"Many of you believe that it was from the day the Soviet Union collapsed that I began to feel my ideals were shattered. But every emotion in this world is like this; disappointment is never sudden, but accumulates bit by bit.
"Shortly after I underwent the transformation, I met the Black Widow of the previous generation. She was the perfect creation of the Red Room, but she was nothing like what I had imagined."
Pepper and Wanda also pulled up a chair and sat down to listen to Natasha's stories of the past. Although most people associate Natasha with her agile skills and striking appearance, everyone who has interacted with her believes she has a literary and artistic aura. When she seriously narrates something, it always carries a breath of romance and tragedy, sounding like some great literary work born of war, which might be an innate gift of the Slavs.
"She looked extremely weary, devoid of passion. I could even sense a profound sadness. Something had once torn her soul apart, and even after she stitched it back together, the deep scars were still visible. It was my first encounter with fear.
"I was desperate to know what had happened, but they wouldn't allow me to talk to her at length. My anxiety was too overwhelming, and I couldn't hear any words of comfort. So one night, I found her. She asked me, 'Do you know the price of becoming a Black Widow?'
"She left later, but I still felt an unsettling unease. That winter, the Winter Soldier was seconded here to become our instructor. He was handsome and strong, with a stern face. The girls all liked him, and at that time, I was the best among them, so he paid special attention to me.
"We quickly fell in love. Unlike what I had previously imagined—having a partner with whom I shared the same ideals and soul resonance—between us, it seemed to be purely hormonal attraction, so intense and frenzied, irresistible.
"Until one day, I asked him, 'Do you know the price of becoming a Black Widow?' He didn't answer me.
"A while later, the night before we were to leave for Minsk, at our farewell feast, the other two instructors got drunk. They collapsed outside the wall, murmuring curses at the Winter Soldier. One said to the other, 'We should do the same; anyway, after this winter, all those chicks are dead, and no one will know what we did.'
"By then, I had guessed something, so I rushed to his room to confront him. I asked him what our final selection test that year truly entailed. He said he didn't know, but after I cursed at him, he eventually told me."
"People from the Red Room told us that only one of us could become the Black Widow. I thought it was the person with the best test results, but it wasn't. Only one of us could walk out of there alive, and she would be the Black Widow."
"The final phase of the test was mutual slaughter. You had to kill all the genetically modified trainees to become the dreaded Black Widow. I hope you can understand how devastated I was when I learned this."
"They told me we were comrades working hard to build this country, yet they wanted me to personally kill my comrades to make myself cruel and indifferent enough. How horrifying."
"You know, Bucky at that time wouldn't have understood me; they wouldn't talk ideology to someone like him, brainwashed and turned into a human weapon. They only needed his obedience, absolute obedience. So he couldn't understand my extreme reaction. He warned me never to reveal that I had learned about the test content in advance."
"I knew I couldn't say anything. If it were just a matter of romance, it might not be fatal, but if he leaked information, he could very well be destroyed. I didn't tell anyone, I just found a way to get our relationship discovered. Orders to separate us soon arrived. He chose obedience, and I chose acceptance. That's how it went."
"In the end, you still passed the test," Pepper said, "Did you kill all those girls?"
"Yes, but I promise I did it swiftly; they felt no pain," Natasha said with a slight shake of her head, "That was the first time I realized that some people had changed."
"That must have been a long time ago," Wanda calculated the time with a furrowed brow and said, "The Cold War hadn't even started yet."
"Not early," Natasha said, "Considering the time of the previous generation of Black Widows, such cruel training projects that completely violate core spirit probably started right from the founding of the nation. Some people believed the struggle was over, and with the cake laid on the table, it was time to forge the knife that would kill other diners, thus the Red Room appeared."
"The Afghan war was a long-standing prelude," Pepper shook her head and said, "All regimes that ultimately resort to extreme power are no different. These things happen under every tyrannical regime, regardless of the veneer covering it, all equally evil."
"So you went to see Bucky to talk about this?" Wanda asked.
Natasha stood up, waving them both over mysteriously. They quickly leaned in, thinking she had something secret to say. But when they came closer, Natasha shouted at the top of her voice:
"I went to see him to tell him to his face that he was fucking wrong!! I was right!! I said the Soviet Union would collapse eventually and he didn't believe me!! Now he knows!!!"
Pepper covered her ears, dizzy from the outburst. Natasha slung her bag over her arm, stomping her heel forcefully, "Your ex-boyfriend chose his heartless company over you, and now the company has collapsed. Even if I die, I'll crawl out of my grave to see his joke!"
Wanda helplessly held her forehead and said, "I think you're becoming just like Doctor Schiller, only full of energy when there's someone else's misfortune to enjoy, making a grand appearance at their lowest point."
Natasha rolled her eyes dramatically, "Of course, thanks to that psychiatrist. I never had the leisure before, but now I just want that damn bastard to admit his mistakes out loud! He should wait for me tonight!"
Pepper and Wanda exchanged glances. Pepper, with a forced smile, said, "The clothes have been picked out, let's have my makeup artist take a look at your look."
Then she quickly signaled to Wanda. Wanda slipped out while Natasha was putting on makeup, took out her phone and messaged JARVIS, saying, "Bucky should be with Steve now, right? Quickly send them a message, Natasha is probably going crazy!"
JARVIS replied with a string of question marks. Wanda, speaking incoherently and with muddled logic, sent back a bunch of words, even she felt it was a mess, yet JARVIS somehow understood.
Two minutes later, Steve was dumbfounded as he read the long message JARVIS sent him. He gasped.
Just as he was about to reply, he found himself added to a group chat titled "BB Rescue Plan." JARVIS, Steve, Wanda, and Pepper were all in it.
"Is this a joke?" Steve sent, "Are you saying that those two weren't forced apart back then, but fundamentally disagreed on principle, and now it turns out Natasha was right and Bucky was wrong, so Natasha wants revenge on Bucky?"
"Completely wrong," Pepper replied, "It's not the kind of revenge you're thinking. Natasha might be trying to seduce him."
"So?"
"Did you know that 80% of Black Widow's targets die in bed? Even if she doesn't kill Bucky, she might put him in intensive care," JARVIS said.
Steve took another deep breath, glanced back at Bucky tying his tie, and quickly typed, "But Bucky doesn't plan to sleep with her. He's not looking for a one-night stand, or there'd be no need for a date. The Avengers' lounge is empty."
"But are you sure he can control himself?" Pepper replied swiftly, "Because if I were a man, I don't think I could. You guys don't know how stunning she looks tonight, I don't want to be crude, but she's fucking hot!"
Steve had more to say, but Pepper sent a photo—today's picture of Natasha. Even though it was from a distance and a bit blurry, the captivating charm was unmistakable.
"Oh no, doomed." Steve responded almost instantly, "Unless Bucky is an alpaca, they're definitely ending up in bed. What do we do?"
"What if we sabotage the date?" JARVIS suggested helpfully, "It's better to have them leave unhappy than kill each other in bed, right?"
"Makes sense," Wanda said, "If they fight in the restaurant, we can rush in and pull them apart, but if it's at a hotel, it's up to you guys, I'm not going."
"If it's in a hotel, there's no way to pull them apart unless Bucky really is an alpaca," Pepper replied last.
Pepper put down her phone and walked back into the room, seeing Natasha also replying to messages. As she entered, Natasha looked up at her. By then her makeup was almost done.
Faced with that stunningly beautiful face, Pepper paused for a moment. She suddenly felt there might not be a need to save Bucky after all; a trip to the ICU might be worth it.
Meanwhile, as Steve and the others were discussing how to sabotage the date, someone suddenly messaged him privately. He opened it to find it was Coulson.
"Captain, don't be fooled!" Coulson sent a screenshot of a chat record in the private chat interface. The group chat name was striking: "Agent N Lady Rescue Squad." The chat record was as follows:
"Ding dong. I thought of a plan." Schiller tagged Natasha and sent her a long message.
The group went silent, as if everyone was watching. After a while, Nick replied, "I think it works. As long as we make Steve believe Natasha might hurt Bucky, he'll definitely step in to stop the date, and they won't end up together."
"I think that's good too," Hill sent a nod emoji, saying, "Our Lady N, as a senior S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, should be able to fool them, right?"
"I'll try," Natasha said, "I do have some old grudges with Bucky, it goes back to Minsk..."
"That's not important," Schiller said, "You just need to appropriately express some anger, and your desire to sleep with him, but don't be too direct, or they might catch on."
"But will Steve not catch on?"
"It's fine, I have an informant who will guide them accordingly," Schiller, after closing the group chat window, opened JARVIS's chat page and said, "JARVIS, do me a favor, in a moment you'll..."