Before the handlers finished introducing the Winter Soldier, Natalya felt her left wrist prickle. She ignored the sensation, refusing to look down for a reaction that she knew was impossible. The Winter Soldier was a ghost, a weapon, more metal than human; he didn't have a soulmate.
But, then he lifted his metal wrist away from his side and looked at it with an impenetrable expression on his face, and Natalya suddenly realized that he'd been a person before he'd been the Asset – a person with a flesh and blood left arm, now replaced by the metal one, which had once borne a soulmark.
So, Natalya launched herself forward, immediately straining for a killing strike because she knew, if she hesitated, he would kill her first. Despite the confusion that settled across his features, he blocked her first blow with ease. She kept hitting, hard and fast, and only just had time to realize that he was exclusively defending – not attacking – when a handler shouted a safe word, and time stopped. Natalya crumpled to the ground, and as the world went black, she heard fragments of harried voices overhead.
…the hell got into her?
Here! Her wrist!
Shit.
…could compromise the Asset.
…must be eliminated.
She's too valuable to…
Wipe them both. It never happened.
When Natalya woke up, she had a gap in her memories from complications on her latest mission and a scar on her left wrist from a malfunctioning Widow's Bite. It didn't matter. She'd successfully completed the mission, despite the difficulties, and the scar didn't mar anything important. After all, she'd been born without a soulmark.