Chapter 2

Falsity in Intellectual Action

"I mean, who is stupid enough to name a group of Inhuman criminals, UFO? I mean, why? Are they watched too much X-Files? Is that what turned them? Because I had double checked everyone on the gifted index and everyone is accounted for." Hunter checking his ammunition for one last time before the Quinjet backdoor roared open.

Davis landed them inside the appointed perimeter, only hundred meters away from the wreckages of the exploded aircraft. "Good luck, guys." David flipped the switches in the panel above his head, feeling another jolt of pain from his bruised arms.

"Thanks, Dave. Forgive me if I'm a little cynical about that. I mean, just try introduce yourself as SHIELD to these polices and feds. We'll be very lucky if they won't shoot us straight away." Hunter said, making sure the safety lock on his weapon was off, expecting a very possible crossfire from fellow law enforcement officers.

"Don't worry. The world has starting to like us again, remember?" Daisy said hopefully.


"Oh, you guys are S.H.I.E.L.D agents? Thank God, you are here. I'm Captain Deaton with the Chicago P.D.," The old man wearing police uniform extending his hand in excitement to shake Daisy. He smiled widely at the rest of the team, revealing a deep relief on his face. Handling a terror attack on this scale was a nightmare for him, but now that an Inhuman terrorist group claiming this action as theirs, making this situation ultimately beyond impossible to be handled by the cops themselves.

"You're not going to shoot us?" Hunter exclaimed in half-shock tone. He moved his grip slowly from his ICER gun that he kept closely to his side. "Well, this is new."

"Hunter." Bobbi eyeing him, giving him a warning to behave with only a single look.

"172 casualties. Sadly, we can identified almost none of them. I mean, as you can see, there is nothing much left of the plane, but these blazing rubbles." Captain Deaton shook his head as he handed Hunter the files that contains the passengers' manifest.

The large piece of the blazing debris still radiating stinging heat, alarming everyone who standing next to it. There were not much left seen behind the fiery smokes, but a chunk of scorched metal from what perhaps a half of the aircraft cabin used to be.

"Fitz, do we have any good news from the trace of the video? The one that the UFO group's uploaded?" Daisy turned her head to Fitz who standing far behind from everyone else.

Fitz was watching everyone's back closely, stood almost hidden between the dark shadows. His thoughts was busy conveying theories about big secret that his friends kept. Clearly, there were something that everyone hide from him. Something "the other version" of him had done perhaps, or something bad had happened to "the other him", he assumed. But that other version of him had passed away, what possibly could be worse than that?

He knew the terrible thing the other him had done to Daisy. Just two weeks ago when he asked Mack why everyone were so keen on forcing him to see the shrink, Mack reluctantly told him how the other Fitz kidnapped Daisy and how "he" had restored her power. While he felt oddly horrible about the act that he didn't do, he unusually understood the reason why it need to be done.

But he knew, there is something else were hidden from him. But every time he tried to ask these questions, he had never gotten himself any conclusive answers. It was always, you are a good man that's all you need to know, or, you have to focus on your recovery, we'll talk about it later. An avoidance after avoidance that leads him to a peaking frustration.

"Fitz? The video trace?" Daisy looked confused.

"Again, not yet, Daisy. Just like I have answered before. And you're not the director anymore," Fitz answered curtly, clearly looking very agitated. "So perhaps stop acting like one." Fitz curling his fingers into a fist.

Everyone stared at Fitz in surprise, creating a long silence while they all stood in stillness.

"What did you said?" Daisy waved her hand in sudden rage, her eyes widen in disbelief.

"Look, I think, what he trying to say is," Hunter walked straight away to stand between them, almost ran. He muttered to find the next words. "I mean, Fitz probably just frustrated as every one of us here. This is a massive disaster, obviously it is affecting our emotions. But, what he," Hunter stopped speaking at once. His attention was drawn to the moving leaves on the large bushes right behind them. It was not the bushes who caught his attention. There were clearly movements behind those bushes, he has no doubt of that. Somebody was watching them close in candid.

Trying to spying on spies? Are they losing their mind? Hunter thought. He made a silent signal with his hands to the other, pointing at the bushes.

"What is it, Hunter?" Bobbi whispered in a half crocked voice. She slide out her batons out of her jeans pocket, and crossed them closely to her chest ready for an assault. Though, she didn't even know what was going on, but she knew she can always trusted Hunter's instinct.

"We have company," Hunter pulled out his favorite 50 caliber.

A man leapt over out of the bushes and struck Daisy with his fist. Daisy fell fast before she managed to quake him. Hunter pulled him by his collar and dropped the man as hard as he could to the ground, before realizing there was another person appeared from the dark bushes. A dark figure of a woman, but it was too dark to tell. She was trying to make an escape from the team,

"I got her." Bobbi ran as fast as she could, but the distance between her and the woman seems to get longer. She barely manage to keep moving then she realized the woman just vanished into thin air. There were only blackness before she slumped to the hard pavement. She can't breathe.

"Bobbi" Hunter cried her name loud, he dropped the man he was beating and ran as fast as he could to her.

The man didn't waste the opportunity, he pulled out the gun he hid on his back and pointed it at Daisy who was still stunned from his strikes before.

A loud bang resonates like a cracking thunder and the man collapsed to the ground holding his chest, making no sound as he muffled his last words.

Fitz stood steady behind the man, still holding the gun. He walked slowly toward him and pulled the trigger again, another shot right to the heart. Although, he was sure he had killed him on the first shot. He doesn't miss.

Fitz stared at the lifeless body, fighting his reflex to grin.


"Would you like to share your story on what happened last night?" Doctor Banks smiled softly at him. She knocking her pen over and over to the side of her notebook, creating a cluttering noise to filled the big silence on the room.

She had been working with the government for a while now. She had treated active and veteran soldiers who suffered from PTSD, she had treated an abusive general who suffered from schizophrenia as her patient, and a whole bunch of other patients that suffer from variety of mental illness. But never had she ever treat a patient like him before. Traumatic childhood, a brain trauma caused by hypoxia and oh, he had live another lifetime as somebody else with whole different persona in what she know named as framework, causing this man to have two memories in his head, leading to a dissociative identity disorder. She don't think she had ever met any complexity like him, and she very much intrigued by him.

Dealing with these spy agents, who can pass any lie detector with flying colors, were certainly the biggest challenge she ever face in her career. She knew, the true nature of these people were disguising their feelings if there is any. All their life, these agents were assigned to put their emotions on hold, putting their duty as the sole purpose of their life. Making them open up to her, is like trying to crack open an egg shell slowly without tearing up the thin membrane.

Samantha stared at the man sitting before her with thoughtful expression.

"I stand by what I did. Yes I killed that man and I did aimed for a fatal shot," Fitz showed a blank expression on his face, it almost seems like he had his mind somewhere else as he answered. "He was about to kill her. I did what I had to do."

"He wanted to kill her? Killed Daisy?" Samantha wrote something on her note, although she knew she would never read anything that she had wrote down on that note. By a disclose agreement with the director of the agency, she had granted a clearance to record her session with these agents. She preferred to reviews the footage later after every session to see any facial expression signs her patients might have given, minor gestures she might missed before. Thought, she chose to let her patients on the dark about them being recorded. Somehow, her patient seems to be shy and less cooperative when she tell them about the camera. But Director Mackenzie gave her all the green lights to do her works the way she do.

She breathe hard while thinking it through again.

After all she is doing it all to help her patients and she doing it under the oath to keep the footage for her eyes and director's only. Samantha debated herself in her mind.

"Yes."

"Ok, I fully understand that." Samantha crossed her legs, making herself more comfortable as she afraid that she might had let her nerves shown too much. "And how are feeling about that, Fitz?"

Fitz's eyes widen in surprise. His mind travelled back to the room where he is right now. No more wondering about Jemma's whereabouts, or her wellbeing. No more thinking about Jemma's laughter and her soft lingering touch that he missed so much. His mind just jumped back to the room where Doctor Banks just asked him the question. Yes, he killed that man, what about that, he thought.

"I'm not sure about how I feel," Fitz let a couple of seconds slipped before the words he composed carefully came out his lips. He waited for a moment before continued, making sure any words that he said would not alarming this doctor. The last thing he needs right now is to be locked up in some mental facility. He needs to find her. Jemma. "I think deep down, there is this, a huge remorse sinking in, you know. I think, I should have listen to them, maybe we could caught that man alive."

He lied. There's no other way. He don't understand why everyone didn't get that. It's a simple logic thinking. It's either Daisy or that man. Daisy is far more valuable. To him, to the team. It's the only rational outcome. But it seems like everyone wanting him to feel terrible about the shooting, so he's going to play along.

Samantha nodded before adding some more words to her note.

"And how do you think the other you would feel about that? Leopold?" Samantha certain she saw a spark on Fitz's eyes when she said that name out loud. Leopold.

Fitz sighed long and trying to control his breathe. He can't let any signs shown. He trying so hard not to smirk.

All the prescriptions, all the training, nothing helped, it was only making him worse.

"Do you still can hear him? Leopold?" Samantha repeated her question in a slower pace, making a slight exaggeration on the name she said at the end. Leopold.

"Oh doctor, you did this. You did this with all that drugs, that hypnosis sessions, that endless sparring combat trainings. You wanted me to control him, but he won. He always win." Fitz though loudly in his head.

"Fitz? Do you still hear Leopold?" Samantha green eyes glared in intense focused at him.

Fitz trying his best to composed himself. He can feel his heart beating so heart, it felt like it was nearly jumped out his body. He's waiting in silence and there is this sudden sense of calm surged in himself. A burst of confidence drowned him from inside. He got this.

"Hmm," Fitz stared back at the woman sitting across him intensely. His eyes assessing her in silent for seconds and he let out a smirk.

"Leopold?" Samantha smiled softly. "It's very nice to see you again."

Samantha keeping her voice steady and firm, making sure he knew who is in charge in this room. She waited for a response but Fitz turned his gaze to his own hands, watching it very closely as he flipped his hand couples of time in curiosity.

"Leopold?" Samantha asked in louder voice.

"Yes, he always can hear me, Samantha. Thought, he always trying to block me. It was always fascinated for me to watch him fail every time."

"I thought we agree. Your works, they are important. You want to save humanity, then why you stirred him to do it, to kill the man last night"

"Oh trust me, it wasn't me. It was him. I would prefer to captive the perpetrator and cut him inside out, again and again and again. That he would beg me to kill him instead. Last night was just an outcome of some logical thinking. A simple one," Fitz stopped to shake his head. He managed to breathe hard before continue. "I don't have much time, I tried to tell him, but, Fitz," He expressed a discomfort when he was saying the name. "He didn't want to listen. He only care about that bloody woman. Jemma Simmons." He stopped for a second and then shook his head. "You are all following a wrong trail. It's not U.F.O., They call themselves U-Foes. You bunch of fools. The reason you couldn't trace them because they owned the state of the art high technology that clearly advanced your government owned technology. These men, they are,"

Fitz blinked and opened his mouth in confusion. Trying to recall what he was trying to said before. Doctor Banks was asking him about Leopold. He can't tell her the truth. He remained quiet in silent.

Samantha watching him closely, making an observation whether Fitz had regained his consciousness again. It had been a three weeks since Leopold making an appearance. It validates her theory, that with Fitz re-learning all the knowledge and experiences he had acquired as Leopold, to accept Leopold as part of himself, making him to gain better control of his consciousness, but it doesn't mean that his other persona still won't come out every now and then.

"I'm sorry, Doctor Banks," Fitz's voice was distant. He need to get out of here, his eyes gazing at the door as he wrapped his arms around himself. "I just don't feel like talking about it right now."

He shook his head slowly, feeling utterly daze.

The stillness was ended abruptly after a loud ringing sound blasting out of Samantha's cellphone that she put on top of the table.

Fitz wasn't interested to peek the ID caller on it, but the long numbers shown on the display intriguing his thought. He was only caught a glimpse on some its first digits, +221, an International phone code for Senegal. He didn't know Doctor Banks had any associate in a country that far.

"I'm so sorry, I know we are still in the middle of the session. But, this is a very important call, I have been waiting for this call for months," Samantha asking for a permission, almost begging. Her eyes kept gazing at the door, like she was going to make a run for it.

"Off course. I know the feelings," Fitz nodded slowly. His mind uncontrollably replaying memories of Jemma on his head, hitting his chest with pains going deeper and deeper. "I have to go to control room anyway, there is this Intel I need to check."

"No, no please stay, it won't take too long, I promise"

Fitz already stood to leave the room when Samantha even hadn't finished her sentence yet. She watched him close the door and waiting for a couple of seconds to make sure that she was the only soul left there.

"Oh my God, where have you been?" Samantha shouted in anger through her cellphone. "Are you okay?"

"Yes I'm alright, Sam," Jemma's voice at the other end of the phone was sound weary. She was clearly had crying before. "How was he?"

"He's making a trivial progress," Samantha carefully picked her words before she answered. "I'll send you our newest recorded session again, okay? You can make your own assessment."

Jemma had saw every recording that Samantha had sent before. It kills her every time. She can see how much Fitz missed her, she can see it clearly. It pained her, like a blade tearing her heart deliberately. Oh how, she would give anything on this world for a chance to hold him, even only for one more time.

"Thank you," Jemma trying to hold back her tears. "I don't know if I could do anymore, Sam."

"You will make it, Jemma. Look, we've been friends since we were little girls. Yes, maybe we went our separate ways after you joining the Academy, and I went to my civil way. But, I know you, Jemma Simmons. And if anyone can do it, if there is any body on this planet can do it, it's you," Samantha said quietly, looking thoughtful. "Fitz will get better soon. The key is to find him. Remember, that's why you out there and I believe with all my heart, that we will find him very soon, Jemma. We will find Alistair Fitz." Samantha bit her lips, hoping her statement sounds convincing.

"The reason I was here, because the other personality of my husband hates me so much that he tried to kill me, multiple of times. And as you put it, we need to make a breakthrough, a way to subdue that persona is to fetch the person he respect and fear the most. The man that had him on leash. His father."