Everyone was screaming. If anything, she wanted an earplug to block all the damn noise. Yes, a fat chunk of the Earth was floating aboveground. Yes, creepy looking robots were lurking around with an insane amount of firepower. Yes, goddamnit, people were dying – but panicking wasn't going to fucking help, was it?!

To top all that, she couldn't find Clint. She couldn't find anybody, really, aside from the civilians. It was only after she'd stumbled to a stop at the edge of the … plateau? Rock? - whatever it was, that another familiar sight burned itself into her retinas.

Well, call her crazy but the sight of the heli-carrier did bring another wave of hope into her heart. Perhaps they could survive this after all.

Almost automatically, her mission parameters had changed.

{X}

{X}

"Inside, please, ma'am." An armored guard pushed her into the crowd, and she almost sighed. As luck would have it, she didn't have much to do in the end. There were more than enough people to help the civilians, and the villagers tended to trust the officials more than the crazy looking woman with red hair. Inside the carrier, she busied herself with helping a motherless child. The kid wouldn't stop screaming, and it was only until she hugged him and gave him (false) assurances did he stop crying. Even then, a few soft sniffles could be heard.

Death was a tragedy and they were surrounded by it.

"Miss, Miss, have you seen my husband?!" If she looked crazy, then the other woman had already crossed that line. She vaguely recognized her from the marketplace, and opened her mouth to say something – anything – but the woman had already moved on. The kid burst afresh into tears. The official ran around, looking harassed, and the medic was furiously pulling syringes in and out of bodies. She forced her eyes shut. There was nothing she could do to help these people. Not anymore.

The boat lurched sickeningly, and for one moment, she thought they had crashed. But then the door opened, and another official started directing people outside. The familiar walls made her want to retch. She was back. Oh god, she was back.

"Ma'am – that way is blocked –,"

"Not for me," She muttered, pulling the identification from the secret place in her sandals. At the sight of the outdated SHIELD ID, he froze, briefly, before nodding.

Through memory alone, she navigated the ship, stopping at intervals to remember where to go next. If anyone saw her, they didn't say anything. She had no doubt they could see her through the monitors though.

And then she could see the monitors too. Far ahead of them, the same man she had once thought dead. Even ahead of him, a woman she could call a friend (on some days, at least).

"Agent Hill," Fury said, spinning around to clasp his hands behind his back, "Welcome back."

Behind him, her sister strode forward with the same stern face she was so used to seeing. Sophia took a deep breath, answered with a wavering smile –

And then punched her.

{X}

{X}

Maria dodged it (of course she did, Sophia thought bitterly) before raising her hands as if to say – calm down. And she couldn't calm down. Not so easily. Not after everything –

"Soph," Her sister began –

"Don't! Don't. Don't 'Soph' me, as if nothing happened. Don't you fucking dare –,"

"Agent Hill, please calm down –,"

"Nope," she muttered, shaking her head. "I won't calm down! You… You lied to me! You said he was dead! You said SHIELD was disbanded. You –,"

"SHIELD was disbanded, Sophia." Her sister said firmly, clipboard still in her hands. "As for Director Fury," her eyes flickered slightly, "He survived. But barely. We needed to keep this under wraps."

"For what?" Sophia was vaguely aware, in the back of her mind, that she sounded hysterical. She was also aware that she couldn't bring herself to give a damn. "For what?! This?! So you left your sister to rot in some godforsaken hellhole, and you didn't even have the fucking decency to inform me the hell was fucking descending?!"

"Sophia –,"

"Agent Hill, now is not the time." Fury rubbed a finger between his eye and his eye-patch like he was developing a migraine on the spot. He'd made it no secret that he hated dramas. If Sophia were to guess, he was only humoring them right now because Maria looked genuinely hurt. And angry. "We have a Code 9 situation and if you cannot put your petty drama behind you –,"

For ten seconds and then twenty, she considered pretending that it was her sister he was chastising. But no, Fury never had even raised his voice at Maria. Then she conceded with a sigh, stalking towards one of the empty computers. "Fine! Fine. We'll discuss this later. Tell me what to do."

"For now," Both the sisters followed Fury's eye patched gaze towards the deck, where Hulk had just deposited Widow. "You can help her."

Sophia froze, and reconsidered the sentence. Hulk had gently deposited the Widow onto the deck and then leaped off the bridge like they did this all the time. Which they probably did. Not that Sophia would know. But…

"Hulk doesn't… attack everything in sight anymore?" She asked finally, bewildered, recalling a certain heli-carrier and a certain God of Mischief and the definite pandemonium that had resulted.

Maria promptly smirked, tapping manicured nails against her tab. "Nuh-uh. We have him all under control now."

To which another agent (she thought his name was Barry) yelled: "Yeah, tell her about the time Stark had to go Veronica on his ass!"

Her sister's smug smile automatically dropped as she turned to face the window, all seriousness back. "Didn't Director Fury give you a job, Sophia?"

Sophia rolled her eyes, trudging towards the door. Whether she admitted it or not, it felt good to be back.

{X}

{X}

To be fair, Sophia and the Widow didn't know each other. Oh, sure, she knew her name was Natasha, and the Widow probably (hopefully) knew Sophia existed, but aside from that, there was nothing linking the two women. Which is why at the sight of her injured leg, Sophia blurted out: "Do you even need help? I mean, Fury, I mean, sir –," she jerked her heads towards the Control Room "– sent me out here to help, but ah –,"

By then, Widow had already somehow hobbled to her feet and thrown an arm around Sophia's shoulders. Her mouth snapped shut."Right. That answers my question."

One of Natasha's very red eyebrows rose. "I've seen you before."

"I'm… Agent Hill. The younger Agent Hill." Sophia added when the Widow's intense gaze didn't waver. At that, some spark of recognition flared.

By then, they'd reached the door and Sophia pulled it open, allowing the older woman to enter first. At the sight of Fury, some sort of inner strength seemed to seep through the Widow and she straightened. "I need a free computer." She demanded, some sort of urgency in her voice. "With access to the comm. system."

Fury nodded, and as Maria led her away, Sophia couldn't help but remember, once more, the way Hulk had put her down so gently on the deck.

Her suspicions were confirmed, when not a moment later, Natasha was whispering things to Banner across the room.

{X}

{X}

"Hey, you're the other Agent Hill, right?" A passing man buried under cups of Styrofoam asked later, once Sophia had settled down on the coach and the crisis was mostly over. Too tired to lift her head from the table, she grunted.

"I'm taking that as a yes, alright? Fury wants to see you in his office." When she didn't move, he poked the side of her shoulder experimentally. "Look kid, he's kind of in a hurry, and I'll even give you one of these cups – hey!"

By then, she'd already snagged the coffee and stumbled out of the room, rubbing her eyes. Behind her, he yelled directions and she wanted to tell him that she already knew the damn way – she was here last time – but conceded in favor of saving strength.

She was also pretty sure she never wanted to see another civilian for as long as she lived.

There was some kind of commotion up front, and she took a deep swig of the coffee, closing her eyes and praying to God for some peace.

And then she crashed against some metal.

Only, when she opened her eyes, it wasn't just some metal – it was Captain America's Shield, and she stared in awe at the coffee sliding off of it. Which was pretty much around the time she realized her ass was on the floor and that the man himself was …looking down at her with a furrow between his brows? He opened his mouth – possibly to apologize, Sophia guessed, since he was Captain America, the nicest guy all around – when a hand went clap against his shoulder and the booming voice of Thor rang in the room.

"We must not delay! Howard's son awaits us in the Main Room." With that, Thor – yep, Norse God Thor – literally pushed the Cap forward, and with an indecipherable glance back, the Cap strode away.

Sophia sat on the floor for a long, long moment until –

"Hill! Get your ass into my office right now!"

{X}

{X}

Maria crossed her arms and glared. "Your job was to stay undercover and observe!"

"Don't fucking feed me that bullshit! SHIELD was disbanded and you wanted your little sister far away –,"

"I just wanted to keep you safe!" Maria almost screamed, and Sophia's eyes widened. Maria seemed just as stunned when she realized she had actually raised her voice – hell, even Fury looked a little shocked. Well, his eyepatch twitched. That had to count.

It was an admirable sentiment, really, wanting to keep her safe. And Sophia could understand. She didn't want to, but she could, and once that thought flitted through her mind, all thoughts of fighting back disappeared. Maria probably sensed the defeat in her, because she breathed deeply before continuing. "After Mum and Dad… I promised them, okay, Soph?"

After Mum and Dad had died is probably what she wanted to say, but Sophia knew her sister almost as well as she knew herself, and thus, she knew Maria still couldn't face the reality of their death. Also, she had an inkling perhaps it was for the best.

But still. "You could've called me back… Once everything was safe." But it wasn't, and Sophia probably knew that as well as anyone else. After HYDRA, the collapsing of SHIELD, after everything, Maria had seen fit to send her sister to some corner of the world and that wasn't without reason.

Maria sighed. "I know, okay? I know. I just… Everything started piling up –,"

"I saw you. On TV sometimes," Sophia said, turning away to hide her face because she couldn't stand seeing her sister's intense blue eyes waver like this, "Behind Stark. And I just… I was scared. Was I supposed to spend the rest of my life in that hellhole, or would you pull me out?" Suddenly, she froze, as a very worrying thought entered her mind. "And if this didn't happen, would you have?"

"Yes," Maria nodded firmly, sounding as sincere as she could ever be. "Yes, of course I would have…!"

No, she wouldn't, and they both knew it. But it was okay. It was okay because… if the roles were reversed, Sophia wouldn't have called her back either.

{X}

{X}

"This isn't SHIELD," Fury told her later, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Our main function – our only function is to help the Avengers. We aren't doing any covert operations anymore – well, at least not ones that tie in with them. We're only helping them."

"So… my job?"

"Your job, and your sister's, is to help assimilate the new Avengers."

… Her puckered forehead probably said a lot, because Fury started glowering.

"I'm not going to hold your motherfucking hand and teach you the ropes again, Hill. Now get the fuck out of my office!"

She could've argued, but the tables were already set and the pieces were in motion. So instead, Sophia walked out of the office, wondering what the hell he meant by New Avengers.

{X}

{X}

A/N: Review me, maybe?

So I get motivated and churn out another chapter just as fast? *smiles widely*