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Nina Ramos was not the easiest person to understand. For the most part, people only understood her enough to understand that she was a formidable agent; but as they looked closer, trying to understand the person behind that title, they found nothing but chaos, conflict and pain.

Nothing about Nina Ramos made sense.

It made no sense how she could kill as easily as she could breathe while being haunted by the deaths of those she loved, nor did it make sense how she hated people with every fibre of her being but was the type to form lifelong relationships with those deemed worthy.

She was a walking contradiction.

A contradiction that Fitz had learned to love, and a contradiction he had learned to understand.

It was the understanding that led to where he was now, sitting in an interrogation room with Simmons, brainstorming ideas to recover/save Nina and Mack with a specific pair of knives in front of him.

They were both dented around the edges while one had a chipped tip. As Fitz looked at them he couldn't help but feel a sense of sorrow, Nina loved her knives and he knew that she'd be heartbroken to see them damaged. He wanted to fix them, but Nina was very particular with the people she let work on her weapons so he left them be.

"Do you know why Nina chooses knives over guns?" Fitz muttered, seemingly out of the blue. His question caused Simmons to pause on her pacing before facing him and shaking her head.

"I just assumed she liked having a signature. Most agents do," was the answer she gave before adding, "do you know why?"

"Yeah, I do. Believe it or not, she used to be a terrible shot," Fitz said with a slight laugh as he remembered Nina's flushed face when she'd told him that fact, "her dad used to give her a training gun when she was a kid, she'd build it and tear it apart. Helped her get control over he emotions. But she'd never fired one until she joined SHIELD, said she almost shot her instructor the first time."

"Seriously?" Simmons asked with a smile, "it's hard to imagine Nina anything but perfect at everything."

"That's exactly what I thought," Fitz smiled back before continuing, "Tony got her a knife for her 14th birthday, an exact replica to the type her dad used when he was overseas, and she practised with it every day. For her second end of year evaluation, she brought it with her. Taped around the blade so she wouldn't hurt her assessor but when he saw it, he laughed at her."

"Oh God," Simmons muttered, knowing underestimating Nina was a mistake.

"So, naturally, she beat the shit out of him with it."

"No," Simmons said with a laugh, "so even a 17-year-old Nina was a badass."

"A complete badass. She got penalised for breaking most of his bones and had to retake the evaluation, but she said it was worth it." Fitz smiled, happy to think and talk about Nina for a moment, "Nina tells the story better... she probably wouldn't have liked me telling you that though."

Simmons noted the change in Fitz's tone but instead of offering him pity, she nodded.

"Getting into the city and moving safely about doesn't seem nearly as hard as finding a way to save Nina and Mack," Simmons stated, drawing Fitz's attention back to the task at hand and away from the fatalistic thoughts in his head.

"You don't have to say things about them being alive just because they mean something to me," Fitz muttered under his breath.

Did he want to believe Nina and Mack were dead?

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