Thank you all for the reviews! I think this chapter will clear up a lot of confusion and the backstory of Bruce/Natasha is getting much closer to the second Avengers now. I hope you enjoy! If not, do tell me.

Before

Natasha had been gone on and off for a long time, sometimes barely making it to the tower for months at a time. She always came back though. Bruce figured that it operated well as a home base that was almost completely outside of the influence of SHIELD and within the influence of a childish billionaire with a flare for the extraordinary. Bruce wondered how covert any of Natasha's operations could be if Tony posted about her in social media. Then she seemed to drop off the earth for several months. He didn't want to admit it, but it worried him, not being able to contact her when things went south and not being able to hear if she was even safe.

Then, suddenly, all at once, everything flooded the Internet and suddenly her face was in the last place she likely wanted it: The News.

When she returned, she didn't mention any of it, and instead made a beeline to the balcony. Bruce inferred that he was meant to follow from this. Her hair was longer, a little lighter, and parted down the middle. He wasn't sure if he liked it all that much.

"Don't worry, I'm hacking it off tomorrow." She twisted a corner of her flattened hair around her finger, "So I'm officially unemployed for like, life now."

"You seem to be taking it well." Bruce commented dryly.

Natasha seemed as unshakable as always. The only thing he could think of doing to shake her up was turn, and even that lasted only for a moment before he blacked out and the other guy took over. Then suddenly, he's being talked down by a few gentle words. Bruce realized that he hadn't really been paying attention but Natasha hadn't said anything anyway. She held out her hand like she did during their exercises and during the first and second times he turned. Slowly, Bruce eased forward to touch it, but instead of the usual ritual, she laced her fingers with his.

"Have you seen it all?"

Bruce shook his head and proceeded to lie through his teeth." No, it really wasn't any of my business—"

"A lot of it isn't true." Natasha spoke quietly, "The only accurate files are the ones from my exploits with SHIELD. What I did before was far, far worse.. I wish my monsters were as easy to identify as yours." She smirked, "But that's not anything to linger on." She tugged her hand away, and Bruce almost protested the lack of physical contact. "It's good that you haven't transformed at all while I was gone, even for Tony's amusement."

Bruce thought that using the Other Guy to change the subject was a bit of a low blow, but he shared the sentiment. There was some selfish part of him that liked how exposed she was. She wouldn't be running away anytime soon; Tony's likely to have recruited her already and Bruce felt like he could breathe again, Everything was less likely to get out of hand when she was here.

"So should I call you Natalia then?"

"No!" Natasha's answer was unexpected and sharp, "I'm Natasha. I'm always Natasha, do you understand?" She wasn't looking at him, but at the sunset, clutching the bar so hard that her knuckles showed. "They call me Natalia and that is not my name."

"Erhm okay." She looked back at him, blinking as if seeing him for the first time. Then she smiled and Bruce tried for ages to figure out what he'd said right.

Natalia barely drug herself on shore before she passed out again, the last things she saw were boot prints on the ground. Once, her body would've been able to take this kind of damage and still manage to walk upright and out of danger until she could stop to sew herself up again, and let her injuries knit together with no lasting difficulties. Natasha let her go without maintenance and rot like a corpse in the ground. Perhaps, with all the new technology, she thought that she would never have to take another hit of Dr. Yenin's serum again. How foolish.

When Natalia was a little girl chained to the bed, she pretended like she was in a box. In that box were the memories of her family, things like her brothers throwing snow or her father bringing home fish wrapped in the previous day's newspaper. She put her tears in that box, and her sadness painted it blue. It kept her from crying out loud like the other girls. She also put the bombings, the aches and pains from the training before, and watching a girl get dragged away from her in the box. There was no time for feeling in such a cold place.

She was eleven when a new trainer climbed on top of her and covered her mouth to muffle screams she was trained not to let out. That was the day the blue box became a blue room, fitting to offset the Red Room Academy, meant to shape her into a monster with a pretty ballerina for a cover. When she was twenty, her handler told her to participate in Dr. Yenin's experiment. Slowing her age and increasing her strength forced her to put Alexei in her blue room too. The name Natasha was left there too. They were left alone but they were never forgotten.

When Natalia was weak, Natasha could sneak out, but she never did for very long until she met Clint. Then she slammed the door on Natalia and locked it. She thought she had taken over permanently. That was until Natasha pushed Bruce. Something about that moment caused the whispers to return, and her perceptions to blur once more.

In a blue room, Natasha and Natalia stared at each other. Their faces were the same. Their hair was the same. Their expressions held the same calculating look. The only thing that was different was their clothing. Natasha wore her black uniform proudly. Natalia wore a white, flouncing dress stained in blood. Natasha never got the chance to look at her counterpart so objectively. She never had the luxury of Bruce's very distinct differences leaving outside accounts. Most people didn't notice Natasha and Natalia because Natasha and Natalia were so similar, resulting in both of them being very capable of being subtle when the wanted to be.

"So I see you've redecorated." Natasha looked around and found that the wallpaper had been clawed at and the door had been beaten with a blunt object—likely the lamp.

"You locked me in this hellhole for six years."

"As opposed to decades?" Natasha folded her arms.

"It's your fault for not going away."

"Who says that you were first?"

"Common sense. You didn't even have a name until I married Alexei." Natalia laid her head against the sofa leisurely.

"You married him but I loved him." Came Natasha's retort.

"This is my head."

"We could argue that until we die but that doesn't change the fact that there are two of us struggling and only one of us can get out of this." Natasha knew that reasoning with Natalia was difficult at best, so she decided to add something worth more."So we're dying."

"We've merely been rendered unconscious, idiot."

"Unconscious with a stab wound and hypothermia. I'm pretty sure that if we're both here, that means we really are about to go."

"I saw something you didn't see!" Natalia mocked her cheerfully, "Don't you just love how that can still happen? Like how you've got that silly little blue box you won't let me see." Natasha didn't reply, souring Natalia's joy a little bit. "A Red Room doctor, coming to patch us up. "I love this. We haven't gotten to see each other face to face since Clint Barton fished you out. I don't regret letting you take over. It's been fun to let you think you've been making your own decisions and that you had complete control."

The walls around them seemed to rattle. Natasha rose, running for the door, but Natalia pushed past her and locked the door behind her. Natasha walked back to sit on the chaise lounge, picking up her box and placing on her lap where it was safe. She already knew that the Red Room would save them. They would want to use Natalia Romanova, but at the end of the day, that was one thing that Natasha and Natalia could agree on: The Red Room would go up in smoke the moment they could move freely.

So I just like the idea of Natasha and her previous self being so different that they are two warring personalities, almost like Bruce and The Hulk.