Hi guys… as promised. We are almost there so stay with me okay…

Chapter 14 – Revelation

With all the preparation for the extraction of SHIELD's best agents, Sitwell had forgotten about the note that he took from the briefing room. He was coordinating from the command centre and saw the jets approaching the last coordination the downed jet had transmitted.

'Agent Coulson. You're approaching the area.' Sitwell spoke into the comm link.

'Affirmative. We could see some debris on the ground. There were some structures up ahead. We are moving into the area.' Coulson voice echoed on the speaker.

'Where are they now, Sitwell?'

He and few other technicians jumped at Fury's voice. They didn't expect the Director to be down in the command centre when he could monitor everything from his office. The others quickly resumed their task, trying to avoid the director's attention.

'They've arrived at the coordinate, sir. Agent Coulson said they saw debris of the jet on the ground.' He supplied the information to him. Fury nodded and tapped his earpiece. 'Coulson. Do you see - anything other than the debris?' Sitwell knew the director wanted to say bodies but refrained from doing so. Even he couldn't ask Coulson because he refused to believe that they have lost both agents in the blast.

Coulson stole a glance to James when the Director's question could be heard in the jet. Other than a jerk in shoulder and the white knuckled grip he had on the throttle, James displayed no response to it.

'Negative sir. We are approaching the structures now. It looked like some kind of a warehouse.' He squinted out at the building on the ground.

'Agent Lee, scan for hostiles,' Coulson instructed the co-pilot, 'and James, once that done, take us down behind it.'

'Yessir.' Both of them responded.

'There's a thermal sign down there, sir, immobile but it's faint. Only one that I can detect.' Lee supplied after completing the scan.

'Take us down, James. I want Sigma Team Strike to accompany us. The rest maintain your position. Secure the area and report.' All the teams gave their position and acknowledged the order.

James put the jet down behind the warehouse. The six man Sigma team quickly deployed out and moved toward the warehouse. They moved on either side of the building in a team of twos. One of them positioned himself behind the warehouse and the other one stayed with Coulson.

'Sit rep.' Coulson quickly called out.

'Sir, all clear on the left.'

'All clear on the right.'

'Moving in now.' Few seconds passed by and Coulson waited for the all clear signal.

'Sir! We're going to need medic to be onstandby, sir.' At the urgent sound of the Sigma team member, Coulson hoped that they have found one of the agents injured in there.

'Identify, soldier.' Coulson barked the order.

'It's Agent Cross, sir and he's in bad shape.'

At the mention of the name, James immediately released himself from his chair and ran down the ramp. Coulson was right behind him, swearing at him to stop. Sigma team leader had not yet announced that the area was clear.

'Goddamnit, James. Maintain your position.' Coulson shouted at him. The soldier that was stationed behind the building quickly tackled him down and held him on the ground. Coulson ran towards him and crouched beside the struggling agent.

'Stand down, agent. Do you want to get yourself killed?' Coulson hissed at James who was breathing heavily on the ground.

'Sir, it's my partner and he's injured. I need to be there.' The soldier pressed a bit harder on him and he grunted.

'Be still until they cleared the area, James.' Coulson placed his hand on James head to still him. James sighed frustratingly and remain still under Coulson's hand.

Not a moment too soon, Sigma Team Leader announced the area was secured and ordered a medic team to approach. Coulson still put his hand on James's squirming body until the medic team passed them. He crouched lower to speak to James. 'We're going to release you now James – BUT – I want you to stay close to me and follow my lead. If you fail to follow my order, I'll ask this gentleman here to escort you back to the jet. Do I make myself clear, Agent?' He pressed a little bit to emphasize his order and James nodded once. ' Yessir.'

'At ease, soldiers.' They released him and Coulson pulled him up and stared at him. James brushed himself nervously and waited for Coulson to move. He nodded once to James and made his way to the warehouse entrance.

James was fidgeting behind him and Coulson couldn't blame him. They reached the entrance and saw the medic team working on Cross. They had the mask on him and a defib machine out. Coulson stole a glance behind him and saw that James was pale and shaking. He wanted to be by his partner's side but his presence would hindered the medic team from saving Cross's life. So he stood beside Coulson, eyes taking the scene infront of him. When a shrill sounded from the machine, both Coulson and James tensed and eyes strained to see past the medic. James wringing his hand looking at Coulson for strength. Then a beeping sound flooded them and they waited for a few more moments just to be sure that the beeping sound was steady.

When the Medic team leader raised her head up and glanced at Coulson, she signaled her team to prepare the gurney for transport and tilted her head to him. Coulson moved forward with James right behind his heel. She eyed James for awhile.

'His partner.' Coulson supplied tensely.

She nodded and reported to Coulson while James stared at Cross. He wanted to move forward and touched him. He glanced backward at Coulson who nodded his head once and returned his attention to the Medic's report. James dashed to Cross.

He placed his hand on Cross's forearm. He had his eyes closed and his breathing condensed the gas mask. Bruises marked his face and his lower abdomen was bandaged. He could see patches of bloodied bandages on the ground and dried blood staining the floor. He couldn't take his eyes away from the puddle but startled out from his wit when a cold hand touched his.

Cross was looking at him thru half lidded eyes. He was smiling.

The son of a bitch is smiling at him. How dare him.

James shook his head and muttered few curses. Cross fumbled one hand inside his cargo pants and pulled out a package. He shoved it to James hand and said something. James removed the gas mask and Cross licked his lips.

'I got the aspirin for your headache, man.' He muttered hoarsely and his hand went limp. The medic quickly shoved James aside and replaced the mask before he was taken to the jet for transport home.

James was standing dumbfounded with the package in his hand. He blinked few times at it and looked at the jet that was taking off with his partner and friend. Coulson came to stand beside him.

'She said he had a stab wound to the abdomen, not fatal, but he had lost a lot of blood. He should be okay.' When James gave no response at him but stared at the retreating jet, Coulson touched his shoulder and surprised at the response he received. James's shoulder was shaking and dropped his head down. He shook it several times and mumbled something.

'What did he give you, James?' James opened his hand and Coulson gave him a questioning glance at the crumpled package of aspirin.

'He was getting me an aspirin from the infirmary, sir, when he took the detour. The idiot, son of a bitch had the nerve to give to me now while he's struggling for his life. I'm gonna kill him in his sleep for this shit, sir.'

Coulson slapped James's shoulder and snorted. 'Let him settled first before you do anything rash, okay. Besides, I need him to tell me where Hawkeye is.' His voice took a grave tone that snapped James out from his vengeful thought.

'I'm sorry sir, I didn't mean that…I'm sure we will find Agent Barton soon.' James stuttered and kicked himself for being an idiot.

'Yeah, I know we will. Let's get back to the jet and checked out this area. I'm sure they have moved somewhere nearby.' Coulson sighed and looked at James. He signaled to Sigma team to return to the jet. Agent Lee had already prepared the jet for take-off.

'Sir, we found Agent Cross but nothing else. The area was empty.' Coulson reported to Fury once they were airborne.

'That's good Coulson. We'll take care of him. How is Agent James?'

'He's good, sir. We are going to check the surrounding area sir. I'm sure they are nearby. The time from the jet's explosion and now is not that long. They must have moved by land. There were several areas in the 20 miles radius that could be their possible hiding place. We will find them soon, sir.' Coulson reported with determination.

Fury closed his eyes and sighed into the comm. 'Bring them home, Coulson. Be careful out there.'

Sitwell had never heard the Director used the tone before. It was a revelation to him to know that his boss was actually human and not robot in disguise. He looked up from his terminal and stared at Fury who was massaging his forehead. When Fury realized that a few pair of eyes were staring at him, he raised his head and with a stern voiced barked to everyone in the command centre.

'WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?! GET BACK TO WORK YOU IDIOTS!'

Immediately everyone started to find something and busied themselves with anything. Sitwell turned his attention to his terminal with a ghost of smile on his face.

Yup…he's backkkk….That's the Director I know…

He was still smiling when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He reached down and looked at the message. The Infirmary reported that they were about to receive Agent Cross and Hill wanted him to supervise the inquiry once Cross is stable to be question. He raised his head to the Director mulling over a proper sentence to ask for his…

'What is it, Sitwell. I can hear you thinking.' Fury's voice just blasted thru his carefully placed sentence and he blurted out the first thing from his mind.

'Agent Hill wanted me to supervise Agent Cross's questioning once he's stable, sir.' Sitwell waited for Fury response. His hand fumbled with his phone to reply the message.

'Go. Find out from him where and who took my people. But don't aggravate him too much, Sitwell.' Sitwell quickly typed his response and placed his phone back to his pocket. His hand brushed a piece of paper and he took it out. He had completely forgotten about the note. When he opened it, his brow furrowed with concentration that caused Fury to glance down.

'What do you have there, Sitwell?' Sitwell raised his head and stood beside Fury.

'I'm sorry, sir. This is the note from the box in your office.' He handed the note to him.

'Why is the note with you, Sitwell?' Fury narrowed his one eye at him.

Sitwell didn't realize that he was about to get his head chewed off by the director. His brow was furrowed in concentration.

'Sir?.. oh..I got it when it flew….That's not the point, sir - ', Fury eye got smaller until a slit of it could be seen. Still Sitwell missed the dangerous glint. You don't get to say that to the Director of SHIELD and got away unscathed. Fury was about to unleashed his namesake when Sitwell raised his hand into the air.

'I know what this number mean, sir. It's a tracking code Agent Barton had installed on his quiver after his shooting few months ago.' Fury waited for more info from Sitwell after that revelation. Sitwell just looked at him with a big smile on his face.

'Well…don't just stand here, Agent! Go track it, for crying out loud!' Sitwell immediately scrambled on his terminal. He still kept his smile on his place, knowing in his heart that their agents will be coming home soon. Safely, he hoped.

'Coulson. We are going to send you a coordinate for our missing agents. I'm deploying you three tactical teams to your position. Don't ask, Coulson, just make sure you bring them home. Sit rep in one hour and be careful. Fury out.'

'Sir,' Fury glanced down to Sitwell's solemn voice, 'I've tracked it to this area, sir, but I don't think you're going to like it.' Fury squinted his one eye at the identified location and his mouth set a very grim line.

'Of all the fucking ass shitload -.' Sitwell grimaced at the colorful curses that flew out from Fury's mouth and breathed a sigh of relief when the Director's turned on his heels and stalked out from the command centre.

'Dear lord have mercy.' A relief cry came out from somewhere and strings of amen followed. Sitwell sent the coordinates to Coulson and called for a replacement for his terminal. He needed to get to the infirmary and to wait for Agent Cross's arrival.

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Fury stalked to his office in foul mood. He was still muttering curses to hell and back and shaking his head in disgust. Deputy Director Maria Hill met him at his door and opened the door for him.

'Sir, you called for me?' Maria Hill stood in front of Fury's table and observed her boss pacing the floor in a pent up angry force.

'Hill, I want you to compile all info on HYDRA and Red Room's involvement in Death Spores. I want everything about it, last known location, the scientists involved and I mean everything. Be ready for briefing in 15.' Fury said in clenched teeth.

'Sir, yes sir.' Hill turned and walked out from the room leaving Fury fuming sending glares to the setting sun.

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Right guys…I was reading some material on Alexei, The Red Guardian, and came across on the Death Spores on the Comic Marvel Universe. Interesting..so I just have to mention that here. That's all.

I'm gonna post the next chapter by Wednesday so leave reviews guys…that would be awesome.

Stay safe uols….

Shila1378

p/s still couldn't see Iron Man 3…not until my doctor says I can move about freely..what a drag. And Star Trek – Into the Darkness is opening on May 17…so not fair….totally so not fair…so be kind and leave reviews for this poor soul…. :((