VINDICATION- MARVEL

• NINE •

2014

Natasha helped Cassandra out of the van, throwing Cassandra's non-injured shoulder around her. Cassandra was having a hard time walking without falling over, and she was grateful for Natasha. Natasha opened the door with her free hand, walking down a hallway, Sam and Steve following suit.

A doctor was running toward them, seeing Cassandra barely being able to keep her head up.

"GSW. She's lost at least a pint." Natasha said.
"Maybe two," Sam added.
"Let me take her," the doctor said.
"She'll want to see him first."

Natasha and the doctor lead the trio to a room. And who was laying in the bed of that room? Nick Fury. The man who she had watched die. The man whose heartbeat she had seen flatline. She was there. She remembered him dying. So why was he lying here in front of her?

"About time."

•••••••••••••

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache." Fury explained.
"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor reminded, pressing bandage to Cassandra's wound.
"Oh, let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good."
"They cut you open, your heart stopped." Cassandra said.
"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 chimed in from her corner.

Cassandra's hand was being tightly held by Natasha, who was watching at the doctor stitched the wound. Cassandra winced when he pulled the stitch through, looking up at the ceiling to distract her.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead. Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust." Fury said.
"I can't believe you're alive," Cassandra said.
"I can't belive you got shot," Natasha muttered.
"Come on, it wasn't the first time."
"First time?" Sam asked.
"Counting now, I've been shot around three or four times."

Sam shook his head, muttering something about "psycho assassins." Cassandra smiled for the first time in a few days, and Natasha lowered her head to chuckle. Even Maria had a small smirk on her face.

Later, when Cassandra had a bandage around her chest, leaning back in her chair. Natasha had loosened the grip on Cassandra's hand, but had moved to grasping a single finger like a small child. Fury pulled a picture from a file of Alexander Pierce.

"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said, 'Peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility,'" Fury set the photo down. "See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."
"We have to stop the launch." Natasha said.
"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." Fury guessed, opening a case displaying three micro chips.
"What's that?" Sam asked.
"Once the Helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites becoming fully weaponized," Maria informed.
"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own." Fury said.
"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 need to get pass them, insert the 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 S.H.I.E.L.D." Steve interrupted.
"S.H.I.E.L.D had nothing to do with it," Fury argued.
"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." Cassandra added.
"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed."
"And how many paid the price before you did?" Steve sassily.
"Look, I didn't know about Barnes."
"Even if you have, 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." Maria said.

Natasha nodded, and Cassandra gave him a look. Fury looked at Sam, but he shrugged, saying,

"Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower."
"Well. Looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."

Cassandra sighed, and stood up, much to the doctor's dismay. Blood rushed to her head, and she stumbled, running her shoulder into the wall. She inhaled sharply, and stood for a moment. The doctor tried to offer her more bandages, but she refused, swallowing two pain killers, and walked out of the room.

"Cass where are you going?" Natasha called.
"Well I gotta have something to wear right?"
"What?"

Cassandra broke into jog, climbing into the driver's seat of the van, and speeding off to the Smithsonian.

••••••••••••••

"Cassandra where did you get this?"
"Your exhibit at the Smithsonian," she said, popping the gum bubble in her mouth. "I thought about taking Dugan's hat."
"He'd come back to haunt us if you did."
"That's why I didn't."
"I see you took Bucky's jacket."
"He's my brother. Everything that's his gets given to me, didn't you have siblings Rogers?"
"No."
"Oh."

Cassandra handed Steve the "borrowed" uniform, telling him to change. She took off her shirt, leaving her in a black tank top, slipping on her navy blue jacket. Cassandra decided that she wasn't going to be any fighting in a pair of dirty sneakers, so she changed into black combat boots.

She walked out of the small room she had found to change in, her shoes making loud noises in the quiet lair. She met with Steve, Sam, and Maria.

"Where is Nat?"
"We needed someone to be on the inside for this to work," Maria explained.

Cassandra nodded, praying that Natasha would be safe. The team emerged from the woods next to the Potomac. Maria had highjacked a boat, but at the size of it, she doubted it'd be able to hold all four of them. But, what were their other options?

Cassandra climbed into the boat, sitting next to Maria, flicking daggers between her fingers.

i don't know why this took so long to make.
also, i got three movie posters recently, for spiderman-far from home, and two different black widow posters. and i love them so much.
i love you guys like thor loves pop tarts-