"So how am I doing?" Skye asked Simmons.
Simmons tried and failed to mask her astonishment. "I have to run some blood tests to be sure, but it looks like you're fine. Like...like you'd never been shot."
Skye frowned in confusion as she studied the shocked look among three of her friends...and the not-quite-so-shocked look on Coulson's face. "AC?" she asked. "You know something, don't you?"
"Not much," Coulson admitted. "I took something of a...leap of faith." He squeezed Skye's hand, grateful to feel its warmth. "I'm just glad it worked."
"Who *are* these people?" asked Fitz. "How could they possibly do something like this?"
"They're called the Guardians of Shangri La," May announced from the doorway. She was holding a thin folder with a SHIELD insignia emblazoned across it. "I found this in your office." Coulson grabbed the folder out of May's hands, which didn't seem to faze her in the slightest. "I have only one question: if all five of these guys are 084s, how come we know so little about them?"
Ward had similar concerns. "May asked me to find out about them, but there was nothing in the computer *at all*..."
"We go to great lengths to keep information about us from getting into the hands of organizations such as yours," Castle announced from behind them. "I'm surprised you have as much as you have there."
Coulson looked down at the papers he held in his hands. "I have a sneaking suspicion that this folder has an...alternative source of protection." Castle nodded, understanding the implied reference to their common ally.
Skye was getting a little frustrated...and embarrassed. "Guys, as much as I appreciate all the attention, can we take the conversation someplace bigger? Where I can maybe wear some clothes?"
#
Castle let out a low whistle, deeply impressed by the technology he saw in the plane's conference room. "I'm going to have to ask Fallon and Stark to up the tech budget..." he exclaimed.
Fitz caught the name-drop. "Stark? As in Tony Stark?"
Castle simply shrugged. "Long story."
"*And* I think other things take priority right now," May countered. "Like who you people are."
"How much is in that file you keep waving around?" Lanie asked. Coulson handed Lanie the file. She slowly flipped through the few pages of information that Coulson had on hand. "This isn't much more than our names, old photos and our titles."
Coulson nodded. "I did some research for Director Fury when you guys were searching for the North Star. What's in that file is mostly just enough to jog my memory."
"You *researched* them?!" exclaimed Ward. "Why wasn't I able to find that research? Has the Director protected it for some reason?" Coulson shook his head. "Then *what*? Have you guys hacked into our system or something?"
Castle shook his head. "I regularly cast a spell that eliminates almost all evidence of the existence of abilities and our history. Lanie, can I take a look at that folder?" Lanie pushed the folder over to Castle, and he carefully flipped through the pages. "I think I know why this folder exists," Castle mused. "It fits in the loophole."
"Loophole?" asked Coulson.
"We can't permanently effect people's memories or free will," Castle explained. "The spell kills all hard and electronic evidence of who we are and what we can do, but this file is so bare-bones that unless you know enough about us to make the connections..."
"Clearly," agreed May. "Coulson knew enough to make the connections. The rest of us don't. So why don't you enlighten us?"
"We're the successors of a group called the Guardians of Shangri La," Castle began. "We use our combined abilities to protect the world from things it's either unwilling or unprepared to believe in."
May seemed to be trying to size up the men and women in front of her within the context of Castle's explanation. "Combined abilities?" she repeated. "So each of you has different abilities?" The five Guardians nodded. "Like what, exactly?"
"You've already seen mine," Lanie replied.
Skye found herself trying to put the pieces together and found herself failing even as everyone else simply nodded. "What ability is that?" she asked.
"Dr. Esposito saved your life, Skye," Simmons replied. "Although I'm completely at a loss to explain *how* she did it..."
Skye's eyes went wide. "How bad off was I?"
"You were dying," replied Coulson, his voice breaking at the memory of holding her limp, lifeless form in his arms.
"The bullets perforated your intestines," Simmons explained. "You almost bled out first, then with all that bacteria floating around your system...it should have taken you months, maybe even years to recover from those injuries. If you ever recovered at all."
Skye was dumbstruck. "But I've...I've never felt better..." she gasped. She turned to Lanie. "That was *you*?" Lanie nodded. "Thank...thank you..." Lanie quietly nodded a second time in response.
May listened to the conversation closely. "So all of your abilities are as powerful as Dr. Esposito's?" The other four Guardians nodded.
Ward's mind went straight to one of the other Guardian-related event he couldn't explain. "How did you guys get on the plane?"
Castle subtly lifted a finger to admit to the incident. "That would be me."
"And you would be...?" asked Fitz.
"A wizard," Castle replied.
Fitz' and Simmons' eyes went wide almost simultaneously. "A wizard?" exclaimed Fitz. "A magic-wielding, spell-casting wizard?" Castle nodded. "That...that's impossible..."
"Really?" asked Ward, not wanting to get into the deep scientific discussion he was sensing to be inevitable. "Then you explain how they got on the plane. While we're in mid-air."
"A...a portal," Fitz stammered, having been put on the spot. "It...it had to be a portal, like the ones the Asgardians use..." His voice trailed off as even he realized that that explanation didn't fit. Finally he fell back in his chair, dumbstruck as the truth finally sunk in. His eyes drifted back to Castle in amazement. "You're really a wizard?" Castle nodded.
May frowned as the explanation that Castle gave conflicted with her memories of the information in the folder. "Mr. Castle, can I see that folder again, please?" Castle pushed the folder over to May, who pulled out Castle's photo and read the title off the back. "Dr. Esposito's title is Healer, which seems to be self-explanatory. So why is yours Four Winds?"
"It signifies control over the elements," Castle replied.
May nodded, accepting the information in context. She flipped over Ryan's picture. "Agent Ryan?" Ryan nodded in acknowledgement of May's prompt. "What does Warrior Priest signify?"
Ryan opened his mind to connect with the group and 'show off' his ability as a telepath, then immediately recoiled. His head exploded with excruciating pain.
Lanie crossed the room and knelt by her friend's side. "Ryan? Talk to me, what's going on?"
"Feedback," Ryan grunted.
Lanie put her hands to Ryan's temples, eliminating the physical pain as Ryan dialed back his abilities. "Thanks," he told Lanie. Finally he regained the strength to stand. "I'm a telepath," Ryan explained to May. "I tried to connect to everyone's mind to communicate this without speaking, but..."
Ryan and Lanie seemed to come up with the same answer at the same time. The look of inspiration wasn't lost on the rest of the team. "What?" asked Beckett.
"I've only ever felt feedback like this one other time," Ryan explained, scanning the room to verify his suspicions. "My wife is pregnant with our second child." His eyes rested on Skye...and her obvious headache confirmed his suspicions. "The baby's a telepath. I think you might be one, too, Skye."
Skye's eyes went wide. "You think I can *read minds*?!"
"I had something similar happen to me when we were searching for the Prophet," Esposito explained. "When we meet someone with the similar abilities to what we have, the reaction can feel like when the same poles of a magnet try to come together."
"That's what that was?" Skye asked. "What that...noise was?"
Lanie nodded. "It fits. She has the gene..."
Simmons latched onto the familiar term. "Your abilities are *genetic*?"
"The potential to *develop* our abilities is genetic," Lanie explained. "But you have to be exposed to massive amounts of energy in order for your genetically-designated ability to emerge." Lanie turned her attention to Skye. "The thing is, from what I saw in your DNA, if you were exposed to an energy source, it had to have happened when you were *really* young. Maybe even before you were born."
Away from the Guardians' conversation with Skye, May's eyes fixed on Coulson's. We know so little about Skye's childhood, thought May. What if they're right?
"Try it," Ryan suggested. "Pick someone in the room and picture a string going between your mind and theirs."
"Like a tin can telephone?" asked Skye.
Ryan nodded. "Exactly like a tin can telephone. Give it a shot."
Skye eyed Ryan warily, then decided to take him at his word. She scanned the room, carefully considering whose thoughts she'd be most interested in hearing. The final decision didn't take long. I've always wanted to know what goes through that woman's head, thought Skye. She tried to clear her thoughts and picture that string going between her head and May's...
Nothing. Skye shook her head. "I don't hear anything," she told Ryan.
An idea rose to the front of Coulson's mind as he connected parts of Skye's past to their current conversation. "Telepathy can go the other way, right?" he asked Ryan. "Not just reading people's thoughts, but planting thoughts in their heads?"
Ryan nodded. "That's what I was trying to do earlier." He turned to Skye. "What do you think? Want to try again?"
Skye shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
"Your goal is to try and plant a thought in someone's head," Ryan instructed her. "Something that they would never think of on their own. It'll work better if you can think of it in *their* voice, but either way, pick someone and see how it goes."
Skye nodded, then scanned the room a second time. She had to suppress a giggle when inspiration hit. Taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, she connected to the mind of her 'target'...and sighed. "I don't think it worked," she groaned in frustration, rolling her eyes up to the ceiling.
"I *hope* it worked," Simmons countered, suppressing her own giggle in a way that surprised everyone in the room, "because if it didn't, this conversation could quickly get *very* awkward..."
Everyone started to look at each other; each one sizing up their fellow table-mates to see if they were acting 'inappropriately'...everyone except for Ward. Ward had pushed his chair next to Fitz' and slipped his arm around the other man's, caressing Fitz's upper arms with a tenderness that could only be described as romantic. The scientist jumped up like he was sitting on a spring when Ward started to nuzzle on his neck. "Agent Ward!" Fitz exclaimed, "What on Earth do you think you're doing?!"
Ward looked at his hands like they were disconnected from his body. "I...I don't know..." he stammered.
"Agent Ward, this is extremely important," Ryan instructed Ward carefully. "What is the last thing that you remember thinking?"
Ward paused for a moment before his face paled. "That Fitz is the most beautiful man I've ever met and I can't keep my hands off him..." he gasped.
Reactions around the room were decidedly mixed. Simmons gave in to the giggles she had been trying to suppress. Beckett and Lanie quickly followed. May shut down, seemingly conflicted by the humor in recent events and implications of what those same events could mean for their team's future. Coulson stared at Skye in amazement as a thousand random events and stories seemed to click into place at once.
And Skye stared at Ward and through him at the same time. Her face paled; she suddenly realized how grateful she was to be sitting down. "That...that's exactly what I wanted him to think. *Exactly*. I...I did that..."
"Yeah, you did," Ryan agreed. He gently rubbed Skye's back, pouring peace through the physical connection to try to calm her down and let things sink in. "Apparently, Skye, you have the ability to control people's minds."
