We make our way S.H.I.E.L.D. and begin to unload everything, I make my way off of the ship, and I walk towards Fury's office with Steve by my side. I enter my thumbprint and place my eye on the scanner, the door slides open, and we walk in stride towards Fury.
"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" Steve demands while not breaking his path to Fury's desk. I, however, stop right next to the door and wait as the conversation ensues.
Fury doesn't even flinch as he gets interrogated, staring out the window, "I didn't lie. Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours."
"Which you didn't feel obliged to share." Steve comes to a halt, staring intensely at the bald man.
Without missing a beat, "I'm not obliged to do anything." I suck in a deep breath while keeping silent, waiting to see how this all turned out.
"Those hostages could have died, Nick."
"I sent the greatest soldier in history to make sure that didn't happen." Finally, spinning in his chair to face said soldier.
"Soldiers trust each other. That is what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around shooting guns." I can feel the anger radiating off of Steve from where I stood.
Nick finally had enough, pushing off of his desk into a standing position, "Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye." There is a tense moment as both men stare each other down, "Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with, Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything. I could have told Agent Volkov to do the mission on her own; it would have been that much simpler. But I didn't, I told her to follow the orders you gave her without fault."
"I can't lead a mission when the people I am leading have a mission of their own." Steve spits through his teeth while the muscle in his jaw ticks. "And as for Nikolina, she is the only one I can trust around here."
I roll my eyes to the ceiling and start counting down from 3 in Russian to ease my boredom, "It is called compartmentalization. Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all."
And one, right on cue, "Except you." A bemused look is on Steve's face as Fury finally relents, "You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that." Fury points to the door, "Agent Volkov, you are dismissed. Head home." I see a look in his eye that something isn't right, I nod my head understandingly before casting a glance at Steve. He gives me the smallest nod, I twirl on my foot and walk out of the door.
I change into some clothes before grabbing the helmet that I keep in my locker and head to the parking garage where I see my baby waiting for me. I throw my legs over the seat and feel the bike rumble to life underneath me, the tires squeal as I make my way out of the garage and onto the bridge. I drive back to my house and go to my bedroom. I walk up to the bed and push one of the headboard cushions. I hear a hum before my whole bed moves away from the wall, and I see a set of stairs leading down to a giant metal door. The bed moves back into position, and I am enveloped in darkness; a thumb scanner is the only light that I can see. I place my thumb on the green light, and two more sets of security measures appear in the door. An eye scanner, I put my eye on it, and I hear a sound of confirmation, a keypad lights up, and I press in all the correct digits. Finally, a doorknob shoots out of the door, and I turn it to the right and then the left.
A dark tunnel greets me, I sigh deeply and begin the walk down, with each step that I take I can hear it echo all around me. At the end of the tunnel, I turn left and open another door and see my computer set up in the middle of the room, along with the right side of the wall I have a surveillance system set up, and on the left, I see my hologram workspace. I flop into my chair, my hands hover over the board, and it soon all comes to life. The keyboard appears under my finger while reports pop up all around me, as well as templates I created. I place my phone on a specific spot, and it syncs to the computers, I can pull up and go through all of my phone's previous locations. I made sure to have my phone on me when I went on the mission; it almost immediately runs a decryption process and downloads any files that it can access. I have down here for hours, and I hear a loud beep come from my phone, and I peer over.
I immediately fly out of my chair and sprint up the stairs. My heels are slamming heavily against the floor beneath me, I run over to my motorcycle and kick it to life before I am fully on it. A trail of smoke appears behind my tires due to how fast I am pushing my bike. I arrive at the same time as Natasha; we make eye contact with each other before rushing through the front doors of the hospital. I slam the door open to the observation room, and I see Maria and Steve staring straight ahead, Natasha pushes forward and places herself in front of the glass while I take slow, tentative steps to the space between her and Steve.
My eyes are taking in the man I saw as a father figure, laying unconsciousness on a table while people worked around him trying to save his life. "Is he gonna make it?" My voice is barely registering as my eyes are glued to Fury's still form.
"We don't know." I keep my face blank, but I feel my heart wrench in my chest when I hear that.
Shakily, "Tell me about the shooter." Natasha orders, her hand inching down to mine and crushing it with her death grip.
He's fast and robust. He had a metal arm." I am immediately ambushed by my thoughts from my timeK.G.B., the KGB, and my training they put me through.
"Ballistics?" I swallow slowly as my eyes stay trained on the surgery before me. "Three slugs. No rifling and completely untraceable," Maria answers me softly.
My face hardens all the way, "Soviet-made." Voice void of any emotion as I run through all my encounters. "Yes," Maria confirms my thoughts while looking at me in shock.
My eyes shoot over to the monitor as I watch the numbers drop significantly; everyone in that room jumps into action. They pull out a defibrillator and place it on his chest and shocks him three times. "Don't do this to us, Nick." Natasha whimpers lightly. After the three shocks, I can see the doctor's give up. "Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to us." Natasha pleads through the glass.
I feel myself go numb; all of my surroundings were slowly being tuned out. The only thing that registered to me is, "Time of death, 1:03 A.M."
The pressure on my hand disappeared altogether, and I am vaguely aware of Natasha fleeing the room. I swallow thickly and stare at the motionless body of Fury, I feel a secure arm wrap around my shoulders, and the other lightly grabs my right arm. I am pulled into a warm, hard body, and I gaze up to see Steve looking at me with concern lining his crystal blue eyes, I look back at Fury's body one more time before shoving my body off of Steve and following Natasha. Steve's hand slowly trails down my arm, and to my fingertips, as I walk away, electric shocks jolt throughout my body, but I ignore them.
I make my way down a hall, and to the room where I saw them roll Fury's body into, I stride in and see Natasha looming over the corpse of Fury. My feet shuffle across the hospital floor to Natasha's left side, and my hands clasped so tightly together that I almost lose all the feeling in them. Every memory I have ever had with this man is flashing through my brain, him offering me a job, my first mission, assigning the teams, Clint and Natasha, all of it. I am so caught up in my thoughts of this man that I didn't notice Steve approaching us.
"They need to take him." His voice gravely quiet, my hands shakily move toward the corpse and rest ever so gently on his arm.
I spin around on my heel without looking back, "Nikki! Natasha. Wait!" I hear Steve call after us; I stop mid-step but don't turn around; however, my fellow Russian does.
"Why was Fury in your apartment?" My voice a hush while keeping my eyes trained on the door, sadness evident in my posture as much as I let it.
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Steve gazing hard at me before shrugging, "I don't know." A helpless look on his face, pleading with me to believe him. I move to open my mouth, but Rumlow interrupts me before I even have the chance. "Cap, they want you S.H.I.E.L.D.I.E.L.D." Rumlow's eyes make contact with mine, and I can see something sinister hidden deep within them.
"Alright, give us a second." Steve dismisses the leader of the STRIKE team leader before turning back to Tasha, my eyes never straying from the Strike leader in front of me. "They want you now." Rumlow insists with an insulting tone; I quirk my eyebrow in response, daring him to say anything more. He clears his throat quickly before ducking his head and turning away. Natasha smirks at him before taking off towards the door.
I speak darkly, "You are being summoned, Captain." I walk around the corner and watch as Steve places something in the vending machine. I shake my head in disbelief at his actions before turning my head and acting like I didn't see anything. Steve walks out of the hospital with the STRIKE team tailing him; once the hallway was empty, I made my way over to the vending machine and grabbed all the gum, and the now flash hidden drive.
I place a single stick of gum on the windowsill, pointing a certain way before popping a piece into my mouth; I stroll past the door and brush by Natasha as I blow a bubble. I make my way to my bike that is waiting for me; I push the speed limit to the max as I weave in and out of traffic, making my way to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. I ride my bike into the parking garage and leave it quietly running while I place an earwig in and make sure that it is set in tightly with no chance of moving. I maneuver my torso to reach into my bag, my hand flops open the top of my sack, and my fingers curl around a cold metal tube.
I slowly retract my hand and unwind myself from my position, "Alright. Let's get to business." I sigh heavily to myself as I pulled on the bottom where a minuscule tab was and pulled it towards my abdomen. My finger presses the side of the screen, and it lights up brightly, a keyboard appears at the bottom of the screen. The tips of my fingers are barely making contact for more than a second as they continue to work.
"Ah, ha!" I cheer to myself as my computer switches into a live video feed, my earwigs link up to my computer, and the audio begins ringing loud and clear in my ears. My eyes stay trained on the screen as I watch Steve passes by Sharon Carter without even sparing her a glance. "That's interesting," I mutter to myself, my finger swipes across the screen, changing the field view into Alexander Pierce's office. I intently listen while keeping my gaze on the door when I see two agents meandering around.
"Shit. It's a setup." I curse to myself before turning back to the video feed that has been tracking Steve's movements. The second my eyes reconnect to the screen; my eyebrows shoot up to my hairline in utter surprise; I see Steve fighting at least ten men. Rumlow being one of them, I never liked him, Steve ends up knocking Rumlow out and landing in a heap along with the other unconscious bodies.
My lip juts out in surprise, and I slowly nod my head up and down as I was deeply impressed by Steve's skill level. "Well, alright, then." I watch as my friend begins trying to find a way out of his predicament. "Holy shit!" I whisper-yell to myself as I see Steve jump out of the glass elevator and fly down all the way to make a large indent in the concrete, the glass comes raining down on top of the soldier, he groans in pain before stumbling to his feet and running towards the parking garage. I kick my bike to life and slide my helmet over my head while sticking to the shadows of the garage; Steve flies past me on his motorcycle without even seeing me. Place everything back in my bag and begin to count in my head...
One... Steve makes it to the bridge.
Two... Security measures are beginning to
Three... A Quinjet flies down and orders him to stand down.
Four... I rev the engine and watch the scene play out in front of me.
Five...S.H.I.E.L.D. begins to fire at Steve. I slide my visor over my eyes and lean forward.
Six... Steve throws his shield at the jet and brings his bike to a screeching halt.
Seven... the turbine begins to fail.
Eight... Steve's bike is destroyed, and the jet launches into the air.
Nine... The jet crashes to the ground, and Steve lands unharmed on the ground.
Ten... I take off on my bike.