Chapter Sixteen (Gears)
Ward laid his head against his pillow. He didn't want to rest, but it was Coulson's orders. He should as well lay in here awhile; there was nothing else to do at the moment.
A soft rap on the wall caused him to jerk his head up, "Hey, Ward." It was Skye. And again, "Yo, Tin-Man."
"What?" Ward asked. "Shouldn't you be sleeping or something?"
"You should be too." Skye retorted. "Coulson told us both to go and rest. You should be sleeping, you almost died."
"Yeah, but I can't sleep."
"Figures."
"No, Skye, I mean that I can't sleep because of everything that's gone on with Centipede the past, what, week." Ward responded. "And I don't think they are done."
"What do you mean?"
"You heard Coulson earlier. He said that this could be the beginnings of some sort of war with Centipede. They're not done yet. We got you back and the Clairvoyant or whoever may still want you. Hell, he probably wants us all dead now for interfering with whatever plans he had. And he'll probably will not stop until we're all lying dead on the cold, hard ground."
Skye blinked, looking at the wall of her bunk, "But really," she said. "You really think that Centipede will be back?" she asked.
"Yes. You know that they were on the Bus earlier looking for us, probably going to kill us. They would've probably killed Fitzsimmons if we had not shown up in time."
"Time," Skye said. "It's all about time, isn't it?"
"What?" Ward asked.
"The thing this whole entire thing has been time. Me racing to keep from being captured, the race to find me, the race to get out of the facility. The whole thing has been one big race and time isn't on our side."
"And?"
"And time's running out."
"May, I mean, what do we do?" Coulson asked, sitting in the copilot's seat looking at May. "What do we do now?"
"And you're asking me?" May responded. "Phil, you know the answer. We got Skye back, and she's safe. So is Ward. The only thing left is the Clairvoyant."
"But how do we find him? How do we even fight him? You've seen what he's capable of."
"We'll worry about that later. But most of all, he's trying to bring the fight to us." May said. "Everything he's had done has been gears in a massive plan to break us. Skye, Ward, it's all to break us. He even almost had Fitzsimmons killed. He's trying to kill us one by one. We have to watch our backs, because we don't know when the next attack could be."
Coulson blinked in acknowledgement of May's statement, "All of that is true. But why us? Why does it have to be us?"
"Phil, it started with your death, and then Skye. Each of us has something that the Clairvoyant wants, and he'll do anything to get it. You were practically raised from the dead and Skye can heal the worst of wounds. There's a theme here. He wants you two and then wants the rest of us dead for getting in his way. We have to be prepared."
"Coulson?" Coulson and May turned to see Fitz poking his head in the cockpit's door.
"What is it Fitz?" Coulson asked.
"There's a situation at a SHIELD base, and Director Fury wants you on the line. Centipede's at the base."
Tick, tock, the clock strikes eight.
Author's Note: I don't own AoS, Marvel does. Centipede proves themselves relentless by attacking another SHIELD base, most likely to draw Coulson's team out. The whole mess is a race against time. Time will soon run out. But what will happen when the clock strikes twelve? Marvel's Agents of SHIELD will return in a chapter. Keep reading and PLEASE review, this needs more reviews. ~AwakeAndAliveSpartan.