𝐇𝐈𝐌 | 𝐁𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐘 𝐗 𝐅𝐄𝐌!𝐎𝐂

12

They walk through the gate and are met with a group of people, "GSW. She's lost at least a pint."

"Maybe two."

"Let me take her," the man, presumably a doctor runs to them, "She'll want to see him first."

Natasha is leaning heavily on Steve and Prudence is barely keeping up with the group, "Him?"

A curtain is pulled aside, revealing a makeshift dirty hospital room, in which Nick Fury lays on a hospital bed, one of the only clean things in the building.

"About damn time."

They were able to pull up a chair for Natasha so the doctor could work on her wound, and seeing Prudence's exhaustion, they got her a chair, as well.

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collar bone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache."

The doctor pipes up from his seat beside Natasha, "Don't forget your collapsed lung."

"Let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open. Your heart stopped."

"Tetratodoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat per minute."

Prudence nods, "Banner."

"Exactly. Made it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."

"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?"

"Any attempt on the directors life had to look successful."

"Can't kill you if you're already dead. Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."

"You hid it well."

Fury nods to Prudence, "Thank you. I assumed you searched?"

"Everywhere. Minutes, hours, days. Couldn't find anything other than a vile. It makes sense now, it was the chemical."

Fury nods and Prudence continues, "Did you do something? Make a shield over this place or something?"

Fury shakes his head, "We just didn't tell anyone. A lot of your power relies of what people already know. If nobody knew about the plan, it would've been near impossible for you to see."

Prudence nods and looks over at Natasha. Her expression shows anything but pain from her wound. Relief, betrayal.

~

Prudence was sitting in front of Steve while Fury spoke, "This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility."

He drops the photo on the table, leaning back in his chair, "See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."

"We have to stop the launch."

Prudence nods, "With what? There's four of us and three massive helicarriers. And all of them are equipped with guns."

"These."

Maria explains, "Once the helicarriers reach 3,000 feet, they'll triangulate eith Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized."

"So we stop them before 3,000 feet?"

"Yes. We replace their targeting blades with our own, these," he gestures to the devices in the case.

"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-"

"We're not salvaging anything. We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick, we're taking down SHIELD."

"SHIELD had nothing to do with this," Prudence shakes her head at Fury's interjection.

"If they proved they can be infiltrated once, nothing is stopping it from happening again."

Steve nods, "She's right. You gave me this mission, this is how it ends. 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 looks at the table, "Look, I didn't know about Barnes."

"Even if you had would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalized that, too?"

Prudence interrupts. If she can steer the conversation away from Bucky, she can calm Steve down and he'll be less likely to lash out or do something irrationally.

"Fury, if someone took over SHIELD once, what's stopping the next person from doing it?"

She puts her head on her hand, "Getting rid of SHIELD is the safest way to ensure everyone's safety. If there is no SHIELD, there is no infiltration from HYDRA."

"SHIELD, HYDRA. It all goes."

Maria nods, "They're right."

Fury looks to Natasha, who leans back in her seat instead of protesting. He looks to Sam, who shrugs, "Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower."

"Well," Fury leans back in his seat, "looks like you're giving the orders, now, Captain."

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A/N - woot woot :) this is like a really short chapter for some reason. Idk.