I don't own any of this, yadda, yadda... except, to a point original characters like Silbhé/Nightingale/Aria and Kendra/Hawkgirl.

To those reading as a Stand Alone, just keep in mind that this story adds some OCs, especially Nightingale, who's the human reincarnation of Loki's elven wife, his match, mother of Helena (Hela) and there's a connection between them. This fic takes a bit from "Secret Warriors" in that Kathryn Adler/Salani never left SHIELD and instead chose to stay with the organization, with Nick; unlike there, Sebastian doesn't die from an overdose of pills, he lives to raise his daughter, until another event changes things. It's better explained in the story itself, but just for those who follow my fics and might find some things familiar, and others not so much.

The song in this chapter is "The Lonely" as sung by Christina Perri.

On with the fic!


Horizon

(Alternative Universe to Nightingale)

By: Lalaith Quetzalli

All alone in the world, two orphan girls will make each other their home. Sisters in all but blood, their choices will twist the world on its end, and people around them will question how much they really know about the universe. With Purity and Grace, the Sky and the Song will take the Nine Realms by storm!

Purity and Grace

They chose to be together, to be family, and that changed everything.

"Is the horizon a divide, a separation of two entirely different things, or a point of connection?"

A young woman in her early twenties, with tanned skin, warm chocolate brown eyes and wavy brown hair with honey highlights to the middle of her back, wearing a maroon button up, short dress and knee-high boots, watched the two children and the middle-aged woman make their way towards the farmhouse in silence, before briefly turning to a side, eyes on the horizon, she couldn't help but think about what a certain someone had told her once.

"I've no idea..." She muttered under her breath.

"Skye..." A male voice behind her called her name.

The young woman, Skye, pulled herself out of her musings, turned around and walked towards the middle-aged man in the blue button up, tie and gray suit. The man who was at least partially responsible for the last few days she'd had… the rather insane last few days: Agent Phil Coulson, of SHIELD…

For the longest time Skye hadn't trusted government agencies… rather the opposite in fact. There was a reason she'd joined the Rising Tide, after all. Her past experiences… they weren't good, and they'd taught her to trust no one… or no one except one person. And certainly not shady government organizations. And she still didn't. Agent Coulson on the other hand… Skye had no idea what it was, exactly, but there was something about him that made her want to trust him. She was willing to take the risk. And yet… it wasn't only her she'd to think about.

"I told him his father was coming home." She said out loud, mostly to cut the heavy silence, and her own heavier thoughts.

"He will." Coulson assured her. "We have some experience with this."

"He almost blew." Skye stated, she still had some trouble getting her head around that part. "We almost died."

Also, there was going to be hell to pay once a certain someone found out about that…

"We have some experience with that, too." Coulson admitted, a bit too blasé even for her.

"Don't have it all mapped out." She insisted, because there was just no way…

"True." He shrugged a bit at that. "We didn't cut off the head of the centipede. Whoever sponsored that little experiment is still out there, among other things."

They got to his car right then, and while she'd already been on it, she couldn't help but stare at it:

"It's a brave new world… and a really old car." She deadpanned.

"Lola can keep up." Coulson assured her as they got in the car. "What about you? Have you thought about the offer?"

"Hitching a ride on the crazy plane?" She snorted, just a little. "Not exactly a team player."

"We're not exactly a team." Not yet, but he had hope. "But we're in a position to do some good. You'd be a great help. And you'd be front row center at the strangest show on Earth, which is, after all, what you wanted."

"I was able to hack SHIELD from my van." Skye reminded him with a cheeky smile. "You gonna show me something new?"

A call came in right then. Agent Grant Ward letting them know they had a new mission, related to something they called an 084… Skye had no idea what that was supposed to be; and according to Coulson, she had until they got to the airfield to decide.

"That's all well and good." She told him after the shock of the flying car passed. "But I gotta go home first."

"Home...?" Coulson certainly wasn't expecting that one.

"You didn't think I actually lived in the back of my van, did you?" She smirked at him.

Truth be told, had it been only her, she probably would have lived in the back of her van, and not thought much about it. But it wasn't only her…

Arrangements were made, take-off delayed, and Coulson changed course to get her home (they, regretfully, had to go back to land for that). Home was a re-purposed warehouse, in one of the poorest neighborhoods in L.A. The kind tourists were sure to avoid. The ground-floor was divided: a laundromat, a tiny diner and a pawn-shop; they shared a back-room which served as an 'under the table' clinic (for the people and the kind of injuries that couldn't be taken to a 'real' hospital), and a place where many 'deals' were made, for medicines, drugs, pot, etc. Skye had sold her hacking abilities a few times there, though only ever for good reasons.

The living area was actually the third floor; the second belonged to the owners of the pawn-shop, and while most believed that might be where they stored things, and perhaps where the owner lived, no one had ever been interested in finding out, not with some of the rumors about said owner that were going around all the time. Also, that same person was the owner of the whole building, so none of the people there were interested in getting on their bad side.

"How long have you lived here?" Coulson asked, intrigued and worried at the same time.

"Two years, since shortly after first arriving to L.A." Skye admitted as she got out of the car, then when seeing Coulson's look she added. "I know how the place looks, and the neighborhood; but trust me. This place is much safer than any off-the-road motel, and even most of the apartments."

It didn't look like the agent actually believed her, but he did not press the point either. Which was enough for the time being. So Skye left him at the car and went inside.

Less than two minutes later Coulson heard shouting coming from the third floor. He couldn't quite make out what was being said, but his reaction was instinctive as he jumped off Lola and rushed in the direction he'd seen Skye go. He found the narrow staircase easy enough and was soon taking them two at a time. The door at the top was half-open, which allowed him to get into the 'apartment'. The place was completely open, except for a door to what he imagined must be the bathroom, and what looked like a balcony/terrace full of greenery. There were no walls, only some thin, old-looking curtains, and very little furniture.

He found Skye standing by the door to the balcony/terrace and she was the one talking right then, seemingly trying to placate someone he couldn't quite see:

"I am alright, I promise you..." The brunette was saying. "Nothing happened to me..." There was a pause and then she added. "Yeah, but they're just some bruises, they'll be gone in a few days… or sooner, yeah, I know… You know I'd never put myself in danger unless I thought there was no other choice… I'd never leave you…"

When Coulson finally got close enough to see who she was talking to, he froze in shock.

There was a second young woman, sitting on the floor among the greenery on the balcony/terrace and as he could see, it wasn't just greenery, they were flowers. Roses to be more precise. The girl looked younger than Skye, in all but the eyes, a hazel color, they looked older than the other young woman's. She was small, with light creamy skin, thick curls of dark-auburn hair to her shoulder-blades, that shone red where the sun hit it just right; she was wearing a simple long denim skirt and off-the-shoulder, pale lavender peasant blouse.

The girl seemed to become aware of his presence right then, for her eyes turned to him, to the hand hovering above his gun. Then she turned back to Skye, eyes flashing.

"You can trust him!" Skye cried out immediately. "Yes, I know we said we'd never trust a shady government organization, and I don't. But he's good I promise… You know I'd never bring someone around if I thought they weren't safe. I'd never put you in risk like that… sister..."

It took several seconds for Coulson to process the fact that the woman sitting on her ankles hadn't said a single word all along, and yet her hands… she was signing. And whatever she was 'saying' was what made Skye say what she did, in turn. That realization took him enough by surprise several seconds passed before he realized what had just been said:

"Sister?!" He couldn't hide his surprise at that.

"Yeah." Skye smiled as she turned towards him. "Meet my sister, Aria. Aria, this is Agent Coulson. Yes, he's with SHIELD, but I promise you, he won't hurt you, he won't hurt us."

"Of course I won't!" Coulson stated immediately.

He'd no idea what exactly made such assurances necessary, and he didn't like it.

"I am Agent Phil Coulson, I am with SHIELD, and I promise I'm not here to hurt you, or your sister, Miss Aria." He assured her, pulling away from his gun and offering his hand to her.

There was a second or two of hesitation, but eventually Aria nodded and shook Coulson's hand, before letting go and signing something.

"She believes you, but she doesn't trust you." Skye translated.

"That's only fair." Coulson nodded, looking straight at the hazel-eyed girl. "I hope you'll allow me the chance to earn your trust?"

Another pause, but finally Aria just nodded.

"So, what do you say Agent Coulson?" Skye asked then. "Are you still willing to take us on? I'm afraid we're a package deal. Where one goes, we both go."

"I see..." He actually took a moment to think it over before asking. "Where was she, when we found you in your van? If you don't mind my asking."

"Aria is a freelance translator, and very good at it." Skye said proudly. "She was asked to consult by some professor in San Francisco, left early the same morning we met. She was supposed to stay away until the end of the week, but apparently she was done early and decided to come back and give me a surprise..."

"Only to not find you." Coulson finished for her, guessing the rest.

"Yeah… she didn't take it well." Skye cringed a bit at the memory of Aria's reaction. "Especially when she found out what happened in Union Station."

The agent nodded in understanding. While they'd made sure to eliminate anything 'super' related from the media, it was impossible to hide that something had happened. Coulson could only imagine how Aria must have felt, finding out that her sister had been there when the 'attack' happened. Whether she knew the whole story or not, it must not have been easy to hear.

"So, a translator then?" He asked, considering their options.

"Oh, my sister's a real genius." Skye said proudly. "Anything she gets her hands on, and her mind onto, she learns. Languages is but one area, she also knows a lot about literature, history, mythology… nothing official, of course. Neither of us ever actually went to college… or even to high-school. But we are good at what we do. Me with computers and she… with a bunch of other stuff, really. If you think I could be of help to you, you've no idea how much she could do..."

Skye broke off then, as Aria placed a hand on her hip, to stop her babbling, causing the brunette to smile sheepishly.

Coulson just knew that the team, especially May, were going to have a cow over the whole thing. They already thought he was crazy, offering Skye a place, the addition of another unknown was not going to go over well. And yet like with Skye, he couldn't help but feel it was right. Those girls belonged in the team, they needed them both…

xXx

The team wasn't exactly eager about adding the two sisters to the team, particularly since they knew nothing about Aria. Then there was also the fact that even with all of SHIELD's resources they'd been unable to find anything on either of them, though that seemed to make Coulson more eager to keep them around, instead of less.

In the end they decided to take them on a sort-of trial basis. A policy of wait-and-see. Of course, when that deal was struck none of them quite expected the mess their next mission would turn into. It was supposed to be fairly simple. They were flying to Peru to check on a recently discovered artifact; if it proved to be an 084, as suspected, they'd bag it, tag it and deliver it to a secret base to be dealt with. What they weren't quite counting on was the Peruvian Commander of the Military Police and her subordinates wanting the artifact, the weapon, for themselves.

No one failed to notice how calm the two sisters remained through the whole situation, never hesitating, never flinching; or the fact that Aria was the first to slip her cuffs and set about freeing the others (and unlike May, she did not dislocate anything, she just was that flexible).

No one ever brought up the fact that Aria did not speak, other than when Skye pointed out that she could hear just fine. Still, eventually everyone showed interest in learning at least basic hand-sign language in order to understand her, and on Agent Ward's initiative, they also taught the sisters some signs traditionally used by agents and the military in special ops.

Ever so slowly the sisters began opening up some. They explained there were orphans, they'd never had anyone but each other, no family ever wanted either of them, but that was alright, as long as they were together, they could handle anything. Their only possessions were a set of wide metallic armbands they each wore and pair of necklaces: Skye's a double necklace, gold, one line held two plaques with Chinese symbols, a version of Chinese that was no longer spoken, and the other holding a round mantra pendant with the OM (the sound that unifies the universe) symbol; Aria's was completely different, simpler in many ways, the material looked like silver, though it was much less fragile, a simple, delicate-looking chain, holding a pendant of a bird with its wings wide open, the back was engraved with a symbol that looked like a double-infinite.

Coulson knew the sisters were still hiding things from him, starting with why exactly he could find nothing about them, anywhere. At the same time, he didn't believe them to be bad people, or a danger to his team, so he didn't pressure them; he offered his trust, and waited for them to trust him in return. He knew it wouldn't be easy, even with what little they'd said about their time in the foster-system, it was obvious they had serious trust issues, to the point where they trusted no one but each other. It actually reminded Phil of his old team: Strike Team Delta…

He regretted so much how he'd left them, allowing them to believe he was dead, and no matter how much he might want to be honest, it wasn't to be so, not while Centipede and whoever was behind it, was still out there. They'd tried to kill him once, had almost succeeded even, would have if it hadn't been for Darcy…

Darcy Lewis, from the moment he first met her he knew she was special. Even though most of those in SHIELD saw nothing more than a very hot girl in her early twenties who talked way too much and seemed pathologically unable to take things seriously, he couldn't help but notice other things. Like the fact that she'd come face to face with 'gods' and monsters and she had barely batted an eyelash, she'd had 'men in black' bursting into her place of work, her home and take away her stuff and she never backed down, she didn't allow any of them to intimidate her. She was more than just brave, she was fearless. Coulson admired that.

Making her his assistant was a spur of the moment. Her internship had ended, and SHIELD had assigned others to help Dr. Foster. Technically, after having her sign all the NDAs, they could have let her go, she was just a college graduate, a Political Science major, nothing they hadn't seen before… and yet Coulson couldn't let her go. He'd no idea what, but something made him want to keep her close; and she must have felt the same, for when he offered her the job as his assistant, she said yes.

Romance came out of left field for them both, there had been Audrey, and he'd briefly believed her to be the one. Until he realized that he was beginning to see his dinners with her, his visits to her as obligations, as tasks to fulfill, points in his agenda… Darcy never said a word about it, she just kept working for him, taking food to his office and staying until she was sure he'd eaten it whenever he stayed too late. At some point Coulson began doing the same.

The progression of their relationship wasn't exactly easy, but it was effortless, natural, like there was no other way things could go. And it wasn't just the personal side; eventually she became more than just his assistant, she also became his partner.

Things had given a turn for the insane late in 2013. The two weren't supposed to be together that day. The mission was off-the-book, and Coulson was supposed to handle it alone, but Darcy had joined in the last minute, muttering something about a 'feeling' and not wanting him to go alone. It wasn't the first time she changed things in the last minute, so he didn't think much on it.

Two days later, Phil found himself crowded against the back-end of a yacht, at gun-point. He was sure he was about to die, either the bullet or the fall into the Mediterranean would kill him, but in the last second she was there. The shot echoed around them, but he felt no pain, and then they hit the water. For several seconds Phil actually thought Darcy might have taken the bullet meant for him, was terrified at the idea of her dying for him, and then they were breaking out of the ocean surface, gasping, keeping afloat with some effort, and there was no blood on the water. The bullet had missed them… miraculously.

As Coulson later discovered, it didn't actually miss them… it went through them. Because Darcy was a gifted, mutant. Wallflower, her peers had called her, because her ability apparently allowed her to go unnoticed… except, as she'd later discovered, it did more than that, she literally stepped into a different dimension, and could even move between shadows with some effort. She'd used that on the yacht, had pulled them both into another dimension for a fraction of a second, just enough for the bullet to go right through where they'd been, with no one else noticing a thing. Then she'd made them fall, and left everyone in that yacht believing them dead.

Nick Fury had taken advantage of the unexpected developments, because he could never do anything else. It was how Phil had ended leading a mixed-up team that did not actually exist in any records. Darcy for her part was turned into a top-secret operative, Agent Shadow, she was known as, she had no papers, no civilian name and only answered to Fury. As far as the world knew, Darcy Lewis was dead, and staying that way. For the most part Shadow spent her days following people around and reporting back to Nick, she also had a special mission, find the one responsible for the death of Agent Kathryn Adler, the Sphinx. The former Deputy Director had been Fury's partner until a meeting in Malta with a number of world leaders, a meeting that had been invaded by mercenaries, who'd then proceeded to kill more than half of those present. Adler had tried to fight them, and had died in the process.

In fact, Phil and Darcy had been following a lead when the mess in that yacht had happened. Which left him following leads on the field, while leading a mix-matched team on whatever mission was considered necessary; while Shadow made a name for herself while keeping an eye on any suspicious activity (both physically and virtually… she was TaserQueen, the Queen of Hackers, after all).

Coulson never expected to meet the twins (as the team had taken to calling the sisters, since they seemed to have no surname). Skye reminded him of a younger Darcy, a young woman hiding her fragile heart behind a wall of humor and bravado; and then there was Aria, it was amazing how the girl could manage to communicate so much without saying a single word. The two were so over-protective of each other, it was touching.

It was May's idea for the twins to become probationary agents. She knew they both practiced Yoga together in the afternoons, before some long meditative sessions; and they'd joined May in her Tai-Chi every morning. Melinda May and Grant Ward took the task of being their SOs together. It was unorthodox, but then again, what was normal in their team? Aria was five inches or so shorter than Skye, her body less muscled and more fragile-looking, yet she was fast, flexible and her reflexes were a fraction of a second faster than her sister's; Skye was stronger, a slight bit faster and had more reach. Also, as everyone soon noticed, Skye was more the kind to fight close and dirty, while Aria preferred to dodge as long as possible, taking the first opening available to down or incapacitate an opponent.

The girls were doing well for beginners, or so May and Ward kept insisting. Then their next mission happened, and things got interesting in ways none of them could have expected…

Dr. Franklin Hall had been kidnapped, and the team was sent to rescue him. It took a while, but eventually they managed to track him down to a man called Ian Quinn, and his property in Malta (and Coulson couldn't help the shiver of dread, as Quinn had been the owner of that yacht where Darcy and he almost died… though back then he'd been a 'person of interest' a possible contact of those he was tracking, rather than the direct suspect). It'd taken very little time for Skye to hack herself an invitation into an event Quinn was having that very day (they couldn't go as SHIELD, as they were illegal in that country). Aria pouted a bit at not being able to join her sister, but even she understood it wasn't a good idea.

Truth was that, while both were training to be agents, Aria simply didn't have the instincts for it the way Skye did. When it came to protect Aria was willing to do anything, as became obvious from the very first time May and Ward thought to have a double-spar against them. But when it came to herself, Aria had very little interest in fighting. She was a protector, but not an attacker.

Things didn't exactly go without a hitch, but in the end Skye'd managed to bluff her way through and then Coulson and Ward had their in. Quinn discovered her, but Skye was ready to act and had managed to disarm him (using a technique Ward had taught her that very morning); she wasn't yet ready to actually shoot a gun though, so in the end she chose to run.

There were further difficulties when it came to Dr. Hall, and while Coulson had managed to secure the Gravitonium, he lost the doctor in the process. Once things were alright on that front, Ward decided to go looking for Skye, and it was when he reached her that he got the real surprise as he found her drenched, the pink dress sticking to her like a second skin, barefoot, and at least a dozen guards and mercenaries unconscious around her, she'd taken them down on her own, with no weapons at all.

"What the hell?!" Ward could hardly believe what he was seeing.

They didn't have time to discuss it then, but the moment they were on the bus, safe (on their way to yet another secret SHIELD base to hand over the gravitonium for safe-keeping), Coulson ordered them all to the Command Center.

"I thought you didn't know how to fight." He stated, staring straight at Skye.

"I..." The brunette made a pause and took a deep breath before answering. "Well… you never actually asked..."

"Skye!" May snapped, she didn't like not knowing things.

"I was taught, we both were, when we were thirteen." Skye explained quietly. "I… we didn't like it. The people who taught us… they weren't good people, their methods… lets say they were nothing like yours. They didn't like it when Aria refused to fight, to attack, and I became as good as I could just to make sure they wouldn't hurt her, I… it's not something I'm proud of."

"But it's something that could save your life one day, that might have done exactly that today." Coulson told her kindly.

"If you're to be rookie agents, this is exactly the kind of thing we need to know." May pointed out. "It's one thing for you not to want to talk about your childhoods… but this we do need to know. Understand…?"

"I… yes." Skye swallowed. "It's not easy..."

"I never thought it would be." May shrugged.

They all knew that wasn't the last secret, not by a long shot, but no one pressed the twins any further, hoping they'd learn to trust.

xXx

Some things were revealed in the following days, like the fact that Skye was very good at Tae-Kwan Do, and knew the basics of karate and another martial art she couldn't remember the name of. Aria knew the basics of karate, but her real talent laid in jujitsu, the martial art suited her perfectly. None of the Agents knew exactly where the girls had learned to fight, who'd taught them, or even why exactly, though May and Coulson had begun to suspect that there was more behind it all than an unkind (or even abusive) foster family.

And then a member of the Index went missing, and the agent on site (in Hong Kong) had connected it to the Rising Tide… It was automatic, all eyes turned to Skye; yet before she had the chance to either complain or defend herself, Aria slammed both hands on the holo-table, calling all attention onto her before she began signaling rather forcefully.

By that point everyone knew at least enough hand-signing that none of them needed translation, they understood enough of what Aria was 'saying':

+Dare not look at my sister like that!+ They could almost hear the exclamation points too. +She is loyal to this team, if not to SHIELD, and she would never do something that would put a life in danger. What she did with Mike was in an attempt to keep him safe, he could not be disappeared if the world knew about him. She is not responsible for what is happening here and you better stop even contemplating it!+

No one dare even deny that the thought crossed their minds, Skye didn't say a word, she just smiled briefly at her sister before typing frenetically on her laptop, eventually pulling up a name:

"Miles Lydon." Skye announced, dropping the information into the holo-table, for everyone to see. "That's the guy you're looking for."

No one missed the rather vicious way Aria waved her hand; it wasn't a sign that meant anything in particular, but still.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Fitz asked, not quite getting it.

"You know him, don't you?" Coulson guessed.

"We've met." Skye nodded. "Years ago, before we ever came to L.A. Miles is Rising Tide, you could say he was the one who discovered me, introduced me to them. Then he expected me to pay back the 'favor'."

Again, a violent sign, and that time they could almost sense the tension in Aria.

"Did he…?" Simmons didn't dare finish the question.

"He never hurt me." Skye assured them immediately. "Miles… he fancied himself in love with me, and he believed that helping me get into the Rising Tide somehow put me in his debt, and that I'd be willing to sleep with him. He was mistaken, of course, I'm not in the habit of whoring myself! He became rather insistent, and on one particular occasion when he 'insisted' a bit too much, Aria showed him out..." No one could fail to notice that was a euphemism for something less polite. "He took offense, pushed her away; I got angry and punched him in the face. The next morning half the people we knew were calling me a slut, who slept with any man that crossed my path, the other half called me a vicious bitch who hit him when I tried to get into his pants and he rejected me."

"What?!" Everyone reacted angrily to that.

"It's alright, it's not like any of those people were my friends." Skye assured them. "I made him pay for that, and then Aria and I got into our van and left Texas."

"You made him pay?" May was curious about that.

"He's a hacker, lets say he'd used a few tricks to make life easier for himself, particularly where it came to fines, parking tickets, and even taxes." Skye shrugged. "I simply undid all that. From what I know the debt he had was quite high."

Ward snorted and FitzSimmons actually laughed at that, Coulson shook his head, though he didn't actually say anything negatively about Skye's choice of actions, and even May allowed a small smile onto his face. Yeah, Skye definitely knew how to get back at the bastard…

+So, how are we going to handle this?+ Aria's signaling pulled them all back to the present.

It was quite easy, actually. Lydon was still living in the same apartment he'd when the sisters had last seen him, so they simply guided the team there and they waited until he arrived. The man didn't even know what was going on until it was much too late to do anything about it. By the time he even began to understand he was in trouble Skye was already doing her best to hack through his own laptop, while Aria worked on another computer, cross-referencing anything suspicious Skye might find.

In the end they found what they were looking for, and a hell of a lot more. Lydon had been doing a lot of 'dark hat' hacking. Skye was livid, she believed in the freedom of information, in the basis of the Rising Tide; even if at the same time she'd begun to understand that some things were meant to remain secret… and to see someone who claimed to be such a believer, twist those statements like Lydon did… and all the people being hurt by his actions!

At least they managed to save Chan Ho Yin… and Skye had made sure to arrange everything else she'd found in a way that other teams in SHIELD could use the information. She made Lydon's 'betrayal' of the Rising Tide's manifesto public, so even if they couldn't imprison him, no one would want him around again. He became persona non-grata to all hackers in the world (also, Coulson put a bracelet on him so he could no longer hack), and he really had nothing else.

"Bitch!" Lydon screeched as he was being 'escorted' off the Bus. "Freaking bitches the both of you! You've ruined my life! What right have you?! You freaks! You don't even exist!"

Not a word was said, though Ward couldn't help but notice the way Skye's expression went dark, or how her hands seemed to almost vibrate with her fury, something that was especially obvious in the way her armbands shook against her wrists. Beside her Aria wasn't shaking, she was completely immobile, and there was an emptiness in her hazel eyes that somehow disturbed the Specialist more than the shadows in Skye's.

No one said a word until the (former) hacker was out of the Bus, not even while preparations were made and they went airborne again. And then, as if by some silent accord, they all gathered in the sitting room. The sisters sitting side by side, holding hands, their armbands touching and sort-of vibrating together, creating a soft whistle-like noise that the others could only half hear. It was a rather odd situation all told. No one pressured them, the two scientists and the three agents just watched them in silence, waiting. Eventually Aria looked into her sister's eyes, there were no signs, though she mouthed one word: Trust…

Skye nodded, took a deep breath, then let go of her sister. The surprise came when she pulled out her phone, entering some sort of command on it, and all the lights in the Bus flashed for a moment before going back to normal.

"What did you just do?" May asked, tense.

"I… we may be willing to trust you, but we do not trust SHIELD." Skye stated in a very serious tone. "I just activated an algorithm that blocked the live-feed from every single camera and bug on this plane. They'll register pre-recorded stuff until I deactivate it again."

"Why do that?" Coulson asked.

"How can you even do that?" Simmons asked at the same time.

"Like I said, we trust you, we might be willing to share things from our past with you, but we do not trust SHIELD." Skye insisted. "As for how I could do it… I'm a hacker, remember? I know most of you see it as little more than party tricks, getting into a camera, accessing classified information… but I'd like to remind you that I effectively erased Mike Peterson from existence. There was nothing left to show he ever existed: no drivers license registered anywhere, no social security, not even a birth-certificate. Nothing. And it's not the first time I've done that..."

"That's why we can't find anything on either of you." Coulson realized. "You erased yourselves."

"I did, yes." The hacker nodded. "The web knows me as BlueCloud, I'm..."

"The second best hacker in the world." Phil finished for her, marveled.

"Yeah..." The young brunette wasn't expecting that. "How do you know that?"

"I know IronSmith, and TaserQueen..." AC, as Skye called him, revealed proudly.

"You know the Queen of Hackers?!" BlueCloud cried out in shock and awe.

"As amazing as I'm sure that is for you Skye, can we get back to the point of this conversation?" Ward asked, tense.

"Yes, of course." Skye took a deep breath, preparing herself for what she was about to say. "I suppose, in order for you to understand, I should start at the beginning. Aria and I met when we were six years old… no, we're not sisters by blood, but by choice, and to us that's much more important. I was left in St. Agnes when I was a baby, ten months old or so, the nuns estimated, they gave me the name of Mary Sue Poots, since I had none, not even any birth-records. I was moved around a lot, between foster families and group homes, never stayed any place for more than two or three months… no one ever wanted me to stay. Then, the summer when I was six I met Aria. The same age as me, she arrived there right from the hospital, from what we know her dad died and she'd no one else. There was apparently something off about her father's death, though, so the nuns gave her a new name. And no, we don't know what her original name was, Aria hit her head at some point, and the name isn't in any records I've found." She shook her head. "Anyway, they gave her the name of Mary Anne. One of them also had the idea of making her my sister, because from the day she arrived we became very close, we did everything together and went everywhere together. So we became the Poots sisters. We were even fostered together, and soon people seemed to forget that there had been a time when there hadn't been two of us. Didn't change the fact that nobody wanted me, nobody wanted us, but at least we were together, when we had nobody and nothing else we at least had each other, and that was enough."

For several seconds no one said a word, and then it was Simmons who spoke:

"I… I am very sorry, that you two went through all that." She murmured, as kindly as ever. "But what has that to do with anything? With not trusting SHIELD?"

"Oh! But that's just the beginning!" Skye called with fake cheeriness. "As for what it has to do with SHIELD… it's SHIELD's fault that we've gone through all we did!"

"What…?!" No one was expecting that.

"Well, the people who left us at St. Agnes, they were with SHIELD." Skye explained, succinctly.

The hacker turned slightly to a side, to her laptop, and entered a command, then the screen of the TV lit up, showing two documents with SHIELD logos, both of them redacted.

"Lydon got that for us a few years back." Skye explained. "Our admittance forms into St. Agnes. And yet… that wasn't the first time we heard of SHIELD. No, the first time was when we were thirteen, when we were taken from our group-home… though I suppose, you might also say we were 'given away'."

"What…?!" Again, there was the shock.

"According to the person who received us, we were the children no one wanted, the ones no one would miss." Skye went on, grasping her sister's hand tightly to balance herself. "There was about a dozen of us, total, five girls and six or seven boys. Most of them died in the first month. By the sixth month there was just the two of us, an older girl and a boy left."

"What the hell did they do to you?!" Fitz cried out in disbelief.

"They wanted soldiers, I think." Skye shrugged.

"They taught you to fight." Ward realized. "That's why you are so good at such different martial arts… and the way you handle a gun..."

"Yeah." Skye nodded. "Aria wasn't as good. They threatened to kill her if she didn't improve… until they realized that they could use her to 'motivate' me. I learned things as fast as I could, became as good as I could, in order to keep my sister safe." She swallowed a sob, smiling briefly at the hazel-eyed girl. "Not that they cared much bout that, they'd already decided to sacrifice us all anyway."

Again, the shock came.

"This was three months in." The hacker went on. "There were still seven of us left. And then they used us for their crazy experiments… that was when the numbers came down to four. Things became quite insane then… JT was the eldest of the group, he… I guess you could say he blew up. He tried to escape and when that failed he used everything he'd been taught to kill as many of the people in that base as he could. They knocked him out eventually. It was pretty bad, though. The rest of us were ordered back to our bunks and then Raina began to screech that they were going to kill us all, to sacrifice us, we'd become too dangerous, too wild for them. I didn't sleep that night, neither of us did." Skye swallowed. "We were allowed to share a room, as our captors had learned that I was more willing to do as told if I was allowed to have time with my sister. Then, shortly before dawn the door opened. I had been gearing myself to go down fighting, and yet instead of that I found some guy in tactical clothes, telling us we had to run if we wanted to live..." She breathed deeply. "I don't know he was, I'll never know. But he saved us, he got us out of that base, and to the road, even told us which way to run. I've no idea what happened to him once the bullets began flying. The moment we began running we didn't stop, and we didn't look back, until we got to the closest town. Then we kept moving. We eventually discovered we'd been a year in that hellhole… It took three years for us to feel safe enough to stay more than a couple of months anywhere. The names Skye and Aria, we took them then. We couldn't go back to being Sue and Anne, not just because we didn't feel like those girls anymore… those names never felt right, not really. It also wasn't safe." She shook her head. "I learned everything I could about hacking, and once I felt confident enough about it, I looked up everything I could about us, saved a copy, and then deleted our names. As far as the world is concerned Mary Sue and Mary Anne Poots never existed."

Neither did Skye and Aria, but that wasn't the point at the moment.

For a few seconds it looked like it might be over, until Aria signaled something that only Skye truly paid attention to, she nodded.

"That's where Aria lost her voice." The brunette sister added quietly. "I don't know what you might have thought before, but she wasn't born a mute. She actually has a beautiful voice… or she did, until then. The things they did to us… they hurt her, so much that even when we were finally healed, she didn't speak. Thankfully we already knew ASL by then, though it's been hard, I miss my sister's voice… miss listening to her tell me stories in the night, hearing her sing..."

"I… that's so awful!" Simmons cried out, distressed.

She immediately offered to run some tests, try and find out if the lack of voice was caused by something physical or mental; but they refused, neither of them had the slightest interest in being studied or prodded ever again. Simmons hated not being able to help, but in the end she understood their reticence and did not insist. Something both Skye and Aria were infinitely thankful for.

"What I don't understand is, what does any of that have to do with SHIELD?" Coulson asked, curious. "You said you heard about SHIELD then…"

"The Kraken… that's what most people called the man in charge of the place, to avoid names, while they gave us all numbers… the day we arrived he told us we were fortunate, that we'd be taught, sharpened into swords, which would then serve as the weapons hidden behind the shield." Skye explained evenly. "At first I thought it was just a speech. Something stupid, meant to sound so eloquent… and then I discovered SHIELD."

It was obvious didn't want to believe, that SHIELD had anything to do with what was done to the girls, and yet none of them dare voice their disbelief. Not after everything the twins had already dared reveal to them. Instead Coulson promised to investigate this Kraken and children being taken from orphanages…

"AC..." Skye called to him as he was living the sitting room.

"Yes…?" He asked her.

"Be careful." The brunette told him softly. "Whoever is behind that mess… they will not hesitate to kill you, to kill us all, if they so much as suspect that you're on their track, that the two of us are even alive..."

"I know." Coulson nodded. "I'll be careful." He turned fully to face the sisters again. "As long as you're a part of this team you'll be safe, Skye, Aria… we'll keep you safe. I promise you."

The sisters nodded once, sharply. How could they do anything but believe him?

They were all so focused in that intense little exchange… none of them noticed the mix of shock, disbelief, wonder and horror shadowing whiskey colored eyes as a certain someone looked at them, especially at Skye…

xXx

Time passed, life went on, missions came and went. There was a particularly stressful one, where the team flew to Pennsylvania to investigate the mysterious death of a volunteer fire-fighter (whom the team actually found suspended in mid-air). It was a most stressful investigation, especially when another man died before they managed to track the origin of the 'virus' killing them. Skye went where Coulson ordered to, while Aria chose to hung around with FitzSimmons, researching everything she could think of.

At some point she sensed something off with Simmons, thought it was easy enough to intervene. Skye, who was in the next room, reacted to the change in Aria's energy and looked up. The response was a simple one-handed sign… one that wasn't ASL, it didn't put Skye at ease, just worried her all the more. She said not a word though, she knew there would be no point.

They eventually found the origin of the virus, in the form of a Chitauri helmet, sadly they also found another man who'd been infected (the third) and whose death was imminent. Then, as if that weren't stressful enough, they discovered there was a chance Simmons might have become infected with the same virus…

Thankfully that last possibility proved to be wrong. Coulson insisted on running any and all tests they could think of, and all came out just fine. Simmons was perfectly healthy.

"See, nothing to worry about." Ward told Skye, doing his best to conceal his own relief.

"I wasn't worried." Skye answered calmly.

Ward thought she was trying to appear tough, emotionless; he'd no idea that Skye really had never been worried, not about Simmons at least. She'd known she'd be alright… her sister made sure of that, after all…

The visit to the Hub wasn't exactly a fun time for the twins. Even though Coulson and May had done their best to investigate what Skye had told them about their past and they hadn't been able to find anything about SHIELD training orphans, or even about children being taken from St. Agnes (that one they hadn't put much hope in, Skye had warned them they would find no records of their old identities, after all); they'd tried searching for a Raina, or a JT, nothing either. There was no proof of anything (though Coulson at least trusted the sisters enough to believe their story), but the girls still didn't feel at ease being inside one of SHIELD's top-secret bases. They'd been in others, true, but always just quick visits to drop or pick up stuff, or re-fuel; never a visit that lasted more than a few hours. Learning that Fitz and Ward were being sent on their own on a classified mission, which none of the others had the clearance to even know about (not even May and Coulson!) did not make things any better.

It took all of one hour for Skye to decide she was done playing nice. Even if no one around was willing to answer her questions, to even listen to her fears, she wasn't going to sit back quietly, and Aria agreed with her. It didn't take much effort for the two to find their way into a room with a computer, and then it was simply a matter of Skye hacking into the databases.

For all of one second the brunette hacker actually considered taking the opportunity to look up the original files about her and about her sister, the way she'd always wanted to. She knew she didn't have long, and the temptation was strong. Then she remembered Ward and Fitz, and how good they both were, and she made herself focused in what really mattered. St. Agnes, her birth-parents… that was her past, the team was her present, her future, and she would protect it, protect them, with everything she had. They both would.

Coulson didn't like it when he discovered what they were doing, Skye in particular. And when he tried to chastise her about it Aria got in the argument; for a moment it actually looked like she might about to open her mouth and begin ranting at Coulson… except that wasn't possible, because she couldn't speak! In the end she signed, and that was enough:

+Family means nobody gets left behind...+

"Ah..." Coulson blinked in disbelief. "Did you just quote Lilo & Stitch at me?"

Skye laughed at the insanity of the whole matter.

Coulson wanted to face Hand with their discovery, but in the end the sisters convinced him it was pointless, she'd either lie or give him useless excuses and platitudes, they needed to get to their guys. Jemma and Melinda met them on the Bus, which was almost ready to go, apparently they'd been expecting something to happen…

The flight to South Ossetia was full of tension and anticipation. Melinda had her full focus on the controls; she knew the attack on the facility would start the moment Fitz and Ward finished their mission, and the people there would respond. They'd have a very small window to get the guys out before it all went to hell.

Jemma had the first-aid kit ready, Aria stood at her side, ready too, while Coulson and Skye stood by the opening ramp. He'd just thrown a line for the boys to climb when they all saw the gunmen pointing straight at the Bus. The plane was heavily armored, but that would do nothing for Fitz and Simmons if a bullet caught them mid-climb.

For a couple of seconds no one seemed to know what to say, and then Skye looked over her shoulder at her sister, she made a single one-handed sign, one Jemma did not understand, though Aria did, the auburn-haired nodded in agreement.

"AC?" Skye called to the man beside her. "I'm gonna need you to step back and trust me."

"What?" He wasn't expecting that.

The brunette said nothing more, just looked at him in silent plea.

"I trust you Skye." He nodded, and did as asked.

The smile that came from the brunette was blinding. Then shock took over the delight when he saw Skye give a step forward herself, so she was standing on the very edge of the ramp, she raised her arms, flicked her wrists and appeared to press onto empty air with open palms.

For several seconds Phil had no idea what was supposed to be happening, and then he saw it: the gunmen were shooting, but their bullets were stopping before hitting the boys, or the Bus, before getting anywhere close to either. It was as if some kind of invisible force were blocking them. His eyes turned to Skye as understanding began coloring his thoughts. She faltered for a second, and he understood it wasn't over just yet.

"Climb now!" He yelled at the two men.

Neither Fitz nor Ward questioned his order, they just did as told. Fitz looked oddly at Skye as she stood, almost trembling, a look of absolute concentration on her face and her arms almost shaking with some incomprehensible effort.

Ward's stare was less obvious, though there was something in his eyes, a realization and a level of horror that no one quite saw, yet if they had, would have put up red flags right away.

The moment the ramp began closing up Skye lowered her arms, her legs folding beneath her so abruptly she would have hit the ground in a heap if Phil hadn't been there to catch her.

"AC…?" She murmured, exhausted.

"Well done Skye." He congratulated her. "Thank you."

He still had no idea what she'd done exactly, or how she'd done it… but that would come later. In that moment it was enough to feel thankful that they'd all made it out alright. The time for explanations would come, once they were well away from South Ossetia… and from the Hub. Once he was sure they, his team, his family, were safe.

The moment they left the cargo bay Aria was waiting for her sister with an energy bar and a protein shake. The brunette took them, but didn't let go of her sister until she showed another of each for herself.

They were all silent as they followed the sisters to the sitting room, where they curled into each other, eating their bars and drinking their shakes…

"Are we gonna talk about what just happened or just ignore it?" Fitz finally blurted out.

Aria signed at Skye, nodding at the same time.

"What does that mean?" May asked unexpectedly. "It's not ASL."

"No, it's not, it's something else." Skye agreed, though she didn't clarify what exactly it was. "It basically means 'trust'. Though the context can change, it can be 'I trust', 'you should trust', 'we...' you get the drift. Right now it means a little of all of them. It means my sister trusts you with our biggest secret, and she thinks I should, that we both can..."

"You're gifted." Simmons said, it wasn't a question. "You did something to stop those bullets, I know not what."

"In simple terms, I created a shield out of thin air and stopped them." Skye answered, dead honest. "The more complex explanation is that I vibrated the air at high enough a frequency to make a near-impenetrable barrier out of it, and that's what blocked the bullets. Then, in the last second I sent it out, like a wave, throwing back the gunmen so they wouldn't be able to rush us."

"You vibrated the air?" Fitz repeated, intrigued.

"It's what I can do." Skye nodded calmly. "You see, everything in the world vibrates, the air, the water, the trees, the people… even the rocks and the earth itself. I can tap into those vibrations, most of the time it's just like a buzzing in my ear, I hear them, but do nothing about them. However, when I focus I can touch them, and alter them."

She turned her eyes to a couple of water glasses someone had left on the table, focused her whole attention on them; they all heard it then, the low whistle, as if someone were making the glasses sing with a wet finger. It lasted several seconds before one of the glasses cracked.

"I'm sorry." The brunette apologizes sheepishly. "My control is a bit shot right now. I hadn't used my powers to the extent I did back there in… a very long time, really."

"How long have you been gifted?" May asked, suspicious.

"Since I was thirteen and a half..." The hacker answered, knowing what the woman was implying. "Yes… it happened while I… while we were with the Kraken."

Silence was absolute and Skye had trouble stopping herself from vibrating in place, until her sister entwined their hands together, the touch allowing the brunette to calm like nothing else had ever been able to.

"The experiments… at first they were sort-of normal, the kind of thing you expect if you've watched any horror films." Skye deadpanned. "But then… I don't know if they got bored that nothing was happening, or if it was that they hadn't found it before..."

"It?" FitzSimmons asked in unison.

"A blue crystal with silver veins… we later learned it's called a terrigen crystal." Skye elaborated. "They pushed us all into a windowless room and then broke the crystal with us inside. They just dropped it from a hatch on the ceiling, closing it right away. The crystal broke there was a dark mist and then… it was like rock enveloping us like…" Aria signed and Skye nodded. "Like a cocoon, exactly. Only, not all of us reacted the same to it. Four… they screamed, like there was something in the cocoon that hurt them… I watched them turn into statues before falling into dust. It terrified me, so I turned to look at my sister. I saw her form being covered by the cocoon, but it was much slower than with anyone else, as if something were trying to keep it back, and her skin kept glowing… Eventually a cocoon finished covering me and I could see no more." She shook her head, visibly fighting to push the pain of the memory away. "When we woke up… it was a whole new world."

"You're gifted too." Melinda realized, eyes straight on Aria.

Aria smiled at her, but didn't give any kind of response otherwise.

"I don't think the scientists expected Aria to survive the breaking of that crystal." Skye admitted quietly. "They thought she would crumble, like so many of the others. Then my powers… I almost collapsed the facility on our heads when I first used them. Before, they'd used my sister to control me, they'd threaten her, hurt her even… after I changed they could no longer do that. My power is tied to my emotions, and soon they discovered that even the suggestion of hurting Aria made me lose control. So on that sense, things were better, they didn't dare hurt her, or even keep her away from me; and as long as they did that, I was willing to allow them to study me, my gift. It was not the best, but still not as bad as it had been during the first few months."

"So you can make things shake… vibrate, whichever." Fitz decided, then turned to Aria. "What can you do?"

Aria tilted her head to a side, and yet said nothing.

"It took us a while to discover it, it wasn't as obvious as mine." Skye explained. "I'm sure you all remember I told she could still talk back then. She'd tell me stories every night to help me sleep, she hummed every so often and sometimes, if she was in the mood, she'd sing… She began doing it more often after the crystal, as her songs calmed me like nothing else could. When we spent three days in a row with no tests and no threats, I just knew something was going on. Then someone went in and purposefully separated us. They… they hurt her. Made her scream, and then we were all screaming in turn."

"What…?" No one understood what that meant.

"Aria's gift is far more complex than my own." The hacker elaborated. "She has empathetic traits. Can feel others' emotions, and project them too. And her voice, especially her songs, somehow serve as a catalyst. Those three days no one went to get us… they kept hearing her songs, and they made it so no one wanted to hurt her, to hurt us. The Kraken found out eventually, he did all kinds of tests on her, they tried to force her to control it, but a time came when even a single word would be enough… so they made it so she could no longer speak."

FitzSimmons inhaled sharply, Jemma especially pressing a hand against her mouth to hold back the horror she felt at that revelation.

"That's why she cannot talk?" Melinda guessed.

"I… it's not that simple." Skye admitted, turning to look at Aria, who nodded at her just once. "After we got out of that place… a man found us. I call him Link, he took us to a safe-place. It was through him that we learned about terrigen crystals, and about Inhumans. That's what I am. According to the legends, thousands and thousands of years ago a race of aliens called the Kree came to Earth. They experimented on humans, seeking to create an army, but at first it seemed like nothing was happening. Then something else happened, no one knows what exactly, but the Kree left. A generation or two later a group of descendants discovered the first Diviner. An object the Kree had left behind, the terrigen crystals were inside it, and when they broke they created a mist. That mist upon touch causes one of two things: if you're pure human it kills you, but to those descended from the humans the Kree experimented on, it causes something called terri-genesis. It activates something dormant in our genes, and our abilities manifest. Like my thing with vibrations. Sometimes it's not something obvious, but sometimes the mutation is physical too. Like Link, he can teleport and create force-fields; also, for some reason he has no eyes. Or Raina, her skin became covered in thorns and she had visions of the future. Me… I was lucky enough, I got my powers but did not really change physically." She let out a breath. "Link told us that there had once been a place where the Inhumans gathered, a place they called Afterlife. But then, twenty-something years ago a man found them, a Dr. Whitehall. He kidnapped several people, experimented on them, One of them was my mother, he studied her gift, tortured her and eventually killed her. My father tried to save her but they killed him too. And then Whitehall and his minions went after me… they destroyed the village trying to find me, but somehow someone found me, got me out. I've no idea how I ended in St. Agnes, exactly, I just know that whoever did it, I owe them my life… and that it was SHIELD."

Her life was such a mess! Because she owed SHIELD her life, whether they'd found her in China, or someone else had and then SHIELD had taken over at some point… they were still the ones who got her into St. Agnes. And then there was the fact that the Kraken was probably connected to SHIELD, and everything he and his minions did to her and Aria both…

"So what? There are more like you out there?" Fitz wanted to know.

"Maybe… probably." Skye shrugged. "Link said they were once a Tribe, strong… but after what happened when I was a baby they all scattered, trying to survive. He knows that many have died, and when he can, he helps those that remain, but it's not easy. There's no sanctuary for them to go to when they need a break anymore, no one to help guide those who turn… and the crystals… they used to be kept by a Council, they decided who changed, those young enough to be able to adapt, yet old and mature enough to accept whatever change might come. See, not just anyone can handle terri-genesis. The kind of change that overcomes you, knowing that you'll never be the same again… It made Raina insane, a complete basket-case; and JT, all he wanted was to cause destruction, regardless of who he might hurt, even himself. It's likely that the only reason I didn't lose it too was thanks to my sister..."

"You said that you were inhuman, you… but not your sister?" Melinda asked, curious.

Skye looked at Aria again, who seemed to ponder on things for a moment before nodding. Waving a hand at Skye, as it would be easier if she told the story, rather than having Aria sign everything and then wait to see if the others understood it.

"No, Aria's not an Inhuman." The brunette sister shook her head. "We don't really know all the details but apparently there's something in her, in her soul, that was brought up first when her dad was killed, she was with him, almost died herself; and then when the terri-genesis took place, the mist tried to either change or kill her, and instead it forced whatever was at her core to manifest, and so she got her gifts. We don't know the origins, though we know she's not Inhuman, meta or mutant. Raina used to call her Songstress, and Princess… then again, she called me Queen… so that's not much to go on." She sighed. "Link believed that her soul was not from this world."

"Not from this..." FitzSimmons repeated, confused.

"Like from Asgard? Or some other Realm?" Coulson inquired, curious.

Skye just shrugged, saying not a word. Something seemed to flash in Aria's hazel eyes, but it was just for a moment, gone in a second and even those who noticed it weren't sure if they hadn't hallucinated it, it was there and gone so fast…

"We met one person, after Link." The hacker went on. "A Chinese man, called himself Wong. He said someone had sent him, some Mistress of his, he gave us this..." She waved her wrists to call attention to the armbands. "There's some kind of enchantment on them, or something. Basically they absorb my power when I'm having trouble controlling myself, the energy is split, between these, and the ones Aria wears, allowing it to diffuse harmlessly. Because as we discovered, if I use my powers too much, or too carelessly, or try to hold them back when too emotional, I end up hurting myself, vibrating my own body… it's not good."

"Don't you hurt your sister like this?" Melinda worried.

"No, the bands are made to allow for safe diffusion." Skye assured her. "They also keep us connected, allow us to know when the other might be in danger."

"Why would someone send those to you?" Jemma wanted to know.

"No idea." Skye shrugged. "I think it might have something to do with Aria's past life, or the origins of her soul, or whatever, but we just don't know."

All eyes turned to Aria, whose own remained close. She didn't react to the comments at all, as if she hadn't heard a thing, and in the end no one pressured her.

In the end they decided that that was enough for one day. Enough shocking revelations and heart-felt exchanges. It was time to move on.

Skye never asked them to keep her secrets, though Phil still made the choice not to report their gifts to HQ, not even to Fury. He shared some of it with his lover, but that was necessary, as Darcy was helping him track down the 'Kraken', whoever he might be. She agreed not to tell anyone else a thing, Fury included. Then again, considering Nick didn't know about her own status as a mutant, that wasn't much of a surprise…

xXx

Missions continued, life went on, and then one day the team found themselves in the Command Center, watching footage of Thor and Loki fighting against a bunch of white-skinned aliens in dark clothes with Drs. Foster, Selvig and another young man's help… in the middle of London.

Aria hissed under her breath, and when turning to look at her Skye saw her eyes flash as she seemingly muttered something under her breath; the hacker had no idea what it was, and didn't even bother to try.

Orders came for them an hour or so later. They were to go to London and help with the clean-up, particularly make sure nothing dangerous ended in the black-market or something. It was a simple, easy mission. Of course, because things could not remain simple and easy forever, just as they were finishing with clean-up, news came of a new mission, and off they went to a National Park in Norway…

As insane as things got very fast, it was a wonder for the team to see Aria work when she was in her element. At first it'd been Coulson's intention to get in contact with some Doctor in Spain who specialized in Norse mythology, until Skye reminded them all that her sister was a genius, and she loved mythology. It took but minutes for Aria to pull up all the information they needed, the myth of the Berserker staff. Learning what the object (or a piece of it) they were dealing with might be, while good, didn't really help things once they all realized how dangerous it was: an object capable of feeding on rage and turning it into strength, power? Very dangerous, as the NeoPaganists turned vandals were proving.

They got to the second half of the staff just in time, what no one was expecting was Ward's reaction to it. He blacked out, and Skye barely thought of not touching the thing when she found him. The team secured the piece of the relic and took the unconscious agent back to the Bus… things did not got better once he woke up. They pretty much turned worse…

Skye tried to get Ward to talk to her, Fitz tried to be friendly, Simmons wanted to give him a sedative… Ward didn't take it well.

"And if we crossed paths with those juiced freaks, the ones who can flip cars and smash people up, are you going to take them on?" He demanded of the three younger people. "Keep us safe? Or am I gonna…?"

They never got to hear the rest of it. From one moment to the other Aria was there, cradling his face between her hands, eyes closed, as if focusing very hard on something. Ward breathed out slowly and his whole body seemed to sag abruptly.

"Hey!" FitzSimmons cried out in shock.

Aria stepped back then, swaying a bit until Skye held her. By the time they all turned eyes to her they noticed she was almost shaking, eyes tightly closed, teeth nearly grinding.

"What did she just do to me?" Ward demanded, though there was no actual accusation in his voice, only wonder.

"She took away your hate." Skye answered quietly.

She didn't explain that emotions couldn't just disappear, they had to go somewhere. Which was why Aria was acting like she was in that moment; Ward's hate had to go somewhere, so she'd taken it into herself, replacing it with peace… she could handle it, she'd done it before, but it'd take a while. So Skye took her to their shared bunk.

"I thought you said she used her voice to channel her power." Was the first thing May said when Skye got back to the Command Center.

"No, I said she could channel her power through her voice, doing so allowed her to do amazing things… but the power is not in her voice. It's in her." Skye clarified.

A ping interrupted their conversation, as the algorithm Skye had been running gave her a result, they knew where the last piece of the staff was.

Things got easier for the last part of the mission. The team got to the monastery in Ireland in time to retrieve the final piece of the staff, then, when the NeoPaganists arrived, Skye used her powers to throw them back and push the piece of relic away from them, making it so no one had to fight them directly. It would take a while for the effects to pass for them (no way were any of them allowing for Aria to do what she'd done to help Ward, not again), but in the end they'd done good. All pieces off the staff were recovered, the criminals were heading to jail, and they were all just fine… or they would be.

xXx

That night they were staying in a hotel, Coulson's little reward to the team for a job well-done (what none of them knew was that he'd received a very special visitor that night…). Grant Ward found himself unable to sleep in the middle of the night, he briefly considered finding out if Melinda's earlier invitation to spend the night was still open, but found he wasn't interested, not in sex with her, and not in anything more. He just had too much on his mind.

Instead he decided to go for a walk. He wasn't sure how exactly, but he found himself in the hotel's bar. It was empty (it was that late). Unlike in more high-end places, the room wasn't closed, which explained how there were two people inside, despite the fact that drinks were no longer being served. They were both in sleeping clothes and the first Ward noticed was the young woman in an off-white nightdress, sitting behind the concert piano, playing and singing softly:

"2am; where do I begin,

Crying off my face again.

The silent sound of loneliness

Wants to follow me to bed."

"I'm the ghost of a girl that I want to be most.

I'm the shell of a girl that I used to know well."

"Dancing slowly in an empty room,

Can the lonely take the place of you?

I sing myself a quiet lullaby.

Let you go and let the lonely in

To take my heart again."

The Specialist sensed movement to a side and turned in time to see a second young woman, in a purple and gray cami-and-shorts set, barefoot, sitting curled up in one of the winged armchairs; brunette hair in a loose twist at the nape of her neck, a phone set almost carelessly in the small table before her… it took him several seconds to realize it was Skye; and then his shock became even greater when he comprehended that the girl at the piano, the one singing her heart out… was none other than Aria. Aria, the girl who supposedly couldn't talk, was playing the piano and singing! And not only that, but her voice was probably the most beautiful Grant had ever heard…

"Too afraid to go inside

For the pain of one more loveless night.

Cause the loneliness will stay with me

And hold me till I fall asleep."

"I'm the ghost of a girl that I want to be most.

I'm the shell of a girl that I used to know well."

"Dancing slowly in an empty room,

Can the lonely take the place of you?

I sing myself a quiet lullaby.

Let you go and let the lonely in

To take my heart again."

Time and again Grant considered speaking up, interrupting, or even just approaching Skye… yet some instinct inside stopped him, told him not to move from his spot. Whatever was going on… he couldn't interfere, it was better to wait for the end and then ask for some explanations, because the sisters were keeping secrets from them… again. (Then again, it's not like he didn't have secrets of his own… some quite huge… though that wasn't the point! Or so he told himself).

"Broken pieces of

A barely breathing story

Where there once was love

Now there's only me and the lonely."

"Dancing slowly in an empty room

Can the lonely take the place of you?

I sing myself a quiet lullaby

Let you go and let the lonely in

To take my heart again."

The song came to an end slowly and Aria just sat there for several seconds that seemed like forever. Then she turned towards Skye, who was already standing. She said not a word, just stood beside her sister and began guiding her, like one would a little girl. It was until they were nearly at the door that Skye noticed him. Her eyes widened abruptly but before he could say a word she shook her head slightly, using one hand to signal him to wait. He noticed then that Aria wasn't looking at him, didn't seem to be noticing his presence at all… like she wasn't all there…

So in the end Grant followed the sisters back to their room, where he watched Skye put Aria to bed before slipping out of the room. He followed her again then, to the staircase, where she sat on the top step before patting the space beside her as a sign for him to join her.

"So, ask then." She told him simply.

"I thought Aria couldn't speak." He said the first thing that came to mind.

"Yeah… it's not that simple." Skye let out a sigh. "She's long since healed from what was done to her in that lab… but she still won't speak… not when she's herself anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Grant really didn't understand.

It was insane! He wasn't supposed to care, caring was a weakness, and he had a mission! But he just couldn't help it (had never been able to help it, if he was honest with himself), he cared about Skye, and even about Aria, he cared about the whole team. Things were only going to get messy, but he couldn't even think about stopping.

"I suppose a shrink would call her lack of speech a psychological response to trauma." Skye admitted softly. "Those bastards… they tortured her into not speaking, made her associate it with pain, for herself, and for me… so now she simply cannot bring herself to speak, much less sing."

"What was tonight then?"

"It happens sometimes, especially after she's used her powers actively. Aria goes into this place… like a separate corner in her own head. Sometimes she speaks to me, like she used to back when we were little girls, before the Kraken, before that damned lab… most of the time she sings. I have dozens of songs recorded and saved in a highly encrypted virtual cloud. I keep them for myself, so I can listen to her voice sometimes…" She swallowed back a sob before something else occurred to her. "Oh, you cannot tell anyone about this! Especially not Aria."

"What?!"

"I suppose you'll see it, but really, in the morning she won't remember any of this. Not the song, or playing the piano, not even getting out of bed after we retired earlier. It's always the same. Like she's someone else when she does it… like she's the person she used to be before our lives were ruined. The sister I used to have..."

"Why doesn't she remember?"

"Again, I think it has to do with trauma, cannot be sure, mind you. I remember the day after we escaped from that lab, I woke up curled up against her, we were hiding inside what must have been a service station at one point, though it'd been long since abandoned. We were miles from the lab… and I haven't the faintest idea how we even made it that far. The scrubs I was wearing, the clothes they gave us, they were covered in grime, mud, and blood. Apparently I nearly died the night before… except I don't remember it."

"What is that supposed to mean?!"

"It's the truth. I think I remember pain, and the sound of a gunshot, and Aria over me, mouth open in a voiceless scream… then I blacked out. And the next thing I knew, yeah. Then when she woke up, her memories seemed to have holes. She remembers the time in the lab, though there are small pieces she's forgotten, she doesn't remember half the stories she used to tell me when we were in St. Agnes together, about the Egyptian prince and princess who lived time and again, always finding and loving each other, life after life…"

Grant rolled his eyes at the theme of the stories, but did not interrupt.

"The first time I heard her sing was the night G… Link got us. I thought she'd finally gotten past what had happened to us, that she was healing. Then in the morning I tried talking to her, and she wouldn't speak… I tried to pressure her, to force her to open her mouth and just… it wasn't a good day." Those were painful memories, and Skye didn't even know why she was sharing them, it just seemed right. "It was until the third such time that I realized what was going on, the fact that she didn't remember, that she wouldn't."

"Like a sort of dissociate personality." Ward offered.

"I suppose." Skye shrugged. "To me they're both my sister. And while it hurts knowing she's not whole, that she might never be whole again, I love her nonetheless."

"I know you do." Grant nodded.

"Who knows?" The hacker added. "Perhaps one day she might feel safe enough to come out. To be free, sing again, perhaps..."

A wild idea occurred to Grant just then, he'd no idea where it even came from, but he was sure he was right, somehow…

"You know the truth, don't you?" Regardless of how he voiced it, it wasn't really a question. "All you said before about the mysterious origins of her soul… you know the truth about that. Where it comes from, who she truly is..."

"I do." She admitted quietly. "But she doesn't. When she gets in those moods, when she sings… it's like she begins to remember, but it never lasts long. She… that version of her, I call her the Songstress, she knows who I am, how long I've been there… here. She trusts me. She… she promised me that one day my sister would be whole."

"And you will protect her until that day comes."

"And every day afterwards."

There was silence for several seconds and then:

"Wait, she's not an Egyptian princess, is she?" Ward blurted out without warning.

Skye couldn't stop herself, she laughed.

Not another word was said and eventually Skye just stood, smiling a small, sad smile as she nodded once at Grant and walked away, back to her room, to the sleeping sister who wouldn't remember ever waking up. Grant watched her go, wondering just how fucked up he truly was, because in that moment it felt like no matter what he did anymore, he was screwed.


If you have any questions leave them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them (unless the answer is a spoiler, then I'll explain that and you'll see it in the story itself).

In case anyone actually reads my notes and was wondering, I just returned from my first Book Fair ever (my editor invited me) in Ohio. It was absolutely awesome.

As always, full sized cover and set of wallpapers can be found in DA, my pen-name there is Princess-Lalaith.

Don't forget to leave comments and (hopefully) kudos and see ya around!