VERTIGO, marvel

eight: the truth of project insight

"we could never turn back now
got to leave it all on the floor"

legendary by welshly arms

Sitwell tried to swallow the lump in his throat, his knees on the ground, the sun beating down on the back of his neck. He'd known from the moment he saw Steve Rogers that there was no way he could beat them. He'd tried to hold out. If he told them everything, he would die. If he didn't tell them anything, he would die. It was lose-lose.

"Zola's algorithm is a program!" Sitwell screamed, holding his hand up in defense. "For choosing Insight's targets."

"What targets?" Steve snapped, looking down to where Sitwell was curled up on the floor.

"You," Sitwell started. He was heaving out the words. "You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa city. Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future."

Liv's breath caught in her throat. Everything made sense.

The fierceness with which they were hunting her and Marley, Sitwell's fear that Liv was dead, using Jon as bait for them. She could see it in Marley's eyes as she turned to look at her. The only person on that list they couldn't kill with an airstrike was her, so they needed someone without powers as bait. Jon. Jon and Liv. This was way worse than they imagined.

"In the future?" Steve looked appalled and confused. "How could it know?" Sitwell laughed in response, tipping his head back hysterically.

"How could it not? The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it. Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past to predict their future."

"And what then?!" Steve pressed further, moving toward Sitwell.

"Oh, God, Pierce is gonna kill me!" Sitwell panicked, running his hands along his head.

"You're not gonna have to worry about Pierce if you don't answer the damn question." Marley snapped. "What. Then."

"Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list." Sitwell admitted. "A few million at a time."

Before Sitwell could speak anymore, Liv knocked him out with a flick of her wrist.

"What the hell, McKinley?" Romanoff rounded on the blonde as soon as Sitwell's head hit the ground.

"What more do you want from him?" Liv questioned with a malice that Marley wasn't sure she'd ever heard from her before. "We know what he was after now, we know what they did!" Tears of rage filled Liv's eyes as she turned around to look at the rest of the group. "We're all gonna die."

"That's not true." Steve chimed in.

"Yes it is and you all know it."

"Liv." Marley said her name gently, walking slowly toward her with open arms. "It's gonna be okay."

"No, it's not." Tears spilled down her face in waves. "We had a life, Marley. Together. The two of us. And it worked, God, it worked so well."

"I know." Marley stepped closer, her hand gripping Liv's forearms.

"And I don't want to leave, Marley. I don't want to leave you alone." Liv whispered it, as if saying it aloud would make it real. As if saying it would solidify that this wasn't all some shitty nightmare. That she wasn't going to wake up in their apartment after all this was over.