I'm cursed. I'm definitely cursed, Simmons thinks as the Kree slaves paint part of her face and her lips gold.

At first she couldn't decide if she'd rather be on this space station or fighting for her life back on Maveth, but she decided that Maveth would be infinitely preferable. Being forced into submission by these things made her skin crawl way more than Hive ever did.

The paint is cold to the touch and the slaves are very meticulous with how they apply it to Simmons' skin. No doubt to avoid making any mistakes that might set Kasius off. Once the slaves finish painting and redressing Simmons, they spent the next few hours showing her how to act. It was a bit difficult at first for Simmons to follow them as she could not hear anything, but she caught on pretty quick. Following this brief lesson, Sinara, the Kree female Simmons guessed to be Kasius' right hand woman, took her and a few other slaves back to Kasius' chambers. Kasius begins speaking and Simmons wonders if he removed her ability to hear for breaking the rules and the others can hear him just fine.

"Jemma."

Did I just hear him? Simmons thinks.

"You look wonderful," he continues; voice mildly distorted.

Oh yeah. I definitely heard him, she thinks; skin crawling at his compliment. He mentions that guests are arriving and looks out the window.

Oh for crap's sake, Simmons mildly curses in her thoughts at the sight of a rather large ship coming into view.

"Proceed to the dining room," Kasius commands.

Simmons obeys. Her face a look of stoicism while her emotions raged inside demanding to be released. She stood at the foot of the dining room table where Kasius takes his seat. His right hand woman, his lover maybe, taking the first seat at the top right side of the table. An impressive feast sat before the group; a mixture of Earth and, Simmons guesses, Kree cuisine. It makes her wish even harder that she was back at the diner with Fitz finishing off that pie. Instead, she stands in silence while Kasius speaks with Sinara about something, but now Simmons can't hear a word they said. After a few more minutes pass, the two of them stand up and face the entrance to the dining room. Simmons faces the entrance too and takes a sudden gulp, nearly choking on her own spit.

Another alien, one with piercing eyes, dressed in gold platted armor, and towering over everyone, steps into the room. He is so muscular that Simmons thinks he could snap her neck with a simple slap. He also wears a gauntlet on his right hand that contained three beautifully glowing gems.

"Kneel before his excellency," Kasius orders. Simmons kneels in the position the others showed her earlier; arms folded, head pointed down at the floor, and her eyes open. "Lord Thanos. This is an unexpected pleasure. We are enriched by your presence and have prepared you this feast," Kasius greets.

Simmons steals a glance up and sees this Thanos smiling at Kasius' cliche riddled flattery.

Great, as if this room didn't have enough narcissists, she thinks.

She takes another quick look to her left and sees an alien woman standing beside Thanos. At least Simmons thinks she's an alien. The woman appears far more mechanical than biological. She directs her eyes back to the floor once Thanos begins to approach her and Kasius. The floor mildly shaking with each step he takes.

"This is not a social visit, Kasius." Thanos' voice sends a chill running up Simmons' spine. She steals another glance at Thanos and feels like she might faint from how imposing he is.

"Is there something wrong, my lord?" Kasius asks.

"Our ship detected several unregistered energy surges from a monolith. I traced the surges to this station," the woman beside Thanos reveals. Simmons notices Kasius' confident exterior falter for a quick moment and smiles in her mind at seeing him not being in control.

"If there has been unregistered monolith activity, I assure you, it is news to me and we will investigate it immediately," Kasius promises.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Thanos asks.

"Oh, um, yes of course, immediately," Kasius stumbles and turns to Sinara. "Go to the security room and check the cameras for any monolith activity. Report back the moment you find something."

"Nebula will accompany you," Thanos says.

It's a simple statement, but there is so much power behind it. Simmons can see why Kasius is uneasy. Nebula looks at Thanos with some contempt and he grins at her in return. One of the gems in his gauntlet glows brighter and Nebula's eyes turn completely black.

"Yes father," Nebula replies. The glow in the gem starts to die down and Simmons notices that in addition to the three glowing gems in Thanos' gauntlet, there are three more, but they are all cracked.

"Come with me," Simmons hears Sinara speak for the first time.

She expected her to sound like May from the way the alien warrior carried herself. However, there was a surprising nonchalance to her voice. Nebula leaves the room with Sinara and Simmons directs her gaze back to the floor.

Please don't find my friends, please don't find my friends, Simmons prays in her mind; silence overtaking her once more due to Kasius and Thanos moving to another part of the room. The uncomfortableness of the silence weighs down heavily on her, but she stays rooted to the floor for an untold amount of time. Not like she could do much else.

"Jemma," Kasius' distorted voice sounds from behind her. He places a hand on her shoulder and maybe it is her imagination, but it feels like the room's temperature just dropped several degrees. "Rise." Simmons obeys his command and observes that Thanos no longer occupies the rom; neither do the other servants. Kasius begins pacing around Simmons and she keeps her eyes focused on the floor.

"Jemma, when I first saw you and learned of your medical talents, I thought you might be a spy from Xandar, but now it all makes sense. Your clothes, your ignorance of the rules, the anomalies we found when analyzing your DNA and, well," he gets uncomfortably close to Jemma's neck, "your scent is certainly unique." Simmons fights back the tears she can feel welling up. She won't give this egomaniac the satisfaction of having anymore control over her than he already does.

"You're one of the people the foolish believers spoke of. A so called 'Agent' of Shield. I don't know how you managed to get a monolith to send you through time, but I couldn't be anymore pleased to stand in the presence of a relic of a time long past. A human born before the age of submission is truly one of the rarest and most beautiful things of all." Kasius reaches forward and caresses Simmons' cheek. She instinctively pulls her face away from his touch, but he only laughs.

Great. I'm just endearing myself further to him.

"Thanos won't be pleased when he finds out you're hiding me," Simmons threatens. She braces herself for Kasius to slap her or reprimand her in some way for speaking out of turn, but he only gives her an arrogantly smug grin.

"But he won't find out. Not when he has other 'Agents' he can find and kill," he says and walks behind Simmons again. "And I advise you not get any ideas about revealing yourself to him. Especially when I have this," he whispers and holds up the bug he used to take away Simmons' hearing to her mouth.

The thing scratches at her lips and she trembles at the sound of Kasius laughs. But she remains still as if she's alone in the room. Kasius retracts the bug from her mouth and dismisses Simmons back to her room. When she sits on her bed, she wants to yell, but instead lets out a breath she did not realizes she was holding.

How am I going to get out of this one? She wonders and stares out the window. Grateful she doesn't have a view of the destroyed Earth.

Her thoughts start to drift to Fitz and the life he must've lived in this timeline. She at least hopes he lived a full life and did not get killed when whatever catastrophe destroyed the Earth struck. Then she remembers the message he sent on the Postcard Deke had on him. 'Working on it', the card read. That's her Fitz. Always doing something. But this time she desperately wishes he wouldn't. She lies back on her bed and closes her eyes.

Fitz, wherever you are, please, please, just stay away. Let me come back to you for once. I love you.