Maria knows that Natasha is well in place by the time the brunette reaches the vents on her own floor. The radio chatter is comforting in her ear, but it does nothing to alleviate the roiling dread in her gut. She hopes that's she's being cautious, and she tries to push out her own memories of the last time she had this feeling of dread. It was just before SHIELD went under, and really, nothing like that is going to happen here. She doesn't have precognition, SHIELD would have picked up on that ages ago. It's her instincts, and they're going wild. She pauses to take a deep breath before moving further into the ventilation shaft. She has a job to do, and she knows her team and everyone involved can handle themselves. After she is finished collecting herself she starts to scoot along the vents, ears open and periodically peering through the grates underneath her. Maria herself is on the thirty-eighth floor, with the intent to work downward. Simple reconnaissance, make sure the floor is clear. She spots one guard by the time she's halfway through the circuit. Another one before she reaches the elevator shaft. Not much, she can take both of those out. She picks an empty hallway and drops down, falling silently from the ceiling. She pulls out her firearm, and holds it in the ready position, snaking along the hallways until she finds bother guards. She dispatches the first one without a fight, choosing a knife over her gun. He goes down with a gurgle, the knife lodged in his throat. Not her usual modem operandi, but Natasha had taught her some tricks. She's nearly to the second guard when her ear piece once more crackles to life, and Natasha's voice comes over it.
"Found the leader, he's on the phone with someone. Heading for the stairwell, I'm going to follow." Her voice rings through clear and suddenly Maria's stomach just drops. That feeling of dread increases tenfold, but she has a job to do. There's no danger. Not yet.
"Be careful, Widow." Coulson's voice rings over, and Maria wants to grin. Like Natasha needs that kind of warning, but her fiance radios back an affirmative. Maria moves on, stalking the second guard. She'll head towards Natasha once she's cleared this floor. This one puts up a bit of a fight, but Maria's already noticed the lack of ear pieces in these people. They have actual radios, and Maria absently wonders who even still uses those. She starts working towards the stairwell when Natasha's voice comes over their link again.
"He's heading up, only way up from here is the roof. No guards in the stairwells, this is getting suspicious." Natasha's quiet voice filters through, and Maria just knows she needs to follow her fiance. She takes the careful way towards the stairwell, watching corners, in case she missed any guards. Maria reaches the stairwell and peaks inside, making sure her way is clear. It is, so she heads up. Three floors and the entire way she moves slow, cautious.
"He's gone … just vanished? I can't see him up here." Natasha's voice filters over as Maria reaches the door. She can partially hear Natasha's voice from beyond the cracked door. Carefully Maria opens the door, and spots Natasha. And then she spots the man, with a gun raised. Before she can raise her own gun or shout at Natasha, the man fires. And her world shatters. She watches the force of the bullet slam into the right side of Natasha's head, and her body is thrown to the ground. The man obviously doesn't know Maria is there, and she can't move. She stands there, frozen, staring at the rapidly growing puddle of blood around Natasha's body. Engaged for less than a day, and she's already lost Natasha. Everything goes numb, her mind, her body. She can't feel anything, and she has one thing she absolutely needs to do. She slips out of the door and picks up one of Natasha's guns, lying next to her fiance's body. Dead, Natasha is dead and this man killed her. Rules no longer matter, and morals have completely gone out the window. Maria will make this man pay, despite not even knowing his name. He's walking away from her, towards the edge, and she fires Natasha's gun, hitting the back of the man's knee-cap. He turns in surprise before he falls down, and Maria can feel the beginning of a wicked smile tug at the corners of her mouth. The man raises his hands and smirks at her.
"I surrender." He says, calm and cool like Maria hadn't just blown his left knee with a bullet. Maria stares at him. "Take me to SHIELD, take me into custody." He wants that, she sees that so clearly. He's not going to get what he wants. She raises Natasha's gun, she hadn't realized she had lowered it.
"No." She says, clearly and loudly. Coulson is in her ear, demanding to know what is going on. Demanding to know why Natasha's device is offline. Demanding answers. Maria doesn't have it in her to explain, not at that moment. And Coulson would stop her from doing what she needs to do.
"What?" The man is clearly puzzled, and she can see the edges of fear creeping into his expression. Good, he should be afraid. Because the one thing Maria loves … loved. Is dead. Her corpse is laying mere feet from where she and the man are, lying in a pool of blood. This man doesn't deserve to live, he doesn't deserve to walk away alive when Natasha is dead. She fires the gun into the man's gut and now fear is plain on his face.
"That's what you do, isn't it? Take me in!" He gets a little frantic and Maria smiles a bit more. She empties another round into his gut. She knows she can't draw this out like she wants to, Coulson is ordering a team to her location.
"You killed her. You don't deserve mercy." Later, she'll be surprised that those words came out of her mouth. Now, however, they're right. They're what she needs to say. She can hear the other agents over her ear piece, now. It's time for her to end it. She empties two more rounds into his chest, and he falls backwards, staring at her with open fear. And that's when she fires, point blank, and hits him right between his eyes. He's dead. Like Natasha. Maria tucks the gun into her belt and turns. It's the first time she really looks at Natasha since she fell. There's a large puddle of blood surrounding her, and she's sprawled out. Maria swears she can feel her heart fracturing in two, even as she takes hesitant steps towards Natasha. Natasha is lying on her left side, so Maria can see the damage. Thankfully, there's too much blood everywhere for her to see much past that. She falls to her knees beside her lover and gathers the still form into her arms. Maria's throat is tight; it's hard for her to believe this is actually happening. Maria Hill doesn't cry, and she certainly doesn't cry where other people could see her. And in that moment it's taking all of her willpower to not break down into sobs. Her breathing hitches as she tries to prevent herself from crying.
Natasha's chest is pressed against her, and she feels a shift. But that's not right. Maria stills as she feels the shift again, and she looks down. Natasha is breathing, she's not dead. Her breathing is ragged and strained and barely there but she's breathing. Natasha is not dead. And the world suddenly seems to focus again. Careful of Natasha's head, she adjusts the other woman. There's a chance, it's probably slim, but there's a chance.
"I need medics. Now!" She nearly screams it into her ear piece. Her voice is shaky and panicked, but Natasha is alive. She's alive.
