Boots on the Ground

As Maria and Talos stood in Rhodes’s old hotel room with the two passed out skrulls bound in the bathroom they both felt like they just did not have enough time to try and get to Fury and help him. It was Fury against 100 skrulls and who knew how many plants were in the motorcade.

“We shouldn’t have left them in the bathroom.” Talos groaned as he looked over toward the bathroom door.

Maria paused and looked at Talos.

“Uh, it’s not like they’re awake.” Maria retorted quickly and Talos glared at her for a moment, furrowed his brow and then laughed.

“You wouldn’t do it.” Talos almost dared.

“When I was nineteen I was one of two women in the entire Bagram, Afghanistan station so few things phase me. Two dudes passed out in the bathroom, eh. It’s better than them being awake.”

Talos couldn’t help but burst out laughing for a minute.

Maria pointed to the bathroom door “If you gotta go…” she said like a mother with little patience.

“I was kidding.” Talos laughed.

“Good, cause we have lots of time for jokes. We have to make a decision, do we stay or do we go.” Maria looked at Talos. They were useless in both ways.

“I feel so useless right now. If I go find Val and drop this on her it’s going to take too long to get her on board to do anything meaningful.”

“How are we going to get around all skrulls following the motorcade even if we go? Against one hundred, three is not that much better than one.” Talos asked.

“When I was at SHIELD I remember there were lots of talks of developing a satellite drone program that could be accessed from anywhere. A lot of people hated it and a lot of people loved it but you know, SHIELD fell before much got off the ground with that project… I just don’t know anyone who… works in space…” Maria paused and Talos stared at her as they both had the same realization because the fact was, she actually did and she knew that he was probably the only person who could access these programs.

“We are such idiots.” Maria growled to herself as she called Fury back and he once again was not answering. She called again.

“Pick up the phone.” She repeated in her frustration hoping it would work.

“Yeah!” Fury answered frantically.

“Are you doing this on purpose?” Maria huffed.

“I am in pursuit, Hill.”

“Get a bluetooth.” Maria scoffed. If she could multitask and take down Hydra agents and a corrupted helicarrier at the same time, Fury could answer a call while driving. Fury laughed loudly at Maria’s snark.

“Remember when everything you said to me used to be along the lines of ‘yes, sir, right away, sir.’” Fury laughed recalling those very very old days.

“Yeah, how is S.A.B.E.R.’s drone program?” Maria rolled her eyes to herself.

“It is exceptional.. wait… how do you know about that?”

“You think I’d believe that you are up in a massive space station focusing on world security and that’s not what’s up?” Maria snarked.

“There are drones.” Fury confirmed after Maria’s sarcasm.

“Yeah no kidding. And how hard is it going to be to get into the S.A.B.E.R. command center from the tablet that Rick lifted?” Maria asked. Getting into this system was going to be tricky and Fury was going to have to walk her through it on the phone it since he didn’t take her with him to S.A.B.E.R.

“Well. It would be very illegal…” Fury mumbled.

“When has that ever mattered?” Maria retorted quickly, now Fury cares about this stuff?

“It doesn’t, I just wanted to hear you admit it.”

Maria and Talos stared at each other, Maria’s jaw slightly agape from her annoyance but Talos couldn’t help but laugh a bit.

“What? That was good.” Talos admitted with a shrug.

“Does the safety of the world really depend on me and you two bozos or…” Maria muttered.

“Welcome to team bozo, friend.” Talos joked giving Maria a pat on the back.

The tension was so thick in the air that Talos and Fury couldn’t help themselves as they tried to cut it with their little jokes. Maria did not look impressed.

“There’s a way you can get into it but what if this is what Gravik wants me to do? If Rhodes is saying I am out here trying to murder you and Ritson, they either cut my access or they are waiting for me to access it to blame me for the whole attack.” Fury pointed out. This was the problem with fighting Gravik they never knew how ahead of the game he was. Was he just taking lucky shots or was he planned out and methodical.

“Yeah, maybe, I don’t know but if that’s the case if you stop the attack it would just prove them wrong. You think those skrulls would go to their grave lying for Gravik?” Maria asked because she really didn’t know if Gravik was ahead of them or behind them and that would be an exceptionally devious trick for Gravik to play and Fury could not escape prosecution for treason then, he’d actually be guilty and Maria would be helping him.

“I don’t know… you two are the most generous interrogators out there.” Fury snickered.

“Excuse you, we were very cruel, actually.” Maria corrected Fury almost proudly and then made a face at herself. What was she doing!

“What is happening today?” Fury couldn’t help but laugh a little. First Maria says it doesn’t matter what’s legal and now she’s brashly pointing out her cruelty.

“We were.” Talos assured.

“So..”

“They are going to see me coming from a mile away, Hill. If I still had access at all.”

Maria was quiet for a minute.

“Yeah, well good thing they can strike targets from many many miles away.” It is worth a shot at least, Maria figured. There was no way Fury could take out 100 skrull operatives alone.

“Hmm, should I potentially commit what is going to be framed as treason by giving someone unauthorized access to a secret drone satellite program that could take out the President’s motorcade?” Fury asked and then G’iah nodded to him that he should.

“I mean the treason part kind of cancels out if you are doing it to save the President.” Maria asked with a little grimace and Talos couldn’t help but nervously chuckle.

“And really, I don’t really think it’s treason, but more like granting unauthorized access to a top secret special access security program.” Maria clarified, it wasn’t treason they were on the President’s side, what’s a little unauthorized access to two people who helped save the world a few times.

“Sounds a little better.” Talos suggested.

If there was any person that Fury would trust with this it was Maria but because he didn’t know what Gravik was truly planning they were just going on the interrogation of two scared skrulls who could have been lying to them the whole time. He was relieved that what he got from G’iah seemed to be the other half of the information missing from the skrulls. But, it could all be a ploy. It was a really big risk. Fury had no idea if he even had access and if he tried to access anything remotely it would probably send up a huge flag somewhere up the chain. But, Maria had a point, what could Fury really do without any assistance? There was no assurance, just blind trust going around here.

“It’s worth a try at least.” Fury finally agreed. “Give me a second, I have to give someone else the wheel.” Fury said before he looked over at G’iah.

“How fast can you drive?” He asked her and she raised her brow at him.

“A lot faster than you.” She snickered as Fury pulled over quickly so they could switch.

“Nick! Who is that?” Maria said astounded, was someone in the car with him?

“It’s… G’iah!” Talos said with heavy a gasp. He thought G’iah was dead, that’s what Frain said.

Maria fell silent. Did they just give their entire plan to the person who ‘incidentally’ or ‘purposefully’ set them up in Moscow? — maybe Gravik was far ahead of them. But Nick heard the fake message from G’iah he had to know something was up. Was this even really Nick!! The way Maria felt the shock of this reveal fall from her throat to her chest she just couldn’t even move. Did she reveal what the skrulls told them to Fury and G’iah apparently?

Talos and Maria stared at each other. What in god’s name was happening! Was this a fake Nick Fury playing the exact same mind game and trap that Maria was playing on the fake Rhodes? Gravik’s plan to do a ground attack on the motorcade while pretending to be Russians was really fucking stupid for someone who turned into an alien when his people died. But, getting Fury to access his large scale weaponry to fire on the motorcade was really smart. So who was getting played here? All of them? Did those skrulls know what was going to happen? Were the hostage skrulls supposed give that information up to Maria and Talos?

“G’iah was killed.” Maria said quietly into the phone and Fury raised his brows.

“Well, she looks alive to me.” He looked over at G’iah.

“The skrulls we talked to… they said Gravik killed her.” Maria repeated wondering why Fury was not picking up on the urgency of the situation he just revealed in pursuit of an attack on the President’s life.

“Did Gravik kill you?” Fury said acting like a human lie detector as he just handed the wheel over to her and now he had to wonder if they would even get to the motorcade but as he watched the tracking it seemed like G’iah was following it.

“He tried. I lived.” G’iah answered calmly.

“How!” Maria asked through the phone her voice asked with clear disbelief.

“He shot me.” G’iah sighed she knew why Maria didn’t trust her for one second so she couldn’t blame her.

“Do you care to expand on that?” Maria asked G’iah directly and with a cold tone in her voice.

“You two have a lot in common.” Fury muttered.

“He put a gun up to my chest, said he would tell my father I loved him and then shot me.” G’iah sad with a flat affect. It was dramatic for her and she didn’t want to think about it.

Even Fury made face at G’iah because how exactly was she alive right now if that was true.

“Uhm.” Fury paused as his hand reached the handle of his gun on his side but G’iah could not see that.

“I lived because I injected myself with extremis that I found in New Skrullos. It was in a lab he was working in with the Daltons. I think Gravik has it too. He doesn’t know I lived, that’s why the other skrulls with him think I’m dead. He found my phone and he knew I was contacting you and shot me. He stole the phone and gave you a fake message to go to Lawton’s speech, who is also a skrull.” G’iah explained.

Sonya did say Gravik had access to extremis. But everyone was quiet as it was hard to tell what was a strategy to help Gravik and what was the truth. G’iah picked up her hand off the wheel and Fury’s grip around his gun tightened although G’iah could not see it. She bit her hand, hard her teeth breaking her skin and even causing some puncturing. Fury turned his phone to video as he saw G’iah bite herself. Talos and Maria could see the video of her driving and biting herself.

“Ah!” She cried from her own bite and then held her hand up to Fury and he watched the skin on her hand where she bit it turn orange, and refuse itself together.

“Well, damn.” Fury said taking his hand off his gun as he looked amazed at the extremis work. Everyone was quiet for a moment.

“He went after the kids, T.” Fury huffed shaking his head at Gravik’s audacity. Fury turned the video off.

“Ugh, what? God. No, ew.” G’iah said to herself as she made a horrified face at that comment Fury made to her father scrunching her lips and eyes together as she drove.

“And yet, the kids are all right.” Talos said with genuine relief after he paused, having a fatherly moment with Fury as the two men were now teamed up with the women they were meant to protect and encourage. The two people that Gravik went right after, Maria and G’iah he did it on purpose because of their family dynamics, he used them as tools to hurt Fury and Talos and now those two were coming right at him.

Maria gave Talos the harshest glare as Fury and Talos had their little moment over the phone.

“Can you let us two old ‘bozo’ paternal figures have a moment?” Talos asked Maria with an over exaggerated flair.

“No! We’re trying to stop a life ending war!” Maria was quick to remind. Why this made Talos and Fury laugh to themsleves neither G’iah or Maria could answer.

“Skrulls with extremis… okay, we are definitely going to need some drones. C’mon Hill let’s get up on this.”

Maria did not know what to do. Was that enough proof? Couldn’t any skrull pretend to be G’iah and show off extremis powers? This is what was so frustrating about fighting Gravik for everyone, it was so hard to get a read on what exactly he was doing. Was he opportunistic, was he stupid? Was that all a ploy to give them over confidence and walk right into a trap? Even if what this ‘G’iah’ said was true couldn’t a skrull operative just pretend to be her and G’iah is really dead?

Fury connected his phone to the tablet Maria had back at the hotel so she could use it to get into the S.A.B.E.R. command center through his access portal. Once she could get onto it he could disconnect.

“A little alarming how easy this is.” Maria muttered as she started accessing S.A.B.E.R.’s command center.

“It’s only easy because you’re you and are coming in through my access.” Fury reminded. Maria made a face at the tablet and Talos snickered a bit.

G’iah and Fury could tell they were gaining ground on the motorcade, they were going to run into Gravik’s team any moment.

“Nick, it’s blocking your access.” Maria sighed as her brief entrance into the command center went black.

“Well, that’s a good sign that it’s not what Gravik wants me to do.” Fury shrugged as G’iah hit the gas moving faster. Fury connected to Maria’s tablet again.

“Time to overwrite the block.” Fury said casually as if it was easy.

“We don’t have time for that Nick!”

“Do you have a better idea?” Fury asked because if she did he wanted to know. And Maria was hit with deja vu as she felt this moment was so similar to the many catastrophes she had just barely averted with Fury in distant past. Maria wasn’t a hacker, but she did know how to do somethings.

“No.” Maria admitted quietly.

“We’re gaining on them.” G’iah’s voice was heard over the phone.

“Hill, we need those drones online right now. You are right, it’s a good idea, it will work.” Fury said as he could hear the sound of something strange yet familiar building in the air. G’iah could see Rhodes was only about a mile away. They would be there in no time.

“Nick, I am try—-” Maria said a little desperately as she was frantically working through the portal. Her voice sounded very anxious as she knew time was ticking away quickly.

Suddenly, the anxious and stressed Maria turned into a laser focused wall of a human as her attention became unwavering while she navigated through layers of encrypted security protocols and firewalls. Each line of code was like a battle, but then Maria realized something, so much of this code echoed things she had seen before at SHIELD. It started to come through as more familiar once she got through the first layers of S.A.B.E.R’s formidable defenses.

“Hill?” Fury asked wondering why she stopped speaking mid sentence.

“Hold on.”

As Maria attempted to bypass Fury’s revoked access codes, she then encountered a series of countermeasures designed to thwart intruders and the confidence she just got suddenly started to diminish as the progress started to rapidly slow down. It was almost like a dirty trick with that familiar moment coming to a crash. But then Maria had a criminally horrible idea but it would sure speed her up quickly.

“Is this security system backed up?” Maria asked in an ominous voice and Talos raised his brows with great concern.

“Yeah…” Fury said just as ominously.

“If this system goes down how long does it take to come back up so I can get in through the trap door?”

“Uhh. Hill.” Fury said with shock, Maria was the last person he would ever think would suggest deleting an entire security system so she could get unauthorized access to secret space drones—-… or was she?

“Do you have a better idea?” Maria asked because if Fury did she wanted to hear it. Her voice sounded far less confident than it did just moments ago.

“I feel like I’m watching a Tom Cruise movie.” Talos muttered to himself.

“At most it will be off for 45 seconds, in the least you have a few moments.” Fury explained, but he made sure that trap door aspect was in the program for him and Maria knew him so well she was sure it was there just for something like this. He just couldn’t believe they were really using it.

Maria and Fury were both quiet for a moment as they waited for one of them to give the okay to temporarily delete the secure access requirements for something extremely deadly amidst a pending terrorist attack.

“Do it.” Fury sighed.

This was the best way for Maria to get into the system, she could come in just as it was rebooting undetected. She just had to hope no one else was trying to do the same thing. Once she was in, some one would be onto her very soon, she knew that.

“We’re approaching.” Fury said wearily as he realized he was hearing helicopters in the distance.

“It’s not going to be pretty, but I’m on it.” She said confidently, just like the good ol’ days. It was comforting for Fury to hear that tone.

Maria gritted her teeth as her determination fueled her efforts to circumvent the highly sophisticated security system. She leveraged exploitation scripts, executed buffer overflow attacks until she ultimately deceived the system enough that it was too confused to counter her. A blaring alarm sounded from her tablet as this digital warfare was coming to a close. Then Maria entered an execute command to turn off the stressed S.A.B.E.R. security defenses through the back channel she was in. As they went down she restored Fury’s ultimate access to the system and the systems started to reboot itself online almost instantly, she didn’t even have 30 seconds to get back in. Every second started to feel like an eternity between the four of them.

Maria finally breached the defenses of S.A.B.E.R. restoring Fury’s access but she knew people would be searching to figure out what just happened. She wasted no time accessing the drones program.

“I need coordinates.” Maria ordered into the phone and Fury looked at the tracking device on their system that was following Rhodes as he read off where Rhodes was located.

With swift precision that Maria was once known for she directed the satellite-guided strikes toward the approaching skrull forces, her fingers flying over the touchscreen rapidly, like she was a drone herself.

“Oh fuck.” Maria said as she looked over the screen at the approaching motorcade. Fury and G’iah parked in some woods nearby as the motorcade was oncoming and Fury shuttered for a moment as ‘oh fuck’ was not something he wanted to hear Maria say at this moment, especially this moment.

MEANWHILE…

It was a foggy, gray, misty day in England. The air was cold with a brisk November bite. The motorcade traveled through the quaint English countryside to the vacation residence of Prime Minister Lawton. The roads were closed in advance of the motorcade so it could come through easily.

“God, this is such a performative waste of my fucking time.” Ritson muttered to Rhodes.

“Yes, Mr. President.” Rhodes mindlessly agreed.

“Apparently, the Russians had a big shake up in their intelligence community after Hill escaped.” Rhodes said reading some information from his phone.

“Why?”

“They think people in their intelligence community are plants.”

“Well. That’s the game most of the world has been playing with the Russians for over 50 years.” Ritson rolled his eyes.

“They are going to use it in the talks.” Rhodes warned.

“We didn’t have anything to do with it.” Ritson muttered quickly.

———

“Hill what do you mean, ‘oh fuck?’”! Fury called back into the phone.

“We have a fast moving projectile missile heading right for the motorcade.”

“Can you take it out?!” Fury asked urgently.

“I am trying to lock onto it.” Maria huffed into the phone. What did he think she was doing?

——

Ritson went to say something to Rhodes but just as he opened his mouth to speak a large blast was heard above the motorcade. The blast sent multiple cars screeching to a halt and some turning on their sides as debris fell from the air above them.

Ritson and Rhodes both yelled as they covered themselves as the car spun out of control and off the road.

—-
“Got it.” Maria said with relief in her voice.

Fury and G’iah could see the blast in the sky from where they parked. One second later and Ritson would probably be dead. That was an exceptionally close call. As the motorcade was stopped Fury and G’iah got out of the car and started to head in that direction, but then Fury could hear the heavy sound of a Russian military chopper coming up from the trees.

“Hill, you got an incoming chopper!” Fury yelled into the phone and before Fury even finished the ‘per’ it exploded in the sky from a drone strike.

“Another?” Maria asked looking over the screen she just took one out.

“No, you got it…” Fury said as he was about to run over toward the battle.

“I have to get off and go help.” Fury warned he couldn’t talk to Maria on the phone an fight these remaining skrulls.

“I need to talk to someone on the ground.” Maria said sternly

“It’s going to be G’iah.” Fury said as he tossed the phone to G’iah and G’iah stared at him.

“No, Nick, no, I don’t know about this.” Maria cautioned. G’iah was not her lifelong partner and colleague that she trusted blindly. Maria did not trust G’iah at all. She couldn’t believe Fury did either considering what they went through.

“That is too risky!” Maria yelled all G’iah did was mess them up on purpose or not, she couldn’t be trusted with this.

“Take the risk.” G’iah said kindly echoing what Maria told her days ago in the tunnel when G’iah refused to turn over the bombs when she had the chance. G’iah was wrong then and she knew that now, but now she had to help Maria make the right decision here even if she didn’t trust G’iah.

“G’iah, you can’t go into that battle looking like yourself, if Gravik thinks you are dead and he realized you aren’t and are working with Fury, he will know we are ahead and that’s the only thing we have on him.” Talos started.

“I’ll put on a good face.” G’iah said as she shifted into Talos’s human form.

“I thought you said a good face.” Fury squinted at her.

“G’iah tell Hill where the skrulls are for as long as she has access.” Fury ordered and G’iah popped one AirPod into Talos’s ear so she could talk to Hill and she took her gun out and made sure it was ready.

“We’re counting on you, we can’t do this without someone directing the drones.” Fury said looking at G’iah and G’iah nodded. She had a lot to make up for and she knew that.

The fake Talos and Fury made their way into the chaos their guns drawn as vans of skrulls as Russians started to pull in and trap the President and his motorcade.

—-

The car Rhodes and Ritson were in turned sharply to the side to avoid being slammed into and then started to roll over. Both of them clung onto what they could to protect themselves in the fast roll over. Ritson’s head hit the side of the car and knocked him out and Rhodes saw him fall limp, his body start to be tossed around as the car rolled. Finally the car stopped as Rhodes clung tightly to the door handle.

The President’s security team jumped out of of their vehicles into the road, guns drawn but they started to be taken out from bullets that came from behind them. Two large black vans pulled up onto the road blocking any cars from moving forward as hoards of skrull operatives dressed as Russian rebels just started to exit out of black vans in front of the motorcade with the same thing happening from behind the motorcade. the security team started to realize they were trapped and unsure where to fire.

—

“The va—!” Talos’s voice called into Maria warning her about the vans but before she could finish the word, two of the black vans that had parked in front of the motorcade blocking any vehicles from exiting imploded from airstrikes.

“Uh-huh.” Maria answered harshly.

“It’s so weird to hear me say that to you while I sit here…” Talos said knowing he was entirely useless in this moment. Maria ignored him.

Maria could see multiple black vans in the back of the motorcade and skrulls started to feed out from them. As she took out the ones in the front hordes of skrulls escaped the vans coming in from the back of the motorcade mixing in with the President’s security shooting at them. Two more vans of rebels pulled up and Maria fired a drone strike taking out a row of them but the ones who were mingling in who the security she couldn’t do anything about without risking hitting her own people. Just as Maria tried to figure out what else she could do the S.A.B.E.R. system retaliated against Maria’s short-lived access. The system severed Maria’s connection and locked her out it turned her screen completely black and there was nothing else she could do. She couldn’t see anything on the ground.

“Fuuuuck. You guys are on your own, the system kicked me out.” Maria sighed annoyed but she got the majority of the skrulls coming in. The security surrounding the President and Fury were going to have to take the rest of them that were left on the ground and she just had to hope Gravik didn’t have any back up troops on call.

Maria looked over at Talos her frustration evident.

“I feel like I was a very essential part of this operation.” Talos said smugly with a smirk and Maria just stared at him as she had never so much felt like a digital battlefield had just as much stakes as the fights on the ground.

“Yeah.. definitely….” Maria shook her head.

—-

As Fury joined the President’s team firing at the fake Russians one of the President’s security officers aimed a gun at him.

“That’s Fury!! He’s here to help!” Another security officer replied. These lower level military men did not know that Fury was currently being framed for attempted murder and he was helping them shoot at these rebels, they needed the help as officers around them stared to fall as bullets rained down and around all of them. The scene was a fiery hell. No one knew who was shooting at the rebels and taking them out and the stress and intensity radiated through everyone.

The car Ritson and Rhodes were in tumbled off the road in the chaos, once it stopped, Rhodes got himself out of the car. He didn’t understand what was going on, all of these airstrikes were not part of the plan there was only supposed to be one and he needed to assess the damage. As Rhodes crawled out of the car he noticed that everyone who was meant to protect the President was otherwise occupied in the firefight. Rhodes ducked behind the tipped car for cover.

Suddenly Ritson woke up in the car, trying to understand what happened. He tried to crawl out of the car as he saw Rhodes exit. Skrulls started to fire on the car where Ritson was trying to escape and Ritson crawled back in the car and started to fold over in the fetal position as bullets ricocheted into the car. Fury saw the skrulls firing at the President and he started to take out the skrulls firing at them with the help of some soldiers and suddenly Talos who was near Fury moved toward the President’s car and started to stand guard.

“We can finish them!” Fury said confidently as he then saw Gravik’s arms extend into powerful roots taking out a whole row of soldiers charged with protecting the President. Fury made a stunned face as he and G’iah kept firing at them.

As Ritson struggled to get out of the car, he realized he had been hit by a bullet. But he tried to crawl himself out of the car the same way Rhodes had but he could not muster the strength.

“Rhodes, help me!” Ritson cried desperately as his head and shoulders crawled through the upside down open door of the car. His voice shaking in pain and fear.

As Rhodes saw the depleted and bleeding Ritson, shaking and suffering on the ground, everyone’s focus was turned to the fiery battle around them. Rhodes was frozen. If he didn’t help the President and he lived, Ritson would remember, but if he helped him and the skrulls were shooting at him Raava could be shot too and exposed… she didn’t know what to do.

“Rhodes, please!” Ritson called out again, as a large blast from the skrull operatives made the ground shake beneath the two of them. Rhodes reached his hand out to help the President, starting to help him escape the car in order to get him to the back up emergency vehicle. Raava did not know what compelled her but Gravik almost took out the vehicle Raava was in, and he must've done that on purpose trying to get rid of both Ritson and Raava at once. Rhodes pulled Ritson up from the ground but then as the ground shook it caused Rhodes to be pushed away from the President, hitting his head on the edge of the turned car and being knocked out.

G’iah saw Rhodes help Ritson and then Ritson and Rhodes fell limp after the shock from the blast. As she fired back at the disguised skrulls as she tried to get over to Ritson. G’iah rushed over moving backward as she fired taking out some of the skrulls who were trying to close in on them.

“G’iah what’s happening?” Talos asked through the phone as Maria and Talos could hear the commotion on the other line and Maria was trying to get the tablet back up and running to no avail.

“I’m going to get the President into the armored car so he can leave the scene. He got shot, but there is a way out for them now that the vans in the front are cleared.” Talos’s voice called in an urgent tone.

“You can’t do that alone, you need way more cover to protect him and you!” Maria remarked into the phone.

“I can cover him, they can hit me.” G’iah said back sternly and Maria and Talos glared at each other. Maria still did not trust G’iah she could be hand delivering the President to some skrulls on the inside.

“You two really are more alike than you realize.” Talos shrugged and Maria squinted at him.

Were they? Maria wondered. G’iah was basically offering to be a human shield for Ritson… but was it for real?

G’iah could see the emergency back up vehicle in the distance and she knew she had to get Ritson to it to get him out of there. She ran around the car and used Talos’s body to help lift Ritson, holding his bleeding side. Ritson was barely awake as G’iah used all her strength moving Ritson as quickly as she could. Shots were fired into G’iah’s side as she walked moving Ritson to the vehicle and she started to fall over her arm and left sides started to turn green as she moved Ritson to the protected car. As bullets started to riddle G’iah’s body as she shielded Ritson and carried him over to the car she was met with two security agents who pulled Ritson into the vehicle with her help. Her green body slumped over as she had been hit by so many bullets shielding the president. She felt the pain of every one searing through her skin.

“What the hell!” One of the workers said as they loaded the injured president into the car who had lost consciousness and saw G’iah’s body turning green. A man in military gear came over to help her and Fury shot at the remaining skrulls with the rest of the security team until finally the firefight seemed over. Maria had taken out so many of them with the drones and Fury and the security took out the rest. The armored car then raced off with the President heading back to the secured Hospital in downtown London as an emergency worker who traveled with the President tried to stop the bleeding.

“He’s with me!” Fury called over and then ran toward the officer who was helping G’iah up from the ground as the vehicle with the President drove off a rush. Her green form started to fully reveal itself as her body worked to heal the wounds she had under her clothes but there were so many and it was taking much longer for her to come back.

As Fury went to help G’iah he was face to face with the soldier holding her up. G’iah kept her head down not revealing her face as she was slumped over still in the clothes of Talos, her body half green and half of Talos.

“I’ll take him! Fury said as he rushed over to the soldier helping G’iah.

“No, I got it.” The soldier said as he took out a knife and plunged it right into G’iah’s chest and then pulled it out of her cruelly revealing her deep purple blood.

“I’m glad to help you join the rest of your family, old man.” The soldier said as he shifted into Gravik. Her body fell forward to the ground, limp and lifeless as Fury shot Gravik in the face instantly.

Talos yelled into the phone from the hotel phone and Maria covered her mouth looking horrified as she heard what was said to G’iah and then heard the following shot.

Fury’s bullet took out Gravik’s cheek but his face had an orange glow, as his muscles, bone, and skin regenerated in front of Fury’s eyes. As far as Fury had understood it, extremis didn’t work for a person who was hit in the head it was too hard to regenerate those nerves but yet … here was half of Gravik’s face rebuilding itself and Fury looked astonished and overwhelmed.

As G’iah fell over her chest heaved with ragged breaths as blood seeped from all of her wounds. She could feel the warmth of the extremis working on some of them but the relentless assault of bullets made it hard for her body to catch up, if she couldn’t stay alive the regeneration would no longer work. She was fighting so hard before Gravik’s sharp blade went right into her chest. She could not take in any air. The extremis was working as she battled through the pain to stay alive, taking in nothing but sharp pain, it didn’t feel like any oxygen was getting to her. She thought she was going to die. It wasn’t going to work, it couldn’t. She thought she should just give into the pain and let it consume her but then she could feel the extremis starting to repair the fatal wound in her chest yet again as she felt it she felt the arms of someone picking her up and dragging her.

“No stop.” She said weakly, she didn’t want anyone to waste time protecting her, she was going to die, there were other people that needed help. Then she realized it was Fury rushing her back to his car as he was shield by security who tried to round up any remaining or living rebels.

Maria and Talos did not know what happened exactly because they lost connection but Talos was terrified that Gravik killed G’iah thinking she was him… why he let her go in his face… he picked strategy over his own child this time, and now it cost him too.