Codename: Battleship

Spoilers: AU but can consider all Season One episodes. Read Battleship: SHIELD to understand or you WILL BE LOST.

Disclaimer: I own nothing at all

The walk through the jungles of Chiang Rai was actually peaceful much to Skye's surprise. She held the device in her hands that would detect the 0-8-4, it's soft beeps confirmation that they were on the right track. Ward walked beside her, pushing back tree limbs and bushes if necessary but for the most part their path was clear. About three hours in, Skye grabbed her water bottle from the pack that Ward carried on his back, taking a sip as she stopped to stare at the device in her hands.

"What is it?"

Skye handed him her bottle and he took it, returning it to the pack as she touched a few controls on the device. "I'm getting multiple readings instead of just one, about a hundred feet ahead is the first and then a mile we get another." Looking around she turned back to the device, "the last is coming from the village."

He leaned over her shoulder to look at the device, "we'll start with the one up ahead."

They walked a ways but Ward stopped her with a hand as they approached the signal, removing vines he turned to look at her. Skye saw a corpse of something, definitely not human and definitely decades old as it was mostly just a skeleton with an enlarged head and huge eye sockets. Its height was nowhere near human or Asgardian despite the rope that lay around it's neck. Ward bent down and picked up a device on its wrist that looked like a simple bracelet.

"I think this is giving off the signal." He put it down on the ground and crushed it with his boot, Skye saw the device lose the signal.

"It's gone, we should tag this for a retrieval team and keep going."

Ward bent down and opened up the pack on his back, removing a small black square from a box. Pushing the top of the square, he placed it under the hand of the corpse and stood up. "Come on."

A mile ahead, they actually came to a grave half-dug and Ward proceeded to dig it up, finding a recently deceased woman that looked both human and non-human. She wore a bracelet as well and after burying a tag with the corpse, Ward broke the bracelet so the signal disappeared.

"That corpse a mile back looked alien, this one looked half-alien…" Skye looked at her fiancé as they started walking again. "Do you think that an alien lived here and…mated with a human woman, creating her?"

Ward sighed, "don't know but the woman in that grave is about as old as the corpse we found. We should check out that village and see what the third signal is attached to."

Walking into the village, they received strange looks but no one really stared. Skye looked down at her device and looked around in regards to the village, noting that the signal stemmed from a central housing structure straight ahead.

"We should find the village elder." Ward looked at her, "it'll help us, he most likely will be able to find someone that speaks English or can at least help us."

Skye waited while Ward managed to gesture enough with villagers to find the village elder. She noticed how most of the villagers avoided the central housing structure, as if it held something bad. Looking over to see Ward trying to explain to the village elder what they were looking for, Skye stood from the step she was on and walked to the central housing structure.

Pushing the curtain aside, she looked inside to see a young girl no more than five sitting on a mat with a bowl in her hands. The girl looked up at her and Skye noticed that she looked so human but the device was signaling to an 0-8-4. Spotting the girl's leg, Skye saw the same bracelet as had been on the corpses.

"Hi." She smiled and moved inside, bending down beside the girl. The girl didn't move or try to get away, as if she was studying Skye instead of being scared as she should be of strangers.

The curtain was pushed aside and Skye looked up to see the village elder and Ward, the elder was shaking his head and pointing at the girl before the sky and towards the forest. Ward seemed to understand all the gestures as he looked at Skye. "The girl came from the sky just like the bodies in the forest, from what I can understand they keep her here because they fear killing her will cause more to come."

"She can't stay here." Skye looked at him, "clearly she's ostracized and SHIELD can protect her like they protected me."

More gesturing went on before the elder walked over to the girl, she backed up from him till he grabbed her under the arms. Pulling her up, he carried her over to Ward and thrusted her at him, the specialist taking the girl more gently. The elder pointed to the sky before pointing at Ward, shaking his head.

"He's giving her to us," Ward held the child more gently and securely in his arms. "Basically if more come, it's on us."

"They won't tell anyone?"

Ward seemed to adjust the girl in his arms and shrugged, "I get the feeling they don't exactly want to tell outsiders about this."

Skye stood up and walked over to them, she smiled at the girl who seemed to just look at her as if something to study. "Hi there."

The girl reached out a hand to Skye and the agent took her hand, smiling as she captured the small hand. The girl's other hand seemed to clutch Ward's shirt, eventually laying her head against his shoulder.

"Something tells me that AC and May aren't expecting this." Skye smiled and watched the girl practically fall asleep in his arms, somehow comprehending she was safe at last.

They left the village and turned at the edge of the forest to see half of the village joyously making noise. Skye only shared a look with Ward, knowing they were doing both the village and the girl a favor.

The trek back to Bangkok was long, especially with a four to five year old. Skye sat in the back of the rental car with the girl most of the time, trying to talk to her. Ward knew the girl knew no English and was probably unable to communicate based on the little contact she had with people. He didn't discourage Skye though as she managed to distract the girl with origami, a fun fact he was just discovering about Skye herself.

They arrived back in Bangkok in the early hours of morning and immediately headed to their hotel room. Ward watched Skye put the girl on the bed, she was filthy but they'd get what they needed for her in the morning. He watched Skye lay down beside the girl, pushing back black locks and gazing at the innocent face.

"Get some sleep." He bent over the bed and kissed Skye's head, pushing back her hair as she looked up at him. "I'll contact Coulson and let him know what we found, he'll probably have Simmons escorted out to examine her."

As Skye fell asleep, he snapped a photo of the girl and proceeded to contact Coulson. Their lead agent seemed eager to find out what was going on as he instantly asked what was going on.

"What did you find?"

"The 0-8-4 is human, well at least mostly human. I put tags on the corpses we found, one was completely alien and had probably been dead about 20 years. We also found a second one, a woman who had recently died who looked to be half-human and half-whatever that thing was." He uploaded the photo of the girl, "this is what we found in the village, they were more than happy to give her to us, cheering when she left. If what Skye is theorizing is correct, it's likely the girl is three-fourths human."

Coulson nodded, "I'll send Simmons out immediately, you have the girl in your custody correct?"

"I don't think Skye is going to leave her behind, it must be an 0-8-4 thing because she refused to leave her at the village and is kind of attached already." He looked over at the bed to see the young girl curled up against Skye, hand clutching Skye's shirt. "I think the feeling is mutual though because the girl isn't afraid of Skye and seemed to lean towards her."

"Keep the girl in your custody, once Simmons checks her over and clears her you need to return immediately." He gave a solemn look, "sorry to cut the honeymoon short."

Ward shrugged, "we had a few days together sir so that's more than we'd get working. What matters is helping this girl and I'm confident that Skye isn't going to let this go. She'll probably demand that she oversee the girl's care and adoption to a SHIELD approved family."

"I'd expect no different from Skye." Coulson smiled at the statement. "Report around noon your time."

"Yes sir." Ward shut the connection down and got ready for bed, taking the couch that was in room while Skye rested with the girl curled up practically in her arms.

A/N: Another human (sort of) 0-8-4, will Skye grow attached or will it end in disaster due to the girl's unknown origins?

Next we see Simmons arrive and examine the girl, providing some interesting news.

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