Chapter Text
“Hill, a moment, please.” Maria lifted her head from the desk when she heard Nick Fury's voice behind her. It was the same strong voice he always used with her, not that she minded it, she was very used to it by now.
“Yes, what's up?” Maria looked at the man who gave her a disproving look back.
“What's up?” The man said coldly back; however, he cracked a small smile as she grimaced back at him.
“Well it’s not like being formal is our thing anyways. Right, Nick?” The man huffed at her but didn’t comment on it any further. She might not be in the highest rank yet, but she did happen to have a good relationship with the director so she didn’t really think anything of her informality with him as long it was only the two of them. Besides, she had flown up the ranks already, and it really didn’t feel that long since she joined.
“I want you in my office, we need to talk about something because I need your opinion.” Fury continued the conversation, not waiting for her to put away her things before he started to walk out of her office again. She wasn't surprised, but she did let out a small sigh as she followed the man out into the hallway.
Around in the corridor, she could see them already attracting some attention. She knew that a lot of the other employers had taken notice of how often she seemed to get called directly by the Director of Shield. After all, in their eyes, she was just a newbie after all.
Maria had only been in Shield for a short 11 months, coming from the air force before changing paths, and it didn’t take long before she was a full-on field agent moving past a lot of agents who had been working a lot longer on their skillsets than her. Being a level 6 already, was not normal, especially when you hadn't been scouted by anyone prior. But Maria didn’t mind the looks or the attention. She had worked hard to get where she was, and clearly, Fury trusted her with a lot of information and responsibility, and he wouldn’t do that without reason.
“Coulson.” Maria nodded at Phil Coulson who just walked around the corner when the two of them got up to the director's office.
“I see we are in the same boat.” The man smiled at her softly, letting her follow Fury through the door before he followed after her.
“Yeah, let's hope it doesn’t sink,” Maria said with a joking tone, sitting down on the other side of the desk opposing Fury.
“While I appreciate the joke, I need you to be serious.” Nick Fury looked between them as he spoke, putting his signature weight on every word. “I need you to help me evaluate a situation with Agent Barton. I sent him on a mission and turns out he decided to disobey me.”
Maria looked surprised at Nick before looking at Phil. She wasn't even aware Clint Barton was out on a mission right now. She knew him, of course, but she had just gotten home from the field herself, so this was news to her.
Phil, in contrast to her, seemed to know about the mission. Still, he frowned when he heard what Nick had to say, looking a little concerned about what was following.
“I gave him a mission to hunt down somebody I believe is a threat.” Nick Fury looked at them before moving a file over the table.
Maria stopped when she saw the first page. It had the normal logo as always but at the bottom left it said security level 7 or more required.
“Sir, I believe I do not have access to this file yet,” Maria said calmly, looking at the man who rolled his eyes back at her. Phil laughed softly as he picked up the file looking through it while Maria continued to sit there still.
“Listen, I don't care honestly, but here, now your level 7.” Maria didn’t know exactly what Fury did, but before she knew it a small hologram of her head and Shield file started to rotate around and the number 6 flashed over to a level 7.
“Hand it over to her.” Nick looked at Phil, who still looked as calm as ever. He didn’t seem like he was surprised by the level announcement or getting barked at to hand over what he was currently reading. Instead, he just nodded calmly, handing over the folder and letting her look at the first document inside.
It wasn't much. It was some text with one huge picture of a black silhouette on a roof. It was clearly a human, but much more other than that was had to make out.
“This is an assassin. A killer. A very dangerous one. And I sent Barton to kill her.” Maria looked at the man surprised. Not only did the person in the silhouette look anything but dangerous, but knowing the person was dangerous enough to be eliminated was a scary thought.
“They just got on our radar a few months ago. Very stealthy. We don't know how long she has been working like this, but the numbers show some scary potential. Flip the page.”
Maria nodded back slowly, looking at the next page to find a table of numbers and words.
Her eyes went wide as she continued to go through the list. One assassination in Italy. Two in Slovakia. A murder case in the Czech Republic which led to a bigger scene. The list went on and on.
“Who is this person?” Maria whispered, looking through what seemed like a never-ending list. This was just the last two months and this person had at least two dozen kills, and that was only the once Shield had been able to connect with this specific person, but Maria was guessing if the person had gone under their radar before they must have missed a few.
“We don't know, we didn’t ask,” Nick answered coldly, looking at her with a serious face.
“All of this happened in Europe.” Maria pointed out, looking at the list when her eyes fell on the bottom three places, all places in eastern Europe.
“Correct, it seems that is where she is the most comfortable, which is why we sent Barton to Russia to track her down.” Fury already seemed annoyed by the situation. It was understandable if this was actually an assassin that was currently walking around in Europe killing basically every important person she could find, but this entire thing seemed insane. How could somebody like this only now get spotted?
“But does that mean that Clint didn’t follow up the mission, sir?” Coulson looked at Nick Fury with a questioning look. Maria had almost already forgotten what they were actually here to talk about, feeling her head collect itself when the topic got brought up again.
“Yes, that bastard decided that she was worth saving.”
Maria looked confused at her boss as he sighed annoyed. Clearly, he was not happy with the decision, but Clint doing something he was not supposed to do also didn’t surprise her. What he meant by saving though, she didn't understand.
“So she is alive? He let her go?” Coulson followed up slowly. While he looked a little concerned he was still pretty calm, looking at him as Nick looked more annoyed than anything else.
“Let her go, I wish it was that easy.” Nick Fury turned around from them, moving across the room lowering his head clearly thinking very hard about everything. “No, he is bringing her here.”
Maria lifted her head from the file putting it completely down. Did he just say Clint was bringing an assassin here, now? To the Triskelion? The person he was supposed to kill because she was dangerous? That was the person he was bringing over now?
“Any reason why?” Phil still seemed calm, even if Maria herself was freaking out inside. If Clint was bringing this killer here, why would Nick want to talk to them? How could anyone help this situation? This seemed insane.
“Because he wants to keep her, like a lost puppy he found on the streets.” The room went quiet when Nick looked at them. He seemed angry in a way, but at the same time, it was hard getting a grip of Nick Fury leaving Aaria a little unsure how to react.
“Not to be disrespectful or anything, but what do you need us for?” Maria said slowly, pushing away the file she had in front of her, giving the director all of her attention.
“Well, I want you to figure out what the hell to do!” Nick exclaimed, moving his hand in front of both of them. “I need you both to help me figure out what to do when this woman touches down on American soil. We can't just let her walk around freely now can we.”
Maria nodded slowly back. She didn't know how to respond. It wasn't like she had an answer. Honestly, she didn’t see why Clint would end up going away from his order. Like if she was this dangerous, saving her would put his life and everyone in the Triskelion’s life in danger.
“Well, what has Clint said about it?” Maria ended up slowly saying.
Besides her, she could see Phil shift in his seat. He didn’t seem very comfortable anymore like he too realised what was about to happen. Like what kind of person was soon about to enter their work environment.
“He wants her to join Shield.” Fury finally sat down, looking at them across the table. Maria nodded slowly while Phil just stared out in front of him.
If she wanted to join Shield, they would have to not only test her skills but seriously evaluate her. Without knowing much Maria could already tell this woman was basically already working against everything Shield stood for. How would they know she wouldn't turn on them? How would they know they actually had her loyalty?
“Well, we would have to put her in a cell before anything. Keep her contained while we got all the facts from Clint. We know very little about her so that would be our best move. If she seems stable enough, we should question her. Get information from the source.” Maria started slowly, thinking as she went along. While it didn’t seem smart to take her in if Clint decided he wanted to bring her he would. And even if they didn’t accept her, he would end up doing something more stupid, like doing it behind their back.
“If she wants in Shield, we need to do the test, see if she’s suitable,” Phil added, getting a nod from Maria before he continued. “And we would need to test her in the field. Not only to see if she has the skills but also if she is willing to risk and put her life on the line for Shield. Like any other agent.” Phil looked between them as they nodded slowly.
He was right. If she was joining then the best way to test if her loyalty was the right place would be to test her in an area that would push her to the limit.
“So we all agree that we are going through with this?” Nick Fury looked at them after they had all been silent for a while. It wasn't much more to say. They all knew that it was either let Clint bring her in or start a big scene and while none of them wanted to actually have a killer in the house, Clint was as stubborn as he was dangerous, fighting him would lead to no good.
“Yes. When exactly are they arriving?” Maria sighed, looking at the director as he too let out a heavy sigh. It didn’t seem like he liked that question.
“In about 30 minutes.”
Maria didn’t exactly know what to do with herself. She was actually going to stand there and greet an assassin because one of their agents had decided to take her in? What insanity was this? Even if she was a trained agent by now, doing something like this was not close to anything she signed up to. Fighting an assassin, yeah sure… having to stand there pretending it was okay that a murderer was walking into their lives, not so much.
It was only her, Nick Fury, and Phil Coulson greeting them when the quinjet landed. While it would be smart having more security on the runway, they didn’t want to spread the word that the woman was arriving. They had some agents on call close by in case anything happened, but they weren't with them now. They couldn't really rely on them. It was only just in case.
Maria took a deep breath when the jet landed in front of them. She didn’t know what to expect. She just knew it was an assassin that was going to walk down that ramp besides Clint. A woman that had killed tens of people across the world. A woman that was so dangerous they wanted her head.
Maria took a deep breath when the jet landed in front of them. She didn’t know what to expect. She just knew her heart stopped when the most breath-taking woman she had ever seen entered the field.