"What am I supposed to here alone?" Ward asked Coulson as the team prepared to investigate another crater.
"Make dinner?" Coulson suggested and they headed off leaving Ward on the 'bus alone.
At the scene, they found what they expected to. Absolutely nothing. Skye and Coulson had set off up to the top of the crater to get a better view. When they got there they were taken by surprise. There were thirty guns pointed directly at them.
May could see Coulson from the bottom of the crater and she saw him put his hands in the air. That was not good. She hissed at the others to hide in the shadows. She didn't want to just leave Coulson and Skye, but she didn't know what they were dealing with up there, and she had the others to protect. All five of them stood watching as Coulson and Skye were bound and dragged off to waiting vehicles. When the coast was clear May brought the others out of their hiding places.
"What just happened?" Simmons asked confused.
"Coulson and Skye were taken. I don't know if they were rebels or worse" May told them. They made their way back to the van and May was torn between following them or taking everyone back to base.
"Can you track them?" She asked Fitz.
"If we know where to start, which we do. So, yes. I think we can track them."
They headed back to the 'bus. Ward met them in the Lab. He noticed that Coulson and Skye were missing.
"Where are they?" he asked
May took him into the workout room, knowing that the news was better coming from her.
"They were taken. We don't know by whom, but we will find them."
He punched the bag so hard it split his knuckle. Fitz and Simmons were busy trying to log into S.H.I.E.L.D's satellites. May was tending to Ward's hand. Amber and Kain were sat in the Lab doing nothing, the realisation that they would be needed to go into whatever building Coulson and Skye were being held in suddenly dawned on the two AIT's. Amber suddenly knew what Ward meant when he said training didn't prepare you.
"We have the feed." Fitz said.
"Track it." Ward told them. They tracked it for three hours to an abandoned village on the outskirts of a giant, glassy lake.
"The Covenant" Ward said, recognising the signs.
"If we set off in the next half hour then we should arrive by nightfall." May told them.
"We're gonna have to break some rules" Ward told them.
"Who's we?" Kain asked, nervously.
Ward looked at May who nodded back.
"We'll go in." She told them. They had people they both cared about in trouble. They were not going to leave their lives in the hands of two interns.
"You two, one who can't leave the bus and one who transferred from administration." Amber scoffed.
Ward held turned to Fitz and handed his wrist to him. He immediately started trying to hack through the bracelet's defences. May got changed into her tactical gear. Simmons was helping Ward into his seen as though he currently only had one hand available.
"It's going to take more time than we've got" Fitz told Ward.
"Just be as quick as you can!" He told him.
It took Fitz 45 minutes to get to the last stage of hacking the bracelet. To save some time May had flown the 'bus a little closer to the location they had tracked the Covenant to.
"The second I disconnect this thing the night-night is going to inject into your blood stream" He told Ward. Ward looked around for something to put between his skin and the bracelet. He found a piece of metal that had been curved. It was clearly part of a prototype of some description. Ward wedged it between the bracelet and Fitz started the last phase. The bracelet came off with a hiss.
"Fitz, I want you in the cockpit ready to get this thing in the air at a moment's notice."
"On it."
"Simmons. You ok to run comms on this?"
"Yes" She replied, hesitantly
"If you're not I can stay" May told her looking at Ward.
"No. I can do this. You two go get them back"
Ward and May set off in the Van towards the village holding their friends.
"Director Fury!" Agent Hill shouted, at their base in the hub. "Ward's bracelet has been deactivated"
"Goddamn it Coulson! Get me a link to their communications. NOW!" he demanded.
Ward and May had crept up to the building that they saw Coulson and Skye taken into. They waited outside the door.
"Blue eyes and Cavalry in position. Waiting for a go/no go"
"No go. What the hell do you think you two are doing?" they heard Fury ask them.
"We're about to infiltrate a Covenant hideout"
"Stand down blue-eyes. Immediately"
"I would, Sir, but unless you can get a TAC team here in the next five minutes we're going in."
"They have Skye and Coulson" May told Fury.
"Hold your positions" he told them.
Back in the hub, Fury looked at Hill.
"He's passed every evaluation you have given him in the last six months. Even the bizarre and ridiculous ones." She told Fury, "and our nearest TAC team is seven hours away."
"Blue Eyes. Mission is a go. I repeat mission is a go." He said down the microphone.
"Patch me into their video surveillance. And their heart monitors."
"Heart monitors, Sir?"
"Oh never mind. Just get me into their feed."
Ward and May blew the door. They weren't too bothered about entering covertly; they just needed to get Coulson and Skye out. Fitz and Simmons had not wanted them to go in blind, so they sent them with the dwarves and very quickly taught Ward how to use Them. While May was keeping guard he sent the dwarves off to locate humans. He soon found the room where Skye and Coulson were being held. They were tied to the ceiling using the same double hand hangman's knots. He packed up the dwarves and he and May set off for the room.
"Ward? May?" Coulson asked as they entered the door.
"We couldn't just leave you both hanging" was Ward's reply.
"But the bracelet?"
"What bracelet?" ward responded with a grin.
While May watched the door Ward cut Coulson and Skye from their binds. Ward couldn't reach so he used his telekinetic ability to move the knife and cut them down. They managed to get to the corridor leaving the building. Then they heard something that made their blood run cold. A deep cold male voice. One they had heard the previous year.
"Agent Ward. Welcome back!"