Chapter 25
[Classified Location], SHIELD Helicarrier
April 2011
Fury ran through the bowels of the ship. A low thrum of worry sat in his stomach, but he ignored it and focused on his stride. He’d left the bridge at a sprint when the alert for the dropped containment unit flashed on his screen, leaving Lang in charge. Fury knew perfectly well that Barton, Hill, and Romanoff would all have been better choices - they improvised rather than following orders to the letter - but he didn’t exactly trust Romanoff at the moment, Hill was down, and Barton was busy. So Fury’d gone after the closest thing he had to a friend.
Coulson. His one good eye was down in the containment unit.
Fury skidded around the corner. His heart pounded irregularly when he saw the door, hanging off its hinges. And blasted - in?
He slid to a stop in the howling containment unit. The hole in the floor had sealed in the glass enclosure’s wake and the air pressure was back to normal and Darcy Lewis, of all people, was clutching Coulson’s hand.
Coulson was impaled on a broken piece of rebar.
She looked up when she saw him, face streaked with tears. “Thank God!”
“Miss Lewis?” he asked incredulously.
“I called a paramedic team,” she said, voice unsteady. “He - Coulson - said there was a panel over there.” She gestured vaguely toward the observation rooms, where there was indeed a medical call panel. “They’ll be here soon.”
Sure enough, boots were pounding two levels up on the catwalks.
“Get out,” Fury snapped. “Wait for me two levels up.”
Darcy nodded her wet face and left, hugging her stomach. She was a civvie; she’d probably never seen such a wound before.
Coulson was barely conscious. “Sorry… boss,” he whispered. “He got me.”
“Who?” Fury asked.
Coulson’s eyes flickered. “Thor.”
Thor?
“Was fighting… Loki. Tried to… get Loki back in the cell. Thor swatted me aside. And…”
“Stay awake,” Fury ordered. “Eyes on me.” His mind was spinning. Loki must’ve escaped somehow, either through his powers or from the virus Hill hit the bridge with, and Thor arrived in time to fight them. Probably Thor got insulted when Coulson tried to intervene, smacked him out of the way, and this unfortunate happened. But where was Thor? Who had been in the cage when it fell?
“Loki… tricked Thor. Loki’s gone,” Coulson whispered, voice weaker. “Thor fell. I… hung on… had to tell you.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Fury ordered, but he knew it was futile. The medical team skidded into place around him, shouting things about shock and blood loss, but Coulson kept his eyes on Fury’s one.
“Clocking out here.”
“Not an option,” Fury insisted.
Coulson shook his head. “It’s okay, boss. Use… it. This was… never gonna work unless… they had something - to…”
His voice trailed off.
Fury had seen enough men fall in battle to recognize the moment life left his old friend’s eyes.
He stepped back and closed his eyes, letting the paramedics cluster around Coulson’s body. They were trying something with a defibrillator, possibly, but Fury knew it was useless.
Coulson was gone.
Unless…
Fury filed that away for later and pressed a hand to his comm. “Coulson is down.”
“What?”
Rogers. Stark was on the line a second later, demanding to know what had happened.
“I’ll brief you in the bridge,” Fury said, deliberately sounding exhausted. “Get Romanoff there too, Barton if you can track him down.”
A pause, then Rogers said, “Copy that” and Fury turned off his earpiece.
He couldn’t tell the team this was Thor’s fault. He was the single strongest person on the force leveled against the alien invasion that was to come, and Romanoff, Stark, Rogers, and Foster would all have a grudge against Thor. Probably refuse to work with him anymore. And that was not an option.
Which left one more question: what had Lewis seen?
[Classified Location], SHIELD Helicarrier
April 2011
Darcy watched Fury approach with no small amount of nervousness.
She kept her face crumply and the fake tears coming, a trick she’d learned for eliciting pity from her dad. It was the easiest way to make him go away when he was drunk; only that would snap him out of his rages and stagger off to beat the shit out of the couch in the backyard. Or something.
Although there’d been times when she’d taken his anger just to protect Lizzie.
Not that it had done much good.
Darcy shoved those thoughts away before they ruined her control and made sure she looked appropriately nauseated. It wasn’t all that hard, honestly. She’d seen her fair share of gory horror movies, but it was different in real life. Her tummy was feeling a little ticked.
“Miss Lewis,” Fury greeted her.
“Director,” she got out.
He eyed her. “What, exactly, were you doing down here?”
Jesus, no kid gloves. “I was looking for Jane,” she said. “When… when the explosion hit. And… I heard the PA… some guy saying the people who invaded were wearing SHIELD gear. I saw some guys with guns and I ran because I didn’t know who they were. I got lost and ended up down here. Loki was… leaving.” She shuddered. “I hid, and then I heard Mr. Coulson groaning and followed the sound. So he had me call the paramedic team, and then I stayed. It didn’t feel… I didn’t want to leave him.” Darcy let out a hiccuping sob and ordered another wave of tears to pour down her face.
Fury remained stoic, but she strongly suspected he was both uncomfortable around the weeping and also not totally buying her story. That was fine. She could always revise it later, and she knew there weren’t a lot of cameras in the corridors; it was too power-expensive to run many in nonessential or non-restricted areas. They’d never be able to really fact-check her. And Coulson was gone - she’d heard them saying so. And Thor had never seen her.
“Did… did he say what happened?” Darcy asked in a shaky voice.
Ease up there, Darce. Laying it on a little thick. But Fury seemed to be buying it at last; a tiny bit of tension trickled out of his shoulders. “Loki tricked Thor into falling down the containment chute,” Fury said quietly. “Then Loki killed Coulson for trying to stop his escape.”
Darcy didn’t think she quite managed to hide her surprise. Well, shock would be a better word. The lie was so ballsy - but then again, there was no one to cross-check him.
And if that was his story, she’d have to be careful about telling the truth. But she also had to tell the truth. Thor was generally an asshole, but this was way too far.
“I hope you catch him,” Darcy said. “Loki, I mean. And - is there a way of reaching Thor? To make sure he’s okay? That thing was meant for the Hulk.”
“We’ll find them,” Fury said wearily. “For now, you should go back to the civilian quarters. I’m evacuating you and Dr. Foster to Stark Tower. They’ve got state-of-the-art security and it’s less of a target for Loki than this thing. You’ll have better tech to track the cube.”
“What about Banner and Stark? Isn’t that their job too?”
“Banner’s gone. He hulked out, ripped a hole through the middle of my ship, and busted out the window on an escort. Stark stays here. He’s combat-ready. You and Foster aren’t. Miss Lewis, this is a military operation, and while you are onboard you follow my orders, understand?”
“Yes, of course,” she stuttered. “Look, I’m sorry, I’m not a military girl, I didn’t mean to question you, I was just-”
He softened a fraction. “No hard feelings. Go up these stairs, turn left, and tell the first person you see that Fury said you need a guide to civilian quarters. Dr. Foster will be there in the protected areas. I’ll send someone to take you to the hangar bay shortly after.”
“Thank you, Director,” she said with a watery smile, and left him.
[Classified Location], SHIELD Helicarrier
April 2011
Fury watched Lewis go with a frown on his face.
She was good, he’d give her that. But the woman knew more than she was saying. Most people would’ve been fooled by her sob routine, but Fury had decades of reading people’s secrets under his belt, and she was definitely hiding something.
Lewis had just become a significant liability.
Fury’s mind worked furiously. Stark Tower - he had to send Foster to keep the “evacuating civilians” story secure, but he needed her alive. She was too good to lose. Lewis, though… Lewis had to be dealt with.
Fury strode away. Not toward the bridge. He had to contact an ally, and he had to do it where no one would see.