"Everything's gone! I think Skye did what she was told." Fitz told the team. They all held their breath. Everything was gone. SHIELD was gone, along with every record of it that was ever kept.

But Coulson didn't wonder how Skye could have done it, he wondered what they did to her that would convince her to do it, when she held out for two months last time. He shuddered at the thought.

"There's nothing we can do about that now. Can you still track Simmons?" Coulson asked Fitz. He knew everything had just changed, but they had nothing to lose now. And if there was any tiny chance of getting the files back, Skye would know what it was.

"Of course, my tracking program isn't part of SHIELD, it's just regular tech." He answered.

"Guys, give me a little space." Fitz complained as he typed on his computer.

Coulson, May, and Ward were hovering over his shoulder while he was sitting in a black chair.

"You have enough!" Ward told him in an annoyed tone, urging him to get back to work.

"Oh? Oh really? Then how do I know the last thing you ate was a peanut butter sandwich?" Fitz asked. Each of them took a step back to let Fitz do his thing.

"Got it!" Fitz suddenly exclaimed as a pulsing red dot appeared on a map on his screen.

"Are you kidding me?" Coulson asked. They could all see that Jemma's necklace was in a small hotel in the same town Skye had been living in for the past eight months.

"Suit up. We're leaving ASAP." Coulson gave the order.

Fitz was terrified. When he was working without Simmons he was a nervous wreck. His hands shook and he could not keep on track. He was so worried that something had happened to Simmons he almost forgot to bring his computer into the van to continue tracking her.

He was scared for Skye, he really was, but he couldn't even think about her right now. She hadn't been in their lives for the last eight months, but it felt like Simmons had always been there.

As soon as the three of them were in the van the tires were skidding as May reversed down the ramp and sped onto the road.

The inside of the vehicle was dead silent and everyone was upset. Even May had on her emotionless I'm-pretending-not-to-be-worried face, instead of the regular emotionless expression she portrayed.

"Something's wrong!" Fitz alerted the rest of the team as teh hotel drew nearer.

Not only had Fitz programmed her necklace to be a tracker, but since it hung right in front of her heart, he also designed it to track her vitals.

"Her heart rate is spiking and she's on the move!" Fitz said as he watched the tiny red dot that was Simmons running around inside the building.

"What do you mean?" Ward asked.

"She's running from something." May answered for Fitz, stony faced. None of them knew what they were about to run into blindly, but they had to save their teammates, it was top priority. Especially after they let Skye slip through their grasp once before and were determined to earn her trust again.

"What is she doing?" Fitz wondered aloud. Simmons was doubling back, running in the direction she just came from. Fitz hoped Simmons and Skye weren't doing anything stupid. He felt guilty later for thinking it, but he hoped Skye wasn't making Simmons do anything stupid. He knew Simmons would do whatever Skye asked, Simmons liked doing what people told her.

Everyone jumped in their seats when an alarm on Fitz's computer sounded.

"What was that?" Coulson asked in concern.

"Simmons' necklace, the connection is gone." Fitz informed them.

Fitz knew this could only mean one of two things: Simmons' necklace was broken or she was dead.


The woman wearing the lab coat walked back in, carrying scissors in her hand instead of a knife to show she had good intentions, or at least her idea of them.

She cut Skye free and disconnected her from the computer by removing the wire from her centipede device. Skye's eyes quickly faded back to their original brown color as they stopped glowing.

Neither girl moved, spoke, or even breathed for the next moment.

"You're free to go. You've served your purpose." The woman actually smiled as she gestured to the open door. She ordered her guard to leave to assure her 'guests' that she wasn't lying.

"Unless of course you'd like to stay and support the cause." She told them. But Jemma was still suspicious. Did they really not need Skye anymore?

Everything else left her mind though when Skye threw her arms around Jemma's neck.

Everywhere Skye's skin made contact with hers felt like fire and ice at the same time.

Jemma returned the hug, ignoring the still nameless scientist and wrapping her arms around Skye's thin waist. Skye's hair brushed against Jemma's face, but as much as she just wanted to enjoy the moment, she couldn't, because she could feel how tense Skye's entire body was. Skye obviously knew something Jemma didn't, and Jemma didn't like it. She was used to being the knowledgeable one.

"Just get out before I change my mind and decide I can use each of you to force the other to be useful." The doctor sighed at the girls hesitance and Jemma shuddered at the thought of anyone tying Skye to anything ever again.

As soon as they were both on their feet they glanced at each other one last time before walking towards the door, looking behind them to make sure the doctor wasn't going to yell 'Just kidding!', pull out a gun, and shoot them.

Before they even made it half way through the door, Skye cried out in pain and collapsed to her hands and knees.

"Skye? Skye, what's wrong?" Jemma began to panic, but the doctor watched with both interest and confusion. Jemma immediately assumed the worst thing imaginable: that the technology implanted in Skye was backfiring, like Mike's did in the train station after she and Skye met.

"Skye, look at me!" Jemma ordered as she grabbed Skye's face in her hands and forced Skye to look her in the eye. When a drop of blood soaked into the carpet beneath Skye, Jemma rushed o find the source. She moved her hands from Skye's head to look for whatever wound had been opened, but her hands were already stained red. With two fingers she gently turned Skye's head. Blood was leaking from Skye's ears, which meant something could be wrong with her brain.

"What did you people do to her?!" Jemma screamed furiously. She wouldn't know how to fix Skye until she knew what was wrong with her.

"That... shouldn't happen." The woman said, puzzled, as she walked closer avoiding the blood.

"Jemma-" Skye whispered urgently. Skye was trying to tell her something important, but she couldn't do it with the she-devil listening to her every word.

So instead Skye pushed herself to her feet, despite the pain in her head that felt like it had been run over by a bull dozer and despite Jemma's protests. She continued to exit, she was eager to take the doctor's offer before it was retracted.

"Run." Skye whispered as a buzz came over the walkie-talkie.

"M'am! I just double checked the results of the hack! The files have not been deleted, the files have not been deleted!" The three women heard from the device. Jemma gave Skye a questioning look as they began to walk faster.

"She hacked the computer to make the screen display the image of deleting everything, but the files have been transferred somewhere!" The doctor's minion yelled through the walkie-talkie.

Both Jemma and their captor looked to the blood running in a small stream out of Skye's ears.

"Skye, you didn't..." Jemma had a terrified and amazed look on her face and a mischievous smile showed on Skye's.

"I did. Now run like hell before my head explodes." Skye said as the doctor pulled a gun from her belt and began shooting at them.

Jemma could feel Skye quickly falling behind because of the pain she was feeling, so Jemma grabbed Skye's hand in hers and dragged her along as they dodged bullets and continued running down the hall.

The hall split into two directions ahead of them, and Jemma didn't like the idea forming in Skye's eyes.

"She can't chase both of us. Whoever she doesn't pick gets help." Skye informed Jemma of her plan, the one that involved Jemma getting out safely and Skye getting chased to her death because she's now the world's biggest flash drive.

But Skye was right, if Jemma didn't leave her to get help, they would both die. Neither of them could fight and the woman chasing them clearly had experience with killing people. So Jemma nodded, taking a right as Skye ran left.

As predicted, the woman ran after Skye, eager to put a bullet in the brain that somehow held every piece of information SHIELD ever typed on a computer.


Skye's plan didn't really cover the time after the doctor, Debbie, the girl she recording Mike saving, found out what she had done. She figured she'd wing it. Her only worry had been Jemma's safety. She knew she was screwed for life, so her two objectives were to protect Jemma and give saving the files her best shot.

Skye recognized the building as some kind of small hotel, and she was on the second floor.

In horror Skye realized that the hallway she was running down was a dead end, and Debbie was too close behind for Skye to go back.

Skye ran over to the window and threw it open, looking down over the edge. She was both relieved and terrified to see an empty hotel pool on the ground beneath the window. She was terrified of water, it had taken a lot of courage for her to jump off that balcony at Ian Quinn's party.

She wasn't one for irrational fear, she wasn't afraid of something unless there was a reason to fear it.

In one of Skye's foster homes she had an older foster brother who tried to drown her in their pool outside, and after that every time her head was submerged, she remembered the pain of the water forcefully entering her lungs and the hands that pressed against her, keeping her from reaching the surface.

But she jumped anyway. A bullet flew over her head from the window as she plummeted downwards. The force of hitting the water from such a height knocked the wind right out of her and sent her gasping for breath.

But Skye hadn't escaped, a splash sounded beside her and next thing she knew, something yanked her downwards by her foot. Skye let out a scream before she was underwater, silently struggling with the woman trying to kill her.

Every time Skye managed to get her face above the water Debbie dragged her back under.

The two fought for dominance, whoever was winning and holding the other down was the only one who had access to oxygen.

Unfortunately, Skye couldn't swim, she hadn't been swimming since she was a kid, so Debbie had the upper hand in the situation. Debbie's arms wrapped around Skye's torso, pinning her arms to her sides and preventing her from being able to move completely.

Without warning Debbie dove underwater and took Skye with her. Debbie had quickly noticed that Skye couldn't swim and knew she would be able to hold her breath long after Skye would fall unconscious.

All Skye could see as she was pinned to the bottom of the pool was the air bubbles coming from her own mouth and floating to the surface of the blue liquid, which seemed so far away.

Skye was about to give up and close her eyes, but she noticed that the two had drifted towards the edge of the pool while fighting, and Skye's shoulder was almost touching the wall.

In one swift movement, or as swift as movement can be underwater, Skye slipped one arm out of Debbie's grasp, pressed her palm against the doctor's head, and pushed towards the wall with as much force as she could. Blood contaminated the water and spread quickly as Skye felt the weight lift off her chest and her lungs burn inside.

Skye knew the next thing she had to do was get up to the surface, but she was too damn tired and her vision was already fading to black.


Jemma hated running the opposite direction, away from Skye. Away from the girl she might just admit she was falling for, the girl who would probably need her help in a matter of seconds. Jemma couldn't turn her back and run, by the time she could find a way to contact the team, contact them, and wait for them to get here, wherever here is, Skye would be dead.

The splash Jemma heard behind her was the final deal breaker. Jemma turned on her heels and sprinted to find Skye.

Horrible thoughts were playing through Jemma's head, images of Skye's dead body. Several images, with multiple causes of death.

When Jemma reached the window and stuck her head out, her worst fears became reality.

"Skye!" The agonized shriek that escaped Jemma's mouth would have made the hairs rise on the back of anyone's neck. The scream was guttural and animalistic, terrified and mournful and harrowing.

Skye, along with the doctor that attacked her, were floating face down in the pool. Jemma couldn't tell whose it was, but she saw blood in the water.

Jemma didn't hesitate to jump out of the window, the danger didn't even cross her mind, her only goal was to reach Skye before she was deprived of oxygen for long enough to kill her.

"Skye!" Jemma sobbed as she swam to retrieve her friend. Jemma pulled Skye's body into what looked like a hug to drag her over to the steps of the pool. Skye's head laid limply on Jemma's shoulder as she swam, and Jemma didn't like how cold and lifeless Skye's body felt.

Jemma struggled to drag Skye out of the pool once it got shallow and Skye grew heavier, but she managed to get Skye onto the concrete bordering the pool. Without hesitating Jemma went into doctor mode, thrusting her hands down against Skye's chest and stopping after the allotted amount of time to try and push air into her lungs.

The connection of Jemma and Skye's mouth felt nothing like a kiss, it was horrifying to Jemma and it almost made her want to throw up.

When Skye began to choke Jemma quickly turned her onto her side to make sure Skye actually got water out of her system instead of just swallowing it again.

Skye was gasping and Jemma assisted her in keeping her head a few inches off the ground, whispering words of comfort like "just breathe, deep breaths" and "you're ok".

Skye ended up lying in Jemma's lap as she continued to check her vitals over and over again to make sure Skye was stabilized.

Jemma was looking for any warning signs that Skye's tech was damaged, and Skye knew it.

"If a little water could damage that thing,-" Skye was interrupted by her own coughing fit, one that Jemma helped her get out by rubbing her back. "Then my hair would have been disgusting by now." Skye finished her joke. Jemma burst out laughing with happy tears filling her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah it would." Jemma sniffled as she held Skye close.