What was once chaos now sat under the weight of silence. Med scanners working over the wounded.
The Rogue Agents were being cuffed, sedated, or wheeled off. Olivia Octavius lay on a stretcher, her neural implant flickering under the skin of her neck. Agent Blade was restrained with silver-lined cuffs, his head lowered but his jaw locked tight. Coulson was being dragged, his leg freshly bandaged.
At the back of it all stood Nick Fury, staring down at the still body of Peggy Carter.
Felix didn't know what to do among all this. Approach Fury? Ask him about going home? He had to play the part of a kidnapped scientist but he didn't want to come off too impatient. But as the time ticked, he surmised that was his only choice. Hands in his pockets, he approached him. He didn't want to disturb the moment, but Fury's voice reached him before he could speak.
"Peggy Carter…" Fury murmured. "A great woman. She was my mentor."
Felix stopped beside him, eyes on the marble-still face of the late Director. "…I know."
For a long moment, neither said anything. The silence pressed harder.
Then Fury asked, voice rough with something buried deep, "Can you bring her back?"
Felix blinked. "Sir?"
Fury turned to look at him, his expression unreadable. "You're the man who made them believe, right? They summed the reports to me. Your little college essay is a miracle-maker. The miracle-maker. So can you bring her back?"
Felix hesitated. "…Maybe. If she were young. If her cells still held regenerative potential. If she was a super soldier, maybe." He shook his head, eyes falling to the lifeless body. "But it's not a guarantee. Not by a long shot." He folded his arms, sighing through his nose. "They showed me her medical reports, Fury. She'd already prolonged her life by a decade using cutting-edge drugs, bio-cellular infusions, experimental nanotherapy. She was running on borrowed time."
Fury's jaw tightened. "Yeah. I knew about that."
"To be this desperate, though?" Felix said softly. "I didn't expect it from her."
Fury's gaze hardened. "Me neither." He looked back at Peggy's body — not with anger, but with a kind of tired sadness. Then he straightened, the mask of command sliding back into place. "As much as I'd like to investigate you and your little Extremis," Fury said, tone dry again, "I've got bigger problems to deal with."
Felix blinked, feigning confusion. "You do?"
Fury gave a short, humorless snort. "Kept you locked in here too long, huh? People have been falling out of the sky, Doctor. All over the damn world."
Felix pretended to freeze and be shocked. "…Out of the sky? How?"
"You tell me, brother," Fury said, giving him a long look. "You tell me."
He didn't elaborate. He didn't need to. The tension in the room said enough: half the agents were already leaving. They had important matters to tend to.
***
An hour later, he was in the back of a black SHIELD sedan, the road rolling dark and empty ahead. Maria Hill drove. The city lights glided over her face — sharp, composed, distant as always.
"Good to see you alive, Felix."
"Maria. Always nice to see you. Thought you were going to pretend we didn't know each other," he replied, smiling.
"I was. You're lucky Fury likes you," she said, keeping her eyes on the road. "He's willing to believe your story."
Felix smirked faintly. "You don't. Has joining SHIELD really changed you that much, Maria?"
She stayed quiet and smiled to herself. "Upgrade your security," she said simply. "Fury's order. You'll have an agent stationed nearby within a few hours. We're stretched thin right now, but you're still considered an asset."
Felix turned his gaze to the window. "Stretched thin? Is it because of…?"
Maria nodded. "People falling out of the sky — VIPs, high-profile individuals. Different cities, different countries. It's chaos. Nobody knows how or why. We've had major incidents before but this is the first time it's so…sparse. Different countries, same result."
He mulled over whether to ask this but…
"Is that why Shadowcat isn't here?"
Maria tensed up. "...yes."
They didn't have time for her. She was missing, they knew it, and they couldn't do a damn thing about it. Rogue mentioned one chip tracked her location and the other chip scrambled her brain. Whether the location-tracking chip was ruined from her fall or because SHIELD was overoccupied was impossible to determine considering the circumstances, was why Rogue didn't outright say that the first chip wasn't work.
But now, it didn't matter. The chip could have been working, but SHIELD's top-most priority were these deaths.
'Rogue will be able to come to New York safely. I'm glad. Herbie, how is her flight going?'
'SIX HOURS REMAINING.'
'Damn, okay, still a ways away.'
"Anyone surviving the fall?" Felix asked quietly.
She shook her head. "Not yet."
The car slowed as they pulled into the long private drive of his mansion. The gates opened automatically. Maria's sedan and number plate was already registered into the systems.
Maria parked, resting both hands on the steering wheel. For a second, she turned to look at him — and her tone softened just enough to betray familiarity.
"You should lay low, Felix," Maria said. "Whatever's happening… it's bigger than even Fury's comfortable admitting."
"You sound almost worried."
Maria smirked back. "Don't flatter yourself." Then, after a pause, she added more seriously, "Is it even possible, scientifically? People just… falling from nowhere?"
He thought about it for a long beat. "…In theory? No." Then, after another pause: "But lately, theory's been a bad predictor. I mean…I guess…"
"Please, anything."
Should he throw them a bone?
'...no, not yet.'
"I don't know. I can't fathom it. People falling from the sky…how could they all be thrown up? They'd have to at least start from the same place…"
A stupid, pointless remark. Felix was just trying to put on an act though. He had to pretend that he wasn't literally one of the people that was teleported.
Maria studied him for a moment, then nodded once. "Get some rest."
He opened the door. "You too, Hill."
She watched him until he opened the door to his mansion and closed it. Afterward, she drove off, the gate re-opening for her.
For the first time in a while, Felix was alone.
He exhaled, slow and steady, and let his composure drop. His fingers brushed the side of his neck, feeling the faint pulse of the symbiote beneath his skin.
"Rash? Herbie? Everyone there?"
'Yesssss!'
'AFFIRMATIVE, MASTER FAETH.'
Felix Faeth was gone, Spider-Man was back, and he finally had a mystery to chase.
"First things first. Herbie, call Shuri."
'CALLING. CONNECTING VIA SECURE CHANNEL…'
The greeting he received was a tone far too cheerful for what he expected.
"Oh, hi, Felix!" He could almost feel Shuri waving as if this were a casual video chat. Weird, really weird. Shuri was more…saracastic than upbeat.
Felix blinked. "Shuri, hi, how are you?" he tried to match her tone, sort-of. "Everything fine? You, the brother, the lab?"
"Great!" Shuri said. "Everything is perfectly fine. The lab's fine. The herb's fine. I'm fine."
Her cheer was forced — painfully so. It was the kind of energy someone used when they were trying to sound normal under pressure. The hairs on the back of his neck started to rise.
"I'm glad to hear that," Felix said slowly. "You didn't, uh…" Somehow, he thought talking about the espionage situation was the wrong choice here. "...ever plan to come back to America?"
"Please, Felix, already asking?" Shuri said with a chirpy laugh. "Buuut I will admit, I've been meaning to call you. I wanted to see if you'd like to go on a date when I come back to America next week."
"Right. A date."
"Mm-hmm!" He heard her nod. "Dinner, maybe at that place you mentioned in Manhattan — you know, eight o'clock, Friday."
She emphasized the time. 'Eight o'clock?'
Felix froze. His mind sharpened instantly. The smile, the repetition, the perfectly fine phrasing — all of it. He'd seen this before. Someone was listening and this phone call wasn't supposed to be happening.
His tone shifted, subtly, into the same kind of small talk dance she was doing. "That sounds wonderful, Shuri. I'll, uh, make sure to dress appropriately if you know what I mean."
"Good! I'll hold you to it," Shuri said brightly. "Anyway, I have to go now — lots of meetings to attend. You know how it is!"
"Yep," Felix said quietly. "I do."
Her smile wavered just slightly before she hung up. "Talk soon!"
The call blinked out.
Felix stood there for a long moment. The huge front door of his mansion was right behind him. Then he exhaled, slow and tight. "…She's being watched. Triangulate her location, Herbie."
'PROCESSING.' A moment passed, then the AI's calm voice returned. 'HER CURRENT POSITION: WAKANDA. COORDINATES PLACE HER WITHIN THE KING'S CASTLE.'
Felix's stomach dropped. "The castle?"
'CORRECT.'
That shouldn't have been possible. The royal palace was the single most secure building on the African continent. If Shuri was nervous inside her brother's own home, it meant someone with extraordinary access was involved.
"…Who in the world could compromise her there?" he muttered.
'UNKNOWN. TRIANGULATING SPECIFIC ROOM WILL REQUIRE SIX HOURS, TWENTY-THREE MINUTES. CASTLE SECURITY SYSTEM IS LAYERED WITH NANITE ENCRYPTION AND GEOLOCKS. DISTANCE FROM THIS LOCATION IS ALSO A FACTOR.'
Felix pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine. Work on it. Alert me the second you have a room."
'AFFIRMATIVE.'
He was already moving — through the hallway, down the elevator, and into his subterranean garage. Rows of vehicles greeted him: cars, bikes, a quadrotor, and his private jet. It was capable of crossing the Atlantic before breakfast.
He went over. His hand hovered over the hatch release.
"...No. Not yet."
He drew in a breath, forcing his pulse to slow. 'Think, Felix.' Shuri wasn't breathing heavily. She wasn't sending an emergency beacon. She was under watch — probably blackmailed or politically cornered, not in imminent danger. If he stormed Wakanda without a plan or more information, he'd risk everything.
'I warned her too and yet she's in this situation. Or maybe it's because I warned her…'
He didn't know. He couldn't tell, not yet.
Then there was the matter of Felicia and Rogue. They would be landing in New York and looking for Felix Faeth. Rogue needed her surgery to remove the tracker from her skull, and Felicia… well, she was another variable entirely. She only wanted revenge and needed Spider-Man's help to go through with it.
'Those two…they might be able to help with this. Maybe. With Felicia, she's the only one with a connection to the Auction Master—and there's no way he's not involved. Especially now that Ambassador Yvan is dead.'
There were far too many questions still. Like why the Auction Master teleported all those people and killed them? Why Shuri was in trouble when he warned her? Why had any of this happened at all? Even the biggest question of them all: who really killed Peggy Carter?
For now, all he could do was prepare.
Felix turned from the jet and headed back up to the main level. The AI led him to the second floor. He had over two dozen rooms, one of them could very easily be transformed into a room acceptable for surgery.
'ROOM READY,' Herbie announced. 'EQUIPMENT STERILIZED. SURGERY TABLE CALIBRATED. MINI-HERBIES ON STANDBY.'
Felix stepped through the doorway and smiled. The operating room had everything, from a medical-approved bed to clean instruments. Three robotic Herbie hummed about, floating with their silly monitor heads and emoji expressions.
"Good work, Herbie," Felix said. "Really good work."
"OF COURSE, MASTER FAETH."
All the robot Herbie saluted him. Felix saluted back.
***
Seven hours went by and that was when the doorbell rang. Felix was already nearby. He had known she was coming since she stepped into New York. SHIELD might have been too busy to track her, but Herbie wasn't. He opened the huge doors and before he could even speak, Shadowcat was already smirking at him.
"Well, if it isn't my favorite nerd in a suit." She looked slightly different. Her long-black hair was tied back, a few strands loose from travel, and her jacket still smelled faintly of rain and asphalt.
He blinked and smiled. "Oh, Rogue! How are you—" And just like that, she wrapped her arms around him.
It wasn't just a quick hug. It was her. The way she held him — strong but soft — made his chest tighten. The familiar scent of her hair, the faint electric trace of her mutant energy, all of it felt like a rush of something he didn't realize he'd missed.
With Spider-Man, he was standoff-ish. Respectful. With Felix…
…she breathed him in.
"Man, you have no idea what my day has been like." She kept inhaling him. "…You still smell the same," Rogue murmured against his neck, smiling.
Felix cleared his throat, awkwardly patting her back. "Haha, glad to know my cologne has consistency."
She laughed and pulled back, still smiling in that mischievous, knowing way. "Cologne, huh? You sure it's not just you?"
He half-grinned. "I'll take that as a compliment." But then like an amateur spy, Felix asked, "Are you… alone?"
Shadowcat nodded. "Yeah. I had a friend drop me off a few blocks back. I told her I had to gather some things before she took off. Why?"
"Because," Felix said, stepping aside and gesturing her in, "Spider-Man already told me everything you need. He told me you were going to bring a friend along."
"She chickened out," Rogue said flatly.
'No, I kept track of you two, Felicia is just going to get some supplies for herself. She really wants to kill the Auction Master.'
"Got it." He kept walking and talking. "I mean, colour me surprised when Spider-Man himself visited and handed me a note."
"He was mute the whole time?"
"Yeah! Wait, does he not talk?"
"Not at all."
"Weird…"
"Right?"
"So, like quick question, is this like a SHIELD mission? Is, like, Spider-Man apart of SHIELD?" He was just saying shit at this point to get her to realize he was an innocent civilian. And she believed it, pursing her lips and replying:
"...yeah."
"Right, got it, super secret. The surgery room's ready on the second floor."
Her relief flickered briefly before something else crossed her face — suspicion. Her nose crinkled slightly. Her eyes narrowed.
'Spider-Sense is going off…'
They were right about to step on the staircase too. Dammit, what did he do wrong?
"…You smell like Nick Fury."
Felix blinked. "What?"
"And Maria Hill."
'Oh, goddammit. Rash, you forgot to remove their scents from us.'
'Sorrry…'
Felix laughed nervously. "You can smell that?"
Agent Shadowcat tilted her head, lips curling into a smirk that didn't reach her eyes. "You pick up a few tricks after living around spies for a year. So, want to tell me why you smell like SHIELD brass?"
There was a beat of silence.
Then Felix sighed. "…because I was kidnapped."
The small chance of her slashing his throat were gone. That response stopped her cold.
"...What?"
"Yeah," he said with perfect timing and just enough sincerity to sound exhausted. "A bunch of rogue agents. They snatched me a few days ago and dragged me out to a farm upstate. They were trying to bring back Peggy Carter using my Extremis project."
Shadowcat blinked, jaw slack. "You're joking."
"I wish I was." He shook his head, tone grim. "They had the body. They had stolen data, equipment — even old SHIELD tech. They wanted me to finish the formula so they could resurrect her. Nick Fury and his team raided the place mid-operation."
Her lips parted slightly. The gears were turning in her head. Everything was starting to make sense.
"Yeah." He rubbed his neck, letting the fatigue sit on his face. "Long story short, Fury shut it all down. And now I'm just trying to keep my head down and go back to science instead of… all that."
Rogue just laughed. She put a hand to her face and laughed. "Man, today couldn't get weirder, huh? Out of all coincidences…" She shook her head, laughing. "Well, at least that answers a couple mysteries."
Felix tilted his head. "Uh…what?"
"Don't worry, I can smell when people lie," she said with a shrug, half-bluffing, half-joking. "I believe you."
"Um…so…?"
She smiled again, more genuinely this time. "C'mon, Doc. Let's see what your genius lab can do."
He led her upstairs to the private surgical suite on the second floor. It looked like any other oak wood door, but upon going inside, it was a complete medical room. SIlver and white, spotless, softly humming with sterile air and low hums of advanced equipment.
Shadowcat whistled low. "How long this take you to do?"
"I mean, I already had the room but then for your arrival, I had to—"
"Okay, don't want the complicated." She glanced at the table. "Question is: this is really going to get the tracker out of my skull?"
He nodded. "That's the plan. Gotta do a scan first and stuff but I think I can manage. With your healing factor, which I've seen in action, I have a good grasp of how it'll go."
"You sure you can handle it?" she asked lightly, teasing but with a small thread of genuine concern. "Won't mess up my brain."
"I went to medical school," he said without hesitation. "This won't be a problem."
She relaxed. "Good. 'Cause I'd hate to have to haunt you if this goes sideways."
'At least that confirms she really can't smell lies, because I definitely didn't go to med school.'
"Well," she said, starting to unzip her jacket, "do I need to strip or…?"
Felix, keeping his tone clinical, nodded once. "It's a surgery. You'll need to."
"Figures." Rogue rolled her eyes, but with a grin. "You really know how to set the mood, Felix."
"I try," he said dryly, turning to prep the anesthesia.
Rogue sat on the table, boots kicked off, expression somewhere between playful and tense. Meanwhile, Felix put on a coat, gloves, and even surgical glasses. It was mostly for show but it made her comfy. It made her think everything was right.
"Just so you know, anesthesia doesn't really work on me," she said, half-bragging. "Healing factor burns it out before it even kicks in."
Felix adjusted the mask with precise hands. "I'm aware."
She raised a brow. "You are?"
"Mm-hm," he said smoothly. "I've been working on something that accounts for that."
Rogue tilted her head, impressed. "Of course you have. Genius."
He smiled, professional and calm. "This should take effect in about thirty seconds."
"Good luck," Rogue said, voice already starting to slur just a little. "You're… kinda handsome when you—"
Her words trailed off. Her eyelids fluttered once. Then again. And finally, she went completely still. Felix stood there for a moment, quietly watching her chest rise and fall. Perfectly sedated.
He exhaled, relieved. "Sorry, Kitty. But you wouldn't have let me do this otherwise."
He turned to the tray beside him. It contained ordinary surgical instruments. He picked up a scanner, waved it across her temple, letting the readings display. "What kind of signal does it send…"
Really strange that Herbie couldn't pick it up. Hell, it was next to impossible. There had to be some complicated trick that he couldn't comprehend.
"Guess I'll figure it out after I extract the chips…"
Everything was ready. Everything was set.
His hands flexed once. Rash pulsed under his skin, that living, liquid shadow moving through his veins.
"Alright, Rash," he murmured quietly, eyes narrowing. "Let's begin."
'Yessss~! It is time to heal!'
From his wrists, the Symbiote crept out, black, slick, and alive, curling around his fingers and sliding down his forearms like ink in motion.
Felix leaned over the unconscious Shadowcat, eyes gleaming behind the surgical lenses. Time for the surgery to begin.