Her voice was quiet, but it instantly drew everyone's attention.
Coulson whipped his head around.
"You know?"
Hermione nodded. "Mm, more or less."
She looked up at Coulson, her tone matter-of-fact.
"I was actually right there the day you were brought back to life."
"What!"
Coulson exclaimed, not having expected this unexpected revelation.
"Then GH325... what exactly is it?"
Hermione put down her snack.
"There's nothing worth hiding. Fury's the only one who treats it like some incredible treasure. It's just a serum extracted from Kree blood. It repairs biological damage."
"Kree," Coulson said, his voice trembling. "Do you mean..."
Hermione glanced at him. "Yes. Aliens."
Aliens!
The word struck everyone like a sledgehammer.
Coulson stood rooted to the spot, as though struck by lightning.
He had imagined countless possibilities, but never that his resurrection had anything to do with aliens.
No wonder Fury had always been so tight-lipped with him, and everything concerning Project TAHITI had been classified as top secret.
Only after a long while did he speak again, a trace of bitterness in his voice.
"No wonder Fury kept it from me. Injecting alien blood into a human body really isn't something people can easily accept."
Garrett and Trip disappeared through the cabin door.
The others dispersed, and Coulson sought Hermione out alone.
"Hermione, thank you so much for this."
Coulson spoke sincerely. "If you hadn't arrived in time, Skye might have ended up getting injected with alien blood, just like me."
Although he had been injected with alien blood without his knowledge, Coulson knew Fury had done it to save him and bore no resentment.
Loyalty was his defining trait.
He could never repay what he owed Fury.
Still, since Fury hadn't put it into widespread use, there had to be some nasty side effect.