SHIELD.

For most of his life he'd been a part of that organisation, it's Director, it's guiding light, it's most recognised son and now he knew that the once great organisation was nothing more than a sham, a puppet of the United Nations, in turn a puppet of America. The SHIELD of old stood for something, meant something special - the modern SHIELD had been too tied up with politics and protocol and had lost sight of what it used to be.

There was an active force out there, an active force he supported because it was not the Nazi machine it had once been. It was a group dedicated to the preservation of order and control. It was Hydra and Ahmal Farouk was the man who had had revitalised it, made the organisation in to a world class power once more and he was glad to be associated with it. The Shadow King had been a villain, a man of unparalleled psionic might but time and numerous defeats had changed him. He knew that the ways of making a difference were not going to work. The Muir Isle event, the Psi-War, all of these things had been achieved by turning people against each other - now Farouk had realised there was a different way, that by turning man against man you created chaos and not order.

It was true that Hydra instilled fear and it's main goal was the deposition of the current democratic governments, but that was because these people were not acting in the best interests of the world. They had ceased to do that long ago and while the methodology was questionable, the means justified the ends. He was Nick Fury, and he would save the world by any means necessary and to do that he would bring down SHIELD. He had built it up, he would destroy it and he knew he was the man to do it.

He'd accessed their files, he'd beat them to the punch each time they'd come in to conflict. Now he'd struck a significant blow in his mind by taking down the X-Force strike team, even though it was only half of them. However it was still a very powerful half, and he was feeling grateful that their leader Wisdom was not there as that would have made the fight a little more interesting as Wisdom was not a man who took prisoners. However he would deal with that the next time they met, right now he was after the one piece of unfinished business he had left at SHIELD - the identity of their first director, his predecessor. To find that body and claim it in the name of Hydra would be a huge psychological blow to the enemy and they would realise that nothing they had was safe.

Thanks to their inside man, Hydra had gained access to the systems and stolen all the SHIELD data on the man anyway. They had gone for more but Forge was a clever man and Fury and his accomplice had not been able to avoid him forever but he had gained enough to lead him to the United Kingdom, to track down Citizen V, sole survivor of the V Battalion and repository of the knowledge of the Penance Council and he had snatched her from under the noses of X-Force after giving them an overdue beating.

Her raiments had been stripped, leaving on her underwear so she could maintain a modicum of decency, yet be sufficiently embarrassed to be disturbed by his eyes on her semi-naked body. He made it a point not to look at her eyes, and to look at her exposed cleavage. There was nothing sexual in his observance of the cleft between her breasts - she was certainly an attractive young woman, but he wasn't affected by a pretty face.

Yet, she didn't know that and with her hands tied behind her back as they were her breasts were slightly pushed forwards, giving them a fuller look than they actually had. He smiled, as he watched her subtly shift uncomfortably, desperately wanting to say something but knowing that if she did it would be a sign that he had gotten to her and it was a battle of wills.

However he knew he had succeeded in doing what he wanted as sweat formed on her and her eyes moved ever so often in desperation at being trapped in here, bound and powerless against a man who had abducted her simply because he could. It filled her with memories of the past, and got to her even more. His gaze was something as well because she had been watched intently during her trial because of her past associations. After five minutes or so of her squirming at his gaze he turned his eyes to the file before him.

"Dallas Riordan," he read from the notes. "Formerly the assistant to the Mayor of New York and liaison to the super-team the Thunderbolts. When they were revealed to be the former Masters of Evil, you were publicly pilloried and then invited by the V-Battalion to be the new Citizen V."

"And your point?" Riordan said, but Fury ignored her and continued.

"You were instructed to hunt the Thunderbolts down, but following a talk with Hawkeye you decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and see if they had truly reformed, but as you did so, the Crimson Cowl teleported you in to that armour and you were arrested and convicted of terrorism charges. You were broken out of by the V-Battalion and sent to hunt down Henry Gyrich, but quit and were on the run from the Battalion until recently, when they got involved in a battle with the Man-Beast which resulted in their demise."

"You know a lot about me," she said and Fury looked up, taking a moment to repeat his earlier mental torture then looked at her properly. SHIELD stood for Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage and Logistics Directorate, and before that it had been Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division. They were spies and they knew more about what was going on than the very public persona they had. It had been something he had been most proud of during his tenure that he had gathered all this intelligence.

"We know a lot about everyone, Miss Riordan. It'd surprise you how much information SHIELD actually has on everyone, from the youngest child to the oldest man. There are limits to the freedom of information principles, Citizen V." Everyone had secrets and it was SHIELD's job to find out what they were and he reminded her that she thought that way by having a secret identity of her own. She said nothing but looked down and Fury knew he'd scored a hit.

"Now about you. Your father is James Riordan, but you're the grand-daughter of the original Citizen V, whose son was also Citizen V. The first was a man named John Watkins and his son was the product of his union with Paulette Brazee, who was smuggled to England during the war where the child was born. John Watkins Junior was the child and we think that Brazee was also Citizen V until he took over. The third John Watkins is in a coma in a private hospital in Manchester, because he was Citizen V for a while but he got the hell beaten out of him during the whole fiasco with STRIKE some time ago." He got up and walked over to her, pacing around her. "So. That. Leaves. You. Dallas." He stressed her name as almost a whisper in to her left ear and smiled as she gave an involuntary shudder. "We've got a lot on you, but nothing that explains what's going on with ya. Care ta fill in the gaps?"

"You'll get nothing from me," she said, and Fury couldn't tell if it was defiance or she wasn't sure herself and he crossed his arms and looked at her, as she defiantly hissed "I fought off the V-Battalion, I'll fight of you as well."

"Not me," he said, retaking his seat and looking past her. "The young lady behind you though is a different matter." He watched as Dallas strained but nodded at the person who was waiting for their cue. "This is Tanya Gerine or, as she likes ta call herself, Tangerine. She's a telepath, pretty skilled in invasive techniques even at her age."

She wasn't too much older than thirteen, but she was powerful. The Shadow King had spotted her potential when he had amalgamated the ranks of the Apocalypse Dawn in to Hydra and he had sent her along at Fury's request. He knew that the information in her head would be planted deep so he needed a telepath and the Shadow King himself was busy elsewhere. Tangerine was from the United Kingdom so it wasn't too hard to put the pieces together.

"You'll get nothing from me," Riordan said.

"You'd think," said Fury and he watched as Tangerine placed her hand on her head and frowned as he watched. Dallas struggled against her bonds, trying to fight against the invasion of her mind and the raping of her memories. It was painful to observe, but some things were necessary. If co-operation was not easily forthcoming, then hard choices had to be made in order to get it, but Riordan was a fighter and he could see the blood start to trickle from her nose and ears as the psionic assault ravaged her and she suddenly spasmed, her body becoming as taut as it possibly could and then she relaxed and spoke in Tangerine's voice.

"I'm in."

"Good," said Fury, finding that a very distasteful process. "Is she subservient to you?"

"Yes. Her programming was strong, very strong but there's not a mental barrier I've met I cannot break through."

"Good," he said again and came over to look in Citizen V's eyes. He could see a light in there, and he got the sense that her real voice, her real mind was locked away, banging on the insides of her skull trying to get free. "Let's start with something easy - what is her connection to the Watkins' family?"
"There is no real connection between her and the Watkins' family. It is something that the V-Battalion planted in her head during the training programme to delude a brief telepathic scan."

"Very clever," said Fury, appreciating it as a fine piece of deception had been crafted and it had worked well until now, so well that not even Dallas Riordan was aware that she was not the grandchild of the original. She'd even come to the UK to live up to the reputation her alleged grandfather had laid down. "An in depth scan would be time consuming and not easy to pull off in a combat situation, plus it meant that she had credibility with the Thunderbolts. Very good. Now what does she know about the first director of SHIELD and Jeff Mace?"

"She knows nothing of Jeff Mace, other than he was formerly Captain America and he died of cancer. However her mind is blocking heavily. How... undamaged do you want her?"

"She's expendable," said Fury, considering it for a moment and making a decision. "Get what information you need from her. If she's left a mindless vegetable it saves us a job of disposing of her later." She was a loose end that he neither wanted or needed and while he didn't want to kill her, locking her away for the rest of her life and leaving her to starve was an option that did not sit with him. It would be a mercy to simply snap her neck and have done with it.

They'd find her body and chalk it up to another of those random killings the Brit's always had trouble solving. One of these days they'd set up some kind of FBI-esque agency. However if she was had her mind destroyed by the breaking of the final barrier, that would work as well. He saw Tangerine grip both sides of her head and watched as the young telepath ripped in to her mind with the subtly and finesse of a sledgehammer and Citizen V screamed in her own voice as the assault took place and then it suddenly stopped and her eyes rolled to the back of her head.

"Well?" said Fury, impatiently, but Tangerine didn't answer. "What's goin' on?"

"She's a little tied up right now," said a voice in an Irish brogue and Fury shook his head, thinking that he'd made a very amateurish mistake. They must have put something on Citizen V before he took her and they'd used it to find the Hyrda cell and now X-Force were here and he turned to see Lydia Del Ruiz and Siryn standing there, with Marcus Raven in the background, a halo of red light around his head and he knew he was engaged with Tangerine in a psionic battle. Riordan was fine, just freed from the thrall of his agent and that was why she passed out. That just left the two X-Women.

"Round two, girls?" he asked.

"You're trapped in here, Nick," said Lydia. "You're not fast enough to alert your people before we take Dallas and you out of here." Fury weighed up the options in his mind, thinking that they were right that he couldn't take them this time because they weren't ready for him and he wasn't prepared, and he was pretty sure that Tangerine wasn't going to take Marcus on the best day of her life. He was powerful himself, having held Farouk at bay, and he'd been working on how to use his powers more effectively. He could see the gleam in Siryn's eye as she was itching for a bit of payback on her former boss, because she wasn't as loyal to him as Lydia had once been.

However there were some things that he knew were in his favour. First was that Lydia wasn't on top of her game because of the injury he'd given her earlier. He could see her eyes were slightly glazed and he knew that was something he could use. Plus he knew that if needed to call for help, Farouk would come to his aid, but he wanted to show that he still had what it took to get out of this situation. It wasn't going to be easy and then it came to him.

"I understand," he said and he looked at them. "Give up now, the Shadow King is aware of you and he will stop you." It was a moment's uncertainty on their part and that was all he needed. He couldn't raise the alarm, but he moved quickly, grabbing a gun from his arm holster and fired. They moved but I managed to strike Siryn, sending her to the floor from the impact, and that left Lydia but she already had her gun drawn and she fried, sending his gun from his hand. "Nice shot."

"I wasn't aiming for the gun," she said. "I wanted a shoulder wound."

"Either way," said Fury, sending out a mental distress call but he found he couldn't and he sae Raven looking at him and smiling. Tangerine was obviously out of action and that meant he was in trouble now. Siryn was also on her feet now and he was at a loss as to how to get out of this, but he did have one last ace, something he had come across while he was watching the Hellfire Club after Wisdom's little party-piece the other day.

"I'll check V," said Siryn, going over to the young woman.

"Okay, Fury," said Lydia, and he had to admire the confidence in her voice, that she had taken charge of the situation. He'd liked her and seen the potential for her to be a future SHIELD Director and it was a shame they were now on opposites sides, but she was not one of the selected few, because she had limitations that were not needed as yet. "This is how it's going to go down. You'll cuff yourself and then HERMES will take us out of here to the Helicarrier, where you'll be treated."

"Treated? There's nothing wrong with me."

"You're not the man you used to be, Fury," she said. "We'll have you fixed."

"I'm not the man I was? I remember when you a cadet, Del Ruiz, fresh out of Interpol, joining SHIELD to make a bigger difference. I saw how much you played by the rules and how efficient and how much you had to prove. Remember how you asked me to transfer you to the Magneto Project that monitors the situation in Genosha so you could keep an eye on your father? I told you no, because you were too personally involved. I remember the anger and hatred in your eyes."

"I got over it," said Lydia. "I don't know what they did to you, Nick, but you'll get better."

"Lydia," said Marcus, "we've got company." Fury smiled realising that Farouk must have realised he'd lost contact with his agents and had deduced there was trouble and sent people in. It was a minor win and he knew that the SHIELD agents would never achieve their objectives in time. Then he saw Lydai raise her weapon again.

"Don't know how you did it, but you're not staying with them, Nick. I'll shoot you if I have to."

"Then shoot me, but you'll never find out who's behind the capture of Wisdom's sister." He played his ace card, and he knew that Wisdom would be too focused on getting his sister back to bother with him and Hydra, which suited him fine as it met with the Shadow King's plans as well. "I'll let you know what's going on, once you've left. I can get a message to you. There are ways and means that you've no idea of." He could tell there was a psionic discussion going on and then Lydia put the gun down and Fury smiled.

"This isn't over," she said and she nodded to Siryn who had Citizen V, and in a moment they were all gone, just as his people came in. He sighed, not happy with the way things had gone, but satisfied. Tangerine would have the answer he wanted, when she recovered and they had Citizen V's suit and weapons, which could be used and adapted to their purposes later. However he always honoured his debts and he soon found a terminal to send a message to SHIELD that the people who were behind the abduction of Wisdom's sister could be found at the London branch of the Hellfire Club.

He watched the screen clear and he looked at himself in the reflection on the screen and lit up a cigar. Lydia was right - it wasn't over yet.