"Can you not?" Darcy squinted at the burst of light.
"I was going to ask you the same thing."
Jane Foster stood in the doorway, fully dressed, wearing a backpack and carrying a set of folders under her arm. She marched into Darcy's already trashed her apartment room and began stuffing things back into the suitcases.
Darcy trudged over to the light switch, quickly turning it off and smiling in peace. That smile ran short once Jane pulled the curtains back. They were renting an extremely old apartment, tucked in an alley of New York. It reminded Darcy of her old home, except this one was cleaner and nicer. It smelled of roses and Asgard. It felt like home.
Whatever that was.
Darcy snuggled back into the bed, ignoring Jane's protests. Eventually Jane declared she would go in alone and the idea of Jane in the SHIELD HQ building made Darcy feel a whole new level of anxiety that prompted her to jump off the bed to stop her best friend.
Darcy had been to HQ before. She would never send Jane there alone.
Ward glared at Skye.
"Don't," he warned.
Skye stared him square in the eye, trying to be intimidating. The staring contest went on until Skye lost her composure and crossed her eyes, making Ward roll his eyes while she went into a giggling fit. Ward looked down at her until Skye moved her game piece and won.
He pouted and that made the hactivitst laugh even harder.
Meanwhile, Coulson paced back in forth in his office.
"What do I tell them?" he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"The truth," May deadpanned.
"Fitzsimmons will be heartbroken. And Skye just joined. And Ward, May, he'll lose it. I can't believe this," Coulson mumbled desperately.
Agent May rested her hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down.
"Coulson, you know what Fury's message said. We may be the only real team left and we have other problems coming. Don't make this the toughest decision of your life," May honestly told him.
"You're right, I'm overreacting," Coulson agreed. "We have to tell the kids."
"HYDRA has infiltrated us to the point that I don't know if SHIELD will survive. There's no SHIELD anymore. It's over."
"I can't believe this isn't over. Why am I still here? Why are we still doing this?" Darcy asked the roof of the van.
"We're almost there," Jane told her which made them both more nervous than excited. They were on the long road Darcy and Thor once had escaped from.
"This road is really creepy," Jane muttered. Maybe letting Darcy have her way and coming here in the dark night wasn't the best idea.
Jane had used Darcy's old SHIELD ID at the gate which was oddly unoccupied. The system let them in surprisingly, which Darcy assumed to be a dangerous error while Jane took it as a more positive sign and continued on to the orderly pathway.
"Maybe Nick Fury will be okay with this," Jane hoped.
"Most likely, he won't. Jane, don't be surprised if they try to kill you," Darcy warned her for the millionth time.
Jane winced, but nodded, trying to be practical.
They drove in silence but eventually they got to the HQ building which looked exactly the same as when Darcy had left.
As in it was bursting with red flashes, looking like it was about to collapse.
"What's going on?" Darcy sat up straighter. The building was surrounded by vans and flashing lights. Jane tried to park away from them but an armed man jumped in front of them, pointed something that Jane wouldn't compare to a pistol. It was much too large to only carry a bullet.
"Step out of the vehicle," a monotonous voice instructed.
The girls didn't move.
"Agent Lewis, exit the vehicle or prepare to be terminated," it said again.
Darcy sighed. "Ah, the classical SHIELD welcome."
"Should we?" Jane asked, unlocking the door.
Darcy nodded and they both slipped out, greeted by two more armed guards who tried to carry them inside. Willingly heading to their doom, Jane and Darcy walked into the flashing building. It was worse on the inside. Darcy squinted under the strain of red surrounding them while the guard trudged her forward. They passed dark hallways and busy rooms. If the red lights didn't give away the severity of the situation, the sight in front of the girls did.
In the main coms room, where SHIELD's intel was controlled and distributed, stood a tall man, hovering over a very damaged –
"Nick Fury?" Darcy said, too loudly. The tall man and what Darcy presumed to be, his assistant, turned their attention to Jane and Darcy.
"Who are they?" the assistant asked, or rather, barked at the guards.
"This is ex-SHIELD agent Darcy Lewis," the guard behind Darcy said, the monotonous tone dropped for a complying one.
"Ex?" the tall man quoted.
"She was removed due to the New Mexico incident," the other guard explained. Darcy looked at the guard more closely, deciding that she had seen this SHIELD agent before.
"What incident?" the assistance asked.
"Not now Bakshi, we have more pressing matters to attend to," the tall man pointed at the Director kneeling before him.
"Should I get rid of them sir?" Bakshi asked.
The tall man glanced at Darcy and then his eyes shifted to Jane. Curious, he stared at her.
"Who's her friend?" he asked Bakshi who looked at the guard assigned to Jane.
The guard looked at Jane and then at the assistant, unsure. The other one mumbled apologetically, "We do not know sir. She came with this one."
"Who are you, my lovely?" the tall man was suddenly very interested in Jane.
"Dr. Jane Foster, I'm an astrophysicist. Darcy's my intern," Jane answered calmly.
"You hired an ex-SHIELD agent as your intern?"
"She told me she had resigned," Jane deadpanned.
"Ah, well she lied didn't she? What brought you here then?"
"A satellite picked up weird readings and we'd been staying in the city but since there was too much light pollution, I asked Darcy if she knew of any place with a clear field."
"She brought you here?"
"We checked the readings before coming and this was the most significant location."
"The SHIELD headquarters?" the man asked amused.
Jane had to smile at that. "I had no idea. Darcy had an accident last month. She's been crazier since."
There was little truth in that statement. Darcy had always been crazy.
"Are you saying she has amnesia?"
"I don't know. She told me she knew what she was doing. I'm sorry if this is an inconvenience. We really had no idea," Jane explained. Her calmness irritated the assistant.
"Darcy Lewis is well aware of everything," Bakshi said, looking down at Darcy who fought back the urge to stick out her tongue. This is why she left SHIELD; the condescending tone…and the tacky uniform.
"But Dr. Foster seems confused," the man muttered, still watching Jane. No matter how much he stared at her, Jane stood there, unfazed.
"Are you, Dr. Foster? Are you confused?" he asked her.
"Not anymore," Jane answered honestly.
"So you know that you coming here reveals your agenda of perhaps infiltrating SHIELD or finishing whatever unfinished business from this New Mexico incident, or whatever it may be, it matters not. Your agenda holds no prevail for SHIELD no longer exists," the tall man told them, turning to a battered Fury. "Am I wrong, Director?"
"Yes," Fury said, earning him a kick from Bakshi.
"What are you doing?" Darcy yelled at Bakshi who looked at Darcy like she was next.
"My dear, we're just doing something that should have been done a while ago. I'm just disappointed that it took so long, we mustn't procrastinate so ever again Bakshi," the man said.
"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Darcy shouted as Bakshi stepped on Fury's leg, eliciting a sickening crunch and a howl from Fury. This was too much.
"We're HYDRA. Join us, and you shall get the salvation you seek. Otherwise, you can find room in Nicholas Fury's grave. It's your choice," the tall man answered, looking directly at Jane.
But Jane wasn't looking at the HYDRA leader anymore. Her eyes were fixed on the broken man below him. She had to do something.
"Bakshi, end him. We have other matters to address, best if we leave the ladies here to contemplate their future. Oh, and tell the security chief to attend to Dr. Foster here in case she does join us. We'd be happy to make you comply, Dr. Jane," the man smiled creepily and walked off.
Jane still didn't look at him.
Bakshi took out his gun and shot Fury in one foot.
Fury yelled in pain.
Bakshi shot his other foot.
Darcy started screaming profanities until one guard closed her mouth and Bakshi threatened to shoot Darcy too.
Jane decided enough was enough.
"Stop."
Bakshi turned to Jane. "You know, you don't have to be here," he told her, pointing the gun at her.
"You monster," Jane whispered.
"Oh is that the best you can do? Your friend here sure has a more colorful language than you seem to. Hm, I wonder…" with that, Bakshi shot Darcy.
Everything happened fast.
Darcy fell forward while Jane screamed.
And suddenly the guards were on fire.
The entire room went up in flames. Fire caught on the desk, the equipment, all the paperwork, everything. Bakshi looked around, finally fear in his eyes. Darcy laid on the ground unconscious. The guards were burning in the fire they couldn't seem to put out no matter how hard they tried. Jane tried not to panic, running towards the fallen ex-Director first, pulling him out of the flames, tugging him up. A desk chair with wheels rolled towards her and she placed Fury on it, tenderly but too fast for Fury to understand what was going on. Jane then somehow managed to pick up Darcy, looping her arm around Jane's neck, holding Darcy to her by the waist. Using a free arm, Jane pushed Fury and Darcy out the door, closely followed by an enraging Bakshi.
Suddenly, the panic alarms grew louder and the room got redder. Jane ran.
Bakshi ran faster. He almost overtook her, making a lung to a painful grab, trying to stop her.
However, once his hand touched Jane, a piercing pain ran up his arm and all his senses were assaulted by what looked like sharp, dark red knives, threatening to consume him.
It wasn't a human pain.
Within minutes, Jane made it out the main door, passed fifty-some guards, into her van. She drove out and away with the sound of bullets being repelled backwards, slicing through the air, as a warning to all those who fired.
From the ground, Bakshi saw the destruction the astrophysicist had caused. An explosion went out and a white siren went off, alerting HYDRA to leave. Bakshi withered in pain until Whitehall walked above him.
"Who did this?" was all he asked.
"It was the doctor sir. She did this."
Whithall, the tall man who had brought Nick Fury to his knees, snapped his jaw once.
"Don't worry. We'll make her comply."
SHIELD HQ went down in flames in minutes.
A/N: I wrote the extension this morning and then the site got crossed off and so did all the work. It was frustrating writing this for the second time. That's my sad story. I don't hear any tiny violins so I think it would be best to just move on…sigh.
Any who, thank you for reading, do stay tuned and please review, let me know how you're feeling.