DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from Guardians of the Galaxy, either in its movie or comic incarnation. I own any OC I can invent, though. I am not making a £ out of this. It is just for shits and giggles.
This chapter is monstrously long, I know, and very heavy with exposition, but I couldn't find a way to separate it in two shorter ones.
Yu will notice that I have taken great liberties with canon, mixing stuff from the Agents of SHIELD series, the comics and my own inspiration to explain some background events.
I think it works, but YMMV. Let me know.
Also, I have to announce that I will be posting next chapter in a month's time. I am getting to the end of the stuff I've written and most of my time is being taken up by "Breaking The Chains, Forging the Links". Blame "SW TFA" and the new season of Rebels for that. I got inspired.
Warnings: sarcasm, violence, exposition, speciesism.
Enjoy, and please don't shout at me!
For once, Ronan is glad of not having been invited to the talks.
He feels better than he did outside, but he is still nauseous, and shaky, and not totally back to his usual self. He is definitely not fit to sit at a table and engage in high-level negotiations.
Talking politics was never his forte anyway. He was always more of a doer than of a talker.
The Guardians leave him in a sort of medical facility housed inside a reasonably sized, clumsy flying ship, in the care of some SHIELD agents, a young pink-skinned, fair-haired woman and a young pink-skinned, fair-haired man, both scientists, who keep on bickering excitedly back and forth, fast enough that he can barely understand them, another young female, slightly more bronze-than-pink-skinned and dark-haired, who keeps on staring at him, and an older, distinctively pale man dressed in a black outfit with a white shirt. He is clearly the commander of the unit, Ronan reckons.
The two young scientists have connected him to a series of medical equipments to monitor his vital signs. As far as he can tell, everything seems normal.
All this fuss is not really warranted, unless the Terrans plan a bit of interrogation on the side, while the others are busy and his defenses are still down, and they want a way of checking if he is lying.
It would make sense, given the way the young woman and her commander are looking at him.
Ronan doesn't really care. He has nothing to hide about their mission to Terra, and very little to hide in general.
"You are a Kree." the man says. It is not a question and there is no trace of doubt in his voice. Either he was out there when they arrived and overheard Nebula say so, or he has encountered someone from his species before.
He has the feeling that the second option does not bode well for the mission.
"I am." Ronan admits. It would be idiotic to do otherwise.
"My name is Ronan. And you are?" he continues, trying to sound pleasant despite the sound of the bloody respirator.
"Special Agent Phil Coulson. - the man replies without a trace of a smile - And these are Skye, Fitz and Simmons." he adds, pointing first at the dark-haired woman, then at the youth and then at the fair-haired woman.
"We have questions for you." Skye announces, not very friendly.
"Ask them. I will answer them to the best of my abilities. - Ronan retorts, trying to keep his cool and appear cooperative towards the Terrans - And before you ask, no. These are not tribal markings. A bastard with a blowtorch did this to me two weeks ago." he clarifies, pointing at the scars on his face.
Simmons and Skye make soft sounds of distress, and Fitz looks like he is going to throw up. Only Coulson seems unaffected.
"Only two weeks?" he asks, quirking an eyebrow.
"I heal fast." Ronan retorts.
"I would have thought so. - Coulson comments - So you that's your first time on Earth, right?" he asks.
The Kree nods.
"You seem to know a lot about it, though. Star Wars, rock music, Ultron, the Svartalfar... and you speak very good English." Skye comments.
"About the former two, it's my boyfriend Peter's fault. Same for the language. He taught all the team. - Ronan confesses with a smile, even though he knows it will be invisible below the mask - He left the planet as a child, but held onto many Terran customs. And the latter two incidents were openly discussed at the Council after Thor's arrival." he adds with a shrug.
"I have overheard one of your team-mates saying that there is a hyperlane connecting your system to ours. - Fitz chimes in - Did you really travel at curvature speed?" he asks.
"We did. It only took a few hours from Kilda to here." Ronan replies.
"Wow! This is... amazing! - he sighs - What does your ship run on? It's nuclear power, isn't it? A fusion reactor? Dark matter annihilation? Quantic fuel? Oh God, if I could just put my hands on that engine..." the young scientist rambles on enthusiatically.
"Eh, I don't know precisely how an hyper-drive works, I am not an engineer, but I am sure that if you ask nicely, Peter and Rocket will let you inspect it. - Ronan replies, still trying to be friendly - They will probably help you build your own, if Thanos gives us enough time before striking again." he adds.
"Only a few hours. - Coulson repeats, inserting himself in the subsequent pause - Hardly a long time to cover what, a few hundreds of thousands of light-years?" he comments.
"More or less." Ronan agrees.
He has conducted enough interrogations to know what game Coulson is playing, but he has no way of leading him off the trail without seeming obviously suspicious.
"I would bet that shortcuts like that come quite handy to a space-faring civilisation."Coulson insists.
"They speed up commerce and communications quite a lot." Ronan confirms.
"One would hardly think it would be left unused." Skye joins in.
"Unless there was a good reason to do so. - Ronan retorts - Unless it had been forbidden by law and custom for the last few thousand years. There are well-armed fortresses guarding the Gate. We had to seek special clearance from the Head of the Ruling Council to get through." he adds pointedly.
"Where there is a will there is always a way. - Coulson insists - A single ship can find a way to get through undetected where a fleet would not, especially if the authorities turn a little bit of a blind eye on it." he insinuates.
"Not on my watch." Ronan retorts decisively. What are they aiming at?
"What do you mean?" Skye asks.
"I mean that until recently I was the Supreme Accuser of the Kree. It was my responsability to ensure that the law was not flouted. - he declares angrily, almost growling - I took that responsability very seriously, and I can assure you that my successor is equally irreprehensible."
"Oh really?! - Coulson asks, nearly yelling and slamming a hand on the table where all of Fitz's and Simmons' tools are laid out - Because about a year and a half ago we arrested one of you blue-skinned aliens as he was sneaking around on this planet!" he reveals, now yelling and flushing darkly.
Ronan blinks in confusion, feeling like his control over the situation is slipping like sand between his fingers.
"Really?" he stammers.
"Yeah, really." Skye reaffirms.
"He must have slipped through the cracks during the disturbances after the vote for the treaty, or when the government fell at the end of the war, then. - Ronan whispers quietly, looking in the distance - It was a complicated period for my people. There was rioting in the streets, and I... I abandoned my post in a quest for retribution. He could have profited from the confusion to slip away unnoticed." he argues, looking back at Coulson.
"That sounds very convenient." the Terran comments with a sneer.
"That is the truth. The Gate was supposed to be left sealed, and what lay beyond it was supposed to be left untouched until the time came. - Ronan retorts severely. - That man has committed a heinous crime, a sacrilege almost, and if you hand him over to the Accusers, he will be severely punished according to our laws." he declares.
Shanleigh would take care of it swiftly and definitively.
"Sorry, pal, but I don't believe a word of what you say. - Coulson retorts with an unpleasant smirk - Your compatriot talked to us, before one of his machines gave him retrograde amnesia. And do you know what he said?" he asks softly.
"How would I know what that criminal said?" Ronan throws back at him, as haughtily as he can manage under present circumstances.
"Do you know what the Inhuman Program is?" Skye intervenes, also bristling with anger.
"I have no clue." Ronan retorts sincerely.
"Liar!" Coulson yells, slamming his hand on the table again.
In the heat of the moment, he must catch the edge of some tool left on the table. He yelps and clenches his other hand over the wound in his palm. Blue blood drips from between his fingers.
"Damn!" the man swears, eyes wide in dismay.
"Sir!" Skye exclaims, torn between jumping to the rescue and moving away from a possible contamination.
Ronan doesn't let her decide. He rises from the chair, unheeding of the various sensors stuck to his person, and grabs Coulson's arm before anyone else in the room can react.
"You are one of them..." he says, with soft wonder, raising his wounded hand to his eye level.
"One of what?" Skye asks, very confused and nearly panicky.
"One of the Lost Ones. - Ronan replies - The descendants of the ones who chose to stay behind." he adds.
"What are you talking about?!" Coulson exclaims, trying to free his hand.
"What exactly did the man you captured tell you about his reasons for being here?" Ronan asks, letting the man go.
"He told us that he had come to deal with the property of the Kree Empire on this planet. - Skye replies, full of hostility - And he meant it as in people. Humans that the Kree Empire had re-engineered to fight their wars. Inhumans. People like me." she reveals.
The air resonates oddly, and suddenly Ronan is flying across the room, hit by a kinetic blast that slams him into the back wall.
"Well, I am not anyone's slave or weapon! And neither is my CO!" she adds, aiming another kinetic blast at him.
Ronan narrowly dodges it and rolls away, thinking furiously of a way to defuse the situation without causing any harm to the two Lost Ones, or to the two Terrans, who at least had the sense to get some cover in the meantime.
"And if you blue bastards think that you can come here and play the evil alien overlords or dispose of us... - Skye continues to rant, harrying him with more kinetic bolts - you are in for a big surprise!" she adds. The floor starts trembling under Ronan's feet, and he is hit full-on by the next bolt as he fails to dodge it.
Not pleasant. Not pleasant at all, he thinks, shaking his head to clear it.
He only manages to avoid being kicked in the head by Coulson because he sees the man's reflection in one of the screens.
The Kree grabs the man's leg and kicks his support foot from under him, letting him fall on his back, then rolls away, avoiding another attack from Skye.
"That criminal lied to you. - he says, trying to get close to her - My people doesn't wish you any harm, I swear!" he adds.
"Yes, of course! Because people get genetically engineered as a favour!" Skye retorts sarcastically.
Ronan is on the verge of replying that yes, actually they do, where he is from, but Coulson has a second wind, and tries to grab him from behind.
His heightened reflexes allow him to turn in the nick of time and grab the man's leading arm and his collar. A twist of his hips and a push, and the man is thrown forward, on top of Skye. The two land in a tangle of limbs and stay down.
"Will you calm down a moment, or do I have to beat some sense into your heads?!" he pants. The lower oxygen concentration has cleared his head, the adrenaline has done the rest, and now his body is protesting that the oxygen is actually too low.
He makes to adjust the dial, but two more Terrans pour into the room, a tall, powerful dark-skinned male and a short but toned, dark-haired woman.
The man pulls out some sort of gun, while the woman grabs a piece of metal tubing and sinks into a fighting stance.
Ronan curses under his breath. There is no time to adjust the oxygen, and no way he can fight any longer like that.
Damn.
He tears the respirator off his face and lets it fall to the ground as he lunges towards the man with the gun. The Terran's reflexes are exceptionally good, and he manages to fire, but he is already too close to do any damage.
Ronan twists the gun out of his hands, grabs his wrist and collar and slams him into the wall, not as hard as he can, but hard enough to make him fall unconscious.
"Tripp!" the woman yells, and launches herself at him.
Her strikes are precise and powerful, she is superbly trained, clearly a great warrior of her people, while he is dizzy and queasy again, and is trying his hardest not to hurt them too much.
It is a close fight, and he feels that bloody pipe knocking against his bones a few times more than he would have liked to, before he can knock her unconscious with a blow to the head.
Ronan stops, panting heavily, and leans on the wall for support until the world stops spinning and his stomach stops heaving.
So much for his diplomatic efforts, he thinks.
Something stirs behind him.
Thinking it might be the two Lost Ones or Tripp, Ronan turns, ready to fight again, only to find the young male scientist taking a body-shot at him with a gun.
He braces for pain, cursing himself for having dismissed them as harmless. Hopefully the projectile will miss his vitals, he prays, otherwise he will be in a very bad spot, and the Council's mission on Terra will be finished before it even starts.
The projectile hits him in the upper chest, propelling him against the wall. Pain blooms, but Ronan has been shot enough times to know that something is not quite right. The slug has impacted hard, but has not penetrated, even if he is not wearing any armour.
"Has this kid just taken a shot at me with non-lethal ammo?" he asks himself, baffled and irritated.
He tries to go for a lunge towards the Terran to seize that bloody gun and make him eat it, but his body suddenly seizes up and becomes unresponsive.
Unconsciousness beckons, and his vision tunnels. He falls to his knees, somehow manages to brace a hand on the floor to avoid smacking his face on it, and as suddenly as it has come, the malaise passes, and he is back in control (more or less) of himself.
He pulls himself to his feet and swipes the gun out of the sneaky Terran's grasp. Its body is some sort of plastic.
"Good." he thinks, and makes a deliberate show of breaking it with his bare hands.
The Terran scientists look suitably terrified. He is blocking their way to the exit, and they know they are no match for him, but the man is still trying to protect his female companion, and even takes a clumsy fighting stance, even though he is pale as a sheet of paper and is trembling all over.
"Don't ever do this again." Ronan warns, throwing the pieces of the gun at the Terran's feet.
As the adrenaline recedes, he starts to feel all the bruises he has accumulated in the brief fight, and once more a dizzy spell overcomes him. Surely whatever poison he has been injected with isn't helping either.
He backs away from them and lets himself slide to the ground, with his back against the wall, hoping that the world will stop spinning.
"Are you alright?" Simmons asks. She looks still very frightened, but she inches closer to him when he doesn't reply immediately.
"Of course not! Otherwise why would I have been in an infirmary in the first place?!" Ronan barks, with as much bite as he can manage considering his situation.
Will that man, Fury believe that he had acted in self-defence, or will this misadventure cause the diplomatic accident that they have been so desperately trying to avoid?
"Look, I am very, very sorry about what Skye did. - Simmons says, hesitantly pushing his mask towards him - The issue is a bit... personal for her." She adds with a forced smile.
"She is one of the Lost Ones." Ronan comments wearily.
"Your compatriot called them Inhumans, and they called themselves like that." Fitz points out.
"That must be a new cultural development, then. - Ronan pants, replacing the mask over his mouth and nose - We never even called them Inhumans, back in the day. Their name in our language has been Lost Ones ever since we left this planet, and before that their name was Gifted." he adds, casting a wistful look at Skye and Coulson, who are now starting to stir. The Kree might just have lost them again, if he doesn't find a way of fixing things.
"You might want to check on them. - he adds - I might have hit them harder than I meant to." he admits ruefully.
"You were holding back?!" Fitz exclaims, eyes wide in a mixture of worry and admiration.
"I told you, my intentions here are completely peaceful." Ronan insists, closing his eyes for a moment and leaning his head against the wall.
The two scientists exchange a brief look and set out to work, checking the vital signs and general state of their health.
"Tripp and May will have a nasty headache and a few bruises, but they are mostly fine. - Simmons announces with evident relief - And Skye..."
"Ouch!" Skye exclaims, sitting up all of a sudden when Simmons prods her during her examination.
The young woman looks none worse for the wear. She looks around the semi-destroyed lab with a worried expression, then her eyes alight on him and an angry glint appears in her eyes.
"Won't you even let me explain before deciding that I am wrong, evil and a threat to be eliminated?" Ronan asks her. The irony of the situation is not lost on him.
"Yes, sure! - Skye retorts sarcastically - I am sure there is a very good explanation for the fact that your people has come to our planet to enslave humans and use them as lab rats to further their purposes! And another really good one for why you wanted to kill us all." she adds with fake cheerfulness.
"We didn't come here to enslave or kill anyone." Ronan retorts.
"Of course. You just want to keep us as pets, I suppose." Skye retorts, crossing her arms on her chest.
Ronan sighs. It is going to be harder than he expected.
"Listen, mari-anni, if you don't want to hear me out, it is within your rights, but if you do, you should at least use me the courtesy to let me speak without interruptions!" he chides, unconsciously slipping back in the demeanour he used to use with his trainees.
"Oh yes, we can't be impolite to colonialist aliens..." Skye insists.
"Stop it, Skye. Let him talk." Coulson intervenes, rubbing his head wearily. He has just managed to pull himself from the floor, and looks a bit disoriented still. A large blue bruise is spreading on the side of his head, and blue blood is crusted on his hand, signalling his hybrid status for all to see.
"But, sir...!" she she protests.
"No buts. Let him talk." Coulson insists.
"Thank you, sir." Ronan acknowledges him with a nod.
"So, I don't know exactly what my still unidentified compatriot has told you, but as far as I know, the Kree first came to this planet by chance." he narrates.
"It happened a few thousands of year ago. My people had just mastered the technology for hyperspace travel and after enthusiastically exploring the confines of our Galaxy, were moving to poke around in the next." he continues.
"Which one is your Galaxy?" Fitz asks.
"We call it the Great Cloud. I have no idea what you call it." Ronan replies.
"There is a Galaxy we call the Greater Magellanic Cloud. - the young scientist points out, calling up a sort of rudimental star map on the biggest screen in the lab - It's that one." he adds, indicating it on the map.
"It's the very same. - Ronan agrees, pleased and surprised that the Terrans even know about it. - We were the only technologically advanced species in it, at the time. But when we started exploring the Spiral, your Galaxy, we found the Skrull already waiting for us." he explains.
"They are from our Galaxy too?" Fitz asks, and his eyes go wide in surprise.
Ronan shakes his head. " No, they are from the other big Spiral Galaxy at the other end of the Cluster, like the Xandarians. They were also passing by." he explains.
"And what happened then?" Coulson intervenes.
"We went to war over control of the hyperspace routes. - Ronan retorts - The war in itself is not really important, though. What matters is that during this war one of our warships was lost. Its name was the Eye of Pama and its commander was Eamon the Accuser. The Skrull caught it by surprise and managed to damage it heavily, just outside your system. It ended up crash-landing on the planet you know as Terra." he narrates.
"Wow! That must have hurt!" Fitz comments.
"I am sure it did. Most of the crew was lost in the landing, but about a hundred, including the commander, survived." Ronan says.
"A hundred seems like a lot. - Skye protests - How many people did the ship carry, to begin with?" she asks, frowning in suspicion.
"About three thousand. - Ronan explains, much to the Terrans' shock - It was a carrier-destroyer, one of the biggest ships of the fleet." he explains calmly.
"And just how big is that?" Coulson intervenes.
The Kree thinks about it for a moment, trying to figure out the conversion into the Terran system of measurements.
"I am not sure if they were built exactly to the same model so long ago, but the Dark Aster, the one I commanded until recently, was about three miles wide and half a mile long, excluding the stabilisation tail." he replies finally.
Fitz's mouth and eyes fall open in utter astonishment, and he makes a sound of excitement and delight.
"Ah! But that's huge! - he comments - How does it even stay in the air?" he asks.
"They're not actually made for sub-atmospheric flight, but for deep-space operations and fleet deployment. - Ronan reveals - As soon as they enter a gravity well, they have the unfortunate tendency to sink like stones, if one is not careful about keeping them perfectly in orbit." he adds ruefully.
"And what happened to yours?" Fitz asks.
"I deliberately crash-landed it on a planet during a battle." Ronan confesses.
"And you were still on it?!" Simmons exclaims in horror, covering her mouth with a hand.
Ronan nods.
"That's a bit desperate." Skye comments, unimpressed.
"It was. - he confirms with a grimace - I made it to the ground with barely a scratch, but I was wielding one of the Infinity Gems at the time, so I suppose Eamon and his brave few must have been quite a bit more damaged, when the Eye landed." he adds.
"You had one of the Gems?!" Coulson exclaims, blinking in confusion. The rest seem equally surprised, or even slightly terrified.
"I did, the Gem of Power. I had it for a while, then the Guardians claimed it, and now the Council has it in custody. - he explains - But that is a bit beside the point of the discussion, I think." he argues.
"The hell it is! - Skye protests - Those things are at the center of everything bad that has happened lately."
"And likely of everything bad that is going to happen in the near future." Ronan admits.
"So how did it feel, holding one of them?" Fitz asks, his odd accent getting thicker with excitement.
Ronan closes his eyes for a moment, lost in recollection.
"Like holding the power of a thousand suns in the palm of your hand, full of power, and hunger, and possibilities. Like it was going to tear me apart and scatter me throughout the Universe, if I couldn't contain it somehow. - he whispers, feeling a shiver go through him at the memory and not out of fear - That thing has a tendency to consume all sorts of organic matter, including people." he adds, pushing his inconvenient feelings aside.
"Wow! It sounds like it should come with an health and safety warning! - Skye exclaims - How did you contain it?" she asks.
"I embedded into my weapon of office. It insulated me from its hunger, but still let me feel its power. I felt invincible. I was a bit drunk on the feeling. - Ronan confesses, looking down in embarrassment - Peter and the others managed to tame it by taking its power within themselves and spreading it between them, instead. It worked beautifully." he adds.
At the moment he had been too angry, confused and wary to appreciate it, but, circumfused by that purple light, they had looked ethereal and untouchable, like earthbound gods.
"And what did they do with it?" Skye insists.
"They blasted me across the planet. I am still not sure about how I managed to survive." Ronan replies matter-of-factly.
The warriors of SHIELD stare at him in awestruck silence for a long moment, then Skye lets out a low whistle.
"That must have been a lovers' spat and some..." she comments.
"We were not together at the time." Ronan objects.
"So you hooked up with him after he nearly killed you?!" she exclaims, looking at him with a perplexed look on her admittedly pretty face.
"I started it, they just acted in self-defense. I deserved it." Ronan admits.
Skye opens her mouth to speak, but Ronan doesn't let her voice her next question.
"Sorry, mari-anni, but it's no use for you to press on this topic. Whatever you might want to ask, I am not going to oblige you with a reply. - he declares, raising a hand in clear command - The fact that you and your superior officer are Lost Ones makes us kin, in a distant sort of way, but I do not know you anywhere near enough to be comfortable with discussing my private life with you." he adds, politely but firmly.
Apologies tumble out of the girl's mouth and her cheeks colour bright pink in embarrassment.
"Kin? How?" Coulson asks instead. He doesn't seem like the sort of person that lets himself be distracted from his objective. He would have made a good Accuser back home.
"Because the Lost Ones descend from a Terran/Kree mixed lineage. Didn't your parents tell you?" Ronan replies, feeling like he is stating the obvious. For him it is a commonplace semi-legendary piece of history, and so it should be to the Lost Ones, but for some reason these two don't seem to know anything about their origins.
"I was given in foster care. I found out about my origins only recently." Skye declares, shrugging her shoulders and looking away. There is more to it than that, it is clear, but it is also clear that it is painful.
Ronan leaves it be. if everything goes well, there will be time for more explanantions.
"And my situation in even more complicated. - Coulson adds - Assume that we don't know anything at all on the subject." he advises.
The Kree nods in agreement. It is a sensible proposition.
"Alright. As I was saying before the conversation was derailed, Eamon and his companion crashed on Terra, in a desert situated in the landmass you now call Africa. - he narrates - They were wounded, and, judging from my own personal experience, must have been quite debilitated by the excess of oxygen in the atmosphere. Most of their equipment had been destroyed or severely damaged, and they had no way to contact the rest of the fleet, so they set out to find a more hospitable place. Eventually, some of them reached fertile land and the banks of a wide river. It was a land called Ta Meri, the Blessed Land, and sentient, primitive people inhabited it, who called themselves Romw." he reveals.
"Uhmmm... the name of the place seems familiar, somehow. - Simmons comments - And how long ago did this happen?" she asks, tapping her handheld terminal.
"About seven thousand years ago, give or take a couple of centuries." Ronan replies.
"The end of the Neolithic, yes... - she comments to herself - Oh, hang on. There I have it! Apparently Ta Meri is one of the ancient egyptian names for, well, Ancient Egypt." she reveals.
"Wow! - Skye exclaims - So are you telling me that the old conspiracy theory that the pyramids were built by aliens is actually true?" she asks, shaking her head in puzzlement.
"The pyramids were built approximately five thousand years ago. - Simmons points out - Unless they remained until then, the answers is still no." she clarifies.
Skye looks at Ronan with an expectant air.
"Sorry, but no. We stayed for less than two centuries, built very little and tore down almost everything when we left." the Kree says.
Skye pouts and makes a face.
"Dang! That would have been so cool!" she mutters to herself. Ronan doesn't quite know what to say about it.
"So Ta Meri endured after we left?" he asks?
"For about another five thousand years. - Simmons reassures him - But, please, go on, I didn't mean to derail." she adds flashing him a brief smile.
Ronan addresses her a nod of acknowledgement and continues his explanation. He has been talking so much that he is starting to feel thirsty, but it is a story they need to hear in full. There will be time for rest later, hopefully.
"Right, so the people of Ta Meri, took the survivors from the Eye of Pama in, sheltered and nursed them back to health. Eamon and his people were greateful. They saw that the people of Ta Meri were beautiful to behold, and that Ma'at dwelled in their hearts..."
"What is Ma'at?" Skye asks, raising her hand like a schoolgirl.
"It's complicated to explain. As far as I know, Terran doesn't have an equivalent concept." Ronan replies.
"English, you mean?" the girl retorts.
"Do you speak more than one language on this planet?" Ronan asks, quite surprised. Her look is quite eloquent.
"Nevermind. - Ronan dismisses the subject - As we understand it, Ma'at is a composite of your concepts of justice, truth and balance. It is one of the key values of our culture, and according to the historical accounts, a smilar concept was the centrepoint of the culture of Ta Meri. Despite the differences in thechology, our cultures were quite similar, and that smoothed things out considerably." he sums up.
"So there was no violence?." Fitz asks.
"None at all. The survivors peacefully integrated into the social structure of their hosts. They... well, they intermarried and... had quite a lot of children, and thus the first generation of the Lost Ones was born." he reveals hurriedly, forgoing all the formular descriptions of the joy and delight they derived from each other and from their joinings.
"And then what? - Skye asks - Happy ever after?"
"Not quite. - Ronan admits - Eamon himself was quite happy to stay forever in Ta Meri, but others wanted to go back. Somehow they managed to rig up a beacon, and, after about ten years the signal was finally picked up by the fleet as it passed by Terra. More Kree ships landed, and Eamon, who had been chosen as divine king of Ta Meri welcomed them. Some Kree left, some stayed. Eamon himself had no wish to leave. He had taken a Romet woman called Mut as a wife, and loved her dearly. She wouldn't have survived the lower oxygen and higher gravity of his home planet, and his children wouldn't have either." he explains.
"That's very romantic." Simmons comments.
"Terra, or the Blessed Land as we calles it back then, became a port of call for the fleet for the next hundred years, and as the years passed by, more Kree took Romw people as their spouses. Other tribes became our allies and Ta Meri grew in power. The Lost Ones grew in number, and many of them wished to travel the Universe and fight alongside the Kree, but many were too weak and fragile to do so. - Ronan continues, smiling at her for the compliment, even though he knows he is but a poor narrator - At that time, however, our scientists had already invented the the technology required to manipulate genomes safely and efficiently. We had eliminated most genetic diseases from our own species, and even introduced a few new genes to ensure that we could survive on foreign planets. Being chosen for genetic modification was a great honour among us." he explains.
"So you 'fixed' the Lost Ones?" Coulson asks with a frown.
"Our scientists gave them the possibility to follow their dreams. - he corrects - They were successfully enhanced and they fought with us, with valour and honour, like our equals, because that's what they were. Different, but the same." he adds proudly.
"That initial success made us bold and we started to realise that a great boon had come from the tragedy of the Eye. - he continues after a pause -
The Kree genome is notoriously stable and rejects most improvements, but the Romw genome was a lot more malleable than ours, and the scientists soon discovered that they could modify it a lot more extensively." he continues.
"And why would they?" Coulson asks, still very suspicious.
"I told you that our genome is very stable, didn't I? - Ronan retorts - We adapted to a hostile environment, with high ambient radiation. Our mutation rate is very slow, and the scientists predicted that we would be going towards an evolutionary dead-end within a few thousand years if we didn't find a solution." he explains.
"You used the Lost Ones to introduce new genes in your pool!" Simmons exclaims, all happy about having figured it out first.
"More or less. - Ronan admits - We knew that we could intermarry with Romw and mixed-bloods, and we hoped that the new genes could trickle in our pool by marriage. The Lost Ones and even a few full-blooded Romw
volunteered for the engineering. They saw us as god-like and they wanted to be like us, they wanted to be special."
"And you let them." Coulson chimes in.
"We did. There was a man who sprouted wings, another one who gained some sort of plant telepathy, a girl who could control fire... They were heroes to their people and to ours." he narrates from memory. He still remembers reading their stories as a child, before the Fire. They uses to be among his favourite heroes.
"Your friend called us weapons and abominations" Skye comments.
"He is not my friend. - Ronan retorts - But you are not wrong. There were some Kree on Terra and back home who didn't see things quite the same way as Eamon and his men." he reveals grimly.
"Some people viewed Romw and Lost Ones with contempt, like savages and inferiors that could and should be exploited. - he admits - We held a few other populations vassal, back then, but we treated them with honour. We provided as best as we could for those we were responsible for, and this is also Ma'at. They wanted slaves, instead, to be treated like little more than animals, so they befriended other tribes with guile and deceit or just plain kidnapped however many Terrans they wanted, and experimented on them, grievously violating Ma'at in order to obtain what they wanted." he explains
A bit like he had done during the war, he muses ruefully. As a child, when he read the saga of the Lost Ones and the other stories of heroic deeds performed in the name of Ma'at, he would have never thought he would be the villain of his own story.
"That sounds more like what that other guy said." Skye comments with a grimace.
"Presenting a partial truth is often easier than lying outright. - Ronan offers - Some of our people caused great harm to yours, using them against their will and changing them with no respect for their wishes and no regard for their livelihood." he has no qualms in admitting. This is history and it is of no use to anyone, if it is manipulated.
"They made them into weapons." Skye insists.
"They did. - Ronan agrees - At the time the Empire was not yet fully centralised, and each noble House had a fair amount of autonomy and vast holdings. Eamon and his allies, and then their descendants had obtained glory and honour thanks to their alliance with Romw and their Gifted offspring. The betrayers obtained power and riches from their crimes, but while loyalty and kinship are lasting, control is easily lost." he continues.
"The slaves rose against their masters." Coulson concludes for him.
"Precisely. Their masters had made them strong and powerful to fight their wars and work their mines and fields, and the slaves used that power to win back their freedom. - Ronan confirms - Initially, aided by surprise and the arrogance of their masters they prevailed. They broke their chains and went out into the world, finally free, but the slave-masters went in pursuit and tried to re-capture or slaughter them, like diseased cattle. A bitter war erupted, and when Eamon's people got wind of it and of what had caused it, they sided with the Inhumans against their kinspeople." he narrates.
His audience seems totally captivated by his tale, as if he was a famous bard. They listen intently and quietly, emotions playing on their pinkish faces. It feels slightly surreal.
"A great civil war erupted among the Kree, between those who stood with Ma'at and those who had become greedy for power and blood. Many lives were lost on both sides. - he narrates, translating as best as he can from the snippets of epic he remembers - In the end Ma'at prevailed and the people responsible for the horrors of slavery and torture were brought to justice, but the times of trouble were not over yet." he declares, making a pause to let the information sink in their minds.
"And why was that?" Skye asks, looking upset.
"Because the actions of the slavers had upset Ma'at more profoundly than their vanquishers thought, spreading confusion, mistrust and suspicion among all people. - Ronan explains - Eamon's grandson, the new king of Ta Meri, welcomed the ex-slaves into his tribe, he called them brothers and sisters, and while some gladly accepted that offer, some were suspicious of the closeness between the Gifted and their Kree allies and kin, fearing that they would end up exchanging one master for another, so they went into hiding. Among the Kree Ruling Council, instead, some had always harboured fears that the Gifted would grow too powerful and overthrow the Kree colonists."
"Would they have been able to?" Ward asks.
"Probably, if they had put their minds to it. - Ronan replies with a shrug - Ta Meri was a small, peaceful trading outpost and waystation, barely fortified, and so were most of the other installations we built on Terra. Gifted and Terrans outnumbered us by a large margin. Until then, it had survived on trust and goodwill, but the Council was determined not to lose their foothold on your planet, and sent more soldiers, and not the veterans who had fought alongside the Gifted, but colonial troops." he adds.
"I'd bet that it didn't help with the trust issues of the Gifted." Skye comments.
"And you'd win, mari-anni. - Ronan acquiesces - The Gifted of Ta Meri were outraged by the Council's suspicions: they had fought the Empire's wars and considered themselves full citizens, and now the Empire was treating them like potential enemies. It put their whole identity and history in question. And as for the Terrans, Romw and not, they had seen what those criminals had done and had grown fearful of us. We could harm them, we had already done it, and now there were more soldiers coming, more strangers who could harm them..." he explains.
"It sounds like a royal clusterfuck." Coulson chips in.
Ronan doesn't quite know what the word means, but assuming that anything ending in "-fuck" must not be a good thing, he nods.
"The Council pushed, and Ta Meri pushed back, defending its autonomy. - he narrates - The situation became more and more tense, and people started to perform acts of disobedience and sabotage against the colonial troops. And finally the Great Snake came, and with him disaster." he adds.
"Who is this guy?" Skye asks.
"He was a warlord of the Gifted, son of ex-slaves who had gone into hiding. - Ronan replies - No one knows what his real name was or what were his powers. He appeared seemingly out of thin air and proclaimed himself saviour of the Blessed Land and scourge of invaders and blood-traitors. By the latter he meant the Gifted of Ta Meri, the Romw and their Terran allies." he explains.
"That guy sounds nasty, like an ancient Bin Laden." Simmons comments.
Ronan ignores the obscure cultural reference and focuses on the rest, nodding to acknowledge her remark.
"He was, by all accounts, thirsty for power and blood. He had grown up in cruelty and injustice, and he did not know a different way to live. We made him as he was, and he wanted to unmake us for that. - he confirms - He wanted to rule over the Gifted, with the Terrans as vassals, and he wanted every single Kree in the Blessed Land dead. He saw all of us as guilty of the suffering of his people, even though the people responsible for it had been punished to the fullest extent of the law, so he started to target the settlements, using hit-and-run tactics." he adds.
"Typical... - both Coulson and Skye sneer - We know the style." the woman adds.
"Yes, I imagine you do. - Ronan comments to the two hardened warriors - So, to cut a very long story short, the Great Snake and his men killed a great number of people, mostly civilians, some quite horrifically to spread terror throughout the colony, and lower the morale of the troops. Now, the king of Ta Meri had two brave sons: one was the strongest warrior of the Blessed Lands, the other was the wisest..." he narrates.
"What is this, a fairytale?" Skye protests.
"No, it is an epic poem. Usually it takes seven nights for a full recitation. - Ronan retorts, ignoring the sarcasm - I am summarising it as much as possible, but we're still talking about a war that spanned generations." he explains.
"Alright, sorry. - she apologises - Go on." she encourages him.
Ronan nods in acknowledgement and presses on, eager to get to the end of his narrative and get some actual information from his counterparts.
"Right, so the two princes called all the commanders of Ta Meri and told them that to truly solve the problem, without creating more suspicion and fear, the Great Snake would have to be dealt with by the Gifted, without any intervention from the Kree. - he continues - The commanders were sceptical at first, but eventually agreed, and the two princes lead their army against the hideouts of the tyrant, leaving the Kree to defend the colony. In the meantime, however, word of the new conflict had reached the Council, and some took the rise of the Great Snake as the last straw, and decided to terminate the whole Ta Meri colony project."
"Terminate? That sounds a bit radical and definitive, doesn't it?" Skye comments, her forehead creased with worry.
"Yes, mari-anni, it does, and it was. - Ronan agrees - The Ruling Council sent the Devourer, another carrier-destroyer, to the Blessed Land, and ordered the Kree population to evacuate."
"They wanted to leave the Gifted behind." Coulson comments.
"They wanted to launch an orbital bombardment and destroy the colony and all the Gifted and Romw with it." Ronan retorts.
"What?!" all the SHIELD members exclaim in unison.
" How could they even think about doing something like this?!" Skye adds, totally outraged.
"They were afraid. Afraid that the much more fertile Gifted would one day supplant us, afraid of relinquishing their dominant position and admit once and for all that the Gifted stood on equal footing with us. - Ronan replies quietly - They let their fear override their sense of Ma'at, and once you let go of that, few things seem completely out of bounds." he adds.
He knows the feeling. He has been there before.
"That's no excuse." Skye retorts.
"No, mari-anni, it is not. - he admits - But not all of my people were like that. Many contested that heartless order and the Kree from the colony fought for their allies and kin, even if that meant going against their own government and their own species." he explains.
"Did they?" Coulson asks.
"There are still Gifted on Terra, aren't there? - Ronan retorts - The colonials didn't have any ship that could take on the Devourer, so they pretended to comply with the evacuation order, and once they got on the ship, they killed the commanding officers and hijacked it, turning it towards Hala, our capital. There, part of the population revolted and supported the colonials and..."
"Let me guess, there was a civil war." Coulson chimes in with a grimace.
"That was not a hard guess to make. - Ronan points out - It was a mess, make no mistake, and at the end, the only route to some sort of peace was a compromise. The Kree government would leave the Gifted alone, but all Kree would have to leave the Blessed Lands and take all their ships, technology and possessions with them, effectively leaving the Gifted stranded on a primitive planet with no way of leaving it."
"So that's what you did." Coulson intervenes, crossing his arms on his chest.
"We did. We had no choice. - Ronan confirms - All full-blooded Kree were required to leave. Many were forced to leave their Romw spouses and their children behind, entire clans were broken apart. We destroyed most of what we had built, leaving only few hidden installations to allow the Lost Ones to take shelter and remember. We brought all our possessions away with us including most of the Terrigen and the materials used to make it, and sealed the Gate beyond Kilda, building a ring of fortresses around it so that no one could go back to the Blessed Land and no one could come to the lands of the Kree through it." he reveals.
"And the Gifted? What about them" Simmons asks, seemingly saddened by the story.
"They understood why we were leaving, and though they were saddened, they didn't protest against the decision. - Ronan reveals - They had defeated the Great Snake and brought relative peace among themselves, but the Terrans were even more afraid of them, now. Thus they went in hiding, and vowed to keep the way of Ma'at, to remember the days of Ta Meri, and wait, until the day the Terrans became our and their equals, with nothing to fear from any of us. On that day the Gifted would reveal themselves, and help the Terrans build a ship, and together they would come through the Gate and lead us back to the Blessed Land, so that we could make amends and live all in peace once more." he concludes wistfully.
"Wow, that's sad..." Skye comments. She still looks upset and shocked, but no longer murderously angry. It's a start.
"So you have been waiting for... seven thousand years?" Coulson asks.
Ronan acquiesces.
"Give or take a couple of hundred years. - he confirms - Most people or started thinking it was all a legend, a product of imagination or propaganda, like Capitan America from Peter's Terran comics."
"Capitan America is not a legend. - Coulson points out - He is one of the Avengers."
Ronan is glad that mask and hood cover most of his face because he is sure that he is making what Peter calls his 'What The Fuck?!' face, and apparently people tend to find it very funny.
"Really?! But Peter said that the war has happened a long time ago, and that Terrans don't live that long... - he objects - Is it a title, then? A collective name?" he hypothesises.
"He was cryopreserved." Coulson reveals.
"Oh, dear... Wait until Peter meets him..." the Kree comments fondly.
"He is a fan?" Coulson asks.
"Very." Ronan replies.
"I was too. Working with him was an incredible honour. - Coulson reveals, and for the first time since he set foot in that lab, Ronan sees the man smile - So, our blue friend from last time must have been a true believer." he adds, switching back to business without even pausing for breath.
"But one that had learned nothing from history. - the Kree replies without missing a beat - I am glad you stopped him from repeating our past mistakes. If we re-tie diplomatic relations, the Kree government will probably ask for his extradition." he forewarns.
"Yeah, I would too. That guy was totally convinced that we were an absolute threat and deserved to die for it. - Skye comments - I mean, we had some trouble with some... Gifted, but we didn't even know they were... you know, a different sentient species. He was terribly well informed. More than us." she adds.
Coulson nods. "He had very specific intelligence."
"What was his name?" Ronan asks.
Coulson and his men exchange glances.
"His name is Vithek, or something like that." the leader replies.
Ronan mulls the name over in his head. He doesn't recall anyone with that name among the Accusers, but Fiyero must have recruited during his absence, so he asks.
"Did he wear a hood and wield a hammer?"
"No, he was in civilian clothes and had some kind of device that allowed him to pass for human. - Skye replies - Some sort of cloaking device to hide the blueness... Even if he was still a lot less blue than you."
Ronan curses between his teeth. "Did he have a neuro-reprogramming weapon?" he asks.
"Yes, he had a baton that made people forget things. I still have it for study." Fitz replies.
"He was secret service, then. - Ronan concludes - Was he sent by the government or did he come as a rogue agent?" he inquires.
Lady Derdriyu had not told them anything about a previous mission to Terra, but maybe she had not known about it, either because that scum of her predecessor had not told her, or because he didn't know either.
The Agents regard him in silence.
"We don't really know. - Skye admits finally - Lady Sif hit him with the forgetting stick and he forgot what he was doing here. That made him a bit useless as a witness, and then we had quite a bit of trouble with the Inhumans and then with Ultron and... we kind of forgot about him, I guess..." she adds apologetically.
"Wait, what was Lady Sif doing here?" Ronan asks, frowning in displeasure.
"Odin sent her when he got wind that the Kree was on the planet. - Coulson replies - The Asgardian crown tends to be quite protective of it."
"I have serious difficulties about seeing Odin as protective towards anyone." Ronan retorts grimly, then it dawns on him. It must have been Loki to give the order, and he cares for Terra because Thor does.
"Nevermind. - he says - So the Lost Ones are resurfacing and causing trouble?" he asks, leaning forward towards the Terrans. Hopefully it will not be another Great Snake situation.
"A group of them. - Skye replies - They had a bone to pick with SHIELD." she adds.
"They got caught in the conflict between us and HYDRA and ended up being treated as hostiles. - Coulson adds - There were some casualties and we took some of them prisoners over the years..."
"For what crime?" Ronan asks.
Coulson hesitates and grimaces. That tells Ronan everything he needs to know.
"The mission of SHIELD is to protect this planet and its population from things that they do not understand and that might be a threat to their safety." Coulson explains.
"To keep them in reassuring ignorance, you mean..." Ronan comments sarcastically.
Skye snorts with laughter. Coulson seems outraged instead.
"And you must think very little of your people's intelligence if you believe that they haven't realised that there is something out there after two alien invasions and an omnicidal artificial sentient." the Kree adds.
"And what would you do instead? Tell everyone that humans are not the only sentient species on the planet? - Coulson asks - That we have an informal diplomatic agreement with an alien god-like race?"
"And why not? - Ronan retorts - Knowledge is power. If they know they can do something about it. You can lead them to do something good and great from their knowledge. War is coming, Agent Coulson, and Terra has already been on the frontline. Soon there will be no way of hiding it." he adds gravely.
Poor Terrans, it looks like they will have hardly any respite, walking into a crisis after another.
"The Inhumans wanted to take revenge on what they perceived as "oppression". They planned to unleash global Terrigenesis and take over the planet. - Coulson reveals - We had to take decisive action. And we couldn't let the general population know! They... we would have been seen as a threat! There would have been a witch-hunt against all the potential Inhumans! There would have been a war!" he protests, flushing darkish blue in indignance.
Ronan ignores his anger as another piece of the puzzle clicks in place.
"Pama preserve us! That must have been also a part of Thanos' plan!" he whispers to himself.
"What plan? Who is Thanos?" Skye and Coulson ask, almost at the same time.
"Thanos is the mind behind the disturbances you have experienced in the last few years. - Ronan reveals - He is an agent of isfet, and plans to collect all the Infinity Gems to reverse Creation and bring about the end of times."
"Wow! Just wow! That guy is seriously nuts! - Skye comments - Doesn't he realise he is going to die too?!" she objects
"I don't think he cares. - Ronan replies shaking his head - He has erected himself as judge, and judged that life is senseless and wasteful, a mistake that needs to be corrected. He thinks that with his actions he is saving the Universe." he explains.
"Messianic delusions much?" the girl comments with a smirk
"Very much. - the Kree agrees, returning the smirk - His main objective are the Infinity Gems, he needs them for the final part of his plan, but his secondary objective, in the meantime, is to cause as many wars of mutual destruction as he can. He has been at this game for centuries already, and he knows exactly what buttons to press to breed deep-seated hate between two groups of people." he warns.
"So you reckon that he pushed buttons here to manufacture a war between the Gifted, or Inhumans or whatever, us, and maybe your people? - Coulson asks - That seems a bit far-fetched." he adds sceptically.
"It might not be the case, but I think the possibility should be investigated. The Kree agent might have been compromised and sent here to prime you against the Lost Ones, to make you see them as a greater threat than they actually were, or to make sure that the population of Terra perceived the Kree as enemies." Ronan offers.
"It would make sense, but the Inhumans from Afterlife were a real threat, make no mistake." Coulson retorts.
"And what turned them into it? What pushed them finally into action?" Ronan asks.
"SHIELD policies on 0-8-4 contention." Skye replies.
"What is an 0-8-4?" the Kree asks.
"An object of unknown and potentially harmful power." Coulson replies.
"And that includes people?!" Ronan exclaims.
"That included even me. - Skye reveals - Especially after my powers were awakened, when I couldn't yet control them fully. Some folks wanted to lock me away." she adds, casting her boss a meaningful glance.
Ronan grimaces.
"You are afraid of them, and they are afraid of you, both have your reasons. - Ronan summarises - It would not take much for the situation to escalate into a full-blown crisis."
"Do you think the crisis with Afterlife was engineered?" Fitz asks.
"I have no idea. It could have been. - the Kree replies sincerely - But once Thanos turns his eyes towards this planet, he won't leave the matter alone. It is perfect raw material for him. Terra won't be safe until the problem is solved. Based on our experience, conflict resolution is the most effective strategy to deprive the Mad Titan of weapons." he explains. And then he might send shock troops to push the situation further, but that's another matter.
"We are not done with the Inhumans yet..." Coulson whispers, shaking his head.
That thought floats in the silence of the room for a while, as the five of them consider it grimly. Not yet a day on the planet and they have already a potential civil war on their hands.
"If this is part of a larger plan, Thanos might have already sent more agents on the ground... - Coulson whispers after a while - Fury and the Avengers needs to be informed. This can quickly escalate into a crisis." he judges.
"What...?! What crisis?" a female voice asks. Agent May, the woman with the pipe, has come round, and is now trying to sit on the ground with her head in her hands.
Her eyes seem a bit unfocused to begin with, but they become sharp and focused in a pinch as she sets her eyes on the Kree sitting against the wall. She tenses and her hand inches towards the pipe once more.
"May, don't. " Coulson orders.
The agent stops in her tracks, giving him a quick, inquisitive glance.
"Is this a hostage situation?" she asks with a grimace.
"Only if I'm keeping you hostage with my charm and good looks..." Ronan comments, immediately regretting it. Rocket's sarcasm must be rubbing off on him.
Skye snorts, covering her chuckle with an imaginary cough.
"We are just talking." Coulson says quietly.
May looks at him with even greater scepticism.
"It was my fault, alright? - Skye butts in, raising her hands in surrender - I freaked out because of Mr Forgetful and the whole Inhuman thing, and jumped him unprovoked. Coulson was just trying to spare me from getting my ass handed out to me." she adds defensively.
"You weren't doing too bad." Ronan comments.
"You weren't even trying!" she protests, crossing her arms and pouting a bit.
"I was trying to contain the damage. It would have hardly been appropriate to a diplomatic mission if I hurt you too seriously. - the Kree retorts politely - But you hit me, and not just once. It's not bad. It took Gamora and Nebula a month of training to manage to do the same, and Drax about twice as much. Next time remember to focus, instead of going into a rage. You could have gotten me at least a couple times more, if you had." he advises.
"Yeah, both Tripp and May have told me the same thing over and over." the girl muses.
"Then you'd better listen." Ronan comments.
"Alright, alright... - Skye concedes - I'd do my Jedi mindfulness exercises... though from your looks I'd have pegged you more as an 'Embrace the Dark Side' type of person." she comments playfully.
"I've been to the Dark Side. - he admits - There is only pain and desperation in it."
"Wow! Is it really real, then?! Like in the movies?!" she exclaims, all excited.
"It's just a metaphor, as far as I know. - Ronan retorts - And I haven't really watched the movies yet, so don't understand what you are referring to." he adds with a hint of embarrassment.
"Have I been knocked too hard on the head or are we really sitting on the floor having a friendly chat with the alien that just beat the crap out of us?" Tripp says, looking like he can't believe his eyes. He must have just regained consciousness too.
"We are." Fitz and Simmons reply in unison.
"I thought we were dealing with a crisis." May pointed out.
"That too. - Coulson confirms - Our discovery of Inhuman Program might have been a set-up." he explains.
"A set up how? - May insists - We know the Inhumans exist. Skye is one of them."
"A set-up to show us the situation in the worst possible light. - Skye replies - We came out of that mission with the impression that the Kree are total, genocidal level bastards, and that the Inhumans have it out for the rest of the population on Earth."
"And what is the truth, instead?" she presses.
"That apparently, humans, Kree and us are long-lost kin." Coulson explains with a smile.
"Us?!" May and Tripp repeat, frowning in puzzlement. They don't know, then.
"Yes, well, there is no way to hide it anymore, is there?" Coulson reveals, raising his blood-stained hand.
May's slanted eyes widen in shock at the sight.
"Is that because of..." she starts.
"Yes, it's always because of TAHITI. It didnt just mess up my mind, it changed me for good. - Coulson finishes for her - You see, there was another Kree on this planet until not long ago." he reveals, turning towards Ronan with a wistful smile.
"Your father?" Ronan suggests.
"In a manner of speaking. It's thanks to him if I am here today. - Coulson says - I was wounded in action just before the Chitauri invasion. Your pal Loki stabbed me through the heart with his scepter." he says.
"The scepter that held the Soul Gem?" the Kree asks.
"The very same. - Coulson confirms - My body died, but apparently my mind didn't shut down, somehow. I was still there. Vision thinks that the Gem strengthened the bond between my body and my soul, but it did do me any favours. I was left there for a while before Fury noticed." he adds in a whisper.
He has gone even paler, almost translucent, and wide-eyed. His hands shake minutely. It must have been a horror beyond comparison.
"You don't have to tell him." May rasps.
"I do. What they did was not right. - Coulson insists, taking a deep breath - Neither to me nor to him." he adds.
"But he was dead! - May exclaims - He had been for decades!"
"He had been a person. We had no right to treat him like a piece of meat to experiment upon." Coulson retorts
"What are you talking about?" Ronan intervenes.
The two stop bickering immediately and exchange a long glance. Coulson looks away first and turns towards Ronan.
"We are talking about that other Kree I mentioned earlier. - he reveals - The RSS found him already dead in a HYDRA base, about 70 years ago. An explosion, or something like that, had broken him in half at the waist, and the bottom half was lost. RSS and then SHIELD kept the rest of him cryopreserved and perfused. We wanted to study his biology." he explains apologetically, and Ronan tries to stay calm, even if what the Lost One is describing is the worst kind of desecration, something he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy.
"And what does this have to do with your mortal predicament?" Ronan asks, stamping down on his anger for a moment more.
"Information first, indignation later. Treat it as the questioning of a witness." he tells himself.
"Our scientists had discovered that a blood derivative extracted from the corpse, combined with a low-dose radiation source could induce tissue regeneration in lab animals. - Coulson explains - They used it on a few other test subjects and then on me, to try and fix me." he adds.
"I assume it worked." Ronan comments dryly.
"It did, mostly. My heart started to knit back, but not fast enough. - he confirms - As soon as they re-started it and it resumed its task, it would tear open again, so they would inject more of his blood in me and try again. Six times they tried and failed, and in the meantime my brain was slowly starting to decay." he narrates with a haunted, faraway expression.
Ronan cringes in horror, a feeling he seems to share with the SHIELD agents. It's a small miracle this man has managed to stay sane through all this. Terrans are quite amazing, though, as far as he has seen. They are resourceful, smart and resilient. It's a small wonder that his ancestors were so taken by the seemingly puny Romw.
"How did they heal it then?" he asks softly.
"Apparently they did not. - Coulson replies - They swapped it with the one they took from your compatriot." he reveals.
"What?!" Ronan exclaims, more than a bit shocked. What sane person would put the heart of a long-dead alien into a friend, without even knowing whether it would work out? The SHIELD executives must have been pretty desperate.
"You got transplanted with alien tissue... - Fitz comments softly - That shouldn't have worked. I mean, the biology is so different! The hyper-acute rejection should have killed you within hours, days at most!" he protests.
"Well, sorry to disappoint..." Coulson comments wryly.
"It was the transfusions! Of course! It's so obvious!" Simmons exclaims instead.
"Not really... - Skye objects - Who votes that it isn't?" she asks, raising a hand in the air.
May, Tripp and Coulson raise a hand too, and Ronan follows suit. He has been understanding very little of what the two scientists have been saying since he has arrived.
Simmons blushes a pretty shade of pink and stammers an apology.
"Right, so, I have a theory that the serum they gave you was some sort of stem cell transplant of some kind, something thay actively secretes healing factors. - she starts explaining - According to what he said, the Kree have adapted to high baseline radiation, so probably their stem cells can survive being exposed to the levels of radiation we found in the GH325 serum." she adds, turning towards Ronan.
"But mine couldn't." Coulson chimes in.
"Yes, well. It wasn't enough to completely clear out your bone marrow niche, like in a real stem cell transplant, but enough to create a space for the little blue guests to make themselves at home and start proliferating. They must have prevented the non-self immune reaction. - she clarifies - You have become what in medical terms is defined as a chimera, sir! I bet that if I took a sample of your blood, I would find two types of blood cells and two different strains of DNA." she adds, nearly clapping her hands in enthusiasm.
"But your physicals had been checking out fine after you came back, even during the carving crisis. - May objects - There is no way they could have missed something so obvious as blue blood." she adds, then sighs and shakes her head.
"You have been wounded in action after that, and you bled red, you looked normal..." she nearly moans.
"He hasn't had any physical in a while. - Simmons intervenes - You're actually overdue one, sir." she adds with a sweet smile.
"It's been only these last few months, and it started subtly, like the compulsion. - Coulson confirms - Do you remember when you remarked thay I seemed exceedingly fit after we trained?" he asks May.
The woman nods, looking uncertain.
"I had not been training extra hours. I had just become stronger, harder to tire, all of a sudden. - he reveals - I healed faster, and injured less. Then my heartbeat started to slow down, my blood started to go purplish-blue and my skin started to grow colder..." he narrates.
"You still feel warmer than a trueborn Kree. - Ronan comments - You're probably intermediate, like the first-generations of the Lost Ones used to be." he muses.
"I guess that is because the Kree cells have become the principal population in your stem cell niches, but you still have plenty of Terran, I mean, human, cells. - Simmons argues - This is so fascinating!" she exclaims.
"Do you know the name of the man who gave you his heart?" Ronan asks.
Coulson shakes his head.
"He was identified only as GH. Why do you ask?"
The Kree shrugs. "Even if it has been decades, his House might want to know what has happened to him, and that he left descendants on Terra." he explains.
"I am not..." Coulson tries to protest.
"You are. - Ronan cuts him off - You carry his genes, and you might be able to pass them on to your offspring." he declares. Coulson seems a bit unsettled by his explanation.
"Do you really think so?" he asks with a grimace.
"Not very likely, but possible, especially if the radiations have... killed off your... eh, spermatogonia, sir. His stem cells might have colonised... down there too." Simmons comments, blushing bright red and stammering.
"Your position in this organisation is equivalent to that of an Accuser for us. - Ronan continues, pretending he doesn't see Coulson's understandable dismay - It is a distinguished, prestigious career. I don't think that many Houses would reject you. We lost so many of our own during the war with Xandar that any relative, no matter how collateral, would be welcome by most." he explains.
"I am sorry to hear that, but we have no way of idenifying him." Coulson insists.
"You do. Your blood. His blood. - Ronan retorts - Our government keeps a genetic database of all military personnel and civil servants, to identify their remains in case of fatality. We can check your sample against it." he explains. They don't need to know about the reproductive database. It tends to upset most non-Kree and at any rate, now that the Ancients have been shut down, Derdriyu is shutting it down too, so it doesn't really matter.
"And you think your folks will waste their time with this?" Tripp asks.
"This is no waste of time. - Ronan insists - Naming the dead and ensuring they are remembered is one of the highest forms of religious piety among us. They will welcome the possibility of giving closure to a grieving family."
"It always helps to know what's happened to someone you cared for. - Skye approves - Not knowing eats you up from the inside." she adds with a knowing look in her eyes.
"I agree. - Coulson declares after a brief contemplative pause - I have to do this. It is something I owe that poor man." he adds almost apologetically.
"Does your terminal have a radio-frequency wireless connection?" Ronan asks the two scientists.
"Yes, sure. - Fitz replies - What for?"
Ronan pulls out his comm and turns on the wireless connection on it.
"I am going to call Hala to get this situation sorted, and give them a heads-up about the plot to exploit the hostility against the Lost Ones. - he explains as he sets up the holocall transciever to transmit through the Gate - I though you might want to watch it on the big screen." he adds, nodding his head towards the equipment.
"I am not sure we are authorised to share this kind of intelligence." May objects.
"If there are more rogue agents on the ground or more are planning to come, the Supreme Accuser Shanleigh is in the best position to identify them or stop them before they arrive here." Ronan points out.
"And you reckon there might be?" Coulson asks.
The Kree shrugs. "Pernicious ideas have a way of resurfacing, especially if someone starts to spread them intentionally." he comments.
"Let's do this." Coulson declares, nodding his head.
Ronan smiles under his mask and hands his comm over to Fitz for the wireless linkage, then calls his own old office.
Shanleigh replies after a moment, turning on the video feed. She is not wearing her armour, just a dark blue uniform. Her hood is down, revealing her pale, braided hair.
"Greetings Accuser." he salutes, bowing at the camera.
"Ronan! I wasn't expecting you to call so soon! - Shanleigh replies, looking pleased and surprised - You arrived safe and sound, I trust." she adds.
"The journey was smooth and the landing soft." he replies formally.
"Hey, they really sound like those ancient egyptian aliens from Stargate!" Skye comments, not quite under her breath.
"Oh dear..." Coulson comments instead. He takes half a step back, as if to regain his balance
He looks pale and nauseous.
"What's wrong?" May asks, stepping in discreetly and grabbing his elbow to steady him.
"The tapestry... Look at it!" Coulson whispers.
The others do, and Ronan does too, but sees nothing but a traditional, if well - executed calligraphic tapestry, of the kind that most nobleborn Kree have in their Houses.
It's one of the steganographic ones, depicting part of the map of the Lost City under the guise of the last few verses of the Song of the Lost Ones.
Like House Danu, House Lir is one of the Houses that sided with the Inhumans during both the Terran War and the Civil War on Hala and those tapestries are mementos of that allegiance and of the hope for the Return.
He sees nothing alarming or very unusual in it, but from the look on the faces of his improvised allies, most would disagree. It doesn't really make sense, though because there is no way they can read it. Even among the Kree, only the upper classes learn the High Kree script: sadly it's most of a relic of days past and almost all modern documents are written in a phonetic alphabet derived from the Spartoi script.
"Oh my goodness... - Skye comments - It's the same stuff that you asked me to investigate..." she adds.
"It's a piece of the map I was writing... - Coulson whispers - The map to the Lost City."
"You did what?!" Ronan asks.
Coulson doesn't reply, he is too busy staring, but Skye taps briefly on her comm device and hands it over to him.
On the screen there is a picture of a dark wall incised with dense, precise lines of High Kree script.
"Who did this?" he asks. He thought he had things under control, more or less, but now things are changing too fast all over again.
"I did. - Coulson admits, his eyes still wide with shock - I wrote that over and over again. I could not help it. I could not make it stop." he adds weakly. He is looking slightly greenish with nausea.
"Do you know what is written here?" Ronan asks, pushing the comm towards him.
Coulson shakes his head.
"It's not writing. It's a map. - he insists - I inherited it from GH, through his blood. He guided me there." he whispers.
"You've been to the Lost City?" Ronan asks.
Coulson is still too busy staring, but the others nod.
"It's where I was Awakened." Skye comments.
Ronan looks at them with wonder, but once more decides to hold the questions for the moment. It's startinv to be a bit too much to take in at once, but he has to see the meeting through and establish the foundations for a peaceful collaboration between the Terran authorites and his former colleagues.
"The map is also a text. Archaic script was a steganographic meta-language that encoded map into texts and vice versa, melding their meanings." he reveals.
"What does it say, then?" Skye asks, quirking an eyebrow.
"And the day will come when Lost Ones and Romw are equal, and both can stand on par with the proud Houses of the Kree. And then a messenger will come from the Gate, bringing glad tidings and forgiveness and a thousand ships will be launched across the empty sky-sea, fording the distance, re-knitting the wounds. - he recites, translating as best as he can on the fly - Fat bulls will be slaughtered, incense and perfume will be burned, and the temple of Pama will resound with songs and laughter, for the hour of forgiveness will have come. Those who were Lost will be Found and across the skies, we will be one people, one Home." he finishes.
"What is this?" May asks.
"This is the end of a poem I was telling your colleagues about earlier, one about the Lost Ones and the Kree. - Ronan replies, then turns towards Coulson - This is the part about the Return, Coulson. Your benefactor must have come here to try and fix things, and it seems that his akh has left this responsability to you." he declares.
"What the hell is an akh?!" Coulson asks.
"A spirit, or a ghost, if you will. - Ronan replies with a shrug - He couldn't or wouldn't go forwards into the afterlife, so he stayed, and waited, and finally gave his message to you, for you to decode and bring to fruition. Whatever else you might be, you are his son now, you are his only legacy." he adds.
Coulson looks at him with a slack-jawed, wide-eyed expression of mixed of horror and awe, but before he or any of the other Terrans can protest or even comment, Shanleigh intervenes, probably fed up with trying to guess what was going on through the screen.
"Ronan?! Who are those people? What's going on?" she asks, frowning and waving a hand towards the agents of SHIELD standing in the background.
"Sorry, Accuser, we got distracted. - Ronan tries to minimise, hoping that she will probe no further - These are Terran law enforcement are the Shields." he adds, adapting the name of the Terran organisation so that it will make sense in Kree.
"Did you already get arrested?! Do I need to vouchsafe for you Guardians?" Shanleigh jokes, chuckling to herself.
"Haha. Hilarious. - Ronan comments flatly, much to her continued amusement -They need help with some enquiries about two Kree that crossed the Gate before us, one of which was on the verge of committing a heinous crime." he explains, omitting the sensitive issue of the akh and of its message. That is for Coulson to figure out or divulge.
"The Gate?! What are you talking about? - she exclaims, caught by surprise - I thought you were going to Terra!" she adds.
"We did. Terra is the Blessed Land. - Ronan replies with a pleased smile - One could even say that the prophecy of the Return is being fulfilled, after a fashion." he adds.
"Is Star-Lord... Is he... a Lost One?!" Shanleigh continues, increasingly confused and awed.
"No, he is not. But they are. - he replies, gesturing towards Coulson and Skye - Let me introduce you Agent Phil Coulson and Agent Skye.
Those are their Terran comrades, Agents May, Tripp, Fitz and Simmons. Agents of SHIELD, this is Shanleigh of House Lir, Supreme Accuser of the Kree." he announces solemnly, switching language halfway.
"Did you just tell her what we are?" Skye asks in a side-whisper, elbowing him to attract his attention.
"I did." Ronan confirms.
Skye sighs and steps forward, standing next to him.
"Hi! Nice to meet you!" she says, waving a hand in salute. Coulson hesitates a moment, growing slightly blue-ish in embarrassment, before joining her.
Shanleigh waves back, an awed expression on her face.
"I never though I was going to see them. I never thought the Return was going to happen in my lifetime." she comments quietly, casting a quick glance at the tapestry behind her.
"We are blessed. - Ronan agrees - But the Return is already at risk. We suspect Thanos' hand in an attempt to set Terrans, Lost Ones and Kree all at each other's throat. They twarthed it, for now, but they need your help with the investigations to make sure there are no more attempts." he explains.
"They have it. - Shanleigh confirms without hesitation - Stopping Thanos' plan is our main strategic objective, and we have a debt of honour towards the Blessed Land. Tell the Shields that they will have the full collaboration of the Accusers in all matters. We will stand by them, like our forefathers stood with their forefathers before, in the time of
Ta Meri." she announces solemnly.
"Let us stand together in Ma'at, my brothers and sisters!" she proclaims, thumping her fist on her chest.
"What did she just say?" Coulson intervenes.
"She said 'welcome to the team, Agents of SHIELD', more or less." Ronan announces with a wide smile.
Coulson smiles back, all traces of mistrust and weariness forgotten, and Skye elbows him again, giving him an impish grin.
The Lost Ones are now Found. They are going to make sure that things stay that way.