Programming
One Month Ago
May eyed the building where Elena called Mack from before the blackout. So far there didn’t seem to be any Watchdogs around. As she was about to start making her way inside, five women in skintight black suits, a redhead, a blonde, a brunette, one with tan skin, and a black woman emerged from the shadows. May was able to make out the red hourglass on each of their belts as they began to attack. The redhead attacked first and May was able to block the attack. However that left her open to being hit by the brunette. She grabbed the brunette and threw her at the redhead. The black woman swept at May’s legs while the blonde aimed a kick to her chest, knocking her back into the tan skinned woman who grabbed her and threw her against the wall. The assassins fought as a unit, forcing May on the defensive. Despite May’s skill, she was no match for these women all at once. They brought her down to her knees and all of them except the blonde held her there as a man in silver tactical armor emerged from the shadows. He had a white cloak with a hood and his face was covered by a skull mask. The blonde went to stand by his side as May looked up at them from the ground.
“Impressive.” the man chuckled. “You put up a better fight than most. And these five are my best students. You’ve made a fine Widow.”
“Who are you?” May demanded.
“No one of importance.” the man replied. “Yelena.” The blonde, Yelena, nodded and knocked May out with a punch to the skull. She then placed a device on May’s head that began copying her memories onto a hard drive while the other Widows stripped May down to her undergarments and placed her clothes on an android copy of May. The man pushed a button on a tablet and a compartment opened up inside the android’s head. He placed he hard drive inside her head before powering her on and slinking back into the shadows with May in tow. LMD-May awoke having no memory of the fight.
---
Now
“So this is Radcliffe’s big secret.” Donnie said, examining the deactivated LMD of May.
“Yep.” Fitz muttered. “Apparently he’s been lying to all of us.”
“I can’t understand why he’d do this.” Donnie murmured.
“I can’t believe this is happening again.” Fitz sighed. “All the lies and betrayals. It’s constant. Ward, Bobbi and Mack, Kara and Daisy, and now Radcliffe.”
“I know man.” Donnie nodded. “I’m sorry.” Fitz leaned on the table for a moment and then pushed himself off.
“Can you take care of May for a minute?” Fitz said. “I need to go talk to Radcliffe. Not waiting for an answer, Fitz stormed down to Radcliffe’s cell.
“Fitz!” Radcliffe greeted. “Good you’re here. This has all been a terrible mistake. I swear to you I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Really?” Fitz scoffed. “You haven’t done anything wrong? You didn’t replace May with an android?”
“No of course not!” Radcliffe said. “Look I understand you don’t believe me. But I promise I had nothing to do with any of this! I want to help figure out what happened really I do. Fitz you are like a son to me. I would never do anything to put you or anyone in SHIELD in jeopardy.”
“How am I supposed to trust you?!” Fitz demanded.
“Because you know me!” Radcliffe insisted. “Fitz when Ward rescued me from Hive they wanted to lock me up but you believed in me. I need you to believe in me now. I wouldn't harm anyone. My only goal is to preserve life. My first priority, always.” Suddenly Fitz’s eyes went wide. He rushed out of the room and requested the guard’s handgun. Then he walked back in and shot Radcliffe in the head. It sparked and a blue glow shined through the bullet hole as the LMD fell back.
---
Daisy sat by Ward’s bed holding his hand. Simmons was running tests to see how his recovery was going.
“Good news.” Simmons said. “So far there don’t seem to be any complications. Ward seems to be doing as well as can be expected.” Daisy didn’t respond, staring intently at Ward’s unconscious face. Simmons placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. “He’s going to be okay.”
“I know.” Daisy sighed. “Or at least I’m trying to believe that.”
“I can’t imagine how hard this whole thing has been for you.” Simmons consoled. “Kebo back and riding around in Ward’s body. Now this?”
“Yeah this has been a pretty shitty week.” Daisy nodded. “And we still have to go to Mack’s farewell party tonight.”
“I can’t believe Mack is leaving.” Simmons murmured.
“I can.” Daisy replied. “And I’m happy for him. It’s just sad to see him go.”
---
“I'm not going to let this come between us.” LMD-Radcliffe assured Fitz as he put him back together. “What's the occasional bullet in the head among friends?”
“Done.” Fitz muttered. “Now talk. Where's Radcliffe?”
“I'm right in front of you.” LMD-Radcliffe answered. He paused, “You've paralyzed me from the neck down.”
“Hey.” Fitz said, snapping his fingers in LMD-Radcliffe’s face. “Where is he?”
“Sorry, Fitz.” LMD-Radcliffe replied. “You don't get to sh**t first and ask questions later.” They heard a shotgun load and turned to see Mack and Donnie coming into the room
“Not how this is gonna work Doc.” Donnie scowled. “We’ll shoot when we feel it’s necessary.
“And this time, nobody's gonna put you back together again.” Mack added.
“What I meant is, I don't precisely know where I... where Dr. Radcliffe currently is at this precise moment.” LMD-Radcliffe clarified. “I could be out for a walk or getting groceries.”
“That's enough.” Mack snarled, aiming his shotgun at LMD-Radcliffe’s head.
“Hey, hey.” Fitz interjected, stopping Mack from firing. “I need his CPU in one piece, not scattered all over the lab.”
“I'm not trying to be difficult.” LMD-Radcliffe stated. “You need to understand… I'm the victim. Things are not as they seem.”
---
“Care for a drink?” Coulson looked up to see Mace standing in the entrance to the common room. He was holding an expensive looking bottle of bourbon and two glasses.
“Yeah that sounds pretty good right about now.” Coulson nodded, gesturing for Mace to sit. Mace did and poured them each a glass.
“Any leads on who Radcliffe was working with?” Mace asked.
“Noting yet.” Coulson answered. “Fitz and Donnie are working on the LMD trying to learn more about what he’s been up to. Hopefully it’ll lead us to May.”
“I gotta say, this was a pretty lousy time to lose one of our best agents.” Mace grumbled.
“Tell me about it.” Coulson agreed. “I lost my right and left hand in the space of a few days.”
“How’s Ward doing?” Mace asked.
“As well as can be expected.” Coulson answered. “Even when he wakes up it’ll be a while before he’s ready to go back in the field.”
“He’ll be alright.” Mace assured.
“I know.” Coulson nodded.
---
“This is a complete and unacceptable invasion of my privacy.” LMD-Radcliffe grumbled as Donnie inserted several tubes into his machinery.
“Well, since you refuse to tell us anything, Fitz is going to reprogram you to sing like a canary.” Donnie shrugged.
“That seems odd.” LMD-Radcliffe mused. “Singing I can understand, perhaps, but singing like a bird? Why not Mick Jagger?” Donnie ignored the robot and finished up so Fitz could see the code.
“Whoa.” Fitz gasped, looking at all the code inside the LMD. “What is that? That's nothing like Aida's code. That's nothing like anything.” LMD-Radcliffe began to twitch around in his chair.
“What the hell is going on?” Mack asked.
“I don't know.” Fitz grumbled. “This code is advanced. It's like fifth-generation syntax I've never seen anything like it. Every time I keep trying to alter it, it kicks me right back to the-” he was cut off by the LMD suddenly speaking latin. Eventually Fitz was able to cancel what he’d done and it returned to normal.
“The only thing worse than a robot is a possessed one.” Mack grumbled. “And we’ve had enough of that for one lifetime.”
“I agree. That was no fun.” LMD-Radcliffe said. Furious, Fitz shot up out of the chair and over to the robot.
“Who developed the code?!” Fitz demanded. “Huh?! Who programmed you?! Was it Radcliffe? Aida?” LMD-Radcliffe’s only response was to whistle like a canary, further annoying Fitz. After a minute of whistling and a moment of silence LMD-Radcliffe spoke again.
“I'd like to help you, but honestly, I have some trust issues.” LMD-Radcliffe said.
“Trust?” Fitz scoffed. “You betrayed me.”
“Fitz, it's not Radcliffe.” Donnie said.
“Yeah, I know it's not!” Fitz exclaimed. “But he thinks like he does. Betrayed me, betrayed SHIELD, and he made me think he was my friend. Just to use me.”
“You were like a son to me.” LMD-Radcliffe insisted.
“Oh, shut up.” Fitz groaned. “Just... shut up.”
“What's this really about?” LMD-Radcliffe asked
“I said shut up.” Fitz snapped.
“Why don't you just turn him off?” Mack asked.
“He needs to be powered on to access his programming.” Fitz explained.”Not that it matters. I'm not getting anywhere.
“We all have programming.” LMD-Radcliffe shrugged. “It may be more obvious in my case, but what is a human if not a function of programming? You've been programmed. By betrayal, abandonment. Ward, who you thought was your friend, Daisy who left you all, your father-” Fitz slammed his hand on the chair with an angry look in his eye.
“Hey.” Mack intervened. “He's just tryin’ to get you worked up.”
“It's not him, it's me.” Fitz muttered. “I can't do it. It's way beyond me.”
“That's your father talking.” the LMD murmured. “Isn't that what he used to say to you? Not enough, not smart enough?”
“Why would you say that?” Fitz demanded.
“Because I knew him.” LMD-Radcliffe answered. “I wanted to tell you, but I was afraid it would open old wounds.”
“That's not possible.” Fitz insisted, rubbing the back of his head.
“Glasgow isn't that big, Fitz.” LMD-Radcliffe stated. “Your father and I were classmates. St. Mungo's at Eastwood.”
“Fitz, it's lying.” Donnie insisted.
“No. How would he… how would Radcliffe know those things?” Fitz stammered
“Probably accessed your files at some point.” Donnie shrugged. “He's playing mind games, trying to distract you, because it knows you'll crack the code.”
“No, I won't!” Fitz sighed. “He knows it, so do you.”
“We weren't friends, but we'd take the same train to the city for work.” LMD-Radcliffe said, ignoring this debate. “Sometimes we sat together. One time, he showed me a picture of his new son, Leopold. He was so proud. I swear I'm telling the truth, Fitz. I can prove it. I saw him a few months ago. He said I was to tell you-” The robot didn’t get to finish it’s sentence. Fitz yanked the plug out of the LMD’s back and it powered off as Fitz stormed out of the lab.
---
“Why does Grant play this game with you so much?” Kara asked as she placed a red peg on her submarine. She and Daisy were playing Battleship while Lincoln administered some medication.
“He says he likes board games and this one is kinda special for us.” Daisy shrugged. “I do enjoy a hearty game of Catan though. Once he gets better, the four of us should do like a double date thing. Play all sorts of board games. And hopefully give Grant a headache.”
“Sounds fun.” Kara grinned mischievously. “Whatcha think Sparky?”
“Sure sounds fun.” Lincoln replied.
“How long has this been going on?” Daisy asked curiously.
“Well I think there was an attraction between us both for a while but we started dating a week before that Spiderman thing.” Lincoln answered.
“Oh did you hear the guy who was running that arms dealing ring?” Kara asked.
“Really?” Daisy raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah apparently Vulture, aka Adrian Toomes, had a knock down drag out fight with Spiderman on top of a plane in New York and they landed on a beach where they found Toomes all webbed up.” Kara explained.
“Good.” Lincoln nodded. “I mean that kind of weaponry definitely shouldn’t be in the hands of criminals.”
“I’m just glad the kid didn’t hurt himself.” Daisy said.
“Yeah I mean we all chose this life and have had a lot of training to get us prepared for this kind of work.” Kara nodded. “Peter’s a fifteen year old in high school. Probably has other aspirations beyond fighting bad guys.”
“Kid’s got his whole life ahead of him.” Lincoln agreed. “It’d be awful if that got cut short by some bastard in a wingsuit.”
“If he hadn’t already been Spiderman for like a year before being recruited by Iron Man I would be seriously concerned about Stark’s hiring practices.” Daisy joked.
---
Simmons was making herself a cup of coffee when Mack came in with a dour look on his face.
“Hello.” Simmons greeted. “Everything alright?”
“Yeah it’s just…” Mack sighed. “Fitz is having a bit of a hard time with this whole situation. And that Rad-Bot was really getting under his skin.”
“Oh well I’m sure he'll be fine.” Simmons said. “He probably just needs some space at the moment.”
“Yeah but it mentioned something about his father.” Mack said. “Fitz never mentioned him before.”
“Ah.” Simmons nodded. “I see.”
“Do you know anything about him?” Mack asked.
“Not really.” Simmons admitted. “But from the little I do know he was not a good man. Always telling Fitz he was stupid and worthless. I think that's why Fitz became so clever.”
“I'd like to have a few words with that man.” Mack growled.
“You and me both.” Simmons agreed. “But he walked out on them when Fitz was ten. He hasn't seen or heard from him since.”
“So you're telling me with all the tools and tech that SHIELD has at its disposal, we can't find him?” Mack frowned.
“We could.” Simmons said. “But Fitz doesn't want to.” Mack nodded in understanding.
“I feel like I’m leaving at a bad time.” Mack muttered. “WIth everything that’s happening I feel like I should stick around.” Simmons placed a hand on Mack’s to comfort him.
“There will never be a great time.” Simmons said. “You’ve put everyone in SHIELD first for years. It’s time to do what’s best for you.”
---
Fitz sat on his bed staring at a picture of him and his mother from when he was a child. He couldn’t get what the LMD had said out of his head. What if it was true? What if Radcliffe really did know his father? Did it even matter if he did? He was pulled from his thoughts as Simmons came into the room. Silently she sat down next to him.
“I heard about what the LMD of Radcliffe said.” Simmons said softly. “How he knew your father.”
“I keep telling myself I don't care if Radcliffe knows my father.” Fitz sighed. “That I'm over it, but… maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm stuck in a loop. Radcliffe... Ward... my dad... It keeps happening.”
“I don't see it that way.” Simmons replied.
“Come on, Jemma.” Fitz groaned. “You know that it's true.”
“Yes, they betrayed you. Simmons nodded. “And after everything you've been through, no one would blame you if you put up your own firewall. But you didn't. Instead, you became the most... open, loyal, caring person I've ever met.”
“Maybe that's why it keeps happening.” Fitz grumbled. “Maybe I really have been programmed by betrayal like that robot said.”
“It's why I fell in love with you.” Simmons insisted. “I love the man who believed in Radcliffe and Donnie and welcomed them when they joined SHIELD. I love the man who believed in Ward when the rest of us wrote him off and gave him a second chance despite everything he’s done. I love the man who crossed the universe for me and helped me get through what had happened there. Who you really are, that's not programming. It's something way beyond that.” Suddenly Fitz turned his head like he’d had an epiphany.
“That's it.” Fitz realized. “Jemma…” he stood up and grabbed her face, planting a kiss on her lips. “...you're the best.”
---
“Think we’ll be gettin’ anything out of this thing?” Mack asked Donnie as he turned the LMD on before aiming his shotgun at it.
“Nah I think he’s not gonna crack.” Donnie replied, folding his arms. “His code’s too complicated. Radcliffe probably had Aida use the Darkhold to write it behind our backs.
“Well then I guess it’s just us now, Tin Man.” Mack snarled at the LMD. “You don't mess with my buddy and walk away from it.”
“If you shoot me now, it'll be murder.” LMD-Radcliffe protested. “Nice try. Wrong guy.” Mack replied. “You're just a bunch of ones and zeroes, not flesh and blood.”
“Flesh and blood?” LMD-Radcliffe frowned. “That's not life, Mack. That's just biology, and biology is just... software programming you to die.”
“Maybe.” Mack shrugged. “But I have something you will never have: a soul. That will continue long after I'm gone.”
“How can you be so sure I don't have one?” LMD-Radcliffe asked. “If a soul doesn't come from your flesh and blood or my ones and zeroes, then it has to come from somewhere else, somewhere unrelated to our physical bodies. If you can have one, so can I.”
“You are a sly one, aren't you?” Mack scowled.
“If you don't think I'm alive and don't have a soul, then why did you feel the need to switch me on before killing me?” LMD-Radcliffe asked.
“I like to hear robots scream.” Mack snarled.
“Mack!” Fitz shouted, rushing into the lab as Mack prepared to fire. “Stop! Wait.I know a way around his programming.” Mack lowered his gun. Fitz grabbed a small drill and held it to the back of LMD-Radcliffe’s head.
“If you don't stop, you're gonna cause irreparable damage.” LMD-Radcliffe protested as Fitz drilled. “You'll never learn what your father said.”
“Don't care. I'm out of that loop.” Fitz replied.
“You want to tell me what's going on?” Mack frowned.
“Something Jemma said.” Fitz answered. “We're more than our programming. There's something else…”
“All right, look. I give up.” LMD-Radcliffe said. “I'm ready to talk. What do you need to know?”
“He couldn't crack the code because it wasn't a code.” Donnie realized “It's just a bunch of gibberish.”
“Exactly.” Fitz nodded.
“So what's running him?” Mack frowned. “You ... you ... you telling me thing is a... alive?”
“Fitz, please. Stop.” the robot begged.
“No, of course not.” Fitz shook his head. “All I'm saying is…” he paused to remove the circle he’d cut from the back of the robot’s head “...it has a brain.” Donnie and Mack looked in to see a glowing orange brain sitting inside the robot’s head. Donnie and Fitz picked up tools and began poking around inside the brain.
“It's made of light, but it's functioning like a corporeal, biological brain.” Fitz stated as he moved the wand around inside. “Quantum energy storing data. It's as if synapses are interacting.”
“Is that possible?” Mack asked.
“Not at all.” Donnie answered. “Or at least I’d say it wasn’t if it wasn’t looking me in the face.”
“I wish I could take credit, but this was all Aida and the Darkhold.” LMD-Radcliffe said beaming, if a robot even could. “Everything in the original brains, memories, knowledge, desires, is contained in the quantum brains.”
“How many have you mapped?” Fitz asked.
“Just a few don’t worry.” LMD-Radcliffe assured. “When Simmons, Lincoln, and I brought May back I mapped her brain then.”
“That’s comforting.” Mack sighed. “At least we know he hasn’t had the chance to map anyone else’s. And what’s happened to the real May?”
“Oh don’t worry she’s fine.” LMD-Radcliffe said. “I’ve got her in the Framework.”
“Wait what do you mean she’s in the Framework?” Fitz frowned.
“I’ve perfected it.” LMD-Radcliffe grinned. “It’s a whole new world.”
---
Mack looked around his now cleared out room with his bag slung over his shoulder. It was surreal, leaving, and he still felt bad that he was leaving during a period of uncertainty but he knew there would never be a good time to leave. And he knew in his heart that this was what was best for him. He flicked off the light and made his way to the hangar where the team was waiting to say goodbye. First he shook Coulson and Mace’s hands
“Good luck Mr. Mackenzie.” Mace smiled. “It’s been an honor working with you.”
“We’ll miss you Mack.” Coulson said. “Stay safe out there. Next Mack said his goodbyes to Lincoln and Kara and then to Donnie and Simmons. Next was Daisy who threw her arms around him.
“Thank you Mack.” Daisy said tearily. “For everything. You’re the best big brother I never had but always wanted.”
“It’s what partners are for Tremors.” Mack smiled. Finally, Mack stood before Fitz. Mack held out his hand for Fitz to take and they hugged. “I’m gonna miss you Turbo.”
“Me too Mack.” Fitz said. “I can never thank you enough for how you helped me get through my injury. You made me feel like I wasn’t damaged.”
“I know you’ve done the same for me Turbo.” Mack replied. He let Fitz go and after giving the team, his friends, one last look, he climbed onto his bike and drove off.
---
“So… Mack’s gone…” Fitz sighed as he sat next to Ward’s bed. “Radcliffe’s betrayed us and is God knows where. And there’s still Taskmaster to contend with. We could really use you Ward.” Suddenly he heard a noise behind him. He looked up and saw Lucy Bauer standing behind him and Aida next to her and a needle in her hand. That was the last thing he remembered before he blacked out.