Coulson watched Skye and Agent Koenig guide and push Ward down the hall. When the two agents turned the corner, he turned around to see the other four agents at the base standing behind him in the hallway. From the looks of shock and awe on their faces, it was clear that none of them were going to be able to forget or ignore what they had seen. Not willingly, at any rate. "Coulson," May began, tentatively feeling out the situation as the apparent spokesperson for the group, "what happened back there? How...?"

"Not here," Coulson insisted. "It's going to take some time to explain. We might as well get comfortable."

The group silently filed back into the main room, deliberately avoiding making eye contact with Coulson as they walked past. Once the group was settled, though, May jumped right in. "What happened back there, Coulson?" she repeated. "What the hell is going on with you?"

"Ward betrayed us," Coulson replied calmly. "He's HYDRA...just like Garrett, apparently. So we're treating him accordingly."

"But how did you get that information?!" exclaimed Simmons. "What did you...and Skye..."

Coulson winced. "You saw that, huh?"

May glared at Coulson as her finger pointed out the cameras discretely installed in every corner of the room. "This is one of Nick Fury's installations," she explained. "When you chased us out of the room we went straight to Koenig's office. What did you think we were going to do?"

"And even if we hadn't looked at the tape," Fitz insisted, "that wouldn't explain how you were able to lift Ward over your head with one hand like you were Captain bloody America..."

"You've never shown any indication of such a level of strength and speed in your previous physicals, sir," added Simmons. "And there's nothing in your files..."

"There wouldn't be," Coulson agreed.

May's eyes widened. "You've been hiding this secret all along?!" she exclaimed.

"Not 'all along', exactly," Coulson corrected her, shaking his head. "Just...recently."

Simmons' agile mind seemed to be working furiously, trying to put every scrap of a puzzle piece together as they were being given to her. "How 'recently', sir?" she pushed. "Was this before or after..."

"The Battle of New York?" asked Coulson, giving Simmons the out she was looking for.

Simmons nodded. "Yes, sir."

"After," said Coulson. "Technically."

"Technically?" repeated FItz.

Coulson leveled a withering glare at May. "My abilities were...suppressed. By the memories that were planted in my head to cover up what was done to me."

"So when Centipede uncovered the truth..." Simmons suggested.

"At first, I thought I was hallucinating. But once I accepted the truth, the abilities kicked in along with it."

May raised a wary eyebrow. "And what truth was that, Phil?"

Coulson moved in a burst of speed, crossing the room and leaning over May's chair until his face was inches away from hers. "The truth that I accepted was that there are things out there that we weren't meant to understand. That maybe we were never meant to fully understand. But if we put our faith in them, they'll help us when we need it the most."

May gasped when Coulson's irises flashed a glowing, bright orange right in front of her. Only when she saw that glow did the evidence of her eyes finally sink into her soul. "You're an 084, now..." she exclaimed.

"He is," Skye announced. "So am I."

Everyone but Coulson jumped at the sound of Skye's voice. Coulson, though, was unfazed. "Ward is secure?"

"As secure as I could make him."

"And Koenig?"

"Won't remember a thing," Skye replied. "As far as he knows Ward is just a HYDRA spy who followed us here."

Simmons' eyes widened as she tried and failed to connect what Skye was saying to what Coulson had been trying to tell them. "Wait a second, you erased Agent Keonig's memories? Why? How..."

Skye slowly entered the room, trying to assess the situation even as her attention was mostly focused on Coulson. "Should I get started? Or is this the big reveal?" she asked her 'boss'.

"It's the big reveal," Coulson declared. "So don't wipe them yet."

Skye eyed Coulson quizzically. "Why not?"

"Because there's a war on, now," Coulson explained. "And you and I have two options: we can run and start over, or we can stay and fight. But if we're going to stay and fight, we need to know that there's still something here worth fighting for." His gaze fell back on May. "I need to know that the people I'm fighting alongside can be trusted." When May withered under Coulson's unwavering stare, Coulson broke eye contact and returned his attention back to Skye. "And we can't know if they can be trusted until we tell them everything."

Fitz was starting to feel 'out of the loop'. "Tell us everything about what?!"

"I'm not just a computer hacker," Skye admitted. "I can also 'hack' people's minds."

Simmons immediately saw the parallels. "That's...that's what happened to Ward when you interrogated him, isn't it? You 'hacked' him!"

Skye nodded. "I suppressed Ward's ability to do three things."

"His ability to see, his ability to move his arms and..."

Skye's face fell into a grim expression of sympathetic disappointment. "His ability to lie to us, Jemma. I'm sorry. Everything he said was the truth as he knows it."

Simmons caught on first. "If everything that Ward was saying was true, then..." She suddenly found herself on unsteady legs. "My God..." Simmons exclaimed, "Ward really is HYDRA..."

May, for her part, had already moved past Ward's betrayal and was trying to process the earlier part of Skye's conversation with Coulson. "She was going to wipe our memories of you interrogating Ward? And replace them with 'fake' memories?" Coulson nodded. "Like what was done to you?" Coulson nodded again. "Why?"

"Because HYDRA wants us both," Coulson replied. "Me for what happened after my 'death' and Skye for her ability."

"Hold up, they know that Skye can do this?!" Trip exclaimed.

Coulson's eyes never left May's. "Simon Quinn tried to take her when she was a child."

"The raid on that village..." May added, fitting the pieces.

Coulson nodded. "I think the agents who found Skye figured out what she could do. That's why they hid her from both HYDRA and SHIELD."

"And why you're so careful with who knows about her ability," May agreed.

"I'm not a hundred percent certain either side can be trusted with her," insisted Coulson. "Especially now."

May watched the body language of both Skye and Coulson as Coulson spoke. "You trusted Agent Coulson with your secret?" May asked Skye. "Why? Why not just wipe his mind and keep all of this to yourself? I mean, since you obviously have done this to all of us at least once before now."

"WHAT?!" Fitz and Simmons exclaimed simultaneously.

"And Coulson watched you do it," May insisted. "How else would he know?"

"Because he's immune," Skye countered. "I can't change anything in his head. At all."

May's eyes widened as her thoughts were forced to return to the original subject of their conversation. "Because of...whatever's going on with him?" Skye nodded, so May turned her attention entirely to Coulson. "Well?"

"It's...complicated..." Coulson's voice trailed off when he noticed Skye's focus completely disengage from the conversation. "Skye?" he asked. "What is it?"

"It's...the Mùshī," Skye explained. "He's asking for my help with something."

"Who's asking for what?" asked Trip, confused.

Coulson shushed his team. "What does he need you for?"

"They...they were approached by...aliens!" Skye exclaimed, amazed at the images that were coming down her mind-link with Ryan. "Some big blue species called the Kree..." The gasp that Coulson heard come out of May was not lost on the agent; however Skye continued her explanation before Coulson could ask about it. "He wants me to come in and help them see if there's anything in the SHIELD files that went public..."

"There might be information here," Coulson added. His eyes locked with May's. "What do you know about the Kree?"

"Me?" asked May.

"I saw the way you reacted when Skye mentioned the name," Coulson countered. "Trust has to go both ways, May. What do you know?"

May swallowed hard as her mind's eye came up with the one mental picture that, she knew, she would never be able to shake. "I...I can't tell you. Fury's orders."

Skye wasn't buying that excuse. "SHIELD is gone now, May," he argued. "Fury's dead. If you know something we need to know..."

"I..." The memory of Coulson's glowing orange eyes flashed through her mind, and she shuddered as conflicting emotions went to war within her. "They told me you couldn't know. That I needed to protect you..."

Coulson wasn't backing down. "Melinda, I can take care of myself..."

"Clearly," May agreed with a nervous chuckle. It was then that her mind finally made the connection between the gaps in her knowledge and everything that they had witnessed. "SHIELD don't know about this, do they? Whatever 'this' is?" Coulson shook his head. "Does HYDRA?"

Coulson shook his head again. "And if any of them ever found out..."

"You'd be back on that table," May agreed, her mind unable to let go of the imagined nightmare image. "They'd probably never let you off it again."

Coulson nodded. "Now, I could let Skye erase all of your memories of this conversation. She could probably wipe every memory that you have of either of us..." When Skye solemnly nodded, Coulson continued, "I really don't want to have to do that, Melinda, but I need to know that I can still trust you."

Melinda stared into Coulson's wide brown eyes, hoping to draw some strength from the contact. His earlier words floated through her mind. Some things we aren't meant to understand. But if we put our faith in them...She broke her eye contact with Coulson and turned to Skye. "These Kree...did they look human, but with blue skin and no hair?"

"Yeah," Skye replied, "how'd you know?"

May re-set her focus on Coulson. "When they asked me to start looking out for you, I got one chance to study your entire file."

"I've seen the file..." Coulson argued.

"Not all of it," May corrected him. "Just what Director Fury thought you were capable of handling at the time. In the file, they mentioned the source of GH-325."

"The drug that brought me back?" asked Coulson.

May nodded. "Your file - your full file - said that GH-325 was a distillation of the blood of a dead Kree warrior."

Coulson collapsed into the nearest chair, shocked for a moment by the revelation. "Alien blood was used to bring me back?" May nodded. She leaned forward, looking for any sign that Coulson was starting to truly lose it.

It never happened. Coulson thought about everything that had happened to him, bad and good, since his resurrection. The memories helped him to get over the shock quickly. "Skye, let Master Mùshī know that SHIELD has had recent dealings with the Kree. Then ask him if Master Sìfāng can come and get us and how soon."

Skye's eyes lit up in hopeful anticipation. "We're going to New York?"

"We can't do anything just sitting here," Coulson replied. "And at this point the Network has more resources than we do."

"Wait a minute," May interjected. "The bus is out of gas. Completely. And there's not enough fuel here for us to go anywhere. So how do you propose we get to New York?"

Coulson smiled. "Let's just say...it's a kind of magic."

Trip rolled his eyes at the reference. "Great. Next you'll be telling me there can be only one..."

Skye ignored the comment. She had one far more pressing concern on her mind. "What about Ward?"

"Is he still blind and deaf?" asked Coulson. Skye nodded. "Then we'll take him with us. The Xiānzhī can get more out of him than we ever could." Coulson turned to the rest of his team. "Now's the time to decide, folks. You can stay here, probably wait this out until it's over. Or you can come with us. Live up to that oath we swore."

Fitz was the first one to speak. "There's no one in SHIELD I've ever believed in more than I believe in you, Sir. That hasn't changed. I'm going."

"I'm coming too," agreed Trip. "After watching the number you two did on Ward earlier, I'd much rather be fighting for you than against you."

"Then I guess I'm along for the ride, as well," Simmons chimed in, finally recovering from the shock of Ward's betrayal. "After all, Agent Triplett is my responsibility..."

Coulson smiled at the way Simmons threw his own words back at him before turning to the one member of her team who had yet to declare her intentions. "Well, Agent May?" he asked. "Will you also be joining us?"

"I just have to do one thing, first," she told the group. "If everyone would follow me, please."

Curious as to May's intentions, the group followed May until she stopped just outside the door to Koenig's office. "Skye," she asked, "can you get Agent Koenig to leave his computer?"

Koenig sprinted out of the room so quickly the group immediately turned to Skye for an explanation. "Bathroom," Skye replied. "When you gotta go..."

Trip chuckled quietly as May made a beeline for the computer. After typing for a few furious seconds, May stood back, seemingly satisfied with the results. "There. Now we can leave."

"What did you do?" asked Simmons.

"I deleted the footage of Ward's interrogation," May explained. She turned to Coulson, her expression showing a desire for his approval. "Gotta have faith in something, right?"

"Thank you," Coulson replied, relieved and grateful. He turned to Skye. "Any word from the Sìfāng?"

"Whenever you and your team are ready, AC."

Trip, May, Fitz and Simmons wheeled around at the sound of the new voice that spoke up behind them. Simmons was the first one to place a name to the new, yet familiar face. "Am I hallucinating," she asked, "or did Richard Castle just magically appear out of thin air?"