Chapter 35: (Skye) Moon Flowers

September 2014

"Good, you're awake. I was starting to think your corpse would be stinking the place up soon."

Skye blinked through her blurry vision, head pounding, until a form came into her vision.

"Where am I?"

"Hell."

Skye groaned. While the room was dark, what little light flickered above her was making the aching in her head worse.

"You know, considering he never shuts up about you, I was expecting more," a teasing voice commented.

"Do you have to be so loud?" Skye complained, pulling herself up on-Her eyes shot open. Were these bars?

She looked around, fully taking in her surroundings for the first time. She was in a grey-bricked cell, on a lumpy cot, still in the same clothes she'd been wearing when-

Skye's face fell.

Trip. The explosion.

She was going to be sick.

"Toilet's in the corner," her fellow prisoner sing-songed.

"How long have I been here?"

"A few hours."

Skye followed the voice to a cell across from hers. She couldn't see her face. She sat with her head back against the wall and both hands on her stomach, which was-

"How long have you been here?"

She shrugged. "He doesn't exactly keep calendars in this place."

Skye rolled her eyes. "Well, it was September seventeenth when he took me," Skye offered, unsure if a few days or hours had passed since. There was no telling where he'd taken her initially.

Her snarky prison mate let out a long sigh.

"It was the day of J.T.'s funeral…" She muttered to herself. "His body wasn't found for weeks…"

Skye could see her struggling to put the dates together. If the drugs they'd given her were already making Skye feel strung out, she couldn't imagine how bad it was for her.

"I think I've been here since May," she finally answered. "Is it really…" She glanced down at her stomach and ran a hand over the bump there. "I've only got a month before he takes her," she whispered angrily.

While she was much more pregnant than Skye was, there was no way in hell she was already eight months along. Aside from being frail, she was so much tinier than one should be at this stage.

"What do you mean 'takes her'?"

She met Skye's eyes for the first time and Skye was taken aback by how haunted she looked. She could tell she'd been beautiful once. Her straight, black hair was cut into a bob that came down to her shoulders and her eyes were a beautiful shade of blue that reminded her of the years she'd spent parked by the beach, staring out at the ocean. But behind them were a pain Skye knew all too well.

"He doesn't give a damn about us, Skye. Good ol' dad wants fresh test subjects."

Skye's body went cold.

She remembered now. Those dead eyes staring her down before she went down.

Daddy dearest. The same one who had taken her a baby now wanted-

"We have to get out of here," Skye insisted, looking around for a weak spot.

Blue eyes chuckled. "There's no way out, Skye. I spent months trying. Every time he moves operations, I think there'll be a way, but he's good at this. Even if we did manage to escape, his goons would have us back here within minutes."

"How do you know my name?"

She groaned and sat up, moving to the bars so they were closer.

"You're his favorite. All he does it talk about you. You're his golden child. The one he wanted. I'm just the spare he got when he knocked up his favorite whore."

The drugs were still swimming through her body, so it took her a minute before what she was implying hit her.

"You're saying we're-"

"Sisters?"

"This is crazy," Skye muttered. A few months ago, she didn't have any family and now…

"I'm Cory, by the way. Cory Sutter."

"Skye. Coulson. But you already knew that," Skye whispered, still in shock.

"Sutter…so, he didn't raise you?"

Cory snorted. "No. My birth mother gave me up days after I was born. He tried taking me before then, but then you were born, and he was distracted long enough for her to get me away from him."

Just like her own mother had tried to do.

"I didn't even know I was adopted until I was sixteen and I triggered my abilities.

I tried to find her, to get some answers on all of this," she motioned to her arms and for the first time Skye noticed they were covered in what looked like braces.

"She was already dead. He murdered her when she wouldn't lead him to me."

"He's a monster," Skye whispered, too familiar with his misdeeds.

"Daisy, are you already trying to poison your sister against me?"

Cory shot a glare in good ol' daddy's direction as Skye instinctively backed away from the cell bars, not wanting him anywhere near her.

"Fuck off, Cal."

"Tsk, language my dear."

"Fine. Fucketh off, Cal."

He chuckled, turning his attention to Skye.

"Ignore the mouth on that one, my dear."

Skye clenched her fist, wishing she could channel all of the anger and hatred in her body into something that would kill him.

"My sweet little Luna, look at how you've grown."

"The name is Skye," she snapped.

"You've had many names my dear, but the only one that matters is the one I gave you."

"Fuck off," Skye growled, making him chuckle.

"Looks like you two have a temper in common. Amongst other things," he said, his attention now on Skye's tiny bump.

"You fucked up, Sea-Ca-whatever the fuck your name is today," Skye snapped. "You and I both know my mom is going to find me and when she does, you're dead."

"How is my favorite ex-wife these days? Still whoring around with Phil?"

Skye's hands went white as she dug her nails into her palms.

"I wouldn't count on a rescue from SHIELD. By the time they find this place, we'll be long gone."

Skye glared a hole into his back as he left them, her heart pounding.

"These powers of yours," Skye said through gritted teeth.

"These keep me from using them," Cory sighed. "And if I try to take them off, they'll inject me with something that will kill her," she said, running a hand over her bump.

That wasn't going to stop Skye. She didn't know how yet, but she was getting all four of them away from him.

October 2014

"Cory, look at me," Skye ordered, holding her face in her hands. She couldn't do this to her, not now. They needed to stick together if they wanted to survive this.

"I can't do this," Cory cried, shaking her head. "He's just going to kill me and then do God knows what with her. Please, Skye, let me die," she pleaded, clutching the rusty nail she'd managed to claw out of the wall of the basement cell they shared.

"We are going to get through this," Skye insisted, doing her best to pry the nail from her hands before she actually hurt herself. "We will find a way out of here and you and your baby can come live on the base. We'll be safe and a family. I promise you."

Cory choked back a sob. "I can't do this anymore."

"Yes, you can. You are strong. You can do anything."

She shook her head. "I'm not making it out of here," she whispered, her entire body shaking. "I'm dying, Skye. I can feel it."

Skye held her close and ran a hand through her hair. "We're not going to let him win, do you hear me?"

"Promise me you'll save her," Cory whispered, dropping the nail, her body too weak to keep fighting against Skye. "Get her away from here, away from him. Take care of her. You're the only family we have left," she whispered, more tears falling from her eyes.

Skye wasn't going to let her go down this dark hole.

"I won't need to take care of her because she'll have you."

But Cory wasn't listening, whatever Cal had pumped her full of had kicked in and she now lay limp in Skye's arms.

"I promise, I'm going to kill him," Skye whispered, pushing Cory's hair away from her face. "And we're both going to get out of here."

"There you are," Cory said, running her hands over Skye's feverish forehead. "What was it today? The crystals again?"

Skye's entire body ached, not just the places where he'd cut into her flesh.

"I hate him," Skye coughed, tasting blood.

"You and me both," Cory sighed, running a hand over her belly with a wince.

"What is it? She's not-"

"No, but she's coming any day now."

With the promise of a fresh new human for him to raise and mold to his liking, Cal had cooled it on experimenting on Cory and now all his focus was on Skye.

She now understood how her sister had lost her will to fight.

"Skye, promise me, if you find a way out of here-"

"I'll save her," Skye promised, not sure there would ever be a way out.

"And if you get out-"

"I'll come back for you."

"No," Skye insisted, meeting her eyes. "Get her away from here," Skye motioned to baby bump. "Then you find my mom. I want her to raise her. Don't risk coming back for me."

"I thought you were supposed to be the optimistic one," Cory teased.

"Not much to be optimistic about," Skye whispered, unable to meet her eyes.

Poor Cory was convinced Cal wanted their children to raise as his own, but Skye knew the truth. They were just test subjects to him and as soon as he got the data he needed, they'd be as dead as their mothers.

It took Skye ten minutes to realize the wailing in her ears was coming from her own body.

"She didn't cry," Skye wailed, her hands covered in her own blood. "She…Oh, God."

Her entire body shook as the reality set in.

"She's dead. She's dead. She's dead." She repeated it over and over until her throat was raw.

The room began to shake, and Skye wasn't sure if it was an earthquake or if she was finally losing it. She hoped it was the former, so she could be crushed to death and be reunited with her precious baby girl.

Another wail filled this room and this time it didn't come from Skye.

"She's coming," Cory cried as the room shook even harder.

It took Skye a full minute to realize that every time Cory had a contraction the shaking would start up again.

The braces weren't holding her powers back anymore.

"Stay away from me!" She screamed as Cal's goons entered the cell and tried to force her out.

This was it. This was her chance. She wouldn't be able to get out of here alive, but she was going to take down as many of them as she could.

Skye dug the rust nail she'd confiscated from Cory weeks ago out of it's hiding spot and lunged for the nearest one's legs.

"Bitch!" He screamed, punching her.

She was weak and exhausted, but she was fueled by anger and grief, so she stabbed him again.

"Run!" She screamed at Cory, going for the other guard when the first fell to the ground. He'd dropped his gun and her fingers reached for it as Cory crawled away.

"I hope you end up in Hell," Skye spat as she fired two into guard number two's chest. She rounded to shoot the other, but he was already up and tackled her to the ground.

The last thing Skye saw before the end of his gun hit her temple was Cory running out the door.

November 2014

"I wouldn't have to do this if you'd just behave," Cal 'tsked' as he handcuffed her to the lab table.

Ever since she'd taken out one of his guys and given Cory the opportunity to take out two others with her Quake powers she'd been confined to his lab, kept prisoner under the too bright lights.

Skye bit her tongue, wanting to tell him where he could shove his handcuffs, but she'd promised Cory she'd get her baby out of here alive, and Skye wasn't going to risk breaking that promise by running her mouth.

She'd already lost her own baby, and her sister, she wasn't going to lose her niece too.

"That's more like it my little moon flower," he whispered, kissing the top of her head, chuckling when Skye recoiled.

Ever since Cory had died delivering her baby he'd been far more 'affectionate' and 'fatherly'. Maybe he was playing games or maybe losing two of his playthings had made him even crazier. Either way, Skye's skin crawled every time she heard his voice.

"Be good," he taunted on his way out of the room.

Skye mentally flipped him the finger.

Once she was alone, she slipped her stick-thin wrist out of its restraint and shook it off. She was too drugged up to attempt to plot an escape, but she wasn't going to let her skin become raw and bleed when she was alone.

She needed to save up every ounce of strength she could. It was going to take time, she'd need him to trust her enough to stop keeping her sedated, but eventually she was going to escape and kill him and every other bastard working for him on her way out.

December 2014

"Baby girl, you don't have to do this. You should be resting."

Skye knew her mom meant well, but this was something she needed to do.

"I'm ready."

"Skye, her body…"

"I know." She'd been dead for months and had Cal not been preserving her in his morgue, she would have burned in the fire. She didn't even want to know what he'd been doing with the body, but she knew when her mom lifted that sheet that Cory would be unrecognizable.

Melinda ran a hand over Skye's back before stepping forward and pulling back the sheet.

Skye's hand immediately went to her mouth as a sob escaped.

It was even worse than she imagined.

Her mom tried to cover her back up, but Skye shoved her arm out of the way, needing to say goodbye.

"I am so sorry," Skye wept, running a hand over Cory's blood-caked hair. "He's going to pay for this," Skye promised, her entire body shaking. "I won't let him get away with what he did to us."

Melinda pressed a kiss to the top of Skye's head.

Skye turned, meeting her eyes. "She deserves a proper funeral.

They both do," Skye whispered, not even wanting to look at where the other body was being stored. She wasn't ready to deal with that goodbye yet. She wasn't sure she would ever be ready.

Melinda nodded, reaching out to run her hand over Skye's wet cheek.

"We'll do whatever you want, sweetheart."

"I never wanted any of this," Skye whispered, no longer able to stand steadily, even with her cane.

"I know," her mom whispered as she helped her back into her wheelchair.

"And don't worry, I'm going to find him and I'm going to kill him," she promised.

Skye closed her eyes, too tired to insist that she get to be the one to kill him.

"Make it hurt," Skye whispered instead.

She didn't have much to hold onto these days, but imagining all of the way they'd make him suffer was one of them.