Okay. This is something I've been planning to write for a long while now.

I love the Marvel universe, and by far my favorite part of the universe is the rise of H.Y.D.R.A. and the resulting Civil War within S.H.I.E.L.D.. Agents of Shield and Captain America: The Winter Soldier tell the story really well, but I've always wondered one thing:

What was it like for the background characters? The people who never spoke to Captain America, fought in an special operations mission, or were talented enough for S.T.R.I.K.E.?

This is the story I'm trying to tell. Here we'll follow the tale of a S.H.I.E.L.D. Computer Engineer (Mariam Zardari), low-level field agent (Alfred Koeman), and psychologist (Aurora Mohren) during the hours before and days after the reveal of H.Y.D.R.A.

Agent Walker 05 inspired me to write this story. It takes place in the same universe as her story Agents in Training: Team Echo, which I highly recommend checking out. Huge thanks to her! If any of my readers have already read the story, you'll be getting quite a bit of Alexei Nikula's backstory in the year before he was recruited for Team Echo.

Updates will most likely be slow, but I will do my best in keeping this story up to standard. Please read and review!

Edit: Of course the one thing I forget is the time zone difference. Please note that the first section, taking place at 1600 hours (4:00 p.m.) occurs AFTER the events of the next two parts. In short, when it's 1600 in Spain, its 1000 in D.C.

1600 Hours, April 14, 2014

The Hub; Santiago de Compostela, Spain

"No, no, no, no!"

Jordon leapt up from her seat, light brown hands running through her pitch-black hair as she watched yet another S.H.I.E.L.D. field agent walk across the security feed displayed on her computer. Next to his longtime friend, Domenic cackled, taking great amusement in Jordon's distress as she flopped back down in her seat. He raised an eyebrow at her, and with a loud, obnoxious groan, she finally complied, slapping two twenty-dollar bills onto his own desk. Domenic giggled like a schoolgirl in response, pocketing the cash and bringing his hands up for a few keystrokes on his computer before flopping back down again.

Mariam rolled her eyes at her colleague's antics, nevertheless amused by the situation. Kicking back her seat, the dark-haired woman rolled across the room, dragging her feet to slow when she came up behind Jordon's monitor.

"Yep, that's the thirtieth guy in full op gear," she announced. "Level 7 operation it is."

"No, it has to be eight," Domenic responded, grinning toothily at her. "I mean, they're walking in plain sight."

"On the cameras, idiot. You wouldn't really notice from a lab room," she shot back easily. "And they're in pretty secluded areas, too. Either way, I told you that it would be a bad idea to take the bet, Jordon. See where not listening to me got you?"

"Shut your trap, Zardari," Jordon muttered, the 28-eight-year-old woman flipping her off as she spoke. "You're only on Domenic's side because I'm Indian."

Mariam decided not to engage with the rookie agent any longer, and rolled back to her desk just as their team leader spoke up, a average-looking American with brown hair and eyes.

"Stop it, you two," Davin Attaway, Mariam's own recruiter, looked over his shoulder from his monitor, shooting the trio a glare. "Agent Anselmi—" Domenic huffed, leaning forwards once again to face his computer. "Stop making bets you know you'll win. There are rules against gambling for a reason, you know. Agent Marie—" Jordon grudgingly turned back to her own computer. "You are half Spanish as well, last I heard, so stop blaming every rude thing Agent Zardari says on racism just because she's Pakistani. It's disrespectful. And stop hacking into the security feed."

"Yes, mom." Mariam just barely caught Jordon's muttered insult as she turned off the security feed, but brushed it off, more than used to the younger agent's temper and how it flared up from time to time. As her eyes swept the room, she caught sight of Garret and his trainee, Ava, chuckling to each other on the other side of the room.

It was a normal Monday morning. Well, as normal as working for the world's largest spy organization could be. Garret and Domenic had just returned from their Sunday off (both were Christian), and the latter seemed to have a bit of trouble containing all of his energy despite said day being a "day of rest." Either way, Team 4 of the Software Engineering Department (S.E.D.), based in the Hub, was well on their way to doing their normal jobs—coding, hacking, vetting messages, and building firewalls to defend S.H.I.E.L.D. from outside online threats. Everyone in the room (save for Ava, who was still working part-time as she attended college), had a PhD in a computer science or something similar. Mentally, they were the best of the best.

"Twenty dollars it's a Level 8 Operation!" Domenic hollered.

"Shut it!" Jordon snapped back, hands in her hair.

But Mariam had learned a lot since she's first joined S.H.I.E.L.D. ten years ago as a 29-year-old woman. And one of the first things she'd figured out that was while S.E.D. Team 4 prided itself on being the best of the best, vetting everything that came in and out of the Hub, they more often than not were informal, immature, and horrible procrastinators.

"I mean it!" Davin scolded them. Ava snickered into her free hand as Jordon flipped off Domenic. "Agent Marie."

Jordon muttered something in Tamil and began typing away once again. A couple minutes passed in a blissful silence.

"We have a message coming in," Garret announced suddenly, drawing Mariam's attention from her own vetting of agent emails. "From the Triskelion. I can't—" He cursed lowly, fingers flying across the keyboard. "Mariam, Davin, can you take a look at this? I've never seen this kind of encryption before."

Mariam frowned, standing up as Davin did the same. At 44, Garret was the second eldest on the team (after Davin, who was 50), and if he couldn't decipher a code, it definitely wasn't SHIELD-based. And if that was true, how did the message even get here?

Mariam bent over the computer, watching the lines of code flash by with an expert eye, taking in huge chunks of information while becoming more and more confused as she did so. Garret wasn't missing something; she truly hadn't seen any encryption like this before.

"You sure this is from the Triskelion?" She asked, tilting her head as if a new angle would miraculously help here understand the code. By now, everyone had stopped working to see what was going on. Abnormalities like this in the S.E.D. were rare, and tended to be pretty big problems whenever they came in.

"Yeah," Garret replied, unsettled.

Abruptly, however, Davin bent over and shoved Garret away to take a go himself, fingers typing almost frantically into the keyboard. Garret flinched back in surprise as their supervisor wordlessly stepped drew back once he'd finished. Mariam furrowed her brow, even more confused and prepared to voice her own concerns. That was very uncharacteristic of her old mentor. Usually he would walk them through the process, help his coworkers understand what was going on, in case it happened again, but now he was silent and still.

Then she looked at the screen, and saw the message displayed on it. Slowly, every computer screen flickered to display the same sentence. Ava's hand's flew to her mouth to try and stifle her scream. Jordon gasped. Domenic stood up abruptly, chair crashing to the floor.

"Davin, what is this?" Garret whispered in horror. "Is this real?"

"No," Mariam blinked, slowly turning to Davin, who refused to look at any of them. "Davin, what did you do?"

For the message on all the computers screens read:

Out of the shadows and into the light, HYDRA.

And Davin had just sent it to broadcast on every electric screen in the Hub.

0900 Hours, April 14, 2014

The Triskelion; Washington D.C., United States of America

Thunk. Thunk. Thu-thunk.

Alfred Koeman tossed back his head slightly, brushing back his sweaty dark blond hair from his face as he took another swing at the punching bag. The S.H.I.E.L.D. training facility was near empty that this time of day, most of the agents either out on missions, their daily routines, or enjoying a rare day off. In fact, Alfred was enjoying one of the rare days.

But he wouldn't be leaving the gym for most of it.

Thunk!

Alfred's leg slammed into the the punching bag in one last, devastating kick. He stepped back, now done with the exercise, and took a deep breath. Unwinding the protective tape from around his knuckles, he let himself loosen up slightly before he would begin to move on to the next workout.

"You're a really sad person, you know that?"

Alfred blinked, turning around to see a large African-American man walking towards him. He was dressed in the typical S.H.I.E.L.D. field agent uniform, with short black hair and his lips twitching up into a knowing smile.

"I like to think of it as determined, sir," Alfred replied easily, walking towards his team leader and dropping the tape in a nearby wastebasket.

"You don't have to be a member of STRIKE in order to be a good agent, you know," the officer replied, tossing Alfred a towel. "And please. My name is Ford Necchi, not 'sir.' We're not working, so you don't have to address me like that."

"S.T.R.I.K.E. is the best of the best, Ford," Alfred scoffed, stressing the last word. "And I'm going to be the best of the best. I certainly won't turn down every promotion that comes my way like you do, Mr. Humility."

"That doesn't mean you can't enjoy your days off duty," Ford replied. "Even Emiel's been dragged off do spend the day with Dennis and Martha. And what I do with my career is my business, Koeman. Last I thought you rather enjoyed being under my command."

Wisely, the blond dropped the subject of Ford's career choices. "Are they finally going to get Emiel to ask Mariam to marry him? They've been making goo-goo eyes at each other since we were in training and it's been driving me insane. If it's not that, then I don't care."

"I don't know, but I honestly hope so. Anyways, have you seen your sister around?"

Alfred blinked, surprised at the sudden change of subject. "Is that what you're here for? Aurora got the day off, too. She went—" He blinked, realization dawning on his face, then facepalmed hard enough to leave a mark. "Aw, dammit! It's my niece's birthday today; I was supposed to come celebrate. I had a gift wrapped up and everything!" He groaned, running a hand through his hair. "'Rora's gonna kill me."

"I'll attend your funeral," Ford remarked dryly. "Well, I'll call her in later. Say that I couldn't get ahold of her. Heaven knows that woman and her husband need some time with their kid."

"What do you need her for? She's a psychologist, not a field agent."

"I don't need her. Pierce does." Alfred froze, shocked. What did Alexander Pierce want with his sister? "He's been asking for her and Agent Nikula. Wants them for some special mission with the S.T.R.I.K.E. team."

Alfred's eyes hardened. He knew little about Field Agent Alexei Nikula, Aurora Mohren's recruit and protégé, other than the fact that the kid had been hired right after the Battle of New York at sixteen, which was almost unheard of. Basically everything else about the kid's past and current job was heavily classified to all but certain Level Eight personnel and Aurora herself. The kid, he guessed he could understand, but what the heck was Alfred's own sister doing with the S.T.R.I.K.E. team when he could hardly get them to spare a passing glance at him?

Ford seemed to notice that train of thought, because he pushed Alfred back by flicking him on the forehead and drawing him back to the present.

"Stop that," he scolded. "I know you, Koeman. Sibling rivalry is fun and all, but you can't let it cloud your judgement. Pierce has his reasons for wanting Mohren and Nikula. And I doubt it's just to get cozy with them." Alfred blinked, and Ford explained. "Cap's the enemy now, remember? First he runs off with information about Fury's assassination, and now Pierce wants Nikula. Fishy, don't you think?"

Something twisted in Alfred's gut. Everything was monitored in S.H.I.E.L.D. at all times, and those who spoke negatively about the Council tended to disappear or be transferred to remote bases. "You shouldn't be talking like that."

"Probably," Ford chuckled. "But I'm just a low-level team leader. What weight do my words have?"

Alfred got the memo. "Not much."

"Indeed. Anyways, I have to get going. Got a debriefing about the our next mission in fifteen. I'll find Aurora after. Would you mind getting Emiel and the others? I'll tell ya'll how the meeting goes."

Usually Alfred would've protested to being dealt such a menial task, especially with Ford putting them to work on a day they were supposed to have off. But now, there was something urgent about Ford's tone, something that spoke of a danger that couldn't be talked openly about in range of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s security cameras.

So Alfred snapped a quick salute. "Yes, sir!"

Ford's lips twitched upwards, and he raised a hand in farewell as he left.

This time, the squad leader did not correct the formality.

0950 Hours, April 14, 2014

Dumfries, Virginia, United States of America

"Is it done yet, Mom? Can I taste the batter?"

Aurora Mohren, neé Koeman, chuckled as she batted away her daughter's wandering hands. Danielle huffed, placing her hands on her hips and pouting, black hair falling in messy curls around her face. Aurora shook her head, adding another cup of chocolate chips to the cake batter and stirring it in.

A sudden, foreign finger swiped some of said batter, and Aurora looked up, rebuke ready on her tongue, to see Elias grinning mischievously at her. Danielle let out a cry of indignance.

"That's not fair!" She exclaimed, slamming her hands on the granite countertop. "If Dad gets it then I can get it!"

"Your father isn't supposed to have any," Aurora shot back, sending a deadly glare to her husband. Elias just grinned, unrepentant. Aurora kicked him in the shin, and that grin turned into a grimace.

"Okay, now that's not fair," he grumbled, rubbing the spot where Aurora had kicked him. The brown-haired woman simply snatched up the bowl, holding it out of reach of Danielle (who seemed to think that her mother was now a cliff to scale), and began pouring it into the waiting pan. Danielle let out a whine, and with a final reach, snatched a couple drops of the batter.

"Do you want batter or cake?" Aurora challenged, brown eyes glaring down the ten-year-old.

"It's my birthday!" She protested with all of the confidence a child reaching their first decade of life had, as if the exclamation answered all questions.

"Life's not fair." Aurora finished pouring the batter and began to even it out with a spoon. Behind them, Elias laughed.

"Need any help?" Alexei asked from his place at the table, looking up from his laptop. The eighteen-year-old had just reached adulthood a two months ago, and since they'd been off at S.H.I.E.L.D. for the last four months without leave, Aurora had decided to just combine his and her daughter's birthday celebrations together.

"Not on your life, birthday boy!"

"I am a man, thank you very much."

"You want to start paying the bills?" Aurora finally gave up and passed Danielle the batter-covered spoon. The child let out a victorious cry and placed it in her mouth as her mother put the soon-to-be cake in the oven. Alexei, meanwhile, had not responded.

"That's what I thought," Elias laughed. "Why don't you just move in with us already? You're practically already our kid."

At that Alexei reddened, but he covered it up swiftly. "You have all your Moomins in the valley?" He responded. "Like my father would ever voluntarily give me up."

Elias blinked. Danielle took the spoon out of her mouth and giggled.

"He's calling you crazy, Dad," she sing-songed. "Antero taught me that phrase."

"Alexei, Dani," the Fin corrected. "Antero's a dumb name."

"No it isn't. It's… exotic." Now she just looked proud for knowing such a complex word.

"Exotic is bad in my line of work."

"You've only just become a full agent!"

"I've been a field agent in all but name since I finished training. Hell, I went on a few missions during training."

"Which, I might add, was only ten months ago, and the early missions were definitely not something I agree with," Aurora put in. "And Antero is a fine name. I don't know what you have against it. There're plenty of agents from Finland with traditional names in S.H.I.E.L.D. alone."

Alexei muttered something under his breath.

"He just thinks that using his middle name makes him look cool," Danielle huffed.

"I think it does," Elias remarked.

"You all are impossible!"

Aurora's phone buzzed. She let her family and all-but-adopted-son banter as she picked up her phone and checked it. Her brother had finally texted her back after she'd called him no less than five times. He better have a good explanation for not spending his day off with his sister. If he was off "training" for STRIKE again so help her God—

Her eyes fell on the text, and all previous thoughts froze.

Pierce is asking for u and Nikula. Ford's saying that it's bad. I have an idea why; can't risk telling here tho. Don't accept coms from anyone but me and Ford. Ur in danger. I'll let u know more info when I get it.

Her phone dinged with a second text.

Don't tell Elias. Don't text me back. Ears and trackers everywhere.

"What is it, 'Rora?" Elias asked. She gave him a deceptively innocent smile.

"Alfred's finally texted me back. He's off training for STRIKE and forgot it was his day off. Again."

Danielle gave a low whistle. "I'll attend his funeral."

Aurora nodded. "You better."

She placed her phone in her back pocket, and when everyone's eyes were averted, tucked the Glock 17 she kept in the kitchen drawer into her jacket.

Field Team Arrowhead—

Team Leader: Ford Necchi, 44

Medic/Second-in-Command: Marelina Bartolomei, 33

Weapons/Bomb Specialist: Emiel Scott, 36

Martial Arts Specialist: Alfred Koeman, 34

Intelligence Specialist: Dennis Southgate, 28

Sniper: Martha Schultz, 27

S.E.D. Team 4—

Team Leader: Davin Attaway, 50

Communications Specialist: Garret Michaelson, 44

Firewall Specialist: Mariam Zardari, 39

Surveillance Specialist: Jordon Marie, 28

Hacking Specialist: Domenic Anselmi, 30

Apprentice: Ava Bartram, 22

Other—

Field Team Theta - Sniper: Elias Mohren, 36

Behavioral Analysis Unit: Aurora Mohren, 35

CLASSIFIED: Antero Alexei Nikula, 18

Civilian: Danielle Mohren, 11