AN: Hi guys! First off, Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great New Year and holiday. I'm sorry for the late update. I was celebrating the holidays with my family so I wasn't able to update. Thank you for reviewing and motivating me to continue writing this story. Here is Chapter 8! Hope you like it and PLEASE REVIEW! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

When Agent Coulson arrived at St. Agnes with Fitzsimmons after receiving Agent Ward's urgent call, he did not expect to find the orphanage in complete ruins.

The entire orphanage was completely destroyed. Large chunks of rubble and debris replaced the normal three-story brick building that was always present. Local authorities and three clean up crews were working to clear up the rubble.

"Oh my goodness! What happened here?" Simmons breathed in shock

"It was an earthquake. A really big one." Fitz said, grabbing Jemma's hand, offering silent comfort.

Coulson looked around for Skye and Ward and caught sight of the SUV sitting on the other side of the street.

"Go make sure that Skye and Ward are okay. I'll call a S.H.I.E.L.D. clean up crew to get this cleaned up faster." He said, pulling out his phone.

Simmons rushed over to the SUV. As she got closer, Fitz hot on her heels, they stopped in front of the back door and paused at the muffled sobs coming in from inside. The tinted windows prevents them from looking inside so Simmons slowly opened the door and stopped at the sight in front of her.

Skye was curled into a ball and was sobbing into Ward's chest.

"Skye…" Simmons whispered, slowly getting into the SUV.

Skye looked up at her with puffy eyes. "Jemma…" she whispered before launching herself into her best friend's arms. Jemma held on tightly to the shaking girl and shot a questioning look at Ward. "What on earth had happened?" she thought.

Ward simply shook his head sadly. Seeing that Jemma was fine with comforting Skye, he quietly got out of the car and made his way around to where Fitz and Coulson were standing.

"Ward, what the hell happened here?" Coulson asked.

Ward took a deep breath before telling them what had happened when they arrived at the orphanage.

Ten minutes later, Fitz and Coulson stood there stunned.

"Poor Skye. No wonder she's devastated. She just lost the only mother figure she had ever had. Not only that, she just saw her get crushed underneath the building." Fitz said, his Scottish accent coming out thick, concern lacing his tone.

"She hasn't stopped crying and I can't get her to calm down." Ward said, running a hand through his hair.

Just then, Simmons stepped out of the SUV and slowly closed the door.

"What's wrong? Is Skye okay?" Ward asked frantically.

"She was crying so much that it became difficult for her to breathe. She started hyperventilating and she would have passed out. I had to give her a sedative from the emergency kit in the car to calm her down. She's sleeping right now and should be asleep for the next several hours." Simmons said, glancing back at the SUV.

Ward made his way over to check on Skye while Fitz told Simmons everything that had happened.

Tears welled up in Jemma's eyes as she heard what had happened.

"Oh Fitz, she was so excited to meet Sister McKenna. Who would do such a thing?" she cried.

"I don't know Jem. But we will find out." Fitz responded. Simmons continued to cry silently and Fitz wrapped his arms around her, trying to stop his own tears from falling.

Coulson stood off to the side and considered everything that Ward had told him. Someone was after Skye. They killed an innocent woman to get to her. We will protect her. She has been alone all her life, but not anymore. He looked back at the SUV where Skye was currently unconscious and made a silent vow to him that he will do everything he can to protect her.

Three hours later, the clean up crew had managed to clear up all of the big pieces of rubble. Simmons was sitting in the SUV with Skye while Ward, Fitz, and he were going through the smaller pieces of rubble; trying to look for anything the assailants may have left behind.

"Coulson, check this out." Ward called.

Coulson made his way over to where the specialist was standing. Fitz also slowly made his way to them. As Coulson got closer, he could see pieces of a computer in Ward's hands.

"These are pieces from Sister McKenna's computer. She said that some people took information from her computer. Fitz, do you think you can dig up something from this?" Ward asked as he held the computer's hard drive up, surprisingly in tact.

"Yeah, I can probably find something. If they were in a rush, then they may have forgotten to delete the files from the computer." Fitz said as he took the drive from Ward's hand and began examining it.

Ward continued looking when a thought struck him.

"Sir, what about the other orphans and nuns that live here? Their home is destroyed." Ward said looking at Coulson.

"Don't worry. S.H.I.E.L.D. is arranging to have them all sent to a safe house in San Diego, away from here. They'll be under S.H.I.E.L.D. protection until we find the people responsible for killing Sister McKenna."

Ward nodded; glad that the other orphans would still have a place to live.

The three continued searching for a while before Fitz called them over.

"Is it just me or do you guys think it's strange how this was the only building that went down in the earthquake? I mean, there are several buildings and homes nearby that could have also suffered some damage but it was very minimal. The most damage reported from anyone was broken household items from the shaking. No other house or building was damaged. But St. Agnes was turned into complete rubble. How is that possible?" Fitz asked, twirling his fingers about, trying to come up with an answer.

Ward and Coulson looked at each other, trying to come up with an answer.

"Well, whatever it is…we'll find it. We will make them pay for what they did." Coulson said determinedly.

Several hours later, the team was back on the Bus. Skye, thankfully was still unconscious. Whatever Simmons gave her was working like a charm. The poor girl needed to get as much rest as she could. Ward had told the team a general gist of what had happened in Skye's past. He left out the ugly details, just told them that Skye was abused severely growing up and that Sister McKenna was there for her the whole time.

Earlier, as the clean up crew finished up, some paramedics pulled out a body from the rubble. Protocol required that they needed someone to identify the body. Ward point-blank refused to put Skye through that pain again and identified the body of Sister McKenna himself.

Back in the lab, Fitzsimmons were working to find out anything they could from the hard drive that was recovered. Simmons was studying the buildings blueprints to try and figure out what caused the building to collapse in the earthquake.

Simmons pulled up the building's schematics on the holotable and started twirling bits and pieces around. Fitz was sitting in the corner, surrounded by three computers, trying to find out what was on that hard drive. Coulson was standing off to the side watching the two scientists work. Ward was sitting with a still sleeping Skye, waiting for her to wake up and May was in the cockpit.

"Fitz…look at this." Simmons said, looking at the holotable. "This building was in perfect condition before the earthquake. There was no flaw in the construction and the structure was completely intact, not a crack anywhere. How could it have been completely demolished in the earthquake? Something isn't adding up here."

Fitz was about to speak when the lab doors slid open and Skye, Ward, and May entered. May had an arm protectively around Skye's shoulder. The two women seemed to have gotten closer together after Skye was ill with dengue.

Skye looked ahead, eyes bloodshot from crying. She looked behind Fitz towards the computers and made her way over there.

"Skye…are you…" Fitz started.

"No. I will do whatever it takes to make sure that the ones responsible for this are punished. Sister McKenna died protecting me. I'm going to make sure that she didn't die in vain." Skye said firmly, taking Fitz place by the computer as she started working her magic. The rest of the team looked on, worried about how she was coping with everything. Coulson looked towards Ward for some answers but he just shook his head. No matter the circumstances, Skye still possessed her stubborn streak.

Skye spent about 20 minutes working on the hard drive, trying to find something that could be useful. She searched in every possible file, folder, and document for anything on herself that the attackers could have found useful.

Skye suddenly slammed her hands down on the table and let out a frustrated scream, startling everyone in the lab. "Ugh…there is nothing here. Absolutely nothing. It's like I didn't even exist. I know this system like the back of my hand. Before I left, I copied all of the information about me onto another drive. But it was only one document, the redacted file by S.H.I.E.L.D. As a backup, I used encrypted software and hid the document in this computer. The only way to access it was to break the encryption. There are only a handful of hackers that are skilled enough to break this encryption." Skye said, eyes hardening in anger. She couldn't believe that one of her fellow Rising Tide hackers killed Sister McKenna to get to her.

"Do you know of any hackers that could break the encryption?" Coulson asked seriously.

"Miles was one of them, but he's being monitored by S.H.I.E.L.D. so he out. As far as I know, there are only five other hackers that could pull this off. One of them, Jacob Wilton, was killed in an accident not too long ago. Lacey Hart, the only other female that can break this encryption is pregnant, last I heard from her. The other hackers are Justin Smith, Greg Patterson, and Luke Johnson."

"Fitz, trace the whereabouts of Mr. Smith, Patterson, and Johnson. Find anything and everything you can on them. Check any cameras near the orphanage and see what you find. I want a location on these three as soon as possible." Coulson demanded. Fitz nodded and began furiously typing away on the computer.

"Ward, Skye, I want to see the two of you in my office." Coulson said as he made his way out of the lab. Grant and Skye looked at each other for a moment before following their commanding officer upstairs.

Ward and Skye were seated in front of Coulson's desk, waiting for him to speak.

Coulson took a deep breath before beginning. "Skye, just a while ago, Director Fury gave me access to your redacted file."

"Really? What did it say? Does it say anything about my parents? Or my real name? Where I'm from?..."

"Skye!" Coulson interrupted her rant loudly. "The file…the information in it…you may not like it." He said softly.

Skye looked up at him. "And I told you that it can't be worse than what I've imagined." She said, tightly gripping onto Grant's hand. He squeezed hers in response.

Coulson nodded. "Twenty-five years ago, there was a disturbance reported in the Hunan Province in China. S.H.I.E.L.D. sent in a team to investigate and they discovered an 0-8-4. The lead agent, Agent Linda Avery and her team arrived at the scene to see the village completely massacred. They searched for survivors and they only found two. The old village healer and a baby girl asleep in her arms. She had been stabbed through the stomach…" Coulson paused as he saw Skye flinch, recalling the death of Sister McKenna. "She was still alive when Agent Avery got to her and she thrust the baby into her arms. According to the report, the healer managed to tell Avery that the ones who attacked the village were after the baby girl. She asked Avery to protect her and do whatever it takes to keep her safe before she died.

"So wait…the baby girl was the 0-8-4?" Skye asked confused. Coulson nodded and Skye motioned for him to continue.

"Agent Avery and her team cleaned up everything and left China the next day. Agent Avery kept you with her for about a month before everything happened. Slowly, the agents that went in to retrieve the 0-8-4 with her were being crossed off. Eventually, Avery was the only one remaining. She was killed two days after she found out the rest of her team was killed."

"What happened to the 0-8-4?" Grant asked tentatively.

"Before she died…Agent Avery dropped the baby girl off at an orphanage. St. Agnes." Coulson said slowly, looking at Skye as he finished.

Skye inhaled sharply. "I-I'm the 0-8-4? You're telling me that an entire village in China was slaughtered because they were trying to protect me? An entire S.H.I.E.L.D. team was killed for rescuing me?" Skye asked astonished, tears welling up in her eyes.

Coulson's eyes softened and he slowly nodded. Skye let out a choked sob. Grant was comforting her in an instant. Skye buried her face in his chest and shook with silent sobs.

After Skye had managed to regain her composure, sort of…, she looked back at Coulson. "So now what? Whoever killed all those villagers is back and wants me now?"

Coulson looked hesitant for a second but then thought that she deserved to know the truth.

"We believe so. Due to your 0-8-4 status, you could have unknown powers, abilities, or who knows what. S.H.I.E.L.D. made sure that you were transferred to various foster homes, not staying in one place for too long. It was all for your safety. We wanted to protect you from whatever or whoever wanted to capture you. They killed innocent people to get to you. You're special Skye. And we don't want someone to get a hold of you and experiment on you to discover your abilities." Coulson said earnestly.

Skye looked up at him surprised. "So you won't send me to the Sandbox or somewhere to be tested on like a lab rat?"

"No. This information stays between us here on the Bus and Director Fury. Not even Commander Hill knows about this. It is imperative that it stay this way." Coulson stated firmly.

Skye nodded, relieved that she wouldn't have to leave the Bus. "So did the file say anything about my parents?" she asked curiously.

Coulson froze. This was one bit of information that he wanted to keep away from her. He knew the answer to her question and knew it would hurt her. But it will hurt her even more if it is kept from her and she finds out later.

"Please AC. I need to know. Please…?" She pleaded, her doe eyes wide.

"Skye…there was information there regarding your parents. Your mother was a Chinese woman. Her name was Shu."

"Shu…warmhearted." Skye said softly. At Coulson and Ward confused stares she added "I wanted to learn Mandarin in high school before I dropped out. Did some Google translating."

"Where is she?" Skye asked.

"She was killed in the attack on the village. I'm sorry Skye." Coulson said, hating himself for causing the young woman more pain.

Sky blinked back tears. Tears for the mother that would never hold her, hug her, tell her that everything was okay.

"What-what about my father? Is he also dead?" Skye asked uncertainly.

"Your father…well…you see…" Coulson stumbled with his words.

"Spit it out already AC." Skye snapped.

"Your father isn't human. We believe that he is from a different world. We don't quite know who or what he is yet, but we know for a fact that he is not of this Earth." Coulson said hesitantly, studying Skye's expression.

Skye blinked. Once, twice, a third time. She was frozen in place.

Grant grasped her hand, concerned at her behavior. "Skye…? You okay?" He asked, gently shaking her shoulder.

Skye jumped in her seat and looked at the two agents. "I'm half alien…?" She whispered in shock.

Grant reached for her again. "Skye, that doesn't change anything about you. You are still beautiful, smart, stubborn, and amazing. I don't care if you're half alien or even all alien. You are Skye, my Skye and that's all that matters to me. I love you for who you are, not what you are. You being half alien doesn't change my feelings for you and it won't change anyone else's. For Fitzsimmons, you are still the same little sister they never had. For Coulson, you're still practically like a daughter to him. And regardless of how you feel, May will still care a great deal for you too." Grant said, cupping her face in his hands.

Skye closed her eyes as tears silently streamed down her face and buried herself in Grant's embrace. "I love you." She whispered.

Grant held her tighter. "I love you too." He whispered back, placing a kiss on her temple.

Coulson squirmed uncomfortably at his desk as he watched his two agents hug. He knew he would be interrupting their little moment but he really did not want to see them sucking each other's face off soon. He finally cleared his throat and watched with an amused smirk as they pulled apart and looked back at him.

"Ward's right Skye. You being half-alien changes nothing. For us, you are still our awesome little hacker.

Skye gave a small smile in response.

"Okay, well that's all for now. I'll let you know if I find any more information concerning your father. We should head down to the lab to see what Fitzsimmons have found regarding the three hackers." Coulson said, standing up from his desk and making his way outside, Skye and Ward following.

Down in the lab, Fitzsimmons were running around like headless chickens. Coulson, Skye, and Ward entered the lab to hear incessant talking, clicking, and tapping of keys.

"What have you guys found?" Coulson asked getting right down to business.

"Oh sir you will never believe it…"

"Seriously, it's truly genius…"

"But also quite diabolical…"

"No but if you look at the positive angle of it…"

"TIMEOUT!" Coulson shouted. "Try that again…one by one." He said, looking at Simmons.

She began talking immediately. "Well, studying the building's schematics and blueprints, it was already a mystery as to why only the orphanage was damaged and nothing else. Well the answer was in fact quite simple."

Fitz took over. "A man-made device caused the earthquake. Digging deeper…"

"Wait, you're telling me that someone made a machine to cause earthquakes…?" Grant asked shocked. Fitz nodded.

"Why on Asgard would someone create such a device?" Coulson asked.

"As I was saying, I dug deeper and found that this was a failed experiment from 12 years ago. A European science and technology firm wanted to create fake earthquakes to help with the construction of sturdier buildings that can withstand much more pressure. While the initial intent of it was for the greater good, it turned out to be a really bad idea. Apparently, they thought that all of their calculations were perfect and accurate so they decided to test their theory. They were completely positive that nothing would go wrong so they went ahead and did it. They decided to experiment on a residential apartment building off the coast of Chile because it was in the Ring of Fire and it was completely catastrophic. Over 500 people were killed and about 100 were wounded. The building collapsed completely, much like St. Agnes did. Rather then shake and tremble like a building would in a normal earthquake, it shook hard, much like an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5-6 and then collapsed." Fitz said, anger filling him. How could people use science to kill hundreds of people? He actually found the idea quite brilliant, but it killed so many innocent people. Sure, he designed weapons and artillery but it was used to protect innocent people. He felt Jemma's hand on his shoulder and instantly relaxed. He knew that she was probably feeling the same thing right now.

Skye on the other hand was shaking as she remembered the earthquake at the orphanage. The earthquake that destroyed the home she had growing up and killed the woman she considered a mother.

Grant looked at her heartbroken and silently pulled her into his arms.

Coulson looked at his team at abruptly changed to topic to another important one.

"Fitz, you can continue looking into this device some more in a bit. But did you guys find any information on out three suspects?" Coulson asked. Skye immediately jerked up and stood tall, Grant next to her.

Simmons jumped to answer. "Actually, we did sir. We got a hit on all three. Justin Smith's location was traced to Salem, Oregon and Luke Johnson's location was found about three away from here. Greg Patterson's location was traced to an address in Miami, Florida."

"This seems like something Luke would do." Skye said angrily.

"Why's that?" Coulson asked.

"He was always jealous of me. He didn't think that I was skilled enough to hack into the secure servers of higher up businesses. But then I hacked into Tony Stark's server without him knowing and just ended up pissing Luke off even more. He made a fool of himself in front of several other Rising Tide members for doubting me and got mad. He swore to me that he would ruin me for destroying his reputation. I blew it off thinking it was just an empty threat. Three days later, you guys found me." Skye said, smiling softly at Coulson and Grant.

"I'll tell May to set a course for Mr. Johnson's location." Coulson stated, making his way out of the lab., leaving the four younger agents in the lab.

Simmons dropped what she was doing and made her way over to Skye.

"Skye, I promise that we will do whatever it takes to find out who did this. You're not alone in this. You have us, we're family." She said, wrapping her arms around Skye. Skye hugged her back tightly, tears leaking out of her eyes again.

"GROUP HUG!" Fitz yelled, pulling a reluctant Grant with him and wrapping his arms around Simmons, resting his hands on Skye's shoulders. Grant did the same from Skye's side and rested his hands on Fitz's shoulders, pinching him hard for dragging him into a group hug.

Skye smiled in the tight embrace of her friends and for the first time, she felt at home. This was where she belonged. "I have a family." She thought happily.

AN: Well, how'd you guys like that? I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter just as much as the others if not more. I'm sorry it took this long but school has started up again so updates may take a while longer. I promise that I will try to update as much as possible though. PLEASE REVIEW! :)

****The earthquake machine was an idea I got from the show Arrow. Those of you that have seen it, you know what it is. Those of you who haven't, it was shown in the TV show Arrow and it was a device that created a HUGE earthquake. I tweaked it a bit and made it miniaturized. ****