RE//MCU - Black Widow: Nemesis

The Truth

October 4th 10:00AM
LOCATION: The Raft

"Thanks Maria, I appreciate the favour- trust me he's a good soldier and an even better man" Natasha paced the empty hallway of the Raft as she spoke with Director Hill on the phone.
Since the destruction of Raccoon City, she had spent most of her time speaking with countless of individuals- of course her first point of call had been Cap.
Her fellow Avenger and friend wanted to know everything, he'd been worried about her and encouraged her to take some time off.
Natasha had confided in him that she needed some time to herself- once she'd had some time to reflect and get her thoughts back together she would be back 'To kick Umbrella's ass'
"No problem Natasha- if this Carlos Oliveira is able to impress you, then I'm certain that he'll fit in at S.H.I.E.D"
Natasha made sure to keep a track of her fellow survivors of Raccoon City.
Jill had met up with her former partner Chris Redfield in Washington D.C. the other day- she was now under CIA protection whilst she provided them with her recollection of events in what the press were dubbing as "The Final Days of Raccoon City".
Carlos had been reluctant to leave Jill, but he eventually left to meet with a contact of Natasha's-
Mason would set the ex U.B.C.S agent up in one of her San Francisco safe houses until Umbrella had given up trying to locate him,
Besides- Natasha had an old friend in San Francisco that assured her that he would be on the look out for trouble.
Black Widow in her investigations had also managed to track down three other survivors of Raccoon City,
A young man, a RPD officer called Leon Kennedy- a young woman by the name of Claire Redfield, who was coincidently also the younger sister of Chris Redfield and a young child- a little girl named Sherry Birkin whose parents had both been esteemed scientists at Umbrella.
What they had to tell her when Natasha contacted them answered a lot of her questions.
Natasha looks down the corridor as one of the Rafts security officers beckoned her into a room where she was set to carry out Nikolai's interrogation,
Natasha signalled that she would just be one minuet
"Have S.H.I.E.L.D any luck in tracking down Ada Wong yet?"
Thanks to a conversation she'd had with Carlos and the chat she'd had with Mr Kennedy Black Widow had discovered that another mercenary for hire had been operating in Raccoon City- looking to get her hands on a sample of another variant of the monster making virus 'The G-Virus'
Thankfully the agent hadn't been able to get away with what she'd been hired to steal and Natasha had no doubt that Ada Wong had managed to escape the City before it had been destroyed-
Black Widow had some previous encounters with the Agent for hire before, she was concerned- whoever had hired her hadn't got what they paid for, but Natasha very much wanted to speak with her
"No, but we've got eyes on all accounts and resources associated with Ms Wong- she won't be able to hide for much longer"
Natasha couldn't agree with Maria's statement, if there was one thing Ada Wong could do perfectly, it was to disappear without a trace
"I'll talk to you later Hill, I've got an interrogation waiting for me"
Black Widow had insisted that she be the one to question Nikolai-
Director Hill reluctantly agreed, she was very worried about her friend, she could see that Natasha had made it personal- which was something that that very rarely happened
"Have fun" Maria told her before hanging up the call. Natasha is ushered into the cells area- where she is left alone with Nikolai who watched her from the other side of the glass cell- his arm was in a sling from where she'd shot him as hers was in a sling from where it had been amateur reset
"How's the shoulder?" She asked him with a sharp smirk.
Black Widow silently fetched a chair and placed it directly in front of the cell, it had been the first time she'd spoken with him since the destruction of Raccoon City-
She looked around the area, the Raft, despite being an ultra-high security prison in the middle of the sea was by far one of the best maintained prisons she'd ever seen
"Well... this is nice, certainly beats the Gulag, doesn't it?" he silently glared at her-
Natasha sighed, this wasn't feeling as satisfying as she'd hoped it would
"I saved your life Nikolai, now you owe me answers that you promised" Natasha forced herself to remain neutral, she couldn't allow hurt feelings to come into play
"Okay then let's start with Colonel Sergie Vladimir- I know that you work under his orders"
She knew that usually jumping straight into a personal subject in an interrogation was a mistake- but in this case she suspected that Nikolai may attempt to mess with her thoughts, she wouldn't allow for this- but at least she could get a dialogue running
"Ordering the deaths of your own men for the sake of gathering Combat Data is fucking cold- even for him" the silver haired Russian smirked as he realised she had looked through all the Combat Data he'd collected
"But it makes for such interesting viewing" Natasha had purposefully sifted through all of the Combat Data- the videos Nikolai had been taking of various different groups of individuals attempting to fight off the undead.
The footage disgusted her- but regardless she forced herself to watch
"What were your orders?" Black Widow had more or less worked that part out already, but she wanted to keep him talking
"Once news of the outbreak made it back to Umbrella's Internal Espionage Unit- Colonel Vladimir organised for a team to position themselves in the city amongst the carnage- the orders were to observe the Bioweapons, record their encounters with various different combat variables"
Natasha nodded, that part she had already assumed "I'm guessing the other Agents from this espionage unit are now deceased"
Nikolai nodded "Let me guess- you killed them for the Combat Data they'd already collected leaving you as the main profiter of this whole operation" he smirked and painfully shrugged
If Umbrella hoped to sell their product on the international market they would need this Combat Data to act as the premise of their Sales Pitch- she had to admit the footage spoke for itself, people had died for what was in reality 'overvalued advertisement'
"This kind of Data can't be induce in a lab- it has to be collected in the field of combat. Even Umbrella's own forces were unable to stand against the power of the T-virus"
Black Widow pondered the implication of Nikolai's mission in Raccoon City, from her standpoint it seemed like there was a ridiculous amount of back-stabbing going on within the Umbrella hierarchy-
Enough for her to conclude that some other outside force had to be at work here.
"Who do you report to though? I get the whole Combat Data operation you've got going on for Colonel Vladimir, but that doesn't explain why you killed Dr Bard"
Everything he'd done in the end had been to prevent her from procuring the Vaccine, that went beyond gathering Combat Data
"You're still upset that I got to him before you?" Natasha smiled- that was an extremely pathetic attempt at deflecting.
"Actually, I wanted to thank you saving me the trouble. Let's be fair he was a dick and he had it coming"
It was a lie, she wouldn't have 'actually killed him' but, the Doctors confession had 'coincidently' made it to every News outlet covering the outbreak- it put Umbrella under an extreme amount of investigation.
However Black Widow knew that the statement of a dead man would be nowhere near enough to stick the nail in Umbrellas coffin- and that was something that could only be done in time.
"Then of course you destroyed the Vaccine- the whole bullshit about a 'price tag to let the world burn' isn't going to suit me" she stood up from her chair and leaned up against the transparent barrier separating them-
"Who do you work for?" she watched as Nikolai stood up from his seated position, he smirked down at her as if he was amused that she hadn't worked it out yet- the Infamous Black Widow had overlooked the most obvious truth
"Umbrella is more than just a brand- it's the other side of a constantly spinning coin, each side constantly fights for dominance over the other- I merely work for which ever can pay the best"
It all sounded far too similar for Natasha Romanoff- she had a sinking feeling, but she had to be certain, she needed to hear him say it
"Who?" she asked him and this time she was rewarded with the answer that she'd been searching for
"Hail Hydra" Nikolai hissed down at her.
"Гaвно" Natasha whispered to herself as she sat back down.
As far as she'd known Hydra had almost been extinct- since she'd dumped all their secrets on the internet,
But their involvement with the pharmaceutical company had been kept so top secret that it was referenced nowhere with in S.H.I.E.L.D database.
Why was it that everything in her life seemed to lead back to Hydra, she thought of Bucky Barnes- she had trained under Hydra's trained killer the Winter Soldier back in the Red Room.
After the original downfall of S.H.I.E.L.D Hydra had scattered like rats and the Avengers had seen to destroying the organisation once and for all-
"I'm very surprised that you didn't see it Ms Romanoff- remember, cut off one head and two more shall take its place"
Natasha shook her head, she should have seen it or at least suspected a connection-
The Neo-Nazi bastards always seemed to have a way of surviving.
Black Widow assumed the situation within Umbrella is like how it had been with S.H.I.E.L.D, not all of Umbrella's associates were necessary Hydra, but she could guarantee that they were the ones pulling the strings
"How did Umbrella get involved with Hydra?" She asked when what she really wanted to know was if Hydra had affiliations with Umbrella back when Hydra was in partnership with the Red Room.
"That- I do not know" Nikolai shrugged and sat back down on the bench in his cell.
Black Widow was surprised and also curious, for someone affiliated with Hydra Nikolai was being far too forthcoming with information.
Hydra cherished to their ideals of control above all-
Nikolai seemed despondent to 'Hydra ideals' he cared for himself first- and that was something that she could play to her advantage
"Is Sergie Vladimir Hydra?" she already knew the answer to that
"Yes, Colonel Vladimir ensures that all agents within the Internal Espionage Unit are affiliated with Hydra" Natasha sighed, that answered her question.
At the same time Colonel Vladimir came into conflict with General Dreykov was around the same time that Hydra withdrew its connections with the Red Room- and she had been forced to say goodbye to her only friend in her adolescent life,
She knew that Bucky would want to hear about this when his memories returned to him- the memories of a friendship that kept both of their humanity in check during those dark days
"You are perhaps one of the most cooperative Hydra Agents I've ever interrogated"
Nikolai smirked at the implication that he was being cooperative or that he was an Agent of Hydra, he only told her what he wanted her to know-
"I serve myself before Umbrella or Hydra" it was almost disappointing to her- she'd always assumed that all Hydra Agent's were indoctrinated into Hydra's belief system of a world solely controlled by them, Nikolai on the other hand was just in it for the money
"I want to make a deal" he suddenly said, Natasha laughed-
Hadn't she already done that and in return, the vaccine for the T-Virus had been destroyed
"If you authorise my release- I'll point you straight to Sergie Vladimir, that's what you really want isn't it Romanoff. You want revenge against those that abused you" he smirked as if he'd though that he had successfully hit some sort of nerve within her,
His request was the most insane thing she had heard and besides, most of the fun of the hunt was in the chase and she wasn't in too much of a hurry.
She shook her head- she'd had enough of this fuckers bullshit, there was nothing else that he could tell her that she couldn't figure out on her own.
Natasha stood up from her chair and started to head for the exit- this interrogation was over.
"You're a fool, You're a FOOL!" he yelled after her.
Natasha wondered how it felt, knowing that all that scheming, lying and backstabbing-
All it had earned him was a life sentence to forever ponder if the money was really worth it?
Black Widow turned to the angry Russian, her signature smirk across her beautiful face
"If there's one thing you should know about me, when it comes to revenge- I'm a very patient woman".