Can't Catch a Shadow

When Hetalia stepped off the plane, she noticed that it was not Roman that was approaching her. Instead, it was a tall, thin ginger lady wearing a short white sundress.

“Hello again,” she said with a familiar british accent. “There’s someone requesting your presence.”

“And who are you?” Hetalia asked, feeling a little ashamed that she couldn’t place the voice with a name.

“CHERI,” she said simply. “Roman’s AI.”

Hetalia nodded once. “So he finally got that body built for you?”

CHERI nodded. “I assume that it will be more handy as time progresses.”

“Agreed.”

“Miss?” a male voice questioned. Hetalia turned around to see a man with dirty blonde hair and a tan suit standing with his hands in his pockets. “Forgive me for asking, but you wouldn’t happen to be the Shadow, would you?”

Hetalia stared at the American. “Da,” she replied hesitantly.

A smile spread across his face as he extended a hand towards her. “It’s a real pleasure, miss. My name is Nigel Barronov. I’m in charge of a small agency of sorts called the Barronov Underground.”

Hetalia carefully took his hand. “I’ve heard of you, though I haven’t really heard much.”

“That’s kinda the point of running an underground. You see, we’re not very big, and we like to keep it that way.”

Hetalia let go of Barronov’s hand and nodded. “So what is it that you want with me?”

“We’d appreciate it if you came to work for us.”

Hetalia looked from CHERI to Barronov and felt a small lump in her throat. “Are you asking me or telling me?”

“Politely asking, miss. If you don’t want to, we would completely understand.”

****

Barronov led Hetalia through the facility, showing her all the things to be shown. “And this will be your new apartment,” he said with a large smile on his face. “You can do what you want with it, we have no issues with that.”

Hetalia could feel her heart swelling with joy as she looked around. She had windows in her living room that faced an indoor pool and a balcony for her enjoyment.

“Also, you don’t have to worry about purchasing food. We have a nice little area where you can get your stuff here in the facility. It’s all free.”

Hetalia spun around and looked at her new director. “Why are you willing to be so good to me?”

A small smile appeared on his thinner face. “You’re an asset. Assets are meant to be treated well and taken care of. You, my dear, are no exception.”

Hetalia gave a small smile in return. “Thank you for that. You have no idea what that means to me.”

Barronov nodded. “You don’t need to thank me, but you’re welcome anyway. Also, I’d like to introduce you to your new neighbor. Follow me.”

The American led Hetalia across the hall and knocked on the door. A girl with strawberry blonde hair and brilliant brown eyes answered the door.

“This is Emry,” he said with a smile. “Emry, this is your new neighbor, The Shadow. Emry is originally from Scotland.”

“Don’t you have a real name?” Emry asked, accent still thick. “Barronov told me that there are no aliases here.”

“Da, Barronov told me as well. I just choose not to give my name for...security reasons.”

Emry nodded once. “Understandable.”

“Now that I’ve got you two acquainted, I have other business to attend to. Welcome to the Barronov Underground, my dear.”

****

One year later

Emry was over at Hetalia’s apartment helping her prepare dinner. “So you said you had something important to tell me?” she said quietly.

“Yeah,” Hetalia replied. “I, um, I’m leaving.”

“Leaving?” Emry repeated. “What do you mean by leaving?”

“I’m going to live with a family member for a little while. You can come with me, if you want.”

“No, I can’t,” the Scottish girl replied. “I can’t just get up and leave. This is my home and you know it. Besides, I have a mission coming up.”

Hetalia nodded once, understanding what she meant. “I wish you luck then. I’m going to leave tonight. Keep in touch though, will you?”

“Of course I will. You know that I will.”

****

“CHERI?” Hetalia mused to Roman as she helped him repair a broken droid. “Why did you pick a ginger, of all forms?”

“It reminded me of my three favorite Romanoffs and I just happened to like how she looked as a ginger.”

“Three favorites?” Hetalia echoed. “Who was the third?”

“Your mother, of course. You knew that she was ginger, right?”

“Yes, I knew that Roman, but Natasha technically isn’t ginger. She’s auburn.”

“Your arguement is invalid,” Roman said indifferently. “She’s ginger to me, so she will stay that way.”

A knock on the door made both of them jump and stare at the usually lonely door.

Roman and Hetalia then looked at each other. “You heard that, right?” Hetalia asked her elder friend.

Another knock made Hetalia jump and nearly scream. After her heart returned to a normal rhythm, the spy walked to the door and opened it enough to fit her body through. There, standing on the front porch, was an agent with crew cut brown hair and a leather jacket. “You the Shadow?” he asked. When Hetalia nodded, the agent continued. “My name is Agent Don Lionel. I work for Barronov. He needs you to come in.”

“No. He knows that I’m longer working for him.”

“This isn’t a job,” he said quickly. “It’s about Emry Madison from Scotland.”

****

Hetalia walked into the medical examination room by herself. The agents in charge told her that they would wait for her outside to insure that she had the privacy to say goodbye if it was indeed Emry.

With a shaking hand, Hetalia drew back the white sheet to reveal the face of a girl. At first, it was hard to decipher how old this girl was, let alone remember if she had seen this face. It was Emry, but her face was too pale and too thin and there were scars from rashes all over her face and neck. There were permanent circles under her eyes that looked almost purely black. Her normal honey-blonde hair was closer to a grey color and looked limp and brittle. Paired with the smell of a rotting corpse, it made the teen sick to her stomach.

As she covered her mouth with her free hand, she let out a sob and covered her friend’s body. Her stomach was doing flips over all the horrors she had literally just seen.

It was barely ten minutes since she went in that she came back out to the agents. “Do you want a ride back to your place of residence?”

Hetalia shook her head, not able to speak without losing all her reserve.

After an hour or so of walking, the young Russian finally made it to Roman’s secret entrance so as to not attract attention to the house that was supposed to be abandoned to keep her family safe.

She walked through the quarantined med lab towards the airlocked hallway connecting the lab and the house.

When she got to the large door, she punched in the password and waited for the system to read it.

“Pass code accepted,” CHERI chimed. “Currently scanning for foreign contaminants.”

Hetalia waited patiently for CHERI to complete her scan, feeling the tears stinging her eyes. The green light came on, signaling to her that the door would be unlocked.

Hetalia pulled on the handle, but the door wouldn’t budge. “Roman!” Hetalia shouted to the security cameras. “Let me in!”

The white screen to her left turned on, revealing Roman’s face as he sat at one of his many computers. “No, Hetalia, I’m not going to let you in.”

The tears in the ginger’s eyes finally fell revealing the stress she had recently endured. “Roman, please,” she begged. “I’ve had a long day and I just want to come home.”

“You almost revealed me, Hetalia. People think I’m either dead or retired, both of which require me to disappear and you almost ruined my whole cover.”

“I’m sorry, Roman. Please...please let me in,” she mumbled through her sobs and tears. “I want to come home. I’m so...so sorry.”

“I accept your apology, but I still can’t let you in.”

“Roman, please!” Hetalia shouted as her cries echoed against the sanitary walls. “Please! Tell me why!”

Roman shook his head, looking like he would break down too. “I can’t.”

“Tell me!” she shouted.

“Ask CHERI. She can tell you.”

“CHERI doesn’t tell me anything, Roman! Please, just tell me.”

Roman rolled his eyes. “You have the pass code. You’re family. She has to tell you.”

“What is she going to tell me Roman?”

Roman sighed, looking more hurt than before. “She detected something on your way in. A contaminant.”

“But I’m clean, Roman!”

“Just,” he paused and took a deep breath. “Just ask CHERI.” Then, the screen went back to white.

Hetalia sat down at one of the many computer desks in the lab and gave a shaky breath. “CHERI,” she said uneasily. “Show me what you found.”

CHERI gave a small chiming sound as she brought up the proper files on the computer screen, showing Hetalia exactly what she had found.

The teen’s breath caught as she stared at the facts and records. She looked at horrific picture after horrific picture of the other victims and gasped when she finally read the last sentence. ”No...”