Chapter Twenty-Nine: Lost Beneath Sinking Tides

I took forever to get around to writing this chapter, have no idea why but hey, no one would really know that besides me. This chapter is going to be interesting and interconnecting with chapter thirty-one. Anyways be sure to favorite this story and leave me comments on what you like and think will be happening in future updates.


Flashback:

Tan high heels click loudly down a nearly empty brick-wall hallway as I trail behind, eyes fixed to the plain cement flooring, mesmerized by her shoes. Those cannot be comfortable to wear for long periods of time, especially not with the amount of walking she does during an average day, I will never wear those things, I'd probably end up breaking something.

She came to escort me to the labs, I shutter. Of all the places that I could be taken to, the labs have to be there very worst, always awful, painful, and ends up with me bruised or bleeding. Needles everywhere, in my wrist, elbow, and sometimes in my leg for a more, how did he word it, 'reliable' sample. Sometimes I am escorted places by the person here I hate the most, a man of course.

He scares me, hurts me, and there's nothing I can do about it. Says awful things to me, like how I'm worthless, not worth the times of day, or honorable enough to share the same DNA as Captain America. However, the woman escorting me today is one of my favorite people here, she often leaves for various days or weeks but comes back more often than she has to just to see me.

She pushes open the large double doors and steps aside, waving me in which I reluctantly oblige. It smells of bleach and other burning scents of cleansers, like someone frantically cleaned here recently. A metal table is bolted down in the center of the room and without having to be told, I cross the now sleek metal floor and sit down on the tabletop and wait for them to arrive.

His voice is low and gruff but I recognize it as the one person who I'm the most scared of, my nerves are on edge but I keep still and attempt to control my heartbeat and expression calm and collected. He crosses the room with someone else at his side, someone who I can tell who they are without even glancing up from my feet but I know better than to do so.

"Good afternoon Shaylene, I trust you slept well?" I nearly jump at his voice, that's how skittish the man has made me. All I'm waiting for is the snap, when he yells at me, gets angry, tells me how worthless I am.

"Y-yes," my voice comes out wobbly and frail, so unlike myself. This is how being close in proximity to him makes me, the sooner I get this net testing down, the sooner I will be taken back to my room.

Pain strikes through down my neck and around my face as his hand grips my throat tightly as he forced my head up so that I can stare into his dark, emotionless eyes that are like an endless void of terror. He scowls down at me like I'm stupid and he'd rather be anywhere else than here, dealing with me. I wish he would be anywhere else.

"Sir, you left out sir and you look at whoever is speaking to you, is that understood?" he growls out in a way that warns against challenging his authority, I open my mouth to speak but cower out at the last minute. My eyes want to break away, to look anywhere else but at him but if I dare to move he will hurt me, I'm already having a hard time breathing as it is with his grip around my throat.

He shakes me back and forth like as his hand tightens around my throat, I can't breath, I wrap my hands around his wrist on my throat as tears fill my eyes, mouth falls open in attempt to get any air. My lungs burn, they're on fire and there is nothing I can do about it as the world begins to spin and a throbbing sensation erupts in my head.

"Maybe I should just get rid of you and start all over again, end up with a creation that I actually wanted rather than an ignorant girl who cannot follow the simplest of orders, commands, and regulations," he responds, narrowing his eyes.

"That is quite enough Sir," I hear the shrill voice of the woman who escorted me in, I figured she'd left when he and the other man had arrived, perhaps she'd stepped out of the room and re-entered when she heard the commotion. He releases my throat and I fall to the floor on my hand and knees, coughing my lungs out and literally gasping for air.

My body trembles in sheer fear as I crawl back, putting a good amount of distance between he and I, well as much as I can in this room. I glance up to see him turn to her.

"Are you forgetting that I rank higher than you?" he asks, glaring at her but she stands her ground, placing her hands on her hips and glares back at him with just as much fury behind her eyes that she hides better than he.

"No but this," she motions to me and what just transpired, at this I drop my gaze back to the floor. "Is not what a man of your rank should be doing, I do not care whether or not you or anyone else ranks higher than me. I will not allow you to suffocate an innocent girl because of your ill-temper and lack of control. She will be escorted back to her room by me and this test will be postponed to a later date."

She is followed by the sound of her high heel foot steps and when I see a hand outstretched to me, I know she's the one standing in front of me. Glancing up my gaze dances over her features as I look up at the beautiful face of...


"Shay!" I hear someone scream into my ear while wading through the darkness of my mind. My eyes flutter open, pushing myself into a sitting position I glance over to see Tara standing just behind the back of the couch, casually leaning over it. Her brown hair falls over her shoulders in long straight locks, she narrows her brown eyes at me like she's trying to determine what I'm thinking.

Shaking my head, I run a hand over my messy blond hair in attempt to fix it after falling asleep on the couch in the living room on the floor we've been assigned to. Shifting my body around to face her I yawn, stretching out my arms before looking up at her.

"What going on Tara?" I ask, my voice is lower than usual and shakier and Tara seems to notice this as she steps around the couch, sitting down beside me. Her eyes are filled with what I can only assume is concern.

"Are you alright Shay? You were screaming in your sleep and said a few things under your breath, I couldn't make out what you said but based on how you acted, must not have been anything good," she replies, glancing away slightly like she's stepped over so invisible boundary drawn in the sand that I had no idea where even there to begin with.

"I'm fine," I reply, we both know it's a lie but she doesn't call me out on it, it an unspoken agreement in my team. When someone has a nightmare, ask them if they're okay and if they say they're fine, leave it be. Even if we both know it's a lie because clearly they don't want to talk about it, eventually they'll come to me and tell me what they dreamed about but I let them work through it first.

"Here, I finished up that device while you were sleeping. In fact, it's about a million times better and why I hadn't thought about using a stabilizing agent before now is beyond me, figured that I could use a rotating belt to stabilize the energy as well as power the machine," she said, subtly slipping me the nearly paper flat device with a slight bubble in the center, probably where the power source it.

"How does it work?" I ask, lowering my voice and scooting closer to her, just in case Tony Stark reactivated the camera's on our floor.

"That bump in the middle has all the tech but it's also an activation button, you press down on the top with your thumb and press it against a controller to deactivate it and everything connected to it's mainframe. Some of my best work I think, well after my precious energy whips that is," she smirks, winking at me. She rises to her feet and waves goodbye.

Getting up I glance over at her. "Where are you going?"

"Tony invited me to join him in his lab, one that I don't have to break into so I agreed, Oh! Nathan also told me to tell you that he won't be here at the tower for a few days, Natasha Romanoff is taking him to some place to help him with his spy skills," the elevator door closes on her before she gets the chance to finish her sentence but that's all I needed to know.

Every one of my team, except Tarben is getting to close to the Avengers and I don't even want to say anything to the one who makes up my DNA. How can my life get any worse? Wait, where's Nick Fury, I haven't seen him since before when I overheard him speaking with the Avengers about their progress with us, maybe that's what has me on edge.

Rather than take the elevator and alerting him to my presence I decide to swing by Tara's bedroom and swipe a bobby pin from her stuff, slipping it into my pocket and use the stairs instead. If I use the stairs he will hear the sound of the door opening and me stepping out so keeping silent is the best way to go, it would give him to much time to hide what he's doing the other way.

It's silent when I reach the floor where his secret office is, slipping into the hallway from the doorway by the stairs I tread down the hall towards the room at the end of the walkway where his office door resides. Reaching for the door handle, I drop it and press my ear to the door instead to see what's going on before entering into who knows what.

"What do you mean you don't know!? This ain't a damn episode of Lost," Nick Fury shouts in his deep, usually neutral voice. He sounds super pissed kind of like...

"No one wants you, no one but us and he, if he ever found out about you, do you really think he'd want to know you, he's young and would rather live a normal life, not deal with you. We're all you've got so for once in your pathetic existence so being such a fuck-up!"

I curl my arms around myself, closing my eyes tightly, shaking my head so hard it hurts. Trying to make the memories go away and when I open my eyes again I sigh, knowing that it's not gonna work. Pressing my ear back against the door, I try to keep my thoughts focused on Nick Fury's voice and not the other person who always haunts my thoughts.

"—thing I did to..." his voice lowers, the sound is muffled by the door, inhibiting me for hearing what he says for a while and I start to get anxious, what could he possibly be angry about? "Keep me posted Agent, Fury out."

Just as I'm about to step towards the stairwell, the door opens and Nick Fury steps out, his black eye patch covering his eye, black leather trench coat, dark top and dress pants. He looks at me with his one good eye. "What did you hear?" is all he asks.

"Nothing, I just got here but I wanted to speak to you," I reply, raising my head slight, holding my ground. He nods for me to go on. "Something didn't sit right with me, when you said Maria Hill was in a hospital with a broken leg. You lied, not that I'm surprised or even care. She's missing isn't she, how long? How long has she been missing and what about that," I nod to the office door. "Something must have happened."

He glares at me before stepping about a foot away from me, leaning forward, he attempts to intimidate me but I keep my calm demeanor even when I'd rather turn and scurry away, especially with my nightmare still replying through my head like a movie on repeat.

"Something you didn't seem to get from Rogers is minding your own business and you should really learn how to do that. There are things that you aren't supposed to know about and this is one of them. Leave it alone Shaylene Rogers."

"Don't," I growl, narrowing my eyes and speak deathly slow. "Ever. Call. Me. That."

He sidesteps me and heads towards the elevator, obviously thinking that I won't be able to break into his office, the second the elevator door closes and I hear it move upwards, I immediately pull the bobby pin free, unlocking the door in less than five seconds, I'm getting freakishly good at lock picking, and step into the dark room.

On top of a stack of papers on his desk, I see an dark iPhone resting on top of the stuff and reach for it when I approach the desk. Sliding the unlock bar I see a text message, press read, and pale at the three worlds the message holds.

To: Nick Fury

From: Melinda May

COULSON'S BEEN COMPROMISED