CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:
TAKE CONTROL

IT TOOK A LOT OF convincing, but finally Daisy managed to get Sapphire off of the bathroom floor and into the training room where she was going to help her control her newfound powers. She made sure to close the door, block any windows and disable the security camera with a blast of vibrations from her hand. She turned her head towards Sapphire who watched her with raised eyebrows and the dark haired woman simply shrugged her shoulders in response. She wanted to make Sapphire as comfortable as possible when it came to the use of her powers, and if answering to Coulson later on was her punishment, then so be it.

"Alright, we're going to start off slow." Daisy told Sapphire, grabbing a target and placing it in front of Sapphire. "I know you know how to fight with your fist, you've beat my ass more times than I'd like to admit." Sapphire managed a small laugh at this, and Daisy's heart picked up at the sound, a smile of her own forming onto her lips. The sound of her laugh was progress, she was slowly falling back into step with her humanity, and Daisy was glad to help.

"Hey, I can go a round or two with you real quick and you can try to gain your dignity back." Sapphire smiled, jokingly holding up her fists to which Daisy quickly smacked away, causing the brunette to laugh. She eyed the target that Daisy had set up for her, cocking her head slightly. "So, what am I supposed to do? Stare at the target until it's no longer there?" Daisy turned to her, giving her an unamused expression. Sapphire sighed. "Look, I'm nervous, alright? I haven't. . . I haven't used my powers on my own free will just yet."

Daisy nodded her head. "I know that. That's why we're here. Just you and me. We got to get you started somehow. Because whether you like it or not, those powers are apart of you. You need to embrace that." She placed her hands on Sapphire's arms, meeting her eyes as she nodded her head. "You are more than what HYDRA created you to be. You want to prove that to them? You want to show HYDRA that you are not just their experiment? You take control of what they gave you and you use it against them."

Sapphire looked at the woman, allowing her words to run through her mind. Daisy was right. Sapphire was more than what HYDRA forced her to be. She wasn't some broken girl that had to be handled with fragility. She wanted to be able to hold her own once more, but she didn't want to do it alone. She knew she need to take the next step, learn to control the powers that were forced into her veins in order to take control of her life that had been so brutally snatched from her hands. It was in this moment that Sapphire realized she didn't need to hide. She may be scared of what she had become, but she knew that the others needed to know.

"I need to tell them." Sapphire whispered, making Daisy turn her head to look at her. "The only way I can get past this is to tell them the truth. To not hide from it anymore. I'm ashamed of what they did to me. I always will be. But, these people, they're my family. They've always been my family. They deserve to know why I'm avoiding everyone but you." She took a deep breath, eyes darting back to the target that was patiently waiting to be destroyed. "One step at a time."

She decided she would wait until she could control her powers. She also wanted to wait and see what her sister could come up with in the lab. Until then, she and Daisy would stay in that training room with Daisy helping Sapphire to gain some form of control. The thought of being able to use her powers for good was something that kept her going. Shooting ice blast after ice blast, watching as it hit the target and froze it over and over told her something. Her powers could be used for good or for bad. And if she had the chance to realize the difference between those two lines, then she was going to take that chance, she was going to go down the right path, and she was going to show HYDRA that they didn't own her. That she was her own person, and she could do whatever the hell she wanted, when she wanted.

She stared down at the frozen mist that swirled around her hands, her white hair having replaced her natural brown locks with her dark eyes turning an icicle blue. Her skin was paler, colder, almost as if she was one with the cold. The air in the room had turned from the warm temperatures to a cooler temperatures that wasn't exactly freezing but it wasn't exactly warm either. She became a completely different person when she used her powers. She transformed into this other version of herself, and if she were to ever use her powers in front of the others there would be no hiding what became of her every time she did so.

Daisy stared at Sapphire, watching the ice fall from her hands with such mesmerized eyes. it was amazing watching the other woman use her powers. Even as this white haired version of herself, in Daisy's eyes Sapphire still looked absolutely breathtaking. It seemed like they were practicing for hours on end, Daisy trying to offer tips in order to help Sapphire keep control. Much to Sapphire's relief, ice manipulation wasn't as hard to control as she thought. When she felt too tired to do anything else, she allowed her hands to fall to her sides, taking a deep breath as she turned back to normal.

"Can I just say, for the record, you look badass." Daisy hummed.

Sapphire glanced at her, a small smile on her face. "Really?"

"Definitely." The sound of Daisy's phone vibrating grabbed their attention. Daisy pulled her phone from her pocket, glancing down at it before carefully looking back up at Sapphire. "That was Jemma. She's got your test results."