Where Is Fury?
EARLIER THAT DAY…
Back at the hotel, a housekeeper walked the secured hallway down a row of rooms. The hallways were silent as most of the security team in the hotel had been rushed to the hospital in order to protect the President. There was so few people left from the attack that they had to be moved. As the housekeeper quietly walked the halls she made her way to Rhodes’s old hotel room. She swiped her keycard and entered despite the room having a ‘do not disturb sign’ left on the door handle. As she entered the hotel room she wasn’t sure if someone was there so she peaked around the room making sure it was empty. Although she did not find anyone in the main suite, she could not help herself to poke around and look at the things left in the room. She then opened the door to the bathroom and she jumped a bit as she saw the scene of the two bound and gagged skrulls on the floor. They were just waking up and struggling in their skrull resistant binds.
A normal housekeeper would probably scream and run away or call for help at the sight before her, but instead, she transformed into Gravik as he kicked Frain and Apox as they struggled.
“You two taking a fucking nap?” Gravik asked. So, it was Raava, she was the traitor. Gravik thought to himself. This was her hotel room after all. And here were her brothers tied up on the floor. Gravik knew Fury had to be up to something because he showed up to the battle and had organized drone strikes. Someone gave him the intel of what was happening and Gravik was going to cut off Fury’s source, that’s how Gravik was going to end this without Fury even seeing it coming.
Before Gravik got to the hotel, he got a call from Lyja. She told him that one of the skrulls working on her security team had been found dead and there was no signs of Varra. The betrayers were all becoming clear in Gravik’s mind, the old school skrulls, the ones of the Talos generation were turning on him and flocking to Fury. Raava and Varra were friends at one point. Raava was also the one who wanted a replacement for Hill to come to the hotel, and yet, here was Hill’s replacement bound on the floor of a hotel room with the only other skrull who had eyes on Raava.
Gravik pulled the gags out of their mouths as the two of them started to wake up but he did not untie them.
“What the fuck is Raava doing?” Gravik asked and the groggy men tried to remember what had happened.
“No, it’s not Raava.” Apox defended her, “It was Talos.”
“Talos?” Gravik made a face, Talos was merciful so it could have been him. It did make sense because he refused to kill his own, but how could Talos have been at this hotel with them if he was with Fury battling the skrulls? Gravik had just plunged a knife into Talos’s chest, so this story wasn’t adding up.
“Talos and Hill.” Frain added. “They knew we were coming for her.”
“Talos came with Hill pretending to be an MI6 agent, then he forced me back here and disabled me. They came back with Frain awhile later.”
“Talos pretended to be Apox, so I didn’t expect anything. I don’t think Raava knew.” Frain cut in.
“You two were compromised by Talos and Hill?” Gravik scoffed at how pathetic they were.
“Hill and Talos are working with Fury!” Frain yelled loudly.
“Ohhh.” Gravik paused and he looked down on the two skrulls on the floor with complete disdain, there was not a fleck of mercy in Gravik’s eyes.
“So, which one of you talked and ruined our attack plan?” Gravik asked.
“He did! He told them everything.” Frain said gesturing to Apox.
“No—!” Apox started to defend himself but Gravik shot him without warning in the head and his purple blood splattered Gravik and Frain and all over the white bathroom tile as Apox’s body turned green. Frain was terrified and shaking, he wasn’t expecting that.
“Did you talk too?”
“No. I didn’t, I didn’t talk.” Frain shook his head fearfully as he lied.
“Good.”
“It’s time for us to go clean up some loose ends.” Gravik helped Frain up and undid his binds. Apox was also from the older generation of skrulls like Varra, Talos, and Raava, and Gravik didn’t think he was exceptionally skilled or anything. Gravik also wanted to send a message to Frain, betray the cause and die.
Gravik decided to send Pagon pretending to be him to New Skrullos, he figured Fury probably wouldn’t show and even if he did, the radiation would kill him rather quickly and it wouldn’t be that satisfying for Gravik. Gravik needed to separate from Pagon to figure out if he was the one who was feeding info back to Fury. Gravik did not tell Pagon that he didn’t think Fury was coming, instead, he told him that he trusted him to get the harvest and finish Fury while Gravik finished off Ritson. Pagon was honored to do this for Gravik.
As Gravik sent Pagon in his place, he decided to really up the stakes of the threat by getting Raava to convince Ritson to bomb New Skrullos where all the hostages were. Gravik did not bother to tell Pagon to warn him or anyone about his plan to try and get Ritson to bomb Russia. Gravik doubted it was something Raava could even do, if she failed, he would know she wasn’t really in it. But if all the hostages were killed, and all of the evidence of New Skrullos was gone, it would be very hard for Fury to make his case that skrulls and Gravik could still advance his war despite the losses Gravik realized he suffered. At this point, Gravik knew he couldn’t really ‘win’ the way he wanted, but he did know Fury could still lose and that’s what this was going to be about now.
Gravik was furious, as he now realized that another skrull had to be working with Fury that wasn’t Talos, Varra, Lyja, or Raava, because Gravik knew where they all were during the attack. But still, there was a skrull pretending to wear the shell of Talos. There was only one skrull who Gravik could think was stupid enough to do that, but he very recently killed her. He saw her bleed out on the floor. He shot her right in the chest. Gravik saw the bullet go through her, she wasn’t wearing a vest like Hill. Gravik was perplexed about who he killed during the battle and he was livid as all of his the successes he thought he had were just unraveling wildly at the seams. Gravik was still missing a really big piece of the puzzle of how Fury snuck his way ahead of him, but Gravik knew that someone close to Fury wasn’t that far away from this hotel. Frain and Gravik decided to go meet Raava and Hill at the secured hospital where the President was recovering.
———
When Pagon made his way back to New Skrullos hours he was pretending to be Gravik and as he walked around, he did feel like the king. A great number of skrulls had flocked to New Skrullos after the news footage of a skrull was released around the world. They did not know what else to do. As the hordes of New Skrulls were packed into the abandoned nuclear site they did not cheer or clap for Gravik when he returned. In fact, many of them were furious that he put them all at such great risk for exposure. Pagon was not receiving the reception that he assumed Gravik would get. In fact, as he waltzed around the compound like he owned it, he felt the harsh cold stares of angry and fearful skrulls.
As Pagon entered a mess hall where a great group of new skrulls to the compound were gathered they all became silent as he entered, staring at him. They were missing so many of their friends and family members who died in the attack on Ritson. Most of the skrulls were not part of the rebellion and they did not understand what was happening.
“Gravik, what is going on!” An older skrull yelled at him as he walked in.
“We’re getting a home, brother.” Pagon answered as Gravik and the new skrulls who arrived panicked looked at him skeptically.
“You are risking us all, if we are exiled from earth we will have no where else to go! We will die homeless, separated, alone!” He called back and other skrulls started to yell in agreement.
“Your brothers and sisters are fighting for you, for your new home, to make this your home, so that will not happen.” Pagon tried to assure but no one looked confident hearing his words.
“Are my sons dead?” An older female skrull shouted. Her children had not returned from when they left with Gravik, they other day. In fact, no one had other than Gravik returned to the compound after the attack on Ritson and the skrulls who had been there before were taking note.
“What about my kids? Are they dead too?” Another joined in the questioning.
“They died in your failed attack, and then we saw Talos trying to help the President.”
“Talos, is not the skrull general anymore, I am. I was voted unanimously to lead you. So stop complaining, and let me lead you.”
“You’re leading us to our graves!” The crowd yelled and booed at him.
“Talos led you nowhere! For decades!” Pagon reminded.
“He brought us here!” Another skrull yelled and Pagon was caught so off guard. They were defending Talos, passionately, they were hurt over how many of them lost their family and friends in the failed attack. They were afraid of being expelled and homeless again.
“He can’t find his brothers, and she can’t find her parents!” Another skrull voice called out for two very young skrulls who were looking for their members who had died fighting for Gravik.
“They died! And Fury was the one who killed them, and Talos was helping Fury kill them.” Pagon defended.
“You’re not fighting for us for a home you are carrying out a vendetta.” The first skrull who started this called out to Gravik and a great number of people in the crowd agreed.
“Brothers! Sisters! We suffered a set back, we have not lost this fight, just bare with me and things will come together exactly as they are supposed to.” Pagon tried to appease the crowd.
“There won’t be a single skrull left if we let you go forward with whatever you are doing.” The older skrull added and members of the angry crowd started to step forward, but armed guards stepped in front of Gravik to protect him.
Pagon wasn’t sure what to do, he knew Gravik would never tolerate this kind of questioning and ridicule in front of all the skrulls. Pagon was here when Gravik strangled a skrull questioning him just days ago.
“If you do not want the protection of my leadership, you are welcome to experience what it would be like with out it.” Pagon told the crowd in Gravik’s unaffected voice.
The older skrull looked confused and everyone fell quiet.
“Are you stepping down?” The older skrull asked.
“Why don’t you step up, make your case, tell us your plan, and we will put it to a vote.” Pagon said as the older skrull who hassled him stepped forward in front of everyone.
“Tell everyone, what you are going to do to get us out of this, tell them your plan, if you think you can do it better.” Pagon continued as the skrull stepped up to Gravik an he looked Gravik in the eye and then turned to face his people.
“Well, what is your plan?” Pagon asked him.
“I” the skrull started and a shot was fired and the older skrull fell forward to the ground, his purple blood spilled from the side of his head as he fell to the floor and everyone gasped, people screamed, children cried and then everyone fell silent.
“Do you still want to vote?” Pagon asked mocking and some in the crowd started to get riled up and the line of armed guards stepped in starting to circle the crowd.
“He won’t kill us all!” One of the voices called and a guard fired into the crowd taking that speaker out and everyone screamed, terrified.
“Fall in line, or fall to the ground. This is real leadership, the lack of leadership you faced in the past is why you are all acting out like this.” Pagon did his best Gravik impression and everyone felt fearful and quiet.
Pagon felt a rush of adrenaline as he felt the power that Gravik had. It was an addicting feeling taking control like this, getting everyone fearful and orderly. He could get used to this. Gravik was the one who sent Pagon to fight and finish Fury, so maybe Gravik couldn’t handle his own role. Pagon was only supposed to take the harvest from Fury if he really brought it and then kill him. But maybe, Pagon would enhance himself instead. If anything, Pagon could make himself look like the hero, taking the real Gravik out after Pagon pretended to be him and terrorized all the skrulls here. Gravik would get all the blame for the mistakes, and Pagon could come in as the hero and fix everything.
As the terrified skrulls stood together, Pagon left them and retreated to a private area. The guards protecting him kept everyone in line, but the group of rebelling skrulls felt angry despite their fear. They did not sign for this, even if the skrull council had ‘unanimously’ elected Gravik as their general. Something was starting to feel questionable about that to this group.
—————
Rick Mason was basically on Fury’s retainer now since Fury paid him so much after he got Hill safely to London. Even though Fury had joked about how much everything cost, he would give up every cent he owned and more to get Maria back. The extra funds made Rick readily available for whatever Fury needed, and Fury just had a feeling they were going to need Rick’s services again.
Varra, G’iah, and Talos all met Rick at the private jet terminal in London. They flew out to a remote private jet terminal in Russia. The skrulls still had a few hours to drive to get to New Skrullos, but G’iah knew the way very well. They wanted Gravik to think they were falling right into his trap. No matter what, they were going to free the hostages and destroy the machine that could enable super skrulls.
G’iah was driving and the other two hid in the back of her car as she pulled up the guarded gates of New Skrullos. The two back windows of the car were wide open. G’iah stopped the car at a distance as the guards outside of the barbed wire fencing drew guns at her. G’iah as Fury, slowly exited the car, with her hands visible.
“It’s Fury!” One of the guards yelled and the two of them laughed to each other, but then both of the guards fell to the ground after two barely audible pops came from the back windows of G’iah’s car.
It was Varra and Talos, sniping out the skrull guards. The fallen guards turned to their green skin as they died and G’iah walked over to them and took their access cards and opened the gate. She then walked back to the car and drove into New Skrullos, leaving the gate wide open for anyone to follow or escape out of. The plan was clear, G’iah, because of her extremis capabilities would find Gravik, and Talos and Varra would go free the hostages.
But, Talos had reservations about this plan. He wanted to be the one to finish Gravik for good. G’iah protested, strongly. She had already survived two kill strikes from Gravik. Talos and Varra, despite their skills, couldn’t compete with the power of extremis.
As G’iah drove into new skrullos as Fury she parked her car and started to make her way around the compound, hiding herself from the skrulls who were present.
Talos and Varra snuck out of the car a bit later. The two of them had never been to New Skrullos and as they wandered it trying to blend in with others, they were both taken back at the familiar feeling of a home they had lost so long ago. There was skrull food, skrull plants, everything was written in skrull languages. They were in a sea of green faces, but both Talos and Varra noticed that despite the wealth of skrulls around them they all looked so fractured, sad, and dismayed.
Talos and Varra never thought they would see such a gathering of all their people together in their true skin in their lifetimes again. Here they were witnessing something amazing, that they had not seen in decades, and not a single one of the skrulls they saw was happy.
———
After Oslo, Fury, and Sonya got make shift sangius calor from T’eve, they were going to head to the hospital, but then Sonya realized they had to take care of one thing first. At least, Sonya and Oslo did and since Fury was hiding out with them and couldn’t show his face, he had to tag along for the ride.
Sonya drove back to her office and she and Oslo cocked their guns in unison as they headed right to Weatherby’s office.
Inside Weatherby’s office he was sitting at his desk watching the clip of Fury shooting Hill on a large television screen on his wall. He took a sip of his tea rather proudly as this clip along with the attack on Ritson’s motorcade were blasted all over the international news on repeat. The news broadcasters were constantly suggesting that Fury was being investigated for the attempt on Ritson’s life. Weatherby watched the footage with a smile as things were falling apart.
Outside the closed off reception area to Weatherby’s office Sonya and Oslo stood across from each other each by the side of the closed entrance.
“Are you ready to stop the end of the world?” Sonya asked Oslo in a bright and quiet tone as they took a pause.
“Only if my car is getting replaced.” Oslo exchanged a glance with Sonya.
Sonya made a face at Oslo, “Mmm, I was expecting a more action thriller quip type of line before we bust in there, do you want to try again.”
“How about ‘but then I’ll never get to see Hill again.’” Oslo tried another one laughing to himself as he remembered Hill admitting she was basically a walking doomsday warning.
Sonya laughed lightly, “Well, that one is funny if she’s here, otherwise it’s kind of mean.”
“Ready?” Oslo said to Sonya and the two exchanged confirming glances that it was time to quash this invasion so Weatherby couldn’t keep feeding things back to Gravik.
Sonya looked at her gun and then Oslo’s and then they both nodded to each other and put their guns away for a moment as maybe going in guns blazing wasn’t the best idea. As they put their guns away, a group of agents that Sonya worked with frequently, including Nigel, and Agent Watson and another agents came up to her and Oslo.
“Ah, everyone is here.” Sonya smiled and Oslo was taken back.
Oslo was confused, why’d did they just stand outside the door like two of Charlie’s Angel’s ready to pounce, “Uh, what was that moment for?”
“I don’t know, I just wanted to feel cool for a moment.” Sonya smiled with a cheeky grin before she opened the door and waltzed right into the reception area outside of Weatherby’s office.
“It would have been a cooler moment if these doors opened into his office.” Oslo joked to the agents and the agents just gave him a confused stare.
“Sonya is here to see you.” A female voice called in on the intercom for Weatherby inside his office.
“I’m busy!” He responded but before he even finished speaking Sonya came right in.
Weatherby almost spit out his tea as Sonya just came into his office unannounced.
“Sonya!”
“Director.”
“You are looking well for someone Fury tried to assassinate earlier. He’s 0 for 3 on his attempts, huh?” Weatherby gestured to the tv clip looping Fury shooting Hill and the attack on Ritson’s life. “Have you heard about this?”
“The attack on Ritson? No. Do go on, tell me about it.” Sonya said sarcastically with her signature bright and confident smile. There was no alive who hadn’t heard about the attack on Ritson, what a stupid question Sonya thought to herself.
“And what, Sonya, do you think of that?” Weatherby asked as the footage showed Talos injured face transforming partially into that of a skrull.
“Skrulls?” Sonya asked with a little shrug.
“Fury’s working with the skrulls, they aren’t among us, he is bringing them here.” Weatherby claimed.
“Oh no, I think they’ve been here for quite some time.” Sonya said as she pulled her gun right up to Weatherby’s head.
Weatherby froze. He thought Sonya might have been onto him before but with everything turning on Fury he thought he safe again.
“Sonya? What are you doing? Are you one of them?”
“Am.. am I one of them?” Sonya repeated with a heavy annoyance. As she did so, Oslo, Watson, and a few other armed agents entered Weatherby’s office and he looked deeply concerned.
“Is this a coup de taut?” He asked.
“How curious that you would point a finger at me, and ask me if I am a ‘skrull’ after you: tried to thwart the warning that Agent Hill sent out about a bombing in Moscow; you outed my interrogation location of Martin Wallace where skrulls showed up to kill us both; contacted ‘the Fox’ to get Hill and Oslo’s extraction route where skrulls showed up to kill them; then tapped my phones to find out where to send more skrull operatives to halt an extraction plane out of Finland; planted a bomb in my car at a location only a few people even know I sometimes stay, and then to top it all off, I was able to hack into your encrypted communications to find the location of one Dr. Rosa Dalton, who turned out to be a skrull named T’eve and forced to assumed the identity of Dalton to work on a mysterious skrull enhancement project. Now, I can think of a reason why you might do all those things, but ME being a skrull is not the answer I had in mind. Would you like to try again?”
“Sonya! You are MAD. This is all nonsense it is like amateur internet sleuthing not intelligence gathering at our level, please. Have some reason in your head woman! It’s all over the news, Nick Fury is doing this. He tried to murder you, and the President, and one of your own agents! Don’t be delusional, even Hill turned on him!”
“Well, if you aren’t going to admit the truth when I gave you the chance, I am happy to help everyone see your true colors.” Sonya tilted her head and Weatherby looked up at her his eyes catching the barrel of her gun pressed against his head.
“Oslo! Talk some sense into this woman. Watson, Nigel, one of you shoot her!” Weatherby ordered and the two of them stood there.
All of the agents and Sonya looked at each other and then Sonya fired a shot right into Weatherby’s hand. Weatherby crashed onto the ground from the pain of the shot into his hand. A swarm of agents ran into the room confused at what they were seeing.
“Sonya!? What have you done?” One of the agents asked looking at the other high ranking agents in the room who just stood there.
“Take a look for yourself.” Sonya said calmly as she gestured to the green hand on Weatherby. The agents all looked at him were stunned, except for Oslo as he had seen quite a great deal of skrulls over the last few days.
“Shoot her! Kill her!” Weatherby ordered despite the green on his hand clearly showing before all of them.
“Oh, god. The males in this species are nothing to brag about.” Sonya sneered.
“As you are aware, Director, we have no official policy on killing skrulls, so maybe you aught to be a tad bit more mindful with your words, before we have to kill you for threatening us.” Sonya grinned and all the agents in the room had their guns on Weatherby.
“She’s a skrull too! She’s one of us!” Weatherby decided to try one last thing to get rid of Sonya.
“Well, this is just sad now.” Fury’s voice said over the room as he removed a photostatic veil covering his face, pretending to be one of the agents in the room.
Weatherby froze as he looked up at Fury and Sonya standing before him as he cowered on the ground.
“You’re finished, Fury, you know that, right?” Weatherby growled at him grunting in pain.
Fury grinned smugly, “Yeah, looks it.” Fury and Sonya exchanged a little nod.
“Nigel, Watson, can you take this skrull imposter to our Max security holding cell, with the help of these agents. Do not allow him to contact any person by any means.”
"Now, let's give Colonel Rhodes a quick call and let him know he's getting a visitor." Sonya smirked and Oslo and Fury after the other agents left with Weatherby.
———
RETURN TO THE PRESENT:
Back at the hospital…
Maria knew that the Fury standing behind her wasn’t really him. An ominous feeling of deja-vu eclipsed over her from his presence. If the feeling that he gave off himself hadn’t chilled her to the bone, it was the words and surprised tone in which this Fury spoke to Maria as he came up behind her that really solidified Maria’s worst fear. The bewildered tone that Maria ‘let ‘em live’ when Maria chose to tranquilize Raava instead of kill her, this raised problems for Maria. First, he real Fury wouldn’t have known what Maria gave Raava, she could have killed her with some injection, but this Fury, knew what it was without asking as if he had already been aware of this syringe’s existence. Next, the true Nick would never be surprised by Maria’s merciful choices. Third, Maria could not figure out why Gravik would tell Raava to bomb somewhere that Gravik was supposed to be. When Raava tried to get Ritson to bomb New Skrullos in the other room Maria knew something was wrong, but she didn’t have a chance to contact Nick.
As she felt a cold presence behind her it all clicked together. Gravik was luring Fury to the potential strike zone because Gravik always knew that Fury would never bring him what he wanted, and Gravik was going to come here and side with the fake Rhodes to convince Ritson to finalize the strike. If Ritson bombed New Skrullos, all of the hostages would be killed leaving no evidence that they were ever taken at all and their skrull replacements could fuel Gravik’s war undetected all while angry skrulls who lost family members would mobilize to fight against the Americans for killing their friends and family. It was clear that Gravik was aware he was missing a lot of the shots he took lately, and now he was going to try and redeem himself with one major play.
Maria wondered what she should say and then she realized she didn’t know what she could do. Gravik enhanced himself with extremis. It’s not like she could shoot him, and it figured that Maria wasn’t part of the group of people who got the injectable to raise his body temperature to work against the extremis. She had no plan. What was she going to do? Did she play along? Did she out him? As the stress of the situation pressed down on Maria all she could hear for a moment was the slight hum of the fluorescent light.
As the moments widened between when Fury first spoke to Maria realizing what was really going on, Gravik could tell she suspected something this time. Maria heard Gravik’s arm move slightly behind her and she quickly turned to the side as Gravik used the handle of his gun to strike Maria on the side of her face. He hit her hard enough that it hurt and knocked her fully to the ground, but not not hard enough to kill her. He couldn’t do that yet, Gravik had some questions and he knew Hill would have the answers.
Maria felt the world tilt as the cold blunt handle of Gravik’s gun slammed into skin. She felt a burst pain rushing through her cheekbone and radiating through her face and head. Maria yelped from the pain. The impact sent her falling forward, crashing onto the sterile tiled floor. She felt a wave of disorientation overtake her, her vision blurring from her eyes watering.
Maria squinted her eyes and she saw the gun she knocked out of Raavea’s hand just moments ago before she stopped Raava from shooting ‘Fury.’ She couldn’t think and she instinctively crawled toward it as anger and adrenaline surged within her.
Gravik merely rolled his eyes to himself as he saw her go for the gun on the ground. Gravik walked forward calmly as he watched the recovering Maria drag her body toward the gun. He caught up with her instantly and then he stepped right on Maria’s hand as she reached for a weapon to try and subdue Gravik. Maria yelled loudly from the pain as it felt like he was going to crush the bones in her hand but he took the pressure off as she stopped moving and he picked up the gun for himself.
“Aw, you almost made it.” Gravik mocked her.
Maria was completely frozen as she waited for the result she knew was coming, she escaped death far too many times in the last few days to make it out of this one. If there was ever a moment for a Fury-esque surprise reveal from the shadows, it was now. As Maria looked up the empty hallway she knew that moment was not happening for her, and this perplexed her as well because even if Fury wasn’t here yet, where was everybody else? There was a whole team of security not that far from here. What happened to them? As Maria’s mind started to wander trying to figure out what was going on she felt Gravik’s tight grip grab her hair, close to her scalp and he pulled her up from the ground. Maria helped herself up to take the pressure off his grip from her hair.
With her hair still tight in his grip, Gravik pulled Maria’s face right up to his, still disguised as Fury, making it even more traumatic for her.
“Your move.” Gravik baited her as he held her face against his with the gun pointed at her in his other hand.
Maria couldn’t help the deep fearful breaths she was taking. But she knew she couldn’t take Gravik’s bait. Even though Maria reacted in the moment on the ground, going for the gun in front of her, she had a gun on her, and the taser from Talos. But Maria figured that if Gravik was going to take his shot he would have done it, when she was on the ground, but he didn’t… yet. If she showed her cards now, she’d have nothing to use against him. This was going to be a game of stalling and hitting him when he didn’t see it coming.
“Nothing, then?” Gravik asked like he was being considerate giving her a chance to fight back knowing he’d survive anything that’d she could throw at him. Gravik could tell she was out of tricks.
“All out of moves, I guess now it’s time to start talking.” Gravik waved the gun in Maria’s face. Maria pressed her eyes shut as he pushed the barrel of his gun into her face harshly, but then Gravik heard a slight noise.
He looked around the hallway and then decided it was best to move into one of the empty hospital rooms. Gravik dragged Maria down the hall and around the corner before he pulled into her a room. Gravik realized he had another problem, he was going to have to do something with Raava in the hall. He was going to have to move her out of sight.
Gravik pushed Maria up against a wall in the hospital room. And he handcuffed one of her wrists to a metal rail on the wall that was there to help handicapped people or those with disabilities stand.
“You have a phone?” Gravik asked Maria and Maria nodded.
“Give it to me.” He ordered coldly his gun still trained on Maria’s face and she slowly moved her hand into her front jeans pocket to pull out her phone and give it to Gravik as he demanded. Gravik put Maria’s phone in his pocket and he then he turned and started to leave the room and Maria was confused. Gravik left and went back to find Raava’s body, which he started to drag back to the hospital room Maria was in.
When Maria was alone, she tried get her hand out of the cuff that was attached to the metal bar, but of course Gravik attached the hand he didn’t step on so trying to break her thumb and slip out of the cuff would give her two injured hands while trying to fight Gravik seemed like it would only make her death sentence more painful and imminent.
From the pain Maria had in her face and hand, and the fear she was trembling with her eyes wouldn’t stop watering. She was genuinely afraid. Gravik already tried to kill her multiple times and one of these times he was going to do it.
As Gravik returned he carelessly dragged Rhodes’s body into the room and then Gravik shut the door to the hospital room.
Gravik returned to where he had just been standing right up against Maria grabbing her hair and holding it tight in his hand pulling her head back forcefully.
"Where's the harvest?"
Maria shook her head, her hair pulling in Gravik's hand signaling she wasn't going to answer that and Gravik pulled her head back sharply and painfully, with a force like he felt like he could pull her head right off her neck, Maria cried from the pain of it.
"It doesn't exist!" She cried.
"It doesn't exist?" Gravik repeated with a smirk. "Are you seriously going to tell me, something I collected, doesn't exist? Are you that stupid. What did Fury ever see in you?"
"I don't know, but whatever he did, it drives you crazy." Maria responded hatefully with a loud huff and Gravik forced Maria's body against the wall harshly, and she banged her head and shoulder against it from the blunt force, Maria grunted and cried painfully.
"Where is the harvest?" Gravik repeated again in far more sinister tone.
Maria could not think, she didn't know what to say. It was all the more frustrating that Gravik could just take this information from her if he wanted it without force or injury and yet he chose to make her do it this way, cause the pain and force the betrayal. It was cruelty at its finest. Maria didn't know what to answer, she had no idea how far anyone was with their plan, but she knew Fury had to be close by or almost here. But she didn't want Gravik to know that.
"It's gone, it doesn't exist anymore." Maria rephrased.
"Nice try, Fury is far too much of a narcissist to ever destroy it."
"No, you're too much of a disappointment to let him think he could ever keep it." Maria shot back quickly. Gravik had to wonder if there was truth to this. Fury didn't deliver the harvest when Gravik lied to him and said he had his prodigal daughter in his hands, but this time Gravik did for real, and he wondered if giving up to Fury what he really wanted too early did give Fury reason to destroy the harvest, Gravik was the one Fury trusted with this and Gravik turned it on him, what Maria said hit hard because it rang true to Gravik. It confirmed Gravik's suspicion that Fury was never going to New Skrullos and never going to give him what he wanted so badly, Fury never came through for Gravik.
"You want to call Fury and say goodbye?" Gravik baited.
"He's busy."
"Busy? He has been too busy for you, for quite some time, huh? And then when he wasn't, you called, he came like everything was fine but then he just left you there on the cold ground in Moscow to die." Gravik started to gloat and Maria looked away from him.
"That's what he does, he leaves people behind. Once you aren't useful to him anymore, just bleed out of the fucking ground while he goes to see his real family. I know I'm not part of his family, but do you? You'd think after 20 years he'd at least look for you, try to find you, after all you did for him. But this how it ends for you, going out alone, on the heels of betrayal, for someone who was going to let you rot in Russian prison or die on the cold hard ground, never even saying a single thank you." Gravik tried to rile Maria up, the things Gravik said hurt, for sure, but the longer he talked, the longer she could stall.
"You think you're special, that he picked you, some man paid attention to you after your real dad couldn't give two shits about you. But, really, he just did the same ruthless manipulation to you that he did to us. Use us and forget about us, let us kill for him, let us get caught for him, let us do the dirty work while he hides. That's what Fury does, he hides, you help him hide. You think your relationship with him is real, but what did you ever get out of it except filling some lost father-daughter void because one day he lied to you claiming that you mattered." Gravik took a pause and he heard Maria scoff at him.
"People come back for those who matter to them, and he didn't come back for you, did he?"
Gravik asked in a bitterly painful tone.
"You went back to him." Gravik announced trying to make Maria feel more pathetic and hurt than she already did. "He didn't lift a finger for you, he left you to suffer or die and you still fought your way back to him, like some abused dog who doesn't know better." Gravik laughed at his own words menacingly. "He didn't even come here to help you. You made it all the way to London, on your own, and you ran back to him and he dropped you right off where he could use you and left again. When are you going to learn?" Gravik continued this time trying to bait Maria in the most hurtful way possible.
"We're props for people like him. You think you're better than me or that you matter more to him than me because I didn't get decades of his faux affection. No, you are just dumb enough to believe it was real. He has a pattern, you know it's real, you see it, you live it. Me too. You don't work for him anymore, so you're out here showing him you can still do it just to get him to care about you again, it's pathetic. You will never matter, to someone like Fury, because you are just a replaceable prop or tool, and he has lots of younger, more talented, more capable, far more relevant people in his back pocket than you." Gravik shook his head to himself, he almost felt bad for her as he spouted this off.
"Are you done?" Maria asked as she turned to look at Gravik after his monologue was hopefully over, her voice painfully enraged.
"You're mad because you know it's true. I was there at the bar in Moscow, I heard your little talk. He didn't even think you had a right to be mad at him after he ignored your calls for years. He's never been accountable for one single thing in his whole life. That's not like you and I, we face our consequences, don't we?" Gravik asked almost like he and Maria were pals, now.
Maria could hear Talos's voice in her mind 'skrulls are good at mind games.' He told her that bluntly and between everything with G'iah, Raava, and now Gravik Maria knew this was absolutely the case. They hit deep, on purpose, they went for the rage, the doubt, the misery, all the pain and Gravik did hit on deep personal topics and fears that he pulled right out on the surface putting them all on the table in front of both of them.
"Let Fury pay the price for once, let him face the consequence he deserves." Gravik said like a plea. Maria shook her head no still.
"I'll let you live. Consider it a trade. You let my soldier Raava live, and I'll let you, Fury's soldier live if you tell me, yourself, where he is." Gravik tried to barter and Maria just rolled her eyes, she knew a lie when she heard one. "It's a good deal." Gravik pressured again.
"The cult of Fury has too hard a hold on you, but don't worry. I can bring you back to reality." Gravik smiled as he elbowed Maria right in the stomach, right where her bruise was from being shot and Maria cried loudly gripping her abdomen with her free hand.
“Where is Fury!”
Maria just let out a sound of pain she held onto her stomach.
Gravik glared at Maria hatefully as she refused to answer him. “Don’t lie, I have a fool-proof method of knowing if you do and I’ll break your other hand, to start.” Of course Gravik could have just touched Maria to get all the answers he wanted, but terrorizing her before he killed her for real after forcing her to betray Fury's plans was just a bonus for him, he was enjoying every moment of it.
“Then do it that way.” Maria muttered hatefully.
Gravik gave Maria a smug obnoxious smile. “Oh, no. You don’t get the easy way out. This time instead of you dying thinking Fury betrayed you, you get to die knowing you betrayed him. Isn’t it that a nice little wrap up for me? I gave you an out, you don't want it, you don't know what's good for you. So this is what you get now.”
Maria didn’t say anything again.
“Where is Fury?” Gravik glared at Maria.
Maria shook her head no at him like she wouldn’t dare tell him, even though it hurt her physically to do so.
“You want to make a show of it when he’s not even here? For what?” Gravik asked her and gave her an annoyed eye roll and Maria glared right at him. Irritated and losing patience already, Gravik struck the other side of Maria’s face with the handle of Raava’s gun this time.
Maria’s head flung toward the wall, bumping into it from the strike and Maria could taste blood in her mouth forming from being hit. She slid down the wall to the floor and her cuffed wrist hung from the railing on the wall above her. She couldn’t help the crying that came from the pain.
“Humans are so fragile. Maybe keep that in mind as this progresses. I don't even need a gun for this, but blunt force trauma is a hard and slow way to go...” Gravik muttered with a little laugh looking over Maria’s pathetic state beneath him. He took a deep slow sigh to make his impatience known.
“Where is Fury?” Gravik repeated for a third time.