A/N: Sorry this took so long, I've been totally uninspired this past month and struggling to keep focused on this. Anyway, please be careful reading this chapter as Kyler's POV is very torture-centric. If this is a trigger for you, please skip it! If you need to skip that section, but want to know what happens leave a comment or send me a message and I'd be happy to give you a synopsis.

Sophie
Something was wrong. Other than the whole kidnapping thing, I mean. Something was off. I was missing something important, some connection or relationship. Facial recognition software had been able to identify more of the of the kidnappers, but none of them had any more information on them than Raymer.

And then there was Unification International. Something about it was raising a red flag, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was. I was still puzzling over it when Andrew set a sandwich in front of me.

"What's eating you, Ginger Snap?" He asked. "You look like you've hit a wall."

Because we were so far apart in age, Andrew and I didn't really have a typical sibling relationship, but I trusted him with a lot and knew he would listen without judging me. Maybe it was his psychology training, or maybe it was just the way Andrew was, but he gave good advice. I set my glasses down on the desk and rubbed my tired eyes. "It's this company." I admitted. "It just doesn't sit right with me."

"If your instincts are telling you that something is up, something probably is." He said, pulling up a chair next to me. "Try to organize your thoughts. What's the first red flag?"

"Raymer, obviously. Why is a mercenary calling an international charity several times a month?"

He nodded. "You're right, that does't make sense. What else?"

"If the company is so huge and international, why hasn't anyone heard of it before?"

"So you're saying that Unification International, might not be legit?" He frowned.

"It makes sense. Look at this website." I said, pulling it up on the center screen. "There's a donation tab, history of the organization, important members and contributors, and even a photo gallery. The more I look into it though, the more I realize is missing. There are no volunteer applications, no mailing address, not even email addresses for the employees."

"And no phone number listed?" Andrew asked. I shook my head. "So how did Raymer get their number?"

"Probably from one of these guys." I said, switching to the tab showing important members of the organization.

We were scrolling through the page when Ella popped her head into the office. "I was won- what's that?" She asked, pointing at the screen.

"We're looking into Unification International." I said.

She walked into the office and stood directly in front of the screen we had been looking at, furrowing her eyebrows and she looked at the photo on the screen. It was of a slim, unremarkable man with dark hair, with the name Dr. Gregory Ashby typed out underneath. "I know him."

Kyler
I recognized the two men with her from the alley. The one she called Shaw was glaring at me as if I had strapped him to a chair in the middle of some mystery greenhouse instead of the other way around, while the other one came to stand behind me. It gave me that nice 'someone's watching' sensation that tends to raise the hair on the back of my neck, but I wasn't going to fall into their little intimidation trap. Even when the woman started circling me like a stalking lioness I kept my body language timid and unsure. My immediate instinct was to play the damsel in distress, to garner sympathy or compassion, so I settled into my role.

"Where am I? Who are you?" I asked tossing my gaze between the three of them.

"Don't try to play games with me, Ms. Barton. Our head of human resources has a man in the infirmary who needs to have his kneecap reconstructed because of you. I know you're not as helpless as you want to seem." Something told me that 'human resources' meant something very different here than it usually did.

I shrugged, dropping the facade. "Worth a shot. Seriously though, where are we? This place could use some serious decorating. This whole fifty shades of grey color scheme is way boring."

"I am not in need of your decorating advice." She sighed, clearly growing bored. "I have some questions for you, and you will answer them."

I already knew the answer, but I still asked. "And if I don't?"

She came to stand in front of me, leaning in close. "Then we'll play a little game." The words turned my spine to ice. I could only think of a few "games" that required any combination of large armed men, rubber floors, a metal chair with arm and leg straps, and a soundproof door. I didn't want to play any of them.

"Well? What's so important that you had to kidnap me for it?" I asked impatiently.

"Your little friend. Ella, is it? You and your sister risked life and limb for her. Why?"

"While I'm inclined to act surprised, I really can't say that your lacking moral compass comes as much of a shock."

Three minutes later, I was really regretting the use of the word 'shock' as electricity skittered through my body.

"Now," she said "do you want to answer my question like a polite young lady?"

"She's our friend. I don't see why that's so hard for you to understand." I said, trying to regulate my breathing and calm my heart rate.

"It affects her, doesn't it? Her father's blood in her veins, it makes her stronger."

The accident. That's what this is about. When she was eleven, Ella was hit by a car and needed an emergency blood transfusion so her dad gave her one on site. Uncle Bruce thought it might have been the reason she survived her injuries, but there were no longterm effects.

"Look, if you're hoping to take over the world or something, Ella can't help you. Personally, I think the whole world domination thing is a bit overdone, but to each his own." The sentence was punctuated by another burst of electricity.

When my vision cleared, I noticed a man at the door. "I'm sorry to Interrupt Ms. Oryeck, but Mr. Lagarde is here." I recognized his voice from when I had first arrived, it was the one they had called Ashby. I took in the tall, dark-haired man. He was nothing exceptional as far as looks or strength, so clearly he was here for his intellect. His relationship with Oryeck was a bit harder to pin down. Clearly his role here was important, but he seemed almost subservient around Oryek. I didn't think I'd have much chance to ask him about it.

"See what you can get out of her while I'm gone." She said, sauntering from the room.

I braced myself for round two.

Liam
"There's no Benedict Martin in any of SHIELD's files." Sophie confirmed.

Sasha and I had returned from the armory just moments before to find that Andrew, Ella, and Sophie were pursuing information on Gregory Ashby.

"So you met him at the gala. What did you two talk about? Did he say anything strange?" I asked.

She shook her head, causing her blonde waves to shake around her shoulders. "We just talked about art, he said it was admirable or something. I don't remember the details."

"Nothing struck you as odd?" Sasha pressed.

My sister thought about it for a moment before speaking again. "There was one thing." She said. "He said something about the field agents and combat. It seemed like a weird topic change."

"And what did you say to him?" I asked.

Ella shrugged. "I just told him the truth. I said I didn't really have experience with fighting, and then not long afterward he followed some woman out of the ballroom."

"Did you know the woman?"

Ella shook her head. "I didn't get a good look at her. All I know is she was blonde."

Sasha ran a hand through her hair, mussing up the deep red tresses. "So some doctor who isn't a SHIELD agent, shows up at the director's gala, finds out how much combat experience you have, leaves with some mystery woman, and then… what, sends a six person grab team after you?"

I nodded. "If I were going to kidnap someone, I'd want to know exactly what I'm up against beforehand, wouldn't you?"

"You think they were after me?" Ella asked.

"Yeah, but I think they realized they'd bit off more than they could chew when the twins pulled their guns. They tranquilize Kyler to minimize the opposition, but by that point you and Sasha have already gotten away so they kidnap her to…" I realized there weren't very many ways that sentence could end. What were they doing to her right at that moment? Imprisoning her? Torturing her? Killing her?

I shook my head to clear out that thought. "So this mysterious doctor works for the fake company that hired a team of mercs to kidnap Kyler?"

Sasha folded er arms over her chest as she leaned against the holotable. "No, he works for the fake company that hired a team of mercs to kidnap Ella, and brought back Kyler instead.

"What else does the website say?" Andrew asked. "Does it mention any financiers, other staff members maybe?"

Sophie scrolled down the page. "We've got the co-founders, Elva Oryek and Pierre Lagarde."

"Lagarde's a French billionaire." Andrew said. "He must be the money."

"That makes Oryek the brains." Sasha added.

"Then there's a list of other employees and major contributors." Sophie said. "No pictures, just names." She returned to her screens, typing a mile a minute. "I'll see what I can figure out about the three of them."

Sasha nodded. "Call when you find something."

"Good eye Soph." I added, following her from the room. She didn't say anything as we walked down the hall and boarded the elevator, getting off on the next floor. By the time she was punching in the code for the armory door the silence had gotten deafening. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"On what planet would I be okay?" She asked. "My sister's been kidnapped, our parents are stuck overseas, and there's a fourteen year-old downstairs committing a felony on my orders. What's alright about that?"

"Look, nobody would have asked this of you if the situation were different." I said. "But if any of us can do this, it's you."

"No, I can't." She shook her head. "I can't do this Liam. We're on our own, in the dark, and down a man. I can't be them Liam, I'm not ready." She said, motioning to the items that lined the wall. There were extra bows, spare parts for whichever suit was in commission, and a menagerie of other weapons lining the walls. Her eyes rested on a pair of widow's bites that glowed a vibrant amber color. "They're heroes. And look how far we've gotten without them."

"You can't seriously blame yourself for the hack, Sash. They're doing everything they can to get home, but until then you have to believe that you're the best person to handle this situation."

"If that were true we wouldn't be in this situation." She said.

"You're right, we wouldn't be in this situation. We'd be looking for Ella and planning two funerals." I sighed, resting my hands on her shoulders. "I know the call wasn't easy to make, but I do feel that it was right."

"Well that makes one of us." She said. Then suddenly her face was buried in my chest and her arms were wrapped tightly around me. She'd never been very tactile, at least not with me, but she seemed to be taking more comfort in my touch since her breakdown in the firing range.

"We'll get through this." I promised running my fingers through her hair.

It was quiet for a few minutes, just the sound of our breathing filling the space. "I want my mom." She admitted, somewhere between a laugh and a whine.

"Me too." I agreed. "But, we've got the best agents in the world working on getting them home, and I'm sure this airline hack will be figured out in no time."

I could feel her go still in my arms, like a cat about to pounce, before she looked up at me with huge eyes. "The hack."

"Yeah, I'm sure they'll figure it out." I assured her.

"No, Liam the hack is the problem!" She exclaimed. "I need Sophie."

"I don't think Sophie can fix that." I said, trotting behind her as she darted back to the elevator. "And to be fair, it's really only part of our current problem."

"It's connected. All of it is connected."

I got off with her at the next floor. "I thought we said it wasn't connected."

"That was before." She said before bursting back into the office. "Sophie!"

Five heads snapped towards her voice. "If you want answers you're going to have to give me a little more time." Sophie said, turning back to her screen.

"This hack on the airlines, how much computing power would that take?"

"A lot more than we have. Sorry."

Sasha shook her head in frustration. "I don't want to counteract the hack, I already know that we can't. An act of cyber-terrorism of this scale would require a ton of computers though,right?"

"Yeah, several hundred at least." Sophie said. "They would have to be spread out though, all over the world. There's no other way that they'd be able to camouflage their signals as well as they have been."

"You were right. Unification International is a front for something else." Sasha told her. "It was a front for the hack."

Nolan
Maria had always been intimidating, but calling her in the middle of a worldwide crisis definitely made it on my list of top five most nerve-wracking moments. The phone rang once, then a man's voice answered. "This is Agent Jackson, please state your name, rank, and business."

We stood waiting with baited breath as Sasha spoke. "Sasha Renée Barton, asset SB0603, code name Phoenix. I need you to connect me to Director Hill."

"I'm sorry, but Director Hill is dealing with a matter of international security."

"So am I." Sasha replied. "Now, are you going to put me through or not?"

"Please hold for a moment."

It was silent again, I can't really say I expected Maria to have classical music playing but it was a bit jarring. Finally she picked up. "Director Hill."

"We have some information that might be useful." Sasha said. She explained about Unification International and our suspicions that the organization was actually a cover for the hack on the airline transmissions.

"I just put a team on it. This doesn't explain the kidnapping though. Why would they want your sister?"

"They didn't, they wanted Ella. You can probably guess why."

"Her medical records following the accident were redacted." Maria insisted.

"The witnesses weren't." Sasha reminded her. "And there were plenty of those."

"So we can assume we've got an international criminal trying to take over the world?"

Andrew stood up and took the phone from Sasha. "Actually, we think there's a team. Pierre Lagarde, the French billionaire, is one of the company's Co-Founders. If there's profit to be made off this plan, he'll find it. Elva Oryek seems to be the mastermind though. She doesn't bring any money into the partnership, so we can assume she's manipulating Lagarde into funding her ideas."

"You think she could do that?" Maria asked.

"Easily." Andrew assured her. "She could have him dumping money into this and believing the whole thing is his idea. Then there's Dr. Gregory Ashby. He was a medical student at Oxford, graduated in the middle of his class, used to work in medical research. Oryek likely roped him in with the promise of money and recognition."

"Do I want to know how you came by this information?"

"No," Isabelle chimed in "you really don't."

"My agents have pinpointed buildings owned by Unification International in eight major cities around the world, including a warehouse on the edge of New York." Maria said after brief pause her end of the line.

"That's probably where Kyler is." Sasha said, taking the phone back. "This needs to be a unified strike. How fast can you get teams in position?"

"Not as fast as I would like. Without jets it will take almost four hours."

Sasha looked around at the rest of us. "We can be ready by then."

"No offense, but you're assets not agents. I can't let you be a part of a Strike Team." Maria said. "I'm sorry, but there's miles of red tape here."

"Let us run extraction then. We'll go in and get Kyler and your agents can focus on the suspects." Sasha pleaded. "We've gotten this far, let us see this through."

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. "Report to me with an extraction plan in an hour." Maria said. "And you're explaining this to your parents."

Sasha thanked her and the call ended. "Sophie, I need everything you can give me on the warehouse in New York. We've got work to do."

Three Hours Later
Ella
Sophie handed me a headset as she settled into her chair. "Here you go. You'll be able to hear the Strike Team through this as soon as they're in position." She explained. The screens in front of us were lit up with diagrams, maps, and communications. "Rigel, this is Firewall. You and Polaris are in position." She said.

"Copy that." Andrew's voice said through the tiny device that was tucked into the ear left uncovered by the headset. I wished I could offer some words of encouragement, but the device only allowed me to hear what was said between everyone wearing the Stark-made comms units.

Sophie and I scanned the screens in front of us. Andrew and Isabelle had arrived at their designated position and the GPS tracker in the car allowed us to follow their movements. Everyone else was off the radar though, waiting to turn their comms on until the last possible second.

"I don't know how people can do this every day." I said, anxiously waiting for more little dots to appear on the screen and assure me that everyone else was all right.

"Just sit tight." Sophie said. "And tell me as soon as the Strike Team is in position."

I nodded, trying to remember that it was most important that I focus on coordinating the Strike Team and our own makeshift extraction unit. I nearly jumped out of my seat when a voice spoke through the headset. "Kappa to Canary, Strike Team is in position." Said a gruff voice.

"Copy that." I confirmed, signaling to Sophie that the team was ready.

It was a few seconds before anything happened, then there was a slight crackle in my other ear, followed by the sound of Liam's voice. "Legacy is in position." He said. I relayed the information to the SHIELD agent through the headset.

After a few more seconds Nolan's voice joined the mix. "This is Jaeger, I am in position." He confirmed.

That just left… "Phoenix reporting." Said Sasha's voice. "Ready when you are."

I took a deep breath. "Kappa, you are clear to go."

I heard a countdown on the other end, followed by a loud bang. There was no going back now.

A/N: If you haven't visited tlosad . tumblr . com (there's a link to it in my bio too) PLEASE check it out. It's been great so far and the more questions we get, the better. And if you want me to update again in the near future, please please please leave a comment. I love to hear what you guys think, even if it's just 'Cool'.