The Ghost [Marvel | Steve Rogers]

Chapter 46

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.