The men in the truck with Daisy, May, Nat, and I are all loading their automatic rifles, filling up their vests with extra ammunition.
"All of this for one subversive?" Daisy says quietly for only us four to hear, "Seems a bit extreme."
"Be quiet," May loads her pistol, "And do your job."
She cocks her gun and we all head out of the truck. We follow behind the group of armed officers and head towards a small house. At least we know Simmons isn't here.
One of the officers kicks down the door. I scoff, "I'm sure they would of answered if we just knocked."
Nat laughs lightly next to me, causing me to smile at her. She shakes her head and keeps moving forward.
I catch up to Daisy as we enter the house, the sound of a child screaming and a man shouting filling the small and quaint rooms. When we enter the living room, Daisy and I both gasp, gripping onto each others arms.
"Mack," I mutter under my breath. I watch as May grabs the small girl that was sitting with him, pulling her into another room. Mack keeps shouting, "NO! Stop! She's just a kid! Stop!"
I feel like I black out during the time it takes of us arresting Mack and his daughter, the ride back to the Triskelion, and them being set up in the interrogation rooms. I stand outside with Daisy as we wait to get the all clear to go and question his daughter.
"They want you to interrogate a 10 year old?" I whisper to her. She gulps, putting her hands on her hips, "She's just a kid."
"That doesn't matter to them," Daisy shakes her head, "You're guilty until proven innocent here."
"I hate being a HYDRA agent," I drop my head, "I just hope they're on their way to Radcliffe right now."
"Me too," She sighs. The officers come out of the rooms and May and Nat walk down the hall, stopping in front of us. I grip onto my leather jacket, taking a deep breath as I try and act all uptight and evil.
"Skye, you're going in with the girl, Morris observing. We're going into the man," May instructs, "We're going to get information out of them, by any means."
"What exactly did they do?" I ask, leaning forward.
"That's our job to find out," Natasha nods, "Madame Hydra would not of brought them in if they weren't subversive."
The two of them walk around us and head towards Mack's room. I turn to Daisy, "If Madame Hydra called them in-"
"It's because she knows that we're trying to get them out," She finishes. "Let's just go in. Not draw any attention to ourselves. She knows Simmons is in here but as far as she knows, we're still the avatars she's coded."
I nod, opening the door for her to enter the girls room. She enters and I go into the observation room, watching the interaction from behind the one way glass.
Daisy goes to the water machine on the side of the room, pouring a glass. She approaches the table slowly, sitting down across from the cute little girl. She looks just like Mack.
Daisy pushes the glass of water towards the girl, who wraps her small fingers around it. "Hi," Daisy smiles, "I'm Skye."
"Hi, Skye," the little voice answers.
"What's your name?"
"Hope Mackenzie," She replies.
Daisy's head tilts slightly, "You're the Hope that he lost.."
"He didn't lose me," The girl responds. Oh, she's sassy, "You took me from him. My dad follows the rules, he's a good person."
"I'm sure he is," Daisy chuckles.
"Then let us go home," She pleads, "Please, I just want to go home."
"I wish it was that simple," Daisy sighs, her voice delicate, "It's not my call."
"Dad warned me not to mess around with that drone, but I didn't listen," She sighs, looking down, "This is all my fault. I-"
"Hey, hey, it's okay," Daisy interrupts her, knowing that that's not the reason they're here, "Your dad's gonna be all right. I promise."
"Please help my dad," She responds, "Nothing can happen to him. We're a team."
Daisy sits back in her chair, nodding. She gets up suddenly, walking out the door. I do too, meeting her in the hall as she sighs. She rubs her forehead, "This is not good."
Before I could respond, May and Nat exit Mack's room. "Get anything from the girl?"
"She's scared," Daisy responds, "What about him?"
"We haven't broken him," Nat answers, "Yet."
The two of them walk away as ominous as ever and Daisy and I exchange a pair of looks. "I'm going to go talk to him."
"Is that really a good idea," I stop her.
"I have to try," She whispers, "At least tell him his daughter is safe."
I clench my jaw, nodding. I follow behind her as she walks into his holding room and I walk into the observation room again.
She turns to him as he leans over the table, his hands clamped in front of him as he's chained down, "I was just with Hope."
His eyes widen in fear as she approaches the table, "She's safe."
He visibly relaxes, sighing as he drops his head. "That's one special girl."
He breathes shakily, "Thank you." He eyes her, "Listen, we need to talk."
Daisy stops in her spot, before she circles the table and sits in the seat in front of him. I watch with anxiety flooding through me as she asks hesitantly, "Do you know who I am?"
"You're Daisy Johnson," He responds. I gasp as her eyes widen. This seems too easy, "We're both SHIELD agents."
Holy shit?
She lets out a sigh of relief, "Yes. Yes. Oh, thank God."
"Okay," She continues, "We need to get you out of here, reconnect with Coulson, Simmons, Cap, Stark."
"Definitely," He responds, but something throws me off with how he's acting. He isn't acting like Mack. Maybe I'm just paranoid since finding out all my friends and my boyfriend were androids.
"Yo-Yo is with us on the outside. She's safe," She confirms to him. I know him and Yo-Yo have had a relationship that they keep on the down-low for a while now. I'm sure he'll be happy to know she's safe. "You have no idea how worried she is about you-"
He looks down confused before looking back up at Daisy. She stops, her words slowing down, "You don't.. Know who she is."
"Uh-" He stutters. Her posture straightens. "And me? Do you know me?"
"Oh no," I mutter as he shakes his head, looking down at the table, "I'm sorry. That's what the other agent told me to say." He lifts his hands from where he was hunching over the table, a microphone being revealed. Aida. She gave them the intel on Daisy to confirm that we're in here.
"Oh, no," I repeat. I run to the door leading into the room, Daisy and Mack looking up at me, "Daisy, we gotta go."
She jumps out of her seat, following behind me as we make our way into the hall quickly.
When we get out, Nat and May come barreling down the hall with armed agents by their sides. Shit.
"Go!" Daisy pushes me.
We run in the opposite direction, only to be stopped by two more agents. Daisy and I are quick to fight them, knocking them both out easily. We continue to run. "There! The stairs!"
I click the elevator button to throw them off before following Daisy down the flight of steps. I close the door behind me gently as I hear May yell, "Lock down the elevators!"
We run down a few flights and hide in the stairwell, both of us breathing heavily, "Well, this just turned worst case scenario."
"Sure did," She responds, looking out the small window. "Ah, okay. There are a group of guards, four of them, waiting by the elevator, once they go in, we follow behind. Beat them up, take their vests and guns."
"You make that sound much easier than it's going to be," I huff, cracking my neck.
"Now," She whispers, before she opens the door. I follow behind her and we stop once all the officers are in the elevator.
"Going down?" I ask, causing them all to look at us.
Before they could draw their weapons, Daisy and I head in and the doors close behind us. I knee one in the chest, which is becoming my signature move, before grabbing the arm of another that's throwing a punch at me. I bring his arm down with force against my knee, shattering the bones inside. I cringe. God, I hate that sound.
I kick the same guy in the face and he falls down, unconcious. I turn to the other guy and punch him in the throat, causing him to gasp for air. Then, I take his head and bash it into the floor, throwing him uncouncious too.
When I turn to fight another, I see Daisy taking off the vests of the other two. Oh, okay.
I pick up the machine guns that they have, handing one to her as she hands me a vest. We suit up and hit the ground floor button of the elevator. "See," She straps the vest to herself, "Easy."
"I guess they didn't code these people with much combat ability," I smirk, cocking the gun in my hand. Bucky would be so proud.
The elevator doors open and we just make a b-line to the front exit. However, we obviously aren't going to get that lucky.
"There's no where to go," May and Natasha stand at the bottom of the steps. We're half way down when Nat shakes her head, "It's over."
I jump when I realize that there are guards behind us, in front of us, on all sides. Shit.
Daisy and I look at each other, before we put our hands up, the guards grabbing the guns from us. We were so close.
One of them looks me in the eye as another holds my arms behind my back. I expect them to cuff me, but instead he punches me right in the gut.
"Hey!" Daisy shouts, but the same happens to her. I can't fight back as I'm punched in the face, then thrown to the ground. They continue to kick me as I curl up into a ball, grunting with every blow.
I look over, seeing Daisy in the same position. God, if we had our powers-
I'm not able to finish the thought as my head gets bashed by a baton and knocks me out cold.
-*-
I groan in pain as I come about my surroundings, my face pressed against a cold hard surface. Muffled screaming fills my ears as I grunt, my head throbbing and my lungs out of breath just from sitting still.
I force my eyes open, seeing Daisy on the other side of the large cement room, beaten and bloody. She's not moving. "Daisy-" I croak out, trying to move. It's then that I realize one of my hands is shackled to the wall behind me.
I swallow the painful lump in my throat, "Daisy-"
She moves slightly, her hair sticking to her face from the blood. She looks over to me as the muffled screams continue. She's able to speak much easier than I am, "That's Radcliffe. They got him."
Before I can respond, a bright light shines in from the hallway, making me realize how dark this grey room is. Two figures walk in and it takes a minute for my eyes to adjust to the see them.
I feel the world around me spin as I do, Fitz coming closer to us with Bucky trailing behind him. His face is covered by his mask and goggles, his identity still being hidden from the world. I think he's looking at me but I can't tell because of the dark glass covering his eyes.
"Bu-"
"No, Adelaide," Daisy stops me, "It's not him. He has the Framework and the HYDRA shit in his head."
Fitz lets out a cocky laugh, pulling a chair up from the table in the corner of the room. He sits down, crossing his legs, "You know the Winter Soldier? Is he from this other world too?"
My brows furrow, he knows?
My eyes stay trained on Bucky as Daisy speaks for us, "Fitz, you have to snap out of it. We're friends. We're a family. This isn't you."
"That's funny," He smiles, an uneasy feeling filling me as he does, "You aren't the only person who tried to tell me that today. Maybe you heard him before. It didn't go over so well for him."
Radcliffe. He's talking about Radcliffe.
Daisy groans angrily, "God damn it, Fitz! She's using you! Can't you see-!"
As she says that, Fitz motions his head towards Daisy. The Winter Soldier leaves his position in the corner of the room and goes over to Daisy, punching her in the face.
"BUCKY!" I scream, my voice feeling like knives in my throat, "No! Stop!"
He inches closer to me and I gulp, trying to fight the urge to cower back. He squats down in front of me and I reach forward quickly, removing the goggles so I can look in his eyes. Daisy protests but I ignore her.
When I do, I see his brows are furrowed, "Bucky, please," I whisper, staring deeply in his eyes. All I want is to hold him close to me. "Please. Snap out of it."
It's like something switches behind his eyes and he stands up quickly, the bottom of his boot colliding with my face.
I'm pushed back against the wall, feeling the fresh, warm blood drip down skin. It didn't knock me out, though. I wish it did.
Daisy lets out an angry shout as she tries to pull her shackle off, "God! This is so messed up! The real Bucky would never hurt her!"
"Stop, with this nonsense," Fitz growls, "Where is The Patriot?"
The who?
"Jeffrey Mace?" Daisy questions. Not going to lie, totally forgot about him.
"You are on a first name basis, I see," Fitz says slowly. I see Bucky staring me down but I avoid his gaze, not being able to look him in the eyes. "Is the leader of the Resistance from this other world too?"
"Yes," Daisy says, exasperated, "And I don't know where Mace is."
"What about Jemma Simmons?" He questions next.
"I don't know," She repeats. I close my eyes, every part of me throbbing. This is worse than getting shot.
"Why are you lying to hide a subversive?" Fitz scoffs. "Is it to hide that you two are potential Inhumans? Because I already ran your tests again and know that."
I don't even flinch. I don't care what they do to me anymore. I already feel dead inside.
"She isn't a subversive," Daisy argues, "And if I knew where she was, I would tell you. Because if anyone would be able to wake you up out of this twisted nightmare, it's her."
He just stares down at her, "She loves you and you love her. Just like Bucky loves Adelaide more than anyone else in the world-"
He stands up and slaps Daisy across the face. She spits out blood, "What happened to you, Fitz?"
"This place is my home," He doesn't answer the question, "I'm not going to let you destroy it."
I force myself to look at Bucky as Fitz leans down and whispers in Daisy's ear, "We'll go to yours first. And kill every single one of the people who stepped foot in here."
He starts towards the door, walking out. I call out before the Winter Soldier can leave. My weak voice breaks with every word, every syllable sending knives down my throat, "Your name is James Buchanan Barnes."
He stops, looking over his shoulder. If he can't remember me the least I can do is try and get him to remember himself, "You aren't one of them. You're a lover, not a fighter. You are the kindest, most caring person I know. I love you, Bucky. I know you can hear me. You've told me before that you hear everything. I know it's hard to understand. I hope you can remember that."
He stops looking at me and goes out the door, slamming it shut behind him.
I lean back against the wall as Daisy and I both cry quietly. How are we ever going to get them back?
All I can hear is Bucky's words in my ears.
I would kill myself before I would ever hurt you.