I once was lost but now I'm found
seek and ye shall find
rating: pg-13
characters: Gamora, Natasha Romanoff, Nick Fury, Peter Quill, Rocket Raccoon
warnings: canon-typical experimentation on children
summary: Combine one Infinity Gem in the form of a staff, one HYDRA sect interested in said staff, and two teams separately hellbent on finding both of the above. Draw out two assassins and stir.
Or: Gamora and Natasha have more in common than the company they keep.
author's note: From alphaflyer's prompt, "When Fury told Natasha Romanoff that SHIELD had hired another female assassin, the last thing she expected was for the woman to be green."
"So this big bad dude named Thanos is interested in your planet," says the red-coated man, speaking almost more with his shoulders than his words.
"Probably has something to do with those damn Infinity Gems, knowing our luck," the raccoon grumbles.
"We’re going to put them on the books so they can take a look around, find out what they can," Fury states.
And that’s that.
The two lone women end up commiserating - or bonding, depending on your point of view - over their teammates, of all things in the universe. Men with ridiculous attachments to archaic items, creatures capable of destruction hidden underneath gentle exteriors, oddballs with weapon fetishes, hulking males with vengeance vows and smiting tendencies. But they are not defined by their teams, by their friends, and they find they are evenly matched, equally capable.
They find they have more in common than the company they keep.
Under the night sky of a planet that both of them feel aliens on, Natasha tips her head backwards, looks up at the constellations and wonders aloud what they’ve both been thinking since crawling out of that burning base.
"Will it help if we destroyed them?"
Gamora laces her fingers over her chest, a dead blaster on her hip, a used sparkball in her pocket, two of the throwing knives missing from her tall boots.
"Perhaps," she says with consideration, giving no indication of the long hours she has spent imagining how best to tear down the monster who has made her. Natasha shifts a shoulder to lie better on the Mustang’s windshield, her own expression hidden by the dim starlight. She doesn’t speak of the Red Room, of strings and a lost childhood.
Then again, she doesn’t have to.
By the time their back-up comes, ready to tow the bullet-riddled car and the notably bullet-hole-free agents back to the Bozeman base, the two agents are composed and professional. Nothing except the sling around Natasha’s left arm and Gamora’s soot-dusted expression give any indication that the base infiltration went sideways, leaving them fighting for each other in a world that wouldn’t have cared, once, whether or not they succeeded.
"Tell Rogers the staff wasn’t here," is all Natasha says before she takes the keys for the replacement car. The two assassins climb in, breathing in the quiet of the confined, defensible space, and Natasha starts the engine after a moment.
"Please tell me we are going to find those responsible for such depravities," Gamora says through her teeth, the words unnecessary and yet needed. Natasha’s good fingers tighten on the steering wheel.
"Of course. You’re welcome to join us when we do," she replies, and shifts the car into drive.
They take off down the highway, taillights dancing across the plains, and leave the wreckage of another HYDRA base behind them.
When the toxic smoke clears in the morning, gray and gritty in a brilliant sun, the clean-up team goes in. In addition to the soldiers and scientists slumped among the rubble they find five small bodies laid out with care, covered eyes turned a brilliant and bloody blue.
rating: pg-13
characters: Gamora, Natasha Romanoff, Nick Fury, Peter Quill, Rocket Raccoon
warnings: canon-typical experimentation on children
summary: Combine one Infinity Gem in the form of a staff, one HYDRA sect interested in said staff, and two teams separately hellbent on finding both of the above. Draw out two assassins and stir.
Or: Gamora and Natasha have more in common than the company they keep.
author's note: From alphaflyer's prompt, "When Fury told Natasha Romanoff that SHIELD had hired another female assassin, the last thing she expected was for the woman to be green."
"So this big bad dude named Thanos is interested in your planet," says the red-coated man, speaking almost more with his shoulders than his words.
"Probably has something to do with those damn Infinity Gems, knowing our luck," the raccoon grumbles.
"We’re going to put them on the books so they can take a look around, find out what they can," Fury states.
And that’s that.
The two lone women end up commiserating - or bonding, depending on your point of view - over their teammates, of all things in the universe. Men with ridiculous attachments to archaic items, creatures capable of destruction hidden underneath gentle exteriors, oddballs with weapon fetishes, hulking males with vengeance vows and smiting tendencies. But they are not defined by their teams, by their friends, and they find they are evenly matched, equally capable.
They find they have more in common than the company they keep.
Under the night sky of a planet that both of them feel aliens on, Natasha tips her head backwards, looks up at the constellations and wonders aloud what they’ve both been thinking since crawling out of that burning base.
"Will it help if we destroyed them?"
Gamora laces her fingers over her chest, a dead blaster on her hip, a used sparkball in her pocket, two of the throwing knives missing from her tall boots.
"Perhaps," she says with consideration, giving no indication of the long hours she has spent imagining how best to tear down the monster who has made her. Natasha shifts a shoulder to lie better on the Mustang’s windshield, her own expression hidden by the dim starlight. She doesn’t speak of the Red Room, of strings and a lost childhood.
Then again, she doesn’t have to.
By the time their back-up comes, ready to tow the bullet-riddled car and the notably bullet-hole-free agents back to the Bozeman base, the two agents are composed and professional. Nothing except the sling around Natasha’s left arm and Gamora’s soot-dusted expression give any indication that the base infiltration went sideways, leaving them fighting for each other in a world that wouldn’t have cared, once, whether or not they succeeded.
"Tell Rogers the staff wasn’t here," is all Natasha says before she takes the keys for the replacement car. The two assassins climb in, breathing in the quiet of the confined, defensible space, and Natasha starts the engine after a moment.
"Please tell me we are going to find those responsible for such depravities," Gamora says through her teeth, the words unnecessary and yet needed. Natasha’s good fingers tighten on the steering wheel.
"Of course. You’re welcome to join us when we do," she replies, and shifts the car into drive.
They take off down the highway, taillights dancing across the plains, and leave the wreckage of another HYDRA base behind them.
When the toxic smoke clears in the morning, gray and gritty in a brilliant sun, the clean-up team goes in. In addition to the soldiers and scientists slumped among the rubble they find five small bodies laid out with care, covered eyes turned a brilliant and bloody blue.