2012-

Natasha and Eleanor were even more well-known across SHIELD for being the best Agents the organisation had to offer. They had the highest efficiency and success ratings, and the missions that were done together, side by side, were done to perfection. Every single time.

They were tasked with extremely important assignments and pretty much had full creative control when it came to them, and it worked, they always got results.

For now, though, the two had been split up. Nat was sent over to Russia to work on getting some information about an illegal arms dealer, and Eleanor was still at home, doing the usual work. They still missed each other a lot when away, but it had become a common part of their lives now that they were more used to it, and had their own routines when alone.

For example, when Nat is away for long periods of time Eleanor cries whilst working on a crossword puzzle before pulling herself together and doing work or practising cooking. When Eleanor is away for longer than normal Nat makes a punching bag her arch-nemesis, and then later spends hours with her nose in a book.

A few days prior to Nat leaving for Russia, Captain America had woken up from being in the ice. The two women weren't as bothered about it as everyone else seemed to be as they were pretty busy with their own work, but it did provide good material to tease Coulson with as he was a giant fanboy.

---

After Nat had been in Russia for a few days, Maria had contacted Eleanor and told her to meet her at the hangar ASAP, as she and Fury were going to be flying out to the facility where the Tesseract was being held, as it was "going absolutely cuckoo", and she wanted her to come with and help out.

The helicopter ride there was quiet, tensions were high due to this new threat, and no one seemed to be in the mood to talk. It didn't take long to reach the facility, the two women stepped gracefully out of the helicopter, Eleanor's hair flapping all over the place due to the rotor blade, she wished that she thought to tie her hair back before accepting Maria's invitation, but they were all in a rush. Fury followed them out of the helicopter seconds after.

When seeing that Coulson was the man to greet them, Eleanor gave him a little wave, to which he replied with a friendly nod. The four of them ended up standing in a small circle.

"How bad is it?".

"That's the problem, Sir, we don't know", Coulson replied to the Director. Maria and Eleanor gave each other a small side glance before turning their attention back to Fury.

"Well then, let's go find out", the Director then led the way into the building, the other three needing to speed-walk to keep up with him. They didn't talk again until they were on the correct floor, where Coulson would be able to brief the small team as they walked.

"Dr Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract 4 hours ago", Coulson started.

"NASA didn't authorise Selvig to go to test phase?".

"He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room, spontaneous event".

This situation did not seem good at all, Eleanor had always been slightly wary of SHIELD's plans with the Tesseract, believing that they were biting off more than they could chew and that they should just leave it alone, but the scientists working with it had always assured everyone that it would be okay. Now here they are.

"It just turned itself on?", Maria asked, not quite believing what was happening.

"Where are the energy levels now?", Fury ignored Maria, who shook her head slightly and looked at the woman next to her.

"Climbing. When Selvig couldn't shut it down we ordered evac".

"How long to get everyone out?".

"Campus should be clear in the next half hour".

"Half an hour seems way too long if this thing's energy levels are climbing?", Eleanor stated.

"It's the best we can do".

The group came to a halt when Fury turned to look at Coulson, "Do better".

He nodded at the Director as the other three continued to their destination. "Sir, evacuation may be futile". Eleanor half-agreed with Maria's statement, who knows what the Tesseract could do if it kicked off at full capacity.

"We should tell them to go back to sleep?", Fury retorted.

"If we can't control the tesseracts energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance", Maria tried to reason, which was once again ignored.

"I need you to make sure the Phase 2 prototypes are shipped out".

"Sir, is that really a priority right now?". Wow. Eleanor was impressed with the way that Maria was challenging Fury, the younger woman was just choosing to stay quiet, when Fury was like this there was no reasoning. She didn't particularly feel like risking her life staying here to move the prototypes but she had to help out so that they could all get out faster.

"Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech below. Every piece of Phase 2 on a truck and gone".

Maria was ever so slightly annoyed, and so walked past him with a blank face, tapping Eleanor on the forearm to signal to follow her, "Yes, Sir".

At the top of the stairs, she also signalled for two other Agents to follow, "With me".

"I don't think this is gonna go very well", Eleanor mumbled.

"Agreed", Maria replied in a rather blunt tone.

Once they had reached the lower level, Maria went over to the vehicles in the garage area to get people to prep the vans ready for Phase 2 equipment to be loaded.

Whilst this was being done, Eleanor was directing people in the storage areas to try and get them to hurry with the crates, whilst also grabbing some herself and loading them into the vans. The other Agents didn't seem to understand just how much of a time crunch they were on until the Tesseracts energy reached another unstable level. This caused what felt like an Earthquake, those who were walking stumbled around slightly, trying to regain balance.

"Now do you understand why I've been yelling at you all?! Haul ass!", she shouted whilst bringing the last parts of the equipment out, going a lot faster than previously.

After the last boxes had been placed, Maria told the drivers where to take the equipment and sent them on their way, then walked over to Eleanor who was hovering around nearby, stretching her back from the heavy lifting. "You okay?".

She hummed, "They were just being super annoying". Maria chuckled at her and was about to say something, but then Barton, Selvig, a few Agents, and someone with a glowing staff walked through?

"I need these vehicles", Clint demanded.

Both Maria and Eleanor narrowed their eyes at the person with the Sceptre, "Who's that?", they both said simultaneously.

"They didn't tell me", Clint replied, unbothered by their question.

"Clint? What are you doing?", the younger woman asked when she saw him walking over to the car, but she didn't get a response, so she frowned slightly.

Maria took a few steps away, her back turned to Clint, she was not convinced that what was currently happening right now was approved. Before she could get very far Fury was speaking into her radio, causing everyone to turn and look at her.

She jumped out of the way as Clint took a shot at her, "What the fuck, Barton!", Eleanor screamed at him, making him take a shot at her too, so she ducked and ran behind a pillar.

She shuffled around the pillar slightly and sighed in relief when she saw that Maria had managed to take cover. Pulling their guns out, they both took shots at the car that Barton was driving away in, but they were too fast and rounded the corner swiftly.

"Car. Now", Maria ordered as she headed towards a spare vehicle. Eleanor nodded and jumped into the car that Maria threw her radio into.

It was a pretty scary ride, cars in front of them were being blown up and crashing left, right, and centre.

"Hang on!", Maria yelled as she swerved the vehicle away from a car that crashed in front of them.

"What do you think I've been doing?!", Eleanor replied, throwing her hands in the air for exaggeration. Maria swerved again as she did this, causing Eleanor to go flying right into the passenger side door.

"What did I just say, El?".

"Yep, holding on, got it".

Once they had managed to catch up with the runaway Hawkeye, Maria pulled ahead of them and lifted the handbrake so that they could turn and be in front of them in reverse, before quickly releasing the handbrake again.

Eleanor pulled out her handgun and started shooting at the car, trying to slow them down, resorting to leaning out of the window to have a shot at the tires which almost resulted in her flying out. "This isn't working!".

"Just-", whatever Maria was going to say was cut off as the other car sped up, meaning that their car was going too fast for being in reverse, so they were pushed to the side, leaving Maria scrambling to regain control and get the car's speed back again.

They managed to get to a relatively close distance again, so Eleanor was about to fire more shots, but stopped and slowly turned around when rumbling could be heard, "Uh, Ria, the tunnel is about to be smushed". It was fully collapsing in on itself, they started having to dodge falling debris, and well... the falling ceiling.

"I'll get us out, don't worry", although Maria had a panicky undertone when saying this. A mere few seconds later, the car was trapped under rocks. Maria was flown forward and caught by the seatbelt, giving her whiplash, but she came out of it mostly unharmed. Eleanor however, had been unlucky enough to have had a giant rock fall onto her side of the car before it fell to the floor, not before hitting the top of her, though.

Maria coughed a few times and turned to the woman next to her, seeing her unconscious slumped back in her seat, blood staining the side of her face.

She immediately undid her seatbelt and leant across to her, "Hey", Maria shook her slightly, "Come on wake up!". She checked and luckily there was a pulse, "Shit, El come on, please".

She then heard Fury on the radio, wanting an update, "A lot of men still under, I don't know how many survivors, Hughes is out cold I need medical now".

"Sound a general call, I want rescue and med teams, and I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase".

"Roger that", she replied.

"Coulson, get back to base. This is a level 7. As of right now, we are at war".

Once communications on the radios had finished, Maria immediately tuned into another channel, making sure that rescue and medical teams were on their way, and alerted them of Fury's order for everyone else to start the briefcase search.

Maria then turned back to Eleanor with worry painted on her face, she still hadn't moved. The door on her side was crushed, so Maria moved some of the smaller rocks out of Eleanor's lap, and then grabbed her and pulled her out of her side of the vehicle. Holding her bridal style, she swiftly made her way out of the tunnel, and within minutes the various teams showed up.

Maria turned, still holding the younger Agent, and saw how much of the ground had collapsed, the facility completely under, her grip on the woman in her arms got stronger at seeing this.

Once the paramedics had reached Maria, Eleanor was placed into an ambulance and taken to a nearby hospital for assessments. Maria went with her but made sure to listen in carefully to the radio so that she could be kept up to date with everything happening at the collapsed facility.

After reaching the hospital, tests and scans took place, and luckily it was just a concussion, a bad one, but a manageable one, and so Maria was relieved. The doctors informed her that she would wake up in a few hours, and so Maria sat by her side, spending the time trying to wrap her head around everything that had taken place tonight. When looking at Eleanor lying on the bed, looking vulnerable, she desperately wanted to tell Natasha, as she knew that she would want to know about the state of her girlfriend, but Maria didn't know when the suitable times were to contact Nat on her mission. So, decided to keep quiet for now, to keep Nat safe.

---

Meanwhile, a couple of hours later, Natasha was still in Russia being interrogated. In reality, she was in full control of the situation and was secretly getting information from the men in question, which they were oblivious to.

She was getting quite a bit of information from them as they were blindly giving away pieces of information in their smug statements, which she found amusing. Just as they were getting some tools to use on her, their phone rang, confusing everyone in the room.

Someone answered, but then passed it along to the General, who started speaking but was quickly interrupted by Coulson, "You're at 1-14 Silensky Plaza, 3rd floor. We have an F-22 exactly 8 miles out. Put the woman on the phone or I will blow up the block before you can make the lobby".

This made his eyes widen, and he swiftly passed the phone to Natasha, who due to her restraints, had to hold it to her ear with her shoulder. "We need you to come in", Coulson started.

"Are you kidding? I'm working".

"This takes precedence".

"I'm in the middle of an interrogation, this moron is giving me everything".

"I don't give everything?", the General stated, but it didn't come off confidently. Nat just gave him a 'really?' look before putting her attention back to the call.

"Look, you can't pull me out of this right now".

"Natasha, Barton's been compromised". Her mood immediately shifted, and she knew that this did indeed take precedence, her friend had been compromised and she needed to get back to help. But then Coulson continued after hesitating for a second which only added fuel to the already scorching fire, "And Hughes took a hit".

"Let me put you on hold", she then began to quickly and efficiently demobilise everyone in the room, the majority of it whilst being strapped to a chair. Coulson was unphased whilst hearing the grunts of pain from the other side, it was just another day at the office.

Once she had finished she picked up her heels and began walking out, "What do you mean she took a hit, is she okay? And where's Barton now?".

"Bad blow to the head, concussion, she's expected to wake up soon. As for Barton, we don't know".

She sighed at hearing both of those statements, "But he's alive?".

"We think so. I'll brief you on everything when you get back".

"Okay, I'll get back as soon as, check on her, and then help track Barton", she said at quite a fast pace, just saying her plan as she thought of it.

"No, first we need you to talk to the big guy".

"But-", Natasha wanted to protest, she wanted to check in on her girlfriend.

"Natasha, she got moved to the infirmary here, Maria's with her, she's okay".

"Fine", Natasha sighed, she wasn't happy but she needed to do her job right now. "But you know that Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me", she smirked.

"Oh I got Stark, you get the big guy".

She stopped in her tracks, "Боже мой".

---

Once outside, she checked her phone to see what location she had been sent to go and collect Bruce Banner. "Kolkata", she mumbled out loud, "This should be fun".

She then huffed slightly before going to find her transportation, her worried mind focused on the two important people in her life.