Everything is changing…
Don't own the S.H.I.E.L.D. or the characters of Marvel Comics, but happy to play in their backyard.
"The secret is out…"
-Skye, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The Touch
(Skye POV)
They were awesome, two vanities. They looked almost identical to the one back at the outpost. One was on the left side of the room. The other was directly across from the door. Looking at it I had the feeling that I should duck and cover. But it was brown like the other had been before it came active.
By the vanity was another door. It was open. I went over there first. Pushing the door open a bit further, there was a large balcony. The view was spectacular. The city extended to the mountains on the west and to the ocean on the east. The buildings were no different than those I saw from the streets. There were even a couple golden buildings like this one. One of those buildings was down at the waterfront. The other was closer to the mountains. Well, it would definitely be worthwhile to come back to the balcony and see it at sunrise and sunset.
I went back to look at the vanities. The lettering and symbols were the same, a mix of Pre-Classic Greek and Egyptian Hieroglyphs. I saw the reference to the nine planets and something about 'it happen again.' Then in the Hieroglyphs I was able to get 'perfect dual doors' and 'the two lands.' I knew it was a leap but I've seen weirder things since I been in S.H.I.E.L.D. Maybe this was the door back to the team. I just had to figure out how to unlock it.
(Coulson POV)
Fitz called, "Hey, I just set an alarm so we would know when the winds go below fifty mph. And we just got a notice that Quinn's team went 'Bingo'?"
I knew that one, "They had to go get some fuel." I watched May as she nodded. "Probably headed over to Punta Arenas." She nodded again.
"May's avionics has the U.S. contingent coming into the area," Fitz added.
"Good, it will be easier to deal with them." May provided.
I looked over at May and nodded. We were working to get these people moved. The tent was good for the initial treatment. May was able to bring enough in the sled to get them warm, but the real treatment options were back at the outpost and Simmons had those ready. None of the people we rescued were conscious. Getting them talking would help. It might bring us closer to finding out what happened and where Skye went.
It was another hour before the winds finally calmed down and Fitz's alarm went off. We had everything set. "Okay. Let's head out."
I went in the van with two of the people we thought were in worse shape. May drove the sleigh. We had one person in the sleigh basket and then the others daisy chained behind. Each was on a thin shell that was tied to the person before and after. Ward was last. He was on the pair of skis that May had packed and held on to the last line of rope. We went slowly.
By the time we got to the tunnel, the U.S. contingent had landed. Simmons and Fitz were there and we started to unload the outpost members. We busily continued to get them into the beds that Simmons had prepared in the recreation room. The radios were crackling.
I decided that we needed to welcome the new group, "This is Agent Phil Coulson from S.H.I.E.L.D. Welcome to Outpost Perry. We have one request. If you have medical supplies, bring them now. We have just recovered the members of Outpost Perry. They are non-responsive and we do not know what happened. They were out in the elements about four hundred yards from the tunnel entrance."
"I'm Captain Moore, U.S. Coast Guard mission Perry. We have a full medical suite, two doctors and five medical technicians."
"We initially recovered these people in a tent. Based on the displays here you should see that to the right, the compound to the left and you are headed toward our transport. Please be advised that it is a restricted and secure flight."
"Copy, we'll comply."
"I'll meet you at the entrance to the tunnel."
Looking at the Fitz and Simmons, "Get back to the Atlantis lab when you have relief. May and Ward, we'll declare the Quinn labs a restricted area. Let's do this with the necessary paperwork. Give a copy to the Captain." I saw May smile, "Yes, then he'll be obligated to enforce it on the Quinn contingent when they get here. Oh, and when you can, activate the lab security system again."
(Skye POV)
I had been working on the vanity for some time. It finally felt like break time, as my stomach rumbled I changed that to lunchtime. Looking around the room there were bench seats on the other wall. I thought about going there but decide since it was so sunny outside, to check that out again.
Well, I was right. The sun had moved and was going toward the mountains. I was happy when I saw that the outside walls of balcony had benches. I thought about taking my artic suit off but knew that Ward had repeated and May directed, 'You will not take this off until the mission is over.' It was still comfortable. So I left it on. Now lunch.
Ward had rolled his eyes and stuffed his pockets with energy bars. But we had a blast. We played around in the mess acting like we were executive chefs. Even Coulson dropped in and presented the perfect stakeout box. Fitz and Simmons introduced me to a buffalo mozzarella wrapped in prosciutto with a hint of pesto aioli sandwich. It smelled great. I had packed one and went for it. Then I got a vacuum-packed veggie side. I was all set with a bottle of water.
As I ate I watched the skies. The clouds rolled by from the mountains and out to the sea. There were a few birds. The bigger ones still looked like seagulls. It still seemed a bit odd. There was no other life here. I finished the lunch and went back in the room.
I had the trash from lunch in my hand and, not thinking, started to look around for a trashcan. I saw something that looked round under the vanity. It looked like a trash can, but turned out to be a stool. I stuck the trash in one of my pockets and looked closer at the stool. I pulled it out from the vanity to look at it better. It had no markings but out in the light, it seemed to glow a little bit. I rolled it around to see all the angles and the bottom. Then I realized it looked that light blue color of the vanity back at the outpost. I put the stool down very, very carefully. And looked at the mirror, it was starting to become blue. The brown was almost gone.
Was this the chance to get back? The vanity looked like it was powering up. I sat down on the stool and looked at the vanity again. Maybe with the lights I could get a better idea of what was important and get a better reading of the vanity.
(Coulson POV)
Captain Moore signed an gave me a copy of the paperwork, "I suppose that makes it official. Now what do you want us to do?"
"For now, we would like your people to continue their efforts with the Perry crew and to bring the station up to a functional level. We will need to interview the Perry crew as they become available. Agents May and Ward will handle the interviews. As indicated in the paperwork, we will be conducting an investigation under Article 7, Advanced Weapons Technology Transfers. All information released from the point you landed is classified and will fall under our normal protocols. When and if anyone else lands before we have concluded the investigation, they will be asked to sign the same paperwork. If they do not, they can wait until we are done or leave. Any questions?"
"None here, we'll let me know when the Perry crew comes around." The Captain and his men nodded and left the area to attend to their duties.
I went back to the Atlantis lab. Fitz and Simmons were studying the vanity. As I walked to them and they put down their notes. Simmons began, "We believe the vanity is as important as the Tesseract. We should move it out to the Bus."
"Remember Dr. Hall was preparing to send the island to the bottom of the ocean?" Fitz asked.
"Certainly," I was after all fighting him for control of the gravitorium. Right now I was in a fight with the controls of my laptop, logging on to the S.H.I.E.L.D. server and event cast.
"Quinn's group must have used it to pull up this vanity from the bottom of the ice." Simmons pointed at the vanity. "The corrosive marks and the stress points at other places are caused by ice and the pressure of being so far below the ice. The other point is that it must have been in a building that was frozen under the ice thus stopping the pressure from completely smashing the vanity."
"And we believe your translation of the Hieroglyphs on the side are correct. The mirror works with the stool. And the stool is the main power source." Fitz showed me the stool symbol. "The mirror may have been activated here with the Tesseract. That does explain why everyone at the outpost disappeared. When the vanity was activated again, it began to search for the stool or any power source. With you coming to the door, it latched on to the gravitorium.
"We were not able to detect the Skye's disappearing transmission but it would seem from the translations, she would have been sent back to base or the origin of the vanity. Now we realize that going back to where the vanity was, miles under the ice, would mean her death, but she was able to deploy one of the beacons." Fitz concluded was a smile.
"So, do you know where she is?"
They looked at each other, "No," in unison.
"What about the others?"
Simmons answered, "Well, that's an interesting part. Some of them had ice crystals on their clothes that were completely different than those you would find here at Outpost Perry. The most significant part of those crystals was a higher concentration of nitrogen."
"Yes, but as I explained, the increased energy can trap nitrogen."
I watched in amazement as the agreement continued.
"Yes, but we checked May's clothes and she did not have those crystals. She was putting up the tent while your energy readings still indicated the presence of an energy wave. We were still getting a signal from Skye's beacon. So, the energy itself is not the likely source of the difference. Therefore they were somewhere else."
As I looked up from S.H.I.E.L.D. event cast with an almost certainty of what happened, May and Ward came in the door. May nodded, "We got the security system up. The outpost crew has not woken up."
Ward was holding a round drum, "We found this over in the security officer's office. I think he…"
(Skye POV)
I was tired. It seemed like I was getting nowhere. Then I looked up at the mirror. They were all standing there. That split second everything went white.
A/N Okay twisting stories and space. Can we get everyone back in the same place? Hope you enjoy. Definitely AU. Reviews on this one gratefully accepted. And my sincere apologies for taking so long to get this out.