Things were starting to get back to normal. The Avengers didn't notice too much about how Natasha acted when Darcy spoke about her. For one, they knew she would most likely be more guarded and cold. They knew that their friend didn't want to feel vulnerable and helpless, and Natasha was hiding it well. They were happy that she was taking things this well.

Natalia wouldn't let anyone in her room except for Darcy. She didn't want to be weak in front of her 'teammates', and since she couldn't remember them too well, she didn't want to blow her cover. She learned that Darcy didn't know her very well, or at all really so she allowed her to help her recover. Darcy felt happy to be around her, and she suspected nothing out of the ordinary since she had only just met the red head a week ago. Natalia quickly started to gain her strength back. This was greatly helped by the tea Bruce would send her. He had added some kind of concoction to it that helped her heal faster. Natalia was thinking that her own super serum accelerated whatever was in it, causing her to get better and stronger. She was also trying to work out in the small space of her room. She wanted to stay sharp. When Darcy relayed the information back to Bruce, he agreed with her since he gave some to anyone who was injured and that they didn't recover as fast as she was. Natalia had also discovered JARVIS, and she quickly read files and watched video of the team. She learned about how 'Natasha' acted around them, and learned the teams fighting moves so that she could use that against them. She saw that Natasha was always holding back when she was in a fight. Natalia had no idea why, but she knew she was quicker and stronger than that. She also learned about the pasts of the Avengers, and was surprised when she read that Steve was almost as old as she was, and also had his own super serum. Also that Thor was an actual god. She then recalled Loki talking about his brother, whose name was Thor. This concerned her, having to kill Loki's brother. The Red Room came first though. She was also quite surprised when she learned that the level headed Bruce Banner could transform into a giant green monster. She thought to herself to test him out one day. She saw a clip of Natasha fighting him, but Natasha was being slow, and not as quick and agile as she could be. This frustrated Natalia. She didn't use a lot of the skills taught to her in Red Room and she still had no idea why she acted that that. It was almost as if she was afraid to let herself go and lose control. She spent hours upon hours studying the files. She finally knew her team.

When Darcy brought her breakfast and tea that morning, she felt amazing. She told Darcy she was ready to leave her room, so she did. Dressed in comfortable grey sweats and a black tank top, she went to the training area. She started by doing some stretches, stretching out her healed muscles. They gave no protest. The tea and her working out did her body good. She started with a few laps around the gym and then did some push-ups and crunches. She was pleased to find that she could do many, and that her wrist hadn't started hurting. She then went over to the gun range and picked up a beautiful looking handgun. She played with the course settings, setting them to the hardest level, and shot down every single target, right through the bull's eye. Based on the videos she saw, she couldn't do that before and again, made her mad. Why was she holding back when she was drilled to be her best? She ran a few more laps until she started to get tired. Not wanting to push herself anymore, she went back to her room for a shower.

While she was rinsing off, she was hit with another flashback. She was back at the Red Room facility. She had just finished a training session with James when he kicked her in the stomach, hard. She stumbled over to the wall while holding on to her aching midsection, all the while fighting back the urge to vomit. When she couldn't hold it any longer, she emptied the contents of her stomach on to the floor and then looked up to see Ivan standing over her with a look of concern. He grabbed her by the arm and half dragged her to the lab where Dr. Andrei was waiting. Ivan looked mad. "I'm fine Ivan, I've taken worse hits before," she said. Ivan looked at her and then slapped her across the face. "What have I told you about being always being alert! I saw you, you watched as your knife was knocked from your hands and skid across the floor. You should have been focusing on your opponent! Have I taught you nothing!?" She then received another slap across the face. Before she knew it, she watched as Dr. Andrei slid a machine next to her and then inject her with a needle into the arm. After a few moments, everything went black.

When she came to, she saw that the machine was gone and a nurse was there to discharge her. She had no idea what they did to her, and knew it wouldn't be wise to ask questions, or face the wrath of Ivan again. On the way back to her room, she saw James with Ivan in the training room, and Ivan was furious with him. James wouldn't meet his gaze and even though Natalia couldn't hear what Ivan was yelling, she knew it must have been pretty serious. She cursed herself for not paying attention. She hadn't been feeling well and was thrown off of her game. She swore it wouldn't happen again.

Natalia shook her head to clear the images from her mind. She jumped in shock when she discovered that the shower had run cold. She jumped out and dressed quickly for warmth. She always hated the cold.

The boys, as well as Jane and Darcy were all in the common room watching TV and eating popcorn. Darcy was smirking about the thought of Loki in his makeshift cell down in the lab. They didn't know how long it would take for the crystals energy to leave Natasha's body, and they wanted him there just in case something happened. A scuffle then broke out between Tony and Thor. They were arguing about who was going to get voted off of the show Survivor, so they started throwing things at each other. First, it started off as just popcorn. Then, the remote control shattered onto Thor's chest. When Tony put his Iron Man glove on, everyone started making bets. Clint threw a paper weight to Thor to throw at Tony.

"So not fair Legolas!" Tony smirked at the nickname he gave Clint, knowing that he didn't like it. As he smirked, the paperweight came flying at him and he barely caught it as he was thrown off his feet by the force of Thor's throw into the wall. Thor erupted into laughter as well as the rest of the room. It made Tony angry to be laughed at, so he grabbed a nearby knife from the shelf and threw it at Thor, knowing that he would catch it and not be hurt. It was all just fun. He didn't expect it when Thor ducked, and the knife sailed over his head and straight towards Jane. Everyone shut their eyes in horror, expecting the knife to impale the girl, but it didn't happen. Out of nowhere, Natasha had arrived and caught the knife in midair, mere centimeters from Jane's chest. A sigh of relief was heard from around the room, and Thor ran to Jane's side, making sure that she was okay. Natalia gripped the knife and wondered why she even bothered to catch it when Jane would just die later. It felt as if someone else had forced her to save the girl. She flipped the knife around and then threw it into the dartboard hanging across the living room, right into the bull's-eye. She wasn't expecting it when Jane jumped up and hugged her. She allowed it for a second before pushing the girl off. She ignored the shocked faces of the people in the room. "I think Tash won," Clint remarked in regards to the bet. It made her uncomfortable, so she walked out and into the kitchen to make herself a snack. When she made her sandwich, she turned to leave the room and found the faces of Bruce, Steve, Jane, Thor, Tony, and Clint all staring at her in the doorway.

"What," she asked. "Do I have something on my face?"

"Natasha!" they all yelled, running at her and Clint picking her up and swinging her around. They were all so glad to finally see her okay. She looked strong, and they were happy for her. She played the part and laughed with them, silently resisting the crushing embrace they had her in. She wanted nothing more than to smash their faces in. When they dispersed, she hopped onto the counter as they drilled her with questions on how she was feeling, if she had any pain, if she needed a sparring partner. She answered them all with annoyance. "Well she's back to her old self," Tony said picking up on her annoyance. Not a single one though asked her about what she experienced in Red Room when she was stuck in her memories. And as far as she knew, she was just recovering from a mission gone wrong. After talking with them for an hour or two, she decided to head back up to her room. They were all so nice, she thought. She almost regretted having to kill them all.

The next few weeks, she trained in the training room. She was now completely healed and back to tip top shape. She annihilated all the sparring robots in her sessions, and was impressed with the technology. She practiced mostly at night, when everyone else was sleeping. She couldn't sleep. Her dreams were filled with memories of her teammates and it was starting to changer her feelings towards them. She couldn't let that happen. She was going to have to act fast. She was also having more flashbacks. She felt as if she hadn't lived them yet though. It was as if she was having someone else's flashbacks, but they felt so real. It was like the past and present were fighting with each other, while in the past. It gave her a headache just thinking about it.

While Darcy hung out with her one day in her room, she got up once again to throw up. She had gotten food poisoning and Natalia was caring for her. Sort of like a debt. As she listened in on the sick girl, she was thrown into another flashback.

She was meeting at the cave again with Loki. They enjoyed each other's company and it was a welcome reprieve from their lives. They had met every night for the past week, and Natalia had been sick. She had been throwing up almost every day. "We do not have this 'food poisoning' on Asgard. I am sorry you have to experience this." Natalia was sitting near the entrance, trying to get some fresh air to settle her stomach. She was pissed that Ivan had pulled her from any more missions for a while. All because she just HAD to lose her focus and get kicked in the stomach. And now this? She wanted to punch something, mostly James. "I just don't get it," she said. "I hate just sitting here when I can be punching something, or on a mission, or punching something on a mission." Loki just held her and let her talk her frustrations out. He wasn't used to the mood swings of women, but he cared for her.

When Darcy came back, she fluffed up the pillows for her and Darcy lay down. She fell fast asleep but the flashback made Natalia restless. To distract herself, she decided to go to the training room again. This time, Bruce was there, taking his frustrations out on a punching bag.

"Hey B, you okay?" she asked. He looked at her and stopped his attack on the punching bag. "I'm fine Nat." She hated when anyone called her that. She didn't believe him. "If you are so fine then why do you not look fine?" She tried to act comforting towards him. In reality, she wanted him to change. She wanted to take her own frustrations out and who better to do it with than the Hulk she had seen so much about. She offered him comforting words and concocted a plan. She saw a bench behind her with an array of knives on the seat. What would he do if he 'hurt' her? She smiled to herself and put her plan in action, she knew just what would set him off and make it look like an accident. She had even researched it, and predicted that titanium mixed with tungsten could pierce his skin. No one else knew this, not even him. She just hoped she was right. The knife she had made for it was kept in her boot. Not just for him, but she felt better always having a knife on her.

"Are you sure you are okay?" she asked him. Raising his voice, he yelled at her. "I said I'm fine Natasha!" Acting like he scared her, she visibly jumped and put her hand up in a warding off position. He looked at her in horror and felt bad about scaring her. "Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it," he said as he took a step towards her with his arm out to touch her comfortingly. Still faking being afraid, she took another step back as he stepped forward and 'tripped' over the bench. She 'tried' to catch herself, 'accidentally' cutting her arm open on one of the knives. As she lay on the ground bleeding, Bruce muttered "Oh my god!" and jumped over the felled bench to see if she was okay. "Don't touch me!" she screamed as she looked at him in 'fear' as he grabbed her injured arm. "I'm so sorry Nat, I, I didn't mean to! It was an accident!" In his horror, he started to lose control of himself. Natalia smiled as he started to turn green. She watched in amazement as his clothes started to tear, green muscles growing from the man's body. With a roar, the Hulk beat his chest and looked at Natalia with hatred in his eyes. In return, Natalia looked at him in excitement. This was going to be fun.