Boots on the Ground

- WASHINGTON D.C. - 12 PM - November, 4, 2025.

The White House buzzed with overtired and overworked employees as news of the events in Russia broke. President Ritson sat in the oval office watching the news and waiting for updates.

“Absolute chaos erupted today in Moscow’s Vossoyedineiye Square during a Unity Day celebration.” An attractive newscaster explained over the screen.

“Bombs went off and reports of active gunmen sent the terrified crowd into an uncontrolled frenzy desperately seeking safety. An estimated 500 casualties from blast and it is believed injuries are somewhere around 1300 injuries of various degrees between the blast and the stampede to escape the danger. At least one person has been reported to have been shot but details has not been released. Russian officials have claimed to have arrested an American man who confessed at the site of the attack upon arrest.” The newscaster continued and Sonya sighed as she watched it. This couldn’t have gone worse.

“U.N. officials are claiming that the Russian government was warned of a potential attack on the square about an hour before it happened, but Russian officials have denied this saying no verified or credible reports ever reached them in a timely fashion.”

Ritson tossed the remote at the screen of the television, but the remote hit a nearby glass decorative globe that crashed onto the floor.

“If the Russians didn’t know then how did they get their bomb squad there so fast?” Ritson huffed to the leading security officers in the office. Clearly the Russians were lying because they didn’t act on the information they were given from multiple different channels, The U.S., the U.K., India, and Vietnam… the U.S. tried to get that information out there. If the Russians didn’t trust the information that was their fault. Why the news media was manipulating it and not covering that the U.S. warned Russia of the threat was so frustrating to Ritson. White Maria’s warning stole some of the energy from Gravik’s plan. Gravik was using his skrull buddies in the media to manipulate the story to still shift blame onto the U.S.

Val rushed into the Oval Office and Rhodes glared at her as she entered so quickly.

“Mr. President, we have been able to confirm..” Val started to say

“BREAKING NEWS ALERT!” The TV newscaster started and Val stopped talking.

“Val keep going.” Ritson ordered.

“The Russians identified Hill and Fury and they are holding Hill as ‘a suspicious person on charges related to terrorism.’” Val talked over the breaking news alert.

“So, she’s alive?” Rhodes asked.

“Yes, they arrested her at a hospital. No indication or information on her condition.” Val sighed.

“We aren’t going to be able to get her out of there.” Ritson said glumly.

“No, sir.” Val had surprising remorse in her voice.

“What about Fury? Did they find him?” Rhodes asked Val, the urgency clear in his voice.

“No, not yet. We cut off all access on his devices that we know of, if he contacts anyone in the government we will know, if contacts S.A.B.E.R., we will know, we warned known close associates that he is armed and dangerous.” Val clarified. Fury might be out there but his access to resources and support were cut off or monitored.

“Is there anywhere we can think of that he might go?” Ritson asked. He wanted to put out the alert so bad, but Val was right they had to wait for the Russians to release the footage before they got accused of spying on Russia or having more to do with this attack.

Rhodey didn’t react, but Raava’s mind perked up. She did know where real Fury may go if he lost all his resources. She was going to have to warn Varra that he was coming home.

“Excuse me, sir.” Jane the executive secretary knocked and entered the office.

“Yeah, Jane we’re kind of in the middle of something.” Ritson tried to dismiss her.

“I know, sir, and I’m very sorry, but the NSA is here…” Jane gestured to the two National Security Agents and the Director standing behind her.

“Come in, come in!” Ritson waved them in and Jane left.

“Mr. President, Val, we started monitoring phone calls coming in to Ms. Elizabeth Hill, as potential Hill contact, three calls have come to Ms. Elizabeth Hill’s home with Russian origin points.”

“She called her mom?” Ritson asked stunned.

“No, sir. Elizabeth Hill then attempted to contact Colonel Rhodes from his non-direct private line off his business card.” The agent started to explain but everyone in the room looked at Rhodes confused.

“I gave her a card once, when I ran into Hill and her mother at a dinner.” Rhodey vaguely explained dismissing it as nothing but Val looked at him very suspiciously wondering if something far more than former ‘Avengers’ acquaintances was going on between them.

“I haven’t been able to get back to hear the message, yet.” Rhodey said with an obvious tone.

“We heard it, because it is a non secure line that we have access to, and Elizabeth Hill called Rhodes leaving a message for him via his private secretary that two people with Russian or Eastern European seeming accents called one alleging they were a reporters asking about Hill’s whereabouts and if she would be in Russia and another call claiming to be a doctor asking if she was next of kin for Maria."

“WHAT!” Ritson yelled.

“They’re dropping her name to the media?” Rhodes asked stunned.

“No.” Val said sternly.

“It’s the Russian interrogators. They’ll talk to family members and they can manipulate the mother’s voice if they can’t get any intel from her. Then they pretend that she died to get sounds of anguish or any information Hill might have dropped about where she was to confirm she is there working.” Val explained very upset. This was an old messed up trick deployed by devious investigators, or even the FBI, —-it also was often used by organized crime rings to trick family members into paying ransoms or gain information to blackmail people.

“The Russians are going to call and tell us that they have her in custody and that they interrogated her and they are going to compare what we say about why she’s there with what she says about why she’s there…” Val said ominously.

“I mean, she’s trained for that.” Rhodes said not as alarmed at Val and Ritson looked.

“Yeah.. but what is going to say when they ask her why her old boss Nick Fury tried to murder her!” Val asked annoyed and Rhodes paused because what was she going to say? Clearly she wasn’t expecting it—or maybe she was if she wore a vest?

“She warned them!” Ritson huffed.

“She can’t say that without admitting she’s an agent and there working, and we do not want working CIA agents at the site of terrorist attack in Russia.” Val said quickly.

“She was there trying to stop it..” Rhodey added.

“It doesn’t matter. They don’t play by the rules, they lie, they cheat, they torture, they manipulate the truth.” Val rattled off as if the U.S. had never done such a thing.
“And she knows a whole lot of other stuff we don’t want them to know.” Ritson groaned.

“In her situation she might’ve been better off dead.” Val said casually and Rhodes glared at her hatefully.

“Obviously, I’m not saying I want that I just mean…” Val tried to clarify.

“We get it.” Ritson sighed. Ritson covered his face with his hands. This was such a mess, on one hand he had an American trying to get the warning out to Russia which was which another American tried to kill her for, but they couldn’t release that information, and on the other hand Russia arrested an American claiming he bombed them on purpose and that it was an act of war and even America had proof this man was a very anti-Russian radical. The very last thing Ritson wanted to do was sit down and talk with Russia. He had nothing to do with this shit, but he could tell the situation was very tense and delicate. If he didn’t play his cards right war could break out.

“This is a huge god damn mess!” Ritson yelled. How was he going to smooth things over with Russia, he had that Hill was trying to help them but he couldn’t reveal that without putting her in grave risk, but if they were going to figure it out anyway Ritson should reveal it. The U.S. warned Russia, Russia failed to act. Why did he have to do any more than that?

Ritson groaned to himself.

“Hill does the right thing and she gets fucked either way. Doesn’t give me a whole lot of incentive to come to the table.” Ritson mumbled.

“Sir!” Val exclaimed.

“You definitely should go to the table and talk to the Russians.” Rhodes encouraged.

“War could break out, they could attack us in retaliation and we would have to attack them back and we would be.. in a never ending very high casualty crisis between two nuclear super powers… this is literally Dr. Strangelove here..” Val started to explain the obvious.

“Or.. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” Ritson slightly joked and Val looked at him unaware that he was riffing on the title of the movie.

“If they’re going to sit there and lie to my face that we didn’t.. that Hill didn’t warn them and kill her anyway…” Ritson started getting wildly hot headed.

“They’re just going to use her as a pawn for now.” Val sighed.

“So, I have to sit down and play their game?!” Ritson exclaimed.
“Yes, for now, yes.” Rhodes said agreeing with Val shockingly. Whenever Val and Rhodes agreed on something, Ritson knew he had to get it together.

Rhodes left the Oval Office to go back to his office, he went in the office and shut the door. He had so many missed calls. Now he also had to figure out what do about Hill’s mother. If the news broke out before they warned it would be pretty vile. He let out a huge sigh, he had no sleep for days, and was so tired. Gravik had no appreciation for how hard this gig was.

Raava called Gravik. She was getting a bit sloppy not even leaving the building but she just didn’t have time for all the protocols anymore.

“Finally.” Gravik said annoyed, when he called he expected Raava to answer.

“I couldn’t get away.”

“Try harder.” Gravik grumbled.

“I took care of your Fury and Hill problem, since you couldn’t on your end.” Gravik added.

“Yeah. I saw.” Raava sounded irritated.

“How?” Gravik asked a sharp tone in his voice.

“Because Hill warned them ahead of time the CIA got up on some Russian surveillance in the area, they have videos and they are combing everything. They put up a fake website asking for cell phone videos from the event pretending to Russian law enforcement. So they are going to get even more angles.” Raava explained to Gravik.

“Send the video.” Gravik wanted to see what was out there, and Ravaa sent him the videos he had of the shooting. The first one was the quick clip of Fury shooting Maria and it cut out quickly after. The next one showed the officers come after Fury and up to Hill. Gravik watched as he saw Maria was still alive.

“She’s wearing a vest.” Gravik grumbled angry.

“Yeah! Why wouldn’t she be?” Raava said as if it should be obvious. Gravik thought about it for a minute. When he shape shifted as Fury he had recent memories, and that didn’t come up.

“Why haven’t they released this video?” Gravik asked.

“The U.S. can’t, they don’t want Russia to know what we can get into, especially with potential war looming. The Russians have to do it, but the Russians won’t do it because they want to blindside Ritson in the peace talks with it.” Raava already knew this because she was able to talk to some skrulls on the Russian side of things.

“Do we know where did Hill end up?”

“They ID’d her at the hospital and FSB arrested her.” Raava told Gravik.

Gravik was quiet for a minute as he thought about the interesting dynamic he set up from his impulsive actions. It really was quite a complicated web Gravik had unintentionally weaved, he framed Fury, he trapped Hill in Russia which added an entirely new complicated issue with the Americans Against Russia bombing. It turned out great for him, he already felt self congratulatory about what he accomplished today. Fury walked into a trap and his own team made it ten times worse for him. It made Gravik laugh.

“You have a mole.” Raava added.

“It’s G’iah.” Gravik said confidently.

“How do you know?”

“I saw G'iah spray the bags that Fury was looking for that's why I switched them.” Gravik and Raava both laughed a little at that.

“I really got two-for-one with this.” Gravik smirked.

“Yeah, but maybe give me a heads up, next time.” Raava mumbled knowing it would cause a problem but she did not appreciate being caught off guard with something so huge.

“Well now you can focus on other things.” Gravik huffed rudely annoyed at what Raava just said.

“How? We have get her out of freaking Russia now. It’s absolute chaos here.” Raava corrected quickly.

“Don’t bother. She’s not going be around for long.” Gravik said ominously rolled his eyes and let out a little huff.

“Do not do anything without telling me.” Raava said, she couldn’t get caught off guard with this a second time.

“What did you just say to me?”

“Ritson will come to the U.K to talk with Russia, but he’s going to turn that plane around if Hill dies in Russian custody. If you think you have a better shot at him in the US…” Raava started to explain and Gravik had to wonder if Raava didn’t have some other political or personal desires at play here. Gravik had his own personal desires at play here for his own wants but he was the leader, he could have those, Raava was a soldier who thought far too high of herself. Rhodes’s political standing and influence was getting to her.

“I think my patience with you is reaching its end.” Gravik warned fiercely.

“I’m trying to help, I can’t help if I am the last person to know what’s going on!”

“You’re too slow.”

“I’m not on the ground!” Raava defended herself passionately. She was getting limited information, she was just as shocked from the video of ‘Fury’ shooting Hill as everyone else who saw it, but only Raava knew it wasn’t really Fury.

“I would have told you not to do that! You aren’t thinking about the consequences of what you are doing. This is a nightmare. What’s Hill going to tell the Russians when they ask why Fury shot her? Huh? What about everything she’s learned chasing us?” Raava said in a quiet exasperation.

“Told me not to do it? This is the best plan I’ve ever had. Look how well it worked out. And, last I checked I didn’t shoot her in the fucking head. She has a brain, if she’s half as smart as Fury pretends she is then she’ll shut up, won’t she?” Gravik said, he was so offended but some things Raava said were true. He knew shooting Hill was impulsive, reckless even, but wow it really changed the game like she had tried to do Gravik. Gravik just wanted to get at Fury in a deep way and he was mad that Hill pulled the shock factor out of his plan, so he found another way to shock people.

“What is she going to tell Ritson if we get her back?”

“Raava! What do you think you’re there for? You’ll have to take care of it.” Gravik said angrily. Clearly Raava couldn’t tell what greatness was when it looked at her in the face. Gravik knew he couldn’t share all his plans with Raava, she was very mission oriented and annoyingly she became less and less ‘Gravik-oriented’ the longer she pretended to be Rhodes.

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ON A TRAIN TO WARSAW, POLAND - 6 PM - November 4, 2025

Fury and Talos caught the very last train that made it out from an area a bit outside of Moscow before the entire city was shut down. Fury and Talos were sitting across from each other in a private train booth that was boarded off. They had been on the train for a few hours now and the mostly sat in silence. They waiting for a call or message from Hill but as the hours ticked on none came and the longer they waited the worse and worse thought Fury started to have.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner.” Fury said in a frustrated voice.

“What do you mean?” Talos said rather glumly as the unknown about Maria hung in the air tensely over both of them. Talos was sure he saw her running out far ahead of him. But she hadn’t called or checked in by now and even Talos had to admit the outlook didn’t seem good.

“You know how to contact me. You’ve been chasing this mess for how long? You’ve let the world turn into a playground for one million skrulls?” Fury asked annoyed.

“Contact you? You were gone, for five years, I didn’t think you were coming back.”

“Well I did. Here I am.” Fury said raising his arms up at Talos. This phrase Fury kept repeating, he was here, like he deserved something for showing up.

“Yeah? And what difference does that make? It’s not like you pick up my call mate.” Talos growled in a sharp grumbly old man voice.

“Have you lost your reptilian ass mind, Talos? I never got a call from you saying there was one million skrulls on earth!” Fury angrily yelled at him.

“I didn’t know you had a cap for refugees.” Talos huffed and Fury glared at him.

“So we can only be here if we help you? If we’re useful to you? You can use us and then what? We don’t get to see our families again, we don’t get to have a life? Don’t you understand where this resentment stems from?” Talos’s reply was in a tense tone.

“Yeah! That’s the deal we made.”

“No. That wasn’t the deal we made, and you know that. We would help you, and you would find us a home. We did our part, and what did you do? What have you ever done for the skrulls after what so many of us have done for you?” Talos asked boldly. Talos had been grateful to Fury for a very long time, but the things G’iah said to him the other night were right, and he was tense too, he was heartbroken by the realization that G’iah did set them up and a lot of innocent died because of it. Talos had bent over backwards with this plan to try and save G’iah, his only child and the only one his family he had left. Now regret flowed through him as he knew all the mistakes he made to protect his daughter was just him being played by Gravik.

“How could you think one million of them could come here?” Fury huffed.

“Where are they supposed to go? Are they all to be sentenced to wonder the universe aimlessly for 30 years, if they can’t serve you, king Fury!” Talos huffed in an angry tone. Fury knew what deal he made and he knew he came up short. Talos, G’iah, even Gravik all had reason to be upset with him and so did so many others.

Fury sighed because Talos was right. He failed the skrulls in a major way and he barely said a thank you to them for helping him behind the scenes for all these years. Fury relied on the skrulls to advance his career and help him, and he never lived up to his promise. Still, Fury couldn’t help feel bitter about this moment. He hated not knowing information like this and the stress of what happened at the bombing and nothing from Maria since then was getting to him.

“You know, Talos, I’m starting to wonder what side of this you’re really on.” Fury glared at Talos skeptically. Talos looked deeply offended and Talos let out a scoff at that remark from Fury, annoyed that he would ever dare question his loyalty to him. Talos was just pointing out the obvious. Fury didn’t really mean it he was just stressed and irritated, the tension that loomed over these two men could stop this train right its tracks.

“You are the only one who thinks you have to do this alone.” Talos said, reminding Fury of Maria’s earlier comments since the night that Fury came back. Talos knew Fury didn’t mean what he said, that Fury was pushing people away out of distress, but it still was hard to hear nonetheless. Fury himself knew he was just projecting onto Talos, as he knew something bad happened but the mystery of it hanging over them made it so much worse. Then Talos left, as he needed a break from Fury, clearly they needed some time apart. He had to hope after what happened at the bombing Hill made the same choice.

Fury sat alone in his private train booth, festering, sighing. The problem was, there was really no place for the skrulls to go. Planets had civilizations and newcomers species generally were unwelcome. The fear of the new always beat out any reason. In reality, Fury did give up on his promise, he stopped even trying because it was just wasn’t possible. It was sad, but all civilizations ended with time, and as it seemed, the skrulls time may have just been up. It’s not that Fury wanted that for them. He wanted them to have a peaceful home and be safe and live their lives free of the Kree. Overall, this promise just turned out to be one that was far too complicated and big for Fury to deliver, not even Carol Danvers could deliver on it. This ate at Fury a great deal, but his solution was just to tell them to wait and ignore it, deny that he failed and hope an opportunity struck eventually.

A while after, Fury’s phone buzzed in his pocket and the tension in the room broke as the he presumed it was a call from Maria, his expression softened a bit as Fury answered the phone.

“Hill?” Fury said quickly without even thinking. He knew it had to be Maria calling him, who else would it be? Instead, Fury heard a male voice laughing and Fury’s expression immediately changed as he recognized Gravik’s voice.

“Are you looking for someone?” Gravik taunted.

“Gravik, what did you do?” Fury questioned with a deep anger in his voice.

“No, not me. It was you.” Gravik said over a little laugh. And then Gravik sent Fury a copy of the footage he had gotten from Raava. Fury watched the video of him shooting Maria. It was the short video that cut out before he could see what happened next or that Maria was wearing a vest. Fury froze in complete shock. Fury couldn’t even speak as he stunned. Talos had said he saw Maria get out. Fury felt a deep pain in his throat and chest as he took in what he just saw and Gravik enjoyed the silence.

“You didn’t!” Fury yelled he couldn’t say anything else from the shock of it and then realized the extent of his loudness. He had to control his anger to make it off this train, but Gravik just snickered at his outrage.

“Do you like my film? Do you think the news will like it too? I bet it will get a lot of play, Nick Fury trying to kill the one person who warned everyone. Nick Fury the traitor! That’s a headline I’d like to see, then people will finally know what you really are.” Gravik gloated.

“But, it is your lucky day. I have a proposition for you, because it turns out, you’re a bad shot, old man. So, if you don’t want me to finish what you couldn’t, bring me what I want.” Gravik bargained, Hill living turned out to be a great way to leverage the Harvest over Fury. How else was he going to get it from him.

“She’s alive?” Fury asked almost in disbelief.

“For now.” Gravik said with a baiting tone.

“Where is she.” Fury demanded instead of asked. Gravik didn’t actually know but he knew skrulls could get to her much faster than Fury could, so it didn’t matter to him.

“No.” Gravik answered coldly.

“What do you want?” Fury grumbled. He couldn’t read Gravik’s mind and he didn’t have time for this nonsense.

“Don’t play Fury, you are not very good at games anymore.”

“Gravik! What do you want?” Fury repeated hostility.

“I want to reap what I sowed.” Gravik hinted and Fury paused to think about what he said, and then he realized what he meant.

“What? Why?” Fury huffed. Why would Gravik want the Harvest?

“I can’t wait for you to find out.” Gravik laughed.

“It’s gone, it doesn’t exist anymore, Gravik. I destroyed it, all of it.” Fury lied confidently.

“No you didn’t. You are far too much of a narcissist to do that.” Gravik shook his head to himself, he knew that was a lie.

“I guess I need to do more to motivate you to take me seriously. Do you think Hill will tell me right before I finish her for good?”

“She doesn’t know.” Fury said sternly.

“I’ll certainly put that claim to the test.” Gravik taunted again in his prideful tone.

“Gravik.” Fury said more calmly and Gravik paused, pretending to groan pretending he was giving Fury something.

“You better get moving. I had a good day, so I’m being patient with you. Don’t make me regret it.” Gravik said slyly as a warning for Fury not to come back and try anything. Gravik figured if he baited Fury to get the Harvest it would keep Fury out of the way for the next part of Gravik’s plan.

“Tell me where to meet you.” Fury huffed.

“Tell me when you have it.” Gravik echoed Fury’s tone.

“Okay.” Fury sighed.

“I don’t like to wait.” Gravik said in a cold threatening tone.

“I need a little time.” Fury said rather pathetically and it made Gravik laugh. He was such a sad miserable old man.

“Don’t mess around. The game is over, Fury.” Gravik said menacingly warning Fury not to test him as Gravik boldly lied to Fury alleging he had Maria captive.

Fury hung up the phone too, and was sitting up more straight, and he lead backward.

“Kid, it just started.” Fury mumbled to himself, furrowing his brows, angry, annoyed, and somehow more motivated than he ever felt to take on Gravik as he could tell Gravik was lying to him, he just didn’t know exactly about what. Then Fury looked up at the empty train cab he was sitting in, the seat across from him now lifeless, and he realized and truly felt that the two people who had always been in his corner weren’t here anymore, and he was now alone.

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Skrull Council Meeting undisclosed location - 9:00 PM - November 4, 2025.

Gravik entered the meeting late as some low key and a few better known world leaders sat at a table, including the leader of NATO and the Prime Minister of the U.K, Pamela Lawton. There was a guard who followed Gravik inside. Gravik made G’iah wait outside the building to
‘keep watch.’ When G’iah was alone, she pulled a burner phone from her pocket and she called the tip line and reported the address of the safe house. She broke her burner phone and trashed it afterward.

All of the dignitary skrulls looked surprised at Gravik’s late entrance to the council.

“Sorry for my lateness, traffic.” Gravik joked but no one responded they instead stared at him.

“It’s a alright, let’s get on with it.” The Prime Minister said.

Another female skrull representing a world leader looked directly at Gravik.

“Terror, acts of terror all over the world, you just murders of 1000 people in Moscow! Children, mothers, families, slaughtered, what we have spent our lives escaping.”

“Please. The humans do it to themselves.” Gravik dismissed.

“No remorse at all.” She shook her head shamefully.

“I have a great deal of remorse, sister. I feel remorse every day, every day that Fury promised us a home, you heard it, I heard it, ‘you keep your word, and I’ll keep mine.’ We kept ours, here we are, and yet where is he?” Gravik asked.

“Apparently bombing and killing people in Moscow.” She continued almost sarcastically and Gravik rolled his eyes.

“Humans are dumb, they’ll believe anything.” Gravik dismissed.

“We deserve a home! Not to be used, cast aside, and abandoned.” Gravik’s paternal issues with Fury projecting onto his mission.

“We’re here on earth, we’ve been here, so it will be our home, and we will take it— I will take it, for you sister.” Gravik said looking back at her.

“It’s war!” Gravik proclaimed.

She rolled her eyes and sighed loudly. Gravik was a child, when he came to earth. He experienced the war as a child, and while it was traumatizing, what he knew about war was limited to his experiences as a kid.

“What do you know about war?” She asked back as the rest of the table was silent refusing to stand up to him.

“I know I won’t lose this one, like the rest of you lost the last one you fought in.” Gravik admonished them.

She shook her head no at Gravik. He had no idea what he was doing.

“No. You don’t know that..” She admonished him right back like the child he was.

“They are going to kill themselves anyway, I am just hastening the inevitable.” Gravik shrugged.

“Yeah? What if the Avengers come?” A male skrull asked impersonating the commander of NATO and Gravik grinned.

“What if they do?” Gravik said leaning back in his chair.

“They’ll destroy you, they’ll destroy us. We’ll be the ones who killed ourselves!” He continued. He felt encouraged by his sister standing up to Gravik although no one had backed her up until this point.

“Alright you said your peace let’s get on with it. Democracy is good and fine all during peace time but as Gravik said, it’s war and we need a single streamlined leader.” Prime Minister Lawton started.

“No!” The opposing female skrull tried to stop her.

“I nominate Gravik to lead us as Skrull General.” Lawton said proudly.

“General!? I am the Commander of Nato he is a—- he never even fought in a war.” The commander yelled and the guard at the door hit him swiftly in the chest causing him to fall backward and cough. He struggled to breathe. The guard wondered if she should do more.

“He won’t be a problem.” Gravik assured and the guard went back to the door.

“I accept my nomination.” Gravik smiled sitting his chair smugly. Things were going so well for Gravik he couldn’t stop gloating.

“And if you want a world, a home of your own, then pledge your loyalty.” Gravik told the council. Lawton, and the others stood up the commander of NATO slowly stood up but the woman who fought Gravik stayed seated.

Gravik looked over at his one defector. He smiled at her, she looked panicked.

“It’s okay sister. You can go in peace.” Gravik said surprisingly kindly.

She looked over at her other council members all of her were standing to pledge themselves to Gravik and then she looked back at Gravik, who look genuinely not offended by her refusal. She paused and then stood up. She looked like she was going to say something to all of them but instead she headed to the door to the leave as she held her head up high. As she placed her hand on he door knob the skrull guard shot her in the back of the head.

The rest of the (former) council stood there still and Gravik looked back at the rest of them.

“We are one or we are nothing, is that clear?” Gravik said calmly and the group of them nodded in agreement.

After the skrull council meeting where Gravik was declared Skrull General, G’iah drove Gravik and Pagon back to the safe house, but she stopped aways down the street as they could see the safe house was being raided.

This stunned Gravik, despite a few unexpected issues the day was going pretty well for him.

“He talked.” Gravik said in a hateful tone as he watched the safe house get raided when Gravik, G’iah, and Pagon pulled up.

“Did you think he wouldn’t?” G’iah asked, Gravik had to know they were torturing Brogon.

“I thought he believed in the cause.” Gravik said ominously and then Gravik and Pagon exchanged a glance as they both knew what they had to do.

Then Gravik looked over at G’iah briefly. He knew G’iah was the mole, but it was actually useful for him to keep G’iah around to mislead Talos and Fury. He’d get rid of her when he needed to do it. He doubted that G’iah dared call in the safe house location, especially since she was staying there too and she was the one driving to it. She was too much of a coward to risk herself like that. Instead, Gravik was sure Brogon gave it up, he had been arrested and he was definitely the one talking. Gravik had a rule about traitors, no exceptions, and they were going to act on it.

“I guess we’re going hunting.” Gravik said to Pagon and Pagon nodded. Gravik already had skrulls on his team trying to locate where they brought Hill, so he knew he was going to have to dig up where thy brought Brogon.

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MOSCOW, RUSSIA - 10:30/11 P.M (approximately) - NOVEMBER 4, 2025

Following up on the tip that Sonya got from Oslo, Sonya drove to the butcher shop, a black site often used by the Russians. She confidently walked right in, with two agents of her own. Upon arrival in the butcher shop, Brogon was there chained to a chair being beaten and screamed at by officers present.

“Gentlemen.” Sonya said with a slight smile and they stopped yelling at Brogon and looked stunned at this confident woman with her British accent, wearing a green jumpsuit and long red coat.

“What do you want.” One of the officers muttered at her and they did not look surprised to see her as if she had done this kind of thing before.

“I’ll be taking it from here.” Sonya said unbothered as she dropped her purse right on the butcher’s table.

“You can’t get him to talk.” The officer said rolling his eyes at Sonya.

“Aww, I can be very persuasive as Mr. Wallace will find out.” Sonya said cheerfully. The officers were tired, they had been at this some time. If Sonya wanted to try and get the information out of him she could have him.

“You have 30 minutes.” The officer said as the group of them left for a break. Sonya shut the door behind them. She smiled at the beaten down Wallace chained to the metal chair in front of her.

“Alone at last!” She said in a delightful tone and Wallace looked unimpressed at this woman.

“Now.” Sonya clapped her hands together like a camp counselor.

“Should we do this the easy way or the other way?” She asked eagerly.

Wallace laughed at her, this woman was delusional.

“I am going to break these chains and then I will break every bone in your miserable ancient fucking body.” He threatened with a laugh mocking her.

Sonya just laughed with a big grin on her face.

“Other way it is!” She said as she grabbed a cutting sheers from the butcher table and cut off Wallace’s finger. Brogan screamed dreadfully and Sonya looked unaffected. She held his finger up as she watched it turn a bright green color.

“Ah. Now this this is confirmed. Let’s really talk.” Sonya shook her head.

“I’ll never talk, cut off all my fingers. My limbs, I don’t care you bitch.” Brogon grunted.

“Cut off all you fingers and limbs? Ick. I think I’ll try this other method.” Sonya pulled a syringe out of her bag.
“Everyone talks when their blood starts boiling in their veins. Smart ones start talking much sooner than that. Are you a smart one?” Sonya asked.

Brogon pulled at his chains forcefully and grunted.

“No? Bummer for you.” Sonya said with a shrug.

“Do it you lying cunt. I know that’s not real. I don’t care.”

“It’s not real?” Sonya asked as she jabbed the needle right into Brogon’s back side. Brogon jolted in his chains. And then he looked around, nothing was happening and he relaxed a bit. He looked at Sonya rather smugly. But then, slowly, he started to feel a tingling n his muscles, or like it was under his muscles, it was the most bizarre sensation, and then it turned to a forceful burning and Brogon’s body started shaking, the chains around him rattling against the chair and he struggled against them, grunting, yelling, groaning from the pain, as his skin started to turn read, his veins started to pop out in a bright red color. He gripped the edge of the chair he was strapped in to try and endure the pain. All he could do was let out deep painful cries from his gut. He had never felt anything like it.

“Tell me the location of Gravik’s compound.” Sonya said calmly.

“I don’t know anything about that, I swear! Please I swear!” Brogon pleaded.

“I can’t do anything that. So tell me where Gravik is and where is going to be?” Sonya asked again.

“He never tells anyone until the last minute. I don’t know.”

“More.” Sonya held the syringe right up near Brogon like she was going to inject him again.

“He’s building something, a machine.” Brogon offered, that’s all he could remember.

“A machine? That’s interesting. What kind of machine?”

“I think it’s to make us stronger. He used it on himself before.”

“More.” She said holding the syringe close by.

“He used it on himself, to try and give himself some kind of power. I don’t know what his power does.” Brogon was crying he was in so much pain.

Sonya thought about this claim Brogon was making.

“Is Gravik a scientist?” Sonya asked almost sarcastically.

“No.” Brogon gasped for breaths as he tried to answer he needed this pain to stop and it was filing letting up a little.

“So, who is helping him?”

“Two scientists, they're a married couple.”

“What are their names.” Sonya clarified her questions.

“I can’t tell you, please, please! Please don’t make me tell you.” Brogon begged through pain.

“Would you rather I kill you now, this way, for not saying their names, or Gravik kill you later for telling me? Hmm?” Sonya said as she put the needle up to Brogon’s arm.

Brogon grunted fearfully as Sonya put the needle in his arm but she didn’t press down yet.

“DALTON! DALTON, Dalton… that’s their name.” Brogon said rushed between cries. Sonya pulled the needle out of his arm and she smiled right at Brogon’s face.

“See? Easy as pie.” Her cheerful demeanor continued as she put her torture device away and grabbed her bag.

“I think I am going to slip out the back door, before the .. officers return.” Although Sonya was sure Gravik’s rebels would be coming for Brogon soon anyway.

Sonya left out the bag with her things. A good blood boil never let her down, she couldn’t believe the U.K. outlawed it as torture… well she could believe it but it had a very useful purpose, she hated to admit that. Her favorite part about it is once the blood cooled there was no signs or evidence of torture, she only used it in the rarest, most important of occasions.

Suddenly, the door in the back room burst open, Brogon thought he was being rescued as at first he looked at excited to see Pagon and Gravik, but then they turned their guns at him.

“No! No! No!” Brogon started to yell before the wave of bullets fired into him.

As Sonya left she heard the front doors of the butcher shop burst open. Sonya ran down the emergency exit out the back and then she heard a fire of gunshots. She really made that one in just the nick of time.

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OUTSIDE OF MOSCOW - 12:00 AM (approximately) - NOVEMBER 5, 2025

After being arrested from the hours long hunt at the hospital, Maria spent an indiscernible amount of hours with her hands restrained behind her back and a hood over her head. She was moved places but she had no idea where, she tried to do a lot of listening. A great deal of confusion seemed to muddle her arresting officers about what they were supposed to do with her. In reality, Oslo was muddling it on purpose, undetected. He wanted to keep Maria out of the system and hands of the higher ups for as long as possible. It was tricky for him, but he ended up getting away with it. It was a well known interrogation method to confuse and disorient the subject, he had deniability if he needed it.

At some point, Maria was taken to an undisclosed location in the basement of an unoccupied office building somewhere outside of Moscow. The basement was arranged similarly to the office structure, long hallways lots of twists and turns, and it was very industrial looking. It had numerous ‘closets’ or small rooms down its hallways. The hallways were inconsistently lit, some totally dark and the others a dim light that could barely guide a mouse.

Oslo and the wounded Vosko brought Maria into a small grungy dark room nestled in the depths of the cold desolate building. There was one light that shone bright in the corner. The lighting of the room was intended to send off an uneasy feeling. Maria had no idea where she was or where she was going. But, she knew it was no where good, the waiting to go somewhere was bad, but finally arriving did feel worse.

Maria had a lot to think about and it was hard for her not to get distracted thinking about what happened with Fury instead of focusing on how to help herself. All she could think about was this fake Fury going around hurting people, causing problems, helping this skrull invasion and getting his allies to trust him before taking them out. Maria couldn’t place when Fury was replaced by a skrull. She couldn’t believe that she Talos joked about it one morning and it happened right in front of their faces. She was sure Talos was dead too that must’ve been why he disconnected from them and why Fury stopped answering.

As she could feel the interrogators looming in the room, Maria started got wonder what she was even going to say? ‘Aliens did it.’ That wasn’t going to play even if it was the truth. Did she out herself as an agent and admit she warned them or did she not talk at all? There was so much going on in Maria’s mind that was hard for her to plan, or think, or do any of the things she would normally do, this was just something far too different than she ever expected to find herself in. There was a standard line to use in this situation for agents who were taken or caught, but she did not have a line for why Nick Fury would try to kill her, because it was something she could never wrap her head around.

The room they brought Maria into was a small industrial closet, it had nothing in it though, except three mismatched chairs, a camera up in the corner of the ceiling that was quite old looking, and a battered metal table between the sets of chairs. The furnishings showed scars of all the interrogations that had been there before and it was clear they were unpleasant encounters for people on onside of the table.

Finally, Oslo pulled the hood off Maria’s head. She turned her head quickly and closed her eyes for a minute. Despite the low light in the room it still was hard for eyes to adjust.

Maria had no idea what time it was but she had to guess it had been many hours since she was initially arrested and relocated from the the hospital. The place they brought her to had a stagnant damp smell that hinted to Maria she was in some kind of underground location. Generally, that was not a good sign.

Oslo grabbed onto Maria’s jaw and turned her head and examined the bruise that Vosko gave her on her face in their fight in the morgue. Maria forcefully pulled her head out of his Oslo’s grasp and she looked at him angry and offended that he touched her.

“Well, he got you good, huh?” Oslo said as he observed the bruise. Maria looked over to Vosko standing in the corner of the room.

“I think I got him better.” Maria made a face at that statement as she saw the injured Vosko, his hand wrapped and his head bandaged. Vosko glared at her.

“Do you want me put that in my notes?” Oslo tried not to laugh at her bold response, Maria rolled her eyes to herself and she didn’t say anything.

“Not the smartest move to try and kill a federal officer hours after an attack on our country.” Oslo pointed out still standing next to Maria. Both of these men standing by her was creating a very intense ominous feeling.

“I didn’t know he was an officer because he attacked me from behind in a basement storage closet without saying anything.” Maria pointed out. She wasn’t sure if he was a skrull or an officer when he came upon her but either way she had to defend herself.

“That’s a lie!” Vosko yelled in a manner that made him seem like a whining child. It was not at all convincing and both Maria an Oslo looked at him. Vosko did just go after her without saying anything at first, he was impulsive he was angry.

“You’re right, you hit me and then called me a ‘stupid American bitch.’” Maria pointed out with a terrible sarcastic twinge her voice that was very inappropriate for the situations he was in.

“And you didn’t pick up on any context clues from that?” Oslo asked Maria just as sarcastically as she had just spoken to them.

Oslo moved behind Maria and she wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but she was bracing for it to hurt. Surprisingly he started to undo the handcuffs on her wrists, her arms and wrists needed it because she it been many hours with them restrained behind her.

“You really shouldn’t do that.” The injured Vosko said as he watched Oslo undo the handcuffs to his great surprise. Oslo scoffed at Vosko’s comment and he walked back round the table to be standing on the same side as Vosko and across from Maria.

“In the future, if you don’t want her to beat the shit out of you, do this…” Oslo took his gun from his holster and pointed right at Maria.

“FSB HANDS UP” he shouted at Maria in a serious terrifying tone and she put her hands up as he demanded because she these men were erratic and angry and she had no clue what they were going to do to her.

“See?” Oslo said still aiming his gun at Maria.

“Put your hands down on the table, flat and apart. Do not move them, for any reason.” Oslo ordered and Maria complied.

“Thank you for your cooperation.” Oslo said when Maria complied putting her hands flat on the table and apart.

Oslo gestured to Maria’s compliance with his hand and looked to Vosko. The kid got himself beat up, and he needed to learn the lesson. Then Oslo sat down across from Maria leaning back in his chair comfortably despite how uncomfortable and awful the room was. Oslo still stood up in the corner, aggressively glaring at Maria.

“So, Maria Hill is here… for some reason…” Oslo started looking at Maria.

“You are Maria Hill?” He asked even though he knew.

“Yes.” Maria knew that they knew who she was.

“I’m just asking because I guess we have old pictures.” Oslo joked with a laugh as he opened up the file on Maria Hill, it had a great deal of information on her and much of that information came from the SHIELD data that Natasha Romanoff uploaded online. It even had pictures of Maria from her SHIELD days, well over ten years ago. Vosko laughed too as he saw the pictures Oslo pulled from the data. Maria did not look amused.

Maria’s exhaustion from the events she encountered today were clear on her face. Strands of disheveled hair framed her face and she had a bruise on her cheek from clash with Vosko. She was still wearing the scrubs she stole from the hospital, but they were dirty now from the fight, she even had Vosko’s blood on them from when she stabbed his hand. Her arms and hands were scratched and bruised from the struggle with Vosko, her wrists were bruised from the handcuffs. Although not seen she also had terrible bruising from being shot in the vest earlier. That one still definitely hurt the worst and the look on her face was clear she didn’t feel great. She looked the way felt, hurt, and exhausted, on top of that she was working very hard to suppress her worry about the skrull acting as Fury.

“So, Maria Hill is here, pretending to be Russian law enforcement officer, and then a doctor, and then trying to kill FSB agents, all in one day? That’s a pretty busy day.” Oslo remarked.

“I didn’t do any of that.” Maria answered honestly. It was true, it was the local officer’s misassumption that Maria was a working law enforcement official, she definitely did not claim to be a doctor, and she went easy on Vosko, in her opinion.

“Save it.” Oslo dismissed quickly.

“And on top of all that, are you also terrorist now?” Oslo added but he said it joking tone.

“No.” Maria responded.

“Then why did you run?” Vosko asked. That’s what Oslo said in the car, Fury ran and Maria stayed, that’s what was suspicious to him.

“So I wouldn’t get killed.” Maria answered obviously.

“So, if you’re not terrorist, then you’re a spy?” Vosko asked assertively and Oslo tilted his head as he thought about what Vosko just said. Then Oslo nodded in agreement with Vosko, even though his phrasing was not ideal.

“A spy who is so easily identifiable?” Maria asked a point that Prescod had made to her months and months ago.

“I don’t know who you are.” Vosko said confidently and Oslo laughed.

“You’re old news. It’s not 2014 anymore.” Oslo said with a smirk to Maria. At first Oslo did think Maria was a bad choice for some kind of spy but then as he thought about what he just said he came upon an interesting thought.

“You blipped, huh?” Oslo asked casually almost like he was a friend, as he looked down at the tablet he had that all the information the Russians had on Maria. Maria didn’t answer, it was clear Oslo asked questions he knew the answers too and wanted to compare the intel he had with what she said. She wasn’t going to give him anything useful.

“You had a serious important job and then you disappeared for five years and came back and suddenly you aren’t qualified for your important job anymore? Happened to a lot of people. So, then what happened?” Oslo asked and Vosko looked very interested.

“Nothing.” Maria answered quickly.

“You didn’t join a radical extremist American militia group who sets their sights on Russia?” Oslo asked in a gloating tone and Maria just a face at him because she could tell he knew that wasn’t true just from the way he was asking it. He was just being obnoxious, almost like he was riling up his partner.

“You wanted to get your name back in the news?” Vosko added in a serious manner not picking up on Oslo’s sarcasm.

“Nahh, that’s not right, is it? You don’t like your name in the news.” Oslo said with a smug smirk.

“You know, my wife blipped. She was gorgeous, a competitive runner, she kept it high tight, you know what I mean?” Oslo asked and then he looked at Maria and he made a grimacing face.

“Or maybe you used to…” Oslo gestured at Maria and scoffed a little and Vosko laughed.

“Then one day, just poof and she’s gone. So, I married her rival, also smoking hot.” Oslo shrugged and Vosko laughed as Oslo told the story that was Cleary very offensive and annoying to Maria.

“And then suddenly, my first wife just poofed right back and I had two wives.” Oslo revealed dramatically and practically bragged and he waited for Maria to say something. She just looked very irritated.

“Wow, lucky you.” Maria’s tone dripping with sarcasm.

“Well, you would think that. But, after my first wife came back she was five years younger than my second wife and so much hotter than I even remembered. Five years made a big difference. So obviously, I left my second wife and went back to the younger one.” Oslo laughed and Vosko nodded laughing too.

Maria rolled her eyes.

“So, I guess what I’m saying is, you might be old news as far as the public is concerned but from a ‘use’ perspective you’re ‘five years younger’ lots more for the American government to get out of you now. Just because you blipped doesn’t mean you are not back right where you left off—-maybe even better off.” Oslo said with a smirk.

Maria just glared at Oslo and stupid offensive story.

“I love telling that story.” Oslo laughed.

“You shouldn’t.” Maria dismissively mumbled and Oslo really laughed.

“Alright, alright. C’mon, make this easy for everyone and just spill. What are you doing in Moscow?” Oslo asked more seriously.

“Just visiting?” Oslo joked, he didn’t even give Maria a chance not to answer.

“Do you vacation with a vest and a gun?” Vosko asked harshly.

“You just happen to be on a relaxing nice freezing vacation in Moscow in November, armed, and protected, and coincidentally are present at the worst terrorist attack in our history?” Oslo asked bluntly and Maria was quiet again.

“Even stranger, that there were hundreds and hundreds of people hurt or killed at this attack by a bomb, yet you, the armed, protected vacationing American, was the only person who was shot. Isn’t that just the wildest set of facts that you could imagine?” Oslo asked patronizingly and Maria still said nothing.

“If you were in my position, wouldn’t you have a lot of questions?” Oslo asked Maria and she was silent.

“Oh, but, wait, it gets even stranger.” Oslo started and Maria sighed.

Oslo used his tablet and showed Maria a still photo of herself, as she fought Martin Wallace for his bag.

“Do you know that man?” Oslo asked.

“No.” She answered sternly, she did’t know who he was.

“Yes you do!” Vosko yelled.

“You don’t recognize him? You just saw a random man and decided you wanted to steal his bag? Are you a thief?” Oslo asked with a little laugh and Maria didn’t say anything but she shook his head no.

“You know who it is.” Vosko said forcefully.

“Or maybe you weren’t looking for a certain person but a certain item?” Oslo asked obviously and then he played security footage where Maria fights Wallace for his bag and she looks in it and sees it is empty and tossed it.

“Oof. You look mad.” Oslo narrated the video.

“What happened here?” Oslo asked again in obnoxious patronizing tone.

“It was empty.” Maria answered obviously.

“Aw, but best case it was a bomb, right?” Oslo laughed, he couldn’t help but laugh because what a stupid idea. Even if she was trying to help, really what would that have done.

“So you’re an American, vacationing in Russia in November, armed and protected walking around the city and then you just happen to notice a bag and you think—‘that’s a weird bag, my many years of training in national security have equipped me to know that that is a strange man with a strange bag, I’m just going to check it’ and then you see that it’s empty and toss it and he’s not even going to come back and get it?” Oslo joking and Vosko laughed.

“But wait, there’s more!” Oslo started and Maria sighed again.

“And then, you didn’t find the bomb and it goes off, lots and lots of innocent people die and you… get shot! What bad luck, bad day for you, huh? Are you going to tell us who shot you?” Oslo asked seeing if he could get her to say anything and Maria glared at Oslo, because she knew if they had ID’d her and they had these videos that they must’ve ID’d Fury too, which Maria knew was a whole different problem waiting for her and she could not fathom the consequences of this fake Fury and the damage he was doing.

“We have it on video in case you want to see it.” Oslo offered.

“No.” Maria said coldly.

“Luckily, I figured out who it was on my own.” Oslo said proudly and Maria just looked at him.

“So, my real question is, did Nick Fury shoot you because you were trying to stop him, or did he shoot you because he was trying to stop you?” Oslo asked boldly and Vosko leaned in as well waiting for an answer and Maria still didn’t say anything.

“Nothing to say? Still?” Oslo asked astounded but really he was purposefully not letting her talk and talking mostly himself while still trying to hit the questions for show to Vosko.

Maria also thought this interrogation style was strange, usually you wanted the interviewee to talk, not the interviewer and she really thought it was unusual that he unrestrained her hands. She knew something was up but she was going to play along.

“I have good news for you, I don’t think you’re an American anti-Russian terrorist here to commit an act of war, but I do think you know something that we need to know and you are going to tell us.” Oslo warned seriously and Vosko nodded like the supporting role he was.

“We have lots of ways to make people talk down here.” Vosko said and gestured to the dents in the table between them that was very clearly from someone’s head being hit hard against the table.

“Nobody’s going to hear you, nobody’s going to come save you. You might as well just start talking. Not being tortured is in your benefit, and telling us what you know is in our benefit so we have mutual interests here aligning.” Vosko added confidently and Maria’s eyes darted up to the camera in the corner of the room as she looked at the young agent she battered earlier.

“He makes a good point. And we’re feminists here, so we don’t go easy on you just because you’re a girl.” Oslo joked and Maria glared at him.

“She looks like a man to me.” Vosko joked and Oslo laughed.

“Or a dog.” Vosko added and the two of them laughed again.

Vosko moved the third chair under the camera and he took his gun and whipped the camera with the handle until it broke. He exerted a great deal of rage on the camera from all his pent up anger from today.

“Uh-oh, it looks like our camera broke.” Oslo said calmly.

“It did indeed break.” Vosko agreed like he did nothing.

“My colleague is going to go back to the office to get a replacement camera because I know we’re going to need it to document we did everything by the book, when we show it to your government.” Oslo warned.

“You’ll have lots to say by then.” Vosko added confidently as he raised his brows at Maria and she sighed as she looked between her two interrogators. Then Oslo and Vosko exchanged glances with each other and Vosko left to go get a new camera from the office while Oslo ‘convinced’ Maria to talk.

When Vosko left Maria was looking away from Oslo and the two sat in silence for a few moments as the listened to Vosko’s footsteps get quieter and quieter and then Maria shot a look right at Oslo making direct eye contact.

“What?” Oslo asked with a smirk and Maria moved her hands from the table and crossed her arms. She stared at him not saying a word.

“Whaat?” Oslo laughed again in an almost playful tone.

“When did you figure out?” Oslo asked. He thought he put on a rather convincing performance.

“When you wouldn’t shut up.” Maria rolled her eyes and Oslo laughed.

“I thought I was very clever.” Oslo complimented himself. Really he badgered on nothing points to make it seem like he was tough and impress Vosko and convince him to leave.

“You should have let me leave the hospital.” Maria snapped.

“I tried, I gave you a lot of time, you’re the one who got yourself trapped in the morgue. The worst place you could possibly go in that situation. And then you stabbed him, so what else could I do then?” Oslo pointed out.

“He attacked me.”

“And I taught him how to identify himself for the future, thanks for your help.” Oslo shrugged and Maria sighed loudly.

“Now what?” Maria asked. Oslo slid a mobile phone across the metal table to Maria.

Maria looked at the flip phone she was given and then back at Oslo.

“It’s from Falsworth.” Oslo clarified and Maria raised her brows because honestly she didn’t know who would be helping her. Thank god she called Sonya before this mess started.

“And I can just… leave?” Maria asked. Could she really just walk out of there, was this a trick? Now she was questioning herself.

“No, you’re going to beat me up first or whatever and steal my gun and head down the back corridor out the emergency exit. The alarm is cut. It’s two left turns then a right. Get yourself out of here, and you better be fucking fast.” Oslo told her curtly. Maria put the phone her pocket. Then she held her hand out for his gun and he took out of the holster but he didn’t give it to her.

“Why did Nick Fury try to kill you?” Oslo asked. He couldn’t make sense of it, he needed to know what the hell happened.

“Why didn’t you empty the square when you got the warning?” Maria shot back, she also wanted to know what happened with that.

“It wasn’t up to me.” Oslo shrugged and he looked at Maria again waiting for her to answer.

“Why is Fury is trying to kill you?” He asked again more sternly.

“I don’t have an answer for that.” Maria said quietly. She really couldn’t get into these details right now.

“Is he involved in this attack? Tell me now. He’s still out there and dangerous.” Oslo demanded.

Maria looked at Oslo like she didn’t know what to say, because she genuinely did not. There was a rogue fake Fury out there and he was indeed dangerous.

Before Maria could answer her senses heightened and her attention turned to the far corner of the room, only a moment after Maria picked up on it Oslo turned his head as well. They could hear foot steps of two people heading quickly in their direction. Maria looked very concerned far more concerned than she looked in this room with the FSB officers this entire time and Oslo could tell from her expression that someone was coming for her and she knew it too.

“Fury’s people?” Oslo asked stunned and Maria nodded, even though she knew it was most definitely skrulls. Oslo thought about what Sonya told him that Maria wouldn’t live to tell the truth about what happened if she didn’t get out of Russia, and he was starting realize that was very true.

“If you want to live we have to go.” Maria said quietly as she got up quickly and Oslo did the same he quietly opened the door to make sure they were clear down both sides of the corridor. They could tell the foot steps were coming around the corner of the hallway soon. They quietly exited the interrogation room and closed the door silently. They ran up the hall as urgently as they could without making a sound. They turned the corner and as they did they heard the aggressive steps turn to very fast run as they rounded the corner to the interrogation room. Then they heard the sound of a boot kicking the door open. The two skrulls dressed in military gear looked around the room to take out any person who was there. They were supposed to kill any police and take Maria back to Gravik since he already gloated to Fury he had Maria and was going to kill her for real if Fury failed to turn over the Harvest.

“She’s not here.” One of them yelled angry. The two men then looked up the opposite side of the dark corridor they had come from.

“C’mon.” One of the skrulls signaled to the other to follow him up the hall that just got darker and darker the further down it was. The two skrulls continued their search for Maria. As the the two skrulls started to run up the hall a loud shot fired from the dark, the flash from the shot illuminated the hall for brief moment before turning dark again. The bullet soared into the head of one of the skrulls instantly killing him and as he fell backward his head changed into its true form. The other skrull aimed to start firing into the dark but a second shot was immediately fired after the first. The second shot hit the remaining skrull in the upper chest and changed to green as he hit the ground just like his friend.

Maria pulled her body back around the corner of the hallway holding Oslo’s smoking gun in her hands.

“What if that was the Americans?” Oslo asked stunned that Maria just killed these two people.

“Yeah right.” Maria dismissed. They weren’t coming for her, she knew that, but she did know someone who was.

When the two of them were down Oslo started to run back toward them.

“What are you doing!” Maria said quietly and then she groaned she just wanted to get out of there.

“The fuck!” Oslo said stunned at these green creatures deceased on the floor, Maria followed Oslo to the bodies of the skrulls. He thought he saw them turn green but he wasn’t sure and he wanted to check for himself. What exactly had Fury sent to kill them?

“Did these men just turn into swamp creatures when they died?” Oslo asked he took the guns and anything useful from their military gear as he could tell he and Maria were going to need them.

“They’re not ‘swamp creatures,’ they are skrulls.” Maria corrected impatiently.

“What the hell are skrulls?” Oslo asked astounded.

“A refugee shape shifting alien species.” Maria admitted and Oslo just stared at her and then looked back down at the green faces and purple blood pooled under their heads. Oslo looked back up at Maria in shock ‘aliens’ was not going to be his guess for what was going on and honestly Maria got luckily he was here because ‘it was aliens’ was not going to play in a real interrogation even if it was the truth.

Suddenly, they heard more noises coming from the same direction that the skrulls had come from and Maria and Oslo ran back down the corridor with the gear they stole from the skrulls. They ran in the dark through the basement halls to get to the emergency exit.

When they got to the back stairs and the emergency exit to get out of the building they quickly climbed up the stairs and they could hear people yelling and chasing them. Oslo held the semi automatic weapon he stole from the dead skrull as raced to get to the exit doors. They couldn’t see out of them and they had no idea if anyone was going to be waiting for them on the other side. However, Maria and Oslo could hear loud rapid raindrops clamoring down from outside as it had started to downpour.

Oslo nudged the door open quietly to see if the back exit was clear. Maria watched behind him holding the second gun they stole in case the skrulls or whoever was coming after them got too close.

“Okay.” Oslo said quietly as he gingerly stepped outside, Maria didn’t take her eyes off the back hall and Oslo tapped on her arm to get her attention to come outside into the pouring rain. The air was very cold, almost freezing and the rain was colder turning into a slippery slush on the ground. Oslo and Maria struggled to keep their footing on the brick path in the alley as the sleet covering the ground was slick.

They knew the other skrulls might get there soon so they had to keep moving but they couldn’t run out into street with weapons, they also didn’t want to give them up. It was very late now, so at least there were not people around as they tried to rush while also taking very careful steps in the bitter icy rain. Maria tried to ignore the cold, but it was hard to be this miserable, in this much pain and and this cold and run fast, especially in the nurse clogs she stole.

They raced up the back alley behind the desolate office building and Oslo spotted a blue Lada 2107, a popular car in Russia. It was a boxy sedan, it looked like it came out of the 1980s—and it did, it was a cold war relic that the locals loved. Oslo liked it because they lacked gps, tracking features, and car alarms. They were extremely easy to break into and steal, yet the streets were packed with them. They were also a great escape car because there were just so many of them out there. They were a well made car that could withstand use, not like the cars made today. For what Oslo and Maria needed it for it was perfect.

Oslo’s speed picked up as he rushed over to the car, as he ran quickly he almost slid and slammed right into the side of the car. He pulled a knife from his pocket which he jammed into the side of the car door to unlock it. He struggled with it the rain, his hands slipping on the grip of his knife as Maria caught up to him

“Break the window.” Maria whispered.

‘Was she nuts?’ Oslo thought to himself that would make way too much noise. He was right but Maria didn’t care she just wanted them to get out of there. Finally Oslo got the door jimmied just enough to break in and he opened the door and unlocked the back door.

“In the back.” He demanded and Maria didn’t even question it as she got in quickly and quietly to the back of the car ducked down watching in the rear view mirror for anyone coming. Oslo got in the driver’s seat and he ducked down as far as he could as he undid the panel to hot wire the car. He was so uncomfortable ducking down so low but he knew he had too. His hands were shaking in the cold, and he started wiping his hands on the seat to dry them quickly.

“Are you watching?” Oslo asked as he couldn’t watch and hot wire the car at the same time.

“Obviously.” Maria answered in a huff. Inside the car was not much warmer than the outside, she could see her breath in the air as she huffed at Oslo, her arms and her soaked body were shivering.

“Sorry. I mean you are the one who suggested to break the window.” Oslo muttered. Maria groaned.

“If you broke the window we’d be moving.”

“It’d be loud, they’d find us and then we’d be moving with a broken window, we’d stand out pretty obviously.” Oslo just liked to be right.

“Are you having some trouble up there?” Maria asked. He sure was taking an awfully long time to get this car started. He was having a bit of trouble he had to dry his hands before he could do it and it was a very hard angle for him to try and work.

“I’m fine.” Oslo grunted. Finally he got the engine to start, he checked the mirrors too before he moved up slowly. He drove the car away from its parked spot and just as he drove by at a normal speed two people came racing out of the alley dressed in similar military gear but there were a few cars on the road and nothing looked suspicious to them. Maria watched from the mirror while hiding the back until they were out of view.

Oslo and Maria were freezing, soaked from the sleeting rain, and it was so hard for Oslo not to drive urgently. But he didn’t want to give them way. He just wanted to blend in to the surrounding cars until they were safe distance away. Oslo was also shivering as he blasted the heater from the car for them. He thought he was cold, he knew Maria had to be much colder since all she had were the scrubs from the hospital.

“… So uh .. why are members of a refugee shape shifting alien species trying to kill you?” Oslo asked rather bluntly. Things were strange in the world but were they this strange?

“So I don’t tell everyone they exist… and reveal a rebel plan within them to wipe out humanity… I assume…” Maria shrugged.

“Uhhh…” Oslo paused.

“Do you really think I show up somewhere and there isn’t a looming global catastrophe?” Maria asked trying not to sound smug.

“Tell me, what is it like to be a walking doomsday warning? Do people invite you to a lot of parties?” Oslo snickered and Maria rolled her eyes.

“I don’t know, tell me, what’s it like to go around acting like a huge asshole?” Maria huffed and Oslo really laughed and then he took a minute and thought about her question. He did have to act like an asshole a lot in this gig.

“You know what? It’s actually really fun.” Oslo admitted with a grin.

“I’m sure.”

“Are the Avengers coming?” Oslo asked curiously.

Maria sighed to herself and Oslo could tell from her response she wasn’t thrilled by him asking that.

“It’s a fair question, you’re the Avengers’ lady.”

“Yeah? What do you think Spider-Man is going to do?” Maria asked sarcastically, because the Avengers weren’t really the same anymore, but truly she really did not understand why they weren’t here.

“Well, not to be even more of an asshole, but really, what are you going to do?” Oslo asked the obvious point and Maria just groaned because that was a very touchy subject.

“So when you say shapeshifting…” Oslo started to ask and Maria again sighed. He saw them turn green in front of his face so she figured she’d have to explain it to him if he was also now running from them, especially putting his life on the line for her.

“I mean that skrulls can shape shift to look like whoever they want instantly down to the DNA and they can even access recent memories and some how maybe even all your memories, I don’t know how they are doing that..”

“So, when Fury tried to kill you… was… it… ”

“A skrull pretending to be him.” Maria answered in a disappointed tone, like she should have known better.

“Uh-huh.” Oslo muttered. That made a lot more sense to Oslo. It was truly something astounding to see the video he saw of Nick Fury shooting Maria Hill unexpectedly in broad daylight surrounded by security unafraid to get caught. The first thing anyone thought of when they thought of Maria Hill—-if they ever thought about her—- was Nick Fury, they would never imagine this.

“Can I ask you another question?” Oslo trying to be a bit more mindful.

“Why stop now?” Maria muttered sarcastically.

“Did… uh… the fake Fury tell you to go try and ‘steal’ the bombs out of those terrorists bags…?” Oslo asked perplexed trying not to laugh. For a smart lady that was dumb plan and Maria sighed so loudly.

“That wasn’t a dead give away that something was up?” Oslo asked from her annoyed loud sigh.

“I didn’t want to do it! I sent the warning and they didn’t empty the square, what else I could I do?!” Maria groaned, she tried.

“Where do you think the real Fury is?” Oslo asked as if she would know, that was a serious concern.

“I really don’t know. I don’t know what happens to the people they replace.” Maria’s response emphasized how serious and worried she was about that

“People? Plural?” He asked.

“Plural.” Maria remarked.

“Am I that much of a ‘huge’ asshole saving your life and all?” Oslo asked curiously trying to change the subject.

“Oh please. With the egos I’ve worked with, you don’t even rate. But, maybe ask your ‘second wife.’” Maria snarked. She had to guess that story was fake but it was still awful and Oslo burst out laughing.

“Oh. Yeah. The guys loooove that story, they think it’s so funny.” Oslo said laughing and he titled rearview mirror downward so he could see the very unamused look on Maria’s face in the rear view mirror as she shook her head no.

“It’s a fake story.” He clarified.

“No, really?” Maria feigned surprised in a heavy sarcastic tone.

“Well. What can I say? I had to come up with something, it’s not like I can be gay in Russia.” He shrugged.

“You should take note, I assume nobody told you that, with your haircut and … face.” Oslo added, teasing her.

Maria couldn’t help but laugh at that. This day was so unbelievable and scary. It was weirdly nice to be joking around with someone about nothing.

“I can’t do anything about my face.” Maria replied with a laugh.

“I think there’s a multi-billion dollar cosmetics industry specifically made up of things that women can buy to do something about their face.” Oslo chucked. This was a different kind of joking, unlike the brutally unfair digs he made at Maria for Vosko’s entertainment, he was talking like they were friends who joshed each other. Maria didn’t know how to react except make a joke of it too.

“Funny.” Maria rolled her eyes but she couldn’t help but let out a laugh under her breath. Maria started rustling around the back of the car to see what she could find.
“Did you find anything good back there?” Oslo asked changing topics.

“A sweatshirt with a a giant marijuana leaf on the front and… an unbelievable amount of trash.”

“Oh very helpful.”

“Right? This is really more of a trash can on wheels.” Maria mumbled.

“Do you want to take a bet on what's it is the glove compartment?” Oslo joked.

“I already know.” Maria rolled her eyes and sat up looking over the seat as Oslo opened the glove compartment to reveal a baggie fill with weed and lighter and he laughed.

“Poor guy.” Oslo said empathetically.

“Get rid of it for him so when we reports his car stolen he won’t go to jail.” Maria suggested.

“If you say so.” Oslo said as he grabbed the baggie and the lighter and stuffed them in his pocket.

“Are you serious?” Maria rolled her eyes.

“What!?” Oslo asked innocently.

“What if you get caught with that?”
“I’ll have bigger things to worry about then.” Oslo laughed at Maria’s concern.

“Get rid of it.” Maria groaned.

"I’ll say I confiscated it from you. It’s not like ten extra years is going to make a difference on your sentence if you get caught.” Oslo joked smugly

“Seriously.” Maria said unamused. The two of them had finally started to warm up a bit from the heater in the car.

Oslo was trying to figure out a plan. Hill was supposed to extract herself out of Russia, now Oslo was involved and he did not want to be, but he couldn’t go back now. He knew they had to go somewhere to get changed and they had to ditch this car soon.