Renegade Rising || Leo Fitz Book Two

Chapter SixtySeven

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."