Awakening Quake
By Misha

Disclaimer and Notes in Chapter One.

A.N- I had decided early in this story that it was going to be Natasha who killed Ward, though I thought Bucky also made a viable candidate. But Natasha just made the most sense to me, especially given her role as Skye's friend and big sister-esque mentor. Plus, given the comments from the previous chapter, it was a less obvious choice, which is always good.

Chapter Forty-Four: Time to Go Home

Skye saw that Bucky and May both had their guns up, but neither of them had shot the fatal bullet. No, it was Natasha who had claimed that honor.

She was curious as to why Natasha would shoot when it had been clear she'd been about to do it, but she knew this wasn't the time to ask questions. After all, they were still in enemy territory.

However, with Ward lying dead on the ground, Doom's soldiers didn't seem inclined to keep fighting.

"We were under orders to follow Mr. Ward." One spoke up. "With him dead our orders have changed. You're all free to go."

That was interesting and Skye felt like there had to be some catch. It couldn't be that simple could it? But it appeared that it was because the human soldiers all exited the hall, leaving only the robots, who seemed menacing, but weren't engaging anyone.

"Well that's anti-climactic." Tony quipped. "But let's get out of here before they change our minds and decide to kill us for sport."

Everyone else agreed and started heading for the door, when Skye paused. "Wait." She told them. "There's a maid, Ana… She came to my aid and I can't just leave her."

Clint sighed. "There's always something. Of course we're not actually going to walk away when the bad guys let us."

"Do you know where she is?" Steve asked patiently, his arm still wrapped around her.

"No." Skye admitted, knowing it sounded crazy, but she couldn't just abandon Ana.

Just then, the woman in question came running towards them.

"Miss Skye, you're safe!" She cried, not giving Ward's dead body a second glance. "But you must go. Now."

"Come with me." Skye urged. "Come to America, we can help you find a life there." She shot Tony a look and he just nodded. She knew that wasn't how it actually worked, but she figured between Tony's money and S.H.I.E.L.D they could work out something.

Ana shook her head. "My life is here, my family is here. Latveria is not a bad place to live and the Master… He treats his citizens well." Skye had a hard time believing anything positive of Doom, but she let it go.

"If you're sure." She told Ana. The other woman nodded. Skye accepted her decision and looked up Steve. "Let's get out of here."

He nodded and then to her surprised turned to Tony, who picked her up.

"Uh, what's going on?"

"It's better if you and Tony fly ahead." Steve told her. "We don't want to take any chances."
Skye rolled her eyes, but didn't argue. After all, she had just been kidnapped and held in a supervillain's fortress, so a little bit of caution was probably a good thing.

"Are you okay?" Steve asked for the millionth time when they were safely on the plane. She was nestled in his arms, neither of them caring that they had an audience, as she filled the others in on what had happened to her.

May was the one flying the plane, to Skye's surprise, which left the Avengers alone.

"I'm fine." Skye assured him. "I wasn't physically harmed. Ward didn't even try to kiss me."

She could see that Steve was reassured by her words and she realized that he had spent the two previous weeks worrying about what was happening to her and fearing the worst.

"Though, apparently he did promise Doom, I'd have his baby." Skye said with a shudder.

She was greeted by several exclamations of surprise.

"That's twisted, even for Ward." Clint commented.

"How did you guys find me?" Skye asked, not wanting to focus on Ward. Thinking about it brought up the image of his dead body and some conflicted feelings that she wasn't ready to explore just yet. Not right now when she wanted to concentrate on the fact that she was going home.

"Doom came to me." Steve told her. "I saved his life a few months ago and he felt he owed me a debt, so he told me where to find you and told me I had 48 hours to enter and exit Latveria and that I could bring five companions."

That explained why the rest of the Avengers weren't there, Skye realized, and the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D team. She wondered how May managed to get included.

"Well, then it's a good thing you're such a good guy," Skye told him lovingly, "Because I had no idea how I was going to get out of there." She held up her wrist. "This thing blocks my powers and I can't get it off."

"We'll work on that as soon we're on the ground." Tony assured her.

Skye nodded, knowing that was probably the safest plan. She wasn't sure how she'd react after having access to her powers for the first time in two weeks and she wanted to be in the safety of the "Hulk Room" when that happened.

"Why did you pull the trigger?" Skye asked Natasha later. She'd excused herself from Steve's embrace so that she could talk to her friend privately. "I was about to do it."

"I know." Natasha told her. "But taking a life isn't an easy thing and while I know you can do it, it's different when it's someone you once loved. I didn't want you to have to carry that burden."

Skye paused, considering her friend's words.

"I was ready to kill him," She protested, but at the same time she wondered if Natasha was right. She had been ready to kill Ward and she had every confidence that she could have pulled the trigger, but it wouldn't have been easy.

Even seeing him dead on that ground had hit her harder than she'd thought it would. Her first emotion had been relief, because now there was no way he could ever come after her again, but… There had been a tiny bit of sorrow, for the man she'd believed Ward to be. The man she'd loved.

Or the man that she'd thought she'd loved. Her feelings for Ward couldn't hold a candle to her feelings for Steve and now that she knew what real love was, she realized that her feelings for Ward had more to do with attraction and the desire to finally belong. Ward had fed off that desire and she'd come to believe that he was one of the first people to really to care about her, plus she'd been drawn to the fact that he was damaged, tempted by the idea that she could be the one to fix him. That together they could have the type of happiness that had always alluded them both and that wasn't a healthy basis for a relationship. She knew that now.

Still, she had cared about him and she had to believe that, underneath the madness, he'd cared about her too. And, because of that, she did feel some unexpected grief at his death and the fact that it had to end like this. So maybe Natasha had been right to spare her the burden of doing it herself.

"Thank you." She said after a long moment.

"Anything for you," The redhead told her, "Just don't scare us like that again."

"I won't." Skye promised.

She looked around the plane at the familiar faces. All of whom had happily walked into enemy territory for her. And from what Natasha had said earlier, she guessed that there had been quite the scuffle over who got to go.

If anything good had come out of her kidnapping it was that it had made her realize that the Tower had become her home and the Avengers her family. She had never doubted that they would be looking for her or that they would do whatever they could to bring her home. After all this time, she'd finally found her place in the world.