An hour after Hydra tried blowing the Bus out of the sky and Mara's heart still felt like it was going to burst out of her chest. That had been the closest she'd come to dying in a long time. Even those encounters with Aiden hadn't been nearly as frightening.
Control, that was the answer. In all those encounters with Aiden, she always had the chance to escape somehow. There was always a distinct possibility she would live. Barreling towards the ground in an airplane with heat seeking missles aimed right at them? Sure there was a chance they would survive, but their rate of success wasn't something Mara had control over. All she could do was clutch onto the bottom of her seat and put her faith in May's piloting abilities.
Thankfully it all worked out. Looked like there was a good reason everyone put so much faith in May and Mara was definitely one of those people.
In the confusion of the aftermath, everyone was scrambling to get ready for the upcoming raid on the underground city. Mara's hands shook as she rooted through the boxes, trying to find the correct magazines for her glock. She'd shown up several minutes after everyone else had, but no one really seemed to take notice, which was all the better.
Mara was nearly convinced she'd gone invisible somehow, but then Trip appeared in front of her. Wordlessly, he picked up a single clip and handed it to her. No shaking, no hesitation, just a single action and a small smile. "Thanks," Mara murmured, accepting the magazine from Trip.
"No problem," Trip nodded back. "Looked like you were having some trouble. Are those cold feet from going back into the field?"
The linguist shook her head. "I've actually been back in the field a couple of times now," Mara told him. "So, no, it's not that."
"And here I thought you were off active field duty," Trip cocked a questioning eyebrow.
"Says the man who should've been on bed rest for the last week?" Mara replied, echoing his expression and pointing to the bandage wrapped around Trip's arm. "And the retirement thing was never meant to be permanent, per say. They wanted my reintegration to be a slow process, so they could judge how I was handling before I was out once more, but it's looking like we're going to have to speed up that process a bit."
"See how you were handling?" Trip repeated, eyebrows rising further. Oh, crap, Mara was hoping he hadn't caught that. "Mara, did something happen while you were gone?" There was a compassion in his voice that almost compelled Mara to answer, but she found herself hesitating again. When finally she opened her mouth to respond, Trip cut her off. "Ah, ah, ah. Don't you try to tell me it's a long story again. And SHIELD got rid of it's levels and secrets, so I know it's not classified."
"I know," Mara said with a sigh. "And it's not classified anymore. I'm just...I'm not ready to talk about it yet I don't think. You don't really go on a deep cover mission for three years without bringing back some baggage."
"Oh. Yeah, okay," Trip nodded in understanding. "I can respect that."
"But," Mara added quickly, nearly running over the end of Trip's words. "When I'm ready, you'll be the first one to know, okay?" The smile was back on Trip's face. "You're my closest friend on this team."
"Girl, any time you need to talk," Trip smiled, pulling Mara into a one-arm hug. "Look at us. Going out in the field together again. It's just like old times, huh?"
"Just like old times," Mara agreed, though she knew that things would never again be what they once were.
~x~
By the time Mara made it into the abandoned theater, the fight was already underway. Bobbi and Hunter stood about five paces ahead of her, easily sniping Hydra agents before they could even get a shot off. For her part, Mara was trying to keep up. Unfortunately, she only managed to take out a cement pillar and not the man standing behind it.
"Nice shot, Hawkeye," Hunter muttered. At the same time Bobbi gave her a concerned look and a, "You alright there?"
They ducked under another round of fire, Mara groaning, "I'm a little rusty, okay?" At least, that's what she had to keep telling herself. When she looked down at her hands, they shook like an electric current was running through them.
The brunette took a deep breath, clenching her hands more tightly around her gun. However, when she looked back up and scanned the battlefield, she spotted movement over in the corner. If she wasn't mistaken, someone was attempting to duck into the entryway to the basement as inconspicuously as possible.
Mara could recognize that silhouette anywhere.
"I'm getting really tired of this," Mara muttered darkly. She turned to her teammates, though she could see they were already glancing at her.
"He was your partner," Hunter reminded her. As if she needed reminding.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Already on it," Mara replied, reholstering her glock. "Cover me, I'm going after him."
Mara sprinted across the corridor, only ducking a handful of times. Instead, she kept her eyes on her target, even after he'd disappeared down the staircase. The Hydra mooks standing between her and her target were the least of her concern. She may not have liked Hunter as much as she did Bobbi, but she trusted them both to have her back.
She wove through tight corridors and several staircases, carefully making sure that the sound of her boots against the stone floors were never louder than the shots above them. As she descended the levels, going lower and lower into the structure, the sounds of the fight upstairs began to fade. The light began to dim. Underground, there were no windows to let the natural light in, and with only out of date lamps to light the way, it was almost hard to see.
Just when Mara thought it would never end, her mark hesitated. For a moment, Mara feared she'd been discovered, but then Aiden turned and walked into a room. Mara waited for several seconds before glancing inside.
The room was pretty small. What was strange about it was the fact that the top half of all the walls was glass. Beyond the glass, Mara could see that this room actually sat within another, larger room. In the background, she could see a bright light, though she couldn't see the source.
A moment later, Mara realized that it wasn't a room at all; not a permanent one at least. It was a work station that had been set up by Hydra. There were many large pieces of equipment and monitors around the space, all of which were too high-tech to have been part of the building. Mara guessed that the light was coming from the plasma drill and a new view of the space told her she was correct.
This was it, Mara realized. This was her chance to do something. If she could stop the drill here, then maybe she could stop Hydra from ever reaching the underground city. Chances were that the drill had already gotten them there, but destroying it now would give her allies a quicker way in as well if she could call them in.
By her count, there were six Hydra agents guarding the place. Aiden was there too, but he appeared to be just standing around, messing with the equipment amid angered stares from the other agents and just generally annoying them. Looks like whether he was working with SHIELD or Hydra, some things never changed.
It wasn't the Hydra agents Mara was worried about, but if she took them out quickly, she could get to Aiden and that's where the real struggle would be.
That was the plan, then. Take out the mooks and isolate Aiden. And it would have been a great plan, had things gone off without a hitch.
The second Mara walked into the room, however, a loud noise sounded and the door shut behind her. She only had a moment to breathe a curse in Hungarian before ducking behind a row of machines. Mara scrambled for her gun as bullets whizzed overhead. This was a mistake. A damn careless one, but since when had Mara ever been careful?
When she got to her feet once more, she couldn't even get a shot off before her glock was knocked out of her hands. In an instant, several Hydra agents were on her and Mara was forced to try disarming several people at once. The resulting commotion made her lose sight of Aiden almost instantly.
She feigned left to avoid a punch thrown at her head and used a roundhouse to disarm the man behind her. Another right hook and the man crumpled to the floor. Someone tried to sneak up behind her, but she managed to throw them over her shoulder. Two down.
Mara was able to grab the next man in a headlock when she'd heard it; the sound of an automatic door unlocking. She looked up and spotted Aiden running from the room, one of the other soldiers at his side. Mara dropped the man in her arms and attempted to run after them, but the second agent relocked the door before Mara was even fifteen feet away. Behind him, she could see Aiden yelling at the agent. She had no idea what he was saying, but he definitely looked angry. Aiden was never angry.
Then, another sound caught her attention and Mara's heart stopped. She would know that distinct beeping anywhere. Her eyes landed on it and her heart started beating once more, now in double time. The explosive sat on the machine about a meter to her right, counting down as it blinked in time to the beeps.
There isn't enough time, Mara thought. The room locked from the outside and the walls were more than likely bulletproof. Even if they weren't, shooting them out would take too long. The room was far too small to find cover. There was nothing Mara could do.
The last beep sounded and Mara looked up. Her eyes locked onto Aiden's.
And then everything exploded.