It'd been nearly a month since Hope had covertly installed the arc reactor inside the bridge. Luckily, her dad had been too busy working on sequencing to notice her handwork; thinking that she'd simply rerouted power more efficiently and not added more power to the system. They'd attempted to turn on the bridge three times with none of them being successful in reaching the quantum realm. However, they both speculated that they were close.

The anticipation was palpable in the air those last few weeks. Like for the first time, they truly believed that they had a shot of seeing her mother again. It'd been the goal since the beginning of the project, but now it felt real. Like it was actually within their grasp. They'd finally know, once and for all if she was out there.

"Hope!" She heard her dad call down to her from the control room as she was tinkering with the vehicle they designed to drive into the bridge. "Your phone keeps ringing!"

Hope assumed it was Sonny calling about a part; a part that she didn't bother S.H.I.E.L.D. about since it was a simple repeat order with Cross Tech.

She put down her tools, crawling out from underneath the vehicle and then hurriedly made her way to her dad who was holding out her mobile. By the time she reached it, it stopped ringing. Taking the phone, she noticed that it wasn't Burch – it was Maria. She had called twice in a row. She never called. Hope only ever sent short texts to her and Maria would reply with messages just as brief back.

While Hope was reading her call history, it rang again, the agent's number popping up on the display.

"Is that Burch?" her dad asked. "He sure seems desperate to reach you."

"Ah." Hope scurried down the stairs, quickly distancing herself from her dad; She did not want him to overhear the call. "Just one sec," she muttered to him before quickly answering her phone. "What's up?" she asked curiously, finding it odd that the agent had called her repeatedly and in such short succession.

Maria's voice came instantly, with the utmost seriousness. "You need to get out of the lab right now!"

"What?"

"There's a tracking device somewhere inside your building with an inbound airborne hostile locked onto its location."

Hope repeated her question but now with more gumption. "What!"

"You have five minutes to evacuate your lab and get as far away from it as possible."

Hank approached his daughter with concern written his face, clearly overhearing her outburst. "Hope, what's going on?"

"Hope!" She heard Maria yelling from the other line, "You have to get out. It's deploying missiles."

"Missiles?" Hank barked, evidently now able to make out Maria's voice from the other end of the line. "Who the hell is that?"

"When you get outside, shrink the lab. It might throw off the missiles' tracking system."

Hope ground her teeth as she took a long draw of air through her nose. She then exhaled before forcefully grabbed Hank's arm. "Dad, we have to go. Now." Her words came out steadier than she'd expected them to be.

"Our plans. The blueprints!" he growled.

"Grab the hard drive," she instructed him urgently, wanting the device that had all their work backed up onto it. "I'll grab the cars and my suit."

She then heard Maria's muffled voice emanating out of the phone that she'd lowered away from her ear. "Hope, you don't have time!"

Hope ignored her, angrily hanging up as she ran for the mentioned items.

It took less than a minute before they were in the elevator with their essentials. Her body vibrating as they reached the bottom floor, running out to the street where she had shrunk the lab – as instructed – before growing a car to size for them to hop into and drive off in.

They were only a block away, in the industrial complex that they had been hiding out in, when they heard a huge explosion, followed quickly by another. Hope stopped the car as she looked out the wing mirror. She saw thick smoke rising up from behind the warehouse that their lab had just been on the other side of.

Her stomach dropped. Looking out at the cloud of ash she was reminded of the pain she'd felt back when her dad had told her that she'd never see her mother again, all those years ago when she was a child. She was losing her all over again. Her eyes blurred through hot tears as a calm hand reached out to hers that was gripping the wheel.

"Drive." Came her dad's voice. Hope was shocked by his steady tone. But when she looked over to him, she saw his jaw tensed and bearing wild eyes. He wasn't calm, he was livid. His visible anger snapped her into gear as she stepped on the gas, taking them fast and far away from the scene, along with any hope of them seeing her mother again.

Forty-Eight Hours Earlier

Maria walked into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s main headquarters in Washington D.C. She was in her blue uniform, bearing her sidearm and clutching a coffee. The woman stepped into the large glass elevator where a soldier nodded in greeting. "Ma'am." He then pressed the top floor button on her behalf without her having to ask.

Maria nodded back in thanks and then looked out the window for the short climb up to the top. She often allowed herself – when she could – to enjoy the sunrise on the first morning ride up. She took a sip of her coffee, watching the orange of the skyline grow in size as they reached greater heights. After three stops, "Operations," was said from the automated voice of the lift, cutting off her moment of peace. She turned around, now the only one left in the elevator. She took a deep breath, readying herself for the day just as the doors opened.

"Commander." Staff Sergeant Ramirez approached her as soon as she stepped onto the operations deck. "Fury wants to see you in his office A-Sap."

Maria took another sip of her coffee. "Thanks, Ramirez," she said before holding out her cup to him which he took without hesitation. It was a familiar ceremony between the two; her passing him items in the mornings if there were urgent things for her to attend to.

Maria walked over to find Fury in his office, along with Natasha, and Norman Osborn of Oscorp, already in conversation. "And this is Commander Hill." Fury gestured to her as she walked in. The Director leaned back against the front of his desk as he said, "She's our acting Pym Tech liaison."

Norman turned to her, flashing a sly smile that only unethical, wealthy capitalists ever seemed to present. "Excellent." He placed his hands inside of his pant pockets as he took a step closer to her. "Commander, from your knowledge of the quantum bridge project, how close to completion would you say it is?"

Maria cocked her head in confusion and disbelief before she turned to Fury for clarification as to why another private tech company would be asking S.H.I.E.L.D. about Pym Tech. "It's alright, you can answer the question." He assured her.

She tightened her jaw and slid it to the side as she fought off the urge to question her commanding officer. She took a sharp inhale before answering, trying to hide her disapproving tone as best she could. "I have not seen the bridge, nor have I been told of its progress."

"Huh," Norman said in obvious fake curiosity, "Agent Romanoff seems to think it's in its final stages of development."

Maria flashed her friend a look of betrayal before focusing back on the man. "I'd say Agent Romanoff doesn't have enough information to make such a definitive claim."

Natasha folded her hands behind her back as she said, almost coldly, "Based off the power spikes coming from their lab, I'd say I have enough information for my claims." She informed Norman. "They're definitely testing the bridge."

Maria could feel every muscle in her body tense. She knew about the energy spikes and assumed Natasha would have been aware of them as well. But she'd hoped that she would've kept her mouth shut about it to Osborn. "Hill." Fury ordered her. "Go back to San Francisco. Set up a meeting with Pym and negotiate our access to the bridge. We'd like to see it."

"'We', sir?" Maria asked.

"S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as" – he gestured to Norman – "our allies." The C.E.O. smirked devilishly at Fury's words.

She wanted to bring up her concerns; tell him that they'd never agree to that, but she knew not to do that in front of their present company. "Sir, what if we can't reach an agreement and they refuse?"

"We'll skin that cat if it comes to it." Maria simply nodded in understanding his odd combination of idioms. He then ordered. "You and Agent Romanoff may be dismissed."

Maria shot Natasha a glare as she responded to Fury. "Yes, Sir." She then spun on her heels before walking briskly out of the office.

She soon heard Natasha coming up from behind, matching her pace as she fell into step beside her. "What the hell was that?" Maria barked out in a low tone, not wanting others to over hear.

"Which part exactly?" Her voice came calmly.

Maria rolled her eyes, knowing Natasha understood exactly what she was referring to. "Norman Osborn. Let's start there." She approached the elevator that she had only just arrived in a few minutes prior.

Natasha leaned over to press the button to call the lift. "Look." She dropped her voice. "You didn't hear this from me. But I've got good – non-S.H.I.E.L.D. related – intel that Fury owes Osborn a favour." She tilted her head to the side as she added. "A pretty big one, at that."

Maria knew something like this was going to come up. There was very little that Fury didn't let her in on. But on occasions when she was left in the dark, Natasha was often the one to shine a bit of light onto the situation for her. Natasha was like the alley cat that eventually became S.H.I.E.L.D.'s outdoor pet. She was loyal, yet she still came and left more on her own accord than anyone else's. And she still had contacts and access from her old life that S.H.I.E.L.D. would probably never know about. Making her both a warning flag and a great resource, depending on if she's standing on your side out not.

"Well," Maria asked, "does your intel say anything about what he wants with the bridge?"

The elevator chimed, opening its doors for Natasha to step in with Maria following after. "No. But knowing Osborn, it's probably not to make the world a better place."

Maria practically punched the parking-level button in frustration. After the doors closed they both proceeded to the back of the lift, looking out the rear window, knowing that the elevator had cameras but was without an audio recording system. Meaning, they were safe to talk covertly with their backs to the cameras by the door. "They're never going to agree to a deal involving Oscorp inside of their lab." Maria sighed in anger. "And quite honestly, I can't say I'd let him in there even if they did, regardless of my orders."

"You and me both."

Maria's head snapped to the side as she uttered in shock, "Really?"

She was surprised that she had shared her same sentiment. Maria was fearful that she was allowing her personal feelings of not wanting to betray Hope to cloud her judgment. But Natasha gave her confidence that the situation was indeed the potential security risk that she'd assumed it to be and warranted concern.

Before Natasha could respond, the doors opened and a couple of lab technicians stepped inside. Maria was about to tell them to take the next ride but decided to stay quiet so as to not raise suspicions. Besides, their presence was probably a good thing; it allowed Maria to work out a plan.

Once their companions had exited onto the main floor, Maria turned to face the doors, waiting for them to open at the parking level. As soon as they did, she stepped out onto the empty lot, taking a few paces before spinning around to lock eyes with Natasha. "Are you willing to go behind Fury's back and make sure Osborn never gets his hands on their quantum bridge?"

Natasha's eyebrow raised in intrigue. "Are you willing to go behind Fury's back?"

Maria huffed. "Despite what you may all think, my loyalty to Fury doesn't come with a blindfold."

Natasha smirked. "Yeah, I know." She took a step closer. "So does Fury. I'm pretty sure that's the very reason he trusts you the most. He knows your morality isn't as clouded as the rest of ours."

Natasha's words gave her a stronger sense of justification for what she was planning on doing. "Tasha, this isn't right."

"Yeah." She then smirked with a glimmer of mischievousness in her eyes. "So what are we gonna do about it?"

Maria flashed a grin, ecstatic that her friend was offering to help her. "We're going to blow up the quantum bridge."