5 more chapters to go, people. This chapter and the next one are going to be a little on the short side. Chapter title and Gonazles' lines all come from the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 episode Scars.

Episode 25: Scars:

The Playground– May 8, 2015

2 Months before Kingdom Hearts 3

"Agent Weaver, you and Lady Sif be with Coulson on QJ 36," Director Hill explained to the group of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents gathered in her office going over their plan for first contact with Lai Shi. Raina and another Inhuman had infiltrated the Iliad the previous day, going after the monolith in its cargo hold. Between their infiltration and rescuing Lincoln from an Arctic Hydra base (that had allowed them to give the Avengers the coordinates to Von Strucker's Sokovian fortress in the first place), the existence of Inhumans was now officially exposed. Daisy had gone back to Lai Shi to meet with her mother while S.H.I.E.L.D. prepared its negotiating party.

"We'll land a good distance from their main buildings here," Hill added as she pointed at the landing site on the map displayed on the massive wall-mounted computer screen. "Then Coulson will go in first, alone and unarmed."

"Coulson shouldn't be the one going in," Commander Gonzales interject from his seat next to the desk. With the threat of Hydra largely defeated, most of the high ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel had gathered at The Playground for this strategy meeting. With the (perceived) potential threat posed by the Inhumans, they needed all hands on deck.

"Care to elaborate?" Coulson asked curiously.

"You're too close to this," Gonzales went on. "Agent Johnson is your protégé. She's like a daughter to you, and her mother is these people's leader."

"I'm banking on that personal connection to get everyone through this safely," the deputy-director replied. "

"You shouldn't be," the commander of the Iliad retorted. "This is one of the greatest threats S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ever faced. A whole race of people with powers, and you can't be trusted to be objective with Agent Johnson."

"Got any evidence to back that up commander?" Shego objected sarcastically. "You're not exactly a sterling example of objectivity towards superhumans yourself."

"I agree with Agent Go," Lady Sif commented. "From what Daisy has told us, the Inhumans are wary of organizations like the S.H.I.E.L.D. Commander Gonazles' prejudice against those with powers may very well exacerbate their wariness into open hostility. Sending a negotiator with a personal connection to their leader will help to ensure that the meeting proceeds smoothly without instigating a diplomatic incident." Agents Weaver and Oliver, who were close friends with the commander, nodded their heads as they silently conceded that the Asgardian agent had a point.

An hour later, the three Quinjets took off from the Playground's main hangar, headed for Lai Shi. Coulson, Weaver, Kara, and Sif were in one. Simmons, May, Bobbi, and some scientists were in another. And Shego, Rinoa, Drakken, and some field agents were in the last one in case things went south. An hour later, they touched down in a field near the settlement and disembarked. The eyeless Inhuman who'd boarded the Iliad with Raina met them on the outskirts of the compound and led them inside. The remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. agents waited on the edge of Afterlire for orders from Coulson on their next move.

"Phil," Jiaying greeted warmly as Gordon led the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent into her office. "How are you?" Daisy and Cal greeted him as well before heading outside so the negotiations could begin.

"I'm doing fine," he replied. "I'm sorry things had to happen the way they did."

"After Daisy was taken from me I knew we wouldn't be able to hide forever," she admitted. "But I was hoping that we'd be able to negotiate a deal."

"To avoid placing the entire population of Lai Shi on the index," he surmised. "I understand. We were forced to add Daisy and Lincoln to the Index per protocol. We're required to put S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with powers on the index, but I think we can work out an arrangement that keeps Afterlife off the radar while giving S.H.I.E.L.D. the peace of mind that the bad eggs can be monitored and tracked."

"That would be great," Daisy's mother said. "Since we already employ a strict screening of Inhuman descendants to determine their worthiness to go through the Mist, we can simply have an agreement with S.H.I.E.L.D. that they leave us alone and in return we notify them whenever someone like Eva Belyakov goes rogue."

"Sounds perfect," Coulson answered. With their agreement quickly reached, they took a few minutes to catch up on recent events in both Afterlife and the world at large. Afterwords, the two negotiators left the room. Coulson to explain the agreement to the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. and have a treaty typed up, and Jiaying to ease her people's fears of being rounded up by S.H.I.E.L.D. and assure them that, while the community would have to migrate to a new location to maintain their secrecy, S.H.I.E.L.D. would not be coming after them.

Once Lai Shi had been cleared out, Jiaying and Cal went back to S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters to formally sign the treaty and ensure that the rest of the agency held up their end of the bargain. To their satisfaction, Coulson's agreement was upheld by the other agents, even if some such as Commander Gonzales openly voiced their displeasure. Nevertheless, Daisy Johnson breathed a sigh of relieve as she saw her parents off that afternoon. War had been averted, and she hadn't been forced to choose between her Inhuman heritage and her friends at S.H.I.E.L.D. Now that S.H.I.E.L.D. was no longer concerned about the Inhumans, they could focus on more important matters, like keeping watch for remnants of Hydra or the emergence of new nascent supervillains.

So that's almost it for the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Chapters. I had things end differently with Skye's mom because in the over Acolytes of Chaos story, the "Terrigen crystals spilled into the ocean" thing at the end of AOS season 2 doesn't happen, so the Inhuman population is much lower.

Next chapter: With war between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Inhumans averted, Fitz finally works up the courage to ask Simmons out on a date. Too bad the Monolith has other ideas.