A/N: Welcome back. I know it's been a while since I updated. Last fall I got busy with college and then in November my computer crashed and I lost a prototype of this chapter that I'd been working on. This past week I finally motivated myself to get back into the story, which…took a while and was not easy after such a long hiatus. Sorry in advance if this chapter feels "off" in any way because of that…I'm trying, lol.

Anyway, please read, review, and enjoy!

I do not own Avengers or Gravity Falls.


Ruby threw open the door to her bedroom and stormed inside. She tore off her mask and tossed it on her bed. That android, Vision, he had been right there, and she could have captured him for HYDRA, if not for Hawkeye interfering. And then between that creature emerging from the crater again and SHIELD showing up-.

"Ruby!" her mother shouted from behind her. She turned around; her mother stood in the doorway. "What the hell were you thinking back there? I told you to stay at the jet with the rest of us, not go running into no man's land after Vision. You disobeyed a direct order!" She shook her head. "Director Malick was against me bringing you on this mission, but I told him you could be counted on, that you wouldn't cause any trouble. And now-"

"I was trying to help!" Ruby interjected. How could her mother not see that? Ruby had tried explaining it to her on the flight back to the Academy, only to be stopped and sternly told that they would "talk about this later." "Vision was right there. He's a robot. Who knows what information he has about the Avengers? If I'd captured him, we could've brought him back here and extracted that information from him. We'd have the upper hand over them."

"And look at where that got us. We didn't get Vision. The Avengers presumably got away with the specimen from San Francisco-"

"That wasn't my fault!" None of their attacks had worked on that creature, whatever it was. Me staying back at the jet wouldn't have changed that.

"That doesn't matter. You're too reckless. You act without thinking. War Machine had the rest of our soldiers pinned down at the jet. If your little spur-of-the-moment mission had gone south and they'd captured you, none of us would've been able to get across the battlefield to get you back at that point. Your training is progressing, Ruby, but you're still nowhere near ready to take on three Avengers at once, by yourself."

Ruby scoffed. Three Avengers? Really? "Vision wasn't a threat; you saw what I did to him. And that…thing wrecked Iron Man's suit. The only Avenger I was fighting was Hawkeye, and he doesn't even have any powers."

"And yet he still managed to beat you. You're not as ready as you think you are. Like I said before, training in the gym and being in the midst of an actual battle are two very different things.

Ruby pursed her lips. She'd walked right into that one.

Her mother continued, "The Destroyer of Worlds is meant to be HYDRA's new leader. But someone who is incapable of knowing when to follow orders will never know how to give orders, will never be an effective leader. And-"

"General Hale."

Her mother turned around at the sound of the deep voice calling her name. Ruby took a step to the side so she could see behind her mother. Standing down the hall was a tall man in a three-piece suit, with short grey hair and a stern look on his face. Ruby had never seen him in person before, but she knew who he was all too well.

Gideon Malick, Director of HYDRA.

"I'd like to have a word with you," he continued.

Ruby's mother stiffened slightly. "Director Malick," she said. "I'm…I didn't know you were coming to the Academy today. If I could just have a minute to-"

"Now, General. I'm a very busy man."

Her mother glanced back at her. "Stay here. We'll finish talking later." With that, she turned and left Ruby's room, shutting the door behind her.

Ruby immediately crept over to the door and pressed her ear to it. She could hear her mother's and Director Malick's voices in the hall outside, but couldn't make out any specific words.

If the Avengers being involved wasn't proof enough that this is something big, this would seal the deal. Thought she'd seen plenty of pictures of him, Ruby knew precious little about the Director of HYDRA. But she did know from her history classes that the Malicks were practically HYDRA royalty, and that with Alexander Pierce, Daniel Whitehall, and Baron Strucker all killed in the past year and a half, people talked about Malick like he was the last head HYDRA had left. So for him to show up in person because of this….

Ruby turned to the far side of the room, where Liv lay in her dog bed. Ruby raised a finger to her lips. "Quiet, girl." She twisted the doorknob and, ever so slowly, eased the door open a crack. This was far from the first time she'd done this, and by now she knew exactly how far and how slowly she had to open the door so its hinges wouldn't squeak.

Her mother's voice came from the hall. "…stay at the jet. I didn't know she would run out there like that-"

"Your daughter's insubordination was the least of the problems with your operation, General," Malick interrupted. "You and your soldiers let the specimen get away, and now either SHIELD or the Avengers have it. I didn't send you there to hand-deliver the specimen to our enemies!"

"Director, with all due respect, it was my understanding that the only hostiles we would be engaging were Barton and Maximoff, not three more Avengers on top of them, SHIELD's goddamn flying headquarters, and whatever the hell you want to call that monster that the specimen and Maximoff merged into."

"And HYDRA would never have survived this long if we let every little setback or roadblock stop us. The only question that matters now is how do you plan to rectify this?"

"Rectify?"

"To get the specimen back. You saw what it could do. We can't let the Avengers keep it and make it figure out how to do their bidding. Whoever holds that specimen could very well determine who wins this war."

"Well, either SHIELD or the Avengers has the specimen now. We still don't know where SHIELD's base is, but the Avengers Compound is in upstate New York. Westchester County. I could take another team out there, and we could-"

"No. Attacking SHIELD is one thing. People think the battle at the Triskelion was the end of them. No one knows they exist anymore. The Avengers, on the other hand…that would put too big a target on our backs. Most of the general public thinks we don't exist anymore either, and I'd like to keep it that way for the time being. There's too few of us left to risk exposing ourselves like that."

"I'm not talking about sending in some of our own soldiers this time. I have a…contact in the CIA who owes me a favor."

Her mother's voice was getting lower. Whatever she's about to say, she clearly doesn't want many people knowing about it. Ruby dared to open the door a smidge further to make sure she could hear what came next.

"Who?" Malick asked.

"William Rawlins. He's in Covert Operations. A couple years ago he came to me about this task force he was putting together, called Cerberus Squad, for some business in Afghanistan. I didn't ask what, he didn't tell. He said he was looking for people from each branch of the military to be part of his squad, people who would not hesitate to get the job done no matter what it involved. I pointed him towards several candidates in the Air Force. In return, he told me that if I ever needed his help with something, all I had to do was let him know."

"You're thinking we send this Cerberus Squad after the Avengers."

"They're black ops. Word of this won't get out. And if it does, Rawlins will have an airtight cover story ready to go."

"And how do you know he won't just take the specimen for himself?"

"I don't. But even if he does, we'll still be better off than we are now. Whether he gives the specimen over to us or not, the Avengers and SHIELD won't have it. Please, Director, give me 24 hours, and I can get in touch with him to get this operation underway."

For several seconds there was silence. Then Malick said, "You have 12. I'll be in touch." The sound of his receding, heavy footsteps came from outside.

Ruby eased the door shut again and released the knob, hoping her mother hadn't turned back towards the room yet and noticed the door closing. She turned back to Liv, who was scratching behind one of her ears. Cerberus. The mythological, three-headed dog. Not so different from a hydra.

But if Cerberus lost a head, would two more sprout to take its place?


A/N: So...yeah, I know this chapter was shorter than all the others. I'm considering maybe switching over to shorter chapters like this more of the time going forward since quite a few of the other ones only reached a few thousand words by combining two scenes that didn't really go together. But let me know if you have a preference one way or the other, and I'll take that into consideration.

Chapter 16 coming soon!