This is tagged completely to the Lab Rats: Elite Force episode "The Rise of Five" (101), but also references The Mighty Med episodes "Saving The People Who Save People" (101-102), "There's A Storm Coming" (125-126), "How The Mighty Med Have Fallen" (201-202), "Mighty Mole" (204), and "Storm's End" (207); and my own headcanons/ideas for what could have happened pre-series just a bit, like when The Annihilator took Skylar's powers away from her. Because just like Krane, The Annihilator is not a nice person.
If what Riker and Roman said was true, she should be dead. And she really should have been. The Annihilator did much more than just take away her powers. He broke her, making her feel weaker than she was. She wasn't strong enough. To compensate, she pushed herself too hard. But she couldn't forget how it felt to be trapped under the the large, evil, mutated man. She could almost feel the bruises on her skin and the blood coating her.
To compensate for her lost powers, she tried to fit in with the normal world. She had Kaz and Oliver to guide her, but deep down, she knew she wasn't human. She was so blinded by the need to forget that she accepted the offer of Kaz and Oliver, mostly Oliver, giving her powers back without considering if there would be any consequences.
She hadn't even had her powers back for one minute when the effects of The Annihilator tainting her powers kicked in. Her altered mental state proved deadly, as she killed Agent Blaylock by turning him to stone, a power she never had before The Annihilator messed with her powers. It was by sheer luck that she did not kill Oliver with a deadly kiss. Something inside of her stopped her, even though she was serving The Annihilator.
Most morals weren't a question of good and evil, or even strictly right from wrong. Instead, they were a question of what was right at the time or for the situation. Was it ever right to hurt someone? That was one of life's, especially Skylar's life, big questions, albit one that didn't have an answer.
On earth, she was different, a superhero. But on Caldera, she was just the same as everyone else. It was ok when she was younger, but she was older now, and she needed to be her own person. Not every Calderian became a superhero, so that was a big part of her identity. It was the only thing she knew, and she lost it.
She remembered what happened when her powers were tainted unlike most of the other heroes. She even remember almost dying. She should have died. Horace shouldn't have used his second to last Caduceo power on her. If he hadn't, he still would have one left,since he used his last one on Oliver's mother, Bridget, before learning that she was evil.
If she was dead, she would have never know about bionic superhumans. And yet, here she was, in a new team composed of bionics and superheros.