"Before you say a damned thing, I want you to know that I'm not here because of those six months." Skye told Ashley as she sat down angrily. Ashley closed her mouth, she had been about to say something but was now having second thoughts.
"I'm only here because I need your help and you won't respond to any of my friends." Skye told her. Skye crossed her arms in front of her chest and leaned against the table. Ashley leaned back casually in hers.
"Oh, so now they're your friends." Ashley snorted. Skye practically snarled at her.
"I hope you're not suggesting that you were ever mine." Skye snapped back.
"Well I sure seemed better than they did." She answered, shrugging her shoulders. Skye was disgusted with the girl sitting in front of her now. She remembered having countless laughs with her working in the diner, making popcorn and watching movies, shopping at the town's flea market, and a million other things, but the woman she saw now was completely different. She almost reminded her of Ward. The cold eyes that have just a teeny bit of emotion every now and then, the casual yet serious attitude, along with numerous other things. But mostly she just saw a traitor.
"Please, elaborate." Skye scoffed, interested to know how Ashley possibly thought she was a better friend than her team members.
"Well, you didn't tell me any specifics, but I remember you complaining about the really mean, heartless, female ninja, the robotic, crude man, but mostly, the girl who just couldn't see you behind her best friend. It doesn't sound like they were ever as close as you and I were." Ashley made her point.
"They may not be perfect, but they didn't lie to my face every moment of every day and they didn't betray me like that." Skye countered. She knew she was getting off the topic she originally entered to discuss, but Ashley got under her skin so easily.
"But didn't they? I don't know about the lying, but it probably wasn't so loyal to let you get tortured, was it? Leave you to die like that?" Ashley asked. Skye looked down at her lap, but was even more frustrated than before.
"You knew my entire back story when you met me, didn't you?" Skye asked her in disbelief. Skye thought Ashley was the nicest person for saving her ass that day out in the rain, but now she knew Ashley had probably been seeking her out. Prowling the streets for the wounded animal that was her target.
"Oh, I knew all of it." Ashley smirked, hinting that she even knew something that Skye didn't, something that Skye desperately wanted to know.
This is when Skye figured that Ashley was just trying to distract her, stop her from talking about what she was really there to talk about.
"I'm done playing games with you. I'm here for information, and not that information." Skye told Ashley.
"Not even tempted to know about your family?" Ashley asked to dangle one last distraction in front of Skye's face, one that she wouldn't take.
"I have my own now. Now tell me what I want to know." Skye dismissed her idea.
"I can't tell you anything, they'll kill me. Sorry, my lips are sealed." Ashley said as she shrugged her shoulders.
"I have a proposal for you. I can't promise you paradise, because SHIELD doesn't really like you right now, but I can assure you that if you tell me what I need to know, we won't let Hydra get to you for ratting them out." Skye assured her.
"Wouldn't that be betraying them? Don't you just hate traitors?" Ashley said, still mocking and teasing Skye with her tone of voice.
"You're a traitor anyway. Your only choice is who you're betraying. Betray me, the person you still somehow think is your friend, again, or, you can betray them, who left you unprotected after there was nothing more you could do for them and don't seem to care much about your rescue." Skye finally struck a chord in Ashley and she shifted uncomfortably, refusing to make eye contact with Skye for the first time since she walked in.
"I don't know much, but I know the top dogs are called Hydra." Ashley began to speak. Skye turned on the cameras with a remote so that Coulson could hear everything from here on out. Skye had a feeling they wouldn't be talking about anything personal for the rest of the visit.
"The only thing I was involved in was project MARY, which was obviously where you came in." Skye swallowed as Ashley mentioned her old first name. It brought back bad memories for her.
"I want to know more about the project." Skye demanded.
"You know this part, but the point of it was to turn you into a computer and destroy SHIELD using you." Ashley told Skye. Skye was hoping Ashley would be more helpful, but she didn't seem to know much more than she did.
"But now it's something bigger. Project MARY is now the general term for destroying SHIELD, and you're right in the middle of it." Ashley said.
"I don't even know what to ask now, just give me intel." Skye said.
"I'll start from the beginning of what I know. I was an engineer for Hydra, one that worked on your... tech. That's why they assigned me as an undercover agent to watch you, so that I could take care of you if anything backfired." Ashley said. Skye turned off the camera when her eyes began to water.
"You... you put this thing in me?" Skye asked Ashley. She remembered screaming at the doctors and engineers to stop or just kill her when she was on the operating table, but she didn't remember any faces. Knowing that Ashley was one of those people caused an unimaginable dose of fear to course through her veins.
Ashley noted that Skye had turned the cameras off and knew if she was going to say anything personal, now was the time.
"You may think I'm only saying this because I want to score points with you, but I didn't want to do that to you, even before I knew you. I hated myself even more after I got to know you." Ashley admitted. Skye knew she shouldn't, but she believed what Ashley said. She remembered that someone there kept pulling the others to the side and whispering angrily to them, and that the one person was very hesitant to begin installing things.
Skye brought a hand up to her face and wiped away a few tears before turning the camera back on and continuing.
"What's the plan for project MARY now?" Skye asked a little shakily, knowing the others were watching.
"Well, they're trying to get you back, obviously, but if they can't they aim to kill you. You're an asset and they don't want you playing for the other team." Ashley informed her.
"How do they plan on 'getting me back'?" Skye asked. This she was curious about, she wondered how Hydra, whoever that was, was planning on finding their plane in the air and taking her from it.
"There's uh, there's a... tracker... installed up there too." Ashley told Skye, motioning towards her head. Skye was horrified. A tracker... in her brain?! It was too much to take in.
So Skye used her normal way of coping: pretend it wasn't true. Skye ignored it so she could continue questioning Ashley. Afterwards she would deal with this. She was sure she could find a way to disable it.
"They were planning on following you straight back to your headquarters." Ashley told Skye. That's why they haven't attacked since Jemma saved me, Skye realized. Once again, they let her go and she didn't even know.
"Is that everything you know?" Skye asked. Ashley nodded. Their arms were close enough together on the table for Ashley to reach, so she slowly extended her arm and placed her hand over Skye's. Skye was still for a moment, just staring at it. For just a second it felt like she was being comforted by her best friend. Just a second. But then an image of Ashley punching Jemma in the face entered her mind and she jerked away, leaving the room without another word.