X marks the spot

After, Before

Deke and Mack had been left behind. Mack had needed some time alone after his parents had been replaced. It was understandable. But, Deke, for his flaws, was a decent person – he had been through this before, and needed Mack to know they weren't going to just leave him behind.

Ironic, then. But, the time machine was acting up. So, they couldn't exactly help it.

They had jumped 481 days ahead. 1983. They had previously been in '82.

Lisa felt the shift again. They had just yet again. Further into 1983. September, to be exact.

Lisa had gone up to the main deck after the second jump, and saw Elena and May being prepared to leave on a mission. So, Lisa followed them.

She was, at least as far she knew anyway, a SHIELD agent. She had a duty to help people. And they were a few agents down.

Jemma paused after giving May a watch telling them how long they had to reunite with everyone. Lisa had come around the corner, and ran up to stand next to May.

"Are you sure?" Jemma asked, eyes full of concern.

Lisa nodded, then pulled out a fresh notepad and wrote in it with a new pen. She didn't exactly like having to replace the objects, but part of her was thankful that she even could.

"He didn't hurt me," her words said, "I can help."

"But you still went through a traumatic event," May said, exchanging a glance with Simmons, "you need to rest."

Lisa shook her head. She was adamant to go. If she could help this small group of people on their seemingly impossible mission, then she would.

They were good people. They deserved to win.

"Alright," Jemma said, "but be careful, ok?" she asked. She then paused, hand going to her head, before she then wiped her nose, a small amount of blood being on her fingers.

"Simmons?" May asked in motherly concern.

"No. Go," the woman insisted, "I'm fine. I'll do what I can here. I think I just – I just need some rest too."

May was still suspicious but nodded. They had two more people to find.

So, off they flew.

Mack had seemed invigorated by his time. More willing to fight than ever. Deke just gave them a smile all a smile; glad his friend was ok.

They returned, and Jemma's theory was correct. The team returned unscathed and alive, and together again. It felt – almost – whole.

Lisa stood with the team as Jemma explained what the issue was for the Time Device. Jemma had pulled a graph up on screen; one line being yellow and going up at a larger rate the further along the graph it went – this was called the "Zephyr One Time"; another line, this one being purple, was going at a more even pace – this line was called "Outside Time".

Obviously, something had gone wrong.

"So, this is what we're dealing with. We've lost control of..." she was interrupted by yet another jump in time, "of the time drive. At this rate, the Zephyr will collapse into a space-time singularity in two days," she said, concluding her first point.

She continued after allowing the words to hit home with her friends – while not everyone knew fully what that was (or at least, Lisa hoped so, as she sure as shit didn't), they all knew it was bad, "or relatively speaking, twenty minutes."

"Wait. Come again, now?" Mack asked.

"Think of it like a stone skipping along the surface of a pond," Jemma said, tapping on the computer, changing the screen, it showed a blue line arcing on their one, and it got smaller and smaller as it continued to do so, "the jumps and the time we spend in any given time period are getting exponentially shorter. If they keep getting smaller..."