Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Since it took me a while to update and last chapter was kind of lame, I decided to spew out another chapter for you guys tonight!


"Our first priority is securing a SHIELD base. Then we can do what we can to use the resources there to continue our restoration and rebuilding. After that, we track down Raina and Quinn. Hopefully, we will have gathered enough manpower to recapture the prisoners that were released from the Fridge." Coulson had the the team in the dim briefing room in the Playground. Skye suspected that the lighting was more for effect than actual utility reasons.

"Again, I think we should give the Avengers a little ring. Maybe do brunch with them." Skye piped up but Coulson barely spared her a glance. However, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Billy straighten eagerly only to slump down when Coulson turned away without saying a word.

"If you don't mind, sir, how do we do that with just the…seven of us? Perhaps the U.S. Army-," Simmons began to ask tentatively but Coulson held up a hand.

"We need to take back the Hub from the U.S. Army but that comes later. I'm in touch with a few agents that are still there and they said that they are being detained for questioning and that going through the system is going to take a lot longer than originally planned. Sounds like everyone is being pretty tight lipped there. And last I counted, we had eight."

Simmons mumbled something about not including Fitz since he was still recovering but no one paid her any heed.

"It might be useful if we got some of the governments of countries to re-support us. If we get the right countries too, they can use their influence and connections with the United States to help us get our agents out of the hands of the United States." Trip pointed our thoughtfully.

"That is a very good point, Agent Triplett. Thank you." Coulson noted while Billy nodded vigorously and rubbed his hands together as if ready to get to work right that instant. Skye mentally shook her head at him. His excitement was a little more than what the situation warranted for.

Something buzzed and Simmons excused herself to go tend to Fitz who had currently been resting. The engineer was recovering at an incredible rate that made Skye wonder if he had someone been ejected with GH-325, but she knew better than to ask.

Coulson dismissed the rest of the team and Skye headed down to the training room with Trip to go over combat maneuvers and techniques. Halfway through their session, Skye couldn't help but bring up Ward's meeting with Fitz.

"What do you think he said? I mean, Fitz actually looked happy when he walked out." Skye wondered aloud between pants and dodging Trip's attempts to flip her.

"Who knows? Fitz has every reason to hate him-oof-," Skye managed to hook him under the jaw, "The guy messed up Fitz's brain, so whatever he said, it must have been the right thing to say."

Heading to towel off for a water break, Skye sighed, "Maybe he was just happy that Ward was cooperating. He really didn't want Ward to be evil."

Trip shrugged and sipped water, wiping his brow with the back of his hand.

"Skye."

Trainer and trainee looked up to see May framed in the doorway, arms crossed, an especially grim expression on her face.

"Care to join us, Agent May?" Trip asked cheerfully, patting the back of his neck with his towel.

"No. Skye, there's something that you might want to hear." With that, May turned and walked a couple steps forward before pausing to see if Skye was following her.

Quickly toweling off, Skye threw a confused look at Trip who only shrugged again, before hurrying to catch up with May who headed for Billy and Coulson's conjoined offices.

"What's up, AC? Finally caved and called the Avengers?"

Coulson turned and as soon as Skye saw the look on his face, the grin melted off hers. "Ward says he has some information about your past."

"Yeah, that's fine. I know my own life story, thanks." Skye replied airily.

"It's about your parents. And the Hunan province." Coulson said quietly. Skye felt her eyes widen and her blood run cold. They never actually found out what went down there, just that it was very, very bad. She began to back away, slowly shaking her head.

"No." She whispered, not wanting to find out something worse.

May took a step toward her, reaching out her hand as if to comfort Skye, "His information might not even be credible. It could just be a ploy, a trap-"

Skye stepped further away from the senior agents, hugging her arms around herself, "No I,- I have to find out. Hydra. The Clairvoyant…they knew everything Coulson. What's to say that they don't know the truth about me?"

Coulson pleaded with her, concern written all over his face, "You don't have to do this. Let us go and talk to him first."

"No." Skye's voice was sharp. "I'll go. I want to be the first one to hear it. You can listen in, or don't. Whatever. I don't care." She said recklessly.

"I'll go in with you," May offered but Skye shut her down.

"Just Ward and I. I want no one else in the room but Ward and me." Skye declared. As much as she hated to admit it, she knew that he wouldn't hurt her.

"Skye…" At the helpless tone of her commanding officer's voice, she felt herself begin to lose her nerve.

"I have to do this," She whispered and at that, she turned away from the senior agent's worried expressions and made her way deep into the Playground to confront Ward.

She brought him into the interrogation room. It was too weird for her to talk to him in the tiny cell room. Besides, there was nowhere to sit except on the bed and she wasn't ready to do that yet. He made no sardonic jokes, didn't even greet her verbally when she went into his cell.

Slamming a bottle of water down in front of him, she demanded, "Talk."

"No cuffs?" He held up his unchained hands.

"Talk."

Ward leaned back into his chair as Skye sat perched on the edge of hers. He cleared his throat and took a sip of water, "I don't even know where to start."

"Who told you?"

"Between Garrett and Raina, I mostly pieced it together myself. Along with what you told me."

Which wasn't very much. When they were at SciOps, Skye had mentioned that several agents had died protecting her when she was a baby in China.

"It was mostly Raina. She…ran some tests in Cuba. She was trying to develop the miracle drub that saved you and Coulson and she stumbled across some information."

Skye tried to still her shaky hands by opening her bottle of water but she was only making it worse. Ward reached over, as if unconsciously and easily twisted the cap open for her, gently setting the bottle and cap down before her. The mundane gesture sent a sharp pang through Skye's chest, making her want to flee from the room but she steeled herself and dropped her hands to her lap.

"She ran your blood work against a sample that she had from the massa-. From the occurrence in the Hunan province and-,"

Skye stopped him. "How did she have a sample from that?"

Ward looked dumbfounded, "I don't know. I haven't really thought about it. Anyway, Skye." He looked straight into her eyes with that soft look, the one he had when he saved her from Quinn's henchmen in Malta, like he was checking on her, making sure she was okay for whatever came next. It was his protective look.

"Ward. Just say it." She urged quietly, bracing herself.

"Your DNA matched the sample."

Skye leaned forward, "One of the agents? A villager?"

Ward's next words were so quiet that Skye almost missed them. And she kind of wished that she had.

"The monster's. The one that attacked the village. Skye, I'm so sorry-."

Skye began to laugh, albeit a little hysterically, "She's wrong. Those results can't be right."

"Skye-."

"Is this a trick? For me to talk to you?" Her voice was rising in pitch. Part of her knew that she needed to calm down, but she pushed that part away. Either Coulson or May tapped sharply against the window behind her but they were ignored as Skye reached across the table and grabbed Ward's shirtfront frantically.

"You need to tell her to run those tests again!" She shouted, knowing that she probably wasn't making any sense but Ward only looked at her, his eyes sad, unresisting as she began to shake him. Coulson ran into the room, but before AC could reach the table, Skye screamed at him to get out. She was getting the answers that she wanted and she was getting them now.

"I'll have to have Simmons come and sedate you." Coulson warned but Skye yelled at him to leave again and he surprisingly did.

Ward said her name again, soothingly, but he was ignored too.

"You're lying." She accused wildly, still gripping his shirt.

"You know that I'm not."

Skye released him and fell back into her seat, wiping away tears that she hadn't known that she had shed. "Why would you even tell me?" She asked, forcing her voice to be steady.

Ward leaned forward, his voice catching in his throat, "You needed to know. I would never tell you something like this if I didn't think you wouldn't want to know. I knew you could handle it. This is something you deserve to know. I have no tricks up my sleeve. I don't want to ever lie to you again.

"Skye, this doesn't change anything-," Ward tried to say but she wouldn't hear any of it.

"This changes everything" She hissed, "I'm like a friggin' time bomb, waiting to turn into a psycho killing machine."

Ward's hand covered hers. She flinched but kept her hand under his. "You haven't yet. The chances of you doing so are very unlikely."

"But why did she test…?"

"I think she wanted to know why you didn't react to the drub the way Coulson did. Skye, Raina believes that your nature could help you survive when the world is coming to an end. I think she believes that your potential powers are something that are very positive."

Skye stood abruptly, slipping her hand out from under his. The room was too stuffy, Ward was too close and her head was threatening to explode. "I need time." She choked out before a sob threatened to take over.

She made it out of the hallway without bumping in to May or Coulson. Skye ditched the cumbersome lanyard in a trash receptacle and was hidden in an unused room before the team had a chance to notice that she was gone. She heard them looking for her but all the years she spent in foster homes overfilling with children taught her how to hide well. Eventually, they stopped looking and Skye could finally let herself cry. She wished she had never known about this, but Ward was right. If the information was there, she would have wanted to know. She was entitled to it after searching for the truth her whole life. She wished she was anyone but herself. She wished a lot of things.

After the tears ran out, she sat staring blankly at the wall, thinking of nothing but thinking about everything. When she got tired of sitting, she lay down on the uncomfortable cement floor, shivering. She didn't trust herself with the team, so she stayed down there for hours upon hours, until she found herself craving company to distract herself from her thoughts. She went where she knew that everyone would be safe, her very last option.

"You look like hell."

"Noted. Same to you, Ward." This time, he was doing sit ups and bare chested. Normally, this would have delighted her, but now, she couldn't bring herself to care.

"Have you seen the team?"

"Nope."

"Want to talk?" She looked down at him and he offered her a half grin, "This shoulder's open."

"No. Yes. I … just talk to me." Skye watched as Ward got up and pulled on his shirt then sat on the bed and patted the spot next to him. She sat two spots away from him.

"I don't trust myself with the team." She confessed dully.

"But you trust yourself with me?" Ward remarked lightly.

Skye shrugged, "If what you say is true… You won't hurt me. And I could care less if I hurt you."

"So here we are."

Skye felt his eyes on her

"Raina once told her something interesting." He waited until Skye turned to face him before continuing in a low voice, "She said that you and me, we could be monsters together."

A sob escaped her lips. Skye pressed a hand to her mouth but the tears returned.

"I'm sorry," Ward moved closer, looking alarmed.

"No, it's not that." But another sob wracked her body and he gently pulled her against him and she let herself go. He was a traitor, a monster. But so was she. At last, they had something in common. They were monsters together, them against the rest of the world.

She felt his hold tighten around her as he wrapped another arm around her back and she cried into his shoulder.


Oofta. Kind of a heavy chapter but I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading all the way down here! I'd love to see some reviews next time I check back =)