Chapter 12
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AN: Thank you to all who have added to alerts, read, reviewed or any combination of the three. It means a lot to me.
AN2: This chapter is on the shorter side but it sets up a lot for the next few chapters. Enjoy you AWESOME PEOPLE.
After leaving the Command Centre Skye goes straight to her bunk, she leaves her door open when she does because she is positive that May followed her. Skye sits down on her bed and less than a minute later May sits down next to her.
"I haven't seen him in over nine years." Skye tells her mother as she does, "I had ran away from St. Agnes when we met, but after, after what he did I went back. It was the first time I had ever been truly, truly thankful for Nuns. That's when I started saving for my van. After that what I wanted most was to get away." She explains.
"I won't let him anywhere near you Skye, we'll figure this out." May tells her daughter.
"This is worse than I thought was." Skye tells her mother. "There is nothing that he won't do to get what he wants and if he's joined with the Rising Tide then they just became a lot more than hackers and a lot more dangerous." Skye explains "The five people that I thought could have sent that email are insane and reckless but they lack a leader, guidance, someone to follow. If he's decided to be that person then this isn't good." Skye explains.
"Then we will stop him." May tells her daughter putting her arm around her and pulling her into his side just like Coulson did earlier.
"He's defiantly working with at least some of the Rising Tide members. I didn't become friends with Anna until after I knew him." Skye explains.
"That's good, it gives us something to work with." May tells her daughter "Can you tell where he was when he sent that email?" May asks curious.
"Yeah, but it won't matter." Skye explains "He would have gotten an alert when I broke the encryption on the email. That's not going to be the last email we get." Skye explains.
"How do you know?" May asks.
"Because he didn't play enough of a game, that's what he likes to do." Skye explains. "We'll hear from him again." She says almost positive about that.
Skye says and for several minutes Skye and May just sit there not talking.
"I've got to tell him, don't I?" Skye asks it being perfectly clear that the 'him' she is talking about isn't Lard but Coulson because it's said with affection instead of fear.
"Yeah you do." May tells her "It would be better if it came from you rather than finding out from someone else, or the background check he's having FitzSImmons run, or Lard himself when we bring him in." May explains though she is thinking that Lard being brought in alive may not be the strongest possibility.
"I'll tell him." Skye says "Can you go get him?" Skye asks curious.
"Of course." May say standing up and walking back over to the Command Centre.
"Phil." May says as she walks back in.
"What's going on Melinda?" He asks. "Who is this guy?"
"Skye's going to tell you." Melinda tells Coulson "And what she is going to tell you will make you furious but you cannot let that show." Melinda tells him "She's in her bunk waiting for you." May explains.
Still confused about what is going on Coulson nods and leaves the room still wondering what Melinda's words mean as he does.
"Who is this guy?" Ward asks May once Coulson has left "What's his connection to Skye?"
"FitzSimmons, check if he was charged with anything around nine years ago." Melinda tells the scientist wanting to know if he received any punishment for what he did to her daughter.
Remembering what Melinda told him Coulson walks over to Skye's bunk and sits down next to her.
"What did May tell you?" Skye asks curious a few minutes after he sat down.
"Nothing, just that you had something to tell me." Coulson tells his daughter "Do you?"
"That day that I gave you a box of things I had collected over the years May found a photo that I never wanted you or her to see." Skye explains "It was from when I was sixteen and it was what I looked like after my boyfriend at the time, my first real love, got angry." Skye explains.
"He beat you." Coulson using all his strength to keep the fury he is feeling out of his voice as he remembers Melinda's words.
"Yeah, pretty baldy." Skye answers.
"I'm sorry Skye, I'm so sorry." Coulson tells his daughter putting his arm around her thinking that it is another way he has failed her. He should have been there to stop her from ever being hurt like that.
"It's okay, I dealt with it a long time ago." Skye tells him assuming that he like May when she first found out is blaming himself for not being there to help her "I just never expected to see him again."
"He won't come anywhere near you again. I won't let him." Coulson tells his daughter.
"May said the same thing." Skye reveals with a small smile.
"Well if both of us agreed then you know it's the truth." Coulson tells Skye.
"Yeah I do." Skye says as she rests her head on her father's shoulder.
"Skye, you were right." May says appearing at her doorway several minutes later "You just got another email. Fitz can't even open it." She says.
"Tell him to stop trying, I'll be right there." Skye tells her mother. May nods and leaves father and daughter alone knowing that they still need a few minutes together.
"Are you alright to do this?" Coulson asks.
"Yeah, I think so." Skye tells him. "Let's go."
"If it gets too much just tell me." Coulson tells his daughter.
"I will." Skye tells him.
As soon as Skye enters the Command Centre she realises that FitzSimmons and Ward know what Lard did to her because both Simmons and Fitz look upset and Ward looks furious.
"So you can't even open the email?" Skye asks Fitz, choosing to ignore the fact that they know, hoping that they don't ask about it.
"No." Fitz tells her "I can tell that it is the same address though, and it's quite large."
Skye nods and gets started on her computer, everything that she is doing appearing on the screen "It's a video file." She says about a minute later.
"Can you play it?" Ward asks.
"Of course, just give me a… Done." Skye says pressing play before walking over and standing between her parents.
After Skye presses play the video spends a few seconds loading before it plays. A man in his late twenties, which everyone knows to be Samuel Lard appears. Lard is very tall and muscular has tattoos all along his right arm, dark hair, stubble and light eyes.
"Hello Skye." Lard says and the second that he does Skye feels Coulson grab her hand "It's been a long time. I've been waiting for this day for a very long time. All these years, I've missed you." He reveals, "Although it took you a lot longer to hack my previous message that what I would have expected it to especially considering it was your own encryption. I thought you must have been losing you touch until some mutual friends of ours told me that you've gotten even better than when I knew you." He says with a grin that is the definition of creepy "Now to business. A few months ago I joined Rising Tide and when we learnt of your crimes there were those who were hesitant to pursue the usual course of actions but I convinced them that you can't go unpunished and they agreed. The deal is simple you will turn yourself into me in exactly 18 hours at the coordinates attached to this email, I understand that you have access to quite the fast jet so that shouldn't be a problem. You will have in your possession everything you have on S.H.I.E.L.D and you will be alone and from there your punishment will be decided by the Group. You will not have no form of backup, surveillance or protection, have absolutely no form of tracking on your person, no electronic devices except that file on S.H.I.E.L.D and absolutely nothing that can be used to find you" Lard demands "Now you might be thinking why would you possibly do that, I'll show you why." Lard says turning the camera to show a woman, with long blond hair, clearly alive but a little bruised, who looks to only be a few years older than Skye, tied to the chair.
"Anna." Skye says her voice full of worry.
"She will be killed if you don't do exactly what I say." Lard says before turning the camera back to him, "But she isn't the only one, everyone you have ever cared about, The Brody's, Sister McKenna, Danny and Maggie, every single person who has ever meant anything to you will be killed unless you do exactly what I say, and to show you how serious I am I have a little present for you." Lard says moving the camera to show a body on the floor, with his throat slit.
"MILES!" Skye yells tears in her eyes, pain clear in her voice having recognized the body right away.
"I understand he meant a lot to you. Now do you get it Skye?" Lard asks as Coulson pulls Skye into a hug as she begins to cry into his chest. "I'm not bluffing, everyone you have ever cared about will die unless you turn yourself into me, do that and the girl can go free and everyone else will be safe." He says "Oh and one more thing. Before I slit his throat He mentioned that you are a part of a team now, well Team." He says in a mocking tone of voice "If you're listening. If you think about helping Skye, if you think about trying to track her in anyway or proving any form of back up I will kill her. If anyone but Skye comes to the coordinates then I will kill them, this girl and Skye, oh and if you think that maybe you can kill me before I manage to kill any of your people ask Skye about the conversation she overheard. Appearing before the group gives Skye a chance of surviving, especially if what she brings is good, but if you intervene in any way she will be killed and that will be on you, not us." Lard says before turning of the camera, ending the video.
Everyone in the room is standing in shocked silence, the only sounds that can be heard are that of Skye's cries.
For more than half an hour Skye cries in her father's arms, mourning the loss of someone who was once very important to her.
"No." Skye suddenly says.
"Sky?" May asks her daughter concerned, as Skye finally looks up from where she is crying into her father's arms.
"No one else is going to die because of me." Skye announces removing her arms from around her father and wiping her eyes "If they want me then they can have me." She says.
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