Chapter Twenty (The Clock Strikes Twelve)

Skye and Fitzsimmons ran as fast at they could towards the SHIELD base, trying their best to avoid the numerous Centipede soldiers. They gripped their ICERs hard, darting between trees. After a few minutes, they stopped to catch their breath in the trees right near the base.

"How are we going to get in?" Simmons asked. "It's probably on complete lockdown."

Skye studied the side of the base that they were on, and her eyes landed on a rough-looking, cracked-open door, "There." she said. "It looks like we can get in that way. We just have to be extremely careful getting in."

"Are you sure that's the right way?" Fitz asked.

"No, not completely sure." Skye replied. "But that looks like our only way into that place. Now we got to get in there before Centipede spots us. We have to meet up with Coulson, May, and Ward."

Fitzsimmons exchanged nervous glances with each other before looking back at Skye and nodding their heads.

"Are you ready?" Skye asked.

Fitzsimmons both gulped, "Sure?"

Coulson, May, and Ward carefully walked the base's halls along with Roth and his team. They were trying to get to a safe location while trying to take out any soldiers that they could. They were only able to take down about ten soldiers, and there were a whole lot more than that waiting for them in the shadows.

The sudden sound of pounding, frantic footsteps caused the eleven agents to freeze and aim their guns in the direction of the oncoming footsteps. The guns kept aimed at the hallway as three people came speeding around the corner.

"Skye! Fitz! Simmons!" Coulson yelled as he saw who the three people were. He turned to Roth, "Guns down, they're with me."

Roth nodded and he and his men put away their guns.

"I thought I told you three to stay on the Bus." Coulson said, turning back to the three agents.

Skye gulped, "I know, but we couldn't stay there."

"What do you mean?" May asked. "Why couldn't you stay there?"

"There is a horde of more soldiers headed this way." Fitz explained. "And the Bus was right in their path. We couldn't stay there and risked getting killed."

"And you could've gotten killed getting here." May said. "You should've stayed and hid somewhere."

"Look, May, put the blame for this on me." Skye said. "I figured that we would've gotten killed staying there, and I knew that we could've gotten killed getting here. But I figured that it would be better to try to get to safety instead of staying in the soldiers' path."

May sighed and looked at Coulson.

"We'll talk about this later." he said. "At least you three are safe. You didn't get hurt?"

"No, I don't think we did." Simmons replied.

"Good. But I don't know what we can do from here. Fourteen is an awfully large group to have together. Roth, can you take your agents that way while I take my agents the other way?" Coulson asked. "It will be better to split up and take out the soldiers."

"Sure." Roth replied and he and his agents turned and disappeared down the hallway.

"So what do we do?" Ward asked.

"Keep going and take out the soldiers that we can find." Coulson said. "Hopefully nothing else will happen."

But then the lights flickered and went completely out. The few emergency light switched on, providing little light.

"Well hell." Coulson cussed. "I spoke too soon."

The team heard what sounded like Fitz making a strange noise, "Fitz, stop that." Ward said.

"I can do it for you." a strange, deep voice echoed.

The team turned towards the voice and squinted in the dim light to see a masked figure holding a gun to Fitz's head and holding a hand over his mouth. There was sheer terror in the young agent's eyes.

"Who the hell are you?!" Ward demanded.

"You'll find out in time." the man replied.

"What do you want?" Coulson hissed.

"You'll find that out to in time." he laughed. "But you're going to have to do whatever I say, or this poor, young, man will get a bullet through his head."

Fitz yelled a muffled, terrified scream.

Skye glanced at Simmons and saw the fear in her eyes for the agent.

"Fine, we'll do whatever you want." Coulson said in a small voice. "But just don't kill him, he's a good man."

"I'm sure he is." he man retorted, digging the nose of the small gun deeper into Fitz's head.

Fitz's eyes widened in fear even more.

"But you have to do whatever I say."

Tick, tock the clock strikes midnight. Time is up for you.

Author's Note: I don't own AoS, Marvel does. Yes, I am most definitely evil, maybe even HYDRA. What does the man want and can the team watch their words in order to keep Fitz alive? Marvel's Agents of SHIELD will return in a chapter. Keep reading and please review! ~AwakeAndAliveSpartan.