[1] Take the Shot | Leo Fitz

13

The two women fought using their pieces of the staff, expertly. Petra's fighting ability was nowhere near the standard of May's but with what was going on in May's head, the fight was almost equal. May knocked Petra to the floor, causing the enemy to drop her piece of the staff, but took shaky steps forward almost dropping to her knees as an overwhelming pressure filled her head. Nina could see that May was fighting a battle in her head and that the May they needed was losing.

"May!" Nina yelled out and May looked at her. She knew what needed to be done so she threw the staff towards Nina. As she ran to it, the piece Petra dropped joined with the staff flying towards her. Nina grabbed it from the air and her arm immediately glowed an angry orange.

A scream wrecked Nina's body as a familiar scene played out in her mind. Her heart hammered against her chest as the stench of burning flesh filled her nostrils and the heat slammed against her face like a wall. She knew what she was seeing wasn't real but it had been, 2 years ago, and that was enough to hurt.

Nina wasn't in control of her actions as she fought against Petra, she moved almost robotically as a screaming that didn't belong to her bounced around her mind. The words that haunted her sleep, bounced from one side of to another and she held back tears.

"I am not afraid of you," Petra said as she started towards Nina.

"You should be," Nina struck her hard in the face with a roar of anger.

The next moments were a blur, all she knew was that Petra was taken care of. Laying on the floor, bloodied, battered and hanging on to life by a thread. Ward, Skye and May watched as Nina fell to her knees and dropped the staff with shaky hands. She didn't turn around, she didn't want to see how bad Petra looked.

She didn't need confirmation that she was, in fact, the Executioner.

"Nina, you did good," May appeared in front of her, Nina looked away from her shaky hands at to the agent's face, which was blurry due to the hazy screen of blood covering Nina's eyes. She didn't say anything, her body still reeling from what she had seen, "I know it stings but you're okay."

"Tobias," she managed to croak out.

"I know," May said and that was all she needed to say and Nina wrapped her blood-covered arms around her neck and hugged her. May allowed it, holding her against her body. Knowing exactly what she must have seen and known she needed comfort or irrationality would take place, "you're going to be okay."

*

"Is she alright?" Fitz asked Coulson as he looked at Nina. She was sitting alone in a room with her arms wrapped around her body, the shaking and rocking back and forth had seized a few minutes ago but Fitz was still worried about her.

"She... will be," he answered as he looked to her too. May and Ward were distraught after touching the staff and Coulson gave them the night off and hotel rooms in the city while Nina turned down the luxury and came straight back to the bus.

"Do you have any idea what she saw?" Skye asked. Coulson hesitated before answering, he didn't know what Nina was okay with the team knowing so he chose his words carefully.

"I'd assume the death of her fiance," Coulson answered. Everyone wanted him to elaborate but they understood that he wouldn't, that it was Nina's secret to tell. No one said anything after that, they all sat in silence looking anywhere but at each other. It wasn't until the door opened did anyone move.

Nina walked in, her arms were still wrapped around her and her eyes was a ghastly red, the mild tear tracks on her cheeks confirmed the fact that she had been crying. Fitz tried to catch her eye but she purposefully didn't look in his direction; Nina didn't know how to look into the eyes of the man she could fall in love with after crying over the death of the man she had loved. Instead, she looked to Coulson, who was waiting for an update.