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chapter twelve

(April 24th, 2017
The Playground, Classified)

    CLARA HAD begun to hope that Radcliffe would change from the man she had known under Hive's sway; for no one else, and especially not her, except for Fitz. Through all of his faults and his manipulative ways and swig of a bottle, Radcliffe seemed to care about Fitz in a way that he needed. Another Scotsman with a mind constantly moving on a similar path that Fitz's own was: one that understood him, liked what he did, and found his work fascinating. Someone he could look up to in his field, someone who had become more than a friend, but a mentor. Clara held her dislikes, but she always respected Radcliffe for being better than Alistair Fitz in that regard.

    But he had twisted Fitz all over again. Used him for his own benefit━manipulated him, left him there: confused, betrayed and hurt: threw their friendship to the wolves, walk away and not come back. And now, Radcliffe━the real Radcliffe━was out there somewhere, nothing better than a drunk who didn't care about Fitz at all.

    There wasn't much difference between Radcliffe and Alistair Fitz anymore.

   She was quiet, carefully watching Fitz work. He was stiff, silent, on edge━he was angry, and he was barely keeping himself standing at the same time. Clara didn't know what to say, or whether she should say anything. Even after over ten years knowing each other, Fitz was complicated, and sometimes, even she was never sure on what he needed━or whether she could be the one to give it to him right now. Especially since they've changed so much.

    They used to just sit together and watch a movie whenever something surrounding their parents arose. Whether it be about Clara's mother, or Fitz's father━a distant thought that reminded them, or the damage they left clouding their minds at the Academy, it seemed to be easy to distract themselves and be there for each other. They understood what it was like, and could sit there in an understanding silence.

    But nearly thirteen years after, Fitz started to lock himself in his own head. Work on his problems like they were just another machine━trying to fix the cogs of his brain after his injury thinking that no one else wanted, or could help. Processing his own programming in a way that often worried Clara was leaving only just more damage; a virus constantly biting back, knocking him down until one day, he'll break.

    Not that she was any better ... maybe that was the problem: this job. This life. There were so many problems that there was no time for your own. You just keep going, keep running━even when you're exhausted and at the brink, you push yourself until in the end ... that was it.

    Clara fiddled with her rings, briefly glancing at the limp body of Radcliffe's L.M.D. Strikingly similar━none of them had realised, except for Fitz. He had seen the truth, and she and Jemma had critised him for following his head━for seeing something that might hurt him but investigate it because that was who he was. Roy didn't feel any better than anyone else who had critised Fitz's genius then; she felt just the same. She was determined to do better now; be better.

    Thanks to Fitz, they knew the truth. They had a team out to rescue and find Billy Koenig, who knew the location of the Darkhold, something Radcliffe and A.I.D.A. wanted. Though, they were all surprised. Capturing a Koenig was like capturing shadows━they were everywhere and nowhere; recently, even Clara had no idea where they've been, and she's known the Koneig's for years now. She knew Radcliffe must've somehow managed it through Nadeer━someone who had to be a means to an end, or a connection to something, because despite what he's done, Radcliffe has never held anything against Inhumans. That was something that was confusing, but right now, it was brewing in the back of their minds with the importance of finding Billy first and learning what they could from Radcliffe's L.M.D. Due to his recent predicament, Leith was on the Zephyr, but unable to step down onto the field, so he kept updating Clara on any news to which she updated him on how Fitz was fairing. Not that there was little change; she just kept saying the same things: he's not doing well, at all. He replied with things similar: we've found nothing. Daisy promised through Leith's phone that if she saw Radcliffe, she'll quake him apart for Fitz, but Roy kept that silent, knowing that wouldn't help.

    Agent Roy peered back at Fitz still fixing the wires in the android's head, stiff, jaw set and glowering. Glancing down at her phone at her next message, she let out a soft sigh from May's message: her advice to Clara: just be a presence for him.

    Clara pursed her lips, replying a quick, okay.

    May had gotten her up out of that bed in the containment room when she felt like she couldn't do anything; Clara hoped she'd help her again to help Fitz in something even Roy didn't know how to aid him through.

    "Clara," Fitz stepped back from the L.M.D., setting down his tweezers. He didn't even glance at her, said nothing more━and yet Clara winced at the tone to his voice, aching for him.

    "Yep," she stood up and grabbed her sewing equipment. Taking his spot, Roy took a long, deep breath at the sight of the wires inside Radcliffe's skin━but it wasn't Radcliffe. It was something━it; a product of his sick mind.

    Pushing through the twisted feeling in her stomach, Clara mended up the skin around the bullet hole. As she did, Fitz turned the L.M.D. on and she flinched when━just like a computer━this live model decoy rose and started up. Clara kept stitching, refusing to look at it as the android blinked, taking in the lab's surroundings.

    Eyes setting on Fitz, it opened it's mouth━Radcliffe's mouth━to say, "I'm not going to let this come between us." His voice was an exact replica that it was hard for Clara to remind herself that it wasn't a him. It wasn't the scientists, just a horrifying replica that tricked them all. "What's the occasional bullet in the head among friends?"

    Fitz didn't look at him. He just dropped down his tools into his box roughly with a clang. Clara pursed her lips, tugging the final stich, knotting it and slicing the remains off. "Finished," she murmured.

    Coming to her side, Fitz fixed his hands on his hips, setting his gaze on the L.M.D.'s jaw━not even able to look the replica of Radcliffe in the eye. "Now talk," he ordered. "Where's Radcliffe?"

    The android frowned. "I'm right in front of you, and ..." it faltered, glancing down. "You've paralyzed me from the neck down━"

    "Hey," Fitz snapped his fingers in front of the replica's face, sharp. It looked at him, face contorted in a perfect humanoid startlement. "Where is he?" asked Fitz again in a voice that Roy wasn't used to━it was darker. He never even sounded like that talking to Ward. He wasn't scared anymore, realised Clara, Fitz was greeting this betrayal like an old friend ... and she wasn't sure how she felt about that. It unsettled her, definitely.

    "Sorry, Fitz," replied the L.M.D., staring back at him casually. "You don't get to shoot first and ask questions later."

    "You want to bet?" countered Clara, trying to keep her own anger down. The android blinked and settled its gaze onto her.

    "On what odds?" it asked.

    A gun cocked behind them. Into the lab arrived Mack and Simmons, the former carrying his shotgun-axe with a glower. Simmons matched it and spat, "On the odds that we'll shoot whenever we damn please."

    "And this time," went on Mack, "nobody's gonna put you back together again."

    Radcliffe's L.M.D. chuckled softly, "What I meant is," it turned it's head; beside Clara, Fitz stepped away, rubbing at his head, "I don't precisely know where I━" it backtracked, "━were Doctor Radclfife currently is at this precise moment. I could be out for a walk or getting groceries."

    Mack gritted his teeth. Somehow, he seemed to be on more of an edge than FItz was, "That's enough━" he raised the gun but Fitz threw a hand out to stop him, lowering the barrel.

    "Hey, hey," he muttered, low, "I need his CPU in one piece, not scattered all over the lab."

    Mack was reluctant━disgusted even by the way the android blankly gazed back at him with little fear. "I'm not trying to be difficult," it said and Mack shook his head with incredulous horror. "You need to understand ..." Clara watched its eyes drift along, searching the database for a suitable answer. "I'm the victim. Things are not as they seem."

    This made Roy let out a short laugh. She crossed her arms, "Even when he's just programming Radcliffe is still the same old, slimey beggar━always claiming to be the victim, never the perpetrator."

   "Are we ever a perpetrator?" queried the L.M.D. Clara frowned. "In one way or another, anyone and everyone is a victim of something. A broken home-life, a mental disability, a threatened loved-one━every action we make can be brought back to something to then be twisted into whatever we need it to be. A reason, an excuse, an ice-breaker━to make somebody understand," it finished knowingly. Clara scoffed into a grim smile, realising the card it was playing. "I believe you understand, Clara. Are you a victim? Are you a perpetrator?" It shrugged. "A survivor? Is that the same thing?"

    "This isn't working," announced Fitz, storming over to his computer. They watched him, wary of the way he angrily pulled away his chair. "I need to try and override his programming."

    "That's an adventure," they ignored the android's words.

    Simmons glanced briefly at Mack and Roy before walking behind the L.M.D. and grabbing the cable they had connected to the hard drive. With a harsh swallow, she fixed it in the gaping hole of the android's back, illuminated by the green energy.

    "This is a complete and unacceptable invasion of my privacy," stated Radcliffe's L.M.D. as she did. Clara rolled her eyes.

    "Well, since you refuse to cooperate," said Simmons as she worked, "Fitz is going to reprogram you to sing like a canary."

    "That seems odd," mused the decoy. "Singing I can understand, perhaps, but singing like a bird?" Simmons pinched the bridge of her nose. "Why not Mick Jagger?"

    Mack muttered something incoherent, but they all knew it was surrounding some robot thriller. Simmons just sighed and flicked the switch. Almost immediately, Fitz let out a, "Whoa━" from his desk, leaning back in surprise. "What is that?"

    Roy and Simmons shared a glance before hurrying over. Clara hovered over his shoulder, and matched his confusion. His screen was filled with a circular fortress of code━layers upon layers spinning and swapping, changing levels and turning on itself.

    "That's nothing like A.I.D.A.'s code," said Fitz, pointing at it. "That's nothing like anything."

    Behind them, Radcliffe's L.M.D. started to jolt. its head twitched, jerked━left to right. It grunted, whirred, face convulsing ... Mack stepped away, eyes wide and terrified. "What the hell is going on?"

    "I don't know ..." admitted Fitz, watching the crazed android. "Uh ..." he turned back to the computer, typing away to try a few things. A tab emerged, and he tried to read, but shook his head. "This code is advanced. It's like fifth-generation syntax. I've never seen anything like it." He pressed enter, but only recieved defiant restraint. Clara watched him grow frustrated, hitting the key harder and harder. "Every time I keep trying to allter it, it kicks me right back to the━"

    Radcliffe's L.M.D. turned it's head right around to stare at them. Clara jumped, grasping Simmons's sleeve when all of a sudden, it started to gravel out low, omnious Latin.

    "Bloody hell," she let out.

    "Uh, Fitz━" Mack scrambled even further back.

    "Uh..." Fitz grew stressed, fingers racing across his keyboard. Meanwhile, the android continued his low chant, twitching and convulsing. Mack held up his gun, but Simmons threw a hand out to calm him. Eventually, Fitz gritted his teeth and quit the program with a slam, falling forward with his head in his hands as the android reset with a deep breath.

    Clara eyed the tense rise and fall of Fitz's chest, hesitant in reaching out her fingers. They brushed his back, rubbing up to squeeze his right shoulder. He ran his hand down his face, not giving her any acknowledgement that he appreciated it━it stressed her.

    Mack eyed the L.M.D. as it shook its head as if waking up from a long slumber. "The only thing worse than a robot is a possessed one."

    "I agree," sighed the robot. "That was no fun."

    Simmons slumped, running a hand through her hair, "Where's Daisy when we need her?"

    At those words, Fitz kicked his chair back and was on his feet, storming over to the android with a livid, "Who developed the code? Huh?" Clara's fingers shot to her mouth, startled. The engineer leaned forward into the L.M.D.'s face, demanding, "Who programmed you?! Was it Radcliffe? A.I.D.A.?!"

    Breathless, he waited for an answer. Radcliffe's L.M.D. titled its head. It blinked. Then, put its lips together and sang like a canary. Fitz went red at the cheeks in his fury, turning away with hands reaching up behind his head to tug at his hair. Before he'd snap, or slam his fist down onto something, Clara quickly pulled his keyboard towards her. She restarted the android and its song cut off. Head hung, it took a long breath as it loaded, then woke again, blinking at the light and staring back at them with that freakish, nonchalant gaze.

    Clara chewed the inside of her cheek, focusing on Fitz as he settled himself against her desk. He crossed his arms and set his jaw, awaiting for the android to break the tense silence. To which it did.

    "I'd like to help you," said Radcliffe's L.M.D., "but, honestly, I have some trust issues." It set its eyes on Mack who frowned, wondering what it could be insinuating.

    "Trust?" echoed Fitz, bitter. He pointed a trembling finger at the android. "You betrayed me."

    "Fitz," Jemma tried, joining Mack as if to make sure he didn't pull out the gun again, "it's not Radcliffe━"

    "Yeah, I know it's not!" he snapped and her gaze went stern. Fitz didn't care. "But he thinks like he does." He pushed off Roy's desk and paced, his bad hand clenching in and out. "Betrayed me, betrayed S.H.I.E.L.D., he made me lie to you━" he gestured wildly over to Clara and her gaze flickered down, "━and he made me think he was my friend." Stopping in front of the life model decoy of his once friend, Fitz took a shuddering breath. His voice quivered with fury: "Just to use me."

    The android pursed its lips. There was a moment, then: "You were like a son to me."

    "Oh, shut up."

    Clara's heart clenched. Fitz's anger dropped, replaced with fresh pain over those words. He couldn't look at the L.M.D. any longer. Turning back to her, he stormed over to where Roy still stood by his desk. "Just ... shut up ..."

    He dropped into the chair, slumping forward and hiding his face in his hands. Simmons looked to her feet, the air turning sombre and dry. Mack watched the exchange, and Clara removed her gaze at his confused frown, fixing it back on Fitz as she gently rubbed his shoulders.

    She felt him tremble, and it made her tearful. Pushing it away, Clara brushed her thumb against the nape of his neck, hoping to calm him down. She remembered every time he thought about his father━every time he haunted him in the back of his mind to remind him like a devil on his shoulder of all the words he said, every time he shouted and degraded him. Unwanted. They all say they're over the things that hurt them the most, but even after nearly twenty years, one moment of doubt and they clouded you━overwhelmed you. And Fitz was stubborn. He refused to let it get to him, but Clara knew that every now and then, it always did.

    Radcliffe's L.M.D. watched them, curious. It analysed Fitz's figure, picking the right words for the right moment in its favour. Its brows furrowed, suspicious. "What's this really about?" he asked.

    "Shut up!" Clara snapped for Fitz, clenching the back of his chair. "You can do it the easy way━"

    "Why don't you just turn him off?" offered Mack, eyeing his friend with a eye of wary concern.

    "He needs to be powered on to access his programming," answered Fitz, sitting back, "not that it matters. I'm not getting anywhere."

    Simmons sat back against the desk beside Mack, unsure on what to do.

    Clara glanced at the monitor, trying to think. But she knew only little about coding━and definitely not about something this advanced.

    "We all have programming," Radcliffe's L.M.D. decided to say. Fitz's gaze shot up with a venomous glare. "It may be more obvious in my case, but what is a human if not a function of programming? You've been programmed," It told him, "... by betrayal ... abandonment ..." it listed them off, and Roy could feel Fitz tense in the chair, his knuckles turning white by how hard he gripped the arm of it. "Ward, who you thought was your friend ... Daisy who left you all ... your father━"

    Like a shock to Fitz's system, he slammed his hand down on the table and stood up. Clara was quick to stand in front of him, her hand pressed against his chest. "Hey, hey, hey..." she whispered, soft and gentle even though her heart raced. "Hey, he's just trying to distract you ..." he scoffed, turning with his hands back onto his hips. He started towards her desk and Roy glanced back at Simmons and Mack. "Let's ... let's just step away for a moment, okay?"

    She followed him to her desk beside the medical pod, silent as he paced back and forth, picked at her pencils and tried to distract his mind. But it wasn't working. Behind them, Simmons played with her fingers, grave and quiet, trying to give them space, but it was hard not to listen to the frustrated sighs Fitz let out. Clara blocked his view of Radcliffe's L.M.D., her hand reaching out to his chest to grab his attention. He always seemed to calm down better if he focused on her. And when he met her gentle gaze, he could take a moment to configure himself enough to stop himself from doing something he'd later regret.

    He stepped in close, fingers rising to wrap tenderly around the wrist of her hand against his chest, as if her touch was like a breath of fresh air. It allowed him to tell her in a whisper, "It's not him, it's me." Fitz shook his head. "I can't do it, Clara ... it's way beyond me."

    "That's your father talking."

    Clara's eyes briefly closed. Fitz's blue gaze darkened at the very mention of him, and scowled at the android for even daring to say the words it did. The L.M.D. wasn't fazed. It met his gaze evenly. "Isn't that what he used to say to you? Not enough, not smart enough?" It quirked a knowing brow.

    Fitz breathed a scoff, but it didn't have any power behind it. His eyes held back tears, trying to shrug it off━pretend it was lying. He forced a smile, but it came out pained and stiff. Roy glanced over at Simmons, wondering whether they can turn off Radcliffe right now and find another way. "Why would you say that?"

    "Because I knew him."

    A tense silence followed. Roy's hand fell from Fitz's chest in her surprise, glancing back. This L.M.D. might not be Radcliffe, but it had his mind, his memories━like a record, skipping along to certain points to retell, to use, to confuse them, unable to tell what is true and what isn't. The room became small, as if they were all cooped up in a tiny box. Fitz shifted behind her, stiff━he barely told anyone about his father. Clara doesn't even think Mack knew, and she found it unlikely that he'd tell Radcliffe either. It was the one thing in his life that he had always been closed off about; locked away with titanium bolts and destroyed the keys. It wasn't something from a file, it wasn't something one could just learn easily. Radcliffe's L.M.D. knew those secrets: the triggers as if first hand, which meant it came from Radcliffe himself ...

    "I wanted to tell you," continued the android, "but I was afraid it would open old wounds."

    Fitz tugged at his ear, "That's not possible," he brushed past Clara and she stood, unable to stop him as he approached Radcliffe's L.M.D. wih a heavy heart.

    "Glasgow isn't that big, Fitz," it said, speaking Radcliffe's memories. "Your father and I were classmates, Saint Mungo's at Eastwood."

    "Fitz," Clara followed him, tempted to pull him out of the lab for a breather, "it's lying."

    "No," he turned to her, voice barely louder than a croaky whisper. "How would he ..." he swallowed, hating how his voice cracked, "... How would Radcliffe know those things?"

    "I don't know," she said truthfully, eyes trailing him as he walked around her, frantic, "but the possibility that they knew each other━you know that's low. This is just a━a firewall. An esitmated guess."

    "She's right, Fitz," said Simmons. Her words, however, were stuck in the back of her throat. She and Roy were thinking the same thing: how could he know those things other than Fitz telling him or being there to hear it from someone else. From Alistair Fitz. "It's playing mind games, trying to distract you because it knows you'll crack the code."

    "No, I won't!" Fitz rounded sharply onto her. Clara tried to stop him, fingers grazing his elbow but he shoved them off. "He knows it━" he pointed at the L.M.D. befre jabbing his finger at Simmmons, "━so do you!"

    "That's not true!"

    "Actually," the android decided to make things worse, "your exact quote was: 'Where's Daisy when we need her?'" It wasn't an impersonation. It was her exact words; her exact voice coming out of his mouth. Mack shook his head, freaked out.

    Jemma glared at it, "That's not what I meant."

    "Let's wipe it's memory," spoke up Roy, feeling the tension grow. She was growing a little desperate. "Give it to Mack. We'll find Radcliffe another way, okay?"

    Mack stood up, nodding. "I like that plan."

    "We weren't friends," murmured the android, and Fitz looked over, his breath heavy. "But we'd take the same train to the city for work. Sometimes we sat together. One time, he showed me a picture of his new son, Leopold." Roy rushed to put her hand back against Fitz's chest. She shook her head. This isn't true, she tried to tell him, it's just trying to get to you. He gritted his teeth, looking away. "He was so proud ..."

    Fitz's head sprung back up, a new fire in his eyes. Clara knew exactly what he was thinking. She knew it deep to her bones. She shook her head, trying to get him to meet her eyes. She raised her hands to his cheeks, but they fell down as he stepped away. He marched up to the L.M.D. as it continued: "I swear I'm telling the truth, Fitz. I can prove it. I saw him a few months ago. He said I was to tell you━" Fitz seized the cables and pulled them out.

    With that done, he stormed out of the lab. Roy met Simmons's and Mack's gazes sadly, just letting him go.

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(April 24th, 2017

The Playground, Classified)

    IT WAS QUIET in the kitchen of the Playground. Clara barely had touched her tea, having grabbed a spoon just to occupy herself in spinning the beverage around, watching it swirl and devour her thoughts. She couldn't stop thinking about Fitz, about what Radcliffe's L.M.D. said, and whether it was telling the truth or not. Even if it was, that wasn't the problem that plagued her. It was the look on Fitz's face, the way he grew so angry, the way he snapped and couldn't control himself━the way that just like that, he had given up, believing the manipulative words until it controlled him. 

     She understood. She really did. It was one of the things that made them so close when they were teenagers. Clara had told him one night about her mother after she had gotten 'cagey' (as he always said) during conversation about his own. In reply, he had awkwardly taken her hand in his and said, "My dad left me, too." She knew how it broke you, and made you doubt everything in your life. For years, Clara always thought: if her own mother didn't love her, how could anyone? She wondered how she could be so unlovable that her mother would leave her, just a baby. Now that she knew the truth, it didn't fix things. She worked on that herself. Gave herself that closure, but even still, Launa Roy's ghost followed her.

     But it hurt Clara when Fitz said he wasn't smart enough, that he wasn't good enough. It hurt her that no matter what she said, what she told him, it wasn't enough to convince him. She told him that she always thought he was the smartest in the room━that she admired it, loved it, believed in him. She always thought that if she believed in him, that would make up for those who didn't. But every equation, every instrument he built, every problem he solved, it wasn't enough. Fitz was chasing the tail of something he'll never reach because he always raised the bar, always extended the track, always pushed himself back down. Fitz always had to be smarter. And recently, it seemed to have just gotten worse. He was always tired, always stressed, easily aggrivated ... as soon as he woke up from that coma, he always had a tic on his shoulder━an extreme weight. 

     In the end, her tea had gone cold. Clara sighed and stood up, walking over the sink to pour it down the drain. 

     It was then that she heard the hefty sigh of Mack behind her. She glanced over and stepped to the side, letting him pour himself a coffee. It was silent between them for a few seconds. Clara sat down and Mack grabbed the sugar. She set her cheek against the palm of her hand, just staring at the recent message from Leith on her phone, telling her that they had to find another Koenig━the original Koenig ... whatever that meant. (How many of them were there?)

     Once Mack poured his milk, he let out another sigh and sat down opposite her. The chair squeaked under his weight. "Hey, Rapunzel ..." she sent him a tired smile. "How's Fitz doing?"

     She shrugged, turning her phone over and meeting his concerned gaze; Mack always had brown eyes that were warm like a gentle campfire━welcoming and calm. "That Rad-Bot was really getting under his skin."

     Clara ran a finger along the lines in the tabletop. "He'll be all right," she said. "He just needs a little bit of space at the moment." She gave another weak smile. "But he'll come out the other end of this, he always does."

     Mack hummed, watching the way her gaze dropped back down and her brows furrowed. "What ..." he began carefully, turning his mug around. "What was all that about, uh ... his father? Fitz never mentioned him before."

     "Oh, I shouldn't ..." Clara shook her head, shoulders slumping. She pursed her lips. Mack frowned, waiting patiently. "It's just ..." she sighed, rubbing her forehead. "He was not a good man," she decided to say in the end. It was the easiest way to say it. Mack nodded, listening. He took a sip from his coffee. Roy scratched her brow. "He always told Fitz he was stupid and worthless." Her brows bounced, scoffing at the thought. "I think that's why Fitz became so clever."

     Mack let out a long sigh, shaking his head. Clara nodded, agreeing. "I'd like to have a few words with that man," he muttered and she chuckled sadly.

     "Yeah," she said, "me too. But he walked out on them when Fitz was ten years old. He hasn't seen or heard from him since."

     "So, you're telling me with all the tools and tech that S.H.I.E.L.D. has at its disposal, we can't find him?"

     "Oh, no, we could," said Clara. "And I would love to pay him a visit, but ..." she shrugged again, "Fitz doesn't want to. And ... probably a good thing, you know? Never ends up well."

     Mack nodded, understanding. "You going to talk to him soon?"

     Clara nodded, "Yeah ... I just ... I don't know what to do sometimes. Things change, we've changed━Fitz used to handle his problems differently. I mean, he was always hard on himself but now, it's just ..." she sighed, "... I dunno, I worry about him."

     The burly engineer made a face, "Don't worry about it."

     She frowned, "What do you mean?"

     Mack suddenly chuckled, shaking his head as he looked at her. But soon, he nodded and the chuckles turned to a small smile, "When I first met you, Rapunzel, I was wrong. I said━I thought━that you only made things worse for him. But now?" he met her gaze and Clara's brows lifted, taken aback by the sure belief in them. "No matter what, Clara━no matter what you go through, what this damned place throws at the two of you, you get through it. You make it out the other end, together. And right now, he needs you, and you don't need to think, to come up with some scientific equation to be there for him, Roy. You've been there for him since the very beginning."

     Clara smiled to herself, remembering something Fitz told her years ago. At the Academy, at Sci-Ops, this plane ... You've been beside me the whole damn time. "Yeah," she said, feeling a little better. She smiled at Mack. 

     Nodding to herself, she stood up. Squeezing Mack's shoulder, grateful, as she left, Clara made her way back to her room, feeling confident in herself━in them. Her feet carried her downstairs and down the hallway. It didn't take long to reach the door. Clara stopped outside it, trying hard not to think it all through and just knock. 

     Slowly, she opened the door and peered inside, gaze settling on Fitz sitting on the edge of their bed. He held a photo in his hand, and without being there at his side, Clara knew which one it was. Roy stepped inside, closing the door behind her. As she did, Fitz folded the photo of him and his mother up and slipped it back inside his wallet. 

     "Hey," she started, sitting down on the opposite edge. "How're you doing?"

     Fitz hefted out a sigh. He set his wallet aside, "I keep telling myself I don't care if Radcliffe knows my father, I'm over it, but ..." he shook his head. Roy titled her head, watching him sit back on the bed against the pillows. Crossing his arms, he rolled his eyes at himself. "Maybe I'm not."

     Clara sighed herself. Slipping off her shoes, she climbed further up the bed herself so she could sit down next to him ... like old times. Situating herself right against his shoulder, taking a little time to get comfortable, she saw the slight quirk of his lips, remembering all the times back at the Academy and on the Bus that she'd spend a good minute figuring out the best way to sit. But it always ended up here, right at his side, where she could set her head on his shoulder and fall asleep halfway through the documentaries and movies they watched. And she did exactly that, smiling a little to herself to feel him set his against hers, too. 

      He grabbed her hand, linking their fingers together, watching as he traced the twist of her rings with his thumb. It lingered on her fourth finger, absent-mindedly flickering his gaze to her left hand. "You know ..." he went on, softly, "... maybe I'm stuck in a loop. Radcliffe ... Ward ... my dad ..." she felt his sigh against her forehead. "They're all the same. It keeps happening."

     Clara shook her head slightly against his shoulder, "No ..." she murmured, "I don't see it like that."

     Fitz pulled his head away to look at her, and she met his gaze. She saw the disbeleif, "Come on," he said, head tilting, "You know that it's true."

     Roy shook her head again. "It's not a loop," she said, more determined this time. "Yes, they all betrayed you. But that doesn't mean it's some loop cursed to you." He gave her a look at the word cursed and she nudged him, loving. "Fitz, after everything you've been through, no one would blame you if you put up your own firewall." She smiled━just at him. Just him. It was enough. "But you never did. Instead, you became this caring, open, loyal, and wonderful person who's kept his heart no matter what."

      He squeezed her hand, "Maybe that's why it keeps happening."

     "It's why I fell in love with you," she told him. His gaze softened. "It's why ... it's why I keep falling more in love with you every single day. That's not because of some programming," Clara placed their hands over his heart. "It's because of what's in here. That's something way beyond that."

      Fitz's brows knitted together, a little emotional. But then, his gaze shot to the side. Slowly, his grip fell out of hers and Clara sat back, a little confused. "That's it," he muttered. He glanced back at her, eyes wide.

     "What?" she asked, taken aback. "What is it?"

     Something in him lit up and Fitz cupped her face, "Clara, you ..." He didn't finish. He pulled her in for a strong kiss that lasted mere seconds, but kept her sitting there, dazed and flustered. Fitz was grinning. "You are brilliant. I love you."

     And he left her there, stunned, rushing for the door. It took Roy a second to get back to focus, "I━okay..." she managed. She heard the door close and it made her snap back to reality. "I━er━yes━uh," she realised he was gone and gasped, "Hey! Wait for me!" She scrambled off the bed and followed Fitz at a run, a smile on her face. 

     Together, they raced back to the lab. Passing the commons room, Jemma looked up from her tea. Her eyes widened in seeing the determined stride to Fitz's steps and her hopes lifted. She left her drink right there and rushed outside, allowing herself to be pulled along at the hand by Roy. Fitz-Roy-Simmons made it to the lab just in time, skidding to a stop at the sight of Mack pointing the barrel of his shotgun-axe between the L.M.D.'s eyes.

     "Mack!" Fitz exclaimed, pushing forward. "Stop! Wait!"

     At their entrance, Radcliffe's android gave Mack a sly, victorious smirk. He didn't lower the gun. Fitz marched up towards them and Roy's heart swelled with pride at the confidence he held again. 

    "I know a way around his programming," announced Agent Fitz. Passing his desk, he grabbed his drill. Bewildered, but trusting of his plan, Mack slowly lowered the gun. "Roy━"

     "On it," Agent Roy was grinning to herself as she rushed to her desk, grabbing the drill screws she kept for surgeries. She grabbed the right size and shuffled along the tiles towards the L.M.D. who watched them, for the first time showing a flicker of fear. "Simmons, we need the━" she cut off to see Jemma already one step ahead, arriving with the trolley. Roy smiled.

     She passed Fitz the right screw and he fixed it on. Simmons readied a tray, the three of them ignoring the android's nervous mutters, its objections. Fitz-Roy-Simmons worked in sync━like a well-developed and rehearsed dance, barely even uttering a word amongst each other. Fitz turned the drill on and pressed the trigger, testing the screws movement. Roy grabbed her tablet for documentation and Simmons set out a neat line of forceps, scalpels and the exact tools Roy would need from her set━in the correct order, too. 

     There was something satisfying to watch Fitz drill right into the back of the robot's head as it frantically argued, desperate for him to stop. And Roy knew that Fitz himself must feel smug; feel like he was stepping over a bridge to the other side. 

    "If you don't stop," Radcliffe's L.M.D. was saying, frantic and begging. Roy smirked a little at it, "you're gonna cause irreparable damage." Fitz continued to drill. "You'll never learn what your father said."

    "Don't care━" Fitz set set a bloody bolt onto the tray and moved onto the next amongst synthentic grey hair, "━I'm out of that loop."

     Clara smiled at him, swelling with pride. 

     "You want to tell me what's going on?" demanded Mack.

     "Something Clara said," explained Fitz as he continued to work. But he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, gaze glinting. She continued to smile at him, giving him a small nod. "We're more than programming." He set his gaze back on the android. "There's something else..."

     "A━all right, look," stammered the android, gaze darting apprehensively, "I give up. I'm ready to talk. What do you need to know?"

     "All right," Fitz pulled away his drill. "Roy."

     Simmons passed her the scalpel and Clara pulled on her gloves, "More than happy to," she said as she took it, taking Fitz's spot. 

     "He couldn't crack the code," informed Simmons to Mack as Roy put her tongue between her teeth, carefully cutting away at the surface flesh of the android, "because it wasn't a code."

      Fitz held the light over Clara's shoulder so she could see better, "It's just a bunch of gibberish."

     Mack frowned, "So ... what's running him? You━you ... you telling me this thing is ... alive?"

     "No!" chortled Roy, bemused by the thought. "Of course, not."

     "Fitz, please," begged the L.M.D. "Stop."

     Swapping the scapel with the forceps, Roy held little care in pushing the edge in through the surface flesh and underneath against the steel android casing. She gave it a jam with the palm of her hand to which Mack winced, grossed out. With a grunt, she pushed down and wedged open the square she and Fitz had cut. Glancing back at Fitz, she nodded to the android, "Would you like to do the honours, Doctor Fitzy?"

     "With pleasure," he muttered and Roy shuffled back next to Simmons, pulling off her gloves. Mack was still confused, and so Fitz finished the explanation. "What we're basically saying is ..." with ginger fingers, Agent Fitz pulled away the portion of the androids head, and with it, a dull gleam of yellow expanded out. He stepped back, gesturing to it, "... it has a brain."

     Clara couldn't help but let out a breath of amazement at the transparent, glowing organ buzzing and existing inside. An actual, real and working, artificial brain. 

    "Well," mused Simmons, "would you look at that?"

    They got straight into analysing. Fitz-Roy-Simmons peered into the metal skull, shining light into the holographic replica of the human brain. They couldn't believe their eyes. Roy scoffed a little in her shock, picking right into the very centre━this brain had even the smallests parts of the brain; Clara could pick out from the frontal lobe to cerebellar cortex right down into the hypothalamus within the lateral ventricles━which, the only important thing to take out of that was that this should be nearly impossible to create an exact working replica made out of nothing but what seemed to be light particles. 

     "I can't believe this..." murmured Roy, shaking her head in her disbelief. "It's completely━"

     "Made of light, yeah," agreed Fitz, glancing upwards to the monitor receiving the scans they made, "but it's functioning like a corporeal, biological brain. Quantum energy storing data ... it's as if synapses are interacting."

     Mack watched them, "Is ... is that even possible?"

    "No. No, not even in the slightest━" "━absolutely not."

    "I wish I could take credit," sighed Radcliffe's L.M.D., "but this was all A.I.D.A. and the Darkhold. Everything in the original brains, memories, knowledge, desires ... is contained in the quantum brains. So, you see, I re━"

     Simmoms froze. Her hand fell, gaze darting upwards with a sudden pale tone washing over her. "Brains," she realised. "You said brains."

     Roy's eyes widened. Like that, all of her curiosity disappeared, replaced with a sick feeling to her stomach. She pulled away her scanner, glancing at Fitz and Simmons. "My God," breathed Jemma, horrified. "Is it possible?"

     Clara set down the scanner. Brains. More than one; plural. Multiple L.M.D's━another android in their team. She felt the sudden need to throw up; it was like a punch to her gut and she almost stumbled, grasping Simmons's arm and meeting her gaze. She understood and let out a strangled gasp.

    "What?" demanded Mack, gaze darting between them all. "Talk to me."

    "Oh, my god," whimpered Roy, hands flying to her mouth. 

    "Radcliffe mapped another brain," muttered Fitz, meeting Mack's gaze, pale and grave. 

     "We saw it," Clara wanted to double over. "Simmons and I━we watched him do it!" She wanted to cry in her realisation. How long has it been there ... how long has she been gone, and none of them realised? Roy's heart made an unnatural jolt. Was she okay? Was she alive?

      Mack slowly started to understand. "You can't be serious."

     "May," Roy hugged her stomach. "Oh, my god━May. It's May."

✲══〖✰〗══✲

    a/n: posting this and then going to clean before dinner lol. 

    um, i'm sorry if you guys haven't been liking the recent chapters. but it's all mainly build up towards the framework, and i have a lot planned. i'm also sorry leith wasn't in this chapter, but this one was primarily clara and fitz focused. 

     i do hope you guys still like this story, because i really love it. but maybe my writing has gone downhill a little bit, i'm just stressed a little right now is all. a fair amount of books and one book receiving hate daily with most of them all losing readers with just one having the majority now. 

     but we'll get through. 

     i love you guys <3 see you next chapter. (only like three more until the framework? is that math?)

     this isn't edited i didn't have the time.