So... we're back. I'm so not over Infinity War just yet, but I did promise to come back in a month so here we are. Also, I actually do have some hope for the part two of this war so... yeah. I cannot help but feel that the real Thanos ended up being less insane and scary, yet at the same time somehow far more terrifying than mine... and mine was an actual Titan! So yeah, very proud of canon Thanos, and I didn't think that was actually possible.

Anyway, enough on that. Regardless of what may or may not have happened in canon, my universe will remain as it is, just so you know.

And with this we begin the fourth and last set of AUs (there will be quite a few, trust me). For this particular piece, when I was posting Horizon, on the subject of the person who helped Skye and Aria escape, I asked readers to try and guess who it had been. Few did, and one guess... well, it stayed with me. I couldn't do it then, because I'd already written the story, but I decided I needed to write that version. I was going to follow the same line as Horizon, until I realized the story would end up being too similar, so I decided to make the 'changed decision' (the one upon which the AU depends) earlier. This is what came out. Some things even I didn't plan for. Hope you'll enjoy it!

Fic has changing POVs, though please remember that the Nightingale will always be the first to narrate, unless specified otherwise.

Dreamcast for this story: Emily Browning as Nightingale/Aria, Katie McGrath as Helena, Amanda Seyfried as Ylva and Shiloh Fernandez as Fenrir.

The songs for this chapter are: "Hand of Sorrow" as sung by Within Temptation, and "Whose Side Are You On?" by Ruelle.

Sisters of Winter

(Alternative Universe to Nightingale)

By: Lalaith Quetzalli

One a songbird waiting for her love, another an angel covered in thorns, the third a lost warrior queen; three girls born to tragedy and hope, raised in shadows and secrets, united by winter, a family by choice. The Winter Soldier and his Sisters will set the record straight and right old wrongs, no matter the cost.

A Bird, Thorns and a Flower

Some families are born in water and love, others are forged in blood and snow.

"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water from the womb"

I'd no idea where or when I first read that quote, but it always had a special meaning to me; and how could it not when it seemed to be my whole life in a nutshell?

My clearest, oldest memory was of being carried away from the remains of the family car seconds before it had blown up, with my father still inside; one arm warm, flesh and blood, the other cold, metal. I was six years old.

I thought I died back then, was fairly sure about that, even if I couldn't quite remember it. I knew my father and I'd been in Portland, Maine, attending a concert by the Philharmonic Orchestra, the very same mom used to play the piano for, before I was born. We'd been on our way back home, to Salani Manor in Westbrook, Maine when… something happened. I never knew what it was exactly. From one moment to the next my father had lost control of the car completely and we went off the road, hit some rocks by the side, the car tumbled a few times. I hit my head at some point, wasn't too clear on a lot of things after that point. Though I did vaguely remember father's face half covered in blood, and a dark figure standing beside a tree, watching us in silence. I also remembered reading somewhere that, after hitting your head, you must not go to sleep, so I tried to stay awake. I talked to myself for a while, and when that failed I began humming, first there were simplified versions of the melodies from the concert, and then something else I probably made up on the spot. I still lost consciousness though, woke up to find myself in my rescuer's arms, being carried away, even as the car blew up, with the only family I'd left inside.

That was the day everything in my life changed. The day I stopped being Silbhé Arianna Kinross Salani and instead became Aria… just Aria. And my rescuer, who also happened to be my would-be assassin, he became so much more…

I had no idea where we were. Hadn't said a word since being taken from the burning care. I was sure I'd heard sirens at some point, but even then I said nothing, didn't scream, try to escape, nothing at all. And I didn't even know why. I knew my father was dead, I had no family, I was all alone in the world. I should have been terrified by the man taking me with him; even back then I knew, at some level, that he was responsible for my loss, yet I couldn't help the instinct telling me that that man, the one behind our accident, he needed me.

It should have been insane, it was insane. The man was responsible for my father being dead! And yet… and yet there was something in him, in his stance, his eyes. The man that stood beside me, offering me a water bottle and snacks I guessed he most have 'acquired' in the gas-station we had passed about an hour earlier; he wasn't the same man I'd seen standing beside the highway as I tried and failed to stay conscious even as the seat-belt held me upside down in the half-destroyed car. So I didn't scream, I didn't try to run, I just sat there.

It was close to dawn that it all caught up to me, the fact that my father was dead, that I was alone except for the man who was responsible for his death; the same man who was keeping me with him for some reason I couldn't fathom. The very one from whom I sensed so much pain and sadness… I was almost drowning in it all. I didn't even really notice it when I began singing…

"The child without a name grew up to be the hand

To watch you, to shield you or kill on demand

The choice he'd made he could not comprehend

His blood a grim secret they had to command"

"He's torn between his honor and the true love of his life

He prayed for both but was denied"

"So many dreams were broken and so much was sacrificed

Was it worth the ones we loved and had to leave behind?

So many years have past, who are the noble and the wise?

Will all our sins be justified?"

"The curse of his powers tormented his life

Obeying the crown was a sinister price

His soul was tortured by love and by pain

He surely would flee but the oath made him stay"

"He's torn between his honor and the true love of his life

He prayed for both but was denied"

So many dreams were broken and so much was sacrificed

Was it worth the ones we loved and had to leave behind?

So many years have past, who are the noble and the wise?

Will all our sins be justified?"

"Please forgive me for the sorrow, for leaving you in fear

For the dreams we had to silence, that's all they'll ever be

Still I'll be the hand that serves you

Though you'll not see that it is me"

"So many dreams were broken and so much was sacrificed

Was it worth the ones we loved and had to leave behind?

So many years have past, who are the noble and the wise?

Will all our sins be justified?"

It should have been ridiculous, totally ludicrous, me singing such things. I was six years old! What did I know about honor, about sacrifice, about sins? Nothing at all, not consciously at least and yet… and yet I still felt it all, deep inside. I felt it, and I sang it, and at some point it was as if some invisible string snapped.

I saw it, the exact moment when empty eyes filled up, when light came into them, recognition, like a soul waking up after much too long. The moment those same eyes (blue, so very blue) laid on me, and the exact instant when his mind caught up to what was going on. The scream that came then was so full of horror, and grief, and pain… it was too much for me. I blacked out.

James tried to leave me at least half a dozen times in the following days; and while a part of my mind knew I should have let him. And not even just that, I should have done everything in my power to leave him… I just couldn't. Not sure if it could be considered some form of Stockholm Syndrome. But the simplest truth is that I was painfully aware of the fact that I was completely alone in the world. He was all I had, and regardless of how we'd come to know each other, he had still saved my life, had done his best to look after me in the following days; and I just felt an odd attachment I couldn't quite express.

The last drop (or straw, or whatever metaphor one might choose) came about two weeks or so after my father's death. We were in Boston (I didn't know it at the time, had never been there before, found out afterwards), and James had just tried (and failed) to get rid of me for the umpteenth time (that time he actually tried to get me to the local orphanage: St. Agnes). I noticed just in time to stop the whole thing before any of the nuns there noticed us, pulling him down a different street instead.

"Why are you doing this?" He demanded as soon as we were out of sight, in some shadowed alleyway, a few blocks from the orphanage.

"Why do you keep trying to get rid of me?" I demanded in return.

"Because it's the right thing to do!" He practically snapped at me. "I'm not getting rid of you. I'm keeping you safe."

"It's not what I want. I want to stay with you."

"Whyever would you want that? It's… have you forgotten I'm the reason that your father is dead? That you're all alone now?"

"I..." I swallowed. "I haven't forgotten. But I know that wasn't you, not completely."

"You know nothing..."

"I know! I can feel it..." I pressed the heel of a hand to my chest, not knowing how to better explain it, I was too young, didn't have the right words. "You need me."

"I..." His mix of surprise, disbelief and denial was evident.

And then our argument was unexpectedly interrupted by an attack. A man, dressed head to toe in black, sprinted into the alley, guns blazing, shooting before fully laying eyes on us. James's reaction was immediate, instinctive. He pulled me behind him, even as he used his metal arm to shield both of us from the bullets, waiting until the man ran out of ammo before pulling out a gun of his own and shot. Just once. That's all that was needed.

"Come on." He announced the moment he holstered the gun again. "We have to go."

"I'm not going to St. Agnes!" I stated loudly.

"No, you're not." He agreed, very quietly. "They know I'm here, and by now they know you're with me. If I leave you… they'll go after you anyway. So I suppose you'll get what you wanted anyway. Though for the life of me I cannot imagine why anyone would want to stay with the very man who killed…"

"Because you're more than just the man who caused my father's death." I told him, not quite knowing where the words were coming from. "And one day I'll make you see that."

And so our life together began…

It wasn't what most would consider the best kind of life. We couldn't stay long anywhere, not with the risk of his old 'employers' finding either of us; or Child Services getting too 'interested' in me, or both of us. Still, we managed. He'd cover his metal arm with long sleeves and gloves, invent something about a terrible accident in his youth leaving him with scars he'd rather cover up; and do odd jobs here and there. Never anything that lasted more than a couple of weeks. As soon as I was old enough I took over handling the food, buying clothes and anything else that we might need. Also keeping an eye out, in case people began getting suspicious.

Sometimes we posed as father and daughter, even when I got older, I was always small enough to pull it off; but it just didn't feel right. James said it was because of the way I insisted on being the caregiver sometimes. And so, when I entered my teens we got into the habit of posing as siblings. It was easier and people never questioned it; even when with his dark hair and blue eyes, and my auburn hair and hazel eyes we looked nothing alike.

We met a great many people during that time, some more interesting than others. Like Red and Masha, a father-daughter pair that were known around the world as the 'concierges of crime'; also, she was apparently a former FBI Agent, and they owed James a favor, as he'd once been sent to murder Red and he'd purposefully failed (it was one of those times he managed to get control before we met). Then there were the Halliwells, in San Francisco, a family of magic users with great power; our first meeting didn't go well, they though James was evil and tried to 'save me'; I disabused them of the notion. It was then that I learned my empathy could be used as a weapon, as I could project emotions, not just sense them. We also came across a young man living in the woods, who claimed he was training to be an agent… he made James uncomfortable so we didn't stay long. And just like those, there were many, many more.

Then, when I was thirteen, things went to hell, again.

When I first woke up after losing consciousness (after having been knocked out, to be precise) the first thing I did was try to assess my surroundings. I was fairly sure it was HYDRA behind my abduction, or SHIELD… whatever the people in that particular place chose to call themselves, to me it was exactly the same. I found myself in a cell, with nothing but a tiny window on a corner. I could see starlight, very slight, but it was enough, it was all I needed. So with that in mind, I sat down right underneath the window and began humming. It was the same song I'd once sang for James, seven years prior; he claimed that song had saved his life, had given him back his freedom, for good. In that moment I didn't really need the lyrics, what I needed was the power I knew I was capable of imprinting into my songs. I focused on that, and on James finding me, I knew he could do it. He was the best after all.

It took two days, with next to no sleep, no food and hardly any water before I got out of that room. Or rather, they got me out, only to throw me into another, with two other girls, one my same age, the other two or three years older, and a boy that was, if not eighteen, quite close to it. They were all wearing identical washed-out gray-bodysuits, exactly like me; the only variations being the hood the older gal was wearing, and the gloves (that looked almost like gauntlets) that the younger one wore; also, the guy was wearing an honest-to-the-spirits straight-jacket, that looked like it might be made of the same material as the uniform firefighters wore.

"Who are you?" The guy demanded, more than asked.

"Aria." I answered simply. "You?"

"Hellfire..." He hissed with a predatory smile, and I could sense the barely leashed fury, he was going to attack me any second.

"Leave her alone!" One of the girls snapped.

To my surprise, it was the youngest, the one that was about my age, she stood perfectly straight, staring at the guy until he gave a step back; which surprised me even more. It was almost as if she had some kind of authority over him, ridiculous as that might sound.

"I am Daisy." The girl turned towards me then. "This is Raina… and he's JT."

"Where are we?" I asked, not knowing what else to say. "Why are we here anyway?"

"I have no idea why you're here." Daisy stated. "We're here because we're the unwated. The kids no one adopted, and someone decided we'd make good soldiers. That is… until someone else came and decided to turn us into experiments instead."

"Experiments?" I didn't understand.

She extended a hand, as if reaching for something, only to wince.

"I can't..." She murmured quietly. "Raina…? I'm sorry, can you…?"

I had no idea what her half-questions were supposed to mean until a moment later, when the older girl pushed back her hood. I had no words. Instead of hair, her head was covered in thorns, like those of porcupine or… no… like those of a rose.

"No idea where here is, exactly." Daisy went on. "We could be in Mars, for all I know. Haven't seen the outside in… almost a year now."

I made my choice in a flip second. So fast it didn't even seem like a choice at all. It was just something that needed to be done, and I was in a position to do it. I didn't even need to say a word; a moment later the girl with the thorns, Raina, her eyes snapped open and she turned her full attention on me:

"You're getting us out."

It wasn't a question, not at all. I didn't even think to question how exactly she knew that, I just nodded. I'd no idea how James was going to find me, but I knew he would, sooner or later; he wasn't the kind of man to give up. He would find me, he'd rescue me, and when that happened, I wasn't leaving the others behind.

Things didn't exactly go to plan, because they never do. It took almost a month for James to find me, though I never stopped believing he would. Every minute I spent awake inside the room I'd woken up in initially I'd spend it humming underneath the window, willing the power inside me to carry the melody to James, so he might use it to find me somehow. I had no idea how such a thing could be possible, but I believed it could.

During the day… things were bad. There were doctors drawing blood, making all kinds of exams. And then there were the so-called trainers. I could see what Daisy meant about them having wanted soldiers. The way they came at me… of course, they never expected me to have the skill I did. And why should they? I knew what most people thought when they looked at me, that I was nothing more than a weak little girl. Somewhat pale, slim, and small (I wasn't even five feet tall!), no one ever expected me to be able to hold my own, especially against opponents much bigger, tougher and more experienced than me. Then again, none of them had the slightest idea of who exactly had raised me during the previous seven years…

Even then, I always made sure to control myself carefully, never reveal too much. I was shocking them enough just by being able to defend myself, the last thing I needed was for them to realize I might already be exactly what they wanted to turn Daisy, Raina and JT into. Or perhaps not exactly, because while I might have had the training, I did not have the instincts to fight, not like James did. Which he actually insisted was a good thing, it meant I was good… he also implied it meant I was better than him, with which I did not agree, but still.

From that first meeting, Raina seemed to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that James would find us, and Daisy held onto that belief. It was until much later that I learned why, they weren't quite human (which I'd already deduced), they, all three of them, were inhumans. They had gifts: JT could control fire (hence him choosing to call himself Hellfire), Daisy could make things vibrate and even shatter, while Raina, aside from being covered in thorns (her whole body, not just her head) could see the future. She knew, almost from the start, that James would indeed find us, rescue us.

Daisy believed in Raina wholeheartedly. The two were close, apparently had been since arriving to that awful place. It was Raina who gave the other the name Daisy eventually, it was apparently her birth-name, which Daisy herself hadn't known, as her parents were murdered when she was still a baby. Raina had known about them, and when her powers had manifested, she'd known exactly who Daisy was… She also claimed Daisy was meant to be a queen, the leader of the Inhumans, like her mother had been until her murder; while Raina was shaping herself into her guardian; the thorns to her flower.

Me… I was a bird, always had been. James called me hummingbird, for my habit of humming almost all the time. I also knew some people had called me songbird before, even if I hadn't the slightest idea as to why exactly.

Life was… complicated for me, always had been. It only got worse since I died (if only briefly) when I was six years old. I didn't understand it at first. To me they seemed to be nothing more than dreams. Also, James had mentioned how sometimes I would become very serious, how when agitated I would mutter in languages he didn't know; and the fact that during one particular training session, when he himself came close to losing control and actually hurting me (he was still learning to control himself when not brainwashed) I suddenly pulled moves on him that he'd never seen, much less taught me.

I wouldn't know when exactly I ceased seeing the whole thing as dreams and realized they were truth, it was a very gradual things. The realization that there was more to myself than even I had known, that I had a soulmate, and a daughter waiting for me in other realms… though only Helena (my daughter) knew about me. My match couldn't even remember I had ever existed; not since his own father had made him forget, when the loss of me caused a breakdown he almost didn't come back from. Sad as I was to know he knew nothing of me, I also understood it might be better that way, at least until the time was right for us to meet again. So I'd be patient. I believed it'd be worth it in the end.

Of course, I had things to keep me busy. First there was our constant moving. Then, after my kidnapping and the Kraken (that was the name of the man in charge of that secret lab), and HYDRA… I came to understand that we'd never be fully free of that danger, and I couldn't imagine spending the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. Which meant there was only one thing that could be done: we had to take down HYDRA.

It was insane, even James agreed, but he also knew I was right. It was the only way we'd ever get the chance to truly live. JT wanted nothing to do with it; in fact, the moment we'd left the burning facility behind he'd grunted his thanks at us and taken his leave. Raina whispering we'd never see him again… The true surprise was when Daisy and Raina decided to stay. Raina claimed it was the right thing to do, for us to be safer, and so we might one day bring HYDRA down, together.

And we made preparations… We got lucky in one area, Helena decided to call in some favor an old friend/acquaintance owed her. A magic-user dropped by while we were in our of our recently established safe-houses (Daisy had hacked the accounts of everyone who'd been in that lab, the Kraken included, and had taken over all their assets, we were using those; as well as those of whatever HYDRA bastard that came after us and James ended up killing to keep us safe). We almost went nuts on him when he seemed to drop out of thin air. Thankfully he didn't take it personal, and still gave us the packages some 'Ancient One' had sent us. For Raina there was a choker, pieces of engraved metal interwoven with pieces of silk; once it was on she looked normal (no thorns), it was only an illusion though. Daisy received a pair of armbands that could absorb her own power, so she wouldn't lose control, or hurt herself; also, if she ever needed a lot of power, she could call on whatever reserves might be in the armbands (there was no limit to how much energy they could hold). I received a mithril nightingale-shaped pendant, that one did not come from the Ancient One but from Helena, and it had been spelled with every protective enchantment she could think of.

We trained for years. The three of us alone, with James, and sometimes even with other people we met. We still had to move from place to place every few weeks to avoid being found by HYDRA. We would also help others when we got the chance. Mutants, metas, inhumans, it made no difference to us. Soon, rumors had started, about the girls helping gifted.

We happened to be in New York in 2012, when the sky opened up and a veritable arm descended. I never knew for sure if it was coincidence or if Raina planned it that way. We did what we could to help, without getting directly involved in the fight. It was the closest I got to my match since the start of my new life…

Daisy, Raina and James found me in the aftermath of the battle, hiding on an alley, behind Stark Tower, crying almost hysterically.

"What's wrong?" Daisy demanded, masking her worry with anger.

"There's… there's something very wrong here." I sobbed.

"What's happened hummingbird?" James asked softly, using the nickname in an attempt to sooth me; it didn't help much, but I was still thankful for his attempt.

"Loki…" I began in a quiet gasp.

"The bastard who lead the invasion?" Daisy asked for clarification.

I couldn't help myself, I let out a whine; my instinct to protect my match fighting against the one that loved my sister.

"He's my match!" I practically whined. "This is not like him. He's not this man. Something… something's very, very wrong!"

I wanted so much to go to him, to fight for him, save him… yet I knew I couldn't. What could I do for him? I had no way to help him. I couldn't fight the Avengers, nor convince them of what I knew to be right; even Loki himself wouldn't have recognized me in that moment. That knowledge hurt, deep inside.

"We'll make it right." Raina assured me, like there was no doubt about it, like there had never been, or could be. "We'll find a way to help him."

I didn't know it then, but Daisy spent the following week hacking everything and everyone until she had just enough to prove that something was definitely off with Loki (talking to himself, eyes changing color). Then she put it all together and sent it to Stark Tower, signing the note explaining the contents of the package as: the Sister of Winter.

That was the first time we acknowledged what some people had begun calling us. The Sisters of Winter, because we were the sisters of the Winter Soldier. Who was a legend in and of itself. Even if most people were going crazy trying to understand how a legendary assassin had become a hero all of a sudden. I was sure the HYDRA bastards must be going ballistic over it all. Their greatest 'asset' turning into an actual superhero…

We had plans upon plans, contingencies upon contingencies. Even then, we knew it wouldn't be easy, but nothing worth it ever is. We trained like crazy for years, and when we decided it was time (more like when Raina told us it was time) we split. Raina called just enough attention to herself to get a small group interested in her; they didn't seem like much at first sight, but they were connected to HYDRA, and the best way for her to get in. Daisy had changed her name to Skye and joined a hacker group called the Rising Tide, in order to keep up with everything going on, and because Raina told us that doing so would call the attention of those who would get her to where she needed to be when it all came down. As for me, I took what was perhaps the most direct route of all (the most dangerous); James hated it, regardless of how many times Raina assured him I'd be alright, that it was the only way for me to be where I needed to be, he still came quite close to calling the whole thing off more than once. In the end, it was my choice. And thus I became an Agent of SHIELD…

Arianna Grayson, that was the name they knew me by. I was registered as an orphan who had supposedly run away from her last foster family, learned to live on her own. Red had even paid one of the favors he owed by spreading the rumor of me having been involved in a couple of his cases, back when he and Masha (back then known as Lizzie) were still working with the FBI, before they were double-crossed and Liz almost died (officially she was very much dead).

So SHIELD gave me a chance, I joined the Operations Academy. I knew that when I first arrived, my instructors expected me to walk away in a week at most, being unable to handle it. I surprised them all, and my reputation grew. I graduated in just a couple of years, and soon many older agents were interested in me, I was known as a genius, fluent in more than a dozen languages (and I was capable of imitating accents perfectly as needed), and I could fight. I didn't like guns much, but that was okay, my forte was in small knives and in hand to hand (jujitsu, aikido and tai-chi). By the time I was 23 (in 2015) I was assigned to the Triskellion in Washington DC.

That was the same year when Skye got 'picked up' by some top secret team; we'd no idea if they were really SHIELD, or secretly HYDRA. Still, that changed nothing, we had our missions, and we'd fulfill them. At least that's what I believed, until I got the message that changed everything:

"They know. I'm safe. Will get in touch later."

Well fuck. I had no idea what they knew exactly. Did they know about Daisy Johnson? About James, about Raina and I? About her being the Queen of the Inhumans? I couldn't begin to fathom her being truly safe under such circumstances. Also knew I couldn't tell James, who was liable to go ballistic if he found out. Since joining SHIELD I'd taken to sending him tips whenever I discovered someone that was likely to be HYDRA and, if the opportunity presented itself, he'd take care of them. It was our way to deal with the problem a piece at a time (or a head at a time, as the bastards were so fond of saying). Still, he wouldn't take it well if there was the slightest reason to believe Skye might be in danger. So I asked Carter for the day off, giving a mild excuse about not feeling well, and focused on getting in touch with the one person who would know how bad things were.

"She's safe." Were the first words Raina said to me the moment we met.

I'd taken the first train out of Washington and to New York, where she was staying for the time being (since the last base, in China, had gone up in flames back in the Spring).

We didn't bother with pleasantries, never had. Mainly because Raina simply didn't see a point to them, and I chose to follow her lead.

"What do they know exactly?" I demanded, still very worried about her.

"They know she's gifted, she was forced to use her gifts to save two members of her team." Raina's words really weren't putting me at ease, at all. "They're not HYDRA."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Raina nodded, made a pause and then added. "There is something about that team… they are pivotal. Their choices will make or break a lot of things..."

"Choices you cannot see." I deduce.

"I cannot see that which hasn't been decided yet."

"And they will not decide until the test is upon them."

I might not fully understand how her powers worked, but I knew just enough. Raina just nodded. Her attention was pulled away a moment later, and I couldn't help but follow her line of sight. We were sitting in a corner of a little cafe, across the street from Mt. Sinai's ER. I couldn't help but notice the young man (early 30's probably) in light blue scrubs, a bit over six feet tall, athletic build, light brown slightly messy hair. I knew exactly who he was: Lincoln Campbell. He was behind the one and only thing Raina had ever requested of the rest of us. She wanted us to save him. When we found him the man was a college dropout, full of anger issues he couldn't really understand and drowning in alcohol. He had also come close to wrapping his car around a telephone pole. Would have if Daisy hadn't used her gift to surreptitiously disable the vehicle before anything could happen.

It wasn't easy, intervening without being discovered, but we managed. We got him into rehab, and then made arrangements for him to get a scholarship to return to med-school. In another city so he might start a new life. Seemed he was doing well.

"Will you ever tell him?" I asked Raina quietly.

"No." She answered without hesitation.

Truth was, it wasn't the first time we had that particular exchange, and it probably wouldn't be the last either. They were a match, we both knew it, and yet Raina refused to do anything about it. He claimed it was because he would never be able to accept her, her true looks. Perhaps in another world… Truth was, Lincoln could have been an inhuman too, he was part of the lineage, but when we met him he just wasn't in the right place for him to go through terri-genesis, she wasn't sure he'd ever be. In another world the two of them had been a perfect match, partners, two of the Inhuman Queen's closest friends… that wasn't our world.

Our world was one where the Inhuman Queen lived in secret. She did her best to help her people, even as she regretted having very little to offer them. Where we were playing with fire, joining and infiltrating organizations with the hope that we might somehow manage to make things better. A world where we risked our lives every day, hoping it might be worth it in the end. Where I hoped I might live long enough to meet my match again, to have him remember me, remember our love… that was the world we lived in.

"It's better this way." Raina concluded.

I wasn't sure I agreed, but then again, it wasn't my choice to make. I had no choice to make on that front, not while my match remained a world away. The closest we'd come was when that mess in London had happened, in late Spring, though I had been with Carter on a mission in Argentina at the time.

Something else occurred to me right then, though I never got to ask the question.

"Soon." She murmured, not really looking at me. "The time's coming soon."

I nodded, just once. Then, after one final sip to my tea I took my bag and left the cafe. I needed to catch a train, make sure I was ready for work the next day. The visit was very short, but it had been worth it: my little sister was safe… didn't mean I wasn't going to ream her out for nearly giving me a stroke with that message!

It was almost funny, in a way. How alone I once was, yet no more. When I was six years old my father was killed, and with him gone, I had no more family left, I was totally alone in the world. Yet the same man who was (unwillingly) responsible for that, also saved my life (willingly) and not only that, he was also the cornerstone upon which my new family had been built. A family that might not be so by birth, but that was alright. It was like that old saying I'd read once in an old book, about phrases that had been misinterpreted through the years. My favorite was the part that went into the origins of the phrase "blood is thicker than water"; how most believed it was about family being more important than acquaintances or friends; when in fact it was the exact opposite. Perhaps not the acquaintances, but some friends (the kind of friends you risked life and limb with and for) could end up being more important that the family you were born to. In the end, it was family, perhaps not a traditional one, but still. Raina and Daisy were my sisters, James was my brother, and that was all that truly mattered.

xXx Skye's POV xXx

"The hardest thing in this world… is to live in it."

I could never remember who said that quote exactly, probably something I watched on TV when I was a child. Even back then I had no doubt about how true those words were; and I hadn't gone through even half of what I would in the following decade!

One of the Unwanted, that's what I was, what some people called me. I'd been an orphan for as long as I could remember, and not only that, but the kind of orphan that never stayed long in one place; I never spent more than two or three months with any given foster family or in any group home. They never wanted me. And then, when I was thirteen, someone decided that meant I was disposable, that no one would miss me if I were to disappear. And so I was sent, along with ten other children, to a secret facility in the middle of nowhere.

That place… it was hell, worst than any stories the nuns of St. Agnes might have told us. At first they trained us, like they were expecting us to become their little army… then, something seemed to change. Some had already died, those too weak to survive the insane training. But that day… that was the worst of all. When they locked us all in that windowless room and then dropped that blue and gray crystal through a hatch on the ceiling. When the thing broke… there was mist and dust, and suddenly there was something like rock covering us all…

I saw some of those around me turn to stone, which then broke into pieces. I was absolutely terrified. As the rock covered my mouth all I could think was that I was going to suffocate… or maybe I was going to fall into pieces as well. I was so beyond fear that I didn't even notice when I was no longer just shaking, but everything and everyone around began shaking with me.

Eight of us went into that room that day… until three of us came out. Forever changed.

Raina, she was fifteen (or at least she was when we first arrived to that place), had apparently been living mostly on the streets until a group found her, took her to the orphanage, supposedly to help her. Instead she found herself part of our group of Unwanted. The first time I saw her after the mist, she went straight for me. I was so shocked by her changed appearance, the long thorns covering her head, and the smaller ones on the backs of her hands, as well as parts of her face, neck, collarbone and arms (it almost looked like some very odd armor…) that I didn't move.

"Daisy Johnson..." When the words crossed her lips they sounded odd, almost like a prayer.

"What…?" I didn't understand, wasn't her name Raina?

"That's your name." She clarified calmly. "Daisy Xiuying Johnson, daughter of Calvin and Jiaying Johnson."

"How do you know that?" I couldn't help but demand.

"Because I've seen it, I've seen you." Raina answered honestly.

That's how I learned about her Sight, the truest gift the terri-genesis had given her. It did not help when learning that I could make things shake… and JT was pyrokinetic.

Then there was Aria… she took us all by surprise. The way the Kraken's minions literally just dropped her on us like that. She was so small… and yet the way she acted, at times she seemed older than even JT (who was actually the eldest of us). She was gifted too, though it took us a while to understand how it worked exactly. The way she stood up against our 'trainers', I wasn't sure if she was being incredibly brave or terribly stupid. And then Raina had that vision, and those words: "You're getting us out." I was so tired, so absolute exhausted I wasn't even sure if it was worth it to feel hope, and yet there it was, without me being able to quite help it.

Almost a month later we were out. As it turned out, the Kraken had been so confident in his own power, after everything he'd done in the past, to my own mother (I did not find out that part until later on though, made me regret not ending the bastard's life myself); it never occurred to him that one day his 'experiments' might fight back. Might actually win.

We could have never done it without James, of course not. We did fight back ourselves too though. Seeing Aria that day… I realized that what she'd revealed to our 'trainers' thus far was practically nothing compared to what she was capable of. It was obvious she didn't like it, hurting others, and she drew the line at outright killing. But she didn't flinch back when James, or one of us did it. Never saw us differently for wanting revenge.

JT took off the moment we were free; it didn't surprise me, nor the fact that Raina said we'd never be seeing him again. I could only hope that'd be his choice and not because something bad happened to him. Us sticking around… it wasn't a conscious choice at first. I just… we felt safe with them, with James and Aria, and they didn't seem to mind. James was clearly surprised, but even then he effortlessly extended his protection over to us. It felt right. For the first time in my life I had a family…

And then HYDRA went and tried to take it away… again. Deciding they needed to be the ones to go, permanently, it really wasn't a hard decision to make. Not for me (not for any of us). Training to fight (hand to hand, weapons and gifts), when it was something we were choosing to do, proved to be easier than I ever imagined possible. We each had our strengths: Aria was agile, never where you expected her to be, and quite willing to let her opponent tire out, only to strike when they least expected it. Raina took advantage of her Sight to predict her opponents' moves, which meant she pretty much won the fights before even going into them; and if she had the slightest inkling that she might not win she was willing to cheat. I was strong, and my gift allowed me to put a little something extra when I considered it necessary, and to shield myself too. All in all, we were good.

We first met Gordon a few days after leaving the Kraken's facility. We were still recovering and after seeing the place where we'd been, where Aria had been, James was on such a hair trigger that the moment Gordon popped in James almost tore his head off with his metal arm. It was probably a good thing that Gordon could teleport. And that he respected James's desire to protect us all, as he didn't take the reaction personally.

It was Gordon who told us everything about inhumans, terri-genesis, the Kree, Afterlife. About my parents, their deaths, and the consequences that had had. The fact that the inhumans had lost their queen and their safe haven in a matter of days, and even after so many years they still wandered, with no protection, no true home. I wanted to help them, even if for the longest time I had no idea how.

It was Aria's idea in the end. We still had to keep moving, but we decided to do more than just move from city to city, do odd jobs and train in our free time. We also began looking for gifted (my main focus was on inhumans, but we were willing to help anyone who needed us), we aided them as much as possible. Using my growing hacker skills I'd taken possession of all the Kraken's assets, and then kept doing the same with those of other HYDRA lackeys that James 'dealt with' through the years. We used that money to set up safe-houses across the country. Places not just for us, but also for the gifted who had nowhere to go, no one to trust.

That was probably how our fame began. Not just as the Sisters of Winter; but I knew some had also begun to acknowledge me as the future Queen of the Inhumans… wasn't sure how I felt about that. I wasn't ready for that kind of responsibility, wasn't sure I'd ever be and yet… and yet my people deserved the kind of security they'd had with my mother, and I was willing to go great lengths to give it to them.

By the time 2012 came around, with the freakish aliens and the heroes that defeated them (the Avengers) we were mostly ready. Aria, going by the name of Arianna Grayson, had finished the SHIELD Ops Academy with flying colors and was set to begin working officially as an Agent a few days later; Raina was waiting for her in, which she claimed was coming; while I'd found my own in with the Rising Tide for the time being.

Of course that was after doing my good deed of the year by making sure someone (the Avengers, to be more precise) would realize that something was very wrong with my sister's match (that being Loki) and he needed help, rather than punishment. It worked (of course, if that had failed I'm sure we could have gotten to him and gotten him out before they ever took him off planet… but thankfully that wasn't necessary).

Matches were a messy business, as far as I was concerned. There was Arianna with Loki; and boy was there some insane history between them. Past lives (or life, at least one), marriage, daughter, promises of eternal love, the whole she-bang. The problem? He didn't remember her. Then there were Raina and Lincoln… they were a whole other mess I'd long since decided not to get involved with, at all. Lincoln might technically be a potential inhuman, but as long as he did not go through terri-genesis he wasn't my business. Of course I never expected to one day meet mine, or how much of a mess we'd end up being (probably should have, though, considering what my sisters were already going through).

When Grant and I first met it was a disaster of near-epic proportions. It was early 2013, I was in Singapore (with some help from Gordon) in my 'sister' persona (which meant a long black wig, emo clothes and either speaking Chinese, or English with a Chinese accent, I also went by Daisy then, rather than Skye). I was meeting with a group of inhumans who were trying to get out of there since rumors had started that the government might approve a registration act soon. While Gordon would be the one to actually get them out of the country, the leader of the group had insisted on meeting me. I knew there was a chance it might be a trap, but I just couldn't ignore my people calling for me, so Gordon and I agreed on signals for him to pick us up, one in case of emergency; the other in case things went so much to hell that I ended needing backup (meaning my brother and possibly my sisters).

It was a trap, as it turned out… or, some might say, half a trap. The inhuman who had called us, Haziq, he had serious issues. Apparently some relative of his had made him go through terri-genesis, because they were supposed to be a proud lineage and all that… but the guy had bought into all the anti-gifted propaganda several governments had been spouting since the late nineties. It had made it so the guy had so much self-loathing even I could pick up on it, and I wasn't an empath. Also, he somehow believed he was doing a service to the world by arranging for not only me, but those who'd taken the risk and trusted him, to be caught.

I called Gordon to get the innocents, the ones actually trying to get out of the country, while making sure that neither Haziq, nor any of the 'men-in-black' kind of men arriving would be able to get them. It turned into a pretty bizarre version of catch-me-if-you-can. I was winning.

A signal from Gordon right before he popped away with the last two innocents (a pair of children not even ten years old) warned me that he wouldn't be coming back. He'd reached his limit on the number of long-distance teleports he could do; which meant I'd have to find my way out. That was alright, I could do it.

With quick, swift motions I took off my jacket, turned it inside out and put it on again (to change the color). Pulled on my ankle boots so they reached all the way to my knees and then pulled my hair (or wig) out of the twist I'd pulled it into, adding a beanie to change the look just enough. I managed to evade two patrols, when things got serious. SHIELD (or HYDRA, whichever) had just arrived. And they had a thermal detector; which meant that they knew who I was and about my power (the fact that altering vibrations also changed the temperature). So I focused on locking down my powers as much as I could as I did my best to slip away undetected.

I had almost reached the limits of the cordoned area, when something called my attention from the corner of my eye. It was Haziq, I wasn't paying too much attention, but apparently he was yelling something about the government not keeping up their part of the deal? Like they had promised to 'save him' if he betrayed us. As if the change he'd gone through could be undone. Didn't he understand some things one just couldn't come back from? We were what we were (inhuman) and he also was what he was (a traitor). The moment he understood, for good, that they weren't going to help him, that they'd never intended to; he went nuts.

As it turned out, Haziq's ability was to make things (and people) explode. It was… shocking, and horrifying, and downright sickening. He killed half a dozen men before anyone could do a thing. And even when they did their best to move against him… apparently they had orders to capture, rather than kill, and none of them really had the resources to take an inhuman with such power down. I could see, with terrible, perfect, clarity the moment he turned to the next agent. He was younger, one of the youngest there, his hair was a dark brown, and I couldn't help but notice that he was wearing a brown leather jacket over the tactical clothes. My chocolate brown eyes met his (the same amber-brown of whiskey) for just a moment… I was moving before I was fully aware of it. Haziq went flying to a side, losing focus on his power before he could kill anyone else. Of course, my own actions meant that I'd been noticed, all attention turned to me. I didn't even give them the time to turn their weapons my way, I spun around and ran.

Two blocks later I found myself surrounded by high-rises. I didn't even have to think about it as I threw a wave of my power straight up, shattering glass all around, letting it fall on the vehicles pursuing me; hopefully no one would die, though I wasn't too concerned in the end. If it came to them or me, I'd always choose to save myself (which did not explain why exactly I'd risked my life so save one of those very same agents… but still, I chose not to focus on that part).

I managed to run half a dozen blocks more, when something completely unexpected happened. I knew there were still vehicles behind me. The glass might have delayed them, but it wouldn't stop them forever. What I wasn't expecting was the bike approaching me, and from a different street. I was forced to stop running as it came to a halt right in front of me.

The first thing I noticed was the brown leather jacket, the second the whiskey eyes staring holes at me through the helmet.

"Get on!" He yelled, over the roar of the bike.

"What…?!" I was taken so completely by surprise I had no idea what to do.

"Unless you want those guys to catch you and do a lot worse than kill you get on the freaking bike!" He yelled at me.

That certainly got me going. I jumped behind him, right as one of the black vans rounded a corner at great speeds, just two blocks away from us. It never reached us as, with a kick, we were in the move but a fraction of a second later. Almost carelessly I sent a wave of my power to the street just behind us. It wouldn't do too much, damage the asphalt, hopefully crack it just enough to either force the van to stop, or at least make things a bit harder for them.

"Hold on!" He ordered as he took a turn so fast we were almost parallel with the street for a moment there.

I did as told.

We made it to some dock and onto a small boat I was quite sure was used for contraband, right as it was taking off. I did not care about such details, only that it was taking us out. I had no idea how exactly he managed to convince them to take us, but he did.

It took us somewhere between fourteen and sixteen hours to make it to Jakarta; couldn't be sure, as I spent more than half the trip sleeping, and the other half singing whatever piece of song came through my head. It was until near the end of the trip that I finally dared face my rescuer.

"Why?" When he just stared at me I was forced to clarify. "Why did you save me?"

"You saved me first." He pointed out. "I was just evening the score."

"You were with them, one of them… one of those who wants to use us, to imprison us, torture us… own us."

"And still you saved me." He made a pause before adding, more quietly. "I am who I am, and I do the things I do, to pay a debt I owe. I owe my loyalty to someone who's done much for me but… what they wanted to do to you, but especially to those children… I couldn't be a part of that. I never could."

"In the name of my people. Thank you."

"Your people…?"

"I suppose we never did get the chance to introduce ourselves." My tone turned impish as I announced: "Daisy Johnson, Queen of the Inhumans."

"Queen…?! That's impossible. SHIELD would know…"

"My people have spent more than twenty years marginalized, fighting to survive in the shadows. Our whole way of life was destroyed years ago, our Queen and our Sanctuary taken from us."

"But you just said…"

"She was my mother. I came into my inheritance late. But now I'm doing my best to make things right. I will protect my people. And you must know, that's likely to put us at opposite sides of the board. The people whose orders you follow… they will never allow us to live freely."

"No, they won't." He seemed to make a sudden decision. "I will be no part of that. But I will not betray them, either."

"Not an easy choice to make." I admitted. "And you must know, that won't last forever. Sooner or later, you will have to choose."

It's not like I was expecting him to choose me, that would have been ridiculous, and yet… and yet we both knew life would be much easier if we eliminated the other. Even then, neither of us tried.

A whistle announced our arrival to our destination. I got on my feet without a word, instinctively knowing our truce was over, it was time we each went our own way. It took me completely by surprise when he called to me, right as I was about to step off the boat.

"Grant Ward." He announced. "My name, in case you were interested."

Grant Ward… I never forgot his name, or his eyes. It (he) still took me completely by surprise when we met again in LA almost two years later.

He didn't recognize me, of course he didn't. My hair was honey brown, wavy and I wasn't wearing emo clothes (I actually favored knee-length skirts or jeans, tops and sometimes vests and ankle boots). He didn't know me, but I certainly knew him.

It was pretty much his fault that I couldn't help but see the whole team as HYDRA minions at first. And by that time we'd all learned the difference between SHIELD and HYDRA. I had no reason to think otherwise, after all, Ward was HYDRA, and he was part of the team… whose leader was a man that was legally dead! Also, Gordon remembered May, and what had happened in Bahrain, and while he didn't exactly blame her… that coupled with her attitude towards me didn't help matters any.

And then they believed in me. When that whole mess with Chan, and Miles, the Rising Tide and Centipede took place… the team believed in me. Like no one other than James and my sisters ever had. (Also, Raina had almost had to break her cover and in the end I had to secretly call Gordon, but we did manage to save Chan) So I began trusting them. Told them a little about myself, they already knew I could fight (that secret came out pretty fast, my third mission in, the second officially with the team, in Malta); they learned about my time in the foster system, and that I'd 'escaped', that there were those I called family, and whom I loved more than anyone else. What they didn't know was who exactly my siblings were, about my condition as gifted, or my time in the Kraken's labs.

Then they found out I was gifted. Aria gave me a verbal lashing for the ages after that one. Then again, sending her a text saying nothing more than: 'They know. I'm safe. Will get in touch later.' probably wasn't the best idea. Still, I was a bit busy, trying to finish a program that would allow me to have a private conversation with the team, on the Bus, without there being any record of it. Also, I had no idea how to even begin to explain to her that I was going to reveal (most of) my secrets to a group comprised of SHIELD Agents (while they might not be exactly evil, we didn't much trust them in general, either) and at least one confirmed HYDRA minion. In the end I still didn't tell her the last one.

While I wouldn't know if they understood, I did believe that they accepted me. They didn't flinch away from me for my status as a gifted. Also, as AC revealed later on to me (after asking for permission to do so) his lover was gifted too, a mutant… she was also the Queen of Hackers (for obvious reasons I focused more on that part): Darcy Lewis, Wallflower, TaserQueen… I almost squealed at the prospect of some day hopefully meeting my role-model.

That was also, perhaps, the first time I wondered if we might not be going about it the wrong way. James, Raina, Aria and I were so prepared to do battle to bring down HYDRA… we had gifted allies across the country, and in several key places around the world, but had never even tried to actually find allies inside SHIELD itself, believing it to be pointless. Even after seeing that SHIELD and HYDRA were not the same, it just had never occurred to us. And yet, being with the team, I just couldn't fathom them agreeing with the status quo if they knew what was going on… then again, I couldn't imagine Robot being HYDRA, yet I knew that's exactly what he was, what he'd been long before we'd both joined that team.

Grant Ward made things so much harder… On the one hand, he was HYDRA, I knew that, had known it from the start; which made him my enemy (something that had been well established even when we were still in Indonesia!). On the other hand… he'd saved my life, back then, and again, time after time, and not just mine, but all of us in the team. He was part of the team and just like I couldn't imagine seeing AC, FitzSimmons or even May as an enemy, I was having trouble seeing him as such.

When AC was kidnapped, but especially when I found out exactly who kidnapped him, I almost went ballistic. The only silver-lining in that particular thunder-cloud was that Raina sent me a coded message with the exact location, and made sure to stall the others long enough that, aside from being drugged, nothing happened to AC. Also, she made sure to send Mike's family to one of our safe-houses when HYDRA minions in SHIELD gave them up to Centipede. Mike himself was saved by none other than AC's lover (another person who was supposed to be dead).

Using dropping points James then sent Mike a package, a phone that included a video recorded by his son, sister and niece, where they explained they were safe. It also had a blocked contact saved, so Mike could get in touch with them (James had obviously known the video wouldn't be enough) the whole thing had been encoded to the best of all our abilities (we had several such phones, which we tended to give to our most valuable contacts).

Life got even more insane after that. With us going after Centipede, even as we tried to discover why exactly AC had been kidnapped, how they'd gotten their hands on Mike's family (I knew that one but couldn't exactly share with the class…), only to then lose them. In those days I kept remembering that quote from some old tv-show: The hardest thing to do in this world… is to live in it. And I just knew it was only going to get harder…

xXx 3rd Person POV xXx

If someone were to ask Skye when it all went to hell, she'd say that it was in that mission to Italy, when Quinn tried to kill her and she ended killing him instead. If asked, Arianna would say that it happened when Nick Fury finally sat up and took notice about everything that was wrong with SHIELD (starting with Project Insight and ending with Alexander-freaking-Pierce). As for Raina, she would tell them all that things went to hell long before any of them were even born!

In Washington Arianna was so stressed out she was sure people were beginning to pick up on it. Ever since Carter had been sent on that solo mission to spy on Steve Rogers, Arianna had been left to work in an office in the Triskellion. She hated it, sensing all those people, so many of whom had such darkness inside them that she couldn't help but feel it… it all came to a head when the ringing of her phone woke her up in the middle of the night in early May of 2016. It was a loud and incredibly obnoxious ringtone, rather than the piano scales, wind-chimes and flute notes that she favored most of the time. That was on purpose, the sound was enough to wake her up completely in less than five seconds; it also announced that the call came from Raina. And her Seer sister calling in the middle of the night was enough to raise all kind of red flags.

It was even worse than she expected, Arianna didn't even get the chance to say hello before Raina was listing an address and telling her to be there in her 'sister persona' in less than an hour. Aria didn't question anything. She was already on her feet before the call even disconnected. Her 'sister persona' consisted of a platinum blonde wig with the hair combed in pigtails, a semi-translucent top, short dark skirt and heels; she also adopted a British accent when talking.

She got to the specified address in her Vespa, making sure to leave it hidden in some brush nearby before entering what she assumed to be some long-forgotten base. She was actually very disappointed when she managed to get deep into the base without anyone noticing her presence. She in fact found Nick Fury, unconscious (and from what she could tell, alive by little more than a miracle) and was halfway through healing him before she was found out.

"Step away from him!" Maria Hill demanded, in her coldest voice. "Now!"

"I won't do that." Aria answered evenly. "And if you even think about drawing your weapon agent, you will force me to defend myself, which will waste both of our times, and energy, both of which are better used in making sure your boss gets better all the sooner."

"She's healing him…" The one who seemed to be the doctor of the facility breathed out in shock.

"That's impossible." Hill shook her head. "No one possess such power!"

"Why? Because you didn't know it?" Aria scoffed. "SHIELD also believes psychics to be legend, and seers myth, doesn't stop them from existing either. And I know because I've met them. You haven't because most gifted know better than to let people from your… organization get so much as an inkling they exist. Such revelations haven't gone well in the past."

"And yet here you are..." Were the first words to come from Fury's mouth as he woke up.

"And yet here I am." Aria agreed. "At the insistence of someone I respect. And because I believe, at least for the time being, we want the same thing."

"And that is?" Hill still wasn't buying it.

"HYDRA gone." Arianna declared, resolute.

That certainly made them all stop and take notice.

They talked for a while. Aria did not tell them who she was in her 'day life', and they knew better than to ask. She was sure at least one of them had deduced she was one of the Sisters of Winter, but that wasn't mentioned either. It was approaching dawn when Aria decided it was time to take her leave. She still had to get to the office before someone took notice of her (or rather her absence, it wouldn't have been good either way).

"When you need to get in, call this number, and I'll let you in." Aria stated, just before taking off, giving them the number of her encoded phone (the one SHIELD didn't know of).

They did not ask her how she'd do that, Aria wondered if they might suspect. It changed nothing though. At least things were happening, finally. Hopefully they'd be over fast, and then she and her siblings could finally get on with their lives, in peace.

xXx

Somewhere in the North Atlantic Skye was cursing up a storm. Things had escalated, and not in a good way; she was quite sure that it had all started in Italy. That freaking mission! She'd known it was a bad idea, going in on her own (after giving Fitz an important but safe enough task); yet her pride had been too great. She wanted to get Quinn, needed to, after everything the bastard had done, to Dr. Hall, but especially to Donnie… that mess had hit way too close for the (secret) Queen of the Inhumans, the memory of her time in the Kraken's Lab…

So she'd gone into Quinn's villa on her own. Systematically taking down everyone she found with her ICER (those guns were pure-genius and she was going to have to convince FitzSimmons to make one for her sister, it might just be the kind of gun she was willing to wield). She was doing good, if she said so herself, until Quinn's personal bodyguard (or something) managed to catch her completely by surprise when she got to the cellar. Deprived of her gun, she was forced to listen to Quinn's overly dramatic villainous speech (she hated those, had heard one too many from all the 'men in black' who believed they'd finally be the ones to take down the Queen of the Inhumans… not to mention those after her 'just' for being one of the Sisters). The second surprise came when, instead of ordering her bodyguard to get rid of her, Quinn aimed a gun at her himself (she so hadn't seen that one coming).

Skye's actions from that point on were completely instinctive: with a wave from one hand the gun in Quinn's hands fell into pieces; before the last one touched the ground she was already using her other hand to send the bodyguard flying, making sure he'd crash against the brick wall hard enough to knock him out. In the time it took for that to happen Quinn was already throwing himself against her. Skye honestly had no idea what he thought he was doing, the gun was lying in pieces at his feet, and he really didn't look like the kind of man who could kill with his bare hands… that didn't change a thing, not really. In the end her instincts were stronger than her, the moment Quinn threw himself at her, Skye's gift rose to protect her. Quinn was dead long before his body hit the floor, blood pooling beneath him very fast.

One look at him told Skye what exactly she'd just done: she'd vibrated him, hard and sudden enough to make something inside him burst. Quinn's body looked alright, except for how he was bleeding from practically every single orifice; but she was sure that if someone were to do an autopsy on him… it wouldn't be pretty. The one and only time she'd used her powers like that before was on the very night they'd escaped the Lab, on a minion who'd been in the process of strangling Raina to death when she found them. Daisy hadn't even stopped to think then, her desire to protect her sister so strong… nothing could have stopped her. That one had been worse; much worse. She'd never forget it; had promised herself not to use her power in such a way again. It had given her nightmares, made her fear herself for a long time, and now…

Skye couldn't help but being sick right then. The realization of what she'd just done, and not just that, for the fact that she couldn't bring herself to honestly regret it. Quinn had been a monster, the worst kind of monster; and chances were that if he hadn't died, he'd have found a way to hurt even more people before the end. Skye hated that she was able to hurt another so much, so easily; yet she couldn't regret having done it to someone like Quinn.

Her team found her about a quarter of an hour later. Crouched by the cellar's door, shaking; trying to come to terms with what and who she was…

Skye was terrified, and it wasn't even just what she'd done, that part she could more or less deal with. It wasn't like she was going to let herself die! (Though she'd have preferred it if one of her sisters were around, to help her through it). She was afraid of how the team would react, but while May and AC sent a few odd looks her way, Ward and FitzSimmons seemed to just be so absolutely relieved that she was alright… she was thankful for that.

Of course, the fact that less than a week later they were up to their ears in trouble with Centipede Soldiers and the Clairvoyant might also have given them a reason to put Italy behind and focus on the matter at hand. Going against those Soldiers… Skye was so glad they'd managed to save Mike from such a fate, and his family; at the same time she couldn't help but feel terrible for the men going against them, the ones they hadn't been able to save, and their own families. She also couldn't help but be reminded of her own brother and his status as the Winter Soldier.

Ward killing the alleged Clairvoyant didn't surprise, or affect Skye. If she was honest with herself she knew she'd have done the same if that man had ever made such threats against those she cared for. Knew AC and May were having a hard time dealing with it… but then again, they liked seeing things in black and white most of the time, the Inhuman Queen knew better (also, perhaps being half-raised by a not-so-former assassin made her biased…).

Discovering that the Clarivoyant was still alive wasn't that much of a surprise, nor was the fact that he was a SHIELD Agent (more like HYDRA, clearly, but the point remained). May's apparent betrayal of the team… that was one thing they definitely did not see coming. Less than an hour later, with May 'iced' in the cell with Ward and the rest of them trying to find out what exactly was going on, who was towing the Bus, how and why… even as they get an SOS from Ward's old SO Agent Garrett, requesting help as a set of drones are after him. Skye had to admit she hadn't seem any of that coming.

For a minute or so Skye had no idea what to do. Everything seemed to be going to hell in a hand-basket so fast she hadn't the slightest idea how to salvage anything! Fitz and AC were rerouting some things in order to be able to fire at the drones and help Garrett; May and Ward were in the cell, with none other than Simmons keeping an eye on them, while Mike had been sent to the cockpit to try and get back control of the Bus; while Skye had been given the task to find out why the hell they couldn't get in touch with anyone at the HUB, or at any other SHIELD base for that matter (they'd been on their way to the Triskellion earlier, in fact). Then her phone rang.

It wasn't her usual phone, the one everyone in the team had seen her use; and the ringtone wasn't any of the generic ones she kept on her 'public phone'. No, the tone was actually drums, low and haunting; the moment her mind made the connection who that ringtone belonged to, Skye reacted automatically, pulling away from her laptop to take the call.

"What's going on?! … I'm in the middle of something here. Everything's going to hell and… of course you know, why am I not surprised? …" Her voice turned quieter, somber, as she heard the news a part of her had already known were coming. "I see… Yes, I'm ready." No, she wasn't, not really, everything was insane! But she wouldn't fail her siblings. "Raina… I…" Of course her sister knew what was on her mind before she even said it, or rather who… "You want me to what?! But… Yeah, I will… Thank you sis."

Skye snapped the phone closed, raising her eyes to see Simmons staring at her.

"Skye… what was that?" The scientist asked her, hesitantly.

Of course, because things weren't messy enough already… Skye decided to be as honest as she could, without giving away too much.

"That was one of my sisters." The hacker explained. "Remember I told you about them?"

"They're gifted, like you." Simmons nodded.

"Not the same gift, but yes. We all have abilities. Raina… she… I guess you can say she sees the future, to a point."

"Did she see something about us?"

"Something like that." Skye half-smiled. "I need to do something now, and you're not going to understand, but I need you to trust me okay? Can you trust me Simmons?"

"I… ah… okay." Simmons hesitated, but then straightened up and nodded. "I trust you Skye."

The Inhuman Queen couldn't help but notice how important that was, she was so thankful to Simmons in that moment, and could only hope that what was coming next wouldn't ruin it all.

When Skye then explained that she needed to go into the cell Simmons really didn't like that, that much was obvious and yet… and yet she trusted Skye, and so she opened the door, then closed it behind the younger woman.

May and Ward blinked as they stared at her, clearly neither of them had been expecting to see her, though they could obviously see the tension in her whole body as she stood right there, just inside the room, immobile.

"Skye…?" Ward began, seemingly not knowing what else to say.

For a moment longer Skye did nothing, she could still remember what Raina had told her to do, she still thought it was absolutely insane. Singing was Aria's thing not hers! And yet… her sister had never failed her, and Daisy had never failed to trust her so… she would trust. Before Ward (or May for that matter) got a chance to say or ask anything else, or someone from the outside tried to interrupt her, Skye straightened up, taking a deep, cleansing breath and began singing:

"There's two sides to every story

But I don't know how this one ends

You want fire and you want glory

But there's a struggle that lies within"

"There's a war in my head and I don't understand

How we ended up here

There's a tear in my heart where your lies left a mark

And now nothing is clear"

"Whose side are you on?

Whose side are you on?

War lines have been drawn

Whose side are you on?

Whose side are you on?"

The moment Skye began singing May actually opened her mouth, probably to say something scathing and yet… just a moment later she closed it again. She had no idea what it was exactly, but something in Skye, in her voice, her song, just called to her in that moment. Skye might not have been her sister, her power might not have been in her voice, but sometimes… sometimes power was unnecessary, sometimes the strength, the voice, the feeling were more than enough.

Ward… Grant… he just couldn't take his eyes away from Skye. Something in her was just calling to him. Beyond her song, beyond those words (which were already resonating very strongly with him), the way she was staring at him; the way her chocolate brown eyes stared straight into his whiskey amber ones… He had never noticed how beautiful her eyes were, how big, and deep, and warm… and he knew he'd seen those eyes before; once, years prior, in South Asia…

"Light and dark are intertwining

Standing here face to face

Betrayal burns and there's no hiding

It cuts deeper than a razor blade"

"There's a war in my head and I don't understand

How we ended up here

There's a tear in my heart where your lies left a mark

And now nothing is clear"

"Whose side are you on?

Whose side are you on?

War lines have been drawn

Whose side are you on?"

"Whose side are you on?"

Grant's eyes opened very wide as it all clicked into place. He couldn't believe he hadn't made the connection before, not even when he saw her use her gift. It was so obvious right then.

The song came to a close, and Skye said nothing else. She just stood there, staring straight at him, the last line echoing through the room. Grant didn't stop to think about it, he didn't have to. Instead he just stood and, looking straight at her, gave his answer:

"Yours."

So what do you think?

Skye singing... I needed Skye singing for a variety of reasons. People who read this series know by now that everything that is sung has a reason. Nightingale's power makes it so she can share the essence of the song; Rose to a lesser degree does the same, even if she's not exactly like her, she's still the Nightingale's daughter. With Skye is different, she's not of their blood; but with her I like to show that even for someone without magic singing can be a powerful singing. It's why I had her sing "I Rise" in Finite Harmony, and to be part of the group that sang twice in Infinite Starlight. Hope you liked the message given here. I wanted to handle the Skyeward differently this time. Hope you liked that too.

For those wondering about the middle-name I've given Skye/Daisy. Xiuying is a complex name that can have many meanings, depending how you choose to interpret each half, and how you combine the two. The options are: Xiu meaning "luxuriant, beautiful, elegant, outstanding" and Ying meaning "flower, petal, brave, hero". I like all possible combinations, think Skye is all of them; luxuriant petal, beautiful flower, outstanding and brave, elegant hero, and any and all other combinations you could think of.

As always, full-sized cover and set of wallpapers can be found of DA.

So... in two weeks you'll see how the confrontation in the Triskellion goes this time around. And exactly what Winter and his Sisters have planned for the upcoming showdown...

See ya then!