"You guy's picked the wrong day to piss Fury off. What the hell are you all thinking just showing up out of the blue unannounced like this?" The two teams had arrived to meet with Fury, but Maria Hill had cut them off. She needed to run damage control since the base was a flurry of excitement and paranoia at receiving the SHIELD team as well as the Avengers. Before quieting the rumors to keep their arrival secret, she ushered them into a conference room and then disappeared for close to an hour to 'handle it,' as Tony put it ever so quaintly. When she finally came back, she did not look happy.

"So, what the hell is going on? Did you guys find her? You haven't checked in for a while," she asked as she calmed down and looked them all over suspiciously. Everyone was sort of huddled together and avoiding Hill's gaze as if making eye contact would betray some of the secrets they wanted to keep under wraps. When no one said anything, she rolled her eyes and sighed. "You're in over your heads, aren't you?"

"Bingo," Tony said, "but it will all go much faster when Fury gets here. There is too much to discuss for us to go over it twice."

Annoyed, she threw up her hands before scanning the large group of people. A few faces she wasn't too familiar with, but it was the one face that they were trying to hide that piqued her interest. Before she could say anything though, a quiet went over the room when Director Fury himself entered and took his place next to Hill. The silence became deafening as his one eye judged them all before he turned to Agent Hill and spoke.

"Hill, do you care to explain why you've cancelled all of my remaining meetings for the day and dragged me all the way to my least favorite conference room filled with SHIELD's top two elite teams?" He looked pissed, but he was also a little concerned. When no one answered, he sighed and dropped his shoulders, sympathizing with the obviously bedraggled group. "Let me guess, its complicated?" He then looks to Tony Stark to make some snide remark, but the seriousness in his gaze concerns him. "Okay then? How bad are we talking?"

The team still dodges the question, but Tony finally speaks up. "Fury, we need more than just a little manpower."

"More than a little manpower?" he asks, "how much are we talking?" It was then that another man entered the room and stood against the wall behind Fury, observing the team expertly.

Tony raised his eyebrow at the newcomer before electing to ignore him, and then answered Fury's question. He looked over his shoulder as if already claiming the group behind him and challenges, "how much more do you have?"

Before answering, Fury's curious gaze finally lands on Loki and he straightened up a little more. He looks back over to Agent Hill, who just shakes her head, telling him that she's in the dark just as much as he was. "How the hell did he get in here?" he asks her. Loki being here was a serious security concern and he couldn't believe that Hill would just let him waltz in here. Fury then looked at the now nervous newcomer behind him and gave him a 'what the hell' look, right before Hill cleared her throat nervously.

"I may have granted him clearance…on Holetz's behalf," she shoots back, "and Loki's obviously behaving himself. And besides, he's got May's team as well as the Avengers on his case if he tried anything." She then shoots Holetz, Fury's new Chief of Security, an apologetic glance.

"And what about her?" he shouted as his anger started to build at the sight of Darcy. "Are we just letting civilians in here along with evil gods?"

"I authorized it," Hill shot back as she scooted between Fury and Darcy to run even more damage control.

Saving her the trouble, Clint spoke up. "She's an agent now. Natasha was her Supervising Officer, and now I'm her S.O. until we get her back."

"When did I ever sign off on that? You of all people know good and well we don't take in strays until they have been thoroughly evaluated," he argued, hinting at the time when Clint had first brought Natasha into the ranks of SHIELD.

Getting tired of the banter, Agent Hill was shutting it down. "I signed off on it. God Nick, do you really think I haven't been involved with any of this since it started?"

The two teams all held their breath, waiting for Fury to go off at Hill's comment, but it only served to calm him down. There was a reason Hill was Fury's right-hand man and she wasn't afraid to put him in his place. Instead of arguing with her, he found Agent May towards the front of the group. He respected Agent May and her judgement just as much as he did Hill's. "And what is your role in all of this," he asked her, "I would have thought you played your part and moved on months ago."

"I did," she answered, crossing her arms and planting herself still in front of the group, "and then things got complicated."

"Can we please get on with it and skip all of the awkward banter?" Ksenia had finally had enough and pushed through the group who had pressed against her to keep her out of sight. They didn't want to expose her to Fury just yet until he calmed down more, but she had other plans. "I'm Ksenia Romanoff, though I'm sure you would have figured that out eventually, but my mother is out there being tortured and they are doing things in that base that could change the course of the world."

"My god!" Fury exclaimed as all tension from before seemed to melt away. "You look just like her. What the hell is going on here?" he asked as he looked from the red head to the rest of the group in wonder. "Take a seat, I feel like we are going to be here for a while."

"Well that went better than I thought," Tony was caught whispering to Agent May. She only gave him a stern look before uncrossing her arms and leading the group after Fury.

Everyone slowly moved to take a seat around the enormous table. There were a lot of deadly agents in the room as well as a few gods and scientists. The sheer power of the room would have been more than enough to make the most savage enemy tremble, and yet here they were asking for even more.

Fury's attention skipped over to Agent Bobbi Morse, whom everyone seemed to be keeping an eye out for, being guided by who he thought was Agent Lance Hunter. He watched as the groups subconsciously chose seats next to each other and members of each team wove between the groups. He found it odd, but it also told him that these teams had been seeing a lot of each other recently and there was a deeper story to be told. From his seat at the head of the table, he noticed Tony sat immediately to his left, and of course Maria Hill took her place to his right, as she always did. Going around the table and next to Tony was Clint and then Steve. Thor was next to Steve, but Fury wondered why the god wasn't seated next to his brother, Loki. Instead, Loki was sat next to the screen at the end of the table, but was turned protectively towards Agent Morse. Agent Morse looked exhausted, but also annoyed because of Hunter, who sat next to Thor, who seemed to be hovering over the blonde and competing with the silent Loki for her attention. Next to Agent Hill, May had taken her seat with Skye next to her. Fitz and Simmons came next, with the new face of Ksenia Romanoff conversing with Darcy next to her at the end of the table. He studied them as they all got more comfortable and learned about their relationships. It was now obvious that Bobbi Morse had spent a good deal of time with the Avengers. The Avengers teams kept shooting worried glances at her, and she in turn kept shooting angry glances at her old team, Skye and Jemma Simmons in particular. The new 'agent' Darcy Lewis was ignoring those two as well as she whispered to Ksenia, most likely about Fury himself as her excited eyes kept flashing to the head of the table towards him. As Tony manned his laptop he had brought with him, Fury took a few extra moments and looked Ksenia over. She almost looked exactly like Natasha at first glance, and it seemed just as headstrong. Agent Hill had told him in as much detail as she could about how she came about, but he was going to make the team start from the beginning. He needed to know everything.

Hours passed as everyone had their turn in what happened from the time before Ksenia, who Hill had originally told him Thea, was born, to this moment in time. Tony had a little slide show to back up the claims he knew Fury would question. Loki started from what he knew, joined in by Thor and his experience with Lady Sif, and then from the Avengers point of view when the memory machine was used in combination with a Chitauri crystal. A theory was sparked when discussions about the crystals remaining energy being in Natasha's system when Bobbi had received a blood transfusion from her, which was why they had some sort of quantum entanglement. Then it was Ksenia's turn, going through her life before the knowledge of Natasha being her mother, to the time she spent with her in the Red Room. It was fascinating hearing how she was brought back from the dead so many times, and even remembering some of her past lives. It was when she gave the ominous message from Bucky when he escaped from the mountain that made Fury nervous.

"So," he began after all was now out in the open, "we really aren't one hundred percent positive that Natasha is even alive? We are basing this on some sort of mystic connection to Agent Morse, as well as the word of The Winter Soldier who somehow managed to escape…wherever…and deliver a message saying that an army of super soldiers will be released into the world, and to wait for the code word…prochnost? And not only that, but you are waiting for the code word because a 'mole' told you to, but you have no idea who the hell it even is?"

"Ummm, Yeah, that's about it," Tony said nervously. "In our defense, the message was right about the SIIED in Ksenia's head."

"Uh huh," Fury huffed as he blew into his folded hands but remained silent. "An army of super soldiers; the world has faced worse," he put out there, looking directly to Loki who began to shift nervously.

"It's not just the super soldiers!" Bobbi yelled this time as everyone's eyes snapped over to her. She was rubbing her temples as if something was bothering her, and she couldn't take Fury's condescending tone anymore. "Did you not hear what I said about something else coming? Yuri's 'real life work' that not even those at his compound know about? Not even his Triad of Red Room women who were brought back from the dead."

"Yes, Agent Morse, I heard," Fury replied with a low snarl. "And if we don't know what that threat is, how can we even prepare for it?

"Just wait," she responded as she ceased rubbing her temple and instead looked him dead in the eye, "because something big is about to happen, and if we don't have birds in the air ready to go when it does, we will miss our chance and the world will spill into chaos because you hesitated to listen to two of your most powerful and skilled teams in all of SHIELD history."

Everyone in the room gulped in fear of what Fury would do at the clap back he had just received from Agent Morse. Instead, her outburst gave him the necessary push to get things rolling.

"Fine," he said unhappily, "what did you guys have in mind."

Much to Ksenia and Bobbi's dismay, even more hours passed as plans for a covert operation were made. Just before anything solid was made, Agent Holetz became alarmed when new information was sent to his tablet. Quickly reading it over, he hurried over to Fury and showed him the alarming news. Sensing a tension, the room became quiet as Fury handed the tablet back to head of security and motioned for him to pull up the feed.

"Is this new Red Room seriously crazy enough to attack Avengers Tower?" he asked with dismay. Instead of shock going around the room, Fury saw that it was almost as if they were expecting that to happen.

"They are after me," Ksenia said, speaking up from the other end of the room.

"We knew they were going to try something sooner or later," Tony said almost calmly as he furiously began to type away at his own tablet before sliding it across the table to Skye. "Skye, Fitz, get on that," he ordered, pointing to the projector screen for them to run defenses and then joined Ksenia's side. "They don't know we've gone, but what I want to know is why now?"

Clint stood and rounded the table, peeking over Skye's shoulder to see what she was working on. "Should we send a team to move on the Tower?" he asked.

"Maybe a backup SHIELD team to come at them from the outside to keep them busy for a while," Tony replied and looked deep in thought. "Our defenses will hold but sooner or later they are going to realize we aren't there, which begs to question, why aren't we moving towards the mountains by now?"

Fury had just about had enough at this point. There were too many questions and not enough answers. "I am not sending any more agents at this until I have some shred of solid information!"

Not expecting an outburst from the more reserved agent May, she stood and gestured to the screen of the Tower being attacked while raising her voice. "What else can we say or do to get you to understand the severity of this situation! The world is at stake, Bobbi has confirmed as much. We should be moving because why in the world would they pull a stunt like this now?"

A tired and pained laugh from Bobbi caught everyone's attention after that. Loki was seen putting his hand on her arm, concerned, only for him to snatch it back as if he had been shocked. He played it off as no big deal, but everyone saw it. "I told you," Bobbi began with a now furious gaze, "something big is coming, and this is their distraction. With eyes on the Tower, no one is going to see the real picture until it's too late."

Silence. The room went deathly silent as the truth in Bobbi's words rang clear. Fury's gaze flicked around the room to each member of SHIELD and then finally settled on Maria Hill's. She shot him a glare before going soft. "Nick, its Natasha…"

Fury then sighed and quit digging his heels in. They were right, but he was still concerned for the lack of information. "I knew SHIELD's adoptive murder child would come back to bite us in the ass one day."

Clint was caught smiling at Natasha's old nickname, the one he had coined at the very beginning of her relationship with SHIELD. And then that was it. No more procrastinating, no more strategizing with minimal resources…it was time for the big guns. "Holetz!" he yelled as he looked over his shoulder to his head of security. "Enact Searchlight Protocol, scenario 12, Kolyma Mountains with whatever we have. Oh, and send a few teams to Avengers Tower for a playdate with these bozos."

"Yes sir," the man responded as his eyes grew in excitement. Searchlight Protocol was his own strategy plan and for Fury to use it, he knew this mission was going to be a hard one…because that's what he had designed it for; the impossible. It was developed around when he was promoted to Chief Head of Security. Most would bet that he earned the promotion because of it. He had originally presented it directly to Maria Hill at a security meeting, and she was so impressed with it that she sent it straight to Fury. It was the thoroughness of the strategies that peaked Fury's interest, but he warned Holetz that to pull off a grand rescue of this scale could possibly never happen due to the magnitude of everything it entailed. Holetz figured as much, he was just pleased that Fury was actually going to consider it for a rainy day; and that day had come. He had even memorized it down to the specific scenarios, and let's just say scenario 12 was his favorite.

After Holetz hurried off to begin preparations, Fury pulled up the project and threw it up on the screen to give them a quick rundown. "We will delve into it further on the birds, but essentially we send in three teams, each of which will be majorly splintered. We can discuss splinter teams while in the air. First team will be recon and first contact, strike teams if you will. Second team will be cover and roundup, while the third team has a more compartmentalized agenda. We aren't letting a single one of these bastards go.

They all had to admit, Fury had this protocol down to a science. Almost approaching the 30-minute mark, Holetz rejoins the team and lets them know that it was time to board. It was explained to them that their gear had been obtained and loaded from the jet they flew in with before disappearing once again to check final preparations. Maria Hill then looked at Fury with surprise.

"That was fast," she said suspiciously in a hushed tone so that only Fury would hear. When he gave her a sly look, she strongly considered punching him in the shoulder. "You were planning for this the moment we got word that Nat was missing, weren't you?"

Fury innocently cracked a smile and shrugged his shoulders. "I had a feeling…Now, I want you on this mission, Hill. I'll stay here to coordinate and advise with Holetz, but I need you to…"

"…Make the hard call…If it comes down to it," she finished for him while meeting Clint's gaze who had joined them. She cleared her throat and apologized for the comment when she saw that Clint had heard, but in return, he cracked her a sorrowful smile.

"We've already discussed it," he started solemnly as he watched the teams getting up from their seats and heading for the door towards the hangars. "Bobbi sensed something…off about Natasha…and I volunteered to be the one to make the call, if it ever came down to it of course. She" he nodded towards Ksenia, "can't know." He watched as Ksenia had joined Bobbi, but then Loki peeled off from them and hurried after Darcy. Knowing that something was off, he thanked Fury and hurried after them, only to find Fitz and Simmons hard on their tail before the duo were stopped by Agent May, who needed a word with them.

Passing them, he bolted into the hallway to catch up only to witness Loki grabbing Darcy by the arm and pulling her into another hallway out of sight. Finding them speaking in hushed tones, he demanded to know what the hell was going on.

"Care to explain what has you so freaked?" he asked Loki. Loki clearly did not want Clint there, and he shared a look with Darcy that said just as much. And then he remembered. "Does this have anything to do with Bobbi?"

"Oh, I hope so!" a new voice, Jemma Simmons announced. They were all interrupted, once again. This time by Fitz and Simmons, as well as Hill.

Loki scowled and leaned against the wall in frustration. "Great, now it's a party. I was hoping for a word with Darcy, alone."

"Nope," Agent Hill announced, "not while you are within these walls and on this base." Then, she softened when she saw the pain behind his eyes and changed her approach. "Fury wants me to keep my eyes on you while in SHIELD. I told him I would, but I didn't say anything about after we leave here."

Loki mulled it over and then rolled his eyes at her before looking at Fitz and Simmons, whom he had greatly grown to dislike after Simmons' stunt back in the Towers lab. "I'm not saying a word while these two traitors are in our midst."

To say that the duo was frightened was an understatement, but their duty towards their teammate made them stand their ground. Jemma cleared her throat and tried not to sound like a child as she guessed why they were in this little meeting. "We all saw how you, Mr. Loki, reacted when you touched Bobbi in that conference room before her rather spooky speech. It looked like you saw something you didn't like. Can I assume that this is why you are meeting here with Ms. Lewis? I want to help."

Darcy already knew why she was pulled away from the team, but she wasn't happy with Fitz and Simmons presence either. Before she could say anything, Hill broke the tension between the groups with a dose of reality.

"Guys, we are all on the same team. Whatever happened between you two doesn't matter right now. Loki, what happened in there? We need to get ahead of this and quit burying secrets if we are going to help Romanoff."

Again, Loki remained quiet, but then Agent Hill started to grow on him. FitzSimmons, not so much. In the end, he agreed with Hill's logic and admitted what happened. "When I touched her, I felt an overwhelming sense of darkness; and I knew it was from Natasha. Bobbi was right."

"What do you mean she was right?" Fitz asked, not quite understanding.

Contemplating Hill's words again, he gave in. "In the tunnels when we were leaving the Tower, Bobbi let us in that she didn't think Natasha was…quite herself. Bobbi didn't quite tell us the whole thing, about what happened before we left."

"Loki," Clint said, a little more on edge, "what do you mean?"

"Natasha was able to shut her out for the most part as an effort to spare her, but she still felt a glimpse of what they did to her. I felt her as she was brought to her knees by the demons of her past. She kept shifting and writhing as if every position sparked fire under her skin. Some kind of darkness had twisted her soul and memories of us burned away like acid. I think I may have witnessed her own destruction."

A long silence followed his words as everyone was a loss. Darcy looked like she wanted to say something, but she knew Loki wouldn't have lied. Clint looked hopeless, and FitzSimmons looked concerned. As for Hill, she would keep fighting through this, and she knew the others would too.

"Ok," Hill began, "this is not the greatest news we could have hoped for, but our mission remains unchanged. There might be more to this than what you saw, Loki, and we need to hang on to that."

"If I may," Simmons brought up to Darcy, "but I don't think we are totally in the dark. Could this be an effect of the Lazarus Serum you and Ksenia told us about?"

Lights went off in everyone's mind and then quickly extinguished when they reflected on what Ksenia had said about the pain that followed the serum. "I don't think it would," Hill brought up, knowing a great deal about it due to her clearance level withing SHIELD. "The effects would have been longer lasting. You guys said that after she woke up, she was okay…for the most part. It was only when she was brought into that room with The Winter Soldier that she started to feel the pain again. It wouldn't be spaced out like that."

"My god," Clint said as he took in the information, and then realized the strategy behind it. "They somehow figured out a way to stop the effects before letting it run its course. Someone realized that they could use it as a weapon."

"That's not possible…" Hill started before Clint cut her off.

"Of course it is, think about it. Her 'death' wasn't just some random event, but strategically planned. We thought they did it to throw us off their trail, but what if it was also because they planned on doing it anyway. When Bobbi injected herself with Nat's blood, she went through the worst pain of her life. This was from the effects of the serum changing her genetic structure. Bobbi saw Nat laying there with Yuri's super soldiers, tubes and all running into them with some kind of liquid, but Nat's was different."

"Yes!" Simmons said, catching on and formulated a theory. "What if they were using her blood as a catalyst to integrate aspects of the Lazarus Serum into the soldiers? They would have the capacity to come back from the dead after being struck down!"

"Of course, we don't know for sure," Darcy said bitterly towards Simmons. "Someone screwed up the vision and Bobbi couldn't see much more of what was happening."

Ignoring her, Clint brought the rest into focus. "When Bucky escaped, it put a wrench into their plans. They did what they had to do, but then had to stop it for when Bucky was recaptured. They needed to torture her to bend him to their will."

"That's ridiculous," Fitz chimed it. "Why would they need to do that?"

"Because," he continued, "the existence of Ksenia could have sparked some sort of paternal bond. What if it brought him closer to Natasha and using her pain to get him to bend to their will was part of the plan. And what if the effects from the serum not only intensifies pain, but what if it also opens the person up to suggestion. They could have used that to bring Nat to her knees and fall in line with Yuri. We already know brainwashing the old-fashioned Red Room way wouldn't work, and they knew that. They could be planning on using her and Barnes to cut Ksenia off from the rest of us and exploit her abilities. We would have never known these things without Bobbi, but they don't know that Bobbi is even still alive."

"Wait, wait, wait," Darcy interrupted. "Bobbi said that she saw a room full of dead soldiers. If they couldn't technically die, then why were they, well, dead?"

"I can answer that one," Fitz said. "Those were created before Nat was given the serum."

Narrowing his eyes, Loki asked why he would think that.

"Think about it," Fitz went on, "The night Bobbi injected herself, she said that one of the soldiers went violent all of a sudden, but that Yuri stopped him and killed him before he could reach Nat. What if… what if Romanoff's Lazarus Serum infused blood makes them extremely volatile as a side effect. They wouldn't keep a bunch of them grouped together in the same room like the dead soldiers were found. They would need to be separated from each other."

"Well…shit," was all Hill had to say at the end of that. Everything they had said made complete sense, even though it was all speculation. She couldn't see any fault in it. "We need to get to the hangar. We could gossip all day, but we still have a mission to get on."

While they all headed to the hangar, Clint, Loki, and Hill all gave each other nervous looks. They were going to have to keep this revelation between them, sharing it with the rest could cause conflicting views and even more divisions among the teams. They all agreed that someone should stay with Ksenia at all times on the ground. They all knew that keeping her on the plane would be of no use; she would just find a way in herself.

After Loki had grabbed Darcy outside of the meeting, both the remaining Avengers team and SHIELD team continued to the hangar. Upon arrival, they were greatly impressed, especially when Hunter asked which of the dozen aircrafts were theirs. After getting the response "all of them," from another agent, they were all directed to one of the larger planes. Just like they were told, all their gear was there.

"Where are Loki and Darcy?" Thor asked aboard when he realized they weren't behind him.

Tony glanced around and narrowed his eyes when he realized that they were missing as well. "Yeah, and what about your two?" he directed to May before walking away from Thor.

"They will be here in a minute. They are probably held up with Hill," she said grudgingly when Fitz and Simmons were not where she told them to be. She had grabbed them after the meeting to have them run inventory on all that was provided for them. To do that, they needed to be here, now.

Before Agent May could even turn around to search for the missing people, Hunter comes up looking rather nervous. "What is it now," she asks as her eyes scan the bustling hangar.

"We may have a small problem," he announced.

"Nope!" Tony denied, not ready for any more bad news. "No more bad news until this is all over. Sorry, new rule."

Ignoring him, he told May that Bobbi was acting a bit odd. May quieted his concerns with the reminder that she had been through a lot, and that she was just exhausted and needed to sleep. She told him to find a quiet place to let her rest.

Ditching the idea to go find her missing teammates, May instead took Hunter's concern with a grain of salt and joined Skye in her mission to defend the tower. "How's it going?" she asked the young agent.

"I feel like I'm playing a video game!" she said excitedly, all without taking her eyes off the screen. "Stark gave me control of one of his suits and I'm having an absolute blast flying this thing around the Tower. Wait until I tell Mack. I so wish he didn't sign up to stay behind on the BUS with AC. He would be so jealous right now!"

"Oh?" she asked just as a message popped up on the large screen in the center of the plane from the Security Chief. Scanning over it for just a moment, she rejoined Skye on the tablet and gave her the news. "Chief Holetz arranged an attack against Echo at the Tower to keep them busy. If I were you, I would bring that suit back in before you break it."

"Five more minutes mom!" she called before realizing that May wasn't exactly in a good mood. "Hey, Where's Fitz? He was supposed to be helping me."

"Yeah, he was supposed to be helping me too." To gain a little more control of the situation, she went back to the main computer and began to review the Searchlight Protocol again with Steve and Tony joining her. She was ready to be in the air, but with the missing members not aboard, they couldn't do that. Twenty more minutes passed and then finally the rest of the team arrived with some worried looks. May was ready to go off on them for disobeying, but when she saw that they were accompanied by Maria Hill, she backed off.

"Alright guys!" Hill announced when several more agents boarded behind her, "wheels up in five, meeting in an hour! This is going to be a long ride."

Everyone got settled and introduced to the other agents on board. An hour later, almost on the dot, Hill gathered everyone around the holo-computer and began going into detail the different aspects of the Searchlight Protocol until Holetz and Fury could be tapped in with them on an ultra-secure line. When they were connected, Holetz took the lead and began explaining the teams and their tasks. Everyone became extremely serious and even offered their own ideas into the teams.

"Okay," Holetz began almost excitedly. "I'm sure Hill has already explained the details of this plan, but I wanted to get the groups into place and talk strategy. Essentially, there will be three teams, all of which will be splintered with specific tasks. I know this a different approach than most of the missions you have been on, but that's what makes this one so unique and essentially failproof."

"Listen up guys," Fury demanded, "this could very well be the most complicated mission of your life. Holetz will divvy up the teams, but that is subject to change if new information comes in before we put it into effect, so keep an open mind."

"Now," Holetz continued. "Team One will be our strike teams on the ground within the mountain, which is essentially you guys. Team Two will be our cover and roundup. Their mission is to provide cover on the ground and in the air to bring in any Red Room member we can get our hands on. Team Three will be more compartmentalized. They will have a different agenda. Now, Team One, you guys, will be in the thickest of it. Alpha Team will go after Romanoff under all means necessary. I want Hill leading on that team with Agent Morse. Having you two alone will make it easier to locate her and get her out under the radar.

"Sir," Hill interrupted, "I want Ksenia and Barton with me. I think," she lied, "that getting Romanoff out with them along will be easier in the case of one of us going down." In reality, she wanted to keep tabs on Ksenia. Her previous conversation with Barton, Darcy, and FitzSimmons still had her a bit rattled.

Holetz thought about it for a moment before deciding. "Ksenia will be on Alpha team along with Ms. Lewis. I believe they have been their own little team for some time now, correct? I have other plans for Barton, which leads me to Bravo Team. Barton, you will be lead on Bravo to go after Yuri Petrovitch. I've got Stark, Thor, Loki, and your new acquaintance, Agent Young with you. That's a lot of power for one team, and hopefully it will be enough to bring Yuri in…alive if possible."

"Yes sir," Bravo Team agreed. Loki on the other hand was a little upset. He wanted to be with Hill's team, going after Natasha. But he trusted that the Alpha Team could handle it, and he made a point to join them on his own terms if he deemed it necessary. Besides, Security Chief Holetz did say that the teams were subject to change as new information came in. He planned on exploiting that loophole the moment he got a chance.

"Strike Team Charlie, May, you are leading this one with some of SHIELDS finest, Agent Lance and Agent Ember. You girls are going after The Winter Soldier. Now, Strike Team Delta goes for the money. I want every shred of information they have in records and projects. Nothing gets left behind."

Clint Barton cleared his throat for a moment before letting Holetz continue. Him and Natasha are the original Strike Team Delta, but he would have to live with sharing the title, at least temporarily.

Ignoring the interruption, he continued. "Agent Skye, you are the star of this team to use your skills and make them shine. Rogers will lead in risk assessment to cover you at all costs along with Agent Aleman. Agent Fitz, you will be on Delta as well to assist Skye."

"Echo team will…"

"Oh, hell no," Darcy exclaimed loudly, "we skip over Echo team. You better shift on down to Foxtrot."

The seriousness of the room jumped into tiny bursts of laughter before getting back to business. There was no way there would be an Echo team due to the simple fact that Red Rooms entire project was called…Project Echo.

All Fury gave Darcy for her outburst was a slight eye roll as she started to grown on him, and then he prompted for Holetz to continue. "Fine, we go to Foxtrot. Simmons, you along with Agents Henson and Langston are going for lab data. This includes experiments and any samples you, Simmons, deem necessary to carry back. Again, we want it all."

"Sir yes sir," she gave with a tiny salute as she picked out her agents from the crowd.

"And last but not least, we have…Strike Team Golf with the remaining of you. Agent Hunter will lead with Agent Thomas and Agent Singer, as well as Agent Hadley and Agent Roan following to provide internal cover and assist while in there."

"Wait a bloody minute!" Hunter yelled. "Why does my team get to be called 'Golf.' I bloody hate golf."

"Because," Holetz said rather annoyed, "someone kicked out Echo."

"You mean we would have been Foxtrot?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yes, you would have been Foxtrot."

"Simmons! Hunter yelled, "quick, trade with me!"

"There will be no trading!" Fury yelled to gain control as more laughter filled the room. These are your teams and I expect you to all get to know each other before we get to that mountain. Now, when we get there, we will gain some more specs' on the situation and formulate more of a game plan. For now, the plan is to hover out of sight until we get this damn code word from 'mole guy' to go in. Do I make myself clear?"

A chorus of "yes sirs," "affirmatives," and "whatever's," went around the room before both Fury and Chief Holetz signed off. What felt like a century later, they found themselves in the northeast of Siberia, hovering around the Kolyma Mountain Range Uplands, shielded from sight. This was as close as they could get without the proper coordinates. They set up a point near the Anadyr River in an effort to stick as close to Ksenia's description of what she saw when she had tried to escape. She was frustrated that all she could remember was a river, and this was the closest river in size apart from the actual Kolyma River, but they ruled it out due to its vast size.

For three days, nothing happened. The attack on the Tower had ceased the day before, and tensions rose as fears that the mole had been caught began to circulate. Bobbi had felt nothing at all except for a pit of darkness that seemed to cloud her mind. Many had started to think that they were too late, and that the connection was somehow severed, but others kept the hope alive. No word had reached them about attacks from super soldiers, so obviously they hadn't missed their window. But, if the mole was still alive, what were they waiting for? Could it be that they are trying to get to the bottom of Yuri's plan, so the SHIELD teams don't go in dark? There were so many thoughts and ideas flowing around the place that no one even knew what to think anymore. Their entire plan balanced of the trust of an invisible saboteur that may or may not even exist in the first place.

Silence eventually gripped the plane as talk about the different scenarios became exhausting. Stories of past missions had long run dry, and the anxiety of the potential oncoming battle pushed everyone into their own heads. It was so crowded on their aircraft that training sessions just turned into bumping into everyone. And just before tensions caused each other to clash, it happened. From Bobbi Morse's lips shakily sprung the word they had all been waiting for…

"Prochnost"