Ten months, one day before incident
Location: Earth, U.S.A, Midtown: Manhattan, Stark tower floor zero
Subjects involved: Renard, Isaac Greene, Loki, Anthony Stark, Melinda May- Assorted Shield personnel
A few weeks later, Renard awoke with ringing ears and the taste of gun metal in her mouth.
Falling out of bed, blankets tangled around her feet, she pulled on the pants of her uniform and ran to the phone.
She realized she didn't know the number for the front desk, or any of the other guards, or Greene, and wanted to bang her head into the wall
No socializing outside of work- no exchange of information.
She didn't have time to find out if shield agents were in the phone book.
Not bothering to zip the jacket of her uniform, she pulled it on and sprinted for the door, leaving it ajar in her wake.
Stark's building was only about two blocks away from her apartment- she was meant to be able to get there under any circumstance- but she wasn't waiting for a cab.
Breaking into a dead sprint, she made it there breathless and disheveled
"You aren't supposed to be here," Nina's day time equivalent informed her with surprise.
"Am I the only one?"
The guard looked confused, but shook her head.
"No. The day guard couldn't make his shift, so Agent Greene-"
"Cover me."
"What?"
"I'm going downstairs. Send a team in after me."
She wasn't surprised to see the guard at the end of the elevator knocked unconscious, weapon missing, temple bloody. His pulse was fine beneath her fingers- she was more worried that Greene was now armed, and totally alone with Loki.
She was the only other guard on staff, and she wasn't supposed to be there.
Stark said it would take a break out scenario to relieve Greene of his command.
This probably qualifies, she thought, sprinting through the maze only to stop abruptly at the end.
Hidden in the shadow to the entrance, she could hear easily the harsh words being exchanged inside.
It was the first time she heard Loki speak.
"I'm afraid that won't work."
His voice was condescending and... unexpectedly British.
"Shut up."
And that was Greene.
She crouched low to the ground, leaning forward peek around the corner. With one hand, Greene typed on the keypad with shaking fingers.
His other hand clutched the stolen gun.
He doesn't have the passcode, she realized, almost tasting his frustration in the air. Okay then- I don't have to get involved. I can wait it out until backup gets here.
"If I couldn't decipher it," Loki scowled. "I sincerely doubt that you'll be able to."
"Shut up." Greene snarled back.
Renard swallowed, moving in as close as she could without leaving the camouflage of the shadows
Loki opened his mouth to unleash more biting mockery, but Greene- having had enough of that- cut him off. Raising the pilfered gun, he fired several rounds into the glass between them. The labyrinth's acoustics amplified the shots, and they all covered their pained, ringing ears. None of the bullets broke through, instead catching midway through. The action was just intimidating enough to shut Loki up, and to spur Renard on.
There was no waiting out a man with a gun and a death wish.
He'd only shoot at the reinforcements when they came.
She stepped forward- because Greene was still occupied with the passcode, it was Loki to notice her first.
He frowned, eyes bouncing between the two of them, torn between hoping he'd been saved and hoping the situation could be turned in his favor.
"It's bad luck to shoot a gun inside, you know." Greene spun to face her, startled. "Or maybe that's opening an umbrella. Either way it's havoc."
Greene bounced back quickly, leveling the weapon at her without preamble.
"Agent Greene," she sighed, trying to appear nonchalant. "Put your weapon down now."
Her own gun was in its holster at her hip, but drawing it would only get her shot.
Greene swallowed thickly, eyes watery and face as grey as concrete.
He didn't put his weapon down. Slowly, he moved his finger to rest against the trigger.
"Greene!"
"Renard," He spat back at her. "Lose the holster."
"It's attached to my belt."
"Then lose the belt."
She glared at him but did as he said, unbuckling it and letting it hit the floor, gun and all.
He stepped away from the wall and closer to her with a murderous look on his face.
"Back ups already been called, Agent Greene. I'm only here as a favor to you."
He laughed.
"Unless you can open that door, I don't need any favors."
That's something, she thought, but said-
"I'm here to talk you down. You haven't done anything worthy of a discharge yet, but keep going and you will."
"You think I care about being discharged? I'm ten seconds away from filling you with holes."
"And why is that, may I ask?"
He studied her quietly for a minute.
Then snarled.
"You people thought caging him was enough. All you've done is given him a cushy place to hide out. He should've been lynched in the streets and bled out in a gutter."
"Is that how Abby died?"
His face drained what little color it had had, and he stepped forward to backhand her.
(Renard had definitely taken worse hits in her life. Her lip was barely bleeding, and there was something perversely comical about the way he had to reach up to slap her. Being six seven occasionally had its advantages.)
"Ouch," she replied blandly, pressing her fingers to her lip. "So is that a yes or a no?"
"None of your business."
"Tell me anyway.
"I will shoot you," he reminded her
"And what will that accomplish? You won't get the code if you do. Loki won't pay for anything and you'll end up in the pen for killing the wrong person."
"You can get me the code?"
"Maybe, if you answer the question."
"...yes," he replied grimly. "Her dad and mom tried to leave the city. They got caught. One of those damn lizards stabbed her through the the throat."
Renard hummed a sound of sympathy.
"Lots of people died that day."
"Yeah?" He ground out, a tear escaping as he pressed the barrel of his gun to her forehead. "Well, she was one too many. What's the passcode?"
Renard studied him for a minute- there was something deeply unsettling in those watery blue eyes of his- and shook her head.
"No."
"No?"
He swung his arm up and brought the butt of the gun down on her head. This time, the hit was enough to send Renard crashing down. Greene dropped to his knees beside her and brought the barrel to her mouth. It took a second for her vision to clear, and another for her breath to return to her. She could taste the hot metal of the gun in the air.
"I wonder," she managed to grind out, "what Abby would think of that."
She glared at him, blood running down the side of her head and under the leg of her glasses
His jaw trembled, tears overflowing, hand beginning to shake.
This was the point of no return for him.
"Don't do this."
He shook his head, shutting his eyes and running a hand over his face. Tears traced the wrinkled lines of his cheeks.
"She was six," he whispered, pathetic in a way that only sad old men can be. "I have to do this."
"Killing us won't bring her back," Renard informed him, emphasizing the 'us' to stress the fact that it wasn't Loki he was pointing a gun at.
"Don't you dare use her to manipulate me. Get up."
She got up, allowing herself to be shoved at the keypad and shutting her wasn't a lot of time- if she took too long typing, he might get trigger happy again. So, concentrating, she tried to divine the numbers.
They came to her on the back of a shiver, and- typing quickly- she heard the mechanisms of the door unlock.
There was the sound of air depressurizing, and Greene pulled it open with a grunt of exertion
"Get in," he snapped
"You can't expect me to just walk to my death."
"I'm not asking, Renard. Just get in."
He wiped the tears off his face and shut the door behind them.
"There is no key for this door." She told him, nodding to the entrance to Loki's cell.
"I know." He moved forward, eyes locked on the slot Loki's food came through. "I don't need one."
(Loki himself had backed into the furthest corner of the cell.)
"Greene," Renard pleaded sadly.
He turned wet, faded blue eyes on her, hesitating for a second.
She planted her fist in his face with tremendous force, and he fell back and down like a bag of bricks. There was a mad scramble for the gun he had dropped. Dazed from the sudden blow, Greene still fought tooth and nail. Despite the fact that Renard was taller and stronger than he was, that counted for something.
"Get off me," he grunted as she kneed him in the kidneys and reached over him for the gun.
He managed to knock her off balance as she did so, snagging the gun and turning back on her with it.
"I would have let you live," he warbled, cocking the gun.
"You're still going to," she told him, voice sad. "As a matter of fact, you're going to let both of us live."
His eye twitched.
"Because you've changed your mind. You don't want to kill anyone.
His tears gushed, soaking his soft, papery skin. Renard drew herself up and loomed over him like a harpy, a reaper ready to make him pay for his sins.
No sympathy, full of accusation.
"I..."
"Was consumed with anger," Renard finished for him, nodding as if in agreement. "I barely knew what I was doing- I didn't plan it, but the opportunity arose and for a second, I was weak. The night guard came in and we struggled, but she talked me down. I think it's best I resign."
His hand wobbled, pupils dilating, gun beginning to dip.
"I never meant to hurt anyone," she told him.
Greene dropped his gun.
"Kick it to me."
He did, and Renard quickly gathered it, pulling the strap over her shoulder. It was at this point that the SHEILD agent at the desk finally came through- a slew of unfamiliar agents poured in, armed to the teeth and ready to fight.
Just when the real work is done, she though angrily, rounding on Greene and hauling him to his feet.
"Move," she snarled, pushing him again. "You have someone to talk to."
(The reinforcements looked confused, even as they restrained him. She realized they must've thought the threat was Loki, and wanted to punch every single one of them in the face. Intimately.)
The elevator ride was lengthy and awkward, as was the meeting with Stark (who was accompanied by an unfamiliar S.H.E.I.L.D agent named May).
"I need to talk to someone," Greene told them, dazed. "I never meant to hurt anyone. I... was consumed with anger. I barely knew what I was doing- I didn't plan it, but the opportunity arose and for a second, I was weak."
"Weak?" Agent May demanded. "You could have set him lose!"
"The night guard came in and we struggled, but she talked me down. I think it's best I resign."
"You'll be lucky if you get too."
Renard was given medical attention and her next shift off.
There was a delicate moment during which it was decided that Ian would take over for her, leaving Nina to guard the elevator, and one of the day guards to man the desk.
Renard shook her head and left.
(She wondered how long it would take for Stark of Fury or whoever was running this freak-show post-hydra to replace him. She bet awhile.)
The trip back to her apartment was a half-remembered blur, and her sleep was a fitful thing.
She stared up at the ceiling and tried not to think about how much damage one man could do, about Greene, and how much he must have missed that little grandchild. She tried not to think of Abby and her parents, and wondered where they were now.