You get it. You've felt an emptiness your entire life like me, we've tried to fill it but it never works. I've found the answer.

Lost

Daisy is lost.

Her eyes shine with her newfound belief in Hive. She is utterly convinced that she's found all the answers, found her true destiny, but as each us and we slip from her mouth she loses herself more and more. Even if she doesn't realise it's happening.

All Lincoln can do is watch, powerless to help her, knowing how violently wrong this is. All he can do is beg her to see sense Daisy, he's using you! You're, you're sick But Daisy is lost to Hive's sway, willing to hurt people she would have not long ago been willing to die for, to cross lines she would never normally dream of approaching. All she sees now is the Hive, her new future; she has no need of Shield, and if Lincoln can't understand that, then for now she'll have to leave him in the past too The Daisy I know wouldn't betray Shield, wouldn't throw away what we have… But the Daisy he knows is gone now, lost somewhere deep inside. He can only hope she's not gone for good.

It's not her fault. It's not her decision to leave, or to bring down the base, not truly. Daisy has lost the ability to make her own choices or forge her own path. She's part of the Hive now.

Lincoln is lost.

More specifically, he has lost her. And there's a voice in his head telling him that she was really all he had to begin with. He never fully trusted Shield, and he knows they still don't fully trust him You're here for Daisy, not the cause, so commitment is a question. And now Daisy is slipping away right in front of him.

She'd been under Hive's sway for hours and Lincoln hadn't noticed. He'd let it get to this point, let his own anger at being treated like a suspect distract him, that same wretched anger she'd used to frame him so neatly. Do I matter that little to you?

It hurts. It hurts so much Lincoln isn't sure how he's still standing, how he's still arguing with her. All he knows is he has to get through to her, to help her, to save her. His pleas resonate in his head, like echoes from his past of the people who tried to help him, to save him from himself. And just as his loved ones once failed with him, he fails with her. He is forced to watch as she walks away, and he knows he just might be losing her forever.

As he feels the base start to shake and crumble around him, he knows all is lost.

Found

Daisy is found.

Daisy has found her true purpose. She'd never realised what it was she was looking for until that moment in the Hydra base, when Hive had opened her eyes to a whole new perspective. She'd thought it was her family, Shield, even Lincoln, but she'd been looking in the wrong place. She knows that now. I'm happier than I've ever been. She means it.

Her entire world view has shifted; everything she once thought was right she now knows is wrong. She feels complete, whole in a way she'd never truly realised she wasn't before. She's part of a true family now, she has a true connection it's beautiful. It's, it's a bond.

She only wishes Lincoln could understand. For some reason he thinks it's an either or situation, that in finding herself with Hive she's chosen to abandon him, despite how she tried to show him the truth No, I care about you… I'm not throwing you away…

She has the answer to the question he's spent his life trying to solve, but he refuses to listen, to see sense. But she's not overly concerned. She knows he'll come around, find his own way to Hive. They'll be ready for him. I am here for you now, we care about you. We could have all of it, together… You'll understand someday…

As she leaves to start her destiny, she unleashes her powers in a way she's never allowed herself to before. She'd always held herself back. It's exhilarating and freeing and everything she's ever dreamt it could be. She doesn't intend to kill anyone, just to slow Shield down so they can't hinder Hive's plans. Daisy will do anything to please Hive; she has finally found where she belongs and she intends to dedicate herself to it with the same determination she has approached everything in her life.

Lincoln is found.

Even as his world is falling apart, as he helplessly watches the woman he loves - and he's never even told her - lose herself completely, something inside Lincoln clicks into place.

All his life he felt lost, un-tethered and alone, until Afterlife. And through Afterlife, as imperfect as it turned out to be, he met her. Skye. Daisy. His shining beacon of hope that maybe there was some true good in this world, and just maybe some of that good would rub off on him, and he could deserve the warmth and faith he saw in her eyes whenever she looked at him. Until today that is, when her eyes are more frenzied, her faith placed elsewhere. We care about you. We.

This new Daisy, standing before him now, is offering him everything he once thought he wanted. They could be together, without Shield, the shady organisation lurking in the dark that Jiaying had taught him to fear. Daisy made it sound so easy We could just walk right out of here… Shield can't hold us…

Something in Lincoln instinctively recoiled We can't just throw Shield away… He surprised himself with the realisation of how much he'd come to care for Shield and its agents. He'd been working so hard to prove himself to Coulson, and to become part of the team for so long now. He'd thought it was just for Daisy; even Shield thought it was just for Daisy. But now, as he argued that Shield would find them wherever they ran it dawned on him that maybe it was for himself too…

we want them to, right? That was the moment he knew. The look on her face. His Daisy wouldn't throw Shield away, she'd fight for it and the people in it till her last breath. And Lincoln was starting to realise that he just might be willing to do that too.

Even as he loses Daisy to this new threat, even as every aspect of his future seems uncertain and everything he touches continues to collapse, Lincoln learns an important truth about himself. He cares for Shield, and while Daisy is an important part of that, and he will fight to get her back to her true family with everything he has, he is also going to fight for Shield and his place within it. He's finally found the place he belongs.

Hello! This is my first Agents of Shield fic (and the first thing I've written in years!) so I hope it's okay! I've been dying since the last episode, and I've had so many ideas floating around my head and this one stuck - the idea of lost and found and how it applies to Daisy and Lincoln at the moment... I hope you enjoy it!

(Also I'm back working on my Falling Skies fic, if anyone was wondering where that went! I'm getting my brain back into writing gear!)