Previously:Coulson and Fury were knocked out, leaving them in the hands of Garrett. Triplett made sure to set off a bomb, only after telling Skye and Ward that he has Ace safe. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the truth...

Chapter Three

Skye wanted things.

Skye wanted her team to be OK. She wanted her former SO to stop trying to kidnap her. And she really wanted to stop rolling around on the ground like a turtle stuck on its back.

Ok, so she wasn't exactly that bad. But the force from the explosion hit her pretty hard, and with no hands to break her fall, it wasn't exactly the most controlled experience.

Her head had impacted with the concrete, causing her vision and thoughts in general to be pretty muffled for a moment there; the handcuffs keeping her from properly sitting up.

Hence, the turtle simile.

But, turtle-like or not, she did get up.

Taking a moment to take in her surroundings, she found that the entire Cybertec building was no more. Now it was just... an incredibly hot bonfire.

Fall Out Boy had been her codename idea. It wasn't even that she liked the band that much, but Fitzsimmons had been singing "light em up up up..." obsessively so much before the whole Hydra ordeal, it was in Skye's head 90% of the time as well. She couldn't help but give them the tribute.

Not Fitzsimmons thoughts again. Not the time to think about that brain,time to think about getting out of here!

Near the building, pretty close to where she and Ward had been standing, there was a figure on the ground.

She gasped a deep breath, for some reason hoping that the body wasn't going to be still forever. It was a weird thought because she hadn't been lying to Ward before. If she had to do that moment with him and Deathlok on the BUS over again, he'd be dead.

Her mind went to running away for a solid second, but in the end she decided it may be better to get to her walkie Ward had taken. Knowing if Trip was still around rather than guessing where he was would be a great help. But hopefully Ward stayed unconscious... or even the other thing.

It wasn't too far out of her way, she hadn't made it very far before the blast hit. She turned him over with her foot to find that he was just unconscious, not the other thing. That wasn't the issue at the moment.

The issue was her damn hands.

"Stupid Ward, stupid Hydra... damn stupid handcuffs!" she mumbled, shifting through Ward's clothes with her bound hands, not able to see where they were grabbing. Maybe she would have been better off aimlessly wandering.

But she found the walkie eventually, crouching down she activated it with her foot.

"Trip! Where are you?" she asked frantically, ever aware that Ward may wake up at any moment. Skye was very much relived that he answered immediately.

"I got your 20, Skye. I'm 51 to you right now."

Field agent lingo, and it meant he was headed her way. Triplett was close. Maybe she could get out of this.

Skye barely finished her sigh of relief when hands grabbed shoulders and spun her around to face them. But the face staring at her wasn't Ward.

It was Garrett.

And Garrett's staring face was kinda terrifying. She could see the mad man so clearly behind his eyes.

Literally behind his eyes though, as in running up behind him, were a bunch of Centipede soldiers.

And Skye knew wasn't getting out of this.

She pressed down on the walkie's button again with her foot.

"There's too many soldiers now, just get ou-"

Smash.

The walkie was in tiny pieces from a single stomp from Garrett's foot. She gulped, having a hard time taking her eyes off the sight to look at him, even as he began lifting her into the air before him. Literally lifting her; his hands gripped on either side of her shoulders as he brought them eye to eye. Like she was in The Terminator or something! Well, who was she kidding? Her life was getting way weirder than some Hollywood movie.

"My god," he said, and she could feel his eyes scanning her. "You are by far the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen!"

Skye met his wide, insane eyes then with her own personal glare. "Wonderful. Crazy murderer, super powers, and creepy? Congratulations, you've just officially qualified as a super villain!"

Then he laughed in her face; the creepy guffaw making her want to add "maniacal laugh" to her checklist.

"Not your outer beauty, Skye. Though, you have that too. I can see why my boy likes you. But what's on the inside... you are something more fantastic than I could have imagined!" he said with a laugh. "And what's greater, what runs inside you is connected to the inside of me."

"Well, that's... ew."

She suddenly drew her head back and careened her forehead onto his with as much force as she could muster, hoping to shock him enough that he'd drop her.

Didn't even flinch.

"Ow," she muttered, eyes squeezed shut and really wishing her hands were free to rub her head.

Garrett set her unsteadily to her feet right next to the still unmoving Ward. She knew that would hurt, but shouldn't it have hurt him too? At least a little?

Garrett was laughing at her. "That was real cute Skye, but I would advise not doing it again. I'd hate to have to hurt such a fine, young recruit with so much potential."

"If you think I'd do anything for Hydra you're out of your mind," she spat.

"Well, I am out of my mind. I can see so much more than what my mind was limited to before!" he preached at her. Somewhat randomly, it seemed to Skye. Then he seemed to regain focus. "But I'm going to give you the same choice I gave your little engineering friend. You're either going to work for us, or you're going to work for us while under a great deal of pain. If only your friend had made the simpler choice; he may still be alive." he said simply with shrug, making Skye's blood boil. "So, what's yours?"

Skye glared again. Next thing she did was spit on him, right in between his eyes.

"You do not get to talk about Fitz, ever!" Tears welled in her eyes as she shook her head in disbelief. "He was one of the bravest men I knew, and you killed him! You killed them!" Skye shouted, and in that moment she really believed he'd been telling the truth about their death. It was written on the maniac's face.

Garrett cleaned off his face gently with his hand, ignoring Skye's outburst. "Well, I can see what choice you made. Your pain will have to be something other than physical though, considering Raina wants you in one piece. I do too, of course." He leaned in close to her and wiped away a tear from her cheek, making her feel disgustingly vulnerable. "But you are going to pay for that," he said in a voice far too cheery for what he was insinuating.

Skye suddenly glanced to either side of herself as she felt two Centipede soldiers grab her arms, pulling her away from Garrett.

"Oh, and by the way Skye," Garrett called after her. "I wasn't the one who killed your friends. That honor goes to Ward."

Ward.

Skye's mouth gaped open in shock, the overwhelming wave of grief and rage hit her hard. She went near limp as the soldiers dragged her off to wherever she was going to do whatever they were going to do to her. It didn't even matter now. Her friends were really gone. And he had done it.

She noticed Ward stirring on the ground from the corner of her eye as they walked away and Skye had never felt more resolve than she did in that moment.

Grant Ward was going to die.