Friends and Foes

"Ok, where to start?" Bobbi looked even more unsure than she did before. "It all started, I guess, with the secret-soldier formula of captain Rogers'. As my S.O. had explained, the attempts to recreate it never stopped. Banner tried it with gamma radiation - and got turned into the Hulk in the process; the U.S. military is still working in this direction. S.H.I.E.L.D., or SSR, if you want to get technical, tried to do it with biology - or biochemistry - or just chemistry, and it was a different disaster altogether."

"The Hulk isn't a disaster," Skye said fiercely, with some of her old, pre-S.H.I.E.L.D. days' fire resonating in her voice.

"Not according to the U.S. military," Bobbi said wryly, sounding more like her old self too, however briefly. "But my point is that S.H.I.E.L.D. never had any better luck with recreating the original formula either. Lash...Dr. Garner...he's a volunteer, or one of the volunteers, in this program. Agent Hand...my S.O. ... she used to talk about this at length..."

"Well, Lash does look a bit like the Hulk...but he also looks slightly like the big guy over there," Skye shrugged, as she pointed to the other InHuman present in the room. "Is he," she pointed to Hudima, "also part of the project?"

"No, I think that he's the other way around," Lance spoke up suddenly. "Before we teamed-up with you, before Izzy and the others were killed by Creel, we heard of this Green Branches place - by hearsay. It was greatly involved in hiring and acquiring volunteers for medical testing - specific, particular volunteers. They were trying to use gifted, alien, InHuman DNA as their take on the supersoldier formula, weren't they?"

"...This isn't S.H.I.E.L.D.," Skye's face was white. "They-"

"Were taken over, infiltrated by Hydra for the last few years, who is like this," Hudima said gently. "I'm guessing that Hydra is still keeping the Green Branches part of S.H.I.E.L.D., doesn't it?"

There was a pause as Coulson was thinking, and thinking hard. "It doesn't add up completely," he finally reached a decision. "Let's not forget - Fury was involved. He was involved with the GH formula. He wasn't Hydra. He was S.H.I.E.L.D. John Garrett was Hydra. He didn't know about it - hence the whole fallout with the Clairvoyant and Raina and Ward and the others."

"Sir, agent Hand - she wasn't Hydra either. But she was probably in the know that something was wrong with S.H.I.E.L.D., or perhaps she was just in the know. She just thought that she could handle it," Bobbi said bitterly.

"And now, according to Lance, she's in Australia, apparently retired but still alive," Skye finished flatly: even the rumors of Hand's apparent demise didn't make Skye like the older woman any more, and when Hunter admitted that she was alive and well, Skye's feelings towards Hand fell even lower than they were initially (very low).

"What?!" Bobbi's eyes bulged as if someone has stabbed in the stomach. "She what?"

"Alive," Skye replied, sounding slightly shaken. "Lance told us that: me, and Hudima, and May, while we were going for Gardner-"

Bobbi stared into nothingness. "She's alive...and she didn't tell me...she was my S.O., she gave me everything, she and I...we were...I only stayed because...for her memory's sake, and she's alive." She shifted, looked at the big gifted and spat something in a foreign language. Hudima nodded and replied back - evenly, in the same language. Bobbi blinked, began to count on her fingers, blinked again, paused and grew silently thoughtful, before replying - still in the same language. Hudima replied, Bobbi nodded-

"Excuse me, but for those of us who don't know the super-secret alien language what are you two talking about?" Hunter lost patience first.

"What are you talking about? This is Sanskrit; it is no more a super-secret alien language than British English is," Bobbi looked at her husband at last.

"You know Sanskrit?" May blinked.

"I know Sanskrit, Mandarin, Mongol Khel and Greek; I know plenty of Native American and Native African languages too, including Wakandan," Bobbi told the older woman. "Grant Ward wasn't the only custom-made job in S.H.I.E.L.D., you know?"

"Grant Ward was also a traitor," May said coldly.

"He also got you your daughter back-"

"Point," May blinked, startling everyone. "But we'll worry about Grant Ward - and you - when the need arises. Now what about Green Branches?"

"What about them?" Coulson spoke up, startling everyone. "It would be nice to say that Hydra is all behind them, behind this whole mess, but May is right. It doesn't fully feel like them. There's something else."

"Yes," Hudima nodded solemnly. "Lately Green Branches has changed their approach. Now they got Lash going around the world and killing people - people from Li Shi. People from Li Shi want to talk to you, sir, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., regarding this situation. They have deputized me to kill this bloody troll, but they would like to make a deal with S.H.I.E.L.D. too. Maybe you can find time to visit them before it is too late?"

There was a pause as the agents thought this over.

"They want to talk to me? Not to Skye - I mean Daisy - I mean-?" Coulson finally spoke.

"Yes. They aren't stupid sir - we aren't stupid. They know that it was Jiaying who started the bloodbath - not you. They want to smooth things over, especially now, with Lash appearing on the scene, backed by Hydra or someone else." Hudima paused and looked over at Skye with a very guilty and apologetic look. "They also rather not have Jiaying's heir back - ever heard the saying about the live dog and the dead lion? Well, agent Chuju over here is the live lion of the saying and the people back in Li Shi are worried that she will take over and continue what her mother, grandmother, and other ancestors have done."

"Really?" Skye blinked. "What did they do?"

"Rule over Li Shi with an iron glove - and a sharp glaive?"

"What's a glaive?"

"It's like a spear, or even a lance, it isn't used on horseback, but on foot - it's more like the Japanese naginata, really," Lance explained to the startled InHuman woman. "What? I'm more than just a pretty face, you know?"

"True, Bobbi said that you have a magical penis too," Hudima agreed dryly. "Hence the interest in spears?"

"...How 'bout I won't interfere in your courting of 'Chuju' if you don't interfere with my love life?" Lance said with nary a beat. "A simple mind your own business would've worked too."

"I'm not courting anyone," Hudima turned brown. "Are you courting anyone?"

Lance, surprisingly, laughed. "Now this is what I'm talking about - proper manly interaction. Mack has once handcuffed me into a closet for too long, and Fitz isn't ready for this sort of thing. Glad to meet you, buddy!"

"Ok," Hudima nodded cautiously, before switching his attention back to Coulson. "Sir?"

"Ok. Skye - I mean Daisy-"

"Just call me Skye, sir," the InHuman agent said half-thoughtfully and half-wearily.

"Great!" Coulson said with clear relief. "Anyways, let's split - May and I will go to Li Shi and see what do they want from us, you and your team - you're in charge - will go to Green Branches and see once and for all what are they up to, and Mack is in charge of HQ, since it's his turn. Does anyone object?"

No one objected, not even Mack, (who didn't look very happy with this development), so the meeting was adjourned.

TBC