(A/N powerstones!! Let me get 1000 ps this week.)
"Dad… No!" Skye yelled out before her body turned to stone. A split second later, Kai appeared inside the temple area with an anxious look on his face.
"Skye." He muttered in a low voice as he saw the sight of his daughter turning into a chunk of rock.
If she had called him earlier, he would have ignored her destined fate and swooped in to save her from turning into an Inhuman. He fought the feeling for a long time, and only let the matter happen because none of the progress of her coming to the ancient city was manipulated by Ryan or Kai.
The diviner was still giving out a terrigen mist, but it didn't turn Kai into stone as the pure mist wasn't harmful for ordinary humans. It was the metal inside the diviner that caused the humans to turn into a stone when they touched it.
"Skye. Be strong. I'll stay next to you until you wake up." Kai said and sat down cross legged next to the stone statue.
The diviner stopped the terrigenesis process a minute later and fell to the podium from its floating state. Kai controlled the wind using his wind god art and pulled the diviner towards him. He stored the diviner into his storage ring to keep it from getting to the hand of the others.
"I guess Jiaying knows about the diviner activation now." Kai muttered. Skye's mother – Jiaying, and also the leader of the inhuman society called the afterlife has 4 diviners in her hands. One was melted to farm for other terrigen crystals, but the crystal substance was mixed with the diviner metal, causing it to be harmful to the humans.
"She will start her fish oil plus terrigen crystal business after this and create chaos everywhere. Gordon will come find Skye, and he will be my ticket to the Afterlife." Kai muttered as he summoned a few companion beasts in front of him.
All the companion beasts he summoned were humanoid in nature, but some had minor intelligence that he needed to order them carefully.
"Find the core of the city and trap its sentience. Someone will come with the container to store it later." Kai ordered.
A parasol-holding-Chinese Ghost Bride in a striking red dress and a high split on her thigh bowed down at Kai before she disappeared. A stone statue with a spear and wearing ancient Rome battle gear walked briskly outside the temple to follow the ghost.
A 3 inches tall imp jumped around and followed the others too, as did a few of his other companion beasts. All of them were at epic stage, so unless a being like Thor or Hulk were here, they wouldn't have any trouble doing their mission.
Kai noticed that there was still life inside the body of one hydra agent before they turned into stone.
"That's new." He muttered. "Maybe another hydra monster will be born."
The stone surviving Hydra agents with a bullet hole in his head has started to devour the other corpses of the Hydra agents in his terrigenesis process. An aberration comparable to the Hive or the inhuman royalty would be born, and Kai was looking forward to it.
Outside the temple, still being held at gunpoint, Gideon Malik has to comply with Dana's order and be obedient in their conversation.
"What do you want?" Gideon Malik asked, trying to reach a deal to survive. If Dana wanted wealth, the Malik family wealth was among the top in the whole world. Centuries of servitude to the Hydra god has its perk. As long as he survived, he wouldn't care if Dana knocked up his daughter.
The disciples of the Hydra god since the age of the pharaoh with a fanatical worship toward the god have committed countless aggression along history and have acquired a lot of magical artefacts too. For example, the ring Gideon Malik wore on his left-hand middle finger was the ring of Osiris. But we'll get to that later.
"I want you to hear my story. After all, we are family, right? Families need to know each other." Dana said mockingly.
Gideon Malik loses the hope in his eyes as he knew that he wouldn't survive this encounter. All of the possible deals between Dana and him were already broken when he sent people to kill his own daughter and grandson – Dana's wife and son.
"Let's start from the beginning, shall we?" Dana said and started to narrate his life like the president's documentary. In a glorious and a velvety baritone voice, he said, "Born in 1880, my great grandfather…"
After 10 minutes of useless information, Dana finally got to his life.
"When I was 10 years old, the neighbouring country started to invade our place. My brother and I were both orphaned because of it."
"We'd starve. My brother decided to start hunting in the forest just so we can keep our stomach full."
"I was pretty useless though. I was only leeching off him."
"But then, I realised that if I can change my face just a tiny bit, I can pretend to be the son of the richest man in my hometown and no longer have to starve. My brother chuckled at my thoughts and asked me to wait, he will bring me food later."
"Things… got worse. Usually he will bring back food once in 3 days, but a week has gone by that both of us have nothing to eat."
"So, one night while the rich man's son was playing with his friend, I robbed him of his clothes and pushed him down a cliff. He was never to be found again. I was 10 years old when I commit my first murder. Can you believe it?"
"I inserted a thin needle to my face to change my facial structure. I looked quite similar to the rich man's son in the first place, so after I stayed in the forest for a few days, a search and rescue team found me, 'the rich man's son' and brought me home."
"To survive, I have to wear a mask of others."
"And I have always been that way ever since."
Gideon Malik was still keeping his silence, so Dana decided to continue.
"You know, when I was caught by Mr. Hiddle when I pretended to be Ryan Knight, I really thought my life was over."
He reminiscences of the time he was young and stupid. He chuckled at the memory before he continued. "When he offered me a job that I can do whatever I wanted to as Ryan Knight, I really thought that God was rewarding me for all the suffering I had gone through."
Despite everything he went through, Dana was still a devout believer of the church.
"I even planned to kill Ryan while he was in his coma so that I could take over his place and keep being him until I die as I enjoy my life too much that time."
Gideon finally spoke, "It's not too late."
"Hahaha." Dana let out a cackle. "If I did, then I would rob the world of its saviour."
"Now, the part that you're waiting for..."
Gideon: I never waited for anything.
"Stephanie. Don't you wonder how both of us decided to elope?"
Finally, Gideon showed a change in his facial expression. He thought that his daughter was the same as him – a fanatical Hydra god believer and a devout Hydra member so his daughter's betrayal was really unexpected for him.
"As an expert, I am really good at studying people. So, when you send your daughter to seduce me…No. To seduce Ryan Knight, I realised that…she too was wearing a mask to survive."
"Just for fun, I decided to break her down by breaking her mask slowly." Dana said mischievously. His relationship with Stephanie wasn't great in the beginning. He always tested her, put her on her toes, and as Stephanie was following Gideon's order, she couldn't even break up with Ryan Knight body double at that time.
She had to adhere to his every whim, every demand, as she wanted to survive.
"I started to wonder then. How could someone stoop so low. How can someone debase herself like that?"
He tightened his grip on the gun pointing at Gideon and said angrily, "Because. She has no other choice."
When Dana learned that Gideon has been using Stephanie to settle his deals, starting at the young age of nine with some senators, he fumed in anger and wanted to kill Gideon Malik right then and there.
"I don't even know why I am angry then. I can't stop thinking about her. I can't stop myself from wanting to protect her. I keep imagining the life of us without our burden and our sins chasing us."
"I decided then, to do the scariest things that I ever did in my entire life."
Dana took a deep breath, "To take off my mask."
He didn't know what would happen then. But after he took off his mask in front of her, for the first time in his life, he felt that his true face was enough. Because, as he took the mask off, Stephanie took off her mask too and decided to be honest with him about everything.
That's when they decided to run away together and live their lives being true to themselves. Granted, Stephanie was pregnant at that time, but it was her decision to keep it as she too had fallen for Dmitri, or rather, Dana Carvey.
"Now, you know the true story. I don't appreciate you coming to destroy the life that we had built together. For us to finally be free, you need to disappear." Dana said. "But at that time, Hydra reigns supreme."
Dana let out a chuckle, "You're no longer supreme now…"
"Do it already." Gideon said, exasperated. "Rather than listening to your story again, I would rather die."
Ryan Knight and his family have been like a curse toward the Hydra organisation. Gideon was confident that one day, Hydra would rise again and if the Hydra god came back, the whole world would be theirs.
That's why he made some preparations in case he lost his life today. Facing his death, Gideon Malik mumbled, "Cuts off one head, two more shall…"
BANG
Dana pulled the trigger and Gideon Malik's body fell limbless the ancient city floor. "Phew." Dana lets out a breath of relief as his vengeance is finally over. His bare skin touched the floor of the temple, fulfilling the taboo condition for the ancient city sentience.
Not only that, the ring he wore shined for a split second before the ring disappeared.
...
-Duat. Realm of the dead for the Egyptians. -
(A/N: Refer to MoonKnight series.)
"Hello there. Welcome to the realm of the dead. I am Tawaret, I will be your guide." A talking hippo greeted Gideon Malik as he appeared on board a ship after his death. The ship was sailing in the sandy seas and its purpose was to bring the dead people to the afterlife after they received their judgement aboard the ship.
"Hi. I am Gideon Malik. I'm afraid… I will not be staying." Gideon Malik replied with an incomprehensible smile on his face.
"Don't worry. Everyone feels loopy at first. But I need to tell you. You can't go back. You're dead." The Hippo said spookily, trying to get a reaction from Gideon Malik. However, the ship turned on its own and moved toward the door of Osiris.
"What is going on!?" Tawaret exclaimed as she almost lost her footing. The ship sailed at its max speed toward the destination. Tawaret finally saw the ring on Gideon Malik's finger and understood the whole situation.
"You. How did you get the Osiris Promise?"
The ring was given to the most beautiful woman in Egypt at that time, with the promise for a second chance for her life if she served Osiris. However, the ring was lost before her death, causing the promise to be unfulfilled. Her descendent was granted immortality by Osiris as a compensation for a broken promise, and she too became the most beautiful woman in all of Egypt.
"Does it matter now?" Gideon Malik said. He had studied Cleopatra's history and knew that the ring – the ring that Cleopatra's mother wore was inside of Hydra's hand.
It was a gamble for him. A gamble that he won. He was quickly taken to the door of Osiris and disembarked the ship.
"If I die again, I don't think I will come here. So Farewell Tawaret." Gideon Malik said. Tawaret almost showed her middle finger, but she kept her composure throughout. Gideon Malik walked through the door and his figure disappeared from the Duat.
…
Outside the ancient city, SHIELD agents and personnel have started to cordon of the area. Countless ships flew toward the city of San Juan, causing the citizens there to be restless.
"How long has it been?" Victoria Hand, a level 8 agent and part of the SHIELD Aegis branch disembarked her personal mobile base that was bigger than Coulson's base. She asked Melinda May about the situation and also told May about the current state of Sokovia now.
"It's been 3 hours. We don't know how and when, but Mr Kai Vera is inside the temple now."
"Why?" Victoria asked.
"This… Skye. His… daughter." Melinda said, almost broke the blank emotional state that she had kept herself in for years as she knew Skye had turned into a stone statue.
Victoria Hand was speechless after she heard about it.
"How about the mercenaries? The Silver Sable?" She asked after she let out a sigh.
"They're gone."
"Under whose order?" Victoria narrowed her eyes.
"Under the Director's order." May replied.
Suddenly, Fitz ran past May anxiously. She stopped him and asked, "What happened?"
"I need to get to Agent Coulson. Gideon Malik… his body…was gone!"
Inside the temple, Jenna Simmons wore a full hazmat suit to study the area as a normal human couldn't survive inside the temple grounds.
"Sir. We need..." Jenna said, wanting to move Skye's statue away. Like the others, she too thought that Skye had died. At the very least, she wanted to give her a proper send off and took her away from the temple.
Without opening his eyes, Kai said, "No. Just leave her alone."
Phil Coulson, who followed Jenna inside, sighed and sat next to Kai in his full hazmat suit.
"Kai. Do you know something about this? Why…are you here?" He asked.
Kai was silent for a while before he answered, "Because. My daughter called for me."
As Coulson tried to comfort Kai, one of the stone statues over there started to shake. It was unnoticed by the people there, except for Kai.
The first party who finished the terrigenesis process were the mutated 5-person terrigenesis of the Hydra agents.
Cracks appeared on the statue as the aberration wanted to come out.