So I was so focused on writing the fifth chapter for this fic I completely forgot I had to post the second! I'm sorry! But I'm here right now and I hope you'll like what I've written.
Some details begin to appear concerning Skye's past and the crossovers I've woven into this using her as a point of focus (I love crossovers, and when I considered that she had been moved from family to family every few months for more than a decade... the possibilities were endless!)
Please, enjoy!
Chapter 2. Crows and Foxes, Ravens and Wolves
Hours later all the traitors had been rounded. Most of them would be sent to the nearest prison (normal prisons). However, John Garrett had been high enough in Hydra that Hand and Coulson had decided it was better to send him to the Fridge, so arrangements were being made for transport by Hand's most loyal subordinates, while Astrid kept adding information to the main screen in the control room for her superiors' perusal; mostly video from what had happened in the Triskelion, and a few things from the other bases around the world.
"Captain America has defeated the helicarriers at the Triskelion." Victoria Hand stated with a gesture to the things being shown on the screen. "But his status is unknown."
It was, certainly, though that was not one of the things that worried Phil. Natasha had been with Steve for that battle, and he knew her well enough to trust she would have made sure the Captain made it if it were at all in her power... he also knew that if something had happened to him, she would have informed him, or at least Astrid, already.
"And S.H.I.E.L.D. has fallen." Victoria went on. "Hydra factions have taken control of our East African headquarters and the Treehouse. And those are just the ones we know of."
"It's gonna be a scramble, a power grab." Phil nodded, understanding the situation clearly.
"I'll head to the Fridge." The other Senior Agent declared. "At least that facility is secure."
"I don't need to remind you how imperative it is that it stay that way." Phil agreed.
Hand didn't need to hear it, they all knew the importance of keeping the Fridge, and most importantly, its contents, out of Hydra's hands.
"And I'll find Agent Garrett the smallest, darkest cell in the icebox." Victoria sounded almost positively vindictive when she said that.
"I'd like to turn the key on that cell myself if you don't mind, sir." Ward interfered abruptly. "He was my SO... I feel I should have known. It was my duty to..."
"No one knew." Phil interrupted, trying his best to put his Agent at ease. "I didn't know... That's how he beat us by being a friend."
"I spent years with that bastard." Ward insisted, before his voice broke. "Looked up to him. I want to see him suffer..."
From her spot at one of the computers Astrid couldn't help the shiver of dread that ran through her body when Ward said those words. She'd never heard him like that, so cruel, so dark... she could practically feel the cloying shadow in his aura... it was almost sickening. She wondered if that was what betrayal felt like... it couldn't be easy, for Ward to know that a man he so admired had betrayed everyone, betrayed him... still, she didn't like that he was letting that feeling take him over, it wouldn't lead anywhere good. Not for anyone.
"Don't mind the company, and I can always use a man of your skills." Hand nodded at Ward before turning back to Coulson. "Pick up the pieces here at the Hub if you can; and only communicate using one of these." She handed him an encrypted phone. "You and I may be the highest-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who aren't Hydra or dead not that that means anything now. All we have is each other." She let out a breath. "So stay in touch, Agent Coulson."
"I guess you can call me Phil." He offered, as he shook her hand.
Hand was about to leave, with Ward having left already (probably to gather his things), when Astrid made an abrupt decision and approached the woman.
"Agent Hand?" She asked.
"Yes?" She asked, turning to the younger woman, curiously. "Agent Avery, right?"
"Yes ma'am." Astrid swallowed her nervousness as she offered the woman what looked like a bracelet. "I was wondering if you would wear this."
"What is it?" Hand suspected it wasn't as simple as it looked.
"A tracker." The girl answered promptly. "Seeing as we can't exactly trust the usual S.H.I.E.L.D. gear right now I thought this was a good idea. It transmits in a frequency only I can access. I'm getting more ready, and they're still pretty much in the testing stages, but seeing as they will never be more useful than right now..." She shrugged slightly. "It technically should emit a warning should your vitals drop bellow acceptable levels, as a way of knowing if you're attacked. It will also allow us to keep track of each other, and assist one another in case of an emergency. At least that's the idea..."
Astrid cursed inwardly at her inability to hide her nervousness at what she was offering, and the possibility of Hand rejecting it. She hoped she would take it, though. When the older woman had mentioned that she and Phil were probably the highest ranked Agents of SHIELD left, Astrid couldn't help but think of how things would be if Phil were alone. It would be hard enough to survive as they were, they couldn't afford to lose anyone else... which is why the bracelet wasn't just a tracker, Astrid had also done her best to spell it, in the short time she'd had available, some protection (just enough to, hopefully, help preserve a life), and a measure to possibly allow for an emergency rescue in a life-death situation.
"I believe it is a good idea." Hand agreed, securing the bracelet around her left wrist. "Let me know when you have more Agent Avery, these sure will be useful."
"Yes ma'am." The brunette nodded right away.
xXx
Hours passed. Astrid waited until everyone was working on fixing the bus (she'd left a program running on restoring the systems) before slipping into Phil's office, locking the door behind her, so they could have a private chat.
"What is going on?" She asked him straight out.
Phil turned to look at her in shock, obviously he wasn't expecting her.
"Agent Avery..." He began in a very formal tone.
"Quit the bullshit AC." She interrupted him, almost ripping the band off her hair to 'release' the 'Agent Avery' persona. "I know something is wrong. I could sense it since before we left the plane, like a metaphorical kick in the mouth of the stomach, it took my breath away, and I cannot even imagine what you were feeling exactly, or what caused it. But I know it was bad..." She hesitated, her voice softening. "I just want to help. To be here for you... regardless of anything else, we're still friends, aren't we? Or is it you don't want to trust me with whatever it is that happened? I will, of course, respect your decision and..."
Phil needed just to raise a hand to stop her rant.
"If there is one person I trust right now, that's you, Skye." He assured her quietly, using her real-name as a way of showing how far that trust went. "I just... I still cannot believe what happened. Have no idea how to even begin telling you..."
"You can show me..." She offered, shyly extending a hand to him. "If you don't mind..."
For a few seconds nothing happened, and right when Skye thought he wouldn't be taking her up on her offer, Phil clasped her hand in his.
Her power reacted immediately to the contact, reflecting how strong the memory was, how important, the young woman was swallowed by it instantly:
AC and Melinda May were in what passed as an infirmary on the plane, he was working on getting a bullet out of her arm and bandaging her; meanwhile, shooting could still be heard on the background, as Hand's men (and some Hydra) tried to take the Bus.
"That was his direct line, Phil." May stated grimly, holding back her grimace of pain as best she could when the bullet was finally extracted.
She was referring to her failed attempt to raise Fury on her secret hard-line, it was how they'd found out he was dead.
"So it's real." Phil stated simply, working on cleaning the wound. "That means it's just you and me, unless there were other parties you reported to."
"There weren't." She muttered, with little hope that he would believe her.
"Then come out with it." He insisted she be honest, like he had been doing for a while. "Fury's gone. We're being shot at by our own people..."
"Fury knew you'd want me to join up." She finally said. "He asked me to keep an eye on you."
"Looking for what?" He didn't like the sound of what.
"Signs of physical or mental deterioration, to keep him updated." She was doing her best to keep the explanation short and simple, and failing completely at it. "It's that simple."
"Did you know about Tahiti?" His disbelief at the possibility was obvious, and her expression enough of an answer. "How could you do that to me? After all we've been through, the years we spent together in ops..."
"He said it was essential you couldn't know." She insisted.
"The time I spent sifting through the ashes with you in Bahrain?" He went on, beginning to lose his composure. "I gave you a second chance when I assembled..."
"I assembled this team!" She interrupted abruptly.
"What?" He so hadn't seen that one coming.
"I evaluated what was needed, and gave the assessment to Fury." She elaborated. "And he gave you the parameters for your unit."
"What was needed, May?" He knew already he wasn't going to like the answer.
"Someone who could repair your body, a technician who could reprogram your brain, and a specialist to help me put you down if it had to be done." She enlisted in the most blank tone possible, before trying to make it better, and failing. "But I didn't do it for Fury... I did it for you, to protect you! I..."
She'd probably said more, most likely, as her mouth was still moving, but Phil had pretty much stopped listening at that point, and it reflected in the memory.
"...but that's the truth." He eventually was hearing her again. "And I have nothing to do with the Clairvoyant or this Hydra threat we're up against. Hopefully," She signaled to her wounded arm with a sigh. "This helps prove that."
"I want to believe you," He admitted in an almost defeated tone. "But you've used that against me this whole time..."
Skye pulled back as Ward made his arrival to inform them the shooting had stopped, she knew already what came after that. Still, her mind was completely focused on what she'd just seen, suddenly Phil's recent coldness regarding May made a lot more sense. And his words to her just earlier, which she'd happened to hear:
"You're not a friend. But I do believe you're an ally. We need all the allies we can get."
Skye hadn't understood his coldness back then, but after what she'd just seen... and the feelings that he'd experienced as it happened to him... she felt an incredible urge to hit Melinda May, and to curse in a way only dwarves did, according to her teachings, (or Asgardians who've had too much to drink, according to her Adar).
For what seemed like forever, not a word was said, Skye wasn't even sure how long she stood there, or sat, as she dropped into a chair at some point without consciously noticing.
"Skye...?" Phil asked eventually, worry obvious in his voice.
"I cannot believe it..." She finally whispered, raising her head to look at her AC. "I honestly cannot. I mean May... she... I..."
"I know." He nodded, he truly did.
"I expected better from her." Skye insisted. "I mean, I know she's all for the rules, and trusting the system and all that, but really... I just... I cannot understand..." She ran a hand through her hair in a nervous tick. "This is a betrayal. Maybe not like Garrett's, and everyone else who was Hydra, but this is a betrayal as well and..."
"And it's more personal." He added, understanding where she was going.
"Exactly!" Skye nodded empathically. "Because we're a family, and family is not supposed to... to go behind each other's backs in such a way, to betray each other like that..."
"History would say otherwise." He drawled with false calm. "I cannot even remember how many bloodlines were ended through betrayal in one way or another."
"That's not the point!" She half-snapped. "This is not supposed to happen to our family. For us to survive so many outside threats, only for this..." She shook her head as something suddenly occurred to her. "Are you sure it's a good idea to keep her with us?"
"Like I told her, she's not a friend, but I do consider her an ally. And we need her, to pilot the plane if for nothing else."
"Agent Triplett is a decent pilot, from what I've heard, and Ward could take over once he's back."
"Maybe... I just..."
"You don't want to give up on her just yet." She raised her hand to stop him from replying. "It's okay. I cannot say I understand, but it's just how you are. And considering that if it weren't for your willingness to give second chances I wouldn't be here, I'm the last person who should be throwing stones right now."
"You did not betray us..."
"I'm sure not everyone around here agrees." She shook her head. "Jemma told me the list of crimes Hand had on you, when she believed you to be Hydra: 'recruiting a known enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D.', that was me, the only reason they weren't after me as well is because they have no idea I'm the same person. Then the multiple accounts of disobedience of direct orders? My recruitment once again qualifies, and giving me a second chance after the mess with Miles, the thing in Italy, and Ian Quinn, and a hell of a lot of other things."
"None of which is your fault." Phil told her calmly. "They were my decisions." He made a pause before adding. "And now that you mention Miles, we didn't talk about it at the time, but what really happened then?"
"What do you mean what happened?" She couldn't help the defensive tone in her voice. "You already know what happened. You went after a hacker, I warned him so he could get away from you, then I went looking for him, slept with him, May found us before he could take off and I could get back to the Bus unnoticed."
"Exactly..." He began nodding.
"I screwed up." She finished.
"No." He shook his head then. "I don't think you did. I've always known you to be an intelligent girl Skye, even before I grew to trust you fully, even when I had doubts that I should have allowed you so close... I've always known you to be smart. And a smart girl wouldn't run the risk of being caught, especially knowing others could find her at any moment, only to have sex. There was another reason..." And suddenly he realized the truth. "You did it so we would catch you, catch him, didn't you?"
Silence reigned for what seemed like forever. Phil did not mind. He had no idea why it hadn't occurred to him before when it was obvious to him in that moment. Truly, Skye was much too smart to allow her hormones to get the best of her. And if it had been love motivating her... well, then Ward and he wouldn't have found her alone, living in a van. No, it wasn't about love, or about sex, and Skye really was as smart as he'd always thought. Why then had she allowed the team to think she had betrayed them, and for a guy like Miles? It was quite obvious to Phil that he was missing something, but he'd no idea what exactly.
"Remember when Darcy and I told you and Clint about our time together in college?" Skye asked in what seemed like a complete non-sequitur.
"I remember." Phil still answered her. "The two of you met in your second year, she was two years ahead of you, or something like that."
"Well, that depends on your opinion, considering she had changed mayors twice by that point, and changed it once more afterwards, when she finally settled on Poli-Sci." Skye clarified. "But yes, the point remains."
"You were friends for the rest of your time in college, until you were forced to disappear." Phil continued. "When the Board discovered you had faked your papers to get the scholarship. It was then that you erased yourself from all records."
"Pretty much, yes." Skye nodded before taking a deep breath and filling in the blanks. "As you already know, I grew up in foster care, being moved from family to family, believing they did not want me, when we now know it was part of a S.H.I.E.L.D. protocol meant to keep me safe." She let out a breath. "When I was sixteen I ran away from my latest family, tired of living like that. I spent a few weeks sleeping on parks, bus-stations, warehouses, abandoned apartments, even ERs sometimes... until the day Karen Wright found me..." She smiled wistfully at the memory. "She was an old lady who lived in Arizona, seventy-something years old. She owned a bakery and lived in a tiny apartment on the second floor, was completey self-suficient. She was awesome. The kind of grandmother I'd dreamt of having my whole life..." She took a moment to stop her voice from breaking before continuing. "She found me one evening, when I was taking refuge from the rain in a corner of an alley by the back-door of her bakery. I had a cold and a very high fever. She didn't know me from eve! Yet she still took a look at me and told me to get inside. She fussed over me for days, nursed me back to health. And when she learnt I had been living on the streets she refused to let me go." She sighed. "I slept in a cot in the office of her tiny apartment. She even felt bad she couldn't offer me anything better! She owed me nothing, didn't even know me, yet she wanted to give me so much, she gave me so much... I tried to leave a few times, did not feel comfortable taking so much from her, but she wouldn't let me go. So instead I began helping around. At first cleaning around the place, helping attend costumers during rush-hours; when she learnt I'd actually passed my Drivers-Ed class before dropping from High-School she gave me the keys to her van and put me in charge of the deliveries. Which she'd had to suspend the year before when her grandson left for college abroad and couldn't help around anymore. The whole thing gave her a little more money, which she insisted on using to get me things, like new clothes, shoes, better food, etc."
Skye did not know when she'd begun to cry, though the proof of that very thing was falling down her cheeks in that moment. Karen had been such an amazing human being... just like the woman who'd helped her mom during her pregnancy, in China: Yue.
"What happened?" Phil asked quietly.
"She died." Skye answered honestly. "It wasn't anything bad. Natural causes. I was there when she passed, and as she made me promise to pass on messages to her family, I stayed until they were all there. She had a big family: four children (three daughters and one son), nine grand-children, and two great-grand-children, with one more on the way; no husband, as he had died many years prior, early into their marriage, in fact. As it turned out, they all knew about me, Karen had told them about me during their phone calls. They were thankful that I'd been there for her, to help when they couldn't. They insisted that I stay after the funeral, for the will-reading. It turned out I was in it. Karen had left me all her savings (which weren't what most would call substantial, yet still a lot more than I'd ever had); she'd also left me the van. No one in the family contested the decision. They were planning on selling the bakery, as none of them could handle it, most did not actually live in town anymore, and they knew a man who was interested in buying it, a cook himself." She smiled sadly. "Karen always talked about the future, my future, about making a better life for myself than I'd had until then. She wanted me to go back to school, make something of my life. And I decided to give it a try. She'd actually bought me the books, had me study a bit every evening so I would know everything High-school would have taught me. So I went and presented my GED, got my High School Diploma, then applied for a full-scholarship for college. You know already how that went."
"You faked connections so they would give you the scholarship." Phil nodded.
"Yes." Skye didn't bother hiding the fact. "I knew it was wrong, but to be honest, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. It's not like I was saying I was Stark's daughter or anything!"
No she hadn't... though, as it turned out, Stark did have a daughter, but that was an entirely different story, and not important for their situation in that moment.
"When I met Miles he seemed like a nice, if somewhat quirky guy." Skye went on.
"I believe Darcy's words for him were that he was a 'creepy stalker'" Phil couldn't help the smirk.
"True." Skye agreed with a half-smirk of her own. "I just thought he was quirky. The thing is, he knew I could hack and he... he wanted me AC..." Her voice broke slightly at that point. "He was one of few to truly want me... like Karen, and the Bennets... So I didn't send him away, despite his strange quirks and stalking tendencies."
Phil tensed when hearing such a confession coming from the beautiful brunette sitting across from him; in that moment he wanted nothing more than to take her into his arms, embrace her tightly and never let her go, let her go he wanted her and always would... yet his fear was still there, all too real, and too much to allow him to follow his instincts, regardless of how loud they might be screaming at him.
"A couple of years later, as you know, I went to sign up for some summer courses and maybe an internship when I learnt that the authorities were looking through the files of everyone with a scholarship, looking for the one who'd faked their way in, following an 'anonymous tip' they had gotten." She went on. "You must think me utterly foolish, but it took me over a year to realize just who had given the authorities in the university that 'anonymous tip'..."
"Miles..." Phil realized it too right then.
"When he found me two weeks after I had to flee I was just so relieved to see a familiar face, and he wanted to help me!" She let out an almost hysterical giggle. "I didn't realize how awfully convenient the timing of it all had been. She left me alone just long enough for me to feel grateful towards him, so I wouldn't ask dangerous questions, would feel so thankful for his help I wouldn't wonder how he'd found me, how he'd even known I wasn't on campus anymore..." She shook her head. "So I went to work for his friend, repairing cell-phones and computers, and cleaning them from viruses and such. One night I got so drunk I actually thought it was a good idea to sleep with him and afterwards... I was so afraid I would lose the only familiar person I still had if I refused him, that I kept sleeping with him, let him call me his girlfriend. And eventually did what he'd always wanted: I joined the Rising Tide."
Phil was livid, beyond that even. To think that that bastard, Miles Lydon, had used Skye in such a way: for sex and for her hacking skills. Making her dependant on him, making her so afraid to be alone that she would rather be used by him. He wished he'd known about her before, years earlier, so he could have saved her from all that, saved her from the Rising Tide, from being used, saved her from Miles...
Skye was no 'damsel in distress', no 'princess in the tower' that needed her prince charming or knight in shining armor to 'slay the dragon' and save her; Phil knew that better than most. Skye was one of the strongest, most willful, independent women he'd ever met. Doesn't mean she didn't need help, didn't need someone to be there for her, maybe even help 'save her' from time to time... even from herself.
"It took me a full year to get the blinders off and begin seeing Miles for what he really was." Skye continued with her narrative. "I knew I needed to get away from him, though I did not know how at first. Then I realized it. The program I'd used to erase all sign of myself when I was found at college... I created papers to back it up, to explain everything about it, then loaded it in a flash-drive and with help from an independent intermediary, sold it."
"You sold it?" He wasn't expecting that one.
"Yeah, to a very big company too." Skye nodded. "Though, before you ask, I cannot actually tell you which one, or who exactly. They made me sign a confidentiality contract."
Phil nodded, something like that was to be expected, really.
"So I saved that money into a secret account, and began making preparations to leave both Miles and the Rising Tide." She went on. "I actually tried to do it in a semi-public way first. Miles knew about my past, he was actually the one who got me some of the things I had in that SD-card I showed you that day, including the Redacted S.H.I.E.L.D. file. I tried to get into S.H.I.E.L.D., legally I mean, filled an application to be an Agent and all."
"And they rejected you?" Phil was confused by that.
"Straight out, apparently being unable to give your parents name, or even a reliable surname is cause for rejection." She shrugged. "It was after that that I began doing my best to hack you. If I couldn't get into your files legally, I would do it the other way." She shook her head. "It was how I got noticed by the higher-ranking members of the Tide... because I was one of two, maybe three, in their number, who'd managed to hack into your databases, and the only one to manage it more than once." She was particularly proud of that. "Never imagined what that would bring me, but still, it's not like I regret it."
"So we became your exit strategy?"
"More or less. Not completely. I wasn't ready to disappear, and if Miles had suspected something at that point, things could have gone very bad, very quickly. So I let him think I would be spying on S.H.I.E.L.D." She snorted. "He really was an idiot. Considering I hardly told him anything during the weeks I was with you guys and he never realized it. He believed that it was all boring, and nothing interesting was happening."
And considering everything that had happened, just in the first week... the first day even! Yes, Miles had proved not to know her at all. And that regardless of how much power the Rising Tide might claim to have, they knew nothing either.
"During that last year, before this team but after I stopped living with Miles I mean, I lived in L.A." She went on. "You know that, of course, that's where you found me. It actually was more than a year, but that's not really the point. I was offered an out. I didn't live in my van all the time you know? In fact, after a few months the previous summer a friend invited me to live with him, he had a huge manor, way too much space for him, even with all the lady friends that lived with him." She chuckled. "I accepted."
"Lady-friends?" Phil practically choked.
"Nothing like what your dirty mind is thinking!" Skye smirked at having put the thought there. "Well, I'm sure some of them... but that wasn't the point. He employed most of them, either as assistants to him, to his other employees (he was a very powerful CEO), or sometimes to help his PI friend in some investigation or another. He liked me, liked my talents." She smiled, mostly to herself, remembering Josef. "He actually thought I was one of his new girls, as he called them, the first time we met, you know? He was used to taking new girls every few months, helped them for a while before they moved on. I actually was trying to hide from a bastard I'd just stolen over 10,000 bucks from."
"Stolen?!" Phil was shocked by that.
"They weren't for me!" She added right away. "The bastard had a wife he'd walked out on, and two young children, one of them was very sick. He kept ignoring the letters and calls from his wife, lawyers and even social-workers telling him he needed to pay for the children's needs, and especially the hospital bills of the little girl. When I met Maia, saw how desperate she was to keep her children safe, I knew I had to help. I tried talking to the bastard, shaming him, even threatening him into doing what was right. He ignored me, of course. So I hacked into his bank accounts, to get the money Maia needed. The guy was loaded! It's not like he would have even noticed the money missing, not with how he burned it on booze and hookers. Not sure what tipped him off, actually, but I had to run. I was in San Francisco at the time, had followed him all the way there from Los Angeles. Managed to get back to L.A. ahead of his thugs, but when they got too close I slipped into a private property to hide... turned out to be Josef's mansion. It was near the end of the summer and new girls had just arrived to the house, like I said before, he thought I was one of them. I agreed, just so I could stay for the night." She shook her head with a smile. "By the next morning he knew the truth, his security had caught the thugs as they were looking for me. I was sure I was done for. Yet, he found me entertaining... somehow. He insisted on having me in his payroll. And it's not like I actually had a job to speak of, and he was offering me a place to live aside from a salary, so I agreed. It was insane."
It really was, for many more reasons than those she'd told Phil already. She'd seen things during that summer living out of motel rooms, and sometimes her van, in the streets of L.A... and then when Josef turned out to be connected to everything freaky going on around... well, she supposed it could have been worse.
"So he took you in." Phil nodded. "How did you end up living in your van again, then?"
"A year later... things happened." She had no way of explaining without revealing secrets that weren't hers to tell. "A lot of stuff went down. Bad stuff. People died, things were blown up... Josef sent most of the girls away ahead of time, I stayed to help where I could. In the end he just could not stay anymore... he offered me to go with him, you know? Said he could give me a new life, if I went with him."
"Did you love him?" Phil couldn't help the slightest hint of jealousy in his voice.
"No, not at all, it wasn't like that between us." She hurried to reassure him. "He... has someone, beyond the girls, he has someone he loves with all his heart. I just... I saw him like an older brother. Our relationship might have begun as business, but he became very dear to me, and the way he took care of me... the last person who had done that was Karen. It was also what made me wary at first, afraid of losing him. And I guess, in the end, I did."
"Why did you not go with him then?"
"He and some others were moving to New York, to a new life... and I guess I just wasn't ready to give up the one I had at the time. I also... I felt that if I went with him I would be giving up my independence, and I did not want that. I wanted out, of course, of the Rising Tide, and Miles and all that. But I wanted it on my terms, not Josef's."
Phil nodded, he could understand the wish for achieving something on their own, at least somewhat. And it wasn't like he could complain about the final result. It had brought her to him, after all. If she had gone with Josef back then he probably would have never met her, would have never had her in his team and... yeah.
"And it wasn't that bad." Skye added, almost as if reading his mind. "It was thanks to my staying that I met you, met you all, after all."
"And Miles?" Phil wanted to know. "He did not try to help you after the mess you say you were in, in L.A.?"
"You have no idea what kind of mess I'm talking about, do you?" She inquired.
"Well no, but back I was in Ta... well, you know." He waved his hand weakly.
Truth be told, he hadn't the slightest idea where he'd been at that time. Maybe in that top-secret facility with the GH-325 and the body of the dead Jotun... maybe in some other place, just as classified, in recovery. There was a lot he still did not remember, from back then.
"It's okay AC." She smiled at him easily. "Though, if you did not know, if S.H.I.E.L.D. did not know... what makes you think he did?"
"You said things blew up?" He reminded her, though it almost sounded like a question.
"Gas-leak." She deadpanned. "You have no idea how 'blind and deaf' people can be when they truly do not want to know the truth." Her expression softened. "And I cannot tell you more than that, I'm afraid."
He couldn't complain, really, he had been the one to insist she needed to know how to keep a secret, that he needed to be sure she could do it... he could have never known she had been keeping secrets, her own and other people's, for years.
"But back to Miles." She returned to the original topic of the conversation. "He did not know, so he had no reason to go looking for me. We still met in Nevada every once in a while. And then came the day when you and Ward kidnapped me!"
"We did not..." He began in an almost self-righteous tone before he stopped, actually thought back to what had happened, and then smiled sheepishly. "I guess that's one way to look at it."
"I'll say!" She actually chuckled at him. "But that's okay AC, I promise I'm not mad." She winked at him. "The point is, I sent Miles a message telling him I was in... I think it was after Peru. But that's all I told him! That was the last time I communicated in any way with him before... you know..." She still cringed at the mere memory. "That, of course, was a mess of epic proportions."
"Indeed." He agreed. "Are you finally going to tell me what really happened that day?"
It still surprised her that he could actually see beyond her apparent betrayal, could realize there had been more to her actions back then. It did not matter if he hadn't seen it at the time, he realized it then, and that was more than she ever expected.
"I knew from the very start that there had to be more to it all than what had happened to Chao Ho Yin." Skye finally admitted. "If it had been truly about 'releasing the truth to the world', as he claimed, more things would have happened at the same time. Also, not even Yin's files were on the public domain, only passed through private, encrypted servers." She shook her head. "The mere fact that he had hacked S.H.I.E.L.D. when I was supposed to be 'on the inside' told me that something big was going on, big enough to forget that I was supposedly going to help them. So I sent him that text, warning him about Ward, so I could gain his trust once again. I arrived to the apartment ahead of him and used what little time I had to try and find some sign of whatever was going on... I found nothing. Then when he arrived I tried to get the truth out of him; when he lied to my face about the files, I knew something huge was going on." She snorted. "Though, I'll admit I never imagined it had been about money. Miles had seemed like many things, but never someone to do things for money..."
Silence hung between them for a few seconds, as Phil waited for her to finish explaining, knowing she would do it when she was ready. It didn't actually take that long, having begun, Skye couldn't help but want to get it all out. It was almost like a part of her had been dying to let it all out, and she'd finally gotten the chance:
"I never planned to have sex with him, you know?" She said with a shake of her head. "I kept trying to get him to tell me the truth, and he kept giving me evasives, and these looks... they tipped me off that something was really wrong, and I needed to know why. It was at that point that I began wondering if, whatever had happened to Jin, wouldn't end up putting you in danger as well. I knew I needed to find out. So when he kissed me I followed his lead." She let out a half-sigh full of self-deprecation. "He actually tried to question me, you know? After the sex, while I was getting dressed, he wanted to know what I'd been doing, what S.H.I.E.L.D. was like... 'inside the belly of the beast', were his exact words. I told him it was classified." she let out a dark chuckle. "He thought I was being funny. I tried to question him again, and failed. Then there was May, holding my top." She shook her head again. "I was actually thankful for her in that moment. I had already come to the conclusion Miles wouldn't tell me anything, and if his actions put you in danger, you needed to catch him. And I knew I would never be able to bring him in. Then, of course, you brought us both in, and he began reciting the frigging manifesto!"
"You kept telling us he was an upstanding guy..." Phil couldn't help but point out.
"I know, pretty stupid, huh?" She let out a breath. "I knew he wasn't not really, though I never imagined he could sink so low. I only said that, because, well. I rather you all thought I'd slept with him out of love, than thinking me a slut..."
"We would never think something like that of you, Skye."
"It's what I thought of myself."
Phil wasn't sure how to respond to that, he knew any words would be hollow, there was no way of making someone change the way they thought about themselves simply with words; and Skye had said she 'thought', which hopefully meant she didn't feel that way about herself anymore.
"You know, when it was all over, after you gave Miles that bracelet and I told him I was staying if you let me... he told me I'd changed, that I wasn't the person he'd known." She murmured thoughtfully. "But he was wrong. I was the same person I'd always been; he just hadn't truly known me before. It was at that point that I decided to stop hiding, to stop pretending to be someone I wasn't just so I wouldn't be alone. I realized I didn't need him anymore."
"You had us." He nodded.
"Well, to be fair, at the time I didn't know for sure that I had you." She admitted. "But it was enough knowing that I was no longer dependent on him. I could be myself. I realized I did not need an 'exit strategy', I could just walk away. And I did."
"You could have walked away from us too." Phil pointed out. "You could have stepped off that plane in that moment... something tells me we would have never found you."
"No, you wouldn't have." She admitted freely. "But I didn't want to leave you. Even after I betrayed you so callously, let you down right when you'd begun trusting me... I wanted nothing more than to have one more chance, a chance to be one of you, to truly be part of your family. And you gave me that chance..." She fixed her eyes of his, trying to communicate the depth of her feelings, her gratitude. "I will never be able to thank you enough for what you did."
"The things you've done since then, for S.H.I.E.L.D., for the team, for us as individuals and a family, have been more than enough." He assured her. "Remember we are a family Skye, there can never be debts among family."
She could only smile to him.
They both could still remember that night, when it had all seemed so terribly fragile, their trust in each other hanging by a thread, one just about to tear, and she'd felt like a piece of glass, ready to fall and shatter into a thousand pieces. Yet it hadn't, she hadn't, they hadn't. They'd managed to endure, and made it so far since then: She'd managed to recover the trust of the team, they'd become stronger together.
They'd been through so much, the team, the family, together. From the Berserker Staff, an alien virus, ghosts, the Centipede Soldiers, Mike Peterson, Ian Quinn, Raina, Phil's kidnapping, Skye's shooting, Loki's return, Cybertek, the Clairvoyant, and now Hydra... they had survived so much, and what was yet to come. They would survive it as well, together, all of them, as a family.
xXx
Astrid stood beside Phil as they watched the feed from several cameras that had caught the confrontations between loyal SHIELD agents and Hydra members all around the world; though the most impressive by far was the footage of what had happened in Washington, with the Triskelion falling into pieces, three brand new Helicarriers being shot down from the air on the very day they were being launched...
The young Agent hated being the bearer of bad news, but there was little good she could report on. The fact that there were only three bases confirmed still under SHIELD control (and that was including the Hub and the Fridge) was dis-heartening. Yet Phil refused to give up, and like she'd said before, she would always follow where he lead so...
"You were right all along." She admitted quietly. "Having all this out there in the world makes it too dangerous, and now there's no one left to protect it..."
And to think they'd just taken down the Rising Tide... made her wonder why she'd even bothered. It's not like the information didn't all (or most of it) end up out there anyway.
"There's us." Phil reminded her. "We were lucky enough to make it through. The Triskelion, the Hub... those battles are just the beginning of this war. Hydra's out there now, but at least our team's still intact. We can fight them, and we will."
His words, while they might have seemed as useless platitudes to some, and they most likely would have been, coming from anyone else... but the fact that it was him saying those words, with that quiet confidence in his voice, with such seriousness in his eyes. She couldn't help but believe him. And by the way several Agents around them either relaxed on their spots or became all the more focused, they were feeling the same thing. Phil was a born leader, probably had always been, he just hadn't realized it yet.
Hours later it seemed like they just couldn't catch a break. Right when she finally, finally! Had good news to deliver, that the Cube had been retaken by SHIELD, Colonel Talbot's call came in. The man was a bastard, that much anyone could tell. Astrid also needed no supernatural abilities to tell he was lying, both about having good intentions regarding SHIELD, and the whole 'peacekeeping' thing of his forces. Which is why it wasn't that much of a surprise when AC told her to announce 'Odyssey Protocol'.
It wasn't much of a surprise either that a number of Agents chose to stay and surrender. Some of them were old enough to retire, and most were so low-level that it was unlikely the military would bother with them. No, Talbot and his men wanted Coulson and his team, and anyone else who might be Level 7 and above, which was exactly why they couldn't stay.
Astrid had planned on calling Ward as soon as they were on the air (and before they reached the kind of altitude where the phone would no longer work), however, that plan was put aside when AC asked her to 'use her talents' to 'erase' all of them from all records. Astrid couldn't help but be scandalized by the idea. It was true she'd done it before, she'd created the program for it too, but she'd never had actual birth-records, or any records that were completely truthful, completely her own; she couldn't help but wonder if Phil knew what he was asking for. She tried to explain, told him they would all effectively be ghosts... she still didn't think he got it.
So she decided on an alternative to his plan. She took everything she could find on each and everyone of them; yet instead of erasing it completely, she sealed it. A separate encrypted file for each team member. Once the danger of the military and the immediate situation had passed each of them would be able to decide, on their own, if they wanted to recover their old lives, to get a full new life, or to remain as ghosts. Really, that was the kind of decisions they deserve to make, each and every one of them, as individuals.
Even that explanation didn't make it any easier when she had to collect everyone's badges, the last task Phil had asked her to do. Even with May and Triplett on the plane, she was still the one AC trusted the most, and she wasn't about to let him down.
"Did you get in touch with Ward yet?" He asked her almost as soon as she stepped into his office.
"Not yet..." She admitted, surprised at her own forgetfulness. "To be perfectly honest, I forgot I was going to do that."
"What...?" He was as surprised as she.
"Yeah... got working on our 'clean slates'." She admitted. "By the way, I rewrote the program, so they aren't really permanent. Once this whole mess is over you will all be able to regain your old lives, if you want of course." She shrugged. "Or you could always get completely new ones too."
"That's good." Phil nodded, looking thoughtful. "I suppose FitzSimmons would like that chance."
"I thought something like that, it's why I made the modification to the old program." She told him in confidence. "I mean, it's the same to me in the end, but they actually have families, I didn't want them to lose all chance of ever getting it back."
Phil just nodded; she was right of course, and he was glad she had been thoughtful enough to take such precautions, he hadn't been thinking clearly enough when he gave her that order. He, pretty much like her, did not care much about losing an identity, and it was likely that Ward and May would be the same, but he did not know Triplett enough, and FitzSimmons actually had families outside SHIELD that would miss them if they disappeared just like that.
"Has Natasha sent any more messages?" He asked next.
"She left me one, saying she was okay, as was Captain Rogers." Astrid commented, fishing her personal phone out. "She said they were going off-grid, because of both Hydra and the military. And..." She opened a message to show it to Phil. "Clint and Darcy are on the move. Apparently someone in the offices tipped off Darcy that the military were going after her boyfriend... they seem to be suspicious of him because of the fact that he left SHIELD less than a year before this mess happened. They supposedly wanted to question him."
"They will do a lot more than that, if they find him." Phil muttered grimly.
"Which is exactly why they decided to take their things and go." Astrid qualified. "Darcy sent me a brief message saying they were laying low and would try to meet with us at some point. She's hoping we will agree to put them up, at least for a while."
"Of course." He nodded right away. "It will be no problem."
"And the help might do us good. Especially if you are planning on having us move against Hydra now, recover the taken bases and all that."
"Maybe... first we need to find a safe place where to rest and finish repairs on the Bus."
"Well, I used some magic to fix the leak on the fuel line, so we're good on that front, at least for the time being. But we will still need a safe place to rest, and eat..."
Phil nodded, once again he knew she was right, even if he wasn't sure what they could do just yet.
"The badges?" He asked suddenly, remembering the other thing he'd asked of her.
"This wasn't easy." She pointed out with a sigh, signaling to the badges as she placed them on his desk. "Jemma got choked up when I asked for hers."
It was true, Leo too had seemed a bit lost as he handed his; May and Triplett hadn't said a word, but Astrid could tell they didn't like it. The young woman had just pulled her badge out of the inner pocket of her leather jacket when she found herself suddenly swaying.
"...trid... Astrid!" She could barely hear Phil calling her, but he sounded worried. "Skye!"
"AC...?" She wasn't fully sure if she was actually speaking, though she tried.
"Skye, what's wrong?!" He asked as he hurried around his desk to hold her up.
"I... dizzy... so dizzy..." She mumbled, her legs folding beneath her.
Phil did his best to hold her up, but it was so sudden the best she could do was drop to his knees with her in his arms, make sure she wouldn't get hurt in any way... though it almost seemed like something else was hurting her...
"Skye tell me what is wrong!" He practically demanded, shaking her in an attempt to keep her conscious. "Tell me what I can do to help!"
He was about to insist when, abruptly, Skye's whole body shimmered, her human disguise seemingly washing away as she changed into her elven visage. Her eyes snapped open wide: blue irises so dark they seemed to blend with the dilated pupils... the young woman's eyes were open, but she wasn't looking at him, it was as if she were something else, something beyond him, beyond their current surroundings:
"The crows are losing their feathers one by one... yet the ravens are still without a nest. One nest is cold, vulnerable, will not last the season; another warm, ideal, hasn't been found yet." She began reciting in a lilting, somewhat echoing voice in a language Phil knew very little of, but could more or less understand, as she'd been teaching him with help of some magic. "The wolves fight the foxes, but foxes are cunning, they won't give up without a fight... Fire and steel will clash against the shield... it must not be allowed to break..." A cry left her lips, before her tone began sounding more rushed, and almost erratic. "Victory is at stake... the Coward... the Traitor... Family will be torn apart..."
"What?!" Phil couldn't help his cry.
He wasn't expecting that last part, even with what Skye had told him before, about his mother's prophecy... and everything seemed to indicate she herself was giving a prophecy in that moment. He wanted her to clarify, to help him understand. But it was useless, before a single word could be said Menel's eyes seemed to roll into the back of her head and her body went limp into his arms, though not before returning to her human visage.
He didn't understand what the hell had just happened.
xXx
In another place, hundreds of miles above the ground, a woman with long mahogany hair and cherry red bangs framing her face panted on the floor of the cargo area of her plane, fighting to keep breathing, even as her mind tried to understand how she could have been so wrong about Agent Ward's loyalties and intentions. And how she had ended up giving him the very weapon he'd just used against her. She moved her hand erratically, trying to find something, anything that might help, the move made her aware of the bracelet she was wearing, the unexpected gift from Agent Avery, right before she'd left the Hub. She wondered if that would let the girl know she was dead, if she would suspect who was responsible for her murder. Hopefully yes, most likely no, after all, Grant Ward was her team-mate; and if there was something Victoria had noticed, and even admitted to admiring to a degree, it was the level of loyalty the members of Coulson team had towards each other. She could still remember Agent Simmons standing up to her, defending Coulson even when all the evidence was stacked against him...
The last thing Victoria Hand saw, was Ward's cold expression as he pointed the gun at her again, one more shot and she would be dead for sure. What neither of them, or anyone else on the vessel really, could have expected (the little surprise in the bracelet), was when, at the exact same moment Ward shot, magic enveloped her, and swallowed her whole.
Someone asked me to save Victoria. At first I thought it would be impossible, but there you have it. You'll see more about how everything turns out in that front in the next chapter.
I hope you liked the prophecies... you're welcome to make your guesses on what each part of it means.
Also, remember to make your suggestions regarding the crossovers. And I need public opinion regarding one of them: Smallville. I love Lex, so I'm using this opportunity to make him a good guy, however,what I would like your opinion on, is the pairings that will be used for those characters, options are: 1) ChloeClark, LoisOliver, LexOFC (I have someone specific in mind, but if I do it, it'll be a surprise), 2) ClarkLois, OliverChloe, LexOFC (the same as before), 3) ClarkLex, ChloeOliver, LoisRichard (or another less important man) or 4) ClarkLex, LoisOliver, Chloe(a hero or agent) So, tell me what you would prefer please! My muse cannot make up her mind on that front!
See ya next week!