"Okay, this is okay," Asia said, still staring out the window, speaking to both herself and to Leo, though she wasn't sure who needed the reminder more. "Leo, I think we need to get out of here," she said finally, turning to him. "This isn't a safe place for us to stay right now."
"No, Asia, we can't," he whispered back, grabbing her hand and leaning close to her ear. "We have to be extremely careful about our next move. They cannot know that we know. I don't want to think about what those repercussions might be if they catch on to us." He glanced out the window at Coulson, who was walking by, studying the both of them as he did.
"That's a fair and tactical point," Asia said with a sigh, "But we can't stay the night here. They're going to try and do what's been done to them. They must be here to ensure we're to be replaced as well. The longer we stay, the better a chance they have. I could fight them, Leo, but I don't want you getting caught in the crossfire. I don't feel safe with you here, I want you somewhere far away concocting a brilliant plan."
"Okay, okay, okay, shhh," he said, kissing her forehead and running his hands over her arms. "If they wanted to hurt us, wouldn't they have done it already?" He asked. "Perhaps they're just gather information. We may still have time. Time to think and make a plan."
"Unless they have a plan to catch us off guard," Asia pointed out. "They could just be waiting till we go to sleep so that there isn't a fight. Oh god I'm going to have to put traps up in our bedroom. Our bedroom, Leo. The place we're supposed to be safe." She sighed, looking down at herself. She wished she has stayed dressed in her suit. She had changed when they got back into black shorts and a tank top so that she could go sparring later. Maybe she should find a way to change back.
"And you can do all of that," Leo said, nodding at her. "But not while they're watching. They only haven't tried anything because they haven't realized that we know. We have to keep it that way. They can't know we know, it's our only upper hand right now."
"Now you're thinking like an ops agent," Asia said, crossing her arms over her chest and smiling slightly. Sometimes you had to smile, even in situations like this one. But they had each other, at least. "Maybe we can ask someone who wasn't on the Op. Or I can phone Nat and Clint for backup."
Just as she had finished speaking, footsteps from behind caught her ears. "Agent Fitz," came Coulson's calm voice. But she knew it wasn't really him. Just a very good replica. She turned around to watch him, even if he had directed his words at her boyfriend. "We still haven't been able to locate the submarine on any of our satellites. Based on your best guess, do you think their machine is equipped with missile lock capabilities? We need to know what we're going up against." Mack nodded from behind them.
"Well, one could imagine so, yes," Leo replied with a nod. "I didn't actually see the submarine so it's difficult to say for sure." He put his hands on his hips and shrugged.
"Alright," Coulson nodded. "I guess we will have to assume the worst then. Ivanov has people who are supporting him for his goals. We need to make a plan to stop him."
"His goal has always been to destroy Inhumans," Asia said with a sigh, shaking her head. "I need to get back in contact with our relocated ones. With Aida on their side, they may well already have their locations. I'm going to have to move everyone to new safe houses again."
"You actually don't have to worry about that," Coulson said to her. "Because we're calling them all here. To Headquarters. For their own safety."
"Frankly, Sir, that's not really your call," Asia said, hands on her hips. "I'm the one in charge of the Inhuman division, I call the shots. I don't want to bring them all in. Having everyone in one situation is too risky. We just need squads sent to help them move." She didn't feel bad snapping at him in this moment, as she would have done so even if it wasn't an LMD trying to tell her how to do her own job.
"Well, this came from above both of us. It was the Director's first call when he woke up from sedation. He probably heard Ivanov's whole manifesto when he was captured and wants to prevent what happened to him from happening to anyone else," Coulson said with a shrug. "You can take it up with him if you disagree so strongly, but don't shoot the messenger." Asia pressed her fingertips to her temple, massaging lightly.
"Fine, once he's feeling up to it, I'll go speak with him," she said after a moment.
"I've recovered enough," came a deep voice from behind her. Mace and Daisy walked together into the room, Mace holding a gauze pack to the back of his head. "I'd like to get this out into place now, unless you disagree."
Asia whirled around to look at Director Mace. LMD Mace. "You recovered quickly, Sir," she said with a nod. "I'm glad to see you're up and around. Jemma must have done a good job." Oh god. Jemma. Was she one of them too? Had she lost everyone on this one mission aside from Leo? Her throat clean her up at the thought.
"I'll be fine," Mace said with a nod. "A little sore and stiff for a few days, but I'm alive and that's what matters. Now. Back to business. I would like Agent Monroe and Agent Johnson to contact each Inhuman personally to call them to base, and explain why we're bringing them in. I think it will come better from the figures they recognize and trust."
"Alright, I'll make a list of the closest assets and those we can bring in immediately, as well as those we will need plans for," Asia said after a moment. "Daisy. Can you start...with Yoyo?" She nodded at the brunette. If she could get Yoyo here, maybe she would have some backup for the fight that was to come. "Leo, can you help me set up a program that can auto sort them?"
"Of course," Leo said with a nod. "Should be easy enough. We can get that done quickly and start putting the word out." Mace nodded to both of them. The meeting broke, and it was just the two of them left in the Lab once more. "Well, that was...something." Leo said after they were sure no one was left listening.
"They're trying to capture all of the Inhumans," Asia whispered. "That's why he wants them here. So he can turn them." She shook her head, trembling fingers rising to rest over her lips in horror. "Aida and Radcliffe. They want to make bots out of them before Ivanov kills them. I'm sure if it. We can't call them here."
"And we won't. We just have to stall long enough," Leo said, pulling her into a tight hug. "It will be ok. If Yoyo is here, the two of you can definitely take on the four of them, no problem. And I'll get in a Quinnjet with Piper or another agent who wasn't on the mission, and I'll get myself to safety so you don't need to worry."
Asia nodded into his hug. "Okay. Okay. We can do this. Let's get moving," she nodded towards a cart with a laptop and some of his other tech. "Let's get into your engineering room. Mack's workshop. Whatever you want to call it. It's easier to bunker down in there while we figure out our next move." She moved to the cart, beginning to push it towards the door. Leo came to her side, and together they moved in silence down the hall.
Entering the engineering bay, Leo shut the door behind them. As Asia brought the cart to a rest, the open laptop beepers twice. She expected it was another email or Yoyo reaching out to her personally to ask what was going on and why she hadn't called her in herself. Moving around to look at the laptop with a sigh, she froze. The red words that lit up the lit up the screen along with an image of her and Leo entering the room made her nearly vomit right there. On a photograph of them, below read 1 LMD detected.
"No," she whispered to herself, not loud enough for him to hear. "No, no that can't be right. It's malfunctioning. It can't be right."
"Asia?" Leo asked, moving to her side to see the laptop screen. His brow furrowed as he looked over the image. "The...the lab techs must have taken it up to mount LMD detection devices all over the base. That's pretty smart of them. But, I mean, there must be a calibration error like there was previously. This can't be right." He picked up the laptop, squinting at the screen."
As he spoke, Asia slowly backed away, putting space between them, as her heart rate began to rise, beating erratically. This couldn't be right. It couldn't. He couldn't be....but when he turned to face her, she raised her pistol on habit, fight or flight kicking in. "Don't move," she said quietly, firmly.
Leo's hands instantly shot up in surrender. "Woah, woah, Asia put that down, please. It's me." But she kept the gun trained on him, shaking her head.
"No, no I need you to stay back from me until. Until we can figure this out," her words were shaky but her hands were steady.
"Figure what out?" He asked, looking at her, eyes wide and tears forming in them. "Asia, you're point a gun at me. At me. Please. Put it down," his words were pleading and full of terror but she refused to drop her sights. She could hardly think straight, all she knew was she needed to keep him away from her. She needed to figure out which one of them was the LMD. Would she even know if it was her? "No...." Leo said after a moment, pure horror taking over his face. "No, no it can't be. It's you...." He trailed off, staring at her, tears brimming over the rims of his eyes, slowly trailing down his cheeks.
"No, no, it's not me," she said, shaking her head, never moving the gun. "I would know. I would know it's me." The temperature around them began to drop with her fear. "See? See? I still have my powers. It can't be me."
"Aida is smart enough that she could help create LMDs with environmental effect," Leo shook his head. "You suggested we come to the workshop. You're the one trying to isolate me. You wanted us in here alone, so you could get to me."
"No, you're wrong," Asia said, tears slipping down her own cheeks. "You're the one who wanted us to act like normal. To pretend nothing was wrong, to not tell anyone. We could have gotten the others by now, but you asked me not to. You said we couldn't." Her grip on the handgun started to waver as she choked out a sob. "You said it was a calibration error, Leo! That was you, not me. There is no calibration error Leo, it's one of us!"
"I'm not the one who is pointing the gun!" He shouted suddenly, violently, his fear spilling into the air around them. "I bloody well know I'm not an android. I helped build them, for Christ's sake, I would know!" He pleaded with her, trying to get her to lower the gun.
"No, you would lie. Even if you knew you would lie because I..I'm the only one left. You've been trying to get to me and you're programmed not to tell me you've been turned and Aida wants you to be the one to take me down because she's a monster!" Asia shouted back, not even trying to stop the tears at this point. She was the only one left. The realization hit her like a ton of bricks. There was no one left from her direct team besides her.
"What? No...Asia, you don't even know. Just like May, you don't even know. They programmed you not to know, so you could get to me," He turned the narrative back around on her and she wavered again. He could be right. But...she could change the temperature. No matter what he said, she felt like she was controlling it. She felt like she was herself. It couldn't be her. It couldn't. "Of course this is fucking happening, again," he said, his voice hollow and defeated. "This always happens to us. To you, to me, someone or something is always trying to keep us apart, no matter how hard we fight to be together. It's my worst fear, losing you, and it's coming true again. They're taking you away from me again."
"I am Not an LMD so stop messing with my head!" Asia screamed, jabbing the gun in his direction for emphasis. "Stop pretending to be the man that I love. You have no right to be him, none. Leo Fitz is kind and good and you are just a machine wearing his clothing and you need to stop!"
"It's not me, Asia!" He said again, pleadingly, his face turning as white as a ghost.
"Well it's one of us!" She shouted back, and then both of them fell silent, aside from their heavy breathing that echoed around them. All Asia could hear was the blood rushing through her ears. "It's one of us Leo, you saw the scan. It's one of us."
"Well," Leo said after a moment, feeling as if he were breaking into a million little pieces as he spoke. "Whichever one of us it is, Asia, it's my fault. I have caused my own worst nightmare, all by perfecting technology I thought would help others. I have done this to us. I'm so sorry Asia. All I ever wanted to do was help. I am so, so sorry." He nearly choked on a sob as he spoke.
Asia shook her head. "Stop. Stop talking. I don't want to feel bad for you. You have to stop making me feel bad." She raised one hand to wipe at her cheeks before regripping the gun. "Please just...don't hurt me. I can't watch him try to hurt me," she whispered out, unsure if he would even hear her from the other end of the room.
"No, never," he replied, shaking his head furiously. "I couldn't. I love you, Asia Monroe, and I would never do anything to cause you harm." But you have she thought to herself. This situation which played out before her had caused her more harm than she could have ever dreamed possible. Not even in her worst nightmares could she have brought this scenario to life. "I'm not going to try and fight you, Asia. Even if you are a decoy. I am the bad guy, no matter what. Ok? So whatever you say, I'll do it. Alright? Whatever you say."
"Okay..." Asia replied slowly, looking around the room, trying to think of what she could do to get proof he wasn't the LMD. Her eyes landed on a small knife and she blanched, before pushing forward. "Grab that," she ordered, nodding towards the knife. "Take it and cut your wrist. If you're the LMD, you won't bleed, I'll see your wiring." It was a crazy idea, stupid. "And if not...I'll get you out of here. To the med bay. To Jemma. You said...whatever I say. I'm saying do this." She looked at him urgently, pleadingly. She needed to know. She felt as if she were falling down the longest, darkest tunnel imaginable and she just needed to reach the bottom. No matter the answer.
Leo looked at her for a moment, breathing heavily, before nodding. "Ok. Ok I'll do it." He picked up the knife, rolling up his sleeve, watching her as he did so. Then, in one movement, he sliced across his wrist. Blood gushed outward. "Oh god. Oh god that's a lot of blood."
"Fuck," Asia said, as he knelt down. She pressed her closed hand to her forehead, trying to think, trying to make any of this make sense. She moved towards the table, grabbing a cloth from the workbench and cautiously moving towards him. "I'm so so sorry," she said, "I didn't want you to hurt yourself, I didn't want you to cut that deeply." She approached, hand outstretched with the cloth. "Here, take this, compress the wound."
But suddenly, he wasn't lying on the floor in pain anymore. He tossed the knife and caught it in his hand, jabbing backwards and running the blade directly into her thigh. She let out a cry, trying to aim down and fire, but with lightning reflexes, he caught her arm, shoving it upwards, her shots firing into the ceiling. It was him. He was the LMD. With his spare hand, he grabbed a paint can off the table nearby and swung, colliding with her head, and everything went to black.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Asia blinked awake slowly, woozy, head throbbing. "There, there love," she heard a too-familiar voice speak softly to her. "Awake we are again. Good. I need you conscious so I can get a good map of your frontal lobe, so you can't be too heavily sedated." She felt something get tucked onto her head, and then his lips, LMD Leo's lips, pressed to her forehead. "After this is done, you can sleep through the rest. None of it will hurt, I promise. Like I said, I would never hurt you."
"If you have his mind, why are you doing this to me?" She asked, voice hoarse and cracking. "He would never do this to me. This is hurting me. You stabbed me." She looked down to her leg, which he seemed to have already wrapped and bandaged.
"And I'm rightly sorry about that. I am," LMD Leo said, as he moved to tap at his computer. "But I'm doing this for you. I promise. And for us. You see, everything I've always suspected to be turns out to be true. Your consciousness is completely separated from your physical self. You don't need this body to be you, do you understand?" As he spoke, Asia studied him, hands numbly wiggling at her restraints. She needed to get out. She slipped one hand out of the ropes and the chair she was in tipped over. But she had a hand free. She reached up and pulled the device off her head.
"Asia, dear, don't hurt yourself," the LMD disguised as her boyfriend said, still typing at the computer. "You have nothing to be afraid of with me. I promise. I was always trying to protect you. You never needed protection, no, don't read me the wrong way. But I wanted to ensure I was providing technological solutions to any mishap you might meet. I built your suit, I updated your wristlets, anything I could do for you - I did it. I couldn't sit by and let you be harmed if I could help prevent it."
After releasing her other hand, Asia began to drag herself across the floor, looking at her options as she did. She needed water, to heal herself. Until then, her leg was going to be in bad shape. "Radcliffe cured death now, so I don't need to worry anymore. Once I've got a map of your brain, you'll be safe forever. We will be safe forever. Don't you see?" His words droned on behind her, but her brain was simply focused on the tactical. She reached forward, fingertips wrapping around the handle of a rubber mallet, pulling it close to her. "Please stop trying to fight me, Asia," the LMD said, his typing stopping. "I'm trying to secure our future. One where you and I never need to fear losing one another again. One where we can get married, have a family, and grow old together." He walked over towards her, leaning down, hands on his knees as he watched her.
Asia paused, turning to look up at him slowly. "Married?" She asked quietly, a haunting gaze hovering over her face. "That's the first time you've...the first time you've ever said that to me. About getting married." The first time, and an Android had stolen that moment from her. She still had the upper hand, if she did things correctly here.
"Well, I've thought about it, quite a lot actually," LMD Leo said, looking up to the ceiling for a moment. "For a while now. But, you know, you're never quite 100% certain what one's reaction will be like her you bring up such an important topic. I thought I knew, but, you know how it is," he shrugged, standing up right.
Asia grunted, shifting up on to her side. She raised her mallet and gritted her teeth, managing a small smile. "Noted. I'll make sure to tell Leo when I see him, then." And then with all her might, she swung the mallet at what her true goal had been all along - the lever suspending a truck engine in the air. The heavy metal fell, pinning the LMD's leg to the ground. He started to shout, but Asia waisted no time. She stood, grabbing the knife he had stabbed her with before.
She lunged for him, stabbing the knife into the side of his neck, over and over again, as he screamed for her to stop. But she couldn't. She saw the little sparks fly out and she knew she hadn't made a mistake. She closed her eyes as she stabbed, sending out her senses, feeling for his water, his unique signature, just to make sure. But she felt nothing. It wasn't Leo. It wasn't. She sobbed as she stabbed him again, until the LMD finally stopped speaking, then she fell over the body and cried.
"What the hell?" A voice, familiar and British cut through to her brain. In a flash, Asia stood up, weight on her good leg, knife at the ready as she whirled to face the next LMD. Jemma stood in front of her, pale, looking between her and the body of Leo Fitz. "Asia, what did you do?" She asked in horror. Asia closed her eyes, feeling out, wanting confirmation before she went in for the kill but...it was just Jemma. No LMD, all her.
"Jemma," she let out a sob. "Oh my god. Thank goodness you're you." She dropped back to her knees, pointing to the neck of the thing on the floor. "He was an LMD Jemma, they all are. They've got everyone. You and I are the only ones left. I had to. I had to kill him. He was going to swap me out." She sobbed, bloody hands covering her eyes as she cried.
Jemma could see a few bits of wiring hanging from Fitz's neck and she nodded, putting the pieces slowly together. Asia looked in pain in a way Jemma had not seen since she had stitched her together after Daisy was shot in the stomach. Cautiously, she stepped over to the brunette, taking the knife from her hand and setting it down. Then she wrapped her in a hug. "How many of them are there?" She asked quietly.
Numbly, Asia stared down at Leo's dead body. Her Leo, but not really. She had done that to him. What if she could never get the real him back? What if this LMD was all that was left of him and she had just killed him? Her entire body started to shake. She couldn't hear what Jemma was saying to her, couldn't comprehend the words. Next thing she knew, Jemma was helping her stand up, leading her out of the room, down a hall. They weren't safe, they had to get out of here.
Jemma slipped them into a side room, shutting the door behind them and holding a hand over Asia's mouth as she fought not to melt into pieces right in front of them both. She helped moved Asia into the furthest back corner, behind several tanks and other pieces of equipment. "Right, right," she muttered to herself. "How the absolute hell are we getting out of this one, Jemma?" She talked to herself, unsure if Asia was even hearing her respond. Finally, when they were tucked back in the space, Jemma placed a hand on either side of Asia's shoulders, making the woman look her in the eyes. "Asia. I need you to tell me if you are okay."
"I'm okay," Asia replied back with a nod, though she really, really wasn't. She was far from okay. But before she could speak again, the lights above them went out and they heard the door they had entered only moments ago open and shut. Asia instantly put herself between Jemma and the door way, raising her hands and balling them into fists. Asia stood, holding breath, until suddenly Daisy, eyes wide and Mack's shotgun axe in her hands, whirled around the corner.
"Get back," Asia hissed, stepping back to cover Jemma completely with her own body, blocking any attack Daisy might try and make. "I know you're an LMD, so I'm going to ask you one more time to get back."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Daisy shook her head, dropping the axe next to her. "What the literal hell is going on? I saw Fitz on the cameras, he's dead."
"It wasn't him," Asia said, shaking her head rapidly. "It wasn't. I had to do it," her hands started to shake again, the shaking expanding outward towards the rest of her, until she was a vibrating being again, unable to control her movement as the anxiety swept over her completely.
"You killed him?" Daisy said, hand reaching down towards the shotgun once more.
"It wasn't him. It was an LMD, it wasn't him," Asia repeated again, shaking her head back and forth. "I didn't want to but I had to. And if you're an LMD I'll do it again." She sobbed as she spoke. She couldn't kill Daisy too, she couldn't do it. She silently pled for the universe not to do this to her.
"How do I know you're not one of the LMDs?" Daisy asked, brow furrowing. "Because I just saw an actual truckload of myself in one of the containment rooms, all lined up like a fucking dollhouse. And Mack is in on it, and I watched Coulson and Mace just kill four agents. So how do I know you're not one too?"
"I'm not, I'm not," Asia said, shaking her head. "I know I'm not. I saw you and Coulson and Mace and Mack on the screen I know you're one of them!" She spat back, hands still held tightly in front of herself.
"Prove to me you're not one," Daisy countered, shaking her head. "You could be lying, for all I know you brought Jemma in here to incapacitate her. I know that I'm still me," she said, so much confidence in what she said being true. But Asia had see them lie to her before, with ease.
"I can't," she said, her voice breaking. "There's no way to prove it until...until it's too late and you kill them or they kill you." She felt a heavy weight of defeat sinking over her. She would never be able to prove she wasn't a robot. She couldn't think straight. She could hardly see through the tears pushing at her eyes. This was all wrong. All of it. She wanted to close her eyes and wake up as if this had all been a dream. She didn't want to be here anymore. Outside, they could hear a door open and close, hear men speaking from far away.
"Give...give me your hand," Daisy said after a moment, glancing over her shoulder and then back to Asia, who still stood defensively in front of Jemma. "I'll quake you, I'll prove it's me. I won't hurt you, I swear."
"Don't touch me," Asia said, shaking her head, straightening her hands in front of her, ready to swing. It was a foolish idea, trying to fight fists against a shotgun, but she would do whatever she had to do to get her and Jemma out of there alive. Part of her hesitated. Daisy was right, wasn't she? She had said herself earlier that an LMD wouldn't have Inhuman powers, even if Leo had tried to convince her otherwise. But how did she know for sure what Aida and Radcliffe's creations were capable of? It's a trap it's a trap it's a trap her mind screamed at her on loop. "Don't touch me," she insisted again, shaking her head.
Suddenly, before she could react, Daisy lunged forward, wrapping her arms tightly around Asia, a quake enveloping her. In return, Asia reached out, the water in her singing to the water in Daisy, feeling it inside her, the normal amount, the proper amount, her own unique identity that couldn't be replicated. It was her. It was Daisy, her best friend, her partner, right in front of her. She wasn't an LMD. She wasn't trying to murder her and Jemma. "You're you, you're you," she sobbed, clutching to Daisy tighter, the two of them sinking to the floor as they hugged each other, both starting to cry.
Asia felt as if she had lost everything that day. Everything. But in this moment, here, with Daisy holding her, she felt the smallest piece of hope.