Drabble 82: There's Only Room for Her

A/N: Spoilers for 4x21. One take on what could happen in the finale next week. Hope you like it!

"You understand that my love will never fade."

"Yes, poor thing. You're a romantic. And there's only room in your heart for-."

"For her."

Aida ripped the gun from his hand and pressed his face against the wall, leaning in close. "I will kill everyone you love, right in front of you." she promised in a deadly tone.

"Aida, you don't have to -."

"My name is Ophelia!" she yelled, and he saw the insanity in her eyes. "Not Aida!"

"Okay, Ophelia, I'm sorry!" he said quickly. "But you can't do this!"

"You can't control me anymore." She said in a low, shaking voice. "I'm human now. You can't turn me off or hide me in the closet. I make up my own mind!"

"I know you do! And think about how good it felt to save Mack! Don't you want that feeling again?"

The pressure on him eased slightly. "But there are other ways to get that feeling, Leopold." She said. "And this way the feeling will be that much stronger. Because it will destroy you."

Fitz took the opportunity and pushed off from the wall, knocking her back and starting to run. He had to get to Jemma, to hide her.

"Aah!" he fell to his knees as electricity struck him in the back, paralyzing him temporarily. He kneeled with his shoulders stiffened as the spasm faded, and felt Aida's hand clamp onto his shoulder.

"Try it again and I'll paralyze you permanently." She walked around to face him and looked at him with those dark eyes. "I was going to save Jemma for the end, but now I think she should be the first to go."

The spasm ended, and Fitz felt his chest start to heave as his anger climbed. "Don't touch her."

"You could have saved her." Aida said. "You could have saved all of them, if you'd just stayed with me. Now I'm not giving you a choice. It'll be me, or death."

Fitz's emotions were running unbearably high. Grief, at all the things he had done (which he still hadn't had time to actually process and try to move on from). Regret, that he had built Aida in the first place and helped create this mess. Anger, partly at himself but mostly at the monster standing before him. Fear that Jemma would be hurt. And love, mixed in with it all.

"It won't come to that." He said. "We will defeat you."

"Fitz!"

Now there was a new emotion at the forefront: fear. That was Jemma's voice.

"Fitz, are you here?"

She'd seen Aida grab him, but he'd hoped she was on the plane with the others. The door had closed before she could go out to help him, the plane lifting up. Now he knew she had convinced the others to let her go after him.

His respiration increased as he saw the smile that appeared on Aida's face. "Jemma, get out of here!" he yelled as loud as he could. "Don't come cl-!" He cut off as Aida shocked him again, a tiny pulse that made his teeth clench together.

Jemma appeared in the mouth of the plane, holding a gun. Fitz shook his head, urging her to run, but he knew she wouldn't do that. He could see in Jemma's eyes that she wouldn't leave him.

"Let him go." Jemma said to Aida, holding the gun steady at her chest.

Aida's expression wiped clean of emotion momentarily. "It's opportune that you came, since I was just going to look for you."

"What do you want?"

Now an emotion returned to Aida's face. The hint of a smile. "You." She teleported, appearing behind Jemma and grabbing the hand that held the gun. Jemma started to twist away, fighting to keep hold of the weapon. Aida moved with her, and Fitz saw a spark travel from Aida's hand to Jemma's, racing along her arm. Jemma stiffened and Aida wrestled the gun free from her.

Fitz slammed his fists against Aida's back, sending her to the ground. The gun slid across the floor, and Fitz lunged for it, turning and firing it as soon as his hand touched it. A bullet tore through Aida's shoulder, but he didn't fire another one. Aida had teleported, and now stood behind Jemma, pinning Jemma's hands behind her back and using her as a shield.

"I wouldn't shoot that again." Aida said.

Fitz met Jemma's eyes briefly, for an instant. He saw the understanding in her eyes and started to lower the gun, watching Aida slightly relax. And the next instant he ripped the gun back up, as Jemma jerked to the right as forcefully as she possibly could. He fired, and Aida moved to teleport a millisecond before the bullet reached her forehead – her movement made it lodge in her collarbone instead.

She appeared next to Fitz, ripping the gun away and bringing it up to savagely slam it against his head. He heard Jemma cry out, but he couldn't focus on it as pain exploded in his temple, blinding him.

He heard Aida's rattling breath above him. "Don't make me kill you before I want to, Fitz." There was a pressure on his arms, and he felt his hands forced behind a pillar. When he could see again, Aida was gone, standing next to Jemma. Jemma was on the floor at her feet.

"I like that you thought you stood a chance against me." Aida said. "I underestimated how effective your connection can be." Jemma started to rise, and Aida fired a bolt of electricity at her, making her arch her back and curl in on herself. "It'll be wonderful to destroy it."

She pulled Jemma up by the arm, so Jemma was on her knees. "Did it hurt, seeing him with me?" Aida said in a low voice. "Knowing that the man you loved didn't love you anymore?"

"I just didn't remember, that's all!" Fitz cried.

"Don't lie!" Aida yelled at him. She looked back at Jemma. "He fell in love with me."

Jemma looked at her, her face tightened with anger. "Only because you took my place. You substituted yourself in my place. Everything you say you built? It wasn't you at all."

Aida yelled in fury, and Fitz saw the thickest chord of electricity he'd ever seen her produce appear, including the blast she had used to escape the containment module. He started struggling as Jemma fell to the floor and screamed in agony, but his hands were stuck.

"Jemma!" Fitz yelled, ripping at his bindings urgently.

"How do you like that, Jemma?" Aida snarled, still fueling her strike. "Still believe I didn't do anything!"

"Aida, STOP!" Fitz yelled, the panic scraping his throat. "PLEASE!"

The electricity stopped flowing, and Jemma stopped screaming. She was lying by Aida's feet, twitching slightly. Fitz looked at her with his mouth open in shock, and when she met his eyes he realized there was a tear on her cheek.

"Jemma." He said, his throat thick.

"It's okay." She said weakly. He hated how her voice trembled, how she was in so much pain. Hated that Aida was doing this. And when he saw that Aida was smiling, his anger exploded into fury. He started tearing at his bindings with renewed vigor. He needed to get to the gun, and then he could end this. Aida was almost indestructible, with the inhuman abilities she'd given herself, but if he damaged her brain instead of her body, it might work. At the very least it would give them a chance to escape, while she healed herself.

Aida knelt next to Jemma, grabbing her arm. "Any last words?" Aida asked her.

Jemma glared at her, breathing heavily. "I'm not… about to beg to… a mad android."

Aida's fist clenched more tightly on Jemma's arm, making her wince. "I never liked you." Aida spat. She raised her free hand, moving it directly over Jemma's heart. Fitz gave a final tug and his hands slipped free, scraping on the pole. He grabbed one of the two guns in close proximity and picked it up, aiming it at Aida and firing.

There was a crackle of static electricity, which cut off abruptly as Aida's head snapped back. She fell to the ground, and Fitz ran over to Jemma.

"Is she -?" Jemma asked.

Fitz fired two more shots, and stuck the gun in his waistband as he helped Jemma stand. She was unsteady on her feet, so Fitz placed one arm around her waist and wrapped her other arm around his neck, holding it there. "Let's get out of here." He said.

He looked back at Aida once, but the woman wasn't stirring. His hypothesis had been right; she was taking much longer to recover with this kind of wound. Hopefully it would be minutes.

He found a smaller plane and set Jemma in a seat while he set autopilot on. The plane would locate the jet the others were on and attach. Once that was done and they were taking off he went and sat down next to Jemma. He placed a hand on her knee.

She laid her head on his shoulder, covering his hand with her own. "Fitz." She said weakly.

"I'm so sorry, Jemma." He said. "I never expected things to turn out this way."

"It's not your fault she's a monster."

He tightened his hand into a fist. "It's all my fault. Everything."

"You can't think like that. Aida's the one who went insane because of a broken heart. This is on her."

Her hand squeezed his, and he looked at her. "You should know, as soon as you got me out of the Framework and my real memories came back… I was confused, but I knew it was you I wanted. You I loved, not Ophelia."

"I heard your conversation with her, in the containment module." Jemma said quietly.

He was quiet for a second. "Then you believe me."

"I never doubted you, Fitz." She smiled wistfully. "We just need to figure out how to move forward."

He wrapped an arm around her, holding her as close as possible. "I've told you I couldn't live if you didn't." he said softly. "That's especially true if I cause something to happen. I won't let anything like this happen again."

She nodded against him.

He put his head on top of hers for a few seconds, taking comfort in the fact that she was safe. He vowed that Aida wouldn't touch Jemma again. She wouldn't touch any of them again, but especially Jemma. Once Aida was gone, they could start to heal.

And he wanted that desperately.

There was only room in his heart for one, and he wanted to be able to enjoy that one for the rest of his life.