Author's note: Sequel to 'Chained To A Sink'. Hunter's thoughts during episode 2x14 'Love In the Time of Hydra' as he comes face to face with the so-called "real" SHIELD. This will most likely be three chapters long, and even though I've tried to stay with the tone of 'Chained To A Sink', it's probably a little different, simply given the fact that there is so much more direct interaction in Hunter's scenes in this episode than the previous one.
Trapped In A Maze - Chapter 1
What organisation, Mack? Who the hell are you working for?
SHIELD. The real SHIELD.
The words are still running through Hunter's mind as Mack grabs his arm and starts leading him deeper into the base, the two armed guards who pulled him out of the helicopter earlier following closely behind.
This is nonsense, all of it, he thinks for a moment, but the SHIELD emblems on the walls they occasionally pass are telling him otherwise. They are telling him that, unless someone is playing a very elaborate ruse on him right now, there is actually another organisation that is claiming the catchy acronym as its title, and as he's pretty sure that even Director Coulson wouldn't keep something like this from him, apparently nobody even knows about their existence.
It's insane, really, and the longer he thinks about it, the more his head is starting to spin from all the secrets.
"So this is what all the fuss is about ... another SHIELD?" he finally asks as Mack is leading him through what seems to be some kind of control room.
He's looking around carefully, taking in every detail he can. Number of guards, personnel, possible exit routes, he memorises everything to make sure that if he gets his chance, if these people should be stupid enough to turn their backs on him for even a second, he's ready to get the hell out of here before anyone can stop him.
He's actually surprised that Mack has already removed the bag that has been covering his head for the last few hours during their travel. Hunter can only hope it's a sign that now that he has returned to his real friends, the tall man walking next to him is beginning to lower his guard.
His jaw clenches briefly at the thought and he promises himself that the next time things between them get violent, he won't be the one who will be caught off guard. Mack might be a very big guy, and a surprisingly good fighter, but Hunter still has some tricks up his sleeve as well. He will make sure he won't be taken out as easily as before again.
He knows, however, that it's not the right time to make any escape attempts yet. For now he's too well guarded; plus, he still needs to get to the bottom of all this, although he's beginning to doubt there'll be a sensible answer anywhere down the road. When Mack actually has the audacity to tell him to lower his voice as they walk past all the agents working at their monitors and computers, it prompts a chuckle and an incredulous reply from Hunter, to whom the entire situation is starting to seem more and more unreal, crazy even.
Here he is, in handcuffs, being escorted by a group of armed guards and a man he would have called one of his best friends just yesterday, and all of that apparently on behalf of people who are calling themselves SHIELD, too. He's not sure his day can get any more ridiculous than that.
As he soon finds out, though, it can.
"You must be Lance Hunter." He's inside a conference room now as an old man walks up to him, supporting himself with a cane. 'Gonzales', as Mack calls him, is greeting him friendly, even offering to shake his hand after his cuffs have been removed, but Hunter just looks at him, thoroughly unimpressed.
If this guy actually thinks he's going to play nice, just because they haven't thrown him into some dark hole yet, he is utterly mistaken and the mercenary has no problem with letting him know that.
"And you must be crazy," he replies, simply staring down at the hand offered to him, until Gonzales gets the hint and walks over to sit at the head of the table, next to the three agents already sitting there, watching Hunter with varying degrees of concern.
So this is it then, he thinks as he's looking ahead with nothing but contempt in his eyes. These are the people who have been pulling the strings in the background, who have been giving Mack his orders, and Bobbi probably, too, and who, no matter if they wanted it or not, have caused Hunter's entire life to shatter around him.
"I think I preferred you acting alone instead of taking orders from the clown academy," he quips at Mack, knowing all too well that as far as the agent is concerned, this right here excuses everything.
He has his orders after all, doesn't he? People sitting in important looking armchairs, telling him what's right and what's wrong, making it oh-so-easy to forget even the most common decency and that even in this line of work it should be a big no-go to knock out and kidnap your own bloody friends. But maybe he's just being touchy.
"This is not about blindly following orders, Mr. Hunter. This is about leaders being held accountable."
"To the men and women they serve, as well as those that govern alongside them."
It takes everything Hunter has not to roll his eyes and groan as the 'real' SHIELD agents start with the sales pitch, trying to convince him that they are actually the good guys in this scenario.
Maybe their words would come with a bit less of a bitter aftertaste, if he hadn't been kidnapped off his own base, tied up in the trunk of a car, but the way things are, he has only spite and sarcasm to offer in return for their futile efforts.
The bald guy sitting next to Gonzales actually suggests throwing him in the brig at this point and even though Hunter instantly has the urge to punch him in the face, he also feels a weird rush of sympathy for the man. At least he's not pretending that they're all going to be friends at the end of this, or that they could sway his loyalties with kindness and a few nice sounding arguments.
He is a prisoner, kept here against his will and to pretend otherwise is more insulting than anything else. For the moment, however, Hunter decides to humour his captors and to at least listen to their explanations, because he really does want to know what the hell has been going on.
He almost laughs at Gonzales' insistence that they founded their SHIELD – the real SHIELD, as they make so painfully sure to keep calling it – on the belief that leadership should operate with transparency and not from the shadows. Coming from a group of people, who have been operating from so deep in the shadows so far, that nobody even knows about their mere existence, Hunter thinks that is quite the ludicrous claim, but he doesn't say that out loud.
Instead he goes on to inform the bunch of arseholes sitting in front of him, that the one person their beef actually seems to be with, Nick Fury, is already dead, only that that is obviously just half of the truth. Because as it turns out, Nick Fury isn't the real problem to these people; it's Coulson and now Hunter finally understands what this is all about.
There is an extremely smug look on his face as he takes a seat, allowing himself to relax at least a little, now that he knows what kind of situation he's dealing with here. This isn't about some kind of ideology, not about good SHIELD vs. bad SHIELD, transparency vs. secrets, this is a power play, nothing else.
"You guys don't want Coulson in charge," he observes with a hint of a grin playing on his lips. As much as he's had his own issues with the man in question in the beginning, he knows that whatever problem Gonzales and his bunch of misfits have with the director, they're wrong. Coulson might have his secrets, a fair share of them most likely, but he isn't Nick Fury. Far from it, actually.
There are a couple of reasons why Hunter decided years ago to leave the military and to go into the private sector. The main two of those are money – he never denied that – and the fact that now he can choose who he wants to work for, whose orders he is willing to follow. Coulson offered him a place to stay when he had nowhere else to go, and even though Hunter knows that that proposition wasn't made out of the goodness of Coulson's heart, and more out of necessity, he doesn't regret that he took it and stayed.
He has had his fair share of superiors over the years, with quite a surprising number of bastards among them, but as far as people working in this business go, he knows that Coulson really isn't so bad.
"Well, I'm afraid we don't share in that opinion," Gonzalez replies to his observation in that kind and considerate tone that Hunter already finds annoying, as it's making it hard to think of the man as a power hungry opportunist who's doing all of this just to get Coulson's job.
Out of the corner of his eye he sees the exasperated look on Mack's face as the mechanic takes a seat at the table as well now. For a moment Hunter thinks he might have even been rolling his eyes, clearly not even trying to hide his own opinion on this matter.
Not that that wasn't obvious already anyway, he thinks bitterly, remembering the team's shouting match in the lab during Skye's quarantine all too clearly. He also remembers how he took Mack's side against Coulson and May that day, sticking up for his friend as he always does, no matter if he agrees with him or not.
As he always did, Hunter quickly corrects himself, his anger spiking again as he shakes his head and leans forward, addressing the tall agent directly now.
"This is rubbish. Maybe you've drunk the conspiracy kool-aid, but there's not a chance in hell Bobbi would ever bow down to any of this..." he emphasises, only to trail off as he hears the door behind him open, knowing instinctively that she is standing there without even having to look.
Figures.