Shadows
AN - I will try to summarize wherever I can the scenes that I skip out for season 2 of agents of shield but honestly I want to cut it to just the scenes I liked/are important towards Daisy discovering she's Thalia so that I can start the crossover - haven't decided if I want her and her soulmates to get kidnapped BEFORE or AFTER the whole Temple/Alien City stuff (I was thinking it cld be maybe a mix? Since Whitehall is involved with that it wld make more sense then him popping up twice?) Tho at the same time I do like the idea of having him show up a few times before his glorious death - so definitely let me know ur thoughts on the matter! I'm planning to just turn the diviner/obelisks into tools that were created at one point by the Kree to discover who the Savior/Destroyer of the Universe (as I mention in my DC story is Thalia) is. That way I can keep Trip alive and avoid the whole inhuman/afterlife stuff since I planned to keep that out of the story and the temple is like an Ancient Greek temple or maybe it will still be a Kree Temple? Again let me know your thoughts :)
Daisy's POV
"How's the mood in there today?" asked May as I told her I had just got back from visiting the lab where Fitz was. I sighed forlornly. I missed having my friend. I was grateful he was still alive, but the oxygen deprivation he had suffered had caused severe brain damage. I found myself wishing for the hundredth time that I had the ability to heal other people and not just myself...not only would I be able to heal Fitz but it would help the whole team and the rest of the new Shield if he were able to get the cloaking shields to work on our transport again which he was struggling to do at the moment due to his new condition.
On top of that, I was still feeling major guilt over all the deaths that had occurred when Hydra had activated inside Shield. If I had just done more when I first learned Ward and Garret were Hydra none of this might have happened, Fitz would still be his normal self and we would have safely been able to take down the Hydra double agents...instead I had let myself get distracted by the events in New York and with starting my new music career which was what allowed Ward to somehow erase my memories temporarily- long enough for all this damage to occur. How could I have been so stupid...
"It's as good as can be expected," I told her with a frown.
"It's not your fault, Daisy," May comforted me, clearly able to tell what I was thinking. I had spent the last few weeks training with her every chance I got and I had to say I was glad that out of all the bad things going on at the moment, at the very least, my relationship with her was growing stronger. She patted me on the shoulder before leaving the room and I let out another sigh.
*****
"It's a little bit strange," Trip said as he joined me where I was laying down on a table with images scrolling under me and also on the wall as well. These were the symbols Garrett had been carving apparently during his stint to crazy town after taking the GH-325. "I mean they're exactly the same," Trip continued on. I rolled my eyes as I watched him chug his beer.
"You really think they were just twins? Come on," Trip argued, referring to Eric and Billy Koenig.
I moved to the edge of the table and sat there.
"I have heard all your theories, Trip," I said as I took the cranberry vodka he had brought for me. How sweet.
"And Koenig's always mentioning other brothers. Every day, another brother. If he brings up one more brother I don't know what I'm gonna do!" Trip exclaimed.
"Coulson said we can trust him," I said with a shrug, though a part of me was thinking about the doppelgänger version of myself that Lucifer and Loki had claimed to have met.
"There's something fishy going on there," Trip said as we both stared at the monitor for a few beats. "You'll go crazy staring at this crap. What is it again?"
"Not sure. Something Garrett was messing with," I told him as I jumped down off the table and walked to stand in front of the monitor. "Coulson put me on it a month ago, searching deep web contacts, even Rising Tide, looking for a match. I've got nothing!"
Trip laughs as someone enters the room behind me.
"There he is! Happy to see you, sir," Trip said.
"Agent Triplett, Daisy," Coulson said as I smiled at his use of my new name. I was starting to like the sound of it.
During the time Garret, Ian Quinn and Ward had been on the loose, I had found out they had set up a false trail of documents and been spreading rumors about me being a Hydra operative worse then the Winter Soldier (which was ridiculous because it's not like I had ever killed anyone!) I was hoping that none of the Avengers were buying into the lies but it had been zero contact since my memorable first day of being a Shield agent so I didn't have any way of knowing.
Unfortunately for me, Garret and Ward had done an excellent job linking "Angel" to a ton of unsolved Hydra murders over the last decade or so and while I maintained hope that at least Natasha would be smart enough to see through Hydra lies, I had to admit that the evidence was pretty damning.
I had decided to change my name and appearance again when Coulson took over as the new Director of Shield. Deciding that "Angel" who was just Skye with wings, needed to disappear and become someone new again. I decided to keep the brown hair color but give myself bangs this time. Assuming the Avengers didn't believe the rumors though, I then had to hope they didn't try to attack me yet again, assuming we ran into each other anytime soon. I even gave myself a last name this time: Johnson.
I remembered the watery look Coulson had given me when I told him I chose the name as a way of nodding to him and his middle name; which he had confided in me was John, & what with Thor liking to call him "Son of Coul" I thought it would be appropriate to name myself an honorary "Son of John". It may not make the most sense but hey it made sense in mine and Coulson's mind and that was enough for me.
"Can you give us a moment?" Coulson asked, glancing over at Trip.
"Watch this," he turned and exited the room without another word.
"What? No hugs? He was really looking forward to it. I've cross checked the writing from the lab with the new images you've given me. Mostly the same, but the code breakers haven't found anything –" I started to tell him.
"That's not why I'm here," Coulson interrupted as he handed me the papers in his hand.
"The bulletproof assassin you encountered on the sting? We know who he is," I frowned as I remembered what had happened earlier.
I lifted up the paper and saw the sheet on Creel. I looked at it, then at Coulson, back down to the sheet then back up to Coulson.
"You want me to go down there, don't you?" I said nervously.
"You're the only one who can," Coulson replied though I could tell he wasn't happy about the idea.
"Is this really what it takes for you and I to get a one on one these days? He just gave me a small smile. "Why now?" I asked. I really didn't want to do what he wanted.
"Because the technology in play warrants it."
I sighed as I looked away then back to Coulson.
"And do I have a say in this?" He just released a deep sigh looking at me with a frown. "Copy that," I said as I rolled my eyes, fake saluted and headed off to my room to try and calm myself down before I followed his orders.
I sat cross legged on my bed as I clutched a hand to my chest and did my best to control my breathing but it wasn't working very well. The thought of being alone in a room with that man was making it impossible to breath. After 5-10 minutes I realized nothing seemed to be helping and was about to go into a full blown panic attack when I heard my phone go off several times and reached out in surprise to see a new group chat had been formed. My eyes widened in surprise as I saw all the names and messages as I had assumed it would be unlikely to hear from any of them anytime soon, not to mention we still hadn't discussed the whole attacking me situation...but there in the palm of my hands, were messages from the people I had most wanted to talk to.
AmericanPie
WidowMaker
Arrowman
WingedDevil
Reindeer
ThePhilanthropist
WebShooter
Winter
Pointbreak
DrGreen
(If anyone can think up better nicknames feel free to add your input!)
Reindeer: Everything alright, Kitten? Your heart is racing
SpitFire: Dang it, how did you know?
WingedDevil: We always know, little dove. What’s up?
Spitfire: How come you all seem to always know how I’m feeling and Vice versa? What’s up with that? I thought it was a new power of mine at first but that wouldn’t explain how you always have perfect timing with your messages…
Widowmaker: what’s important right now, sweetie, is helping you calm down - tell us what’s going on!
I huffed out in irritation at the lack of an answer but I was still having trouble breathing so I decided to let it go for now.
SpitFire: I have been ordered to get intel from someone I would rather not talk to and I may be freaking out a little bit…I’m having trouble breathing mostly…
ThePhilanthropist: Ordered? What do you mean ordered? Who’s orders are you taking?!
Judging from Tony’s message I was guessing the others still hadn’t told him I had been working for Shield and under the circumstances I wasn’t going to open that can of worms right now.
AmericanPie: Hey, doll, just breath in and out as slowly as you can, alright? Can you do that for me?
SpitFire: I tried…it’s not working!
Winter: Did you try closing you eyes, darlin’ that usually helps me
WebShooter: oh! I know! You should drink a glass of water upside down!
DrGreen: That’s for hiccups, Peter 🙄. Try doing what Steve and Bucky suggested again, sweetheart. The key is to not focus on any fears you might be having. Your mind is racing with potential outcomes causing you to panic. May I ask what is it about this person that has you so worried?
SpitFire: He’s a lying, traitorous weasel who’s responsible for a lot of deaths…and he said he would only talk to me…and I’m scared of being alone in a room with him…
Pointbreak: Relax, my queen, you are a strong and powerful warrior! Whoever he is HE SHALL TREMBLE IN FEAR BEFORE YOU!
I giggled at the amount of caps Thor was using.
ArrowMan: Just try not to overthink it so much, sugar. But stay on high alert of course!
SpitFire: well that’s not confusing at all 😂 thanks though, I think I’m okay now. Im sure I’ll be fine - just promise me that you all will stay safe!
I sighed as I gathered myself and headed out of my room and met up with Billy.
“There's an internal confinement laser barrier down there, which is cool,” he told me as he showed me something on his tablet. “Now this button turns it soundproof. This button makes it opaque.”
We stopped in front of a door marked "Vault D". I took the tablet from him, looked down at it then turned to face the door. I quickly turned back around and looked at Koenig.
“Just tell me there isn't an "off" button I can accidentally,” I started to say.
“You'll be safe. I promise, Daisy,” Billy told me as he nodded at me reassuringly.
I turned and looked at the door for another long moment then squared my shoulders and entered the vault. The door closed behind me and I walked down some very dark steps. As I reached the bottom I could hear the hum of electricity as I glowered at the man standing in the center of the cell, holding his hand up to cover the light shining down on him.
He had a bushy beard now and didn’t appear to be in as good of shape as he used to be, but other than that he looked the same. He lowered his hand when he saw that it was me who had come down the stairs and was standing in front of him, glaring. He just stared at me for a moment and a small smile appeared.
“Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?” I resisted the urge to growl at him as I stomped over to the sitting chair that was in front of the yellow line down the middle of the room.
“I told Coulson weeks ago that I was willing to speak to you, to give you intelligence. Why now? Something bad happen?” Ward asked. I gritted my teeth and did my best to remember what Steve had suggested. It wasn’t like Hydra had ever trained me on how to interrogate people! That was Natasha’s shtick. They’d only been focused on making sure I could kill whoever they wanted like the Winter Soldier.
“Carl Creel. Garrett reported him dead. Turns out he's alive. Do you have any information on that?” I said, keeping any hint of emotion out of my voice.
“How have you been?” I ignored his question and stood up with the tablet in my hand, turning to leave. “The name sounds familiar.” I stopped with my back to him. “Do you have a picture?”
I worked on the tablet then turned around to face him again holding the tablet up for him to see. He moved closer toward me, not looking at the photo but looking at me. He leaned in close to the tablet and a yellow laser grid appeared in front of his face and he backed away quickly looking up. I frowned as I avoided his gaze by looking down only to notice his arms.
He twisted his arm so his forearm was more apparent, showing off a long scar there. Ward looked down at his arm then up at me.
“Coulson didn't tell you.” I looked back at him giving him my best ‘I don't care' look. “I went through a...rough stretch.” He held up both of his arms and his other arm bore the same type of scar. “First pair of pants they gave me had a – a button on the back.” He touched the wrist of his left hand running a finger on the scar. “They took that away. But, you fold a piece of paper just right, it gets sharp.” He indicated the scar on his right wrist. He takes a deep shuddering breath then continued. “When they took that away, I started running at the walls.”He moved his hair aside and showed me a scar on his forehead.
“You should've run faster,” I hissed out coldly.
“I'm through all that. When I came out of sedation I was clear headed, accepting...of who I am, what I've done, and why.”
3rd Person POV
Coulson, May and Koenig were watching on a very large monitor, what was happening in the vault.
“You sure about this? Giving Ward exactly what he wants? Of course he said he'd only talk to Daisy. He wants to fill her head with lies.”
“He hasn't lied yet,” Coulson pointed out.
Daisy’s POV
“Your arms tell a different story. I see May's training you. She's got you favoring your left side first cause you're right handed. Smart.”
“I'm gonna say this once. I'm not gonna believe a word that comes out of your mouth. But if a single word is about anything other than the question that I'm asking, I walk,” I told him angrily.
He held up his hands to me and took a step back.
“Okay. Creel was a boxer, nicknamed The Crusher. Turns out any opponent has a glass jaw when you have steel fists under your gloves. Garrett thought he'd be an asset. Now, once Creel touches a substance, he can absorb it and somehow consciously transform the molecules of his body into that substance. He wouldn't tell us how, but he enjoys the way it feels. Almost as much as he enjoys killing.”
“You two must have gotten along great,” I sniped at Ward. He took a deep breath, seeming to be hurt by my words. I didn’t believe it for a second. “Well, this was fun but pointless. We've already figured that stuff out, so if you don't know where to find him, then –“ I turned my back to him again.
“Wait.” Once again I stopped, keeping my back to him. “When HDYRA was communicating with Shield we'd use white noise in the gaps between Shield’s quantum key distribution channels to hide messages. Now, Shield might be gone – But not those frequencies. If HYDRA's giving commands to Creel – That'll be how.”
“We'll see,” I hissed as I started to walk away.
“It's true, and so will be every word I say to you for the rest of my life.” This made me stop. “I'm not asking for forgiveness.” I finally looked at him over my shoulder. “I just want to help you. And when that information proves true, I hope you'll come back. There's so much I want to tell you about –“
Whatever he's about to say is cut off as I hit a button on the tablet and his wall becomes solid and I stormed out of the room.
“And believe it or not there's a directive going out over those channels right now. Now, I can ping an echo request, see if there's other receivers out there. How many HYDRA agents can communicate this way,” I heard Billy saying as I walked into the room he, May, and Coulson had been observing me in.
“So he's telling the truth…” I said, not sure how to feel about that.
Coulson turned and looked at me.
“Looks like it. Thank you,” he told me with a grateful look.
“I guess that visit was the first of many, huh?” I asked with a heavy sigh.
“We kept Ward here for this reason, and it's paying off,” Coulson replied.
I exhaled loudly and shot Coulson a look.
“What is his deal?”
“I really don't know. But, it doesn't matter. As long as he's giving us an inside look at HYDRA's operations.”
There was a beeping noise behind him.
“Yeah, guys? About that,” Koenig said hesitantly.
We all looked to the big monitor & sobered up. There were a lot of red dots on the global map – many, many more than there were of blue Shield dots.
“You called it. Talbot hasn't crushed HDYRA. Just sent them slithering back to the shadows,” May said.
“I hate being right,” Coulson told her.
*****
“You taking point?” I asked May after we had gotten back from saving General Talbot from Creel (I shot him twice with special rounds that had helped bring him down, they weren’t icers but I couldn’t remember the name) and had managed to trick him into giving us the code we would need for our next mission.
“Coulson will be on comms,” May informed me as she walked backwards, continuing to address me. “Hey, let’s stick together on this one.”
“You got it!” I told her as I stopped and looked to my left and then smirked as I saw Trip walking towards me in a full military uniform.
“General,” I smirked with a fake salute.
“Come on, baby girl. You know I look good,” he said with a wink.
I chuckled as we set off on our mission.
*****
Summary: If anyone hasn’t already seen season 2 I definitely recommend watching it so that you don’t feel lost or confused but definitely let me know in any future chapters if anything doesn’t make sense since I am still trying to keep a good flow for people who haven’t watched the show and don’t necessarily feel up to it.