Title: A cold winter's day in Vienna

Summary: "When you get back there, ask Jiaying about Emily. Ask her why Emily was banished from Afterlife and after she tells you her story watch this." May handed over a thumb drive.

Vienna 1975, Lian May and Elizabeth Prentiss introduce their 5 year old daughters to each other and send them out to play in the snow. That day is the start of a friendship that lasts a lifetime.

Disclaimer: I don't own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Criminal Minds, I've just mixed the sandboxes together for a bit of fun and am earning no money from this venture.

AN: I fell behind in AOS and decided to binge my way through the entire five seasons in order to catch up and I started to insert my favourite characters from other show's as Inhumans which lead to this little one shot. You don't need to have in depth Criminal Minds knowledge to read but knowledge of seasons 1 & 2 AOS will come in handy.

Also I have not seen the last half of season 4 or any of season 5 AOS so please don't spoil me.

2015

"Skye…" May was risking a friendship of nearly 30 years. Yes Emily had agreed to this and made the video for Skye but so much could go wrong. May had broken her oath for Emily and kept her off the index. "When you get back there, ask Jiaying about Emily. Ask her why Emily was banished from Afterlife and after she tells you her story watch this." she handed over a thumb drive.

Without another word Melinda walked away.

Skye needed to make her own choices.

1978

Two little girls, both American, both the daughters of powerful women in their own right, both had spent more time away from the country of their birth than in it.

They'd become friends at the age of five when their mothers had both been posted to Vienna. They'd caused havoc, slipping away from their minders and getting into whatever mischief they could find.

Melinda had moved to London first when Lian was assigned to MI5 in early 1977, 10 months later Emily was there as well and once again Elizabeth and Lian could do nothing but sigh and shake their heads at their daughters antics.

No matter how hard they tried their too smart, too energetic, too headstrong, too curious daughters would not be corralled and eventually they realised they should stop trying.

There was still the occasional day where they despaired for their futures when they tracked their daughters down via muddy footprints.

Melinda never thought it strange when Emily disappeared over the summer holidays. It was the way it had always been and Emily always came back with stories of running free over the mountains with her grandfather.

The mountains Melinda assumed were in France...

2015

May's words kept cycling though her head, May didn't misspeak. When she spoke it was with precision and thought so the word banished had been carefully chosen.

Sitting in her mother's study Skye waited for her to return from wherever it was she had gone after Skye told her of S.H.I.E.L.D's desire to meet peacefully. She contemplated the word banished… exile, expel, ostracise… cast out… reject. This Emily, whoever she was, had once been here and May knew her. Had this Emily been through Terragenesis or had she been rejected?

Soft footfalls she'd already memorised as Jiaying's caused her to turn and regard her mother.

"Who's Emily?" she asked locking eyes with the ancient woman.

"Where did you hear that name?" Jiaying couldn't conceal her surprise before Skye caught it.

"Around… she was banished? Why?"

1986

Elizabeth sighed and watched as Emily slunk through the door from school and closed herself up in her bedroom.

Since they left London 8 years before there had been 7 assignments and each move had been getting harder and harder on her daughter.

They'd been in Rome for 6 months and it was ok at first… even though she missed the few friends she'd made in Egypt, Emily had met and started to hang out with Jon and Matthew but it didn't take long for Elizabeth to realise they weren't the right type of friends for Emily to have, but her daughter wouldn't listen.

"You don't get to choose my friends... " had been all but screamed at her "you're the reason I have to make new ones in the first place."

Elizabeth backed off and watched Emily self destruct hard and fast… her beautiful, vibrant daughter had been torn apart piece by piece. Elizabeth could see the effects of the drugs and alcohol, the days Emily came home stoned or drunk… then the injuries started. Bruised knuckles, hand prints on her biceps, the occasional black eye or split lip.

Then one day without warning Emily came home pale and sick… she went to her room and didn't come out for three days. On the second day Elizabeth had sat on her 15 year olds bed and pulled the blanket down. Emily had blinked slowly up at her, eyes dull and sad.

Maybe that was the moment to fix things… bridge the gap that had been getting wider and wider as the years went on.

"Whatever happened, you'll get through it…" Elizabeth whispered the wrong words and she knew it when Emily rolled over and pulled the blankets back over her head.

She'd gone back to school, back to her friendship with Matthew but the parties had stopped along with the drinking and drugs. Her grades went back up but she didn't laugh anymore… the girl she'd scolded for tracking mud through the London Embassy was gone.

Elizabeth just hoped that Jiaying would be able to heal Emily enough to go through the mist that summer as planned.

2015

"Emily…" Jiaying sighed knowing she needed to chose her words carefully lest she give something away "We'd been preparing her for years to go through the mist. The year she was chosen something happened that she never spoke of. I suspect it was that event that lead to her actions which required me to banish her. She was not quite 16 when she did go through the mist and her gifts were amazing and brutally painful for her to learn to control. The mist gave her the ability to feel others emotions and to an extent control them. With a touch, she could calm a terrified child, take their fear from them for a time."

"An empath" Skye confirmed.

"Yes, once she learned control we sent her home. She went to college the same year you were born… She visited a few times over the years and each time she came back she was harder, angrier, less trusting."

"What happened to her?" Skye asked.

"I wish I knew… about 7 years ago Emily came to visit… she was angry at us for some reason. She brought a gun and tried to use her powers against us to gain control of Afterlife, if not for Gordon getting her out of here she would have killed me. So we banished her and wiped the family line from our records. No Prentiss will ever go through the mist again."

Skye had spent to much time with people she couldn't trust, been betrayed too many times. As much as she wanted to believe what Jiaying was telling her there was a little voice in the back of her head telling her to not just blindly trust what she was hearing. Be sure, confirm, get the facts.

That voice sounded eerily like Melinda May.

1988

Emily had ended up spending nearly two years in Afterlife. The summer before her 16th birthday she went through the mist as was her birthright and her duty. It had been months before anyone had been able to get within 10 feet of her.

The wave of emotions not her own brought her to her knees… sometimes she was left curled on the ground screaming from feelings that overwhelmed her. They isolated her, worked out the range on her powers and didn't let anyone get near her.

Grandfather was the first to be able to approach, so calm and controlled. So understanding, he would never forget those first few torturous months.

Then Jaiying, then the others… finally she could go out in public again.

She learned to control it, she couldn't turn it off but she could box it up. She learned touch would allow her to feel their emotion sharply, to dull them or take them for a time but the moment the touch was broken so was the control.

Those isolated months had been spent studying. Her marks good enough to get her into Georgetown a year early, now she had control and she had her life back and she had a plan.

Jiaying had sent her back out into the world as prepared as she could be.

"Be cautious but don't be blind to the beauty in the world. There are people who will want to use you and your gift but don't let that blind you to the good."

"Promise you'll write when the baby is born?"

The first thing Emily did when she got out of China was find Melinda.

Her best friend… her sister in spirit.

They spent a month road tripping through the south, wanting to see their country of birth that they'd barely spent any time in. They told each other secrets that had never before seen the light of day.

Then they went to Georgetown. Their mothers sneaking money into their accounts so they could live in a tiny apartment off campus and it was the best four years of their lives.

The summer before her senior year Emily got word that Jiaying was moving Afterlife… their home in Hunan province was no longer safe. A place in the mountains had been found, hidden, inaccessible to all but Gordon. Emily worried it was too isolated from the rest of the world, their people should be able to come and go as they pleased without relying on one man to transport them but she wasn't a member of the council yet, she had no say.

After graduation Melinda went to S.H.I.E.L.D and Emily to the CIA.

Neither told the other what they were really doing but that didn't matter.

2015

Skye found an isolated spot and inserted the the drive into her tablet. A video popped up immediately.

"Hi Skye!" the woman on the screen was beautiful, pale skin, eyes darker than hers that flashed with intelligence and compassion.

"My name is Emily and we were supposed to meet in person weeks ago. When Mellie realised you'd gone through the mist she called and left a message for me to come and visit you… help you with your transition. Unfortunately I was on a mission and didn't get the message until you were already in Afterlife. Mellie and I have been friends for a very long time, she'll probably punch me for telling you about that nickname… she's known about my gifts since we were 18. There's a lot you deserve to be told and I only have time for the bare bones. I was born in the previous Afterlife in Hunan Province, I went through Terragenesis in 1986 and stayed with Jaiying until early 1988, your mother was pregnant with you at the time. I still have a photo of the two of you together… I'll make you a copy. In 2008 Mellie turned up on my doorstep, she'd left Andrew and her life, her heart, her soul was in ruins. She stayed with me for months and night after night we'd sleep on the couch her head in my lap and I would dull the feelings. Give her peace for a few hours, hoping eventually things would get better. They didn't… my best friend… my sister had been torn to shreds by the events in Bahrain which I eventually got out of her. I was livid when I found out what had happened… the Jiaying I knew… had grown up visiting every single summer would never have let that happen." Skye could see the sadness and regret in the older woman's eyes.

"I went to Afterlife and confronted Jiaying about what had happened with Eva and Katya… I'd known Eva since we were young, we went through training together and I couldn't believe what I had been told. Eva knew the rules, knew why some were chosen and some weren't and she would never question that. Jiaying had forgotten there must be balance and she cannot lie to me. Eva had nothing to do with Katya's transition, Katya got into the temple and was playing with the crystals… she didn't know how dangerous they were and she dropped one. Jiaying saw Katya's power, saw what she was capable of and instead of calling me to teach Katya she banished them to cause havoc. She wanted something like Bahrain to happen, to breed mistrust and hatred… to start a war. I called her out, I demanded she apologise to Mellie, to stop her plans to start a war between the humans and inhumans but she's just too far gone." Emily swallowed past the tears.

"When Jiaying sent me out into the world she told me 'Be cautious but don't be blind to the beauty in the world. There are people who will want to use you and your gift but don't let that blind you to the good.' I don't blame her for her anger and hatred at those who tortured her, tore her apart piece by piece. She lost everything to Hydra... Cal, you… herself. I'm guessing she told you something along the lines of I used my powers to try and take control of Afterlife? I didn't, I tried to get the elders to see she needed to step down, she was unstable... She lost her ability to see the good." Emily paused to take a long drink of water.

"Mellie tells me you're smart, you're kind, you're compassionate and you have the ability to see the good wherever you go. I'm not asking you to believe me over Jiaying… I'm asking you to not close your mind to possibilities. Don't believe everything you are told and don't let anyone make your decisions for you or take your autonomy away. There is so much more you need to know, Mellie knows how to find me and I'd love to meet you one day."

The video shut down and Skye stared at the blank screen for a few moments. She needed to think…

She needed to talk to Raina.

2008

It was actually Phil Coulson that told her about Bahrain in a roundabout way. Emily had just returned from helping Dave close the Galen case in Indianapolis and discovered a super spy sitting on her couch.

He was eating her popcorn and watching Super Nanny.

"This is a lovely apartment Agent Prentiss…" Emily knew the man by reputation only. Mellie had been telling stories about Phil for years and Emily was desperate to meet the man but the absolute last thing Melinda wanted was for Phil Coulson and Emily Prentiss to meet. The havoc would be unimaginable.

"So lovely you had to break in?" she snorted and grabbed two beers from the fridge and handed one too him as she seated herself on the comfortable couch.

"So you're the mysterious Emily that May won't let me near?"

"And you're the mysterious Phil Mellie refuses to introduce me to…" they clinked their beers together.

"Mellie?" he snorted.

"Been calling her that since we were 5… not gonna stop now." Emily smirked, Melinda was going to make her suffer to telling Phil that nickname.

"A mission went bad…" Phil murmured once their chuckles died down "May is hurting… pushing us all away… she's transferred out of the field."

Emily turned her head slightly to study the man, still not sure why he was telling her this. It felt like he was informing on Melinda. They had very few secrets from each other… Melinda would tell her herself in her own time.

"I figure she's going to come to you eventually... " Phil continued "I just wanted to give you a heads up… she's my partner… and I can't fix this for her."

Emily could feel his pain and fear radiating off him in waves. His love for and trust in Melinda was almost overwhelming. She didn't dare touch him… she could already taste the desperation that she wouldn't be able to stop from overwhelming her if they touched.

2015

Raina was dead, Gonzalez had shot her mother and S.H.I.E.L.D had started a war…

Skye had never been so conflicted in her life.

Staring down Melinda May was not where she wanted to be. Skye never wanted it to come to this, choosing between the family she was born into and the family she had made.

Even now when she threw the first punch May was protecting her. Unwilling to truly fight back, only blocking the emotion fueled blows.

May begged her to give them time to find out what really happened but Skye was too angry at seeing her mother's blood spill out onto the ground.

"Get proof…" the older woman gasped "choose for yourself…"

Jiaying had been making demands since the first day, demanding her silence, her loyalty… May hadn't… May earned it… through action. May let her make her own choices showed her faith through action even if Skye didn't always understand where the older woman was coming from.

May who gave her a second chance.

That moment of absolute betrayal when Victoria Hand kicked her off the bus when all she wanted to do was help find Coulson. Those words had devastated her…

"She is no use to us on this plane'

Skye hadn't seen the double meaning at the time. It dropped on her like an anvil when May took the phone from Simmons.

'What have you got?'

May who watched and listened and recognised her worth.

May who stood up to a God in defence of her because she knew better… Emily had taught her to trust an inhumans intent over their control.

May who spent hour upon hour teaching her Tai Chi, taught her the moves she's now using against her, taught her to shoot.

May who was asking her to do what she had always done. Question the world around her and find out for herself.

She let May get through her defences and get her into a choke hold.

"Jiaying killed Raina…" Skye gasped out "Let me go and I'll open a door for you… Emily was right."

She flipped May over her shoulder and paused long enough to make sure May understood the message before sending a pulse towards her mentor and sending her flying.

2010

Emily remembers the summer she was 9 with such clarity. The colour of the Zishui river, the cold wind of the Xuefeng mountains… the feel of Grandfathers hand holding her own tightly as they wandered.

For her entire life Grandfather had been teaching her. Preparing her to take over for him, making sure she knew her responsibilities to Afterlife did not mean she couldn't have a life outside.

That was the summer he told her the story of the day he found her mother. A bright prick of life in the rubble of Dresden only days old. He an American soldier had picked up the scrap of inhumanity and knew she was a child of Afterlife lost in the annals of time.

It's 30 years before Emily truly understands what Grandfather was trying to tell her.

As she stands in a nondescript house in New Mexico and pulls a terrified 7 year old away from the sight of her fathers lifeless body she can feel it.

A lost child of Afterlife who is meant to follow in her footsteps.

A child she can never let Jiaying find.

2015

Despite her years in the CIA Emily Prentiss had never been at the level of Melinda May. Mellie took international woman of mystery to a whole new level and Emily was more than happy to stick with your everyday terrorist and psychopath.

She'd never wanted to be in a position to take down one of her own so avoided the weirder side of things as much as possible.

Until today…

Today she was seated in the back of a S.H.I.E.L.D quinjet that Mellie was piloting while they sped towards a ship the Inhumans had taken over as they attempted to start the war that Emily had been banished over trying to stop.

The Prentiss' could trace their family line back through Afterlife for over thousands of generations… her grandfather had been one of the elders and when he died her mother was to take his place.

For as long as Inhuman history was recorded there was a Prentiss on the council and every second generation went through the mist. Their family was part of the balance and their gift was always the same.

Empathy…

Elizabeth had always known she would never go through the mist… Emily had always known that she would. Emily's children would not go through the mist but her grandchildren would. The Prentiss' lived out in the real world, living and working side by side with humans, taking positions to help protect the secret. Her cousins all held positions for various world governments as assistants, analysts and translators. In the shadows, watching, listening… protecting until the day Jiaying banished Emily.

Her family had followed her, outraged by what Emily had found out. Not just what happened in Bahrain but why Jiaying had refused to allow her mother on the council of elders after her grandfather passed.

Why Jiaying no longer allowed anyone else to assist with the choosing.

The older generation was pushed out… the younger sold lies and Emily's generation was the last left that remembered the true Jaiying.

Kind, compassionate, forgiving.

Emily knew that either way their society was lost. If Jiaying won there would be war. If Jiaying lost they would scatter.

Across the jet Phil Coulson smiled sadly at her "I'm sorry…" he said.

"What for?" Emily didn't understand.

"That you've been forced to take a side." always so unassuming and amiable… the two of them had forged a quiet friendship during that evening of drinking beer and watching Super Nanny.

"Not by you… Jiaying forced me to take your side by her own actions many years ago." Emily didn't know how much Mellie told him about Bahrain so that's all she would say.

"You were right" Cal acknowledges sadly, his mind had been whirling through what Coulson had told him about Daisy's history with S.H.I.E.L.D. They saw the trail of bodies and sought to protect a baby girl. How were they to know it was the babies father searching for his daughter. Jiaying's madness had forced him to turn into a monster which in turn made people hide Daisy deeper and deeper.

Emily had known Afterlife had been moved to deep within the mountains, safe, unknown and isolated, she'd helped move it while Jiaying recovered from Hydra. Gordon became the ferryman, transporting people around the world, Emily still visited regularly but never long enough to realise what Jiaying was doing. Sending people through the mist without balance to guide them, corrupting the young to believe all humans were bad, blinding them to the beauty she'd been adamant Emily not lose sight of.

2011

Melinda wasn't surprised to see Elizabeth absent from the funeral. Her own mother had called from the villa in Italy the Ambassador was staying at and let her know the other woman was in no condition to travel.

Upon the news of Emily's death Elizabeth Prentiss had crawled to the bottom of a bottle of Grappa and refused to come out long enough for Lian to fill her in on what had really happened.

Lian promised to stay with her and had extracted a promise from Melinda to come visit as soon as she could.

She stood in the bright March sun alone and watched as Emily's team waxed poetic about her bravery. It infuriated her to see them cut everything but the BAU from Emily's life. She was so much more than that, it felt like they were stealing Emily's history.

Her love of books and antiques, her work at the women's shelters throughout DC. Her friends… where was Fiona and Jon, where were her cousins and aunts and uncles… why was there no mention of the kids she sponsored and kept in touch with beyond the childhood and teen years. At last count 10 pictures adorned Emily's fridge.

A burning anger lit up… they turned her into a 2 dimensional mockery of the woman who'd saved her sanity.

Emily wasn't dead… Melinda knew that. She'd already snuck into the hospital room in Bethesda and seen for herself. Held her hand, felt her pulse… spoken to her. This wasn't Emily's choice, she had been unconscious when the lie was first told and Melinda would make the person responsible pay.

So she stood and waited. As the mourners petered away Melinda was positive the one who stole Emily's life would approach her when she was alone… standing by the empty grave.

"How did you know Emily?" a dark haired, severe looking man stood next to her… Aaron Hotchner if her intel was correct… the one who stole her best friend.

"Our mothers were assigned to Vienna when we were five... No matter where in the world they dragged us there was always a letter… a friend who understood… I still have every single one she sent me and all the letters I sent her are in a shoe box in her sock drawer. Then we went to Georgetown together, shared a flat that our mothers paid for because we were crap at waitressing. Emily lived in my spare room while she put herself back together after leaving the CIA and I lived in hers when my marriage broke up."

Melinda turned her head and locked eyes with him "I also know what's in her will… If I find anything missing from her condo when I go to pack it up I will be very unhappy. And if you're going to fake someone's death don't cut their family and closest friends out of the funeral. Today shouldn't have happened until Elizabeth was well enough to travel and I can think of at least 6 lifelong friends who would be just as angry as I am at the mockery you've made her life."

"I don't…" Hotch couldn't control the stunned expression.

"Clyde Easter used MI5 resources to create the fake identity she was transferred to Bethesda under and I have better resources than yourself, Agent Easter and Agent Jareau combined. Your weak attempt at hiding her left her vulnerable and she would have been found within the week if I hadn't intervened. And this funeral? Emily Prentiss is so much more that this… you didn't just steal her life by making the decision without her consent… you destroyed it by turning her into a 2 dimensional cardboard cut out."

In that moment Aaron Hotchner knew is was staring down the most dangerous person he has ever met.

2015

The fight on the aircraft carrier is brutal. Emily knows she needs to find Jiaying before Skye does.

She bursts out onto the flight deck with a concussion, 3 cracked ribs and a bloody nose just as Skye blasts a jet over the side and with the ancient woman distracted Emily sneaks up behind her and wraps strong arms around Jiaying making sure their hands are touching skin to skin.

Jiaying is old and strong… her will is almost too strong for Emily… her hatred burns through the both of them and with a scream of fury they tumble to the ground together Emily wrapped around her mentor taking the raging tempest of emotions into herself, dulling what Jiaying feels until it is a whisper of a memory and the woman is lying limp in Emily's arms.

This is the role of the Prentiss', protect their people at all costs, even from themselves.

Jiaying taught her how to use her gifts.

Her mother and grandfather taught her why.

Every gift given is by design to fill an evolutionary gap. Jiaying was never meant to be the sole voice choosing who went through the mist and who didn't.

The three original families who banded together to get rid of Hive and maintain order over their people… mind, body, soul… all equal and all needed for balance.

The mind, Jaiying, long lived and wise, descended from a ancient Chinese monk, cursed with knowledge.

The body, Aderfi, descended from a warrior in North Africa, always young and strong…impulsive and full of wanderlust... cursed to live a short yet eventful life, banished like Emily.

The soul, Emily, descended from a Celtic Druid, a power beyond what can be seen to what can only be felt. Cursed to always know the hearts of others.

What is a mind without a body and a soul?

Out of nowhere Aderfi appears and he reaches out to hold Jaiyings face between large battle hardened hands.

"I'm sorry sister" Emily whispers in Jaiying's ear as her eyes meet Aderfi's.

"There must be balance… mind, body, soul working as one… goodbye sister."

His hands jerk and snaps her neck and they both scream in grief.

It's not the first time the balance was broken and it won't be the last.

In the aftermath Emily and Aderfi lock themselves away with Skye teaching her the birthright that had been stolen first by Hydra's evil and then by S.H.I.E.L.D's good intentions.

They taught her the true histories of her family line and not the fabricated one Jaiying's madness made up. The responsibilities of the three families to guide the generations through their transitions. How they worked together, three parts of a whole, making sure their replacement was trained and ready to take over when the time came.

Sometimes they were born into it like Skye, other times they were found by fate… a lost branch of the family... like Aderfi and the girl hidden safe in New Mexico who would one day take over from Emily. Never to go through the mist but train the next generation.

A birthright that if not for Elizabeth Prentiss and Lian May being assigned to the American Embassy in Vienna at the same time would have been lost forever.

Because on a freezing cold winters day Melinda May and Emily Prentiss met and weaved the first fragile threads of a friendship that would last a lifetime.

END