chapter fic: [mcu/arrow/the flash/sanctuary crossover] there is justice in the end; chapter 1
Author:linesfade
Rating: T/PG-13
Chapter: 1 / ??
Summary: HYDRA hasn't been destroyed, they've only been sent running to the shadows. With no one currently at the helm, Grant Ward takes it upon himself to become the head of HYDRA. He proceeds with an old HYDRA plan to infiltrate the shadowy Sanctuary Network, which only serves to draw the Avengers, Phil Coulson and the other Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. into the mix. The only problem is that they're cutting in on someone else's turf; Starling City already has a protector, and Team Arrow isn't going to take kindly to the invasion. They can handle the goings-on in their own city, including taking down HYDRA, once and for all. Or, so Oliver Queen thinks. It might just end up being more complicated than any of the heroes and vigilantes could have ever imagined.
Spoilers: Arrow: AU post 3x01, minus Sara's death; The Flash: Season 1 finale; Agents of SHIELD: Season 2 finale; Avengers/MCU: post Age of Ultron, with the minor change that Barton has a farm, but no family; and Sanctuary: AU after S1 finale, minus Watson's death.
Disclaimer: I do not own or have anything to do with Disney, Marvel comics, the MCU, Sanctuary, DC comics, the DCCU, the CW, ABC, or Syfy networks. I'm just playing in the sandboxes, and OH BOY, is it fun! No harm is intended, and the only thing I claim are the original characters.
A/N:So, I'm basically taking on one HECK of an undertaking with this fic, meshing these huge 'verses together. I hope, hope, and HOPE this turns out as good as it sounded in our heads, but we'll see. The Sanctuary portion of this is based on an RP that
:x:
ONE
ONE
OCTOBER 8
NEW SANCTUARY FACILITY
STARLING CITY; 2:14 PM
“Declan Macrae, PhD.
Starling City Director
Sanctuary Network”
Declan stopped dead in his tracks, the paperwork and clipboard in his hands nearly falling to the floor, forgotten. He couldn’t help but stare at the sight before him, dumbfounded, at what had been done. His name and title were emblazoned across the door to his office, each letter a shimmering gold decal pasted onto wavy, frosted glass. He frowned as he looked at what would surely come off as a display of ego to anyone who came to his office, and the thoughts that raced through his mind were the very definition of ‘annoyed.’ He had walked through this door so many times in the past week without paying the words on it any mind, but this time it had leapt out at him like the bloody thing had a literal blinking arrow pointing directly to it. He hated it.
"'S a little much, don'tcha think?" a musical voice floated over his shoulder, breaking into his thoughts, and a smile instantly blossomed over his face. His wife bounced up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek, her blonde hair billowing around her shoulders. They had just been married three months prior, and planning a wedding along with establishing a new facility to house abnormals in Starling City, had put quite a lot of pressure on the both of them. Perhaps he had delegated too much to Henry Foss as they drew closer to the wedding date. Declan would never have gone this far; his name in a black sans serif font face on the frosted glass window would have been perfectly sufficient. Even a simple, “Director” would have been more than adequate to suit the purpose. Declan Macrae was not a man who needed his ego stroked.
"Yeah, love," Declan grinned at her, the one and only Ashley Magnus-Macrae. "It's far too much. I never should have let this task to Henry."
"He meant well," Ashley laughed. "It is Henry, after all; you probably should've expected it. And, hey, at least it isn't on your business cards."
"Good Lord," Declan groaned. "I haven't even looked at those yet."
"I did," she beamed, eyes sparkling with mischief as she stepped around him and flicked one into the air with deft fingers. "They're cute."
"Cute?!" Declan sputtered. "I swear...If Henry put some fool bloody thing on there, like..."
Declan plucked the card out of midair without pause, and turned it over for a critical inspection. His reflexes and hand-eye coordination had rapidly been gaining speed and accuracy after the conclusion of his Source Blood treatments the week before. Helen Magnus, the Sanctuary Network's founder, had been reluctant to give the treatments to Declan at first, but her daughter, Declan’s Ashley, had already been forcibly dosed with the original Vampire Source Blood six years earlier, and she had nearly ceased aging as a result. Ashley had also developed vampiric abilities that had given her accelerated healing and the ability to teleport. They all still carried a heavy hatred for the Cabal after such a violation, but the changes to her DNA were not something that could be undone. They had kept an ear to the ground for the Cabal’s movements, and while Declan didn’t think that it was possible for the Cabal to have just disappeared completely, that appeared to be just what had happened. He had often theorized that the Cabal had been absorbed into some other entity, and James Watson, Helen Magnus, and even Ashley, had been inclined to agree that it could have been possible. No one, no single organization so large and so hellbent on the collection of Abnormals as the Cabal had been, could have disappeared so completely, without someone to hide the evidence. They were bound to show up again, and when they did, Declan and the entirety of the Sanctuary Network would be ready.
When Declan had asked Helen Magnus’ permission for her daughter’s hand in marriage, though, their priorities had taken a small, temporary shift. Magnus knew, better than most, that relationships didn't tend to last if you couldn't grow old together. Sometimes they wouldn’t even last then, but she had wanted her daughter and Declan to have their best opportunity to do have the life they wanted. She had given them both her blessing and the promise, if indeed it was within her power, to not let her daughter outlive the man she loved.
Magnus had joined forces with Dr. James Watson and created a derivative of the Source Blood for Declan, one extracted from within her own DNA. She had been the only one of the Five to inherit longevity as her gift from taking the Blood during their time at Oxford in the late 19th century, and had hoped to identify the markers that would bestow the same gift to Declan. They still weren't certain if her technique had worked on him, as the Source Blood was always unpredictable at best, but he knew he certainly felt younger these days. He was becoming quicker, both in mind and body, which would help in innumerable ways as head of the Starling City Sanctuary. Declan was beginning to feel as he had in his younger days when he had worked under James Watson in the London facility, which was simply a miracle. He owed the world to Helen Magnus.
"It's working," Ashley observed, and her face curved up into a smile of approval as he picked the card out of the air.
"Hmm? Oh, yes. The Source Blood serum? It is," Declan answered, looking up from the card and grinning despite the threat of 'cute' Ashley had leveled against his business card. "It's working quite well. Did you ever doubt your mum, love?"
"No," she grinned, canting her head to one side. "But she did say that it could take time for the serum to kick in, since it was just a derivative of the original Source Blood. I'm glad she was wrong."
Helen Magnus wasn't often wrong on anything.
"As am I, Ash," he smiled. "Looks, and feels, like we've got quite a lot of planning to do for the future, starting with this."
He waved the card at her, and finally summoned enough courage to get a good look at it. His eyes narrowed quizzically as he looked up at Ashley.
"Got-cha!" she sing-songed. The blonde grinned brightly as she extended her index finger and thumb into a gun, winked, and made a clicking sound with her tongue. Declan just shook his head, chuckling softly, and pocketed the plain card with just his name, office phone number, and email address in black print on a crisp, white stock.
Ashley sauntered over and wrapped her arms around his neck, beaming up at him with an innocence that should have left her a decade or more ago.
"I love you, Hero," she told him softly, and pressed her lips to his.
"I love you, too, Ashley," he answered as the kiss broke, his voice every bit as tender. "How about we take a break and head out for a late lunch?"
"I'd love to," she grinned as she took his hands and drug him off toward the garage. "I heard about this burger joint this morning when I ran out for breakfast. It's supposed to be THE BEST in Starling City..."
:x:
BIG BELLY BURGER
THE GLADES NEIGHBORHOOD
STARLING CITY; 2:36 PM
Felicity Smoak frowned into her chocolate milkshake and tried to stir it up with her straw. It was still too thick to stir yet, so the straw just bent where it emerged from the icy deliciousness that was today's comfort food. She knew she could just choose not to go to the lair tonight, but there was really no choice in it. She was as much a part of Team Arrow as Oliver was. One almost-date and a healthy dose of awkward pushing-away later, which basically amounted to a breakup — wait, could you even call it a breakup if you never even made it to the end of the meal of your first date before the restaurant was blown up?
"I'm going to go with a 'no' on that one, Cutie," Sara Lance smiled softly from the outside seat of the booth beside her. A realization struck Sara that those words weren't supposed to have come out, as she watched Felicity's face register an abrupt shock. "Oh, you didn't mean to...right..."
"Again?!" Felicity groaned. "God, Sara, I'm sorry...Maybe it really is a bad idea for me to show up tonight. The last thing that you guys need is me thinking that I'm thinking about reaming out Oliver, only to find out that I am actually telling Oliver how much I think he's..."
"An ass?" Sara supplied, stealing a spoonful from the top of Felicity's milkshake, chocolate sprinkles and all.
"Well, I was going to go with something a little bit nicer, but..."
"Nope, 'ass' is definitely the word you're looking for there. He's let you into his world this far, dating shouldn't be a hangup. I mean, he's dated before."
"Yeah," Felicity gave her a disdainful look. "The main distinction there being that you are, you know, you, and obviously, with all of your shared island time and experience with the League and all of that training, you can take care of yourself, and do so on a regular basis. It's a concept that seems to have completely embedded itself into his brain: apparently, I can't take care of myself well enough for his liking - not that I've ever really even cared to do a workout that consisted of more than yoga and crunches in my living room - but I could defend myself if I had to, you know?"
"I know you could," Sara nodded, giving her a sympathetic smile. She had been the one to give Felicity self-defense training alongside John Diggle, another member of their team. Sara knew Felicity's strengths and weaknesses better than most. "Ollie’s just...being Ollie."
"You said it," Felicity grumbled, taking a spoonful of milkshake. It hovered before her mouth for a moment before she dropped it back into the mixture and looked up at Sara. "But it's not like I haven't held my own before! Or like he hasn't used me as bait before! All of that with Slade? Yeah, that was me, helping to take him down. I handled myself just fine! I could handle dating a vigilante, I swear! But no, he doesn't seem to think so."
"Then we make him think so," Sara countered. "Dating him or not, it wouldn’t hurt to train you harder. We could stand to add an extra day a week to your schedule, too. I'll do it. Not like I have anything better to do at the moment."
"I don’t know, Sara. Is it even worth it to try and prove that to him? I’m getting tired of the push and pull between us, and you have League stuff..."
"When I'm gone, Digg can take over," Sara shrugged like it wasn't a big deal, stealing another spoonful of Felicity's milkshake. "You know, there is nothing more I miss when I’m in Nanda Parbat than Big Belly Burger and their milkshakes.”
Felicity made a noise of protest, and Sara’s eyes widened at her obvious verbal misstep.
“And you!" The assassin amended.
Felicity laughed and rolled her eyes. "Nice save."
Sara gave a mock bow from within her seat beside Felicity and grinned. Sara opened her mouth to say something else, but stopped out of pure reaction when the door chimed. The smile died on her face, and Sara’s hand instantly went to her side, inches from where Felicity knew a firearm was concealed behind her back. Felicity's eyebrows rose out of surprise at the drastic reaction, and she turned in her seat, training her eyes on the diner’s door, too. Felicity, out of the corner of her eye, caught Sara relax minutely moment later, once the assassin realized that it was just a couple entering. Felicity glanced back at Sara and realized that although some of the tension may have left her body, Sara’s instincts remained on high alert.
The blonde hacker turned back to measure the couple, and took a few mental notes: the newcomers had a vast age difference between them, but in this day and age, was it really all that out of place? She noted the matching pair of silver rings on their left hands and felt a pang of jealousy tug at her heart unbidden. The newcomers were married.
Was everyone either married, or happily in love, except for her? Felicity stuffed the emotion down, and looked quickly to Sara.
"You okay?" Felicity asked Sara under her breath, studying her friend closely. Felicity wasn't quite sure when Sara Lance had become her closest confidante, but she had missed these girls' nights, or, more accurately, afternoons, since their nights were usually full of vigilantism and saving the city alongside Oliver Queen as the Arrow, Roy Harper as Arsenal, and Digg as their backup.
Sara had been rescued from the island of Lian Yu, where she had been shipwrecked with Oliver. She had eventually been saved, trained, and then had been employed by the League of Assassins, headed by Ra's al Ghul. She had left the League after realizing the life of an assassin was too dark, too cold, for her to handle, and Felicity had come to be grateful for having a woman on the team like Sara, the rough start between them notwithstanding. But when Slade Wilson had threatened Starling City, Sara had done the only thing she knew she could to help them win: return to the League. She had given them her vow to return to Nanda Parbat, Ra's, and the League, if they would help her defend the city where her family, and all those she loved, called home. She had come through with Nyssa al Ghul and an army of assassins who helped save Starling once again from an army of criminals that Slade had dosed with a Mirakuru derivative, making them all super-strong, super-crazy, killing machines. She had come back to Starling on business, what for she wouldn't say, but Felicity wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. She was going to get all the girl time in that she could with Sara while she was in town, because randomly hopping a train for the six hundred miles between Starling and Central Cities to meet up with Felicity’s next best girlfriend, Caitlin Snow, or getting Caitlin to Starling, was next to impossible. Between Felicity's night job, and Caitlin's place on the Flash's team at Star Labs, there weren't many chances for them to meet up for moping over bad or broken relationships and girl talk as they sipped at the best chocolate milkshakes the world had ever known.
Sara hadn't answered Felicity’s query. Instead, she let her hand slide further toward the butt of her handgun as the man's eyes met hers. The younger woman with him followed his gaze as they waited in line for a table, and her eyes found Sara's as well. Felicity shrank back a little in surprise, but laid a warning hand on Sara's leg under the table as the blonde by the door flashed a small smile in their direction. The man she was with gave a gentle nod of acknowledgment, himself, before the hostess came and started picking up a pair of menus. The hunter in Sara clearly recognized the hunter in the two newcomers, and it had Felicity's curiosity piqued, and her sense of self-preservation kicking into high gear. She had seen the same look, now etched onto Sara's face, each time a new mask had come into town and met with Oliver for the first time. Felicity felt the need to defuse the situation in the restaurant before it even became a situation in the first place.
"Sara, wait," Felicity whispered, patting her friend's leg. "Just wait. Maybe it's okay."
The hostess brought the new pair closer and seated them at the next table over, leaving Sara grunting quietly in frustration. Felicity really didn't need to get thrown into any sort of insane situation, what with the mood she was in.
"Hi," the new blonde smiled at Sara and Felicity as the hostess set down their menus and left the table. Felicity could see them realizing the location of Sara's hand in relation to her weapon, and groaned inwardly.
'Please don't let things get awkward,' Felicity begged silently. 'Or worse.'
"Hi!" Felicity returned the greeting, but not knowing where to take the conversation from there.
"I hear good things about this place," the new woman said, smiling innocently. "Like, best burgers in town, kinds of things."
"Oh, yes!" Felicity grinned. "It is! You'd never think it, what with it being out here in the Glades, but it totally is. Are you guys new in town? I only ask because that's kind of a 'totally new in town' kind of thing to say, and you don't really sound like you're from around here, so I just couldn't help but wondering..."
Sara laughed softly beside her, and the newcomer smiled wider.
"We are," she grinned, and leaned over holding out her hand for a handshake. "Ashley Magnus-Macrae. This is my husband, Declan Macrae."
The man, Declan, offered another nod and a charming smile that probably would have disarmed most women. Only, after years of taking down Starling's criminal element night after night, she and Sara weren't most women.
"Felicity Smoak," Felicity answered, taking the blonde's hand and giving it a shake in greeting before motioning to Sara. "And this is my friend, Sara Lance. So, what brings you to Starling City, other than our totally amazing Big Belly Burger, that is?"
Ashley gave a soft laugh.
"Business, actually," she answered as her husband pulled her chair out for her. The woman took her seat and looked adoringly up at Declan before thanking him. He dropped a kiss to the top of her head before taking his seat beside her. "We're starting up a new branch of my mother's organization in town, a foundation kind of thing, so we're here basically checking out the scenery, trying to get a feel for the neighborhood, things like that, before we're neck deep into everything that comes with the job."
That didn't seem to have settled Sara a bit.
"What sort of foundation work do you do?" Sara inquired as she reluctantly inched her hand away from her hidden sidearm and back toward the table, just not on top of it. "We pitch in a bit on the philanthropy front, here and there, ourselves."
'Well, that was one way of putting it,' Felicity smirked inwardly.
"We do a variety of things," Declan answered so that Ashley could flip open her menu and skim the items, and Felicity mentally (well, hopefully she kept it mental) gaped at the British accent that filtered out. "Most of what we do is to help those in need of a place of safety find it."
"Sanctuary," Ashley corrected, who was most definitely not British, but maybe...Canadian? She had a proud smile on her face, though, evidence of a deep love for her family's business. "We provide sanctuary for those who have none, defense for those who can't protect themselves, and rehabilitate even more who need that sort of help. Sanctuary for all, as my mom says."
"Okay, that's actually really cool," Felicity beamed. "And you're actually a Brit? That's too cool! Very Doctor Who. Or James Bond. You look more like a Bond, which is just as awesome!"
Ashley laughed and exchanged amused glances with Declan at the ramble.
"So, I guess that means this is an international thing that you do? Or is that assumption totally off base? God, sorry, you guys probably want to eat, and here I am just talking your ears off. I'm so sorry, I do this way too often. I swear I'll shut up in three, two, one..," Felicity pressed her lips together into a straight line, clamping down on them with her teeth so she wouldn't say another word.
Ashley just grinned at her, and Declan let out a chuckle.
"I'd take Bond," he grinned, leaning back in his chair and tossing one arm over the back.
"You totally are Bond, babe," Ashley beamed at him.
"I am," he smirked playfully, quirking an eyebrow at his wife. "Or at least, I used to be."
"Please," she laughed. "You still are. You've still got it, Soldier."
Felicity watched the duo as the light-hearted banter continued between them, and her heart twisted in her chest. She had wanted that for so long with Oliver, a man who didn't seem to think that you could have the life you wanted alongside the one you chose. And yet, here was the evidence before her that seemed as if it truly were a possibility. If only someone would have told Oliver that. Maybe it really was time to face the fact that he wasn't going to come around and just...move on.
Felicity must've made a noise, because Sara turned to look at her with concern in her eyes, only to find an expression of longing on her friend's face. Sara took Felicity's hand under the table and gave it a gentle, reassuring squeeze. Felicity’s attention came back to the present, and she offered Sara a small smile of encouragement to continue on with the conversation. Sara turned her eyes back to the new couple.
"Soldier?" Sara asked, her interest piqued now. "Are you SAS?"
"Former Royal Marine," Declan amended, his smile fading a bit around the corners. "From a long while back."
"I'm impressed," she answered, leaving Felicity smiling a little that her friend seemed to be relaxing. Being military didn't necessarily make him one of the good guys, just ask Digg, but Felicity knew that it gave Declan a good start toward that column in Sara's book. And in hers. "What brought you into the world of philanthropy?"
"Well, we are an international group as, Felicity, was it?" He asked, and Felicity nodded her confirmation, "as Felicity asked, and sometimes we take in some of the more...dangerous clients, so we keep an in-house security force on staff at all of our facilities. After I was discharged..."
Sara quirked a questioning eyebrow, and he smiled sadly.
"Injured in the line of duty," he clarified, easily knowing the question before she asked it. Sara nodded her appreciation for his answer, and he continued. "I was recruited for security at the London facility, and after a couple of decades, here we are, looking to set up our own facility, here in Starling City."
It was a boiled-down version, but it seemed to work well enough for Sara, as the last of the immediate tension was finally expelled from her body. Felicity watched, awed as her shoulders relaxed, and then Ashley and Declan's followed suit. It was funny, just a few years ago, she never would have noticed such a subtle shift. Now, after working so closely for so long with vigilantes who bristled at the mere thought of someone new moving in on their metaphorical (or maybe not-so-metaphorical) turf, noticing those subtle shifts of posture had become second nature to her. It still felt as though they were leaving something out, but it was a good starting point.
"Well," Felicity smiled sweetly, popping open her handbag and drawing out a business card. She gave it to Sara and made her lean across the aisle to hand it to them. "If you ever have the need of someone local who is good at I.T. work, setting up a network, or whatever other kinds of techy things, feel free to give me a call. I'm sort of...in between day jobs, for the time being."
Considering she didn't start work at Tech Village until after lunch, it wasn't much of a lie. It was just a tiny stretch of the truth, since she had mornings free and hadn't yet figured out how to sleep in since Oliver had lost QC.
"Oh, awesome!" Ashley grinned. "We've actually got a guy, but he's been swamped back home...we might could do with a little help to get things going. What d'you think, Dec?"
"It's not a bad idea," Declan nodded. "We can give Henry a ring when we get back and get an update on how he's progressing, then go from there."
"Sweet!" Felicity beamed. "You guys seem like a lot of fun. Seriously, feel free to call me if you need any help. Like, at all. I'm basically good for anything and everything," her eyes widened. "Tech-wise, I mean. Obviously."
"Sounds great," Ashley laughed again, looking up as the waitress headed for their table. "It was nice to meet you both. Hopefully we'll catch you around town, too. It would be great to have someone who could show us the ropes around here."
"I think that could be arranged," she grinned. "You let me know when you want to see the sights! Not that there's all that much to see, but still."
"Will do," Ashley grinned as their waitress sidled up to the table to take their drink orders.
Felicity looked at Sara, smiling. There was a hint of pride in Felicity's eyes, and a bit of smugness in her smile.
"What?" Sara asked, her brows knitting in confusion at the look on her friend's face.
"Oh, you know. Just solving problems without violence erupting. Something that I doubt Oliver could have managed, had he been the one here..."
Sara laughed. "Okay, you've got that one right. Way to get an in, Cutie. Now, we just need to find out who they really are, and what their business is in Starling City."
:x:
THE PLAYGROUND
NEW S.H.I.E.L.D HEADQUARTERS
LOCATION: CLASSIFIED; 2:50 PM
"Sir?" A brief knock on the door after the address meant only one person would be popping a head into his office: Skye.
Phillip Coulson looked up from the mountain of paperwork on his desk and smiled. She was like a daughter to him, no doubt the closest he'd come to having one, her newfound powers notwithstanding. They had been through hell together, he and his team, and he was never going to turn his back on them. Certainly not on Skye. He had made a promise to her father to save her, to protect her, before Cal had been sent through the T.A.H.I.T.I. protocol. Phil Coulson always kept his word.
"Skye," he greeted, still smiling. "Come in. Close the door, please."
The brunette gave him an odd look, but obliged. She pulled the office door closed behind her just as Coulson pushed away his paperwork and rose from his desk. It had been two weeks since they had retaken the ship from the Inhumans, two weeks since Jemma Simmons had disappeared while investigating the Kree monolith, and two weeks since Coulson had lost a part of his arm saving his team from the Terrigen crystal that the militant Inhuman, Gordon, had dropped upon his death.
Coulson still felt it, the arm, like it was still there. He'd heard that the sensation was odd, the ghost of a limb severed, the nerves of the body unaware that they no longer had their previous endings to relay feeling to. It was...disconcerting, to say the least. He was still looking into options to replace the limb, but he still wasn't sure of which way to go. He doubted that he would know what to do for a while, yet. Mack still felt awful about having to be the one to part him from his arm, but they both knew that if he hadn't, Coulson would be dead, and what remained of S.H.I.E.L.D. would have been left without a Director. With Fury in the wind, still tracking down rogue elements of HYDRA, it had been left to Coulson to lead. It wasn't a job that he had wanted, but it was one that he was coming to be good at. He had taken the job more out of necessity than anything else, at first, and should someone come along that had the ability to lead S.H.I.E.L.D. as it should be led, or certain traitorous organizations be completely toppled, well, he would certainly think of handing over the reins. As it stood, though, Coulson had lost too many good agents already, and had nearly lost even more. Coulson wasn't going to let their lives have been spent, or irrevocably altered, for nothing, so he remained in command. For now.
"You wanted to see me?" Skye asked, her dark eyes flitting over his form, pausing slightly as she took in the sling over his shoulder. He thought he caught a flicker of guilt there, still. It had been her mother's plan, after all, that had led them to where they were, but it had hardly been Skye's fault. She had been played as neatly as the rest of them by Jiaying.
"Yes," he nodded, coming forward to lay his right hand on her shoulder. "How are you doing, Skye?"
"I - I'm all right," she answered, a little bit caught off guard. Coulson hadn't asked her that once in the last two weeks, he knew. There hadn't been time at first, and once there was, he had wanted her to take some time to digest everything. "I think."
"I'm not," he confessed quietly, giving her a gentle smile. "It's normal, or so Dr. Garner tells me."
Skye gave a small, nervous laugh. "Yeah, I suppose it is. It's not every day that your dad turns into a rage monster just shy of the Hulk, and then your mom tries to kill you and all of your friends..."
"And maybe get your arm cut off," he added, a wry smile twisting his face, "But hey, who needs normal, right? We don't do 'normal.'"
"Did we ever?" Skye asked. She hesitated a moment and then added, quirking an eyebrow, "How are you, sir?"
"I'm...surviving," he sighed, looking over his shoulder for a way to divert the subject. If he didn't, things were going to get far too heavy. "I came across an anomaly yesterday, something that I thought you might want to take a look at."
"An anomaly," she repeated, stepping closer. Coulson went to reach behind himself with his missing hand, and sighed. He turned around to reach toward the desk, still not used to his one-handed conundrum, and retrieved a file and flash drive from the stack of assignments on his desk. When he turned back to speak again, he found Skye even closer, holding a hand out for the items. He gave her a small smile.
"We've been monitoring the HYDRA channels for months now, that much you know. You also know that there hasn't been so much as a hiccup of data transmitted over any of their formerly secure channels for weeks now. We were beginning to think that they had found a new way to communicate, since we have intelligence suggesting that they weren't entirely wiped out," he explained. He didn't add that he likely wouldn't currently be in the Director's chair if they had been. "And then, all of a sudden, there was this..."
Coulson reached behind him, pressed a button on his desk, and Fury's toolbox rose from the enclosure within the desk. The lights in the room dimmed, and the windows darkened before the box activated, bringing up a large, blue holographic display. Skye stepped closer to him, clutching the folder and flash storage to her chest.
"A communique?" She asked, and Coulson nodded. "Someone is using the channels again?"
"Just this once. Mistakenly, it seems," Coulson added, nodding to the holographic terminal.
Skye stepped up and commanded the interface to play the file. What she saw made her eyes narrow and her brows knit together in confusion. “What is this?”
A series of images and words, seemingly nonsensical, flashed by as they watched. Colors, numbers, letters, whole words, locations, all flicking by in the blink of an eye, but the one image that held her attention was one in the middle of the transmission that had been repeated at the end, the HYDRA emblem.
"It's really them? HYDRA?" Skye asked, turning to Coulson. There was no way she could possibly make sense of this at full, or even half speed; Coulson certainly hadn't been able to, and he had played it back dozens of times. There had to be a reason, a pattern to it, he knew, and Skye was the best at solving puzzles. Well, perhaps after Fitz, but Leo Fitz wasn't in the best state of mind, given Jemma Simmons' disappearance.
"It seems so," Coulson acknowledged, "I thought you could take it and try to work it out. Everything I have, notes, the coordinates and locations of some of those photographs, is in that folder, and the source file is on the flash drive.
Skye nodded. "I'm thinking that some of these things are red herrings, which means some would have to be discarded altogether. I can slow the images down, try to decipher what they are, and then maybe I can try to get Fitz involved with this?"
She raised her eyes to Coulson in question, and he nodded his encouragement.
"By all means, try. I haven't been able to get much of anything out of him since..." Since they had lost Simmons.
Skye's eyes registered a haunted look again as guilt flowed freely through her.
"Has anyone else turned up anything? About Jemma?" She asked quietly.
Coulson's eyes fell from hers and he shook his head. "Not yet. May is due back tomorrow afternoon with Agent Hill from Stark Industries HQ, so maybe they'll have some actionable intel for us."
"I hope so," Skye murmured, then held the folder and flash drive closer to her chest. "I should...go and see what I can do with this. Is there anything else, Coulson?"
"No," he shook his head. "Not at the moment. Let's just...try to get back into the swing of things for now. And...let's keep this between us for a few days. If Fitz wants in, great. If not, we don't need the whole base knowing that HYDRA may be on the move. At least, not just yet."
"Copy that," she nodded. "I'll see what I can do. And, Sir?”
“Yeah, Skye?” Coulson asked softly.
“It's Daisy now,” she smiled slightly. It wasn't the first time she'd had to remind him of this, and they both knew that it probably wouldn't be the last.
“Right,” Coulson sighed. “Daisy. Sorry.”
“It's okay, Sir,” she smiled, rapping her fingers against the file folder for a second. “I'll...get to work on these.”
Coulson nodded, then watched her turn and leave the office, but he remained leaning against his desk. Looking down at the sling that held the remainder of his arm, he frowned. He really needed to do something about that.
Maybe he'd look at his list of recommendations next, and put off a little bit of the Director's paperwork. If things were about to get complicated, Coulson wanted to be in top form. One never knew when they might be needed to step out of the shadows to confront the dark.
:x:
HYDRA SAFEHOUSE
SOMEWHERE IN NEW YORK CITY; 3:16 PM
Grant Ward smirked at the laptop screen as he read the report once more. This was a move that HYDRA had been planning for a long time, if the files that had been retrieved by the crew he had cobbled together were any indication. HYDRA leadership, by all accounts, had either been killed or had scattered to the winds to hide, and Ward had had no other choice than to assume the leadership position himself. If there was no one left to claim the mantle of HYDRA’s head and aid him in his next mission, then he would do it himself.
Reports were still coming in to the HYDRA central nexus that operatives were going dark, one by one, overseas. Ward had simply shrugged off the intel and kept moving forward. Their losses were acceptable, in the grand scheme of things, and he simply chalked them up to the movements of the Avengers and Nick Fury. He had been keeping close tabs on the Avengers' movements across the world for months, although, after the incident in Sokovia with Ultron, they had all but disappeared. With the Avengers being off the grid, his time was now.
He spread out various sheets of paper before him on the desktop, each one filled with scribbles of plans and proposed timelines. He needed to take one last look over everything and make a final determination on what his next move should be; Ward's first roll of the die had already been cast, and that was going to lead S.H.I.E.L.D. straight to his doorstep if he didn't make another move. His plan required action, but action required strategy.
The pages before him spelled out every piece of intel that he had found documenting locations and assets belonging to the shadow agency that operated under the alias of the Sanctuary Network. Like HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D., they were a covert network that was interested in powered individuals, though, their definition of "individuals" gave him the feeling that the whole truth wasn't being disclosed. S.H.I.E.L.D. had been interested in the Sanctuary Network in the past, but had passed on getting involved in lieu of both government interference and something bigger and badder showing up to threaten the world. After all, why would S.H.I.E.L.D. care to bother with an odd woman tucking powered humans into metaphorical holes in the ground, when there were alien invasions to deal with? At least, that's what Ward assumed was happening. It was time to get to know his quarry better.
What he did know was that the facilities in Old City, London, Cairo, and various other locations across the globe that had long been established, were in possession of too much security to infiltrate for his taste. He had too few men to begin with, and he wasn't going to risk moving in and losing the ones directly under his banner. It was time to move into Starling City and start observing the Sanctuary Network more closely, this time from the ground up.
:x:
HYDRA HEADQUARTERS
LOCATION: CLASSIFIED; 3:20 PM
"Well," a male voice spoke into the darkness. "This certainly is a most interesting turn of events."
"Grant Ward is taking charge of HYDRA?" A female voice answered, "Things are most definitely going to get interesting in the following weeks. I move that we should keep an eye on the situation."
"Agreed," a third voice floated out from across the room. "And Hail HYDRA."
"HAIL HYDRA," a chorus of twelve voices rose up into the darkness, all eyes on the communications terminals and video monitors before them.
to be continued...