"What do you mean you gave Agent May a file on an active case?" Director Fury yelled at one of the computer specialists. "You idiot. She's flagged for medical leave. Not to mention she's not allowed to go on a mission until she has undergone a complete psychological exam."
"What Director Fury is trying to say is; What mission file did you give Agent May?" Maria Hill asked the quaking computer specialist.
"I gave her the case file for Project Enlightenment. She's marked as a Danger Level 12 I figured she could handle a 13 fairly well," The computer specialist said. If he had looked nervous when Director Fury had been yelling at him it was nothing compared to the look on his face when Commander Hill began to scream at him about how the Danger Levels are there for a reason and how he could have cost an agent her life.
"We need to call in the Hawk and Widow," Hill told Fury as the two of them stood in the now empty office. "They're the only ones who might be able to even get into the facility."
"I agree," Director Fury sighed. One of his best agents might have just gotten herself into deep trouble. He had no clue how he was supposed to help her.
"Sir, I'm going to speak with Dr. Garner about what might have prompted May to leave on a mission," Commander Hill told her boss.
Ten minutes later, Maria Hill was halfway across the SHIELD base, standing in the psychology wing of the medical facility. She stood, her arms crossed waiting for her best friend's husband to arrive.
"Commander Hill?" Andrew asked as he walked out of a patient room. "I was told there was a scary SHIELD lady who needed to talk with me. Am I to assume you are the scary SHIELD lady?"
"Yeah, actually, I kind of like that. But, I'm actually here on business," Maria began to speak to the shrink. "May, she took a mission this morning. She left on one of the Quinjets. It's possible we won't be able to extract her from the mission. I just wanted to know what you said that made her want to punch someone in the face."
"May went on a mission?" Andrew asked, his face paling significantly. "Why would she do that? Oh my God, we got into an argument last night. I slept on the couch."
"You mean you didn't notice at all when you woke up this morning and your wife was gone?" Maria asked him, she was growing frustrated with the shrink.
"I noticed, but when she grabbed her bag last night, I just assumed she was leaving to sleep at a hotel or something. I didn't think she even wanted to go on a mission," Andrew argued. Sounding like he was trying to convince himself more that Hill.
"Well, she did. And it's a dangerous mission. So, you better pray to God she's alright because if she's not alright I'm going to destroy you," Maria threatened as she walked out of the hospital towards her jeep.
I navigated the plane through the air nearing the compound I was supposed to infiltrate. As I neared the compound, I found myself staring at the gun I had brought with me. I didn't want to use the gun. Guns made fights unfair. A fight should only be determined by the moves and capabilities of two people. Not how well they can aim a piece of metal and pull a trigger. Not to mention, lately even just picking up a gun made me see images of Katya flash through my head. There was no way to avoid these horrible memories.
I needed to do something, to hit something. I checked the projected ETA, thirty seconds. Quickly, I grabbed a parachute and opened the quinjet's back. As soon as my timer hit zero, I had pressed the hover button so the quinjet would stay in place until I signaled for it. Taking three steps I launched myself into the air and out of the plane. I angled my body so I was headed directly for the roof of the facility. When I reached the appropriate height, I pulled my chute and felt the familiar tug as it opened and caught air.
Continuing my decent towards the roof I began to scan for an access point. I saw a vent lid, I was in luck. I landed and began to make my way to the vent opening. Once inside the vent, I was able to crawl fairly well. The vent wasn't large, but I've always been a somewhat small person so I was fine. As I made my way silently through the ventilation system I heard voices coming one of the grates. Moving to see who it was, I smelled the scent of tobacco and booze. While my Russian pronunciation was somewhat limited, I could understand and follow the conversation of the men. There were three of them, from what I heard they were security guards. Apparently, not very good guards if they were smoking and drinking on the job. Someone really needed to work on their employee decisions, but their doped state was only to my benefit, so I wasn't about to leave a note.
Quickly, so the guards would have little time to react I shoved open the gate and slid into the room. The guards were startled and reached for their guns. But in their drunken state I was five steps ahead of them. I had two knocked out and on the ground before the third one had even removed the safety. I went to kick the third one in the head and that was when it all started. Suddenly, I wasn't in a Russian stronghold, I was in Bahrain. I was fighting the militia members trying to solve the problem. I knocked the man out and the sat down on the ground, my head in my hands. I couldn't do this. Why did I think I could? Did I really think that knocking out some Russians and taking down one terrorist cell would make up for killing a child? I had red in my ledger, I needed to find some way to wipe it out.
While images of the Bahraini thugs danced behind my eyes, I used the guards shoe laces to tie all of their ands together. After I had tied them and gagged them I disabled the security cameras and alarms using the key cards the guards had on them. Then, I made my way out of the security room and into the major part of the stronghold.
" Agent Romanoff, you and Agent Barton are needed back at base," Director Fury informed the red-headed, Russian assassin over the phone.
"Sir, all due respect but Clint and I are in the middle of a mission. It's not like we can just leave," She replied, Fury could tell she was in the middle of a fight. Her voice breathy and spacing random. Not to mention he could hear what sounded like bones cracking.
"Agent Romanoff, this isn't a request. This is an order we need the two of you immediately," Fury demanded, he knew that if May was as messed up as Coulson and Hill had told him she wasn't going to even worse after this mission.
"Negative sir, we haven't neutralized the situation yet we can't leave yet."
"Natasha, May needs your help," Fury said, trying to convey with his tone of voice how much May needed her two friends.
"We'll be there in thirty minutes," Romanoff's voice said over the phone before the line went dead. Fury breathed a sigh of relief, May would have back up soon. He hoped she didn't need it too badly.
I left the security center and began to make my way towards the server room. All I had to do was get to the server room, destroy every inch of intel they had then get out. It was a simple mission. I would probably guess it was around a Danger Level 8. There didn't seem to be any guards other than the ones I had knocked out.
I made my way down the hallway, sticking to the walls as I approached the server room. I was ten feet from the door when I saw the man turn the corner. He was dressed in a suit, but since it was Russia I was willing to bet he had a gun on him somewhere. My theory was proved right when he pulled a gun from the back of his pants.
Yelling in Russian he told me to put my hands about my head and face the wall. I had a split second to decide what to do, I decided to take the man out.
"I'm sorry, I don't speak Russian. I'm from America," I began to speak talking loud and slow like any idiotic tourist would do. I walked towards the man pretending to be confused. "I was just looking for my bathroom. Well, actually the real reason I'm here is for the heating. But don't tell my husband, he's always telling me to pack for the extremes."
Once I got close enough to the man I grabbed his head and smashed it into my knee. His gun went off, shooting into the ceiling as I knocked him out.
"Shit," I cursed, picking up the gun. Visions of Bahraini thugs played behind my eyes but I pushed those aside, I needed to focus if I was going to get out of here. I released the safety on the gun and got ready to fire when the other men arrived. I knew they had to have heard the gunshot. I readied myself. I heard footsteps, from what I could hear it sounded like there were four men, possibly five. I was shocked when nearly twenty men rounded the corner.
Sighing, I fired one shot. For my one shot, one man fell. But I didn't see a man falling, I saw Katya. I saw her small eyes widen and one of her hands drift to her chest. I dropped the gun screaming. I shut my eyes, tight, trying to get the images of Katya out of my head. I needed to stop seeing her. I didn't need the reminder I was a monster, Andrew had confirmed for me that I was a monster.
The men were rushing towards me. I felt one grab my arms, without thinking I curled up so I was sitting on his shoulders. I twisted, snapping his neck. In a daze, I moved amongst the men. I couldn't stop my body. It was moving without me wanting it to. All I could see was the Bahraini compound, Katya, and her followers. I screamed as I watched the little girl fall, bleeding to the ground.
Some time later I realized I wasn't moving anymore, I was curled in the fetal position my head between my knees. I sat up and opened my eyes. As I opened my eyes I screamed, I was surrounded by the broken, mangled bodies of the twenty men who had attacked me. I didn't check, but I could tell that they were all dead. I had done this, I hadn't wanted to, I didn't mean to but I had killed each one of them. I started to cry, I heard footsteps getting closer to me but I didn't even try to stand up.
I heard yelling in Russian, but I didn't even try to translate. I felt my arms be tied behind my back and my legs be tied together. I was then dragged through the building to another room. In that room my hands were strung above my head. I didn't care, I deserved whatever they were going to do to me. After what I did, I deserved it all.