Chapter 21
AN: I've been waiting to write this chapter for a really long time, and terrified that I wouldn't pull it off, all I have to say is continue reading, there's a reason why I'm updating every day for the next few days.
May 15th 2008
Two months have passed since Daisy learnt why Lola is soo cool and as Bobbi broke her leg on a mission with Mack a few weeks earlier she is staying with May and Daisy, which is a good thing as Melinda is about to leave on a mission.
"And are you sure you're going to be okay getting Daisy to and from school?" Melinda asks Bobbi, as both Daisy and Bobbi are sitting at the stools at the kitchen bench eating breakfast while Melinda is standing, as with Bobbi's injury she doesn't want to ask Bobbi to do more than she can handle.
"I'm sure," Bobbi responds.
"We'll be okay, Mom," Daisy says as the front door opens and Phil walks in. "Hi Cols,"
"Daisy, Bobbi, May," Phil greats, as he walks over to get a cup of coffee.
"You're early, again," Melinda informs Phil.
"It's been years, you should expect it by now, May," Phil informs her, and Melinda just rolls her eyes at him.
"I'll grab my jacket," Melinda says, before heading to her room.
"Do you feel ready for your history test?" Phil asks Daisy curious.
"I think so," Daisy answers, sounding a little uncertain, though she is thankful for all the help Phil has given her.
"I'm sure you'll do great," Phil says, doing his best to give Daisy an encouraging look.
"Thanks Cols," Daisy says gratefully as Melinda walks back into the room.
"We better get going," Melinda says, as she walks up. "I love you," Melinda says, before hugging her daughter, and kissing the top of her head.
"Love you too," Daisy responds.
"Don't make things too hard on Bobbi," Melinda tells her daughter.
"I won't," Daisy promises.
"We'll be fine, Melinda," Bobbi says, knowing better than saying don't worry, and once she does May and Coulson leave together neither realizing that this mission is going to change everything.
After hours of flying Melinda is walking into the cargo hold of a plane known as the bus, all around there are other agents, Melinda walks over to one of them.
"O'Brien, thanks for the tunes," Melinda says, as she hands him back an MP3.
"Anytime, it's one dull flight," O'Brien responds, and Melinda walks over to Phil.
"A gifted individual, what do we know?" Melinda asks curious as from what she's read, and looked into, she is almost positive that they are dealing with an inhuman.
"Not much yet," Phil admits. "You know they're retiring this fleet?" Phil asks.
"About time," Melinda admits. "S.H.I.E.L.D's putting every dime into updating the Triskelion," Melinda comments, as she grabs the file.
"Well, not all the dimes," Phil says and he lowers his voice and moves closer to Melinda, looking around to make sure no one is listening. "Fury's quietly started a new initiative. Instead of this catch-and release with powered people, we form a team, take earth's mightiest to find out if they're heroes," Phil say and Melinda isn't sure what to think. An apart of her thinks it could be a really good idea as it could lead to more acceptance, while another part is worried about what that will mean for Inhuman's who are living their lives in secret, in peace and who deserve to continue to.
"And you mention this because you want my help?" Melinda asks.
"Well, I know you try to spend as much time with Daisy as you can, but you'd be great, and we would be able to keep working together," Phil comments.
"Mm-hmm," Melinda says as she notices the agent walking down the stairs. "One mission at a time, look alive," Melinda comments as the Agent who is in charge walks down.
"Agent Hart," Phil greats.
"We've got her, Phil," Hart says and Melinda feels dread rise up inside of her.
"Gather up!" Agent Hart says and all the agents crowed around a TV. "Meet Eva Belyakov… 35 Index Candidate. Russian intelligence has been pursuing her. Agents Coulson and May have been brought in to advise and make the approach," Agent Hart says.
"Thank you," Phil says, as he takes the center spot. "We believe Miss Belyakov possesses enhanced strength. This is what happened when a Russian officer tried to stop her with his car," Phil says, putting a image of a pretty destroyed car on the screen. "She fled Russia unharmed," Phil explains. "Looks pretty strong to me, so it's important we don't spook her. Just a friendly chat to bring her in for evaluation, and if all goes really well, we'd gain an asset before the Russian find her," Phil explains.
"The approach will be public. It's not ideal, but we go in now, we lose our window," Hart says. "Local military's not used to standing down. Welcome to Bahrain. Let's hope Belyakov cooperates," Hart says.
"And if she doesn't?" Melinda asks concerned.
"Then I call in the Cavalry," Hart comments, and Melinda feels even more dread rise up inside of her.
A little while later Melinda, Phil and Hart, who have gotten out of their car, are walking up the man who is in charge of what is going on.
"Faisal Ahmed, may I introduce agents Coulson and May," Hart says. "Faisal is with Bahrain National Security," Hart explains.
"Pleasure, sir," Phil says. "Your people have been tracking her?" Phil asks.
"Yes, we followed Miss Belyakov to a café in the market. This is a very dangerous area. Black-market importers, thieves, not a place for tourists," Ahmed explains.
"So, she didn't come for falafel," Phil realizes.
"She could be meeting with anyone," Melinda points out, trying to deescalate the situation, knowing that if she is right and Belyakov is an inhuman then things could get extremely awkward for her.
"Whatever she wants, it's not good," Ahmed says. "Unless she leaves with you, our military will take her," Ahmed says, before walking away and May and Coulson exchange looks.
"This is our window. Fury will have our asses if an index candidate ends up in government hands," Hart says and Melinda knows she cannot let an inhuman end up in government hands.
"Okay, we'll make this work," Phil says and over the next few minutes everyone does what they can to get into position. Once everyone has gotten into position Phil walks up to where Eva is sitting.
"Hello. May I?" Phil asks and he sits down across from Eva. "My name is Phil Coulson, and I'm here to help," Phil reveals. "My group specializes in helping people like you, who have gifts," Phil explains.
"And why should I trust you?" Eva asks, and Melinda thinks the distrusting nature certainly fits with an Inhuman who has been at Afterlife, and that she should try and figure out a way to talk to Eva alone.
"Because I could take you somewhere safe. I know you've been on the run, but SHIELD can protect you. You're not alone in all this," Phil comments, as Melinda notices a little girl running around and touching people.
"Locals incoming. Gun, blue Shirt," Melinda says, as she has spotted the potential complication.
"Agent O'Brien be sure they don't interfere," Hart says though the coms.
"Why don't we go somewhere more secure?" Phil suggests as O'Brien approaches the men.
"No. I like it here," Eva comments.
"Coulson, we're running out of time," Melinda says concerned.
"These men can't help you. Let's talk somewhere calmer. What is it that you're looking for?" Phil asks.
"Pain!" Eva says, before throwing a table, and over the next minute Eva, a lot of men, including SHIELD agents, and the little girl Melinda saw head into a warehouse.
A few minutes later Coulson is outside the van when Hart, who is now dressed in tactical gear, walks up to him, so he climbs out of the van.
"The warehouse connects directly to the market. Once they holed up inside, my men cut off both exits... the alley and the market entrance," Hart explains.
"it's a rat's nest in there," Coulson realizes.
"Coulson," Melinda says as she walks up to the pair. "We I.D'd Belyakov's friends… local militia street gang, basically. That's their stronghold," Melinda explains, gesturing to the building.
"Okay, I'm gonna call Agent O'Brien, see if they'll negotiate," Phil says and he makes the call, putting the phone on speaker. "O'Brien, is that you? You okay?" Phil asks.
"Leave us alone," O'Brien requests.
"Can you talk? Are they making demands? Put me on with Belyakov," Phil requests.
"Just leave us alone," O'Brien says, before hanging up.
"Leave us alone?" Phil asks confused.
"Is he trying to warn us away, or?" Melinda asks, searching her brain as she tries to figure out what is going on.
"We tried it the nice way. It's time for my team to do it's job," Hart says. "Let's move out!" Hart responds.
"Yes sir!" The men responds.
"I should go in," Melinda says, knowing it may be best for everyone if she goes in alone.
"Let them do their thing," Phil says, and over the next few minutes Melinda and Phil, who are now inside the van, listen as the building swallows even more people and they hear a lot of things that don't make sense.
"Hart come in!" Phil instructs, but they just hear feedback. "Bravo, come in. all operations, check in," Phil requests
"What the hell just happened? What happened to the little girl?" Melinda ask concerned.
"I don't know, but I have to call it in," Phil says. "That building just swallowed twelve agents in a minute," Phil says worried.
"We're alone on this," Melinda says, as while she wanted to handle it alone she didn't want to handle it like this.
As he knows they need help Phil makes a call into HQ while Melinda tries to make sense of what is going on by using the information that Phil doesn't have.
"There are multiple hostages… our whole damn tactical team. We need emergency backup 10 minutes ago," Phil argues.
"Tell them to send me in. I can fix the problem," Melinda says to Phil.
"I strongly advise sending our specialist inside… Agent May. No. there are agent's inside. There's no time to wait," Phil says, and he sighs. "Yes, Sir. Yes, sir," Phil says and the person on the other end hangs up. "Yay for red tape. They want us to wait," Phil explains to Melinda.
"For how long?" Melinda asks annoyed.
"The Bahrainis are pissed. I think they're about two inches from bombing the building and calling it a night," Phil explains.
"If the go in, it's gonna be an assault, people will die," Melinda says, wanting to do what she can to not just protect the SHIELD agents, and the little girl, but protect Belyakov as well and get her to go to Afterlife. "I can do this. It's all about slipping in and pulling them out," Melinda explains.
"SHIELD is not authorized for any action," Phil reminds Melinda, and they both hear sirens nearby. "Go," Phil says and Melinda grabs a knife, her only weapon, and runs.
After leaving Phil Melinda goes to the alley which is her best way into the building. As she stands in the alley she debates calling Gordon, as she could use his help, but with so many military people, including SHIELD, around the exposure risk, which is already pretty high, is too great, and so taking a deep breath Melinda makes her way into the building suspecting that the best way to end this is to get to Belyakov and tell her who she is.
"Coulson, can you read?" Melinda asks once she is inside the building, having already snapped someone's neck, and honestly she is a little relieved when she hears feedback. Once she is sure that Coulson can't hear her anymore Melinda jumps down the stairs she is standing on and starts to fight several of the men that Melinda assumes Belyakov hired.
After she takes the last of the men down Melinda is torn, she needs to get her people out, but Belyakov is her people too and not for the first time Melinda finds herself torn between SHIELD and Inhumans.
"Forgive me," Melinda says, and instead of heading to the logical place where the SHIELD agents would be Melinda makes her way through the building, looking for Belyakov.
Getting to the main area of the warehouse Melinda makes her way through the main door, and next thing she knows she is getting thrown across the room. When Melinda looks up she sees Belyakov.
"I will feel your pain," Belyakov says, as Melinda, who now has an injured leg, gets to her feet. "I feel all their pain and I grow stronger,"
"You don't have to, Eva, I know you're an inhuman," Melinda tells her, focused on Belyakov that she doesn't see the little girl hiding nearby.
"How do you know that word?" Eva asks shocked, as Katya is just as shocked as Melinda walks towards Eva.
"I'm Jiaying's daughter, Kora's sister, I can help you. Help you get to safety, to Afterlife, you can trust me, you don't have to do this!" Melinda tells Eva.
"Jiaying did this!" Eva says. "I want your pain. And I want hers!" Eva says and she starts to fight Melinda. While Melinda is the better fighter Eva has her powers, and he anger, and Melinda is trying not to hurt her, while the same cannot be said for Eva.
As Melinda and Eva continue to fight, Eva is able to use her strength to get Melinda in in a headlock that she cannot get out of.
"I can't wait to feel Jiaying's pain," Eva says, and realizing that she has no choice, as she knows what Eva is about to do Melinda, as she gasps for breath and feels Eva starting to crush her, pulls her knife and stabs it into Eva's stomach, and twisting her, killing her.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Melinda says, catching her breath, feeling overwhelming guilt, and pain, as she just killed one of her people; something she swore she would never do.
"You killed Mother," A voice says and Melinda turns to see the little girl who is coming out from where she is hiding.
"You're her daughter," Melinda realizes. "Honey, I can get you out of here. Get you to safety," Melinda assures the little girl.
"There's so much pain, I like all their pain," Katya says and everything falls into place for Melinda as all the SHIELD agents, and the other men, clearly being controlled walks in.
"Why would you go through so young?" Melinda asks sounding shocked as she has never known someone to go through the mist so young in fact she was warned against it her whole life.
"Please, take my hand," Katya requests.
"I'm not going to do that, and you don't have to do this," Melinda tells her, and as she does the girl waves her hand, killing all the hired men, and a gun falls out one of their hands, and rolls. "Honey, put your hand down, you don't have to use your abilities like this," Melinda says as she walks backwards, trying to get away from Katya, as at the moment Melinda knows that she cannot let the little girl touch her.
"But I like it," Katya says, as Melinda continues to walk backwards and as she is so focused on the little girl Melinda stumbles a little and her injured leg gives way, causing her to fall to the ground, and Katya goes to move her hand.
"What's your name?" Melinda asks, trying to distract her, as she feels a gun behind her.
"Katya," Katya explains. "Take my hand,"
"Katya, don't use your abilities like this," Melinda informs the little girl. "Your powers are a gift, you can learn to control them, not control other people, you don't have to hurt people," Melinda explains, wanting desperately to get through to the little girl.
"But I like it," Katya says, it looking like she doesn't think there is anything wrong with what she is doing. "Take my hands, give me your pain. I need a new mother. I'll take your pain,"
"I can help you," Melinda tells the young girl. "But not like this," Melinda tells her. "Just stop, you need to just put down your hand and stop, I can help you," Melinda says, and Kata starts to move her hand, in the same way that killed all the men, clearly about to kill all the Agents, as Melinda reaches behind her and grabs the gun. "Please Katya, don't do this," Melinda begs, but Katya shows no sign of stopping, and so hating herself, Melinda points the gun and pulls the trigger, killing Katya.
As Katya falls to the ground Melinda crawls over to her, and pulls Kata into her lap, holding the little girl as she dies.
A few minutes later Jiaying and Gordon, who is wearing sunglasses, watch as Melinda is helped out of the building by Coulson. As she sees her daughter, sees the look on her face and how hurt she is, everything falls into place for Jiaying and she wants more than anything to her, pull her into her arms, and tell her she did what she had to do, and take her back home.
"Who's that with her?" Jiaying asks Gordon, knowing that he spends time with Melinda, and from what she can see the man clearly cares for her daughter.
"Phil Coulson, he's Mel's best friend, but doesn't know the truth," Gordon explains, knowing Melinda is going to be completely hating herself right now. "He'll help her," Gordon says, believing that.
"Hey, every agent who walked out of that building is alive because of you," Phil tells Melinda.
"That girl, I couldn't help her… I couldn't save her, couldn't save them," Melinda says, her voice breaking. "She… didn't understand. I tried," Melinda says, feeling overwhelming guilt as she just took the life of two of her people. Melinda always told herself that she was protecting her people, and now she took two of their lives, she failed them.
"It's all right. You have to let the girl go. Melinda. Let the girl go," Phil says as Melinda starts to cry, and Phil just holds her.
Not long after she saw her daughter being helped out of the building Jiaying, who realized they were risking exposure by staying around, along with Gordon have made their way back to Afterlife.
"Get Kora. I'll be in my office," Jiaying tells Gordon, who nods.
When Jiaying gets to her office she picks up the picture she keeps on her desk, a picture of Melinda and Kora from when they were seventeen. Jiaying may not have seen her daughter for many years, but all she ever wanted was what's best for her, it's why she never wanted her to join SHIELD, she was trying to prevent something just like this.
After Jiaying has been staring at the picture for a few minutes the door opens and Kora works in.
"What's going on Mom? Did you find Eva? Where you right? Did she use the stollen Terragin on her daughter?" Kora asks curious as Jiaying and Gordon have been gone for the past few days tracking Eva.
"She did," Jiaying confirms. "And I didn't find them, your sister did," Jiaying says and from her mother's tone of voice Kora feels dread rise up inside of her.
"How bad?" Kora asks.
"Katya got an ability to leach emotions like a parasite, and control people by doing that. The Terragin twisted her, just like I feared it would," Jiaying explains.
"What happened?" Kora asks, feeling almost positive that she doesn't want the answer.
"Yours sister did what she had to do," Jiaying says and Kora knows what that means.
"Mom, I know you don't believe it, but Mellie joined SHIELD to protect our people; everything she does is about protecting us. She's not going to be okay right now," Kora says, knowing that.
"I saw her, she's not," Jiaying admits. "Which is why you need to go to her, help her, and stay as long as she needs," Jiaying informs Kora.
"I will," Kora says, knowing what her mother doesn't and that Daisy is going to need her. "Thank you, Mom," Kora says gratefully, Jiaying nods, and Kora leaves.