Chapter 1
Ever the consummate professional Bridget was using most of her willpower to keep from throwing up. Almost two decades on camera and this may be her most important interview ever.
Even getting here had been an uphill battle. The broadcast had been discussed and yelled about and protested against. The producers had threatened to pull the plug many times to the point where she’d held her breath for the last few days.
Her show had before covered inhumanism, which some called the inhuman problem. That had stung ever since she had burst from her own chrysalis. They had tried to have a more balanced look and be empathetic. It had caught the attention of SHIELD and they had said they would allow an interview with known superhuman Quake.
Her job was yes, to talk about Inhumans but also to dig as much out of her as possible. The only Superhero without a backstory.
One deep breath. She goes on stage first and then Quake does. Go
She walked onto that stage the way she always did, happy and confident but approachable. At forty some thought her a bit long in the tooth but she had fought tooth and nail to stay in the spotlight and she knew how to balance the line.
A minute later in walked Quake and she was not, what was expected.
She had seen some footage of her fighting before. They had even exchanged short emails but she had pictured something different. Up close she looked like her niece when they had dropped her off at college, not a battle hardened veteran and consummate badass. There was a slightly tired energy to her.
“Have you ever been interviewed before?” Bridget leaned in to the girl sitting across from her, the superhero shook her head.
“Don’t panic, don't worry. Just be truthful.” Her voice dropped to a low warbling tone.
Quale nodded. The cameraman cued her 321
“Hello Ladies and Gentlemen. There have been many questions about inhumans lately and I have been lucky to be able to talk about it with known inhuman Quake.”
“Actually. My name is Daisy, Daisy Johnson. Quake is a title like Captain America or Black Widow.” Bridget nodded and tried not to feel too silly for not thinking to ask the girl her name beforehand. It also seemed a little silly for someone like her to have the name Daisy.
"Daisy, such a lovely name, I'm Bridget Waters. How are you?" It came out almost sickly sweet but better overly sweet with the person that can grind your bones to dust.
"I'm doing well. Honestly any day I'm not getting shot at by Nazi's is a good day in my book." She laughed, it was an awkward attempt at levity but they didn't really have very funny topics to talk about.
"Well you can't argue with that. Not moving onto the actual interview, can you tell us a bit about how a pollutant caused inhumanism.” She expected a nod not a scrunched confused face.
“It wasn’t a pollutant.” Came out with a somewhat uhhhh tone. “The exposure was to a substance called Terrrigen mist that trigger the inactive gene. It was created in a solid form but it managed to get into the water, it diluted enough not to harm those without the gene but those exposed went through a transformation also called Terrigenesis.” Just like that she already had her massive reveal. The origins of inhumanism was entirely misunderstood.
“So you're saying that these people had a hidden gene. How did the gene originally get into the population?” Daisy gave her a quick smile and relaxed in her posture.
"You know how the Asgardians came to earth and were worshipped as gods? Well other species came and well. One in particular tried to see if they could create an enhanced warrior group. Sadly for them humans don’t really like doing what they’re told and revolted. This was thousands of years ago, they had children who inherited the gene and they did. Some grew up in the culture or hearing family tales about being blessed by blue angel and others forgot. Ka’talka, lost children, is what they were called.”
She had thought to ask more about why their powers presented but learning that the inhumans were a secret ethnic group with a defined culture seemed far more important.
"In everything I have heard about Inhumans they're always unrelated people with powers. I've never heard of them having any sort of community." Daisy nodded sagely.
"I mean a lot of them don't, but we all do come from a few common ancestors." They both smiled more genuinely. She knew Bridget was an Inhuman too.
“Can you tell us a bit more about inhuman culture.”
“I don’t know everything. My mother was taken when I was a baby and I grew up in an American orphanage so I didn’t grow up inhuman anymore than I grew up Chinese. Shield let me have some of her things and I’ve been trying to teach myself the language, Kalla or bastard kree, from books. Sadly a lot of knowledge has been lost very recently but me and a few other have been trying to track down artefacts.” She saw Ralph just out of Daisy’s eyesight with a white board, in his messy scrawl was the underlined word Orphanage.
“You mentioned you’re Chinese, why did you grow up in an American orphanage?’ This answer wasn’t as instantaneous, she shuffled in her chair again.
“Half Chinese but I was born in Hunan. Um. It’s complicated but the gist of it was, my mother was taken by HYDRA and then SHIELD found me and snuck me to America and put me in a catholic orphanage. It’s funny because I think my mom was Buddhist and my dad was Jewish.” She laughed. And big reveal two, Quake may have been a victim of human trafficking? How can she get there gradually.
“So when did you learn you were inhuman? I mean besides the obvious."
“Actually I was exposed to Terrigan during a mission. No one knew what was happening, they thought that any alien disease or infection needed to be eradicated. I was able to hide it for a while until they calmed down. It was, um, a learning curve.” Daisy laughed like it was an awkward part of her history. Taking a moment to scan the girl and her relaxed posture, it may be a slight too controlled.
“That must’ve been very hard. To hear that rhetoric from people you trusted.” The mood got a little more serious. But Bridget had caught the scent.
“Yeah, trying to stay calm when they talked about needing protection from me. Not telling me what would happen if my genes were altered. Calling it a horrific plague on earth that needed to be eradicated. Deciding to kill the other girl who turned with me because of it. Hearing that kind of stuff, especially when you’ve gone through this massive change is insane. That’s become the reality for a lot of Ka’talka.” Daisy face the camera.
"The change is a lot of times chaotic and hard but you don't become a monster. Just a person with new abilities that can be wonderful but also scary." It was heartfelt and kind, the perfect thing to help sway minds. She may have been a good actor or advocate if she hadn't decided to be a super agent. Super agent might be more exciting though.
Time to dig a bit more at the sore spot.
“How did you forgive them?” Daisy shrugged.
“Things were pretty crazy. I didn’t really think I was justified in holding a grudge. I went from a seventeen year old girl to someone who could level forests without meaning to. The people I did trust never intentionally try and hurt me.”
“That’s pretty mature.” She paused. Blinked “Wait you joined shield at seventeen?” Please let this be her mishearing.
“Sixteen actually.” Oh god. It was even worse. She didn't look like she could be in college she could be in college.
“How did you become a shield agent at sixteen?” Her tone wasn’t half as hysterical as she felt.
“Remember how I was raised in an orphanage. I ended up bouncing from crappy home to worse home so I got a license at fifteen and started to live out of a van. I started to become a hacker activist and ended up on shields radar. Men in black suits put a bag over my head and gave me two choices. I joined.” This froze her. This wasn’t juicy, or provoking this was horrific. The entire studio was dead silent.
“Bridget, are you okay?” Daisy inquired not picking up the tension.
“Sorry,” she cleared her throat. “Spit. Did shield know how old you were?”
“They must’ve. I never lied about it and I gave them an approximate birthdate. They never made a big deal about it which was fine. I was sworn in as an agent the day before shield fell. My SO turned out to be HYRDA.” Worse and worse.
“Can you tell us a bit about your SO?”
“He was a level seven agent and a complete terminator. He was stoic, his anger could be explosive but I was used to that. He didn’t clock as weird but then again I’d dated older guys like that before and they know how to distract from the bad stuff. I think he was about thirty then.”
“Dated?” A pit was forming in her stomach.
“We didn’t actually date. He had a bit of a thing for me. Thought I could fix him or he could corrupt me. We ended up alone together at a base and he kidnapped me, thankfully nothing too bad happened. I escaped and we eventually captured him but he refused to talk to anyone except me so I had to keep going down there. There were some jokes about my ex in the basement.”
“So did your teammates notice this dynamic?” If they did they were responsible in letting this girl get groomed by a Nazi. She'd expected maybe dead parents or something not all this.
“A little. My original team wasn’t big on structure or protocol and I was mature for my age, even as an agent, so it wouldn’t have been a big deal if he hadn’t turned out to be a total psycho.” There was more to press about her SO but it wouldn’t be right. Focus on the child soldier.
“Can you tell us about your time in shield? What's it like being an agent."
"Now a lot of that is intensely confidential but personally there have been a few changes. I can't sleep in, I do pull ups and I don't want to die. Sadly even though I'm kinda toned I have a lot of scars so I can't wear a bikini anymore." Daisy flexed and honestly, she had really great arms."
"Wow." The agent laughed at her and then gestured to her shirt.
"Wanna see my first gunshot wound?" Their show time was eight PM so it's probably okay, Bridget decided as she gave the go ahead.
She was wearing a stylish button up shirt that she pulled slightly out of her slacks and up showing a small white scar on her side.
“I kind of hit the ground running with becoming an agent. It went well for the most part, I had good instincts and a healthy amount of gumption. Then one of my early missions, maybe my tenth, things went sideways and I ended up in a situation with no backup and ended up getting shot. By the time my team found me I'd nearly bled out almost didn't make it to seventeen." Oh.
“Were you trained not to go in without backup.”
“I was trained to get the mission done. Sometimes things went bad. I mean when I got shot it was a miracle I managed to survive. But nowadays I know to keep punching even with broken bones.”
“Do you regularly have broken bones?” How often are agents supposed to get hurt?
“That's actually a side effect of my powers. Inhuman powers are pretty strong and they can have adverse effects on the body. My second SO always taught me to push back what I could to keep going but with my powers that meant that the vibrations could travel inward and cause microfractures or breaks especially in my arms. I have gauntlets that after some trial and error worked and if they don't then they word as splints."
“That seems quite dangerous.” It seems insane but the more they talked the more Daisy seemed to be okay with it all. Like these weren't serious problem.
“It can be. If an inhuman is experiencing these I want to press they should be very careful in how they treat them. My first gauntlets were made when we didn’t understand how inhuman bodies worked and they threw my entire system out of wack. That can happen especially if you've just went through Terragenesis."
Once more Daisy had circled back to inhumanism which was valiant but looked like a firefly to the big spotlight that was her life. She saw another hidden cue.
“Oh that reminds me. Are you okay for a slight change in topic?” Daisy made a go on gesture.
“We’ve talked about a lot of things. Its cool.”
“Some people are wondering about how SHIELD managed to rebuild itself after HYDRA. Can you tell us about those early days?" Everyone wanted to know, Daisy made an ah noise but went on.
“When HYRDA was revealed we were horrified. So many of us had no idea there was this secret other group within shield. We spent a lot of time trying to prove we weren’t the bad guys just so they’d let us keep fighting HYDRA. There were a few factions at the start. My friends and I were one faction but there was also another faction that was decidedly less Inhuman friendly.”
“What did the other faction do?” It sounded better that. This is what Inhuman friendly looks like?
“They tried to do a hostile takeover. I had been sent to a secluded cabin to recuperate and they sent a squad after me with assault rifles. They didn’t think that Inhumans were safe to even exist despite the fact that they had for centuries.” That was markedly less friendly.
“Shield tried to kill you!" Bridget stared at the girl as if to ask, why are you still here.
“A faction of SHIELD tried to kill me." She soothed. "It got dicey for a while and I originally went against them but then they stabilized and everyone got better about Inhumans for the most part. But actual SHIELD is like a family to me.” A family.. That hunted her down.
Redirect. Inhumanism, tension.
“You said for the most part. Would you say there were hurtles.”
“There were some. I have to deal with the fact that not everyone likes me but being a SHIELD agent and an Inhuman allowed me to petition for others like me.”
“Do you think that that was why you aren’t director now? Or was it more your age?” Daisy blinked, unsettled.
“I’m sorry?”
“Well I heard that a few months ago you were acting as director and you were the last directors choice to succeed him. You would have been nineteen at the time but clearly he thought you were capable.” Daisy smiled sadly.
“The last director. He was the person who recruited me. The first person to see something of value in me. He was a really good man and he taught me everything I know about leadership.”
“Did you want to be SHIELD director?"
"I would have liked to live up to his trust. I think I would have made some good changes for the agency." Ah sidestepping her way to yes.
"Then why did you have to step down?" She wanted to know what made this girl who talked jovially about gunshot wounds look sad and uncomfortable
“It was a tense situation. My group didn’t agree with the choices I made and I knew that were weren't going to see eye to eye. It made more sense to step down so SHIELD could keep going.” Perfectly political.
“What situation? what choices?” She didn’t answer.
“Is this classified?”
“No. It’s actually really personal.” This was the first time she had seen Daisy react like something was really troubling. A part of her didn’t want to press but her producers had been clear. Get everything you can on this backstory-less hero.
“It’s okay. Just take a deep breath and tell us what you can.” She took a deep breath and rubbed her hands.
“My team was a lot like a family in some ways. My two best friends especially. At the start we were inseparable and when things went bad, really bad, we knew could count on each other. At this point we had basically been thrown situation after situation and it had taken a toll on all of us. In less than two months I had been shot three times, mentally and physically tortured and enslaved and told that the man I saw as a father figure was going to die.” Bridget shifted forward but Daisy held out her hand as if to say, let me keep going.
“My friends, they had gotten married but the husband, he had been through a lot and he was struggling. He had some kind of mental break and he-” Her voice cracked.
“He told me a camera was out and I went to check and he.” She didn't say anything for a long moment.
“Keep going.”
“I can’t give you all of the details. But he basically attacked me in a way that could have killed me.”
A runner handed Bridget a tissue box she gave to Daisy who took a tissue but didn't wipe her eyes and instead twisted it in her hands.
With her makeup running she looked like a heartbroken kid who should be crying about boyfriends and school.
When she spoke again it was in a drained voice.
“I woke up halfway through. I was tied down and drugged. His wife and another family member of his came in but they couldn’t or at least didn't stop him.”
This was a pause to ask another question. She didn't know what to say. Daisy just still kept twisting and twisting the tissue in her hand.
“After, I didn’t sleep for days and I still can’t sleep on my side anymore or feel safe when someone’s behind me. I had trusted him with my life. I’d saved him and his wife so many times and he could still do that and not even feel sorry.”
“What happened next?” She hoped it was castration.
“I had him detained. He was a threat to me and possibly my inhuman teammate. I couldn’t let him out free with free access to our tech. I couldn’t know if he’d do worse. With everything else going on I couldn't let him out and just deal with it."
“Why would anyone want you let him out?” A man had nearly killed her and she was trying to justify detaining him.
“ Everyone else thought he was too valuable to sideline. He had been through a lot and they thought I was being a hardass and wanting to punish him. They waited until I was away and his wife and a friend broke him out. After I returned no one wanted to go through the effort of putting him back in, so I just didn't sleep." In that moment she realized that Daisy blamed herself, at least a little. That she felt like a reasonable safety measure was her being a hardass because everyone made her think it was.
“Nothing that happened was your fault. You deserved to be safe and he never should have done that to you.” That was the moment that this agent, the twenty year old actually began crying.
“No one's ever said that before.” She said, trying to wipe her tears.
“They should have.”
“It was complicated." It was a defense of her team but it didn't seem like the trust.
“What did you want them to do?"
“It’s stupid, but I wanted a hug. I wanted someone to just ask if I needed help. I didn’t have first aid training so I just had to put gauze on and prayed I didn’t get an infection. His wife was the team medic and she was occupied.” She looked so young and even if Bridget had never had kids of her own some motherly instinct was begging her to go hug that girl, she turned her hands into fists instead and continued on with her questions.
“His wife was your friend right:"
“Best friend. She called me a hardass and probably a bitch behind my back.. She helped break him out.”
“You must be angry at her." Plenty of people were probably angry on her behalf.
“She’s been through a lot. He died during a mission pretty quickly after.”
“Still that must have been horrible to live through."
“I've lived through a lot of crap I spent my childhood bouncing around and I ended up in some bad places. I had a reputation so no one believed me when I asked for help. I’ve already told you some. I’ve been shot, tortured, attacked and kidnapped, sold into slavery, betrayed a lot. Left and grieved even more. It’s life.” It comes out so blasé.
“How do you walk around so unaffected by that?”
“I’m not unaffected but I’m living. I have to accept or else I can’t keep going.”
“I just mean, it must be a lot. Have you been getting help?” Daisy snorted.
“Well last time I had a therapist he ended up turning on the agency and became a danger to specifically Inhumans so I haven’t really been able to trust someone like that." Oh great another traumatic thing she had to endure.
She couldn't say anything anymore so Daisy kept going, heartfelt as she could be.
“When I was twelve years old I promised myself I would make it through this. This," she gestured "changed a bit but I kept going. There was a point where I almost didn’t want to but I focused on the people who needed me. There were people all around the earth changing and suddenly I saw all these people trying to kill mine. I’d went to try and dismantle the networks the anti-inhumanists were creating. I couldn’t infiltrate most of them because they were mostly white supremacists but I needed to keep break them up however I could. It was an enormous mission but it gave me a reason to keep fighting for others for as long as I could. Then I reached my twentieth birthday and I realized that I had made it so much longer than I thought I could. Why not try for a few more years. A lot of people need help and I can do that for them.” A flash shined above their head.
“We don’t have much time left. Is there anything else you want to say.”
“I think I’m good thank you. And thank you for the interview." Daisy Johnson got up and left tracked by a sea of worried faces.
Bridget didn’t know how far she’d go before she started to get notices from SHIELD. Or worse before she realized that Bridget might have pressed her mind open.
Bridget's gift was to slightly compel people. Usually they get a little relaxed jokey or forthright but in this case it had all spilled out. Admittedly she couldn’t stop asking question but she felt like she had had to. Like Daisy had wanted her to.
"That was Daisy Johnson taking about Inhumanism and her time as a SHIELD agent. Have a good night everyone." She smiled like she just hadn't just watched a 20 year old talk about some of the worst thing she'd ever heard and left to go hurl her guts into a garbage can, maybe drink too.
Around the world shocked people stared at their TV screens and phones and then they began to type.