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‘Who are you, really?’
This is the story of the Black Widow.
A ghost story.
They don’t dare speak of her, and when they do, they whisper her name in the dark, in the quiet alleyways, in the vacated corners where no one dares to dwell.
They’ve all heard of the spy. Ruthless. Blood-thirsty. Cold.
She flits in and out of shadows, killing without mercy, without sound. You’re dead before you spot her rifle, hidden in positions you can’t even imagine. She weaves through the fog. You’re dead as soon as she lets you catch sight of her eyes. They disappear in the fog, then her voice is in your ears, and the next thing you know is pain, and darkness. You’re dead.
Some don’t believe in her. They say she’s a ghost. That she doesn’t exist.
But she does.
The Black Widow exists.
This is the story of a SHIELD agent.
A myth.
SHIELD doesn’t exist. It’s hidden from the public eye, cloaked in mysteries and secrets. The perfect place for a spider to dwell.
They say she’s recruited by Hawkeye.
They say she’s been through de-programming. No longer brainwashed, no longer an agent of the Red Room. They say she’s an agent of SHIELD. Is that true? Can she be de-programmed?
Word is that she climbs through the ranks, outperforming every agent there is. She gets sent on missions, each risker than the one before. She comes back every time, eyes guarding secrets to a vault only she can enter.
They say there is one other who can access the vault.
A hard-ass Commander with steel blue eyes, and a heart as cold as the Widow’s. Or so they say.
Who knows if that’s the truth?
Then she becomes real. Undeniable.
An Avenger.
She’s a public face now. Not as public as Stark, or Rogers, but she exists.
She fights aliens and gods. She exists.
A legend.
This is the story of Natasha Romanoff.
Does she only exist as a legend?
Is that her only legacy?
She falls, on Vormir, and the words come back to her.
‘Who are you, really?’
She is the Black Widow.
She is an agent of SHIELD. She exists in Nick Fury, in Sharon Carter, in Bobbi Morse, in Phil Coulson, and in Melinda May.
She is an Avenger. She exists in team dinners and teasing her brothers.
She is Maria Hill’s partner. She exists in stolen nights together, in whispers of ‘I love you’, and in the hidden ring in the back of her wardrobe. Will it ever see the light of day?
She is Natasha Romanoff.
She exists.
Her eyes close before she hits the ground, and she smiles.
She exists in her family.
This is her story, and you would do good to remember it.