The Real Nick Fury
Searing pain from the shot radiated through G’iah’s body. Her vision blurred and her muscles grew weak, yet they were still tense. She slumped to the ground with a few ragged gasps before she turned green and appeared lifeless. She just heard the message that a fake her sent to her father as she went out.
As Gravik hung up the phone he was more than satisfied with his work tonight. He was eager to wipe out Talos’s entire family. First he killed G’iah’s mother, Soren, then her, and now he was going to kill Talos too.
Gravik left the surveillance room, he left G’iah for someone else to find and take care of. He had to go so they could get to the U.K. on time. Gravik was sure his little diversion to the Prime Minister’s speech would keep Fury and Talos busy, while Gravik and the skrulls went after their real target, Ritson.
Gravik walked out of the room, as a surge of energy coursed through G’iah’s veins suffusing her body with a strange warmth. Her vision became less blurred and she could feel the wound in her chest start to weave itself back together, her broken flesh and bone fusing together rapidly, the warmth of it was alarming, a feeling she could not place.
As the process played out, the strength returned to G’iah’s body. The agonizing pain faded to a dull ache as her skin healed, and the wound that would have killed her left nothing behind except an orange glow, the only evidence remaining of her brush with death.
G’iah slowly rose to her feet, she was astounded that the extremis truly worked. But G’iah realized, her father was always right, Gravik was marching the remaining skrulls off to their death just so he could serve himself. G’iah had one goal now, she had to stop Gravik before he carried out his plan and killed President Ritson.
G’iah went to exit the room, but then she remembered what she heard her own voice say to her father. A fake plot to keep him and Fury away from the real plan. It was going to be a replay of Moscow, and Talos and Fury would really think G’iah was working for Gravik this time. G’iah knew she had to contact Talos, but Gravik took the phone with him. She was going to have to find a way to the U.K. too, and fast. Instead she stayed by the monitors and she watched Gravik get into a car and leave, for real this time. G’iah needed to find Talos and Fury and she had to do it before they tried to get to the Prime Minister’s speech tomorrow.
Back in the U.K, Talos took a brief walk he was relieved he got Maria back on board. He felt like he owed it to her to convince her that this was really the true Fury, after she suffered such a terrible fake out with Gravik. Talos also felt very guitly about everything. It was his fatherly overprotection of his own daughter that caused the chaos in Moscow. Then he had to convince Fury to leave his own daughter figure behind in the aftermath. Learning Maria had been hurt in the process just made it so much worse. He wasn’t proud of it, but if he could reunite Fury and Maria it was the least he could do. It made him think back about how he couldn’t reunite with G’iah during the blip, and how she left her family and started to become radicalized or involved with Gravik and this mess. Talos knew he and Fury couldn’t both lose their families to Gravik. Varra joined the resistance and Gravik killed Soren, their daughters were all they had left, and both men had very fragile relationships with them now.
Talos knew he had to do something about G’iah, but a part of him he didn’t want to admit did believe that G’iah might be stringing them along the whole time. Would Talos be the downfall of everyone who was working so hard to save the world and innocent skrulls included?
Talos’s phone from G’iah buzzed and he answered it quickly. Talos started to say something but he was immediately cut off by the sound of G’iah’s voice telling him Gravik was gong after the Prime Minister at her speech tomorrow, and to tell ‘Nick’ to get there fast. Then G’iah hung up the phone. He knew something was terribly off about the delivery, and that message as whole.
Talos didn’t dare call her back. He knew G’iah was in serious danger, but something about what he just heard alarmed him. He thought about the conversation with Sonya and Maria back at the motel. G’iah was either being fed false information to trick them, or she was deliberately lying. Either way it helped Gravik and hurt them. Talos sighed as his brief break away from the group ended and he started to return to the motel room. He knew he had to tell Fury what G’iah just said. They were going to have to make a choice about what to do with this information.
Back in the dingy motel rooms, Sonya was on her secret phone in the room she shared with Maria. Maria was sleeping on Fury’s shoulder in the room Fury and Talos were sharing. Fury felt relief when he could see Maria still trusted him, for what reason he didn’t know. Or maybe he was just a convenient head rest. If that’s all he could be for her right now, he’d take it. He felt lucky to even be that for her. He felt overly protective. If Maria hadn’t protected herself, Fury knew he would have lost Maria for real. He didn’t want to send Maria right into the fake Rhodes’s hands, especially after how much she went through escaping Russians and skrulls. He was going to have to figure something out to make sure what Maria feared happening didn’t happen to her. But Fury knew he couldn’t be in two places at once, and he wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near her or the President.
He knew he didn’t deserve Maria welcoming him back or trusting him again. Maria had already gotten out of Russia before he even had a plan to help her. He was trying to figure something out but he was not fast enough and the revelation that Varra had joined the resistance instead of being someone he could rely on it was devastating. He knew he was not owed the trust of others like Talos, Maria, and Sonya, but they always came back. Fury knew this time he needed to live up to who he was supposed to be. If Gravik wanted to settle a score with Fury, then he was going to get just that. Gravik was trying to eliminate everyone in Fury’s circle, now Fury was going to go right after Gravik’s.
Maria started to wake up realizing she had drifted off on Fury’s shoulder and lifted her head up. It was an accident really, but drifting off into the comfort of familiarity was so nice regardless of how brief it was. Maria was so beyond exhausted, she couldn’t believe she could still stand or talk. The only time she got to sleep before his was riding in the back of the car with Oslo for awhile, but even that was challenging because she was so anxious.
“Oh, no, I fell asleep.” She observed as she awoke. She did not mean to do that but it just happened.
“You should go to bed.” Fury said with care. Maria leaned her head against the wall behind her and took big long sigh.
“I was thinking that maybe you should tell me where it is, you know? What Gravik’s looking for. Just in case.” Maria said to Fury and he looked at Maria puzzled. He tilted his head and narrowed his eye at her as he thought about it. She wanted to know where the Harvest was? That was so unlike Maria. Fury thought about it for a minute and the idea that she was really a skrull trying to get this info for him popped into his head for a moment. But he had seen Maria’s arms and face, she had so many injuries that you could see the red blood that had dried on her hands and wrists. It was the first time Fury had even thought about this as a possibility. Was Gravik this sophisticated? Fury’s minor and sudden suspicion that Maria might have been a skrull plant dissipated fast. It wasn’t a real fear, but he realized Gravik did set traps and he went after who people trusted, he could easily do the same thing to Fury that he had done to Maria.
Maria figured if Fury died, Maria should know where it is so she could get rid of it, if he couldn’t. Who knew how many people Gravik told about it and how many places he was going to go to try and find it. Maria didn’t really want to know, but knowing it was out there if something happened to Fury, would keep the world on a constant edge.
Fury shook his head no at Maria, like he wasn’t going to tell her. Well, he wasn’t going to tell her directly. He figured she wasn’t a skrull in disguise and as he thought about it Maria probably wanted to know where it was so she could destroy it if he couldn’t. She was so against it’s existence and she had been right about that.
“I’m taking that one to my grave.” Fury huffed and then he and Maria exchanged a glance and she realized he was telling her where it was after all.
“Where it belongs.” Maria muttered but she gave Fury a look like she understood him.
Fury smirked at Maria. As Maria and Fury talked in their little cryptic code, Maria couldn’t help but smirk back at him. She fell into working with him so easily, even when it was hard. Fury didn’t always have to be right, he made mistakes just like everyone else, but he did have to care. That was a requirement for Maria. Maria could tell despite the mistakes and the snide comments before, that Fury did care. He was overwhelmed by the combined weight of his many mistakes and problems he ignored and let fester. If she left him now, if she didn’t help after everything she went through, what was even fighting her way out of Russia for? All these years together it had to mean something to both of them. Especially now that they both realized how quickly it could all be over. One wrong misstep for either of them and that was it, and they might not even see it coming.
“I didn’t want to leave you. I promise. I didn’t know…” Fury started to explain out of the blue.
“I know. Everything was really confusing and fast.” Maria cut off his explanation. They were way past this. Fury had to leave Russia, Maria understood that. What good would it be if they were both in Russian jail?
“It didn’t have to be that way.” Fury grumbled to himself.
“I am sorry, truly sorry. For all of it.” Fury spoke genuinely, his voice heavy with consideration. And Maria looked right at Fury as she had never heard him so seriously apologize for being wrong or doing wrong like this.
“It’s okay.” Maria said after a pause.
“It’s not okay, it wasn’t right, none of it. I failed you, badly. I failed you so terribly it almost cost you your…”
“Nick.” Maria said seriously cutting him off again. Fury and Maria were two people who were not good at expressing their feelings. They could be blunt with each other, for sure, but emotional? No way, that could not happen.
Fury gave Maria a funny look, she had been the one who told him to be accountable and honest when having serious conversations back at the bar now he was trying to do it and she was stopping him.
“Let’s just make it through this, okay?” Maria asked. She had absolutely no mental bandwidth to have conversations like this, especially right now.
“Let’s make it through this, as friends. I made my own choices. I didn’t have to stick around and I did. I wanted too. I don’t blame anyone.” Maria shook her head as this situation, she did want Fury to take accountability but she emotionally wasn’t ready for it.
“Well, you should.” Fury said back quickly.
“Actually, I do, and that person is very clearly, Talos, because that’s what he told me to get me to come in a car with you.” Maria laughed with a grin trying to lighten the moment.
“And that worked?” Fury looked surprised.
“Not really, I was just too tired to hear him talk at me anymore.” Maria sighed.
Fury chuckled, “He does drone on and on.”
“Did he learn that from you?” Maria asked.
“I learned it from him.” Fury said with a sharp smirk.
Maria leaned her head back on Fury’s shoulder as she laughed a little. This surprisingly simple gesture was so meaningful to the both of them. It was not a level of intimacy they had in their dynamic before. For some reason Maria crossing this simple boundary for comfort just enshrined their reliability on each other. Their relationship wasn’t about functionality or convenience, it wasn’t even about faith or trust, it was just about having something—someone in their life that they both needed. A relationship they were missing in their lives, and wanted filled, even if they didn’t say it out loud. It was about the certainty of their return to one another. It was a personal and familial level of reliance they had on each other, which even with the problems that arose from their strained relationship the feeling remained. Maria was glad it did, and so was Fury. Even though he knew he had a lot to make up for.
“I need you.” Sonya said as she entered the room through the conjoining door. Maria and Fury looked at Sonya curiously, both of them wondering which one of them she was talking to.
“Hill, I mean.” Sonya clarified for the two of them. Clearly those two were working things out as she was a bit surprised at the sight she saw.
“I’m sorry, he’s insisting.” Sonya said as she handed her phone to Maria.
“Who?” Maria asked and Sonya rolled her eyes and then Maria knew exactly who she was talking about.
“Hey!” Oslo said eagerly over the phone hearing Maria’s voice.
“So, you lived?” Maria asked into the phone to Oslo and he laughed.
“You think you’re going to be the death of me? Please. I’ve had paper cuts worse than you.” He snickered.
“How’s your eye?” Maria asked genuinely concerned.
“Tell me, do you have a thing for one eyed men? Are you the reason Fury wears an eye patch too? Is it just so he sees less of you?” He laughed at his own rude joke.
“It’s okay, I think I look good with an eye patch, actually, good thing it goes with everything I own. I really pull it off, so I’m looking forward to my future as a one-eyed man.”
“Oh, no. I’m so sorry.” Maria said sincerely as she realized Oslo may now be partially blind for good.
“It’s cool.” Oslo said unbothered.
“You might have to see if your second fake wife will take you back.” Maria joked and then Sonya and Fury was taken back, what was this conversation?
“Why? I’m so cool now. I wonder if I can find someone even better and younger than my first fake wife. It’s going to be a real shame in two weeks when everything goes back to normal and I don’t need to wear my eye patch anymore.” Then Oslo laughed a bit, revealing he’d be fine in just a short time.
Maria sighed very loudly and aggravated.
“Wait, what? Are you serious?” Maria said annoyed.
“Yeah, just two weeks wrapped up and everything is good to go.”
“You’re not funny.” Maria huffed at him.
“Did you feel bad for me?”
“I feel sorry that you are hurt because of me.” Maria sighed.
“I didn’t get hurt because of you. You’re not an alien trying to destroy all of human civilization, are you?” Oslo joked.
“Not today.” Maria muttered under breath.
“Did you tell Fury about my car?” Oslo asked more seriously.
“Yeah, it was the very first thing I said to him.” Maria snarked.
“Why does that sound sarcastic?” He asked.
“Feel better.” Maria muttered.
“Wait, but you told him about my car, right? Answer me. This is serious.” Oslo said again with a more pressing urgency in his voice.
“Let me just say this, the biggest favor I’ve ever done for you, in your whole life—-” Maria started to mock him from the other day.
Oslo groaned loudly cutting her off.
Maria rolled her eyes and then Sonya took her phone back.
“We’ll take care of whatever it is, rest up.” Sonya said as she hung up the phone. They didn’t have time for whatever this was.
“Who the hell was that?” Fury asked.
“That’s the man who got Hill out of Russia.” Sonya explained unbothered.
“Who?” Fury repeated.
“Cato Ebsen, he goes by Oslo now.” Sonya replied and Maria looked at Sonya. Maria should have figured Oslo was using a fake name.
“Oh. I remember him.” Fury said with an interesting tone in his voice.
“Why?” Maria asked skeptically.
“Cato and Catherine Ebsen, they were a skilled set of sibling SHIELD agents out of Europe, until one day a mission went south and Catherine…” Fury started
“Was killed.” Sonya finished for him.
“Oh.” Maria said quietly. Oslo had mentioned he got fired because someone got hurt because of a mistake he made, and he told her he had older sisters, he didn’t mention it was one of his sisters that died.
“He was real good too, but Catherine Ebsen, she was exceptional. You would have liked her a lot.” Fury explained.
“I’ve never heard of them. If he was so good why did he get fired?” Maria asked.
“It was a very very long time ago. And he didn’t get fired.” Fury said surprised. “He quit.”
“He told me he got fired because someone got hurt.” Maria explained.
“Sounds like he fired himself.” Fury mumbled.
“For the better, really, considering how things turned out with SHIELD.” Sonya added.
Maria and Fury both frowned a bit.
“I didn’t say it was your fault or anything. Don’t look at me with daggers. Over ten years later and it’s still a sore spot? No worries, clearly detecting invasions right under your nose is quite hard.” Sonya acknowledged noting the situation they were currently in. Yikes, tough room Sonya thought to herself.
Maria and Fury both awkwardly laughed in the moment.
“We’re going to have to get you set up to go soon.” Sonya said to Maria.
“I know.” Maria said trying not to sound disappointed. This was the safest she had felt in days.
“And I got a hit on the Daltons and I need to move as well.” Sonya sighed.
Then everyone in the group could hear rushed footsteps outside, they all tilted their heads and Fury grabbed his gun and jumped up from his seat, he stood protectively in front of Maria and Sonya. The two women exchanged a brief glance as he did it. Fury was in that type of mood apparently.
They heard a keycard go into the door and then Talos opened the door and he was taken back by the look on all their faces.
“It’s the real me…” Talos said cautiously.
“That’s exactly what a skrull would say.” Fury muttered but he lowered his gun.
“Oh, brother.” Sonya sighed.
Talos stepped into the hotel room a little more, he didn’t even joke back with Fury which raised Fury’s alarm.
“I heard from G’iah.” Talos started.
“Did we get the names?” Sonya jumped in, this was kind of a pressing matter before they dived into their plan, knowing who was who really was going to make all the difference.
“No, she called and said: ‘it’s the Prime Minister, they’re going after her after her at her speech tomorrow, tell ‘Nick’ to get there fast.’” Talos recited.
Everyone looked at each other. That message sounded like the set up of a trap if they ever heard one.
“She’s warning us, but she’s giving us a different warning.” Fury said as he heard the message.
“Maybe she’s not playing us but she’s playing Gravik. He could have been in the room when she made the call. She’s giving us his fake warning and she threw in that last part as the real message.” Maria suggested. No one called Fury, Nick, except Maria. G’iah was around her parents long enough to know he went by Fury.
“How do you know it’s her on the other end?” Sonya asked Talos. Talos paused as he thought about that question.
“I don’t.” He answered rather shamefully.
“He could have found her phone and made an educated guess, send us to Lawton’s speech while they go after their real target.” Sonya said glumly.
“He would have killed her if he found that phone.” Talos paused as he suddenly realized that it might not have been a coded message from G’iah at all, but a message from Gravik pretending to be her. Gravik could have been the one who dropped the phone back at the parley meeting. Talos didn’t even know if he was talking to the real Gravik at all that day.
Everyone was quiet for a moment as Talos came upon this realization.
“There’s no way that man killed my daughter and hasn’t called me to brag about it.” Talos tried to give himself some hope. That’s what Gravik did, he wanted to see the pain he caused people, he wanted to hear it and experience it. He just couldn’t accept that Gravik would kill G’iah and not have the audacity to mention it to him. Talos wasn’t wrong, Gravik had all kinds of plans to brag to him right before he took Talos out.
“Unless he wants me to think she’s alive…” Talos realized this was quite complicated.
Talos knew he should have forced G’iah to leave at that parley meeting—if that was really her. He was overcome by feeling that something awful had happened. Maybe Gravik had killed G’iah after what happened in Moscow. What if he knew the whole time? He obviously knew something was up with the bags. That’s what he was alluding to when they talked, wasn’t it?
Maria could tell Talos was really struggling working out this situation in real time.
“Well… Lawton’s speech is probably going to be televised. So it’s not out of the question that Gravik would go after her.” Maria surmised trying to make it easier on Talos, maybe it wasn’t a fake warning.
“Why would Gravik go after the Prime Minister of the U.K?” Talos asked thinking this was clearly a dumb diversion.
“If they have the Russians attack a neutral party, it turns two superpowers against them…” Sonya tried to propose.
“Lawton has been spewing a lot of hate speech lately, I’m not sure she’d be a target for him.” Fury reminded.
“Maybe Lawton is a skrull in disguise…” Maria suggested and everyone was quiet for a minute.
“Maybe, but she was the one insisting the U.S. come for talks and offering to host.” Sonya added.
“Don’t pander to me because you feel bad.” Talos huffed and Fury and Sonya were quiet as this man was grappling with the fact his daughter may be dead and trying to decipher a message that could set their whole plan down the drain and get them all killed if they didn’t get it right.
“Do we believe this message or not?” Talos asked frantically. Fury and Sonya were quiet.
“No, we don’t, it’s fake, a diversion or a set up, probably both.” Maria looked right at Talos directly. Fury nodded agreeing with Maria. It was true they all were trying to offer some alternatives so Talos’s fears of the worst did not take over him. Gravik was trying to push people to their emotional limits so they were less of a threat, and Gravik was good at this. But knowing the message was fake meant bad things for Talos, G’iah was either helping Gravik, or he found out about her phone and forced her to send that message and potentially killed her.
Fury knew it was a fake message right away, G’iah had never heard anyone call Fury Nick in her whole life, there’s no way she’d drop it now. It could have been a warning, but more likely it was someone pretending to be her because they wanted Fury in a specific place. If Gravik was dropping fake intel, they didn’t want him to know they were onto him. With Gravik, it wasn’t about getting one up on him, it was to stay under the radar. He could always raise the stakes and the challenges easily and add wild layers to his plans and traps, the best thing they could do is to let Gravik think he was winning.
The problem with this is that everyone of them had a place they were going to have to be soon, and they couldn’t get diverted to Gravik’s little bait and switch just to prove a fake point.
“How do we get it back to Gravik that we got his message and know about the plan against Lawton without revealing we know it’s fake?” Fury proposed and everyone thought about the way they would have to go about this without raising any alarm to Gravik and his operatives. After a few moments of silence Sonya perked up.
“Tell Varra, go back to Varra’s and say you’re going to the speech vaguely. She’ll call back and confirm you’re on your way.” Talos suggested. This was hard for Fury and Talos, having to use their families in these schemes. Fury nodded, that had to be the best plan for him, drop a hint that Varra could report back on. Maria looked at Talos and Fury curiously at this suggestion. She wondered what had happened.
“I have to go call Weatherby and tell him I lived from the bombing of my car and that Hill made it to London so we can arrange for her to get back to the Americans.” Sonya added. This was really the most straightforward way to go about it even though they knew they were entangling themselves right back into the grips of very smart and capable skrulls, but they all had to separate soon, they couldn’t be around each other very long, Gravik believing they were all on their own instead of working together was yet another strength they had over him.
“Okay.” Fury agreed.
The four of them all looked at each other, they each had very heavy tasks to take on with very limited resources. They really weren’t going to be able to contact each other safely, and it really might be the last time they all saw each other based on how things had been going for them.
Fury looked at all of them, the people who had come to aid him in this fight, bare handed, risking everything for the mess he caused and ignored.
“I know it doesn’t seem like it, but we are ahead. We are smarter than Gravik.” Fury said in a coach like way.
“Are you trying to rally the troops?” Sonya asked with a smirk.
“Is that not what I’m supposed to do?” Fury tilted his head. Maria, Sonya, and Talos laughed at him despite how awkward and tense everything felt.
Later Maria and Sonya figured out their plan of how Maria could reunite with the Americans and Sonya could explain her brief disappearance to Weatherby. Fury knew before he did anything, he was going back to see Priscilla, he wanted to drop a thread that he was going to the Prime Minister’s speech, if that got back to Gravik it would keep Gravik from suspecting Fury being on to him.
Talos was outside the motel room getting some air as he walk was cut quite short. He was the only one of them who could stand this frigid bitter winter almost air. In fact, Talos actually quite liked it. Then Maria stepped outside for a minute, she was surprised to see Talos but also relieved, she did want to talk to him before she left and potentially never saw him again.
“Hey.” Maria said kindly but a bit uneasy.
Talos gave her a hug, a surprising gesture that Maria wasn’t expecting. Maria embraced him back and gave him two little pats on the arm. He was still very upset over the unknown about G’iah.
“How are you feeling?” He asked Maria.
“Uhm, like I should have retired ten years ago.” Maria did not know how to answer this. She just spend two days trying to escape the skrulls and now she was literally going to be putting herself right among a very dangerous one and playing a very difficult game.
“You’d hate retirement.” Talos said with a smirk.
“It’s sounds good right about now, but, yeah, you’re right.” Maria nodded as she leaned back against the wall.
“Talos, uhm…” Maria paused because she knew this would be hard to say and tell him and he looked at Maria like he knew what she was going to say.
“If I get to brief the President, I am going to tell him everything, I don’t think I can keep this secret anymore, it’s too dangerous.” Maria admitted finally after a pause and Talos nodded.
“You should tell him.” Talos confirmed surprising Maria a bit.
“I’m sorry.” Maria apologized.
“Don’t apologize, you have to do it.” Talos again acknowledged and confirmed. He knew she felt bad but she had to, there was nothing else she could do. Gravik’s biggest strength was his ability to stay anonymous. That had to end.
“Well, the thing is, is that I don’t think it’s going to be very safe for you and your people if I tell him and I know you don’t have anywhere you know that is safe to go. Earth does not have a great track record with alien species showing up here, a few exceptions I suppose. But nowadays, with the volatile political situation, it’s just, it is really bad now between the people who blipped and the people who didn’t…” Maria paused because she was genuinely worried about the skrulls and humans, and the world trying to hold it together. Everything was so fragile, it could implode any minute.
“Nothing brings a fractured people closer together than not understanding something and being afraid.” Maria said glumly. There was no way this was going to end well for the skrulls. There was just too much political turmoil already and suddenly if people learned about skrulls and what they could do the world would be in chaos, people wouldn’t trust each other, no one could believe anyone, people would blame crimes on ‘the skrull version of them.’ Maria was already living this and it was hard.
“Yeah..” Talos sighed also leaning against the wall.
“I think you should find your people as many as you can and you guys should leave now.” Maria said quietly and eyes watering because it was hard to tell a friend of so many years that he and his ‘kind’ should leave what’s been the only place they’ve known has a home for decades. She didn’t want to, but she was afraid for him and for them, for skrull children and people who just wanted to live a safe life. She might also have been having a kind of outburst of repressed emotions from everything she had gone through in the last few days.
“If all the good ones of us leave all the humans will ever know is that skrulls are bad, evil. They won’t ever know about the rest of us and we will be outcasted again just like we were in the galaxy.”
“I know, and I’m so sorry, but I don’t know a way for this to end well for anyone, but I do know how to mitigate it for the least amount of innocent people and skrulls dying.” Maria said tearfully.
“You should save them and help them before it gets out of hand. This place, it’s not kind to strangers, people are afraid of those among us they don’t understand. We aren’t even nice to each other.” Maria sighed.
Talos sighed deeply and he had a somber still look on his face because he knew Maria was right. People would be extremely hostile to the skrulls after learning some of them kidnapped them and replicated people all over the world. It was going to be very bad if it got out, but if Maria had the chance, she had to reveal it, she just had to. If she didn’t a lot of people, skrulls included, would die.
“You’ll tell him we’re not all bad, right?” Talos asked kindly.
“Of course!” Maria said emotionally. She didn’t want anything to happen to the innocent skrulls. It wasn’t their fault there was a rebellion brooding. Talos was right, most of them were just living peacefully and no one would have ever noticed if this hadn’t happened.
“Tell Nick he should call Carol, she could help the people trying to leave. She knows a lot more places than we do.” Maria proposed. She couldn’t believe Fury hadn’t done this yet.
“She’s been trying to find a place for us for quite sometime.”
“Well, time’s up. It’s now or never.” Maria huffed. She had little patience for Avengers’ woes. It had been 30 years, it was time for this to become a real priority.
Talos was stunned to hear Maria say something harsh about Captain Marvel, even if Maria was right.
“He won’t call her.” Talos reminded shaking his head. Maria and Talos had sat in Talos’s kitchen days ago, when Nick demanded that he do this fight on his own. Now it seemed like Fury was ready for help.
“You have to get him.” Maria repeated what Talos pleaded to her to get Nick to help them days ago.
“I don’t really know of anything that we can do for you anymore, but there’s a lot you can do for your people before this gets bad.” Maria explained. She knew this was all going to be terrible and the people who were going to pay the highest price were the skrulls, the innocent ones just trying to live. That’s always what happened in wars and fighting. The people just trying to survive on the ground paid for it.
Suddenly the door to Fury and Talos’s room opened he peered out of the doorway lightly and just saw Talos.
“Hey, Talos, can I talk to you for a bit?” Fury asked, he didn’t even realize Maria was there as he hadn’t opened the door far enough to see.
Maria exchanged a glance with Talos briefly like this was his chance, and then Talos left and went into the motel room with Fury. After the door shut Maria took a heavy deep sigh, she hated having to say those things to Talos, but if she didn’t warn him this might happen what would happen to rest of is people? Maria leaned against the wall of the outside of the motel.
She realized she was having all of these emotional conversations with Talos, but she needed to have one with Fury too. She was afraid to do that with him for some reason. She had still had trouble getting the sight of the fake Fury shooting her. He sure looked real to her when that happened. It just made her kind of power down around the real Fury now. Like she didn’t want to dive into what this all meant. Maria couldn’t focus on it now. Maria turned around and went back into the motel room with Sonya, as they two would be departing soon.
Back in London at the secure and luxury hotel where the President and the American delegation were staying, Rhodey was walking down a hallway heading for his a routine meeting with the President and other senior staff.
“You are not going to believe this.” Val said as she walked up behind Rhodes in the secured hotel hallway. Secret Service agents were stationed down the hall.
“Try me.” Rhodes muttered, and he stopped walking and turned to look at Val.
“I just got off the phone with Weatherby. Hill’s in London.” Val said a bit excited.
“Hill herself even checked in with an analyst back at our headquarters, ten minutes ago.” Val added.
Raava groaned internally, of course Hill took lots of steps to make her presence known now. Making it harder for her to just vanish after she vanished for days.
“That’s great.” Rhodes said happily.
“Do we have someone to go get her? Did Weatherby get an update on Falsworth?” Rhodey asked.
“Falsworth is also fine, she just got out of the hospital, she kept it quiet so no one would go looking for her. Fury probably placed that bomb in Sonya’s car too. The police got some reports from neighbors of ‘a one-eyed black man’ in the neighborhood.” Val said pressing her lips together. “He’s trying to take out almost every person who worked on that team.” Val sighed.
“At this point, he almost has.” Rhodey echoed Val’s sigh. Then Raava thought she had a pretty good idea pop into her head.
“We’ll put Hill into protective custody, Fury is scary, he has lots of connections and clearly isn’t going to stop until he puts an end to people trying to expose what he doesn’t want the world to know.” Rhodey proposed.
“I can easily throw Hill right in jail.” Val rattled off carelessly and looking at her phone.
“In jail?” Rhodes glared at Val.
“It’s a figure of speech… in the agency, because all your freedoms and privacy are taken away for your safety.” Val said like it was no big deal. “We do it all the time for agents who are outed or something.”
“Right..” Rhodes grimaced.
“It’s for their own safety.” Val emphasized again speaking slower.
“You know the more I get to know you, the more concerned I am with you being in positions of power.” Rhodes muttered at her unimpressed.
“Funny, that’s what I always think about you and your Avenger friends.” Val and Rhodes exchanged a tense glare.
“Yeah? Even the ones who saved your live and trillions of others at their own expense?” Rhodes defended his friends passionately.
“Oh, c’mon, you act like most people wouldn’t give up their life to save trillions of lives, please, it was the least they could do.” Val smirked and gave Rhodey a look a up and down and Rhodes looked highly offended.
“Maybe next time you can be the one who has to die so everyone else can live.” Rhodes shot back at her.
“Well, maybe if I’m not on vacation.” She snickered with a little shrug and smirk as she walked away but then she turned around and looked at Rhodes as she had passed him walking by. “I’ll tell you what Hill says, I assume it’s going to be real good, too.” And Val seemed all too excited to finally find out what she didn’t know for days. She couldn’t stand the idea of someone like Maria knowing something she didn’t. Plus, Maria made Val look like an incompetent idiot and Maria literally wasn’t even doing anything.
Rhodey rolled his eyes almost painfully to himself as he stood in the hallway. Was Maria really going to drop everything she knew about skrulls to Val? Maybe she would, if she thought there was a fake Nick Fury out there, she was going to have to tell everything to keep people safe. Rhodey was supposed to go with Ritson to keep Gravik updated on Ritson’s location, but now how could he leave? Raava had to stay here and do damage control, he had to talk to Maria before she talked to Val. And Rhodes had to find a legitimate way to keep them separated and figure out what to do from there. Raava wanted to punch the wall. How could Gravik have let this gotten so far out of hand?
Raava had to think about the one thing that keep Maria from telling Val everything. Raava knew she had to play this smart but come up with something fast. Rhodes had to have a legitimate reason to keep Maria from briefing the President or Val or anyone else. She had to start racking deep into Rhodes’s memories to think about the things he knew about her. Could Raava distract her with a manufactured personal issue? The Russians did attempt to contact her mother, was that something he could distract Maria with? Raava was really stuck, what was the one thing that could really get at Maria and keep her from trying to get to Ritson. Then it hit Raava like a brick, it all went back to Fury. That was going to have to be Raava’s ticket.
Raava didn’t know if Maria was still working with Fury or if she was just relying on allies in MI6 to get her out of Russia like Val claimed. She escaped multiple skrull attacks so she knew they were looking for her. Raava just didn’t know if Maria had reunited with the real Fury and things had become clear to her, or if she still thought a skrull Fury was out there trying to kill people. Varra didn’t have any information, Gravik didn’t either. The one thing that Raava knew is that if Maria was coming to the Americans, Maria didn’t know or suspect that Rhodes, her trusted friend was a skrull. There’s no way she would come here if she did.
Rhodes reluctantly went to the staff meeting with the President, but Raava was distracted mentally. At the meeting Val was explaining to Ritson that Maria was now in London and Val was arranging for her to get her so she could get the information from Hill. Val also explained that Fury was expected of bombing the car of MI6 agent Sonya Falsworth who had been the head of the team Hill and Prescod were on.
“When are we going to arrest that man?” Ritson asked annoyed.
“Hopefully soon, he must be in London too.” Val replied.
“Who is he coming for next?” Ritson looked afraid for himself.
“I don’t know but the sooner I can talk to Hill the better.” Val nodded.
“Can you get on that, now please?” Ritson said to Val.
“Leaving now.” Val said as she turned to exit the meeting.
“I should go too.” Rhodey offered.
“Why? She works for me, in case you forgot.” Val looked at Rhodes surprised. Of course this man was going to intervene.
“Well, her last boss just tried to kill her so…” Rhodey didn’t really know what to say actually.
“Yeah, well, if we don’t want a repeat of that she better answer my questions, I guess…” Val joked and shot a sarcastic look to Ritson. Everyone in the room looked highly offended at Val’s comment.
“It was a joke.” Val rolled her eyes.
Ritson said to Rhodes.
“Yeah you better go, too.” Ritson said to Rhodes and he nodded. Now Val looked offended.
“It has nothing to do with you.” Ritson added to Val’s disgruntled attitude.
Val offered a fake smile as if she wasn’t offended, but she couldn’t help feel like Rhodes was coming to babysit her.
As Maria approached the hotel Agent Watson followed her, she was greeted by two secret service agents who escorted her and Watson into the secured hotel lobby and then to a conference room. The conference room had no windows, there were two more secret service agents outside of it, and a long rectangular table was in the middle of the room with perfectly pushed in chairs around it. Watson waited in there with Maria for a bit but then he checked his watch.
“Are you going to be alright on your own?” He asked and Maria looked at Watson, she had heard that before with such a similar inflection, it made her tilt her head.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Maria nodded before he left. As Watson left the conference room he saw Rhodes and Val heading down the hall. Watson noticed a secret service agent tailing Rhodes unlike the numerous stationary ones who stood watch around the hallway. Watson waved at the Secret Service agents as he spied on the agent who walked behind Rhodes. That Secret Service agent then stood outside the door as Rhodes and Val finally made it to the conference room where Maria was waiting alone. Watson left the hallway.
Maria was dreading this initial meeting. If she messed this up it was all over for everyone. It just went against her intuition to do what seemed so obviously wrong, but Fury was right, there was power in doing that, if they did it right. They wouldn’t see it coming, they expected them to do things a certain way.
When Val saw Maria she gasped in a bit of shock. Maria looked rough, clearly she had been through a lot trying to get here.
Maria didn’t know if Val was a skrull but she knew Rhodey was for sure, but she had to get Rhodey to trust her and not suspect that Maria knew the truth. In order to do that, Maria was going to have to get Val out of this room, she couldn’t share this all with Val yet because Maria just knew if she did, if Val wasn’t a skrull then neither her or Maria would be leaving this room. In order to save Val, who Maria didn’t even like, she was going to have to imply that Val was the problem in the room to Rhodes to get them separate.
“Uhm, looking a little rough there, Hill.” Val remarked. Val was always very well put together, Maria would have rolled her eyes but she wasn’t even in the mood to acknowledge her.
“Maybe we should get you to a hospital.” Rhodes suggested, Raava thought this was a great and legitimate way to stall Maria.
“Yeah, we’ll get to that. I’ll call for a medic or something.” Val said dismissively.
“Why aren’t you talking? Do you want to just start at the beginning? Do I need to prompt you, what the hell is going on?” Val asked Maria.
“Uhm.” Maria hesitated and she looked at Rhodes.
“Hill! Don’t look at him.” Val spoke irritated. What was this woman doing. There was a crisis going on and she was hesitating?
Rhodes could tell Maria was trying to warn him about Val. She wasn’t being very discrete, it was like she was lost in the moment. It was very unlike her to be knocked off her game like this. But Raava could not blame her. Maria trusted Fury mistakenly and now she didn’t want to say anything to high level government leaders without being sure she could trust them.
“Let’s go! What the fuck is going on! Don’t be petty, let’s save some lives something we can all universally agree on.” Val grumbled at Maria.
Raava thought about Val’s comments, Maria was not petty, in fact, she generally was too mature and above that kind of stuff. Maria looked at Rhodes like she really did not want to talk to Val about this.
“Do not look at him! I am your boss! You work for me! In case you forgot. What is going on!! There is no information in this world that you have a right to know and I do not. Do you understand?” Val scolded Maria.
Maria looked at Rhodes again and suddenly Raava had the weirdest suspicion, did Maria think Val was the skrull? Ugh, Hill, you are so close. Raava thought to herself.
“You have one second to start talking or you are fired. And you can start talking under a court martial.” Val threatened Maria. There was a major security crisis happening and she decided to shut up right now? Maria obviously did not trust somebody in this room, and apparently it was Val, that’s why she didn’t contact the CIA and went offline. Whatever Fury was doing Maria must’ve wrongly believe it was somehow tied to Val. Val was furious, but she tried to calm down especially when she saw Rhodes glared at her hatefully for threatening Maria so boldly.
“Does Fury know you’re alive?” Val asked, changing her tune. She did have a realization that Maria did go through something traumatic and shocking and just expecting her to spill was asking a lot.
“I don’t know, but I think so.” Maria finally answered Val and Val was relieved and calmer. Clearly Maria wasn’t talking because she didn’t want something to get back to Fury.
“Fury already tried take to out someone else this morning, it’s not out of the question that he might try to finish the job, so if you could enlighten us on anything that might be helpful…” Val started.
“Who?” Maria asked worried.
“Someone installed a car bomb in Sonya Falsworth’s car this morning. She’s fine, she wasn’t in it, but a neighbor reported a ‘one-eyed black man’ in the neighborhood near her place.”
“In London?” Maria asked and Val nodded and Maria looked upset and hurt.
“If you are protecting that man after he tried to kill two women, one of them being you…” Val started to warn, she was going to have to set Maria straight.
“I’m not.” Maria said not very convincingly to Val or Rhodes.
“You are hurting this country’s security by not telling me everything right now.” Val tried to appeal to Maria’s sense for security.
“Director Allegra.” Rhodes huffed visibly and audibly irritated.
“This is an absolute joke.” Val groaned as Rhodes reigned her in.
“What were you going to do if he wasn’t here to protect you? Huh?” Val asked Maria. “Real feminist you are.”
“I’m the one trying to help you, by the way.” Val muttered aggravated.
It was almost painful for Raava to see Maria make this mistake in real time, but she couldn’t believe how well it was working out for the skrulls. Maria trusted Rhodes, so Raava could manipulate her or keep her away from Ritson, or get get rid of her if she was going to expose them.
“Val, just go. We’ll do medical first, anyway, it’s clear she needs it.” Rhodes said trying to ease the tension in this room.
Val knew hiring Maria was a huge mistake for her, and it made her feel like she wasn’t in control of her own agency. Val told Ritson and Rhodes that getting Maria involved meant getting Fury involved and now look at this huge mess.
Val sighed loudly and she extended her hands in the air from frustration. Clearly, Maria had to be convinced that Val was worth trusting and even Val knew that was a hard sell for someone like Maria Hill. If Rhodes could get the information, fine, at the this point who Maria told it to was irrelevant to Val, it would call come out eventually.
Val finally left the room, and two of the secret service agents outside followed her up the hallway, Watson had just returned to the hallway and the singular service agent, agent Killbourne that stood outside the door to the room remained, blocking the doorway from anyone getting in or out.
Rhodes looked at Maria now that Val was gone. Maria was also dreading this moment. Was this fake Rhodes just going to kill her?
“Don’t worry she’s not standing with a cup to her ear at the door.” Rhodey joked.
“Are you sure?” Maria asked.
“Is she involved?” Rhodes asked with some alarm.
“I don’t know.”
“Are you okay? Can you tell me what’s going on, now?” Rhodey asked.
“Uhm.” Maria looked around the room.
“It’s a secure room.” Rhodey assured and Maria shook her head no. Rhodey paused and then he got quiet. Maria did know a lot if she thought the room wasn’t secure she was probably right. Could be Russians, could be Fury, could be anything.
“Is there somewhere more secure?” Maria asked. Rhodes pressed his lips together because there was a floor more secure than this one but he didn’t want to suggest it because it might be awkward.
“Well in the residential side of the hotel…” Rhodey whispered barely audibly and Maria nodded that was a better choice than some random conference room that could be covered in hidden recording devices. Raava could tell Maria was rightfully very paranoid. In reality, Maria just wanted to move locations to prevent Val from coming back, and she just had a feeling Val wasn’t visiting Rhodes’s hotel room, plus she wanted to raise the paranoia for Rhodes too, if Rhodes trusted Maria, the more likely she’d live longer.
Rhodes and Maria exited the conference room. Outside, the single secret service agent that trailed Rhodes was alone and he was standing opposite the door to the conference room instead of in front of it. Watson was gone.
As Maria and Rhodes walked down the hallway crossing sides of the hotel Maria walked right next to Rhodes and Raava couldn’t believe it. She trusted him so much, it was painful.
“Do a bug sweep when we get there.” Maria said very quietly to Rhodes.
“They did one this morning.”
“Do it again.” Maria whispered back and Rhodes was quiet, why not placate Hill? Rhodes nodded like it was a good idea.
As he reached his hotel room in the residential area he looked the secret service agent that was with him. Rhodes has less agents in the hotel because so many of them were scattered around. He always wanted Agent Killbourne around him though. Killbourne was a tall man, much taller than Rhodes and no one would probably dare challenge him, even better he had long ago been replaced with a skrull and on Rhodes’s security team for quite sometime.
As they reached Rhodes’s hotel room, Killbourne opened the door, Rhodes and Hill stayed outside there were other agents in the hall but spread out.
Killbourne took out a device that the agents had that could sweep the area for planted devices. He walked around the hotel suite scanning and waving the wand until Maria and Rhodes heard two small beeps. Rhodes knew that was the sound that Killbourne found something and Maria gave Rhodes a very confident look. Rhodes look stunned, Raava was stunned herself. Someone had been in her room! It sure did make Maria seem way more legitimate that a bug showed up in Rhodes’s room after there had been a negative sweep this morning.
“The room is clear otherwise?” Rhodes asked worried he shouldn’t go in there now.
“It’s fine now. No one is there, and this is the only thing that turned up.” Killbourne held out a small fingernail sized recording device. Rhodes and Maria looked at it.
“I want to know who was in here. I want video and I want to know where this device is from, it’s origins, it’s make, everything.” Rhodes said to Killbourne. Another Secret Service agent came down the hall to take the device from Killbourne.
Rhodes wasn’t sure if he should go in there and honestly Maria didn’t really think he should either, but she would love to snoop around this skrull’s hotel room if she got the chance.
“Let’s do this.” Rhodes paused and pulled his phone and placed a call.
“Stephanie, I need a hotel a room in our secured floors for Agent Hill. I need it now.” Rhodes said to the woman on the other line. Maria and Rhodes waited outside his hotel room. Raava was happy actually to stall Maria even longer. Finally Killbourne got the okay to move Maria and Rhodes to another hotel room, that hadn’t been tampered with. This put Raava on edge, now she was starting to feel the paranoia that Maria was. It put Raava in a weird place, Maria who wasn’t on her side might be the one person Raava could trust. Raava wondered if Val got the bug put in the room. What if it was Fury or the Russians? It could have even been Gravik! Whoever planted it knew that a sweep had already been done.
As Maria and Rhodes moved to another suite far down the hall in the hotel Maria could see Rhodes concerned face. This skrull was clearly shocked by that reveal. Killbounre stood outside the door of this room as well.
Once Maira and Rhodes made it into the new hotel room, Rhodes closed the door.
“What the hell, what is going on.” Rhodes said, practically echoing Val’s anger now.
Maria motioned for Rhodes to step away from the doorway, like she didn’t even trust his security team. Rhodes complied.
“Uhm, god, I don’t even know how to explain.” Maria started.
Oh god, she was going to tell Rhodes, Raava thought to herself.
“Why did Fury shoot you? What is he hiding? Why did he want to bomb Russia, I don’t understand.” Rhodes jumped in.
“He didn’t.”
Rhodes looked at Maria confused.
“We have it on video.”
“I know it looks like that, but it wasn’t him.”
“Oh, no. Val was right.” Rhodes muttered. Maria was going to defend Fury.
“No!” Maria corrected quickly.
“It was someone else pretending to be him.”
“How? A photostatic viel?” Rhodes asked.
“No. There is an alien species known as the skrulls, a reptilian based life form, living on earth, for quite some time, that can shape shift into any person, and they are refugees and have been searching for a home all over the galaxy. 30 years ago some of them have came here with Nick Fury and Captain Marvel, and now some of them want to start a war that would kill all humanity so they could take over earth and make it a homeland for themselves after Fury and Captain Marvel couldn’t find them anywhere to live safely.”
Rhodes made a face at Maria.
“Okay, so we definitely have to get you to a hospital.” Rhodey muttered.
“It’s real! Weirder things have happened, you’re friends with a raccoon, remember?” Maria pointed out, but Rhodes didn’t look too shocked and Maria looked at him suspiciously and he was quiet, she tilted her head at him.
“Do you…” Maria started.
“I can’t talk to you about this.” Rhodes said seriously cutting her off.
“You know!” Maria said shocked with a gasp.
“Yeah, I know some things, I’ve seen some things. How do you know is the question.” Rhodey asked. Raava knew it did no good to pretend to be shocked by Maria’s reveal.
“I mean, I’ve known about skrulls for a long time.” Maria shrugged like it was no big deal and then Maria and Rhodey sat down at a table in the suite. Rhodes looked at Maria like she needed to spill a lot more information than that and Maria sighed.
“I was working, I got a call from Ross, for help. I went to help him and we found out that Prescod was killed, I called it in but then I heard someone and Ross and I left. We split up and then the person who was following us I realized I recognized him. So, I talked to him, but I couldn’t find Ross.” Maria gave an edited story of what was happened.
“Who was it?”
“His name is Talos, he’s friends with Nick. He’s a skrull, but he looks like a person because he lives on earth, and he told me that there was a group of rebel skrulls trying to take over earth and he was trying to find them.”
“Did he kill Prescod?” Rhodes asked leaning in to the story.
“He said a rebel skrull he was chasing did it, because Prescod learned about the skrulls and was tracking them. So they killed him so he wouldn’t tell anyone. Talos asked me to call Nick, so I sent Nick a code that there was an emergency, I didn’t think he would respond because he had been ignoring me for a long time, but he did.”
“So you did call Fury?”
Maria nodded.
“I didn’t know who else I could call, skrulls are a huge secret, I didn’t even know anyone other than us and Captain Marvel knew about them.” Maria admitted.
“Did he call Captain Marvel?” Rhodes asked intrigued really Raava was the one concerned.
“No, he wouldn’t. We asked him to and he refused.”
“Why?” Rhodes looked appalled.
“He said ‘he had to do this alone’ and it would just make it worse.” Maria again edited the story some.
“Talos gave us some information about stolen material for a bomb that was being sold on the black market and some suspected skrulls were trying to get it. We found out where it was and we tried to get the materials before they reached the skrulls. I followed this woman with the materials down a tunnel in Moscow but she got away. Later, Talos got more intel from his own networks of skrulls that the rebels were going to bomb Vossoyedineiye Square the following day. I tried to get Nick Fury to contact someone and get help, or get the event shut down, and he wouldn’t let me. He kept saying it was better to go after them with the information we had. So he wanted us to go to the bombing, in a crowd, and try to get the bombs before they were placed and leave. Everything he was saying so wrong. It made no sense, I just thought he was off his game, like really badly.”
“Is that why you sent in the warning?” Rhodes asked and Maria nodded.
“I just knew something wasn’t right, so I messaged Sonya because I knew she knew people in Russia and in other networks and I knew that the CIA would see the text and the location of it. But when the square didn’t empty and it was getting closer and closer, I went to find the bags anyway because I mean, if I didn’t lots of people would get killed. I found one of the bags and I fought someone for it but when I opened it was a decoy. Nick Fury told me to follow the man with the decoy bag further into the crowd and I did for a bit but then I went back toward the outskirts instead. I couldn’t get anyone to respond after that and then the next thing I knew the bombs went off not that far from where I had been. I couldn’t find anyone and then I started to leave the crowd but I saw Nick Fury standing there. He wasn’t leaving with everyone else. I didn’t know if he was hurt or something or shocked but I went over to help him and then…”
“He shot you.”
“Yep, and then I realized, he was was one of them. That they replaced him. He wanted that bomb to go off no matter what. I don’t know how I missed all those signs, when I say it back it seems so obvious. Then I got arrested and I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be able to warn anyone, because I got moved to some Russian black site where skrulls also showed up and tried to kill me and an MI6 agent who was helping escape and then when I tried to get over a remote border with Russia and Finland, more skrulls showed up and also tried to kill me, so..”
Rhodes paused.
“How do you know they were skrulls?”
“They turned green when they died.”
“Do you think Val is one?” Rhodes prompted.
“I don’t know, but I know someone at the CIA is for sure.”
“Do you know who they’re going after next?” Rhodes asked, really Raava wanted to know if Maria had been with the real Fury who got the Prime Minister diversion.
Maria shook her head no.
“I think it’s President Ritson though. They’re trying to amp things up between the U.S. and Russia.” Maria shrugged and Rhodes thought about what Maria said and tilted his head. She was so close to having it right Raava couldn’t believe it.
Rhodes pressed his lips together and he looked like he was thinking or he had something to say.
“You are not going to let me talk to the President, are you?” Maria sighed.
“No.” Rhodes paused. “Well, not yet.”
“Why? He’s in danger, and by the way so are you!” Maria added making it clear that Rhodes faced some peril too, they just found a bug in his hotel room. Rhodey sighed he took a pause.
“First, because you are not supposed to know any of this.”
“Well, I just lived it!” Maria pointed out with a little annoyed gasp.
“Second, because, you’re going to try to protect Fury.”
“What!” Maria exclaimed genuinely surprised by that response.
“Nick Fury is missing! There’s a fake Nick Fury out there trying to kill people who can expose this whole thing.”
“I know some of things you are saying are true, some of it is partially true, but some of it is not right. I know what skrulls are, we are working on ways to identify them without killing them, and because of this, I was able to confirm that it was actually Fury who shot you and not a skrull in disguise.”
Maria was stunned, this was not the response she was expecting from fake Rhodes.
“That’s a lie.” Maria said sternly her voice was deep but quiet, it was clear she was highly offended at even the suggestion that Nick would hurt her or try to kill her. Raava could tell that was real emotion too.
“Nick Fury would never do that to me, ever.”
“I think you have gone to some truly great lengths to convince yourself of that, and I don’t blame you, because it’s really shocking.” Rhodes said trying to be empathetic but really came off as smug.
“Rhodes.” Maria said annoyed at his condescending remark.
“Look, I can’t …” Rhodes sounded like he was struggling to say what he wanted to say. He felt just like Maria did when she didn’t want to talk with Val in the room.
“It’s a skrull in disguise, it’s not him. I don’t know where the real Nick Fury is, I don’t even know if he’s alive.” Maria sighed.
“I have proof that it was really him, but it’s classified.” Rhodey sighed loudly.
“Are you serious?” Maria asked annoyed and upset.
“I can’t…” Rhodey said again like he was conflicted, unable to reveal the truth to Maria. Rhodey bit his bottom lip. Raava wanted to make it seem like Rhodey was doing her a favor, she spilled a lot to him to get him to help her and now Raava knew she was about to crush Maria with this trick she developed. Rhodes then pulled out a clear tablet, and put up a video on it, Maria could tell it was the video of her being shot from the bombing.
“I don’t want to watch that.” Maria said firmly. She lived it, she didn’t have to see it again.
“Just wait… look at the video on the right.” A second video appeared next to the video of Fury shooting Maria. It was thermal imaging video that measured body heat, both Maria and Fury gave off red, orange and yellow thermal heat measures. Maria looked at Rhodes.
“You said it yourself, skrulls are reptilian based life forms, they give off a significantly different heat for thermal imaging than humans. Their bodies are much colder even if they shape shift into a human form, we’re trying to track skrulls too, this is one of the only ways we can do it, without you know, having to hurt them.”
“You have to run thermal imaging in real time to get those readings…” Maria started to say.
“We are.” Rhodey cut her off quickly and Maria was again surprised.
“In Russia?” Maria asked skeptically.
“Everywhere.”
Rhodes then pulled up other videos from the bombing and played them side by side, Maria could see Talos in the crowd and his thermal imaging color was purple with only a small amount of orange and yellow around him. The same around Martin Wallace, and other randomly placed skrulls in the videos.
Raava could see Maria looked genuinely surprised at what she was watching. She had rightfully convinced herself that a fake Fury shot her, now Raava was going to pull the rug from under her, and show her it was really him.
“We pulled the imaging and the video after the bombing, we got it because you warned us in advance.”
Maria was quiet, she looked shocked.
Skrulls are good at mind games she could hear Talos saying that to her from a few days ago in the back of her mind. They were really, really good. If Maria didn’t know Rhodes was a skrull, she’d almost believe this as real.
“I’m really sorry.” Rhodes added empathetically.
“Fury’s helping them, and he didn’t want you to expose him or them.” Rhodes said sternly. “He knew you’d figure it out. That has to be what it is.” Rhodes explained.
“No, why? It doesn’t… that doesn’t make sense…” Maria shook her head no. “Nick Fury went to great lengths to save this world, why would he try to destroy it now?” Maria questioned.
Raava could tell Maria was starting to buy with it but struggling to grasp it, but Raava knew exactly what to reveal next.
“He’s married to a skrull.”
Maria stared at Rhodey like she wasn’t going to say anything about that.
“Did you know that?” Rhodey asked and Maria shook her head no. Maria paused she did, actually but she was going to let this skrull have her big reveal. Maria was quiet again as she tried to process this information.
“I knew he was married to a doctor. I’ve seen pictures of her growing up, she’s not a skrull.”
“She assumed the identity and life of a real person who died.” Rhodey explained. Maria looked stunned.
“Does he know she’s a skrull? How do you know this? How do you even know he’s married?” Maria asked. Fury’s personal life was off limits to almost everyone. Maria was one of the select few. Raava then realize her mistake but she knew she could cover it.
“Hill, c’mon, you think we don’t have everything on everyone? We keep files on you and Fury that you have never seen before. Just because you think we don’t know doesn’t actually mean we don’t know.”
“Yeah, sure.” Maria practically whispered.
“I know you have part of the story right, but, the other part, that Fury’s working with them, I just think your close personal relationship is a conflict for what’s going to have to happen. And I don’t want to force you to be involved.” Rhodes was trying to be nice, sparing Maria of having to turn on her friend even though he just pretended to reveale to her that the real Fury tried to kill her. Rhodes just knew Maria wasn’t vengeful.
“What do you mean, what’s going to have to happen?” Maria shook it off. This was a very elaborate frame job for Fury that was just waiting for him, making it impossible for Fury to clear himself from what happened in Moscow. He wouldn’t have the ‘it wasn’t me it was a skrull defense’ with this doctored up method they were pulling out, and Maria was concerned about that.
Rhodes gave Maria an obvious look, like they were going to kill Fury.
“It’s not a conflict. I can help.” Maria offered.
“I mean, I’m looking at you while I’m showing you absolute proof to your face that Fury tricked you, that he lied to you, he tried to kill you, the real Nick Fury did that, and I still don’t you are convinced.”
“You knew this the whole time?” Maria asked looking at Rhodes questionably and the Raava wondered if Maria knew she was being played, but Raava knew Maria was really smart and having convinced herself that Fury was a skrull and learning he wasn’t was pretty hard for her to believe.
“I didn’t know you thought he was a skrull until you explained it. I didn’t know everything about the nuclear war scheme or that they were planting bombs and doing all these acts of terror but once I saw Fury there I started to put some things together, especially when I saw him try to kill you. It just didn’t make any sense.”
“It doesn’t make sense.” Maria repeated confidently.
“The world is really different now. People changed in ways we never would expect. I am really sorry.” Rhodes apologized again. It was a hard to destroy a father-daughter relationship in real-time especially after Maria was so sure she was onto the right track.
Maria had to think, if she jumped along with this skrull’s set up, it would be really bad for Nick, but she needed this fake Rhodey to trust her. As she quickly thought about what to do, she decided the best thing to do was, what she would really do in this situation even if it was messing up her plan.
“I can’t believe that part right now, but it doesn’t change the rest of it.” Maria admitted somberly.
“You can’t tell anybody I showed you this. The President doesn’t even know what skrulls are, yet.”
“He needs to! If you won’t let me tell him, you have to tell him. They’re going to come for Ritson.”
“We’re figuring it out.” Rhodes mumbled.
“How can you keep secrets from the President?” Maria questioned and Rhodes made a face at her. Maria and Fury were the King and Queen of keeping secrets from government officials and it made Rhodey laugh a little.
“C’mon, it’s just one of those things. You know those guys are a dime a dozen just making a political brand for themselves before they become millionaires on book tours and speaking engagements. They aren’t for real about security and safety, they aren’t like us.”
“They’re going to come after him, they’re going to pretend it’s Russia and they are going to try to add fuel to the fire and it will spiral out of control. You have to warn him or let me do it. I don’t care about what happens with Nick Fury, I’m not an Avenger I don’t let personal conflicts get in the way of preventing the end of the world.” Maria tried to joke a bit and Rhodes smirked, the Avengers sure did have a history of that.
“I will get something together to brief the President with what you told me and what we’ve been able to confirm.” Rhodes said surprising Maria, but she knew it was a lie.
“I should go with you.” Maria added.
“I think you should go to the hospital, or at least see a medical staffer we have traveling with us.” Rhodes added, her hands and arms were covered in bruises and scratched, her head and face, too. She looked exhausted.
“You have to keep him from leaving, is he supposed to go talks with Russia soon? He can’t go to the talks.”
“You think they’re going to strike at the talks? Here? In the U.K.?” Rhodes asked alarmed and Maria nodded.
“I don’t know, but I don’t think he should leave a secure place.” Maria warned.
“I’ll convey the warning and we’ll get something figured out.” Rhodes looked down at is watch and his phone kept buzzing, he had to go.
Yeah, I’m sure you will. Maria thought to herself using extraordinary strength to avoid rolling her eyes as this fake Rhodes who framed Fury in front of her face (again!) and then lied to her about going to warn the President. But Maria was going to play this as herself, not with tricks—well except minus the major trick she was playing. She was going to do exactly what she would do in this situation if it was really happening. That was the only way. If she suddenly betrayed Fury and went along with Rhodes that would raise flags and alarm, it would seem really inauthentic and it didn’t change anything for her anyway, the fake Rhodes was never going to let her near the President, unless he absolutely had to. So, Maria was going to keep poking holes in the trust between this fake Rhodes and everyone else around him.
“I have to go, can you just hang out here for a bit so someone from medical can come see you?” Rhodes asked, pretending he was giving Maria a choice but Maria knew he wasn’t.
“Yeah sure, I guess. I’m really fine. I can help.” Maria offered again.
“I know. I know.”
Rhodes went over to the door to the hotel room and went to leave but he stopped before he opened the door and he looked over at Maria.
“How do you know that I’m not a skrull in disguise?” Rhodey turned and asked. Raava was genuinely curious. What was the distinction that she made for him? Maria had been friends with Fury for a lot longer than she had been friends with Rhodes and Rhodes’ own personal emotions did feel a bit special that she came to him.
Maria thought about the question posed to her. She didn’t have an answer, what did she say?
“I don’t.” She admitted honestly and this admission disappointed Rhodes a bit but Raava appreciated the honesty she figured there was nothing else Maria could say, if she was fake about it, it might have made Rhodes feel great but Raava would know it was fake. But she didn’t bullshit, she just took a leap of faith and admitted it could be a disaster. The person that Maria said she knew for sure was a skrull Raava just showed her wasn’t one at all.
Clearly Maria was confused and looking for someone to trust. It was unfortunate Maria was putting her trust in the wrong place again, but that wasn’t Raava’s problem, she’s the one who messed up. She could have taken it to Val, and she didn’t. Maria was a great source of information that Raava could get back to Gravik, so she wasn’t in a rush to off Maria or anything— but maybe Gravik heard it all anyway, since who else would be spying on Raava?
Rhodey left the hotel room and shut the door behind him. Agent Killbourne, secretly a skrull was standing outside the door.
“Do not let her leave.” Rhodey ordered very quietly.
“Uh, Colonel, you really can’t imprison a woman in a hotel room nowadays. It's not the 1950s, or 60s, or 70s.. or 80s... or 90s... or early 2000s, or even the mid 2000s, or of the 2010s...” Killbourne whispered back and Rhodes glared at him. As Killbourne went on he realized that men were getting away with a lot of awful shit for a long time. But this wasn’t the old days where highly influential men were able to get away with this stuff anymore and Rhodey tilted his head looking at him and then Rhodey rolled his eyes. Actually, Raava was thankful this was being pointed out to Rhodes because if Maria brought it up to someone it would be real complicated for Rhodey. Raava wanted Maria to think she was waiting for someone not being forced to stay in a secluded place.
“It’s not like that, I mean don’t let her out of your sight, don’t let her talk to anyone.” Rhodey rephrased and Killbourne nodded, standing close to Rhodes as they spoke very very quietly in case Maria was listening. “We’re trying to protect her from Fury, remember.” He added almost sarcastically and Killbourne nodded.
As Rhodes walked down the hallway he was joined by two other secret service agents since he made Killbounre stay with Maria, he wanted a skrull with her. As he walked down the hall, Rhodes placed his hand in his pocket and he felt something very smooth and small, like rounded metal in his pocket, he froze.
“What’s wrong?” One of the agents asked. Rhodes pulled out the device, it looked similar but different from the bug that was found in his hotel room.
At first, Rhodes assumed it was Maria and he stood there thinking about if they had touched, or been close together, but they really hadn’t. There was no way that Maria could have slipped this into his pocket. Raava thought about where her hands were at all times, she could see them, she sat across from him, she walked near him but not that close and when she did her hands were out. Raava remembered because she saw all the tiny cuts on her hands.
Someone who had been in Rhodes’s room could have dropped these in his pockets in his clothes, and Val was standing close to him in the conference room. Any of Secret Service agents could had dropped them into his clothes. Killbourne was the only one Raava knew was a skrull. Was Gravik watching Raava? Was it the real Fury? Falsworth? Val? Russians? Rhodes’s sighed to himself. How much information did this bug pick up on what Maria just told him?