A fan-fiction by Little Firestar

Based on an original X-Force Story by Craig and Yost

1

S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarter (The Playground)- Location Classified

She could barely look at herself in the mirror, scared of what she would have seen; fear wasn't something she did- she had been long enough in her special line of work- but this time it was different.

It wasn't the blood. It wasn't the pain. It was because of the "mistakes"- if she could call them like that. And how "low" she had fallen because of them. She was about to ask for help from the last person she would have even talked to; not because she didn't love lance any longer, as he still held a special place in her heart, it was because there was a part of her that wanted to hate him for what he had done. Thinking of buts and what ifs was useless, but she couldn't help but ask herself: what if he hadn't joined Izzy? Hadn't he been there, would Izzy still be alive? Would she have stayed in this all new, all different SHIELD?

She shook her head and took a big breath, allowing the cold water to clean her body and her mind as well; she welcomed the sensation, as once again it helped her remembering she was still alive. Still there to kick asses, to get back at who had dared to do this to her.

But not alone. Not again- it wasn't a mistake she would have repeated. And it was the very reason she was there to begin with. In his room. After so long.

She heard his steps, and closed the water, the sink covered in small blood drops; she attempted to wipe her face clean with the back of her hand, but she was in such a state it was pointless, besides her lovely ex-lover had seen worse- and it wasn't like she was there to seduce him or whatever.

Hunter opened the door of his small bathroom, and she could see his startled expression reflected in the mirror; the breath died in his throat, and she suspected it wasn't just the fact that he was seeing her again- but how she looked like. Hurt, bloody and defeated and definitely not the person he used to remember from a long time before, when they had been younger and carefree... before the world came crushing down on them in the form of Hydra and betrayal.

Without saying a word, Hunter reached her, and once opened the cabinet, he took bandages and disinfectant, and while they both stayed in silence he cleaned herself up as much as he could; she looked in his eyes, unsure of what she was seeing; was it still love, mixed with worry, or was he just annoyed with her? He would have had all the reasons to, after all- she had walked into "his" base despite lacking clearance, hadn't talked with him in years, not even when Izzy had died few months before. And yet, here she was, with her ex-husband tending to her wounds.

"What happened to you, Neena?" he suddenly asked in a low, sweet voice, his hands holding hers for longer than necessary, and maybe even acceptable between two people who had had such an ugly divorce- two people who weren't supposed to still love each other. But it looked like she wasn't the only one who still cared about the person she had spent so many years with- despite the fact that he kept calling her psychotic bitch behind her back.

"Nothing." She snapped, turning her head so she wouldn't see his puppy-dog eyes, taking her eyes away from his as she gulped down a mouthful of saliva.. "I need stiches in my right arm. Are you going to help or what? I only ask because if I have to bleed out, I'll do it somewhere cleaner."

He took a big breath and mentally counted backward from ten to one, giving himself enough time to calm himself down and avoid something stupid or that would have made things worse.

"All right, all right…" he rolled his eyes, because he couldn't believe he was the one at fault there, and then took a sewing kit he kept handy, an habit he had taken during his SAS days and that he had never lost despite the new path he had chosen in life.

"Just do it. I've got places to be." She said as she bit her lips and averted her eyes from his movements, as he started to sew her up; he moved sure, and yet careful, with a soft touch it was hard to believe it belonged to a though guy like her ex-husband had always been. But lance Hunter had always been like that, always full of surprises, a living enigma, a walking contradiction, and those were reasons enough for falling for someone like him.

"Ehy, I'm just trying to be delicate." He smirked, that grin she hated so much and that, yet, she would have kissed away from his lips, had she still been at liberty to do so. "We wouldn't want this lovely skin to me all scarred, right, love?"

She gulped down a mouthful of saliva, hoping that Lance would believe it was anything- the pain, the blood, the needle. Everything, but not his damn accent. She hated his accent- mostly because it was the first reason she had ended up in bed that very first time, a long time before.

"Not so fast, agent Hunter. I've got some question for Miss Thurman here before you get started." Neena gasped as she heard the voice coming from the door; despite having heard through unofficial channels that he was still alive, it was still… odd seeing Phil Coulson in the flash, knowing what had happened during the battle of New York. And yet, here he was, crossed arms looking at her in a way she couldn't fully comprehend.

"Sorry sweetheart, but if you don't want to be spotted, next time don't use Chanel Number 5- especially not when going into a man's room." Lance chuckled, proud of himself- kind of like when he had first slept with her.

Neena clenched her teeth, and turned to look at her ex-husband, and suddenly all the reasons she had left him so many years before came back to mind. Back stabbing son of a bitch that he was. "Yeah, and you had to go and tell your boss you had someone in your room, don't you? What, you were scared that wouldn't have been able to handle an intruder? I know you've always had issues with your masculinity, but jeez, I didn't think that you would have fallen so low as to…."

Grabbing her for the wrist, Lance brought her closer and closer to him, so much he was practically whispering on her own skin; she could see the fire in his eyes, saw the worry and all the other mixed emotions he was feeling right in that moment.

"Ehy, cut me some slack. How was I supposed to know that it was my psychotic ex-wife who had broken and entered into my room?" she glared at him, and Lance once again chuckled, knowing all too well that she knew that as soon as he had walked in his own room, few minutes before, he had known she was there; he had been with her for far too long, it was like his senses were in tune with her whole being, and they both knew it. "I gotta respect the man, love. He is the one paying your alimony, after all. Besides… we hadn't seen each other in a long time, and as far as I'm concerned, you could very well be Hydra."

"You know me." She whispered, hurt in the deep of her soul by his statement; she thought he hadn't heard her words, not wanting for Lance to hear the pain they were laced with, but his next statement proved her wrong.

"If I had known you, Neena, we would have never divorced." Nor married, he thought, but he didn't add at loud. It was a shared feeling, after all. One she had never had trouble voicing, though.

"And you think you know him?" She pointed, angry, a finger in Coulson's general direction, regretting immediately the action as a bolt of pain run through her whole being like electricity. "He is the "director" of Shield, do you honestly think he is any different than Fury?"

"Of course not, but it doesn't mean that…"

"Who did this to you, Neena?" Coulson asked as she freed himself from her ex-husband's gasp and started to walk away despite the pain and the blood. "Neena, c'mon, we've worked together a long time ago. You may not know everything about me, but I know we can trust each other."

Neena stopped as she heard Coulson's words, she knew he was, at least partly, right; she had worked with him, back when she was partnered with Izzy, and he was as loyal as they came. Of course now it was all different, with it being a brand new world filled with aliens, super-technological terrorist and wonna-be world conquerors risen from the Third Reich, but there was a part of her- the wise one- that kept repeating that, even if she knew she would have regretted doing so, she had to trust them on this.

"I guess you'll not believe me if I tell you that my ex-husband went crazy at the sight of me and that he was the one to actually do this to me, right?" She chuckled, trying to put some irony in the situation, but even she didn't laugh at her own jokes.

"C'mon, Neena, this isn't funny. Who did this to you?" Lance asked her again.

That's not your problem, she wanted to say, but she couldn't. she was there, after all. She had gone to them because all alone, it was a situation she couldn't handle. She owed them an answer, an explanation of some kind… the truth, in a word.

"Well… as you'll leave me to bleed to death if I'll not spill it…" She closed her eyes and took a big breath, knowing all too well what Lance was going to say as his next words once she decided to admit the truth. "It's the Assassins guild." She admitted, falling on the cold floor of the bathroom.

Lance snorted in Coulson's general direction, barely resisting to the temptation of opening his arms like to say, I told you so. "And people don't believe me when I tell them you are psychotic. Only thing is, I didn't remember you being stupid on top of that." Rolling his eyes, Lance made his way to the door, just to stop and turn once more. "I wouldn't waste time on her with medical equipment. Apparently my ex feels suicidal. Because, otherwise, love," he grinned at her, "you would have thought twice before crossing the assassins guild."

"Sometimes I don't remember if I've divorced you for your sense of humor or because you are a smart-ass." Neena made a face, like she was already fed-up or she felt particularly exasperated; she felt both, actually, and for a number of reasons- having asked for help to her ex and to the man she had refused to work for being just on the top of her list. "is anyone interested in hearing my story or do I have to bleed somewhere else to get your attention."

"Bleed away, please. The exit is the same way you walked in."

Coulson made a face to Hunter, but didn't reprimand him with his own voice- the former mercenary had been part of the new S.H.I.E.L.D. for just a short while, but he already "understood" the director- as far as Coulson allowed the rest of the world to know and understand , it was true that Neena had refused to join the agency- but Coulson had heard of her from Izzy; Neena knew honor, and if they helped her out now, there was a good chance that in the future she would have helped them out in return.

"Go on." He said, and the tone didn't go unnoticed to neither of the involved parties; Neena took a big breath, and closed her eyes, feeling yet again the burning sensation of shame- shame for a job done poorly, for her instinct, once always right and lately always wrong, and because of the whole mess she had gotten- and was getting – into.

"I needed the money," she started, grabbing a t-shirt from a chair nearby and using it to clean as best as possible her wounds. "And when they came to me…"

"What, you thought, ehy, my ex's alimony isn't enough; let's work for…"

"I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS THEM, YOU STARTASS!" She basically screamed, sighing at the end of the sentence when she felt a pinching pain going through her whole being; she gritted her teeth, but didn't stop. "I didn't know it was them. Besides, it wasn't like they came to me for a kill. It was just a score. I was bored, I needed the money, so I thought…"

"Whose money?" In Coulson's voice, it didn't even sound like a question.

She mumbled something, and when Coulson repeated the question again and again, she sighed, knowing that she just had to answer.

"The Hand." She said at low voice, biting her lips, her eyes closed but already seeing in the back of her mind her ex-husband's expression, every wound on her body a memory of her fight with the ninjas; Lance didn't say a word, he simply palmed his face with both hands, unable to believe that his ex could be either that crazy or stupid or suicidal.

"They'd set up shop in New Orleans, running weapons in and out of town through the gulf; they guys who approached me didn't like it. They knew every move the Hand was making, all they were missing was me."

"Frankly, Miss Thurman, knowing how the guild operates, I find it hard to believe that, as good as you may be, they needed you and only you. They certainly don't lack an extra gun."

Neena's eyes went to Lance, and her ex gulped down a mouthful of saliva at Coulson's back; the woman opened her mouth as to say something, but then she changed her mind; she cleared her voice, and went on with her tale, everyone in the room knowing there was something she wasn't telling them- a secret lance seemed to be aware of, but that neither of them was ready to share with the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director just yet.

"We went in, and at a certain point, the Hand got the drop on us and started shouting Kill the assassins guild! In Japanese, and I realized that I've been working for the Guild the whole time. Then," she underlined the word by smirking and moving her right index emphatically in the air. "I realized that the wanted the money, and I was pretty much in their way, so I left my crew to deal with the crazy ninjas, and went looking for my score. Only, guess what? Everybody lies."

"There was no money?" Coulson sked her, lifting his eyebrows.

"Oh, no, there was money, definitely. What I've been lied about was what the hand was running- teenage girls, few of them just children, many of them still dressed with their school uniform, all of them scared and put in chains. As much as I love money and fighting ninjas, I took advantage of the chaos and got the kids out, leaving the Guild and the Hand to deal with each other." She shook her head, the memory of those eyes still fresh in her mind. "I got the girls out of Louisiana and into the Japanese Consulate in Houston, end of the story."

"I'd say the Guild's pretty upset with you." Lance smirked. If he had been a worse man, he would have poked her wounds just to state his point furthermore.

Coulson left the room, and when Lance went to take back his shirt and clean properly the wounds on Neena's porcelain skin, he saw with the corner of his eyes his boss whispering with May; he turned from them to his ex, and shook his head.

He didn't know what he had just got involved with.

But already knew he wasn't going to like it.