#during catws

Summary: In the days shortly after S.H.I.E.L.D.’s downfall, Natasha secretly visits Captain America’s exhibit at the Smithsonian to learn new details about the now-not-nameless Winter Soldier; the very man that was both her mentor and lover in her past life as a Red Room operative. Next stop, Kiev; reviving her own personal mission to retrieve the old KGB file on James “Bucky” Barnes.

With new facts and resurrected emotions, Natasha begins to have recurring dreams of him that reveal different facets of the man’s character throughout his life. Given the chance to have her lost love remember and cherish her after so many years, what price would she pay to be reunited?

Rating: Mature

Status: Complete

Submitter’s thoughts: This story gives us Natasha’s pov at the end of CA:TWS through the end of the helecarrier battle, he search for information on the Winter Soldier, and as she recovers memories and information in the form of skewed nightmares–some possible, some not–in which her mind tries to sort out the past, what she knows of the Winter Soldier, where she fits in and how she feels about it. A very well written combination of reality, dream and imaging of who both she and James Barnes were and might have been.

Mod’s thoughts: It’s a very good insight of Natasha’s mind, seeing how she deals with guilt, love, loss, and all kinds of overwhelming emotion. 

One of Agent Phoenix's biggest legacies was The Critical Operations Response and Enforcement (C.O.R.E.) Program, founded during the tail end of her time in International Operations. In addition to herself, its first members included Agent Tessa Rink, a weapons specialist, and Agent Bethany Price, a spy. Amongst others, the team later accepted Agent Else Zelle into its ranks, a combat specialist who went on to become the lead field operative.