Oh my gosh, I can't believe I've reached this point! So much action is going to be happening soon! A lot of it will be stirred up in this one. You'll get conformation on something you all have been thinking too. Ah, so much is going on and I know what things will end up as! Oh, you're all going to be freaking out (hopefully!).

Quick note- I did do a bit of research on butterfly knives in this. I'm looking at Supernatural on that one. Sam had one on one of his first day's of school. If you've never see Supernatural, it's pretty great. A bit creepy and sometimes gross, but great. (Just saying this from where I am in Season 5)

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 20: Breaking In

It was sometime around midday when the little trio reached the old base, although Skye's watch said it was pretty much midnight. However, it was still set in the same time zone as the Playground's location. Before they had escaped Darwin's base, Hua had managed to raid the area where personal belongings were held until the fates of the owners had been decided upon. That meant that both Skye and Leo had been able to get back pretty much everything that had been taken from their pockets and anywhere else when they were first taken in. Skye had been especially pleased to get back her butterfly knife that May had given to her when she first started training. It meant a lot to her, and reminded her a bit of the woman who she sometimes was able to look at as a mother figure.

"So that's it?" she asked, turning to Hua.

The structure ahead of them was tall and imposing, but also had a decrepit appearance. Vines grew thickly along the outer walls of it, and part of the wall on one wing had crumbled away. It was nowhere near the height of the building in Mongolia, but it made up for it in length.

"This was one of the early bases he used. Mostly, testing went on in here," Hua murmured, stepping beside her. "It used to be an off-chart Hydra base. SHIELD has no idea it exists. Somehow, one way or another, Darwin managed to get his hands on it. I don't know how he did, and I'm not sure I want to know. But the answers we want are inside there."

"If we want them, then we better hurry," Leo pointed out at the dark clouds gathering in the not-so-faraway distance. "A storm's coming in."

"Well, we can always take shelter in there," Skye suggested, shrugging. The idea of staying in a place where she had been held as a baby gave her chills. But it was abandoned and had a roof, which would be an asset if the storm did come their way.

"We better split up if we're planning on finding those files," she continued, opening her backpack and rifling through it. After pushing aside a first aid kit, her half full water bottle, and a box of energy bars, Skye managed to find the radios she'd repaired with her powers. "We'll be able to cover more ground that way. Leo, you want to head one way, and me and Hua will take the other?"

She extended one of the radios out to him. Leo raised his eyebrow at Hua suspiciously. Skye huffed and rolled her eyes. "If it makes you feel any better, I will carry the other one, and I will always pick up, okay?"

"Alright." Leo took the radio. "Let's just get this over with. This place is giving me the creeps."

Skye nodded in agreement, and led the group to the fortress. When they reached it, she heard the sound of water rushing closer by. She frowned a little and looked over at Hua while they searched for a way inside.

"There's a river that runs through the facility that Hydra built around," her sister explained. "Darwin used hydroelectricity to power the base. Brilliant use really, even though it all went toward a horrible purpose."

A few minutes later, Leo managed to find a broken window. The trio had to break a few more of the panes of glass to get in safely, but they succeeded. After they were inside, Hua took two of the sticks they'd used to break the glass and laid them in an 'X' in the light that shined through the opening. Once that had been completed, Skye dug out her flashlight, and turned it on. Two more beams appeared beside hers a moment later as Hua and Leo turned theirs on as well. They agreed to meet back at the spot in an hour, and radio the other if they caught sight of anything regarding Skye and Hua's files or Darwin's master plan.

None of the three had the faintest idea of what was waiting for them in the base, and how everything would change because of it.

Jemma grabbed her switchblade and slid it into the pocket of her pants as she finished preforming one last check of her bunk. She'd thought she could be safe if she resumed her old identity within SHIELD, but they'd recovered a lot more evidence than she expected from Mongolia. There was only so much that could be destroyed without arousing suspicion. At least they'd never be able to work out what all of it meant after she left. Jemma had plans to burn or destroy every piece of evidence there was in the lab from Darwin's Mongolian base. The lab equipment, the scraps of files she and other scientists had been burning when Hydra started their attack, and even the remains of the mutated rejects. All of it would be erased from existence, and she would return to Darwin. She'd already sent a message ahead informing her of her, and he had understood.

Finishing her final sweep of the room, Jemma determined that she had everything she needed. She stepped out into the hallway soundlessly, gently closing the door behind her. It was the middle of the night, and everyone was asleep. Perhaps they would wonder where she had disappeared to in the morning, but one day they'd know the truth, along with everybody else. Everyone would know when the new age came, when she would rise up with Darwin and the rest of his followers.

Grant was lying awake in his bunk, fully awake and alert as he waited. He heard a small creaking sound, like a door being opened. He sat up and listened, intently to the soft footsteps tiptoeing past his door. Swinging his legs over to plant his feet onto the floor, Grant grabbed a t-shirt, pulling it on as he snuck outside. Walking as quietly as he could, Grant made his way toward the lab. Knowing Simmons, it was mostly likely her destination. He could tell that she had been itching to run. As someone who had once been deep undercover, Grant could recognize all the signs. If she did what he had a feeling she was about to and then ran, there would be way to track her down again, or this Doctor guy. He knew how to disappear off a map with ease. Simmons was twice as smart as him, and there was darkness inside her more sinister than his own had ever been.

If he was going to expose her, then it had to be now.

Melinda crept toward the door of Phil's office, feeling more and more aware of what she was about to do with every step she took. What she was about to tell Phil was a secret she had been holding onto for nearly three decades. Even after she learned who Skye really was to her, Melinda had constantly thrown away opportunities to tell her the truth. Now, with Skye trapped by Edwin, she needed to get her back and away from the monster that her ex-husband had become. She needed to let someone in on her secret now, someone who could keep it quiet and help her without making it a big deal.

Reaching her hand out, she knocked on the door. To her surprise, it creaked open slightly. Melinda didn't make a move forward out of precaution. After the disappearance of Skye and FitzSimmons, she was unsure about the safety of the base.

"Who's there?" Phil's voice drifted out into the hallway.

"Melinda," she answered, biting her lip. "I need to talk to you about something."

A few moments passed, and Melinda noticed the silence in the air after she had spoken. Then the door opened, fully revealing Phil standing there. He stepped to the side, allowing her to enter.

"What's on your mind?" he asked, closing the door once she was inside.

"Do you remember when we cured you from the writing? The first night we spent together?"

Phil nodded, smiling at her. "I always remember everything about you," he told her, walking back to his desk, leaning against it to face her. "We agreed no more secrets. Nothing that would come back to hurt us."

"You never asked about Bahrain that night," Melinda murmured, every word bringing her closer to telling him the secret. "Why?"

"I know you don't like to talk about it," Phil replied. "That was a bad day for you."

"I thought everything about that day was an end to the hell I'd been in," Melinda couldn't bring herself to look at him. "But it was only a break."

Phil's brow creased. "Melinda, what are you trying to tell me?"

She took a deep breath. "I know who the Doctor is."

"How?"

"Because I was married to him once," she confessed, feeling a piece of the weight on her chest lessen. "And he just kidnapped our youngest daughter two weeks ago."

Phil's eyes widened. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

She nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. "Skye is my daughter."

"Skye, are you there?"

Hua looked over at her sister, who stopped and grabbed the radio from her pocket. It had been over half an hour since they first separated, and so far they'd had nothing on their end. The only thing that Hua had gotten so far was a lot of memories of the night she let Skye go.

"Everything okay over there, Leo?" Skye asked, a touch of concern in her voice.

"I think I might have found the files," Fitz's voice replied. "Meet me back where we came in and I'll show you."

"See you there."

Hua watched as Skye turned and gave her a hopeful smile as she put the radio back in her pocket. She returned the smile, a bubble of hope beginning to rise within her. After all this time, she might finally find out the truth. She was potentially about to learn who her mother was. Each step Hua took on the way back to the 'X' felt like it was filling with hope.

Fitz was waiting for them when they arrived, and led them in the direction he had taken when exploring on his own. His section of the facility was no nicer than theirs, exhibiting the same mossy cracks in the floor, puddle of dirty water collecting on the side, and a disgusting smell of decay in the air. Skye shrieked a little when she stepped on a rotting carcass of some bird. As she jumped around yelling, Hua thought she heard something creak and swung around with her flashlight. But the beam showed the decrepit hallway behind them. She sighed, telling herself that she was just anxious back here.

Fitz managed to calm Skye down, and soon the two were walking side by side while Hua assigned herself to the back of the group, keeping herself at the ready in the event that something was still lurking in here. When they at last reached the file room, Hua ran forward toward the one file cabinet with the dirty label with a barely readable 'Patients' written on it. As she grabbed the top handle and pulled outward, Skye froze suddenly. "Hua?"

She lifted her head up to look at her little sister. "What is it?"

Skye swallowed and bit her lip. "What's out last name?"

Hua felt her arms fall down to her side as her little sister's question registered. She's been so focused on finding her sister, finding her mother, finding her past that she had never thought about it. She had never once asked herself what her last name was. After finding out what her father had done to her, she had pulled away from him, calling him Darwin or the Doctor rather than 'dad' or 'father'. She didn't even know his real name, let alone his last name.

"I don't know," she confessed, feeling like a fool for letting herself forget such an important detail. "I never thought about it. I was so caught up in finding you and who Mom was that I…"

She stopped, realizing she was beginning to cry. Skye stepped forward and flung her arms around her.

"It's fine, Hua," her sister said kindly. "We'll just have to search through all the files until we find the ones with Hua and Tian Kong on them. You said Darwin was just starting out, so there probably won't be a load of people."

Hua nodded as they pulled away. "We better start searching then."

Fitz, standing off to the side, gave her a respectful nod and shined his light on the files. Hua began to flip through them, keeping her eyes open for her name or her sister's. She went through the first seven or so, and ended up hitting several false alarms as she scanned through the H section of the next drawer.

"Hey!"

Hua lifted her head sharply as Skye swung the beam around the room. "Who's there?" her sister yelled.

Silence was the only answer she received. Hua was beginning to get an uneasy feeling now. She couldn't help but wonder if they were really alone here. When she resumed her search, she picked up the pace, trying to go as fast as she could so they could get out of this place.

"Stop!" Fitz barked. Hua's fingers froze, mid-flip. "Go back one."

She complied, and they found themselves looking at file marked Prescott, Tian Kong. Hua sighed and shook her head, thankful for having a second person watch her as she went through the files, even if he did have a tendency to rude to her. Pulling it out, she saw Prescott, Hua just in front of it, and grabbed it too.

"I found them," she announced, feeling somewhere between nervous and relieved as she held her file in her hand.

Skye was at her side in an instant, and Hua handed her the other file.

"Huh," her sister smiled, brushing a finger over her real name. "This is it."

She pulled off her backpack and shoved it inside. Hua frowned. "What are you doing?"

"Look, I can't stand the suspense, but I really want to read it somewhere else," Skye explained, zipping her bag shut. "Something doesn't feel right here."

"You're not too far off on that," an unfamiliar voice announced. "But I'm afraid you won't be reading your file anywhere else."

Hua had been about to complete the same action as her sister, but stopped in mid-zip. She whipped her head toward the sound of the voice, and suddenly the room was illuminated by a few old, flickering lights. There were three people standing at the door, two men and a woman. Hua shot to her feet, and Skye followed, reaching into her pocket. Fitz moved beside Skye, clicking his flashlight off.

The woman at the front suddenly gave them a wicked smile. She appeared normal, but Hua had a feeling that she, as well as her companions, had been exposed to the serum.

"Sorry to ruin your plans, honey," the woman drawled slowly, pulling a glove off one of her hands. "But I'm afraid we've got our orders, and you aren't leaving this base."

"You sure about that?" Fitz growled, pulling out a knife. Beside him, Skye flicked open what appeared to be a butterfly knife. Hua just took a deep breath and tried to keep her face from showing how worried she suddenly was.

"Oh," the woman replied with a laugh, reaching over to the file cabinet closest to her and picking up what seemed to be a paperclip. As soon as her fingers touched it, the metal began to take a purplish tone.

"Run!" Skye yelled as the woman suddenly flicked it toward them.

So there you have it. Skye, Leo, and Hua are not alone. Melinda's told Phil the truth. Grant is going after Jemma. Everything's building up to explode over the next few chapters. But I still have much more planned out for everyone!

Next chapter- Grant confronts Jemma, and the trio tries to escape. But will all of them get out?

Please review and tell me what you think! Also, head over to my page and cast your final votes on Hua's powers if you haven't yet.