Asia stayed silent the entire flight back to Base, starting down at her slightly quivering hands. She had done that. All of it, without even thinking. She had probably hurt her best friend, definitely sent her toppling. She had hurt Lincoln. Granted, she had been protecting her team. Her life. No one even knew exactly what had happened in that meeting being Shield and Inhumans, and everyone just began to attack. She was just doing what had to be done. She was always doing what had to be done.
But as she avoided thinking about what she had done, she started to think about why it had happened instead. Skye's mother insisted that Gonzales has shot her, yet refused to let anyone see Gonzales or see if he was alive. They had been forced to leave him behind, if there was even any him left. It all came back down to Skye's mother. The woman who was allegedly a lover of Inhumans, but was unwelcoming to her the entire short time she had been there, simply because she was an Inhuman in Shield. Asia didn't trust her. She was very certain she was lying about something, especially after the events which had occurred that day. She needed to make sure Coulson knew everything before they proceeded.
And then there was the matter of Skye's father, who had been left with them as a "gift." What was the purpose of that? Why send them a man as a prisoner if Jiaying had planned to sabotage the plan the entire time? She glanced over at Cal, and he looked over at her sudden movement, grinning and waggling his dry fingers at her. She glowered at him and looked away. There were several pieces to this puzzle, but how exactly did they all fit? What was it that connected all of these dots, that was just out of her reach of seeing?
Asia looked over at Jemma who frowned and shook her head. Quietly, with almost no movement, she removed several empty vials from her pocket and then nodded towards Cal, her brow creasing with concern. Asia glanced over at the man, who was jittery and bouncing his leg up and down ever so slightly, while listening to something on his headphones. She looked back over at Jemma, at the vials in her hand. He was juiced on something. Another piece, falling into place. Asia furrowed her brow, staring at the map in her mind of everything laying out as it should be.
She felt an awful lot like one of those conspiracy theory guys, with the board covered in red string and tacks, tying everything together. And it was starting to make sense, even if it was coming to a conclusion she didn't want to see. Jiayang was the one who offered Cal to them. Jiayang was the one who wanted to turn her away for being in Shield. Jiayang was the one who said she was shot, but wouldn't let them see the man who she claimed shot her. All the little red strings were leading right back to Skye's mother, to Skye's mother being behind this sabotage. But why? What was the point of hurting so many people this way?
That was the piece Asia didn't have, didn't understand. The biggest W. Why. That would be the final string which tied all of the things together. If they could figure out that last remaining piece, maybe then Asia could solve this entire thing without bloodshed. That was what she wanted right now. To end this all, without a drop of blood on her hands, no more red in the ledger.
The flight felt like it took an eternity. When they finally landed, Asia stood up on shaky legs, watching the ramp slowly lower and the other Shield soldiers, heavily armored, march Cal off the plane. Jemma followed slowly behind, stopping to look over her shoulder at Asia, then down at her pocket where the vials were tucked. She had to speak to Coulson. May stepped up beside Asia, silently placing a hand on her shoulder.
Asia looked over at the elder woman's hand, trailing up the arm to meet her gaze. "Thank you, for what you did," May said quietly, with a nod. "You got our team out as safely as possible."
"Except for Skye," Asia replied flatly, the name hitting her hard in the heart. Except for Skye. She had saved everyone except her closest friend, the one she felt so linked to. If she thought about their connection, really reached out, all she could feel was sorrow. She had left her teammate behind. Worse, she had attacked her own teammate. "I could have hurt her."
"She could have hurt you, too," May replied. "You didn't attack her, you defended yourself. You didn't aim to hurt her. You aimed to get us all out, safely, quickly, before anyone else could get hurt. You did a good job, Agent Monroe." The woman sighed, removing her hand from the younger woman's shoulder. "Now let's go. There's work to be done."
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After leaving May with Coulson, Asia headed towards one of the briefing rooms, where Coulson had said she could find Leo and Hunter. As she opened the door, she was met with the grainy glow of a security feed being displayed on the large wall in front of her, Leo and Hunter standing in front of it. Hunter was pointing at a figure on screen as Leo was enlarging the image using his tablet.
"Hey boys, am I interrupting?" She asked, shutting the door behind her. Both of the men jumped at the sound of her voice, she deep into what they were studying they had not even noticed her entrance.
"We were, uh, we're trying to find Bobbi. Her jet never made it to its destination," Leo frowned, stepping towards her for a moment out of habit, before remembering the task at hand. "We're looking at this footage of Bobbi and May leaving the door to the hangar together, that's the last we saw her."
"No, no, that's not possible," Asia crossed her arms over her chest, stepping closer to the screen. "May didn't fly in with Bobbi. I watched her get off a jet with Jemma and Weaver. She was never with Bobbi."
At her words, Leo started typing on his tablet. "You're right. Facial recognition has another timestamp for Agent May. A full ten minutes later," he pulled the next video up on screen, May exiting with another group of agents.
Hunter ran his hand over his face, sighing in frustration. "It's Agent 33. She left with Bobbi."
"But why?" Leo asked. "What would she want with Bobbi?" He pulled up the original footage and the three agents stared at the screen, the question bouncing through all of their heads. The big W, Asia thought again. Why? Why, why, why.
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The three rushed down the hall towards Coulson's office, bursting through the door, taking deep breaths of air. Jemma, May, and Coulson were already there, deep in discussion regarding Cal's mysterious appearance.
"We were played," Hunter said in between gulps of air. "Agent 33 left with Bobbi disguised as May," he nodded towards the raven haired agent as Fitz quickly pulled up the videos on the screen in front of them, playing May's two exits side by side.
"And Jiayang tricked us too, on top of that," Asia shook her head. "The whole meeting was one big plot. Sir...if you had gone instead," she looked over at Coulson, frowning, "I'm afraid you would be dead in his place."
"The Inhumans are in complete belief that Shield attacked their base," Coulson nodded, "When in reality, their leader was pulling the wool over their eyes the entire time. I wanted to believe there was only good to come of this meeting. I truly did, if not for Shield, then for Skye's sake," He let out a tired sigh. "But it appears I was wrong. And according to Agent Simmons, we may have a Trojan Horse in our midst as well."
"We need to go after Bobbi," Hunter continued. "The Quinjet's transponder went dark outside Aranda De Duero in Spain. I'm gonna need a pilot." He looked around the room, eyeing his teammates.
"I'll go," May nodded at Hunter. "We'll get her back," she turned to Coulson.
He nodded. "Go, keep me updated on the progress," He watched as May and Hunter quickly left the room. "That entire situation has Ward written all over it. He's the one who left Agent 33 here. It must have been for some twisted plot of his own accord." Coulson turned and looked back at the screen, a million thoughts racing through his head. "Agent Simmons, please get back to the Lab. I want definitive answers on what Cal injected himself with. Agent Monroe, I want you to start laying out exactly what Afterlife looks like. If there's going to be a fight, I want to know the place backwards and forwards. Agent Fitz, build a digital model to her specifications and upload it so we all have access." The three agents nodded, exiting the room together and heading towards the Lab.
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"Do you think Skye's mother really did it?" Leo asked as he dropped down a building she was describing into a square on the map they were building together, a digital 3D model, glowing blue. "Really planned this whole thing?"
"No, that building needs to be 2 meters wider on each side, and at a 25 degree angle," Asia pointed to the tower he had just set, "That's one of the watch towers. They keep people stationed there. Well. They did when I was around." She sighed, her gaze flicking over towards him, smiling sadly. "I do. I do think she did it. I don't understand why, but I believe Jiayang has started this ball rolling and I don't know where it's going to stop. I know....I know it's going to get dangerous and that I'm worried that the people we care for...the people we care for might not make it all through this." She blinked rapidly, looking down at her lap, then intently back at the map. "And add a tree about 3 meters to the north there, it was an Oak tree, I think."
Leo looked over at the woman he loved, watching her as he pressed the tree into place without even watching the placement. She was scared, that much was apparent, even if she hadn't said it for him. And when Asia was scared...Leo knew this was a time to be worried. But he also knew this was his time to be reassuring. "Hey," he stepped towards her, setting his tablet down, grabbing her hands gently and pulling her to stand in front of him.
"What are you doing?" She mumbled, "We have work to do." One single tear manged to slip from her left eye, drawing a river of betrayal down her cheek until Leo stopped it tight with his thumb, wiping it away from her soft skin.
"The work can wait for a moment, while I make sure my girlfriend is okay," he whispered, resting his forehead against hers. "Now tell me, what has got you so upset?" He held her hands in both of his, kissing her fingertips gently. "I'm right here, and you can share anything with me. You know that, right?"
"She attacked me," Asia whispered. "Skye. I saw her hands and I saw her start to do it, and I just. Reacted," she shook her head. "I didn't even think, my body just moved, and I attacked her right back. Not...not with my fists, or anything like that. With this." She held her palms up, a twist of ice flickering above each.
"But you didn't," Leo replied, flicking the ice away and taking her palms back in his. "You were protecting yourself, protecting your team. Which is exactly what you needed to do, because it meant you got right back here, safely." He brushed a strand of her brown hair behind her ear and kissed her nose gently. "Do you understand that? You didn't do anything wrong."
"I didn't do anything wrong," she repeated softly, looking up at his eyes, hoping she could relay just how much she loved him in this moment. Whenever she needed it, he was there. Whenever she needed anything, he was there. "We will get through this mess, together." She said, to him but also to herself.
"Of course we will, and then we'll just be on to the next one," he joked, brushing a hand through her long, brown hair. "Are you going to be okay?"
"Yea," she nodded, offering up a small smile. "Now, let's really get back to work, before Coulson comes to check on how the map is going." And so they did, constructing the rest of the map, adjusting it, fixing it until it was perfect. Until it was ready to distribute to the team, to use if it came to it.