Drowning - Pietro Maximoff

Chapter One

Third Person POV

Natalia Alianovna Romanova moved from shadow to shadow with ease, never once alerting anyone of her presence. She was so silent that the wind itself wouldn't have been able to find her. Well, of course, she was though, it was what she was trained to do and what she'd been doing her whole life, being invisible. It was how she became the Black Widow.

She was on her way back to the Red Room to alert Madame B of another successful mission. The man she had killed was of no importance to the social world but to the real world, he was very important. He controlled more than half of the shipping ports in all of Europe and Asia, and now that he's dead his business could be passed down to someone the Red Room could actually work with.

The Widow moved with such confidence and poise that if someone were to walk by her they would likely stop or pull away from her. However, that confidence and poise went away. She heard the quiet cries of a child, cries that she couldn't just turn away from. She stopped in her tracks and listened carefully to pinpoint the source of the cries. As soon as she did she sprinted to the child and stood shocked for a moment to find a newborn on the side of the road with only a thin cloth surrounding her. Natalia crouched beside the little girl and gently lifted her into her arms and cooed comfortingly at her.

The child's cries ended but it was clear to Natalia that she wouldn't last a night alone and seemed to be very hungry. She wasn't even sure how she had survived this long in the cold Russian night. Natalia stared down at the newborn lovingly, she could already feel herself becoming attached to the little girl. The child gurgled and opened her eyes, revealing stunning dark blue eyes, if Natalia hadn't known better she would've said they were royal blue.

Natalia looked around the alley before whispering to the little girl in Russian, "Don't worry Little Spider," she said softly and stood to her feet again, "I won't let anything happen to you now." When she said those words she completely meant them too, she grew up alone and scared and she didn't want that for this little girl. She'd always wanted children but because of the graduation ceremony that could never happen, it was like fate that she found the infant.

She didn't know it at the time but Natalia had just taken in the most intelligent person to ever walk the planet. She strode through the streets once again just as confident as before but now holding a child protectively in her arms. Natalia didn't fear what Madame B would say, she knew she loved torturing new students but something will be different for this little girl, Natalia will be there for her and protect her and teach her what's truly right.

"Good," Madame B said as Echo expertly danced around the ballet room beside the other girls in her group. Natalia stood by her side and watched the girl she'd been raising for the past eight years. On the outside, she had a look of control but on the inside she was proud. This wasn't the life she wanted for her daughter but it seemed that it was the perfect life for her, she was a natural at everything that was done in the Red Room and then some.

Despite her pride though she couldn't help but be worried for her daughter. Madame B discovered not very long ago that she had a genius-level intellect that rivaled those of the brightest minds in the world. Her intelligence has gathered some attention from some outside organizations, and the only reason she's still with the Red Room is that Natalia wouldn't let them take her away. Echo was all she had and no way was she going to lose her because someone wants a good assassin.

Madame B nodded her head in approval, Echo was her second golden egg and possibly the most important one. The Black Widow was talented and had no flaws to her knowledge but her daughter, who Madame B had taken the liberty of naming Broken Starling, surpassed her mother in all aspects. She'd grown fond of the young girl and pushed her the hardest out of all of her students. The cruel woman had received many offers for the eight-year-old but she was holding out for something more, something that she believed she'd be able to arrange very soon. All she had to do was get the Widow out in the field for a few days, give her a mission that would take longer than usual.