The closest thing to a daughter

One year later 2

After the events in Germany, Natasha is on the run from the government for violating the Sokovia agreement. She narrowly escaped from U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross and fled to a safehouse in Norway, where she reunited with her contact Rick Mason. She is still searching for Abigail and recently for Steve, who is now also on the run. Elsewhere, Yelena was still working for the Red Room, where she killed a former Black Widow. In the process, she came into contact with a substance that would break the Red Room's control over her. She sent the antidote to Natasha, hoping that she would manage to free the remaining Widows. However, the latter still doesn't know about the still existing Red Room.

When Natasha left with the antidote, she was attacked by the Taskmaster, who was after the antidote. Natasha managed to escape the Taskmaster and learned that the dust came from Yelena. The two met again in Budapest, but are then attacked by Widows. While escaping, Natasha learned that the Red Room was still active and that its leader Dreykov was still alive. In order for her to join S.H.I.E.L.D., her mission with Clint Barton was to kill Dreykov. After blowing up a building with him and his young daughter Antonia inside, both were presumed dead. Natasha and Yelena escaped the Taskmaster and reunited with Mason, who provided them with a plane. Subconsciously, Natasha prepared her for the fact that Abigail was not kidnapped by former Widows, but was actually taken to the active Red Room.

Natasha and Yelena freed Alexei from prison to learn where Dreykov was staying and he told them that they needed to talk to Melina, who lived on a farm in Russia and used mind control on pigs. Yelena revealed that although they were not a real family, she still wanted to believe that they were, while Alexei and Melina added that they too wished they were a real family. Melina revealed their whereabouts to Dreykov, whose agents arrived and took note of them in the Red Room, which was located on an air force base.

As Dreykov congratulated Melina on finding her, it was revealed that Melina and Natasha had used face mask technology to switch places on the farm as they planned their own capture. Natasha learned that Taskmaster was Antonia, who was so badly damaged that Dreykov was forced to put a chip in her head to help her and turn her into the perfect soldier. Natasha also finds out that she can't harm Dreykov because of a pheromone barrier he installed in each Widow, and that he controls Widows around the world through his control panel. Also Abigail. After getting Dreykov to punch her in the face, Natasha deliberately severed a nerve in her nasal passage to neutralize the pheromone so she could attack Dreykov.

Melina, meanwhile, tried to disable the ship's engine while Alexei fought Antonia and Yelena searched for the other Widows sent to protect Dreykov. Dreykov managed to escape when the Widows ganged up on Natasha, but Yelena created a bomb with the antidote that freed the Widows from mind control. It also turned out that Yelena was the one who kidnapped Abigail and she was not on the station at the time but on a mission. Natasha entered the control room and copied the locations of Abigail and the other Widows worldwide onto a portable drive just as the ship began to explode. Before leaving the control room, she picks up two vials of the antidote. Melina and Alexei were forced to flee by plane when Yelena took out Dreykov's escape ship and killed him.

Natasha gives Yelena a parachute as she and Antonia fight one last battle in the sky before landing safely on the ground. Natasha used one vial of the antidote on Antonia and freed her from brainwashing. She kept the other vial for her search for Abigail. The rest of the Widows arrived while Yelena, Melina and Alexei said goodbye to Natasha. Yelena gave her her vest to remember her by, and Natasha gives Yelena the last portable drive and told her to find and free the other Widows. As they left along with a recovering Antonia, Natasha waited for Ross and his men to arrive. Two weeks later, Natasha, now with blond hair, met up again with Mason, who had gotten her a Quinjet. She flew off to free the trapped Avengers from the raft with Steve, and then to free Abigail from brainwashing.