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Daisy knew going into the Framework was going to be hard. She knew her family wouldn't recognize her. She saw the complex code the world was built on and understood that the team were essentially programmed with new memories. Simmons had said as much when they went in.
But that didn't prepare her for the absolute hate in May and Fitz's eyes as they turned on her and cornered in the Hydra labs. She didn't even know what she said. Maybe a nickname had slipped or she really was acting that differently from her alter ego that existed in the Framework. Maybe it was the call Fitz had just gotten and Aida was finally onto her. Revealing her status as a mole and an inhuman. It didn't really matter did it?
All that mattered was the fact that May was pointing a gun at her while Fitz was spouting ignorant anti inhuman rhetoric bullshit. Telling her she was a monster and how she would make a wonderful test subject. How traitors suffer fates worse than death and how Madame Hydra would be there shortly. And as she watched her mother and brother in everything but blood size her up like she was a piece of meat it hurt.
It hurt because the way May gripped the gun she was pointing at her, with a firm but relaxed grasp, finger resting on the trigger and the other along the barrel, the squared shoulders, tensed wrists and planted feet. It was exactly how her SO taught her to hold, aim and shoot a gun.
And the way Fitz's hair bounced back into its natural curls no matter how many times he tried to smooth it down. The way his blue eyes were just a shade lighter than the ocean and the way his left brow twitched in a nervous tick from time to time. It all felt so real. These were her people, but she wasn't theirs.
Because Mays' dark eyes were a bit too dull and dead. Her mask placed too firmly and her expressions unreadable even to Daisy who prided herself in being able to decipher her mentor's micro and non-expressions over the years. The fact that Fitz's usual kind and mild mannered nature was completely transformed. His voice harsh and biting. Tongue like a whip striking her down verbally, unlike his usual soft murmuring and his quiet smiles. The sneer and the flare of his nostrils that depicted the disgust he was feeling.
They had no idea what history they shared with her. They had no idea that they were the two people that protected her when she first went through terrigenesis. She was pretty sure if she told the Fitz that stood in front of her that he saved her by changing her blood test results a lifetime ago, he would burst a blood vessel. How things change, now they were trying to capture her. To hurt her.
With her hands raised she dared interrupt Fitz mid rant. “Fitz please. I know you. I know May. None of us belong in this world. We need to go home.” She didn't want to hurt them. Didn't think she could anyway. One of the only reasons she could beat May in the real world was because of her powers. Without them they were pretty evenly matched because although she was younger and stronger, May was still a bit faster and had much more experience. But May had a gun and an apparent crazy person next to her. She didn't like the odds and thought maybe she could talk some sense into them. Screw the code.
“Lies! I'm exactly where I need to be. Ophelia warned me that you would try to deceive me!” He screamed red faced. “You tried to enslave her in your other world. You let evil run amok, you let vermin invest your society and now you want ours.”
“Trust me when I say, I don't want your society. I'm kind of against the big brother shtick you got going on. And Ophelia? You mean Aida? Fitz, Aida is the one that trapped you in here!” Daisy tried to reason. “You have a whole life back home. People that miss you and need you. This-” she gestured to his gelled down hair and his stiff black suit, flawlessly embroidered tie and polished shoes.
“This isn't you.”
“Don't call her that! And don't you dare insinuate that she trapped me. She loves me. I'm happy here. I grew up here and I'm exactly who I want to be. I'm a strong man and I'm my father's son. Besides, I don't take orders from insubordinate alien trash like you.” She wanted to throw up. This was so disturbing to her. The mention of his father made her queasy. The two of them had spent a few late nights sharing bits and pieces of their childhoods after the fallout with Daisy's parents. It was good to talk to someone about it in a therapeutic kind of way, and the stories of Fitz's abusive, emotionally closed off and toxic father always made her skin crawl. Made her question how he turned out to be so good.
And although in recent years Fitz had hardened a bit, grown and changed (they all had), the person in front of her was a stark contrast to the endearing cardigan and lab coat wearing scott, who mooned over Jemma and made awkward jokes. She just had to get through to that side of him.
“Fitz, Aida isn't real. You made her with Radcliffe. You wired her and built her piece by piece. I'm pretty sure you ordered parts for her on Amazon. She's a robot. She doesn't love you, she's using you! Do you want to know who loves you? Who's been fighting day and night to find you and bring you home? Jemma! Jemma Simmons loves you and is waiting for you to come back. Shield needs us now more than ever. So please, please stop this and come with me.” She tried, hoping that the mention of Jemma might stir something in him. Maybe break through the barriers that were constructed around his mind.
He shook his head vehemently in denial which made her heart sink to her stomach. “You don't know anything.” He muttered, clutching his head between his hands before looking up at her. She started to say something when-
“YOU DON'T KNOW ME!” He screamed, spit flying through the air as his eyes seemed to darken and bug out their sockets. A vein popping up and pulsing on his forehead as he fumed. He put out his shaking hand motioning for May who had been quietly watching the interaction to give him her gun. The shorter woman's eyes flicked over to him and for a fraction of a second she seemed to pause in what almost looked like hesitation, but the moment was over just as fast as it started and Fitz gripped the handle, raising it and pointing it at Daisy with his finger resting on the trigger.
“I do know you.” Daisy said as tears started to form in her eyes. Was she going to be killed by one of her best friends? Was this going to be the end for her? After she had just come back to them after her self-isolation. After screwing up and running away for the upteenth time?
No.
She refused. She refused to let herself be pushed away by him. She refused to let him slip through her fingers. She loved him too much for that. She wasn't giving up. He wouldn't shoot her.
“I know you were born on August 19, 1987 in Glasgow Scotland-”
“Stop.” He muttered but she ignored him and continued.
“-I know you're a brilliant scientist and an even better engineer. I know you like to leave your signature on all your designs in the form of a monkey shaped cog you work into the schematics. I know you're 5’8 but you always tell people 5’8 and a half-”
“Shut. Up.”
“-I know you have a birthmark on your left shoulder and I've always teased you saying it looks like a coffee stain. I know no matter how hard you try, you have a stutter, even while in the Framework because you had a brain injury in the real world. You used to be so self conscious about it, but it's not something you're ashamed of anymore!” That seemed to hit a nerve as a thunderous look crossed his face and he clenched his jaw, tightening his grip on the gun.
“QUIET INHUMAN FILTH!” He bellowed at her but she rushed on screaming just as loudly.
“I KNOW YOU'RE MY BROTHER AND NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES I FUCK UP YOU ALWAYS HAVE MY BACK. I KNOW YOU'D DO ANYTHING TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE!”
BANG
Daisy crumbled to her knees as the gun fired and the bullet lodged itself in her left thigh. Burning pain ran all the way up her hip and blossomed its way to her stomach and lower back. With a shaky inhale she stared up at him resolutely with tears streaming down her face. How ironic. This was actually friendly fire she supposed. Fitz just didn't realize it. She watched the smoking barrel sizzle in the newfound quietness of the lab before turning her watery gaze to May pushing through both the physical pain and the audible sound of her heart shattering.
“And you, you're my SO. You taught me everything I know. I am me, because of you.” Daisy said quietly as she pressed her hand to her thigh in an effort to slow the bleeding down, wincing sharply and biting down on a whimper. But never looking away from the woman's steely gaze.
“You taught me how to shoot a gun. How to protect myself and control my breathing when I would panic. How to do Tai Chi, how to brew fresh green tea. You taught me how to make your mother's pork bao recipe because it's the only thing you can cook without burning. You faced an Asgardian that tried to take me away with an icer when I first got my powers.” Mays brow seemed to furrow marginally as she listened and her eyes studied Daisy intently. Hear heart rate picking up at the woman's words.
“Coulson, Jemma, Mack, Yoyo, Fitz, you, hell, even Mace. And believe me, no one likes that guy. We're all a part of a team. A family. We've fought with each other. Stood side by side as the world crumbled. So I'm not leaving you two behind. Please, don't make me. Please come hom-”
BANG
Another bullet tore through Daisy's right shoulder and she let out a pained scream swaying for a second before bringing her other hand up to the wound and pressing down on it as well. She tried gulping down a few ragged breaths. Both her hands were quickly soaking through with crimson red and there was absolutely nothing she could do. She was starting to feel lightheaded and she thought it was ironic that her wounds were almost exactly the same as the ones she got from fighting with the LMDs not so long ago. She couldn't get a break.
As she lowered her head, hair falling into her face and obscuring her view, she tried to get her breathing under control. It hurt like a bitch. And she felt so helpless. Nothing she was saying was working.
Her thoughts were interrupted when the muzzle of the barrel, still hot after being fired, pressed into her forehead and forced her head and hair to fall back. She bit down on her tongue as the metal burned and boiled against her flesh but she didn't have the energy to jerk away. As he forced her face to angle upwards, she was met with the doctor's cruel eyes.
Because that's who he was. This wasn't Fitz. She finally understood that now. She had to make the distinction between the two otherwise she would go crazy. Fitz would never shoot her. He'd never hurt her like this. The person In front of her was a rage filled prick. If she ever made it out of here, which seemed very unlikely, she would have to knock his ass out and drag him back home because there was no reasoning with him. Everything she said just infuriated him more, so she decided to keep her mouth shut in hopes of somehow dragging this out and finding a way to escape.
“Not so talkative now are you? Ophelia told me not to kill you and wait for her arrival but my trigger fingers itching. I'm sure she'll forgive me. I warned you Skye…Any last words?” He had a smug look about him as he spoke in a low voice. Accent thick as ever as he tilted his head waiting for her response.
So much for escaping.
She took a shaky inhale as her warm tears kept falling although they were joined by the droplets of sweat that broke out across her skin because of the blood loss. She felt clammy all over and nauseous from the pain but tried her best to power through. She refrained from flinching away at the hatred she found in his blue orbs and let her eyes drift to May who had not spoken once during the entire confrontation and only watched on with unease instead.
Daisy knew if she died in the Framework, she would die in the real world too. It was a fact that Jemma and Yoyo had reiterated multiple times, and although she didn't want to go, she didn't see a way out of this. She had no powers, no backup and no energy left.
Another thought entered her mind as her gaze slightly softened when she noticed the somewhat troubled and confused look on her mentor's face. If they killed her now and these two somehow made it of this damn shitty reality without her, they would never forgive themselves. And May would have lost another little inhuman girl in the line of fire.
So she chose her words carefully because she believed it might really just be her last if the doctor's manic behavior was anything to go by. She fought the grimace of her face and tried for a small gentle smile recalling the Chinese lessons she had with May after returning from Afterlife and wanting to connect to her culture and heritage. All the hours her mentor spent on trying to teach her proper pronunciation and grammar. The children's book May started reading her in the cockpit between missions that was meant to get her started on learning more vocabulary, but acted as their quiet time. A time of peace and acceptance and maybe even love. May really would have been an amazing mother. Maybe she already was one.
“Wǒ ài nǐ, māmā zhè bùshì nǐ de cuò zhàogù hǎo tā” (I love you mama. This isn't your fault. Take good care of him) she murmured, tilting her head in her best friend's direction before closing her eyes. She didn't want to look into the doctor's eyes as he killed her.
She heard the click of the gun being cocked and silently apologized to Jemma for failing and to Yoyo for having to deal with her corpse back on the quinjet.
If her eyes were open for what came after though, she would have seen May's eyes widen to the size of saucers and her pupils dilate in shock at her words as she inhaled sharply through her nose. Her skin turning 3 shades paler and her jaw tensing before her body moved on its own accord, going as fast as it could as her instincts screamed at her to protect Daisy.
She spun on her heels and forced Fitz's hands above his head so that the gun pointed towards the ceiling as it fired. And before Fitz had time to react or even question what was happening she crashed her forehead into his nose with such ferocity that the crack that resounded in the empty lab was almost as loud as the gunfire from moments earlier. Effectively knocking the man's lights out. She stepped to the side as he fell face first into the floor, holding the gun in her trembling hand. She looked down at it and quickly put the safety on before dropping it as if it had burned her palm, kicking it away. Then she sank down to her knees next to Daisy who had passed out from the blood loss during the scuffle.
Mays' calloused hand fluttered over the girl's face for a moment. She didn't know her. She knew Skye, the Hydra agent and hacker that she ran into in the hallways from time to time. That she worked on a few cases with. But the woman bleeding out in front of her… Daisy? She was completely different.
May didn't know her, yet she seemed so… familiar. She felt fiercely protective over her even though she didn't understand the woman's ramblings about another world. But it sounded… nice. It sounded peaceful. Like they really cared about each other there. Like there was more than hate and grief and fear to the world Daisy came from. May saw it in the hope and the softness of the apparent inhumans eyes. In the tears that flowed down her cheeks as she tried to convince Leopold Fitz of all people, that he was a good man.
The movement was unsure, almost as if she was scared to touch her before May gave in, smoothing down Daisy's dark hair in what felt like an oddly practiced motion. As she did, sudden flashes of a similar situation, perhaps a memory entered her mind at the contact.
She saw the same woman but younger. Pale and bleeding and broken. Her flannel shirt soaked through with blood as the same substance dripped down the corner of her mouth in a stuffy basement in Italy. People whose faces she couldn't quite make out and voices she couldn't place panicking and crying and begging Skye to be okay.
Then the voice of a sympathetic and apologetic doctor echoing in her ears.
I'm saying you should call her family.
Another voice, more familiar, a voice filled with conviction and compassion that felt an awful lot like home, answering;
We are her family.
And May instantly knew it was true. She trusted the voice. She trusted the girl. She leaned down, placing a gentle kiss to the younger woman's hairline.
“Māmā yǒu nǐ xiǎohuā” (Mama has you little flower)