"Sir, I'm reading a massive energy signature right on top of us... Wait.."
Coulson blinked as a dot appeared on the screen from nowhere... along with an energy signature he'd recognise from... No, Tony couldn't get here, not like that. And the disturbance read like an overcharged version of the one from the other day...
'Arc Reactor Power 20 Percent and falling, at this rate we will not have the power to bring ourselves to a stop.'
"I know, JARVIS, reroute from life support to the flight wings, disengage repulsor units and go for aerobrake!."
'Rerouting...' Suddenly, she felt the shift in her orientation – odd as it was falling to the ground at beyond terminal velocity while using repulsors to try and slow down despite moving head-first, fully inverted in relation to the ground, only now she was chest-down, her flight wings shaped for both maximum drag and to try to get some horizontal movement to begin gliding down.
It worked, just.
'We have slowed down enough I can provide enough manoeuvring with your gauntlet thrusters, Agent Midnight.'
"Go Ahead..." she spoke, as she aimed her arms just so, and felt the retractable mini-repulsor units in her gauntlets extend and fire up.
'Reactor power now down to 15 percent. In order to safely land, I will have to engage main thrusters long enough, but then the flight pack will be reduced to only five percent power by the time we land.'
She just grit her teeth, and looked out through the inactive VR Glasses and Iron Suit Helmet at the approaching landmass.
She hated unguided flight... or having to rely on JARVIS completely.
"Sir, I have a visual... This is weird."
Coulson nodded, as he raised eyebrows at the distinct 'Iron Man' style armor, though it had... wings... "Anything else?"
"According to this energy signature... He doesn't have long before he runs out of power."
It was coming closer.
Then she felt the jolt as her boots fired up, and the change in orientation as her wings, shifted, putting her into a mostly upright position... and then she felt them fold into her pack, as she extended her arms out in front of her to slow her down as she rapidly-
'I should have mentioned, but while it will be at safe velocities, you will still impact the ground with considerable force.'
"JARVIS!"
Contact.
She looked up, as a familiar figure approached, along with a smaller, female one she didn't.
"Are you alright there, Iron Maiden?"
She couldn't help it. She giggled.
After everything, she giggled.
"Y... Yeah, I am, Thor."
"You know of me?" Thor spoke in surprise.
"More than that..." She winced as she stood, and manually triggered the mechanism to retract the flight pack into storage form, which she then took off, and looked at the man who was looking at it in shock, "And It's not 'Iron Maiden'. I'm Flesh and Blood..." She winced, and looked up, "Just like you... though more like your brother."
"Huh?"
She looked at the girl, and asked, "What's the local date?"
"June 2nd"
She sighed, "Year, please?"
"2011."
She grinned... then looking around grinned wider. "Right on Target..."
"Huh?"
She looked at the confused Asgardian, "Thor... You really need to understand something... something important. If Sif And the Warriors Three appear, you need to tell them to return to asgard immediately. I'd like to join them to say hello to dear old dad, but I got business here on earth first."
"You are Asgardian? Who is your father?" Thor asked.
With a sigh, she looked around, at the distantly approaching S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, "No, My dad was born to a race who become hybrids of whoever comes into contact with them during the first few weeks of birth. He was taken in by an asgardian family... becoming like, 60% Asgardian himself in the process. Right now, he's just found out his origin, and doesn't know that little tidbit, so thinking he's full Jotun."
Thor blinked. "A frost giant? Who is it?"
"... He has the genetics of the people who were in contact with him, which means, a little from the first person who held him... Someone you know quite well, and mostly from the woman who held him the rest of the time, someone else you know quite well... You call them Father, And Mother."
He blinked. "Loki? Loki is a frost giant?"
She sighed, and shouted into his face, "NO! But he thinks he is! He's more Asgardian than Jotun because of that little Jotun-genetic quirk!"
He blinked, "Wait, you are his daughter?"
"Yes... Only if you take pure genetics, and not... origin, into account, you could say I'm the daughter of a lot of people, not just Loki and his wife!"
He blinked. "Wife?"
She blinked... then looked at the girl, "Oh for..." She looked back at Thor, "If I know him, and I'd say I do, He- Wait..." She blinked and frowned as something occurred to her, and she looked up as she muttered, "He's probably watching right now... Hey Loki, if you are, I need you to appear to us right the Hel Now!"
Suddenly, the woman spoke up, "The others already arrived.. Thor, he..."
She blinked, and registered the hammer hung from Thor's, well, his regular clothing, rather than the human ones she'd at least known intellectually he'd worn when he was human.
At that moment the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents she had been expecting arrived.
At the head, was-
She grinned, and greeted, "Agent Coulson, Good to see you... But I need to talk to you and your boss. Bit of a long term Level 12 situation to talk about... But just a minute, I need to speak to my uncle here before he returns home."
She looked at him, and sure Thor was paying attention, she spoke quietly, "Tell my dad, to perform a full genetic scan on himself. As much as he might not like having any genes at all from his Dear ole Father Odin, he DOES have genes from his and yours mother... Genes that you share. He's more Asgardian than Jotun... And another thing... DONT destroy the Bifrost to save the Frost Giants, Thor. I'm from the future, I know exactly why you both need the Bifrost AND need rid of the Frost Giants. Not that I'm happy endorsing Specicide, or planeticide." She shivered... "But that'll be the result anyway. This just avoids a lot of innocent blood shed. And I wont call Jotuns Innocent."
She then moved away, toward the waiting Shield Team, and quickly rattled off a code JARVIS had assured her Coulson would either know personally, or be able to verify.
After a moment, she rushed by to Thor while deploying her armor, and a quick explanation, and everyone was shocked when Thor raised his hammer, drew a lot of power from lightning, and then directed it at the woman in the strange Iron Tech suit.
It retracted and she grinned, even as they were shocked to see makeup effectively drift out from the heat and reveal heavy scarring. "I missed that. Never thought I'd say it but... I missed that."
New York
"So... You're from the future, but your arrival erased, well... your past self?" Agent Coulson asked.
She nodded, and looked out into the large living room where she was glad the twins were safe and sound.
"My memory is a bit hazy... have you met me yet? I infiltrated the Helicarrier in a training exercise, and despite my suit's stealth abilities, you still saw me and damn near defeated me." She felt her jaw, as a ghost of a memory of being punched came to her.
"No, The Helicarrier is still undergoing trials." Coulson answered. "I think I'd remember a power-armor wearing fighter like you."
She grinned, "Oh, it wasn't power armor in that version. It was just the basic suit I'm wearing under this, plus a prototype flight pack. You heard of the EXO-7 pack used by the Military in a pararescue role?" Coulson nodded. "It was more like that, only with flight stabilisers on the wingtips, and the wings were more F-16 ish in shape and rigid, than the continuously variable of a bird."
He blinked, getting the jist of it.
"What was it that Thor did?"
"Thor's lightning attack actually charges the Arc Reactor design Tony made using that new elements of... wait, he has done that part right?"
Coulson nodded, thoughtful.
"Well, yeah it charges, and a single reactor can take a few thousand recharges using that method. With four mini-reactors in my boots and gauntlets, and a full-size reactor in my flight pack, a standard charge can last me a few days outside of combat... or a few hours in regular combat. But the version I would have worn... Next year... didn't have that capacity. In combat? I had to recharge a few times."
"And you wear insulation to not be electrocuted?"
"Not during that battle." She winced. "It hadn't been known about that when it was designed. That's were my scars come from – though I'm lucky that my body adapted to actually use it to insulate me when I'm exposed... as well as provide a, natural circuitry, if you will, so I don't have to use power channels when boosting any of them with power from the others. Dont even feel it when I do that, anymore... though I use my suit's own circuits when in full... costume."
She smiled as Nick Fury entered the room, who frowned at her, as she was without her makeup she normally wore to hide her scarring.
"So it's true."
"Yes."
The scars looked years old, and real, and along with the look in her eyes, Fury knew she had been telling the truth.
"First things first. HYDRA."
Fury frowned.
"First... They're the ones who were experimenting on my as a baby... the ones who kidnapped me a few years ago... and they've been hiding within S.H.I.E.L.D. for years, which is why you never could find the mole." She nodded to Coulson, who she saw figured out that he'd had a part, or specifically, what his prior mission was related to.
"I have a full list of all HYDRA Agents... Both Future Recruits, as well as Current recruits. But I'm not sharing..."
She sighed. "If HYDRA finds out, they'll go into the open and practically steam-roller over our loyal agents. Which is why I'll be going... Off-book, to hunt them down. And We can have fun labelling me as the enemy." She grinned. "I'll also be 'after' Loyal agents," she air-quoted, "to hide the fact I'm targeting S.H.I.E.L.D. Those Loyal Agents will of course, be ones you assign to me and brief." She paused, then looked at Coulson, "And I want AC first."
Coulson blinked, "AC?"
"You don't like people youre not close to calling you Phil, but I hated being all formal with you." She grinned. "And it's a complete reversal of what would have happened..."
"You'd have been on my team?" Coulson asked, "I don't have a team?"
"Not yet, and not anymore... well... Sort of."
Fury sighed. "I'm guessing I can't stop you from going ahead with this?"
She grinned and shook her head... and Fury had the thought that she looked a little... unhinged. If only to keep an eye on her, he nodded. "First You'll have to stafe Coulson's death..."
"That's easy. Just assign him to my Sisters' next mission... I'll be informing her about it all soon and so she'll be able to play her part too."
Coulson frowned, so Skye added, "Agent Romanoff. I have good breeding."
He snorted, then blinked as he recalled what he heard in New Mexico... the look on her face told him FURY didn't know that.
PROJECT PEGASUS
She grinned as she waited near the tesseract. She could feel it. Strongly. It new. And it was telling her to be patient, even as it... warped space around her enough to completely hide her presence, through her Arc Reactors.
'Are you sure about this?'
She hadn't warned Fury, but she had Coulson, as well as the people on her team.
She had a dozen people now. All of whom had been shocked and fought back, but she got them, played like she'd killed them, and then took them to a secret spot where she, Director Fury, Agent Coulson and Agent Romanoff briefed them. They were handpicked as SHIELDS' most loyal agents for her mission, and unfortunately they had to be 'killed' by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most wanted, both as support, for side missions, as well as to hide her true primary mission – to destroy the hidden HYDRA within S.H.I.E.L.D.
They'd been surprised when she'd even arranged for a little fake match against THOR, and pretended that the lighting attack he'd used had in fact hurt her (when nothing could be further from the truth.)
Only three people outside of the team knew her mission. Agent Romanoff, Director Fury, and Deputy Director Hill. The latter hadn't been happy when she walked in on Fury giving her orders to 'take out' a pair of Scientists recently graduated from the S.H.I.E.L.D. AfSaT.
Her team consisted of a handful of names Fury and herself had 'vetted', she having dug into the files she'd brought with and verifying as loyalists. Others, even with that vetting, she'd already known were loyalists. Agent Coulson, Agent May, Fitzsimmons, Triplette (who was fresh from the academy,) Two others she'd met as Agent Rogers a few years down the line who hadn't even joined S.H.I.E.L.D. at this point, they had four years left of military service, already stellar, and another was the would-have-died partner to Captain Rogers' future-friend Sam Wilson, by the name of Riley, who upon seeing her suit in full deployed with wings out, just raised an eyebrow and said 'cool wings'.
She wanted Sharon Carter too, but didn't ask, mainly because she remembered the relationship she'd built with the woman was too... different, and the woman was like a sister. And she wasn't sure she'd get much sleep around the woman who she remembered dying in...
Well.
It was hard enough with Coulson, and her memory of him dying in her arms had been long tempered by years of service with him as her boss – both on the Team, and later with him as Director for S.H.I.E.L.D.
She watched as Loki attacked... and then when it was over, and the place about to collapse, she whistled.
"Hey Dad."
He paused, "What are you doing here?"
Oh, good. He knew who she was. "Pretending to be an enemy of Earth. You?"
"Same."
She grinned.
She stood in the shadows, laughing inside. On the outside, she was silent, as she watched from the sidelines as Tony, Steve, Thor and Bruce all argued.
'We're about to attack' She heard from her Tesseract-mind-altered brother. Through her connection, through the Scepter, to him, she knew that he wasn't so much, controlled, as just playing a part.
She knew these events had to occur.
Forewarned though, her people had already evacuated around Stark Tower, and had Pepper and JARVIS – the local copy who wasn't erased when she came through with her copy of him – agree not to tell Tony.
She left, got through an airlock, and flew out of the Helicarrier, stealth systems on full, and flew up to meet the approaching Quinjet, and boarded.
"Are we all set?" She asked, eyes flicking to someone she knew to be HYDRA. A quick pulse through the Tesseract, and she grinned at it's agreement... this guy would find himself in an accident soon enough.
"Get yourself into position, Midnight."
She smirked as she used her altered repulsors – which gave off a rather green light rather than white or orange – to knock out the people on board, sowing chaos.
She then met Thor, who was on his way to Loki's cell.
She retracted her helmet upon feeling Loki's spell, and spoke up, "Hello... 'Uncle'."
"What are you doing, Midnight, This is madness!"
"Madness? Madness is saving the FROST GIANTS!" With that, she attacked, and shouted, "Madness is letting those who killed my mother Live!"
It was an act, but one she had a lot of fuel for. Part of why she wasn't sad to hear that Thor had been too late to save Jotunheim, regardless of his choice afterall. But he had told Loki what I told him.
Last time we met, Thor told me that Loki had done the spell there and then, while holding on to Thor... and he didn't let go, nor did thor loose his grip.
She fought, pretending madness... only was it an act? She'd seen everything she'd known and loved, destroyed. Destroyed by Thanos, Destroyed by Drak, By the Skrulls, By Ultron.
For a time, she had been in the dark. Then Coulson came to her, not to kill her as she thought, but to tell her she could go back... fix things... With him, was Thor and Loki, the latter who revealed to her her heritage, even if she had figured a lot of it out in pieces, he gave her what was missing... they brought the tesseract, and through it, they could create a portal through space and time, that would take her here. But the portal was dangerous for even those of Asgardian descent, so Thor could not go. But she... she was a hybrid of the Jotun, Asgardian, Vanir, humans, and Kree. The last one brought her amazing regenerative abilities. IT also opened her up to the Rage of Asgardian Berserker Staffs, which she had been part of her fall into darkness.
Finally, she heard the call for retreat.
She looked up with a grin, as Tony came in... looking at her, not Loki.
"Mary?"
"I'm not her anymore... 'Uncle Tony'."
He looked very disturbed by her reaction, even as she looked up and spoke, "When I learned who I'm descended from... oh, I was pissed. But now I see. I am Midnight. I am the Darkness... and from darkness, I gain POWER!"
Suddenly, day turned to night.
Loki looked impressed, but it wasn't anything complicated.
Tony looked up, and blinked in recognition... and almost grinned to himself at her 'little show', as he was one of the ones who knew her Halloween costume.
Then he remembered, and looked down, "Where's the kids?"
Loki raised an eyebrow... and she replied, to both of them, "Safe with Pepper. Coulson's guarding them."
"Isn't Coulson-"
She interrupted quickly, "As for you... ahem Jarvis, now's the time" She spoke up, then whispered to JARVIS. Loki could hear, but pretended not to, as Tony understood. "The infamous 'Iron Man'. Lets see how you fair against me..." And with that, her backpack deployed, and for the first time, Tony saw her full suit... mainly her boot as she kicked him out of the building, even as he was chased by his Mark VII armor in it's independant-flight capable packed form.
She waited long enough, and looked up, "Did he make it?"
'Yes, Miss Skye. Although I must say, were your act real, you would make a most dangerous adversary.'
Loki just smiled as he left, sure that her odd ability to stay hidden from the more, clairvoyant-type abilities of both Heimdahl (which is why he himself could not see her when she first arrived when she called for him, even though he HAD been watching and heard something he couldn't make out) and those of Thanos... so they were safe, sort of.
He'd just enhanced that with her so people responding to her couldn't be seen either, well, sort of. Selective. And thanos just saw his daughter kick Iron Man out of a window, sort of, while not having witnessed that little revealing exchange.
Too bad he couldn't afford the same with any of his people.
She hovered not far from the group.
"Pitiful. Truly Pitiful."
Steve Rogers and Bruce looked up at her, not recognising her, though both clearly wondering at her suit, and the scars visible, her helmet retracted and mask pulled down.
In a more, amused tone, she spoke up, "Seriously, Big Sister," She began, the second and third words in Russian, "They really think that huge army could defeat you lot? No bloody way!"
"You don't think you could win?" Bruce asked.
With that she grinned with her 'mad' grin, and flew up and then turned her gauntlet repulsors against them... and grinned as the Cap's shield deflected them, signalling the start of the battle.
"Shit." She muttered, and sent a mental word to her Uncle for a power up as she flew nearby... allowing him to hit her, and she pretended to falter long enough to be convincing.
Fury sighed as the Avengers talked in the privacy of his little humble abode, Pepper and the two kids who were finding it funny that their grandfather was the 'god of mischeif', bringing the Cap up to speed on who Midnight was, although Tony was confused – she attacked him, but she also sent his armor after him. Natasha was confused, as she knew she was different – the old scars proving that, but while the girl had so clearly acted as the enemy, it was also clear to her, if not the others, that that was what it was, an act.
Barton however, knew something was up, even though he didn't have the whole story... and delivered the shocker that silenced the group.
"The Tesseract knew that their plan? They never intended to 'win'. Everything that The Doc and I learned from the tesseract, when under his spell? We knew the plan was to make it look good, but in the end, we wouldn't win. There was more, but it's... its like the Tesseract only wanted me to know while under the spell, but to forget afterward..."
"I can't help feeling like she was Acting for most of it." Tony added a few minutes later.
"She Was." Spoke a voice that Tony and Barton felt like they wouldn't ever hear again.
"PHIL?" Clint shot up, and hugged the man that had been his SO. " You're ALIVE!? Wait, how are you alive? How do you know Mary-"
Coulson held up a hand, "While I can't answer everything, all you need to know is that Director Fury and Agent Midnight faked my death at her hands, to help set her up as a Bad guy."
"Wait... so..." He looked to his sister, only to see no surprise on her face, "Nat? You knew?"
Romanoff just nodded. "Yes."
"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" Captain Rogers spoke up.
"And me, please? Who is this girl?" Banner spoke up.
They all stared as a form shifted into view, revealing a softly-smiling Midnight, uniform on with armor fully retracted, hood down, mask down, and glasses pulled up onto her hair... and S.H.I.E.L.D. badges on her arms.
"Perhaps I can answer your questions. I am Skye, daughter of Loki, therefore niece of thor." She nodded to the demigod who approached and hugged her softly, before returning to his place near a window, ready to receive lightning for whatever reason. "I am the mother of the two children over there, whom I named after the people who were present at their birth – Natasha Sharon Rogers, and Clint Nicholas Rogers. As you can probably ascertain, the surname is yours, but it was a... hopeful dancing partner, of yours whom was there, to act as their grandmother. She had raised me, and even given me the name she had taken for herself... Peggy Rogers. Skye Rogers doesn't exactly fit, and Skye isn't even on my birth certificate here on earth, though it is the name that my father wanted to give me before I was born. I grew up as Mary Rogers. Indeed, when acting as a regular Agent with my skills, I am Mary Rogers, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D... Nominal Level 6 Clearance, Actual Level 9."
She smiled as she pulled out her badge, and they all saw the current-issue design of shield badge. While the base was standard, every so often the bird in the badge was updated.
"I am assigned missions directly from Director Fury, or if he cannot meet in person, from Commander Hill. But normally, they leave me to my ongoing mission, which requires me to be undercover... As Midnight... A power-armor wearing Supervillain Assassin, who is targeting S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, to kill them."
"So... what are you doing, really? What is your mission?"
She let them tense up, sensing how big her answer would be... and flatly responded with, "I'm sorry Captain, but you and the Howling Commandoes didn't destroy them when you took down their leader. They just went to hide in the one place no one would look."
They all looked between each other, most not getting it, but Captain Pale a little, and spoke, "So your cover... you're actually doing it? Killing S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents..."
She nodded. "Yes."
"Wouldn't they realise?"
She quirked an eyebrow, and looked to Coulson, who grinned. "Not if she was not that discriminate with her targets. And obviously, not all of her... targets... are dead."
"I don't kill innocents." She added. "I also investigate as much as possible before going after anyone."
"So, Pierce, Sitwell, May, They're hiding wherever you put them?" Barton asked... only to see Fury wince.
"Pierce and Sitwell are both dead." She answered simply.
"They were HYDRA?" Barton asked, wide-eyed, finally getting it from how the Cap did.
"Yes."
"I can't believe it... wait... what about May?"
Fury spoke up, "Agent May is alive and well... working on Agent Rogers' Covert team to uncover HYDRA cells not directly employed as Agents inside S.H.I.E.L.D."
Barton sighed, "Thank god."
Skye winced, and at their looks, explained, "Obviously, we can't tip off the agent we've targeted for recruitment when we go to fake their deaths... too much surveillance. Despite not being in the field for a few years, Melinda... has one heck of a right hook."
Coulson grinned as he remembered that.
"How did she get passed your helmet?"
Coulson replied, "Oh, this is after faking her death and waking her up around friendly company, Director Fury included. Once everything was explained, she knocked her on her ass."
"She did not-" Skye began.
"Oh, weren't you complaining for a week about the bruise?"
"The one on my face! Not the- Oh for..." She sighed, and waved a finger in his direction as the agent chuckled. "One day, AC, One day-"
"It's been a year, I doubt that day will come anytime soon."
"Grrr."
This is as far as I'm taking this little bunny. Can be read as a Time Travel' AU to the events of Midnight, but I might not use certain things, so while I'm using 'Midnight Skye' as a basis alone, what I write for the second story set in AoS may contradict things. Hell I just threw in the Vanir thing because I was putting in the first scene, her meeting the warriors three, and hugging the hell out of Sif, and calling Hogun (the asian-looking one from Vanaheim) grandfather, suggesting Loki had married Hogun's daughter in secret and had a child. That backstory would then have been Hogun's daughter being on Earth giving birth, when someone arrives (not Odin, that sort of was used for 'Menel'/'Lokidottir' (which I'm already taking from for the 'Skye is Loki's Daughter' thing, no it's a hydra team) and then later being rescued by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents... The one thing I AM using in the mainline 'Midnight' series is the genetic mimetic thing. Genetic Mimetic. Shweet. And yes, Skye is a little unhinged. Seeing everything being destroyed would do that.