Chapter Text
Daisy was fiery. Ever since Robbie disappeared, she felt charged with something. Whatever it was, it had given her a new strength. The feeling was hot. Something had gotten into her. Not the Spirit of Vengeance as some call it, no, it was the spirit of Robbie Reyes himself. The essence of him lingered even after he was gone, that feeling echoed in her own spirit, reminding her of his ongoing strength, and reinforcing the truth that one day he would return
With repeated motions she slammed her fists fiercely into a punching bag. She trained alone as the collisions of her punches echoed in the empty training room. The equipment placed about the room doing little to break the echoes, and her loud booming music playing from the device strapped to her arm only somewhat dampening it. The fire inside her made her fists itchy. She constantly wanted to slam them into something. Anytime she thought of what she wanted to hit, the image of the canine-faced masks the Watchdogs wore would pop into her mind. Unfortunately one wasn't simply standing there any time she wanted to hit it, so she would have to make do with letting out the heat in the training room.
She didn't mind being alone as she focused on training, it meant she could let her mind wander, to remember. She remembered her lost friends, Bobbi, Hunter, and Trip. Her heart felt heavy at the memory of Trip, how she would never see him again, her fists slammed into the punching bag a little harder. She continued her tread through her memories as she thought about the moments when her powers began to surface, the destruction she had caused. Her fists hit a little harder. She thought of her most hated enemy, Grant Ward, and the many terrible things he had done. The lies he spun, the people he killed, the lives he destroyed. Her fists hit a little harder, she felt her quake powers begin to tingle at her knuckles, she felt the need to let it out. She thought of her acts while under the control of Hive. The atrocities she caused, the people she hurt, and the people she lost. Lincoln was one of them. After everything she had done, it was he who paid the price. The love of her life paid for her sins. Crash! Her power released from her fist, and sent the bag flying in shreds across the room.
A quick walk to the supply room to retrieve another punching bag would cool her off, then maybe she wouldn't destroy this next one as well. She suddenly found herself in the wrong room by mistake. It was dark, void of activity, and lonely somehow. And while she didn't mind being alone, it was times like these that began to burrow small holes into her chest. Not only had she just remembered many who were gone, but this room added to it somehow. She saw it, then; the large circular contraption before her. That... portal device that AIDA first created stood yawning before her. Quiet. Unused. It reminded her of who it brought back, and that it wouldn't bring back anyone else anymore. Her fire felt gone in this room, she was left empty.
Suddenly it hummed to life by itself unexpectedly. Confused and on alert, she took several steps back. The light it created was orange, bright, and warm. It bursted into a roar of flames. She instinctively shielded herself with one arm, as a form engulfed in fire stepped through the portal, and stood there. She blinked, and the flames huffed away, gone, along with it, the warmth, and light. The tension though, remained. She slowly lowered her arm, her eyes bulged at the sight. Her heart leaped in her chest.
"Robbie?" She leaned forward slightly, her voice hesitant, as though this was merely her imagination. Something that her mind concocted to fill the cold void dug into her chest by the air in this room.
"Daisy?" His voice was real, his perplexed expression was real.
Without questioning her motions, she approached him, without taking her eyes off of him, and touched his chest with her hand. He felt real. He was real.
Everything was real, as was the increasingly deep confusion on his face. Indeed, quite real. "Yes, Daisy, I am here. It's me." He assured her. "Listen, you okay?" He raised a brow.
She stepped back, realizing what her hands were doing, and stopping them from continuing that pursuit. "It's just... good. Good to see you alive."
"Good to see you alive, too." He peered her up and down. "And without a bruise or bandage in sight. For once."
She smacked his arm, broken out of her stupor by his unexpected quip. "How did you even get here?!" He opened his mouth only for her to cut him off. "You know what never mind. Save it for Fitz and Simmons. Come we have to get you to Gabe!" She turned instantly to rush out of the room.
"Y'know I couldn't agree more." He followed behind without pause.
With his presence again, the fire in her ignited hotter than it had before.
She had been thinking about him a lot. She thought about each thing she learned about him after they had first became acquainted. She thought about what Gabe said, to leave them be. She thought about how closed off she was from him, just as she was from everyone. She intended it to stay that way. To close herself away from him, so that their lives could remain happily as Robbie and Gabe only... but she also found herself wanting him near her. 'Stop! No...' She told herself. She couldn't... she couldn't let her heart betray the wishes of Gabe, those wishes that were also shared by Robbie, and thus risk their happiness.
"I stay away because that's what's best." The memories of her conversation with him that day resurfaced.
"I'm staring to see why." Those were his words.
So she would be his comrade, for however long he needed her, for whatever he needed it for...
... but she would do no more than that.