Summary: Agents Melinda May and Phil Coulson are put on a new assignment to look after an object of unknown origin, an 0-8-4. The only catch is this 0-8-4 is a person. A fourteen year old girl who's spent her life in the foster system is now in more danger than ever. A man beast is hunting her and SHIELD has to make sure that it doesn't get close to her. AU, MCU characters will be used.
Chapter Twenty Five- Three days later
Skye brushed out her hair gently, her eyes focused on the mirror in front of her as she continued to think over her plan, to think over what she had to do if she wanted to go home. It had been several days since she had been brought here to Afterlife and she wanted to go back to her home, her real home. As nice as Afterlife felt, she couldn't deny it no matter how much she tried, it wasn't… it wasn't her. That hurt her more than she expected.
After all, her birth parents were here, they were the ones hunting her down and trying to bring her back. All her life she had wanted to know why her parents had given her up and it turned out they hadn't, that they did want her and just wanted her to come home. And she wanted that to be enough, she really did, but she missed Melinda and Phil, she missed them so much that it actually hurt.
Silently, she pulled her hair back into a ponytail, to keep her hair out of her face like Melinda did for her when they sometimes trained together. Some guilt tugged at her as she lowered her arms, taking in her appearance. She looked like her mom, she looked a lot like Jiaying, but she could see Cal in her face.
"Daisy, that was your name," Cal had said to her, sitting across the table from her with shining eyes.
Skye turned her gaze away from her reflection. The dinner had been nice, really nice. Every question she ever had about her past was right there, right in front of her so of course she asked al the questions no one else could answer. Yet she still felt like something was missing. And she tried to imagine herself staying here, using her powers, being with her biological parents and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't find it in herself to want to stay. Not when she wanted Melinda with her to keep showing her fighting moves, not when she wanted Phil around to watch movies with.
She knew what she had to do and she was terrified of the consequences that could come from it. Every action, no matter what it was, big, small, good or bad, had some consequence. If she followed through with her plan, it would mean she could go home to Melinda and Phil, but… but it also meant betraying her birth parents. It meant having to bring SHIELD to Afterlife, uprooting all of these people's lives and potentially becoming their enemy. That wasn't what she wanted, but she wanted to leave, she wanted her friends to leave with her.
Jiaying would never let them go, it didn't matter what she said about giving this place a chance and then allowing them to leave. It was a lie, she would force them to stay. Skye reached into the drawer under the mirror, she changed out of her pajama shirt and put on a plain purple one, taking deep and controlled breaths in order to keep her heart rate steady.
"In a few days, you'll move out of your suite and into that house on the hill with us," Jiaying said two days ago as they walked around Afterlife, Cal with them.
He grinned ecstatically, "It is a lovely house. We built it ourselves and wait until you see your room. We'll have to get Gordon to pick up some things of course so you can put your own twist on it, but hopefully you like what we started with."
"I'm sure I will," Skye said with a small smile, she licked her lips. "What about SHIELD? Melinda and Phil are good people, they'll come for me. I should let them know I'm okay."
Jiaying and Cal shared a look with each other, it was that look Skye hated. One where adults were getting ready to tell her news she didn't want to hear, news that was going to hurt. Too often she saw it when foster parents planned to send her away. While she knew that wouldn't be the case here, she had a feeling it was going to feel just as bad.
Jiaying stepped closer to her, placing a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sure they were good to you. But SHIELD is rotten, inside and out. They would only come to get you back under control, not because they cared about you."
Skye shook her head, "That can't be true. They care about me, not just because of SHIELD."
"They don't, sweetheart. Soon as they saw you as a threat, they locked you away and SHIELD would have kept you there, they would have allowed it," Jiaying told her, a little more forcibly. "All they care about is controlling what they do not understand. Our gifts, they will never fully understand and by extension they cannot understand you."
Cal came to Jiaying's side, his expression more remorseful than hers, "I've seen the horrors that they are capable of, what they did to your mother I have no doubt they would do to you."
Skye didn't believe it, she didn't believe that Melinda, Phil, Natasha or any of the agents in her circle would let that happen to her. She knew them, she knew who they really were and they did care about her. And Skye wanted to argue it, she had the argument building in her throat, but she bit her tongue. The look in her parents eyes, they wouldn't believe her and she couldn't blame them. What those scientists did to her mother was awful.
But why would SHIELD have gone to such trouble to keep her away from them all this time if they were the bad guys? Cal was the manbeast, the thing that was hunting her and slaughtering all those who had housed her. Whether they were good people or not didn't matter to Skye, he killed them without a thought and it was Jiaying who sent him on the rampage. They wanted so desperately for her to see SHIELD as this evil entity, that would only lock her up and have her remain trapped forever, to be in a cage. But wasn't that Afterlife?
It wasn't like any of the Inhumans here could leave whenever they wanted, they needed Gordon to come and go. And from what she heard, it was near impossible to leave as you had to be evaluated endlessly to determine whether or not you could leave. The only story she heard of anyone leaving was a man named Harold, but he left to become a doctor, but he was scheduled to come back. Whether or not that was his choice, Skye didn't know for certain, but she doubted it was because he was ready to keep his life here.
"It's for the best," Jiaying said, lightly touching her cheek. "You are safe here. No one will ever hurt you or take you away again."
Had Skye believed her on what she said about SHIELD, had Jiaying even found her before she was put in Melinda and Phil's care, those words would have been the most reassuring thing to Skye. But right now it sounded frightening. They would never let her go. They would never see Melinda and Phil as anything more than threats to her, there was no way this would end with all of them together the way Skye childishly thought could be possible.
She'd seen stories of adopted parents and biological parents working together, getting along even and last night she had dreamed of it. But it looked like her birth parents wouldn't give her the choice, which meant she had to make it anyway. She had to get Melinda and Phil here. It was time for her to go.
Seeing her distraught expression, Jiaying pulled her into a hug, "It's going to be okay. We've got you and you won't ever have to suffer at their lies, at their game again."
Skye didn't say anything back, but the tears in her eyes were very real as she realized she would have to let go of the one thing she always wanted. For her birth parents to be with her.
"It's open," Skye called when she heard a knock on her door.
Lincoln walked inside, dressed in a casual shirt and jeans, "Hey, your mom sent me. You ready for lunch?" Skye sent him a pained look and he winced. "Sorry. I know you still have weird feelings about it."
Skye swallowed, "It's whatever. By the end of today, everything will be alright."
Lincoln frowned at this, "Why won't you tell me what you're planning?"
"Less people that know, the better," Skye replied softly. "Besides, you seem to like it here a lot. You might get in my way."
"I wouldn't. I know you're trying to leave, but there's no way out of here. Plus, your birth parents are here. Isn't that what you always wanted," Lincoln questioned, a little frustrated and confused.
Skye took a moment to answer, "It's all I've ever wanted. But I can't stay here, this isn't my life. I don't want to spend my days hiding out in these middle of nowhere mountains with my homicidal birth parents while I learn how to shake the ground. I want Melinda and Phil back, I want the agents I've met, I want Fitzsimmons, Trip and Ward. I want to go back to the Academy, to become a SHIELD agent. How the hell am I supposed to do that here?" Skye shook her head. "I'm getting out of here. I'm getting back to my real parents."
Lincoln slipped his hands in his pockets, "Maybe you could have both them. You wouldn't have to give all of this up."
"Not how it works. No one leaves here and Jiaying and Cal spent all this time trying to get me, they'll never let me go now. They hate SHIELD and I know they hate Melinda and Phil the most. I wish," Skye paused, she let out a frustrated breath, "I wish that they could all get along and maybe I'd visit Cal and Jiaying, learn to use my powers and then go back to my mom and dad, but it won't happen. I know it won't… This place isn't home. It never will be, so I have to get out of here. Are you going to get in my way?"
Lincoln shook his head, "Of course not. Is there anything I can do to help?"
Skye's face lit up as relief coated her. When she was finally reunited with Lincoln, he could not stop singing praises about this place, how nice it was and how good the people were. She feared that if she tried to bring up leaving, then he wouldn't want to go and he'd rat her out. Of course he would have her back, he was her best friend. Besides, there was a family waiting for him back home too. Not saying anything yet, Skye rushed forward and wrapped her arms tightly around him. He returned the hug without question, squeezing back just as tightly.
Lincoln did like Afterlife, but he missed his parents and did want to go back to him. Though he thought maybe they could come here and live in this place, he doubted such a fantasy would come true. So he did understand where Skye was coming from and he couldn't imagine how hard it must have been for her to make this choice.
He could remember the late nights they spent talking, how she wondered if her birth parents wanted her, if they loved her and all the questions he couldn't hope to answer. For Skye to be willing and ready to give up her birth parents for Melinda and Phil… it meant she loved them more than anything and that they were her real parents. But he also knew that it must be breaking her heart and there was nothing he could do about it.
"Thank you Link," Skye said into his shoulder with a shuddering breath, "Thank you."
He rubbed her back lightly, "I'll always follow your lead Skye and I know Elena will follow us to. She can't wait to go home. What's your plan?"
Skye pulled back to look into his eyes, she wore a faint smile, "Are you ready to cause some absolute chaos?"
It was nearly four in the morning when the censors on SHIELD's monitors lit up like a Christmas tree. May and Coulson had already been in the main room searching for Skye with Stark when it went off, the billionaire typing rapidly on the keyboard. The two agents were on their feet instantly, rushing over to him as he continued to work through his program. There were at least three programs Stark had put in place, one to track the teleporter, one monitoring satellite images and another focusing on different frequencies.
Each of his programs were operating along SHIELD's systems, giving Tony Stark as much access as they could in order for him to find their kid. Fury hadn't been the most pleased about Stark being in their system, but he let it go considering he wanted Skye to come back home safely as soon as possible. Fury would never admit to anyone's face, but from the two meetings he had with Skye, he was hooked and became a tough teddy bear with her. Natasha teased him incessantly about it and he merely scowled at her.
Coulson looked up at the screens behind Stark, May right at his side. He couldn't make out what was happening. Only a million lines of code running all along the large and small monitors, he didn't have the faintest idea what any of it meant. The alarm that sounded made it seem like bad news, but he was hopeful it meant something good on their part. He would take anything at this point as the silence these past few days had been nothing short of agonizing to him and May.
"What is this Tony," Coulson asked, his eyes wide with some panic.
Tony kept his gaze focused on the screen, a mad smile on his face, "Romanoff was not kidding about your kid being one hell of a hacker."
"It's Skye," Coulson said, he shared a look with May, "Is she alright? Is she hurt?"
"I have no idea Agent, all I know is she tripped SHIELD's entire system," Tony replied with a laugh. "From the looks of it, she's been in here for twenty minutes trying to trip as many of your alarms as she could in one sitting. Her location is scrambled, but if I can just narrow it… Dammit, I'm getting three spots. If only that teleporter could just-"
Almost as if he were speaking it into existence, a monitor a few feet away from him, his tracer program for said teleporter lit up. While it was also scrambled on the monitor, Tony Stark was more than capable of narrowing it down. Especially considering Skye had done some of the heavy lifting by narrowing the search to three locations. He typed rapidly on the keyboard, his hands barely keeping up with his thoughts as he continued to scan over all the codes in front of him.
To say he was impressed with this girl's skill would have been an understatement. From what he could see of all the traps she ticked off, he found her signature had been moving along all their sensitive data points until she had at least a dozen of them together before sounding an alarm. This way at least one person would have seen it, she was trying to make sure they saw it.
"I've got a location, Nepal mountains," Tony said after a minute of silence. He put the map on the big screen with the coordinates there. "That's where your girl is."
"Then we have no time to waste," May said, her tone stern and cold. With a fierce expression in her eyes, she turned to Coulson. "Let's bring our daughter home."
Coulson nodded solemnly, "I'm right behind you. Get Romanoff and Barton, they should be downstairs. I'll assemble a strike team."
"Got room for Iron Man," Tony questioned as he stood from his seat. "I'm told I'm handy in a fight."
Coulson wore a faint smile, "We'll take all the hands we can get… Thank you, thank you so much Tony."
Tony waved his hand dismissively, "Don't mention it. Let's go get your kid."
"When?"
"You'll know when."
"Shouldn't they have been here by now?"
"Considering we're in Nepal, that's at least sixteen hours on a commercial flight. I don't know how fast their jets go, so maybe we can cut that time in half. Strong maybe."
Lincoln groaned into a pillow, slightly charring the edges due to the electricity leaving his finger tips. Not that Skye could blame him, she was getting nervous too. When they had all gone to lunch together, it had been an absolute miracle that she had been able to sneak away to the computer room without getting caught. She had mentioned to her birth parents how much she loved computers, how she was going to miss that the most since she doubted there was any internet out wherever they were.
Cal had been more than happy to tell her about the wifi service being great and that once she was settled, they would get her a new laptop, new phone, anything her heart desired. Jiaying hadn't been too onboard with that idea, which made Skye nervous that she was seeing right through her plans. Those fears had yet to be founded on. Cal had then given her a lovely tour of the computer room, their secret from Jiaying, to which she was very pleased with. Skye liked Cal, she liked him a lot and that made her stomach knot with guilt. He seemed like a good person, like he just wanted his family whole again and Skye was about to ruin his dream. And there was a chance he wouldn't forgive him.
Skye had been able to slip back into the computer room during lunch, she went through as much of SHIELD's system as she could before triggering as many of their alarms in one go. Someone would see it and they would have to send someone out to their location, which she learned was in Nepal. That had been a few hours ago, still no sign of SHIELD which made her incredibly anxious because there was a chance that they couldn't track her hacking, that no one saw it and she had failed.
"I'm sure someone saw it, Skye," Lincoln said softly.
Skye chuckled from her spot on her bed, "I didn't know your gift including mind reading."
Lincoln shrugged with a wide grin, "Guess I'm just special like that."
"Must be it," Skye remarked, though her smile quickly faded. She looked to her left at him, her brown eyes shining for a moment. "Do you think I made the right call? I mean, it's nice here and my birth parents seem good. And what about all the other people here? Did I just ruin their lives because I was selfish?"
Lincoln shook his head, "I don't think so. You know, I overheard my transitioner talking to someone about how the Elders want to put even more people through the, the mist. Like they're gearing up for something."
Skye frowned. "What do you mean? Like getting ready for a fight?"
"More like a war. That instead of hiding, they'd just come out," Lincoln replied with uncertainty.
"But that wouldn't be safe for anyone. As much as I don't like to admit it, but this place has a point. It was meant to be a safe haven, for people with differences," Skye reluctantly told him. It made her guilt burn.
Lincoln made a face, "Maybe. But it didn't sound like a, reveal yourselves to the public and hope for the best kind of thing. It sounded, it sounded more serious than that."
Skye considered his words for a moment, she thought over the brief conversation she had with Jiaying this morning. "Jiaying told me that the world was changing and that soon enough, this would not be how we live."
"If she wanted to take over or make a statement, having a daughter who could literally cause earthquakes would be one great asset," Lincoln commented softly, his expression pensive.
Skye didn't deny that and in all honesty, it did make sense. The limits of her powers weren't known to her, all she knew was that she had caused an avalanche and she hadn't been putting in all her effort. Even when Jiaying and her other transitioner told her to let go completely, she held back and still the side of a mountain crumbled. If she was in an unstable state, angry, hurt or desperate, she could only imagine how strong of a quake she would bring, all the people that could be hurt if she got out of control.
While she didn't want to think of herself out there threatening to quake a town out of existence, she had to wonder if that was what Jiaying would want her to do. If that was something she hoped would happen. In all honesty, Skye could see the woman asking her to do things like that. In the short time she had known her birth mother, she knew that she was relentless and would not back down. That usually she got her way.
And if this was her way, then Skye realized how much trouble she may actually be in if this failed.