A/N: Chap 19 reviews are in my forums. Time is passing, and things are continuing to evolve around the various parts of the MCU. Here's one of them. Also, as a reminder, I post every Saturday morning. For those who have had difficulty getting notifications, I've posted every Saturday morning (with a few exceptions) for the past 15 years. So if you ever get bored, chances are you'll have something to read come Saturday. I'll always post a note on my profile if I'm going to miss a day.

Unless I get hit by a bus or have a heart attack or something. I reserve the right to miss postings in extreme circumstances.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.


Chapter Twenty: Butterflies in the Sky

"We should not be here, Skye."

"Just shut up and run, Jose!"

Skye's chest burned with each breath and her legs trembled as she tried to keep up with the panicked crowd. What started as news VLOGs on a gang initiation had gone completely sideways. The pop-pop-pop of weapons fire echoed in her ears and just added to the mindless panic around them.

When the warehouse on their right disappeared in a blinding flash of white light, Skye dove for Jose, driving both of them down into the asphalt amidst the running feet of the mob. Not even a split second later, the fire and concussive blast blew a hundred gang-bangers off their feet. Skye covered her ears and screamed into the back of Jose's shirt as the world seemed to erupt around her.

The blast left her whole body throbbing; her head hurt so bad she could barely focus. "Jose! Jose, you okay?"

"The fuck happened?"

Skye had no idea. Despite the pain, she looked up over Jose at what was once the Universal Exports warehouse. The Whittier 49 gang heard the place had guns. Now it had nothing but fire. Against the blinding flame, she saw dark silhouettes in tactical gear surrounding the building.

"We've gotta get out of here," Jose said.

"We've got to find out what the hell is happening!" Skye countered. "Those aren't cops!"

Jose didn't care, and unfortunately, he was bigger and stronger than her. He pushed himself to his feet, wrapped an arm around her waist, and physically picked her up and carried her through the writhing carpet of moaning or injured gangers until they reached a beauty supply shop four doors down the street. Like most of the businesses on Whittier Boulevard that late at night, the door and windows were covered by a descending metal door.

Somehow, Jose had a key and opened it.

"You work here?" She couldn't help but sound incredulous.

"My mom does," he said defensively as he dragged her inside. Behind them, more weapons fire tore through the street.

"Wait! Don't close it all the way!" She wiggled free of his arm and laid flat on her stomach under the mostly closed door. She had a specialized telephoto attachment and app and began recording. From her relatively safe position, she got her first good look at the whole situation.

The people in tactical gear were firing into the burning building. And someone was firing laser weapons back at them. She panned up, craning her neck, to see a pair of military-style helicopters holding position over the building.

This had to be a set up. Why would the gang come here, tonight?

Suddenly a figure burst from the burning building. Skye adjusted the telescopic attachment to get as close a view as she could, because the figure did not appear human. They were human shaped, with arms and legs, but their body glowed like molten metal as they rushed out toward the largest grouping of tactical soldiers.

She heard screams and warnings as a second burning figure rushed out to the other side of the street.

Skye was recording when the burning figure nearest her, stumbling under a withering hale of gunfire, exploded.

From her low position under the metal sliding door of the shop, the concussion of the blast just made her drop her phone and scream. But those near the blast?

A burning body slapped loudly into the concrete just feet away from her. The front of the body was burned completely away, filling her nostrils with the stench of cooked meat. This close, lit by the very fire that burned it, she could finally see a badge on the shoulder of the dead.

EDO.

"Oh God, they're the good guys," she whispered.

"What's going on out there?" Luke said. "Can't even get 911 to answer!"

"It's the Earth Defense Organization," Skye shouted over her shoulder

Scrabbling for her phone, she quickly checked to make sure it wasn't broken before turning it to the building. No more impossible burning people rushed out. Instead, a group that looked just as well equipped as the EDO squad rushed out of the burning building, as if completely unaffected by the explosion that knocked out or even killed the gang that was trying to rob the place, and turned their weapons up to the two helicopters.

Their weapons fired small blue-tinted bursts of light that hit the helicopters like RPGs. One of the aircraft began smoking and spun away with a loud mechanical whine, while the other blew up right in the air and dropped like a flaming hot potato on top of the Mercado Meat Market half a block down.

The squad of criminals-who else could they be if they were fighting the EDO?-began running down the street in tight formation around a pair of men in suits. She counted at least a dozen of the enemy soldiers.

She didn't know if it was distant streetlight reflecting off her telephoto lens, or just dumb luck, but one of the soldiers saw her.

Jose pulled her back with a curse a second before a burst of blue hit the ground right at the front of the store.

The blast ripped the metal door out of its runners and sent Skye flying back in Jose's arms. When the blinking lights faded from her eyes, she found two men in full body armor with closed helmets pointing very big, scary guns at her, and a bald man with glasses in a suit and tie kneeling down looking over her phone. Her hands were bound behind her back.

"We didn't see anything!"

The man snorted. He looked more like an accountant or a lawyer than an enemy of the world. "Boys, looks like I owe Von Strucker $20. The whole gang thing really did lure in a fish. We found ourselves Rising Tide. How 'bout that?"

The other man in the suit stepped past the guards. He had a needle gun in his arms.

"No!" Skye shouted and began kicking. "No!"

The man slugged her in the stomach. He hit her so hard she couldn't breathe, and as she struggled to pull in breath, he jabbed the needle through the fabric of her sleeve and pulled blood.

"Fuck, man, what're you doing?" Jose managed to sit up, bleeding from his head.

Instead of jabbing him, the second man in the suit pulled a swan from his coat pocket and took a sample from his wound.

"We need to get moving," one of the helmeted soldiers said. "We've got two suits inbound. Let's just shoot them and get going."

"What?" Skye found her breath. Blinking back tears, she shook her head. "No, you can't!"

The bald account guy shook his head. "We just lost the last of our AIM assets, and half a dozen sellable subjects. It doesn't hurt to take a second to screen these two first. After all, they literally just fell into our laps."

"And you were right to do so," the needle gun man said. He was looking at a large, bulky phone that somehow connected to the needle gun.

The bald account looked up. "You're shitting me."

"She has the marker. Not just that...she's a second gen. She's worth at least three to four million to our allies."

The closed-helmet soldier who spoke motioned to Jose. "What about him?"

Skye had just a moment to scream, "NO!" before Needle-gun Man shook his head, and the soldier fired his laser gun at Jose.

It happened so fast Skye didn't actually see Jose die; instead, she felt it. She felt hot liquid splash against her face as the former gang-member who'd become her best contact in East LA for her reporting exploded in a shower of goo.

A second later she felt another needle jab into her arm, and that was the last she saw.

~~Titanomachy~~

~~Titanomachy~~

"The world is never going to be the same again."

Miles had a near religious awe on his face when he and Skye watched the skies over Houston burn as monsters from the stars invaded. Every channel had live footage. Skye remembered thinking it felt like a movie-like something that couldn't be real.

Except, when that giant spaceship that looked like a dagger came down through the Magnolia Hotel, she remembered thinking, I've been there. That's a real place. There were real people in there, and they're dead now.

"Miles, do you think this is what SHIELD's been hiding all these years?"

He turned and looked at her with that manic gleam in his eyes. "Let's find out!" he said.

~~Titanomachy~~

~~Titanomachy~~

The accountant leaned back in a seat beside her when Skye woke. She jerked awake with a half- articulated scream.

"Hello, sleeping beauty," the accountant said casually, as if he drugged and kidnapped girls all the time. Then she heard moans, and whimpers, and craned her neck to see that they were in a passenger jet. More of the soldiers with the closed helmets stood at various points up and down the aisles, staring at men and women and even kids just like her.

"Where are you taking us?"

"Mexico," the accountant said.

She sat up, surprised that he answered. "Why? Who are you?"

Rather than answer, he held up her phone. "I was a real fan of yours," he said. "That whole Rising Tide thing you and your boyfriend had going on was nice. I didn't imagine you'd be as pretty as you sounded."

Was he coming on to me?

"The boyfriend...he really came in handy," he continued. "He told us about the elimination of SHIELD even before SHIELD knew. I mean, Rogers and his group got more than a fair share of us. I'll give Cap that much, he was fast. But because of Miles, we were able to secure key facilities, key data and personnel, and go underground. But then Rogers got a hold of him. You ever meet the Cap? He's a general now, I suppose. But you ever see interviews with him?"

"You mean Captain America?"

"Yeah. Right out of the comics. The man just had a way of words. Course, what the comics don't tell you is that his first missions were as a stage performer to raise war bonds. That's where he learned to do public speaking and sound earnest all the time. Once he got a hold of Miles...well, your boyfriend became a liability."

The horror of Jose's ending and her own circumstances were still too close for the loss of Miles Lydon to really hit. "Why are you telling me all this?"

"Hydra had a plan for a better world," the accountant continued. "It was a good plan, Skye. You just can't run a world this big without order and iron discipline. As pretty as you are, there just isn't a place for individuals like you, only groups. We need people to think in groups. Asians are bad, or Muslims are bad. Whites are bad. Everything has to be about race, or religion. It's important, because that's how we were going to gain power. Individuals are dangerous and clever, but groups are stupid and reactionary. And it was working-we were within a couple of years of taking it all. But then the sky opened, and the broader world learned we weren't alone. And Steve Rogers decided SHIELD was a bad thing. So here we are."

"Here we are," Skye echoed. "On a plane. To Mexico. Wait...Rogers. Are you the people that assassinated Vice President Rodriguez?"

She went very still when he placed his hand high on her thigh. "You're very pretty, Skye, but you don't have to look at me like that. I'm not going to do anything to you. Not your kind, not ever. See, the whole race and religion thing...we can make that up. But it turns out there really is something that separates us. You're not human. None of the passengers on this plane are."

One of the soldiers passed by them. "Sitwell, stop messing with the merchandise."

"Just having a conversation," the man, Sitwell, said. He kept his hand on her thigh.

The soldier moved on.

"Why are you doing this to us?"

Sitwell turned and smiled at her. "Well, Hydra lost its primary income when Rogers and President Palmer shut SHIELD down, and Stark hit our AIM division hard and took out most of the Centipede project right after. We lost a lot of our best political assets when Rogers convinced your boyfriend to hack our database and expose Rodriguez and all of our pet congresspeople. Who knew President Ellis had a spine enough to go along with Palmer's plans? It takes money to adopt alien tech, and even with Russia and China willing to buy, we need more. So, we reached out and made some new friends. They can give us all the gold, jewels or even alien tech we could ask for. All they want are people like you."

The jet began to descend. Sitwell very deliberately patted her thigh in a patronizing and embarrassing manner. "Better make sure you're all buckled up. It's a short runway."

The landing was just as bad as Sitwell warned. The jet dropped quickly, heedless of the comfort of the passengers, and hit the tarmac hard enough that even the soldiers lost their footing briefly. The moment they were on the ground, the jets reversed thrust and the plane started harshly decelerating.

When the jet finally stopped, the soldiers began forcing the passengers to disembark, one row at a time. From her position over the right wing, Skye could see an even mix of men, women and children of all ethnicities. The only thing they had in common was a look of dejected fear.

"Why are you doing this?" she whispered.

"I'd like to tell you it's because your DNA was altered by an alien species a few thousand years ago. But really? It's because you're all worth two mil a head in gold and precious jewels. This plane's cargo is worth around $35 million. We had another group in that warehouse when the EDO caught us, but just my luck I found you. I like casting wide nets, and I caught a doozy. You're special, Skye. We'll get at least four for you."

"What?"

It was their turn. Sitwell stood, and then roughly pulled Skye up by her arm and dragged her out of the plane. The morning sunlight hurt-for some reason she thought it should still be nighttime. The captives were held in what looked like a rickety old cattle corral, and near it...

It had to be a space ship. It didn't look anything like the ship that knocked down the Magnolia Hotel in Houston, but it just had to be a spaceship. It had sharp, fierce angles and a strange greenish tint to the smooth metal of its long, low and wide hull. There was no way something like that could fly, not with Earth technology.

But what really sold it were the tall, blue people standing near the long, low ramp that hung out the rear of the vessel. They were dragging the kicking, terrified people toward the blue man dressed in a strangely eastern robe or gown, who pointed a stick at each person before nodding.

The blue thugs would then drag the terrified person up the ramp into the ship.

Sitwell dragged her right toward the robed alien-a robed alien who apparently spoke perfect English. "Jasper! My friend, what do you have for me today?"

"Taryon, I have a good one for you. A second-generation," Sitwell said proudly. "A child of Jiaying Johnson."

"Jiayang had a child?" The blue alien, Taryon, clapped his hands in delight. "Oh, how wonderful! It was a shame Jiayang's abilities overrode our controls, but with your organization's help her group did provide so many wonderful assets. Bring the child closer, let me get a scan."

Skye knew instinctively that if she set foot on that alien ship, her life was over. She pretended to cooperate as Sitwell dragged her closer, until at the last moment she spun her arm out of his grip, kicked at his knee, and turned to run away.

A massive blue hand caught her by her throat and lifted her off the ground. She kicked her legs as she desperately tried to draw breath. She tried with her manacled hands to break the grip, but the massive blue alien stared up at her with contempt.

"Bring her here, Orvash," Taryon said calmly.

The brute carried Skye by her neck until she hung gasping before Taryon. The alien scanned her and nodded approvingly. "Oh, yes, Jasper, you've done well with this one. Nearly two percent engineered DNA, a much higher percent than most. She would likely survive terragenesis with a satisfactory power. How much?"

"Four," Sitwell said. He ground his teeth from his hurt knee.

Taryon didn't even blink. "Easily done. If you can…

The jet plane that carried them to the field exploded. The part of Skye that so desperately wanted to get away hoped and prayed that the blue brute would let her go to see what was happening. He didn't. Instead, he continued to patiently hold her before Taryon.

"No!" Sitwell cursed. As the blue giant spun Skye around as if she were a toy, she had the honor of seeing Iron Man for the first time in person. The iconic red and gold armored suit came down with three other suits of similar make but no coloring.

"How did they find us?" She wasn't sure who Sitwell was talking to.

The soldiers with their alien weapons began firing at the suits of the Earth Defense Organization's Iron Legion. The pilots of the suits bounced around on their repulsors, avoiding the fire where they could while mounting devastating return fire. It wasn't as one-sided as Skye could have hoped, though.

One of the suits took a direct hit and tumbled into the burning wreckage of the destroyed jet. However, a moment later the same suit emerged with only a scorch mark on its gleaming silver torso as it fired into the soldiers.

"Taryon, take me with you!" Sitwell said.

The blue alien placed his hand around the back of Skye's neck. She felt something cold on his palm, and then began to weep as a terrible, alien feeling seeped into her skin at the back of her neck.

"My dear Jasper, you're only human," Taryon said. "You have no value."

Sitwell reached into his jacket and removed a snub-nosed revolver. "You take me with...arrgh!"

The giant blue brute, Orvash, grabbed Sitwell's wrist and squeezed until the bone snapped. The HYDRA agent fell to his knees, crying in pain, as around them Taryon's blue aliens began grabbing people and carrying them aboard. Across the short field, over the line of thick forest, EDO marked quinjets arrived. One carried a futuristic ground vehicle with a big gun mounted on it.

Skye wanted to scream; she wanted to kick and fight. But that alien cold was creeping up the back of her neck like a wave of tiny worms. She could not move or speak. All she could do was watch as the defenders of the Earth fought Hydra agents.

Taryon clucked his tongue at Sitwell. "I would kill you, my dear Jasper, but the Kree Empire is not prepared to formally engage in hostilities against your world. Especially not now that we realize it was a lost laboratory for our ancient scientists. It is astonishing how easily manipulated human DNA is. We could not have created these beautiful inhumans with Xandararian or Kree. But for some reason you humans are just prefect for genetic engineering."

One of the Iron Legion suits blasted toward the ship. The air around it shimmered as the suit bounced off some type of force field. Orvash grabbed Sitwell and picked him up with the same ease he carried Skye, until he threw the Hydra agent outside of the ship's field.

"Skye, is it?"

Ignoring the battle raging beyond his shields, the Kree stepped around to look into her eyes. "Extraordinary. You will make a beautiful Kree battle slave, my dear. You will see things none of your kind could ever imagine. Do things your kind thought impossible. All for the eternal glory of the Kree Empire!"

He held up a hand and made a circling motion. The dozen blue-skinned aliens began to board the ship. "Come with me, Skye. You're the first to receive your behavioral chip, but you can help me ensure the others get theirs. Normally we wait until after terragensis to chip you...but as my dear Jasper said, you are quite special. The child of a fully activated Inhuman. Come."

He walked up the ramp, and Skye's legs followed as if by their own accord. Inside, she raged and screamed and cried, but none of those feelings made it to her face, or slowed her steps.

~~Titanomachy~~

~~Titanomachy~~

Tony Stark watched the alien ship leave with a curse on his lips and a missile in the air. As fast as the missile was, the ship accelerated at speeds that would have left a human pilot passed out or dead of an aneurysm from G-forces.

"We have Sitwell," Wilson reported over the com.

Tony brought his suit down as the rest of the EDO taskforce finally arrived. At their head, he winced as he saw Barton leaning down over one of his dead. "Is this a win?" Tony asked himself.

"Doesn't feel like it," Rhodie piped in.

Stark ran the Iron Legion because he built and still legally owned the suits, but in practice Colonel Rhodes was in charge. Their other pilots were recruited from the defunct EXO-7 program that was also a Stark Enterprises weapons platform. In the early training exercises Wilson proved the old Falcon suit pilots just had the quickest training time and best responses.

After all, it was Rhodie that got his ass shot out of the sky, not Wilson or Reyes.

Stark popped his face mask as Wilson stood over the fugitive HYDRA and former SHIELD agent. "Jasper, dude! What'd you do to your arm?"

"Go to hell, Stark!" Sitwell said. "I'm not telling you a damned thing."

Barton arrived. "Did we save any of the civilians? At all?"

"I snagged about ten, but that's it," Rhodie confessed.

"The Smurfs were really determined this time."

Sitwell snorted at the name as he cradled his wrist.

"So, we're placing them under arrest?" Barton asked.

"Nope," Stark said. "In fact, it's a complete bust. We didn't catch a single one."

Sitwell looked up, instantly understanding. "People knew where we were. You can't do that. There's laws!"

"This is cartel land, Sitwell."

The new voice made Sitwell sit up and freeze. Tony didn't bother to hide his smirk as Nick Fury made a long walk around the old wooden corral. "Ain't no policia around here that I can see. What 'bout you, Stark? You see any cops around here?"

"Not a one," Stark said.

Fury didn't bother with an overcoat-not in Mexico. He wore loose tan slacks and a short-sleeve polo with no badges or ID. Not far behind, Romanov was limping between captured or dead Hydra agents, tagging the survivors for advanced interrogation.

"Been a while, Jasper," Fury said dryly.

"There's no way in hell Rogers would greenlight a black ops branch." Stiwell snarled.

"Who said I work for Rogers? My organization is civilian."

Sitwell stuttered. "Rambeau?"

"An old friend of mine," Fury confirmed. "And she knows that this is a war we're fighting, and she knows that sometimes, good guys have to do bad things. Which is why it's good to have bad people at your beck and call."

More people in slacks and polos arrived, as if out of thin air, and began dragging the survivors of Sitwell's team away. "So," Fury said as a pair of non-uniformed "civilians" grabbed Sitwell himself. "Why don't you tell me why there's a new crater on the moon, or why the Kree are here buying human slaves?"

"You...you know about the Kree?"

"Jasper, I know a lot of things. Like, did you know there are twenty-seven bones in the human hand? Romanov-you remember Natasha?-she knows how to break each one separately. The woman's like an artist…"

Stark, Rhodie and Wilson stood side by side as Fury led the gibbering Sitwell away. "You know, that's illegal as fuck." Rhodie looked at the others.

Wilson snorted. "The man was a literal Nazi and a slaver. You want to save him?"

"Hell no," Rhodie said.

"Well, there you go," Tony said, glad they'd put the moral quandary behind them.