40

Chapter 40: And It Had All Been Going So WellNotes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Peter ducked a punch towards his face. Spinning he kicked the thug across the alley and into a wall while grabbing the second thug's arm and flipping the man over his head into the ground. Two quick webs and they were incapacitated. He narrowed his eyes, triple checking everything was secure. Fifth organized mugging he'd stopped today. He clicked one of the disposable beacons for Yuri on the forehead of mafia thug number one.

Nodding, he jumped up, catching the wall and climbed quickly up the side to the roof. He hit his comm. "The mugging report on twelfth is handled."

-"Tony's back. We're waiting for you at the tower."- Darcy's voice was clipped.

His mouth tightened. He didn't bother replying, just took off running. As he reached the edge of the roof he lept, throwing himself towards the tower, shooting a web to swing himself forward. It didn't feel fun today.

Peter swung through the window. He barely did more than pull his mask off. "Did you find anything!?"

"No." Tony was worn, nearly haggard as he dropped an array on the table, it's hinges opening as it folded itself out. "Any residual readings of whatever that franken portal was, are gone."

Darcy plugged her computer in and started to download the data. "I'll give this to Jane." She looked up. "Rhodey will get back with the west coast readings when?"

"Eight hours." Tony bit out.

Darcy threw a screwdriver at the wall. It clanged loudly. "Fuck." She ran a hand through her hair. "The portal he used to get away. It shouldn't exist. It's a disgusting overpowered fake. It's unstable and an amature attempt at creating an Einstein Rosen bridge."

"Not of Earth or Asgard. Which leaves us unable to identify where that tech is from.." Tony agreed, he sneered at the image of the golden circle that had created the portal that had sucked away their sister. His daughter. "Just punch a hole in the fabric of space, not like that could swallow a planet."

Darcy gave an aggravated nod. "It's a shitty knock off of an einstein rosen bridge by someone who doesn't know what the fucknuggest they're doing."

Peter glared at the screens all frozen on different surveillance angles of Daisy. "Anything from SHIELD? Dr Simmons isn't getting back to me." His jaw tightened.

Darcy shook her head. "Hunter went to contact them because he remembered an inhuman with future visions who died. He hasn't come back yet."

They all snapped their heads around to Natasha striding into the room. He couldn't help it. "Did you find anything?"

"You all need to calm down." Natasha eyed them. "This Noah needs her for something. You're no good to her if you're too exhausted to think."

Tony turned. "We're not all so heartless we can be calm when our family has been kidnapped by aliens."

"Daisy is a powerful inhuman, a highly trained agent, and one of the best hackers on the planet. If there's a chance at escape she'll take it. And we know this Noah needs her for something. I'm being practical." Natasha shut the door behind her as she walked the rest of the way in.

Peter's brow furrowed. "How do we know he won't hurt her?"

"Dendrotoxin soaked toy to incapacitate without injury, clearly planned out grab, he attempted to establish a non-hostile rapport, and he didn't just drag her off. He caught her and carried her through the portal. That all says care was taken to keep her intact." Natasha raised a brow at them all. "He wanted her unharmed and as non-aggressive as possible. That's good, it means torture and murder are unlikely, at least in the short term. But it means we have likely a week at least before she'll be in real danger."

It was...it was something. Peter unclenched ever so slightly. He didn't…. "Are you just here to tell us to sleep?"

"No, I got word from a source in SHIELD." She tossed a thumbdrive to Tony. "Agents Coulson, May, Simmons, Rodrigez, and MacKenzie were all taken last night as well. No footage of that one, but I have the initial reports. They all vanished from a diner. Except for May who never checked into her hotel last night."

Darcy caught what was wrong about that first. "Wait, that's her entire old team except for Fitz."

"Fitz went MIA following what is believed to be a lead at around five am this morning." Natasha eyed them. "Whoever this Noah is, he's picked very specific individuals. None of whom would be easy to hold."

Tony crossed his arms as the incident report came up on the screen. His eyes skimming the material. "No reference to a 'prophet' in this one."

"Hunter was looking into that. As was Wanda." Darcy didn't mention Wanda's powers meant she was frighteningly competent at hitting every known location of alien citizens in the city and ensuring they were being honest about whether they had any knowledge or not.

Peter looked at Natasha. "Why do you think they were taken?"

"I'm not sure." Her eyes turned to the screens. "It's not coercion. This Noah knows too much about his targets for that." She seemed to notice the lack of understanding on their faces. "If I wanted Daisy to do something for me against her will I'd have taken you or Darcy to hold as hostages to ensure she complied. Coulson could stand as leverage against the majority of the team. But not all of them, and he's a spy. Not an ideal hostage."

Natasha seemed to frown ever so slightly. "If I had to guess, I'd think he wanted their specific assistance. That he believes once forced to confront what he needs help with, they will comply of their own free will. But that seems unlikely. Daisy would have been conscious for hours by now. All of them would be. And every SHIELD agent knows how to get a message out with only minor tech available. None of them have sent out any type of message."

"Which means they can't." Peter finished for her. Afterall, Daisy had been training him. Learning how to signal for help, to indicate if he was in danger, that had been one of the first lessons. He felt a sick pit in his stomach.

Darcy went pale. "If they were in space how much harder would it be to get that sort of signal out?"

"Can you get Thor here?" Tony turned on her immediately. "Is that something you can do yet?"

She straightened. "Yeah, I can do that. I don't care if I have to drag him here by his stupid cape myself."

////

Hunter stared at Fitz. He had not flown to the west coast, hunted down Fitz, helped him chase down an alien, held said alien at gunpoint, met a creepy kid who drew the future, all of that for this. "Your plan is what?"

"I'm going to put myself into cryo-sleep so I can get to the others." Fitz's face was frighteningly set.

His eyes flicked to the bald alien who had kidnapped their friends. It was only slightly concerning he had no idea where the other one who'd taken Daisy and probably May was. "Shouldn't we talk to someone else? I mean the Avengers are a hive of hornets. I mean Daisy's girlfriend is a terrifying witch who was looking awfully murdery when I left. Don't you think one of them might have a better idea?"

The bald alien spoke up. "I will be accompanying Leopold Fitz. His and the SHIELD team's mission is vital to the survival of the species."

"Yeah that doesn't make me feel better buddy." Hunter stared at Fitz. "You're sure about this? Can we even trust this bloke?" He jerked a thumb towards the alien. "Cause I don't wanna be the one to tell everyone this is the plan for saving the team. Did I mention the terrifying witchy girlfriend and want to be megalomaniac of a mad scientist sister?"

////

Jane didn't comment on her best friend's manic intensity as they prepared to send Pietro and Wanda to Asgard to drag Thor back with them. Instead she stepped to the twins, she'd already ensured the math was correct afterall. The rest was Darcy calibrating and adjusting the tech. No, for all she missed a lot of social cues, even she knew that the twins weren't ok.

It might have something to do with the fact Wanda's eyes were red and she was leaking tendrils of red mist. Though really Jane was going to have to convince the girl to let her take some readings because she had theories about what that mist was. But anyways, Pietro was jittery in a way that made his edges seem to blur here and there. Their heads were bent together as if they were speaking quietly, but their mouths weren't moving. Altogether it pinged as wrong even to Jane. Ian was scared of Pietro after the coffee incident and Erik, bless his heart, wasn't wearing pants. Which left Jane as the one who had to...wade into emotional social waters.

Jane cleared her throat. "You do know we haven't transported a human since the Pietro incident?"

"We're aware." Wanda's voice was tight, her accent thick in a way that hinted at danger.

Jane was...unsure of what to say to that. It wasn't a theoretical integer. Maybe she needed to get out of the lab more? "You may need to convince Heimdal to return you with Thor. We will open the portal on the hour every hour. And we've managed to increase output to...the portal will stay open slightly longer now. But we don't have Daisy to keep it wedged open."

Pietro spoke up. "Thank you for the warnings, but we are going. We will find Thor and if necessary incapacitate and drag him back with us."

"Ah...he's really quite nice. He should agree to come back without violence." Jane hedged carefully.

Pietro winced slightly. "I apologize, he is your boyfriend."

"Former." Jane felt her chin tipping up slightly. "I told him I needed a partner who was here, he went home and has not sent word. I said I wouldn't wait for him again. He doesn't have a relationship to come back to." She noted the look in Pietro's eye. "But he is still a hero. He should come back to protect Midgard if it is asked of him."

"I do not care what he is. We need him, so we will bring him back with us." Wanda's eyes literally flashed red as she stepped into the portal room. Her brother on her heels.

Jane sighed, she gave up. This was why she prefered to stay in the lab. She stepped back to where Darcy was. "Are we ready?"

"Yes." Darcy flipped it on.

Jane handed Darcy a poptart. "We're going to find her."

"I just...she's my sister ya know?" Darcy looked at her, blues eyes wide with helplessness.

Jane took her best friend's hand. "Thor will help. Erik and I adjusted everything so if anyone makes a portal like that again we'll know about it." She couldn't keep her disgust at the shitty excuse for a portal out of her voice. Damn thing was a gross failure to even comprehend the beauty of what it was failing to attempt. It insulted science with its existence.

Darcy twitched slightly. "Daisy is the one who handles just..this sort of thing." Her eyes were misty. "It's so stupid, it hasn't even been a year but…"

"She's your sister." Jane replied. It wasn't a bond she exactly understood, she was an only child herself. But she saw it between others and she knew to Darcy it meant the world. That the trio were bound by not just blood but love as well. Jane needed something that wasn't astrophysics or was going to cause Darcy to actually lose it and start crying. "Should we be worried for Thor?"

"Big Guy can handle it." Darcy leaned against her, fuzzy knit hat scratching at Jane's cheek. "I'm still mad at him for leaving."

Jane nodded, wrapping an arm around Darcy. "So am I."

////

Natasha just waited as she watched Tony creating a computer program with FRIDAY. She had no doubt it was highly illegal. She knew enough to know it was for improved facial recognition using cameras he shouldn't have access to, while hunting for Noah. It would help. So she didn't say anything.

"I can feel you judging." Tony's voice was snide as he kept working, eyes not even leaving the screen.

Natasha raised a brow. "I left messages with my contacts. If anyone hears something they'll let me know." She stepped forward. "How does the new alert system work?"

"If his face is spotted on a camera anywhere, everyone is alerted. Closest person to him is informed they are the closest. He can't hide on this planet forever." Tony almost knocked his untouched glass of scotch with his elbow as he grabbed a tablet that was resting beside it.

Natasha wasn't sure she'd seen him too upset to drink before. "Steve is at the children's hospital. It'll keep the media's eyes off of us for a few hours. He's already talked to Hill. He'll handle the pony show. If he stops being able to handle it alone Pietro and I can step in."

Tony looked over his shoulder at her. "What?"

"Steve didn't want to risk you turning down his offer to help." She stepped closer, eyes running over the coding, pretending she couldn't see this reaction. "Daisy is important to all of us."

Tony opened his mouth, it undoubtedly would have been something snarky and have ruined any sentimentality. Fortunately for everyone there was a beep on screen. Both of their eyes snapped to where the screen was showing an alert. On screen was security camera footage from the foyer of the tower.

Natasha was pleasantly surprised when Tony looked at her as they stood outside the interrogation cell.

His face was dark. "You question him."

"Not going to make a quip about me working for the enemy?" She eyed the very pissed but focused Darcy who Hill was strategically standing by. It would seem Natasha wasn't the only one worried about pre-meditated murder by Stark.

Tony's eyes glinted. "I'll kill him."

"Well then." Natasha easily stepped past everyone and into the room. She eyed the alien Noah. He was...unnaturally calm.

He blinked as he looked at her. "Hello, I presume you are here to question me?"

"I am." Natasha didn't ask her next question, it would be interesting to see how he responded to silence.

Noah's hands remained flat, not a single physical tell. It was like he was wearing the skin of a human and was unsure of how to move in it naturally, thus choosing not to move at all. "You were looking for me. Being made public would make my work difficult. I request that you desist from this."

"I see, why don't you answer some questions and we'll see about ceasing our pursuit before it becomes public?" She added some credence to the possibility that his species had required Daisy's help. He was far too calm, clearly he did not believe he had done anything wrong.

He gave a short slightly stiff nod. "Very well, I find this agreeable."

"Who and what are you?" Natasha crossed her arms leaning against the wall. The implied threat that he was wasting her time would probably be lost. But interesting to see if it was responded to.

Without so much as a twitch of reluctance he replied in the same banal tone. "My earth name is Noah. I'm a sentient Chronicom from a planet which revolves around a star in the constellation you know as Cygnus. I was sent here 30,000 years ago to observe and record the evolution of your species. What you would call an anthropologist."

"I see, and where is Quake and the rest of the SHIELD team you kidnapped?" She pushed off the wall stalking closer.

His head cocked to the side. "You cannot retrieve them. They no longer exist as part of this time stream."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, she had a really bad feeling about where this was going. "Time stream?"

"Yes, they are in the future. I do not know why, but the prophet spoke. It is required to prevent an extinction level event for your species. We are only permitted to interfere to prevent extinction of the species we are observing." He explained in that same dry and unemotional voice.

Natasha hoped someone had physically grabbed Tony. It was the only good reason for him not crashing through the glass. "And they are able to return once the threat to extinction is removed?"

"I do not protect the prophet. I do not know." He blinked at her.

////

Darcy grabbed Hunter and dragged him into the room they were watching the interrogation from. "What the fuck took you so long?!"

"Hang on I got held up." And he did look exhausted and frankly ready to keel over. His eyes stilled as they spotted exactly who was in the interrogation room. "Oh thank god you got one of them."

Darcy did not release her hold on his arm. "What do you mean one of them?"

"There's two of them and just like….right first things first Daisy and the rest of them are fine."

She couldn't help it, she sagged. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Tony doing the same thing. Darcy's grip on his arm fell away. She patted his shoulder and hit the com. "Nat we need you for a minute."

Hunter dropped into a chair. "It's been a fucking day." He rubbed at his face.

Darcy leaned against the wall. "Yeah well it's been fantastic over here." Her sarcasm bordered on actual venom.

"Right sorry." Hunter started as Natasha closed the interrogation room door. "I had some guesses when that loony went on about a prophet and Daisy listened to him. So I went out to SHIELD HQ to talk to Fitz, only then I had to hunt him down."

Hunter ran a hand through his hair. "There's an inhuman kid who sees all of time at the same time. Kid's kinda fucked if you ask me, she can barely keep track of when in her life she is. But Daisy ran a mission to help her dad right before Bob and I left. Somehow the alien anthropologists found her and have been interrupting her drawing of the future. So when the kid draws the SHIELD team in the future, alien anthropologists kidnap the team and send them to the future."

"Is there a way to get them back?" Darcy felt her voice waiver.

Hunter winced. "Sorta? That's what took so long. Fitz and I kinda sent him and one of the alien anthropologists to the future to help. But future drawing kid has drawings of the team back in the present. So we kinda know they get back?"

"You're joking." Tony grabbed Hunter by the front of his jacket and hauled him up. "My Daughter is lost in fucking TIME and you think a child's drawings are enough!"

Darcy caught her father's arm before Hill or Natasha intervened. "Dad, drop him." She looked at Hunter. "How worried should we be?"

"It's SHIELD, so 50% chance of the apocalypse, 50% chance of survival and no one knowing the planet almost ended." He straightened his jacket. "But short of cryo-freezing more people to help them, it's done."

Darcy sucked in a breath, her eyes closing. "Correct me if I'm wrong. But short of inventing time travel what's happened is done. Daisy and the others are in the future, we have reason to believe they'll return, and two of the most brilliant scientists in the world not working for SI are with them." She nodded to herself. It was shit. It was so much shit she couldn't even. But it was par for the course with the super hero nonsense. "Do we know when they'll be back?"

"I've got the drawing." Hunter pulled a folded up piece of paper and unfolded it carefully. It was just regular printer paper with crayon on it. But it showed Quake punching a...rhino maybe? In the face while next to who was clearly Spiderman. It certainly wasn't something that had happened yet.

She grabbed Tony's shoulder. "Ok, that's flowers. Flowers means spring." Darcy swallowed, her mouth felt dry. "We can invent time travel if they're not back by June. That's bullshit unreasonable but we could do it. Jane almost invented it by accident anyways. We finish the bridge and we're half done with time travel." She opened her eyes staring at Hunter. "What future apocalypse did they get sent to go stop?"

Hunter winced. "Um… I mean it's kids drawings and I have like photos of them but uh...the planet cracking like an egg? But also there were some blue people enslaving humans. So I think they're stopping the genocide of humans by slave owning aliens post planet cracking like an egg."

Darcy's fingers dug harder into Tony's shoulder. "Right. We're in the past. If they're not back by June we fix everything. Just they're alive. Daisy is going to be fine. Evil blue aliens. SHIELD eats up and spits those out for breakfast." Her eyes snapped to Hill. "They do right?"

"This is...unprecedented." Hill surprisingly looked like she was in control somehow. "But portals to other planets worked out for them. I trust that this team will make it back."

She nodded, if she repeated it enough maybe she'd believe it?

Notes:

Ok, for those of you who haven't watched AoS a quick breakdown of the AoS plotline that just happened. So in s5 of AoS the team gets kidnapped by the Chromicoms and sent to the future to save humanity from extinction. In the future humanity has been enslaved by the Kree after the planet was destroyed. Over the course of their time in the future they find out that Daisy is the one credited with destroying the planet. Its very terrible, no one has a good time. But they succeed, and then come back.