A/N: Apologies for the delayed update - Christmas and sickness took it out of me this week. I'll be sure to get the next few out in a more timely manner. ;)
Skye was so absorbed in her research that she jumped when Coulson touched her shoulder. "We'll be landing in a few minutes," he informed her before heading off toward the cargo hold.
She buckled in and peered out the window to see a world illuminated only by pale moonlight. Foothills stretched out to the horizon, blanketed by trees. Apparently the Party House, unlike the Playground, was off the beaten path.
The moonlight outside the windows dimmed as the plane entered the hangar, and in a moment Skye felt the shudder-thump of the wheels touching down. She shut her laptop, unbuckled, and headed for the stairs.
The next twenty minutes were a chaos of unloading, getting everything off the planes into the Party House, which, she discovered, was essentially a rough hillside bunker.
"Listen up!" Coulson called, as the last of the boxes were offloaded. The busy hangar quieted. "This base is smaller than the Playground, and housing arrangements are two to a room. Find a roommate and get settled. I need Agent Simmons and her team in the lab immediately. Fitz, Simmons, Mack, both Koenigs, and field agents, I'll see you in the briefing room in one hour. The rest of you have the night off. Get some sleep."
Simmons caught Skye's eye from across the hangar and made her way over as the noise level began to climb back to a dull roar. "Want to be roomies?" she asked hopefully.
"Definitely." Skye felt the lately-unfamiliar sensation of a genuine smile stretching across her face. Then she grimaced jokingly and added a caveat: "I'm not always the neatest person in the world, but I don't have that much to make a mess with."
"It's okay." Simmons rolled her eyes self-consciously, with an answering smile. "I compulsively straighten up when under stress, so we'll be a perfect team."
Skye's momentarily lifted spirits fell again at the reminder of the stressful situation in which they found themselves, between the earthquakes and the mysterious attack in São Luis. The two women's eyes met for a moment in silent mutual understanding.
Simmons blinked. "I have to get to the lab right away to analyze the data. Can I send my bag with you? I don't care what room you choose as long as it's well-lit." She made an apologetic face, proffering her duffel.
"Sure." Skye accepted the bag. "I'll come find you and tell you where we live."
Simmons flashed a quick, grateful smile and turned to go.
The agents' quarters were all in the same section of corridors, the hallways as barren and dimly lit as the Playground's. SHIELD could really benefit from recruiting a few interior decorators, Skye observed idly. At least it wasn't freezing.
She scouted a couple of rooms, testing the beds, before settling on a room halfway down the first hallway with good mattresses and adequate lighting. She placed Simmons' duffel on one of the beds and plopped onto the other, pulling the pillow from the Playground out of her bag. She buried her face in it, breathing in the familiar, strangely comforting scent.
The confused emotions swirling at the back of her mind threatened momentarily to come to the fore, but with a little effort she kept the lid on. There would have to be time to deal with those later.
She unpacked her things quickly, grabbed her laptop, made a mental note of the room number, and dashed off to find the lab.
The team gathered for a briefing an hour later. Coulson quickly filled everyone in on the situation in São Luis before asking Simmons for her report.
"I've found nothing in the data, sir," Simmons explained uneasily. "No strange substances, no abnormalities. Agent Silva's iron is a little high, but nothing to be concerned about. That means..." She took a deep breath. "If we're dealing with something that has been injected, it's something we don't know to look for. It's entirely possible that alien technology or biology wouldn't come up on the standard tests that Agent Ferreira's team is running. Is there any chance I could get my hands on some good quality blood samples, so we can run additional tests here?"
Coulson nodded briskly. "Bobbi, are you up for taking the quinjet?"
"Sure." Bobbi looked tired, but willing. Hunter flashed a concerned look in her direction.
"No need, sir," Fitz interrupted. "Mack and I have been working on miniaturizing the cloaking technology for my hypersonic drones, and we have three ready to go. They have the range, and they'd be large enough to transport samples."
"Can they keep them at an appropriate temperature?" Simmons looked skeptical.
Fitz gave a curt nod. "I can make the necessary modifications in an hour or so. They'll still be faster than the quinjet, and burn much less fuel."
"All right." Simmons looked troubled by, but resigned to, the delay. "I'll have to have a look before you deploy them."
Coulson turned to Skye. "Anything?"
"Well, as far as the earthquakes go..." Skye tapped a few keys, pulling up what she'd found. "The latest one came in at a magnitude 6.1. Preliminary geological analyses indicate that the source was in the wrong place and too close to the surface for this kind of quake. I don't think we're dealing with natural causes here."
"Just more confirmation," Coulson observed tersely. "And the intel from São Luis?"
"Nothing yet." Skye let out a frustrated sigh. "Whoever these people are, they hid their tracks well. It's going to take some time to chase them down."
Coulson nodded, studying her carefully. "Keep working on it. I have confidence in you."
Skye smiled weakly.
"Anyone have anything to add?" Coulson asked. There was no response. "All right, then we're in a holding pattern until we have more information. Go get some sleep. We've had a busy day, and tomorrow could be worse. Fitz and Simmons, get those drones in the air. Billy Koenig can give you the coordinates for Agent Ferreira's location."
Skye rubbed her temples, turning her attention back to her laptop as the room cleared out. The adrenaline rush that had sustained her for the majority of the day was beginning to wear off, and for the first time, she started to notice the tingling of exhaustion in her arms and legs.
"Skye." She realized Coulson was standing beside her. "You've been awake for almost 24 hours. You had a strenuous field mission today before we had to relocate. And we might need you fresh tomorrow. I want you to get some rest and look at this again in the morning."
Skye opened her mouth to protest, but the knowing look in his eyes stopped her. She sighed. She hated to need a break, but she couldn't deny that her hands were getting shaky and her thoughts fuzzier by the second. And this was not an easy trace. A few hours of sleep could make a big difference.
"Okay," she conceded, with a small smile. "Thanks for looking out for me, AC."
Coulson nodded, gazing at her with both approval and concern. "I appreciate your dedication, but make sure you take care of yourself. We need you around here."
This time, Coulson was in the underground chamber, too, his face still bloodied and his breath rasping from the beating her father had given him. Skye watched with horror, rooted to the floor and paralyzed, as both he and Agent Triplett cried out in pain before solidifying into stone. Then everything started to shake, and a huge chunk of rock fell from high above them, smashing Coulson into pieces. Skye opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out.
Just then, the entrance to the chamber slowly rumbled open, and Simmons rushed in. "Skye! Skye!" she shouted desperately, just before the great slab that had sealed the chamber shifted and rocked. Simmons' brown eyes went wide with terror as it crashed down on top of her.
Skye awoke, screaming, to Simmons shaking her shoulder. "Skye! Skye!" the other agent repeated. "Wake up!" Her eyes were wild, as in the dream, and she gestured about the room. Skye abruptly realized that, as with her other nightmares, the base itself was moving. This earthquake wasn't as strong as the last one, but it was happening. And it shouldn't be.
Skye jumped to her feet and flung their door open, looking up and down the corridor. She locked eyes with Agent May, who was leaning out the door of her room a little way up the hall.
"Briefing room," May commanded, and Skye grabbed Simmons by the hand to drag her in that direction.
Along the way, they passed Hunter and Mack piling out of their room, and Fitz emerging, bleary-eyed, from the one next door. "Briefing room," Skye informed them.
"Is there any way they could have found us?" May demanded, her eyes flashing.
Sam Koenig, who seemed to be the primary target of her wrath, shook his head emphatically. "This base is top-secret, completely off the books, and you've only been here for three hours. That's hardly enough time to have found the base and moved a weapon into place."
"Could we have been tracked here?" Hunter suggested.
"No," May replied shortly. "We swept everything for bugs before we left, including every inch of the planes. And the cloaking technology is impossible to track."
"Is it?" Hunter clarified, looking over at Fitz and Mack.
Fitz looked suddenly uncomfortable. "Err, yes. That is, it should be. Theoretically, the planes could some day be tracked, but the technology for, uh, tracking them is still...five or six years down the road. Even with teams of scientists working on it, I don't see how they could possibly have done it so soon."
Simmons shook her head in agreement. "It's extremely unlikely." Fitz glanced over at her gratefully. "And even if they had, could they have moved a weapon here this quickly? And without us noticing? It's not as if there's anywhere to hide out there."
Coulson, who had been studying his folded hands in deep thought, looked up at the biochemist. "What are you suggesting?"
She took a deep breath. "I'm wondering if something we've brought with us is causing the earthquakes. We have a lot of Hydra tech still in boxes, and some of it we don't yet fully understand." She made a face, knowing her next suggestion would mean a great deal of work for everyone. "I propose we unpack every bit of tech, ours and Hydra's, and scan all of it for unusual vibrations or other emissions."
Fitz rolled his eyes in mock despair, but didn't disagree.
"Okay," Coulson agreed. "What do you need?"
Simmons scrunched up her forehead. "A large workspace, like perhaps the hangar. The DWARFs, all our handheld scanners..."
"...and a lot of manpower," Fitz finished.
Coulson looked around at everyone. "You heard them. Get everybody up. To the hangar. We need to get to the bottom of this before the place comes down around us."
Coulson caught Skye gently by the arm on her way out the door. "I need you to stay focused on São Luis. Get a few hours of sleep and get back to it."
"Yes, sir," she replied, noticing that the words came out shaky.
Coulson noticed, too, and looked at her closely. "You okay?"
Skye took a deep breath and pulled it together. "Just nightmares. I'll be fine," she answered, more steadily.
His expression of concern didn't change, and his voice was gentle. "Ask Simmons for something to help you sleep, if you need it."
Skye nodded, resigned. "Okay."
A/N: I was stuffy-headed and mildly feverish throughout writing most of this chapter, but I went over it many times, so hopefully it came out okay. I'd love constructive criticism on pacing, characterization, the overall story balance of action and introspection (I tend to lean heavily toward introspection, but I'm experimenting with weaving together several plot lines, which requires action!), and the level of detail (too much? not enough?), as well as anything else. Your input will help keep me motivated and on track after slogging through this chapter! ;)
Also, to my guest reviewer Carmen: I LOVE your reviews! I'm so thrilled that you're enjoying the story and have found the characters consistent with AoS in the previous chapters. Your feedback is really helpful! Is there any way I could coerce you into creating an account, so we could message back and forth? :)
And finally - yep. Fitz has hypersonic drones. And his own room. Because I'm nice to him like that. And bonus points to people who catch the reference from Season 1 in this chapter.