Chapter 30: Extreme Measures

"So that's why you're hunting her? Because she threw a jar at your head?" Bucky leaned back in his seat and made a face, "You're as crazy as she is."

"No," Sam snapped, "that's why I stopped buying into her bullshit! They found Noelle in the Project Helius lab in so many pieces Banner had to take her back in bags! Inessa tortured her for hours. There were marks on her tongue- at one point, fairly early on, she tried to swallow her own tongue. Inessa ripped it out of her face and turned her so she wouldn't drown. It took Noelle long enough to die that the blood was almost clotted before her heart stopped beating."

"Why?" That's the part Bucky couldn't follow, "Why would she kill her? At the Tower you arrested Inessa for the murders of Steve, Tony, Thor, Nat, Clint, and Banner. You never mentioned anyone named Noelle. Explain that for me."

"I said she killed her," Sam nodded, "I didn't say Noelle was innocent. Inessa was using the Helius lab as a private office for what appeared to be years. One of the things we found there were the results of a bone analysis Inessa had JARVIS run on Noelle after she was injured on a mission two years ago."

"And it said what, 'kill me please'?"

"It said she'd been cryogenically frozen at some point in her life," Sam's response shut Bucky down. "Inessa spent two years running background checks, tracking down people, and she never said a word about it. She tore Noelle's life apart piece by piece. Noelle Martinez was an alias. For who? We never found out. Apparently she decided your way was the best way to solve problems. Dimitri Aristov," he said the name in response to a questioning look from Bucky.

He shrugged it off, "You know she suspected there was a traitor, so she found them. So she killed them. So what? You didn't throw me in a cell when I killed Aristov, even after I admitted it to Steve I was still allowed to walk out of there."

"Did she tell you about the attack in Indonesia? The phone records that tipped off the crime syndicate there to mobilize the moment she went off-world?" Bucky shook his head, "Her case, her responsibility. She ordered her own team not to look into it and minutes before she went to the Realms one of their agents receives a call from her phone- and everything starts."

Bucky opened his mouth to reply, but Sam cut him off, "The records were deleted. Tony found the hole- she probably forced Amadeus do it. She kept copies for herself though, for her collection. Copies of e-mails between her and a student offering to pay him for pictures of the park on the same day and time a member of the Counsel of Yggdrasil is murdered- a kid who was later possessed by a Shadow and made to kill everyone, then detonate himself. Lists of criteria for medical testing, a print-out of a list with the names of every missing person in New York City which according to her Tower computer registered as being made one week before Councilman Ingvir's death. The fact that the original Helius device in Astana was repaired with pieces taken from Hydra's new units. Unit's only Inessa had access to! What's worse? She used it! On all 4,000! Created a lake of radioactive sludge in the Valley trying to put another monster into a body- probably that damn bitch Nadya! The weapon Noelle was transporting- everything was there! She used her own lieutenant to cut chunks out of JARVIS' database- wiped out the alarms meant to alert us to her abilities, and there were plans for more attacks!"

Sam slammed his hand on the control console, making his camera shake slightly, "We aren't gullible! We combed through everything to find some explanation, some answer- there was a scrapbook of every major attack by unknown groups going back years. Nearly every unsolved Avengers case- some not even known to the public! Inessa is a monster, human or otherwise. Whatever she has planned next, it'll be ugly, it'll be brutal, and a lot of innocent people will die!"

"If she had Amadeus erase all those records, wouldn't he have raised the alarm sooner? I talked to the boy, he didn't turn on Inessa until what I'm betting is the whole Noelle thing."

"You don't know?" Disbelief (with just a hint of amusement) washed over Sam's face. He leaned closer to the monitor to read Bucky's expression, "You seriously don't know?"

"Explain it to me like I'm five."

"Why did you go looking for Inessa in the first place- after you got out of Hydra?" Sam crossed his arms, he was enjoying this.

Bucky thought back to the confusion and chaos that had been his thought process back then, "I don't know, instinct? Some echo when the programming broke? I spent two years trying to get her out every sane moment I had, it was bound to make an impression."

Sam shook his head, "Wrong. Was she even the only one you did things like that to?"

"No," he admitted it freely, "not by a long shot. But it was the only case where it lasted unnecessarily long and where I didn't kill the person afterwards. That's why I went after her."

"Wrong again," Sam actually laughed, "She never admitted it to you?"

"If I have to ask I'll-" the monitor went black, "what the hell?" Bucky looked around and saw Inessa's finger on a button. Her face was dark, but resigned.

"I said I'd let you leave when we got to the colony," she spoke softly, "I asked you to let Eoin kill me, if he can, so that when it's all over and out in the open no one feels guilty…"

"What was he trying to tell me? This time, you answer."

"This time, I answer," Inessa nodded, "only this time. You want to know why you came looking for me?" He nodded, "Because I told you to. I was trapped in the Valley, fused to Nadya- more beast than person. I was pure instinct, and my only instinct was to find a way to kill the cub- my body. To free myself once and for all. You tried to be nice to me, and I could see you were just as hollow as I was. So every time you went on a mission- every time you passed through the shadows- I whispered in your ear. I told you to find me, and I attached part of my mind to yours so that I would always be able to find you."

"When you were reprogrammed you'd forget, but once all that stopped- the constant push began to drive you insane. That wasn't my intention, but it was getting the job done. You didn't have to blow up Hydra Facility Wonju. There was no real reason for you to do it- that was me directing you. My body was there, but I couldn't reach it because of the lights in those cryo tubes. So I inspired you to do it. That's what Sam was talking about. He thinks I did that to Amadeus as well."

Bucky felt a little violated, but he sort of understood, "Did you do that mind control thing to me any other time? Or to anyone else?"

"Anyone else? Yeah. I've used it to make spies and traitors out of my enemies. To you? No. Once you began recovering your memories I lost my grip on your mind, it was hard enough opening the doors to climb out, forget whispering in your mind."

He nodded to himself more than anything, "Thank you for being honest. For once."

"Are you going to try to kill me now? You know what Sam knows."

"No," Bucky crossed his arms, "I'm not going to kill you. I'm also not jumping ship at the colony or letting Eoin O'Meara kill you." Now it was her turn to look surprised, "I've known you for a long time," he reminded her, "I know how smart you are, you're a genius- best strategic mind I think I've ever seen. When you think you need to be, you're cold as ice and you don't think twice about murder… But you aren't sentimental about it. You wouldn't leave incriminating documents lying around and you really aren't the scrapbooking type."

Her mouth actually fell open, "You believe me?"

"All you had to do was say 'Red Skull' and I would have believed anything you told me."

"So why call Sam?"

"To get answers!" he threw his arms up, "You can't play this all so close to the chest! What harm would it do to just tell me?!"

Inessa took a big breath and held it for a moment, then smiled apologetically, "I… can't tell you that?" Both of them burst out laughing at that.

"When will you tell me though? When it's too late to save you?"

"Oh no," Inessa stepped away from the controls and put her hands in the air, "you'll know long before that."

"When?"

She winked at him and it was nice to see a twinkle in her eyes for once, "When you realize that I explained it all a long time ago."

"You know what this place reminds me of? Detroit." Bucky peered at the mile-high factories that filled the asteroid and belched out enough smoke to fill the artificial atmosphere with a rust-scented smoke. Everything was red and brown- the colors of the metal alloy the locals mined.

"Feels like home," Inessa winked and pulled her hood further down over her face.

"Sometimes I forget you grew up in the slums," crowds jostled them as they made their way through the city. Bucky kept both of his hands on the hilts of his blades. Inessa scrapped a hood from some clothing she'd found in one of the bed chambers on their ship. It was a bit of a fashion statement- just a hood sitting on top of her tank top, but the arm guards and scythes made it clear she wasn't the type any fashionista wanna-be should go after.

Peddlers jumped out from alley ways and spoke in strange tongues as they tried to sell food or drink to the masses. Poverty in the area seemed too extreme for anything resembling weapons or trinkets- or at least no one was selling. Inessa pulled a protein pack from their ship's kitchen out and held it up for a peddler to see. He eagerly ran over and spoke in an unintelligible, guttural language neither understood.

"Asgardian?" Inessa only knew one non-Earth language. Peter had promised once to teach her the common language of the planets outside of the Realms, but they'd never gotten around to it. She didn't think she'd be needing it so soon.

"Asgardian OK. Not good, but is ok," the man eagerly switched (though his pronunciation was abysmal). "You want trade for what?"

"Information," the man looked confused, "I ask, you tell?"

"Ah! OK, ok, ok! Anything for… one quarter!" he pointed to the bar.

"Whole thing, for you," Inessa didn't want to mention that they had a few hundred of those bars back on the ship, "information is important. Very important," even though it killed part of her soul to speak such broken Asgardian, she knew it was helping the man understand her more.

His eyes grew wide, "That feed family for month!"

"Question could be dangerous."

Immediately the man sobered up and motioned for her to come with him into the alley and out of the throng of people. Bucky followed a few steps behind, ready for a fight the second one began, "What you want know?"

Inessa held the bar up and watched the man's eyes follow it as she moved. He was hooked, "What Child of Thanos rules here?"

"Child of Thanos?" the man was surprised, "No Child of Thanos. Colony not claimed. Lawless lands."

"Who is in charge then?"

"In charge is Severrin. Colony Hall is straight three, left, straight two, right."

"Thank you," Inessa handed him the bar. It vanished into his robes instantly and he winked to her, "Good luck, kind lady."

Bucky put a hand on Inessa's shoulder as she walked past and swung around so they walked side-by-side. It was easier to speak quietly, lest anyone actually understand their language, and no matter what planet you were on it seemed that the eyes of a crowd avoided whispering couples, "What's up?"

"This isn't Red's place. It's some kind of neutral territory. He called it the Lawless Lands."

"That sounds promising," Bucky glanced around them. A man with purple skin was on a path that would cause him to brush against Inessa as he passed- no doubt he thought he could swipe her scythe, "11 O'clock." She turned her head to face the man directly and let her brown eyes flash silver. Just the faintest trace of the Shadow's mutated skull danced across her skin before it vanished- enough to inspire the man to turn away.

"We're going straight three more blocks, hang a left, two blocks, hang a right. There's some kind of Colony Town Hall."

"Our contact there?"

"Serverrin," she made a face, "with a name like that I'm betting he's Red's representative on the ground."

"So then- we are going to willfully walk into a trap?"

"You bet your ass."

It felt good to laugh with Inessa as they walked the dark streets towards what was undoubtedly an ambush. Hell, it felt good to laugh with any friend. He needed his time away or else the Winter Soldier would have been all that was left- until someone finally put him down. Still, for a man who'd already lived over a hundred years (counting the time he'd spent in cryo), five years was certainly too long to shut himself away.

"Can I ask you something?" Inessa steered them across the street and down the lane that opened to their left.

He smirked, "Now that's something new."

She pinched his ribs in response and he laughed again, "Why did you forgive me? You were pretty dead-set on going off with Sam."

"No I wasn't. I just acted like I was to piss you off. And it worked. I'm tired of getting information piece by piece- usually right as it's about to blow up in my face. All you had to do was tell me it was him. I would have come. I know what he's capable of- I'm probably the last person left who knows."

"Steve and Natasha are alive," Inessa refused to give that up, "the only thing we have working in our favor is Red's ego. I was in the Tower in the moment leading up to the explosion- before Nadya got me out. They were already gone. No bodies, no blood, no sign of a struggle. Vision showed you Thor's hammer, right? Whatever happened, they didn't have time to fight it. Red S-" she looked around to make sure none were listening, "Red wouldn't kill them without someone there to appreciate it. I think that's what we are."

"He stripped you of your allies so you'd have to come to me," Bucky nodded and they turned down their last street- this one had less than half the traffic of the other two, "you know the significance of that, right?"

"You're the only other one to see his face- the Schmidt face?"

"Nope. I'm the only Super Soldier left that he created. Sin- the one who went after Tony when Morris attacked- she and I were the only ones not made by Erskine or with his help. I'm the successful experiment. I don't think that's a coincidence."

"I've found that when he's part of the equation there is no such thing as a coincidence… I wish I figured that out sooner."

"You figured out Loki was Odin and the Shadow King, you figured out Red Skull was the Warlord of Thanos, and you figured out Marie Richards was a traitor. All in all I'd say that's a pretty good track record."

"The traitor is still in play," Inessa hung her head, "there's still a lot that can go wrong."

Bucky still had his arm around her as they walked, and he rubbed her shoulder with the metal hand, "There's a lot more than can go right." The Colony Hall appeared before them in the distance, a great structure of shining white marble- even in the dark rust of the city around it. No one walked within a hundred yards of the stairs, as if it were cursed ground. Black-clad guards stood at the tops of the steps and watched the passers by intently. At least one had noticed Bucky and Inessa approaching, as far off as they were, and fixed his gaze on them, "One last question?"

"You know how I feel about those," Inessa warned.

"You got me to look for you with that shadow-whisper thing. If there were another person with even a fraction of your powers, is it possible they used them on Sam?"

"No," her answer was immediate and certain. "Sam was my friend. To make him go against that and hunt me? A change in personality like that is possible with the right whispers, yes, but it would break the person. He'd be completely out of his mind- basically anything the shadows didn't tell him he wouldn't be able to do. He'd have all the cognitive function or lack thereof of an old druggie just before they O.D. With you, all I wanted was for you to find my body, and I preyed on your instinct to protect an innocent life to do that. All I did was remind you, and look how that turned out? Eight months without reprogramming and you were just about insane over all of it. If something got to Sam it would have to have started years ago, and we'd have seen the warning signs."

Something clicked into place, "Last last question, totally unrelated, just me being a bit of a nerd, I don't even care if everyone in this colony overhears me asking," he raised his voice slightly as if to demonstrate just that.

Inessa was suspicious, but she shrugged, "Fine, ask."

"Asgardian is a phonetic language, right?"

"Yeah?"

"I just- if I'd stayed I would have had Thor teach me a bit. I like languages. Is it hard to learn? What's the alphabet like?"

They broke free from the people at last and entered the Dead Zone in front of the Colony Hall. No guards made a move to stop them, but more were watching them now. They continued through to the steps, "Is this really the time?"

"Do you want to psych yourself out before what's probably going to be a fight?"

"Fine," he released her shoulder and they walked side by side normally, "the writing can be tricky, because it's not just about the symbol, it's about how it moves. It's like the tones in Chinese on a written-level. It makes you a bit sea-sick until you get used to it. Even then it's tough… There aren't too many characters though, the rotation determines how hard their sound is."

"So," he eyed a guard as they passed, but the man(like guy) made no move towards his weapon. They were vigilant, but the doors appeared to be open for any brave (or perhaps stupid) enough to enter, "How many letters? Is it like Hawaiian?"

"More like… Korean I guess?" Inessa shrugged, "Redundant letters are done away with. 'D' and 'T', 'R' and 'L', 'G' and 'K', 'I' and 'E'- for the most part they make the same sounds, so in Asgardian they become the same letter, just with different tones on the sounds."

"Teach me sometime?"

"If we survive long enough," she held up her hand as they passed through the doors. The interior was pristine- Inessa almost felt guilty for tracking in the grime of the streets. Guards still watched from fairly regular intervals, but these did have their hands at the weapons on their hips. Inessa just hoped they weren't guns. That wouldn't work in her favor.

"We are here to speak with Severrin!" There was no sign of a reception counter- it was just a big, white room- so Bucky shouted for all to hear, "We are only here for information! Give us what we ask for, and we will leave in peace!"

"And if we do not? What then, James Barnes?" a tall, slight man appeared behind a guard. Inessa couldn't even tell where he came from, "You and Lady Ryker slaughter us the same way you did Earth's Avengers, or my friend the Collector?"

"Men like you don't have friends," Inessa stepped forward, "and the Collector was even less the type. You sent a shipment to the Collector- metal for enough broadcasting beacons to coat a world of the Realms. All I want is the location of the Child of Thanos who paid the bill."

"Nadya Ryker, do you not know? I do not take orders here from any Children of the Mad God. These are the Lawless Lands- the free sectors."

"You think I'm impressed because you know who we are?" Inessa unhooked her scythes and held them at her sides, "The Child I am looking for is a fan of ruling from the darkness. He believes the illusion of freedom is the great unifier. The fact that you think you are free from Thanos' reach just proves this land belongs to him. Tell me where his fortress is and you'll survive another day."

The guards all took one step forward and un-holstered their weapons. She wouldn't know until the fight started, but at least they didn't look like guns, "I have ten times the number you have right now. Did you notice once you arrived? This entire colony is protected by the same beacons the Collector created. We decided that so long as we are supplying the mineral, why not order the protection for ourselves? You have no power here, Shadow. You cannot hope to survive an open fight."

"Everyone remembers the claws and the teeth," Inessa rolled her eyes, "but no one remembers the most important part," she held up the scythes, "I was trained by Natalia Romanova, Steven Rogers, Thor Odinson, Clinton Barton, and the Warriors Three. The best fighters in the Realms. Do you really think I don't know how to use these?"

"I cannot be intimidated by a child. My master is capable of much more than you could even dream of! You will never get the location of his fortress from me."

"So, he told you about us? Our names, what we could do?"

"Of course, he is all-knowing, all-powerful!"

Inessa tapped a scythe to her chin and pretended to ponder his words, "Red Skull wants us to find him. I know that for a fact. I think he left a little something out when he mentioned us. Wanna know what that is?"

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK HIS NAME?!"

"No, that's not it. See, my companion, Mr. Barnes, he worked for your master's group for a few decades- unwillingly, mind you- and he made a myth of himself- the most prolific and accomplished assassin in recent history."

"And you think that will help you defeat twenty of my men?"

Inessa nodded, "Absolutely, but that's not the point."

"Fine then, what is the point?" He spat in her direction.

"The point is-" Inessa looked around and shrugged, "-where is he?"

"Wha-" Severrin was so focused on Inessa that he hadn't noticed Bucky was no longer beside her. It was a perfect white marble room- they were dressed in black, trailing mud, how the hell had the man managed to vanish?

An ice-cold blade was at Severrin's throat before he even knew anyone was behind him. Even the guards jumped back in surprise when Bucky spoke, "If it makes you feel any better, I'm 80 years older than she is."

"Just tell us the coordinates for his fortress and you can all go home to your families tonight," Inessa eyeballed the guards to her left and right.

Severrin's laughter actually sounded genuine, "That won't work on us! In our final test of loyalty we strike down our own kin for our master!"

"OK, well Plan B then! Bucky, keep them off of me, and I'll kill them so you don't have to."

"Thanks, but no thanks," he called back, pressing the blade slightly harder against Severrin's throat, "I think I'm ready to try being a hero again! Consider this my audition."

"For what?" She grinned.

"The Shadow Unit!" he leveled a boot to Severrin's back and slammed him forward with enough force that the man passed through the blade. When he fell, it was in two pieces, "Leave the youngest?"

"It's like you read my mind!" Inessa spun and dropped as the guards flew into action. She threw a scythe at the neck of one man and waved her blade around her- slashing through the kneecaps of any guard unlucky to be in range as she chased after the thrown weapon.

Bucky had a bit of a warm-up at the Collector's station, but this time he let himself off the leash. Hydra made sure no hired gun, bodyguard, special agent, or even strike team could beat their Asset in a fight- and for once he was thankful for it. He decapitated the guard Severrin had been standing by, then shoved the torso of his corpse into another. Blood covered the man's face and in his rush to shove the body away and clear his vision he lost what little time he might have had to block Bucky's attack. Within seconds, six of the guards were already down.

Inessa moved like a dancer- as did anyone trained by the Black Widow. She spun around the guards and sliced deep gashes through their spines. One guard managed to slam his weapon- basically a sharp club- into her sternum as she blocked a hit by another. Inessa fell to a knee as her vision sparked and she struggled to catch her breath, but she knew where the guards still were. Before she could breathe she swept a leg beneath the guard who'd hit her and embedded her scythe in his neck. Then she saw his face, "Dammit! Bucky- second youngest!"

"Klutz!" he called back as he hacked his way towards her position. Two guards were using their clubs to deflect his blows- which didn't end well for the guard on his left who got not only the full force of his metal arm, but who also learned a very valuable (if not long-lasting) lesson about Asgardian blades and what all they could cut through. He tossed the blade to his right hand and cut the club in half, then removed the hand of the man holding it.

Rather than kill him, he grabbed the back of his head and brought his knee to the man's face with enough force to stun him, but not to kill him. He stepped on the man's chest for a moment to gain leverage on another guard.

Finally, there were more bodies on the ground than in the fight, and these were the slower guards- either that or the outside ones were finally coming inside. It didn't matter- an entire horde of them hadn't done much more than break Inessa's stride, a few more were nothing special. Less than three minutes after it began, the white room was awash with blood.

Inessa sheathed her scythes and stumbled to her knees. For half a heartbeat Bucky worried she'd been seriously injured- it was impossible to tell through the blood that drenched them both. She panted and popped her neck, then her elbows, "Best workout I've had in months." It wasn't weakness that drove her to the ground, it was exhaustion.

The effects of his own adrenaline rush began to wear off and Bucky likewise began to feel the toll of the fight- though certainly not as strongly as she would. He looked around for the guard he'd stunned and found the man reaching for an abandoned club. Bucky walked over and stepped on the end of it, "Are we going to have a nice talk, or a not-so-nice one?"

"I got this," Inessa got up and walked past Bucky to where Severrin's torso was sprawled. She flipped the body over and rooted around in the black robes until she found a small, metallic disk, "what do you think- remote control?"

"Worth a shot."

She pressed it and almost immediately Nadya sprang out of the shadows with a violent roar that frankly made Bucky want to run screaming- not that he would admit to that, "It's OK," Inessa held a hand out to the wolf. Nadya sniffed her, verifying her mistress was not the source of the blood, "next time you'll get to fight with me. He did well enough. Guard the room if you want, ok?"

Inessa walked away from the wolf and came to kneel by Bucky's legs, across from the man. She reached out and took his head in her hands. Shadows poured from her arms and engulfed the man's head. Inessa's eyes flashed silver and the stream solidified. His eyes turned black and began to give off wisps of black mist. It was identical to how the Avengers had each looked as the Shadow first possessed them to read their intent and decide if it was safe to once again be Nadya Ryker.

She found the image of his base first and foremost in the man's mind. The others were already hardened by the killing of their families- this one was young enough that he hadn't learned to shut out the pain just yet. Inessa followed that to the location where it happened, and in the memory were the coordinates that appeared on the navigation system of the slaving ship that brought the boy to the Red Skull.

"Got it," Bucky snapped the boy's neck as soon as Inessa's hands were down and the connection was broken. "You alright?" She let him help her up as Nadya paced the room.

"Yeah," he was worried about the fallout if he ever killed again, but this time was different than what he remembered, "the bloodlust isn't there anymore…"

"Good," she put a hand on his shoulder, "very good."

"Did we just get Red Skull's base?"

"Yeah," Inessa let out a nervous laugh, "I think we just did."

"Ready to end this?"

"More than." Inessa nodded to Nadya, "It's alright, go back to the Valley and wait there. Next time I'll bring you out, I promise."

"Why not use the Valley to get back to the ship?" Bucky thought his suggestion was helpful, but Inessa's face told him he was very wrong.

"I doubt just one man has the control for those beacons," Inessa held up the silver remote, "if we try to take a short cut, we could end up sealed in there forever. Do you want that? Because I really don't want to starve to death in a barren wasteland."

"Ok, ok, bad idea, sorry," she was a little touchy, but he understood why. They were already walking face-first into Red Skull's trap, making it that easy on him would be basically so dumb that he deserved to win, "let's get to the ship, then you and Nadya can train against me until we get to Red Skull's camp."

Inessa wasn't worried about running out into the streets covered in blood- places like this were the same no matter what part of the galaxy you were in. Everyone minded their own business, but they did open up a path for Bucky and Inessa- and pickpockets now kept a very safe distance. They walked quickly- the outside guards had joined the fray inside, but sooner or later someone would find the slaughter, "What do you mean train against you?"

"Amadeus told me there could be another Shadow," Bucky put his arm around Inessa again so they could speak quietly as they moved through the people. He didn't miss the jolt that ran through her as the anti-shadow beacons resumed their transmission. Inessa pulled out the remote and hit the button a few times, but evidently the other device was stronger. She tossed it on the ground and looked to Bucky purposefully, "I know, you told me so." The beacons reactivating meant someone had found the massacre, but it also meant that Red Skull's new Shadow, if they really were watching, couldn't see them anymore, "Now, you have the advantage- you've had years to hone your abilities, and I doubt the new Shadow's created a Nadya of their own yet, but you need to be ready."

"Amadeus shouldn't have told you that," she was immediately defensive, "if there is another shadow- if- then we can't assume their powers are any less than mine. Doing that means we die."

"I know a thing or two about underestimating your abilities, but I also know that when you're new it takes a while to get the hang of it. You will have the upper hand." He was fishing, but his hunch from before was beginning to take form- and it explained a hell of a lot.

"Don't even begin to think that. If there's a second shadow we have to approach it as if it's been around as long as I have. You know how dangerous it is to underestimate your enemy."

"Fine," Bucky conceded the point, "I get it. We'll train as if you aren't the original."

"Thank you." The ship was in sight by the time sirens began to blare from somewhere high in the smog layer. At that people got out of their way even faster, and filled in behind them with increased density. Inessa grinned- apparently the people were more helpful than she thought. If any guards managed to catch up then the sea of people would stop them dead in their tracks.

"I'll get us on course!" Inessa ran across the docks and up the ramp of the ship with a nod to the civilian guards who manned the area. She'd tossed them protein packs as payment when they landed, and that meant they were more than happy to look the other way as the ship prepared for takeoff. If Red Skull wanted to eventually inspire an uprising he was doing the right thing in starving his own people- they could be bought way too easily. No one put up with stuff like that for long… But Inessa intended to be the one to kill the Warlord, not some miner from the slums of an asteroid colony.

The ship lifted off and shot into space towards no particular location. Only when the colony was a speck on the close-range radar did she key in the code for Red Skull's fortress, "Is it done?" Bucky saw the ship adjust course in the movement of the stars out the window.

"Yes," Inessa looked at the radar, "we're three days away. Out of the frying pan, into the fire."

"I know he meant for us to get that intel, but that was too easy. He's insulting us."

"Something tells me he knows we're aware of his involvement," Inessa learned the hard way that he was always watching, always ready to turn fate against her. She had to live assuming he knew everything, "You go take your shower first, ok? It'll take longer to get the blood out of your arm." The end of their journey was in sight. In three days she'd know if her friends were alive or dead… Inessa was fairly certain that knowledge would cost her her life, maybe the lives of Bucky, Sam, Amadeus, and all of the Avengers… She wanted to be alone, before the anxiety and fear became too much to mask.

Bucky picked up on her tone, "Alright, I remember where the shower was… It's going to be ok. I have faith in you. Even Marie can't stop us now."

"Traitors are capable of a lot, there could be pieces in play we know nothing about. Don't-"

"Don't assume. Yeah, I think I'm finally getting the hang of that." He grabbed the wire brush from their bag and headed to the bathroom. Showering was on the lower end of his priority list though.

He'd finally found the trick to questioning Inessa- rambling conversation. When she described what Sam would be like if he was under the influence of a Shadow struck a memory. He moved from topic to topic with her, but the points he gathered painted a picture that was more than enough to explain Inessa's fear- but he didn't quite have it in focus yet.

Nadya was always Inessa's guardian. He knew that much about her past. The wolf came to her rescue whenever something bad happened like it feared for her life. Thanks to the weapon Tony created Bucky now knew that Nadya was no separate entity- she was part of Inessa, a piece of the girl's very soul-

So what happened to make the infant Inessa create a guardian angel? What terrible thing was bad enough to scare a small child and activate abilities that even her own uncle didn't see until she was a toddler?

Inessa almost went out of her way to tell him to stop assuming Red Skull had a new Shadow. She told him to approach the problem as if his Shadow had been around as long as she had. So what if he didn't create the Shadow? Inessa only ever said he tried. What if he found another Shadow already formed and gave it a boost?

A boost- like maybe having Loki catch Inessa, the more powerful of the two Shadows (he assumed because he never heard of the other) and use Blood Magic to sap Inessa's own strength and feed the weaker creature.

It made sense in the horrible, twisted way that Red Skull's actions during World War 2 had made sense. It reeked of his old pattern- take an old success (Erskine's serum) and bastardize it to create something newer and rougher.

The name in Asgardian on the paper was Marie- unless it wasn't. Hard 'M', an 'ah' sound, ending in 'rhee'. Marie. Except he'd assumed when Calder read the words Marie was already the answer he was looking for. And Calder had never said the first letter.

That's why he'd prompted Inessa until she explained a bit more about Asgardian alphabets. It was phonetic- meaning the number of characters in a name should match the number of symbols. It was how phonetic alphabets worked. Mm-ah-rhee should have just been two characters. Ma-rie.

"Redundant letters are done away with. 'D' and 'T', 'R' and 'L', 'G' and 'K', 'I' and 'E'- for the most part they make the same sounds, so in Asgardian they become the same letter…"

Three syllables… So what if by "Hard 'm'," Calder had meant something different- like just say the letter 'M'? What if the 'R' in 'rhee' was, in English, an 'L'?

Some part of Bucky figured it out just before the rest of him caught up. His legs gave out and he fell to the floor of the bathroom, but he was shaking too hard to pull himself back up. He understood, finally, what had Inessa so scared, so secretive. He knew what Red Skull had up his sleeve.

Why would Dimitri Aristov save his niece from Hydra, keep her and her abilities hidden for years while he slowly drunk himself into oblivion, then sell her to them without a second thought and without even knowing why he'd done it? Maybe because something was whispering in his ear all that time.

Why had Inessa's first known use of her abilities produce, of all things, Nadya- a protector to save her from the darkness and the things that go bump in the night? Because she wasn't the only Shadow Project Helius created.

When Fandrel wrote his warning to Inessa he didn't choose the less-precise Low-Asgardian because it was harder for others to read should the note be intercepted. He chose it to hide the truth behind the words, because in that language two particular names looked almost identical-

Marie-

And Emilie.