Fury jolted, his emotions erupting in a sudden, sharp wave. His entire posture tightened, and his usual unflappable gaze snapped into focus.
Arthur watched him, a slight, knowing smile playing on his lips. "That was a good reaction, Nick. Truly impressive. But tell me… were you actually surprised?"
"What is that supposed to mean?" Fury demanded, his brow furrowed. "Where did you run into the Kree? And just what the hell is your connection to them?"
"The way you ask that makes it sound less like a question and more like an interrogation," Arthur sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Emotions can be faked, and expressions can be rehearsed. But Nick, you weren't that surprised. Not as much as you tried to show me."
Fury held Arthur's stare for a long, quiet moment before finally dropping the act with a helpless shrug. "Alright… you're right. I'll be honest, I picked up on some hints from Steve."
"No."
Arthur shook his head firmly. "This has nothing to do with him. That was just a personal hunch of yours, wasn't it?"
"I wasn't aware 'reading minds' was part of your skillset," Fury countered, a hint of genuine unfamiliarity creeping into his sharp glance.
Arthur shook his head again. "Wrong again. It's a simple deduction, not some special power. How do I put it… Call it professional intuition. Even though Steve has spent far more time with you all than with me, I understand him better than you do. Much more than you realize."
"To put it simply, he's completely leak-proof. He would never accidentally reveal anything. I trained him. It was only one course, sure, but if a teacher can't fully read his own student, that teacher has failed spectacularly."
"Which means the answer is simple: You're lying."
Arthur stepped closer to Fury. "And your reason for lying is the tricky part. If you were acting on behalf of SHIELD to deliberately sow distrust between Steve and me, that seems pointless. You know SHIELD's current standing better than I do; you don't have the leverage to play those games. Maybe… it was just a reflex? Since we're technically on opposite sides, you threw out that sentence just to plant a tiny seed of doubt…"
"Oh my God, I just figured it out, you're terrifying! You're practically the legendary villain from a children's story!"
Fury nearly choked.
How did he suddenly become the villain?!
Arthur had taken a few random scraps of information from who-knows-where, constructed an entire, elaborate chain of logic, and then labeled him the Bad Guy?!
Fury glared at Arthur. They held the intense gaze for several seconds before Arthur finally broke the tension.
"Come on… staring at such a sharp contrast for too long just gets weird, okay? Do you believe me? If I look at you too long, your face stops looking like a face, it just starts blending into the darkness."
"That's racist!"
"Nice try with the wild accusation, but no, it isn't." Arthur waved it off. "Let's not ruin the mood. So I'll be straight with you, your hunch wasn't wrong. I've already made contact with many species beyond Earth. But if you're asking about my relationship with the Kree, there's only one answer…"
"Enemies!"
Arthur spat the word out without hesitation.
Fury's agitation slowly subsided. He took a deep, steadying breath, let it out slowly, and nodded. "They came to our planet once."
"It was over ten years ago…" Fury's eyes seemed to drift into the past. "You know, back then my vision was still perfect, and I didn't believe in aliens at all. But when the first alien corpse showed up right in front of me, when I saw him with my own eyes!, sitting in the driver's seat of my own car, acting as my chauffeur… it was unsettling."
"And what happened next?" Arthur prompted.
"Then everything started feeling like a cheap sci-fi movie." Fury shrugged. "A female warrior from another world, powerful enemies, different aliens, some good, some bad. They didn't just visit Earth; they started dragging their whole mess here. We're not alone in this universe, Arthur. There are countless others out there. Some arrive with good intentions, some with malice. You never know until it's too late."
"You have to understand, there was no Avengers Initiative back then. Sure, you were already around at that time. Steve was still frozen beneath the ice, and you… nobody knew what dark corner you were sleeping in while the world completely flipped. I can't imagine what that must feel like for you all. But back then, I felt… a little lonely and completely outmatched."
"Alright, that last part is genuinely the hardest to picture," Arthur sighed dryly, then asked, "How did it end?"
"It was resolved," Fury said simply. "That female warrior I mentioned, she turned out to be a human who had been involved in Project Pegasus. And the doctor she was assisting… was an alien. A Kree."
"The faster-than-light engine was her creation?" Arthur considered this. The story sounded vaguely familiar, but clearly wasn't something he remembered in great detail.
After all, before he crossed over, he had just been a regular Marvel fan, not someone who had memorized every minute detail of every single plot thread.
So even with Fury's extensive explanation, Arthur couldn't completely piece the whole picture together.
"That's right, it was her creation," Fury confirmed. "She used the Tesseract to develop that engine. Whether the project was truly successful is debatable. And since then, for years, we've been trying to reverse-engineer her work, but the results were negligible. Eventually, the project was quietly shelved, and the Tesseract stayed with SHIELD… until you showed up."
At this, Fury looked straight at Arthur. "Your intuition is sound. I've always believed your long slumber had to be connected to some external force. So… you can consider that project a test. After all, without the Tesseract, that data is useless to me, just scrap paper. It wasn't worth keeping secret."
"Very risky," Arthur murmured, settling back into his seat. "Since you went to such lengths just to confirm the truth, tell me now… what is your real endgame?"
Fury suddenly looked much older, the weight of his years pressing down. He poured a small glass of amber liquor and gently swirled the contents. "What endgame could I possibly have? This world needs stronger people to protect it. I just hope… they all end up fighting on the right side."
(End of Chapter)
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