CHAPTER EIGHT

THE HUB

A/n: Sorry for the super late update! And thank you for your lovely reviews; they make my day. This fic is set in a Season 1 AU, before Ward is shown to be HYDRA. However, I do plan for Ward to turn HYDRA in this fic. The main difference between the show and FFTF is simply that Coulson's team is formed far earlier and therefore, at this particular time period of The Hub episode, have much closer relationships already than they originally did in the show.

This chapter is a retelling of the S1 The Hub episode from the TV show but re-fitted to make sense in the Cybertek Obelisk plotline I have created.

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A knock. "Ward. You still up?"

His bunk door opened promptly, as though he had known she was outside. "Yeah. You? Rough night?"

"The usual." She sighed softly. "Can I sleep here tonight?"

OOO

"So, Skye, first visit to the Hub? What do you think?" Simmons beamed, peering eagerly over the railing.

The stark fluorescent lights and gleaming steel and glass were everywhere, blinding and harsh. Down below, the vast atrium crawled with agents in black suits and tactical gear. Just like the Cybertek Digital Command, Skye thought faintly, rubbing her arms to quell the goosebumps.

She realised Simmons was looking expectantly at her, bright smile now a bit strained. "Yeah, uh, it's – great. So this is headquarters?"

Fitz patted her back clumsily. "The headquarters for Special Ops and Sci-Tech at least. The Triskelion is the HQ for financial resources."

"Oh. And you guys used to be stationed here?" With an effort, she manipulated her irritation into a calm facade of vague interest. The hot, itchy prickles on the inside of her skin were starting to manifest in sharp spurts of anger. She hated the repressed worry in their voices, at the back of every conversation like white noise. She hated the bumbling pats on the back, the sympathetic smiles –

She hated herself for not being able to keep her pain away from them. The irrational anger leaked away; an unspeakable hollowness consumed its place.

Fidgeting distractedly, she muttered, "How long do you think they're going to take? Stupid clearance levels –"

The tinted glass doors in front of them opened as if on cue. May, Coulson and Ward strode out, accompanied by a dark-haired woman in a sharp business suit.

"Agents Fitz, Simmons. Skye." Ward gestured in curt introduction. "Agent Victoria Hand, Director of Operations. We've been liaising on the Cybertek raids."

Agent Hand nodded in stiff acknowledgement, then continued her conversation with Coulson. "You understand this mission is highly classified." She sniffed coldly. "Try to spare the specifics, even with your team. Fury will have your ass if my men are compromised."

Coulson nodded, equally straight-faced. "Fair enough. But the team I'm sending in deserves the full picture. I expect every detail sent in to me."

She took her time weighing him up. Eventually, she stuck out a hand. "We'll see about that. Later, Agent Ward, Agent May. I'll leave you to debrief your team."

May and Ward tersely watched Hand walk away.

"Wow, she's almost as nice as you two specialists." Skye shrugged absently. "Is this cold, prickly I-hate-you thing some requirement to be part of Ops?"

May raised her eyebrows with a hint of humour. "Is that her first insult in sixteen days?"

"Seventeen," Simmons cheerfully responded. "I almost believe you've missed being slighted by her, May."

"Okay, okay, didn't realise how starved of affection you guys are." Skye crossed her arms defensively, following Ward into the nearest secure conference room. "So debrief? Ward?"

"Yeah, about that." He shut the door behind them. "There's a Cybertek base in Slovakia. My intel suggests main research on the Obelisk is ongoing here."

Skye closed her eyes briefly, feeling sick. "So raid it."

Coulson crossed his arms. "That's the problem. They've built an Overkill Device. It creates sonic vibrations –"

"- powerful enough to deactivate explosive and combustion-based weapons from kilometres away. Guns, missiles, hand grenades, nuclear warheads...other advanced devices," Fitz blurted out, completing his sentence. "S.H.I.E.L.D can't raid it."

Skye felt her hands start shaking, the recollections of the torture suddenly slamming into her like a snowball. She clutched the briefing table until the wood was digging into her fingers, trying to stop the onslaught of memories. The pain helped her focus. Behind her, she felt Ward's hand discreetly come up under her hair, rubbing her shoulder soothingly.

"Which is why Hand needs a two-man op to put the device out of commission first. One specialist, one engineer." Ward calmly went on. "I volunteered. Fitz, you in?"

Fitz glanced at Simmons. She paled, but nodded slightly. He shrugged bravely in agreement.

OOO

Skye settled on his bed, watching him lay out his gear and put together his pack. "So, no details for us? Where the location is, when you're leaving, when you're being extracted? Whether you and Fitz make it out safely? Zero contact?"

"Nope," Ward said shortly. "You heard Hand."

"Okay." Skye looked around his bunk, observing the crisply made bed, the books on tactical strategy stacked in the corner, a garrotte neatly coiled in the open drawer of his nightstand. "You know, you never got around to teaching me that chokehold. The headlock one."

He zipped up his pack. "You could ask May while I'm on mission."

"Uh-huh." She looked unconvinced. "Think I'll just wait for you to get back. May might choke me to death."

He smiled slightly at her comment and sat down beside her. Firmly, she closed her fingers on his, dark eyes pensive and unsmiling. "Two things. Keep Fitz safe and come back to me. I need you here." She stared into her lap. "For the chokeholds and training stuff. Obviously."

"Think I might be able to manage that." The corners of his lips quirked. "And really? You sure training's all you need me for?"

OOO

Three days of unbearable silence from Fitz and Ward had passed.

On the third day, she walked into Coulson's office and sat on his table. "Look, I heard Agent Hand. But does it not scare the crap out of you that we know nothing? Like, our boys could be dead right now, Coulson, and we wouldn't even know."

Coulson's face was set into a pleasant non-expression. "That's classified. But you have nothing to worry about. The people who design these ops are the best of the best. Now get off the table."

Her temper flared.

"Nothing to worry about? What about them being caught and tortured? Like I was? Fitz is defenceless. I need to know that at least you know they're safe!" She was yelling by the end of her outburst.

"Trust the system." Coulson barely looked up from his papers. "I know you care about them. I do too. But I won't compromise our agents."

"Fine," she bit back. "Speaking of compromised agents, do you know they don't have an extraction plan? Did Agent Hand tell you that? Tell them that?"

"You hacked Hand's mission data servers?" From the slight way Coulson stiffened, she knew he had not known. He covered up his shock with authoritative anger. "I could have you court-martialled for a second breach of regulations."

"You could have Ward and Fitz dead," she challenged. "I think I'll take the court martial. Stop it, Coulson. I haven't changed because of Geneva."

An edge of unmistakeable hurt crept into her voice. "I know, it's hard to see sometimes. But I'm still her. I'm Skye. After everything we've been through, did you think I would ever not have your back? That you'd have to hide things from me?"

He registered that her anger had not come entirely from Ward and Fitz's mission. Something behind his entire demeanour relented with faint understanding and compunction.

Coulson stood up so they were both at eye level.

"No, you're right. I should have trusted you. About ordering Ward to monitor you. About everything." He clasped her shoulder firmly. "I'll make a few calls. And get off my table."

"Fair enough." Skye hopped down and hugged him hard in thanks. She hesitated before leaving. "Can you check on the status of any reported events in the vicinity? Probably nothing. Just a feeling that something's off."

OOO

Slovakia, Cybertek Facility

"Okay. Finished. Just need to plug in couple wires, red button and we can get to extraction. God knows I'm bloody starving –"

"Fitz. Ex-fil never made contact. There is no extraction." Ward wearily grabbed the wired equipment in Fitz's hands, blood and resignation streaking his face. "I can give you fifteen minutes tops. Go."

"What. The hell. No - no way -" Fitz clung reflexively to his hardware, his accent thickening in a shocked stream of jumbled words. "If you think I'm going anywhere, I'm not. We're a team. I'm not leaving you even if you threw out my bloody sandwich -"

"Yes, you are. My orders are to keep you out of combat." Ward ripped the equipment cursorily out of his hands. "Run it by me how to deactivate this thing. The blue wire into this plug, the green wire into that one and the red button last? After which the beacon goes off and the raid starts in two minutes."

"Y-Yeah." Fitz was having trouble concentrating, panic building up steadily like a thrum in his stomach. "What about you? The air raid starts, specs show there's nowhere safe. No bomb shelter or manhole."

"If the job was easy, it wouldn't be any fun." Ward shrugged easily, hiding a wave of sadness, of yearning. "Just - tell Skye I'm sorry. You need to get back and tell her for me. She'll understand. Now go."

Fitz unzipped his pack and handed him a flat case. "Just in case. Spare ICER, splinter bombs, EMPs. Not much use in the way of air raid protection but if you can get away –"

"Thanks." Ward grudgingly took it. "Take the south exit. Fastest route."

Fitz nodded mutely. Slapping Ward hard on the chest, he jogged away, hot guilt mixing with the tears blurring his vision.