Ariel here.

I woke up lying flat on my back. I opened my eyes to see what looked like the inside roof of a car above me. The car was running, moving forward.

I dimly remembered talking to the blond woman... what was her name, Irene Ward? Probably some relative of Grant Ward. What had happened?

Then I remembered her sedating me. Twice.

I shot up into a sitting position. A sharp pain lanced through my skull and I collapsed back, my head smacking against the glass.

The car stopped.

My hands grabbed at the door handle, twisting it, only to find it locked. I reached for the lock, but a hand grabbed my wrist, pulling me off.

"Ariel! Calm down!"

I froze – it was Clint.

I dropped my hand. "Sorry..."

I pushed the car door open, not planning to run this time. I just sat there, my legs dangling, feet barely touching the ground.

His door opened too.

Neither of us said anything for a while.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Somewhere safe."

I climbed back in, shutting the door.

The ride was absolutely silent. He said nothing, and I said nothing. Trees flew past on either side of the car.

The "somewhere safe" was a house out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees.

The walk from the car to the run down house felt like the longest of my life – I was absolutely exhausted. Every part of my body ached.

We entered through a side door, into the kitchen. It was a small room, with a table and chairs in the center. I sank down into one of the chairs.

He sat down in the chair next to me.

There was another long silence.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"Some of it." I related the events of the last few days – mentioning that there were some remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. who had helped me, and naming no names.

"Who was that Fortune Seller person?"

"I don't know. A fan of mine, apparently. She didn't explain much about herself. She has a baby boy, and I think she's British."

He stood up and walked to the sink. He filled up a glass of water and brought it back, setting it in front of me.

I hadn't had really anything to eat or drink for the last day or two. I drained the glass in one gulp.

My eighteen birthday came a few weeks later. Clint I stayed in the house for those weeks, planning what to do. I contacted everyone to say I was alive, don't worry. Edward even stopped by once, with music from the musical I was preparing for – Yeston and Kopit's Phantom was opening up, and I guess they thought my name would give their musical a bit of much needed attention. They sent a message through Edward that if I needed to drop out, it would be perfectly understandable. I said I would stay on. My parents wouldn't have wanted me to drop out.

And that about wraps things up for now.

Ivy here.

That phone call from Skye came a day later.

I was just putting Phillip to bed when the phone rang. I had investigated the bases and discovered that, of course, they were a dead end. Just like everything else.

I left the room, stepping softly.

"Hello?" I answered in almost a whisper.

"What is wrong with me? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!"

I pulled my ear slightly away from the phone. "Skye, there is nothing I can do unless you are calm enough to listen to me."

"I AM CALM!"

"It's kind of hard to tell."

"What did that thing do to me?" She was obviously on the brink of panic – panic would be a huge problem.

I glanced back at the crib. "You know what, I don't want to talk over the phone about this. Always a chance of prying ears. Give me five minutes and I'll be there. Let them know, would you please?"

"Thank you."

"It's what friends do." Not sure how long that would last after this...

I hung up and walked down the hall to the Watsons'.

Mary answered the door. "Leaving again?"

"Yes, a friend needs help. I've just put Phillip down for a nap. I should, hopefully, be back in a few hours. You have the key?"

She nodded.

I walked back to my apartment.

I meant to teleport right in front of the unit where Skye was staying. Unfortunately, since my teleporter isn't all that accurate, I ended up on the other side of the room.

I ran across to her. "Skye."

"All right, you're here. Start talking."

"It's kind of complicated, Skye."

"No, no, no. You are not doing that to me."

"Skye, I don't know a lot more than you do!"

"You know people, you have connections. You can TIME TRAVEL. You can't just do that to me!"

"Skye, I never said I wouldn't tell you what I knew. It's not entirely insignificant, you know."

"Ivy!"

I spun around to see Agent May.

"What are you doing back?"

"Oh, Skye wanted to talk to me about what happened down in the city."

"Is there anything we need to know? Is something wrong with Skye?"

"No, of course there's nothing wrong with Skye." Nothing wrong with having powers.

She retreated, probably sensing I wanted to be alone.

I moved closer to the glass. "Listen. No one else can hear this, alright?" I glanced around and raised my voice. "Any eavesdroppers who know what's good for them will stop. Now."

"We're alone. No one wants to be near me right now."

"That would surprise me a lot."

"Us being alone, or no one wanting to be near me? I feel like some kind of leper."

"The us being alone. Look, Skye, you know how Raina was so focused on what you two would become?"

She nodded.

"This is what you become. That obelisk thing somehow transformed you into something. Gave you some kind of power, I think, I can't tell yet. I'm sorry, I really am. It won't be easy. But please just remember that you're not a freak of nature or anything like that. You'll have someone visiting soon who can tell you more."

She stared at me. "And I can't... get rid of them? Get rid of these 'powers'?"

"I don't think so. Welcome to the club."

"At least you have cool powers."

I stepped back from the glass. "No. They kind of suck, actually. What's that thing they say in Spiderman?"

"Spiderman?"

Oh, right, Spiderman doesn't exist in Marvel yet. "It's... nothing. With great power comes great responsibility. And it just keeps coming. And coming. I don't even know if telling you was a safe or right decision."

"What do you mean, safe? You'd have let me sit in the dark all this time? You would let me suffer through this?

"If I had to."

Skye stared at me in horror.

"I'm not saying I'd ever want to do that, Skye."

"You'd just let me stay in the dark forever?"

"If I had to."

She just stared at me. The can on Skye's little table rattled. "You're... what are you? What kind of person can let people die and just say it's 'what they had to do'? Seriously, do you even listen to yourself? What kind of sociopath –"

"I'm not a sociopath!" I screamed.

There was a moment of absolute silence.

"I sometimes wish I was a sociopath, Skye. I really do. I wish I couldn't feel things in that way. But I'm not. Believe me, all of this is the last thing I want. It's the last thing I ever wanted. But I have to put up with it now, no matter how bad it gets. This isn't about what anyone wants, it never was. It was about me trying to do what I thought was the right thing."

"How could this possibly be the right thing?"

I stared at her for a moment. "I don't know. How could letting people suffer and die be the right thing? And how could risking the suffering and death of countless others be the right thing either? I chose the lesser of the two evils. I'm not sorry you don't agree, since I've stopped caring what everyone else thinks a long time ago."

Skye's eyes widened slightly.

"I don't want anything to happen to you, but there's other things I have to worry about too."

The can still continued rattling.

"I'm going now, Skye. I'm sorry all of this had to happen to you. But I'm not sorry about my life decisions. My life is too potentially short for that."

I pressed the button and ended up back in my apartment.

For a moment, there was silence.

I sank down onto the bed.

That was not how I intended for that to go.

Was I in the right? Was I in the wrong? You could argue it either way.

I grabbed the pillow off the bed and threw it at the door.

My parents were dead. Ariel's parents were dead. My brother was in the hospital.

At first, it had been relatively easy to keep all the information to myself. Now, more and more of my friends and family were getting hurt because of it.

If I were living in a musical, now would be the perfect time for an angsty, climatic song, by the end of which I would probably have some kind of answer.

The thought didn't quite manage to make me laugh, but it did make me smile.

I actually could go live in a world with musical numbers going on at random. Les Miserables or High School Musical, maybe. I don't know.

Sadly, though, that's not how things work.

I stood up and glanced around my apartment. Almost Easter – perhaps I should get some lilies.