A/N: Hey guys! Review Response for last chapter: Review 1 (Indigene Syke) - I'm glad you're enjoying it.

"Sir, you're not overseeing the mission?" Simmons asked.

"Rosalind Price offered to let me tour the ATCU this morning. I can't pass up that opportunity." Coulson looked at them. "May's taking point. Fitz and Simmons will be here on comms."

Barry noticed the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents seemed a bit tense at this, and guessed it was unusual for Coulson to be away when they had missions. The man had called them together first thing, to do a final briefing before they left for the HYDRA base.

"Everyone's clear on what they're doing?" Coulson asked.

"Kicking HYDRA butt, sir," Mack said, in a surprisingly serious tone.

It looked like Coulson appreciated it, because the man half-smiled. "Alright. Keep me updated on the progress of the mission."

He turned to Fitz, who handed him a – was that a hand? He took it and walked out without a word. Barry looked after him with an open mouth, unsure if he'd imagined the exchange.

"Gear up," May said. "Meet on the plane in fifteen."

Most of the team moved immediately, heading towards the lockers Daisy had shown him a few days before. Barry hesitated, setting his gaze on Fitz. "Did you give Coulson -?"

"Was that a hand?" Cisco asked loudly.

Fitz blinked. "Yeah, it was."

It didn't look like he was going to say anything else. It didn't look like it was a big revelation, either. The silence stretched between everyone until Fitz's bored expression cracked with the beginning of laughter. Mack touched his arm, saying "good job, Turbo."

Fitz looked at them and chuckled. "We realized you didn't know about the hand, so Mack and I thought it would be funny to show you like this."

"Mack and I?" Simmons asked.

"Okay, Mack and I thought of it and Simmons helped fine tune it," Fitz said quickly.

Joke aside, why would Coulson take a hand from Fitz? Barry decided to try asking something else. "What does Coulson need with a hand?"

"I had to cut off the real one to save his life," Mack said. "Fitz is working on different replacement models."

"Ha," Cisco said, looking between Fitz and Mack suspiciously. "Yeah right."

"You think I'm joking?" Mack asked.

Cisco faltered. "You mean you really did cut off his hand?"

"It was either cut off his hand or let him die, so yeah."

"That's both terrifying and amazing," Cisco said in a low voice.

"You'd better get ready," Simmons said, looking at Barry. "Agent May doesn't like to be kept waiting."

Caitlin gave Barry a quick hug, and Barry heard Cisco say "so can we be on comms too, or is that just the two of you?" as he walked to the lockers. He wasn't as worried about time (he could change in a matter of seconds if he used his speed), but he should still get going. He walked the now familiar halls of the Playground, anticipation building in the pit of his stomach. He was more nervous than he'd thought he would be.

He walked quickly, changing into the red suit and moving back into the hallway. It had been about seven minutes since May had told them to get ready. He had time. He turned on his phone and called Iris, knowing she was probably at work and couldn't answer, but needing to try anyway.

He was about to hang up on the last ring when she picked up, a bit breathless. "Hello?"

Fear went to the back of his mind at her voice. "Hey Iris."

"Barry, hi! I was just thinking it'd been a few days since you called. How are you?"

"I'm good," he said. "The people here are really good. They're helping us a lot."

"I would hope so," Iris said with a laugh. "They're doctors, aren't they?"

He swallowed, thankful he hadn't slipped up more. "Yeah, that's true. Listen, I just wanted to check in. I've gotta go."

"Oh, okay." He could hear what she didn't say: that was fast. He would have to make sure next time he called he had more time, or she would get suspicious. "Well if you wanna call back later, I know Dad wants to hear from you. He's making one of Grandma Esther's recipes tonight."

"Don't tell me -."

"It's not the noodles," she said. "I'm making him save that one for when you come home. Which should be soon, right?"

He knew she was trying to sound casual, but he could hear the curiosity behind her words. He didn't know how to explain that he would need more time than she was imagining, and especially not in the few minutes he had left before he was due at the plane; so he lied to her – something he hated himself for doing. He'd managed not to lie last time he'd called, by being vague in exactly what he was doing, and only talking specifically about what he'd done with Cisco and Caitlin. "Yeah, definitely."

"Alright Bar, love you."

She meant it in the platonic, brotherly way she'd always said it. He tried to emulate that with his own response, instead of adding the other dimension to it. He wasn't sure if he succeeded or not. "Love you too."

He walked back to the lockers and slipped his phone into the one he'd been given, taking a second to close his eyes and compose himself. Then he ran to the plane.

May looked at him and pressed the switch to raise the door. "You were almost late."

If she only knew how often he heard that. More accurately, how often he heard that he was late. The only reason he'd made it here on time was because of his speed… which made him smile to himself, as he realized he might not have to worry about being late anymore. Speed could make up for leaving late.

He sat in a seat next to Mack, strapping himself in as May moved to the cockpit and started turning everything on. "So this is typical?" Barry asked.

"This is the easy part," Hunter called from the opposite row of seats. "No one's shooting at us yet."

"Don't mind him," Mack said, in his deep and friendly voice. "This won't be too intense."

"Just don't give them the chance to hurt you, and they won't."

Barry looked at Mack for some gentler version of this, but Mack shook his head. "Hunter's right on that one."

"O-kay," Barry said, letting his leg start to shake to burn off nervous energy. Coulson had taken him aside the night before, and told him what he was supposed to do: "don't worry about fighting unless you have to. Run in and assess the situation, and report back to May on what you see. See if you can distract the HYDRA agents by running around them."

It seemed simple enough. Of course he'd screwed up simpler things before… he forced the negative thoughts away. He was ready for this. This was a baby step, a watered-down preview of what the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents volunteered to do every day. He could handle it, and had to if he wanted to help them more in the future.

It seemed like a long time before the plane started to descend, and then the ramp was lowering and everyone was loading weapons. "Should I have one of those?" Barry asked.

Hunter handed him a handgun. The Brit had seemed intimidating when Barry first met him, because of his bluntness and how beat-up his face had been (he'd been after some guy named… Ward, maybe? Barry hadn't heard much else, but Hunter had been pissed that the guy had gotten away). Hunter looked better now, and Barry recognized the bluntness as a good sense of humor.

"Hunter, he doesn't know -."

"Relax, Bob, it's only an ICER." Hunter looked at Barry. "It knocks out the target, got it? Non-lethal."

Barry didn't know if they'd given him the ICER because he was new, but he was grateful that it wasn't a regular gun. "We're about a half mile from the building, so let's get walking," May said.

"Want me to run ahead?"

May studied him before nodding slightly. "But don't -."

He didn't catch the end of that. He was already racing towards the HYDRA base. He hadn't run on anything other than the treadmill in ages. While he loved the treadmill, it wasn't the same as being outdoors. The feel of the land beneath him, the light and wind rushing by him – he almost forgot to stop, just outside the building. He angled his body to the side, to sort of slide to a stop instead of just stopping the movement. It seemed to help him keep his balance.

The building was pretty plain, from the outside. Pale gray walls, no meaningful decorations. "I'm outside," Barry said, leaning towards the microphone on the edge of his jacket.

"Do you see anyone?" May asked.

He scanned around once more to be sure, then answered. "No." He ran around the building and didn't see anyone there either. "It seems kind of empty."

"Having guards outside is a good way to draw unwanted attention," Bobbi said.

Barry ran back to them (simply because he wanted to run more) and walked up to the building in the group. "So how do we do this?" Barry asked as they approached the door. "Sneak in?"

Hunter threw open the door and Bobbi ran in, holding her gun ready but pointed at the ground.

"Or do that," Barry said to himself, and ran inside after the others. He was moving so fast the others appeared to be in slow motion, so he could see his teammates starting to spread out in the doorway. He could also see the five HYDRA agents reaching for their weapons, and realized they must have seen him standing outside. He reacted without really thinking, aware that if the HYDRA agents aimed their weapons first, it was his fault for giving them notice. He ran towards them, reaching for their weapons and pushing them aside, all in a line. He ran back to his team's side and stopped running, watching as everyone sprang back into real time.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents fired at the HYDRA men, taking them down quickly. Mack stopped, apparently confused. "Didn't they have guns?"

"They must have seen me standing outside," Barry said quickly. "I grabbed their guns."

"Think you can do that again?" Bobbi asked.

Barry nodded, and they moved on to the next room. Each of the next three rooms they went in, Barry raced ahead to take any weapons out of range of HYDRA hands. None of the rooms seemed as prepared as the initial entryway.

Coulson had been right to call it a small base. There were maybe twenty-five agents spread throughout, most in the interior rooms, sitting at computers. Of course, luck wouldn't let all of them be easy to surprise, and the main computer room (with seven or eight agents, at a quick glance) showed multiple weapons trained on the door and starting to fire the second the S.H.I.E.L.D. team opened it. May was in front.

Barry grabbed her and moved her into the hallway, moving back and doing the same with everyone else. He could see the bullets getting closer as he pulled Mack, and felt a burning sting in his arm as he brought Hunter out last. He stopped running and winced, putting a hand to his arm. He was bleeding.

"What just happened?" Hunter asked.

"They were ready for us," Bobbi said. Barry could see her analyzing the situation.

"Keep your hand there," May said quietly, gesturing to Barry's arm. "The rest of you, let's go."

"I can still -."

"Stay here," May ordered, and whipped around the doorway already firing. Barry heard the shots get louder (the ICERS sounded like real guns, so how did he know who was firing more off?), and looked at the doorway for a second. Then he ran back inside, determined to help. He ran to a big guy with a semi-automatic and pushed the weapon up, bashing it into the man's face.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were spread out, some exchanging fire and ducking, others physically engaging the HYDRA agents. Barry saw that two were going against Hunter, and pulled back to punch as he ran forward. His punch seemed more powerful because of his speed, because the guy crumpled to the ground pretty fast. Hunter struck the other one twice, and kicked him the rest of the way to the ground, then turned to Barry.

"You're going to be in so much trouble, mate," he said.

Barry sort of frowned, but turned to look at the fight. There was only one HYDRA agent left, but before Barry could run over to him a gun went off, and the man dropped. May stood, her weapon trained in that direction, and breathed out as she lowered it. She motioned with her hands for Bobbi to move to the right, Mack to the left, and Barry heard both of them say "clear" over the comms before they reappeared.

May nodded. "Fitz, Simmons," she said. "We're clear. All hostiles down."

Barry could hear the relieved laughter in the earpiece he wore. It was strange, but he found he liked being able to hear them so clearly.

"We'll let Coulson know," Simmons said.

"We're starting cleanup," May said. "See you soon."

May approached one of the unconscious HYDRA agents, pulling out a zip tie. She bound his hands behind his back, and moved on to another. The others started doing the same, some leaving the room to (presumably) tie up the agents in the other parts of the building. Barry didn't have any zip ties, and was grateful when May handed him a few. He ran back to the front of the building, so when Hunter and Bobbi reached that entryway, the agents were already restrained. Bobbi smiled at him approvingly. Hunter gave him a look that said 'you're still in trouble.'

The rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team wasn't far behind. "So what do we do with them?" Barry asked, gesturing with his head to the HYDRA agents.

"Leave them," Mack said. "We've got someone coming to take them to lockup."

"They're already here."

Barry saw that there was a bus just outside, with a few people getting out and hurrying inside. The people wore all black, and looked to May when they reached her.

"Round 'em up," May said. "Report to me when they're fully detained."

"Yes ma'am," one of the female agents said, and then they moved into the building.

Barry walked onto the plane, feeling oddly exhilarated. He'd been shot, but he barely cared! How was that possible? They were talking about the mission on the way back to the Playground, Bobbi telling Barry that he'd done a really good job of it. Barry didn't think it was false praise. He felt good.

Until May caught him as he was walking down the ramp, back into the Playground. "Don't listen to an order again, and I'll tell Coulson you're not ready for this," she said in a low voice. "You could have been hurt a lot worse, running back in like that."

He swallowed, nodding his understanding.

"That being said, you showed good instincts today. Just don't let it get to your head."

She walked away, leaving him looking after her with a mixed expression. So she approved…? He sighed and walked to his locker, feeling the tension leave him. He'd participated in his first mission for S.H.I.E.L.D.

He couldn't wait to go on another one.

0-0

Fitz watched Caitlin clean Barry's arm where the bullet had clipped him, accepting the gauze pad she used to cover it from Jemma. The two had really found a balance, when it came to doctoring. Jemma walked away after handing off the gauze pad, walking out of the lab. Fitz walked behind her, waiting for her to say something. He knew she had something on her mind.

"Coulson will probably want us to look at the computers at the HYDRA base," he said.

"Yes, I know. But I think we have a few hours before he gets back, and tells us to go there."

He caught at her hand, stopping her. "Jemma, what's wrong?"

She didn't look at him, and since she was kind of looking down, her hair partly covered her face. "I've been distracted, lately, and I know we've been doing good work, but… I need to look into the portal again."

He let his hand fall from hers, that unspoken word lying between them: Will.

The perfect astronaut hero-man who'd saved her, when Fitz couldn't. The man she may or may not be in love with.

He'd let himself forget about him, and equal parts shame and injustice assaulted him at this reminder. Will hadn't done anything wrong, and deserved to be brought back to Earth; at the same time, Fitz hated the idea of him being here… being with Jemma. He was the one who should be with her.

"I'll have another look at your phone," Fitz said. He knew his voice was a bit stunted, but Jemma didn't react. He supposed she felt as torn about this as he did. Probably more so. "I'll let you know if I find anything that could help."

"Fitz -,"

"It's okay, Jemma," he said, walking back towards the lab. Barry and Caitlin were still in there, but Fitz walked past them, over to his desk. He pulled out headphones and put them in as he brought up the files from Jemma's old cell phone. He'd skimmed through them once, before Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin had been brought here, but then he'd just watched the video, trying to get an understanding of the landscape. Now he listened to the audio.

He hated how weak Jemma's voice sounded, for most of the videos. He hated seeing her so exhausted and withdrawn. Then he heard the actual words, and realized she addressed them to him. One video after another, she kept saying his name: Fitz, Fitz, Fitz. She apologized to him, and he felt tears burning behind his eyes, spilling onto his cheeks. She had nothing to apologize for. Nothing at all.

He finished the videos and went through the pictures, finally landing on one of Jemma with Will. He stared at it for a few seconds, searchingly, and then closed his eyes as he ex-ed out of the program. He moved his hand up to wipe the tear tracks from his face before taking off the headphones and turning around.

Cisco was behind him, his mouth open and a hesitant look on his face.

"What?" Fitz asked. Thankfully, his voice was normal.

Cisco's eyes were on the computer, and they moved to Fitz and then back a few times. "I – I just wanted to see if – I thought you might want a hand with something," he stammered.

"Coulson will put us to work on the information from HYRDA soon enough. You should enjoy the few hours off."

"I didn't mean to, but I saw the pictures you were looking at…" Cisco's tone was careful and light. "Where was that?"

Fitz stood. "An alien planet."

"Was it – recent?"

"Yes, I'd say it was. Excuse me, I've got work to do."

"I thought you said we have a few hours off."

"You do," Fitz said as he reached the door. "I don't."

He walked to his room, sitting on his bed and rubbing at his temples to get a hold of himself. He would apologize for being rude later. Right now he had to look into why NASA sent Will to Maveth in the first place. He pulled his tablet closer, starting a search and letting the focus on facts drown out the keening of his heart.

0-0

Cisco watched Fitz walk out of the lab with words stuck in his throat. He really hadn't meant to spy on him, but when he'd seen the foreign landscape on the computer monitor, he'd stepped closer automatically. Then he'd seen a few pictures of Simmons in front of the dark, dusty landscape. Then Fitz had stopped at one last picture, of Simmons holding onto another man who obviously wasn't Fitz, smiling.

Cisco hadn't known how to react when Fitz turned around and caught him spying. He hadn't been able to process the pictures without asking questions. Now, the limited pieces of information he had were stretching and drawing closer to each other, trying to fill in the complicated past he'd been told about. An alien planet, with pictures of Simmons being there… another guy… Fitz had said it was fairly recent…

"No wonder they said it's complicated," he breathed. He wanted to know more, because even this bombshell didn't fill in the space of the story. He walked quickly towards the rec room, intent on finding Caitlin and Barry. He didn't find them until he checked the kitchen, where Barry was eating a sandwich.

"Okay, I just got some huge news and I really need to talk about it," he said as he walked in.

Barry cut off whatever he was saying and looked at him. "Okay, talk."

Cisco looked behind him. "We should go somewhere more private."

"Cisco, what's going on?" Caitlin demanded.

Cisco looked over his shoulder again and sighed. He guessed it was private enough in here with just the three of them. He walked over, taking a seat. "So I went to ask Fitz if he needed help with anything and saw him looking at these pictures on his computer, right?"

"Do we really need to know this?" Caitlin asked.

"Yes," he said immediately. "He didn't talk much, but he told me they were pictures of an alien planet, and they were recent!"

They just looked at him. "I get that an alien planet is interesting, but it's S.H.I.E.L.D., so it's not that surprising," Barry said.

Cisco backtracked and realized he hadn't said enough. "Guys, it's surprising because Simmons was in the pictures. Meaning Simmons was on the planet."

Judging from their expressions, they got that it was a bombshell now. Barry dropped what was left of his sandwich.

"She wasn't on earth?" Barry asked.

"Apparently not," Cisco said. "And there was this picture of her with another guy, probably on that planet."

"You saw that too?"

"Fitz was staring at that one for a while," Cisco said quietly, suddenly less excited about the discovery.

"That's where she was," Caitlin mumbled, staring into space. Cisco looked at her in confusion, and she focused on him. "When we first got here, Simmons said that the team had been looking into helping Inhumans, but she hadn't. She said she'd just gotten back."

"Oh, God," Cisco said.

"She'd just gotten back from the alien planet," Barry said.

Cisco put his head in his hands. "Well, I feel like an awful person."

"You didn't do anything."

"I pressed Fitz for answers when he obviously didn't want to talk. He said he's got a job to do. I don't think it's one from Coulson. What if it's about that alien planet, and that's why he was looking at the pictures?"

Neither Barry nor Caitlin said anything for about a minute, and Cisco looked up expecting them to be upset with him. They weren't looking at him at all, though. He followed their gazes to the doorway, where Simmons had stopped just inside. A fresh wave of unease ran through him, because from her facial expression, she'd heard at least part of their conversation.

"Simmons, I didn't -."

"It's alright," she said, blinking and shaking her head as if to clear it. "It's not like I meant to keep it a secret or anything. I just don't particularly like talking about it." She took a breath, seeming to steady herself. "The planet is called Maveth. I was sucked through a portal and was stuck there for six months before Fitz found a way to rescue me. That was a few weeks ago."

Her words were somewhat detached, not that Cisco could blame her. It sounded awful on its own, but he'd seen some of the pictures, and that planet looked like a wasteland. He couldn't imagine being alone for six months… well, mostly alone. He just couldn't.

He looked at her, trying to figure out anything he could say, but what could he? Sorry you were gone so long? At least you're back now? She seemed to realize he wanted to say something, because she almost smiled at them. "It's a lot to take in. Fitz and I are looking into opening the portal now, whenever Coulson doesn't need us."

"Can I ask why?" Caitlin asked. "If you just got back, why open a portal again?"

The foundation seemed to shift slightly under Simmons' feet, alarming Cisco and making him want to offer her a chair. But Simmons just took another small breath before answering. "We need to rescue Will. He's the man who kept me alive the last few months I was there, and he has no way home."

"If there's anything we can do to help," Barry offered. "You've been helping us so much you probably haven't had time to work on this. Let us help you."

"I appreciate the offer, really," she said, "but it's quite enough having Fitz's help." Her face was tight, and Cisco could practically hear how torn up her thoughts were. He thought of Fitz's face, right when the engineer had turned around in the lab. His eyes had seemed so sad, so crushed. It was odd to see that same expression in Simmons' eyes.

Most of the puzzle pieces fit together now, and Cisco, though he had no idea who the man was, disliked Will. That had to be what was keeping them apart, when they were so obviously in love with each other. As long as Will was stuck on Maveth, her guilt at leaving him behind and Fitz's desire to make her happy wouldn't let them tell each other how they really felt.

Simmons tried to smile at them, though it mostly failed. "Best not to dwell on it. Have any of you seen Fitz?"

They shook their heads, and she nodded. "I'll find him. Thanks."

They watched her walk out, and when Cisco looked back at Barry and Caitlin, he knew they were thinking exactly what he was. Fitz and Simmons had focused on helping them since they'd met, spending practically every hour with them.

It was time for them to get some help in return.

0-0

Fitz looked up at the knock on his door. "Come in," he called.

Jemma opened it and stood in the doorway for a second, hesitating before walking in. "I wanted to see how you were doing."

"I've been looking into NASA, and I couldn't find anything about the mission Will went on."

"I didn't mean the research," she said. "I just saw Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco in the kitchen, and they knew about Maveth. I thought one of them might have asked you about it."

Fitz scoffed. "Cisco saw some of the pictures."

Jemma walked over to his bed, glancing at his tablet. "I told them the basics. They said they wanted to – help…"

"What?"

Her eyes were locked on the tablet now, and she pulled it closer. Fitz had set it down on a split screen, one part showing the logo on Will's uniform, the other his most recent search attempt for information. Jemma was staring at the logo. Fitz's first thought was that she was thinking of Will, but she didn't seem guilty or sad (her usual expressions when she brought him up in front of Fitz).

"Fitz, what is this?" she asked.

"The logo from Will's mission."

She was shaking her head, so slightly he doubted she was conscious of it. "No, I know this. It's something else."

He took the tablet from her. "You're looking at it upside down." He tried to flip it over, but she gripped his wrist to stop him, and when he looked up, her face had drained of most of its color. "Jemma, what is it?"

She was staring at it, and he could see the theory behind her eyes. "Let me look at something."

He let her take the tablet, and waited as she typed something in. Less than a minute later she handed it back to him. She'd left it on the split screen, one half still showing the logo. The other half had the symbol from the castle where they'd opened the portal. Once it was in his hands, she rotated the logo from Will's uniform, so he was looking at it upside down.

They looked eerily similar. He looked up at her, cold. "You don't think…?"

She was nodding. "It wasn't NASA that sent Will through the portal, Fitz. He wasn't sent to bring back samples."

"He was sacrificed."

She took it from him again and sat next to him, running a search. He watched over her shoulder, following her progress as she found more recent variations of the symbol from the castle. When they reached the fourth or fifth one, he put his hand over hers, to stop her from scrolling past it.

He knew that shape. He rotated the image so it was upside down, just like the logo from Will's uniform. Fitz looked at her, hoping he was imagining it. Her expression confirmed exactly what he was thinking.

Their voices overlapped: "It was HYDRA."