"Are you sure this will work?" Skye asked over comms.
"Yes." Fitz replied as he guided Sleepy into place next to Skye on the roof. "I've miniaturized the cloaking technology from the quinjets and the Bus. Once I activate it, you won't be able to see or hear Sleepy and neither will he."
Skye looked at the little drone flying next to her and smirked.
"Have I ever told you how cute it is that you and Simmons named these things after the seven dwarfs?" she said, shaking her head.
Fitz smiled.
"Well, it was mostly Simmons' idea. Snow White was her favorite movie as a child. I just decided to name them based on their specific abilities." he explained.
"Sleepy's the listener. Sneezy's the sniffer. Doc's the biological analyst. Bashful's the technology scanner. Grumpy measures temperature. Dopey monitors brain waves. Happy has x-ray. And Snow watches heart rates." Simmons expanded.
Fitz-Simmons exchanged smiles and Skye chuckled.
"Okay, that is awesome on so many levels!" she praised.
"Kids, can we focus please?" May scolded.
"Sorry mom." Skye said sheepishly.
"Alright, Sleepy, time for you to disappear." Fitz said as turned on the cloaking.
Skye whistled in surprise.
"Damn, Fitz, good job with that cloaking!" she exclaimed.
"Our guy's on his way up. Business time, Skye." Coulson warned.
Skye cleared her throat and donned "serious face".
"Right, sorry Coulson." she said seriously.
After a few moments, a man appeared at the top of the stairwell. He smiled at Skye and made his way across the rooftop toward her.
"Alright everyone, eyes peeled. We can't afford to miss anything." Coulson reminded the group.
Fitz-Simmons watched through Sleepy's camera as the man came up to Skye.
"Good day to you, my friend." he said in a thick Russian accent.
Skye nodded in acknowledgement.
"Vladimir Gershwin? Pretty generic Russian name, don't you think?" she said with her usual cheek.
Vlad chuckled.
"True as that is, no one has yet to question it." he said with a shrug.
He dug in his jacket pocket and pulled out a large yellow envelope.
"I must confess, I am disappointed that Coulson did not want to meet me here himself." he commented.
Skye shrugged.
"Something came up last minute. He sends his regards, by the way." she said as she reached back and pulled a similar envelope out of her back pocket.
She held it up and smirked.
"Well, his regards and a little bit more." she said with a wink.
The two carefully extended their envelopes to one another, each watching the other one closely. Both parties carefully grabbed their respective parcels and drew back slowly.
"It is all in here?" Vladimir said cautiously.
Skye nodded.
"You can open it up right here if you want." she confirmed.
Vladimir nodded and tucked the new envelope into the pocket where the old one had been. Skye Spoke up as he turned to leave.
"The info you gave me is good, right?" she questioned.
Vladimir smiled and nodded.
"Of course." he said sweetly.
"Slight variation in tone, pupils di- di-…Ugh, Fitz? "
"Dilated. "
"Right, dilated, and his core temperature increased slightly. Skye, he's lying. Stall him and, whatever you do, do not open that envelope." Jemma warned over the comms.
Skye glanced at Vladimir incredulously.
"You're not hiding something from me, are you Vlad?" she asked suspiciously.
Vlad swallowed nervously but managed to maintain his smile.
"I gave you exactly what Coulson asked for." he insisted.
Skye shrugged and held up the envelope.
"Then you won't mind if I open this?" she asked.
Simmons could see the man take in a deep breath, as if bracing for something.
"Not at all." he replied.
But, as Skye went to open the envelope, all hell broke loose. Vladimir lunged for her with a panicked cry. Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D agents alike broke their cover and started engaging one another in a firefight. The team on the Bus watched as the chaos ensued. Coulson gave the order to retreat and had Hunter bring the bus in closer to rescue any agents that they could reach. Fitz lowered the cargo hold door, which caused the cloaking to deactivate. That's when Simmons saw it. A man with an RPG posted at the highest point on the roof. She barely had time to tell Fitz to get down before the rocket his one of the Bus' main engine turbines. Alarms blared as the aircraft started to fall out of the sky. Fitz-Simmons held onto one another tightly. Hunter managed to guide the Bus into a controlled crash landing but that was only half the battle. With no way of getting airborne and the cargo door wide open, they were sitting ducks. And a squad of Hydra super soldiers was on its way toward them. Coulson gathered Tripp and Hunter and made for the cargo door.
"Fitz-Simmons! Take a couple of Icers and barricade yourself into the lab! Do not come out until I come get you! That's an order!" he called as ran out.
Fitz closed and locked the lab doors and started piling everything he could in front of them.
"Alright, this is going to be fine. The glass is bulletproof and shatter resistant. We're going to be fine." he said, partly to reassure himself.
He looked to see where Simmons was. She was sitting in the corner of the room, legs pulled tight to her chest, shaking like a leaf. Fitz went over and sat down next to her, putting his arms around her and holding her close.
"We're going to be fine, Jemma." he cooed, stroking her hair comfortingly.
Simmons nodded and drew closer to Fitz. Yes, they were going to be fine.
The minutes dragged on. Fitz-Simmons could hear the fighting going on outside the Bus. They stayed locked in one another's arms, Fitz trying to keep himself and Jemma calm. After a few minutes, they could see a few people heading up the cargo ramp. Nobody the recognized. Fitz grabbed one of the Icers and stood up in front of Simmons. No way was he going to let Hydra touch her. The men approached the lab, guns raised. They looked in and laughed when they saw the two scientists huddled in the corner. Fitz was trying to give his best brave-in-the-face-of-danger face but he was terrified. Where was Coulson? Bobbie? May? Skye? Even Tripp or Hunter would be a welcome sight here now.
Fitz watched as one of the Hydra agents took a small device out of his pocket and attached it to the lab door before he and his team fell back a ways. He threw himself over Simmons to shield her as the charge went off. The doors were open now and the barricade would barely slow the men down. Fitz prepared himself, pointing the Icers toward their assailants. The smoke cleared and the Hydra agents sauntered in, cocky and menacing. Fitz fired off a few rounds, managing to down one of their men before another swatted the gun out of his hands and punched him in the face. Fitz fell to the ground and Simmons scrambled over to him.
"Fitz!" she cried.
She cupped his cheek as he blinked the world back into focus. His nose was bleeding but, other than that, he looked all right.
"We've got two S.H.I.E.L.D eggheads here, sir. Do you want us to bring them in or cross them off?" one of the men asked into a radio.
Fitz tried to get up. He couldn't let this happen. Nothing was going to happen to Jemma if he had anything to say about it. He grabbed a sharp piece of debris from the blast and drove it into the calf of the man who had punched him. The man cried out and turned on him angrily.
"Jemma, run!' Fitz yelled before the man punched him in the gut.
"No, Fitz!" she cried.
She threw herself at Fitz's attacker, doing anything she could to prevent him from striking him again. The man with the radio smirked.
"They are not very compliant." he said.
Simmons heard a shot go off and saw Fitz drop to the ground. There was no blood. An Icer round. They were here to capture, not kill. Jemma had only a split second to process the thought before everything went dark.
~*#*~
Fitz woke to a bucket of cold water in his face. He gasped and sputtered, looking around frantically. He was in a small room, his hand tied behind his back to the chair he was sitting in. There was a single light bulb in the room that cast light on a single, dark figure. Fitz recognized him as part of the team that captured him and Simmons. Fitz's eyes widened. Simmons! He didn't see her! Had she been captured too? Where was she, what were they doing to her?
"Well, Mr. Fitz, my boss seems to think you're valuable enough to have around." the man said as he approached Fitz.
He bent down and got right in Fitz's face.
"The problem is, you and your little girlfriend aren't very cooperative. So what's it going to take to get you on our side?" he said threateningly.
Fitz took a deep, shaky breath.
"I'll die before I work for Hydra." he said angrily.
The man smirked and chuckled.
"We figured you'd say that." he said darkly.
There was a loud clang and the wall in front of Fitz drew up into the ceiling, revealing something that made Fitz pale. It was Simmons, her arms and legs strapped to some sort of contraption and her head was in a brace that kept her looking straight ahead. Straight ahead of her was a TV screen looping colorful, psychedelic looking images.
"Jemma!" Fitz called desperately.
The man snorted and shook his head.
"Mary Poppins can't hear you, lover-boy. She's being reprogrammed. All she can hear is what goes in through those ear buds." he explained.
Fitz looked at Simmons, a worried expression on his face.
"Jemma, snap out of it!" he cried desperately. "Jemma, please! Don't let them do this, you can fight it!"
Tears involuntarily slipped down Fitz's cheeks and he looked down to hide them. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening! Just when things were getting back to normal, something like this goes and happens? It wasn't fair!
"What are you doing to her?" he hissed angrily.
The man shrugged.
"Honestly, I have no idea. This is only the second time I've seen it but I've seen enough to know that it works. Very well. If we want, we can tell her she's now a monkey and she'll hop around here like a freaking chimp looking for bananas. The point is, we own her. " he explained.
He leveled his eyes at Fitz.
"Now's the part where you make a choice. Simmons belongs to us. You can follow her willingly or we can put you in that clever little contraption. We would do that now but we find that the process dampens the individual's free will and makes it harder for them to think for themselves. Since that's what we need you to do, we'd like to avoid that." he said seriously.
Fitz thought, long and hard. There must be a way to get Jemma back. Even Coulson, who'd had his memories electronically replaced, had managed to find the truth eventually. Maybe he could pull her out of it. After he did, he'd figure out a way to get them both out. Fitz looked up at the Hydra agent.
"You win. You have Simmons. I go where she does. Well…well played." he said, defeated.
The man smiled and chuckled.
"Man has she got your ass whipped." he laughed.
He went behind Fitz and cut his ties.
"We'll get you two a nice apartment somewhere near one of our labs. A little love nest for you to spend the rest of your lives in and all you have to do is help out whenever we call on you. How does that sound?" he teased lightly.
Fitz rubbed his wrist and looked at Jemma.
"When can I talk to her?" he asked.
"A few more minutes and she's going to take a nice, long nap. After that, she's all yours." he replied.
Fitz nodded, looking away.
"Well then I'll need to wash up. Don't want to give a bad impression first time she sees me." he said, forcing a smile.
The man patted him on the back and extended his hand.
"Name's Hector. I'll hook you up with whatever you need." he said with a smile.
Fitz shook his hand.
"Leo. Leopold Fitz. But most people just call me Fitz because…well, I like it better. It sounds cooler than Leopold." he said with a smirk.
Hector laughed.
"I knew I liked you, Fitz. Ever since you speared Braden in the leg back there." he said as he motioned Fitz to follow him.
Fitz took one last glance back at Jemma.
I'm not going to give up on you, love. No matter how long it takes, I will get you back.
And thus concludes another chapter! Thank you all for being patient with me and I'm well aware that some of you might hate my guts for what happened in this chapter. But, don't worry! I have a plan! Please review, favorite, follow, etc! If you like what you see and want to see something new, PM me or post a prompt in the reviews! Thanks again!