CHAPTER 110: LESSON THROUGH PAIN
ZERO'S POV:
Hill led us through the facility where we walk in a sort of tense silence. On occasion Cap and Sam would glance my way, the two individuals were quite unsure of my presence. True, Captain Rogers and I met in New York during the Chitauri invasion but aside from that event he quite doesn't know what my character is and that made me questionable in his eyes. While Sitwell was minding his own business and remained walking behind us.
Inside the facility were medical equipment and a still sleeping Fury. Rogers was immediately shocked when he saw this. He looks at Hill and without even asking a question, Hill gave him an answer.
"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful, this way we could plan a counterattack without anyone knowing what we were doing".
"How? They cut him open, his heart stop", Steve asked.
"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed if for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it", Hill replied.
Hill then looks at me and asked, "So, you have Catherine with you?".
"No need to summoned Catherine, I'll do it myself", I replied.
I went towards Fury's bedside and began healing his injuries and strengthening his life force. Based on S.H.I.E.L.D's files he was already 63 at this point and I just didn't want to him heal now only for him to be slowed down in the next decade by his age. So, I gave his life span a little regeneration.
As I healed Fury, I was quite impressed that he was still alive. To sustain so many injuries due to sniper bullets and yet still live is an incredible achievement. After that was done, I force him to wake up by forcefully slamming my chakra into his system.
This resulted in him waking up wide-eyed and trying to catch his breath. Based on the surprise expression on Hill's face, she didn't think I would wake Fury up in such a manner.
"Good your up. We have a lot to discuss", I said as I found a chair and seated myself in it.
After catching his breath, Fury looks at me with an annoyed look in his eyes. I wonder if he would even be madder if he could see the amused look I was having behind my masked.
"How did you know of my location?", Fury asked.
"Do you actually believe that Hydra is the only one that has spies in your agency", I replied.
With a furrowed brow, Fury stared directly at the eye-holes of my masked. While Hill glance at Sitwell, Sitwell in turn just gave her a smile as a response.
"Do you remember what I said during the '90s?"
Fury remained quiet while the rest of the people in this room were slowly getting more interested in the piece of information that I just gave out.
With an unseen smile behind my masked, I continued, "That my purpose is the same as S.H.I.E.L.D., to protect this big spherical world of ours. And now S.H.I.E.L.D. is on the brink of death. I for one can't allow that to happen".
"You knew of Hydra?"
"Of course, I knew of it since the very beginning", I pointed at Sitwell, "His Hydra actually but I have my own unique method to make people work for me".
"Then why didn't you tell anyone?", Steve said as he went towards me with a clenched fist.
"First of all, Hydra is an ideology that is too well hidden to be disposed of so easily. Do you even know how much work I had to do to get a list of all of its members? It took time and multitudes of hacking to achieve. Sitwell even needed to climb its ranks so that he could get a list of all the high-rank members, something that required time to achieve"
With anger in his voice, Steve added, "But how many lives did it took so that you can get that information?!".
"The necessary amount", I responded.
I then took out a USB drive and threw it at Fury, "That drive contains all the information of ALL Hydra sleeper agents that are still in hiding. Those who didn't act when the signal was sent".
"Signal?", Hill said with surprise in her voice.
"Hydra sent a signal throughout every S.H.I.E.L.D bases and that signal activated all of its sleeper agents, but before they could fight and take control, I had my phantoms kill the first wave of HYDRA assault. But because of the numbers of Hydra agents I have killed, some of their sleeper agents felt something was up due to their members missing. So, some decided not to act and would only act when Project Insight is fully activated. Because of this, Victoria Hand, Robert Gonzales, and Anne Weaver are now gathering loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and taking care of the moles that are still hidding in their jurisdiction. They are using the information that I have given them to start cleaning the agency. Right now all communications between S.H.I.E.L.D bases are being manipulated by me. Not even the members of the Triskelion know what's happening in those bases there. I have been hacking their system and feeding them false information since the moment they started transmitting their signal", I replied.
"...But why can't you just kill them yourself?", Sam asked.
"Tell me, Sam, what if Riley, your wingman was still alive today. And you found out that he was a traitor to your country, would you be willing to kill him?".
Sam had a pained look on his face and gave no response.
"I don't just want S.H.I.E.L.D to remember this day as another workday in the agency. I want you all to remember this day with the pain of your mistake. Every one of you being betrayed by your friends and former teammates, and you needing to kill them for your country", I look at both Hill and Fury, "I want S.H.I.E.L.D. to remember the pain of betrayal and make it a lesson not to be complacent. This day will mark a day in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s history as a day of pain and cleansing. No matter how painful it is. It is a day to build a new".