"I don't know how you people could stand her," said Lincoln.

"Watch it, Lincoln," Coulson ordered. "I realize you're upset, but I asked you for a debrief to assess Daisy's condition. Not insult her when she's not around to defend herself."

Lincoln pointed at the door roughly, as though the girl were standing on the other side of it. "That is not Daisy."

"You're right, it's Skye," Coulson agreed. "You met Skye after she'd trained, after she'd gone through more hardships than even her childhood had dealt her. She's trying to catch up with some of those things now, and maybe she's not handling it as well as she should. But I will not tolerate putting her down behind her back."

Lincoln inhaled in surprise, wisely deciding not to bite back. He sat down on the couch. "Sorry, sir. It's just… so unlike her."

"It's her before she knew you. Maybe take it as a good thing that you've had such a positive influence on her life," Coulson said. He added a slightly wry smile, giving Lincoln inclination it wasn't entirely the truth. Phil knew there were other instances that had shaped her character than just Lincoln.

"Positivity isn't the problem." He paused. "Actually, it is. She's so positive she's frivolous."

"Skye definitely had a bigger sense of humor before Hydra knocked us all down a peg, but she was serious when it mattered. This situation is probably catching her a little off guard. What you two just went through might have been a wake up call for her senses." Coulson paused. "You might find 'Skye' when she's ashamed of something she's done wrong more serious than 'Daisy' on most missions."

Lincoln nodded. And sighed. "It's just… she calls me Campbell."

Coulson chuckled. "You realize you can tell her you prefer your first name?"

"It's more the principle of it. She doesn't even realize that… that we're close."

Coulson was starting to busy himself with paperwork, multi-tasking. "She's always called Fitz by his last name, May too. But that was probably more for a personal safety issue if she ever tried Melinda… she certainly did attempt Phil with me, though." Coulson looked up to Lincoln to find the man staring at him with an odd expression. "And you meant the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing, so my comparisons don't really mean anything to you."

Lincoln shrug/nodded in agreement.

"Right. Well, considering this is turning into dating problems between my employees conversation, we might want to wrap it up."

"Yeah… especially when it's your boss's daughter," Lincoln said wryly, but Phil rather appreciated the sentiment.

"Probably should find Fitz or Simmons," suggested Coulson.

Moments later, footsteps were heard coming up to the office. Jemma appeared in the doorway.

"Speak of the devil," admonished Coulson. "Agent Simmons, is something wrong?" he asked, reading her expression.

"It's Daisy sir, she's vanished!"

"She's not on the base?" he asked.

"She never came back from the Cocoon."

Coulson turned to Lincoln. "You two didn't drive back together?"

Lincoln gulped nervously. "She didn't want to see me after our… disagreement. Said she'd take a different van."

"Damn it," Coulson muttered, picking up his phone.

"She's probably just needing some alone time with all of this," Lincoln suggested.

"That's quite possible," agreed Jemma. "Her memory's damaged, but she's still an adult with a mind that works perfectly well on her own."

Coulson glanced at Simmons and Lincoln, his serious face leaving no room for optimism.

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of."

Ward asked Skye to meet him at Ruthie's Skillet in LA. So for being in New York City, it would have been a little bit of a stretch to say yes.

He had been desperate on the phone, begging for her to see him and to not listen to what SHIELD had said about him. She quickly informed him about her memory loss and that SHIELD actually refused to disclose any information on him.

That got him rather upset, and his anger seemed to resonate at SHIELD. He kept insisting for her to hear him out. That's when she explained that she was nowhere near Los Angeles and that her only form of transportation was a van, so it couldn't be anytime soon.

Ward paid no mind though, instead agreeing to meet in NYC. In rather record time, so he must have had access to a sort of jet. Or something.

So she disabled the GPS tracker on the van, took over an hour to find a parking place and finally made it inside Grand Central Station.

"Skye," he breathed her name in relief when he caught sight of her. Of course, ninja Ward was able to spot her before she him, but to her credit… it would have been fairly difficult to see him. His getup was pretty odd... but maybe she should have noticed the smell because his odor was decided pretty horrible. "Almost didn't recognize you with that hair."

"Ward, it's really you! And you're one to talk about appearances. What are you wearing?" she asked, pointing to the hoodie near completely covering his face. She glanced around, admittedly in a shady sort of motion. "You hiding from the cops? Cause New York's biggest train station is probably not the best place to do it."

"No, not from the cops," he told her. "C'mon Skye, let's sit down and talk."

He made a gesture over to a seat so Skye followed suit.

Wait…

"Skye?" she asked.

"Yes," Ward said questionably. "That's… that is your name."

"It is my name!" Skye confirmed. "You didn't call me Daisy."

"Daisy?" he scoffed. "Why would I call you that?"

"I guess I changed my name, and thanks to this amnesia shtick I don't remember doing it." She shrugged.

"That… doesn't really sound like you."

"Changing my name? You do know how I got the name Skye, right?"

He chuckled. "Ok, that part is definitely you. I was talking about the naming yourself after a flower?" He cocked a brow.

Skye gave an awkward chuckle. "I guess it's my birth name."

He scoffed once again. "Well, your parents had no foresight as to how you were going to turn out," he said, giving her an almost shy smile, taking her hand. She shuddered, noting him to be chilly. "The sky is limitless, while daisies are delicate enough to fall apart after one touch. Which sounds more like you?"

Skye took in the impact of his words and couldn't contain her blush. He had never spoken to her like that in any capacity.

Heck, his best line last week had been "you look better than when you were dying."

But that was last week two years ago, and Grant Ward had clearly upped his smooth talk game.

"Right… so now that that's taken care of…" She cleared her throat, and prepared to lower her voice. "Can you please tell me what the hell is going on?"

Grant sighed. "So SHIELD hasn't told you anything about me?"

Skye shook her head. "They just said you weren't around."

"Huh, figures," he sneered.

"So… what's the truth?"

He huffed air through his nose, head still pointed down. She hadn't gotten a good look at him under the hood.

"This is the truth."

Until now.

He hooked his hands over the fabric atop his head and flipped it backwards, his eyes finally finding her own. She gasped, because they were not the warm brown she had become accustomed to. They were dark and endless and scary.

It wasn't just a look in his eyes. It wasn't just a feeling that coursed through Skye when she laid her own on him. These observances were completely physical.

He was dark, bruised… blue and damaged. The skin that wasn't was blanched pale, a sickly hue if she'd ever seen one. It seemed to almost be moving in slight.

Skye lifted her hand up, just to touch him. She felt near compelled with intrigue, but she dropped her hand atop his. Ok, he was definitely running on a low temperature.

"What happened?" she whispered in horror.

"SHIELD," he rasped.

"What?" Skye squealed. "They wouldn't do this to you…"

"They wouldn't have done it to the old Grant Ward, the agent. But the guy who went through Terrigenesis and came out uncontrolled? They would."

"Terrigenesis? But they told me that's how Inhumans…" Skye's eyes got large.

"That's right, I'm just like you," he said. "Inhuman."

Skye scowled indignantly. "What the hell did they do to you? Why?"

"When I came out of that cocoon, I was messed up. I wasn't thinking right. I don't think they meant to, exactly. They were scared. And I was dangerous Skye, I must stress that-"

"What did they do?" she asked sternly.

"They killed me," he said simply, shrug and all.

"What?"

"My body, at least. Which is when I figured out what the mist did for me: I keep living even if my body no longer can."

"But…. what? That doesn't make sense! That's not how super powers are supposed to work; they're supposed to stop you from dying!"

"That's how it worked for me. Then SHIELD dumped me, because I was 'not natural'." He gave a short mirthless laugh. "Simmons couldn't get passed the fear enough to even let her curiosity take over for an exam! I realized I wasn't safe and took off. I've been living in the shadows ever since."

Skye's mouth hung open, unsure of how to respond. How could she make up for the hardships her team had put him through? They were collecting and rehabilitating inhumans now, for god's sake!

"Ward, I am so sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. I didn't exactly call you for a catch up. The truth is that I need to ask you for a favor."

"Name it!" Skye said eagerly. Desperately, even.

"There's something wrong with me. My body wants to keep going but it can't, probably because it's dead." Skye winced. "And I don't know what to do."

"You need SHIELD resources," Skye said as she realized.

"I need SHIELD resources."

This was disgusting. Ward had needed help, needed help now, but he didn't have it because his own team wouldn't give it to him, though they were helping to train and relocate strangers? It didn't make sense! Not for Coulson.

But SHIELD was known for their secrets and Fury was no fool in hiding them. Maybe Coulson had taken on more of the director role than Skye had originally realized.

"Think you can keep on my tail with your car?" asked Skye. "Because I'm pretty sure I know exactly where to go."

"She's not at her van in storage," affirmed Bobbi over comms.

Coulson sighed. "Alright, that was a long shot anyway. Thank you Agent Morse."

He didn't think she'd have gone there. If Skye's memory truly picked up after she'd been shot, she held little to no interest of going back to her van, the last remnants of her old life, even then.

"Sir," Fitz said loudly, walking into the office. "I've found her."

"You did?" Coulson asked. "Is she ok?"

"She's fine. Sat cams picked up her license plate 'bout ten minutes ago. She seemed to have just been hanging about New York City,"

That was a major relief, and actually made sense. "What's she up to now?"

"Now? She's headed back to the Cocoon, sir."

"The Cocoon? Why is she going there?" Coulson asked. "Can you bring up the feed?"

"Yeah! One moment…"

Fitz began typing and mere seconds later the SHIELD van came onto the screen in his office.

"Definitely going back to the Cocoon, she's nearly there." Coulson squinted. "Wait, is that…"

"Has she got a tail on her?"

"I think she does."

"She's about to lead them right into the base," Fitz exclaimed. "Even at that point in her life Skye would know surveillance protocol when going somewhere like that… what's she thinking?"

"Unless it's intentional."

Fitz pondered blindly for a moment. "Who would she be leading to a secret base?"

The van and car stopped just outside the entrance to the cocoon, one person emerging from the driver's side of each.

Phil's eyes bulged near out of his head. Blind anger flashed through him like a speeding bullet and he hit some paraphernalia right off his desk.

Coulson was seething. "The only person our team trusted above all others: one of our own."

"No," Fitz admonished in disbelief as he saw Grant Ward walking about the screen. "But… I thought you killed him back on that planet!"

"That makes two of us." Coulson couldn't believe this. Why wouldn't he just die? "There's no way he could have survived!"

"Oh no…" said Fitz.

"What?"

"Will was dead back on that planet. Before we even got there. He was dead."

"Right…"

"Well, then… that's not really Ward at all, is it?"

It took Coulson a moment to wrap his head around the idea, but it was most likely the truth. Because if he'd learned at least one thing from a life at SHIELD, it was this: the most far-fetched ideas were normally the right ones.

"Call in everyone and tell them to get to the Cocoon. Now."

Skye walked in like she owned the place. By the sounds of herself in two years, (or Daisy, as she liked to think of that other version of her so-called self) she was a leader. Especially when it came to inhumans, so Skye thought it might be the way to go.

She was stopped about two feet after walking into the super secret door. (The ground had opened up to let them inside. Could you get much more spy-esque?)

"Johnson, I need to see your identification."

She scowled. "You just called me Johnson, pretty sure you know who I am," she mentioned, realizing she most likely was friendly with this guy if he knew her name. "C'mon Agent… Sanders, is this necessary?" She hoped the reading of his lanyard had been inconspicuous.

"I take it you don't have your ID, miss?"

Skye sensed Ward reach for his gun, mentally noting that he was definitely more trigger happy than usual. Hopefully his grudge against SHIELD didn't leave him cloudy minded.

"No, I do," she said, quickly grabbing the item from her pocket. "I just think it's unnecessary."

He took her lanyard, studying it intently. After a few moments, the bearded man's face lit up as he began to laugh. "C'mon Daisy, this is the Cocoon. Cesspool of gifteds here… you could have been a shapeshifter for all I know!"

"Heh, ain't that the truth?" she said.

He chuckled again. "Sure is. Now, who is this you have with you?"

Skye froze internally, but didn't let an inch of emotion show on her face. If they had been that scared of Ward, she doubted they'd be so kind as to let him walk into their base. But maybe this hoodie-wearing, cologne-soaked person (hey, it was better than corpse smell) would raise some eyeballs as well?

"This is Allen Finch. He's a promising talent from MIT. I've had my eye on him for a while since he's been searching all the gifteds' news coverage, trying to figure out where they're ending up… he's a nosey one, but it did lead me right to him."

Sanders scrutinized Ward for a moment, but eventually shrugged, shaking the man's hand so hard Skye honest to god thought that it was about to snap off. He was dead, after all.

"I hope this isn't just a job interview, and that he's already had his background checked… you didn't initiate the black bag protocol, I noticed."

"That's… exactly true. Background completely checked. Finch will be working here in the foreseeable future, so I thought I'd give him a tour around."

"In that case, welcome to the Cocoon kid. Sure you'll get your fill of gifteds."

"Thank you," Ward muttered in a small, near mangled voice.

"You're a quiet one, huh?"

Skye shrugged. "Eh, you can get him talking."

The man smiled and walked away, leaving Skye and Ward to waltz right into the depths of the SHIELD base.

"So, I was thinking you could talk to a couple of the other inhumans… see our training facility. I may be able to find something out from the computers in the lab if I can decipher all the science mumbo-jumbo and—what?"

Ward was staring at her with a cocked brow. "Nice name you came up with."

Skye rolled her eyes. That's what he was fixating on? "I don't know… I just thought of my favorite Firefly actor and… well, that author character from Elf popped into my head for god knows what reason-"

"Firefly… that show you were always telling me about?"

"I'm guessing you still haven't watched it?" she asked, Ward shaking his head immediately. Skye sighed. "Such a waste of two years."

Ward chuckled, taking a few steps forward and surveying the white walls of the laboratory-themed base. "So, this where the home team hangs out?" he asked.

"Guess not, actually," she said. "This is for inhumans to go through training and whatever else SHIELD does to get them back to the world. Like… alien rehab, I guess."

"Makes sense," mused Ward. "You said something about meeting more inhumans?" He grinned, the smile taking up much of his face. "I'd love to see them."

"I don't think that would be such a good idea."

Skye's face blanched at the booming, serious voice. She turned to see Coulson.

Not to mention about eight other field agents, including the two Inhumans that made up her "team." Plus Fitz and Simmons, even.

Ward grinned at the sight of him, actively raising his hands in surrender. "You got here quicker than I would have guessed you would, Phil. Nice job."

"Seeing someone whose chest cavity you crushed kind of raises a couple red flags."

Skye flinched. Crushed?

"Coulson, he needs help! I know you think he's dangerous, but maybe with a little help-"

"Daisy, I'm sorry, but you don't know what you're talking about!" Coulson exclaimed. "It's not your fault, if anyone's it's mine, but you can't have a say in this."

Skye frowned. "My name is Skye."

Hunter sighed. "Poor guy can't catch a break with this name gimmick…"

Ward faced her, keeping the others in his sight still. "Unfortunately, Skye, he's right. You don't know what you're talking about at all," he said, his voice off as it began to hold a taunting tone. "Because I've been lying to you."

"Skye, get over here-" Coulson ordered, but her feet refused to move.

"Ward?" she squeaked, not understanding.

"No, in fact. But that guy actually takes the cake on lying," he said lazily. "He was Hydra. Your team didn't turn their backs on them, he was a spy the entire time."

Skye's heart fell into her stomach. The walls shook, and she realized what they had warned her about her powers and her emotions being connected was taking place. After everything we've been through? she thought. She refused to believe it. "Why are you speaking like you're not him? C'mon, Ward…"

"Skye please," Campbell implored as his hand stretched forward. "Just come over here."

"Why don't you join your friends?" Ward sneered.

Before Skye could say 'hacker's rule' or another equally true statement, she found her upper arm being grabbed and her body flung towards the agents. She stumbled as she reached them, but Campbell gathered her to steady her.

With Skye out of harm's way the agents were galvanized. They began shooting at Ward immediately. He was being filled with holes, gushing a strange, thick blood.

And he laughed.

Coulson saw how fruitless the action was serving and ran to a wall panel. This being a base completely overrun with powered people, it had a few precautions the Playground didn't have. (So Skye had been told). Such as, knockout gas being releasable and directable from every hallway-with the proper authentication, of course.

Coulson pressed the button and Ward was suddenly showered in the mist. He was not visible to them for long moments as the fog was too dense, clearly putting everyone on red alert. They raised their guns, however pointless, in anticipation of when the smoke would clear.

Even before the haze dissipated in entirety, Skye knew it hadn't done much good. She could still hear him laughing.

"Nice try," he said. "You just can't get rid of Ward no matter how bad you want it, huh Phil?"

Campbell was holding tight to Skye's hand in protection. He had been the entire time she realized, but she hadn't noticed until she felt the absence of such when he bravely stepped forward to shoot large electric beams at Ward.

That's when Skye remembered that she could help too.

She bounded forward and shot out her waves, knocking Ward back into the wall, farther than even Lincoln's power had moved him.

The last Inhuman present, Joey, came jogging forward as well. "Hold him steady Daisy!"

For once she didn't mind the misnomer, and pressed harder at the man who flailed against the wall.

Joey's face squished together in deep concentration, his hand shaking with how hard he had to force his abilities. Finally, the metal cabinet in which his fist had been directed at crumpled, and he flung it onto Ward, melding him to the wall.

Skye and Campbell dropped their arms, heaving.

"Nice job, guys," Mack said. Skye tried to give a light smile, but she was still feeling the weight of recent revelations.

Also… Ward was still laughing, which couldn't mean anything fantastic.

"I would clap if my hands were free, honestly," he commented.

"Any way you can get a slab of that metal over his mouth?" asked May.

"Oh, come on, lover," he chastised. Skye could have sworn she saw fire light behind May's eyes. "Don't you want to hear how I've beaten you?"

"You're stuck to the wall with molten metal," Bobbi said. "I'd say we have you in a pretty tight spot."

"Think again," he said darkly.

Right on cue, gas started pouring out from the ceiling, and it wasn't just over Ward this time. It was the entire hallway.

"What's going on?" shouted Hunter.

Bobbi rushed to the wall panel. "It's not- it's not letting me do anything!" she sputtered, before erupting in a coughing fit. Everyone was. The gas wasn't too painful, but Skye couldn't breathe!

She collapsed onto all fours and finally to her stomach. Lincoln fell similarly onto his back in her eye line.

By then she no longer heard the hissing of new gas being poured through the roof as the smoke cleared. Moments passed with little noise, and Skye knew her entire team had been incapacitated.

She could barely keep her eyes open, but she saw multiple pairs of blurred boots stomp into her vision. More people had gotten into the facility. As her eyes fluttered closed she heard the screech of metal, followed by a relieved breath from Ward.

Her eyes didn't need to be open to know that the boots coming close to her now were not one of the newcomers.

Skye would have trembled, her own body or this building, if she'd had the power as Ward came closer to her. Because this wasn't Ward. Hell, she didn't even know who her own Ward was! Whether this strange possessed version or Hydra him she didn't know what he'd do.

He stopped just in front of her, lifting his boot near her face. She felt the rush of air from the moment.

He was going to step on her, she knew. He was going to squish her skull to leave her splattered like a bug.

Except he didn't.

He nudged her over so that she was on her back, and Skye strained to open her eyes. He knelt down beside her.

"Shh," he cooed, beginning to brush back the hair from her cheek with what she could have sworn was a tender touch. "Don't worry. You'll understand soon enough, and this will all be over."

Skye didn't know exactly what that meant, but she was fairly certain she wouldn't care for his sort of understanding.

He ordered someone to take her away, and when her body left the ground her consciousness flitted away with it.

Author's Note: I realize it's been awhile since Daisy and Ward interacted, but he had such strong (if not delusional) feelings for her I wanted to play with the idea of those feelings influencing Hive.

Also, Agents of SHIELD is on tonight! And it's probably going to muck up this story :D There is a 90% chance Hive doesn't want to eat Inhumans in my story. If I can make it work I will but… I don't think I can.

OH ALSO to the guest who asked when breaking the wolf would be up… maybe in a few weeks? I'm not sure. And I don't know about the staticquake romance, if it goes with the story it goes.

Let me know what you think!