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Anyways, here is the next chapter for you. Enjoy!
*2 years, and 3 months earlier*
Laughter fills the Bus as the six team members sit around, drinking cider, and celebrating. Celebrating Skye's success at becoming an official Agent of SHIELD. She is definitely more than happy to now be considered an Agent; not just a civilian working with the team, but an actual Agent working as a part of the team. When she had received her badge, Simmons had hugged her tighter than she ultimately expected, while Fitz had hugged her a bit awkwardly. Coulson had smiled at her with what looked like tears in his eyes and told her how proud of her he was, and May had given her a small smile and a pat on the back. And then there was Ward. He had just stood back, smiled, and said that he was proud of her, and that even without him, she would have done it.
And now they are all sitting around on the couches in the lounge area, talking and laughing. They aren't really talking about any one thing in particular, but jumping around an array of different topics whenever they pop up.
Currently, everyone is telling Skye many stories from their own time at the Academy. Skye listens to them attentively, laughing when appropriate at the stories of their freshman pranks. She wishes that she could have attended the Academy as well, instead of just taking a handful of tests. That way she could have had the full experience. But in the long run, she doesn't really care, because she's an Agent now. An Agent of SHIELD.
*Skye's POV*
"Oh my gosh! That's hilarious!" I laugh, after Ward finishes telling all of us about when he got pranked as a freshman. "I can't believe that you actually fell for that!"
"Hey," Ward says, trying to defend himself, "It's not that funny."
"Actually," Coulson smiles, "It is, Ward."
"Whatever. Let's just talk about something else now."
"Aww!" I coo, "Robo-Cop is embarrassed." The rest of the team, except for Ward, laugh.
Beep! Beep! Beep! A loud siren goes off from somewhere within the Bus, catching everyone's attention, "What does that noise mean?" I ask.
"Incoming video call," Coulson answers, "I'll go and see who it is." Standing up from the couch, placing his champagne glass on the table, he makes his way towards the Command Center.
"Who do you think it is?" Simmons asks when Coulson is out of the room.
"It could be Director Fury with another mission for us." Fitz answers.
"Ooh, my first mission as an Agent!" I squeal.
"Relax Rookie—"
"Who you callin Rookie?" I interrupt Ward before he can finish his sentence.
He rolls his eyes, "You may be an official Agent now, but you'll always be my Rookie." He replies with a smile. He clears his throat and then adds, "I mean uh, you're the newest Agent. Clearly qualifies you as being the Rookie in this situation. And plus, you're never going to stop calling me Robot, so I'm never going to stop calling you Rookie."
Before anyone can say anything else, Coulson walks back into the room, "We've got a mission." He says, and then goes back to the Command Center, waiting for the rest of us to follow.
"This is gonna be awesome!" I exclaim as I stand in the cargo bay with Ward, getting ready for the mission.
"You need to relax," Ward replies calmly, checking out one of the ICERS before handing it over to me. "You need to stay alert out there. And even though you've been on missions before, this is your first one as a field agent. I need for you to be careful. Okay?"
"I think you to need to relax," I tell my, very over-protective, S.O., "I'll be fine. I've got you out there, watching my back," I give him a soft smile. "We're actually partners now, we're gonna have each other's backs all the time."
He smiles back at me, "You're right. Now come on, run through it with me."
"Do I have to?"
"Yes." Ward says, crossing his arms.
I huff, "Fine. When out in the field, stay alert, stay…"
"Drop zone in 10," May's voice comes over the speaker system, interrupting me.
"Oh well!" I say with a big grin, "Gotta go check something with Simmons!"
"You're lucky this time Skye," I hear Ward call after me as I make my way into the lab to find Simmons.
"We're approaching the drop zone now," May's voice says over the speaker.
"You ready?" Ward asks me as he straps on his parachute.
"Yep," I reply, strapping on my own parachute.
"Here," he says, "let me double check your chute."
He steps closer to me, reaching for my chute.
"I think it's good," I tell him.
"Skye. I'm your partner. I just want to make sure that you'll be safe when we jump."
I sigh, "Fine. Go ahead."
"Thank you," he says, and then steps forward once more to check the straps on my chute. "Alright," he says, tugging on the last strap, "you're good to go."
"Awesome," I say, looking up at him. Looking up at his eyes, I see something in them that I don't think I've ever seen before. I can feel his hands lingering on the straps, as there is a slight weight on my parachute. We just look into each other's eyes and I can feel my heart starting to beat a little faster.
"Time to drop." A voice says, causing Ward and I to jump apart, startled.
Ward clears his throat and looks at me, "You ready?"
I nod my head, "Ready when you are."
"May," he says into his comm, "Lower the ramp please."
"Lowering the ramp," May replies through the plane's speaker. A second later, the cargo ramp lowers, and I can feel the wind blowing in my face.
"On the count of three," Ward says, and moves forward. I move forward as well, standing right next to him. "One, two, three." Once he says three, I take a deep breath and then jump out of the plane. I look to my side, and see Ward falling right next to me. He turns his head to look at me and smiles, and then turns his attention back in front of him. I do the same and then once we're close enough, we both pull our chutes, letting the wind slowly carry us down. Once our feet touch the ground, we detach our chutes, and then each pull out a gun. Ward turns his head to look at me once more.
"Let's do this," I say, smiling wide at him.
"Okay," Fitz says through the comms, from within the confines of the Bus, "Skye, Ward, you're almost there. Just a few more feet."
"Thanks Fitz," I reply. Ward and I are making our way down a very long corridor, searching for the main control room of the compound.
"The room should be on your left," Fitz says again.
"We see it," Ward says. He turns to me, "you ready?"
I nod my head, "Yep."
"Okay. You take that side. I'll take this one."
I nod again, stepping to one side of the door frame, my gun up and ready. Ward does the same thing on the other side of the frame.
With a nod of his head to me, Ward steps forward and kicks the door in. He walks into the room, gun first, and checks to make sure no one else is there.
"Clear," he says after a quick moment.
I walk into the room, gun still up, and looks towards Ward. "Okay, I'm gonna get the files now," I tell him, "Shouldn't take me too long if they have a weak system. Cover me?"
"You got it," he says, stepping back towards the door to stand guard in case anyone comes our direction.
I make my way over to the main computer system in the center of the room, pulling out one of the chairs and sit down, starting up the computer in front of me. When it finishes booting up, I insert the drive into the USB port and begin breaking into the server.
"Hey," Ward whispers, "how long are you gonna be?"
"A few more minutes. They have a better encryption than I thought they would."
"You can do it though, right?"
I scoff, "Of course I can do it." I continue typing rapidly on the keys, "Alright, I'm in. Now time to find the file." I press more keys, file by file flying across the screen until I finally locate the one I need. I press a few more keys and wait as the file downloads onto the drive. When it finishes, I remove the drive and stand up, shoving it into my pocket. I shut down the computer, after erasing any, and every, trace of me being in the system. "Okay," I say in Ward's general direction, "we can go now. I've got the information."
When I turn around fully and start to walk towards Ward, I stop. Three men are in the room, one standing directly behind Ward, holding both of his arms tightly behind his back. Another man has his arm wrapped around Ward's neck, keeping him in a choke hold. The last man has a gun pointed at Ward's temple. I look at the scene before me, trying to figure out what to do. Before I can react, the man with the gun speaks up, a slight accent to his voice.
"The files you took. Where are they?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," I lie effortlessly.
The man tightens his hold on Ward's neck, causing him to gasp a bit, and struggle.
"Tell us where they are."
I slowly reach into my pocket and clutch the drive in my hand before pulling it out and holding it up for them to see, "You mean this?"
"Yes. Now toss it to me."
"Not until you let him go." I gesture with my head towards Ward.
"The drive first," the man sneers, "Then you can have your little boyfriend back."
"No. Let him go, and then you get the drive."
"Don't give it to them Skye," Ward manages to say, causing the man to squeeze Ward's neck even tighter, and the other man to twist his arm back. Ward's face scrunches up in pain.
"Grant!" I exclaim when I see him writhing, a pained look on his face. "Okay!" I shout, "I'll give you the drive. But only if you promise to release him as soon as you get it."
"Yes yes," the man with the gun says, lowering the weapon slightly. He holds his hand out, "Toss it to me." I clutch the drive in my hand for a moment and then toss it to the man. He catches it flawlessly.
"Now let him go," I say.
"Uh, no."
"But you promised," I cry.
"I never promised you anything," he sneers, and then reaches behind him with his leg, and kicks Ward in the knee as hard as he can. I can barely hear the crack of his knee being broken over the cries of Ward as he buckles slightly.
I gasp and go to move forward and save him, but it's as if all of my training has just flown out of my head, and I can't remember a single thing that I was taught. I watch as the two men pull Ward's arm tighter behind his back and increase the hold on his neck, holding him up, not letting him fall to the floor.
"Please," I cry again, tears threatening to build up in my eyes, "please just let him go. I gave you the flash drive. Now let him go."
"Not a chance," he pulls a device out of his pocket and plugs the drive into it.
I watch nervously, because this wasn't a part of the plan. The other guys weren't supposed to get the information. I watch as the guy in front of me stares at the screen, and then gets angry.
"What did you do?!" he shouts at me.
"What do you mean?" I ask him.
"These files. They're corrupted. What did you do to them?"
"I swear I didn't do anything to them. All I did was download them onto the drive. I swear."
"Not according to this device."
"Well I don't know how it corrupted, because I didn't do it."
"These files are useless now. And since you didn't do as we asked, by handing over the files, you don't get him." The man holds the gun up to Ward's head, and before I can see a thing, I shut my eyes tight, and hold my head in my hands, just as I feel a small bit of pain run through my mind.
I cringe when I hear screaming and then a gunshot, a crack, and a squish. Looking up slowly, for fear of what I'll see, my eyes go wide when I take in the sight in front of me. Grant is by the door, leaning up against it while holding his left arm in pain, while the three guys who had been holding him are now lying on the floor, one guy with a gun wound to the side of his head, one lying on the floor with what looks like a broken neck, and the last one with a knife sticking out of his chest.
"Grant?" I ask, not believing what I'm seeing.
"I'm good," he says, glancing up at me.
"Skye! Ward!" I hear Coulson's voice through the comm, "What happened? Are you both okay?"
"We're good," I say into the comm. "We're good." I look at Grant and walk closer to him. "What happened?" I ask him.
"One moment I was being held with a gun pointed at my head, and the next thing I knew, all three guys were screaming. Then the guy with the gun shot himself in the head, the one who had me in a choke hold snapped his own neck, and the one who had my arms stabbed himself in the heart."
"Whoa." I say in shock. I lean down and pick up the drive, not wanting to leave it behind, slipping it into my pocket. "We should really get back to the Bus."
"Yeah," he agrees, "we should."
He turns and starts walking towards the door, then collapses in pain.
"Ward!" I exclaim, rushing to his side, "Let me help you," I say, "At least until we get you looked at. Have to make sure none of your wiring got fried."
"You really can't resist from making the robot jokes, can you?"
"Nope," I say with a small smile.
"We should really get going," he replies, starting to pull himself up.
"Let me clear the area first," I tell him, "then we can hopefully make a clean getaway."
"Be careful," he tells me, leaning up against the wall next to him.
"I will," I respond, pulling my gun out. Approaching the open door, I step out into the hallway, gun first, checking both ends of the hallway quickly. "Clear," I call back to Ward and then step back inside the room. I walk over to him and duck down, allowing him to drape his right arm across my shoulders. I reach up with my hand and hold onto his wrist, and then stand up straight, trying my best to support all of his body weight.
"Are you good?" I ask him.
"Yeah," he tells me, "Now let's go."
"Alright, come on." I look out in front of me, walking slowly back down the hallway we used when we first arrived at the compound. "We should be there soon," I inform him after a few minutes.
A moment later, we come to a set of doors that I rigged earlier so they wouldn't lock. "We're almost to the extraction point," I say to him, shoving the door open with my foot. "Coulson," I say into my comm as we walk out the door and into the setting sun, "We're at the extraction point." I allow Ward to let go of me and watch for a moment as he hobbles off.
"Are you both okay?"
"Mostly." I reply.
"Be there in two," he tells me, "sit tight."
"Ward," I call out, "Coulson said that they'll be here in two minutes and to sit tight."
"What do you think I'm doing?" he replies from his spot atop a nearby rock, clutching his left arm close to his body.
"Right, sorry," I say. I take a moment to myself and catch my breath, something I really need to do after helping Ward out of the building. He is really heavy.
A minute later, a noise from above catches both of our attention and we look up to see the Bus hovering over our heads. "They're here," I say. "Let's go."
I wait as the Bus lands and the ramp is lowered. I walk over to Ward and allow him to lean onto me once again for support, as I help him to the Bus. As we get closer, I can see Simmons standing on the ramp waiting for us.
"What happened?" she asks when she sees the way Ward is leaning on me.
"I'll tell you when we're inside."
Simmons hurries ahead of us and clears off the table in the center of the lab for Ward to sit on, allowing for her to do an examination of his injuries.
"We're good to go, May," I say into the comm, once we get far enough up the ramp.
"Copy that," May says. "Hold tight everyone," her voice comes over the speaker system.
A moment later, we feel the plane taking off once again.
"Okay," Simmons says, when she feels us at a reasonable height. "What happened?" her question is directed at Ward, noticing the way he is holding his arm.
"It all went too fast, I'm not exactly sure." Ward replies.
"That's alright. Just uh, just relax, and let me do the examination. Okay?" Ward nods his head and Simmons begins her examination.
A few minutes later, the lab doors slide open and Coulson walks in, Fitz right on his tail. May follows closely behind them, having put the plane on autopilot. "Skye! Ward! What happened?" Coulson asks us.
"That seems to be the only question being asked," Ward answers from where he sits on the table in the middle of the lab, as Simmons finishes checking his injuries. "One minute the men were holding me, the next they were dead on the floor. I honestly have no explanation for what happened."
"However," Simmons pipes in, "if you don't mind me interrupting, I do have an explanation of Agent Ward's injuries."
"And?" Ward questions.
"You have a slight fracture in your left arm, some slight bruising along your neck, and a broken knee. In just a few minutes I can have your knee patched up as best as I can, and your arm in a sling. But we'll have to get you to an actual medical facility to get a more permanent solution for your knee."
Coulson turns to May, "May, can you…"
"Set a course for the closest SHIELD medical facility. Got it." She says and then holds up her tablet, searching for the nearest medical facility.
"Skye." Coulson speaks up again, "Can you explain what happened while you two were down there? What happened to the men who injured Ward?"
I look at my superior, "I uh, well, the three men who were holding Ward, killed themselves. But I don't exactly know why."
"Start from the top," he tells me.
"Okay. Well, uh, we went in, and that was pretty easy. There was no one there the whole way through. When we got to the right room, I got into the system and downloaded the correct file onto the drive while Ward stood guard at the door. When I finished, I turned around and there were three other guys in the room. One had both of Ward's arms pinned behind his back, one had him in a choke hold, and the other guy had a gun to his head. He made me give him the drive in order to keep Ward safe. I know that I probably shouldn't have done it, but I did. But here's the weird part, when he scanned it in this device that he had, he said that the files were all messed up or something. I didn't do anything to the files, but now that I think about it, I probably would have if I had known that someone else was going to be there."
"Alright," Coulson says, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back against the table behind him, deep thought etched onto his face, "and then what happened?"
"Um, well, the man refused to hand Ward over and kicked his knee in, and then he held the gun back up to Ward's head," I swallow thickly, "and then I froze. I couldn't, I couldn't do anything. It's like everything that I've ever learned in my training just flew out of my head, and I couldn't move a muscle in my body. The only thing I could do was close my eyes and hold my head because it hurt so badly. That's when I heard the screaming. And then the gunshot, the snapping of bone, and the slicing of a blade," I cringe slightly at the memory, "When I looked up, Ward was still standing, barely, but the three men were all on the floor dead. One with a gunshot wound to his head, one with a broken neck, and the other one with a knife sticking out of his chest."
"So they just killed themselves?" Simmons wonders.
"I guess so. I mean, yeah I wished that they would hurt themselves instead of Ward, but I was just really upset. And the fact they killed themselves, instead of Ward was just—"
"Skye," Coulson interrupts me.
"Yeah?"
"Let me get this straight. You wished that the men would hurt themselves, and they did. Without you actually telling them to or touching them at all."
"Yeah," Skye says slowly, "I did. Do you think that…" I trail off.
Coulson nods his head, "It's possible."
"Oh gosh," I gasp, tears coming to my eyes, "I can't believe I did that. I killed those men."
"What does she mean?" Fitz asks, "What did Skye do? I thought that those men killed themselves."
"They did," Coulson says, not taking his eyes off of me, "but Skye helped."
"How did she do that?" Simmons asks, from her spot standing over Ward.
"It's about time we tell them, A.C. It's been long enough. And the only way we can figure this out, how I actually did that, is if everyone else knows."
"What don't we know?" Fitz asks, "what's going on?"
I look at Coulson for a moment longer and then look to the rest of the team. I take a deep breath and then open my mouth, "I'm an 0-8-4."
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Jellybean96 out!