Based on events during Episode 7x13 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

Daniel, Yo-Yo, Fitz and Simmons soon set off on the Quinjet to head over to the Lighthouse. Retrieving the team and monolith sample back at the temple had been the easy part; now they had to somehow retake their underground base from an army of Chronicoms.

While they travelled back towards the Lighthouse – having narrowly avoided the Chronicoms' attack on the temple – they found out that the others back up in space had managed to successfully land the Zephyr on the main Chronicom ship without being seen. Sybil had been distracted trying to fire at the earlier version of the Zephyr instead, containing the past version of the team that Daniel and the others had just accompanied back from the temple, before they had jumped to 1931 at just the right time to begin this whole circus.

Daniel's head was pounding as he tried to make sense of it all, but he was deeply relieved to hear that the others had landed successfully without detection. As they flew to the Lighthouse, Yo-Yo handed him her earpiece so that he could speak briefly to Daisy over comms.

'Daisy, it's me,' he said, clutching to the earpiece to him with a sense of desperation.

'Hey,' Daisy said, sounding relieved. 'You good?'

Daniel gave a weak chuckle as he looked out of the window; they were high above the clouds, higher by far than any ordinary plane, to reach the Lighthouse as quickly as possible. He could see what felt like practically all of America down below, and it was extraordinary.

'My brain has officially melted, as you would say,' Daniel replied dryly. 'I just saw you at the temple.'

Daisy exhaled deeply. 'God, that's weird. Y-you were there, that's…that's so weird,' she said, struggling to wrap her head around it, and then it dawned her. 'Wait…were you the guy who spoke to me?!'

Daniel smiled. 'I certainly was.'

'Oh, my God. You helped me up, I remember!' Daisy said, completely dazed. 'That…'

She could remember vividly just how frustrated she'd been at Jemma that day for not explaining who those mysterious helpers were – well, for not explaining anything really – but then they'd had to fly away from the temple in a rush to avoid the Chronicoms' nuclear attack, and then the subsequent revelation that they had arrived in 1931 seemed to have put those strange people in hazmat suits straight to the back of her mind. But Daisy had still remembered the strange man in the suit who had helped her to her feet and told her that everything was going to be fine. She'd had no idea then just how important that man would become in her life. It was kind of magical to think of now, in a way.

'I know. Crazy, right? Wh-where are you now?' Daniel asked her, trying to sound cool and unconcerned.

'Oh, y'know,' Daisy said airily, 'just about to break into our favourite robot ship.'

Daniel nodded slowly, trying not to panic at the thought. 'Well that's peachy,' he said sarcastically, but then he closed his eyes and grimaced as Yo-Yo turned around to pull a face at him. 'Dammit! Sorry.'

But Daisy was chuckling softly. 'Why are you sorry?'

'I'm trying to learn…modern talk,' Daniel said awkwardly.

'I don't want you to.'

'No?' Daniel said, smiling, as Yo-Yo steered the Quinjet down and they began their descent towards the lake.

'No,' Daisy said firmly, and he could picture her with that fond grin on her face as she said it. 'Your own kind of talk is great, I love it.'

An unsteady smile broke out on Daniel's face as he held the earpiece tightly, wishing beyond anything that he could be there with her. After seeing her past self in such distress and uncertainty back at the temple, he just wanted to hold her hand and see her face and stroke her hair and tell her that everything was going to be all right, even know neither of them knew it would be. The hard part was yet to come, and it was killing him that they were apart for it.

'Try…' His voice cracked and he broke off, clearing his throat before trying again. 'Try not to stay in space too long. I know it's nice up there but we've still got our date, remember? You're gonna tell me all your stories of life with S.H.I.E.L.D.?'

'Is that a date? I don't remember you actually asking me out,' Daisy said playfully.

Daniel chuckled, but he could feel his eyes stinging slightly as his laughter eventually died out, and he took a deep breath. 'Daisy, I just wanted to say…-'

But then there was a sudden jolt. Daisy could hear Yo-Yo beside him saying to prep for landing; they had almost arrived at the Lighthouse, and would no doubt have a few Hunters placed on guard waiting to greet them. Daisy ran a hand through her hair agitatedly as she clutched the earpiece to her ear; he wasn't safe down there, none of them were.

Daniel groaned. 'Sorry, Daisy, I've gotta go,' he said sadly.

'It's okay,' Daisy reassured him, though her voice shook ever so slightly. 'Thanks for checking in.'

'I'll see you when you get back,' he said, and a lump rose in Daisy's throat. 'Go get 'em, Quake.'

Daisy couldn't help smiling. 'I swear to God, if you call me that one more time-'

'You'll what, quake me?' Daniel said, grinning.

Daisy closed her tear-filled eyes as she chuckled, and she paused. 'Daniel, I-'

But then the signal cut out abruptly. Daisy exhaled shakily; the Quinjet must have begun its descent down the waterfall to the underground base. She'd lost him. That had been her last chance to speak to him.

Blinking away the tears threatening to spill, Daisy tried to focus on what was happening around her. They were about to infiltrate the Chronicom ship, having just found a way through the roof. Mack and May had gone ahead to find a good location to blast their way through onto the upper levels but Coulson was hovering there beside Daisy, watching her in concern, as she removed her earpiece.

'Are you okay?' he asked her gently.

Daisy looked at him and swallowed. 'Yeah,' she replied, though they both knew it was a lie, and Coulson took a few steps towards her with a fatherly look in his eyes.

'You don't have to do this, you know,' he said.

But Daisy was shaking her head. 'Yes, I do. We both know it's…it's the only way,' she said as she led the way on after May and Mack.

Coulson walked alongside her, his eyes never leaving her face. Daisy could still hear Daniel's voice in her ears, she could still see the way he'd looked at her before the Quinjet doors had slid shut between then, she could still feel his lips on hers, his hands cradling her own. She couldn't stand it any longer.

'Hey,' Daisy said to Coulson as they marched on. 'If I don't make it through this-'

But Coulson stopped walking and held her by the arm. 'Daisy, we don't know for sure that-'

'No, please. Just listen,' she said urgently. 'If I don't make it through this, y-you'll look after Sousa, won't you?'

Coulson's lips parted in surprise. 'Of course we will,' he said, as if offended she would think otherwise. 'He's part of the team.'

'Well he is now, but that won't mean anything after this, will it?' Daisy said helplessly, her breathing coming out unevenly. 'If Fitz and stupid time stream is right, we won't be a team anymore.'

'But we'll still be a family. Always,' Coulson said firmly, gripping both her arms. 'And that includes Agent Sousa now.'

Daisy considered him for a moment, saw the sincerity in his eyes, and gave him a shaky nod as she blinked away more tears. 'If things go south, tell him I…tell him…'

She closed her eyes and exhaled sharply. She couldn't say it. She was too afraid to. Even though she knew it was true now and that she may not survive, she was still too scared to say it.

'Oh, he knows,' Daisy muttered, averting her gaze.

Coulson tilted his head at her, wishing she wouldn't talk like this. She could see that Coulson was in denial, perhaps just as much as she was. He couldn't accept what Fitz had implied back on the Zephyr, when they'd formed the plan.

'You're…you're so loved, Daisy, by all of us,' Coulson said, and he inhaled sharply, a little stunned by the strength of emotions that his programming was allowing him to feel. 'I hope you know that.'

Daisy smiled at him with trembling lips. 'I do. And I hope you know how loved you are too, Coulson. By everyone in this team, b-by everyone who has ever looked up to you in S.H.I.E.L.D….and…and by no one more than me,' she said, choking up slightly. 'L.M.D. or human. They're one and the same.'

They both crashed into each other's arms simultaneously and hugged each other tightly, father and daughter as they always would be. Coulson knew that he would have cried if he'd had the ability. Eventually they broke apart, gave each other a reassuring nod, and wordlessly hurried on after the others; they reached Mack and May just as they blew a hole in the floor so that they could get down to the level below.

Daisy closed her eyes and took a deep breath before jumping through, determined. She knew what she was about to face. She knew what she had to be brave enough to do. And she knew for sure now that she would do it without question. She had to. For Fitz and Simmons, for their little girl Alya, for Daniel, for Coulson, for all of them. For her whole family. Because there was nothing else in the world that mattered more to Daisy than that.

The alarms were blaring loudly in the Lighthouse. Yo-Yo quickly managed to take out the Chronicom guards with a few super-speed punches, stunning Daniel, as they made their way to the control room. Luckily, this room was clear…but they knew that the Hunters would be on other levels of the base, and it would only be a matter of time before they found them, along with the other army of Hunters that Sybil would soon be sending down here.

The goal was relatively straightforward: for Kora to project May's empathic powers and channel them in the direction of the Lighthouse, to fire the signal into the Chronicoms and stop their attack. The only problem was that a lot of it depended on the team up there, in the Chronicom ship; the rest of them down here were limited in what they could do. Daniel hoped that Daisy and the others were doing okay. He wished he'd had longer to speak to Daisy over the comms. He couldn't stop thinking about her, up there with all that fire and fury and strength.

'Took as much blood and spinal fluid as I thought she could handle, a couple of glands…' … 'If it doesn't work, we'll switch from needles to knives…'

Daniel closed his eyes, trying to block out the haunting image of Nathaniel Malick in that blood-stained apron and mask, smiling slyly over at Daisy's feebly stirring figure that he'd dumped on the barn floor. Daniel knew that Daisy would stop at nothing to take him out after what that monster had done to her and her mother, and he couldn't blame her. He just had to pray that it would be enough…and that she wouldn't go too far.

Come back, Daisy. Please come back.

Daniel opened his eyes, focussing now, as he walked into the room. 'Anything I can do to help point the antennas in the right direction?' he offered, trying to keep himself occupied, as the doors sealed them in the control room.

'Can you rewire the capacitor connections to bypass the network backbone?' Fitz asked him sceptically, as he got out his equipment to fiddle with the controls.

Daniel froze; he didn't understand anything that Fitz had just said. 'Nope,' he said simply, and Fitz grinned.

'We were here,' Jemma said then, remembering, as she gazed over at Fitz. 'He said it'd be the hardest thing we've ever done.'

'We know,' Yo-Yo said sympathetically, as she and Daniel loaded their weapons. 'They'll bang through the doors soon enough. Hopefully not before our friends do their part.'

Daniel walked over to stand beside her as they prepared and held out their guns, ready for the attack that was undoubtedly on its way. 'Don't worry too much about Mack,' he said.

Yo-Yo merely raised her eyebrows at him. 'Don't worry too much about Daisy,' she replied with a knowing smile.

Daniel smiled back and breathed deeply. They both knew that was easier said than done.

Despite how hard he tried, his thoughts went back to Daisy. He wondered what she was doing up there right now, how she was coping. He knew really that he had no reason to be worried. She was Quake – no, better still, she was Daisy Johnson. She could beat the enemy, he had no doubt about that. He thought of how he'd maybe make a nice cup of cocoa for her when she returned – if cocoa was still even a thing in the 21st century – and he could stay with her and hold her if she needed it and help treat any wounds she may have acquired. And then afterwards they could sit down and listen to music or watch one of those movies she had mentioned before. They could just sit together and relax and breathe. And talk. Once this was over, they would have hours and days in which they could just talk. The thought filled Daniel with a giddy sort of relief.

She'll be fine. Of course she will. She'll be absolutely fine.

Jemma's eyes began to water as she watched Daniel and Yo-Yo now, at how their expressions were warm and tender just at the mere thought of Daisy and Mack. Even with the Hunter soldiers approaching them on this level with the aim to kill, neither Daniel or Yo-Yo looked overly concerned for their own safety; their minds were clearly only on their loved ones up there in space fighting for all their lives and the planet. Jemma inhaled sharply as she gazed at them; she could feel it all fitting into place in her mind now. It was making sense.

Jemma gasped shakily. 'They're your everything,' she realised in a daze, looking at them both breathlessly as the tears threatened to spill from her eyes. 'Stars in your skies.'

Daniel looked around at Jemma, alarmed by such a statement. He'd only known Daisy just over a week, but then again…he supposed Jemma had it completely right. Daisy was his everything. Who would have ever seen that coming? Well, aside from perhaps Fitz and the time stream.

Jemma was smiling with trembling lips now, overwhelmed as their love, their faith, their devotion to Daisy and Mack began to trigger something deep within her…something long buried but desperate to get out…

'Fitz,' Jemma said tearfully, looking desperate and hopeful, and Fitz's eyes lit up as he gazed at her. 'I think I remember…why we did all this.'

She gasped again, the tears flooding down her cheeks now as the memories flooded through her mind in vivid waves, and her hand fell instinctively to her stomach.

'I think I remember what we're fighting for.'

Fitz went up to her at once and took her lovingly in his arms, looking delighted and overwhelmed with relief.

'Alya!' Jemma whispered, and she said the word like a prayer.

The couple hugged tearfully, and as they leaned apart Jemma cupped Fitz's face and kissed him firmly on the lips. Daniel had only known Fitz for a few hours and yet seeing the two of them together now, the way Jemma gazed at him, the way Fitz smiled breathlessly at her with such an overwhelming rush of emotion, he found he understood why Daisy rooted for the pair so much. It even made Daniel feel a little tearful himself, just to watch them.

'Wh-who's Alya?' Yo-Yo asked, but before either Jemma or Fitz could answer the alarms began to blare once more: the Chronicom Hunters had broken onto this level of the Lighthouse.

Cursing under his breath, Fitz rushed back to the control panel while Jemma picked up the nearest Chronicom gun, her face suddenly filled with determination.

'Are you okay?' Daniel asked her, concerned.

'I-I'm fine,' Jemma said, nodding at him reassuringly. 'But they're coming. I can hear them.'

Just as Fitz announced to them all that the parabolic antennae – whatever that meant – were nearly in position, there came a violent banging at the control room doors. The Hunters were outside, pounding to get in.

They all raised their guns, breathing heavily.

'I hope this is gonna work, 'cause it won't take long for these guys to get through,' Daniel said warily.

And then all too soon the back and side doors to the control room had opened. Daniel felt his heart stop as the Chronicom Hunters all came marching through, their weapons aloft, and it hit him then that this was the end, they were finished…he'd been so worried about Daisy that he hadn't even given much thought to the possibility of their likely demise down here, and now here he was, about to be killed by a robot without telling Daisy he loved her… –

But at least he could go down fighting.

Daniel crouched before Jemma protectively, rising slowly to his feet with his gun held out, when suddenly he stopped as the beam of bright light hit them. They all winced, crouched down to the floor and scrunched their eyes tightly shut as the spark of energy flooded the glowing Lighthouse.

As the light faded almost as suddenly as it had come, Daniel hurried back up to his feet and raised his gun. The Chronicom Hunters had all frozen, their heads pointed upwards in the direction of the light…the energy beam from Kora.

There was a tense silence as Daniel, Yo-Yo, Jemma and Fitz all stepped towards them tentatively.

'Hey, there,' Yo-Yo said to them. 'You friends or enemies?'

Their leader looked up at her for a moment. 'Friends,' he replied eventually, in the same monotone voice that reminded Daniel fondly of Enoch. 'As we have always been.'

Daniel exhaled deeply in relief along with the others as the Chronicom Hunters all dropped their weapons.

He couldn't believe it. It had actually worked. Back up at the Chronicom ship, the rest of the team must have been able to gain access to Sybil's machine, as planned, and May had combined her abilities with Kora's to magnify a beacon of empathy and boost the signal to the Lighthouse, channelling it directly into the Chronicoms' hardware. The empathy signal had kicked in just in the nick of time. They were safe.

Daniel beamed at them all, pleased, but then his face fell slightly. Yes, most of the Chronicoms had been sent to Earth and these Hunters had stopped their assault…but the Chronicoms who were still in their ships above the surface hadn't been affected by May's empathy signal, because the machine hadn't been targeting them. They'd only won half the battle yet.

While Yo-Yo went to speak to the leader of the Hunters, Daniel walked over to Fitz and Jemma, who were smiling at each other in relief. Their smiles faded slightly, however, when they saw the fear and panic in Daniel's eyes.

'But…wait…th-these aren't all the Chronicoms, these can only be a handful of them. There are more still up there,' Daniel said, trying to keep his voice steady. 'If May's powers were only projected on this location then…what about the rest of the Hunters? What about Malick a-and Sybil and the rest of the fleet? How will they-?'

He cut short at the look on their faces.

Daniel felt his heart drop to his stomach. 'What's happening up there?' he asked, his voice low and quiet.

Fitz glanced warily at Jemma before looking back at Daniel and clearing his throat. 'Kora…wasn't just the key for projecting May's empathic powers onto the Chronicoms. She's the key for something else,' he said slowly. 'We thought it was Jiaying we needed for it, but we think there's a chance-'

'For what?' Daniel asked sharply.

Fitz hesitated; he looked nervous. 'There was always only ever one way to stop Malick and Sybil for good,' he said, 'and that was to destroy the Chronicom ships.'

Daniel stared at them both with a frown, confused. 'But h-how can we…?'

He trailed off as he looked at them both. Fitz's eyes were fixed on the floor, his fingers rubbing his hand agitatedly, as if he had a nervous tick. Jemma was averting her gaze from Daniel as well, her chin quivering, a single tear threatening to cascade down her cheek. Daniel's knees almost buckled as he realised what Fitz meant. He backed away from them unsteadily, horrified, and shook his head in desperation. He could barely register Yo-Yo and the army of Hunters all watching him. He felt as if he might collapse into a pool of his own vomit.

'No…n-no, not Daisy,' Daniel said, his voice tremoring as he continued to shake his head at Fitz and Jemma. 'Please, God, you…you can't be serious, th-there's no way she can do that without getting herself killed, it's a suicide mission-!'

'Not with Kora there!' Fitz interrupted him in earnest, his eyes pleading and hopeful. 'We saw it in the time stream-'

But he faltered slightly as Daniel flashed him a thundering glare. 'Wait, you saw this and you let her go anyway to-?!'

'Just listen!' Fitz cut over him desperately. 'Jiaying could use her powers to bring Daisy back and Kora can do that too-'

'Bring Daisy back from what?!' Daniel demanded, enraged. 'If you're right and she's going to, what, quake the ships apart, she…she'll be at the heart of the explosion-!'

'B-but she can use her powers to project the blast away from herself, like a…a protective force-field, sort of,' Fitz said, grimacing as Daniel stared at him incredulously, 'it's hard to explain-'

'Okay, but even if she somehow survives that, then, what…she'll just be left there drifting out in space?! No human can survive that!' Daniel said loudly; he was frantic, and none of them could blame him.

'No,' Fitz replied heavily, and he exhaled shakily as the guilt threatened to overcome him. 'But an Inhuman might, and if Kora can revive-'

'You're depending on Kora?! Is that it?' Daniel said, and he was shouting now. 'That's your grand plan? Expect Daisy to sacrifice herself then rely solely on Malick's ex-sidekick to save her life?!'

Daniel wasn't an angry man by nature, not in the slightest, but his temper was truly being tested right now. He looked back and forth between Fitz, Jemma and Yo-Yo in outrage. He didn't know Fitz at all, but from everything the team had said about him and from the moment he'd arrived at the speakeasy in the other timeline, everyone trusted him without question, and so Daniel had been inclined to do the same. But right now it was hard, when the man he was supposed to trust, the man who was supposed to know everything, was saying these things. These unthinkable things. Yo-Yo was stood by the Hunter leader looking crestfallen; clearly, this was all news to her as well, and she didn't know how to process it. Jemma was gazing pitifully at Daniel, the tears falling now as she watched him helplessly with trembling lips, wishing that there was something she could do to help him. But there was no stopping the inevitable. There was no stopping what the time stream had shown them of the future.

Fitz bent his head low in shame, his eyes welling up. 'It's the only way.'

Feeling nauseous, Daniel turned his back on Fitz and stormed over to kick the control panel. He only just managed to resist the urge to pick up the nearest chair and smash it into the huge monitor on the wall. Jemma had seen a glimpse of Daniel's anger once before, on his first day with them after they'd pulled him out of 1955 and couldn't answer his questions about the time drive. But that had been nothing, nothing compared to what he was feeling right now. He looked like he wanted to yell out or break down in tears, or possibly both at the same time.

No. It can't be true. She can't do this, she has to make it. She has to.

Daniel didn't realise how heavily he was breathing until he spoke. 'C-can we get in touch with them? Can I speak to her?' he asked quietly, pleadingly.

Fitz hesitated. 'I, uh…'

'We can try,' Jemma said at once, wiping away a stray tear. 'I-I'll see if I can reboot the tracking signal…Fitz, can you help me patch into-'

'Of course,' Fitz said, following her.

Jemma sat down and began typing away at once on the desktop to lock onto the Zephyr's systems, while Fitz hovered over her. Daniel waited anxiously, pacing up and down behind them. Perhaps there was still a chance. Perhaps there was still time for him to persuade Daisy to stop. They could find some other strategy. They could regroup and devise a better plan, one which didn't get anyone killed.

Jemma released a rather shaky breath. 'I…I'm sorry, Daniel, the others have just taken off, look,' she said in a small voice, pointing at the Zephyr's signal that had appeared on the screen, and Fitz walked away heavily with his eyes closed. 'The Zephyr's just leaving the Chronicom ship now…'

'The others?' Daniel said, his heart pounding fast. 'Not Daisy?'

They locked eyes. Daniel's face turned pale white as he took a step back from Jemma, the dizziness threatening to overcome him. No, of course, not Daisy. That hadn't been part of the plan.

He turned unsteadily to Fitz; he had closed his eyes and clasped his hand to his head in despair. It was too late. Everything was already set in motion.

Fitz swallowed as he looked up at Daniel, his expression torn. 'But th-there's still a chance that-'

But Daniel had already fled from the control room.

Yo-Yo called after him, but Daniel barely heard her. He wasn't sure what he was thinking as he ran up the corridor towards the hangar. Perhaps he thought that he could steal the Quinjet and know on instinct how to fly it, so that he could somehow fly it up to the Chronicom fleet and rescue Daisy in time. Perhaps he thought that if he simply looked up at the sky, shouted Daisy's name and prayed for her, then maybe any powers above that he didn't even believe existed would be able to save her. Perhaps he wasn't thinking at all.

As he rounded the corner and raced down the tunnel towards the hangar doors, he thought back to how Daisy had sounded over the comms during their last conversation, the way she had looked at him just before he'd left for the temple in the Quinjet, the way she had kissed him in the equipment room. He felt a lump rise in his throat as he ran on into the hangar, wiping his eyes hastily. Daisy's biggest superpower wasn't her Inhuman quaking abilities; it was her capacity to love. And Daniel knew that her love for the team meant that she would willingly give her life for every single one of them.

'It's the only way,' Fitz had said.

But Daniel refused to believe it. He ran faster than he'd run in his entire life – which was something he might have noticed and even been proud of under different circumstances, given how long it had been since he'd lost his leg – and his hand slammed against the button on the wall to open the roof above the base.

He was almost at the Quinjet but then to his dismay Yo-Yo had reached him with her super-speed before he could press the button to open the aircraft doors.

'What are you doing?' she demanded breathlessly.

'I-I…I have to do something,' Daniel panted, looking at her in earnest. 'I can't just stand here and wait for her to-'

'It's too late. Sousa, I'm so sorry,' Yo-Yo said, her voice shaking as she held onto him, 'there's nothing we can do. It's done.'

Daniel began shaking his head rapidly. 'N-no…she can't…Daisy-'

'Hey. Look at me. Sousa, look at me!' Yo-Yo said desperately, her hands on both his shoulders, and Daniel forced himself to meet her fierce gaze. 'Fitzsimmons said there might still be a chance for her.'

The sound of the waterfall surrounding the hangar was loud and grating on his ears. It didn't make any sense. He couldn't process any of it. He could barely breathe.

'How?' he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.

Yo-Yo felt her face crumble; his heart was breaking, her friend was dying, and there was nothing she could do about it. 'I don't know. I honestly don't know. But we have to believe it, okay?' she said, and she gripped his arms tightly and shook him. 'We have to have faith.'

Daniel saw the determined look in his eyes, and for a moment he felt a small slither of hope. But then he looked up at the empty cloudless sky, through the open roof of the base.

His knees gave way and he fell to the floor by Yo-Yo's feet in despair, almost paralysed with shock inside. Even from all the way down here, Daniel could make out the unmistakable sight of distant clouds of fire billowing out just above the atmosphere…originating from a huge explosion that he knew could only have been caused by the most powerful quake there had ever been.

Note: Sorry for the distressing end to this chapter BUT we all know it will end well :D thanks for still reading! Next chapter should be finished and posted in a couple of days :)