Chapter Text
Natasha was taken as a child to do Hydra's bidding.
It began with her training in multiple martial arts, which then moved on to learning to read, write, and speak fluently in not only English, but also German, Russian, Italian, and French. She learned ballet to aid in her flexibility and agility, and was taught how to use multiple weapons. She not only preferred to shoot guns, but her sniping abilities were unparalleled.
Growing up, she was kept mostly isolated, except for her instructors, tutors, and handlers. They kept her on a strict schedule, and she knew what to expect day after day.
She was the perfect example of a conditioned soldier in Hydra's eyes, and if she ever dared to stray from their firm grasps of her reality, she was set straight through different forms of punishment.
It depended on what was acted out on, but her compliance was always gained back and she would return to her routine and daily life of learning and training.
They moulded her to become the perfect weapon. Their fist. She learned how to keep her emotions in check through varying degrees of torture and was rewarded through a change of meal, more learning of her favourite language, or further studies and training. They eventually gave her a serum that enhanced every aspect of her skills, including her stamina, endurance, healing capabilities, speed, and agility, among several others.
She was vaguely told by a tutor about the small black heart on her left wrist. They explained that everyone was born with the same heart shape, colour, and size, and proceeded to show Natasha hers. Natasha was awed by the way it filled to black completely and then emptied, leaving behind only the outline, pulsing in time to a real heartbeat.
"When you come into contact with your soulmate, the heart on your wrist will begin to beat in time with theirs and the soulmark on their own wrist will beat in time to yours. You do not need to touch for this to occur; your gaze locking with theirs will suffice," the tutor explained, and that was all that was said on the matter. Natasha knew better than to ask for further clarification as she looked down to her own small, yet unmoving, soulmarked heart and hoped that she would eventually find her soulmate, but knew that that reality never truly belonged to her, and if it did, she wouldn't be able to entertain the idea.
***
In her early twenties, she was grateful for the mission that had gone so terribly wrong. The loss of her left arm was a blessing in disguise if she was being honest. Before she lost it, the small heart that sat on her wrist mocked her day after day and although her emotions were suppressed to unearthly degrees, the faintest bit of hope bloomed at the thought of eventually meeting her other half. Now that she no longer had it, she could focus in her missions without the distraction, and as Hydra's number one weapon, she was thankful for the final piece of hope that no longer stayed with her.
They grafted a bionic vibranium arm in place of her old limb, choosing to forgo replacing the blackened heart, and instead painted and etched into her metallic shoulder a red star - a contrast to what she lost. It was better this way.
***
After several missions with her new arm, she soon found herself unstoppable. She began training new recruits, taking out her frustrations and Hydra's constant torments on her "colleagues," if that's what they were even called, and she soon took over more and more assassination assignments.
On one particular mission in Iran, her target was being guarded by a small group of individuals she recognized briefly but didn't care enough about to worry her. "Take out whoever gets in your way," one of her handlers had told her before she left for this assignment. And take them out she did. One of the individuals got in the way, and she shot through his stomach, ultimately killing her target, but before Natasha could blend into the shadows to get away undetected, she locked eyes with the man for a fraction of a second. She thought nothing of it, seeing as she was very rarely seen but when she was, she was easily forgotten and thanks to her mask and goggles, there was no way for him to track her down.
She didn't know until too late how wrong she was.