A/N: This chapter is pretty much just Skye finding Kara. Enjoy! :)
Thank you to SydTheKid1108, Brenda, annavale23, Alkeni and bellapaige88 for your reviews! :) Great to see the responses!
WARNING: Mentions of abuse and rape (lightly).
DISCLAIMER: I only own this story. I do own the OCs of Cynthia Madden and the Refuge volunteer.
Skye felt exhausted, and she suspected that the constant growling of her empty stomach was a serious contributor. Wandering aimlessly along the footpath on the main street, she looked up only to avoid walking into passers-by. One of these people was a woman cleaning a café table, and she looked just as tired as Skye felt. As Skye twirled around her to prevent a collision, she noticed the sign on the window that proclaimed that the café had Wi-Fi. She sighed in relief.
"Are you okay, dear?"
Skye jumped at the sound, and snapped her startled expression to face the woman she'd just avoided. "What? Um, yes?"
The woman looked sympathetic, and it only enhanced the look of exhaustion on her face. "Do you need help?"
"I, um…" Skye looked around, checking for potential threats. Anyone could be Hydra or accomplices these days. "I just saw the sign for Wi-Fi, and I, ah…"
"Need to use it? No worries, sweetheart, just use the password foxtrot. No capitals." The woman smiled sweetly at her, and Skye couldn't believe her ears.
"I, um, thank you. I don't have to pay to use it?" she clutched her laptop closer to her chest.
"No, sweetie. You look like you're trying to run from something." The woman assured her.
Skye laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, something like that. And looking for someone."
"Well, come on in." the woman offered. "We have freshly baked muffins you can buy, if you're hungry."
"Starving." She declared. "I'm Skye."
"Cynthia." The woman smiled, before leading Skye inside the café. "Would you like a coffee as well?"
"Yes, please. A cappuccino." Her brows creased in wary confusion as Cynthia raised hers and let out a little laugh of surprise. "What?"
"I helped a young woman last night after we closed. Gave her a muffin and a cappuccino as well. Poor thing." Shaking her head sadly, she walked around the counter and began making the coffee. "She was so scared. Had a scar on her face, too. I can only imagine what kind of monster gave her that."
Cynthia was thankfully not watching Skye. The Inhuman had frozen on the spot at the mention of the young woman being scared. Kara… Snapping back to the present, she selected a muffin, and Cynthia said she'd get it once the coffee was done.
Pulling some cash out of her pocket, Skye paid for the small meal, then sat down at a table near the door. Thankfully, the laptop was more than fifty percent charged, and she was logged into the Wi-Fi in less than a minute. Cynthia brought over her cappuccino and chocolate chip muffin soon after as Skye opened up a hack into one of the NSA satellites overhead. Cynthia smiled as Skye thanked her, and moved away to clean another table.
With the algorithm that Skye had coded into the hack running without assistance, Skye decided to probe more into what the café worker knew about Kara Palamas.
"Cynthia." She began, leaning on the edge of the table and fixing her gaze on the woman.
Cynthia glanced up at the sound of her name. "Yes, dear?"
"That woman you were talking about," Skye continued, causing Cynthia's face to crease with confusion and wariness as she stood up straighter. "The one with the scar. What happened to her?" Reaching for her coffee, she took a large gulp.
Cynthia gestured vaguely, as if she was trying to get some words out by doing so. "Um, she was scared. Terrified would probably be a better word. I saw her out the back in the alley, where she was hiding behind the large bins…why are you so curious?"
"I think she's who I'm looking for." Skye said softly. "She was with a man, and I'm looking for him too."
"Did this man do something to her?" Cynthia asked, growing increasingly worried as she moved closer.
Skye shook her head. "No, not him. He was helping her, and the people he used to work for found them."
"Oh, God…" the woman breathed. She sounded like she was on the verge of tears, and slumped into the seat opposite Skye. "She was raped, wasn't she? I mean, she was jumpy at everything."
"I hope not." Skye said. Her eyes betrayed her sorrow, that perhaps she was too late.
"And you're her friend?"
She just nodded, taking another gulp from her coffee, and was saved from answering by the beep from the laptop. Focusing on the screen, Skye noticed that Lola was parked several blocks away. "Damn." She muttered.
"Skye." Cynthia brought her attention back to her. "I sent the girl to the Refuge with Beth late last night. She didn't even know her name."
"I know her name." Skye smiled to console the woman. "Where is the Refuge?"
"The next street over." She pointed down the road.
Skye gave her a grateful smile, shut her laptop and finished the cappuccino. "Thank you so much. The coffee was delicious."
"You never finished your muffin!" Cynthia said, trying to bring her emotions to a more professional level.
"I'll take it with me." Skye assured her. She gathered together her laptop, charger and muffin before thanking Cynthia again and leaving the café.
Agent 33 didn't have a clue what to do. Beth had taken her to the Women's Refuge a little way down from the café where Cynthia and Kennet worked, and had helped her settle down enough to sleep. But now it was nearly midday, and she was considering leaving before Hydra found her again.
"Miss?" a soft, sweet voice asked from just beyond her right shoulder. "Miss, how are you feeling now?"
Agent 33 sat on a comfortable leather sofa, her left leg bent up so her foot was on the seat, and her arms wrapped around the leg. Slowly, she turned her head so the teenager who helped out here came into view.
"Alright." She said after a moment. It was evident in her soft, hesitant tone that she really wasn't, but 33 was grateful that the girl left it at that. She was tempted to say bored, but was terrified of the possibilities that saying that would open up.
Wanting a change of view, she moved her gaze from the floor to the sliver of the front window that could be seen from her position. She had only been watching the street outside for a couple of minutes when a slightly familiar-looking girl passed by and glanced in. Both women froze. 33 was sure that she looked like a deer in headlights, while the other appeared to be in relieved surprise. Is this S.H.I.E.L.D.? she wondered. She could only hope she wasn't Hydra.
The other woman suddenly moved, obviously heading towards the door. 33 didn't know what to do. No negative feelings seemed to be associated with her, so she remained where she was, locked in an internal battle with herself.
"Miss?" the same girl from earlier got her attention again, but this time the woman from the window was standing next to her. "This woman says she's your friend." Skye smiled gently at 33, and the girl moved away.
"Hi." Skye said, still smiling. She moved around 33 to sit beside her and 33 followed her movements. "I'm Skye."
"Skye?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yeah."
"Are you with S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra?" 33 whispered. She locked her gaze on Skye's with a strong intensity.
"Neither." Skye answered firmly. "I was with S.H.I.E.L.D. until recently, and I was never with Hydra."
33 was silent for a while. "How did you find me?" she asked eventually, apparently satisfied with the response.
"Did you, by any chance, meet a woman named Cynthia last night?" Skye asked as a way of getting 33 to open up a little more. Jerkily, 33 nodded. "She told me that a woman named Beth brought you here." 33 nodded again. "I told Cynthia that I've been looking for you for a while. You and…Ward."
Agent 33 stiffened. "I am not going back there." She whispered in a hoarse voice. "Never."
"And I'm never going to force you to." Skye hurried to assure her. "I want to find him and rescue him."
When 33 just stared at her, Skye, feeling awkward, placed her laptop on the low coffee table in front of them and opened it. As she began silently showing 33 how she found out that she had escaped Hydra, the woman began to relax, switching her object of study from the screen to Skye's face.
"I remember you." She murmured after several minutes. Skye looked up with a hopeful expression. "We fought in that apartment building."
Skye nodded slowly. "Yeah, we did. Do you remember why?"
"Something for Whitehall…I'm a little fuzzy on the details."
"Okay," Skye considered this. "Well, I don't want you to think that I'm imprinting my version of the events on you, but would you be okay with me giving you some prompts?"
33 watched the laptop while she thought hard about what happened to cause her to fight with Skye, but nothing was clear. "Sure. I…can't remember anything on my own."
Skye smiled in sympathy. "I went to the S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house to escort Raina to the Bus."
33 furrowed her brow as she concentrated. Raina…the Diviner. "Whitehall wanted to know about powers." she whispered. "It was something about an object called 'The Diviner'."
"Which Raina could hold without turning to stone." Skye continued gently.
"Yes!" 33 sat up straighter, her back rigid as her left leg slid down to sit in uniform with her right. "Whitehall wanted her to lead him to the city. He wanted to know how to get to the weapon inside."
Skye nodded. "So that's why you were trying to get Raina. Do you…do you remember any details about our fight?" she asked, twisting her fingers around each other. 33 noticed.
"You threw my head into a wall, we wrestled over a gun, went through a door…" she listed, fixing her gaze on Skye. Reaching out, she placed her hand over the girl's and stilled her fingers. "Can you tell me why the details are fuzzy?" she pleaded, tears brimming in her eyes. "Why did Whitehall's death make my memories fade?"
Skye pursed her lips. "I think your memories were affected long before Whitehall died."
"What?" 33 breathed.
"Cynthia said that you couldn't remember your name."
"Well, wouldn't that be because Whitehall died?"
Skye was already shaking her head before 33 finished her question. "Kara, you ran from Hydra as soon as Whitehall died. You weren't loyal to the organisation, just him. And the level of devotion we saw from you…you were a loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agent before Hydra caught up to you." 33 just sat on the spot, staring at Skye with her mouth hanging open in horror. "Bobbi was undercover there, and…Kara, I think you were brainwashed. That's why you're having trouble remembering things."
A/N: What do you think? Too down? S.H.I.E.L.D. comes back next chapter. Let me know your thoughts! :3