Before SHIELD, it was just him and his computers in his bedroom. Spending his days taking down shady corporations and hedge funds, Dawson was anything but a modern day Robin Hood. All he was trying to do was fill his own bank account through directly stealing funds or taking information and selling it to a third party - watching others crash and burn was an added bonus. Thinking of what he did almost like a video game, he kept trying to reach new levels. Which meant treading in dangerous waters whenever he attacked networks belonging to different governments around the world. Of course, that's what landed him in SHIELD's hands, but that was beside the point.
Before Q, there was Marina. Known as Override, she was Dawson's biggest competition in the world he played in. Always trying to be one step ahead of him, their relationship began when he found that she had hit a certain company's network before he had - draining them of the money and information he so desperately wanted. Focusing all of his energy on finding her became a personal vendetta for him. Never before had someone been able to slip past him and get ahead at the same time. And he had to admit, she was hard to track down. Smart and knowing how to keep her tracks covered, she managed to evade him for a few days before he found her. Promptly stealing back what wasn't his to begin with started an all out digital war between them. Thus a beautiful frenemy-ship was born.
Over the years that passed, they became as close as two could from opposite sides of the world. Mostly out of spite, partly because they both lived by the code of keeping enemies closer than friends. Always trying to outsmart the other and get ahead, taking down certain domestic and international networks faster than the other and upping the stakes at every possible moment, it became a game between the two hackers to keep things interesting. Keystroke patterns were recognized, dummy IP addresses were familiar and there were always little sardonic messages hidden in whatever code that was left behind that only the other would see.
Besides the unspoken game they played, they would swap stories with each other. Sometimes even giving each other advice when it was unrelated to anything that could be detrimental to the other. No need to know about their weaknesses that could be used against them, right? If it wasn't for the constant one-upping and take-downs, the two could be considered friends in any other world.
But suddenly, Dawson disappeared. There was no sign of him - even when the news broke about Pym Technologies' newest attempt in their effort to spearhead the advancement in fields of nanotechnology, human enhancements, and molecular and atomic studies; just thinking about getting her hands on that information made dollar signs dance in her head so she figured Dawson would be all over it. But he wasn't. There was no sign of his keystroke pattern or any sarcastic messages in leftover code - not even any traps that were set. He had disappeared off the grid. Which worried her; if they got him, it would only be a matter of time until they got her.
Of course, she had tried to find him. Finding things that had mysteriously "disappeared" from the internet was one of her best skills. Nothing was ever really deleted from the internet, no matter how hard people tried to hide it or get rid of it.
Plus, he was an actual person with a social security number and unique fingerprint to match. She had seen his face, knew what he looked like. He existed in the world - Marina just needed to find him.
It proved much harder than she expected it to be. Whatever had happened him, whoever had gotten to him, made sure he was completely untraceable. Not to mention, he had taken precautions even before going cold. Never really venturing outside of his house, but when he did, he paid for things in cash and had made sure security cameras and streetlight cameras were never able to connect him to his information - securing his identity and safety in the world much more than any security company boasted they could. Paranoia colored every one of his actions, but it was still a smart move. Yet also a terrible one for someone who was actively trying to find him to make sure he was still alive.
No one ever came for Marina though. Whether they didn't know about her or Dawson hadn't told them about her, Marina would never know. She still continued to keep tabs on all of their old marks to see if Dawson ever returned to double dip. But his silence had just grown with each passing year.
In a way, it was easier to do her job without him around. He had always been her biggest competitor and a massive pain in her ass. Yet, there was a part of her that was a little concerned about where he had actually ended up. Had he been caught? Or did he just turn off his computer and go into a normal, dead-end job? The fact that she didn't have a real answer was what frustrated her the most.
But when the news broke that the United States' biggest security intelligence apparatus had been taken down - from people who worked for the division itself, she found out exactly what happened to him. Not only had he been a part of the group who had orchestrated the takedown, but he had been working for the government for the ten years leading up to it.
Marina wanted to feel betrayed; he had turned. SHIELD, as the division was called, had somehow gotten him to do their dirty work for them. Instead, she found herself being almost proud of what he had managed to do. Both of them had taken down companies and exposed sub divisions throughout their time together, but neither one of them managed to take down an entire division of a massive government - especially one that they had been working for.
With the collapse of SHIELD came a massive data dump - including multiple files on Dawson. She spent days reading what he had been up to since he had disappeared and even what he had done to land him in the organization in the first place (the idiot). There was no mention of her, which was a relief, but the data dump did make it much easier to keep tabs on him. That being said, it also helped that his face was on every international news channel, his Congress hearing replayed every week when new details emerged and of course, every other outlet of the American government was questioning him too. Made it much more easier for Marina to learn all about her friend from her past.
There were documents upon documents, the NSA had put shadows on him and updated files every week with minor information that would never be useful, but it was nice to know how he took his coffee at the gas station.
Since the collapse of SHIELD, she tracked his journey. While he hadn't gone dark again, he had gone dim. Most of his work was getting into old databases or security files, something completely outside of his usual modus operandi. There was no stealing of money or leaking information to public networks, just gathering information and moving on.
Six months later, he tripped a silent alarm on a very old network that belonged to the scientific branch of the Nazis: otherwise known as Hydra.
What he was doing in an old Hydra base remained to be seen - all Marina knew was that he was trying to access their network from World War II. She had noticed that his keystroke patterns had been popping up all over Dnipropetrovsk, but there was no pattern. Nothing that could lead her to his exact location since he was using a dummy IP address and accessing the networks from a secure, outside location that bounced her around from tower to tower every time she tried to locate him - meaning he could've been simply doing it from his bedroom like when they were teenagers.
But since the Hydra base was so old, there was no way he could've tapped into it without being directly in front of a computer connected to it. From there, it was like finding an elephant in a room. Finding the location of the base led her to check the surrounding hotels and motels. Of course, all of his previous aliases that she knew were no longer being used, - thanks to the SHIELD data dump, which meant she had to spend a good portion of the night checking every hotel and motel for him. Pretending to be an officer made it easy to trick the front desks, flashing a photo she had taken from a SHIELD file and letting them know he was a very dangerous individual.
And that's how she found him. Standing behind a tall woman with wild, dark waves of hair, holding a gun pointed at Marina with one hand while his other hand was a bloody mess that he cradled against his stomach.
"Jesus Christ, cOmrade." she used his old hacker username so that he would know who she was despite the dimness of the room. Her English was tinged with a slight Ukrainian accent, having only ever spoke it when she needed to. From what she remembered, he only knew English, a small weakness compared to his very long list of strengths. Letting out a slight laugh, she put her hands up in a way to show that she wasn't going to do anything stupid, "Please file you holding a gun under things I never thought I'd see." Obviously the use of Dawson's old hacker name made the other woman pause and turn to look over her shoulder to where he was standing. She took the moment to glance over Dawson, seeing how much he had grown up since their last video chat some odd years ago. She had seen him on the news and in various photos, but in-person was much different. There was a certain vibe he gave off: annoyance and more annoyance.
Despite the blood on his shirt and the fucked up hand, he had grown into his looks. His jaw, though clenching, was peppered with a five o'clock shadow. His hair was shorter than when she last saw him, but still was tucked behind his ears. Those blue eyes were trained on the other woman in a knowing way, as if giving her an answer to a question she hadn't asked.
She watched them silently communicate for a moment, obviously close enough to do so. They were a team. It was weird to see him so close with another person; she remembered on multiple occasions complaining about dealing with other people.
After the moment of hesitation, he lowered the gun and clicked the safety back on. She lowered her hands, a slight smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth as the other woman turned back to look at her, silently wondering what the hell was going on.
"Marina." Dawson sighed, not sounding unhappy but certainly not sounding happy at the sight of her. It had been over a decade since they saw each other last, both nothing more than pimply teens-almost-adults with huge issues with authority. She let her smirk full appear; clearly he still felt the same toward her even after all these years, which was nice and familiar.
"Miss me?" she asked, taking a step closer to the other two. He let out a scoff, shaking his head as he stepped in front of the other woman - almost protectively.
"Hardly." he bit back and she pouted, pretending to be hurt, "How the hell did you find us?" she could already see the gears in his brain turning; if she was able to find them, then so were other people. She just wasn't sure what other people would even be looking for the two.
The only threat she saw standing in the motel room was Dawson and he was barely a threat anymore thanks to his fucked up hand.
"You tried to access an old Hydra network, right?" she asked, dropping herself down onto the bed and bouncing a bit. She lounged there with an expectant expression on her face, waiting for their response. The split second eye exchange between Dawson and the other woman was enough of an answer for her, "You tripped a silent alarm." she gestured to them, hearing him curse under his breath.
"Where was it sent to?" he asked, already moving to where his laptop was on the small motel table. She shook her head, watching him struggle to even open the cover. He winced the entire time, obviously in pain from whatever had happened to his hand. She figured the jaw clench she had seen when they first came face to face was in reaction to her, but she realized it was more because of the pain he was in thanks to his hand.
"I don't know...somewhere in DC…" she trailed off, trying to remember the address she had seen or the account holder username, "Pierce, I think." she shrugged, not really caring about why he was so worried about where the alarm went. According to the data dump, Hydra was using SHIELD as a cover for themselves. And since SHIELD went down, that had to have meant Hydra went down as well.
"Pierce is dead, Dawson." the other woman finally spoke up, reminding Marina that she was there. Dawson shook his head, not stopping his efforts to try and get his computer up and running with just one hand.
"A lot of rats didn't go down with the ship, Q." he reminded her, "We don't know who has access to those files." To Marina, it sounded like he was trying to remind the Q woman of a specific person who might be looking for them. Someone they didn't want finding them. Marina glanced over to Q, taking their distraction with each other to give her a once over.
She looked familiar; the SHIELD data dump had linked her with Dawson as one of the others in the group to take down the organization, but Marina hadn't done that much digging into her files - only looking at the pictures. There were only a few of them anyhow: SHIELD ID photos, or random, blurry security cameras. In-person, she was much taller than Marina realized. Those wild waves of dark hair were the first thing she had noticed, but her jawline was sharp, spotted with dried blood. She was a bit more muscular than she seemed in the blurry photos, but nothing that made Marina worry - she looked like someone who had worked out more than the average person.
"Hey, stop," Q moved over to where Dawson was trying his damndest to get his computer working with one hand, "This is not our biggest concern, right now." Marina watched the interaction, noting how he reacted to Q gently pulling him away from the computer. He relaxed into her touch, nodding a bit as he finally stepped away. He sighed dejectedly, gaze shifting down to his hand and wincing - as if remembering how much it hurt.
"What happened?" Marina asked, gesturing with her chin to his hand. He glanced over at her and she saw his jaw clench again - whether in pain or annoyance this time, she wasn't sure.
"Some assholes jumped us in a parking lot." her eyebrows rose up in surprise, not expecting that answer. She figured since they were in a Hydra base, it had to be something Hydra related. But it was almost the most normal accident to happen in Ukraine.
"And you can't go to a hospital, why?" she asked, moving her head a bit so her curls danced with the move. Both heaved a matching sigh, exchanging another look. Like they were in on a secret together and Marina wasn't allowed to know - but she would find out, even if they didn't want her to.
"We don't want to be found." Q answered simply, gaze returning to Marina. She held eye contact with the other woman for a long moment, almost as if she were trying to see inside Marina. See what made her Marina: what made her tick, made her dance and made her suffer - any and all chinks in the armor. Marina had to look away first, intimidated by the intense eye contact.
"I found you." she pulled down the corners of her lips and shrugged as if it had been as easy as counting to three.
"You were lucky." he snapped back, giving her a glare. She rolled her eyes as she pushed herself up into a sitting position.
"You're still going to need to get that hand checked out, cOmrade." she lifted her chin up, pointing out the obvious, "Doesn't matter if you can't go to a hospital, you need to see someone." she continued as if Dawson and Q didn't already know that. He let out annoyed huff, glaring at her for a moment before lifting his injured hand up.
"Have any suggestions?" he asked with raised eyebrows. She gave him a knowing grin, settling back on her hands again.
"Plenty." she paused, "But first, I want to know what exactly are you doing in Dnipropetrovsk anyway?" she asked, letting her accent come out a bit more with the proper pronunciation of the city they were in, "A little hurt you didn't call to say hello…" she trailed off, fingers lightly tracing the pattern on the motel comforter as her eyes flicked to Dawson's. Dummy IP addresses aside, each of them knew where the other were really located. Time-zones became an unfair advantage as did the language barrier - things that were never not pointed out. He huffed, placing his uninjured hand on his hip and looking to Q. She met his gaze and then shook her head slightly, still wanting to keep their secrets from Marina.
"We're trying to find some...other Hydra operatives." Dawson carefully answered her question, not wanting to trip up and let her in on something that she didn't need to know. It was one thing that she found them, it would be a whole nother thing if she knew who they were looking for. Better to keep it short and vague and hopefully she would leave without causing any more trouble.
"And you're starting at a base used by them during World War II?" Marina asked, brows furrowing a bit in confusion. If they were trying to find Hydra operatives, why not start with those that were mentioned in the data dump?
"We started there to track the journey of the Hydra infiltration." Q cut in, backtracking a bit, "Trying to figure out when they started working with SHIELD, how much control they actually had, where they ended up scurrying off to after SHIELD collapsed, etc. etc." she motioned with her hand as she finished. Marina nodded slowly, taking in the lie that she was so obviously being fed.
"Right, well, I can help you with that." Marina offered simply, pairing it with a slight shrug. Her work led her to meetings with shady people and organizations - Hydra adjacent ones included. She could lend a hand (no pun intended) to help them find whoever they were looking for. And maybe earn enough of their trust to be let in on the real reason they were in Ukraine.
"No, no, absolutely not." he laughed out with a shake of his head, "No way are we letting you get involved with this." she pouted at him, getting to her feet and crossing her arms over her chest like a petulant child.
"Oh, come on, Dawson." she almost cooed, "Let me help you." she reached out for him, but he swatted her hand away in an annoyed manner. Shaking his head again then widening his eyes was enough to let her know he was serious. She sighed dramatically, arms dropping to her sides, "Look at yourself, dude, your hand's all fucked up, you can't go to a hospital, you've gotten involved with some shady shit...I'm really your only option." she squinted one eye shut, tilting her head to the side, "I mean, I can get you to a doctor to have your hand fixed, then stick around and help out with whatever you need help with while you heal."
"We don't need your help, Marina." he bit out, cradling his hand a bit more protectively to his chest, "We can handle this without you." she laughed a bit, looking to Q as she did.
"He's still aggressively stubborn, huh?" she asked with a point at him, acting as if he weren't standing right in front of her. Q raised her eyebrows and nodded, arms crossing over her chest. No reason to lie about that. He scoffed and rolled his eyes, over what was happening in the room.
"Listen, you found us. Great job. And it was great seeing you, Marina, but we've got bigger problems to deal with." he gestured for her to get out of the motel room, pushing her to the side with his uninjured hand. That was enough of a blast from the past reunion for him for that night.
"Hey, hey, hold on a second." Q stopped Dawson from forcing Marina to leave. She put her hand out in the middle of them, looking in between them before speaking directly to Dawson, "She said she could get you to a doctor." she pointed out, glancing down at his injured hand. He scoffed, rolling his eyes,
"I'll be fine, Q. We don't need a doctor." he was over the conversation; it didn't matter how much pain he was in. Getting pain medicine was a lot easier than getting his hand fixed - and would be quicker so he could get back to making sure Nat and/or Rogers didn't trace back the supposed silent alarm he tripped in the Hydra base. It would be even worse if they found the two of them now, what with them both being semi-beaten and semi-broken by the hands of some assholes. He didn't need to have that I told you so conversation either.
"Okay, maybe you're right." she put her hands up, backing off a bit. But before Dawson could sarcastically thank her, she continued, "Maybe it'll heal. But it won't heal correctly, meaning eventually your muscles will get sore, your tendons and ligaments will get inflamed and you'll feel the pain every time you press a key on your computer." her voice adapted the medical tone he was oh so used to. He sighed, shoulders slumping down as he thought about what she said. He knew she was right, but he always hated when she was. She stepped in between him and Marina, putting one hand on his shoulder as she did, "Listen, we need to fix that hand. It's one of the most important weapons we have." she reminded him. His eyes stayed on hers for a long moment before darting over her shoulder to Marina.
"Fine." he gritted out, not happy with what it had come to, "We'll go to your fancy doctor." she laughed, shaking her head a bit as her arms crossed over her chest.
"Oh he's the furthest thing from fancy." she sounded almost amused by the thought of anyone referring to her doctor as fancy, which slightly worried Dawson; what were they about to get into this time?
A/N: I am terrible at keeping up with the weekly updates so far! Ugh life has been so busy, but it's finally settling out so hopefully I'll be back on track with updates!
I hope you guys liked this chapter! I know it was kind of a filler one, but please let me know all of your thoughts - good and bad! I love hearing them. And thank you to everyone who's favorited/followed and reviewed up to now! I love you all so much!
Also omg I saw Capt. Marvel and ! I LOVE HER! And am 10000x more excited (but also still v nervous) for Endgame (esp. after that trailer!)
