Disclaimer: I don't own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I think by now we know that quite firmly.

Thanks as always are extended to colormeblue/Riley Holden for being a beta-reader. And also for giving me a minor kick in the ass about my AoS fics – she was wondering if I was going to send her anything for one of them to her sometime soon, and well, reminded me just how behind I am on giving you guys this stuff.

Out of the Shadows and Into the Light

By Alkeni

Chapter 5: Aftermath

Infirmary, The Playground
September 24th, 2014

The medical staff at the Playground weren't Simmons, but they still knew their stuff.

Actually, she suddenly realized, Simmons isn't actually that kind of doctor... so they probably know their stuff even better than her. Grant's field treatment of her bullet injury had been fast and a little sloppy, because it had had to be, but it had done it's job. And the people here had done their job. She'd have to be careful with using her arm for a few days, even after she got this little sling-cast taken off tomorrow, but she'd recover. And that was the most important thing.

Skye did wish they hadn't given her pain medication, though not because she actually wanted to be in pain or something. Fuck that, she wasn't a masochist. She just...

Well, being in pain would be something else for her to focus on, rather than dwelling on the fact that she'd had the artifact and it had just... she'd just let Creel take it.

Skye sat on the edge of the medical cot, waiting for the doctor to come back and tell her she could go, trying everything else she could think of to avoid thinking about... that. The way she'd screwed up. Let Hydra have a weapon that could do... whatever the hell it was that it had done to Hartley. She'd just...

Skye leaned her head back, rolling her neck a little. Where is he?

Closing her eyes, Skye's mind went back to those marking's she'd seen on the artifact. They'd looked familiar, the strange pattern of lines and circles and... there was something about them that she recognized. She'd gotten an even clearer glimpse of them when they'd glowed orange when she'd held the thing. When it... hadn't done to her what it had done to Hartley. And that...

That thought frightened her. How could she hold it and it not do that to her? Was it something about Hartley, or something about her?

I did get alien DNA injected in me... that was the thing that... like, biogically, made her stand out from other people, right? So...

Well – anything that can do that to people... has to be alien...

That had to be it. Which would mean that Coulson probably could too... not that that was really something anyone should test. The stuff that had gone into that medicine was kind of secret that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been created to contain. The really dangerous stuff. The Fall had proven that the agency had gone too far with the secrets, keeping alien artifacts under wraps and the tracking powered people thing, but... something that could just...

What the hell did it even do to Hartley?! God, she wished Simmons was still on the base. She'd have some kind of explanation. A theory, or something. She needed to come back. How long did she need away from S.H.I.E.L.D.? Was she even going to come back?

"Given your record, Agent Skye, I figured you would be a far more troublesome patient. But you've been surprisingly well-behaved." The doctor said as he came back to her, a clipboard in hand. "Are you currently feeling any pain in your shoulder?"

"It kind of throbs? I'm not sure I'd say that it hurts though. Not since you injected me with that stuff..." She frowned, "That wasn't like, morphine or something? I'm not going to go all loopy and stuff, right?"

"No. Not Morphine. I wouldn't suggest driving or operating heavy machinery for the next eight hours or so, but it won't make you 'loopy'. But I can't give you that dose too often." He handed her a small plastic bottle of pills, which she accepted with her still mobile arm. "Take no more than one of these every twelve hours. It won't get rid of the pain completely, but it will keep the edge off." The doctor made a few marks on his clipboard. "Come back tomorrow afternoon to get the sling off your arm, but I do mean it – try not to use that arm, and especially the shoulder, as much as possible for the next few days. You don't want to strain the injury." Then, suddenly, the doctor chuckled.

Skye looked at him, "Wanna let me in on the joke, doc?"

"Just thinking about the irony of giving you that lecture, when compared to Agent Ward, you'll be a model patient even if you tore the sling off as soon as you got back to your quarters. When Dr. Simmons told me that the only way to get him to actually comply with doctor's orders was to threaten him with the biggest needle in the lab, I thought she was joking."

Skye smiled a little. Yeah, that was the best way to get Grant to listen when he was being ordered to tone down the activity for a few days or even just one day after an injury. Though Skye did know there were other ways to get him to do what was best for his health. The carrot to the doctor's stick and all that. A small smirk formed on he face as she thought about some of those ways, but she shook her head, banishing them from her thoughts.

Not the time or the place.

"No, not joking. I promise I'll be a better patient than Grant." She told the doctor, starting to smirk a little.

"I'm pretty sure that's not what I remember from back on the Bus, Skye." Grant said from behind her. He walked around to enter her field of vision, leaning down to press a light kiss on her forehead. "I seem to recall something about a 'Warden' extending house arrest?" Despite herself, Skye flushed just a little at the reminder of her horrible attempt at Simmons' accent.

"Did you hear all of that?" She asked, and Grant nodded, then looked over at the doctor.

"I was wondering where you got the idea to threaten me with the big needles," Grant told him. "I suppose that's something I'll have to talk to Simmons about whenever she gets back. Are you all done?"

The doctor nodded. "No strenuous activity with that for a few days." He told Skye again, then stepped back, letting her get off the cot. Grant took the hand of her free arm and they left the infirmary. She squeezed his hand gently, and he returned the gesture.

Infirmary, The Playground
September 24th, 2014

"Sorry to say, Sir," Hartley said slowly, sounding like she was on the verge of falling asleep completely, likely thanks to the sheer amount of pain medication and sedatives she'd been given, "But I don't think I'm going to be able to go out into the field for a few days."

"More than that, unfortunately." Coulson agreed. "I've talked to Fitz – he thinks he might be able to design you some kind of replacement if you give him a few months. It won't be perfect, you'll have the use of both hands again, at least. But in the meantime... there's not much point in putting you on Active Duty."

"I can still hold a pistol with one hand, Sir." Hartley protested weakly.

"I've already had Agent Hand calling and berating me for getting you injured like this in the field, Hartley. I don't want to imagine what she'll do to me if I sent you out on a mission when you're like this."

Hartley chuckled briefly, "That's Vic for you."

"She asked that I have you flown out to the Fridge for your recovery. Are you good with that?"

Hartley nodded slowly, "Yeah."

"If the doctors release you tomorrow, I'll have you flown out then. I'll let you rest in a minute, but I do have to ask two more questions: when you held the artifact, do you have any idea what it was doing to you?" They had nothing to go on. No indication as to what it was or what it did, beyond just... whatever it had done to Agent Hartley.

She shook her head, "No... not a clue. As soon as it was in my hand, I... I stopped feeling it. I couldn't let go, couldn't move my fingers... but I don't know what it did."

Coulson nodded, "And Lancer Hunter. Will he obey orders from me if you're not here to keep him in line?" The man was definitely useful to have, someone he'd like to have on the team, but he was also an unknown. He worked with Hartley because he knew and trusted her. But, at the end of the day, he was a mercenary. He was unpredictable and Coulson didn't know if he could be sure the man would respect the chain of command.

"He will... mostly, if I tell him to. He's not S.H.I.E.L.D., so he's not a big fan of the mushroom treatment, but you'll be able to count on him when and where it really matters."

Coulson raised an eyebrow, "Mushroom treatment?"

"Kept in the dark and fed shit." Hartley replied with another weak chuckle. "Sir. He's just not a fan of all the compartmentalization. So he's going to ask questions when he shouldn't."

Coulson nodded, "I'll keep that in mind. Get some rest." Turning, Coulson left the infirmary. With any luck, Koenig's monitoring of the white noise discovered a follow on order for Creel, some idea of where he was supposed to deliver the artifact. If they could intercept it...

Otherwise, the whole mission had been a failure. Creel had escaped from the Air Force's custody, exactly as Coulson had known he would. He'd gotten the artifact from them, and now Hydra was going to get it if they couldn't get it from him before he delivered it.

It was at least moderately likely that Simmons might be able to learn something in Hydra R&D about what the thing did, but that wasn't enough. If it turned out to really be as dangerous as Fury's files suggested... he'd have to have Agent Morse break cover. Something that dangerous? Hydra couldn't be allowed to hold onto it.

In the meantime...

Skye's Bedroom, The Playground

September 25th, 2014

"That's it! That's where I saw them before!" Ward looked up at Skye's exclamation. She'd been doodling something on a piece of scratch paper.

"Saw what?" Ward asked her, standing up from the chair.

"This." She held up the paper and showed him an elaborate and strangely familiar set of circles and lines, "There was this design on the – the artifact, the 0-8-4. It looked familiar, but I couldn't figure out what it was, where I'd seen it before. This sort of thing – these lines and circles... But I remember now! When you went into that research building in Belarus. I saw it through the camera feed."

Ward thought back to the mission, and then he realized that she was right. He'd seen the design on the chalkboard and he'd gotten the 'mission complete' order as soon as he'd seen it.

They never had figured out what the whole mission had really been about, what the point of the design was. But now they knew that the two things were related.

"We need to tell Coulson." Ward said, "Find the stored footage from your recording of the cameras and show them to him. Whatever the 0-8-4 is, there's a connection."

"And I think I know another connection," Skye said hesitantly, putting the piece of paper down. Ward watched her bit her lip and look down, for a moment, obviously concerned, nervous. "Right before... right before Creel got the 0-8-4, I had it in my hands," she said softly.

Grant blinked, unsure if he'd just heard her right. "You – you had it? You held it... but-" She wasn't all... what had happened to Hartley hadn't happened to her...

"How? Are you-" He looked at her, expecting to see – terrified he would see – some creeping grey... deadness like had happened to Hartley's hand. There was nothing. Nothing like that. Her arms were fine, the rest of her...

"It didn't do anything to me. All it did – those markings glowed like... orange, or something. And... I've been trying to figure out why it didn't do that to me... I only had it before a second, before Creel knocked me over and got it..." He her the self-recrimination in her voice. Grant put a hand on her uninjured shoulder.

"That wasn't your fault. The whole mission went badly. We had no idea what we were getting into with that thing – and once it started doing that to Hartley... the whole mission went south. I was in charge – I should take the blame. For that, and for you getting shot. Again."

Skye reached out her hand and squeezed his, "Hey, it wasn't your fault. If anything, you helped save me: you got the bullet out of me and stemmed the bleeding. I didn't even need any... miracle drug made from alien DNA to save me this time." Grant hadn't even thought about that for a while... Skye had told him about it just over two month ago - about the fact that Coulson had discovered that alien DNA was involved in the creation of GH-325.

He understood why Coulson had kept that detail under wraps and why Skye had kept it from him. He didn't begrudge Skye the secret – how could he, given the fact that he'd kept a far bigger secret for longer from her, from everyone.

But he had been happy that Skye had told him about it. Every time she confided in him, about even the littlest things... well, he liked it. It was a sign, confirming how much she trusted him, what she felt for him...

She hadn't yet said the three words he most wanted to hear from her, over anything else, but... Ward believed it was only a matter of time. After everything they'd been through together, after everything they'd done together, shared together... it was coming.

But he loved her. And he was more than willing to wait to hear it.

Grant squeezed Skye's hand back after a long moment, and she continued:

"And... I think that's why it didn't... why it didn't do that to me... what it did to Hartley, I mean. Either there was something wrong with Hartley, or something... well, right about me. And if that's it... then that means it's all connected – G.H.-325, this... design, the 0-8-4. Whatever it is... these things are all connected." Skye stiffened suddenly, as if a thought was suddenly occurring to her, "Oh god – Hydra's obsessed with this thing... if they find out about... Garrett wanting my blood was enough. I don't..."

Grant put his fingers under her chin and gently lifted head so their eyes met. "I won't let Hydra do anything to you. I promise." He leaned in and gave her a light kiss, fully intending to pull back after a moment, but Skye let go of his hand and brought hers up and around to press on the back of his neck, pulling him in more and deepening the kiss.

It ended almost a minute later, leaving them both breathless for a second, but Ward didn't pull that far away from her. Skye looked at him, opened her mouth, about to say something...

Then she closed her mouth, took a shallow breath and spoke: "We should... we should probably talk to Coulson about this..." She gestured to the sketch she'd drawn: "it's – you know. Time sensitive."

After a moment, Ward nodded. She was right. Who knew how long they had before Creel handed the artifact over to Hydra? This could help, maybe. Only one way to find out.

"Grab my computer," she gestured to the bedside table. "Please?" Ward nodded and took it, then helped Skye off of the bed. Time to talk to Coulson.

Coulson's Office, The Playground

September 25th, 2014

"I understand why you told Agent Ward that alien DNA was involved in the creation of G.H.-325," Coulson told her. "But I would have appreciated being informed that you'd told him, since I was also given the same drug."

Skye opened her mouth to counter that, then let out a breath and went silent. No, he was right. She should have let Coulson know that she'd told Grant. "You have a point. Sorry."

"Apology accepted." Coulson offered magnanimously, then gestured to her laptop screen, the footage from the glasses frozen on the chalkboard. "But this is... more troubling news, unfortunately. If your theory as to why the 0-8-4 didn't affect you like it did Hartley is correct, then we at least know why Garrett was interested in this design. It was connected to the way I was brought back from the dead. Though how he knew that is an entirely different question."

"But it doesn't help us figure out where Creel is taking it to give to his bosses in Hydra." Skye said softly. "I was hoping somehow it would connect with some piece of intel you had and boom, we'd be able to get it." She made a quick gesture with her good hand as she said 'boom'. She looked over to Grant, who seemed about to say something all S.O.-y, "Yeah, I know, it doesn't really work that way."

"We're monitoring the white noise. If anything comes through to Creel, we'll hear it." Coulson said, sounding confident. "I've got the entire agency listening for any sign of this thing – where it is, what it is, where Creel might be taking it."

"I can take another try at trying to trace the message sent to Creel?" Skye offered, "Figure out where they were when they sent it?"

"I actually have a pretty good idea where it originated." Coulson said. "Unfortunately, if the guess is right, that place is crawling with Hydra's people. We'd be outnumbered dozens to one. Our best bet for stopping them from getting the artifact is to intercept it."

"If they were talking to Creel through those channels, then it's likely they wouldn't have him bring it right to the front door." Grant suggested, "The man is conspicuous. So there's going to be a drop point, where he hands it over and they give him some sort of payment." That would make sense. Of course, if, as Grant said, Creel just liked hurting people, then maybe he wasn't getting paid at all.

On the other hand, it wasn't like he had to hurt people for Hydra. So he was probably getting paid.

Before anyone could say anything else, there was knocking on the door to the office. "Sir!" Fitz's voice came through the door. "I think I've got something."

Coulson nodded to Grant and he opened the door, letting the Scottish scientist in.

"I think I've got something to stop Creel." Fitz started without any prompting. "Everyone else down in the lab is trying to come up with a biochemical solution, something to stop him from changing his – his cells, the way he does, but that's not going to work. If Jemma was here, maybe there could be some sort of biochemical solution, but there's no chance of coming up with any solution in time." He brandished a handful of papers at him. "But if we destabilize his epithelial cells, it should neutralize his abilities."

"And you've got a way to do that?"

"I think so – I kept feeling like I'd solved this problem before – And I did." He shuffled through the papers, then held up one, a picture of something.

"That's the Overkill Device." Grant said, eyes narrowing.

"Exactly. When I was taking it apart, we salvaged the core component of the weapon – the rest of it was just power to extend the range. It took a few adjustments – they're still being applied down in the lab – but in just a few minutes, I think we'll have something that should be able to make it impossible for him to control his powers."

Even without Simmons Fitz can still work miracles. Coulson was about to say something, but then a call came through Coulson's phone, on speaker.

Coulson's Office, the Playground
September 25th, 2014

"Sir," Koenig's voice said, "We've got a message coming through on one of Garrett's old Hydra frequencies. It's a phone number. That's it."

Coulson blinked. Who would- Raina. That was the most logical answer. Who else from Garrett's organization was still free? Who else would want to contact them? Raina had gotten away with enough of Skye's blood to synthesize a sample of G.H.-325, or at least, she thought so. And if Skye was right that the alien DNA and the artifact were linked... then maybe she was after it too. And wanted to use S.H.I.E.L.D. to deal with problems, just like she'd used them to deal with Garrett.

Only this time we can't let her get away, not with that artifact.

"Make the call on an encrypted line and patch it through to my office." Koenig nodded in the affirmative, and after just one ring, the phone was picked up on the other end, a familiar voice coming through the speaker.

"Hello?"

"Hello Raina."

"So you do remember me. I'm glad you got my message. It's been a while since we've spoken. Do you have a minute?" She spoke in that easy, casual way, as if they were friends. If he hadn't already experienced her manipulation first-hand, then he could easily imagine himself falling for it.

For that matter, I did fall for it.

"I'm kind of the middle of a manhunt. So unless you've got something to make my life significantly easier, then I'm afraid I don't."

"Why not? You need time to trace this call, don't you?" Coulson looked over at Skye, but she was already typing something out one handed on her computer. She nodded. She was tracing the call. Good. "I take it that you haven't tracked down Mr. Creel or the item he stole."

Coulson smirked. His guess had been right. She wanted them to be her muscle. Just what is her game, anyway?

"What do you know about that?"

"I know Hydra's about to get their hands on it. Creel got a call last night, from his superiors." Which meant either Hydra knew or suspected that S.H.I.E.L.D. had tapped into the white noise. He'd hoped they'd have more time for it. Or maybe Hydra was just being especially cautious.

"So what is it that you have against Hydra anyway, Raina? I'd have thought you'd fit right in." If she really was a third player in this game, they needed to know her endgame, and the sooner the better.

"Hydra's only interested in one thing: World domination. And that is so 1945."

"And just what is the goal that you have in mind, Raina?"

"Right now, I want to make sure the Obelisk doesn't fall into the hands of people that don't understand it. You and your agency just might."

"Cut the crap, you want to use us to make sure you can get it out from under Hydra's nose while we're going after Creel."

"You're catching on, Coulson." He could hear the smirk in her voice, "I certainly would like to acquire it myself, but if it's a choice between S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra, I'd rather you end up with it. Did Skye try to hold it, by any chance?" Coulson tensed, and he saw Skye doing much the same. Ward's hands closed into fists. Coulson made a note to remind Ward that Raina needed to be captured alive. When it came to threats to Skye, Ward preferred finality – which Coulson understood. But they needed to know what Raina's game was.

"So how about you tell us where Creel is and we see if you're really as clever as you think you are?"

Raina chuckled. "Oh Director Coulson, I'm exactly as clever as I think I am. Creel stole something from me. Fortunately, it's got an embedded tracker. But you'd better hurry if you want to find him – oh... and he's growing less stable by the second. I'd recommend not touching him."

"We'll take that under advisement." Coulson already knew about what had happened at the diner. Somehow, Creel had acquired the transformational ability of the artifact – the 'Obelisk' as Raina was calling it. And... if he was losing control of his powers...

Raina gave him the frequency for the tracker. "We'll talk soon, I'm sure." Coulson hung up and looked over at Ward. "Assemble the team. Take Hunter with you – he wants his shot at Creel."

Ward nodded, "Understood. But Hunter - will he obey orders?"

"That's the idea. Hartley talked to him before she flew out to the Fridge this morning.. As long as we keep paying him, he'll stick around, at least for the immediate future. We need more boots on the ground, and we don't have a lot to work with." He looked over at Fitz, "How sure are you that your solution will work?"

Fitz didn't answer for a moment, likely doing some sort of mental calculations, "Eighty, eight-five percent? Without more testing, there's no way to know."

"I'll have Trip bring along the big guns, armor piercing rounds." Ward said, then looked over at Skye.

"I'll stay and run the comms, hack into any local traffic security cameras. I know I can't go into the field just yet."

"Just until the doctors say your shoulder's fully healed." Ward told her. Then he looked back to Coulson, "Sir, with your permission?

"Dismissed."