exposition
The four shield agents and May stood around Simmons, seated on the couch in the plane’s lounge area.
“I admit, I was hiding something from you four. May knows that Skye’s memories of her old life were repressed, but I kept why from her. Scott, Daisy, Fitz, Jemma… The truth is, everything my wife has told you about herself, about her life before joining SSR, is a lie. Those are false memories they gave her. ‘Skye’ doesn’t really exist. I’ve even been lying to you, about things like my name. Skye didn’t take my name when we got married, I took hers. My real name is Jemma Johnson.
At the point of saying her name, her voice changed. Much of her British accent faded, replaced by a much more American sounding one.
“I’ve lived in America most of my life. I can switch back and forth as needed, but even I admit this is a bit more natural for me. Now that the inevitable seems to have arrived, no more need to hide it. Daisy, my Daisy that is, and I first met when she was five years old and I was six. Back then she was also Daisy Johnson. Her parents had joined CHIMERA after China became browned land, sorry, that is the soil became too toxic to survive on. Dr. Johnson, being a US citizen, was able to return with his wife and child, but most people were left to die there as food ran out. Cal and Jiyang were as furious as everyone else at what Rodger’s actions had brought forth and signed up almost immediately when Cal discovered CHIMERA existed.
“Daisy and I quickly became the best of friends. We did everything together. Then, as we got older, we realized the, well, the truth about ourselves and what we meant to each other. She won’t tell me when she realized, but it clicked for me when we went skinny dipping one summer’s day. She popped out of water, her hair waving in the sunlight, and then she smiled at me. I knew I was in love.
“We came out to our parents together at Skye’s Sweet 16. They were all very supportive of our relationship. We got married the day after she turned 18. We went on to become infiltration agents. Lie our way onto or just break into SSR bases to steal intel. We were the best. And then, one day, we failed.
“We were supposed to infiltrate a base where there were rumors of SSR holding the remains of deceased CHIMERA agents. But it went south. We were stuck, caught in an old culvert. Daisy ran out of our hiding place to draw their attention. I tried to stop her, but she just told me to run.
‘Simmons’ started sobbing again.
“So, I ran, but I turned around just long enough to see them shoot her in the head, then drag her body away. I cried for days. I was a widow at 25. I was a wreck. I wanted to die. So, I volunteered for what I thought was a suicide mission. Infiltrate SSR headquarters and find out what they were doing with the dead CHIMERA agents. Took weeks of creating false paper trails, but I got in.
“When I got there, the best I was expecting to do was to find her body, steal it and take it with me to bury her. I even… I even considered shooting myself in the head so they’d bury us together...
“But I didn’t expect a miracle. I didn’t expect to find her on some sort of machine pumping a blue fluid into her, let alone awake, alive again…”
“A blue fluid… oh my God, they have GH-325!” Jemma said in a slight state of shock…
“They brought her back like they brought Coulson back!” Daisy added wide eyed. “Like they brought me back.”
“You died two?” ‘Simmons’ asked her
“I came close” Daisy replied.
“Now that her memories are coming back, is she gonna start… you know?” Scott asked “With the drawing thing?”
“I never had the compulsion.” Daisy told him “If she’s also got inhuman DNA, she should be fine.”
“SSR was using the bodies to create these… freak soilders. They had some sort of machine; it was used to control them.” ‘Simmons’ continued “It gave them two personalities. One was their normal everyday personality; the other was the agent personas, what made them living weapons. Every time they needed them for a mission, they would be called into that room, sedated and have their minds switched. When the mission was over, they went back into the room and had their memories erased and everything went back to the way it was.”
“Why would they go through the trouble…” Scott started
“Compartmentalization of information.” Daisy told him “The other personality doesn’t remember, they can’t be interrogated.”
‘Simmons’ nodded in agreement. “Skye’ was the everyday person. I was assigned to care for her as my first job. There were a few things they never overwrote such as personal tastes, their likes and dislikes, stuff that didn’t really matter to the project. Sexuality seems to be one of them because when she saw me for the first time as Skye, thankfully, she fell head over heels in love with me all over again.
“But, when she went into that machine, she became Agent Seven. She’s cold, calculating, vindictive and a loyal solider of Rodgers. It made me sick to my stomach to watch every time as the sweet office girl I married twice was turned off and the Nazi-like monstrosity within her was switched on”
“So it sounds like they have their own version of project TAHITI,” Scott noted “only instead of saving people, it sounds like they use it to make them into their own version of Winter Soldiers.”
“How did she end up with the name ‘Skye’ then?” Daisy asked “I picked that for myself.”
“Wait… You called yourself Skye?” Simmons asked her
“Better than my legal name the nuns in the orphanage gave me… Mary Sue Poots.” She said with disgust while her friends tried to hide their snickering “I didn’t know Daisy was my real name until about three years ago when I finally met my parents.”
“From what I understood, it was assigned to her and then implanted.” Simmons said
Even May was shocked at this “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I was scared of Skye.” She admitted “They told us that if we talked about the project within earshot of the agents outside the conditioning room, they were programmed to kill us. It overrode everything else.”
“Question…” Scott said, raising his hand “Do you think that programming is still active?”
“I don’t know, why?” Simmons responded.
“oh, just, you know, that…” Scott pointed to the door to the bedroom, where Skye was standing, looking dead eyed.
“Dr Jemma Simmons” Skye said flatly “You have violated SSR protocol one zero one. Project security must be maintained. Protocol requires you must be terminated.”