Hydra rose from the ashes once again. She wouldn't necessarily say that two heads grew back, considering the organization wasn't as big and "great" as it once was, but they were back. She knew this because whoever was running it wasn't running it very tight. Hydra remained a secret for over 70 years- it took good people to do that. Now they were just messy. She caught onto their trail immediately. First she found them to be interrupting her Welcome Wagon routine, and getting to her recruits before her. Then someone from her team disappeared in a fight against them. Like she had said though, they were messy. It only took her team a few days to find where Hydra was hiding their main base. She had to go through a couple border bases to reach it, and it seemed to get tighter as she got to the center, but she found it. She was surprised to find it had been hiding right under their noses the whole time. Whoever was running Hydra after Strucker, was ballsy enough to put their base smack down in the middle of DC in disguise as an Attorney's office. Once it was found, her team monitored the 5 floor office building for a while to make sure they had the best escape plan. They knew that as soon as they created any big array it would draw in the government within minutes so it had to be quick and quiet.
Skye's face as well with every other gifteds' was well known to the whole world after The Index was exposed during the Civil War so there was no coming in the front door. They had to make a distraction that could easily be dealt with without arousing suspicion, then make their way through the building quietly, saving whoever they could.
It was easy enough to create a security issue with a little hacking…then they were able to land peacefully on the roof and make it into the building.
"Alright guys, I have the top floor, you take it floor by floor from up here and then come back around and meet me at the quinjet. Gather as many gifteds and information as possible without creating too much noise."
A short blonde boy stepped forward, "You sure you wanna go alone, Quake? I could come help you"
"I got it Alex," She checked her icer to make sure it had enough rounds, "stay with the team. I'll be fine."
"I told you it was Phobos"
"And I told you it wasn't Quake, Alex. Now stay with YoYo, or I'll put you in time-out when we get back to the base." Skye opened the roof hatch so the team could crawl through
"I'm not five" Alex commented as he crawled down the ladder
A larger man jumped down after him and clapped his hand on the kid's back "Ya, but you're close enough".
Skye swung the door to the top floor and leaned back on it "and don't blow the place up again. Quiet. Remember?" She darted forward before she could hear any protest.
Alex scraped his sword against the wall causing sparks to fly "It was one time"
Yoyo scoffed, "Ya, more like 3"
Other than a few scientists who were easy to subdue, Skye found the hall to be completely empty. She turned to the wall next to her and found a sign listing all of the rooms and pointing to which direction they were in.
Cafeteria
Gifteds Cells
Gifteds Holding area
Gym/Rehabilitation Center
Restrooms
"Really, Hydra? Really? You are making it way too easy for me to foil your evil plans"
She rolled her eyes made her way down the hall before stopping at the door labeled 'Holding Center'
"Well this sounds reasonably obvious"
She placed her hand on the door and felt the vibrations through her hands, arms, and then her core. The room seemed pretty large inside and she could sense two other presences. Surprisingly she found their heartbeats to be regular. It was odd, considering the situation, but the door said they were being held in here, so where else was she going to go.
She stepped back and put her arm out to blow the door in but then noticed a small touch pad on the wall.
She looked back and forth between the two and then leaned against the wall behind her "I mean, using my powers would be easier...and fun...but hacking the keypad would be quiet." She sat there for a second contemplating her decisions and then sighed and started typing away on the touch pad, "I need the practice anyways."
The door clicked opened and Skye pushed it in with her icer...to her surprise- the room wasn't dark and cold and caged like it had been the first time rescuing Lincoln. It was furnished...well furnished. There was a flat screen TV displaying the Hawks game and a couple empty beer bottles on the coffee table.
"So much for 'holding cell'"
On one wall there were multiple shelves filled with movies and board games, on another she found framed articles of gifted incidences. She walked up to the first one. It was of her.
The header read 'Can We Trust Them?' above an image of her helping some children out of a flipped bus during one of the battles in New York.
She was about to touch the frame when the door behind her shot open.
She pointed her icer at the figure and his hands shot up, dropping a bowl of popcorn onto the floor.
"Who are you?" Skye screamed.
"I...i-" the person stopped and looked over Skye's shoulder
An unknowing voice piped up behind Skye "Hey, Druid, have you seen my-"
Skye lifted her free hand to meet the figure, ready to throw them across the room if necessary, but they stopped in their tracks and lifted their hands in surrender, letting a pair of crutches fall to the ground
"Skye?"
Of course it was. She dropped her hand "Lincoln?...what are you-?"
"What are you doing here? Why'd you come for me?"
She squinted her eyes condescendingly and put her hands on her hips "What do you mean 'why'd I come for you'," she muttered, mocking his voice, "I'm rescuing you."
He leaned down and picked up his crutches off the ground "I told you not to come"
She scoffed, "What the hell are you talking about?"
Lincoln furrowed his eye brows "I had them send you a message." He motioned to his casted leg "They were taking care of me here and I didn't want to slow you and the team down"
She shifted angrily on her feet "If you haven't looked around recently, Lincoln, you should know you are in a hydra base. A." She sounded it out for him like he was a child, "The enemy."
The other man in the room spoke up behind her "Not anymore".
Skye almost forgot he was in the room. Her icer shot back up at the stranger and she clicked off her safety "I'm not talking to you" Her head flicked back to Lincoln. "Have they brainwashed you?" She pointed to her head with her free hand and moved her finger in a circular motion "Hydra experiments on people like us. They are dangerous"
Lincoln sighed and wiped his hand over his face. "I know this sounds crazy-"
"YA" she interrupted "it is insane"
He limped over to the sofa "Not with the new guy in charge." He struggled to sit down on the arm and then shrugged "I mean they are still pretty scary, but they are actually better than shield when it comes to being straight forward and dealing with gifteds."
The man behind Skye spoke up again, "Alright. While you guys have your little chit chat, I'm gunna use the ladies room"
Lincoln smiled and nodded to Skye "He is here with me."
Skye lowered her icer and joined Lincoln by the couch.
"Why didn't you call us, Lincoln?"
"I told you. I am fine here." He motioned around the room. "I couldn't contact you in person for security reasons but they assured me that they would get Coulson the message that I was ok." He smiled trying to reassure her "They patched me up and put me in the rehabilitation center."
She rolled her eyes and sighed, "You know I only contact Coulson in case of an emergency"
Lincoln frowned, "Me going missing isn't an emergency?"
She smiled mockingly "You aren't as special as you seem to think you are"
"What would you do if the lights went out, huh?" he joked
They both laughed and she punched his arm playfully. "We did miss your amazing cooking skills, YoYo can't cook for crap, but I have to admit, not worrying about waking up naked on a table with needles sticking out of me was a plus"
He pulled his leg from where it rested on the table and leaned forward "But seriously Skye. We should make a deal with these people. They are good."
Her smile disappeared and she rocked back on her feet. Her voice lowered "You don't know them like I do. They trick you into thinking they are good people. That they want to help." She finally sat across from him on the coffee table. "They make you trust them and then when you need them the most, they stab you in the back."
Lincoln watched her fiddle with her hands nervously and took them in his own "Not anymore...After Strucker died, this new guy came in. He stopped all of the sketchy stuff and started looking for powered people to help him fight the corrupt"
"Who does he think he is, Batman?"
"I don't know, but he helped me. He could help us. He has the same ideals. He just does more to get the job done."
She scoffed "Ya, like kill people. Innocent people."
"Well at least Hydra is straight forward about it. Shield does the same thing, but pretends they are the good guys. They are hypocrites."
"Shield tries to protect the innocent...sometimes we have to-"
"-make the hard call. I know." He released her hands. "The shield motto- when in doubt, save the bigger group of people, or at least the ones you can get some use out of"
Skye knew he was right. It is part of the reason she decided to take over the Caterpillars program and go solo from shield. Coulson claimed he was neutral in the war but killed gifteds who didn't choose his side. And if they did, he would stick a label on them and put them away until he needed them. Caterpillars was under her control, despite her having to talk with Coulson every once in a while.
She sighed, "But the difference is, I know that in most cases I can read if not trust shield. I have people on the inside, I have some control of the variables. Hydra is a wild card." She scratched her head and peered across the room to the sound of a toilet flushing.
Lincoln nodded "I guess you're right."
She smirked "Let's get out of here before Alex blows someth-"
It was almost like magic. Skye felt the vibrations before she heard the 'boom'.
"I'm gunna kill him" She helped Lincoln up and handed him a crutch.
Lincoln looked over to the other man who was now casually eating the previously floor ridden popcorn "You coming?"
The man shrugged and scooped some popcorn into his bowl "I have nowhere better to be, so why not."
"Skye, this is Druid, Druid this is Skye"
Skye nodded and handed Lincoln off. "You guys head out to the plane and gather any other gifteds who might be here. The quinjet is cloaked on the roof- someone should open it once you get out there. I'll go find the others" She made her way towards the door.
"Be careful" Lincoln called after her
"You too" Skye jogged off once again looking for a set of stairs.
She followed the sound of gunfire in the distance. Just as she got close, a hydra goon in black tactical gear flew through the wall and right smack into another.
She sighed and rubbed her face with both hands, "I thought I told them to be quiet" she looked back up and unholstered her gun, making her way towards the hole in the wall, "but no. They had to do it their way. They have less restraint than Jemma after she finds something dead on the side of the road"
She stepped through the hole and sighed, "What have you done now?"
She stopped in her tracks to find herself and her team surrounded by hydra. She probably should have made sure it was safe to enter. Rookie mistake.
Alex dropped his sword and lifted his hands in the air, "sorry", he smiled nervously at Skye.
"YoYo, please tell me you were not a part of this" Skye lifted her hands above her head in surrender and glared at her partner.
YoYo pointed at the larger fellow on her other side, "It wasn't me, it was Sledge"
"Hey!" He hollered at her. "You are the one who dared him to do it!"
"Ya" she scoffed "but he wouldn't have done it if you hadn't offered to pay him!"
Skye rolled her eyes as the two went back and forth, "That's enough!" She ordered, "All three of them shut up and turned to her, "It is all of your faults, now if you don't mind, there are twenty idiots in black Kevlar pointing their guns at us!"
Another voice chipped in, "Actually, there are twenty-one idiots in black Kevlar pointing their guns at you."
Skye knew that voice. She knew it well. Well enough to make her blood boil. "Ward."
Some of the hydra agents stepped aside to allow him to walk through. He smiled and pointed his gun at her while he approached. "It is good to see you, Skye." He smiled "Nice team you have here"
YoYo gaped, "Please don't tell me this is that psycho you are always telling me about"
Skye looked at YoYo then back to Ward. "It is"
He smiled brightly "So you talk about me"
She scowled at him "Never good things."
He laughed and looked around. "Well at least I don't hire children."
Alex dropped his arms and pouted, "I'm not a kid!"
Ward shrugged his brow "You're close enough."
"What are you doing here, Ward. I thought you" she quoted with her fingers "weren't Hydra"
"Things change." He answered, "I changed. Or maybe I didn't at all. Maybe I've always been a 'psychopath'." He made quotes with his fingers. "Isn't that the word you use?"
"Only because it's true" she spat. "Where's the guy in charge. I hear he is more batman and less douche"
Ward laughed, "Well, Skye. You're looking at him"
"I'm being serious"
"-and so am I!" He threw his hands carelessly in the air. "I said I would never lie. I still mean it"
"And I still don't believe you. Never did. Never will."
She waited for him to frown. To snark back. For his eyebrow to twitch. Some show of emotion. She needed it. But not for the reasons she thought.
Instead he kept on smiling. "Let me help you."
That made her angry, "You think I need help?!" She stepped towards him and didn't stop when all of the safeties in the room clicked off.
Ward looked to both sides "Stand back soldiers, I can handle myself"
"Can you?" You haven't so far.
She wished she had said the last part.
But then this would be like all the other times she failed to kill him.
He took a step towards her. They were only a few feet apart now. "This game will never end between us, Skye." His features got softer. "Not until we put our differences aside and work together"
It was so sincere.
But she has seen his sincere before. It only stopped her from seeing the truth. "What game, Ward? This was never a game."
He smiled, "The game we always seem to play. The one where we pretend to hate each other but deep down, we know we can't pull the trigger."
"I don't know what game you are playing, Ward, but in real life- I did pull the trigger. And I was never pretending." She stepped backwards towards her team.
There it is. His eye twitched.
The Kevlar started to creep forward but Ward shouted at them. "Hey! What did I say?"
They looked back and forth between themselves and then took a step back.
He turned back to her, voice still a little edgy, "That is beside the point, Skye. I really do want to help you." It calmed again, "You and your kind. I've been trying for a while now; getting to them before anyone else or shield can. So they aren't tagged and used. I was on the same side as you during the war" He stepped towards her
She stood her ground.
"I've changed Hydra, now that I'm in charge. I want to make a truce with you..."
"There can never be trust, between us and this organization. Not after what they have done to our people."
"I've changed it"
"No Ward. You've instilled fear in it, and made it your own but you haven't changed it. I mean look around" She waved her hands at the people surrounding him. They were anxious and edging forward at any chance- without his permission, "Look…maybe you really do want to make a difference and help people like me, but the people working for you? These are still the same twisted people who would willingly follow people like Whitehall." She shrugged "It isn't all incentives program. Someday, they won't want to follow someone like you, someone weak. They'll exercise their own power and turn on you. When you are gone, who knows what they will do."
He looked around at the black Kevlar surrounding him "You're wrong."
"Am I?"
"I'll give you one last chance, Skye."
She looked back at him growled "Before you what? Before you take me and my team by force? Aren't you just like shield and everyone else then? You can't let me go. That is a weakness. They'll see it" she nodded towards the Kevlar, "I'm sure we are the first to say no to you. So what will you do? I'm sure as hell not going down without a fight"
Ward didn't speak. Nobody spoke, not for a few moments.
"Sir?" One of the hydra soldiers finally broke the silence, "Do we shoot them now, or capture them?"
He shot back at them, "We don't shoot gifteds. Do whatever is necessary to restrain them, but do not kill any of them, or you'll have to answer to me"
The soldier nodded hesitantly and began to holster his gun and grab a Taser, with a few others following his lead.
Someone wasn't going to make it out of this, and she didn't want it to be one of hers. She looked around and then back towards the hole she entered through, but found it to be covered by agents she didn't even hear approach.
Damn. He threw her game off.
She needed a distraction.
He followed her glances around the room "There is no escape Skye." His voice grew soft "There are too many of us. You can't win"
She paused and then let her hands fall to her side and began laughing to herself. Laughing hysterically.
Her teammates and the Kevlar shared nervous glances between each other, and Ward finally furrowed his brow in confusion.
When Skye finished laughing, she wiped the tears from her eyes and pointed at him. "Now that is funny."
He shifted on his feet. He was getting annoyed, "What, Skye"
"You said that exact same thing, right before I escaped the last time- oh wait no." She smiled, "the time, before the time I shot you 4 times, before getting away for the second time. You say I can't win?" her voice got hard, "You." She points "You, can't win"
Ward frowned. "You are outnumbered, not even your quakes can help yo-"
Just then her hands shot out from her sides and all of the guns in the room dismantled themselves and fell to the ground. "Now!" She screamed.
She lifted her hand to an exasperated Ward and him and a few soldiers who began to charge her. A wave of powered flowed through her arms and out of her hands knocking them all into the wall behind them.
Her team quickly began taking out each hydra member one by one until there was no one left conscious.
Skye made her away over to a computer and plugged in a flash drive.
"That was amazing!" Alex shouted "I didn't know you could do that!"
"Ya, ya, I know, I'm the best"
"You aren't that great" YoYo smiled "you ok?"
She didn't turn away from the screen, "I will be"
"What are you doing?" Sledge asked "The feds will be here at any moment."
"I'm getting all the info I can from their bases before we go" she finished typing on the keyboard and then pulled the flash drive and shoved it in the pocket of her bdu's.
Skye stood by the hole until everyone cleared out but before she could she turned around and looked at the pile of bodies.
"What are you doing?" YoYo grabbed her arm "Let's go."
Skye pulled her arm away and stepped back. "You go ahead, I'll meet you at the jet"
"There isn't anything for you here anymore...we got the Intel, I'll assume you got Lincoln.-"
"I still have some unfinished business. I'll meet you at the jet" She nodded her head towards the exit, "Now go"
"Hurry…" YoYo smirked then followed the rest of the team down the hallway.
Skye watched her turn the corner and then turned back to the room of unconscious Kevlar.
She made her way over to the back wall and looked around. She bent down and rolled a soldier off of another to reveal Ward. "What am I going to do with you" she whispered to herself.
She startled as he began coughing "Well I know I am not going to let myself underestimate you anymore"
She half smiled at him but didn't say anything. She didn't know what to say. She didn't even know why she was still here.
It is almost as if he read her mind. "What are you still doing here?" But then again, he was always able to do that.
"I...I don't know. Closure, maybe?" she watched a smile bend into his lips
"I can't help you with that." He began pushing himself to sit upright against the wall and groaned through his teeth in pain
She leaned forward to help him but stopped herself. When he settled she carefully inched herself against the wall next to him. "I thought you were Mr. Closure; Always tying up loose ends, and trying to make things right."
He laughed "but when did it actually work?" his face saddened, "I failed the team. I failed you. I failed Kara. Hell, I couldn't even get closure for myself."
She looked blankly at the wall ahead of her. "Maybe before you try and help other people, you should let someone help you."
It was quiet for a moment.
"Skye?"
She turned to look at him. His ear was bleeding and a giant gash on his forehead was covered in drying blood. "Ya, Ward?"
He was quiet again- trying to think of the right words. "Give me a reason why you gave up on me..."
She didn't know what to say
"...why didn't you try and help me?"
All of the sudden Skye felt angry. She didn't know why but his question bothered her. She didn't want to answer. She wanted to leave. She wanted to leave him and forget she ever turned back for him.
Maybe she was angry at herself.
He must have felt it too. Before she even tried to stand up he grabbed her arm. He could always read her mind like that. "-A real reason. Don't just tell me I'm a traitor. Or a murderer. Or a psychopath. I want to know why.
Do you really think I'm too far gone?" The words finally came out. He felt kind of relieved, maybe this would finally be his closure. Whether her answer was what he wanted to hear or not.
The question must've hit her in some way too. For the first time in a long time he saw the Skye he remembered.
Not the angry or emotionless Skye he had come to know in the last year.
Her mouth gaped at him. She had cracked in front of him, and she couldn't hide it. This whole time since his betrayal she fought back these thoughts and feelings about whether Ward really was good, like she told him he was, or if the world was black and white like shield promised it was. In the end her heart lost
She contemplated for a moment and then spoke almost in a whisper. "Hoping for something and not getting it-"
"-hurts then never hoping for anything at all", he finished. "Ya, I remember when you told me that."
"It hurt too much to try and trust you again. To believe you. To lo-" She stopped and looked down at the floor
He gently reached his hand for hers. It had been so long since he had touched her. He missed being close to her like this.
She sat for a moment and stared at his hand in her own. It felt good
Her eyes watered and he moved his hand up her face to wipe them. She wanted it, but it still felt wrong. She pulled away and sent a wave towards him that felt like a punch in the face.
He rubbed his jaw and turned back to her
"I can't, Ward. You're the-"
He glared at her with angrily now "-the enemy? The villain? Ya I know." He pushed himself from the wall and almost fell over again. She shot up and grabbed him but he pushed away. "I tried to be the good guy- what I thought you wanted." He smiled sadly "But then I guess I always knew it would never end well for me...I'm too far gone. I became what you, and the team, wanted me to be."
"Ward, I-"
"You should go. Before one of my men sees me with you. I wouldn't want them to think you are my weakness." He hissed
He turned to leave but she grabbed his hand and watched as his head flickered to where her fingers lingered on his.
Her voice cracked, "It broke me, Grant- to hurt you like I did. It didn't help at all." She shook her head. The tears game out faster now, "I thought that if I shot you...if I kept pushing you away I wouldn't be so confused anymore! But I know now.
I'm not a good person. I'm not the person I was, or who I thought I was and it scares me" her face twisted into sadness and he pulled her in for an embrace.
She was hesitant at first but then wrapped herself in him.
"Yes you are...a good person. You are."
She cried into his shoulder "But I'm not. I judged you harshly for the decisions you made but now I know we do bad things to survive. I locked you away. I killed Donnie, I killed my mom, and then I justified my own actions by saying it was for the cause, but it wasn't." He brushed his hands through her hair "It was selfish and I could have saved them. I could've saved you. You have the right to hate me"
"I could never hate you"
She wrapped her arms around him tighter
"What do we do now?" He asked her quietly.
She pulled away from him so she could look him in the eyes.
He lifted his hand to brush a strand of hair from her face. "We are always tied in this game. Playing each other until someone knocks over the others piece."
"We don't have to be like that anymore" she whispered.
He smiled "No. You were right, before. How could we ever stop?"
Her ear piece buzzed "Skye, we gotta go"
She looked out the window for a second and then back to him. "Like you said, Ward. Let's put our differences aside. Come with me" she tugged on his hand
"Where, Skye?" He took a step back "Shield will never take me back."
"I'm my own organization now. Shield doesn't have to know"
He stared at her for a few minutes in disbelief. Could it really work? "I don't even have powers"
She laughed "what are you talking about? You are like your own seal team six!"
He smiled
"You're like...the Taskmaster, or something..."
Grant scoffed at her, "That is worse than Quake"
"Hey!" She sent a wave towards him that knocked him back a few feet. "Names aside, are you in or not?"
A grin stretched across his face, "Do you really think it would work...between us? I mean there is a lot of tension...and unsaid things..."
She smiled, "Hey mister, I'm asking you to join my team, not marry me."
His face tensed, "-oh I didn't mean it like that- I meant-"
"-This is your second chance. The one you deserved." She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the hole in the wall, "but hey, there is time. Who's to say old flames can't be explored?"