"When did you beco this naive?"
Drex Valen's voice was cold enough to freeze steel.
"I promoted you to Deputy Director because you trusted nobody. Because you were cautious."
His eyes remained locked on Nick Fury.
The hearing was being conducted inside S.W.O.R.D.
A special investigative committee had been assembled, alongside mbers of the Security Council, to determine Fury's fate.
Technically, Drex wasn't supposed to be there.
He was no longer Director.
By procedure, he was an outsider.
Nobody objected to his presence anyway.
Nick Fury remained silent.
Drex continued.
"You've spent your entire career distrusting everyone."
"Humans."
"Superheroes."
"Agents who fought beside you for years."
His voice sharpened.
"And yet sohow you chose to trust an alien capable of impersonating anyone."
"You placed that alien in one of the most sensitive positions on Earth."
"You gave it access to intelligence, classified information, strategic assets..."
Drex leaned forward.
"Tell , Nick."
"What exactly were you thinking?"
The room had beco deathly quiet.
Heroes.
Agents.
Observers.
Everyone present was staring at Fury.
After all, many of them had unknowingly spent years interacting with a Skrull masquerading as one of the most powerful people on Earth.
And the more they listened, the harder it beca to argue against Drex's reasoning.
"You don't understand..."
Fury finally spoke.
"They were refugees."
"Refugees with nowhere else to go."
"They had no contact with their howorld..."
Drex cut him off imdiately.
"And that's exactly my point."
His voice rose.
"When did you beco this gullible, Nick Fury?"
"You are an intelligence officer."
"Not a scientist."
"Not an expert on extraterrestrial civilizations."
"So what qualifications do you possess that allowed you to conclude they couldn't contact their species?"
His gaze hardened.
"Because they told you so?"
"You never questioned it?"
The room grew even quieter.
Drex wasn't finished.
"Or was it Carol Danvers?"
The question struck like a knife.
"Did your trust in her beco trust in everything connected to her?"
"You trusted an entire alien species simply because she vouched for them?"
Fury imdiately stiffened.
The mont Carol's na ca up, his composure cracked.
"Captain Marvel protected Earth."
His voice rose.
"She stopped the Kree invasion fleet."
"She saved this planet."
"And if she's gone now, it's because she's out there protecting people sowhere else in the galaxy."
The defense ca instantly.
Without hesitation.
Drex stared at him for several seconds.
Then he sighed.
He suddenly understood there was no point continuing.
"The rest is your problem."
He looked toward the committee.
"I'm done here."
The others exchanged uncomfortable glances.
The focus of the hearing wasn't supposed to be Carol Danvers.
It was the Skrulls.
That was the entire issue.
The reason Drex had shot the fake Fury on sight was simple.
He knew exactly what Skrulls could beco.
Left unchecked, they could eventually trigger a planetary-scale disaster.
A Secret Invasion.
After the destruction of their empire at Kree hands, desperate Skrull survivors would inevitably begin searching for a new ho.
Earth was an obvious target.
And the mont one of their infiltrators gained unrestricted access to superhero intelligence, the damage beca imasurable.
Abilities.
Weaknesses.
Psychological profiles.
Family mbers.
Personal histories.
Operational secrets.
Everything.
Once that information spread throughout Skrull networks, every hero on Earth beca vulnerable.
Trust collapsed.
Paranoia flourished.
Alliances shattered.
Heroes fought one another while Skrulls hid among them.
Humanity suffered for it.
And in Drex's view, the root cause traced back to one man.
Nick Fury.
The hearing proceeded.
Several hours later, the verdict arrived.
A representative of the investigative committee stood.
"Nick Fury."
"Based on the evidence presented, you are found guilty of compromising Earth's security and endangering humanity through unauthorized cooperation with extraterrestrial entities."
The official adjusted a stack of docunts.
"Because no legal frawork previously existed for cris of this nature, a special ruling has been established."
The room remained silent.
"You are hereby sentenced to five hundred years of imprisonnt on Hell Island."
Fury's expression darkened.
Unfortunately, they weren't finished.
A second investigator took the floor.
"Additionally, our financial review of your tenure as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. uncovered extensive budget discrepancies."
He flipped through another report.
"Large sums of funding remain unaccounted for."
"We suspect embezzlent and misuse of public resources on an exceptional scale."
Fury closed his eyes.
He already knew where this was going.
"An additional three hundred years will be added to your sentence."
Eight hundred years.
The room collectively winced.
S.W.O.R.D.'s investigators were among the best intelligence professionals on the planet.
Combined with the organization's surveillance capabilities, uncovering Fury's old secrets had taken remarkably little ti.
One committee mber shook his head.
"We still don't know how much information was leaked."
"Or how much intelligence that Skrull transmitted to its species."
"After multiple alien invasions, Nick Fury still chose to trust extraterrestrials without adequate safeguards."
The statent drew more than a few grim nods.
Drex stood.
"Assu additional infiltrators exist."
Everyone turned toward him.
"I'll develop detection systems specifically designed to identify Skrull replication."
His voice was calm.
"But that's only the first step."
His eyes narrowed.
"We need to purge every parasite already hiding on Earth."
Far off the western coast of the United States sat a mysterious island.
Legends surrounded it.
So claid it had once been the largest slave-trading hub in the world.
Others insisted it served as a secret playground for politicians and billionaires, where laws simply didn't apply.
There were even conspiracy theories claiming it was a eting place for the shadowy elites who controlled world events from behind the scenes.
Most people knew it by a single na:
Hell Island.
Officially, the United States governnt denied it existed.
Unofficially...
It absolutely did.
The island contained extensive infrastructure.
Luxury accommodations.
Private facilities.
Underground complexes.
Entire sections beneath the island could easily be converted into research laboratories or military installations.
Whatever powerful individual had owned it in the past no longer mattered.
The United Nations had seized it.
And with Drex personally overseeing construction alongside countless chanical workers, the facility had been transford in a single day.
Into Hell.
A prison unlike any other.
Designed specifically for individuals too dangerous for ordinary incarceration.
Nick Fury never imagined he would beco one of its inmates.
The prison population reacted with imdiate interest when he arrived.
Most assud he was there to interrogate soone.
Or oversee a transfer.
Then they watched guards escort him into a cell.
The reaction was instantaneous.
Laughter erupted.
"Well, look who finally joined us."
"Isn't that the old S.H.I.E.L.D. director?"
"Man, you're behind the tis."
"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been gone for years."
Another prisoner pressed himself against the bars.
"Nick Fury."
A grin spread across his face.
"Rember ?"
"You locked up a long ti ago."
"Got transferred here recently."
His smile widened.
"Funny how fast things change."
"Now you're my neighbor."
Fury ignored them all.
For the first ti in years, he had nothing but ti.
Ti to think.
Ti to review every decision he'd made.
Ti to ask himself a question he had never seriously considered before.
Had he really been wrong?
anwhile, Drex's response ca swiftly.
Within a remarkably short period of ti, he successfully developed a detection system specifically capable of identifying Skrull replication technology.
The hunt for infiltrators had officially begun.
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