Drabble 33: When the World Falls Apart

A/N: This drabble was requested by Simpson 17866. I'm really sorry it took so long. I watched the episode "Turn, Turn, Turn" yesterday and then started writing, and finished it this morning. So here it is! I hope you like it! Please give me more ideas for drabbles!

Fitz stood with Coulson, Skye, and Garret in the control room of the Bus, watching the screen. The message appeared slowly at first, but clearly enough. Out of the shadows, into the light. HYDRA.

"They're pulling us towards the Hub." Garret said. "I say we skip the ship, get away while we can."

"It's true we don't know what we're being pulled into." Coulson admitted.

"We have to go to the Hub. Simmons is there." Fitz said.

"Of course we're still going, Fitz. I just hate going in there blind."

"I forgot Trip is there too." Garret said after a second.

Skye looked at Fitz. "We'll save her."

He nodded, his jaw set. There was no way he would take no for an answer on this. He'd been trying to reach Simmons when he'd found May's private line to Director Fury, and from that hostage situation they'd moved to this room, where the HYDRA message had appeared. His first thought wasn't really a thought: it was a sudden and very powerful sense of fear. His first true thought was of Jemma.

They were being pulled towards the Hub. The HYDRA message had appeared shortly after they learned that. It wasn't much of a leap that HYDRA was waiting at the Hub. And that's where Simmons was.

That intensified the fear he felt; it made up most of it, in fact. He wasn't in any danger at the moment, safe on the Bus with most of his team. He didn't know if Simmons was okay though.

So he wished he was in danger at the Hub. At least then he would know if she was safe.

Simmons looked at Trip, and he nodded. "Just be fast. It doesn't look good that we're sneakin' around."

She turned on the machine and smiled when the image came up. "Professor Weaver, it's so good to see-."

"Jemma! I'm so glad you're safe!" Professor Weaver said. She seemed scared, and kept glancing around her. "HYDRA is taking over the Academy. They're back."

"What? But-."

"Listen, Jemma! You can't trust anyone! Alright? Trust no one, and try to stay safe!"

"Professor!"

Professor Weaver gave her a quick smile before the image cut off. Simmons couldn't believe what she had just been told. She could see that Trip was struggling to comprehend it as well.

But she thought about it, and she wondered if it wasn't happening here as well. A minute later she was sure that was true, and looked at Trip with fear. He walked over towards the door and reached for the lock.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

He locked it. "Locking them out. It won't hold for long, but it's something." He turned around and started walking back towards her.

"I want to leave." Simmons said.

"It's safer here."

She couldn't argue with that. He brought out a knife and her eyes widened in fear, but he held it so the handle was exposed. "Take this." He said. "I'll know you're HYDRA if you try to kill me with it."

She tentatively took it and nodded to him, and his posture eased. She realized that was his way of telling her he wasn't HYDRA, and finding out if she was; she guessed he'd figured out she wasn't.

This is really happening, she thought. HYDRA is back.

Of course she was scared. But not only for herself. For her team. For Fitz.

So when Agent Hand and her men barged in and told them to swear loyalty to HYDRA or die, she looked at Trip and nodded. He moved quickly and she threw him the knife, which he held against the throat of the man he had restrained. "Take us out, we're taking one of you with us." He said.

Hand smiled, and her men put down their guns. "That brings the number of people I trust to seven. Right answer."

"That was a test!" Simmons said.

"Yes." Hand responded.

"You're not HYDRA." She said, relieved.

"No," Hand said. "But your friend Coulson? He is."

A feeling of dread washed over her, but even as it happened she vehemently felt the wrongness of the statement. "Coulson is not HYDRA!"

She could tell Hand didn't believe her. "The worst thing you can do right now is underestimate HYDRA. They hide in plain sight; they earn our trust, our sympathy. They make us like them, and when you hesitate, they strike. If we're to survive, we must learn to strike first."

"He is a good man!" Simmons found herself yelling.

"He is a liar!" Hand yelled back.

Simmons silently agreed to disagree. She knew Coulson would never be HYDRA.

"I guess we'll find out soon enough." Hand said. "The Bus is almost here."

Fitz, she thought. Wait, she shouldn't be happy that he was coming! It was dangerous here!

"We have to protect them." She said.

Hand tightened her lips together. "Let's just say we plan on being as safe as possible."

Simmons didn't like the sound of that, but she didn't say anything else. She was thinking about Fitz.

Garret was HYDRA. Fitz watched as Coulson realized it and told them, and as Garret finally admitted it. Then the men burst into the room, Garret said something, and half of them shot the other ones.

He tried to convince Fitz to willingly join HYDRA, and then said either way he would serve them. Then he told his men to shoot Fitz, Coulson, and May, but leave Fitz alive.

And then the lights flickered, and went out for a few seconds. He heard Coulson and May spring into action, and slid under the near desk as quickly as possible. He knew he wasn't a fighter.

And yet he shot someone. He saw the gun lying close to him and scooted it nearer, just for protection. But he saw that a man had a gun pointed at May, and she was too far from him to disarm him. So Fitz aimed the gun on the man and fired the weapon. He immediately dropped the gun, his hand shaking. He was pretty sure the man was dead.

He tried to focus his thoughts. There was way too much going on at one time, but he couldn't freak out now. He told himself he did it to protect his team, and it was necessary. It really was, he would later realize. But when he thought about protection, he pictured Jemma. Of course he cared for the other members of his team, but Simmons was special to him in a different way.

He saw that Garret had Coulson pinned and pulled out a stun grenade. "Coulson!" he threw it to him. Coulson caught it and the grenade went off, leaving Garret a few feet away, unconscious.

Then Hand and her men walked in.

"We're not HYDRA." Coulson said, standing up.

"I know." Hand said. "We heard everything."

Fitz saw Simmons standing behind Hand, and when she saw him she ran over and hugged him tightly. It felt so good to have her in his arms, to know she was safe. Everything else in the room became muted for a moment. Their world was crumbling around them, and they didn't know who they could trust, but they still had each other.

Nothing else mattered at the moment.