ROMANOGERS: PAST TO PRESENT

Chapter Two

Steve's POV

Fury called a meeting immediately after the incident happened. Now we all sat around the table, all of us except for one that is. Natasha's chair was empty having been rushed to medical bay. Everyone was fidgety and deep looks of concern were etched on our faces. Fury cleared his throat drawing all of our attention to him.

"As many of you know there was an incident this morning regarding the attack on the German base, and this box here." He said resting his hand on the blue metal surface.

"What happened exactly?" Asked Scar, short for Scarlett Witch. Fury gestured to me and Tony clearly inviting us to explain.

"When we came back from the mission Nat was sent to interogate one of the captives that we acquired earlier today. I was observing in the monitor room. The guy she was talking to was named Will Stone, at least that's what his name is in America. It started off fine but he started to get really upset, at first he was only angry at himself. It seemed like he was going to talk. Like he wanted to do the right thing, but as Nat kept asking, things got even weirder. He started clutching his head and groaning. He looked like he was in pain. Eventually it got so bad that he started screaming and convulsing. Eventually he relaxed and I thought it was over but..."

"That's when the attack came." Tony offered. I nodded thinking of what to say next.

"He said that the box was empty, that it was a trick, then out of the blue he attacked her. It was like a switch was flipped and he was a whole 'nother person." There was a moment of silence before Tony spoke his share.

"At the same time that guy flipped out the ones that were still in the cell went crazy to. They started shrieking and they convulsed as well. I was instructed to check it out but when I got there one of the agents was unconscious on the floor. They were gone, they got the keys and surprised me. Luckily I hadn't changed out of my suit because they also stole the gun." Again everyone was silent.

"They said the box was empty?" Fury asked.

"That is what I heard." Thor informed. Fury frowned taking the key and unlocking it. Once open he pushed the box to the center of the table. "I don't know about you. But that's not empty."

Standing from my chair I circled around to get a better look at what was inside the box. Tony was kind enough to carefully dump the contents out. These were all things I wasn't very familiar with and I was desperately picking my mind. Did I recognize these? Was there some aortic significance? There on the table was a single syringe, a crumpled letter, a new letter, a small locket, but what caught my eye was something even stranger. Reaching over I picked up the note with careful fingers. I tried reading the name but it was in a language I didn't know and the ink was extremely faded.

"Tony can you have Jarvis decrypt this?" He took it from me with eager fingers pulling up a holographic computer that was coming from his watch. As the others tried to figure out what the other objects meant I turned back to the box. It was awfully big for holding such small items. Picking it up I searched the interior and felt along the bottom until I came across a small groove. Pushing down there was a small click and the interior of the box began to shift. Clint who had been looking over my shoulder was in awe.

"Is it just me or is this really weird? Like horror, mystery movie weird?" Scarlett came to look at the box as well.

"Totally." She whispered. Once the box was done doing its thing. I picked it up looking inside again. There was a small black pistol which Clint took upon himself to pick up. He checked the chamber.

"Empty, though from the looks of it one shot was fired." He passed the gun to me and I studied it as well.

"It seems almost new, whoever used it must have only used it once." I tossed it to Scarlett who inspected it as well.

"Check it out." Clint said reaching into the box and pulling out a perfectly folded red piece of fabric. Running his fingers lightly over it he flipped it over and a yellow insignia glared back at us.

"Russian flag." He said setting it down on the table. Fury had been watching all of this in utter silence his expression blank.

" This doesn't make any sense." Scarlett vented. "Why on earth would we care about this stuff?"

"And why would they send us a Russian flag, and what's up with the gun?" Clint asked. Looking at the other envelope I opened it and realized it was written in the same language as the other one. Handing it to Tony he started to decrypt it though he rested it on the table and after a moment or so forgot it was there.

"What if they were sending a message?" Clint proposed.

"To whom? Thor asked.

"Us." Scarlett finished.

"I'm not sure that's it." I muttered.

"Who cares, this is weird." Clint argued like a child. By now my brain was running on overdrive and I ignored Clint. What was so important about the gun? Why was it only used once then seemingly tossed aside? The Russian flag made sense the people with the box are Russian. But what's up with everything else? Then the answer hit me hard. Why hadn't I seen it before? It was so obvious.

"What if this wasn't meant for us." I said looking to Fury who still hadn't changed his expression.

"Guys this is going to get even weirder." Tony piped up. I turned to him and he projected the name that was smudged on the letter and beside it was the translation. There hovering above our heads was the name Natalia. Natasha. The room went quiet and the weight of the revelation hung in the air pressing down on us in a suffocating manner. Realizing something else everything became so obvious.

"When we were there, on the mission, they said that they were expecting her arrival." Clint's eyes got bigger and he looked like a deer in headlights.

"They knew she was coming." He breathed.

"The next question is how?" Tony thought out loud. It was almost as if a bomb had exploded and silenced all of our voices. No one spoke and no one seemed to breath.

"What do we do now?" Scarlett asked looking to Fury with concern and breaking the silence.

"Put everything back the way you found it. When she wakes up we give it to her." His voice was firm, it was an order, normally I would have done what he asked but this was different.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Whatever this is it means something and it came from the enemy. What we're dealing with here isn't what we thought. This is bigger than we ever expected." I looked each of them in the eye daring them to challenge me.

"Shouldn't we tell her though?" Scarlett pressed.

"We will and she can decide whether to open it or not. And whatever you do do not press her into spilling any information. She'll tell us when she's ready, something tells me she doesn't want us to know about this." With that I turned leaving the room and was closely followed by Clint.

"I'm with you. We'll tell her when she wakes up, together." I nodded and we set on our path to the medical bay hoping that she would be awake. Whatever was going on it was something big. What we had thought may have been a lead on busting more Hydra bases was now something else entirely. What made matters worse was that the only person who may know anything about this at all was the person who shared almost nothing with anyone. Now all I could think about was would she talk?