Fool me
This was a disaster! Coulson, Ward and May were gone, nowhere to be found, which meant they left or rather had to leave the train. Jemma was temporarily incapacitated due to the fact that she was knocked out by that night-night grenade. The obly ones left on the train and awake were Fitz and Skye. Not the best SHIELD agents. At least not in the field.
The train suddenly stopped and the two young agents looked out the small window watching as the Cybertek people loaded the case into one of their trucks.
"Do you have a second trakcer?" Skye asked looking to Fitz.
"Yes. Why?" he asked, although he knew what she meant.
"We're going to follow them. We need to make sure that they don't get to Quinn" she simply stated.
"What about Simmons?" he asked, looking over to the unconscious biochemist.
"We leave her here. The others will come looking for us and they will find her" Skye explained.
"Ok. I'll leave this spare night-night gun, so that she can protected herself" he said and left it in her hands. The two team mates covered the girl with a blanket, hidding her completely.
"Come on, let's keep moving" Skye motioned him to follow her.
Meanwhile on the Bus. Coulson was currently stitching up May when Ward entered letting the two senior agents know that SHIELD had located the train. Apparently it stopped shortly after changing tracks in the italian country side. Before May could jump off the table Ward left for the cockpit to fly them to the new location. It didn't take them long to get there and corroborate with the italian SHIELD team on the ground that Cybertek left, leaving no trace of where they went.
"What about our team?" Coulson asked. But before anyone could answer, Coulson saw the dirty window in the luggage wagon and a small clean strip, indicating that the someone peeked through it. He immediately boarded the train entering the wagon followed closely by Ward and May, each holding a night-night gun in their hands. Suddenly Simmons appeared out of nowhere and started shooting with the night-night gun Fitz had left behind.
"Simmons, calm down, it's us" Coulson tried to calm her. The girl looked surprised and asked "Where are Fitz and Skye?" The others looked as surprised as the biochemist, unable to answer.
"Coulson, look" May spoke, handing him her phone. "Someone activated the tracker."
"Fitz and Skye, probably. They must have followed Cybertek to the exchange point" coulson concluded. "Come on, let's get there."
They all left in a hurry, knowing that the two young members of their team were no where near ready to infiltrate an enemy compound, let alone one that would be heavily guarded. They got into their truck, followed by a couple of other SHIELD cars, racing to get there in time. They all feared that Skye and Fitz might get caught and be killed.
Luckily May decided to drive their car, because somehow Ward felt uneasy. He didn't know why. Well he did, but he couldn't let his feelings get in the way. He needed to stay focused for Fitz and for Skye. Skye. Somehow he couldn't stop thinking about her. He knew deep down why, but tried to compartmentalize his feelings. He needed to stay on top of things. He was a specialist after all. But...
Before he could finish his thought he realized that the car has stopped. He immediately jumped out of the car and ran towards the entrance of the mansion. He could here noises from inside the house, but couldn't make sense of them. It sounded like a fight. He hoped that both his team mates weren't involved in that fight. Especially, since neighter had the proper training. Sure, he trained Skye, but the girl was far from being a real SHIELD agent. He needed to find them, ASAP. And then he saw Fitz, hidding behind a black SUV and someone pointing a gun at him. Ward immediately shot the man with his night-night gun and ran towards the scientist.
"Where is Skye?" he asked. Before Fitz could answer Coulson and the two female agents got to them, all of them relieved for finding Fitz and worried for not finding Skye with him.
"She went inside. She didn't want Quinn to get away..." Before Fitz could continue however Ward already ran into the house, terrified that something might happen to his rookie. He looked around carefully not wanting to alert anyone of his presence. He heard footsteps coming close and he hid behind a wall. He peeked around the corner and saw Skye with a gun in her hands.
"Skye" he yelled out, startling the hacker, who immediately turned around pointing the gun at him.
"Jesus, Ward, you scared me" she said, a little out of breath.
"Good to see you too" he said, a small smile on his face.
"Where did he go?" she asked.
"Who?" Ward asked her back.
"Mike. Mike Peterson."
"He's dead" Ward answered, thinking she must have hit her head or something. He lowered his own gun and approached her trying to touch her head.
"What are you doing?" she asked, taking a step back.
"Looking for some head injury. Mike Peterson died in that explosion on the bridge" he tried to tell her.
"He did not. He is alive. And he has a magic leg."
"A what?" Before Ward got his answer Coulson and the others stormed inside and sighed in relief for finding the hacker unharmed.
"Skye, I'm so glad you are alright" Coulson said pulling her into a hug.
"A.C. It's nice to see you too, but we need to find Mike. And yes. He is alive. And he has a magic leg. Well, a mechanical one. I don't have time. We need to find him." Skye tried to walk away but Coulson grabbed her arm.
"What?" she asked a little annoyed.
"Where do you thing you are going?" coulson asked her.
"I told you. To find Mike."
"That is not your job..." They suddenly were stopped when one SHIELD agent came in and told them that a man, well half man half robot, took off. Unfortunately, they were unable to pursue him.
"See? Now his gone" Skye said exasperated.
"Uhm, I don't wanna break this up" May started "but where is Quinn?"
"Down stairs, in the cellar. Bastard tried to shoot me in the gut. Said the Clairvoyant ordered him to."
"What?" Ward and Coulson asked, both men angry.
"Don't worry. I knocked him out."
"How did you do that?" May wanted to know.
"Well, I guess all those training sessions did pay of" Skye said. "O-kay, this is awkard. I think I'm going to play with my phone now" she said and left the mansion, leaving the others silently staring at her.
Outside Skye took out her phone dialing a number. "SHIELD protocol Seven Vector Alpha Zulu, codename Angel." She waited for her call to be redirected and was startled when Coulson put his hand on her shoulder.
"Who are you calling?" he asked suspiciously.
"Uhm..." but she couldn't answer because someone on the other side of the line picked up the phone. "Sir, it's Angel. I'm at Quinn's mansion. And, I'm sorry, but I've been made. Coulson is here. You need to tell him" Skye said breathlessly, while the others, who came outside to join her and Coulson, looked at her in wonder.
"What? Rule number one: NO ONE CAN NOW" somebody, a man, shouted. "Put me on speaker" he commanded.
"Who are you talking to?" Coulson insisted.
"You'll see. Well hear" Skye said and put her phone on speaker.
"Can everybody hear me?" Director Fury asked.
"Director Fury?" everyone asked incredulous.
"Yeah, who did you expect? Santa? So, we are not gonna talk about this on the phone. I'm going to meet with you on the Bus. Agent May take Route 7, I will take a jet and dock on. Coulson, Skye is with me. She is not allowed to say a single word about her job, until I get there. Understood?"
"Understood, sir" Coulson answered.
"Skye?" Director Fury asked, clearly pissed.
"Understood" she replied.
After Skye answered Director Fury hung up, leaving everyone speechless.
„I promise everything will become clear once he gets to us" Skye tried to explain. „I know I promised I wouldn't lie, but I was under orders. He will explain. You just need to know that everything I did was to protect you. All of you. Just don't judge before you have all the facts. And no. It's not like with Miles. I swear" Skye said, walking towards the car.
They all were stunned at what just happened, but knew that is Fury was involved it had to be good. Well, sort of.
The team left the mansion, taking an unconscious Quinn with them. After they got to the Bus, Skye immediately locked herself inside her bunk, refusing to talk to anybody. Ward and Coulson took Quinn to the Cage, where they locked him in. May went to the cockpit preparing everything for their departure.
„Wheels up in five" she said over the coms.
FitzSimmons stayed in the lab, trying to figure this whole thing out. But they knew that no matter they came up with was probably wrong. So they focused on their work, until Fury would make an appearence.
It didn't take long until Fury docked on and got on the Bus. The team gathered in the commom room and were shortly joined by May, who left the cockpit and Skye who finally left her bunk.
„So, Skye. Care to explain?" Fury talked directly to her.
„What do you want me to say? Hey, boss, I messed up. The team found out. Which, by the way, I'm happy they did. I told you like a million times that I didn't wanna keep secrets from them. But did you listen? NO. Everything for the mission. Even if they hate me now" Skye shouted and almost started crying.
„No one hates you", Simmons said gently and decided to stand next to her friend.
„She is right" Coulson started „we just want to know what is going on. That's all."
„Well, why don't you ask him" Skye said, pointing at the director.
„Alright" Fury started. „Remember after your Peru mission, Coulson, that I told you the girl was a risk?" Coulson nodded. „I monitored her. And when she hacked us during the Overkill mission I went to find her. I invited her into my office at the Hub and we had a little talk."
„You mean, you yelled" Skye said quitely, but not quitely enough. The director glared at her.
„Maybe I should yell again. Maybe then you will follow orders" he said, raising his voice.
„Follow orders? Your kidding. I've been busting my ass for you. Not only do I know every SHIELD protocol in the manual, I've been working over time for the past how many months now?"
„You said you wanted to help" Fury yelled louder.
„And I did. Still do. But I wanted only one thing. Tell them" Skye yelled back, pointing at the team.
„I'm sorry, I still don't understand" Coulson spoke calmly, trying to decrease the tension.
„Skye is very good at what she is doing. I knew her work from before, when she was a Rising Tide member. I asked her to check our system, to fix problems within it. There is an unseen enemy, that I won't talk about now and Skye helped us"
„Boss!" Skye shouted. „What the F... Don't you think this is a time when we should use that nice word you like so much. You know classified. You never know who might listen?"
„You mean him?" Fury asked pointing at Ward.
„Boss?" Skye was louder this time.
„Ok. Let's talk. There is an enemy. No need to know more. One of my most trusted agents has infitrated the enemy's ranks and is currently on mission" Fury walked closer to Ward „he has proven himself on countless occasions and is one of the few people I trust with having my back" Fury finished, putting a hand on the specialist shoulder. „He currently made his other boss believe that he infiltrated this team to gather intel on us."
„What?" Skye asked dumbfounded. „Hang on. Ward? I told you, not two months ago, that he is the enemy. And you couldn't tell me his on our side?"
„What difference would have that made?" Fury asked.
„What difference? All the difference. I nearly killed him last week" Skye stated matter-of- factly.
„Yeah, right, like you could do that" Ward joked.
„I wouldn't joke about that, Agent Ward. You only know the nice Skye. But the bad Skye is an entire different story. She could take you down. Kid's talented. She put me down a couple of times" Fury stated, a little bit proud of the young woman.
„I don't understand" May started. „I've watched her during traing with Agent Ward. She doesn't seem like she could hurt a flie."
„Oh, but she can, Agent May. You'll see."
„Ok, stop. All of you. So Ward here" pointing at the specialist „is a SHIELD agent, pretending to be an enemy agent pretending to be a SHIELD agent" Skye asked, clearly confused.
„Right" Fury answered.
„So his is a triple agent?" Coulson asked.
„Yes" Ward answered.
„And you are really on our side?" Fitz asked his team mate, still shocked after all these revelations.
„Yes" Ward assured, not just Fitz, but everyone.
„This is fucking unbelievable" Skye shouted, throwing her hands in the air.
„Language, young lady" Fury scolded her.
„It is" she defended.
„You know full well that I couldn't tell you. And if it makes you feel any better he didn't know about you."
„I doesn't" Skye whispered, gaining a smile from the specialist. „What are you smilling at?"
„Nothing."
„Ok. I think we need to process this" Coulson said.
„How about you and May join me in your office" Fury said, leaving the common area, followed by the two senior agents.
„Fitz, come on, let's go down stairs" Jemma said, dragging Fitz after her.
„But why? I still have questions" he tried to stop her, but she gave him a „they need to talk look" and continued her way downstairs.
After the scientists left Ward sat down on the couch inviting Skye to sit next to him.
„So, you are a triple agent?"
„Yes. And you work for Fury?"
„Yeah. Since your mission in South Ossetia." Ward nodded. „Can I ask you something?"
„Sure. Go ahead."
„Since you were undercover, you probably lied a lot" Ward knew where this was going and stopped her by holding his hand up.
„I couldn't tell you guys the truth, but if you want to know about our talks, the personal stuff at least, that was all true. I swear."
Skye put a hand over one of Ward's and closed her eyes. When she opened them she just said „I believe you".