~~~Catherine's pov~~~
Daisy looked at me like I was crazy, but not Loki.
"She's right. I looked into their minds too. I hoped that what I saw was a trick, but this confirms it." He said, rubbing a hand over his face.
"You guys realize this is crazy talk? Twenty-five years into the freaking future! The Earth cracked apart?! You hear yourselves, correct?"
"Daisy, I know it's a lot to take in, but right now, we need to find the others."
"No, finding out that my best friend got married and is pregnant is a lot to take in. This is insane!" She threw her hands up in the air.
~
After getting Daisy to calm down, we decided to move the Kree's bodies to make their deaths look like an accident. From what I learned about this place, if someone finds us with two dead Kree bodies, the punishment will be much worse than mild electrocution.
"I just... I can't believe this." Daisy murmured.
"Well, neither can I. But we gotta make do." I helped her move Blue 1's body while Loki moved Blue 2's.
We heard the door open and dropped what we were doing to hide behind a few crates.
Please, God, don't let it be more Kree.
It wasn't a Kree. It was a guy.
He looked to be in his mid-twenties and was covered in dust and grim.
"He's alright. That's Deke." Daisy said to us once she saw him. "Hey, where are the others?"
We got out of our hiding spot to meet him.
"With my friend, Tess. She's helping them blend in. So, these are your friends?" He asked, walking up to us.
"Yeah, now-"
"You killed a Kree?!" He exclaimed when he saw Blue 1's body.
"It was us. Or them." I shrugged.
"Well, you made the wrong choice." His eyes widened when he saw Blue 2's body. "Two?! You killed two?! Yeah, well, that's only going to be a problem for the herd of people they're gonna kill in retaliation. We got to cover this up." He looked around the room for possible hiding places.
"What do you think we're doing?" Loki asked.
"We were tryna make it look like an accident," Daisy explained.
"Shut up! Just let me think!" I could already tell Deke wouldn't be a fun guy to deal with.
"What if we leave them upstairs with the other bodies? Use the elevator." Loki suggested.
"We can't exactly be seen in the lift with a pair of dead guards." Deke protested.
"Well, maybe we don't put them in the elevator." I backed him up.
~
We ended up putting the Kree on the roof of the elevator. Slight problem, though.
"You couldn't have told us there was a skylight?" Daisy asked as we looked up at the shadows of the bodies.
"What's a skylight?"
"Oh boy..." I shook my head. "It is what it is."
Once we got to the level with the roaches, we hauled the bodies off the elevator and dragged them down a hallway.
"We gotta come up with a new system. Cause I'm not doing this every time we take out a Kree." Daisy groaned as she helped Deke move the body.
"The system is, 'No more dead Kree'! We're two past maximum! Hopefully, the bodies are warm enough for the roaches to take them." Deke emphasized. "Here. That's the door."
We pulled the blue corpses into the roach-infested room and slammed the doors closed behind us.
Once the doors closed, we ran back down the hallway and into the elevator.
"Well, that wasn't stressful." I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in.
~
We made it to the level where Deke said Phil and the others were.
Reuniting with them was the best part of today.
After hugging May, I turned to Phil. "You do know we are in the future, right?"
"Yeah." He nodded. "And that the Earth was cracked to pieces. It's the year 2043."
"Great to know we're all on the same page. Where's Jemma?"
"The Kree took her," May said, looking down sadly.
"What? How?"
"Long story. She didn't blend in well enough. And speaking of blending in, no one knows you four have abilities, so let's keep it that way." Phil said, gesturing to me, Loki, Daisy, and Yo-Yo. Deke was off in the corner talking to his friend Tess, so he didn't hear us.
In the next 60 seconds, we came up with a rough plan. We needed to steal a Kree tablet so we could find out where Jemma was being held, and we needed to find a way to get Deke on our side. He's too afraid of making noise, so Daisy is following him, seeing if she can dig up some dirt and use it to blackmail him into helping us.
The rest of us just need to blend in.
~~~May's pov~~~
Coulson filled me in on everything. Apparently, Catherine married Loki. That explains why he was at the diner with her. She's also pregnant. That makes this all much more intense.
We've worked out the kinks in our plan. Catherine and I will distract Tess while Coulson, Mack, Yo-Yo, and Loki steal the tablet.
"You got this?" I asked her as we walked over to our 'survival teacher.' "100%. Just follow my lead." She smirked.
~~~Catherine's pov~~~
I had an idea of what could distract Tess for a long period of time.
"Hey, Tess. Could I talk to you about something? It's kind of important." I gave her a small smile.
"Sure. We can go somewhere else to talk." She nodded and brought us to what looked like a broom closet. "So, what's up? More past stuff?"
"I guess you could say that," May said, side-eyeing me, not knowing my plan yet.
"I've just noticed that there aren't many children running around. Why?"
"Oh, that I can answer. The blues control the population. Anyone who was born on Earth before it cracked apart are the last people that were born the normal way. Well, almost. There's one exception, but the blues got rid of her and her mother. They sterilize the females at a young age. Why do you ask? It's not like any of you guys are kids."
"Well, no, not exactly. But what would the Kree do if they found out a woman was pregnant?" Now I was asking real questions.
"They'd probably kill her. But that's not possible. We were all sterilized when we were young. Unless... None of the women in your group are pregnant, right? There are only four of you, so the chances aren't all that high."
"Um... I am." I said timidly, her words making my heart beat faster and the floor beneath me spin.
Her eyes widened. "Oh, God. That's not good. No one can know about this!"
Yeah, no shit!
Just then, there was an announcement over a PA system. I couldn't understand what they said, but Tess did.
"What? What is it?"
"It's a renewal."
"Care to elaborate on that?" May asked.
Instead of answering, she asked us, "Do you both have metrics?"
Metrics?
"No. What's a metric?"
May sighed and held out her wrist. "This. It goes through your damn wrist."
"Okay, so, no. Not happening." I waved my hands in protest.
"Well, unless you have superpowers, it has to happen." Tess insisted.
I groaned. "Let me see that again, May."
She nodded and held out her wrist for me to see.
I know I shouldn't do this, but...
With a wave of my hand, an illusion of a working metric was installed into my wrist.
"Woah! What the hell was that?!"
"Not a lot of time to explain, but essentially superpowers. Now, can you please explain what a renewal is?" I asked, making sure the illusion was convincing.
"Um, well, a low-earner will be selected. Their metric will turn red. Then they owe a life. Their own or someone else's."
That doesn't sound sick at all.
~
We left the broom closet and made it to the Exchange. It's like the town square of this hell in space.
As soon as we entered the place, a Kree guard dropped a rifle in the center of the room. "A life spent."
"A life earned!" The crowd of people echoed the reply.
Seconds later, everyone's metrics started beeping.
May's, Tess, and mine all turned blue. Meaning we were safe.
Granted, I just made it look like mine turned blue.
But a handful of people's metric turned red, and the room erupted into chaos.
"We need to find the others! Did they tell you where they would be?" Tess asked me as we ran out of the Exchange and into the hallway, trying to avoid getting hit by crossfire.
"Loki, where are you?"
I didn't expect a response, but I got one almost immediately.
"With the team. They need to get metrics installed. We're with some man named Grill. Tess should know who that is."
"Okay. I'll ask her. Stay safe. There's something called a renewal going on."
"Same to you."
"Tess! The rest of the team is with some guy named Grill. Can you take us to him?"
"Yeah, but we have to hurry. Before something happens." She nodded and led us through the panicked crowds of people.
I turned back to May as we ran.
"Meet up with me there."
She nodded, and I teleported to where Loki said he was.
~~~Grill's workshop~~~
~~~Phil's pov~~~
Grill had just installed Mack's metric when the door to the room opened. We all turned to see Catherine.
Grill's second in command stepped toward her. "Who the hell are you?"
"Relax. She's with us." I spoke up seconds before Loki could.
"You need a metric installed too, sweetheart?" The goon said condescendingly, making her roll her eyes.
"No. No, I don't." She raised her wrist, and to my surprise, there was already a metric there. "But you need better brain cells installed, sweetheart."
I could see Loki smirking proudly in the corner of my eye.
~~~Catherine's pov~~~
"Good to see that you're alright. But how did you get a metric?"
"I cast an illusion of one. And the illusion works just like the others do. It's like the real thing, except it doesn't go through your wrist." I explained. "What about you?"
"Same story, more or less. But-"
His sentence was interrupted by the sounds of gunfire outside.
"What's going on?" Phil asked, walking over to who I could only assume was Grill. "It sounds like people are dying out there."
Yeah, well, news flash Phil, they are!
"A life is owed." He shrugged. "Now, we stay safe in here. But if that fails..." He trailed off and held up a remote that magnetized Phil, Yo-Yo, and Mack's metrics, keeping them stuck to a wall. "We make sure they find you first."
Oh no.
Loki and I exchanged a look, hoping this didn't blow our cover.
Grill stared at us, confused for a second before realizing something. "You two already had metrics. That's too bad. If I would've installed yours, you'd be wall decor like your friends. But there are other ways to make you comply."
I almost unnoticeably shuddered at the use of the word.
"Hey, it's okay. Hydra can't hurt you anymore."
The soothing sound of Loki's voice calmed me down.
I have to remind myself in times like these that the Hydra chapters of my life are over. They are gone. In the past. Quite literally.
Grill's henchmen, goon, whatever you want to call him, took a taser and held it up to my chest.
My breathing became more erratic as the device crackled with electricity.
Loki was only a few feet away, but I could still feel his fear.
"I'm fine. Just don't do anything that will make this worse."
"Define worse."
"Now, if any of you does anything stupid, she's gonna get zapped until she drops. You hear me, sweetheart?" Goonie taunted me with the name.
I didn't answer. I just looked back to Loki, who was silently begging me to go along with it.
"I said, do you hear me?"
"Loud and clear," I muttered.
I hate this more than words can express, but I can't take any risks right now.
"Good. Now you two are gonna come with us, and we'll keep an eye on yous in the office." Grill said, urging Goonie to basically herd us into a smaller room behind where the rest of the team was stuck.
Dammit!