CHAPTER 3

It had been a week since she disappeared.

"I'm sorry, we don't have any leads." Fury frowned. "I don't like this either, she's a valuable member of your team and of SHIELD. We won't give up that easily. She'd have been the first agent to get straight to Level 7."

"What?" Ward asked startled. "Level 7?"

"You need a minimum of Level 7 clearance to know that I'm alive." Coulson stated. "Is there anything we can do to help find her?"

"We need a team to go work with the USAF, they'll have eyes inside places we don't. Your team have all been granted security clearance for Cheyenne Mountain; you will need to know anything and everything that goes on down there." Fury informed them. He had a slight longing look in his eyes, as if he wished he could go instead. "You'll need to leave for the Colorado air base within the hour, they're expecting you."

With that, Coulson and Ward left Fury's office and headed toward the bus. When they arrived they could tell that something was causing a problem. "What's going on?" Coulson asked Fitz when he got to the command centre.

"I'm having trouble with the computer system at the minute." Fitz hurt was evident in his voice. Skye was missing and the one thing that was impeding retrieving her was her speciality. "I'm trying to hack security cameras but as you can see, I'm not very good at it. Ward, why don't you try?"

With ease, Ward completed the task. He wasn't going to admit it to anyone but during training one week, Skye had shown him how to hack pretty much anything. "Done, the rest is easy."

"Thanks." With that Fitz picked up speed and was effortlessly sifting through feed after feed, looking for anything that had an 80% match to Skye.

"Don't get too comfortable, wheels up in 10." Coulson informed Fitz, having already told the rest of the team.

When they reached the air base, they were greeted by an unusual welcoming committee. The team (minus May and Coulson who were going to put the bus in a hangar once they had the all clear) were staring down the barrels of 20 P-90s, none of the bearers showed any problem with shooting them down.

"Stand down." A voice rang across the air field. A bald, large man strode up to them and immediately the SFs lowered their weapons. "I'm going to assume that you're with SHIELD." The man spoke. He had a strong Texan accent and had obviously seen enough action to be flying a desk. "I'm General Hammond and I'll be briefing you on, well, everything."

"Thank you, General." Ward spoke before signalling May and Coulson that they were good to go. "We're still waiting for two members of our team. They were the ones flying."

"Alright then son, follow me. Your team will be brought to the car once your plane has been closed up. Will you need to bring anything from it?" General Hammond asked, obviously wanting to get down to business.

"Only Coulson and May, the other two members of our team." Ward indicated the boxes of equipment that FitzSimmons had brought with them. "As you can see, the scientists already have their toys."

"I think you'll get along well with my second in command." Hammond muttered to himself before beckoning them toward the van. Once they were all in, the General pulled out non-disclosure agreements. "I'll need you to sign these."

"With all due respect sir, we've all signed every non-disclosure agreement every allied country has." Ward explained.

"I guarantee you haven't signed this one. It's very specific to Cheyenne Mountain." Hammond pushed, all of them signing the papers. Once they started driving, General Hammond started them off with the basics. "Stationed under Cheyenne Mountain is the Stargate programme. The Stargate was uncovered in the early 1900s during a dig at Giza. Since it was first opened it has gotten us into a lot of trouble. It has only been used frequently for the past 5 years, when our enemy came through the gate and abducted one of the SFs on duty. This enemy is the Goa'uld. A parasitic race of alien beings who take control of the human body, using them as their host." The General continued to explain about the major findings since the Stargate was activated. The Nox, Asgard, Tollan, Ancients and the many Goa'uld they had fought.

General Hammond was surprised by how well they were taking the information. But all being said, they did a lot of crazy stuff too.

Coulson took up the conversation after the General had finished. "I assume you've been made aware of our situation?" Coulson continued when the General gave him a small nod. "Do you think any of your enemies or allies took Skye?"

The General's eyes narrowed in thought. "Some rogue Asgard may be involved or the Goa'uld. One of our allies made it known to us that a girl had been taken by a rogue but he took her to the Pegasus Galaxy to make some observations."

Ward nodded to Simmons and she pulled up a picture of Skye on her phone. "Sir, was this her?" Grant barely needed to look at the picture; he'd taken it on Simmons phone when he found the two of them laughing one evening. Fitz had thought Jemma would like having the picture of the two of them. He would never tell anyone but he had taken a second, one of just Skye that currently was in his jacket pocket.

"That's her." Hammond said in stunned surprise. "I'm sure of it, but she's been gone for a week. You and your team better be ready for a trip through the Stargate."

"I thought you said she was in a different galaxy." May questioned. They all noted that it was the only time she'd talked for days.

"We have an expedition there. I'll have to leave you once we get to the base. General O'Neill will take over from there." General Hammond notified them as they passed through the gates. "This is where I leave you. Good luck." Hammond spoke before leaving the van.

"Thank you General." Ward spoke sincerely.

"I wouldn't let her go son." The General spoke before he left, leaving everyone but Ward confused.

"I won't." He whispered. He finally let his emotion take him. He'd tried to seem calm and controlled but all of his hard work failed after what the General had said. He loved Skye; he would scream it to the world. To the universe. But after she disappeared, he'd fallen apart. He couldn't live without her and he didn't want to. The pain consumed him and he sat in silence, feeling every puncture and jerk the knife in his heart was making; it wasn't pleasant and neither was losing Skye.

May and Coulson glanced at each other and then Ward. His pain was painted across his face, moving through every fibre of his being. May knew that he loved Skye and had been surprised to see how calm he was. Now she understood it was a mask; the same mask that she used for years. The only problem was, if you let the mask down, all of the pain will break you. May had kept her mask for so long before she took it down that all of the emotion she had hidden tore her very soul apart; leaving only her mask behind. She understood. She understood too well.

A younger looking man was waiting for them once they had gotten town to level 28. "General Jack O'Neill." He introduced, sticking out his hand. They all shook it as Coulson introduced them.

"I'm Agent Phil Coulson. This is Agent Grant Ward and Agent Melinda May. And these two are 'FitzSimmons'. They're inseparable." Coulson introduced quickly before he explained their new findings. "We believe that the person we're looking for was beamed into your briefing room a week ago."

Grant pulled her picture from his pocket and showed it to the General. "This is Skye."

Immediately the General recognised her. "That'd be her. Made sarcastic comments." He seemed to approve of her quips.

"General Hammond told us that she was taken to the Pegasus galaxy, he also gave us this." He handed a piece of paper to the General. "He told us to be ready to go through."

The General just nodded. "Let's get you suited up." He spoke. Coulson smiled at the comment. That was what he used to say to the avengers before they were told that he died.

That was perfect timing for Tony Stark walked around the corner with a techie commenting on plans for what looked like an arc reactor. "What?!" His voice rang through the halls.

"I believe that you need an explanation Mr Stark." Coulson told him before being drawn into a tight embrace.

"I thought you were dead." He said stunned after releasing the man. "We all did."

"I did die but I managed to come back." Coulson confirmed. "Fury thought that you needed something to push you, make you a stronger team."

"I'm going to poke that man's other eye out!" Tony raged. He was angry. "You know what'll be better, telling Bruce. He's downstairs helping work on the reactor."

"That'll have to wait. I need to get back a member of my team." Coulson explained before indicating to the General that they should make a move.

"I've got the suit and the big guy. Need any help?" Tony offered. "You know that we're a hell of a team."

"She's with allies; we can handle this on our own." May explained.

"Well, Siler and I have to finish connecting the reactor." Tony said by way of greeting before heading to the elevator.

"You know Stark?" General O'Neill asked with a raised eyebrow. "How haven't you gone insane?!"

"I've been there since the beginning. My former team and myself barely managed to get Pepper out of the lab before it collapsed." Coulson spoke about it like it was merely a chip on his shoulder. "You'll get used to him."

It was then that a short, blonde haired woman walked up to the general. "Sir, we've had a message from Atlantis. They've been infiltrated by the Wraith and taken Skye. SG1 and 3 can be ready in 10."

"Okay, you'll also be accompanied by Agent Coulson's team. Skye's one of their Agents."

"Wow, the Phil Coulson. Stark worships you." The woman commented. "I'm Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter; I'll introduce you to the rest of my team when we're in the gate room."

The lights flickered slightly and Stark ran up to the General. "The arc reactor's good to go. It should match the energy output of a ZPM without depleting."

"Good work Stark. Colonel, you've got 20 minutes to be in the gate room. Stark you will not be joining them." Stark blew out an exasperated breath and left them in the corridor. "Go get geared up." The General ordered. They all departed. "And good luck!"

In 15 minutes, they were all geared up and in the Gate Room waiting for SG3. Ward noted the burly black man with the gold symbol on his head; he definitely didn't want to get on his bad side. He also noted the teenage girl in shorts covered in varying weapons. She was going to get them into a lot of trouble.

'You won't be saying that when I save your ass.' A voice echoed in his head, it was decisively English. He turned to see that Simmons was in deep conversation with Leo so he knew that it couldn't have been her. 'That's because it wasn't. Use your brain; you should be able to work this one out.'

He looked back at the teen, she was checking over all of her weapons. She was doing it with ease; she'd obviously had a lot of training. It surprised him, she'd made no noise but she was suddenly next to him. How did a fifteen year old do that?

"Seventeen." The girl spoke. "Eighteen tomorrow."

"I have a better question. How do you know what I'm thinking?" He questioned.

"I'm telepathic. I can also see past and present events. I can sometimes see the future but it always changes, the future is very subjective. Just knowing about what is happening can change everything." She explained.

"There aren't telepaths." He disagreed. She was just good at guessing. He just wanted to get Skye back and have her explain everything.

"Who's Skye?" The teen asked.

"Why don't you tell me your name first and why you're authorised to be carrying weapons?" Ward was very curious about this girl. "It's not legal for you to be carrying a side arm let alone a high calibre weapon."

"I'm technically not human so none of the rules technically apply to me." She spoke casually. "And my name's Isabel."

"One last question. Why the shorts?"

"They're comfier. Anyway, I hate the kaki."