[together or not at all: season 5, episode 7]
*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

"This is the price of hiding Inhumans," the Vicar said as Rose, Mack, and Coulson watched him speak to the crowd from a distance, "Continue to keep your mouths shut, and you'll end up dead, too."

        Rose tried to keep her tears contained, but one after another, they began to slip out of her eyes. She couldn't believe it, Tess was dead, and she didn't even get to say goodbye to her. "It's not fair, she didn't deserve to die," she said sadly.

        "Unfortunately, I don't think the Kree care about that," Coulson said.

        "Of course, they don't," Rose snapped. "They don't care who they have to murder to get their way! We're expendable to them. It's always been that way."

        "Then this is bigger than a renewal. It's a direct threat," Coulson decided.

        Mack looked around at the people nearest to them, "These people will give us up in a heartbeat if it'll save their own lives."

        "These Kree may be cruel, but they're no stupid. It's only a matter of time till this trail of bodies leads them right to us," Coulson reasoned. "It's time for us to make a move."

        Rose and Mack agreed, nodding as they walked away from the spot where Tess hung and back up to the Salvage yard to unite with Flint and Elena. Rose wasn't exactly sure how to tell him that another person had died in the Kree's hunt for him. It was too much for a kid to handle, Rose knew that from experience.

---

        "They're killing people," Coulson explained to Elena and Flint when they returned to the Salvage Yard. "Innocent people."

        "In their hunt for me!" Flint cried.

        "We're not gonna let anything happen to you," Mack reassured him.

        "That's right," Elena added.

        Rose walked up to Flint and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Look, I've seen these people fight before. If they say nothing's gonna happen to you, they mean it."

        "We need to make a move on those blue bloods," Elena decided.

        "Not with Daisy and Simmons still captive," Coulson said shaking his head. "We need to get out of the lighthouse."

        Rose looked down at Flint's face. He looked like he was pondering something. "What's wrong?" she asked him.

        "Tess-" he started.

        Rose felt another pain in her chest, she couldn't tell if it was wrong her stab wound earlier or the pain from Tess's death. "Flint-" she said but was cut off by the other three's continuous talking.

        "So instead of rescue them? We abandon them?" Elena asked sternly.

        "We don't have a choice right now," Coulson asserted. "They would do the same thing."

        "I agree," Mack added. "We regroup and come back for them more prepared."

        "Wheres Tess?" Flint asked again.

        Rose sniffled, "Flint," she said carefully but her voice was drowned out by the other's conversations. 

        "Where can we even go?" Elena asked. "Not a lot of hiding places in space."

        "To the point at the end of this giant question mark," Coulson said. "The surface."

        "Where is Tess?" Flint asked, this time with more conviction.

        The agent's heads snapped towards Flint, unsure how to tell him what had happened.

        "Did something happen? Is she-?" Flint pressed.

        Mack looked over at him, pity in his eyes. "I'm sorry."

        "Rose, is it true?" Flint said in a small voice.

        "Yes," she said slowly, not wanting to look him in the eyes.

        Flint hung his head in shame, racing out of the room. Elena went to follow him, but Mack held her back. "It's okay. I got this," he said following Flint out of the door.

        Rose sat down on one of the edges of the Salvage yard. She finally had a moment to breathe, a moment to reflect on what the hell just happened in the past hour. Rose had lost too many people in the past week to be okay with anything that was going down, and now Deke was nowhere to be found. For all Rose knew, he could be lying somewhere dead too. She didn't want to admit it, but she was scared shitless. She couldn't lose anyone else. She refused to.

        Rose felt someone sit down next to her. She looked to her right and caught a glimpse of Elena. "We're you two close?" she asked simply, trying to strike up a conversation.

        "We've known each other forever," Rose started quietly. "In a place like this, you tend to stick with your family. Easier to avoid getting picked off, so stolen to be one of Kasius's servants. But since mine died at such a young age, I stuck around Tess and Deke. I just, I can't believe she's truly gone. I mean, I thought she would outlive all of us on the Lighthouse. She was so strong, so much stronger than I am. I wish I could've given her a proper goodbye. I wanted to thank her for all the good she's done and for having my back with everything. I guess it's too late now."

        "I'm sorry for your loss," Elena expressed.

        Rose sighed, "It just feels like everyone around me ends up dying? I should really be used to it by now given the whole Kree situation, but I guess not."

        "Spoken like a true S.H.I.E.L.D. agent," Elena said, sending her a small smile.

        "How so?" Rose asked.

        "Always trying to blame yourself for situations that aren't your fault," Elena explained. "Trust me, from the little time I've spent with this time, all of them tend to pile up all their garbage and other shit until it overflows one day, and boom. One bad thing will happen and all of a sudden it's all your fault. Even if the two aren't even correlated, their minds will immediately connect them. It's like you fit right in."

        "I can't tell if that's a compliment or an insult," Rose said instantly.

        Elena tilted her head. "It's more of a word of advice. Don't let that happen to you. I've watched it destroy people, and I don't want that to happen to a soul like yours," she said knowingly.

        "Okay," Rose said nodding.

        Elena looked like she wanted to say something else, but was stopped by a loud pounding on the door to the yard. Coulson raised up his gun and walked towards the noise. Rose got up to follow him as well, gripping the pipe in her pocket extra tight in case she needed to use it.

        "I thought they'd be here," a voice on the other side of the door expressed.

        "Daisy?" Coulson questioned immediately opening up the door for the woman. "How did you escape?" he asked.

        "Clumsily," Daisy answered, pulling the older man into a quick embrace.

        Two more figures appeared behind Daisy as she began to make her rounds of hugs to the other members of the team. One was Jemma, whom Rose had met briefly on level three, and the other was a man that she did not recognize. "Fitz!" Elena said instantly.

        "Turbo!" Mack said looking at the man. "Man, it's good to see you! How the hell you get in the future?" he asked.

        "Uh, the long way," the man answered.

        "He needs medical attention, storytime can wait," Jemma said, setting him down on the staircase.

        "Not if those stories include time travel," Mack retorted.

        Daisy walked over to Rose, "And how has your spying been going?" she asked in an amused tone. "I'm sure you've improved from the time I saw you last."

        "Eh, I'd say I'm still pretty lousy," Rose said shrugging. "By the way, I didn't have any involvement with the whole, Deke selling you out to Kasius plan. I was kind of a pain in the ass to him about it."

        Daisy laughed, "I know, that was the first thing he told me when he found us," she informed Rose.

        "So does that mean that he's-" Rose started but stopped talking once she Deke walk through the door. "Oh my god," she said running up to him and hugging him quickly.

        "Nice to see you too, Rosie?" He said in a weird tone.

        "I thought you were dead. Where the hell were you?" she asked against his shoulder.

        "Why would you think I was dead?" Deke started.

        Rose was about to answer and tell Deke about Tess, but someone else spotted him. "This guy?" Mack asked, his eyebrow raised. "The hell you doing here? And how'd you get out of your cage?"

        "Cage?" Rose questioned, letting go of Deke and looking up at him.

        "Long story," Deke told her. "And you," he pointed at Mack. "Well, I let myself out, but thanks very much for your concern," he said sarcastically.

        "Well, the gang's all here," Elena started.

        "Except May," she and Coulson finished at the same time. "She was taken to the surface?" Coulson asked looking over at the man called Fitz.

        Fitz winced, "Yeah."

        Coulson nodded, "That's a good thing."

        "It is?" Daisy asked, bewildered.

        "We need alcohol for his wound," Jemma said, holding her fingers on the wound across his chest.

        "I'll see if Flint can find something," Mack started, walking over to where he left Flint. "Flint can-" he said. But no one was there, just an empty bucket filled with small stones. "Oh no," he mumbled.

---

        Mack, Coulson, and Daisy decided to do a search for Flint on the level. They suspected he might have turned himself in. Rose had elected to stay behind, she didn't have the energy to try and fight the Kree again.

        Deke looked down at Rose once more, "What were you trying to tell me earlier?" he asked her.

        Rose took a shaky breath, "It's Tess," she expressed trying not to cry this time when she said it. "She's gone," she said shortly. "The Kree. They, they killed her for protecting Flint. Oh, Deke, it was awful."

        Deke shushed her and pulled her into another hug, this time it was longer, and more peaceful. Rose wasn't sure how long she ended up staying in this position, but she was comfortable, and she didn't want to lose that sense.       

        The two ended up breaking apart when the door behind them slammed. "Everyone here?" Mack asked as he charged into the room.

        Coulson glanced around at the bodies. "Yeah, we're all accounted for."

        "Well, most of me, anyway," Fitz added.

        "Mr. and Mrs. Boba Fett will be here any minute," Daisy said, looking at the door to see if she could spot any of the Kree guards.

        "So, what do we do?" Jemma asked.

        "We escape via the trawler," Coulson said.

        Deke scoffed, "Escape to where?" he asked, Rose still positioned by his side.

        "The surface," Coulson answered. "All signs have been pointing us there. The Kree won't follow us there, and you don't have to follow us there, either," he said, pointing a finger at Deke.

        "Hey, man, I already told you that I'm in to go out with you," Deke said defensively.

        "No one's getting out of here if they catch us first!" Elena exclaimed.

        There was a loud thud as a decently sized boulder flew in front of the door. The group turned to look at Flint. "Less arguing, more figuring out what the hell we're gonna do!" he said quickly. Flint began to stack more rock against the entrance until the whole door was covered in the boulders he moved.

        "That ought to buy us some time," Coulson said. There was a large bang as a baseball-sized thing shot through the door, leaving a huge gap in it. "Or not," he corrected as another object flew through the door.

        "I thought I told you not to go out there," Mack said harshly to Flint.

        "You told me to use my powers to protect people!" Flint expressed.

        "This isn't your problem to fix," Mack told him.

        Flint threw his hands up in the air, "It is my problem!" he insisted. "They're after me!"

        "And me," Daisy chimed in.

        "And me!" Jemma added.

        "I don't think they're gonna be picky about who they kill," Elena reasoned as another blast shot through the door.

        "Okay, so what the hell are we going do, because I'm not about to add the death toll for today?" Rose asked the group.

        Daisy sighed as another bang filled the room, "Well, we can't leave with this place surrounded."

        "Come on!" Coulson said loudly. "A room full of secret agents, scientists, and superheroes. Someone give me something!" he said, surveying the group.

        "We stand our ground and fight," Elena suggested.

        "Yeah, with what? Rocks and rubbish?" Fitz asked.

        "I can fight with rocks," Flint said.

        Rose pulled her pipe out of her pocket. "I got a pipe," she said sheepishly.

        "Rosie, you still haven't cleaned that thing!" Deke said, holding his hand over his nose. "That's disgusting."

        "Deke, not the time," Rose said, brandishing her pipe at him.

        "How else do you propose we get out of here?" Coulson asked them, wanting more ideas he could use.

        Deke's face lit up. "We don't go out. We go up," he stated like the answer was right there in front of time the whole time.

        "There are no elevators here," Coulson pointed out.

        "Then we make our own elevator with this," Deke said, pulling a small device out of his pocket. Rose knew exactly what it was.

        "A belt buckle?" Mack asked.

        Rose shook her head, "It's an anti-gravity device," she said at the same time as Jemma.

        There was another loud crash as Deke lead them away from the door. "This chute leads directly to the drop bay under the trawler," he explained, pointing out the large trash chute on the right wall. "We can get to the airlock from there."

        "We use the device to create a gravity well," Jemma said nodding.

        "Will it work?" Coulson asked Deke.

        "Yeah, it'll work," he reassured them.

        Coulson shrugged, "It's our best option at this point."

        "I'll go first," Deke started. "I'll show you how it works. And then I'll drop the puck down, then the next person can come up."

        A chorus of no's erupted from the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. "No, not a chance," Daisy reaffirmed. "I'm not gonna let you use us as bait while you make your grand escape. Fitz-Simmons, you're up," she said, tossing the anti-gravity device to Jemma. "You're last," she told Deke.

        "I can go with you," Rose said instantly. "We'll go up together."

        Deke nodded as Fitz-Simmons stepped into the trash chute.

        "Once more unto the breach," Fitz said.

        "Allons-y!" Jemma called as they began to float upwards.

        Another shot rang through the air. "Alright Yo-Yo, you're up next," Coulson said, passing the device to Elena, who took it quickly and flew up the chute.

        Rose watched as more of the group began to fly up onto the bay until it was just her and Deke left. "Hold on tight," Deke instructed her, as he attached the gravity device onto his jacket.

        "I'll try not to fall," Rose retorted, clutching onto his shoulders.

        They reached the landing quickly and went to rejoin the rest of the group. "I'm the last one. You satisfied?" Deke asked them sassily.

        "You sure they can't follow us?" Coulson asked him.

        "No, they can definitely follow us," Deke retorted. "It's gonna take them a while."

        Coulson turned to the ladder that led up to the Trawler and then back at Deke. "Alright," he started. "So you ready to take this thing out?"

        "What, me?" Deke asked dumbfounded. "I'm not a pilot?"

        Daisy's mouth dropped open. "What?" You don't know how to fly this thing?" she asked.

        Deke scoffed lightly, brushing past the group. "Never said I did," he stated as he descended the ladder down into the Trawler.

        Rose knew that the question was gonna be asked to her as well. "I mean," she started. "I already told you guys I don't how to fly it. So, good luck," she added, trying to sound cheerful as she followed Deke down into the belly of the Trawler.

        "So, they have no pilot," Rose said sighing as she walked up to Deke. "So either, we're gonna crash and burn in the middle of space. Or, we're gonna get eaten by roaches on the surface," she said sarcastically. 

        "Look on the bright side," Deke said instantly. "At least we'll die together."

        Rose laughed softly, "Since when did you become the optimist?"

        "When you decided you wanted to be the pessimist," Deke responded.

        Rose rolled her eyes lightly as Daisy, Jemma, Coulson, and Fitz joined them on the Trawler.

        Coulson sat down in the pilot's seat. "So, taking off is easy enough, docking is the hard part, and landing, that's nearly impossible on account of these ships weren't built with landing gear," he said confidently.

        "So you have no idea what you're doing?" Daisy asked him.

        "I got a flying car," Coulson replied. "How different can it be?"

loving you's the anecdote,
golden ☼

Grace talks ig: yay! Fitz and Rose finally met, kind of. They'll interact more in the next chapter which'll be fun to write for me because I love Fitz!! And they are going to the surface, omg scary, for Rose at least. And besties are back together: aka Rose and Deke! Let's all rejoice because we love them so much <3 anyways I don't know what else to say, so byeee. Vote and comment if you want too!