Chapter Ten:

A/N: I had to delete Chapters 8/9, because I forgot something in between, whoops ;) Enjoy!

"Eyewitnesses claim the assailant smashed through several walls before killing Columbia's most notorious drug lord, Alejandro Castillo a.k.a., El Dogo." A reporter spoke from a newscast that was playing from the hotel's television set.

Fitz, Skye, and Selena were sitting on the bed, watching the newscast. Though Skye was mainly focusing on what she was doing with her laptop. Jemma was sitting on the other bed, working on something, but listening to the report.

"Speculation continues as to whether or not this superhuman assassination was carried out by a man, monster, or machine." The news showed a picture of Mike Peterson before Fitz shut the tv off entirely.

"The correct answer is 'D', all of the above." He said, turning to Skye and Simmons. "What would Deathlok be doing in Bogota?"

"And why would he kill a drug lord with known ties to Hydra?" Simmons added on.

"Well, if they really are in Columbia, then Garrett and our highjacked plane might not be in American airspace." Skye figured. "I have to expand our search."

"Guys." Phil knocked on the door. "You want to come in here for a minute?"

"Here you go, Selena." Fitz handed the child the remote. "Watch some tv."

"And don't leave this room." Skye added before they left.

Selena just shook her head at her sister's overprotectiveness and turned the tv back on, channel surfing until she found one of her favorite tv shows: Caso Cerrado.

This particular episode looked very interesting, so she kicked off her shoes and leaned against the headboard, ready to take in the action, not at all interested in what was going on in the next room.

"This is just about everything we've been dealing with." Coulson pointed to a particular part of a diagram he had made and presented on a pad of paper mounted on a tripod. "And this." He pointed to a section that was blank. "Connects them all."

He scribbled the word, Cybertek, inside the circle and drew a line, connecting it to everything else.

"Cybertek built Deathlok, shipped items to Quinn, who was working for The Clairvoyant, who turned out to be Garrett, who planted Ward on our bus, because he wanted to know why I didn't stay dead….should've drawn another chart for this part."

"No." Fitz shook his head. "I get it. Garrett's been developing centipede serum all this time."

"Yes."

"And he wants GH-325 as its final ingredient, a way to stabilize and regenerate his centipede soldiers." Jemma added.

"And it's why Ward came back for the hard drive." May said. "It had all of your research about Coulson and Skye. It's all on there."

"But that's not the only thing on there. Skye left them a little surprise."

"A Trojan horse." Skye added to what Coulson was referring to. "It's been slowly mapping every system they've uploaded it to."

"Well, that's brilliant." Fitz smiled.

"A Trojan horse?" Jemma was just as excited.

"You can wake it up and take over three systems."

"Well done, Skye."

"Yeah, thanks." Skye smiled for a minute before she added, "Except it doesn't work that way because I didn't have enough time to build it, so we need to plug this into one of their computers to activate it." She pulled a flash dive from out of her pocket. "Spoiler alert, we can't seem to find one."

"I think we have." May smiled. "Garrett and Cybertek have been working together for years. If it's on Garrett's system…"

"It's on Cybertek's."

"Which is why we're gonna go into one of their offices."

"We have no authority to do this." Coulson let everyone know. "We're no longer S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, we're—"

"—We're vigilantes." Fitz finished for him.

"I was gonna say 'doing this because it's the right thing to do', but…yeah. So if you're with me, I'm gonna finish what I started. I'd be an idiot if I let Garrett and Ward get away with murder." Coulson spoke before he quickly added, "And I want my plane back."

"Okay. We'll see you this afternoon." Coulson hung up the phone before making his way over to Fitz and Skye, who were sitting in lounge chairs by the pool. "We're on with the R7D department up at Cybertek's Palo Alto offices."

At those words, Fitz groaned and slouched against the chair he was sitting in.

"It'll be okay Fitz." Skye assured him. "No matter how deep they dig, they'll only find the new identities I've created."

"It's not that. It's the idea of giving them access to all of our designs."

"We're not actually giving them anything." Coulson informed him. "We just need to get inside, so we can plug Skye's flash drive into one of their computers. You don't have to go."

"It's not that, either." Fitz shook his head. "It's Ward. What if Garrett put an exploding eye into him to control him? Maybe that's why he betrayed us."

"I'm pretty sure there's a much simpler reason." Skye wasn't going make any excuses for Ward. "He's evil."

"Well, I don't believe people are born evil."

That conversation seemed to come to end once Trip was found making his way over to them, lugging a suitcase. "Hey." He greeted. "Sorry it took so long. My mom's real sentimental about grandad's Howling Commando stuff."

The three looked at each other grinned before trudging back to the hotel room to see what was inside.

"Oh my goodness. Is that a handheld hypo-beam?" Coulson fanboyed over some of the items in the suitcase once it was opened.

"One of the original betas." Trip told him proudly. "See how it has the switch on the bottom?"

"The production models moved it to the side. This is amazing…." Even May couldn't help but smile at Coulson's blatant excitement. "Almost as cool as the ….."

"Transistorized blast gun." He and Trip spoke at the same time before laughing.

"Ah, ha ha." Skye fought not to roll her eyes at their weirdness. "Okay. The two of you can get a room later, but we have a plane to catch."

Selena, who had been taking a much needed catnap, was awoken by their voices and rolled over with an annoyed groan.

"Seriously?" Coulson looked at Skye as if she had an explanation. "She can sleep through gunfire, but she wakes up when someone is having a normal conversation?"

Skye just shrugged and threw an arm over the tired girl's shoulder when she came over. "You've been sleeping for a while."

Selena yawned and nodded, rubbing the sleep from her eyes in an attempt to wake herself up.

"If you're still sleepy, you can lay back down for a few more minutes."

Trip, who was still feeling guilty about throwing her into the pool, moved the suitcase further down the bed, so that Selena could lay across the top. "Come over here, if you don't want to go back to sleep, you can still look."

Selena nodded and with a gentle nudge, she laid down, resting her head on her arms, so that she could see everything that was in the suitcase.

Fitz had managed to pick something up and was just about to use it, when Coulson took it from him and shook his head. "No."

"Where did they buy this stuff?" Skye questioned, picking up what looked to her like a joy buzzer. "From the back of a comic book?"

"Come on girl, that's not really a joy buzzer. That's—" But before Trip could take it from her, she pressed the button, causing every lightbulb in the room to blow out. "—An E.M.P. It knocks power out in about a ten food radius."

Skye at least had the decency to look sheepish.

"Yeah, a lot of vintage S.H.I.E.L.D. spy craft was designed to look innocent in case a spy was caught." Fitz spoke with silly looking goggles over his eyes. "Like, um…." He searched for something in particular. "Okay, like these smokes." He held up a pack of cigarettes, taking one out of the bunch and twisting it, activating a laser beam.

"Thanks Trip." Coulson was still so clearly amazed. "This is a huge help. Gives us a fighting chance against these bad guys."

Hehehehe. Bad guys.

In no time at all, the fire alarm went off and the two men turned to see a curtain on fire.

A product of Fitz and his little laser beam.

"Oh Fitz." Jemma shook her head, wondering how they were even on the same wave length sometimes.

"Watch out Hydra. Here we come." May muttered over the utter chaos in the room.

"I told you we should've gone in." Fitz muttered from he and Jemma's place in a truck.

"Oh, hush." Jemma rolled her eyes. "May barely looks a day over….." She trailed when Fitz motioned towards the radio in her hand. "…thirty."

Inside the Cybertek building, May, having heard the exchange, tilted her head and rolled her eyes.

"You're gorgeous." Jemma added.

Inside a different truck, at a different rendezvous point, Skye, Trip, and Selena were tracking everything inside the building.

"Score one for the Howling Commandos." The former member of The Rising Tide spoke as she typed away on her laptop. "Your grandpa's pin should help me locate Cybertek's mainframe."

"I didn't know they had wi-fi back in the day." Trip commented.

"They didn't. That's the beauty of the pin. It uses UHF to search for data. Nobody's ever scanning those frequencies for potential leaks." Skye laughed, looking at a message that had just popped up on her screen. "That's weird. I'm not finding any digital data about anything, let alone a source for it. How is that possible?"

"Maybe it's protected? Or…..insulated somewhere inside?"

"Guys?" Skye picked up her radio to communicate with Coulson and May on the inside. "Just keep them busy a minute longer."

"Okay, now, show them the I.C.E.R. bullet." Fitz instructed, having heard what Skye just said. "I designed this to be powerful….." He coached Coulson to say.

The older agent immediately began to parrot his words after setting the bullet down on the table. "I designed this to be powerful, nonlethal, and to break—" Coulson accidentally mimicked Fitz's thick accent and had to correct himself. "—break up under subcutaneous tissue."

"And my challenge was that it could only hold a dose of—" Simmons coached May.

"—Eighty-five micrograms of Dendrotoxin." May spoke. "He should have run the specs by me before building the molds. But I think we can all agree that the true beauty is in my hyper concentrated Dendrotoxin formula—"

"—My cartridge case ejection system, obviously."

"Dendrotoxin formula with compressed air expulsion."

The two techs running the interview gave them a funny look, not knowing that they were just repeating everything they were being told to say.

"We've seen one of these bullets before." One said, stopping them from rambling any further. "What did they use it with?"

"The sleepy-sleepy gun, I think." The other supplied.

"That's right. Our team took this rudimentary concept and converted it into an aerosol grenade. Much more useful."

"Yes, but this is an I.C.E.R. Triple the stopping power and a much cooler….name."

"What else do you have?"

Luckily, they didn't have to answer that question. "Here we go." Skye was finally able to pull up the building's schematics. "Building permits Cybertek's filed in the city. There's something funky about the fourth floor. Only one way in or out. Extra reinforced security door."

"That's got to be it, right?" Trip looked over her shoulder.

"Coulson? May?" Skye spoke into her radio. "Can you get to the fourth floor?"

"It's a shame it didn't work out." Coulson smiled politely as he and May left the conference room.

"It is."

"So lovely meeting you both." May sent a look Coulson's way as she took notice of the security guard that was following them into the elevator.

And in true Philinda fashion, once the elevator doors closed, they knocked the guard out and had the elevator go to the fourth floor before dragging the man's unconscious body out with them.

"Does your sweater itch?' May asked.

"A little bit."

The two trekked down a hallways and turned a corner, finding another guard patrolling the hallways.

The guard quickly took off towards the red phone in the middle of the hallway at the same time May began to do the same.

But, you know, this poor guy didn't stand a chance against the Calvary. He did reach the phone, but May expertly kicked it out of his hand, knocked him out cold, and hung the phone back up all in one breath.

"I don't know if I've said this enough, but…..I'm glad you're back."

The two exchanged smiles before Coulson pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and smirked.

"Try not to set the drapes on fire." May joked seriously.

Coulson managed to cut both a door handle and the lock, allowing them entrance into a dark room. "Skye, I think I know why you couldn't find the mainframe…there isn't one."

"What do you mean, there isn't one?"

"All their files are hard copies." Coulson looked around and the dozens upon dozens of rows of filing cabinets that filled up the room.

"That's why Granny was typing during our meeting." May realized before she shrugged. "Well, we're here. Might as well look around."

After a few minutes of searching, Coulson stopped in front of a drawer that caught his attention and continued down the line, finding one that said, Cybertek Metrobank Correspondence.

"Hey, Coulson." May called him over to what she had found. "Mike Peterson's file."

"How can this all be Project Deathlok?" Coulson looked at another cabinet above that one. "1990? How far back down does this thing go?"

He pulled open the top drawer and took out a file that said, Cybertek; Open File; Model No. 1; Version: V1.01 (1990).

The two looked at each other in shock before opening the file and finding a diagram of a person.

John Garrett.

"Garrett was the first Deathlok." Coulson muttered, wanting to look through more, but knew they were out of time. "Let's go."

"Want some?" Selena asked her sister, holding out her sandwich.

"Thanks, Munchie." Skye took a bite, not even realizing how hungry she was before she took another.

"Skye, Trip, get ready for a large file transfer."

"How large?" She asked Coulson.

She got her answer when a filing cabinet came crashing out of the fourth story window, hitting the ground near the truck they were in.

"Selena, stay here." Skye took one last bite before she and Trip got out, helping Coulson and May zip line out of the window while Fitz-Simmons lugged the cabinet into the back of the truck.

"This family is super weird." Selena muttered to herself as she looked on. "Super weird."

"Look at this." Coulson pointed at something in the file as he and the rest of the team, save for Selena and Trip, sat around a table by the pool. "He was patient zero."

Trip was in the pool, trying to teach Selena the basic of swimming.

"Don't let me go." Selena whimpered, keeping a tight grip around his neck.

"Nothing is going to happen to you." Trip assured her. "I'm right here. Just dunk your head under the water so you can get used to it."

Selena pouted for a minute, but when she saw that Trip wasn't letting the issue go, she took in a deep breath and did as she was told.

It definitely wasn't as fun as it had been when she was thrown into the pool the other night.

She could hear the water in her ears, the chlorine stung her eyes, and all she saw was blue.

"See? You did it." Trip congratulated her once she came back up. "That wasn't so bad. Let me teach you how to tread." He led her back to a wall, before showing her what he meant. "Just keep your knees as close to your chest as possible, kick your feet and move your arms."

Selena gave him an incredulous look, but allowed him to bring her back into the middle of the deep end.

"Now you try. I'm right here."

"Okay."

"We've been looking at all this backwards." Skye threw the file she had been looking at down. "Garrett doesn't just want GH-325 for his Centipede soldiers. He wants it for himself. So he can become a real, live boy again. And if he happens to create an army of powered super soldiers for Hydra along the way, triple bonus points."

"How do we know Garrett didn't do that to Ward, too?" Fitz wanted so much to believe that there could still be hope for Ward. "Maybe he's been programmed."

"Fitz, when are you going to stop clinging to the idea that Ward's the victim and not the perpetrator?" Jemma asked softly.

"When I see something that tells me I shouldn't with my own eyes. We don't know the facts."

"You want facts?" Skye was completely over coddling Fitz. "Ward murders people. I should have let Mike finish him when I had the chance…I'm stupid and…weak."

"You weren't weak." Coulson strongly disagreed. "You had compassion, that's harder. We'll find him."

"Pizza delivery for Pablo Jimenez?" A young man, carrying a pizza box made his way over, interrupting the conversation.

"That's me." Coulson met him halfway to pay for the pizza as Skye stormed back to the hotel room with May following her. "Come out of the pool and get something to eat."

"Did you see me?" Selena asked excitedly, climbing out of the water with Trip. "I almost had it!"

"I did see." Coulson smiled and handed her a slice. "Pretty soon, you'll be able to do it all on your own."

"You're doing very well, Selena." Jemma complimented.

Fitz didn't say anything, but he did tug on one of her curls in jest.

"But Skye didn't see." Selena couldn't help the small bit of disappointment that had made its way through her voice.

"Why don't you go find May and your sister, and bring them some pizza?" Trip suggested, handing her a plate with several slices and some drinks.

"Okay." Selena brightened at the the thought of telling Skye all about how she almost was able to swim all by herself….kind of.

That little detail didn't really matter, the fact that she was improving so fast is what counted.

"Skye! Skye!" She kicked the door, unable to knock because her hands were full.

Skye didn't answer, but May did and she took the food from the child's hand to help her get inside without dropping all of it.

"I brought you some food." Selena smiled, still dripping wet from being in the water.

She was shivering too. The AC in the room was on full blast.

"Thank you." May smiled and took a slice, but Skye just stayed where she was on her bed without acknowledging Selena.

So Selena put the drinks down and made her way over to her sister, poking her to get her attention. "Skye, are you sad?"

May just watched with a content look on her face. Maybe Selena could get Skye to turn around.

"No Selena."

"Okay….are you mad?"

"Yes. Now, would you go away?"

"I brought you some pizza…..if you're hungry." Selena shrugged and grabbed her own slice, taking a bite.

"I'm not hungry."

"Skye. Eat." May spoke in a 'no nonsense' tone.

It took a few seconds, but Skye finally sat up and took a slice of pizza, angrily taking a bite.

"And you." May looked at Selena, who had lost control of her shivers, before taking her food from her. "Go get a towel and dry yourself off."

Selena groaned as if she wasn't freezing her butt off and dragged her feet to the bathroom, only emerging once she found a towel, wrapping it around her shoulders.

"Sit down." May, patted the space next to her.

Selena huffed and climbed up on the bed, smiling when her food was given back to her.

"You're such a foodie." May commented, turning her attention back to a sulking Skye. "Look, Fitz can't process the truth about Ward, not yet. What he said…it's what he needs to believe."

"Do you think Ward's being controlled?"

"Absolutely not." May scoffed.

"Neither do I. You know, I never gave you enough credit for this whole Zen-Warrior thing. But I gotta admit, it'd be nice to feel nothing right now."

"You think I don't feel anything."

"Look at you." Skye continued. "You're a statue…and you and Ward had a thing. So if anyone should be furious—"

"—I am." May grit her teeth and absentmindedly passed Selena another slice. "I am furious. But I'm not gonna waste it on a tantrum. I'm gonna mine it, save it….and when we find Ward, I'm gonna use it to take him down."

"Wish I knew how to use that Hate-Fu." Skye joked, but it didn't land.

"I'm up most mornings at 5:00." May offered to which Skye gave a smile in return before they heard a knock on the door.

"Trip ID'd a number of Cybertek shipments that ping ponged across the globe. Brazil, Cambodia, Syria, but they all ended up in Havana." Coulson spoke once he entered the room.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. used to have a base there." May nodded.

"I told you, we'd find them. We're going to Cuba. And Selena? We might need your help for this one." Coulson winked.

"Because we had to fly in low, we have to search for our plane on the ground. Fitz, Simmons, Selena, you have the maps. Do not engage under any circumstances." Coulson instructed once they had landed in Havana. "If you find The Bus, call us and stand down, or come back here and wait."

"We'll be careful." Simmons nodded.

"Understood, sir." Fitz added while Selena saluted.

"Let's do it."

Selena and Fitz-Simmons trekked off in one direction and the rest of the team went the other.

The three were diligent in finding their missing plane, looking everywhere they thought it might be.

Finally, they did find it on a runway miles and miles away from where they first started looking.

"Alright." Jemma led them to a booth with a payphone. "Let's call the others." She picked up the phone.

But when the operator began to speak rapid Spanish, she handed the phone to Selena.

"Hóla?" Selena spoke once she put the receiver to her ear. "Sí, me gustaría hacer una llamada de cobro a….cinco, cinco, cinco…..novecientos dos y mil ochocientos. Gracías y que tengas un buen día." Selena made sure she heard the dial tone before handing the phone back to Jemma, who gave her a grateful smile.

"Sir, we found The Bus." She began to speak once Coulson picked up. "It's on an airfield outside Able Santa María, packing up to leave."

"We're on our way." Coulson spoke on the other side of the line. "How far is that from our location?"

"About three hours, but by the looks of it, they'll be long gone by the time you can get here, sir."

"Get out of there, right now." Coulson ordered sternly. "Do not engage. Wait for us back at the jump jet."

"Copy that, sir." Jemma responded before hanging up the phone.

"Are we really gonna leave?" Selena asked the two adults.

"I know we're not supposed to engage….But, if they get away, we're back at square one." Simmons sighed. "I can't handle square one again."

"Garrett's there." Fitz informed her, looking at what was going on by the plane with his binoculars. "Which means Ward's probably there, too." He handed her the binoculars so she could see what he was talking about.

"What if we sent a dwarf into the plane from here? It can stow away inside so we can track where The Bus is going."

"Yes, Simmons, excellent suggestion." Fitz grinned. "We can send Sleepy. He's our best listener, next to you, of course."

Selena snatched the binoculars from Jemma and rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe they were flirting at a time like this. Dorks.

"Okay." Fitz pulled the binoculars out of Selena's grip. "I'll go get him from the car."

But as soon as he got to the entrance, Ward came out from the shadows and stared him down, making him back up. "Long time, no see."

"Selena, run!" Jemma tried to rush at Ward while Selena made a break for it, but Ward lifted her up and held her around her waist, chuckling as she struggled.

"I think you're all coming with me." He led them right to the plane and straight to Garrett. "Here they are and with a bonus." He put Selena down.

"This is our plane. We want it back." Fitz bit.

"Really?" Garrett mocked. "Just like that, kid? Coulson probably figure out we were using the barbershop." He turned to a soldier that was nearby. "Call Kaminsky. He'll know what to do."

Selena just glared at Garrett and lunged for Jemma, surprised that Ward hadn't even tried to stop her.

"Alright, let's close up the ramp and get this bird off the ground. Tell the pilot to keep it low in harrier mode until we're over The Gulf." Garrett noticed that Fitz had been fiddling with something in his pocket and confronted him. "What's he got there?"

Ward pulled Fitz's hand out of his pocket and almost scoffed. "One of those prank joy buzzers."

"Yeah, you know me, always joking around." Fitz pressed the button and caused all the lights to blow.

"What was that?" Grant growled, hurrying over the Garrett, who had been impacted.

As soon as Fitz had pressed the button, Garrett crashed onto the floor, Hard.

"An E.M.P."

"Looks like the jokes on you." Fitz quipped.

Ward rushed away for some help, but after finding no easy solution, dashed back. "Get back."

"I'm glad I did it." Fitz spat. "You hear me? You lose, we win."

"You're dead." Garrett grimaced.

"Well, no worse than you. And you don't have to take orders from him anymore, Ward."

It was in that moment that Selena realized just how much Fitz believed in Ward.

"Ward?" Fitz tried again. "Let him die. He deserves to die."

But Ward never answered him. "Get them out of here!" He ordered the soldiers. "Clear! Everybody out!"

"Coulson will find us, won't he?" Simmons was beginning to lose hope.

"Man won't rest until every Hydra agent is either dead or behind bars." Fitz answered her as they were led into the lab. Once he passed a chair, Fitz grabbed it and threw it in the soldiers' way to give them time to escape. "Go!"

Selena was in front, leading the charge, running as fast as she could, but stopped short once she saw Ward was in her way.

Fitz and Jemma grabbed her and yanked her through the pod doors and locked them, preventing Ward from opening it from the outside.

"Open the door, Fitz." Ward rolled his eyes.

"Ward, please?" Fitz pleaded for his friend. "I need to understand."

"Understand what?" Selena looked straight at Ward. "He's never been your friend. He only cares about himself."

"You need to accept the truth, Fitz." Simmons added. 'He doesn't care about us, about anything."

"No, I don't believe that. We're friends, aren't we?" Fitz was trying his best, but both Jemma and Selena gave him incredulous looks. "We've been friends. We've had laughs together."

Ward didn't respond. He just turned away and tried his best not to listen.

"I know that you're a good person, Ward. And you can choose right now to be good. It's a choice."

"I've got my orders." Was all Ward had to say. "Open the door."

"No." Simmons shook her head.

"Not a chance."

"Okay. Have it your way." Ward shrugged and made his way over to the panel on the wall. "Sorry kid."

"What…..what are you doing?" Selena asked. "Why are you sorry?"

"Okay. Wait." Fitz began to realize what Ward was doing. "Wait."

"No, no, no." Jemma was growing nervous.

"Stop!" Selena pounded her fists against the glass to get his attention.

"Ward, just think about this!" Jemma tried again.

"Turn around Ward! Don't do it!" Fitz was getting frantic. All three of them were.

Ward glanced at the three of them and Selena noticed a twinge of sadness in his eyes as his hand hovered over a button.

"Ward, please?!" She screamed, scared beyond belief. "Stop!"

"You have a choice!" Fitz yelled. "Look at me! I know that you care about us, Ward!"

"You're right, I do." Ward's voice sounded somber and that's when Selena knew there was no more use in trying. "It's a weakness."

He pulled the lever and looked back at the three, watching as the pod moved backwards and out of the plane.

"Ward! No!"

Selena let out an ear piercing scream as they began to free fall through the sky, crumbling as her small body flew up to the ceiling and banged against it at such a speed, she lost consciousness and was immediately silence.

Hóla? Sí, me gustaría una llamada de cobro a...cinco, cinco, cinco...novecientos dos y mil ochocientos. Gracías y que tengas un buen día. - Hello? I'd like to make a collect call to 555-902-1800. Thank you and have a nice day.

A/N: Did you see that coming? Honestly, I had no clue that when i started writing this, Selena was going to end up with Fitz-Simmons at the bottom of the ocean. It just kind of...happened. I knew she couldn't be with Skye for all this, so Fitz-Simmons was the next best thing. Hope you enjoyed! XOXOXOXO