You people are going to either love me for this, or hit me with a metal arm... anyway, what's written is written.
For a better idea of what Skye wears at a certain, crucial point of this chapter watch Chloe Wang's video "Uh Oh" the tight, black-and-red ensemble... that's more or less what she's wearing here.
Chapter 4. Winter Cloud
As it turned out, the apartment was in a much better condition than Skye had been expecting. She suspected either her old friends had someone clean up the place periodically, or someone had used the apartment recently. At least it was not occupied that day. It had taken all day for the group to install themselves in the place, arriving either individually or in pairs and from different directions, in an attempt not to call undue attention to themselves. They also had washed the sheets and gotten food to last them a week or so.
The apartment was a two bedroom one, which the girls immediately took over: Darcy and Skye sharing one, Jemma and May the other; the men had offered to camp out on the living room, which they did with a bunch of pillows, cushions and blankets.
"I have to say you have some pretty well-off friends, Skye!" Trip commented with a smile as he looked around the place. "I mean, to have moved out and leave all this here..."
"There were certain circumstances..." Skye began before trailing off. "It's complicated."
Yes it was, it always seemed to be...
A surprise came the following morning when a package arrived to 'Karin Kostan'. Skye cursed under her breath even as she took the package and began ripping it open.
"Are you sure it's safe to open it?" Trip asked, on edge with everything that was happening.
Truth be told, they were all on edge at the arrival of a package to an apartment no one was supposed to know they were in.
"It's fine." Skye replied dismissively. "Josef is just a meddling son of a bitch who has way too many eyes in this city... particularly for someone who left over a year ago."
"Josef?" Darcy asked, curious. "Is that the name of the person who owned this apartment."
"No, the owner of this apartment was Beth." Skye answered half-absently. "Josef was our common friend, who I knew when I lived in LA, before I joined SHIELD... and who's always been too meddlesome for his own good."
"Is he still in LA?" Clint asked, till doubting.
"She said he left." Darcy pointed out.
"That he did, almost a year ago." Skye replied. "It's quite obvious that not all his contacts left with him, and at least one identified me... and the fact that I'm not alone."
She managed to pry the package open right then. Revealing, to everyone's surprise, two sets of keys, with tags announcing they belonged to two of the other apartments on their floor.
"Why am I not surprised?" She asked to no one in particular.
"Is this safe?" May didn't like it. "If this... Josef knows that we're here..."
"It is perfectly safe." Skye assured her. "Josef is no threat to any of us, that I promise you. He probably heard that there were so many of us together and decided we needed more space. And this is just his style."
"You're saying he's the kind to buy apartments for a friend he hasn't seen in a year?" Darcy sounded quite disbelieving.
"It actually wouldn't surprise me if he'd owned these apartments since Beth lived here." Skye qualified. "In any case. It's up to us. But I do believe we can trust him, and I'm sure we all would be thankful for individual beds."
She extended the keys to the men, but everyone turned to Phil instead, he was still the leader.
"Take them." Phil nodded in agreement.
They made new arrangements then. One of the apartments had a single bedroom, with a bigger bed; Darcy and Clint were given use of that one. The other had two bedrooms, one with a single, and the other with two beds (like the ones the girls had been sharing); Phil then had a room for himself, while Leo and Trip shared. In the original apartment May was left to the individual room, while Jemma and Skye shared the other one. It was a good arrangement. Also, as it turned out the other apartments were fully stocked, which helped as well.
"Hey Avery." Trip called when they met again to eat. "If we ever meet your friend, remind me to thank him. He really helped us out here."
Skye nodded in agreement, still working out why exactly he had done that.
"Are you having second thoughts?" Phil asked her quietly, standing beside her, his back to her, and pretending to just be eating.
"Not at all." She answered honestly. "I'm just curious. Josef has always been very charitative, when he feels there's a good reason for it. And while I wouldn't be surprised by his offer of help to me, the fact that he knows you're here and he's helping you... that's the part I don't understand."
"Wouldn't he help us simply because we're with you?" Phil inquired.
"Maybe." She conceeded. "But you... we technically work for the government, or we used to, at least. The last time the government meddled in Josef's businesses... things did not end well."
No, they hadn't she still remembered ADA Talbot... it suddenly occurred to her to wonder if that man was any relation to Col. Talbot... and wasn't that a sobering thought? If there really was a connection... it wouldn't be good.
She could still remember the last time, that night, all the rubble, the fire, the blood... the Los Angeles River tinted a murkish red with ashes and blood of those dead on the riverbank; and then the thunderstorm... the power had been lost at some point, the fire from the flame-throwers and the huge bonfire illuminating the place in shades of orange and red. It had been like the scene of a horror movie, of a nightmare... and she could still remember ever minute of it.
"Skye...?" Phil called, worriedly.
"It's alright." She assured him, even if, this time, she wasn't fully convinced herself. "I'll just need to pay Josef a visit next time we're around New York..."
"I'll go with you." Phil announced, and she knew he wasn't asking.
"Was there anything else you wanted to know?" She asked when he didn't move away.
"Karin Kostan?" He phrased it as a question.
"Skylar Karen Wright was the name I used when I was in college." She explained. "Skye to my friends... During the first summer I even got a fake ID under the name Karen Starr, you know, to go clubbing, that sort of thing. After I ran away I went back to being just Skye; but when I left Miles and came to LA, I began using the fake ID again. Shortly after I began living with Josef he told me that if I was going to use a fake ID, I should at least learn to do it right. He got me a new one, changed the surname saying that the name 'Karen Starr' was already being investigated by the authorities, and because with the name Kostan he could protect me better... it's his name. He began claiming me as his sister, or cousin...depending on the company. The change from Karen to Karin was actually an accident, the person he had making the IDs made a mistake. I liked it, and chose to leave it like that." She smiled. "I eventually told him my real name, which he said was good. He still kept calling me Karin in public, though."
Phil nodded, before finally moving on to talk someone else. He couldn't help but smile as he moved. He liked their talks, little by little, they were allowing him to get to know Skye, the real her... and he was discovering he liked her even more than the fraction of her he'd known before the shooting, before Loki, and the revelation of what turned out to be just the beginning of the secrets. He was probably even more in love with her than he'd been at the beginning! It was a staggering idea, though welcome nonetheless... now if he could only find the right way to express his feelings, preferably before she changed her mind about him!
xXx
Almost a week later the group had a basic plan to handle things. By that point there were good news and bad to go around: Skye had informed them she'd left a Trojan Horse on the hard-drive, one with multiple purpose: the first was to copy all the contents of the drive into a 'cloud' Skye had built and encrypted for her personal use, years before; also, as the files fully appeared on the cloud, they would be automatically eliminated from the drive. The day after they were installed in the apartments Skye had been able to confirm that around ¾ of the contents of the hard-drive had been successfully moved before Ward or Deathlok became aware of what was happening and stopped it. Regretfully, that meant they'd still managed to keep a quarter or so of the information, which happened to include the file Fury had sent to Phil regarding Project TAHITI, and their preliminary investigation regarding it.
To make matters worse, that same night Skye had had a vision of an attack on the secret facility called the Guest-House. Ward had lead a group of men to ransack the place in an attempt to obtain the drug that had revived Coulson. In the end, the fail-safes of the place had kicked in and the men were forced to run with what they could take, still a number of them died, and Skye had enjoyed hearing Garrett curse in the dream. She had enjoyed even more Phil's laughter when she found a way to share the memory of the vision with him.
On the positive side, Skye's Trojan Horse had managed to scramble the files enough that they had no idea which drug they were supposed to use, they hoped that would buy they some time.
Then there was the secondary purpose of the Trojan Horse: to burrow into the Bus's systems, and anything else they connected to it (from Centipede, Cybertek, etc.), allowing Skye to track them and everyone else involved with them. There was only a little problem with that: there had been so little time, Skye hadn't been able to finish that function in the Trojan Horse, it would expand, but until she connected a flash-drive with the last part of the program, to one computer that had the Trojan, the rest of it wouldn't work. Which meant they had to find one.
A plan was made considering those things, to go, figuratively, into the wolf's mouth. May and Phil went to Cybertek, posing as a pair of scientists looking for sanctuary from the military and a job after the fall of SHIELD. FitzSimmons were on the comms, instructing them what to say and how, to keep up the part, Darcy was with them as backup. While in another van: Trip, Clint and Skye waited for the moment May and Phil found a computer to activate the program.
Regretfully, the mission didn't exactly go according to plan. Cybertek was a technological company and, somehow, they lacked any mainframe whatsoever for their systems... either that or the offices they visited were nothing but a front... a front with a serious archive, but still. At the very least, the visit wasn't a loss of time, they'd gotten the 'hard-copies' of the files on the Deathlok project (a whole triple cabinet full of them).
They were in that moment looking through them, trying to find something that might help them. The calm was abruptly interrupted when everyone heard Skye let out an expletive in Chinese. They all looked at her, waiting for an explanation, instead of that she left the room in a hurry, going for her apartment right away.
Phil found her right as she was rushing back out of the apartment she shared with Jemma and May, having changed her original clothes of a sleveless top and short-shorts, for something more fashionable (at least to his eyes): a purple-wrap dress with a black sash, which didn't actually reach her knees, and with loose sleeves to her elbows, as well as the knee-high black-leather thick-soled boots she favored.
"Skye?" He made her name a question as he looked at her.
"I need to go run a few errands." She answered promptly.
"To go run a few errands you need to change into a dress, and carry several concealed weapons?" He asked in return.
After seeing her train a few times and their talks, Phil could see she had at least two concealed knives on her (one on each boot), possibly more, and she was also carrying a couple of handguns (one in a thigh-holster, the other in the front pocket of her dress): one a reinforced ICER (meant for Centipede soldiers), the other a twin of Darcy's specialized taser-gun (created just for her, by none other than Tony Stark).
"If I tell you, you're not going to like it." Skye admitted, biting at her lower lip.
"I dislike more the fact that you were about to go without telling anyone where it is you're going, or that you're leaving at all." Phil replied in a chastising tone.
"I'd hoped it wouldn't take me long, that no one would notice." Skye admitted sheepishly.
"Skye..." Phil shook his head in disbelief. "Everyone noticed the moment you left the room. Now tell me, what is going on? And why won't I like it?"
"I have to go meet someone?" It sounded almost like a question.
"Someone I won't want you to go meet if I know who this person is?" Phil guessed.
"Pretty much, yes."
"Yet you insist on going?"
"I have to! Look it's..."
"Complicated? You've been using that word a lot lately."
"I know..." She pondered a bit before explaining. "You remember how I told you I ran away from my last foster family when I was sixteen?"
"Yes... what does this have to..."
"What I didn't explain was why I did it." She began babbling as she tried to not give too many details of things she'd never meant for anyone to know. "That couple... they weren't good people. Actually, I met a lot of people that fell into that category, while I was in the system, but they were probably the worse. They... while I was with them I found out a few things about them: that they always fostered teenagers, and only teenagers; that sometimes those teens were found dead, they would either OD, or committed suicide, or something... then there were those that were never found, which I have reason to believe was even worse."
"Did you report them?" Phil asked, horrified.
"To who? It was the foster system, and we were teenagers, almost old enough to be kicked out, no one cared about us. How do you think they got away with the things they did?" She shook her head. "A woman I met while I was with them, she told me a few things, it was part of how I found out what had happened to other teenagers before me. She told me that if I wanted to live, and be free, that I needed to leave, and soon. So I did, I left that very night." She took a deep breath. "Anyway, that wasn't the point of the story. After that, I was on the streets for a while."
"Until you met Karen..."
"Yes, but not quite. I met someone else in between the two. It was during the night. It was raining hard outside and I slipped into a 24/7 diner, bought the cheapest thing I could find and sat in a corner, waiting for the storm to pass. I stayed there for hours. At some point the owner wanted to throw me out, saying if I wasn't going to buy, I had no reason to stay, I tried to stall but it was useless, until he interfered."
"He? Who?"
"I didn't know who he was. He was in the diner as well, arrived sometime after I did, had been eating. He bought a decent meal and had it sent to me. Waved away my excuses when I tried to stop him... in the end I was too hungry to keep complaining. What I did notice is that he seemed to make the owner of the diner nervous. He didn't bother either of us again."
"Did you ask him who he was?" Phil couldn't help but get interested in her story, like he always did when she revealed a bit more of her past.
"Not that time. He left at some point, shortly before the storm passed. I left as soon as it did. Did not see him for several days. Until one night, I was short on money and couldn't afford a room anywhere, thankfully it hadn't rained again so I didn't mind much sleeping on the park. At least not until those men appeared... filthy and high on something, I know not what..."
"Did they...?" He didn't dare even finish the question.
"Rape me? No." Skye shook her head. "Though that was only thanks to him. I tried to defend myself, but didn't know how. And then he appeared, he broke the arm of the one holding me down, and that was enough to make all of them run. Then he turned to me, told me to go. I told him I had nowhere to go. I tried to settle again on the bench, and..." Her eyes sparkled as something occurred to her: "Want to see it?"
It was such a rare offer to come from her lips, he didn't doubt, just extended his hand to her. She took it in hers, pulling until the tips of his fingers were resting against her temple, then mirrored the motion with her other hand on his temple and projected the memory into his mind. It was blurry, with no way of recognizing who the man might be, though if that was because Skye's then-human-eyes hadn't been able to caught enough details or intentional to keep his identity concealed from Phil, he did not know.
The sixteen-year-old Skye, dressed in obviously old, worn-out clothes, began laying back down on the park-bench, using her knapsack as a pillow and an old, second-hand duster as a blanket of sorts; until the man beside her pulled her back up roughly.
"Are you absolute insane, girl?!" He demanded in a rough tone.
"I want to sleep." She replied in an almost scathing tone. "I haven't slept in over two days."
"If you close your eyes in this bench you won't be waking up again." He stated matter-of-factly.
"You think those men would come back and kill me?" She actually sounded a bit afraid at that.
"No." He replied flippantly. "I will kill you and save us all the bother."
"What?! Why did you save me then?"
"Certainly not so you could get yourself killed an hour later!"
"What do you expect me to do then?!" She demanded.
"Don't you have somewhere to go? Your family? Friends?"
"I don't have either. I have nothing and no one! I have no home, no family, no friends. I had foster parents but even they don't want me! I Have Nowhere To Go!"
Something in her tirade seemed to touch a chord in the man, for his expression (blurry as it was) softened minutely, before he placed a hand on Skye's arms.
"Come with me." He told her softly.
"What?" She wasn't expecting that.
"I don't have a home, but I have a motel room." He answered simply. "I think the couch is big enough for you..."
She knew it was absolutely crazy, but knowing he was right when he said someone might kill her if she fell asleep there, and with her being as exhausted as she was... she went with him.
For Phil the memory stopped there, however, she could remember more of what had happened that night: How, upon arrival to the motel he'd offered her the bed. She thought it was crazy, it was his bed, but his response to that left her so shocked she couldn't refuse anymore.
"I've slept in places a lot worse than the carpeted floor on a motel room, doll." He assured her. "This is much more comfortable than metal and ice..."
She'd had no idea, at the time, what he meant; but with what she'd learnt recently...
"So he saved you that night, and now you owe him?" Phil tried to guess her reasoning.
"I owe him." Skye nodded. "For a lot more than that." She took a breath and went back to the story of what had happened. "We were somewhere in South Ohio at the time, don't ask me where. I had spent the last several weeks making my way south as fast as I could, putting as much space as possible between me and that crazy couple in Chicago. Then I found him, and plans changed... again. He told me he was there for work. When I asked him what he did he said he worked on 'confidential projects' for a 'private citizen'. I knew it was all bullshit, but since I didn't yet know him enough, I said nothing. A week later I woke up to find him studying a newspaper really intently, a seemingly minor story nearly at the back of the Local News..." She shook her head. "When he went to take a shower I took the paper, looking for what had kept his interest for so long: among news for some educational proposal, some improvement in the children's ward of the local hospital, the beginning of the campaign for an aspiring senator... there was one article that focused on the recent suicide of another young politician, one who would have been the most serious competitor of the one just beginning his campaign in fact. According to the article the stress of his political career had gotten to him, he'd mixed the anti-depressants only his most trusted staff knew he was taking, with a bit too much scotch... or something like that. It was ruled as suicide. I instinctively knew it was actually a very cleverly hidden murder."
"He... the man who saved you was an assassin?!"
"Yes." She briefly wondered what he would say if... when he found out that wasn't the only, or even the first assassin she'd met. "He confirmed it later on, but it was at that point that I learnt the truth. From the very start he'd told me he did not know how long he would be in town, but I could stay with him as long as he did. Then he would disappear. He spent a few hours every day out, I never asked what he was doing, or where he even went. But whenever he wasn't busy he would train me. It was from him that I learnt the basics of self-defense."
"Martial arts?" Phil was curious again.
"Nothing formal." She shook her head. "He said there was no point in trying to be 'artistic' when fighting, the only thing that mattered was staying alive, being better than your opponent. He even began teaching me how to use knives..." She pulled out one strapped to her left thigh (opposite to where she had one of her guns). "He gave me this one."
Phil took the blade as she offered it to him. It looked like a mix of a hunting and an army knife. Double-edged, one side was smooth and slightly curved at the top, ending on a tip; the other side had a small part dull, as if meant for hitting, or piercing rather than slashing, and the side of the blade was serrated. It was also completely black, blade, guard and handle all.
"It's a good blade." Phil didn't know what else to do as he handed it back.
"It's German, or so he said." Skye explained. "He once told me he'd gotten the knife from a man trying to kill him during the war, then used it against him and all the others attacking him."
"War? In Germany?" Phil thought he must have heard wrong. "Was he talking about WWII?"
"It would seem so... I never asked." Skye admitted. "It sounded insane. And he was, insane I mean, sometimes. Most days he seem pretty normal, if a tad paranoid and martial, there were some days when he would even makes jokes about anything and everything... but then there were some days, dark days, when he looked so weak, as if the slightest touch could break him, or he were already broken... those days he would speak to himself, calling to someone, some brother, to help him... when I tried to help him find him he said there was no use, his brother was dead, and he wouldn't help, even if he were alive. He hated himself so much..." She shook her head sadly. "It's why I stayed. Even though he gave me a scare or two the first two or three times he got in those funks, I couldn't leave him when he was suffering so much. And he seemed to be getting better as the weeks passed, as if he found some kind of balance."
"What about his job?" Phil had a bad feeling.
"What indeed..." She let out a breath. "I knew from the day after we met he could be called back at any moment, he'd explained it to me. I was ready for it. Which is why, when we hit the month mark, after the assassination, we both knew something was wrong. I could feel the tension that wouldn't leave his body all day, he was strung tighter than the string of a bow... it was crazy. And then a call came from the reception desk, informing there was a message for him, and when he came back..." Skye shook her head, eyes tightly closed. "When he..."
She couldn't say it, couldn't bring herself to say the words... so Phil offered his hand to her again. Skye's reaction was immediate, and Phil could almost feel the relief as she pressed his fingers against her temple, and then hers to his. He was swallowed by the memory almost instantly.
Skye was in the tub, the water was actually cold, the opposite of what most would expect from a relaxing bath, but she actually preferred it that way, always had. She felt more than saw the edge of the knife as it settled on the hollow of her throat.
"So..." She didn't bother opening her eyes or trying to move. "Is this how it is going to end then? With my blood running down the drain?" She let out a breath, ignoring the nick on her throat when the hand holding the knife trembled. "How long do you think it'll take for anyone to find my body? It's not like anyone will care, I will just be one more dead body at the side of some road... or maybe even here in the motel. 'Depressed teenager commits suicide in a bathtub'... it's not like you cannot set it up like that. You've done it before, right? And like I just said, who'll care?"
Phil couldn't speak inside the memory, couldn't change anything, but it wasn't necessary either. He felt the moment the blade was pulled away from Skye's skin, and a second later heard the sound of metal on porcelain as it hit the tiled floor.
The move was enough of a surprise Skye's eyes snapped open, just in time to see her 'assassin friend' stalking out of the bathroom. She reacted instantly, practically jumping of the tub, barely remembering to wrap a bathrobe around her naked body, and ignoring the water dripping down; only stopping to pick up the knife that still had the slightest trace of her blood on the tip (Phil half-absently noticed it was the same knife she showed him in the present).
The girl practically stumbled into the bedroom (she'd been slipping on the cheap tiles, and the change to carpet made her trip); she was holding her bathrobe close with one hand, too nervous to focus on tying it properly. She saw him standing on the other side of the bed, almost blending into the shadows of the corner of the room, just beyond the reach of the moonlight streaming through the gaps in the shutters covering the window.
"James?" She called (It was the first time Phil has heard his name). "Ja..."
"Go." His voice was barely above a whisper, but she could still hear him.
"What...?" She didn't expect that.
"Take your things and go." He ordered, more strongly.
"Wha... but why?" She couldn't believe he was being so callous.
"I don't want you around anymore." He said coldly. "Now go!"
"No." She straightened in place. "I'm not leaving until you turn around and tell me what's going on. Face me you coward!"
The accusation was enough to make him react, as he turned around sharply, giving a threatening step in her direction before stopping in his tracks, one hand fisting almost convulsively inches away from her. Skye didn't even flinch.
James pulled back his hand then, but did not step back, allowing his figure to be seen. Half of his body was still in the shadows, but what could be seen showed a tall, broad-shouldered, muscular man, dressed in dark cargo pants and a long-sleeved forest green shirt. His skin was tanned, hair dark brown, shaggy, framing the sharp features on his face and the piercing ice blue eyes, a small but still noticeable scar above one of his eyebrows, half hidden by his bangs. There was a hint of something in his expression, like anxiety and... fear. (Phil, with his experience, recognized it as fear right away, and not for himself... he was afraid for her...)
"Why don't you see I'm trying to help you?!" He practically snarled at her. "Take your things and get the fuck our of here!" A pained sound leaves her throat before he adds: "Natalia..."
Skye's expression softened almost immediately and then she was the one stepping forward, extending a hand to touch the side of James's face.
"I'm not Natalia..." She whispered very softly. "And I am not leaving you James... at least not until you give me a good reason why..."
"You know I'm not a good person..." He swallowed almost convulsively as he explained. "You know I'm a killer, have known longer than I've been honest with you Little Cloud..."
The teenager just rolled her eyes, James seemed to take great delight in finding the one meaning of her name that was the rarest and most different from the usual ones and then turned it into his own personal nickname for her. Hence 'Little Cloud'.
"I know..." It was until she said those words, that she understood the logical conclusion. "You've been given orders... that's what that call was all about." She swallowed before finishing her own thought: "You've been ordered to kill me."
"Yes." He didn't even try to hide it. "I should have known better than to keep you around for so long... Which is why you have to go now. So take your things and get moving!"
He made to push her, but Skye was stubborn, way too stubborn for her own good.
"What will happen to you if I go?" She asked, refusing to move. "And what makes you think there isn't someone outside right now waiting to shoot me the moment I step out?"
"I already took care of that." He didn't try to pretend he meant anything other than the obvious. "They will notice eventually, which means you have to go, now!"
"What about you?" She insisted.
"I don't matter." He threw her half-packed bag at her. "Now go!"
"Not without you!" She went through two octaves in her cry.
"If you stay you will get killed!"
"I'm not leaving you behind to die in my place!" Her tone went softer, she was so very afraid, and trying her hardest to hide it. "Please... James, come with me... please."
He probably would never know why he did it, she certainly didn't; in the end they both ran.
More scenes followed, more like snapshots than actual memories, Phil witnessed what was probably the most insane and terrifying week in everyone's life, especially a 17 year old as Skye had been at the time. They kept running, mostly on foot; though a couple of times James had stolen motorcycles to move faster, and once Skye had managed to sweet-talk the driver of a truck to take them to the next state.
The two had spent the whole week traveling in a crazy zig-zag, changing directions without warning and doubling back, over and over again; though opposite to how it looked, they had a plan: get to Jefferson County in New York, and from there cross into Canada, where Skye hoped James's employers wouldn't be able to follow. It didn't work.
It was raining again, like the night they met. Skye, with her hair cut short and covered in cheap black dye was in simple sweats and a hoodie, with James in similar clothes and a baseball cap; they had joined a tourist group as they crossed the Thousand Island Bridge. James found the droning of the tour-guide annoying, but it made it easier for the two to go unnoticed. At least until the real trouble began, shortly before they reached the half of the bridge...
It was insane, even the memory seemed to be missing pieces. There had been a crash between several vehicles, including the tour-bus. Then the shooting began, people screaming, running, it was all chaos. Skye wanted to run, but did not know which way to go, it seemed like things were happening all around; somehow, she and James ended standing on the very edge of the bridge, looking at the chaos before them.
"This is all my fault..." James murmured horrified. "All my fault... my fault...my..."
"James focus!" Skye demanded, slapping him hard, once. "We don't have time for one of your breakdowns right now. If we're to survive we need to stay focused."
"Survive..." James repeated, his eyes steeling as he stared straight at her, with an intensity that surpassed anything she'd seen in him before. "Yes, you must survive."
She almost squealed in shock when he scooped her up in his arms; however, her shock turned to fear when he marched to the very edge of the bridge with her.
"Wha... James..." She kept looking at the river bellow them, then at the bridge, and at him, going nearly hysterical with confusion and fear. "What are you doing? James?!"
"You must survive." He said in an almost blank tone. "If you're found, he will kill you, and you must survive... I cannot let you die..."
"But you... James..." She wasn't sure what horrified her more, his obvious intentions, or the evident disregard for his own life. "I can stay with you, fight with you!"
"He will kill you, but he will not kill me." He half-explained to her. "He still needs his weapon." He flexed one of his arms for emphasis. "You should have run earlier, like Natalia did..."
"I didn't want to leave you..." She admitted weakly. "I still don't... James... I don't want Him to hurt you, please... Tell me what I can do to save you..."
"Survive." He said one last time.
And then she was flying... or falling, off the bridge and into the growing river 150 ft. below... she could have almost sworn she heard him whisper an apology before she completely lost sight of him, but the wind was howling on her ears and she couldn't be sure...
She barely remembered to roll into a ball in order to protect herself as best as possible from the impact. Still, it was strong enough she felt her breath leave her. And, as if things weren't bad enough, when she first tried to swim she hadn't the slightest idea where was up, or down, which way to go not to drown... somehow she managed, a gasping breath filling her burning lungs. But that was only the beginning of the fight for her life, as the rain kept pounding on her, and the current pulled her west and south... she fought for as long as she could, until eventually it just was too much, she lost consciousness.
Phil was still absolutely shocked when Skye pulled back, releasing him back to reality.
"How did you survive that?" He asked in a whisper after what seemed like forever.
"I have no idea." She admitted with a small sigh. "For the longest time I asked myself the same question. I couldn't understand how I survived, or even why... at first there didn't seem to be a reason why I should even be alive..." She shook her head, as if to ride herself of such thoughts. "When I recovered consciousness I'd washed to the coast of Lake Ontario, in some small town northeast of Rochester. I don't know how many days I was in the water, but it was a while, and somehow I managed to survive... and nobody found me until I washed down the Bay... I have no idea how I did it, but somehow I managed to get all the way to Rochester, with nothing but the clothes on my back and the knife he'd left me with (I lost everything else on the bridge), eating what scraps I could find. I got sick at some point, either from my trip down the river and the lake, or from traveling in my soaked clothes, I don't know. But that was how Karen found me, hiding in a corner of an alley, by the back-exit of her little bakery. And my life changed, again."
For the longest time, not a word was said; Phil just pondered silently on the story, while Skye waited for him to offer some kind of reaction to it.
"Why have you never spoken about this?" He asked quietly after what seemed like forever.
"In case it escaped your notice Phil, I hardly ever talk about my past." Skye replied flippantly, then more softly. "At least I didn't use to... until you." She sighed. "It's not easy. I've not had the easiest life. I will not go all 'damsel in distress', begin crying about no one loving me, the world being against me and all that crap, I'm not that kind of girl. But after so many years... people did not care for me, and those that did either left me, I lost them or had to give them up: Josef, Alec, Darcy, Chloe, Karen, James, Fox..." She broke off. "The team changed that... you changed that AC..."
"Until Ward betrayed us..." Phil couldn't help but mutter.
"We're still a family." Skye assured him. "What Ward did... it was awful, but he did not tear us apart. Nothing ever will..."
Phil nodded, wanting nothing more than to believe she was right on that.
"So... where are we going to see this James then?" He asked then.
Skye didn't even try to stop him, she knew well enough it would be useless. So instead she just threw him the keys to Lola and off they went.
xXx
They made it to Elysian Park, by the Northeast Area of Los Angeles, after a while. On the way Skye explained that her phone, thanks to an app she had designed, detected a series of coded messages that had been placed in several newspapers across the country; messages left by James, asking for her help. They'd actually begun days before, right before they'd moved into the apartments Josef had arranged for them. She'd returned the messages informing him where she was; what she never expected was for him to arrive so quickly. She'd though he would prefer to wait in the East-Coast, where he'd been. Until her phone decoded a new message that morning, the bottom line was: 'I'm here.' It was then that Skye almost had a stroke.
"And what exactly are you planning to do, once you find him?" Phil asked her at some point.
"I don't know." She admitted nervously. "All I know is I'll do everything in my power to help him, it's the least I can do..." She turned to face Phil. "I know you probably don't like this. Helping assassins most likely isn't on your to-do list."
"He helped you, saved you." Phil interrupted her. "That's enough reason for me."
Skye couldn't help the smile, and the thought that Phil was so good to her, maybe sometimes even too good... though that was one thing she hoped would never change.
Phil couldn't help but keep watching Skye every so often as he drove, which was how he noticed the shadow falling over her eyes as they crossed the Los Angeles River... a shadow he recognized as he'd seen it before, when she'd told him about the time she'd lived in LA, the end of that time... and as she'd been thinking of things she hadn't said.
"Why do your eyes darken every time you think about this place?" He asked straight out.
The question was so sudden, so unexpected, Skye actually jumped, reaching with a hand to Phil, briefly touching the side of his neck. For a fraction of a second Phil got an image: there were heavy clouds in the sky, a storm about to begin; there was the river, the currents going wild with the added water of other recent storms; but the real shock was beside it, all the figures standing, holding weapons of all kinds, in a tense stand-off, as if a war were about to begin... Phil could hear the clap of thunder, and then the image vanished.
"What was that?" He asked with a gasp, fighting to keep control of the car, least they have an accident right there on the freeway.
"I cannot say." She whispered, just as shocked as him by the image.
It was quite obvious that, whatever that was, she'd never intended for him to see it.
"You know, I can still remember that conversation we had back at the Hub, when I told you one day I might need to trust you with a secret, and needed to know you could keep it..." He let out a breath as he shook his head. "I knew you could do it, even as I said that. And yet... I could have never imagined something like this."
"That I would already be keeping so many secrets?" Skye guessed
"That, and that it would drive me so crazy not being in on them." Phil admitted.
"I've had to keep secrets for many years, concerning many different things." Skye admitted. "Truth is, if I weren't such a good secret-keeper, I probably would be dead several times over by now." She shook her head to push the thought away. "It's part of why I was so into the Rising Tide at first, and even after things went to hell with Miles, for the most part I still liked them. I was so tired of keeping secrets, many times very dangerous secrets... that the idea of getting a few of them out there, of making it so people didn't have to suffer for those secrets... it was almost intoxicating. At least that's the way I saw it. Until I realized how dangerous it could be for the general public to have that information; and even then, it took Yin's death to drive the point home... you must think I'm insane."
"Not insane, no." Phil's voice was understanding, soothing "You were just an innocent, idealistic young woman others took advantage of."
Skye shook her head to herself, she didn't exactly agree with Phil's assessment, but still, she knew better than to try and disagree with him, it would only start a new argument (the kind that got them nowhere) and neither was she in the mood, nor did they have the time, to get into it.
It was right then that they finally made it to the Park. The place was huge, it included the Dodgers Stadium, as well as several other baseball fields, a community garden, an arboretum, a WWI Memorial, and over half a dozen picnic areas.
"Where are we going exactly?" Phil asked as they stepped out of the car.
"The Arboretum." Skye announced after considering for a few seconds. "He's less likely to be noticed there, more shadows to hide in." She seemed to ponder a bit more before turning to him. "You might want to stay back a safe distance. He's not going to like that I have company, and if you stand too close he might even see it as a threat."
"Is he really that volatile?" Phil inquired, getting tense. "And if he is, shouldn't you have come with more backup rather than less?"
"He will never hurt me." Skye's conviction over the fact was absolute. "After the second time I was present during one of his breakdowns, something changed that made it so he can recognize me even when he's mostly gone. He will never hurt me." She narrowed her eyes. "You on the other hand... If he sees a gun or anything... well, depending on how on edge he is, he will either bail or attack. And considering recent events..."
"Recent events?" Phil didn't like the sound of that.
"You know that when I got into SHIELD my priority was to learn about my parents." She tried to explain in a round-about way. "After... what happened, I no longer needed to do that. Then when I became Astrid, I was a real Agent, and I got access to a lot of info... I remembered James. I wondered if SHIELD knew about him, if they might know about his employer. Who caused that awful accident on the bridge, only to get a 'weapon' back, who wanted James to kill his only friend to keep him under control."
"Did you find him? Either of them?" Phil was suddenly curious about it too.
"Not back then." Skye answered grimly.
"Not bac..." Phil really didn't like the sound of that.
"I found him a week and a half ago..." She added in a whisper.
"A week and..." Phil broke off when the facts caught up to him.
"I wasn't looking for him at the time!" She clarified immediately. "I was doing my best to take all your files and those of the team and seal them before Natasha could release everything online, when suddenly there it was... right in front of me. I had no idea what was in the file, but the moment I recognized him I took that as well." She let out a breath. "Then, the day after we got settled in all the apartments I finally got the time to look it over; what I found... it was horrific." She swallowed a sob. "It made me respect James a great deal more, for everything he's endured... it also made me terrified at what he might be like now. The things they did to him when they caught him in that bridge..." She trembled. "It was exactly why I didn't want to leave him! The fact that he even remembers me after everything..." She shook her head harshly. "It's also why I just couldn't refuse when he asked for my help. The debt I owe him is far too great, and he deserves far, far more than he's ever got..."
"What about his employer?" Phil remembered that detail. "He went after your friend before, and that happened, shouldn't we be getting ready in case it happens again?"
"It won't happen." Skye replied blankly, then before Phil could ask she explained. "His employer is dead... he was killed ten days ago... It was Alexander Pierce..."
Phil didn't reply to that, he simply did not have the words, he wasn't sure he would ever have them. So he said nothing, and simply followed Skye, falling behind some the closer they came to the arboretum. He had no idea what to expect, but he didn't want to complicate things for Skye and her friend, and even with all he didn't know, he really wanted to help.
They had just reached the forested area when the little something that had been nagging at the back of Phil's mind finally cleared up. Abruptly he realized why all the details, when put together, sounded so dangerously familiar to him. The answer came to him at the same time the figure, half enveloped in shadows, stepped from behind a tree, barely a handful of feet away from the young brunette Phil loved more than anything. Skye's old friend James, was none other than James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes, former Howling Commando, best friend of Captain America, and the almost mythical assassin known as the Winter Soldier...
"Who are you?!" The assassin, with his metal arm reflecting the light or a nearby lamp, demanded of the young brunette.
"James?" She seemed confused by that. "It's me, Skye. The 'Little Cloud'."
"The Little Cloud's eyes aren't blue." He hissed back.
"Ah, that..." She had gotten so used to the change she had forgotten. "Things have happened, this is what I look like now. I promise you James, it is me."
James gave a step closer, studying the young woman, and Phil couldn't help the instinctual reaction as he reached for the gun at his side. James heard him even before the safety was off; against Skye's predictions he didn't attack, or run, though his tension was obvious enough.
"You do not trust me." He told the young woman in an almost accusing tone. "I see you have come with company."
"AC is no threat to you, James." She tried to reassure him. "He just wouldn't let me leave the apartment on my own. Since my kidnapping he worries too much about me."
"You were kidnapped?!" The assassin bristled at the mere idea.
"Someone we believed to be part of our team..." She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. He took me for a short time, but my team got me back, and I'm alright."
"Team?" He sounded increasingly suspicious.
"Right... I've been working for SHIELD for the last year or so." She tried to make it sound as inconsequential, but knew it was useless.
It hadn't actually been a year yet, more like eight months, but the reaction was the same.
"You're not the Little Cloud." James practically snarled. "The girl I knew would have never worked for those monsters!"
"You're talking about Pierce, I know." She tried to sound soothing. "I know what he did to you James but you need to understand, AC..."
"They're all the same!" James interrupted her with a snap.
She could see it, the insanity creeping in, as James began turning into the Soldier ever so slowly; she knew what that meant, and it wouldn't be good.
"I'm still the same girl!" She cried out, in an attempt to stop the transformation.
"Prove it." He challenged.
She knew then it was too late, when James was in 'Soldier mode' as she called it, he stopped listening to gentle words, to reasoning: he only understood orders, and only obeyed those given by people who proved to have power, which meant there was no other way...
"AC..." She called quietly, never actually taking her eyes off the Soldier. "Whatever happens. Do not try to interfere."
"Skye...?" Phil had the feeling he wasn't going to like what would be happening.
"Just trust me, please." The woman practically pleaded.
And how could he not? So he just nodded, slipping his gun back to its holster as he settled back to wait for whatever was coming.
The Agent almost gaped when he watched Skye tugging at her sash before slipping her dress off as if it were nothing. She threw the cloth back at him, knowing Phil would catch it. And it was until he managed to clear his mind from the shock a handful of seconds later that he actually paid attention to what had been revealed: Skye was left standing in a skin-tight black-leather two-piece suit (a halter top, with a red-tube top underneath and mini-shorts), showing the holsters on each leg, one with a knife, the other with one of her guns.
Phil had seen Skye in many different ways: in the old days, with her purple dresses and knee-length skirts with boots; as Menel with her battle dress, staff and knives; as Agent Avery with her leather jacket, tight-ponytail and guns. He also realized that what he was seeing in that moment was an entirely different version of the brunette, one with less layers (literally and figuratively), perhaps even the most real he'd seen yet.
Without a word Skye pulled a couple of single-edged blades from their hidden sheaths in her boots, holding one in a direct, frontal grip, the other in a back-handed one, before dropping on a half crouch, one leg extended to a side, balancing with one fist (without letting go of the blade) while holding the other defensively before her. She was ready.
There was no signal, no warning. One second the Winter Soldier was standing tensely beside a tree, Skye crouched a handful of feet away from him; the next they were crashing against each other, fighting with such fierceness that an outside observer would believe their lives were on the line. Phil knew differently, but didn't worry any less.
It was a battle impossible to properly describe. When Phil finally relaxed enough to worry less and focus more on what was happening he couldn't help but appreciate the sight. He had heard in the past people describing battles as beautiful, breath-taking, enchanting... he had thought they were all insane. Being in as many battles for his life as he'd been while working for SHIELD, he couldn't understand how there could be beauty in something like that. In that moment he finally saw it. After the third time when the Soldier visible pulled back a move that could have seriously injured Skye, and the fifth she jumped back onto her feet after a blow that would have downed even the best fighters he knew, Phil stopped worrying so much about her. Instead he admired their style, their technique, the way they kept getting into each other's space and somehow managed to get out with just a few more bruises, sometimes a minor cut. They knew each other so well it was no problem to avoid lethal injuries, even with a metal arm that so obviously held more power than any human one, and two blades being involved.
At some point Skye lost both blades, one actually ended in the Soldier's hand, as he began using it against her. But she didn't allow that to stop her, rolling back to her feet as she tore free the strip of the black top James had slashed at, leaving her midriff-bare (he had cut the cloth, but didn't even nick the skin). In a swift move Skye pulled free the blade strapped to her thigh, the very knife James had left her with when they 'parted ways' in that bridge, and used it against him.
"You cannot win, Little Cloud." James teased her as he began relaxing into the fight. "Concede!"
"Is your mind failing you in your old age grandpa?" Skye teased back with a smirk. "You know better than to think I'll ever give up!"
"You cannot defeat me little one." He responded, growing more animated by the minute.
"You might have been my first trainer, James, but you weren't my last!" She responded. "I've had amazing people help me become better, and it's been seven years!"
The battle went on then.
Eventually the end came, as unexpectedly as the start had been. They had been moving faster and faster somehow, instead of slowing down, exchanging teasing comments every now and then; until suddenly every movement stopped: The Winter Soldier was on the ground, with Skye on him, one knee on his chest and the other on his metal arm, immobilizing it, her knife held against the side of his neck, the one non-cutting part of it pressed against his jugular. At the same time, the metal hand of the Soldier, even with his arm pressed down, was twisted in such a way that he was holding onto Skye's ankle, stopping her from moving to a side; while in his other hand he held the blade he'd taken from her, dull size against her collarbone.
"You have gotten better, Little Cloud." James recognized. "But you still loose."
"Not quite." She replied suddenly.
The glint of mischief in her eyes would have made her parentage quite obvious for anyone who had met Loki even once. In a flip second James saw his blade practically fly off the side, on its own, without Skye moving a muscle. He was shocked he couldn't help but drop his arm.
"What was that?!" He demanded, staring straight at her.
"Magic." Skye answered flippantly, still not letting go of her advantage. "You always did say I was to use every advantage I might have so... do you concede?"
For a few seconds it seemed like he might refuse, but then James closed his eyes, threw his head back and laughed.
"Well?" Skye half-demanded, though she was already beginning to relax.
"You win Little Cloud." He admitted.
Skye smiled brightly at him but instead of getting on her feet she just settled more comfortably on James's stomach. As her adrenaline went down she realized how exhausted the battle had left her. She hadn't been in such a fight since her last day training with Sif, before her return from Asgard. She was getting rusty... and that could be dangerous. Which meant she needed to up her training. Hopefully with Phil releasing his true abilities they would be able to help each other.
After a minute or so working on getting her breath back Skye was finally going to ask her old friend exactly what he needed when he suddenly reacted in a way she could have never expected:
"What the hell happened to you?!" He demanded abruptly.
He sat up suddenly and fast enough she slipped off his stomach, ending up half-splayed on his thighs, and even then she did not understand.
"What...?" She was completely confused.
"That!" He pointed at her midriff. "What the hell happened to you?!"
She instinctively reached to her stomach, not actually understanding his attitude until her fingers came in contact with two knotted scars...
"Oh... that." She whispered before sitting back up slowly.
"Yes, that." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Did SHIELD do this to you?"
"No!" She took offense to that. "A sociopathic bastard called Ian Quinn did this when me and my team came too close to catching him during a mission in Italy a few months ago."
"I will kill him." James stated, it wasn't a question.
"Get in line." Phil muttered from a few feet to a side.
It was then that James finally turned to acknowledge Phil, looking him up and down.
"Why isn't the bastard who shot her dead already?" He demanded of the Agent.
"Because at the time when we caught him, we believed in a system." Phil answered honestly. "We handed him to SHIELD to imprison him, believing it was the right thing to do."
"You trusted the system..." James snorted. "The same system that made me this..." He signaled to his metal arm. "That made me a monster..."
Before he could say anything more he found a tanned finger poking him repeatedly, and quite strongly, in the chest.
"You Are Not A Monster." Skye emphasized each word with a poke. "If my father and I don't get to call ourselves monsters for something out of our control, something we were born as... you don't get to call yourself that for something that was done to you without your consent!"
"Monster? Father?" James asked with increasing confusion.
"It's a long story." Skye admitted with a shrug. "And I'm not sure if you're planning on staying long enough to tell it..."
It was an effective reminder of what had brought them to that place, James's call, and the fact that their situation might not be the best in that moment.
With a sigh James pushed to his feet, pulling Skye with him.
"If you are with SHIELD I imagine you know already what happened in Washington." The Soldier said without introduction.
"We know." The young woman nodded. "We were prevented from making it there on time, but other battles needed to be fought. A member of our own team was Hydra..."
"The one who kidnapped you." James guessed, then turned to Phil. "And you rescued her."
"I did." Phil nodded.
"Good." James seemed satisfied by that. "Pierce is dead, and I got rid of the team he used to keep me under control..."
"James, what happened seven years ago..." Skye began in a broken voice.
"It's alright, Little Cloud." He touched the side of her neck in a soothing gesture.
"No, it's not!" She cried out her denial. "They hurt you! Pierce and his men! They hurt you, badly! Because I convinced you to run with me. And then they couldn't find me. I didn't want to leave you, I swear I..."
"I didn't give you a choice." James interrupted her rant. "I chose to do what was needed so you would be safe, Skye. And that's not a choice I think I'll ever regret..." His voice turned dark. "In all the years I've lived... all the years I've been a slave. I've been forced to do many things, whatever I might have once cared about, I was forced to sacrifice. Only twice have I been able to save someone, and no matter what the cost to myself was, it was worth it. You were worth it."
"You're talking about Natalia..." She nodded in understanding.
"Yes." He nodded. "The Little Spider was another that deserved better, and that I was able to help her, regardless of how small that help was, made me happy." His voice turned soft. "I wasn't even sure if you would survive, when I threw you off a bridge, I just knew it was a better option for you than staying where you would undoubtedly be caught. The kind of things that bastard Pierce would have done to you..." He shook his head. "I would have never been able to protect you. I tried with Natalia, and in the end she was only safe when she left. It's why I knew I should have sent you away from the first night... but you didn't know how to defend yourself, and I was so afraid of finding you in the morning, your body bruised, raped, dead, in a ditch..."
"You saved me..." She whispered back at him, pressing their foreheads together. "You saved me James, and I will always be thankful to you for that. It's why I am here right now. I owe you my life, and I will do anything I can to repay you."
"You remind me of my best friend, you know?" He asked wistfully. "Looking so slight, so cute... yet so strong inside." He tilted his head to a side, pondering. "And in time, you both changed to reflect that strength... yes, you are very much like him. My best friend, my..."
"Brother." She finished for him. "Will you finally tell me his name? Whenever I asked you in the past you would change the conversation, tell me you couldn't remember; that he either was dead or had forgotten all about you..."
"I didn't remember his name for the longest time." He told her. "Eve when I saw him again, my eyes did not recognize him... Pierce sent me after him..."
"Did you...?" She didn't dare even finish the question.
"I couldn't..." James admitted quietly. "At first his strength surprised me, and then when he recognized me... he knew who I was when I myself didn't. He knew and he did not doubt. Even when I threatened to kill him... He refused to fight me!" The Soldier's voice turned into an almost desperate cry as he dropped to his knees. "He said... he said: I'm with you to the end of the line..."
It was as if the phrase were some kind of trigger, as James began convulsing violently on the ground. Skye and Phil together tried to calm him down, but it was impossible, in the end she was forced to use her magic to immobilize him, if only so he wouldn't hurt himself.
"James!" She cried to him as soon as he was 'frozen'. "James you need to calm down, please!" She was getting hysterical, not knowing what to do. "Tell me what to do James, please. Tell me what I can do to help you!"
"The...there's n-nothing you-u can do to h-help me Li...Little Cloud." James told her in a broken voice. "I... I broke my programming in time to save Steve... but I cannot save myself, not from this. Too many triggers, too much damage done through the years... My mind is shattered, it has been for a long time but now... Now it's finally falling into pieces. And there's no way to stop it. I only came to see you one last time, make sure you were okay and... and if it's not much to ask. I hope you'll agree to meet with Steve one day. Find him, and tell him the truth. About me, what happened, what I've done. I know if you don't have it already you can find it. You have become a legend... Little Cloud: Agent Astrid Avery..."
"You..." Skye wasn't expecting that. "I never told you about that."
"You didn't need to." James told her quietly. Pierce had a file on you... at first I thought he had found you, until I realized he had no idea that the girl he was so interested in 'inducting', was the same one who had come so close to taking this weapon away from him, forever."
"He wanted to induct me?!" Skye's voice went through two octaves in her shock. "Into Hydra?!"
"It's why I knew I had to find you, before it was too late." The Soldier declared. "I had to make sure Hydra hadn't gotten to you." He half-smiled as he looked at Phil. "And I find that they tried, but your white-knight saved you... What is your name?"
"Coulson." The Senior Agent answered almost reflexively. "Agent Phil Coulson."
"Phil Coulson..." He repeated, suddenly recognizing the name. "Phillip James Coulson?"
"You have heard about me." After everything he'd heard, Phil wasn't exactly surprised, he was still curious what the Winter Soldier might have heard.
"You are supposed to be dead." James deadpanned. "Pierce was planning on having you killed, until you were reported KIA in New York... then he sent me against Fury instead."
"I did die..." Phil began, then shook his head. "It's complicated."
"I can imagine." James agreed. "And it's not like I need to know. I am dying already anyway."
"No, you're not." Skye's denial was strong enough to sound like conviction.
"Little Cloud..."
"Don't 'Little Cloud' me James!" She snapped at him. "You aren't dying because I say you aren't dying! And I would like to see you try and oppose me in this!"
James opened his mouth to say something else, but he was already losing the ability to do even that, the signals his brain sent failing.
"You are not dying on me James!" Skye practically screeched at him. "I won't allow it!"
In an instant she was kneeling over him again and then, James could have sworn he saw her figure ripple. In a second the leather two-piece she had used as battle clothes vanished, leaving in its place a floor-length, double-skirt, long-sleeved, wide-v-necked light-lavender colored elven-style gown with delicate pale-gold embroidery on several areas, pale-gold slippers covering his feet, and a mithril tiara with a blue gemstone on her head.
Skye bend until she could place the very center of the palms of her hands on James's temples, then she closed her eyes and began focusing. She had never used her magic like that, but she needed to believe it could be done, there was no other option, she wan't letting a friend die! Not when she could do something about it!
Phil looked at her in silence, wanting to ask what she was planning but knowing she needed to concentrate. He had seen her do very little magic since her discovery of it; though he'd been told by both Darcy and Clint what had happened the day Skye had returned to his life, how he might not be alive without her... he wholeheartedly believed she could save James as well.
After an undetermined amount of time Skye spoke out-loud, and to James, neither of which Phil was expecting, though he remained silent, watching over them.
"James... I can save you." She announced.
Phil knew there had to be a catch, otherwise she would just be doing it, rather than talking about it, he just hoped it wasn't something too bad, for either of them. It was insane that until a couple of hours before he'd seen the Winter Soldier as an enemy (after he knew he was real, and more than just a boogeyman), and in such a short time he'd come to care for his fate, wanting him to survive, for Skye to be able to save him. It was all the brunette's fault.
"I can use my magic and restore what's been lost but..." She hesitated before finally revealing the catch. "That much of my magic in your system... there will be consequences. You will be bound to me, dependent on me. You... the best comparison I can make is that of debt bondage." She swallowed her distaste. "I don't like it, it's so close to slavery it almost makes me sick! But it's the only way I know to help you. I..."
"Did you..." James coughed before finding the strength to answer her. "Did you know that i-in ancient times it was believe-d that if you saved someone's life... y...you were r-responsible for that person-n for the rest of t-their lives."
"Are you saying you agree?" She could hardly believe it, even at the same time she wished for the chance to save him.
"I... there's some much I've done wrong... so much I need to make amends for." He explained in an increasingly quiet voice. "To do that... I need to be alive."
"Say it." Skye ordered stoically. "I need to hear you say it. I need to know you understand what this means..."
"I agree to be indentured to you." She stated as clearly as he could. "Save me... Little..."
It was all he managed to say, it was enough. Before his eyes finished closing Skye was again pressing her hands against his temples. Then she began talking a litany in a mix of elvish (which Phil half-understood) and Norse (which he identified, but did not know). Her eyes were closed for a while but when they opened... Phil could have sworn they were shining with a light of their own like blue diamonds... like stars.
The chanting went on for a while, and at some point a light-show was added. A moment came when Phil began to wonder if he would have to invent some story when the people leaving the park approached to question him about what was going on, until he saw several such people walking down a nearby path on their way to their cars, and realized they weren't seeing anything. The lights were only visible to him!
Eventually the light seemed to narrow, going from a blob to forming what looked like strands, which wove together to form what looked like a plait... or a chain. That chain of light, of power, then wound around the two of them, eventually wounding around their rights arms. In Skye it seemed to sink into her skin, disappearing completely, in James it formed into an armband, which then became physical. Almost like a cuff, made of black leather, with what looked like dark-gold filigree forming a design that looked like multiple 'X' connected. Phil suspected it was the symbol of the connection, the debt or 'indenture', as they'd called it.
As the lights finally died Phil began wondering if he should do something, call to Skye, call for someone to help, if something else needed to happen, until he suddenly heard her voice in his head, he couldn't identify the language she was speaking in, but it did not seem to matter either, only what she was saying did (and the fact that, somehow, she'd managed to establish telepathic contact without touching him, something that had always been necessary before).
*This is just the start.* She informed him calmly. *He is alive, and will stay that way, but his mind is still far from healed. It will take a while, I don't know how long, and we will both be unconscious during the duration of it. I know it's not fair to leave you to handle things with the team, especially when I didn't give them any kind of warning but...*
"It's alright." Phil interrupted her. "I will just tell them he's a friend and they can ask you all about it when you're both awake."
Skye's laughter echoed inside his head in such a way it made him shiver... he liked it.
*Don't let them hurt him.* She insisted, softly. *May, Trip, Clint... they won't see him as a man, as even human, they will only see the Winter Soldier. And there's so much more to him than that... so much...*
"I know..." He replied.
And he did, from the very first moment James's eyes had laid on Skye, Phil had know there was more to that man, that the Winter Soldier every agent and mercenary knew of and whispered about as if he were the devil... or a ghost. No, the soldier... James, was a man, and he would make sure the others saw that. May would call him insane, though after everything he'd done in the last year she probably wouldn't be that surprised, especially not with Skye so obviously involved; if there was anyone on the team that was more likely to suspect he had feelings for the young brunette it was Melinda. Clint would be furious, most likely, having heard what the Soldier had done in Washington, but he would respect Phil's choice; he also hoped Darcy would have the same kind of trust in him, or at least Skye. Trip was the hardest to predict, but hopefully his desire to be involved in what the team was doing would allow him to at least give them the benefit of the doubt. FitzSimmons would just follow the others' lead.
With that in mind Phil brought out his phone to make a call, even with his developing power there was no way he could get both Skye and James back to the apartments on his own, especially not in Lola. He would need help.
As he began making the call, Phil began wondering how long it would take for them to wake up, if they would be ready in time for the next move against Garrett. He hoped they would, even though they were more than before, and Phil had absolute confidence in every member of his team, going against Garrett wouldn't be easy, at all.
His line of thought was interrupted when the call finally connected.
"Hello, May? I need your help."
As some people may or may not be able to realize, I was in the planning stages of the Menel series when CA2 came out. At first I began planning a rewriting of the series, only with Phil's team right in the middle of it all. Then I realized that doing something like that would take credit away from those who're only human yet tried so hard... like Sam, Sharon, Maria, and everyone else. Also, it's hell to go around rewriting movies! (I've done it, with and without scripts on hand, several times even). Also, I liked the plot the series took at the same time.
Still, one idea had already gotten into my head by that point. The friendship between Skye and James, and her saving him. And, of course, making this into an excuse for him to stick around!
In other words, I hope you'll like the mess I'm making of this (it's gonna get worse with all the other crossovers I'm introducing in the next story). James is pretty much 'joining the cast', as will some others in the future.
You're running out of time to tell me which crossovers you would be most interested in seeing, and any particular preferences for pairings (I'm currently writing Astrid... as I finished writing Avery two days ago).
Next week: Avery's finale! (My take on the show's season 1 finale... some things might be same and other's... well, you'll just have to wait and see, won't you? (cackles madly).
See ya around!