Capable of Anything
Episode 3: Capable of Anything
September 12, 2018- Present Day
Daisy stood before the mansion uncertain, fear gnawed at her stomach and she was beginning to doubt if this was a good idea after all. Stick to the mission and meet up at the rendezvous that was the plan, but Daisy had never been one for rules and she had to see him, she missed him, and she wanted him to tell her that everything would be alright even if he hadn’t met her yet.
Stopping in front of the large wall she released a burst of vibrations that blasted her onto the ledge. Standing, she could see the whole school from atop the wall her eyes scowering for her adoptive dad. Sitting down on the ledge she sighed and ran her hand through her hair messily. She shouldn’t be here this wasn’t part of the mission. Pulling her sleeve up she examined her bruised arm, unwrapping the bandages she winced trying to inspect the damage to see how bad it was and how many more quakes she could take before she shattered every bone in her body.
Not many more by the judge of things but she was no Jemma Simmons, “Jesus Christ Kid, what the hell did you do to your arms?” A gruff voice asked, startling her and nearly causing her to fall over. Looking up, she found herself meeting the very person that she had been looking for. “Hey kid, you alright up there. Why don’t you come down and I can have a friend of mine look at that.” He said his eyes never leaving her arm.
“I’m not a kid, I’m 22.” She finally managed to blurt out in a rush. Snorting, he rolled his eyes. “I don’t care how old you are. Get your ass down here so I can help you.” He said his voice taking on a very dad tone. Sliding off the wall she hit the ground and stood there, awkwardly waiting for him to lead the way. “My names Logan by the way.” Tears stung her eyes and she hastily rubbed them to keep from him noticing, “Daisy” she croaked following him into the mansion.
They didn’t get far when an older man came to the entrance in a wheelchair, a soft kind smile on his face. “Logan always bringing strays, I see.” Smiling, his eyes met with hers and it was like he could see into her soul. “Daisy, why don’t you follow me, and we can have beast patch you up.” Blinking, she paused. “How did you…” The words trailed away as she tried to piece together how this man knew her name. “I’m a telepath Daisy, but don’t worry I don’t read peoples thoughts unless they give me permission. Some people have extra loud thoughts though that are hard to ignore. I could sense you a mile away.” Fear overtook her, and she worried for a minute that this man would read her thoughts and find out she was from the future, but the man only smiled and wheeled himself down the hall with Logan and herself trailing behind.
Beast was exactly what his name entailed, a giant blur furred monster. Turning both her hers over in his giant paws, he frowned. “Oh, my word” he muttered softly under his breath. “What did you do to your arms?” yes, she knew they were bad. Jemma had told her as much earlier yesterday before they went through the time portal, but she didn’t need a lecture now, not when the world was at stake. “Nothing, can you just fix them?” The man didn’t look like he wanted to drop the subject, his mouth opening to speak. “You need a hospital. I can patch you up as best I can but without an x-ray machine we have no idea how bad the damage is or if you’ll need surgery.”
“No hospitals, just patch me up Doc and I’ll be on my way.” Beast looked like he was seconds from protesting when a look from the professor stopped him dead in his tracks. Setting her arms down he grabbed his supplies and got to work.
{Daisy}, a voice whispered. For a second, she thought it had been spoken aloud before realizing that the voice had come from her head. Meeting the professor’s eyes, she knew that the voice had come from him. {Its so good to see you again, its been along time. I have been waiting for you.} “Again?” she whispered softly so that only the professor would hear. Logan had opted to wait in the hall and she didn’t know if the beast had good hearing, but he seemed focused on his work to be bothered with anything she said that wasn’t directed at him. “I’ve never met you before.” Keeping her voice quiet and low so, that the professor would be the only one to hear what she said.
{No, you haven’t, but I’ve met you and I know why you’re here. You have a long journey ahead of you Daisy. Things are going to get much worse before they get better, but I know that you’ll save the world.} His words brought a shock to her system and she turned slightly to face him. “You know I’m from the years 2096” she whispered so low that no possible man could hear, but the professor was a telepath. He didn’t need to hear her to know what she said.
{Yes Daisy, and I know that you came here today because of your dad Logan. The man who raised you when your parents couldn’t. You wanted to see him even if he didn’t know you yet.} “one last time” she whispered, “I wanted to see him one last time. If we fix the future, then none of this will matter anyways.” {Have faith Daisy, everything will make sense someday.}
Turning away from the cryptic older man with his messages of wisdom she noticed that beast had just finished with the patchwork on her arms, “There, all done” he said holding up both her arms which were in makeshift casts. Nodding, she muttered a soft “Thanks” and got to her feet. Handing her a bottle of pain relievers he blurted out a few instructions and told her to take it easy, but Daisy knew that from now on things weren’t going to get easy. Heading for the door she had just reached the handle when she heard the professor in her head again, {Daisy, I would suggest taking it easy on your powers for awhile before you reach your breaking point.} Ignoring him she yanked the door open and walked out to meet Logan.
She didn’t say anything on the way out. Logan followed her side by side to the front entrance of the school. Daisy couldn’t look at him though if she did she might burst into tears. Looking at him was too painful. Stopping when they reached the front Logan opened his mouth to say something when Daisy abruptly threw her arms around his waste and hugged him tightly. Squeezing her eyes shut she felt the first set of tears fall down her cheeks no longer able to suppress them, “I am so glad that I met you, and even when everything is different I really hope that you’ll remember me.” She thought about saying I love you but thought better of it. Logan wouldn’t understand what she meant. He didn’t know her in this time and the words would be wasted on him. He wasn’t her dad, not yet and if they saved the world he never would be.
Hugging this Logan who didn’t know her and didn’t love her only made her want to cry even harder. Pushing him away abruptly she went towards the gate and slipped through. She didn’t glance back at Logan, she didn’t even speak no, there relationship had always been through action more than words and this was the way it should end as well. One final goodbye.
The X-mansion got further in the distance. Her mission to save the world finally back on track. The world now was nothing like it was 78 years in the future and she was going to do everything in her power to save this world, even give her own life. Stepping across the street Daisy glanced at the road for oncoming traffic. The world worked differently now than it does in her time and frankly it was weird to think that she was in the past and in a few short months everything, all of this would be gone.
The mission was all that mattered at this point, nothing else. She had already wasted a day just to see her dad for the last time and the man didn’t even know her yet and now he never would, but that was the price that she was going to….
A sharp pain wrapped around her wrist, barely glancing down to see a chain on fire held tightly around her wrist she found herself yanked off her feet hard. Her head slamming into the concrete below. Everything went dark for a second before she abruptly came to. Laying with a terrible pain coursing down her back. “Your really making things difficult on me Chica.” A familiar voice said. Twisting around on the ground she came face to face with the assassin from before. Gripping the chain, he dragged her towards him. “No!” she screamed grabbing at the chain, trying to break it off. People around had begun noticing the display and she could hear them running to get away.
Daisy didn’t want to use her powers, she really didn’t. She knew that she was in no shape but with a man like this she wouldn’t be able to take him on with just her fists. Quaking the chain apart she stood up and watched as he threw the chain over his shoulder walking towards her calmly. “Alright Chica enough games. You can’t fight me, not in your condition. So, why are you so determined to?” There was only one reason she could think of, “For the people I love” Releasing a burst of vibrations that slammed into his chest he hit a car hard behind him. “Alright, no more talking.”
The next thing that happened caused Daisy’s blood to run cold with fear. Before her eyes, she saw the assassin’s face burn away to reveal a flaming skull, “Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! There is a flaming skull! What the actual fuck!? Oh god, am I fighting the devil? I mean I guess it would make sense…... a devil’s paradise would be the apocalypse, but still Shit! Shit! Shit! I am not prepared to face off against a flaming skull dude. This is not fair!” The punch came fast while she was blabbering knocking her into a wall. “Yep…” she groaned, “That’s gonna leave a bruise, Okay Daisy. Stop talking now and concentrate.” Before he could throw another punch, she blasted a set of vibrations, knocking him back a few steps.
Bringing her arm back she swung, getting a direct hit in the stomach before swinging again. Catching her wrist, he twisted it upwards and slammed his skull against hers, his fist slamming into her cheek. Bringing her leg up she kicked at his chest causing him to loosen his hold on her, bringing her elbow into his face she smashed down hard causing him to let go.
Yanking his chain out which alighted on fire he swung it towards her. Snaking to the right she felt the chain whip into her side causing her to cry out from the pain of the chain and the flames. Gritting her teeth, she pushed the pain out of her mind and charged. Balling her hand into a fist she released powerful vibrations into the ground that propelled her into the air as she smashed her fist into the assassin’s face. Landing on her feet the blow to the stomach came unexpectedly and sudden. Hitting the concrete wall behind her she felt the assassin grab her throat, lifting her up the wall as she struggled to breathe. Staring into a pair of empty eyes she knew whatever this assassin was he would show no mercy.
Summoning up her power she smashed her teeth together the ground trembling all around them and with a shout released a single vibration, knocking the assassin off his feet sailing across the street and slamming right into a bank. It didn’t take long for the assassin to pull himself from the wreckage walking towards her he pulled off the chain swinging it before snapping it right towards her.
No time to flinch or dodge Daisy waited for the impact when suddenly the assassin was knocked right off his feet the chain wrapped tightly around him. Elena standing across the street a huge grin on her face. “Elena!” she cried rushing towards her friend. She didn’t know how her friend was here nor did she care. Pulling Elena tightly into a hug, she smiled. Relieved that she finally wasn’t alone.
“I don’t understand, how did you find me?” she asked once she pulled away. “Actually, you’re the one that found me. After, the time portal spit me out it turns out I ended up right in a bank vault. I was trapped in there all night waiting for someone to open the damn thing, so I could get out, but imagine my surprise when someone literally came crashing through the wall. Still causing trouble, I see.” She grinned glancing over at the tied-up assassin.
“He followed us from the future, him and some other guy. The other guy got away with Jemma and this guy ended up with me. We need to find her; you and I both know Jemma isn’t equipped to handle a fight of any sorts.” Worried now for her scientist friend she just hoped that Jemma was still alive. “We’ll find…” An object slammed into Elena from behind, knocking her out cold. The assassin stood behind her no longer looking like death himself, but still seriously pissed off. “That’s alittle dirty don’t you think Chica. Using your friends against me and here I thought we were going to play fare.”
“So, is the whole skull thing like a new development or have you always been that ugly.” She shot back. “Cute” he said a half smile falling onto his lips, “But I didn’t come here for cheap insults or games.” Holding up the flaming pipe he swung it causing her to jump back and release a powerful burst of vibrations knocking the pipe out of his hand. Cracking her fist into his face she drew blond across his cheek, but it only took a second for him to retaliate, the wind blew out of her as she doubled over from the hit to her stomach followed by a fist connecting with her jaw. Bringing the chain out he wrapped it around her throat, hauling her up and cutting the air off from her lungs.
Vehicles came from the distance black and with the shield logo swarming the fighting pair that had caused a lot of destruction since arriving in the present day. Men jumped out all guns pointed at them. Anger boiled into her and she released a pair of vibrations knocking the assassin back into one of the shield vans. “Freeze, don’t move!” One of the men yelled. Holding her hands up she glanced at Elena who was just getting up as well. “Well,” A voice said as a figure walked around from one of the vehicles coming into view. “You two have certainly caused a lot of damage in the span of two days, all for what? A pissing contest.” The man was tall, an eyepatch covering one of his eyes. “Well shit, guess the funs over.” Daisy muttered softly under her breath.
Light shined down from above her, leaning back in her chair she had been sitting for over an hour without anyone coming in and she was starting to wonder if maybe they had forgotten about her. Running her fingers through her hair nervously she found herself startled when the door opened, and eyepatch guy walked in, “So, is this the part where you give me the evil eye and say If I don’t start talking I’m going to be in a world of pain?” She asked. Raising an eyebrow to show she wasn’t intimidated.
“You and your friend made quite the mess.” He said ignoring her and taking a seat across from her. “Okay first, that devil incarnate guy is not my friend. He is the furthest thing from my friend.” She blurted. “Clearly, since the time you two appeared on my radar. You have done more property damage in less than a day than some of my most destructive avengers.” Grinning at him, he glared. “That’s not a compliment” Okay, this guy clearly had issues.
“I’ve already done tests on you so, don’t try denying that you’re an inhuman. Even though the footage on the street camera’s is kind of a giveaway.” He said. “Hey! I could have been a mutant for all you knew.” She protested, “But you’re not, now your friend on the other hand…” “Not my friend” she cut him off with a glare, ignoring her completely, he continued. “Is not an inhuman. Frankly we don’t know what he is.” Shocker, these guys didn’t seem like they were competent enough to change a light bulb
“So, he is the devil incarnate.” She whispered with a gasp. “You don’t take anything seriously. Do you.” His eyes boring into hers as if he was trying to read her. “Sorry, no. Life’s too boring if your always serious all the time. I mean look at you your as stuffy as it gets.” She said waving her hand around casually before placing her feet on the desk. “Fine, you don’t want to tell me why you destroyed half a city over a pissing contest then why don’t you tell me your name.” Folding her arms, she looked away not wanting to meet his eyes. She was a terrible liar and she thought if this man stared at her any longer she may just crack.
“We’re done here. I don’t have time for games.” He said standing up and making to head towards the door and despite her better judgement, she spoke. “Daisy, my names Daisy Johnson but don’t bother trying to look me up because you won’t find anything.” She said, it was now or never. Daisy was terrible at trusting people, but she also didn’t think she could do this whole saving the world thing alone even with other four that had traveled back in time with her. They all needed help and right now with all of them scattered there were few people she could rely on.
“And whys that” he said turning fully to face her. “Because I haven’t been born yet and I won’t be for a very long time.” There was silence after her revelation and she turned to find him eyeing her as his brain began processing what she was trying to tell him.
“Are you trying to tell me that you’re from the future?” He said. “Wow, you’re finally getting it, huh?” Slamming his hands on the table he narrowed his eyes at her. “Is that the best lie you’ve got? I’ve got to hand it to you, never heard that one before.” Pounding her fist into the table despite the pain she ran her hand messily through her hair, “I knew you wouldn’t believe me, but whether you do or not it’s the truth. I came here to save the world. Where I come from there is no shield! We like to call ourselves that but what’s the point when there is nothing left to save. I can’t even remember a time when I wasn’t at war! Hydra destroyed the world, humanity is gone and there is nothing left, we lost! Our only hope relied in the past so, Cable built the machine and sent a team. Bobbi Morse, Melinda May, Jemma Simmons, Elena Rodriguez and myself. We didn’t account for Hydra sending two of their own to the past a marauder and an assassin. Honestly, I don’t care anymore what you do to me, but I won’t let you screw up my mission when the lives of the whole world rest on me succeeding.”
Placing her hands on her head she took a shaky breath waiting for the man in front of her to speak before he could though a door opened, and a woman walked in, “Director Fury, there is something you need to know.” She said looking at him expectantly. Tearing his eyes off Daisy he stood up and walked out closing the door behind him.
They were only gone for a few minutes when the door opened up and Fury walked back in his gaze hard to read, “A few hours ago Maria hill got a call about a woman claiming to be a shield agent, Bobbi Morse. I’m usually pretty good at detecting a lie and something tells me you’re not lying. Your friend is being picked up as we speak. You said there were five of you with your friend coming in from London I now count three. That means two more to go, any idea where the other two are?” He questioned moving to sit down again.
Daisy didn’t say anything. She wasn’t worried about May she knew the elder woman could take care of herself, but Jemma on the other hand was someone that she desperately wanted to know was okay, “Look, the more we get into this the more I’m believing your little time traveler story but it doesn’t mean I want any of you wandering the streets when you don’t even know what a god damn dollar bill is, it’s like you’re from the dark ages.”
“The avengers tower, we were supposed to meet at the avenger’s tower. Its one of the few places left standing after what happened.” Resting her head on the table. She sighed. Fury nodded his head once and walked out leaving her all alone in the room once more.
She was in the room for along time after that. She didn’t know what was happening or why Fury hadn’t come back yet or even what he was doing. Pulling up the sleeves of her shirt she saw that someone had bandaged her arms while she had been unconscious, now tightly bound she flexed her fingertips and wondered if Fury had even witnessed her powers. He didn’t seem like he was taking precaution against them, but he must have wondered where all the damage to her body had come from.
Fury hadn’t told her where they were keeping Elena or even where the assassin was. She just hoped they were keeping him somewhere that they could contain him. The door opened abruptly, and she jumped up upon seeing a familiar face, “Elena!” Rushing to hug her friend tightly she was surprised when she saw Bobbi and May standing behind the Latina girl. “Bobbi! May!” She yelled rushing around Elena and throwing her arms around the other two for a tight hug. “Quit it! You know I don’t like hugs.” May grumbled wiggling out of Daisy’s grip. “So, I guess shield picked you guys up.” She said as the other two nodded in confirmation. “Still no sign of Jemma” She said her voice going quiet. Nobody said anything all of them worried about their scientist friend.
“She wasn’t found at the meeting point, but I have all of shield searching to find her.” Fury said walking into the room, “Right before Jemma and I went through the portal two people, a marauder and an assassin showed up to stop us the marauder fell through with Jemma and I ended up with the assassin. Jemma’s not like me though she is not a fighter, the only comfort I have is that I know she is alive. If the marauder is smart and something tells me he is he’ll use Jemma to find all of us, but we need to find them first and the only person I could think of that might know where the marauder is or where he is headed is…. We need to talk to the assassin.” Turning to face Fury she waited for him to speak after all he was the only one who knew where they were keeping the deadly assassin from the future.
“You” Fury said lifting a finger to point it at daisy, “Me what?” She asked wondering why she was being singled out. “If your going to talk to him only you can go. No one at shield has been able to get a word out of him this whole time, but he spoke to you before, didn’t he?” All eyes were on her and she nodded slowly, “Yea, he spoke to me and because of that you think he’ll only talk to me.” She said. “Its worth a shot” He said crossing his arms. “But why me?” she wasn’t special, and she didn’t think that warranted her special attention so, why did he think this assassin viewed her as something special.
“Guess you’ll just have to ask him when you see him.” He didn’t say anything after that except walk out and Daisy took that as her cue to follow him. Leading her down into the underground cellar he nodded once at her before heading up, leaving her all alone with the assassin. She didn’t say anything for a minute, just observing him. His head bent, and his arms clasped softly in front of him, “Aww don’t you look cozy in your new home where you’ll hopefully rot forever in.” She grinned to break the ice. The smile he sent when he looked up at her sent chills through her body, it was almost like he wanted to be here, like he was just visiting and wasn’t planning on staying very long. “Was wondering when they were going to send you down. They must have realized that they weren’t worth my time.” He said leaning back a smirk sliding onto his face.
“Why me?” The question she still needed an answer to, “Don’t get me wrong Chica, your nothing special and yet you’re the only important player in the game. You’re the leader of your band of misfit time travelers which makes you important everyone from the past is just irrelevant and not worth my time.”
“You never told me your name” she said pulling up the chair off to the side and sitting down, “You never asked.” A valid point although Daisy was not going to say so, “I am now” Smiling he shook his head before raising it to meet her eyes. “Robbie Reyes, though some know me as the ghost rider.” He said, “Congratulations Satan’s spawn, but I have some questions for you and for your sake I hope you answer them.”
“Ask away Chica, I’m an open book.” Something told Daisy that Robbie was the exact opposite, but she didn’t have time to do the back and forth thing she needed answers. “Why are you so hell bent on destroying the world? You do realize billions of people will die. Why do you want to help hydra so much?” the one question that had bothering her since she had met the man. “For one simple reason its vengeance Chica. Why does anybody do anything? For the sake of revenge, we are all capable of anything. Even you are capable of this.” Shaking her head, she stood up and slammed her hand against the screen, “No… No, I would never do this. I don’t care how pissed off I am or how much hate I have I would never destroy the world!”
“Even the purest soul is capable of becoming a monster. All it takes is the right trigger and I should know. You are more capable of this then anybody I have ever met and that’s a lot of people. You’ve got a darkness in you and it only grows. There is a part of you that wants this to end, the pain and the suffering. You want to die and that makes you more capable than anybody, you’ve got nothing left to lose.” Pounding her fist into the clear wall, rage took over. “Shut up! You don’t know me, so shut up! This isn’t about vengeance! Or making somebody pay! Who the hell could you possibly hate that you would want to destroy the world over!”
“Humanity” The word stopped her in her tracks and she stared at him wide eyed, “What?” Had she heard him right or did she take his word out of context. “I already got my vengeance Chica and you’re the one trying to undo it. I want humanity to suffer for all the pain I’ve had to endure. Look around you Daisy, this world is broken and flawed and at the epicenter of it all humanity is the worst. It doesn’t matter how many times you save the world somebody is just going to come along and destroy it. My family was destroyed because of humanity! None of us deserve to live and no matter how much we try to change we will always fall back into the same patterns, war, famine, greed. Even if you save the world somebody else will just come along and destroy it again.” Turning her back on him Daisy squeezed her eyes shut.
“You don’t get to decide who live and who dies, you don’t get to be the judge, jury and executioner of humanity” she said turning back to face him, “I didn’t decide. I’m only ensuring it.” She couldn’t hear anymore, she didn’t want to hear anymore rushing back up the stair she had just reached the door handle when he spoke again, “Your friend is going to die, you think I’m bad? Fitz is ten times worse, you see unlike me he has never had anybody and that makes him all the more dangerous.” The door slammed behind her as she ran out.
Tired and exhausted, Jemma collapsed on the ground wanting to catch her breath for a minute, “Get up!” The man said coldly to her barely even making eye contact, “No” she breathed exhausted, “Not until you tell me your name. If I’m going to be stuck with you for a while the least, you could do is tell me your name.” she said, growling under his breath he glared at the petite woman. “You are so stubborn. Has anybody ever told you that?” Laughing, she looked up at him and smiled. “All the time.” There wasn’t any fear behind her eyes, Jemma wasn’t afraid of the man before her and she didn’t know why. “Fitz” his voice spoke abruptly, startling the disheveled girl. “Fitz, its nice to meet you. My name is Jemma.” Standing up she smiled at him. “You’re not afraid of me?” he questioned looking at the odd girl while trying to assess her for any lie.
“Why would I be afraid of you? I know you are not going to hurt me.” She said with such conviction that there could be no lie behind her eye. “Are you an idiot? Do you even know what I’m capable of?” He asked waiting for the odd girl’s reaction. “Anybody is capable of anything. A good person can become bad and a bad person can become good.” Fitz looked at her oddly before bursting into laughter. “Your delusional, but also amusing so I may just keep you around for a while. At least until we find you friends.” The rest of the sentence hung heavily but Jemma chose to ignore it. She had to believe that there was alittle good in this man or she might not survive.
Anybody is capable of anything, good or bad.