For the Greater Good

By: thrillerartist

***I DON'T OWN AGENTS OF SHIELD***

WARNING: STORY CONTAINS MOMENTS OF ATTEMPTED SUICIDE

She felt the tremors inside of her before she felt the tears.

With her powers newly restored, she could feel every tremble of the bunker, though she didn't know if it was coming from the frequencies of the earth, or inside of her. She sat alone in her bunk, gently rubbing the still raw wound left on her neck by her so-called friend, Fitz. Her inhibitor, her one comfort in this crazy-ass timeline, was gone. If the people from the other time were right, then her powers would be what destroys the world, causing the world to split apart into a million fragments. Causing the Kree to enslave what remained of humanity. Enslaving future Inhumans to a life of fighting to the death for entertainment.

She'd wanted to stay in that time. She couldn't destroy the world if she wasn't around to do it. But Coulson-stupid Coulson-ICE'd her and literally dragged her back to their own time.

Why couldn't he just leave me there? She thought. He knew the risk in bringing me back. Why couldn't he just leave me be?

At first, it wasn't so bad. If she just stayed on the base, if she kept her inhibitor in her, then she wouldn't have any means to destroy the world. Sure, there were some times when she thought having her powers would be useful-like when she and Deke were attacked by that Kree apparition-but those thoughts were quickly voided by memories of a future she knew was possible if she did. A future that was too much to bear, even if she only stayed there temporarily. She felt her emotions rise and fall like the different frequencies of the earth-soft one moment, monumental the next. All her fear and anger crashed down on her heart like a ton of bricks. Hot tears sprouted from her eyes, and her voice began to hitch as she struggled to keep her cries silent.

Why did he do that to me? She thought as she sobbed into her hands. He knew what the risks were! I begged him not to! So why did he do that?

Her fail-safe, her plan to stay powerless, was taken away by the man who had been her friend for years. He bound her to a chair, and ripped her inhibitor out as she begged and cried for him to stop. And all he had to say was, "It has to be done."

It has to be done? She thought. IT HAS TO BE DONE?! How could he do that to me, after everything?!

Daisy then noticed that the buzzing inside of her had awakened again, and that her bunk was shaking like a leaf. Trying to calm herself, she took deep breaths, and slowly, the shaking ceased.

That's how I destroy the world, Fitz, she thought, looking at her hands. Tell me, did you really want to cause the end of the world?

She heard her door open, but didn't look up to see who it was.

"I felt the shaking." May's voice says.
"Go away." Daisy snaps. "I don't feel like talking right now."

"I didn't come here to force you to talk", May says. "I came here because I thought you'd need a friend." Rebellious tears began to form behind Daisy's eyes again, and it was all she could do to hold them back. Trying to keep it all inside of her, Daisy held her face in her hands, sobbing and wailing like a toddler having a tantrum. "May", she gasps. "May, how could he do that to me?" May gave Daisy no response other than gentle hands wrapping around her shoulders. "May, I don't know what to do," Daisy says as tears streaked her cheeks. "I'm so afraid of what I might do, and it's killing me!"

Again, there was no response other than a gentle squeeze, and Daisy let herself lean closer into May's grasp. For a while, they sat that way, May holding Daisy in her arms, Daisy's head resting on the chest of her former S.O. Finally, May broke the silence. "It's okay to be afraid, Daisy." she says, and as Daisy finally pulls away from her former S.O.'s embrace, May continues, "Fear can be a good thing, sometimes. It keeps us in check, makes it so we're careful to never make stupid mistakes. Fear can be used in a positive way, Daisy. Just don't let your fear keep you from doing your duty as an agent. Because that would mean that everything I taught you was for nothing." May turned to leave, and Daisy remained sitting on her bunk. May turns back to her protege, and lets her know that she'll be back in a little while with some food and water.

Daisy stays as still statue on her bunk, staring at the wall. Unknown to May, Daisy was thinking about only five words uttered by her mentor: ...your duty as an agent...your duty as an agent…
And Daisy was planning to do just that.

A little while after May left her, Daisy got up from her bunk and made her way down to the supply levels. Walking among the stacks, she passed boxes of Twinkies, cases of orange-scented air fresheners, dried and canned food, clothes, hard-drives, until she finally came to what she was looking for: Weapons. Rows of weapons. Blocks of C-4. Cases of grenades. Crates of old explosives. Assault rifles. Knives and machetes. Everything needed for a possible military-grade battle.

But there was only one thing in particular that Daisy wanted. Until she finally found it.

Gently, she reached into a padded case of guns, pulling out a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, similar to the what she used to carry when she was an agent. She checked the magazine, and, seeing that it was empty, kept browsing the stacks until she came across bullets. She grabbed a handful of from a box, and began loading them into the chamber, when she heard the footsteps. Daisy didn't stop her work.

It's probably Deke, looking for a snack, she thought. B

ut it wasn't Deke.

"Daisy," an all-too familiar voice says, "I need you to stop and put the gun down."

May had found her. Of course she had. May probably realized something was up when she came back to Daisy's empty room.

Daisy loaded the last bullet into the chamber, and slid the magazine into the gun.

"Daisy." May repeats. "Put. The gun. Down." Daisy clicked the gun, loading a bullet into place.

"No." She says stoically, her eyes beginning to form tears once again. "I'm doing what needs to be done."

"You and I both know that this isn't what needs to be done." May says, moving closer.

"Stay back." Daisy snaps, pointing the gun at May. May stops in her tracks. "Stay back, May." Daisy repeats.

May stands still, her hands up in surrender. Daisy can't stand that placid look on her face, because she knows that May must be feeling pretty disappointed in her right now.

"You'd point a gun at me, Daisy?" May murmurs, and a lone tear tracks down Daisy's cheek.

"No." Daisy says, lowering the gun. Then she lifts her arm, bringing the nuzzle to her temple. "I'm pointing it at me." Silence envelopes the room. May's hands are still up, and that placid look on her face morphs into one of concern and fear.

"Daisy", May says gently, "give me the gun." Tears track down Daisy's face as she fights back a scream of frustration and betrayal. All the stress that had piled up on her since coming back from that desolate future had come flooding into her the moment Fitz forcefully removed her inhibitor, her one consolation in coming back to her own time.

"Daisy", May says again. "Daisy, Daisy, look at me!" Daisy's eyes flick up to see May, her arms stretched out towards Daisy. "It's alright. Everything's going to be okay, Daisy."

"Nothing's going to be okay!" Daisy screams. She didn't care how childish she sounded then, or how her voiced cracked from the strain if fighting back her emotions. Her hand loosens around the gun, and her arm begins to sag from fatigue. It took a lot of will to hold a weapon to her head. "Everything's coming true!" Daisy wails. "The light in the sky, Yo-Yo's arms, the Lighthouse, and now my powers-"

"We don't know if you're the one who destroys the world, Daisy." May says gently. Daisy looks at her again. Was she closer? Hadn't May been farther away from her? Daisy didn't care either way. "You heard what those people in the future said!" Daisy yells. "You heard them say that the last thing anybody saw before the world cracked apart, was me running into the line of fire. That a giant earthquake splits the world apart! Who do you think caused that? Yo-Yo? Mack? There's only one person here who could do something like that, May! It's me!"

However, Daisy hadn't been noticing that May, slowly, had been taking the tiniest steps to get closer to Daisy without scaring her into making a rash decision. She was so enthralled with what could happen, that she didn't notice that May was now a little more than an arms-length away from her.

"Daisy, we don't know what happens." May says gently, taking another tiny step closer to the hysterical girl. "We have a Before, and we have an After, but we don't know what happens In Between." Daisy's eyes flick up towards May, then back to the ground, the tears now stalled. The seasoned agent in May knows that Daisy is fatiguing.

That her decision will be made soon.

There was only a little time left for May to stop Daisy from making a fatal choice.

"I let someone I love die, because my actions would have destroyed the world." Daisy whispers, her voice raspy and hoarse. May sees Daisy's arm stiffen, her finger move towards tightening around the trigger.

"I won't let it happen again."

For the first time since she came to the basement, Daisy was calm. She looked May in the eye, her gaze softening, as she says, "Goodbye, May. I love you."

And gently, she squeezes the trigger.

The gun goes off before either of them knew what happened.

May felt herself move as fast as Yo-Yo. As Daisy closed her eyes and prepared to pull the trigger, May closed the distance between herself and her former student. She grabbed her arms around Daisy's hands, and pushed them away from her head, and up towards the ceiling. Daisy's fingers closed around the trigger, as she felt a force shove her hand in the air.

She heard the BANG!, felt a terrible stinging sensation graze the side of her head, but it took a moment for her to register that she was still conscious.

That her blood was not pouring out of her body. That her heart was still beating.

That she was still alive.

Her plans of doing her duty for the good of the world, the greater good that so many of her friends had fought and died for, had failed. She felt her knees give out, heard the clatter of the gun as it was ripped from her hands and thrown across the room. She felt two strong, maternal arms wrap around her and ease her to the ground in a comforting hold.

"NO!" Daisy screamed, collapsing against the force that was holding her, "No, no, no, no no no!"

"Shhh," May's voice whispered. "Shhh, Daisy. Everything's going to be okay."

"It's not going to be okay." Daisy says. "The world's going to pay for my mistakes." Daisy tries to pull away, by May's grip around her was too strong. Or maybe Daisy was too weak? She felt so tired that she almost didn't notice that a hand began gently stroking her hair in an effort to ease her distress.

"Why'd you even stop me?" Daisy says, her voice almost too soft to be heard.

There is silence for a while, as if May was weighing her answers carefully. "Daisy", May finally says. "Did you really think I'd give up on you after everything?"

And that is when Daisy realizes that it didn't matter if she killed herself, or destroyed the earth.

Her family's world would have ended either way