The black grains of sand rolled off Leo's face and down his shirt as he slowly sat up. In relief he noted the worried faces of his teammates peering in the large hole at him. He was back. And the distinctive, warm hand in his was proof enough that he had not failed in his mission.

"Fitz?" Jemma's voice was small, but so clearly hers that Leo's heart nearly burst with joy.

He brushed the ruined remnants of the Monolith off of Jemma, hands trembling. What sort of state would she be in? At his touch she stirred, raising her head. There were gasps and laughs of delight from the team, but Leo ignored them, focusing on Jemma. As the black sand poured off her, he got his first good look at her.

Leo gasped.

Jemma's skin was covered in thick, twisting vines. Like tattoos of red and blue, they looked similar to computer wires running just under her skin. They wound up her arms and circled her neck, though her face was relatively clear of them. And her face! She wore thick makeup, heavy black eyelids with dark maroon lips, and a dusting of gold over her cheeks and forehead. A tangled knot of scarred flesh distorted her left eyebrow, and thin silver chains dangled around her head from a diadem.

"J-Jemma?"

He stared as she got to her feet. Her hair, cut to shoulder-length when she left, was now to her waist, braided with ribbons and beads. She wore a knee-length tunic, green, sleeveless, belted about the waist. Her feet were shod in sturdy boots that hugged her calves. Knives, silver with a streak of red and blue down the length of them, hung in her belt, and a streamlined shotgun was strapped to her back.

Everybody was silent, looking at the woman who looked so much like and so different from Jemma Simmons. She looked back, and she smiled.

"It's good to be home."

#

Jemma felt herself relaxing for the first time in years as she sat on her lab, getting checked over. She knew she would be bombarded with questions soon enough, but before she got there she requested that she be checked for any diseases, and to be allowed a shower and a change of clothes. Her weapons had been confiscated, but she had expected that, and with Leo holding her hand, she felt safe.

"Your hair has grown," he offered while a sample of blood was taken.

Jemma swallowed, her stomach starting to feel queasy. "How long have I been gone?"

She couldn't be sure that the time ratio on the other side of the monolith had been the same.

"Six months, about."

"Six months? Is that all?" She wouldn't look at Leo now. Six months. Well, she was back, and six months wasn't so bad for him. "You must have been very worried."

He nodded. "I'm just glad your back."

Later, when she was in her room, she stared at her face in the mirror. So much had happened since she last stood in this room. She was a different person. She could never go back to being the old Jemma Simmons. Taking a deep breath, she washed the makeup off her face. Without the heaviness there, she felt vulnerable. But these were her friends. They were her equals, they were her family. She undid her braid and, with the knife she had kept hidden, sliced her hair off, letting the weight of it fall to the floor.

"That's better," she told herself, running her hands through what was left. It felt good.

Dressing in her old clothes was like slipping into an old skin, though her shirts were tight around the shoulders now. Having been so long without wearing jeans made them feel constricting now, though that could be because her leg muscles had grown as well. She opted for a skirt instead.

Bobbi, still not healed from Ward's attack, and Mack walked to the meeting room, both telling her how glad they were that she was back, and studiously not looking at the designs on her skin. Well. they'd know soon enough.

Coulson, Leo and Skye were waiting for her, and soon after she had taken her seat, Hunter came in. He sat opposite Bobbi and didn't look at her. Jemma frowned. Had they broken up again?

"Jemma, it's good to have you back. Now, can you tell us what happened?"

Jemma smiled, though her heart started fluttering with nerves again. She wished she could go to Leo's side and take his hand, but it was ridiculous, after everything she had been through, to need anybody's support. "It's a long story. Five years, in fact."

The expressions around her changed, and Jemma ducked her head. She expected the tinkling of her diadem, but then remembered that it had been taken away. Well. Good riddance. There was nothing but bad memories with that thing.

"Five years?" Leo repeated.

Jemma nodded. "Five years, and ten thousand years. The monolith was a portal through space and time. And I'm sorry that I've caused you all so much worry and grief." She looked at Leo here. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Bobbi said bracingly. "The monolith took you—"

"I built it."

Eyes widened and jaws dropped. Jemma twisted her hands, taking a deep breath. "I built the monolith to take me back in time, because I needed to be there. You'll all soon understand. Especially Skye."

Her friend shook her head. "I go by Daisy now."

"Daisy." Jemma made the mental note. "Of course. Daisy."

Mack stood up and moved to Daisy's side. "You built the monolith? We thought it was a Kree design to kill Inhumans."

"Far from it. It's my design to bring me back to where I needed to be. I can understand why it would be thought of as a weapon, though. I could not program it to my DNA specifically, and so I could only make it react to Inhuman DNA. I'm certain it has taken many through the ages. And for that…" she trailed off. "Let me start from the beginning. When the Monolith took me away, it deposited me ten thousand years ago. I'm not sure exactly where I was, but I ended up in a tribe of early modern humans. It wasn't long after when we were taken by the Kree."

She paused, letting that bit sink in. There was a lot she could say about her life before the Kree took her and her friends, but that was for another time. Everybody waited in silence for her to continue, and so she did.

"I was among the first Inhumans created by the Kree."

"Holy—" Daisy started. Her eyes widened and she got to her feet. "Are you serious?"

Jemma nodded, smiling sadly. "I am. You didn't think this happened by accident, did you?" She gestured at the red and blue vines in her skin. "And you must know from my blood tests that my DNA has changed completely."

Coulson nodded slowly. "We wondered if you would tell us."

"This is what happened when I was put through Terregenisis." Jemma wondered how they would react when she told them about why she came back, why she didn't just stay back in time. "I'm Inhuman. Just like Sk—Daisy."

"Wow," Hunter muttered.

Jemma ignored him, watching Daisy's reaction.

"When did you change?"

"It was only a month or so after I was sent back in time. I hadn't even learned the language of my ancestral hosts yet. I believe I was already a latent Inhuman before, if I'm honest. In fact…" she hesitated here, because she wasn't sure how her team was going to take the news. "I believe that I was the Kree's first successful attempt because I was already Inhuman. And they used my DNA to supplement their own in the creation of the others."

"So…" Leo's eyes were wide and his face was pale. He looked between Jemma and Daisy.

"Technically, if my theory is correct, all Inhumans are descended from me. Including me." Jemma laughed. "It's a paradox, to be sure. But I can't think of another explanation. All the others went mad before self-destructing. Well, the early anatomically modern humans, at least. The Neanderthals fared better, though they were turned into more animalistic creatures. No powers, just… consumed by the insatiable desire to kill us."

Coulson nodded for her to continue.

Daisy interrupted. "These Neanderthals. Are they still around?"

"As far as I know, yes. I believe that the Kree put them into status, as an insurance policy against us." Jemma's chest grew hot, and she clenched her fists. "We didn't give them the chance."

"What do you mean by that?" Daisy's voice was soft.

Jemma's lips twisted into a bitter smile. "What I mean is that the Kree thought of us as their property. Their slaves and their weapons. When we refused to be used as such, they tried to exterminate us. We defended ourselves."

"You killed them." Coulson's expression was unreadable.

"We revolted against their tyranny and in defence of our lives. We knew it was a hopeless fight, but we had to, if we were to have any chance of survival. In the end, we had to… we had to convince them that we were all destroyed." Jemma closed her eyes, remembering the faces of the volunteers who had died so the others could survive. "We hid after that. Many who were changed on the inside only returned to their places throughout the world and reintegrated into the human populations, but those of us who had changed too much stayed together in the underground Kree cities until we could build a place of our own, where we could be safe for the rest of eternity."

She had already decided not to tell them about the prophecy that as made, that the Inhumans would rise up once more and destroy the Kree altogether. They wouldn't understand the horrors that had been inflicted upon her people, or how all she wanted was for them to live in peace. She could only hope that the Kree themselves would not believe the prophecy any longer. If they didn't, then there was a chance that both sides could survive.

If not… well. Then her people would prove the prophecy correct.

They all sat in silence for a long time, every one of them taking turns looking at her and not looking at her. Jemma's nerves twisted again. Perhaps she should have saved that for later, but she wanted to start this off honestly.

"What can you do?" Daisy asked. She came to sit beside Jemma.

Jemma smiled. "I interact with technology. For instance…" She looked at Coulson, eyes sparkling. "Sir, could you put your prosthetic on the table?"

Coulson hesitated a moment, but removed his robotic arm and placed it palm-down on the table. Jemma pressed her hands together, narrowing her eyes at the prosthetic. It took a bit of concentration, but she managed to distinguish its circuitry from the rest of the plane, and slowly curled the fingers into a fist. She flexed them, and made the hand pull itself along the table a foot before she turned it on its side and gave a thumbs-up.

She sat back then, severing her connection. "That was more difficult than I thought. It's a more complex technology than I expected. Although I could do a few tweaks to make it more efficient for you, sir."

Even Daisy was staring at her as though they'd never seen her before. Jemma tried to smile. They must be thinking about what sort of threat she now posed. Hacking computers. Taking over the plane. She cleared her throat.

"I can't do much with software. I can manipulate the physical, but when it comes to programs and signals it's just too complex for me to handle. I have tried with Kree ships in the past, trying to hack their controls, and I've very nearly lost myself. My neurological pathways get overwhelmed and I start thinking in binary code. And I can't do anything with very simple technologies, like deadbolts. Mostly I just know how to build things."

"Build things," Leo repeated.

"All this is fascinating," Hunter said, though his dry tone was not enough to cover up his uneasiness. "But I'm more interested in learning why you were all dressed up as a queen when you first came in."

Jemma was silent, debating on how much to tell them. She wanted to be honest, but how much honesty was too much? She moved her hands back into her lap. "That's because I was. I led the Inhumans against the Kree. I was the one who came up with the plan to hide our existence from them. When we founded our civilization, they crowned me their queen."