Chapter 51 - Oh, No
Events of this chapter occur during Season 2, Episode 22, and may use dialogue from this episode.
Skye screamed with horror as they emerged onto the carrier's deck and she and Brock saw two Inhumans loading the container of contaminated crystals onto the quinjet. "No! Brock, we've got to stop them, those crystals are contaminated, they could kill millions!"
He didn't hesitate. Just ran towards the quinjet, pulling his guns from his weapons harness and pulling the triggers.
"Fuck!" he hissed as one of the Inhumans flung up his hand, generating some sort of bluish force shield; the bullets slowed to a fraction of their speed as they penetrated, dropping to the ground before reaching their targets. "Powers it is, then." But his were so new, compared to these… well. He gritted his teeth, prepared to focus.
And screamed with pain as Jiaying sent Skye to her knees, sucking the life out of her. The bond between them weakened horrifically and Brock went down too, struggling to breathe.
Stop them, Skye whispered weakly in his mind, and he groaned with agony, desperate to look back, to help her, but she was too far away, he'd run too fast.
Love you, baby, hold on, he thought back, and he gathered everything he had and sent a blast of pure rage from his eyes.
The two Inhumans were literally vaporised; one moment there were two men standing there and the next nothing but ashes blowing on the stiff sea wind over the carrier's deck. The container of crystals fell from the quinjet's half-raised ramp to land harmlessly, still sealed, on the deck.
Agonised by the effort, the pain and burning he still felt when he used his power to such an extent along with Skye's agony, Brock was momentarily stunned. A second later, though, Skye's physical pain was gone, replaced almost instantly by intense emotional distress.
"Skye," almost blinded by the aftereffects of using his power so strongly, Brock still turned unerringly towards her, staggered to his feet and stumbled in her direction.
"Brock," she sobbed, falling into his arms, and as his vision cleared he saw what had distressed her so.
Cal, holding Jiaying's lifeless body tenderly in his arms, his hands still about her twisted, broken neck.
"Oh, no," was all Brock could say disbelievingly.
"I'm sorry, my love," Cal whispered tenderly to Jiaying.
Skye sobbed in Brock's arms. He stood there frozen, barely able to believe what had just happened. Incredulous.
Skye's father had just killed her mother to save his daughter. Killed his former soulmate, no less.
There was nothing he could say. Nothing that wouldn't be hopelessly trite like I'm sorry or appallingly inappropriate, like Thank you. So instead he just held Skye close, stroking her hair while she sobbed out her grief, and watched Cal grieve for his lost love.
Brock's earpiece crackled then.
"Rumlow?" It was Mack's voice.
"Here," he acknowledged quietly. "We're secured topside. Everything all right down there?"
Mack made an odd sound. "Well, the fan room's secured. Um. I had to cut off Coulson's hand. Fitz is patching him up, we need medical support. I spoke to May, she's gone to get help…"
When Skye's sobs finally eased up, she shifted in Brock's arms and he let her go. She gave him a watery smile as she took his hand. She refused to let him go as she went to sit on the deck beside Cal and Brock knelt beside them both, silently watching, holding Skye's hand against his heart. "Dad…" Skye whispered, leaning her head on Cal's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Dad."
"Don't be," he said after a long moment. Cal lowered Jiaying to the deck and wrapped an arm around Skye. "I'm sorry you had to go through this, Daisy. We… we were supposed to protect you. Never to hurt you."
Skye let her father tenderly wipe the traces of tears off her face. "I couldn't let her… do what she wanted," Skye murmured, heart-wrenching grief in her eyes and her voice. "It was wrong. I wanted to help, I wanted her to be proud of me. But I couldn't let her kill people just for being human."
"I know, angel," Cal said reassuringly, pulling her close. "She lost something, we lost something when we lost you. We lost ourselves." Brock released Skye's hand so she could hug Cal but he stayed nearby, knowing she wanted him close. "But I am proud of you, Daisy. Very proud."
Tears filled Skye's eyes again as her father held her and told her the one thing she'd always wanted to hear.
A short time later, Skye managed to pull herself together enough to meet with her team. Her eyes were red, but her expression was calm. She knew she couldn't hide the whirling storm of emotions from Brock, but she also knew he wouldn't say anything to anyone else. She just had to get through the wrap-up on the Iliad, get back to the Playground, and then she could give in to grief for a little while.
Lincoln had cauterised Coulson's arm, but he was in a state of shock and Agent Weaver, now back in command of the Iliad, ordered him sedated in the medical bay. Brock, Lincoln and Skye took charge of the two cases of crystals, putting them in the secure hold next to the one that held the case with the strange black rock. Weaver detailed armed guards to both holds, though Lincoln swore that with Gordon dead, the other Inhumans had no way to get to the carrier even if they wished to carry through with the attack.
Cal and Alisha, they locked in two separated cells in the ship's brig - with Cal's full co-operation. Lincoln was pretty certain that Alisha couldn't clone herself through walls, but just in case, he volunteered to guard her - since he wasn't a SHIELD agent and wouldn't be permitted to attend the debrief. They left him with armed guards to back him up - and to keep an eye on him, just in case he should happen to change his mind - before convening in a large conference room.
May and Weaver ran the debrief. Weaver was as shocked and grieving as any of them; she'd lost two close friends and colleagues in the last couple of days with Gonzales and Agent Oliver both killed. But she was a highly intelligent woman and she listened carefully as Brock detailed the suspicions he'd had of Jiaying from the moment he met her, and how they'd coalesced into certainty with Gonzales' death.
"I do understand, Agent Skye," Weaver said at last, looking at Skye, who was sitting with her head bowed, hand clasped tightly in Brock's. "And I'm truly sorry."
Her tone was genuinely kind and Skye glanced up to meet Weaver's eyes for a moment, seeing only concern tinged with regret. She nodded before looking down again, a lump in her throat meaning she wasn't able to speak. Weaver nodded to Brock to continue, and he obeyed, grateful that Weaver wasn't going to push Skye. At some point they'd have to hear her account of what had happened in Afterlife once he'd left her there, but it could wait.
May spoke up next, filling everyone in on Ward and Palamas' kidnapping and torture of Bobbi, and how Bobbi had grievously injured herself in saving Hunter from the trap set for whoever came to rescue her.
"But where are they now?" Mack demanded angrily, and Brock was reminded how close he and Bobbi were.
"I don't know. I did my best to trick Palamas into thinking we had men elsewhere in the building and to masquerade as me again in order to ambush them. That area of the building, though, had proved to be lethal to our forces and it's possible that's where Ward was holed up. With any luck they ended up fighting each other. Bobbi was too seriously injured for us to wait around to find out, though."
"Is she going to be all right?" Skye asked tearfully.
"I honestly don't know," May confessed. "She - she was pretty bad. I contacted the Playground, but Simmons still had her in surgery and Hunter was in no fit shape to talk about it."
They were all silent for a moment, thinking of their friend, before Weaver visibly gathered herself and turned to Mack. "Agent Mackenzie. Your report, please."
The most shocking part of Mack's report wasn't even hearing about him having to cut Coulson's hand off when Coulson grabbed the falling crystal. That was almost anticlimactic after hearing that Fitz had been the one to kill Gordon.
"It was an accident," Fitz admitted when they all looked at him in shock.
Mack rested a huge hand on Fitz's shoulder. "You, my friend, saved the day. He was kickin' our asses. I'm very relieved you got him, because otherwise sooner rather than later it would have been one of us dead on the floor, and I reckon he'd have beaten us all and released those crystals. We'd all be dead, probably, except you two," he nodded to Skye and Brock.
Skye shuddered at the thought. Weaver nodded. "You deserve a commendation, Agent Fitz, and I shall make it my business to see that you get one."
Fitz blushed as everyone around the table nodded and murmured agreement.
"They all deserve it," May spoke up. "Mack for defending the fan room against the teleporter, Rumlow and Skye for stopping the quinjet taking off to who knows where with the other lot of crystals."
"I agree," Weaver said, "and we owe the Inhuman Lincoln our thanks, too, from what you're telling me. The old SHIELD had a habit of not acknowledging bravery above and beyond the call of duty. You may say 'it's just our job' all you like, but all of you showed extraordinary courage and dedication today, and I will not see it go unrecognised."
"I understand why Jemma and Fitz always talked about her with such reverence in their voices now," Skye murmured quietly to Brock as they finally left the conference room a little while later. "She'd have been an amazing principal at SciTech Academy. I wish I'd had a few more teachers like that during my school days."
Brock smiled an acknowledgement, nodding, but didn't speak until they were out of earshot of the others. "You're right about Weaver. Which is why I'm so bemused as to what the hell she was thinking when she and Agent Oliver backed Gonzales in this 'coup' against Coulson. I fully intend to ask her about it when I get an opportunity to talk to her in private. Morse, too."
"If Bobbi recovers," Skye murmured, biting her lip. "I can't - what Ward did to her…" Tears welled in her eyes. "I didn't know that he was capable of something like that. For personal vengeance! I know Specialists are trained to do - well, some pretty terrible things - but they're under orders, aren't they? Aren't they supposed to be, anyway?"
"Yes," Brock acknowledged quietly. "I've done similar terrible things. I'm sure you know that, though you've never asked and frankly I don't want to tell you. But yes, I have only ever done them on someone else's orders." He thought of Ian Quinn with brief guilt - but he never intended to tell Skye about that. And it had bought SHIELD information that led to the failure of Project Insight, so he felt it was justified. "I've refused, too."
"You have?" she blinked, looking up at him.
"Yup. There've been cases where I was basically one hundred percent sure that it wouldn't get us any further information. And I said so and refused." He grinned at her slightly surprised expression. "Orders from both SHIELD and HYDRA commanders, too. Generally I felt that they were looking for personal vengeance rather than seeking to further genuine mission goals, and I declined to carry out their dirty work - and reported it further up the line."
Skye smiled a little tremulously and nodded. "I'm glad. I won't ask about the things you've done. I trust that you'll tell me if I ever need to know, and I won't put you through the pain of telling me without reason."
"If there's ever a need for you to know, I'll tell you," he agreed in a low tone. "Are you gonna talk to me about what's really bothering you?"
Skye bit her lip, then sighed. "I will, but not… not here. I can't."
"Okay, sweetheart. When you're ready." Brock didn't push, and she smiled gratefully.
"I need to talk to Coulson, anyway. I need to find out what he intends to do about Dad."
"That can wait until he's out of the infirmary," Brock said gently. "If you don't want to talk here, you should try to get some rest." He paused for a heartbeat, sensing the chaos still swirling in the back of her mind. "Or maybe talk to May, spend some time on tai chi."
"I don't think I could sleep just now. But… I owe May an apology."
"Then let's go find her." There were only about three places Brock figured May would be; they found her in the first of those places, checking on Coulson.
"How is he?" Skye asked in a soft voice, stepping up to the side of Coulson's bed when she realized he was asleep.
"The pain meds put him out. Sleep is the best thing for him now," May answered just as quietly. She watched as Skye tenderly adjusted the blankets over Phil.
"She wasn't anything like what I wanted her to be," Skye whispered after a moment of silence. She didn't look away from Phil at first, but she knew May heard. "I hoped, dreamed for so long… but it wasn't real. I wanted her to love me, but she couldn't. Not like…" She looked up at May, and grief-filled dark eyes met May's stoic gaze.
After a moment of intense study, May's expression softened. "Come here," she said as she stepped away from Coulson's bedside. Skye moved around the infirmary bed to join May and was startled when the older woman drew her into a warm embrace.
Skye wrapped her arms around her mentor, hiding her face in the older agent's shoulder. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, voice choked with tears.
"I know," May murmured back, stroking Skye's hair gently. They held there for a moment while Skye got her emotions back under control. "Come on. I know where we can go."
Brock followed silently as May led Skye through the maze of corridors inside the ship. They emerged into a large workout room and May tugged Skye over to the mats. When May took up the opening stance for their usual tai chi workout, Skye smiled just a bit and fell into place. Brock sent her a silent touch of approval and left the two women to their meditation.
Closing the door behind him he blew out his cheeks in a sigh. Where to start?
Lincoln, he decided. Go check on Lincoln. Talk to Cal, while I'm down there. See if Alisha's come round yet and whether she's prepared to be reasonable.
There were so many questions he needed answers to. How many Inhumans were there, and where were they? What were their powers? Were they dangerous, did any of them have a personal grudge against SHIELD, or HYDRA? Were there any more of those contaminated crystals around, or any Diviners? Did the Inhumans have some way to identify potential others of their people, other than exposing them to the mists?
Brock remembered Lincoln mentioning that Jiaying had 'found' him in a bad situation. Had she traced his lineage? And… what about Brock's father? It was quite possible he was still alive somewhere. Brock might even have siblings.
Too many questions, and I have no answers. And no authority to make decisions even if I did. Wake up soon, Coulson, we need your calm analytical brain working on this.
Not much of S2 left, just a few loose ends to tie up. But we're not done yet!
Come and chat to both of us on Tumblr if you didn't already! We're ozhawkauthor and ladywinterlight! You're welcome to ask us questions about our headcanons for this story, but be warned we do not let out any spoilers...
