I have some bittersweet news. I finished writing this today. It's 55 chapters total, and 73K words, which is a lot. I also have a sequel planned. While technically I have two sequels planned. There is the original one, and then the one Candycrum inspired with a review a couple days ago. I'm going to try and write the one Candycrum prompted because I think it will be more interesting, but I don't know if it will work. Anyway, I'm rambling. Basically you have this fic until January 12th or so, and then I'm not quite sure how the sequel will play out. Anyway, enough of that, enjoy this fic while you have it!

Chapter 38

Delaney brought them to some underground lab that looked as if it hadn't been used since before even Tony was born. Some of the equipment, however, was brand new, and Daisy realized where the powers came from. "You did this to yourself? Why the Hell would you do that?" Daisy hissed as Delaney tied her and Fitz on either side of a beam. Jemma stood at the lab table, looking over a notebook she'd been handed.

"The serum you created is amazing." Only Jemma could be impressed by the science behind this horrible experience. "But it's raised your body temperature. As the enzymes denature your body is trying to reverse the process by releasing the heat, but it's realizing so much so suddenly you're melting things. It's incredible!" Daisy got most of that from her AP Biology days, but had no idea how Jemma could figure it out so quickly. Then again, it was Jemma. "I can design something to stabilize it, but I have no idea how to reverse the serum's effects completely. I'm sorry."

Delaney didn't look too upset. "Just do it, and then I'll disappear and no one will ever see me again."

Jemma set to work, and it was actually odd how relaxed the room was. They all knew Delaney just wanted to be fixed and never seen again. She didn't want to hurt them, and just was pretending to so her fear didn't show. "Why did you do this Delaney?"

"I was trying to recreate the Captain America super serum, okay?" Delaney snapped. "I found some files, tests run on an unknown sample of blood during the time when the SSR unknowingly had Steve Rodgers blood. I made the connection, and tried to recreate it. But I must have messed something up, because, well, I'm destroying everything and not with my strength."

But why? Why would she want to be like Captain America? (Okay, Daisy knew that was a dumb question. Who wouldn't want to be Captain America? "You're second in the class in everything, why do you need powers?"

"To be first!" Delaney screamed at Daisy. "To be first! None of this would ever have happened if you weren't here, so shut up!" Delaney put her hand through a desk, and began sobbing. Daisy didn't know what to do, none of them did, so they just stayed silent.

Jemma was almost done with the serum and Delaney was almost free when the shot rang out. None of them even had a second to realize they'd been found before they heard it. S.H.I.E.L.D didn't even bother giving Delaney another opportunity to turn herself over. They just found a window and let Delaney take a bullet to the head.

Jemma screamed, and as soon as the agents cut them loose, Daisy and Fitz ran to comfort her. She sobbed into Fitz's shoulder as Daisy stared in horror. She'd seen Natasha kill Vanko, but this, this was different. Vanko was trying to hurt people, Delaney just wanted to be the best, and paid for it with her life. She couldn't even drink. She wasn't even old enough to drink. All she'd wanted was to be a good S.H.I.E.L.D Agent, to be the best S.H.I.E.L.D Agent, and she got rewarded for her hard work with a bullet to the head.

Daisy just wanted to go home, and maybe never come back. In a way Delaney's death was all her fault. If Daisy hadn't come to the Academy Delaney would have been on top. She would have had a promising career, not a hole in the ground. It was so fucking wrong, and Daisy felt sick. S.H.I.E.L.D were the good guys, but they didn't even give Delaney a chance to explain. They just killed her.

"Miss Johnson," Agent McGee's voice broke through Daisy's thoughts, pulling her back to the interrogation room. "I need you to tell me what happened after you left the Academy."

Death happened. "Delaney brought us to some underground lab and tied me and Fitz up. She let Jemma be so she could work… Delaney experimented on herself, trying to become a supersoldier so she could be a better agent." Be a better agent. Be better than Daisy. "Jemma figured out where she went wrong and was working on an antidote. Then you found us and kill…" Daisy couldn't get the words out, and shook her head to clear it. "Well you know."

"Miss Johnson," Agent McGee sounded friendlier than Daisy had ever heard before. "Sometimes we get bad seeds people who, while having good intentions, will go to questionable lengths to succeed. What happened today was incredibly sad, but it happens. You move past it, or you become a bad seed too. So move on."

Daisy didn't really move on. Every night she dreamed of Delaney's death, except sometimes she was the one dying. In another life Daisy could have been Delaney. They both just wanted to help people, to be assets. Daisy had no idea what she would have done if Delaney had been on top, but it probably wouldn't have ended differently. Their weren't fine lines in S.H.I.E.L.D, there were invisible ones. Often times you passes them without thinking.

Everyone avoided Daisy over the final two weeks of the year, especially Jemma. Whenever Daisy tried to approach her friend, during Ops or other times, Jemma would duck her head and walk away. Fitz was always Simmons's friend first, and would only tell Daisy that Jemma was 'having a hard time with what she saw, and couldn't stand the reminder.'

Apparently Daisy was just a reminder.

When Daisy packed her stuff up to leave for the summer, she had a mental breakdown. Beneath a year's worth of trash, laundry, and life, Daisy found a picture of Delaney and her mom, left over from their time as roommates probably. Delaney looked so frigging happy, so frigging alive. It just wasn't fair. And so when Jemma showed up at Daisy's door, she found her friend sobbing in the corner, clutching the photo.

"We didn't even like her," Daisy whimpered as Jemma came to sit down as well. "We hated her really. So why does it hurt so much?"

Jemma shook her head. "I don't know, I've been asking myself the same thing."

"It's not just the trauma, of seeing it." Because Daisy had seen someone die before, and it didn't bother her them. "She just didn't deserve it. She just wanted to serve S.H.I.E.L.D and they killed her."

Jemma nodded, having had the same thought a thousand times over the past two weeks. "I came to tell you that I'm submitting my formal withdrawal from the Academy," Jemma whispered shocking Daisy from her tears. "I can't do this. There are other places that can help me find answers to my questions."

"But who will help us find the answers to ours?" It was such a selfish question; one Daisy knew she shouldn't have asked. She just couldn't help herself. How could Jemma just quit and leave after everything? "I'm sorry, that was mean… Is Fitz going as well?"

Jemma took a moment, but she nodded. "It's so weird. I haven't even known him for a year, yet I can't imagine working without him." It was weird, but Daisy totally got it. "I'm sorry, but I can't stay."

"I've thought about quitting too," Daisy admitted. Hell, she had the paperwork lying in her desk, signed and all. "But every time I go to do it I just think about how unfair it would be, to Delaney."

"How so?"

"She died so I could be number one, as messed up as it is. I feel like I should be the best agent possible, to honor the one she would have been if I hadn't come and mucked everything up."

Daisy could see the wheels turning in Jemma's head, and saw the withdrawal forms on her lap. "I've been thinking that being a part of S.H.I.E.L.D was an insult to Delaney, considering they killed her."

If only their lives were that simple. "They took out a threat," Daisy knew how callous it sounded, but it was true. Delaney had gone mad, and her powers were insane. Even if Jemma had stabilized the powers there was nothing they could do about Delaney's mind. "The real Delaney gave her life in the hopes of helping S.H.I.E.L.D. Whenever I think about quitting I think of that, and know I can't be expected to do any less than she did." Daisy wasn't watching Jemma's face as she finished, she was watching the torn pieces of paper float to the ground.