#Secrets of the West Wing | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

brightnote · 6 months

Link

Chapter summary: Talos and Maria are happy to see Fury but the good feelings are short lived as tension rises between a frustrated Maria and an indifferent Fury as the skrull plot and other big revelations come out to the team.

Read this chapter below!

CHAPTER 6 “Welcome Back”

Stay or go? That was the burning question facing Maria as she grappled with whether to trust Talos in this moment. She never thought she’d have to ask that but the circumstances surrounding everything that happened were so suspicious, and Maria had to be careful, her friend wrongfully trusted someone and he was killed.

Maria decided to risk it, she was going to be cautious but leave with Talos. The two of them raced from the scene taking all of Prescod’s work with them and holding onto Ross’s things and devices as well so no one would find his things. Maria knew she couldn’t go back to where she was staying so Talos had her come back to where he was holding up. They were quiet for most of the drive as Maria was mentally trying to process everything.

When they arrived to Talos’s safe house Maria knew people were probably trying to contact her, especially after Prescod was found but like Talos said it was hard to know who else was involved, if they already found Prescod and Ross, she’d probably be next. Maria turned off and blocked her devices, she knew she and Talos were going to have to figure some stuff out and they were definitely the underdogs in this fight.

Inside Talos’s safe house, Maria and Talos went through everything Prescod had. Talos filled Maria in on what was missing or things that weren’t quite right, but Prescod was pretty much right on the money. It really made Maria frustrated that he went down this rabbit hole alone and didn’t trust her at all.

As Maria and Talos went through everything Maria sighed frustratedly. She couldn’t believe that she had really actually seen that slightest inflection of green, it wasn’t her imagination. Rhodey was definitely a skrull, that’s what made sense to Maria after learning all of this, and Rhodey stuck Maria in the middle of this, why? That part did not make sense to her.

“What’s up?” Talos asked Maria as he could tell she was festering as they went through things.

“I think I fucked up.” Maria sighed, her voice almost sounded like she was in pain, and she looked beyond devastated as she connected that Rhodey was probably also replaced by a skrull imposter and she had even caught a glimpse of it without realizing it. To be honest, Maria hadn’t thought about the skrulls in quite a long time. Now she couldn’t believe how stupid she was.

Talos looked at Maria for more explanation, but Maria couldn’t even say the words out loud yet as she had an even worse thought.

“Are they killing them? The people that the rebels replace?” Maria asked still recovering from shock of her realization. She was worried about the real Rhodey and Ross and everyone else who might be missing and gone for good.

“I don’t think so.” Talos said quietly and unconvincingly.

Then Maria paused, Rhodey remembered so much about their past, he recalled things from almost a decade ago when they were hanging out, specific things that had happened among the group. Could Rhodey have been a skrull fro years? A decade?

“When you shape shift as someone you can only channel recent memories, right?” Maria asked for clarification.

“Yeah.” Talos confirmed and Maria grimaced a bit.

“So if it was something from ten years ago were they probably a skrull way back then too?” Maria questioned.

“Maybe… or they learned that information from someone else?” Talos proposed and Maria frowned, had Rhodey been dead for a long time and no one even knew? Maria paused, her eyes looked glassy as she thought about it. Was anyone who they said they were?

“Have you talked to Nick?” Maria asked Talos and Talos looked stunned at her question.

“Have I talked to Nick?” He repeated, his surprise clear and Maria tilted her head wondering why he was surprised by that question.

“You said he asked you and Soren to cover for him, so I figured you were talking.” Maria explained.

Talos shook his head no.

“After that I didn’t hear from him. I tried.” Talos said with a sigh.

Maria thought Nick wasn’t talking to her because of a personal reason, but now she wondered if he wasn’t just ignoring her but everyone back here on earth. She actually started to get concerned about him, he was doing this so out of his element and character. She seriously had to wonder if Nick had been replaced by a skrull.

Maria and Talos exchanged a worried glance.

“I really tried, he doesn’t respond to me.” Talos again spoke quietly and somberly.

“Can you reach him?” Talos asked Maria and Maria shook her head no.

“He doesn’t respond to me either.” Maria shrugged, her voice sounded defeated.

“You got to get him. We can’t fight this without him.” Talos said trying to be encouraging but Maria looked at Talos like there was no chance.

“Talos, I think we have to prepare to fight a whole lot of things without Nick Fury.” Maria said seriously, it didn’t seem like Nick was ever coming back and he didn’t seem to care about anything that was happening here or what he was doing to his relationships with the people who cared about him. Maria was appalled learning about the violation of her trust that Fury just said someone else could be her without her knowledge her consent, she was appalled that Fury stole that DNA without the consent of the Avengers, and she was hurt that Nick kept ignoring her, it’s not like Maria was nobody to him, at least she thought she wasn’t, now she didn’t know.

Talos had a grim expression on his face as he heard Maria Hill, of all people in the world, say that sentence. He felt his heartbreak for her as he could tell she had realized the ‘Fury-era’ was over.

As Maria and Talos sat in the quiet for a moment. Maria really didn’t think Fury would respond to her if she reached out and she had the added worry of knowing that someone would definitely know she contacted him and she was trying to stay under the radar with Talos.

“There’s something I can try, but I wouldn’t hold out any hope that he’s going to respond to it.” Maria finally said. She and Fury did have a code a ‘come no questions asked emergency’ style code. It was really old back from SHIELD days and they had never used it. She wondered if Fury would even remember it, and part of her didn’t want to be disappointed that he wouldn’t show if she used it. She knew she could send him an encrypted message but she also know that people could see that she sent something even if they couldn’t see what it said.

“Can you try it, please?” Talos asked and Maria sighed, is a skrull imposter of one of the Avengers had the President’s ear and a former ally of Fury was planning a massive terrorist attack? That seemed like it should get Fury moving, but he was going to have to come back to earth to hear Maria and Talos out to get all this info. Maria gave herself a shred of hope that Fury would in fact respond to an emergency call from her if she used the -all in- code.

Maria took a hidden and secure personal phone from the car that she knew she could send an encrypted message to Fury on. She did know that even though someone couldn’t track who sent the message or figure out what it said—not immediately anyway—it would probably out her location was still in Moscow. Someone would definitely put 2 and 2 together and know she sent this. She did worry about the risk that it was creating.

Maria sent the message to Fury. She pressed her eyes shut and took a minute before she sent it. Maria and Talos needed Fury to show up, Talos was right, they could not do this fight without him and Maria genuinely had doubt that Fury would make the effort. She didn’t know what was going on with him but if he couldn’t snap out of it and show up, the world was in trouble, she and Talos were definitely in trouble.

After about an hour and a half Maria got something back on the device she used to contact Fury. She couldn’t believe it, did Fury respond to her message? Maria and Talos exchanged a glance when the phone buzzed on the table. Maria picked up the phone to read the response and she smirked and laughed as she showed Talos the response from Fury.

Talos looked it at and all he saw was some numbers he looked at Maria curiously.

“You can read that? What kind of secret code do you two speak in?” Talos asked, it looked like random numerical gibberish.

Maria just laughed, it was an exasperated laugh in disbelief.

“It’s GPS coordinates, he wants me to pick him up.” Maria shook her head, she was happy Fury responded even if it was with just coordinates to pick him up.

“When does he want you to do that?”

“Now, I guess.” Maria shrugged.

“Do you want to come?” Maria asked Talos as she grabbed her car keys from the table. Fury would be happy to see him.

“I’m going to stay here. Will you be alright going by yourself?” Talos asked Maria.

“Yes. Will you be alright staying here by yourself?” Maria asked Talos back.

Talos just smirked at her.

“Yeah.” Talos nodded.

——— WASHINGTON D.C. THE WHITE HOUSE A SECURE ROOM October 31, 2025 7:45 PM (Moscow time: 3:45 AM November 1, 2025)

In a secure conference room a group of high ranking military officials and civilian officers sat at a conference table waiting for President Ritson to arrive. Everyone was well dressed as there had been an important state dinner that was being hosted at the white house. Val herself was dressed in a beautiful navy gown as she sat down at the conference room table with the others, directly across from Rhodey.

Finally Ritson arrived and everyone in the room stood up.

“Sit down, what’s going on?” Ritson asked

“Mr. President, I’ve just been informed that I have one agent killed and two missing in Moscow.” Val said her voice was stern yet, concerned.

“You have one dead and two CIA agents missing in Russia? What the hell happened!” Ritson exclaimed, his annoyance with Val clear. That was the last place he wanted to lose agents.

“We don’t know that yet. I have people working on the data recovering locations, text messages, phone conversations, we’re trying to get in touch with our partners at M16.” Val sounded stressed.

“We put in distress signals to their devices and they have yet to be returned, the missing agents are completely offline.”

“Are they missing or hiding?” Ritson asked skeptically, with the killing of one agent though, Ritson wasn’t optimistic.

“We don’t know that yet, Sir.” Val tried not to sigh.

“Who are the agents?” Ritson inquired

“Everett Ross and Maria Hill.” Rhodey answered and shot Val a sharp look undercutting her in front of Ritson.

Ritson shook his head briefly as those were the last two names he wanted to hear as people they could not locate in a hostile nation. Ritson could not think of two worse people for Val to lose.

“Everett Ross is a fucking traitor so how and why the hell is he working for you again?” Ritson said in a demanding tone, shaming Val in front of the room.

Val sighed.

“Those charges were cleared. He’s valuable I need people, you know that.” Val tried to defend.

“So, I have an agent who will commit treason against this country, and a former SHIELD Director… who are missing in Russia after one of the people they were working with was found dead?” Ritson said out loud, his tone clearly appalled at the gravity of this situation.

Val agreed that sounded really bad, very, very bad.

“They’re probably hiding, they’re smart agents. They might be unable to respond to us.” Val tried to offer.

“We’re getting as much information on tracking and locations and communications as we can.” Rhodey confirmed.

“What happened to the agent who was killed?” Ritson wondered, he saw the photos that were put up on screen. “Agent Prescod, he’s been with the agency for 27 years, he was shot and killed. We don’t know by who.” Val said sympathetically.

“Who found him?” Ritson asked curiously.

“We think Hill or Ross but it was through an emergency extraction request through Prescod’s own device, so we don’t know for sure.” Val explained.

“We just got something maybe two hours ago an encrypted message was sent to Nick Fury on S.A.B.E.R stemming from an a device out of the vicinity of Moscow, but we can’t trace who it’s from or what the message says.” The NSA director interrupted as she had had half her ear on a phone as she was relaying the message.

“That has to be Hill.” Rhodey asserted.

Val let out a frustrated sigh. People had been trying to reach Maria and Ross for hours. If she ignored them to reach out to Fury only that was a bad sign, it was messed up.

“Are we sure?” Ritson asked the NSA Director.

“We don’t know that it’s her, but given the situation, it’s a good guess.” The NSA director shrugged. She couldn’t say for sure if it was Maria or not.

“Why is she reaching out to him?” Ritson asked. That confused him.

“Because that’s what she always does. I told you she would do this.” Val huffed clearly annoyed.

“Someone could have made her.” Rhodey suggested.

“Someone could be using her to get to Fury? This is all kind of messed up.” Ritson asked his voice angry.

“Why the hell is Maria Hill in Russia and why is she working with a fucking traitor!” Ritson yelled at Val.

“You told me to hire her!” Val had changed her mind on the Ross situation after Ross explained himself and she put him back to work. The charges were dropped and she did punish him by sending him to Russia, but now she had a very terrible ominous feeling that something was awry and Ross and Hill were in trouble.

“Hill’s not an idiot, if she wanted us to see that message she sent to Fury, we’d be a able to see it. So something is very wrong and she doesn’t think she can communicate back to us without getting killed.” Val pointed out correctly but the room did not seem to be on her side.

“No.” Rhodey shook his head no despite Val’s correct assumption.

“Someone who is working with them is dangerous, or a double agent and is going after them!” Val spoke over Rhodey’s dismissal.

“Yeah I wonder who.” Ritson looked at Val furiously, there was literally someone who gave away secrets for his own gain on the team, of course Ritson was going to look at Ross as the perpetrator.

“Ross isn’t a murderer.” Val defended even surprising herself, but it was true..

“If you give up secrets once, you’ll do it again, and this time it’s probably to save his own ass so, he knows what that man is spilling to the fucking Russians!.” Ritson scoffed as he thought about how dangerous it was to have someone like Ross working in Russia, and then Ritson had another realization.

“And Hill has a lot of secrets they can go after, doesn’t she?” Ritson huffed he was ready to fire Val on the spot but he knew it was more important to get Hill and even Ross out of Russia first. They were pretty much the two worst possible people for Val to send to Russia and lose there.

“Can we find out what that fucking message to Fury said? I have the most elite security agencies in the world, and you are telling me you can’t decrypt a message sent on the equivalent of a Russian payphone?” Ritson yelled at the table. What the fuck was going on.

———-

Moscow, Russia November 1, 2025 3:45 AM

Maria set up the coordinates in her GPS and drove out to an isolated area to pick up Fury. She parked the car with the lights out, hiding in some trees as she waited to see if Fury would really arrive. She saw a blue beam appear and then Maria realized Nick was really coming. It surprised her quite a bit. She was mad at him, she was hurt by the decisions he made, and yet she actually felt genuinely excited to see him again.

She saw a figure exit the light, but it wasn’t the figure of the Nick Fury she recognized. It was a limping figure, walking slowly. Maria quickly got out of the car as she wondered if he needed any help adjusting to walking with gravity again.

When Nick saw Maria for the first time in over a year he couldn’t help but smile. He was so happy to see her again, it had been such a long time and he knew he was the cause of it.

Maria threw here arms around him in an excited embrace. She just couldn’t help it they were so close for so long, the extended absence was hard for her.

“Welcome back.” Maria mumbled as they finally released from the hug.

“The world’s not on fire…” Fury said looking around the dark woods. Maria called in an emergency but everything looked calm where they were standing.

“Well. Trust me when I say nothing is what it seems.” Maria said seriously and Fury could tell from the tone that something was about to happen. The two exchanged a serious glance before the headed back to the car.

Maria and Fury went back to the safe location where Talos was waiting. As Maria entered the residence she dropped her keys on the end table by the door.

“Well that’s a sight for sore eyes if I ever saw on.” Talos said as Fury walked in the door. The two men hugged and then pressed their foreheads together.

“I see a worse one.” Fury joked to Talos.

Then Fury looked at Maria, Talos was not at all who Fury was expecting to see in this emergency call.

“What’s the emergency?” Fury asked looking at Talos.

“I’m thinking about trying a new haircut, what do you think?” Talos joked.

“Your looks? Well that’s always an emergency.” Fury laughed. Fury looked at Maria to back him up and Maria just shook her head and rolled her eyes.

“Why do I feel like you’re about to suck all the fun out of the room?” Fury joked to Maria’s serious look.

“You did that when you walked in here.” Talos joked at Fury and Maria took a deep breath as the two men continued to fool around like there wasn’t something of pressing urgency they needed to address.

“I learned it from her.” Nick laughed trying to make Maria crack a smile.

“I learned it from you.” Maria corrected with some snark which made Talos really chuckle and Fury grin.

After the brief joking around and welcome back Maria and Talos went through everything they had on Gravik’s plans and what agent Prescod had. Maria told Fury about how the Ross imposter killed Prescod and tried to steal the information so it wouldn’t get out. She wanted to tell him he died because he believed Maria was a skrull from when he had Soren impersonate her without her knowledge but she didn’t want to hash it out right now. The gravity of the situation Gravik was planning was too serious to get into this now.

Fury let out an exhausted sigh as Gravik’s plans to obtain a bomb and start a war between the United States and Russia were catastrophic. It would have consequences the world could not survive and with Maria saying that Rhodey was a skrull with the ear of the Ritson, it was really going to be bad. Maria was right, this was, undoubtedly an emergency and Fury did need to be here.

“Well, this seems bad.” Fury sighed.

“I probably should have gotten on this one sooner.” Fury admitted and Maria and Talos felt a little insulted. Nick was the one who as ignoring Maria and Talos, now he was complaining that he was behind Gravik’s plans.

“Do you think when I’m reaching out to you it is to tell you ‘happy birthday’?” Maria asked. She glared at Fury. When she contacted him it was important, he knew that, yet he chose to ignore her. Maria gave Fury some side eye.

“I wouldn’t mind if you did.” Fury tried to joke and Maria wasn’t having it now.

“Seriously?” Maria huffed unimpressed at his remark.

“You seem on edge.” Fury mumbled to Maria had clearly been suppressing some agitation.

She glared at Fury, what did he mean? Of course she was on edge, her coworker just died and everyone she was working with was probably a skrull and she had no idea where anyone was and what happened to them.

“Should I be concerned that you’re not?” Maria asked pointing out the seriousness of the situation.

“I don’t really know.” Fury muttered carelessly as he felt Maria’s glare.

Fury offered an unenthusiastic shrug as he sat there embodying a shell of himself. It actually scared Maria as she saw his calm unaffected state—-it wasn’t a grace under pressure vibe, it was indifference and that was terrifying to her. If Fury didn’t care about this, and everything that was happening before, what did he even care about? Did he not care about Talos, or about the skrulls at all? Did he care about her? What about the world and the many threats that remain against it? Had he given up completely and he was afraid to admit it? The questions floored through Maria’s mind as she tried to figure out what she and Talos could do without Fury. She wondered if she should have called him at all now. This was clearly wasting time for them.

Maria and Talos exchanged concerned glances, Fury couldn’t be bothered to notice the concern they both had and then Fury glanced over to Maria, he just looked tired and withdrawn.

“Look, you’ve done a lot and if you’re ready to quit, if you don’t think you can do another one, that’s fine. But you have to pick where you are because you can’t act like you want to protect the world and then not take the call.” Maria finally said directly to Nick, she was trying to be appreciative and empathetic, but really she needed Nick to figure himself out, time was running out, Maria and Talos had to get moving with or without Nick.

“Well.” Fury paused, never in his life did he think he would hear Maria tell him to throw in the towel. Fury sighed and he tilted his head thinking about what Maria had just said to him basically she was saying—‘help us or get lost.’ That’s what she meant, right?

“I get a lot of calls.” Nick said surprisingly dismissive of Maria with a shrug and Maria and Fury exchanged a bitter glance in the tension.

Talos was stunned as he observed the exchange between they two close friends, but he felt the same frustration as Maria did, really. Maria paused and she tried not to be frustrated visibly as she knew it wouldn’t help but she had really lost patience with Nick, despite being happy to see him again.

“Yeah? And did you ignore all of those calls or was it just ours?” Maria asked under her breath referencing herself and Talos, two of Fury’s closest friends the he ignored repeatedly. She genuinely waited for Fury’s response, she wanted to know. She knew it was better to let this stuff go and focus, but she just couldn’t help it. The way he was acting now and had been acting before, he needed someone to call him out. Their relationship was already strained, what difference did it make now?

Fury could tell Maria was upset, hurt, overwhelmed. She had never in her life been so bold to call him out this way. It was hard for him to hear it, he didn’t want to, but he knew he should. She had every right to say these things, he ignored her repeatedly until she just stopped trying all together, the same with Talos. He knew he was in the wrong, he should apologize but he couldn’t shape up and step out of this fog he was in.

“You called me, I came.” Fury pointed out, he did ignore Maria and Talos before, but he was here now, right?

Maria looked unimpressed with Fury’s response after he saw her expression of disappointment Maria looked away from him. It was hard for Maria to say these things, just as hard as it was for Nick to hear them.

The only reason Fury responded this time was because Maria used a one last ditch effort to get his attention. They had a code, a use this and show up no questions asked, emergency recovery code since back in their SHIELD days. Maria couldn’t send a message to Fury stating what was happening, even if an encrypted message would be decrypted eventually by all the surveillance in communications. So they had a code. Maria had been afraid to try it. She didn’t want to know their absolute emergency code would meaning nothing to Fury too. Part of her was relieved he responded and remembered, she was happy to see him again, yet, still, those feelings didn’t overtake the part of her that was angry and hurt. Fury had done a lot of things to Maria post-blip that she found hard to forgive or understand. Stealing DNA, getting in tense arguments with her, not listening to her concerns, taking off without her, ignoring her repeatedly, letting Soren pretend to be her without her knowledge or consent that ultimately cost a CIA agent his life. This things were hard to forgive and move past and at this moment Maria wasn’t sure if she could.

But Maria knew she had to try and get Fury to help, she had no idea who was and was not secretly a skrull, but she was sure Fury wasn’t, at least she felt more confident Fury wasn’t one than she did about anyone else and Maria and Talos were no match for the plans Gravik had. Maria didn’t realize how much resentment had built up in Fury’s absence. She couldn’t tell if her feelings of resentment were more than he deserved or not enough.

Fury sighed rather miserably like he was truly a tired, old man, as if he could not gear up for this fight. As he saw the look of hopelessness and irritation from Maria he wondered if what she said before was right, maybe he should quit, maybe he was beat and he shouldn’t even try.

“Do you want my help or not?” Fury then asked as he got frustrated thinking about the things Maria was bringing up in this moment.

“Do you want to help, mate?! CAN you?” Talos chimed in, he was also frustrated from the exchange which was clear in his tone.

“That’s the real question, isn’t it?” Talos added bluntly. Showing up was the least Fury could do. Maria was right to be concerned about Fury’s state and as Talos watched him now he was just as concerned as Maria.

“You two sure have a funny way of asking for my help.” Fury said almost with a chuckle even though he knew it was inappropriate.

“Should we have to ask?” Talos remarked in a shocked tone, Maria’s expression echoed Talos’s shock. How many times had Maria and Talos shown up for Fury no questions asked? Now when they needed him he was just ‘whatever’ barely engaged with them and clearly not up for this.

Nick looked right at Talos and then at Maria. He could tell he was continually disappointing them with nothing to offer.

Maria could tell Nick was in a funk he was not going to break it any time soon. She couldn’t be anymore direct with him, he was struggling. She knew she didn’t go about it the right way but after this night her frustrations had boiled over to a point where she couldn’t just let him think what he was doing was okay. There was a tense moment of silence between the three of them. But Maria was going to give up on this, she and Talos had to keep going even without Nick.

“I can take you back if you want to go back up to S.A.B.E.R.” Maria offered, her tone was much nicer now. It didn’t seem like Fury would be joining them, it didn’t seem like he wanted to be here.

“Well. This is a problem I caused and I alone am the one who has to fix it.” Fury said but he didn’t sound determined, he sounded grim, unsure of himself. Maria and Talos narrowed their gazes at Nick. Maria looked at Nick, was he saying he wanted to stay and do this but he didn’t want Maria and Talos to help? What the hell?

“Why?” Maria asked bluntly, that was the stupidest thing she had ever heard.

“What do you mean ‘why?’” Fury asked a bit annoyed.

“Why do you mean you alone have to fix it? If you thought one person could fix the world’s problems would you have spent your life bringing a team of superheroes together? Did one person fight Loki, or Thanos, or whatever that thing Stark made on accident that tried to kill everybody, or did we do it together?” Maria asked. Fight Gravik alone? Fury could barely walk!

“This isn’t a battle for them.” Fury said sternly.

“Uhm. Okay…” Maria looked at Fury like that fucking stupid. Maria knew Gravik worked on that DNA collection team and it seemed like this old shell of Nick Fury trying to lone gun it against him would be strategically idiotic and get everyone killed.

“You can’t do this fight alone.” Talos said directly to Fury.

“I’m here, Talos is here… we’re trying to help, we’re doing it, but you can’t help us if you go all solitary and do this whole ‘I have nobody, I’m all alone up in the sky’ act.” Maria echoed Talos’s stern tone. She was clearly annoyed with Fury and Fury was not used to that.

“Well… I don’t know…” Fury sighed.

“You can’t fight it alone you didn’t even know it was happening until we just told you, right now. You, Nick Fury, the man who knows everything, you did not know about this.” Maria said with strong irritation in her voice, his whole ‘fight this alone’ thing was annoying her, was he kidding? Then Maria did start to wonder if this really was the true Nick Fury. She didn’t recognize this person and it was breaking her heart to see him this way. But Talos could tell if someone was a skrull, right? If Rhodey had been replaced had Fury been replaced too and he was just going to hamper Maria and Talos’s attempt to halt this rebellion? That’d be a pretty sophisticated move for the skrulls and Maria didn’t put it past them.

“What do you want me to do, Maria?” Fury asked now frustrated himself.

“Care, acknowledge us, help us.” Maria answered quickly. This was a heavy charge Maria levied against Fury that he didn’t care but that was the demeanor and affect both Maria and Talos were getting. He was coming in here like he didn’t care and then saying he was going to ‘fight this on his own.’ It was hard for Maria to keep it together with this.

“I care! I am here. You called, I came. You can’t keep being mad at me for things that happened before now.” Fury finally stood up for himself. Maria was annoyed but at least some of Fury was still there. Maria and Fury again exchanged a tough glance like two long time friends who could feel the threads of their friendship close to unraveling. It wasn’t right for Fury to tell Maria she couldn’t be upset with him but Maria did know she did not have time to hash it out with him.

“Thank you for coming.” Talos put in breaking the tension between them.

“I’m glad you came, I’m happy to see you and we have to focus on this if you’re going to help us. But at some point we do have to talk.” Maria said to Fury and he could tell she meant it.

“Okay.” Fury nodded and acknowledged.

It seemed like they could move on for the moment.

“How many skrulls are here?” Maria asked as she looked to Talos and Fury.

Talos and Fury were silent. Fury looked at Maria and then Fury looked at Talos. Talos just shook his head.

Maria looked at Fury.

Maria didn’t understand what was going on. What was wrong?

“Do we not know this information?” Maria asked the two of them.

“There’s some skrull refugees around.” Fury answered vaguely.

“Well, I know that, obviously, but if Gravik has a whole rebel faction, what numbers are we looking at… it can’t be that many, right?” Maria asked.

“There’s… one million skrulls.” Talos answered bluntly. Maria and Fury turned and glared at Talos and every one was silent.

“There’s one million skrulls left or one million skrulls are here, on earth?” Maria clarified.

“Not on earth.” Fury responded confidently.

Talos was silent looking at the two of them.

“Are you telling me there are one million skrulls on earth?!” Fury asked shocked.

“You don’t know?” Maria gasped at Fury, what the hell was going on here. Maria glared at Fury. How could Fury not know this?

“I am learning this information just like you are.” Fury said calmly to Maria. Fury was stunned.

“Humans and skrulls can live together peacefully on earth, they have been hiding here and living among humans for 30 years.” Talos said calmly.

“Humans can’t even live together on earth.” Fury snapped at this information, appalled by this revelation Talos surprised them with.

“Talos, what do you mean? They’re in hiding, where are they?” Maria asked. How could there be one million skrulls here? Where the hell were they and how could no one have noticed?

“Among us, just like I’m among you now…” Talos said with a meager shrug.

Maria and Fury were silent as they stared at Talos grasping this revelation.

“Like they’re living as humans by replacing people?” Maria asked stunned.

“Borrowing the likenesses of those no longer living sometimes…” Talos clarified.

“Yeah but with facial recognition software people are bound to be showing up as dead once they’re recognized.” Maria pointed out, Maria knew that for a fact because those things happened to her from having died in the blip.

“Yeah but the blip kind of messed it up so people can excuse it more easily.” Talos explained.

Maria still didn’t believe it really made the problem far more complicated, how long had people been skrulls? Friends, family? Who was hiding as who?

“There’s one million skrulls on earth pretending to be humans for the last two to the three decades and not once did someone get hit by a car or have a heart attack and go to the ER… or anything that would out them?” Maria just could not believe it, statistically that was impossible.

Talos shrugged he didn’t have an answer for that, they just got very lucky so far. There was literally no other way to explain it.

“Talos, if a war starts between humans and skrulls the skrulls will be wiped out for real…” Maria cautioned, even one million skrulls were no match for well organized industrial military complex the world was under now.

“Or the humans will… if this rebellion succeeds in its plans.” Talos pointed out. That’s why Gravik organized it this way, to make the humans kill each other while the skrulls hid out.

The three of them were quiet as the pondered the implications of what Gravik was trying to do here, set up the United States and Russia in a war that would destroy humanity themselves and allow the skrulls to take over without getting their hands dirty.

“So Gravik went from helping you two years ago to leading a full on world ending rebellion?” Maria looked at Fury, she was confused by this, what changed so suddenly for him?

“Well, after years of working with me we drifted apart.” Fury shrugged.

“Well that doesn’t bode well for me I guess.” Maria mumbled Fury glared at her. Was Maria going to start leading a rebel group after working with Fury for years?

“I’m kidding.” Maria clarified after Fury looked at her with surprise.

“I didn’t know you still did that.” Fury snarked since their reunion had been a bit tense.

“What are you on about? She’s hilarious." Talos confirmed.

“See, I’m hilarious.” Maria said in a serious tone to Fury, not helping her cause.

“I always knew that.” Fury confirmed trying to be friendly and Maria sighed giving Fury a softer glance than she had.

Suddenly there was a loud buzzing like from a phone and the three of them looked at each other. Everyone had turned everything off. Maria went over to investigate as she could tell the buzzing was coming from some of the things Talos and Maria removed from the Ross imposter but they had turned everything off—at least they had thought. She found the device and it was from a blocked number. Maria and Talos exchanged a glance. This wasn’t the same the phone that they used for work.

“It’s from the skrull who was impersonating Ross.” Maria explained.

“It could be from Gravik, they don’t know he’s dead.” Talos offered. Maria looked at Fury and Talos and they wondered what to do.

Then Talos shapeshifted into Ross and he answered the device in case it was Gravik. Talos, Fury, and Maria realized they may have a sly upper hand here at least for a little bit to stay ahead of Gravik.

“Yeah?” Talos said in Ross’s voice.

“Where the hell are you?” Rhodey’s voice came through the speaker and Maria and Fury exchanged a look. Maria was right, Rhodey was definitely a skrull.

“I’m in Moscow.” Ross said as if it was nothing.

“Did you get it or not?” Rhodey’s voice scowled.

“Yeah, I did. Everything went fine.”

“FINE? Everything did not go fine.”

“What was I supposed to do? I got what he had, dead men can’t talk.” Ross’s voice asked annoyed.

“How much did Prescod have?”

“Not too much, just theories. Rough around the edges nothing exact.” Talos lied.

“You got it all? No one else saw it.”

“No one.”

“Where’s Hill?”

“I don’t know.” Talos wasn’t sure what to say.

“What do you mean? Your last call went to her, I can see it in the data tracking, we can hear a message from you asking for an extraction and her saying she was coming. Now no one can find her.”

“I called her for an extraction and then she went to find Prescod.”

“She must know something, because I just found out she sent something up to Fury a few hours after Prescod was found dead. Do you think Prescod told her?”

“I don’t think so. Prescod thought she was one of us, it was in his work.” Talos said as Ross trying to throw him off the trail at least for awhile.

“Did she call Prescod in and go offline? Why did you let her out of your sight! You don’t know what she knows and now she’s called Fury and not you. That doesn’t signal something to you!? Do your fucking job and find her before Fury gets there, and don’t let them fuck this all up.” Rhodey’s voice yelled and the phone hung up.

Talos shifted back to his usual human form. He turned off the device like Maria and Talos had thought they did before. It was actually good they got this call to cover for themselves and give themselves a little more time.

Maria and Fury exchanged a glance, the tension was gone now as it was clear they both had targets on their backs, and the skrulls were going to know Fury was here now.

“Well. Rhodey is definitely a skrull.” Fury said pointing out the obvious. Maria sighed.

Maria was mad at herself. She had a piece of this, a clue almost a year ago and she didn’t even realize it. How could she have fucked up this badly. She was mad at Fury at first but really she was just projecting anger at him because she was mad at herself. To get blindsided twice with massive infiltrations, how did she not learn from the first one? All this time suggesting maybe Fury wasn’t cut out for this anymore? Maybe she wasn’t cut out for it either. Fury fucked up with the things he did, but was Fury anymore at fault for getting Prescod killed than Maria? She could have thought about this more she could have investigated, she should have done more. She thought her mind made it up, that it was nothing. She couldn’t remember if she really remembered what she had seen with Rhodey’s hand or if her mind made it up, like when you get a flash of something for a less than a second, was it real or fake? It was real, and it was a mistake that was going to cost them a lot.

“Anyone else we can out for sure?” Fury asked.

“Ritson?” Maria asked.

“If Rhodey is, then I don’t think he is.” Talos suggested.

“I don’t understand, why would they be replacing people behind the scenes and not the ones making the decisions?” Maria asked.

“Maybe they didn’t get to him yet.” Fury shrugged.

“But maybe they did…” Maria said in a bit of panic and concern in her voice.

“Well nuclear war hasn’t started, so probably that hasn’t happened.” Talos tried to ease the worry.

“I don’t love that test as our barometer.” Maria tried not to roll her eyes.

“What about Sonya?” Maria asked.

“Sonya? Falsworth?” Fury asked.

“Yeah, she was working with our group if Ross and Rhodey were replaced she could have been too. And .. Director Allegra… that’s Ross’s ex-wife… and that probably explains why Ross was even back at the CIA and not in jail.” Maria emphasized, it was strange to ehr that Ross had been accused of treason and then forgiven and back to work. But Prescod did always say this was a punishment posting.

“Ugh.” Fury groaned a Val’s name. But those were solid possibilities that Maria named.

The paranoia was high. Maria was right, there was no way to know who was or was not a skrull. Fury huffed and then nodded.

“I guess it’s time for me to make my presence known. I’m going to take a walk.” Fury said abruptly.

“Nick!” “Fury!”

Talos and Maria exclaimed over each other at the same time. He looked back at the two of them.

“That seems like a bad idea.” Maria warned.

“Bad ideas are all I have, apparently.” Nick shrugged.

“They are trying to kill you.” Talos added.

“Who isn’t?” Fury asked them both, finally making a truly Fury-esque comment. Fury got up and headed toward the door.

Although it was frustrating it also gave Maria a moment of relief, like Fury was still there when he said this. She was genuinely questioning that at first.

“You need to come back.” Maria said hiding what she really wanted to say but Fury knew that Maria was telling him to be careful and to return as himself not a replacement skrull.

Fury nodded at Maria and then he left. Maria and Talos were reluctant to see Fury leave, especially after it seemed like the fake Rhodey was coming for Nick, but what were they going to do? He was a stubborn man, and he made his own decisions.

1 note · View note