They never made it to the resistance, not even close.
Daisy's heart pounded in her chest as she struggled desperately at the fastenings that held her in the doctor's testing chamber. Beyond the containment material and reinforced glass Fitz's cold eyes seemed to watch impassively while his machine went through basic calibrations. Of course Fitz was far from impassive; his head was cycling through emotions – the curiosity of new discovery, hatred and vengeance and anger that the new subject had been a mole and nearly threatened everything they had worked for. This time, for the first time, there was something beyond that – something that came akin to guilt.
"Fitz!" Daisy screamed again, her throat hoarse and desperately trying to get through to her former friend. "Fitz please stop, you have to listen to me – this isn't real. None of this is real!"
His lips quirked into a thin smile, "I can assure you that everything you see, everything you are about to feel – it's quite real, Skye." He paused briefly as his eyes flashed menacingly – it made Daisy feel sick.
"It's code Fitz – you should know you wrote it!" She pleaded, shocked when this seemed to prompt a laugh out her imprisoner.
"Then I guess you've got nothing to worry about," he mocked coldly, typing into the computer that controlled the machine, "if it's all just code."
"Fitz." Daisy panicked as the arms of Fitz's device were positioned above her shaking frame. Each breath seemed to come in shorter and shallower. Despite all her training she couldn't stop the panic that began to set in – not just at what was about to happen, but that it was Fitz responsible for it – that he seemed to be revelling in it. "Fitz, stop. I can't."
When he spoke his voice was harder than she'd ever heard it yet somehow still detached and mannered like everything else he'd said since she had entered the Framework. "You are one of them, after everything – you betrayed us." His dispassionate demeanour rendered him almost unrecognisable from the Fitz she had grown to care for. "There's something very wrong with you."
She flinched as the very man who had convinced her being an inhuman was okay spoke so callously, she felt herself deflate, hopeless. "What are you going to do with Jemma?"
His eyes seemed to crawl over her as he recognised the clear signs of resignation: some of his subjects understood what was going to happen faster than others; there was no point in fighting it – they all gave up eventually. "That's none of your concern."
"If you do this you can't go back," Daisy warned, her tears cold against her cheeks, "This isn't you – you are brave, the bravest man I've ever met; you're kind and good and you are loyal to a fault and if you do this you won't ever forgive yourself. If you do this, you can't ever wake up."
"You aren't the first subject I've put in this machine – you should know that, and you'll not be the last." Fitz said – Daisy couldn't be sure but she swore he looked slightly curious.
"I am the first." She said quietly, "I am the first real thing in this thing, this world's not real Fitz – but I am, I'm real. You have to remember me."
His brow furrowed slightly, "I remember exactly who you are Skye, and soon I'll know what you can become."
Daisy smiled sadly, "That's not my name."
Fitz's jaw clenched as he felt the level of her betrayal not just to Hydra but to him personally. He had taken a liking to her – far more than most under his command. "I suppose it wouldn't be."
The machine whirred into life and began lining up with her joints; she could see the tips of the needles getting ready to pierce her. She closed her eyes for a moment and prepared what could very well be her last words – nobody knew exactly what happened to the inhumans after the procedure but she knew enough about Hydra to know their promise of relocation was bullshit.
"I forgive you." Her words rang loudly in the room, "This isn't your fault. If you get out of this, it's okay. Just… don't tell Jemma it was you who did it, promise me you'll never tell her." She opened her eyes again and saw him looking back at her with an odd expression, the needles pressed against her skin, "Promise me you won't tell Simmons!"
She felt a flare of pain but it only lasted a moment, the needles retracted almost immediately as Fitz pressed his hand against the glass and practically shouted, "Who the fuck are you?" His unusual smoothness replaced by the thick Scottish brogue she'd come to associate with his anger. "Jemma Simmons?" He spat out at her as though daring her to counter him. "Jemma Simmons is dead."
"She's not dead - she was with me when we were captured!" Daisy shot back.
"Jemma Simmons has been dead for years; I saw it happen! It's because of her that we're even here!" His voice was fiery and although she should've felt more threatened it was oddly warming to see Fitz emoting.
"We came here to save you, to save all of our friends but if you don't believe me then send one of your men to check." Daisy challenged him, watching Fitz struggling and failing to appear calm and collected.
Fitz hesitated before turning to one of the guards in the room and barking an order to bring the prisoner to them. Daisy watched as he walked away from the glass and picked a strange looking handgun up from his desk draw, "If you're playing games… if it's anyone other than Jemma Simmons – I'm going to kill them in front of you and then I am going to kill you."
"It is her." Daisy told him confidently as an awkward silence fell between them.
The silence was broken by the landline phone ringing on his desk. Fitz walked over to it and, still holding the gun, carefully swept his hair back into position and took a breath before answering in a clinical manner. "You're sure? … Bring her up … the Director needn't worry, I'll take over from here."
Daisy watched him carefully as he hung up the phone and leant against his desk sighing deeply. After a few moments Fitz's gaze shot straight to hers but he seemed different – he was neither the Fitz she knew nor the doctor. "You knew Simmons well?" She was weary at pushing her luck but maybe, just maybe, he wasn't a lost cause – if Coulson could remember she hoped Fitz could too.
"I watched her die." He said coldly, "If she's back… if she's one of you. She…" He stopped seemingly remembering he was talking to one of his subjects and turned away.
It was several minutes before the guards came through the doors, pushing Jemma harshly to the floor. Daisy wished Simmons wouldn't have to witness what was going on – her arms and shoulders were still bleeding from the machine and what with an unhinged Fitz holding a gun her heart broke for her friend. Jemma struggled to her feet and froze when she saw Fitz; for a moment Daisy could've sworn she was about to crush him in a tight hug until Simmons' face darkened in revulsion as she took in her surroundings. Fitz for his part seemed rooted to the spot.
"How?" He asked quietly, unsure.
Jemma opened her mouth to answer but instead of words she choked out a sob at the man in front of her. In the end she simply asked, "What've they done to you Fitz?"
Flinching he cocked the gun still hanging limply at his side before asking in a harder tone, "You're one of them… an inhuman?"
Jemma shook her head and quickly answered, "No Fitz I'm not I promise."
"I watched you die." He growled and raised the gun at her, hand trembling.
"I did die Fitz, or at least one version of me did–" She began but he cut her off.
"That's your power is it? To what, clone yourself?" He spat, horror writ across his face.
"I'm not an inhuman Fitz!" She pleaded, her voice cracking again as it became clear he didn't believe her.
Any attempt to appear the ordered and well-groomed man he seemed to be in the framework vanished as Fitz roared out in anger, "I didn't want this Jemma – this was your dream." He gestured towards the machine Daisy was fastened into, "I finished it for you, in your memory and you were one of them all along."
"Fitz what are you talking about?" Jemma 's head seemed to spin around her as she fought of the ever-present panic she'd felt ever since she entered what felt like her personal version of hell.
"The Cambridge Incident? Inhumans! You called them a plague – said that they needed to be eradicated. And then when you, when you were killed… This was for you." He looked again at the machine this time solemnly. When he turned back to her he had regained much of his former stoicism.
"How did I die here Fitz?" Jemma asked, her stomach twisting in knots at the revelation that this whole twisted existence was somehow a dedication to the ghost of herself. She had said those words in the real world; she had been so frightened and angry after Trip's death.
"The Academy… we were, we were working on the first design of this together." He couldn't hold her gaze. It seemed odd that the man who just minutes ago had radiated control sheer terror to all around him could now seem so weak and emotionally unbalanced. "There was so much crossfire – Hydra and Shield – I don't know which side did it, only that it happened."
"It wasn't real Fitz, none of this is – you can leave and go back to our world: the world where we're together, it's not perfect but we're together. I love you." His eyes flew to finally meet hers and she could see a battle raging in his head. On some level his memories had begun returning but it had taken Coulson hours to even begin to deal with the emotion of having lived a lie – she couldn't imagine the torment Fitz was going through weighing his real life with his actions in the framework.
He lowered the gun and dismissed the guards from the room seemingly not noticing the tears streaming down his face. His whole life was crashing down around him as impossible images flickered into his mind of the woman in front of him falling through the air, rushing through some kind of underground temple, stranded on a desert under two moons and kissing him on the floor in some familiar yet dingy room. He dropped the gun on the floor as his legs gave out under him.
"Fitz?" Jemma asked cautiously, shooting Daisy a quick glance which she hoped was reassuring. "Fitz?" She repeated, kneeling down next to him.
"It was my father – I promised him I wouldn't go into the field…" Fitz looked up at Jemma, "He wasn't real was he?"
"Fitz, nothing you've done here is – this isn't your fault." She put her hand on his shoulder but he recoiled away.
"But I remember everything! Every subject… every person I've put into this, this monstrous invention!" He rose to his feet and hit a button on the computer that released the straps on Daisy and unlocked the door.
Daisy rushed over to Fitz and Jemma but as she neared Fitz once again backed as far away from either of them as he could. "You have to go! Madame – the director, AIDA, she won't stop until threats to the framework are eliminated, she…" He looked like he was going to be sick, "it's my fault isn't it, all of this. I'm the bad guy."
"Listen Fitz," Daisy said sternly while grabbing his shoulder, "We have to get out of here – all of us, if it's AIDA protecting this place in both worlds we don't have long until we're discovered. You can feel shitty about all the horrible things you haven't done later but right now we need you to focus!"
As if on cue alarm lighting switched on – Daisy rushed to the door with Fitz's dropped gun and stood ready while Jemma closed the gap between herself and Fitz, putting her hands on his face and forcing him to look at her. Seeing the recognition in his eyes even among the complete turmoil of everything else, she leant in to kiss him. When he pulled away again sharply she repeated, "It's okay Fitz, it's okay…" until he finally stopped trying to get away from her.
The sound of a gunshot forced them both into action as Daisy fired a warning down the corridor – it wouldn't buy them much more than a couple of minutes. Jemma held onto Fitz tightly for just a moment before pulling away and telling him, "Fitz we need to know where you are in the real world and I need you to write us another backdoor. Everything that is not escaping or rescue can wait – I can't imagine what you're thinking, I don't know what to make of any of this – there'll be a time to talk it through but that's not now. I need you to do this Fitz."
He stared at her for a few moments before nodding silently and sitting at his desk. He didn't fully understand how he knew to edit the framework so quickly; even though he objectively knew that he had written the code his most recent memories were more powerful than the new ones. If it hadn't been for Jemma kneeling next to him and holding his arm to remind him what was real and what wasn't he almost would've tried to contact the Strike team commander. His instincts and feelings weren't matched – the only thing that made sense in both lives was that Jemma Simmons meant something to him but even now he could feel the terror that he wouldn't be able to hold onto reality once she was gone.
"It's done." He muttered as Daisy backed into the room from the doorway.
"Good because I'm out of bullets." Daisy shouted as she locked the door, hoping it'd slow them down another few seconds.
Jemma stared into Fitz's eyes as she told him firmly, "We're going to get you Fitz; I'll see you in our world very soon." She pressed a kiss to his lips before breaking apart.
"My memories… they're…" Fitz began with tears streaming down his face. "Without you here I can't, what if I can't hold on?" He turned to Daisy in tears and burst out, "I'm so sorry Daisy."
As Daisy ran up to him she put her hand on his arm, "I told you, it's okay Fitz – Coulson had the same. We'll find you and fix this."
Fitz screwed up his face in concentration as he stepped back towards the computer – he had only to hit enter and his friends would disappear in front of his very eyes. "I… I don't want to forget…"
Jemma pulled her old Shield ID out of her pocket and put it into his hand, "Maybe you won't. Hold onto this and remember how much I love you."
"How can... after all this, after what I've done and become? After what I am… How?" Fitz stammered, trying to stop himself from breaking down completely.
"Ward's here and is fighting on the good side; nothing he does here changes all the horrific things he did in the real world. Coulson and May, they're both just as trapped as you are – you didn't choose this. You're here for us now, and we'll be here for you." Jemma answered, trembling as she looked at him and readied herself to say goodbye.
Daisy patted him on the shoulder and said kindly, "Don't think too hard on it, there's literally something wrong with the data in your head." He almost laughed but the memory of him trying to use the machine on her was haunting his every thought.
A flash at the door triggered Fitz into hitting the button on the computer – in the moment it took for the Strike team to enter his office Jemma and Daisy had vanished before him. He slipped Jemma's card into his pocket as Madame Hydra strolled in behind her officers.
"What happened?" She asked commandingly but, seeing Fitz flinch and step away, her tone softened and she sauntered closer in a way he guessed was designed to seduce him.
"I think the other one's an inhuman – she broke free, did something to my computer and teleported them both away – we've got to find them!" He said in as powerful tone as he could muster.
She looked at him seemingly unconvinced before turning to the assembled Strike team and ordering their Captain to make it a top priority. She left Fitz sitting at his desk offering to send up a new inhuman for testing, he simply said he needed rest all the while squeezing Jemma's ID in his pocket until it drew blood. If for whatever reason they had to return to the framework before they could find his location he was determined they'd have an ally ready – he would make himself a good man in both worlds.
As Jemma and Daisy woke up on the Zephyr they found the coordinates embedded in the same code he'd used to get them out along with the message I'm sorry.
Author's Note:
Hey guys! It's been forever since I wrote something and since I'm so long out of practice I didn't want to rush into one of my preexisting fics - I hope you enjoy this oneshot I'd love to know what you think about it, it has been almost a year since I've written anything so I daresay I'm quite rusty. I'm planning on continuing any unfinished fics this summer after finals and would like to thank you all for your patience while I've been recovering from my illnesses the last couple of years. Thanks all!