The Ghost [Marvel | Steve Rogers]

Chapter 60

Upstate New York, USA

Spring 2015

Nina was so far beyond reeling she didn't have the words to even come close to describing the feelings cascading through her. On the outside, she supposed she looked like she was holding it together well enough, but inside she was on the verge of falling apart.

She had wanted answers...well, she'd certainly gotten them.

Her father's name was James.

And yet there were still things her mother had held back...Nina's stomach churned at the thought of what they might be. Considering what she had been told? It had to be because it was somehow worse. And for all that Nadine had definitely been holding back, she'd still told Nina a great deal.

Biting back a shuddering sob as it tried to make its way out of her quickly clenching chest, Nina rushed blindly through the Compound, searching for the only other source of comfort she could think of in that moment. As soon as she found it, tears of mingled relief and heartache sprang to her eyes.

The Twins.

Before they'd even had a chance to fully register that she'd appeared in the door of Pietro's room in the infirmary, she was crossing the room to crawl onto the bed next to them, curling against Pietro's side as the first wracking sobs burst out. She was so overwhelmed that she barely noticed the Sokovian boy's arms wrapping tightly around her or that Wanda had quickly circled the hospital bed to climb up behind Nina, wrapping her own arms around the shaking blonde to shelter her between the siblings.

It was a long time before her sobs quieted and she was able to think somewhat clearly again.

Not that she wanted to think just then. There was too much racing through her head, too many bewildering and painful thoughts and feelings crowding and pressing against her brain.

Oh God, what was she even supposed to think?! To feel?! How was she supposed to process any of this? Perhaps just part of it, one element? That she could've handled. But all of it? It had taken every ounce of self-control she had to keep the dense, heavy feeling deep in her chest contained, keeping her newfound powers tightly leashed lest she lose control completely; she didn't know what would happen if she let them out. That on top of everything her mom had said? What she'd been told was already nightmare enough without risking hurting her mom or anyone else because she couldn't contain her new powers. She couldn't bear that too.

But how could Nadine have kept this from her?!

Yet...a small logical part of her understood why her mom had kept it from her.

And another part of her suddenly wished she didn't know any of it.

Not the truth behind why she'd been taken—because experiments done on her mom gave Nina Enhanced traits, however diluted...

Not how Strucker had known about her...

Not how she'd been used as leverage by HYDRA against her mom for years, Nadine willing to do anything rather than risk Nina's safety...not that it had ultimately made any difference...

Not what her mom really was...

She was The Ghost; a master assassin, infamous and shrouded in mystery, capable of completing missions others wouldn't—couldn't—take to hunt and kill other assassins. Nina's breath hitched as that thought circled, echoing through her brain.

Her mom was a spy—no, that wasn't quite right. Nadine had been trained to be a master spy—just like Black Widow—and to be a master assassin, and it was as an assassin that she made her true living. Her mom killed people—other killers, part of her tried to rationalize...and the thought actually helped...until Nina started to feel ill that it did, that she was letting that sooth her horror at the revelation. What was wrong with her?