No Surprises
London, U.K. - November 5, 2025 - 1:10 PM
As Gravik left the museum he found G’iah in the car waiting for him.
“Any trouble?” Gravik asked her as he got in the car.
“No.”
“Good. Your old man is so weak and pathetic, he doesn’t even ask about you, all he cares about the humans.” Gravik lied.
“Since he’s come to Earth, that’s all he ever cared about.” G’iah lied right back as she started the car.
Gravik snickered at G’iah’s remark.
“I gave him a chance, he refused to bend the knee.”
“He’s protecting his friends.” G’iah reasoned.
“Yeah, instead of his people. He said he’s going to expose us all. I can’t have that. That’s why he has to go, you know that, right?” Gravik spoke surprisingly empathetically. He wasn’t unaware of what losing both your parents could do to you, but G’iah’s parents were in his way, they made their choice. Gravik gave Talos a second choice to come around and he refused. What else could Gravik do? He considered himself to be quite generous given the situation.
“I know.” G’iah nodded, she did know that Talos’s time was running out, but so was Gravik’s. Gravik’s mind was all over the place. Making a plan to pretend the Russians would strike back, trying to find Hill before she outed Gravik and the skrull rebels, baiting Fury to bring him something, now entertaining Talos’s request for a truce. G’iah could tell that, Gravik had far too many fires to put out. His original plan was already unraveling before him and Gravik was acting as confident and pompous as ever. Gravik thought his attack in the square was a success, G’iah thought it was a mess. But only the final outcome mattered to Gravik.
“We’re going back to New Skrullos.” Gravik ordered G’iah and she nodded quietly.
“You don’t have to be sad, about Talos. His death will further the cause far more than him living ever would.” Gravik explained.
“I understand.” G’iah said calmly, unemotionally.
“You’re taking it rather well, considering.”
“I’m here, with you, not with him, aren’t I?” G’iah asked assuring her loyalty to Gravik.
“Yes, you are.” Gravik nodded with a smirk. G’iah was a traitor, Soren and Talos were too. If Gravik took out this whole family he was fine with it. They were with him or against him that was it.
As Gravik and G’iah sat there quietly, the two of them believing they were using each other to their own advantage and that they had each other. G’iah started to suspect that Gravik that was suspecting her disloyalty and testing her with the information about killing Talos. She wanted to wanted warn her father of course, but it felt too much like a test.
As G’iah drove Gravik worked on finding out how Hill had twice evaded him. He started to assume Fury was helping her and lying about his shock from the video. He knew they both had friends in high places. So far, none of his plants in the CIA knew what was happening with her. Raava also didn’t know where she was. Gravik decided to use another intelligence channel upon which he had deep roots installed. He already used it to find out where Brogan and Hill were taken initially. Someone had to know where she went from there and the longer Hill was out there, the more Gravik risked being exposed. Talos risked his own species existence by exposing Gravik, he had far more to think about and risk than Hill did, so Talos was less of priority . Gravik knew people were going to want to know how she got this intel about the bombing that she shared and she was going to have to tell them. He also assumed Hill had figured out a skrull Fury tried to kill her, and he needed to make sure Fury and Hill stayed out of contact for as long as possible just in case Fury did believe Gravik’s earlier lie. Gravik was just being ambitious when he said he had Hill to Fury to motivate him, but in the long run, Gravik had other options since he had shapeshifters at his disposal.
Back at Sonya’s office Sonya was able to arrange a transport through a friend out of the Finnish Intelligence Service back to London for Maria and Oslo, but they wouldn’t cross the border to help them. Maria and Oslo had to get over the border to get transported back to London. Sonya knew it was important to get Maria out of Russia especially with a fake Fury out there, it couldn’t be easy to have skrulls and Russians chasing her. But Sonya couldn’t spend too much time on this, she had some rogue skrull scientists to chase down.
Sonya also knew she had to be very careful in her own agency. Maria warned Sonya about the bug in her office and about Rhodes being a skrull. This meant there were likely other skrulls in other governments, including hers, impersonating very powerful people—they were impersonating Nick Fury! The skrulls obviously had a great deal of audacity.
Sonya found the bug planted by Fury days ago on the eye of one of a golden owl statue on table. She groaned as she saw it planted there. Sonya had started to suspect something was awry as Gravik and his rebels showed up when Sonya was an undisclosed and unknown location interrogating Brogan. There were very few people who knew where ‘Wallace’ was taken to outside of MI6 agents posing as Russian police and where Sonya would be. Oslo knew and he told Sonya where they were taking him. Sonya should have been able to get that information from her own agents, instead she had to rely on old friends. That did not sit right with her. At first when Sonya learned of the bug she figured that was how the information got to the skrulls. But the, Sonya remembered she got the location information from Oslo on the phone, but the bug placed in her office didn’t appear to be connected to her devices only recording her in office meetings. If it wasn’t the bug that Fury planted in her office that gave away her location, that meant someone in the agency knew either she was going to go there or that they brought Brogan there or both.
As Sonya finalized the arrangements for Maria and Oslo to get back to London she heard the lightest knock at her door, as if someone did not want her to know that they knocked. Sonya perked up at the light knock.
“What is it?” Sonya asked and a red haired man opened the door and squeezed himself through the thin opening of the door that he opened for himself. He closed the door behind him. He had a very awkward way about himself that Sonya found irritating, she hated the way a bumbling fool of a man could accidentally fall into powerful job.
The M16 Director Derrik Weatherby was an unnoticeable man. Truly, the man blended in anywhere he went. He had red hair, a pointy nose, and was maybe 5’11. He rarely clashed with Sonya, and he too had similar distaste the CIA Director Allegra, the way Sonya did. Weatherby was by all accounts and unoffensive, un-charming, and unthreatening man. However, he rarely challenged Val, in fact, Weatherby was largely seen as a pushover of a Director, it was why many people believed he was the Director—the politicians loved him for this. About a year ago, Director Weatherby had been replaced by a skrull impersonator, of course no one knew or noticed anything. He was as dull as ever impersonated or as himself. Weatherby knew that Sonya had met with Nick Fury days ago, Sonya even mentioned that Nick Fury came back to earth, and when Sonya got the warning from Maria she warned Weatherby who was not as urgently moved as Sonya would have hoped given the situation.
“The situation over in Moscow is uh a bit tense, yeah?” Weatherby asked and Sonya looked at him like she was watching a dog trying to figure out how to climb the stairs for the first time, but not in sweet way in a—you’re never going to make that step sort of way.
“Yes.” Sonya agreed. The two of them were quiet as they looked at each other.
“It’s been confirmed that the Americans are coming here for talks with Russians, since they had found three Americans at the bomb site, yet now the Russians are furious because they have apparently lost all three of them.” Weatherby explained.
“I saw that.” Sonya was curt and short.
“With the Americans coming, I am trying to help with the heightened security needs in the region.” Weatherby paused.
“It’s hard for me to focus on that when I am getting calls or bits of information about some sort of … are you … — have you arranged some type of extraction out of Moscow? I feel like I am hearing some rumblings…” Weatherby asked a bit alarmed that Sonya had not shared any of this with him.
Sonya tilted her head and looked at Weatherby completely stunned.
“Yes.” She said confidently.
“What do you mean you are hearing rumblings?” She asked him curiously and Weatherby paused unsure of how to answer.
“I mean, why am I just hearing of it now, and not part of the planning?”
“The planning? I put it all in the recovery memo I sent to you this morning. As I explained, I couldn’t just take just our people and leave those who have helped us so much behind.” Sonya covered herself with a lie, he never read those memos, by the time he remembered to check she’d have put out a new one.
“You’re.. moving the Americans out of Russia?” Director Weatherby asked pretending to be oblivious. Hill went missing from when the skrulls tried to find her in the private location, and Weatherby knew Oslo was one of the undercover officers questioning her. He just had a suspicion Sonya was involved.
“One American, who happened helped us a great deal.” Sonya defended her choices.
Now Sonya had confirmed to Weatherby she was involved. Sonya was in a tough place, if she outright lied about it she might get cut off from what she was doing. She had to show some sign of trust that wouldn’t put Weatherby up in arms against her. Weatherby was not at all surprised, Sonya was headstrong on these skrulls and she worked Hill and Fury. In fact, Weatherby was more pleased than anything as now he would be able to share the travel or location plans to skrulls looking for Hill.
“It puts us in a… strange position helping to get the American out without involving ourselves in… this international crisis. We are neutral… and the presence of two American former SHIELD agents is making its round around the security circles, it’s going to come out and we don’t want to be seen as manipulating that situation.” Weatherby reprimanded Sonya.
“America is our number one ally in the war on terror. If they loan us their agents we ought to be sure we can get them back home, Director.” Sonya reminded.
“It’s just the Russians are going to start to suspect our involvement and we have many operations in place that this could be risking…” Weatherby softly suggested and Sonya looked at him curiously.
“I think the Russians are very focused on the Americans.” Sonya dismissed.
“I don’t know about this, I think I want to head this myself, to ensure everyone gets out and we are spared the political blowback. Or if there is any, the buck will stop with me.” Weatherby said in a short tone that surprised Sonya a bit.
Sonya counted the hours down in her head, Oslo and Maria had to be getting closer to the border by now. The longer she could throw Weatherby off where they really wore the more she could help them.
“Well, you are the Director, so I would hope you do as you please, but I assume they are up in the air by now.” Sonya covered herself with a lie.
“Oh!” Weatherby looked surprised.
“Back to London?” He continued.
“Yes, I assume they are in the air by now, and will be landing in London very soon.” Sonya kept her plan as vague as she could and moving the time up significantly.
“Who is flying them?”
“Don’t worry it’s not a commercial flight.” Sonya chuckled and Weatherby also laughed, like they were colleagues joking.
“We know everyone is alright? I saw a classified cable from the CIA suspecting the Russians arrested Agent Hill after she was shot.”
“I saw.”
“If we know her condition, we need to tell the CIA something.” Weatherby explained.
“I can get something to them unless you want to take it over.”
“No you can do that.” Weatherby waved his hand.
“How did you get her out?” His tone was curious, it happened so fast Sonya would have had to pull a lot of strings.
“You know as well as I do, that not everyone is who the Russians think they are.” Sonya tried to detail carefully with a little smirk.
“Ah! Yes, that’s… that’s the case on more than one level.” Wetherby tried to joke back and Sonya raised a curious brow at him because wasn’t that just the thing?
“Amazing how that happens.” She shrugged trying not at all to act annoyed or dismayed by this man.
“Truly, with someone like Nick Fury out there trying to kill his former agents, we can’t really trust anyone anymore.” Wetherby mumbled and Sonya tilted her head, her wide eyed expression at that claim, she did feel that way too.
“I’ll wait for their arrival so they can get debriefed, if Agent Hill is still here when the Americans get here I am sure they will like to do that as well.” Wetherby commented and Sonya nodded.
“Of course.” She said confidently and Weatherby left. Sonya sat back in her chair as she thought about that conversation. It was mostly a great deal of Sonya deflecting and a bit of her lying as well. Sonya bit her lower lip though as she wondered about Weatherby. It was so hard to tell with him, he was just so awkward. If he was a skrull, she hoped she was able to keep Oslo and Maria’s exit plan vague enough that they could at least make it out of Russia.
As Weatherby moved upstairs back to his office, he thought about the conversation he just had. It seemed like a typical conversation he normally had with Sonya a bit cagey and she always pretended to be her charming British self, but he did realize that she made some jokes instead of directly answering questions, but that seemed very normal to him.
As he continued to wonder if Sonya had really outlined the plans in something she had already sent him that he hadn’t seen yet, he figured he would just do his investigating. He knew Sonya was friends with some of the M16 agents from all different offices and units. He figured if Sonya was involved probably Oslo was involved and if Oslo was involved, Weatherby did have an old friend who worked with Oslo quite a bit on these types of missions.
Weatherby called David ‘the Fox’ Foster on a secure line, this was a gamble but a good enough guess. Everyone in the agency knew that he was someone who could help even if it wasn’t through the formal channels they normally use. Foster was retired after all.
“David! It’s Derrik Weatherby.” He said cheerfully.
“Director Weatherby? Well, thought you’d be too busy to make house calls with everything going on. What do I owe the pleasure?” David answered.
“Call me Derrik, please. Ah well, I am taking over a rather high risk removal case— as you could call it—- from Sonya at the moment, as if running an entire agency wasn’t enough.”
“Oh! Yes. A risk indeed. But, good news for you, Director…”
“Call me Derrik, I remind you again.”
“Derrik, that removal is in progress and so far it is on track to be successful.”
“Are they in the air now?” Weatherby tried to confirm Sonya’s claim.
“Not unless you dropped a helicopter or something in.” David laughed, but honestly he didn’t doubt it. Hill was a former SHIELD agent after all.
“Still on the road then? The details here are a little flimsy? North? west? Have they crossed any borders yet?”
“I moved them North, you know taking the long way out, with a quick little stop in Finland. Remember, when we did this route with Agent Sybil? They should be hitting their border within the next few hours notwithstanding any surprises.” David confirmed.
“Let’s pray for no surprises, I just wanted to be sure they made it to you since the communication is limited at best. Thanks for your help, Fox.” Weatherby joked.
“Anytime!” David said eagerly not suspecting a thing.
Weatherby wracked his brain trying to remember that Agent Sybil extraction, he searched it in his data base for details on that case but it was an older one. As Weatherby found the details of that old extraction case, he noted the route taken to get him out of Russia. When they closed options out of Moscow and were heavily watching the more obvious border exits, David would arrange for people to travel North and cross over into Finland in a remote border crossing. It required so much driving on over hills, curves and windy roads. There was some luxury skiing resorts and housing not far from there, but it was a mostly unmonitored area of the border due to the great lengths it would take someone to get there. It wasn’t free from border patrol or police but far less so than any of the normal routes out of Russia. The route wasn’t able to be found on GPS or anything, that border wasn’t locatable by searching, you had to know it existed and know the route to get there. As Weatherby recalled this information and found the old extraction notes. He shared the information with Gravik.
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2:00 PM November 5, 2023 - An hour north of St. Petersburg, Russia.
Maria was sitting in the back seat of the car, in the middle away from either window. It was a pretty boring and uneventful many hours as they drove past St. Petersburg. Sometimes she laid down on the seat and tried to sleep for a bit but she couldn’t really, also her whole body hurt pretty bad from yesterday, almost worse than when she first felt the impact the shot. Her muscles ached and because she wasn’t doing anything she couldn’t really not think about it.
“Why did you get fired from SHIELD?” Maria asked. Oslo looked back in the rear view mirror and he saw Maria sitting up in the back seat, slouched backward, wearing sunglasses she found in the back of the car—it was bright now.
“Are those my shades?” Oslo asked and Maria laughed.
“I don’t know, do they make me look like ‘a giant asshole?’” Maria snickered.
Oslo laughed at her joke.
“Yeah.” He nodded.
“Then I guess they’re yours.” Maria snarked and she tossed them to the front of the car. Oslo groaned.
“You couldn’t hand them to me?”
“They landed in the cup holder I thought it was a good shot.” Maria shrugged.
Oslo put his sunglasses on, it had gotten quite bright now that the sun was out.
Maria sighed, “Are you going to evade my question forever?”
“Are you going to talk forever?” Oslo retorted quickly.
“I haven’t said anything for hours.” She pointed out.
“Yeah, did you have fun reading those maps?” Oslo laughed as for some time Maria had been looking at the atlases in Oslo’s car.
“Aww c’mon you know women can’t read maps, but I liked the pictures.” Maria responded sarcastically rolling her eyes visibly in the rear view mirror.
Oslo really laughed.
“I’m going to tell Sonya you said that.” Oslo smiled laughing again under his breath.
“Don’t you dare.” Maria responded swiftly.
“I didn’t realize you were such a sexist.” Oslo shamed her.
“Yeah okay, Mr. ‘Didn’t-anyone-tell-your-boots-and-face-you-can’t-be-gay-in-Russia.’” Maria rolled her eyes and Oslo laughed again. He didn’t know why it was so fun to banter and taunt Maria but it was, it was juvenile but it was a sign that he admired her. She did remind him of his older sisters, one in particular that he didn’t talk to very much anymore and missed a great deal.
“And what about what I said is not true?” Oslo asked.
“You know, you could have at least swiped my boots back for me at the hospital.” Maria sighed.
“Let me just say this, the biggest favor I will have ever done for you in your whole life, this journey included, is not ‘swiping those boots back for you.’” Oslo scoffed and laughed and Maria rolled her eyes and sighed annoyed.
“I loved those boots.” Maria let out a slow sad sigh missing them.
“You loved them? Then, you know what, let’s go back and get them.” He teased.
“Why did you get kicked out of SHIELD?” Maria repeated her original question.
“Who said I did?”
“The Fox.” Maria smirked with a little laugh.
“Please do not call him that.” Oslo sighed with minor annoyance.
“Did he give himself that nickname?” Maria asked.
“What do you think?” Oslo muttered.
“I got kicked out because I never wanted to go to happy hour or contribute to the office potluck but wanted to eat the food everyone brought in.” Oslo laughed and Maria rolled her eyes at that.
“Didn’t you get fired from SHIELD?” Oslo turned the question around.
“Yep!” Maria said confidently without hesitation.
“I mean why did you?” Oslo corrected himself.
“Because of my ‘close personal relationship' with Captain America.” Maria said in a joking tone with a laugh. That really was the reason they told her.
“What!? It wasn’t because they were Hydra and you weren’t?” Oslo asked stunned.
“No, it definitely was yeah, but they weren’t going to say that.” Maria groaned.
“I’d probably lead with that and not the other thing.” Oslo grimaced to himself.
“I was— never mind, you had to be there.” Maria mumbled.
“Okay, your turn, out with it.” Maria urged.
“I can’t remember it was so long ago.”
“What a cop out.” Maria sighed and Oslo groaned.
“You’re going to judge me.” Oslo said in a grumpy voice.
“Oh, for sure.” Maria confirmed with a smug nod.
“I was young, I didn’t follow the rules, someone got hurt, it wasn’t good, I got booted. End of story.” He admitted casually he didn’t like to retell that story. He was in the wrong and someone else paid for it.
“Ah, well. That sucks, sorry.” Maria mumbled.
“Not your fault, it was literally mine and now I do this.”
“Is it coming full circle though now you get to help a former SHIELD person.”
“Get to? I’m not helping you, I’m helping Sonya.” Oslo corrected.
“Uh-huh.” Maria rolled her eyes to herself.
“When I got fired from SHIELD Sonya took me over to her side. I don’t work for her directly anymore but she’s important to me. You know? If she asks, I show up, even if I don’t want to. It’s hard to explain.”
“It’s not hard to explain, but… be careful with that.” Maria warned speaking from her recent experience.
Oslo paused for a minute as he thought about that warning that was somewhat a joke but somewhat serious, he could tell.
“You don’t think Sonya is a skrull?” Oslo asked.
“No. Well. I really don’t think so. If she is, they are playing a game that I am not qualified for.” Maria sighed and Oslo pressed his lips together thinking about it. Sonya wasn’t a skrull, she specifically asked Oslo to risk a lot to get Maria out of here because she was trying to warn people about the skrulls. But skrulls did come after Maria in an undisclosed location that only a few people knew about. Someone he knew had to be a skrull to get that information to them.
“There has to be a skrull near me, I mean, people pushed back on the warning to empty the square, maybe five people knew where you were being held and the skrulls showed up.” Oslo explained as he drove and started to get a little lost in his thought, he had no idea who it could be.
“Maybe a supervising officer? Someone who could gather intel but not be so high up to raise alarm. I bet there’s someone at FSB and at M16 too, trust me, I already knew of a couple and they went for the people with information and influence.” Maria sighed.
“How can you tell if it is one?” Oslo asked frustrated.
“If they get injured bad enough they will turn green in that area and they bleed purple.”
“Why do they want kill all of us? Did we do something to them? Is this the Avengers’ fault. Seems like it is.”
“No, well, they don’t all want to kill us, it’s just a faction of them and they have no where to go, and there is a person manipulating them to ‘fight for a home’ and they can do it anonymously. It’s pretty scary stuff. If we don’t stop it now, it’s going to be really hard to turn it all around when the U.S. and Russia and fighting each other instead of against the ones actually trying to take us out.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” Oslo understood the importance of getting Maria out and making sure this information got somewhere. It is not like she could tell this story to the FSB. They would not believe her, in fact, he wouldn’t have believed her if he had not seen those men chasing them turn into another species when they died right before his eyes. He got the gravity of the situation Sonya and Maria were keeping close to their chest, Sonya didn’t mess around and Oslo knew that for sure.
“Where do you think this skrull Fury is?” Oslo asked.
“I mean, he’s probably not looking like Fury anymore, that’s my guess.” Maria sighed. Maria thought that move was just meant to stifle the people close to Fury, like her and Talos, and spy on Sonya. It all made so much sense to Maria now. No wonder he fought her so hard on calling in a fake bomb threat or warning everyone, pretending it was for G’iah’s sake but really it was just to mess her and Talos up, to make sure Gravik’s plans went off no matter what. Maria was just confused why she had to be involved at all. She was glad she knew but still was it really incidental she ran into Talos that night? This was the part she struggled with.
“Can you be anymore useful?” Oslo asked and Maria rolled her eyes in the over the top fashion. What was she supposed to do sitting back here?
“I mean, I found your sunglasses.” Maria snarked.
“Do you want me to drive?” She asked a little hopefully. She just felt like she should be doing something.
“No.” He answered swiftly.
“I’m really good at it.”
“Sure.”
“In fact, driving is one of my top spy skills.” Maria half joked.
“You know, I really question that based on your self admitted map reading abilities.” Oslo laughed to himself, that was a good joke he just made and there no was there to appreciate it.
“You are the worst.” Maria grumbled with a loud annoyed sigh.
Awhile after this conversation Oslo pulled his car into a garage in a small town and Maria hid down in the back. He got out of the car and changed his plates and put an official government seal on his car. When they made it out to the remote area it wouldn’t raise any alarms for him to be driving on the dirt roads. He changed his out layer of clothes to blend in more with Russian officials, and he even had an ID. He didn’t have anything for Maria though. She could hide well enough and if he ran into anyone he’d get out of the car and show his badge, like he was supposed to be at the border in that area. He had not done one of these types of missions himself in a long time, as he had been focused on interrogations for so long, but now that he was back into it, he loved how great it was to be doing this stuff on the ground and out in the field. This was where the real work happened, and he missed it.
As they started driving again, Oslo had Maria move to the passenger seat. If she was going to sit up it looked better that she was in the front and the not the back like she was a detainee or something. They were far from the cities now and were moving to the remote woods, driving down some windy dirt roads, steep hills, and mountains were coming.
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London, U.K. - November 5, 2025 - 1:10 PM
As Fury and Talos left the museum, Fury was keeping his head down, not going anywhere public. They heard the news that President Ritson was coming to the U.K. for peace talks with Russia. It made Fury and Talos uneasy. Fury wanted to go talk to Sonya but he knew he likely couldn’t show his face near her in the middle of the day.
“Where we going?” Talos asked Fury and Fury was quiet as he tried to figure out where they could go. Fury did know of a place not that far from London even, but, he had returned to earth for days and never called Priscilla. He knew he was going to pay for this, Maria told him to deal with head on and be accountable for his decisions, that’s what Priscilla deserved and Maria was right.
Fury sighed. “Well. I know somewhere, but you and her are not going to be happy.”
“Oh god, you mean I have to share you with your real wife?” Talos grumbled.
Fury looked over at Talos with a slight smirk and Talos just shook his head.
In the drive to suburban town an hour from London Talos and Fury were quiet for a good chunk of it.
“What are you going to say to her, mate?” Talos asked.
“I don’t know.” Fury admitted earnestly.
“Do you want to practice?”
“Practice?!” Fury asked astonished.
“Yeah, do you want to want practice what to say on me?” Talos genuinely offered.
“No! I don’t want to practice talking to my wife on you, Talos.” Fury said covering up his laugh giving Talos a little look like he was delusional.
“I’m just saying, I mean, you blip for five years then swear off earth for another few years, you think you might want to practice before she kicks you out for good.”
“If she’s kicking anyone out it’s you.” Fury quipped.
“I will take that bet!” Talos said confidently.
“She might even have a new husband by now, you know an actually good looking one.” Talos joked.
“Better looking than me?” Fury asked with a high pitched tone.
“I don’t know if you know this but people are drawn to your personality, not your looks.” Talos explained with a laugh and Fury shook his head.
Fury shook his head, “Practice on you…” He muttered.
“I’m just trying to help.” Talos shrugged.
Fury pulled up to a beautiful yet isolated suburban home, nestled deep in greenery with stunning large windows and a water view in the distance. The home was up high on a hill. Talos was one of the few people who even knew Fury had a wife, and he and Maria were probably the only two people who had ever been to his real home.
“It looks bigger than I remember.” Talos observed the house.
“Nah, you’ve just gotten smaller.” Fury joked.
“Do you want me to hang back a moment?” Talos kindly offered as Fury started to get out of the car.
“Maybe give us ten minutes.” Fury suggested.
“Really that’s all you need?” Talos laughed and the two men glared ate each other, Talos smirking.
“Maybe just stay out here all night.” Fury changed his suggestion.
Fury walked up the stairs to his house, and he was almost tempted to knock on the door, but instead he let himself in with his key and walked inside.
Inside the home everything was spotless, unlike the offices at SHIELD or on S.A.B.E.R. it was bright, organized with an emphasis on bright greens, yellows, and blues. Sunlight just poured into the house, and Fury couldn’t help but feel like he was walking through the house with clarity. In the entry way he dropped off his key and then picked up his gold wedding ring. He didn’t put it on though. Instead he dropped it in his pocket. He could hear Priscilla humming along to a song playing in the kitchen.
Priscilla—-whose real name was Varra, a skrull—- was standing in her kitchen alone in her true skrull form but when she heard the door open she transformed herself into the identity of a woman she replaced with her permission, Priscilla, a doctor. Varra’s human form of Priscilla was that of a short black woman with short braided hair. She heard the door open and she was unalarmed. She knew Fury was coming. She dropped her knife as she was chopping vegetables for dinner and then she stood at her kitchen counter looking over in the door way where Fury stood after coming the entry way.
“Well, it’s about damn time.” Priscilla said eyeing him up and down.
Fury smiled as he looked at Priscilla admiring her and her attitude.
“It is without question, about damn time.” Fury nodded in agreement. Priscilla moved over to give Fury a hug and a kiss but then she stopped when she noticed his bare ring finger.
“Forgetting something?” She asked tilting her head at him. In this house, Fury could flaunt his marriage but Priscilla understood he couldn’t do that else where for her own safety.
Fury took his ring out of his pocket and popped it on his ring finger with smirk proudly. The two of them then embraced and kissed. Then Priscilla stepped back giving Fury a look over.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re not here to be my husband?” She asked with a suspicious look.
“Can’t I do both?” Fury asked.
“You know you can’t.” Priscilla sighed loudly and turned away from Fury she went back to chopping vegetables.
“I only have enough food for one, we’re going to have to order out if it’s two of us.” Priscilla said as she chopped.
“Actually it’s going to be three.” Fury mumbled and then Priscilla held her chopping knife and looked at Fury curiously.
“I only see one other person…” Priscilla pointed out, although she was curious as to who it would be. She would guess Maria, and she did know Raava and Gravik were looking for her because Raava told her on the phone and warned Varra that Fury might be coming home.
“Talos is in the car.” Fury explain with a sheepish man shrug.
“Actually, I’m in the entry way.” Talos called out.
Priscilla dropped her chopping knife again and looked over to the sound of Talos’s voice and then she looked at Fury again.
“Okay, but you two are sleeping on the couch.” She said as she left the kitchen to go get something set up for them for tonight. Priscilla did not look pleased as she left. Talos came into the kitchen just as she walked by.
“I told you you should have practiced on me, mate.” Talos mumbled to Fury and Fury shook his head at him.
/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Only an hour or so away from the border to the Finland Maria and Oslo were making good time and things were going surprisingly well for them. They were on a uphill wooded journey on what seemed to be a mountain but Oslo corrected Maria that it wasn’t technically a mountain because the Russians had never classified it as one and that was the only distinction between mountains and hills. Maria did regret her off hand comment. Both of them knew that was unusual that they had been this successful given the fact that they were being sought after by not just the Russians but the skrulls as well, but there was still time for this to be an issue. Things never went off this well unless they were walking into a trap.
Maria then caught the glimpse of a rugged jeep in the distance behind them in her side mirror. “Well, Right on cue.” She mumbled unsurprised.
Maria grabbed the bag from under the seat and she pulled gun out quickly as she observed in the side mirror.
“Time to play my favorite new game, ‘Russians or skrulls.’” Oslo joked.
“It’s skrulls.” Maria said confidently.
“How can you tell?”
“The Russians would be waiting at the border.” Maria pointed out and Oslo nodded in agreement.
“Or, they are waiting at the border and this is there way of keeping us from turning around.” Oslo offered an alternative view.
Maria thought about Oslo’s point.
“I think it’s skrulls.” She reassured herself and Oslo.
Maria leaned forward in toward the front of the car turning her body so it was facing the back window, it was a bit painful her to do these maneuvers.
“It’s going to be bullet proof glass, skrulls or not.” Oslo warned her.
“Yeah, but I bet those are standard tires.” Maria smirked and Oslo raised his brows, wow Maria wasn’t joking around, she wanted to take them out real fast.
“You sure?” Oslo asked and then Maria pulled out a modified assault rifle in their stash. A sleek looking gun that had quite the firepower, bullet proof anything really was stretch when this was around. She knew it could wreak havoc on anyone who dared cross them in half a second.
“Uh, okay I guess you don’t have to be sure.” Oslo mumbled to himself.
Maria had nerves of steel for the first time since before this whole mess started. She was not getting this close to escaping Russia and getting held up by some skrulls again.
“Can you go faster?” Maria asked, she wanted the car behind them to speed up, the faster it went the more damage taking out the front tires would do.
“Uhm, I can for a bit but we’re going to hit a big curve and then there’s a good landing where we could lose them in the woods, if they uh keep at it.” Oslo explained.
“Perfect.” Maria said as she lowered the passenger side window and the car sped up.
“You’re not going to …” Oslo looked concerned at what Maria was going to do he thought he understood what she meant but maybe not as it looked like she was going to lean her body out of the window.
Maria cut Oslo off swiftly. “Watch the road, so we don’t get another surprise.” Maria ordered Oslo in a very commanding tone.
“Don’t you dare lean out of that window.” Oslo ordered her right back.
Maria was looking backward out the rear window assessing the other car. The car following them started to close the distance. Oslo gunned the engine, but very aware of the turn coming up on this route. As Oslo started to speed up the other car started to speed up too. The skrulls pursuing them started to fire on Maria and Oslo, careful not kill them but they wanted to stop the car.
“Motherfucker! This is my car!” Oslo huffed angrily.
“I’ve done this before, don’t worry just go faster.” Maria told him and Oslo grunted as Maria ordered him around but he knew what she was saying was right. Maria fired from the passenger side window right at the the front tire of the car getting close to them at high speed
Maria with practiced precision leaned slightly out of the passenger window her fingers tightened around the rifle’s trigger as she aimed and then a burst of gunfire in a blink of an eye Maria’s onslaught of shots hit their marks. The skrull car’s tires exploded into a shower of sparks illuminating the gap between the skrull car and Maria and Oslo’s. The bursting tires caused the car to careen wildly out of control right before both cars needed to turn around the edge of the hill, the skrull car lost control and veered off course, hurtling down hill and then off the steep side at high speed.
Maria felt her body lurch forward as she wasn’t as steady as she thought she was, partly from pain. The momentum of the car speed, the blast, and starting to turn threatened to send her body tumbling out of the car. In a risky split second reflex, Oslo turned his attention from focusing on the road Oslo snaked his arm around Maria and pulled her from the brink. Maria gasped loudly because he grabbed around her bruised abdomen. Despite how cool the scene was behind them Oslo could not appreciate as Maria had just almost died doing it.
As Oslo pulled Maria back into the car her body turned so she was facing the windshield, she could see two similar jeeps up ahead, blocking the road. They were going to crash right into them!
“Stop! Stop!” Maria yelled in the split second of returning into the car. In a heartbeat Oslo turned his attention back to the road and saw the jeeps blocking the road up ahead Oslo slammed on the breaks, turning the car inward and then into the trees on the side, just missing a large bolder but keeping the car from also falling off the woodsy edge like the fate of the car behind them. The car skid and then flipped onto the driver’s side and then over onto its roof, barreling toward disaster as gravity took a hold of the movement of the car.
As Oslo’s car spun out of control, Maria’s heart pounded in chest, her survival instinct kicked in as she was not fastened to anything and she was bracing for the inevitable impact, she gripped the door handle with white knuckle grasp trying to hold herself in place as insurmountable chaos consumed her.
Similarly, Oslo felt the rush of adrenaline and fear racing through him. He did the exact wrong thing in this situation, but because of the hill and the terrain, and trying to save Maria from falling out of the car he couldn’t think in the moment. Maria’s urgent calls to stop just caught his attention in time so they didn’t wouldn’t smash into the cars blocking the way head on. As the car flipped the window next to Oslo’s head smashed into the car cutting his face and glass shattering over him. Unlike Maria, he was still wearing his seatbelt which pressed against his body tightly holding him place as the car rolled and slid.
The car flipped on the driver’s side then flipped again onto the roof and then the sound of scratching metal from the rocky terrain faded as it skid over into the grassy woodsy patch, slowing the car’s speed down just enough so it finally came to a sharp jolting halt causing the back door of the driver’s side to smash into one tree, sparing Oslo and Maria the brunt of the forceful impact. Because the car rolled over and the impact was on the back driver’s side of the car the airbags didn’t deploy like in a head on collision.
After the wretched sound of the car brakes screeching and the metal scratching everything was suddenly silent and still. Maria was totally frozen from shock. Her body had flung forward a few times from the rolling but she was able to hold herself in place enough for awhile but eventually she fell down onto the roof of the car that was now the floor. The windshield was still holding up but the glass was all shattered and cracked it looked it it was going to cave in on her any moment. She thought Oslo was was frozen from shock too but as she looked up at him from where he was hanging upside down, blood dropped from his face. As Maria realized how still and quiet he was she started to take take short panicked gasps.
“Oslo…” Maria cried in a very quiet hushed desperate panic.