Alvin stood behind the door of Safe House No. 3...
Yelena opened the front door and let in Natasha and Melina, both looking battered.
Seeing the two Black Widows covered in dust and sporting a few scattered cuts...
Alvin asked with amusement, "How did you end up like this?
I thought you were the elite of the Black Widows. How'd you get chased around so badly?"
As he spoke, Alvin watched Natasha pull off her jacket with a grimace, revealing a large abrasion on her elbow. He said curiously, "You couldn't bring yourselves to do it, could you?
You went soft on a bunch of women you might not even know?"
Natasha took a spray-on medication from Yelena and gritted her teeth as she applied it to the wound...
After enduring a sharp burst of pain, Natasha's bleeding had stopped. She looked at Alvin and said, "Everyone has to face their past. They're my past!
I've always been afraid to face it, especially since Nick Fury was always reminding me that 'you have to look forward'!
So I rarely looked back, until my past came looking for me..."
As she spoke, Natasha glanced at Yelena and said gravely, "Either 'accept reality' or 'be yourself'...
I made my choice!"
Alvin frowned at Natasha and said, "I understand that you don't want to kill them...
But if you keep reacting passively like this, I expect you'll just keep getting hurt.
The Black Widow shouldn't be so sentimental, should she?
When you wanted to use my restaurant to keep an eye on that pervert called the Purple Man, you didn't spare a thought for my safety...
Seeing you like this feels strange to me!"
Natasha didn't seem bothered at all by Alvin dredging up the past...
She pressed her lips together and said