Dear Inkdrops,

thank you for reading this far.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you!
At the end of this chapter, I included a small epiloguish part from another perspective, just for fun, because I really liked that scene in the series.

Reviews make me happy, please let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I still only own my OCs.

Chapter 36: Confrontation

The two women looked at each other in silence for the longest time, both weary of what the other was going to do. Protocol demanded of Skye to inform her S.O.s - or at least try to do so - right away. Well, at least Xandra supposed it did. If the hacker decided not to though, there was very little she could do about it at the moment. And Skye knew it. Slowly, the tension seemed to drain out of her shoulders little by little.

"Vibrations, huh," she muttered.

It was actually quite a reasonable explanation, now that she thought about it, but none she would have come up with. Give it to a guy without eyes to set them straight.

"He didn't know about you," Skye suddenly pointed out.

The other woman could only shrug - obviously.

"Do you know why?"

She could only make a vague hand gesture, after all, she didn't have any real explanation just yet, only a couple of rough ideas. And vague ideas were just as dangerous as the truth probably was, in her opinion.

"Well, this is not helpful," Skye summarised dryly, but didn't push further for now.

Slowly, she took off her gloves. At first, Xandra was confused, but then understood when Skye walked over to the tap, turning it on. She put both her arms under the stream, sighing as the water cooled the bruises on her skin. They should put ice on it, actually, but unfortunately Steve and herself had made use of all of the cooling pads from the fridge before after the training. Suddenly, the agent gasped. Xandra frowned and quickly stepped next to her to check what was going on. The water was flowing in a spiral in between her hands, like a floating sculpture. It looked beautiful and dainty and certainly not frightful at all - a nice change from the last couple of days. When Skye moved her hands, the shape began to move, swirling gently and then quicker and quicker. Xandra wasn't sure what was determining the speed, whether it was micro-movements or the other woman's thoughts, or maybe a mixture of both. When Skye turned off the faucet and faced her again, she was beaming with joy.

"I can do it! And it didn't explode!"

Xandra smiled back, happy to see her companion relax slightly.

"Do you think I should try again?"

It was a difficult decision, really. On the one hand, practice was good, on the other hand, it might make healing more difficult or even injure her further. For said reasons, the cryptographer very much leaned towards being cautious now. She shook her head and pointed towards Skye's arms with a questioning look.

"Yeah, it does hurt a bit. But not too badly. I don't know if I could injure it further," the other woman answered the silent question. Then she flopped back down on the couch. "Do you think I could make things levitate?"

Xandra thought about it for a moment, then nodded. After all, vibrations could be used to keep objects up in the air, so why not.

"That would be pretty cool."

The other woman laughed quietly. It would be, indeed. In comparison, her rather superhuman senses and metabolism seemed almost normal. Not that she complained, that was enough of a hassle.
It were these super senses though that made her head snap up after a couple of hours though, they were recognizing a faint sound that was slowly getting louder and louder. She jumped up, reflexively grabbing the ICER she had deposited next to her earlier, to run to the window. There was nothing to be seen and for a moment she doubted herself, but no, there was certainly the faint buzzing of engines somewhere in her periphery. Xandra tried to call out for Skye, for a moment forgetting her lack of voice. As no sound came out she cursed internally and rushed into the bedroom. The other woman was out cold on the bed, tired from her day and surprisingly trusting Xandra to have the first watch. She clapped into her hands as soon as she had passed the threshold, not wanting to touch Skye and risk being shot through the room or something like that. The hacker jolted awake; eyes wide in the dim light that was floating in from the main room.

"What's up?"

Xandra pointed upwards, hoping she would understand.

"Someone on the roof?"

She shook her head.

"You heard, uhm, something in the air?"

The other woman nodded, happy about the quick understanding.

"Alright, we need to check this out," Skye agreed, already slipping into her shoes, "but it will likely be SHIELD, so it's fine."

Xandra frowned - SHIELD would certainly be not fine, at least not for her. If it was May, she might get away just right, but in any other case, there was certainly trouble coming towards her. And after all, her presence here shouldn't be public, so she would have to disappear either way. At least Skye seemed open enough for different options and not willing to argue - when she was moving towards the door, she didn't make any attempt to stop her. Then, suddenly, Skye's phone started to ring. She ran over, grabbing it from where it had been lying on the table.

"May, what's up? I couldn't reach you. We-"
"Skye, you and Edvardson need to get out of there." She could hear how urgent May's voice was, almost on the brink of panic, trying to get out as much information as quickly as possible. This was serious, she knew it right away. "There is a panel on the Western end of the perimeter, it lets you bring down the electric fence. Run. They are coming for you."
"Who? May, you don't make any sense! Who is coming?"
"SHIELD!"

Suddenly the call disconnected, but Xandra was already at the door. Something must have happened at SHIELD in the meantime, likely connected to the events in Puerto Rico, or maybe even something else altogether. It didn't matter so much right now, more important was her reaction to it. Just this once, she would do what May had told her to do - run. The older agent had no reason to endanger Skye, so if she thought this to be necessary, things must be indeed dire.

She dashed outside, over the porch and towards the treeline, but it took long enough to make out two dots of light that were quickly getting bigger. Quinjets, she supposed, that were likely going to try and scan the ground. If they had IR cameras, she would be fucked, but maybe they didn't think they would need it since they were only looking for one person. One person that needed awfully long to get out of the door. Every instinct in her screamed at her to run, to leave Skye behind, to save herself, but as soon as she had reached the cover of the trees, she stopped. Her eyes were flicking between the door and the approaching quinjets - what must have been only a minute felt like hours. Suddenly Skye was darting towards her, barrelling towards the forest. She flinched when Xandra suddenly appeared next to her out from the shadows but didn't stop the run.

While they were running next to each other, Xandra could hear the jets had landed next to the little lake and the doors were being opened. She couldn't quite say how many agents were involved in this mission, but judging by the sounds of footsteps she would have guessed maybe between eight and ten. Orders were barked, mainly to be aware and to spread out, reminders that Skye was dangerous. Then, the wind was carrying over the piece of another conversation, too little to make out the meaning, but enough for her to recognize the voice - Bobbi Morse. She frowned. Shouldn't she be on Skye's side?

There wasn't much time for these considerations though - even though they had had a slight advantage in the beginning, the agents were catching up fast, mostly due to the better equipment that gave them night vision. While Xandra had no problem seeing in the relative darkness, Skye kept stumbling over roots, slowing down their progress.

"Run, you need to get the panel down!" Skye told Xandra, "I'll meet you there!"

The cryptographer nodded, it was a sound plan in theory, after all, turning down the volume might take a moment as well, depending how well the panel was covered. She sprinted into the dark, trying hard to make out any kind of fence. It took her longer to reach it than expected and as she found it, she would have certainly crashed against it if her senses hadn't alerted her to the slight buzzing of the electricity in the wire. After about a hundred metres or so, she found indeed a panel. It was more easily accessible than she had thought, once she had pushed away a couple of branches and vines. Thankfully the techique was weirdly simple, no code, just a simple switch. The buzzing stopped, a clear sign that the power was off, and she turned around, listening for any sign of Skye.

There was none, at first, but when she concentrated even more, she could make out the faint sound of fighting. Apparently, she had been held up. Once again, Xandra was stuck in an internal debate - what was she supposed to do? It was her chance to run, to keep herself out of trouble, maybe even vanish a bit more permanently. But despite everything Skye was sort-of her friend, and she didn't leave friends behind. So, with a quiet sigh, she turned around, jogging back into the direction of the fight. She was more slowly and carefully now, keeping to the trees and the dark. If possible, she had no intention to alert SHIELD to her presence, she just wanted to get Skye out. That was all.

It didn't take her too long to find the other agent, Skye seemed to be caught up in some dirty hand to hand combat with another agent. Xandra had to admit, the young woman was holding herself up spectacularly, May had certainly trained her well. Right now, she didn't see a reason to interfere, instead she kept scouting the area for further agents.
Suddenly there were steps to her right, another approaching agent. Well, she certainly wouldn't let Skye fight two dudes all at once. It might be a dirty trick, but desperate times called for desperate measures - so when the man passed the tree she was hiding behind, she jumped him, strangling the agent from behind. Before the transformation, she would have had a hard time keeping an adult man in a chokehold like that, but now it wasn't really a problem, especially aided by the man's surprise and still struggled, hitting her hard in the ribs, but she held onto him with all of her might. As soon as he became unsconcious, she let him carefully slip down, making sure he wouldn't bump his head or break a bone. After all, she wasn't a savage, no matter what they said.

As she looked up, Xandra realized she couldn't hear Skye anymore. Had she knocked out the agent she had been fighting against, or had she become a victim herself? The cryptographer slid back into the shadows to where she supposed the woman must be. Suddenly she saw her, only slightly illuminated by the moonlight, just turning in the direction of the fence. Just as Xandra wanted to run towards her, another voice called out, and she froze.
It was one of the agents but none she knew - judging by the voice a hard an angry man carrying much resentment and something akin to hatred. He was holding a gun, and Xandra wasn't quite certain whether it was an ICER or whether he was carrying real bullets. She should have ICED him first and asked questions later, she told herself in the weeks to come, but at that moment, a feeling called out to her to be careful. The woman slowly pulled out her weapon, and before she could do anything else, it was already happening:
The agent was shooting.
Skye reflexively held up her hands.
A shockwave ripped through the forest, making her crash to the ground and the trees around her splinter. Needles were falling down. People were screaming in the distance. Someone was howling nearby.

I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds

The verse slipped into her mind as she looked at the destruction around her. Then Xandra scrambled to her feet and maybe did the most stupid thing one could do - she ran into the eye of the tsunami.
Skye was shaking, her hands still up. She seemed close to running away mindlessly, so the cryptographer did the only thing she could think about - she stepped closer and turned her face towards her, making her look at her. Her eyes were glistening and she seemed close to panic, on the edge of a meltdown. No, there was no way they could run like this.
Skye seemed to come to the same conclusion.

"I am sorry," she whispered, before stepping back. "Gordon? Help!"

It wasn't much more than a desperate question, but a moment later, the air crackled with electricity, and the eye-less man appeared. He looked at Xandra with full distain, clearly taking her as part of the enemy fraction, before turning to Skye.

"Ready to go home?"

She could only watch as Skye nodded breathlessly. The stranger wrapped his arms around her and they disappeared in a flash of lightning as if they had never been there at all. Xandra was left alone with an apparently enemy SHIELD, something she was quickly becoming tired off.
There was still groaning coming from the corner of the clearing, as she crept closer, keeping out of the line of vision, Xandra could see it was the agent who had shot at Skye. He was lying on his back, breathing shallowly. A piece of wood had pierced his shoulders, whether there were any more injuries, she couldn't quite tell. Unfortunately, she had nothing to help him, and the others would be on her heels quickly enough - she didn't need her super-calmness to know she had to run now. So, just as steps got louder, she turned on her heel and disappeared into the forest.

American tourists were always a delight, at least according to Marty the bartender - they were polite and tipped well. The guy in the white shirt who kept staring into thin air wasn't much different, a little bit odd maybe, but not too much. He was middle-aged, thinning hair, looking as if he was working in insurance, or maybe banking.

"That's a lot of umbrellas," he commented as Marty put down the fruity drink in front of him.

"Let me guess, she got the house," he deadpanned in return.

After all, that would explain the mood.

Imagine Marty's surprise when suddenly another man joined him - much younger, very British, and the kind that very much screamed trouble. You know, the kind that gets angry after Arsenal wins against Liverpool at football - soccer - and trashes a subways station. He came in with far too much swagger and apparently too late, judging by the apology, but instead of tequila shots surprisingly also ordered the same fruity drink as the first guy - with umbrellas. Maybe he was divorced as well - he somehow gave the vibe, though Marty couldn't quite say why. The two started chit-chatting and eating the peanuts he had provided on the bar - from what he overheard, Marty somehow had the feeling that they were not really talking about what they were talking - if that made sense.

"You know, before I had to rethink my employment situation, a former employee got into contact with me as well," the older guy told the younger one, "good colleague, but quit due to changes in their circumstances."
"Uhm, yeah, I've heard. What about them? Are they back?"
"Nope, not permanently. There are some health concerns, and you know how HR is with these things."

He rolled his eyes as the younger man pressed his lips together, seemingly concerned for the first time.

"They did a good job on the last couple of projects though."
"Yeah, but you know, in these times. Economic situation, risk management, all that."

The younger man still didn't seem pleased. After snatching a tissue and a pen from the bar, he drew something on it before passing it to the other guy. Marty couldn't quite hear what was spoken, but it seemed to please white-shirt man, since he finally showed a little smile, nodding in thought. Somehow the barkeeper had the thought they were going to talk to a good divorce attorney.