A Spider's Web ll Natasha Romanoff

Suit Up

Natasha left me after bringing me back to the bridge. She claimed she was going to the medical wing to see the man I knocked out, while I was left with Steve and Tony at the large table.

There were the three of us and Fury. Sadness was in the air and a solemn mood overcame me as we stayed silent. No one knew how to start off the conversation, even though I was almost positive that all our mind's were racing with thoughts.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket." Fury broke the silence. He held up a number of trading cards, but I was unable to make out the image of what. "I guess he never did get you to sign them."

He threw the cards on the table and I looked at them. Captain America trading cards. These were the cards he was talking about when I first arrived.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming. Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles we never could."

Remarkable? I was remarkable? A failed science project? I don't understand. I don't understand why I was picked. I was the bad guy. The villain. The one who hurt others. Why would they think I could be good enough to help them?

"Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes." Fury continued. Tony stood up abruptly and walked away, leaving Steve, Fury, and myself.

"Well, it's an old-fashioned notion." Fury ended.

"Why was I chosen?" I spoke up, causing the attention to turn my way. "I was never good. You know that. It says so in my file."

"You were made to think and do things you didn't want to. You defected a very powerful force, abandoning their ways. You may still do villainess things, but we saw hope that we could help you change. To become better. To fight for a reason other than to run away. You're not perfect. No one is. But we're giving you a chance to prove us right and that you're worth giving a chance to. Don't prove us wrong." Fury explained, before walking away.

I looked down at my hand, processing what the director told me. Was I really worth it? It was true that I defected. I took a whole building down with me just to escape. Just because I left doesn't make up for all the things I did, though.

"I'd ask if you wanted to talk about it, but I think we already had this conversation." Steve spoke up. I looked up at the blond and smiled slightly.

"One day I'll tell you." I said. "For now, I'll keep my horrors to myself. If I speak them, it'll be too real."

"If you don't, they'll be nightmares." He countered. I didn't respond and neither did he. I was learning to trust Steve. He was the only one on this team that I felt that I could trust, but I wasn't the trusting type, so I couldn't tell him everything. Not yet.

"We should go find Tony to make sure he's alright." Steve suggested.

"Yeah. That would be a good idea. I know he knew Agent Coulson." I said, getting up from my seat and walking in the direction Tony left.

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After searching around for Tony, we found him in the chamber where Loki's cell used to be and also the place of Agent Coulson's final moments. The glass cell was gone, only leaving an empty space.