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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Secret Invasion (TV 2023) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Characters: Maria Hill, Everett Ross, Talos (Marvel), Soren (Marvel), Nick Fury, Sonya Falsworth, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Gravik (Marvel) Summary: Prior to the events in Secret Invasion: In the fall 2024 Talos and Soren get a sense of Gravik's plans to start a skrull rebellion, but Gravik evades them. Skrull Raava has been impersonating Colonel James Rhodes & Everett Ross has been replaced by a skrull. Maria Hill is hired by the CIA in order for Ross an Rhodey to keep tabs on her and any contact she makes with Nick Fury.

This story explains the background of how Maria and Talos got tangled up with this Rhodey/Ross/Gravik web. It explains how and why Maria was just randomly in Russia and how she started working with "Ross." This story also explores the emotional trauma from the blip and the mess that those who returned were thrown into--Maria being one of them.

London - September 1, 2024 - 1:43 AM After the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Talos and Soren, still disguised as Nick Fury and Maria Hill have been working on clearing up the aftermath of the events that left London in havoc. With their crew they remained underground trying to piece things together, never letting their true forms known. The mess up that Talos had fallen for had cost lives, it endangered so many. The real Nick Fury and Maria Hill would be furious—truly. But the world had changed, Fury said nothing about it he had dived off into space, setting up S.A.B.E.R space station, hiding from his problems.

One evening, Soren could tell she was being followed, her senses for danger were enhanced by her impersonation of Maria who had unbelievable skills of detection and defense. She ducked around the edge of the dark wet underground tunnel in which she had been walking. She silently pulled her gun from her holster.

“Hill!” Fury’s voice called out from around the ledge, but Soren knew it wasn’t Talos. It couldn’t be Fury for real, she knew where he was.

Soren remained silent behind the ledge but she could tell the Fury imposter was right on the other side.

“Are you running from me?” Fury’s voice repeated.

“We don’t have to play this game.” Gravik shifted from Fury back into his usual human form, his voice becoming clear.

Soren heard Gravik’s voice and she was still uneasy, she remained impersonated Maria. Maria had better defenses than her, using her form came with skills she didn’t have herself. Soren was so close to getting to Talos, but she didn’t Gravik to get to him either. She knew he had been up to dark dealings.

“C’mon, show yourself.” Gravik continued.

Soren stayed still as she debated what Gravik knew, did he know she wasn’t Maria Hill, could he sense a fellow skrull. Maria and Gravik did know each other, but why would he follow her as Fury?

“What’s wrong?” Gravik asked almost evilly, like he knew he had her cornered.

“Do you have a bad feeling about me?” Gravik asked again as he stepped closer, ready to take her out.

Soren looked at her options, she cornered herself around the edge of a brick wall, a small corridor. She noticed some bricks in he wall sticking out. She pulled her gun up close to her.

“I know what you’re doing. I know what you’re planning, you’re going to lose and a lot of people are…” Soren started but Gravik stepped around the corridor and started shooting. Soren ducked over to the other side of the wall, low to the ground as she aimed up and shot at Gravik, shooting him in the upper arm.

His arm turned bright green from the shot then a fierce red and orange fiery glow before it healed itself. Gravik froze as he healed. Soren kept shooting at him while he froze, each bullet hole healing itself in the bright glow.

What was this!? Soren was stunned, was Gravik invincible? How?

In an effort to get away, Soren rained fire over Gravik as the healing mechanism did make him pause for a few moments. Gravik flung backwards from the pain of the bullets and Soren bolted through the opening back into the open tunnel she raced down the dark damp tunnel as fast as she could but then she heard a shot and she spilled to the ground.

Then she felt the burning forceful pain embed into her shoulder, she turned from her Maria Hill form into her true self, as the purple blood spilled out of her. She crawled forward to lean up against the wall as she heard Gravik’s slow pacing behind her. “Did you think you could get away from me?” Gravik called out in a menacing yet gleeful manner.

Soren turned herself, she fired her gun at Gravik but it was empty.

“And what would that have done?” Gravik laughed at her attempt. Soren didn’t dare call for help she was afraid Talos would get caught up in this too, even though he was so close.

“You’re a traitor, and you know what happens to traitors?” Gravik asked as he held his gun up in Soren’s face.

“You’re a traitor! You’re going to get us all killed!” Soren yelled at him hatefully.

“Thousands of us will die if you do this!” She added.

“I’d let all of us die if it meant all of them would die too.” Gravik muttered hatefully as he cocked his gun back. It was true, he didn’t care if every skrull died as long every human died too. If they couldn’t live peacefully and free, why should the humans?

“You’d cause all that suffering for nothing!” Soren yelled at Gravik as she knew her time was ending soon.

“In the end, all suffering is for nothing.” Gravik spoke like he was some thoughtful poet and the fired a shot into Soren’s skull. Her purple blood spattered the ground and her shocked yet lifeless face laid on the damp cold ground.

Gravik raced out of the tunnel to not be caught with Soren’s deceased body.

Only a minute away, Talos came from the other end of the tunnel when Soren never arrived. As he raced through the tunnel, he got a sense of something ominous.

“SOREN!” Talos yelled.

“SOREN!!” Talos yelled again in anguish as he reached her body on the ground. Soren and Talos were catching onto Gravik’s plans, the rumors were becoming true, he had something devastating coming, he fomenting his rebellion. He must’ve known they were getting close to him. The skulls who weren’t with Gravik, were against him, and he was making them pay before they could stop him. The dark tunnel was empty now, Talos couldn’t hear a sound. He was going to have to hide Soren’s body before someone else came and found them.

He crouched down beside his wife. Anger, grief, and devastation all began to swell into his mind as he saw the painful agony and the loss of his love on this cold wet ground, dying alone, in fear, without him. How could this have happened. Tears poured from his eyes as he was shocked from the grief, as he could clearly see Soren before him, lifeless, but it still didn’t feel real. They were just together an hour ago, she couldn’t really be gone now! A bitter empty misery washed over him, a pain that he knew but was not ready to feel agin as he held Soren’s body in his arms.

He was going to have to stop Gravik, on his own, before it was too late. He knew finding a home or living peacefully among humans safely was what Soren had wanted, and they had done so for such a long time. But in reality, it cost them their family, now it cost Soren her life. ———- Wednesday, November 6, 2024 Prior to the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever From a CNN news broadcast:

“It was a landslide victory for President Ritson in the U.S. election today, President-elect Ritson will start his first term on January 20, 2025. The President-elect’s party picked up two additional Senate seats with an unprecedented four senate seats running off into special elections set for late February. This news comes as many of the Blip returnees were still unable to participate in this years election due to the long processing delays to integrate them back into government systems. Riots broke out last night all over the United States but were quelled quickly.

In August, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that those hoping to participate in the 2024 election but could not due to being purged from voter rolls during the Blip were not being denied a constitutional right as the reason for their delay back into the system was ‘routine processing delays due to the unique situation before the local, state, and federal government’ and not a ‘systematic effort to reduce voter turnout or disenfranchise voters’ as many claimed.

President-elect Ritson claimed he will create an agency to work with all state and local agencies to ensure that all Americans have their rights fully restored and receive the recognition and support necessary to get their lives back normal. ”

The newscaster read off the prompter effortlessly. Then, the broadcast cut to President-elect Ritson giving a victory speech. Ritson was behind a podium, people cheering in front of him a giant American flag in the background.

“I will ensure with every effort of my administration that all Americans have the right to vote and participate in our democracy and all of you are back in your homes with your families. I promise that you will return to the life that you know and deserve! We do not have a world of returnees and those who remained, we are one nation united in our great effort to get things back to normal and safe for all Americans!” Ritson passionately called out to cheers of many in the crowd.

Then CNN broadcast then went to his Ritson’s opponent going his concession speech, Senator Mike Kirby, an older man yet a populist candidate with a great deal of support from younger voters. He was an independent, conservative in some areas, liberal in others, no real party alignment. Senator Kirby thought what was happening to the returnees was a great injustice and that is who he aimed his messages at.

“While I cannot refute the election results by the numbers, I can tell you that this election was rigged! The establishment denied you you’re right to vote because they knew you would not vote for them, they knew you need more than they will ever offer and the establishment is, and will always, leave those in need in the dust! They have never thrived so well as when half of us disappeared into that dust and that is exactly where they leave all of you!! They do this for their own financial and political gain! They want our returnees to struggle, they want it to take a long time, they do not want you to be smart or succeed—you’re the others, this is how they want you to feel, they want to divide and conquer so they can secure corporate and political power while you fight each other!” Senator Kirby called out emotionally to a booing and yelling crowd, many of which were unable to cast votes for him.

Late on Tuesday night after the elections as called, riots broke out on the streets calling the election a sham, but all of the chaos was subdued with strict military style enforcement.

Washington D.C. - January 24, 2025 - 10:32 AM Four days after President Ritson’s inauguration.

The weather was frightfully cold, 13 degrees F. Freezing rain spilled down in heavy icy drops, in a random indiscernible pattern, sometimes large drops, sometimes small sprinkles. the sky was an ash gray from the cloud cover. The cold air had a bitter bite that you could feel on your skin, the side walks were littered in slush and composting leaves that were never fully cleared, a mix of sand, salt, leaves, and ice made the sidewalks nearly impossible to navigate.

This was January weather, it was always like this, yet no one was ever prepared for it. Little things like the weather just didn’t stack up anymore. The newly fractured world between the vanished and those who had remained was beginning to show as countless Americans had been denied their right to participate in the election, ensuring the win of an only luke warm establishment candidate, someone who was not making the returnees a priority.

Ritson’s opponent, Senator Kirby had bold ideas, new ideas, and some thought he favored the recently returned too much. It turned out not to be a great campaign strategy as Senator Kirby was banking on the Supreme Court allowing all those who were waiting to vote again to be allowed to vote. He never considered that the Supreme Court would say a processing delay due to the high volume of returnees was not a constitutional problem—as the phrase goes, ‘justice delayed is justice denied,’ yet apparently when it came to re-registering and reintegrating 150 million people who were declared dead or vanished and purged from voter rolls years ago (among everything else they were removed from) justice was going to be a little delayed since there was just no protocol for this type of thing. As the Government argued in court, they had many programs in place and were working with state and local governments but the sheer volume and the lack of workers just overwhelmed the system beyond belief. The Court was sympathetic to these efforts as the government was clearly trying to do something not just ignoring the returnees.

Many talented people returned to a new life on earth where they once knew everything and now knew nothing. It had been over a year, and Maria Hill did not have a job, she had tried to get a job, she tried to get her own job back, she tried multiple times to get any job. But her former job didn’t technically exist anymore, and the people who worked in the places she used to work were unfamiliar to her, many of them didn’t know who she was and she didn’t know who they were.

One thing Maria had noticed was that everyone looked so young, these kids advanced in their positions so quickly due the lack of people to make up the people needed to keep the government and national security functioning. In addition, Maria was far from the only talented person trying to get her job back. She was competing with people just like herself. No one knew what to tell anyone at first. People had barely comprehended that the blip even happened and finally once things started to have the slightest sense of a new normal, suddenly everyone returned. It was impossible to pick up where they left off.

Maria and many others suffered from being ‘dead on paper’ despite being very clearly and obviously alive. They couldn’t get credit cards, buy cars, or vote, or have bank accounts, get loans, or even get legitimate jobs. Maria was quite lucky, her mother Elizabeth did not blip, and she saved many of Maria’s things, her money, her personal affects. Elizabeth couldn’t part with her daughter’s belongings, it was all that was left of her.

After Maria returned, she was living with her mother, in Alexandria, Virginia, just 30 minutes from D.C. Her mother was happy about having time to spend together. Elizabeth, like so many others, believed they had lost their loved ones for good, but for Maria she had only been gone an instant and suddenly five years of her life was gone. But in that instant Maria and the others returned to an entirely new world, it was hard to comprehend.

When Maria first returned from the snap, she and Fury were straight into action as things were so hectic as a raging battle went on. She couldn’t even think about what had happened—she didn’t even understand what had happened. She and Fury almost died upon their resurrection as the returned in the middle of the road.

But, then, finally, Thanos was defeated and everything came to light, Natasha was gone, Tony was gone, Steve was gone. Maria’s relationships and friendships were gone in a blink of an eye. As Maria and Fury tried to go through everything that had happened, it became so clear that they really knew nothing and had very few people in their corner now, it was like vanishing a second time all over again. After Maria and Nick tried to put the puzzle together, they started to drift a part. Then Nick disappeared, and Maria started to hear less and less from him. Maybe they needed a break from each other. Maria couldn’t depend on Nick for everything, she was her own person and some of the things Nick started doing out of paranoia concerned her. Ultimately, not that long after the Battle for Earth, the two of them separated to pick up the pieces of their personal lives, since their professional lives simply did not exist anymore.

Nick went to his wife, Maria to her mother’s, that was the only family she had. At first the emotions of the blip and the loss it generated didn’t really hit Maria, and then it was like a swift brick hit her on the head. Maria became overwhelmed with depression at first, she never got to say goodbye to Natasha or thank her for all the work she had done over the last five years, and Natasha had done so much, alone, trying to keep the world together. It was heartbreaking when Maria found out what happened to Natasha it gave her a very dark sense of despair. Steve, Natasha, and Tony were the closest people she had in the Avenger’s world beside Nick, and now it was like everyone was gone. The Avengers Era was truly over, at least the era she was a part of.

It’s not that Maria wasn’t thankful to be revived and brought back to the world, but a part of her struggled to understand why they didn’t or couldn’t go back in time and reverse the snap from the start—She knew they could, she and Fury went over things they figured stuff out from what was left behind, the talked to Scott Lang and Bruce Banner. The way it came about people returning five years later, their lives destroyed with no way back into the world it was just so complicated this way. But then she realized both situations were bad. Everyone born in the last five years disappeared in the reverse, and it would be a second vanishing. She felt selfish for even wishing it had happened another way, but the loss was all so heavy. She didn’t dare say these things out loud, but she had never felt heartbreak so deeply when she realized what Natasha and Tony had done and given up for everyone. At least it sounded like their decisions, from what she heard.

Usually Maria could pour her emotions into work and never deal with them, but she had to spend all this time just thinking about her emotions and processing the world now. It was awful. She couldn’t even get a job a bank or a grocery store because it still said she was dead and she would do anything to not having to keep thinking about what she had gone through and lost and what everyone around her had gone through and lost.

Experiencing the blip made living feel so insignificant and also so important at the same time. Feeling your life just disappear in an instant in front of you, it was indescribable. The weird part was that was always the case, snap or no snap, life could always just be over in an instant. Yet, dying and coming back made you feel it more deeply, in a way you could not explain to others, in a way you didn’t want to explain to them. But if you blipped, you knew where you were going after this life and it was to nowhere with no one… everyone’s life is in the grand scheme of things just a blip.

Maria couldn’t think about this stuff, she needed to do something. But Fury was dealing with his own issues and she was jobless, almost all her friends were dead or gone, and on paper she still didn’t technically exist, so her options were slim. She spent her time trying to catch up on events in the world, figure what out what she missed, get in touch with others, and learn some new skills because the likelihood of her going back to any type of leadership position or national security position seemed to get less and less likely everyday.

Maria walked on the dangerous sidewalk as she was let into the visitor gate at the White House and waded into the security line for those who had appointments. It was a very long line as everyone was eager to see the new President and a lot of things were being figured out. As she checked in with her four forms of identification at the security check point, the guard sighed as she was flagged by the system.

“Oh were you— did you— …” the guard at the check in struggled for what was the polite thing to say as Maria’s ID flagged her. “Have you recently returned … to life?” The guard struggled to ask his face grimaced as he asked those words. He used to directly ask people if they “blipped” but the government trainings on appropriate conduct suggested this was rude and insensitive, as those who blipped felt marginalized.

“Uhm.. yes a little over a year ago.” Maria confirmed after a pause. She was shocked from the awkward phrasing, it made her laugh a little under her breath, but when she thought about it technically that was how to say what happened to her and billions of others, ‘they recently returned to life.’ It kind of sounded like what they would ask newly released convicts about to enter the free world again.

Maria had to bring four forms of ID to enter the building, it didn’t change anything, or make it easier for her to be processed. But with the security needs for the White House and people so easily able to steal identities they had to be extra careful.

“Yeah, your identification, it flagged you. Some of your identification, it still has you as ‘unrecovered’ or ‘deceased’ or ‘presumed deceased’ or ‘vanished’ you know the system it’s updating as fast as it can…” the guard explained he could see from her photo and her numerous IDs that she was the person she claimed to be.

“I know, I’m in a queue, they’re working on it. It’s taking awhile…” Maria tried not to roll her eyes.

“Oh, yeah, tell me about it, my sister, my brother, my sister-in-law and my nephew, it’s the same thing. They have to live with us, they can’t do anything. Some things say they’re dead, some things say they are ‘unrecovered’ or status pending, or some things recognize them as being alive but because their other things still say their dead…” The security guard groaned on. He was so tired of having to share his house with his returned family members, not that he didn’t miss them, and that he wasn’t happy he was back, but it was taking so long to get people back into the world. He had to go through this every day with some people at security.

“Uhm the thing is, is that we can’t let anyone in the building who we can’t verify their identity.” The guard gave Maria an unfortunate look. He felt bad, he could clearly see Maria was Maria but he had to get a green check from the verification system and he didn’t. “Ah. I understand, but I was summoned…” Maria turned her head and she bit her lip.

“Uhhhh okay, hold on.” The guard looked on his computer screen for anything on ‘Maria Elizabeth Hill.’ And his expression changed to surprise as there her name was in his own system.

“From Colonel Rhodes?” The guard asked shocked, that was a very high level person requesting this woman’s whose identity he couldn’t’ confirm. Rhodes was a Senior Advisor to the President, if he was asking for this woman she was probably important, and probably who she claimed she was.

“Yes.” Maria confirmed.

The guard looked at the notes, her entry was approved personally by Colonel Rhodes. But this did go against protocol, technically to come in you had to have your IDs fixed, but it wasn’t her fault there was a long list of people trying to get things organized and back into government systems.

“Okay, just hold on one second so we can get someone to escort you…” the guard mumbled.

It had been a very long time since Maria had been held up in a security checkpoint at a government building. At one time in her life she could just waltz right in. That wasn’t the case anymore, apparently she needed a security escort just to get where she was asked to be. She had no idea why Rhodes wanted to see her, but she wasn’t going to say no, she literally had nothing else to do.

Maria had noticed everyone who worked in this building, at least most of them, were so young. As she caught up with what happened in the five years she was gone, she learned that much of the younger generation didn’t go to college, they went into jobs, bodies and people were needed to keep things running. The economy crumbled and people couldn’t afford college anyway with half the worlds’ income earners and spenders just vanishing. These much younger people, took the jobs of people many years their senior, without experience just to have someone there to try and figure it out.

A very young man, maybe eighteen or nineteen years old who was dressed in formal marines wear escorted Maria to Colonel Rhodes office. Maria started in the marines when she was his age, and she definitely didn’t work in the white house at that time. Maria tried to talk to the young officer, telling him she was in the marines too, but he was very quiet. Referring to her as ‘ma’am’ and agreeing with her “yes ma’am” “thank you, ma’am” “right here ma’am.” It wasn’t much of a conversation. To be honest, she thought he seemed kind of afraid.

‘The children are running the place.’ That’s all she could think of when she saw their young faces everywhere. It was like being in a bizarre horror film, where these young kids were more qualified than you to do anything. But the sad thing was, that their youth had been stolen from them, their experience as young teens in the world was derailed, and they felt just as out of place as they looked, they were kids. It hurt to see them this way.

Maria hadn’t seen Rhodey since Tony Stark’s memorial, and they didn’t talk much then. Everything was too heavy to process, the wounds too fresh, the state of things unimaginable then. She had no idea why Rhodey wanted to see her, she thought she was a footnote in his life. But she guessed Rhodey wanted to talk to her about Nick.

Rhodey stepped out of his office, seeing Maria the first time in a year. Maria was wearing a pantsuit with… combat boots (because it was wet and cold outside) but he didn’t think anything of it. Really, Raava thought it was a killer look to be honest, and she was going to steal it when she could be herself again.

“Colonel Rhodes, Senior Advisor to the President.” Maria greeted when she saw him.

“Why does it feel like a dig when you say that?” Rhodey laughed in a casual tone.

“A dig!? No of course not.” Maria clarified, the two fell into a natural back forth that they once had for a short time as old friends.

Raava knew that Rhodey once had feelings for Maria that were more than friendly but it never went anywhere. When Raava saw Maria at the memorial, she made Rhodey act standoffish to Maria as Raava could tell Rhodey’s feelings for her were very deep. Keeping Maria way from Rhodey was strategically important for Raava. But, now keeping Maria close was critical. Raava and Maria weren’t actually that different, work oriented females in male dominated fields. If Maria hadn’t been a human, maybe they’d even be friends.

“Agent… Hill?” Rhodey addressed. It was more of a question than a statement, this was true even for Maria. Who was she now?

“I don’t think that’s right anymore..no one has called me that in quite some time.” Maria joked, Rhodey laughed.

“It doesn’t feel right not to say it…” he clarified and walked her into his office. Maria sat across from Rhodey at his desk. His office was set up perfectly with his awards and honors, a photo of him with Tony right on his desk.

“Where are you staying?” Rhodey asked, meaning what hotel was she at.

“In Alexandria.”

“Oh, that’s far, do you want to stay downtown? I can get you set up down the street.”

“No, I live there..”

“Oh! You live there now?” He asked surprised, he had an old address for her since none of her information was updated.

“Yeah, I’m just an adult woman who lives with her mother, who can’t get a job or an apartment, or a credit card.” Maria said it like it was a joke and not her grim reality.

“Ahh, yeah. We’ll have to get that fixed for you.” Rhodey paused as he typed something into his computer.

“You can help me with that?” Maria asked surprised. Rhodey was a very busy guy and she couldn’t burden him with that.

“Well I am, ‘Colonel Rhodes, Senior Advisor to the President’.” he repeated jokingly and she shook her head no at him, like repeating his own title was not classy.

“We’ll call it veteran’s preference, then.” He adjusted his joke with a little laugh, even though he knew what happened to her was not funny at all. He wanted to help, he was amazed she hadn’t reached out for any.

“If you help me it’s not like knocking anyone else out of line, right?” Maria just didn’t like that kind of stuff.

“No. As, it turns out if 3 billion people disappear and then come back into the world five years later it is challenging to navigate and integrate them back into the world and get everything back up to speed, even just acknowledging their existence again. It’s new territory we’re trying to figure it out and keep everyone safe, get everything back to what we can call ‘normal.’” Rhodey explained, he didn’t want talk down to her or sound defensive but this was something they were dealing with nonstop.

Maria did not look impressed, sure it was an impossible task with no practical solution, but the government needed to get its shit together, people were dying from homelessness who used to own houses that were sold to corporations or other people in their absences. People couldn’t go back to their apartments, to their jobs, they lost their cars, their retirement savings. Wills were executed, people lost everything and there was no pathway or structure to get things back. Lots of people gave up hope that they would never see their loved ones again, children grew up without knowing their mothers or fathers or siblings, children who were born after their siblings were now older than them. People who were married came back to find their partners had married someone else! Everything about this was wrong and frustrating, there were no good solutions but complaining about it or trying to point out the problems made people feel like they were being ungrateful for returning. They didn’t ask to vanish but they didn’t ask to come back to their lives in shambles either.

“Have you been traveling?” Rhodey asked trying to make small talk.

“Traveling? I can’t. My passport doesn’t work, it says I’m dead still.” Maria reminded.

“Well. You and I both know you used to be able to work around things like that.”

“Emphasis on used to…” Maria mumbled.

“So.. no… huh?” Rhodey confirmed. The question really wasn’t small talk, it was prying. He knew Maria and Fury really hadn’t been Europe as was reported but he didn’t know what Maria knew, if she knew skrull imposters of her and Fury were there. Even if she did, she probably would never let on.

“I’m surprised you’re not up on S.A.B.E.R with Fury.” He stated causally.

“Damnit. I knew I was supposed to be somewhere.” Maria mumbled sarcastically with a smirk.

Rhodey looked at Maria pleased that she was still herself joking sarcastically. He had missed her a lot. Rhodey’s true human emotions seeped into the mind of his skrull imposter. Raava was still there, and surprisingly she too was fond of Maria in some way that she could not tell was truly her own feelings or Rhodey’s true feelings. Raava knew that keeping a close eye on Maria was a way to keep a close eye on Fury too, eventually. Knowing where Maria was and what she was doing was beneficial, and Maria wanted to be working so Rhodey was going to help her. Ritson wanted Maria to be working too, he thought she would be a great candidate for some leadership roles.

Rhodey titled his head at her like he was really wondering why Fury was on S.A.B.E.R. and she wasn’t.

“Eh, I wasn’t invited. But that’s okay, I like my feet on the ground. And it is probably good, since some of us have to stay on earth and try to deal with the mess that’s here, instead of hiding up there.” Maria slipped up, she didn’t mean to say hiding.

“Hiding? Is that shade? Did you and Fury depart on bad terms?” Rhodey was surprised Nick and Maria used to be thick as thieves, best friends as he recalled.

“We didn’t depart on any terms, literally. So if you’re trying to somehow reach him, I promise I am not someone who can help you. And, by the way, he’s far more likely to return a call from ‘Colonel Rhodes, Senior Advisor to the President.’” Maria added, now she was sure she was here to talk about Nick.

“Okay, that one was a dig.” Rhodey looked at Maria more seriously.

“A little.” She smirked.

Rhodey paused and thought about it, okay that was true. Then he realized who Maria reminded him of, Tony Stark. She was witty, confident, and smart like Tony. Raava recalled the memories of when Maria worked at Stark Industries, with Tony, that’s when Rhodey got feelings for her. That’s when they hung out the most, then she went right back with Nick, and he barely saw her again they were both working so much. Then Rhodey was hurt and replaced with Raava and nothing ever happened between Maria and Rhodey.

“I want you to go back to work. We need you to go back to work, is what I mean. Do you want a job?” Rhodey asked bluntly.

“Yes.” Maria answered just as blunt and quickly.

Rhodey paused and grinned at his friend.

“You are so eager and you don’t even know what it is.”

“This is very minor suspense for me.” She joked.

“Well I might have a job for you.” Rhodey started

“Might? Because one second ago it sounded like you had one for sure…” Maria sounded disappointed.

“If you think you’re ready… I mean.” He clarified.

“I can’t sit around and keep doing nothing.”

“They are really hesitant about letting people back into certain jobs without having time to process the snap or the blip or whatever. You know, PTSD and emotional trauma and undoing all that paperwork that says you’re dead, making sure people who came back are the people they say they are…”

“Well not everyone has to wait.” Maria looked up to the ceiling referencing Fury who just took off among the mess.

“Some people got grandfathered in.” Rhodey joked and this made Maria and Rhodey both laugh a little.

There was a knock at the door, Rhodey told them to come in, the true Everett Ross entered the room.

Maria tried not to groan as she saw Ross. She wasn’t a fan, even though he changed his tune awhile back she just thought he was quite pompous and irritating. And she really hated his ex-wife, but she didn’t punish people for their associations, or prior associations.

“Agent Hill, you’ve spent some time in Eastern Europe before, right?”

Maria made a face, she couldn’t confirm or deny that.

“Even if I had, I couldn’t tell you.” Maria said with a shrug.

“The two men in this room have the highest security clearances in the world.” Ross pointed out smugly.

“Then I guess I don’t need to answer.” Maria replied swiftly.

Rhodey couldn’t help but smirk at Maria’s reply, it was the Raava in him made him smirk at this woman sassing the smug Agent Ross.

“Director Allegra de Fontaine would like you to consider coming on with the CIA to help us with something.” Ross asked, ignoring her snarky retort. He was pretty used to snarky women to be honest.

“She does? They let her run an agency, huh?” Maria asked skeptically and then she looked at Ross and then she looked at Rhodey. She had had a hard time believing the CIA Director wanted her to do anything.

“They let you in the building?” Ross snarked back at Maria, he was aware that Maria was still dead on paper anyway.

“Only if I was accompanied by a child soldier.” Maria looked at Rhodey.

“They are really strict on protocol especially in these early days.” Rhodey mumbled.

“State sponsored terrorism is a problem that has been exacerbated by many on going problems in the world. Some of these people running these rings have super or extraordinary skills and connections to people who have such skills. This seems like something you could help us with at this trying time. If you don’t have anything else going on, I am sure you inundated with offers of employment.” Ross said trying not to sound smug but he just had a natural smugness to his tone.

“I am surprisingly not overwhelmed with job offers, it's kind of hard to believe this isn't a joke.” Maria was still skeptical.

“I am quite serious.” Ross responded quickly.

“Why are you asking me now? I've been around.” Maria looked at Ross and then at Rhodey again, she had been around trying to get hired for awhile. What happened now that made it so important that she come back to work? It started to seem suspicious to her, but Ritson did just get into office and Rhodey just took this job so there was a reason.

“Last week an MI6 contact reached out to us about a Russian ring, I can’t say anymore until you’re hired and working, but you fit the description of ‘unnoticeable white woman who can speak Russian and has a spy and military background.” Ross explained. Maria and Rhodey glared at Ross.

“Sorry, is that phrasing offensive?” Ross asked.

“Nope, that sounds like me.” Maria mumbled and she looked at Rhodey and Rhodey shrugged—it did sound like her.

“How come these rings are never like in Bermuda? You don’t have any of those, right?” Maria asked. Russia was so cold but it wasn't colder than space.

“Funny.” Ross sighed shaking his head.

“Just thought I’d check before I jumped at any opportunity offered to me.” Maria mumbled again.

“You’re one of the best spies in the world, you should be working for a spy agency.” Ross pointed out, it was clearly a waste for Maria to sit at home when they so desperately needed skilled people back in the field.

“How about the NSA?” Maria jokingly negotiated.

“Two minutes ago you told me you would do anything.” Rhodey pointed out.

Well that was before she knew Ross was involved. She didn’t dare say that. Really though, did she have much of a choice? Nick was gone, nobody else was offering her anything, despite the belief that she had many offers to work. It was almost impossible to get a job, everyone was looking lots of talented people that had returned and were fighting their way back in, and she needed a job. Bad. She had to start doing something before her brain turned to mush.

Maria looked at Rhodey and then at Ross. She was desperate to go back to work. She was living with her mother, she was heartbroken over the loss of her friends, devastated she wasn’t there to help them, ready to go back and fight and keep this world safe, at least make it safer than it was now.

“Here’s the thing, Agent Hill, in order to come work for the CIA as someone who ‘vanished’ or ‘blipped’ you have to pass a psychological evaluation.” Ross explained.

“She seems fine.” Rhodey shrugged it off.

“Are you going to tell me the answers?” She asked Rhodey hopefully.

“I think it’s more about demeanor.” Rhodey interrupted.

“Gotcha.” Maria nodded.

“It might be invasive.” Ross mumbled.

“Almost every personal detail about my life was shared on the internet in a massive file upload with the fall of SHIELD, so I think I’ll be okay…” Maria made a face at least people had long forgotten about that stuff now, it was still out there, but lots of it was encrypted.

“Right.” Ross nodded.

“I probably don't have the best background for a spy anymore…” Maria pointed out.

“Are you trying to make us reconsider the offer?” Rhodey asked, he was laughing at Maria.

“I just want to be transparent.” Maria mumbled.

“People have very short memories now.” Ross said, with a quick nod.

“It’s time to get those boots on the ground, yeah?” Ross asked like they were chums. Maria looked down at her shoes, she did wear boots today.