We Deserved That
“If you’re just joining us for this breaking news announcement, there has been an explosion at the hospital where President Ritson was taken after the attack on his motorcade in the English countryside. Authorities have not disclosed if terrorism is suspected. The scene from the outside of the hospital shows a great deal of damage to one wing of the hospital where it looks like some type of explosion close to an oxygen line caused damage to one side of the building. There are no reported human casualties as the hospital had been evacuated prior to the President’s arrival for treatment and the President was removed from the building after being alerted to a quote ‘dangerous situation.’ We are waiting to hear more from British authorities.” A newscaster announced from the television as the breaking news banner would not stop running on the crawl below the screen.
“We are taking you live to the scene where you can see firetrucks are at the damaged area of the hospital. Again, we have no word yet if this was an orchestrated attack against the President or some kind of mechanical error or failure in the hospital. President Ritson and everyone on site were all able to leave the premises before the explosion.” The reporter continued.
Elizabeth Hill stared at her televisions screen in complete shock. She hadn’t gotten an answer back from anyone about Maria, and it was hard enough seeing her murder or attempted murder by Nick Fury plastered all over the news nonstop. People wouldn’t stop calling her to see how she was, but Elizabeth was only waiting for one call, from one person, Maria. She stopped answering hoping on whatever faith she had left that Maria was ok. What was going on in the world and what had her daughter gotten herself into? It truly seemed like any time there was a global catastrophe her daughter wasn’t far behind it. Elizabeth knew that meant Maria was special but at the same time she was just a human, not a superhero.
—————-
After the death of Pagon, Varra had convinced the skrull refugees hiding in New Skrullos that Gravik and Pagon were dangerous, not well meaning men, and self serving. Many of the skrulls agreed and they had long had faith in Fury and Talos. While there were resistance rebels around, the absence of Gravik’s leadership and arrival of G’iah, Talos, and Varra to set things straight left them outnumbered by good skrulls. The rebels at New Skrullos were arrested and detained by the large crowd taking control for themselves. Talos was thrilled to see this return to order and help assure everyone that things would be okay.
Orchestrating the return and medical care of the hostages was a careful game. They couldn’t just release everyone and let them walk out the door. The radiation in the area was extreme and they could all get radiation poisoning even by being in the area for a short time. In addition, the skrulls who were impersonating them had to be detained so everyone in holding had to be identified and their skrull counter part arrested before they had doubles showing up and people trying to guess who was the ‘real’ version of them. Talos, G’iah, and Varra, with the help of Fury, and world governments, helped arrange flights out of Russia to major medical units that could treat the hostages and keep their release secret until the skrull portraying that person could be apprehended. This task was massive and governments were arresting the skrull impersonators of high profile people all around the world while their human counterparts recovered and were released. But no one knew how many skrulls were wondering about pretending to be dead people or people who were not replaced.
Maria along with other officers on the President’s security team were all being treated at a hospital in London before being moved to a military base in the United States. They didn’t want Maria to fly with all of her injuries, same with the recovering individuals from the attack on the motorcade. All Maria wanted to do was go home. But given the state of her, she couldn’t really refuse. The President and the United States delegation went back to D.C. Fury was ordered to return to D.C. as well, but he stuck with Maria until federal officers came to escort him back. Fury disappeared right before the officers found him, the way he does those types of things.
Maria was finally able to talk to her mother and confirm that she was alive and that she would be back in D.C., soon. Maria was in the hospital for three days for care and observation. She had a great number of injuries that needed treatment, attention, and care. Her hand was undoubtedly broken and had to be put in a cast.
Maria hated sitting around watching the news not doing anything, but finally she was getting ready to be discharged and she got dressed in her very filthy clothes that she had tried to hand wash in the hospital bathroom sink with one hand. They were dry now, but it looked a bit rough. All she had to do was take one flight back to D.C., she could manage. As she gathered herself she looked to the doorway of the hospital room as she heard someone approach.
“Hill, what’s up?” Oslo asked peering into the doorway of her hospital room.
“Oslo!” Maria said shocked as he entered the hospital room, he stood tall, looking healthier than she last saw him, but still donning his eye patch.
“You’re not going to give me a hug and express all your gratitude for me are you?” He asked in an annoyed joking tone.
“No.” Maria snarked.
“Aww, I had a good zinger lined up for that.” Oslo smiled as he came in.
“Okay, be honest does the eyepatch work for me?” Oslo asked with a grin.
“Not at all.” Maria shook her head no as she spoke.
“I think I can make it work.” Oslo shook it off and did not seem bothered by Maria shooting it down.
“Can I sign your cast?” Oslo was still grinning.
“Yeah, fine.” Maria sighed and Oslo grabbed a marker from the table and then went to write on her cast but Maria pulled her hand back.
“Wait. What are you going to write?” Maria looked at him suspiciously.
“‘Don’t ask me to read a map’ no wait ‘almost as skilled as a man.’” He joked and Maria looked unimpressed and shook her head no.
“Ehh, I’ve changed my mind.” Maria rolled her eyes at him.
“No, wait, I got it. C’mon, it’ll be good.”
Maria and Oslo exchanged glances and she held her arm out so he could write something, he took a few seconds writing it and he grinned to himself proudly.
“Oh, god. What does it say?” Maria groaned.
“‘If you can read this, there’s a looming global catastrophe.’” Oslo smirked with a big obnoxious grin and Maria couldn’t help but laugh.
“Good warning.” Maria nodded and then she laughed again. She was so ready to go home.
“I mean really you should get that as a tattoo.” Oslo smirked as he put the cap on the marker.
“A face tattoo?” Maria snickered.
“I think you could pull that off.”
“Makes one of us.” Maria shrugged.
“So you are leaving, huh?”
“Yeah, I have to go get fired.”
“Bummer, MI6 will take you, probably. And also maybe take a shower… and the CIA will keep you.” Oslo joked and Maria shot him some side eye.
“Can you give me a ride to the airport?” Maria asked.
“I don’t have a car…” Oslo smirked and Maria made a face.
“If I give you a ride are you going to shoot anyone out the window?” Oslo raised a brow.
“Only if someone is driving too slow. C’mon let’s go.”
“Wow, you really want to get home to take that shower.”
“I really, really, do.” Maria agreed.
Oslo drove Maria to the airport and the car ride was nothing but snark and jokes.
“See you soon…” Oslo said as she got out of the car.
“You better hope not.” Maria held up her cast acknowledging what Oslo wrote on it with a smirk as she shut the door and headed for her flight out of London and back to D.C.
Upon Maria’s return to the United States she arrived on a secure military flight at Andrews Air Force Base with a few other members of the President’s team who were being treated for injuries in London after the attack and some of the rescued hostages. Everyone on the flight looked rough and barely any of them spoke the entire 7 hour trip, they mostly all just slept. People did seem happy to be back on American soil when they landed.
Although Maria had a few days to recover, she still felt ready to collapse. This was definitely in the running for the longest week of her life. She still didn’t really believe that she survived it. Maybe she hadn’t and she was really in one of those skrull machines and this was all a trick for her mind.
As Maria and the others walked the ground into the base a military officer who was also on the plane and had his hand in a cast just like Maria, smiled at her as he walked past.
“Someone said on the plane that you were the one who took down that attack, nice work. You saved my life!” He grinned at her.
“Do you want to high five?” He held up his hand in the cast. “Oh wait…” he joked to her noting her own broken hand. Maria just looked at him surprised, he was so young, in his early twenties. He thought he was making a funny joke but she just tilted her head at him curiously.
“Sorry, Ma’am. I’m just happy to be home.” He said eagerly as he walked at a faster pace than her and moved on.
“I’m not a ma’am…” Maria mumbled to no one as she realized he was gone.
Maria had no phone, she didn’t have a wallet, a passport, or anything and she wondered how she was even going to get home … well to her mom’s home because she didn’t have one of her own anymore. She briefly spoke to her mom in the hospital in London to let her know she was alive and okay despite the news reports. Her mother was beside herself in disbelief over the whole story. She couldn’t wrap her head around seeing Nick Fury shoot her daughter on a constant never ending loop playing on the news for hours. No one had been in touch with her since she reported the Russians trying to contact her. Elizabeth didn’t even believe it was really Maria calling her when she picked up the phone a few days ago. Was her only child dead or alive was a question that plagued her far too many times and she was ready for that to be over. This was no way for a mother to live.
Maria borrowed the phone from the service member who jokingly asked to high-five her since they had matching casts to call her mom and get a ride home. It felt very high school, juvenile.
The mother daughter reunion was a bit fraught, Elizabeth had high emotions, when she saw Maria she jumped out of the car to hug her daughter, and she cried seeing her again in person. It had been so long. At least during the blip Elizabeth could try and make peace with a situation out of her control and grieve with others, during this she was all alone until the news clip played. She had nothing to say to anyone who called because she knew nothing. Maria winced because she was still in pain from the experiences she had been through over the last week. Elizabeth was still confused about what exactly had happened.
As Elizabeth embraced her daughter emotionally she whispered, “I’m so glad you are okay.” Maria comforted her mother by rubbing on her back with her non casted hand. But she oddly didn’t cry, her emotions had run dry from exhaustion. She just felt numb and empty during the reunion and Maria hated it. Her mom deserved a loving return from her but she had nothing to give in that moment. Elizabeth didn’t notice though.
In the car the women were silent and Maria had to admit it did feel very awkward.
“What happened?”
“You know I can’t tell you that.” Maria dismissed quickly.
“No one can tell me anything, except apparently the news can tell me the Fury tried to kill you.” Elizabeth snarked back in the same tone that Maria always snarked to others, it was clear where she got it from.
“It’s really complicated, it’s not what it seems, I promise.”
“No one would tell me anything. They wouldn’t even tell me where you were, if you were alive, nothing.” Elizabeth recounted getting tearful again.
“We live in the post-blip world, it’s not like before, disappearing with no information, that can’t be the way anymore!” Elizabeth said in a bit of a rage to the air.
“Well, I’m definitely getting fired so, it probably won’t be the way for awhile.” Maria laughed to herself awkwardly and Elizabeth shook her head.
Elizabeth also loved Nick, the families had been relatively close and when Maria confirmed that Elizabeth didn’t see what she thought she did, that was all she need to hear to know Nick didn’t do what the news was claiming. But the news coverage had yet to reconcile the clip that it played nonstop on a never ending loop and associated with the attack on the motorcade.
The following day Maria drove to Langley to the CIA Headquarters where Val was eagerly waiting to dismiss her from service. Why she couldn’t have done it over a phone call Maria wasn’t sure.
As Maria waited for Val to finish up in her meeting a familiar face came into the room and sat a few seats away from her. Maria looked up and noticed Everett Ross sitting there quietly.
“Ross?!” Maria asked astounded seeing him again.
“Yeah, hi.” Ross shrugged but then he smirked.
“Did you.. did you go to London with me or was the the imposter?” Maria asked curiously.
“That was me.”
“When did you…” Maria started to ask but stopped.
“I thought I was going to Wakanda. I ended up in a skrull encampment…” Ross sighed.
“Oh, so it was really you who…”
“Don’t say that too loud, maybe I can squeak by on the timeline of that.” Ross shrugged and made a face at Maria.
“Well, she gave you your job back afterward.”
“Wow, I didn’t go to jail?” Ross looked surprised.
“To the bewilderment of everyone.”
“Do you think we’re going to jail after this?” Ross asked half joking.
“Did you notice any armed guards outside.” Maria asked seriously.
“Actually, yeah.” Ross frowned.
“So, potentially.” Maria muttered.
“How’s Prescod? I’m sure this was a good one for him.” Ross asked eager to hear about his friend and Maria made a pained face.
“I am so sorry.” She started to say and Ross looked at her confused and then he could tell by her expression what she wasn’t saying.
“What happened?”
“The skrulls killed him.” Maria said solemnly.
“Why!?”
“He was about to expose them.”
“What happened?”
“He called the fake you and told him everything, and the fake you killed him.”
Ross was quiet as he pressed his lips together, his chest felt heavy as he had a swell of emotion for the friend he lost, hoping his friend didn’t go out thinking he betrayed him.
“What happened to my imposter?”
“He died, but I took his devices and that’s how we learned Colonel Rhodes had been taken.”
“That was smart.” Ross sighed to himself feeling heavy with a mix of emotion. “Have you talked to Colonel Rhodes?”
“No, I just got back yesterday, but I hope to see him soon.”
“You should.” Ross nodded and then Maria was called into her meeting with Val. “Good luck…” Ross added grimly.
“Oh, I don’t need it, we already agreed on the outcome of this meeting before hand.”
“So, it’s just a gloating session.”
“You know it.” Maria mumbled to herself as she went into Val’s office. Why they had do this performative firing was annoying Maria beyond belief.
Val was sitting in her office, looking prim and poised as ever. She had identified six people in the CIA who had been replaced by skrulls at some time and she did feel great about getting them. She had a lot of questions. As Maria walked in Val looked up from her desk.
“Did you turn everything in to the guards downstairs?” Val asked casually.
“Yes.”
Val looked back down at what she was doing as if she was dismissing Maria already, this was some type of power play. Maria waited a beat as Val seemed to be done with her now.
“Is that.. it?”
“Yes.” Val mocked Maria’s tone from her answer earlier. Maria tried not to scoff or make a noise of course this was for nothing. Maria wondered why she even bothered.
“I don’t want to fire you.” Val sighed as if she was being forced to say this at gun point. “But, I have to. I can’t have people work here who work two jobs, and who don’t work for me. You’re never going to answer to me, you’re never going to answer to anyone else but Fury, and that’s too much risk. What if I told you to do something and he told you to do something else? Who would you listen to?”
“My boss.” Maria mumbled.
“No, that’s not your real answer. Who would you listen to?”
Maria was quiet for a minute, “Whoever I thought was right.” She admitted a bit defeated.
“Right. And the thing is, I can’t run a spy agency with rogue spies. Just like you wouldn’t run your spy agency with rogue spies. You see what I’m saying Hill?”
“Yes.” Maria agreed, honestly, Maria did understand where Val was coming from.
“It’s a shame though, that you tie yourself to that man, because you could do great things without him. You are talented, you are smart, and you really are..” Val grit her teeth before she said “one of the best we have.” Val sighed admitting this out loud. Maria looked surprised at getting compliments from Val, how sincere she was Maria wasn’t sure but she never thought she would say something like that to her.
“Okay, well. I am sorry I let you down…” Maria wasn’t sure what to say.
“You aren’t sorry, you know what you did was right and you are fine with it.” Val glared at her.
“Yes. There wasn’t really any other way for me to do it.”
“I get why you didn’t call me right away, you had to figure out who was who, but after you looped me in and made a choice to tell me you still didn’t trust me to tell me what was going on and you still kept working with Fury and not me. That’s why you can’t stay. You can’t work under the cover of this agency and then not work for this agency.” Val shook her head dismissively at Maria and Maria was quiet because Val was right, that is what happened, Maria took her cues from Fury and just looped Val in so she wouldn’t get arrested or stalled. Maria nodded in agreement with Val that this was for the best.
“If you spend your life following Fury blindly into the dark there will come a day where you won’t walk out of the darkness, but I guarantee he will.” Val added in as a warning and Maria was quiet again, she didn’t respond to Val lecturing her.
“And the reason I know that’s true is because two times you followed his bad ideas, his plans, and you almost died, twice, in a week because of him, not because you were thinking for yourself.” Val continued.
“Are you giving me advice?” Maria raised a brow skeptically.
“Just because I don’t like you doesn’t mean I think you should die needlessly instead of being out there helping this country.” Val said seriously.
“Everything that happened, it was all very complex. The things that happened to me weren’t Fury’s fault any more than they were my own.” Maria took ownership and defended Fury but as she heard herself say it and saw the smug ‘told you so’ look on Val’s face Maria pressed her lips together and felt a bit embarrassed because maybe Val had a point.
“No, they were his. And you can believe me because I do not care enough about you to lie.” Val corrected but not too harshly. "Alright, Tammy Wynette, thank you for your rendition of ‘Stand by Your Man.’” Val rolled her eyes and sighed to herself unsurprised and Maria smirked a little at that joke.
“You’re dismissed, I don’t need an encore. But you need to head over to the White House to get debriefed by the national security team.” Val ordered and Maria nodded as she knew she had more unpleasant conversations to come. Maria headed to the door of the office to leave finally. She guessed it wasn’t as bad of a firing as she was anticipating just really awkward and she was relieved it was over.
“Hill, you know the sad thing is, you could have my job in a minute if you wanted it.” Val threw out there as Maria went to open the door and Maria stopped and looked back at her.
“I guess it’s a good thing for you that I don’t want it.” Maria responded and the two women locked eyes for a moment.
“What do you want?” Val asked raising a brow at Maria waiting for her to answer and Maria was silent and shrugged she didn’t have a response.
“Well, that’s your problem right there, isn’t it?” Val looked at Maria smugly as she couldn’t come up with an answer.
“I guess I want a safe world for all of us to live in.” Maria finally answered with a sigh and Val rolled her eyes at that cop out Miss America style answer.
“Yeah, sure, fine. And how are you going to get that? I know one thing is for sure, it definitely will not be by playing second-string to someone who has long been done.” Val said in a genuine tone and Maria shook her head because she really didn’t know how to respond.
“He’s not—”
“There’s that encore I didn’t ask for.” Val cut Maria’s defense off quickly before she could finish and Maria didn’t pick it up because she wondered if Fury was also about to be fired and maybe he was done like Val claimed. He wasn’t really himself anymore, there were glimpses of him still there but Fury had changed and he was getting older, he was going to retire eventually and maybe — as much as Maria hated to admit it— maybe Val had made some points she needed to hear from someone who had no ulterior motive in telling her those things, or maybe she did have a ulterior motive in saying those things. That’s why working with Val was so hard.
When Maria finally left she waved a quick bye to Ross and then drove to the White House which took awhile. She had to go through security again just like she did way back when Rhodes first invited her. It was slightly easier this time, no ‘you blipped’ hiccups like she had back then, but she couldn’t help feeling like all the security agents were staring at her in a strange way, like they were looking at a ghost, some of them thought they were.
As Maria was escorted by personnel through the lobby and to outside the oval office she was shocked to see Fury standing there. She wondered if he had just had his grim meeting with the President. The two went to embrace and then they stopped awkwardly and then they did and they laughed awkwardly. Fury read the message on Maria’s cast and made a face.
“Oh, it’s a.. a joke…” Maria mumbled.
“Seems like a good warning.” Fury snickered and Maria smiled to herself.
“What are you doing here?” She asked she thought he was back up in S.A.B.E.R. by now.
“I was summoned. You?” Fury answered a bit shortly.
“Me too.” Maria nodded and they both stood there silently waiting to be admonished by the President of the United States, in person. Potentially both of them could go to jail for a long time.
“I don’t know why you have to come.” Fury shrugged, he was the one who had to face the consequences of what happened.
“Well, we’re in this together, right?” Maria asked Fury and Fury looked at her and sighed and shook his head.
“We’re in something.” He mumbled.
The two of them finally entered the Oval Office. Ritson was sitting at the desk looking pretty well for someone who was shot and in an accident days ago. As Maria and Fury stood in front of him Ritson was silent just holding his head down at this giant cluster fuck of a mess he had to deal with.
“How in god’s fucking name did this get so out of hand?” Ritson asked looking at Fury.
“How did you let it get so out of control!?” Ritson yelled harshly.
“I…” Fury shook his head he didn’t have an answer for the mess this was.
“One CIA agent was killed in this fucking disaster, and you are lucky it wasn’t more, almost was.” Ritson grilled Fury and he looked at Maria.
“And you, not that much better, by the way.” Ritson narrowed his eyes at Maria. “Going offline, waiting until the last moment possible to warn us about a bombing, hacking into a classified drone system, lying to me and all of us while we were believing the words of a skrull imposter?”
As Ritson recounted what Maria did out loud she did understand why she was fired and here.
“It was me, those were my decisions I told her to do them.” Fury defended Maria quickly.
“She doesn’t work for you!” Ritson reminded boldly and his tense reminder hung in the air.
“We only knew Rhodes was a skrull because of an accident, because he called the skrull imposter of Agent Ross after he died. We didn’t know where the real Rhodes was or how many other people had been replaced, and if Ross and Rhodes were skrulls I just didn’t know who else was in disguise. The last person who tried to expose the skrulls was killed and I was afraid if I reached out I’d be killed too.” Maria admitted trying to end the tension.
“Yeah, I get it.” Ritson waved his hand at her to shut her up and then Ritson thought about something.
“How did you know he wasn’t a skrull?” Ritson asked curiously pointing to Fury. Of all the people to replace Fury seemed like the one to go after, not Rhodes or Ross.
“I didn’t. I didn’t want to call him and I didn’t think he would answer me because he hadn’t in years.” Maria admitted again and Fury did feel a sting from that.
“You two don’t run an international spy agency anymore in case you both forgot. You are not leading the Avengers or able to act without any oversight or communication or …” Ritson paused his frustration very clear. “This is… this is tantamount to treason! I don’t know where you found the audacity to think you were capable to do this on your own.” Ritson growled and then he calmed down for a minute.
“I understand the risks you had to avoid and I know that I would have died if you two hadn’t intervened and maybe it wasn’t the best way but maybe it was… at least it worked.” Ritson groaned.
Maria was quiet because she did agree that there were a lot if issues with everything that went on with this, but there wasn’t anything she could do. Maria spent a great part of her time just trying to escape Russia and the skrulls. Fury didn’t know who he could trust as he guessed a great deal of powerful people had been replaced too. Everyone sat there in the silence.
“I want all these thin— people— skrulls, gone. I want them gone from this planet now. Every last one of them.” Ritson looked at Fury intensely. “You brought them here you get rid of them.” Ritson’s words were harsh.
“They don’t have anywhere to go.” Fury went to explain.
“They’ll find something that isn’t here if they want to live. If you don’t get them off this world now, I sure will and I think you and I will have very different methods on that mission.” Ritson said seriously to Fury.
“You get them out of here or I’ll name them enemy combatants, terrorists, and send the military after them. We’ll find them, all of them and you’ll spend the rest of your life behind bars.” Ritson threatened Fury.
The tension in the room was so thick it felt like the walls could shatter as Ritson and Fury glared at each other.
“And you’re not going to help him, you’re going to untangle yourself from this mess so you don’t end up in jail too. It’d be a fucking waste and disservice to this country if you go down for his arrogance.” Ritson added to a very quiet and still Maria. As he looked at her she was clearly in no shape to be working anyway but Fury almost got her killed twice now and Ritson had it with this mess and the skrulls.
“I’ve had enough of you two for now. Fury needs to finish cleaning up his mess. That is an order. Get out!” Ritson growled. Maria and Fury really did feel like children being scolded by a parent as the President dressed them down and set them straight.
Maria and Fury solemnly left the room, they didn’t say anything to each other until they left the White House entirely.
“I think our dad is mad at us.” Fury joshed Maria and nudged her arm a bit.
“He likes me better than you, so I did okay.” Maria teased back. The two of them walked to the park and they grabbed a coffee on the way and they sat on a park bench overlooking the water.
“We deserved that.” Maria said quietly. The world seemed calm and still from this bench in the middle of the afternoon, but they both knew chaos could break out any moment if Fury didn’t figure out what to do with all the skrulls. The two of them were looking over the water. It was a beautiful scene to observe on this cold day, but everything felt ominous and still overwhelming to them.
Fury looked over at Maria who was sitting next to him, looking ahead at the water. “I deserved it, you didn’t.” Fury sighed.
“Yet, I’m the one who got fired.” Maria pointed out and Fury grimaced because that was unfair.
“I’m sorry about that.” Fury apologized sincerely.
“It’s not your fault, you didn’t do this alone.” Maria turned her head to the side and exchanged a glance with Fury.
Fury smiled at her, “Thank god for that, really.”
Maria smiled back for a moment and then looked back at the water and the two of them sat there quietly not saying anything as they had just been through so much and had a lot to process.
“Are we good spies?” Maria looked down at the cast on her hand and the smudged joke Oslo wrote on her cast.
Fury didn’t respond to her for a moment but she heard him chuckle under his breath at her question. Fury smiled to himself.
“The best the world has to offer.” Fury said smugly and Maria did not look convinced.
“That doesn’t give me a lot of confidence for the world.” Maria admitted.
“It should.” Fury assured taking a sip of coffee.
“Well we are from another era.” Fury answered with a light grumble. Maria didn’t say anything for a few beats as she played with the plastic lid of her coffee cup.
“I don’t know, Nick. Maybe I’ll just get a job at the bank or something.” Maria uttered to herself. Fury pressed his eyes closed and laughed at Maria’s comment. He leaned his back against the edge of the bench and slouched a little taking a deep sigh.
“They’ll find something for you, or you could go teach with May.” Fury shrugged and Maria pressed her lips together thinking about that joining Melinda May at Coulson Academy wasn’t the worst idea for her future.
“Uhm. Yeah, maybe.” Maria hesitated with her response because she didn’t feel done but she didn’t know what she wanted to do and since she had basically ended her career as a spy now and she wasn’t able to go work with Fury she didn’t know what she could focus her energies and skills on.
“The world is a better place when you are around defending it.” Fury offered a light smirk and Maria looked at him curiously. Maria paused as she had heard that phrase before and she couldn’t remember who said it. Then she realized it was Raava as Rhodes.
“That’s so strange… that’s what Raava, the skrull pretending to be Rhodes said to me, when he asked me to come back on.” Maria shook her head thinking about how much she bonded with this fake version of Rhodes and how Raava had just jumped in and sacrificed herself at the end so she and Fury could escape.
“See? It’s so true even the skrulls know it.”
“You’re going to help them, right?” Maria asked changing the subject on what they needed to focus on, getting the skrulls somewhere safe.
“Of course. Clearly Ritson doesn’t have good plans for them. I just need some time, to try and get some peace talks going with the Kree.”
Maria nodded hopefully that would resolve things for the skrulls. She felt bad for them, so many of them were just living here peacefully and now they were going to be kicked out because of Gravik and his rebellion.
“What happened to the collected DNA?” Maria asked.
“T’eve edited it and Pagon tried to use it and got himself killed.” Fury answered.
“That was all of it?” Maria looked at Fury skeptically and Fury was quiet, he didn’t know how Maria just knew things, but she was intuitive. Maria knew from his silence he saved some.
“Get rid of it!”
“How do you do that?”
“I know you.”
“Avenger DNA is not going to save the world or the universe, it’s just going to make bad guys look for it to gain power. It is the plot of every bad sci-fi movie, show and comic book. Have you ever seen Jurassic Park? There’s like a whole franchise about this shit.”
Fury laughed.
“We don’t need it, it does more harm than good. It always will.” Maria insisted.
“What happens if we get a threat we cannot face or fight?” He asked bluntly.
“Then our time is up, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. And, I don’t know what DNA is going to do to help in that sense, what good did super soldier serum do? You don’t need Avenger DNA to fight off threats we face, we need good people willing to work hard and do the right thing. It wasn’t superpowers that defeated Gravik it was being smart, some luck, some science, and one skrull who wanted to make up for her mistakes and do the right thing.” Maria pointed out and Fury didn’t seem completely sold but Maria could tell he was thinking.
“It was Cameron Klein, a normal, regular human who refused to launch the helicarriers at S.H.I.E.L.D. while Rumlow held a gun to Klein’s head trying to force him to do it. It was Natasha Romanoff, another regular yet talented human, who jumped off a mountain and died alone so we could sit here. Even Tony Stark was just a smart guy with a lot of money who made himself into something more than that. There’s no shortage of good people who want to help, and who will help, with all their gifts and powers and intelligence.” Maria gave a Fury-esque talk and Fury considered himself impressed.
Fury nodded in agreement after a pause, he was pretty good at finding those people he could count on for the things Maria was describing. Maria, Coulson, Clint, and Natasha were prime examples of that. In fact, Fury could think of so many people that Maria was describing and just because things had changed didn’t mean there were not more of them.
“Okay, but you know, sometimes we do also need gifted individuals…” Fury started ruining Maria’s Fury speech inspired moment.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I am trying to be…” Maria started with a little laugh and she gave an eye roll as Fury ruined her teaching moment.
“You’re trying to be me.” He snickered but he was flattered.
“Yeah. You always get all the cool moments at the end and I would like one, okay?.” Maria sighed and then laughed and Fury chuckled.
“Yes, I know, I get it. Us regular people willing to do the right thing also might sometimes need some help from some of the gifted folks. But you know what? I really don’t think there’s a shortage of them willing to help either.” Maria said as she pulled her phone from her pocket that she just set up this morning and played a YouTube video of Kamala Kahn saving a child from falling off a building. Fury watched the video and tilted his head to himself.
“They’re getting younger, right?” He asked as he saw the footage.
“Or are we just getting older?” Maria asked with a shrug.
Fury sighed too but he had a smirk at the corner of his lips as he looked at Maria as she put her phone away. After Fury and Maria returned from the blip they had some tense moments and she told him she was done with this, that she needed a break from the world of superpowers and battling nonstop threats against the world. But as he sat there and listened to her, he realized maybe what she meant was, she was tired of doing it a certain kind of way, a way that relied far too heavily on just a few people because of their abilities and not acknowledging the work and sacrifices everyone else made. A change was needed for sure.
“We win when we work together, that’s always been the case. Always.” Maria acknowledged and Fury nodded in agreement. That was Fury’s thing, bringing people together to fight threats, then he came back here demanding to do everything alone, it made no sense and Maria was right about that. Fury got up from the bench and he walked over to the railing overlooking the water beneath them. He took the vile out from his pocket and he emptied it into the river.
Maria wasn’t expecting that and she looked surprised. Maria and Fury were silent after he disposed of what was left of the harvest. He felt like it was a funeral. But Maria thought it was more a sign that the Fury that once was here was finally back. She took it as a good sign for their relationship, which she did want to save, despite Val and Ritson telling her to untangle herself from him. Maria got up and stood next to Fury, they were both leaning on the railing for a moment not saying anything.
After a few moments with the sentimental pause, Maria tilted her head as she thought about what they just did.
“What if a fish swallows it?” Maria asked grimacing to herself making a concerned face.
“What?” Fury started to ask his tone in a higher pitch questioning voice as he stared at her.
“What if you just created some type of mutated evil fish creature and gave it all the powers in the universe?” Maria asked Fury but she couldn’t even keep a straight face as she started laughing.
“Well… I’ll be in space, but, if that happens, let me know how it goes.” Fury shrugged with a smirk and gave Maria a pat on the arm and Maria laughed at him.