Chapter 62: Far enough

It was over. The attack on the WCD HQ had ended. Only a handful of SSR soldiers had survived… We had lost so much…

J'onn was apparently lost into the Quantum Realm? Or somewhere else, perhaps? Private Stewart, and Phill, were both nearly beaten to death. Bishop's status was unknown, but she didn't last appear likely to survive. The SSR had been infiltrated by a cable of traitors... And because of that, we not only, also lost Rick, Clint, and General Fury... but Eru knows who else?

… Not to mention the other attacks on various other SSR locations… So much had just happened…

General Fury stated that he and Thawne were once partners. That they had been working together for far longer than we had realized. He said that it wasn't until later that Thawne had gone rogue… And then his last words to Barry… What could General Fury have meant?

It seemed as if General Fury was saying that Barry was supposed to have been better than "he was"... But who was this "he"?... All of this had been processed in my mind; while at the same time, my eyes were locked on the sight of this, "Quake", exploding the LMD…

… Again, I thought to myself- It was finally over.

"I told you I'd be here in a couple of days! Didn't I, Officer!" Jim proudly began, "And see… Told you I was bringing a friend. I actually brought a few… But, come on- let's get out of this place before it all falls down on us! The Quinjet is ready outside!"

"Torch," Quake addressed Jim, "I just got the word from the jet. Extraction is ready."

"Hello, Miss Quake. Might I introduce myself? The name's-"

"Shove it, Constantine," she interrupted, "I'll shatter every bone in your body."

"Oh... I like her… I'm sitting by Quake on the way out of this hole! And somebody- Please tell me that we're going back to Gotham, mates? I just want to get a drink at Josie's, really… Hey Quake, have you ever heard of Josie's?"

… Quake had already started evacuating out to the Quinjet. John closely followed… As did everyone else…

"It's good to see you, Jim," Bruce said, as we were making our way out. "What's this all about though? Where's Stark, and Miss America?"

"I think I can help answer this," Barry said. His face had the look of someone who had been keeping a very big secret. "I may have been keeping a small secret…"

"Let's save the story time for the trip home, Barry," Jim said, "It is a long trip, you know."

"Where are we going?" Phill asked.

"Yeah, and please don't say some new, freaky place... Like 'The Savage Lands', again!" Private Stewart added.

"Well, I guess it depends on what your definition of 'freaky' is?" Quake smirked.

"All in due time," Jim said.

… We all eventually made our way out of the destroyed HQ, and entered the waiting Quinjet. Inside of the plane sat the diamond-woman, Emma Frost. There were also two other X-Men, who were piloting the plane. Two that I had remembered from the original timeline…

"Frost?… Dr. McCoy? Forge? What are you two doing here?"

"A, 'thank you', would have been more appropriate, I do believe," Dr. McCoy sarcastically chided.

"Take your seats, everyone. We have to get moving," Forge then ordered.

… We all took our seats, and we then began our next trip… To somewhere…

"Barry, I believe you have a secret to tell us?" Bruce began by asking.

"I do… Do you remember when we first got here, Officer? When I first said I needed to find out what had happened?"

"Of course. You were gone for a while before returning."

"I was actually gone a lot longer than most of you all know… Most relevantly though, at one point, I had traveled back to April, 1939... I had found out about Steve Rogers' brainwashing, during a different Speed Force adventure, and because of that- I knew that I needed to warn Peggy Carter…"

"Warn Peggy Carter? A lot of good that did in this timeline," Bruce interjected.

"It did, Bruce," Jim responded. He then took over the story telling, "Barry warned Dir. Carter about the sabatoge, and assassination attempt… It saved her life!"

"Explain," Bruce calmly demanded.

"When Barry claimed that Dr. Erskine would brainwash Rogers, and then that an LMD General Fury would one day return from the future… No one believed him. That's why they tried to imprison him."

"And that's why I then made my next trip back to the future… Further into the future…"

"How far did you actually go, Barry?" I asked.

"Far enough."

Jim then continued, "Ultimately, Dir. Carter faked her death the night of Rogers' transformation. Preparations had been made, in secret, by a select few, to hide this fact from the rest of the SSR."

"Who else knew?" Phill asked.

"Well, the real Nick Fury, for one…"

"What!?" I exclaimed.

"It's true, Officer," Barry confirmed, "I had told them to find him, and hide him. I knew the LMD couldn't be trusted…"

"And you were right," Jim said, "Last Spring, shortly after you had returned from the future again - this time with Eddie, and the LMD - the LMD tried to take out the real Fury! We were able to again fake the death of the intended target, and again kept the events under wraps.

Since then, we have been monitoring the deliberate destruction of the SSR from the inside out. The LMD was cancer. He also was Hydra. Or at least through Thawne, he worked with them. And because of that, Hydra had infiltrated, and spread, throughout every level of the SSR… Really, throughout all of the government.

About a week ago, we intercepted a message intended to inform Hydra sleeper cells that their activation was imminent. Coordinates for several locations were listed. All SSR bases. That's when we knew that they were finally making their move. We just didn't know exactly when- until the other day. We intercepted another message. This one was directions for the Marauders to attack the WCD HQ."

"You knew?" Bruce asked.

"Yes. But we couldn't be sure of when. Or if it really was even going to happen. An argument had been made that the message could even have been a trap- set for us. That maybe the message had intended to be intercepted. We still decided to come anyway, but we did hesitate. And for that, I am sorry."

"Tell that to J'onn." Bruce scolded.

"Listen, I know this is a lot, Bruce… Everyone. But you'll understand more when we get back to base."

"Where is this base?" Private Stewart asked. He was certainly worried about this.

"And who is it that we work for now?" John asked, "Because I'd imagine you're not calling yourselves the 'SSR', anymore. Are you?"

"We're called, 'A.R.G.U.S.', and we're going to the Sentient World Observation and Response Department, or 'S.W.O.R.D.', as we call it. It's our new HQ."

"A.R.G.U.S.?" I asked.

"That's correct, Officer. Now listen up, everyone. The trip will take us a few hours on this Quinjet - Just wait until you see some of the tech we have at S.W.O.R.D. - try and get some rest. There will be a full debriefing once we arrive."

We all then sat back in our seats, and prepared for the trip. We must be going somewhere on the other side of Arda, or something, for it to be taking us a couple of hours to get there...

"Prepare for blast off," I then heard Dr. McCoy chuckled to Forge.

"You think we should tell them where HQ is, Dr. McCoy?"

"No, Forge. They'll find out soon enough."

… I could see down, and out of the Quinjet's front windshield. The nose of the plane had tilted up towards the stars? 'Or something' it is. Forge then pulled back a lever on the control panel, and the plane accelerated out into space!...

"Hey John," Bruce said. He was looking at the same thing that I was. "Looks like you're not going to Josie's."

After a few moments, I again leaned back in my seat, and I then closed my eyes. Jim said we'd understand when we got to HQ, and he hasn't let me down yet… I still have so many questions…

… But for now- Maybe resting would be a good idea…

…

…

"Everything is as prophesied, Herr Schmidt. We're almost in position."

"Not without that ring, Thawne. But we still do have the advantage…"

… Voices? What is this?...

A robotic voice then began to speak, "Ultron Protocol Initiating."

"You see, Eobard... They still do not suspect a thing."