The blast was so powerful, Daniel stumbled back instinctively—Maria Hill didn't even have that chance.
The shockwave slammed her into the wall like a ragdoll.
She barely had time to register the golden flash that followed. A loud boom echoed in her ears, and then—silence.
Next thing she knew, someone was helping her up.
It was Daniel.
Hill forced a small, grateful smile as he helped her to her feet. But her eyes darted toward where Kaecilius had been standing—he was gone. Completely. Not a trace left in the wrecked chamber.
"Did he pull us into the Mirror Dimension again?" Hill asked weakly, half-expecting reality to warp around her.
Daniel shook his head. "No. We're still in the real world. But Kaecilius got away."
He glanced down at the dark, cracked crown in his hand and sighed. "He used power he was never supposed to touch."
"Power he shouldn't have…" Hill trailed off as her eyes took in the chamber.
When they first entered this place, it felt protected—separated from the rest of the world. Even with all the fighting, it had remained intact. Now it looked like it had been hit by a warhead.
The walls were shredded, cratered, torn apart by something massive.
Hill knew how thick those walls were—steel reinforced with special alloy, buried under solid rock. Built to take hits. And yet… it looked like this.
Daniel continued, "He drained the Corrupted Crown. Used it to open a dimensional gate and escape."
Without another word, he handed the crown to Hill, like it meant nothing to him.
She finally understood. The moment the crown lost power, it couldn't contain Kaecilius anymore. He made his move while he still had the chance.
Daniel helped her walk, moving carefully. Hill winced with every step. That blast did more than knock the wind out of her.
Suddenly, Daniel pointed at something and chuckled. "Look at that guy. Lucky bastard."
Hill followed his gaze and saw Rumlow among the bodies. Bloodied, barely conscious, but still breathing. One leg looked mangled, maybe broken—but he was alive.
"Let's get out of here," Daniel said, steadying Hill as they made their way to the exit.
As the magic faded, the door slowly reappeared.
Daniel paused, his hand on the knob. "So… what do you think the odds are that the second we open this door, a dozen agents are waiting with guns pointed at us?"
Hill gave him a sideways glance. "S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are trained not to fire unless they have to."
Then, with a smirk, she added, "And even if they did… I doubt they'd be able to kill you."
Daniel grinned. "Fair point."
He turned the handle but gave her one last teasing look. "By the way—bad temper aside… you're in great shape."
Before Hill could react, he opened the door, leading her out in full view of the agents outside.
And right then—bang!
A shot rang out.
A little while later, Daniel sat in a lounge on the 13th floor of S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, sipping coffee and smirking across the table.
"Your coffee's not bad," he said. "For government brew."
Hill sat across from him, now bandaged up but clearly frustrated. She should've been down in the vault coordinating cleanup, but Pierce had ordered her upstairs. Agent Sitwell was down there now, handling the mess.
"We never thought the mages of Kamar-Taj would actually attack S.H.I.E.L.D.," she said, clenching her fists.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had taken a big hit. Dozens of agents lost in the underground clash. Explosions above ground only made things worse. The whole organization was on edge, unsure if more attacks were coming.
Even now, security was on full alert.
In the chaos, Alexander Pierce had stepped in and taken control. Officially, he had the authority—as Secretary of the World Security Council—to do so when Fury wasn't around.
But something about it didn't sit right with Hill.
Pierce usually avoided direct control. This time, he moved quickly. Too quickly.
And Hill wasn't stupid. She knew there were secrets buried beneath S.H.I.E.L.D.—and Pierce was sitting right on top of them.
Down in the vault, more than half of the dead weren't even S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. They were Hydra. Some probably had documents or tech on them that could tie everything back to Hydra. If that evidence got into Hill's or Fury's hands… it could bring everything crashing down.
But Hill wasn't easy to fool.
She wasn't just a high-ranking agent because of connections. She had her own base—technicians, analysts, researchers. All loyal and capable. Most had come up through the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy under her mentorship.
From the window behind her, she could see the tech teams buzzing—typing, tracking, analyzing.
That was her strength. Not brute force. Infrastructure. Influence.
People often assumed she was Fury's successor just because she was next in line. But she'd earned it. She wasn't just a name on a list.
Some even whispered that she'd designed the Level 10 agent structure herself.
It was Daniel who'd stirred all of this up. Who forced Nick Fury and Hill to start looking deeper. He wanted them to notice something was wrong.
Because if they didn't…
In the original timeline, when the Chitauri invaded Manhattan, the situation got so bad the World Council tried to nuke the city. Fury stopped it—but barely.
That's when he realized something was deeply broken. Someone had bypassed him. Someone had ordered the nuke without his knowledge.
If that wasn't a red flag, nothing was.
This time, thanks to Daniel's interference, the nuke was never launched. But that meant Fury and Hill might not get the wake-up call they needed. Hydra could still be operating in the shadows, ready to take over S.H.I.E.L.D. from within.
Daniel wasn't about to let that happen.
Especially not in a world he was trying to protect.
He needed Fury to get suspicious. Needed him to dig. Because once Fury started pulling threads, he wouldn't stop until he unraveled the whole web.
Even if Fury survived Hydra's attack—thanks to his Skrull body double—it would still be a nightmare to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D. from scratch without resources.
And if Fury hadn't suspected anything, then Captain Rogers never would've noticed Hydra's infiltration. That would've ended in total failure.
Daniel wanted Pierce exposed.
That was the only way to force everyone to pay attention.
To stop Hydra before it was too late.
He knew S.H.I.E.L.D. had sent people to the Netherlands to investigate. If the Bakshi family didn't catch wind of that, they weren't as sharp as their reputation claimed.
So in the end, Daniel got what he wanted.
He didn't know where Fury was. Maybe he was in hiding, watching everything from a distance. But one thing was clear: Hill had started asking questions.
And once she started… she wouldn't stop.
Never underestimate Maria Hill.
Some resented how fast she moved to become the next Director, even with Fury still alive. But she had the strength, the people, and the will to hold that seat.
Whether or not Hydra's "Insight" plan would still launch on schedule, no one could say.
But Daniel knew this much:
Hydra wouldn't go down without a fight.
And if they failed?
Daniel might just sit back and enjoy the show.
After all, some chaos was worth watching.
—
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