Only Skye is sent out when the Avengers attack the base, the twins too field inexperienced, even with their powers. So she flies out, purposefully coming out of the other side of the building than Stark arrives at so she doesn't have to take him out. Her direct orders were to "hold them back" so she makes a half-hearted attempt to do that whilst casually listening in on the Avengers' comms. devices. She knows that they will easily get through the energy barrier, Stark is more knowledgeable than anyone in the base in the energy field, so she doesn't worry about that.
She tries to fly covertly but then the Hulk jumps out of nowhere and comes straight at her, the only way to avoid being crushed like a tiny bug is to aim a pulse of air at him, and unsurprisingly he flies in the opposite direction and lands on his arse which garners some other attention. Namely Hawkeye's, Quake deftly avoids or knocks back the arrows sent her way and flies out of his range, she's about to quake the ground under Thor a bit when she hears a very familiar voice over the comms.
"At long last is taking a little long, boys." Skye knows who it is immediately, without even flying over and seeing her for the first time in over fifteen years, taking out Von Strucker's men with a grace and ease that Skye always found enchanting. Skye thinks that is when the last of her programming finally breaks down, she stutters in her flight and plummets into a clearing in the trees, she propels herself enough at last minute to avoid any injuries but she stays there for the duration of the fight.
Skye pays no heed to the twins who, against orders, are taking on the Avengers, or to the screams of falling soldiers around her, it's just the same sentence running through her mind. She cannot force her body to move, even though she knows she can help, can take down Von Strucker for good, but it is like her body is separate from her mind. She can hear Roger's confused exclamation of "How many damn enhanced are there?" and the friendly rapport between the team members but she only comes back to herself when she hears Stark's voice.
"Guys, don't bring down your guard just yet. The first girl, the one who flew through the air and batted the Hulk around like an over inflated beach ball, she's still here."
"Where?" Come's Roger's response, instantly tensed for another attack.
"In the clearing over from the jet. She's just- She's just standing there, looking forward. She looks like a lost puppy."
"We'll converge around the edge, be alert, it may be a trick." Commands Natasha, dejectedly. They found the sceptre, no more raids, no more chance of finding Skye with the Avengers' help.
Within the minute all of the Avengers are converged on the tree line of the clearing, slowly closing the gap between the unknown woman and themselves.
"The base has been taken, your boss is not in control anymore." Captain America, always straight forward.
Skye looks up at Rogers and Stark, who are standing next to each other, her expression completely lost, eyes void of any emotion. The two avengers use her stillness to take in the woman: average height, dark brown hair, brown eyes with a slightly Asian tilt to them, but above all her posture is slumped and her face portrays an emptiness that the two men can only find heart-breaking, even if only minutes before she was attacking them.
"Please don't let me hurt her." Her voice was quiet, laden with fear and weariness, as if she were resigned to whatever horrible fate they deemed her worthy of.
All of the Avengers tensed up at the mention of hurting someone before they fully comprehended the meaning, then most of them just tilted their heads in confusion. Apart from Natasha who immediately perked up at the familiar voice.
"Who?" Stark inquired in a gentle voice, at the same time as Natasha stepped forward slightly and spoke in an awed whisper.
"Skye?"
The amount of emotion that bled through that one word had Skye snapping her eyes closed and fighting off the urge to turn and take her love into her arms and never let go, but Skye did not know if the kill order would still affect her, so she kept her focus on the man in the metal suit. Everyone looks between the mystery woman and Natasha in confusion, obviously trying to figure out the story, Skye just ignores them though, conveying her message as plainly as possible.
"Whatever you do just make sure I don't hurt her," the brunette swallows back a sob and continues, "I don't care what happens to me, just don't let me hurt her. Please."
None of the men lose their confusion, in fact for most of them it was only amplified by her, seemingly nonsensical, words. Therefore none of them took any action and Skye was about to send a pulse through her brain to stop any harm coming to anyone, then she saw something click in Stark's expression, a comprehension quickly followed by a grim set to his features.
The metal man seemed to have put some of the pieces together and, trying his best to block out Natasha's desolate expression, brings his arm up and quickly shots something at Skye, grimacing as he does so. The woman almost immediately crumbles under the weight of her own body, her knees slamming to the ground, but Natasha manages to reach her just before Skye tumbles backwards, releasing a strangled sound of despair.
Carefully, Natasha guides Skye's limp body to the ground and cradles the woman's head on her lap. She gently strokes Skye's hair with reverence as silent tears track down her cheeks. Rogers, Stark, Banner and Thor watch the scene in shock, seeing their normally emotionally distant team member crying over some stranger's limp form was not something any of them expected that morning.
Suddenly Stark realises that Natasha must have got the wrong idea because her quickly walks over to her, kneels down and puts a gentle hand on her shoulder. It only seems to make the assassin shrink in on herself and hug the brunette closer.
"She's not dead, Natasha. Just unconscious." He informs her in a soft voice, he may not know much about the red head but he does know that his heart hurt to see her like this.
Natasha's head snapped up to look him dead in the eye, the sudden movement caused him to fall backwards and lose his balance and he ended up falling on his ass very ungracefully.
"Really?" Natasha asked with a renewed hope in her eyes.
Stark nodded, "The dendrotoxin is strong though, normally knocks people out for around twenty hours. It's the most concentrated you can make it without killing someone."
Suddenly Natasha is absolutely beaming at Stark and everyone else is left bemused at the jarring changes of emotions in the last couple of minutes. Natasha looks down at Skye's slack face with, what Stark can only describe as, a look of complete adoration, before a realisation seems to dawn in her mind.
Natasha hoists her arms under Skye's armpits and struggles to lift the uncooperative body into a standing position but Rogers soon steps in to help. He pauses in front of Natasha and she gives him a nod and an appreciative smile and he scoops the woman into his arms in a bridal carry.
"We need to get out of here, Barton needs medical assistance sooner rather than later."
No one questions Natasha's sudden change in attitude, just dutifully follow her in silence whilst trying to figure out the story behind the woman in Steve's arm and their friend. Whatever it was, they all concluded, it was going to be good.
When they arrive back at the jet, Stark goes straight to the cockpit to set the course to the Tower, from the corner of his eye he watches as Steve gently sets the unconscious woman in one of the few actual seats on the plane. After Steve moves away to talk to check on Barton, Natasha straps the brunette in with the buckles then, which surprises everyone it seems, she brushes back the girl's bangs and kisses her forehead. With one last, lingering, look and a brush of the cheek Natasha moves over to talk with the rest of the team, quickly glancing at Barton on the way.
As soon as they are at cruising altitude Tony calls Dr. Cho and arranges for her to be at the Tower with her equipment by the time they get back, he walks to talk with his team mates after hanging up, casting an anxious and assessing gaze at the archer and unconscious mystery woman.
He may not show it outwardly very well, he never had been one for showing his emotions in a healthy way, but he genuinely cares deeply about his friends and he is willing to do anything to protect them which is why he is currently very worried about having an injured tem member and an unknown HYDRA enhanced on his jet.
Thor and Steve are talking about the course of action for Loki's sceptre whilst Natasha and Bruce are just silently sitting next to each other, one staring at the unconscious brunette and the other switching between staring at the wall in front of him and the assassin to his side. Wisely, Stark steers clear of the emotionally tense and confusing area around the latter two, instead making his way over to the two oldest embers of the team.
Somehow the conversation about the sceptre turned into Tony planning a party to celebrate the recovery of the Asgardian's spear, not that anyone is complaining, it managed to redirect everyone's attention to a jovial conversation, even Natasha takes her eyes off the brunette for long enough to chip in.
Although, that only seemed to draw more attention to the elephant in the room that Tony thought he was doing a pretty good job of tactfully ignoring. Fortunately, for Tony and his big mouth, it was Steve who finally addressed what everyone was wondering, but in a slightly more subtle way
"So, what's her name?" He nods his head to the brunette whilst still keeping eye contact with Natasha.
She smiles slightly, as if she doesn't even realise she is doing it, "Skye, her name is Skye." She almost looks like she wants them to approve of it, so Tony gives the woman an appraising look then turns back to Natasha and bobs his head a bit.
"It suits her." Natasha really does smile then, it's not toothy but it is wide.
"I thought so too, that's why I chose it." At everyone's confused expressions and a few bewildered sounds, she continues, "When we first met, she didn't have a name, just a field designation: The Asset. They said she wasn't worthy of having a name, but she manages to be one of the kindest, funniest and happiest people I've ever met, despite what we were made to do. She deserved a name at the very least."
She looks up from Skye, somewhere in her speech her eyes had drifted again, to survey her teammates. They pretty much all look angry and for a split second she worries that they will do something to Skye, but then she realises that, without even knowing much about the girl, they are all angry for her, not at her. That makes something warm and fuzzy bubble up in her chest and she gains a whole new appreciation for her friends.
"Don't worry boys, the people who said that are long dead." That seems to mollify them, even if there is a little bit of fire burning in the back of their eyes.
"How?" It's the first time Banner has spoken up since he un-Hulked, his voice is timid and a little worried, not sure if he really wants to know the answer. What she says next confuses everyone though.
"I assume natural causes, of course it was a secret government branch so some probably popped their clogs in slightly less natural ways."
"Natural causes? How old where these guys?" She thinks Thor understands what is going on, given his silence and contented features, but the rest of them are still bewildered. Stark's incredulous face would actually be entertaining in any other situation.
"In their thirties mostly, some in their fifties." Suddenly Natasha loses most of her self-assuredness and scratches the back of her neck slightly, a self-conscious move if there was one, "It's more about how old we are."
"What do you mean?" Stark's voice has taken on a more cautious, guarded quality and Natasha winces.
"I lied about when I was born. Quite dramatically."
"Like a band-aid Romanoff, just tell us." Steve commands, but in a disappointed father way, not an army Captain way.
"I was born in 1928, I'm 87 years old. Skye is around 83."
Tony sputters, lots of ridiculous arm gesticulation and stunted speech attempts. Steve just gapes at her, his mouth moving wordlessly like a goldfish and his wide eyes flicking between the two women. Bruce looks plain confused, like a lost puppy who doesn't understand why he is being left in the house when the owners leave for the day. Thor simply looks amused by everyone else's reactions.
Once everyone has calmed down enough to listen to an explanation, Natasha tells them about the Red Room, though she keep that to the bare basics, and her time with Skye in the war then how she didn't see the girl for almost another ten years. She tells them that they kept meeting each other through the years, but she needs a second to steady herself when she talks about defecting to SHIELD and how Skye was then brainwashed to kill her on sight, after that suddenly everyone understands what Skye was talking about in the clearing.
For the most part, the story she told them was the abridged version, but it got the point across concisely. When she finally got to the end, no one said anything for a while and she was afraid that they would kick Skye out or something equally as bad but Tony gave her an affectionate smile and said with absolute surety:
"We will do anything to help. I have the equipment to undo mental programming back at the tower, I made it for Capsicle's friend, but if it's needed it will work on Skye too."
In a rare show of affection from the red head she wraps her arms around Tony's shoulders and hugs him tightly, whispering thanks in his ear. In an even weirder turn of events, Tony hugs Natasha back.
"It's no problem. What kind of person wouldn't help after hearing a story like that?"
The hug only lasts a few seconds and only when they pull back do they realise how long they have been talking, they can spot the top of the Avengers Tower in the distance. Tony sets about steering the plane to land in the tower while everyone else gets Barton ready to depart and get help.
He takes his cue and walks over to Skye and starts unbuckling her to take her to the room he has set up with the recalibration equipment. As Natasha passes, with Barton, she calls out to him.
"She should only be out for another couple of hours. The serum prevents us from being knocked out for too long!" With that she turns the corner and helps push Clint to Dr. Cho and her machine.
"Great." He mutters after the assassin, then turns back to the slumped woman in the seat, "Let's see if we can get you to the room shall we."
He hums and haws for a bit on the best way to carry her, his first couple of attempts are a bit awkward, it's not that he is not strong, it is just that carry an unconscious person is drastically harder than an awake person. Eventually, he puts on the Iron Man suit, minus the helmet, and carries her bridal style through the quieter hallways and into the medical room. He places her on the bed in the middle and tells JARVIS to alert him if she shows signs of waking up.
Then he goes to find the rest of the group, after a slight detour to take off the suit, no one needs to know that he couldn't carry a slim five foot six girl without the aid of a mechanical flight suit. Nope, he doesn't need to be teased for that.