Forged In Hellfire

Part 1(Ch6)

The ground team enters deep into the mill in search of the source of the energy signature. They discover a room full of steel slats with a strange rock in the middle.
"I'm not picking up any energy readings, but this is where we traced the signal." Says Coulson, using his robotic hand to scan the area.
"Hey, guys." Calls Quake. "I think I found something."
They approach the large rock with a flat surface and notice a strange script carved into it.
"Any idea what language that is?" Asks Coulson.
"Doesn't look like anything I've ever seen." Replies Mae.
Coulson gets a few scans of the rock.
"Hey Fitz, I'm sending you some images of a rock. It looks like the energy signature was coming from it."
Fitz walks over to his computer and uploads the images. "Got it."
"See if you can find out what language these carvings are and have a team come down to transport it, we're on our way back."
Emilie wakes up in bed at HQ with an ice pack on her head. She sits up on the side just as someone knocks on the door.
"Come in." She says holding the ice pack on her head.
"Hey," says Quake. "I brought you something to eat. I figured you might be hungry. You've been asleep for 10 hours."
"10 hours?!"
"Yep, that tranq you took put you out for a while."
"The agent that got shot..." Emilie starts to ask.
"He's gonna make it." Reassures Quake.
Emilie puts down the ice pack. "Did you guys find anything else down there?"
"Yea, actually. Coulson took some scans of some pretty weird looking script on a rock. It looked like that was the site of the energy source, but there was nothing when we found it."
"Any idea who the guy in the suit was?"
"Nope, but he's hoping you may recognize him. Whenever you're ready Coulson has an image of him he'd like you to take a look at."
There is another knock at the door and Quake goes to answer it.
"Uh...I'll leave you guys alone." She steps out and Robbie steps in.
Emilie avoids any eye contact with him.
"You ok?" He asks.
"I'm FINE." She says, mocking the tone he used with her earlier.
"I told you not to come down. We could have found the control room and got the power running ourselves."
"And risk getting caught or ambushed?"
"You could have been hurt, seriously hurt."
"And so could everyone else!" She says speaking out.
"The Watchdogs aren't after everyone else!"
"Don't... Just don't."
"Don't what?"
"Act like we're together." She says sternly. "Like you really care if something happens to me."
He stares at her with a loss for words.
"If I die today do you know what would happen?" She waits for him to answer. When he doesn't respond she tells him. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I have no family to morn me and nothing in life to live for. I am alone." Her voice starts to crack with emotion. "All I have is me. So, I don't need you to protect me. You're much better at hurting me."
She walks out of the room leaving Robbie to digest everything she's said. She finds Quake in Coulson's office trying to figure out what their next step should be.

"I'm sorry if I'm interrupting." Apologizes Emilie. "I thought maybe you could help me out with something whenever you're free."
"I think we're done here." Says Coulson releasing Quake. "But before you go..." Coulson pulls up an image of the man they saw in the suit. "Do you recognize him?"
"No," Emilie walks closer to the screen. "Can you zoom in on his hand?"
She looks closely and recognizes a tattoo on his hand.
"Look familiar?" asks Coulson.
"The writing..."
"We found more of it on a rock at the facility." He pulls up an image of the stone with the strange engraving.
"My dad had a similar tattoo on his hand."
"Any idea what it means?"
"No, I thought it was just a tattoo."
"Well considering what we know of your dad and the mysterious circumstances we met this guy under, I'd say we have an angel on our hands. And I don't think he's on the good side."
"What's up?" Asks Quake, once they step out of the office.
"I thought maybe you could help me experiment with my powers."
"Yea, let's head over to the lab." Quake notices something bothering her but decides not to ask about it just yet.
"When you use your powers, how do you feel?" She asks.
"I don't know. It feels...natural, but I'm scared at the same time."
They walk into the lab and Quake has Emilie step into the booth.
"Let's try a meditation exercise. I want you to close your eyes and just relax. Try to listen to your body."
Emilie closes her eyes and relaxes. She thinks back to a memory of her dad. He's outside washing the mustang and Emilie runs up to him with a baseball.
"Hey kiddo." He says lifting her up.
"Can you teach me how to throw now?" Asks little Emilie.
"Sure." He says grabbing the extra mitt she brought him.
Quake watches as Emilie starts to become entranced in her memory. "Try and think of calm, peaceful, memories."
Emilie remembers wildly throwing the ball to her dad.
"That's ok sweetie. It takes practice, but we're gonna get it."
He rolls the ball back over to Emilie.
"Now I want you to throw it right here," He says pointing to the glove. "Right here sweetie."
Emilie throws the ball and is a little closer this time. She is excited as her dad rolls it back.
"That was so close honey! Let try it again."
Quake watches Emilie in the booth. Her hair starts to lift off her shoulders like static.
Little Emilie throws again and lands the ball in her father's glove. She jumps with excitement.
"Good job!" He says. She runs over and gives him a big hug.
Emilie suddenly starts to lift off the ground in the booth, visible static charges firing from her body. Fitz walks over from his computer.
"Is she doing that herself? Producing a static field?" He asks.
"Yea," Acknowledges Quake.
Little Emilie sees her mom walk out of the house.
"What did I miss?" She asks.
"Emilie just threw a heater. Almost knocked the glove right off my hand!" He says exaggerating her accomplishment.
Emilie focuses on the image of her mother. She feels the warmth of their love and then it gets hot.
"What's with the air in here?" Asks Quake.
"Nothing. It's always set on 65." Replies Fitz. He walks over to his computer and pulls up data being recorded from inside the booth. "It must be her."
Quake touches the booth and feels a heat radiating off the glass.
The image of Emilie's mom soon gets dark. The sunshine fades and as her mom approaches, her face begins to burn to ash. Emilie reaches out for her hand, but it crumbles at her touch. She turns back to look at her father and realizes she is alone. Fear sets in and she starts to panic. "Mommy!...Daddy!"
Fitz continues to monitor the data in the booth. "Um, she's giving off A LOT of heat. Her core temperature is at 250° and steadily rising."
"Whatever she's thinking about must be getting her worked up. Emilie," Quake calls to her. "Think happy thoughts. Think of memories that make you happy."
Emilie is too focused on her memory to hear Quake calling out to her. She sees smoke all around. "Mommy....Daddy!" She calls out again, this time in real life.
Soon her body ignites, still suspended off the ground by the static field.
"Emilie!" Calls Quake. "Emilie!"
Simmons walks into the lab and drops the files she is carrying. "What is going on?"
"Daisy was trying to help Emilie with her powers and now she's concentrated on a memory we can't break her out of."
Emilie let's out an ear-piercing scream from inside the booth. Everyone in the lab covers their ears and Emilie's body collapses to the floor. Quake runs to check on Emilie. Her skin is steaming as she gets back to her feet.
"Don't touch me!" Warns Emilie.
"Are you alright?" Asks Simmons.
"I'm fine." She walks out of the booth and Fitz pulls up the footage of what happened. Emilie watches speechless and slightly horrified.
"It's okay. You're making progress. It's not something you learn to do over night." Reassures Quake.
"And we can make adjustments to your suit as you make progress." Says Simmons. Emilie walks off.
"Poor thing. This is really frustrating her." Says Simmons.
"She's not just frustrated...she's scared." Explains Quake.
Emilie walks around the compound trying to find an exit that wasn't locked down. After her third try she loses her temper. She puts her hand on the keypad and delivers a jolt of electricity causing the circuits to fry.
"I can't begin to imagine what you're going through." Says Coulson walking up behind her.
"I want out." She demands.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that."
"Just let them take me..." She pleads.
"You don't know what they might do to you." Expresses Coulson.
"I don't care," she yells with tears in her eyes. "Let them kill me."
"Is that the what you want? You think that things would be better if you were just gone?" He watches as tears pour from her eyes. Mae, Quake, and Mac walk over.
"Emilie, trust me. This is not the end of the world. We can work through this." Says Quake, trying to defuse her outburst.
"No..." Says Emilie shaking her head. She places her hand on the keypad again and delivers a charge. The door slowly starts opening.
"Did she bypass the security system?" Asks Mac.
"She fried the connection. The system is offline. Emilie, stop." Coulson holds up an ICER, a gun that incapacitates assailants instantly.
She sees him pointing the gun at her. She slowly rises off the ground, her eyes completely dilated, electricity flickering across her skin.
"Emilie you need to relax!" Yells Quake.
Emilie holds out her hand sending a pulse of electricity towards Coulson knocking him back. She sees Mae reach for her ICER and tries to knock her back as well, but Quake sends a sonic pulse dissipating the charge and knocking Emilie against the partially opened door. Emilie gets to her knees enraged. She tries to create another pulse, but Coulson manages to shoot her with the ICER. She immediately blacks out.
"Put her in a containment cube." Orders Coulson.
"You sure it's gonna hold her?" Asks a concerned Mac.
"Let's hope so."
Mac bumps into Robbie in Engineering after they deal with Emilie.
"I think you need to have a talk with Em." He suggests.
"Now's not a good time." Robbie continues tinkering with the part him and Mac removed from one of the Jets the day before.
"Coulson just had to ICE her. I'd say now is as good a time as any."
"What?" Says Robbie becoming concerned.
"She went postal and Coulson ICED her. She's in one of the containment cubes in holding."
Robbie tries to decide what is best.
"Look, I know you guys are having a little lovers quarrel, but you're probably the only one that can reason with her...and who she can't seriously hurt." Adds Mac. Robbie puts down the tools and walks over to the holding area. He finds Emilie laying on the bed.
"Don't worry, she's just sleeping." Says Mae sneaking up behind him. "She would have done a number on us had Coulson not ICED her."
"That's not like her. She wouldn't hurt anyone." States Robbie.
Mae pulls up security footage of the incident on the containment cube's keypad.
"She's scared." Mae tells him.
"That makes the two of us." He mutters.
"If you want to go in and see her, you'll have to go through Coulson. He's deemed her a security threat." Informs Mae as she leaves the area.
"Anything on that script?" Asks Coulson walking into the lab.

"Not yet." Fitz pulls up his data from the rock. "So, I think this was used as a portal."

"How did you get to that conclusion?" Questions Coulson.

"I did a scan and there are particles that indicate there was energy coming from the rock. How? I don't know. It's a rock. There is nothing special about it. But there were traces of blood." Explains Fitz.

"Blood from what?"

"Angels. I'm pretty sure it was used to transport Gideon into our world."

"So they used blood from good angels to bring back a bad one?" Questions Coulson.

"That's what it looks like."

"Well, we're going to need more to go on. If we translate that script maybe we can find out where he came from, although I'm pretty sure it's not the clouds. Me and Mae have a meeting with the director in an hour. Keep me posted." He walks out of the room and Simmons looks up suspiciously from her computer.

Mae and Coulson head to meet with the SHIELD Director at a summit he is attending. Simmons tracks down Quake in the sparing room.

"Hey." Says Quake, grabbing the punching bag.

"I need your help." Requests Simmons.

"What's going on?"

"It's about Emilie..."