Trapped in the Shadows

Chapter 52 - Nightshade

"Well, I suppose I should start at the beginning," Veronica spoke, sitting down on the bench in her cell. "Your father didn't charm me and cause me to fall in love with him, I was the one who seduced him. We had never seen someone with such power before and I was sent in to investigate. At first we had assumed that it was a serum, we never imagined that he was an alien. And when he told me the truth I realized that if I wanted his power, I would have to have a child with him. You were that child, my perfect little weapon."

"I don't understand, weapon for what?"

"To serve the cause, of course."

"What cause?" I questioned, my mind still not wrapping around everything she was telling me. I wasn't expecting her to actually confess everything so freely, it threw me off a bit.

"You know, they told me that you were smart, but I'm just not seeing it. I work for Hydra, my dear."

A chill ran down my spine as I took a step away from my mother. Seeing my reaction, she let out what could only be described as an evil laugh, "yes, darling, I'm Hydra. The true head, Lascombe was merely a puppet. Who do you think convinced a greedy owner of a pharmaceutical company to fund the rebuilding of Hydra? I let him take all of the glory for it, as long as I had the control.

"Now, where was I in the story? Oh yes, I was thrilled when I found out that I was pregnant, as was your father. However, he eventually found out that our entire relationship was a lie and I was only using him to have you so I was forced to eliminate him. It broke my heart, what was I going to do if you had not inherited his magical traits? I had just killed the golden goose."

I shook my head, finally recovering from my shock, "but I did have his magic and, if you killed my father, how did I end up abandoned?"

"Oh that one was on me. I'll admit, I made a mistake. When you were born, you showed no signs of possessing your father's powers. I tried testing you and eventually grew impatient with waiting for your powers to show. So I told myself that the mission had been a failure and I left you in that alleyway to die."

"So you did it on purpose?"

"Don't be so naive, (Y/N). I only had you so that I could be of service to the organization I worked for. And when you appeared useless, I had no choice but to get rid of you. But I have learned since then, which is why I had Lascombe kidnap you. With Hydra's brainwashing tech, you could finally become the soldier you were always meant to be. And you were truly glorious, but he screwed up and now that beautiful reign of terror has come to an end before it was really ever able to start. But I can assure you that I am not going to let you get away this time. Beziehung, Verdorben, Null, Dämmer-"

"You can stop that useless recitation now, the brainwashing no longer works on me," I interrupted, a feeling of pride welling up inside of me. Hydra wasn't going to get what they wanted, I was whole again.

She sighed, "I figured you'd find a way to break free of it. After all, your friend the Winter Soldier managed to."

"Is that why you told me everything, why you wanted to speak to me alone? Because you wanted to pull me back under your control?"

"No, but I will admit it would have been a wonderful perk. To be completely honest, I just needed to stall you."

Her timing couldn't have been more perfect because just at that moment alarms began to blare throughout the compound. Fear began to creep in and I desperately demanded, "what's happening?! Who have you sent in?!"

She leaned back against the wall nonchalantly, "Well it was quite obvious that convincing you to become the leader of the Hydra Four was going to be troublesome, so instead I created a back up plan. And although she will never actually take her place leading an enhanced army, she is still a force to be reckoned with. Your friends, your family, are meeting Nightshade, the Hydra-created replica of you."

Magic swirled around my fingertips as anger flooded through me, "call her off."

"Now why would I do that? She is the deadliest assassin in the world, stronger than you are, and I have given her the perfect opportunity to eliminate the Avengers once and for all."

"If you don't call her off, I will kill you."

"I have finished my greatest creation and she shall be my legacy. You can kill me, if you would like, but I'm not going to interrupt her mission. Besides, I will very much enjoy your friends dying, even if I must be dead to do so."

Her words put me over the edge and wrapped my magic around her neck. However I felt a dangerous desire to take her life with my own hands and not with magic, so I released her and opened her cell. She fell to the ground, gasping for breath, as I roughly tugged her hair to pull her up. I then plunged my dagger through her heart, watching as her life bled out.

I didn't have time to revel in my kill, I had to get to my family and protect them. Concentrating on the main floor, where I knew they were all gathered, I quickly teleported myself there and found a battle already ensue. Nightshade was easily holding her own, black magic swirling around her as she fought off the Avengers. She wore the same outfit that I had when I fought for Hydra, a strange feeling sprouting within me as I essentially looked into a mirror.

After the initial shock of seeing her in person, I noticed a body lying on the ground. My heart wrenched as I rushed over to him, "Peter, are you alright?"

He groaned as he opened his eyes, "Yeah, I'm ok. How'd the meeting with your mom go?"

"She's been taken care off. Now come on, we have to get you somewhere safer," I muttered, dragging him out of the line of fire and doing a once over of his injuries. Being assured that, while he was pretty banged up, no wounds were lethal, I turned back to the fight.

I activated my suit and immediately threw a ball of energy into her stomach, but all that it accomplished was bouncing off her shield and pissing her off. She snarled at me, "look who finally showed up. Now do you see what you could have become? How strong Hydra could have made you?"

"Hydra only weakened me," I replied, allowing magic to swirl around me the same way it was her.

She laughed, "You're pathetic, no match for the mighty Nightshade."

"Yeah, we'll see about that," I replied, attacking her shield in hopes that I could dismantle it.

It soon became clear that she was not going to be an easy opponent to win against and I began to focus most of my attention on making sure that I didn't let her lay a hand on any of the Avengers. Even from the short amount of time that she had faced them before my arrival, they were suffering some very serious injuries and yet none of them refused to give up.

After a while of mostly just the two of us battling, Nightshade threw me back with a gust of magic and I tumbled behind the couch I had left Peter behind. I turned to him, "any ideas on how to beat her?"

"Well, she's you. Same powers, but that also means same weaknesses," Peter spoke up, trying to get a glimpse of her from around the corner.

"Do you think the magic inhibitors in the cell you guys kept me in can be taken out and used in here?" I asked, knowing that I was running out of time to plan.

"Maybe, but we'd have to get there first and someone would have to hold her off."

I smiled, "leave that to me, you focus on getting those inhibitors."

"You do realize that, if we do this, you won't be able to use your magic either."

"Just go," I nodded, leaping out from behind the couch to face her once again.

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(A/N): Nice long chapter for you! I don't know what else to say so goodnight! Or good morning or good afternoon, depending on what time you read this!