Previously: Bobbi's been shot and on their way to the hospital Skye insists that they need to turn back. But 'back' is where her father is using his gift to hurt all the Skrulls, which in turn hurts himself, and Skye could just be trying to go back in order to try and help him despite better judgement of getting Bobbi to medical.


Chapter Fifty

Skye's powers seemed to be something akin to a gas pedal.

When her father had started using his gift on the Skrulls, they all began writhing in pain rather quickly. His power could go from zero to eighty in a mere moment, it seemed.

But even with their intense anguish, it had only started as a tingling feeling in the back of her mind. Sure, it wasn't comfortable. But it wasn't overbearing.

The longer it went on though, the more she felt it. The feelings accelerated slowly. Their terror, their anguish, their anger, frustration, and their torture. Which was like torture in her own mind. It was almost enough to make her forget that her father, her only flesh and blood, was dying, right in front of her.

It was then that she desperately willed the aliens, willed everyone, to just stop. To just calm down. Let her be aware of her father's sacrifice.

And for a moment, they let her foot ease off the pedal.

Just a moment, because soon she was swept away without her permission. She never blacked out, but she had been delirious enough to believe that what she now understood to be Coulson carrying her to the van had been a ship stealing her away into the sea, where she'd leave behind the others and be left on an island of solitude. With her own thoughts and feelings. This ship would take her away, and she didn't have to worry about willing the others to stop because her mind was bursting any longer. So she'd accepted it.

She'd woken to chaos as they left chaos in their wake. There was a woman dying in the car. But Skye's father was dying, too.

Her mind collected its thoughts as she realized something. She'd willed them to calm down. That had been Skye. Not only had their emotions been reaching her, but she was touching their minds right back. She wasn't just a passenger. She was in the driver's seat.

It had never been clearer what to do.

When she voiced this though, her team doubted her. That emotion circled around her heart but she spat it back out. And, just a little, she tried pressing the warmth of calm into their minds instead. She focused on Coulson, because he had been the one to make the final decision.

So they turned around.

It felt a little violating. But it was necessary.

Skye could tell when they were nearing Wolfe and the Skrulls again. Her mind was starting to become full, so she closed her eyes. She tried to stay calm. There was death and pain echoing around her, but she stilled herself and breathed.

"This is mental," she heard Hunter. "This isn't right, we shouldn't have listened to her…"

Skye tuned out to his rueful mutterings. It was easy to do soon enough because they were back with the Skrulls. And the Skrulls' screaming was loud.

She was receiving the pain loud and clear, despite how hard she tried to meditate.

"Skye…" she heard Ward's gentle breaking voice. The made it so worry was now underlying the other emotions. She felt his touch, wiping away tears she hadn't known she'd shed. The worry heightened at the feeling of his fingers. Somehow, the worry and concern helped.

"I'm ok," she whispered.

The van stopped, reaching their destination in minimal time. When the door opened she willed her eyes to do the same. The colors bore into her as a blearing shimmer, but there was really only a single hue. Every person radiated a dark red.

Pain was the only thing present in their minds now.

Most of them were on the ground writhing. Some had stopped moving altogether. She looked to her father.

You didn't need Skye's power to see much of the red on him.

The sight jumpstarted it. Spiked her. Maybe gave her an adrenaline rush, she didn't know. But she knew she reached her mind out far faster than she could have believed and soon she had a grip on each of her enemy's minds. Plus her father's.

She pictured turquoise and aqua, the feeling of sun on her skin during a day at the beach or the sense of peace she felt when listening to rain or the fluttering of keyboards. And she willed it into them.

A few of their minds blanked out immediately. As they let go out of the pain, their bodies released them from consciousness, and thus her grip on them as well. The rest tried to gain composure from the torture, but there was an abnormal absence of panic.

She couldn't feel Wolfe's mind, anymore. But she couldn't spare to look at him.

Skye's eyes honed in on the stranger she knew to be Lyja. The woman seemed to be having a hard time keeping this human form she'd chosen, blipping back and forth between the young woman and her Skrull self. Eventually, she stabilized into the girl.

"You… what are you doing?" she panted out. Skye heard the disdain in her voice. She felt it as a slight tingle in her mind.

"I need to tell you that you feel bad," Skye said. "For hurting us."

The tired woman mustered up a tiny scoff. "I don't feel bad."

"You do," Skye assured her, reaching farther in. She was barely focused on the others now, Lyja being her target, but they were at such a peaceful state of mind from Skye's influence she doubted they'd try anything.

Lyja cocked her head. "I do…"

"Because we didn't do anything wrong."

"You were born," Lyja pointed out. "You killed my comrades."

"So did you," said Skye, thinking about her corpse of a duplicate. "And you hurt Fitz and I before then."

Remorse. Remorse, she willed at her. It wasn't seeming to stick, though serenity had been so easy to pass on. But, she realized, she had focused on things that calmed herself. Perhaps she needed to think of things that plagued her own conscious.

Lying to the team was the first thing that came to mind. That she hadn't cut contact with Miles and how she'd lost their trust for a time.

Leaving to give herself to Paibok, who she then thought to have been Wolfe, early. How she hadn't planned to say goodbye.

Dragging Fitz into her torture. Dragging them all into this. Her father was on the ground in a pool of blood. An agent she'd never met had been drawn into the crossfire.

"I shot that woman…" Lyja mumbled.

"Yes." Skye nodded. Lyja's mind had somehow caught the same memory she was on. "She's dying. But you don't have to kill her. You can help with the machine on your ship."

The brunette's eyes snapped up to Skye, and they showed so much innocence. Skye wondered if she'd see the same thing if it were truly the Skrull's face looking at her.

"I could take you to our ship," Lyja repeated. "We have a medical machine."

It was then Skye decided she really didn't like this. It wasn't right to have this much power over a person's mind. Even the bad guys. She was hypnotizing them, like an evil witch from a storybook or the villains in spy movies.

She pushed back her reservations, focusing on the task at hand.

"Yeah," Skye agreed. "We'd be really grateful. You wouldn't have to feel guilty anymore."

"Ok," Lyja agreed with a light, dazed smile. "Follow me."

Skye did. And while she was pretty sure her team was following her she couldn't break her concentration enough to affirm it. But she felt their presence. She couldn't check on her father. She was influencing so many minds at once, and she could hardly think of much else.

So they went, Skye calling to the Skrulls like the Pied Piper to rats. As though in a dream. As much as the aliens were in a daze, she only had so much control as well. It near felt as though she'd floated there.

The cloaked spaceship wasn't far, but she felt the team's spike of trepidation when they saw it appear out of thin air. It was quickly smothered. Did she do that, spreading the calm passed where she wanted it to go?

She found it hard to stay on the right side of the road with this power.

Lyja motioned towards the machine. Skye expected it to be the one she'd been forced into during her induction to the spaceship that had been her prison. Instead, it was the pod that Fitz had been kept in while the Skrull infiltrated the team by impersonating him.

Mack and Hunter approached, carrying the unconscious agent. Skye caught the woman's form in her gaze. She was stark pale, more so than any live person Skye'd ever seen and red marked more places than not. It was a harsh contrast to her blanched skin.

They placed her inside.

As Lyja closed the top, Hunter opened his mouth but shut it quickly, as though second-guessing any remarks he had to say.

There was a glow and time seemed to skip a few ticks. The next thing Skye knew the pod was open. She heard coughing erupt from it as Hunter poured over the edge.

"Bob?" he asked tentatively. "Bobbi, are you alright?"

"Oh…" she moaned, placing a hand on her head as she warily glanced around. She was confused. But her eyes moved as though beginning to gain the sense to observe. "Where are we…"

"Uh," Lyja scoffed. "She's fine. Our machine did its job."

"Thank you," Skye said placidly. Maybe the calm was affecting Skye herself more now. She was starting to feel near numb, and the sense of floating was increasing.

"Sure… I'm not exactly sure why I did it." Lyja shook her head. "Why'd I do that?"

Lyja was slipping from her grasp. Skye willed herself to focus. Tried to think of guilt again. What was she guilty of… she did put snow in Fitz's bunk once when they were parked in the Alps. But she didn't really feel bad about that. That was sort of funny. It was really funny, honestly.

Lyja began to giggle, softly to herself. Skye couldn't help but smile.

Then all the Skrulls she'd willed to follow them burst into laughter as well. It was as though Skye was conducting her own symphony of cheer. It was amazing. Even though they were the jagged auras of the Skrulls, the colors were bright and inviting. Skye felt her head tilting with them, her orchestra. Her ocean and waves.

"Something's wrong," she heard Coulson mutter. But she couldn't imagine what it was. She felt bliss, and she was pushing it onto all of her new alien friends.

"Skye, tell them to lock themselves up," May said.

Skye cocked her head. "Noooo," she cooed in disapproval. "They're my friends."

Ward shook his head. "They're not your friends. They were just trying to kidnap you, torture you!"

Skye felt puzzled. The chain she had linked everyone together with rattled, and the Skrulls felt confused too. "They wouldn't-"

She stopped. She saw her father emerging from the machine.

Skye felt a sliver of clarity when she saw him. Her team must have brought him as well and used the machine to heal him. There wasn't the smallest sign of a cut on the man.

Well, not on his skin. The great amounts of blood were still present.

"They tried to hurt us," she mumbled in a stupor. She could feel it now, in another moment of brief alertness. Skye was losing her grip, losing her control. Her own mind was slipping. She focused her attention back on Lyja. Tried to push agreeability and believability. "It would be a really big help if you could take yourself and your friends down to the cells. Lock yourselves up."

"Would it really?"

"Yeah. For everyone."

So that was just what the Skrull did. And the moment the last Skrull was in the prison, Skye let the chain go. Let herself stop grasping on with tense muscles to all their minds.

It hurt.

It was as though gripping them had been holding her together, and the moment they were gone, the floodgates were released. Her mind felt like an open sore.

"Alight then... so Agent Skye can use mind control. That's definitely new," mumbled Hunter. She barely registered his voice, before a broken sob erupted passed her lips.

"Skye?" Her father turned to her first.

She fell to her knees. "It hurts. Oh-oh god, it hurts," she sobbed. It was weak, and pathetic. But she couldn't find it in herself to care.

Concern spiked in her mind from the rest of them and she left out a brief scream. It had been like cutting into a fresh wound.

"Her nose is bleeding," Ward said.

"A bloody lot," Fitz mumbled in awe.

"It must have been too much strain," said Trip hurriedly.

The colors danced. The emotions flurried within her. But soon enough the pain was gone, replaced by an almost pleasant numbness. More people spoke, but they became farther and farther away, their voices underwater. Muffled.

There was pulling on her arms as they lifted her. Something about going upstairs.

She tried to say something, but her voice had left her. Her lips wouldn't even move. Her eyes would, but in motions foreign to her as her thoughts struggled to keep up with what they were seeing.

But her eyes would not close. And that made Skye worry herself.


A/n: Skye's in trouble again... shocker. This chapter wasn't going to originally end on a lame cliffhanger, so sorry about that.

I hope this read ok and wasn't toooooo confusing! Skye's in a daze for most of it so I tried to convey that, as well as the fact that empath powers are a little off to write.