The bullpen was far more crowded than usual - although two of the people in said bullpen weren't active participants in the meeting. Coulson ran straight to the corner, kneeling down next to the unconscious form of his troublesome agent-in-training. "Skye?" he asked, nudging her shoulder to try to wake her gently. He quickly grew worried, though, when Skye didn't respond. "What's wrong with her?" Coulson asked Lanie. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine," Esposito replied.

Coulson was confused by Esposito's confident assurance. "She's *fine*?"

Ryan nodded. "She's with Beckett. In training at the temple." Seeing that his words did nothing to reduce Coulson's confusion, he explained, "we inherited our abilities from a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks. When they died."

Coulson found himself catching on quickly. "And since the Lièrén has the ability to communicate with the dead..."

"We talk to our predecessors regularly: get advice, go for training, stuff like that."

"And that's where Skye is now? With the Lièrén?" Ryan nodded. "When will they be back?"

"Soon," Esposito replied.

Castle, Lanie and Steve filed into the room behind Fallon and Alexis. "What's going on, Phoenix?" asked Steve.

Fallon simply shrugged his shoulders before turning to Esposito. "Your show, General. Want to tell us what you saw?"

"General?" Coulson mouthed to Ryan, confused by the reference.

"Long story," Ryan mouthed back in reply.

Esposito ignored them. "Quinn tracked Skye through most of her childhood. He's wanted her since he first learned about her abilities."

"Why did he stop tracking her?" asked Coulson.

"The plan to protect Skye worked better than anyone could have known," Esposito replied. "Because she was never in one place long enough to form close relationships, her abilities atrophied from lack of practice. When they went into hibernation Quinn moved on to other projects."

"But now that her abilities are back..." Coulson continued.

Esposito nodded. "He wants her again. Now, more than ever."

Castle frowned, confused. "But how could Quinn track Skye *here*? The spell I wrote to protect this place..."

"Works perfectly," Esposito countered. "Don't ask me how, but he tracked Skye to the *temple*. Not here."

Lanie's eyes widened. "The temple?! How?"

"Told you not to ask me that," Esposito grumbled.

Ryan swallowed hard, not wanting to go where his thoughts were headed. "Can Quinn *get* to the temple?"

Esposito shook his head. "Nah bro, don't worry. Lobsang and Tsewang have the place covered. The problem, though, will come when Skye gets back."

"He's going to follow her here," Ryan completed his partner's thought. "To us."

Esposito nodded. "As close as he can get, then use his boys to ground search the neighborhood from there. That's why we have two days and not two hours."

A groan from the corner of the room interrupted the meeting. Coulson raced over to his ally and protege. "Skye?" he asked. "Are you all right?"

"AC?" Skye greeted her 'boss' with a groggy moan. "Are we back in the warehouse?"

Coulson nodded. "Yeah."

Esposito passed over Skye and turned to directly address his partner. "Some problems have come up while you two were gone."

To everyone's surprise, Skye was the one who spoke first. "Bring me up to speed," she ordered.

Fallon looked to Beckett, who nodded her approval. Accepting the nod as a direct order, Fallon then nudged Esposito, who summarized his vision. "Quinn followed you guys back from the temple, Skye. He's coming for you. We got two days."

Skye drew in a deep breath, then let it out in a quiet sigh. "So what's the plan?" she asked calmly.

"We take the fight to Quinn," Ryan replied, suddenly inspired.

That moment of inspiration confused Coulson. "How?" he asked, eyes wide. "We have no idea where he is."

"We don't know *yet*," Ryan argued. "But I think I know how we can find him."

"How?" asked Castle.

"By using his own trick against him," Ryan replied. He turned his focus entirely to his partner. "You know how, when you read Skye, you thought Quinn was looking directly at you?" When Esposito nodded, Ryan continued his explanation. "If Quinn's actual presence is in Skye's memories, and not just her memory of his presence...I think I might be able to connect to it."

Esposito caught on immediately. "And if you can connect to it, you can double-back through it..."

"And use the link to trace his location," Ryan completed the thought.

Esposito turned to Skye. "What do you think, kid? Want to try it?" Skye nodded, silently forcing her fatigued body to get up off the floor and sit in a chair next to Ryan and Esposito's desks.

The connection jerked to life when Ryan and Esposito joined hands with Skye, completing the circuit. Coulson watched nervously as the trio shook with the effort they were putting into their task. Finally, when he could stand to watch no longer, Coulson opened his mouth to protest...only to close it when three pairs of eyes flew open. The group announced their discovery as one. "We know where he is. Pioneer, Tennessee."

"I know where that is," Lanie exclaimed. "It's right in the middle of the Smoky Mountains."

"Good spot to hide," agreed Steve. "Sparsely populated, easy to conceal anything covert underground. Hydra used similar tactics."

"Only Quinn is doing this on *our* soil," insisted Fallon. "And we need to stop him *now*. Master Xiānzhī, how have we lined up with your vision so far?"

Esposito shook his head. "We've already split off from it. But my gut says we only have a window of about twelve hours we can use to pull off any attack before Quinn brings the fight to us."

"We can't let that happen," Fallon declared, "there would be far too much potential for collateral damage I'm not willing to risk."

"But how can we bring the fight to Quinn?" Coulson argued. "Even if we're sure about what the Clairvoyant's next move is, how do we know he doesn't know what we're planning? Or that he'll be able to see us coming? We'll be walking into a trap."

"No, we won't," Skye declared.

Her confidence surprised Coulson. "How can you be so sure?"

Ryan's head snapped up in a gesture that seemed to respond to Coulson's question. The Mùshī's reaction, though, was to turn to Skye. "Is that...is that *you*? Are you doing that, grasshopper?"

Skye smiled broadly. "A little something my dad taught me," she replied.

Ryan and Coulson's eyes both went wide. "Your *father*?!" exclaimed Coulson.

At the same time, Ryan asked, "can you teach that to me when this is over?"

"What is she doing?" Alexis asked Ryan.

"Some sort of...telepathic cone of silence," Ryan replied. "Outside of this room I can't read *anything*. Not a single being. First time that's ever happened."

"I like to think of it as more of a 'shield', personally," Skye teased. When she got the smirk she was hoping to see out of her 'boss', Skye then continued, "but if what my father told me is right, then the Clairvoyant won't be able to sense anyone under my protection. He'll never see us coming."

Ryan shook his head in amazement. "I'd buy that," he agreed. "If I can't hear out, no one else should be able to hear in here, either. I'd have to verify that with Katya to be completely sure, though."

Fallon, for his part, seemed to be satisfied with Ryan's expertise. He turned to Esposito. "Tell Claire to start making the calls. Get as many people to help as you can. We'll leave with as many men as we can gather in three hours."

#

With the Guardians tied up on the phone, Coulson took advantage of the opportunity to talk to Skye. "Did you say you your *father* taught you that trick with the shield?"

Skye's eyes lit up with an exuberance Coulson hadn't seen since before Ian Quinn had shot her. "I know, right? My dad was a *superhero*! How cool is that?!"

"So are *you* now, apparently," Coulson agreed.

Skye's face fell as the implications of Coulson's statement hit her full force. "The 084 thing?"

Coulson nodded. "You know SHIELD is going to want to know. Now that we know."

Terror shot through Skye's being. "You're not going to tell them, are you?"

Coulson's gaze fell from his eye contact with Skye. A purring sound rumbled in the back of his mind, reminding him that Skye wasn't the only one at risk anymore. "If I tell them about you I'd have to tell them about me, too," he admitted.

Skye's eyes widened as her mind flashed back to watching her 'boss' take off at superhuman speed. "So that was all you earlier, huh?"

Coulson blushed as he reluctantly nodded. "That's not even the half of it."

"So what are you going to do?" asked Skye.

Coulson let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Honestly? I don't know," he admitted. "I've already been a lab experiment once. I'm not really interested in going through that again."

"Yeah, me neither," Skye added.

"Okay," Coulson finally declared decisively, "we know the Clairvoyant murdered your mother, and this might be our best chance to get him. So...one step at a time? We'll figure out what we're going to do about SHIELD once we take down Quinn?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Skye noticed the last Network member hang up the phone. "Okay," she agreed. "One step at a time."