death doesn't discriminate, between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes

[the devil complex: season 5, episode 14]
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Rose blinked, "What the fuck?" she said as quietly as she could. "Your grandparents? When- what- how?"

        "They had sex, Rosie, obviously. Keep up!" Deke started.

        "I know they had sex, Deke. Everyone has sex," Rose hissed. "I was asking how you know that they are your grandparents? Now how they physically- you know what, just answer the first question."

        "Well, okay," Deke said nodding quickly. "Simmons said something that my mom always used to say. You know the saying:

        "The steps you take don't have to be big they just have to take you in the right direction," Rose and Deke said at the same time.

        Rose shrugged, "Yes, yes. I know the saying," she finished. "Okay, so maybe this whole time travel thing is messing with my head. But since Jemma said the saying now, before your mother was even thought of, or conceived, born, I guess. So if she originated the saying, that means she passed it down to your mother, who passed it down to you." Rose blinked, placing a hand over her forehead. "Oh god, my head is spinning," she commented. "Okay," she continued taking a deep breath. "You're their grandson. This is really fucking weird."

        "Weird for you. It's fucking weird for me," Deke said as they continued to walk down the corridor, keeping a considerable distance between Fitz and themselves. "My grandparents hate me," he stated.

        Rose tilted her head, "Hmmm, I don't think they hate you, that much," she said unconvincingly. "Look, Deke. I'm sure they will react differently once you tell them. It'll be like one big, happy, family reunion."

        "You mean, if I tell them," Deke said in a small voice.

        "If?" Rose said in disbelief. "No, you mean when you tell them. Hold on, you are gonna tell them, right?" she asked, shifting her head slightly to the left so that she could look him in the eyes. "You have to! You have family here, an actual family."

        "Rosie, you are the only person I need here okay?" Deke said quickly. "You, no one else."

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        Rose wasn't sure why Deke was hesitant to tell FitzSimmons about their new relationship, mainly because if Rose found out she still had family here, she would do anything she could to keep them as close as possible. She just didn't understand why he wouldn't jump at the opportunity to form closer relationships with them. Especially, since they were standing right in front of them.

        Daisy, Fitz, Jemma, Deke, and Rose were standing in the main hub of the lighthouse, trying to figure out a way to get the rift in the basement to close so they would stop experiencing the hallucinations slipping in from the fear dimension.

        "The Gravitonium from Deke's gravity gizmo was intensely compressed," Fitz explained. "Refined in a way that I cannot duplicate with the raw element we got from the Principia."

        "Let alone inserting it into this new device," Jemma added.

        "So I was hoping that- that Deke," Fitz continued, gesturing to his grandson. "Might be able to have some more insight into how it works."

        Rose looked towards Deke, but he wasn't paying any attention to Fitz. Instead, he was staring at Jemma in a sort of dazed trance. "Oh no," she mumbled to herself. Rose tapped Deke on the shoulder, trying to get his attention but he kept staring at Jemma.

        "Deke?" Fitz asked once more, but there was no response. Fitz slammed his hand onto a nearby table, "Deke!" he repeated, in a louder voice, causing him to jump.

        "Okay," Deke said, a little taken aback by Fitz's tone. "Well, I don't know much about the stuff inside," he admitted. "I just know that it's saved my ass like a thousand times. Almost as much as I've saved Rosie's."

        "Shut up," Rose scoffed.

        Daisy had a small smile on her face from Rose's response before she addressed the entire group, "Okay, well, the short amount of time that we bought ourselves is up. So, what's the plan?"

        "Well, I've temporarily plugged the dam, but it could burst at any minute, releasing more of these anomalies into the base," Fitz said quickly.

        "Or worse, out into the world," Jemma added with a small sigh.

        "Are you okay, by the way?" Daisy asked Jemma, referencing her earlier run-in with one of the aforementioned anomalies. "That could not have been easy."

        "I'm fine," Jemma said dismissively. "The astronaut isn't even my greatest fear. Goodness knows what else could come crawling out of there."

        Fitz began to pace around the room nervously. "Just.. trust me," he started. "I can figure this out. I just- I need to. I'll experiment all night if I have to," he decided.

        "Okay, so what do we do?" Daisy asked finally.       

        "Maybe I can find some of Dr. Franklin Hall's original notes," Fitz suggested.

        Jemma nodded, "Yeah, that could give us some insight into the nature of the element," she reasoned.

        "I'll see what I can find on the database," Daisy said, sitting down at one of the large computers in the Hub.

        "And please be careful!" Deke begged as his grandparents began to walk away. The couple turned around, sharing a confused look as Deke continued. "Just because we keep putting ourselves in increasingly perilous situations, which is worrisome, and I just don't want anything to happen to you-"

        Rose began to shake her head vigorously, signaling for Deke to stop talking.

        "Your- to your brains," Deke finished. "Cause they're so smart that if, we- we need those to survive."

        Rose had a horrified look on her face, "How the hell did you botch that so badly?" she whispered so that only Deke could hear her.

        "The words just kept coming out of my mouth faster than I could stop them," Deke responded as Jemma gave her thanks.

        Daisy looked at the two of them with a raised brow. "Uh, personal matters?" Rose said as if she knew exactly what Daisy was about to ask.

        "They're okay, right?" Deke asked. "Like, they're gon- like, they're gonna be- they're gonna be fine?" Deke asked Daisy.

        "They'll figure it out, have faith," she said nonchalantly. "Or a, you know, Xanax."

        "Guess I was just super moved by their nuptials," Deke said, trying to rectify the situation he created. "Become very invested in them as a couple. I just want them to, you know, last for, like, a long, long time-"

        "Oh hold on," Daisy said looking at the computer. "Looks like we've got a tracking hit. Our intel was right. Everyone slips up sometimes, even Air Force Generals."

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        The person the team was tracking is a general for the U.S. Air Force: General Hale. She was suspected to be behind the attack of the team on the Principia and the ambush they experienced which caused Yo-Yo to lose her arms. Deke was tasked with telling Fitz that they had found General Hale, leaving Rose to her own devices on the base. Which wasn't the best idea with the threat of anomalies running around. But, Rose insisted that she would be fine on her own. She had handled the Kree before, what harm could an anomaly of herself do?

        Rose would honestly be lying if she said she wasn't nervous walking around the levels of the Lighthouse by herself. She never learned how to use a gun, and it probably wouldn't be much use to her at the moment. They weren't any anomalies popping up around her, and if there were she wouldn't be able to shoot them. Stab them? Sure, if she had her trusty pipe with her. But shoot them? No. She could barely hold a gun without her hands beginning to shake violently.

        She gulped, rounding one of the corners as fast as she could. Rose was planning on going back to the storage closet she was in earlier. Only because she wanted to revise her blueprints again and she was sure that there was some chalk or something in the closet that she could use to write over was she had mapped out in 2091.

        Rose opened the door haphazardly as she slipped into the supply closet, closing the door behind her. She began to rummage through the boxes once more, trying to find the white chalk. This time she knew that she was gonna avoid the boxes with the screws and nails in them. This time she went to the opposite side of the supply closet, taking a small box off of the very top shelf.

        It was filled with nothing important, just a box filled with random clutter. Rose ended up slipping the crowbar into her pocket before placing the box back onto the shelf. Rose heard a small snap behind her and she turned around. But nothing was there.

        Instinctively, she grabbed the handle of her crowbar and walked forward. "Hello?" she sounded, expecting to see another anomaly when she peeked around the corner. But again, there was nothing. Rose pursed her lip, turning back to the shelf that she was looking at earlier, intending to return to her task from before, but another sound caught her attention.

        Click. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.

        Rose whipped around again, "Hello?" she repeated, louder this time. 'Maybe the sound is coming toward the hallway,' she thought as she instinctively started toward the door. She turned the handle sideways and began to shove her body against the door.

        "Huh?" she sounded as the door wouldn't move from its spot. Rose began to turn the handle faster this time, pushing as hard as she could, trying to get the door to open. But it was all to no avail, the door was locked.

        "Deke," Rose said through the other side of the door. "If this is your idea of a funny joke, guess what? I'm not laughing. Now please, let me out!"        

        "Deke?" Rose repeated but no one answered her. "Okay, okay," she said quietly, flipping the crowbar around in her hand. "How the fuck am I supposed to get out of here?" she asked.

        Rose gulped, "Okay, there has to be something I can use," she said slowly looking around the room. "I can pick a lock, I can do it," she said, trying to reassure herself as she grabbed a screwdriver off of the shelf next to her.

        Rose took a deep breath in as she lined up the screwdriver with the keyhole. "If only I had a bobby pin," she said quietly as she began to try and jam the screwdriver into the hole. "It would be a hell of a lot easier, than this stupid screwdriver," she exclaimed. The tool was too big for her to be able to fit it into the small keyhole that was keeping her inside the closet.

        "Fuck it," she said quickly, dropping the screwdriver on the floor. "Fuck it, fuck it, fuck it," she repeated. Rose grabbed the crowbar from her pocket and jammed it into the space between the door and the frame. She pushed her body against the weapon, trying to force the door open.

        "Come on!" she shouted, slamming herself against the door. "Just open!" Rose grabbed the handle of the crowbar and took another deep breath in. She looked directly at the door and ran at it, using her entire body to slam into the sheet of metal.

        Rose heard a loud snap as she barreled out into the deserted hallway. She looked back and saw her bent crowbar on the floor. "Aww man," she said slowly, picking it up off of the ground. "I actually liked this thing."

        "Rose?" Jemma said from the opposite end of the hallway.

        "Jemma?" Rose asked.

        "Are you okay?" Jemma asked instantly, "And have you seen Daisy or Fitz?"

        Rose shrugged, "I'm fine aside from the fact that I was locked in a supply closet. And, no, because I was locked in the supply closet."

        Jemma frowned, "Oh no, this can't be good," she said quietly. "We have to find them, if what Fitz said is true. The Doctor might have Daisy."

        "The Doctor?" Rose asked.

        "Oh right," Jemma said quickly. "You weren't in the Framework. Basically, The Doctor was a hydra mastermind who has a vendetta against all Inhumans. He was Fitz, but not my Fitz. You know?"

        "So, is he one of the anomalies?" Rose asked.

        "No, this was Fitz. We just need to find them," Jemma asserted.

        Jemma's wishes came sooner rather than later as Rose and herself pushed back a curtain of plastic to see Daisy lying on an operating table with Fitz standing a few feet away from her, a small scalpel in his hand.

        "Fitz!" Simmons cried.

        "Oh my god," Rose breathed.

        Daisy rotated on the operating table, her breathing heavy and strained. "Simmons, Rose... help me," she mumbled.

        Jemma took a deep breath in, "Put the scalpel down," she told him. He blinked, looking down at the ground. "Fitz-"

        "What?" he said groggily. "It's not me, it's-," he turned around, expecting someone to be in front of him but there was no one there. "He w- he was- he was right there. He was right-" he said, looking ahead at the bloody scalpel.

        "What is happening?" Daisy sniffled.

        Jemma took a step forward, "Fitz, it wasn't an anomaly. It was you."

        Fitz shook his head, "No," he spoke in a small voice.

        "Programming the robots, keeping everyone else occupied," Jemma began to list. "You even locked Rose in a supply closet."

        "To isolate Daisy," Fitz finished slowly. "All a part of his plan- my plan," he said, still eyeing the scalpel carefully.

        Jemma had tears in her eyes at this point, "Hey, look at me," she pleaded. "We can work all of this out. You just need to let Daisy go."

        "I can't," Fitz said, turning back to the operating table.

        "You can-" Rose started.

        "No," Fitz said, shaking his head. "There's no turning back."

        "Of course, there is," Jemma said instantly.

        Fitz frowned, "He planned for that, too." Before Rose and Jemma could do anything to stop him, a masked man came into the room, holding Deke's shoulder harshly, pointing a gun at the three of them.

        Rose gulped as Deke reached out for her hand. The two of them were ushered back into a corner, Jemma included. "You would point a gun at me?" she asked.

        "The Doctor would," Fitz said slowly. "He programmed it to make sure I'd go through with it. He didn't want to hurt you. Just like he didn't want to hurt Mack. But it's just- I wouldn't have done any of this if I didn't believe it was going to work. Giving Daisy her powers back is what could seal the rift."

        Jemma shook her head, "You don't know it's going to work," she said instantly.

        "The science is sound," Fitz began to explain. "There are always risks involved. You know that, Jemma."

        "You're right but," Jemma sniffled. "Potentially paralyzing Daisy or destroying the world are two massive risks, Fitz."

        "Let's hope that doesn't happen," Fitz said, taking a seat on the stool by the operating table.

        "F-f-fitz," Rose said quietly but she knew it was no use. He had already made up his mind.

        Fitz began to raise the scalpel again. "No," Daisy started. "No, no, no, no, no. Fitz, Fitz, Fitz! No, please," she begged. "Please, Fitz. Fitz, I am begging you. Please, you do not want to do this."

        Fitz sighed, wiping away the signal tear that rolled down his face. "No, I don't," he said solemnly. "But I have to." Fitz began to cut into Daisy's skin with the scalpel. Rose watched in horror as blood began to trickle down her neck.

        "No, no, no, no," Daisy said helplessly as Fitz grabbed onto the inhibitor with his pilers, pulling it out of the hole behind her ear. The strings attached were stained red with Daisy's blood as she continued to scream. A noise that pierced Rose's ears. She began to breathe heavily as the room shook from Daisy's powers.

        Fitz set the inhibitor down on an empty tray near the operating table.

        "I will- I will never forgive you," Daisy managed to say.

        "I suspect you won't be the only one," Fitz said, looking over at Jemma.

        Fitz walked over to a small case and grabbed a syringe from it. He then took the needle and stuck it into Daisy's leg. Daisy grunted as she rotated on the table. The room shook once more as Daisy got up from her table.

        "The adrenaline will help jump-start your powers," Fitz explained. "Here's what you need to do. You need to compress the Gravitonium down as much as possible. Then carefully guide it over and insert it into the sphere."

        Daisy did exactly that, even if she hated Fitz at the moment. They had no choice but to do exactly what he said, or else that LMD, robot, or whatever would shoot them.

        Rose was scared. She was so incredibly scared.

loving you's the anecdote,
golden ☼

Grace talks ig: no because why was this chapter so hard to write? Like, I love this episode myself but I had a hard time trying to make it so that Rose wasn't just standing around and doing nothing (she still kind of did that but like she's allowed to just stand around because she looks good doing it Hehehehe) Anyways, we will actually get Rose doing shit next chapter. Like, she did shit in this one, such as break out of the closet like the little girlboss she is, but we will actually get more in the next chapter :) Also, Shalia my beloveds <3 My soul wants them together right now but I have plans and I love them too much to deviate from them. Okay, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will see y'all in the next one. BYEEE <3

p.s. thanks for 3k reads on this story <33