"What did we learn from the scan?" Leo asked anxiously as he and Jemma sat beside Dr. Bell, analyzing the results in the small observation room.
She shuffled closer to him so that their shoulders touched and took his hand, trying to reassure him.
"It's not so bad," she told him optimistically pointing to the screen. "Nothing about what happens when I'm linked to B21 but book, the net is only on the surface, it seems to be just one layer. Good news." she chirped.
"Simply pulling it out-" Dr. Bell began.
"Absolutely not," Leo exclaimed. "I don't think that's the best idea," Jemma objected.
"- still isn't an option," he finished frowning at them.
One at a time, he kept insisting. Easier said than done, who was suppose to go first? Besides it had never bothered anyone else had it?
"Where is agent Cobb?" Leo wondered impatiently. "You did tell her this was an emergency? I hope she isn't taking the time to finish her crossword puzzle or-"
"She's coming," Dr. Bell interrupted him.
"It'd be nice if she hurried up a little," Jemma admitted. It'd be really nice if she could get this thought leeching potential time bomb out of her head sometime today.
"We don't need her," Leo decided. "I'll take a look myself. I'll probably figure out how to remove it before agent can't-be-bothered-to-show-up even arrives."
"I'd really rather you-" Dr. Bell tried to say.
"I didn't ask your opinion," he snapped. "Who made you the one in charge anyway? Last time I checked our team leader was your boss."
He looked uncomfortable and Jemma found Leo's skepticism was beginning to spread to her.
"Coulson... has a soft spot for his team," Dr. Bell told them carefully. "We were worried that his affections for agent Simmons would cloud his judgement, just as we are concerned about your ability to put the mission first agent Fitz."
That decision was certainly out of line, Jemma thought, bordering on treason.
"If that's what's happening here you don't need worry," Leo assured him, aggravated. "If the mission is saving Jemma of course I'll put that first. What do you think I'm going to do, be too distracted by her lovely sparkling eyes to think about saving her life?"
He had lovely sparkling eyes too, she thought fondly before turning her attention back to the conversation.
"You misunderstand." Dr. Bell said seriously. "Saving agent Simmons is not the first priority here."
Leo seemed baffled but Jemma suddenly understood. It made sense, despite being terrifying. Of course she wasn't the main concern.
It made sense but the tiny room was becoming suffocating at her revelation and she didn't feel safe there anymore.
"He's saying that stopping the shapeshifters is more important than saving my life," she informed Leo quietly.
"Jemma..." he whispered, placing his hand over the unbruised side of her face, the side with the metal processor of the neural net. "It's not... I mean I know you'd..." he paused and she placed her hand over his, patiently letting him sort it out. "We can do both," he insisted stubbornly.
"That's what we're hoping," Dr. Bell put in. "But we still would rather you not be put in a position of authority here, just in case."
"In case of what exactly?" he demanded, removing his hand and turning to glare at him. "What kind of decision do you think you're going to need to make? Do you know something we don't?"
"No I just- " Dr. Bell defended.
"This is ridiculous," he raged. "Why are we even discussing it? It's insane," he turned to her. "Tell him Jemma, tell him he's being crazy."
He wasn't though. The shapeshifters and their creators were a serious threat, they had information and power and they could hurt a lot of innocent people. She was already compromising them simply by being in the facility, Shield was obviously willing to take some risks in their attempts to save her but there was going to be a line eventually. All they could do was hope they'd never find out what happened when they crossed it.
Leo realized she wasn't agreeing with him and his outrage faded to confusion.
"You think he's right?" he asked her, incredulously. "Do you want someone else to try and remove it?"
"I didn't say that," she reminded him. She hadn't said anything actually. Sometimes with him she didn't need to though. "It's just... if it does come to that..."
"It's not going to come to anything!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. "I can get it out, I'll get to work on it right now if you want me to."
She nodded. "Alright." There was no one she trusted to do it more than him.
"We should wait-" Dr. Bell tried to say but Leo cut him off.
"This is not your decision," he spat. "I was asking Simmons not you."
He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, clearly unsure what to do.
"There's no harm in him trying," she pointed out. "Neither of us would really have any control over what happens anyway. Besides agent Cobb isn't here so-"
"Did someone say my name?" agent Cobb called, picking the worst possible moment to open the door and pop her head through. She smiled at Jemma who thought she seemed familiar.
Oh... good, she was there. Jemma tried to hide her disappointment.
"You must be agent Simmons," she guessed cheerfully. "Come with me, let's have a look at that thing on your head."
"Thank you agent Cobb," Dr. Bell said, rising to his feet. "You two heard her, no need for agent Fitz to do anything. I'll just get my-"
"Oh are you coming too?" agent Cobb wondered, surprised. "I probably won't need you. How about you give me a turn to examine the device."
"I'd still like to come," he decided and she nodded though she didn't seem happy about it.
"The device is attached to agent Simmons," Leo reminded them tersely. "It's her you should be concerned about."
"Of course," she replied, smiling at him. "Come on everyone."
She led them down the hall and then down two flights of stairs to an empty lab. Jemma wasn't familiar with the building but she thought it was a little odd they'd gone that way. She was sure she'd noticed some much nicer labs upstairs.
"We don't usually use this one..." Dr. Bell was saying.
Jemma stopped listening, however, because she was no longer alone in her head.
'Remain calm human,' B21 instructed.
'Go away!' she hissed, assaulting it with angry thoughts.
"Jemma?" Leo asked worriedly. "It's happening again isn't it?"
"Oh damn it. We should knock her out," Dr. Bell decided, sorting through some of the drawers.
"You should stay the hell away from her," he warned angrily, stepping in front of her.
'Would you like me to deal with Dr. Bell?' B21 asked.
'What...' Jemma responded, not understanding. 'Are you here somewhere?'
"Look, we can't have her attracting those things here or letting them take information out of her head. She knows too much. It isn't going to hurt her just... could you stop," Dr. Bell was saying, trying to get around Leo with a syringe full of something to knock her out.
Leo kept stepping in front of him, blocking his path.
She was having trouble concentrating on what was happening. Where was B21?
"...no way you're sticking her with that thing," Leo was shouting, refusing to get out of Dr. Bell's way.
'Where are you?' she asked B21, trying retrieve the answer from the shapeshifter's mind.
"If you don't move agent Fitz I am going to have to shoot you," Dr. Bell cautioned, pulling Jemma back out of her head.
He was pointing something at Leo, an ICER by the looks of it. It wouldn't kill him but it wouldn't be pleasant and Jemma felt a powerful, furious surge of protectiveness.
"Don't you dare," she hissed.
Agent Cobb moved rapidly and before Jemma knew it was happening she'd grabbed Dr. Bell, causing him to drop the ICER, and shoved him against the wall. She held him up with one arm so his feet dangled a few inches off the floor and he stared at her with wide terrified eyes.
Agent Cobb was B21.
"What should I do with him?" it inquired and Jemma realized it was asking her. "Should I kill him?"
"What?" Jemma gasped. "You're asking... no, no put him down!"
To her astonishment it obeyed.
Dr. Bell seemed stunned. "What... w-what just happened..." he stammered. "It's a shapeshifter! But it... it listens to you." He pointed a finger at Jemma. "You're working for them aren't you?"
"She is not you idiot," Leo exclaimed. "I'm not, really I'm not," she insisted, raising her hands defensively.
"Then why did it listen to you?" he demanded skeptically.
"I don't... well we are linked so maybe... I'm not a traitor! I don't work for them! I have no idea why it-" she tried to explain, panicked.
"I answer to agent Simmons now," B21 informed him. "My programming has been changed, I am no longer an ally to the shapeshifters or my creators."
"Yeah, right." Dr. Bell scoffed and Leo shot him a poisonous look.
"That needs to be removed," B21 stated suddenly, pointing to the device. "I'll do it."
It began to move towards Jemma and she stumbled backwards, reaching out her hands like she could push it away even though she knew she couldn't.
"Get back," she ordered but it didn't stop.
"Get away from her!" Leo shouted, bashing it with a stool. It broke some of the skin, however it did not stop it. He tried to pull on its arms but it ignored him. It was like watching an ant trying to move a boulder.
"You would like to survive correct?" it asked her.
She didn't say anything but it read her thoughts. Of course she wanted to survive what kind of stupid question was that?
"Then we don't have much time," it informed her. "My creators will consider you a threat, with all you know about us. They will likely eliminate you once the device is finished extracting your important memories, which will be very soon."
"What?" Leo squeaked and she shuddered, cold fear spreading through her. She wanted it off. She wanted it off now.
Perhaps she shouldn't have been thinking that because the shapeshifter shook off Leo and bolted towards her, holding her down gently but firmly against the wall when she struggled against it and touching the metal with its finger tips.
The device must have turned off because the connection between them disappeared and B21 pulled it out, leaving a small hole which dribbled blood down the side of her face as the net slipped out behind the short metal rod attached to the sheet like a broad, slimy flat worm red from her blood.
The shapeshifter threw the device away and it skidded across the floor as the net sparked and sizzled with blue arches of electricity before smoking with grey smoke.
B21 released her and backed a considerate distance away, allowing Leo to rush forward.
"Are you OK?" he asked anxiously, placing his hands on the side of her face so that her blood dripped on one of them. He didn't appear to notice.
She nodded and he pulled her towards him. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around him and they held each other as they processed what had just happened.
The neural net... it had been about to terminate her. B21 had saved her, it was now... what? Was it her shapeshifter now? She didn't really like that idea.
Even so, it was fortunate it had removed the net in time. That had been so close...
"So it's on our side now?" Dr. Bell wondered, believing her at last.
They moved slightly apart to face him, their arms still around each other.
"I am allied to agent Simmons," B21 said simply.
Wonderful, she had a new ally. A new shapeshifting, murdering ally.
/-/-/
They were back in their lab on the bus and Leo was preparing to fix up B21. It was a shapeshifter but it had saved Jemma's life (more than he could say for Dr. I-don't-know-what-I'm-doing-and-I-am-dumb) for which he was incredibly grateful.
Nothing in the universe would have been worse than losing Jemma. Nothing in any universe. He would have blasted a hole through all of them to keep her safe.
As it turned out, all they'd had to do was find a friendly shapeshifter. Piece of cake... surprisingly.
Something about the fact that they had been linked when Jemma shot it had reprogrammed it so that it saw her as one of its own. It was now following her around like a human-shaped puppy, much to her annoyance.
Dr. Bell had stayed at the facility (was he ever glad to be rid of that lunatic who'd tried to stick Jemma with who knew what). Jemma was no longer a patient and didn't need a doctor. On top of that she was no longer being spied on by the shapeshifter's creators and was now free to do her work.
They had sent someone to help agent Cobb who had been locked in her trunk. She was a little shaken but she would recover. B21 had told them it had known Jemma wouldn't approve of it killing her so it hadn't.
The others had popped in to have a look at it earlier and had seemed both fascinated and creeped out.
"So it's like your pet now?" Skye had joked, poking it. It patiently let her, staring back almost curiously.
"Unfortunately," Jemma had sighed.
They had all seen a clear advantage in keeping it, even Jemma had admitted grudgingly that it was a good idea though she hadn't seemed happy about it.
Now she watched him beside B21 (who still took the form of agent Cobb) as he took out his tools and he smiled at her grumpy face, trying to lighten it.
She sighed and smiled back briefly before frowning again. "Do we really need to be fixing it?" she wondered.
"I will be more efficient when the damage has been repaired." it informed them.
"It's on our side," he reminded her.
"Yeah and it had better stay that way," she warned, eyeing it coldly.
"I don't see why it wouldn't," he shrugged, he understood why she was upset but it was impossible to deny the advantage which having one of them working for them resulted in.
"You haven't been inside its head," she muttered darkly.
"Are you ready agent Fitz?" it asked, stepping towards him.
Jemma moved at what seemed to be the speed of a shapeshifter, wedging herself in between them and barrelling menacingly towards it so that it took a step back.
"You stay away from him you waste of electricity," she roared.
"I operate using an arch reactor, the technology was obtained from an employee of Tony Stark," it told her, unfazed by her sudden aggression. "And I do not waste electricity."
"But you're a dirty thief," she spat.
"Er... Jemma... I do need to take a look at it..." he put in. "If you don't mind."
She grumbled but stepped out of the way.
"You're right," she mumbled. "No reason to be worried, I should just let you do your job. Of course. Though if it does try anything I'll take a blow torch to it." she promised clearly.
"I won't," it said, unintimidated.
The machine morphed back into its human-like but shapeless form beneath its human clothing. Creepy but far better than having to work on someone else's chest area, especially a female and especially with Jemma staring at him.
He blushed at thought as it removed the shirt to reveal the hole left by the bullet and he got to work. Reattaching wires and replacing bolts, listening to its advice when something was unfamiliar.
"I would not harm agent Fitz," it tried to reassure her as she continued to glower at it.
"You'd better not if you want to remain in one piece instead of four hundred and fifty two," she advised it fiercely.
If it was frightened or offended by her threat, it didn't show it.
/-/-/
Fun Background
Thank you to all who reviewed, liked, followed or read! You guys are as great as an arch reactor and not stolen :).
So as far as I understood from Iron Man 1 the arch reactor is a source of clean renewable energy. I thought that it was everlasting but it doesn't look like it according to Marvel Wiki. Anyway it isn't harming the environment so that's good. Anyway in this story the idea is they either impersonated one of his staff or got information from the frozen head of a former employee and copied the design.
The Fringe reference is when Fitz is talking about blasting a hole through universes to keep Jemma safe. In Fringe Walter does pretty much that to save his son Peter. There is a quote describing Fringe that I think is neat (though I don't know who said it). It says it is "about love that is strong enough to tear the universe apart and then put it back together." Seems to be a theme in the show.
Is it clear why Jemma is so grumpy? I will explain it in the next chapter but I hope it makes sense here too.
