A/N: Hey guys! I know you want to get right to the story, but like last chapter, I do have something to explain first. This episode follows a lot of the events of episode 3x10 of S.H.I.E.L.D. In case you don't remember, here are the important details: Malick is trying to bring back a creature trapped on Maveth. He doesn't know how to bring someone back through the portal, though. That's why he had Fitz and Simmons kidnapped (since Fitz successfully brought Jemma back through the portal). Ward tortures them to make them talk, and then goes through the portal with one of them, to bring back the creature for Malick. I'm not going into detail with the torture scenes and storyline on Maveth, because that happens exactly as it does on the actual show, but that's the context you should have going into the chapter.

Leave me a review, please!

Barry looked at Mack, just waiting for another order to run. His legs were screaming for him to move, to run until he found Fitz and Simmons. He knew running blind wouldn't do anyone any good, though, so he waited for instructions.

Mack was trying to get in touch with Coulson, but it wasn't going well. When he did manage to reach him, Coulson didn't react to the news. He hung up.

"We have to go after them," Daisy said. Barry could see the same restless energy he felt in her, the same desire to do something physical.

"Not yet. We don't know enough."

"We know HYDRA has them," Daisy said. "That's enough for me."

"We need a location." Mack crossed his arms. "We have to trust that Coulson will know something that can help us find them, and call back."

Daisy turned and left the room. Barry thought Mack was in an awkward position. Acting as temporary Director of. S.H.I.E.L.D. meant he couldn't just act as he might otherwise. He had to think things through carefully, because he could control the full extent of the organization. Barry knew that Mack wasn't a man to take that lightly.

Mack was right to have waited, though. Coulson called back a short time later with the exact location HYDRA had taken Fitz and Simmons to.

"How did they find out?" Cisco asked.

"They talked to Ward apparently," Mack said. He started pulling up the specs for the castle their agents were being held in. Barry took the opportunity to go and find Daisy. She was in her room, dressed in black gear and looking at a file.

"Hey," he said, to let her know he was there.

"Mack make a decision yet?"

"Coulson got their location. Mack's pulling it up now." She was still looking at the file in her hands. "What is that?"

She set it down, and Barry saw a picture of a guy with shaggy blond hair in one corner of the page. "I was thinking of trying to get more help for this. I don't even know where I would find him, though…"

"Someone you've trained?"

Daisy partially smiled. "He's the one who trained me." That partial smile faded. "He wants nothing to do with me. The ATCU tried to capture him, and then S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't help anything… Dr. Garner had given him a psych eval, like he did with you, but Lincoln didn't pass. Now I think that has more to do with Garner being Lash than with Lincoln's ability." She looked at Barry again. "But it's a waste of time to think about that. Let's go see what Mack has planned."

There was something about the way Daisy sounded when she talked about Lincoln that made Barry think they'd had something between them. Or that she'd wanted there to be something. She was clearly still thinking of him. Barry hoped Cisco wasn't starting to crush on Daisy. He didn't think Daisy was looking for anyone other than Lincoln.

Right now they were all looking for their teammates though. Mack had a detailed display of the castle up by the time they got back. "…just don't know how smart it is," he was saying, looking at May.

"You have to decide." She looked over at Daisy and Barry, and then back at Mack. "I think you already made up your mind, though."

"Alright," Mack said softly. He looked at each of them, and spoke in an authoritative voice. "We're going after them. They outnumber us, and have heavy artillery, so we'll need to be as stealthy as possible. We find Fitz and Simmons and get out." Barry nodded, and Mack dipped his head in acknowledgement. "Suit up."

Barry could have sped to his locker and changed, but either way he would have to wait for the others. So he walked with them, as did Daisy. "Is everyone coming?" Daisy asked. "This will be dangerous."

"I've gotta show off the ninja skills you've given me, don't I?" Cisco asked.

"I'm coming too," Caitlin said.

"As long as you're sure, we could use the help," Mack said. "You can do things we can't."

As good as it felt for Barry to put on his red suit, it was strange to see both Cisco and Caitlin in heavy black gear. He'd seen Cisco in it before, but this time was different. He seemed more determined. They both did, actually. Barry watched them carefully as they left for the castle. He would make sure they were safe this time.

0-0

Fitz watched Ward leave the room with dread pooling in his stomach. Jemma was quiet again. He didn't care what Ward said: it was better when it was quiet, because it meant she was getting a chance to breathe. Right?

He expected Ward to come back in, to shock him some more in an attempt to make him talk. Instead he was left alone, trying to get out of his restraints. Until he heard her scream. Then he stopped abruptly, all the energy flooding out of him. He knew Ward had gone to her instead of him. He knew because these screams were worse than the ones before, and Fitz was yelling that he would tell them what they needed to know within seconds of hearing Jemma's renewed pain. He would do anything to keep her from screaming like that. To make them stop hurting her. So when Ward came back, he told him how to come back from Maveth.

He knew Jemma would be disappointed in him, but he could live with that. He couldn't live without her.

0-0

"What do you mean, Coulson jumped through the portal?" Mack asked for the second time.

"Just that. He dove out of the plane to follow Ward to Maveth." Hunter looked at the door. "They're trying to bring back some creature. Apparently. We think they took either Fitz or Simmons through, and are keeping the other one hostage until they get back."

"We were thinking the same thing. You said it's been a few hours since they went through?" May asked.

Caitlin walked a few steps back, nervous. Bobbi and Hunter had brought their smaller plane and attached it to the big one most of the team had left on. It had taken them a little while to get to the castle. It was in England, after all. Now that they were here, the action was about to start. Not taking a tiny base, like the last mission they'd done. This time there was a lot of potential danger. Caitlin just hoped she could help.

"Alright," Mack said, in a voice that called attention. "No storming the castle. We're going in with two goals: find either Fitz or Simmons, and get control of the portal by the time it opens again. To do that we're gonna split into two groups."

"The portal will be more guarded than one hostage," Bobbi said.

"Which means more fighting, right?" Cisco asked.

"Possibly. We have the map with heat signatures, but they'll start moving once we take the portal room, so whoever goes after Fitz or Simmons might find traffic."

"I'll look for them," Caitlin said, more confidently than she felt.

They divided themselves into two groups: Barry, May, and Caitlin would go and find their teammate, while Mack, Bobbi, Hunter, Daisy, and Cisco went to the portal room. That done, they started out of the plane, approaching the castle on foot. Caitlin had an ICER at her hip, and found her hand hovering over it as they moved.

"I can scout ahead," Barry whispered, his legs tensed.

May shook her head, putting a finger to her lips before peering around the truck they were hiding behind. She motioned quickly with her hand for them to move ahead. They were more than halfway across the distance to the castle when a few soldiers caught sight of them.

"Go!" May yelled.

She turned to fight. Barry disappeared in a static burst, to do the same. Caitlin hesitated, shifting forward but not moving. Then she turned and drew her ICER, aiming it at one of the two soldiers heading towards May. The one she'd aimed at dropped to the ground. May dispatched the other one and turned to face her. Caitlin could see Barry running around, knocking the surrounding HYDRA agents to the ground before they'd even seen him. There were maybe ten agents in their immediate area, and with Barry's speed, they were taken care of in a minute.

"They know we're here," Barry said as he slid to a stop in front of them.

"Then we better keep moving."

Barry ran off again, back toward the agents as a few started to rise. Caitlin continued with May, unconcerned. Barry would catch up.

When the two of them literally ran into a squad of HYDRA men, however, Caitlin became concerned. May started fighting without pause. Caitlin froze, long enough for her ICER to be wrested from her grip. Once it was gone, the fear that had frozen her in place flared to an even greater level – it prompted her inaction to become action, and her powers rushed to her aid. Her hands paled as a frozen mist formed around them. She drew her arms back and thrust them forward so her palms hit squarely on the man's chest. He reeled backward with a cry, his torso coated in a layer of ice. Another agent took his place before Caitlin could begin to think, and she reacted immediately: she sent a wave of ice out, causing him and a few others to crumple to the floor.

May was a fighting machine, kicking out and felling two at the same time. She looked back at Caitlin, in the same watchful way she'd been looking at her since she'd put on the mission gear. It wasn't as guarded now, though, and Caitlin knew why. May was watching her because of her powers.

They didn't have time to hash out that Caitlin was fine. As May looked at Caitlin, an action that took only a few seconds, a smaller HYDRA agent raised a baton and started swinging it down viciously.

"Caitlin."

May's voice, low and insistent.

Caitlin looked at May, confused. Hadn't she just been in danger? Then she realized she was standing a lot closer to May than she had been. She was also pressing the HYDRA agent against the wall, her hands still channeling her powers and creating a layer of ice across the man's body. His baton lay on the floor, and he had a bloody gash across his forehead.

It came back to her. She'd moved so quickly she'd barely realized it, but her ice had hit him fast enough for his baton strike to glance by May's head instead of hitting it. May had kicked him, but Caitlin had picked him up and slammed him against the wall in a wave of fury.

Caitlin breathed out low and dropped her hands to her side, letting the man slide to the ground. She could feel May's gaze on her, and sense that she was about to say something negative. Caitlin didn't want to listen.

She was saved having to by Barry running back in. He whistled. "You don't need me at all, do you?" he asked with a smile.

"Let's keep going," Caitlin said, walking forward. She stopped the flow of her powers but kept them ready.

They didn't encounter many more HYDRA agents as they searched, but when they did, Caitlin was ready. She couldn't believe she'd been nervous before.

She was born for this.

0-0

Jemma rested against the box she'd been thrown against, trying to think straight. She'd defensively entered a kind of haze as they'd… tried to get the information, trying not to think much so it would be easier to resist giving in. She'd come out of it really quickly when she was brought back into the room with the portal pieces and seen Fitz, though. Now it was as if she were stuck on a loop, going over the last things they'd said to each other before he jumped through the portal with Ward. She knew she had to focus on her current situation, and figure a way out of here. But she was so scared that Fitz wouldn't make it back… or that that thing would. Seeing him standing there, hearing him admit that he couldn't imagine living without her… it had settled any lingering doubts she'd had about her feelings for him. Whatever her feelings for Will, whether they were true or not, she loved Leopold James Fitz. And she needed him to come back safely, or she would never forgive herself.

So though she knew she should be trying to escape, or at the very least come up with an escape plan, she remained exactly where they had dumped her and thought of Fitz. When her brain seemed satisfied that it had caused her enough grief, she started to notice the things around her again. She began to detect a pattern in the guards' movements, and realized that they only looked at her every few minutes. Apparently her lack of movement or resistance since the others had gone to Maveth was a good thing. It had made her guards think she was too weak to escape. Malick had left the room, so it was just a few guards standing by.

Her hands felt around the floor and closed around a sharp piece of wood, and she started sawing at the restraints on her wrists with renewed vigor. Time was running out before the portal would be opened again. She intended to be there when Fitz got back.

She waited until a guard looked at her again and looked away before she moved, rolling backwards and springing to her feet alongside the crate. She stayed partially crouched as she moved along the side of the boxes, to the back of them and away from the guards. She also had to decide which way to go, and since she didn't know the facility, there was a good chance a wrong turn would lead her right into a room full of HYDRA members.

Don't overanalyze, she told herself. Just choose a direction and make the best of it. Staying where she was certainly wasn't going to help her.

Jemma had just moved to a doorway in the back when she heard commotion from the direction she was heading. She pressed herself against the wall and listened for a few seconds, then chanced a peek out there. She saw a trail of red and yellow sparks round the corner, and felt herself start to smile as she moved to follow.

0-0

Cisco was the only one on his side to have an ICER, though he wasn't upset by it. His fighting experience consisted of one mission and a week of training with Daisy. Having the weapon within reach was reassuring. He knew it shouldn't be his main method of attack, though. One, he figured this would mostly be fighting in close quarters. Two, once the others all jumped into the fray, it would be too easy to hit one of them instead of a HYDRA agent – even if he were a good shot, which he wasn't. So he kept it close, in case he needed it, but opted to try using the skills he and Daisy had been working on.

It was kind of awesome, seeing the others fight. He'd never really seen them in action before. He didn't have time to sit back and really watch, but as he ducked blows and exchanged some of his own, he noticed it. Hunter fought bare-handed, smashing their own weapons against them. Bobbi danced around the room with her pipes. Mack had a rifle, but he was using it as a blunt weapon instead of a long-range firearm. And Daisy alternated between kicking ass the old-fashioned way and using her powers to knock HYDRA agents back.

Cisco stayed in the back, so he didn't face nearly as many people, but he got a good number of punches in as they moved toward the portal room. Five and a half. But he would say six later, to make it sound better. Or maybe he wouldn't say the number… he would decide later.

Though they tried to stay together, they did end up separating a bit. As those in the back continued fighting, those in the front moved forward. At one point Bobbi and Hunter moved past the portal room, to try and find the others since they seemed to be taking a while. The room seemed empty.

That was when Cisco's vision came true. He and Mack were just entering the portal room when three HYDRA agents ran in from the opposite entrance, going for Daisy. She raised her hand to send them back with a vibrational blast.

"Tremors, hold on!" Mack called, running toward her.

One of the HYDRA agents threw something low. It collided with Daisy's leg, and Daisy stumbled and fell to one knee. Two of the agents were thrown back by the blast from Daisy. Mack rammed into the other one, knocking him flat.

Mack turned to Daisy. "You okay?"

She stood, wincing slightly as she rubbed at her knee. "Fine. He threw a boomerang at me. Who uses a boomerang?"

Cisco walked over to the offending item and picked it up. It wasn't just wood. It actually looked like it had some work done to it, and he put it through his belt loop for later. He refocused his attention and looked at the setup in the middle of the room. Inside the circular stone basin were five black chunks of rock. "How does this work?" He'd expected a shimmering gateway or something. This didn't look like a portal to anything.

"Those are pieces of the monolith," Daisy said. "We don't really know what it is, but it can be controlled with vibrational frequencies. It looks like it's already set up to open again."

"We just need to hold the room until that point," Mack said.

Motion in the doorway made Cisco whirl in alarm, but it was just Hunter and Bobbi coming back. "There's a huge group in a room two halls down," Bobbi said. "We didn't get their attention, but we couldn't go past them either."

"The others will have to come here the same way we did," Hunter said.

"I'll go look for them," Cisco offered, walking closer to the door. He wanted to feel useful, and standing around this room wasn't doing anything.

"Bobbi, Hunter, one of you go with him," Mack said.

"Sorry mate, both or neither." Hunter put his hand around Bobbi's waist. She whacked his arm away, but smiled softly. Cisco didn't get their relationship, but he could see that they wanted to cover each other on this mission.

Mack looked at them for a few seconds, his eyes penetrating. Then he sighed. "You two have the worst timing for being sensible. You stay here with Daisy. Cisco, I'll go with you."

"You guys know I'm not a dog, right?" Cisco asked. "I can go alone."

"No one's going anywhere alone," Mack said. "Not when we're still outnumbered and in enemy territory." He clapped Cisco on the back. "That's what a team is for."

"Mack, the portal opens in twenty minutes," Daisy said.

Mack looked back at her with kindness. "Then I guess we'll have to be back in ten." They walked back into the hallway, heading toward the outside.

"Over there."

When Cisco and Mack got outside the castle they found May, Caitlin, Barry, and Simmons moving toward them. Cisco was relieved that they all looked okay. He and Mack met them in the yard. In the corner of his eye Cisco saw movement, and he internally sighed. How many HYDRA men were there?

Cisco reached for his belt, to grab the ICER, but his hand closed around something else first. He didn't really think about it. He just whipped the boomerang out, knowing every second counted. The weapon whirled in the air and caught the HYDRA agents in the heads.

Cisco turned to look at the others. Mack was putting down his shotgun and moving to embrace Simmons.

"Cisco, look out!"

Cisco spun at May's voice to see the boomerang coming back at him. Boomerangs came back… he was an idiot to have forgotten that. He raised his hand to block it, and a wave of vibrational energy shot from his palm. The boomerang dropped to the ground, and the energy stopped.

"The Force is strong in this one," he murmured, staring at his hands.

"Blockbuster, you think you can do that again?" Mack asked.

Cisco staggered a breath. "I have no idea, but I definitely hope so." He looked over at them, seeing the shock he felt in their expressions. He laughed. "I guess I have more than visions."

Barry put a hand on his arm. "Knew that already."

Simmons looked like she wanted to move. "Fitz should be getting back soon."

"And Coulson," Mack said.

"What?" Simmons asked.

Mack explained how Coulson had followed Fitz through the portal as they walked to the portal room. Cisco fell in next to Barry and Caitlin. He couldn't help looking at his hands. The vibrational energy had come out of nowhere. Had he been able to do that since becoming an Inhuman, or was it new? Was it anything like Daisy's powers? Needless to say his mind was pretty busy as they reached the portal room.

Daisy walked over and hugged Simmons, and then the scientist looked at the portal. "We have to be ready to close it right after Fitz and Coulson come out. HYDRA's trying to bring the creature back, and if it gets to earth – it will be bad."

"How bad are we talking?" Hunter asked.

"Maveth wasn't always a desert planet."

Hunter whistled. "Right. Bad."

So they waited as the remaining minutes counted down, Caitlin and May keeping watch in the hall. With four minutes left Caitlin's and May's voices called out. Barry ran out at super speed. Cisco followed at slightly below standard human speed, tensing his hand and hoping he could use his energy blast again.

He didn't have to, though. There were a few HYDRA members on the floor around the others. A wall of ice blocked the hallway, a lot more HYDRA members trying to break through it.

"Guess that room full of agents Hunter and Bobbi saw caught on to us," Cisco said.

"They're gonna break through," Barry said.

"No, they're not." Caitlin's voice seemed to crackle like ice, harder than usual. She squared her footing and used her powers to send a steady stream of ice at the barrier. The temperature around them dropped.

"How much time?" Cisco called, looking into the room.

"Two minutes. I want you guys to start heading back to the plane," Mack said.

"HYDRA wants their portal room back."

"And they're gonna get it once our guys are safe. But we don't have the manpower to fight. So get going! Everyone!"

"I'm not leaving," Daisy said.

"Caitlin's keeping them back," Cisco said.

Mack looked at Daisy, and then Cisco. "Fine. Anyone who's not Daisy or Caitlin, get on the plane. Director's orders!"

Cisco ran into the hallway. "Mack wants us to - ."

"We heard," Barry said.

"Let's go." May walked by, pulling at Barry's and Cisco's arms. Cisco looked back at Caitlin. She met his eyes for a second and motioned for him to go. So he did, but reluctantly. They didn't meet any resistance as they boarded the plane. Bobbi and May moved to the cockpit immediately, May reaching for comms to make sure they were on.

"May, can you hear me?"

Cisco stood straighter at Mack's voice, listening closely. "Loud and clear," May said.

"HYDRA won't get to use this portal again. Blow the place."

"They're still inside," Cisco said, in a rising voice. "We're not gonna do that!"

"May, launch the missiles now!"

Cisco started forward. "You can't seriously be thinking about blowing up the castle. Our friends are still -."

May had already pressed the button to fire the missiles. "Director's orders," she said in a clipped voice.

Cisco turned to the screen, watching with his heart in his throat as the castle glowed with explosions. He could feel the others looking at the monitor in the cockpit.

"Look!" Barry said.

He sounded relieved, and Cisco felt his shoulders droop with relief when he saw the containment module flying toward the plane. It attached to the plane and started moving up inside it, and once it was locked into place the door opened and the team started spilling out. First Daisy, then Caitlin. Cisco was only dimly aware of Coulson, Mack, and Fitz coming out as well (and someone moving to greet each person), because once he saw Caitlin he walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her. Barry did the same, and Cisco breathed easier at the contact with his best friends as they left the rescue mission behind them.

0-0

Jemma looked at the containment module and saw no one inside. She turned to see Fitz walking around the edge, looking at her with regret in his eyes. Understanding went through her. Will was dead.

For a moment, she wanted to sink to the floor and cry at the loss of the man who had saved her. But another part of her mind, a stronger part she listened to more frequently, saw Fitz, and thought: no, Jemma, you didn't lose the man who saved you. He's staring you in the face, letting you process as you need to. Waiting for you.

Fitz had been there for her since the day they met, saving her and helping her – and loving her, even when she was too ignorant to realize she loved him in return. He'd just gone through a portal to look for another man, knowing Jemma herself wasn't sure what she would do once both of them were safe. That more than anything brought the bit of grief over Will – and her experience with him on Maveth – to a close, letting her shut the door on it with a firm finality. They had to live in the moment, and use whatever time they had to get what they wanted.

And she wanted him.

He was just looking at her, and she saw the surprise when she ran over to him. He seemed to think for a second that she wanted comfort, a shoulder to cry on. She slipped one hand up to cup his cheek and the other to pull him closer from the back of his neck, bringing her lips to his.

His first reaction was to be still, as if he needed the microsecond to process. Then his hands were pressing on her back, holding her close, and his lips were warm and actively engaging with hers, forceful at first – almost desperate – before they gentled, savoring the contact. He was the one to back away, what seemed like seconds later but had to have been longer. She could feel his breath as he looked at her, searchingly, and she met his wonderful blue eyes with a breathless smile.

"About damn time," Mack said from behind them, just loud enough for them to hear.

Jemma turned to him with a faint laugh, and then looked back at Fitz. He was still looking at her, but now his confusion seemed to be gone. He reached for her hand and put a light pressure on it, that and his eyes telling her clearly how devoted he was to her.

She looked at him as she returned the pressure, allowing everything to show in her eyes so he could read what she knew they shouldn't say yet, but both knew without a doubt: I love you.

She kept hold of his hand the whole way back to the Playground.