Line of Fire

2x16; afterlife

The city in which the Playground was hidden wasn't terribly big. It only took thirty minutes to cross it on foot - twenty if you were running at the pace Mara and Aiden set. Before it completely faded into the suburbs, Aiden turned into an alleyway to catch his breath. Mara rolled her eyes, but she had no choice other than to follow him.

"Hey, don't look at me in that tone of voice," Aiden forced out in between heavy breaths. "Some of us don't have regenerative powers."

Okay, that was true. "But you know what neither of us has?" Mara frowned. She leaned back against a wall and waited for Aiden's response. Clearly he thought the question was rhetorical, because he only looked at her as he gasped, waiting for the answer. "A damn plan. We're just running around like idiots. Where are we even going?"

"Well, we're definitely not going back to that base," Aiden agreed, walking back over to Mara. He leaned against the wall next to her. "You saw how many agents they had on the scene. Then there were all the reinforcements. Who knows when they'll take the base back."

Mara was quick to catch the use of 'they' and not 'we'. But she wasn't going to argue that right now. Not when there were more pressing matters. "And these guys were SHIELD, too," Her frown was only deepening. "Not secretly Hydra, just a dissenting SHIELD faction. Who knows how many agents at other facilities are working with them as well?"

There was a pause, then Aiden asked, "If these guys are SHIELD, wouldn't it be safe to go back? I mean, they didn't kill any of the agents that were already on the base, just knocked them out with gas - which was actually a pretty smart strategy if you want to minimize physical conflict. They can't treat us that badly if we just head on back, right?"

"Speak for yourself," Mara muttered. "You saw how aggressively they went after Skye once they found out about her powers. And they were also looking for Fury's Toolbox. Which, I don't know, contains all those files on...Crossfire." The hesitation and Mara's use of her codename were probably the most telling part of that response.

At least Aiden ignored it. Mara knew he was clever enough to notice it. "No, you're right. Who knows what they'll do to powered people," He nodded along, then stopped. "If we can't return to the base, and we don't know the affiliation of the other bases..."

"Then we can't use any SHIELD safe houses either," Mara finished for him. They couldn't go near any SHIELD facilities while these 'Real SHIELD' guys had access to literally all of them from the comfort of Coulson's office. And once they found the files on her, it was only a matter of time before they went looking for her as well. Well, that was just frickin fantastic. "Great, we literally have nowhere to go."

"...Actually," Aiden said after just enough pause for Mara to begin worrying. "I might have an idea."

"I'm not going to like this, am I?" Mara made a face.

Aiden only laughed in response. "Oh, man, you are going to hate it."

~x~

"This is a terrible plan," Mara muttered. It was mostly a comment for herself, but she made sure it was loud enough for Aiden to hear.

"You might've mentioned once or twice," Aiden was as jovial as ever, even with a slight edge to his voice. A conversation where Mara was acting childish and Aiden was the serious one? And Mara thought the day would never come.

Actually, this whole day was shaping up to a day Mara hoped would never come. Dissent within SHIELD, running from those she once called her friends, partnering with a man she thought had betrayed her. This really was her worst day since coming to the Playground. Now, she wasn't even sure if she would ever see the Playground again.

It was enough to make anyone a little testy; particularly Mara. "Because it is!" Mara insisted. "Hiding in a Hydra safe house. What if, I dunno, there are Hydra agents there? Then we'll be handing them two Crossfires!"

"Well, it's not like we can use the SHIELD safe houses. You said so yourself," Aiden replied. He was up ahead by about five yards, making his way along an overgrown trail in the middle of the woods, checking for bugs or traps. "Besides, they think I'm a Hydra agent too, so they won't be suspicious."

"And what'll they think of me?" Mara quirked a brow. "They won't know me as a Hydra agent."

"But they won't know you as a SHIELD agent either," Aiden argued back, holding a branch out of the way for Mara to walk past him. "You haven't been in the field much lately, so it's not like they'll recognize you. Besides, we won't even see any enemy agents. This safe house isn't used all that often, and it's not on any mission lists for a while. I checked. We'll be safe here."

Mara studied the safe house. It wasn't that big, but it made for a nice, cozy cabin in the woods. All painted wood paneling and a brick chimney on the one side. The upkeep didn't appear to be great, but this one didn't see a lot of foot traffic.

The porch creaked, announcing their entrance as they climbed the stairs. Near the door, there was a panel of wood that seemed a little loose. With a tug, Aiden pulled it back, exposing a keypad underneath. After entering a nine-digit number, he pulled an ID from one of his pants pockets and slid it along the side. A second later, there was a ping and the sound of the door unlocking.

"Oh, good," Aiden sighed, pocketing his ID. "Worried they'd figured me out already for nothing."

As they entered, Aiden slid the wood panel back and turned on the lights. They flickered, before giving the whole place a dim glow.

"Look on the bright side," Aiden said, after the silence went on a little too long. "We can film an amateur horror movie while we wait for Coulson and our guys to contact us."

"I'm not waiting," Mara interjected, deciding to completely ignore the first part of that statement. "We need to figure out a way to contact them first. Let them know where we are. Let them know that we're safe...probably."

"And how would we do that? Using Hydra tech?" Aiden crossed his arms. "Chances are, Coulson ditched his last comm and picked up a burn phone. At least he still knows your number. We just have to wait for him to contact it."

Damn, that was actually a pretty good answer. Looked like they really would have to wait. In an abandoned Hydra safe house in the middle of the woods. With no way to contact her team. Stranded. With Aiden. Mara let out a groan and flopped into the nearest piece of furniture, which happened to be a moth-bitten couch. It let out a noise of protest, and the lack of padding was miserable, but Mara ignored it in favor of finally being off her feet.

"So about that horror movie," Aiden said, like he knew the exact moment Mara had gotten comfortable. "I was thinking Blair Witch Project meets The Evil Dead. Not the remake, but the original. Well, the sequel was much better, but-"

Mara grabbed a throw pillow out from under her head and chucked it at him.