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It's just another day at the office for Maria Hill, Stark Industries' brilliant Chief Security Officer.
It starts with coffee and her usual informal meeting with Pepper at 8.30. Then, there's the weekly debrief with Happy. She even has time to pay a visit to Tony and scold him for not wearing safety shoes in the lab (again).
She loves her job, she really does, and she's been doing it for the past six years after being recruited by Happy fresh out of her second tour of Madripoor, but sometimes she misses a little action…
It's ironic, really, what happens next, and she tries not to chastise herself too much when the shooting starts.
You just had to think that today of all days, right, Hill? Now there's a war in the lobby.
She's glad she didn't have any formal meetings today, because it means she's wearing casual shoes and pants, never liked being in a dress and high heels when she's shooting at things.
Happy informs her over the comms it's a lone gunman, but for some reason, no one seems to be able to stop him and he's wreaking havoc all over the building, trying to get to the executive floors.
Maria knows immediately he must be trying to reach Pepper or Tony, or maybe both of them – this looks like a poorly planned assassination attempt, so she just runs to her office and grabs from her closet her precious Glock 19 and an M4A1 she throws on her back.
There's no time to waste.
She yells Pepper's name and runs down the aisle towards the CEO's office when out come Tony and Pepper, looking baffled, scared, and… blushing? She notices Tony's half-buttoned shirt and the mark of red lips on his neck.
Stark tenses up at the sound of gunfire and tries to smile through his uncharacteristic embarrassment, "ah, the world is ending. It must be Tuesday," he grins.
But Maria isn't having it. They won't die today. Not on her watch.
She grabs them both and pushes them up the stairs.
"We need to go, now!"
Hill taps her comms and orders her team to start the chopper that's parked on the roof, their pilot at the ready since Pepper had to leave for a meeting within the hour.
Out of breath, the trio is climbing the stairs as fast as they can when Happy shouts in her ear. Hill knows the situation is bad not only from her colleague's ragged voice, but from the shooting and the chaos she hears all around.
"Hill! Something's wrong with this guy! We're shooting at him with everything we've got and he's not even fazed! Get Pepper and Tony out of here, whatever it takes! Do not engage, I repeat, do not –"
Maria feels her heart skip a beat.
"Happy?! Happy!!"
That makes Tony and Pepper turn around. Tony's eyes are filled with worry.
"What's happening? Is Happy ok? Where is he?"
Hill fears the worst, but she has to shake it in order to keep Tony and Pepper safe, so she doesn't answer his questions.
Instead, she yells another order.
"Don't talk, just keep going!"
To her relief, the couple complies and in three more agonizing minutes they reach the rooftop – the chopper's rotor blade deafening noise is music to her ears as she knows they'll be safe once they're in the air.
The pilot nods at her. Paul. Good guy. Ex-military, like her. Ready for anything.
She's adjusting Pepper's seatbelt as the blonde puts on the comms headset when a bullet grazes her shoulder. Suddenly, there's blood everywhere. The cockpit is covered in red as she realizes Paul's brains are all over the place. Pepper's screaming as Tony tries to calm her down.
Maria turns to look behind her now injured shoulder.
She knows Death when she sees it – slowly walking towards them, as he didn't have a care in the world, the assassin approaches. He's huge: sculpted like a Greek god, broad shoulders, squared jaw, a gait that makes the world under his feet tremble. He's got a rifle in his hands and he's reloading as in slow motion. His face is expressionless, his eyes hiding behind a pair of sunglasses.
"You son of a bitch," Maria murmurs as she grabs her own assault rifle.
Without second thought, she fires round after round upon him, pointing right between his eyes. Maria's perfect marksman skill never fails. She shoots with a rage she thought long gone, knowing that she's even a better shot when she's pissed off…
That's why she stares in horror as he just stands there, taking the bullets that seem to bounce off him. Some of them penetrate his skin, she can see the blood and the wounds, but somehow he doesn't fall, he doesn't scream, he just won't die.
"What the hell is that?" Somehow she hears Tony's voice behind her even with the chopper's engine still on.
"Stay down!"
Maria yells at them and doesn't waste time trying to reload her rifle, she throws it down and takes her pistol from her hip as she approaches the attacker, shooting at him with a vengeance. She realizes then that the sunglasses on the assassin's face are ruined, and underneath them, looking at her with evil intent, she sees a red eye.
It's a fucking robot? Maria finally understands. Of course it's a fucking robot!
She knows she's doomed. With nowhere to duck and cover, the thing points at her with its rifle now fully loaded. All she can hope to do now is shield Tony and Pepper from the bullets with her body.
She accepts her fate in a nanosecond. All in all, she knew this could happen when she took this job.
So be it.
There will be no parents left behind. No significant other to mourn her death. Perhaps she had always been chasing this destiny.
Maybe it was the fact that she was alone in the world.
Maybe that pushed her to put herself in dangerous situations in the first place.
She had fun, most of the time – she'd had a good run.
That doesn't mean she'd go willingly.
With a raging cry, she empties her gun even as she's briefly blinded by the red laser coming out of his weapon, pointing at her forehead.
Then, she hears it before she sees it. It's unmistakable.
The thing, the cyborg, whatever it is, is suddenly hit by a furious rain of high-caliber bullets.
A heavy machine gun is firing… from above.
The thing falters and falls to its side as the bullets hit it without mercy.
Maria turns to the sky to watch as a black chopper approaches them. She can see the weapon is mounted on it. An imposing woman is commanding the HMG. Black tank top, silver short hair and strong arms around the gun, she never takes her eyes off the robot. She's the definition of determination.
Then, another vision.
A woman appears out of the clouds as she swings from a rope attached to the helicopter. She's younger, in her thirties, maybe. Her braided red hair flows in the air and she's wearing a white jumpsuit, a black belt around her waist with a red hourglass in its center. She's extending her arm, reaching, getting closer and closer to Maria.
"What the –"
The woman launches herself forward and rolls Hill with her as the HMG stops to reload.
The robot's skin seems to be severely damaged now, wounds all over it showing more of its metal skeleton, but that doesn't seem to stop it from getting back up and firing at them.
Maria realizes the woman caught her just in time to save her from a hail of bullets.
Mesmerized, Hill watches as the redhead rolls away from her and launches herself forward as the HMG resumes its fury. She's petite, but she's magnificent. The woman takes the opportunity to shoot at the robot with what appears to be electrified charges that fire from her wrists.
The thing is engulfed in blue electrical discharges then as it struggles, confused. The woman takes the two batons she's carrying from her back holster and charges forward. She jumps inexplicably high and puts her legs around the machine's head, bringing it down to its knees with the full force of its own weight. Wasting no time, she then brings the batons to both sides of its head. A surge of electricity comes out of them.
Within seconds, the thing's eyes go from red to empty darkness, as it finally collapses to the floor, powering down at the woman's feet.
"Is he dead?" Pepper's head comes out from inside the parked helicopter.
Hill's trying to get up as the pain from her shoulder radiates to her whole body when an extended hand appears in front of her.
The redhead's voice is low and intense, and somehow she can hear her even when the noise coming from the two choppers is almost unbearable.
"Come with me if you want to live!"
The words sent shivers down Maria's spine. She doesn't know why, but she thinks the offer is genuine. This woman might have answers.
She's about to take her hand when she hears Tony groaning, then yelling something at her, "is it over?!"
With renewed intent, Maria takes the woman's hand only to get on her feet and walk past her to check on Pepper and Tony.
"We only have two minutes before it reboots itself! You need to come with me right now," her strange savior protests behind her, trying to raise her voice over the deafening sound of the chopper's blades.
Maria doesn't look at her as she checks Pepper for injuries.
"I can't leave, he'll kill them."
The redhead sighs, "They'll be fine, he's not going after them."
Three perplexed heads turn to the woman as she elaborates.
"He came for you, Maria. We need to go, now!"
Hill frowns.
"How do you know my name? Who are you?"
"I promise I will answer all of your questions if you come with me right now! But I need to get you to safety first. You are the target here, Maria, not them!"
There's urgency in the redhead's voice, and Maria believes her, somehow. She understands that the bullet that killed their pilot was meant for her and if she hadn't moved quickly to fasten Pepper's seatbelt, it would be her brains all over the cockpit.
"It's called a Terminator!" the redhead presses on, shouting over the noise, the edge in her voice a little too frantic now, "Maria, it can't be reasoned with, it can't be bargained with… it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear and it absolutely will not stop! Ever! Until you are dead. So, please, we need to go. Please!"
She glances over to Pepper and Tony then, still with their headsets on, and it's the blonde who frantically nods at her and waves nervously.
"Go, Maria, do it, we'll be fine!"
"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute, you're not saying we can trust Lucy in the Sky here, are you?!"
Tony's protests go unheard. The redhead focuses on Pepper then.
"They only focus on their mission. If you don't get in his way you'll be fine," turning to Tony, she nods to the cockpit, "you can fly this thing, right?"
"Yes, yes, if you're not gonna help then sure, yes. Oh, my God, poor Paul, I'm gonna send his family the biggest check I can write without going bankrupt, Jesus Christ, I'm still shaking, I'm sorry, buddy, I'm so, so sorry…" Tony rambles on even as he's pushing the poor pilot's dead body out of the way.
"We'll call you, okay? Now go!" Pepper yells as Maria is closing the cabin's door and stepping away from the chopper.
She watches for a few seconds as they take off, but someone grabs her arm and turns her around.
"Maria… we need to go. NOW!"
She faces the redhead and even as she knows the decision's already been made, she feels her confusion and her rage taking the best of her.
"Why should I trust you? Who the hell are you?!" The former Commander's gaze cuts through the stranger's determination.
The woman seems to be making an important decision then, as she holds Maria's gaze and a flitting sadness settles on her eyes.
"It's been a long cold lonely winter, Maria, but here comes the sun."
Hill freezes. Those words… it can't be.
"How? Who – ?"
Maria can't finish the sentence and there's an odd understanding in the other woman's face even as she's extending her hand again.
"We need to go, please, let me take you somewhere safe," the redhead pleads, one more time.
And Hill finally takes the woman's hand as they both grab the rope hanging from the chopper still hovering above their heads.
"If you betray me, I'll kill you, stranger."
The redhead smirks and just secures her making a lock with her arm around Maria's armpit. They have no choice but to hold on to each other, then.
They're in the air immediately after, leaving behind the killer machine that a few seconds later will slowly come back to life.
Hill hears the mystery woman murmur something, her breath making her feel goosebumps all over her neck.
"Oh, but we're not strangers, принцесса."
That last word is lost on Maria, who doesn't know Russian. Yet.
After a long and terribly awkward helicopter trip that happens mostly in silence (we won't hurt you, we'll talk when we get to a safe place and that was it), they finally land on a clearing. Surrounded by mountains, the place seems perfect to touch ground – from a strategical point of view.
It's a ten-minute walk to a cabin in the woods then. Maria's exhausted, but she can't rest until she has answers. She's been putting pressure on her shoulder wound the whole time and though the redhead offered insistently to patch her up, she dismissed it every time saying it was only a scratch.
Once they're inside the cabin, she turns to her saviors (captors?). As it turns out, there are three of them – the imposing older woman; a young blonde who acted as their pilot and seemed to be weirdly attached to the green vest she was wearing; and the redhead, the one who had saved her from the killer robot.
Maria wastes no time demanding the truth.
"Now… Who are you? Who do you work for? What the hell was that thing? Why did it target me in the first place?"
The blonde smirks as the redhead and the older woman exchange looks. The latter shrugs.
"It's my turn, then," she sighs, "you don't wanna be standing for what I'm about to tell you. Take a seat, princess."
"Don't call me that," Maria growls.
"Only she can do that, huh?" The woman raises her head towards the redhead. Maria's confused for a hot minute but then focuses again. "Fair enough," the woman in the black tank top sits down on an armchair that has seen better days, "I won't sugarcoat it then."
The woman makes a whole ceremony out of lighting a cigarette. The young blonde gasps immediately with what Maria can only identify as pure affront. She blurts out all sorts of things in Russian – Maria does not have a clue about what she's saying but it's clear this is the scolding of the century.
The older woman sighs then, putting the cigarette out on an ashtray on the coffee table in front of her.
"Can I have a beer then, please, Lenochka?"
The blonde disappears then, still muttering to herself in a very angry tone.
"Want one, Hill?"
"I'm good, thank you. I just need you to answer my questions."
She turns to the redhead, who is leaning against a wall, staring at her with an unreadable expression. Maria feels restless under her gaze, but says nothing.
The blonde returns with a couple of cold beers in her hand, gives one to the older woman and takes a sip from the other. "Thank you, зайка. Ok. Let's spill the beans, shall we?"
The woman scarfs down her beer in a long gulp and chuckles. She begins only then, to Maria's annoyance, in a tone that doesn't feel rehearsed but still sounds like a speech she's said many times before.
"My name's Sarah Connor. In 1984, when I was very young and very naive, a machine, a Terminator tried to kill me. It had been sent back in time by Skynet, an artificial intelligence created to manage warfare that had become self-aware on August 29th, 1997, unleashing nuclear war upon humanity. Three billion human lives ended that day. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. Only in our time, it never happened. There once was a future in which humankind was hunted by a machine that could think and Terminators built to kill, yes. A future without hope. But I stopped it to protect my son and to save us all."
Sarah swallows hard then, and Hill feels the air charged with tension.
"Only problem is though I did change the future, I couldn't change our fate."
Sarah smiles then, and it's sad, but only for a brief moment. She downs the rest of her beer quickly, and there's renewed bitterness to her voice.
"I found out the future's constantly changing. Skynet morphs, adapts, evolves. It changes names and locations, but it's the same vengeful son of a bitch. Sometimes it's created by Miles Dyson, sometimes it's Justin Hammer or even Tony Stark. Sometimes it's called Legion, or Genisys or Ultron. It all doesn't matter. Its purpose is always the same – our complete annihilation."
Hill rakes a hand over her hair. She's not buying it, but she's trying to come up with a reasonable explanation why anyone would go to such lengths to build a lie like this, and she's coming up empty.
"Many messengers have come from all these different futures," Sarah goes on under Maria's scrutinizing look, "some tried to kill me, others tried to warn me, to protect me. Whether they came here for me or for others, I always tracked them down. That's how I know the future's not set. That's how I know my son isn't the only leader that can save us. You're one of those leaders, Maria Hill, and apparently it's your turn to fight back. Whatever happens, I only know one thing for sure – if it's after you now, you have to survive. No matter what."
Hill shifts her weight. She's uncomfortable under their gazes. Her three saviors are searching her face, probably trying to decipher if she believes them at all.
"Where's your son now?" Maria tries to focus on the parts of the story she might be able to easily debunk.
Sarah smiles. It doesn't reach her eyes. The redhead and the blonde look down.
"Dead. I saved humanity. I couldn't save my son. It never stopped. It sent machine after machine until it succeeded. But John's death didn't win it the war. Maybe all these different futures were always meant to happen. I don't know. I only know you're our only hope, Maria. At least, for now."
Maria's beginning to feel utterly frustrated. And trapped. Either these people are crazy or they're very good liars. Maybe both.
She looks at the other women in the room, defiant.
"What about you? Who are you? How do you fit into all of this?"
The redhead speaks again and Maria is taken aback once again by her velvety voice and the intensity of her eyes.
"My name's Natasha. That's my sister Yelena. Sarah rescued us when we were young."
"Lenochka and Nat were part of the Red Room," Sarah adds, "a factory of brainwashed Russian assassins that Skynet would use in the future for its own purposes. We blew it all up, right, girls?"
Yelena makes a kaboom sound followed by a loud cackle. Maria thinks that one's special, in a cute but deadly kind of way. She likes her. If only she wasn't a maniac.
"And where is all your intel about the future coming from?" Hill tries to regain control of the conversation, but she fails spectacularly.
There's a smirk on Sarah's face as she reaches below her seat, grabbing a yellowed shoebox.
"You, actually."
Sarah opens the box and shows her dozens of letters that appeared to have been read at least a thousand times.
"For the past ten years I've been receiving these letters where you tell me what happens next. That's how I know where to go, who to save, what to do. You were the one who told me to rescue the girls. You were the one that said Yelena and Natasha were important to you, and that we'd meet today, if we managed to rescue you from Stark's rooftop."
Hill's about to begin throwing punches, sick and tired of all these stupid lies. But she plays along… one last time.
"But… how?"
Sarah shrugs.
"We don't know. They just appear at our doorstep from time to time. I guess you have someone here, in this timeline, making sure they reach us. Nothing non-organic can come through the time machine so your plan must have been quite elaborate. I'd rather not know all the details, if I can be honest with you, Maria. Sometimes the truth is… unsettling."
"So, you believe us?" Yelena speaks in English for the first time, straightforward and hopeful.
Maria puts her hands up in the air and laughs bitterly.
"Time travel. A sentient evil AI. Nuclear war. Me leading the future and sending you letters across time. Sure."
"You should tell her, Nat, nothing to lose now," Yelena says to her sister.
Maria looks between them and scoffs in disbelieve.
"You mean there's more? For fuck's sake."
It's her breaking point. She storms out of the cabin, desperate for air. Why are they lying? What do they want to achieve? Why all the B movie science-fiction bullshit?
Only Natasha comes after her, and Maria begins to speak even before she turns to face her.
"Listen, the murder robot was very impressive, I'll give you that. And I don't know if you're working for Hammer or the Government or the Ten Rings, but you can stop the charade now."
But Natasha just stands there, calm and collected.
"We're not lying, Maria. I almost wish we were, but…"
The redhead's voice sounds sincere. Maria hates her a little for that.
Natasha reaches for something in her pocket and hands her a folded envelope. It seems old, but it hasn't been opened.
"Come find me when you're ready. Take your time."
Maria takes it.
Then, the redhead turns around and goes back inside without another word.
Hill stares at the door for long minutes until she realizes no one's coming out again. She looks around, studying her options. She feels the urge to tear the envelope in half but just puts it in her pocket. She begins to make her way back to the helicopter then.
If they come after her, so be it. But she needs to go back home and get away from these people.
She's a few yards away from the cabin when she turns around to see if they're watching her. There's no one at the windows.
She knows it must be a trap, but she keeps going anyway. She's halfway to the helicopter but still no sign of them. She reaches the clearing, and she's all alone.
She gets in the cockpit easily (she noticed when they arrived Yelena didn't even lock the doors) and tries to remember how to start the damn thing.
She sits there for fifteen, maybe twenty minutes trying to go through all the checks and pre-flight procedures when she remembers the envelope in her back pocket.
"Fuck", she sighs. She should not open it. She should ignore it and take off. Go back to Pepper and Tony. Report these three lunatics to the police.
Instead, she opens the envelope. She recognizes her own handwriting. It’s disturbing, to say the least. The paper feels old in her hands. She begins to read with a dreaded feeling in the pit of her stomach.
<<Maria, I know you're scared right now.
When Natasha hands you this letter, you'll be feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. Sarah has just told you everything, and though you know, deep down, it could be true, you're refusing to believe it.
You feel like that time Ed chased you with his belt around the house for the first time. Remember how you hid in the basement for hours, in the dark, in the cold, even when the basement scared the living shit out of you? But Ed scared you more. Your memories are my memories because we're one and the same. I was six.
You used to sing "Here Comes the Sun" in your head. Again and again, the song, in your mind, so you could focus on anything other than the fear.
Remember how you used that for years, even when bullets were raining over your head as your unit was pinned down in the desert?
"Little darling, it's been a cold lonely winter
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun, and I say it's all right…"
Only Nat knows. And she always kept my secret because I was a little embarrassed. Still am, I guess, I don’t want my people to think their leader relies on sentimentality. She told you on that rooftop, didn’t she? So you’d listen to her. So she could save your life. I explained everything to her in another letter. It was the only way.
It was Mom's favorite song, according to Ed. You knew it was true because she had written down her name on the back of that old vinyl single he had lying around the house. And you used to listen to that song for hours, wondering if Mom had done the same.
I know that once you read this you'll be in shock, and you'll be scared and angry (I know how I felt in that cockpit, reading this, alone and lost) but there are so many things you have to do now.
You have to get ready. Don't ever let your guard down. Sarah taught me that. It can all change in a second, for better or for worse.
Lean on them. You don't see it now, but somehow you feel it already, right? These people, they will become your family, Maria, my family.
And Nat, she'll become your world. My world.
I think I knew, from the very first moment I saw her flying towards me. You feel it right now, don't you? Don't tell her I said that, or she'll tease you forever.
It's been twenty-six years for me, but you're about to defy everything you know.
I can't help you with what you must soon face, except to tell you there is no such thing as Fate, but what we make for ourselves by our own will. You must be stronger than you imagine you can be.
And remember this, always: the future's not set.
Now get out of the chopper, make your way back to the cabin, and fight back, soldier.
–MHR, May 2047>>
Maria laughs. She thinks she's going crazy. Is this a bad dream? Is she being mind-controlled, experimented on, trapped in a virtual reality? Is she on drugs? Did someone poison her?
She keeps laughing. She can't stop. There's tears in her eyes too. It doesn't matter anymore.
It can't be. But it feels like it is. It's all true, and she has to act like her world hasn't been turned upside down. But she's good at that. The best, probably.
When she finally makes it back to the cabin it's dark already.
She steps inside as if she's been away for five minutes. Sarah and Yelena pay her no mind as they're bringing food from the kitchen, but Natasha gently nods at her, a silent understanding between them.
Natasha has changed clothes, and even in a plain black t-shirt and jeans, she takes Maria's breath away. Despite everything that's going on, it's hard for Hill not to show it. It upsets her, logically, because she remembers the letter then… And Nat, she'll become your world.
She looks away from Natasha, embarrassed with herself.
Hill notices the fireplace is burning. The table's set for dinner.
There are four seats.
Maria shakes her head, a bittersweet smile on her face.
"I'll have that beer now."