AN: Hey guys! First of, many thanks to MegaDiary123. Also, I'm really sorry for the different update date. The dates are going to be weird from now on, because University is kicking me hard this year and I don't have time to do much else. So I'll update when I write chapters really, I am really sorry but I don't know exactly how often that will be. I'm really sorry for this. On a lighter tone, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

All rights go to Marvel

May's POV

After Skye changed the Bus' course to the Triskelion and after she talked on the phone with someone, my best guest was Director Fury, she finished up on her computer and then went back to her quarters to try and get some sleep. So I was left, once again, alone in the cockpit with my thoughts running wild.

I would have never guessed that my simple question about the lack of Phil's memories would trigger something like that. We landed in our new destination, still not understanding what had happened hours ago. Based on what her badge said, she was Level 9. But that couldn't possible be, could it? From what I knew only Maria, who was Deputy Director, had just as high a Clearance. But still, the badge and the code that she used to over-ride Phil's orders were solid for me to change the route of the plane.

Thankfully the Director called and Phil was let known that orders came from up high and he didn't question me first thing in the morning about why we were not heading to New York. After all he "trusted the system" as he himself would say more often than not.

We were out of the Bus in a moment's notice, Maria meeting us when we touched down to take Skye and myself… somewhere in the Triskelion.

"Where are you taking them?" Phil asked as soon as he saw Maria motion the two of us to join her.

Never slowing down she replied, "I need to bring Skye and May up to speed for a mission. It was a last minute thing, which is why we rushed you here. Don't worry, we will not steal them from you, I just need them for the day and they will be back with you before you say 'S.H.I.E.L.D.'" She didn't even slow down as she spoke and Phil was soon left far behind.

We walked in an elevator, scanning our Clearance cards. When I scanned mine the system turned red, displaying that I had not Clearance high enough for where we were going. Maria had to vocally grant me access for this one trip by using her Deputy Director status. "I'm gonna guess that neither of you managed to get any sleep last night, but unfortunately we need to get this over with as soon as possible for you to get back to your team" Maria started again as she led us to a room with a table, two chairs at each side of it and a double-sided mirror. On the table there was a warm cup of tea and coffee. "When you are done, come and find me" she directed this last part at Skye who just nodded and went to sit at one of the metal chairs. Maria left the room and the click of the door closing echoed as we were left alone in the room.

I watched as Skye typed quickly on her laptop and soon after the mirror was deactivated and we could see the empty recording room next door. "How did you—?"

"I'm the head of cyber security in the organisation" she cut in, knowing what I was about to ask. "I have access everywhere security-wise. Cameras, microphones…" she trailed off and pointed at the mirror "…mirrors. Every surveillance equipment within these walls is already shut down. What we discuss is not going to be heard by anyone" she reassured as I took my seat. "The story is long and I'm gonna have to ask you not to interrupt me until I have finished. It might take some time, and I might need a small break at some points but after today you will know the whole story". I could see how serious she was about this, any sign of joking around had disappeared from both her face and tone. "Is there any question you have to ask before we start?"

Based on what she had said so far we had a long day ahead of us. So I really thought if there was anything specific I wanted answered, that it might not be included in the story that she was about to tell me. "Why were you so tense when Maria came to pick us up?" I had noticed that there was something between the two women, I just didn't know what that was.

"Well, that is connected to what I'm about to tell you, so how about we let that question answer itself later on?" I just nodded. "Good" she said more to herself. "That's good. Anything else you want?" Her attention was turned back to me and this time I shook my head. "Alright then, I guess it's my turn to speak" she took a deep breath as she laid back in her chair, hands crossed over her chest.

"When Fury send me in the undercover mission to infiltrate the Rising Tide, I was not just in there to make sure that whatever video they uploaded didn't really harm the organisation" she started. "Ever since I started working on fixing many of the problems that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s firewalls have, I found way too many holes in the systems and knew that something had to be going on. I confined in the Pirate and we started looking more into it. Long story short, turns out that many of the holes were made from the Rising Tide, but not only them. There was something more in the story and this is what I went in to investigate. I collected all the intel I could on the hackers working there, but I could tell that there was something deeper there. It wasn't possible for the whole of Rising Tide to just upload information and not get anything in return. There were way too many people involved for the Rising Tide to be just another hacktivist group. They had to be funded by someone. That's when I stumbled into Centipede.

"It was not those who funded them, I am still looking into that. But Centipede's money came from the same place, the same people. I was looking into that organisation when Mike Peterson happened and I had to blow my cover in order to save him" she bended down and took a file out of the backpack she had brought in with her. She slid it towards me and when I caught it she pointed at it. "This is everything we know about the Rising Tide, Centipede and whoever might be behind them. It's not much but it's something"

I opened the file and started going through the information inside. "You might question why we have several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in there are marked as 'Unknown'. That is because our main suspicion at the moment is that we have a leak from inside the organisation. And unfortunately, mostly everyone we have a question-mark on is in a pretty high Clearance Level"

My eyes darted from face to face, reading every name in the file fast as I took in everything she was saying. I knew those people, I had worked with most of them when I was still in the field before 2008. There were people I trusted, people I knew had my back back in the day.

If what Skye was implying, or outright saying, was true then it meant that we were in deep.

But still, that doesn't explain what that had anything to do with her reaction yesterday or how she connected the fact that Amador asked for what happened to Phil with what she was showing to me now. Or why she sealed the files from our latest mission.

She must have read it in my face, or waited long enough for me to put the pieces together, because her resuming was just answering the questions that were rising in my mind. "I suspect that the same people who controlled Amador, are the same or are at least connected to the people that we are looking for. And what you told me that she asked you… that unfortunately only makes me think that there are, indeed, people within S.H.I.E.L.D. that are working against us" she let out a sigh and once again she bended to take another file off her backpack.

At that moment I analysed her movement, noticing her posture become more tense, her grip on the file she just took out so tight that her knuckles had turned white. I raised an eyebrow at that, pointedly looking at her hands. She looked down and relaxed her grip at the paper, as she placed the new file on the table, but didn't throw it my way.

"The reason…" she started again and my gaze traveled from her fingers to her face, as she took a deep breath. "The reason why I reacted like that yesterday, or at least earlier today, is entirely because of what Amador told you. There are only four, now five…" she said her eyes locking with mine, "…people who know what happened to Phil. All of whom were sworn to secrecy and have the highest of Clearance. This document…" her finger tapped on the file in front of her, "…is a Level 9 Classified document of what really happened. Not even the Secretary has access to this file, because of how important and delicate the information within it is"

After taking another deep breath, she threw the file my way. I tentatively took it and started reading the information. Information about a drug, GH-325, which originated from the blood of a blue alien that was secured in a secret location. Documents of all the tests, the experiments, the craziness that the people who took that drug succumbed in.

The more I read the more I understood what happened. As if struck by lightning I lifted my head to look at Skye. She, in her turn, was analysing me so as to see my reaction. "He really died" I concluded and the nod that I received was enough for a crashing feeling to fill my chest. No… it couldn't be, I thought.

I noticed how, when Skye nodded, her jaw clenched.

Her steel mask was on, trying to hide what feelings were crushing through her veins. She was looking straight at me, as if she could create a hole in my head just by staring. The same thing Natasha used to do when she had something to hide, she was still doing that only in a lessen manner. "What are you not telling me?" I actually asked, and not demanded for the first time in a long time.

I instantly noticed how Skye's hands started to tremble ever so slightly and she quickly hid them away, under the desk. I could tell that she felt like she had a lump in her throat from the way she was swallowing.

After what seemed like minutes from my part but couldn't have been more than a few seconds, she opened her mouth. "When that Alien Nazi attacked, he had a sceptre. When he touched people with that, he could control them" she said. I could tell that was the something she was really struggling to talk about. Her breathing coming, ever so slightly, faster. "I was one of those people"

Please tell me that this is not going where I think this is going, I mentally begged to no-one in particular, hoping that what I had just assumed was wrong. Memories of a young girl who touched people and controlled them flashed in the back of my mind.

"I was ordered to protect Loki, make sure the plan he had came to fruition" she paused. Her eyes glazed over, as her mind was a million miles away, to events that happened years ago. I knew that look. I saw it in the mirror so many times after what happened in Bahrain. "Phil tried to stop him". I could feel the punch that was about to land in my stomach, but could do nothing to stop it. "I killed him"

The air left my lungs in a whoosh and I felt the time stop for a while. The degrading feeling that was creeping up my spine finally taking a hold. She didn't stop though, she continued speaking and I had a feeling that she was trying to get the words out before she lost her nerve. "That's the reason why he doesn't remember me. The Avengers don't know he is alive. Natasha and Clint don't know. And when they used the Memory Overwriting Machine to make him forget the operation used to bring him back, they used it to erase me from his memories as well" She scoffed at that, her mask breaking ever so slightly to show her irritation. "Because, apparently, 'He would look for me, knowing I would blame myself and the whole operation would have been blown up'".

I could tell that those words came from another and I was 90 percent sure who those words might have come from. "Who—?"

"Fury" she answered and my speculations were verified. "Maria was in the know as well, but she was just following orders. It was the Pirate's doing"

Suddenly all the pieces that I was missing, all the questions that I couldn't answer, everything made sense. The reason why Skye was so uptight when Fury came in the Bus after the 0-8-4 operation, why when we walked in the Triskelion she was practically looking anywhere but at Maria's direction. The tiredness that I had noticed the first time I saw her after all those years, that look in her eyes that I had only managed to get a glimpse of when she exited Phil's office after the first mission. I could see myself, years ago, in her. After what happened in Bahrain, I was a mess and I guess that this is what she felt as well, but she probably had it way worse than I did. Being the one being controlled, remembering everything that happened at that time and having to… kill Phil.

"Please, say something" she whispered and there was a vulnerability in her voice that I had years to hear.

In that moment I made a decision that I was not going to get back from, but I knew was the right one. "I am guessing you have been wondering why I don't like being called 'The Calvary'" I started and watched as her eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly before relaxing once again. "I can tell that you have been wanting to ask and yet you haven't. Thank you for that" I said genuinely and even let the corners of my lips tilt upwards, catching Skye by surprise.

I took a deep breath as I let the memories rise ever so briefly. "It was six years ago, two years after you disappeared. We were called in with Phil, to be the welcome wagon and try to bring a powered person in before the Russians did. Her name was Eva Belyakov. We believed she had hand strength, but we couldn't be sure. It went bad really quickly. Phil was trying to talk her down, but a street gang came, she was part of that gang, and they took her and a girl" I took a deep breath at the memory of Katya. "She must have been, what… eight, nine? She was younger than you when we found you" I breathed out and looked at Skye. Her eyes were trained on me, focus never breaking. I could see the gears running behind those smart eyes of hers, connecting the dots. The reason why I was tense when she first mentioned her powers. I knew she knew, but she never questioned and that made it ever so easier for me to explain to her what happened. She never pushed and I was really grateful for that.

"Our agents went in, we didn't know what happened. Their comms were turned off, we had no idea what was going on. I wanted to go in, I was a Specialist after all. Go in, take our guys out and rescue the girl as well. When I went in, I tried to contact Phil, but his comms were offline. I was alone in there" I had mentally relived the scenes that unfolded in that building that it was easier than I expected to say the words. It was not easy at all, but I could at least form them. And even if not for my sake, I knew that I had to do this for Skye and that extra push was enough. "I found our guys but they seemed out of it, 'I need your pain' they kept repeating again and again" I said that sentence with more hate than I intended to put in my tone. My jaw momentarily locking and I had to stop before I managed to resume.

"That's when I knew they were controlled. Only I thought it was because of Eva. So I locked the agents in the room and went to put an end to this, I could see no other way other than take her out. So I went in and neutralised the threat. I took a shot right under my knee and a pretty heavy beating but I thought I could save the girl, save our guys". Suddenly I could relate to Skye swallowing hard when she was saying her story. I felt my throat close and I brought a hand to my neck to rub the area, hoping that the comb that had formed there would disappear.

"May" Skye said attentively. "You don't have to". I could tell that she meant it with wholeheartedly.

"I do" I replied without even thinking about it. She had done nothing but trust me since we met again on the Bus, never lying to me and opening up about both her powers and now this.

She must have picked up on my thoughts because she shook her head. "I don't want you to feel like you have to tell me anything just because I confined in you. Honestly, if the situation was any different, I would probably take a lot longer—"

"I know I don't have to" I cut her off. "I want to" and I made sure she could see that I meant it. Only when she nodded I continued. "It turned out that Katya, the girl, was the one who was controlling everyone. They compelled to her, with one raise of her hand she could make them come to her, she could kill them. I tried to talk her down, I really did, but she wasn't listening. She said she liked the pain" I could imagine my eyes in turn being glazed over as I momentarily went back to that warehouse.

"I was on the floor, heavily beaten from before, I couldn't even stand on my own. I looked around and she had all the agents brought in and I knew she was about to kill them all. She asked me to take her hand, closing in on me. As I backed away my hand brushed a gun that must have fallen there from when I was fighting Eva".

As I was reaching the end of the events, I took the memories and placed them back on the tiny boxes that I had them stored in. I had come to terms with what had happened, there was nothing I could do to change what had happened. The events of that day had changed me, though, and there was nothing wrong with that. "She was so young, but I could do nothing to help. The other agents didn't remember anything from when Katya started controlling them, they had no idea what happened. They started calling me 'Cavalry' ever since"

I pushed my chair back and stood up. Skye was quick to mimic my move. I rounded the table and went to stand next to her. I could see her tense up a bit, not knowing what I was about to do.

"I don't blame you, or hate you, for what happened. For what you told me. I understand" I said. Skye was like I was right after Bahrain. And despite not seeing her for years, in that moment, I could see the Skye that I remembered. So I did what Phil did for me. I closed the distance between us and hugged her. Not tightly, just enough and I could tell that the move took her by surprise as she froze in place. "You have to let what happened go" I whispered to her ear, just as Phil had once told me. "You did good since then. Don't let this define you. Let it go"

When I felt her hands slowly wrap around my body, I relaxed into the embrace just as she did. Her grip on my shirt was so firm that I could feel the material wrinkle under her fist's pressure. "I missed you Mel"

I closed my eyes and smiled. "I missed you too Skye"