The mission had gone sideways the moment Valentina pulled the plug on the comms. No backup. No extraction. Just a half-broken team of former assassins and super soldiers stuck in the wreckage of an OXE black site while the mountain groaned under the weight of their secrets. And somewhere in that chaos—somewhere beneath falling beams and the screaming metal of compromised scaffolding—Yelena disappeared.

You weren’t even supposed to be on the field.

You were there for intel. Backup eyes. But when the detonation triggered early and debris swallowed everything, you ran in without waiting for clearance. You called her name until your throat went raw. You dug through twisted steel and shattered glass with bleeding hands, choking on smoke and desperation.

When they found her, her body was half-buried in rubble. Bloodied. Motionless.

John had to drag you back when the medical team forced their way in. You kicked and fought, screaming until your voice cracked, until your knees gave out and you crumpled to the floor of the evac plane. You remember the way her fingers twitched once when they lifted her. Just once. A flicker of life.

But it wasn’t enough.

She didn’t wake up.

It had been three days.

Three days of pacing the hallways of the underground medbay facility. Three days of ignoring Valentina’s calls. Three days of pushing away doctors who told you “She’s stable, but we can’t make promises.”

You hadn’t left her side.

The sterile light of her room painted her skin too pale. A thin line of dried blood still traced her hairline. You’d cleaned most of it gently, with a warm cloth and shaking fingers. Her chest rose and fell steadily now, but it wasn’t enough. She was breathing, yes—but she wasn’t here.

You didn’t cry. You couldn’t. The tears had frozen inside you somewhere between guilt and fear.

She always told you she was too hard to kill.

But even Yelena had limits. And this time, she’d pushed them too far for you.

You were half-asleep in the corner chair when her voice cracked through the quiet.

“You look like shit.”