Chapter 584

"Science will reveal everything. Humanity is on the verge of an unprecedented breakthrough in evolution, and I have devoted my entire life to that pursuit. That has always been my dream."

Ten years ago, Maya Hansen was given a shortcut by a man hailed as a genius.

That was also the day she lost her way.

Her research slowly drifted off course, becoming little more than a tool for power and revenge. Somewhere along the way, she stopped working for her ideals and started selling herself to the highest bidder.

She thought of Wernher von Braun. Before he began building rockets for the Nazi regime, he had been a young idealist who dreamed of traveling into space. After the first V-2 struck London, he reportedly remarked that the rocket had performed perfectly. It had simply landed on the wrong planet.

Maya Hansen was now sitting inside the company’s command center. She had been the one providing Luther with remote technical support moments ago.

When Agent 47 rescued her, she had been utterly broken. All she wanted then was to atone for what she had done. Then the Irida Twins had "re-educated" her.

And afterward, she had been reborn.

Maya now served as the company’s chief biochemical consultant and head of logistics and technical support for the Black Section.

She looked very different from the woman she had once been.

Her style had become thoroughly androgynous. The long hair that once fell over her shoulders had been chopped off, and another inch or two would have made it practically a buzz cut. A black shirt, black tie, and black suit. Black trousers instead of a skirt.

If not for the subtle curves beneath the suit, someone could easily have mistaken her for one of the company’s senior executives.

Her old self had been foolish.

Both her former ideals and the reasons she had abandoned them seemed laughably insignificant in the face of the truth revealed to her by the two masters.

Now, she understood.

Science was science. Evolution was evolution. Neither had anything to do with anything else.

Laws, morality, even fear could not be allowed to become chains around humanity’s feet.

Her ideal had been renewed.

And this time, she would see it through.

What kind of new world would she create when she finally succeeded?

There was no need to dwell on the past.

She had already been given a new life.

The foolish, cowardly Maya Hansen no longer existed.

Only the woman she had become remained.

Moira.

"This isn’t right..."

Evenson stared at the screen.

"The person I saw back then... he was..."

Another complication had just emerged.

Melinda had taken several teams out to investigate and still hadn’t returned. Meanwhile, Coulson had just received a new piece of intelligence aboard the aircraft.

It was a short news clip, barely more than ten seconds long.

The footage showed a factory. A Black man was beating the factory foreman before smashing and destroying several pieces of equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Coulson and the others recognized him immediately.

Michael Peterson.

The man they had been searching for.

The hooded hero.

Skye was visibly stunned.

She had met Michael briefly before. He had looked like he could barely afford to keep the lights on, but even through their short encounter she’d sensed that he was fundamentally kind and honest.

It was difficult to reconcile that man with the violent figure on the screen.

"Sometimes..." Ward emerged unsteadily from the interrogation room, one hand pressed against his head. "You can’t judge a person by appearances."

Skye blinked at him.

"Didn’t you say the drugs would knock you out for at least an hour?"

"I’ve been through rigorous training," Ward said, rolling his head from side to side in an attempt to clear the fog. "So the side effects don’t last as long for me."

Skye nodded, apparently satisfied.

Then she paused.

If rigorous training could reduce the drug’s effects, couldn’t it also have lessened the drug’s influence on Ward?

Which meant the things she’d overheard earlier...

Had they actually been what he believed?

Before she could dwell on it for long, Evenson wandered over.

"Looks like things are heading in a bad direction."

Every eye in the room turned toward him.

"Skye says he’s not normally like this. I’ll take her word for it. But smashing up a factory is still a fact. So what changed him?"

"The powers he gained," Coulson answered.

"Exactly."

Evenson nodded.

"This is one of the downsides of suddenly getting serious power. You start thinking, ’I’m stronger now. Nobody can stop me. So all those things I used to be afraid to do? I can do them now.’"

He paused, then looked around the room.

"And that brings us to the real question."

His gaze passed over each of them.

"Is the person controlling the power, or is the power controlling the person?"

Coulson sighed.

"I hope it’s the first one."

The distinction mattered.

If Michael was still in control of himself, they could deal with him one way.

If the power had begun controlling him, the situation would be entirely different.

"Guys..." Skye glanced from one person to another. "Why did this suddenly turn into such a depressing conversation?"

"He might just be panicking," she continued. "Maybe he needs some time to calm down."

"Mhm."

Evenson shrugged.

"I think that’s possible too. But we’ll have to judge how much rest he needs based on what he does next."

He smiled faintly.

"Could be a month."

A beat.

"Could be forever."

Skye stared at him.

"That’s not helping."

Coulson appeared to decide that changing the subject was a better option.

He stepped closer to Evenson and lowered his voice.

"Have you ever been affected by your own power?"

Evenson immediately frowned.

"Why would you ask that?"

He pointed toward the screen.

"When we first met, I didn’t beat the hell out of all of you like he did. Even though it would’ve been incredibly easy for me."

That was true.

Evenson had never thrown Coulson and the others to the floor and beaten them senseless.

He had merely shattered Coulson’s entire understanding of the world instead.

"But you did spend most of the time shamelessly flirting with Melinda."

Ward’s head snapped around.

He stared at Evenson as though he’d just witnessed a minor miracle.

He flirted with Melinda?

And survived?

No wonder the man had made it into the Avengers.

Evenson coughed awkwardly.

"Well... that was..."

He rubbed his cheek.

"But I paid a pretty brutal price for it on the spot. And afterward, you all walked out of my shop alive."

He spread his hands.

"So the results speak for themselves, don’t they?"

Before Coulson could answer, his phone rang.

He pulled it out.

Melinda.

"How did it go?" Coulson asked. "Are you finished with the investigation?"

"Do you remember the Black Section?" Melinda asked from the other end.

Coulson’s brow furrowed.

Of course he remembered it.

The special department the U.S. government had only recently established.

His instincts immediately warned him that this was probably bad news.

"What happened?"

"When we arrived, Black Section personnel were already on site."

Melinda paused.

"And here’s the ridiculous part. Their jurisdictional authority has the same priority level as ours."

"Don’t tell me they kicked you out."

"They didn’t."

Coulson relaxed slightly.

"Their leader seems pretty reasonable. We conducted the investigation together."

"Really?"

Coulson secretly felt a little proud of the SHIELD name. Apparently, it still carried some weight.

"So what did you find?"

"We found an object that clearly isn’t from Earth. There was still some kind of liquid inside it."

Melinda continued.

"Also, Black Section recovered the flash storage from one of the damaged security cameras. They copied a version for us too."

"No audio?"

"No."

Coulson nodded.

That made sense. The security camera itself hadn’t been equipped with audio recording.

Melinda changed the subject.

"How’s the female hacker? Has she agreed to cooperate yet?"

"Progress is good. She’s willing to work with us."

"Good."

Melinda thought for a moment.

"I remember her van being parked nearby. She may have been watching that building. You should ask whether she picked up anything else."

"Good idea."

Coulson hung up.

Then he turned toward Skye.

"You were monitoring the building that exploded?"

"Y-yes..."

Skye’s gaze wandered.

"I was investigating them."

"Relax. I’m not interested in pursuing that right now."

Coulson smiled.

"I just want to know whether you picked up anything useful."

"I only have audio recordings."

Skye visibly relaxed.

"The interference is pretty bad, though. I haven’t had a chance to filter it yet."

"That’s fine."

Coulson’s eyes lit up.

Melinda had the video.

Skye had the audio.

Put the two together and suddenly they had something worth watching.

"Our tech should be able to clean up the interference."

Skye’s eyes brightened.

"Then I need to go back to my van. The recordings are there."

Coulson nodded.

Then he hesitated.

He couldn’t exactly send Skye back alone.

His eyes shifted toward Evenson.

Evenson immediately shook his head.

"Don’t look at me. I’m not carrying your bags."

Coulson sighed.

"Agent Ward, take her."

"Yes, sir."

A short while later, Ward was driving a civilian SUV with Skye in the passenger seat.

They returned to her van.

Skye climbed inside and immediately got to work. She extracted the recording files and sent them to Coulson by email.

Then, pretending to gather a few personal belongings, she waited until Ward wasn’t looking and slipped a memory card into her cleavage.

"Done."

"Then let’s head back."

Ward turned to leave.

A strange noise came from nearby.

Ward hadn’t even had time to react when a dark figure dropped from above.

As a Level Six field agent, Ward was an exceptionally capable operative.

It made no difference.

The attacker was simply too strong.

A few blows were all it took.

Ward collapsed unconscious.

Skye stood frozen, still trying to process what had happened.

Then she saw the attacker’s face.

Michael Peterson.

"What are you doing?"

"Helping you," Michael said calmly.

He gestured toward the unconscious agent.

"I’m making sure those men in black you told me about don’t hurt you."

Then he looked at her.

"And now you need to help us."

Without waiting for permission, Michael picked up his son and climbed straight into Skye’s van.

Skye could only stare after him in disbelief.

She had absolutely no idea what to say.

Buddy, she thought helplessly, if you’d shown up two hours earlier, this would’ve been great.

Unfortunately...

She had already switched sides.