cryptid
/cryp·tid/
noun
an animal that has been claimed to exist but never proven to exist
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The investigation of cryptid creatures from the general public sparked interest within SHIELD's Enh...
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"There are no strangers here; only friends we haven't met."
Odessa, Ukraine July, 2009
NATASHA Romanoff had a lot to contend with in the 21st century as a free woman who was able to choose and have things that she liked and disliked. After being a Black Widow and breaking out of conditioning– though Clint was the one who had to deal with all that– Natasha was more or less ready to face the world on her own as an actual free citizen.
Of course, when SHIELD offered her both a job and her life, she was keen on taking the offer. Her past had been left in the dark– the blood in her ledger still very red and bloody but otherwise forced to be forgotten.
But then Natasha couldn't run from her past, no matter how hard she tried–
Because Vay, the girl she had sparred with in the Red Room– the girl who had been better than all of them and spurred envy and jealousy from everyone else– had appeared in her sights on what should have been a rather "normal" day at SHIELD, of course, not that normal days were very common.
Either way, Natasha's past caught up to her– or at least a part of it had. A part of her had wondered if she'd just dreamed up Vay– had created her in the back of her mind in order to cope with what the Red Room forced her to learn and do. Yet Vay was still alive and unbelievably young.
Natasha couldn't tell if something was off with Vay, but she also knew the more she digged and asked questions, the more Vay became closed off and pushed her towards a sort of emptiness that made her afraid. Vay had abilities that could twist and change reality; Natasha was very aware of this. So when she did feel as though a part of her memories were missing, foggy and sometimes slowly returning, she stopped pressing answers out of Vay.
Vay was a child and didn't know what to do but stop Natasha from pressing, probably to keep her safe.
Natasha knew Vay wouldn't try to hurt her otherwise.
So she did what was best for both of them and stopped searching for files that had to do with fairies or Vay, specifically.
Except well, things had changed since then– since the last time she'd seen Vay.
Exactly six months ago, Agent Rumlow and Agent Rollins had arrived to work in distress. There entire apartment became closed off as an investigation occured to find a specific missing person–
Vay had disappeared overnight and appeared to have struggled in an attempt to stay in the apartment.
In other words, Vay had gotten abducted right under SHIELD's nose, and Natasha was going to do anything to get her back. Whoever had Vay before must've taken her again, and she suspected that had to do with terrorism running rampant in Afghanistan and Iraq.
