The training facility was buzzing with activity.
Natasha was working off some stress and aggression onto a training dummy as if it were an agent of her former employer. Everything was different, yet it was the same. Two sides of the same coin so to speak.
The training was the something she could easily identify with, and it gave her a sense of purpose because admittedly she didn't understand her own choice to defect. Sure there was the point that it would be one side to kill her and it was just a matter of time before someone went first.
And when the time came, a stocky and strong assassin they had sent to kill her took one look at her and made a different call. Natasha went along with it easily. She went along with all of it, the deprogramming and the confusing ideals of freedom and self-construction.
"Romanov," was called across the hall. She didn't stop her annihilation of the dummy, not even for the Director of SHIELD.
"What?" she called back. She could tell that he didn't look impressed that she didn't meet him with the customary salute and 'sir'.
"I was very pleased with your work on the extraction of Agent Hill." He sounded almost proud.
"I did what I was told," she exclaimed as the dummy took another hard hit.
"I have another assignment for you."
That stopped her in her tracks. Her time at SHIELD hasn't been a long one but her assignments so far hadn't been very challenging. And it was beginning to piss her off.
Natasha finally turned to him, and took the offered file complete with the logo on the front.
"It's hush-hush," he said.
"So you hand it to me in the middle of a crowded training facility?" she cocked a perfectly plucked eyebrow.
She liked to test her boundaries, figure out how much leeway she had before they would pull rank and put her recon missions with Sitwell for months as punishment. Sure, Natasha respected the man in front of her, and it wasn't simply because he was the director. He had an ability to see things that no one else could and she wondered if she was one of those things.
As soon as she opened the file, she scoffed and snapped it shut. "You're kidding right?"
"You don't seem pleased," he observed with look of slight amusement mixed with annoyance.
"Of course I'm not. You do understand the irony in this right?" she asked, shaking the file. "I just spent a month before that extraction being a glorified babysitter for Stark and now you want me to do it again? I'm an assassin."
"As if I would forget that. Think of it like this: we're easing you into SHIELD," he says. Natasha scoffs again. "This is high priority. I wouldn't hand this to just anyone. You'd be on your own, make your own calls about security just until we round up the rest of that militant group."
"We can see about making missions a little more challenging for you after you complete this." Fury looked at her expectedly. "Do we have a deal?"
"When do I start?" she asked. The prospect of something more challenging sounded closer to what she was familiar with.
"Day of discharge, but she hasn't woken up yet so be ready." He turned and walked away.
"I want a raise," she yelled after him. He simply laughed.
There were a few lower level agents nearby who looked at her, shocked that she could get away with talking to the Director like that. She raised that eyebrow again and added a trademark smirk.
They ran and she headed in the opposite direction to get started.