A Moment of Silence
A/N: Since this is meant to be what kicked off the time loop (as in Team Coulson did not go to the future in this timeline), some events that occurred prior to the Earth being destroyed will be different compared to what we saw on the show. Anyway, hope you all enjoy this chapter.
The Earth…75% of the beautiful, peaceful Earth…gone. It’s like something out of a nightmare, but worse. 100 times worse. You can wake up from a nightmare, but this…this is reality. And there was not a damn thing Melinda May could do about it. All of those people, simply gone in the blink of an eye. Her legs feel wobbly from her weak knees and she stumbles backwards into her seat. She lifts her communicator up to her lips, but finds no words coming out of her mouth. It takes her maybe ninety seconds to find the will to speak.
“D-Davis,” her voice is barely above a whisper. She clears her throat and tries again. “Davis.” Still barely loud, but better than nothing.
“May?”
“I-I-I need you to shut all the windows in the Zephyr.”
“Why?”
“Just do it…I can’t explain. Not now. Please.”
“Yes ma’am…about Coulson…”
“Davis. No more talking.” May turns her communicator off before he can continue the conversation.
Fifteen seconds later the windows in the cargo bay shut and May buries her face in her hands. Her thoughts drifting back to Coulson...Coulson. Part of May wondered what he would say if he were here now. The other part of her wonders if it even matters. He’s gone and just like the Earth, there’s not a damn thing she can do to change it. No tears come, but she wishes they would. She needed to feel something. Anything. May’s stupor is broken by the sound of someone else’s cries.
She looks up and locks eyes with the frightened Robin; the latter’s eyes glistening with tears. The tears May couldn’t cry. A frightening realization hits May like a punch to the face from a centipede soldier. Robin may be the only child amongst the survivors. A cold shiver runs down May’s spine at the thought of so many innocent, wide eyed children, no older than Robin, being killed in an instant. There will be no one for Robin to relate to, to befriend. Just a bunch of terrified and confused adults that won’t be able to (and maybe not even bother to try to) understand her. It isn’t fair. None of this is fair. And worse, just like the destruction of Earth and the death of Coulson, May didn’t know what to do. She closes her eyes and wipes away at imaginary tears.
Phil. I’m so sorry, Phil, she thinks when a hand grasps her own. May opens her eyes and sees the hand belongs to Robin.
“Mommy,” Robin whimpers and May finally knows what to do.
She picks Robin up and holds her again; comfortingly this time. Slowly rocking Robin back and forth. Kissing her cheeks to try and ease her sadness and fears. To let her know that she’s not alone. That there is someone that will try to understand her.
As May continued to comfort Robin, Elena eyes remained fixed on the now shut cargo bay window. That image, that haunting image of the Earth, burned in her mind. Her right hand clutching the crucifix around her neck. A prayer on the tip of her tongue that would not come. It wasn’t a prayer for God to reverse the damage done to the Earth. She knew that isn’t how it worked; that God didn’t magically fix problems. Rather, he put people on the Earth to answer the prayers of those in need; to do his work. When her Inhuman powers were unlocked, Elena thought she was chosen to be one of those people especially when she was recruited by Shield. Joining them was the best thing that ever happened to her. It gave her family. Purpose. Love. But now here she stands on a plane with a small band of survivors and 75% of the Earth reduced to rubble. She didn’t have the right to ask for a miracle when she failed in the most colossal way possible.
Part of her wanted to consider the people they rescued before the Earth was destroyed to be a minor miracle as that guaranteed humanity would live on, but where could they possibly go in space? And even if what remained of the Earth was still inhabitable, how could they be expected to rebuild from something this devastating? The question shook her to her core and Elena found herself backing up against a wall and then sinking down to the floor. She stared at her robotic arms and felt nothing, but disgust. With some practice, she learned to ignore that these foreign contraptions weren’t really her arms, but now they will serve as a permanent reminder of what the team lost. Mack, Earth, Coulson…Daisy? Elena didn’t even think about where Daisy was until now. May and Fitz didn’t bring her up, but Elena knew that if Daisy made it, she would already be down here trying to get them back on their feet and figure out what to do next. At least that’s what Elena wanted to believe. But what she believed didn’t matter anymore, did it?
Fitz, meanwhile, remained standing.
Breathe in. Breathe out, he thought to himself. Breathe in. Breathe out.
It was all he could do to keep himself calm and composed. Knowing that if he let the crippling fear and panic he’s trying to suppress boil to the surface, the damage that could be done to his already damaged brain would escalate. Granted, bottling up his feelings could also aggravate his injury, but at the moment he’s no good to anyone panicking. By the same token, he’s not sure if he’s good to anyone calm either with there not being any home to go back to. He wonders if this is how Hunter felt a couple of years ago when he aimlessly walked around headquarters looking for some way to help out.
Oh God. Hunter! Bobbi!… Fitz thinks.
He knows it’s wrong to just think about them when billions of other people just died, but he can’t help it. He can feel himself starting to hyperventilate, takes a handful of his shirt in his hand, and the next thing he knows, he’s stumbling out of the cargo bay. He half walks, half staggers towards the infirmary hoping to find Simmons. Passing by dozens upon dozens of injured, dazed, and scared civilians. They pay him no mind, a fact he is grateful for as he is not in the frame of mind to answer any questions. He doesn’t even know if they are aware of what happened to the Earth. He reaches the infirmary, but he finds only Piper and a few other agents tending to the wounded. Panic starts to set in once more as Fitz wonders if Simmons wasn’t on the Zephyr when it took off. He runs out of the Infirmary and rushes for the next place he thinks Simmons might be; too worried to stop and ask someone if they’ve seen her.
He reaches the room she usually sleeps in on the Zephyr and walks in without knocking. Overwhelming relief surges through Fitz at the sight of Simmons sitting on her bed. Relief that slowly fades away when he notices her staring at the closed window of her bedroom. It doesn’t take him long to realize that she must’ve seen what happened to the Earth. He cautiously approaches Simmons and puts a hand on her shoulder. She lightly flinches before turning around with tears in her eyes. Tears that rolled down her cheeks and stained her clothes and something else clutched in her hands. It’s a picture of her, Fitz, and all their friends from when they attended the Shield Academy. Fitz doesn’t say anything and just pulls Simmons into a hug.
Tomorrow they would worry about the other lost souls and the survivors aboard the Zephyr, but for now the two of them take solace in the fact that despite the great tragedy, they still have one another. For once, their supposed curse didn’t tear them apart.
Robin lived in the past, the present, and the future. Time constantly in flux and ever changing. At one point, she witnessed herself grow old, die young, and even her own birth. She would’ve gone mad long ago if not for the feeling that there was another presence almost guiding her along; letting her understand what she saw and interpret as best as she could. But for the first time in forever, she finds herself in the present and only the present. She feels like herself again; Robin Hinton, Age 7, or maybe 8. She’s been through time so often, she stopped keeping track of her age. Now she finds herself with May. A woman she’s seen only in dreams, but whose arms she but felt safe in. She didn’t want this moment to end, but she knew it must. There was something May needed to know. Robin couldn’t remember now, but she would when her powers turned back on. But until then, she let herself be a kid again; just this once, for May. To ease the nightmares the agent felt ever since Bahrain.