Heads & Tails
Avengers’ Compound Fall 2023 Not long after the Battle For Earth
With little time to decompress the events that had recently happened, Scott Lang and a recently back to human form, Dr. Bruce Banner discussed the technology that allowed them to recover the infinity stones with Nick Fury and Maria Hill, who had returned to life for only a short time. Hope Van Dyne is also present. Hope took everything in as she was overwhelmed by her return and the battle she just witnessed and survived, as well.
Lang and Banner’s discussion is a bit of a vague summary and Maria and Nick exchange a few curious glances about the wide implications the ‘time heist’ really has for the world—and others. One of their concerns being the exact thing that happened, a Thanos (or another bad actor) from an alternate timeline returns to this timeline to stop the Avengers from succeeding. The heavy implications are clear, Tony Stark lost his life because of this.
Alternate timelines as well as the separate issue of implications from multi-verses blending into this universe were always an assumed and considered a possibility but now the fight before Fury and and those trying to protect the world was unfathomable. Fury was unable to even comprehend it. There were so many problems just in THIS universe and in THIS timeline. Now there was an infinite amount of potential problems that could occur at any time. Maria and Fury did not look super impressed or pleased but mostly they were just baffled and exhausted trying to catch up to everything that happened without them.
As Scott looked at the worn and dismal expressions on the faces of Maria and Fury he sighed.
“It’s hard to explain if you aren’t well versed in quantum physics.” Scott rambled off, he was looking right at Maria, as he didn’t want to get into this too much if it was for nothing and he didn’t dare say what he just said while looking at Nick Fury.
“What makes you think I’m not?” Maria rolled her eyes. She wasn’t particularly a fan of Lang, mostly she didn’t find his ‘charming average Joe’ act to be compelling. In the few days in which they knew each other, he had not grown on her yet. He probably wouldn’t, she hated that kind of act, it just seemed so fake to her. And usually those were the type of men who were deceptive. A person pretending to be a bumbling fool could do quite a bit of damage before anyone realized what they truly were. She didn’t think Lang had bad intentions or anything—she just he had the skate by on charisma benefit and that made her roll her eyes. In the alternative, she thought Hope was fantastic.
“You are as curt as described.” Scott mumbled toward Maria.
“Good. Glad I live up to it, still.” Maria snarked back.
“Scott.” Hope growled at him for his words to Maria. Hope could see why he was annoying to Maria, but truly Scott was just being himself.
Bruce just laughed at the exchange, he thought it was nice that Maria and Fury were back and still their true selves despite everything that happened. Bruce had only recently returned to his human form, he forgot what life was like this way.
Maria and Fury were not as thankful as Scott would have imagined for people he directly helped come back to life recently, or people he was showing secret technology to but… hey… they came back to a lot and they were probably pretty stressed. He couldn’t hold it against them or anyone. Maria was curt but at least she was engaged, Fury seemed kind of distracted.
“Okay. Well.” Scott paused he didn’t know what to say he just looked at Hope.
“Do you have notes?” Maria asked him bluntly.
“Are you … well, yeah, but … I mean … can you … uhm, can you understand them?” Scott asked.
Maria, Hope, Fury, and Bruce stared at Scott asking Maria that question. Maria didn’t answer.
“Can you?” Maria retorted sharply and Hope smirked with a little laugh under her breath.
“I can get you some copies…” Scott mumbled and then left to another room to make a copy of some of the notes.
“Thanks…” Maria rolled her eyes again, and then Maria exchanged a glance with Hope.
“I…” Hope paused she couldn’t even excuse Scott. Hope just shook her head. He didn’t understand who he was talking to.
“If there’s anything you want me or my dad for…” Hope offered.
“Thanks.” Maria said far more sincerely than she spoke to Scott. The sincerity surprised Hope.
“Are you.. are you screwing with him?” Hope asked Maria quietly, she thought it was kind of funny, really. Everything had been so serious lately, devastating even. Maria smirked with a little shrug.
“I think my patience was left in the void of the blip.” Maria responded quietly but in a lighthearted tone, like she and Hope had been buddies for a long time. Hope laughed a little under her breath. She wasn’t expecting that, Maria seemed so serious. She really didn’t mind if someone gave Scott a hard time for a minute.
Fury had left briefly but soon returned from his minor absence. Scott returned and handed Maria some notes. He wasn’t totally sure if he should but Bruce seemed to trust them. Rhodes wasn’t here to really guide anything.
“Where is Rhodes?” Fury asked a bit intensely and Bruce just looked at Fury.
“Probably dealing with…” Maria started to explain empathetically. Tony had sacrificed himself not that long ago. Rhodey had yet to recover the emotional trauma of losing him and the battle, it was actually considerate that Hope, Scott, and Bruce could help Fury and Maria catch up. No one had really taken a moment to process anything. But how was there any time?
“Oh.” Fury cut her off, he knew what she was going to say.
“Thanks for the work and the help.” Fury said dismissively to Scott, Hope, and Bruce.
“And you know, uh thanks, for uh saving the world…” Fury added, a strange moment of appreciation that Fury was showing to this oddball group of Avengers.
“Universe.” Maria corrected Fury and Maria and Fury exchanged a glance.
“Universe, I suppose.” Fury nodded.
“You’re welcome!” Scott said with a smile and Hope and Maria exchanged a glance and then Maria looked at Bruce and Scott’s smile faded. Was he not supposed to say that? This was all very strange.
“We’ll be in touch..” Fury mumbled.
“I uh… look forward to it…” Scott exchanged a meager glance between Fury and Maria and then Hope and Bruce. Bruce and Hope just shook their heads at Scott. It was all so awkward, but Hope and Maria had a little bit of a vibe going on, so it seemed. Maria and Fury left together, the same way they entered, like they were attached at the hip. Even though they had kept this act up in the days since their resurrection, the two of them were becoming a bit divided from the stress of their new reality.
Fury’s phone buzzed again and he took the call away from Maria. Fury had just come back to life and wanted to step right back into his old place and role, but he didn’t have any of the information. New people were here now, he was old news and out of touch—at least that’s how Fury felt. He was devastated by his failure to protect the world from Thanos.
Maria felt overwhelmed with everything they had to pick up. She died next to Fury and then returned right next to him too. She hadn’t even seen her mom yet since the chaos of returning and the battle for Earth. She called her mom at least. Fury hadn’t gone to see Priscilla either, the two of them went right back to work, trying to get back into things. Security first, personal lives second. When Fury returned Maria stared at him.
“What’s going on?” She asked a twinge of annoyance in her voice that she hadn’t been included in whatever was happening. How could he be keeping secrets from her, she was the one right here with him not with her family or anything.
Fury looked at Maria a little surprised with the tone, but given what was happening things were tense with everyone.
“I have Gravik working on something fast for me.” Fury said quickly. Maria glanced at Fury.
“Care to expand on that?” She asked, the same annoyance in her voice. They exchanged a briefly tense glance and then they both softened their look and attitude. The two of them were alone now, it didn’t need to be a harsh moment.
“Almost all the Avengers spilled DNA during the battle for Earth.” Fury explained.
“Yeah, and?” Maria asked staring at him.
“I had Gravik get a team and go in and collect all they DNA they could find.”
Maria’s eyes widened.
“You have someone collecting spilled DNA from… a battlefield?” She asked shocked.
“Yes.” Fury answered calmly.
“For a purpose other than identifying remains?” Maria asked her shock continued. Fury gave her a shrug.
“Did you ask them if you could take those samples?”
“For their DNA?” Fury asked surprised that Maria would even ask that, of course he hadn’t.
“Yes, a pretty personal piece of someone.” Maria looked at Fury curiously, she thought that seemed out of character for him. Truly, an awful invasion of privacy. She tried to make it clear why this was an issue absent permission, and very disrespectful to the battle itself.
In the short time since the two of them had returned there was a bit a rift building between them. Fury was short, making decisions rather wildly, Maria couldn’t help but start to question them, as he seemed to have trouble processing the blip and understanding that he was truly gone, dead, for five years and the world moved on without him. Fury was human after all, just like Maria. Their time on earth was finite, limited. They were both mortals, going to die one day in a way that was probably out of their control——Fury seemed shook by it. But he and Maria didn’t talk about it—they were gone and now they were back.
“It’s better that I get it than someone else.” Fury reasoned.
“Nick…” Maria questioned a bit stunned. Fury was never in the military, he didn’t understand why doing something like that was disrespectful, at least Maria figured he wasn’t thinking about it that way.
“Do you think there are people out there who haven’t done this already or tried?” Fury asked her.
“How could they? Half of them were dead for the last five years. Is DNA even relevant for many of them?” Maria pointed out, this seemed like a waste of time or it would be dangerous or upset people.
“We’ll go through sort out whose DNA is worth saving and whose isn’t…”
“How does someone get on that list…” Maria mumbled.
Maria and Fury exchanged a tense glance again.
“How are you going to know whose DNA is whose, anyway?” Maria questioned.
Fury glared at Maria like there was just some things that she did not know and Maria sighed.
Sometimes Fury made choices that Maria didn’t understand, and for much of her life she just assumed it was because he knew better than her, but as she got older and worked with him she realized he wasn’t actually a superior strategic genius than her. He struggled and was flawed, just like all humans. Maria, like many others, got lost in her admiration of Fury. Maria struggled with that often, Fury was like a father to her—a presence she never had in her life, and he recognized talent and skill in her when she was very young. She didn’t know what her life was like without him, but she could tell their visions and morals were drifting apart, was he changing or was she? Did he doubt her loyalty if she raised questions or concerns? She was trying to help and be a voice for him to consider.
After the shock of the news they had just recovered from—that they died and then returned five years later— Maria had to wonder if Nick’s head was in the right place as he made the decisions he was making. Questioning him was to help him realize what he was doing was problematic, not a real solution to anxiety. It was like he was doing these things because he couldn’t wrap his head around the blip at all. He was over-reacting. Maria and Fury had a long to do list since their return and every time they tried to check something off things became more and more complicated. A DNA collection scheme? That seemed like a nightmare, why couldn’t Fury see that not only was it a complete invasion of privacy, it was disrespectful, and dangerous.
“Is there a problem?” Fury asked the discontent Maria, his tone was a bit tense.
“Do you think this decision is an over reaction to…” Maria started to ask to help Fury see the light on this but he stared at her almost like he dared her to finish the question. She paused and stopped her question. Clearly he wasn’t ready to talk about it or really think about what happened, no one was.
“I think this decision is just.. a potential for a future problem down the line. We’re trying to prevent problems, right? Let’s not make more of them. You haven’t gone to see your wife, I haven’t gone to see my family because we are here trying to prevent problems. This seems like… the creation of a problem… I get your intentions are good but…” Maria tried to explain, she spoke calmly and considerately like Fury wasn’t thinking straight. At first, Fury was offended, but he calmed his frustration. If Maria left he truly would be on his own with what he wanted to do and that would he hard for him. Right now, she was the only person he had left…. Well not really but that was how he felt.
“You say it’s a potential problem to do it, but would you be saying it was a problem if I never did this and we get blindsided again?” Fury asked, he had his reasons. Maria didn’t have to understand them. Fury thought Maria wasn’t thinking straight.
“If you’d rather go home…” Fury started to say with a wide eyed look at Maria. Maria glared at Fury. Of course she wanted to go home and see her mother and not be doing this, but she was here. She had a right to voice her thoughts and concerns, didn’t she? She wasn’t a deputy anymore doing whatever Fury wanted, she was her own individual person.
“What are you going to do with it?” Maria asked Fury directly, ignoring his rudeness.
“Save the world.” Fury answered bluntly.
“Okay, well.. what if having more of that DNA out there could put the world at risk…?” Maria pointed out.
“I’m aware. But whose going to know, except me, you, and Gravik?”
“The whole team who worked with him!” Maria shot back instantly.
“They didn’t know what they were doing.”
“You don’t know that.” Maria huffed. To be honest she and Fury didn’t know anything. They were just grasping at things that were left over.
“You don’t think I can keep the most important collection of DNA in the universe safe?”
“You couldn’t…” Maria started to argue with him and and started to say this without thinking, but she caught herself and didn’t finish her thought. How could Nick keep the DNA of the strongest people in the universe safe, he couldn’t even keep himself safe. This was just so dangerous, why didn’t he see this.
“What?” Fury asked, wanting her to finish her thought, but he knew exactly what she was going to say. How could he keep this DNA safe if he couldn’t keep the world safe? He couldn’t keep himself safe or her.
“You should not do this. Everything is still so uncertain and a mess, and we just learned about alternate timelines and realities and … we just have a lot to figure out, storing Carol Danvers DNA is like the plot to a bad sci-fi movie, we need less of that and more realistic ideas.” Maria said quietly.
“I am doing the best I can with what I have.” Fury spoke rather intensely in a way he didn’t usually speak to Maria. Maria pressed her lips together as she knew he was testy and struggling. They both had yet to really process everything. Tony Stark had just died, Thanos and his army were just recently defeated. Their lives were in shambles, they had a lot to figure out.
“It doesn’t have to be a solo project, we could try and figure these things out together.” Maria pointed out. Fury just shook his head no. He wasn’t dismissing Maria but that’s how she took it. He was shaking his head out of frustration.
Maria sighed, she couldn’t pick a fight with Fury about this. He already made his decision and when he did that there was no talking him out of it, even if he could always convince others to change their minds, getting him to change his? Nearly impossible, and Maria was one of the few who had done so successfully in the past. She wondered if those days were not going to exist for her anymore. A few days after this exchange, Maria decided she was going to go see her mother. She was done trying to pick up the pieces with Fury for now, she needed a break and most importantly, so did he. After Maria left Fury’s side for her own mental health reasons, she heard from him less and less.
At first, she wondered if he was mad at her for taking some time to herself, but she needed it. She couldn’t dwell on it, she had already given so much of her life to helping Fury, at some point she had to do what was right for her. She had to have her own life especially remembering that hers could be gone into dust at any moment. Of course the problem for Maria was remembering this now… when her life was going to be nothing but logistical hell, probably wasn’t the best time to work this out. Maria didn’t have a place to live but she was fortunate she could live with her mother, who saved lots of her things. Elizabeth Hill could not grasp at all that her daughter was gone forever, like most of the people left over from the blip. But when Maria returned with the rest of the vanished and she didn’t come to see Elizabeth right away it was hard on Elizabeth. Like her mother had become second place to work and Maria was apologetic to her mother, but she was so work oriented—she didn’t even think about what her choices had done to her mother’s mental health.
Maria spent her time at home with her mom trying to get her life back together. She went over the notes and work the Avengers used in the time heist, something she didn’t totally understand, something that kind of confused her—as to why people returned five years later instead of from at the moment they blipped.
After a few months, Fury told Maria he was going up to S.A.B.E.R. Maria hadn’t even been able to get the government—-which she worked for— to acknowledge she was alive again. Like the millions and millions of other people waiting to be back in the system. There was just no protocol or anything for this. It was all uncharted territory. It was the first time in Maria’s life that she wasn’t working non-stop though. She spent it learning, catching up everything, figuring out what she missed, understanding the time science.
And then she saw the violence unfolding, the chaos, the terrorism, the ‘monsters’ in Europe. She tried to get back to work and even though people who knew her wanted her to come back to work too the system was just overloaded with important people trying to get their jobs back. Maria called Fury repeatedly as awful things unfolded through out the world and she felt helpless stop them, she just saw chaos unfold from her Mom’s living room.
It was bizarre to not be working on stopping it to be here and not doing anything. She hated it—it felt even worse when Fury ignored her. He cared so much about the world when he first returned from the blip, and then suddenly he abandoned it and didn’t care about what has happening? It was all so bizarre and frustrating as Maria completed about a year without work and trying to get her life back together she was relieved Rhodey helped her get a job. She just had to accept that Fury had moved on from the old ways and she had to do the same, she couldn’t depend on him for a job or anything everything they did together that was all in the past. ———————
Washington, D.C. - January 25, 2025 - 12:01 PM
Unidentified Secure Government Building
Dr. Mosley’s Office Certified Government Psychiatrist Currently specializing in mental health evaluations for those returning form the blip in high security positions.
Maria arrived to her noon appointment 10 minutes early, she sat in the waiting room for the office that was empty. There wasn’t even a receptionist.
At 12:01, an older man who was the same height as Maria and had salt and pepper hair and circular gold glasses walked out off a room. He was a very unthreatening looking person. “
Hello, I’m Dr. Mosley. I assume you’re Maria Hill.” He stated instead of asked.
“I am.” She confirmed.
The doctor already knew who she saw, he saw a picture of her in her file and regardless of what she answered, he was going to pass her to return to work, as he wasn’t really Dr. Mosley, but a skrull impersonating him.
He welcomed Maria into his office. She sat in a chair across from him. His office was muted, dull colors, meticulously organized. It felt kind of sterile like no one was ever in this room for a long time. She assumed that was a good sign to be honest.
“Have you done one of these before?” Dr. Mosley asked.
“Well I’ve gone through government health screenings many times, but this is my first one post blip.” She answered honestly.
“So you haven’t done one of these before.” He said in a short tone.
Maria pressed her lips together and didn’t say anything.
“In the fitness determinations you’ve done before, have you always passed them?”
“Yes.”
“You passed them on your own and not because Nick Fury wanted you to?”
Maria paused she was not expecting that harsh of a question so soon.
“I passed them on my own to my knowledge.” She answered in a surprised tone she had never thought about that possibility before but she couldn’t say it wasn’t possible.
“You’ve never been denied a job because of a mental health reason?”
“No.” “Have you tried to get a job in the year since you’ve returned?”
“Yes, I tried to get my old job back a few times.”
“And you couldn’t because of the identity documents backlog, right?”
“Right.”
“But those are fixed now?”
“Yes.”
“Did Colonel Rhodes help you fix them?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve known him for a long time, why didn’t you ask him for help earlier?”
“I didn’t ask him for help this time, he just did it for me.”
“But you knew someone who could help you and you didn’t ask him for help sooner, why?”
“Well he wasn’t working for the President until a few days ago…because Ritson wasn’t the President until a few days ago… but also I wouldn’t ask people to do that kind of stuff for me, there are a lot of people waiting for help.”
“Are you afraid to ask people for help?”
“No, but a lot of people need that favor.”
“Are you living with someone?”
“Yes, my mother.”
“Did your mother also blip?”
“No.”
“What happened when you first returned from the blip?”
“I was in the middle of the street and almost got hit by a car and died again.” Maria pointed out the irony but he the doctor didn’t crack a smile. Maria thought these questions were so strange. Not like any of the fitness determinations she did before.
“You answered that so literally.” The doctor paused.
“Did you want a not literal answer?” Maria asked confused.
“So far people have been more general about it, like they talked about the emotional part.”
“Oh.. I went right back to work, well I tried, with Fury but we didn’t realize what happened right away, it was like we blinked but turns out, it was years and we had a lot to catch up on.” “
You went back to work and not to find your loved ones like your mom, siblings, your partner, anyone?”
“Well, I did that eventually but I blipped at the start of chaos and came back to chaos. I was trying to figure it out, reconnect, pick things back up, see how I could be helpful, useful.”
“Did you think you were helpful or useful?”
“Not at all, and I haven’t been for six years now…it feels … not great.”
“Do you have to be productive to feel helpful or useful?”
Wow, Maria hated this so much but she knew what things to say.
“I don’t think productivity exclusively encompasses working, sometimes it’s productive to take a pause, or rest and replenish…” she phrased carefully.
“Mmhmm. You really believe that?” The doctor questioned, it sounded fake.
“Yes. Taking care of yourself is important.” Maria agreed but in reality she did put her health second to her work.
“Do you think it’s better to deal with the emotional trauma before coming back to work?”
“Yes.”
“Did you do that?”
“Yes.”
“How did you do that?”
There was a noticeable pause.
“I took some time off to pause, rest and replenish…” Maria finally answered repeating her answer from before unconvincingly.
“You took time off or you were prevented from working because of the lapse of workers available to help reset people’s documents and status?” The doctor asked in a very matter of fact tone.
“Two things can be true at the same time.” Maria pointed out.
“Is that the case?”
“Yeah.. I mean, I did the best I could with the situation I have been dealt.” Maria offered.
“Did you do any specific things for mental health?” The doctor asked. Lady c’mon, just give me one thing so I can check yes off on this form the skrull thought to himself.
“I read a lot of books, caught up with what was going on in the world. Morned the deaths of my friends, reconnected with others, spent time with my family…” she offered
“Did you go to therapy?” He asked directly.
“I’m on a 22 month waitlist because all of the places who will accept people who blipped and are trying to get everything straightened out are limited and stretched very thin. And there’s a lack of service providers.” Maria explained.
Okay. I can accept that. the skrull thought to himself. He figured that was a legit enough explanation to push her through he had to have something for the paper trail.
“Yeah, good point. Do you think about the blip a lot?”
“I think about how much I hate the term ‘the blip’ a lot.” Maria rattled off, she really did hate that term.
“You are a sarcastic person.” The doctor said with a straight forward tone, Maria nodded. Maria and the psychiatrist stared at each other for a minute. He was not a fan of sarcastic people or well humans in general.
“I don’t think it had as much of an effect on me emotionally as it has on other people.” Maria answered finally, she wasn’t sure if that was true but that was what she told herself.
“Why?”
“Well, my mom saved a lot of my things which was helpful and because I’m pretty used to to things happening outside of my control all the time. I just can’t think about it. I have to move on, learn from it and try to prevent something similar in the future.” This was an honest answer and it seemed like the doctor bought it, it was pretty true for her life over all.
This reminded the doctor of something he read in Maria’s file. Childhood family abuse. He had to ask special questions when that was present per regulations but it was so long ago. Family violence screenings were required for anyone who had a history of them. Hers was so long ago, back when she was a child, it was almost unfair to bring it up—but he might as well.
“Yeah. You’ve had a lot of those instances in your life like with your father. Do you want to talk about them?” He asked sternly, not easing into it at all.
“No.” Maria answered shortly.
“Uhm.” The doctor paused.
“Your father doesn’t live with you…” he started.
“He’s dead.” Maria answered quickly. This was not something she wanted to talk about.
“Oh.” The doctor paused.
“I don’t think it says that in your file that he’s dead. But there are like old police reports about him…” he tried to lead on more casually.
“He died under a different name. He changed his name to avoid going to jail for hurting women and children.” Maria said bluntly.
“Right. How did he die?” “He was killed.”
“He was killed?”
“I don’t really know, that’s what I read in a police report. After he changed his name he was involved in a crime ring or something I don’t know much about him.” Actually Maria knew a lot more about him than she ever let on. Abusive partners were the most likely to commit homicide against their intimate partners and even at a young age Maria wanted to make sure her father never came back and tried anything with her mom again. Although Maria’s file had some stuff from very old police reports where she was a child the bulk of the abuse was experienced by her mother. It was something that they didn’t talk much about though. Not particularly healthy for the two women to pretend the past didn’t exist, but it was just so hard to really dive into it. Elizabeth was so young when she was pregnant with Maria. She had to leave the marines and Maria’s father was much older than Elizabeth. They just got married because she was pregnant. Elizabeth never dated a man again after that—she maybe wasn’t really into men from the get go anyway, but back then it was hard to know yourself like that. Everyone was closeted then.
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“When I was like nine.” It was really so long ago, the doctor didn’t even want to go through the questions, he made a judgement call.
“Okay. Sorry to bring it up it’s just that…”
“It’s required, yeah I know how it goes.” Maria interrupted and shrugged, it wasn’t the first time it’s come up in these things. But she and her mother were long separated from her father. She did think it was frustrating it came back around to her every time but she just had to brush it off like it was nothing.
The skrull impersonator was just going to pass her through so long as it was defensible. It seemed like he could just slide Maria right through, check off the form and she’d be back to work and no longer a potential wild card out there.
Return to Work Psychological Evaluation Standard Form - 261 Evaluator Forum
FOR CLASSIFIED PROCESSING ONLY
Name of Potential Returnee: Maria Elizabeth Hill
Date of Birth: April 2, 1982
Prior Government Employee/Service: Yes Prior Security Clearance: Yes / Level 9
Government Positions: United States Marine Corps; Agent of SHIELD; deputy director of SHIELD; Acting Directer of SHIELD; Avengers’ Campus Project Director
Other Work History: Stark Industries employee former job titles: “Security Liaison” & “Project Coordinator”
Gaps in Work History: 2018 - 2023 (due to vanishing/death); 2023 - 2024 (awaiting /pending reintegration)
Family: mother: Elizabeth Hill father: Thomas Walsh (deceased) Family
Notes: History of family based violence present in other records of Potential Returnee in early childhood years.
Family Violence Screening: Yes.
Evaluator Note: The screening is a mandatory formality due to past history. Potential Returnee is not currently suspected of participating in /or experiencing in family based violence.
Evaluator Recommends for Return to High Level or Security Based Government Position (Check One):
✓ Yes. Potential Returnee should return to government service as soon as possible.
▢ Yes. Potential Returnee may return to government service after fulfilling more reintegration requirements.
▢ No. Potential Returnee should not return to government service for security reasons.
▢ No. Potential Returnee should not return to government service for health reasons.
▢ Unsure. Evaluator requests second evaluation with new evaluator for determination of fitness.
▢ Other. Evaluator notes required.
She passed.
—-
As Maria left the evaluation she had a call from Rhodey. She saw it was him and she immediately answered it. She was kind of worried he called her that quickly. Did something happen?
“Did they tell you I failed that fast?” Maria joked as she answered the phone.
“Are you still in town, well nearby, anyway?”
Rhodey asked not even saying a word about her little joke.
“Yeah, what’s up?” She asked waiting at her car. There was a pause on the phone.
“Wait, was there really a problem?” Maria asked surprised from the pause.
“No, no, well I don’t know, actually… but do you want to grab lunch?” Rhodey asked a little anxiety in his voice. Maria was surprised by the question but it’s not like she had anything else to do.
“Yeah, sure.” Maria answered since she couldn’t think of a reason to say no, but it did give her pause because she wasn’t expecting it.
A tiny piece of her felt a little suspicious, like why was Rhodey reaching out to her now, why was he so willing to help her all the sudden. Was she really just someone he thought of off handedly for a job? Was he trying to reconnect? Now that he was in power did he want to restaff the government with certain people he trusted or knew well?
Maria met Rhodey as his office and this time she was able to get through security without issue. It was kind of nice, but she did have to wait awhile for him, he had something come up last minute but it’s not like she had anywhere to be. He wanted to leave the building and go out to get something to eat with her and talk, but of course something came up. Rhodey was very apologetic for the wait and asked if it was okay if they just ran downstairs to ‘the mess’ the cafeteria for employees to grab something to eat in his office. Not his original plan, Maria was kind enough to oblige. She figured he wanted to talk about something.
As they sat and ate lunch together in his office they just chatted to catch up. Everything seemed very normal. Rhodey was interested in what Maria had been doing not working for a year. She admitted she spent most of the time trying to adjust and learn about everything she had missed—if you’re gone for five years you miss a lot of world events and she was someone who used to know everything. Suddenly she knew nothing and was far less connected than she had been her entire life. Nick left without her and she just had to figure this one out on her own.
Then things kind of slipped into a conversation about how things used to be… ‘good old days’ nostalgia talk. Talking about the people they missed like Tony and Natasha.
“Aw, yeah, Romanoff, I do miss her.” Maria admitted out loud to someone for the first time ever, but she wasn’t crying or emotional, it was like a happy recollection of her.
“Were you two even friends?” Rhodey asked joking a little bit but truly wondering as he had rarely seen the two of them talk or anything.
“We sure did like to keep people guessing about that.” Maria smirked.
“She did a lot while you were ..” Rhodey started to explain.
“Yeah. I saw——well I heard——found out, she did the thankless ‘woman’s work’ of keeping the world safe.” Maria sighed, she was used to that life and she couldn’t imagine doing it under the stress and misery Natasha was.
"If she blipped and you didn’t that’s what you’d have done, huh?” Rhodey questioned.
“I don’t know if I can coordinate with a raccoon as well as she did.”
“Rocket? He’s actually pretty great.”
“I’m sure.” Maria smirked.
“Sometimes I wonder why, I mean after Lang and Banner explained how everything worked out…” Maria started to say but she didn’t finish her thought.
“Why we didn’t bring everyone back from the moment they left?” Rhodey asked finished the question. He knew a lot of people wondered that. But Maria knew it was possible because she knew alternate timelines were opened in the past.
“Yeah. I know it’s wrong, but just logistically, I have to think about it.” Maria clarified.
“It just… there was a good reason to do it that way and good reasons to do it the way it was done, and with those alternate timelines, we don’t want to create a new one…” Rhodey shrugged he still wasn’t totally sold on the science he didn’t think he understood it as well as the others.
“But there’s lots of alternate timelines, there’s a ton of them, there’s infinite ones. There’s a timeline in which everyone is still gone, There’s a timeline where nobody blipped. There’s a timeline where the people who disappeared are the people the ones remained instead. All of those things exist and are concurrently happening right now.” Maria rambled on, that’s the theory anyway.
“MMM… uh.. this is getting wildly out of hand.” Rhodey grimaced.
“What! You were part of the team who proved it!”
“Yeah, but I think you’re taking it to a further extension than is probably true and further than was ever proven.” Rhodey shrugged. Mostly this stuff just stressed him out.
“Wow. Seriously? You don’t think there are countless timelines and multiverses out there?” Maria asked raising a brow.
“Nah. I don’t know. I know it’s more than I can comprehend, and too complicated for me to understand.” Rhodey sighed.
“Think of a finite action or thing or something…” Maria suggested
“Flipping a coin.” Rhodey proposed.
“Perfect. Do you have a coin?” Maria asked and he opened his desk drawer and handed her a quarter.
He stared at her.
“Do you really think I need a demonstration of a coin flip? This is very Fury of you.” Rhodey asked looking at her wide eyed—this was very Fury-esque of her.
“Oh. Are you afraid to create an alternate timeline?” Maria joked.
“Something as inconsequential as a coin flip should not create an alternate timeline.” Rhodey said in a joking tone.
“Are you sure? Who says it is inconsequential? But hey, if it is, then it doesn’t matter if I do it, right?” Maria asked him wondering if he was bluffing. He just looked at her wondering how lost she had gotten in this stuff, it seemed like she was pretty lost in it and it was a good time for her to use her skills and talent for something useful.
Maria flipped the coin and caught it her hand, then put it on the back of her hand and covered it with one hand so they didn’t know what it landed on.
“How many timelines exist if we never look at it?” Rhodey joked. She laughed.
“Well right now, it’s both heads and tails—you know Schrödinger's cat.” Maria smirked.
Rhodey made a face at Maria. Okay, she definitely definitely needed to go back to work. He laughed at her. “
Do you want to know?” She asked in a baiting tone. Her hand still covered the coin.
“I feel like you’re going to tell me even if I don’t want to.” He laughed a bit flirtatiously.
She nodded and took her hand off the covered coin.
“Tails.” Maria mumbled.
“That’s bad luck.” Rhodey picked up the coin from Maria’s hand as he pointed that out.
“Bad luck for me or for you?” Maria asked curiously.
“I don’t know, you flipped it, but I picked it up.” Rhodey jokingly groaned.
“Uh oh. Maybe we should try to break into the timeline where it landed on heads.” Maria joked.
“Maybe in that timeline we were able to eat a better lunch.” Rhodey mumbled.
Maria laughed a little.
“Well, I’m sure my nonsense is keeping you from very important things.” Maria said she was going to leave.
“Nonsense that ultimately saved trillions of lives.” Rhodey acknowledged.
Saved and also exposed this timeline to a lot more chaos, technically. Maria thought herself.
“It sure did.” Maria agreed.
“There’s probably some other good timelines out there.” Maria joked.
“Yeah, a timeline where Tony’s still alive.” Rhodey added.
“Yeah, of course, potentially tons of them.” Maria agreed.
“It doesn’t make it feel any less awful that it happened, though.” Rhodey’s voice got more serious, a bit sad.
“No, yeah, I know.” Maria shook her head, agreeing.
“Sometimes I think it hurts more, really if you think about it. It’s like you know you don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but then when you matter even less than nothing because there’s an infinite versions of yourself who die and you still don’t you don’t add up to something. We’re all just a mass of particles living out the laws of physics in an infinite loop in infinite parallels and alternate timelines and universes, because just by the nature of particles that exist now they have to repeat themselves at some point eventually over and over again…” Yeah .. Maria had gotten a little lost in this stuff, she needed to be doing something else now for sure.
"Fuck, well that’s depressing.” Rhodey paused.
“You definitely didn’t say that in the evaluation, right?” He teased, but a piece of him worried that maybe Maria needed more time to process what happened even if everything she said was technically true or possibly true. It was overwhelming to think about.
“God, no, never. I’ve never said that out loud to anyone and never will again.” She admitted with laughter despite how sad and true it was. Existence was a cycle and they were all just stuck in it.
“Probably good.” Rhodey nodded.
“Yeah, probably. Are you sure you missed me?” She agreed and then asked with a laugh.
“Yes. I really did. Plus, the world is a better place when you’re around defending it. That I know for sure, is true. Even if you went on a quantum theory bender.” Rhodey spoke sincerely and then joked at the end.
“That’s nice to say, but I think you are overestimating my abilities.” Maria brushed off the compliment.
“I’m not known for that, maybe you’re underestimating them.” Rhodey pointed out to make her appreciate herself.
“I’m not known for that.” Maria echoed his phrasing with a laugh.
“Us meddling humans, really went and opened that alternate timeline door and ruined everything.” Rhodey partially joked.
“Oh, I truly think humans are probably the last to arrive at that technology and understanding of time and space, per usual. You know, we make an advancement and find out the rest of existence in the universe is already millions of years ahead of us.” Maria said with smirk shaking her head. It really seemed true. This made Raava laugh way too hard, god if Maria wasn’t human she’d be tolerable. Raava thought to herself. Then she paused as she saw Maria staring at the chuckling Rhodey. Raava slipped into herself on accident. She had to go back to Rhodey’s mind.
“Is this really what you have been looking into with your time since you’ve been back?” Rhodey asked. Maria nodded a bit embarrassed but it was a lot to figure out.
“I can’t fight a threat if I don’t understand it, or also without a job. I didn’t know what I would be coming back to, so I just wanted to be prepared.”
“Yeah, I think we live in the bad sci-fi movie timeline.” Rhodey huffed and Maria nodded in agreement.
“Ugh this guy.” Maria pointed to Scott Lang’s book in Rhodey’s office, she grabbed it from the shelf and held it up to Rhodey.
“Did you read this?” Rhodey asked.
“God, no.” Maria laughed a little.
“If I never saw Lang again, I’d be fine with that.” Rhodey joked.
“Me too, actually.” Maria nodded with a smirk as she looked at his book. She opened the book to look at it.
“Oh look he signed this copy.” She held up the signed page for Rhodey to see and she made a face.
“I didn’t ask him to, I swear.” Rhodey was grinning kind of embarrassed that Maria pointed this out to him, but it did feel like old times, with them joshing each other.
“Maybe he’s the Scott Lang from the timeline where you two are best friends.” Maria joked.
Rhodey just stared at her and shook his head as he took a sip of his drink, with a big grin on his face.
“Wow, I’m really wondering if you’re going to pass that psychological eval.” Rhodey joked with a heavy laugh.
“Strangely, alternate timelines and multiple universes did not come up in that evaluation.” Maria would have preferred it to be honest instead of even mentioning things in her personal life. “
Really? What a shock.” Rhodey said sarcastically.
“But you’re serious with this stuff, that’s the threat that got you worried the most?” He asked more curious tone.
“I’m dead serious… which I can say… because I died.” Maria tried to joke.
“Fuck.” Rhodey started to laugh, that sounded like something Tony would say. He leaned forward over the table resting his forehead in his hand. He actually really missed her when she was gone and he never even realized how much he did until she was back, but also she was definitely different now. Way more outspoken, way more confident—things she always was before but just more of herself. She wasn’t just around in Tony or Fury’s shadow doing things for them. She had her own thing going on now… or maybe she was always like this and Rhodey’s real personality and Raava’s experienced it differently. Raava couldn’t quite tell, but Rhodey’s emotions for her were strong.
“That just reminded me of something Tony would say.” Rhodey admitted.
Maria smirked and grimaced at the same time, that was meant as a compliment, right?
Raava found herself stuck as she had impersonated Rhodey for such a long time that she could sense some of the questions that he would ask her that maybe bordered around inappropriate but stemmed from their prior personal relationship. Should Raava set the boundary that this was strictly professional just catching up? That’s probably what Maria would appreciate as a fellow soldier, a serious professional woman, like Raava herself. They weren’t so different really, Raava and Maria just on different sides of the cause and Maria didn’t even have to be involved in. In fact, Raava was trying to keep her uninvolved, but she needed to be aware if Maria became involved. Maria was just so intertwined in Fury’s web that she was always at risk.
If Raava kept Rhodey’s casual rekindling of his friendship with Maria going it was like Raava could tell his intense personal feelings would return. The emotions of the people that skrulls impersonated really could be overwhelming. It was good Maria was leaving to another continent. Really, it would definitely be a distraction if she was here and they started hanging out again. Raava could just sense it.
When it was confirmed that Maria really wasn’t the Maria in Prague and London, that’s when Raava did the digging to find out where she really was and she was 30 minutes away the whole time. Once Ritson was inaugurated, Raava knew she could place the bug in Ritson’s ear to get Maria hired. Ritson had ideas for Maria that Maria probably would never go for, but that’s why Ritson and Rhodey liked her, she wanted to do the work not go for the glory, that made her perfect for a position in his cabinet, but she had to work for awhile first, they had to make sure she could jump back in.
The part of Raava that was consumed by Rhodey’s mind was stunned that Maria wasn’t with Fury on S.A.B.E.R. He was still taken back by what Maria said that ‘she wasn’t invited’ and that ‘some of us have to stay on earth to help fix this mess.’ He never thought he would hear words like that from Maria that were kind of a sting on Fury. Maria wanted to work and do good things, she was stuck with millions of people trying to get their lives back together. It made him think Fury left Maria in the dust, he took a gig and bailed on her. It wouldn’t be the first time Fury let people down who trusted him. In Raava’s experience, that’s all he did. That’s how it felt. Or maybe Fury didn’t want Maria out there if Soren and Talos were covering as them. Maria had done a lot for Fury, did he leave her to deal with this mess because it was convenient for him? It was hard to understand the dynamic Fury and Maria had going on now, but from what Raava could gather it wasn’t a great one, so this was a good opportunity for Rhodey to jump in.
Raava’s mind was muddled between her own and Rhodey’s personal feelings. That could happen when a skrull took over someone’s identity for so long and she hated when it happened. Raava had a plan and mission to fulfill and she was so close to setting the pieces in place now that she had this Senior Advisor to the President job. She just needed keep the people who could fuck it up away from her—-or close to her. Quite a catch-22 she was in. At least if Maria was busy in Russia, she wouldn’t be reuniting with Fury. If Rhodey helped her then she’d probably be unsuspecting of him, right? So far being with her felt normal, like it was good for Rhodey to be with people in his old circle instead of around all these old men in the White House. He was sad that their rekindling of friendship would be brief, but Raava knew that was best.