**Sorry this chapter is so long, there were a lot of little things to put in place last minute, but now you'll know 95% of what Inessa knows!**

Chapter 31: Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt (12 Days Before the Explosion)

Marie was stone-faced as Banner read his findings from Noelle's autopsy and Steve reported on the cache of incriminating evidence in the Astana bunker. The Leader's voted to release the information not only to the Teams, but also to the United Nations. Inessa's face wouldn't exactly be splashed across the front page, but the information wouldn't be classified once the United Nations declared the Shadow an enemy of the human race. Soon enough every grainy picture ever taken of the Shadow, its pack, or even a golden retriever in a dark hallway would be mass-produced around the globe.

Steve activated the Warfare unit to determine what really happened. He told them, and their teams, to pick one of three groups. The first was for those who would side with Inessa and her belief that she was framed. Every eye bar none turned to Amadeus, expecting him to step forward, but he made no move. Neither did Wanda or Vision. The Avengers who believed the Shadow King was the puppet master was the second team to form. Natasha, Wanda, Clint, Tony, Banner, and Thor went to that group. As a rule, the Avengers had to each side with their leader when the Warfare Unit was active, but fractures began to form.

Castor and Maya both went against their leaders to stand with Sam, Marie, and Geoff- those who believed what the evidence showed: Inessa was a traitor to their cause, an enemy to be put down, not protected. Thor and Tony didn't push for their members to return, so Steve was willing to let it go to avoid further conflict within the ranks.

"You have the easiest job," Steve was willing to make an effort to remain impartial. He and his team would keep the peace between the factions, "Sam, prove she's guilty."

"With pleasure," his friend immediately turned and left with his members trailing behind.

"Everyone else, your task is to find a way to detect and break the Shadow King's hold. Frequencies, sound waves, sub-space communications- call in Doctor Strange to work his magic and leave no stone un-turned. If you fail and the United Nations sentences her to execution, I can't stop it. Amadeus-"he singled the boy out, "I've got a job for you that you won't like."

"I'm the best mind behind Tony and Banner," he mumbled, "they need my help." Uncharacteristically the boy was focused on the floor. He wouldn't look up or respond to the comforting hands Tony and Wanda put on his shoulders. His Leader slaughtered his teammate, his friend. Nothing in his world was right.

"She needs your help more. Prove she's innocent. I know you need her to be, so I know you'll look harder than anyone on this world or any other. Whatever actions we chose to respond with will depend on who makes the best case. She isn't human, so the United Nations will probably vote to put her down… Give me something to use to fight for her," he begged.

"What's our time-frame?" Clint was determined to prove Sam's team wrong.

"The United Nations will delay the vote for two weeks. They've given us twelve days to make our case before they go into deliberations. That's the deadline."

"Come, Lady Ryker," Red Skull held a hand to the shadows. He felt the bridge activate and his friend obediently came through.

Speech remained beyond her, but she could walk as a human once again. The disjointed, boney protrusions Noelle had seen were arms once again, the lumps of trailing flesh formed legs. Emilie Ryker had been devastated by Project Helius, reduced to a radioactive, half-melted abomination. Nikolai Ryker hadn't even finished sewing her closed after pulling out her accursed offspring. The finest surgeons in the galaxy brought her through the return to flesh, but still she was imperfect.

Emilie's eyes had been replaced with brilliant green ones taken from a Cree woman- not her original blue, but a more fitting match for her still-silver flesh and long raven hair (taken from the scalp of an Asgardian). The link he had created with the help of that idiot Loki between mother and daughter repaired most internal damage, but what he could save through surgeries he did. Why spend months bringing her back when weeks would suffice?

"You look beautiful," she looked like the Goddess of Death from ancient scriptures, or perhaps Eris, goddess of Chaos, "the next phase of our plan is ready." He waved her over to a golden wall and with a gesture Inessa's cell was reflected on it- an image stolen from the Avengers own security cameras, thanks to the link Emilie provided him, "Are you ready for your suffering to end?"

Red Skull settled a hand on Emilie's shoulder and beamed at his monster with pride, "It is true that when Arnim betrayed me to the SSR I cursed his name for many years before learning what he'd done for my legacy, for Hydra. I owe him an unpayable debt. I'm telling you this so you'll appreciate what it means when I say that even if he'd let my empire vanish into oblivion what you have done for me already is enough to redeem the Zola line. For the part you have yet to play, know that so long as I rule any move against you is a challenge to me personally. I will rule as Thanos never could, and anything you desire will be yours."

He kissed her cold cheek lightly, "You have your next task. Go, sweet child." Obediently she laid her body back on the stone pedestal and her Shade retreated back into the shadows with distaste, "I know it pains you to play the minion to such an inferior creature," he called to her as she vanished, "just remember that soon you will have the joy of seeing Inessa's face as she realizes you were never her creation, but her creator."

Steve let Amadeus follow him all the way back up to his apartment. He left the door open behind him and went to pull a beer from the fridge (one of Sharon's not enhanced with Thor's Asgardian moonshine). He heard the door click closed and sat at his dining room table, sliding the beer along it so that it came to rest just as Amadeus came in the room. He went to it without speaking and chugged half, "I want a different assignment."

"No."

"Why not?" Amadeus was exasperated. He flopped down in the chair and threw his head back, "Why do I have to prove anything?"

His boss shrugged as the boy took another swig, "Amadeus, ever since you met Inessa you've been in love with her. Maybe not in a romantic way, but you two were always-"he thought for a moment, "-whatever the best friend version of a soulmate is."

"And it's probably why I couldn't stop Noelle's death!"

"No," he countered, "it's why I know that no matter what the other groups find you'll work harder than both teams combined for a reason to believe her. If there's so much as a breath of a hint of a whisper as to who's behind this- if anyone- you'll find it. You'll find it because you need to believe she didn't do this. You're her only chance at a fair trial here. So I don't care if you don't like your assignment. I need Nessie to be innocent, I want to believe her, but I just can't, and it's killing me. Do this for her, or do it for me."

"But I don't know if I believe her!"

"Find a way to, or everything goes to hell."

"Sam!" Marie had to jog to catch him and the others in the parking garage. He stopped midway through the motorcycles with Castor and Maya in tow. Wherever they were going, Geoff was way ahead of them, "Hey, I've got something to take care of before I leave, is that cool with you?"

"Yeah," Sam was one scary guy when he chose to be, luckily his rage wasn't directed at her, "When you're done head to 8 Vanderbilt Avenue, we'll be in Townhouse 23C. It's an Avengers safe-house."

Marie hesitated, "Wait- we're moving out of the Tower?"

"Inessa doesn't know about this place. If she gets out, she won't be able to find us, we made damn sure of that. It's totally Shadow-proof."

Abandoning the Tower sounded too much like joining some Avengers splinter cell for her liking. Still, she took a deep breath and nodded, "Got it. I'll see you there by nightfall."

"Mom?"

"Hey baby! It's so good to hear from you," the sound of her mother's voice was enough to bring tears to Marie's eyes, "Joshua! Get the phone! Your daughter's on the line!"

There was a click, some shuffling, and her father's booming voice came through, "Marie Rose Richards?! No way! A bona-fide Avenger calling us?!" The unabashed pride that filled every word broke Marie's stern constitution. She opened her mouth to reply, but only a half-sob came out.

"What's wrong?" Immediately her mother's soft voice overrode her father's, "Marie? Are you alright? Is everything OK?"

"I don't know," she whispered as tears fell openly, "everything is just- I don't know…"

Another soft click sounded and JARVIS' voice came through, "Miss Richards, forgive my intrusion but I am currently set to monitor all calls in and around the Tower. I believe you should know that you parents were granted top-level clearance once you joined the Shadow Unit. You are free to speak openly with them."

So she told them everything. She told them about the Shadow- how kind she had been versus how cruel she was now, the division in the Avengers, and the looming catastrophe. She joined the Avengers to help people, and now it felt like that world was going to crumble around her. Her Leader thought she was a traitor, the Avengers thought she was a monster, and Marie was left not really knowing what to do. Inessa declared herself Marie's enemy and with what happened to Noelle she had to go with Sam for her own protection- she never had time to decide what she believed.

Her parents listened throughout the tirade. Being the parents of an Avenger meant it no longer mattered that they'd lived thus-far in an Avengers-free zone- every last battle the heroes faced was now personal. Especially since their Marie was the one in the crosshairs of the monster. Her father counseled her first, "Do you believe the Shadow is working against the others?"

"Yes."

"Why?" she had no answer for her mother, "Marie-Rose, did I not raise you right?" there was no venom in her mother's voice, "Don't decide someone's nothing or everything just because you want to fit in with the cool kids. No matter who you apply it to, that is still the best advice I can ever give you. Now, is this Shadow a bad person? You need to listen to your instincts. They always told you something was wrong with your brother's head, even before he started playing with ours. Is the Shadow like him?"

"I-"Marie looked around her. She was standing in the living room of Inessa's apartment, amidst the strings and papers the Leader was so obsessed with. The place had been searched a half-dozen times since her arrest- it was even more of a wreck than before, "I don't know?" she walked across the living room to the bedroom, where her photographs were piled high. She picked up one of the most recent group shots, "No," she whispered. The Inessa in the picture looked happy in a way Marie had never seen from her. It was as if the Avengers' energy gave her life. Something that pure, that obvious, couldn't be faked, "No," this time she said it louder, "I'm not sure…"

"And why not?"

"Because, even though I hate her and even though she's a b-"she remembered who she was talking to, "-really bad person, I think she loves them… And from the stories I think she's the kind of person who would take her own life before she let someone else get hurt."

"Good girl," her dad whispered, then cleared his throat, "Hey Dinah, we raised one right!" Marie was shocked to hear him say something like that. She never knew their feelings on Kyle, what he turned out to be, but his open willingness to joke was more than a bit of a surprise, "Well baby, go do what you gotta do to figure this out."

"It's the Shadow, if she can't figure it out-"

Her mother interrupted, "She's in it up to her ears. You've got fresh eyes. A veteran farmer always thinks he knows best, but sometimes it's the rookie who brings in the fresh crops."

"Do me a favor, Heat Wave," her father rarely used her childhood nickname. If anything it betrayed his own fear, "Don't let anyone see you peeking over the fence to see the other side of this thing, alright? If there's nothing to find, then there's no sense in that Shadow taking you down in her wake, got it?"

"I promise, dad," Marie stepped back out and looked over the timeline on the wall- not that she could read almost any of it. A fresh eye- what assumptions would Inessa have made that she could ignore? An image popped up in Marie's mind of the Wall of Remembrance downstairs, where Noelle's picture was undoubtedly being added. Across from it was a very different kind of memorial- images of every enemy the Avengers had killed. If they ever figured out who she really was, maybe Noelle's picture would be moved there... Then again, maybe there were pictures there that didn't quite belong… "I think I know where to start."

Sam led Castor and Maya to what was probably the Avengers best kept secret- a mid-town townhouse off of any book, computer system, or database. Legally, cartographically, and digitally it did not exist. It was a hole in the heart of New York City: a perfect safe house.

Once upon a time a hole-in-the-wall shawarma joint sat there where the heroes ate after the First Battle of New York. When it was destroyed by Thanos (along with Avengers Tower and at least three-quarters of the city), Tony had the ruins purchased, then buried the place far off any radar. He threw a dart at a map of the United States and where it struck he buried the paperwork.

The point was for it to act as a safe house for the Avengers should Inessa go dark. Stark loved Loch Nessa, but he was Type-A, and couldn't help but put a contingency in place- one less lethal than his gun. She had no idea it even existed.

Gentrification in the wake of the destruction turned the neighborhood into prime real estate- so the towering pale-gray townhouse was by no means conspicuous amongst the multi-million dollar properties. It hid a secret though that made it far above average.

Deep beneath Avengers Tower, Inessa was locked in a cement room that hid the world's most advanced cell. It was run by a closed system (meaning the frequency humming through the walls was frustratingly correct), and at some point or another was put through its paces by every Avenger, no exemptions. Hulk couldn't smash his way out, Mjolnir had to open a Bifrost portal to get close and still ended up fused to the wall (it took three weeks to cut it loose), Geoff couldn't teleport, Ellie couldn't hijack someone's mind to be let out, Scott Lang couldn't shrink to fit through seams, Amadeus and Tony together couldn't rig an escape with three fully weaponized remote suits, Natasha couldn't sneak out with a personal chameleon device (the second time, at least. After they installed sensors to fill the blind spots), and most importantly Inessa couldn't summon even the shadow of Nadya. The cell was truly impenetrable.

So it wasn't exactly luck that prompted Tony to build the Townhouse with the same specs.

"I'm not happy leaving the Tower," Sam announced as the group stepped out of their car, "but we'll have more privacy here to investigate. We're ripping her life apart as far back as we can go. I want to know every associate, every text or email she ever sent, every alias she's ever used- make Natasha and Clint's background checks look like a google search, got it?"

"Dibs on the Project: Echo videos," Geoff said darkly as he stepped out from behind the car, loaded down with binders, boxes, and supplies.

"Maya and I will take anything pre-Avengers, we've got ways to dig up what Hydra deleted." Castor offered.

"Good. I'll assign myself going through aliases and finding a pattern in the files we found in Astana. Someone text Marie and tell her she's in charge of contacts and associates. Let's get going- we don't have much time."

However much Geoff hated Inessa for what she did to Noelle, it wasn't enough to shield him from the horrors of the Project: Echo security footage. He thought it would make him feel better. After the third toe Dennisson had his Asset break he turned it off and went to the newly arrived Marie for her file of transcripts.

"Yeah, I'm a wimp, I get it!" he snapped in response to her (purely sympathetic) smile.

"Woah, that's not what-"

"She killed Noelle!" he rounded on her, "I know she wasn't real, I know she was lying about who she was, but she was mine! She was good! She saved my life and who knows how many others, so she deserved to be saved too!"

Marie immediately pushed out from behind her desk and grabbed Geoff's shoulders, "Don't worry. I'm with you on this, I promise. I only knew her for a few months, but you're right- there are a hundred good reasons why she didn't tell us who she really was. I don't believe her secrets were bad, she saved too many lives for all of that. The Avengers know Noelle is the victim and Inessa's the killer. We just have to make sure they don't fall for her Shadow King bullshit." She released him and patted the folder, "We'll find something, ok? They're already leaning to our side, they just need a push."

She was willing to convince anyone that she was still on Sam's side, but once Marie assumed every enemy the Avengers ever fought were still alive and well it certainly clouded the water. Finally, she had something in common with the Avengers- she was just leaning to Sam's side. She needed that push too.

"Thanks," Geoff took a few steadying breaths, "I just- it's been a rough few weeks."

"Hey, if you actually watched those videos I would think less of you. The fact that you couldn't is what separates us from people like her." Her brother had been a sociopath just like Inessa (maybe) and her old friend Dennisson. To people like them the videos would be nothing short of pornographic (ok, even if Inessa was evil she probably wouldn't feel that way about the footage). Geoff proved his rage by volunteering to watch. Now he proved his humanity by backing down. She patted his shoulder again and he left with an apologetic smile.

Marie found herself thinking back to the first day she spent in the Tower. Inessa, who Marie now knew had several ongoing missions, was ignoring her responsibilities to meet a terrified 18 year old. She was kind, warm, and so perceptive that Marie thought the guard might be a mind reader. Noelle had explained what Inessa's PTSD did to her- how some days she'd be "too much like Amadeus", and others would find her silent, reserved…

Then she went to Niflheim, and as scared as she must have been coming back drenched in the blood of her friends, she still looked for her new teammate, still managed to crack a joke. It was like Inessa was utterly un-phased, so long as she had her friends with her.

Just by that Inessa didn't seem to Marie to be someone who would ever hurt her friends. Truth be told, even when she went after Marie it was like she was protecting them, not herself… It was enough to convince her of Inessa's innocence- until she remembered that Nadya existed. When you took that thing into account it was suddenly easy to see the Leader as a monster.

Whatever Inessa was, that beast was a piece of her. Maybe little Nadya Ryker was innocent before Astana, maybe fusing with the creature changed her little-by-little. It didn't matter. The evidence proved she killed Noelle- DNA proved she was a murderer… Still, the Inessa who greeted the farm-girl in the lobby didn't feel like an act, not like her brother's little kind gestures had. Marie walked over to her window and looked up at the skyscraper in the distance.

Stay with Sam, her gut told her things were about to get ugly, keep working, and if she proves you wrong, kill her.

Several Days Later

Inessa had an imperfect sense of time while she was in the cell. The most control she had was dimming the lights when she was tired, so it was hardly a precise art. Still, based on the food she'd been given and her own keen sense of when darkness fell she felt sure that it was safe to say she'd been in solitary for, roughly, a million years.

Steve shared with her copies of the evidence they'd gotten from Noelle- even Banner's DNA test was in there. He'd matched the killer's saliva to Inessa through mitochondrial DNA to get a match. So, unless her mother had popped up out of the grave it could only be from one source. The files were printed with ink that matched the chemical structure of what was in her printer, the ink in her favorite pen was a molecular match to handwriting on the documents, and JARVIS' deepest system scans revealed a slew of passwords and phrases keyed to her voice that gave her command over more systems than even Tony had access to- she wasn't even surprised when they found the secret laptop (or that it had magically been swapped for a new one with her finger prints all over it).

She'd long since given up trying to escape. Nothing would work anyways. She helped build the prison, anything she thought to try had already been planned for (Tony's face when 18 year-old Inessa had broken three fingers to see if the pain ripped through the room's defenses still made her smile). Besides, if any more moves were made by Red Skull or his plant in the Tower it would only prove her innocence.

Not that he would be so careless after doing such a good job of setting her up.

She just had to be patient and trust that eventually she would get out… Preferably, you know, before the Tower exploded. Her vision only said she'd be there in the aftermath with Bucky. Was she supposed to find him? Would he come on his own? How much time would she have- could she figure out who Red Skull's operative was, what his plan was, how Loki got the frequency emitters, and get past Sam before Heimdall's time frame expired? How-

More important thoughts butted in on the stream of unknowns-when did she give up? When did Inessa stop trying to prevent the destruction of her home and instead resign herself to it? Whenever Muhammad (who was being kept FAR away from the transcripts of Bucky's vision because they needed an Ouroborous like they needed a- well, a blown up Tower) voiced a prophecy she was always the one cautioning against simply allowing it or taking it at face value- now she was a hypocrite. All they knew was that she'd be there with him, Sam would try to kill her, and she'd jump with Bucky in tow. That was it. Just because he said the Avengers were dead didn't mean they were- if she really believed that she wouldn't have been so callous. Maybe only Sam thought they were dead and she knew precisely where they were- she'd hidden them out of spite or something. Maybe-

Maybe.

"Thirty miles southeast of Talat, then seventeen miles south-southwest," someone was always listening on the other side of the door, "send Amadeus. He probably saw his face last time we got close… He might not run."

"Who?" Natasha was the prison guard du jour, evidently.

"Kochevnik."

"Nomad? Why does Amadeus want a nomad?"

"He'll know who I'm talking about, and Steve will approve the mission."

Natasha clicked off her speaker for a while and pondered it, then relayed Inessa's words. Just as she said, Steve immediately approved the mission. That made her weary, "Why would Steve let you call in an operation? The teams are meeting to decide if you should be put down."

"He won't do that," she said calmly, "because I know you and Clint. If there was a chance he'd kill me you and Clint would take me into custody until you were convinced. If anyone believes it's a setup-"

"What did you want the Suits to do? Before we found Noelle you asked JARVIS to send up Steve and Tony- you wanted more bodies dug up, didn't you?"

What could it hurt, telling her? "Someone tried to use 4,000 people to replicate my abilities. I just thought that maybe if they did and they failed, then they'd go looking into why I didn't die as a kid. Or why this body didn't-"she shook her head, "whatever. I should be an irradiated pile of sludge, but I'm not. If I were Hydra, I'd go after the source- my mother and father. Something in their genetics enabled this body to survive. It's the next best thing to having me to experiment on." She kept her suspicions to herself- that Hydra already had Emilie's body. It was worth waiting to see what the Suit might or might not find. She was so sick of being wrong.

"Not bad," Natasha's voice was still cold, "but you're too slow. Tony had that idea already."

"And?" Anxiety gnawed at her.

"Emilie and Anton's bodies were taken," Natasha confirmed, "but records show the cemetery had them cremated years ago. Your mother was buried in a lead box, but the radiation started leaking out and so both bodies were destroyed to protect the local population. Your mom was a mini-Chernobyl."

"I'm not surprised," her flat tone made Natasha think Inessa was referring to her mother's radioactive state. In reality she was just starting to piece together the puzzle. Her mother's body was missing. DNA belonging only to her or her mother was found on Noelle… Well, someone was willing to rip Noelle apart in the most barbaric display of savagery Inessa had ever seen just to frame her. Digging up her mom to plant evidence wasn't anything to even blink over.

Natasha hesitated, "Hang in there kid," she couldn't resist giving her old charge a kind word, "Tony found some odd clicks in the Tower's sensors. It could be regular interference, or it could be a sign of a low-level broadcast. He's working on it… You'll be alright."

"I know I will, I'm worried about you."

"Well, knock it off. We know what you know. If you want to figure this out, let us worry about ourselves."

"Amadeus, be a black-ops leader. Amadeus, prove Inessa's innocent. Amadeus, drop everything and go to some hot, humid, tarantula-infested jungle on the off-chance that Inessa actually figured out where the hell the Nomad is. Oh, and Amadeus? Why don't you take a couple from Sam's group with you? That'll make it extra tense!" He traced a wolf's head in the dust and dirt on the floor.

"Oh, well, if you'd rather take a three hour Suit flight back to the Tower I could leave. Would that make you feel better?" Geoff was their glorified transport on this mission, which he was very much not happy about. The deadline to prove Inessa's murder of Noelle was willful, malicious, and part of a larger scheme was looming and they'd found nothing beyond what evidence they'd found in Astana. Damning, yes, but it didn't say what the rest of her plan was.

Marie kicked Geoff's leg into Amadeus' in the cramped shack and abandoned her own doodle of the Avengers logo, "Or you could both quit your bitching. At least you didn't have to hire a couple of smugglers to arrange a snatch-and-sell with their buyers. I hate slavers. I hate talking to them. I hate looking at them. I hate breathing the same air as them."

"Yeah, well, we've set up this cartel before. There's a 20% chance they'd know my face and Geoff's personality would get in the way. We tracked the Nomad by his heroics before. Trust me, if he's in that village, he'll follow whoever those jerks grab out here and we can all blow off some steam before he goes to Steve, I go to my corner where no one will talk to me, and you two go back to wherever Sam has you squirreled away."

"It's a shit plan, just so you know."

"You have a shit face, just so you know."

"Correct me if I'm wrong-"Marie raised her voice over theirs, "but weren't you two friends when I joined this circus?"

Geoff let out a forced laugh, "Yeah, before his Leader killed my girlfriend!"

"I can't control what she does or does not do! She's my boss, not my sim!"

"You're the only person in the world lame enough to play The Sims."

"I LIKE BULDING HOUSES, OK?!"

Marie wished she could drown out their voices as the conversation took a turn that didn't even make sense. They were fighting for the sake of fighting- and frankly it was the only thing she did like about her group splitting out of the Tower. She still wasn't firmly on anyone's side, or else she might be acting just as idiotic as the boys. She investigated Inessa as she was assigned, but all she'd found was that if there were a traitor they would have to be on Inessa's team- and with Noelle's death they'd only ramped up their activity. It had to be someone as close to Inessa as Amadeus- but the boy was definitely no traitor. Also, if you accidentally forgot that he was dead, easy money was on Red Skull as the attacker- and that was as likely as someone farting butterflies, so basically she'd learned nothing.

"Frick, Frack, shut up!" she kicked them again (and smudged Amadeus' wolf head) at the sound of engines drawing near, "You two suck at the covert part of this covert mission, just FYI."

"You know who else sucks?" Geoff looked to Amadeus.

Marie raised her hand and let her skin glow a hot red, "I'm fully charged. Geoff, say 'your momma' one more time and I swear to god they won't even find teeth. Amadeus, same goes for you."

Geoff made a zipper motion across his lips and waved a hand to the door as if to say after you. Marie stood and dusted herself off, then peeked through a crack in the wood-paneled door. Cars were approaching from either side of the hut. The slavers were good to their word- they had two girls in tow from the direction of the village, trussed up and gagged. Their buyers were meeting to take custody. Marie had convinced the pick-up crew that she would pay ten million big ones for them to meet that day, and apparently a briefcase full of money was more than enough to get them to make their own excuses to whoever they supplied. The survivors were going to feel pretty stupid once she sent the retrieval signal and that briefcase took off and flew itself back to Avengers Tower.

"You call when you want to attack. As far as I'm concerned, this is your op now," Amadeus was more experienced in all of this than she was, so she deferred to him (so long as he stayed on-point).

"Hate to burst your bubble, General, but this has been my mission from the start." For someone who hated leading it was almost too easy for him to step around Marie and take control of the situation, "We wait for our friend to make his move, but if the hand-off is complete before he gets here then you and I will grab the girls and draw fire while Geoff takes everyone to that military base as per our agreement with the locals. Understood?"

"Understood."

"One thing," Marie braced for something snide from Geoff, "I can only take them maybe one truck at a time, so you'll have to hold for a while. All good?"

"Fine by me," Amadeus waited while the men talked. The girls were being transferred into the other jeep, but he didn't see any sign of Bucky Barnes. Geoff and Marie didn't even know that was who they were here for. If they did, maybe they'd be a bit nervous. If anyone trusted Inessa it would probably be him, and depending on how his life of meditation was going, he could very well take a personal stance against Sam's little splinter-cell. A pissed off Winter Soldier- Amadeus was almost excited.

They waited until the last possible second, but eventually their hand was forced and the Avengers moved in for the kill. They had no way of knowing it, but when the fight started Bucky was still twenty minutes out, slowed by muddy terrain. By the time they finished off the smugglers, got the girls back to the village, and did the usual "We're sorry you ended up being bait" shtick that the Shadow Unit perfected Amadeus was convinced the op was a bust.

Geoff took them back to the ambush site in time to see another jeep peeling away, but they decided there was no use following it. Bucky hadn't come. Inessa was wrong yet again- he wasn't in this village. Or, at least, not anymore. They didn't know he had come, seen the evidence of their victory, and gotten so wrapped up in nostalgia he hadn't seen the rear guard until it was too late. Now, as Amadeus declared him a no-show, he was unconscious in the back of that very jeep, speeding away from any chance he might have had at stopping Red Skull's plan in its tracks.

In just over a month, Amadeus would come to pray Bucky never found out about that.

The rules were clear- no one entered Inessa's cell without permission from every Avengers leader. Steve himself put that into place for their security and hers- but he was tempted when he visited her. Once again she looked drained, and she was slumped with the side of her head braced on the cement walls. Her eyes were still open, but she looked like she was trying not to throw up.

"Are you- what's wrong?"

"I feel like shit, nothing new," she tipped up so that now she was leaning on the wall behind her, "your shields don't work anymore. Whatever's using me to re-charge is at it again."

"I'll have Tony look into it."

"I would appreciate that. What did he find out about the frequency blips?"

Steve shook his head, "We couldn't trace it. They died out."

"As soon as you started looking?"

"Tony's still not convinced it wasn't just an error on his equipment. It's like turning up your speakers and trying to hear a message in the electric hum. It was never anything strong enough to worry about. Every other scan came back negative."

"What about Bucky? Did you-"

"He wasn't there."

Her heart dropped. Inessa put a hand to her forehead and racked her mind- no other plans came to her. She was at the end, "I- I can't stop it." The reality was like a bucket of ice water splashing over her. She felt cold to the bone, "I'm sorry Steve… I just- I don't know what else to do."

"If there's something to figure out, we'll figure it out for you. Just stay in here, behave yourself, and we'll see if we can't find some way to convince the United Nations you aren't a threat anymore. Tony's working on something to juice up your implant- maybe that will be enough." He didn't sound anywhere near convincing. It told Inessa more than anything else what he was really thinking.

"Sam found something, didn't he?" Inessa didn't care anymore, "they're going to kill me."

"He had what the rest of us didn't- proof. Your writing, your ink, your files, your DNA, your codes, your device, your safe-house. The rest of them were supposed to find something to counter that. Even Amadeus didn't turn up anything. I have to present the facts to the U.N., but I will also give them your service record and your theories."

She huffed and reached around to feel the implant on her neck, "None of that stopped you all from locking me up. Why would it stop them?"

"Yeah," he sighed, "look, I've got to go." Steve couldn't look at her anymore. Part of him was unbelievably pissed that she'd just give up like this, the other half was angry with himself for letting things go this far. He didn't know which side he was on, and the reality of it was that she probably would pay for the 7,200 people who'd lost their lives in catastrophes likely caused by her. He was distancing himself, but no one else knew what to do, "Goodnight Nessie."

"Night."

A low rumble woke Inessa. She didn't know what time it was, how long she'd been asleep, or if the sound was reality or just the product of a tired mind. Inessa's head felt too light, but she looked around as best she could and tried to focus. The rumble came again- something mechanical? It sounded like something was breaking, but the cell was supposed to be sound-proof?

A chunk of the wall across from her exploded inward, showering the cell with dust, rocks, and debris. Inessa jumped as Nadya leapt through with her tail wagging. Her friend. Her last friend. Nadya had a small innate ability to open portals. How long had it taken her to claw her way into the cell undetected? Inessa looked into her mind and saw it- day after day spent throwing herself at the frequency emitters until her little scratches added up to a catastrophic failure and a crack to begin digging towards the interior.

No matter what happened, Nadya was always by her side. Inessa crawled over and wrapped her arms around the wolf's neck, "Thank you, friend. Come on, we need to find something- there has to be a lead I missed." Using the wolf for support, Inessa pulled herself to her feet and carefully followed Nadya through the hole in the wall and out of the cell's containment.

When she felt up to it, Inessa crafted a tunnel through the Valley to her apartment. She was going to collect her research and vanish- Steve and the others found a fake safe-house in Astana. Her real one was far, far away. Nadya's rescue was undoubtedly what opened the door for whoever was leaching off her strength to resume their work. It was a blessing and a curse- not to mention what the Avengers would think when they found that cell empty. She couldn't face them, not anymore. All of this would be impossible to explain to any degree.

Inessa let go of Nadya and began tearing pages down from the walls- anything she thought was still relevant. She hesitated in front of the wall devoted to the traitor in the Tower. Everything pointed to the Shadow directly. Nothing told her who the real enemy of the Avengers wa-

A light flickered as she turned away from the wall and for a moment only half the room was illuminated. Her shadow stretched in front of her to the spot where she'd anchored all of the red strings- everything that pointed to her.

Or does it?

Nadya stepped forward towards her mistress, into the shadow Inessa was casting. Another wave of dizziness hit and she swayed dangerously, falling to one knee.

I'm not the whole Shadow… Only half… Inessa was fairly certain that she'd seen images of Red Skull, flashes in her vision as she tried to scan the shadows more than ever before… But when she scanned the shadows all she really did was reach for Nadya's mind. But if Nadya was with Red Skull then that would mean that she was with Red Skull and that didn't-

The weaker Inessa got, the stronger Nadya became. She thought it was just a measure of how much she was losing, but what if it was more in line with what Nadya was gaining?

As a child it was Nadya who showed her bloodshed and slaughter as the pack drew on Inessa's uncontrolled powers to run in the night. As a child someone turned Dimitri from a well-intentioned, loving uncle to a manic, rampaging drunk who hid her from Hydra only to sell her back later- the whispers of a Shadow? As a prisoner she had a chance to escape- Bucky had her in the halls, but the Nadya who was able to tap into Inessa's power to open portals to kill guards who'd assaulted her didn't come to rescue the fleeing duo. She'd stayed quiet then. Inessa and Bucky were doomed to fail.

When Inessa tried to kill herself, before and after her five years in cryo, the body's screaming would stop her- but that wasn't the case anymore. Inessa assumed her physical form was somehow picking up on her own frustration and rage- unless someone else was trying to get into the empty husk. When she sent the pack through the city in the Second Battle of New York, any time her hold broke on Nadya and her pack they would turn away from Hydra and aim their fury at civilians. Nadya was always there to keep her safe, but also to encourage her bloodlust, even once she'd joined with the Avengers.

And ever since all of this started a second Shadow had been working against her… Maybe it wasn't a second shadow. Maybe just the second half of the Shadow. It still didn't quite make sense- Nadya couldn't be the traitor. She had no reason to side against Inessa with Hydra and the Red Skull-

Unless you added the Hydra component back in. The Rager was channeling something else in the room when it said "The brilliance of Moore." When she looked at Mallory, as the seizures started, she'd seen something dark and formless. Maybe something like Nadya, before Inessa had crafted her into the wolf? Ragers, in her limited experience, took the form of shades wrapped around the head of their victims. When Morris used them on Steve and Bucky they'd never caused a hallucination.

So maybe the Rager wasn't the only thing going after her. She was seizing, being attacked by an invisible monster Nadya could damn well kill, and the frequency "pinning" Inessa was a fake. The wolf tried to stop her from examining the battery in Bucky's metal arm that gave her the idea that the Red Skull was working against them, but it didn't try to save her or alert the Avengers when she was potentially dying?

"The brilliance of Moore," that was what Mallory's image had said. It invoked a long-dead Hydra commander who seemed to fit nowhere in the grand scheme of things… Unless someone who'd worked with him and probably idolized him had lost their focus for a moment and let that blurb slip out. Who was Moore's friend in Hydra?

Her mother.

Something broke in Inessa as the last pieces clicked into place. She knew why she was losing the battle so far. It wasn't a traitor in her team, her mother, or a second Shadow. It was the traitor in her team- her mother. The second half of the Shadow.

Emilie Ryker and Nadya were one and the same.

The Shadow (Revisited)

Where is Anton? Why isn't he here yet? Commander Moore sent him away on a short assignment- but surely he should have finished by now. It felt like weeks had passed. How long did it take to train the new medical team on Hydra's Alaska barge? Do everything the dead team did- just make sure the magnetic lock was engaged before frying the Winter Soldier's brain. Otherwise he tended to lash out. She asked Nikolai over and over again when he would be back, but he kept insisting it was too soon. How long did it take to bring her husband home? Would he even arrive in time to say goodbye?

Helius was supposed to be her biggest contribution to Hydra- something on par with her grandfather's plot to save them by hiding within the ranks of SHIELD itself. Imagine- invisible soldiers, capable of putting down their enemies and vanishing again into the darkness- shadows that killed. All it took was one oversight- the containment chamber had a flaw somewhere that flooded the room with radiation and detonated her precious Helius device.

The lucky ones died in the fireball that erupted, the fortunate were crushed by debris, and the wretched survivors were doomed to die slow, painful deaths as their bodies liquefied and rotted until they drowned in their own fluids.

If you were Emilie, you had the additional agony of feeling your child slip away into nothing. Ever since the explosion she hadn't felt the baby kick, and Nikolai found no heartbeat. Poor Anton- she wanted to see him, to tell him to be strong without them, but apparently her eternity in hell amounted to only a few days in this world. Nikolai's face told her enough- he didn't believe his brother could be retrieved in time. That disobedient cyborg cheated them of their last chance to say goodbye.

Moore, her lifelong friend and mentor, stayed by his scientists as one by one they succumbed until all that remained was Emilie. Through the marrow-deep aching of her body she could feel a stillness creeping in on her. Nikolai held his sister-in-law's hand through bandages and lead-lined gloves as he swore to deliver the baby and bury her with her mother. Then Moore had increased the morphine drip far enough to put the healthiest person on the Grim Reaper's list.

She felt her pulse slow and took her last breath with Nikolai and Moore watching over her. Emilie thought she was floating away into oblivion-

Until she heard the howling wind.

Instead of the darkness she expected she saw a ruinous, barren landscape of gray stone and yellow light with a flashing vortex swirling high above. Was it Hell? Limbo? Purgatory? She heard a thin cry and looked down- her baby! The child was inside a mass of darkness where Emilie's body should have been, looking up at her mother with brilliant, silver eyes. Emilie reached out to her and the black smoke grew thicker. It was then she realized that the darkness surrounding the child was her.

Hands appeared within the smoke as Nikolai fulfilled his oath. He pulled the baby from her mother- but when Emilie tried to follow back to her world she couldn't- something pinned her in. For a brief moment she saw Nikolai's stunned face as he beheld a perfectly alive baby. Emilie tried to yell for him to "TAKE THE CHILD!" to Hydra high command- but the portal closed before her entire message got through. Still, he must have heard her, right?

It was impossible to tell how much time passed by the sky of the place she'd come to call Limbo. Only her daughter's infrequent visits gave her clues as the infant grew. Emilie had nothing- no hope, no form, no purpose, and no future when the baby tipped away back into her world. She never responded when Emilie tried to speak- it was like she couldn't hear her.

Something must have gotten through though- her loneliness, her desperation to return, something. After years trapped in Limbo the child summoned her and pulled her through to the world she'd lost. It felt amazing to see color again- even if it was just the dark room of a little girl. She surrounded the child in a show of affection as she reveled in sight and sound- but her maternal instincts weren't dead.

A doll-house was open in the corner. Stuffed bears, dolls, and fantastical animals covered almost every surface. There were pop-up books, coloring books, and toys- what the hell was going on? Anton wasn't supposed to raise the child like this- they'd agreed their baby would be raised with only the basics, just as they had. Not like this, not like some pampered capitalist.

Where is Anton? How could he let this go on?!

Her daughter's playful laughter woke someone in the home. Emilie heard footsteps coming down the hall. She was ready to give Anton a piece of her mind (if she could figure out how) and maybe put the fear of God back into him when the door opened and Nikolai entered. Emilie directed her aggravation and frustration at him, abandoning all thought of her husband. Her brother-in-law turned white as a sheet. Before she could try to speak he hit the light switch and she was blasted back by a cold, hard wave of power which flung her away from her daughter and back into Limbo.

Whatever Nikolai did, it only encouraged the child to summon her more, or at least visit the empty world when she was bored. Every time Emilie managed a glimpse of Nikolai she would scream into his mind as best she could, insist her daughter would be better off with Hydra. They would raise her as a warrior for their cause and find a way to unleash Emilie, not spoil the child with dolls and toys! She was a Zola for God's sake, practically Hydra property from birth!

Nadya- Nikolai had named the child as Anton preferred- grew in power swiftly and rapidly. She began to shape Emilie, forcing what was left of her mother into the image of a dog to fill her wish for a pet. Emilie was willing to humor the child so long as it freed her from Limbo, but she couldn't help resent the parasite which had taken from her the brunt of the power Helius bestowed.

Nikolai, now Dimitri, turned to drink to drown Emilie's voice out. He put the child in danger as their financial situation turned dire, going so far as to strike little Nadya in a blind, drunken attempt to silence the voices that swirled around her.

It gave Emilie an idea. The strongest steel was forged in the hottest fire, so she decided that until Hydra took possession a crucible was in order. Emilie abandoned Nadya to Dimitri's abuse and in turn the child's power grew. Slivers were often left with her in Limbo, so Emilie formed a small army. Each wolf she crafted in her image and gave a piece of her darkness to. Soon, her control could surpass even Nadya's.

At the onset of puberty the child's powers skyrocketed beyond imagining. Accidental portals, always infrequent in the past, opened nearly nightly as Nadya fought to learn control. Whenever she could, Emilie took her daughter's mind and showed her what the power to kill felt like. She meant to find the spark that would lead the girl to Hydra, or vice versa, but Nadya resisted still. Emilie began directing her attacks on the facility where she was killed- and where the child was born. Nothing got Hydra's attention like slaughter within their own base.

She hated the bitch. Nadya's growing strength only made her weaker. She'd been trapped in Limbo for too many years, void of any real physical form. Nadya made her an attack dog, and still she refused the path of Hydra's elite- her blood right. She was an embarrassment to the names of Zola and Ryker.

Emilie's whispers drove Dimitri insane, but she didn't stop. If anything the prodding of his mind turned to violent shoves- particularly after the reemergence of Captain America in the Battle of New York. It wasn't just that Red Skull's enemy survived, it was little Nadya's admiration for his team. Avengers. Emilie could feel it- her daughter wanted to fight like they did, but her loyalties were aligned with the wrong side!

In Loki's wake, he came. At first he was just a voice, whispering back into her shadows. Emilie spoke as best she could with her imperfect form, conveyed her rage, fear, and shattered hopes for the child. Red Skull offered her more than she thought was possible: A new Project, back in her old laboratory, this one devoted to hollowing out Nadya. Her mind was set on the wrong path, she was a threat to Hydra, especially if the Avengers got hold of her. She would never be trustworthy enough to fight on Hydra's side, and the techniques they perfected to hold the Winter Soldier's allegiance may throw off the balance of her power- something Hydra could not risk. Emilie, however, the heir of Arnim Zola- now that was a soldier Hydra could trust.

The order was given to Pierce and passed on to Hydra's cruelest- young Thomas Dennisson. Emilie didn't even mind when the Winter Soldier was added to the team- the fool who'd robbed her of a final farewell with her husband when she was most in need of his presence. He would be making up for it now. There was only one rule she put to Red Skull- only they could know the true purpose of 'Project: Echo'. If Nadya knew her obedient dog was something more she would no doubt find a way to thwart everything, and no member of Hydra could be trusted with the secret.

Dennisson's ignorance proved fatal for those around him. He allowed favored guards to violate Nadya's body- soon to be Emilie's- in unacceptable ways. She took great pleasure in teaching them respect. The Winter Soldier was even useful in that area- to her extreme annoyance. Nadya began to see him as her ally, and each little crack in his programming brought her back a bit and pushed their schedule. Luckily, after a failed rescue attempt, Dennisson saw that too and scheduled more programming sessions to combat it.

Finally, after two long years, Nadya was nearly there. Red Skull warned her to be patient, but it was like asking a starving man to sit at a feast without eating. Dennisson was off on some assignment, the Winter Soldier's programming fractured, and he deactivated the safeguards holding back Nadya's power. Emilie knew one of two scenarios would play out: either she'd grab her friend and flee, leaving Hydra down two Assets (not to mention throwing away her best shot at the body), or his kindness would delay them again, and who knew for how long. One was catastrophic to Hydra, the other a disaster for her after being promised so much.

So Emilie made her move. She leapt from the Shadows to try and claim the body even as Nadya threw her now substantial arsenal of power into the wolf. The result was a fracture that lost for both of them what they wanted the most.

Emilie was pulled back by Nadya's power as she stole the body. It remained immobile, but when she screamed out in rage it cried out with her. Without Emilie's power to sustain her fractured reality, Nadya couldn't solidify herself enough to do more than poison the body with silver venom. And so it was that the Winter Soldier re-activated the defenses at Nadya's screams and blew Emilie back into Limbo- this time with an unwanted passenger.

The fusion took its toll on both minds. Emilie was disastrously suppressed, as was the still-dominant Nadya. The pair became trapped, Nadya's body was lost, and Emilie's best weapon- her whisper- was adopted by the child as a new tool for her suicide mission. She barely managed to shield her mind from the parasite.

Three years later neither was much of anything. Nadya was slowly falling dormant and yet Emilie barely had any control over their actions- and certainly not enough command of Nadya's abilities to open a doorway back. The Avengers Emilie once feared so much reclaimed the body, and as Nadya woke and sought to determine their intentions, Emilie's pack tried to end them.

And then, finally, the fog lifted. Nadya returned to her body and took with her power and instinct once belonging to Emilie. It was like taking the first gasp of air after drowning. If Red Skull tried to contact her again she couldn't know it, but she waited patiently, played the dutiful guardian, and waited. Something snapped in Nadya's mind during her time with Hydra. She was no longer the innocent child. Hydra failed to hollow her out, but Emilie's rage helped her become a killer. Just as it had before- if anything got Red Skull's attention it would be the deaths of his agents.

When the found that first Helius device Emilie knew he'd given up on her. He succeeded where she had failed- perfected her experiment. He had his army of vanishing agents and he would no longer need her. She tried to throw herself harder into the slaughter, even if it did hurt the Hydra she loved. Sebastian Morris' attempt to retrieve the child only made her angrier- another damn failure.

The Avengers were frightened of Emilie's ferocity, but they trusted Nadya's control. Emilie cultivated that, more out of spite than anything else. She protected them, joined them in the jokes, games, and missions. She even helped kill the mad "God" Thanos- it didn't matter anymore what benefitted Hydra, she was done thinking. She only wanted what she'd always wanted- as much time out of Limbo as possible. It didn't matter what she was doing. They'd broken her will.

Emilie, did you think that I forgot about you? Never, my dear friend. Never. Red Skull's voice came to her in the middle of the night, clearer than ever, I have always remembered our deal, our failure. I've found a new way, a new plan. Are you ready to escape at last?

He laid out everything. How he'd command Loki to bring Nadya and Emilie to the Realms, arrange the child's capture while Emilie held her mind, and cast a dark and dangerous spell to link mother and daughter. It would allow Emilie to feed, little by little, off Nadya's life force and use it to repair her own ruined body. All she had to do was ensure the Avengers eyes stayed on Nadya. A prophecy- one Emilie was quite familiar with- would make them believe she was their enemy. So long as they looked the wrong way, Emilie would be able to feed.

However, if at any point the truth of her loyalties were discovered, the penalty was death. No third attempt to seize power, and no further aid would be given to her beyond a swift death rather than a return to Limbo. Red Skull wanted the Avengers, Emilie wanted Nadya's power. It was an easy deal to strike.

And so she began whispering suspicions. Unlike with Dimitri, she did nothing more than build on their own very real fears. They took her words as instinct and one by one began to turn. As Nadya's life fueled Emilie, she took bigger risks- planting evidence to lead Nadya to suspect her own allies of treason, possessing a boy to attack the Realm councilman who feigned loyalty to the false Odin, using her command over Nadya's army to gather 4,000 so Red Skull could continue his Helius experiments, creatively editing her vision of Marie to cement her daughter's mistrust, staging her laboratory in Astana to damn Nadya - every action she took lead them back to her- and since they all thought she was nothing more than Nadya's minion, the deceit was simple. Red Skull showed his commitment to their cause by first reclaiming her human form and then watching patiently as she tore his asset apart.

Now all she had to do was wait for his final move, secure Earth's defenders, and see to it that little Nadya and her grandfather's experiment, that damnable Winter Soldier, walked right into the final trap- all while hiding her hand.

Emilie deactivated the shield the Avengers built around little Nadya with complete disregard for what the strain would do to Nadya. She went to her unsuspecting daughter, the image of a perfect, helpful monster. The Avengers no doubt would call it proof of Nadya's guilt- not that it would matter anymore.

At long last, after months of scheming, years of plotting, and over twenty years in hell it was time to make their move and end 'Project: Echo' once and for all.

Emilie strode from the shadows to the small, frail Nadya who had fallen to the floor of the apartment trying to solve an impossible puzzle. To the girl, her pet radiated hope, peace, and a sincere believe that things were going to get better- because that was what Emilie herself truly felt. Nadya didn't know it yet, but as she sat on the floor, blissfully ignorant of her pet's involvement in her own fall from power, the clocks in Avengers Tower chimed midnight and her time ran out.

It was –finally- the day of the explosion.