X marks the spot

Farewell, Cruel World!

Riots were happening in the streets. This world was falling apart. But, this time, in the way that the agents wanted it to fall. With the people realising the threat that HYDRA were. They were slowly losing command. Their power that they so desperately wanted.

Aaron would have celebrated this, had he not been drinking whatever he could find. Katie and him hadn't said a word to each other since the TV studio.

That made for a fun ride back to base: with Daisy looking between her two friends as they did everything they could to avoid eye contact.

The two had gone their separate ways from the group as soon as they had arrived. Aaron, as said before, found a drink; and Katie took leave in her room. The same room that just so happened to be Aaron's in the other world (even if she didn't have that full knowledge) and started throwing whatever she could find.

Daisy left the room, after being informed by Jemma that their problems just kept building, with AIDA now having a machine capable of building a body that can create her in the real world. But, it wasn't just that. It was also having to tell her best friend that they may have to leave her other best friend behind in this world in order to save it. Or, leave him behind for now. And that was looking at it through a very, very optimistic lens.

Speaking of optimism, she found who she sought, the one who was almost the exact antithesis to optimism. One who sat in a chair, alone, drinking himself to death it seemed after the secret that led to most of his issues as of late being revealed to the one person that drove him to those lengths.

Daisy walked into the room, taking one of the free chairs and moving it to go opposite her friend. She watched him, taking in his appearance. He was definitely tired. In both of the ways a person could be. Physically and Mentally. And sleep wouldn't fix it.

"AIDA's going to try and build a body for herself in the real world. We need to get out now so we can stop her." Felt right to just come out and say it. And, to her credit, it got his attention as he looked up from the ground as he spiralled further and further and looked at her instead.

She saw the shattered soul that laid beneath the tough, walled off exterior that he had built. The one that had been shown to the team when they first met him and got through to him. And then a few times after.

"You spoken to her yet?" Was his first words to her. His first words in a while, in fact. Daisy leant back in her chair. Biting her lip. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Not yet. Thought I'd come check in on you first. Let you know what out game plan is –"

"Do we even have a plan? Except vaguely try and look for this fucking place?" She clenched her jaw. Wow, the pessimist in him was strong today.

"We'll find it." She assured him. She just wanted to get out at this point. Not just to stop AIDA, although that was the priority. The main drive for her, and she hoped that Jemma and Aaron felt the same way about that drive. But it was also to just escape this hell. To escape every feeling that this place had brought back. People, locations, feelings. The wounds that they weren't sure how to heal. The wounds that they just wanted to bury came back to haunt them. And she didn't like that. For her as well. But mainly for her friends. She believed that she could say that all three hated seeing the other in pain. So, for Aaron, she hoped that using that angle would make him rally himself and realise that this wasn't real.

"Aaron, we need to get out. We need to find AIDA and stop her. Alright, seriously. It's now or never with that crazy bitch. And I am not. I repeat, not, letting her win. Not after all the crazy shit that we've been through."

It took a moment for Aaron to respond, "I never got to say sorry to you."

"For what?" Daisy asked.

"About the whole parents thing."