"Daisy? What are you doing here?"

Daisy tried to smile. Lincoln must have come to check up on her. "Waiting for our guest."

"I didn't know we were expecting anyone else today."

"Yeah, no one does…" Daisy hadn't told the team what she had done. They weren't going to be happy when they found out. She wasn't sure how Lincoln would react.

"Daisy? What's going on? Come on, you can tell me."

"I called Ana."

"Who?"

Right, he didn't know… "Ana Stark."

A smile played about his lips for a moment, then he burst into a chortle at last. "You have the number of the Stark heiress, and you just called her?"

"She's on my speed dial, actually."

"Wait… You're not kidding."

"Nope." His reaction was a bit amusing.

"How did that happen?"

"We met in Malta, during one of my earliest missions. She's a good friend."

"So, what's the problem? The others don't like her?"

"No, we like her. We just don't want her anywhere near an alien artifact, because, you know, Ultron… After Simmons got sucked into the Monolith, Fitz wanted to tell Ana. He said he could use her help. Coulson didn't let him. He didn't want the Starks to find out about the Monolith."

He nodded in understanding. "And now, you called her…"

"I had to, Lincoln! Unlike Fitz, she thinks she can change the future. Even turn Charles' powers off."

Earlier today, in New York, Daisy had met an Inhuman who could show people the future. She had touched him just before he had been taken by HYDRA, and was still shaken from the experience. But she had told the team what she had seen. Every single detail she could remember. Fitz believed what she saw was inevitable and would come to pass no matter what they did.

Then they had brought Charles Hinton's wife, Polly, in, and she had said every vision they had seen had come true. No matter what they did, they hadn't been able to prevent the deaths. That was Charles' power: Whenever someone touched him, both he and that someone saw an impending death. He had had to leave his home, his wife, his little girl, because he couldn't touch them anymore. Ana had said she could help him.

"With an Inhuman inhibitor?" Lincoln didn't sound very happy about it. Daisy understood. Having been hunt down like an animal by SHIELD, HYDRA, and then the Lash, Lincoln had trust issues.

"I don't know. You can ask her yourself. Don't worry, though. After I went through Terrigenesis, she was one of the few people who wasn't freaked out. She respects us, says we're the next step of human evolution. Be nice to her. Please, for me."

He shrugged. "Well, I'm willing to work with anyone who's up for saving some lives tonight."

She is willing, but she has a price. Ana wanted a vision from Charles in return. She thought she was playing a cosmic chess game with an alien warlord that might, or might not exist, and this was a part of her plan. But Daisy really wanted to help Charles, so she had agreed to Ana's terms.

Lincoln wrapped an arm around her waist, and she leaned closer to him, grateful for the support. He was trying really hard to be a SHIELD agent, and he was doing it for her, to be a part of her world. Daisy couldn't imagine what losing him would be like. It was happening to everyone around her these days. May had lost Andrew, Coulson had lost Rosalind Price, Ana had lost JARVIS. Fitz would have lost Jemma if they hadn't been able to open a portal to another planet.

More minutes passed, and they saw a shiny dot in the sky. It grew bigger and bigger, until it turned into a blue Iron Man suit with bronze linings. Of course, technically, it wasn't Iron Man, but…

Ana landed, and the helmet retracted into the suit, revealing her smiling face. She and Daisy hugged each other. Then Daisy introduced her to Lincoln. They shook hands politely. Thankfully, Ana pretended like she hadn't heard much of him before, but as they followed him back into the base, she gave Daisy a quick wink and a thumbs-up. She was in a good mood.

May was there when they entered the lab. And she definitely wasn't happy. Well, at least Fitz-Simmons were.

"Ana!" Simmons exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey, guys. Long time no see. What's up?"

They hugged her, too, probably to show off this friendship to the other scientists, who seemed star-struck. In this new SHIELD, celebrities were a rare sight.

"Daisy… What have you done?" May asked suspiciously.

Here we go…

"What I had to do, okay? We had a genius who didn't believe the future could be changed, now we have another one who does. Let them figure it out."

"B—but Ana doesn't think the future can be changed," Fitz broke in. "If you'd read her research, you'd know—"

Ana said, "Fitz, I was 16 when I wrote that research. I made mistakes. Now I'm trying to prove the multiverse theory true. That's why I asked Daisy to let me know if she encountered anyone with foresight. If I manage to prevent her vision from happening, we'll know there's more than one timeline."

"That's good to hear."

Everyone turned to Coulson, who was standing at the doorway. He went on, "But that doesn't mean I'm going to let you work on Mr. Hinton's case. Daisy shouldn't have called you. You're not a SHIELD agent. You're here to pursue your own interests, whatever they might be."

After this, Ana's face changed. She turned into that ruthless corporate bitch people saw on TV. Daisy wasn't a big fan of that version of her, but she knew that wasn't the real Ana Stark.

"I can help Charles. I can give him a chance to go back to his old life."

"How?"

"With an implant."

"You have anti-Inhuman tech?" Like Lincoln, Coulson sounded concerned, even though he wasn't an Inhuman himself. Daisy knew he was worried not just for the safety of Inhumans in general, but also for her safety in particular. He had always been protective of Daisy.

"I'd never invent something that could be used against Daisy, if that's what you're implying." As always, Ana was blunt. "When it comes to foresight, what you call a gift, is technically a glitch. Fitz said time is an illusion, right? Foresight is a temporary glitch in that illusion. I can stop those glitches for Charles Hinton."

"Very well. You can give your designs to Fitz, I'm sure he can take it from there."

"Look, Coulson, I know we go way back, but I don't work for free. And my price is a vision from Charles. Take it or leave it."

Coulson thought for a minute. His eyes lingered on May, and then Daisy herself. May's face remained impassive, but he could tell when she approved or disapproved something. Daisy, of course, nodded. "Very well. But I'll be the one calling the shots."

"Fair enough."

Coulson walked away, and May went after him. Daisy was relieved. Coulson was really… uptight recently. But at least he hadn't snapped at her for going behind his back and secretly inviting Ana to the base.

"Is that an Einstein-Rosen bridge?" Ana suddenly gasped, looking at something on Fitz's desk.

Fitz scratched his head nervously, and made a hasty attempt to clear his desk out. "If you need a work station, you can use mine."

Damn it, the Monolith… It must have been something about the Monolith that was on Fitz's holotable.

"Wait, what are you guys hiding from me?"

"Let's just focus on the—" Daisy started, but Fitz cut him off.

"Or, let's just tell her. Let's just tell her I could've used her help, too. Maybe I should've taken a page from your book and just disobey Coulson's orders!"

Fitz was pissed, and he had every right to be so. Daisy understood Fitz's anger. He thought she was a hypocrite. He wasn't wrong.

"Why did you need my help, Fitz? And why didn't you just come to me? I would've done anything I could. You know that."

"Coulson didn't let me."

"Why not?"

He told her everything. How Simmons had spent six months on Maveth, how they had got her back, how the Monolith was connected to HYDRA… Ana seemed equally offended by the time he was finished. "So, Coulson would rather let Jemma die on an alien planet than ask for my help… Wow. I'll have a word with him before I'm done here."

"Can you blame him after Sokovia?" Daisy asked sharply. "He didn't want you or Tony to get your hands on the Monolith! And I called you here today, because at least this case involves no dangerous alien artifacts."

"I told you, Ultron wasn't his fault!"

"Even if he was being mind-controlled, you weren't. But you helped him anyway."

"I helped him because this world needed an AI to protect us!"

"You can't know that!"

"Actually, I can. What do you know about Kree, the race that experimented on your ancestors?"

"What do they have to do with—"

"They're ruled by an AI," Lincoln said. "Their leader, the Supreme Intelligence. It's an AI… It was in one of Jiaying's books."

Daisy gave him a "Whose side are you on?" look. Lincoln shrugged.

Ana nodded in approval. "That's exactly what I'm talking about. That's what makes them so powerful, so advanced. Things have to change around here if we want to keep up."

"So, your solution is to create some 1984-esque, dystopian future? I can't believe you're the same girl I trusted with the gravitonium once!"

"I'm trying to stop the dystopian future! You, of all people, should understand, Daisy! You were almost going to be kidnapped by an Asgardian!"

"What?" Lincoln cried. Daisy could swear she had seen sparks around his fingers. Shit. Ana did know how to push people's buttons.

"Didn't she tell you? An Asgardian warrior wanted to take her to Asgard when she found out Daisy is an Inhuman."

"It was before I met you," Daisy told Lincoln quickly, before he lost his temper completely. "And it was no big deal. Coulson talked Sif out of it."

"He didn't talk her out of it! She chose to show you mercy. Who could've stopped her if she hadn't? I, for one, don't like the idea of being at an alien's mercy. Do you?"

Daisy looked at Lincoln, but he seemed to be on the same page with Ana. Fitz nodded, too. "The world is changing. And change is painful. Extreme measures need to be taken sometimes."

She wasn't surprised to hear that. Fitz was nice and all, but he had a dark side like this. This was the guy who had once said he hoped Bruce Banner would never find a cure, because the world needed the Hulk. Maybe it was just a genius-engineer thing. They couldn't help themselves. And Lincoln was just scared for his girlfriend.

"Why don't we just focus on the mission ahead?" Simmons said, probably to break the tension in the room. "Ana, you might need your suit tonight, so maybe you let it charge while you work on this implant for Charles Hinton?"

"Okay. Where can I charge the suit?"

"Oh, you're going to love this!" Simmons took Ana's hand and dragged her to a small, square platform in a corner. "Fitz made this charging station for you. In case, you know, you join us for a mission one day."

"Wow… Thanks, guys." Ana stepped on the platform, got out of the suit and left it there to be charged. Daisy stormed out of the lab. She needed a minute alone.

…

To Daisy's surprise, Ana came to her room to apologize. She seemed a lot calmer now.

"I'm sorry things got heated back there."

Daisy had calmed down, too. "Don't worry, it happens all the time around here… So, how is changing the future coming along?"

"The implant is ready. Fitz is still trying to locate the building you saw in your vision. I'm going to help him, but first, I gotta ask you something. If you want me to change the future, I have to know… Are you sure I wasn't in the vision?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure."

"But there was a fire?"

"Yes."

"What about lightning? Was there any lightning?"

"I don't think it was Lincoln who started that fire. He wasn't there either."

She thought for a moment, then said, "Damn, this wasn't supposed to get personal…"

"What are you talking about?"

"I talked to Coulson, found out why he didn't want me on this mission. Turns out he might be right… Why didn't you tell me it was Gideon Malick who kidnapped Charles?"

"It was HYDRA who kidnapped Charles. Does it matter who's in charge?"

"It does matter, Daisy! Malick was on the World Security Council… at the time of the Chitauri invasion. The nuke they sent, that was on him."

"Oh." Daisy understood now. Ana blamed Malick for Tony's PTSD. Daisy was a bit embarrassed now, because normally, she wouldn't overlook such details. There was a reason she was a damn good hacker. She was good at seeing patterns. But today, she was too desperate to save a man's life, and that had got her distracted.

"I might have disregarded your safety for personal vendetta. The fire you saw, what if I started it while chasing Malick around? It's a possibility I can't dismiss. Coulson and I have agreed that I should stay here. Sorry, but our epic team-up moment is going to have to wait."

"Well, Coulson won't let me leave the base either. He's sending May instead. You and I are both stuck here."

"I think you will be out there tonight, one way or the other."

"I hope so. Lincoln says our powers aren't random. That they're given to us for a reason. I believe I'm meant to save Charles."

They were interrupted when May came in. "You still think you should be going," she said.

"I know I can do it."

"And you think I can't?"

"I have an advantage."

"I can't cause earthquakes, but I'm faster than you."

"Foresight. I know what's coming."

"Then get off your ass, and show me."

So, May wanted to replace her? She looked at Ana, but Ana simply shrugged, and left to help Fitz. She knew better than arguing with May. Daisy described the scene in the security office, every single detail she remembered to May, who then quickly assembled a team. They practiced, again and again, until May managed to finish the fight sooner than it was supposed to end, and buy herself some time to get to Charles before it was too late.

"That was pretty damn good," Daisy commented, looking at the stopwatch.

An agent entered. "Sir, we found the building."

They went to take a look. Indeed, it was the building. "That's it."

"And shocker the only way in is the security office on the ground floor," Lincoln said.

"Transia Corporation. I know of it, but why would Malick want from them?" Coulson asked.

"I used their nerve-wiring interface in your hand, sir. It's cutting-edge, to say the least," Fitz explained.

"Okay, this is getting crazy," Simmons said.

"It's been crazy." May was already on the move. The rest followed her.

"Alright, May. Surgical strike. And we agreed, no comms on this," Coulson reminded.

"HYDRA would be listening," May agreed.

"And know we're coming if they have a fortuneteller on hand."

Daisy added, "If you see Charles, do not go up to the roof, even if—"

The alarms suddenly went off, and the front gate opened. It was Andrew, hands behind his head, surrounded by agents.

"He just walked in, sir. He surrendered himself over."

"Why?" May asked.

"Lash is taking over. I'm about to turn for the last time, May. I came to say goodbye."

It looked like May wasn't going anywhere tonight.

…

Daisy entered the Transia Corporation building, leaned against the wall, closed her eyes and took a deep breath to focus before opening the door to the security office. She knew how the scene would play out.

One man when she barged in. Take his gun, shoot the second one coming to his help. Shoot the first one again. Then the third. The fourth one had a knife at his belt. Grab the knife after he was down, and throw it at the fifth one before he could press the alarm button… No, no time for that. She had to use her powers to knock him down instead.

But the alarms went off anyway.

Shit. She looked around. She must have missed something. She turned, and…

"One-way mirror…"

She saw Coulson's reflection, pointing a gun. When she had had that vision, she had thought the gun was pointed at her, but he was actually shooting at the guy behind the mirror.

"Guess it's a good thing I was here," he said.

"How did you know that—"

"We've been monitoring the security feed. By the way, your chances of not going up to the roof just evaporated. HYDRA is already taking Charles there now. Get moving."

"Okay… Wait, what are you going to do?"

"Find Grant Ward."

What the hell? Ward had died on Maveth. Coulson had killed him. There was no way he could come back.

"Yeah, day got weirder."

Whatever that was about, she could find out later. She took off, and ran up to the stairs. So far, she hadn't been able to change a thing. Not even the slightest detail.

By the time she reached the roof, they were taking Charles to a helicopter. She could still save him. But a blow came out of nowhere when she was about to intervene. She found herself lying on the floor, coughing blood. It was Malick, wearing some kind of harness on his chest and arms. Trying to get up, she shot a shockwave from her hand, but he dodged it. The wave hit the billboard that emitted a blinding white light instead, starting a fire.

He grabbed her by the collar and punched her in the face. Twice.

So, this was why he was he was here. To use the Transia Corporation tech to build himself cybernetics.

She had to get up. She had to get to Charles. She was meant to save him.

"Power's intoxicating, isn't it? He's right. Never really feel it, until you take someone else's life from them."

Who was he? Ward?

Another punch. Damn, she could definitely use someone with an armored suit right now. Maybe the whole thing was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Maybe they weren't going to die because of Ana's involvement, but its lack thereof.

"Time to say goodbye," Malick said, circling her, like a predator circling its prey. Daisy saw him clench his fist, and hear the mechanical sound the harness made. Only then, it occurred to Daisy that maybe she had seen her own death, not Charles'. He was preparing to deliver the final blow. She closed her eyes.

But the blow didn't come.

When she looked again, Charles was touching Malick. Whatever it was he showed him, it must have terrified Malick. He turned to Charles this time, his face twisted in fury. And then, a blue light suddenly flashed before her eyes. Like a lightning field, but it wasn't like Lincoln's powers. More like Gordon's, but that couldn't be possible. Gordon was dead.

It turned out, you didn't have to be an Inhuman to be a teleporter. Ana had appeared right before Malick, stopped him before he could grab at Charles, and pushed him towards the helicopter, probably hoping the propeller would shred him to pieces, but Malick managed to hold onto a pipe before that happened.

"Come on, Daisy, get up! We gotta go!"

"Can't you just shoot him into oblivion?" Knowing Ana, she would love to do that. Why was she hesitating?

"I can't. I'm running on the emergency back-up power. I barely got enough juice to get you guys out of here."

"Wait, is this why you were asking me about the lightning earlier?"

Funny, even though she was in too much pain to think clearly, such specific details were still coming back to her clouded mind. Did this mean the future had just changed? That nobody was dying tonight? But Ana didn't have time to answer, because Malick was now running towards them.

Ana grabbed her by the wrist with one hand, and Charles with the other, and they took off. Daisy could see Malick moving his arms around in rage as they flew away from the roof. Strangely enough, she felt like his anger was aimed at Daisy, not Ana, even though it was the latter who had almost killed him.

They landed on the ground, where Fitz-Simmons were standing, their mouths agape. It looked like it was snowing, just like in the vision, but it wasn't snow. It was ash, from the burning billboard on the top of the building. A second after Ana let go of Daisy and Charles, the blue glow of the Arc Reactor faded, and the suit opened up.

"You okay?" Ana asked her.

"I'm not dead." Though she was far from okay.

"Sorry, I should've come sooner."

"What happened up there?" Fitz asked.

Ana looked at Daisy, then Fitz, and smiled in triumph, like a general who had just conquered time itself. "I just proved the multiverse theory right."

…

"I have to be honest, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic right now," Coulson said, looking at Ana's dead suit. They were flying back to the base on Zephyr One. Daisy wasn't the only one who had been hurt badly; Simmons was now tending to Lincoln's injuries. Fitz was questioning Ana about her teleportation technology and the multiverse theory, which was a conversation Daisy could hardly follow. Charles was sitting in a corner, away from everyone. She was dying to tell him that he could be reunited with his family.

For now, she smiled for Coulson. He was just trying to cheer her up. He hated to see her hurt.

"You wouldn't have to, if you'd taken my dad's offer," Ana teased him.

"Thanks, but nostalgia is fine… Couldn't you have saved Daisy sooner, though?"

"Believe me, Coulson, I didn't enjoy watching Malick beat the hell out of her either. But I haven't been able to optimize the teleportation technology yet. Once I use it, it drains the Arc Reactor. And I had to do something no one expected. It was the only way."

Daisy now felt good enough to move around, so she limped to Charles' side. He flinched when he saw her approach.

"No, please don't touch me!"

"It's okay. I'm not going to touch you. I just want to talk." She sat down beside him, but kept some distance. "Your wife said you see the visions, too."

"Polly?" he gasped.

"Yeah, she's at the base, waiting for you."

He started shaking his head frantically. "I can't… I can't go back to my family. I hurt them."

"There might be a way for you."

"L-like a cure?"

"Something like that. My friend over there thinks she can give you an on and off switch. You won't have to use your powers unless you want to. Would you like that?"

He beamed at her, nodding like crazy. "Of course! Of course! Whatever it takes to hold my little girl in my arms again!"

She smiled at him, then realized she hadn't even properly introduced herself. "I'm Daisy, by the way. Daisy Johnson." She was going to offer her hand, but then realized Charles couldn't hold it yet.

"Charles Hinton."

"Nice to officially meet you, Charles."

He looked around him timidly, then his gaze focused on Daisy again, and he asked, "Is it true, what they say about us? Are we aliens?"

She sighed. This was often the hardest part. "Partially. We do have an alien gene. We come from a line of people aliens experimented on. That was a long time ago, though. They're not coming back for us."

His eyes clouded with worry upon hearing that. "Does that mean my daughter…"

"It is possible. She doesn't have to go through the Terrigenesis if she doesn't want to. Some descendants believe it is their birthright, others want no part in it.""

"I want her to have a normal childhood. And when she grows up… I don't know. Is there a way to know what she…"

"Will become? No."

He nodded gravely.

"She's lucky to have you." At least Robin was going to get to grow up with her father… hopefully.

…

A few hours later after they returned to the base, Charles Hinton had almost returned to his old life. He had shaved, cleaned up, and was waiting in the lab with Polly to get his implant.

"Are you sure about this?" Daisy asked Ana.

"Yeah, it's going to work."

"That's not what I'm talking about. I know what Charles' visions feel like. They're… intense."

"I'm prepared."

"I don't know what you're about to see, but you might have to live with it for a long time. And it might not even be what you're looking for."

"Okay, here's another theory: Your boyfriend thinks the powers are not random, right? That they fulfill a need in the Inhuman community?"

"Yes?"

"And there were no Inhumans with foresight in your mom's records, until Raina. No prophets for thousands of years, and after New York, there was suddenly Raina, and now there's Charles!"

"You think this is some kind of warning?"

"I think it's pretty obvious."

Daisy shook her head. "You and your damn theories, Ana…"

"Tell me if you think I'm wrong."

"You're not wrong. Just crazy. What if Charles shows you just an irrelevant death? Something that has nothing to do with aliens?"

"He won't," she said with a bold smile, as if she had already seen the future. "Power is intoxicating, isn't it?" Gideon Malick had asked, and now it was the same kind of intoxication Daisy saw on her friend's face. She seemed drunk. Not with booze, but with the promise of more power.

"Ana, you're becoming overconfident. I'm scared for you."

"Tonight, I found out I have the power to change the future! And it wasn't with superpowers, or mysterious alien artifacts, no… I did it with good old science. Do you realize how rare that is these days?"

"Come on, let's not keep the Hintons waiting."

"Before we go, there's one last thing."

"Yeah?"

"You do care about Lincoln, don't you?"

She was sure of her feelings for him now, so she didn't hesitate to say yes.

"In that case, there's something you should know: Something is about to happen, Daisy. People are scared, and the governments are pressured to give them a kind of reassurance."

"ATCU—"

"This won't be anything like the ATCU. The UN is involved, but that's all I can tell you for now. When it happens, if you and Lincoln go against it, I can protect only one of you."

Daisy had understood what was going on. Partially. She groaned. "Gosh, Ana don't tell me you made a shady deal with some big-wig!"

"Of course I made a shady deal with some big-wig! That's how you survive in my world! Can't you just thank me for the heads-up?"

"No! I'm not going to thank you until you tell me what exactly you got yourself into!"

Ana just shook her head in response and stormed out of the room, putting an abrupt end to this discussion on her own terms. That was the thing with Ana: She always wanted everything to happen on her own terms.

They went to join the others in the lab. Charles and Polly looked at Ana expectantly, like she was some goddess they had prayed for help and now their prayers were about to be answered. Ana smiled at them.

"Okay. So, I know Daisy told you about a switch, but it's actually a subdermal implant," she said, opening a box and showing the small chip inside. "Dr. Simmons will place it right behind your cerebellum, then I'll take it from there." She passed the case to Jemma.

Charles seemed a bit uncomfortable watching her put the chip into an injector. "This is going to take less than a second," Jemma assured him. She knew how to calm down her patients.

After she injected him in the back of his neck first, and then in his left forearm, Ana started the calibration process using a wireless connection. This part Daisy could understand.

"Could someone hack into this chip?" she asked her.

"I'd like to see them try."

Sometimes Ana was worse than her father.

"Synching with your neural network, aaand, done! I'm going to ask you to check out your left inner wrist."

Charles did. Indeed, there was a small, glowing touch screen in his inner wrist. It was just a simple on-off slider. He laughed, and turned it off. Then he looked around, like he was unsure about with whom he should test it.

Polly extended her hand. "It's okay, Charles."

Slowly, Charles touched her hand with a finger. Everyone in the room was holding their breath. When the couple started laughing, they began to clap.

Charles and Polly hugged, kissed, and finally turned to Ana.

"Thank you, Ms. Stark," they said. "Thank you so much for this."

"I'm just glad I could help. And call me Ana."

Charles turned to Daisy this time. "None of it would be possible if you hadn't come for me. Thank you."

"This is what we do."

Soon, everyone returned to their tasks. Daisy decided to see Ana and the Hintons off. They were going to return to New York together. Hell, Ana had summoned one of the fancy Stark jets just to give them a ride. She was probably going to ask for the "payment" on the way to New York. The Starks hadn't earned their fortune by handing out favors for free, after all. Still, Daisy would like to believe Ana would have helped Charles even if she didn't need anything from him.

A/N: A quick note for those who watch AoS: Because Charles Hinton didn't get killed by Malick, and returned to his family instead, Robin won't get her powers. Therefore, she won't be able to foresee the destruction of Earth and the Chronicoms won't intervene to prevent it, so this chapter was kind of important to explain that. As for whose death Ana was shown, I won't reveal it immediately, sorry :) Stay safe, guys!