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For years, she didn't know which trainer she obeyed when she became the fiercest, strongest Black Widow that Mother Russia had ever created, exceptional enough that they retired the rank and saved it wholly for her.
When Natalia fought, she felt the ghost whispers of metal fingers correcting her form, heard the murmurs of instruction, remembered the merciless pride driving her to strive for perfection. She honored this (almost) forgotten comrade by becoming all he had envisioned her to be.
When she defects, she remembers that he was American, that sometimes he shivered in her arms and longed for a boy whose name he'd forgotten. She remembers that America too holds honor, and she honors him in pilgrimage to his homeland, in becoming the woman he'd wished she could be.