Previously: We now know that the Skye with Ward is a Skrull, who had a surprise meet up with the rest of the team when Skye was supposed to be with Fitzsimmons in the van.

Chapter Forty Four

They are.

They aren't!

But they so are.

There was a battle raging inside Skye's head at the moment. It was hard for the girl to believe anything she saw anymore, what with Wolfe lying to her (not even the real Wolfe, but still...) and the Skrulls just being what they were, Skye decided to become very skeptical.

So she stared, and just tried to decide. Could it be real? It was going on right in front of her, very nonchalant. It must have happened in the past, this particular gesture at least, but it just wasn't stopping. Not to mention the… feelings, in Skye's head coming off of them. Well, they were pretty specific, and steadily directed towards one another and their both light purple and pink auras.

She couldn't be sure of course, so there was only one thing to do at a time like this for an inquisitive - and by inquisitive, yes, she did mean nosy - girl like Skye:

"Fitzsimmons, are you two like an actual thing now?"

Almost on impulse and at the exact same moment, - because those two could most likely read each other's minds- they broke apart the previously held hands. Simmons blew air out of her mouth incredulously with zealously while Fitz began shaking his head.

"A thing? You may want to define thing because it has such a wide array of depictions as to what it could mean-"

"-such a silly question Skye, you know as well as I do that we're people-"

"And it's obviously trying to convey something that isn't very well put together by the sentence that only uses the wording of such a versatile subject such as things-"

Forget science babble. This was just babble-babble, being done at the same time. They weren't finishing each other's sentences they were just having random crap come out of their mouths for the sake of trying to hide something that was now painfully obvious.

It was adorable.

"You guys kissed, didn't you?" Skye asked, a little over-loudly so as to stop the gibberish spewing from their mouths. And maybe she was just the teensiest enthusiastic about it.

They both turned red as roses.

Jemma smiled abashedly. "It's possible-"

"-well, we were in the moment and-"

"-there might have been some snogging-"

"Aww!" Skye exclaimed, now getting to a possibly over-enthusiastic state for her own good. "Does this mean we can use Fitzsimmons as a ship name now?"

"Psht, of course not!" said Simmons.

"It's nothing concrete yet!" exclaimed Fitz.

"And we are on one of the most difficult missions we've ever faced-"

"-so the last thing we should be worrying about is relationships."

"Though it is a rather convenient nickname…" Fitz mused.

Skye scoffed. "Because everyone else in the entire world saw this before you two seemed to!" she exclaimed. "Seriously, it's just been like waiting for the penny to finally drop this whole time."

Simmons bit her lip. "Skye honestly… it is a bit personal."

"We haven't even had a chance to discuss it ourselves," Fitz mumbled, sounding just a tad begrudged.

The waves of embarrassment hit Skye full force, probably because she was feeling just about as awkward about calling them out on it as they had about being caught. Only difference: she had to feel it for all three of them.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to pry," she said, and then checked herself. "Well, I did, but I didn't mean to make you super uncomfortable."

"No, it's all right Skye!" protested Simmons. "I just believe we should focus on the task at hand."

"Yeah, it's not your fault. You probably can't even help yourself."

It took Skye a moment to even understand what Fitz meant, but she did after just a few moments of stunned confusion.

She could control herself… Sure, she might not have been able to turn off telling what others were feeling, but she didn't have to flat out bring it up. Even if her impulses wanted to, she could and would respect people's personal space.

"Well… we can't really do much until these satellites come back up," she said by way of changing the subject matter, though the thought actually made her angry. "If they don't, we'll just be sitting here while the rest of the team has to fight off Hall and we'll have no idea how they're doing, if they're ok, if they need help…"

The was then a sort of dragged out scratching sound, specifically one of a sliding door being opened. Specifically that of the van. Specifically that of the one they were sitting in at this very moment.

"Hey guys," said Coulson, peaking his head inside.

Except, specifically, that Coulson was not Coulson.

Skye had to chomp down on her lip to stop the frustrated scream that now went on silently inside her mind. Not a gasp or panic, but pure anger flooded through her at the sight.

The man in front of her of course looked like Coulson, but the strange jagged squiggles that accounted for his aura told her otherwise. She was quickly learning to put faith in this power, as it seemed to be the one of the few things she could trust in this world so full of deceit. But she could not convey the utter amount of disappointment at the mere sighting of this thing, pretending to be someone she cared for so much.

It didn't help that there were even more along with him. The three Skrull-migos: fake-May, fake-Triplett and fake-Ward.

Possibly the worst aspect was that, with their presence, feelings of excitement jolted through her. They weren't even nervous; all Skye could sense was enthusiasm. These beings truly did think of everything as a giant game.

"Hello sir!" exclaimed Jemma happily.

Skye felt Simmons' relief and splendor at seeing the team, and the onslaught of emotions was making her near want to burst into irritated tears. Counting her own frustration and anger, there surely must have been at least one too many different feelings going on for one person to handle, or even comprehend.

"Did we do it then?" asked Fitz hopefully. "Is the op over?"

Skrull-Coulson gave him a bittersweet, thin-lined smile, and Skye had to begin grinding into her lip. "Afraid not, Fitz," he said regretfully.

"Then what are you doing back sir?" asked Simmons.

"Did you find Wolfe, Hunter, and Mack?" Skye managed to grumble out, not seeming too conspicuous. "They left a while ago to find you guys and give you the device."

"Oh, yeah. They're setting it up right now," said Coulson.

Liar.

"And to answer your question Simmons, we think we need to take Skye with us."

"What for?" Skye asked immediately, and she hoped there wasn't nearly as much trepidation in her voice as she felt. But the fact that a Skrull said the words "take Skye with us"… well, it wasn't as easy of thing for her to let slide as she would have liked.

"We're going to try and get the satellites to come back up," informed the Ward from behind him. "We need you to run some tracking programs for Hall."

"I uh… I can do that from here," Skye said. She swallowed the lump in her throat, trying her best not to appear suspicious. A weak grin spread onto her face. "I mean, that was the plan."

"We believe we've found a place that we can connect with the GPS systems, and it's not too far away," said not-really May. "It should help with our search for Graviton."

"Ah, that sounds promising!" exclaimed Simmons.

Skye wanted to scream at her, or at least find somehow to silently communicate. It was horrible that her friends were being tricked right in front of her and she could do nothing to warn them of it.

But then again… as much as her friends were being tricked, Skye was not. And the Skrulls certainly seemed to be thinking she was. The fact that they were in their disguises at all proved this. And that meant…

They didn't know about her powers.

Not that they should, as there wasn't really a concrete way how, but she'd expected them to be aware for one reason or another. In the back of her mind, she'd just assumed them to always know what power she'd get. They knew everything else about her strange role to play in this sacrifice. But then again, they proposed for her to die during the process. (Or did they expect the Terrigenesis to kill her only if it happened on her date of birth? Honestly, it was hard to keep track of).

Fitz was tapping his chin in thought. "You know, I was thinking of what a shame it's going to be if we find Hall and use the machine without getting any of the Skrulls, it's such a might of a waste. Oh, and we still need to think of a name for the machine."

"Do tell," said Coulson, intrigued.

"I generally like to think of something that has relevance obviously, but it's possible the more important aspect is that it be cool – "

"Not the name," growled Coulson, far too angry with Fitz than the real Coulson would be in this instance. "Why would it be a waste?"

Skye felt herself tense up. This was bad. If Fitz said anything about her powers it would clue them off, and quite likely they'd kill Fitzsimmons where they stood and cart Skye off by force. No matter how much they seemed to like tricking her and getting her to follow them in that way, there was no doubt in her mind they had the necessary means to take her forcibly.

"Well," continued Fitz, "the machine neutralizes powers, thanks to Skye's special blood. Graviton from what we can tell is relying on those to live."

Simmons seemed unable to contain herself, having to elaborate on Fitz's previous comment before he could continue. "We believed he had died when he was thrown into the Gravitonium for a reason. It's a highly unstable and powerful element, and if he hadn't have gained the powers from the substance itself…"

"He'd be dead. So that's exactly what's going to happen when he meets with the mechanism we've designed that includes Skye's blood."

The fake team leader was nodding with interest. "Yes, but what does that have to do with the Skrulls?"

"Hmm? Oh! All I was saying was that it would be the perfect opportunity to strip the Skrulls of their powers as well as immobilize them. The radiation alone would hurt anyone… but since Skrulls core body structure seems contingent on their shapeshifting powers, it could possibly even kill them, as well."

"But we don't know where they are, so that's a moot point," concluded Simmons. She shrugged.

FakeCoulson looked downright irritated. "So everything you told me for the passed two minutes… pointless speculation?"

Skye felt Fitz's unease as his skin turned red. "Oh erm… yes I suppose…"

"Great," he snapped. Skye had to bite back a snarl. "Well, we should get going, Skye."

Shit! Think of something. An excuse. A reason not to leave. Oh wait, that's the definition of excuse. But do not let them take you!

Or do.

The thought popped into Skye's head abrupt and fast and she rolled with it at the same pace.

Fitz's lament over the machine had given her an idea: lure the Skrulls to wherever they were going to set off said machine. She knew the thing had a high blast radius. If she could keep up a charade long enough to just get the Skrulls in the same vicinity…

In short, it would save a hell of a lot of trouble for later.

"Would all four of you come with me?" Skye asked, innocent and fearful.

"Of course, girl," the fake Triplett responded.

"We won't let you out of our sight," promised Skrull Ward, in an eerie reminiscence of when Ward was secretly keeping an eye on her at Providence.

She forced a smile. It was the answer she was hoping for, because there was no way she could attempt this crazy whim of a plan without knowing Fitzsimmons would not be left with the crazy aliens.

At the same time, it still made her want to cry. Skye knew she could be cool under pressure. She'd tricked people loads of times at this point, but being alone with a foursome of creatures that she knew hated her was not going to be a cup of tea by any means.

And it wasn't just that they hated her. It was that they seared the fact into her brain as they'd begun to make her hate even herself when she was on that spaceship. It was something she didn't think would have been possible. She didn't hate herself, but the fact that she'd begun to imagine, even in the slightest, that the things she'd been saying were true frightened her.

Skye knew that if she did this now, it would be more difficult to hold herself together than ever.

Not to mention, she'd be without Fitz. It was silly, but he'd been acting as though her crutch; her constant companion through this strange and unpleasant journey. It was only for a few minutes that she'd even been away from him since they'd found the team and she'd felt herself become just slightly unstable in those moments. Now she was going to willingly go with the people who made her so absurdly scared…

Skye stilled her thoughts. She couldn't let the bad ones in, not if she was going to succeed. And it was a long shot, because it rode on the comms coming back up in time for her to know exactly where to bring the Skrulls when the time was right, and if she could convince them to follow her.

If they wouldn't get fed up with her urging and just decide to drop the charade before she could bring the game to a close herself. But even that was better than their rouse ending now, where Fitzsimmons would be caught in the crossfire.

And lest Skye forget, she had the upper hand. The upper hand on people who thought they had the upper hand. One might say that was the best upper hand to have at all!

Ok, maybe. Panic's definitely seeping into her thoughts…

But that was where it was going to stay.

The hacker picked up her laptop in one fair swoop, the gesture both seeming in character for the scene she was unfolding as well as making her feel just an inch closer to secure.

"Let's get going then," she conceded with a sigh.

"You sure we shouldn't come?" asked Simmons. "I am starting to feel awful useless now…"

"Just help with communication when and if you can," urged Skye, jumping in before any of the Skrulls even thought to take one of them as well. "Besides, it's stupid to put more people in danger than we'd have to. You know the drill… we're usually behind the scenes."

Fitzsimmons, with only a slight hesitation, agreed, and then hugged her off. Fitz gave Skye a reassuring hand squeeze, which seemed to be a prominent gesture over the past week, and Skye couldn't help but let just one drop of water slip passed the barricade she'd tried to build. She wiped it off before she turned back to the imposters, hoping they wouldn't notice any redness in her eyes.

If there'd been someway to inconspicuously leave a note, just to warn them, just to give them some inkling, she would have. But she honestly couldn't see how.

So she walked off with the creatures, giving one wistful glance back at the van before she went.

Despite a bad success probability with this rushed plan, Skye felt good. Because she was the only one who knew said plan. Who had this secret information of espionage all to herself.

Call it some precognition from the universe that was deciding to grace her with good luck and smooth sailing, but Skye could swear she already tasted the success of this rouse on her tongue.

A/n: Proofread quickly, so pardon if there's an abundance of errors.