Previously: A while back when Skye was in Hydra's clutches, Raina had been using her as a test subject. Raina had put Skye to sleep and when the girl woke up, she was on the top of a Ferris wheel with no idea how she got there or where Raina had gotten off to.
Later, while Skye interrogated Wolfe after she discovered he was her father, he told her about a prophecy. The prophecy stated she would have to sacrifice herself in order for the Inhumans to be able to breed again. Along with this, he told her that Raina is in fact an Inhuman, as well as himself, and Skye is a Kree-Inhuman hybrid. He told her that because of the prophecy, many people were after her as a baby: SHIELD agents, Inhumans, and Skrulls.
Now Raina's returned to take Skye to Wolfe, but the hacker learned that the prophecy her father told her about could not be true because the team discovered from Sif that the Inhumans are fine. She tried to run with Fitz, only for Fitz to be the one to take her, and Skye has no idea what they could possibly want her for.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
"Is that it?"
"Finally!"
"I thought it was going to come willingly?"
Skye could barely make out the separate sentences of the anticipatory voices. They were all talking at once, and she felt as though she was listening through earmuffs. She wasn't sure if it was the aesthetics of the building, or just her fear and panic making its way to the surface, but the only thing she could hear clearly was the rapidness her now frantic breathing pattern.
When Raina had opened the door to the building in an alleyway and turned on the lights inside, the hacker expected to see some sort of run down interior with broken windows and rats. Maybe some exposed broken pipes.
Instead, it looked like what should be the interior of a cozy home's living room. The décor reminded her of her foster family the Brodys. There was a TV and couches and a kitchen table. The only thing that seemed off was a strange blue light coming from the back of the room. Still…
It didn't seem like a place she should feel this much terror.
"Well, plans change," Fitz told the boy simply as he dragged Skye, whose fight was still going strong, into the room.
There were maybe five people in front of Skye, Fitz and Raina, including the driver who had come inside with them. Skye watched them with wary eyes. They all appeared incredibly eager for something, and she had no idea what. What was worse: every single pair of eyes was set on her.
"Oooh, can I see it then?" asked one boy. He seemed to be the youngest out of the group.
"Well I'm certainly sick of holding it," Fitz told him, and he smiled with what Skye could only assume was anticipation.
"Why are you calling me an 'it'?" Skye hissed. "I'm not-"
Her own grunt of surprise cut her off as she was shoved to the ground. Realizing she was released, she barely took a moment before starting to pick herself up with the intention to run to the door, only to be hulled up even faster by a hand running through her hair.
The man pulled her in front of his own face ruthlessly, and she had to stand on her toes to help relieve the weight of her own body as she gripped her head.
Suddenly a hand was on her arm, ripping her away from his comrade.
"I said I wanted to see!" he exclaimed, flipping Skye around so she was facing him.
Then there was tug on her foot.
She fell over herself, the back of her head smacking on the hard floor and she couldn't help but cry out from the sudden blip of pain. She slowly set her hands out to either side and was carefully lifting herself up into the seated position when someone pushed between her shoulders and she was shoved forward, catching herself on her hands not a second before they were kicked out mercilessly from under her. Her jaw felt near shattered as it hit the floor.
For a moment Skye just stared at the ground unmoving, the laughter echoing through the room and her own erratic breath ringing through her ears. She wasn't even sure why she was staying so still. Maybe moving provoked them, and maybe she didn't want them to see the fear in her eyes or how hard she was biting her lip to keep her breathing in check.
"I don't even know why you want to touch it…" mumbled one of them. A girl, from the sound of it.
Skye finally decided to pick herself up off the ground when it seemed they weren't going to trip her again, glancing warily around at all of the people now forming a rough semi-circle around her.
"Because it's fun!" exclaimed the youngest, reaching out for her again.
With a near growl, Skye threw her fist forward into his face as hard as she could, just before kneeing him in the stomach. The punch didn't seem to do that much, but the kneeing had him doubled over.
Her triumph was short lived when she felt multiple hands grabbing and arms, rough fingers ripping through her hair or clutching at her face. They weren't just holding her up, or back. No, that would only take one of them, as they all seemed to be unnaturally strong.
They were fighting over her.
Skye yearned to ask what they wanted from her, but she expected only to be laughed at again. She didn't want to feel even more powerless than she clearly was.
The overwhelming situation had made her so desperately confused, an emotion that had become quite the companion these passed few days. Maybe they were Inhumans. Maybe they were so mad at her mother and father for crossbreeding and were taking it out on her.
All of a sudden Raina walked into her vision, the eerie smile she'd been sporting earlier still etched on her face. But now she held something in her hands: four grey bands.
"I have some Cuffs," she announced, to which the group looked thrilled.
The shoving and pushing heightened, since they all seemed to get very excited, offering up Skye's hands and legs at the same time others were trying to push her towards a wall.
It was as though she were a toy thrust into the hands of greedy toddlers told to share, and they gave no care to if their plaything broke. She thrashed against them, now yelling curses and empty threats because she had to say something. She couldn't just do nothing. She couldn't just let them do this to her.
Yet they were.
"Lyja is the best at this."
"I just want to watch."
"Leave one hand down; I want to break its fingers."
A sob slipped passed Skye's mouth at the last statement, but mostly because of the person who'd said it. Not that it wasn't a pretty frightening thing to hear on its own, but to hear it come from Fitz' mouth with Fitz' voice was nearly unbearable.
She found herself with three of the bracelets forced onto her: two on her ankle and one on a wrist. With a click, they all lit up and the next thing Skye knew, the Cuffs were hurdling her against the wall.
She hit the surface with a pained gasp; her wrist held up above her head while the bracelets around her ankles secured her do the wall as well. Skye's free hand dangled only for a moment before she started to frantically tug and pull at the opposite cuff.
The whole group started forward so that they were in front of her, but Raina was the one to speak.
"Oh, Skye. Do you really think we would put you in something you could get out of?"
"Maybe!" Skye hissed, Raina's voice invariably seeming to bring out her anger. "Personally, you've struck me as fairly stupid in the past."
Raina gave her a pout full of fake pity, the expression definitely seeming odd on her face. "If I'm stupid Skye, how pathetic does that make you?"
"Where's Wolfe?" Skye asked firmly, ignoring the dig. Her voice had been found and she was not going to lose it again.
Fitz stepped up this time. "How about you focus on the one thing at a time?" He roughly pulled forward her hand, grabbing just over the gauze that surrounded the center of Skye's palm, and she couldn't help but gasp. "Like how much this is going to hurt?"
She shook her head, frowning in disbelief. Fitz was gone. It was his voice, his accent and his face, but this was in no way him. Just a few minutes ago he was acting normal, he was Fitz! What did these people do to him?
What were they going to do to her?
Skye knit her eyes shut as she felt his hand grip two of her fingers.
"STOP!"
Fitz dropped her hand straight away, and Skye let out the shuddering breath she'd been holding in to prepare for the pain. The room was strikingly quiet as everyone's gazes turned to Wolfe, who walked in with a stride that said he owned the place. Maybe he did.
The entire group backed away from Skye, who was now hanging limp at the wall, save for Fitz and Raina.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he berated the two. Fitz glanced at Raina, whose head was turned down, so he stepped forward.
"Well… you see, she found out the Inhumans are fine," Fitz explained, in a frustratingly stammering tone that reminded Skye of her Fitz.
Wolfe still looked angry. "So you desert the entire plan?"
"This plan hinged around that," said Raina. "We thought we could just move on-"
"You don't move on with out the say so from me," Wolfe growled.
"But she would have gotten away!" protested Fitz.
"Then you bring her inside, sit her on the couch, and come get me! You don't put Cuffs on the thing. You thought she could overpower you, is that it?"
Skye was pretty much rooting for Wolfe and grateful that he had shown up until that point. Her own father called her a thing? He must have really thought she was weak.
"We were just going to have a little fun…" mumbled Raina.
"You are not permitted to have fun with this one… at least physically. She is important, ridiculous as that may seem."
Fitz and Raina nodded their understanding.
"Now, get those things off," he ordered, and with a wave of Raina's hand over the "Cuffs", the glow switched off while they deactivated, followed by them clattering to he ground.
After taking a moment to catch her balance Skye stood up to her full height, hoping they wouldn't be able to see her shaking or hear it in her voice.
"My team told me the Inhumans are fine, Wolfe," Skye said. She hoped her voice sounded fierce, but at this point she'd settle for it just being even. "So what the hell do you want with me?"
He cocked his head, gave her a wicked smile. "The same thing. If not for somewhat… different circumstances."
"What do you mean?" she asked, trying to ignore the audience she knew they had.
"Excuse me?" cut in Fitz. "Can we drop this bloody charade? I'm sick of this tiny body. I feel this incessant need to babble on all the time and the curliness of this hair is just ridiculous."
Wolfe rolled his eyes. "Well, I suppose there's no salvaging the plan now that you two decided to terrify the thing," he said with an air of anger, but smirked just after and softened his tone. "So sure, why don't we show the little half-breed what's going on?"
The crowd seemed pleased by this, all nodding before they abruptly became still as statues, as if they were focusing.
The room then began to change, to morph. It wasn't a living room anymore. In fact, it looked just like Skye would have thought it should. She watched in disbelief as the couches changed to old metal chairs and the table was nothing but some sort of discarded junk. It was possible that Skye's already muddled mind could have dealt with a room completely changing its interior.
But then the people started to change.
Skye watched with wide eyes as every person in the room morphed, sans for Wolfe, into a green person. A green person with pointy ears and freaky red eyes.
They basically looked like goblins.
Now, Skye was a SHIELD agent. Skye was a SHIELD agent-Kree-Inhuman-prophecy-orphan- person, so maybe she shouldn't have been so shocked by this. But she was. Shocked, surprised, astonished… take your pick of synonym and it was probably what Skye was feeling.
It was extra disturbing because the eyes seemed to be the first thing to change, and to see her friend with blood red eyes before growing long ears, pointy teeth, and turning green is definitely something you could put in the nightmare pile.
Is this what they'd done to him? Had they made him a mutant? But then she remembered…
Shape-shifting green aliens.
"Skrulls?" she asked, looking only at Wolfe and ignoring the fact that something downright insane had just happened in front of her. Ignoring the waves of shock that turned to terror as they hit her full force. Or she tried to, because those things were on the higher end of difficult to ignore. "You… you teamed up with them? But I thought you said you hated them! And…" her face paled with realization. "If that's… where is Fitz?"
Skye didn't want to hear the answer. She was terrified of this answer, because in no way could this answer be good. But she had to know.
Wolfe laughed, large dark chuckles. But Skye made sure to keep her eyes on the scary laughing man in front of her, because to not would mean looking at the green goblin aliens and she wasn't' sure if she could do that without hyperventilating.
"It's cute how you think you're entitled to answers," Wolfe told her.
"It's cute how you think I'm going to do anything for you if I don't get some."
The entire room of freshly changed creatures laughed at her (what was this, super villain boot camp?), and she realized even she was shocked at how brazen she had sounded. Maybe she was stupidly bold.
"You know, why not?"
Wolfe waved his hand and all of sudden, near where the blue light in the corner of the room was coming from, Skye saw some sort of pod slip out. A pod approximately the size of a person.
She immediately ran towards it, not even thinking of repercussions if someone was to stop her. Luckily, no one did.
It was a machine, though a strange one at that. Skye had never seen anything look quite like this and she knew for a fact it was alien technology. A lot smoother with strange symbols on the outside.
And Fitz was floating.
He looked to be asleep, as to her great relief she could see his chest moving evenly up and down.
"What did you do to him?" she sneered, still staring into the glass.
"What did we do?" Wolfe asked incredulously. "Your people left him to die! And he would have, if Lyja wasn't quick enough to think he could be useful in the future."
A Skrull with long dark green hair stepped forward, still wearing Raina's flower dress.
"Even working for that silly little Hydra, I still had my home's technologies." She scoffed, crossing her arms. "Like I could deal with this place without them. Terra is just… hopeless."
"Raina…" Skye mumbled thoughtlessly, her eyes fixated on her dress' blue flowers.
"Oh, that one is dead," said Wolfe. "Bartak had that honor."
The one wearing Fitz' clothes stepped forward, and Skye felt a sliver of gratitude come forth that he no longer looked like Fitz. The killer's smile on his face would have been near too much to handle.
"Inhumans are vermin. It was my pleasure to do the service."
"So you just want to torture and kill me because I'm gross to you?" Skye asked near-breathless, once again having to steel her nerves. "Is that why I'm here?"
"Oh, wouldn't that be nice…" mumbled Lyja.
"No," Wolfe told her. "We still need you for the ritual."
"But there is no ritual!" Skye said with exasperation. "The Inhumans are fine."
"We don't want to save the disgusting creatures, we want to destroy them!" Lyja shrieked suddenly.
She covered her mouth hastily just after the words slipped out, as if she'd said more than she should have. By the glare she was getting from Wolfe, she had. And Skye realized…
"This ritual will kill the Inhumans?"
Bartak then stepped right up into her personal bubble, forcing her to lean back over Fitz' med pod as far as she could to avoid him. There was a literal monster, like something you'd find at a Haunted House, pressing his face closer to hers.
"Every last one of them," he whispered harshly.
Skye frowned, picking herself back up and nearly knocking Bartak on the nose.
"I'm not going to do that," she told him, voice laced with as much incredulity and grit she could muster. "I won't kill myself so a whole species dies with me. Forget it."
More freaking laughter coming from her father, and Skye's mind couldn't decide if it wanted to make her spit on him or pee her pants.
"The terms haven't changed. Graviton may not be here at the moment, but he is still on my side. That man will do anything for a glimpse at an alien world." Wolfe chuckled as though amused and shook his head, making Skye think he didn't think very highly of the scientist. "The Inhumans are actually somewhat more advanced than this tiny human race you've become associated with, so the man's gravity powers wouldn't do much good there. But here on Terra... the poor saps wouldn't even know where to begin defending themselves, would they?"
SHIELD would try, thought Skye. They had been trying to work on something to defeat Hall.
Wait. No they hadn't. Fitz had been working on something. And since that wasn't really Fitz...
SHIELD had nothing.
"So if you don't do this Skye," Wolfe spat, "the entirety of earth is in jeopardy. Starting with your friend behind you. Because, as I recall, 'if someone threatened a person you care about, you would do anything for them.'"
Wolfe's mocking voice for Skye was decidedly pathetic, but it rang through her ears with truth. She had admitted that to him. She'd admitted it to him when she'd been foolish enough to trust the bastard.
Skye looked at Fitz' sleeping form. Maybe… maybe it would be better if she did say no, sacrifice Fitz. An entire species… but then, Wolfe was also threatening this entire planet if she refused. The species she'd come to know as her own. All of her friends, herself…
This wasn't fair. Why did anyone have to die?
"You know, we can actually speed things up a bit," said Wolfe, snapping his fingers.
The glow on the machine beside her subsided. Fitz was somehow still floating, but his back stretched violently, and Skye could hear ragged breaths coming from his mouth.
"What are you doing?" she exclaimed, fairly certain she already knew, as she found herself frantically looking for a way to turn the machine back on.
"Killing him," Wolfe said simply. "If you pledge loyalty to the sacrifice, right now, I will return him to you."
Her mind reeled as she watched Fitz' body shake. This was Ward all over again, but it wasn't a backstabbing Hydra traitor in there. And as much as she realized now she still had feelings for Ward, this choice was so much simpler.
"I'll do it," she stated, face pressed up against the glass of the pod.
"Now, don't just be saying that. You have to mean it."
"I mean it!" she wailed suddenly, tears starting down her face now as she banged half-heartedly on the glass in frustration, almost trying to will him awake on his own. "Just turn it back on! Make him better!"
And with another simple click, the machine's glow and gentle hum resumed. Fitz' status of sleeping peacefully returned just after.
Skye stared at the man in the pod, her body trembling from what she'd just agreed to. For a moment all she could hear was the sound of her own ragged breaths.
"Want him to be restored?" asked Wolfe casually. "These machines can do that."
Duh! Of course she wanted him better. That wasn't even a question.
She wanted to have attitude, to tell Wolfe off. But the tears were flowing now and her throat felt so tight, she was afraid if she spoke it would just be some sort of croak. So she just gave a firm nod, still staring at the pod so the bastard couldn't see her face.
A few moments of brighter glowing later, the pod opened with a hiss. Skye reached her head over to see Fitz, blinking feverously as he tried to adjust to the light.
"Bloody hell, that is bright!" he said, his hand coming to rest of his eyes. He shot up in his seat, Skye moving her head away quick enough to avoid a collision. He squinted. "Skye? Is that you?"
She swallowed hard. "Yeah, Fitz. It's me."
"Where the hell…" he mumbled, until his eyes lit up. "The ocean. Simmons! Skye, is Simmons alright?"
"She's fine," Skye choked out. "They're all fine."
Skye was trying so hard to hold back her sobs. He was clueless. That… the Skrull had been with them for days and no one had noticed. No one had picked up on it! Maybe Simmons… but she still thought the engineer was there with them even if she noticed him being somewhat off.
Meanwhile, Fitz had been in danger and no one was even looking for him. Skye was so appalled by the thought that she was grateful he didn't have to be awake throughout the experience.
Maybe she shouldn't have even woken him now.
It would have been a lie to say she wasn't comforted by the mere presence of her friend next to her. But in a few moments he would be terrified. He will have escaped one life-threatening situation just to land in another. That wasn't fair.
None of this was fair.
"Where's Garrett? And Ward? And… where are we, for Pete's sake!" Fitz said as his eyes were finally adjusting, and he attempted to get out of the pod. Skye took his hands to help guide him and he seemed to get a look at her face, his own immediately gaining one of concern. "Skye, what's the matter?
She blinked long and hard, trying to get rid of the water blurring her vision. Maybe she should have been focusing on her throat. Her voice sounded watery and thick.
"We're in trouble, Fitz," she quaked.
"Um, uh…" He was staring behind her, seeming so shocked she wasn't even sure he heard her. "Are those… green people? Did I damage my head or something?"
"Oh no," said Lyja shortly as she walked over to them. Skye made sure Fitz was securely behind herself, blocking him from the alien's direct sight. "We are not going through the questioning thing again. It was annoying enough with that thing."
There she went, calling Skye a thing again. Did they really think she was this disgusting?
"I just don't understand!" screeched Skye, frustration starting to spill over her fear. "Why are you doing this, Wolfe? Why would you betray your own goddamn species?"
"Is… is he a SHIELD agent?" asked Fitz, probably taking note of Wolfe's attire that was still exactly what a field agent would wear.
Skye didn't like ignoring Fitz, but he was being exceptionally good at not noticing the direness of the situation and she was feeling it much too well to do such a thing. Instead, she just watched nervously as the man who called himself her father walked towards her. She was shaking in her shoes, but she still looked him right in the eyes, her own filled with so much tears and spite.
"You really are an idiot aren't you?" he chided, only making her possibly petulant frown grow. "It usually comes so easy to display the emotions of those we mock. Heck, sometimes it's hard not to even if we try!" He laughed only momentarily, just before his face gained a look of utmost disgust. "But to say I was proud of you. To call you my blood, when you are made up of the two most repulsive creatures in the entire universe, was actually incredibly difficult. Of course I'm very skilled so I was able to display most of the emotions your true father would, but I may have lost it a couple times…"
Skye closed her eyes as disbelief and despair hit her in another wave.
"You're a Skrull too," she whispered. It wasn't a question, and she even wondered how she didn't realize it sooner.
"Bingo, kiddo!" he told her in a voice that held so, so much mockery.
His footsteps rang loudly as he approached her, but Skye didn't open her eyes until she felt his hand gripping her chin. She gasped, wishing she had let herself see sooner, just to prepare for... him being so close. She should have opened them when she heard Fitz' distressed "oh my god" from behind her.
But she hadn't, and now couldn't help the shiver up her spine caused by the terrifying green face in front of her.
He was larger than Wolfe, with muscles clearly visible and he had a strange spiky haircut, as though someone put four cones on his head. It reminded Skye of a body builder-biker-gremlin sort of thing. And like the rest of them, he was a dark shade of green.
"And you should get used to us," he whispered harshly as he held her still, in a voice that was so much deeper and darker than Wolfe's and had a strange reverberating growl that came with it, "because we're going to be who you spend the rest of your increasingly short life with."
Skye didn't have a quip. Didn't have a way out. All she could do was try to keep the fury in her features as she seethed, and try to ignore the pain as his fingernails dug there way deeper into her chin.
"I thought you said we weren't allowed to hurt her, Paibok?" said Lyja pointedly, and Skye realized she must have been showing some outward discomfort. Or maybe Lyja was just well tuned to when someone was in pain.
"You are not allowed to harm her. I don't trust you won't kill her," he said, releasing Skye's chin. He wiped off the hand that had been holding her absentmindedly on his shirt, seeming thoughtful. "But we may do something else… hmm. Half-breed?"
That was what Randolph had called her. She met his eyes to show him she was listening, but he seemed to require a verbal answer.
"Yes?" she snapped shortly.
"Show us your loyalty to the cause," he said, spreading an inviting gesture in front of himself. "Bow."
"What?" she said in disbelief.
"Bow down and pledge yourself as the sacrifice."
Skye took a sharp breath, not sure when she was planning to release it. She spared a glance back at Fitz. He was still sitting up in the alien med pod and he actually looked stunned enough into not speaking, not that she could blame him. She turned back to the Skrull called Paibok.
"No," she pronounced. "I said I'll do it and I will, no need to 'pledge' myself or something. Or is the whole situation just not weird and creepy enough for you yet?"
"How am I to know you're dedicated to the cause if you won't show it?" he asked with fake innocence, beginning to circle her. "We can have a repeat of earlier, but you know it will only cause the same results."
Hurt Fitz. He meant they would hurt Fitz.
And she would cave, just like before.
"Well?" prompted Paibok, and she could hear the whisper of eagerness go through the crowd of aliens.
Skye pursed her lips, more out of frustration than contemplation.
People didn't bow. Did she even know how to bow? If she'd ever seen anyone bow it was a man. Maybe some sort of royalty, or people going to an occasion that was way too formal for the likes of her to be invited to.
Not knowing exactly what to do, she began to dip her head forward and-
"No," scolded Paibok, as though growing frustrated with a child. "I said to bow down."
For a moment she didn't understand what he meant. Still, it clicked in her mind fast enough. For whatever reason, these people clearly hated her. They were itching to see her pain. And since they couldn't do that… they were doing the next best thing to watch her suffer. They were wounding her pride.
And she had to comply. She may be a dead woman walking, but Fitz wasn't. The human race wasn't.
She had to do this.
So Skye, with a heavy sigh that showed her fierce opposition to the matter, knelt down one knee at a time. She never took her eyes off the Skrull, her fiery gaze bearing into him with all the contempt she could muster as he looked back at her with an infuriating smirk.
She could feel Fitz' own stare on her back, but had no inkling as to what his face may be displaying. She was completely focused on the creature in front of her.
Eventually her eyes had to leave the alien, as her head lowered down in front herself. She felt as though she were in some deranged yoga class when her hands stretched forward to lay on the ground. She heard the snide comments of satisfaction and laughter around her, and felt fresh tears as the thought came to mind that they could make her do anything they wanted. Pull her strings and make her dance like a puppet.
And as much as she hated it, herself and every single one of those creatures around her, she laid her head down in front of them.
Skye bowed.
A/n: Soooo I hope that wasn't too weird or confusing! I've been researching for this, including watching some Marvel cartoons and reading comics and what I've taken away from it is that aliens are WEIRD and the evil aliens are CREEPY. I made the bowing even more creepy than I had actually intended to be honest, but it's just gonna stay because it is what it is. (Or, rewriting is a PAIN.)
Paibok, Lyja and Bartak are Skrulls from the comics. They are most likely out of character, I am basing them only slightly off the originals. Lyja is probably the most off. But at the beginning of the comics, she really wasn't too nice as she was teamed up with Paibok. Then again, I really didn't even look into Bartak all that much and it was months ago I did the research so I dont' even know anymore, sorry. Take it with a grain of salt!
Key Points (If Confused):
-Though the only Wolfe Skye has ever known was really Paibok, a man incredibly similar to him that is her real father exists. (Kind of like how they did Mad Eye Moody in Harry Potter)
-Raina was really a Skrull. The real one's now dead.
-Fitz has been a Skrull this whole story up til now (DON'T HATE ME)
-The prophecy for Skye to save the Inhumans was a lie. The real prophecy, in which Skye still has to die from being exposed to the mists on her birthday, will kill the species. If she doesn't agree, Graviton will start destroying cities on earth.