1st POV Natasha Romanov (aka Amelia) 

Watching Dr. Ziegler exits the lab with a practiced expression of annoyance on her face. I wonder what could possibly be weighing on her shoulders so heavily. I’ve observed her for almost a month and a half now and I still can’t figure it out.

At first I thought it was a sense of guilt towards the patients she couldn’t save. I’d met doctors like that before, many of them brilliant but sadly most didn’t accomplish anything during their lifetimes. They suffocated under the weight of guilt that wasn’t theirs to bear.

My first impression of Dr. Ziegler had been similar enough to others with that mindset that I almost settled for the same conclusion. Her treatment of Norman aside - The man was unlikeable - she had all the obvious signs. Disregard for money and authority, ground breaking research and results, and so much heart that I’m left to wonder if people like her stole the hearts of people like me.

But there is something off about her. I could see it from our first interaction. Dr. Ziegler was guarded; she hid it well, so well I’ve at numerous points had to call into question my own instincts. But after the Reaper Fiasco she's gotten much more obvious. She gets distracted during her work and often I’ll find her standing or sitting in place looking at the open sky as if there was something there she could see that I can’t. 

I watch her leave the building from the window mandatory in all Oscorp labs and easily spot the team of agents that begin to follow her. It takes all I have not to growl in frustration at their amateur performance level. No wonder they’ve failed to follow her home, when they’re being so obvious about it they’d probably struggle to follow a preschooler.

I’d tail her myself but it's clear from the way Ziegler moves that she's been trained to recognize when someone is following her. The woman had to be capable; she's already survived more assassination attempts than most US presidents by herself. I’m almost certain she’s going to see Morrison. His distress at Reaper's death was evident in how he’d reacted towards the crowd.

Considering what little I know about their world It’s hard for me to imagine just what Morrison and Reaper or Reyes had gone through together for them to have such a complex relationship. Well complex in Morrisons case, Reyes was simpler. He felt cheated and wanted what he thought was his. I don’t know what he feels was stolen from him but every word he’d spoken to Morrison had shown his bitterness and resentment before and during their fight.

Thinking about the fight, my thoughts unconsciously drift to the moment Clint and I had acted to try and bring Reaper down. I want to believe it was luck or that he’d been too distracted by Morrison to notice but every instinct I had told me otherwise. Told me that, that fight wasn’t a fight to the death but a suicide.

Reaper could have moved, dodged, hell he could have let it pass right through him. I wasn’t arrogant enough to think the timing of my throw was so picture perfect he wouldn’t have had time to come up with dozens of possible solutions. So why didn’t he? What was he trying to accomplish by dying? What was the purpose of all his other actions if he died there?

Nothing. From what we know his death accomplished nothing. I refuse to believe he’d do something so pointless. Reaper spoke of a dream, a goal he wanted to see accomplished before he would let himself fade away, why did he choose to throw away his goal?

None of it makes any sense and I wasn’t surprised when Fury called and shared the same sceptism with me. That’s why I returned to this post even though Reaper’s already been dealt with. That and the possibility of more members of Overwatch arriving. With her new position in society Dr. Ziegler is a beacon to any new ‘travelers’ who would likely choose to meet with someone they were familiar with. 

A frown worked its way onto my face at the idea of other travelers and specifically the footage we obtained from an abandoned factory in Hell’s Kitchen where a futuristic Cyborg had come through a portal. The warehouse had no audio but the figures' movements suggested that before he disappeared he was trying to contact someone. 

Finally turning away from the window I took a routine lap around the lab not expecting to find anything I could look through. Dr. Ziegler is very protective of her projects. I'm not confident enough in my coding to get through her systems and SHIELD is too well monitored to act against her on any larger of a scale without significant heads turning.

The world council is becoming more demanding. I’ve seen the signs before in Russia once young men with dreams and passion as the years pass and there tempered by politics they become stubborn old men. The council wants to turn SHIELD into its own private army and there are those within SHIELD who would gladly answer their call should they make it.

But SHIELD should be, no is meant to be something greater than that. We are the shield that separates the supernatural from normal society. If we give up our role as protectors to become soldiers then everything SHIELD’s done since WW2 will be meaningless. Society will devolve into chaos as they become exposed to supernatural elements that weren’t meant to ever be more than fictional.

{Beep} I pause mid stride as the unfamiliar sound goes off. Turning my head I see ‘access granted’ flashing in green as one of Dr. Zieglers experiments slowly extended out from the wall along with a small tablet. Ignoring the science tools I can recognize but have no clue how to use I walk quickly to the tablet and begin to work my way around the home screen password.

Knowing Dr. Ziegler, she probably has every machine in this lab connected to her phone but thankfully my earrings can temporarily block radio signals. Bringing my hand up to my ears one at a time I give them a hard push and listen carefully for the familiar hum of electricity before unlocking her tablet.

Thankfully Dr. Ziegler is a bit of an organization freak so it's very simple to go through everything and from the sketches and notes she seems to be building a machine meant to allow some kind of surgery to be performed. Frowning slightly I try to think of any major injuries that would require such a machine but the only thing that really comes to mind are brain injuries and maybe heart but the machine doesn’t seem to have any of the tools needed for such delicate surgery. Some kind of scanner then?

Luvkily after a few more pages with sketches and scribbled notes I arrive at the document she’ll most likely be using to present this project to the board. {beep beep} the fast beat of my earrings reminds me that my time is running out so i quickly begin to read through all the essential parts of the documents. Or at least that was the plan but after reading the first sentence I froze in place. 

File # 13

Project name: Cradle 

Synopsis: Project Cradle uses revolutionary tissue regenerating technology alongside xenotransplantation to effectively cure any organ based disease or poison. While still in development stages Project Cradle if given enough time and research may eventually possess the ability to completely replace human anatomy systems.

Note: Project Cradle is based on early 20th century research into the human genome. Based on the research of German scientist Dr. Hans Adelberg and American Dr. John Constantine. All theories for working around genetically weekended anatomy in relation to cloning and repair is credited to their lives work.

{deep inhale, exhale} x3 Doing my best to regulate my breathing I only barely manage to stop my body from shaking. Carefully I put the tablet down as my earrings give out a weak blare to let me know the signal from the tablet is no longer being interrupted. Methodically I erase all traces I was on her tablet before checking that everything was in place and stepping back from the table.

Putting it back would be an obvious sign that someone had gone through her things and didn’t wnat her to know and I’d be suspect number one with me being the only person besides Osborn who can enter her lab. This way I can explain it off as the curiosity of a student who doesn’t know any better.

{shiver} Looking down at my hand which for the first time in almost 7 years moved without my control I decided to take the time till Dr. Ziegler got back to recollecting myself. I’m an agent. I can't let my emotions get the better of me. But if technology like this can really be created and brought to the level Ziegler thinks it can be brought to. This will shake the world to its core. This completely outstrips her pain killer formula.

That had been an improvement on something that already existed. An impressive enough improvement to grab the world's attention but an improvement nonetheless. This though this is different. Despite my better judgement I’ve looked through most medical essays and experiments centered around healing or curing damaged systems and nothing done in the past century comes close to the level of technology this machine would use.

Sighing to myself I took a seat in the only comfortable office chair in Dr. Zieglers lab cleared my thoughts while I waited for her to come back. She’ll most likely be awhile if she’s with Reyes so I have more then enough time to regain my calm.

1st POV (Angela Ziegler)

{Sigh} What am I doing? Sitting in our home I absentmindly stared at the glowing statue inside of my handbag. I’d yet to take it out after hurriedly shoving it in there in a moment of panic and now I don’t know how to give it to Master without seeming like I’ve betrayed his trust in me. 

At that moment I had been so desperate to follow Reyes' will to help our Master and I knew that if Master saw the statue he’d make hundreds of excuses as to why he couldn’t take a break. As it is now I’ve barely been able to convince him to cut down his vigilante hours instead distracting him with coding the numerous websites and apps we plan to release later this year. 

Convincing him that those street level thugs aren’t important anymore and can be handled by the police had taken a 2 hour long back and forth arguement before he’d conceded the point to me. It made me nervous for when I finally have ‘THE’ talk with him about the motivation behind Reaper's actions, about why his powers aren’t working the way they should, about why I hid this damned statue from him. 

For the past week or so I’ve been trying to gather my courage and I’ve confronted him a number of times already only to falter and switch to less important topics. I don’t want to make my Master hate me, if he hates me then he won’t have anyone else. I refuse to leave him on his own. Hardening my resolve at this point feels pointless, I need to stop focusing on what words to use or how he’ll react and just start talking the second he’s looking at me.

{Ring Ring} The sound of my phone alert causes me to frown in confusion as I reach into my bag and grab my phone. No one but the Master has my number and he already knows I’m here if he wanted to say something important he’d come home. Master doesn’t like to talk over the phone or internet. He says there’s always someone listening online.

Pulling out my phone I glance down and a small smile breaks out onto my face when I see the alarm for project #13 has gone off. Manovuring my phone I quickly access the cameras I’ve installed in my lab per Masters request and see ‘Amelia’ calmly sitting in her chair breathing deeply. Off to the left of the screen I can just catch the edge of the extended workstation I kept project 13 on. 

Clever of her to leave it out instead of trying to hid all the evidence and whatever device she used to stop the signal for so long is impressive as well. Even though Master already informed me its still a surprise to see how much disparity there is in this world between the rich and poor.

 The medical care Oscorp provides to the 1% is easily ten times better than what they offer to anyone else. Greedy, disgusting bastards. {Sigh} there goes my good mood, leave it to old pricks to ruin my mood. Standing up from my chair in the kitchen I slowly make my way towards the 2nd NorthEastern exit heading back to Oscorp so I can have a discussion with Ameila about professional edict.

Today’s been full of distractions but Tommorow no matter what I’ll tell Master everything. I refuse to abandon him and I refuse to lie or keep secrets any longer. If he has a problem then to bad I made a promise and I plan to keep it.