❨𝑴𝑴𝑶𝑻𝑩 . . . 𝑏𝘰𝘰𝑘 𝑖 ❩ ﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌ ━━━ 𝙱. 𝙱𝙰𝚁𝙽𝙴𝚂 / ❛ i will 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙡, 𝙨𝙝𝙚'𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙡 of 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 ❜
━━━━━━━━━━━━ ∘༄⋅° 𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍, 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏
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𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝚂𝙸𝚇𝚃𝙴𝙴𝙽 !
"ATTENTION,"STEVE SAYS into the microphone as Diana, Maria, and Sam stood behind him, "all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. This is Steve Rogers. You've heard a lot about me over the last few days, some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time you know the truth. S.H.I.E.L.D. is not what we thought it was, it's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The STRIKE and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want: absolute control. They shot Nick Fury and it won't end there. If you launch those Helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high, it always has been, and it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not."
When he finishes, Sam speaks up, "Did you write that down first or was it off the top of your head?" Natasha wasn't with them, trying to gain intel on Pierce and keep a close eye on him, pretending to be one of the council members ― the older woman with the blonde hair ― while wearing a blue suit.
"They're initiating launch," Maria says into her earpiece as Diana, Sam, and Steve all run to the Helicarriers. "Hey, Cap, Diana, how can we tell the good guys from the bad guys?" Sam asks them, Diana answering his question.
"If they are shooting at you, they're bad," she replies, looking at him. "I thought you already knew this." Sam, in his suit, flies off, while Steve heads down, trying to get to his designated Helicarrier while Diana goes to the right. The HYDRA agents begin shooting at them, Sam flying around to avoid being wounded or shot down, his years of training and expertise finally coming back to him in a flash. Pierce watches the commotion outside, then turns to council member Singh, "Let me ask you a question. What if Pakistan marched into Mumbai tomorrow, and you knew that they were gonna drag your daughters into a soccer stadium for execution?" He hands Singh a flute of champagne. "And you could just stop it with a flick of the switch. Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you all?"
"Not if it was your switch," he throws the glass to the ground, the gold fizzing liquid spilling across the floor, the glass shattering into a million little pieces, one of Pierce's agents handing him a gun and points it at Singh, Natasha thinking quickly, kicking the tan male away and taking down the other agents. She takes the gun and points it at Pierce, removing her disguise as Hawley. "I'm sorry," she says sarcastically. "Did I step on your moment?"
One of the Charlie weapons techs speaks up, referring to the Helicarriers. "Satellites in range at three thousand feet."
"Falcon, status?" Maria asks, looking at the computer in front of her as she types in commands. "Engaging," a HYDRA jet comes towards Sam and begins shooting at him. "Shit!" He flies off and manages to avoid getting hit while Diana was fighting off HYDRA agents as she tried to go to her carrier, swinging her sword as she cut deep into their stomachs, the crimson blood and guts dropping to the ground, leaving dead men in her wake. "Eight minutes," Maria says into her comm, Diana replying back quickly. "Working on it!" She gets to the control centre of the Helicarrier easily, placing in the chip she carried inside her gauntlet, pressing the button to close it.
"Alpha locked."
"Falcon, where are you now?"
"I had to take a detour!" He is flying towards his designated carrier, heat-seeking missiles shot at him by HYDRA, so he decides to go back to the carrier, and manages to get the missiles to hit the side of the glass panelling, making a doorway for him to go through. "Oh, yeah!" He goes in and puts in the chip, replying back to Hill. "I'm in," he says. "Bravo locked." He flies out quickly.
"Two down, one more to go."
"All S.H.I.E.L.D. pilots, scramble," a pilot says to the others. "We're the only air support Captain Rogers has got." Bucky suddenly appears, firing at the agents, killing them all, kicking one into the spinning blades of a Quinjet and throwing a grenade into another. Back inside the building, Natasha types in different codes into the computer, "Disabling the encryption is an executive order; it takes two Alpha level members." Nat looks at Pierce, cocking her head. "Don't worry," she says to him. "Company's coming." The sound of a helicopter's rotor blades breaking the air fill their ears, Pierce and the others looking behind them as they watch an all-black helicopter land on the docking site, and a black boot appears underneath the undercarriage, followed by another and the tail end of a trenchcoat. Fury's trenchcoat. He opens the glass door separating him from the inside, his coattail billowing behind him with the gush of air he let out, looking at all of the S.H.I.E.L.D. members with his one eye, keeping his broken left arm close to his ribs. Pierce nods at him with a small smile, but Fury just glares at him. He was the person who ordered his assassination. "Did you get my flower?" Alexander puts his hands on his hips, but Fury doesn't answer. "I'm glad you're here, Nick."
"Really?" He steps down from the elevated floor. "Cause I thought you had me killed."
"You know how the game works."
"So why make me head of S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
"Cause you're the best," Alexander seems to be lying, but Nick shrugs it off, wanting to hear more of his explanation. "And the most ruthless person I ever met." Fury bows his head, keeping his eyes locked on Pierce's blue ones. His mother always told him that blue eyes reminded people of deep oceans and endless skies, but brown eyes remind them of a black hole, infinite and neverending. It made him proud to have brown eyes, even if they were a very common colour, "I did what I did to protect people." Pierce shakes his head. "Our enemies are your enemies, Nick. Disorder, war; just a matter of time before a dirty bomb goes off in Moscow or an EMP fries Chicago. Diplomacy, holding action, Band-Aid. And you know where I learned that. Bogota. You didn't ask, you just did what had to be done. I can bring order to the lives of seven billion people by sacrificing twenty million. It's the next step, Nick. You have the courage to take it."
"No, I have the courage not to," Fury takes Pierce's upper arm in his hand, leading him to the glass wall holding a hologram for the encryption lock, Natasha typing something into the computer. "Retinal scanner active." Nat moves away from the computer and puts a gun up to Pierce's head, making sure he didn't escape, but the leader of both S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA just chuckles, turning to Nick with a smirk. "You don't think we've wiped your clearance from the system?"
"I know you erased my password," Nick responds. "Probably deleted my retinal scan, but if you wanna stay ahead of me, Mr Secretary. . ." he moves his leather eyepatch away, showing his blind eye with the scar going diagonally, the breakage of the pupil and iris, now a milky white, with the purple scars on the top and bottom lids. "You need to keep both eyes open." He nods his head at the glass and walks away to his own scanner, holding his damaged eye up to the scanning device, "Alpha level confirm. Encryption code accepted. Safeguards removed." They both look at each other with hatred.
