Disclaimer: All rights belong to Disney, Marvel, and all the men and women that created the Agents of SHIELD TV shows, and comics. I take no credit, and I do not mean to break any copyright rules. This is simply a work of fiction made for enjoyment. No money is being made.

Rating: T for dark themes, graphic violence, mentions of torture, drug abuse, supernatural violence, major character death, and minor language

Chapter 36: Entanglements and Endings

May shakes Daisy awake early the next morning. "Come on. We have more than a few training sessions to make up."

The older woman sounds terse and stern. Daisy suspects she is still unhappy about yesterday's confessions, and she isn't about to test her patience.

After changing into exercise clothes, Daisy meets May in the training room. The agent has a screen setup.

"I have feed from your last missions. We're going to look at how you and others fight. Point out what they're doing wrong and how to fix it. Then we'll work on isolating specific trouble spots for you."

They spend all morning working on it. Daisy notices that when they finally do training matches, May doesn't pull her punches.

A particularly hard throw leaves Daisy on the ground, completely out of breath and her head spinning.

"Get up. We'll go again," May orders.

Daisy can't respond. She feels woozy and sick, and her body aches all over. She still can't catch her breath, either.

She vaguely hears a set of footsteps entering the room. A familiar British accent says, "I finished my scans. Robbie Reyes is stable, although there's suspicious brain activity I need to look into. Coulson's talking to him right now."

The voice cuts off abruptly. "Is she okay? May, what happened?"

"I may have been a bit rough," Daisy hears May admit. "But she'll be fine."

The two agents stand over her, and May lends out an arm. Daisy grudgingly clasps it and pulls herself up.

"Am I done?" Daisy asks May.

Simmons jumps in to answer. "Yes. You're done. I need your assistance in the lab, so shower and get changed quickly."

The scientist darts a brave look at May, challenging her to argue. But May just nods and steps away.

"Thanks," Daisy whispers to Jemma. "May didn't pull her punches at all. I was getting beat up pretty badly."

"That's very uncommon for her," Jemma replies, glancing at the retreating agent. "She usually has the best self-control out of all of us."

Daisy changes and meets Simmons in the lab twenty minutes later, her whole body protesting against any and all movement.

Fitz looks up from his workstation when she enters. "You look awful, Daisy," he observes.

She winces. "Thanks."

"Your cheek is starting to bruise already," Jemma informs her as she walks up.

"Wonderful." Daisy leans against a table, definitely not feeling wonderful at all. "What do you need me for?"

"Oh, I just said that to get you out of there. You looked pretty pathetic just laying there on the floor."

Daisy appreciates the gesture more than words can express.

"Actually, there is something you might want to see," Fitz cuts in, bringing her a tablet. "Robbie agreed to try and talk to his uncle. He's heading there right now. This is feed from Eli's cell."

Daisy holds the tablet up and cranks the volume so they can all hear. For the first thirty seconds there's only silence, and then the door opens and Robbie steps in, looking exactly like he always does with his black and white trainers and leather jacket.

Daisy hopes Robbie can control the devil while he's so close to his uncle. Maybe now that he's had time for things to sink in it will be easier. If he loses it and accidently kills their number one suspect...

The chair scrapes back as Robbie takes a seat. Eli looks surprised at first, but he sets his facial expression back quickly. "Hello, Robbie," he says. "I didn't think I'd see you here."

Robbie regards him coldly. "Tío," he acknowledges. "You've been busy in prison, I've heard."

"SHIELD send you in to interrogate me, huh?" Eli asks, slouching down a little. "I didn't think you were anyone's puppet."

"I don't need SHIELD to motivate me," Robbie replies, his voice hard. "I know you lied to me and Gabe about a lot of things. I want to know the truth."

"And you think SHIELD has the truth?" Eli retorts. "Please. They're only using you."

"They are using me," Robbie agrees. "But not under their terms." He leans forward. "I did my own digging. I know you're involved with Segundo Cielo."

"What difference does that make for anything?" Eli questions, laughing a little. "So I got involved in the mafia while I was in prison. Not much I can actually do behind bars!"

"Except the mafia is mixed up with Fifth Street, the same gang that initiated the hit-and-run against Gabe and I. Unless you've already forgotten about his condition."

Eli's mouth opens, then closes, then opens again. His voice is softer when he speaks this time. "That was before we were allies. And none of the gang members that were involved with that are still alive. I wouldn't stoop that low. I love you boys like you're my own sons."

"And we loved you in return. You were like our father. Until you ruined everything." Robbie's voice breaks for the tiniest second. "It was no accident that you killed your team of scientists. They knew you were messing with too dangerous of things, so they put a stop to it. And you, in your anger, put an end to them. But that wasn't it, was it?"

"We had the biggest breakthroughs of the decade, if not the century!" Eli protests. "They hated me. They wanted me to fail. They couldn't accept that a nobody like me had risen from the ground all the way up. I was on track for the Nobel Peace Prize! Our whole lives could have changed, Robbie. They ruined everything!"

"No, they didn't. You did." Robbie leans back, and Daisy can see a dangerous shadow lurking behind his face. She hopes desperately that he doesn't lose control. "You didn't just join the mafia, you became their leader. All your power is in here." Robbie points to his temple. "You managed to send out instructions on how to recreate the superdrug you had once perfected. But something wasn't quite right. You couldn't figure out the final ingredient. That's why Segundo Cielo needed test subjects."

"Fine. You know." Eli sighs. "I really wish you didn't. Things are going to be complicated now."

"Why can't you just give it up?" Robbie pleads. "Just tell SHIELD what they need to know. Expose the mafia and the gang. Don't go down this path, please."

Eli shakes his head. "Why would I give up complete power? The drug is only one part of a complex puzzle. SHIELD has only found the tip of the iceberg. There's no stopping the path I started."

What does he mean, there's more? Daisy trades worried looks with FitzSimmons.

In the video, Robbie stands up, his chair scraping loudly against the floor. "You think too highly of yourself, Tío. There is much you don't know."

"But I will eventually learn," Eli warns as Robbie walks out. "You can't hold me here forever!"

Daisy shuts off the tablet and returns it to Fitz. "I need to go talk to Robbie," she explains, then heads out quickly.

Robbie had looked more than a little upset as he had stalked out of the cell. She hopes he's not losing control to the Ghost Rider.

She gets the feeling he'll be a little more unstoppable this time around.

Robbie is shaking with anger as he storms out of Eli's cell. His veins are thrumming with uncontrollable anger.

Even the devil is silent inside him, scared of the inevitable outburst.

His fingers press into tight fists at his sides, and he walks purposefully as far as he can get from his treacherous uncle.

How dare he treat his own family like that? He'd been lying to Robbie and Gabe for years, and he'd only admitted to the truth after Robbie spelled it out. And not only that, he also turned his back on both of them.

Robbie finds an empty conference room and enters, closing the door behind him. He needs to calm down, but he doesn't see how he can. Years of pent up anger are gushing through him in an endless stream.

What he wants to do is punch his uncle right in the face. Once for every time he lied. But if he did that, he's probably end up killing the man.

The door opens. Robbie looks up to see Daisy entering. "Is Gabe okay?" he asks, for one moment his worry for his brother overriding his anger.

She nods. "I called him and gave him a BS story about how I had to go out of town for work and my car broke down so I called you and it was too late to go back so we stayed overnight. I'm not sure if he bought it, but I tried."

Well, at least that's one less problem Robbie has to deal with. Except what if Eli sends his men to kidnap Gabe? Robbie doesn't think his uncle is that far gone, but who knows?

A fresh wave of rage rushes through him.

"But what about you?" Daisy asks. "Are you okay?"

"Am I okay? That's a good question." His tone comes out harsh. "For one, I just learned that my uncle betrayed me, and two, I'm cornered and caged by the government who are only using me to get their dirty work done, after which they'll still throw me in a prison for the rest of my life. And I wouldn't have been captured in the first place if you hadn't called them in."

Now Daisy gets angry. "Don't you dare blame this on me. You were the one who couldn't control the devil. And you were the one who told me to get Eli out safely. I think I did my job pretty well."

"I told you to get him out, not to call the government! And I'd like to see you try to control the devil for even one minute, let alone your whole life."

"Oh, so you just expected me to just prance into a highly guarded prison and just let a murderer out? No problem!" She steps closer, getting right in his face. "I handled the situation as best as I could. You should be thanking me for keeping you from killing your own family."

"You shot me! Multiple times!" Robbie doesn't back down. "And now I regret not killing Eli immediately."

"That's your problem, not mine. Because I kept all your secrets, I might be losing my job. And if you didn't notice, I'm already suffering from my co-workers' anger!" She points to a huge bruise on her cheek that he had missed.

He feels bad, and he hopes she's okay, but his anger overrides those emotions. "You might lose your job? So what, you just get another one. I might lose my life!"

"I'm not the stupid one who made the pact with Satan to murder people in the first place. I'm not responsible for any of the consequences of that decision. You would have been caught anyway." She crosses her arms and glares at him.

"I went years without getting caught. It's because of you that I got sloppy."

"Excuse you, I saved your own butt plenty of times. I covered for you, I had your back, and I even omitted information from the government to protect you. The only reason you went soft is because you started liking me."

She's right. He went soft because he was worried about her and her safety. "Fine. I'll stop worrying about you, then."

"It's a bit late for that now," she replies wryly. "You've already been caught. Now all you can do is make the most out of the time you have left before you're locked behind bars."

"What I want to do is finish my mission. That's the only way I can face my brother again." Robbie sighs and turns, facing away from her. "That's the only way I can rid myself of the devil."

"Is that all you want to do?" she asks, her voice suddenly quieter.

Robbie turns back to her. "Yeah. Why?"

She shakes her head, but he notices she looks upset. "Nothing. Good luck on your mission."

She starts to head out, and he takes a big step forward, catching her arm and forcing her to turn. "What is it?" he asks again.

Daisy tries to escape his grip, but she can't. Finally she gives up and just looks him in the eye. "What about us?"

Us. It's such a small word with such big meanings. Robbie doesn't know how to respond.

"Are we just going to fight then make up, then fight then make up, and just repeat that cycle forever? Because I'm already sick of it." Her expression is dead serious, and he feels his heart drop.

He doesn't want to lose her, but she's right. Maybe they just aren't meant for each other.

"Say something, Robbie," she begs. "Tell me to stay. I don't care if you mean it or not. But I need to hear you say something."

He can't find any words. He has nothing to say. Her face falls with every passing second, and then she steels her expression. "So that's it, then."

He lets her go. He releases her arm, and this time when she leaves, he doesn't stop her.