Picture: Jeremy Renner from 28 Weeks Later

Music: "Eternal Counsel" by Male Choir of St. Petersburg

All rights go to their rightful owners.

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FIVE

Clint Barton P.O.V.

It doesn't take Natasha, Maria, and I long to get our weapons of choice and make our way up to the Nest, a large, shielded balcony that is fifty feet above the Base. It's used for lookout, but it can have the shields lifted so it can be used as a sniping platform. Natasha and Maria prefer snipers, but I take my hand dandy bow and arrow. I shoot better with it anyways.

We enter the Nest and set up the snipers and other various weapons of choice. Nat lifts the shields on the outside of the Nest and we wait, looking out over the mountains of Budapest.

"We're all set," Maria says, loading amo into her sniper. "What are our targets?"

"Anyone who moves," Nat says softly, keeping a sharp eye on the shadows.

"We don't know if they're hostile yet, Romanoff," I remind her. "They could be just-"

"-What? Citizens out on a walk when our communications suddenly stop working?" Nat raises an eyebrow. "Come on, Barton. You are not that stupid."

I glance over to the north and east of the Base where Agent Marcus said he saw people gathering. I see several people, but it's so dark, and without the lights...

Footsteps approach the Nest. I glance behind us to see Agent Coulson. "What's up, Boss man?"

"I gathered all Level 2 agents to get a weapon and stand ready to fire at the doors if necessary," he says, crouching down beside us. "What can you see from up here?"

"Not much," I admit. "The lack of lights is causing us to have a limited field of vision. Why don't we have the lights on, again?"

"We can't risk, if it's HYDRA, them seeing what we're up to outside."

"Oh, well, we'll let you know if we see anything."

"I'm staying up here."

"Why? Aren't you needed down there?"

"You're our best bet. I want to be up here to give the orders to you if things go south. I have an Dr. Andrew Garner downstairs giving orders."

"I thought you said we didn't have anyone above Level 2 besides the four of us?" Maria asks.

"Andrew isn't an agent. He's a friend. He's a close friend's husband, actually. I trust him with my life. He'll follow our lead, trust me."

I nod, and Nat tenses up, saying, "We have company. Barton, Hill, twelve o'clock."

I look through the scope of the sniper I have set up, setting my bow down on the ground. I see nothing like what I'd expect. I see a young girl - maybe late teens, early twenties - standing with someone right behind her. He has what looks like a gun pointed at her neck. She utters something to him, her face terrified and angry. He replies, and shoves her forward more.

"She's just a kid," I exclaim, surprised. I look through the scope again, noticing the dark brown color of her hair, her medium skin. "Coulson, I am not shooting a minor. She looks hurt... and starved half to death. I can see her ribs from here-"

"-You will if she's a threat," he says, looking through binoculars.

The girl stretches out her hands, and suddenly, the walls are shaking. I hear a loud, piercing screeching noise come crashing towards the Base like a lightning bolt. Maria, Natasha, Coulson, and I all collapse on the floor of the Nest, holding our heads in our hands. We scream in agony, but I can't hear anything.

Coulson grabs me by my shoulders and screams at me, but I can barely understand. "What?!"

"Take... her... out!" he orders, pain in his face. He pulls me up and hands me the sniper. "Romanoff is down. You're the best shot we have! Shoot, now!"

I shake my head. "I won't shoot an innocent girl!"

"She's not innocent! She's killing our men! Look below!" Insee the men crawling around the outside if the Base, collapsing and bleeding from their ears. "Shoot!"

I look through the scope and see the brunette, her face hurting as she seems to be causing this phenomenon. "I won't!"

"Barton, take the damn shot!"

I aim the sniper at her shoulder, just high enough to miss vital organs, but just low enough to knock her out. I pull the trigger, and the bullet flies with a bang.

The screeching stops immediately. Maria shakes Natasha's shoulder, trying to bring her to. I look at the woman I shot through Phil's binoculars and see her turn her powers on her companions. She blows many of them off the scene before collapsing from blood loss and trauma.

"You missed!" Coulson shouts. "Clint Barton doesn't just miss! You did this on purpose, and I want to know why."

"She's a victim!" I shout back at him. "And now, we have bigger fish to fry. Look!" I point to a small army of HYDRA soldiers marching towards the Base. "It was HYDRA all along. You can damn bet that that girl is being used, and after all this is sorted, I intend to find her again."

"What makes this girl so special?"

"Besides the fact that she can do something we've never seen before?" I sigh. "You saw her. She turned on her captors the second she had the chance. A girl like that could be helpful."

Gunshots bounce off the ceiling above our heads. "Put the shielding up!" Coulson orders, and I make a run for the switch. After we're safe from the spray of bullets, Coulson stands and reaches to help Maria with a conscious, but delirious Natasha Romanoff. "We'll discuss this later. Right now, we have an invasion to prevent."

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Dariya Romanova P.O.V.

My head is swimming with pain killers; that's the only thing I know for certain. I guess it must've been pretty bad for an evil origination like HYDRA to give their weapons pain killers. Or maybe they're hoping I overdose. Who knows.

I blink my eyes several times, trying to clear anything fuzzy from my vision. I've been drugged. Morphine? Yay. Fun. Except that the only time I'm left unguarded is when they make sure I can't even stand on my own, let alone escape.

I'm in a white room. The beds are white, the walls are white, the floor, the lights, even my clothing is white. Why on earth would a hospital be white? Too much blood to keep it white for long.

I'm hooked up to a machine that tells my pulse, heart rate, and brainwaves. They have cameras installed in the four corners of the whitewashed room.

Awww, they don't trust me? Such a shame.

I shake my head again, trying to clear it. Maybe if I can just reach the morphine levels-

"Don't even think about it," Baron von Strucker says, entering the room. "You were screaming to high heaven when they tried to take the bullets out. They only gave you morphine because you were making too much noise."

I gulp, sitting up in the bed-like chair. "What happened to me?"

"You were shot by an Agent Barton of S.H.I.E.L.D.,.and you failed to execute your duties to their fullest extent." Strucker pauses, laying a hand on my morphine levels at the end of the bed. "I have a feeling they're only keeping you alive so they can punish you themselves."

I lay back. "I can't do this anymore. I physically can't."

"They're not going to take that for an answer, you know." He walks over to the window on the other side of the room. "Pierce has given me control over human experimentation and mutations. I'm to create enhanced people, like you, for HYDRA. I'm in the process of creating a superwoman of sorts from pre-birth. When she is born, ah," he smiles, "she will be amazing."

"You're sick. How dare you do that to an unborn child!"

Strucker reaches for my morphine levels and turns them dowm, slowly, watching my face as the pain creeps back into my body. My shoulder feels like it has a chunk missing, and I can't feel my right hand or fingers. I grit my teeth as he continues to lower it, my body trying to fight the pain. "Gah," I whimper, tears falling. "Please, stop."

"Never forget that no one in HYDRA is your friend," he snarls. "I may not be the abusive bastard that Ward is, or the compulsive control freak like Zola, but I will do whatever I want to you once you are of no use to Zola. I will tear you apart, piece by piece, to find out what makes you tick. I will dissect you while you're still alive, and if you survive that, I will see how durable that body really is to radiation, poison, and gas."

Tears flow freely down my cheeks as he continues telling me of all the things he'll do. "Please, please stop."

Strucker walks towards the door without turning the morphine levels back up. "Think about that while you're punished by Zola and Ward. Treasure it. I won't be so kind."

END.