Without any visible hesitation, Natasha's demeanor shifted from surprised to composed, her body language relaxing slightly as if she was no longer on edge. "I must admit, when Andrew said to expect anything, I never expected to see you." she said, her voice steady, masking the storm of thoughts behind her calm exterior.
The man chuckled lightly, his amusement evident. "Well, if you decide to stay around, you will quickly learn to have a far more open mind." he remarked casually.
Natasha knew she needed to buy time, to assess fully the dynamics of the situation she found herself in. "You make it sound like I can still leave at this point, I doubt you all will let me go back now."
The man's expression remained amiable, but there was a glint in his eye that suggested he enjoyed the cat-and-mouse game unfolding between them. "It might still be a possibility, we are quite good at erasing memories, but as you just said in the meeting, you are here because you want to do good, and I assure you that we can help you with that."
Natasha processed his words. She knew well that most ways of erasing memories had some rather horrifying side effects. So yeah, she would rather not go down that route, which meant she was well and truly trapped here.
"But I'm getting ahead of myself. I haven't even properly introduced myself. My name is Jonathan Graves, but you can call me Agent Graves," he said with a wide smile. "But we both know that you already knew that, Miss Romanoff."
"Well, you clearly know a lot about me already, so, what now?" Natasha asked, still very much alert and on edge.
Graves nodded. "Stright to the point eh? Well I'm just here to bring you to meet with a superior, you should know. This is a supreme honor to meet with someone of this rank, even me, after many years of work have never even seen someone of this rank."
Natasha couldn't help but notice the clear awe, respect, the near worship in his tone as he spoke about this person. 'Perhaps this really is some strange cult after all.' She couldn't help but think.
However, she really did not have much of a choice at this point. Escape was very unlikely from a place as heavily defended as this, more so since she was unarmed. Which meant she could only follow along for now, and hope, hope that this would end well for her. "Lead the way."
Graves smiled at her reply and turned around. Natasha took a deep breath and started following behind as she was led through a series of winding corridors down stairs. Deep into the Ricci Family complex, down into SITE-009
The trip was made without a sound, safe their footsteps; Natasha's mind raced, analyzing the route, details of the guards, everything she could to try and plot a possible escape.
Finally, they came to a stop in front of a big, heavy-looking steel door. Graves paused, his hand hovering over a biometric scanner. "Beyond this door, you'll meet one of the key figures in our organization. Remember, respect and honesty are paramount."
The door unlocked with a heavy thud, sliding open to reveal a large room, something akin to a vehicle bay. Expect there were no vehicles at all. Instead, the room was filled with hundreds of heavily armed guards. All proudly wearing the same symbol as on Alexandra's pin, as well as a black hand holding a black arrow on a white background.
Natasha had been in some rather intense and dangerous situations before. Yet it was the first time she found herself staring down that made gun barrels all at once. Other than the guards, there was another person, if it could even be called that.
A pitch-black silhouette of a man, his eyes and mouth emitting an eerie glow. The same circle with three arrows pointing towards the middle once more glowing on his own chest. It was very clear from the way they all stood arranged that this black silhouette was the most important person here.
Graves pushed onward into the room, his steps measured, neither too eager nor too cautious. "Overseer, sir! It's an honor to meet you."
The silhouette, the Overseer, turned towards them, its glowing eyes fixing on Natasha. The atmosphere in the room shifted, thick with anticipation and an unspoken weight of authority emanating from the figure.
Despite its non-human appearance, the Overseer's presence was commanding; its voice, when it finally spoke, was deep and resonant, filling the space with a tangible force.
"Agent Graves, you have worked hard. You are a credit to the Foundation." The Overseer said, his voice impossible to forget yet impossible to truly remember as well.
"Natasha Romanoff." The Overseer continued. "I have been looking forward to meeting you; my assistant, Alexander, spoke highly of your potential."
Natasha found it hard to believe that someone as powerful as Alexander Ricci, one of the most powerful people in the world, would work for someone else, much less as an assistant to someone else.
She wasn't sure what to think, but she needed to ace this conversation, this person, whoever or whatever they were. They held her life in their hands right now. "I'm afraid he didn't mention you… Overseer?"
The Overseer's glowing eyes seemed to intensify, casting an otherworldly light across the room. "Understandable," the figure responded, its voice echoing slightly as if coming from a great distance. "Alexander's role was discreet, as is the nature of our work. You may call me Overseer, Agent Graves, inform Miss Romanoff of our mission."
Graves happily stepped up and began to explain, revealing information that Fury would give his firstborn for. "We are the SCP Foundation, a global group that seeks to Secure objects of interest and threats. We then Secure those objects, locking them up so no one can use them for evil. Finally, we protect, humanity and normalcy.
Barely stopping to breathe, he continued. "The Foundation seeks only to ensure that the world and humanity continue onward without the threat of the abnormal. All around the world, agents such as myself work tirelessly to secure and contain things that should be."
His explanation went on and on, growing ever more fervent as he went on, even while the amount of useful information lessened. Clearly, there were some cultlike tents among the members of this Foundation, but still, Natasha enjoyed every bit of information she could get.
As Graves finally paused, Natasha found her voice. "So, you're telling me there's a whole hidden world out there, full of... what? Monsters? Artifacts with impossible powers?" She tried to keep her tone neutral, professional, but the implications of what she was hearing were too vast to fully mask her intrigue.
Graves nodded, his eyes alight with the fervor of belief. "Exactly. Things the public isn't ready to know about or couldn't handle. Things that could cause panic, or worse, if they were left unchecked. And it's not just about locking away these anomalies; it's about understanding them, finding ways to use them for the greater good, under controlled conditions, of course."
Natasha wasn't slow to put two and two together. The mysterious group that Coulson was seeking, the ones responsible for creating the enhanced children, well she had indeed found them. Only they weren't creating them, just capturing them.
This did kinda fit with the whole idea SHIELD had had. A mysterious cabal out for peace, and some unknown group trying to stir chaos. Only that had been wrong about their one clue on the chaos group, instead they had been looking for the cabal.
"As you can see, Romanoff, we at the Foundation are the good guys. With us, you can do a lot of good," The Overseer said, bringing focus back onto him. "Much more than you possibly could working for Shield."
"Your work is indeed impressive, and your goals noble," Natasha replied cautiously, her eyes scanning the Overseer and the room's occupants, all while assessing her situation. "But SHIELD is already doing what you are doing, and they aren't a secret organisation, they are backed and approved by the government around the world."
The Overseer, snapped his fingers and some of the guards came over from the back, carrying a table and chairs. "Come, sit with me Romanoff, and I will show you why we and Shield are very different indeed."
What came next was truly eye-opening for Natasha. She was aware that these people knew about SHIELD, that they had information about them. Yet never had she expected the amount of classified information they had.
Nor had she expected that yeah, SHIELD was indeed infiltrated, but it wasn't just a few people. No it was enough so that this Foundation considered it as a separate department within SHIELD. No wonder that the Mandarin had attacked SHIELD facilities, there was no way to separate those from HDYRA.
The very fact that those guys hadn't died after the end of the second world war but had instead grown to this point was nothing short of mindblowing. She couldn't help but think back to all the missions she had done for SHIELD since she joined, just how many of those had been HYDRA missions?
While she had been trying to do good, to make up the the horrors of her past, she had instead been furthering the goals of HYDRA, just about the worst kinds of people ever. Every mission she did was now in question.
The world suddenly felt a whole lot less simple. She had truly believed that SHIELD was her way to redemption. Yet laid out before her was far too much proof that SHIELD couldn't be trusted to do good.
Even director Fury, while thankfully not a part of SHIELD had big secrets, dark ones. If even half the things she read here were true, then indeed. It would only have been due to the Foundation that the world was spinning, and people were still free.
Naturally, she wasn't about to believe it all herself, but she had to admit, things did make a whole lot of sense right now. "The evidence is compelling," Natasha finally said, her voice a mixture of skepticism and awe. "But why reveal all of this to me? What do you want from me?"
"Because." The Overseer paused slightly. "Because, even we can only do what we do because we have people like Agent Graves to do the heavy lifting, we are only as good as the members who work for us are." He patiently explained.
Natasha couldn't deny that this guy was good. His every word no doubt measured out perfectly to ensure that he would get what he wanted. The worst thing was that she couldn't deny it was working. She now doubted SHIELD more than ever, while she, too, was curious about this Foundation.
"Alright, what happens now, then?" She asked after a moment's pause.
The Overseer's mask had been smiling the entire time, yet she could have sworn that it smiled just a bit wider at her question. "Now Romanoff, is the time where you agree to work for me. You will do you best to judge us, spy on us. Planning to report everything back to Fury, yet before you can, you will realize that we, the Foundation, is the only choice, and you will become a spy for us."
Natasha leaned forward, her eyes narrowing slightly, not in aggression, but in an effort to discern more from the glowing gaze of the Overseer. "You seem very sure of this future you've laid out. But if you know so much, why need me at all? Surely, there are others, less... complicated acquisitions."
The Overseer leaned back, the room's lights reflecting off his silhouette in an otherworldly dance. "Indeed, there are many skilled individuals. But few possess your unique blend of talents, experience, and, most importantly, your moral compass. You've walked through darkness yet consistently strive for the light. That's invaluable to us."
Finally, Natasha let out a sigh. "Alright, what's first for me then?" She had to admit, she couldn't turn him down, not only because she didn't doubt she would die the moment she did, but also because she truly did want to spy on him and his Foundation.
Nodding his head, the Overseer leaned back. "My time is precious, but I can ask a few of your questions, I can see in your eyes that your heart overflows with them."
A/N
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