Boots on the Ground

Finally, after a few hours had passed, Rhodes got the notice that the President was a awake and eager to know what ‘the hell happened.’ Maria and Rhodes met up with the national security advisor who was traveling with the President they all went to see the President who appeared wide awake considering the surgery he just went through.

“Mr. President, how are you feeling?” Rhodes asked.

“Shut up, who the fuck tried to kill me?” He growled.

“Agent Hill, would you like to brief the President about the situation on the ground?” Rhodes looked at Maria and Ritson glared at her.

“Hill, we certainly all have been waiting to hear from you, so out with it, what the hell is going on?” Ritson said impatiently and Maria froze for a moment.

This was actually harder than Maria expected. If she messed this up it could be disaster for all the innocent skrulls just serving on earth not harming anyone and everyone else who lived here too.

“Mr. President, I’m glad to see you’re well…” Maria started and Ritson looked really annoyed that she started with a pleasantry. Maria was recalling everything that Talos said when she was talking to Val.

“In 1997, an advanced shapeshifting reptilian alien civilization known as the skrulls came to Earth…”

“What do you mean ‘shapeshifting’?” Ritson asked cutting Maria off immediately.

“They can transform their bodies into another being virtually undetected and are able to mimic speech patterns and with one touch can obtain recent memories.” Maria explained cutting right to the chase.

“Uh … ok.. continue…” Boy Ritson was not expecting ‘aliens’ as the reason for all of this.

“The skrulls came here as refugees after their empire was decimated during a multi-year war with the Kree. The survivors came to Earth to seek refuge after they were repeatedly expelled or exterminated from other planets. A young agent of SHIELD, Nick Fury took in a small group of refugees after he worked with Carol Danvers better known as Captain Marvel. He promised he would find them a planet for their people an in exchange for their stay on Earth they had to work in a secret and undisclosed SHIELD unit…” Maria started to explain the back story and Ritson’s eyes started to pop out of his head.

“This is relevant because…” Ritson started as Maria really was dragging this out for some reason.

“Because, the skrulls have worked for the United States undercover gathering all kinds of intel and information for our security agencies all over the world and many of them who were part of this are still out there.” Maria did hate to share this information but for security purposes she couldn’t really gloss over the concerning security aspect of the skrulls.

“Are they still doing this?” Ritson asked in a concerned raised voice.

“I believe that unit disbanded with the rest of SHIELD.” But Maria did not know for sure. “They fed that information back to Nick Fury and essentially propped up his entire career.” Maria admitted rather bravely and even Raava was surprised she said that, Maria surprised herself but what else could she say?

“Many skrulls remained on earth living among us for decades without issue until a faction group of them decided to target leaders all around the world in order the advance a rebel plot to start a war between the United States and Russia after a campaign of terror was released all across Europe for the last few years.”

Ritson had a dramatic look on his face.

“The American, who bombed Russia, Martin what’s his face.” Ritson started.

“Martin Wallace.” The security advisor answered.

“Was that not an American, was it an alien in disguise?” Ritson actually looked hopeful at that least.

“Yes.” Maria answered confidently.

“We don’t have any evidence of that Mr. President.” Rhodes cut in undercutting Maria.

“Yes we do.” Maria looked at Rhodes and the two of them exchanged a tense look. Rhodes was confused.

“In the thermal imaging video that Colonel Rhodes showed me, you can see me try to steal a bag that I believed contained a bomb near Vossoyedineiye Square being carried by a skrull disguised as Martin Wallace, Wallace’s thermal read is blue and purple instead of orange and yellow like a human. I have been informed that this is because while skrulls are able to transform their outer appearance and have a DNA copying mechanism to avoid detection, their internal system remains the same and their blood runs cold due to them being a reptilian species.” Maria explained.

Rhodes was STUNNED. Maria was quick, she picked up on things fast, Rhodes showed her that fake thermal footage of her with Wallace for one second and she clocked it that quickly? It was just to prove Fury was really him, now Maria was turning it around on Rhodes’s false claim. Raava had to believe Maria just realized it on the spot in the moment. Raava was right, when Rhodes went to shut it down that Wallace wasn’t a skrull, that’s when Maria remembered the footage of herself fighting with Wallace.

“So we can tell who is a skrull and who is not with thermal imaging reads?” Ritson asked.

“This is what I have been informed, but I have not tested this method myself.” Maria admitted.

“So that’s the only evidence you have that he is.. or well was a skrull?” Ritson asked.

“Yes, Mr. President. Aside from the fact that he was there, with a decoy bag in an attempt to set a trap for me.” Maria thought that was pretty good evidence as well.

“And how do you know about all of this?” Ritson asked skeptically.

“I became aware of skrulls as my time as Deputy Directer of SHIELD and I became aware of the situation in Moscow when I ran into a skrull that I had previously worked with and new from a professional association.” Maria explained vaguely.

“An association with Fury.” Rhodes added in and Rhodes gave Maria a look because it was like he could sense she was about to cover for Fury. It was like Rhodes was giving her a warning shot with a look, but Maria wanted to keep talking because the more she talked the longer she was delaying Rhodes trying to manipulate Ritson and Fury and Sonya could get here and help her.

“Why would these things try to kill me, what did I ever do them!” Ritson growled.

“They’re not things, they’re people.” Maria defended the skrulls identity.

“They literally are not people.” Ritson shot back at Maria quickly.

“They literally are people, they just are not of the human species.” Maria snapped back but then looked apologetic, because this was the President and that was an inappropriate tone.

And then Ritson got a vibe from that statement that Maria made had more a connection to this situation than she was willing to admit, but she did know an awful lot about them and it seemed like few people did. Rhodes realized he had to jump in and stop Maria from undermining the the skrulls posed.

“We think there’s a few hundred thousand to a million skrulls hiding in Russia. A great number of them are staying in an abandoned nuclear site with high radiation levels. We know that the Russians gave them refuge there in exchange for a similar deal that Fury made them decades ago. Essentially, the Russians promised the skrulls a home and recruited them to work against the United States to wage war.”

“No, that’s not..” Maria started and Rhodes quickly talked over her.

“This is why I think you need to consider your options on taking out these extraterrestrial terrorists being harbored by the Russians. That’s why you need to strike, get rid of them right now, every single one of them. We have no idea how many of them worked at SHIELD how many of them have or national secrets and are feeding them to the Russians. They can pretend to be us, they can look like us, they can sound like us and no one would know the difference. This is much more chaotic and urgent situation than it is coming off. Mr. President, you need to stake this compound of skrulls immediately and go after the Russians for harboring them.” Rhodes explained with a serious and urgent voice.

“What!” Maria gasped loudly, that one threw her for a loop. Maria was truly stunned, a skrull in disguise ordering a strike on his own people? She could NOT believe this. This backfired horribly and now Maria was concerned about the skrulls and all the hostages who were being held there for the people the skrulls replaced.

“We no longer need your assistance, Agent Hill. One of the service agents can escort you out.” Rhodes said quickly and authoritatively and Maria didn’t move as one of the secret service agents came toward her.

“You can’t drop a bomb in Russia!” Maria explained in a very clear and obvious tone and Ritson looked like he very much agreed with Maria on that very basic and sound logic.

Raava really couldn’t believe the juxtaposition here, the skrulls tried to kill Maria and here she was trying to save them, and Raava, a warrior for her people, was the one advocating for the strike. It was hard for Raava to wrap her head around.

“They are trying to exterminate us!” Rhodes yelled trying to get Ritson on his side.

“You are literally trying to exterminate them and you will get us all killed in the attempt!” Maria corrected swiftly, she was still in shock by this play. What did they get out of it? All out war at the expense of their own? There wouldn’t be any of them left to have the ruined planet to live on. She didn’t understand.

“You can’t drop a bomb in Russia. You know that, it will escalate to full on nuclear war in no time.” Maria repeated with grave concern.

“She’s right Mr. President, it would be all out nuclear war, a hellscape we could not win, I mean we could win, but the whole world would lose.” The security advisor added in support of Maria.

Ritson was shocked, confused, trying to understand everything and make sense of it.

“The Russians and an alien race are mobilizing against us, they know, they KNOW you do not have the guts to strike and that’s how are going to beat us and kill us. You won’t even prepare a strike against them to save HUMAN, AMERICAN lives because of some Fury want-to-be hack who showed up here with the clear intent to manipulate you into doing what she thinks is best? She’s not one of your security advisors, she’s a freaking field agent, for god’s sake. One with a personal agenda, clearly.” Rhodes said despairingly about Maria to Ritson and it was the first time Ritson ever heard Rhodes say anything negative about her and it seemed surprisingly out of character. Maria wasn’t really shocked by it as she knew this wasn’t truly Rhodes but there wasn’t a good way to out Rhodes as a skrull without killing him and there were a lot of armed secret service agents in this room, if Maria did that she’d get shot first, she knew that for sure.

“I think it’s pretty clear who is trying to manipulate who in this room.” Maria shot back at Rhodes.

“I’ll say.” The security advisor added in support of Maria.

“I want all the information available on skrulls right now.” Ritson said and Maria nodded.

“I’ll do it Mr. President. She’s not being an objective or reliable source.” Rhodes said quickly to undercut Maria.

“It’s just some of them that are are doing this, and we can find them without risking nuclear war, we’ve rooted out people with much worse ideas for the world.” Maria assured.

“That’s when we had Avengers, now what do we have? And, does that really matter that it is ‘only some of them’ if they aren’t supposed to be here? They’ll just keep brooding insurrections until they win, won’t they? And they can pretend to be us in the process. If we’ve learned anything about alien species it’s that they don’t care about decimating trillions of lives.” Ritson made sharp eyes at Maria.

Maria looked to the television screen in the hospital room that was once again showing the footage of the green side of G’iah’s face and part of her body still in Talos’s form, carrying the President to safety and covering the President’s attack

“Yes it matters. One of them saved your life Mr. President.” Maria pointed out to Ritson on the screen.

“And the rest of them, with Fury by the way, shot at him with the Russians!” Rhodes scolded over Maria’s calm voice.

“I need to know everything the Russians are doing, what these … beings… are doing and where they are and if any of them are in our government agencies.” Ritson voice was cold and serious.

“Agent Hill already told me she knows of skrulls within the government.” Rhodes said giving Maria a wide eyed look. She claimed Fury was a skrull and not himself, so she could tell the President that Rhodes looked at Maria waiting for her explain that Nick Fury was replaced by a skrull like she allegedly believed.

Maria glared at Rhodes, she could not get over this skrull flipping the script like this in real time.

“And you, showed me video footage, thermal imaging that he wasn’t one.” Maria shot back at Rhodes now turning the skrull’s plan to frame Fury back on him. Raava almost laughed, she would have if she wasn’t so threatened by Maria right now.

“Jesus Christ! What is going on, where is Val!” Ritson howled.

“You’re not getting good information.” Maria assured and looked right at Ritson, she was completely ignoring Rhodes now. “You can’t walk back a strike against Russia, you know you can’t.” Maria said ignoring Rhodes and Rhodes looked wildly offended.

“There is a reason we fight cold wars against them instead of live ones.” Maria pointed out.

“That was before they employed an hoards of a shape shifting alien race to attack us without us even seeing it coming. They are undermining the threat before us, a threat we cannot even tell is happening. Who knows, Hill could even be skrull herself. Listen to the way she talks about them.” Rhodes pointed his finger at Maria, but Maria knew she couldn’t do it back because the actual skrull in the room was urging Ritson to kill all the skrulls. Maria couldn’t believe it.

Oh, you fucker. Maria thought to herself, just watching this skrull hustle her and Ritson turning everything around on Maria. Maria thought she had a good pull on this skrull but the second they felt threatened by her, the skrull was pushing Maria right under the bus.

“Yeah, I don’t think she would tell me everything about them if she was one of them, McCarthy.” Ritson said side eyeing Rhodes for even suggesting it.

“But this is the point I am making, you don’t know! We have to wipe them out, we have to be prepared, tell the Russians to give up their alien army or we are going to take it out ourselves It cannot be a bluff you have to mean it, or we’re done.” Rhodes passionately argued and it was surpassingly hard for Raava to do, considering the gravity of what she was saying against her own people.

“Mr. President, this is an absurd consideration and suggestion.” The national security advisor agreed.

“They committed an act of war!” Rhodes huffed. “Since when do we not respond to acts of war against the leaders of the United States, they tried to assassinate you!” Rhodes was getting a bit too heated and he took a breath and calmed himself.

Maria knew it was impossible for her to call Rhodes a skrull after he was out here claiming they should kill all of them, and as far as that was concerned it was a good move on this skrull’s part but she had to keep Rhodes from talking the President into doing something crazy.

“We need to be ready. We cannot get caught playing defense, pretending that we are going to waste time with bad faith diplomacy when they are gearing up to obliterate us.” Rhodes argued frustrated.

Maria still couldn’t believe what this skrull just suggested, to take out their own people who were hiding. It really caught her off guard and made her throw things into question. Why would Gravik want to nuke all his own people? It’s not like there were that many skrulls left to fight for him, he would be taking out tons of them. Striking there wouldn’t really be strategic for U.S. security purposes if they were going into a war with Russia… there’s no military targets in New Skrullos and most importantly, Gravik told Fury to meet him in New Skrullos, Gravik was going to be there.

“Okay! Okay!” Ritson said trying to calm the room down, the tension in that room was going to send Ritson back into surgery.

“This is what I want.” Ritson started looking at all of them. “I want … Val and Hill to get me all the information on these skrulls and how they got into Russia and if Russia is really housing them for military purposes. I need this information now. And then, we’re are going to be ready to strike, I am not saying we are doing anything. But we will be prepared to take out any threats by any means that we need to.”

This was tough for Ritson, he trusted Maria and his national security advisor, they were talking the most sense, but he always had faith in Rhodes, and Rhodes did help him at the attack. He didn’t think Rhodes was suggesting these things in bad faith, but that he was driven from the adrenaline of the attack and being overwhelmed by the information. Rhodes wasn’t totally wrong about being concerned about the Russians working with an alien race, if they were it would be a disaster, they would have to do something and taking out aliens was at least somewhat defensible for Ritson. So he split the baby in two as they say. Maria claimed Ritson was getting bad information from Rhodes, so Maria could get the information, Rhodes wanted to be ready, so they’d get ready.

“Don’t you two have things to go do?” Ritson looked at Maria and Rhodes who were just standing there for a moment. Both of them were afraid to leave first leaving Ritson alone with the other.

Maria and Rhodes left the room on the Presidents orders and once they were down an empty hall far from Ritson, Rhodes grabbed Maria by the arm forcefully and pulled her backward slightly and she quickly tried to pull her arm away from him but his grip did not loosen.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Don’t you ever undercut me in front of Ritson again. Do you have any idea the time you are losing us!” He scolded, bitterly offended at her performance in the other room.

“Get your hands off me!” Maria scolded back just as forcefully, but Rhodes had a tight, more than human level grip on her arm. Raava was so taken over by emotion she hadn’t realized she had to let go and she kept holding onto Maria’s arm. Raava felt the surge of male rage hormones fluster through her, really it was a wide mix of emotion taking over Raava keeping her from thinking straight.

“Take your god damn hand off my agent.” Val’s voice billowed up the hallway as she had been summoned by the President. Rhodes was taken back the sound of Val’s voice and the shock was clear on Rhodes’s face, Maria’s too.

Finally he let go of her upper arm as Val approached, Val was so horrifyingly offended at the sight of Rhodes grabbing Maria like that, but she knew it wasn’t really him, if anything that visual confirmed it for her. Rhodes and Maria were silent as they heard the clacking of Val’s heels up the silent hallway. Maria had never been relieved to see Val in her life, but she was in this moment. Because if this skrull tried anything and they had extremis like Gravik, what was Maria going to do?

Maria felt the bruises forming under her skin that Rhodes grabbed so hard. Raava could see the shock and surprise that swelled in Maria’s face from being grabbed like that by him, and the tone that Raava heard Val speak, she realized it was another moment out of character for him. Raava was losing it. She had to keep track of so many lies with Maria, she didn’t understand Gravik’s plan, and she had to convincingly argue for something she was against, while the person who was supposed opposing them was trying to stop her from doing something she didn’t even want to do. It was overwhelmingly complicated position to be in, and it didn’t help that it went against every instinct in Rhodes’s mind to go after Maria so viciously in front of the President.

“I’m sorry…” Rhodes said in a much calmer quieter tone as Maria got her arm back and he put his hand down.

Maria just shook her head no at him.

“For telling the President to drop a bomb in Russia on a bunch of refugees or putting marks on me?” Maria asked with great disdain in her voice.

“What the fuck.” Val said just as appalled as Maria was.

“They’re going to kill us!” Rhodes tried to defend his recommendation to Ritson forcefully because getting Maria onboard was really going to make all the difference.

“You’re the one who told us that!” Rhodes reminded loudly.

“That’s not what I told you, and you’re an Avenger.. telling the President to mass murder a whole lot of innocent people. What is wrong with you?” She asked in a sharp tone under her breath, with clear disgust at Rhodes in her voice. Rhodes sighed very loudly because Maria was right, this position Gravik put Rhodes in was indefensible and Maria knew him way too well to not think something was wrong.

This was Gravik’s fault. Raava thought to herself. He didn’t replace Hill when he had the chance and then he wanted Raava to do something that Rhodes would never do and Maria knew him too well for it to go over successfully. Raava had to fix this, right? Maria definitely couldn’t just vanish now. Ironically, Raava agreed with Maria, that it made no sense to target the skrulls living in New Skrullos. Risking all the skrulls there if they didn’t leave in time? She wanted a place for skrulls to thrive not go through hell again. Maria was the one defending skrulls and Raava was the one putting skrulls at risk. How did the situation get flipped like this? The whole time Maria and Raava were in there they just kept flipping it on each other, and now Raava didn’t know what to do.

Maria and Val standing next to each other like this gave Raava real pause. Maria told Rhodes she thought Val was a skrull and that’s why she didn’t want to talk near Val when she first got here. Raava assumed the sight of what Val saw had to be so shocking that she had to react and considering how much Val didn’t like Maria it had to be really shocking. Raava knew she fucked up with that move.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to… my emotions were running high in the moment.” Rhodes apologized again.

“What the hell is going on?” Val acted like she didn’t know anything as it was clear Maria hadn’t outed Rhodes yet. What the hell was she waiting for?

Maria also had to keep track of a lot of information that she told Rhodes to not give herself away, and it was getting really complicated to keep straight for her too. That’s why she mostly tried to stay as close to the truth as she could with him.

“The President is waiting for us, tell me on the way.” Val said and she held her hand out for Maria to get moving toward the President and Rhodes and Maria exchanged a glance.

Was Maria going to tell Val everything too? Raava started to panic a bit as Maria and Val left and walked down the hall to go back to the President. What as Raava supposed to do? Raava froze for a minute trying to gather herself together and figure out how to move forward. A few minutes later Rhodes’s phone buzzed and buzzed and finally answered it.

“Colonel Rhodes!” Sonya’s voice called into the phone.

“Sonya?” He asked surprised.

“I’m afraid we have eyes on Fury, and he’s headed to the hospital to finish Ritson. You need to get the President out of there.” Sonya said alarmed.

“Fury is coming here?” Rhodes asked.

“Yes, he’s on the move!” Sonya said in an urgent voice and Rhodes was stunned, he was supposed to be going to New Skrullos.

“You need to get Ritson out of there, somewhere secure.” Sonya warned.

“I’m on it.” Rhodes said. This was a good enough diversion to separate Ritson, Val and Hill. Raava was really surprised, why would Fury be coming here to the hospital? He’s supposed to be meeting Gravik in New Skrullos. Raava was so sure that Gravik knew Fury was coming to New Skrullos and that he would be given the harvest, but did Gravik not know anything? Did he just put all the skrulls in New Skrullos at risk on a whim? If the real Fury got to Ritson with Hill and Val talking to him it would all be over, and Raava knew she had to race to separate Ritson from Maria, she didn’t have time to call Gravik.

Rhodes went back to the hospital room where Ritson was talking to Maria and Val, it felt tense as Rhodes came in and he stopped as he looked at Ritson, Maria, and Val. What had just happened? Raava couldn’t get into it. She had to move Ritson even though she could feel the strain in the room.

“This is ALL we have on skrulls?” Ritson said to Val as Rhodes returned.

“So far, but we are getting more intel quickly.” Val assured.

“Mr. President. You have to leave, we have to move you somewhere far more secure, Fury is on his way to finish the job.” Rhodes warned.

“You have to come with me.” Rhodes said urgently and Val was done, she wasn’t having this anymore.

“You can’t go with Colonel Rhodes, Mr. President.” Val said quickly.

“What? Why?” Ritson asked.

“Because…” Val paused and she looked at Maria.

“Rhodes is one of them, he’s is the plant, he’s the skrull.” Val admitted finally and Rhodes froze, Raava didn’t even think she could breath. Maria knew it had to come out but not like this. All the agents in the room put their hands on their guns and locked eyes on Rhodes.

“Rhodes? No.” Ritson shook his head quickly.

“RHODES just told me to kill all the skrulls so maybe check your information, Val.” Ritson dismissed quickly and Val shot a strained glance at Maria so fast Maria wanted to jump backward but she didn’t dare move with all these armed agents on the ready.

“Hill told you that?” Ristson asked completely surprised since she hadn’t at all mentioned it to Ritson moments ago. Maria knew this looked really bad for her.

Raava was frozen herself. Maria knew? She knew Rhodes was a skrull? She told Val!

“You didn’t happen to mention that a few minutes go when you were asked if you knew of anyone in the government replaced by a skrull.” Ritson pointed out now suspicious of Maria.

And then Val scoffed to herself.

“Ohh.” Val shook her head, annoyed at Maria. “Yeah, she didn’t tell you that because she’s running a counter intelligence operation for Fury, right in front of our faces. She’s taking all the information she’s getting from this skrull and feeding it back to Fury on the ground so he can try and take out their forces in an illegal extrajudicial style mission.” Val explained.

“And I know, for a fact that she’s working with Fury on this because we were trying to figure out who was taking out the skrull forces that attacked you from the air and ground, and we traced it back to hotel where I found Agent Hill leaving for the hospital to meet you shortly after the attack. Whoever accessed the drones, S.A.B.E.R. drones, I should mention, had to get the access from Fury, and the only person Fury knew in that hotel, was Hill.”

“We blocked his access.” Ritson reminded.

“But he probably built himself a back door method, which someone like Agent Hill would be very well aware of how to get into.” Val said glaring at Maria.

Maria pressed her lips together, because, yeah… that was true… and everything Val said was right, but she was kind of blowing the plan and Raava could just pick the phone and call Gravik at any second and she really did not know what to say because Fury had not gotten here yet.

Val glared at Maria waiting for her to confirm if she was the one firing the drone strikes against the attacking skrulls and Maria nodded.

“Yes, I did. I got into the S.A.B.E.R. system and fired the strikes on the convoy and the missile that was coming for the motorcade.” Maria said quietly.

“How did you know where we were?” Ritson asked coldly.

“When Rhodes and I were talking I gave him some water from the hotel mini fridge but that had a liquid tracker inside.” Maria admitted.

Ritson couldn’t tell if Maria should be arrested or promoted because this was wild, but since she saved everyone and killed the skrull hoards who was going to kill him and his entire security team traveling with the motorcade, he was going to lean with promoted.

Raava was frozen, just frozen in shock that she got played so well, when she thought she was the one playing Maria. Raava knew she could not move she could see very agent in the room drawn onto her.

“But.. wait Fury tried kill you!” And then Ritson paused, as he saw Maria shake her head no.

“It was one of the aliens? One of the skrulls pretending to be him?” Ritson asked and Maria nodded.

“Yes.” Maria confirmed.

“Then why did you say it was Fury?” Ritson asked glaring at Maria he was overwhelmed with anger and confusion trying to understand what the hell was going on here.

“I never said that Nick tried to kill me.” Maria said confidently and it was true she had never said that, she was sure not to do that despite how many times the fake Rhodes tired to convince her that was the truth.

“I heard you say it on a recording that Fury…” Ritson paused as he recalled the recording that Rhodes played for him. It was kind of an unusual recording and what he remembered was that Maria repeatedly said Fury, but she just called him Nick and as he tried to think about he realized that is what she called him.

“Was Colonel Rhodes the source of that recording?” Maria asked and the realization that fell over Ritson’s face was clear to the room.

Rhodes was the skrull, he was setting up Fury and trying to manipulate Ritson and Maria and everyone else to start a war with Russia and give into their rebel plot. That’s why Maria was so strongly advocating against it, to avoid a war with Russia which is what the skrulls really wanted and the actual skrull was trying make it him do it using the the skrulls as a scapegoat an easy target. The only reason Rhodes was telling Ritson to aim at the skrull compound was so that Maria couldn’t out him a skrull. It wouldn’t have made any sense, she would have sounded absurd. Ritson thought it was crazy when Rhodes tried to suggest Maria was one, and he admired the restraint Maria had not to call Rhodes out that he was really the skrull in the room and turn into a finger pointing game causing a lot confusion. This was some intense game play here.

As Raava saw the realization happen she just knew she was done and then… she lost it. She pulled a gun from inside her jacket and one of the agents shot at her right in the upper arm. Rhodes fell backward a bit toward the wall and purple blood spattered against the wall but she didn’t fall completely, she grabbed her arm and darted out the door as the other agents went to fire at her.

“Don’t, don’t shoot!” Maria said to them, this skrull knew a whole lot about what Gravik was doing, and they could get a great deal help from them, plus no one knew how long Rhodes had been missing they were going to need to ask him a lot of questions.

“Don’t shoot?” Ritson asked as Maria grabbed her gun from her back pocket and chased after Rhodes out of the room.

“Hill!” Val yelled as Maria ran after him. “Hill!” She called again and Maria ignored her.

“Why did she say don’t shoot!” Ritson asked Val and Val groaned.

“I am going to guess so she could find out what exactly happened to Colonel Rhodes…” Val answered and everyone looked at the clearly purple blood on the wall that was not human. Val was relieved, really, she believed Maria but she just as easily could have been tricked if Rhodes had tried something similar.

Maria chased Rhodes down the hallway, he turned and fired at her but Raava had limited ability to aim as she held onto her arm. Raava turned a corner in the empty hallway as the entire wing of the hospital had been cleared for the President’s safety. Maria ducked away from the shot into an empty hospital room and then she continued her pursuit after the skrull.

Raava turned a corner and she kept her gun out. Raava stopped moving she heard Maria’s steps get closer but noticed that Maria didn’t turn the corner as she was clearly listening for movement.

The two of them could hear each other breathing around the corner from each other.

“You knew.” Raava huffed in anger and the hurt Raava slumped down on the ground she had to sit. She needed a break from the running as she had to put pressure onto her wound.

“Yeah.” Maria confirmed standing on the other side of the corner.

“Everything you said to me was a lie.” Raava growled, and Maria was well aware of the irony of this skrull pretending to be Rhodes being mad at her.

“Only a few things.” Maria answered honestly.

"How did you know?" Raava asked, what outed her?

"When I went to meet Agent Ross, he was killed and I saw him turn into a skrull when he died. Then I saw Talos, and he told me a skrull had was pretending to be Ross. We took his things, his phone, everything, and later you called him. We heard your voice and you telling him what to do and asking about Prescod and the skrulls." Maria explained and Raava sighed loudly.

"You knew, Talos, knew, Fury knew?"

Raava asked. She couldn't believe she was the one that ruined all this work. She did it to herself, she was careless.

"Yes. When I told you the story I omitted the part about Ross so you wouldn't have any idea."

"And then you came here to give us false confidence, make us think we were ahead?"

Raava was just in such shock. All the scripts being flipped back and forth and Raava was the one who got burned, she was set up from the beginning.

"So when you were talking about skrulls, you just said those things defending them because you knew I was one?" Raava asked with a sad weary tone

.

"No, I meant it, every time, I'd say the same things if you were really Rhodes, I promise."

“You operated the drones that saved Ritson?”

“I didn't save Ritson, you and Talos did, skrulls, two skrulls did that..”

This was a strange moment for Raava because she realized Maria taking out the missile was what saved her life. She was so confused and overwhelmed with everything. One of the hardest things were the emotions of Rhodes that felt truly betrayed by Maria even though Raava was the one betraying her and trying to play Maria. He just really believed that she trusted him the whole time. Gravik didn’t care if Raava died, and he ordered Raava to get the President to strike on New Skrullos, outing all the skrulls, putting them all at risk.

“Can you tell me your real name?” Maria asked.

“Fuck off.” Rhodes voice carried heavily in the empty halls as Raava was still overwhelmed with emotions and realization that she lost.

“It will probably be better for you if you talk to me instead of risk trying to get out with all security here.”

“What do you even know?” Raava made a fist with her hurt arm. She started to cry as everything was crumbling beneath her. She thought she had been so close, but was she? Everything she went through with Gravik, losing ten years of her own life, getting stuck in this role, and then getting played a fucking fiddle, being a joke this whole time.

“I know that Gravik told you to get Ritson to drop a bomb on everyone you know and I know you weren’t okay with that. I know that Gravik had a missile aimed right at you and was going to take you out with Ritson.”

Raava was quiet for a few beats.

“He evacuated New Skrullos.”

“No, he didn’t.” Maria was sure of that.

“It’s not about winning anymore, he knows he is going to lose, and he just wanted the rest of the world to go down with him. That’s what he does.” Maria explained.

“How do you know he didn’t evacuate it?” Raava asked.

“If you don’t believe me, just call someone you know there and ask. After the news came out that showed the skrull helping President Ritson, even more skrulls flocked back to New Skrullos to hide. They’re really afraid of what is going to happen to them.”

“How do you know that?” Raava asked emotionally as she held pressure on her wound.

“T’eve told me.”

Raava was silent.

Gravik lied to her, he used her to try and kill Ritson, and he never even bothered trying to replace Hill to prevent this exact type of situation. Raava was devastated. She had given so much of her life for this.

“How did you talk to her?”

“She was arrested and she started helping us by providing information. You can do the same thing, I can help you. There’s a lot of things I still don’t know, you can help. You helped Ritson get out of the car when he was injured, right? Some part of you wants to help.” Maria tried to reason and Raava was quiet.

“And, you helped me, a lot. I don’t even know why.” Maria tried to get more from the skrull.

“I tried to protect you.” Raava asserted emotionally.

“Why?” Maria asked. She did really want to know and Raava was quiet again.

“At first, I was keeping tabs on you. I didn’t know where you were when things were starting to get going. We were worried you and Fury would pop out of the woodwork and ruin everything like you usually do.” Raava admitted and she took a deep sigh as she didn’t know what compelled her to spill this information.

“Then when you came to my office you and Rhodes just… you were so both nostalgic for a time that doesn’t exist. I was just overwhelmed with his emotions for back then, and how much he misses his old friends. It just felt easy to talk to you, different. I don’t know, I couldn’t control it, it wasn’t me though. The emotions of your shell can take over you, especially when you’ve been wearing it for a long time. I don’t care about you.”

“Well, thanks for clarifying.” Maria mumbled and Raava couldn’t help but let out a light laugh under her breath.

“Is Colonel Rhodes alive?” Maria asked, she was pretty sure he was.

“Yes.” Raava confirmed and she was quiet again and Maria didn’t say anything else.

“My name is Raava.” She finally said.

“Raava, okay, thank you.” Maria acknowledged and it was the first time she heard someone who wasn’t Gravik or Varra say her name in such a long time.

Raava was starting to feel a bit woozy, she had to drop the gun out of her hand as she was bleeding too much. She needed to provide more pressure to her wound to get the blood loss to stop.

“I think I might be dying…” Raava started.

“It’s blood loss. Do you know how to make a tourniquet? I can help you. We’re in a hospital so I can even get a real one, you just have to put your gun down and show me your hands.” Maria asked.

“I can’t take my hand off.”

“I saw a first aid kit, in the room I was just in. I will go get it, but you have to take your hand off for one moment to show me you’re not going to shoot at me again.”

Raava was quiet again she didn’t know what to do, she was pretty sure she was going to faint or pass out.

“Okay.” Raava said and Maria went back to the room she had ducked in moments ago and grabbed the first aid kit from the medical counter and raced back.

“I have to see hands.” Maria reminded as she returned and Raava put both her hands around the corner woozily and she pushed her gun away from her so Maria could see.

Maria took a deep breath, this definitely could be a trick, and she had her gun in one hand and the first aid kit in the other, but she knew Raava was losing a lot of blood. Maria took a chance, she turned the corner, she braced herself, and all she saw was an injured Rhodes sitting on the floor holding onto her arm.

Maria got down on the ground, kneeling in front of Raava, and she put her gun in her back pocket and opened the first aid kit quickly.

“This is going to hurt a bit.” Maria admitted as she quickly pulled out the tourniquet and started to wrap and set it around Rhodes arm, when she moved his sleeve she could see the green from Raava’s skin. Raava cried as the tourniquet was tightened around her arm to stop the bleeding.

“Fuuuck.” Raava complained.

“Sorry.”
“I can’t believe you’re helping me.” Raava shook her head to herself.

“I’m not. I’m just keeping tabs on you, I don’t care about you.” Maria mimicked and Raava couldn’t help but laugh through the pain as Maria tightened the tourniquet around her arm.

“You just want to turn me.”

“Yep. That’s why they call it a tourniquet.” Maria joked a bad dad joke.

“Usually, you’re pretty funny, but that was bad.” Raava confirmed.

“I don’t really think you can make that kind of judgement when you lose this much blood.” Maria said knowing she made a bad joke and Raava laughed a little, a tiny bit. Raava hated how charming she found this human woman. She hated it, was it really her or had Rhodes seeped into her mind? Had all this time pretending to be him actually reversed and now he was part of her? It was so hard to separate out who she was without Rhodes in her mind.

Just as Raava felt a moment of relief from the pressure stopping the bleeding and relieving the pain she turned her head and she saw Fury standing at the far end of the hall. Raava’s eyes squinted at him and then she very suddenly moved forward pushing Maria out of the way and grabbed her gun she went to fire at Fury but as Maria looked and saw she was aiming at Fury, Maria pushed Raava’s hand into the wall. Maria was only able to do because Raava had been so weakened by blood loss. Raava’s shot just missed Fury and then Maria took the syrgine from her pocket and stuck into Raava’s leg quickly. Raava gasped as she felt the needle prick into her. What the hell was Maria doing! She gave Maria a wide eyed and afraid look as she had no idea Maria just pressed into her.

Raava looked at Maria like she was betraying her all over again. Raava started to shake her head at Maria like she was telling her something. Maria thought Raava as afraid.

“It’ll be okay.” Maria said before Raava passed out from the tranquilizer that the skrulls were going to use on Maria earlier.

Fury just escaping being hit by Raava’s bullet made his down the hallway toward the passed out Rhodes and Maria.

“Whew, that was a close one.” Fury said as he got close to them.

Maria was kind of surprised that Raava did that. She thought maybe she was going to be able to get her switch sides.

“You let ‘em live?” Fury asked surprised Maria didn’t take out Raava. Fury looked over at the first aid kit and the tourniquet on Rhodes’s arm. Like he examining what happened.

As Maria was sitting on the ground in front of Rhodes. She thought about the question that Fury just asked her and how he was observing the things surrounding Raava.

And then, Maria felt something dark, her senses just went up on edge it like she was hit with a deep ominous feeling that something was not right as Fury stood behind her. Then it hit Maria just as hard as the bullet that hit her stomach days ago as she realized… Gravik definitely wasn’t going to be at New Skrullos. He told Raava to try and get the President to drop a bomb there, of course he wouldn’t be there.. because he was right here!