War
An Agents of SHIELD fanfic by Aisling Yinyr Ngaio

He'd heard the rumblings on the ground ever since the Battle of New York eighteen months ago. On the surface, SHIELD was operating as usual - albeit with more notoriety and public awareness now - cleaning up after anything alien or overly powerful, recruiting and keeping Gifted individuals on low profiles, and segregating uncontrollable items for either the Slingshot, the Fridge or the Sandbox. It was… business as usual, at least on the outside.

But he didn't manage to rise to the position of Director of SHIELD without good instincts. He saw, he heard, he felt the various pulses within the organisation. And one of them was growing to be very dangerous, especially considering the identity of their de facto benefactor.

He'd always known that there would be consequences for the direct defiance of orders from the Council, not just because he had refused to send the nuclear strike against Manhattan, but also because he'd actually damaged SHIELD property in preventing one of the two aircrafts from taking off on the Helicarrier. It didn't matter that the Council held their tongues grudgingly and failed to comment on his disobedience in the aftermath of the Battle because of the Avengers' narrow victory. It didn't matter that they allowed the command of SHIELD be returned into his capable hands in the interim, without any further public discord on their side.

He had been in this game of politics long enough to read between the lines of what was left unspoken. The victory in Manhattan meant nothing, nor the many lives saved. In the end, only the power mattered, both over the Tesseract and over SHIELD. The Council wasn't admitting either defeat or compromise with their silence; they were only shifting battlegrounds, and they always fought to win.

He knew they were now taking the fight directly into the hearts and minds of the agents on the ground, just as they'd done when they overrode his authority in sending the two missile aircrafts to attack New York. It was only a matter of time before the simmering dissatisfaction over his command boiled over. And there was no coup more dangerous than a silent, seamless internal coup. The battle wasn't long in coming now. The only questions remaining were 'when', and who would be left standing in the end.

With grim determination, Director Nick Fury signed his approval for the renovation and refurbishment of the mobile command unit SHIELD-616, to be transferred over to the new team requested and spearheaded by Agent Phil Coulson since his return from his convalescence. He might not believe in luck, but he wasn't one to look down his nose at it when his subordinates volunteered for something that would benefit him in the long run. It always helped to have eggs in many different baskets, so to speak.

After all, if things had the misfortune of turning south, it would be extremely helpful to have a… friendly party… heading an independent command center, for himself and the agents loyal to him to regroup and plan counter movements, for them to still have some resources at their disposal. It didn't matter that he had kept certain sensitive information from the very agent many suspected him of favouring above his own deputy director.

This was war.

- Finis -