A/N: Death ahead!

Deception is the Deadliest Fly in the Web

It had been hours, and yet Yelena was still buzzing. She was trembling, to the point that she could hardly hold a glass of water without the water inside sloshing out everywhere. Natalia was right there! She was a mere few meters in front of her, and yet she did nothing. Nothing but exchange petty insults and posture like a child. Her fist balled tightly to stop the trembling, but it was no good.

The shivering wasn't out of fear. Oh no. It was excitement. Long had she dreamed of this moment, the moment when she would be face to face with the legendary Natalia Romanova herself. She stood toe-to-toe with the greatest Black Widow the Red Room had ever produced, and didn't blink. Yes, that was a good sign. A very good sign.

Thule had eyes and ears everywhere, so it came as little surprise when they contacted her when she returned to her motel room shortly after that fateful confrontation. They were, to the surprise of no one, not pleased when she informed them that she fled instead of simply killing Natalia right there.

These fools didn't understand. They didn't understand what was at stake. She couldn't just kill Natalia. No, no. She had to corner her, pluck away her allies one by one until it was only the two of them. She had to burn her resources, burn her bridges by which she could escape, destroy any hope she had of escaping her web alive. Then, and only then, would Yelena kill her.

Those savages didn't understand the nature of this game. They didn't understand that to kill the greatest spy since Nick Fury, she had to close off all means of escape, all means of aid, and all means of fighting back. They just wanted results, but didn't want to acknowledge that those desired results took work and dedication that none of them were capable of.

Feh! That was the downside to working with Americans. They paid well, but their patience left much to be desired.

She sat on her bed and opened a folder full of files and notes on the operation her own was running parallel to. Thule wanted chemical weaponry to aid them in their bid for world domination. As generic and cliché a motive as that was, it provided her with ample opportunity to severe Natalia's ties to her allies.

She picked up a burner phone and started making phone calls. It was time to coordinate their efforts.

After her phone conversations concluded, she picked up a notepad and started writing out her plan by hand. She did it this way as it would force her to think critically about every step as she was putting it down on paper. Not only that, but the act of physically writing – as opposed to typing out on a keyboard – settled the nerves that were building up inside her. She was so close to her fated confrontation with Natalia that she could see it all unfolding in front of her as if it was happening right that exact moment.

All she had to do was a little bit of prep work and her fantasy would become a reality. With the desired outcome, she hoped.

At 1900 hours, three Thule agents were going to be loading a batch of dangerous chemicals into the back of a truck at a warehouse two blocks from the downtown area of Moscow. She advised them to bump it up to 1500 hours, since the SHIELD agents would arrive early to scope the area out. Giving the Thule four hours to work with would give Yelena plenty of time to spin her web.

For this to actually work, she needed bait, so she only told one of the three men her plan. Success required sacrifice, so the other two men were going to be her sacrificial lambs. If they lived and went to prison, fine. If they died, so be it. As long as one of the SHIELD agents either died or was incapacitated, it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

Her plans set and the pertinent people aware of them, she went to bed. She had a long couple of days ahead of her.

The first thing Yelena did was acquire a set of explosive devices to place around the warehouse. They were small, yet powerful, and cleverly disguised as light switches. It was her first mind to swap out all the light switches in the warehouse, yet she quickly realized that only one needed to be. This was a long game, and thus only one SHIELD agent needed to fall. Once that happened, she would consider this phase of her mission a success and move on to planning out the next phase.

She flew to Moscow that night and met with the lone man aware of her plan an hour after she landed. He was hesitant, but after some careful convincing, she reassured him that she knew fully what she was doing. With that settled, she chose the room with the actual payload to place her explosive. She was betting on them being slightly careless once they reached their goal. Not that anyone would suspect something so innocent to in reality be so deadly.

Her deadly trap in place, all they had left to do was wait for the fireworks.

"Intel said at 1800 hours," Mack confirmed. He and Bobbi went to investigate a lead into the Thule's pending theft of a dangerous chemical compound from a warehouse in Moscow, Russia. Natasha was adamant that they let it go, but they couldn't. Even if there was a small chance that it was legitimate, they needed to respond quickly and stop Thule Society from getting their hands on it. Word on the grape vine was that they wanted to make their own nuclear warheads. For what purpose, they didn't know; but regardless, they needed to be stopped before countless of innocent people were killed.

Natasha continued to insist, so they relented and held off long enough for a SHIELD task force to accompany them. Even if it was a trap, it would be ten on one; not even a Black Widow could survive those odds.

With that settled, they moved in.

"I got two bogeys," he continued. "They look Russian, so they might be Thule. Won't know 'til we move in." He gestured to the task force leader, who nodded and radioed in for his team to secure all exit points and move in.

The two Thule agents were caught offguard and quickly overwhelmed. One was killed in the firefight between the two sides, while the other surrendered. As he was taken away in handcuffs, Bobbi cautiously inspected the truck. As they suspected, it was filled with barrels full of chemicals. "Sarin. Nerve gas," she called out. "These guys are preparing to do some serious damage. There's gotta be about twenty barrels in here."

"Chief says there's about a dozen more in the warehouse," Mack said. "Let's secure it and radio in for hazmat cleanup."

She nodded and followed him and three other agents inside.

"It's dark in here," Mack commented. Once each area was confirmed to be secure, he flipped on a light switch.

It was a large industrial warehouse, but was mostly empty. The only items inside were a table with a clipboard on top of it. The clipboard had several order forms attached to it, written in, strangely, English. Forty barrels of Sarin, paid for in cash by the Thule Society under the name "Brett Dalton".

"I think we're looking for Thule in the wrong country," Mack commented.

Bobbi nodded. "Yeah. I'll get in touch with Coulson and let him know. If we're looking for an American..." She trailed off when she noticed Mack's attention drift away from here and to the room up ahead. "What?"

"I think I found the rest of our payload."

An task force agent crept toward the room and shined a light inside. He found twelve more barrels of the highly volatile nerve agent, and nothing else. "Clear!"

Mack nodded and flipped the light switch.

Yelena smiled when the entire warehouse went up in flames. Those barrels were filled with simple gasoline, not the nerve agent Sarin. "Two down. One to go."