Budapest
There was no escape. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and too many to kill. Any agent would be as good as dead.
Not Costia.
She burst through the door and spent less than a second examining her surroundings before making a decision. She was on the roof, a plain, grey, roof-empty and open, the world below her. And they were close. The approaching sounds of frantic footsteps and senseless shouting enclosed her senses, turning her body numb from chill and fear, her heart pounding steadily like the beat of an exhilarating song. It was not the first time she had leapt off a building and flown through the empty air to a painful crash, but each time was no less hellish for her than the last time.
She felt the sting of a bullet whizzing past her head and pushed her aching limbs harder than she ever had. Two guns, maybe three, fired chaotically at her from behind as she shook the device that would determine her fate. It was ready just as she propelled herself off the building.
Her stomach dropped as time stopped. Bullets flew around her, but they were lousy shots-and she was a master. She flipped her body mid-air to face her shooters head-on and raised her gun faster than the bullets could sail. She shot the three shooters above her in three quick shots just as her back slammed into the blossoming cushion that had saved her life countless times. Despite the stiffening pain, Costia sat up with a smile and secured the satchel that held the most important contents in the world onto her shoulder as she strolled down the alleyway.
As she turned the corner, she found herself face-to-face with a noiseless beauty advancing on her. She had a face of steel, all bones and edges, and eyes like a crystal forest that seemed to see right through her. They were green, green and focused, and they reminded her Lexa.
Costia's lips had only begun to form a friendly smile when the beeping noise from inside her pocket sent her teeth scraping against her tongue. It was a warning siren, a sound that screamed the face of her enemy had been recognized. From years of work, she'd been taught to react to that sound with unhesitant violence, but-
Sudden, blinding pain exploded in her chest. Then again, in the same spot. Her knees hit the ground, she couldn't see, couldn't think-she'd been shot before but just like falling, she never got used to it. She felt a bullet lodge itself into her flesh a third time. Then a fourth, then a fifth, again and again until the gun was pressed right against her stomach and her eyes met her killers. Emotionless green stared her down as the woman fired one last silent shot that sent Costia tipping backwards in immobility. In the back of her mind she felt the satchel being yanked from under her and off of her shoulder, and the presence of the woman drift away.
She was alone, bleeding out on the ground in an alleyway. She let the satchel be taken from her. She'd failed. She'd failed the mission. She'd failed the world. She'd failed Lexa.
And as the world around her melted away, she realized that was the worst part. Her biggest regret.
"I love you, Lexa," she sighed to no one, pretending she was there, wishing it so desperately it hurt more than her wounds.
"I love you," she cried it out like a prayer.
"Lexa.."
And she was gone.