Reunions
February 6, 2025
Warsaw, Poland - on a train en route to Moscow
Agent Prescod & Agent Hill
Ross had departed and left Maria and Prescod on their own. Prescod and Ross were glad to catch up even if it was brief. They had been friends for such a long time but they never saw each other anymore since Prescod had been in Moscow for so long. Prescod and Maria had fake identities to get into Moscow, they were staying in different places, eventually they would separate on the train too, but for now they had some time to talk before they had to worry everything they said was being monitored.
Maria and Prescod had phones that the CIA could track, monitor messages, listen to conversations, and track locations— really they were regular phones, but they didn’t ping to towers in Moscow, they pinged to US satellites above Russian airspace. It prevented prying Russian government agents from getting their data. If Maria or Prescod needed to go ‘offline’ for protection they had special cases to put their devices in that blocked their phones locations from being traced. They were only supposed to use them in emergencies in case they thought they were compromised or something and they couldn’t destroy their phones or the sims inside them. The agency had other special devices for Maria and Prescod, but they couldn’t bring them into Moscow with them, they couldn’t bring in weapons or anything. Prescod had what they needed somewhere safe. Going into Moscow by train there was far less scrutiny than flying in, and agents seemed to get in and out just fine this way.
“You and Ross have been friends for a long time, huh?” Maria asked, she sat across from Prescod in a private train car booth. Prescod nodded to her question and he smiled.
“He’s a good guy.”
“Oh yeah?” Maria asked.
“We’ve had some wild times.” Prescod kept vague.
“I’m sure.” Maria smirked.
“You weren’t really two years old when Ghostbusters came out though, right?” Prescod brought up the other night.
Maria nodded with a grin.
“That movie is old.” Maria shrugged.
“Why do I still think it’s 1999 all the time?” Prescod asked with a laugh, grinning like an idiot looking out the window.
“I don’t know, but that movie was already old in 1999.” Maria laughed.
“Alright, alright.” Prescod sighed. At least so far, Prescod liked Maria, he could work with her, but he was just so skeptical about her being her at all. It kind of turned his stomach when he thought about it and he wondered if she wasn’t really here to help but instead look into him and what he was getting into—the things apart from his actual posting. Something just seemed fishy to him, not from Maria personally but the situation itself.
“How did you end up with this punishment posting?” Prescod asked Maria. Maybe there wasn’t a fishy reason, maybe she just got a short end of the stick, she seemed very straight forward and Prescod wondered if she would just tell him.
Maria looked at Prescod curiously. His question perplexed her.
“You’re too legit for this on the ground or in the field stuff.” He muttered, he still couldn’t believe it really. If she was doing this posting with him shouldn’t Maria Hill stay in London, somewhere safe? She was so recognizable if you knew to look for her, but maybe that was just if you were involved in security work for the government in the US.
“This is a punishment?” Maria asked back, she tilted her head at him.
“You get sent to far off cold places in the winter as a punishment. You must’ve done something right that was hated for them to risk sending you here. I mean, a former SHIELD Director probably knows a lot of information that the Russians and a whole lot of other people want to know, and you are probably able to decrypt a lot of the encrypted SHIELD files that were dumped.”
Maria paused. She had never thought about that.
“If they haven’t decrypted those files by now…” Maria made a face. Those documents were over ten years old by now but there were lots of encrypted SHIELD documents that people wanted to get their hands on still.
“So, what did you do to make the director so mad days after being confirmed?” Prescod asked like he was being a friend, but really he was questioning her. He couldn’t really believe she was here and he was very curious about her placement in Moscow. He questioned it, and he was suspicious of her for his own reasons, even if she was pleasant and pretty funny.
“I wanted a job, I guess. I don’t know. She’s not really a Fury person and..” Maria started
“Punished by association?” Prescod interrupted with a laugh. Maria nodded in agreement and smirked.
“Putting you in Moscow seems like a big thing to risk for simply not liking someone’s associations.” Prescod grimaced as he thought about it. Maria hadn’t even thought about that, but Prescod was right.
“I mean maybe doing this is less high risk because I’ve been dead for five years. It’s hard to get back in the loop after that.” Maria shrugged. She wasn’t really involved the way she used to be. She used to know everything, and now she had doubt she would be useful to any bad actors.
“But you also worked at Stark too, right? There’s got be stuff you know that all kinds of people from hostile governments would want to know.” Prescod tilted his head and Maria pressed her lips together, she paused as she recognized that this wasn’t actually a friendly conversation despite the friendly tone.
“Are you interrogating me?” Maria asked, her tone changed from pleasant to skeptical quickly.
“Nah, no. I am just a little confused. Shouldn’t you be at a desk in D.C. or Langley telling other people what to do?” Prescod asked and his tone also changed from friendly to skeptical.
“Ah, okay, well, that’s what I would consider a punishment, so…” Maria groaned and rolled her eyes. She was never one for the desk jobs. Prescod had good points though and she couldn’t fault him for asking, but Maria wasn’t in control of where she was going or what she was doing anymore she was just happy to be doing something and to be helping again.
“You like the field, then?”
“Yeah, of course. Don’t move up, it sucks.” Maria warned, Prescod laughed.
“You aren’t worried people will recognize you? The Russians have facial recognition on street cams. It’s a surveillance state, everything is recorded everywhere, all the time.” Prescod warned.
“I know I have to work around it, but I think I’m like the most basic and boring looking white lady imaginable, maybe I’ll just blend in.” Maria joked and Prescod laughed at Maria’s remarks. It broke the developing tension.
“What did you do?” Maria started to question Prescod back.
“What do you mean?”
“You said this is a punishment posting, so what did you do?”
“I pissed off the director from two directors ago. Got his friends in trouble, followed a money trail that got way too close to him.” Prescod finally admitted, Maria nodded as that seemed right.
“And, you got punished and he didn’t?” Maria asked but she knew that was true.
“Do they ever?” Prescod asked with a sigh and Maria shook her head no.
“They send us here to keep people like us too busy to go after them.” Maria confirmed in agreement.
“Yep, and it works because the people who should work their way up there and be in charge, like you, won’t because ‘it sucks.’” Prescod sighed and Maria sighed too.
Prescod was right, he was right about a lot. Maria started to worry that her head was not in the games anymore, there were so many things she hadn’t even thought of or considered. She had just been so excited go back to work and was distracted with Rhodey, her mom, and everything happening so fast.
“Do you think working with me will put you at risk?” Maria asked Prescod rather bluntly, was that what he was worried about? He had been in Moscow for quite some time now, she didn’t want to mess things up for him. He had a right to be concerned about that.
Prescod looked at Maria and his eyes narrowed as he thought about the point she brought up.
“Not a chance.” Prescod shrugged and Maria looked at him skeptically again.
“I guess I mean, not anymore risk than I am already exposed to.” Prescod tried to answer considerately, a surprising amount of consideration really.
“That doesn’t make sense, of course it will.” Maria said for him so he didn’t have to feel polite.
“Nah, you’re too smart to make dumb fuckups that will cost us.”
Maria stared at him, she tried not to grimace at the response that she could tell he was trying to be nice she had no idea why, he hadn’t helped back before, he had been brutally honest this whole time. Why spare any feelings now?
“I mean, I hope anyway.” Prescod added with a little smirk.
“Me too.” Maria tried not to sigh.
——-
Moscow, Russia
October 31, 2025
At first when Maria and Prescod started working together in Russia, they had a pretty close relationship. Prescod was right though, Maria couldn’t be out about in the daytime in the surveillance state, most of what she worked on she did at night or not out in the open. Since Maria had been gone and out of work for awhile it was kind of hard for her to remember that even today there might actually be people out there interested in what she knew—however outdated it seemed to her.
Eventually Maria and Prescod’s working relationship thinned out. Maria started working more with some of Sonya’s agents. She didn’t really think anything of it, just a switch in priorities. Although she kind of missed the casual talk with him as they had become friends, or so she thought. Nine months together though, people definitely got tired of each other.
The reason Prescod had distanced himself from Maria a few months ago was because he had really gone deep in his skrull theories, but he was too afraid to ever mention it to Maria believing it was most likely that she was a skrull imposter. Prescod had evidence for this, so he believed he did anyway. If he was distant from Maria she couldn’t keep tabs on what he was doing. She must’ve thought she was invincible showing up in Moscow as Maria Hill pretending like nothing was awry and never inching onto Prescod’s discovery, but Prescod knew his days were likely numbered with her around once she discovered what he knew. Prescod wondered what happened to the real Maria Hill and selfishly he wondered if he would get along with her as long as he got along with this imposter version of her he assumed she was. This was what made the most sense to him. Maria Hill was very well connected person. She was truly an excellent person for the skrulls the replace and use. That must be why she wanted to be out here in the field, the help her fellow skrulls who were also around engaging in destruction and terrorism.
Prescod knew he had to reach out to someone he trusted, someone he trusted more than anyone and someone who could help. Ross was in Moscow now, joining Hill and Prescod on the punishment postings. Prescod wavered wondering if it was right to tell Ross everything he had found. If there was someone h could trust, it was definitely Ross, and why would the skrulls even go near him? Ross was basically disgraced now with limited reach and far at odds with his ex-wife. He’d probably be the least likely person for the skrulls to replace, plus Prescod thought he was a pretty smart guy, if someone was pretending to be his close friend, he could probably figure it out if they were an imposter, at least he thought he could.
In the early evening on October 31, 2025, Prescod and Maria were together for a brief time. Everything between them was normal, they chatted quickly about what they were working on and where they were going to meet later tonight. Maria didn’t get a vibe that anything was off, and ironically, neither did Prescod. For a moment he started to doubt himself. What if this was the real Maria Hill and she could help him. He wondered in this brief moment if he had something wrong but he looked at her unaffected demeanor during their casual conversation and it suddenly made the hairs on his arm stand up, he got goosebumps from his own thoughts. Were skrulls really, truly, this sophisticated at shapeshifting that truly they were undetectable, even to those who suspect them? The world was really going to be broken if Prescod couldn’t stop this and get help from the right people, and do it fast and undetected.
Late into the night and into the early morning hours of November 1, Ross and Prescod finally met. Prescod had talked himself up into a frenzy when Ross got there. He couldn’t keep it to himself anymore. As Prescod eagerly and frantically detailed the presence and hidden ‘invasion’ of skrulls on earth, he even lined the walls with evidence for his claims, as proof to Ross this was real and serious, but Prescod wasn’t helping himself, he looked and sounded deranged.
“Prescod, Prescod! Calm down.” Ross said in a serious tone.
Prescod was worked up now.
“It’s too late, they’re here, they have our people, it’s too late!”
Ross just shook his head at Prescod.
“You’re sounding crazy, you look crazy. You are in way too deep. Take a step back and think about this.” Ross tried to dismiss.
“Listen to me!” Prescod yelled at Ross as Ross was clearly not grasping the situation before them.
“Calm down!” Ross yelled back at Prescod and the two men, once great friends stood face to face, and then the highly paranoid Prescod looked Ross right in his eyes. Prescod squinted his eyes at Ross before him and he could feel a tension he couldn’t explain. Ross should be helping him not telling him to calm down. In the second that they stared at each other, it was as if they both suddenly knew that each one of them was in trouble and only one of them was going to make it out of this room.
Prescod launched the first strike at Ross now believing him to be a fake, the Ross imposter successfully dodged it, and then he tackled Prescod to the ground, the tow men struggled fiercely not he ground until the Ross imposter fired a bullet into Prescod’s chest from close range. The sound of the shot echoed in the dark, industrial, room they were in. Prescod’s blood fired back onto the Ross imposter and he paused in shock for a moment as he realized what had happened and what he just did. He had to kill Prescod though, he knew too much and he was going to ruin everything. Ross brushed the blood from his face wiping off as much as he could as he grabbed the research on the tablet Prescod was keeping, he needed to get everything off the walls too but the Ross imposter heard rushing footsteps heading toward the room.
The Ross imposter raced down the hall with what he could carry as he feared getting caught or killed. He heard the rushed pace and breathing of someone behind him, but no shots or anything were fired as the two ran. Ross broke through the doorways, up the stairs to the roof, he wondered if she toss the tablet and let it get destroyed as he wondered what to do. He wasn’t thinking now he was trapped not the roof. As he heard the person behind him start to head outside after him he placed a call for help, he had to get out of here now before he was caught. In a panic he called Hill and requested an extraction.
Then, Ross jumped from the building he was on the building roof close by, he just made it. He legs slightly wobbled as he continued to run carrying the tablet and leaving the scene of the deceased agent. Prescod had gotten way too close to revealing and costing them everything.
Ross ran the roof of the second building but he could tell the person chasing him made the jump successfully too. Ross found the doorway to the stairs and started running down the flights and then dashed into an open doorway in a frenzy as he could hear the footsteps following him down the stairs. The footsteps got closer and now Ross felt trapped, he didn’t know if the person pursuing him saw him dash into the room. Hill had to be coming soon, right? She picked up that closely to his call. He was only a few stories up, as he heard the racing footsteps get closer to him the Ross imposter panicked again, leaving one body behind was bad, having to leave two that would be too risky, and he had to get this info away from her and destroy it.
As Ross heard the footsteps race down the hall toward the room he snuck into, Ross bolted for the window, his only escape from that room. He didn’t even time to realize he miscalculated as hit the hard cold ground and he saw bright lights turn into the road before he force of his body hitting the ground instantly killed him.
As the Ross imposter crashed into the ground from jumping, Maria saw the fall from the car and she quickly got of the vehicle, she couldn’t even process what happened but she saw the door from the building in the alley swing open urgently. She aimed her gun at the unknown, risking a lot, hoping it wasn’t Russian authorities. The man in the doorway stopped quickly as he saw the woman with a gun aimed right at him.
“Hands—Ruzi!” Maria corrected herself quickly as she called out to the figure, the light from the doorway cast a dark shadow over him and sh couldn’t see who he was.
Talos forced his hands up quickly, his heart racing from the pursuit and now being held at gunpoint then Maria could see Talos’s face.
“Talos?” She asked with overwhelming shock in her voice, lowering her weapon, but her shock at seeing Talos before her was quickly overtaken as the deceased Agent Ross’s body turned to green on the ground.
Maria looked stunned, confused, overwhelmed as Ross was revealed to be a skrull.
“Ross is one of you?” She asked in disbelief.
“No, that’s an imposter.” Talos revealed.
“He called me!” Maria exclaimed as she could not believe the Ross before her was not really Ross.
“He may have been an imposter for quite some time.” Talos said apologetically.
Maria and Talos quickly moved the body of green alien laying in the road before anyone saw. Maria removed Ross’s devices from his person that he was using to communicate. She placed Ross’s phone in the case that blocked their locations as she didn’t have time to destroy his sim or drop his phone securely as she didn’t know what communications were on there. Talo grabbed the tablet that the Ross imposter was concealing and racing away with.
“Where did he come from?” Maria asked a bit overwhelmed with emotion at everything that just happened.
“Two buildings over.” Talos pointed to the building in which they ran from.
Maria took out her phone she wanted to call Prescod.
“No, stop!” Talos warned her, an alarmed tone in his voice and Maria froze.
“You can’t call anyone, if they’re listening they’ll come for you next.” Talos said ominously.
“He was already coming for me.” Maria pointed out. The imposter was dead, he called Maria for help, what was he going to do when she helped him?
Talos took what Maria to say that she needed to hustle out of there, Maria was trying to explain there wasn’t a difference.
“I think he shot someone.” Talos’s voice was quiet and serious as he admitted it.
“Where?!” Maria asked alarmed.
“I think we should leave now.” Talos warned.
Maria looked at Talos skeptically and she shook her head no. Who did this Ross imposter try to hurt, and did he succeed?
“You can go. I’m going to figure out what happened.” Maria said sternly.
“What is that, and why was a skrull pretending to be Agent Ross trying to steal it?” Maria then caught what Talos had in his grip, what the imposter Ross was holding onto before he died.
Maria and Talos exchanged a serious glance. Talos was signaling that they had something big to talk about, but Maria wasn’t going to wait around right now, she had a sinking feeling something happened, she wanted to call Prescod but she did think Talos was right to stay off the phone.
Maria and Talos raced quickly back to the building where Talos first started chasing the Ross imposter. Maria and Talos had to be fast, the risked another skrull coming along, Russian authorities, or anyone seeing them. As Maria and Talos retraced the chase, Maria finally ended up to where the case began, and Talos signaled to her that the Ross imposter came from one of the rooms in a dark hallway.
Maria and Talos drew their guns as they entered a dark industrial looking room, but Maria gasped and dropped her raised arms quickly as she saw Prescod’s body on the floor.
“Oh no. Fuck!” Maria huffed as she saw the deceased Prescod on the ground. Her eyes turned glassy staring to water, she was not ready to see that.
“Oh no. I’m sorry.” Talos said empathetically, he could tell Maria knew him from her reaction.
Maria then looked up around at the walls that had all of Prescod’s work lining them detailing the skrull invasion he believed he was happening.
“We have to get out of here.” Talos said a bit of urgency.
“I have to call this in.” Maria dismissed Talos quickly.
“You can’t. If they know you know this, the rebels will kill you next.” Talos said a serious and grave warning, but Maria wasn’t having it. She would not abandon his body here in this dark cold room without telling anyone.
“I will not leave his body here.” Maria said in a cold harsh tone letting Talos now she was not leaving.
Talos glared at Maria, giving her a concerned and dismayed glance that she should not do this.
“If the Russians find him, I am just as dead, and so are others.” Maria continued, this wasn’t just about the skrulls, other people were impacted by this, they could be outed as agents and killed.
“Okay.” Talos nodded, he wanted them to leave quickly as they were risking getting caught by rebel skrulls or the Russians, both were bad outcomes for them.
As Maria looked over what Prescod unraveled, all the information on the walls like this. It looked a bit deranged, she couldn’t believe it. Was this why he had become so unresponsive sometimes, was this the reason for the distance that grew between them over the last nine months? As Maria looked over the photos and news articles collected on the board that Prescod arranged, she started pulling them down right away, Talos was right, no one could see this, but then she stoped quickly as she saw a photo of herself with Fury, but she didn’t recognize where it was from, there was a date near the photo, around some of the attacks in Europe in the summer of 2024, but then a classified transmission confirmed that Fury was in on S.A.B.E.R. at the same time. It was clear from the board that Prescod mistakenly thought Maria was a skrull imposter because he had evidence of her with a fake Nick Fury.
Talos stopped helping clearing the walls and he looked at what Maria was doing, he saw the candid photo of Nick and Maria from the summer, he he could tell Maria was struggling to place it.
“That’s me and Soren.” Talos clarified for her and Maria narrowed her gaze and turned to Talos as he said that.
“What?” Maria asked with clear shock and frustration in her voice.
“Fury asked us to..it was after everyone returned.” Talos said quietly as it had become clear to Talos that Maria may not have been included in that discussion.
“When is this from?” Maria asked intensely.
“In the summer of 2024, I think this is Prague, or London, maybe.” Talos tried to explain. Maria’s jaw dropped a little as she looked at Talos for an explanation.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you didn’t know.” Talos added quickly.
“Where is Soren?” Maria asked wondering if she had a double around unbeknownst to her still. Maria knew Soren and she knew Talos but Maria hadn’t been included in this decision and Maria just realized this very likely just got Prescod killed if he didn’t trust her.
“She was killed, trying to stop these attacks and imposters.” Talos said in a somber tone as he looked at the wall of Prescod’s work. Maria sighed quietly. She didn’t mean to sound so mad before, she was just shocked, and hurt Nick didn’t include her, and she was still very upset about her colleague who died over this.
“Talos, I’m so sorry.”
“She always really liked you.” Talos said with a smirk.
“I always liked her, too.” Maria confirmed.
“You and her, you know, you make us better people by telling us the truths no one else will.”
“Who is the us in that sentence?” Maria asked.
“Who do you think.” Talos said with almost a laugh, of course he was talking about Fury. But Maria couldn’t accept that right now, Fury and her were distant because she was telling him truths he didn’t want to hear. He didn’t even talk to Maria anymore, he told Soren to be her without even discussing with her and now Prescod was dead because he found out and he thought Maria was a skrull imposter instead of herself! This was as heavy thing to carry. How bad was the breakdown in trust between Nick and Maria or did Nick think she would just trust him to anything?
Maria just sighed again, this time very loudly. She started to take stuff off the walls again.
“He thought I was a skrull, he didn’t trust me, so he didn’t tell me.” Maria said out loud about Prescod, she couldn’t believe he was dead and this was what got him killed.
“He made a mistake, but they were going to come for him anyway, just like they are coming for everyone they think will out them.” Talos agreed.
“He was following the evidence, and now he’s dead.” Maria said as she pulled the photo of Soren and Talos as her and Fury down from the wall, she had to say it out loud despite how much it hurt, she upset.
“Well. Maybe by not trusting you he saved you.” Talos suggested trying to make it better and Maria shot a look at Talos like that wasn’t appropriate but then her look softened, maybe that was true but Maria couldn’t think about that, that wasn’t fair to Prescod.
Maria had to think fast as she and Talos finished removing the work Prescod had put up. She knew she needed to help the people they worked with find Prescod without involving herself and getting caught up this too. If she didn’t make it out she couldn’t help anyone with what she knew. Maria tried to think she was overwhelmed with emotions, she didn’t usually get that way. She started to figure something out and Maria put her phone and Ross’s phone into two security devices they blocked the incoming and outgoing signals and made them untraceable. She should have done it sooner but she wasn’t thinking. She was going to report an emergency extraction request through Precod’s own phone, they could find him if she left his phone on him. She knew it would set off alarms when they came to help him and he was killed but she couldn’t leave him behind, dead and alone, here—but she quite literally had to leave here quickly before the same happened to her and Talos.
Maria’s eyes were glassy, she was having a hard time as she pulled Prescod’s device from his body to call for help before she left. She couldn’t stop thinking about how he must’ve stopped trusting her and now she wondered who could she trust, could she even trust Talos? As she placed put in the emergency alert for Prescod, Maria looked at Talos who wasn’t paying attention and she had an awful thought. She had turned her back to him so many times, she trusted him on instinct because of their relationship from years and years ago, but should she? Prescod literally did the same thing with Ross and he was killed for that. Maria put her hand right on the handle of her gun on her side, how exactly was Talos ‘following’ this Ross imposter? Why was Talos here? Was Soren really dead? Talos grabbed that tablet from the skull’s body so quickly like he knew exactly what it was. Were they working together?
If Ross was skrull was Val a skrull, too? What about Sonya and the others they were working with? And then Maria froze, she was even more overwhelmed with alarm than she was a second ago as she realized she did know someone was definitely a skrull and she didn’t even remember or realize that she had seen the clue right in front of her face. How deep did this go? What happened to the people who were replaced? Talos noticed the sudden shock over Maria, that she didn’t look quite right, as if she was sick with a realization.
“We have to go!” He reminded her with urgency and Maria didn’t like she was going to move. The urgency of the situation was not lost on Maria as she had just placed the emergency notification but she was paralyzed by paranoia and she didn’t know what to do. If she left with Talos was she going to come back, if she stayed with Prescod were more skrull imposters going to arrive?
“Maria?” Talos asked in a softer tone and she didn’t say anything but he could see the look of suspicion grow on her expression.
“Maria!” He said more urgently, they had to go and they had to go now. Talos debated leaving without her but he didn’t want anything to happen to her. Maria shook her head in a slow no motion t him.
“Girl, snap out of it!” Talos said in a last ditch effort as he grabbed her arm to encourage her to start moving so they could run but Maria yanked her arm away and pulled far away from him, she was ready to pull her gun out and aim right at him but she couldn’t quite do it.
“What is wrong with you?” Talos huffed
“Why are you here?” Maria asked in a harsh questioning tone.
“I’m trying to stop them from doing this!” He said motioning quickly to the floor where Prescod’s body was.
“By yourself?!” Maria asked skeptically and louder, her disbelief was clear in her voice.
Then Talos realized the trouble Maria was having, how could she trust him with what she just learned and saw? He couldn’t blame her, if anything it was a good sign she was thinking that clearly but she couldn’t have this moment right now or they were both going to have a problem. He didn’t know what he could say that could convince her in this overwhelming moment to leave before she met the same fate as Prescod.
“Hopefully not just by myself.” He appealed to her will to help, what else could he do?
Maria had barely a second to think, she had to decide to she stay or go? Then she wondered if it even mattered, would she meet the same fate either way?