A/N: Because Agent Carter is ending today and Agents of SHIELD starts again next week and I'm not really sure how to feel about all of this. Mostly because Peggy is bae. So I wrote a little something that I've been meaning to for quite some time. I have problems.

No Man Left Behind

"Skye?"

There was a slight pause in which only crackles sounded in their ears.

"Tripp?"

The same sound resonated around the group of agents gathered around the hole in the ground. If the agents dared to glance up at each other's faces, they would have found the same sinking expression written across it.

"Do you copy? Are you there?"

Another bout of silence followed the first two, and Agent Phil Coulson took a step backwards, letting out a loud sigh. He ran his hands across his head, still trying to recover from his own battles in the underground city.

"They're not answering," Jemma Simmons spoke up, shaking her head in a wild panic spell. "We need to go down there!" Her eyes shifted towards the hole in the ground as if she was debating jumping down there herself.

Melinda May blocked Simmons's path, narrowing her eyes slightly. "That is the last thing that we need to do," she pointed out, folding her arms across her chest. "If anyone was to survive this, it's them."

However, she seemed to be the only one that was thinking that way, as the others stood in silent defiance of the older agent. Leo Fitz didn't move from his shell-shocked position, only stumbled across his words, trying to process what had just happened. "We can't… we can't… just let them… let them…" he tried to say, but everyone knew what he meant.

"Fitz is right," Phil spoke up again, nodding his head. "We're not leaving any men behind. I'm going down after them."

The look that passed across May's face was one of complete rage that he would even consider such an option. "Phil!" she exclaimed before grabbing his arm and dragging him off to the side. If looks could kill, the director would be lying dead on the ground.

"You can't risk exposure to whatever is down there," May continued in a hushed tone. "I… I can't lose you too, not again."

A tiny sad smile passed across Phil's features as he stared down at May with a compassionate gaze. It wasn't often that she expressed her concern for him aloud, but when she did, the rare occasion was worth it.

"You worry too much, May," he said, keeping the smile plastered on his face. "I've survived an Asgardian spear through my heart. I think I can survive a little rock climbing."

Before May could protest further, Phil turned his head and called out to the agents still hovering around the hole in the ground. There was no other option. "Fitz!" he cried, earning the attention of the scientist. "Hook me up! I'm going down."

He strolled back to Fitz's side, allowing for Simmons's help. He could hear a pin drop in the old cavern they were standing in as every pair of eyes was locked on his. No matter what they all thought however, Phil knew that he wasn't going to leave with the two agents still trapped in that underground city.

"I hope you know what you're doing, sir," Simmons whispered, tightening the straps around his center, preparing him for the process to lower him down in the hole.

Phil gave her a reassuring grin as she and Fitz took a step back from him. "That makes two of us," he uttered before he was lowered into the ground.

Once in the underground city, Phil wandered down the different passageways and hallways that had once trapped him in. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. He knew what was down here now, and he wasn't going to give up until he found Tripp and Skye.

"Skye! Tripp!" he called out their names, hoping to hear some sort of response. The director continued his actions, shouting the agents' names again and again until finally he heard another voice in the caverns that wasn't his own.

"Coulson!"

Phil spun around on the spot, hearing the cry and praying that he wasn't imagining things. Being so close to the source of the alien technology that had been affecting him since his supposed death had to do wonders on his brain, but he knew that he had to keep pressing forward. There wasn't any other option, or so he kept telling himself.

"Coulson!"

The cry came again, and this time, Phil didn't waste any time running towards the source. He found a ledged rock wall, one that looked slightly familiar. It took the director a moment to realize that this was the last place where he saw Skye and Tripp. It only took another moment for him to pry the rock wall open, using every last bit of strength he had.

Skye tumbled out from behind the rock wall, collapsing in his arms and letting out frantic sobs. He immediately pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. He had no idea what had been experienced in the tiny cavern that she had been trapped in, nor did he want to know. He had enough alien experiences to last him a lifetime.

"Hey, it's okay," he murmured, running his hands comfortingly over Skye's hair. "You're safe now."

Skye straightened up a moment later, her eyes wide with fear. "No, we're far from safe," she said, shaking her head wildly. "We have to get out of here before… I don't know what's going on. I can't – I can't –"

And as she broke out into loud sobs again, Phil heaved a sigh of his own. There was going to be a lot of repercussions because of this. "I've got you," he whispered. "You're going to be okay."

Skye pulled away from the director, biting her lip, trying her hardest to hold back the tears that threatened to consume her. "Tripp's dead," she managed to say. "And Reyna, she… she turned into this monster."

Phil exhaled loudly, wringing his hands together. This was exactly what he was afraid of, and now, he wasn't sure what to do next. "Where is she now?" he questioned, keeping his thoughts to himself.

"She climbed up the wall and disappeared up there," Skye said, still clearly appalled at the events that just occurred. She pointed to a hole in the ceiling of the cavern that she had been trapped in, and Phil narrowed his eyes. Before everything had fallen to pieces, before he knew that aliens existed – let alone that he had been saved by one, he would have thought that Skye was hallucinating. But now, anything was possible.

Skye paused, turning back to Phil with tears in her eyes once more. "Am I going to turn into a freak too?" she questioned, her voice cracking.

"You'll always be Skye," Phil said softly. "You have too much heart to be anything else." She gave him a weak smile and he held out his hand for her to take. "Let's get out of here."

When Fitz and Simmons finished pulling the two of them up from the hole in the ground, Simmons immediately wrapped her arms around Skye in a hug. Phil took a step back, trying to control his breathing as he processed everything that he just learned. May snaked her way to his side and gripped his hand tightly, silently and gratefully letting him know that she was there for him.

"Skye!" Simmons exclaimed. "Thank goodness you're alright!"

"Are you both alright?" May clarified, speaking up to voice her concerns for the second time that day. It had to be some sort of record.

Phil shook his head, not wanting to say too much to upset Skye even further. "We're fine," he commented. "Skye's just a little shaken. She needs some time."

Skye, however, didn't respond well to his comments. She stepped back away from Simmons and the other agents, shaking her head violently. "No no, what I need is a button reverse time," she cried. "What I need is a do-over switch. I can't live with this… I can't live like this!"

"Skye…" May started to say in a warning tone.

But Skye wasn't done. "You don't understand," she snapped. "Tripp is dead because of me."

"What?" Simmons blurted out. Everyone started to look uneasily from side to side as if they were just noticing that they were minus one in their ranks.

"Reyna is alive and out there more dangerous than ever because of me," Skye continued, her voice rising with every second. "I'm unstable. I'm a loose cannon. I can't be trusted anymore. I should just-" She sobbed loudly, collapsing to the ground as all of the lights popped and sent the agents reeling in darkness.

There was a moment of silence as everyone tried to process what had just happened. It was clear that Skye was not alright.

"Something is very wrong with me," she whispered, the tears rolling down her cheeks. "I… I… I can't do this anymore."

May kneeled down to her side and placed her hand comfortingly on her shoulder. "You can and you will," she remarked. "Because you're a soldier and I believe in you."

At her words, Skye gazed up at her mentor with a grateful glance on her face. However, everyone knew that it wasn't going to be that easy.

"If anyone doesn't think that they can do it anymore," Phil spoke up, directing the attention to himself. "It's me."

Simmons shook her head in protest. "But sir!" she exclaimed. "You've done everything that you could!"

"It wasn't enough. We weren't enough."

Fitz repeated Simmon's earlier actions, objecting to Phil's words. "What… what else could we have… have…"

"Fitz is right," interjected Simmons, knowing exactly what Fitz was trying to say. "There is nothing else we could have done."

There was a long pause, only interrupted now and then by the quieting sobs of Skye, still on the ground next to May. And then Phil heaved another sigh, finally getting his thoughts back together. "No," he said slowly. "But there's something that we can do."

It was several hours later that the team managed to get themselves back on the Bus, trying their hardest to calm down from the day's earlier events. Phil, however, had a plan, one that would assist in their future, no matter what the risk.

He was sitting in one of the Bus's hospital rooms, laying one hand on the railing of the bed and staring curiously at the sleeping patient. The patient had been like this since the arrival, and Phil had been at their side ever since.

Simmons burst through the automatic doors, her hands full of syringes and vials. "Sir, May has Skye contained," she spoke as if she had buckets of information to share. "And I've brought the vials from Whitehall as you requested, but I don't understand. This serum should be destroyed. It only brought pain to Skye's family and to others. It should never be used again, unless in cases of extreme-" Simmons broke off when her gaze finally flickered down to the patient in the bed. Her mouth dropped open, and she clutched the glass vials tighter so she wouldn't drop them.

"Oh my god."

"Simmons, just leave the vials here," Phil tried to reason with her without explaining too much. "I'll take care of it."

"Oh my god. That's – you're not planning on – oh my god."

Simmons was putting the pieces together. If Phil didn't send her away soon, she would never leave. "Simmons, I'll take care of it," he repeated.

She set the vials and syringes down on the side table next to the hospital bed and backed away slowly towards the door. Her mouth was still hanging open in shock, but Phil barely noticed, already directing his attention back to the patient. Simmons accidentally banged her back against the wall before she scurried out of the room, her eyes still as wide as saucers.

Phil heaved another sigh, feeling the breath exit his mouth slowly. "I'm sorry for bringing you out here like this," he spoke to the patient. "I didn't know who else to turn to. I didn't want you to suffer, and we now have the technology so you don't have to." He placed his hands on top of hers. "Please. We just… we just need our Director back."

Phil didn't hesitate to grab the syringes from the side table and injected the patient with serum.

It didn't take long for the remedy to take hold of the patient lying before him, changing the features the same way that it had Whitehall. Phil watched as the older woman grew younger and younger, until he recognized her from the pictures that he idolized in his youth.

The woman coughed slightly, gasping in air as she blinked open her eyes, taking in the surroundings. She stared in confusion at her younger body before glancing up to meet Phil's eyes. She recognized him as the man that had visited her many times in her older age, but seeing him like this was something different.

"Phil?" she questioned, her voice cracking in bewilderment.

Phil, however, only smiled softly towards her, full of happiness that his plan was about to become a reality.

"Welcome back Director Carter."

A/N: CAN THIS PLEASE BE CANON. I STG. I WOULD CRY. AND IT WOULD BE THE PERFECT TIE IN TO BOTH SHOWS. I'M CRY. okay anyway. you know the drill. favorite. review. cookies. I love you all.