Maria Hill ran through the corridor, crashing down door after door, praying that she would find her wife. Soldiers and agents were killed to no avail.
Natasha had been sent on a mission that was supposed to be easy. Gathering intel on a drug and human trafficking ring run by Mark Bell, one of the biggest business owners in the United States. Mark would be attending the World Business Forum this year, and Natasha needed to attend the forum as a business partner of Stark Industries and get close to him to figure out more about the ring. Normally, SHIELD leaves human and drug trafficking cases to the CIA, but this one involved the dealing of a new experimental narcotic with the ability to turn people to stone, which was more of SHIELD's expertise. As soon as she saw that Mark had taken a liking to her, Natasha allowed herself to be drugged, believing that her tolerance of most sedatives would help her. It didn't, and she had been taken in the middle of the night under the guise of being drunk.
Maria spent months gathering intel and tracking Mark, and it all led to this place. A dilapidated building on the outskirts of New York.
At the end of the long hall, Maria throws the last door off its hinges in desperation.
She has to be here.
If she wasn't, then Maria didn't know what to do.
The door falls to reveal a dark, musty room with concrete walls that have been stained with deep crimson splatters. The ceiling is concrete too. Cracks ran across it, bleeding onto the walls and the floor. Embedded in the ceiling is a metal loop that was so rusty that it looked as though it would snap any second. Actually, the whole room looked like it would collapse if she stayed there for any longer.
Obviously, the loop in the ceiling was not as brittle as it looked because there were taut chains hooked inside it. Connected to the chains were a pair of manacles, and chained within the manacles was the limp body of a woman. The woman was hanging by her arms just high enough that she would have to stretch to put her toes on the ground. Cuts and bruises littered her body, the most prominent being a huge, poorly stitched-up cut that ran from her left shoulder down her stomach to her right hip. It was deep and oozing blood. Not an inch of the woman's body was not covered in red. But what caught Maria's eye the most was the woman's matted, dark red hair.
The woman was Natasha.
Maria sprinted to reach her and immediately began to work on unlocking the manacles. She released her arms first, then her feet.
"I have Agent Romanov. We need medical evac NOW!" She shouted hurriedly to the agents in her ear.
"Copy. Med evac will arrive at your location in 20 minutes."
"Make that 10."
Even 10 minutes felt way too long. Maria needed to staunch the blood. As Maria was ripping a piece off the bottom of Natasha's long dress, Natasha stirred. Blinking slowly, she opened her eyes.
"Maria…" She coughs. "Maria, are you real?"
"Yes. Yes, I'm real. I'm here, Nat. Just stay awake for me, ok? I'm here."
Maria tied the strip of cotton that she had ripped off across Natasha's stomach, trying to ignore her shallow breath and gasps of pain. As soon as she was done, she inspected Natasha's other injuries and held her hand.
"Maria…" Natasha whispered as her eyes began to flutter shut. "It hurts."
"Natasha, no. You need to stay awake for me, ok? Nat… Natasha?"
Natasha had fallen unconscious again, and Maria was going frantic. The evac squad is still nowhere to be seen. Everyone else in the building was dead. All Maria could do was stay by her wife's side, keep an eye on her pulse and her breathing, and wait.