Iron-Man: For The Love Of The Spy

The New Model

"Director Fury!" said Natasha in surprise. Nick stood up from her seat, "Well I gotta admit, you're really blending in here at Stark Industries. Hell even Stark didn't notice it was you." Natasha nodded before leaning against the wall, "Well I am good at hiding. So why are you here? You don't usually come for social visits." Nick sighed before throwing down a beige folder onto the top of her desk baring the logo of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Natasha opened the folder and was surprised to see a photo of herself staring up at her. "What's with this?" she asked as she gazed from her own profile shot to Nick Fury. "That is the only way I can keep you off record and keep you safe," says Nick, "Flip to the last page."

Natasha did as he asked and was surprised to see her old apartment back in New York in flames. There was a brief write up below the photograph.

The building was not built to standard code due to the erection date being pre 1940's, from a closer inspection the wiring in Miss Romanova's apartment was faulty and caused the fire. Fire was contained withing the confines of the apartment due to a thin lining of asbestos in the ceiling and walls.

Miss Romanova was sleeping at the time the blaze began and died in her sleep due to smoke inhalation. Her body was burned beyond recognition however dental records can confirm the identity of Natasha Romanova as the victim.

Natasha looked at Nick with wide eyes, "You killed me! That was your solution!? You caused a fire and made it look like I died. Who's fucking body is in my apartment!?" Nick leaned against the wall giving Natasha a glare, "I did it to keep S.H.I.E.L.D and anyone else off your back, as for the body in that apartment, it was a HYDRA agent's that tried to kill me a few months back. But I have something even better for you."

Nick reached into a case next to the desk and pulled out another folder, he passed it to Natasha for her inspection. Inside was a birth certificate, drivers licence, mortgage agreement and even fake divorce papers all with Sara Lang wrote upon them. Natasha gave a slight smile, "You made Sara Lang real. You actually did it."

"I did it so you can have a second chance at having a life, believe me you are far better off than what you're leaving behind," said Nick as he shook his head. "Let me guess, Clint was probably happy that I'm 'dead'," says Natasha as she gave sarcastic quote marks. "Lets just say he didn't attend the funeral and leave it at that," says Nick as he walked towards the door, "Just enjoy this new life Miss Lang." He opened the door and was gone. Natasha sat down and gave a puff of relief, this was it a fresh start. What the hell is that?

The model of the expo was standing upright in her office, she was surprised she didn't notice it before. It was staring her right in the..."Holy shit!" she said as she sat down and used her hand to make a telescope so she could focus on the little globe in the middle. "Oh Howard Stark is a fucking genius!" gasped Natasha as she got to the door and practically launched herself into Tony's office.

Rhodes, Pepper and Tony were in a deep conversation and it seemed that they were both shouting at Tony. The moment the door opened they all looked towards her, she however did not care and walked straight up to Tony, "Come with me." Tony looked confused, "Sorry what?" Natasha rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand yanking him out of his chair and pulling him from his office despite his obvious confusion. She dragged him into her office and let go of his hand pointing at the Stark Expo display.

"What do you see?" she asked. "An assistant that really doesn't know her boundaries?" joked Tony. "No look at this," she says as she points directly at the display. "Yeah it's my dad's old Stark Expo display. What about it?" questions Tony.

"Don't you think at this angle the center of the display, the actual globe looks a whole lot like-" began Natasha only to be interrupted by Tony, "-a nucleus. And all the surrounding pathways would make up the the molecules."

"Exactly, and if I am looking at what I think I am looking at this would be something that would be a suitable replacement for the palladium that is in the arc reactor in your chest meaning you wouldn't be sick anymore!" said Natasha with a triumphant smile. Tony however looked at her with narrowed eyes, "How'd you know it was the palladium that was making me sick?"

"I watched the documentary you did on the Arc and it's palladium basis, when a human is exposed to palladium for too long it secretes a poisonous residue," states Natasha flawlessly. Tony smiles with surprise, "Well looks like someone did their homework before they took on the job. Well done." 

"I can synthesize the new element tonight in the lab at my house, seeing as you re-discovered this element do you wanna come over and help?" asked Tony with a heart warming smile. "Of course," answered Natasha.   

Soon Natasha was walking into the expansive house belonging to Tony, the last time she was actually here she screwed up big time, hopefully this goes way better. She thankfully dressed in an old hoodie and leggings for comfort. The moment she entered the garage she was met by the sight of a shirtless and sweating Tony Stark as he hoisted a huge coil into place. Natasha felt her face heat up and coughed to alert him to her presence.

Tony jumped a little but smiled when he realized who it was, "Hey got everything set up and ready to go." Natasha nodded but her eyes kept jumping down to his abs and back up to his chest. Tony grabbed a rag from the workbench and wiped the sweat off before throwing it back down on the bench.

"Okay so I have the initial compound ready to go and all we really need to do is turn on this huge laser to help synthesize the element," explains Tony as he steps up to a opening in the coil and drops a prism into the allocated spot. Natasha stands at his side watching as he prepared to turn on the device, once he was ready he cast her a thumbs up before slamming his hand down on the activation panel. The laser fired up but the only problem was that it didn't come out at the right angle and began cutting through the walls.

"Oh shit!" yelled Tony as he tried to turn a huge wheel on the coil to change the angle but it wouldn't budge. Natasha grabbed a huge wrench and attached it to the wheel and began pushing against it in an attempt to help turn it. Tony grabbed it as well and pulled, the prism inside began to turn and the laser beam moved cutting things in it's path but the moment it hit the little triangle element on the counter a high pitched sound met their ears making Natasha cover them in order to protect her hearing. Soon the laser shut off and the element sat in the middle of the garage glowing like a beacon.

"We did it," said Tony as he walked towards the element and picked it up with a pair of tweezers, carefully and with precise movements he placed it into the center of a new Arc reactor unit.

The new element is accepted by the arc reactor core, congratulations sir.

"Thank you Jarvis," said Tony as he turned to face Natasha. "And thank you too Miss Romanoff," added Tony with a knowing smirk. Natasha's face went pale, "I-I h-how?" Tony smiled and approached her, "I have only ever met one person who would be as resourceful and as intelligent as you are. Plus I noticed the same AC/DC hoodie you were wearing the night you left."

"So what's going to happen now?" she asked sounding scared. "I forgave you the moment you left, I was just too much of a jerk to tell you. As for what you're going to do now. I leave that up to you, you can keep going as Sarah Lang or go back to being Natasha Romanoff," said Tony as he leaned against the workbench. 

"Can I just be Sarah? I just want to leave my old life behind and have a new start," she asked with saddened eyes. "Sure," said Tony, "You can keep working at Stark Industries and being my PA." Natasha smiled her first true smile in a long while as she pulled Tony into a hug, "Thank you Tony." It took a moment but Tony returned the hug.

Sir incoming call from an unknown caller.