Hello dear readers, sorry for the late update, life got me good again, and it was hard to write a longer chapter, so you'll have to settle for a shorter one, sorry.
Ok, so Daisy will be less present here, cause she is tired from the punishment she got from Whitehall last chapter. Not a big one, but it's annoying.
Now, on with the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel

Getting in was easy.

Skye wore her nice pink dress and made sure that she acted like she belonged there. She had to do that her entire life, so it was easy for her. May and FitzSimmons were monitoring her through the comms from the Bus, while Coulson and Ward waited for her to disable the laser fence to get in.

Before leaving, she'd heard May tell Coulson that she wanted to go with him, but since she was just the pilot, Coulson decided to bring Ward instead. For now. Skye had a feeling May would request to be put on field duty soon, and she also had a feeling that Coulson would let her.

Once she got out of the taxi, she showed her invitation to the security and simply walked into the party, which was outside Quinn's place. As she did so, she grabbed a flute of champagne from a waiter who walked past her. Another waiter showed up next to her with a plate of finger foods. "Hors d'œuvre, madame?" Skye nodded at him, grabbed something and all but shoved it in her mouth.

"Who are you?" a heavily accented voice sounded behind her, making Skye whirl around, swallowing the food in her mouth. A very important-looking man with someone who looked like an assistant next to him were both standing in front of her.

"Oh, apologies for his manners. He knows very little English," the assistant said, apologetically.

"Oh, that, uh, that's… what… whatever. Skye." Skye extended her hand to the man, who shook it.

"Qasim Zaghlul."

"Big fan. You built half of Dubai, including the Arabian blade. I love that building. It's super sci-fi. Where's your wife…"

"Wife's name's Nadrah," May supplied over the comms.

"Nadrah," Skye echoed.

"Twin sons."

"She staying at home with the boys?"

"How's she doing?" She heard Fitz' voice sound on her comms.

"She's good," May and Simmons said at the same time, and Skye couldn't help but smirk internally.

"It is a pleasure," the man's assistant said, while Qasim smile a little.

"The pleasure is mine," she told Qasim and his assistant, chuckling, before walking away, addressing her team. "I could get used to this, people. It's like Siri, if it worked." She suddenly noticed Quinn. "Skipper to Bravo. I got eyes on top dog. The Eagle is landing on it."

"What are you doing?" Simmons asked, clearly confused. Skye had just wanted to sound cool, though it seemed like it didn't work.

"Uh, sorry, I – I don't know. I see Quinn. I'm gonna go talk to him," Skye told them, before walking over to Quinn and his guests.

"-I mean, that and its effect on the industrial average. That was good," Quinn said, and Skye decided to use that as her moment to speak, laughing a little as well.

"Yeah, right?" The other turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow, but she focused her attention on Quinn. "Ian Quinn. I'm your last-minute party crasher. Skye."

"Oh. Wow. Great to meet you." Quinn chuckled as he spoke, shaking her hand, before addressing his companions. "Um, this is Skye, a member of the Rising Tide. They're a group of hackers. They've gotten some pretty big secrets out to the public."

"I prefer 'hacktivist'. I'm glad you've heard of our site," Skye said smiling at the man.

"I read it. We think very much alike – more freedom of information, less government infringing on everyone's rights – I'm a fan." Skye nodded, agreeing with his assessment of the Rising Tide's beliefs, they were just not exactly hers. She had way too many secrets to believe that all secrets should be out in the open.

"That explains the invite. This is a tough party to get into."

"Not as hard to get into as the encrypted back channel you contacted us through to request the invite," Quinn said, making Skye chuckle.

"That's sort of where I live."

"You've got to show me how you did that – I mean, if you sign on." Now Skye was confused.

"Sign what, now?"

"I've been known to turn a few black hats into white hats, not just for vulnerability analysis, but for very creative thinking."

"A-are you offering me a job?"

"Well, I didn't invite you here for your pretty face. I didn't know you had a pretty face," Quinn said, almost grinning. "Yes, I want to hire you before someone else snatches you up." He then walked away, needing to head to the podium to speak to his guests.

"That seemed to go well," May said, in her ear.

"Yeah. It did." Skye then joined the crowd as they applauded for Quinn.

"Many of you shareholders have been with us for years, and I see a few new names here, but I want to thank you all for traveling so far to this beautiful country and, well, for slumming it at Shaba Tal-Banar." The guests laughed at that, and Skye simply smiled at the joke. "This country where we are allowed to pursue progress and profit without the stranglehold of regulations that are now choking our world. The United States government, the RU, the DRTC, SHIELD – these are just a few of the institutions that are guilty of halting the development of new technology for anyone – except themselves. We dare defy them with a new idea, they steal in and sweep it out from under us. But not today. You're all aware of what Quinn worldwide has been able to do with basic minerals, let alone uranium or plutonium, despite these unjust restrictions that weigh the scales in the other guy's favor." Skye suddenly walked off, being as discrete as she could. "Well, today, I'm announcing something new – an element that could balance those scales, and I mean that quite literally." After she entered the building, she couldn't hear anything about the speech, and she started to find Quinn's office.

"It's locked, but there's no lock," Skye informed her team with her comms.

"Eh, check for a keypad," Fitz told her, and Skye checked, but there was nothing.

"Nothing. What, you can hack a keypad?"

"No, not over the phone."

"Is there a reception desk?" May asked, so she checked nearby, finding a reception desk.

"Okay, yeah. Well, now what do I do?" Skye asked, not having noticed Quinn's vibrations until it was too late and he was there.

"What are you trying to do?" Quinn asked, and Skye cursed herself for not noticing him sooner. So much for knowing a form of echolocation to track movement around her.

"Just looking for a pen," Skye told him, chuckling, trying to make a plan so he would believe her and lead her inside his office. She moved to the desk to grab a pen, showing it off. "Here we go." She chuckled again. "Got to write down all those good ideas, you know what I mean? Of course you know what I mean. Probably have like 10 pens for all your ideas."

"What are you really doing?" He wasn't believing her. She wouldn't believe her, either, with this excuse.

"All right. I'm busted. I was trying to get a glimpse behind your office doors, see how things really operate." At least this lie's more believable, Skye muttered to herself.

"I invite you here as a guest, you treat me like another corrupt institution, looking for trade secrets to leak online," Quinn said, before taking out his phone to speak into it. "Security." Skye panicked slightly at that.

"No, no, no, wait. It's just, with all these la-di-da people, you have to be so guarded, so careful…" She started writing something down as she spoke, forming a new plan in her mind. "What you say, what secrets you reveal. And… I was hoping that you and I… could be honest with one another." She finished writing, so she placed the pen down on the desk and she really hoped this would work. "If you know what I mean." She showed him the paper, which read: SHIELD is listening. Skye saw the slightest sliver of understanding in his eyes.

Bingo. She would use parts of the truth to her advantage.

"My office had less space, more wheels. Wow, a view of the ocean and the pool," Skye's voice sounded over the comms on the Bus. Fitz and Simmons were monitoring Skye while May worked on the computer.

"Not a bad place to do business," Quinn replied, and it was obvious he had taken her inside his office, which she was admiring.

"Got the dispatch leaking Hall's location. User's an alias," May told FitzSimmons.

"Oh, can you trace the DHCP server-" May cut Fitz off before he could finish.

"Trace is running, but it'll take time. Our girl?"

"I thought she was done for, but she's just sweet-talked her way into Quinn's office," Simmons informed her, clearly impressed.

"How'd she manage that?" May asked, also impressed. She hadn't taught Skye anything about undercover work yet, but she was demonstrating more skill on every mission. Maybe this was another skill she couldn't remember picking up? May gave herself a mental note to ask her.

"Pbht! She probably just used her, um…" He cupped his hands to his chest awkwardly as he spoke. "Uh… uh… her, uh… ah, boobs."

"Ugh. That's the only explana-" Simmons was cut off from finishing her sentence when the sound of static came through the comms, making her panic. "Oh my gosh. The signal's dead. Fitz!"

"What – I didn't. She must've – Oh, lord."

.

Skye dropped her comms device in her champagne flute, making it short circuit with a hiss, and she sighed as she sat on the couch in Quinn's office. "Much better. Haven't felt that 'someone's watching my every move' feeling since I failed my driver's test." She was technically not lying about that, she wasn't a fan of someone listening in one her, but what she failed to mention was that she was doing it willingly.

"You want to tell me what the hell's going on? SHIELD got to you?" Quinn asked after a moment, sitting next to her.

"They picked me up in LA, I helped them in a crisis, and now they want to recruit me."

"Of course they did."

"So I played along. Talk about inside info – I have a bunk on their plane. I've been gathering intel, biding my time until I could become useful. I thought this qualified."

"Why would they trust you with a covert operation like this?"

"Something about SHIELD not breaking international laws. They had no other options, whereas I like to keep mine open."

.

"You're saying they wanted to rope me in because I pose a genuine threat," Skye said, raising an eyebrow at him. They had been talking for a while now, and Skye was just starting to get him to trust her and let his guard down long enough for her to get her team inside. It was technically true, she could pose a threat to SHIELD, but no one but May knew what kind of 'threat' she really was, though she wasn't going to tell him that.

"Yes, and fit their profile."

"Profile."

"Sure. You're a criminal. You have a warrant somewhere."

"Probably," Skye said, chuckling to herself.

"Specialized skill set."

"I try to stay humble but fail."

"No family." There a moment of silence for a moment, Skye looking down a his words. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hit a nerve, but that is what these people do. SHIELD – they prey on fear and loneliness and desperation, and then they offer a home to those who have no one else to turn to. I can offer you something better."

"Do tell," Skye told him, leaning into the couch to look interested.

"You stay with us, there's no secrets, no lies, and no agenda. You're free to do what you do without big brother watching over you. But first, you have to tell me exactly what agenda SHIELD sent you in here with."

"Well, they wanted me to do whatever it takes to get in here." She opened up her purse while she spoke, taking out the compact before opening it to look like she was applying some more makeup. Fitz' device was genius, Quinn seemed to really believe her story and looking like she was eyeing herself in a small mirror didn't even phase him one second.

"Get in here and…?" Quinn asked, chuckling in a way that made it seem like he doubted SHIELD would think she could get in at any cost. It was exactly what she was doing and he didn't even notice.

"Bat my eyes. Get you talking." The device went green in the compact, so she looked back at Quinn and placed the device on the table to face her.

.

"We're in!" May announce, once they got the alert that the compact did its work.

"She's done it!" Simmons exclaimed happily.

"Fitz, you're up," May told the young Scottish engineer, who was already on his way, speaking over her.

"Oh, mother of all things. Move, move, move!" Fitz basically pushed himself between May and Simmons, both of whom eyed him. "Uh...

"Aah! We need a reset here, Fitz!" Coulson told them over comms, but the engineer didn't answer, so the older man pressed on. "Fitz!"

"Saying his name repeatedly does not increase productivity!" Simmons told him, watching her partner work as fast as he could.

"Okay, go!" Fitz said, a moment later, and Simmons was slightly shocked to be wrong.

"Oh, maybe it does."

"System rebooting in two, one, now!" With the signal, Coulson and Ward ran up to Quinn's place to find Hall and get Skye out of there.

"No, you can't be the only angle. SHIELD's thorough enough to know about me and my exploits. It takes more than a pretty face to disarm me," Quinn said, now pacing in front of the couch where Skye sat, confused at SHIELD's aim there. Suddenly, the door opened to reveal a security guard. He turned to Quinn before he spoke.

"Sir, we have a security breach."

Talk about timing. "Oh, the timing on that was perfect," Skye told herself, and Quinn moved to grab the compact, sighing when he saw the green light and he destroyed the device. He then pulled out a gun, aiming it at Skye, who kept herself from using her powers against it. She wasn't a fan of getting threatened with guns, especially twice in a short amount of time.

He slammed Skye against a wall, gun still aimed at her, and Skye kept herself focused on her cover as a regular hacker. Not that hard when it was what she was, technically, if one didn't count the powers. "Don't you get it? SHIELD's against everything you stand for. They're big brother."

"Yeah, well maybe I realized some secrets are more important to keep away from the public or some people. Besides, SHIELD helped me, you know, you kidnapped a person!"

"I set him free! I saved him! And I could've saved you. Tell me what they're doing! Tell me what they're doing. You have to talk. You have no other way out of this." Quinn laughed as he basically yelled at her. "You're expendable to SHIELD They sent you in here with nothing." Something in Skye clicked and she twisted herself, grabbing the gun from Quinn's hand before pointing the gun back at him. May hadn't taught her that, but she knew it from somewhere. Trying to figure it out would only bring pain in her head, so she tossed it aside, focusing on the men in front of her.

"They taught me a few things," Skye said, to keep he charade that May was teaching her to protect herself.

"Kid's got balls," the security guard said, impressed, but Skye was disgusted by the comment.

"Thanks, but… yuck."

"But do you have what it takes to pull the trigger?" Quinn said, and Skye made a face that made it look like she was thinking. Of course she knew how to shoot a gun, just like she knew how to make the gun in her hand implode, but she needed to keep them from thinking she was more than what she let on, so she looked at the gone and widened her eyes.

"Nope." Skye jumped out of an open window next to her and fell into the pool. She vaguely used her powers as she fell in to make sure she didn't accidentally hit her head on impact. She got out of the pool, hearing guards yell that they had found her, and she ran off in the opposite direction while keeping track of them with her powers. A guard suddenly grabbed her and she panicked. She hadn't seen or felt him, too focused on the ones running after her from afar. "No, no. No, no! Please, please!" She was about to quake him off her, damn her cover, but Ward showed up and attacked him, sending him into the pool. "Oh, thank God."

"Are you hurt?" Ward asked, looking her over. May would kill him, if her rookie was hurt under his watch. Skye shook her head, wanting to hug him for saving her, until she remembered about the feeling he gave off to her, and she decided against it. "Just follow my orders. I'll get us out of here."

They ran to the location they had gotten on Hall just in time to see Hall fall into the gravitonium and the device around it calming down.

Now they had to send it to a facility to make sure it never got in enemy hands ever again.

Once the delivery was over and they were back in the air to await their next mission, Skye went to the cargo hold, where the punching bag was installed, and wrapped her hands before getting to work. FitzSimmons were in the living area, May was still on stick, Coulson was in his office and Ward was wherever he liked to hangout alone with his thoughts, so she decided to go train to clear her head. She was alone in the room, but she wanted to work on her form that May taught her without her powers – in case someone walked in. She was good at punching, she had good form before, but she wanted to make sure that she carefully applied May's suggestions to her training, as to not get bad habits. Skye then heard the door open and saw Ward walk down the stairs to join her. She still found him creepy, but she decided to keep going, even try and make friends with him; maybe he would let his guard down enough to make a mistake so she could know what was up with him. "You got siblings?" Skye asked, out of the blue, as he settled into observing her. She wanted him to understand she had trust and abandonment issues, she didn't want to be left out in the dust. She was also desperate to keep whatever this team was. Ward was the one who had constantly fought against her being there, so if he understood how much she wanted to stay, maybe he would stop.

"Two brothers, why?" Ward asked, taken aback by the question.

"Curious. Where'd you grow up?"

"Massachusetts, mostly."

"A house?"

"You didn't?" Skye stopped punching at his question, in need of water. She forgot she never told him she was in the system. "One house. The Brody's." She grabbed her bottle and drank a good part of it. "I was 9. Sent me back to St. Agnes after a month. Said I wasn't a good fit." The bitterness in her tone was obvious, as she told him.

"Foster parents. Your first?"

"My third. I had heard it before, but… this one was different."

"Cause you wanted them to like you."

"Bad. I called her 'mom' once… tried it out. Guess it wasn't a good fit," Skye said, as she resumed her punching. "Hoping for something and losing it hurts more than never hoping for anything." Ward suddenly held the bag so it didn't come back to her and Sky stopped punching it in favor of looking at him.

"We won't turn our back," Ward assured her once he had her attention.

"Doesn't matter." Ward released the bag as Skye spoke, so she could resume training. "I made my choice. I want this. Bad." Then she looked at him with a smirk. "And I know there's a truth serum."

"Whatever you say, kid," Ward told her, smirk painted on his face as well. Maybe she could be friends with him. Sure, he was creepy as hell sometimes, but in moments like these, he made a good friend.

-l

Two girls – probably 7 years old – were sitting in front of a couch, using the table in front of them so they could draw. They were in the craft room with the other kids their age, but they usually kept to themselves. Both girls had Asian features and were almost identical. The twins were best friends, came as a package deal when in foster homes, they were even more inseparable when they were back at the orphanage where the nuns could be mean to them almost as much as the foster parents they lived with. Not that they had much experience, they only had two foster homes so far, but the other kids sometimes spoke of their own experiences, and showed their own bruises. All the kids would wave it off, saying they could hold on until their mommies or daddies came back for them, that they said they would be back.

But that was the thing, for the twins there was no hope of ever seeing their parents walk through those doors and know that they came back for them after 7 years of waiting. They were dropped on the doorsteps of St. Agnes orphanage as babies, a few months old, really, with nothing, no names, no documents, nothing. That was why the nuns gave them their names. Bad ones. Very bad ones and they wished they could change them. Mary Sue and Annie Poots knew nothing about their family other than the fact that they abandoned them to live this life, to keep on wondering where they were or why they did what they did.

They spent hours talking together about how it would be nice to know their parents, live a normal life. They would also just sit and think on their own, relishing in each other's presence, and it was nice.

Until they had to go back down to reality.

"Children, come now, it's time for lunch," Sister Margaret told everyone in the craft room, and they all walked in line to the cafeteria.

.

The twins, now 13, knelt on the ground, panting and sweating. "Again!" the man yelled, for what felt like the millionth time. The girls got up and faced each other. This was a fight until one of them dropped, and both wish it was themselves. The winner got a bigger ration, and despite the last year of crap they lived, they still wanted what was best for the other, so one would purposefully sabotage themselves so the other could benefit from it. And the one dropping was usually Skye – formally known as Mary Sue. Skye had changed it when she was 11, since she hated the name the nuns gave her, while Daisy – formerly known as Annie – received her new name from the man who took them. Apparently, Skye was close enough to the name they would have given her anyway so they let it slide.

Daisy and Skye exchanged blows, but this time, when Skye kicked Daisy in the chest, instead of catching it, she let it hit its target and she stumbled down. She was so weak from the week they'd had that dark spots covered her eyes the second she fell on the ground. I didn't take long before she was unconscious on the floor, unable to hear the man's angry yells.

.

She woke up with a start and she felt he covers of her bed, unable to remember the dream she'd just had. Suddenly, the memories of her conversation with Whitehall came flooding in her brain.

"You are on very thin ice. Next time you fail a mission, there will be more than just a power-level analysis sent your way. You know what happens when you cross me more than once."

She knew exactly what would happen if the metaphorical ice broke. She had seen I first hand. She really wanted to be the agent he trained her to be. Be Quake, the Head of Operations. But now, now her mind was flooding with unanswered questions about the girl who looked just like her and the powers the girl seemed to hold.

She guessed those questions would always remain unanswered, or at least until she found the girl and questioned her herself.

With that in mind, she got out of bed and changed into her gear, hoping that she would get a mission soon, or even supervise one.

The next mission came up quickly for Skye and her team; a series of heists that appeared to be executed by one woman. What was weird was that she would always turn the lights of and close her eyes before the fight started. Skye knew she could do that to some degree as well, but only because she had powers, which meant that the mystery woman could also be a powered person.

It turns out that Coulson knew the woman as his former protégé; Akela Amador. The woman was an amazing fighter. Skye had found footage of the fight from a cellphone, and she was very amazed at how trained she was. Now all they had to do was find her. Easier said than done when the woman knew how to cover her tracks and stay hidden.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I did have fun writing the flashback scene/dream, it was pretty fun. A simple and short one, but it was nice. Get a glimpse into Skye and Daisy's lives before the erasing of memory.
Skye made a new friend, won't last long, Ward's a jackass and she knows it.
Please comment, I love to read your lovely comments! Also, flames will be promptly deleted.
Until next time!