Friends and Foes

And so it came to pass that the new InHumans got off the plane (owned by Quinn of all people - really), and began to be dispersed/acclimated in Li Shi, while Daisy quietly debriefed Coulson and May. Leo Fitz could've joined-in on the unorthodox debriefing, but... but for some reason he was distracted by the sight of Raina going on through some sort of a debriefing with Hudima as well. It's not that Leo didn't trust the big InHuman (or Raina) for that matter, it's just that... he didn't trust them completely, not entirely, not after the whole Hydra uprising and the InHuman mess, after which Leo stopped trusting anyone fully - and then there had been Jemma.

...Ok, this was a misrepresentation of things, but still, having been frustrated this time by an alien artefact and science, was really an insult on top of an injury. Were fate, universe and the Creator conspiring to keep him and Jemma apart? This wasn't fair, and he wasn't even Jewish!..

And then Hudima stopped talking to Raina and walked towards him - in a non-threatening manner, but since Leo was kind of nervous of the big InHuman already, this wasn't doing any miracles for his peace of mind either.

"I didn't go anywhere, didn't touch anything, didn't break anything!" Leo said quickly, as he showed-off his empty hands to the bigger man. "I don't know what Raina told you, but I'm innocent!" He paused and face-palmed. "Can I go over this, too?"

"Relax," Hudima sighed. "Before Raina got into this, she was like this - like you, so I'm not angry with you to begin with, especially if you didn't do anything here - you didn't do anything here, right?"

"Yes!" Leo said desperately. "Innocent, completely innocent, that is me!" He paused. "And what you were saying about Raina here?"

"Long story," Hudima pinched his nose, "she's something of a sister to me - the annoying, troublesome, sometimes crazy, not quite sister that is still closer to me than my own biological family were, but this isn't the point. I came over to say that Coulson told her about the Monolith, and she, apparently, has knowledge and ideas about it, and she thinks that she knows where your friend has ended-up at - what is the relationship between the two of you, anyhow?"

"That's a worthwhile question," Leo nodded, "since you barely know me and don't really know Jemma, and I can, I should, I will answer it once we get Jemma back-"

"Ok, then come with me and Raina - Raina believes that she knows where Jemma had ended up, and she has already rigged the astrolabe for us to go and get her. Shall we do that?"

"Yes," Leo answered instinctively, and off he went with Hudima (and Raina), and down they went through the Li Shi's streets for a few moments, until Leo realized several things. "Firstly - are you serious here?" he asked Raina, for a change.

"Yes."

"Ok, then secondly - shouldn't there be some preparations before we go off to an unknown world or wherever?"

"Did this already - I can see the future; didn't Skye, or Daisy, or whatever her name is now tell you that?" Raina replied.

"Wait, you know that this would happen now and here?"

"Mmm," Raina shrugged, noncommittally. "Something like that, yes."

Leo opened his mouth, closed it, blinked (his eyes, not his mouth - he was just an ordinary human, with ordinary human anatomy, thank you very much) and looked at Hudima. "I think I'm beginning to understand what you told me about her being not quite crazy earlier," he told the other man. "And just how are we going to pull it off? You have a flying saucer or something?"

"Yes, but I don't think that it will make it past Earth's atmosphere - it isn't in a very good condition," Raina replied without batting an eye, "and that is one of the reasons why we want S.H.I.E.L.D. here: we got an entire vault of alien artifacts, memorabilia and etc, and we don't have much power in case Hydra - or one of its affiliates - will come knocking; we're not much of fighters and we could use S.H.I.E.L.D.'s assistance, while in return S.H.I.E.L.D. can use our artifacts to study and to use, such as the astrolabe."

"The what now?" Fitz blinked, as the thoughts of a semi-functional spaceship and other alien items floated in his head and almost pushed-out his worry about Jemma.

"The astrolabe," Raina replied, as she opened the door to some building. "See?"

And Leo did see - some sort of a steampunk-like contraption, which was opened, and primed, and ready to be used: in fact, as he stepped instead, the contraption sprung to life, whizzing and whirling, and...well, generating a portal to some other planet, or dimension, or whatever.

"Shall we go?" Hudima asked gently, and because Leo was being rather overwhelmed here, he just nodded in agreement, and - stepped through the portal.

Fierce winds and cold sand met him face first; he stumbled and would've fallen right back out through the portal onto Earth, if Hudima didn't grab him by the collar and together they marched into the storm.

...Several moments later the other man lit up a flame in his other hand (since he was that sort of an InHuman), looked around and froze, staring at nothingness, (at least as far as Fitz was concerned, but then again, he didn't have heat vision, not without any invention to give him exactly that on hand).

"Hello, Grant," spoke the ghost of Kara Palamas (in Spanish). "Long time no see."

Grant nodded: he could see her, even if Fitz couldn't - not that he was all that interested in ghosts, not with Jemma Simmons come barreling into him through the storm, and the two fell together in a heap.

"Hello, Kara," Grant nodded, while remaining in his alternate form "How have you been?"

"Very poorly. Grant, you've killed me!"

"Well, technically, no. Thanks to John, I've gotten very good at using cybernetics at keeping people alive; you've been brain dead all these months, yes, but if you decided to come back, your body is waiting for you, technically alive and fully, well, repaired," Grant shrugged.

Kara stared with her ghostly eyes. "Seriously? Hah, I guess that there was a reason why I was stuck here, wherever here is-"

"The realm of the dead," Grant nodded. "So, do you want to come back or move on?"

"What do you think?" Kara smiled for real for the first time since she died. "Shall we go and take the FitzSimmons with us?"

And so they went.

TBC