A/N: So what has it been? A year? Sorry for the delay.

Please R&R! Enjoy!

Chapter 10

"I brought you some coffee." Natasha said from the door of the hospital room to alert Steve of her presence. She handed the coffee to Steve and then walked to the chair on the other side of Nadia's bed. Steve nodded his thanks to her as he took a sip. "Has there been any change?" She asked quietly.

Steve shook his head. It had been three weeks since Nadia had been admitted to the hospital. In that time she had flat lined 4 times. During her second week in a coma, she was put on life support.
"I talked to Dr. Heckman this morning. He didn't have good news." He said quietly. "He's surprised she's lasted this long."

Natasha sat back as Steve was talking. She ran her fingers through hair. "Fury called a meeting. We're supposed to meet in the briefing room in 10 minutes."

Steve nodded and stood up. He walked out the door while trying to rub the ever-present tiredness from his eyes. He stopped at the door and looked at the nurse. "Just…"

"We'll let you know if anything changes." Steve gave her an appreciative nod and they left.

"What the hell do you mean brain dead!?" Tony shouted at the Dr. Heckman, who was standing next to Fury.

"It means exactly that. She is not showing any signs that she is still alive. She has no brain stem reflexes. Her body is entirely dependent on machines." Dr. Heckman took a deep breath and lowered his voice. "I'm sorry, but there is nothing more that can be done." Dr. Heckman gave them a sad smile and walked away

Tony stormed out of the room. The slamming of the door was loud in the silence of the room. The others sat silently at the table as tears rolled down all of their faces.

Natasha was sitting next to Nadia. She hadn't moved in the 15 minutes that she was there. All of the others had already said their goodbyes. Natasha would never forget Steve's grief-stricken face as he came out of the room to tell her it was her turn. Natasha didn't even care that there were tears running down her face.

"I guess this is our last goodbye, Моя девочка моя (my little girl)." Natasha said quietly. She kissed her on her forehead and rushed out of the room.

One week later…

They all gathered in the waiting room, preparing themselves. They would be taking Nadia off life support in a little while. The doctor had gone into Nadia's room to check her one last time, just to be sure. They had fought with Fury and the doctors, hoping for a change in the little girl's condition, but there was no point. Her condition had not changed. They had only delayed the inevitable.

A nurse walked into the waiting area. She had a solemn look on her face. She didn't have to say anything to know that she was coming to get them. They all looked up at her hoping against hope that she had good news. She silently shook her head. Silent tears started to fall down each Avenger's face.

They all followed the nurse down the hall into Nadia's room, their heads down and their feet dragging. The bright hospital lights lighting the way and the smell of antiseptic following them.

They turned into her room and looked at the small form on the bed. Dr. Heckman looked to Steve.

"Whenever you're ready."

Steve looked to all the other Avengers. They all nodded slightly. He looked back to the doctor.

"Do it."

The doctor turned off each of the different machines. After he was finished he turned to look at them.

Tony took a deep breath. "How long till she's gone?"

"It could be anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. It's hard to tell." He went to leave the room, but stopped at the door. He turned and looked at each of them, "If there is anything that you guys need, anything, just page me." He gave them a solemn nod and then left.

In the end, Nadia only lasted a 15 minutes off the ventilator. When she flat lined, Dr. Heckman came in and turned off the monitor. Each off the Avengers were crying.

They decided to cremate her, so that they wouldn't have to worry about anyone trying to steal her remains and create more of her. They had a small funeral, just the avengers and a few of the hospital staff and SHIELD. agents that knew her. They kept her ashes in an urn on the mantle, next to a drawing she did of her and all of the Avengers together. After they placed her there, they each went to their rooms.

1 month later…

The team slowly started to split up. Clint went on a vacation to an undisclosed destination. He told them he hadn't had enough time to recover from New York and that after this he just needed to get away.

Tony went to his house in Malibu. He managed to piss off another big bad, the Mandarin, and get his house blown up, but it worked out in the end.

Thor went back to Asgard, though he promised to return if any of them needed him. He returned to Earth after stopping the Dark Elf invasion, but he did not go back to his teammates, instead he stayed with Jane.

Steve moved into his own apartment in D.C. and became part of the strike team, as did Natasha. After destroying HYDRA, and SHIELD, he started chasing down leads on the Winter Soldier, hoping that he may be able to get back at least one person. Natasha went to create a new identity, and help take down the rest of HYDRA.

Bruce went back to Central America, only visiting the tower a few times when Tony asked him. Everyone tried to stay in touch, but it seemed as if being around the team only reminded them of the little girl that had changed them in such a short time.

In a secret hydra base location…

"How is X-23 responding to her treatment?"

"Quite well, in fact. It seemed that the programming that we initially set up is doing its job. Shutting her down and then restarting her seems to have back to her default settings. She's as programmable as a computer." The 2 men were walking down the corridor in an underground bunker. The older man was very obviously the superior.

"Good, we're going to need her since we lost the Soldier."

"What about the twins?"

"They are not reliable yet. How long until she is ready?"

"I'd give it 3 days, Sir."

"Good we will be needing her if we want to take down the Avengers once and for all.

A/N: This is the last chapter of this story. I will post an update on this whenever I post the sequel. Next time, I am going to write it all before I post it so that there isn't a long time between chapters. Thank you so much to everyone that has favorited, followed, and reveiwed this.