(Authors Note: In the past I have not done a very good job keeping up with my stories, I am going to do my best to keep this one updated and finish it. This chapter has some spoilers in it for those that are not up to date with the series so read with caution)
R/R
Chapter 2
The agents and their guests all met in the loading bay of the jet each one grabbing their own boat except for Skye who had Hashimoto ride with her because they were short on boats. The hangar door opened and they could hear the metal crunching under the pressure of the high gravity. The boats zoomed down the ramp and skimmed on the water. The ground was shaking hard and the water seemed to split in half. The waves crashing across the front of the boats causing water to hit the agents in the face. Coulson signaled Mae to get close, she turned her boat circling around to get right next to his, then he signalled the rest of his team to do the same, once the boats were all aligned he pressed a button causing the boats to magnetize to one another. "This way we don't get lost!" He hollard over the crashing waves. He pointed to land nearby and the rest of the agents pushed on their steering wheels to drive their boats towards the land.
The boats stopped just short of the land mass. It was strangely calmed down. Skye was the first one off the boats coughing and taking in deep breaths. "W..hat.. was… that!?" Coulson came up behind her shaking his head. "I looked out the window and saw below us, there was a glob, and it appeared to be broken open." Ward was the next to step out of the water. "If that's true then maybe what you saw wasn't just in your imagination Skye." "Ohh don't tell me that…" Coulson turned to Skye. "What exactly did you see?" She took a small step forward. "It wasn't clear.. it was like a shadow but it was misshapen.. I think the thing that actually scared me was that it seemed like.. like it was looking through me." Michael had stepped on the shore and was listening in. "Sounds like a heartless." Skye jumped a little not expecting him to be there. "Sorry." He apologized. "Its fine, that just really freaked me out.. I've seen exploding people, an eyelid with a camera and detonator, and even survived the perfect storm.. and I was scared by a shadow." Michael shook his head. "Don't feel bad, its what they do, there are different emotions that draw the heartless in; doubt, anger, and fear. They feed off it. It might even be what gives them shape in the first place. Skye grabbed her arm.. "That's enough to send chills down your spine." Coulson raised his hand to get their attention. "Alright, are we all here?" The other agents gathered round as Coulson counted. "Ok, where are we?" Agent Ward took out a compass out of his back pocket and held it up. "Well, this compass is pretty useless, the magnetic interference is too high but given the suns position I would say that we're somewhere near the coast of California." Agent Mae stepped in front pointing upward. "When we were still up in the air the radar said we were just past the coast. We're still gonna need a ride." Coulson took his phone from his back pocket and started to dial. "I've got a few connections out here.. provided they remember me.." There was silence as the rest of the group caught up. His phone ringing from the other side, then a deep voice; "Hello?" "Its me, I need a ride, no questions…." Silence again. " "I didn't think I would be hearing from you again old friend.. not after what I had heard." "Well, thats complicated, listen, can you get my team and I a ride or what?" Another pause. "Yea sure, where are you?" "We're somewhere near the coast, be careful, I'm sure you've seen the dark spheres? Well, one of them knocked us right out of the sky." "Understood, I'll be there within the hour." Coulson shuffled on his feet a little; "If there is any way you can get here faster, that would be appreciated, time is of the essence." "Understood my friend."
"Its gonna take a little time for our ride to get here, in the mean time, lets search the perimeter. I doubt that we can avoid all little nasty surprises but avoiding most would be… ideal. Skye you and Gemma go that way, as he points east, Ward and Fitz you go north. He brought his finger and pointed at each person. Michael you go with Gemma and Skye, Shinji, you come with me and Mae we'll check out the south end." Each team going in their respective directions
Skye, Michael and Gemma
Skye stepped over a large log leading the small group down the beach. "Are we sure that splitting up was the best thing to do? Gemma asked I mean, I think its been proven that bad things tend to happen when we split up." Skye stopped right where she was and turned around. "Coulson said that it would be best for us to scope out the perimeter to see just what we are dealing with. I trust his judgment, and so should you, he has gotten us this far." Gemma at this point made the mistake of speaking under her breath. 'and the last time we split up.. you got shot' "That was not his fault!" Gema looked up rather surprised, she thought she had spoken soft enough to not be heard. "I'm sorry I didn't mean for it to sound like I was blaming him its just that, we have to look out for each other, and, we have not been doing a very good job of that lately." Skye stomped her foot on the sand making an imprint. "We knew that things like this were gonna happen when we became S.H.I.E.L.D agents!" By this time Michael had caught had caught up with the two and felt the need to interject. "Guys stop! Do you remember the whole thing I said about how the heartless are attracted to certain negative emotions?" He had both of their attention now. He pointed in front of them causing the group to all turn their heads. "What the hell.." Skye started to back away but Michael put out his hand, "hold on, no sudden movements.." In front of them was a misshapen black figure, this one however appeared to be a bit more human like than the one Skye saw on the jet. Its fingers were long like cables, its eyes were bright yellow but its form and size appeared to come close to matching that of Gema. Michael noticed this and tapped her on the shoulder, but she appeared paralyzed. "Agent Gema listen to me, its being strengthened by your doubt look around you, yes you're scared but if you really think about it, you'll realize that you trust these people with your life... if you didn't you would not be on this team!" Just then the deformed creature lashed out throwing its fist into the ground throwing the group off balance as the ground shook and cracked underneath them. "RUN!" The group sprang to their feet running away from the creature. "We have to find a way to out maneuver it!" Skye put up her hand and made a circle motion with her finger; "We'll split up maneuver around and circle back! It can't keep up with all of us.. can it?!" Michael shook his head, "No, its not that powerful, split up!" The group dispersed running in opposite directions across the beach Skye rushed north, Gema headed south and Michael ran east. Skye looked behind her to see if the creature was following, to her surprise it wasn't she could see it in the distance just, standing there, she didn't stop to think about it, she made her way around the path they had all agreed upon, when the coast was clear she slumped herself on a piece of driftwood, She nodded back to him then looked around.. 'where are they'? she thought to herself. 'We didn't go too far...' She was still gasping a little trying to catch her breath. 'Man... I still don't understand why every other mission has seemed like a walk in the park compared to this one... even the one where I almost died... of course, I was asleep for most of that one.' Just then Michael came running across breaking Skye out of her concentration then she saw Gema shortly after. "Are you both alright?" Skye asked. Michael sat down catching his breath while Gema did the same. "Yea we're fine." Skye raised an eyebrow, "Did anyone besides me notice, that thing didn't follow us, in fact, other than punching the ground, it didn't really do anything except stand there." Michael nodded, "actually, I might be able to explain that. In the first kingdom hearts, the heartless were only able to partially make their way into "our world" until the keyblade was truly awakened, it was as if there was a keyhole guarding it and when it was taken, that keyhole was unlocked." Skye shook her head; "Wait, you mean that if we actually go through with what we're doing then all hell is going to break loose?! Why didn't you say anything before!." Michael put his hands out trying to gesture her to calm down. "Because, you saw, the heartless brought down the jet, and one of them took a form that resembled one of your colleagues, so obviously they're still gaining power, and the only way to truly stop them is to get the keyblade and use it."Skye looked down and nodded. "Yea, I guess you're right." Just then Coulson's voice came through the com. "All agents, meet back at the boats, our ride is here.
Ward and Fitz
"I don't understand this…" Fitz said, his thick scottish voice cracking a little, as it always did when he was nervous. "I don't either, but our job is to follow orders." Agent Ward marched ahead of the younger and smaller agent, pushing bast brush as they had headed north towards the more wooded area. "There's something different about you, something you never really got over." Ward turned to look at the young agent, slightly agitated but also slightly impressed at the agents moxxy to bring up the subject. He of course, being the CO felt that he needed to be firm. "I'm not anymore different than the rest of us. We've been through a lot in the past few months." Fitz sighed to himself. He understood why Ward acted the way he did but sometimes, he wished he would act more human rather than a robot built in one of S.H.I.E.L.D's top secret science facility's. "All I'm saying is that its not good to keep it all bottled up." Ward turned pointing his finger towards the younger man "No, that is where you're wrong, when you're a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, or any kind of agent or military, holding things in is exactly what you've gotta do! Keep yourself impartial, on alert you keep your emotions out of it and keep your mind on your whole team!" Fitz did not know what he meant. No body except Coulson knew. He blamed himself for what happened to Skye. He was stand-offish with her but it was not because he was angry with her in any means. She wasn't just a part of the team. As cliched as it sounded, she was apart of the family and right now Ward was the estranged big brother, separating himself from the family because he blamed himself. He thought, maybe if he had done things a bit differently, if he had paid closer attention to Skye's part in the mission, maybe it could have all been avoided. Mae tried to tell him that it wasn't his fault. That it was only the fault of the son of a bitch that shot her, but he didn't take much solace in that at the moment. In truth he believed her to be indirectly responsible as well. It made sense in his mind that if they had not been in a relationship then maybe he would not have found himself putting her before the rest of the team a few times. He pushed ahead of the younger man trying to keep his mind on the mission at hand. "Do you see anything out of the ordinary?" Fitz looked around a bit, "no, nothing." Ward walked a bit further in, he didn't want to go to far as he was sure Coulson would probably call them back soon. seeing no immediate threat he leaned on a nearby tree crossing his arms as Coulson's voice came over the com. "All teams, back to the boats."
Coulson, Mae…. and Hashimoto
"He needs to take some time off, I am seriously considering making him." Mae looked at her superior. "You know I respect your opinions and your authority but in this case I don't see it doing any good. He's a good agent and a stubborn man, he blames himself for what happened and he blames me.. then she took a step back turned to face him and pointed at him. And, he blames you." Coulson wanted to go with Mae so that they could discuss this in private but a part of him was now regretting his decision. He knew inside that Ward sort of blamed him for what happened to Skye, and in a way he also blamed himself. "We saved her." "It doesn't matter, his head is still in a bad place right now." Coulson rubbed his temples.. "I know that, that's why I want him to take time off." "Coulson, he won't take it willingly and forcing it will only send him further. He has to handle this his own way. Hashimoto was a bit behind giving the two agents privacy. "Meanwhile Skye is there thinking she has done something else to disappoint him." "And if he were to tell her, what do you think that would do to her. Its like you said before, she looks at things differently than we do. She would take it upon herself. Blame herself and then where would we be?" She took a breath. Remember what happened when the first doctor said there was nothing they could do. I almost beat that man to death. She was speaking of the man who had shot Skye Ian Quin. "You came in and stopped me yes but I resented you for it for the longest time. In truth, I'm just now getting over it. We all deal with what happened in our own way. It will pass but the best thing we can do is let it happen naturally. Coulson usually counted on Mae being the voice of reason, but this time there was something cold and unforgiving about it. In a way he supposed it had always been that way, she had always been a bit more about all business and he sometimes let it spill that in some ways he was just a bigger kid. But even more than that. He didn't like what this was doing to his team especally Skye. He had begun to realise that he wasn't really thinking in an objective way but he couldn't help it. He felt a certain degree of responsibility for her. He had brought her abaord, he had essentially hired her. He had chosen to keep her even when she had betrayed them, and he was the one that told her about the woman she thought might have been her mother. The truth was, she was actually the closest thing to a daughter he had. but he had to keep those feelings in check being the CO of the entire team. He was about to say something more but before he could his phone rang. He took it out of his back pocket. "Yes? Understood. Thank you old friend." Then he clicked off his phone putting it back into place in his pocket. "Lets go, our ride is here." Mae nodded following the superior officer.
The team met back at the site where they parked the boats. Skye and Gemma were the first other than Mae and Coulson and Hashimoto to make it back. Skye's eyes widened as she walked up to the red classic, parked near the water. She turned to Gema. "Is that….?" She was interrupted by Coulson. "I know what you're thinking but no this is not my car. The driver of the vehicle was a tall man, around the same age as Coulson, wrinkles around his eyes and a few just bordering his nose. His dark brown eyes were kind which was a bit of a surprise to Skye. "Does someone need a ride?" The mans voice was deeper than Coulson's but not at all overpowering. Coulson walked up to the door as the man got out and shook his hand. "Its good to see you again." "And you, the man replied. But I really had no idea I would see you again. I found the file on New York. Skye whispered to Gema "is he with S.H.I.E.L.D?" She shook her head. "I don't think so, Coulson has never mentioned him, and I've never seen him before." Coulson chimed in as though he read the girls minds. "Stu is an old friend, and no he is not S.H.I.E.L.D he operates under the radar. Yes, its true, I have worked on less than straight paths with S.H.I.E.L.D before. Now everybody in, time is running low. The team cluttered into the car but Skye stopped placing her hand on Coulson's shoulder. "That looks a lot like your car." A little smile cracked across Coulson's face. "Where do you think I got it from."