Dominance (Dark!SteveRogers AU) - 1

20

Nick Fury walked the halls of Triskelion, phone to his ear as it kept ringing and ringing, the director becoming impatient by the minute. 

No answer.

And no answer meant one or two things.

1. Agent Reed was deliberately missing his calls

2. Something had happened.

Nick seriously hoped that it was the first. He'd need to have a stern chat with Reed about sending him to voicemail and not checking in as regularly as he wanted her to. "Reed, when you get this message you call me and check in. Now I know you must be busy snooping around and shit, but that doesn't mean you keep sending me to voicemail! No one sends me to voicemail!"

Hanging up, he shoved the phone into his pocket and carried on walking, a mixture of concern and irritability for Reed present in his mood.

Opening the door to his office, he walked in and stopped, seeing the neatly tied box with a box sat on his desk. It wasn't hard to miss. Fury's office was kept to a minimalistic standard and this 'gift' that now was sitting pretty in front of him had been placed where it could easily be seen. He slowly approached it, rounding the desk and trying to hear for any obvious signs of ticking. It wouldn't surprise him if someone wanted to kill him. Nothing could be heard in terms of an explosive device counting down to detonation and seeing an envelope under the ribbon that was keeping the lid tied to the box itself, he pulled it off.

Nick Fury

It was most certainly for him.

Fury opened the envelope and pulled out the small card that had 'Deepest Sympathy' written in swirled calligraphy letters on the front. Opening the card the words stood out to him like a sore thumb, written in blood with the Hydra crest drawn in the same.

NICE TRY.

Undoing the ribbon, Fury opened the lid of the box and looked inside, pulling out a smashed and bloodied phone. One of the ones that SHIELD gave to their agents as personal use.

"Motherfucker..." Fury muttered receiving the message loud and clear. Deep down he knew that something had happened.

Pressing the comm he called for Maria Hill to come to the office. She was there within minutes. "Any news?" She asked, walking in and seeing his face. "Sir?"

"Yeah, and it's not the news I wanted..." He looked up from where he was leant over the almost destroyed phone. Through the cracked display it showed his missed calls.

Hill walked over to see what he was looking at and winced. "Is that Agent Reed's phone?"

"Yep, and her blood too...look at the card they sent." Fury said, passing Hill the sympathy card.

"Damnit." She sighed and looked at him. "I knew we shouldn't have kept her in there for as long as we did."

Fury agreed and massaged his temples. The whole situation was one he'd not seen coming. Reed had been a competent agent, trained by Coulson himself. If anyone was capable of bringing him the intel that he wanted then it was her. 

No agent was made of steel though, and her death was on his head. 

"Hill...move Agent Reed's file to the deceased section, then inform all agents of the loss..."

Hill nodded. "What now? We've got nothing on Hydra and we're an agent down, we can't risk sending anyone else in there. Not after this."

"This is war, Hydra have sent us a message and we will retaliate – but we need to be smart about it."

"Do you still think Pierce has something to do with it?" Maria questioned. 

"Pierce has everything to do with it, that much we know as Wren confirmed it." Fury explained "Although i'm not entirely sure what he's up to - she was never able to find out."

Hill shifted from one foot to the other. "And what about Captain Hydra? Is he real? Or is he just a myth like some people say?" 

Fury nodded. "Wren had told me there was talk of him. She'd never crossed paths with him while she was there, so I'm still unclear as to where he lurks. Probably everywhere if that bastard is clever enough." He sighed, "Look I need time to think - alert the agents that we've lost Reed and that i'll be addressing them about the situation later on." 

"Yes sir..." Hill said and left, leaving Fury to ponder on the loss. 

**

"Did Fury get our little gift?" Steve asked as Sitwell was added to call between himself and Alexander a couple of days later.

"He did." Sitwell replied, "It certainly made an impact. SHIELD is in mourning and Fury? Well I suspect that he feels guilty about sending one of his best straight into the lion's den". He'd heard the announcement about Wren Reed along with the other agents. 

His tone had said it all. 

Guilt. 

Steve laughed. "He should've known better than to fuck around with us." and paused. "I'm heading to Siberia again, what we discussed earlier on? It's been agreed and is going ahead. We will certainly benefit from it, the organisation especially." 

"As will you Captain." Pierce pointed out helpfully.  

"Indeed. Any problems then you contact me immediately - we cant afford any more set backs like we already have." Especially when it came to spies that were placed right under their nose. 

Pierce and Sitwell agreed as they rang off, Steve now sitting back in his office and feeling satisfied that everything was now going their way. 

The message to SHIELD had got through to them loud and clear, but Steve had no doubt that they would try something else to bring them down. 

And Hydra would be ready...