Can't Ask, Don't Need, Won't Acknowledge

Chapter 47: Ulterior motives

“Did she take the bait?” asked Yelena. She stood on top of the roof and watched the cars travelling down the main road of Tiergarten.

“Yeah,” replied Matthew with his arms crossed tightly against his chest. “I don’t like this manipulation.”

“We are not manipulating,” she paused for a second before gesticulating wildly. “We are just guiding her. She is wasted that power in the Avengers. She can take down the Hand, help us take down men like Wilson Fisk. Natasha will never let her discover her true power. You have seen my research she only lets her develop her telekinesis which is just one side of her power. The mental manipulation, she could make Wilson Fisk admit all his crimes! She could delve into his mind, find every single criminal contact he has. The possibilities are endless,” said Yelena.

“She is a child,” said Matthew. “I won’t use her. If she wants to help us…”

“We aren’t using her,” replied Yelena. “We are just trying to help her see her potential. Natasha will hold her back. She is too overprotective…”

“You do understand if Natasha realises what you are doing…” Matt let his sentence trail off.

Yelena just scoffed, “Nat needs to remove the stick from her backside.”

Matt sighed, “could we not just try this differently? Tell Natasha…”

Yelena shook her head violently, “No, we can’t risk it. What if she says No? Then there are no other options….”

Matt winced but realised the truth in Yelena’s words. “I don’t like this…”

“You don’t like anything. Just say a couple of Hail Mary’s and be on your way,” replied Yelena mockingly.

“Your catholic jokes are getting a bit tired Yelena,” muttered Matthew back.

…………………………………………

Natasha poured over the paperwork in front of her. Her brain was struggling to make a correlation between all the bits of data. There was always a commonality something that brought them all together. She winced in frustration and glanced over to Bucky who was searching through a different box.

“Are we going about this all wrong?” asked Natasha.

Bucky turned to face the woman, “in what way?”

“I mean.. Maybe it’s not one big conspiracy maybe it’s just one man on a vendetta like Zemo,” replied Natasha.

Bucky just shook his head, “There is more to this and you know it.”

“It just doesn’t feel like Hydra. It doesn’t match up. There are too many links to Asia,” she gestured towards the documents and maps.

Bucky paused, “I agree. If Hydra was resurgent it would do so in the motherland. Where it already has roots, it would not try and grow in a new territory. Not unless it had help, and ally maybe?”

Natasha rubbed her temple, “it just doesn’t add up. I’m not going into this half cocked. We need to know what we are up against.”

Bucky nodded in agreement, “Do you think Yelena knows more than she is letting on?”
“My sister always knows more than she is letting on,” said Natasha warily. “But I trust her.”