It should have been the easiest eight minute guard duty she'd ever pulled. Who took the stairs when there was a perfectly fine elevator just down the hall? But easy was mindless and mindlessness was difficult to endure. Kara Lynn lasted two minutes at attention before her mind slipped away from the empty stairwell.
Standing idly in front of said stairs, Kara Lynn strained to hear something, anything, beyond the oppressive sound of silence. Unfortunately, there were no gun shots, no grunts or groans from a spirited group melee, no pounding feet, or yelling voices. There was nothing to focus on, nothing to keep her occupied, and, so, the thoughts she'd been so successful at avoiding stomped into her mind and didn't let up.
Kara Lynn tried not to bother with thoughts of the future. Wiped free of a past and forced to only accept Hydra as the end-all, be-all had given her little incentive to think beyond the here and now. There'd been nothing else. Even after Whitehall's death broke the mind lock, her role in life only shifted from being a Hydra gun to gunning down Hydra. But that was starting to change. Kara Lynn, Ward, and Mike had done a substantial job of clearing out nests of Hydra operatives. The organization was dwindling, on the run, and increasingly irrelevant. They were going to have to find real work sometime soon. Work that paid in more than ammunition and revenge.
The 'they' of that, too, was in question. Ward was so obviously head over heels for Skye. If she asked him to jump off a cliff, he would. Granted, he was smart enough to make sure he had a parachute and he was petty enough to grumble endlessly on the way down but...he'd jump. So the question became what would Skye ask of him—ask of them—next? This fact-finding mission was turning out to be the proverbial cake walk that Mike had said it would be but where would it lead them? A secret floating city? Accessible from earth but not on earth? Kara Lynn didn't mind running from one side of the country to the other. Hell, she wouldn't mind running from one side of the world to the other...but space travel? She wasn't so sure about that.
She caught a shadow of movement from the corner of her eye and it drew her attention back to the door of the stairwell. She pulled her gun and crept forward, only to hear the crack of a fired weapon and feel the sharp burn of pain in her left shoulder. Her distraction had been too complete. She saw Melinda May, gun in her left hand, only a second before May's right hook caught her in the chin and the pain of it all was eaten up by an eager darkness. The darkness consumed thoughts of the future and awareness of the present and everything else.
Unfortunately, when she came to, the pain was back with a vengeance. Her unconsciousness did not seem to do anything to dull it. Her vision was slightly blurred, a side effect, she hoped, from the pounding headache and not a sign of something worse. Even with the smudging of her vision, she could tell she was no longer in S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ but the dated motel room they'd stayed in the night before. Blinking, she started to sit up only to have her shoulder complain so sharply she faded back into oblivion.
When she woke a second time, Oscar was looking worriedly down at her, snuffling. He looked so forlorn, she tried to reach out and reassure him. That was not a terribly good idea. Her arm felt like it was on fire when she moved it. The puppy whined and then Mike came into her line of sight.
"You're still alive!" Mike said with such relief the words came out in a tumble, hurried mess.
Kara Lynn turned to see him standing just to the side of the bed. "Of course, I'm still alive. You don't die from shoulder wounds," she snapped. Her tone was sharper for her pain than from any actual source of anger.
Mike seemed to understand that much. "You lost a lot of blood... I wasn't too sure. This nursing stuff? Not really my thing."
Kara Lynn thought maybe she should sit up and then remembered how well that had gone the last time and remained lying prone. "Did you remove the bullet?"
Mike nodded. "I didn't know how to stitch it up though. So I, uh, I cauterized the wound."
Kara Lynn was distinctly glad she had been passed out for that experience. "How long have I been out? Where's Ward? Skye?"
"You've been out maybe six hours." He ran a hand across his face as if trying to pull out a better answer. Finding none, he continued grimly, "And I have no clue where Ward, Ry, or Skye are. To the four winds – the whole lot of us. When I heard the shot, I went to get you. You were out cold and bleeding all over so I just...I got you out of there. I figured the three of them could cover things in the control room. They had to have heard the shot; they had full warning things were heading south. But, I haven't heard or seen any of them since." Mike sat down in a chair next to the bed. It made him impossible to see from Kara Lynn's prone position so she shifted as delicately as she could. "We should have set up a better contingency plans. Skye's not answering her damn phone which is weird. I figured, eventually, we'd all make our way back here. I mean, at least to get the dog." Said puppy shook his tail weakly as if he knew he was being acknowledged. Oscar had that weird doggy sense that all was not well and he kept looking towards the door as if he expected Ward to come in at any moment.
Kara Lynn risked the pain to move her arm across Oscar's back. She couldn't do much else to reassure the dog right now anyway.
"Who got you? It was just one agent right?"
Kara Lynn nodded. "I just saw the one but firing a gun in a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility will bring the rest running. Unfortunately, for Ward, it was my double. Those two have a history full of fun. I doubt he'd get the upper hand in a fight against May."
"Do you think she'd go for a kill shot?"
Kara Lynn grimaced. "I doubt it. She's very by the book and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s book doesn't tend to run with kill shots. She might've iced him." Kara Lynn winced. "...Though god knows she didn't use an icer on me. And, damn it. Who takes the stairs anyway?! I was supposed to have the easy guard job."
Mike nodded solemnly. "They wouldn't shoot Skye on sight. They'd want to talk to her. And Ry? He's the wild card in all this since he can practically disappear on them. I say we give them another hour. If we don't hear from them by then, we'll have to consider taking on S.H.I.E.L.D. again."
"If we stay here and S.H.I.E.L.D. does have them in custody, it won't be long before they'll come collect us too. We need to move to another room in the least."
Mike tapped the side of his face slowly. "If S.H.I.E.L.D. wants to track us, they still have the ability to access my hardware. We can't hide or, rather, I can't hide. You though? I can get you free and clear of this. If you want."
Very, very slowly Kara Lynn sat up. She winced and replied, "What for? I'm no good winged and on my own. If we're going to get shafted by this adventure, the least we can do is go down together."
Mike looked distinctly relieved by her answer and his obvious expression of it made Kara Lynn feel better. Granted, she still felt like shit and 'feeling better' after taking a shoulder shot wasn't really something to brag about. She just found it nice that her teammates, despite their history as uncooperative solo operatives, seemed to feel the same need to stick together as she did.
Oscar perked up and started to prance back and forth until he tumbled off the bed. Mike was immediately on his feet, cybernetic arm pointed out. Kara Lynn held up her hand to stall his defense. "He's happy with whoever is at the door. It might be a good thing?" The rising inflection on the final word showed her uncertainty. Oscar barked again and waggled merrily.
Mike did not relax his stance; he was primed to fire. In an aside to Kara Lynn, he murmured, "At least we know it isn't Ry. Oscar would never be so happy to smell him coming this way."
The truth of that statement made Kara Lynn all the more nervous. She wished she was in better condition. She wished she had a gun in hand. The door rattled, then opened, the keening sound of Mike's laser amping up to fire filled the room right before Ward strode into the room.
Mike cursed and quickly pulled back though his wrist laser fired anyway leaving a smoking hole in the comforter on the second bed. "Christ! Ward! You could've let us know you were coming. I nearly shot you."
Ward looked terrible. He had several gashes along his face and across arms, a black eye, and a very bruised and swollen nose. Kara Lynn would guess it had been broken and he'd done something to straighten it again. The grim set of his mouth told her that whatever brought him storming into the room was not good news. She asked the hard question. "Where's Skye? Ry? They get out?"
"They got out. Together." He said that with such vehemence that it was clear he didn't think the answer was the best news they've had all day. Kara Lynn wondered if Ward and Skye had another fight. She hadn't seen him this bent in months.
Mike gave Ward a sideways glance and rubbed the back of his neck. "Right. Good. So, we've all made it out and Kara Lynn will be on the mend soon. This is all good news, right? Why do you look like your dog just died?" Mike looked down at said dog and quickly added, "Sorry Oscar. Figure of speech." Oscar just perked his ears up and looked at Mike.
When Ward was upset and not trying to mask it, he tended to lock his jaw and speak through his teeth. It made all his movements more rigid and abrupt. Oscar whined until Ward finally leaned down and absently pet him. Finally, he replied, "They got out of S.H.I.E.L.D., yes. But, it's not good. Everything is not good. I need to take you back to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ." Stalling both Mike and Kara Lynn's obvious attempts to protest by raising his hand, Ward dead-panned, "Zane is Evolutus. And Skye's in a whole lot of trouble..."
It was that moment that Fitz poked his head into the room, saw Oscar, and added nothing relevant to the conversation beyond "You've got a dog?!" Kara Lynn nearly sprang off the bed at the intrusion of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. It was a bad move for her as the movement caused the pain to explode up her arm again. Although he was oblivious to it, Fitz was lucky his arrival had been such a surprise to Kara Lynn. Mike didn't get a chance to shoot him since, last second, he had to adjust and catch Kara Lynn as she nearly crumpled to the floor. Fitz was on his knees waving Oscar toward him while speaking nonsensical jibberish to the dog and Oscar was loving every second of it. He didn't just wag his tail. He was in full body wag for Fitz.
"Really?" Ward asked, looking resigned. "You couldn't wait one more minute?"
Fitz interrupted his run of doggy baby talk to throw Ward a dark look. "Hey. You're the one that wanted me here. I'm here. Get on with it."
Mike carefully settled Kara Lynn on the bed again and stared down Ward. Ward wasn't one to give up a staring contest but Mike's iron endurance won out and Ward backed down first. He dropped his gaze to Oscar and Fitz. "I brought Fitz because I figured you'd need some reassurance. I haven't been on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s good side for a long while and one of the agents with the most cause to dislike me is standing by my side right now because in this case, the enemy of our enemy is our friend."
Kara Lynn was recovering from her shock and helpfully added, "Well, it sounds like the enemy is our friend too. And, technically, he's not standing by your side but getting all the love from your dog."
"Right. Well, if we'd just listened to Oscar in the first place maybe none of this would've happened. Oscar called it on Zane," Ward replied.
"Oscar called it? Not you? I distinctly remember you not being his biggest fan."
Ward looked at her full on then. It was the first real eye contact he'd given her since coming into the room and it said a lot. The worry lines on his face were like chasms. His eyes were blood shot. And, he looked like he was on the verge of breaking down entirely. Kara Lynn could honestly say she'd never seen him so bad and she'd picked up the pieces when Skye had left him in New Jersey. "I didn't like the man. At all. But, this... we're dealing with new levels of wrong here. He has Skye and... I need your help getting her back."
Mike nodded slowly. "And S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
Fitz looked up from Oscar. "S.H.I.E.L.D. will assist you in reclaiming our agent."
Both Kara Lynn and Mike looked at Ward when that line was delivered, saw that he was resigned to this too, and knew they were missing a whole chunk of the picture. Slowly getting to her feet again, Kara Lynn gave Fitz a slow nod. "You'll fill us in on the way back to HQ?"
"And then some." Fitz said before turning to Ward. "We're taking the dog too, right?"
It wasn't until some hours later when everyone was sitting around a table in S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ after having heard the day's events told, separately, by Coulson and Ward, that Kara Lynn came to the realization that they might just have one up on Zane. If they played it right. She looked around the table at the weird amalgam of enemies and friends. Deep down, Kara Lynn was aware that all of them could have been on the same team; could have been friendly if not friends. But fate had dealt them all stacked hands. And, if you shoot enough bullets at each other, it isn't exactly easy to put down the gun at the end of it. It was a miracle they were sitting down now though she was fairly certain guns were still in hand and ready on both sides of the table.
To her right, Ward sat rigid in his chair. He kept flipping through pictures of Evolutus crime scenes and the varying degrees of mutilated corpses really couldn't be helping his state of mind. Fitz and Simmons came next. She'd never had much experience with either of them though she felt she knew them from the stories both Skye and Ward told. Their conversation was hard to follow, especially when it collided and they finished each other's sentences and ideas without ever cluing in the rest of the world. Coulson sat directly opposite her and he just looked worn. He and Ward were just two different takes on how to show your anxiety. Ward was wound tighter and tighter and Coulson just flattened out, thinned, and paled. Kara Lynn let her eyes skip right over Melinda May; she had already had enough of a hang up about being a second, a doppelganger before she'd been shot. Now? She didn't have the capacity to deal with that woman right at this time. Finally, she looked to Mike who sat to her left. He, too, looked tired. Though he held his worry a lot better than some of the others at the table.
Kara Lynn directed her conversation towards him because it was just easier that way. "We've been going on in circles about this operations. And we definitively know one thing: Absolutely Nothing. Skye's an unknown element." Hastily, she waved Ward down from his pounce. "We don't know how she's going to take this. We don't know what she knows. And, damn it, Ward, we really do need to consider all our options." The glare he sent her was so hot she felt its burn even as she didn't look his way. "We know Zane is involved but that gives us nothing considering his ability. Tomorrow he could be anything. Anyone. So, what? We show up at the New York Stock Exchange at 9 and just twiddle our thumbs?"
All eyes were on her though she wasn't saying anything all that more groundbreaking than the rest of them had been kicking around. "Here's the thing: Zane thinks we're out of the action. He left with Skye knowing I'd been shot, Mike had gone to help me. He left with her knowing full well that Ward was down and out and that you lot hate him to the ends of the earth, right?"
The shallow head bobs she got on that were almost comical at this point.
"So, some fucked up shit is going to go down in the NYSE tomorrow. Probably be set before 9. Probably will happen right when you show up. They're not asking to see you just for kicks. They're going to make a show of it and it's going to big. Explosive."
Coulson broke in. "You think they'll have a bomb?"
"I think they're going to make a scene. And if you wanted to bring the whole of America to its knees, what would you do? Take out the stock exchange, the economy will collapse and fold over night. It won't matter if your body count isn't that high the day of the attack. The dollar isn't running on the gold standard any more. The only thing that makes it worth anything is people's opinion of its value. Terrorist attacks on American soil? That's bad business. After that? When everything starts to crumble? Evolutus can run around causing as much chaos as they please. Hell, half the working class in America will jump into the fray if things get desperate enough. We will tear ourselves to pieces."
May quietly dissented, "America has recovered from terrorist attacks in the past. What'll make this one different?"
Kara Lynn was just lining up her defense of her position when she was astonished to find Simmons jump in and take up the banner instead. "No. She's right. The businesses that won't get obliterated by the destruction of the NYSE won't be able to hold up the dollar. The US will fall into a steep depression, likely drag everyone else down with them. And the US has a tendency to drag itself out of economic free fall by going to war."
Fitz chimed in. "And they won't have an outside group to fight this time. The inhumans? What are they even? Not all of them look that different from the guy next door. Sure, they'll kill off the most unusual first but then?"
It was, apparently, time for the Fitz-Simmons team to sentence swap. Kara Lynn was glad they were sitting next to each other so she didn't have to keep bouncing her head back and forth to keep eye contact. "...They've been living amongst us for years. The Skyes and Zanes?"
"It'll be civil war..."
"Just not that civil!"
"Families tearing at themselves."
"Neighbors taking out neighbors. Vigilanteism will reign and..."
"Evolutus will just have to sit back and watch us tear ourselves to pieces." They practically said the last bit together though Simmons spoke faster than Fitz which made the sentence more a garble of sound than a functional statement but the point was made. Grudgingly, Kara Lynn decided that she really couldn't have made the point better herself. She offered the scientists a slim smile and a nod.
"What's the point, Kara Lynn?" Ward said.
"The point is they aren't planning for us." She understood his confusion. Their aside into future apocalypse territory did jump them pretty far afield from her original statement. "They think Mike and I are out of contact and you're locked up in a the Vault. We're the wild cards in this." Shifting her gaze to Coulson, she continued. "You guys got a job to do tomorrow. We've all got to go in and make sure whatever fuckery they've got planned at NYSE doesn't happen. Right? They left you a message and they're expecting you to show up. That's your op. You walk right into that trap knowing full well it is set for you. Hold your ground. If you can get Zane, get him. Or Skye. But I don't think they're going to be there." She gestured to Ward and Mike. "Us? We can just walk right in while you're distracting them with your whole scary men in dark suits thing."
May's smooth tone cut in. "So you go in while we distract the distraction?"
"If we can figure out what's going down first, we can take it out. I have a feeling that we will find Zane and Skye hanging out behind the scenes too."
"I want to be there when you find Zane." Ward said flatly. "I'm not sitting this out."
Coulson hummed a little. He held her eye contact for a long time and Kara Lynn wished she knew more about Coulson, about how his mind worked. She wasn't as good at reading him as she was Mike and Ward. Finally, he spoke: "You're asking us to trust you a lot." He held up his hand to stay Ward's protest. "A lot. And we have had issues with it in the past. But this is, ultimately, about one of our own." His eyes shifted to Ward. "I don't trust you, Ward, but I trust that you won't let Skye get hurt. If this whole thing goes wrong? That won't be good for anyone. Skye included." Sliding his gaze back to Kara Lynn, he continued. "We know nothing going in and we can't be running a double blind operation. Can we have you on surveillance? In the van, speaking with both teams?"
She nodded.
"Great." Coulson looked at Mike then Ward. "You two are going to need to gear up and be ready to handle as many scenarios that we can come up with between now and 9AM. Fitz-Simmons will help you get the equipment you need."
With that, he stood. "Let's hope you're right about this. About Skye...about everything. And let's hope we're not too late to stop it."
A/N: ExcellentlyEllen has kept me on the straight and narrow again. Thanks to her beta skills this chapter is functional. :)
Thanks, too, to the readers who have commented and liked and critiqued the story as it has unfolded. Your perspective helps me shape where the story goes. (You've got the power!)
