GHOST STORIES, mcu

011! mission failure

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JEDENAŚCIE
mission failure
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Having a partner was strange, unfamiliar. Before she went to the Academy, Ivan told her of the dangers of putting her trust into someone else. How relying on another would inevitably get her killed. Partners meant trust, trust lead to friendship, friendship turned into vulnerability, and vulnerability was a death sentence.

Once in the Academy, she saw first hand what Ivan warned her about. The girls of the Red Room were not her friends, they were her competitors, simply a body standing in her way to the top spot, a person that would kill her if she didn't kill them first. Ola saw time and time again how even the smallest of friendships in the Red Room ended — exploited, would be a better word to use, actually. Madame.B would always arrange it so that any girls who formed a bond were put against each other in a fight, forcing one to kill the other.

It was a lesson Ola didn't need to be taught.

And when she graduated, taking on the role of a Black Widow and the title of The Ghost, her fate was sealed. She would take on her missions alone, becoming one with the shadows she was taught to thrive in. After all, a ghost in a singular being, trapped in another plane of existence, cursed to spend eternity watching, listening, but never interacting. They observe life, they don't live it.

A ghost was destined to be alone. So therefore, so was she.

But Ola didn't mind that, truly. Maybe it was because she never had a partner before, or maybe it was because the teachings of Ivan and Madame.B had taken root in her soul, blocking away the temptations that came with companionship.

Zoya, however, was an outlier. Ola had never meant to go against her teachings, her instincts. But there was something about the sweet girl — so soft for a place so harsh — that clouded the danger their friendship could bring. It had started of as a simple exchange, Ola taught Zoya how to fight, how to survive in the Red Room, and Zoya taught Ola about the outside world, the things their trainers didn't think was necessary for them to know.

But, Ola supposed their bond was of little importance now. Their friendship would have no consequences because they were on different paths. Zoya was still training, not yet a graduated Widow, and Ola was hundreds of miles away with a different organisation altogether, on a mission that could change the world for the better.

Ola and Zoya would never be partners, so there was no danger. No trust to exploit.

The same however, couldn't be said for her current situation.

If the idea of a partnership was strange, then the idea of a partnership with The Winter Soldier was downright alien.

He too was someone who worked alone, as far as Ola knew The Soldier had never had a partner before, much less a thirteen year old child assassin.

It had been an uncomfortable few months of training. Both of them learning how to work together as one machine instead of two. They were like two cogs that didn't fit together, clashing at every painful turn forced my their handlers iron fists. If their partnership was to be successful, it was as though they both had to change their very dna, the shape of the machinery inside of them to make the perfect fit.