Furious knocking on my lab door had me running and peeking out. Mack was nervously playing around with his hand, looking at me.
"Look, we need you to come with me right now. Coulson is an absolute mad-man and isn't listening to any of us." I come out and lock the door behind me, following a jogging Mack.
"What's he doing now?" I ask him, gasping. Mack was a fast walker and I had small legs.
"To summarise it all up, we have a machine in storage that can bring out our memories, but apparently it's like torture. It almost killed him last time." I speed up faster, knowing that there was something mentally wrong with Phil. It must've been all of this carving stuff, making him think that there was something missing. I opened up the door to the lab and saw Phil getting hooked up to monitors.
"What do you think you're doing?" I ask him, making him look over and glare at Mack.
"Mack, I ordered you not to tell her." Phil almost growled, but Mack stood up strong.
"You're risking your mental health, Director. It was all done in concern." He told Phil, going over and sitting next to Fitz.
"Why are you doing this?" I ask him, stepping closer.
"We need answers. This is the only way." He says. Skye slams the folder she was holding shut.
"In the history of bad ideas, this is light-years ahead of everything." She argues, frustrated.
"No, trying to bring dead agents back to life using alien blood blows everything else away." He retorts.
"Phil, Fury was only trying to help us. We were murdered, that isn't the right way to die." I tell him softly, nervous about how he was getting himself ready to hurt himself.
"Fury is a liar. Your brother and the rest of the Avengers knew this, and I was too stubborn to realise he would do something like this." He raises his voice. The heart monitor hooked up to him started to speed up, so I tried to calm him down.
"My brother literally calls everyone a liar. He's like a younger and healthier version of House. Trust me Phil, don't do this. Just contact Fury or Maria and ask them to-"
"No, Avery. You're too young and naïve to understand that things aren't this easy in real life. Let me do this." I back away, slightly offended by what he said, and I turn around.
"I tried." I murmur to Hunter, whilst walking out of the lab and staying near the back of the room.
"She has a point. They buried those memories for a reason, Coulson. They were driving people insane. And now you want to uncover it when you've been getting worse. May would never –" Phil cuts of Skye, angrily.
"May's not the director. This is my call. I was put in charge of the Tahiti project, so those people are my responsibility. If going back in this machine saves even one life, then it's worth the risk." He lays down and Jemma sighs, strapping him in and finalising stuff.
"Stealing bodies, talking about aliens and bringing the dead back to life. What kind of creature feature did I sign up for?" Mack asks Fitz.
"Coulson lost his –"
"Marbles? Mind?" He offers Fitz, watching the two girls fix everything up for the machine.
"No, memories. The machine helps him find them." Fitz says confused, looking at the both of us. Skye comes in and starts talking quietly.
"Mack, I need you close... just in case." She asks him. He looks at her, wondering why.
"In case?..." He trails off.
"In case he starts screaming and you need to hold him down." She bluntly says. We all stand up and move into the room, so we could oversee everything.
"I don't have a good feeling about this." I state sadly, not wanting to look away, but I physically couldn't. Fitz rests his hand on my shoulder, non-verbally agreeing.
"Okay, try to stay relaxed. Listen to my voice. I'll guide you through, but at the first sign of any duress, I'm pulling you out." Skye warns Phil, but he denies it straight away.
"No, not until we have everything we need to find this guy." He firmly states.
"All systems are go." Skye turns to look at us before pulling out a picture and showing it to Phil.
"Concentrate on Agent Stevens. She's your access point. Focus on her." Phil nervously takes in a shuddering breath, and it starts.
"All right. Take him back." Skye confirms, letting Simmons turn on the machine. He closes his eyes, but his body was shaking lightly. His eyes rapidly moving under his eyelids.
"What do you see? Where are you?" Skye asks him.
"The guest house - in the interview room." He answers, turning his head slightly.
"Do you recognize anyone?" Skye asks again.
"I'm alone." He denies.
"Concentrate on Agent Stevens." Skye urges him.
"Is this really going to work?" I whisper quietly to Mack. He shrugs, keeping his eyes on the small screen that was showing Phil's face.
"How are you feeling?" Phil asks. I look at him confused, wondering if he was just crazy or maybe responding to someone in his head. "Do you remember how you got here?" He says again. "She's here. She's doing well."
"This is incredibly creepy." Fitz murmurs, biting his nails.
"And the others? How many are there?" Skye questions him.
"Six patients, well-adjusted. I'm recommending immediate release." Phil says, shaking his head once more. As time passed, he began tensing up, and his heart rate was beginning to grow higher and higher. We all looked at each other, getting worried about Phil. His body suddenly jerks up and I step back, bumping into Mack's chest.
"His heart rate is spiking." Simmons warns.
"What's happening, Coulson?" Skye firmly asks.
"I see the writing for the first time. Something's happening to them." He says crazily. His eyes open, and body still jerking, he begins to breathe heavily.
"Vital signs elevating." Simmons says again, tapping at the tablet with his vitals on it.
"Tell me what's going on, Coulson."
"Degenerative effects." He spits out. "They're unstable. They're getting worse every day. They're getting worse every day. We're losing them." He chants. Fear was beginning to grow in my body. These people were crazy? Phil's recent actions seemed to be pushing him in that direction, who knows how long it was going to be before I started going down lunatic road. Mack kept both of his hands on my shoulders, telling me non-verbally that he was there for me.
"What have we done? What have we done? What have we done?" He begins to cry out, looking over at Skye.
"What did you do? Tell me." Skye looks over him. Simmons was beginning to look worried and Fitz sighed with discomfort.
"We erased them, all of them. New names, new memories it was the only way." He cried. I brought my hand up to my head, but I felt Mack push it back down. Fury erased my memories... but it was for my own good, wasn't it?
"You did the right thing." Skye praises. "Can you find their new names?" She asks him.
"Uh, how much more can he take?" Fitz asks.
"I don't know." Simmons respond, watching as Phil's back curves and his torso lifts off the table, thumping back down heavily. The monitors were beeping loudly, warning us of his vitals.
"I don't think we should do this anymore guys." I whimper, beginning to tear up. Phil was in pain, sweat covering his body and his face sculpted with fear. "Take him out, please." Skye denies, shaking her head at Simmons.
"Whatever you're doing to him, you need to stop!" Mack agrees, raising his voice.
"Coulson, we need their names. Find their names so we can pull you out!" He looks at Skye once more and begins to spit out slowly.
"Lewis Seaver." He says, gasping.
"That's one." Skye tells him, fear taking over her voice making her tremble. "That- that's one. K-keep them coming. Keep them coming." She urges him.
"Jerry Combs." He says again. "Holly Print. Jeremy Halves. Sebastian Derik. Hank Thompson." He finishes.
Skye looks down at her tablet, searching them up. "You're doing so well Coulson." She praises him, working quickly. "The body of Lewis Seaver was found in the remains of the Santa Maria church fire in Miami." She tells him slowly.
"In the fire was this guy too." He mumbles.
"Three of the others died of unnatural causes in the last six weeks. This guy is definitely targeting Tahiti patients." I shiver under Mack's touch. Could I be on this guy's hit list? Phil? Skye? We could all be in danger, and we don't know who from...
"Is there still a chance?" Phil asks.
"Two of them are alive. We need to find out which one is the killer. Do you remember anything, any clues?" Phil was shaking even more, and I wasn't liking it.
"Mack..." I whimper. "I don't like this." I tell him. He hugs me tightly, keeping his eye on the machine.
"Skye, hurry." He tells her quietly
"You're not okay, and it's only gonna get worse." Phil says, but soon enough he begins yelling. "I need to know! I need to know! I need to know! No! No! - I need to know! I need to know!" His body convulsing strongly. Mack steps in front of me and I begin to cry.
"Get him the hell out of there!" Mack screams.
"Shut it down! Shut it down!" Skye orders Simmons.
"I need to know! I need to know!" Phil was still yelling. Skye grabs me by the shoulder, dragging me to the conjoining room where it was a little quieter. We couldn't go out of the room as we had locked it before the procedure. This was supposed to stay hush-hush between the team.
"Sedate him! I'm calling May." Skye orders.
"Shh, Ave. Come on." She tries to quieten me down, but the stress and fear was getting to my head. What if I woke up dead tomorrow? Who was this guy, and why was he killing these people? I didn't like seeing anyone in pain either, and I just watched almost 15 minutes of torture happen to one of my father figures. Skye give up, getting the phone and calling up the bus with me still hugging her.
"Coulson went into the memory machine." She says into the phone. Sniffling, I couldn't hear the other side, so I had no idea what they were saying. My body shudders with the sobs racking through my body, and Skye was freaking out. I could still hear Phil yelling as he was in the next room and I covered my ears.
"I need to know! I need to know!" I hear him still crying out. Fitz was standing at the foot of the bed, freaking out awkwardly, Mack trying to keep Phil from flailing around and Simmons was trying to find a vein to sedate him.
"It wasn't my call." She complains.
"I need to know. I need to know!" I see Simmons being pushed into the wall by Phil as Mack was trying to keep him down.
"Coulson?!" Skye pulls out her gun and aims it at Phil. "Don't make me use this." Phil stopped from getting up off the machine and I quieten down to match the others who were speechless.
"I'm sorry." He apologises, breathing heavily.
"I spoke to May." She warns him, still aiming her gun at him. "She wants us to lock you up until she gets back."
"I think that's a good idea." He deadpans, showing no emotion. Everyone just looks at each other, realising what just happened.