Chapter Fifteen (Tick Tock Goes the Clock)

Ward and Skye walked into the Holocom room along with Fitzsimmons to meet Coulson.

"Found the two lovebirds clinging on to each other in a broom closet back in the storage area." Ward stated. "Fitz was squealing like a baby."

"Was not!" Fitz exclaimed.

"Just go ahead and cut it." Coulson cut in, ending the soon to be argument.

"Where's May?" Skye asked.

"In the cockpit." Coulson said. "Trying to get us out of here before the whole are blows. And it will probably be soon."

As if on cue, the Bus's engines roared to life. They felt the lurch as May got the plane off of the ground and into the air.

"Hopefully the blast radius is small." Coulson stated. "We don't know what kind of bomb the bomb is, so there's no telling what could happen while we are in the air."

"W-Well on another note," Simmons said with a slight falter, turning to Skye. "It's nice to see you."

Skye smiled, "Nice to see you too." She looked at Fitz, "Leo."

Fitz put a hand up, "If this is about earlier, don't say anything."

"It's not." Skye said, narrowing her eyes. "Now don't assume that everything me and Ward are going to say is about earlier."

"Well,"

"Hold on," Simmons butted in, staring at Ward's shirt. "Is that blood?" she asked.

Ward's face froze, "Well you see," he began, but he didn't finish. He didn't know how to explain to Simmons what had happened back in the Centipede facility. "I was shot."

"What?" Simmons asked, rushing over.

"Oh great." Coulson and Skye said at the same time.

Simmons, without any hesitation, immediately pulled up Ward's blood stained shirt. "What? You said you were shot." Simmons said, seeing only a small, pink splotch on the agent's chest. "Are you telling the truth?"

"Yes I am."

"Then where's the wound?"
"Uh, Skye?"

Simmons quickly looked to Skye, looking for an explanation.

Uneasiness grew in Skye's gut, she didn't know what to say to her friend. But she had to. "I um, I can," she said.

"You can what?" Simmons asked.

Fitz stood by her side utterly confused.

"I can, um, heal myself and other people." Skye finally said.

Simmons and Fitz looked utterly dumbstruck, "What?" Simmons asked. "How, when, what?"

Skye explained everything that had happened to her in the past few days, everything from her capture, to her torture, and then to her rescue.

"Can you show me?" Simmons asked.

Skye shook her head, "I really can't right now. I pretty much kept Ward from dying and it took every bit of strength I had after having to heal myself a dozen times. So I rather not right now."

Simmons looked a little disappointed, "Oh, ok."

Coulson turned to look and Ward and Skye, "Now that all that is over, you two need to go rest. You look exhausted and there's no telling when Centipede could attack again. You need to be at full strength."

Both Ward and Skye nodded and started to go towards the bunks, but the bomb decided to go off. The Bus shook violently through the air, recoiling from the bomb's massive shockwaves.

The agents fell to the ground and May's voice crackled through the intercom, "The bomb's gone off. I'm trying to stabilize the plane, but the shockwaves from the blast are deeply interfering with the Bus. It may take awhile before we are flying normally again."

The group stood, trying to steady themselves as the Bus still shook in midair.

Coulson held on to the Holotable and looked at the four agents in front of him, "We may be safe for now, but I think that this is only the beginning of some kind of war."

"Quinn, you are an utter disappointment to Centipede."

A lone figure stood in a dark room, facing a bruised and battered Ian Quinn who was chained and hanging from the wall.

"Look," Quinn said weakly. "They got the best of me, and I thought that the bomb would take care of them."

"But it didn't." the figure hissed. "All it did was kill several of my soldiers and destroy a valuable facility. It did nothing and those agents got away. They're now flying away in their plane going to find a way to find and kill me."

"Sir,"

"Don't even start. You've failed. I'm not even going to kill you, I'm going to leave you to starve and rot in this hellhole."

The figure walked out the door. He slammed the door, leaving Quinn in the suffocating darkness to die.

"Tick tock goes the clock." he whispered to himself. "The clock will soon strike midnight, and the time will run out for the agents of SHIELD 616. Tick tock, time is running out."

Author's Note: I don't own AoS, Marvel does. The teams escapes before the bomb goes off and Skye tells Fitzsimmons about her power. Someone is leaving Quinn to die and is foretelling the death of the agents. Who is it? Marvel's Agents of SHIELD will return in a chapter. Keep reading and PLEASE review. ~AwakeAndAliveSpartan.