Cut It Out and Restart *Daredevil*Damned*Agents of SHIELD*

10) Who We Really Are

Karma was a vicious bitch, Vera thought, but sometimes, it deserved to be praised. Sometimes fate kicked a person from the edge of a metaphorical pool and shouted 'swim!'; occasionally, it held the person under water for a bit for a good measure; other times, it threw them a rescue rope.

Vera wasn't kidding anyone, aware that after the recent breakthrough and opening up to Skye, she had made a U-turn and turned into an Ice Queen again – but it was for a very good reason, i.e. keeping herself from falling apart or exploding.

She had been truly angry at first; more than she had ever been in her life and she failed to find words to describe the depth of that nauseating sensation; 'soul-eating' had seemed to be the closest. She had been grieving too, for all the things lost, but then, the only feeling that remained was... emptiness.

Vera felt numb.

And yet, when she had been intently listening to the intel given for their next mission, she had found a spark of something in her chest, a feeling blooming in her ribcage, a plan already forming in her head. She couldn't believe her luck. A relatively long-term assignment with her practically isolated and in potential danger? She wouldn't be able to come out with a better opportunity even if she tried.

Now? Now she was lying in a strange bed, huge and too comfortable for her comfort, a sensation that had lost familiarity a long time ago if she had ever even slept in a bed luxurious as this one.

And the truth was, no matter how much bravado she had showed off, she was... scared. She was worrying that she might be wrong, afraid that she would die, terrified that she would fuck this up and many more people would die too.

But there were no take-backs. There was no way to run away from this.

Vera squeezed her eyes shut and rolled around in the cushions, hiding her head under the covers as if it could muffle the intrusive voice of her grim thoughts.

-.-.-

"Nikolay Kuznetsov, a businessman with fondness for physics and enough money on his bank accounts to buy a country or three. Born 13th October 1978 as an only child, mother died in labour. His father, however, already had money in spades and sent him to the best boarding schools in Russia. Kuznetsov graduated both MEPhI and Harvard at the age of 20. He made his own fortune by building nuclear power plants and investing into research to make the reactions more efficient and of course, by some clever navigation through the stock market. However, he was always believed to be selling intel on the progress of nuclear research to both Russia and America, perhaps other parties interested, and to possibly have an established position on a weapons black market," Skye recited from the files from Coulson she had put up on the holograms, several photos of their target in the middle. "Real charmer, isn't he?"

Nica sighed, while Skye's eyebrows jumped suggestively and her eyes roamed the team.

"Indeed," Simmons uttered sarcastically, exchanging a look with Fitz.

"Our sources undercover reached out with the information that a bomb of an unseen damage potential was being built in one of his labs in Minnesota and now it's finished and ready for use or for sale. However, a spy laid his life to share that in the close circle of Kuznetsov's acquittances, the whispers are that he plans to use it himself. What for, we don't know, but apparently, he plans to give himself a birthday present. The bomb might be set off in a week."

Nica winced involuntarily – a man died and yet all they knew was that the danger from Kuznetsov was imminent. Sure, the file on the target was rather thorough it seemed, but still; someone lost their life for this little.

Then again, people died for less, didn't they?

"His security system is crazy. Apparently, this guy is downright paranoid – and I mean that, it's in his psych eval-"