Undisclosed Location. 2012.

The chopper landed with a gentle thud on the deck of the helicarrier and the pilots immediately began to go through their shut down protocol as two groundsmen rushed over and fastened the wheels down onto the makeshift landing area. I pulled open the side door and was immediately grateful for my thick coat that flapped in the crosswinds of the other jets that were both coming and going from the flight deck. The familiar face of Maria Hill greeted me as I crossed the tarmac and joined her side. She had a small cut on her forehead that was beginning to heal and I assumed it was from the events that led to be being called away from assignment so early.

"How was Monte Carlo?" she questioned as we both watched the grounds crew scurrying around. I felt the corner of my mouth turn up.

"I got the job done. As always." Maria nodded in silent agreement. My attention was diverted as another jet landed and I saw Natasha appear from inside the helicarrier and approach it's occupant as he stepped out into the light. The face of Steve Rogers was instantly noticeable, the excitement at finding him in the ice just over two weeks ago had been so widespread, the departmental e-mail had even reached me in Vietnam. I couldn't help but notice the face of Bruce Banner who was wringing his hands together with nerves as he watched the people moving about around him. None of them paid him any attention but his ailment, so to speak, was common knowledge. I didn't feel particularly comfortable with him being on board, but Fury knew what he was doing and he clearly needed Banner for something, as long as it was just Banner and not the other guy.

"What happened then?" I asked Maria, diverting my attention from the nervous nuclear physicist. "Fury was brief as ever on the phone."

"The tesseract's been stolen. Clint and Dr. Selvig have been compromised. We lost the research unit and we still don't know how many died…" We both stepped inside as the helicarrier rose out of the water and began its ascent into the sky.

"Who took it?" Maria handed me a tablet with security footage on loop and I watched as the events unfolded.

"The portal jumping…I assume he's not from around here?" Maria laughed slightly as we stepped onto the bridge where Fury stood at the helm and we were soon joined by Natasha, Steve, and Banner.

"No. He calls himself Loki. Asgardian we think." I arched an eyebrow as I flicked through the case files on the tablet and came across the other individuals who were going to be involved in the Avengers Initiative. Natasha and Clint's familiar faces, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers and Natasha's most recent assignment, Tony Stark. I felt Natasha stand at my side as Steve wandered about staring at the advanced technology that he'd had little time to get used to, clearly in awe.

"How are you doing?" I asked her, and she nodded before I'd even finished the question. I'd known what the answer would be, and I knew it was a lie. Clint had saved her life and given her a way out similarly to the way she had me.

"We'll get him back, Nat." She looked at me briefly and forced a smile.

"I know." She left my side and her façade was perfectly intact as she knelt in front of a monitor with Clint's ID Photograph and facial recognition software running. I returned the tablet to Maria as I absorbed the extent of the situation. This was going to be my first real test since joining SHIELD. It hadn't been easy from the start, the U.S Government had been reluctant to accept me for multiple reasons, though the most commonly mentioned one seemed to simply be that I was Russian and so Natasha and I found a way to combat that. We both took citizenship exams authorized by SHIELD and are now officially U.S. Citizens. I did still have to go before the Supreme Court and confess my crimes, including the murder of Senator Warren. His secretary, however, they didn't question me on, so I felt no need to bring it up. My past crimes are no longer a secret, my name is accessible to the world and I have had to mould myself to fit into it.

Even after all that, I never expected to be recruited into the Avengers Initiative. Despite Fury approaching me about it, the board made no qualms about voicing their concerns, but this was the prime opportunity to prove myself. Despite not wanting to in the beginning, I had changed in the way they had wanted me to.

"Leyna." Natasha hissed as I was pulled from my thoughts. I quickly returned my attention to the people in the room as Fury turned to Rogers;

"You're up." We watched carefully as Steve nodded and followed an agent to his quarters. Fury spoke to the both of us without turning away from his screens that had found Loki at a high society dinner in Germany. Where Loki was, Clint and Dr. Selvig were almost also guaranteed to be.

"You two pilot, he may need the backup." Natasha nodded and we both dressed in our combat attire. It had been a long time since I'd donned my black cat suit that now had the SHIELD emblem in place of my own Scorpion one. It was the one thing about it I hadn't taken to when I'd had no choice but to accept SHIELD's offer, I'd sacrificed my own individual identity. I wasn't Scorpion anymore, I was Agent Marakova. My old codename was only used when referring to my past. Even after twelve years it still didn't sit well with me, but I had foolishly put myself in a corner by acting so recklessly after I'd escaped from Belarus and this was to be both my saving grace and punishment. Once you were on SHIELD's radar, you never left it, whether you worked for them or not.

As I zipped up the front of my suit and slid my two Smith & Wesson's into their holsters on my hip and thigh – I heard a knock at the door of my own private room.

"Yes?" I questioned as the door opened and Agent Jasper Sitwell handed me a manila folder.

"Director Fury wanted me to make sure you had the accurate coordinates before you take off."

"Thank you." I nodded as I flicked through the unnecessary sheets of paper and ripped off the corner of the paper with the required information. When I handed the file back to Sitwell I couldn't help but notice he was smirking slightly.

"Kind of funny, isn't it?" He questioned rhetorically.

"Funny?"

"Well, Loki's plan is to rule the world and he goes to a country with a history of trying to do the very same thing." I arched an eyebrow.

"If you look back far enough, nearly every nation at some point or another has had a leader than wanted to rule the world. Many others got closer to it than, Hitler. Besides, Loki plans to rule a world of corpses, Sitwell. That includes yours."

"And yours." He replied, goading me. I had never liked Jasper Sitwell, there was something about him that just didn't sit right with me but I'd never paid him enough attention to figure out what it was. I nodded in agreement as I walked around him and to the door.

"Which is why I am doing something about it. Go back to your computer Jasper. Stick with what you know, and I'll do the same."