The Siren's Song

Chapter 1

Agent Natasha Romanoff flings the doors of the enemy compound open, sliding in with the unparalleled finesse for which she was widely admired within S.H.I.E.L.D. and clandestine organizations in general. The Black Widow is, after all, one of the clandestine community's worst kept secret. The Russian assassin turned American secret agent. There are few in her world of intrigue and secrets who are not familiar with the reputation of the Black Widow.

Her daughter, however, is not so widely known.

Her daughter, who, even now, watches with a mixed expression of admiration and horror as her mother sweeps in and in a mater of minutes incapacitates ten mercenaries without firing a single shot or leaving a single red ringlet out of place.

As the last man crumples to the floor, Natasha rises to her feet. The air smells of gunpowder and sweat, so different from the sterile tang of the past weeks.

"Hey Kitten, Fury said you needed a hand." Natasha smiles at her daughter, ruffling the younger woman's matching red hair, as though picking her up from a school field trip, rather than completely sabotaging a fellow agent's operation. As thought she expects that her little girl be happy to see her and oh so grateful for being saved like some pitiful damsel in distress.

Her daughter is, however, neither a damsel nor happy to see her in that moment.

Katrina Romanoff smacks her mother's hand away hard enough to make the contact sting and smooths down her mussed hair. She balls her hands into fists at her side. She tries to calm herself because she knows if she speaks her voice will shake and her mother will see her, as usual, as a child rather than a full grown woman fully capable of handling dangerous situations.

Her fury burns so hot in her chest that it makes her eyes water to hold it in, but she angrily blinks back the tears. The last thing she needs right now is to show another sign of weakness, something else for her mother to take as evidence in her ongoing ledger she seems to keep to prove that her daughter is utterly wanting as an agent.

And the worst part is that Kat knows in her bones that she is only found wanting by comparison. Despite her very best efforts, she is not and never will be her mother, but, in her own right, she is good. She'd go so far as to say excellent. She was the only recruit in her year to be promoted to junior agent. All the rest were either bounced from the program or forced to train for another year. But what good is it to be excellent when the measuring stick she's held agains is widely excepted to be unparalleled? How could she every hope to be seen as anything other than less than by comparison?

"Oh my god, mom! You can't just barge in and take over my operation like that." Katrina says as she storms toward the door her mother entered through mere minutes earlier. There isn't any point in staying. Not now. Weeks of undercover work thrown out the window in moment, all because Kat mentioned in her last report to Fury that she thought the big boss was getting suspicious and would be taking added precautions as a result. She'd warned Fury she'd be off the grid for a few days but she'd be able to handle it. And she had handled it... She'd redirected suspicion onto a suitably disposable target and was slowly making her way into the inner circle of trust. That is, until her mother showed up leaving nothing but scorched earth in her wake.

Kat steps out of the compound, into the wooded area, and blinks at the brightness of the sun, shielding her eyes. She hasn't left the compound in days, not since her last check in with Fury, knowing she needed to play it careful so as not to draw any suspicion as she carefully laid a path of evidence pointing elsewhere. Not that any of those efforts matters anymore.

"Of course I can." Natasha says as she follows Kat, trailing behind so as not to further agitate her irate child. "I'm your mother. It's my job to keep you safe."

She gestures for Kat to go left when her daughter shoot her a furious glare.

Kat rolls her eyes, but followed the direction. After all, she doesn't much fancy a day and a half of walking and hitchhiking to get back to S.H.I.E.L.D Headquarters, even if driving back with her mother only seem like the slightly less evil option at the moment.

"You're not keeping me safe," Kat insists. "You're preventing Fury from ever seeing me as a capable agent in my own right."

When Kat gets to the top of the hill, she sees the black car with dark tinted windows waiting for them and heads straight for the passenger side. She grabs the handle and yanks on it impatiently until her mother unlocks the vehicle.

"You're not ready, Kat." Natasha says as the car unlocks and they both get in on their respective sides.

"You're so patronizing!" Kat jams her seatbelt into a the buckle with a level of viciousness she didn't previously know was possible. And then she stops. She lets herself take several calming breaths and to her relief her mother doesn't rush to break the silence.

When her boiling anger calms to a simmer, she finally let's herself look at her mother, who stares resolutely at the road rather than meeting her gaze.

"I am ready, mom." Kat says. "You're the one who isn't ready to let me be my own person. But I'm an adult now and I'm an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. not just your daughter. And even though you can't see it, everyone else can."

"Kat," Natasha starts, glancing over, but stops when she sees her daughter's calm but determined expression.

"Fury offered me a post... away from you." She says, not meaning her words to sound as harsh as she knows they do. "It's relatively safe. Security for a S.H.I.E.L.D research facility."

"Kat..." Natasha tries again.

Kat holds up a hand to stop her. She knows her mother is fully capable of providing her with a litany of reasons why she shouldn't do this, but she's not looking to be talked out of her decision. She knows all to well that nothing will change. Not unless she changes it. Not unless she takes a step into the unknown in a direction that her mother can't follow.

She licks her lips, surprised to find how dry they've become, and swallows hard before pressing on.

"I'm never going to get to find out who I can be if I'm always caught in your shadow, mom..." She says. "That why, when we get back, I'm telling Fury I want the post."