Chapter Text
June 3, 1981
May blinked the spots from her eyes as the blue flash faded. Another jump, even more years taken away. Their last stop, in 1976, had been a chaotic and emotional shitshow that ended in the destruction of a major SHIELD base. She could only hope that this time, it would be less bloody. According to Coulson, the Chronicoms were out of hunters after their attacks in ‘76. Whatever they were looking for in 1981, they had no manpower with which to find it. She put the Zephyr into autopilot, setting it to head to 10,000 feet, and left the cockpit.
“What’s the situation?” Mack was asking, looking around at the assembled agents in the command center. Deke and Simmons were busy looking over readouts, Enoch was standing stoically in a corner, and Yo-Yo was only entering the room as May did. She had a wide grin on her face, and May could feel her joy. She’d been stuck in the healing chamber during her last stop, and was happy to be free.
“Me volvieron mis poderes,” she announced proudly, before zipping across the room and back in a heartbeat to demonstrate. Mack kissed the top of her head, but he stayed focused on his readouts.
“Looks like we’re a bit north of DC,” May informed them.
“It’s mid-1981, if local news radio is to be believed,” Simmons added. May felt the wave of relief from her teammates at the news. Only five years, then. That wasn’t terrible. Daisy likely hadn’t died of old age.
“The Chronicoms’ ship showed up on our scans. They’re not very far, looks like an abandoned warehouse in Baltimore,” Deke said.
“They’re getting desperate,” Yo-Yo crowed.
“They are, and it’s an opportunity we shouldn’t waste. Can we attack them?” Mack asked.
“Not from without. They can withstand the Zephyr’s weaponry,” Enoch stated. “I will infiltrate their vessel and place explosive devices. I am capable of subverting their systems. The ship will be destroyed without bloodshed or complications.”
“Enoch…” Jemma said, but the Chronicom did not seem affected by her grief.
“Do not worry, Jemma Simmons. I will return if I can. And if not, I have prepared contingencies accordingly. My life is the most disposable.”
“How can you say that! You aren’t disposable!” the scientist yelled. May could feel Simmons’ grief draining the energy from her bones, but she shoved other people’s emotions aside, and stayed quiet. This moment was not for her.
“I am a Chronicom. I have existed longer than your species. It has been a good life. But no matter how this mission goes, it will be the last time the entire team is in the same place.”
“How do you know that?” Mack asked.
“I cannot explain. But I can advise you to spend the time you do have well. In fact, I would like to speak to you alone for a moment. There is some information I must impart.”
While Enoch pulled Simmons aside, May felt Mack’s mood switch to grim determination. He turned on the radio, speaking into the mic.
“Zephyr One to Triskelion. Do you read us?”
“I read you, Zephyr One. Good to hear your voice, Mack. What’s going on?” Daisy’s voice over the radio was the best thing May had heard since Daisy’s voice in person, ten minutes and five years ago.
“Not sure yet, but the Chronicoms are back. Can you get Coulson?”
“Will do. See you all soon.”
-
Twenty minutes later, Daisy was standing in the Zephyr’s command center, with May and Daniel on either side of her. It was strange, being back, after the disaster that was ‘76. A lot of good people had died, and it hadn’t exacly made the atmosphere any less tense. Thankfully, aside from a brief and emotional reunion with her mother, it was all business on the bridge. Enoch wasn’t there either, and as far as Daisy could gather, he’d left for some sort of suicide mission. She wished she’d gotten the chance to say goodbye.
“The Timeship is moving, heading straight into the upper atmosphere. Enoch made it on board,” Jemma reported. The rest of the team was kind enough to pretend they hadn’t heard the hitch in her voice.
“They’re sending out some sort of signal, into deep space. We’ve intercepted it, but we can’t translate it. Coulson?” The LMD leaned over the dashboard, reading the information Deke had pointed out.
“She’s informing Chronyca-2 of the loss of her Hunters and calling her fleet. Four ships. Authorizing them to carry out their mission,” he translated.
“Mission?” Mack asked.
“Wiping out SHIELD.” That got everyone’s attention, but was far from surprising.
“What can these ships do?” Daniel asked.
“Sybil sent out the schematics during that original message, the one where she got into SHIELD’s systems. They’ve each got one, massive, energy weapon. It can level a city block with one blow. Nothing we’ve got can match it, or defend against it,” Coulson said grimly. Silence fell for a moment, but a truly terrible idea occurred to Daisy. There was one way she knew of to block capital ship-grade energy weapons without a capital-ship grade shield, or calling in a favor from Asgard that she wasn’t owed.
“Energy weapons? That might not be strictly true. We can defend against them,” she said slowly. Her husband caught on before any of the others did.
“Kora?”
“Yeah.”
Daisy felt awful about this, but she didn’t see another choice. Her sister was only 25, the same age Daisy had been when she’d joined SHIELD. Now, having lived a (short) lifetime since meeting Coulson, she was hesitant about roping another powered, vulnerable young person into ties with an agency that would gladly put her on a list ‘for her own safety’. Kora trusted Daisy, looked up to her, even now that she was beyond needing a transitioner. If she was going to drag her sister into this mess, she was going to do it right.
With Kora’s powers, it was extremely likely that a first strike by the Chronicoms could be deflected. Even so, there were multiple ships, and only one of Kora. She couldn’t defend the entire planet at once. But if Daisy brought her to the Triskelion quietly, she could keep SHIELD’s headquarters safe long enough for a counter-offensive to succeed. Nobody would ever need to know she was there, and this could be a one-off thing. No paperwork, no real danger. Thousands of lives saved. She didn’t feel great about it, but Daisy didn’t see a better option. She’d tell Kora the truth, and let her decide.
The Zephyr dropped Daisy off at a SHIELD airfield, and she flew a quinjet back home. She went straight for the shoebox in her closet, touching the key within it. After a disconcerting swooping feeling in her stomach, she appeared in the transport room in Afterlife. It only took a few minutes searching to find Jiaying, doing paperwork in her office. She smiled warmly when Daisy stepped into the room. Becoming an Elder of Afterlife hadn’t given her more respect from the Inhumans- she wouldn’t have been offered the role if she didn’t already have it- but it had made them more certain that she would stick around. Jiaying smiled warmly when she saw her. After so many years, Daisy managed not to flinch at the sight of her mother.
“Louise! It’s good to see you.”
“Likewise, Jiaying, but I’m sorry to say this isn’t a social call. Is Kora around? I need to talk to her.” Daisy’s voice was coming in a rush, and she couldn’t focus, not with her senses constantly keeping a metaphorical eye out for Chronicoms in the distance.
“I’m right here. What’s up?” Daisy turned around to see Kora standing in the doorway to Jiaying’s office. It had been a couple of months since they’d seen each other, and her younger sister had only gotten more powerful since then. Daisy could feel the power thrumming under her skin, it was only how distracted she was that had stopped her from detecting Kora from miles away.
“SHIELD stuff. I need your help. There’s a bunch of Chronicom spaceships on their way to Earth, right now, with massive energy guns on them. They’re going to target SHIELD facilities, then they’ll probably keep shooting at major cities until the planet surrenders.” Daisy laid it out matter-of-factly, trying as hard as she could not to express this in a manipulative way. She would present Kora with the facts, and she would make her own decision.
“You want me to stop their weapons,” Kora surmised.
“I do. We’re working on destroying the ships, but even if you can just project the Triskelion, it’ll save a lot of lives, and keep them distracted.”
“You’d reveal us to SHIELD?” Jiaying asked incredulously. There was no anger behind it though, just surprise. She trusted Daisy enough to know how much she valued secrecy, she seemed more surprised than anything.
“I’m more careful than that. Daniel’s office is on the highest floor. You can shield the whole building- pun intended- without anyone ever knowing you were there but me,” Daisy assured her relatives.
“I want to help, mom. I want to use my powers for something. Besides, these things attacked us once already. We should take the fight to them,” Kora begged. Daisy had to look away to avoid flinching from their resemblance. When they’d first met, Kora was shy, nervous, and terrified of what her powers could do. Jiaying and the other Inhumans had told her that Kora had been an excitable, cheerful, and shy-yet-friendly child, deeply devoted to her mother. It was only in the last few years, when the other Inhumans fully accepted that Kora wasn’t a threat, and she gained complete control over her powers, that Daisy’s sister had come back into her own.
Kora had grown into a relentless optimist, a bright-eyed young woman who saw the best in everyone and always sought to make the world even better, as much as she could while keeping the Inhuman secret. With lighter hair, a careful application of makeup, and more modern fashion, she could’ve passed for Skye during her time with the Rising Tide. Giving her sister the life she’d never been able to have was the single best thing Daisy had accomplished since she’d come into the past, and it was killing her to not be able to talk to Kora or Jiaying about it.
“And how are you supposed to get into the building?” her birth-mother demanded.
“I can use Jagat’s portals to teleport us to my home, in Jersey. My people can bring us to DC from there. With my authorization, you can walk in the front door,” Daisy said, careful not to betray her emotions.
“Please, mom,” Kora pleaded. Jiaying only lasted a few moments against her daughter’s puppy dog eyes before she relented.
“Alright. You can go. Just… stay safe.”
“I’ll keep her out of harm’s way, Jiaying. With her powers, wherever Kora is will be the safest place on the planet,” Daisy assured her. She just hoped it was true.
-
Jemma could only watch as the timeship slowly approached the four Chronicom battleships, waiting in empty space.
The explosion, silent through the Zephyr’s scopes and the silence of space, was nonetheless visible in intricate detail. Less than a kilometer from the fleet, the timeship rippled, then burst like an overripe grape. Plasma and debris smashed into the closest Chronicom battleship, causing chains of secondary explosions that tore the pristine vessel to pieces. When the reactor was breached, a filmy wave of blue energy tore out from the destroyed ship, taking another two down with it. The flagship was split almost perfectly in two, with the aft portion detonating and the fore remaining largely intact. The final remaining vessel hung there in space, seemingly paralyzed by the destruction of its fellows.
Jemma choked back a sob. Enoch was gone, then. Dead, sacrificing himself to save the planet. Her only companion other than Fitz during the years she’d spent in space. Her only steadfast ally, the only one who knew about DIANA. Enoch had told her some of the vague details of Fitz’s plan, before he’d left for the Chronicom timeship with a duffle full of explosives. Jemma still didn’t remember, specifically, where Fitz was, or the full scope of the plan. But she knew what she had to do.
-
By the time Daisy and Kora teleported back to her home, flew to DC, entered the Triskelion, and made it to Daniel’s office, there were already streaks of orange across the late evening sky. She quickly kissed her husband in greeting, and he squeezed her forearm. Kora faked retching, earning her glares from them both.
“Louise, Kora. Glad you’re here, but thankfully, looks like Enoch took care of it. Three of the four ships are disabled or destroyed.” Daniel gestured out his window, towards the glowing trails. “That’s some of the debris.”
“Sorry for dragging you across the planet for nothing,” Daisy said.
“Don’t be, I’ve kind of always wanted to see this place, and I haven’t left Afterlife in years. Besides, there’s one ship left. Are you guys gonna blow it up with a missile or laser or something?” her sister asked.
“No, we don’t have anything that can reach that far. Unless…”
“What?” Daniel’s brow was furrowed, but he hadn’t yet followed Daisy’s train of though to its rational conclusion.
“I have an idea,” she said.
“What sort of idea?” Kora asked, eyes (metaphorically) glowing with amusement.
“Stark built a lot of really big guns before I took the Tesseract away, including some surface-to-space ones. He can’t power them, but he’s been experimenting with arc reactor tech, and he knows he’s close to cracking it, so he keeps the guns around anyway.”
“Oh God. That might actually work. Fuck,” Daniel muttered.
“What’s a Tesseract?” was Kora’s, much more predictable, reply.
“Long story. The important part is, we have a weapon on the roof that can hit the Chronicom ships- and you’re the only thing that can power it. I don’t want you to think this is the only option you have, though. We have other ways of destroying the ship that don’t require you to use your powers as a weapon.”
“But none fast enough to save everyone?” her sister questioned.
“No. Probably not,” Daniel admitted.
“These things attacked my home, and I defended it when they did. Earth’s my home too, I won’t let it get destroyed. Where’s the gun?”
Daisy’s heart ached for her wonderful, kind, noble sister. If only Kora had survived in the original timeline, everything might have been different. She would have loved to meet her properly. To tell Kora her real name, to revel in all the little habits and features they shared, despite having grown up apart. Instead, she just gave the younger woman a quick hug, and looked to Daniel for final approval. Technically, as Deputy Director, only he and Peggy had final say on who could mess with massive cannons on roofs. He had, however, never been able to deny her anything, and she knew it.
“Take a right out the door, first staircase on your left. Can’t miss it, it’s the big-ass gun,” Daniel added helpfully. Daisy squeezed his hand in thanks, then turned to her sister with an expectant raised eyebrow.
Kora led the way with an excited grin and a skip in her step, far too happy about getting to blow things up. Then again, with her powers, Daisy supposed it was only natural. Her sister nodded appreciatively when she saw the big-ass gun in question, and Daisy quickly went about setting it up. In design, it wasn’t very different from a supersized version of the cannon HYDRA had once attached to the tops of their tanks. It came attached with a telescope and targeting screen, already linked to SHIELD’s sensors, and she carefully aimed it at the last surviving Chronicom ship. It was just floating in space, motionless, as if entirely unable to function without the flagship. Daisy had no intention of second-guessing her luck.
“So… how does this work?” Kora asked.
“Well. The power packs usually go there,” Daisy gestured as she spoke, towards two open, square sockets on the opposite side of the cannon from the control panel, “but we don’t have any Tesseract batteries. So, I’d say just stick your hands in there and channel as much power as you can. I’ve turned the thing on already, it’ll fire when it gets enough power.”
Without a moment’s hesitation or fear, Kora did as instructed. She placed her hands into the sockets, and her eyes lit up a pure white. Arcs of gold energy curled around her, and Daisy couldn’t help a swell of pride at how far her student had come. She was a confident, powerful, in-control Inhuman now, fully developed after spending eight years out of the Mist.
Kora smiled, and the control panel registered a surge of energy. In a matter of seconds, the weapon was fully charged, and it automatically fired. Instead of the usual starburst of blue, it was a beam of golden light that emitted from the weapon. Kora removed her hands, and raced over to the control panel, to watch alongside Daisy. In a matter of seconds, the last of the Chronicom vessels was pierced amidships, and nearly instantly exploded. Daisy let out a low, appreciative whistle.
“Not bad, kid.”
“Not bad? That was fuckin’ awesome!”
“Yeah, it was. Nice job. You’ve come a long way, Kora. I’m proud of you.” In lieu of reply, Kora just pulled Daisy into a hug.
It took less than an hour for Daisy to send her sister back to Afterlife, pick up Daniel in a quinjet, and rejoin the team on the Zephyr. Enoch’s absence made the mood more somber, but they’d won. Finally, after fifty years, they’d won. Even if it was subdued, the sense of relief was palpable.
“The fleet’s gone. The hunters are gone. The Timeship is gone. We won.” Mack wasn’t bothering to hide his smile, and he was leaning against his girlfriend with an arm slung over her shoulder. Yo-Yo and Daisy weren’t even glaring at each other. It was almost like old times.
“Debris is still falling, but as far as we can tell, almost all of it’s burnt up in the atmosphere. The rest is inert, or staying in orbit, most is both. SHIELD’s working on gathering up all the pieces,” Daniel reported. NORAD was having a hissy fit, but everything would work out fine.
“And in this timeline, Slingshot is real. It’ll all get sent into the sun,” May told them. Simmons was present enough, at least, to be relieved by that statement. After a moment’s thought, she looked up from her tablet, and met May’s eyes.
“It’s over, yes. Without the Chronicoms jumping, we’ll remain in this time until we choose to go home. Enoch told me, at the end, that I’d know when it was time to remove DIANA. It’s time,” she said. Daisy knew she wasn’t alone in her confusion.
“DIANA?” Coulson asked.
“It’s a memory-blocking implant I designed, to make me forget where Fitz is. We need to call him, so he can bring us home.” Everyone but Deke was visibly shocked.
“When you say memory implant, what precisely do you mean?” Daniel asked.
“It’s embedded in my brain,” Simmons said, turning around. She pulled up her hair as she did so, revealing the glowing orange triangle of dots at the top of her spine. Now that Daisy was looking for it, she could sense the intricate metal worming its way into the scientist’s brain. Jemma turned back around, lowering her hair, and smiled tiredly. “Removing it as an easy process, I promise.” She stifled a yawn, which did not inspire Daisy’s confidence.
“Simmons, how long has it been since you’ve slept? Since any of you have slept?” she asked.
“Probably about fifty years,” Mack chuckled.
“It’s over, guys. We won. Earth’s safe. Park the Zephyr near the Triskelion, we’ll keep the place clear. You can afford to get a night’s rest before you perform brain surgery on yourself,” Daisy ordered.
“Technically, I’d need someone else to do it for me,” Jemma added helpfully. Daisy just stared at her open-mouthed.
“That’s… so much worse somehow. I still live in Jersey, but Daniel and I keep an apartment in DC. We’ll stay there, come see you guys in the morning. You can do your brain surgery when all the brains are performing at peak capacity.” Her tone left no room for argument.
“That sounds… reasonable,” Yo-Yo admitted.
“Don’t sound so surprised,” Daniel said.
“You sure you don’t want to bunk here?” Jemma asked sheepishly. Daisy tried her best for a sympathetic smile rather than a cutting one.
“I’d prefer my own home, if it’s an option.”
“This is your home,” Jemma grumbled, just barely loud enough to be heard.
“Guys! Enough. We all need sleep, getting into an exhausted screaming match won’t do anyone any good,” Deke yelled, before anyone else could argue. Begrudgingly but obediently, the arguments stopped.
“He gets more reasonable every time I see him,” Daniel whispered to her. Daisy nodded her agreement.
“Have you got a guest room?” Her mother asked casually. Daisy sent a wave of gratitude towards her.
“Of course, you’re welcome to stay,” Daisy assured her.
Daisy fell asleep in her own bed that night, with her head on Daniel’s chest, and the comforting, steady beat of May’s heartbeat thrumming in her senses from the next room over. Her last thought before she drifted off was that, finally, they’d won the war.
The door was already unlocked when Peggy got home, after a very late night spent coordinating the retrieval of Chronicom debris. She wasn’t worried in the least, however. Someone else had a key, and she had a habit of dropping in at inconvenient times.
“Dottie? Is that you? You’ll see me tomorrow at the Triskelion, you know we can’t arrive together,” the Director of SHIELD called, as she entered her front door.
Peggy and Dottie had been able to successfully carry on their relationship in secret for years, now. She was sure Daniel, at least, suspected, but he didn’t care. As SHIELD’s director, she’d been able to get the former Soviet agent’s name cleared years ago, and Dottie now worked as a freelance agent for SHIELD on occasion, taking on tough, one-person missions that no one else could, for pay. Tomorrow, she would be receiving one of those
The face Peggy saw when she entered the kitchen was not that of her partner, nor even of a human. It was sleek and transparent, a mix of glass and metal with creepily normal eyes in the middle of its head. It grinned toothily at her- or maybe it just didn’t have lips- and shot her with a blue bolt of energy. It was still grinning when she lost consciousness.
Peggy remembered everything. Playing in the garden with Michael as a little girl. Graduating from University. The start of the War. Joining Bletchley Park. Michael’s supposed death. Joining the SOE, then the SSR. Meeting Steve. Fighting HYDRA. Losing Steve. Meeting Dottie in the hall of her building. Fighting Leviathan. Whitney Frost. Kissing Daniel in his office. Breaking up with him. Leaving LA for the East Coast. Founding SHIELD. Marrying. The birth of her children. Daniel’s supposed death, and return with two SHIELD agents from the future. A second war on HYDRA. Her husband’s death. Becoming Director. There. The Directorship. Names, dates, building schematics, codes, frequencies. A secret entrance to the Triskelion, open only to the director. No. No, I shouldn’t be remembering this. I can’t. Classified files. Daisy Johnson. Speech patterns. Missile systems. Idiosyncrasies. All rushing through her mind faster than her brain could handle. Until, with a gasp, she woke up.
Peggy was lying face-down on a metal table, with some lit-up half-circle above her head, and a half-pipe of glass above her from the torso up. She pushed off the table, looking around for a weapon, but there was nothing. On the other end of the machine, the thing that had attacked her- a Chronicom, she was sure of it- was pushing itself upright. It was still grinning creepily, fleshless and gleaming. Peggy threw a punch, but the Chronciom caught it, and without any effort at all, crushed her hand in its fist. She screamed in pain, feeling the bones turn to dust, but kicked it in the side of the knee regardless. The Chronicom staggered and she took the opportunity to elbow it with her intact arm. She dodged a punch, a kick, a headbutt. For a moment, she thought it was winning.
When the robot finally managed to land a punch to her stomach, all the wind was knocked out of her at once. She wasn’t in her prime anymore, and even then, fighting something still strong and durable would’ve been different. Peggy kicked at its chest as her assailant pinned her to the wall by her neck, and withdrew a strange device from its chest. It was in vain, the Chronicom was far stronger than her. She couldn’t speak with such a crushing weight around her larynx, and she realized suddenly that the Chronicom was not trying to keep her alive any longer. Whatever it had taken from her mind was all it had needed.
Her rather depressing theory was confirmed when the device was raised to the top of her head and activated. Searing-hot red lights swept over her face, moving far too slowly from the top down. She could feel her skin melting and fusing, and after only a moment she could only see red, then nothing at all.
Oh, thought Peggy Carter, as the device closed off her nose, then her mouth. I never thought it would end like this. By the time she was dropped to the ground, dead, the Chronicom had already applied its new face.