Chapter Ten: The Monster in the Mirror
If Skye did not hate Business Suit before, she sure as hell did now. Zach had retreated into his aloof façade immediately upon his arrival. It was so convincing that Skye almost questioned whether their electric connection and almost kiss a second ago had been in her imagination. But no, Skye was certain that he was just as drawn to her as she was him, he just happened to be a better actor. Maybe it was he had better focus as well, she should really be following his lead and concentrating on the current situation.
Business Suit strolled into the room with a smug smirk oblivious to the scene he nearly walked into. Lab Coat was no longer with him, but his muscle followed him through the door dutifully. Tactical Gear 1 dragged a squirming Simmons in his wake while Tactical Gear 2 appeared to have more difficulty with an uncooperative, protesting Fitz. Fitz was hardly a big guy, but his bigger body mass and height compared to Simmons' was helping him make his guard's job a nightmare.
"Shut up already," Tactical Gear 2 growled as he shook poor Fitz violently. When Fitz raised his voice against such treatment, the asshole merely backhanded him.
"Leave him be!" Skye shouted. Sure, Fitz was not seriously hurt, but Skye could not wait to hand this guy's ass to him for picking on her friend. She thrashed in her shackles angrily.
Tactical Gear 2 turned to give her a taunting look. "What are you going to do about it, little girl?"
Skye fumed. She wanted to show him just how much this little girl could kick his ass six ways to Sunday. If they were not on a plane, she would have given into using her powers already. She could feel them beneath the surface, conjured by her rage, just waiting for an opening to release. Skye clamped down on them hard.
Her control was getting better. She was able to channel the powers throughout her body when they beckoned instead of directing them inward, so she no longer broke her own bones in an attempt to rein them in. It was like she could picture the bubbling energy flowing along her veins to the constant rhythm of her heart.
That was only a temporary solution though. It worked for short periods of time, but eventually a point came where she could not contain them any longer. When that time came, May flew her out to a chosen location and waited on standby for hours while Skye did her thing. She was dropped on fault lines in the middle of the wilderness and just let loose. It was still just as terrifying as it was the first time she discovered her so-called gift as she watched the destruction she caused all around her, but no other solution had been found yet.
Skye was working on focusing her gift onto weapons. After inadvertently destroying her own gun, Skye realized how useful it would be if she could force the vibrations into her enemy's weapons. It was the only moment so far she had any sort of excitement about her transformation. But success had been painfully limited, to the point of labeling any of her attempts "successful" was a stretch at best, a misnomer at worst.
Her lack of control was not why she held back now though. Mostly she did not want to try anything while they were presumably thousands of feet in the air in a metal contraption. If Skye accidentally made the plane fall apart and sent them all careening towards the ground, well, it was better that she did not test that. The other reason for her caution was standing next to her blank-faced and impossibly handsome.
Skye did not trust Zach for all that she was attracted to him. She could not afford to. Skye did not even let most people at SHIELD know about her abilities. She did not like the way some people treated her, even now, knowing that she was not fully human- to this day, Mack avoided her like she was some disease waiting to infect him. But more than that, Skye remembered Zach's words to her about what people like Whitehall would do if they knew she was special- and he did not even know the half of it. Zach knew she had the GH formula in her system, he knew she could touch the obelisk without suffering the deadly side effects, but he did not know she could bring a building down with her mind if she was in a mood.
He was a Hydra agent, apparently had been for years as he pretended to be loyal to SHIELD. Skye could not rely on him to keep such a secret. Sure, he hid her other ones, but maybe that would change if he discovered she was more abomination than human. Even just the thought of the disgust she faced in the wake of her transformation coloring his expression made Skye depressed. It was stupid, and Skye knew she should not care so much about his opinion of her, but she did. She could not depend on him not to go running to his superiors if he discovered the truth.
So Skye focused on imagining the current of the vibrations in her bloodstream. She was rewarded with the tension of her body uncoiling. It was okay, these guys were not that tough. Skye did not need an earthquake to take them down.
During her musings, their captors had locked Fitzsimmons into their bonds again. Her friends were quieter now, and Skye thought it had a lot to do with Fitz's bruised cheek. Just the sight of it made Skye want to destroy the guys, but that was for later.
Business Suit pompously approached his captives with his hands clasped behind his back. The motion allowed for his suit jacket to gape open enough to display the sidearm he had in his inside pocket.
"I couldn't believe my luck earlier when we happened upon you in the wake of Hydra's attack, but I suppose SHIELD is always forcing themselves into everyone else's business. It's to be expected." Business Suit sighed put upon. Skye understood the feeling. His self-importance was tiring just to look at, so she could not imagine how exhausting it was for him to be that narcissistic all the time.
But something of his speech made her wary. "What makes you think we're SHIELD?" Skye threw at him while purposely not looking to her left where Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome Hydra Agent was probably internally scoffing.
In response, Business Suit pulled out two objects out of his suit and held them up for Skye and the rest to see. For a moment, Skye did not know what to say. The Koenigs were going to kill Fitzsimmons.
"You brought your lanyards on a mission?" Skye asked incredulously. "Why would you keep any SHIELD ID on you?"
Simmons appeared slightly sheepish, but Fitz offered a justification. "In our defense, we left them back at base once for a mission, and Eric wouldn't let us back in for hours. He insisted we undergo another orientation to prove we weren't imposters with a photostatic veil." Well, Skye could admit that did sound like Eric Koenig.
"We haven't gone anywhere without them since," Simmons added helpfully.
Before Skye could say anything more, like questioning how the two smartest people she knew could carry a hallmark of their loyalty to a vigilante organization that also granted enemy access to every SHIELD base everywhere, Business Suit interrupted.
"It was fortunate that two of the scientists that could help us with the next stage of our Extremis project stumbled into my grasp. Sadly, Doctors Fitz and Simmons have been… stubborn so far."
Simmons scoffed, and Fitz muttered something to her that sounded suspiciously like he was mocking AIM's scientific efforts. Simmons made a joke that likened the project to "a five-year-old playing with rocks and calling it Palaeomagnetism", which had Fitz in hysterics but meant nothing to Skye.
Business Suit reddened in anger, "Enough! You will cooperate or we'll make you." He gestured to his muscle to step forward, though they still hung behind him. "Tell me what I want to know, and your SHIELD friends won't get hurt."
So that was his plan, torture them until Fitzsimmons helped? Kind of lacked creativity in Skye's opinion. It seemed that they had not realized that they managed to snag one of their Hydra infiltrators along with the SHIELD agents. Skye supposed with how AIM found them, Skye cradling an unconscious Zach in her lap, that made sense.
Zach. Skye did not turn to look at him, but she realized what had been missing from the conversation. He had not spoken a word, content it appeared to just watch for now. He said nothing when Business Suit first assumed he was SHIELD either. From her peripheral vision, Skye could see he was not faking unconsciousness anymore, but she was willing to bet he had some sort of plan.
"Now," Business Suit gave a Cheshire cat smile, "Which one of you SHIELD agents wants to be our first volunteer? The little girl," Skye bristled. She was twenty-six thank you very much! "-or the toy soldier?" Business Suit finally gave his attention to the fourth captive.
Given that the focus was already on him, Skye turned her head to get a better look at her companion. Zach's head was slightly bent, and he was lightly playing with the handcuffs that forced his arms above his head. Then he started laughing, a dark chuckle that sent shivers down Skye's spine.
"I always knew AIM was pathetic, but it's hard to believe they could find a leader even more incompetent than Killian," Zach raised his gaze to look straight at Business Suit. "Then again, you're living proof anything is possible."
Business Suit stomped over to him. "Big words for a SHIELD agent," the man growled from less than a foot away.
Zach smirked. "You are so far in over your head," he spoke slowly as if talking to a child.
Business Suit turned slightly to face his guards, no doubt eager to inform them that Zach had volunteered for the promised torture, but he never got a chance to even open his mouth. That moment of distraction was all Zach had been waiting for.
The man in question raised himself up using his bonds and wrapped his legs around Business Suit's neck. One of his hands darted down into the terrified, gasping Suit's jacket seemingly free of their shackles as he yanked his hips to the side. The resounding crack as the man's neck broke had Fitzsimmons and Skye cringing. Skye watched as his free hand reappeared holding his victim's gun and pointed it Tactical Gear 1. Without hesitation, Zach imbedded a bullet in each of guard's foreheads. They fell to the ground dead before they even had the time to draw their own weapons.
Zach one-handedly flipped the safety on the gun and tucked it into his pants. He then used his freed hand to search Business Suit's jacket once more. Quickly he pulled out what appeared to be the key for the handcuffs and proceeded to unlock his other hand. At the same time, he dropped the dead weight of the Suit at his feet.
The whole thing took less than thirty seconds.
"What the hell was that?" Fitz asked recoiling against the wall. He stared at Zach like someone would upon discovering the cute, little puppy you were playing with was actually a man-eating wolf.
Zach paid him no mind. He was quickly and efficiently setting each of his broken fingers on the hand he had not used for his escape. Each one made a sickening snapping sound that had Fitz flinching again.
"I take back what I said earlier about how you set my fingers. I much prefer that way to whatever you're bloody doing now." Fitz waved his bound hands towards Zach with a grimace. Then Skye realized what Fitz just said. Zach had been the one to set his fingers when Fitzsimmons were captured?
That thought was shoved to the back of her mind as she considered all she just witnessed. All three of their former captors were lying motionlessly on the floor, sprawled less than dignifiedly in their deaths. Zach had just eliminated all three AIM agents effortlessly. It was methodical and cold.
It occurred to Skye that the reason she felt so unsettled was that she had never seen him actually acting like a Hydra agent. His fights with her were half-hearted at most- though to be fair, they were on her side as well. They never really tried to hurt each other, even that day in Seville where it all began. Skye had never once seen him do anything like this. Shooting civilians to draw SHIELD out, sniping the dealer in Seville, rigging a bomb at Futurepharm, Skye had known he had done all those things, but a part of her had not connected those actions with the man she kissed and teased and dreamed about so often it was starting to hurt.
It was like staring at a different person. How could the guy who kept her secrets and took an explosion for her be the same one as the one detachedly searching the dead bodies he put on the floor?
There was no emotion whatsoever on his face. He meticulously collected the weapons of Tactical Gears with all the expression of a robot. Everything was mechanical, it felt as though he was not even in the room with Skye at all.
Besides that unnerving sight, other thoughts were flying in and out of Skye's head as she tried to grasp the changed situation. Skye had always known that Zach was good, it was obvious upon meeting him. Fitzsimmons' account of their interrogation had also indicated that even his peers were afraid of him. It was easy to see why now.
Skye thought over what she had just witnessed. All of Zach's taunts to the AIM leader had been purposeful goading. He had lured him closer, so he could take his weapon with mockery and maneuvering. He read the conceitedness in the man and used it against him. Once close enough, he pushed the clueless man to the point of losing his temper and allowing himself to be distracted.
Skye realized Zach must have broken his wrist earlier when everyone was consumed with their own arguments and schemes. When he had been silently playing with his bonds, he was preparing to slip free of his shackles when the moment presented itself. He had twisted his own wrist without letting even the smallest sound of pain escape. It was all scarily impressive from the high pain tolerance and the perfect planning to the unbelievably fast reaction time and easy manipulations.
It made Skye wonder how the hell he planned on explaining to his boss that he blew himself up and then got captured. If Skye were his S.O. and knew all of his tricks and skills, there would be no way she would buy any story that involved him screwing up that much.
Grant breathed calmly as he stripped the corpses of anything of value. His hands were both throbbing persistently, but Grant ignored them. Even with his twisted fingers set, they still stung. His other hand was worse considering he had just broken his wrist, reset it, and then used it to hold a gun steadily. His shoulder was beginning to ache terribly from the strain he put it under when he used his arm to hold up the rest of his body. It felt like there may still be something stuck there, some piece of debris from the blast. His shirt stuck to his body in the area because of all the dried blood. At least it had stopped bleeding.
The engineer Dr. Fitz was commenting on his escape, but Grant tuned him out. He was listening carefully for any suspicious sounds. He wondered if anyone would come running after he fired the gun. Instead, it seemed that anyone else on the plane had just assumed it was their boss shooting the captives as opposed to the other way around. Idiots.
Unfortunately, Grant's plan had relied on people checking out the ruckus he caused. The door was locked shut with a wall panel that required a code or algorithm of some sort. Grant could not say since this was so far outside his area of expertise. He had hoped that some clueless moron would open the door for him when they went to see if their boss was okay, but it appeared Grant's luck had run out. He then thought that there might be some sort of key or card on the dead men's persons, but that similarly proved to be useless.
He might have been hasty in killing them. With them alive, they could have informed him what the key was. But only aiming to incapacitate them while he was attached to the wall and injured was risky. Had he failed to do so, and they shot on him, it would not matter if they were alive to give the code or not, Grant would be dead. He had assessed the risk and decided it was not worth it. But now he was stuck in the room for the time being.
Ward avoided looking at the SHIELD agents. He did not want to see their expressions because he was sure they would be full of the condemning superiority he always saw on SHIELD. Even Skye, she probably would have tried harder to use nonlethal force on their captors. He did not want to watch her face distorted with scorn and disgust. It should not matter what she thought, but it bothered him all the same. This was who he was, a killer and a bad person. It was her fault for not seeing what was right in front of her this whole time. That did not alleviate any of tension that wound up his body though.
"Umm, hello?" Skye's voice disturbed his reverie, but he welcomed the distraction. Anything to save him from his own thoughts. "Aren't you forgetting something?"
Grant finally turned to face the still handcuffed agents. Strangely Dr. Fitz and Skye were not looking at him with any of the expected disdain, instead they appeared almost impatient. The biochemist Dr. Simmons seemed wary and repulsed but otherwise nonjudgmental. It surprised Grant more than he wanted to admit.
"What?" Ward bit out more than a little unnerved by their responses.
Skye just shook her hands and caused the cuffs to rattle obnoxiously. "What are you waiting for? Let us out."
Grant stared at them for a moment in disbelief. "Did you people forget we're not on the same side or are you just stupid?"
Fitz and Skye appeared to be slightly embarrassed as if they really did forget that he worked for Hydra and they were SHIELD. Dr. Simmons just looked at him more offended that anyone would dare insinuate her intelligence was lacking.
Fitz recovered quickly though. "If you're not planning on freeing us, then what are planning to do about the wall panel you were just staring at stupidly?"
Grant fought the urge to laugh at the man's boldness. The engineer had a point, and the way he was staring back fearlessly after what he just seen Grant do was more impressive than anything he had seen most of his Hydra colleagues do.
Still, Grant did not want to let him know that just yet. He raised a brow and deadpanned, "Wait for someone to open the door and then take down anyone who gets in my way."
Fitz was taken aback, probably not expecting Grant to have an answer for him.
Dr. Simmons cut in, "That's an awful plan."
Grant pointedly looked at the dead men littering the interrogation room floor. "It's worked well for me so far."
Skye rolled her eyes. "Cut the crap. We both know that you're going to let us out, so just do it already. My arms are cramping."
While it was true Grant planned to let them go now that Fitz highlighted the benefits of doing so, he was irritated by her assumption. "I don't need any of you."
Skye scoffed. "Okay, are you really turning down an expert hacker-"
"-And a genius engineer," Fitz added quickly.
"-Who can help you get out of the door you can't open in seconds because you're that arrogant or just that much of an ass?"
Grant glared at them all and made no move to free them out of simple spite. He was wasting time though. He did not know how long he had been unaccounted for, but the sooner he got back to base the better. He could only imagine John's reaction to his disappearance. He turned to face Simmons, "Are you going to tell me why you're so valuable that I just have to release you, too?"
Simmons stared back with just as much arrogance. "I don't need to prove my worth to you. But if I were going to note what an imbecile you would be to overlook my potential as an asset, I'd say that I'm an accomplished medic and you're looking a little worse for wear."
Considering the way his body protested his every moment, Grant had no argument for that. He was tempted to just leave them, so they would not think they won. He would not stoop to their level of childishness though.
Ward contemplated the possibility that they were pretending to help him and planned to stab him in the back first chance they got. After his earlier display, it would be smart of them. They must recognize the threat he posed to SHIELD. He dismissed it quickly. It would be out of character for them. There were no signs of deception on Simmons' face, too, and while Grant was fairly certain that Skye could lie well if the situation called for it, he was even surer that the biochemist could not.
Wordlessly, he strode to Skye and unlocked her shackles. The movement put him close enough to her that he was reminded of the temptation he almost gave into not long ago. Even now, he wanted to press against her and duck his head down to meet her lips. The desire that consumed when it came to Skye was starting to worry him. It did not appear to be going anywhere.
"Glad you came to your senses," she smiled cheekily as her breath puffed against his cheek. Grant repressed a shiver. "Not that your other plan wasn't brilliant, Lone Ranger."
Grant handed her the key without comment on her sarcasm. Their fingers brushed and just that simple touch was enough to reignite the craving for more contact. He wondered what she would do if he pushed her up against the wall and kissed her in front of her SHIELD comrades. He was not sure, but the way her eyes widened made him think she read the thought on his face. He needed to lock down his emotions again.
"Thank you," she said softly with none of her previous bravado. He nodded without breaking their eye contact. After a second, Skye turned away and began to help her friends.
Simmons was the closer of the two, so Skye started with her. There was a strange expression on the biochemist's face. It was pained and knowing all at once as she stared at Skye. Skye for her part refused to meet her gaze as she worked on the cuffs. Simmons turned her gaze on Grant himself. He could not tell what she was thinking. Her eyes swept over him appraisingly as if she wanted to check his worthiness. For what, Grant had no idea, and he refused to meet her regard head on.
Instead, he observed Skye as she finished up with Simmons and moved onto Fitz. Simmons rubbed her wrists as she continued to stare at him. Skye made quick work of Fitz's bonds. Soon enough the engineer was massaging his own wrists in time with the biochemist. They were perfectly in sync in their motions.
"Are you done yet?" Grant asked impatiently. Simmons' staring, his attraction to Skye, and his body's aching were starting to get to him. He felt irritated and eager to get the hell off of this plane.
"You can't rush genius," Fitz spoke as he brushed past Ward to get a good look at the wall panel. Fitz snorted to himself, "I won't even need you for this Skye. Cracking the code would take longer than just reconfiguring it."
"Not the way I do it," Skye called back confidently.
Fitz pulled up his shirt, and Ward saw that he had some tools strapped to his chest. Just a few, tiny ones, but there were enough that Fitz seemed sure of his ability rework the wall panel. He selected a small screwdriver and another tool and got to work. Grant was somewhat surprised that the engineer had not managed to free himself with all those tools on hand, but he supposed that a scientist would not view those with the same potential as a field agent. He probably had never even picked a lock with his own hands, preferring instead to create gadgets for field agents to use that served that purpose.
"This is painfully simple," Fitz mumbled. "A monkey could do it. Especially a Capuchin. In addition to their adorable, little hands, they are quite intelligent."
Grant leveled him with a look, mildly offended. "Are you trying to tell me that I'm dumber than a monkey?" He spoke bluntly so the question was really more of a statement.
Fitz fumbled with his tools. "Um, there's nothing wrong with that. Like I was saying, monkeys' brilliance is underestimated. They are capable of far more than you could possibly imagine!"
Grant just stared. "Because I'm that stupid." He should have kept to his other plan of just fighting anyone who crossed his path. Nothing could be worth having freed this guy, so he could compare Grant's intelligence with that of a monkey- with the monkey coming out on top. He wanted to throttle the man. He wanted to laugh.
Fitz for his part appeared to sense Grant's irritation and wished to backtrack but did not know how. "Uhh…" was the gist of his attempt. Simmons grimaced, and Skye bit her lip looking like she was on the verge of laughter.
Skye decided to help her friend out. She sidled up at Grant and gave him a playful punch to his arm, which he just stared at unsure of how he was supposed to respond. "Don't mind Fitz. Nothing compares to monkeys in his mind." She paused before muttering so lowly that Grant was sure he was the only one to hear, "Except maybe Simmons."
"I'm regretting freeing any of you," Grant told her blandly.
Skye smiled unperturbed. "No, you're not." She was right and that bothered Grant even more. "So can I have one of those?" Skye pointed to the three guns he had collected from the AIM men tucked into his holsters and pants.
Grant smirked. "Now why would I give you a gun?"
Skye narrowed her eyes. "Maybe because we're about to go out there to meet who knows how many men, and I'm a hell of a shot?"
"How do I know you won't just wait until my back is turned and shoot me?" Ward wondered, mostly serious. He could not discount the possibility that this was a scheme to get him to lower his guard.
Skye gaped. "Are you really that paranoid?"
Grant opened his mouth to defend himself, but someone interrupted and switched his focus.
"Guys," Fitz called. "I'm done."
Someone pointed out I haven't mentioned Skye's powers for a couple chapters. I'm just hesitant to do anything with them (yet) that the show will joss. They are going to play a role though, and they do exist in this AU as I explained in like chapter 3. But it's going to take a bit of time for them to be used.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I really appreciate it. I have to admit I struggled with writing this chapter because interest seems to have dwindled a bit. It's hard to watch people un-favorite/follow. Makes me wonder if my chapter was that bad. So for those of you who do review, I just want to say how much I appreciate it. You guys are great :) Hope you liked the chapter (it's my longest yet actually)!
