Black Widow: An Origin Story

Truth and Lies

A/N: She still has blonde hair and she's still in the suit from the mission. Happy Reading!

I'm jolted awake to the feeling of icy water running down my body. I was quick to notice how tightly I was tied to the now cold metal chair, and the stinging soreness running through my body from the fight. My arm was still lightly burning where the bullet hit. Luckily, I think it was just a graze, and had stopped bleeding. My head was pounding slightly, but that would clear the more awake I became.

"Good, she's awake," a voice says from my left.

My eyes flutter open, finding Colonel Phillips looking quite unhappy. I was in a normal-style interrogation room. Grey walls, grey floor, one way mirror, which I was sure there were people on the other side, and more importantly, who they were.

The Colonel walks up to the cold metal table and pulls up a chair from the far corner of the small room. He slides the bottom of the chair against the concrete floor, a terrible grating noise rebounding through the otherwise silent room. Though it would make many uncomfortable and possibly more cooperative, he hadn't dealt with me yet. I noticed he had a file under his other arm and opened it as he sat down.

"Natalia, is it?" he asks as he looks over the rim of the manila folder.

I look him over, my eyes pausing momentarily on the file in his hands, but remain silent.

The Colonel's eyes flicker back to the file. "Hungry?"

I look to the door as it opens and a soldier walks in with a plate of food. I was genuinely confused, though I didn't let it show. The Colonel takes it from the soldier, placing it on the table in front of me. I was hungry, but I wasn't going to fall for this trick. And besides, I couldn't eat anyway, seeing as my wrists were bound.

"No answer?" The Colonel asks. "Suit yourself."

He turns the plate around and picks up the fork, keeping the file in his other hand. It seems the meal choice was breakfast. How he managed to get sausage and bacon in the middle of this war was a feat in and of itself. "Again, Natalia, is it?" He asks through a mouthful of food. "Or Laura?" His eyes flicker towards me again. "It seems we can't figure out which is true."

"Have you even started looking for him?" I ask. I didn't like being interrogated. And they didn't need to be focusing on me.

"What do you think I'm doing here, Ms. Romanova?"

"Wasting your time."

"Am I?" He set the fork down and started flipping through the pages, his eyes scanning the text as he read. "Natalia Romanova. Age, 19. Skilled in hand-to-hand combat and close quarter tactics. One of the KGB's top spies. Known under the alias of Black Widow?" He closes the file and drops it in front of me. "We couldn't get much information on you, Ms. Romanova, but we have enough." He moves the plate of food out of the way and rests his elbows on the table, clasping his hands together, looking straight into my eyes. "I want you to explain to me how one of the best soldiers I've ever known vanishes under the partnership of one of Russia's most lethal assassins."

"What's to say you'll believe me, knowing the truth?"

Behind his intertwined fingers, he kept a cool, statue hard expression on his face. "Believe me, my first thought was to kill you immediately. The only thing stopping me from giving that order is knowing you were the last one to see him alive."

"He's not dead that I know of."

"You see, it's people like you that give me trust issues. It's hard to believe the story of a spy."