More news. According to Simmons, the rock that the man turned into was terragenesis. It turned humans into inhumans by some sort of chemical equation that Wanda didn't fully understand. And if non inhumans touch it... Well they die.
So Wanda ahead two guesses as to what happened. If Gonzalez truly did shoot Jaiying, she used terrigenous in response as a back up. If Jaiying was lying about everything, she killed him on purpose and shot herself for the sake of making him seem guilty.
Either way, this was not good for SHIELD.
The Quinjet was in the air, flying back to HQ in order to get away from the war brewing in the Inhuman city, and to get Cal in the custody of Coulson.
"Jemma, do we have confirmation on who actually fired the missle?" Coulson asked.
Added note, Simmons' first name was Jemma. And Fitz's first name was Leopold or something like that. May's first name was Melinda. Wanda just then found that out.
"No sir, we're still sorting out what happened with that Quinjet." Simmons replied. "Our priority was to get all SHIELD personnel out safely."
Wanda glanced behind herself, noticing Agent May standing to her feet, confused as to how she got back to the jet. She didn't show that confusion, instead making her way over to Simmons and Wanda to see who was piloting the jet.
"Was there any resistance to that from the locals?" Coulson asked in response to Simmons.
"No, they seemed as keen on leaving as we were. Perhaps retreating to shelters or bunkers." Gonzalez's assistant spoke from the other line that was connected to the other Quinjet. The one that didn't fire a missle down at the city.
"Or they evacuated." Coulson added. "We know they have a powered way out."
He then caught sight of Melinda.
"May." He spoke.
"Where's Skye?" May asked.
"How are you feeling?" Simmons asked at the same time.
"I have a headache and I asked a question." May stated.
"None of this would've happened if Gonzalez hadn't attacked." Simmons replied, angrily.
"He didn't." Wanda cut her off, confident in her statement.
"You can't actually believe he would do something like this." Gonzalez's assistant agreed.
"Oh no. Gonzalez would never attack a base unprovoked." Simmons said snarkily.
Using context clues and a tiny bit of mind reading, Wanda found out that Gonzalez had previously attacked Coulson's original base and claimed it for all of SHIELD. Then he put himself and his little committee in charge. So Wanda understood the frustration.
"Robert did not do this." Gonzalez's assistant argued.
"How can you be sure?" May asked.
"He brought her a gift." Wanda said. "He wouldn't do that if he was just going to shoot her."
The assistant gave a confused look.
"How did you know that?"
"I saw you give it to him before we landed." Wanda replied. "You're not very stealthy."
After a moment, the assistant resumed what she planned to say.
"Exactly. He went to great lengths for me to get a gift for Jaiying. A peace offering." She explained.
"I agree." Coulson added. "Gonzalez was smarter than this. It's too sloppy."
"I recommend we respond with a strong show of force." The assistant declared.
"I have no intention of starting a war before I understand the situation." Coulson replied. "Agent Weaver, you're now the highest ranking officer on The Carrier. I want you to head back there and await further instructions."
"Yes sir." The assistant said, before her screen clicked away and only Coulson could be seen.
"I don't believe that Skye would turn against us." Coulson said.
"You didn't see her fight me." May stayed back coldly.
So then it wasn't the missle that knocked her out. It was her teammate.
"Her mother had just been shot. I can believe she's confused." Coulson replied.
"No more than the rest of us." Simmons spoke. "Why invite SHIELD, only to attack?"
"I don't know. But maybe their "peace offering" over there does." Coulson said, looking behind the three women to the man sitting in the background.
The girls turned slowly, eyes falling on Skye's father. He was singing along to the song playing in the headphones on his ears.
Wanda sighed.
She didn't like the feelings that radiated off of him, and while she hadn't attempted at reading his thoughts yet, something in her intuition already told her it wouldn't be a pleasant sight.
"See you in a bit." Coulson said.
When Wanda turned her head back around, his screen was clicked off.
May sighed, wincing at a pain in her arm before looking towards the pilot of the ship.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Simmons asked.
"I said before, I have a headache. The usual." May replied, stepping past the two to get up to the piloting area.
As soon as she was out of hearing range, Wanda glanced to Simmons.
"Is she usually that cold?" She asked.
"Pretty much. She's not bad, just distant."
"Ah."
.
When the Quinjet landed, Wanda walked out with May and Simmons into the HQ, different from the ship that she'd originally been dropped at. It was where the lab was set up, as well as Coulson's office.
They walked Cal down to Coulson, who was waiting for them at the entrance of the base.
As soon as Cal was in front of Coulson, his headphones were removed.
"You wanna tell me what you're really doing here?" Coulson asked.
"Sure." Cal replied. "I'm a present. A gift horse. A peace offering from my family." He grinned and leaned closer to Coulson. "I'm also an excellent Shanghai Rummy partner."
Coulson put his headphones back on and gestured for some other agents to take him away to the cells. Wanda watched as Cal raised his eyebrows at her as he walked past, his grin dropping.
Simmons walked up to Coulson, taking Wanda's attention back to the group.
"Sir, I'm worried he's more of a Trojan horse." She said. "I believe Cal took these before he was handed over to us."
Simmons held up three nearly empty glass tubes in front of Coulson.
"I'm going to analyze them in the lab." She finished.
"Go." Coulson nodded.
Simmons gave a nod back and turned, walking away to go to the lab. Once it was just May, Wanda, and Coulson in the hall, Coulson spoke again.
"Have we lost Skye?" He asked.
"We didn't lose Skye." May answered. "She chose."
Then May too, turned around and walked off, leaving Coulson and Wanda alone.
"What do you know? I sent you there not only as a healer, but hopefully to get into their minds. Anything you saw that could be of use?" Coulson asked.
"I wish you would've told me that before we left. I could've paid more attention." Wanda replied.
Coulson gestured for her to walk with him as they talked.
"But yes. Jaiying, I couldn't see anything in her. Little to no emotions, really. Usually people are full of emotions that radiate off of them like their own person bubble. But she was just empty." Wanda explained.
"What about the others?" Coulson asked.
"Gonzalez wasn't. He was genuine. He wanted to help. That's why I don't believe he would attack them. The other Inhumans were more scared than anything else. Lincoln was angry. Like, really angry. I think that might just be built up issues inside of him though."
Coulson nodded as Wanda spoke. The two walked towards his office, and once they reached the office, Coulson saw a tablet on his desk that he'd left since the last time he was at the desk.
"I think Jaiying was behind this, whatever happened, it is her fault." Wanda admitted.
Coulson picked up the tablet and clicked a few buttons before sighing slightly.
"I'm gonna have to agree with you there." He pressed a small button on his desk. "May, Simmons, get in here."
"What is it?" Wanda asked, noticing the concern on his face.
He clicked more buttons and transferred his tablet screen to the main screen on his wall. He walked over to that wall and Wanda moved over to his desk, leaning against it slightly.
Pretty soon, May and Simmons reached the office, both awaiting what needed to be said.
"Skye's mom orchestrated the whole thing." Coulson spoke.
He clicked a button on his tablet and the screen turned to a video, one that showed Gordon the Inhuman teleporting inside of one of the Quinjets and beating up the agents inside. They were taking control of the ship to fire their own missle into their own city to frame SHIELD.
"It was a performance. The Quinjet they stole only fired on the one building. Nobody got hurt." Coulson said, clicking the video away as it ended.
"Except Commander Gonzalez and Agent Bidwell. The crumbling of the building must've been what caused his body to collapse. Then Agent Bidwell came to warn us." Simmons corrected.
"If it's theater, it worked." May said. "Every Inhuman up there believes that SHIELD attacked their leader and declared war."
"Including Skye." Simmons sighed.
Agent Hunter, the man who had talked to Bobbi with the accent that Wanda couldn't identify, and Agent Fitz walked in as Simmons spoke.
"Mark that down as the second time SHIELD got played today." Hunter grumbled.
"We figured out what happened to Agent Morse." Fitz translated. "She left on a Quinjet with you."
He looked at May, and everyone seemed to understand what that meant, except for Wanda. Fitz played a video on the screen wall with Bobbi exiting the base with Agent May. The screen paused, zooming in slightly on their faces.
"I didn't leave with Bobbi, thats-"
"Agent 33." Coulson finished May's sentence.
"Who?" Wanda asked.
"An Agent with facial technology that makes her look identical to Agent May. She was brainwashed by HYDRA and now she's evil." Simmons explained quickly.
"She killed her guard, stashed him under a blanket in Vault C, then boarded a Quinjet posing as May." Fitz explained.
"But why? Did something happen between them?" Wanda asked.
"The Quinjet's transponder went dark outside Aranda de Duero, in Spain." Hunter said. "I'm gonna need a pilot."
"With pleasure." May offered herself.
The two walked out, Coulson didn't say a word. In fact, he followed them out to give mission details.
Wanda turned to Simmons.
"What's going on?" She asked.
"Agent 33 was a former SHIELD agent. She was taken by HYDRA, mind controlled, did a bunch of bad things. She got facial technology permanently stuck to her face, and now she can turn into Agent May whenever she wants. We thought she turned a new leaf but I guess not." Simmons explained.
Wanda stared at her blankly, then decided it was best to just leave it at that.
"We should go back to the lab." Fitz suggested.
"Agreed. I put the chemicals that Cal took into testing. It should be ready soon." Simmons agreed.
The two left, walking out at the same time that Coulson walked back in.
He immediately went over to his desk, watching as an ACCEPT CALL button appeared on the wall screen. He clicked the Accept button and moved over to the middle of the room.
Wanda moved aside, sitting down as the screen showed Agent Weaver, Gonzalez's assistant, standing with another agent that Wanda remembered seeing before.
"Coulson, we need to rethink our tactics with the Inhumans." She started.
"We don't need to start a war." Coulson immediately followed.
"They destroyed the device we used to track the teleporter. Not knowing their next move is exactly why SHIELD needs to end this before it goes any further." She persisted.
"I agree that losing the tracking device is a big setback. Satellite imagine suggests their compound's been all but deserted." Coulson replied.
"It doesn't mean we can't strike."
"Till I know more, I won't be forced into action. We may still have assets in there." Coulson argued.
"Agent Skye?" The other agent asked. "She could expose us. She knows every SHIELD procedure."
"You're gambling with our lives because of one agent." Agent Weaver stated angrily.
As they talked, Wanda noticed the bald man, Mack, walk on screen. She was slightly confused, because the first and last time she saw him, he was talking about quitting.
"The security of SHIELD far outweighs the safety of Skye." Weaver finished.
"It's not her safety, it's her usefulness." Coulson disagreed. "Mack? I thought you left."
Mack's attention was brought to Coulson and he gave a slight huff.
"I did. But with Gonzalez dead, I need to see this settled first." Mack answered.
"So you agree we should attack." Weaver asked.
"No. I agree it needs to be settled."
"I'm not sure whether I'm happier you haven't left yet, or that you agree with me for once." Coulson's slight smile returned serious. "I understand Skye could be a threat, but she's also our best bet for resolution. And if worse comes to worse, we have a new ally who is equal in force when it comes to Skye."
Coulson glanced to Wanda, and so did the higher ranking agents on the screen.
"I have Skye's father here." Coulson returned to the conversation. "Give me a few hours to gather more information."
"Three hours." Weaver decided. "We'll continue gathering intel on this side."
Coulson nodded, and the call ended, the screen disappearing. He then looked at Wanda once again.
"Head down to the lab. Help Fitzsimmons with anything they need." He instructed. "I'm gonna go have a word with Skye's dad."
"Got it."