6636/The Framework: Double Agent Double Jeopardy

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The Framework: Double Agent Double Jeopardy
Date of Scene: 20 June 2021
Location: Security: Triskelion
Synopsis: The Doctor attempts to extract information from Dottie Underwood, the one insurrectionist Radcliffe has left available to him. He learns... much more than he expected. And perhaps not from the source he expected.
Cast of Characters: Leopold Fitz, Dottie Underwood, Melinda May
Tinyplot: The Framework


Leopold Fitz has posed:
For a short but significant span it seemed like everything was going the way that it should. That the world was finally ready to take those final, bold steps towards being a truly orderly place. Where the chaotic randomness and all the disaster that brought on courtesy of past regimes would finally be put where it belonged. In the past. And the world could stride forward confidently, knowing that they were under HYDRA's protective embrace. Under HYDRA's protective gaze.

The end of SHIELD. The end of the Inhumans. The powers of mutants properly harnessed for the good of HYDRA and the world. The grand vision that Leopold Fitz has striven towards for year, at last realized. Finally.

And now this. Agents considered as beyond reproach as HYDRA ever judges these things turned traitor, helping the feeble last remenants -- not even remenants, memories -- of SHIELD. Open betrayal. The Doctor is certainly not one to wear his emotions on his sleeve, though if he was not doubt he would be infuriated.

And yet, it is not just from without that frustration bubbles up. But from within. Leopold Fitz, the Doctor of HYDRA stands very near the pinnicle of that organization. It has been a great many years since his will has been thwarted from within. But for the time being he has been refused access to some of their most recent prisoners. It is rare that he finds himself at cross purposes with Holden Radcliffe, with AIDA. But he is at the moment.

And that does not sit well with the Doctor. Nor does it likely bode well for those prisoners he does have access to.

Prisoners like the woman held in the interrogation cell that Leopold currents stands outside of, peering through that one-way glass, eyes narrowed ever so slightly in consideration. Finally however, he turns for the door, moving to enter the chamber, stepping inside. For just a moment the guards beyond are visible, standing diligently there. But they do not enter the cell with the man, instead closing the door behind him.

And the Doctor? He stands there, just barely in the room, his gaze fixed on the prisoner with those icy blue eyes. Saying nothing.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
The woman who had been trained since childhood to fight for her country, to kill for it without question; who had taken on the name of Dorothy Underwood; who, after the war was over, had found a SHIELD in Margaret Carter's belief and cleverness; who had slowly understood how to rely on the security of a team; found herself relearning her oldest lessons. What happens to you when you are left alone in a room with a figure of authority. There is no escape from this, so she waits.

Leopold Fitz has posed:
To be sure there are reasons that Leopold Fitz has risen as high as he has in HYDRA, why he managed to under the good graces of Holden Radcliffe himself and thus begin his meteoric ascent to the pinnicle of power. Much of it has to do with his genius of course, his scientific breakthroughs helping to fuel HYDRAs on ascent. Some of it has to do his ability to approach any situation through the lense of logic, of cold hard fact, without letting sentiment enter into the equation. The only institution that might compete with HYDRA in the Doctor's eyes would be Science itself.

But another factor might very well be that he can be completely and utterly without mercy.

Anyone working within HYDRA knows that you do not want the Doctor to be given reason to get his hands on you.

Unfortunately for Dottie Underwood, that is exactly what has been given.

Still, he lingers there by the door, simply regarding her with that frosty, emotionless stare. For minutes. Nothing but silence and stillness. So many people find such things uncomfortable, find themselves compelled to break that silence, to fill it with something, anything. And whether it is small or significant, whether it is truth or lie, it still tells Leopold Fitz something.

Does he expect such a tact to work on her? Perhaps not. Certainly he gives the slightest of smiles -- no humor in the expression, no warmth -- and finally pushes away from the door. "You've disappointed me Agent Underwood. I expected better," he says quietly, walking towards the table and chair where she is bound in place, moving to the opposite side and resting gloved hands on the back of the chair that rests there.

"Fortunately for you, you're being given the chance to tell me what you know. About Peggy Carter. About Daniel Sousa. About Melinda May. If you tell me freely, willingly, you will find that fact is taken into consideration. If not, well, things will not be quite so pleasant," he says, the implications clear. Implications that don't seem to trouble him in the least. "But please understand that one way or another you will tell me what I want to know. Everyone does. Eventually."

Dottie Underwood has posed:
The temptation to taunt him is on the tip of her tongue, but for some reason she bites it back. Once she would have thrilled at the challenge to best him, to prove that she could take more than he could give. Instead she seems tired. But still determined to protect her ...friends. Yes the construct has friends, here, she thinks. Loyalties. There is a bravery in her face that is so, so fragile. The look she gives him practically begs him to begin.

Leopold Fitz has posed:
Under other circumstances, when there is the luxury to take the necessary time to truly break one down there are all manner od means in breaking down the human mind, to make it more susceptible, more willing to latch onto whatever relief is offered and to... shift its viewpoint. Isolation. Destorting one's connection to the passage of time. Sleep deprivation. Sensory deprivation. All useful tools.

Pain can be a useful tool too, properly applied. But difficult. It generally encourages one to say anything to make the pain stop. And the Doctor is not interested in hurting his prisoners for the sake of hurting them. KNowledge is what he craves. False confession means nothing. Some in HYDRA might be sadists who enjoy hurting others. For him, it is an occasional necessary evil. A means to an end.

Unfortunately he does not have the luxury of time here. This time he has been denied access to some sources of information. This time he only has this woman at his disposal, at least for the moment.

"I want to know about Daniel Sousa. He seems to be a remarkably resilient individual. Especially considering that I watched the video feed of him dying. And yet here he is, captured along with the rest of you," he says with that same quiet intensity. He would also like to know why AIDA has made the man off limits to him. But that is not an answer that Agent Underwood can answer. Not directly at least. "So lets begin there, Agent Underwood. How is Daniel Sousa still here? What is he truly after?"

Dottie Underwood has posed:
"You saw the same video that I did. I don't know how he survived. He says there is another world outside of this one. That this isn't real, that we aren't real, not all of us. He wants to take the real ones away." Dottie doesn't know why she tells him this. It's like a compulsion she can't fight against. It sounds like lies anyway. A fairy story. Lost children trying to find their way out of the woods.

Leopold Fitz has posed:
While his prisoner might feel compelled to speak, it would appear that Leopold Fitz feels equally compelled to listen.

Of course it is entirely ridiculous, isn't it? A world outside this one? A real world? No doubt one that is not on the verge of finally achieving it's destiny as a well ordered society. A world where Daniel Sousa and no doubt others like him are not only delusional enough to see themselves as heroes, but apparently have the ability to act on those delusions. It's laughable. Insane.

And yet nothing on the Doctor's expression suggests that he is inclined to immediately reject her answers as ludicrous. Not that there is anything on his expression at all of course. One brow arches ever so slightly, but that seems more to suggests something she has said interests him.

Perhaps the biggest indicator of all that he is interested in hearing more however is that fact that her answer does not immediately bring on an onslaught of the implied pain waiting for her for lies.

"So Daniel Sousa is from another world. A real world. And he is here to remove people from this one," he says flatly. "I presume that his wife is one of these people. What of yourself? What of Commander May? Why would either of you throw away your lives over this sort of story?" he asks softly.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
"You know how May feels about children," Dottie says. "It's in her file." As if that explains everything. She has no answer for herself.

Leopold Fitz has posed:
"The children are 'real' too, then? Interesting," the Doctor murmurs under his breath.

It is probably not a good thing to have Leopold Fitz too interested in the Carter-Sousa children, though given recent events it might be too late to do anything about it. He did make a promise afterall, about what would happen to them if Peggy did not go back to her nice, quiet life as an example of SHIELD's submission to HYDRA's inevitable triumph. Certainly he does not seem to be the sort of the man to make idle threats.

He does not follow up on that though. If it was Peggy here, or Commander May perhaps he would use that as a splinter, to try and provoke a response. But not with Agent Underwood apparently. "You have given me an answer for Commander May. But not yourself. Do you even know why you're doing what you're doing? Why you have thrown away your life, thrown over your duty to HYDRA and the world for such a fantastical story?" he asks, though it does not seem as if he expects an answer.

Again, he abruptly seems to shift tacts, abruptly straightening, those gloved hands falling away from the back of the chair in front of him. "Do you know very much about the conditioning program that I have been using with our mutant recruits? About the implants that we have been using with some of them?" he asks abruptly. "If not, perhaps you would like to learn more. Afterall, when you were taken we put one in you. Right here," he says, tapping the back of his neck.

"I have an interest in the mechanical. When I was younger it made me somewhat dismissive of things like biology. But I've come to appreciate that the human body is a remarkable machine. And if the body is a machine, then the mind, the mind is a fascinating computer. It is remarkable what you can do with electrical stimulus to the brain."

Dottie Underwood has posed:
"Oh, I wasn't tempted by a story," Dottie says with an arch of eyebrow. It seems the Doctor might have to display his prowess with the human machine.

Leopold Fitz has posed:
It would seem that the Doctor has come to those same conclusions.

The expresion on Leopold's face never changes. He does not seem frustrated or disappointed or angry at her unwillingness to be drawn out any further. Instead he simply reaches down and pulls out a device from his pocket. It does not look that dissimilar to a cellphone really, the screen coming alive in his hand as he taps at it idly.

"Since you do not wish to share any longer, I suppose we have to turn our attention to other matters," he says quietly. "I believe we were discussing the mind. That is what this does," he says, holding up the device in his hand. "Coupled with the implant at least. It stimulates the brain. Like any programming language, once you learn to decipher it you can do any number of remarkable things," he offers up dispasionately. "Let's begin with something simple," he suggests.

Just like that the Doctor presses a button. And for Agent Underwood it will abruptly feel as if she has been shot in the shoulder. Like a bullet has ripped through her flesh and shattered bone before tearing through the far side of her body. Pain blossoms, throbs, it's almost possible to imagine blood leaking out of the wound, spreading in that pattern across her clothing.

But there is no gun, no bloodstains. Nothing but the Doctor standing there with that little device in his hands. "Interrogation is just one application of course. It has many more. And the possibilities are endless," he points out. "PErhaps you would like to feel what it would be like if we were to slice your arm off next? Or perhaps to have hundreds of ants beneath your skin, eating away at your flesh?"

Dottie Underwood has posed:
There is an involuntary inhalation as pain subsumes her shoulder. She looks to where the blood should be but isn't. Her eyes go slightly wide, but still she says nothing.

Leopold Fitz has posed:
"Of course this is simply the crude, sledgehammer approach to things. I do not have a great deal of time to waste with you Agent Underwood. Your betrayal is... unfortunate. I believe HYDRA lost a valuable asset when you decided to betray us. Bad in the grand scheme of things it matters little," the Doctor says quietly, turning away to face the one way glass behind him, watching her in that mirror.

"You are not important," he says quietly, calmly. The stating of a scientific fact that can be regarded as truth. And no doubt to the Doctor it is true. "But I will understand everything that is going on here. You will help me with that. And I do not have the luxury of time," he says. Again, a simple admission.

"You believe you are innured to pain. You might be, to some extent," he allows with a small shrug, still looking away. Across the room a monitor imbedded in the wall suddenly springs to life, what appears to be a live brain scan displayed in full color there. Again, the Doctor holds up his device. "This is your brain. In a moment you are going to see what yoiur brain looks like when I tell it that you have just taken a very large quantity of heroin. You will feel the bliss. And fifteen seconds after that it will all go away so you can feel the full effects of withdrawl. Every thirty seconds, repeated over and over again. Reward and punishment. Much like the behavioral programs. On a much more accelerated schedule of course," he acknowledges.

"Shall we begin?" he asks, not bothering waiting for a response before the implant is activated once more.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
Dottie's eyes roll back in her head as the warm flush of the drug effect erases the throbbing in her shoulder. Her limbs are heavy with a thick softness as the opioid haze floods her system. It feels like hypothermia. It's as warm as freezing to death.

And then, her body seizes, she cannot move. Whatever was in her stomach is wrenched out of her with a gaging sound and she is sick. The splatter of the vomit as it hits the floor echoes in her brain with too sharp clarity. Bile dribbles down her chin. The lights are too bright. Her breathing is too loud.

Then the world is soft again.

Leopold Fitz has posed:
Hacking someone's brain. The applications are indeed myriad and it is not surprising that the Doctor's interrogations usually bear ample fruit. It is difficult to ignore or block out neurochemical repsonses. There are no physical implements, no signs of lasting harm. Pass out from the pain? He can immediately jolt you back to consciousness. Over and over again. For as long as it takes. And while Agent Underwood is unlikely to be able to see -- or likely care -- there is not an ounce of pity reflected in those cold, blue eyes in the mirrored glass.

Over and over again, he lets her brain flood with that response to the input, that sweet opiod high followed by the crushing deprivation. Each time it is like the very first time. No dulling from prolonged exposure, no chance for the body to accustom itself to what's being done to it. It's coldly efficient.

Exactly the sort of solution that Leopold would favor.

How long does he let it all run? How many times does her brain go through that thirty second cycle? She might never know. And it is unlikely he will ever tell her, at least not the truth. But eventually both pleasure and pain abruptly vanish, both ripped away suddenly. A shock to the system of a different sort.

"Do you have anything more to share Agent Underwood? I truly hope so. For your sake."

Melinda May has posed:
---

The Battle of the Sphere continues to rage. SHIELD agents continue their desperate attempt to keep HYDRA from steam rolling through their defences and reaching the pod chamber where so many of their most talented colleagues and friends lay helpless within the strange pods that captured them so many days ago, now. Half of the disruptor fields that have kept the old AIM facilities mechanicals at bay have collapsed, though the presence of HYDRA forces within its perimeter has meant the mechanicals have stayed out of this fight... so far. But the window of opportunity is closing. The chaos of this final push against HYDRA may be the only chance to slip into the chamber and take advantage of the inattentiveness of the personnel within.

Not that they actually are that inattentive.

Agents Mark McLaren and Sarah Collingwood are reluctantly out of this fight, relying on their fellow agents to protect both them and the people they monitor and guard. They're armed, and they keep casting looks toward the exit that will all too quickly become an entrance for their enemies if their friends fail. But most of their attention is filled with the well-being of May, Morse, Carter, Fitz, and so many others -- mainly because May's vitals are spiking, as are Morse's and Hunter's. Carter and Sousa remain highly elevated, but within acceptable limits... barely. Simmons and Johnson are also stressed, though less so than any of the others, save Fitz himself. Indeed, of all of them, Fitz is the only one who seems to be keeping his cool.

Given everything Collingwood and McLaren have seen from inside the matrix, they do not take that as a good thing.

---

Dottie Underwood has posed:
Despite the waves of nausea that chase the cycles through her system, as she opens her eyes to see Leopold Fitz standing in front of her with a cold look in his eye, Dottie grins. There is a gleam of wild anticipation about her that had been missing before. She breathes, slowly, as if for the first time. "Well," she says, "I'm certainly not in Kansas, anymore."

Leopold Fitz has posed:
If the Doctor had hopes of breaking Agent Underwood quickly, it would appear that those hopes are going to be dashed. And yet he shows no more emotion then he ever does. No anger or frustration or even disappointment. He does not fly into a rage and attack her physically -- a fool's errand at best. He doesn't even turn around, still facing that one way glass as she makes her defiance known. "Perhaps not," he replies quietly, unphased. "Of course your defiance is not actually gaining you very much," he points out matter of factly. "At a certain point your mind simply won't take anymore pain. It will fracture. It will break. And you will be useless to me," he says, finally turning back towards her with those cold, icy blue eyes.

"And do you know what I will do then?" he asks quietly, hands folding behind his back, resting there atop his belt. "I will simply have Peggy brought in to take your place. Tell me, do you think she will be able to remain impassive when I bring one of her children in here? When I put an implant in their head? I suppose that would be the easier way," he muses thoughtfully.

"But easier is not always better."

Dottie Underwood has posed:
"They're just computer code," before she can help herself. She means the children, of course, not Peg, but this body is still distractingly woozy. "You're playing a game."

She glances around the the room, taking in the visuals in three dimensions, before turning her attention back to him, "Tell me, do you like this game, Doctor Fitz?"

Leopold Fitz has posed:
"So you do believe Daniel Sousa. Interesting," as Dottie retorts before she can help herself? Is it really some grand revelation? Some key piece of evidence that Hydra's Doctor has wrangled out of any enemy combatant? It seems hard to fathom.

Of course it doesn't help that he says that with that same calm, cold tone that he always seems to speak in. "I suppose that does make it easier, doesn't it? To not have to worry what happens to any of the people you have decided to betray the world for. They're not real afterall. I'm sure that's very liberating for you," he states quietly.

What he does not do is provide any sort of answer to her own question. There is no attempt to offer up any sort of soothing balm, no attempt to bond with the prisoner. Instead he just jerks his head ever so slightly and motions towards one of the monitors embedded in the wall with his head and it springs to life, showing the youngest of the Carter-Sousa children strapped to a medical exam table. A moment later the door to the interrogation cell opens and one of those guards strides in, moving immediately to the prisoner. The armored man doesn't change expressions, though he all but glares a hole in Agent Underwood as he forces a device into Agent Underwood's hands before turning away and taking up his place in front of the closed door.

"The button in your hand will activate the implant in the child. They will scream, they will wail and then I would imagine, they will die. But given that they are just computer code that does not really matter does it? If anything you will have taken away one of my holds on Peggy Carter-Sousa," he says conversationally. "So by all means, do so," he invites.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
Dottie looks at the infant on the screen. And then at the device he's placed in her hand. Then without breaking eye contact with the Doctor, she presses the button without hesitation. "He's not real."

She's not smiling, but there's a twitch around her lips as she meets his challenge. "Don't you want to know if you're a real boy, Doctor?"

Leopold Fitz has posed:
There is no sound coming from the monitor behind the Doctor and that might be a blessing. Then again, one of them does not believe the child is real and the other does not seem to care so perhaps the screams of a baby would do nothing to alter this horrible standoff.

It is gruesome, watching the effect that the implant has on a child that young and even without any sound the screams still seem to resonate. Those little arms flail, even strapped in place. And then the screen goes mercifully blank, blotting out of existence like it never was.

An instant later a new image takes it's place. Still, there is no sound. But there does not need to be to practically hear the shrill, unrelenting screams of Peggy Carter-Sousa as she watches the death of her youngest in her own cell, her features a mask of agony. Slowly the other monitors embedded in the wall behind the doctor spring to life, all showing that same scene.

And the Doctor? He stands there unaffected, facing his prisoner. "Reality is what you make of it Agent Underwood. Let us say that Daniel Sousa is correct. Lets say that he does not come from this reality. What makes his any more real then mine?"

Finally he turns towards those screens, gestures to the face of a mother's anguish. "If Peggy Carter-Sousa wakes up in a new world tomorrow, do you think she will ever forget this? What then, is all of this, if not real?"

Dottie Underwood has posed:
Is there *pleasure* at Peggy's anguish? Certainly Dottie has a marked intensity as she studies the monitor. "The child wasn't real. It can be brought back with substituted code. But her attachment is. And needed to be severed. She has to be prepared to leave. The window is closing."

Dottie wouldn't be so free with her opinion, but he is part of her mission.

Leopold Fitz has posed:
Certainly she is insistent in her belief in this other reality, out there, waiting for some of them when they are simply 'unplugged'. Could the Doctor believe that such a thing is possible? Quite likely. While any humanity or compassion that Leo Fitz might have seemes to have been squeezed out of HYDRA's Doctor, he is still very much a scientist. He almost has to acknowledge the fact that it is possible. Afterall, Daniel Sousa has died. He watched him die. Yet here he is, back again.

And of course there is the fact that AIDA, and therefore Radcliffe feel that Sousa has some information that must be kept from everyone else. Even him. It raises questions and possibilities. Like the possibility that what the should-be dead Agent of SHIELD has to say is the truth.

None of that is particularly helpful to Agent Underwood at hte moment however. "If you say so," he says, sounding almost indifferent. "I think, for you, that window is all but closed," he notes as that hand reappears from behind his back, the control device to her implant appearing there once more.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
Theres a blissful calm that settles over Dottie as the Doctor begins again. "None of this is real," she whispers. "Don't you want to know who you really are?"

Leopold Fitz has posed:
He knows who he is.

Had he walked another path, perhaps there would be uncertainty. But between his father and Holden Radcliffe he has been shown the way.

He is a great man. A man who is willing to do whatever it takes to help bring about a better world. HYDRA's world. No one tells him who he is. Not anymore.

"Please, by all means," he says, gesturing towards her before turning away, turning his back on her and starting towards the door. He motions to the guard who opens it before stepping out and he only pauses in the doorway, standing there for a moment, perhaps to pry some meaning from what she has to say.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
"You'll have to leave this imaginary world to find out. Come out and play where it matters." Her smile is beatific. "Think of what your toys could do when they can't rewrite your work."

Leopold Fitz has posed:
Does he pause and consider that? For just a moment before walking out the door. Does he give some creadence to her words? Certainly he does not look back, but then really what would there be to see in that icy gaze. "Goodbye Agent Underwood," Leopold Fitz says quietly before he presses that button, before he locks her into a series of who knows what sort of torments and closes the door behind him.

Could it be that simple? Even here and now, scientific curiousity is at the heart of him. Sure, it is science twisted and directed towards the aims of HYDRA. But the notion is there now, isn't it? That there is another world. It is one reinforced by AIDA and Radcliffe denying him the answers that he deserves. Even if she never sees him again -- at least in this world -- perhaps Agent Underwood has opened the door. Just a crack.