Maveth (part 4)

Disclaimer: see previous chapters.

The return to the surface from Will's underground hideout proved to be as embarrassing for Phil Coulson, as his descent down the sandy slopes had been. Mind you, neither Grant nor Leo commented now on him taking yet another ride on Grant's back, and Will's opinion didn't count – not yet, but all the same, when they had finally reached the surface, the (formerly?) stranded spaceman commented:

"Impressive, Mr-"

"Just call me Grant."

"Impressive, Mr. Grant. You must really care for your old man to carry him around like that and treat him like that in general-"

"He isn't my father," Grant said firmly, "but he is a good man – better than me, though I'm not sure about Leo over here – and he deserves help, especially since we're helping you already, though I'm not sure why Leo here is still carrying this defunct arm of the director."

"I've got my reasons," Leo replied brightly. "Now then, Will, how are you at scaling a sandy ravine slope via a rope upwards, or is there another way upwards?"

"Sure is," Will nodded, "didn't Jemma tell you this?"

"No, I mean yes, it's just that when the ancient evil monster came into the story, the story became very blurred, so no, we didn't really get that part," Leo confessed. "Please, show us."

"Follow me," Will nodded, and took – not as subtly as he did a look around. Naturally, the others also took a look around – just in case. Leo did not see anything suspicious, but the others, apparently, did, as they followed Will without any argument.

Leo, for his part, suppressed the desire to yell "Wait for me, I'm the smallest!" and just followed them, especially since both Coulson and especially Grant sought to put him before them, into the middle.

But he still kept Coulson's discarded hand, though – because he was Leo. And also, because he was Leo, he became aware only halfway to the destination point (as indicated by Coulson, rather than him, because he actually was largely lost and turned around, and if it had been just himself and Will, the two of them would be hopelessly lost by now), he became aware that their firearm was once more in Coulson's good hand, while Grant wasn't objecting to it, but rather supporting Coulson by his stump (and the director wasn't objecting to this either, not now), and both of them were keeping a sharp look around them... as was actually Will, but Leo still didn't see anything disturbing, and so he decided to say this.

"Leo," Grant said quietly, "keep your voice down and look down there, pardon the pun." He pointed back at the lowlands, where the sandy soil was rippling, as if a couple of breezes were chasing each other around – but there was no breeze. In fact, Leo only now realized, to his embarrassment, that the weather outside had changed – the heavy winds that had been harassing them earlier had disappeared, replaced by a relative calm. Perhaps this was a good thing, but Leo thought of the calm before a storm for some reason, and instinctively grabbed Grant's other hand – in case the storm came back and they would be at risk of losing each other.

"The storm, Leo, is already coming back," Coulson spoke calmly, (apparently Leo had spoken the last part aloud, again), "just look to the east."

Leo did. He immediately wished that he had not, as out there was a black storm, brewing between the earth and the sky of this alien world. "How do you know that it is east?" he asked, trying to be brave, (and not succeeding very well – facing a storm was a new experience for him, one that he would rather go without).

"We don't," Coulson replied, "but according to Grant's compass, the east is there, so, honestly, this is good enough for us. Maybe, if we begin to interact with this planet on a regular basis – perhaps. But until then – east it is, regardless of what it actually is."

"Okay," Leo nodded. "I can accept this. But if we go to this planet next time, I will need more than hearsay and a single compass-"

"Wait, you're thinking of going back here? Are you mad?" Will finally joined the conversation, even as he stopped, apparently in incredulity.

"This is S.H.I.E.L.D. you're talking about, Mr. Will – this is where madness has a method and a reason," Grant shrugged. "Anyways, how far until we're there yet?"

"Actually? I believe that we're here already," Leo shrugged. "This is the spot that Coulson had led us to the first time around, and there's the rope that we used to go down...you know, if we actually had a better idea of how to get around here, this would've saved us all a lot of embarrassing times..."

"Leo?" Coulson said flatly. "You remember that I told you both that I will kill you both if you tell anyone about my descent?"

"Sandspouts," Grant interrupted them.

"This isn't a word-" Leo began and fell silent, as he and Coulson (he didn't care about Will) beheld two or three waterspout-like tornadoes going in the distance, like some graceful, but carnivorous, animals.

"I know," Grant said the irrelevant, "but there doesn't seem to be too much water on this place, so I can't really call them waterspouts, now can I?"

"Point," Leo agreed, "now everyone keep quiet – I'm thinking."

Coulson and Grant exchanged looks and kept quiet. Will opened his mouth – Grant and Coulson gave him a look – he closed it.

"This is cozy," the Cavalry commented wryly, as she dropped on a harness, with a series of harnesses, through the portal. "It is time to go now, or do you need some more time, Leo?"

"No, we're good," Leo instantly stopped thinking about whatever he was thinking about at the moment. "Melinda, about Grant-"

"His people or rather – his snipers – had been quite helpful against Malick's forces," Melinda's face grew a distasteful look, "but if we don't bring him back, they'll turn on us and for the moment we rather not have another fight."

"Thank you," Grant nodded to the Chinese woman without any of his usual cocky comments and turned to Leo (and Will). "Shall we go now?"

There were no arguments.

/

The arrival of Coulson...and Grant...and Leo...and Will was actually quite mundane, as compared to their departure, which included parachute jumping and a lot of other things. They came through the portal, (as Melinda herself did), and just stood there, getting their bearings back. Thomas, Grant's remaining brother, gasped, as he realized that Grant was still alive and unhurt, but Grant ignored him for the moment. Daisy, however, did not.

"Grant," she said firmly, "you know what I can do. Tell your people to stand down."

"Hey, Leo's got a glowing hand and Malick's corpse looks like it is leaking oil rather than blood," Grant shrugged. "They aren't doing anything even without my orders at the moment."

There was a pause as everyone did look at Leo, and he did have a glowing hand – the one that Coulson had broken off in his brief fight with Grant. "Oh, it's the glowing seeds of Will's," the engineer said in his usual cheerful manner. "I scooped some of them into the hidden compartment on Coulson's prosthetic arm, you know? Interesting, they didn't glow on their native planet..."

"Turbo," Mack groaned, "have you been sacrificing strength and durability of the director's prosthetics for hidden secret compartments? This isn't right!"

Coulson opened his mouth to comment that Leo did not do everything right lately, when Leo jabbed Malick's supposed corpse with the glowing hand. There was a brief flash of daylight (back on England, it was still night), some sort of a brief shriek, and when the light faded, the corpse was gone, as if it had never existed.

"Um," Leo gulped, released Coulson's artificial limb, and kind of sat down on the floor. "I didn't mean to do this."

"Oh Fitz," Jemma just groaned. "You haven't changed."

"Coulson thinks that I have-"

"Before we get stuck dealing with this latest crisis, Grant, tell your men to back down," Daisy growled. "You don't have a choice – you don't have any friends here-"

"Ah, but I have family," Grant flashed her a grin.

"No you don't – Thomas here hates you as much as any of us-"

"He was talking about me," Raina, of all people, commented, as she descended downstairs, swinging a large baseball bat, studded with nails long enough and sharp enough to probably hurt even another InHuman, let alone an ordinary person. "So, we meet again, all three of us, eh Tommy?"

"Raina," Thomas clearly was about to hyperventilate. "You're green."

"Sure is," Grant agreed amicably, even as Raina gave their (?) brother a look that Coulson and others used to give Grant himself after his betrayal. "Remember grandma Dot's stories? They were true."

Thomas gulped. Tears began to run down his cheeks.

"And what's more," Grant continued in the same amicable tone, "I am not dead yet, either. Tommy, you failed – again." Despite his friendly voice and gentle smile, somehow the message was that Thomas did not have long left to live.

"Hold," Coulson said simply. "Grant – what are we missing?"

"Let's see," Grant grew thoughtful. "The three of us had different mothers. I, like Christian, was born from the legitimate Ms. Ward. Thomas was born from Mr. Ward's secretary – he was the right gender and color, so our biological family adopted him and made him something of a showpiece: he got better food; he was not tortured at all – the works. Raina, whom born from one of the house staff, was both colored and a girl, so our family refused to recognize her, except for our grandma, Dot. Raina?"

"Grandma Dot adopted me and made me a part of the family – her side of the family," Raina shrugged. "The only other person who cared about me was big bro over here," she pointed to Grant, "for some reason of his own he decided that I was his sister and began to play with me. This did not go well with Tommy over there, who wanted Grant to play only with him, and he began to tattle on us to the Wards. Grant did not like that, and so he stopped playing with Tommy altogether. Christian did not play with Tommy to begin with, so Tommy ended up with no one at all – and Grant still played with me, and got to spend time with grandma Dot, who was very cool, and had all the best stories: how she let Howard Stark get away from her, how her grandfather, back in the old country, had sex with an alien, which is why, possibly, some of us were throwbacks to that ancestor of hers, and that we had great futures ahead of us. Grant, being the trusting idiot that he was back then, shared those stories with Tommy, because he felt sorry for him – and Tommy promptly told it to the elder generation, and there was a lot of nastiness, but you know what, Tommy? Maybe Grant and I are not as badass as I thought that we were once, but he and I are still a family, and you are not. Live with it."

"And on this note, we'll take our leave," Grant spoke from his position, next to Leo (as well as Jemma and Will). "Leo, thank you for believing in me, as misplaced as your trust is-"

"Wait," Leo got onto his feet too. "Grant, is Raina telling the truth or is this just another tale of hers? She once talked Coulson into going into the memory machine-"

Grant shrugged, and reaching towards his face, took it off – or rather, the photostatic mask like the one that been on the face of the late agent 33, revealing a visage similar to his old one, save that it was much darker, not like that of an Afro-American...save for fiery red blood veins that appeared here and there.

Grant smiled, without any humour, and exhaled a small stream of hot smoke. "How about now?" he asked, uncharacteristically gentle, as he put the mask into Leo's hands. "Keep it – it'll be probably more useful for S.H.I.E.L.D. nowadays. And Skye?" he turned towards Daisy. "You may be growing more beautiful every time we seem to meet, but those fish pills of your folks? They suck. I took one accidentally – and got my organs rearranged like a jigsaw puzzle, and in a bad way, too. If Raina and a friend of hers were not around to help me, I would have died, most likely, but they were, so I am still alive. Sorry about that," he concluded with a self-depreciating grin.

In return, a good deal of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s team groaned, facepalmed, or both.

"Grant," Coulson said quietly, "can we extend our truce for a bit longer? I, we cannot believe it, but there are some formal offers that must be made – to both of you, since you are InHumans. You can leave as any time, of course, but-"

"Let's hear them, for formality's sake," Grant replied, instead of leaving.

TBC