So, this chapter took a lot longer than I intended to write and is also a lot longer than I intended. Sorry this took so long to get out. The next chapter should be out quicker.

A special thanks to Vikki, who was nice enough to beta this for me because, frankly, by the time it was done I'd run this scenario too many times to see straight.


-Present Day-

"I want it on the record that I don't like this," stated Trip from the other laundry basket. "Seriously, this feels like a bad prison break movie."

"Did you ever think that sometimes movies do things because they work?" countered Bobbi from the driver's seat. Skye could hear Trip grumbling from the basket beside her but she didn't comment. Her mind was focused on trying to keep herself calm.

The plan was pretty simple: once they were inside, she'd get into the security booth and take over. Once she was in, she'd shut down the security alarms and let the others in. All they had to do was find a place to lay low until she had managed to reach the security room. It was tricky and would require pretty precise timing, but she had a tablet she could use to tap into the security cameras, which would give them an edge. Or at least let her keep them from getting caught.

"What if they search the baskets before we get inside?" asked Trip uneasily. "We know this isn't a normal prison."

"No, it's not," agreed Bobbi. "But they don't usually look for people trying to sneak into prisons either."

"They can't break from standard protocol either," added Mack from beside the baskets. He would help Bobbi unload the baskets she, Trip, and Fitz were hiding in but wouldn't leave with Bobbi. Instead, he'd take cover somewhere that Skye would direct him to and wait until she had the system down. "Too risky if they want to stay under the radar."

"Not like many people would look for a Hydra base inside a federal prison," muttered Skye, as she brought the tablet online in anticipation of reaching the prison. She needed everything running before they hit the ground. This was going to require good timing as things stood; the last thing she needed was a program to crash.

"How you doing in there Turbo?" asked Mack, presumably to the basket where Fitz was hiding. Skye had been the most concerned about the engineer, knowing he didn't like small spaces, but Fitz had assured her he'd survive. Mack had backed him up, though she'd seen the equal concern in the other man's eyes.

"I'm alright," assured Fitz, though he sounded a bit breathless in the basket. They'd set up a special one for him- where everyone else was just hiding under layers of clothing, his had a special lid that would give Fitz a bit of breathing room. It was as much for his comfort as everyone else's- they didn't need him freaking out and blowing the whole operation. It would be understandable but kinda bad all the same.

Pulling up the wifi connection for the prison, she scrolled through the various hot spots available for her looking for the one that would allow her access to the prison's cameras. She knew there was an external access point; it wasn't as if the prisoners could get into the wireless system without the guards knowing it. It didn't take long to find the locked router.

Still, she held off accessing the network for the moment. On her computer, it was easy enough to hide her activities. However, inside the prison, there'd be a chance they could track her tablet if they caught on to her. Yeah, she could mask her device so no one could see it, but it would take a few seconds on the network to do that and she'd rather be inside the prison before she tried it. That way, it would look like one of the guards had momentarily accessed the network, not someone outside the prison walls.

Taking a deep breath (or the best she could given she was laying under a bunch of clothing), Skye let the plan run through her head again.

Really, it was very simple. Once Bobbi unloaded them, Skye would slip out of her basket and into the vent system. From there, she'd make her way to the security office, take out the night shift guard, and take control of the security system. With the system under her command, she'd cover Trip, Mack, and Fitz as they headed to meet up with Bobbi, who was going to jump the fence and slip back into the prison alone. Then, Bobbi and Trip would enter the vents to get into the secret sub-levels while Mack and Fitz made their way down in the elevator before Ward was removed from his cell. Bobbi, Trip, Mack, and Fitz would then meet in the hidden floors. Mack and Fitz would locate Ward while Trip and Bobbi grabbed any files on the server and planted a virus to take down the whole system. Then Skye would bring them back up to the main level once they had Ward and they'd steal a car and escape.

Simple...

Now if only Skye could manage to get a handle on her nerves. Even May's special breathing techniques weren't working well. Not that she really expected them to; breaking into a prison to spring her traitorous ex-boyfriend wasn't exactly something she should probably be calm about doing. Still, she glanced at the heart monitor bracelet May had given her. The number was definitely higher than she'd like.

The van jerked suddenly, slowing down. Muffled footsteps approached the van, followed by voices. Bobbi greeted someone, probably a guard, who returning her greeting. Chatter she couldn't hear well enough to make out the words followed. Then they were moving again, the baskets rocking as the van began moving again. They were driving slower now though, which told Skye they were probably approaching the prison. She didn't dare talk though, just in case someone had jumped in the van with them. She wouldn't until either Mack or Bobbi did.

"Get ready Skye, we're almost there," informed Mack, knocking on the basket a little. "When is Ward supposed to be pulled out?"

"Around 11 pm," replied Skye, tapping on her tablet and checking the programs she wanted running were. "It could be as late as 11:30, but it's usually closer to 11:00."

"What time is it now?" asked Fitz from somewhere to Skye's left.

"9:30," replied Bobbi from the front of the van. "By the time we unload though, it should be closer to 10:00."

"Think you can get back in quickly enough?" asked Trip wearily, again from Skye's left somewhere. "That's not a lot of time."

"It'll take me ten minutes to get back in once Skye takes control of the security system," stated Bobbi calmly. "Maybe less. Skye, we're going to find the closest location to a vent that we can and leave you there while we unload the others. When does your target go on shift?"

"He should already be on," replied Skye, fingers hovering over the connect button for the internet. As soon as they had her off the van, she was going to connect and hide her device. It would be safer to disconnect while she was in the vents on the off chance they were able to trace her. That meant she needed to check the schedule before she got out of the basket. "Usually he comes on at 9:30 and stays on until 5:30 am. The logs show he locks himself inside the security center, too. Looks like he doesn't leave except for five minute, well spaced intervals. His log number is the only one on the locks."

"Probably bathroom breaks," stated Mack from the same general vicinity as Fitz. "How are you going to lure him out, Skye?"

"I have a few ideas," stated Skye simply, quieting down when the van started to slow again.

"Showtime guys," stated Bobbi quietly a minute before the van came to a complete stop.

Almost immediately, Skye heard Bobbi and Mack stand and begin moving around. Then she felt her basket moving. The back wheels had barely bumped onto the loading dock when Skye pulled up the wifi connection and linked her tablet into the system. Another click and her tablet was hidden from the network.

Taking a deep breath, she immediately set about monitoring the security cameras. Tapping her ear, she tried to relax a little. "Alright, I'm in the system. Mack, once the baskets are unloaded, I want you to climb back into the van with Bobbi, shut the door, and wait for my mark. I'll loop the video footage of the closed van doors while you climb back out, then bring the feed back online to show Bobbi driving away."

Two taps on the side of her basket was her only response, but it was enough. It was a code they'd worked out on the way to the prison. The two taps simply meant: 'I heard you and agree'. Well, at least they were on the same page.

Flipping the cameras for a moment, Skye tracked the camera outside of Ward's cell, feeling a bit of relief when she saw the man in question lay inside. She took stock of the fact that he was still there and appeared unharmed, allowing some of the initial tension leave her system. Good, it meant she hadn't misread these guys yet.

Her basket came to a sudden stop. Almost immediately, Skye went on high alert. Then Mack tapped the basket three times and she relaxed again. 'Stay put'. She was at the drop point then. Right now, all she needed to do was wait for Mack to get the other two baskets and they could move.

She checked the time. 10:00 pm. They still had at least an hour then, more than enough time to handle this. Once the others were unloaded, Mack would give her the sign and she'd slip away into the duct system. There was a map of the prison already downloaded into her tablet, all she needed to do was figure out where she was and find a way up to the security office. All she needed was the signal.

It felt like ages passed before she heard the second triple tap, then the sound of receding footsteps. It was Mack's all-clear signal. She was good to go. Thank god, any longer in that basket and she was going to become claustrophobic herself. Seriously, how did the people in those prison break movies make it look so easy?

Extracting herself from the pile of clothing proved more difficult than she had thought it would be, but she managed to pull herself out after about five minutes of trying to move the clothing aside. She was careful to keep her head covered as she poked it up though, on the off-chance someone was walking by. Thank god Mack had managed to not only move her into a corner, but he'd found a dark one to boot. Before they'd left, she'd given him a list of possible locations he could leave her that were shielded from video cameras. Really, the video cameras were only looking for people to cross the room from the doors- they weren't meant to spot people sneaking in inside laundry baskets. Or people who were moving straight into the vent systems.

Carefully, she pulled herself out of the basket, making sure she hugged the wall as best she could as she extracted herself. The edge of the laundry basket wasn't exactly thick, but it was enough that she could climb free and hoist herself towards the vent overhead. In a matter of seconds, she had the grate off and she was inside the vent with the grate back in place behind her.

The first part of the plan was complete.

Extracting a flashlight from her pocket, she began to edge forward into the vents, keeping an eye on her tablet as she did. The vents in the facility were a maze with the intention of keeping people from doing exactly what she was. Fortunately, she was smarter than the average prisoner. That didn't make navigating the mess any easier. Still, it only took her about fifteen minutes to reach the security booth through the system.

Pausing in the vent outside of the security booth door, Skye checked the cameras on her tablet and compared it to the hallway outside. The angles were going to be tricky to calculate, but from what she could see, the only camera she needed to worry about was right outside the door. Her tablet wasn't strong enough to loop everything, which was the primary purpose for her getting into the security booth to begin with. Hacking the access panel wouldn't be hard, but it would be easier to just get the guard inside to come out. A problem with the camera would definitely do something like that.

Tucking the tablet away, Skye pulled out her phone and pulled up the camera feed. She couldn't control all of the cameras in the base with just her tablet and phone, but she could disrupt the feed momentarily. She only needed the video down for a few seconds, just long enough to get out of the vent and into the hall. She could shut down the camera for a few seconds, make sure it looked like a firmware crash and force the guard inside to restart the whole system.

Pressing a few more buttons, she didn't give herself the chance to question the move before she hit send on the command and watched as the camera feed on her screen went dark. She was out of the vent and against the wall just below the camera in less than twenty seconds. It was one of the few blind spots for the camera and gave her access to the device's hardware, which was precisely what she'd need to pull off the next bit of her plan. All she needed to do was wait for the camera to come back online before she moved, otherwise it could be attributed to another software glitch. She needed the guard to leave the booth and that would require something more than a firmware crash.

Seconds later, the lights on the camera came back on, indicating it was fully functional again. Time to lure the guard out. This was going to be both the easy and hard part: she needed to disable the camera physically to lure the guard out. The easiest way, of course, was to pull the cable below the camera free. The downside was if someone saw the cable hanging there, they might get suspicious and check the booth. She didn't need the camera functional for her own purposes of course- anyone who was heading for the booth was an enemy to her. But she needed everything to look kosher outside to avoid anyone checking the security booth. God, it was times like this she wished the security camera would just fail momentarily, long enough to draw the guard out.

As she stood there staring at the camera, the lights on the top flickered again once before going off. Skye froze at the sight, wondering momentarily what was going on. A curse and the sound of the security door beeping told her that whatever had caused the camera to shut off wasn't planned. She managed to pull her ICER out just as the door to the security booth started to open.

The bullet hit the guard square between the eyes before he even knew what had happened. He was down without a sound or twitch.

Releasing a sigh, Skye holstered her ICER again and quickly went to work dragging the guard back into the security booth. He weighted a ton, she'd say that about him. Dragging him back into the room was harder than she'd anticipated, but she managed all the same. Once inside, the quickly locked the door and physically barred it to keep anyone from entering until she could get the code changes in place. She needed to tie the man up first. Thankfully, Trip had the foresight to insist she bring rope, otherwise she would have needed to watch the man while trying to control the security system and that just wasn't going to happen.

When she was certain the man couldn't get out if he woke up while she was still there, she turned her focus onto the system at the heart of the prison. Monitors lined the wall above the security panel, which was a lot more high-tech than anything she'd been expecting. One person seriously ran all of this? Well, then again, it was night time. There probably wasn't much to do other than make sure no one disappeared. It wasn't likely they'd have to open the cell doors all that often or anything. Besides, she was pretty sure the doors were controlled somewhere else. The booth probably had over-rides in case of emergency, but the primary controls would most likely be elsewhere in the prison. The cell doors weren't a concern to Skye though- what she needed was the camera controls. It was the only way she'd be able to help the others sneak around.

First though, she needed to change the door code to make sure no one outside her team could get in. The door was built to withstand a riot, so in theory there shouldn't be much that could get through the door once she changed the codes. It took less than five seconds to adjust the files to accept the code of her choosing and nothing else. Way too easy, in her mind.

Still, she'd changed the codes and now had full control of the security booth. Her end if the action was done. Accessing the camera controls, she quickly shut off the record feature. She'd need to see if she could get the camera outside the door working again, too, but she'd do that once it was clear for the team to start moving.

Her fingers danced over the controls as she scanned for auxiliary monitors and other sources in the prison that might detect their presence. Her scans came up blank though, which made sense when she thought about it. The percentage of Hydra to non-Hydra inmates was actually pretty big- she'd done a lot of digging on that one. More than likely, they didn't even bother to monitor entire swaths of the prison. Why would they need auxiliary monitoring stations?

Still, she cued the recordings from the previous nights as a precaution and carefully watched the network connections to make sure nothing came online. She also quickly uploaded a command set she'd had the foresight to write the night before, when they'd been in that crappy motel not far from the prison. It was a pretty simple reroute that would only display recordings saved from the previous night to any external monitors or computers that connected into the system. It wasn't completely fool proof, but it would at least buy them time if something started to go wrong. What was worrying her more was the surveillance system on the hidden floor. She needed to get access to that, too. One step at a time though- she needed to give the team clearance to start doing their thing first.

Tapping her calm, Skye tried to settle the tension in her stomach as she spoke. "Alright, I've got control of the security system and set everything up. We're good to go."

"Nice work Skye," applauded Mack in the muffled way that said he was laying low. There was some rustling over his line followed by an 'oomph' a second later which sounded like Fitz. If Skye had to bet, she'd say he was helping Fitz out of that laundry basket. It didn't surprise her that the mechanic had stuck close to Fitz- he practically guarded the engineer. It made Skye wonder if something was going on, though she wasn't going to ask either at this point. It wasn't exactly important right then and there. They just needed to get in, get Ward, and get out without getting caught or killed. No big deal.

"What's it look like, Skye?" asked Bobbi quietly. She could hear faint rustling that indicated Bobbi was probably outside the prison somewhere, likely searching for a way in assuming she hadn't already have one.

Flipping through the security monitors, Skye took note of the number of guards she could see and frowned. "There are not as many guards as there should be. Or people for that matter." Clicking over to the camera outside Ward's cell, she noted he was still asleep inside, but they were rapidly approaching the time when he'd probably be taken. "Ward's still in his cell, but we've gotta hurry. Any sign of a way in Bobbi?"

"You have the cameras covered?" asked Bobbi, the question followed by a click that might have been her batons locking together. When she'd told them about that little trick, Skye had been suitably impressed. When she told them it could extend and support her weight, Skye had wanted to try it out. Bobbi had promised she could later, when they made it out of the prison.

"Yeah, all set," confirmed Skye, checking the outside cameras. "There's a guard passing by along the west fence. The next one is still on the other side of the yard. When the guard passes, you'll have about two minutes to jump the fence, cross the area, and get inside without being seen. There's a door on the west side that's unguarded and leads into the loading bay. The bay is empty."

"Got it," confirmed Bobbi. There was silence for a moment, then a bit of wind and some light rustling that could have honestly been a breeze blowing the leaves of a tree. "I see the guard, I see the door, and I'm going to run for it in less than thirty seconds. Anything you can do about the lights?"

Skye glanced across the control panel, but there was no way to figure that out from just looking at the panel. It was probably a manual control anyway. "Not that I can see."

"I'll make do then," stated Bobbi. "Mack, where are you, Fitz, and Trip?"

Skye tuned them out for a moment as they arranged a meet-up, focusing instead on the monitors in front of her. She knew there had to be surveillance on the hidden floor, but she wasn't sure how she'd get access to it. Access she needed if she was going to guide them around. More than likely, the two systems were linked. It probably wasn't an obvious connection though, otherwise any guard who wasn't Hydra (if there were any) could stumble across the feed. If she were personally setting up the system, the access would appear as a background program or something equally innocuous. Something that wouldn't look suspicious if it was found.

But her computers didn't need to be accessed by outsiders. No, if she was going to run a security system on a secret level...she'd use an entirely different computer. Furthermore, she'd use a computer on the level and then remote access it. It would be easy enough to break the connection if necessary and wipe any trace of having accessed the second computer from the primary. Heck, the computer could even be disguised as a legitimate computer on the network- it wasn't exactly hard to fake computer names.

The computer should already be connected at this point though- likely the window had just been minimized to avoid unintended observation by an outsider like her. Hopefully, there wasn't a password to access it- she had a drive with a password breaker on it that she could use, but it would take more time than they might have. She needed the security feeds from the lower level as fast as possible.

Opening all of the minimized windows, she made a face when she found a paused sex video on one of the screens (and it was a prisoner/guard one too- Fraud would just love that) and a slew of other, unrelated sites that appeared to mostly be fetish research. Well then, someone had a kinky side. Minimizing those windows (she didn't want to close them and alarm someone with back-door access), she pulled up the video control program for the surveillance equipment and found a second tab inside the program. It was labeled 'maintenance', but when she flipped to the tab, she found a series of hallways and doors that definitely weren't maintenance related. Numbers were printed on the doors, but it was the windows that made her skin crawl. Those types of windows, she definitely knew. Simmons' new lab was covered in them. They were reinforced observation windows. The kind of thing used in labs so people could observe what was happening inside without being inside.

At least she'd found the feed she needed.

"Skye, you there?" Trip's voice cut through the line, drawing Skye's attention fully back onto the group. Apparently, they'd been calling her name if the slight panic in Trip's voice was any indication.

"Yeah, I'm here," confirmed Skye, flipping back to the security cameras for the main facility. The cameras were still looping and she was careful not to undo the looping feeds as she accessed the direct camera feeds. The four others were exactly where she'd expected them to be- still in the loading bay, though Bobbi looked a little impatient. Quickly, she closed the hardware feed and checked the feed outside Ward's cell. He was still inside, so that was good. A glance at the feed for the basement, however, showed a group of guards and a scientist heading for the elevators with a gurney. Apparently, it was show time. "Ward's still in his cell but I think the removal team is on their way up."

"We'd better get moving then," stated Bobbi over the line. "Trip, we can use the entrance Skye did to get into the vents. Skye, did you manage to grab the ventilation blueprints?"

"I sent them to your tablets earlier," stated Skye, her fingers drumming as she watched the removal team maneuver through the halls slowly. "Mack, Fitz, I'm going to guide you guys towards the elevator. However, I need you to stay out of sight for now, no matter what you see. Got it?"

"Skye?" asked Mack wearily. "What have you been seeing that you feel the need to say that?"

"I've watched them pull Ward out of his cell," stated Skye simply. "It's...he fights. Hard. It's hard to watch them take him down."

There was a moment of silence as her words sank in before Mack spoke up again. "How big is this removal team?"

"Five guards," replied Skye, her eyes monitoring the removal team's progress. They'd stopped somewhere along the way and the scientist had disappeared into what looked like a storage room. "And a single scientist."

"Five guards?" asked Bobbi, the surprise apparent in her voice. "For one person?"

"I watched him take nearly all of them down," stated Skye simply as she brought up the feed outside Ward's cell momentarily to check on him. He appeared asleep, though she knew it was probably a farce unless they drugged him earlier. "Trust me, it's warranted force."

Bobbi's quiet 'shit' echoed what she was pretty sure everyone except maybe Fitz was thinking. Only the engineer and Skye really knew how good Ward was. She knew it was part of why he'd agreed to help pull him out, too. If his skill was related to some experimental drug or something, they didn't need Hydra getting their hands on it. Otherwise they'd never win.

"So, what, we're following them at a distance?" asked Mack, drawing the focus back to their plan. "Tailing them downstairs and then getting him out from there?"

"Right," confirmed Skye, noting the scientist coming out of the supply room. The small caravan began again. They needed to get Mack and Fitz into position now.

They'd originally decided that two teams needed to hit the lower level. Bobbi and Trip would find a way down using the ventilation system and figure out a way to steal all data from the servers Hydra had to be using to store their research then wipe the servers. Skye had passed a virus off to Bobbi that would bring down the entire network and all the computers inside the lower level. She'd already figured out the network was a internal network without external access, otherwise she could have broken in without stepping foot in the prison. That meant it wouldn't mess with the rest of the prison network, so all criminal files would be safe. At least, she hoped they would be. Then again, there should be back-ups outside the system.

"Skye, we're heading into the vents," stated Bobbi, Trip making a slight 'umph' sound over the line and drawing her full focus back to the mission at hand. Bobbi muttered something that might have been 'don't be a baby', but Skye wasn't sure. Either way, it didn't matter. Trip and Bobbi were on their own for the moment, Skye needed to be focused on Mack and Fitz.

She checked the monitors again and found the removal team was almost to the elevator. "Let me know where you guys are. Mack, Fitz, we need to get you two moving." Opening the raw feed again, she confirmed both Fitz and Mack had slipped into their disguises. Mack was dressed as one of the guards, complete with a rather nasty looking automatic gun. She wasn't honestly sure she wanted to know where that came from. Fitz, by contrast, was dressed in the same clothes as the scientists, which worried her a little because it meant they could clearly see his face. Mack had told her not to worry about it, that he'd find a way to handle any questions. She just hoped Mack was right about that.

"We're ready when you are, Skye," assured Fitz, though there was tension in his voice she didn't really like. Not that they weren't all tense; they were breaking a traitor out of a high security federal prison that had somehow gotten taken over by Hydra. And they were doing it without back-up. That was completely unnerving for anyone.

Taking a deep breath and licking her lips, Skye tapped a few keys on the computer in front of her to bring up the security cameras she needed, and dove in. "Alright, Mack, Fitz, you're going to head down the hall away from the loading dock. Your goal is cell block B. Head straight down the hall and let me know if you see anyone. I'm scanning the cameras so you should be clear, but you never know."

"Right," sighed Mack a second before quiet footsteps started up on the line. "Just tell us what to do, Skye. You're the boss."

"Right," muttered Skye, rubbing her eyes before she checked the elevator feed and nearly cursed. The removal team was in the elevator.

She needed to get Mack and Fitz to the elevator before the team got back and get them down into the labs. She could over-ride the elevator commands from the security box, but she needed to make sure they were actually in the labs before the recovery team got back on the off-chance they locked down the elevators. She hadn't been able to tell what was going on with the elevators once they had Ward down there the last few times, namely because she didn't have full access to the system. It was the other reason Trip and Bobbi were moving through the vents- if the elevator did get locked down, Skye wouldn't need to unlock it to let them down and risk alerting someone. There were too many variables to risk it.

"Mack, Fitz, I'm gonna need you guys to pick up your pace," ordered Skye, scrolling through the cameras covering their route. "You're clear for now, so take a right once you hit the end of the hall and let me know when you hit the first restricted access gate. The removal team is ahead of schedule. I'll stall them if I can."

"Don't put yourself at risk, Skye," ordered Mack, though she could hear his breath huffing slightly. "Do what you can, but don't let anyone know you're there. Got it?"

"Got it," assured Skye, before she focused her attention on the removal team's progress again. They weren't moving particularly fast, probably in an effort to conserve their energy. Still, they were moving faster than she'd like. It meant she was going to have to find a way to slow them down. There were two security gates between the elevator and Ward's cell. It would be easy enough to delay them by messing with the lock, except there was a possibility it could be construed as suspicious. Well, unless...

Hitting a few keys, Skye brought up the lock control system, isolated the first door the team would need to move through in order to reach Ward. With a few more keystrokes, she caused the lock program for that door to freeze. It wouldn't last, but it would cause the lock's firmware to reboot, which would delay them for at least a minute. Hopefully, it wouldn't raise suspicion, not that the door would display any signs of being frozen.

Checking on Mack and Fitz, she found them approaching the first security gate they'd need to bypass and quickly unlocked the door for them. "Mack, Fitz, I need you to keep going straight, then take the third left. Follow that corridor and let me know when you've hit the elevator."

"Where's the removal team?" asked Trip, his mic crackling slightly, likely due to the metal of the vents.

"I delayed them by resetting a security gate lock, but this might be tight depending on how quickly they get Ward down," replied Skye, pulling up the camera outside the security gate. She cursed slightly when she realized they had the gate open already, jumping through the cameras to try to predict how long before they reached Ward's cell. Again, she cursed when she realized it would take them maybe seven minutes to reach the cell where Ward still appeared to be sleeping. Mack and Fitz were still at least ten minutes away from the elevator. 'Come on Ward, you've gotta fight them like hell tonight. Please, give me time to get Fitz and Mack down. Please.'

Taking a deep breath, Skye focused on the route she was sending Mack and Fitz through. Unfortunately, because it was a prison, there were no straight forward entrances and exits. Obviously; they couldn't risk that if a prisoner got out. At the same time though, it almost meant Mack and Fitz were going to take longer than she'd like to reach the elevator unless there was some other way for her to direct them. Pulling up the blueprints for the prison on her tablet on a whim, she flipped through the first floor display looking for anything that could help her get Fitz and Mack to the elevator faster. A storage room caught her eye then, one with doors opening onto two hallways. It wasn't really clear if it would actually get them there faster, but there was a hall that turned off the second which dead ended at the elevator. It might not be faster, but it was worth a shot at this point.

"Hey Mack, change of plans," stated Skye, flipping through the lock controls until she found the one for storage area 2334. "There's a door coming up on your left, it's gonna be labeled storage 2334. Cut through that room and turn right when you exit the other side."

"You sure it goes through?" asked Mack, even as she watched him slow down and head for the room. Skye barely had a chance to unlock the door before he was pushing it open and running in with Fitz behind.

"The blueprints say it does," confirmed Skye, glancing at the blueprints again. "I'm hoping since it's primary level that it wasn't modified like the lower levels."

"Well this prison is open for government examination," remarked Trip, his voice echoing slightly over the comm line. "Kinda can't do anything too obvious, otherwise people start asking questions."

"Government regulations require updated blueprints be kept on file too," added Bobbi, her voice slightly strained. "If you got those from the prison computer system, then it's up-to-date. Otherwise this place would have to undergo a full-scale inspection."

"Which they'd want to avoid at all costs," stated Skye, clicking through the monitors. She brought up Ward's cell and felt her stomach drop out. The removal team was outside his cell, moving the gurney around so they could easily move him once they had him down. "Fitz, Mack, the team's reached Ward. I need you guys at the elevator now."

"Do they have him on the gurney yet?" asked Mack, the tension in his voice evident. She could hear his muttered 'sorry for this turbo' before Fitz let out a yelp and Mack's breathing began to become labored.

"No," replied Skye, her own voice shaky as she watched the guards prepare to go in. As she caught the slight tensing of Ward's leg's in preparation. "Also, Mack, I want you to know I'm going to give you and Fitz both hell later for what it sounds like you're doing."

"What, that I'm running with him on my shoulder?" huffed Mack. She could hear his feet in the hall and prayed they wouldn't run into any guards as they rushed towards the elevators. Fitz's startled exclamation of 'Skye!' might have made her smile if her stomach weren't violently churning.

The guards were beginning to suit up, preparing for the fight they knew was coming. Three pulled out their batons as they spoke, eyes darting towards the man they were targeting. Somehow, she knew tonight was going to be bad. The guards were prepared and no matter how good of a fighter Ward was, he could only do so much.

"Skye, we're here," called Mack, his voice breaking through the terror that was slowly eating away at her. "We need that elevator, now."

"Right," stated Skye, her focus switching to the elevator controls. She needed to get the elevator up to Mack and Fitz and needed to get them safely down to the lower levels. "Give me a second."

Calling the elevator to the first floor, she watched on the security camera inside as Mack strode into the elevator with Fitz still over his shoulder. He put the scientist down as soon as the elevator doors closed and Skye input the command to drop the elevator to the supposed maintenance level.

"Alright, you guys should be down there in a second," stated Skye, checking the camera outside the elevator. It showed no one in the hallway, though there were some people moving around further in the lab. "I don't know where these guys are going to end up, though. There's what looks like it might be a storage area to your left when you exit the elevator. I want you guys to head down the left hall branch, then turn right and go about halfway down the hall. There's a door there that looks like it leads to a storage room. That's the direction they came from, so I think that's where they're heading."

"Got it," confirmed Mack as he started leading Fitz calmly down the hall. "Keep us posted."

"Right," stated Skye, turning her focus back to the monitor outside Ward's cell with dread. She opened it just as one of the guards went flying out of Ward's cell. The specialist was standing in a fighting position, fists clenched and raised. The guard he'd thrown out looked like he might have a broken nose with the way blood was gushing from the man's face. It was a powerful move and she felt her anxiety rise a little. The remaining four guards looked beyond enraged, turning on Ward like angry dogs. He just stood there though, daring them to strike. One of the guards rushed forward before anyone could stop him, swinging his baton at Ward's head. Ward ducked as soon as the man was close, hooking a punch upward that, even through the body armor, looked like it hurt.

The way the guard who'd rushed him doubled over said it definitely hurt. Somehow, Ward ended up with the guard's baton in hand, kicking the downed guard in the head and rending the other man at minimum unconscious. Skye hoped the guard wasn't dead, but she had to admit she wouldn't feel too guilty if he was. Fighting back against something like this wasn't exactly a muddy matter.

Still though, Ward didn't make a move to exit the cell. Instead, he moved further inside, welding the baton readily to keep anyone who tried to jump him back. It was a good strategy, Skye had to admit. It wouldn't give him a chance to escape but it would keep him from being dragged away against his will. And at this point, she suspected that's what he was going for.

For a long moment, the three men still standing outside the cell exchanged looks and gestures. Then the one with the broken nose said something and suddenly the other three man were moving towards the door, two stepping side by side into the narrow cell. Skye felt her stomach drop. They were going to pin him inside. It was a dangerous move; if Ward managed to get them both down then he only had to get down the single man in order to escape. But there was a better chance they'd be able to over-power him in the narrow space. And it wasn't like they could use pepper spray or anything like that against him; he'd been trained to fight and resist those things and they more than likely knew it. It would have been the first thing she tried in their shoes.

Neither guard showed any reluctance in crowding Ward though, their batons raised to protect them from any strikes he might attempt against them. Ward didn't lash out though, all he did was watch them carefully, clearly looking for an opening. Skye watched with held breath as they cornered him. One of the guards reached out and grabbed one of Ward's arms, trying to pull him forward to the ground. That was the point when he struck. Almost faster than she could track, Ward had him down on the ground and was tackling the second guy. The first didn't move as Ward bolted towards the open cell door, nor did the second. The man still outside was waiting for this move though. He grabbed Ward around the waist as soon as he cleared the door, tackling him to the floor. The first man with the broken nose jumped into the fray, pinning Ward to the ground and throwing a rather brutal punch to the man's face. The scientist said something then, at least Skye guessed he did because the guard with the broken nose halted his fist mid way through the second hit clearly intended for Ward's face. He didn't drop his fist though, instead punching Ward in the face once more before shifting to hold the man by the throat while the scientist knelt down and shoved a needle into Ward's arm.

Ward continued to struggle, even as his movements grew sluggish either from lack of air or whatever the scientist had drugged him with. Neither guard released him until he had stopped moving, though Skye could see Ward's chest rise as soon as the guard was off him. It meant he was at least alive.

"Baby girl, what's going on?" Trip's voice caught Skye's attention sharply, drawing her focus back on the others. Crap, how long had she been distracted for? Where were Mack and Fitz? She needed to get back on track and get the others to safety.

"They have Ward down, they're preparing to transport him," replied Skye, her voice tight. It was only then she realized her face felt tight and her eyes were wet. What the hell? She wasn't happy with Ward right now. After what he'd pulled, she basically hated him. Except no one deserves this, no one deserves to be treated like an animal and experimented on by Hydra, no matter what they've done.

"You okay Skye?" Mack's voice was tense over the comms and she wondered if she'd been speaking without realizing it or if the others had heard her.

Firmly, she shook her head and pulled up the security feed for the elevator again, making sure she sent the elevator back to the same floor Ward was being kept on. What the rest of the team had or hadn't heard from her didn't matter. She needed to focus and keep everyone alive.

"I'm fine," she assured Mack, flipping the security feed to the camera outside where Mack and Fitz were hiding. "Are you two safe?"

"We're good, Skye," confirmed Fitz, his breathing a little unstable. "Just waiting for you."

"You okay Fitz?" asked Trip, his voice weary over the line.

"Fine," assured Fitz, though he didn't quite sound fine. "Just d-dark, small space. It's, er, it's uncon- uncomf-"

"Uncomfortable," supplied Mack in a knowing voice. "The space is making Turbo jumpy is all. Any idea when we can get out of this place Skye?"

"Hang on," ordered Skye as she pulled up the security cameras along the hallway she'd seen the removal team in earlier. "It looks like they'll probably take him to the labs near the end of the hall where you guys are hiding. I don't see anyone in the halls, but I can't guarantee any of the rooms are clear."

"They're going to probably post guards outsides Ward's room if he's some sort of precious experiment," pointed out Bobbi, her voice reverberating less than it had been earlier. "They won't put many because it's an underground facility and there's not exactly a slew of escape routes, but there's bound to be someone."

"I have an ICER," stated Mack, voice crackling a little. "We aren't completely defenseless."

"Yeah, but a missing guard would be suspicious," countered Bobbi. "I thought the point of this was stealth."

"We need to be stealthy until you have the data from their servers or whatever," reminded Skye, reaching up to rub at her eyes. Her palms shook as she did and came away wet, but she ignored it. "There's no way we can get him out without making some noise. We just need to be prepared to distract them and run like crazy when we do."

"That might be easier than you think," remarked Trip, his voice quiet but clear. It sounded like he'd gotten out of the vents. "We're in the file room, Skye. I see a computer terminal but I also see a LOT of filing cabinets."

"Hydra keeps hard copies of everything," informed Bobbi, her voice clearing up as well, presumably from jumping out of the vent.

"We'll deal with that in a minute," assured Skye, her fingers pulling up the security feed from in front of the elevator. "I need to figure out where you guys are first. Is there a map or anything in the room that could give you an idea of where you're at?"

"We're lookin' Skye-" started Trip, only for Bobbi to cut him off.

"I found a fire escape map," stated the biologist turned agent.

Skye actually felt her jaw drop a little. "A fire escape map, like in a hotel?"

"Or a hospital, stadium, office building, etc," countered Bobbi dismissively, like having an escape map for a secret underground lab hidden beneath a prison was somehow normal. "Hydra doesn't like surprises. They like order."

"Right," muttered Skye with a shake of her head, still unable to believe there was actually a fire escape map. Seriously, how random did it get? "Is there anything on there that you can use to help me figure out where you are?"

"The room is listed as 103," replied Bobbi. "Which is probably the room number."

"Let me check," muttered Skye, flipping rapidly through the security feed until she found a door with that exact number on it. She checked the camera identification number so she could reference it later, then switched back to the elevator's feed. "Alright, I know where you guys are. The hall outside is clear for the moment."

"Good," stated Bobbi, before turning her attention back onto presumably Trip. "You hit the computer, I'm going to see if they have a file on Ward in here. It might explain what is going on exactly."

"Look for anything on the former super soldier projects too," added Skye as she checked the halls outside of the file room, or at least what she thought was the file room. It was a little hard to say for sure. "The information could be useful."

"We can only carry so much," reminded Bobbi, the sound of metal sliding against metal and soft clang of a filing cabinet opening following her words. "But I'll see what I can do. Trip's taking care of the computer. We'll let you know when we're done."

"Hurry," stated Skye, pulling up the elevator camera and finding the removal team preparing to unload on the bottom floor. Well, what remained of them which at this point was the scientist and the two guards who hadn't been knocked unconscious. Skye guessed they'd send a team from the infirmary upstairs to get the three unconscious men from earlier. "I don't know what they're going to do to Ward, but we need to get him out before the scientist gets too involved. Otherwise it might not be safe to unhook him."

"Bobbi has a PhD in biology," assured Mack calmly. "Pretty sure she can figure it out if Turbo can't."

"Mack, what did I say about telling people about that?" asked Bobbi, though she didn't actually sound irritated. Mack didn't get a chance to respond before Bobbi made a victorious noise in her throat though. "I found a file with Sim's name on, doesn't look like there's anything on Ward though."

"Grab the Sim's file," ordered Skye, her anxiety growing as the removal team made their way calmly through the halls towards some lab Skye didn't want to think about. "I don't know if any files would be under Ward's name or another one."

"Right, adopted," remarked Bobbi with a sigh, the sound of metal shaking slightly as she closed the file coming over the line. "Look, everything in here should be digital, too. It's going to take too long to search all these files."

"Alright," agreed Skye, though she didn't like that. It was true though, unless the file Bobbi was holding somehow magically contained Grant's actual name, they wouldn't be able to find any other files on him. "Check and see if you have another name in there. Maybe by some luck, they knew the name of his birth parents or something."

"Wouldn't they have that folder with them in the lab though?" pointed out Mack. "I mean, I'd think they'd be modifying it."

"Mack's right," confirmed Bobbi. "They'll have any folders specifically on Ward in the lab with them so they can add pages and information as they get it."

"Got everything off the computer," chimed in Trip. "Ready to unleash this baby when you are, Skye."

"Roger that," confirmed Skye with a deep breath. This part was where it would start to get tricky. They had two ways they could handle this: create a distraction that would send everyone running to the other end of the level or shoot any guards that were left outside Ward's door and try to sneak out. Sneaking out most likely wouldn't work and Skye knew that; no matter what, they'd most likely need to shoot their way out. But first, they needed to unleash this virus. Most likely, it would cause enough of a disturbance that the group could escape somewhat unnoticed. "Did you transfer the file like I said to?"

"Yep, it's just waiting to come out and play," confirmed Trip. "Want me to unleash it?"

"Not yet," negated Skye, her fingers flying over the keyboard as she tracked the guards and Ward passed the door where Fitz and Mack were hiding. "If there's a file on Ward, we need to take it. I want to see where they're taking him. Once they have him in the lab, we can worry about getting him out."

"They'll want to make sure whatever sedative they gave him is working completely," added Bobbi. "They probably won't start whatever they're doing immediately. Maybe take some blood or something but nothing else for a bit."

Skye nodded absently, mentally calculating how long they would potentially have to get Ward and get out without drawing too much attention. "Bobbi, do you and Trip think you could cause a fire?"

"Build a bonfire and burn Hydra's hard-copy research to the ground?" asked Bobbi curiously, to the point where Skye could practically see the other woman's raised eyebrow.

"I'm more thinking make it look like an accidental electrical fire," remarked Skye, watching as the removal team slowed to a stop in front of a door two away from the end of the hall. "Just enough to get their attention and get them moving towards the end of the hall."

"It might send people running for the elevator," pointed out Bobbi, though Skye could hear her removing files from drawers. "It might cut off our escape route."

"Except there has to be stairs or another way out," countered Skye as she began scanning the floor for some other way people might get out. "Otherwise they'd be screwed if anything ever happened down there. And Hydra is too careful to waste people like that."

"You can't argue there," broke in Trip, his voice tense. "Seriously though, Skye, how are we getting Ward out of here? Steal a truck from the motor pool?"

"That was my plan," admitted Skye with a small shrug. "There's no way for us to get a car in without drawing suspicions."

"I saw a few that will work if we can get to the motor pool," confirmed Bobbi. "We'll get out. There's always a way."

Skye nodded once, firmly, and watched the guards wheel Ward into a room without the scientist. The man was no where in sight but Skye hadn't seen him go into the room either. "Okay, Mack, Fitz, Ward is in room-"

"Hold up Skye," whispered Mack firmly, though he didn't explain why.

Furrowing her brow, Skye switched to the camera outside the storage room where they were hiding and found the scientist who'd been escorting Ward stepping into the room where her teammates were holed up. Fear bolted down Skye's back. Shit. THatNo, they couldn't get caught yet. She heard the faint pop of an ICER going off and watched the scientist fall in the doorway but never out into the hall. Well, that was good at least.

Mack appeared in the doorway a second later, closing the door as he touched his ear. "Skye, we still clear?"

"Looks like it," stated Skye, flipping through the hall cameras for any signs of activity. There was nothing though. The one guard who'd managed to pull Ward to the ground (the one without the broken nose) was standing outside the door but the rest of the men were nowhere to be found. A check outside the cell confirmed the four injured men were being collected and lead towards the main infirmary. "Alright, the guards Ward took down are being lead towards medical in the main building. That's four less guards we'll have to deal with until they can get more people down here."

"Probably as good a time to move as ever," pointed out Mack with a grunt. "The science guy is secured. He's not getting free for a while. We ready to move here Skye?"

"Yeah," breathed Skye before she could change her mind, her fingers hitting a few keys to move the camera view to right outside a guarded room. "You guys will have to take out the guard, but the coast is clear for the moment."

"We're already on our way," stated Mack, the sound of the door opening coming over the mic. "We'll get as close as possible before we take him down."

"Good," agreed Skye, turning her attention on Bobbi and Trip. "Trip, when I say so, let the virus go."

"Aren't you worried you'll lose control of the system once he does?" asked Bobbi, her voice echoing a bit as Trip's mic caught her voice along with her own.

"I can't find a way to access that system from here," stated Skye simply, hitting a few more commands and locking the elevator on the maintenance level. They'd need the elevator fast and it would keep any new guards from joining them once the chaos began. So far, she hadn't seen more than maybe two guards down there, and one was guarding the room where Ward was being kept. The scientists didn't exactly need guarding after all. "We should be good. Wait until I give the signal though."

"You got it, Skye," stated Trip. "Just say the word, girl."

Skye smiled a bit; she had to admit, she appreciated Trip's laid-back attitude. It helped make this whole thing a little less scary. He trusted her to let them know when to do what she needed them to. They trusted her to get them out alive. It helped.

Taking a deep breath, she checked Mack and Fitz's progress, then scanned the halls for any sign of security. The only other guard she could find appeared to be passing right in front of where Trip and Bobbi were. That could be an issue.

"Trip, Bobbi, you guys have company immediately outside the room," warned Skye. Silence met her warning, but she knew it was because both agents were frozen, waiting for some sign of what was going to happen. Skye felt her anxiety ratchet up a notch. This was worse than the scientist walking into the room where Mack and Fitz were; they were in disguises. They had a shot to surprise the scientist; Bobbi and Trip didn't. They would immediately be recognized as intruders.

For a tense moment, she watched the guard walk down to the end of the hall and stop outside the door that lead to the room where Bobbi and Trip were currently hiding. Skye felt her breath catch as he turned to the door, almost as if he were going to go in. Then he turned away again and Skye felt her shoulders drop in relief. He wasn't going to go into the room then. Trip and Bobbi were safe.

The sudden appearance by Bobbi from above nearly made Skye jump out of her skin. The guard was down half a second later, with Trip opening the door to the file room as Bobbi dragged the man inside. Mentally cursing, Skye quickly scanned the hallways, checking for signs of other security guards that might be in play. There were none though, which at least meant the guard wouldn't be immediately recognized as missing. Not that it made her feel any better about what she'd just seen or anything.

"Bobbi, what the hell?" asked Skye, her anger momentarily overtaking her anxiety. "Why did you take the man out?"

"So I could grab his uniform and Trip could grab his comm," replied Bobbi easily, the sound of a zipper coming across the line. "This way, I can get over to Mack and Fitz while Trip arms the virus. Getting Ward out of here is going to take more muscle than just Mack."

"She's right, Skye," agreed Mack, his voice little more than a whisper. Checking the security feed, she realized quickly why. The guard in front of Ward's door was down, Mack crouched beside his body while Fitz hung off to the side uncertainly. The door Ward had been taken through was still shut, meaning they didn't know who, if anyone, was inside. Keeping quiet for the moment was probably a smart idea. "I'm not going to argue against having some back up here."

"We could just take him out on the gurney," pointed out Trip, his voice slightly annoyed. "I'd be happy if we could keep the man restrained, thank you very much."

"I'm not against that," agreed Skye, her jaw tensing slightly. Ward had betrayed them before and who knew what Hydra had been doing to him? They had no clue how he would react when he woke up or anything. It would be safer if they kept him restrained until he was at least awake enough that they could try to talk to him and explain what was going on. "But I kinda doubt we'll be able to."

"Getting him out of here on the gurney will obliterate the whole 'stealth' idea," pointed out Bobbi, her breathing slightly uneven. "The man didn't exactly look light though, so I'm guessing we might not have a choice."

"He wasn't before and I kinda doubt that's changed," confirmed Skye, her fingers drumming slightly on the desk in front of her.

"Something you want to share with the class Skye?" asked Trip jokingly, though his voice was tense.

Skye just rolled her eyes and flipped through the security cameras once more to make sure the halls were still clear. "I let the guy lean on me when he was injured a few times. It wasn't dead weight but I can guarantee he weighs a ton."

"Look, let's get to him first and then we can worry about how to get him out," suggested Bobbi, her voice a little annoyed. "Who knows, maybe he'll come out of it fast."

After watching the feed she had, Skye highly doubt that. Still, she didn't say as much- Bobbi was right about getting to Ward before they worried about how to get him out. They needed to see what state he was in before they worried about wheeling him out. "Bobbi is right. Mack, are you waiting on Bobbi?"

"I was," confirmed Mack, a grin audible. "Mockingbird just decided to show up."

"Ha, ha," mocked Bobbi slightly as she approached the man. Skye could practically see the woman's eye roll. "Are we going to burst in and save this guy or what?"

"That's the plan," confirmed Mack, checking his ICER. "You armed?"

"Always," stated Bobbi, withdrawing the batons from somewhere- Skye wasn't sure where. The woman seemed like she was an expert at hiding weapons though. And the two batons were definitely weapons in Bobbi's hands.

Stepping around to the other side of the door, Bobbi nodded once at Mack, who hit the controls for the door almost as soon as she gave the signal and rushed inside. Bobbi followed him in. Fitz hugged the wall beside the door, holding his breath and waiting for any chaos inside to die down. But none ever rose. Half a second after their entrance, Mack came back online.

"All clear in here, Skye," stated Mack, his breathing a little elevated. There weren't any other signs of a struggle though, so she guessed it was the adrenaline that was to blame for his elevated breathing. On the screen, she watched Fitz duck into the room and Mack appear in the door, dragging the unconscious guard inside.

"Ward's out like a light," added Bobbi, her own breathing steady. "Damn, this place is like a playground for biologists."

"We ain't gonna stay and play, Bobbi," joked Mack, or at least Skye hoped he was joking. Bobbi seemed a little too nice and level headed to actually hurt people with science. She'd be more worried about Simmons; the biologist seemed to disconnect at times in a way that could be disturbing.

"Guys, I found a file," stated Fitz, his words followed by shuffling paper. "It looks like a medical file on Ward."

"Grab it," ordered Bobbi. There was a clicking metal sound over the line, then the sound of wheels rolling. "Let's move. We clear Skye?"

Flipping through the cameras, Skye slowly nodded when she didn't spot anyone else. "Clear on the bottom floor."

"Alright, let's move then," confirmed Bobbi. "Skye, what's the deal with the elevator?"

"It's still sitting on the maintenance floor," replied Skye, checking the elevator cameras. "No signs anyone has called for it."

"And guards on the main level?" asked Mack. "What's up with them?"

"Uh, let me check," muttered Skye, pulling up the cameras for the main floor and cursing. "Guys, you need to hurry. The guards from earlier are heading for the elevator."

"Hey Skye, I think we might want to move," stated Trip, his voice uneasy. "It looks like they've been evacuating this place. I was digging around on the computer and found orders for evacuation of all Hydra prisoners. Looks like Ward was on the 'to evacuate' list, too. Looks like they planned to send him to some black site."

"That would explain the reduced number of guards," remarked Bobbi. "We should have run into three times as many people as we have."

Biting her lip, Skye pulled up a guard roster on a whim, her eyes widening. "Guys, it looks like there's supposed to be three times the number of guards as there actually are in this prison."

"Could they still be here somewhere?" asked Trip wearily. "Like one of the other cell blocks?"

"Not that I saw," returned Skye, flipping through the security cameras again. "I'm seeing more in cell block A, but none in C and only a handful in B."

"Break room?" suggested Bobbi her breathing picking up a little. "Or a guard bunk?"

"No cameras inside those rooms if there is," sighed Skye in frustration, flipping rapidly through the halls of the underground level. No one was there though; the halls completely empty. Unease settled in the pit of her stomach. If the Hydra prisoners weren't in the lowest level, then where were they? It wasn't a question they had time to answer, unfortunately. They just needed to be grateful that the floor was clear. "Trip, arm the virus and get to the elevator. Now. Your path is clear, so feel free to run. I'm going to see if I can find some sign of the guards."

"Done and done," stated Trip, rapid keyboard strokes coming over the line for half a second before before she heard the door to the room open and shut.

Turning her focus completely back to the security cameras, Skye scanned through the blocks of the prison, looking for any sign of life. There were a few guards wondered around and most of the cells in Block A appeared to be occupied. However, Block C was mostly unguarded and all of the cells appeared to be open. She could see a few people wondering around in coats with coffee, but there was no sign of anyone who was actually being held in their cells. In fact, the few people she did see appeared to be in the process of packing up their cells. One or two guards were there, but they appeared to be helping the supposed prisoners more than guarding anyone. Cell block B, by contrast, appeared to be completely empty. She didn't even see any guards on staff. Seriously, what was going on? The number of prisoners who had been transferred to the facility was massive, so where was everyone?

"Skye, we're at the eleva-" started Bobbi only for an alarm to suddenly sound through the facility. And it was through the facility. It was blaring just outside the security room's door and throughout the halls. Every guard in cell block A was on the move immediately, securing the cell block and ensuring everyone was kept inside.

"Shit!" cursed Trip, his voice more irritated than anything. They'd all pretty much known this would happen at some point in time. They were probably pretty lucky it was now instead of later. "Skye, what's going on?"

"I don't know," stated Skye, opening the elevator on the maintenance level to let the others inside after making sure it was empty. "Get in the elevator, I'll figure out what's going on."

"Skye, you need to get out of there," warned Bobbi, her voice barely audible over the wailing sirens. "Don't worry about why, just get out of the security booth."

"Wait, where are we going?" asked Fitz, his voice a bit panicked. "What floor?"

"The roof," ordered Trip before anyone else could speak up. "We need to get as close to the roof as we can."

"Why the roof?" asked Skye, even as she put a lock on the elevator that would send it straight to the top floor of the building. "We need to get out of here, not hide out."

"That's where our ride is picking us up," stated Trip. "Look Skye, I know you're runnin' low on trust right now, but you need to trust me to get us and Ward out of here. Okay?"

Her gut flipped at the thought, but she knew Trip was straight. She didn't like the idea of where they might be heading once they were on whatever escape route Trip had apparently set up for them, but she couldn't exactly look the gift horse in the mouth at this point- there wasn't time. "Alright, I'll meet you guys up there. I'm frying the security system and bolting."

"I've got the feed from the guards up," remarked Bobbi. "Sounds like someone in the bottom level called for help. We've been had."

"They can't track us if their system is down," stated Skye, hitting a few buttons on the computer and watching as the infamous blue screen flashed up on every monitor in front of her. "Security system is crashed." Grabbing her tablet, she bolted out of her chair and headed for the door. "I'm on my way up now."

"We're at the top floor," stated Bobbi. "Heading for the stairs then up and out. Be careful Skye!"

"Right," breathed Skye, taking a deep breath and drawing her ICER before she opened the security booth's door. The hallway outside was empty, though she could hear people running up the hallway. She needed to find the stairs up, that much was for sure.

Over the line, she could hear gunfire and someone cursing, but she didn't try to contact them. They'd be alright; she had to believe that. There wasn't anything she could do at this point anyway; like Bobbi pointed out, she was alone. She needed to focus on getting to the roof with the others.

Pulling up her blueprint of the prison on her tablet, she checked her location and found the closest stairwell and cursed. The closest stairs were right next to the security gate for cell block B. Of course. Well, she needed to go that way anyway.

Taking off in a run, she darted down the halls towards the stairs, ICER drawn. The could near the continuing chaos over the line, though there was no gunfire at this point- just a lot of running on the part of the others. Mack sounded out of breath and so did Trip, but everyone at least sounded like they were alive.

"Guys, what's going on?" asked Skye as she turned a corner and nearly ran into two guards heading her direction. She fired without thought, dropping both men with ICER rounds and scanning for signs of others. She could hear more people further down, but no one appeared to be heading her way.

"We're in the stairwell," replied Trip. "We bolted the door behind us. Should keep them at bay for a little bit. Where are you at?"

"I'm coming up on a different stairwell," explained Skye as she broke into a run down the hall and darted through the closest door marked 'stairwell'. She closed the door just as the sound of people started up the hallway. Silently, she prayed no one had heard or seen her as she bolted up the stairs in front of her. "I'm two floors away from the roof. What's the ETA on this ride of yours Trip?"

"Should be here in less than a minute," stated Trip as creaking metal and a rush of air came over the line. "We've hit the roof. We're gonna find a place to take cover."

"Got it," confirmed Skye, picking up her pace as noise from below began to echo up. Shit, they might be in trouble. There was a door on the landing right in front of her which she paused to open and close loudly before continuing on up the stairs as quietly as she could while still moving quickly. Hopefully, they'd think she'd bolted out the door above and give chase. She paused just outside the door to the roof as the footsteps that had been coming up behind her stopped. It was followed by the sound of the door below banging open and footsteps rushing away from her. Apparently, her ploy had worked. Thank god.

Pushing open the door to the roof, Skye rushed out and paused on the gravel surface, looking for any sign of the others. They weren't what caught her attention though- it was the quin jet that appeared suddenly at the edge of the roof, drawing in close and laying down a small line of fire at the door towards the other end of the roof from where she was.

Trip shot up almost immediately, firing off a few rounds of his own before Bobbi jumped up to replace him while he ducked back down. He and Mack rose up a second later, Ward's unconscious body suspended between them as they made their way towards the hovering jet. Skye took off towards them almost immediately, but skidded to a stop as she watched two large anti-aircraft guns rise out of the two cylinders on the roof. From the outside, they'd looked like ventilation shafts. Now, it was pretty clear that was far from what those shafts were for. Almost immediately, the quinjet was forced to lift up and away, initiating an impressive maneuver to avoid being hit. Trip and Mack hit the ground almost immediately, Fitz getting pulled back by Bobbi who also took cover.

"Shit!" cursed Trip over the comms. "Where the hell did they get anti-air guns?!"

"It's Hydra, who knows!" shouted back Bobbi with a curse. "We need to take those things down!"

Skye tuned out their shouting then, her heart pounding as the situation caught up with her. There were guards starting to come through the door behind the others and she'd bet there were guards heading up the stairs behind her, too. Why couldn't this have just gone smoothly? All they wanted to do was get Ward out of there so Hydra couldn't use him to make their own super-soldiers or whatever they were trying to do with him. All they wanted was to win against Hydra. I wish those guns would turn again Hydra!

In her head, she could imagine the guns turning towards the Hydra guards trying to stop them and opening fire. She could see it happening for the half second she allowed the image to take over her mind. And in the next second, the guns had stopped firing. They turned towards the door the Hydra guards were coming through, swiveling without resistance, and opening fire at the door.

Skye froze as the scene played out. The others looked just as shocked, though Trip got Mack up again almost as soon as the quinjet swooped back in. The roar of the jet's engines was what brought Skye back to awareness and sent her running for the edge of the roof where the jet was hovering. She caught sight of Fitz as he went darting towards the other, followed closely by Bobbi, who still had two guns trained on the stairwell exit. She nodded slightly at Skye as she caught sight of the hacker, though she didn't give any other indication she'd seen her.

The back loading ramp for the jet dropped as soon as it crossed the edge of the roof, the ramp hovering a few feet off the ground. Mack took Ward's weight as Trip jumped up, then turned and grabbed Ward under his arms, dragging him up the ramp and into the jet. Mack picked up Fitz next, half throwing the scientist onto the ramp after Ward just before he hopped up behind them. Skye and Bobbi reached the ramp at almost the same time, Bobbi motioning for Skye to jump up next. Skye didn't hesitate, knowing arguing was pointless. She turned to help Bobbi up as soon as she was on the ledge, just as the anti-air guns shut down. Whatever luck they'd had concerning those guns had clearly just run out.

Bobbi didn't hesitate to turn and dive onto the ramp, Trip shouting for the ramp to be raised as soon as the former biologist hit the ramp. Skye let out a few shots at the guards, kneeling on the ramp as it rose up to close. Bobbi did the same, firing at guards as they swarmed the roof.

"Bobbi, Skye, get back," ordered Trip, both women darting back from the opening as the quin jet shot forward.

They stumbled as it did, Mack grabbing Bobbi to keep her from rolling towards the still closing ramp. Trip did the same for Skye, pulling her froward and down as the ramp finished closing behind them. As soon as the door was fully closed, the jet kicked up to it's full speed, shooting away from the prison. The sound of gunfire hitting the outside of the jet echoed through the cargo bay, but it quickly disappeared as the jet picked up both altitude and speed.

Silence filled the cargo bay for a moment as everyone tried to catch their breath and calm their hearts, the adrenaline slowing as the danger they'd been facing receded. For a long time, no one spoke. Skye just sat there, staring at the closed loading ramp as her body began to relax slowly in the wake of the chaos.

Finally, she turned towards where Ward lay splayed out on the floor of the quinjet, still out cold. She didn't say a word as she crawled over and pressed a finger to his throat. His pulse was still there, calm but constant. His chest rose slowly but steadily, artificial sleep undisturbed by the chaos that had erupted around him.

"Should we secure him?" asked Fitz wearily, eying the unconscious man unhappily.

Skye considered what she'd seen, what he'd been through before he was sedated, and nodded. "Probably. He was fighting them pretty good when they dragged him out of the cell. He might still be in fight-or-flight mode when he comes out of it."

"There's handcuffs in the chest against the back wall." Skye nearly jumped out of her skin as May's voice cut through the jet, her head snapping up to find the pilot standing in the doorway to the cockpit. The other woman's eyes were on Ward though, jumping across his prone form. "Looks like you were right, Skye."

"Why are you here?" asked Skye, blurting out the first thing that crossed her mind.

May glanced at her, than nodded to Trip. "Trip was convinced you were right. He asked me to run back-up, for the safety of everyone else. I wasn't about to sacrifice anyone else for Ward. He doesn't deserve it." The acid in her voice was unmistakable. The look in her eyes was just as bad. "Where are we taking him?"

"The Playground?" asked Trip, looking at Skye for confirmation.

Skye, however, shook her head firmly. "No, if we go there, Coulson will just send him right back. Obviously Hydra wants him. We need to take him somewhere they can't get to him."

"Hill," stated May, nodding her head slightly as she headed into the cockpit. "I'll radio ahead to her, let her know we're coming."

"Will Hill be okay with this?" asked Trip, pushing himself up to follow May into the cockpit.

"Probably not," admitted May as she dropped back into the pilot's seat and hitting a few buttons. "But Skye presented you guys with enough evidence to convince you to undergo this crazy mission and there was definitely something corrupt in that place. Hopefully, it's enough to convince Hill that something needs to be done."

Skye tuned out what they were saying after that, taking a deep breath. Her computers and their stuff was back in her van. They'd need it if she was going to prove anything to Commander Hill. "We need to make a pit stop at the motel. I need my computer and things."

"They're in the storage pod behind my seat," replied May as she pulled on her headset. "Trip gave me a heads up about where you had been and asked me to stop by to pick up the equipment. I moved your van and sent a message to Hunter to move it." Glancing back, May added: "You should really secure Ward. We don't need him to wake up and hurt one of us."

"Right," murmured Skye, turning to the chest May had mentioned before and removing the handcuffs inside. She secured them to Ward's wrists, then secured the cuffs to the bars on the seats to either side of him. Mack took a second set and cuffed his ankles as well. With any luck, they'd hit their destination before he woke up and it wouldn't be an issue.

Settling beside Ward's head, Skye drew her legs up and lay her head on her knees, closing her eyes and letting the exhaustion that always came in the wake of adrenaline flood her system. They were safe on a quinjet, heading towards wherever Commander Hill was holed up. Yes, when they got there she'd probably have to argue on Ward's behalf again, but at least for the moment they were safe. Ward wasn't going to be experimented on again any time soon and at least some branch of Hydra had been thrown into chaos for the moment. She could relax a little.

"Go ahead and sleep Skye," encouraged Bobbi, a hand landing on Skye's shoulder. "You deserve it."

Skye didn't even bother lifting her head, just closed her eyes and let exhaustion wash over her.


-15 years earlier-

Silently, Garrett stepped into the camp site Ward had so skillfully set-up. In the six months that had passed, the kid had made some major progress. It was a good set-up, sturdy, and clearly built with weather resistance in mind. Of course, how he handled the cold when that set in would really determine what this kid was worth. Still, none of the others had lasted this long. In fact, most of the others he'd tried this with had fled as soon as they had the chance. They were all back behind bars now, the police more than happy to pick up the delinquents who'd escaped their custody. It spoke volumes about their personalities, too.

The boys he'd brought here before had been lazy, undisciplined, and disloyal. As soon as things got hard, they wanted out. They had no drive. That was the problem with kid's in juvie- it was hard to tell who had landed there because they were lazy and who was there because of bad luck. Furthermore, what he was seeing indicated that Ward could be a loyal, hard working person- he'd just never had that chance to shine. Well, he hadn't had a chance to shine until now.

The press of a gun to his neck caught Garrett's attention along with a very pissed off teenage voice. "Give me one good reason not to blow your head off."

Slowly raising his hands, Garrett couldn't suppress the slightly amuse smiled that pressed at his lips. That he wasn't already on the ground dead said whoever was holding the gun (most likely Ward) didn't actually want him dead. Probably as good a sign as he could hope for. So, in the lightest voice he could, he replied. "I brought taco's?" Then, after a second, when the gun didn't come down, he added: "I was half expecting you to be long gone."

"I was half expecting you never to come back," countered Ward, his voice just as acidic and angry as it probably should be given he'd been left alone to fend for himself. The kid had proven himself though, and that said a lot. "You said a couple of months. It's been six."

"I was out of the country on assignment," replied Garrett, lying through his teeth. He wasn't about to tell the kid he'd been observing his handiwork. That the whole thing had been a test he wanted to observe. Slowly, he started to turn to face Ward; at this point the kid probably wasn't going to actually shoot him. A bit of praise should soothe over any feelings of ill-will, to boot. "Seems like you and Buddy did okay for yourselves."

Ward shrugged a bit, finally lowering the gun down towards the ground and turning away to head towards one of the clearly stolen camp chairs set up around the fire. "The first few weeks were rough. Then I realized my thinking was limited. Started raiding cabins, got some tools, a tent, life got easier." He looked away then, towards a cleared part of the land. "Gonna build a cabin, right over there."

Garrett had to admit, he was impressed. No one had managed to do this well so far. It proved Ward was a hard worker and that he'd go the extra mile to survive. That Ward was still there also proved that the kid had forged some kind of attachment to either himself or Buddy. Either way, something had kept Ward in those woods. It meant Garrett could use him.

Strolling towards Ward, Garrett patted the kid on the shoulder and offered him a proud smile. "See? Told you, you could do it." Surveying the cleared area, Garrett nodded and tightened his hold on the back in his hands and the gun hidden inside. Yeah, Ward was exactly what he needed, which meant now he could start the kid's training in full. "Damn son, you stepped up in a big way." His fingers tightened around the gun's grip, the metal a familiar presence in his hand. "I couldn't be prouder if you were my own."

Withdrawing the gun fully as he turned back to Ward, Garrett aimed the barrel right at the kid's heart, smiling a bit as he did. The kid needed to learn to fear him- it wouldn't do him any good if the kid wasn't at least a little afraid of what he could do to him. Otherwise once Ward's training was complete, he might turn and that just wasn't an acceptable option. Garrett wanted Ward to be strong, but he also wanted the kid to respect him. And fear was the best way to obtain that respect.

"I lied about the tacos," stated Garrett unnecessarily, his smile widening a bit at the fear leaking onto Ward's face. Good, that's what he wanted to see. He wanted the kid to bow to him.

Gulping, Ward's eyes remained trained on the barrel, a civilian reaction but a good instinct. The kid wasn't trying to play on Garrett's humility- he was concerned about the weapon pointed at him. Of course, they'd have to work on subtle surveillance, but that was a lesson for another day. "What's that for?"

"Your next lesson," replied Garrett, pulling back the hammer and keeping his finger loosely on the trigger. He kept the gun aimed at Ward for a moment longer just to make the kid sweat before swinging his arm to the side and shooting the coffee pot off a nearby log that was acting as a table. He let off four more shots, each in a different direction, both to awe Ward and admittedly to show off a bit. Who didn't like being able to impress someone with their shooting?

Finished with his display, Garrett swung the gun around in his fingers and offered it to Ward. The kid definitely looked a cross between impressed and nervous, the exact reaction he'd been going for. Still grinning at Ward, Garrett held the gun a little closer. "Your turn."

Shakily, Ward reached out and took the offered revolver, his fingers slowly sliding over the gun's form. Still, the kid's hands weren't shaking and he seemed admittedly fascinated by the weapon. It was enough for Garrett.

"Stick with me kid," stated Garrett, turning away towards the fire. "In a couple years, you'll shoot better than that."

He ignored Ward at that point, straightening up the coffee pot from before and putting some water over the fire to actually brew a cup of the stuff. He needed it after the drive out there. He also didn't want to speak to Ward right in that moment- just let the impression he'd just left sink in. With any luck, any doubts Ward had previously been harboring would be gone. Garrett needed the boy to follow his ever command when he gave it- after all, what use was a weapon you couldn't control? And if Ward was the super-soldier experiment Garrett was now about 95% sure the kid was, then Grant Ward had been built to be a weapon. One Garrett would gladly wield.