"My gramsy died when I was twelve," he told her upon further questioning, his jaw clenching as if just talking about it pained him," I was told it was a stroke." Skye felt a bit bad, her asking about his dead grandma had upset him, and she really hadn't been trying to do so. Maybe it'd be better if she changed the subject…

"So you really have no idea what Centipede is?" she asked instead.

Maybe it was just her imagination, but it looked like his shoulders relaxed and he might've sighed in relief. 'Huh, guess he really doesn't like talking about his family.' "No," he said, this time a little easier than when he told her about his gramsy," I've never heard of it until you mentioned it. We were just sent out to find you so we could find the hooded man, but we never expected you to have any other information."

"Yeah, I figured," Skye smiled wryly, remembering how he tried to hide it," You know, you were pretty bad hiding your surprise."

He glared at her, but said nothing, leading her to believe that he'd only answer questions and wouldn't respond to statements. She was starting to figure out this truth serum stuff, how it did and didn't work. "How long does this QNB stuff last?" she wondered out loud.

"Ten minutes, give or take a couple minutes," he replied instantly, which she hadn't been expecting (it hadn't really been a question directed at him)," It depends on the person's size and weight and how fast their body can cycle through the serum. I'm fairly big, so while it works fast, it'll last longer on me before I pass out from the side effects. But I also have faster metabolism than most people, so it's likely that you'll have less time to question me."

"Well, it certainly makes you talkative," she smirked at him.

His glare didn't lesson up, and she remembered he'd only truthfully answer questions. "I hate it," he said suddenly, surprising her as she hadn't asked a question yet," I hate talking and I hate being interrogated, and right now I'm really pissed off at Coulson for doing this. But even more, I hate you."

Well that was just plain mean. "Are you always this cranky?" she snapped back at him," Why are you so angry with me? You kidnapped me, remember?"

"You almost got me killed three separate times in Paris."

"What?" Skye blinked," I've never even been to Paris. What are you talking about?"

"My mission prior to this was in France," he confessed, scowling at her," I was investigating the black market, trying to find alien weaponry so bad people-" he emphasized unnecessarily," -couldn't use it against good people. That was my job, and then your stupid Rising Tide group kept posting classified information about it. You blew my cover twice!"

Okay, now she could understand why he was a little angry. Getting almost killed tended to make people cranky, but still- "Sorry, Terminator, but that wasn't me," she told, shrugging off his glare like it was nothing," I didn't have anything to do with Paris or any of your ops. I've been focusing only on finding Centipede before your SHIELD could."

It was almost cute how his glare turned into what could only be an annoyed pout. "You're still the reason why I got pulled out of Paris early," his tone turned surly," I was looking forward to a couple days off so I could actually see the city."

'Poor baby,' she hummed, but didn't really feel all that sorry for him. She wished she had the chance to even go to France. "Are you really that upset about being on this mission?" because really, he was just being a big baby about it," I mean, at least no one's shooting at you, right?"

"You're ten times more annoying than dangerous-" she frowned at him for that one, but he just continued," -but I am happy to be working with Coulson again. I just wish I could've gone with him to Tahiti."

"Tahiti?"

Ward nodded, then he yawned. "He almost died during the battle of New York," he told her, and Skye noticed that he was sounding a little sluggish," He got to recover and vacation in Tahiti." He yawned again. "Lucky bastard, Tahiti sounds nice."

Skye almost laughed," Does the T-1000 want a vacation?"

"What I want is to get back in the field, doing what I know and what I'm good at," he admitted," I'm not a big fan of talking-" "So you've said," she interjected. "-with hostiles, and bringing people in, and big fancy planes. This is Coulson's style, not mine."

"And what is your style? The kidnapping me part?"

To Skye's surprise, he didn't actually answer that. No, he just put his head down, resting them on his arms like he was about to fall asleep. 'There's no way it's been ten minutes already!' But sure enough, it looked like the big guy was going down for the count. "Ward?" she leaned forward, trying to determine if his eyes were closed or not," Hey, calling Agent Ward. You still with me?"

He groaned in response, too tired to really say anything else.

Skye paused for a moment, wondering if she had time to ask him just one more question. If she was going to do it, she'd better ask now, while she knew he'd give her the truth. "What are you guys really planning to do to him?" she asked quietly," The Hooded Hero?"

"Keep him safe," came Ward's immediate answer, muffled by his arms," Too many bad people in the world… Got to keep good ones safe when we can…"

Damn! He just had to go and say something sweet and kind and actually nice, and now she kinda almost felt bad for teasing him earlier about being heartless. "And me?" she almost didn't want to ask," What are you guys going to do to me now?"

"Ask…" he paused to yawn again, his voice growing quieter and even closer to sleep," …Coulson. Door's unlocked." Then he was quiet.

"Ward?" she poked his shoulder. Nothing. "Great," she leaned back, watching him a second longer to make sure he wasn't faking it -he wasn't- but still largely disappointed. Now she'd never know until they locked her up in prison or other just because they didn't like her and her 'style'.

Oh well, he did say the door was unlocked…

She was right: it was a plane. A really nice, fancy schmancy plane that looked more like the inside of a really nice hotel. 'How could he not like this?' she wondered. She'd give anything to live on a plane this nice. She found Agent Coulson a bit further down the hall, in a room made of glass walls, giant screens, and a table also made out of glass and computer screen. It was a sweet setup and she really wished she had one like it. "Did Agent Ward give you anything?" he asked when she approached, fiddling with something on the computer table thingy.

Skye glanced up at one of the screens, and saw surveillance footage of the interrogation room. Ward was still where she left him, fast asleep on the table like a little baby. Idly, Skye wondered if it had sound and if Coulson had listened to their every word… he probably did. "He told me he's been to Paris," she began, walking up to Coulson's side," but he's never actually seen it-" she placed her hands on the table and leaned against it," -and that he wishes he went with you to Tahiti."

"It's a magical place," he said automatically, which she thought a little creepy, and she was kinda glad Ward didn't go. Especially if he had come back saying 'it's a magical place'.

"Ward doesn't like your style," she said instead, glancing around at the admittedly nice setup," I'm kind of thinking I do, though."

"What about his?" he asked, and for a moment she wondered if he was asking about Ward's style -she never found out- and then he swiped his hand so that one of the screens turned into news footage. "-remains in critical condition," a TV news anchor was reporting,"Employees could not identify the attacker but security footage confirms that this man assaulted the factory foreman before damaging thousands of dollars of-" While Skye was staring, horrified, at video of Mike ripping equipment apart and attacking an innocent man. No, no no no! She couldn't believe her eyes; the guy she talked to, Mike, he was a good guy. He seemed a little annoyed with her, but he was nice and polite and he wouldn't do this!

"This is…" she stuttered; she couldn't take her eyes off the TV," This is wrong. This is not… the guy I met. He was…" she paused, seeing the knowing look on Coulson's face. "He just needs a break," she finished.

Coulson looked like he understood. "Then give him one," he said, and Skye suddenly believed Ward's admission that they were just trying to protect Mike. From all this bad influence and the media and from anyone that might want to use him. "What do you got, Skye?"

"His name is Mike," she finally said, pulling out the Driver's ID she had lifted off him earlier. She'd been in the middle of running a background check on him when Agents Ward and Coulson took her from her van, and now she wished she had done it sooner. Maybe all of this could've been avoided.

"Tell me what you know, then go check on Ward," he told her, seeing how distraught seeing Mike like that made her," The rest of my team will be here soon. I'll fill them in and then we'll figure out the best way to talk some sense into Mike."

Well, Ward was still passed out when Skye checked on him (and snoring -she was sooo going to make fun of him later!) so she headed back out to meet the team. Fitzsimmons (Skye thought it was adorable how they had a combined name) were sweet and Skye instantly liked them. And May was… 'scary' was a good way to put it. So in the spirit of keeping her innards inside her body, Skye kept a wide berth while Coulson briefed the team.

"Michael Peterson," he announced, practically slapping the driver's license ID onto the -totally awesome- holotable. The table read the card instantly and a bunch of files on Mike started popping up on the computer. 'I have to get me one of these,' she promised herself, wondering where one had to go to get a holotable. Without building it from scratch. "Factory worker," Coulson continued, circling the table while the others studied the information before them," Married. One kid. Gets injured, gets laid off, wife jumps ship."

Skye frowned,' What a shitty wife.' She hated people like that; 'for better or worse' was right there in the vows!

"Good guy. Bad breaks." That was an understatement. "Best guess is, someone tells him they can make him strong again. Make him super."

May glanced up from the holotable first. "Who has the tech to do that?" she questioned, and by her tone it sounded like even she found it unbelievable. "And why would they want to?"

Good question, Agent May.

"Fitz, what do we have from the security footage? Before the blast," Coulson turned to the red headed scotsman. 'The engineer,'Skye remembered.

A few clicks later, and then there was an image of the lab before it exploded. It looked like there was a normal guy and a scientist, the former pointing angrily at the latter. "What are we seeing?" May asked.

"Well," Fitz fumbled for an answer, pointing distractedly at the image," the man is… angry…at the other man."

Everyone stared at him, and Skye tried really hard not to roll her eyes. And the best part, Fitz didn't even seem to realized how everyone was staring at him. Eventually, Simmons took pity on him and tried to salvage the situation," The data was very corrupt."

"Yeah, like Cold War Russia corrupt," Fitz emphasized," I… I can't sync the time code without-"

"What if you had the audio?" Skye spoke out before she could really think it through. Oh great, now everyone was looking at her. "I was running surveillance on the lab," she explained, figuring Coulson already told them that she was targeting Centipede," I had my shot and I printed the window before the blast. The digital file is in my van, but there's too much background noise for me. Maybe you can-"

Understanding her instantly, Simmons tapped Fitz on the arm," You could clean that up, can't you?" He turned to her, a thoughtful expression on his face. The two started muttering and talking too fast for anyone to really understand. Something about a 'back porch'? Finally, after a minute or two they both turned to her -in unison, how cute!- and spoke their affirmative, sounding so polite that it was adorable.

"Your van's here, but you were right; we couldn't decrypt your files," she heard Coulson say and Skye turned to him with a small smile on her face. She already knew they wouldn't be able to. No one could without her knowledge.

"The encryption's coupled with a GPS," she finally told him, and dare she say it,it almost looked like Agent May was impressed. "Get my van back in that alley and then we're in business."

Both May and Coulson were nodding, and he said," Agent May will escort you."

'Great,' Skye sighed, now she had her very own guard. Hopefully she was a bit more friendlier than Agent T-1000. Speaking of which, Coulson told May," And on your way out, wake up Ward."

Well, it's showtime!

Grant was annoyed when he woke up. Extremely annoyed. To be honest, he wasn't even sure who he was more annoyed with: Coulson or Skye. Coulson for shooting him with the damn QNB-T16, or Skye for taking advantage of it.

And now she knew that he found her attractive… It was decided, he was more annoyed with Skye. He really couldn't be too mad at Coulson. He never could hold a grudge against him, and besides, this little stunt got them her trust didn't it?

"So what did that get us?" he asked, walking out and seeing Fitz running back and forth in the lab. Simmons and Coulson were off in one corner, where the former was drilling into a chunk of metal and brown goo. He did not want to know what.

Fitz answered him, still running around," Skye's sending us the rest of the decrypted files on Centipede," he picked up… something and ran back to his computer," but we have our audio and I've loaded it up."

'It's a start,' he mused, but still a little disappointed. She was only giving them Centipede and not the rest of her information? Come on, he got shot with truth serum and got all talkative and everything! With as much discomfort he's gone through today, he deserved the girl's freaking life story by now. Still scowling, he glanced up and saw Coulson smiling.

"Nice work," he congratulated him.

'Oh don't you start with that!' Ward didn't need a mirror to know that his lips were pursed and his eyebrows narrowed as he glared at his mentor. His expression clearly said,' I'm still going to get you for that later.'

And he just kept on smiling! All proud of himself and everything…

You know what, it was safer if he just ignored Coulson for now and focused on the mission. So instead, he watched the Scotsman (Fritz? Was that his name?) yap and run around, tinkering with his gadgets. He wondered if only his female counterpart understood a word he said, because he sure as hell didn't.

Then the guy fiddled with a… remote of some sort and -whoa! Four lights in the cargo bay created a life size, 3 dimensional model of the lab before the explosion!

'We have some pretty cool technology,' Ward admired, and felt a little envious that this sort of technology hadn't been available to him prior to this. This would've been extremelyhelpful in Bolivia…

Stepping forward, Ward investigated the 3D model, taking note of everything in the 'lab'. He noticed a silver briefcase sitting on the counter by the two people. "Explosive's in the case?" he guessed out loud.

At that moment, Skye's audio filtered through, adding sound to the moving picture. "P-please calm down," the scientist begged, sounding nervous," Just let me check your vitals."

"I feel fine," the other man (Ward decided he was the assailant) cut him off, and his tone confused Ward. He sounded… excited? "I want to feel more," his voice escalated into desperation," Where's the doctor?" Doctor? Wasn't the lab coat guy a doctor? The assailant shouted, angry now," Where is she?!"

Now the scientist sounded terrified," If you don't settle down, I-I-I'll have you sedated."

The assailant picked up a chair and very narrowly missed the scientist," Where is she!"

"Wait," Fitz stopped the feed, freezing the picture," Did you… Did you see that on his arm?" Ward stepped closer to the assailant's holographic double, watching carefully as Fitz rewound the feed, pausing it just as he was lifting the chair. Yeah, he saw it… a weird looking device going up the underside of his forearm, looking every bit like a- "A centipede." Just like Skye said.

Then Fitzsimmons (the female one) stood up and rushed over," It's an intravenous filter for his blood." She sounded more than a little bit worried," This goo, sir. Very similar to the serum Dr. Erskine developed in the 40's for-"

Both Coulson and Ward recognized the name instantly (Ward knew from all the stories Coulson told years ago) "Super soldiers," they both echoed.

She continued explaining," I'm reading: alien metal, gamma radiation, the serum. Every known source of superpower, thrown into a blender." Just one of those alone was questionable at best, terrible and cataclysmic at worst. Combine them and there's a fucking can of worms.

"We need to see the origin of the blast," Coulson ordered, turning to Fitz," Run it back from the last point of footage."

So he did. The bomb… wasn't a bomb. The explosion didn't come from the case, like Ward thought. The explosion came from the assailant, when all those doomsday superpower sources collided and couldn't be compatible. Resulting in the assailant… going boom. 'This is bad,' he gulped,' Very bad.'

"Extremis," Coulson announced, and none of them recognized the word. "It's new." So of course Coulson knew about it before anyone else. "Completely unstable."

'That's an understatement.'

"Poor man didn't bring an explosive," Simmons sighed, sounding worried," And Mike has the same stuff in his system."

Not just the same stuff. Ward saw the assailant pick up a chair, but he also saw Mike Peterson toss heavy equipment around like paper. "Judging by his strength level," he said," He's got a lot more."

To make matters worse, if this stuff turns humans into walking bombs, then- "So wait, are you saying-" Fitz started to ask, but his face fell when Simmons nodded.

"At any minute, he could take out a two block radius."

Out of all of them, only Coulson appeared to be calm. "Well," he spoke to Ward as he walked past," You wanted a bomb."

'A bomb I could defuse,' he corrected in his mind, but didn't dare speak out loud. A bomb, a real bomb, he could defuse with his eyes closed. But a human explosion… This could only end in hundreds of deaths…

Ward stomped from the room.

.

.

A/N: so funny thing, there's some speculation as to QNB-T16 being real. But as I wrote this chapter, I noticed something interesting. Everyone Coulson or anyone mentions it, Ward gets this really angry and frustrated look on his face. Like he's one comment away from yelling at Coulson. If that had been all planned, he wouldn't be mad, because he would've expected. No, I think Coulson really did shoot Ward with truth serum, and he's still angry about it. :)