BAD BITCH
❝these were the women who knitted pain into glory❞

05. Avenging the Past

January 2017

The world had a funny way of pulling Natalia Romanova and Svetlana Smirnov together. Neither expected to meet again, at least not for an extended period of time, after their meeting merely three months previous yet here they stood: surrounded by Natalia's group of friends and on a mission that needed both parties' full co operation.

Svetlana was for hire. After she left Hydra with the help of a certain woman, she began to realise that survival was a lot harder on your own. Without money, refusing to take the elder woman's money, she had to earn herself a whole new reputation within the Black Market. As a young female, facially younger than she actually was, it had been incredibly hard for her to be taken seriously within the darker corners of the world. To begin with, men had underestimated her power and given her simple chores to keep her busy - they didn't take her seriously for a long time but after slaughtering enough people without a second look, the older men learned to fear her.
It had been hard work, though. No matter how easy she claimed it had been: not being taken seriously for the first time in her life had been a large learning curb and it had taken her even longer to realise that to win, she had to play all her cards correctly. She had to play the game to win otherwise she'd be taken out of it before it even began. So she'd played nicely. She'd refrained from using her red acrylics to gouge out all of their eyes and she wound up on top.

People from all around the globe contacted Svetlana when they were in desperate need. Only the very desperate went to a woman like her. Only the very desperate didn't fear her enough to talk to her. Very few people knew of her existence, in the grand scheme of things, but when people actually looked, she was quite easy to contact. She had a work phone, a disposable one which got changed once a week, and had taken residence in a local abandoned hospital which had been evacuated over a decade before hand.
Her phone was being rung quite often. She was in high demand to those who found her and she only took on very selective cases. Sometimes she'd take cases out of pity. It wasn't humility; merely work for the bored. She'd taken on a case merely a day ago, in fact, for the same reason. The facts were simple.
A woman had gotten out of a dangerously abusive relationship and wanted the man gone. The man had been sending death threats and had held the woman hostage a month previous in her own home. Svetlana enjoyed killing abusers. Perhaps it was due to her own internalised anguish but the feeling of men's knuckles shattering, the same knuckles that had beaten their wives and children before, was enough to take on the case. Of course, if it were a female abuser, Svetlana's answer would be the same. It wasn't heroic. She simply kept her sadistic tendencies to those who truly deserved them.

Her phone was being rung quite often. This being said, Svetlana wasn't surprised at all when the ringtone blared from beside her position on the top of an apartment building. The wind was still, perfect conditions, and she had a clear shot of her target. The sniper rifle carefully placed on the edge of the building was in place, one eye looking through the scope with her fingers wrapped around the trigger, and perfectly positioned on her victim. Svetlana's fingers itched to take the shot, to watch his life splatter onto the wall behind him, but she counted through her breaths - aiming for a shot through her target's left eye and through his prefrontal cortex.

Her phone was still ringing, the number unknown, but Svetlana could barely hear it. She was a professional, after all, and could easily drown out noise around her when she was doing what she loved to do. Taking three breaths, steadily letting the air out of her perfectly coated burgundy lips, she goes to pull the trigger on her last exhale but is stopped by a voice behind her.
❝Miss Smirnov, you are needed by Director Fury.❞
The voice is male. Deep but strained, older male but not too old. Accent shows Boston upbringing but coated, professional in the agency - so high in command, and the slight pause after her name shows the mannerism of a man used to being called to collect people. Field agent, Svetlana supposes.
Svetlana smirks to herself. Still staring at her target through her scope, making sure he doesn't walk away from the coffee table he is sat by, and waiting like a predator.
❝Agent Coulson, always lovely to hear from you.❞
She muses, voice slightly gravelly from its disuse, and begins to apply pressure to the trigger. She pauses slightly, waiting for an answer from the man but receives no such thing, and feels a slight pang of confusion as to his passiveness to her assassinating civilians.
With nothing stopping her, she pulls the trigger and watches with morbid fascination as her target's brains splatter onto the child in front of him. As usual, the people around begin to scream, ducking for cover as though she were going to shoot again, and police sirens are quick to echo across the city. Ambulances are dispatched but the man was dead from the moment his wife contacted Svetlana. Looking closely, turning her scope to the left with her thumb and forefinger, a sense of satisfaction blooms in her chest at the sight of the bullet hole in the man's left eye. Svetlana can't help but smirk down at her victim.
Agent Coulson is still stood behind her, motionless as usual, and waiting for her to follow him. He seemed to be under the impression that Svetlana would be going without a hassle. The man, no matter how sweet she found him, would leave with a bullet hole in his eye as well if he continued to test Svetlana's patience.

❝I hear you're now known as Lady Justice on the streets of New York.❞
Svetlana ground her teeth together, fingers itching to wrap around his throat and simply stop any more words from coming from his mouth, but she remained quiet for a moment. Twirling around from her spot by the rifle, Svetlana forces a relaxed smile on her lips and looks the very definition of calm. Coulson is immediately on edge as he knows he's managed to piss off the devil herself, though he isn't particularly scared, so keeps silent and waits for her to speak.
❝People have too much faith in my morals.❞
Svetlana states with ease, placing her deadly hands on her waist, and narrows her eyes in questioning. She knew why Agent Coulson was there, he'd stated it upon arrival, yet she felt as thought there was a large portion of explanation being left out. Svetlana grew up trusting her instincts.
They both stood opposite each other for a few moments. Staring into each other's eyes with equal parts of stubbornness, before Coulson looks away in submission. She smiles to herself slightly but it isn't a welcoming smile at all.

❝Humour me, Phil. Why does Fury want to talk to me?❞
Coulson hesitated slightly, shocked at Svetlana's informality to him, before registering what she'd said. Phil Coulson and a Svetlana Smirnov went further back then would be expected. They had met more than two years beforehand, shared a common tolerance for one another, and nothing more had ever been discussed about their past.
❝We've had a security breach.❞
❝And they want me in?❞
❝...It was a big security breach.❞
Phil sees a glimpse of Svetlana's real smile at that. It wasn't large nor obvious but it was a slight amused scoff which made Coulson smile to himself as well.

Svetlana didn't want to kill Coulson as much as she wanted to kill anyone else. It was as simple as that. No friendship nor enjoyment of personality. She simply didn't itch to slit his throat whenever he opened his mouth.

❝What was taken?❞
Svetlana mused to herself, beginning to quickly dismantle her sniper rifle, and waited for a Coulson to begin talking. Svetlana knew she was going to be leaving with Phil. The case interested her already and she was willing to help as long as she could do it as a solo task force.
Svetlana couldn't admit it but she was curious. She'd found it laughably easy to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D's defence forces, managing to see Natalia when she so pleased, but to anyone else; it was damn near impossible. So Svetlana was curious as to who could have possibly staged an infiltration and extraction mission successfully. She also wanted to kill whoever had done it. It wasn't loyalty that aroused her murderous side. She simply didn't care that it was S.H.I.E.L.D that had been the victim. It was simply that if someone had managed that; they were competent competition for Svetlana which needed to be removed immediately.
❝It's more of a who.❞
Agent Coulson responded, standby stiffly in his suit and tie as he waited for Svetlana to finish putting her rifle parts away, and looks down at the havoc that she'd caused. There was four ambulances and three police cars. By then, Svetlana was usually long gone. She could shoot and leave in under a minute but she was taking her time only on the idea that if S.H.I.E.L.D needed her, they wouldn't let the city's police take her away.

Who.
So not only had they done an infiltrate and extract mission. They'd managed to take a person. Whoever they were. They were good competition. All it took was for someone to make Svetlana their choice of assassination and she'd be fighting for her life. She'd done enough of that in her earlier years and she wasn't about to be pushed around again.
❝Who was taken? Which lowly S.H.I.E.L.D operative do I have to save now?❞
❝Bucky Barnes.❞
Coulson watches as Svetlana's quick moving fingers still. Her eyes glaze over momentarily and she frowns to herself in conflict. Of course she knew who Bucky Barnes was. He may of only told her his last name the last time they'd had a mission together but she wasn't idiotic. She'd heard about it in the local newspaper. She read about how he and Captain America were forced to go to court and fight for Bucky's freedom, yet again, due to his extensive list of assassinations. Murdering John F. Kennedy is a hard crime to get out of without punishment. Yet, with the help of God's righteous man and a lot of public campaigns, he'd managed to get off without any punishment on the fundamental belief that he was not actually himself and was a victim rather than an assailant. Svetlana couldn't help but feel a strike of happiness when she'd heard that he was going to get the life he deserved. Back with his best friend.
Svetlana still couldn't believe that the public was so blind.

Yet the thing that startled Svetlana was the fact that someone had taken him. Call her naive but she knew for a fact that no one could take down the Winter Solider, whether or not he was named Bucky Barnes, without extensive training. All of that compiled together with the fact of staying unnoticed whilst kidnapping him, extracting him without suspicion, and actually keeping him down was a hard feat to complete.
Svetlana knew that whoever had managed it wasn't a friend of hers.

❝You mean to say; someone took the Winter Solider?❞
❝Yes, he's been reverted back to his old state. No one realised he was gone until the following morning. No traces of DNA. No signs of forced entry. No clues. Nothing.❞
Svetlana hums to herself in agreement. Wearing a black body con dress, her gloved fingers hold tightly onto the briefcase filled with her now dismantled gun, Svetlana looks as though she belonged in a cocktail party rather than a grimy part of New York City. Keeping her shoulders back, Svetlana thinks to herself for a moment. There is only one organisation that could try to attempt to take the Winter Solider. And there is only two women in the world who could be successful.
One of them was herself so that left only one last woman. One of such should be dead.
Madame B.
Svetlana scowls to herself.

❝I know who did it.❞
Svetlana grinds out. If Madame B was still alive: it was a danger to them all. Bucky Barnes, Svetlana Smirnov and Natalia Romanova were not safe. If Madame B was still alive: she would want them all back. She started with the easiest. She knew Bucky could easily be reverted back to his previous state of mind - brainwashed. Next on her list would be Natalia. She was easier to capture. Then Svetlana.
Coulson looks in surprise at Svetlana. He obviously wasn't expecting her to have an answer so quickly. They must be very desperate if they'd called her in. Since she'd spoken to Natalia in November of the previous year, S.H.I.E.L.D and herself had had a rocky relationship to say the least.

❝Why come to me? You didn't think I'd know who'd taken him so why come to me in the first place? You have a group of superheroes at your disposal.❞
Agent Coulson seems to think for a moment, choosing his next words carefully, before coming to his conclusion.

❝You knew him as the Winter Solider. You know him better than anyone, even Steve Rogers, and we thought you'd help an old friend out.❞
❝And everyone is scared of me and you knew you needed all the manpower you can get.❞
❝That too.❞