AD ASTRA. | IV.

( 'FIREWORKS SUCK' )

The car drove by the side of the prison. Loghan and Robbie looked at the fencing as they passed by. The charger slowed down. 

Robbie glanced calmly to the side. Upon seeing one of the guys from the incident at the lab, he sped up and the car screeched as they left the parking lot. 

"What happened?" Loghan asked, furrowing her eyebrows. 

"That guy from the lab," Robbie muttered. "He's here."

"Shit," she said, as Robbie made a hard turn and she hit the door. 

They turned onto a regular street. Loghan looked back to see a bright red Corvette following them. She had to admit, it was a nice car. 

"Can't you do something?" he asked her, pushing on the gas. 

"No, there's too much traffic," Loghan sighed, glaring at the cars around them. 

They zipped through traffic, moving from lane to lane, the sound of other vehicles honking very much present. 

They approached a truck that was beeping as it moved in, blocking half of the road. They rushed past it just in time. 

Loghan was about to celebrate but when she looked behind her, the Corvette was still behind them. 

Robbie drove onto a sidewalk to try and get further ahead. The two cars came side-to-side but parted for another civilian vehicle to pass between them. Robbie managed to pull them ahead, but the Corvette started gaining. 

"You do a lot of street racing?" Loghan joked, despite the uneasy feeling in her stomach from their speed. 

"I used to."

"Used to?" Loghan did a double take. "Oh, you're serious. Okay."

They passed through an underpass, no other cars around except for the red Corvette. They came through and drove on empty pavement. 

"Alright, now I can do something," Loghan nodded. She opened the window and held a hand out, propelling them through the particles in the air. 

Robbie laughed a bit as he saw their pursuers falling behind. "How'd you do that?"

"I just—"

Her words were cut off as the car rocked forward. Robbie's head hit the steering wheel and he was out immediately. Loghan felt immense pain in her forehead but was still conscious. 

She peered ahead and saw a quinjet uncloak itself. She cursed, the thought of her mother instantly coming to mind. 

Loghan's vision was hazy as two men walked up to the window. One was Mack, Daisy's friend, and the other was a man she knew all too well. 

No. It was impossible. He was dead, her mother had told her so. 

"Coulson?" was the last thing she said before her vision blurred and she was out. 

》》◆《《

Loghan blinked hard. She was lying on a white cot in a white room with hexagonal panels. She shut her eyes at the brightness of it and pinched the bridge of her nose as she got up, a dull but ever-present pain in her head. Robbie was still out, off to the side of the cell. 

She stared at the two men outside of the cell, mostly at the one she knew. 

"Okay, either you guys put me on drugs or I'm hallucinating," she shook her head in disbelief. "Because last time I checked, Phil Coulson was dead."

"Surprise?" Coulson made a little jazz hands motion. 

"This isn't possible. I was literally at your funeral," Loghan fumbled for words. "How are you—"

"Do you want the long story or the short one?" Coulson asked. 

"Short one, please."

"I was injected with alien DNA that let me live but gave me crazy visions to the city of the Inhumans."

Loghan blinked. "That's...wow. Why haven't you told anyone?"

"It overcomplicates things," he responded. 

"That doesn't make any sense but okay."

"You wanna tell me what you've been doing recently?" Coulson smiled. 

"No, not really," she shrugged, sitting back down. "Did did my mom send you?"

"No," Coulson said. 

"So then who are you with?" she crossed her arms over her chest. 

"Shield."

"Shield collapsed."

"Then we rebuilt."

Loghan was skeptical. "So where's Fury?"

"He's not exactly part of this anymore," Coulson divulged. 

"Why am I in a box?"

"Because you were running with him," Coulson nodded to Robbie, who was just starting to wake. 

"Damn." Mack was busy examining Robbie's car. "Not even a dent. I wouldn't mind having a superpower like that for a day or two."

"Hands off my ride, man," Robbie chided, now standing beside Loghan. 

"The car is safe," Coulson stepped in. "Your situation is a little more precarious."

"You think this thing can hold either of us?" Robbie raised his eyebrows at them. 

"It's contained people a lot more dangerous than you," Mack put his leather jacket on a stack of crates, leaning against it. 

"Is that a dare?" Robbie challenged. 

Mack shrugged. 

"I've heard rumors from your part of the world about a man with a flaming skull," Coulson started. "Always seemed like an urban legend to me."

"So were gods, then Thor and Loki showed up," Loghan contended. 

Coulson ignored her comment. "You escaped capture all this time."

"We nabbed you in a parking lot," Mack said. "That's gotta hurt."

Robbie looked away. 

"We've got facts, too," Coulson spoke up after a moment of silence. "Robbie Reyes, dropped out of Garfield High. Took work at Canelo auto and body to help pay the rent."

 "Half-way decent driver," Mack added on. 

Loghan had to admit she agreed with that part. Robbie was kind of a bad driver. 

"With a few bad habits," Coulson agreed. "Well, one really bad habit of killing people."

"Only those who have it coming," Robbie defended. 

"From what I can tell, that seems to be true," Coulson nodded. "Which makes you a little more interesting."

"I have a code I try to live by."

"And a knack for spontaneous combustion," Coulson remarked. "Which I must say sounds painful. How do you do it? You're not an Inhuman, are you?"

Robbie shook his head, glancing to the side at Loghan for a second before looking back at Coulson. "Why do you guys keep asking me that?"

"Where does your power come from?" Coulson asked. 

Robbie leaned forward, his eyes blazing red. "I made a deal with the devil."

Coulson pursed his lips and gave a curt nod. "Right."

He held up one finger and went to go speak with Mack. 

"You gotta stop telling people that," Loghan told Robbie. "No one's going to believe you."

"Do you?" he asked. 

She gave him a sideways look. "Honestly? No."

Loghan and Robbie watched Coulson step up to the side of the cell in confusion. He pressed a button on the panel and the doors opened. 

"Took you long enough," Loghan mumbled, stepping out of the white cell into the black interior of the quinjet. Much more appealing to the eye. She walked around the white block and leaned against the window. 

"Damn, you two must be straight loco letting us out of the cage like that," Robbie pointed a thumb at the cell as he walked up to his car. 

"I was just thinking the same thing," Mack sighed. 

"I flame up and I can bring this whole plane crashing down," Robbie alleged. 

"With you in it? I don't think you'll do that," Coulson scrutinized. "Flying isn't one of your special talents."

Robbie finished examining his car and stepped back to the group. 

"I'm opening a door for you, Mr. Reyes," Coulson explained. "Both literally and figuratively."

"What do you want in return?" Robbie inquired. 

"Same thing you do: answers," Coulson replied. "Your Uncle Eli has them, that's why you were going to see him." 

Robbie stopped pacing and turned around curiously. Loghan perked up at the mention of Eli Morrow, figuring SHIELD might have similar motives to her. 

"I think we're on the same side, but I need you to prove it to me," Coulson stepped forward. "Prove you're not the demon they say you are."

"You save a friend of mine from a guy my bones went straight through," Mack granted. "You're the only one we know that can hurt those things."

"So let's help each other," Coulson offered. "Eli won't talk to us but he'll talk to you. All we ask is that you let us listen in on the conversation."

Robbie glanced around the jet with an unreadable expression. "And if I say no?"

"Then we open another door for you," Coulson threatened, though his voice was calm. It reminded Loghan of her mother. Maybe it was a SHIELD thing. 

After a pause, Robbie conceded. "Alright."

Coulson and Mack looked at Loghan expectantly. 

She stood up straighter. "Oh, I'm cool with whatever, as long as you don't tell my mom."

》》◆《《

"Dr. Lucy Bauer, Joseph's wife," came Eli's voice through the monitor in the large plane, which she had learned was called the Zephyr One. 

Coulson leaned forward and onto a chair, while Mack and Loghan crossed their arms, listening to the conversation. 

"You put him into a coma," Robbie said. "What were they getting up to up there?"

"I was one of the project leaders of this privately funded think tank," Eli explained. 

"Momentum Labs," Robbie realized. 

"Yeah, next level RND," Eli confirmed. "They needed an engineer to help them build their design and they were very impressed with me. But what they really wanted was someone who wouldn't ask too many questions."

"What were they building?"

Eli sighed. "A quantum particle generator. It's a machine that generates matter out of practically nothing at all."

Loghan's eyes widened. That was impossible, or at least, should be for another few years. How had they managed to figure that out?

"That sounds...impossible," Robbie gauged. 

"Yeah, it's insane," Eli agreed. "Defies all the laws of physics. See, they thought they were pushing boundaries and I thought they were playing god."

Loghan was all too familiar with people like that. People like that were the reason her little sister, a literal kid, struggled to sleep at night. The reason she had scars on her back and awful memories that haunted her constantly. People who played with forces like that were dangerous. 

And they needed to be taken out. 

"And it blew up in their faces?" Robbie concluded. 

"Yeah, literally," Eli returned. "They should have listened to me. The police said it was an accident, but Joe made them move forward and it killed the whole team. His wife. Joe killed them. I was so pissed at what he'd done, I couldn't stop him, I just...I snapped. Now I'm doing the time."

Loghan watched as Eli moved forward. "Listen, Robbie. What I wanted was—"

"Revenge," Robbie finished. "Why didn't you tell me any of this before?"

 "Cause you were just a kid," Eli's voice broke. "I was supposed to take care of you and I let you down. But these are my demons, they're not yours."

"Robbie, Lucy Bauer isn't dead," Coulson informed. "That accident must have been how she got her powers. Find out where she'd go. What is she after?"

"What is she after?" Robbie asked his uncle. 

"She's gonna go after the book."

Coulson and Mack shared a look and Loghan glanced at them confused. 

"Book? What book?" Robbie questioned. 

"I don't know what it's called," Eli said. "They say it gave them the knowledge to build their machine. It has all the knowledge—"

Loghan's focus shifted to behind her, where a loud beeping noise began to ring. She watched Mack approach one of the computers and check out the alert. 

"Coulson," Mack called. "We gotta move, we got a situation with an asset. A volatile one."

Loghan exhaled. "Daisy."

》》◆《《

Loghan watched as Coulson and Mack readied their weapons, waiting for the quinjet to join up with them again. 

"You don't have anything to get ready?" Mack asked, loading his shotgun ax. 

"Not really," Loghan shrugged. "I just kind of show up and wing it."

"That's not always gonna work," he told her. 

"Well, it has until now," Loghan attested. "Besides, if I wanted to get tied up in protocol I would've just joined your stupid academy."

"What's going on?" Robbie asked. "Took a while to catch up with you guys."

"We got a head start," Mack answered. 

"We going after that book?"

"Not yet," Coulson clicked his gun. "Something came up."

"Listen, I held up my part of the deal, alright? Now we're going after it or I'm taking my car and going myself."

Coulson looked pissed. "That's not how things work here. We need to make a detour. We could use your help if you're still interested in our arrangement. That depends on you."

The hanger opened, and Loghan followed Mack. They explained that Daisy and one of their agents were there. It was a simple rescue op. 

After entering the fireworks warehouse, Loghan ran downstairs, where there were lots of identical garages. Cadavers wearing Watchdog masks littered the floor as two men stood outside of one menacingly. 

"Come on," Loghan held her hands up in mock surrender. "See, people like you guys are the reason the world hates us."

They both turned to her, clearly very angry.  

One of them began walking towards her. 

"Give it your best." She created two carbon daggers. Alarm filled her senses as he did the exact same. "Or maybe don't."

The guy flipped one of the spikes in his hand and lunged at her throat, but she managed to lean back in time. She swung a leg around and knocked him over. 

Across the hall, she could see Robbie taking on the other Inhuman. 

In her second of distraction, the guy managed to slash at her knees, causing her to fall over. She hit the ground with a grunt. 

She flipped onto her back and threw herself back onto her feet, unhinging one of the metal doors and launching it at him. "Go!" she shouted at Daisy and the agent. 

Loghan threw spikes of different materials at the guy, but he just turned them around on her. She grew crystals around him to keep him in one spot, but he just melted them off. He picked up one of the guns off the floor and shot, but the bullets turned to gas before they even hit her. 

He growled and pulled all of the doors off the lots, bringing them together into one big ball of metal. It came hurtling at Loghan. 

She threw both hands out in front of her and melted it to a tiny piece of metal, which she dodged easily. 

"So you don't have any of your own beliefs, or powers," Loghan spat. "Good reason to hate yourself."

She got on his last nerve with that one. He charged at her very fast, and they both fell through a hole in the brick wall that definitely wasn't there before. She glanced beside her, where her assailant was about to get up. Before he could, a black spike of carbon impaled him in the stomach, poking out through his back. 

Part of her died on the inside as she'd realized what she'd done, but another part of her liked it. Being able to get back at those that hurt so many others, that ruined the lives of so many people all over the world. 

In a way, the blood on her hands was justified. 

God, she was starting to sound like Robbie. 

Loghan breathed heavily and looked around her. Fireworks. 

When she looked to the side, she saw Robbie and the other matchstick still fighting, some of the fireworks around them lit. 

"Oh shit," she muttered, forming a barrier of iron around herself. "Robbie—"

Before she could finish her sentence or her shield, the explosives went off. Loghan was blown back and scraped across the floor. More fireworks went off as she coughed and covered her mouth with her sleeve, eyes watering. She caught a glimpse of Robbie and followed him through the wreckage. 

When she finally stepped out of the exploding warehouse, Loghan was met with a cool breeze. She staggered across the pavement to where Daisy, Coulson, Mack, and the agent were all standing, staring at her, Robbie long gone. 

"Your strategy work this time?" Mack tried not to laugh as she walked past, her favorite t-shirt in tatters, her hair a mess, and soot all over. 

Loghan didn't say anything. She just held up a middle finger in the air as she stomped back onto the Zephyr. 

》》◆《《

Loghan wordlessly sat in one of the seats on the side of the hanger, wearing a huge SHIELD jacket, picking at her nails. Robbie and Daisy sat on either side of her, but she didn't acknowledge the former. 

Coulson stepped in front of the three, tablet in hand. 

"Thank you for saving Simmons and I back there," Daisy said. 

Coulson looked up and said simply, "You're welcome."

"Are you...gonna say anything else?"

"Nothing else to say," Coulson affirmed. "I'm just glad you're safe."

Daisy looked down. "The Watchdogs are—"

"The Watchdogs took a hit," Coulson interrupted. "They continue to be a threat but we have to put them on the back burner for now."

"They're not gonna stop just because we—"

"We have a more pressing threat on our hands."

"Sorry, for me, nothing is more pressing then—"

"Look, I know you all like to work alone," Coulson acknowledged. "Settling personal scores. But that's not how we work here at SIELD. We work together, to keep everyone safe."

He tapped the screen and threw the tablet at their feet. "From things like this."

Loghan looked down to see a sketch of a book with weird designs on the cover. 

"Is that the book my uncle was talking about?" Robbie inspected. 

"I think so," Coulson imparted. 

"Well, where do we find it?" Loghan asked, staring up at him. 

"No one ever has," he admitted. "Not Daniel Whitehall, not the Red Skull, not even Nick Fury himself."

"Damn, I thought that man knew everything," Loghan commented. 

Robbie looked between them, puzzled. 

"He's an old friend, sort of a mentor, really," Coulson tried to explain awkwardly. "But they all went looking for it. It's called the Darkhold. It's been referred to as the book of sins, a book of spells, infinite knowledge. I don't know what it is. But I do know it's in everyone's best interest to keep it out of the wrong hands."

Daisy picked up the tablet to look closer. 

"That shipment you were tracking in Los Angeles?" 

"Yeah, we thought it was a weapon," Daisy replied. 

"In the form of a person," Coulson nodded. 

"Lucy Bauer," Robbie said. 

"Who your uncle said was playing god," Loghan mumbled. 

"Now she's after it," Coulson stated. "So you may want to be solo, but forces beyond our control are driving us together. You don't need us? Fine. But right now we need you."

The three glanced unsurely between each other. 

Daisy sighed. "Do you know where to start?"

"Joseph Bauer, the man Robbie's uncle said was at the center of all this?" 

"He's been in a coma for years," Loghan tried to reason. 

"Well, he just woke up."