The Ghost [Marvel | Steve Rogers]

Chapter 31

Berlin, Germany

Spring 2016

Natasha could feel a headache coming on. A bad one. Yes, she'd been hoping Nadine would make it out, but everything else that had happened?

That she had certainly not been hoping for.

Things were going from bad to worse.

Not to mention she was rather starting to wish that Steve had taken Nadine up on her offer to get rid of Secretary Ross...

She'd never been a fan of the man. Not knowing what she did about him. Not knowing how dogged he could be, or unscrupulous. His past with Bruce alone made those traits perfectly clear. Nadine had been completely right when she'd said he was one of the worst options to bring the Accords to the Avengers. Truthfully? She was rather certain that Ross was a big part of the reason Steve was so staunchly against them.

Especially once it had been announced that Ross had been nominated and appointed to the UN Committee set to work with the Avengers for the next term.

That had been troubling. But it was reality, and there was nothing to do but deal with it. And that's what she and Tony had been doing. They had negotiated for Rhodey to be on standby in case Steve, Sam and Nadine had shown up in pursuit of Barnes to keep things from escalating. Good thing too, as it turned out. Tony had even laid the groundwork for Sam and Steve to be forgiven for what had happened in Bucharest.

But now that Steve and Sam had slipped away? Now that they were in the wind with Nadine and Barnes?

Now that everyone knew who Nadine was?

Bad to worse was an understatement. What little credibility the Avengers had left was quickly eroding away and Steve acting the loose cannon and acting against the Accords was not helping in the slightest. It was bad enough that Nadine's past had come to light and that the UN Committee was dangerously close to reprimanding the Team for turning a blind eye to the fact that she was on just about every wanted list imaginable and letting her stick around without turning her in. But Steve's open rebellion was making it all a hundred times worse. It was turning the Committee quickly over to Ross' point of view that The Avengers were too independent; as it stood, he was now the shoe in to be chosen as the chair of the Committee. Natasha squashed the uneasy feeling deep in her chest that was growing stronger and stronger with each new twist in the road they were coming up to.

They needed to contain this. They needed to get Steve and Sam to come in. They needed to fix this.

Or the Avengers risked being disbanded.

That much was clear in Ross' very body language.

"I don't suppose you have any idea where they are?" the former General said slowly as he circled the conference room table, the thread of accusation in his voice only barely perceptible, but there. Natasha fought against the way it set her teeth on edge. It was like he was stalking Tony, sniffing for weakness. She needed to play nice, she reminded herself forcefully, or they risked getting shut out too.

"We will," Tony said with calm confidence, without a trace of his usual flippancy or dramatics. He looked it too, despite the fact that he was a mess; his shirt collar opened and stained with drops of blood, bruises blooming dark and nasty around his right eye while blood crusted along his hairline. Yet he still managed to look composed. Barely. Natasha could see through the façade, through to just how shaken and impatient he was. Mercifully, Ross didn't seem to see it. Not so far as she could tell, at least. "GSG-9's got the borders covered," he continued, "Recon's flying 24/7. They'll get a hit. We'll handle it." But no sooner was Tony finishing his piece than Ross was speaking.