Losing him was blue, like I'd never known
Missing him was dark gray, all alone
Forgetting him was like trying to know
Somebody you never met
Adelaide Herrmann has so many secrets and is good at hiding all of them.
Only one person knows the real Ad...
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Maria stopped the van and they all helped Natasha out carefully.
"GSW. She's lost at least a pint." Maria told the doctor running their way.
"Maybe two." Sam corrected.
"Let me take her." The doctor said.
"She'll want to see him first." Maria told the doctor. She moved aside a curtain wall to reveal Nick Fury.
"About damn time." He said.
- - -
"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, and one hell of a headache." Fury said.
"Don't forget your collapsed lung." The doctor told him, still holding pressure to Natasha's shoulder.
"Let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good."
"They cut you open. Your heart stopped." Natasha reminded him. They all saw it happen, but clearly it never did.
"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it." Fury explained.
"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?" Steve asked.
"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful." Maria told them.
"Can't kill you if you're already dead. Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."
Adelaide shouldn't have taken his words to heart. He had every right not to trust her. But still, even after saving New York and many missions, he didn't trust her. Maybe after all this, he would. But maybe he still wouldn't.
- - -
"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said peace wasn't a achievement, it was a responsibility. See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."
"We have to stop the launch." Natasha reminded them all.
"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." Fury said. He opened a case that had three chips.
"What's that?" Sam asked.
"Once the helicarriers reach 3,000 feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized." Maria showed them the screen.
"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own." Fury added.
"One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die."
"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is Hydra. We have to get past them, insert these server blades. And maybe, just maybe we can salvage what's left..." Fury couldn't finish his plan.
"We're not salvaging anything. We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We're taking down S.H.I.E.L.D." Steve told him.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. had nothing to do with this." Fury said.
"You gave me this mission. This is how it ends. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been compromised. You said so yourself. Hydra grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."
"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed."
"How many paid the price before you did?"
Fury looked at everyone before him. "Look, I didn't know about Barnes." Fury admitted.
"Even if you had, would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalized that, too? S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, it all goes."
"He's right." Hill agreed. Fury looked to Natasha and Adelaide.
"Don't look at me." Sam said when Fury finally met him. "I do what he does, just slower."
"Well..." He leaned back a sighed. "It looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."
- - -
"Where's Rue?" Adelaide asked Fury.
"Safe. I got her out before anyone in Hydra could get to her." Fury assured her.
"So she knew." Adelaide said.
"She figured it out. Confronted Hill. One thing led to another. I'll admit, she didn't truly didn't know." Fury said.
"She was so happy to have a life. This is all my fault." Adelaide dropped her head in her hands. "I never should have taken her in. She wouldn't be here."
"You couldn't have known." Fury told her.
"I should've. But instead, I had people keeping secrets from me. People who didn't bother to tell me, that the people I spent so long running from, finally caught up."
"I didn't know if I could trust you. You spent so long in Hydra, I didn't know how long it would take for you to fall back in." Fury explained.
