A/N: I'm so happy with all the support this story has gotten so far! Thanks, guys! Here's chapter two! Tell me what you think!
It took half an hour before Coulson started showing any sign of unease. Then, once they'd effectively searched everywhere, he looked positively alarmed.
"Where was she when you last saw her?" he asked Fitz.
"In the room with the Kree artifact."
"We need to watch the footage from that room. Hopefully it'll show us what happened."
"Do you think whatever happened was in that room?"
"Unless she somehow snuck away. I think the room is our best bet right now."
Fitz fast-walked back to Coulson's office, Coulson a step behind him. He sat down at Coulson's desk without hesitating and started typing on his computer, going to the security settings Coulson had complete control over. He searched for the artifact's room and went back almost two hours, enlarging the video on the screen.
"There's Jemma and I talking." Fitz said as they appeared on the screen. He didn't have the sound on. "She said she would meet me in a little bit."
They watched as the Fitz on-screen left the room and Jemma packed up her bag.
"If she packed, why didn't she leave?" Fitz asked out loud, more to himself than to Coulson.
A moment later he watched as she walked towards the Kree artifact's container, pushing the door closed. Then his heart stopped.
"No." he said softly. "No, it can't be."
He hurriedly typed on the computer and watched the last minute over again.
"No!" he yelled once it registered.
"Fitz, wait!" he heard Coulson shout. But he couldn't wait. He was sprinting out the door, through the halls and back towards that cursed room.
"Jemma!"
He tore open the door and raced towards the container, ready to break it open when a strong arm wrapped around his middle, restraining him.
"Stop!" Coulson said, slightly out of breath.
Fitz fought against him feebly for a second before giving up and turning to face him. "How did this happen?" he asked. His voice was weaker than he would have liked it to be.
They had been going to have dinner. The war with the Inhumans had ended, and they were supposed to celebrate something great. And not even an hour had passed before something horrible happened.
Fitz would never let her out of his sight again once they got her out.
It wasn't fair. After everything they'd been through…
"How do we get her out?" he asked.
His only concern was making sure she was safe. Everything else was unimportant, at least until she was safe. He forgot about Inhumans, Ward, and even their recovering team. She was the only thing that mattered to him. He had to get her back.
"I've never seen anything like this." Coulson said. "I don't have any answers."
"Then we need to find some." Fitz said.
The weakness was gone from his voice, replaced by determination.
Jemma needed him. It was his job to get her back safely.
Jemma felt the rock send tethers of itself into her, felt it root itself in and start to grow.
She was still in that twilight zone, only able to think about what the rock showed her. Half her mind was asleep, but she was alert enough to feel the rock start to move into her.
It wasn't painful. She didn't actually mind that much. From what she had learned from it, this was necessary. The only scary part was the feeling of losing control, but the rock assured her she wasn't losing control of anything.
It was only guiding her. It said it knew what she needed more than she did; that their needs were the same, and it could help both of them. A small part of her disagreed with that, but that part was buried quickly.
She felt that small part lose power, stifled by the rock's overpowering presence.
Jemma Simmons was changed, though her awareness of it was limited.
It bonded with her, giving her strength and knowledge, channeling itself into her.
Taking control of her.
Fitz rubbed his bleary eyes hastily, willing them to stay sharp.
He had been watching the video of Jemma being taken. He had seen it at least twenty times, and he was still woefully lost.
He couldn't focus. He was determined to save her, but all his mind kept coming up with was that picture of Jemma seconds before the wave submerged her. The image was burnt into his brain, and he knew it would haunt him for the rest of his life.
She had looked petrified, desperation and fear clear in her eyes as she had clawed for her freedom in vain. She never had a chance, he realized as he watched it once more. Whatever the wave was, it had latched on to her as if its life depended on it.
He shut the laptop with more force than he'd meant to. He'd drive himself mad if he watched it again. Coulson had gone to his office, but Fitz was in the lab. He had always worked best in the lab.
Now he decided Coulson could help him. He obviously wasn't doing too well on his own.
Maybe if he just got access to all the documents concerning the Kree artifact. Yeah, that was the place to start. If there was anything to be learned from the video, it was escaping him, so he needed to look somewhere else.
He walked to Coulson's office and knocked on the door. "Come in." he heard.
He pushed open the door and walked in, sitting in front of Coulson's desk. "I need everything we've got on the artifact."
"I've been pulling everything with mention of it since I got here." Coulson said. "What were you doing?"
"Watching the security footage." Fitz said. "I can't watch it anymore."
Coulson looked at him sympathetically. "I don't blame you, Fitz. I had trouble watching it twice."
"What did you find?" Fitz asked, anxious to think of anything but the video.
"Not nearly as much as I'd like." Coulson said. "Even with access to all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s records, I only found two results. One is the first time S.H.I.E.L.D. encountered it. It describes where it was found and the procedure that was used to secure it."
"And the second?"
Coulson sighed. "The second is even shorter. It states that an experiment was planned to study it about fifty years ago, but it was cancelled before anything was done. Some higher ups thought it was too dangerous for anything but containment, and ordered it to lockdown."
Fitz felt empty. "So we've got nothing."
"No." Coulson said. "We have you. If anyone can figure this out it's you."
"Fat lot of good I've done so far." He muttered.
"Let me make a call." Coulson said. "See if I can't find someone who knows more about the rock than we do."
"No one in S.H.I.E.L.D. then." Fitz said darkly.
"No," Coulson said. "The person I have in mind is definitely not in S.H.I.E.L.D."
The rock spoke to her in a teacher-like fashion. It taught her its mission to destroy the Inhumans. It explained why it was made, and showed her some of its power.
It took over.
At first, after she stopped protesting, it just showed her things, giving her basic facts. Then it started sharing more detailed things with her, slowly so her fragile mind could take it.
Then, once she reached her capacity in that fashion, and it could teach her no more that way, it realized she was ready for the final step.
It started fully bonding with her, transferring itself into her mind and body.
It had taken many hosts in its lifetime, so it knew perfectly how to do it. It never moved too fast or too slow, but at just the right speed for the newest host. The information it had given to her had prepared her for its presence.
This host, Jemma Simmons it learned she was called, was one of the brightest it had encountered. It was able to bond with her in a way it rarely had with others, much more completely.
It buried the person she used to be deep inside her, making room for itself.
It planned on never going as long without a host as it had the last time. That had been horrible, the sense of starvation making it desperate. It had shown the humans how it changed into a wave, something meant to be kept completely secret, craving a body of any type. So when the girl had come close enough to its cage, it had struck out immediately, overcome by the need for a host.
Now it could see that she was the best human it could have found. She was perfect.
With luck and careful planning, she could become its permanent host.
