You all are so amazing. Here's  the update 😉

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Bobbi could understand why some people preferred to take the stairs. Elevators could be disconcerting, but they weren't that difficult to endure. It was, without question, much more convenient to ride down ten floors rather than walk ten flights of stairs.

However, the look of pure and absolute fear on the teen's faces when she led them in front of the steel elevator was definitely something new. They had been comfortable up until that point; she drew their blood samples easily enough, despite the boy's stubbornness and supposed hatred for needles. She was thankful that he was with Annabeth; without her, the past two days would have been absolutely horrid. She was the only one that could reign him in, which she found quite impressive. It reminded her a lot of her and Hunter's relationship.

But that was besides the point. Now she had to worry about a hyperventilating Jackson on the floor and a twitchy Chase.

She and Mack exchanged an uneasy look before they glanced down at the two.

"Jackson, get up," she scolded half-heartedly.  Chase whipped around to glare at her from where she was knelt next to the boy. The pair of piercing gray eyes were a mix of fear, pain and anger; tears threatened to spill out of them. She let go of Percy's hand only to whip a stray piece of frizzy curly hair behind her ear.

"Does he look like he's in any position to get up?" she said slowly, bitterly. Her voice was heavy with emotion.

And no. No he did not. Beads of sweat had appeared at his hairline, now dripping down his face. His knuckles were white in fists on the ground, and his face was scrunched up in pain. If she didn't know better, she might of guessed he was having a heart attack.

But, given the past few seconds she did know better. As soon as the two had seen the elevator, something had changed. Annabeth had gasped and frozen on the spot, while Percy simply stiffened. He had put his arm around her shoulders and carefully led her toward the open doors, mumbling quietly to her the entire way. They had stood in silence like that untill they reached the bottom floor. Then, the doors dinged and began to open.

Cue instant panic attack.

Mack noticed Annabeth's distress and kneeled down next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. She flinched but made no effort to move it. "It's okay, kid," he soothed. "He's just having a panic attack. He'll be fine."

"You're wrong," she whispered as she searched her boyfriend's face, pushing his hair out of his face; it slicked back, wet with perspiration. "And you don't think I know that?"

Mack looked between the two teens. "This happens a lot?"

"More than it should."

The bulky agent hesitated before responding. "What does he need? How can I help?"

Annabeth turned to him in suprise.  "Uh, water?" she responded warily, as though she didn't  expect him to actually help. "And we need to get out of this elevator," she shuddered.

Following her instructions, the two agents helped drag Jackson out of the metal box. The B floor was mainly empty next to a few agents walking through, the few that immediately stopped to see the commotion. They crowded around the two teens pressed agaisnt the wall like a mob of superfans excited for an autograph from their favorite celebrity.

"Back up!" Annabeth commanded. Despite being a prisoner, it was hard not to follow her order. Those who refused were faced with her glare of death. "He's already in a panic, he doesn't need to freak out from claustrophobia too. Back. Up."

Bobbi nodded to add authority to the situation. The small crowd dispersed, leaving the four once again. Bobbi snorted as they watched his breathing slowly even out as Annabeth coaxed him into drinking the glass of water Mack had brought. "So, he's scared of flying, elevators, and claustrophobic? What isn't he afraid of?"

"I'm certainly not afraid of you."

Percy's voice was breathless, but held a threat all the same. Annabeth leaned into him and sighed in relief. Despite the kid's annoyingness, Bobbi was glad to see that he was alright too. But the scene that had escalated in front of them held loads of suspicion. For whatever reason, the elevator doors opening had triggered something inside of the boy.

Just like yesterday, when he had blown out the plumbing on the Bus. That hadn't been him. That must have just been a very violent reaction to some kind of memory- but what memories would these kids have? They were barely eighteen!

Curiosity and pity fought in her mind as she watched him pick himself off the floor with his good hand. He shot Mack a smirk, as though he wasn't still shaking like a leaf and white as chalk.  "Hey, man, you got stairs in this place?"

The mechanic cracked a smile and chuckled. "Yeah, I think we should probably go with that option next time."

Percy seemed to make an extra effort to make jokes and tease the team when she led them to one of the many holding cells scattered around the warehouse-like level, as though doing so would make the lot of them forget what had just happened.  He continuously tried to get Annabeth to say something, who's face had gone blank. Eventually, he got the memo that she wasn't in the mood and stopped.

The endless flow of words had dribbled to nothing by the time Mack finally figured out how to unlock the cell door; it was similar to that of the one on the Bus, but an older version with a glitchy touchscreen. The windows were wider, but the space itself was the same, furnishings included.

The teens didn't try to argue when they motioned for them to step inside the room, which was a refreshing start to the backlash they'd been receiving constantly. "An agent will be here soon to bring some food," Bobbi announced, earning an excited look from Jackson before smashing her finger onto the "close" button on the touchpad.

Nothing happened.

Mack held back a chuckle when she tried another three times before groaning loudly. He stepped forward and gently pressed his thumb into it; he shrugged when it shut without further hesitation. "That's not fair," she complained, stepping away with one last glance into the cell.

When he didn't respond, she questioned it. He narrowed his eyes and rubbed his jaw in thought. "I don't like this," he finally said. "They're just kids, and I don't know what they've been through or why the one can control water, but it seems to me that it's been enough."

"Respectably, Mack, they're dangerous. If Chase can really take out Daisy and May as easily as you say she did, there is something more there than a strawberry camp and magic sword from a gift shop in Greece. And we don't even know if he's inhuman or not. That's what we have to be worried about."

The two stepped into the elevator once again. Mack stared at where the kid had collapsed onto the floor. He shook his head before responding. "I've only seen something like that a few times before."

The metal doors closed and the elevator jumped before lifting them slowly. Bobbi narrowed her eyes at him. "What?"

Mack grunted before going on to describe how his brother's friend had come back from fighting overseas in the Marines, seemingly normal until someone slammed the cabinet door with a loud clap. It turned out the several raids they had sent him on left him with post traumatic stress disorder. Bobbi raised an eyebrow.

"You think Jackson has PTSD? No, you think he has PTSD and his trigger is an elevator? How?"

Thus the conversation the Mack continued to discuss with a more than exhausted Director Coulson while Morse busied herself in the lab. 

*

"Sir, you're telling me that this kid got dragged across the United States with a gun to his head, and all the while being accused of murdering his mom by his abusive step-father. Respectively, I don't think my assumption is that far off. These kids are seventeen. I just don't see the benefit in this."

Coulson rubbed his forehead, too tired to really comprehend the question. The last thing he needed was a team divided on the matter. He already had Daisy ready to run off to find Lincoln, and who knew how that would turn out.

"Sir."

"I hear you Mack. But just because they're younger than what we're used to doesn't mean they aren't dangerous. You read the file, didn't you? How does the possibility of the kid having PTSD change anything?"

Mack sighed to maintain his composure. "All I'm saying is maybe we acted on this a little too fast. Half of the list of suspicions is all from the kidnapping. They were twelve, it wasn't their fault."

"Once again, age doesn't matter," Coulson sighed. "And even so, if everything you're saying even holds the slightest truth, then explain the sword, the fighting, hydrokinesis... you said it's part of half of the list. Why were they kidnapped in the first place? And even if it was just a freak accident, then what's the other half for?"

Mack opened his mouth to reply, but Coulson held up a hand to cut him off. "They're staying here. There are too many questions to be answered still.

Mack's jaw clenched ever so slightly before responding with a curt nod. He made a move to leave when Daisy burst into the office with wide eyes. They darted between him and Mack before raising her hands in mock innocence. "Don't freak out, but-"

"What?" Coulson demanded, dreading the worst.

She bit her lip and winced. "The sword's gone."

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"You're saying it just disappeared?" Coulson nearly growled impatiently. Fitz paced back and forth in a panic before freezing, gesturing wildly to the table it had supposedly been on. Mack and Bobbi looked on uneasily as they watched the scene before them unfold.

"I- I- I had it right there," the words rushed out of the curly haired scientist, twisting his hands hyperactively. "I just, I just walked away to go get a sandwich! And now- well."

He  threw his hands down in a gesture towards the empty table as if to say "well, it's obvious it isn't there now" before bringing one up to rub the back of his neck nervously. His face contorted into one of worry; he looked like he was about to cry out of frustration.

The director took a second to think out the possibilities. Someone stole it? Fitz was actually going crazy?

Magic?

He was tempted to ask Mack to search the two teens, but after his recent talk with the tall agent, he had a feeling he would be reluctant to that idea. Bobbi was busy enough running the DNA samples through the computer. So, instead, he asked Fitz.

The engineer wrinkled his nose as if the very thought repulsed him. Which, to be fair, was understandable. Jackson had punched him hard enough to knock him out for a solid chunk of time, if Mack hadn't over exaggerated the recovery. Eventually, Fitz agreed and hastily left the room, but not before mumbling something about how it'd be easier to find something with a monkey.

After everything he had done and sacrificed, how bad would it really be to get the guy a monkey?  He thought momentarily. At that point, he knew he was definitely exhausted out of his mind.

Mack stared at Coulson, who couldn't tear his gaze away from the empty tabletop. The gears in his head could almost be heard in the silence. "Why haven't we talked about the fact that the sword thing appeared out of nowhere?" he said quietly. "Or why none of us saw a sword until Daisy mentioned it..."

"Or why it nearly sliced Daisy's hand off but went straight through you and Hunter? Coulson, you got nicked too, right?" Bobbi interjected.

Coulson glanced down at the red cut that had grazed his underarm during his first encounter with the conscious teen. He turned to Mack, who nodded before he let out a groan. "So they have a magic Greek sword from a random shop in Greece?"

Coulson hadn't yet had the opportunity to listen to the interrogation of Chase, but he assumed that's what the former technician was referring too.  He narrowed his eyes, trying to decide if Jackson's answer for the origin of the weapon (which he remembered clearly as "Annabeth bought it for me, because what guy doesn't want a sword.") was accurate enough to that of his girlfriend's.

Unfortunately, it was. However, the blade's discrimination of it's victims was interesting enough to make up for the lack of discrepancies. Was it like Thor's hammer? It could only hurt people that weren't worthy?

In this case, of course, those who had alien blood. If Coulson wasn't worthy, than there was no way in hell that Hunter wasn't either.

He expressed his ideas aloud, earning an annoyed expression from Mack. "Yay. More 0-8-4's with alien origins."

Coulson grunted. "If anyone needs a reason to hate sharp alien weapons, it's me."

His words had meant to be lighthearted, but the awkward silence that followed suggested that Mack and Bobbi hadn't interpreted it that way. Mack broke the silence first, questioning Bobbi on the progress with the DNA. She jolted up and rounded the desk back to the computer when she was reminded of her job.

"I've done this about three times now, but it's still coming up with an inconclusive result," she muttered before typing another sequence into the computer; with Simmons gone, it was up to the spy to recover any knowledge she had in the bio field. Coulson joined her to get a good look at the monitor, which displayed exactly what Bobbi had explained. He fought down a yawn before doing a quick run through of her work. It was useless to do so; he had no knowledge of how anything in the lab worked. It looked good to him for what he could interpret.

"Has Fitz run through this?"

Bobbi's blonde curls bounced when she shook her head 'no.' "I was going to ask, but he was busy doing whatever he was doing with that sword. And also... you know."

Coulson nodded solemnly, but he knew they couldn't grieve while they had so many things to do, unfortunately. "Go rest, sir," Mack nodded. "We've got this."

He didn't need to be told twice. He left the two with a short goodbye before making his way back to his room.

He just hoped everything wasn't in chaos when he woke up.

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"Stupid ancient sword," Fitz muttered as the elevator dinged. He glanced around the floor when the doors open and didn't bother to return the few nods of acknowledgement from the agents surveying the floor. Instead, he walked directly to the two teens' cell.

...well, that was the plan. He made a few wrong turns on the way there, one of which included accidentally running into Hunter. The British agent smiled mischievously and held up the beer that was in his hand in salute before quickly joining him in stride, which Fitz was certainly not in the mood for. He wanted to find the sword and go, and although there was no way it could be down here, at least he'd feel like he did something right.

"Hey, mate. Did Bobbi send you down here too?" When he got no other answer than a tight smile, Hunter continued. "She made me bring them sandwiches." The two stopped in front of the cell. It was only then that Fitz noticed the bag in hand.

"No, the sword disappeared," he muttered, his Scottish accent particularly strong in his frustration. He tuned out Hunter's rambling and peered through one of the windows. He smiled to himself when he saw the guy who punched him sitting on the edge of the bed as his girlfriend paced the room, chewing him out for something.

Good.

It took him a few tries to get the door to open, which frustrated him to no extent. As soon as he was finished going through with Coulson's random errand, he'd reprogram it. He'd reprogram every freaking touchscreen down here, just for the heck of it.

He was bitter, yes.

He was sick of loosing things.

"-I'll never make things easy for you, Percy. I've told you that since day one."

The dark haired teen on the bed- the one that had punched him- laughed at the statement, but his head snapped up and the noise of the door. He sent his girlfriend a wary look, as if he were afraid she would yell at him, before zeroing his eyes on the bag in Hunter's hand. His eyes lit up and he shoved the pen he was twirling between his fingers into the pocket of the sweatpants.

"Man, yes," he grinned. He bounced off the bed and hopped over to Hunter. He had taken the bag and had a sandwich in his mouth before the two of them could even blink. Annabeth rolled her eyes at his antics and crossed her arms. "Can I take a shower?" she asked pointedly.

Hunter tore his eyes away from the champiom eater and winked. "Anytime, love."

The look Percy sent him next was enough to make him stumble back a few steps.

The girl continued to argue her case. Fitz used the time they were taking to bicker to look around the small room for a certain bronze Greek weapon. Unsurprisingly, there was nothing.

The crackle of the paper bag distracted him from his search; Jackson scavenged for any scraps he could find, leaving a decent chunk behind for his girlfriend, before resorting to rattling his fingers on the bottom of the bed frame. He made an input into the conversation before turning to stare at the Scottish agent.

"Sorry about the eye," he pretended to wince. Annoyingly enough, he seemed sincere.

"Sorry, sure,"  Fitz muttered angrily. The kid didn't seem to appreciate the tease and shrugged, once again sliding the pen out of his pocket and bouncing it agaisnt his other hand unconsciously.

"Look; I'll talk to Coulson. Bloody... chill, will you?" Hunter exclaimed with mock hurt. Fitz took a break from glaring to acknowledge the outburst. Annabeth smiled triumphantly. "Good. Good talk," she said smugly.

Percy shook his head. "She always wins."
Hunter laughed at the rather relatable statement while Fitz continued trying to convert all of his hatred for the one that  had punched him into one evil glare. The tapping of the pen was getting annoying.

Wait.

Fitz narrowed his eyes at the accused. They didn't give him that pen. Bobbi took a pen from him earlier.

Moral of story, he shouldn't have a pen in his hands.

The gears whirred in his head before he could force himself to call the teen out on it. Something was wrong, and he was going to figure out what it was.

Whasssss uppppp guys!!! Two week updates are working pretty well :)))) Sorry that there wasn't any Lincoln in this chapter like promised, but I can definitely say he'll make an appearance very very soon, along with a bunch of action muwahaha.

But basically this chapter was really boring, Annabeth learned that Percy was probably lying when he said that the flashbacks have gotten better, Mack as conflicting morals, inconclusive DNA on a 'malfunctioning SHIELD technology...' mm hmm, malfunctioning, sure ;P and Fitz is a smart guy, but how smart?

But guys. 21k reads? Seriously? Never in a million years would I think that I could get that. Thank you so much for everyone who reads and comments and votes- I've said it before and I'll say it again, every ounce of support means the world to me. Thank you! Stay awesome!!

(Plus I owe lots of dedications but I'll get to that eventually haha)

Lots of love,

JustANotherGirlmcg