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The day Daisy Johnson received her powers, everything went to hell.
She learned the horrors of Daniel Whitehall from her not-all-there father, was held captive by the man who had kidnapped and threatened her before, and lost a really close friend that day. She never wanted it. She never wanted to receive whatever so-called gift her father and Raina had spoke of. She didn’t want to be the monster everyone told her that her parents were.
But here she was, shaking the earth straight from her fingertips.
She felt like it was curse bestowed upon her. What did she do to deserve this? She couldn’t get away from it. The constant rattling in her brain and the buzzing under her skin made it impossible to feel the same way she did before. She had no way of channeling this energy. She had no control over it. Even when she thought she did, she was just channeling them inward and causing more pain. She wanted to stop herself from hurting others. She couldn’t stop herself from hurting herself.
She just wanted the pain and suffering to end. She wanted it all to end.
But then there was a light. A light that showed her the way and the beauty that was within. She was introduced to a whole new world that she didn’t even know about. She met her mother. She was an inhuman. That’s what they called themselves. Instead of hiding in fear and pain, these people embraced who they really were. She eventually learned control, and she was able to truly see just what her powers could do.
Her gift wasn’t so bad after all.
Eventually, things went to hell again. With the new knowledge of inhumans in the world, a near fear of these people was created. The people she found her heritage and identity in were being attacked. Her people were in danger.
The realization dawned on her. She could do something about it. SHIELD may not have all the resources, but they could try. And now, her powers presented themselves as a blessing in disguise. She could use them to protect her people. She could use them to protect the people she cared about.
Maybe she could show other inhumans who feel the same way she used to that their gifts aren’t so bad either.
Daisy could finally build a team, a family, surrounded by people just like her. Show them what they can do for themselves and for others. They didn’t have to live in fear like she once did. She would lead them like Raina said she would.
Unfortunately, choices were taken from her. Alveus was his name. Hive is what they called him. The inhuman with the power to sway and control other inhumans with the flick of his wrist. He got to Daisy. He took choices from her. He made her do things that she would never do in her right mind. He made her hurt the people she loved and made her love him for it. He twisted her brain in ways no else in her life had ever done.
All because she was inhuman.
One thing Daisy learned from Afterlife is that she should have been given the choice. The choice to go through terrigenesis should have been hers, and that choice was taken. When all that was said and done, she made the choice to use her gift to help others. Now, the choice was taken from her again, and her power was used against her and the people she cared about.
The guilt and pain consumed her. How could she go back? Her powers buzzed at the surface of her skin. Hive showed her just how she could hurt the people she cared for. This genetic difference in her made her an easy victim for this monster, and she wanted nothing more than to take it all back. For the temple to take her powers back, so that none of this ever happened.
Obviously that wasn’t a choice, so she made one for herself, and she ran.
She ran from the people she loved because she didn’t want to see them fall in her wake at the hand of her abilities. She figured she could still use her powers for good. She took down businesses, banks, and Watchdogs just to make sure people, both human and inhuman, were protected from the evils of the world.
When she returned, it almost seemed like things were turning up again, which made her happy, but things fell apart again very fast. The Framework is what Fitz and Radcliffe called it. A world was created where all regrets were taken away. However, neither of them thought about the very real consequences.
Daisy was hunted. Men pushed her to the ground and kicked the living daylights out of her. She was locked in a room all by herself. She was alone when she wanted to be back in the real world with her team, her family. Her chest hurt from the beatings. Her face bled from all the punches and scratches. Hydra wanted to exterminate inhumans. Who gave them the right?
However, never in a million years did Daisy think she’d face torture from one of her closest friends. Because it was Fitz, Daisy struggled to fight back. She tried, she really did, reminding herself that this wasn’t the real Fitz, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it.
The words and hate spelled from his mouth. Their Framework avatars were still parts of them. Was this some of Fitz’s true thoughts and feelings about inhumans? About her? She remembered him being the first person to tell her that just because she was different, there was nothing wrong with her. She had a hard time seeing it now after seeing The Doctor.
Thankfully, May broke through. Someway, somehow, something broke through her Hydra shell, and she freed Daisy. Together, they were able to gather the rest of their team and escape.
Unfortunately, they barely had time to just think about what happened in that computer world before they were thrust into new territory. The future apparently. In space of all places because space travel and time travel were just some of the things they had yet to do in their lives.
This only scared Daisy more. Inhumans were prizes here. They were nothing more than valuable items to elites to perform and sell. It wasn’t until Daisy was drugged, kidnapped, and sold that she realized the terrible situation.
She woke up with the familiar buzzing and rattling gone. She panicked at first until it was explained that they had put an inhibitor in her neck. The inhibitor could be turned on and off by a controller. That angered Daisy to no end. Once again, the choice to use her powers on her own terms was taken. She was a puppet for her puppeteer’s gain.
She learned of the cause of everything that was going on. Suddenly, she was at fault. The Destroyer of Worlds is what they all called her. Suddenly, her powers seemed much more scarier than they ever seemed. She refused to have the inhibitor removed. She was making the choice for herself, and she chose she didn’t want to use them anymore.
That choice wasn’t respected either.
She thought Fitz would only torture her in a virtual world where nothing was real. Boy was she wrong. He drugged her, strapped her to a table, and cut into her, claiming that the ends justify the means. Bullshit. Where was the logic in that? Simmons had explained to him earlier how there was a very, very high possibility that she could be paralyzed even if the surgery was performed by one of the best neurosurgeons. Fitz still took the risk.
And Daisy had no say in the matter against her.
She just lied there begging, pleading, and crying. But they didn’t listen. They used her for their own personal feelings without taking hers into consideration. They took away her autonomy. And somehow it was her fault? They turned on her, telling her she was being unreasonable and emotional when she was the one violated and hurt.
The man who tortured her became the victim in their eyes and had a group of support, but she didn’t? It was fucked up and hurt her in a way that no-one would be able to understand.
She really was in this fight alone.
She wouldn’t allow everyone to see how hurt she was. When Kasius senior took her captive, she would show him… she would show them all what she was capable of. She wasn’t weak or hardened like they all believed her to be. She was Daisy Johnson. This was her power, and she would use it when she wanted to and on her terms. No one would tell her what to do with them anymore.
So she used them to save the world.
Her name was known throughout the universe. Her power was hers. She owned it. Whether or not they embraced or feared her abilities was not her issue. She was not about to change an integral part of who she was for the sake of others. She was not about to let that happen. Not again.
Nathaniel Malick had heard of her. He knew of what she could do, so he planned on taking it from her. Like Fitz had done, he strapped her to a table against her will and poked and cut into her. She was much more heavily drugged this time around, so there was no begging. There was just pain and the need for all of it to be over. She didn’t care if she lived or died, even though she very much wanted to live, she just wanted the pain to stop.
She remembered a voice calling out to her. To keep fighting. And that’s just what she did. She pushed through. She fought and fought until she was able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The light of hope welcomed her, and she felt her powers buzzing under her skin once again.
Little did she know the biggest challenge she would be faced with.
Death. The thing she had constantly been fighting with since she had first joined the SHIELD team. She couldn’t believe it when Fitz explained the plan. She had to destroy Nathaniel Malick and the chronicom army and their ships from the inside. She had the power to absorb quakes, so she had to absorb his, combine it with hers, and create a quake powerful enough to do so.
She couldn’t believe the part that said she had to die in order for the plan to work. Why would Fitz and Simmons, her best friends, make a plan that required her to make the ultimate sacrifice. It was always on her to make the sacrifice play and not anyone else. Of course, she was the only one with the power to do so. No one else could do what she could. This was on her.
It was almost like it was her destiny. Ever inhuman had a destiny and need for their gift. Maybe this was hers.
She saw the blessing that could save the whole world. She saw the curse that brought the end of her life. She was happy for Fitzsimmons and their daughter Alya, she really was, but she couldn’t help but feel hurt when her life is seen as less valuable than theirs. She has wants and aspirations of the life she wants to live too.
Despite all odds, she did it. She made the sacrifice.
She begged the universe to let her live. She wanted to live the life where her powers were hers. This was the last time anyone would tell her to do the sacrifice play. If she ever did again, it would be her own decision to make.
Her eyes opened as Kora’s warmth saved her from the freezing-cold temperature of outer space that previously consumed her. The universe let her live. She was grateful. She was grateful to live. She was grateful to live a life where the choice was hers.
Whether her gift was a blessing or a curse, it didn’t matter. These powers were forever a part of her. They were part of who she was, and no-one was going to take that away from her. No-one was going to take her heritage. No one was going to take her identity. Being an inhuman was in her blood.
The day Daisy Johnson received her gift was the beginning of the journey she was going to go on to find out who she was really meant to be.