And here you go! Another AU! One of my readers asked me at some point for an AU where Loki and Nightingale stayed on Earth after '92 and actually looked after Daisy. That got the ball rolling for this.
Unlike many of my recent AUs, this one CANNOT BE READ AS A STAND ALONE. Why? Because there's a lot I never explain. Because this particular AU takes off during "Fate and Destiny" rather than the original Nightingale story, or previous to that; which is what happens with more than half of the AUs and why they can be read easily even if you haven't read anything else in the series, not even from the main timeline. Here, to fully understand what's going on you need to have read at least: "Nightingale", "Nexus" and "Fate and Destiny" (the latter at least up to when Loki and Nightingale leave for Vanaheim, which means, specifically, the first scene in chapter 8 'The Call'). I would also suggest "Necklace of Songs", though it's not entirely necessary. Also, the events of "The Return" as well as most of "Bouquet of Roses" and "Sentinels" (all but the things that concern Mary Sue/Skye/Daisy) happen as well, they're just not as relevant for the fic that follows.
This fic doesn't actually have a song... not sure how that happened exactly. Anyway...
Dreamcast: Emily Browning as Nightingale, Skandar Keynes as Hakon, Georgie Henley as Rose Alfdis.
P.S. Additional notes at the end, to explain the things that changed in this universe that might not be as clear in the fic itself (but which I'm not enlisting now because they're quite spoilery).
Here we go! Hope you enjoy!
Jiā
(Alternative Universe to Nightingale)
By: Lalaith Quetzalli
They were family, in every way that mattered. Family mattered, whether by blood, by name, by choice, it was more important than anything else in the world, and regardless of how unplanned it might have been, they'd never leave family behind, never. And if that meant things had to change, then so be it.
A promise was made, to be there for her, and that promise was binding.
Godmother, godfather… that's what she called us. That's what we were to her… well, no, we were probably more, the only parents she'd ever known, having lost her birth ones when she was just a baby. But I wouldn't let her call us that, just like I never dared call Aunt Kathryn mom. Because it felt disrespectful, to the person that had once held (who still deserved) that title. It hadn't been my mom's choice to leave me, just like it wasn't Jiaying's and Calvin's to leave Daisy. But they were gone, and we were doing our best for her.
When Cal first asked my love and I to be Daisy's godparents I told him we'd be awful at it. How could we be anything else, when even as he asked we were already planning our departure? It was December of 1991, I was still grieving the loss of my adopted brother, though the decision had nothing to do with that. It was almost 1992, and we'd long since decided we couldn't stay, not after January, it'd be too dangerous.
Ours was a story that would be hard to explain to someone who hadn't been a part of it from the start. As far as most of the world was concerned, I was Arianna Stark, illegitimate half-sister of Howard Stark, who'd been taken in by him, along with her husband and stepson (presumably from a previous relationship of said husband) at the beginning of WWII. Our whole family, including Serrure's (my husband) sister Sia joined the Ally's efforts during the war. Serrure and Sia as Agents for the SSR, while I worked as a nurse and interpreter in the bases. At some point I even revealed my healing gift to some of the people around, when I decided to risk it in order to save more lives. Was even at the front once, during the battle where Red Skull was defeated once and for all, where I wielded my magic, calling on shields to protect as many allied soldiers as possible from HYDRA's energy weapons.
After the war Serrure, Hakon (our son) and I stayed in London, where we went to Oxford. We had a daughter: Rose Alfdis and life went on. Sia continued as an Agent, and we eventually adopted a child: Willow Anya. We moved back to the States in the fifties, where things were good for a while, until people began noticing there was something off about us. The fact that we didn't age quite like we should have. Hakon was in the army, and the girls were making their own lives. And we weren't aging like humans… because we weren't human.
My husband was in truth Loki Odinson, prince of Asgard, God of Mischief and Magic (adopted, as by birth he was Laufeyson, prince of Jotunheim). As for myself, I was born Silbhé Arianna Kinross-Salani (Howard made up the story about us being half-siblings to take us in and help us when we really needed it), wife and match of Loki, Goddess of Compassion and Devotion, and reincarnation of Princess Tinúviel of Alfheim and Asgard, who was also mother of Helena (better known as Lady Hel, Queen of the Dead). So yes, our lives were a tad more complicated than anyone would imagine. And that was even before going into the whole time-travel!
We faded into obscurity in the seventies, not wanting to keep calling too much attention upon ourselves. The glamour spells needed to make us look older without making it obvious it wasn't natural made us feel itchy, we didn't like them. Howard understood, he made us promise that one day we'd tell his son the truth about us, and we agreed. So, after Tony's fourth birthday, we left and allowed the world to mostly forget about us.
We moved around for years. Taking different names as needed, making lives for ourselves. We were in Wisconsin in the eighties, under the names of Rossi and Serrure Zabo; I worked as a nurse, with a doctor called Calvin Johnson. It was just the two of us, as had been for a while. Hakon and Rose making their own way in the world (Willow passed away in '83). Calvin left for what was supposed to be a summer in Asia, with the Doctors Without Borders program. Then he didn't come back. He called me weeks later, told me he was staying in China to open a clinic in the Hunan Province, in a small village that had no doctors, asked if I'd be willing to join him. It had been years since my love and I had gone out to any major city, not wanting to risk being recognized, it'd have been too risky. China seemed like a good idea, a place where we could help without risking the wrong people discovering us. And so I said yes, and to China we went.
As we discovered later on, Calvin's decision had been somewhat influenced by a woman, the love of his life: Jiaying. She'd helped him from the start, both because of the language, and because theirs was such a small village, they didn't much like strangers. But Calvin had gained their trust; and eventually so did we. The village did like having a competent doctor and nurse, and someone like Serrure, who was handy with fixing all sorts of things (he didn't even need magic for most things, having learned well while with Howard). We all learned Chinese, and in a relatively short time, the small village became our home.
Calvin and Jiaying were married in the Fall of the same year. A small but very heartfelt ceremony. Then, in July 2nd of 1992, Daisy Johnson was born.
We weren't supposed to be around, not anymore. The plan was to leave for Vanaheim before February. Why? Because that's when I'd be born. That was the other complication of our story, that people wouldn't quite believe unless they'd been a part of it. The time-travel. Silbhé Arianna was born on February 1st of 1992; she met Loki on 2003, when he gave her the name she'd make her own: Nightingale; recited the Ancient Vows (which pretty much meant they were married) in the Summer of 2011 (the same Summer when she graduated with three Master Degrees), and took her match's side before the Avengers following the Chitauri invasion of 2012, showing the so-called heroes who the real villain in their story was (Thanos, the Mad Titan).
Then in 2016 that same Nightingale, in the company of Loki, Hakon and Sif (Sia was in fact Sif), while in South West China, taking some time off from a mission for SHIELD, found herself (and all of them) thrown into the past, seventy five years.
It wasn't too dangerous yet, back in 1992, I'd just been born (or the old me, the person I was before I met Loki, before my whole life changed). And yet, Loki himself remembered spending a lot of time in Midgard during the nineties and early 2000's, even before meeting me. That was why we were planning to leave for Vanaheim, stay there a couple of decades. After 2012, things had happened that made it so we could know where exactly our 'old selves' would be, and thus where we shouldn't go.
Of course, when we made those plans we didn't expect Cal to approach us, so excited about the upcoming birth of his child, and asking us to be the baby's godparents. We told him it was a bad idea, that we'd be awful at it. How could we promise to be there for our goddaughter when we weren't planning to even stay in the same planet?! But Cal insisted, he wanted his baby to have godparents, and he believed we were the right people for it; Jiaying didn't much care for it, they weren't her traditions, but loved Cal enough to go along with it.
I wouldn't know when it was that we decided to stay, exactly. Perhaps there was a part of us that never really wanted to leave, that was ready for any excuse to stay. Daisy became that excuse. Daisy Xiuying Johnson, our beautiful goddaughter.
So we stayed, we stayed and acted like the godparents little Daisy deserved, like Cal's and Jiaying's friends, almost family. Cal was an only child, his parents long dead, more than once he'd said we were his true family. He never knew the truth about us, neither of them did, though they were aware of that, and they knew we were gifted, just like we knew Jiaying was as well (for a while there we hadn't understood how Jiaying, who looked no older than thirty-something, could be considered an Elder in the village, when the others were all in their sixties, seventies). My love even knew about the Kree, which were at least somewhat responsible for the existence of the Inhumans.
Nine months later, tragedy struck. We didn't know what was happening at first. Having earned the trust of the village, we both had become a more integral part of it, teaching the children how to speak, read and write in English (Chinese might have been their mother-tongue, but most of the adults agreed learning English would prove useful for everyone). I sensed the moment the fear and panic started.
The moment I stepped outside of the small building that served as a classroom of sorts, I heard the shooting, and the screaming.
I cursed, loudly and colorfully enough that Chung Ru, one of the Elders of the village (and of the Inhumans as well), turned his attention towards me, briefly surprised, until he looked at where I was standing.
"Rossi…" The man said in a heavy accent.
"What is going on?" I asked, very worried.
"We're being attacked by people in dark clothes, using weapons we cannot fight against." He informed me quickly. "They are after the inhumans, just like what happened back in 1945! Jiaying has ordered Gordon to get everyone he can to Lai Shi."
That was good, but Gordon was still young, couldn't take more than a few people at a time, and the active inhumans would be priority for them. The children behind me, none of them had been activated yet, didn't even know about that part of their history.
"The children…" I murmured, not knowing what else to say.
A part of me wanted to rush out, to fight the invaders, protect the place that had become a new home to me… but I couldn't do it, I couldn't risk someone getting past me and reaching the children. They were my responsibility. And my love was out, with Cal, getting provisions in the nearest city, because we'd run out a lot of things in the recent winter. I'd already sent him a call for help, but he couldn't just drop into the shadows and get to me, that would have called too much of the wrong kind of attention.
"Get as many as you can as far away from here as possible." He instructed me. "You're their only hope right now Rossi."
I didn't want to even begin to imagine what that meant for their families. All innocent people who hardly had anything, and all because what? A difference in their genetics? While the village wasn't exactly big, the idea of those kids inside the room having lost their families…
"I have a better idea." I told him, still shaping the plan even as I spoke. "Get as many people as you can here, without being seen."
"You'll be an easy target!" He hissed, horrified.
"We'll be one target they'll never find." I stated.
I had no idea how I was going to do it exactly, had never done something like that; but I knew it could be done.
The Elder did as I asked, and soon every child and teenager in the village was inside the small room. The small ones had no idea what was going on, but the older ones knew at least enough to look at me with worry in their eyes.
"Now." I said, projecting as much confidence as I could. "I need you all to be very quiet, okay? I promise to keep all of us safe."
I began humming then, a simple, soft tune that some of the kids began picking up soon enough. I could hear as the attackers approached the building from outside, getting dangerously close, but I never stopped believing, that we'd be safe, that they wouldn't find us, as I kept humming. And they passed us by.
I kept going until I sensed my love at the door and he opened it, his green eyes meeting my own hazel ones. The last thing I noticed was the infant in his arms before I finally let go, allowing myself to feel the exhaustion after keeping the wards for more than an hour. I fell unconscious.
xXx
By the time I woke up, a lot had changed. Chung Ru and Gordon were the only ones still there, aside from us.
"What's going on?" I asked the moment I was up, though I already suspected the answer.
"Shimû is dead." Chun Ru announced, bowing his head.
Shimû… teacher-mother… I knew that meant Jiaying. Jiaying was dead… My first thought was for Cal, though I didn't really need to ask. I knew him well enough to know Jiaying would have only met her end over his dead body. And then the next thought hit me… I turned around in time to see my love enter the small bedroom, sleeping infant in his arms. So that answered that.
"Are they all dead?" I asked him, straight out.
"To the last one." Loki answered quietly, but with an underlying of the same viciousness I was feeling inside me. "I made sure to track them, leave none alive."
Which meant we were safe for the time being… at least those of us alive. Which brought us back to the people standing at the foot of the bed.
"You're leaving." I stated straight out, it wasn't a question.
"Everyone else has already been taken to Lai Shi or… to alternate locations as necessary." Ru didn't even bother trying to sugarcoat it.
Which meant that all inhumans were in their sanctuary, and those who weren't had probably been helped to the nearest village. There weren't many of those, not really, but still. There was still the matter of the tiny infant on my love's arms, though.
"What about Daisy?" I asked next.
"She's not pure." Was Ru's answer.
A part of me wanted to rage. Even if a part of me had been expecting that answer already. Blood was so important for the inhumans; and even if Daisy was Jiaying's daughter, was effectively their princess, she was also only half-inhuman. It would have been hard enough with both of her parents, or at the very least her mother alive. Jiaying had been well-respected, she'd have made it work, even if Daisy turned out not to have inherited any gift; but with her gone… it wasn't that surprising that the Elders had chosen to leave her. Also, much as I may not want to accept it, a part of me was glad about that, glad that even if I'd just lost two dear friends, the home I'd just found… at least I still had her, my goddaughter.
"We will take care of her." I assured him.
I knew that Jiaying had been a distant relative of his, and while their rejection of baby Daisy might seem barbaric to some, he did worry about her; he also knew she would be far better off with us than with the inhumans in Afterlife, especially if she turned out to not have any power. The last thing Daisy needed was to become an outsider among her own people.
"I know you will." Ru nodded. "Jiaying knew as well. She trusted you. It allowed her and Cal to go in peace despite… despite everything."
I nodded, not even bothering to fight back the tears as they fell down my face, or brush them away. I would never regret my feelings.
"If you ever need us, you know you can find us." I said, focusing on Gordon.
We weren't inhuman, and thus Gordon couldn't really track us. But he and my Maverick had created little talismans that he could track. We were each carrying one, and we wouldn't be letting go of them.
Gordon nodded.
Then came the unexpected, as Chung Ru pulled a small package covered in silk from his tunic. He revealed the contents before us: a sparkling blue and dark-gray crystal… a terrigen crystal. Loki and I both could touch them without being affected, since we weren't really human, though the mist did nothing to us.
"It's for her… just in case." The Elder said simply.
In case she turned out to have a gift, in case we decided to take the chance, in case she chose to embrace that side of her. And it would always be her choice, hers and no one else's.
I took the offered crystal, placing it aside for the time being.
"This is where we part ways." Ru announced solemnly.
"May we meet again in the future." I replied in the same tone.
"Good fortune to us all." Ru nodded once more.
Then Gordon touched his shoulder, and they were gone. I turned towards my love instantly. He hadn't said a word, still swaying with Daisy in his arms.
"We cannot stay here." He said after what seemed like forever.
No, we couldn't. Even if he'd made sure none of the attackers had survived, no way would we be staying in a ghost town. Also, there was no way of being absolutely sure that whoever had sent that group wouldn't send others sooner or later.
We did stay the night though, Loki wanted to make sure I fully recovered from my efforts to protect the children. Then, in the morning, we said our goodbyes before Jiaying's and Cal's graves. Daisy was in my arms, while my match had packed everything we might need.
"We promise you, on this day, that we will do our very best to look after Daisy, make sure she'll never want for anything, that she will be safe." I murmured before the graves.
In my arms, Daisy babbled. She clearly didn't understand what was happening. I understood in that moment that she'd never know her parents, never know how wonderful they'd been, how hard they'd fought for her, and for everyone. Even with how early in life I lost her, I had some memories from my mom, but Daisy wouldn't have even that. It saddened me.
"And I promise she will know you." I added for good measure. "I will make sure she knows how amazing her parents were, and how much you loved her."
Having said that, we took off. Leaving the small, nameless village we'd once called home, behind, never looking back.
xXx
We traveled north the first couple of days, then East, then Southeast, until eventually crossing the border into Nepal. At first the plan had been simply to keep away from any big cities, any place where we might call too much attention. Young as she was, Daisy didn't look like anyone in particular just yet, but we didn't want to risk someone eventually realizing that neither of us looked enough like her to be her parents.
Once we reached the border to Nepal though, another idea got into our heads. Loki could feel magic, and we were relatively sure that it wasn't dark magic. It took us a few days to make up our minds, but eventually we decided to head that way, investigate. Even if we never connected with the magic users, there just being magic around would help conceal us from the 'other Loki' and anyone else who might pop around.
It still took us by surprise when we entered the small room we'd just rented for the night, only to find a woman and a young man waiting for us.
Our reactions were instinctive: Loki conjured a blade on each hand, dropping into a fighting stand, while I curled up somewhat behind his back, covering Daisy with my small body as much as I could, and ready to call on a magical shield if necessary.
"We bear no ill will towards you, any of you." The woman informed us solemnly.
I could tell she was telling the truth, could sense her sincerity with my empathy, but while that was enough to stop my Maverick from outright attacking, neither of us were truly ready to drop our guards completely. No, they'd already taken us by surprise once. It was not happening again, especially not when we had a baby, our goddaughter, to protect.
"We'd rather not take any chances." I told her simply, completely alert.
We didn't actually feel threatened by them. If we had we could have either blown them away or simply teleported out of there. To hell with the whole 'laying low' strategy, it wasn't more important than keeping Daisy safe.
"I am the Ancient One, Sorcerer Supreme of the Mystic Arts." The woman announced in a somewhat dramatic fashion. "And you are very close to our home, Kamar-Taj. You have power, both my student and I can feel it. Though it is nothing like ours."
"I do not hail from this realm." My love informed her evenly. "And my match has been changed enough by her bond to me."
"The little one…" The Ancient One pressed. "She's bonded to you, but not enough to be fully yours, not by birth."
"She's our goddaughter." Loki revealed. "Her parents were killed by unknowns less than a month ago. We promised them we'd take care of her."
"A noble undertaking indeed." The other woman nodded solemnly. "You know you're at risk. Living here, out, in the open. Others will be able to sense you, to find you, just like we did. And you cannot keep moving, not with the little one with you."
"What do you want from us?" I asked, straight out.
Because some of it, at least, was obvious. She was going to offer us an alternative, though she wouldn't be doing that unless she wanted something from us; and while I could have let my Maverick keep leading, the conversation thus far had shown they would take too long, dancing around things, before finally getting to the point. So I chose to step in and cut to the chase.
"Help me train my students, especially Wong here." She stated straight out. "Help me prepare him for those who are not like us, for the day when he might face others less kind than the two of you. And in return I'll grant you the sanctuary you need to be able to raise the little one without having to worry about those who would hurt her, or you."
We didn't even have to talk about it, not really. It wasn't that we trusted those sorcerers, not in the slightest, but I was at least fairly certain they didn't wish us harm, and we really needed a safe place to be; out of the way not only of whoever had gone after the inhumans in the village, but also out of the way of our own past selves (especially my love's old self who, not having yet gone through all we had, wouldn't understand his own changes and might rebel against them).
"Deal." Was all we said in the end.
xXx
That was how we ended living in a small cottage in the mountains, in the outskirts of Kathmandú. Far away enough from Kamar-Taj that we didn't get in each others' ways, yet close enough to be of assistance when needed. The Ancient One and Wong themselves had created the wards that kept our presence occluded from the rest of the world. It had grated on my love, leaving our safety in the hands of others, but if he'd put his own powers into them that might have called the attention of his other self, or someone else in Asgard, and that was something we couldn't risk. And so our new lives began.
We still had the names of Rossi and Serrure Zabo, the few times we went into town to buy groceries and anything else we might need; it was also the names the sorcerers knew us by. Daisy we left with her own name too. The few people who had asked were lead to believe that she was our niece, daughter of my older brother and his wife, who'd perished in tragic circumstances. There was enough truth in it to be believable, and granted us a tighter claim on her than just being her godparents.
Our new life was good, it was even easy to a point. Loki worked at Kathmandú, much like he had back in China, and before that in Wisconsin, fixing things; mostly phones, cameras and the like for tourists, many who were willing to pay a lot more than was entirely necessary so as not to lose their contacts, pictures, and whatever else they might have saved in their machines. I mostly stayed at home, raising Daisy, though we'd both visit Kathmandú, or other nearby, smaller, settlements, every so often. And of course there was Kamar-Taj, which we visited once a week, to keep our end of the deal.
Daisy grew up with two languages: English and Chinese, and was a natural at both. We also made sure she'd know about herself, and her family. We never lied to her about Cal and Jiaying, or the way they'd died, though we didn't give her any details until she was old enough to actually ask for them, and we believed she could take knowing just how bad some people could be. She knew about the inhumans, and while we had no way of knowing for sure if she was meant to be one, the Ancient One had told us that she could sense the power thrumming at her core, ready to come out. Daisy herself hadn't made her choice yet, and we were in no hurry for her to.
I mostly home-schooled her, it was better than the schooling system available around. Though as she became older she'd go into one or more towns to spend time with people her age, she even learned a few things all on her own. She at some point met the Ancient One's latest student, a tormented, half-depressed sorcerer called Karl Mordo, and managed to pull him out of his shell enough to get him to teach her how to fight… and to speak Romanian. She was such a bright girl, our Daisy.
And then it came, the moment we'd been fearing all along, the day our Daisy found out the truth. Or at least the pieces we'd been omitting until then. The year was 2007, Daisy was almost fifteen and we were in Patan (the nearest town to our cottage that wasn't Kathmandú). Daisy's birthday was approaching and I was looking for a perfect birthday present. She was done as far as high-school education was concerned, and had shown no interest in going to college (though she knew she could change her mind on that any time and we'd support her), she still had managed to become a brilliant hacker all on her own, to the point where she was beginning to challenge the best in the business (two of which we knew were in fact Tony Stark and our dear friend and almost-sister: Darcy Lewis). It took us both completely by surprise when suddenly Hakon was right there in front of us, a scruffy-looking man standing a few feet behind him.
"Hakon…?" I blurted out, not knowing what else to say.
"Mama?" He inquired obviously as shocked as I was. "So this is where you're living now, huh?"
Of course our children knew we hadn't really left in 92', though no one really knew where we'd gone after the mess in China. They knew we were no longer there, and that we were alright, but that was everything (we hadn't even talked directly with either of our children in years! Which should have been shocking, but it wasn't when considering how long we'd lived).
"A cottage on the outskirts of Kathmandú, actually." I clarified. "Oh, Hakon honey, this is Daisy Johnson, we've told you about her."
"Hey baby sis." Hakon greeted her with a smirk, before turning back to me. "Kathmandú? That might explain why we couldn't find you. I think the magic users living in the area might be interfering with your auras."
"That's mostly intentional." I nodded. "It was necessary, to keep us safe from the people who destroyed the village. And also to make sure other people wouldn't find us."
Of course Hakon was enough of a genius, he caught up immediately.
"She doesn't know?" He asked me straight out.
"No." I didn't bother trying to lie.
"Shit!" Hakon cursed, the first word in English, though followed by several in a variety of other languages, including a liquid one I could only imagine might be the Jotun's mother tongue.
"Hakon!" I really wasn't expecting that.
"Look, there's no easy way of saying this." He said straight out. "Peggy is back asleep, has been since 96', when she almost got killed. I'm pretty sure the only reason she didn't die was because of the bond to Steve. And HYDRA is back."
"What?! That's not possible."
"It's quite possible. Though I suppose 'back' might not be the best way to put it since, technically, they were never gone. They just found a better way to hide themselves."
"How bad?"
"So bad… I honestly have no idea how we're going to survive this."
Which, clearly, meant we needed to have a much longer conversation, and it couldn't be had in the middle of the street. Even if most people around us didn't really speak English, we just couldn't risk it. So we cut our trip short and walked back to our cabin; Hakon's friend (whom he'd later admit was his lover: Victor) following us at a distance, always keeping an eye out for any possible threat.
That was the day we told her everything (not sure if Victor knew already, if Hakon had ever told him… or perhaps he hadn't known a thing, didn't care about it… I had trouble reading the feral mutant beyond the fact that he cared about my son and considered him something like family, and by extension the rest of us as well). In any case, our peace was over. Life as we'd known it for the past fifteen years was over.
"How can I help?" Daisy asked the moment the story-telling was over.
"Daisy!" I cried out.
I didn't like that. It wasn't that I didn't trust her, or didn't believe her capable of doing anything and everything she got her mind onto… but she was my little girl and I was so afraid for her. Even if she'd never called me Mama (if I never allowed her to), she was still one of mine, and I didn't want her to be in danger. It was bad enough with Rose, after Cairo… I hadn't been able to really sleep for weeks! In some ways Daisy was just like Rose, willing to give everything of herself to help others. It was how the two of us had first distanced ourselves, when Charles and his people needed help for the second time; I'd told him no one time, and Rose decided to take it upon herself, rather than waiting for me to do the same a second time. Daisy… I knew she'd do it, she'd find a way to help, regardless of how much I might fear the outcome. And the last thing I wanted was for her to feel like she had to go behind our backs to do so.
"Something needs to be done godmother." She pressed, gently but purposefully. "And you've said it yourself, you and godfather cannot do it, not until you reach the point where your old selves traveled back in time. A bit of the same applies to Hakon, in fact." Though not exactly, because the Hakon in the past was a kid. "But me… I'm separate from all of it. And I can take a new name, build myself a persona, go to where you cannot go and do what needs to be done. No one will ever so much as suspect me, suspect we have a connection, at all. I know I can do this." She smirked, a Loki-kind-of smirk. "Hey! I might end up meeting you!"
I shook my head, saying nothing about it. I knew she was right of course. I knew she could do it, she knew how to fight, how to defend herself, she knew the difference between right and wrong. And really, how could I reprimand her for being the exact kind of person I raised her to be? The person I tried to be myself. One that helped as much as possible. I myself had forgotten that, a bit, in the last few years. With how awful some things had turned whenever we'd try to change things in the past (a train in the middle of a snowy mountain where one life had been lost in the end, though it came close to being three, came to mind); I'd forgotten for a time how much I just wanted to help people.
"Very well." I nodded.
"I suppose this is the end of our little vacation." Loki declared, speaking for the first time since the start of our impromptu meeting. "Good, I was getting bored."
He made it sound like a joke, he'd never grow bored with Daisy, no way. And yet, it wasn't entirely a lie, not really. Truth was both my Maverick and I were used to much more… hectic lives. Also, HYDRA was back, after all the mess the terrible organization had caused back in WWII they were back, and getting ready to cause even more mayhem and grief. That we couldn't allow, no way.
"Just one more thing." Daisy called unexpectedly, all eyes turning towards her. "I want to go through terrigenesis first."
xXx Daisy's POV xXx
It's not easy, being the girl with no parents. Mine died, when I was only nine months old. Our little, nameless village in the Hunan province, in China, was attacked by a bunch of people in tactical suits, wielding weapons far too advance for even the best militias of the time (1993). They weren't there by accident, they were connected to others who'd attacked back in 1945, they were after gifted… after my people.
According to the old stories, several millennia ago a group of blue skinned aliens known as the Kree visited Earth. They found the human race and decided they could use it, could make from at least some of them the warriors they needed to reinforce their armies. They experimented on a group, but the results didn't come with the expediency they expected. Then, something happened (no one really knows what) which forced them to leave the planet, leaving behind several relics (the diviners) and a number of weapons (which would become lost through time, to eventually be found by what would one day become HYDRA). What the Kree couldn't have expected was what happened with the descendants of the very people they experimented with.
When the first of the diviners activated, the mist it expelled touched those descendants, it encased them in cocoons, from which they emerged seconds later: changed. Genetically, sometimes physically, and with the ability to do things both wondrous and terrible. Through some trial and error the tribe learned how to harness that power; they also devised ways to choose the right people to go through the process, which they named terrigenesis, rather than putting everyone in the generation through it. They chose those old enough to know the risks and accept them, yet still young enough to be able to adapt to the change. Some mistakes were still made, but things went better.
As time passed, people moved, there came to be inhumans all around the world, though they always remained connected in some way or another. Everyone knew there was a sanctuary in China, Lai Shi (Afterlife) where they could go if they ever needed to. They knew they would never, ever, be alone.
Jiaying, my mother, was one of the Elders of the inhuman tribe. She was several hundred years old, her gift being longevity; though it had a cost, literally, she absorbed the life force of others, both to heal and in order to keep her youth. It was something that had pained her for the longest time, until she met my father; then she came to believe that it had been meant to be all along. That she'd been born with the gift she'd need in order to find him, to be with him, for they were a perfect match. Shimû, our people called her, the teacher-mother, for all the knowledge she had and was willing to share with the younger generations. She was also, for all intents and purposes, the Queen of the Inhumans; though she never demanded any libations, any luxuries.
My father on the other hand… his name was Calvin Johnson, Cal. A doctor from Wisconsin who arrived to China in the summer of 1988 as part of the Doctors Without Borders program, to help people in communities with no hospitals. He met my mother, who helped him for the first few months and fell in love with her. He never left. He even managed to somehow convince his best friend (who'd also been his nurse back in Wisconsin) to move to China along with her husband and they all stayed there.
My parents married that very Fall, then on July 2nd of 1992, I was born: Daisy Xiuying Johnson. Father insisted I ought to have godparents, even if my Mother didn't care for such things, he chose his best friends (the same who'd followed him to China): Rossi and Serrure Zabo. They were the ones who took me in when our village was attacked and my parents killed, on early April of the following year.
I have no memory of the attack, or even of my parents. No memories of my own anyway, though my parents have told me more than enough stories, showed me pictures, and even projected illusions so I might get to know them better. It's something they were very insistent upon, so that I'd never forget my birth family, the parents who loved me, even if they couldn't stay with me (it wasn't up to them in the end).
For a while I thought it was a sign, that they didn't really want me. That they refused to let me call them mom and dad, not because they wanted me to remember my birth-parents, but because they didn't want me for a daughter. It was one fear I'd never tell them about, because if I was right… I really didn't want to hear it, to have the last trace of illusion ripped into pieces; and if I was wrong, they'd be hurt that I'd think such things, and that was the last thing I wanted.
It was Hakon, their (adopted) son who saw through me. We'd just met, barely hours earlier, and completely by accident, while in Patan (the little town about ninety minutes -at a walk, as we didn't have a car-, from Kathmandú), Nepal. He'd had a lot to say to my godparents, things that had happened during the past decade and a half (when they had apparently dropped off the face of the Earth); people who'd almost died, fallen asleep (not sure if that was for real, or euphemism for something else), apparently HYDRA wasn't as destroyed as the whole world believed, and something big was coming. It was also then that I learned my godparents were a lot more than a fairly good mechanic and a nurse from north US (and who seemed to age extremely well); they were actual, freaking gods from Norse mythology! (or at least my godfather was, with my godmother being as good as). And as if that weren't enough, they'd time-traveled, been there with Captain-freaking-America during WWII, they'd been through so much… And they were supposed to leave the realm in 92', except my mother didn't believe in hospitals, and my father hadn't wanted to be alone when the birth happened, so they agreed to stay. First for the birth, and then when they were made my godparents… It was probably a good thing, considering all that would happen later. I never wanted to imagine what would have happened with me (and with all the children my godmother saved that day) if they hadn't been there. Even with everything some of them might have been capable of, I knew my godparents had done a lot to help (even if they were too humble to ever tell me just how many lives they'd saved).
"They do love you, you know?" Hakon's comment took me completely off guard.
For a moment I didn't really know what he was talking about. After the hours-long explanation, and even longer trying to device a plan (and a few contingencies), I'd managed to convince them to let me help. The first step in my own plan was to go through terrigenesis. Ru, one of the last Inhuman elders, had left a terrigen crystal for me, in case I ever decided to go through it. I'd never been interested in it before, happy enough with who I was. I knew my godparents weren't completely sure that I was doing it for the right reasons, might even be afraid that I'd come to regret it, but they also respected me, and my choices, and I knew they'd support me no matter what I chose in the end.
Still, we'd decided to wait until the morning. When the final choice would be made. I wasn't expecting it when Hakon went to me as I was about to go to bed (his parents having already retired for the night).
"I know you have doubts." He went on. "I don't need to have Mama's empathy to know that."
His eyes were sharp, I could tell they caught the minute flinch in me the moment I heard him use that word: Mama.
"There, that's how I know." He nodded. Then, in a complete non-sequitur, he added: "Did you know that Mama's never called Aunt Kathryn anything except that?"
"What…?" I'd no idea what was that, or who Kathryn even was, exactly, beyond a woman in my godmother's stories, barely mentioned.
"Her name is Kathryn Salani." Hakon elaborated. "Older sister of Sebastian Salani, who was Mama's father. He passed away the same winter they adopted me. Anyway, she was the one who raised Mama, because her own mother had passed away, Cancer, and her father was too busy working and grieving for the love of his life to be there for the daughter who looked and simply was too much like the love he'd lost. Mama barely remembers her, but still, she told me once that Aislinn Kinross-Salani would always be her Mom, and that's why she'll never call another by that title. It's why she won't let you call her and Papa by such names. It's not that they don't want to be your parents, it's that they don't want you to forget the parents you had. Even if they're not here anymore, if you never really knew them. They're your parents and they deserved to be remembered, especially by you."
"Doesn't mean I don't deserve to call other people parents. Calling them Mom and Dad doesn't mean I'm going to forget the people who gave me life, who gave their own lives up so I'd have a chance. I'm not the kind of person to forget that."
"I know that. And they probably do too. You just need to remind them."
"I don't know if I can…"
"It's up to you but… I know some things about letting things stew, about not talking your problems out. I saw it with my sisters. Rose and Willow… but Rose especially. She and Mama disagreed on how some things should be handled." He ran a hand through his hair. "Rose has the Sight, as I believe Mama mentioned. Back in the sixties she had a vision about a battle that was going to go terribly wrong, a friend of the family: Charles Xavier, was involved. Charles had already asked for help, months earlier, but Mama and Papa refused, thinking getting involved would put the girls in danger. Rose insisted they go. She cried, demanded, pretty much threw a tantrum, but it was to no avail."
"They wouldn't help?"
"It's not as simple as that. You see, time-travel is a delicate thing. The things we do, are we changing history or setting it into motion? Some believe that by traveling back in time you end up in a different world, create alternate universes, but I don't think it's like that, exactly. If it were then there wouldn't be any real danger in changing things. But there is, we know that because another precog warned Rose exactly of that. So, if we traveled back in time, and we are exactly in the same world where we started; are we changing history and at some point we're going to have to deal with either having the wrong memories or our memories changing? Or are we just doing the things that were supposed to happen all along?" He exhaled. "Back in the war. Mama, Papa and Aunt Sif intervened on behalf of Steve, Captain America, right after he went through the experiment. There were some members in the military who didn't have very good intentions. With Dr. Erskine dead and Steve the only successful super-soldier… it wouldn't have been good. They intervened in his favor, along with Uncle Howard, and convinced the group to leave them alone, in exchange we ended up in Europe, helping the Allies."
My head was spinning. Truth was most of what he'd just told me would have never occurred to me, yet it sounded only logical. The things that could have happened to Rogers.
"Thing is, in the history we knew back in the future, we knew about Rogers having been with those showgirls, selling war-bonds and all that." Hakon went on. "Their intervention caused it to happen. We don't know if Uncle Howard alone would have been enough to achieve the same result or not." He shook his head. "Then, years later. With that f...reaking train on the mountains. Mama warned Aunt Sif about what was coming, she tried to save Sgt. Barnes, and almost fell off the train with him. In both cases, things ended being as we knew them from the history books to be; one where it'd seem they actually provoked it, while in the other they tried and failed to change it. Which is why Mama became so insecure about trying to change anything else."
"And why she wouldn't help your friend, Xavier."
"There was also the fact that the twins were fourteen at the time and the last thing Mama and Papa wanted was for them to end up caught in a war. But yes, past experience influenced their decision. Just like it also influenced Rose's own choice in the seventies, when she'd yet another huge vision, to pack her things and go herself. Willow, of course, went with her. Next time we knew anything about either of them, the Rose of Chaos had come into being and everyone in Paris was talking about the mess Stryker's and Trask's visit during the Peace Accords became. Oh, and the girls had changed their names to Alfdis and Anya Eisenhardt."
I winced, that must have hurt. Even if they had good reasons, it must still have hurt their parents.
"Rose told me once that seeing Max Eisenhardt as a father, didn't mean Papa wasn't still exactly that for her." Hakon added. "She even calls them by different words that mean the same in the end. Willow did the same. And you can too. If that's what you want."
I was about to finally go into my room and sleep (he'd be spending the night on the couch… or what had been the couch until magic had changed it into an actual bed), when something else occurred to me:
"What about you?" I asked him, curious.
"I have no need for different names." He admitted calmly. "The most I'll give is that, unlike my older sister, Helena, I do not call Mama by the elven word, the way she does. My birth-mother was an elf herself, called Merenwen. She died the same day I was born. I know she gave up a lot to have me, her family, her world; she knew the pregnancy would kill her eventually, yet refused to terminate it anyway. I respect her for that, I may even love her, in an abstract way, but I never knew her. The closest thing I had to a mother the first three years of my life was a nanny-of-sorts. Elanor had been Merenwen's best-friend, and she chose to stay even when my birth-mother died, to look after me. As for my biological father… I respect that he kept me, even when I wasn't the kind of son he'd have wanted, and he wasn't too proud not to recognize that his brother was the right person to take care of me, but he was never really a parent to me. So, in the end, Mama and Papa are the only parents I've ever had and that's just fine with me." He made a pause before adding: "I think Helena would be pretty much in the same boat."
"Okay." I nodded in understanding. "Good night… big brother."
Hakon's smile was almost blinding.
By the next morning I'd made up my mind: Jiaying and Cal were Ma and Pa (with the Chinese pronunciation, as I knew at least Ma would appreciate my using the old form of the words rather than any of the more modern ones). While Nightingale and Loki were Mom and Dad.
xXx
I went through terrigenesis the next morning, emerging from the cocoon physically unchanged, but with a penchant for making things shake. I stayed with them until the end of the summer, the two helping me learn meditation and other calming methods (mom favored singing, I tried humming, only to discover that if I focused too much on it, I could end up using my powers through the sound too… still, it was an interesting discovery to make). Dad also reinforced all his spells on the medallion they'd gifted me with when I was born, to ensure I'd be as protected as possible when away from them. Then we said our goodbyes to the Ancient One and our few friends in Kamar-Taj, thanked them for all their help and took off; Mom and Dad on a recently bought, second-hand bike, while I called Gordon.
He got me to Lai Shi. Truth be told, I'd always been more than a little curious about the place. The Sanctuary my mother and a few of the other Elders had built for the inhumans; a place I wasn't taken to when first losing my parents because I wasn't 'pure'. And while I understood that I might have felt a bit like an outsider, if I'd turned out not have inherited the inhuman gene, a part of me also couldn't help but feel like they hadn't wanted me.
I spent a year in the Sanctuary, and it wasn't even because of training, it turned out I was a natural at my gift. According to Ru, they hadn't seen someone so at ease with their power for many generations. And mine wasn't an easy power! While on the most basic level I could make things vibrate, as I pushed more power into it, it wasn't just objects, or the elements, I could make the very earth beneath my feet shake, like an earthquake. Even then, I knew why it came so easy to me, it was all due to my parents, the way they raised me. I never doubted myself, knew I could do anything I put my mind to, be anything I wanted to be, my gift with vibrations was a part of that. Gordon even joked about sending some hopefuls their way, or asking them to share some of their wisdom… which was incredibly funny because they were outsiders and the Elders usually did not like those! (which was exactly why I hadn't grown up at Lai Shi in the first place).
"Why won't you stay?" He asked me the day before I would be leaving.
"Because this is not where I belong." I answered calmly.
"But it is!" He insisted. "This is the home for the inhumans, you're an inhuman. You're meant to be our Queen!"
"Perhaps, we'll see about that last part." I shrugged, not caring much at the time for such details. "As for the rest. Tell me Gordon, if this is meant to be the home for the inhumans, why are there so few living here?" He didn't give me an answer, but I didn't need him to. "Because there's a world out there, one they want to be a part of. And it's their right. It might not be easy, especially considering the attitude some people in power tend to have towards those gifted, but it's their choice to make anyway. And if they're my people, and if I'm truly meant to be their Queen, why shouldn't I follow them?" I exhaled. "I know it's not the choice Ma would have made, and I respect that. Please respect me and my choices as well."
I didn't tell him about HYDRA, or what I planned on doing in the upcoming years; not because I didn't trust him (though Mom, Dad, Hakon, Victor and I had all agreed that the less people we shared that kind of information with, the better), but because there was nothing he could do about it, and thus no point in him worrying (or becoming upset about it). I had hacked enough databases (including a SHIELD one) to know that there was some connection between SHIELD and the people that had attacked our village back in 93'. Only I didn't know if it had really been SHIELD who had ordered the whole thing, or HYDRA pretending to be SHIELD (it's not like either organization had a good track record when it came to their treatment of gifted).
The next morning Gordon took me to Boston (my choice), where I spent the next couple of years attending classes here and there in a number of community colleges and vocational schools, getting a few new skills, but mostly meeting people, creating a network… as well as a new life-story for myself.
I knew that in order to not only protect my family, but also to ensure no one would suspect the truth about me I'd need to hide who I really was. And so Daisy Xiuying Johnson ceased to exist (which, considering where I'd lived most of my life, and the conditions, wasn't that hard a thing to do), I built a story for myself, as an orphan from a tragedy, seeking to discover what had happened to her parents, why they'd been killed. I didn't lie, I just embellished the truth and hid just enough of it to protect those I loved. The last step in my 'transformation' was the name, a new name, one that couldn't be traced in any way, yet meant something to me. It took a while, but eventually I found the right one: I became Skye.
I hadn't planned on staying in one place after becoming eighteen, but then I met Emma Swann: a bail-bondswoman, very talented, and nice too. I wasn't quite sure how it happened but I began working for her as her assistant. She even taught me some of her best tricks, she became almost like family; to the point where I almost, almost told her the truth (I wanted to recruit her, knowing we could use someone with her skills in what was coming); until Rose called me, told me that Emma had her own destiny to fulfill and I shouldn't waylay her. And she was right, of course, on the latter half of October of 2011, the day of her birthday in fact (and almost a year since we first met), Emma unexpectedly called me to tell me she had to make an impromptu trip. She was so overwhelmed by whatever it was that was happening that she completely forgot we were going to meet for lunch to celebrate (both her birthday and the closing of the latest case). She returned a few days later, apologizing to me, not just for taking off unexpectedly, but also because she was closing her business and moving. Apparently the son she'd given up for adoption the very day he was born had found her, and she just knew there was something wrong with him, and while she still didn't feel like she could be his mother, she wanted to help him. I understood, of course I did, had no doubt my parents would drop everything for me too. So I helped her pack, wished her the best and sent her off. I left Boston a week later.
xXx
I was in Kansas when the aliens invaded NY in May of 2012. I'd spent the past several months traveling, never staying long in one place. There had been this guy in Texas, we'd had a one-night-stand after a few too many drinks, talking about our hacking choices. He offered to put me in contact with the Rising Tide, but I wasn't sure I was interested. Truth is, I liked them in theory, the whole 'freedom of information' and 'the world deserves to know'; it all sounded good on paper, but reality could be much different, that much I knew. People who 'knew' had attacked my village, had killed my parents, and others, families, innocents. And what for? Because we were different? The Rising Tide tried to sell the idea that if the world knew the shady organizations couldn't make them… make us, disappear, but I wasn't so sure. It couldn't be that easy. Also, I remember what mom and dad was said about SHIELD, how not everyone was good, but not everyone was bad either. There was HYDRA, yes, and we would be helping deal with that when the time came, but not everyone was like that.
In the end I got in touch, just to find out more about them, but I never truly joined them. I did keep up with my own hacking though. My main objective was still finding out who exactly was behind the attack on my village. Though, every so often I'd come across something else, pieces of information that, while not important to me, I knew could be valuable for someone else. So I built a way to make sure the right people got them. Or more like, the right person: Agent Philip Coulson. His was one of the few names I remembered, and mom had warned me about Darcy Lewis being a hacker, so I focused on him.
It probably shouldn't have surprised me when he finally decided to track me down in January of 2014. I was trying to help Mike Peterson; while the footage I'd taken I'd sent straight to Coulson, I knew others had taken video too, and put it online; so I knew he was likely to become a target one way or another very soon. It still took me by surprise just how bad things got, and in less than 24 hours too!
Rose told me, the same day she warned me off telling Emma anything, that as long as I held true to my convictions and followed my instincts when making the important choices in my life, I'd eventually find myself in the right place to do the most good. Not just in the war against HYDRA but in general. So when, after a mess of a first mission in LA, AC offered me a place in his team as a consultant I never doubted, I said yes.
At first I told them very little about me, though I did try and help in any way I could. Which is why, less than two weeks in, I ended infiltrating a party in Malta, for a mission that devolved into an outright fight. And thus my team discovered that I was more than just a hacker, I knew how to fight. Guns weren't my thing, but I could certainly kick some ass if necessary. Ward, who'd at some point named himself my SO, made me pay for the next week or so, running me ragged until I demonstrated everything I knew about fighting hand-to-hand (and eventually with staves too); though I still didn't tell them who'd taught me, beyond them being friends of my adoptive family (the fact that we'd been living in China at the time never came up either).
The second meeting with Miles did not go any better than the first, though discovering what he was truly doing certainly confirmed my previous instincts that the so-called manifesto mattered very little when it came to him.
"That's it." I snapped suddenly.
"What?" All eyes were on me instantly.
We'd just managed to save Mr. Chan, though the people responsible for the mess had managed to slip between our fingers, which I hated. Coulson had put some kind of bracelet on Miles which would make it very hard for him to keep hacking; though I had no doubt that if he was half as good as he claimed he would find a way, eventually. Which meant I had to do something to make sure he'd never again be in a position to hurt someone like he'd done with Mr. Chan.
"You're always cursing the Rising Tide to hell and back." I explained. "And okay, we've seen that you're not exactly on the wrong track with that. But the thing is, not everyone is like that."
"Are you sympathizing with them now?!" Ward was clearly angry by the mere idea.
"Not exactly." I tried my best to find the right words to explain things. "Remember how I told you I knew Miles from years ago? Well, he tried to recruit me to the Rising Tide. He gave the whole 'freedom of information' yadda, yadda, speech. And I have to admit, I liked it, it sounded nice, very idealistic. And that's exactly the point. It's not realistic in the slightest. I knew better than to believe the fairy-tale, but what about those who don't?"
"You're talking about those who might be with the Rising Tide because they believe their manifesto." AC nodded, catching up.
"Exactly." I nodded. "I'm not saying everyone in the RT is an innocent, of course not. But those who are… they deserve to know the truth. They deserve the chance to get out before things get worse. And we all know they will get worse." I exhaled. "And who knows? You might even get the chance to recruit a few more consultants in the process!"
Most of the team still looked doubtful, but I knew AC liked the idea.
It was laughably easy to hack the Rising Tide. And then I uploaded my only podcast ever, one that would reach every member in the world. It wasn't just my voice, I included pictures and video footage (which AC let me use, though I edited it enough so no one would ever know for sure how I got it, or be able to learn anything about us through it). By the end of it I knew Miles would be done, and quite probably a lot of the Rising Tide too.
The first visit to the Hub was quite interesting. It was clear to me straight out that Victoria Hand did not like gifted (which made things a bit harder when, only hours later, I revealed my own status to protect Fitz and Ward; though the team agreed to keep it to themselves); though finding out that she had been Ward's SO certainly explained a lot about him…
Mom warned me before leaving that there was a chance I'd come across them, their past selves, at some point. When it happened I wasn't sure if she'd always known where I'd end up, or if it had just been a suspicion. It was still quite surreal. Meeting Loki and his Nightingale, a version of them that looked so much like my parents, yet at the same time not at all; and it wasn't just the different clothes. The way they acted, talked, even the way they stood… they were so young! In ways I couldn't properly explain, but still.
Things went on with the team. It was good. They knew about my status as an inhuman, and I had even revealed to them that I was part of a tribe, though without revealing a thing about them (also, I knew Chan was one of mine, but hadn't mentioned that either). They respected my secrets and my desire to protect my people from those who would exploit them. None of them had revealed my status as a gifted to SHIELD (or HYDRA) and I was very grateful for that.
And then someone tried to kidnap AC… emphasis on tried. I was still in shock, the bridge had just blown up, with Mike right there! And then there was a voice screaming in my ear:
"Skye! The chopper!" It was May.
I reacted instinctively, turning in the direction of the helicopter rising right then. I could see AC on it, and that was all I needed. Taking a deep breath, I unleashed my power on it.
"AC!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. "Trust me!"
He did. In a move that would never stop both humbling, marveling and utterly terrifying me, AC pretty much threw himself off the chopper even as it went down. I turned all my focus on him; or more precisely, on the air around him, vibrating it at just the right frequency to slow his fall, and then manipulate him towards us. It wasn't an easy thing to do, never in my life had I manipulated vibrations with that detail, but I refused to let go, to do anything except my very best.
"It's done, rookie…" I didn't even notice when Ward arrived, he was suddenly by my side, holding me. "You did it, you can let go now."
It was only then that I realized that I'd managed to move AC all the way to the bridge, but he was still floating a couple of inches off the bridge we were all on. Also, I wasn't standing anymore, if it hadn't been for my SO's arms around my waist I'd have collapsed already. It took several seconds, but his words finally reached me and I did as he said. I let go, darkness enveloped me.
xXx
When I woke up (two days later), I met Darcy Lewis. I also discovered that she was a mutant known in that community as Wallflower, and the Queen of Hackers: TaserQueen. I wasn't sure which one shocked me the most; though knowing her certainly helped explain quite a few things about AC (and just why mom and dad liked her so much). I also finally got the chance to listen to a voicemail mom had left me (encoded to make sure no one but me would be able to retrieve it). Apparently through the medallion they'd been able to sense something was off with me; they had come dangerously close to throwing caution to the wind and seeking me out.
I managed to convince them I was alright and that they should stay in London, where they'd been living since 2012. They event sent me semi-regular e-mails about things that happened to their friends, and I subscribed to John Watson's blog (the man, and his friend: Sherlock Holmes, had been through some things so insane that if I didn't live the kind of life I did I probably wouldn't believe even half of them possible).
That was the first time I didn't spend Christmas-New Years week with my godparents. Every year since leaving Nepal I would call Gordon early on the 24th and have him take me to wherever they were. We'd spend the week together, like a short family vacation (sometimes Hakon and Victor, and once or twice even Rose, would drop by). Then I'd call Gordon back on the afternoon of the 1st of January and have him take me back to wherever I was living at the time. I could have done the same that year. FitzSimmons had left to go visit their families, same with May and even Ward would be spending some time with some old friends from his Academy days. I could have told them I was visiting my adoptive family, or even just some friends… but when Darcy invited me to spend that time with her and Phil… I just couldn't say no. So I sent my apologies to my mom and dad, mailed them their gifts, and went with the new members of my growing family. And even though I missed my godparents, it was nice.
Getting almost shot was not nice, at all. I was quite sure that if it weren't for how instinctive my gift had become I would have never been able to avoid getting shot point blank in the stomach, twice (by none other than the coward Ian Quinn). On the positive side, I did have my powers, no bullet actually touched me, and we got to arrest Quinn.
Lorelei was an entirely different mess, yet it was almost fun by comparison. Especially when we got the chance to meet Princess Helena (who was almost as good as my sister…). Having Ward enthralled to go against us was not fun, but I got the chance to put the so-called Enchantress in her place. No one took what was mine! (Granted, my SO didn't yet know he was mine, but we were getting there).
We met Richard Lumley and Linda Avery on late April of 2016. They spoke of a mission they'd had to the Hunan Province in 1993, when a team lead by Agent Garrett had called in a 'code 084'. By the time they'd arrived to the coordinates the whole team was dead, as well as a few others who were identified as mercenaries; and they couldn't find anyone to explain to them what happened. Of course, by the time they arrived the village had been evacuated, the dead villagers buried (the enemies were left where they had fallen).
"What really happened there?" AC asked once the other agents were gone.
I'd thought long and hard about what I'd do when that day came. Had even consulted it with mom and dad, who told me it would be my choice, as only I could know if they could be trusted. So in the end I decided to trust them with everything, except my parents' true identities. I did make sure all surveillance equipment was either deactivated or looped (I may trust my team, but that didn't mean I was going to trust SHIELD… much less HYDRA).
"I was born Daisy Xiuying Johnson." I announced in most serious tone. "My parents were Calvin and Jiaying Johnson. He a doctor from Wisconsin who traveled to China with Doctors Without Borders for a summer, and chose to stay after falling in love with my mother; she was one of the Elders of the village, an inhuman with a gift for longevity and youth. My godparents: Rossi and Serrure Zabo were friends of my father who moved to China as well when father invited them, particularly since Rossi Zabo was my father's nurse."
"But… Skye…?" Fitz was evidently speechless.
"That's the name I chose to take when I came to America, but we'll get to that." I assured him. "When I was nine months old, our village was attacked. We never knew who was behind it, exactly, but we did know two things: they were after the inhumans, and they had already attacked our village before, back in 1945. It was bad, many of the villagers were killed, my parents included; though they fought back, and in turn managed to kill all the attackers. The remaining Elders arranged for the survivors to find new homes elsewhere. My godparents took me, and we spent the next fourteen and change years in Nepal, in the outskirts of Kathmandú. That's where I learned how to fight, as well as a few other things."
"Wait." May cut off. "So you're saying… you're saying SHIELD attacked your village?!"
"It's a bit more complicated than that." I admitted, somewhat grimly.
"How complicated?" AC's tone of voice told me he knew he wasn't going to like it.
"Well, you heard Agents Lumley and Avery, it was a SHIELD team." I offered, before adding in a darker tone. "Except I don't think it was SHIELD at all… I think it was HYDRA."
"What?!" The mix of disbelief and horror blanketed the whole group.
Yeah, I knew they weren't going to like it.
Of course, however much they might trust me, they couldn't really take me at my word. So we did our best to investigate without calling attention upon ourselves. It wasn't made any easier when just three days later Centipede made an attempt at returning, with several more Centipede-soldiers. Mike helped a lot with that, with Darcy and I providing back-up with our gifts; and while Ward and May had no special powers, they certainly were skilled enough to keep up.
We'd just finished a particular mission, left the soldiers with a team that would take them to the Fridge (after FitzSimmons found a way to neutralize the implant, thus making them effectively human again), and were back on the Bus, hoping for maybe a couple of days off before going back to our 'personal mission' when the shit hit the fan with a coded message through the net: 'Out of the Shadows. Into the Light. HYDRA.' Which was followed by a particular phone-call:
"Mom…?!" I wasn't expecting that. "Yes, I'm alright… We're on South Cali, just finished a mission… No, I've no idea what's happening in Washington…"
I broke off as I heard Darcy, AC and Ward all curse, at the same time Darcy pushed some things from her tablet to the holotable, and suddenly we were seeing what had been going on in DC. It was bad… beyond bad.
"Are we ready?" I asked mom.
The answer of 'As ready as we can be' wasn't one I'd have preferred, but it was honest, and not as bad as it could have been. And then came the important question. What would we be doing?
"I've no idea." I told her honestly, before focusing on AC. "I think we should help whatever base is closest and might be in danger of falling."
AC agreed. It took a bit of arguing and a vote, but in the end we headed for the Sandbox. While HYDRA taking the Fridge would have been bad, what with the kind of prisoners kept there, the Sandbox was more of a danger, because of both the 'people of interest' kept there, as well as the dangerous objects some of the best scientists studied there.
It turned out to be a good idea, as at least half of those scientists turned out to be HYDRA. We made it there just in time to stop them, and Donnie, from taking over.
It took a couple of days for everything to calm down enough for safe communications to be established. Hand reported from the HUB, where she and her most trusted had kept things under control through it all. The Fridge was just fine, they simply sealed the facility and refused to allow anyone unknown in. The Triskellion was the worst-off, what with the all-out battle that had involved Captain America, the Valkyrie, the (Original) Winter Soldier, some new people, a bunch of agents, and no less than four additional super-soldiers/assassins.
Yes, things had gotten messy indeed.
The worst part? It wasn't limited to SHIELD. All around the world, in intelligence agencies, governments, and even a number of companies and organizations, HYDRA revealed itself and attempted to take control. It was then that the Gifted Alliance revealed itself, under the leadership of the legendary Rose of Chaos (who happened to be my adopted sister: Rose Alfdis). At least we knew the bad guys hadn't won. Even if it would take a while to be sure the good guys had, we had a fighting chance, which was a lot more than we'd have had if HYDRA had really taken us as much by surprise as they thought they would.
xXx 3rd person POV xXx
The meeting took place in Chicago. After securing the Sandbox, the team wanted some time to recover. Also, Hand had made certain comments that made both Darcy and Skye suspect she wouldn't take it well, were she to discover they were gifted. The biggest surprise was perhaps when he chose to follow the team, rather than his old SO even when she called him directly. Knowing that Hand, being who she was, wouldn't take kindly being ignored, AC decided they needed a safe place for their down-time, one that wasn't registered with SHIELD. It was Skye who offered the penthouse in Chicago, remembering when her mom and dad had explained to her where each of their properties were, just in case. Chicago seemed the best place, not too close to DC (where the Senate hearings were keeping things quite intense) or NY (where the fact that the Avengers lived there was making enough of a mess).
"What is this place?" May asked as they entered the penthouse.
"A safe place." Skye answered calmly. "Mom and dad will meet us here."
"Mom and dad?" Simmons asked.
She knew the inhuman meant her adopted parents, that part had been explained; though they still didn't know who those parents were, aside from the names they'd used in the past. They knew the couple was gifted, and had been involved in the recent insanity, but there was just no way they could have ever guessed just who they were…
"That'd be us." A voice announced from down the hall.
Shock was absolute, as the team came face to face with none other than Loki and his Nightingale.
"What?!" FitzSimmons were the first to react.
"How is this possible?" Darcy asked.
"You said nothing in Dublin, not the slightest reaction." Grant pointed out, eyes narrowed.
"Things will be better explained in a few days." Nightingale assured them. "The short of it is that the Nightingale and Loki you met during the Berserker-debacle wasn't us."
"You told me you time-traveled." Phil nodded thoughtfully. "When you saved me after Malta."
"Yes." Nightingale nodded. "The version of us you met during that mission, it's who we were before we traveled. We traveled back, have been through a lot more…"
"Which includes adopting Skye… I mean Daisy." Simmons finished.
"Skye is just fine." The girl in question assured her. "It's true it began as an alias… but it's become my name now. I'm Skye Zabo as much as I'm Daisy Johnson."
"Just like I've been Silbhé Salani, Arianna Stark, Rossi Zabo, Nightingale… and so many other names." Her mom smiled brightly at her. "I'm not saying names aren't important, they are. But no one says we can only ever have one."
"Darcy Lewis, Stark, Coulson…" The Queen of Hackers offered, somewhat impishly.
It took several seconds for the team to process what she'd just said, and what exactly it meant. Then it was absolute pandemonium… apparently no one had known those two were married.
That wasn't the end, of course not. Once the shock had passed the team would want to know more about Skye's past, about her family, and the time-travel. And there was a meeting arranged for two days later in a cemetery in Washington DC (and none of them knew whose bright idea was to make the meeting in a cemetery of all places); considering all the secrets yet to be revealed (which started with Phil being alive and did not end with Skye's true identity, or even with Loki's and Nightingale's time-travel). Yeah, that would be an interesting meeting indeed.
So... what do you think? If you're wondering, I'm imagining the rest going pretty much as it does in the main timeline (Sort of like 'All roads lead to Rome' kind of thing).
Now, for things that are never explained in the fic. First, the things that are known to be canon: A 'SHIELD' team attacked a small, probably nameless town in the Hunan Province where Jiaying and her family lived, along with others, including a number of Inhumans. We all know how that went. It's also safe to say that if the team itself wasn't HYDRA, they were certainly sent by someone who was. Also, it is known that the leader of that team died from a shot to neck and he was holding baby Daisy in his arms when his body was found.
Now, for my headcanons: That 'shot', could have been something else, anything else, including the result of a variety of inhuman gifts. That one is easy enough. Something I saw once or twice in some fics and that I liked, was the idea that the leader of said team was none other than John Garrett. Lumley's team believed him to be dead, so they left him there. Someone else, from HYDRA, found him, realized he wasn't fully gone just yet, and decided to use him as the first test-subject for the Deadlock program. Afterwards they either twisted events enough to lead John to believe he'd been abandoned, or he came to believe that all on his own, thinking that they should have known he was alive still.
And that's what pretty much changes everything here. Here Loki got Cal back to the town in time to fight back the agents, he couldn't save Jiaying, and Cal died as well. With Loki and Nightingale there Jiaying could go in peace, knowing they'd protect Daisy. Then, with Loki fighting there, he made sure every single member of the attack team died, including Garrett. By the time Lumley's team got there, the town was empty, so they never knew anything. With Garrett gone it was someone else who found Grant in juvie (as Hand was shown to have been his SO in the framework, I decided to go with that). So that's why he's so different, and why he was never HYDRA.
It's the whole idea of the butterfly effect and the chaos theory "the flutter of a butterfly's wings can ultimately cause a typhon halfway around the world". Bit insane, but still.
So, what do you think? Like? Dislike? In three weeks, yet another One-Shot AU! This time, what if Loki's attempts at protecting her memories went somewhat awry; and what if, when Asgard came for her memories she decided to take destiny in her own hands and change both her own, and Loki's, for good? (No, I'm not telling you what she does, that'd be a spoiler. You can guess though, promise to tell you how warm or cold your ideas are; and you'll get the answer in three weeks! It'll be my Christmas present to you all!). See ya then!