Chapter 33

Ward sat in the room with Coulson in front of him. His stern glare literally beating into his soul, May almost seemed nice, compared to Coulson at that moment.

"Go over it again." Coulson demands.

"Sir, I've repeated the story twenty times, and you've told me all the different scenarios and precautions I should have taken, but didn't." Coulson kicks the table, a dent clear on his shoe.

"I trusted you Ward, I trusted Bobbi! Skye, do you know the pain and hardship she's been through!" He yells. "All that pain, she's gone through, she might have to go through again!" Coulson falls back on the chair. "I wanted to save her, I wanted to save her from that." Coulson mumbles to himself more than anything. "I thought I could."

"Sir, I'm sorry, I don't know what to say or what we can do." Ward bites his lip. "I wish giving myself up or something would help, but we have no leads or no clues, and I have no idea what to do next."

"Simple Ward, you go back to school, you live a normal life with all your friends, and the shield agents will handle the rest. Director Fury has a task force assigned, but you Ward are a student, you haven't graduated yet, even though I offered it to you, but you are not an agent yet." Coulson pulls back some of his hair. "And because of that you aren't responsible, I am."

"No, Coulson don't say—"

"It's no one's fault, but the one who took her." May explains upon entering the room. "Do you understand." Her voice was projected at Ward, but her eyes were looking at Coulson. The two men nod. "The team found a lead in some clothing that fell off the victim. Apparently some place in Switzerland. Don't worry we're tracking every lead we can. Will find her."

"My worry is she won't be the same when we do." Coulson expresses honestly. "You didn't see her the last time we brought her out. After Shield saved her from that fire, she was almost dead."

"Which is why will save her before that happens." May reassures, but really she was reassuring herself. "Ward you're dismissed, go get some sleep."

Ward gets up out of the chair, walking over to his room. When he looks back he sees May patting Coulson's back to console him. Ward rolls his shoulders, having not slept in the past couple days. How could he, when what happened was his fault.

Skye had been taken because they had been fighting, if it weren't for him being so stupid, maybe she would be sitting with him right now drinking hot chocolate or something.

Ward passes by Mack and Fitz's room. Triplett was in there with them, his head leaning back against the wall. Mack laughs at something Trip says, and Ward wants to frown finding it annoying how obvious it is they're forgetting that Skye had been taken. How could they just forget her like that? She was gone; they should be spending every extra minute of their time looking for her.

"You seem tense." Ward hears Bobbi say behind him. "Shouldn't you get some sleep?" She points out.

"I'm fine." He confirms, as Ward starts walking away.

"Hey." Bobbi stops Ward. "Don't spend every effort thinking about Skye, or you won't have any energy left when we save her."

"Yeah, while we all have our ways with dealing with different scenarios." Ward passes Bobbi and heads off into his room, where every thought he has, is how he can find and save Skye.

XxXxXxX

"You have her sedated." Quinn confirms outside the door.

"Yes, she's awake, but under a sedation." Raina confirms to Ian Quinn. "You're son did excellent work, I'm impressed."

"Yes while he even impressed me." Quinn confirms with a smirk. "Now let's see my prize." Raina opens the door to the room.

Skye was lying on a table strapped down, an IV pumping drugs into her system keeping her sedated but awake. She was wearing a hospital gown, and her hair had been cut back to shoulder length. "My, my, aren't you grown up now." He says fascinated.

Skye turns her head, not being able to respond quickly, but having enough strength to glare. "Well I'll have you know escape is not the option this time." He flicks Skye on the forehead. "We will discover your secret."

"I… don't… have a secret." Her voice is slurred and sluggish, but it's enough to get the message across.

"Oh my darling, you do. And this time will discover it, I have better scientists now, more resources, and this time my work won't go up in flames." He smirks making sure Skye can look him in the eye. "All that torture you went through; all those experiments were because of me." Ian Quinn explained to her. Skye struggles against the straps she was taped down to, but the drugs made it impossible to almost move a finger. "But this time I want to explain to you it's for a reason. Last time I kept you in the dark because you were a child, but now..." He moves back, and walks around the surface she was strapped to. "You need to know what you're dying for."

The word 'dying' sent a phase of fear through Skye's body. Did they intend to kill her?

"My experiments were delayed last time in fear of your fragile body, but now …Skye." He says using the name she'd chosen. "Now you're an adult almost, and your body can handle so much more… pain." He pushes his thumb into her arm, causing Skye to spasm a bit. "Which means we can dig deeper and much more quickly." He leans down so his face is right next to hers. "You are going to make me one of the most powerful men in the world."

"Sorry to disappoint… but there's nothing …. different about me." Even talking was a struggle for Skye.

"Oh Skye, but there is so much about you that makes you special." Raina interrupts. "In fact there's nothing even relatively normal about you."

"Call it your lucky day having met with me." Ian Quinn smiles at Skye. "But I thought it was fitting since, you'll be useless once we take what we need from you, but still have contributed so much to the cause." Quinn gets up and leaves the room with Raina. "I leave this project in your care; hopefully you can oversee it better than the last." Quinn confirms while departing the room.

The man finishes cleaning his round glasses, placing them over his eyes. "Of course Sir, discovery requires experimentation after all."

Merry Christmas (day late) but hope everyone is having wonderful holidays. So any speculations on the story, I have a lot of plots lines even I'm finding it hard to keep up, but I'm heading into the wrapping up phase. Which means, probably 10-20 more chapters and I'm done this story. I'll leave it so I can tie everything up in a nice bow, but leave room for a sequel if I so desire (or many people ask for one). So any guesses on why Skye is so special and how she'll make Ian Quinn the most powerful man in the world?