A Friend For the End of the World
The rush to get the President back to the secured hospital was a race against time. Fortunately, the President always travels with medical staff who were already assisting his wound in the travel, they were able to stabilize him and stop the bleeding but he had to be rushed into surgery immediately.
At the sight of the battle, Gravik, Pagon, and a few other skrulls escaped by pretending to be American military personnel blending in before they went off. The American survivors summoned medical attention and assessed the damage.
Gravik and Pagon looked at each other.
“Someone is talking.” Pagon said to Gravik and Gravik nodded.
“And, someone is helping Fury.” Gravik and Pagon just gave each other long glances as neither Fury or Ritson were killed in the attack and many of their soldiers died in the process.
Fury raced after the President’s armored vehicle as G’iah healed in the car. Finally the extremis healed her fully but she felt every single shot that tore through her skin and she would never forget the feeling of being stabbed like that.
“You okay?” Fury asked.
“Yeah I am just … I didn’t think I was going to make it.” G’iah admitted.
“Me either…” Fury grumbled to himself and that was a conversation he did not want to have with Talos.
“Does extremis make you immortal?” G’iah asked having known very little about it when she injected herself with it as she had suspected Gravik was going to try and kill her.
“No, well, I don’t know what this kind of extremis is. It’s more modern, more developed than what I have seen in the past. It’s actually quite deadly in itself as the trials basically caused people to burn from the inside out.” Fury admitted.
“Skrulls are cooler than humans inside, we can accept a higher dose of extremis and live through it. I read that when I was in Gravik’s laboratory. This extremis is modified though, it’s enhanced. I think we should talk to Dr. Dalton, she will know, she developed it. Gravik has it, and other powers too, we can’t beat him if we don’t know how to kill him.” G’iah’s voice was very glum and tired as she talked, she sounded weak and worn down.
“That’s a good idea.” Fury nodded and heard her weary voice.
“You saved the President, you know.” Fury said.
“We don’t know that yet. They could see part of me started to turn green, they could see I wasn’t a human.. they saw me, I exposed everyone.” G’iah sighed her eyes closing, she tried to help but she just made it worse in her mind.
That’s all she ever did and she really felt it. She wasn’t a skrull general like her father or a strategist like her mother. She couldn’t even do the right thing back when Maria gave her the chance and Talos gave it to her a second time. How did she come back from what she had done before? G’iah wasn’t smart or stealthy like Fury or her father, or this other woman, Maria, who rightfully called G’iah on her bullshit since they met in the tunnel and Maria apparently could take out anyone from anywhere in the sky. How did G’iah fit in with them? She never had a place anywhere and if the President died and she revealed skrulls to the world it was going to be a disaster even worse than she could imagine. She wanted to save the President and do something good for the mess she helped create but in the end she just caused more panic.
“Do you think Gravik realized it was me?” She asked opening her eyes again
“No.” He ran off after I shot him, people were firing toward him. He didn’t want to get caught.
G’iah’s body using all that extremis power made her so exhausted, it took a lot for her body to heal herself like that. She felt phantom pain. She took out the phone from her pocket and she saw Fury had numerous missed calls from ‘Hill.’
“You have a lot of calls from Hill.” G’iah said as she pulled the phone out and Fury sighed.
“She’s going to be mad at me, that’s for sure. Call her back.” Fury said as he raced his car through the streets.
“Seems like she always has reason to be.” G’iah muttered and called Maria back.
“Well, it’s frustrating to be right all the time, lord, don’t I know it.” Fury muttered to the sky.
“Do you?” G’iah asked and she and Fury exchanged a quick little glance and they both smirked.
“What is going on!” Maria asked in a concerned tone as Fury finally called her back.
“We’re alive and the President is on his way to the hospital.” G’iah answered.
“And where are you?” Maria asked G’iah ignoring that it wasn’t Fury.
“We’re trying to get to the hospital to keep the President safe.”
“Where’s Rhodes?” Maria continued.
“He..” Then G’iah paused, she knew Rhodes was a skrull in disguise “he was helping Ritson escape he car after he got shot and then he hit his head.” G’iah recalled, she was surprised by that scene as she recounted it.
Maria and Talos looked at each other curiously.
“He was helping Ritson?” Maria asked surprised.
“The emotions of his Rhodes might have been too strong not to help.” Talos explained.
Maria and Talos had turned on the tv in the hotel room to watch the news coverage as news had just broken about the attack. Maria stopped paying attention for a minute to talk to Fury.
“Fury, the S.A.B.E.R. counter defenses fried our tablet.” She started.
“As they should have.” Fury did not seem phased by that.
“Pretty strong stuff you got up there.” Maria sighed as their one window into help had been obliterated.
“Well, we want the best to protect this earth, don’t we?” Fury snickered.
“Hill.” Talos tapped on her arm to get her attention as he looked at the television screen.
“Yeah but..” Maria started to explain why she was concerned with what happened.
“Hill!” Talos said urgently cutting her off and pulled her attention to the news.
“This just in… an attack on President Ritson’s motorcade out in the English countryside, lead by none other than Nicholas J. Fury.” The broadcaster started. “The United States has just released video of Nicholas J. Fury, former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D is seen here attempting to kill the former Deputy Directer of S.H.I.E.L.D Maria Hill, before he allegedly participated in the attack on President Ritson’s life.” The broadcaster announced playing the video from Moscow that happened days ago.
“The U.S. says it has more footage of the attack on President Ritson’s motorcade and that Fury was present assisting extra terrestrial creatures on the scene. More on this to come, for now an Interpol Red Notice has been issued for Fury’s arrest.” The broadcaster continued talking about the attack on the motorcade and what was known, a green figure appearing to help the President escape, people firing at these aliens that were found at the scene, drone strikes coming from the sky. The chaos of the scene was hard for even the news to make sense of.
“Nick, you can’t go to the hospital! You have to stop following the President right now. You have to go into hiding.” Maria called into the phone. “You will be arrested!” Maria yelled she couldn’t believe Gravik had his goons frame Fury so fast. She couldn’t believe this was on the news already.
“They must’ve had it in place already in case he showed up to the fight.” Talos sighed and Maria nodded.
“Someone has to follow Ritson, so they don’t try to finish the job.” Fury warned.
Talos went into the bathroom and pulled some car keys out of Frain’s pocket, he tossed them to Maria and she caught them with one hand.
“We can get there.” Maria assured, she was supposed to be at the hospital anyway and they had to be taking Ritson back to the secured hospital for security reasons and it’s trauma preparedness.
“Where are you going?” Maria asked concerned.
“I’m going to find Gravik.” Fury responded confidently. “He’s done.” Fury sounded angry and stressed.
“Fury, we are going to talk before you do anything, okay?” Maria insisted.
“Yeah, yeah, for sure.” Fury assured and hung up and Maria looked over at Talos like she knew she was going to have to pull teeth to get him to communicate.
“Amazing luck that with all those drone strikes, Gravik survived.” Maria sighed, of course he did. She couldn’t believe it when she heard his voice over the phone.
“Gravik killed my wife, and has now tried to kill my daughter twice.” Talos said in an angry deep tone. He wanted to chase Gravik down just as much as anyone, in fact he had been doing it for quite sometime before Fury got involved.
“Yeah, he definitely has a thing for trying to murder women.” Maria made a face. Soren, Maria, G’iah… he clearly saw women as disposable and expendable. Amazing how sexism could transcend species this way, or maybe Gravik’s exposure to the human world influenced him. Maria and Talos exchanged a glance.
“If you want to go get him…” Maria could tell from the look in Talos’s eye. If anyone deserved to finish off Gravik, it really would be Talos.
“The President first.” Talos said back and he and Maria nodded at each other as they raced out of the hotel room. As Maria and Talos exited the room, Val was walking down the hall and she saw them start to leave the room.
“HILL!” Val’s voice yelled down the hallway as she saw Maria and someone else leaving. Maria groaned to herself as she debated on whether or not she should stop, but she did, considering what just happened.
“Where the hell do you think you are going!?” Val asked. She couldn’t leave now, there was just a huge attack on Ritson’s motorcade.
“I have to go.” Maria said vaguely and Val gave her a very skeptical look and a scowl.
“Yeah, I bet. What do you know about this attack? What is going on?! Fury was there, I know you’re involved.” Val asked in a huffy highly irritated voice as she caught up with Maria and then stopped dead in her tracks as she saw who Maria was with.
“Director Keller?” Val made a face at Talos and Maria and Talos looked at each other.
Talos’s human form was that of Fury’s old boss. A former SHIELD director who died many years ago. He was the head of the agency at some point when Val first started there as a young agent in her early 30s. Maria was maybe ten at the time and far from being on the radar at anyone at SHIELD. How these two would know each other stunned Val.
“How.. how have you not aged a day since 1995?” Val looked at him curiously.
“Oh, that’s kind, I.. went vegan…?” Talos made a face at Val and Maria had to try not to laugh because she wasn’t expecting that response.
“What the hell is going on here?” Val looked at the two of them skeptically.
“How do you even know Hill, she’s 20 years my junior, there is no way you two overlapped..”
“Wow, really 20 years? You look great.” Maria complimented trying to change the subject.
“Shut up.” Val growled at her making a clearly irritated face at Maria.
“If this is some of that Avenger time traveling shit I am going to be pissed!” Val huffed.
“It’s not.” Maria assured.
“Is that Fury under a veil?”
“It’s not.” Maria repeated.
“So, where the hell are you going with a former SHIELD director after another former SHIELD director tried to murder you and just tried to kill the President?” Val asked and Maria looked like she really needed to leave but there was no way to escape Val without explaining something.
“I’m going to save the President from being assassinated. Would you like to help?” Maria asked like she was the boss and Val squinted her eyes so harshly at Maria that she could feel a physical sting.
“I want to know what the hell you know about this attack right now, and I promise that if you don’t start talking you will only be leaving this building in handcuffs.” Val said furiously.
“Can we talk on the way?” Maria proposed.
“Start talking, now. What are these things!” Val huffed and she took a tablet and pushed it in Maria’s face showing G’iah’s green skin partially on Talos’s body carrying the President to the armored vehicle in the shoot out and as Val looked at the image she pulled up and then looked at Talos she realized that she was seeing Director Keller’s other half in the image, it was hard to make out but once she saw it in some of the other images from the scene she realized this was the same person standing in front of her and Val made the most obvious face that she connected the dots. Maria and Talos realized that she just put it together and did not know what to do as they remembered that G’iah was appearing as Talos’s human form as Director Keller at the battle.
“What the fuck.” Val said in a slow stunned voice.
“It’s not what you think.” Maria cautioned trying to keep Val from going down an alarmist train that would prevent her from being able to help.
“He was at the attack… are you… oh my god! How? How is he here, is he one of those things? You’re working with Fury!? You were going to kill Ritson! You played us, you’re in on it.” Val said in a stunned quick panic as she took out her phone to call for back up to arrest Maria and Maria took the phone out of Val’s hand and Val never looked so offended in her life. Val simply could not believe it was true, but what was the other explanation? Did this fake Director Keller come and get Maria or did he help the president? How did he get here so fast?
“No! No!” Maria shook her head urgently. “Listen to me.” Maria started.
“Oh! Now you want to talk to me? Now, that I caught you red handed!” Val started to fight for her phone back from Maria, and Maria tossed it as Val grabbed her wrist.
“Whoa, whoa.” Talos tried to intervene.
“HELP!” Val yelled loudly knowing the secret service was nearby and then Maria and Talos in an act of desperation, pulled Val into Rhodes’s old hotel room where the two skrulls were bound and gagged and knocked out in the bathroom. Val started to kick and scream as they pulled her in the room.
“Will you just calm down for one second!” Talos grumbled.
“This is Rhodes’s room, he’s in on it?!” Val said in a panic.
Maria and Talos did not have a whole lot of time they either had to get Val on board or do something with her… but it needed to be legal.
“They have Agent Ross!” Maria exclaimed trying to get Val to snap out of her panic and listen to her and as Val heard that she froze.
“Ross is alive?!” Val looked even more shocked. “Who has him?” She asked.
“Yes, he is alive and they have him, if you want to get him back you need to listen to me and you need to let me go where I need to go. Or he will die and so will a lot of other people, including you and me.” Maria explained.
“Who has him?” Val asked again.
“The group attacking the President’s motorcade, they set off the reign of terror over Europe. Just look at this!” Maria said as she played the video from Talos’s phone of the secret service agents changing into skrulls on the bathroom floor.
“What…? They can turn into us?” she said as she watched the video again.
“What.. are they?” She asked seeing the green creatures again.
“Yes, they can, and they can even access our memories sometimes. They’re called skrulls, they’re an alien race that has taken refuge on earth for decades. A rebellion group has spawned from them and is trying to take over the planet. The rebels are replacing us before our eyes trying to incite war, violence, and chaos. If we don’t quash this the right way, that’s exactly what will happen.” Maria finally explained to Val.
“They compromised the secret service?” Val asked in a quiet gasping tone.
“Yes, some of them.” Maria said calmly.
“How and when did they get Agent Ross?” Val asked concerned how long had these shifting aliens been impersonating her CIA agent ex-husband?
“I don’t know when, and I don’t know how, but I do know when I was in Moscow, a skrull pretending to be Agent Ross shot and killed Ross’s best friend, Agent Prescod. Prescod caught onto the skrull rebellion, that fake Agent Ross called me for help. When I went to help him, he was on the run and fell from a window and turned into a skrull when he hit the ground, in front of my face. Keller, he was chasing the fake Agent Ross trying to stop him from getting away with a plan to bomb Moscow center and blame it on Americans. I traced the skrull impersonating Ross’s steps back and I found Prescod’s body.”
“That’s when you called it in?” Val looked concerned but more at ease.
“Yes. But I couldn’t stay because I was afraid more of them were coming and going to kill me too and I didn’t know how many other agent were compromised or well replaced by skrulls. The fake Ross called me on purpose.” Maria tried to make it clear why she was offline and in hiding.
“Who else? Do you know who else is a skrull in disguise?” Val asked she was in a bit of shock. She didn’t know why she trusted Maria in this moment, but she did know that Maria wasn’t a kidnap and murder government officials type, she felt confident in that. Maria went through a lot to be here and if she was working with the Russian rebels and whatever these aliens were she probably wouldn’t have been through so much to get here.
“Rhodes. It’s not really him, he’s been replaced, for quite some time I think.” Maria admitted.
“Then why did you go to him instead of telling me this right away?” Val asked annoyed.
“Because I needed him to trust me to get information.” Maria wanted to roll her eyes but she didn’t. What Maria did it was a classic spy move, Val had to understand that and as Val heard it she did.
“Why are you in his hotel room?” Val asked skeptically and angrily still.
“Because we planted a bug in it to figure out who he was working with, he found the bug and got paranoid and switched rooms.”
“So you know he won’t come back…” Val sighed slightly relieved.
“Right.” Maria nodded.
“Did Fury really shoot you or was it one of them pretending to be him?” Val asked. Truly, it was something that did not make sense to Val. If Fury really did shoot Hill he was too far gone and she couldn’t imagine that.
“It was a skrull pretending to be Nick Fury that shot me. The leader of the rebels, his name is Gravik, I found out where and when he was going to bomb Moscow and I tried to get a warning out so they could evacuate before it happened.”
“I know.”
“The real Nick Fury, and I, and … Keller, were trying to stop him… Gravik found out I warned the Russians and he shot me when he saw me.”
“How did you know to wear a vest?” Val was buying the story but things played out pretty well for Maria considering how it could have ended.
“The Stark vest was in my car, when I saw no one evacuated the square I decided I would try to stop the bombs from being planted since we had some intel who was dropping them, I put the vest on in case I was near the blast zone and I didn’t want to get hit with shrapnel or debris.”
“When I got here, the two skrulls who infiltrated the secret service tried to abduct me, we stopped them and interrogated them and we got the information about the attack that was going to happen on the motorcade. The real Nick Fury was already on his way there, when we found out what they were going to do, I hacked into the S.A.B.E.R. drone program and shot down the incoming air strike and a number of the skrull operatives coming in the for the attack.”
“That was you!” Val said surprised, but not really surprised considering who Maria was and Maria nodded.
“The air defense system in the motorcade wasn’t working, you know.” Val said with relief that Maria was doing something because otherwise they all would have been dead.
“I know, the skrulls disabled it.”
“There’s a lot of them among us, aren’t there?” Val asked worried.
“How did you get from the attack to this hotel so quickly?” Val looked at Talos.
“Because it wasn’t really me there, it was my daughter G’iah.” Talos explained.
“Wait, isn’t Director Keller dead? He died in like 2001… 25 years ago… so is Keller always a skrull… I don’t understand…” Val said getting a little suspicious again as she recalled this information.
“Yes. He died, along time ago.” Talos confirmed. “We were friends, we worked together, with Fury. Before Director Keller died he told me I could borrow his likeness on earth after his death.” Talos explained and he shape shifted into his true self in front of Val to show some goodwill and trust.
“I’m a skrull, I’m from what used to be the planet Skrullos, my people came here in 1995 and again in 1997. We have been in search of a home of our own since then. Fury and Carol Danvers promised to find us a home back then. In return, a great deal of us agreed we would help serve a great purpose for earth and the United States national security needs… we worked in an secret undisclosed unit for S.H.I.E.L.D.” Talos started to explain and Val’s jaw was agape.
“Are you.. freaking… serious?” Val muttered.
“Yes.” Talos said solemnly and shifted back into his human form.
“We’ve been here secretly helping Fury, helping the government, doing all kinds of things thanklessly and unknown for decades.” Talos explained.
Val just looked at Maria like she couldn’t believe this was true.
“It’s real, it’s one of those things that exists but doesn’t exist.” Maria shrugged.
“Of course you know about this and no one else.” Val huffed glaring at Maria and Maria made a face like she was sorry. She couldn’t help what Fury shared with her.
“Where have I seen the word skrull before…” Val looked at the two of them.
“Well, Thanos was part skrull.” Maria explained and Val and Talos made a face at her.
“Probably wouldn’t lead with that in a briefing.” Val grimaced and Talos nodded in agreement with Val.
“How come when you’re around it’s like, everything about U.S. security is about to come crashing down?” Val looked at Maria skeptically.
“I’ve really done an introspective on this and as it turns out, it is really more because of the company I keep.” Maria defended herself with a little joke, she wasn’t wrong, this was Fury’s mess she was just trying to help.
“Do you ever think about keeping new company?” Val raised a brow at her.
“Well, I tried… and yet…” Maria shrugged.
“Did you?.” Val tilted her head.
“I guess not. Nick is really important to me, we fought off alien armies together, kept a nuclear bomb from going off in New York City, brought down horrific Nazis who infiltrated SHIELD alongside Captain America, Falcon, and Black Widow. We stopped an AI creation from destroying the world, and we died together and came back to life together. He knew I was smart and talented and capable before I even knew those things about myself. We’re family and I’m never not going to show up when he needs me, no matter what the call is, no matter where it is, or what it means. You don’t have to trust me, or help me, but you said it yourself, when I’m around all of our national security is on the brink so if you are not going to help, please just move aside and let me try and stop this before it’s too late.” Maria admitted and Val knew what Maria was saying was completely true. A fake Nick Fury shot her in close range and she still showed up for the real one at great risk to herself.
“Well, I guess it’s good to know you’ll always have a friend for the end of the world.” Val almost smiled at her own little joke.
“Yeah…” Maria said quietly.
“But, you know this is why you cannot continue to work for me, right?” Val added in ruining her almost nice moment.
“Can you fire me later?” Maria asked and Val paused, and then she nodded in agreement.
“Yes. Count on it.” Val nodded and Maria nodded back as they mutually reached the same conclusion.
Val did not like Maria, and one of the reasons she hated her was because of her relationship to Fury, not anything Maria had ever done herself but Val had her own relationships with people like this and she couldn’t really fault Maria that she just had someone else as her person who counted on her. Val paused as she thought about what Maria was saying. ‘Help or get out of the way’ not ‘I’m the boss or I know everything’ or ‘I’m right, you’re wrong’ it was ‘help or get out of the way.’ Val was not a good person, this has always been true but in her core she did know it was vital to keep American security well functioning, supported, not on the brink of war with Russia and an alien race and if Maria and and Val could agree on anything it was that. Val was addicted to power and there wouldn’t be any power left for her to grab if these aliens rebels won.
“Do you know anyone else who was replaced by a skrull? What do we do about them and where are the people they replaced?” Val asked signaling her will to help and Maria was relieved.
“They’re being held at a former nuclear site within Russia in some kind of containment pods that protect them from radiation and probe their memories for the skrulls to be able to pretend to be them. We know Prime Minister Lawton is one, Director Weatherby is one, we’re getting more names.”
“Weatherby was helping you.” Val paused.
“No. He outed my location to the skrull rebels two times and the MI6 agent who was helping me almost died because of it.” Maria said seriously, she would never forget that.
“Sonya was helping me, she discovered that he was a skrull. We think he was the one who tried kill her with the car bomb as well.” Maria continued and Val sighed. This was tough because these skrulls could shape shift as anyone so saying Fury was in the area really didn’t mean anything.
“We have to arrest Rhodes, and we can’t let him near Ritson.” Val said urgently.
“Uhm, yeah, eventually…” Maria made a face and Val stared at her.
“It’s just, if they know we know..” Maria grimaced.
“They’ll change strategies.” Val sighed, classic CIA move, keep stringing them along to get what you need but boy was this towing the line putting a compromised person right with the President. This was very dangerous.
“You really are a spy, aren’t you?” Val looked at Maria and Maria nodded.
“I guess so.”
“You have to keep this under control, Hill.” Val said authoritatively. “This could turn into an even larger chaotic mess than it is.”
“I know.” Maria agreed
“We are working on getting the the hostages back.” Talos assured.
“How?” Val asked.
“Skrulls can live and be in radioactive areas, the radiation does not affect us. There are some of us who can go there and free them.” Talos said confidently.
“This is just beyond insanity.” Val shook her head.
“I know, but let’s do something now and process it all later.” Maria sighed because that was basically her whole life.
“Oh, the agency motto.” Val muttered to herself with a smirk and she gave Maria and Talos the clear to go.
“I guess I have to go go root out an invasion.” Val looked a little glum, but honestly she had been dying to purge the agency so she could give herself an awfully wide latitude for this. This information was working out for her pretty great and Maria knew Val probably wouldn’t do good things with it, but she had to tell her for security purposes for now.
Maria and Talos left the hotel. When they found Frain’s car, Talos drove and Maria went through the compartments just to be nosy and see what he had in there. The car was similar to the car that Oslo stole in Russia but the floor was littered with fast food wrappers. Maria made a face at it as she observed the car floor her feet were on.
“I didn’t realize you could get filet-o-fish in November…” Maria grimaced with a grossed out expression. As she was aware, the McDonald’s fish sandwich was usually served during the lent season in the United States at least as far as Maria remembered it.
“I don’t think you can…” Talos also made a face.
“Oh, gross, there’s one still in the wrapper half eaten.” Maria picked her feet up off the floor.
“That explains the smell.” Talos muttered.
“I thought that was you…” Maria smirked at Talos and he gave her some side eye and she laughed.
“What happened to ‘that stuff doesn’t phase me I was the only woman in wherever whenever-stan.’” Talos laughed at her and mimicked her from earlier as he saw her scrunch her feet up from the dirty car floor.
“Just because I am not phased by some things doesn’t mean I have to accept things I think are gross.” Maria rolled her eyes.
“Mmmhm.” Talos rolled his eyes.
“Did you find anything good?” He asked.
“A bunch of sugar packets.. god, what I wouldn’t give to raid Rick Mason’s inventory right now. This guy doesn’t have anything good.” Maria sighed.
“What do you have on you?” Talos asked.
“A gun, and the syringe the skrulls were going to use on me…” Maria knew she was going into any kind of fight with any remaining skrulls pretty empty handed.
“Well, that’s low budget for a former Deputy Director of SHIELD.” Talos shook his head.
Talos reached into his pocket and gave Maria the skrull taser gun he had.
“This taser gun, is powered by less than a centimeter of an energy crystal only found on Skrullos, skrulls mined for specs for this ancient energy source for centuries and very few pieces of it have ever been found. It provides a powerful electric charge from the gun ten thousand times before its power even begins to fade. Don’t use it on humans, they could die, it’s a very strong charge.” Talos warned.
“How many times have you used it?” Maria asked, with her luck she’d get it on the ten thousandth time.
“Don’t worry, it has power, you aren’t going to burn it out.” Talos sighed loudly with a little laugh.
“Just checking because you’ve been around awhile…” Maria shrugged the way a teenager did who was annoyed by her parents. Maria put the taser gun in her back pocket. She was thankful for anything really. Who knew what Gravik was planning next.
“I’m gonna stay with you.” Talos said to Maria and Maria made a face at him like that was a bad idea.
“You know, I’m..” Maria paused as she thought about what she was going to say. “G’iah and I, we’re not kids you know. We’re adult women, we’re smart, you guys, you and Fury you two hurt what we’re trying to do when you think about us as anything other than members of this team, you know? You can’t just make decisions to protect us, you have to make them to win. You can’t go with me, you have to go with Fury.” Maria explained, Talos had to know this but both Talos and Fury were being way too over protective about their fatherly instincts and Maria knew they couldn’t let this cost them. Both Maria and G’iah got hurt during this whole thing, more than once, while Talos and Fury were making out just fine. She could tell both Fury and Talos had entered into a different kind of mindset than they really needed to be in to fight Gravik.
“Hey, we can make calls to win and protect the people we care about. They aren’t different. We can do both. You know that more than anyone.” Talos quickly asserted.
“You have to go with Fury, I’m not worried, I know that’s the move.” Maria shook her head.
“Just… don’t mess up.” Maria warned with a smirk and Talos laughed under his breath.
“We are really good at messing up.” Talos nodded.
“Well, this time let’s do it right, for once.” Maria shook her head.
“Not everything we did was a miss.” Talos tried to assure.
“Let’s not sing our praises until we actually win.” Maria shut it down, they were still on this mission and so far they were barely skating by. They didn’t even know if Ritson would live from being shot.
“You and Fury, you really are one in the same sometimes.” Talos gave Maria a little side glare and Maria looked out the window ignoring him.
“It’s a good thing.” Talos added.
“I didn’t think you meant it as a bad thing.” Maria shot back with a smirk.
“Someone should tell your face.” Talos snarked.
As Talos pulled in close to the hospital that was about to be receiving the President for surgery Maria and Talos stared at each other. Maria didn’t have the best feeling about going into this alone but Fury couldn’t come here and Talos needed to go chase down Gravik too.
Maria got out of the car her feet not touching the floor littered with old food and wrappers as she stepped out onto the ground.
“Okay.” She said to herself almost like she was psyching herself up because this time she was truly going into this alone, at least until maybe Sonya could get here.
“I’ll see you later.” Talos said casually like they weren’t saying goodbye.
“I'll see you later.” Maria repeated with a smile and then started to walk away from the car and head toward the hospital.
“Hill!” Talos rolled his window down and yelled to her and she turned around and walked back to the window.
“You know what else you’re wrong about…? You’ll always be somebody’s kid.” Talos said like he landed some great zinger and she just looked at him very unimpressed. Maria scoffed and she leaned down and looked at Talos.
“Yeah.. I bet that’s what Gravik is thinking too.” Maria said as she reversed Talos’s ‘gotcha’ moment on him.
“Yeah, exactly, it is what he’s thinking.” Talos agreed. It was clear in Gravik’s actions. Gravik tried to kill Hill and G’iah because of who they were to Fury and Talos. He would tried to kill them even if Maria didn’t drop the warning about the bombing or if G’iah had turned on the rebellion. Gravik would have done it anyway. Gravik valued them for nothing more than their relationships to men they knew, if he valued them at all. It was the same with Soren. It was never about them as their own people.
“We do know how he operates, and that’s why we’re going to win, even if we don’t know how yet.” Talos assured Maria as he felt she was lacking a bit of confidence as she got out of the car.
“So, you’re coming with me…?” Maria looked at Talos with a funny look and Talos looked at her surprised.
“Oh.. no.. you’re on your own, kid.” Talos dismissed with a big smirk.
“Oh, shut up, god.” Maria huffed loudly shaking her head before she turned to walk away and Talos laughed.
“Do you want to take a snack with you, maybe a half eaten probably two or maybe six week old filet-o-fish?” Talos called to her jokingly and he could see Maria’s head shaking no as she walked away, she would never admit it but she actually appreciated the joke.
——————-
Rhodes woke up in an ambulance being treated by medical staff, Raava was alarmed as she pulled away from the emergency staff worried she was exposed, but as she looked herself over she wasn’t.
“Colonel?” The medical staffer asked.
“Where is the President!” Rhodes asked in an urgent voice.
“He’s been taken to the secured hospital, he is stable, but he was shot. He’s going into surgery.” The worker informed him. I have to get to him.
“We have to check you over for injuries.” The staffer replied.
“I’m FINE!” Rhodes yelled.
“You hit your head…”
“This is a matter of national security, do you understand? I need to get to the President right now! There is an attempt on his life, I have to help him.” Rhodes spoked urgently.
“We’re taking you to the hospital where the President went, Colonel.” The staffer assured.
“We need to go faster!” Rhodes called out, he had to get there before Fury did.
Raava was so confused, what the hell had happened!? None of what went down happened the way it was supposed to. Did Gravik really try to kill her as collateral damage? She couldn’t believe it, but really she could.
As the ambulance pulled into the hospital Rhodes busted out of it like he was in charge, he was going to secure the whole hospital on an even tighter lock down, get the who wing cleared where the President was, get everything secured so no one except who Raava or well Gravik wanted could get to him since Ritson lived. Rhodes checked his phone and Raava was happy to see that the footage of Fury went out and that more images of him from the attack were showing up in the media. At least they could keep Fury away from the hospital. Raava knew that was paramount to success.
As Rhodes got the hospital he met with a security team at the door and they followed him in, Rhodes went in in charge like he was going to yell to get everything locked down but then when got into the wing where the President was taken… it was shut down, empty from anyone already. He looked confused, who did this? Rhodes turned the corner of the hallway and he saw Maria standing there, leaning against a wall next to a closed door. She had one foot against the wall and one the ground, standing so casually like she wasn’t even on alert or stressed at all. The exact opposite of how Rhodes came hollering down the hall.
“Hill?” Rhodes asked as he stopped in his tracks, the agents around him stopped too. He turned to the agents with him “go stand outside the next layer of this wing entrance.” Rhodes ordered and they quickly left.
Was this Maria or Frain pretending to be Maria and how did Rhodes ask without asking?
“You.. did you.. is the President…?” Rhodes started
“Yeah there’s like two layers of secret service guarding the next few barriers between here and the surgical room.” Maria clarified.
“You emptied the wing and locked it down?” Rhodes asked tilting his head.
“That is the protocol when the President is in surgery.” Maria nodded like it was no big deal.
“You didn’t have anyone out there though.” Rhodes remarked and Maria nodded.
“That’s why I’m standing here. I ran out of agents.”
“We are short staffed right now with everything that happened.” Rhodes said solemnly and Maria nodded as Rhodes walked up to Maria less on alert now.
“You’re okay?” Maria asked Rhodes in genuine tone and Raava was so confused.
“I’m okay.” Raava still couldn’t tell if this was really Maria or if it was Frain pretending to be Maria but Rhodes walked right over to her and in a truly strange moment that Maria did not at all expect, Rhodes gave Maria a hug and it shocked Maria, was this skrull about to stab her or something! At first she froze from the awkwardness but then she gave Rhodes a pat on the back that it was okay before the brief and awkward embrace ended.
“I’m sorry.” Rhodes sighed knowing it was out of character. “I have never been so relieved to see you.”
“Well, that’s the first time anyone has ever said that to me.” Maria almost laughed.
“I know that’s not true.” Rhodes said genuinely, in fact, quite a few Avengers in the past had that feeling.
“Are you.. really you?” Rhodes asked “You didn’t run into any skrulls.”
“I am, and no, but I guess if I was one, I wouldn’t tell you otherwise.” Maria joked and Raava STILL couldn’t tell if it was Maria or Frain.
“You .. did you .. see the news?”
“I did.” Maria said in a short tone.
“I thought Fury was going to be here.” Rhodes said with a deep sigh.
“That’s who I thought that’s who was walking down the hall.” Maria exchanged a brief glance with Rhodes.
“Where’s Agent Killbourne?”
“He had to go protect the President, you know, short staff.”
“What happened after you left the hotel?” Rhodes questioned.
“I came here and talked to a doctor and then we saw the news and I knew the President was coming here and I started to make sure all the security measures they were trained for where in place.”
Then Raava had a realization, this probably was the real Maria, not Frain, because Gravik probably never sent Frain because he thought that Ritson and Raava would be killed in the attack. There was no reason to replace Hill, then. Gravik did try to kill her, he didn’t care about her at all. She as just there for him to lock onto Ritson, and she put years of her life working as Rhodes for what, to end up obliterated?
“I think the word is out about Fury and his skrulls now.” Rhodey said to Maria and Maria nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, and the President is going to be the last to know.” Maria sighed.
What did Raava do now? Gravik made a bad move not replacing he real Maria and assuming he was going to win, now Raava knew of his plan to off her and his failure to follow through with what he said he was going to do. Gravik couldn’t blame the attack on the Russians as people could see that dead were skrulls and they could see in the footage, a partially green being helping Ritson not trying to kill him. Gravik’s plans were ruined now.
————-
Fury wasn’t sure where to go and he and G’iah stared at each other. It was a good thing he had a veil but they were going to have to ditch this car and get something figured out because someone would find him sooner or later. As he pulled away from his pursuit and tried to figure out a plan with G’iah he wondered where did they go from here. He knew going to Dr. Dalton was going to be helpful, they had to figure out how to beat Gravik with the extremis he has.
Fury’s phone rang and he figured it was Hill but when he answered it he could just tell from the vibe it was’t her.
“Well. Did you have fun?” Gravik asked over the phone.
“You’re a sick skrull, Gravik.” Fury said in a low serious tone.
“I wonder who made me this way?” Gravik asked.
“I wonder that too.”
“Look in a mirror.”
“A whole lot of your people just got killed, and that wasn’t case of me…” Fury said despite the obvious.
“Of course it was because of you.” Gravik shot back.
“You never had any plans for us but to use us and exterminate us.”
“That’s not true.” Fury said hastily. “They are soldiers Fury, they understand what being a soldier is, unlike you. They know death isn’t personal. They are happy to die for me, they are humiliated to die because of you.”
“As someone who died, I promise you that makes no difference in the end.” Fury rolled his eye.
“Why don’t you fight me the real way, you and me, no one else.” Fury proposed and Gravik laughed.
“What are you afraid of? You’ve always been one step ahead of me, this whole time… play it out, with your opponent looking right at you. Like you are supposed to.” Fury said in a sharp serious voice and Gravik snickered.
“Afraid? Afraid? I have been WAITING for you. You’re the one hiding from me. I told you what I want from you and yet you hide and cower like the old and frail thing you are. Don’t forget, I have skrulls on Hill, still and I have skrulls with Ritson right now. Talos is dead, G’iah is dead, and guess what, Varra is dead too.” Gravik snickered at his reveal and Fury made quite a face.
“Varra!?” Fury asked in shock.
“We took her out back and shot her like a dog when you got onto her. You got her killed too.” Gravik bragged and Fury was silent as he did believe what Gravik was saying.
“Not so much to say right now, huh? And I have even more in store for you and the people you care about, this ‘world’ you hold so close and dear to your frail aging heart…” Gravik trailed on.
“Gravik…”
“I asked you for one thing, I told you what I wanted, where is it?” Gravik grunted loudly into the phone.
“Well, I haven’t had a chance to get there Gravik, because you were trying to kill the President!”
“Fuck the President!” Gravik yelled into the phone.
“The longer you make me wait, I’m going down the list, everyone you know, you won’t have a soul left to utter your name when this world collapses into itself like it’s supposed to.”
“Name a place Gravik, if you want it, I’ll bring it to you. Let’s do this for real, just me and just you.”
“How about New Skrullos? I’ll give you a nice little tour, too.”
“Fine.” Fury grumbled angrily into the phone.
“And, Fury, maybe scourge up some iodine tablets on your way, the radiation might take you out before you even get here.” Gravik laughed like he had Fury in a tight spot and Fury hung up the phone. He wanted to break it in anger about Varra but he couldn’t.
“He .. he just says things before he knows they are true to play on emotions.” G’iah reminded. Maybe Varra wasn’t dead.
“No, this is the one time, I think he knows for sure.” Fury sighed and his eyes watered. His feelings for Varra were complicated, but he did love her and he would never want her to die because of him.
Then Fury stepped on the gas, he drove recklessly, urgently, if Gravik wanted him to bring the Harvest to Russia, then fine. Fury drove for a few hours and most of it was in silence. G’iah had no idea where they were going. Eventually as dusk approached he pulled into cemetery.
“Fury?” G’iah asked confused she was a bit concerned.
“I’m just picking some things up.” Fury assured.
“Uh.. is it a body?” G’iah asked him and his tired and weary face couldn’t even respond to to G’iah’s little joke. He covered his eyes with his hands for a minute.
“I love skrulls, truly.” Fury said to G’iah and she could tell he was grieving.
“I have literally loved them.” He added. “I know you deserve a home, I know you need one, I want one for you. I always have wanted that for you all. If I could give you a home, I would have.” Fury said rather emotionally.
“You did.” G’iah said a bit awkwardly.
“I didn’t. You’ve always known that, I didn’t and that’s the truth. It wasn’t on purpose. I just want you to know that, I promise, it wasn’t on purpose.” Fury admitted sadly and G’iah nodded.
“I know.” She confirmed.
“Anyone can be called to the one ‘home’ we all meet at the end.” Fury said looking down at his hands but G’iah was looking around the cemetery as she took in his words.
“We’re not at the end.” G’iah said as she could tell Fury was having a deep personal moment over Varra and then Fury nodded at G’iah but he was silent for a few moments.
“I’ll be right back.” He assured as he got out of the car and then entered a tomb in the cemetery. G’iah looked really concerned. Fury wasn’t about to end his life or something, right?
As Fury entered the tomb, one of his fake graves he faced his own name on a stone and he read over the words underneath his name. ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ This was for friends, this was for family, this was for himself, for Fury.
He opened the secure and protected grave. He entered a code and then the concrete parted and a glass vile appeared from the stone containing a clear liquid. As he went to reach for the vile containing the DNA of every Avenger a gun shot was fired from behind him.