natalia_romanova | The Widow and the Winter Soldier

“Are you sure you’re up for this? I mean I can go if..”

“No, I can do this Captain.” I need to do this. She waited to be dismissed before she turned and walked causally out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Ops room. They had located a lost asset, that was the mission briefing; and her job was to retrieve it.

Asset, a cold word to apply to a human being, but in the end that’s all people like here were, and people like him. She had met him as the Winter Soldier, her trainer and over time her lover. The only man she had truly been able to say she had loved in her life. The one man she had thought was lost to war, time or simply another of Red Room’s causalities. That was decades ago, how old would he be now? He should be a man in his late life if he still lived at all, but the images… They were still burned in her mind, a virile man still in his prime, a metallic arm emblazoned with the red star of his program, the mask that hid his face. She knew even with the quality of the pictures, from any distance she would have known, James Barnes was alive; and she was going to bring him home.

Prep time for missions was generally short; in her case it was nearly nonexistent. Natalia had taken to living prepared; it meant she was never without a safe house or resources readily available. Steve walked with her as she slung a bag over her shoulder and headed for the Quinn jet that would be her transportation in and out of Soviet airspace. “I know you mean well Steve, but this is something I know more about than you do. You have no idea what Red Room does to people. He isn’t the man you knew, I’m not sure if he ever can be again. But James Barnes is in there, I know.” The all American hero clenched his hands and nodded, yielding to her greater knowledge, inside knowledge of the program. But clearly it didn’t make having to sit this out any easier.

Nat rested a hand to his shoulder and gave a soft squeeze. “I know this is difficult for you, and if things get hot you will be the first one I call, even if Fury will have my ass in a sling over it. Just, let me do this, it’s what I do best.” Infiltration, espionage, seduction, thievery and yes assassination those were her specific skill sets and she used them well. This mission was possibly a one way trip, she knew it was the reason Fury was sending her in and not Rogers, and after all if she is lost it’s just another nameless face that doesn’t exist. The world knew Captain America now and he would be missed.

Her pep talk seemed to mollify the super soldier and they had an awkward goodbye before she moved off to preflight check the jet. Less than twenty minutes later she was heading for the wide open tundra that had been the last known whereabouts of the Winter Soldier. All intel had indicated that he had separated from the program for unknown reasons and was hiding out, no doubt the Red Room was putting together a plan to bring him in, but she knew their methods and she had a better chance. She knew how James thought, where he would go to ground, how he would hide himself. Natalia had scanned the terrain for miles around his assumed position and found on likely place, only likely for how unlikely it was. It seemed barren but there were old derelict shacks there from the days when people could still log and provide for their families. Those days of prosperity were long gone but the wraiths of them remained in such scattered ghost towns. It would be a trek and she could ill afford to have the Quinn Jet take her all the way in.

The landing was miles away, a smaller far more quiet snow cat would allow her to get to the village without attracting too much attention. Camo did well enough to hide the jet from all but the closest inspection, with any luck she’d even get to head back home in it. The bitter cold was like a childhood memory, most people would recall hot chocolate or the feel of a stuff animal, for her it was always the cold. This had been her baptism and this was where she would seek to restore another soul lost in the cold.

As expected the town was deserted and looked long since vacant. But sharp eyes caught a slight absence of snow, not at a door but a window, a second floor window. “Clever, James, clever.” He was using the window as a means in and out of his hideout so it would be less obvious, unless someone knew him as well as she did. Nat slid off the seat and easily maneuvered up to the window, she slipped in like a cat from a fire escape and froze to listen to the sounds of the abandoned house. Was he there? And if so just who she would be meeting, James Barnes or the Winter Soldier.