"We found the body here." Ward told Myka, pointing out the area where the woman's body had disturbed the dust on the ground. "She was wearing the cuff and she looked like she'd been badly beaten."
"From what we could dig up, the cuff belonged to a Norse soldier." She informed him, crouching to examine the area, "It prevents the wearer from feeling any pain and induces rage. The wearer essentially beats themselves to death."
"If it's not technology, what would cause this cuff to do this." He frowned.
"Sometimes when an item is involved in a particularly traumatic or overly emotional events end up imbued with the residual emotional energy of the people involved." She explained. "When someone else comes into contact with the artefact, those emotions or specific behaviours are impressed upon them."
Ward made a sound of disbelief. Myka shot him a look, "Sorry, it's just, this doesn't strike you as a little… science fiction."
"You work for a secret government agency that employs superheroes." She pointed out dryly, "Is my job so much harder to believe."
He paused, "I guess not."
"So Claude entered over there?" She pointed to the far end of the warehouse.
He looked where she was pointing and nodded, "Her partner must have looped around the back. I never saw him and Skye wasn't looking for anyone else, she was too focused on Claudia."
"Four years." Myka frowned, "I've known Claudia for four years, she never mentioned Skye once… or anyone from her past for that matter. Just Artie and Joshua."
"Joshua?"
Myka glanced up, "Her brother."
"Oh." He nodded, "The one who died when she was a kid."
"Was presumed dead." Myka corrected, "He was discovered alive not long before Claudia joined our team."
"Is that why she checked out of the institution?" He wondered.
Myka paused, "It's not really my place to talk about it."
"Right. Sorry."
Skye glanced around the small hotel room. It was fairly standard, two single beds in various states of turn down, a bathroom and a small TV. There was a pair of suitcases between the beds, one full of plain, conservative, neatly packed men's clothes and the other overflowing with a jumbled mess of colourful, spunky clothes. She pulled Claudia's laptop from the bed sheets, slipping it into her bag, "I'll see what I can get of this when we get back to The Bus."
"You actually call it that?" Artie muttered.
She shot him a look, "So you're the Artie, huh."
He looked up in surprise, "She mentioned me?"
"Yeah." She hesitated, "I asked. She had nightmares when she first came to the orphanage, talked in her sleep and such. She mentioned your name a lot."
"Mentioned." He repeated.
"Screamed." She amended, "She would scream for you to help her."
He scowled, though there was guilt present in his eyes, "I promised Joshua that I'd take care of her."
"And you yet child services take her." She couldn't keep the edge of blame out of her voice. He fell quiet.
She leaned down and picked a small silver necklace off the night stand. Artie glanced at the small rose shaped pendant, "That's her favourite."
"I know." Skye nodded, closing her fist around the necklace, "Neal bought it for her for her sixteenth birthday."
"Neal?" He questioned.
"After the orphanage, but before the institution, we were on the streets for a few months." She reminded him. "It was stupid to think we could make it on our own, but we didn't have a choice. Three months in, Claudia got pneumonia. A guy a few years older then me, Neal Caffery, had been buying us coffees and sandwiches. He took us in, got her medicine… he saved her life. We lived with him and two of his friends for the following years. Right up until Claudia disappeared, to the institution as we know now."
"Claudia and Neal were close?" Artie guessed.
"He reminded her of Josh." Skye answered, knowing that's what he was really getting at. She handed him the necklace and watched him gently run his thumb over the twisted silver coils of the pendant. "She always acted like she hated you."
"We got past it." He told her, "You may have notice that she's hard not to like. And we made our amends when we found Joshua."
"I thought he was dead." She frowned, slipping into the bathroom and poking into the cosmetic bags on the counter, "I mean, Claudia never believed it, but no one else seemed to think there was any chance he'd survived."
"It's complicated." Artie told her, "But he's alive and well."
"Complicated like amnesia?" Skye wondered.
Artie raised an eyebrow, "Why do you say what?"
"Why else would he abandon her like that?" She shrugged.
He shook his head, "It's not amnesia. He was experimenting with the theory of teleportation and he got it half right. He got himself trapped in an Interdimensional rift for twelve years."
"Poor guy." She frowned, coming out of the bathroom. Something at the edge of the bed skirt caught her eye. She crouched down, pulling a small dart out of the carpet, "Artie? Look at this."
"A tranquilizer dart." He confirmed, "At least we know that they were alive when they left here."
"Can I help you?" Coulson looked up, startled out of his thoughts by the voice of the pretty, dark skinned FBI Agent cross examining him.
"I believe so." He offered his hand to be shaken, "I'm Agent Phil Coulson. I'd like to speak to the agent who looked into the museum robbery last Monday."
"That would be Agent Burke." She told him, lines of worry becoming more prominent on her face, "But I'm afraid him and his consultant have been missing since then."
"Missing?" Coulson frowned, "I'm here about two other government agents who are missing in connection with that case."
"Then it looks like we're going to be working together." She nodded, "I'm Diana."