Iceland - Six months ago

Natasha has been on her own these past months and she doesn't mind especially seeing the progress they're having with their operation. The Black Widow used to work alone, anyway. Used to. The words echo in her head with a flash of Clint, Maria, and Steve's faces. It distracts her for a second that she is startled by a harmless leaf falling a few inches from her face. She leans back a little too much that she ends up falling on her back. Layers of fallen and old leaves crunch underneath her. Natasha scrambles back up and quickly hides behind a tree, rolling her eyes at her own clumsiness.

It's autumn, idiot. Leaves can't help but fall, Natasha scolds herself silently.

She stands still for a few more seconds before she's convinced that no one heard her. She slowly squats down, still behind the tree and focuses back her attention to the scene a little more than 600 yards in front of her.The Big Boss Company base in Iceland is strategically situated in a clearing deep in the forest where no one can bother them and they won't bother anyone. The base is a three-storey mansion the Company legally bought from a rich family. But it now stands hollow after Fury sent an infantry of agents a week ago.

Natasha remembers when she watched from a distance as the agents stormed inside, fired several rounds, and triumphantly captured several members of the Company. Hill's trainees are about to get some serious interrogation exercises, Natasha thought and smirked for a second. After combing the mansion for additional intel, they left as swiftly as they came. Mission accomplished.

Natasha surveys the mansion and counts six armed men, standing guard around the perimeter. What are they doing coming back here? Natasha asks silently. Also, what AM I doing back here? Fury confirmed to her that the scene was scrubbed clear of intel but since yesterday she couldn't shake off a weird knot in her stomach and this morning all she could hear in her head was 'go back'. So, despite a few risks, she hopped on her bike and sped back not sure what to expect.

"What are you up to now?" Natasha whispers to herself as she surveys the armed men through her binoculars. "Are you waiting for something?"

As if to answer her question, Natasha hears chopper blades from the distance that grow louder by the second. The chopper lands to her right, near the treeline where she's hiding. She directs her binoculars at the chopper and sees three more armed men step out followed by a woman. The woman has long brown hair, sharp nose and cheekbones. Natasha pegs her to be in her late 20s, wearing a long red coat, black tight pants underneath it, capped by black wedge heels at her feet. Still with the binoculars, Natasha follows as the woman walks towards the mansion and disappears inside followed by her posse.

Natasha knows she cannot engage but she can't just do nothing either especially now that there seems to be a new face in the Company that they're just learning of right now. Natasha quickly makes her way to the chopper, using the trees as her cover. She reaches the tail end of the chopper from the side that's hidden from the mansion and in less than 10 seconds manages to attach a tracking device on the underside of the its tail boom. Natasha smiles satisfactorily as the nano-technology in the device camouflage itself as just another rivet and the signal goes live on her phone screen. Then she disappears back behind the treeline just in time as the woman and her guards exit the mansion. Natasha watches as the woman continues walking back to the chopper but confusion spreads across her face as she notices the guards hastily abandon their posts, jump into their SUVs parked nearby and speed away.

That's not a good sign, Natasha tells herself. But she holds her ground and watches as the chopper finally takes off and then - BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Natasha falls on her knees as the ground shakes and flames, smoke and dust engulf the mansion. It takes her a few seconds before she manages to get back on her feet and run to her bike.

Who was she? Natasha asks herself as she speeds off the highway. From her side mirror, she can still see smoke billowing above the trees. Natasha needs to send the photos to Fury asap not just for the sake of their operation but for her curiosity's as well. I think I know her.

Austria - Five Months Ago

It's been three weeks now, three weeks since she rented her room on the 5th floor of an old apartment building. It may be old and small but it perfectly overlooks her target's nest just one block away.

Her chase for the Woman, as she calls her since Fury can't seem to dig anything about her, has led her from Iceland to Greenland and finally, in Austria. Natasha long gave up and admitted that the Woman is good, as good as her in scrubbing her existence from the world. She surmised that the beautiful three-storey stately mansion she's been looking at for the past weeks is the Woman's base of operations, whatever it is that she does for the Company. The baroque-inspired structure is enclosed by an 8-feet solid brick fence, making it impossible to see inside its gates from street level. So Natasha took up high ground in this apartment building.

The mansion's gate is solid iron which leads into a nice courtyard then to the main front door which is painted with a dark shade of red. What's up with this woman and mansions? Natasha wondered at first and just settled on the idea that the Woman might have some mansion fetish. Behind the mansion is a river.

For the past three weeks she has sent three reports to Fury, detailing the security and activities that she has observed from her stakeout house. The Woman has never left the premises and the only sightings Natasha had of her were the occasions when she greeted her guests by the red front door, always in elegant coats and heels. Her guests, come around two to three times a week, with no definite day, but always in luxurious and most definitely bullet-proof limousines surrounded by at least three SUVs carrying their guards.

Guests profile? Fury asked her during one of their chats, when Natasha finally managed to establish a secure connection. In return, Natasha sent him photos of men in suits and scarfs and cigars hanging off their lips coming out of the limousine or greeting the Woman by the door. Fury confirmed that all of them are members of the Big Boss Company. Fury told her to stay put and find out more but to never make contact. Natasha agreed.

Another week has passed and Natasha couldn't help but be bored especially that the Woman seems to keep a very rigid routine. Nothing new for the past days. She watched from her window as Fury tried to infiltrate the premises through legitimate channels - sending building inspectors from the city engineer's office to check the mansion's structural integrity, then another team from the Sanitation department to ensure that they're not dumping waste in the river at the back. Natasha can only shake her head and laugh as Fury's attempts fail one by one.

The day after the Sanitation inspection ruse failed, Natasha takes her usual seat by the window again overlooking the mansion and sighs at the prospect of wasting another day of 'observing'. With a warm cup of coffee and comfortable gray hoodie jacket that's way too big for her, she settles down. And then -

"Oh, this is new," Natasha says softly. She looks up at the sky as the first snow of winter falls and fills her view of the town with speckles of white. Natasha smiles. She pulls up the hood of her jacket and takes a sip of her coffee, convincing herself that those are enough to warm her cold and empty heart. Her phone buzzes and finds a message from Laura. She opens it and sees a picture of a wrapped Christmas gift with a caption, Come home and open it. Before Pietro does. Natasha smiles again but this time tears well up in her eyes.

When Natasha wakes up the next morning, gray skies greeted her. Mustering all her strength, she climbs out of bed and grabs her phone. It's 8am. Natasha sighs. Another long day of nothing. Still wearing her big hoodie jacket, she slips on her gloves, bonnet and boots and goes out to buy her stash of groceries good for another week. She has to be fast. She can't be away for more than 20 minutes or else she might miss something at the mansion. Fifteen minutes later, she exits the store with two bags full of groceries and is about to turn the corner leading to her apartment when an idea hit her - she'd make a perimeter walk of the mansion.

No, Romanoff. Like I said, do not make contact. Natasha hears Fury's voice in her head. But she's getting frustrated, bored and after Laura's message yesterday, a little homesick. It seems like her patience suddenly ran its course and now she just want this over and done with. So she shrugs off Fury's order and proceeds with her plan.

Besides, I look like an ordinary woman, with not enough warm clothes, with her groceries just passing by to get home, Natasha convinces herself.So with her gray hood on covering her face, and bags of yogurt, bread, and canned peaches on both arms, she goes on her little detour. Just like she expected, it is impossible to see the inside because of the high brick wall. She continues walking and turns the corner that leads to the side of the wall with the gate. Natasha stops for a moment as two SUVs approach the mansion and stop by the gate, waiting for it to open. Natasha resumes walking, taking comfort in the thought that her hoodie can obscure her face a little in case any hidden security cameras catch her.

Then she breaks into a small jog as the two SUVs finally disappear inside the gate. Natasha can't help but smile with her little victory. She reaches the gate just as it is about to close and there catches a glimpse of a man disembarking from the SUV. Another new face. Old bespectacled man with graying hair on his temples. I think I know him too, Natasha realizes. But unlike the Woman, the man looks tense, shoulders slumped and eyes fixed on his feet. He's scared.

Natasha rushes back to her room, clumsily sets down her groceries and grabs her laptop. She opens multiple Missing Persons databases, enters some keywords and rummages through them until she finds what she's looking for.

"Doctor Michael Stahl, Germany, Surgeon, missing presumed dead for 4 months," Natasha reads out loud. She immediately sends the doctor's profile to Fury and two minutes later, Fury contacts her on their secure chatroom.

Involvement? Fury asks.

Don't know. YET. Natasha replies. Permission to change status from recon to infiltration.

DENIED. STAY PUT ROMANOFF. Fury writes back. Natasha pouts and furrows her brows in frustration and just stares at her blinking cursor.

DO YOU COPY? Fury writes again.

Copy. Natasha replies and slams her laptop close.

Natasha tries spending the whole day by the window as if she's okay. She normally has no problem following Fury's orders but right now it's a different story. She tries calming herself down with her breathing exercises but fails. She looks over the sink and surprises herself that she's been stress eating all day, eating almost half-way through her groceries. She slumps back down on the window and looks over the mansion. Nothing. Guards, roaming, changing shifts, people who she established to be utility men going in and out of the mansion.

Then her phone buzzes - a message from Clint. Merry Christmas! Natasha smiles but doesn't text back. She puts down her phone and watch the snow continue to fall. She pulls her hoodie jacket closer to her body and sighs.

"I can't believe it's Christmas already," Natasha says and memory of the last Christmas they were all together swarmed into her mind. She knows it was her decision to distance herself from them but as the season goes deep into winter, she couldn't help but miss them more.

The Black Widow started her career doing missions on her own but when she joined SHIELD she had to learn working with a partner. She didn't find it hard, it's just like learning ballet with a partner and she's grateful to have had good dancing partners. Shaky at first, especially with Rogers who was uncomfortable with her methods. But after a few months, they seem to have found a middle ground . Natasha admits, that surprised her a lot, the Black Widow compromising her methods to accommodate the Captain's moral codes. She smiles.

It is already dark, around 8pm when she sees the Woman emerge from the mansion's front door. Excited that a development in their case is at hand, she grabs her binoculars, puts it on night-vision mode and watches the Woman simply gives the utility men a few instructions before going back inside. Natasha throws her binoculars across the room in frustration. She starts to breathe faster and heavier than normal. Everything is getting on her nerves already.

Almost one month and still nothing. I want to go home! Natasha screams silently.

"Screw it!" Natasha says as she storms away from the window to check her notes. For the past three weeks, the last light usually goes off at eleven PM. "Good. Plenty of time to prepare," Natasha says.

For the next several hours, Natasha preoccupies herself by preparing. She studies and memorizes the mansion's blueprint she hacked from the city engineer's database weeks ago. Then she takes out her weapons for inventory and makes a last-minute clean. She also still manages to grab a late dinner, despite the fact that she's seems to be eating the whole day already.

By ten forty-five she's back sitting by the window already in her black catsuit, waiting for the last light to go out. She brings out her phone and replies to Clint's early message. Merry Christmas!

At exactly eleven, the light at the center window on the 2nd floor finally flickers off. But Natasha still doesn't make a move. Let them get cozy and deep in sleep for a while. She reminds herself.

By twelve AM, Natasha's already out of the apartment, standing on the street across the mansion, hiding in the shadows. Two armed guards stand in front of the gate. Taking them out would make a noise, so she decides to employ the use of shadows around the perimeter until she reaches a dark part of the wall. She decides to leave no trail of bodies so she can easily justify to Fury that it's just a deep recon mission. She came in and out and no one's the wiser.

She easily climbs the wall and lands gracefully on the other side. She doesn't wait a second and immediately hides among the shadows again. Instead of using the front door, Natasha goes to the side of the building and uses a small utility access door to enter. She finds herself in a secondary kitchen. It's quiet, dark and cold. Figuratively and literally. From the kitchen, she successfully slips into dining hall and all the way to the foyer. She sees the big red front door. She runs her hands on its surface and discovers three iron-wrought bolts at the top, middle and bottom. No escaping this life, Natasha realizes.

She backs away from the door and walks on. She just had to duck out of sight from two to three guards roaming the floor. In the room adjacent to the foyer she finds a grand staircase. She knows it's grand because it's silhouette looks big and wide and by the uneven feel of the wooden handrail she knows it's sculptured with intricate designs. She can't make out the interior design of the rest of the mansion because of the dark but the faint light the moon casts inside tells her that it's probably beautiful, with high ceilings, archways and columns with intricate sculptures at the top.

Just like home, when she was little, Natasha suddenly remembers but immediately shakes it off. That wasn't home. That was hell.

Natasha concentrates at the task at hand and starts to ascend the stairs. Its carpet helped muffle whatever sound is left of Natasha's footsteps. It's probably red. Like the door. Natasha guesses.

She reached the 2nd floor and finds two long hallways, one to her right and one to her left. She follows her guts and turns to walk to the right hallway. It's dark except for the gloomy yellowish light emanating from the old, dusty chandelier. Even from her position, Natasha can tell that there are seven doors in this hallway.

She reaches the first door, quietly turns the knob and surprised to find it unlocked. She slowly pushes it open and lets out a sigh of relief when it didn't squeak. No light is on inside the room but the moonlight coming from the single window helps Natasha make out two beds across from where she's standing. Each bed has its own side table and small dresser. Natasha strains her eyes and realizes that the beds are occupied. She decides not to probe the room any further so as not to wake anyone up.

It's still a recon mission, Natasha reminds herself.

She's about to close the door when the figure on one of the beds stir. Natasha hesitates for a moment. Hesitate and you die, Natasha remembers her instructor telling her when she pulled the trigger one second late. Natasha shrugs off the memory and watches as the figure finally sits up on the bed. Natasha gasps as she locks eyes with a human being, a girl to be exact. She has black curly hair.

This feels so familiar, Natasha realizes with fear. It's too familiar. Why?

Her cover's blown, the girl has seen her but Natasha's confused because the girl hasn't budge yet, nor make a sound or try to alarm anyone of her intrusion. Instead, the girl too locks her eyes on Natasha that sends shivers down her spine. Then the girl quietly gets out of the sheets and stands by her bed. Natasha gestures her to be silent using her finger and lips and the girl mimics her. Natasha then gestures her to come to her but the girl shakes her head slowly. Natasha tries again and still gets the same response. The girl must have read the confusion in Natasha's face so she lifts her left hand and says out loud, "I can't."

Natasha's eyes widen in horror and a short scream leaves her as the girl reveals her left hand handcuffed to the bed. The girl starts to shake her hand, causing the metal handcuff to rattle. The other figure on the other bed starts to stir too but Natasha can't seem to bring herself to move. She's lost command of her body as every fiber of her being simply stands there, frozen in terror, in fear. She suddenly forgets how to breath and becomes paralyzed with confusion that she fails to notice that a man is now standing behind her who immediately stabs her with a syringe at the shoulder. Natasha tries to flee but after two seconds her knees betray her and she falls on the hard wood floor with the girl's face the last thing she sees before everything goes black.

She has blue eyes. Like him. Natasha remembers and then nothing.