Previously: Let's take a trip down memory lane… back when Skye and Fitz were prisoner's on the ship, the Skrulls pretended to morph into Ward and Simmons. After "torturing" FakeWard and pretending to get the upper hand on Lyja the Skrull, he locked Fitzsimmons away and said the only thing he needed was Skye. She believed it was truly happening and it took her a couple minutes to realize this was a Skrull.
Wolfe is an Inhuman who has the power to inflict pain on people, but in the process he gets a fraction of the pain from each person he is hurting directed onto him.
Bobbi was seriously injured in the fight against Graviton, hindering her ability to walk. Coulson, May, Ward and Triplett were hiding from the blast of the weapon near ground zero.
Chapter Forty Nine
"You understand what is happening, yes?"
"Will he come back?"
"Can you help us get out of here!"
Coulson was talking to a decent crowd of civilians that had come out of haphazard hiding places. He was sure to have checked the perimeter so that no one had been there for the weapon's detonation, but a few must have slipped through the cracks. Luckily, they hadn't been close enough to be affected.
"Yes, if everyone will remain calm, we can help you with evacuating. We have vehicles," Coulson assured them. They appeared relieved at that, but something that caught his eye gave him the opposite emotion.
"Agent Morse!"
"Hi, sir."
Her voice sounded extremely strained. Judging by that, her sweat-drenched, bruising face, and just the sheer amount of people carrying her, she must have sustained a fair amount of injuries. Meaning, she most likely in a great deal of pain.
"Dang, you don't look so good," said Triplett.
"What happened?" Ward asked.
"Bobbi took quite a beating," said Hunter, who was carrying her along with two strangers, but they set her gently down to a sitting position once they neared Coulson. "She needs medical ASAP."
"He's just a worrier," Morse assured somewhat laboriously, tapping Hunter's calf lightly until she had to stop and moan, clutching her shoulder. Something obviously turned in a bad position. "Well, maybe I could use some medical. It's mainly my leg though."
"Legs," stressed Hunter. "I can see the swelling on your left knee through your bloody pants, and you couldn't put a lick of pressure on your right, and I'm not a doctor but I think it could be broken!"
"It's not broken Hunter; I'd be in so much more pain."
"With your threshold? I doubt you'd even be able to tell!"
She sighed, seeming as though holding back an eye roll. "Fine, it's mostly my legs."
"And shoulder."
"You're pushing it, Lance."
Coulson couldn't help but smirk at the exchange between the two. Morse was literally being carried and she still tried to write the injury off as less than it was, even though it was easily arguable. Phil was starting to think these two tried to pick fights.
"Simmons has supplies in the Short Bus, we can head over there," said Coulson, but then he looked over Bobbi once again. "Or… maybe we can bring it here. It's not too far away. Triplett?"
"On it, sir," Trip said, jogging off in the direction of the vehicle.
"I have a vehicle as well," said a petite brunette girl, who'd been helping Hunter and a larger man with Bobbi. The girl's stature meant she couldn't have been doing much strength wise, but her being between the men had helped hold the woman steady. "It's just over there, if you want to follow me-"
"They aren't going anywhere with you!"
Coulson turned towards the sound. He saw Skye leading a charge, Fitzsimmons and Mack each holding weapons, aimed and hot. Meanwhile, Wolfe was dragging along a particularly annoyed SkyeSkrull prisoner. He had a weapon too, but it was trained at the alien in his arms.
If Skye was saying a seemingly harmless civilian was bad… the hacker's look-alike was probably not the only alien present.
"Get back!" he shouted, and Ward and May both stepped away, both got their weapons out. At the same time, Hunter hurriedly knelt down to clutch at Bobbi. But the small brunette had beaten him to it, yanking Morse up to stand unwilling on her injured legs. The girl held the agent close, taking on the strain the woman couldn't herself.
"Bobbi!" Hunter shrieked, grabbing for her still. His efforts were in vain when the man who'd just previously been holding on to Morse gripped him tight around the stomach.
Hunter struggled hard, trying to get an angle on the brute, but the hold was impossibly tight. Bobbi fought as well. Her injured state was obviously making things difficult, but she landed a fairly direct hit to the girl's gut, and was expertly attempting to break free of her grasp. The fact that neither fazed the girl, who was near a foot shorter than the extraordinary agent, was evidence enough that she was not human.
"I honestly don't know why we didn't do this from the start," said the brunette, now training a gun at Bobbi's head.
It was somewhat surprising, but Morse gave a light-hearted chuckle, though when she spoke her voice was as strained as it was friendly. "So I was letting an alien help me out and I had no clue. Gotta admit, you guys are good. But how about-"
"You can shut the hell up!" Morse's captor scolded. "Paibok may have had a thing for logic games and deception, and as fun as they may be at times, violence is usually so much better." She punctuated the word but digging the gun's muzzle into Morse's temple. The agent looked begrudged, but seemed to think it was in her best interests not to speak again. "So we're not gonna do much talking, because Paibok isn't here anymore, is he, Creature?" she shouted to Skye.
There was a lot of blame in the comment, but the emotion behind it didn't bother Coulson so much as the strange nickname she'd used. Not for the first time today, he wondered what Fitz and Skye had been put through on that spaceship. Not just physically, but what emotional turmoil they might have endured. It made his stomach churn to know that Skye had to face one of her captors again.
"Lyja," Skye acknowledged through obvious disgust, her gun trained on the alien.
"You think you're so very clever, don't you?" Lyja taunted. "I see it on all of your features. You smug little bitch! You killed my commander and you killed my best friend!"
"Yeah, we did," Skye said boldly. If she felt any fear from this alien, she was not showing it. "And if you don't want anyone else to die, you'll let my friends go."
The Skrull snickered, her mouth turning up to snarl the next words. "Sounds great to me. Hand yourself over and we can all go home."
"No way in hell," Ward growled as he gripped his gun more intently.
Lyja looked over Ward curiously. "Hey… you were one of the characters in our show," she said with mild intrigue. Coulson didn't know what she'd meant, and by his furrowed brow neither did Ward, but by the way Skye's eyes glanced downward the words had meant something to her. "Poor little Creature, so upset when it thought we'd captured you. Hm. But of course, it really was quite willing to believe you'd double crossed her, when we-"
"I thought you said you were going to try not to talk too much?" Skye shouted. "Can't restrain yourself even on your own terms, Lyja?"
The alien's eyes caught fire for a moment as she dug her grip on Bobbi harder. "You'd better watch your tone!" she hissed, just before her voice softened effortlessly. "But, for once, the little freak is right. So if you'd just get over here…"
"You're delusional if you think Skye's going anywhere with you!" Fitz piped up from just behind said hacker. His weapon was aimed at the lot of "civilians", who were now holding their own weapons as well.
If someone did decide to shoot, it could domino into a massacre.
But for now, no one did. Lyja's eyes sparked when they saw Fitz, a flicker a real excitement crossing them as her mouth jerked into a grin. "Pet! I didn't know you were around. I'd love to have you come along with us too, cutie-pie…"
"No one is going with you!" Skye exclaimed. "Let Hunter and Morse go, and you can have her back," Skye jerked her head towards the bound alien in Wolfe's arms.
Lyja briefly appraised her comrade held hostage with what seemed like pure disinterest. "If you think I'm walking out of here with anything less than a despicable half-breed mutant, you'd be mistaken."
"Even for one of your own?" asked Coulson. "Loyalty must not be valued in your species."
"Loyalty is everything to us!" Lyja snarled, her body turning with Bobbi to face him directly. For a moment he thought the gun was going to be moved to stare him down, but she kept it on her hostage. "You killed our leader. But we're going to finish what he started, no matter what it takes."
"Even if it takes your lives?" asked Ward, slightly incredulous.
"Of course, traitor," she hissed at him. Apparently Ward hadn't just been a character in her show. The comment showed she'd been briefed on them, at the very least.
"I doubt all of you feel that way," Coulson addressed the small group of Skrulls posing as civilians. They merely stared at him, like good little soldiers. Of course they wouldn't admit wavering loyalty to the enemy.
Lyja rolled her eyes. Looking back at one of her disguised comrades, she moved her head in a slight jerking gesture.
There was a flash of light and a loud sound. The accompanying red that spilt from the target as a gun was fired happened too quickly for Coulson to have even reacted.
Wolfe dropped the girl in his arms immediately and she rolled to the floor, blood still pouring out of her head where the precise shot had been made by one of the Skrulls in the group.
Coulson watched the bloodied image of a dead Skye. Eyes wide, as she lay on the ground, unmoving. He couldn't stare for long, as his senses had to be alert. But as he ripped his eyes away he noticed her begin to morph. Admittedly, he was curious to see what the Skrulls looked like, but focused all his attention on the alien holding an agent hostage before him.
"Whatever it takes," Lyja growled out. The girl gripped Bobbi's hair tight, pulling the woman's head down so that they were cheek to cheek, the gun under her chin. "You've made me mad, little Creature. You don't want to test me."
Skye's breath hitched in her throat, but her weapon held steady. There was a beat, perhaps to think, but Lyja filled the silence.
"If this does come to a firefight, there will indeed be casualties on both sides. But we have the greater numbers, greater training, and basically… we're just a better species," sneered the alien. "So don't think it won't end with all of your friends dead, and you shot in both legs. Come with me, now."
The order was drawn out and cold. But Skye didn't lower her weapon. Instead she opened her mouth to utter an obvious protest, but Lyja preempted her again, this time with a loud sigh.
The alien's arm that held the gun dropped to her side lazily. "Oh god, I don't even know why I bother trying to be nice…" She picked the gun back up.
And shot Bobbi square in the chest.
"No!" wailed Hunter, his captor smiling wickedly as the man thrashed.
Morse fell to the ground, a fair amount of blood just beating her to it. Apparently the bullet had gone straight through her vest. She was desperately grappling at the wound and choking on liquid. The meager movements proved she wasn't dead, but with horrific realization, Phil could see she likely would be soon. Blood was literally spouting out of her.
Coulson automatically turned his weapon to aim at the alien, but cocked guns in the direction of all his agents told him to hold on actual fire. He watched May and Ward's trigger fingers get jumpy as well, but they too held back.
"You should be thankful I got rid of the damaged goods first," Lyja said disdainfully, indicating the writhing girl.
Skye was gritting her teeth as she tried to steel her nerve, though Mack didn't hold back as a feral growl rolled out of him.
Lyja sauntered over to Hunter, putting the gun against his temple. He growled against her, tears forming in his eyes as he tried to shake free of the man's grip around his torso.
"And now you have exactly, hmm, let's make it… eight seconds until this one dies. Seven, six…"
Skye's wild eyes darted to Coulson.
Filled with tears of askance, she was silently pleading with him to tell her the right thing to do. They both knew what he'd told her to do. He'd told her not to give herself up and that it would be stupid, but now that very thing was looking like the near best option.
There were too many aliens. Not enough allies. Fitzsimmons had mere ICERS, and they weren't good shots. And while losing agents was never easy, when dealing with non-combat ready agents there was an extra sense of responsibility.
But even so, he highly doubted any of them would make it out alive in any case. If Skye went with them now, at least there'd be more than fresh corpses to try and rescue her.
So as much as he'd love to shake his head resolutely, make it clear to Skye to never give herself up, he couldn't do it. But he couldn't seem to affirm such an action either.
"Three," continued Lyja. "Two..."
Skye raised her hands abruptly as her mouth dropped open, presumably to offer surrender. But she got distracted.
In fact, they all got distracted.
Coulson flinched at the sound as every single one of the Skrulls began screaming, hands bolting towards their heads as they one by one dropped to the ground. He didn't know what to think. Phil looked at his team, only to see them all staring with gaping mouths, flabbergasted as he was.
The only exception was an ally not integrated to his team.
"Wolfe?" he heard Skye say. "Wolfe!"
All she got was a grunt in return. The man was tensing his entire body, hands balled in fists, as he seemed to be in real pain.
Skye rushed to him. "What are you doing?"
"He's using his gift," Ward explained. Skye's eyes got wide.
"Use the ICERs!" she exclaimed to her team without a second thought. "Now!"
"No! If you take one down, I'll lose my grip on the rest," he managed through grit teeth. "There's a lot of them, so I don't know if I'll be able to hold them for long, but I'll do it as long as I can before..."
Fresh tears flourished in Skye's eyes. "You better not be saying what I think you are."
He managed to give her a smirk. It was strange, with red marks appearing on his body in small scrapes and even deeper cuts. "It's ok Skye. If you g-go now."
She started crying in earnest now, and Coulson barely registered how Triplett pulled the van up. In the back of his mind he realized how Fitzsimmons and May had gone to help Hunter and Mack with Bobbi. Ward, who was standing next to him, followed the gaze. With a forlorn glance at Skye, he too went to help the injured agent, his strength making the trip to the van much easier.
And Coulson realized, once his team got the injured agent into the Short Bus, both he and Skye needed to be on the move as well.
"Please don't do this!" Skye cried, wrapping her hands around the man. "Dad please! I just found my family, please don't go away again!"
It near surprised Coulson how easily Skye called her father by the moniker. But Phil supposed it was his rightful name, and right now, he was proving more than capable of its worth.
He noticed the other four nearing the van.
"Skye we need to go," Coulson said calmly.
"I - no!" she said, her hands abruptly twisting through her hair as she pulled them away from her father. "I can't," she gritted out. Her eyes closed in strain then.
"Take her," growled her father at Coulson, in determination as well as through his pain. "Our anguish is too much for her gift."
Skye was shakily holding her hands to her head, as though fearing it was going to burst and she was trying to meld it together. She willed her eyes open through a set jaw.
"Thank you for finding me," she managed through her teeth. Through tears. Through her small smile as pain fought to make it a frown.
Wolfe reached out a shaky hand to soothe her and opened his mouth to say something, but Skye was screaming before long. Wolfe recoiled his hand. "Go! Now!"
Coulson didn't need to be told again. He swept up Skye at the knees, and she curled instinctively into his chest as he cradled her. Beside him, he thought he saw Wolfe's strain ease up, just a little, before he began jogging towards the van.
Skye's tears and breath fell onto him as she sobbed and while he ran, and Coulson had to wonder if it was more for her lost father or sharing the torture of the aliens.
He loaded her gently into the car before stepping in himself, staying clear of Simmons working on Bobbi.
"What's wrong with her?" asked Fitz, palpable concern in his voice as he looked over Skye, and Coulson watched Ward stiffen when he saw the condition she was in.
"She's feeling what they are," Coulson said, gesturing out the window. "She'll be fine when we get out of the vicinity."
As if on cue, Triplett started the car and they were on the move.
"Is she gonna be alright?" asked Hunter, his concern directed at only one person. His hand lay gently on top of the unconscious agent.
"Just let me work," Simmons said, resigned. It was not the most reassuring voice. Bobbi didn't look to be in the most reassuring position. Simmons was clearly only focusing on the gun shot wound, but the girl had been in pieces before Lyja shot her.
"We can't leave him," Skye muttered from her reclined seat. Coulson spun towards her, as her eyes fluttered open and there was a quivering frown on her face. She closed her eyes again. "I can do it… Please. He's my father, m-my family…"
Coulson patted the hair away from her sweaty forehead, as she continued mumbling.
"She needs a hospital, immediately," Simmons said of Bobbi, to no one in particular it seemed. Maybe the driver.
"The city's evacuated, it's gonna be a while to get to a not empty one," Triplett replied.
Coulson looked over to Morse.
She didn't have a while.
In fact, he wasn't entirely convinced a hospital could do anything for her. But he wasn't a doctor, and a hospital was at least her best bet. Her condition was eerily reminiscent of a shot Skye, and without GH-325…
He was drawn back to Skye as she let out a shuttering breath, gaining sense of her surroundings. Her eyes flickered intensely about. When her sights landed on the bloody, unconscious woman lying on the ground, she stared there a while, contemplating.
Skye trained her gaze at Coulson. "Go back."
He sighed. "This is for the best…"
"We need to go back!"
"Skye," Ward started, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You're father knows what he's doing. And Morse needs the hospital."
Skye scowled. "I know what to do," she insisted darkly. "And you have to turn the car around. Triplett!"
"Skye…" started Trip.
"Stop saying my name like I'm crazy!"
"Stop acting crazy!" Hunter exclaimed, his voice cracking. "Bobbi needs a doctor!"
"She needs a miracle," Skye spat. "She's dead, Hunter, look at her."
"Skye!" Simmons shrieked in horror. "She's not-"
"She's going to be!" Skye shouted, eyes wide and seeming unaware that Hunter had tried to pounce on her in a grieving anger at her harsh words. Coulson and Ward had stopped him, but it had still caused a fair ruckus in the small space. "Unless you guys listen to me and turn the damn car around."
Everything inside the vehicle stilled then. There was no sound, save for heavy breathing and whatever Simmons was using to monitor Bobbi.
"Just trust me, Coulson."
He wanted to, but what if she was only this sure of herself because it was her father? He knew when things involved people you care about, your mind could become clouded. You could make the wrong decisions when it came to your family.
But, just maybe, that was why he agreed.
A/n: And we thought what I did to Bobbi last chapter was bad...
So I've been lazy about proofreading lately but this one I really tried to look over and fix pretty hard! Please let me know what you think!