From Garrett's memories, Rowan pieced together a far more unsettling picture.
Baron Strucker had been active as early as the Second World War. Not a shadowy bureaucrat, but a frontline figure. A master swordsman. A deadly marksman. Someone who had stood on equal footing with the Red Skull. He was believed dead after an experimental weapon incident, erased from history by accident rather than defeat.
Hydra didn't let him stay that way.
They rebuilt him. Stronger. Altered. Enhanced far beyond a normal human body. Since then, Strucker had devoted himself to superhuman research, capturing, modifying, and creating Hydra's enhanced operatives with ruthless efficiency.
And he wasn't alone.
This Hydra had no shortage of monsters. Madame Hydra. Baron Zemo. Scientists like Zola, List, and Faust. Even Zemo wasn't the Sokovian colonel Rowan remembered. In this world, Zemo was a wartime Hydra leader on the same level as Strucker and the Red Skull.
Zola, too, was different.
No static consciousness trapped in a bunker-bound computer. Here, Zola had transferred his mind into a mobile mechanical body. He could move. Experiment. Build. Garrett had met him face to face.
That meeting had sealed Garrett's loyalty. If Hydra could preserve Zola, then surely they could save him too.
"Stronger than the films," Rowan murmured to himself. "But still manageable."
Natasha stepped closer. "Well?"
Rowan looked up. "They were Hydra. Both of them. Feeding information back the entire time. That's how the ambush happened."
He paused, then added, "They believed they were the only ones. But I'm going to verify everyone anyway."
"No problem," Coulson said immediately, stepping forward. "Start with me."
Rowan didn't hesitate. He reached out, skimming Coulson's memories quickly and cleanly.
There was nothing hidden. A straightforward life. A boy who idolized heroes. A soldier. A loyal agent who followed Nick Fury from the beginning, believing in the idea of protecting the world.
And yet, something was missing.
Rowan frowned.
"Where is she?"
He found no trace of Captain Marvel. No memories of Skrulls. No classified encounters. No buried incidents. Nothing.
That shouldn't have been possible.
Unless…
"There never was a Captain Marvel," Rowan realized quietly.
This wasn't the cinematic timeline he'd expected. There were no Skrull stand-ins. No pager waiting for a cosmic savior. Fury hadn't held anything back. He'd had nothing to hold.
The implications were unpleasant.
It didn't mean Hydra was unbeatable. It meant the future was unreliable.
Assumptions failed. Predictions bent. Safety nets vanished.
Rowan exhaled slowly. He would have to grow faster. Much faster.
He finished checking Coulson, then moved through Natasha, Clint, Hill, and the remaining agents. All clean. Loyal. Exhausted, but unbroken.
When he was done, the conclusion settled in fully.
Nick Fury was truly dead.
There would be no resurrection. No last contingency. No miracle serum waiting in a forgotten drawer.
Rowan felt no sorrow. Fury had been brilliant, but controlling. The kind of man who would eventually see Rowan as something that needed a leash. Coulson, at least, believed in people.
"Rowan," Professor Xavier said, his voice carrying a warning edge. "We have incoming."
The images flowed into Rowan's mind.
Black helicopters marked with SHIELD insignia. Armored soldiers rappelling down with unfamiliar energy weapons. Tanks rolling into position around the perimeter.
Hydra had stopped hiding.
"They've taken SHIELD completely," Rowan said calmly. "Pierce has full control."
The surveillance screens lit up, showing the same scene from every angle.
Garrett laughed from the floor. "It's over, Coulson. SHIELD is finished. Join us. With my recommendation, you'll rise higher than you ever did before. When Hydra rules the world, you could have your own country. Your own throne."
Coulson didn't even look at him.
He turned to Clint instead. "Do you still have one of those electric arrows?"
Clint smirked faintly. "A few."
"Good," Coulson said. "I want to watch him drool while the world burns on mute."
Outside, the sound of rotors grew louder.
And Rowan smiled.
...
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