Skye stared at the closed door like she could see through it to the man on the other side. Agent Grant Douglas Ward.
HYDRA Agent Grant Douglas Ward.
She felt so stupid. She had been so close to falling for him...had fallen for him, if she was being completely honest with herself.
And he was a traitor.
Was all of it a lie? she thought. Am I just that gullible? No...there's good in there, somewhere. There has to be. I just need to find it...
Skye opened the door to the room next door to Ward's 'cell', entered the room, then closed the door and locked it behind her. She leaned against the wall that separated her from her former S.O., feeling his presence on the other side of the thin plywood between them. Skye closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. It wasn't long before she found the now-familiar core of energy at the very center of her soul, and she grabbed onto it with everything she had, molding and shaping the energy with her mind until it became the bending, twisting, endlessly moving tube of light she wanted. Skye then maneuvered the tube until the end extended through her body, out of her heart, through the wall, and into Ward's mind. Open your mind, she heard her father's gentle, patient voice. Then empty it. The only way to understand the mind of another is to listen to it with your entire being...
She gasped as her world disappeared in a blinding flash of light.
#
Skye opened her eyes and found herself in a meadow of tall grasses and wildflowers. She squinted, holding her hand up to cover her eyes as she looked up, following the bright rays of the sun to their source. The wind whistled through the field that surrounded her, but she didn't feel it on her skin. It was the only indication that this was not her reality; it was someone else's.
"Help!"
The voice of a little boy called out from what seemed like only a few yards away. When Skye focused on the sound, her eyes focused on stone well in the distance.
"Help me!" the little boy's voice repeated. "Somebody help me!"
Skye jogged over to the well and peeked over the side. Two little boys were in the bottom of the well: one who looked up to her with wide, pleading eyes...and one who was floating face down in the water. "Please," the little boy called up to her. "Please, lady, can you help me?! I can't get out of here by myself, and my little brother is hurt!"
"Hang on!" Skye yelled back to the boy. "I'm going to find some rope!" She turned around, trying to find something, anything that she could use to help that little boy...
Until she was stopped. The teen who stopped her should have been her height. Instead, the teen looked like he was almost a head taller than Skye was...and made of pure muscle. "Can you help me?" she asked the teen with desperate urgency. "There are two boys at the bottom of that well..."
"I know," the teen replied coldly. He folded his arms across his chest and smiled arrogantly. "I dropped them down there."
Skye's mouth dropped open. "You...you dropped them down there? How could you! I think one of them might be dead!"
"He was a wimp," the teen argued, blowing off Skye's concern. "The other one is too. I'm trying to toughen him up a little. What are you doing?"
"Saving his life," Skye declared angrily. "Apparently from you." She grabbed the teen by the shoulders and forcefully kneed him in the groin. When the teen was doubled over, Skye then landed a solid uppercut to the young man's jaw, sending him flying backwards until he landed on the ground in a heap...and disappeared.
Skye jogged over to where the teen landed and discovered a coil of rope that was easily long enough to reach the bottom of the well. She ran back to the well and threw the one end of the rope down toward the boy at the bottom. "Tie this around your waist," Skye yelled to the boy. "I'll find a way to pull you up..."
"No!" the boy exclaimed. "Get my brother out first!"
Skye shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Just my luck," she grumbled, "he wants to selflessly send up the big unconscious lump first..."
"Hurry, please!" the little boy pleaded. 'I don't think he's breathing!"
"Okay!" Skye called back to the boy. "Yank on the rope when he's ready!" The rope tensed in her hands, and Skye pulled as best she could. It took all of her effort, but the child felt lighter than she would have thought, and it only took a few minutes to get the boy out of the well. She immediately checked the boy's pulse; when she found one, she performed CPR until the boy rolled over and started coughing up water. Smiling with relief, Skye then threw the rope back down the well. "Now you!" she yelled down the hole.
"Okay!" the boy yelled back.
The boy was heavier than his brother, but he walked up the wall as Skye pulled, making the job easier than it should otherwise have been. Once he was able to climb over the top of the well's stone wall, the boy scrambled across the ground and made a bee line for his brother. "Dougie!" he exclaimed. "Dougie, are you okay?!"
Dougie rolled over at the sound of his brother's voice. "My fwoat huts, Gwant," Dougie complained.
Grant smiled, relieved that his brother felt strong enough to complain. "It's okay, Dougie," he assured the younger boy. "It's all going to be okay." He turned to Skye. "Thank you for saving my brother's life," he told Skye.
"You're welcome," said Skye. "What's you're name?"
"Grant," the boy told Skye, holding out his hand to be shaken. "Grant Ward."
Skye's eyes widened. "N-n-nice to meet you," she finally stammered out in amazement. "Nice to finally meet you..."
#
Skye woke up in the storage room, gasping for long, panicked gulps of air. It took her a minute to recognize where she was...and a few more minutes to understand where she had been. "What the hell was that?!" she exclaimed.