It's 5 am when there's a knock at the door to Skye's bunk and May's voice comes through the door "15 minutes to arrival"
Skye groans at the invasion of her sleep something sounding suspiciously like "5 more minutes Mum"
Bobbi leans over pressing her lips to Skye's ear and whispers "Come on love time to get out of bed" before grabbing the blankets and throwing them off the bed causing Skye to shoot up in bed and yell
"Barbara Morse, you're going to regret that"
"Oh come on Love, we all know if I hadn't done that we would never be up in time" Bobbi says with a laugh
"I hate you" Skye grumbles getting up and walking over to the dresser
Bobbi walks right over to Skye and pulls her in for a kiss hearing the slight moan and says with a big smile on her face "Yeah, right. You love me" causing Skye to smile slightly
Bobbi and Skye exit their bunk and make their way to the tailgate to wait for May to land as they approach they hear FitzSimmons arguing , apparently Jemma had left an organ in the fridge where Fitz stores his lunch, needless to say he wasn't happy, but that all ends as the plane touches down and the tailgate opens slowly bringing the academy into view, it simply steals their breath as they look at their new home a beautiful castle nestled atop the Swiss alps with the sun causing the entire building to glow
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Mays POV
It always amazes me how my team can look at something like this old castle and just be struck immobile by its beauty, It pains me to say I don't really see the beauty anymore, hundreds of missions and I rarely find the beauty in the little things anymore, but slowly and surely I can feel myself letting the beauty and my friends back in my heart, I have Phil and Skye to thank for that, that adorable man child and amazing kid always manage to find amazement and beauty in the mundane, and I can't help but be drawn along. Oh well enough sentiment we have a job to do here time to remind them of that.
"Come on guys time to go, we need to get inside soon they are expecting us"
An arm wraps itself around my waist and then I hear Phil say "Ok everyone May is right we can't keep our new colleagues waiting, especially when we are supposed to be the ones in charge"
A number of grumbles can be heard as everyone starts to move towards the building, we are about half way there before I notice it, there are people hidden around the building and they are watching us, leaning away from Coulson slightly I signal my team and in a moment nearly everyone has an ICER in hand and their backs together moving to protect Fitzsimmons who surprisingly are also armed, but most surprising of all is Skye who without a moments hesitation copies Natasha moving to disappear behind cover and then reappearing surprising everyone including Ward when she is now standing with Natasha behind the lurking agents weapons drawn.
"Come out now or we will open fire" I yell putting everything I have into making my voice as commanding as possible
Slowly the agents move out of cover and into the open area before us their weapons drawn they are halfway to us before they notice Natasha and Skye behind them, as the first one moves to bring their weapon to bear Skye yells "Drop your weapons, one wrong move and I'll shoot" Obviously something about her voice gives the agents cause to think because moments later a dozen weapons can be heard dropping to the ground.
"Go ahead get it over with then, finish what your HYDRA masters wanted" one of them says defiantly
Coulson looks at me and then to the agents questioningly "What do you mean HYDRA?"
"You're obviously HYDRA you wouldn't be here otherwise, we gladly die knowing you will fail, soon reinforcements will be here and you'll never find the others before they do" he spits
"Calm down, we're not HYDRA we're S.H.I.E.L.D, I'm Agent May" then pointing to Phil I say "And that's Agent Coulson we're here to help"
"You're not Hydra?" He says stunned
"No, we're not, director Fury sent us to train you all. Why would you think we were HYDRA"
"It was a few hours ago, we suddenly started receiving a broadcast over all the S.H.I.E.L.D channels after that a bunch of the instructors started trying to kill everyone, we managed to get them but we didn't know if they called for help, we lost all contact with S.H.I.E.L.D half an hour ago, when we saw you approaching we assumed the worst"
Natasha and Skye seem to share a look before lowering their weapons and stepping out from behind the rookie agents Natasha saying " If that's how you organise an ambush I don't know how you've survived this long"
"We didn't have a choice all the instructors are either dead or in medical and we couldn't risk HYDRA getting to the young ones so we did what we had to"
Phil seems to pause for a moment taking this in before he starts with issuing orders "May move the bus into the central courtyard Skye, Morse, Trip,and Romanoff go make sure we don't have anyone else running around out there everyone else will escort Fitzsimmons. Fitz I need you to bring the defences online. No one in or out until this mess is cleared up and make sure we don't have incoming. Simmons you take what supplies we have and try and help the wounded as best as possible"
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It's about 2 hours before everyone is together again this time everyone is meeting in Coulson's new office, Skye and Bobbi stand together against the wall while Fitzsimmons sit on the lounge Jemma in Leo's lap while he sits comforting her after the horrors she had seen that day. Everyone else had spread out Ward and Trip in opposite corners whilst Mac stood by the door Natasha standing opposite and May sitting across from Coulson at his desk.
It's a little while before anyone breaks the silence but eventually Coulson says "So what's our status?"
Fitz looks at Coulson and says "Skye and I have been through all the systems and it's not good, our defences are online but from what we've been able to determine that won't help much in the long run, the school is mostly finished and we have the resources to stay here isolated for potentially several years, but unfortunately from what we've been able to determine we're one of the last Bastions of resistance most of the bases have fallen to HYDRA,"
"Have we heard from anyone we can trust"
"Honestly sir we have heard from only a few but there is no way to know who is HYDRA and who is S.H.I.E.L.D, however we have heard from Agents Hand and Garrett they are on the run from the HUB in a Quinjet they are requesting clearance and coordinates to come here"
"Ok, send them our location and a set of landing clearance codes"
Less than a moment later Ward steps away from the wall "Sir, we can't do that"
May looks at ward a moment before asking "And why exactly is that Agent Ward?"
"Because they are HYDRA, in fact they are its leaders"
Everyone's head snaps in the direction of Ward when he says this, Natasha moving away from the wall slightly and placing one hand on her weapon Coulson looks at Ward and then in as even a voice as he can muster asks "How do you know that Agent Ward"
"Because Sir I haven't been entirely honest, I am not Agent Grant Ward level 7, I am Grant Ward Level 9 executive special operations under special orders from Director Fury himself, Authorisation code Whiskey-Alpha Niner-Niner-Kelo-Six-Echo"
Coulson stares shocked for a moment before saying "It's ok he's one of us, Fury told me that code himself there's no way it can be compromised we can trust him, though I honestly didn't see that coming"
It's Skye who looks most surprised at this, remarking "Well you're one hell of a liar then"
"I didn't have a choice Fury gave me a direct order, I was to be a part of this team and do 2 things first I was to monitor anyone we came into contact with and make sure of their allegiances and secondly I was to watch over Skye and Coulson to make sure both stayed safe."
Bobbi looks at him as he says this then asks "What do you mean watch over Skye and Coulson?"
He looks at her and Skye sitting there and says "The reason I had to protect them was 2 fold, on the one hand Coulson and Skye were Fury's pick for Director and Deputy Director should something happen to him and secondly Skye was to be protected as she was an 0-8-4 originally this was done by a code embedded in the foster system and surveillance by agents but then he got word she had joined the Rising Tide and decided to recruit her."
This revelation seems to take everyone by surprise, everyone that is except for Coulson who simply laughs and then says "I always wondered how exactly that file ended up on my desk especially when it was so obviously someone I would try to recruit involved, unfortunately though we will have to discuss this later because at the moment we have bigger problems than a meddling Director"
"Ex-Director" Skye supplies
"What" May asks turning to face Skye
"He's the Ex-Director, according to transmissions from the Triskellion and Helicarrier Director Fury was Killed and Deputy Director Hill has Disappeared .
May looks at Skye a moment before saying "Well that certainly complicates things then doesn't it"
"Not especially" Simmons says looking at Coulson " If Director Fury wanted Agent Coulson and Skye to lead in the event of his death then they should decide on what we do from here on out. After all they are supposed to be in charge"
Coulson looks at Skye "Where do you stand on all of this?"
"It's one hell of a shock, I barely knew the pirate and now I'm told he wanted me to help lead a super secret organisation in his absence,Iit's a lot to take in, though I have to say we have enough on our plates at the moment to begin with, the cadets should be our top priority "
"Agreed, I want you and Agent May to arrange for everyone here screened to make sure they aren't HYDRA, After that we'll try to get everything back to as normal as possible, as far as we know HYDRA doesn't know where this place is so we stay here and protect the academy, you had your assignments for the moment we keep to them."
A chorus of yes sir can be heard as everyone starts to leave but as soon as everyone else is gone May closes the door and sits in front of Coulson " Phill"
"Yeah Mel"
"When you were talking did you notice the small mark on the side of Skye's neck?"
"Melinda" he groans "I don't want to know if Skye has a hickey"
"That's it Phil, it wasn't a hickey, it looked remarkably like a bond mark"
"A what?"
"A bond mark, surely you've heard the rumours"
"No I haven't would you stop talking in riddles"
"A bond mark is a marking that forms when two people become truly inseparable, they are extremely rare and typically only occur when two people share such powerful feelings for one another that they can't live without the other"
He looks guilty for a moment before he manages to school his features again saying "Do you really believe in that stuff Mel, I mean I have never heard of someone getting a bond mark before"
"I suppose you're right it could be just a rumour but you and I both know what it means if it's more than that, remember what happened to Skye's family, we owe it to everyone to find out"
"Ok, you're right, you're right, I'll try to ask Skye about it later"
Several hours and several dozen interrogations later Skye walks into the faculty lounge next to Coulson's office and slumps down between Bobbi and Jemma leaning over to rest her head on Bobbi's lap "I hate teenagers" she groans
"Oh come on Skye they can't be that bad, they're only cadets"
You have no idea Jemma, ask Fitz when he gets here they're enough to drive a girl to drink"
"You sure that's a good idea hun" asks Bobbi
"Yeah probably not though I certainly think it might help" Skye says leaning up to quickly peck Bobbi on the lips
That's when Jemma looks over and sees the mark on Skye's neck the makeup she used to cover it eroded from hours spent in the interrogation rooms "Hey Skye what's that on your neck and how come I've never seen it before when I've been stitching you up?"
"What, what thing there's no thing" Skye tries to cover miserably
Trip looks over from where he'd been quietly reading and says "Wow girl it's a good thing they don't have you teaching the cadets how to lie because you're horrible at it"
"For your information mister I'm such a funny guy Triplett I am a good liar it's just Simmons caught me off guard I could lie to you any day of the week and none of you would ever know"
Bobbi smirks down at Skye saying "Oh I'd know you do that cute little thing with your nose when you're lying, there's no way you'd get away with it"
"Nice try guys" Simmons says then turning to Skye she says "But don't think I didn't notice the subject change"
Bobbi scoffs at this causing her to receive a half hearted glare from Skye "OK Bobbi if I have to explain So Do you"
"Sure thing" Bobbi says before lifting her hair away from where it covered her neck and wiping away at the make up there
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The next part will be compromised of two options there will be a clean version posted on this story, or a unclean version posted under the title the story of the bond mark be advised the unclean version contains mention of abduction and attempted suicide read at own risk