Work Text
June, 3, 2018: Avengers Compound
The mission was simple; get in the compound, download the information, and get out. Easy as that. Or at least it would've been if Stark's AI hadn't told the Avengers about the sudden appearance of a heat signature just before it got deactivated. Nadia finishes downloading everything and smirks to herself as she slips the flash drive into the left pocket in her suit. She turns around, her face immediately drops as she sees Captain America and Thor staring back at her, ready to attack. "How old are you, Kid?" the captain questions noticing the girls young appearance "Beklager, jeg snakker ikke engelsk," Nadia lies, forgetting a Norse God would most likely know Norwegian "Hvor gammel er du og hva gjør du her?" Thor asks in a stern voice, she pauses, then switches languages "Я не говорю по-норвежски," she smiles, "Пока, ублюдки." she turns invisible and hoists herself into the open vent she crawled through to get here. "You find ‘em, Cap?" Clint asks "Yeah, enhanced teenage female." "I believe she went into the vents, I heard the clanging of metal," Thor adds "F.R.I.D.A.Y. should be back up in second," Tony says "In the meantime, Clint, come through the vents to meet us in Tony's workshop, see if she's in there," Cap instructs Nadia turns visible and starts crawling through the vents back to the stairwell to get to the ground floor. When she's about to turn the corner, she sees Hawkeye crawling through the vents towards her. Luckily, he doesn't see her while he mutters something about retirement, she backs up slightly going to the vents leading in a different direction. She turns invisible once more, holding her breath as the sandy haired man crawls past her. He goes straight past her and continues going straight. Not sure if there would be other avengers coming the same way, though doubtful, she decides not to takes to risk and groans internally Alright, detour I guess . After passing two or three more rooms, she exits the air vent, and arrives in an empty gym. "Дух Демона, where are you?" her boss asks impatiently "Sorry, Sir, there was a little snag in the plan. I'll be there in no time." "You have seven minutes." She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear returning it to her light brown bob. She reaches her hand into the right pocket on her hip and starts fidgeting with the necklace inside to try and deescalate some of the anxiety she feels. She opens her eyes and starts looking for a way out. A man walks in through the door behind her. "I don't want to have to fight a kid. Just give me the flash drive." he commands. She turns around to see a man they taught her about in HYDRA. She knows him as the Winter Soldier but he has much shorter hair and a slightly softer look behind his eyes. "Sorry, no can do." He starts slowly walking towards her, she starts walking backwards "You don't want to do this, Kid, you have no idea what HYDRA could do with that." he tells her, noticing the red symbol on the right side of her chest "You don't know me." "But I know HYDRA." Nadia eventually backs into the floor to ceiling window, the soldier continues walking until he's about a foot away from her. "Give me the flash drive," he demands. She glances out the window and down, determining she would live, she quickly turns around, phases through the window, and dives down to the grass. Rolling as she hits the ground, she bolts into the forest and off the property, turning invisible. She finds the backpack she put her civilian clothing in that she hid in a bush. She slips on a gray sweater and black leggings over her dark red and black Hydra suit, adding fake white framed circle glasses. The young agent walks until she sees the white exterminator van with a large dead cartoon ant and 'Tims Terrific Exterminating Services' written above it in bold green lettering. She climbs into the vehicle as the sun starts setting. "What took you so long?" the pale, brunette man asks angrily as she hands him the flash drive, "Apologies, Sir, there was a small complication." Nadia tells her boss without a trace of emotions on her face, he motions for the driver to start driving, "What kind of complication?" "I believe before I shut it off, Starks AI alerted them of my heat signature. They saw me, Sir." Slap. That was one of the hardest times he's ever slapped her and she didn't even flinch. No pain or fear shows in her eyes, she had learned pain was just another part of life. "They saw you?! You're telling me you can turn invisible and those idiots still saw you?!" He grips her face and pulled her slightly closer to him, with unmistakable fury in his eyes, "You are the Дух Демона, you used to be one of our most useful soldiers and yet you are becoming more and more useless with each mission. You must be better. Do you understand me?" she nods, "Good." He lets her face go. The rest of the drive to the airport and the flight back to Russia was silent, the older of the two only speaking up once to tell her to stop tapping her leg. She reaches her hand into her pocket only to find her necklace gone, a massive wave of anxiety crashes over her. The only thing she had left of her mother was gone. Floods of panic and depression in her body start to drown her as her chest tightens. She's learned to suppress her panic attacks and overstimulation. This time, however, was different. Five years ago, after she had gotten to HYDRA, they would hit her for not being able to control her breakdowns and emotions. A month after she arrived she found a small box hidden in her pillow. In the box was a folded note saying this was from her mother, once she removed the note, she found a necklace with a small sunflower pendant. She left it for about two months or so to see if something went wrong when she didn't have it. After going on nine missions without it she deemed it safe and brought it in her pocket on every mission for comfort. From that day on she had an anchor, something to calm her anxiety, something to remind her of her mother. Now it’s gone.
Meanwhile, at Avengers Compound "She’s gone." Bucky tells his team through the ear piece, "I had her cornered and she phased through the window." "Alright, everyone meet in the debriefing room." Steve declares. Bucky is about to leave when the setting sun glares off something near him on the ground. His eyebrows furrow as he crouches down and sees a silver chain with a small sunflower pendant. He picks it up with his metal hand, as to not get any prints or DNA on it, and brings it to the room. Steve, Thor, Tony, Bucky, and Clint all sit down. They go through debriefing everything that happened from their perspective when Bucky brings up the necklace, he sets it on the table. "F.R.I., can you get me anything about the girl from that necklace?" the billionaire asks his AI "Of course I can, what do you take me for?" F.R.I.D.A.Y. starts scanning "Can you find her?" Steve questions. "With time, Captain."
June, 24, 2018: HYDRA Base, some random mountain
It's been three weeks since Nadia's last mission, since then her boss has been pushing her past her limits to the point where she occasionally blacks out. Currently, she is trying to take down the same three men for the seventh time in a row. With the other two down, Nadia is put in a headlock by the third. She finally taps out. When her instructor is about to instruct her to do it again, a blaring alarm goes off. She tells the three men to return her to her cell. The henchmen escort her back and lock her inside the small gray and white room on the instructors orders. As the chaos of HYDRA agents fighting outside she looks down at the thick silver cuff on her left wrist. Nadia tries to remember any kind of life she had before being tested on by the terrorist organization. Pulling the note from under the mattress, she reads her mother's handwriting over and over.
'I want to apologize for never trying hard enough to protect you and your brother but never doubt I love you. I will always love and support you, even if I'm not there by your side. Goodbye, min solsikke.
Mom'
There's a small beeping from the other side of the door. Recognizing the sound she slips the note into her pocket and crouches on the ground trying to hide the only place she can, behind the foot of her bed. There's a small explosion and the door opens, the Winter Soldier enters. He waits for a second then speaks up. "We can help, y’know." he tries to persuade, Nadia huffs a laugh as she slowly rises, "They helped me.' "I don't need help." she replies somewhat amused. "Guys, we have a problem." Natasha says over comms, "I think this place is rigid to self destruct." The team starts talking over each other, "What?!" "You've got to be joking." "Why would they even put that in?" "Look, all I know is that I was fighting some asshole, they hit a button before they blacked out, and a countdown started going off." "Kid, we have to get out of here." Bucky tells Nadia, grabbing her wrist firmly with his vibranium hand. "What? No." she tries to pull away. Natasha tells Bucky to get out, he decides 'fuck it' and picks the girl up as she tries to squirm out of his grip. He quickly runs out of the building and jumps into the Quinjet, still holding Nadia. The jet takes off as the scene of part of a mountain exploding clashes against the beautiful sunset.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
June, 27, 2018: Quinjet
"Sju om morgenen og jeg har allerede blitt kidnappet og dratt inn på et fly med folk som hater meg. Utestående." Nadia mutters to herself after seeing the rest of the passengers of the aircraft. They move her to a holding cell in the jet and leave the brunette girl there alone with absolutely nothing. She walks around the perimeter of the circular glass cell like a bored lion in a zoo. Looking down at the metal cuff on her right wrist, Nadia comes to terms with the fact that she probably can't get out of the cage easily, at least not yet. As she walks she sees the camera and waves then continues walking, now knowing where the camera actually is and knowing there is more than likely at least one other, she is hyper-aware of the people watching her. About three hours later, after they land, Tony Stark comes in with six or seven unknown S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. They enter the cell putting her in cuffs that she assumed we engineered to stop her abilities as well as the singular cuff H.Y.D.R.A. had her wear and is still on her wrist. "Alright, alright. Jeez," she jokes as they push her forwards into the compound, agents surrounding her, "You don't have to treat me like a criminal just because I am one." They say nothing and continue leading her to an almost identical glass cell, this one however having a bed inside. They push her inside the glorified prison cell and leave. Back in the debriefing room Natasha, Clint, Tony, Thor, Bruce, Bucky, Sam, Yelena, Wanda, Kate, and Peter all sit at the long rectangular table as Steve stands at the head in front of a T.V. showing the live footage of the security camera in the room of Nadia's holding cell. Once again she stares straight into the camera and smiles before investigating then sitting on the bed. "That looks like a child." Sam remarks "She looks my age." Kate adds, the both of them surprised and somewhat confused since them, Wanda, Yelena, Bruce, and Peter just got back from a mission. Steve nods, "This is Nadia Andersen." "F.R.I.D.A.Y., how much can you tell us 'bout the kid?" Tony asks, looking at the ceiling "Nadia Josephine Andersen," the AI responds, "born April 23rd 2003 in Norway, moved to Russia July 28th 2009. Father: Ivan Kholodov, Status: Unknown. Mother: Annette Andersen, Status: Deceased. Brother: Erik Kholodov. Status: Unknown. Known abilities: Invisibility and Intangibility. Disappeared from the public on August 28th 2013." Natasha nods along to the information, "That must've been when she joined H.Y.D.R.A." "Is that all we know?" Peter scrunches his face in slight confusion. "I suppose I could tell you the obvious, such as brown hair or that she is five foot eight inches but that is all the relevant or useful information. Anything else would be things such as medical records or a previous address. There are no mentions of her or anyone similar to her in the H.Y.D.R.A. we have." "F.R.I.D.A.Y., can you send me the rest of that info, please? I want to look through it." "Of course, Dr. Banner." "Maybe we went to the wrong bases?" Wanda guesses, "All the bases we've been to never had anyone under the age of twenty-five, have they?" "No, but they've got to share information with the other bases somehow," Sam points out "Yeah, but they're not going to have a group chat or an email thread about all the evil shit they did that day, Wilson." Sam gives Bucky a small glare, "You know that's not what I meant." "Well, what are we going to do with her is the question," Wanda thinks aloud, "I say we think about that later," Clint interjects, "We don't have enough information to be thinking about stuff like that." "He's right," Yelena nods, "We don't know what H.Y.D.R.A. told her or how she became a part of them. There are too many questions that need to be answered first." As everyone's discussing, Peter stays silent thinking about what he was told after he got back from the mission. "Hey, what about the necklace?" "What do you mean, Peter?" Kate questions, "Mr. Bucky found her necklace, right?" Bucky nods, "It doesn't seem like H.Y.D.R.A. would let their agents have any personal items, let alone take them on missions." "What are you trying to say here, Pete?" Tony asks "I mean, it must mean something for her to take it on a mission, especially one here, and risk her safety with us and maybe even H.Y.D.R.A. depending on what the connection is, there has to be a reason she brought it. We can use it to learn more about her and H.Y.D.R.A. or something" "That's not a bad idea." Sam agrees, Steve nods thinking, "Nat, go figure out what you can, bring the necklace," nodding at the order, she goes down to Nadia's holding cell picking up the necklace on the way. Putting the necklace in her pocket, Natasha walks into the room. Hearing the door close and the steps of the Avenger, Nadia sits up from laying on the cot in the glass room, "Hello, Nadia," Natasha greets, walking up to the glass "Romanova," the girl responds with mock sweetness, her left arm laying on her knees and chin resting on her right palm "Glad to see you've heard of me. Let's get straight to the point, shall we?" Widow folds her arms, "How much do you know?" "I like to think I know quite a lot," she leans forward slightly, "Did you know reindeer's eyes turn blue in the winter?" "How much do you know about H.Y.D.R.A., Kid?" "Hm, let's see... They are an organization founded during World War II. The captain or the soldier might know more about that though. That time period is not my area of expertise." "That smart mouth of yours get you in trouble a lot?" "How could you tell?" the younger of the two remarks sarcastically, "Anymore questions?" "A couple," Natasha reaches into her pocket and pulls out the necklace holding up for Nadia to see "What's this?" A mixture of anxiety, relief, pain, and anger flash in Nadia's dark brown eyes, but leaves just as quickly as it appeared. and she goes back to her normal smartass attitude, "Looks like a necklace." "You left it in the gym before you dove out of our window three weeks ago. We checked it, had our AI scan it, it's not bugged, there's no tracker. It's just a normal necklace, so why would you bring on a mission to here of all places?" "I don't see how that's any of your business. Now give it back." "I'll give it back when you tell me what it means," the two look at each other for a few seconds, both silent, both with completely blank faces. Natasha puts the jewelry back in her pocket, "I guess I'll just leave then," the red head starts to leave then turns back, "We can help you, y'know," Nadia chuckles silently, "That's what the soldier said." "That's because we can. This isn't the way anyone should live. Believe me, I know" "And what way am I living, exactly?" "As a pawn. You are living as pawn for them in some dumb game and nothing else, we can change that," the girl stares back, stone faced, "Offer's there if you want it." with that Natasha leaves the fair skinned girl with her thoughts.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
June, 28, 2018: Avengers Compound
It was the absolute dead of night, Nadia sits on the thin mattress of the cot, back against the wall, staring up into the dark. Left alone for the past who knows how long with nothing but her thoughts, she was so goddamn bored. She couldn't pass time by sleeping because, 1) you never sleep when you're captured if you're not at least 87% sure that nothing will happen to you and you have to stay up for the first two to three days just to be sure, at least that was her rule. 2) She couldn't sleep even if she wanted to, the unfamiliarity of an unknown place gave her anxiety and kept her awake for at least, you guessed it, two to three days. The sleeping rule she had was about seventy-three percent safety concern and twenty-seven percent because of the endless self-sabotage of her own brain. Usually during this time she would devise a plan on how to escape and finish her mission, but there was no mission and there wasn't an obvious way to get out. She didn't want to think of a way either, she just wanted to go to sleep and hope the last five years of her life had been a really long, impossibly lifelike, nightmare. "Hello there." a smooth voice right next to the glass snaps her out of her thoughts. Usually her first reflex would be to attack but she could tell the person wasn't close enough to hit and the door makes an audible noise when opened so she knew the stranger talking to her at four in the morning wasn't in the cell. Instead she whips around to the sound at breakneck speed, she sees a tall, black haired, person illuminated by the dim light inside the room outside the cell. She knew his face but she couldn't remember where from, she looks at them with relatively no emotion except suspicion and the little bits of confusion and slight curiosity. "Typically, it's polite to respond when someone greets you," they smirk "Who are you?" "You don't know who I am? I'm offended. I'm just as well know as any avenger, if not more so," they say smugly, "Who. Are. You?" She repeats sternly "I am Loki of Asgard." That's where she remembered him! After she finished a mission in a small town in Colorado three years ago, she went to a diner. On the small T.V. in the corner, 'Breaking News!' popped up in bold red letters then showed the person who was now standing outside her cell, attacking Germany. "Do you live here?" "Yes, I do." "Why? You hate them, don't you?" "I do, however, Odin thought it wise to send me here to serve out the rest of my sentence with the people who despise me so I may 'learn teamwork'." he says bitterly, then his smile returns turning into a full fledged smirk, "Enough about me. Nadia, is it, how are you? Are you enjoying your glass prison?" She rolls her eyes as the God mocks her. Her eyes fall on the metal cuff on his wrist identical to the one on hers, "How long have you been here?" "About eight months." "And they still keep you on a leash?" She smirks slightly holding her wrist up showing her own 'leash,' "One, would assume that the great God of Mischief would have been able to persuade some measly mortals into trusting him enough to give him his magic back by now or at least figured a way out of it." "Well, at least I'm not in a cage. I get to roam, you have to stay in here like an animal in a zoo, there for nothing else but others entertainment." "Well, at least I'm not an egotistical asshole who doesn't understand the limits of hair gel." "I will have you know that I do not use hair gel." "What do you use in your hair then?" "Only the finest of Asgardian oils." He says arrogantly "That does not make it better," she laughs, "You look like a long haired guinea pig that drowned." When Loki opens his mouth to snap back, an angry voice booms from down the hall, "Loki!" Thor walks into view, turning on the lights, "Yes, Brother?" he asks sweetly, "What are you doing down here? I told you not to interact with her." "Thor, you act as if a few stern words are the most powerful weapon in the nine realms. If anything, it made me want to come here even more." The older of the two grabs the other's arm. "Let's go." "I'm having a conversation. It would be quite rude to just leave, you know?" "I'm quite sure she doesn't mind." "I really don't." Thor looks at his brother with an 'I told you so' look. "Fine," he looks back at the girl, smirking, "but, I intend to to finish our conversation at a later date, Dear Nadia." She just rolls her eyes as the two Gods leave.
Three hours later
The room was completely silent, the pale brunette lay on the bed gazing up at ceiling. The metal door of the room outside swings open, Nadia can make out two sets of footsteps. One was light and barely noticeable, the other was fairly heavy, almost intentionally, like the the person was trying not to startle her. "Natalia," the girl in the cell greets as she sits up "brought your boyfriend, I see." "I'm not her boyfriend," Bucky says unamused "Sure ya aren't, Солдат" she smirks "Stop calling me that, Kid." "Why? That's what you are, well, were. At least what I was taught you were." "Regardless of what you were taught, that's not me, never was." "But even before H.Y.D.R.A. you were in the military, were you not?" "Not by choice, I was drafted." "Can we focus, please?" Natasha interrupts, "We have a job to do and you have questions to answer." "Then by all means, continue. Not like I have a choice anyway." Bucky enters a pin and opens the glass door of the cell. He places handcuffs on Nadia's wrists, then proceeds to lead her into another room with a small man with a black mustache. She gets sat down at a metal table and cuffed to it. The four of them stay silent while the newcomer hooks her up to what she can only assume is a lie detector. Natasha finally speaks up as she stands with her arms folded over her chest. "This is Joe, he'll be monitoring your charts from this lie detector while we ask you ask questions. Got it?" "Don't see why it matters but yeah I guess." "Are you actually going to answer any of these?" Bucky asks sitting in the chair across from the teenager "That heavily depends on the questions." he makes a sort 'fair enough' face before Natasha speaks "What's your full name?" the young woman just keeps that everlasting smirks on her face and stays silent, "You're just being difficult now, aren't you?" the metal armed man sighs, "I believe I have the right to remain silent here, correct?" "Yes, but this will go a lot faster if you cooperate, we're still going to ask our questions," Natasha sits next to Bucky as she speaks, "Now, what's your full name?" Nadia rolls her eyes but concedes "Nadia Josephine Andersen."
Truth
"Where were you born?" the red-head continues after given the signal she's telling the truth from Joe, "Geiranger, Norway."
Truth
"Our information says you were there until you moved to Vyborg in Russia when you were about six, is that correct?" she just nods at Natasha's question
Truth
"Do you work with H.Y.D.R.A.?" after Natasha reads this off the list of required question, the younger girl pauses, looks down at the very obvious H.Y.D.R.A. symbol on the right of her chest, then just stares at the two adults for a second with a bored expression, "No."
Lie(obviously)
"How did you join H.Y.D.R.A.?" Bucky asks, they sit in silence for a couple seconds while Nadia looks at the Avengers across her, "Was it voluntary?" her face hardens the slightest amount in defense, almost completely unnoticeable. Natasha breaks the silence with another question, "Did you give the flash drive of information you stole to your superiors at H.Y.D.R.A.?" she stay quiet again "You should know, Nadia," Bucky interjects with his arms folded, "whether you do or do not answer these questions, we can't let you go. Because, first of all, you work for a terrorist organisation, we can't exactly just let you roam wherever you please. But most importantly, you're a kid and we're not going to send back to that hell-hole. I meant what I said, we can help you. So, did you give that flash drive to H.Y.D.R.A.?" she pauses but answers, "I did."
Truth
"Do you know what they did or plan to do with it?" Bucky asks, Nadia shakes her head
Truth
"Have you ever been affiliated with another organisation like H.Y.D.R.A.?" "Yeah, sometimes the Red Room would borrow me for missions before they got destroyed."
Truth
Natasha pulls out the familiar sliver-chained necklace, "Is this yours?" the Norwegian girl nods as the woman across from her sets it down on the thick metal table, "Does it have any personal or emotional value?" "To someone, I'm sure." "To you?" Nadia nods as she sighs lightly, looking a little annoyed "How so?" Bucky leans forward setting his arms on the table "I... I found it under my pillow maybe a month after I got to H.Y.D.R.A. It had a note with it, it was from my mother. I think I still have it in my pocket..." she pulls out an old folded paper out of her pocket tossing it on the table, the two across her open it carefully and read the message. Natasha looks up, "'Min Solsikke'?" "It was a nickname she gave me. It means-" "'My Sunflower.'" Bucky cuts in, seeing the hidden sadness behind her eyes, "That's sweet." "So it has nothing to do with H.Y.D.R.A.?" Natasha questions "No, it doesn't." "Alright," Bucky says after a pause of silence, "Nat, I'm done with questions for today. Do you have more questions?" "No, I'm finished for now." "We have to examine this," Bucky says taking the note as he stands, "We'll give it back." "Why do you have to examine it?" "It came from H.Y.D.R.A., we have to." Natasha says this and Nadia nods. Joe unhooks Nadia from the many wires connected to the lie detector. She stays silent as Bucky cuffs her wrists up once more and takes her back to her cell. She sits on her bed, feeling numb, only being able to think of the day she saw her mother's lifeless body lying in her living room.