A/N: Hi guys! Guess who's back, at least for when there is a need to be back. I know my most recent story has long been buried in this site because I failed to update for a long time. And sad to say, I'm definitely not going to continue with it anymore. :( I can explain it, but it's a rather long story and not meant for this entry. Anyway, we've recently watched AOS 2x18, where Ward returned. (Still not over this episode yet. The Skyeward shippers have been resurrected, it seems.) Spoiler alert for 2x18 of course.
So here I present you an AU on what might have happened if Gordon hadn't appeared when he did at the end of the episode. I'm not entirely sure how many of these particular AUs were already written, but the more the merrier, I guess? Or the more painful in terms of feels. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.
"Skye?" Coulson's voice broke through her and brought her back from her momentary shock.
"Coulson," she breathed. And Ward. What the hell is he doing here!?
Before she could ask any questions, however, a trio of Hydra guards appeared behind her.
"Look out!" It was Ward's voice. Skye turned around but things were happening too fast at the same time.
One of the guards fired his gun towards Skye. Her breath hitched. She had no weapon, no kevlar, nothing to protect her.
I'm a weapon. Without meaning to, she instinctively put up her hands, just like she did in the forest when one of Bobbi's company was chasing her. The bullet stopped in air just a couple inches away from her shoulder.
Skye watched as the tiny piece of metal exploded in front of her. She had more control of her power now than she did before. The wall in front of her didn't collapse. And she realized she was able to concentrate her powers on the bullet only.
There were more gunshots. One guard fell unconscious. One shot another bullet towards Skye's direction and this time, she missed her chance to stop it unlike before. The bullet hit her thigh, and she fell against the wall.
"No!" It was Coulson's voice. "Skye!"
The guards were all down now.
"I'm okay! I'm okay!" She shouted. Seconds later, Coulson appeared at her side.
"You hurt? How bad?" He asked.
"It's nothing. Just a flesh wound, I think."
"Can you walk?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Come on." It was Ward who spoke this time. "We gotta get out of here. Hydra's taking over this place."
"Doesn't that sound familiar," Coulson muttered as he helped Skye to her feet.
"We have to find the people I was with. Lincoln and Cal."
At that very moment, Cal appeared at the staircases down the left hall.
"Daisy! Oh no." He said upon seeing Coulson. "You! You again!" He stepped forward and tried to tackle Coulson but Skye stepped in between them.
"No! Stop. You're not gonna hurt anyone again. You–"
Before she could continue however, a flash of light appeared and the familiar blue mist separated Cal and Skye from the others.
"Noooo!" He yelled.
"Skye, I have to get you out of here." Gordon said.
"No, not me. Take him. Tell Jiaying that you'll find me when I'm ready. Please just let me go for now." Skye pleaded.
He took one look at her and nodded.
"What are you doing!? Take her!" Cal shouted at Gordon, but in a swift second, they were gone.
"Skye, who else is here?" Coulson asked.
"Lincoln. I have to find him."
"No, we gotta get out of here." Ward countered, but Skye paid no attention to him. She started to walk straight, but Coulson stopped her.
"Wait, Skye. We need to figure this out first."
"Coulson!" Kara appeared, supporting Hunter as she walked toward the others.
"What happened?" Coulson asked.
"It's just a flesh wound." Hunter tried to downplay it.
"A bad one," Kara added.
"Okay," Coulson took a moment to think. "Alright. We need to get back on the quinjet."
"What about Lincoln? And Mike?" Skye asked.
"We can't risk getting cornered by Hydra. Mike can take care of himself." Ward stated. Again, Skye paid no attention to him.
"He's right. Our best bet is to go straight to the quinjet. If we see your guy, we can help him. But we can't scour the entire building for him. We'll all get captured."
Skye didn't look satisfied, but she couldn't disobey Coulson, not now that he seemed to have gone through every compromise he could to find her.
"Fine. Let's go." She started to walk.
"Hey, not so fast." Ward. She hated the way she still had the habit of turning around the moment he called her.
She stopped in her tracks and when she did look at him, he was taking the kevlar and firearm off of a Hydra agent. Ward tossed the kevlar to Skye, who caught it with ease. As she put it on, he checked the mag of the gun.
"You got a full mag." He cocked the gun before handing it over to Skye, who still hadn't said a word.
"Okay, let's head down." Coulson led the way. Everyone else followed behind him. Skye was thankful she wasn't that near to Ward. Kara and Hunter walked next to her. Ward tailed last.
Once they reached the next floor down, Skye immediately scoured the hallway for signs of Lincoln. She was too tense that she almost missed the familiar sea green jacket, now crumpled as its owner lay curled up against the wall, unconscious.
"Lincoln," she muttered as she went nearer.
"Look out!" Kara shouted as a couple of Hydra agents appeared at the end of the hall.
Shots were fired and both the agents went down.
"Lincoln." Skye bent down and turned his overturned body around. She looked around before deciding what to do.
"Gordon!" She called out in the open.
Suddenly, the bright flash of blue appeared.
"Jiaying demands that you come with me."
"I know, but this is my choice, Gordon. I promise I'll return."
"She won't be happy. You know that."
"I know." She watched as Gordon bent down towards Lincoln and in another flash, they were gone.
"What in the bloody hell just happened?" Hunter asked.
"I'll explain later. Let's get out of here."
They were back in the quinjet. Lance was sitting on the floor, pressing a towel soaked in his blood against his bullet wound. Kara sat beside Ward, who was expressionless. Kara looked a little confused and worried.
Skye, who was previously seated across Kara and in between Fitz and Hunter, stood up and headed to the Pilot's seat.
"Where are we going?" She asked.
"Somewhere safe. We need to sort this all out."
"Well duh. Why don't we start with–"
"I don't want to hear it, Skye. We can talk about it later when we land."
"Fine." She went back to her seat.
"You doing alright?" She asked Hunter.
"Yeah, I think the bleeding's stopped already."
Skye thought for a moment. She opened her mouth but before she could say a word, Hunter beat her to it.
"Don't ask me, mate. I'm not the boss. He is," Hunter says, jerking his head towards Coulson. "Nobody wanted this arrangement but it was the only option we had."
"One that can go south."
"Considering what was at stake, I don't think it mattered to him how much he had to risk."
Nobody spoke for the next 10 minutes. That is until the radar beeped a couple times, indicating a detected plane nearing them.
"Strap in." Coulson shouted to the others. "We're gonna go down the swirly slide."
"What's going on?" Skye asked, helping Hunter get to a seat.
"I think List tailed us."
The radar beeped again.
"Uh oh," Coulson said.
"Uh oh? What does Uh oh mean?" Hunter asked.
"They got weapons hot. They're targeting us!"
"Bloody hell. Can we shake them!?"
"That's what I plan to do. Everybody, hold on!" Coulson yelled before directing the quinjet to a dive. The whole plane shook. Next, he sharply turned right. Then up. Then finally everything was just spinning and spinning. There was a loud explosion that sent the plane flying forward. The cloud of smoke was enough for Coulson to send the plane on hyper speed and away from there.
Close to an hour later, the plane landed on a deserted field.
"Alright. Move out. There's a safe house about half a mile from here. We'll stay there until we can contact base."
Later, they reached the said safe house which looked a lot like the Retreat.
"I'll get you the first aid kit." Coulson declared. "Stay put."
When he returned, he attended to Hunter's wound while Skye cleaned up the blood on her jeans in the bathroom.
Things settled down a bit. Kara was now talking to Hunter. Fitz was tinkering with his computer, trying to find out who hacked into Deathlok's system. Coulson and Skye were in a separate room talking.
"I can't believe you let him into this." Skye said.
"I had no choice. You of all people would understand that I did what I had to so I can find you."
"What is going on? The last thing I remember was May telling me to run and then comes Bobbi appearing with some people I have never seen before. And suddenly I knock them out with my–my ability to cause destruction."
"Okay, let's take this from the top." Coulson began explain the deal with Gonzales and the others.
"What do mean The Real SHIELD?"
"I don't know much, just that they don't trust me to run SHIELD and they don't want me to. They tried taking Fury's toolbox and relieving me of my position. May helped me escape. I haven't heard from her in a while."
He also explained how he ended up with Hunter and Fitz. And finally Ward.
"Your turn." Coulson stated.
"After I destroyed the woods in the Retreat. This guy Gordon takes me to a place for people like me."
"How many are there?"
"A lot, but not all of them have powers yet."
"Yet?"
"Apparently what happened to Raina and me was sort of a short cut. The whole transition of a gifted person was supposedly gradual. There were people who trained them, prepared them for their change."
Skye paused for a moment. "I uh–I met one of the leaders there. Jiaying. She's–she's my mother."
Coulson's face momentarily showed shock, then worry, but only for a millisecond.
"They helped me control it. I'm supposed to get better there, Coulson."
He sighed. "That's what Hydra's after. The gifted."
He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Don't worry. We can figure this out. Gonzales will soon realize that we still have a common enemy; Hydra."
Later that night, Skye was unsurprisingly tossing and turning on her bed. She didn't bother forcing herself to sleep because she knew she would never feel comfortable, knowing that Ward was probably in the next room to her. She wanted to hate him. She wanted to be able to face him and show no emotion at all, but that never worked for her. He knew her too well to know how to get past her mask and she hated him for that.
Not being able to turn your mind off was dangerous too, Skye realized. Soon she was going over and replaying all that has happened once she laid eyes on him this afternoon. And it certainly left her nothing but confused. Finally fed up with the weight on her shoulders, she stood up from the bed and went outside.
The firearm concealed under her shirt gave her a small sense of comfort as she made her way downstairs. She found him exactly where she expected him to be–outside the house.
She opened the front door, expecting Ward to go in full defense mode, but he didn't. He stayed put, sitting down on the front porch steps.
"How's your leg?" He asked, without looking at her. His voice was only slightly concerned. It was more firm and blank than anything.
"Fine." She replied with the same tone.
"Can't sleep?" He threw the rock he was clutching in his hand.
"I'm not one who can sleep peacefully knowing that–"
"–That there was a murderer and traitor under the same roof." He finished for her. "I got that part."
There was silence between them for a moment.
"What happened to you, Skye?"
The question threw her completely off guard. She didn't respond instantly and just watched as Ward turned around and stood up when he didn't get an answer. His expression was different from what Skye had expected. He looked…troubled.
"Puerto Rico. The temple. After Raina got the Diviner, I followed her. Trip tried to stop me." Skye's head fell down. "The diviner kind of activated whatever inborn gift we had. I was apparently a walking disaster after all." She frowned. "Then we lost Trip."
Ward didn't say anything.
"Why are you here?" Skye finally asked.
"Here as in outside the house or here as in working with Coulson?" Ward asked lightly.
Skye didn't respond. Ward sighed.
"I don't know." He said with a shrug. "He needed me to get to Hydra so he can find you. Now he needs a connection to the people in Hydra who are after the other gifted ones."
"You could run." Skye stated as-a-matter-of-factly. "You could ditch Coulson right now. Run off and disappear."
"I can't deny it's what I do best." He said smugly.
"What are you after, Ward?" She asked pointedly. "Why are you here helping us? You know Coulson doesn't trust you. Hell, nobody here does. So why bother tagging along? What do you have to gain?"
She was frustrated. For the first time, she couldn't read him, couldn't see his motive. He didn't want to run or disappear. But he has nothing to gain. Coulson would never trust him again.
"You're not with SHIELD anymore so you couldn't care less whether we took down Hydra or not. And if you're looking for a second chance with–"
"–Maybe I am!" His voice was raised. His jaw was tight. "Maybe I am looking for a chance to get back on the good side!"
"Well then you went searching in the wrong place!" Skye's tone matched his. "You're not wanted here, Ward. You're not needed here."
Ward couldn't bear it longer. His emotions were all piling up. He's been bottling them all in since he got in the quinjet. That is until suddenly, "I KNOW THAT!" He burst. "I KNOW EVERYBODY HATES ME. I KNOW YOU THINK I'M A MONSTER. I KNOW COULSON DOESN'T TRUST ME. I KNOW FITZ WANTS TO KILL ME! ALRIGHT? I KNOW ALL THAT BUT COULSON NEEDED ME.
Skye may have been surprised at the outburst but she wasn't backing down.
"He needed a way into Hydra. Now we've got one. So why are you still here!? You have nothing else to gain!" She said coldly.
"WELL THEN MAYBE BECAUSE I CAN'T SEEM TO FIGURE OUT WHY I STILL CARE SO DAMN MUCH ABOUT YOU! IT'S PATHETIC. IT'S STUPID. IT'S INSANE."
Skye's mouth fell open. She wanted to counter it, counter it with a cold remark but she had nothing.
"I thought I could forget about it, forget about you. Walk away from all this, but the second I found out this whole plan of Coulson's involved rescuing you, I didn't think twice about joining, and I don't fucking know why. I don't know why it's so hard to just walk away!" His jaw was shaking as he spoke in between gritted teeth, but he couldn't be any more forceful than that.
"So I'm sorry, alright? Sorry that you have to put up with me, sorry that Coulson's only option was me, sorry that I ever seized the only chance of helping you again. I know you don't need me. So I'm sorry!"
With that, he walked passed Skye and through the front door, but not before declaring, "I'll be gone the second Coulson says I'm done." In a matter of seconds, Skye was alone.
And they never spoke again after that.
He kept his word. After the mission was done, so was he. List lured us to follow him, thinking he could get rid of us. He carried out his escape plan once the team was occupied. That escape plan involved him getting picked up by one of Strucker's jets. It wasn't a total loss since Coulson was able to gather intel about where they were going. Once Gonzales and his team knew this, they agreed to stop hunting him down, saying that it didn't do anyone but Hydra any good if they themselves were divided. That piece of information Coulson had was then relayed to the necessary people.
It had been a long day. Coulson decided to let the team rest in the safe house before they went back to base. When morning came, Ward was gone.
And before the day ended, Gordon appeared again.
A/N: I apologize for any mistakes. It's my first time publishing again after so long. I was even anxious to see this site. Lol! Hope you enjoyed. Let me know if you need a rant buddy about the episode. xx