𝐒𝐔𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐀 | While the Winter Soldier was a ghost story, Nadine Ryker is a ghost. She's The Ghost. Her past is a mystery, her identity even more so.
Few knew her as Nadya Ivanovna Rykova, the lost recruit of the Red Room, never spoken of aft...
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New York City, USA
Spring 2015
"I imagine this is going to seem pretty strange to you." Nadine glanced up from the final check she was giving her subcompact Glock at the sound of Natasha's voice, catching the redhead's mischievous glance, "working on a team. You've been solo for a long time."
With a barely a conscious thought, Nadine had her sidearm securely holstered even as Natasha reached the bottom of the Quinjet's boarding ramp where the blonde assassin had been waiting.
She'd been the first one ready to leave, gearing up in record time, but it felt odd to wait onboard alone. But even as the Avengers made their way onto the jet, it had felt even more odd to wait on board with them. She wasn't an Avenger. She was just tagging along for the ride. She lifted a quizzical eyebrow at her little sister as Natasha paused next to her. It truly baffled her just how quickly she and the redhead had fallen right back into the familiarity with each other they'd once had. It was as though the years had simply melted away, and the comfort that development gave her had done wonders to ease Nadine's near constant state of rage- and fear-fuelled panic. Natasha looked on the verge of grinning. Nadine felt her lip curl in a faint smile before responding.
"Not so strange. It'll be just like when we were girls; working together, fighting side by side." Natasha actually did laugh. Behind her, Barton came into view, making his way toward the Quinjet. He was the last one. With a subtle tilt of her head, Natasha gestured for the pair of them to board the ramp.
"It only really happened once, Nadya. But we did make a pretty good team."
"We took down a pretty formidable opponent, though. No doubt about that," Nadine said back, forcing an open smile to her face, as though the memory didn't bring to mind other more painful ones. But Natasha seemed to catch it anyway; she'd always been able to do that, Nadine was reminded with an affectionate grin. She settled herself on one of the cabin's centre bank of seats near the front, across from where Rogers sat just off to the side from the pilot's compartment: "Compared to that, this'll be a piece of cake." Natasha shrugged, sitting one seat down from the blonde woman, close to Banner as Barton slipped past them both as he headed for the pilot's seat.
