Agent of CHIMERA
“You… You’re a what...?” Skye muttered, dumbfounded. “All this time? How? How could you…”
A fire was burning in Dr. Simmons eyes. She launched into a tirade, screaming like Skye (or anyone else present for that matter) never knew she could “How could I? How could I have loyalty to the man who ravaged my homeland for its resources and dragged people like me and my parents away from our friends and family to serve in his personal army? How could I have any loyalty to a system that force feeds the woman I love POISON to enslave her?” she screamed, pulling another ration bar out, waving it in front of her before slamming it on the ground and stomping on it.
“Poison?” Skye asked
“YES!” Simmons screamed almost in tears “These STUPID things are laced with psychotropic drugs to control people. To make you obedient to your ‘Superiors’. When I started, I was just supposed to be an informant, passing along details of movements, warnings when SSR was going to move on a CHIMERA base. But then… I met you. I never felt so complete before. I hated watching what you became thanks to these pieces of trash!
“Skye, the people around you didn’t change, you changed. You came off the drugs. They messed with your perception. That’s why everyone seemed different. That’s why you’ve had headaches. That’s why you’ve been so emotional. You’re going through withdrawal. The real you has started to break through the mold the SSR placed you in.”
“But I’ve had these headaches since before I stopped eating the bars” Skye countered.
“Because you’ve been developing immunity to it. Those weren’t vitamin pills I was making you take. They were suppressants, a cure I created. I’m naturally immune to the drugs for some reason.”
“And to the cave she has returned.” Scott interjected, remembering what Simmons had said in the car “Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’? Seeing the real world and then knowing what the world you knew really was… Skye used to act no different than the rest of them, didn’t she. Stiff and robotic, obeying orders to a fault? Is that what you’re trying to say?”
Dr. Simmons nodded in response. “The government has been feeding them to their troops for years. Then they started making the drugged versions public about 15 years ago because dissent was at an all time high.”
She turned back to Skye.
“But now you’re free. Free to be the person you were meant to be. To be the woman I love. I love you Skye.”
“Jemma. Three days ago, I would have shot you where you stood…”
“Darling, you have every right to be beyond furious with me… I” Simmons interrupted
“NOT DONE… But, even after you admitted everything. I can’t bring myself to mad at you. I want to be, but I can’t. The part of me that is still a loyal solider is getting quieter by the minute. After I saw their world, for all its flaws, it still felt like a paradise. People were free and happy, and there were hot dogs and clam chowder and Pizza. I saw what we were doing. I see, I know, how wrong this all is… and how wrong I was for going along with it.”
“I even remember you” Skye said to May “You weren’t torturing me… You… You saved me from the fire... You smiled because I was ok…”
“Look, I don’t mean to interrupt this touching scene.” May said “But who are these people? And why do two of them look like the two of you?”
“I’m Daisy Johnson” Daisy offered “This is Leo Fitz, Scott Riley and our Jemma Simmons. We’re not from around here.”
“SHIELD?” May asked. She had the four agents standing in a corner of the building, still at gunpoint.
“Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division.” Daisy said. “God I’m getting tired of repeating that. Long story short, on our world, our agency replaced the SSR after the war. Steve Rodgers crashed that plane instead of Stark and Carter and they went on to turn the agency into an intelligence and crime fighting outfit.”
“When the shit hits the fan…” Fitz started
“…We’re the ones the world turns to, to solve it.” Jemma finished.
“Each of us is actually a specialist in a field SSR here restricts.” Scott said “Daisy and I with computers, Fitz is an engineer and our Jemma here is a biochemist.”
At that moment, a beeping tone started to play in Scott’s pocket.
“We’ve been set up!” May yelled, pulling out a pistol and pointing it at Scott. Her men trained their guns on him as well.
“Scott! NO!” Daisy screamed, slamming her hands into the ground and knocking the CHIMERA troops down with her Inhuman abilities.
“You don’t lay a hand…” She yelled at May, followed by turning to smile at Scott sand saying “On my boyfriend!”
Scott looked at her. She just kept smiling. He smiled back and started to laugh a little.
“If you had asked Miss May,” Scott said, using his own powers to disarm them “I would have told you that yes, this is a homing beacon, but for our plane to find us.”
“What the hell are you two?”
Scott looked at Daisy and then back to the woman on the ground, crouching down towards her.
“We call ourselves ‘Inhumans.” He said with a smile, finally embracing the term to describe himself.
The beeping grew quicker until it became a solid tone. A loud roar followed and the two led the others outside to see Zephyr Zero deactivate its camouflage and lower itself to the ground.
“Who’s flying that thing?” May asked. She, Simmons and most of the chimera troops were standing agape as the black jet touched down.
“technically, it flew itself here. Most planes can fly by themselves in some form.” Fitz said “Like we said, our world is more technologically advanced. I didn’t know where we’d be, so I ordered the autopilot to do I spiral search pattern until it locked on to the signal Scott’s phone was transmitting.”
“Let’s go check on ‘the payload.” Scott suggested.