Renegade Rising || Leo Fitz Book Two

Chapter FiftySeven

She was back. Skye was really, actually back. Asia, Leo, Jemma, and Skye found themselves in the Command Room on the Bus, chatting, catching up, filling each other all in on everything everyone had missed while they had all been split apart. And Asia couldn't help but admit she was curious once Skye started describing the place she had been, a place for people like them. A safe space where they all lived together and learned together. For once, Asia felt the slight hope of not being alone in this world, this strange new thing that she was. There was a glimmering light at the end of a long and confusing tunnel.

"Did they really teach you to...to control your powers?" Asia asked her cautiously. Hope was a dangerous thing after all. While the brunette thought she had a decent handle on things, she still knew she could be better, that she could be more than deep concentration and hoping she wouldn't freeze the engines on their plane. Plus, focusing that intently all the time was draining. She wanted to be in complete control, get herself to a point where her powers only leaped to life when she wanted them to.

"Yea, yea, they did," Skye grinned, as she whispered her response, before glancing around the ship. "And believe me, I'll tell you guys everything you want to know. Just...not here. Not now." She glanced over at Ward and Asia nodded in understanding. Of course, Ward would always be listening. He was always trying to listen in, Asia knew him well enough to know that was true. They all knew that far too well by now.

Jemma sighed, also glancing towards Ward, "Yes, I suppose that is the safest route," she mused, placing her hands gently on the edge of the holotable in front of them.

Ward glanced over, as if he felt the weight of the four agents' gaze on him, heavy, the dead weight of his sins. "What? Something on my face?" he asked, brushing at his cheek with an open palm. The four agents stared at him, unwavering, looks of disgust and indifference playing over their various faces.

Interrupting the visual standoff, Coulson entered the Command Room, setting a tablet down on the holotable in front of them. "Alright, let's review the mission." Reluctantly, Asia stepped up beside the table as well, placing her fingertips lightly on the edges of the cool metal, readying herself to move if need be. She glared over the table, daring Ward to make the wrong move. Her body was itching for him to prove her right.

Coulson glances around at his agents once more. "Okay, well, I really hate to say this but...Ward, give us an update on Bakshi's whereabouts." He nodded over at the raven haired man, allowing him to speak freely, if only for the moment.

Ward nodded, hitting a button on the table as if he had been doing this all his life, much of which he had. The table began to glow, and a TV screen up on the wall displayed a map of an arctic island, beside it, Bakshi's face.

"Alright, Bakshi's been communicating to us via old text channels. It's been difficult work, but yes, he has managed to provide decent details of the location. And they do seem to have one powered person on site, aside from the two we're aware of. This one is not being used as an experiment, but a body guard." Ward stopped, looking around the room at the people staring back at him. "Much of it is...um..." he paused, trailing off to look at the others once more, almost as if a frog were caught in his throat. He looked down at the table, then up at everyone again.

"Okay, well, is everyone alright if I address the elephant on the plane?" he asked finally, clearing his throat uncomfortably. "I know this is weird. For all of us. Super weird. Mistakes were made."

"By you," Leo muttered, hands folded over his chest as he looked down at his fingernails. Asia tilted her body ever so slightly, bumping him with her elbow, letting him know she was still right there. He looked up at her slightly, their eyes meeting and he gave her a tiny nod. He knew. Of course he knew. She would always be right there.

Ward sighed, continuing, "And yes, people got hurt..."

"By you," Leo interjected again, this time more pointedly, looking up and meeting Ward's gaze.

Ward looked at him for a moment, before shaking his head as if clearing away thoughts, and continued, "We could stand here all damn day and explain again how my parents and brother left me vulnerable, again, but-"

May stepped forward, slicing her hand through the open air, silencing him, "That's enough. We all had our traumas. They didn't turn us into psychopaths." The words spat out of her mouth like venom, so hard Asia was surprised the table in front of them didn't burn away into nothingness.

Ward smirked, "Well, we all, uh, have our own ways of coping, don't we? For example, I was yours."

"Watch it, Ward," Coulson interjected, stepping forward, motioning for everyone to step back, take a breath.

"Look, look," Ward tried again, after a beat. "I'm just saying that we've all made mistakes. Coulson handed me over to my abuser, thanks a lot for that, by the way, Asia tried to kill me, multiple times," her brow furrowed with disgust, "And Skye shot me-"

Skye cut him off with a scoff, "After you hurt how many people?" She stared at him as if she expected an answer, one she would never get.

"Yea," Leo piped up. "You hurt people. You hurt us. We were a team, we were a family and you betrayed us," he pulled a sweater covered sleeve up towards his mouth, biting at the cuticle of his thumb.

Ward looked for a moment almost as if he had actual sorrow in his eyes. He looked around at all of them, his cocky facade falling. "I know," he said, his words echoing throughout the room. "I know. I know the weight of what I've done. And that's what I regret the most. Not the lying, not the agents I put down, not even, and I mean this in the best way possible," he turned and looked at Leo and Jemma, "Not even dropping the two of you into the ocean. It's this. That my actions directly destroyed this. And I'll regret that forever. Cause we had good times. Right? We were a good team, for a while there. We had a really good thing going, didn't we?" The way he was speaking, Asia almost believed him for a second. Almost.

But then the moments in that foreign Lab came back, the too-white paint on the walls, the way the white floors were polished so brightly she could see all of their reflections in them. The way he let Quinn in with her. And a sour taste filled her mouth. She was going to puke, literally. Wordlessly, she turned and walked out of the room.

As Asia made her way from the Control Room, down the halls, she pushed her hair out and away from her face, finding an air vent and standing beneath it, letting the cold air blow on her. She was sweating, even though it was barely 65 degrees on board. Her gut was clenching tightly, threatening her with the loss of lunch. She heard footsteps behind her and whirled around, fists clenched, readied to swing, only to meet Leo's gaze as he stood behind her, frown on his lips.

"You alright?" He asked after a moment of silence. "I, um, I don't know why I asked that. You're not alright, you're upset. What can I, uh, what can I do to make it better?" He asked her, searching her eyes for the answers.

She looked away from him for a moment. Speaking her weaknesses was always so difficult, even to Leo. It felt like it made her...lesser. Like it made her weak, to feel anything at all. To be anything but impenetrable. But she had to let him in. To keep pushing him away would only hurt the both of them further, even though it felt physically painful to do so. So for now, she simply nodded, and that was enough for him to pull her into a tight hug. She let her head rest against his chest, listening to the beat of his heart. After a moment, she spoke softly. "He wants us to feel like it's okay that he's back. And it's not."

"I know," he said as he stroked her hair softly. "I know, and it'll never be okay, what he did to us. He doesn't get to just ask for forgiveness and expect us to give it." He understood what she was feeling right now, that overwhelming surge of discomfort. He felt it too. What Ward had done to them, it would never be okay. And if he ever got the chance, he would make the man pay for the way he had hurt her.