AN: Howdie! As always, many thanks to MegaDiary123 for being the awesome beta they are. Also thank you for the comments and the support! Hopw you all enjoy this. See you again in two weeks! Until then...

All rights go to Marvel

Skye's POV

Christmas passed, and so did New Years. Everyone stayed with us, even if we had to cramp up and have Steve and Bruce sleeping on the sofas. But it was nice. It was relaxing, and it was refreshing.

It was a nice change from the normal routine seeing everyone, and while sleep was still fleeting, I found myself catching a couple hours more every night, than I had before they came over. Which was a huge improvement, let me tell you that.

Tony also mentioned that he was still looking into Ian Quinn, trying to track him down, but he was still somehow staying under the radar. It was like he dropped off the face of the earth.

"You are?" I asked, not sure why it hadn't crossed my mind that he would have done just that.

He scoffed and pushed a box in my hands, motioning me to open it. "Of course I am. We protect each other after all"

"And you won't just head out when you do end up figuring out where he is…" Pepper pipped in. "You will alert the others and talk about how to proceed"

"Of course, dear" he said and pecked her on the cheek, though the smirk he had on his face didn't make me believe him all that much. "But, enough talk about him", he changed the subject as I was pulling out his gift. "Since we are both here, and will be here for a while, we can test those out and fine-tune them to make sure they work perfectly fine for you"

I clipped the two bracelets on my hand and they started building up, compressed materials adjusting and clicking together as they swiftly turned into my gauntlets. He moved away from the sofa as I extended my arms, to look at the inner parts of the intricate design.

"I still need to connect them with T.A.D.A.S.H.I., but for now", he pressed on a button that was pretty well hidden and they collapsed back into just a normal pair of bracelets. "You should be able to activate and deactivate them with a simple command, but we will work on that later on" he smiled kindly at me.

For the rest of the gift exchanging, it varied from stupid to more sentimental.

Clint got an arrow that exploded into confetti when it made contact.

I gave a new mp4 to Steve, filled with 80's and 90's music. He was slowly moving closer to more recent years but we didn't want to overwhelm him. Also made sure to include a list of good documentaries for any bands that were included in the present in case he wanted to check it out.

Bruce gave me a small textbook with notes filled from himself. "It's been a while since I used that, and I thought you could read it when you doubt how far you've come". Turns out, it was a small diary that he had kept from our time together, many years ago. It was very interesting reading his point of view on how our friendship started. The last entries were from 2012, when Nat had mentioned my name to get him to meet up with Fury and the others.

The weirdest part of the day, was when I felt like my senses were picking up movement on Jemma's and mine's room. It didn't feel unfamiliar though.

Excusing myself, I made my way upstairs, prepared for anything to happen, because being prepared wouldn't hurt. Slowly I opened the door, to find the window open, and a package left on top of the bed. I looked outside the window, but I could neither pick something up, nor see anything. Closing it, I turned back towards the rectangular box, covered with a pirate-themed wrapping paper.

Tearing it off, I found a folder named KREE, with a smaller note resting on top of it.

With our resident Asgardian missing,

I had to dust of some very old archives.

This is what I could find for now.

There was no signature, but there didn't need to be one.

I took my phone out as I flipped through the pages, looking at some entries by someone called Carol Danvers, ready to send a quick message. But as I flipped though, something else fell through the middle pages.

It was a badge? I took it out and looked it over once more. It had my picture, and simply said 'Agent 27'… But no name, nor anything else… what was this?

I flipped the rest of the pages and saw an extra note.

Took the liberty to update some of our systems for you

Can't have you running into agents that question your integrity like with Hand

Your identity is still secure

Check your laptop

Burn these notes, will you?

Still pretty confused about what was happening, I did as instructed and opened up my computer, logging into the S.H.I.E.L.D. systems. Not only had Fury added an anonymous Agent 27 on the rooster, but he also made it clear of the Level 9 Clearance that they have.

No information whatsoever about their identity, any metrics, or anything more about it. But it was a start. I would have to work with it and adjust the security systems so I would be able to get to places and they would know it was me, but I could work with this.

Still, it was too forward for the person that liked to keep to the shadows.

Decided to raffle some feathers?, I ended up sending as a message to him. We are already making noise, was his simple reply. Say hi to Maria from me. And thank you, I will make sure to get back to you with questions and solutions. Wasn't expecting anything less.

And that was all. Seems like I had more work to do, but it would have to wait for now. I made sure to close the document and put it away safely, before heading back downstairs.

We had to bench the research for… everything really. At least for the duration of the holidays with the others coming over. Not that it stopped me from looking things up in the wee hours of the morning. But now, everyone had gone back to New York, and it was just the four of us, May excluded.

I would spend my nights reading the file that Fury has provided, and making sure my new identity within S.H.I.E.L.D. was established.

We already had a few systems in place, but now I could connect them and improve them to make a more solid presence. There were a few steps that I took.

I connected the protocol that was placed when I was made into Level 9 where agents knew of the combination of my original Level Card and a code, which was what I had used with May during the Amador mission, to reroute the Bus and override Coulson's orders.

I had to re-write a few systems but I was very proud of my work in the end.

Now, I had connected the chip that was in the badge with my Head of Cyber Security and put in place a protocol where every time I would enter a S.H.I.E.L.D. location, there would be two actions that would take place. If I appeared on any feed, the systems would read my badge and would make a copy of that feed. Then that would be transferred on a secured backup location that I had in place, and the original would delete itself as if never existing.

Was it very shady if someone didn't know about it? Yes, yes it was. But it would save me so much time, even if I had to check at least at the beginning and then every now and then to make sure everything was working properly.

Back to everything else, Natasha and Clint knew about everything now; the holes in the S.H.I.E.L.D. systems, the connection with Centipede, Ian Quinn and the Clairvoyant… everything. They were helping out to try and figure out what was going on with all of that and things seemed to be moving more swiftly, even if slow. Briefing them in was one of the first things I did when we settled on the Homestead.

Jemma had taken it upon herself to exclude herself from the conversation that we had about the whole issue, given that she was a terrible liar. And that was putting it lightly. So, she felt better just not knowing what was going on, and reassuring me that it was all for the best.

But May had to go. It made sense really. She was gone from the team for far too long as it was, and while I was really looking forward to going back, there was something holding me back. Maybe it would be seeing Coulson for the first time while everyone else knew the truth.

"You sure you have to go?" I asked for the nth time that day. Feeling like a deja vu was happening with Pepper asking me a similar question when I wanted to leave the Tower.

"I wouldn't if it wasn't necessary. We have been away for too long as it is, and this is the only way to give you some more time to recuperate" she said softly, as the two of us were kind of hiding away in my room. "Plus, someone needs to make sure that Phil doesn't get into too much trouble" she squeezed my shoulder.

I placed my hand on top of hers. "Don't be a stranger, okay?"

She scoffed and ruffled my hair, as if I was a kid again. "Can't get rid of me that easily".

And with that she was gone.

"So let me get this straight", Clint said in one of our brainstorming sessions. "You know that Ward works for the enemy… correct?"

"Correct", I answered.

"And you want to have him on the team again, when you return?"

"Also, correct"

At that he threw his hands up. Natasha thankfully took my side with this. "It's a classic keep your friends close and your enemies closer", she said between bites of the Chinese food we had ordered.

"He caused her to have a flashback" Clint said accusatory, "and I don't like him. Just let me have some words with him beforehand, leave us at the same base, I'm not asking for much"

"Oh, honey" Natasha cooed, "if you think you're gonna beat me to having my way with him you are mistaken. But, whatever we do, unfortunately, has to wait until we manage to get any info we can out of him without him suspecting a thing"

I pushed the chair with my powers towards Clint, and signalled with my head for him to sit. All that pacing was driving me nuts. "Look, I don't know what to do with him, okay? Cause we butted heads before we even knew that he isn't really working with us, but rather against us. So, if I suddenly change my attitude towards him, then that would raise some suspicions. And then we have agent Morse", I said pointing at her file.

Throwing my hands on the air before resting my head on top of them, bracing myself on the edge of the table. There was this stupid headache that didn't seem to want to leave me alone.

Ward had been temporarily working again with the team, given that they were an Operations agent short, and agent Morse had taken up as something between a biologist and an Ops agent, mostly filling in for Jemma's position. Though her skills were not quite in par with Jemma's it would be enough until she got back.

Coulson's reports so far seemed to be that the two of them worked well together. Ward seemed to be more subdued than before, more compliant. But I didn't know if that was because I was not there, or because his handler had passed a message to him to not raise any more suspicions on his person.

"Let's take a break, visit this again at a later time", Natasha called out, sensing the frustration both from Clint and myself.

"We don't have time", I said through gritted teeth. "In a couple of days I'm supposed to go back to the team and I need to know what the plan of action is before then to get it through the pirate. And it's already so late!", we had passed the midnight mark a while back. "Seeing it at a later time means a later day in reality"

"It wasn't a suggestion", she firmly, but kindly said back.

Before I thought better of it, my fist had made contact with the table, sending a small vibrational wave through the woods that made the papers fly all over the place. The room seemed to still for a moment, before I simply pushed the chair away, scrapping on the floor, and beamed towards the exit.

I could feel the buzzing start to gather within me, and I needed an outlet.

Soon.

I couldn't hear it again from the others if I fractured any bone in my body, even accidentally. So, I hastily made my way to the lake managing to keep everything in but some small vibrations that seemed to simply be expelled with every step I took, creating a small dome around me.

I knew that I had to be keeping a better control over my powers, but this was a place where I was supposed to not care for it as much.

The moment I reached my destination, I placed my hand firmly on the frozen surface and let it pass through it, making the ice crack and crackle. The noise was so sudden that a whole fleet of birds just took flying. Standing up, there was still energy within me, so, I picked up a nearby rock and catapulted it in the lake, putting as much vibrations as I could behind the throw. Where it made contact with the cracked ice, more webs were instantly created, a crater-looking hole in the middle of its expanse. It was pretty clear despite the late hour or the stars and moon being our main source of light.

I let out a breath, watching as a cold puff of air rose in front of my eyes. I took a good 10 seconds to breath before I called out. "You can come down".

Not a moment later I felt more than heard Clint landing behind me, dropping from the trees. "Feeling better, Kid?" He asked softly as he came to stand by my side. I shook my head. "Wanna talk about it?"

"What's there to talk about? We are nowhere closer to figuring out what is going on with Centipede and with Quinn, and we haven't managed to uncover anything new about who is funding them and why they are infiltrating the organisation." I sat down and the snow parted unintentionally. "We are hitting one dead end after the other, while I'm still stuck here, not even able to…" I trailed off.

He stood next to me, looking at the lake. "Being benched can be frustrating, I know. And as your S.O. it is my job to make sure that you are ready to go back on the field. And as such, come on, indulge me", he offered his hand to help me up.

I took it, and the moment I did he pulled me towards him, and pulled a knife from his back, almost materialising it from nothing. It was going straight for my head, but I managed to dodge away just in time.

But the moment his element of surprise was gone, he kicked me away, right on the spot where I had been shot. It didn't really hurt, but I still flinched instinctually at the contact. It gave him that second he needed, as he pushed back and reached behind him.

His collapsing bow came at its full length and he already had 3 arrows ready to fire. They came at me in rapid succession, and while I was able to avoid the first two, the third one I just managed to catch in front of my face. But before I did anything else, a section of it opened up and smoke started coming out. So, now, where I was standing and the whole surrounding area was so fogged up it was almost impossible to see anything. And the darkness of the night didn't help at all.

So, I closed my eyes and focused on what I could sense through what was around me. The changes in vibrations, any sudden movement.

There!

An arrow pierced through the air, and I twisted left, as it passed where my shoulder was. Then another, and another.

I moved in the fog, which didn't seem to be letting off, because as soon as I started moving towards where I could sense Clint, he would send another fog arrow my way and the jump off, never standing in one specific location for too long.

So focused was I on Clint, that I almost missed the presence of Natasha coming at me from behind. I mean, I did kinda miss her, as she got a hit on me, grabbing me in a chokehold which I then had to manoeuvre out of.

With the two of them coming at me, this went on for a while. Me, trying to avoid their attacks and hit back without the use of my powers outside of detection, and them, trying to get me to give up. Obviously they weren't giving it their all, since it wasn't a real fight, but it was still pretty damn difficult.

My lack of sleep seemed to have depleted some of my energy, and I hadn't really fought that hard, since the only other fighting we had done had been in a more controlled environment since I was shot. But it felt like riding a bicycle, and while I was not at my very best, it was close enough that after what must have been at least 20 minutes of back and forth, they called it.

I landed on my back, my chest rising and falling rapidly, as cold puffs of air formed in front of me. "Thank you", I called out to the other two that had adopted a position similar to mine.

"We've all been there, Little One" Nat's voice rang out.

We stayed like this for a bit. Until I couldn't help myself anymore. "Does that mean I can go back?"

"Well…" Clint started. "As long as you try not to get yourself killed again—"

"Hey! Not my fault"

"—or promise to be more careful—", Natasha continued…

"I'm not being reckless or anything, it's our line of wo—", my words got caught off by my phone ringing.

I took it out and saw it was May. I thought she was on a mission?, I mentally asked myself as I pressed green. She and I hadn't talked for a couple of days, nor had I heard anything new…

"Hey, May. What—?"

"Centipede has Coulson", her voice rang through the valley, loud enough for the others to hear as well, despite not having it on speaker.

"Wait, wait, what do you—?", I stuttered.

"Phil is gone, Skye. And we need to find him ASAP"

AN.2: Oh, look. A plot!