Heyyy!
So things are getting rather dark and heavy... But we will make it through!
Disclaimer: I don't own Agents of Shield
Three dead Kree, two gunshot wounds (non-fatal, thankfully), one make-shift trash can explosive, and three extra fugitives later, the entire team had reunited on Fitz's ship.
May was trying to explain what had happened in the upper chambers of Kasius and where Daisy was while Jemma bandaged new wounds.
Coulson, as expected, was taking the news the hardest. His jaw remained permanently clenched as he paced, blue eyes searching the space in front of him as though it would provide him answers.
"Sir, please, I need to look at that wound." Jemma's cool hands guided him to a chair.
"Was she scared?" he asked, not even wincing as Jemma began cleaning the bullet wound in his shoulder.
"No. She told me to give you all a big hug from her." Jemma's eyes remained fixed on her work.
"It's always her. The universe just won't give her a break, but she still remains one of the best people I have ever met," Coulson shook his head numbly. "She deserves to be safe. To be loved."
"She said she was okay if she didn't make it because she got to be a part of our family." May had silently found her way to Coulson, sitting beside her. He found her hand and clutched it.
"That's just it; she gives everything she has and expects nothing in return! She is too good for this world." Coulson shook his head.
Jemma's hands trembled slightly as she began bandaging Coulson's shoulder.
"We are going to get her back," May said quietly, her voice leaving no room for questioning. "I'm not going to tell you what else she said because she can tell you herself."
"We've got coordinates on Faulnak's training center," Yo-Yo called out, brow creased with worry. "Apparently this guy runs a whole fighting enterprise."
"Bring us there," Coulson said, standing up.
"We're going to Faulnak's training center?" Flint, one of the Lighthouse kids they had brought along, spoke up, his eyes wide. "You know that's like one of the most fortified places in the galaxy, right?"
Coulson turned to the boy.
"What would you do if it were your family?" he asked quietly.
The boy looked back at him steadily.
"I'd already be there."
The spaceship smoothly shifted into motion.
(line)
Barely conscious, Daisy heard her trainer talking to someone else about her.
"She's doing well."
"How soon?"
"It depends on if you want her broken or not."
A pause.
"We can break her later. The Master wants her to begin as soon as possible."
"The usual pre-arena procedure?" her trainer seemed curious. "It takes some time to recover."
"Then begin as soon as possible."
Silence.
Suddenly Daisy found herself being dragged to her feet, her head dunked in a bucket of ice-cold water. Adrenaline screamed through her veins and gasping she blinked water out of her eyes, vision clearing.
"Good to see you awake." Trainer From Hell grinned at her, teeth black against red skin.
"That would not be the first thing I'd want to see waking up in the morning," Daisy groaned.
The punch he landed was faintly annoying and Daisy shook her head to clear it. Damn, he was right, the pain really wasn't too bad after what they had put her through the previous night.
"Come on." She was dragged out of her room, through the halls of the training facility, finally arriving at a small arena. The heavy door clanged shut behind them and Red Dude turned off Daisy's inhibitor.
She flexed her hands, considering using her powers against the trainer who she now hated with every fiber of her being.
"Punch me," he grinned at her, black teeth hideous.
Daisy was not going to let that offer pass by. She swung her fist.
As soon as she was a few inches away from the trainer, her muscles seized as her inhibitor began humming again.
Death would be preferable, Daisy reflected, as her body arched in the wake of the now-familiar sensation that robbed her of all concepts of space and time and filled their gaps with pure pain.
Then it was over and she found herself heaving on the ground.
"That is what happens if you try to touch me." Huge black boots stepped into her vision. "Got it, human?"
She just swore and the trainer chuckled.
"Good. Now, we are going to spend quite some time here together so let me finally introduce myself. I am Rranik. I am the best trainer Faulnak has and I will be in charge of you. The rules of this arena are simple. You may kill combatants who are in red shirts; they are training fodder. If they are dressed in blue, as you are, you are not permitted to kill them. At any time I can activate your Distressor, the sensation from your inhibitor that you have been becoming acquainted to. The control to the Distressor is imbedded in my skin; you cannot reach it so do not even think about trying." Rranik paused to watch Daisy slowly haul herself to her feet. "Now tell me what you fear."
"Failure." Daisy ground her teeth. "And unicorns."
Rranik glared at her for a moment but let it go.
"First combatant," he snapped. A door opened and a young man in a red shirt stumbled in. "Fight him."
Daisy just stared at the boy. "Look, I don't want to hurt…"
"Ahhhh! I will kill you!" The boy rushed at her, eyes wild.
"Damn it," Daisy muttered, raising her hand to quake him away.
Caught in the vibrations, he hit the wall hard and fell limp to the floor.
"No!" Rranik growled. "Do you know why you are here?"
"Deranged psychopathy?" Daisy suggested, crossing her arms.
"You are here for entertainment. So I suggest you learn how to put up an entertaining fight." Rranik glared at her and pulled a knife out of nowhere, stalking toward the red-shirted boy.
"What are you…" Daisy stared in horror as the trainer suddenly plunged the knife into the boy's chest. "No!" she moved forward but was stopped in her tracks by her Distressor.
"Again." Rranik nodded at the arena servant who hauled the body out. Another figure, this one a light pink alien, came out in a red shirt and stood ready for the sign to attack.
Daisy stared at Rranik, chest heaving, not able to hide her distress.
"Are you just going to kill her at the end of this?" she asked, voice trembling.
Rranik's red eyes were cold.
"That depends on you." He signaled to the new alien, who rushed forward screaming.
Daisy ducked the first blow before returning it with her own. The pink alien just growled and blew a cloud of white gas into her face.
"Shit!" Daisy backed up, her face on fire. Using her quakes, she immediately pushed the gas away, creating a shield as the alien hissed at her again.
Not too fast.
As much as she didn't appreciate this alien setting her skin alight with gas, Daisy didn't want her to be killed.
She decided to push the alien up from the ground by quaking the space beneath her. As the pink alien sailed into the air, screeching, Daisy pushed herself up as well, colliding with her opponent in the air, slamming her down into the ground hard.
Too hard.
Daisy's stomach turned as she heard something snap and the alien did not stir beneath her.
"Better. Thank you for saving me the work of killing her," Rranik commented.
Daisy turned away and threw up.
"Again."
Another red shirted figure was brought in, this one an older man covered in glowing tattoos.
"Nope." Daisy backed up. "I'm out. You can kill me or whatever, but I'm not doing this."
She expected her Distressor to be activated, was as ready as she could be for the blinding pain but it didn't come.
Instead, the man in the red shirt began screaming, body seizing as he collapsed to the ground.
"Stop it!" Daisy turned to Rranik. "If you want to punish someone, punish me!"
"Here we only fear failure," Rranik looked at her. "You bring failure to that man by not allowing him to fulfill his job and you fail to fulfill yours. I know you do not fear pain, or even death, Quake. Your request to be punished has made that abundantly clear. That is good; those fears will hold you back in battle. But it is time for you to learn to fear failure."
"Just stop." Daisy couldn't stop the tears that sprang to her eyes as she watched the man writhe on the ground. "Stop it!"
It was all the more distressing because she knew exactly what that man was feeling.
"Every time you fail, someone else fails." Rranik's red eyes bored into her. He didn't even seem aware of the man's screams tearing through the air. "Nobody here fears anything but failure. Remember that when you cause someone else to fail. Their defeat by your hand is the best fate they can ever hope to receive."
He looked at the red shirted man, touching the button on his wrist. The man fell limp on the ground, an arena servant rushing forward to pull his body away.
"Again."
"We need a plan."
They were gathered around the ship's monitors, looking through blueprints of the fortress that was awaiting them. For the moment, they were space-parked on a small moon slowly orbiting a nearby planet in order to avoid detection.
"This is a suicide mission," Deke grumbled.
May slapped him. "Remember who got Daisy into this situation in the first place," she warned him, eyes glinting dangerously.
"Don't let her throw me into outer space," Deke backed away.
"Can't help you there," Jemma glared at him.
"We can use cloakers to get near enough but once we're on there, there's no telling where Daisy is. Or how we could even get to her without immediately getting killed."
"Actually, I have an idea."
They all looked at Tess.
"Every facility has garbage." She shrugged. "I know how this galaxy treats janitors; they basically ignore them. I'm kind of an expert on this. Nobody expects anything from the lowest workers; if we could infiltrate and pose as janitors, I think we would have a fair amount of mobility. The first thing Faulnak will expect is some grand rescue mission, crashing through the front doors and all that. So we have to go for the opposite. Kree are the proudest things that breathe, they don't bother with things like garbage. We can use that to our advantage."
Flint stood up. "She's right. And I know how we can get the uniforms."
"Where?" May's voice was no-nonsense.
"You aren't going to like it," Flint glanced at Tess.
"I'm all ears," Coulson said.
Flint took a deep breath.
"When people die, they usually are ejected to a space grave site nearby. Because there's no atmosphere, there is no decomposition. It should be pretty easy to find some uniforms."
Coulson stared at the boy who shrugged apologetically.
"We don't usually steal clothes from the dead," Coulson looked disturbed.
"They won't mind. I wouldn't," Tess shrugged.
"Me either," Flint agreed.
"You know you kids should be worrying about things like parties and homework and college, right?" Coulson stared at them.
Deke clapped him on the back, chuckling darkly.
"Welcome to the future."
Question of the day: favorite color?
~silverlining