A/N: Hey guys, here's Skye after San Juan! Hope you like it! :)
A special thank you to those of you who reviewed :3 it means a lot to me!
DISCLAIMER: I only own the storyline.
(2 MONTHS LATER)
"Skye."
Daisy Skye Johnson blinked in response to the attempt to get her attention, but because the owner of the voice was behind her, they didn't see it. She made no other move, so the voice tried again.
"Skye."
A shaky breath now escaped the usually tense and controlled S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and Director Coulson's face fell. He'd been hoping that by keeping to herself, Skye was overcoming the traumatic events of San Juan, but now he realised that she'd been retreating behind a wall of shame and guilt.
"Skye, you're going to have to turn around. I can't get over there." He tried to keep his voice light and free from the depressing thoughts crowding his mind, but didn't entirely succeed.
Slowly, breathing in and out with extreme care, Skye turned around to face the Director of the slow rebuild of S.H.I.E.L.D. She was terrified that if she allowed herself to react to the wariness in Coulson's voice around her, she would lose control of her recently acquired power.
At the moment, she was sitting on a rooftop adjacent to the building that The Playground was hiding beneath. Skye had jumped across, but Coulson wasn't so strong. Sitting on the ledge with her feet dangling over the edge, she took her time in raising her eyes to look at her boss. Coulson waited patiently, not wanting to set her off.
"How are you feeling today?" he asked softly.
Skye only looked at him for a long while, her face a mask of no emotion.
"Empty of everything except guilt."
Coulson's paternal instincts towards the young agent kicked in ten-fold. His face full of sorrow, he slowly shook his head.
"Skye, you mustn't blame yourself. Trip lived and died a hero, and if he knew that you were fine, he would have left the crystals alone."
Skye was already shaking her head by the time he finished. "Then it's still my fault. If I hadn't gone down there–"
"You thought, just like the rest of us, that the Obelisk was a weapon of mass destruction." Coulson interrupted. "Any one of us would have taken the actions you did to stop an event like that occurring, and any one of us would have taken Trip's actions if we were down there as well. Stop blaming yourself, Skye. None of this is your fault."
Skye's eyes were filled with tears. "But I keep hurting people." She said in a small voice, vulnerable and trembling. She was losing control, Coulson could see that, but he kept his face wearing the same expression so as to keep Skye from having a full blown panic attack. "I miss who I used to be. Before S.H.I.E.L.D. fell and Hydra rose and before Ward broke my heart–"
"Ward broke your heart?" Coulson asked, confused. "I mean, I know you liked him, before everything fell to pieces. But you're past all that now, right? You said yourself, he's your ex-crush."
Skye managed a weak, watery smile. "Yeah, I said that. But I thought that if I showed any of you how deeply I fell for him, how much I loved him, you wouldn't trust me. Or respect me. So I buried my feelings." Tears now streaming down her face, she relinquished all control she had over her seismic abilities. The ground started to rumble and shake violently, the buildings for miles around wobbling like jelly. Screams rent the air as multiple-storey buildings cracked and crumbled, and Coulson grasped onto the small ledge of The Playground for stability. Panic threatening to overwhelm him, he looked to Skye, but the young agent was seemingly unaffected by the event. Instead, she kept sobbing, explaining further how she felt about the traitor.
"And that was so selfish of me, I shouldn't have hurt him like that. Everyone he's ever supposed to have cared about turned on him, and never treated him right, and…and" she swallowed before continuing. "And he loves me, and I shot him!" she doubled over, bawling.
Coulson didn't know how to respond. Ward loves Skye? And she loved him?! Does she still? ...probably.
Before he could make a move, the building across from him started to give way from the pressure that Skye had released. The bricks underneath Skye cracked loudly and as one, fell to the ground.
"SKYE!" he yelled, but he was unable to do anything else.
A huge cloud of dust billowed upwards from the pile of wreckage, but the violent shaking still continued. Hopeful, Coulson pulled out his ICER for when she showed herself, and keenly watched the mound.
Skye coughed viciously when she emerged from the brick pile and hauled herself out. Tumbling down the dusty new hillock, she landed with a thump before staggering to her feet. Finally, she looked around and noticed all the damage she had caused and was still creating.
"No..." she whimpered, her bottom lip trembling. "No!" Looking up, she saw Coulson watching her with caution and worry. "Coulson, I'm sorry!"
"Skye! Just stay where you are, okay? You need to calm down!" Coulson was careful to make sure that Skye couldn't see the ICER he was holding, but he was waiting to see if Skye could stop the earthquake when she realised what was happening. However, that plan appeared to be ineffective.
"No, Coulson! I need to get out of here! I've hurt too many people!" With those words, Skye turned and ran down the alleyway between the buildings.
"Oh, Skye. I'm so sorry." Coulson said as he aimed his ICER and fired.
Most of the agents still working for S.H.I.E.L.D. were huddled under tables and in doorframes as the walls around them flexed and shook.
"WHAT THE BLODDY HELL'S GOING ON?!" Lance Hunter yelled out from the doorway to the main dining area. "SURELY WE WOULD HAVE GOTTEN WARNING FOR THIS!"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Hunter's ex-wife and current fling, Agent Barbara 'Bobbi' Morse yelled back. "BUT IF IT DOESN'T STOP SOON, NO ONE IN THIS BUNKER IS GOING TO GET OUT ALIVE!" She was trapped underneath one of the large tables situated in the middle of the room. Under the other table was Alphonso 'Mack' Mackenzie, only he looked rather cramped in the position he was in.
"I THINK I KNOW!" He joined in the screaming, easily heard over the others with his deep voice. "COULSON WENT TO TALK TO SKYE AND NEITHER OF THEM ARE BACK YET!"
"WHAT, SO YOU THINK IT'S ONE OF THEM TWO?!" Hunter asked.
"NO, I KNOW IT IS! AND I'M PRETTY SURE THAT IT'S SKYE, SPECIFICALLY!"
"YEAH, YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO EXPLAIN THAT, MACK!" Bobbi yelled.
"WELL, WHEN COULSON FOLLOWED SKYE WHO FOLLOWED RAINA, I WAS DOWN THERE ALREADY!"
"YEAH, YEAH, AND YOU REMEMBER EVERYTHING THAT THAT ALIEN THING PUT IN YOU! YOUR POINT IS?" Hunter hurried the conversation along.
"COULSON AND I WERE OUTSIDE THE TEMPLE WHEN IT CLOSED, BUT TRIP, SKYE AND RAINA WERE IN. TRIP DIED, BUT BOTH SKYE AND RAINA DIDN'T! RAINA WAS OBVIOUSLY CHANGED–"
"BUT SKYE WASN'T!" Bobbi interrupted. "YOU THINK THAT THIS IS WHAT HER CHANGE WAS?"
"MORE THAN LI–" Mack was cut off by the base suddenly stilling and everything became eerily quiet.
"…more than likely." Mack finished, cautiously looking around.
"I think it's over." Bobbi said quietly, and crawled out from out under the table.
Hunter slowly released his grip on the doorframe and massaged his arms. "So where are they? And what set her off? We haven't had an earthquake like that before, and Skye's been with us the whole time!"
"I suppose 'been with us' is a bit of a loose term." Bobbi said, turning to face him. "She hasn't been herself since San Juan. Hadn't you noticed she'd been keeping to herself?"
"Well, I just thought that that was because Trip died. I mean, haven't we all been less than ourselves lately?"
"Skye more than anyone else." Agent Melinda May stated as she ran up behind Hunter. He twisted around when she spoke. "Last I saw Coulson, he was heading upstairs to find Skye. Hunter and Bobbi, head outside and check the damage out there. Mack, check the rest of the base and pull anyone out if you find them under collapsed walls. I heard some things fall down from where I was in Coulson's office. I'll find Coulson and Skye and find out what happened."
The other three nodded and hurried off to follow the Deputy Director's orders. May looked round, surveying the damage done to the immediate area and then headed upstairs to the building above The Playground.
"Bloody hell." Hunter said as soon as he and Bobbi stepped outside.
"Skye did all this?" Bobbi asked in disbelief at the strength of the woman.
Both looked to their left as they exited the building and with the still-settling dust cloud hanging in the air, the only thing of much note that they could make out was an enormous pile of bricks.
"It's like the entire side of the building's just died." Hunter commented. He heard Bobbi's gasp and whirled around. "What now?"
Bobbi had seen a body lying on the ground some twenty metres away, face down on the concrete. She and Hunter hurried over, rolling the body onto its back gently.
"Skye?!" They simultaneously said.
As soon as Coulson pulled the trigger, he considered rushing down to the ground level to check if she was really alright from the fall. But after Skye collapsed on the ground and he turned to look back at the entrance to the building below, he realised that the earthquake had destroyed it.
"Damn." he said, hurrying back to the ledge. Below, he saw Hunter and Bobbi standing by Skye's limp form and called out. "Guys! She's okay, I just ICED her! But take her inside and get her checked over by Simmons, now!"
"Okay! But she was lucky to avoid getting hit by that rubble there!" Hunter replied, gesturing to the pile of bricks and mortar close by.
Coulson only nodded, not wanting to go into detail when out in the open.
A loud crash from the floor below him drew his attention. Flicking his eyes back to check the agents were getting Skye inside, he focused on the noise.
"Coulson!" the call from under the debris was faint but clear.
"May! I'm up here!"
"No kidding!" came the reply.
Coulson chuckled. "I'm okay! But if you could find a way to get me down there, that would be great!"
"Already on it!"
Coulson nodded and looked around the local area, stunned at how The Playground's cover was one of only two buildings left mostly intact in a one mile radius. "Dammit, Skye. Why did you keep this to yourself?" He was more astounded that she had managed to keep a power like this contained. How did she even know she had it?
A low groan brought his attention back to the access point. The noise stopped for a split second, then the stairs creaked before crashing down to the level below. Coulson rushed over to the now empty stairwell.
"May!" he called, the sound echoing off the walls in the sudden silence.
"I'm here!" she called back after an agonising moment.
"Oh, thank god. Are you all right?" the relief in his voice was so obvious he almost sounded breathy.
"I'm fine! I used a rope to pull the debris down, so I wasn't in the way, but a lot of the wall's crumbled so there's quite a bit of dust down here."
"Could you throw the rope up here?"
"No, Phil. I just wanted to clear the way to give you false hope at being rescued." May replied sarcastically as she stepped into view, climbing carefully over the destroyed property. She looked up at Coulson with a What did you think? look.
Coulson resisted replying with a quip and made circling gestures with his hand. "Well, come on then!"
Knotting the rope into a large bundle, May let one end hang out longer than the rest of it, grasped that end and started swinging it. "Move, Coulson!" she ordered before launching.
The bulging mass of rope hurtled through the air at the director and he ducked out of the way just in time.
"Jeez, May! Careful!"
"I told you to move!"
"As you threw the damn thing!"
"Before–! Ugh, just tie it up and get down here! We haven't got time to waste."
"Aye aye, Captain." Coulson muttered under her breath.
"I heard that."
"Bobbi, where are you going?"
"I need to talk to Coulson. Some things don't add up." Bobbi replied to Hunter's question.
"Like what? How Skye managed to make that huge earthquake? Cause I thought we'd agreed it was probably that alien object finally being reunited with that alien city."
"No, the fact that Coulson was on the roof of our building and Skye was on the ground when Mack said that Coulson had gone looking for her. Unless she was on the other building's roof, in which case she fell and has no injuries from it. Also, she looks like she's been crying. A lot. If Coulson had anything to do with that, why would he say she was okay?!"
"Whoa, okay. Calm down." He cringed at the look Bobbi gave him. "I see your point. I do. But getting all worked up about it is not the way to approach Coulson. You can get that way if he's being cryptic. You got me?"
Bobbi took a couple of deep breaths. "You're right. I just freaked out that Skye has this power she can't control."
"Maybe she can." May walked into the infirmary, followed by Coulson. "But doing so isn't healthy."
"Would you like to explain?" Hunter queried. "Because the Skye I know wouldn't willingly cause so much pain and destruction just because she's upset."
"How do you know that that's the correlation?" Coulson asked, surprised.
"Well, for the last two months she's kept all to herself, and we haven't so much as detected a tremble. Then when she does let loose, she's been crying." He glanced at Bobbi, who was smiling a little at his keen insight on the subject. "A hell of a lot."
"And supposedly, she was talking to you." Agent Jemma Simmons added from beside Skye. She looked up from injecting an IV into the agent's arm. "So why was she crying, Coulson?" She demanded, her glare like icy daggers.
The director sighed. "It's a bit of a difficult story to explain. I was being so careful, and then she mentioned something I didn't expect…"
"Well, we've got time." Bobbi stated, standing straight and crossing her arms. She meant business.
A/N: I'd love to know what you guys think, so review please! :3
A huge thank you to my friend LisaMichelle25 for Betaing this fic!