"Skye! Your six!"

The SHIELD agent spun around and fired two rounds at her ambusher, who lost his grip on the gun. His body hit the floor right after Skye ducked a flying fist and swung her leg beneath her rival. A kick rendered him unconscious and Skye stood up, dragging her right sleeve up to check her vitals.

"You're welcome?" came the voice of her partner, his brows raised and eyes staring at her skeptically.

Skye slipped her gun back into its sheath. "I heard him before you yelled," she muttered before advancing further. All she had in mind was her mission, and she didn't want to talk about it at all.

Grant Ward slipped his tongue between his softly clenching teeth. "Well played, Grant," he thought to himself, "well played."

They were halfway out of the cargo hold of the facility when another guard leaped out from the shadows. He launched himself at Skye and forced her to the ground. In response, using the advantage of having a small frame, Skye drew her leg back and kicked his crotch. With another push, he rocked backwards and curled up in pain on the floor.

But that wasn't the end of it. A few more guards, about six to seven as Skye had counted in a limited amount of time, had surrounded the two agents. Skye stumbled back until her back was against Ward's.

"I hope you know the drill," Ward grunted through gritted teeth.

"I hope you can keep up," Skye retorted. With that being said, she sprang up and rolled across Ward's back; he had crouched down faster than she had thought. Though that took her by surprise, she drew out two ICERS and aimed at the guards, while Ward shot two and pounced to tackle the remaining one.

Skye skillfully wrapped her leg around one guard's neck as another charged at her. Hitting the charging guard's forehead with the butt of her gun, she let go of the one she was choking once his head lulled to the side. Ward had also knocked his opponent into a comatose.

"Agents!" came May's voice from their earpieces.

"Yes, Agent May?"

"Your target is one more store room away from where you are. You just have—"

The signal was cut off suddenly. "Agent May?" Ward tried reaching her again, unaware of the fact that Skye was paralyzed by a gun pointing right at her temple.

Their attacker, a masked man in a white business suit, beckoned Ward to put his weapons down. The SHIELD agent lowered himself slowly and placed his guns on the floor, then stood up while raising his hands.

"Kick them over," the man said. His voice had a raspy ring to it along with a quite heavy Russian accent. Doing as told, Ward kept his gaze fixed on Skye's, which was unwavering and composed, but the slightest bit of fear began to escape when two henchmen of the man forced Ward to kneel down with two guns to the head.

The man didn't remove the tip of the gun from Skye's head as he stepped forward a little. "Brave attempt, SHIELD agents," the words rolled out from the tip of his tongue, "but you're never going to infiltrate my facility, not this easily."

"I lost them," Fitz frenetically muttered, his hands digging into his curled hair. He stared, in desperation, where the two dots were seconds ago on the Austrian map.

Simmons was also freaking out. "What are we going to do? Hunter and Bobbi are still in the medical pod! We have no backup!"

The only calm person in the room took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Stop panicking, we'll find them. Fitz, try again."

The technician's fingers began tapping on the holotable again.

"Come on, Skye…" May murmured.

"Listen, I'm not SHIELD," Ward said, "I'm HYDRA."

"Likely story, Agent Ward, but I saw you working perfectly with Agent Skye here," he poked Skye's temple with the mouth of his gun, "and that should come with loads of practice together."

"I was her S.O. when I was undercover in SHIELD—"

"Enough!" the man screamed. "Lock them up in the cryo-cell!"

At that very moment, Skye grabbed the man's arm and jerked it towards herself, twisting the thumb and palming the barrel exactly like how Ward taught her. In perfect sync, Ward leaped from his kneeling position, but one of the henchmen was quick to kick him in the back.

Albeit threatened by his own gun, the man in the suit raised his leg to strike Ward's head. "No!" Skye yelled impulsively.

"Reinhardt—" Ward attempted to speak, but another blow plunged into the side of his torso. The other henchman proceeded to grab Skye's gun and lock her hands behind her.

Reinhardt disregarded Ward's plead and continued to beat him up with his henchman. It was until Ward coughed out blood that he paused.

"Take them to the cryo-cell," he ordered. The two henchmen dragged the agents away, one screaming and kicking and the other almost out cold.

"What's happening?" Coulson sped into the situation room. May whipped around and let out a prolonged exhale. "Skye and Ward are captured, location unknown," May said, staring at him with mute hopelessness.

Fitz was tapping frantically across the holotable. "Their trackers were disabled."

"And all I can report is Skye's body is dropping to a dangerously low temperature," Simmons was very close to tears, "I'm afraid—" she choked.

"Nobody's dying today," Coulson yanked out his phone and quickly dialed a number, "not on my watch."

Every breath stung. Every blink took the strength of lifting weights.

Skye was trying her best to stay awake. If she hadn't been wrong, they had been in the cryo-cell for thirty minutes. She could see, vaguely, her ragged breaths coming out in puffs of smoke.

She had spent twenty minutes trying to get out of the cryo-cell, and every attempt failed miserably. She now rested her body against the freezing wall.

Beside her was Ward. It was a good thing that the cold had stopped his bleeding, but it was a very bad thing that they were both freezing to a certain death. He was barely breathing and barely alive.

"D…don't you give up on m…me, Grant Ward," Skye mumbled.

His response was a few raggedy breaths and it took a while before he spoke. "If I die, maybe I d…deserve t…to."

Skye forced her eyes open after a blink. "Not th…this again."

"N…no," he whispered faintly. "If s…saving you equals me d…dying, it's worth…th it."

"Oh, y…you're not s…saying that, n…not to my f…face."

Ward heaved a broken sigh. "I j…just want you t…to know that…"

"Know what?" Skye turned her head, quietly tolerating the gore before her eyes.

"That it's o…okay."

"What?"

"N…not choosing me is okay."

Skye furrowed her eyebrows, which were lined with snow. "I'm sorry?"

Slightly smiling, Ward's head lulled to his right side so he could look Skye in the eyes, reaching for her hand that was inches away from his fingertips. "Don't think I d…didn't see you with the n…new techie."

"B…Brad? Oh, no way," Skye retorted.

"Either w…way," he continued, grabbing her hand gently, "I j…just want you t…to know that it's okay…"

The moment he finished the sentence, his hand's grip on hers slackened and his eyes slid close.

"Oh, don't you give up on me," Skye stood up all of a sudden, feeling power surge back to her being; it was the alien blood in her veins saying no to the cold that was causing her death. She carefully pressed her body against his, lying down beside his nearly lifeless body. Locking her arms around him and putting her head to his chest, Skye was on the very threshold of giving up hope when the door of the cryo-cell was thrown open.

"I can't tell you how thankful I am, Coulson," Skye smiled as the hot chocolate in her palms and the duvet around her whole body warmed her up.

"It wasn't easy getting Mr Peterson out of his hiding place, but once he heard your name, he sprang into action," Coulson addressed the man standing in the corner. Skye turned her head to nod at the cyborg, who smiled and nodded back.

"Whitehall's son had been put to justice, and I'm making sure he's suffering," Coulson carried on. "Looks like we have a lot more HYDRA heads to cut."

Simmons stormed into the room. "I can report that Agent Ward has stabilized."

Skye took off to the medical ward. Ward was on the bed, a few machines hooked up to him and bandages wrapped around whatever was hurt to make sure he wouldn't fall apart. Despite all the injuries, he had regained consciousness.

"Hey, Skye."

"Hey, Grant," she smiled in relief. An impulse took over her and she strode to his bedside, lowering herself and planting a kiss on his cheek.

"What was that?" he furrowed his brows in confusion.

Skye smirked. "Not choosing you doesn't mean I can't kiss you."

"C'mere," Ward gestured for her to lean down again, which was exactly what she did after dropping the duvet. Whatever followed had Simmons and the other doctors back out of the room, some in disgust and others, including Simmons, hoping to grant them privacy.

"Here we go again," Coulson eyed May as they watched the couple from the monitor in Coulson's office.