Disclaimer: I don't own SHIELD.

A/N: Thanks for the wonderful reviews. Salkri Kachemench, thank you for the suggestion. I already have the beginnings of this story pretty much mapped out and while it won't have that exact scenario (although I mentioned the night night gun per request), I do plan on introducing a bit of what life was like in foster care for Skye.

Chapter 4

It had taken some convincing on Coulson's part to get the little girl to follow them back to the bus. No, it isn't a school bus he had to explain over and over again. It's a good thing they hadn't brought a night night gun with them, otherwise May might have been tempted to use it instead of trying to bargain with a five year old. As soon as they made it back to the plane, FitzSimmons disappeared into the lab to try and get some answers, while the remaining team members gathered around the command center, their attention riveted to the video screen, watching as the little girl calmly colored a picture in the interrogation room.

"This has got to be a joke. There's no way that girl is Skye." Ward insisted.

"I highly doubt that Skye would orchestrate such an elaborate joke, Ward" Coulson replied drily.

"Well maybe Skye didn't. Maybe someone took her and left the girl to confuse us. Or maybe the girl was already there and decided to impersonate Skye." May rolled her eyes at Ward's faulty logic.

"If either of those scenarios were true than she wouldn't have known about St. Agnes" Coulson replied.

Ward mulled this over. "Is Skye's real name really Margret Smith?"

Coulson shrugged. "I don't know. She's never told us her real name, and she did a through job of scrubbing her identity a long time ago."

The three agents fell silent as Fitz and Simmons joined them in the command center. "What have you figured out?" Coulson asked the scientists, hoping there was an answer to all of this.

"I ran the test twice, Sir. The DNA is a match. There is no doubt about it, that little girl is Skye." Simmons replied, much to the dismay of the other agents. "The blood on the 084 was also Skye's. From what I can tell she must have touched it and cut her finger, which in turn activated the device."

"Activated it to do what?" Coulson asked. "Reverse the aging process? What would be the purpose of such a device?"

"Actually a device that could do that would be extremely valuable. A real fountain of youth! But I'm not convinced that this device simply reversed the aging process. It seems to have done a bit more than that. If it had simply made Skye younger she most likely would have retained her memories. Not to mention she would have been wearing the same clothes, although they wouldn't have fit anymore. Take a look at what she's wearing instead" Simmons gestured at the video screen. "I think her outfit is very telling in itself."

"What? Jeans and shirt with cartoon horses on it? How is that any different that what any other kid wears?" Ward scoffed.

Simmons rolled her eyes. "Look at those jeans. They are acid washed with a high waistline. And those hi top sneakers? Both are cassic 90s fashion."

"And that shirt isn't something that you would be able to find in stores anymore." Fitz interrupted. "That's a vintage My Little Pony shirt. They were a big deal in the 80s and early 90s, but back in 2010 they rebranded the franchise. The characters look completely different now. That shirt has to be at least ten years old, but it certainly doesn't look it."

The rest of the team stared at Fitz in confusion. "How exactly do you know the about the history of My Little Pony?" Ward questioned, trying not to smirk.

"Because I have two older sisters, and a seven year old niece" Fitz sputtered defensevly. "And I happen to be a pretty fun uncle, for your information."

"Anyway," Simmons interupted, "when you put it all together, I would have hypothesize that this is an actual outfit that Skye wore when she was five."

"So what you are saying is this is Skye from the past" May asked.

Simmons shook her head. "If that were the case then we would have likely have two Skyes instead of just little Skye. And any event that could breach the space-time continuum would have left a significant energy signature, which we didn't find."

"So what exactly do you think happened." Coulson asked.

"Somehow, Fitz and I think that when Skye touched the 084 it 'reverted' her back to her 5-year-old self, right down to the clothes she was wearing, using a combination of her DNA and her memories." "Almost like when a computer or a video game reverts to a previous save point." Fitz clarified.

"Why five?" May asked.

"We can't say for sure, but we suspect that the parameters were programmed into the machine by whoever last used it." Simmons answered.

"Is it reversible?" Coulson asked worriedly.

Simmons looked at Fitz. "I've never seen technology like this before. It's certainly not man-made or Asgardian, and there's nothing in the SHIELD databases that resembles the language written on the outside of the 084. Even with all the researchers at SHIELD working on this it might take years before we would fully understand it." Fitz said.

"But Fitz," Simmons interrupted as she came up with an idea, "you wouldn't have to fully understand it. We aren't trying to program it, we simply want to reverse the process." Fitz lit up, "That just might work. If I can find a way to extract the raw data from the 084 I should have enough information to recalibrate the machine and reverse it."

"Good. We can reach the Sandbox in a few hours and you'll have enough resources and researchers at your disposal to do this quickly"

Fitz grimaced. "I'm not sure if that's the best idea, Sir."

"Why not?"

"The Sandbox will want to run tests and do experiments on the 084. Fixing Skye won't be their top priority. We are only going to have one chance to reverse this, and if the machine is activated again all of the data will be gone. I'll have nothing left to work with."

Coulson sighed. "Alright. I'll radio headquarters. They aren't going to be happy about the delay."

"Well I can upload photos of the outside of the box, and they can start working on deciphering the language. Maybe even call up the Asgards for some help" Fitz suggested.

"That might buy us some time." Coulson agreed.

"What are we going to do about Skye in the meantime" Ward asked, looking at the video screen.

Coulson frowned. "Keep her out of trouble, I guess. Which might be more challenging than usual." He sighed. "Simmons do you think you might be able to..."

Simmons interrupted Coulson in horror. "Why are you looking at me? Why not Ward or Fitz? Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I'm good with kids. By that reasoning you might as well ask May..." Simmons broke off as May glared at her before heading off towards the cockpit. "I'm sorry, Sir but I've never been around kids. I don't think I'm the best one for the particular task."

Coulson cleared his throat. "I didn't mean to stereotype, or imply that you should assume sole responsibility for Skye. But she was hiding in that dirty attic for quite some time and I thought might be a good idea to get her cleaned up. I think you would agree it would be better for you to help her rather than me or Ward or Fitz."

"Oh." Simmons replied, flustered. Fitz and Ward looked away, embarrassed at the thought of helping 'mini Skye.' "Yes of course, I suppose that would be best."

"I'm sure a bath would be easier than a shower, so you can use the bathtub in my quarters. Obviously we don't have any other clothes for her here, but if you can find something for tonight we can get the ones she's wearing now washed, and we'll have to land tomorrow and pick up something for her wear until she's back to normal, hopefully sooner rather than later."

With a plan of action in mind, the team dispersed. Ward headed off to training room in the hopes of taking his mind off of what had happened to Skye, while Fitz went back down to the lab to get started on finding a way to fix Skye and Coulson retreated to his office to inform headquarters about their latest mission and the unexpected consequences, leaving an apprehensive Simmons to the task of taking care of Skye.

TBC.

A/N: Because I like having a clear picture in my head of the different characters and elemenst of any given story, in my stories I like to include some pictures of original characters and such to give it something extra. For this particular story I had a hard time finding photos of an child actress to potray 'mini' Skye, because I was looking for someone who was also half asian, like Chloe Bennet. The closest I managed to get was Skylar Roberge, who has Hawaiian with Chinese ancestry and played the part of young River Tam in an ep of Firefly and is probably about 7 in the photo I've linked below (although she's closer to 20 now). However, recently Chloe Bennet has also been posting a few pics of herself as a kid on her Instagram, and the most recent one totally was my inspiration for the ridiculously dated jeans mini Skye is wearing. I've also added a link to the My Little Pony shirt if anyone is interested.

qpicture artist/skylar-roberge/image-237744

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