Oceans Away || Leo Fitz Book Three

Chapter Nine

Coulson radioed the Base shortly after and asked the remainder of the team to load up the Monolith and bring it to them. It took a little of convincing to get Mack to actually do it, but he wasn't going to ignore a direct order from their Director. So the plan was set, as Asia knew it would be the moment that those words had left Leo's mouth. Of course they would, if it meant bringing Jemma home. Which obviously, Asia wanted to happen as well. But she couldn't shake the feeling of anxiety that this room brought her. She didn't know what it was that made her feel so....off, but there was something here.

So Asia watched by, arms crossed over her shoulders, as Elliot and Leo ran around the room, figuring out what switches and toggles would help them get their job done. As Mack and Daisy entered, Asia turned around, smiling at Daisy, still visibly uncomfortable. Daisy had a similar look of unease on her face and Asia gave her a small nod.

"Everything alright?" The brunette asked her friend.

"Yea...just frustrated with the results of Joey's latest observation. Andrew Garner recommends three more months of time away, time being looked at beneath a microscope," Daisy sighed, shaking her head, still glancing nervously around the room. "It's frustrating as hell, how are we ever supposed to build a team this way? Also, where are we? It gives me the heeby jeebies."

"Same..." Asia replied, "Whatever is going on here, I don't like it...And it's not just because that thing is in here now," She nodded towards the pit in the center of the room where the Monolith now sat, unmoving.

"Mack, hey, Mack," Leo snapped his finger at their teammate, then pointed towards the wall, "Can you flip that white switch? Not the one already up. The one that's down. Please and thank you."

Mack nodded and reached for the switch, giving it some effort to push the lever upwards. It was rusty, and groaned as Mack put his weight into it, but it gave eventually. After it clicked into place, the room shuddered ever so slightly, and then a mechanical whirring sound began to emanate throughout the room. The gears along the wall started to turn and pullies started to move up and down.

The entire room started to rumble and shake and suddenly, in the pit, the Monolith melted into liquid, sloshing around inside the circular hole, until it filled the pit like a little pond, weird hexadecimal shapes appearing and disappearing on the surface. Leo stepped forward, taking out a flashlight and shining it down into the pit.

"It's staying open!" He called out, looking up at all of them. "I need more light. More light!" Mack sprang into action, grabbing a larger flashlight and bringing it over.

Suddenly, an ear piercing sound started to fill Asia's ears, like nails on a chalkboard mixed with metal on metal, flooding her system. It was migraine inducing, painful, and full volume. She placed a hand on Daisy's shoulder, nearly doubling over, only to notice her friend was experiencing the exact same pain. Asia was in such pain that she didn't even see Coulson tossing Fitz a flair, nor Fitz shooting it into the pool. She didn't hear Mack shouting that there was a problem.

"H-help," Daisy muttered out, pressing her hand to her forehead, while still trying to help support Asia up. Asia couldn't see straight, everyone had doubles and her vision was foggy at the edges. Asia put her hands to her ears, trying to block out the sound, when she felt something wet on her face, her hands. She pulled her hands from her ears and saw blood in her palms. She wiped one shaky finger at her cheek and found blood dripping from her eyes as well. She staggered, even with the support of Daisy beside her. What was happening?

It was overwhelming, the sound, the pricing noise at her ears, and she fell to the ground, eyes rolling back for a moment. She didn't even realize she had passed out until she was sitting back up, the sound gone, the gears no longer moving, Daisy in the dirt beside her.

Coulson had rushed over to his two collapsed agents, shaking their shoulders gently until each returned to the land of the living. "Are you alright?" He asked, "What happened?"

"Didn't you hear that sound?" Asia asked, wiping her sleeve against her face to try and get the blood all off. "It was...disorienting."

"That's an understatement," Daisy groaned, propping herself up against Asia's shoulder. "That sound was killing me. Whatever the machine was doing...that sound was the audio version of the pits of Hell." Asia nodded in agreement.

"What sound are you talking about?" Coulson asked, confusion displayed plainly on his face. Asia and Daisy looked at each other, brows furrowed. They had both heard the sound, they weren't crazy. Whatever they had heard hurt them so badly that they had become incapacitated.

"You must have heard it," Asia shook her head, "It was...it was everywhere."

"I couldn't hear anything else, couldn't focus on anything else," Daisy explained further, but Coulson still seemed completely oblivious. "But it's not happening now...because the machine isn't running."

"The machine is broken," Coulson explained, nodding towards a giant metal wheel laying on the ground the Mack and Leo were working on lifting back up. "Seems it's been too many years since it was in use yet, and certainly wasn't ready to be used again so quickly, for so long. We're looking at fix options right now."

Asia looked over at Leo, who was clearly frantic to find a solution to the fix. It made her heart ache. And it hurt her that he didn't even seem to notice her there, lying on the floor, in pain. She looked away, not wanting to think about that, not wanting the others to see her think about that.

Daisy looked over at Asia, then at Leo, then back to her friend. "Coulson, can we just have a minute?" She asked, resting her hand on top of Asia's.

"Of course, anything you need. If you're feeling faint again, please call one of us over," He nodded, standing up and moving to go chat with Bobbi.

"This has been really hard on you," Daisy said quietly, "I know that it has. But I'm here for you. We take care of each other, right?" She squeezed Asia's hand softly, trying to get her friend to look her in the eyes.

Asia looked up, and gave her a small, but sad smile. But she squeezed Daisy's hand back. "We're in this together," She whispered back. "Whatever it takes."

"We'll get Jemma back soon enough, and then things will all go back to normal," Daisy replied, leaning back against the metal container behind them. She meant her words, she truly did. But just because she meant them, didn't mean she knew if they were true or not. Things could get worse, situationally, than they were now. She looked at her friend, who seemed so much smaller than she used to be, and closed her eyes, sending a hope out into the universe, a hope that she was right.