other which is good, we need to stay in touch."

"Aye aye Captain." Clint gave a salute and sat back in his chair smiling proudly at himself. Sam started a silent laugh but Nat didn't move. Steve hadn't really know Clint all that long and the only time he spent time with him was when he got over Loki's brain controlling condition and they saved New York City together; other than that they didn't really having bonding time. Steve gave Nat a quick glance and he slightly nodded her head; she wanted to tell Steve that Clint didn't mean bad- it was just it always came off that way.

"Whatever you say birdbrain." Steve quickly retaliated with a horribly thought out comeback. Sam laughed at the stupidity of it as well as herself.

"If I had a dollar for every time I heard that one I'd be as rich as Stark." Clint did give a sarcastic smile which made Nat feel a little bit better.

She then got up and walked upstairs to shower and get ready for the uncertainty ahead. As she entered her room she took noticed on how little of an imprint she had made on it since being here. She hadn't put up any pictures, no personal items, hell she didn't even bother to open the closet after all the time she was here. Her suitcase she had brought was only a bit larger than a desk and yet it held nearly everything she owned- or everything that hadn't been destroyed. It held 3 pairs of shoes, a thermal jacket, several shirts and pants and her electric gloves which she hadn't worn since the attack on New York. She had a little cosmetic bag that held a brush, toothbrush and toothpaste and a photo that no one but her and Clint had ever seen; a picture of her as a little girl- no more than 12 and it was the only photo she had ever seen that depicted her childhood. Walking to the suitcase she unzipped the small pouched that laid inside of it and pulled out an old fading colored photo of a little girl sitting on a stoop of a large house with a hat and a blue jacket on. You could see little ends of red hair poking out of the hat and she was smiling a wide toothy grin.

Nat grinned at the fading picture and tucked it back into the pouch- getting ready to remake herself for the millionth time into a person she wished but never could be.