I have to say I'm really excited about the prospect of a Black Widow movie. It's about time! I've had this idea roaming around in my head for a bit, so I decided, in light of the big announcement, to go ahead and attempt to write it. This is nothing like my usual stories, so I hope I can do justice to this plot bunny. This is set at around the end of Infinity Wars, but there will be a few flashbacks to Black Widow's time on the run after Civil War. There will be a bit of intrigue, romance, and adventure with multiple Avengers making appearances. I hope you enjoy the ride. This chapter is a bit short, because it's the introduction but I have several chapters mapped out.

I don't own these characters. They all belong to Marvel.

Natasha slowly opened her eyes. Whatever hit her had certainly left a mark. Honestly, she was surprised to be alive. If Steve hadn't blocked a portion of the blast with his shield, she certainly wouldn't be walking away from this one.

Steve? Where was Steve? Natasha slowly rose into a sitting position, moving her left hand to her aching head as she sat up. Yep, it definitely stung. She didn't have to see a doctor to know she had a concussion, but at least the head injury didn't appear to be bleeding much. Cautiously, she moved her head, scanning the debris-cluttered landscape of Wakanda for signs of Steve or the others.

She was just about to stand up when she saw Steve's shield. Before she could get to it, she heard Bruce calling her name. "Nat, thank God, finally. I was afraid I'd lost you!"

"Steve," Natasha muttered, pointing toward the shield.

"Easy, Nat," Bruce whispered as he helped her up. "I'll take a look."

Natasha followed behind Bruce slowly. Bruce moved the debris off of Steve as quickly as he could. The captain was face down, so he and Natasha rolled him over to assess his condition.

"I'm sorry," Steve muttered, looking directly into Natasha's eyes, then he took a last breath and closed his eyes.

"Steve!" Natasha screamed, but he was gone. Natasha closed her own eyes and let the tears fall.

"What the-" Bruce exclaimed and Natasha opened her eyes. Where Steve's body had been, a strange monster was in it's place. Still in the tattered uniform of Captain America was a reptilian creature of some kind. With it's pointy ears and odd jawline, one thing was abundantly clear. This was not the corpse of America's first Avenger.

"Bruce?" Natasha questioned.

"I have no idea, Nat, absolutely no idea."

The two Avengers were still staring at the creature when Nick Fury, Tony, and a woman Natasha had never seen before arrived. "Out of the way," the woman shouted as she pulled a strange device out of her bag and attached it to the corpse. "Stand clear." A volt of blue-green energy shot through the body and the creature coughed and opened his eyes. "Don't you dare shape shift, skrull. The gig is up. You will be questioned."

The creature, skrull, Natasha corrected herself nodded slightly to the woman before focusing his eyes back on Natasha. "I am sorry," he whispered, "I was only doing my job."

"Fury, what's going on?" an exasperated Tony asked. "One minute we're getting destroyed by Thanos and the next minute you show up with this blonde chick, the tide turns, Thanos flees, and Steve is a crocodile. Answers now."

Nick narrowed his eye and gave Tony a glare. "I think you meant to say thank you, Fury, but I realize you've had a hard day so I'm going to give you a pass."

"I'm not one of your S.H.I.E.L.D minions, Fury. I meant exactly what I said. I don't answer to you," Tony fumed.

"No," Fury agreed, "I believe you answer to the U.N. now, don't you, Stark?"

As the two men had their bitter exchange, Sam, Wanda, Hawkeye, and Bucky arrived. "Steve?" Bucky asked as he stared at the monster.

"No," Fury replied, "Steve Rogers has been compromised. This is a skrull. He's a war-like alien who's species have been attempting to take over the world since the 90's."

"A warlike what?" Hawkeye asked.

At the same moment, Sam added, "the 90's?"

"And, you're just mentioning this now, because?" demanded Tony.

"Need to know information, Stark, and you didn't need to know," Fury replied.

"Fury, we need to transport the prisoner. He still needs significant medical treatment and we need him to answer our questions," the woman replied.

"Of course, Danvers," Fury agreed, "the rest of you will be fully briefed when we get to the helicarrier."

"Fury taking orders," Tony muttered.

"I'm deferring to my skrull expert, Stark. Captain Danvers may look like a new recruit but she's been fighting skrull since you were still pouting over your daddy issues."

"Daddy issues? And, this girl couldn't possibly have been fighting in the 90's. She was, what, 5?"

"Looks can be deceiving, Mr. Stark. My name is Captain Carol Danvers, but people tend to call me Captain Marvel."

"Captain Marvel? Never heard of you," Tony replied.

"I told you you weren't the only superhero, Stark. Time to go. I'll catch you all up when we are in the air."

Bruce offered Natasha an arm as they walked to their transport. Bruce's eyes never left Natasha, but hers closely followed the injured skrull. Where was Steve? And, who was this skrull who had just saved her life? Had he been impersonating Steve from the start? Did she ever even meet the real Captain America? Natasha shuddered. This was the most insane day of her life and that was saying a lot.