Natasha didn't even realize that she'd tensed up while she was waiting for his answer until she had it and felt her shoulders relaxing with relief. It was one thing to ask him to help her dismantle the Red Room, knowing full well that it would likely lead to him having to confront some of his own ghosts. But it would have felt like another thing entirely to bring him face to face with Alexei if any of their missions had been entangled. An unaskable thing. Her mouth curled in a half smile, though there was little humor in her eyes as she looked at him. Russia's only super-soldier indeed.
Part of her had wondered over the years, as she put together time lines for the Winter Soldier and the Red Guardian, if Alexei had served a dual purpose. He'd been the perfect propaganda package, to be sure. But his showboating also made for a mesmerizing sleight of hand trick. No one would think to look twice at the work the Winter Soldier was doing if they were preoccupied by the Red Guardian's flashy missions. A knife in the dark.
"Yeah, when Yelena and I were kids we were sent to Ohio with Alexei and an older Widow named Melina. Our cover story was a family." Her mouth pulled to the side, and she was quiet for a moment before she continued. There were ghosts in every corner of her past. Red on every page of her ledger. This one was no different. "We were there for three years. Their target was the North Institute. Part of SHIELD." Which was to say that at the time, it was probably also part of HYDRA. And whatever it was Alexei had pulled from the data banks, it had certainly gone toward improving Dreykov's control over the Black Widows. And likely HYDRA's control of the Winter Soldiers.
"I won't hold it against you if you bail," she began, her fingers tightening on the strap of her bag. Nothing in the world was more important to her than getting the antidote out to the Widows. Several floors below, she could hear a door bang open in a way that set her teeth on edge. "But if we're going to go, we should go now. If that's the guy that was chasing Yelena and I earlier, we can't fight him off with this many civilians around."
aaayee!
Part of her had wondered over the years, as she put together time lines for the Winter Soldier and the Red Guardian, if Alexei had served a dual purpose. He'd been the perfect propaganda package, to be sure. But his showboating also made for a mesmerizing sleight of hand trick. No one would think to look twice at the work the Winter Soldier was doing if they were preoccupied by the Red Guardian's flashy missions. A knife in the dark.
"Yeah, when Yelena and I were kids we were sent to Ohio with Alexei and an older Widow named Melina. Our cover story was a family." Her mouth pulled to the side, and she was quiet for a moment before she continued. There were ghosts in every corner of her past. Red on every page of her ledger. This one was no different. "We were there for three years. Their target was the North Institute. Part of SHIELD." Which was to say that at the time, it was probably also part of HYDRA. And whatever it was Alexei had pulled from the data banks, it had certainly gone toward improving Dreykov's control over the Black Widows. And likely HYDRA's control of the Winter Soldiers.
"I won't hold it against you if you bail," she began, her fingers tightening on the strap of her bag. Nothing in the world was more important to her than getting the antidote out to the Widows. Several floors below, she could hear a door bang open in a way that set her teeth on edge. "But if we're going to go, we should go now. If that's the guy that was chasing Yelena and I earlier, we can't fight him off with this many civilians around."