Somewhere over the Atlantic
Spring 2015
Each of the three Avengers eyed her grimly at her soft, bitter confession, Natasha most intently of all.
"You're being blackmailed." It wasn't a question, so when Barton said it, Nadine felt no compulsion to respond. If she had, it would have been a resounding 'obviously.' Instead she changed topics. There was nothing more to be said on the matter. Nadine fidgeted again, shifting her feet beneath her. Neither the captain nor the archer reacted beyond an absent glance, focused instead on her silent admission. Natasha eyed her, seeming not quite sure what to make of the assassin in front of her, of her former friend, her once sister.
"Where are you taking me," Nadine asked, voice once again impassive. She easily restrained a sigh of satisfaction that no one paid any notice to a faint, muffled snap as she spoke, not even hearing the sound, attentive as they were instead on her controlled tone. Rogers stood slowly, his arms crossing as he did, still surveying her curiously with a gaze far less distrustfully critical than even a few moments before. While she hadn't intended for her true situation to come out, she had to admit it was proving useful.
"Back to New York, to the Avengers Tower," the Captain said frankly. Had she been in any other situation, Nadine might have been tempted to respond with some manner of acerbic quip.
Instead all the blood left her face.
"I can't go to New York."
"You're not really in a position to negotiate," Barton retorted dryly. Nadine's pulse was thrumming as a feeling disturbingly close to panic began building in her chest. It took every ounce of training she had to keep her reaction to herself. Yet Natasha's eyes were nevertheless sharp on Nadine.
"I can't go to New York," she simply repeated, her voice far steadier than she felt, "you're not dead, Natasha, which means they might very well make good on their threats. I have a life that I have to protect." Natasha's eyebrows lifted in skeptical doubt. Nadine scoffed, though the sound that came out was nearly a growl. "Is that so hard to believe?"
"In this line of work?" Natasha's head tilted, the doubtful expression still hovering in her eyes, "a bit."
"It can be done," Barton interrupted with a nonchalant shrug, shooting Natasha a look. "It's not impossible. There are agents who have lives outside this job; families..." Rogers glanced over at his companions, giving Barton an exasperated look that had the archer trailing off vaguely, "...hobbies...chickens..." Natasha merely rolled her eyes at Barton's cheek, earning a sly grin in return. Rogers, meanwhile, had turned his focus back to Nadine. Nadine met his serious look with an impassive one of her own.
"Still, we have some questions for you. We need to find out who has put a hit out on Romanoff, and we need you for that. You're our only link to whoever is behind this. It might not be long before they come after the rest of us," the soldier said stoically, his hands shifting to rest on his hips. Barton snorted.
"Could you see them trying to go after Banner?" Hawkeye stage-whispered, a faint, mocking laugh in his voice. Natasha spared him a disapproving glare while Steve shot him another pointed look. Barton sobered instantly this time.
"I can. That's why we need to know."
It was then that Nadine broke in, surreptitiously shifting again: "as curious as I am myself, I still can't go to New York."
In a single, rapid motion, Nadine rocked back onto the balls of her feet and launched herself up into Roger's middle, her shoulder driving hard enough into his gut that he grunted thickly in pain and shock. With a sharp jerk, she snapped the last remaining tie around her ankles, flowing into a swift, spinning kick that collided with a harsh smack across the Captain's face, knocking him back off his feet.
She barely had time to right herself as Barton leapt forward to engage her. But Nadine was quick and Barton was still processing his surprise despite his lightning-fast response. Given the confined space they were holed up in, none of them had been truly expecting her to make any sort of serious escape attempt much less start an all-out fight, leaving them all caught off guard. Even as she turned aside his strikes, she managed slide a hand around him to snatch up his sidearm before hooking a foot around his ankle, sending him careening into the bulkhead with a ringing thud. As he shoved himself upright from the wall, she drove a solid kick into his chest, propelling him backward to topple on top of a recovering Rogers as their legs tangled.
And then she was ducking as Natasha swung around in one of her own powerful kicks, just barely missing Nadine. But the blonde was anticipating Natasha's attack, expecting nothing less than for the redhead to leap into action herself despite the way she blanched from simply lurching to her feet, her fresh injury severely hampering her. Sliding around the redheaded spy to snatch up a second handgun and back out of her old friend's reach, Nadine's third kick slammed out into Natasha's side just above her gunshot wound, sending her stumbling back into the bulkhead with a cry of pain.
The entire confrontation was over in the span of a few heartbeats.
With one of her stolen guns leveled steadily at Natasha and the other at the two men only just managing to untangle themselves, Nadine straightened, barely even needing to catch her breath. Natasha stared at Nadine, gasping around the ribs Nadine likely bruised, compounding the flaring pain from her previous wound. Nadine resolutely stared back. She tried desperately to ignore the way her heart was hammering, panicked in her chest or the way her throat wanted to close as her finger seemed to fight her head's order to tighten on the trigger. But the green eyes fixed on her, unreadable and intent, to batter against her resolve.
"You don't have to do this, Nadya," Natasha said softly as she leaned back against the bulkhead, her hand rising to clutch at her now doubly injured side as the other raised non-threateningly. Nadine shook her head, nearly snorting out a bitter laugh that Natasha of all people could believe it was that simple.
"Everything I have, everything I care about, is at risk if I don't complete my mission," she ground out, threads of desperation warring embarrassingly with uncertainty in her voice where there should only be cold, detached purpose. But the Heckler & Koch and the Glock were steady in her hands nevertheless. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Rogers and Barton hovering warily, each waiting for even the smallest opportunity. The Glock snapped to Barton as he began edging away from Rogers, forcing him to abort whatever he'd been thinking of attempting. Rogers just stared at her with his hands loose and ready at his sides, studying her intently. Yet he made no move to regain control over the situation. It made Nadine faintly uneasy that he was just...waiting.
"There has to be a solution. I know you; if anyone can figure this out, it's going to be you," Natasha said, her voice strengthening as she recovered her breath, free hand still raised passively, "you were one of the best when we were girls, and you're the best now." Nadine fought against the way her eyes threatened to slide shut in anguish, keeping them fixed on Natasha as a hard, desperate voice in her head urged her to end it, reminding her what was at stake; Nina.
But that didn't help either.
"You don't know me anymore, Natasha. You don't know what I have to protect. You don't know what I'm risking by even considering—" her mouth snapped shut angrily at the realization. She was actually considering going against her mission. A trace of a frown appeared between Natasha's eyebrows as she studied Nadine back.
"You can tell me," the redhead nearly whispered, "we used to talk. You were the only one I could talk to. Talk to me. We can help. We can protect whatever it is—" Nadine nearly choked on the emotion welling in her throat, cutting Natasha sharply off.
"You can't. I can't risk it," she finally said tonelessly.
"You have a family, don't you," Barton questioned gently, drawing more of Nadine's attention away from Natasha. Nadine didn't allow herself to react. But something flashed in Natasha's eyes, something too quick for Nadine to identify.
"I have a life that belongs to me," she hedged, her voice just as icy as before even as her anguish seeped through it, "something I had to fight to even dream of. Something that is more than this." The guns twitched in her hand to illustrate precisely what she meant by 'this.' It wasn't a denial and neither was it a confirmation. She couldn't bring herself to be honest, not when she held a gun on the closest person she'd had to a little sister with every intention of pulling the trigger.
"We can help," Nadine's eyes snapped completely to Rogers. She nearly laughed, a strangled huff all that escaped her throat as a brittle smile laced with derision stretched over her lips before she tamped it down, her face and voice going equally blank.
"You think you can succeed where I failed? Tracing people, finding people when no one else can? It's what I do, what I'm good at; all I've got to show for trying to find my way out of this trap are dead ends." Rogers' hands had risen to mirror Natasha's, held out to her in placation.
"You didn't have some of our resources," he countered carefully.
"You didn't have J.A.R.V.I.S.," Natasha added. Nadine frowned in bewilderment as her grey eyes shifted back to Natasha, though her aim still didn't waver. "And you didn't have us." Steve took the blonde assassin's continued hesitation as a sign, taking a slow, measured step forward as his teammate spoke. Nadine's eyes sharpened back on him even as her aim on him did.
"You know we can help you," he said, confidence breaking through the cautioned way he said it, "if you won't let us help protect whoever it is you're protecting, at least let us help you find who's behind it. If we can find and stop whoever is pulling your strings, it'll solve everyone's problems; no more hit on Romanoff, no more threats over your head. We can all go home, free and clear."
For the first time her aim wavered. He sounded so sure, so confident that they could do it, that by working together they could end this. God, it was so tempting. If she agreed and it worked?
Nina would be safe.
The moment dragged on for an eternity as a war raged inside her head, the benefits battling against the risks.
With two soft clicks, she lowered the guns.
If working with the Avengers meant that her daughter would finally be truly safe?
That was worth the risk alone.
Sharply, she nodded in agreement.
A/N: Thanks for reading!
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