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
Naturally, Nadine barely slept a wink after the whole Ultron debacle. She was far too distressed. Part of her had wanted to cry, to scream, to rage at the injustice of it. Another part of her had wanted to plan, to strategize, to regroup.
Those parts had warred all night, long after the impromptu 'debriefing' in the lab had wrapped.
Nadine honestly didn't remember as much of it as she should. She had been far too lost in her own head.
The previous evening had ended up being far, far more exciting than Nadine would have liked. She hadn't been in the mood for 'open bar' excitement in the first place, so even though 'homicidal robot', had been slightly more fitting to her mood, it had been just as unwelcome.
Although, fighting said robots had been rather cathartic...
Nadine had nearly lost her temper more than once as the Avengers argued and debated what had happened and what to do about it. She'd watched the whole thing from where she'd stood just past Barton on the landing hemming two sides of the Lab, not far from the set of stairs where Natasha lingered, listening to the Avengers bickering about their new threat with half an ear. What little she did pay attention to left her hidden scowl dangerously close to emerging despite her enforced expression of neutrality.
It meant there was going to be another delay. She'd known it then with a sick, disappointed feeling in her gut. Ultron was going to take precedence over Nina. Tactically and rationally, Nadine knew it was the right play. A threat like Ultron had to be considered a priority and be dealt with accordingly and quickly.
But that hadn't stopped—still didn't stop—the slightly less rational, maternal side of Nadine that was rebelling violently against the idea.
At least she could take some small comfort that at least some of her new colleagues had felt some genuine remorse for having to bench their promise to help find Nina. She knew Barton and Natasha had been leaning on their old contacts in effort to help, and judging from the reassuring hand Barton had laid on her shoulder as he'd passed when they'd all filed into the Lab the night before and the matching expression on his face, she knew he was still planning on keeping up the search. Just as the determined glint in Natasha's eyes every time she'd glanced to Nadine had said the same thing, even despite her words to the contrary at one point.
