As I said in the first chapter, each chapter is named after a song. The song "Nature_1" has different interpretations:
A song about God, saying how he isn't even listening to what people are saying, example in their prayers;
A song about another leader who is destroying the world;
A song about a person who, despite their hard work to the world around them, is not acknowledged. Now they're in a rage, blaming the world for their failure and have plots to create havoc and destroy the world around them to set things right;
A song about a person talking to the mirror, blaming oneself for all the bad things that have happened to them. Looking at what one has become – old, broken, cold – and concluding that this person is made by the world around them.
HYDRA Labs, unknown location
Dieter Weimer was still laying on the floor, balled up in pain. Melinda walked around him in a slow pace; the thought of killing him right then and there ran through her head a few times now, but she was always stronger than those thoughts. The effects of the cocktail of drugs that had injected her with were starting to wear off. Slightly easing the door open, Melinda poked her head outside the room. Taking a stroll around, she realized that it was only her and the HYDRA agent in the entire facility. Dragging a chair with her and finding a couple of zip ties, Melinda returned to the room. She pulled Weimer up off the ground and tied him up to the chair.
"Do you want me to stop your pain?" she asked the man, a wicked smile taking over her lips.
"Yes," he gasped, sweat rushing down his face.
"Too bad. I won't. Not until you tell me what the hell is going on."
Weimer archly smiled as well, "Then you might as well kill me. I won't say a thing."
"I won't kill you. People like you get to decide that; that's what makes you killers." She placed herself behind him and leaned over his ear, "I want you alive; I want to let you know what it is like to be alone and despised."
"I'm not alone."
"No, you're right. You've got me," she sauntered around him, facing Weimer again. "Everyone else is gone. They left you behind. You're expendable. And you are at my mercy. I won't even have to hurt you. I can control your nerves, your emotions. You'll want to die, but I won't give you that pleasure."
"That is naive and idealistic, and futile."
"But it is the way it will be," Melinda barked, slamming her hands over his arms that were tied to the armrest. She squeezed them, watching the man writhe and gasp in pain. "And you'll tell me what I want to know."
Zephyr One, European airspace
"There seems to be a well inside the castle," Rosalind explained, pointing at the screen. "However, the nearest river is almost a half a mile away, which got me wondering how they brought the water up to the castle."
"Aqueducts," Phil concluded.
"Yes, they brought water along there and the up to the well. Now the canal looks like an overflow drain deep in the woods. We should be able to slip into the compound, without anyone seeing a thing. Team A, led by Agent Banks will move on the surface, while Team B, under my and Agent Coulson's command, will move underground. Our only goal is to stop HYDRA," she said, directly a look at Phil. "You should also consider that there might Inhumans under their control and that we should do our best to keep them safe."
"We are not many," Banks blurted, "but if we act quick and efficiently, we might be able to pull this off."
"Buckle up," the pilot said, "we're touching down to pick the SHIELD agents."
Weimer's screams filled the room. Melinda hadn't physically hurt him, but she had controlled his nervous system to attack themselves. He was experiencing an excruciating pain on his head and chest, his extremities were numb and prickling, his limbs were trembling.
"Do you know that there are three types of nerves in your body?" Melinda taunted, taking particular liking in watching the man suffer. She had even brought a chair to sit on and watch him. "I'll start slowly. The sensory nerves are activated by sensory input, such as sight, sound, feeling, taste, hearing, and relay that information from your skin and muscles to your brain."
Just by touching the back of his hand, she managed turn her sensory nerves hypersensitive. Weimer shut his eyes tight and gritted his teeth; every little noise was agonizing, causing him an almost instant headache.
"Is the light too bright? Is my voice too loud?" she goaded. "I think I'll keep your sensory nerves hypersensitive and move onto the next ones, the autonomic nerves," she got up and walked to him, pressing her hand on his chest. "They control the heart rate, blood pressure, the body's temperature."
The man gasped, feeling his heart almost ceasing to beat, his body temperature drastically decreasing, his muscles slowly paralyzing.
"Did it feel bad? I'll make feel useless now. Ever heard of the motor nerves?" Melinda stood behind Weimer and placed her hand on his back. "They control your movements by passing information from your brain and from your spinal cord to your muscles."
Weimer wasn't exactly in pain now; rather, he was terrified. The way Melinda was controlling his spinal cord was scary, ordering his muscle to perform actions he couldn't fight against. He breathed hard and fast, helplessly watching how his right wrist was rotating externally. A couple more seconds and he would have broken his own wrist. Melinda didn't let that happen, though. Instead, she forced his muscles to stiffen, including his diaphragm. When Melinda noticed that Weimer couldn't breathe anymore, she allowed his muscles to fully relax.
"Are you going to talk?"
"Go to the hell," he mumbled.
Melinda's lips drew into a wicked smile. She pressed her hand on the top of back, and Weimer immediately let out a scream, his right wrist rotating and breaking faster than he could even realize.
"Imagine how many more bones I can break," she warned.
Weimer gulped in some air, "Thousands of years ago, an Inhuman was born on this planet that was destined to rule it, so powerful, so fearsome that others were consumed with dread, and so they banished it from the Earth, sent it through the portal to a distant planet. HYDRA was founded with the sole purpose of engineering its return."
"And why were we abducted? What do we have to do with it?"
"It will need an army. Who better to serve an Inhuman than Inhumans?"
Melinda nodded her head, "So that is why you've brainwashed us and wanted to give us the pills."
"The IGH created those pills, they're called Combat Enhancers, and they do just that, enhance the users' combat capabilities. The right dose is one red, two whites, one blue, and if you tell this to the Inhumans they'd automatically take the red pills and go mad."
"Where are they opening that portal?"
"Gloucestershire," he breathed.
Melinda punched Weimer in the face, causing him to pass out. She then searched his pockets for his phone. She had to call Maria and inform SHIELD.
In less than an hour, after tracing the call, a team rescued Melinda and took her to The Cocoon. Maria had informed her that Phil and the ATCU were out in the field to stop HYDRA and that their plan was to send the Inhumans back to the training base. While SHIELD would be lending a hand in England, Melinda would be receiving the Inhumans, trying to reverse the brainwashing effects.
Gloucestershire, England
"Jesus," Banks muttered at the sight of an army of Inhumans running towards him and his team. "Don't kill them," he ordered his men, "but stop them for goodness sake."
Before he could defend himself, Banks was being thrown some feet away. He tried to scramble to his feet, seeing the Inhuman approaching him, but he had harshly landed on his back; his vision was blurred and his head hurt. That was when the gifted fell to his feet and someone stretched a hand at him.
"Agent Banks," the woman said, helping him getting up, "Maria Hill, I'm with SHIELD. We're here to land a hand."
"I thought Coulson only had a handful of agents available."
"You can thank his wife for being badass," Maria told him, handing him a gun. "That's an ICER. They're upgraded tranquilizer; should knock them out long enough for us to take them to The Cocoon."
"Got more of these?" Banks asked, inspecting the gun.
"Already handing them over to your agents."
Phil and Rosalind were scrutinizing the interior of the castle, having already taken down a couple of HYDRA agents. They were about to take a turn when they heard a lot of noise and many geared up agents. The ATCU were ready to start shooting.
"They're SHIELD," Phil said in the loudest tone he could muster, given their location, which caused the ATCU agents to stop. "How did you get here?"
Maria gestured her team to start mingling among the ATCU agents and walked along with Phil, "Melinda called me."
"Is she alright?" he couldn't help the smile blooming on his lips.
"Yes. She'll be receiving the Inhumans at The Cocoon."
Phil nodded, pleased to know the news and looked back, focusing on the mission again, "That's Rosalind Price. She's the head of this team."
"You give the orders, we follow," Maria said to the woman.
"Notify their next of kin and bring them here," Melinda ordered at the ATCU agents that were bringing in more Inhumans. "These people will need comfort and a familiar face when they wake up."
"And if they don't want to come?" one of the agents piped up. "Everyone's calling this Inhumans outbreak the Utterance of the Destiny, and many of these people's families probably despise them."
Melinda sighed, "Bring the ones you can. We are here to offer support and help to those who'll be alone."
When she looked at the entrance, she saw that SHIELD and the ATCU agents were back. Melinda stood still, waiting to see her husband. He entered through the door and they immediately locked eyes. He was alright, and so was she. Shaken up, but both physically alright. Phil squeezed himself through everyone and hugged his wife. He hugged her as tight as he could, wishing he could fuse her into his body so that they'd never be apart anymore.
"Is this finally over?" she asked.
"I hope so," he whispered into her hair. Parting the hug, he kissed her; it had been so long. "How are you?"
"We're alright. And so is Skye. She's still sleeping, but she's alright and should be waking up soon."
"We should be there for that. She'll need us. And we need a break." Looking at the bustling corridors of The Cocoon, he resumed, "They can handle things for a couple of hours."
Melinda nodded and held his hand, guiding him to the room where their daughter was. As they were walking down the corridor, Banks came out of a room all of the sudden.
"Bathroom?" he asked, holding a bowl that contained the few contents that once had been in Lincoln's stomach and that he had just vomited.
Phil pointed, "Fourth door to the left."
Banks nodded and walked to way to the bathroom.
"Mr. Coulson!" a tiny voice called from inside the room.
Both Melinda and Phil stepped in, seeing Lincoln lying awake in his bed, Rosalind sitting right next to him.
"Hey there," Phil greeted with a smile, "how are you feeling?"
"Better now. Luther's been taking care of me, and now I've got Ma here too."
"That's great. We were on our way to check Skye," Melinda said. "She should be waking up soon too."
Lincoln pushed himself up into a sitting position, "I took care of Skye while we were in that place. I didn't want her to be scared."
"Thank you," the man ruffled the boy's hair. "I'm sure she felt safe with you around."
"We should let them go now, sweetheart," Rosalind stroked her son's hair. "They need to be by Skye's side."
"Okay," he nodded and shouted before quickly clamping his mouth, "Bowl!"
Luckily Banks was entering the room again and put the bowl under the boy's mouth right on time.
"We'll check on him in a few hours," Phil said to Rosalind just before leaving with his wife.
The Cocoon was a lot quieter by now. Almost every Inhuman had a family member or a friend by their bedside and all the agents were napping, absolutely exhausted. The day had been draining; stopping a portal to another world from being opened, fighting what it felt like an army of people, taking others into custody, dealing with a bunch of sick Inhumans… Phil, however, couldn't fall asleep. Last time he fell asleep, his family was gone. But now Melinda was lying in bed with Skye, and he simply smiled at the sight. It was so good to finally have them back. He pressed a kiss onto their heads and walked out the room, hoping to feel sleepy anytime soon. He wasn't exactly surprised to find Banks strolling back and forth in the hallway.
"Can't sleep either?"
Banks turned around upon hearing Phil's voice and heaved a long sigh, "It's…" he shrugged, at a loss for words.
They're here, they're safe and we can't get any sleep, Phil intended to say. "I know," he simply said. "Get you a drink?"
"I could use one."
Phil tilted his head so that the man would follow him. They walked to his office that was still trashed. He fetched two cups and a bottle of whiskey, and then handed Banks one of the glasses. They were silently drinking; Phil sat at his chair, Banks took a seat at across from him.
"We've been partners for over a decade now," Banks blurted, causing Phil to direct his look from his glass to him. "I was there for her and Lincoln after Alex passed away. She managed to move on. Things between us were starting to go somewhere when this happened."
"I wouldn't give up hope," Phil advised, downing his drink in a single gulp. "This is rock bottom; things will only get better from now on."
We're slowly reaching the last chapter; just two more chapters and this fanfiction is over...