Summary: Lincoln helps the team and Professor Elliot Randolph to get Simmons back. But having two Inhumans and an Asgardian in the same room? Not a good idea.
AN:
Chapter title is a reference to The Wizard of Oz.
The full chapter title is Inhumans and Asgardians and Monoliths (Oh My!), but it wouldn't fit into the chapter title box.
Bobbi, Hunter, Mack, Daisy and Lincoln ran into the containment room holding the Monolith and found Fitz inside the glass case, banging on the rock and screaming angrily at it.
"FITZ!" Mack called to him, pulling him out of the case. "Are you crazy?" Fitz stumbled and fell onto the floor and Lincoln ran over to him.
"Close it, close it!" exclaimed Daisy.
"I got it!" replied Bobbi. She, Daisy and Hunter quickly closed the door just as the Monolith liquefied. They leant against the door in relief while Lincoln held onto Fitz, both of them staring at the glass case. Lincoln pulled Fitz into a hug as Coulson walked in. Bobbi, Daisy, Hunter and Mack came over to them.
"Dammit, Fitz!" he exclaimed, angrily, but Lincoln knew that he was just worried about Fitz.
"I had to know..." said Fitz, hanging onto Lincoln. "Had to... Had to know..."
"I already lost Simmons to that thing." said Coulson. "I cannot afford to lose you too."
"Trying to get yourself killed?" asked Hunter.
"Sorry." said Fitz, sighing. "I won't give up. I can't give up."
"None of us want to, Fitz, but..." said Daisy.
"Fitz, you tried." said Bobbi, coming over and crouching down in front of him. She wiped some dust off his face. "Ok? You tried your hardest. Everybody knows that."
"No. I missed something." said Fitz. "I m... I missed something." He stopped and looked at the dust that Bobbi had wiped off his face. He looked at Lincoln and knew that he had come to the same conclusion as well.
"What is that?" asked Bobbi.
"Proof." said Lincoln. He and Fitz ran off to the lab.
Later in Coulson's office, Fitz, Bobbi and Lincoln were explaining to Coulson, Hunter, Daisy and Mack what they had found.
"Sand." said Fitz. "Not just sand...impossible sand."
"The Monolith's case is a clean room." said Mack. "There's nothing in there but that rock. Not even dust."
"Unless you blast it open with a shotgun and contaminate everything." said Hunter.
"That's not what this is." said Bobbi.
"Ok, the sand itself...not unusual." said Fitz. "Mostly silicone-dioxide particles just like on Earth."
"But you're saying this sand is not from Earth?" asked Coulson.
"Sir, carbon dating shows that..." she said.
"It predates the Earth by a billion years." Lincoln finished.
"So, you think the rock is a portal?" asked Daisy.
"No." said Fitz. "No, I'm proving that it's a portal. Ok? To another planet. A...a very old planet. A crack in space-time that carried Simmons away, and carried the sand back. Which means..."
"She's out there." said Coulson. "But it's been months." He walked over to Fitz.
"Yeah?"
"She could be long gone from wherever this thing dropped her."
"Yeah."
"She could be dead."
"Yes."
"But we're gonna find out, aren't we?"
"Yep." said Bobbi.
"Damn right." said Mack.
"Yeah." said Daisy and Lincoln.
"Ok, Fitz, what do you need?" asked Coulson.
"Uh." said Fitz. "Uh, well... More historical data. People have studied this thing for centuries. I need an expert on quantum mechanics and Einstein-Rosen bridge theory. And, uh...a sandwich would be nice." Lincoln smiled at the last statement.
"I might have an idea...about the other things." said Coulson. "Daisy, Lincoln, Mack, stay with our Inhuman guest. Be here for Dr. Garner's assessment. Building that team is still the priority."
"What did I say?" Daisy muttered, as the three of them headed out of the office.
Lincoln, Daisy and Mack stood in the hangar, watching as the Quinjet landed and Andrew walked out.
"Good to see you, Dr. Garner." said Mack.
"Mack, Daisy, Lincoln." Andrew greeted them. Lincoln thought that Andrew looked at him suspiciously, but forgot about it as the look quickly went away.
"Enjoying the use of the private jet?" asked Daisy.
"It's very helpful. Thanks." said Andrew. "Those jump seats aren't made for transcontinental trips, I'll tell you that."
"Are you hungry? I can have something whipped up for you." she said. Lincoln had to contain his laughter as he listened to her trying to bribe Andrew.
"That would be great. Thanks."
"Anything to drink?"
"Daisy, trying to butter me up?" asked Andrew, catching on to what she was doing.
"What, are you not hungry?" she asked, innocently.
"Hey, look, my job is to keep everyone safe." said Andrew. There it was again. The brief suspicious glance towards Lincoln. Lincoln saw that neither Daisy or Mack had noticed. "Not just potential recruits, but you as well. Bribery's not gonna get this guy approved for the team any faster."
"Wouldn't know, because you haven't approved anyone yet." she said. Mack cleared his throat.
"Well, here's, uh, Joey Gutierrez." he said, handing Andrew a tablet.
"Yeah, I was reading his file on the flight." said Andrew. "Liquefies metal. How's he holding up?"
"Well, he's terrified." said Lincoln.
"That's a healthy response." said Andrew.
No kidding. Lincoln thought.
"What about you three?" Andrew asked. "How are you guys doing?"
"Well, apart from Daisy and I being hunted by an anti-Inhuman organisation and a giant Inhuman serial killer, we're good." replied Lincoln. He and Andrew briefly exchanged glares. This was not going to end well.
"No, no." said Daisy, before they could start arguing. "You are not getting me on the couch today, doc, unless it's a conversation between friends."
"That's all I meant." said Andrew.
"Great." said Daisy. "How's May? Where is she? Is she ever coming back?"
"You should ask her yourself." He walked off to see Joey.
"Well...I would if I knew where she was." Daisy called after him. When he was gone, she turned to Lincoln. Mack, wisely, decided that he had something else to do elsewhere and got out of there before he got caught up in what was coming. "What the hell, Lincoln?"
"He doesn't trust me." said Lincoln, folding his arms. "And I don't trust him."
"He's a shrink who's evaluating Inhumans for my team! Of course he doesn't trust you!"
"Yeah, and out of all of those Inhumans he's evaluated, how many are actually on your team?" he asked. She paused briefly.
"That's not fair." she said.
"Sorry. But I'm just saying...even though Andrew evaluates them, he doesn't actually understand Inhumans. I do."
"So, what, you think that he's not approving anyone because he doesn't trust any of them?" she asked.
"Perhaps." he said. "And, ok, to be fair, newly developed powers aren't that easy to control. I almost burned down Afterlife, remember? And you caused lots of earthquakes."
"Look, Andrew can be trusted." said Daisy. "Both you and he helped me when I got my powers. Plus, he's May's ex-husband." Lincoln raised his eyebrows.
"You trust Andrew because he's Agent May's ex-husband?" he asked. "Ok."
"Wait, you're agreeing with me on this?"
"Well, I can tell I'm not gonna win this argument, Daisy." He replied, smiling. She rolled her eyes and hit him on the arm.
Lincoln took a break from the situation with Andrew and went to join Fitz, Bobbi and Coulson in the Monolith room.
"Lincoln." said Fitz.
"Hey, Fitz." said Lincoln. He saw another man standing in the room. "Who's this?"
"This is Professor Elliot Randolph." said Coulson. "Professor Randolph, Dr. Lincoln Campbell."
"He's Asgardian." Bobbi added. She and Lincoln exchanged glances and he knew that she was warning him. He remembered Daisy telling him about having an Asgardian and a Kree trying to capture/kill her when she had developed her powers.
"He's here to help with the Monolith." Coulson told Lincoln, then turned back to Randolph. "So? What do you think?" Randolph walked over to the case containing the Monolith and walked round it, silently studying it.
"Well, I hate to disappoint, but it looks like your regular, old..." He trailed off as the Monolith liquefied then solidified again. "Oh. How often does it do that?"
"It's random." said Fitz.
"No." said Randolph. "No, no, no, no. It may seem random. But this...something is clearly triggering it."
"I've checked it against tides, relation to the sun, rotation..."
"On this planet. So, you have no idea how to control it. Why come to me? I'm no interstellar-travel expert. I've never even studied gravitational lensing or zero-point energy fields or quantum-harmonic oscillation theory."
"Yet you know all those words you just said." said Lincoln.
"And you're scared of portals." said Coulson. Randolph turned to him. "You're scared of being dragged back home through a portal. So I think in your drunken stumble through history, you've probably investigated every story involving one."
"And I've seen you eyeing all of your exits, my knee brace, wondering if you can get away with it." said Bobbi. "The only reason you came with us was to confirm its existence."
"And destroy it." said Randolph.
"You'll have to go through me." said Fitz.
"And me." said Lincoln.
"And I could. Literally." said Randolph.
"You'd have a hard time going through me." said Lincoln. Randolph tilted his head in confusion but, seeing that he wasn't going to get an answer, continued.
"But, then, I don't know what Amazon woman and Robot hand are capable of these days, so I will help you get her back." he said. "I'm not entirely heartless. But if I do, I want your word that we demolish this portal and no one passes through it again."
"I'll sleep better at night." said Coulson.
"Good. Well, I've investigated a lot of these wormhole rumours, but that's all they were...rumours. None have panned out. So, we know nothing of its origin."
"Kree, maybe." said Lincoln.
"And this parchment was found with it." said Bobbi. She handed the bag containing the parchment over to Randolph.
"Well, hello." he said. "I've seen this."
"It's a common Hebrew word." she said.
"Yes." he said. "What else do we know, Mr. Fitz?"
"Uh, well, the Monolith changed hands a lot... Germanic tribes, spent the hundred years' war in France." said Fitz. Lincoln was impressed with his research. He obviously cared a lot about Simmons. "But before the Napoleon era, it was moved again. I lost track of it somewhere in..."
"England." said Randolph.
"Yeah. How did you know that?"
"Because I have seen this word carved into the walls of a castle in Gloucestershire, England, in 1853. To the plane!" He walked towards the door and Lincoln, Fitz, Bobbi and Coulson watched him in confusion. Randolph turned back round. "Wh... Am I allowed to say that?"
"Let's all go to the plane, I guess." said Coulson.
Coulson, Bobbi, Fitz, Lincoln and Randolph landed the Quinjet outside the castle in Gloucestershire, England and walked in with flashlights.
"Yes. Yes, yes." said Randolph, looking around. "I came here for a costume ball... That was the pretext, of course... 'cause I had heard rumours of travel to the stars. Found it all to be nonsense. But it was a fun party."
"The carvings?" asked Coulson.
"Oh, right, right. OF course." said Randolph. "So, I was here admiring the stone work, and..." He shone his light up above a door and the others did as well.
"The same as the scroll." said Fitz, seeing the carving. "Death."
"Maveth." said Randolph. "Yeah, one of its translations is actually 'death by punishment'."
"Could mean 'no trespassing'." said Lincoln.
"A Hebrew warning in an English castle struck me as odd. Out of place. Seems ancient."
"But you stopped looking into it?" asked Bobbi.
"A man dressed as an owl, of all things." said Randolph. "I got him drunk enough to admit that no travel to other worlds was even occurring. Just ritualistic killings. The whole thing stank of half-baked Satanism... Just some fabrications to entice new members. And, well, there were fire dancers. I got distracted."
"Here's another one." said Coulson, finding another carving above another door. "This is why I got rid of all the S.H.I.E.L.D. logos on our vehicles. It's like screaming for attention."
"You know, there's a ginormous eagle symbol on top of our jet." said Bobbi.
"Yeah, sometimes I can't help myself with the cool." said Coulson. He pushed a stone and a hidden door opened in the wall.
"That was pretty cool." Lincoln admitted.
"You certain about this?" asked Randolph. "It does say 'death by punishment'." Fitz walked into the tunnel and Lincoln followed him.
"Fitz, are you sure about this?" he asked, quietly.
"I'm sure, Lincoln." said Fitz.
"Ok, well, this room wasn't on the last tour." said Randolph, as they walked into the secret room. "It's an odd shape for architecture this period. Definitely built after I was here."
"Reminds me of the bunker under the Louvre." said Bobbi.
"What? There's no bunker under the Louvre." he said. She simply looked at him and walked off. "That's a joke, right? You're messing with me. All right, great. Now I'll have to check." Fitz and Lincoln examined the machinery.
"It's late 1800s." said Fitz. Lincoln used his powers to turn the machine on and lights came on, lighting up the room.
"Still got some life to it." he said.
"I hear water." said Bobbi. "Could be a stream underground, maybe hydroelectric power." Randolph pulled a lever and a large circular hole opened in the floor. The five of them walked over to it.
"This looks a lot like it was meant to hold..." said Bobbi.
"The Monolith." said Lincoln.
"This machine was designed to open the portal, to open and close it at will." Fitz realised.
"Do you know that, or is that just what you hope it to be?" asked Coulson.
"Well, there's only one way to find out." said Fitz. Coulson sighed and took out his phone.
"Mack, I need you to load something onto Zephyr-1 and bring it to us." he said. "Yeah, you're not gonna like it."
Mack and Daisy walked into the chamber as the Monolith was lowered into the hole by Zephyr-1.
"Zephyr-1, you're clear to retract." said Bobbi.
"Wow. Room full of ancient gack." said Mack. "Kind of reminds me of your office, Director."
"Realistically, what are the odds of this thing working?" asked Daisy.
"If we were realistic, we would never had gotten this far." said Coulson.
"Well, Andrew Garner thinks I need to be more so." she said. "He recommended three months observation and counseling before reassessment for Joey. Says I'm reckless."
"Don't take it personally. He probably just meant that..."
"He said you're desperate."
"What? He didn't say that." said Coulson. "Did he say that?"
"Let me guess." said Bobbi, walking over to them. "I'm struggling to come to terms with physical limitations and losing my sense of self instead of redefining it."
"No, he didn't mention you." said Daisy.
"Oh."
"Oh, he did. That's what he said."
"Oh, good."
"Yeah."
"Mack." said Fitz. "Mack, push that lever. No, the one...the one that's...the one that's down. The one...the one beside it. Push it." Mack pushed the lever and he, Fitz, Bobbi, Lincoln, Coulson, Daisy and Randolph looked up as the machinery in the room started to operate.
"Everybody stay clear!" exclaimed Mack, as they noticed that the Monolith liquefied as the room started to shake.
"Fitz, it's working!" Bobbi said. Fitz switched on his flashlight and went over to the Monolith.
"It's staying open." he said. "Light! I need more light!" Mack ran over to the generator and Lincoln turned to Daisy, who was holding her head and groaning in pain.
Of course. he thought. The vibrations.
"Daisy?" he asked, moving over to her and putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Daisy, can you hear me?"
"Lincoln..." She said, still holding her head.
"We got a problem!" Mack called over.
"I need some bloody light!" Fitz shouted.
"Fitz!" Coulson threw a flare gun to him which Fitz fired into the portal.
"Help..." said Daisy, faintly. Lincoln now had his arms round her for support. He noticed that she was starting to have a nosebleed due to the strain the vibrations were putting on her.
"The gears have locked!" exclaimed Mack. "Bobbi!" The vibrations got too much for Daisy and she collapsed unconscious. Lincoln caught her and gently lay her down on the ground, he and Coulson crouching either side of her, Bobbi joining them soon after.
"Skye, hey?" asked Coulson. "Skye, are you ok? Skye?"
"It's Daisy." Daisy replied.
"What?"
"It's Daisy now, sir." Bobbi reminded him. "You're really having a hard time with this, huh?"
"Damn it, yeah." said Coulson.
"Daisy, hey." said Lincoln. "You alright?"
"Yeah." Daisy replied. "I'm better." They helped her sit up. "That pulsing sound was killing me."
"What pulsing sound?" asked Coulson.
"Are you serious?" she asked. "It was deafening."
"It was the Monolith." Lincoln said. "When it caused the room to vibrate, you sensed them."
"Yeah, I did." she said.
"Slow down, slow down, slow down." they heard Mack saying to Fitz.
"It holds the portal open." Fitz replied. "That flare shot straight through. If we could send a hard-wired probe through, we can see the other side. We can find her."
"We'll fix the machine, Turbo..."
"We have to fix it."
"...but you got to chill." They heard Mack sigh. "How are we supposed to fix a machine we don't know how it works?"
"It'll just rattle apart again." said Fitz. "We have to reinforce the connections."
"Reinf...look, most of the workings are under the ground." said Mack. "We can't just tear the castle down. And actually, we're lucky the room is shaped this way, or the machine might have shaken it apart on top of us."
"Wait." said Fitz. "Wait. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the point." He pointed at Randolph. "Quantum harmonic oscillation theory, like the professor said."
"I know that look." said Bobbi. She and Lincoln both smiled.
"It's a strange shape for this time period because it's made to resonate, uh, to... to... to... uh... create a-a quantized field within the stone."
"Fitz, you're talking, but we're not totally following." said Coulson.
"The room is a speaker. The machine is an amplifier." explained Fitz. "Uh, a sub... subsonic frequency to resonate with the Monolith."
"You saying you figured out a way to fix the machine?" asked Mack.
"No." said Fitz. "I'm saying I figured out that..."
"We don't have to." said Daisy. Lincoln looked at her, coming to the same conclusion she was. She stood up. "I can do it. I can open the portal myself."
Mack got to work sorting out the machinery to reopen the portal while Bobbi went off to find a probe.
"Well, turns out we're standing in the middle of the world's largest subwoofer." said Randolph.
"Yeah." said Mack.
"If the point of the machine was to resonate the room at a certain frequency, I can do that." said Daisy.
"And you can replicate it?" asked Coulson.
"Kind of drilled into my brain." she said.
"And it could kill you." Lincoln pointed out. "How long do you think you could hold it?"
"Maybe a minute."
"If it's too much, you pull back." said Coulson. "I can't lose you too."
"Here we go." said Bobbi, walking back into the room. "Camera and data sensors are hard-lined back to us through a cable... no signal loss that way. If Daisy can hold it, we'll get a visual of the other side."
"That's what we're looking for." said Coulson. He turned to Daisy, ignoring the hand holding between her and Lincoln. "Alright, you listen to me. Take care of yourself. We lose that probe, nobody cares."
"Uh, I'm confused." said Randolph. "What exactly is she planning to do here?" Daisy let go of Lincoln's hand and he moved behind her, enough to give her space but also enough to let her know he was there for her. She held out her hands to the side and generated the vibrations that the Monolith needed to open, causing the room to rumble.
"Sorry." she said. "Still tuning." She then moved her hands forward to the Monolith and threw the vibrational waves at the rock, causing it to liquefy. She breathed heavily from the effort.
"Hold it open as long as you can." Fitz called.
"Fitz, no!" Coulson called out, as Fitz connected the cord round his waist and jumped into the portal. Bobbi, Mack and Randolph went over to the portal, looking down at it. Lincoln moved next to Daisy and saw that she was having another nosebleed. Mack ran over to the scaffolding, holding it steady.
"Daisy." Lincoln said, gently. "It's ok. I'm right here. Focus." Daisy's body relaxed slightly, but he could see that she was still struggling. "It's ok. I'm right here."
Bobbi joined Mack holding the scaffolding in place as the vibrations increased. Mack ran over to the cord and pulled it back as it struggled to get loose.
"Damn it." said Coulson. "Pull him back! Get him back here." He ran over to the lever and started to pull the cord back.
"I can't hold it!" Daisy exclaimed. Lincoln put his hands on her shoulders and leaned in close to her.
"You can do it, Daisy." he said.
"I...can't..." she said, clearly struggling.
"Yes, you can. I know you can, Daisy! You've caused an avalanche and you've fought that new Inhuman guy!" he exclaimed. "You can hold the portal open, Daisy."
The generators started to break down due to the vibrations, and Lincoln had no choice but to fire electrical blasts at them to keep them going whilst keeping a hand on Daisy's shoulder. Eventually, though, it got too much for her again and she broke off the hold, the Monolith exploding into pieces. Lincoln held her as they watched Coulson, Mack, Bobbi and Randolph move over to the hole where the Monolith had been. They saw by the others' faces that Fitz, and presumably Simmons, had made it back safely. Daisy collapsed onto the ground.
"I did it." she said, surprised. Lincoln smiled at her.
"Yes, you did." he said. "I knew you could." Mack ran over to them and crouched down on Daisy's other side, also giving her a hug.
"You did good, Tremors." he said. "You did good."
Back on Zephyr-1, Lincoln was checking up on Fitz and a sleeping Simmons in the med pod.
"No sign of radiation or infection." Lincoln told him. "But she's dehydrated and exhausted. The sleep is helping her." He then crouched down to Fitz's level. "You should get some sleep too, Fitz." Fitz shook his head.
"I'm fine, Lincoln."
"You're not fine, Fitz. You need some sleep. Stay here with her." He smiled. "Doctor's orders." Fitz smiled back and Lincoln squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. "I'll be back to check on you later." Fitz nodded and laid his head down on the bed, soon falling asleep. Lincoln found some blankets and made them into a makeshift pillow and blanket, which he put underneath Fitz's head and on top of him, then walked out to find Daisy, Mack, Coulson, Bobbi and Randolph waiting for him.
"How is she?" asked Daisy.
"Sleeping." replied Lincoln. "Cardiovascular, inner ear, respiratory, got used to...not being here. Different atmosphere, different oxygen levels, different gravity. She managed to survive six months on another planet, which is impressive considering the human body can survive 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food and 3 minutes without air."
"Really?" asked Daisy.
"Yes." he replied. "She'll develop PTSD which may come in a few days, weeks or months. It varies."
"How can we help her?" asked Coulson.
"Keep her around anything, and anyone, familiar." said Lincoln.
"That'll be easy." said Bobbi. "The lab and Fitz."
"Also make sure she's not around any reminders of her time on the alien planet." he added. "It'll trigger her PTSD and that's something we don't need."
"If she's going to be spending time in the lab, then we'll have to make sure the remnants of the Monolith aren't near her." said Bobbi. Randolph looked at her.
"You're keeping it here?" he asked.
"Fitz, Bobbi and Lincoln are going to study it." said Coulson. "Try to find out more about it. Luckily, it's been destroyed, so it's not as if it's going to suck any of them through."
"We'll keep a close eye on it." said Bobbi.
"So, how's Fitz?" Daisy asked.
"Also sleeping." replied Lincoln. "I managed to persuade him to get some rest. He's with Simmons. It'd take a lot to try to get him to leave her side."
"Of course it would." replied Bobbi. "They've been through a lot, those two, and they're stubborn." He laughed.
"Oh yeah. I've only been here for a few days, and I've already noticed how stubborn everyone is." he agreed.
"I'll go check on them." she said.
When Lincoln went to the med pod later, he found that Fitz had gone - presumably Bobbi had managed to persuade him to leave the room - and Simmons was awake.
"Hey, Simmons." he said, smiling and sitting down next to the bed. She turned her head to look at him.
"Lincoln." she said.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Tired." she replied. She tried to sit up, Lincoln quickly catching hold of her.
"Hey, hey." he said. He gently helped her sit up against the wall and sat down next to her. "It's alright. You're safe now."
"I am?" she asked, then looked around as if watching out for something. Lincoln couldn't even imagine what she'd been through.
"Yes, you are." he replied, gently moving her head so that she was looking at him. "Where are you right now, Simmons?"
"The med pod." she said. "S.H.I.E.L.D."
"That's right. How does that make you feel?"
"Safe." she said. "I'm home."
"Yes, you are, Simmons." he said. "You're back home." They sat together silently until Lincoln felt Simmons' breathing start to slow down. "You should get some sleep. It'll help you recover."
"Ok." she said, nodding, knowing that she wouldn't be able to argue with him. She lay back down on the bed and Lincoln pulled the blanket over her before heading to the door. "Lincoln?" He turned back.
"Yeah?"
"Jemma." He nodded.
"Get some sleep, Jemma."