Hello dear readers, hope you had a good Valentines Day! Yes, I am still alive, as you can see. Finally managed to finish this. I guess it was further along than I thought, and I decided to work on it a little these past few days.
In regards to the schedule, it will be haywire until I can stablize everything in my personal life, which include works, schools and the other stuff I have time for.
Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel

They did manage to find Amador.

Better than that, they managed to save her. She had an eye implant that received orders from a handler, who could also detonate said eye if she didn't follow command.

While FitzSimmons worked on removing the eye, Skye worked with Ward – again – to trick the handler in thinking that Amador was still following orders. They needed to keep the illusion up until the science twins disconnected the eye-bomb and Coulson could find the handler with May.

The mission ended up being a success anyway, thanks to the science twins, who disconnected the bomb right before Amador's handler had time to make it explode. It was all very time-sensitive and they managed to get it all done mostly unscathed.

Except for the minor injuries from the car accident where Amador crashed into a van with FitzSimmons and Skye inside. And except Amador, who was down an eye and headed to prison and court.

Coulson said he was going to testify on her behalf, so she might be able to get a lighter sentence. She was working under duress after all.

.

Later, once they were in the air – they had dropped Amador off and they were waiting on their next mission – Skye went to the cockpit to find May. She always liked to join May there, it was peaceful, watching the sky pass them by. "Mind if I join you?" Skye asked, but May didn't reply, so she took it as a 'yes' and sat on the co-pilot's chair.

"Do you want to learn how to fly the Bus?" May asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Um… sure," Skye said, hesitantly, raising an eyebrow at May.

"Open up the compartment in front of you and read the instruction manual."

"Great. More homework," Skye muttered to herself, though she did find the book and open it.

"If you want to learn, you need to read the manual."

"Yes, ma'am." Skye had a slight smirk on her face now, but one look from May and it was gone. Skye turned back to the manual and started to read it. It was a very big book, and Skye thought she would rather take her SD card right to Coulson than read it, but she knew that if she was honest, that would be a lie. That card would just show the team that she had lied to them ever since she walked into the Bus. It was the truth, but Skye didn't want it to be.

She spent the next hour reading the Bus' instruction manual, until her comms crackled to life and Coulson's voice sounded on the other line. "May, put us on autopilot, everyone, we got a mission, briefing in 5." With that, they were set to autopilot and May led her to the briefing room, where they met with the others. They all stood around the holotable and Coulson put an image on the screen, showing a young Chinese man. "Chan Ho Yin. Just a struggling street performer until a few years ago, when Mr. Chan began to exhibit moderate pyrokinetic abilities."

"So what gave him powers?" Fitz asked, curiously.

"It's still under investigation, but Chan did live near the decommissioned Wan Tai nuclear plant when it caught fire. To our knowledge, no other nearby residents have exhibited similar traits."

"So how did we find out about him?" Simmons questioned, and May was the one to reply.

"Informant saw him lighting torches in a street show – with his pinkie."

"Brought it to SHIELD's attention. We told him to keep his abilities under wraps. He's been on the Index ever since." That got Skye's attention, and she gave them a questioning look.

"The Index?"

"It's a list SHIELD keeps of people and objects with powers."

"Wait. What? How many are there? Are you saying there are more people-" Skye asked, but May cut her off, shaking her head.

"Not many."

"Well, enough to keep a list."

"A short list, meant to protect them," Coulson informed her, and Ward added something more once Coulson was done talking.

"Though, in rare cases, SHIELD has had to take action."

"Action against objects or people?" Skye asked, and the look she received meant that it was more complicated than that. "Well, that's drastic with a side of creepy. How are they monitored – tapped phones, satellite surveillance, body probes in dark, unpleasant places?" Simmons grimaced at that, while Fitz shook his head.

"Body probes? Now, that's ridiculous. SHIELD doesn't do that. We don't do that," Fitz assured her before giving Coulson a raised eyebrow in question. "Do we?"

"The methods vary," Coulson replied, vaguely, and Skye gave him an 'are you kidding' look, before he continued speaking. "Mr. Chan was low-risk. He was assigned a case agent who checked in with him every few days."

May then typed something on the screen, before a video chat appeared on the bigger screen. "That's how we discovered him missing."

"Nín hǎo, guān zǒng nǐ hǎo ma?" (Hello, Agent Kwan. How are you?) May asked, in Chinese. The feed of the video call flickered to life and showed Kwan in Chan's home, where the incident occurred.

"Bùrú wǒ xiǎng dì nàyàng hǎo," (Not as good as I could be.) Kwan replied, tiredly.

"Everyone, this is agent Kwan, Chan Ho Yin's case agent," May told everyone, switching back to English. The Bus Kids – Skye and FitzSimmons – waved at him, before May turned back to Kwan. "What can you tell us?"

"Not much, I'm afraid. Chan is a magician, so at first, I thought he'd made himself disappear."

"The file says you'd caught him violating his Index agreement before." Coulson was the one to point that out.

"On two separate occasions – claimed we were 'hampering his artistic expression'. But late last night, he was taken by professionals. The only thing they left behind was this scrap of aluminized material," Kwan said, holding up the material, and Simmons leaned over to have a better look.

"Fireproof clothing."

"So whoever took him knew about his power," Ward guessed.

"Yes, and we think we know why. Over the last few days, tech division discovered a crack into our data stream. It's the same cyber punks who hacked us before. Somehow, they got in again. It's the Rising Tide." Everyone turned to look at Skye, no one saying anything for a while. "Hello? It got real quiet." Kwan tapped on the screen as he spoke. "You guys still there?"

.

Once the call was ended, Coulson took Skye to his office, May following in, since she was the younger girl's SO. Skye tried to explain herself as soon as she entered the office. "The Rising Tide is a huge organization of hacktivists from all around the world. Any of them could have done this! It wasn't me."

"No one's saying it was," May assured her, calmly. She was worried Skye would get emotional and lose enough control to bring the plane down.

"But you're thinking it. I can see your faces thinking it," Skye accused them, and Coulson was the one to reply to her.

"We're assessing the situation."

"Then I'm sure you're taking into account that I have been living on a plane with you this whole time. It would be impossible for me to hack SHIELD."

"Or easier. We're gonna need more than that."

"Fine. Let me trace the hack, and I'll prove it."

"I believe her, Coulson. And if she's telling the truth, we need to track down the person responsible."

"Dig up something, and fast. The longer Mr. Chan's missing, the more danger he's in," Coulson ordered, and Skye nodded, before leaving the office.

.

Skye worked on the hack for a few hours in the lab, as Fitz watched her as if he had a crush on her – or the computer – or both, and Simmons also watched her work, though her crush seemed more subtle in her eyes. Skye was nearly done with her work, when Coulson walked into the lab, obviously awaiting news. "How close are we?"

"Almost there," Skye informed him, and May and Ward stood on the other side of the room, watching them as well.

"She's identified the remote-access Trojan and the infected endpoint-" Fitz told them, and he was cut off by Simmons continuing the update.

"-and is searching for a TCP to correlate the hypertext with signature information and then-"

"-Bob's your uncle," Fitz continued, at the same time as Simmons spoke.

"Voila!"

"You get any of that?" Coulson asked Ward, though he did have a proud smile on his face.

"Only the uncle part," Ward told him, his face void of emotions.

"We got our origin: Austin, Texas," Skye finally spoke up, the fast clicking of the keys having stopped. She pressed a few more keys and the map appeared on the table monitor, showing the team the coordinates of where the hack was done.

"You got a name?" Coulson asked, and the hacker looked at her screen for a moment.

"Just the café our hacker worked out of, but I'm in the system. I'm gonna check to see if any credit card charges from that day match up with any known hackers," Skye told them, going back to her keyboard, so she could hack further in and find what they were looking for. "We got a hit." A picture and name of the hacker appeared on the screen, so the team to see it.

"Miles Lydon, not Skye – that's to all of our relief," Fitz said, his crush clear in his voice. One would have to be deaf and blind to not see it.

"You know him?" Coulson asked the younger girl, whose eyes hadn't left the screen.

"Every hacker in the world knows him," Skye told him, vaguely, though there was a tone in her voice that no one could place.

"Not just the hacker world. He infiltrated the Kremlin," Simmons said, happily.

"Yeah, the picture of, uh, Putin shirtless on horseback — that was his hack," Fitz added, and he laughed, quickly joined in by Simmons.

"It was also his hack that got Chan kidnapped," Ward pointed out, stopping FitzSimmons in their laughter.

"May, set a course for Austin," Coulson ordered the pilot, who was typing away on her tablet.

"Just did."

"What about Chan?" Skye asked, confused.

"Kwan's got a SHIELD team on the ground. Our best bet is to chase this thing from the other end. Find Mr. Lydon, bring him in. See what he knows," Coulson answered, and everyone but Skye left the lab, Fitz smiling at her as he walked out. Coulson was the last one there with her, and the man raised an eyebrow at her, confusion written all over his face. "Is there something else?"

"There is, actually… but this isn't the right place to say it." Coulson's eyebrow rose higher, at Skye's words, if it was possible.

.

The young girl didn't speak, even as they walked into agent's office, but a few minutes later, once she had put the plane on autopilot, May walked in, her face neutral. "You wanted to see me, Coulson?" the older woman asked, but her eyes didn't leave Skye.

"Yes, Skye had something to add after our little team meeting, but didn't say anything else."

"What is it, Skye?"

"I knew Lydon."

"Yes, you've said as much earlier," Coulson noted, but Skye shook her head.

"I didn't mean it as a hacker who knew his hacks, I mean personally. I met him when I hacked myself a bus ticket to Texas. I knew where he was and who he was. When I ran from the System, I joined the Rising Tide and learned as much as I could about hacking, but I wanted more, so I went to find the best. I found him and he helped me. We dated for two years before I decided I wanted to go off on my own. He helped me find my van and pack my things for the van. I talked to him a few times since then, even while I was on this place. I know where he'll go the second he spots Ward or any of you."

"Why are you telling us this, now? Why not lie and warn him that we're coming and betray the team?" Coulson asked, more curious than confused.

"Because this team became more of a family to me than anyone else out there, and I don't want to lie anymore."

"Do you have a plan to bring him in?" May asked, once Skye was done answering Coulson.

"I do, actually," Skye said, nodding. "He'll sniff you guys from a mile away. What if you do as you planned? Try to get him your way, and I'll warn him, get him in a way he won't expect. Have May follow me to Miles' apartment, where I'll wait for him. I'll do as I planned, warn him of you guys, and distract him until May gets there. You can even arrest me with him to keep the illusion up, use me to get the answers you want from him. And if it works, you'll have your information to get Chan back from his kidnappers."

"How do you know it'll work?" Coulson asked, skeptical.

"Because I know Miles."

.

The plan went without a hitch on SHIELD's side, and Miles went for the bait. He ran off to his apartment, where Skye was waiting for him. She distracted him long enough for May to walk in and arrest them both, bringing them to the Bus with Coulson and Ward's help. They were then both locked up in the Cage, cuffed to the table.

Once they were finally left alone, Miles started to play with his cuffs, grunting in frustrations as it did nothing to help get out of them. "So, I guess due process isn't really SHIELD protocol."

"They don't have time for it," Skye grumbled, staring at the cuffs around her wrists like they would disappear.

"Whoa, are you defending them? These people are denying our basic rights."

"This isn't about us. They're trying to save someone's life."

"Listen to yourself. That's what they always say to justify invading privacy, Skye. These people stand for everything we despise – secrets, censorship-"

"Enough with the manifesto, Miles."

"We can't let them get away with it!"

.

In the briefing room, Ward watched the live footage of the Cage, no emotions written on his face. "Manning, Snowden, Aaron Swartz – these are modern-day revolutionaries," Miles' voice sounded through the speakers, with Skye's annoyed face showing on the screen as he spoke.

"This has nothing to do with that. You leaked-" Skye told him, but her reprimand was cut off as Ward pressed buttons to close the feed and microphone. FitzSimmons had joined him in watching the footage, curious in what the two in the Cage were talking about.

"Guy's hiding behind platitudes. He's dirty. I can feel it," Ward said, his tone betraying his emotions.

"Scrubbed clean, actually – nothing much on him. He's got no family records. His apartment's under an alias. And he plays a lot of Minecraft, where he runs a rather nasty mob," Simmons said, as she looked at the file on her screen.

"Is it – is it zombie?" Fitz asked, and Simmons shook her head.

"Zombie pigmen," Simmons supplied, and the two shared a disgusted look.

"Keep looking," Ward ordered them, before leaving, not understanding the gibberish coming out of the scientists' mouth.

.

In Coulson's office, he and May watched the footage from the Cage, as well. "She's still lying about something," Coulson said, leaning into his chair. "You can say it."

"She brought Lydon to us. I don't have anything to say," May pointed out, mimicking his movement.

"But you called it. She was a risk and I let her stay anyway."

"I don't usually invite people who break into my house, but Skye has helped us a lot since she came on board. I don't do this often, but I know when I was wrong about someone. Skye could have lied and tried to get Miles away from us, left out her relationship with him, but she didn't, instead she came to you and told you the truth. She might have some more secrets hidden, but who doesn't?"

"You changed opinions on the matter quite fast. What brought this on?"

"I guess I observed her more, and I noticed she was a good addition to the team. If she has more secrets, we have to hope that she'll come to us when the time is right for her to tell us." May wanted to mention that she was aware of one of the secrets she was still hiding, and that Skye wasn't ready to divulge it yet. She knew Skye was hiding more, but from experience with the younger girl, it would be wise to wait and see what it was.

"And if it's a bigger secret than we thought?"

"Then we'll deal with it."

At that moment, Simmons rushed in, panting heavily. "Sir, we found some evidence."

.

In that moment, Ward walked into the Cage, and Skye sat up straighter at seeing him. "She's been defending you, saying you're a stand-up guy," Ward told Miles, gesturing to the younger girl. He was aware of the plan, using Skye to get information out of Miles, and he played his part well. He had an envelope in his hands, and showed it to them. "So I'm going to give you a chance. Do you want to tell her, or should I?" Ward put the envelope on the table, the sound reverberating around the small room.

"I don't have to listen to you-" Miles said, but he was cut off by the dark-haired agent.

"There goes your chance." Ward then turned to Skye. "Your boyfriend here made a few deposits in the days following the leak." Ward then laid out receipts from the envelope and showed them to her. "All said, it's about a million dollars," Ward revealed, shocking Skye.

"What?"

"Real stand-up guy."

"I can explain-" Miles tried to say, but Skye cut him off.

"Did you sell information?" Miles didn't answer. "Miles? Yes or no?" Once again, Skye was met with silence. "Did you?!"

"Yes, but-" Miles said, trying to explain, but he was cut off by Skye, as she tried to jump him, her restraints rattling with the metal back it was attached to. She could feel subtle shifts in the vibrations as her powers slowly got out of control with her anger, but Miles' lies were too painful for her to remember control.

"Ohh! You are so dead. What the hell were you thinking?!" The vibrational shift got more powerful as she yelled, the younger girl even feeling the room shake ever so slightly.

"It was a million dollars. A million dollars. It would change my life – our lives. And that woman was harmless. I looked into it," Miles defended himself, shooting Skye a look, as if telling her to calm down, like he felt the room shake.

"No one with good intentions pays that kind of money for information! Did you ever think about that?!" Skye yelled out again, angry at Miles for what he was doing.

"Of course I did. I would never have done it if I thought-" Miles tried again to defend himself, but again he was cut off, this time by Ward.

"Who is the woman you referred to?"

"A fan of the Rising Tide, some rich girl in a flower dress. She knew all about me, said I had a gift. She thought people like us deserved more."

"Oh, you deserve more," Skye grumbled, having had a moment to collect herself, bring the vibrations down without hopefully channeling them inward. She knew the consequences of that

"She pointed me to a Chinese SHIELD feed – wanted me to crack it."

"You thought that was harmless?"

"I checked the data stream. It didn't seem like anything you and I hadn't already put out there, Skye. And I traced the account where the money came from to make sure it wasn't some evil corporation. It was just an eco-research lab. Otherwise, I would never-"

"Ecological research?"

"Yeah, insects, some study with centipedes," Miles told them, but Ward and Skye turned to each other, having a full conversation with their eyes. "What's more harmless than that?"

She walked into Whitehall's office, having received a note on her tablet that he needed to speak to her. "You wanted to see me, Dr. Whitehall?" she asked, putting in as much confidence as she could muster. Ever since he told her she was on thin ice, she'd been worried about going back into his office, worried he would have her programmed like his other brainwashed puppies. He'd threatened to do it before, of course, but she'd given him enough reasons not to. Now she was afraid he would do it, due to the mistakes she'd made recently.

"Yes," he nodded, gesturing for her to come in and sit down. "I need you to head up the security team with Centipede. They've been having some problems lately, as you know, and I want to make sure nothing of importance gets interrupted again."

"Where do you need me to go?" she simply asked, accepting the order.

"You misheard me. You are to head up, not assist on site. You will work from here with Debbie and the Hydra agents already there. Besides, you cannot use your powers for another three days." He sounded bitter at that last part, which sent a shiver down her spine.

"Yes, sir." She didn't move to leave, however, as he hadn't dismissed her yet.

"You may go to your office." That was all she needed to hear from him before she bolted upright and exited the room. She headed directly to her office, and sat in front of her desk.

Apparently, the agent she had in Centipede was psychic, because the moment she sat down, her phone rang. "Yeah?" she asked, almost bored.

"They gave him a name," the agent on the other line said, bitterly, and she raised an eyebrow.

"You are going to have to be more specific, I've been out of the loop for a long while," she reminded him, leaning back into her chair.

"The doctors at Centipede. They named the enhanced guy they're testing."

"Guess you heard I was appointed head of Centipede's security…"

"No. You just asked me to give you news. You are the new head of our security?"

"Whitehall just told me." She paused for a moment, and collected her thoughts. "What can this enhanced do?"

"He's a pyrokinetic. Doc thinks that she can use his blood or something to help lower the explosion rate of our Soldiers."

"That would be great, we can't have the Centipede soldiers exploding and raging around all the time. Has their… boss… made contact with them? I know he can be very cagey."

"No, the benefactor of this project hasn't made contact, that I know of. Most of us – me included – have no idea who he is."

"I haven't been informed on his identity, yet, all I know is he's Hydra," she said, and the agent on the other line sighed. "Just keep me posted on what happens, I'll be in contact to hand further orders soon." She hung up and went to work.

.

A few hours later, she had set up the best paths for the security teams, asking them to change them up every few hours so they weren't too predictable. She even went as far as to start making the computer software better, with more powerful firewalls. Once she had a little of that done, she went to her room to change and head down to the gym for some boxing practice. She couldn't use her powers yet, but she could still train the old-fashioned way.

It was where she was when her tablet rang, giving her an alert on the Centipede servers. "Shit! They found the lab…" she muttered to herself as she ran out of the gym and to Whitehall's office. "Sir, SHIELD is going to the lab in Hong Kong. They probably found out about our current project. I need permission to fly off there, immediately," she told her boss, as soon as she was in his office.

"Why would you want my permission for that?" Whitehall asked, taking off his glasses and looking at her.

"Because the agents there won't be able to stop SHIELD on their own if their enhanced is there, too."

"My sources say the enhanced isn't as well-trained as you are. Our agents can take her," Whitehall waved her off, as if they were discussing a child's involvement in the situation.

"You know very well that that's not true, sir. She may not be well-trained in fighting, but her powers are like mine. If I am there, there is a better chance of the Centipede program staying up and running than if I am not there."

"You can't even use your powers, yet," Whitehall pointed out. It was a good point, but she was a great fighter even without her powers.

"I don't need my powers to stop her, sir. I know the limits of my powers, and I am ready to bet they are the same for SHIELD's enhanced. If not less."

"Alright, you may go."

"Thank you, sir," she said, and with his nod of dismissal, went to get ready to leave.

She would need a quinjet to get there as fast as possible.

A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, lots of stuff happened and it is leading up to some exciting things!
I have no idea when the next one will be posted, but it could take some time. Hopefully not as long as this time.
Please comment, I love to read your lovely comments! Also, flames will be promptly deleted.
Until next time!