"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." - Kahlil Gibran
It's cold and quiet inside the quinjet as they speed east across the dark skies somewhere above Hungary.
There is a tense air that sits on the shoulders of its occupants.
An assassin sits in the back, leaning forward on her knees silently. Against the dark interior of the plane, her vibrant red hair is the first thing you notice. Across from her, another plays with a quiver full of arrows.
When he pulls out his bow and fiddles with it, there is a call from the front.
"Hey Hawkeye, try not to blow us up with those things before we manage to get the Deputy Director," says Coulson, making his way towards the back.
The strong and stocky archer grins cockily. "Don't worry, I left my explosive arrows back on the Carrier."
The red head shakes her head and scoffs. Natasha Romanoff has not been an Agent of SHIELD for very long; the habits she developed from her former employer show through occasionally but she is trying.
"We're almost there," says the handler.
He is an older man with a gentle face, who looks like a bureaucrat in his suit and ties, and has a slight obsession with a super solider from the forties. He holds out a tablet with schematics on it. "We don't know what the ground is going to be like when you get in there. What we do know is that entire militant force has retreated into the caves, which go deep into that mountain side. Director Fury believes that she is being held a quarter mile in from that entry point at the base of the mountain."
"It's been a over month," Natasha says. "He still believes that she is alive? Please tell me that you understand that this is not an extraction. It's a recovery."
'Old habits,' Natasha thinks. There was a mentality that the psych department was trying to figure out.
"Don't be so pessimistic," exclaims Barton. "She's tough, and honestly scares the hell out of me."
"Fury needs to cut his losses and start implementing security measures. Dead or alive, he doesn't know what information she might have shared."
Coulson sighs. "Romanoff, we've had this conversation. I know that you understand the chain of command concept very well so I don't need to explain it. Extraction is the mission, and we will execute this to the best possible standards. Is that understood?"
She gives an unreadable expression but doesn't break eye contact and murmurs over the engine noise. "Yes sir."
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