Leipzig, Germany

Spring 2016

Nadine didn't have a moment to rest on her laurels as Clint tagged in against Natasha, much less to breathe. This entire conflict, this clash, this battle was sheer chaos.

Everyone was moving. Everyone was fighting.

It was friend against friend just as she'd feared. Just as she knew Steve and Sam and Clint had feared.

And family against family.

She barely had a moment to spare an anxious look to Nina every now and then to reassure herself that her daughter was okay.

No matter that Nina was technically fighting on the other Team...

Nina...

Nina took Nadine's breath away, pride and awe swelling almost painfully in her chest, nearly—but not quite—overshadowing the sheer, gut-wrenching terror and smoldering anger that her daughter was here at all.

Nina was holding her own. Against Wanda...against Wanda's powers.

Her daughter had powers...

Nadine physically shook the thought away as she darted across the pavement.

She didn't have time to think about that just now. She could process later. Heck, she could process on the flight up to Siberia...

...if they got that far, of course. Stark and his people certainly weren't making it easy, she had to admit. Sam was barely able to keep himself ahead of Rhodes over their heads, and Nadine winced anxiously as, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Stark taking off to join him. She and Clint had both naturally held out quite well against Natasha but Lang had been out of his depth, his remarkable abilities nonwithstanding.

Glancing over her shoulder once more, Nadine nearly faltered upon realizing that Nina was no longer facing off against Wanda but against Vision...and Pietro was nowhere in sight. Her stomach lurched with concern even as her breath caught with hope.

If Nina was now holding off Vision?

It had been a kick in the gut like nothing she'd experienced to see Nina standing across the field next to Stark. Natasha choosing to stand with Stark and the Accords was one thing—Nadine understood Natasha's reasons, she truly did, even if it physically hurt to be facing off against her sister no matter how angry she was with her for not saying anything about—but Nina?

Not that she could entirely fault Nina if she let herself think on it rationally, despite how furious she was that Nina had put herself in danger like that. Not given how hard Nina had been trying to talk them down in those fraught minutes before the fighting had well and truly started. Nina's purpose had been to try and help, even to save Nadine, the Twins and the rest. That was all she cared about. And Nadine couldn't fault her for that. Not entirely.

But still...

No, it was Stark she took issue with...he should've known better than to drag Nina into this mess. Even his care in apparently ensuring Nina hadn't signed the Accords to do so—an incredibly risky move if Nadine was being honest, one she couldn't entirely dismiss out of hand no matter how angry she was—wasn't quite enough for her to absolve him. Not even knowing his motivations helped all that much just now; he'd made those quite clear whether he'd intended to or not. Nadine hadn't been distracted enough by Nina's presence to miss the blatant cues he'd been broadcasting, that was for sure.

Desperate men did desperate things, after all.

And Tony was nothing if not desperate, by this point, backed into a corner as he was.

But just right now, all that was beside the point. It wasn't the priority. So she had to set it aside. Just like she'd set what remained of her ire toward her sister aside. Her fear for Nina—mostly—aside.

It was one benefit of her extensive training, really; almost the second the fight had started, every potent, conflicting feeling that had surged to life the instant Tony had lowered her daughter into the field had been reflexively shoved away—not gone by any means, but...contained, suppressed, even—to the back of her mind, allowing her to focus on the current situation.

Not that her outrage and terror had entirely vanished, by any stretch; her brief engagement against her sister had made that clear.

It was just more manageable once her training had taken over.

Not that having an outlet for her subsequent aggression had hurt, either. She couldn't help but think it was a good thing Stark was protected by his suit and that Natasha was as good as she was...and that the redhead had a little something extra in her system too...

After the dust settled, undoubtedly it would come back in all its irrational, overwhelming force once more. She would deal with it and the inevitable fallout then.

But until then, it wasn't her focus or her priority.

The priority was getting out.

It was getting to Siberia.

Nadine nearly winced as another thought struck her, her gut suddenly churning painfully; what was she supposed to do about Nina?

She desperately wanted to whisk Nina away, the instinct not having dimmed in the slightest even though, as Nina had so bluntly pointed out, she was now legally an adult in her own right andwas perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

That didn't stop Nadine from wanting almost desperately to make sure Nina was on that Quinjet with them.

She simply did not trust that Stark would be able to shield Nina after this, no matter how hard he fought for it.

Her train of thought ground to a halt as she narrowly dove out of the way of a repulsor beam, rolling nimbly to her feet even as it impacted not two feet away with a crack of pavement. She grit her teeth. They didn't have time for this... They needed to get to the Quinjet. All of them. Including Nina, if she had anything to say about it.

But that Quinjet was heading for Siberia...

...and five more Winter Soldiers...

Nadine didn't want Nina anywhere near that fight...but she might not have a choice. If Nina really had switched sides as Nadine's split-second observation suggested?

Stark might not be able to protect her. Not even if he managed to keep that she'd turned on Vision quiet.

The iron band of dread and terror threatened to tighten around her chest again.

But she pushed the thought away as she refocused. To do anything else at the moment was reckless and dangerous, no matter the overwhelming temptation to do so. Nina was holding her own. That was what Nadine needed to hold onto, what she needed to keep reminding herself every time she heard a resounding crash or distant cry. Nina was smart and fast and she was—apparently—powerful. She was capable of holding her own. Of keeping herself safe. Powers or no powers.

Even here.

Nadine knew that; she'd trained her, for heaven's sake, starting long before Sokovia. She knew Nina could take care of herself.

She had just hoped she'd never have to see the evidence in action...Sokovia had been bad enough...

But Nina was part of the fight this time and Nadine simply had no choice but to accept that.

She simply didn't have any other option.

At least she was able to see just how capable Nina was with her own eyes. It helped...a little.

Nina was holding her own.

For the most part, everyone on her team was managing to hold their ground, which was something. Steve was turning his focus to Spider-Man and while Sam was managing to hold off both Rhodes and Stark, even if only just, it looked like Wanda was working on giving him a hand there, using her abilities to at least temporarily waylay Stark. There was no sign of Pietro, but given that he could move faster than the eye could see, she didn't allow herself to worry just yet.

And just behind her Clint was doing well enough against Natasha, the two friends bizarrely looking like they were almost having fun.

That left Barnes.

Nadine set her jaw. She fully intended on making sure Barnes got out of this alive. Especially now that Nina was involved directly. And since T'Challa seemed intent on killing him? There was no question where she needed to put her skills to use next.

Up ahead and drawing closer with each stride she took, Barnes and T'Challa were still locked against each other, almost to the exclusion of all else. At once Nadine's analytic side was kicking into overdrive, eyes keen as they took in the way the two men circled and attacked and recovered, kicks and hits flying almost too fast for the untrained eye to make sense of. But her eye was anything but untrained. And she saw a great deal.

They were both good. Very good. Both were strong, both were fast and both were very well trained. And both had powerful motives to come out on top.

But it was starting to look like T'Challa might just be that little bit better...and that Barnes was...off...unsettled. Distracted, even. It was barely perceptible, but it was there. Nadine winced internally, dismay and a clench of guilt threatening to shake her focus the same way. She couldn't afford that any more than Barnes could. So she pushed it aside.

She adjusted her pace, slowing as she read the fight carefully, looking for an opening to her advantage. She wasn't sure yet if either of them had noticed her and she was perfectly okay with that.

With a bright flash, Barnes' metal arm snapped up to latch onto the Wakandan king's throat just as T'Challa's clawed hand nearly caught him around his, Barnes' reflexes only just barely catching his wrist. But even locked as they were, the cat-suited Wakandan managed to retaliate with a hard knee to Barnes' side, forcing a pained sound from Barnes. But it wasn't quite enough to loosen his grip, Nadine noted, pleased.

"I didn't kill your father, " she heard Barnes insist grimly through her earpiece as she edged closer.

"Then why did you run?" T'Challa challenged back, his grip on Barnes' wrist tightening, beginning to pry it away from his throat. Startled at the move, Barnes's vibrant gaze darted from T'Challa's mask down to the Wakandan's slowly wrenching grip and back.

It was then that Barnes noticed Nadine over T'Challa's shoulder, his eyes widening fractionally. And Nadine saw her opening.

She sprung her own attack.

With a wrench and a rough cry of effort, Barnes tore himself free from T'Challa's hold and stepped clear just in time to avoid getting hit by Nadine himself as she put on a burst of speed to latch onto T'Challa's back, letting her momentum carry her around his body to clamp her thighs around his upper arm. T'Challa didn't have time to do more than bellow in surprise. Immediately letting go of her hold on his shoulders, Nadine let her bodyweight do the rest, letting herself swing swiftly down and around and almost back up again on the opposite side of his body before relaxing her legs' hold with practiced ease at just the right moment, overwhelming his decidedly impressive equilibrium with her sudden stop all but up on his shoulder. As he staggered and lost balance beneath her, she was rolling out of reach and spinning back to keep him in her line of sight the instant his opposite shoulder impacted into the pavement.

"That's usually the instinct when people who are trying to kill you start chasing you," Nadine said coolly as the Wakandan similarly rolled back onto his feet with predatory grace suited to the panther his gear evoked.

But he couldn't do more than snap his head around to glare at her. Nadine was already darting forward, dropping into a low spinning kick that impacted hard against the back of T'Challa's right thigh, causing the Wakandan to grunt angrily in pain as his leg nearly gave way beneath him.

Nearly.

But Barnes took full advantage regardless, charging forward with the intention to deliver a series of powerful punches and hard kicks. Unfortunately, T'Challa was just barely able to deflect the attack catching Barnes' fist and turning it away, swinging around for a driving punch of his own into Barnes' sternum.

But Nadine hadn't stopped moving, spinning to slam her elbow hard into the Wakandan's kidney as she transitioned out of the stance from her low kick. Even as Barnes grunted in pain from T'Challa's hit, T'Challa gave an angry cry of his own, twisting to swipe furiously at her as she straightened.

Leaning back sharply, Nadine's eyes widened as his claws missed slashing across her face by a fraction of an inch.

"I have nothing against you," the cat-suited warrior snarled, swinging out at her again. She backpedalled, only just barely managing to keep his powerful swipes from landing.

"Well, you shouldn't have anything against him, either," she bit back, ducking beneath his arm and shooting straight for Barnes as Barnes lunged for T'Challa. His steel-blue eyes flashed as he caught on to her idea.

And he hooked his elbow with her outstretched arm. Leaning into it, Barnes spun, further amplifying Nadine's momentum with his own Enhanced speed and strength as he pulled her around behind him. As she was all but thrown around his back Nadine drove both feet hard into T'Challa's chest as he twisted to face them, staggering back with a harsh grunt.

As she landed nimbly back on her feet, Nadine grinned in satisfaction; she wasn't sure that would work. Not given their track record in combat situations...and before she could help herself, a small chuckle escaped.

"Well this is new!" Barnes spared her a split-second, incredulous look at the wry comment. She couldn't help but grin slyly as she explained, "fighting against you, I'm familiar with; fighting beside you on the other hand?"

He actually laughed.

In front of them, T'Challa straightened, eying the two of them before settling on Nadine.

"You believe his claims that he didn't do it?" he asked, almost scathingly doubtful. Nadine could feel her eyes harden at the barely suppressed rage in his voice. Hell, it was written all over his body...

"Since he didn't? Yes." And she couldn't help the grim satisfaction that flared through her as T'Challa's head reared back, betraying his surprise when she charged forward yet again. Feinting left before going right, she slipped under his astonishingly fast slashing claws a second time, hooking her arm around his neck as she swung herself around his back and under his opposite arm, twisting him awkwardly around with her as she swiped her right leg back and around hard to kick out his right ankle. With any other average opponent, it was a move that would've seen him slamming hard into the pavement, his far shoulder bearing the brunt of the impact.

But T'Challa wasn't any normal opponent.

Lithely, he twisted with her move, hooking his arm around her as he rolled to pull her back, slamming her into the pavement even as he landed hard himself. A gasping cry of shock burst from her throat as pain lanced sharply across her ribs. But sucking in a harsh breath, she forced it away, twisting herself free and rolling to her feet the instant the pressure of his arm across her torso eased.

But he was just that bit faster, already propelling himself to his feet and spinning back to her.

Until he crumpled to the left with a grunt as, with a bellow, Barnes drove his metal fist hard into the Wakandan's side.

It gave Nadine just enough time to find her feet before she was joining Barnes on the offensive. With their opponent's attention divided, Nadine spun to land a series of sharp, driving kicks toward T'Challa's chest and head, most at least partially hitting home even as Barnes was pushing his own advantage, driving a second and third punch to his torso before kicking hard at the Wakandan's knees.

T'Challa toppled with a furious cry, propelling himself through a roll and back into a low, predatory crouch. But it was enough of a reprieve for both Barnes and Nadine to brace themselves for his next attack.

Furiously, he lunged for Barnes. Only to feint at the last moment and lash out a blindingly quick kick at Nadine.

But even as she twisted back, loosening instinctively to absorb the blow, he still caught her square in the chest, knocking the wind from her as she careened into the box truck behind her with a resounding crack.

She couldn't even cry out in surprise as pain blazed across her already aching ribs. As she impacted hard into the pavement, spots danced before her eyes.

It was a hard hit to shake off, and Nadine staggered to her feet with a hollow cough as she struggled to get her breath back, arm curling instinctively around her middle. Absently, she wondered he had just cracked or even broken a rib or two.

Either way, cracked or not, she also knew it wasn't as bad as it could've been just as it wasn't nearly the worst she'd suffered through. She was perfectly capable of pushing through, the worst of it already fading. Steeling herself, she turned back to the fight she'd been unceremoniously thrown from.

T'Challa hadn't wasted a second in renewing his attack on Barnes. Features contorted in a grimace of concentration, Barnes struck out hard, barely deflecting T'Challa's strikes before swinging out with his own, the second landing despite T'Challa turning aside the first. Only for T'Challa to catch his fist once again as he furiously tried to land a third, twisting Barnes' wrist hard. Moving with it, Barnes' threw himself to the side, hoping to pull himself free, but T'Challa immediately caught on to what he was doing.

In tandem, the two of them rolled, T'Challa's grip still clamped on Barnes' wrist as each of them lunged back to their feet. But the Wakandan was just a hair faster, Nadine realized with alarm, and twisted Barnes' arm back hard. But even as Nadine launched herself forward to intervene, T'Challa was already propelling himself into the air to drive both feet into Barnes' chest.

Like Nadine, T'Challa's powerful kick sent Barnes' hurtling into a nearby pallet of crates, the wooden boards creaking ominously at the impact. Nadine couldn't help but wince in sympathy as he too fell hard onto the tarmac. With a gasping groan, Barnes leveraged himself off the ground, only for his eyes to widen as he caught sight of T'Challa already moving.

He had nowhere to go. He didn't have time to react short of instinctively trying to move out of the way only to find himself trapped against the crates behind him.

And panic sliced sharp and tight as razorwire through Nadine as T'Challa lunged for him, claws outstretched as he went for the kill.

Only for a flash of scarlet mist to flare to life around his bared claws just centimetres from Barnes' unprotected throat.

Nadine's breath caught, spinning automatically to find the source of the crimson tendrils. With a soft cry of effort, Wanda's arms snapped around, flinging T'Challa back to crash through the wall of the nearest jet bridge. Relief surged through Nadine and she staggered, leaning against the truck she'd been thrown into.

That had been too close.

She met Wanda's eye, not bothering to hide the relief and gratitude that was undoubtedly flashing across her poorly guarded features. A small, proudly satisfied smile bloomed across Wanda's face before she spun and rushed back into the main fray.

Inhaling deeply, Nadine darted over to where Barnes was pulling himself warily to his feet, eying both Wanda and the bridge T'Challa had disappeared into. Only to flinch as she crouched down beside him, swinging an arm around. Equilibrium thankfully back, Nadine was easily able to lean away from what would've undoubtedly been a dazing blow.

"Just me," she quipped with a faint grin before sobering, "you good?" Letting out an anxious breath, Barnes nodded, quickly surveying her for obvious injury.

"Yeah," he grit out as he got to his feet, holding out a hand to pull Nadine to hers. It was an offer she automatically accepted, clasping his hand without a second thought. "You?" Her grin returned at the earnest look in his eye.

Though an uneasy sense quivered in her chest at how particularly piercing the look felt...like he was searching, considering...

...like he was only barely restraining the urge to say something more...

And her grin threatened to falter.

But even as she opened her mouth to reply, to assure him she was fine when she realized she had yet to answer, his head snapped around, his eyes sharpening. At once, Nadine was spinning to look too. Her eyes widened at the distinctive dark shape flying toward them...and the smaller, faster shapes it had fired in their direction.

Already leaping to the side even as Barnes' hand on her back shoved her forward, Nadine dove out of the way as the first of Rhodes' charges impacted a few feet away, exploding in a blast of fire and chunks of pavement.

"Go," she snapped, hearing the faint, distinctive sound of another missile being fired followed quickly by another. Even as the debris thrown up by the blast continued to patter down around them, Nadine was surging back to her feet. Tugging at Barnes' arm from where he'd dropped into a hunched crouch next to her, glancing over her shoulder to pinpoint the incoming rockets as she ran for cover followed closely by Barnes.

One after another, the charges hit, none of them close enough to suggest Rhodes was trying to do anything but distract or even herd them, but still easily close enough to do damage if they didn't keep moving, Enhanced or not.

Close enough that, as Nadine and Barnes only barely managed to duck behind a row of loaded pallets, one nearly threw them both off their feet. Falling back against the plastic-wrapped cartons, Nadine suppressed a wince as she fought to catch her breath, still resolutely ignoring the lingering ache across her ribs that was not helping in that moment. Out of the corner of her eye, similarly shielded behind the pallet next to her, she watched Barnes risk a glance around it to scan the sky for sign of Rhodes.

Leaning back against their cover himself, Barnes finally turned to her. Steeling herself, she shifted, ready to move at his word. But what he said was not what she was expecting.

Not in the slightest.

"You have a daughter." Nadine's mind going completely and utterly blank as her eyes fixed sharply to Barnes. He was watching her, his gaze lucid and intent and impossibly vibrant. There was no doubting what he was actually asking with the painfully simply statement; is she actually—biologically—yours? Nadine's breath caught fearfully, dreading what he was inevitably going to ask next.

Slowly, she nodded.

They both flinched as, on the other side of the crates they had taken cover behind, another explosion ripped through the air.

When she looked back to him, his jaw was working nervously as he glanced back over to her.

"Is she mine?" Nadine's heart clenched at the vulnerability in him, the fear and the anxiety. He wasn't sure he wanted to know, but he was also desperate for an answer. A frustrated sound ground from her chest. She had to look away.

"Now's not the time, Bar—"

"Nadya?" Her eyes snapped back to him as suddenly she couldn't breathe. She'd never known for sure if he'd ever known her name all those years before. Unbidden, her eyes began to prickle as his steel-blue gaze bored into hers. "Do we have a daughter?"

She couldn't speak. She could only jerk out an emotional nod.

A harsh breath gusted free from deep in his chest as he looked away, eyes wide and suddenly unfocused as he struggled under the weight of her confirmation. Nadine sucked in a ragged breath that sounded infuriatingly like a sob, the emotional ache in her chest suddenly overshadowing the physical ache across her ribs.

He wasn't supposed to find out like this!

They both jerked as the crates they had taken cover behind shuddered. Distantly, Nadine noted that it wasn't an explosion. It was enough to startle her out of the maelstrom of conflicted emotion that simple, devastating question had woken. Inhaling a deep, shaking breath, she forced herself to focus back to the present.

He knew. She couldn't change that now.

Neither did they have time to act on it further.

As she looked back to him, mouth opening to remind him of as much, she nearly flinched, her long-familiar feelings of guilt and self-reproach surging forward to crush in on her. God, he looked so...

Overwhelmed...

Unnerved...

Incredulous...

Rattled...

Longing...

Lost.

There were simply too many emotions to properly decipher battling their way across his features and within his expressive eyes.

Almost without realizing it, she took a step toward him, caught by the sudden impulse to cross from behind the pallet that shielded her to the one he was backed against. Only to stop herself with silent admonishment at the last moment as she realized that, in doing so, she'd very nearly stepped out from cover without so much as an ounce of caution.

The pallet she was leaning against shuddered again. This time she was definitely aware enough to deduce it wasn't from any explosive blast. Sparing Barnes a worried look, she peered out, ready to judge whether or not they were secure for the moment—just long enough for Barnes to get his bearings back—or whether they needed to move.

Instantly, she was able to pick out why Rhodes seemed to have broken off from his pursuit of her and Barnes. He was currently rather occupied by the vehicles and crates Wanda was lobbing at him, dodging and deflecting with mixed success.

Leaving him open and vulnerable to an attack from above. Just as Wanda sent an empty baggage trailer flying at Rhodes, ensuring his attention was fixed on her, Sam seemed to appear out of nowhere, opening fire on the Colonel with a pair of his own compact rockets.

One of which Rhodes just barely managed to dodge.

Nadine's eyes widened as she realized that micro-rocket was hurtling toward her and Barnes instead.

She didn't even think, she just reacted. She launched herself toward Barnes, the force of the impact rolling them both out of the way just as the crates they had been hiding behind exploded in a concentrated but searing gout of heat, metal and splinters.

Winded from the force of colliding with him, Nadine half-dragged, half-pushed Barnes further along the line of pallets, panting against the pain flaring dully across her ribs.

And then it hit her what had very nearly just happened.

"Don't you dare freeze like that again, Barnes!" The panicked words spilled from her mouth before she could stop them as he spun toward her, almost wild-eyed as he fell back against the nearest stack of crates. Her heart was in her throat in terror. "I've worked too hard to find you for her!"

Only for her eyes to widen as his steel-blue gaze lifted to hers.

She could swear she could see the struggle behind those eyes as he fought to keep his mind, his lucidity, from slipping away, his body tense and trembling with it as his jaw tightened with desperate effort. She could only watch in shock, frozen by the intensity of his eyes on her...transfixed by the fluid shift between recognition, uncertainty, awareness, and utter confusion that ebbed and flowed rapidly across his tight features.

After a long moment that seemed infinitely longer than the few meagre heartbeats it lasted, the visible struggle to keep hold of his mind seemed to ease and he blinked heavily, his gaze darting anxiously around him, his surroundings before landing, troubled and almost panicked, on her. Body coiling and hands fisting, he jerked back, instinctively ready to defend himself...to attack.

And then he was himself again, once more aware and haunted as he sagged back against the pallet behind him, his face crumpling with anguish and dismay. Her gut twisted painfully as horrified understanding about what had just happened to him hit her like a slap across the face.

It was exactly what she'd feared would happen back in Dresden...

For a moment—a long, dangerous moment—he'd been so disoriented, so confused, he'd lost track of where he was, of what was happening around him.

Of who he was.

Inhaling deeply, he lifted his head, struggling to meet her eye. But once he did, her composure nearly broke.

How could so much hope mingle so completely with despair?

And she was confronted with a myriad unspoken questions, all of them swirling and clashing in his eyes. But one was clearer than all the rest. Clear enough that it almost felt like he'd spoken it aloud.

Why hadn't she told him sooner?

But even as her breath hitched from the distress and bewilderment—but only the smallest flicker of accusation...there should be so much more accusation a small, guilt-stricken voice in the back of her mind insisted—written across his face as awareness returned, a bleak, resigned understanding surfaced in his eyes.

She knew in that instant he'd figured out the answer to his own desperate, unasked question.

And as though a switch had been thrown even as she fixed him with an anxious glance, Barnes' vulnerable expression shifted to one of resolve, a peculiar light growing in his eyes as he looked to Nadine once more. He'd come to the same realization she had while he was caught within his damaged mind.

He might as well have said it aloud, clear as it was on his face: after.

After Siberia.

After the other Winter Soldiers were neutralized.

They would talk about everything she hadn't told him—about Nina—after.

Just as she'd pleaded back in the parking structure.

Inhaling deeply once again, he spared a glance of his own out around the crates, only to stiffen.

"Move," he murmured hoarsely. She didn't need to be told twice, already pushing off from the crates as he urged her to move a second time.

Just as the pallet they'd been behind was toppled by one of Rhodes' repulsor blasts in his pursuit of Sam as he swooped low in an attempt to shake him.

Almost as soon as they'd broken cover, more repulsor beams were sizzling their way as Stark caught sight of them, and with a silent consensus, Barnes and Nadine split up. But even as Nadine spared a glance over her shoulder, Sam was darting in, drawing off Stark's attention only for Hawkeye to take over at Sam's call through the earpieces, firing one of his fragmenting arrows at the red and gold suited Avenger.

Nadine fought back a groan of frustration. While not precisely the right term, they were, effectively, at an impasse; neither team was giving an inch, and neither was backing down.

Something needed to change.

Off ahead, Nadine was fairly certain she could see Steve engaged with Spider-Man, and off to the other side, she was pretty sure she caught a glimpse of Wanda doing her best to keep T'Challa occupied. Nina she couldn't see and it took every ounce of control she had to keep her instinctive panic and her need to rush off and find her in check. As she couldn't see Vision, either, it suggested Nina was perhaps still working to keep him contained?

She found she hoped so... Vision would never willingly hurt Nina.

One bit of good news though; as she was fairly certain she'd heard Pietro cheekily taunting someone on their team a moment before, it seemed the speedster had regrouped from whatever Vision had done to end their fight. And given the split-second bluish blur she'd caught sight of not far from where she'd last spotted her sister? She imagined Pietro was once more keeping Natasha busy.

Only to realize her guess was wrong as she rounded the rear of one of the several airport busses littering the tarmac.

Nadine nearly skidded to a stop seeing Natasha ducking for cover herself barely a few feet away as War Machine's pursuit of Falcon saw yet another stack of crating demolished in a shower of splinters. Deep in her gut, resentment and anger knotted as memory of what her sister had kept from her surfaced—how could she have kept something so important from her!—but it felt curiously diminished in that moment.

There was just too much else going on.

For a long beat, the two sisters just stared at each other, neither moving though both had instinctively taken up a ready stance.

But it was Nadine who finally spoke, eying Natasha warily. She had only one thing she needed to hear from her sister in that moment:

"Nina?"

"Keeping Vision busy, last I saw," Natasha confirmed with a faint quirk to her lips. Nadine couldn't help the faint, relieved breath from gusting free, her shoulders sagging as her eyes slid shut for an instant out of sheer relief. It was one thing to hope, to infer, even.

It was another to hear it.

A small, tight smile had surfaced on her sister's face as Nadine looked back to Natasha. It was an expression she couldn't quite manage to decipher. On the other side of the bus, another set of small, distant explosions sounded; Hawkeye's arrows, the back of her mind absently supplied.

"There are really more out there like Barnes?" Nadine fixed Natasha with an impassive look at the soft question. Her sister's own carefully controlled mask was firmly in place, but her eyes were intent and grave. Nadine had barely heard her over the near chaos going on around them.

In the background, she could hear Steve, Barnes and the others strategizing through the earpieces; as she'd begun to fear, they'd realized that sacrificing part of their team was the only way any of them were going to make it on to the real mission. Natasha watched her patiently back, unafraid to meet Nadine's own steady gaze.

Grimly, Nadine simply nodded.

Natasha let out a long, slow breath, her eyes growing guarded.

But not before Nadine caught a flicker of resignation.

And before she could even try to decipher what she'd seen, Natasha had slipped away.

A/N: Thanks for reading!

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