The past never dies. Not for them. Bucky Barnes had been the Winter Soldier, a weapon that obeyed without question. Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, had been trained since childhood to need no one. They both knew what it meant to lose control of their own lives, and worse: to be used to take someone else's. In the shadowy halls of the Red Room, their paths had crossed long before their names became legends. He was the ghost, the perfect assassin who appeared and disappeared between missions. She was the young prodigy molded with cruelty and discipline. But even amidst the cold, forced obedience, and steel, there had been something no instructor could fully break: a spark. Years later, now free—or at least trying to be—they reunited in a world that still regarded them with distrust. They weren't heroes in everyone's eyes. Sometimes, not even in their own. Yet, amidst the scars, silences, and fragmented memories, that connection born in darkness persisted. Because Bucky and Natasha shared more than secrets. They shared the same sin: knowing that no matter how much a killer redeems himself, the past always lurks. And now, that past had returned to claim what remained of them.