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Chapter Text

One of them was a blank slate and the other didn’t remember she had a sister – a best friend. They were both of Chinese-American descent, both had dark brown hair and eyes, both measured about 5’6”. Both looked almost identical, except that one of them had shorter hair – above her shoulders – and the other had long hair – just above her breasts.

Both of them not knowing there were major portions of their lives missing from their memories.

Both ignorant of each other’s existence.

Both left with powers and skills beyond their understanding.

7 years ago, she remembered nothing. She had woken up one day with no memory, knowing only that she was with Hydra. She knew that she must have had some kind of training, for there was no other explanation for the deep reservoir of combat skills ingrained in her muscle memory. She also found out that she could do certain things, but couldn’t remember when or how she learned them. She didn’t even remember her own name… if she had one before Hydra, anyways.

All she could remember was Hydra… but she had this sinking feeling that she was something before she woke up at 14 years old – at least she assumed she was 14. That was what they told her when she woke up.

The Doctor – Whitehall, he called himself – said that the abilities she somehow knew how to control were a gift from him… but she didn’t know when she got them, or how. She had to learn more advanced control, but she had muscle memory of the basics, so it didn’t take long for her to fully control her powers. She hadn’t learned how to use her power in different ways, but Whitehall had her trained to use them in all the ways it could hurt others or defend her and Hydra against whoever attacked them. They performed some tests to see how she was, then Whitehall said she had her own living quarters on the same level as the other field operatives.

When she first became a proper agent – a low level, but still – the higher leveled field agents told her she wouldn’t be able to move up the ranks because she was a powered person, and Whitehall’s affinity to her wouldn’t help. They would often remind her of it during training and during her first missions. However, she always found a way to remind them why she deserved to be there just as much as they did, and not just because their boss had taken a shine to her.

She meditated a lot, as well, feeling the vibrations around her, while tuning out the rest, so she could feel the changes in the vibrations of the air, letting her know if someone came or it was just a relaxing moment for her. At night, she tried to sleep, but she often dreamt of a forgotten time, one that was too far away from her grip. She held on to those dreams until she woke up the next morning, a lone tear falling on her cheek as the emotion around them stayed for a few more minutes, but the dream itself was long gone from her mind. Forgotten from the simple conscious mind, yes, but no memory is truly forgotten from the subconscious mind; that is where dreams live.

It has been 7 years since she first woke up at Hydra all confused and with no memory of who or what she was. Over the years she became the most powerful operative in Hydra’s arsenal, using her vibrational-based powers and assassin/combat training to do what her superior wanted her to do. Eventually, she became Whitehall’s head of field operations and security, though she would sometimes do missions herself when they were important to Whitehall or he asked her to take care of it personally so it could stay between them.

When she finally became close to Whitehall’s entourage, she quickly learned to hate Bakshi, especially when he treated her like a science experiment and not a full agent like everyone else. The two always argued ] and Whitehall would get them to stop. She didn’t know how Whitehall tolerated the insipid man, but he was still around, so she guessed he probably did.

If it were up to her, the brunet man would be as far away from them all as possible, but it wasn’t up to her; she served Whitehall only and he said Bakshi was his assistant so he stayed. She would have to tolerate him until she found a way to make his death look like an accident even to a surgeon such as Whitehall.

What was up to her, however – with Whitehall’s input, of course – was the security positions around the base and how field missions were operated. She became a very well-trained strategist and multi-talented field operative. She was trained to perform any task from any field position that needed to be substituted, which happened more often than one would think.

Skye didn’t remember Hydra. She knew what it was from the history books and stories she’d heard around, but she didn’t remember what they did to her. They took away all memory of what they did to her or her training with them. And they also took her sister from her.

Well, she couldn’t miss what she didn’t remember, right?

They had her for two years and when she woke up, all she could remember was living alone at an orphanage, bouncing from foster home to foster home ever since she was young. No sister, no Hydra, no training of any kind. But there was also this weird ‘thing’ that had happened. She remembered going through some kind of change… She now had these vibration-based powers that she could control pretty well. The powers themselves weren’t the weird part of it – no, they were cool – what was weird was the fact that she couldn’t remember the details of her change or when and how she learned to control them. Every time she tried to remember, it all became fuzzy and her head would hurt like hell.

She soon realised that she was overly sensitive to vibrations because of her power. She could tune them out, though, but when it was too much to control, she liked to get out of the city, as far as she could, to surround herself with calming and peaceful vibrations. She was also more sensitive to anger – more around me, from her time in the system – and did everything she could to not make an authority figure get angry at her. That fear had dialed down over the years, but it still set her off when older men got angry, or when someone touched her without her knowing.

When she was 16 years old, Skye ran away from her current foster home, trying to find her biological parents. It didn’t help that they were abusive bastards, but it wasn’t the main reason. She used the hacking skills she didn’t know she had – it was like she woke up one day and the muscle memory was there in her grasp – to get some intel on hacker groups with similar beliefs on freedom of information as her. In her search, she found a group named the Rising Tide, and decided to get in contact with them. They decided to let her into their group as a small-time hacker, which she was happy about. A few days after she turned 17 – she didn’t know her actual birth date, but the nuns had given her one – she hacked herself a bus ticket to a city she knew for a fact housed one of the best hackers in the Rising Tide: Austin, Texas. The brunette girl had admired Miles Lydon’s work ever since she joined the group, and wanted to learn more skills than what she already seemed to have.

When she got to the place where he seemed to post the most often from, Miles didn’t know who she was, but when she told him a few things they’d talked about over a communication server only the Rising Tide knew about, he invited her to sit with him and join his hack. After barely a few weeks of hanging out – she’d gotten herself a room at a cheap motel, using money she laundered from some rich organization – they’d started to have a close relationship that was developing into more.

She made the mistake of using her powers once in his presence to discreetly deviate a truck that would have crashed in a school nearby. Skye thought that he would have demanded she leave Austin and the Rising Tide and never contact them again, but instead he started asking questions, though most of them she couldn’t answer due to her obscure memory.

After two years of her learning from him and them dating, she told him she wanted to start doing things on her own, like all the others in the group, and find her own city to get based in. He was shocked after hearing the news, but he ended up gifting her with a van that was fully equipped with computers and everything she’d need if she wanted to live in said van. Giving him one last kiss goodbye, Skye then hopped in – using a license she made herself – and drove away to God knows where.

She ended up working out of Los Angeles in California, using the wi-fi in her cafe nearby to work – she’d parked the van in an alley, though she moved sometimes when she needed a break from the vibrations of the city – or she took her laptop to said cafe for a little pick-me-up.

It was easy to find a needle in a bunch of haystacks if you knew which haystack to search and what area to zone in on. After a while of hacking and searching every government agency, she finally found a document – redacted. She found out it was SHIELD and researched them, how they cleaned up problems like they never happened. She then started to search deeper into SHIELD, thinking she might find the original document, which she never could. When she figured the document must be too high in the clearance levels for her to hack, she decided to read what she could on the document. It was about her when she was dropped off at St. Agnes, but something confused her about the file… there was a mention of a second infant that was brought in with her. She didn’t remember a girl her age while she was at the orphanage… She must have been adopted pretty young . Skye thought to herself.

She spent two years in LA, using her skills to help the Rising Tide and still attempting to find things out about herself… there was nothing more she could find. She also liked to go into SHIELD's servers and cause mayhem before taking what she needed and leaving.

Skye got a ping online about something called Centipede… some research lab it seemed. She used her computer and tracked them down to a place not too far from her current location. Using her shotgun mic and phone, she spied on them to get information on what they did. That was until an explosion occurred in the lab, making everyone around her panic and causing the vibrations to become erratic. What she saw next seemed almost impossible, though in a world like theirs, it could just be. A man in a hoodie had grabbed a female doctor and saved her, jumping down near Skye to place the woman safely on the ground. Of course, she wouldn’t be a good hacker and activist – hacktivist, thank you very much – if she hadn’t caught all of that with her phone, and she had. The brunette posted the video online, leaving some breadcrumbs for SHIELD to find. She needed an in to their servers from the inside to hopefully find the unredacted file she had on herself. And it would be a plus if they dealt with Centipede at the same time. That way, she could get them to trust her.

“We have a problem,” she said, entering Whitehall’s office with a tablet in hand.

“What is it?” the man asked, leaning back into his chair.

“The Clairvoyant’s pet project Centipede. Or more precisely, one of their patients; Mike Peterson. My agent in the project said that Peterson told the ginger doctor that he was going public. Going out there and using his powers to be a hero.”

“What do you plan on doing about it?”

“Me?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him in confusion. “This is a Garrett problem, sir. If anything, what I will do is call him so he can deal with his own mess.”

“No. You will conduct surveillance on Mr. Peterson to make sure everything goes well. We do not need everyone to know,” Whitehall told her, and his tone meant that there was no space for arguing.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now go do something about it.” She nodded, and walked out of the office, giving a death glare toward Bakshi as the man entered the office. It was one of the main things that gave her joy, other than the fact that she had the authority to boss around the agents that used to make fun of her for being part alien.

The second the door was closed, she took out her phone and dialed her Centipede agent’s number. “Hey, it’s me. Do you have ways of locating people with that Centipede serum of yours?” she asked the man on the other line the second he picked up, not letting him speak yet.

“ Um… yeah. The doc is working on it right now. Should I tell her the Heads of Hydra are ordering her to hurry? ”

“No need. Just send me the location once you have it. I will conduct surveillance myself for Whitehall. He is worried the project is getting out of hand under the doc’s leadership.”

“ You will be on-site yourself, ma’am? ”

“That’s what I said. Keep up.”

“ Sorry. I will tell you when we have Peterson’s location. ”

“Please do. I trust that the doctor will have everything handled on her end? I will be there, but only for surveillance, so I will not be attacking.”

“ Yes, ma’am. ” Then, the line went dead and she groaned lowly.

“When have I started doing this kind of job again?” she muttered under her breath, placing her phone back in her pocket.

The young brunette went back to her quarters to get herself ready for the mission, as she expected them to find a location soon. Since this was a simple surveillance job, she took out one of her black shirts and pants with a leather jacket. She then went to her tech drawer and unlocked it, knowing she would need comms as well as a recording device.

Once that was done, she took the tablet that was in her room and requisitioned a quinjet to take her to LA. All she knew was that Peterson was in LA and she needed to leave soon so that she could be there in time.

As she sat in the copilot’s seat, she called her agent again. “ Yes, ma’am? ” the agent asked, having answered after two rings.

“I take it the search for Peterson is still fruitless?” she asked, knowing the answer for her question, but she wanted to hear him say it anyway.

“ I’m sorry, ma’am, we are almost there. ”

“You better be. I’m on my way to LA. Make sure the little doctor picks me up from the airfield when I land so she can brief me on the situation herself while we drive.”

“ Yes, ma’am. Uh… do you still want me to call when we have a location? ”

“Yes. Inform me of it the moment you hear about it.”

“ Yes. I will do that. ” He ended the call, and she sighed, placing her phone in her pocket.

Skye had been kidnapped.

Again.

Unwillingly this time.

And by Mike, of all people.

At least she got the audio to Fitz beforehand. So that was good.

She had finally given all she had on Centipede to Coulson, and he just seemed glad that she ‘trusted’ him. Then she had to get herself kidnapped, again, right after sending agents Fitz and Simmons the audio from the lab.

Mike had her drive him and his son Ace to Union Station, where they would climb on whatever train they could, but not before Skye erased any trace of them on the internet.

Like she once did with herself.

While she erased any data on Mike and Ace Peterson, she managed to hack into SHIELD again to send the team her coordinates, hoping they would get there on time.

Which they did.

But Mike attacked them, angry vibrations buzzing around him.

Mike, however, dragged her and Ace inside the station before the SHIELD agents could retaliate, though she made it hard for him to disappear when she kicked a guy in the groin to instigate a fight between his gang and Mike. That was also when Mike lost sight of Ace for his own protection, and the real fight started.

Ward engaged Mike in a one-on-one fight, which ended with Mike holding the agent in a chokehold.

Skye watched the scene from the crowd, and that was when she sensed them for the first time.

These strangely familiar vibrations, making her tune out what was going on and turn around to try and find where the vibrations came from. She didn’t see the figure watching the scene from the shadows, as she tried to find the owner of those vibrations, unaware that the figure was eyeing her while spying on Mike Peterson as well. She only turned her focus back on Ward and Mike when the latter sent Ward into an information panel, breaking the glass as he pushed him on it. He then proceeded to flip Ward off him, making the agent groan in pain.

In the chaos of it all, Skye ran, using the chaos to run off to the second floor, so she could open the doors and escape from there, but Mike leapt up to her. As he went to grab her, a police officer used a shotgun to shoot at him, but Mike dodged, before kicking down the door, grabbing Skye’s arm to lead her out. He led her along the balcony and through a door further away, so they were back in the station. Skye stopped and yanked her arm from his grip, but struggled to control the tremors that were begging to be released onto him. “You’ve got to stop!” Skye yelled, moving so they were face to face. Taking a breath, she internalized the vibrations, knowing that if she directed them into the floor, the building would shake – hard. “These people can help you,” she begged, hoping that he would calm down.

“The men in suits?” Mike asked, looking around frantically. His vibrations didn’t help Skye calm her speeding heart rate, though. “They're your buddies now? Where did they take my son?!” he yelled, grabbing her again to lead her to the edge of the balcony so he can have a vantage point to find his son. As Skye struggled under his grip, Mike looked for his son on the bottom floor for a few minutes, until there was the sound of a gunshot and glass breaking, forcing Mike to turn around.

Everything happened very fast, and Skye had trouble registering it all, as she tried to control the tremors begging to be let out.

Mike pushed her out of the way as the officer took aim and got ready to shoot, which he did.

Right in the shoulder.

The force of the impact pushed Mike over the balcony, his body plummeting down on the floor below.

Skye looked back at the officer, who turned his attention on her, getting ready to shoot again with the clicking of his shotgun. He took aim right at her and Skye felt her heart pumping hard in her chest.

Before she could form a single thought, her arm was raised at the man and she let her vibrations loose on him with a shockwave. The force of the blast sent him colliding with the bars facing the other side of the station.

Then she felt her before she could even see her.

May, a look of confusion painting her face.

Shit .

Luckily for her, the staring contest didn’t last long, as the officer quickly showed signs of getting up. May went to him and punched the man in the head to knock him out.

The older woman then gave her a look that meant they would be talking about it later, and Skye nodded even though she was scared May would tell Coulson about her powers.

This was definitely not something she could get out of .

Once they managed to talk Mike down – meaning Ward shot him in the head with a dendrotoxin designed by FitzSimmons – Coulson took Skye with him as they brought Ace to his aunt’s house while his father recuperated. Skye walked back with Coulson as Ace went inside the house after they talked to him a little. The two spoke as they headed to Coulson’s car: an old red Corvette.

Skye was shocked at how Coulson seemed to find it normal that Mike almost blew up and they almost died, as if it happened all the time.

They also discussed Centipede, and how it was highly unlikely that they – or whoever sponsored their little experiment – were gone for good. He seemed pretty adamant that they would see them again.

Coulson also brought up his offer of Skye joining the team, which led her to believe that May didn’t tell him about her powers. She wasn’t exactly a team player, but he countered that they weren’t really a team either, as if it wasn’t even an argument to begin with. If he just wanted Skye the hacker, then she might consider ‘hitching a ride on the crazy plane’, as she put it, and not tell him about her powers.

Not yet .

She wanted to stay Skye the hacker and not Skye the freak with vibrational superpowers, after all. However, he was giving her front row seats to the strangest show on Earth, which was actually what she wanted, since it could help her find anything she could about herself and her parents.

Skye tried protesting that he couldn’t teach her anything new after she hacked SHIELD from her van, and then the older man’s phone rang.

It was Ward, letting him know about something called an… 0-8-4…? Possibly.

What was that?

Apparently, she had 10 minutes to figure out if she really wanted to know.

Though how could they reach the airfield in-

Oh .

The really old car could fly…

Then Coulson had to make a pun about how the ‘tide was rising’…

What was she getting herself into…?

This was bad.

This was very, very, bad.

She spent the entire flight back to base thinking about what happened. After Peterson was shot, she called Whitehall to tell him, and he ordered her back as soon as she could...

Crap. This was not her day.

She analyzed what she saw, over and over again, and she was still pissed.

SHIELD had been there, and no one told her to expect them, not even that ginger doctor she didn’t like, or that idiot of an agent she sent down to Centipede to keep her posted.

SHIELD had shot Peterson in the head with some kind of sedative. To keep him from exploding. She had felt the vibrations emitted until he was knocked out from her spot on the second floor, and they were loud. And angry.

Speaking of vibrations, she also felt a strangely familiar set of vibrations while she was surveilling Peterson. She spotted the woman matching the vibrations and she was shocked when said woman turned around.

She looked just like her!

Well, minus the long hair and the bubbly smile.

She was confused. The vibrations were so similar to her own, and the woman was so similar to her, it was strange! She guessed she also had the same abilities as her, at how the vibrations behaved around her, and how she pushed the Centipede agent into a wall.

She would have a long conversation with Whitehall about it later. For now, she needed to discuss the details of her recent mission.

She couldn’t help but think about it! The girl was almost like a clone of her with long hair! 

There were so many possibilities… a clone of her… (unless she was the clone and the girl was the original) though it wouldn’t make sense, since Hydra usually killed people that were useless to them… unless she would be useful someday... 

She really needed to stop thinking about it...

Once they were set for a few hours on their way to Peru – where the potential 0-8-4 was – May went to find Skye in her bunk and knocked on the door. Skye opened the door and turned from her computer screen to look at the older woman, gesturing for her to sit on the edge of the bed. “We need to talk,” May said, though Skye didn’t need to ask what they needed to talk about – she already knew.

“Yeah. We can stay here. I checked for bugs already,” Skye said, repeating the gesture for May to sit on the bed. May did so, and closed the door behind her, leaning back on the wall.

“When did it happen?” May asked, not needing to explain what she was talking about.

“I remember being 13 but… the rest is fuzzy… there was some kind of stone covering me… then there was an earthquake.”

“Do you remember anything else?” May asked, though she wasn’t pushing, which Skye appreciated.

“When I try to remember more, I get this killer headache,” Skye explained, looking down at her hands. Knowing what would happen if she did this, she tried to remember where she was when it happened. “I think there was this… uh… park? It was…” The pain started as she struggled to remember. “Ugh… it-it was… uh… dark… n-no one was there,” Skye said, groaning through the pain as she spoke.

“You don’t have to hurt yourself to answer my questions, Skye,” May said, leaning forward to touch her on her knee. Skye sighed, as she regained her bearings from the headache. Of all the vibrations around the plane, May’s were probably the most soothing to her, and their close proximity made it easier for Skye to tune into them to soothe herself and ignore the roaring vibrations of the engines.

“It’s the only way to completely find out how I changed. The fact that the details were blurry was never really a concern, since I never really thought about it – these powers were a part of me and that was that – nothing else. But now I’m not sure… I want to remember… I just… I can’t… it’s like the memories aren’t there at all… like a blank – or blurry – spot from my timeline. There are certain things that I can do. I suddenly had muscle memories of skills… fears… things that weren’t there suddenly were… and I didn’t remember where I learned them.”

“Like what?” May asked, finding she was sympathetic to the youngest member of the team.

“I never had to learn how to hack, I was already good – enough to even let me into the Rising Tide. They did teach me some things but most of what I know is somehow ingrained in my brain. I suddenly got afraid of needles – so much that I might lose control of my powers if I get stuck with a needle. I almost dropped my school down when they gave me the polio shot. When Coulson shot Ward with that needle, I was so close to having a panic attack, that I had to remind myself I could kill everyone around me if I did. I also seemed to have enough control of my powers without even knowing how I did it. It’s like my subconscious is keeping my powers under control when my emotions aren’t going overboard.”

“We’ll figure it out, I promise,” May said, letting a soft smile paint her face. When an alarm on her phone sounded, Skye jumped slightly. “I have to go back on stick for a few hours. We can talk more later if you want.” She opened the door to the bunk and was about to leave when Skye’s scared voice stopped her.

“Are you going to tell Coulson?”

“No. Not unless you want me to.” And she left Skye alone with her thoughts until Coulson asked her to unpack her van so the tech people could take it to storage.

Chapter Text

Whitehall was furious.

It’s been a few days since she told him about what happened at Union Station and he was still mad. He had her on desk duty and security check-ups since the morning after she reported back to him.

To make up for the screw-up at Union Station, she started searching for Mike Peterson on her computer, hacking into every security camera or phone camera or social media picture she had access to, so she could find him. Even that was fruitless, however, as it turned into a dead-end.

How could someone be so off the grid?

Sometimes she dreamed of an escape from that life… away from Hydra and death and security maintenance and power-level analysis… but she knew she couldn’t. This was the only life she knew, and Whitehall was the one to make her into the powerful agent she was now.

She was the head of his security and field-operations, she was better than second-guesses and desk duty and-

“Quake, Whitehall says it’s power-level analysis day for you. Now,” an agent told her, and she sighed.

“Wasn’t that last month?”

“He wants it now.”

She really hated power-level analysis day.

This would turn into another bad day, she just knew it…

Skye didn’t like having to use her powers, but if she needed to, she would. She was glad the mission in Peru didn’t require her to use her powers, even if it was stressful. They managed to find the 0-8-4, but they were attacked by the Peruvian police, until Coulson recognized the Commandante, and they came to an understanding. To save them all from the rebels, Coulson had the scientists and Skye stay with May and Ward in the first SUV and the police followed them in other vehicles. When they finally reached the ramp on the Bus, everyone took cover behind something, and Fitz had his grip tight on the 0-8-4 – which they later found out was a Hydra weapon powered by Tesseract energy. The second the vehicles containing Coulson and the Peruvian officers reached the Bus, everyone ran up the ramp and Ward closed it to protect them all from enemy fire.

Little did they know, they had invited a second enemy onto their plane…

Everything seemed to be in order, Skye had joined Ward for a drink to relax, arguing that she was indeed 21 and could legally drink, when Ward noticed the Peruvians weren’t drinking from their glasses and seemed suspicious. His instincts were validated, as one of the soldiers went to attack him, and another one grabbed Skye. She wanted to use her powers to help balance the fight, but Ward was there and she didn’t want him – or the others – to know just yet. So, deciding to act like the supposed powerless hacker she claimed to be, Skye played along with the soldier that was manhandling her, struggling in his grasp like she would have done if she didn’t have her powers. She watched as Ward was unable to fight off the soldiers and they were zip-tied before being sent down to the cargo area, where they found FitzSimmons and May, who were also zip-tied, though May was unconscious.

Soon enough, they were arguing about the best plan of action. Though it was really FitzSimmons not really approving of a plan Skye had come up with. She was glad though, that Ward thought the plan could work, and true to herself May hadn’t really said a word. FitzSimmons, Skye and Ward argued about the best possible way of escaping the cargo hold, until a cracking sound stopped them mid-sentence; May had dislocated her wrist. She moved around smoothly up to the ramp and when the guard turned to look at them all, she slipped behind him and flipped him over the ramp before placing her wrist back into place. Once they were all freed, they all – except May – stood together and agreed on a plan of action. May, of course, had listened to the plan, but as they all tried to pump each other up on actually executing the plan, she was starting up the SUV to destroy the glass doors to the lab. Ward and Skye pushed FitzSimmons to the side so May could have the space needed to do her job. When that was done, Simmons went to open up a vent, Skye grabbed some equipment – ropes and harnesses – Fitz was getting the dwarf case, Ward was moving around, helping Skye in gathering equipment and May was opening the lab doors to the rest of the plane.

Fitz then activated a dwarf and sent it off into the vents so it could find the 0-8-4, and then Ward hooked FitzSimmons and Skye up together in the harnesses and ropes. The dwarf quickly found the weapon and Fitz sent a pulse from the drone, activating the weapon, which punched a hole into the side of the plane and sent a Peruvian soldier flying out of the plane. Having dropped pressure in the plane, the doors to the living area unlocked and the team could continue on with their plan. As Ward fought off the soldiers, FitzSimmons and Skye went to find the 0-8-4 themselves and May went right to the cockpit to gain control of the plane once more.

Finally, Simmons found the weapon and grabbed it, giving Fitz the signal to bring them back to safety. However, as wind blew into Skye’s face, so did the emergency paper that explained where everything was, including a life raft. A new plan forming in her head, Skye moved to unbuckle herself from Simmons, which confused the scientist. Skye, using her powers as best she could to keep herself balanced without raising suspicion, went to open up the red case containing the life raft. As she did so, she saw a soldier grabbing onto the ropes tying Simmons to Fitz. Without thinking, she raised her free hand and sent the man flying into the hole, and then she set back to inflating the raft. Before Ward could join the soldier in a 30 000-foot drop, the raft inflated and covered the hole, which pressurized the plane again.

Hopefully, no one in the team saw that she was the one to push the soldier out of the plane, she wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do or not, but she did know one thing: her team was at risk and she needed to act.

Once they were all safely back on course, Skye mumbled an excuse to go see May in the cockpit, saying something about making sure everything was ok, and the team seemed to buy it, so she took her chance and went to find the older woman. Skye knocked on the door of the cockpit, and was met with silence. “May? It’s me, Skye. Can I come in?” she asked, and May gave her an affirmation that she could come, and Skye did so. With a quick nod from May, Skye took a seat in the copilot’s chair, looking out at the sky. “Is it…?” Skye’s question trailed in her mouth, but May seemed to understand what she meant.

“It’s secure, no one can overhear us in here,” May assured her, and Skye nodded softly, letting a long breath escape her.

“I used my powers again…” Skye told her, still not giving the woman a look, but she knew May turned her attention away from the window and to her, from the flash of interested vibrations that escaped her. “A soldier was about to attack FitzSimmons… I didn’t have a choice,” she added.

“You did the right thing,” May assured her, and the younger girl let the woman’s calm vibrations wash over her again. “Why do you say it like you shouldn’t have used them to save a member of this team?” May seemed genuinely interested, so Skye decided to tell her.

“I have this code word, for every time I use my powers… I tell myself that I was reckless again. And today, I was really reckless… I should have been more careful in using my abilities. What if they saw me? If the people who did this to me are still looking…”

“You think someone did this to you? Gave you these powers?” May asked, and Skye nodded weakly.

“Like I told you before… I have these gaps in my memory, things I should know… details I should remember, but… but I don’t. The only way for this to have happened, is if someone did this to me without me knowing,” Skye explained, and she let the silence wash over them for a while. “There is something else that I think you should know...”

“What is it?”

“When we were at Union Station, I felt something… there was someone else there… someone we didn’t see. I felt their vibrations, but… they’re not like yours or Coulson’s or FitzSimmons’… they’re more like mine. It was like feeling my vibrations from another perspective.”

“What do you mean?” May asked, and Skye could feel May’s faint curiosity in her vibrations and in her voice.

“I mean, there was someone like me there, and I didn’t see them.”

“Could it be Mike? He was enhanced as well.”

“No, Mike was more volatile, this was different. The vibrations from the person felt like they were buzzing under their skin, or around them, waiting to be commanded. Kind of like mine. The only difference I could pick up was that the buzzing seemed more controlled and serious. What does it mean?” Skye asked, feeling confused about all that. She had been wondering about it since Union Station, but couldn’t get her head around it.

“We’ll figure it out, don’t worry.”

“Thanks...” The two then went back to looking at the sky. “The view is amazing here,” Skye said, after a few minutes of silence, changing the subject.

“Yeah. It’s peaceful.”

“Will you… will you teach me to defend myself more? I don’t want to feel useless again… like today. Plus, I need a cover if I want Coulson to let me fight,” Skye said, smirking a little at that last sentence. “But I’m serious. I want to be in control…” Skye added after a moment.

“I’ll have to ask Coulson, but I would like that,” May said, making Skye turn to look at her. She had a small smile on her face that Skye couldn’t help but reciprocate.

“Do you mind if I stay here until we land?” Skye asked, and May just nodded. The two stayed in silence until they landed at the Slingshot, where they all sat and watched the rocket launch the 0-8-4 to the sun.

She dodged a punch from an agent as he lunged at her, elbowing him in the back as soon as she was steady on both her feet. The agent stumbled back a little, and she turned to him, arm raising as she did so, before sending him flying with a shockwave and into the mattress set against a wall. At least she aimed for the mattress this time?

Another agent came at her, and she concentrated on his right knee before breaking it with a quake. The man yelled out in pain, and she sent him flying with a flick of her wrist, not strong enough to hit the wall, but enough for him to fall on his back and not want to even attempt to get up despite a broken knee.

There were two agents left to this part of the analysis, and she saw them both come for her at the same time. She used the momentum of the first one to flip him to the ground, and exchanged a few blows with the second one. They fought for a good five minutes, but the man was a level 5 at best, and she was the head of the department, he didn’t even stand a chance in the first place.

She knew that Whitehall gave a bonus in the salary of those who fought against her during power-level analysis day – a big bonus to rival her own paychecks – which explained their enthusiasm to get their asses handed to them by their boss.

In a matter of minutes, she had the second agent in a chokehold, and used a minor quake to deprive him of air long enough to knock him down. She then turned to the first one and sent a shockwave at his head to knock him out. “Very good,” the doctor praised, as she approached the table with the computer they used to monitor her vitals and powers. She never understood how they managed to do that… something about the vibrations of the molecules around her that change whenever she uses her powers? She didn’t exactly have an education other than what Whitehall gave her and what she remembered from her previous life, so how could she understand whatever they were talking about?

“Thanks,” she simply said, using a towel to wipe the sweat off her face. The doctor woman made her slightly uneasy, and she hated that. The redhead kept eyeing her like she wanted to dissect her, like she wanted nothing more than to cut her open and look at her insides. She shivered at the thought, ignoring any eye-contact from the doctor – Debby. It was the same doctor responsible for the Centipede project, and the Quake project, apparently. The two projects were directed by two different Hydra leaders, but she was involved in them both, just like Debby.

God, she wanted to quake her away from her…

Whitehall had her monitoring the Centipede project for him, from afar, since he didn’t trust the man in charge of it, claiming that he was doing it for his own benefit, and not Hydra’s. He was right, though, as usual, and she looked into the project even more closely than she probably should. It was how she found out about Peterson’s rebellion; by placing one of her own guys on the inside, though everyone knew it.

“It was good, but…” Debby trailed off. Here we go. “But you should maybe use less power when sending a shockwave into someone’s head. If you had used even a tiny bit more, he could have died.”

“But he didn’t. I know how much power to use to knock someone out, Debby. They’re my powers, I know how to use them.” She knew stupid Debby was right, but she wasn’t going to tell her that. What was she going to do? Admit that she shouldn’t have been rash? No! That wasn’t her style.

“Alright. Now, I just want to check how much power you need to block an artery or vein. Just… do it slowly,” Debby told her, gesturing to a contraption that was being set up in front of the enhanced woman. It looked like one of those water tanks with a tube sending water into another tank. She guessed Debby wanted her to stop the flow between the tube and the second tank, simulating how she would do so with a vein to the heart or any other vein in the body.

She concentrated on the middle of the tube, applying a little of her vibrations into it, seeing how the water would react. Sure enough, less water was starting to fill the tank when she did so. She then applied more, and it was like an invisible wall inside the tube blocked the water from flowing into the second tank. “Can you give me something a little more strenuous? That was too easy.” she challenged the redheaded doctor, who just smirked. She learned how to do that when she was 17, and since then they asked her to do it on every power-level analysis.

“Actually… I know just what to do,” Debby told her, the redhead signaling a scientist to go get something for her. “I want you to stay on target as long as possible. It’ll keep the vibrations in, so there won’t be repercussions, and we can monitor how much you put in and for how long.” She nodded at the woman doctor, and stood in front of the target, positioning her feet in a hard stance. She held up both her hands and sent soft vibrations to test it out. When she found that it did what the doctor said, she added more power into the shockwaves. She wanted to ease into her maximum power, since she wasn’t sure how long it would hold. “Go to full power,” Debby ordered, and she groaned, pushing herself to send her most powerful waves into the target. As she did so, the ground underneath her started to shake, vibrations from the shockwaves escaping to the ground as well. She lasted a good 3 minutes at full power, until blood started to leak from her nose, but she tried to ignore it. She wanted to flirt with her limits as much as Debby wanted to see what said limits were. It was about a minute later that she hit the ceiling of her power-limit. Her nose was bleeding profusely, and her whole body was shaking.

She finally let go of the vibrations, falling on her knees, her breath hard and shaky. She heard Debby’s voice call out to an agent to call for Whitehall before she greeted the darkness that came for her. She had never gotten this close to her limit, fearing what it would do to her body, but she was getting more and more curious about it, so she finally decided to do it at the analysis.

May came over to Skye’s bunk a few hours after they left the Sandbox, the plane completely repaired. The pilot had left stick, having placed it on autopilot so she could speak with Skye. “I talked to Coulson.” Was the first thing she said when she opened the younger girl’s bunk.

“And you talked about…?” Skye asked, hopeful that she neglected to mention their resident hacker was a walking natural disaster.

“Being your SO. What else did you think we would talk about?”

“You know…” Skye simply said, gesturing to herself, but meaning her powers.

“I promised I wouldn’t say a word to anyone, and I meant it.”

“Thank you.”

“Anyway, he agreed to let me train you. We’ll start you on the basics, so it seems like you are just starting off with field training. If you want to spar, we’ll have to go early in the morning. I also do Tai-Chi every morning at 5. We can spar after that.” Skye nodded at that.

“You want to start now?” Skye asked May – her new SO – getting up on her feet.

“Sure. Change into something more comfortable and meet me in the cargo hold.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Skye did a mock-salute as May left, not missing the small smile that appeared on the older woman’s face.

She made the freaking Cavalry smile! Success!

Skye quickly found some sport outfit she used when she would run on her more restless nights, and went down to the cargo hold. May was already there, training equipment already up.

When May spotted her, she gestured to the punching bag in front of her, so Skye walked over to her, taking the offered wraps her SO had in her hand. Skye twisted the wraps around her hands and positioned herself in a stance that was automatic for her at this point. To be fair, it was automatic to her the first time she remembered using it at age 14. May corrected the position of her feet, telling her they were too wide, then helped her position her arms better. “Use your whole body at every punch.” She had told her, after she tried a few punches with her old technic.

Skye tried May’s suggestions, and found she could have more power in her punches that way, without using a vibration boost. Once FitzSimmons were gone, she turned to May. “You know I could just use my powers and win the fight, right?” Skye whispered to her, leaning on the punching bag, just in case someone walked in while she spoke. She had checked for bugs already, so they were good to talk while they were alone.

“You’re too reliant on them. You need to learn to fight properly without your abilities, so that if you get kidnapped again, or anything bad happens, you don’t have to risk exposer,” May replied, gesturing for Skye to go back to punching the bag. “That’s good, just keep your guard up all the time. When you are against someone taller than you, like Ward or Mike-”

“A lot of people are taller than me, I am under the average size,” Skye pointed out, cutting her off. May gave her a pointed look, as she was slightly shorter than the younger girl.

“My point is; if you go up against someone taller than you, use your agility and smaller figure to your advantage. Use every advantage you have in a fight.”

“But if my powers give me an advantage, shouldn’t I use them?” Skye asked lowly, confused that May was somewhat contradicting herself at the moment. Even if Skye did keep saying that she wanted to keep them a secret in case someone was searching for her, using her powers as a basis to find her.

“You keep saying that you want to keep your powers a secret.” How did May do that?

“I do, but you contradicted yourself in saying that I shouldn’t use them, but I should use every advantage I have. They are an advantage.”

“I did say that, but you should still only use them when necessary, and become less reliant on them.”

“Sure, fine,” Skye said, going back to hitting the bag.

When she woke up, she could hear shushed voices arguing nearby. She felt very toned down vibrations, a mattress under her, an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose, and wires attached to her finger, chest and forearm; she was no-longer wearing the large number of electrodes from earlier. “Regardless, you should not have pushed her like this! What if it has repercussions? We wouldn’t be able to send Quake on missions if you have somehow rendered the girl’s powers useless for weeks.” The voice was one of a male, and she recognized it as Whitehall’s once her mind had cleared up more.

“Quake will be ready to go back in the field in maybe a week. I will have the scientists and doctors here give her a full workup once she is awake and, on her feet, but I do need to return to the Centipede project, we are still looking for a way to make sure our soldiers don’t explode.” This was Debby who spoke, the image of the woman clear as day in the brunette’s mind. No more words were exchanged after that, and she heard Debby leave the room. It was only when Whitehall was alone with her that he spoke again.

“Open up your eyes, I know you are awake.” She guessed that her breathing must have changed and he noticed it.

“Sorry, sir,” she said, as she opened her eyes and moved the hospital bed to a sitting position. “I shouldn’t have let Mike Peterson leave alive when the Centipede agent failed to take him in.”

“You are on very thin ice. Next time you fail a mission, there will be more than just a power-level analysis sent your way. You know what happens when you cross me more than once.” She shuddered at his words, remembering a time before she was the best of the best, in the first few months after she’d woken up with no memory. She had refused direct orders from Whitehall multiple times and she still had the scars to remind her to never do it again.

She still hated the job sometimes, and being Quake, but she had to live with it, it was the only thing she ever knew – or remembered.

She also hated paperwork.

It was such a trivial thing, but here she was, hating it anyway. She was the head of security for Whitehall as well as the head of field ops for his division, which meant a lot of paperwork. If she knew it came with the job, she might not have taken it. She loved going on the field and doing the work that was asked of her. Now what was asked of her was to sign mission reports, disciplinary reports, any and all kinds of reports that one could think of related to field agents, security, or just work in general.

However, as much as she hated paperwork, she hated those power-level analyses. She mentioned that before, but it was true, so she repeated it over and over, every few months when it was time, she would mutter how much she hated it, and would still go and comply with their orders.

She did like that she could send lower-levels flying around with her power without fear of repercussions during those tests. She hated the sheer stupidity they all seemed to share, and the simple act of sending them flying with the flick of her wrist seemed to calm her down immensely. Well, that was until the next low-level agent pissed her off and she was back on square one. But that was an issue for another day. Probably the next day.

She didn’t mind sending agents flying around. Cause as she said, she enjoyed it. She also didn’t mind pushing things around, even got to blow some things up on some occasions, using her powers to accelerate the explosion process or trigger the bomb.

What she didn’t like was the poking and prodding of the electrodes and the needles before and after the tests. She guessed they took her blood while she was still unconscious earlier.

After Whitehall left, she went back to sleep, hoping to feel better when she woke up the next time.

At their next mission, Skye didn’t feel the mystery person from Union Station again, and in a way, she didn’t want to, but she also did want to finally get to see them. She wanted to know why their vibrations were so similar to her own, how they seemed so much more controlled than hers. She was very confident that they had the same powers as her, with how the vibrations felt. Though they seemed very ‘agent May’ like, without the calming aura that came with the older agent.

Their next mission was to find Professor Franklin Hall, a Canadian scientist under SHIELD’s protection. From what she could gather, FitzSimmons loved the man, if the excited vibrations emanating from them as well as the physical bouncing they were doing was any indication. Skye couldn’t help but smirk at May, signaling her with her eyes how excited she knew the science twins were getting.

However, their excitement did tone down significantly when Coulson told them the man was kidnapped. Then, May was ordered to reroute the plane to head to the kidnapping site, where they could find out how it happened.

The flight to the site was uneventful, and Skye stayed with FitzSimmons in the lab, working on her computer to find anything she could to help. She did leave after barely a half-hour, though, claiming that it was to leave the scientists to whatever they were doing, even if it was due to the loud vibrations in the lab combined with FitzSimmons’ worried/excited/chaotic vibrations making her uneasy.

She hid out in her bunk until they arrived to the site, feeling useless.

Skye moved around, trying to find something to do, maybe detect something’s vibrations, if it was indeed invisible. She noticed Ward and Coulson asking questions to the agent driving the truck that used to contain Dr. Hall. Apparently, someone at SHIELD could have tipped off the people who did this, and that worried Skye. Who would do that? Who would have their own colleagues attacked, whether they knew each other or not.

She stopped thinking about it for a moment, when she felt a strange buzzing come from FitzSimmons’ direction. It kind of felt like the normal vibrations she felt around her normally, but there was something about them… something that she couldn’t describe properly. She moved over to FitzSimmons, where the weird vibrations were the most prominent. Apparently, a device in Simmons’ hand had triggered something when it scanned what was around them. Skye saw the small rocks on the ground float almost as high as they were. The science twins then did something and the vibrations were back to normal and the rocks were no longer flying, meaning that it was fine again.

The team went back to the Bus and started to pull at whatever string they could to find Hall, May even giving Skye a huge binder to read the communications starting at the time of the first mention of moving Hall.

At the end of their search, there was a good news and a bad news. The good news was, they knew who had Hall; Ian Quinn, CEO of Quinn Worldwide. The bad news was, he was in Malta, a place where SHIELD had no jurisdiction.

That was very very bad.

If they couldn’t get to Quinn, then they couldn’t find out where Quinn had Hall kept prisoner.

The team suddenly started to argue, trying to find ways of getting in despite the fact that any SHIELD agent going in was illegal. “I could go in,” Skye suggested, but she was completely ignored in favor of the ‘real’ agents.

“Drop me in the hills outside of Valletta. I'll spend a few weeks establishing a cover, gathering intel-” Ward said, but Coulson cut him off.

“Hall doesn't have a few weeks.”

“And to restate, any agent of SHIELD caught on Maltese soil can be shot to death with bullets-” Simmons said, cut off by an affirmation from Fitz. As they spoke, Skye had taken out her phone. They had found out that Quinn was having a party at his mansion in Malta, and she knew how to get in to get in invitation.

“Yeah.”

“Legally,” Simmons finished her sentence.

“Not me. I could go in,” Skye repeated her own words as she countered Simmons’, not even looking up from her phone while working on the invite. Coulson seemed curious my what she was suggesting, but the others… not so much.

“Skye, this is serious.” Ward apparently still thought she was useless. She had freaking superpowers.

“Wait. What are you saying?” Coulson asked Skye, cutting Ward off from saying anything else.

“Well, I'm not an agent of SHIELD, so I can go in without breaking all these stupid rules.”

“International laws,” Simmons corrected, though Skye didn’t seem to care.

“This isn't something the Rising Tide can hack, Skye,” Ward told her, clearly unaware that she was good at playing games with other, lying to them to benefit herself.

“Did you hear the deadly lasers part? Without a brave monkey-” Skye cut Fitz off before he could finish that. He really wanted a monkey, clearly.

“You said you could go in with a man inside.”

“And you want to be that man?” May asked, silently asking if she was sure about it. The older woman knew better than the others that Skye was good at lying, despite what she could make them think, sometimes.

“Fitz-Simmons loved the guy, and he needs help. They could be torturing him, or worse, making him do strength-training,” Skye said, letting her know that she was indeed sure about her plan. She finally stopped typing, having gotten in and out with the invitation.

“But you don't have the background or clearance or experience with any of this,” Ward argued, completely against the idea of Skye doing this mission.

“I know,” Skye said, showing off her phone with the invitation to Quinn’s party clear on the screen. “But I've got an invitation. Well, technically, it's an e-vite.” Ward wasn’t sure, but the others all gave her impressed looks. She was pretty sure most of them weren’t convinced she could pull it off, but Skye would prove to them that she could. She needed them to trust her, and she would get it, no matter what she needed to do.

Chapter Text

Getting in was easy.

Skye wore her nice pink dress and made sure that she acted like she belonged there. She had to do that her entire life, so it was easy for her. May and FitzSimmons were monitoring her through the comms from the Bus, while Coulson and Ward waited for her to disable the laser fence to get in.

Before leaving, she’d heard May tell Coulson that she wanted to go with him, but since she was just the pilot, Coulson decided to bring Ward instead. For now. Skye had a feeling May would request to be put on field duty soon, and she also had a feeling that Coulson would let her.

Once she got out of the taxi, she showed her invitation to the security and simply walked into the party, which was outside Quinn’s place. As she did so, she grabbed a flute of champagne from a waiter who walked past her. Another waiter showed up next to her with a plate of finger foods. “Hors d'œuvre, madame?” Skye nodded at him, grabbed something and all but shoved it in her mouth.

“Who are you?” a heavily accented voice sounded behind her, making Skye whirl around, swallowing the food in her mouth. A very important-looking man with someone who looked like an assistant next to him were both standing in front of her.

“Oh, apologies for his manners. He knows very little English,” the assistant said, apologetically.

“Oh, that, uh, that's… what… whatever. Skye.” Skye extended her hand to the man, who shook it.

“Qasim Zaghlul.”

“Big fan. You built half of Dubai, including the Arabian blade. I love that building. It's super sci-fi. Where's your wife…”

“Wife’s name's Nadrah,” May supplied over the comms.

“Nadrah,” Skye echoed.

“Twin sons.”

“She staying at home with the boys?”

“How’s she doing?” She heard Fitz’ voice sound on her comms.

“She’s good,” May and Simmons said at the same time, and Skye couldn’t help but smirk internally.

“It is a pleasure,” the man’s assistant said, while Qasim smile a little.

“The pleasure is mine,” she told Qasim and his assistant, chuckling, before walking away, addressing her team. “I could get used to this, people. It's like Siri, if it worked.” She suddenly noticed Quinn. “Skipper to Bravo. I got eyes on top dog. The Eagle is landing on it.”

“What are you doing?” Simmons asked, clearly confused. Skye had just wanted to sound cool, though it seemed like it didn’t work.

“Uh, sorry, I – I don't know. I see Quinn. I'm gonna go talk to him,” Skye told them, before walking over to Quinn and his guests.

“-I mean, that and its effect on the industrial average. That was good,” Quinn said, and Skye decided to use that as her moment to speak, laughing a little as well.

“Yeah, right?” The other turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow, but she focused her attention on Quinn. “Ian Quinn. I'm your last-minute party crasher. Skye.”

“Oh. Wow. Great to meet you.” Quinn chuckled as he spoke, shaking her hand, before addressing his companions. “Um, this is Skye, a member of the Rising Tide. They're a group of hackers. They've gotten some pretty big secrets out to the public.”

“I prefer ‘hacktivist’. I’m glad you’ve heard of our site,” Skye said smiling at the man.

“I read it. We think very much alike – more freedom of information, less government infringing on everyone's rights – I’m a fan.” Skye nodded, agreeing with his assessment of the Rising Tide’s beliefs, they were just not exactly hers. She had way too many secrets to believe that all secrets should be out in the open.

“That explains the invite. This is a tough party to get into.”

“Not as hard to get into as the encrypted back channel you contacted us through to request the invite,” Quinn said, making Skye chuckle.

“That's sort of where I live.”

“You've got to show me how you did that – I mean, if you sign on.” Now Skye was confused.

“Sign what, now?”

“I’ve been known to turn a few black hats into white hats, not just for vulnerability analysis, but for very creative thinking.”

“A-are you offering me a job?”

“Well, I didn’t invite you here for your pretty face. I didn't know you had a pretty face,” Quinn said, almost grinning. “Yes, I want to hire you before someone else snatches you up.” He then walked away, needing to head to the podium to speak to his guests.

“That seemed to go well,” May said, in her ear.

“Yeah. It did.” Skye then joined the crowd as they applauded for Quinn.

“Many of you shareholders have been with us for years, and I see a few new names here, but I want to thank you all for traveling so far to this beautiful country and, well, for slumming it at Shaba Tal-Banar.” The guests laughed at that, and Skye simply smiled at the joke. “This country where we are allowed to pursue progress and profit without the stranglehold of regulations that are now choking our world. The United States government, the RU, the DRTC, SHIELD – these are just a few of the institutions that are guilty of halting the development of new technology for anyone – except themselves. We dare defy them with a new idea, they steal in and sweep it out from under us. But not today. You're all aware of what Quinn worldwide has been able to do with basic minerals, let alone uranium or plutonium, despite these unjust restrictions that weigh the scales in the other guy's favor.” Skye suddenly walked off, being as discrete as she could. “Well, today, I'm announcing something new – an element that could balance those scales, and I mean that quite literally.” After she entered the building, she couldn’t hear anything about the speech, and she started to find Quinn’s office.

“It’s locked, but there’s no lock,” Skye informed her team with her comms.

“Eh, check for a keypad,” Fitz told her, and Skye checked, but there was nothing.

“Nothing. What, you can hack a keypad?”

“No, not over the phone.”

“Is there a reception desk?” May asked, so she checked nearby, finding a reception desk.

“Okay, yeah. Well, now what do I do?” Skye asked, not having noticed Quinn’s vibrations until it was too late and he was there.

“What are you trying to do?” Quinn asked, and Skye cursed herself for not noticing him sooner. So much for knowing a form of echolocation to track movement around her.

“Just looking for a pen,” Skye told him, chuckling, trying to make a plan so he would believe her and lead her inside his office. She moved to the desk to grab a pen, showing it off. “Here we go.” She chuckled again. “Got to write down all those good ideas, you know what I mean? Of course you know what I mean. Probably have like 10 pens for all your ideas.”

“What are you really doing?” He wasn’t believing her. She wouldn’t believe her, either, with this excuse.

“All right. I'm busted. I was trying to get a glimpse behind your office doors, see how things really operate.” At least this lie’s more believable, Skye muttered to herself.

“I invite you here as a guest, you treat me like another corrupt institution, looking for trade secrets to leak online,” Quinn said, before taking out his phone to speak into it. “Security.” Skye panicked slightly at that.

“No, no, no, wait. It's just, with all these la-di-da people, you have to be so guarded, so careful…” She started writing something down as she spoke, forming a new plan in her mind. “What you say, what secrets you reveal. And… I was hoping that you and I… could be honest with one another.” She finished writing, so she placed the pen down on the desk and she really hoped this would work. “If you know what I mean.” She showed him the paper, which read: SHIELD is listening. Skye saw the slightest sliver of understanding in his eyes.

Bingo. She would use parts of the truth to her advantage.

“My office had less space, more wheels. Wow, a view of the ocean and the pool,” Skye’s voice sounded over the comms on the Bus. Fitz and Simmons were monitoring Skye while May worked on the computer.

“Not a bad place to do business,” Quinn replied, and it was obvious he had taken her inside his office, which she was admiring.

“Got the dispatch leaking Hall's location. User's an alias,” May told FitzSimmons.

“Oh, can you trace the DHCP server-” May cut Fitz off before he could finish.

“Trace is running, but it’ll take time. Our girl?”

“I thought she was done for, but she’s just sweet-talked her way into Quinn's office,” Simmons informed her, clearly impressed.

“How’d she manage that?” May asked, also impressed. She hadn’t taught Skye anything about undercover work yet, but she was demonstrating more skill on every mission. Maybe this was another skill she couldn’t remember picking up? May gave herself a mental note to ask her.

“Pbht! She probably just used her, um…” He cupped his hands to his chest awkwardly as he spoke. “Uh… uh… her, uh… ah, boobs.”

“Ugh. That's the only explana-” Simmons was cut off from finishing her sentence when the sound of static came through the comms, making her panic. “Oh my gosh. The signal's dead. Fitz!”

“What – I didn't. She must've – Oh, lord.”

Skye dropped her comms device in her champagne flute, making it short circuit with a hiss, and she sighed as she sat on the couch in Quinn’s office. “Much better. Haven't felt that ‘someone’s watching my every move’ feeling since I failed my driver's test.” She was technically not lying about that, she wasn’t a fan of someone listening in one her, but what she failed to mention was that she was doing it willingly.

“You want to tell me what the hell's going on? SHIELD got to you?” Quinn asked after a moment, sitting next to her.

“They picked me up in LA, I helped them in a crisis, and now they want to recruit me.”

“Of course they did.”

“So I played along. Talk about inside info – I have a bunk on their plane. I’ve been gathering intel, biding my time until I could become useful. I thought this qualified.”

“Why would they trust you with a covert operation like this?”

“Something about SHIELD not breaking international laws. They had no other options, whereas I like to keep mine open.”

“You're saying they wanted to rope me in because I pose a genuine threat,” Skye said, raising an eyebrow at him. They had been talking for a while now, and Skye was just starting to get him to trust her and let his guard down long enough for her to get her team inside. It was technically true, she could pose a threat to SHIELD, but no one but May knew what kind of ‘threat’ she really was, though she wasn’t going to tell him that.

“Yes, and fit their profile.”

“Profile.”

“Sure. You're a criminal. You have a warrant somewhere.”

“Probably,” Skye said, chuckling to herself.

“Specialized skill set.”

“I try to stay humble but fail.”

“No family.” There a moment of silence for a moment, Skye looking down a his words. “I’m sorry. I didn't mean to hit a nerve, but that is what these people do. SHIELD – they prey on fear and loneliness and desperation, and then they offer a home to those who have no one else to turn to. I can offer you something better.”

“Do tell,” Skye told him, leaning into the couch to look interested.

“You stay with us, there’s no secrets, no lies, and no agenda. You're free to do what you do without big brother watching over you. But first, you have to tell me exactly what agenda SHIELD sent you in here with.”

“Well, they wanted me to do whatever it takes to get in here.” She opened up her purse while she spoke, taking out the compact before opening it to look like she was applying some more makeup. Fitz’ device was genius, Quinn seemed to really believe her story and looking like she was eyeing herself in a small mirror didn’t even phase him one second.

“Get in here and…?” Quinn asked, chuckling in a way that made it seem like he doubted SHIELD would think she could get in at any cost. It was exactly what she was doing and he didn’t even notice.

“Bat my eyes. Get you talking.” The device went green in the compact, so she looked back at Quinn and placed the device on the table to face her.

“We're in!” May announce, once they got the alert that the compact did its work.

“She's done it!” Simmons exclaimed happily.

“Fitz, you're up,” May told the young Scottish engineer, who was already on his way, speaking over her.

“Oh, mother of all things. Move, move, move!” Fitz basically pushed himself between May and Simmons, both of whom eyed him. “Uh...

“Aah! We need a reset here, Fitz!” Coulson told them over comms, but the engineer didn’t answer, so the older man pressed on. “Fitz!”

“Saying his name repeatedly does not increase productivity!” Simmons told him, watching her partner work as fast as he could.

“Okay, go!” Fitz said, a moment later, and Simmons was slightly shocked to be wrong.

“Oh, maybe it does.”

“System rebooting in two, one, now!” With the signal, Coulson and Ward ran up to Quinn’s place to find Hall and get Skye out of there.

“No, you can’t be the only angle. SHIELD’s thorough enough to know about me and my exploits. It takes more than a pretty face to disarm me,” Quinn said, now pacing in front of the couch where Skye sat, confused at SHIELD’s aim there. Suddenly, the door opened to reveal a security guard. He turned to Quinn before he spoke.

“Sir, we have a security breach.”

Talk about timing. “Oh, the timing on that was perfect,” Skye told herself, and Quinn moved to grab the compact, sighing when he saw the green light and he destroyed the device. He then pulled out a gun, aiming it at Skye, who kept herself from using her powers against it. She wasn’t a fan of getting threatened with guns, especially twice in a short amount of time.

He slammed Skye against a wall, gun still aimed at her, and Skye kept herself focused on her cover as a regular hacker. Not that hard when it was what she was, technically, if one didn’t count the powers. “Don't you get it? SHIELD’s against everything you stand for. They're big brother.”

“Yeah, well maybe I realized some secrets are more important to keep away from the public or some people. Besides, SHIELD helped me, you know, you kidnapped a person!”

“I set him free! I saved him! And I could've saved you. Tell me what they're doing! Tell me what they're doing. You have to talk. You have no other way out of this.” Quinn laughed as he basically yelled at her. “You're expendable to SHIELD They sent you in here with nothing.” Something in Skye clicked and she twisted herself, grabbing the gun from Quinn’s hand before pointing the gun back at him. May hadn’t taught her that, but she knew it from somewhere. Trying to figure it out would only bring pain in her head, so she tossed it aside, focusing on the men in front of her.

“They taught me a few things,” Skye said, to keep he charade that May was teaching her to protect herself.

“Kid's got balls,” the security guard said, impressed, but Skye was disgusted by the comment.

“Thanks, but… yuck.”

“But do you have what it takes to pull the trigger?” Quinn said, and Skye made a face that made it look like she was thinking. Of course she knew how to shoot a gun, just like she knew how to make the gun in her hand implode, but she needed to keep them from thinking she was more than what she let on, so she looked at the gone and widened her eyes.

“Nope.” Skye jumped out of an open window next to her and fell into the pool. She vaguely used her powers as she fell in to make sure she didn’t accidentally hit her head on impact. She got out of the pool, hearing guards yell that they had found her, and she ran off in the opposite direction while keeping track of them with her powers. A guard suddenly grabbed her and she panicked. She hadn’t seen or felt him, too focused on the ones running after her from afar. “No, no. No, no! Please, please!” She was about to quake him off her, damn her cover, but Ward showed up and attacked him, sending him into the pool. “Oh, thank God.”

“Are you hurt?” Ward asked, looking her over. May would kill him, if her rookie was hurt under his watch. Skye shook her head, wanting to hug him for saving her, until she remembered about the feeling he gave off to her, and she decided against it. “Just follow my orders. I'll get us out of here.”

They ran to the location they had gotten on Hall just in time to see Hall fall into the gravitonium and the device around it calming down.

Now they had to send it to a facility to make sure it never got in enemy hands ever again.

Once the delivery was over and they were back in the air to await their next mission, Skye went to the cargo hold, where the punching bag was installed, and wrapped her hands before getting to work. FitzSimmons were in the living area, May was still on stick, Coulson was in his office and Ward was wherever he liked to hangout alone with his thoughts, so she decided to go train to clear her head. She was alone in the room, but she wanted to work on her form that May taught her without her powers – in case someone walked in. She was good at punching, she had good form before, but she wanted to make sure that she carefully applied May’s suggestions to her training, as to not get bad habits. Skye then heard the door open and saw Ward walk down the stairs to join her. She still found him creepy, but she decided to keep going, even try and make friends with him; maybe he would let his guard down enough to make a mistake so she could know what was up with him. “You got siblings?” Skye asked, out of the blue, as he settled into observing her. She wanted him to understand she had trust and abandonment issues, she didn’t want to be left out in the dust. She was also desperate to keep whatever this team was. Ward was the one who had constantly fought against her being there, so if he understood how much she wanted to stay, maybe he would stop.

“Two brothers, why?” Ward asked, taken aback by the question.

“Curious. Where'd you grow up?”

“Massachusetts, mostly.”

“A house?”

“You didn't?” Skye stopped punching at his question, in need of water. She forgot she never told him she was in the system. “One house. The Brody’s.” She grabbed her bottle and drank a good part of it. “I was 9. Sent me back to St. Agnes after a month. Said I wasn't a good fit.” The bitterness in her tone was obvious, as she told him.

“Foster parents. Your first?”

“My third. I had heard it before, but… this one was different.”

“Cause you wanted them to like you.”

“Bad. I called her ‘mom’ once… tried it out. Guess it wasn't a good fit,” Skye said, as she resumed her punching. “Hoping for something and losing it hurts more than never hoping for anything.” Ward suddenly held the bag so it didn’t come back to her and Sky stopped punching it in favor of looking at him.

“We won't turn our back,” Ward assured her once he had her attention.

“Doesn't matter.” Ward released the bag as Skye spoke, so she could resume training. “I made my choice. I want this. Bad.” Then she looked at him with a smirk. “And I know there's a truth serum.”

“Whatever you say, kid,” Ward told her, smirk painted on his face as well. Maybe she could be friends with him. Sure, he was creepy as hell sometimes, but in moments like these, he made a good friend.

Two girls – probably 7 years old – were sitting in front of a couch, using the table in front of them so they could draw. They were in the craft room with the other kids their age, but they usually kept to themselves. Both girls had Asian features and were almost identical. The twins were best friends, came as a package deal when in foster homes, they were even more inseparable when they were back at the orphanage where the nuns could be mean to them almost as much as the foster parents they lived with. Not that they had much experience, they only had two foster homes so far, but the other kids sometimes spoke of their own experiences, and showed their own bruises. All the kids would wave it off, saying they could hold on until their mommies or daddies came back for them, that they said they would be back.

But that was the thing, for the twins there was no hope of ever seeing their parents walk through those doors and know that they came back for them after 7 years of waiting. They were dropped on the doorsteps of St. Agnes orphanage as babies, a few months old, really, with nothing, no names, no documents, nothing. That was why the nuns gave them their names. Bad ones. Very bad ones and they wished they could change them. Mary Sue and Annie Poots knew nothing about their family other than the fact that they abandoned them to live this life, to keep on wondering where they were or why they did what they did.

They spent hours talking together about how it would be nice to know their parents, live a normal life. They would also just sit and think on their own, relishing in each other’s presence, and it was nice.

Until they had to go back down to reality.

“Children, come now, it’s time for lunch,” Sister Margaret told everyone in the craft room, and they all walked in line to the cafeteria.

The twins, now 13, knelt on the ground, panting and sweating. “Again!” the man yelled, for what felt like the millionth time. The girls got up and faced each other. This was a fight until one of them dropped, and both wish it was themselves. The winner got a bigger ration, and despite the last year of crap they lived, they still wanted what was best for the other, so one would purposefully sabotage themselves so the other could benefit from it. And the one dropping was usually Skye – formally known as Mary Sue. Skye had changed it when she was 11, since she hated the name the nuns gave her, while Daisy – formerly known as Annie – received her new name from the man who took them. Apparently, Skye was close enough to the name they would have given her anyway so they let it slide.

Daisy and Skye exchanged blows, but this time, when Skye kicked Daisy in the chest, instead of catching it, she let it hit its target and she stumbled down. She was so weak from the week they’d had that dark spots covered her eyes the second she fell on the ground. I didn’t take long before she was unconscious on the floor, unable to hear the man’s angry yells.

She woke up with a start and she felt he covers of her bed, unable to remember the dream she’d just had. Suddenly, the memories of her conversation with Whitehall came flooding in her brain.

“You are on very thin ice. Next time you fail a mission, there will be more than just a power-level analysis sent your way. You know what happens when you cross me more than once.”

She knew exactly what would happen if the metaphorical ice broke. She had seen I first hand. She really wanted to be the agent he trained her to be. Be Quake, the Head of Operations. But now, now her mind was flooding with unanswered questions about the girl who looked just like her and the powers the girl seemed to hold.

She guessed those questions would always remain unanswered, or at least until she found the girl and questioned her herself.

With that in mind, she got out of bed and changed into her gear, hoping that she would get a mission soon, or even supervise one.

The next mission came up quickly for Skye and her team; a series of heists that appeared to be executed by one woman. What was weird was that she would always turn the lights of and close her eyes before the fight started. Skye knew she could do that to some degree as well, but only because she had powers, which meant that the mystery woman could also be a powered person.

It turns out that Coulson knew the woman as his former protégé; Akela Amador. The woman was an amazing fighter. Skye had found footage of the fight from a cellphone, and she was very amazed at how trained she was. Now all they had to do was find her. Easier said than done when the woman knew how to cover her tracks and stay hidden.

Chapter Text

They did manage to find Amador.

Better than that, they managed to save her. She had an eye implant that received orders from a handler, who could also detonate said eye if she didn’t follow command.

While FitzSimmons worked on removing the eye, Skye worked with Ward – again – to trick the handler in thinking that Amador was still following orders. They needed to keep the illusion up until the science twins disconnected the eye-bomb and Coulson could find the handler with May.

The mission ended up being a success anyway, thanks to the science twins, who disconnected the bomb right before Amador’s handler had time to make it explode. It was all very time-sensitive and they managed to get it all done mostly unscathed.

Except for the minor injuries from the car accident where Amador crashed into a van with FitzSimmons and Skye inside. And except Amador, who was down an eye and headed to prison and court.

Coulson said he was going to testify on her behalf, so she might be able to get a lighter sentence. She was working under duress after all.

Later, once they were in the air – they had dropped Amador off and they were waiting on their next mission – Skye went to the cockpit to find May. She always liked to join May there, it was peaceful, watching the sky pass them by. “Mind if I join you?” Skye asked, but May didn’t reply, so she took it as a ‘yes’ and sat on the co-pilot’s chair.

“Do you want to learn how to fly the Bus?” May asked after a few minutes of silence.

“Um… sure,” Skye said, hesitantly, raising an eyebrow at May.

“Open up the compartment in front of you and read the instruction manual.”

“Great. More homework,” Skye muttered to herself, though she did find the book and open it.

“If you want to learn, you need to read the manual.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Skye had a slight smirk on her face now, but one look from May and it was gone. Skye turned back to the manual and started to read it. It was a very big book, and Skye thought she would rather take her SD card right to Coulson than read it, but she knew that if she was honest, that would be a lie. That card would just show the team that she had lied to them ever since she walked into the Bus. It was the truth, but Skye didn’t want it to be.

She spent the next hour reading the Bus’ instruction manual, until her comms crackled to life and Coulson’s voice sounded on the other line. “May, put us on autopilot, everyone, we got a mission, briefing in 5.” With that, they were set to autopilot and May led her to the briefing room, where they met with the others. They all stood around the holotable and Coulson put an image on the screen, showing a young Chinese man. “Chan Ho Yin. Just a struggling street performer until a few years ago, when Mr. Chan began to exhibit moderate pyrokinetic abilities.”

“So what gave him powers?” Fitz asked, curiously.

“It's still under investigation, but Chan did live near the decommissioned Wan Tai nuclear plant when it caught fire. To our knowledge, no other nearby residents have exhibited similar traits.”

“So how did we find out about him?” Simmons questioned, and May was the one to reply.

“Informant saw him lighting torches in a street show – with his pinkie.”

“Brought it to SHIELD’s attention. We told him to keep his abilities under wraps. He's been on the Index ever since.” That got Skye’s attention, and she gave them a questioning look.

“The Index?”

“It's a list SHIELD keeps of people and objects with powers.”

“Wait. What? How many are there? Are you saying there are more people-” Skye asked, but May cut her off, shaking her head.

“Not many.”

“Well, enough to keep a list.”

“A short list, meant to protect them,” Coulson informed her, and Ward added something more once Coulson was done talking.

“Though, in rare cases, SHIELD has had to take action.”

“Action against objects or people?” Skye asked, and the look she received meant that it was more complicated than that. “Well, that's drastic with a side of creepy. How are they monitored – tapped phones, satellite surveillance, body probes in dark, unpleasant places?” Simmons grimaced at that, while Fitz shook his head.

“Body probes? Now, that's ridiculous. SHIELD doesn't do that. We don't do that,” Fitz assured her before giving Coulson a raised eyebrow in question. “Do we?”

“The methods vary,” Coulson replied, vaguely, and Skye gave him an ‘are you kidding’ look, before he continued speaking. “Mr. Chan was low-risk. He was assigned a case agent who checked in with him every few days.”

May then typed something on the screen, before a video chat appeared on the bigger screen. “That's how we discovered him missing.”

“Nín hǎo, guān zǒng nǐ hǎo ma?” (Hello, Agent Kwan. How are you?) May asked, in Chinese. The feed of the video call flickered to life and showed Kwan in Chan’s home, where the incident occurred.

“Bùrú wǒ xiǎng dì nàyàng hǎo,” (Not as good as I could be.) Kwan replied, tiredly.

“Everyone, this is agent Kwan, Chan Ho Yin's case agent,” May told everyone, switching back to English. The Bus Kids – Skye and FitzSimmons – waved at him, before May turned back to Kwan. “What can you tell us?”

“Not much, I'm afraid. Chan is a magician, so at first, I thought he'd made himself disappear.”

“The file says you'd caught him violating his Index agreement before.” Coulson was the one to point that out.

“On two separate occasions – claimed we were ‘hampering his artistic expression’. But late last night, he was taken by professionals. The only thing they left behind was this scrap of aluminized material,” Kwan said, holding up the material, and Simmons leaned over to have a better look.

“Fireproof clothing.”

“So whoever took him knew about his power,” Ward guessed.

“Yes, and we think we know why. Over the last few days, tech division discovered a crack into our data stream. It's the same cyber punks who hacked us before. Somehow, they got in again. It's the Rising Tide.” Everyone turned to look at Skye, no one saying anything for a while. “Hello? It got real quiet.” Kwan tapped on the screen as he spoke. “You guys still there?”

Once the call was ended, Coulson took Skye to his office, May following in, since she was the younger girl’s SO. Skye tried to explain herself as soon as she entered the office. “The Rising Tide is a huge organization of hacktivists from all around the world. Any of them could have done this! It wasn't me.”

“No one's saying it was,” May assured her, calmly. She was worried Skye would get emotional and lose enough control to bring the plane down.

“But you're thinking it. I can see your faces thinking it,” Skye accused them, and Coulson was the one to reply to her.

“We're assessing the situation.”

“Then I'm sure you're taking into account that I have been living on a plane with you this whole time. It would be impossible for me to hack SHIELD.”

“Or easier. We're gonna need more than that.”

“Fine. Let me trace the hack, and I'll prove it.”

“I believe her, Coulson. And if she's telling the truth, we need to track down the person responsible.”

“Dig up something, and fast. The longer Mr. Chan's missing, the more danger he's in,” Coulson ordered, and Skye nodded, before leaving the office.

Skye worked on the hack for a few hours in the lab, as Fitz watched her as if he had a crush on her – or the computer – or both, and Simmons also watched her work, though her crush seemed more subtle in her eyes. Skye was nearly done with her work, when Coulson walked into the lab, obviously awaiting news. “How close are we?”

“Almost there,” Skye informed him, and May and Ward stood on the other side of the room, watching them as well.

“She's identified the remote-access Trojan and the infected endpoint-” Fitz told them, and he was cut off by Simmons continuing the update.

“-and is searching for a TCP to correlate the hypertext with signature information and then-”

“-Bob's your uncle,” Fitz continued, at the same time as Simmons spoke.

“Voila!”

“You get any of that?” Coulson asked Ward, though he did have a proud smile on his face.

“Only the uncle part,” Ward told him, his face void of emotions.

“We got our origin: Austin, Texas,” Skye finally spoke up, the fast clicking of the keys having stopped. She pressed a few more keys and the map appeared on the table monitor, showing the team the coordinates of where the hack was done.

“You got a name?” Coulson asked, and the hacker looked at her screen for a moment.

“Just the café our hacker worked out of, but I'm in the system. I'm gonna check to see if any credit card charges from that day match up with any known hackers,” Skye told them, going back to her keyboard, so she could hack further in and find what they were looking for. “We got a hit.” A picture and name of the hacker appeared on the screen, so the team to see it.

“Miles Lydon, not Skye – that's to all of our relief,” Fitz said, his crush clear in his voice. One would have to be deaf and blind to not see it.

“You know him?” Coulson asked the younger girl, whose eyes hadn’t left the screen.

“Every hacker in the world knows him,” Skye told him, vaguely, though there was a tone in her voice that no one could place.

“Not just the hacker world. He infiltrated the Kremlin,” Simmons said, happily.

“Yeah, the picture of, uh, Putin shirtless on horseback — that was his hack,” Fitz added, and he laughed, quickly joined in by Simmons.

“It was also his hack that got Chan kidnapped,” Ward pointed out, stopping FitzSimmons in their laughter.

“May, set a course for Austin,” Coulson ordered the pilot, who was typing away on her tablet.

“Just did.”

“What about Chan?” Skye asked, confused.

“Kwan's got a SHIELD team on the ground. Our best bet is to chase this thing from the other end. Find Mr. Lydon, bring him in. See what he knows,” Coulson answered, and everyone but Skye left the lab, Fitz smiling at her as he walked out. Coulson was the last one there with her, and the man raised an eyebrow at her, confusion written all over his face. “Is there something else?”

“There is, actually… but this isn’t the right place to say it.” Coulson’s eyebrow rose higher, at Skye’s words, if it was possible.

The young girl didn’t speak, even as they walked into agent’s office, but a few minutes later, once she had put the plane on autopilot, May walked in, her face neutral. “You wanted to see me, Coulson?” the older woman asked, but her eyes didn’t leave Skye.

“Yes, Skye had something to add after our little team meeting, but didn’t say anything else.”

“What is it, Skye?”

“I knew Lydon.”

“Yes, you’ve said as much earlier,” Coulson noted, but Skye shook her head.

“I didn’t mean it as a hacker who knew his hacks, I mean personally. I met him when I hacked myself a bus ticket to Texas. I knew where he was and who he was. When I ran from the System, I joined the Rising Tide and learned as much as I could about hacking, but I wanted more, so I went to find the best. I found him and he helped me. We dated for two years before I decided I wanted to go off on my own. He helped me find my van and pack my things for the van. I talked to him a few times since then, even while I was on this place. I know where he’ll go the second he spots Ward or any of you.”

“Why are you telling us this, now? Why not lie and warn him that we’re coming and betray the team?” Coulson asked, more curious than confused.

“Because this team became more of a family to me than anyone else out there, and I don’t want to lie anymore.”

“Do you have a plan to bring him in?” May asked, once Skye was done answering Coulson.

“I do, actually,” Skye said, nodding. “He’ll sniff you guys from a mile away. What if you do as you planned? Try to get him your way, and I’ll warn him, get him in a way he won’t expect. Have May follow me to Miles’ apartment, where I’ll wait for him. I’ll do as I planned, warn him of you guys, and distract him until May gets there. You can even arrest me with him to keep the illusion up, use me to get the answers you want from him. And if it works, you’ll have your information to get Chan back from his kidnappers.”

“How do you know it’ll work?” Coulson asked, skeptical.

“Because I know Miles.”

The plan went without a hitch on SHIELD’s side, and Miles went for the bait. He ran off to his apartment, where Skye was waiting for him. She distracted him long enough for May to walk in and arrest them both, bringing them to the Bus with Coulson and Ward’s help. They were then both locked up in the Cage, cuffed to the table.

Once they were finally left alone, Miles started to play with his cuffs, grunting in frustrations as it did nothing to help get out of them. “So, I guess due process isn't really SHIELD protocol.”

“They don't have time for it,” Skye grumbled, staring at the cuffs around her wrists like they would disappear.

“Whoa, are you defending them? These people are denying our basic rights.”

“This isn't about us. They're trying to save someone's life.”

“Listen to yourself. That's what they always say to justify invading privacy, Skye. These people stand for everything we despise – secrets, censorship-”

“Enough with the manifesto, Miles.”

“We can't let them get away with it!”

In the briefing room, Ward watched the live footage of the Cage, no emotions written on his face. “Manning, Snowden, Aaron Swartz – these are modern-day revolutionaries,” Miles’ voice sounded through the speakers, with Skye’s annoyed face showing on the screen as he spoke.

“This has nothing to do with that. You leaked-” Skye told him, but her reprimand was cut off as Ward pressed buttons to close the feed and microphone. FitzSimmons had joined him in watching the footage, curious in what the two in the Cage were talking about.

“Guy's hiding behind platitudes. He's dirty. I can feel it,” Ward said, his tone betraying his emotions.

“Scrubbed clean, actually – nothing much on him. He's got no family records. His apartment's under an alias. And he plays a lot of Minecraft, where he runs a rather nasty mob,” Simmons said, as she looked at the file on her screen.

“Is it – is it zombie?” Fitz asked, and Simmons shook her head.

“Zombie pigmen,” Simmons supplied, and the two shared a disgusted look.

“Keep looking,” Ward ordered them, before leaving, not understanding the gibberish coming out of the scientists’ mouth.

In Coulson’s office, he and May watched the footage from the Cage, as well. “She’s still lying about something,” Coulson said, leaning into his chair. “You can say it.”

“She brought Lydon to us. I don’t have anything to say,” May pointed out, mimicking his movement.

“But you called it. She was a risk and I let her stay anyway.”

“I don’t usually invite people who break into my house, but Skye has helped us a lot since she came on board. I don’t do this often, but I know when I was wrong about someone. Skye could have lied and tried to get Miles away from us, left out her relationship with him, but she didn’t, instead she came to you and told you the truth. She might have some more secrets hidden, but who doesn’t?”

“You changed opinions on the matter quite fast. What brought this on?”

“I guess I observed her more, and I noticed she was a good addition to the team. If she has more secrets, we have to hope that she’ll come to us when the time is right for her to tell us.” May wanted to mention that she was aware of one of the secrets she was still hiding, and that Skye wasn’t ready to divulge it yet. She knew Skye was hiding more, but from experience with the younger girl, it would be wise to wait and see what it was.

“And if it’s a bigger secret than we thought?”

“Then we’ll deal with it.”

At that moment, Simmons rushed in, panting heavily. “Sir, we found some evidence.”

In that moment, Ward walked into the Cage, and Skye sat up straighter at seeing him. “She's been defending you, saying you're a stand-up guy,” Ward told Miles, gesturing to the younger girl. He was aware of the plan, using Skye to get information out of Miles, and he played his part well. He had an envelope in his hands, and showed it to them. “So I'm going to give you a chance. Do you want to tell her, or should I?” Ward put the envelope on the table, the sound reverberating around the small room.

“I don't have to listen to you-” Miles said, but he was cut off by the dark-haired agent.

“There goes your chance.” Ward then turned to Skye. “Your boyfriend here made a few deposits in the days following the leak.” Ward then laid out receipts from the envelope and showed them to her. “All said, it's about a million dollars,” Ward revealed, shocking Skye.

“What?”

“Real stand-up guy.”

“I can explain-” Miles tried to say, but Skye cut him off.

“Did you sell information?” Miles didn’t answer. “Miles? Yes or no?” Once again, Skye was met with silence. “Did you?!”

“Yes, but-” Miles said, trying to explain, but he was cut off by Skye, as she tried to jump him, her restraints rattling with the metal back it was attached to. She could feel subtle shifts in the vibrations as her powers slowly got out of control with her anger, but Miles’ lies were too painful for her to remember control.

“Ohh! You are so dead. What the hell were you thinking?!” The vibrational shift got more powerful as she yelled, the younger girl even feeling the room shake ever so slightly.

“It was a million dollars. A million dollars. It would change my life – our lives. And that woman was harmless. I looked into it,” Miles defended himself, shooting Skye a look, as if telling her to calm down, like he felt the room shake.

“No one with good intentions pays that kind of money for information! Did you ever think about that?!” Skye yelled out again, angry at Miles for what he was doing.

“Of course I did. I would never have done it if I thought-” Miles tried again to defend himself, but again he was cut off, this time by Ward.

“Who is the woman you referred to?”

“A fan of the Rising Tide, some rich girl in a flower dress. She knew all about me, said I had a gift. She thought people like us deserved more.”

“Oh, you deserve more,” Skye grumbled, having had a moment to collect herself, bring the vibrations down without hopefully channeling them inward. She knew the consequences of that

“She pointed me to a Chinese SHIELD feed – wanted me to crack it.”

“You thought that was harmless?”

“I checked the data stream. It didn't seem like anything you and I hadn't already put out there, Skye. And I traced the account where the money came from to make sure it wasn't some evil corporation. It was just an eco-research lab. Otherwise, I would never-”

“Ecological research?”

“Yeah, insects, some study with centipedes,” Miles told them, but Ward and Skye turned to each other, having a full conversation with their eyes. “What's more harmless than that?”

She walked into Whitehall’s office, having received a note on her tablet that he needed to speak to her. “You wanted to see me, Dr. Whitehall?” she asked, putting in as much confidence as she could muster. Ever since he told her she was on thin ice, she’d been worried about going back into his office, worried he would have her programmed like his other brainwashed puppies. He’d threatened to do it before, of course, but she’d given him enough reasons not to. Now she was afraid he would do it, due to the mistakes she’d made recently.

“Yes,” he nodded, gesturing for her to come in and sit down. “I need you to head up the security team with Centipede. They’ve been having some problems lately, as you know, and I want to make sure nothing of importance gets interrupted again.”

“Where do you need me to go?” she simply asked, accepting the order.

“You misheard me. You are to head up, not assist on site. You will work from here with Debbie and the Hydra agents already there. Besides, you cannot use your powers for another three days.” He sounded bitter at that last part, which sent a shiver down her spine.

“Yes, sir.” She didn’t move to leave, however, as he hadn’t dismissed her yet.

“You may go to your office.” That was all she needed to hear from him before she bolted upright and exited the room. She headed directly to her office, and sat in front of her desk.

Apparently, the agent she had in Centipede was psychic, because the moment she sat down, her phone rang. “Yeah?” she asked, almost bored.

“They gave him a name,” the agent on the other line said, bitterly, and she raised an eyebrow.

“You are going to have to be more specific, I’ve been out of the loop for a long while,” she reminded him, leaning back into her chair.

“The doctors at Centipede. They named the enhanced guy they’re testing.”

“Guess you heard I was appointed head of Centipede’s security…”

“No. You just asked me to give you news. You are the new head of our security?”

“Whitehall just told me.” She paused for a moment, and collected her thoughts. “What can this enhanced do?”

“He’s a pyrokinetic. Doc thinks that she can use his blood or something to help lower the explosion rate of our Soldiers.”

“That would be great, we can’t have the Centipede soldiers exploding and raging around all the time. Has their… boss… made contact with them? I know he can be very cagey.”

“No, the benefactor of this project hasn’t made contact, that I know of. Most of us – me included – have no idea who he is.”

“I haven’t been informed on his identity, yet, all I know is he’s Hydra,” she said, and the agent on the other line sighed. “Just keep me posted on what happens, I’ll be in contact to hand further orders soon.” She hung up and went to work.

A few hours later, she had set up the best paths for the security teams, asking them to change them up every few hours so they weren’t too predictable. She even went as far as to start making the computer software better, with more powerful firewalls. Once she had a little of that done, she went to her room to change and head down to the gym for some boxing practice. She couldn’t use her powers yet, but she could still train the old-fashioned way.

It was where she was when her tablet rang, giving her an alert on the Centipede servers. “Shit! They found the lab…” she muttered to herself as she ran out of the gym and to Whitehall’s office. “Sir, SHIELD is going to the lab in Hong Kong. They probably found out about our current project. I need permission to fly off there, immediately,” she told her boss, as soon as she was in his office.

“Why would you want my permission for that?” Whitehall asked, taking off his glasses and looking at her.

“Because the agents there won’t be able to stop SHIELD on their own if their enhanced is there, too.”

“My sources say the enhanced isn’t as well-trained as you are. Our agents can take her,” Whitehall waved her off, as if they were discussing a child’s involvement in the situation.

“You know very well that that’s not true, sir. She may not be well-trained in fighting, but her powers are like mine. If I am there, there is a better chance of the Centipede program staying up and running than if I am not there.”

“You can’t even use your powers, yet,” Whitehall pointed out. It was a good point, but she was a great fighter even without her powers.

“I don’t need my powers to stop her, sir. I know the limits of my powers, and I am ready to bet they are the same for SHIELD’s enhanced. If not less.”

“Alright, you may go.”

“Thank you, sir,” she said, and with his nod of dismissal, went to get ready to leave.

She would need a quinjet to get there as fast as possible.