BIOGRAPHY - Page 24
Worlds lived and worlds died and the multiverse was reborn. Black Widow returned to freelancing for S.H.I.E.L.D., but her reputation within the organization became strained. Senior agents began to question why their operatives had to die because Natasha set her own rules and went off-mission so often. Natasha remained professional and tried to stop the assassination of Maria Hill at the funeral of one of these agents. To her surprise, she was the actual target, captured and brought before the information broker known as the Weeping Lion. The Lion had uncovered one 
of Black Widow’s most haunting secrets… her involvement in the capture and detainment of Ho Yinsen, Tony Stark’s mentor who died building the Iron Man. With this secret hanging over her head, the Weeping Lion was confident he could make Natasha fulfill his requests for her skills. Unwilling to face Tony and determined to find out how her secret was compromised, Natasha reluctantly agreed to his terms.
Black Widow conducted a brazen daylight raid on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, making off with the documents the Weeping Lion needed. These documents pointed towards the current location of 
the Red Room in Russia, and the real prize the Lion sought therein. In the seemingly abandoned catacombs of the Red Room where Natalia once trained, she found the files the Weeping Lion sought… a full list of all former associates of the Red Room who still lived. But the nostalgia left Natasha off-guard and she was stabbed by a Widow-in-training. Her old instructor Iosef still lived in this remote area, and he helped patch Natasha up after the attack. Iosef explained that Anya had recreated her mother’s school, forging her own “Dark Room” to train a new generation of Widows. Knowing this, Natasha could not allow the Red Room to torture and brainwash children again.
At the Dark Room’s secret base, Black Widow was surprised to find the headmistress was still alive. Anya had taken the alias “Recluse” after compelling her mother to give her all the training she was denied as a child. Recluse was eager to defeat the Black Widow in combat, but the headmistress saw how Natalia was weakened from the little Widow’s stab wound. She told her 
daughter her victory over Natasha would not be absolute until she faced a healthy foe. Instead, the headmistress and Recluse turned over the Weeping Lion’s prize to Natasha, knowing those old contractors no longer held any use for them. Black Widow was allowed to depart, with the expectation that Recluse would hunt her down as soon as she was ready. [Black Widow (6th series) #1-4]
Natasha prepared to complete her mission for the Weeping Lion, but S.H.I.E.L.D. caught up with her at the drop-off point. Agent Elder was the senior operative whose agent died protecting the Widow, so the hunt was personal for him. Natasha tried to get him out of the line of fire, but the Lion wasn’t taking chances with the interruption. His people opened fire on Natasha and Elder, forcing them to flee. Elder was shot by a sniper, and he recognized how much Natasha was giving up as she tried to keep him alive instead of leaving him to die. When two of the Lion’s agents got the drop on them, Elder sacrificed himself by setting off a grenade that consumed him, their attackers… and the files. Once the Weeping Lion learned the files were destroyed, he held up his threat and released the Widow’s involvement in Yinsen’s kidnapping to the public. [Black Widow (6th series) #5]
Knowing she couldn’t outrun Iron Man, Black Widow instead baited out Stark with a traceable phone call. Once he saw how tired and beaten Natasha looked, Tony’s sympathy kicked in and he gave her time to explain. As they walked to his nearby Stark office, Natasha admitted the news was true and she regretted her actions. Of course, Natasha was nowhere near as injured as she appeared, and she disabled Tony the moment he got her access to his private office. Natasha had 
seen Stark shipping crates at the Weeping Lion’s lair and used the memorized serial number to retrace it through Tony’s private servers. Black Widow was ready for the Weeping Lion this time, and he had no more blackmail to keep her back. As she fought and defeated the massive, masked man identified as the Lion, however, the real Weeping Lion stepped from the shadows.
The proxy’s cousin, the real Lion was a slight figure with telepathic powers who used his more imposing partner to intimidate his clients. 
The cousins had hated Natasha for decades, as they were the surviving son and nephew of her first official kill, the Yugoslavian. Not content to simply murder the Black Widow, the Weeping Lion wanted to destroy anyone connected to the Red Room which originally ordered their sire’s death. The headmistress made no public appearances where she could be telepathically read, and so the Lion employed Natasha to retrieve the files while forcing her to betray S.H.I.E.L.D. at the same time, using secrets ferreted from her mind. The Black Widow deduced some of this already, though, and so she also raided Stark’s armory for an anti-telepathy earpiece and a repulsor glove. She brought down the Weeping Lion and forced him to begin working for her. [Black Widow (6th series) #6]
Black Widow was unwilling to allow the Dark Room to continue. She forced the Weeping Lion to accompany her as they sought out the headmistress and Recluse. The headmistress had already deployed the little Widows on various missions, and so the Lion tried to extract the information telepathically. The old woman chose to shoot herself rather than let her mind betray her. When the Lion turned his telepathy on Recluse, he got a surprise. The headmistress hadn’t shared the real 
details of her plans with her daughter. Recluse was a weapon, not a true successor in her eyes. Recluse lashed out at Natasha and threatened her, but the Black Widow did not blink. She told Anya that her mother had always loved Natalia more because she respected Nat’s determination and resolve… which Anya never possessed. Truly, Anya could only mourn her mother and was still too afraid of Natasha to actually attack her. [Black Widow (6th series) #7]
The search for the little Widows led Natasha and the Lion to the White House, where they interrupted a tour in progress as several Dark Room assassins made a strike at the Vice President. The assassination was stopped and the girls taken into custody, where they could hopefully be deprogrammed. Natasha was called back to Iosef’s cabin, however, and found him dying of a gut shot wound. Inside, Recluse had captured Black Widow’s unknown guardian angel, the Winter Soldier, who had secretly supported her mission ever since she met the Weeping Lion. 
Even Anya knew about the past relationship between Natalia and James, though the Widow still seemed unaware. Barnes broke free and together he and Natalia succeeded in driving off Recluse. The Winter Soldier told the Black Widow her presence had been requested by Nick Fury, the Unseen. [Black Widow (6th series) #8-9]
Ever since the death of the Watcher, Fury had been condemned to possess the knowledge of the Watchers while wandering the Blue Area of the Moon in torment. Barnes had replaced him as “the Man on the Wall,” and knew he had information for Natasha. Black Widow brought along the Weeping Lion to the Blue Area, but the Lion was prepared to betray her and finally seek his revenge for the Yugoslavian’s death. He secretly brought along one of the little Widows to steal their ship and tried to peek inside the Unseen’s mind. The information broker could not cope with the raw data held by Fury’s mind, and his head literally exploded from the download. The Widow 
and the Soldier nearly died on the moon – the Lion only made them think they filled their air tanks – but they survived and recovered their ship from the little Widow. Natasha and James kissed after succeeding, and something about her mannerisms made Bucky suspect the Lion’s telepathic download restored Natasha’s memories of their time together. Natasha smiled, neither confirming nor denying the theory, and only said that romance wasn’t on her mind at the moment. [Black Widow (6th series) #10]
In his own way, the Unseen directed Black Widow towards “Friendship,” the Antarctic data storage failsafe site for S.H.I.E.L.D. Recluse and the six remaining little Widows intended to gather the six keys necessary to activate the self-destruct and wipe out all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s data network. Although she fought with the Widows as they assaulted facility staff for their keys, Natasha also tried to reason with the Dark Room graduates and convince them to turn from the cause. Recluse was also on-site, having gone so far as to dress like her mother and declare herself the new headmistress. With Natasha at her mercy, Recluse taunted her with the ability to stop the shutdown. All six keys needed to be turned at once, so Natasha needed only kill one of the girls to prevent the fallout. Natasha refused and triggered an emergency flood instead to buy more time.
A weakened Natasha reached the Widows and pressed them to recognize how quickly Recluse was willing to sacrifice them, just to prove a point to Natasha. Anya caught up and demanded loyalty from her subordinates, but they left Anya and Natasha to fight it out to decide their fate. 
Natasha outwitted Anya and made her way back to the girls first, who pulled her to safety. Recluse had lost her hold on the Widows, and her pathetic attempts to become her mother or best Natasha for personal reasons were laid bare. Natasha reconciled with Tony Stark and Maria Hill, ensuring that the Widows would be given a real education, a home and a chance at a normal life. They reminded her that, as much as she liked to pretend otherwise, Natasha had friends and loved ones to support her, and it was time she remembered that. [Black Widow (6th series) #11-12]