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Chapter Text

TAHITI Sucked.

When Coulson wakes up after TAHITI, he remembers all of it. With his wife May and daughter Skye by his side, he leaves SHIELD for other endeavours, angry with his organisation.

" Please, let me die! Please let me die! Let me die! No, please! Please, let me die!"

"Let me die!" Coulson shouted, jerking up in his bed and suddenly being held down by a familiar hand. "Phil, stop!" His chest hurt. He looked over, and nearly cried in relief. May. "Oh, Mel!" Beside her, his breath fell short as he laid eyes on her. "Skye." The teenager was no longer in her SHIELD trainee uniform, eyes wet with unshed tears and her hands clasped over her mouth.

"Hi, Dad." She croaked, throwing herself onto his lap. Coulson knew she'd been there. "It wasn't your fault." He soothed, May's attention immediately snapping to him. "How do you know that?" She asked, her hand flying to her weapon cautiously. Phil looked up to her pleadingly. "Because I remember all of it. May, they- they brought me back. With alien blood. "

Skye didn't think she could take any more hits today, but she couldn't be more pissed, more devastated. "Wh-what do you mean, alien blood? I thought it was all natural."

Coulson shook his head fervently, breath short as his chest tightened. "They-they-they carved open my head. They used these needles on my brain and and- oh God, I begged them to let me die, it hurt so much."

Silence reigned in the room, the family holding each other. Coulson could see May's hands unfurling and curling furiously, while Skye was beside herself, now openly sobbing on her dad's lap.

"D-did you r-really wanna d-d-die?" She wept, holding him as tight as she dared.

"No! God no! I'd never leave you two, Daisy, it's just that that program?" He shuddered, leaning forward, the phantom wound in his chest aching a little but he wrapped his arms around his little girl anyway. "It was abandoned for a reason. I don't know why I still have my memories, and I'm not particularly keen on finding out. But honey?" He lifted her head with his hands. "I will never, ever leave either of you if I ever have a choice. You understand?"

Skye sniffled, hugging him as tight as she dared. Melinda joined on the outside, still unused to close contact.

"I want out." Coulson decided. He had had enough of Fury's SHIELD and their covert, insidious ways. "If I'm going to work in intelligence, it'll be with an organisation with full transparency and higher standards."

"Why not go to Stark?" May asked. She'd reviewed the security footage from the Helicarrier, noting how he had treated Coulson's "loss" properly, as if he was an actual person that mattered. "He actually cared, and you're familiar with him." She suggests, though Skye groans. "Oh God, I'm reminded of that cosplay." She murmured ro herself, her head in her hands.

"Stark... Romanoff evaluated him as not eligible, right? But he was dying, so that should have offset the results due to a compromised mental state... was it all manipulation?" Coulson wondered, thinking hard. Romanoff wasn't a qualified psychologist, that was May's adopted brother Andrew. She used manipulation to get inside people's heads, what were the chances?..

"Stark it is. First, we need out of this hospital bed and we have to get to Stark Tower." Phil said. There was no-one else around, not even doctors which he found incredibly suspicious, looking to May. "We were taken here in a truck with no windows. SHIELD secret apparently. Guards outside the ward, but Skye's phone says we're in West Virginia."

"Country roads." Skye quips dryly, leaning back to check the doors. "At least the Academy's been teaching me well." She muttered, standing up.

Coulson pushed himself from the bed weakly. His muscles had declined after months in a damn hospital bed, and he hated it. Add to that the fact he was wearing a hospital gown and his day - not that it had been an hour - had already been ruined. "You got my clothes, right?" He asked May, who grabbed them from a nearby duffel bag which she conveniently had on hand.

Skye got up to check the halls, waiting for her dad to get changed, finding the hallways suspiciously empty, though she could distinctly hear voices at the end of the ward. She had time to consider that day back in 2012, swallowing before turning to the task at hand.

Coulson was dressed in a shirt and some work jeans for basics, and with May helping him he soon found his balance. Skye turned to see him up, nodding. "Okay, Mom, Dad, we gotta go. Agents at the end of the ward, I think our best option is through one of the first floor windows, if we make a break for the stairwell." She analysed, thankful her rookie training kicked in, the one thing she was grateful to SHIELD for.

"You good Phil?" May asked in concern. She stood back when he waved her off, regaining his balance and on his own two feet. "I got it Mel, trust me." He said certain of his choice. She backed off, trusting him as they approached their daughter at the door, looking to a window at the back of the ward just a couple meters away. "We're three stories up, where's the damn stairwell?" May asked irritatedly.

Skye huffed. "A little bit past those... guards." She was at best intermediate at combat at the moment, even with her mom's Tai Chi and her SHIELD training. "Mom and I can knock them out and we can 'leg it', as Fitz says?" Skye suggested anxiously. May agreed with that plan, tapping her daughter's shoulder lightly as Coulson followed along. The man knew he was in no fit shape right now, so stood back and let his girls handle the work.

Two guards dressed in jumpsuits guarded their ward, pistols holstered away. May scowled, they weren't even paying attention. With a kiai, she screamed and kicked out one's leg, raising her fist into a backhand as Skye pulled the other into a chokehold, struggling and kicking her legs as the guy tried to wriggle and fight his way out, though inevitably turning a slight purple and falling unconscious.

She checked his pulse in concern. She sighed with relief when she realised he'd be fine, just winded. May dragged Skye up. "Come on, we gotta scramble." She urged the young girl, starting towards the stairs.

They had no problem getting down thankfully, but Coulson's stamina had gone down minimally. "Stairs, I hate stairs." He grumbled, stepping onto the fourth floor.

Soon they reached the bottom floor, thankfully not alerting any other guards. First point on the list, get their bearings.

May spotted the window across the way, grimacing. "We need to be ready to move in five seconds." She stated, watching as a nurse walked by before yanking Coulson with her, Skye following close behind.

They crossed the hall in no time, the girls leaping through the window and impact rolling, in Coulson's case rolled on his side. He groaned, being helped up. "Surprised we didn't trip the alarms." He commented, Skye holding up her phone. "Took care of that. The hospital security's not too good." She left it at that as they ran through the car park.

They jacked a Jeep, hauling themselves in and driving out of the lot, May careful to match the civilian speed so they wouldn't draw attention.

"So, where to?" Skye asked from the back. "Obviously Stark Tower, but we don't know up from down right now and we need to figure out what state, even country we're in." She continued, opening up her laptop.

They drove past a random street, May calling out the name. "Harlan Boulevard." Skye searched through the tagging system using the hyperlinked search term, scrolling through the maps until she found where they were. "We're in Ohio apparently." Skye sighed.

"And we need to go south to New York which will take a couple days on the road." May summarised, "With SHIELD up our asses at the moment."

The drive out of Ohio began, though Skye suspected the town didn't want them to leave as it started to pour down, leaning back in her seat and letting memories flash through her mind.

"Dad." She said, catching his attention in the passenger seat. He turned to face her. "What's up, Angel Eyes?" He asked. She looked straight at him, lip quivering. "I was there, that day in New York. O-on the Helicarrier, I mean. It was this SHIELD training thing and I was helping with relief efforts, when I saw you get stabbed I just-"

"Dad!" She screamed, running to her father. Everything was drowning, she was drowning in the lakes of her dad's blood, her hands stained in red, and she wasn't sure it would ever come out, sobbing. "Dad, no, don't go. Mom-Mom and I still need you!" She whimpered, her shoulders aching as she hugged him tight.

She felt movement and wept. "No! No, don't take him away, I need him, please!"

Her father was hauled onto a stretcher and taken away, and she couldn't move.

A hand came to her shoulder, and saw Hill in her view. A spike of anger stabbed through her, swatting her hand away. "Get off me. Where the hell is Fury?" She questioned.

"Agent Skye, don't-" Skye jumped up. "Damn you Hill! I won't lose my dad because he was expendable to Fury!" She rushed through the corridors, pushing agents and scientists aside, storming like a hurricane with no signs of stopping. She didn't want to stop, and since punching wouldn't work she'd do the next best thing.

"Fury! Eyes on me, right now!" She roared, bursting onto the bridge, her fists clenched at her sides. "My dad is DEAD because of you, and now you dare to play games with his death? You sick, evil, twisted man!" She wept, lurching for a punch and being stopped.

"Hey, hey, you're Mini Agent?" Stark's voice stopped her, restraining her. She fought angrily, like a banshee, and yet he kept a firm grip on her. "This isn't right, I get it, I get it, Agent. This isn't good for you, sit." He sat her down, and all energy just left her, slumping over. She felt exhausted.

"Agent Coulson, you have a duty to carry out your father's miss-" Her head lifted, her knuckles whiter than paper with stinging pressure, opening her mouth to speak. "Shut up. Just shut your goddamn mouth and stop tarnishing my dad's name. You're twisted and sick." She croaked, her voice still confident and sharp.

"Agent Coulson we still have an alien war coming to us so-"

"So I'll fight. But after that, Fury, I'm done, and I suspect Mom will be too. You can take your organisation and shove it up your ass." She snapped, getting up. She couldn't even look Star Spangled Man over there in the eye, not that she wanted to.

"Kid, sometimes you lose people, and-"

"One, don't call me kid. Two, how dare you side with Fury! My dad loved you, and he's dead and you're reducing him to collateral damage? Do you not see how wrong that is? My father was not collateral, and I'm gonna make sure he's not."

She swept back from the room, casting a hateful glance at Romanoff before stalking to a Quinjet to call her mother.

She was done with Fury and Hill, done with the bullshit.

"A-and you were just there, lying in a body bag and I just couldn't, I-" The next thing she felt was her dad's arms around her, having clambered into the backseat as she wept. She was staining his shirt, but she clutched him nevertheless, nestled into him like she used to do when she was little.

"It's okay Angel Eyes, we're away from them now."

"B-but SHIELD was our lives. What do we do now?" Skye asked unsurely. Coulson thought about it. "I believe in what SHIELD stands for. The people and their protection. A shield for the world. I just don't agree with it under Fury. We are SHIELD, we're just not their SHIELD." He spoke clearly and concisely, and the two women found themselves agreeing with him.

"So we start SHIELD from scratch then?" Skye asked. Coulson shrugged. "Not entirely. We'd have help, and you designed a decent portion of the SHIELD security network, so we'd have some intel."

"For the record," May piped up. "You'd be much better at it than Fury. We both know he's been lying about that eye for decades," They might not know the truth about it, but they knew that there was embellishing to it, and that was enough for distrust.

It took three long days of driving to get to New York. Devastation lay waiting for them, and slow moving traffic. Buildings were smoking and crumbling, and blood lay on the sidewalks. Harlem Bridge was devastated.

They got out of the Jeep after crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, going on foot to the Tower.

Shattered glass littered the street from the buildings, and Skye noted a bleeding man laying nearby at a medical camp.

"To think it was all so normal a few weeks ago." She murmured in horror, the true annihilation setting in. They had come so close to extinction. "This is why we need to help people." She affirmed. Coulson put his arm around her shoulders solemnly. "And we will." He resolved.

Stark Tower was a little wrecked, but shook off most of the damage apparently. The lobby was fine as they walked in, people milling about waiting for food or medical attention. "I think I still have that override from those months ago." Coulson mused, slipping into the elevators with them.

"I'm assuming Stark won't be pleased to see us?" May asked quietly, preparing for conflict. "Not initially," Skye replied, looking to her mom. "But he took Dad's "death" hard." She stated. "He... he helped me when I broke down."

All three jumped when a voice in the elevator spoke out of no-where. "Agent Coulson, I have notified Mr Stark that you and your family are on your way up." JARVIS announced. Phil didn't know much about the AI, but decided to act kindly. "Thank you JARVIS. What kind of reception will we get?" He asked curiously.

"A rather wary one, sir. Mr Stark is preparing a contingency just in case." That didn't bode well. There was a lot of explaining to do.

"Great." May huffed, fingering the stun gun she kept in her concealed holster just in case.

The elevator opened to a repulsor in hand and Tony Stark in a Black Sabbath tee-shirt and jeans aiming it at them. "Agent Coulson is dead. Who are you?"

"Stark, it's really me, I promise, just out the repulsor down. There's... a lot of explaining to do." Tony looked to Skye, recognising her, then May, raising an eyebrow. "This the wife? Come on in, make yourselves at home."

"So, after months, you're alive? How?" Tony asked. He'd seen the man's body, seen his daughter cry over him. Now the guy was alive and well apparently, after months, which begged the question, who breached the uncanny valley?

"SHIELD. They didn't bank on me remembering. I died, I did, but they brought me back. And it was months. They used alien blood, and put me through brain surgeries where I begged to die." Coulson explained. "It was a program I shut down for a reason. It sent people insane."

"And you two weren't aware of either of this?" Tony asked in horror. Not much shook him, but this was, in his opinion, fucked up. "We thought he was dead and buried. Never got our permission, just... did it." May said in a cold tone. She was running through all the ways she could hurt Nick and incapacitate the Widow at the same time. In her eyes, unless proven otherwise, they were threats now.

"Jesus." Tony's leg was bouncing, considering the ethical ramifications. "And you remember everything?" He turned to Coulson. Phil nodded, remembering the pain. "We'd like your help, setting up a new, better SHIELD. I believe in what SHIELD should be, a protective shield for all people. This isn't what Fury's doing, and I don't agree with it." He said, considering all his thoughts and mulling it over.

"I'm an agent of SHIELD. That means something, and that carries weight. I don't want everything I've done to be in vain." He explained shortly, feeling oh so tired. He leaned back, hands folded in his lap.

It was silent for a few minutes while Tony considered. If he did this, he'd have to register with the government. Hopefully they could negotiate for more freelance, international operations under the banner of an NGO, but it would be a tough sell. Fortunately, Tony was known for those.

"I don't weapons deal anymore. I refuse to do that, but I can get you in contact with some people who can get you the equipment you need. This'll be hard to negotiate, but I'll call up Pepper, explain the situation."

"No need." They turned around to see Pepper, tears rolling down her cheeks, ginger hair dishevelled. "I heard everything Tony." She turned to Phil, and noticed his wife, his daughter. "I'm so sorry you three. What SHIELD did to you, it-it's not fair."

"Thank you Miss Potts." Skye croaked, shifting uneasily and turning to her laptop, wanting to distract herself.

After a while of talking, Coulson decided to ask. "And the Avengers? What of them?"

Tony's mood dipped significantly. "I can't work with them for long Agent. Especially not the Captain. He got in the way of my investigation, and he needs to get his head out of his ass. I'll admit, he was good with helping on the ground, but he doesn't think. He reacts, and in some cases it could be detrimental to the 'team'. We're a ticking time-bomb, all the damn time."

Coulson hummed. "So what do you suggest? I still believe we need a group with abilities who can help with these threats."

Tony shrugged, bringing up his holo-screen, glancing over to Skye who was in awe, probably thinking about what she could do with one of those. He brought up the display of the Avenger profiles.

"Thor is fine, if a little archaic in his mindset. He has his head on straight, but mediation is something he needs. Hulk needs to be left alone if he doesn't want out, Romanoff screwed with that, of course Bruce ran off. Romanoff herself, I can't trust. She manipulated her way into my company and injected me with something that, for all her knowledge- could have killed me." He admitted, remembering when he was dying, feeling so hopeless, helpless, and then Romanoff of all people comes along with no clue what's in that needle and if he's allergic, only adding to his anxiety.

Coulson agreed, even though he knew Natasha she was still on the outside of SHIELD. Clint was impulsive, and Phil thought back then, still does now, that there was a massive risk to blowback.

"So, what I propose is a team like a security consultancy agency. Background checks, ability checks relevant to their powers or skillsets. We'd want to keep private logs on a bought server, probably here or in a remote location, and we'd need to go the United States government to register." Tony thought through, scratching his chin. If they did this, they'd need to give a valid reason too, but SHIELD was known to him for being absolutely airtight.

"Okay, I think that's it then!" Phil ended, and the tension in the room sapped out, but Pepper seemed to want to say something.

"Phil, I want to go up against SHIELD legally. What they did to you was unethical and it was evil. With your permission and testimony, we could open a-"

"They'll have secured it, Pepper. They hide the files deep into the levels secured by who knows how many layers of firewalls and encryptions. We wouldn't be able to touch them without going completely dark and opening an investigation into them." Phil explained, sighing. "I wish we could, but when we worked there, it was a nightmare to even get relevant information for operations sometimes."

Pepper huffed. "So that's it? We do nothing?" She demanded indignantly, righteously angry for her friend and his suffering,

"Unfortunately yeah. Nick Fury's anything but inadequate at security." Phil sighed. Skye scooted over, snuggling into her dad's shoulder contemplatively. When it seemed all talk of business had died down, Tony clapped his hands together. "Pizza, anyone? There's a wonderful place near 5th that does amazing pepperoni. And please, while you're here, stay in one of the top rooms, I had the bots prepare them a couple minutes ago."

"You sure you want us here?" May asked skeptically. Tony nodded. "It's the least I can do, Agent, and I did promise to fly you out to your wife if you remember, so, next best thing. Right, I'm gonna go order, and we can get started over the next few days."

As he left the room, Phil, May and Skye were amazed at the billionaire's generosity, settling down for the night and beginning to talk.

Chapter Text

TAHITI Sucked Chapter 2

The Smithing of A New Shield.

AN: I changed Skye's age to make her a little younger.

The next morning, Skye found herself awake to sunlight, remembering where she was. "Huh. Stark Tower." She mumbled, looking out the window blearily. Her eyes widened. "Stark Tower!" She yelped, almost falling out of bed.

Recalling the past day, she caught up and decided to scoot out of bed, her feet padding on the floor. She was in her pajamas, some gym slacks and a huge tee-shirt.

The city was loud, again, but up here it seemed so peaceful. It was good to catch a break.

She was lucky to have the parents she did. A bitch named Jiaying had tried to kidnap her when she was only three months old. She'd lost her own child apparently, at least from the case file her mother had personally put together kicking Jiaying's ass. Didn't excuse what she did.

Unfortunately, Jiaying disappeared before anything substantial in terms of consequence could be handed to her. Skye was still pissed about that. She took glances at Jiaying's photo in the case file every now and then to remind her of the psycho who'd tried to steal her away from family.

Her mom and dad had always fought tooth and nail for her, and Skye remembered her first blood test. She'd been terrified, but her mom had been right there beside her, holding her hand when that needle went in. She'd admitted later that seeing Skye so scared had made her want to go feral, and she'd barely restrained herself.

Speaking of blood tests, she still needed to hack back into SHIELD and delete her DNA records from their database.

"Good morning Miss Coulson. How may I help you today?" JARVIS' voice spoke from the ceiling, making her jump. "Christ, JARVIS! You scared me!" Once she'd slowed her beating heart she took in her state, her stomach rumbling. "I got a case of the munchies. Does Mr Stark have a place to eat here?" She asked.

"There is the common room between the penthouse and your rooms." JARVIS directed. Mr Stark has given me leave to show you the directions, just follow the glowing arrows." She marvelled silently at the realism in his voice, wondering just how Tony made him so life-like, her mind running through so many folders of code and programs it must have taken it made her brain hurt.

"Of course Stark has a penthouse." She murmured to herself unsurprised. Leaving her room, she followed the glowing arrows until she reached a large open section for eating, letting out a hum of relief. There was already some basic food out apparently, which creeped her out a little. "Who made this food?" She asked politely.

"The bots and cooks, Miss Coulson. Don't be nervous, we didn't let DUM-E near the drinks." Yet again, Skye was astounded at the sardonic tone in JARVIS's voice, chuckling. Oh she and this AI were gonna get along just fine.

After she'd made herself breakfast, an elevator descended from above, containing one Tony Stark in grubby jeans and a t-shirt, soot decorating his face. Must have been making something.

He approached with the swagger the papers knew from him, but only made her watch his mask.

"'Sup Agent Junior!" He greeted warmly, hands in his pockets as he sauntered over to the coffee maker. "Don't you have college work to be doing little missy?" He joked. Skye raised an eyebrow. "How does Miss Potts put up with you?" She wondered sarcastically. Tony guffawed, smelling the sweet coffee and clutching it tight.

"Not too sure, actually. I've asked her that several times." He replied, sitting next to her, frowning curiously at the cereal she'd chosen. "Cap'n Crunch, you kidding me? Honey Nut Crunch is the best." He challenged. Skye chuckled. "Dad's favourite, I'm just honouring tradition." She retorted. "And for the record, mine's anything chocolate. I inherited Mom's sweet tooth."

Tony and Skye sat watching the bay together, eating. Skye fidgeted, unable to keep herself from wondering, when she finally blurted out. "How is JARVIS so realistic? And the British accent too, where'd that come from, I mean, he's advanced as hell, what kinda coding did that take?" She was rambling, and Tony was listening to her patiently. The young woman was a firecracker he decided Pepper was definitely gonna like, smirking. He knew better than to interrupt such enthusiasm.

When she finally stopped for breath, she was flushed, and upon realising, she only went more red. Tony found it amusing. He sighed reminiscently, looking out over the bustling city, the sound of taxis and horns beeping, and the smells of the local deli. He wondered how the rat pit was doing absent-minded.

"JARVIS was my first AI, and the most special to me. My dad was a great inventor, but not a great dad. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't abusive, he just... wasn't around, you know? Too emotionally detached. So, his butler Jarvis, mainly raised me. He was a second dad to me, and more so than my actual dad." He scoffed bitterly. "When he died, I wanted something to remember him by, hence JARVIS."

Skye saw the dulled eyes turn towards his coffee and looked down at her own, lost in her own thoughts of her dad. "Sorry about Howard. When I was little, I was almost stolen away from my parents." Skye admitted. It wasn't a story available to anyone at SHIELD thankfully. Tony sat up, interested.

"I was born August 3rd, 1995. I'm 19 now, I guess. When I was three months old, this powered woman named Jiaying was causing trouble in the Hunan province. She'd lost her daughter three years before I was born, and had a psychotic break. I-I still don't know if I blame her for it or not. I don't want to, because she lost her kid, you know? Stillborn, apparently. But at the same time, I want to blame her, because otherwise, I wouldn't have Mom, wouldn't have Dad, and I'm terrified of losing either of them." Skye admitted hoarsely.

"And the worst part of it all? I still feel, deep, deep down, under that twisted woman's layers, she's still at least a little bit good. But I'm terrified of her." Skye continued, clutching her coffee and taking a gulp, hoping the caffeine would jump-start her fight or flight reflex. She was better when focused like that.

"Damn kid, sounds rough." Tony patted her shoulder awkwardly, uncomfortable with how close Skye had wormed into his heart and so suddenly. Was he getting soft? Hell no.

"Thanks, Tony." Skye drank the rest of her coffee, and Tony soon noticed May and Coulson walking in. "There you are Angel Eyes." Coulson hugged his daughter, who wrapped her arms round him tight. "Hey Dad. Had a nice night?" She asked comfortably, looking between the two.

"Well, he's dopier than usual, so you judge." May quipped sarcastically, Skye turning red and choking. "Jesus, Mom, traumatise a girl why don't you!" She felt like a tomato with how red she'd turned, May raising an eyebrow. "You're a little somber today Skye, anything you wanna say?"

"Oh, she was just telling me about Hunan, if you can believe it. She asked about JARVIS, and we got to telling tales." Tony covered for Skye who gratefully sent a nod his way. May tensed for a moment, clenching her fist and counting upwards for a moment, calming herself. "Hunan was a stressful time, yes." She said shortly, grabbing an apple. "But we got through it, and wherever Jiaying is out there, at least she's leaving us alone." She commented.

She'd gone feral on the woman last time, hoping that face of hers scarred as a memory. She was glad her husband and daughter forgave Jiaying, because May still wanted to put one between her eyes.

"So," Phil decided to defuse the tension in the room. "What's first on the agenda?" He asked, grabbing the box of Cap'n Crunch from his daughter, who squawked indignantly. "Hey!"

Tony was glad there was a change of topic, swiping up a holographic display. "Case files. Someone during New York decided firing a nuke at the city was the best way to deal with the Chitauri. Fury, to all his madness, couldn't keep me out, or JARVIS, and I found this." He turned the display to them.

"The World Security Council. Mind telling me what this is, because it seems like political criminals." Tony challenged. Phil clenched his jaw, what the hell was Nick playing at. "Well, it looks like to me a SHIELD appointed Board of Advisors, but it wouldn't be legal to put that together without a UN approval, which I'm certain they didn't get." He analysed, looking at the list.

"Gideon Malick, Senator Fisk, and other political party members across the globe. And most aren't leaders, they're financial backers. This seems like conspiracy, right?" He asked himself, wondering just who thought this was a good idea.

"Precisely. Pepper's taught me a little about legalese from the work she does, and I picked up a few things." Tony stated.

"So first order of business," He began, "Is cracking these case files."

"Sir, what's our next move here?" Hill asked, walking alongside Fury, who was fuming inside. Damn it, Phil was meant to trust him, and now he remembers TAHITI? Those hospital cameras were damning evidence, and he'd burned the tapes as soon as he could, but this could turn out to be an unprecedented disaster.

As well as that, he'd heard rumours Stark was beginning to pull funding from Project Oversight, which was needed to protect the entire planet from otherworldly threats!

"Our next move is figuring out just where the hell Phil Coulson went. He's got several safe-houses, check them, and find out where the hell Agents Melinda and Skye Coulson brought him." Fury ordered, walking up to the car, the Triskelion glinting in the sun. "I'm going to visit Captain Rogers. Find them."

He looked over the mental evaluation his psychologists had done with Captain Rogers and it was disappointing to say the least. The guy was abrasive and demanding, and had a persecution and saviour complex a mile wide that made him look at anyone who thought wrong of him as the enemy. Then Fury would have to play the 'Stark is evil' card. Worked with Romanoff too, surprisingly.

"I've had a thought," Skye announced, getting the attention of everyone in the room. "Fitz and Simmons are still at the Academy, and I gotta go get them. They trained me decent, but Mom trained me better, Tai Chi in the mornings," She elaborated, thinking through scenarios. "They're in Intelligence, not Operations, so it would be easier to get them out with minimal combatants apart from guards, and we can brief them on the way." She explained, Phil and Melinda nodding along, Tony putting his hand up. Skye noticed and frowned.

"This isn't kindergarten Tony, just ask the question." She reminded, and Tony did. "Who are Fitz and Simmons?" He asked in confusion. Skye realised he didn't know who she was talking about, and smiled fondly. "Some of my best friends. Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons, the brain, they're called at SHIELD Academy. They don't deserve to be with old SHIELD and subjected to all that. I'm gonna get them out." Skye announced.

"Not without me you're not. Agent Weaver's still there, and you shouldn't underestimate her." Melinda reprimanded lightly. Skye scoffed. "She literally whines when she doesn't get her way and she's a threat? I consider Agent Sitwell a higher threat!" She replies wittily. Melinda lets a corner of her lip tick upwards, agreeing there. Sitwell always was useless.

"Okay, while you two do that, Coulson and I will what, go through paperwork?" Tony shuddered at the thought, looking to Phil. "These two get ladies' night and we gotta work through red tape? Uggh." He joked, Phil shrugging. "I don't know, I've had enough stress for a while, I might actually enjoy it." Tony almost choked on his coffee.

"Actually, do that, but can you also start looking for properties? If we're doing this, we need less obvious spaces to set up." Skye was thinking logistics, long term, and Melinda and Phil looked at their daughter with an experienced stare. "We've been doing this since before you were born kiddo, we've got this. You and your Mom go get Fitz-Simmons, we'll handle all the politics."

Skye grinned cheekily. "I'm stealing Lola!" She crowed. Phil lurched for a moment, then stopped. "No scratches Angel Eyes. Not even one or you're grounded." He warned. Skye giggled, running off. Phil looked imploringly at Mel, who raised an eyebrow. "She's a car, Phil. You can repair her." She stopped short at Phil's puppy eyes at her, groaning. "Fine, I'll watch it."

"I like her." Tony commented. Phil and he were looking at files on various old SHIELD files Coulson had managed to get thanks to one of Skye's programs. "The Rat looks like a decent one to hole up in for now, and we could possibly get the Vineyard too." He commented. "Who comes up with the name for these things?" He murmurs.

"Who, Skye?" Coulson asked to the first question, interrupting Tony's rambling softly. Tony gave a hum of acknowledgment. "Not many people manage to hack my systems in one night. You should probably talk to her about that too, not a healthy time to stay up late." He heard a soft "Hypocrite." From Phil, flushing appropriately. "Fine, you got it."

"Yeah, Skye's our treasure, Mel and I. She's everything to us. When Jiaying tried to kidnap her, I'll admit I wanted to put a bullet in her myself. Would really have liked to have done that." Phil confesses, arms folded. He didn't like thinking about that time in their lives. He could sympathise with Mr Johnson, but hoped they never met again.

"Wish I had a dad like you. Mine was just an absent asshole." Tony commented, clapping his hands.

"Okay, we got something. A SHIELD base in LA called The Bar? Sounds like a nice place to lay low for a while." Coulson leans over to peek. "LA? Heard there were some operations over there, we'll take a look sometime."

SHIELD Logistics Academy. Much different from Operations, but within the same vicinity. Skye remembered visiting multiple times, but damn it she couldn't find a single map of the place.

"Seriously, how do Fitz and Simmons get around here?" She asks her mom as they race towards the dormitories through cover. Skye hoped they could manage to at least get to a server so she could erase the camera footage. Of course SHIELD used a local, private system. If they were anything, they were at least meticulous.

"They use their brains." Melinda said, running alongside her daughter as they barged through the doors. They could care less if they tripped the alarms, running upstairs.

"Rooms 234 and 239, come on!" Skye hurried, cursing the amount of stairs up to the fifth floor. "You got that retractable bo?" She asked, looking over her shoulder at her mother. "Of course. I'm not leaving without that now." Melinda replied, and soon they reached the floor, their footsteps clattering along the halls. Skye slammed her fist down on Jemma's door first. "Please be in, please be in, please be in." She begged.

The door opened to Jemma, and Skye sighed in relief. "Oh thank God Jem. You need to come with Mom and I, fast." Jemma seemed flustered, taken aback by Skye's much more panicked state then to her friend's mother, gaping. "Skye, what happe-"

"We'll explain along the way, let's just get Fitz and go!" Skye urged, running across the hall to Fitz' door. "Fitz! Stop watching monkey videos and come out!" She pleaded, ramming her hand on the door. She probably shouldn't be making this much noise, but the alarms had been tripped and they didn't have much time.

Fitz opened the door to Skye right in front of him, expression hardening. "Urgent?" He'd done this enough times with Skye's shenanigans to know it was important. She only had to nod and he was running to grab his bags.

With both of them ready, Skye and May led them round the back and towards the sidewalk they'd parked near, out of view of the cameras, and just in case Skye had an RFID blocker on.

"Agent May!" A voice called, and Skye groaned. "Not her. Anyone but her." She pushed Fitz and Simmons forward. "Go, I promise we'll explain in a minute, just get to Lola." She urged, turning back with her mother to face Weaver.

"What do you think you're doing? Fitz and Simmons are the top of their class!" Weaver demanded. May sneered. "Did you know what they did to my husband?" She interrogated, silently sliding out the retractable bo.

"Coulson? Coulson's dead." Weaver said. "We all know that." Skye scoffed. "He was brought back by Fury using alien blood. Maybe think about the kind of organisation you're following here, but just know he's alive. Do with that what you will, but you won't stop us. Dad's alive, and you're working for a bastard." Skye trounced away victorious, Weaver stopping to look at May, who only needed to give a frown for Weaver to loosen, defeated.

"Okay. If you still want to work with me, call. You have twenty minutes to leave the premises." Weaver said shortly, walking away in the other direction.

As they drove away, Simmons turned to Skye. "Okay, speak, now."

Chapter Text

“Dad got brought back by SHIELD.” Skye admitted, with Melinda driving through the street. Simmons gasped audibly. “But he’s been dead for-for three months, right? That’s not possible!” She exclaimed in horror. Skye scoffed. “It shouldn’t be. They used alien blood on him and dug into his brain, while he begged them to let him die. It-it was so hard without him Jem. You both saw me, and now he’s back…” Skye trailed off.

“I’m sorry.” Fitz hugged her from the back, his long monkey arms surprisingly strong around her. “Must be hard for you.” He sympathised. Skye was huggy around her friends, after so long with her dad she’d become a touchy person, and she needed the physical reassurance right now.

“It was three months, you guys. I cried, we-we were supposed to bury him, and I was there when he died.” She broke off at the last bit, Jemma reaching over to join the hug. “Now he’s back, what do I do with that time?” She asked quietly.

“You come back stronger. Phil’s back now, and we can spend more time with him.” Melinda comforted, her hand reaching her daughter’s shoulder and squeezing tight. Skye nodded, head back on the seat. SHIELD, and probably Fury wouldn’t be far behind them. She opened her laptop, hoping she had enough time in the drive back to New York to access the highway security camera network.

“This is madness. Someone can’t just be brought back like that, it’s inhumane and it’s impossible.” Fitz stated in shock. Mortality was mortality, and for SHIELD to have defied that was against some sort of natural law. Skye scoffed. “Three months ago an alien portal opened up over New York and aliens came flying out, nothing makes sense anymore, and a really dreamy alien god exists. Kapiche, Fitz?” She stressed, fingers flying over the keyboard.

“Yeah but this, this is wrong. Sorry, Skye, I know he’s your dad, but what the absolute hell?” Fitz was in shock, he wished things were simpler again, back when they actually enjoyed the Academy and things weren’t so screwed up.

Skye shrugged. “No offence taken. He’s looking forward to seeing you.”

“It’ll be good to see him too.” The Fitzsimmons pair had only met Skye’s parents a few times, and Coulson had been wonderfully hospitable to them, putting him in their favour. He told awful dad jokes though. Jemma was reminded of her dad in a way, how thoughtful and caring he was with Skye.

“Ooh, what’s this? A lobby big for a cargo plane by one Nicholas J. Fury!” Tony clapped his hands, grinning widely. “A C-17 Globemaster at that!” He whooped, one of the recent too-liners. “How about we outbid him on that huh?” He clapped Phil on the back. “We’re calling it The Poledancer!” He called out.

Phil choked. “We are definitely not calling it that. How about… the Bus?” He suggested calmly. Phil knew Tony made outlandish ideas as a mask, and only needed a push from someone who could bounce ideas off of him. He hoped he could help Tony with that with enough time around him.

“Fine, you’re a bit boring, you know that?” Tony teased lightly, already securing the purchase with a ticket of well over 200k.

“Boring is sensible, I always say.” Coulson replied easily. “Think Fury will be pissed we slipped the rug out from under him?” He asked Tony, who snorted in reply. “You kidding? We didn’t just slip the rug out, we shat on it. He’s going to be furious.” Coulson groaned aloud, head in his hands. “Really? That pun, of all puns?” Tony cackled in the background, and Phil sighed. This was going to be a long, long few hours.

“Hey, what’s this?” Tony asked, frowning as he slipped through a few records. “It’s the… Centipede programme?” He asked, flipping through some document pages. “The hell?...” Phil leaned over to take a look, scanning through. “This is some form of serum Fury documented, but he’s got no idea where it came from. Tony, I think we have our first case.” Phil said, getting to work.

“Stark Tower? Of all places, I would’ve thought this one the most obvious.” Simmons emphasised, though starstruck by the sleek, futuristic architecture, spinning around the lobby. Skye loved the look Jemma got when she was hyper-focused on the things she considered beautiful. It was like she was dancing in a field of poppies carefree, and Skye wanted Jemma to keep that, so much.

“Tony was the only one who was, um, respectful, about my dad’s ‘death.’” Skye quoted, walking to the elevator. “Hey JARVIS, penthouse floor please?” She requested. Fitz jumped right out of his skin when he heard the AI speak. “Certainly Miss Coulson.”

“What the bloody hell?” Fitz exclaimed, damn near throwing his spine out. May smirked from behind him, watching as he stammered. “That,” Skye began, “was JARVIS, Tony’s AI. He was rambling about it to me a while ago, and he’s built off of human modelling systems, neurones and all, he’s basically human, but with the capacity to do anything you can think of humans can’t.” She explained shortly.

“You sound familiar.” Jemma felt that coil of something twisted surge in her chest and swallowed it down, but that strange anger was pulsing in her veins, and wouldn’t go away. Skye wouldn’t- no she’s not like that-

“Yeah, because I just told you, Tony’s spoken to me about it. You feeling alright Jemma?” Skye asked, her hand going to Jemma’s forehead to check her temperature. “You’ve gone red.” Jemma swore she blue-screened for a second before that rage came back again. Swallowing, she spoke. “I’m fine.” She said shortly.

Skye nodded slowly. Right, and I’m Bruce Banner. She watched the city get lower below them and smiled. This sprawling city was full of millions of people working, living, raising families. This is what the beauty of the world was to her.

“Oh, Skye,” Fitz decided to distract his friends from the tension. “Do you remember the time we gel-bombed Dr Vauhgn’s class that one Thursday night?” Aw crap, Skye winced, turning around slowly. “Yeah… why exactly?” She probed cautiously. “Jemma and I let a Simian ape into his class a few days ago.” He grinned.

Skye caught her mother’s eye and repressed a shudder at the look that promised retribution. Oh, please say the prank wouldn’t be too bad.

“Nice, Fitz. You two keep telling me you sleep through his classes anyway. Jemma, that’s unlike you isn’t it? I mean you’re always so golden in lessons from what I hear from Weaver, unless there’s something you’re not telling me…” If Fitz was gonna drop her in it she’d kindly return the favour.

The air went a little colder for the three young agents when they felt the cunning anticipation rolling off of May. Oh shit. Skye thought. This won’t just be bad, this is gonna be humiliating!

“Jesus Christ.” Within an hour, Tony and Phil had managed to link Centipede to a company, Cybertek. Tony had traced the production parts through factories in Taiwan and had traced the imports from there, and had already made plans to meet with benefactors of Cybertek over the next few weeks. “This goes deep, Phil. Like, conspiracy level.”

“What goes deep?” Melinda questioned as she brought the other three in. Ohil noticed the plotting in her expression and raised an eyebrow. What did they do now? He hadn’t seen it this bad since the Foam Incident of ’11 when Skye had replaced their house’s shower water with liquified foam.

“We found something Mel. A project called Centipede.” Phil explained.

Skye recognised the name in horror. “That was the case I’d been working on. Fury instructed me to go deep cover into the Rising Tide to find this guy who’d recently implanted himself with the stuff. I’ll check movements, see if anything’s happened.” She hated having to play catch-up, bringing out her phone and crashing on a nearby beanbag, though her shoulders were squared nervously.

“Great, well we traced some parts through Taiwanese factories. This goes to Cybertek, a prosthetics and programming company built in 2004. We’re working on finding the lead CEO, because he could get us our guy if we just knew what we were looking for.” Tony explained, clapping his hand together. “Basically, we have one huge mess here, and Fury knew about it. Isn’t he meant to prevent this stuff, because he’s the All-Seeing Eye or whatever? Or is there like a no intervention rule, cause those are all bullshit anywa- I’ll stop.” He stopped his brainstorming with a pointed look from Melinda, looking back to his screen.

“Got a match,” Skye announced, bringing up a video on the holo-screens. Jemma and Fitz gasped, the tech was far beyond anything they were allowed to work with at the Academy. It showed a video of a burning building, and a woman being saved by a hooded man, some form of implant in his arm.

“Fitz, are you able to run a spectrograph?” Coulson asked the young man. Said man looked to him, stuttering. “Uh-um sure, but I’d need a high GPU and something 3-D if I wanted to make a full structural composition.” He reasoned.

“Done kid. I got a feeling I’m gonna like you. I took the liberty of researching you two when Skye mentioned you. I had JARVIS set you up unique floors of your own, based on your specialties. Ask and he’ll take you. Now scram kiddo, make me like you more.” Tony winked at the pair. If they weren’t together already, he bet they would be by at least the end of this year. And Skye was catching feelings too by the looks of it. Younguns, he mused, feeling old like dear old Dad.

“And you lost them?” Fury demanded. He was standing in the Logistics Academy’s secure office, Agent Weaver stood across from him defiantly. “All due respect Director, I’m uncertain of what I was meant to do in such a limited timeframe. Agent Skye had triggered the building alarms and managed to scrape the cameras clean before we had a clue what was going on, so excuse me if I didn’t get there sooner.” She reasoned, keeping her nerve.

“Are you testing me, Agent?” Nick questioned. “Because my patience is being tested right now.” He prowled around her like a wolf, grimacing. “Three of our best agents are rogue, and they took your prodigies in the space of a few days? This is a shit-show.” He reprimanded, racking his brains.

“Sir, if I may.” Hill piped up. He turned to his most trusted, and she handed a pad to him. “We were outbid just a few hours ago on the Globemaster cargo plane that we’d bought specifically for Coulson’s team if he were to get one. The only one with that amount of money would be-“

“Stark.” Fury groaned. He really didn’t feel like pulling a few muscles like he did last time he intervened with the rich egoist. “They went to him? Even with our lawyers it’ll take months, years to even get to them, dammit! How did we let this happen? Under my own eye.” He still harboured some resentment towards Goose for that.

Weaver watched Fury with a small glint of satisfaction, considering. The Director’s ship is loosening, she mused. The Coulson women were right. “Is anything the problem, Agent Weaver?” Hill asked, suspicious. Weaver gave a small smile in return. “No, Agent Hill, just worried. Agents Skye and Melinda seem under the impression that Coulson is back. I’m worried they need counselling, Director, not a court martial.” Especially if this is to pay off, she thought.

“We’ll consider that when it comes to it, Agent Weaver.” Fury said shortly, putting his sunglasses on. “For now, make sure nothing like this ever happens again, so I don’t get suspicious.”

With him walking out, Weaver let out a sigh of relief, beginning to make plans. The Iliad will be perfect.

“Sir, Coulson’s team didn’t pan out. What’s our next move?” A voice asked from the shadows of a street lamp. “Hell if I know son. I’ll get back to you on that. For now, make sure our friends at Cybertek are kept complacent. The Initiatives program is seeing more success every week.”

The man considered his options. He hadn’t been able to infiltrate to break the weak links before SHIELD could have its turn rising again.

HYDRA was a means to an end at least. He wasn’t like his family, and swore he would never be the eugenicist bastards his parents were.  

All sorts around here. Phil thought, drinking from his Best Dad mug. It had the same picture of a daisy on the side Skye had drawn with felt marker when she was little. He coveted it like a precious, timeless artifact. And we have no way to track Fury’s plans without access to whatever device he’ll have it stored on.

Skye slipped in next to her dad, a bowl of pasta in front of her. “What, carbs, snacking, it’s not too bad.” She reasoned when her mom sent her a glance. “Anyway, I found a money trail. Might be a manufacturer’s sale of parts on Tuesday next week down by Hell’s Kitchen. I’m thinking we intercept it, we might find another clue as to what we’re looking for.”

“Well done Skye.” Phil complimented, his arm around his daughter for a moment as he overlooked the dossier Skye had made. “I’ll see about getting us some cover, and we can go in and secure the parts then.” He reasoned. They were finally on a coherent hunt for answers, and Phil had a feeling they were only going to get more.

Chapter Text

TAHITI Sucked: Chapter 4

Nick sat in Steve’s apartment, grimacing, hands over his mouth. The Coulsons were causing trouble, and he didn’t like it. Waiting, he put on the record player. Jesus, Rogers still had one of these? They went for upwards of 100 grand these days.

He heard a door open and looked up. He’d been hearing whispers across certain channels recently that worried him. Supplies had been moved away from them, and that damn plane had been outbid from them. Now, mysteriously, resources were going missing and outsourced through several shadow companies, and they still hadn’t found the trail. They had a mole.

“Is there a reason you’re here, sir.” Steve huffed out, leaning on the doorframe. Nick sat up. “Stark’s gone rogue. Recently, he outbid us on a plane we were trying to purchase.” Steve frowned. “So, you want me to pull him back in line?” Hook, line and sinker.

“You are the Captain after all. I have to reveal something of my own. There was a project.” Fury began.

“What happened, Fury?” Steve questioned with a groan. Fury held up his phone. “Coulson died, during New York, yes? Well, we brought him back, an experiment with alien blood. Only now, I believe he’s being influenced by the blood. You’ve seen his daughter, a SHIELD Agent, or ex at this point. His wife is too. Do not underestimate them, and capture them if needs be. Coulson is the main objective.” Nick explained urgently. Steve rolled his eyes.

“Dammit Fury, how many times do I have to say? You keep messing with things, and now whatever’s inside whatever Coulson is might be affecting him? I don’t wanna know what else you’ve got.” Steve growled. “I’ll go bring in Stark, make him see reason.” He sighed, grabbing his gear.

Fury got up after Rogers left. He needed to take care of the breach.

“Okay, so we’re grabbing from a third party seller to Cybertek, some down-low tech and R&D firm, but they’ve also hired some security, so obviously they’re not that legal.” Coulson analysed, driving along with Skye and Melinda in Lola. They were on comms to Stark Tower, tracking the buyer in hopes they could pick up a paper trail.

“Yeah well, you remember Stane, Coulson. Businesses like tech deal under the table a lot.” That was something Tony would regret for the rest of his life, and now he was branching out into hospitality. He’d already begun designs for Stark Tech hospital equipment and disability apparatus.

“That I do. I also remember poor Pepper being frantic that day, and for good reason.” Phil reminded Tony, who winced. “Yeah, that-that hadn’t been my best day.”

“Deal is taking place down in Hell’s Kitchen, down by Frank’s on 3^rd.” Tony stated, looking over the map on GPS. Phil pulled into a nearby alley, stopping Lola and floating her up, before turning on the retro-reflection panels.

Melinda pulled out binoculars, looking down the street. “I see them, about ten guys, and they’ve got briefcases. Four of them.”

“Any chance we can go in, take them out and run?” Skye asked curiously, she hoped they could get this done. “Not on your life young lady.” Melinda chastised lightly. We’ll disembark from Lola and proceed on foot.” She decided.

They were in civilian clothing, casual so they didn’t stand out.

“Oh, apparently from the Yelp reviews Frank’s does decent pizza?” Skye suggested.

“We’ll order then and take the corner, watch for the deal. Tony, can you get any pick-up from the chatter?” Phil asked, entering the restaurant with Melinda and Skye behind him, the bell chiming. “I can work on it, but I’d have to have a listening device planted at the till if you can get at it.” Tony advised.

Melinda dug around in her bag for a moment, managing to gather a micro-radio from it. “I’ll implant it while we order. Phil, Skye, can you two handle observations?” She spoke lowly, thankful there wasn’t anyone close enough to hear them, but it was still a risk. There were three exists she could see, and if this went wrong she’d rather use the back one.

With Phil and Skye’s confirmation, she went up to the till, leaning over. “Hi, can me and my family get a family marguerite pizza?” She put on her best customer voice, eyes flittering to the men, all in suits and obviously gathered around a small row of tables.  Amateurs. There was one guy that stood out to her though.

He noticed Melinda, and quietly excused himself, wandering over. He had a black crew cut, regulation style and wore a leather jacket. “If it isn’t the Cavalry.” He introduced. “I’m Agent Ward.” He put out his hand, Melinda glancing at it. “And I’d quite like to know what you and your family are doing here, in the middle of a deal.”

“Ward?” Coulson frowned, wasn’t that Garrett’s new protégé? Last he’d heard they were out for a mission in the middle-of-nowhere Oklahoma. What was Ward doing here?

“We seem to be tracking the same deal as you, Agent Ward. Standard third-party interception, high level.” May whispered, hoping he hadn’t heard. Ward chuckled, ordering a drink. “See, everyone above Level Six knows that’s bullshit, Melinda May. You, your husband and your daughter ran from SHIELD for some reason.” Ward assessed, turning to his ‘colleagues’ and waving them down. Melinda’s shoulders tensed, glancing over to Phil, who’s hand drifted down to his belt cautiously.

“Now, I don’t care why, but Garrett’s concerned. He considers you friends, and wanted me to check in.” Ward explained, May let out a sigh of relief, but kept her guard up. “You could’ve just called.” She grunted.

“Now, where would be the fun in that. You guys fancy a dust-up, because they’e getting real suspicious?” Ward asked. The business guys had guns, revealing them behind their suits. Crap, they had lining. May swore, and everything turned into a frenzy.

The business suits jumped up, and Ward threw the first punch, blocking a swipe and kicking a leg out. Skye and Phil jumped into action too. Skye was a little hesitant, she’d been at the Academy one year, and wasn’t sure even her mother’s training over the years would help.

May blocked a gun being drawn with a gasp. Which dumbass pulls out a gun in close quarters? She twisted his wrist inward, knocking the gun away and kicking it further, re-chambering into a middle kick, impacting the guy in the stomach. Phil quite happily slammed him down, ducking under a cross.

Skye jumped in with a kick, just dodging a jab and re-directing it, getting hit in the cheek with a cross from another. She stumbled back, regaining her footing and grappling onto one guy, using the momentum to kick the attacker before slamming her elbow down on the grappled guy, regaining her breath.

She checked her face, “Shit that stings!” She cursed, feeling blood. She shook it off, returning to the fray as she joined her mom. There were two guys remaining, and Melinda was focused on one who was just holding his own. “Look out!” Skye called, kicking in his back. His stumbling gave Melinda the opportunity to sweep round, landing a spinning backhand, sending the guy into Phil’s clothesline, dropping him.

Ward dealt with the final guy, breaking his jaw with a cross. “Grab the briefcases and let’s go!” He called. Skye grabbed a briefcase and the pizza, because she was not letting that go to waste. Phil and Melinda grabbed the other two. “Hope you got other travel!” They called to Ward. “Yeah, a bike! I’ll follow.”

“Hey, hey, a new guy? Phil, I didn’t call for this!” Tony called through the comms. “I mean, the more the merrier, but I’ve only just gotten to know Fitzsimmons!” He urged, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I don’t trust the guy either, Tony, but you have state-of-the-art surveillance, that way we can keep an eye on him.” Phil reasoned.

“This is… alarming.” Simmons swallowed, she and Fitz looking over the briefcases. “Sir, this is… this is stuff far beyond anything we’ve seen. It’s cameras in ocular implants watching and giving orders. Something’s connected to these, and it’s giving out orders.” She explained, hands over her mouth.

“Wait, what?” Skye demanded, bringing her laptop over. “Can I plug in?” She asked. “Like, to the eyes?” That’s creepy and never what I wanna say again.

Fitz shrugged. “Could be worth a try, though I doubt there’s anything to plug…into.” He swallowed, noting a transfer plug shoved straight into a small optic hole in the eye’s motherboard.

“Okay, what the hell is happening here?” Grant asked. One minute he’d been just fine with being in a restaurant fight, now this team was plugging wires into mechanical eyes. Fitz winced. “Oh, you haven’t been up to date round here. Speedy version is, Coulson regained his memories from whatever brought him back, Skye and Mrs Coulson-May sprung him, and went to Mr Stark. Together, they’ve found this program, Centipede. Centipede does whatever the hell this is, we hypothesise to people. So we’re trying to track them.”

“You’re right, that was remarkably short.” This sounded interesting, especially if what they found linked them back to him and Garrett. He was going to need to cover their asses, and fast. “Okay, consider me in.” He put forward. Tony whipped around. “That fast huh? And we’re supposed to trust you… how exactly?” He asked. He didn’t like the vibe from this guy, especially if the dark look in his eye was anything to go by.

“Look, Garrett’s concerned about you, Coulson, and for one reason or the other, he wants to watch up on you. Besides, if this Centipede’s anything to worry about, lives are at stake. That’s my job.” Grant stated, crossing his arms. He could tell he was going to clash with Stark. He was Iron Man for God’s sake, how could he contend with that?

Coulson, Melinda and Tony exchanged significant glances, raised eyebrows all round. Coulson turned to Grant. “You’ve got a month to make us trust you, got it? Anything happens that even feels shifty, you’re out.”

Ward could take that. He nodded. “Fine by me.”

“Uh, guys? You should see this.” Skye piped up, turning on a monitor. It was connected to a stream, a redheaded scientist arguing with whoever was behind the eye, when a temperature gauge appeared on the monitor. “T-This guy’s imploding!” Fitz stammered urgently. Phil knew this was going to get bad.

Tony was stunned silent. That-that was EXTREMIS. He thought he’d burned it all, after… after Killian. This was bad, this was very bad.

They watched in horror as the building exploded, the feed going black. “Skye, find that explosion!” Phil ordered, pulling on his jacket. “Tony, is that Bus ready?” He asked. Tony leapt right into action. “I just had it brought in, but Phil, it’s barely flight-ready, you gotta be careful with her!” He exclaimed.

“That’s good enough!” Phil replied, turning to the team. “Everyone, with me. Ward, you wanna prove yourself for the first time, tag along. This includes you Tony.” Phil called. Tony was shocked by the abruptness of it, but decided to go, what harm could it do? Besides, he wanted to feel part of a better team, not the chemical bomb the Avengers currently were.

“Got it, I can prep the Bus and help Fitz and Simmons in that new mobile lab.” He said. Fitz and Simmons gasped, both cheering on the inside but keeping it contained, this was urgent.

“Wait, guys look!” Skye urged again. A news feed she’d managed to find was showing a building on fire in LA. “This is that lab!” The next second, the camera focused in on a man jumping form the building, someone in his arms. He reached the ground, the concrete quaking and shattering underneath him, stopping everyone silent. Tony noted the weird contraption peeking out from his sleeve, frowning but keeping quiet.

“Was-was that an Enhanced?” He asked quietly. Everyone in the room nodded dumbly for a moment. Phil startled out of it first. “That makes it even more urgent. We gotta get there before SHIELD, now.”

Skye had the distinct, slightly frustrating feeling that they’d be picking up yet another stray after this.

Steve entered the Tower lobby, looking around. Where the hell was he meant to go again? He wondered if there was anyone to direct him round here, there was just too much… tech. It was too damn confusing, it had been months since he’d woken up, and he was barely wrapping his head round this stuff.

“OK, can anyone direct me to where Stark is around here?” He asked himself in frustration. Wandering around, he jumped when a voice spoke to him. “Captain Rogers, may I ask what you’re doing here?” Damn robot, always making him jump.

“Ah, JARVIS, I gotta speak to Tony about something, can you show me where to go?” He asked as politely as he could. God, things were so advanced here weren’t they? Now robots were running the place? What about people? Technology can’t be trusted, especially when it starts thinking for itself.

“Unfortunately sir, Mr Stark has just gone out on a volunteering mission to help a state disaster, but I can show you to your prospective new quarters if you would like?”

“No, no, that’s fine, JARVIS. Would you mind telling me where your boss went?” He asked. He felt stupid, talking to thin air. “Fine, then tell me where Agent Coulson is.”

“Agent Coulson is currently away on-mission. However, he did leave you a message. “I wasn’t a soldier, Rogers, I was an Agent. Now what am I?”

Damn it. He had to call Fury. Why was everything so complicated nowadays?

“Alright JARVIS, guess I’ll see you another time.” He promised, walking out of the building.

Skye was on a mission. The guy from facial ID was Mike Peterson, an ex-factory worker who’d been in a near fatal accident. But this guy was now an Enhanced superhero, so something was definitely shifty. She’d been tasked with intake.

She took a moment to reminisce on her early years doing intelligence work. She’d despised her parents’ work at first.

Her mother, after having her went back when Skye was five. During a mission in Bahrain, something went horribly wrong, that she didn’t tell her daughter for obvious reasons. But, Melinda shut down completely. For months, she could barely hold Skye without crying, and she was almost catatonic one night when Skye had fallen asleep with a nosebleed.

That was when Skye had begun to despise what SHIELD did to her parents. She loved the, beyond anything, but for years she didn’t understand why her parents worked for them. Nai Nai’s agency seemed so much better from what she was able to tell Skye.

When she was fifteen, she stumbled upon a forum on the internet talking about information and exploits. She’d found an organisation called the Rising Tide, and they’d told stories about the bad SHIELD did, how intelligence organisations had hurt people around the globe, how information should be free.

Then, she’d done something so incredibly stupid. She’d hacked into a private SHIELD server and leaked a secure operation that went wrong, and four agents nearly died because of it. She’d been grounded from technology that next year, and rightly so. She’d felt horrible.

Now, she still had her contacts though, staying well out of the circle. Now, she aimed that intense dislike at the Rising Tide. They were idiots, with no thought for the consequences of their actions, and she despised it. People got hurt because context was needed.

There. He was sat at a booth. She smoothed her hair, entering the café. She slid in, Peterson looking at her with suspicion. “Hi!” She greeted, a ditzy air about her. “You’re a superhero, right? Well, my parents are freelance security specialists, and they’re able to protect you. I called them immediately when I saw that building explode.” She explained. “They tell me to do a lot of things. You’d be safe though.”

“And what would I get in return? I’m in deep enough as it is.” Mike asked suspiciously. “Well, a stabilising agent for one. My friends said what’s in you now is kinda bad and could make you explode, so they’re currently making something so you, like, don’t.” God she hated playing up this angle.

“But we gotta move fast, because the suit guys are coming soon, and trust me, we don’t like the suit guys.”

He considered it for a moment. He didn’t believe for a second that this random girl was this air-headed. But she was offering him help, to be the hero he always needed. “Let me get my son.” He bargained. Skye knew about Ace Peterson, obviously. They could find accommodations round here for him, Brooklyn perhaps.

“Of course! You know where he is?” Skye asked. Mike nodded. “He’s back at the apartment!” Skye rushed to her van, leading him. “Come on then!” She hurried.

She put out a call to the team explaining the situation, driving as fast as possible without breaking the speed limit, even then pushing it.

By the time they got there, SHIELD was already on scene, and Mike was only getting hotter, sweat beading around his forehead, and was he glowing orange? Skye didn’t like the look of that. “Come on, come on, come on.”

Finally, she pulled into the alley where her parents and Fitz-Simmons were. “Okay, they got the stabilising agent, but it’s gonna knock you out. I promise, we’ll get your son, but you gotta take it before you blow!” Skye urged.

She didn’t see much after that, running into the building with comms on. “Anyone joining me in the building? We gotta get Ace before SHIELD does!” She was frantic. “I’m here, I got him!” Ward called. Skye sighed in relief. “Bring him south stairwell, let’s get him out!” She ordered, rushing to meet him.

Little Ace was frantic in Ward’s arms, struggling. Skye swore, Ward didn’t look to be great with kids. She’d pull his file as soon as she could, this looked bad. “Hey, hey, Ace, buddy, we’re with your Dad!” She called out. Ace seemed to loosen at that, turning to look at her.

“You have my Dad?” Skye nodded frantically. “Yes, yes, we’ve got your Daddy. Ace, you’re in good hands, but you gotta trust us. The men out there are not good, okay? We’re gonna help your dad with his powers, but you gotta come with us.”

Ace gave a small nod, and Skye took him from Ward. “Let’s go.” She said back to him, already rushing. Ward tilted his head with a groan. “On it.”

Tony had Mike lay on the table just as Skye’s van pulled into the Bus. “Okay, May, in the clear, go!” He called through comms, working with Simmons as fast as they could. “Ok, we have the hydrochloric element to deal with, otherwise that acidic reaction will-“

“Create an enzyme destroying catalyst that’ll inflame through the body, killing anyone and everyone on this plane.” Simmons finished, infusing the injection with some alkaline fluids, testing as fast as she dared.

“Guys, some help here?” Fitz felt Mike’s head, which was positively burning at this point. “I never should have come with you guys, you’re not-“ Mike was cut off by his own screaming, and Tony finally managed to load the mostly finished inoculation into the needle, jamming it into Mike’s arm. “Clear!” He shouted, plunging the fluid in.

In moments, Mike’s orange veins faded to a glowing blue, the same colour steam rising from the injection site. The golden device on his body turned a deep cerulean, to Tony’s intrigue, but he had no energy, sapped from him as he sat down, laughing in relief. “Oh, thank God that worked!” He laughed, Simmons and Fitz joining in. Oh, he liked these two, and he knew they’d be very well connected in the future, even if they didn’t know it yet.

“If all missions are gonna be like this in future,” he chuckled dryly, leaning back in his chair. “You’re all getting me a cardiologist.” He stated, half-serious.

With the mission successful and Mike sedated so the serum could properly absorb into his body, the Bus flew back to its hangar, the team celebrating. Little Ace was with his aunt for a while, dropped off along the way. Mike could talk to him later, but right now he needed to be helped with his transition.

Ward had a feeling this was going to be a very, very interesting few months.

Chapter Text

TAHITI Sucked: Chapter Five

Reoriented.

Akela knew she was being watched through the lens. Memories flashed through her mind, wishing she could go back to them. Little Skye, Coulson, hell, even May, when she wasn’t glaring at Akela.

To be fair the pancake incident was on her, she and Skye had agreed that.

Steal those diamonds, get on the next train and back to the hotel. The orders came through from the Englishman, to her disgust. The red-masked military guys were small-fry, but it had to be done.

No, not Skye! Melinda whirled out of bed, hands up in a defensive stance. She was sweating, badly. Shaking too.

She hadn’t had one of these nightmares in so long, but when she did, they were worse than any of her others. “Shit.” She cursed, her foot stinging. She’d grazed it rolling off the bed, the oozing wound already glaring red.

She stumbled out of their room, limping down the hallway. She grabbed some supplies from the adjacent bathroom and made her way to the counter on their floor.

“JARVIS? Is anyone up?” Melinda asked tightly, cleaning her graze, shivering from head to toe.

Bahrain was awful, especially when she imagined-

“Miss Skye is with Mr Stark in his lab if that’s what you’re asking, Mrs Coulson-May.” JARVIS announced calmly. “Can I recommend chai tea to calm your nerves?” He asked through the speakers. Melinda thought that sounded damn good right about now. She wrote a note to Phil explaining what happened and let JARVIS make her a cup.

“Thank you, JARVIS.” She bandaged her wound and corrected herself, limping nearly un-noticeably now.

Looking outside it was dark. Looking at the digital clock, it was close to one in the morning. What the hell was Skye doing up this late? Or Tony for that matter?

She entered the lab to loud Nirvana playing, narrowly dodging You whizzing past her. She’d become familiar with the bots over the last week, and You was pure chaos. DUM-E was just cute. But she’d never admit it.

Melinda found Skye tapping away on her laptop, Tony playing around with a holographic display.

“Mom? What’s up?” Skye asked, noticing her in the doorway. Tony turned to see the agent, giving a small wave, then noticing the sweat beading the woman’s brow. “Mini Agent, music off will you?” He asked. Skye tapped her YouTube icon, stopping it as she joined Melinda on the couch.

“Nightmare?” Skye asked knowingly. Melinda gave a shaky nod. “Yeah.”

“Bahrain?” Skye murmured, her own memories of the aftermath coming up. Melinda confirmed, Tony standing nearby.

“You haven’t had a Bahrain one in months, you feeling okay?” Melinda scowled playfully, ruffling her daughter’s hair. Skye mewed, groaning as she tried to slap her mother’s hands away.

“Probably just tired. You two the same?” She questioned. Skye looked guilty enough, and Tony looked away, trying to play innocent.

Melinda raised an eyebrow, and the man relented. “Fine, yeah. Nightmares. New York.” The two women remembered vividly, Skye moving up to give Tony some space.

“So, Bahrain? If I can ask.” Tony probed gently. Skye glared at Tony warningly, a sight Tony decided he didn’t like on the young agent. Melinda brought Skye back into a hug, sighing. “I’m… not open about Bahrain. I only ever told Skye and Phil. Skye because…” She couldn’t finish, her chest tightening a little. She rubbed at it, breathing slowly.

“After Bahrain, Mom came home a wreck. She closed off to everyone except Dad, and she uh, she couldn’t hold me for months. She’d take one look at me and begin crying, then I’d cry, it was awful.” Melinda hated being vulnerable like this, who knew what Tony might do with it? She felt awful for assuming he would, but at the same time she kept everything close to her.

Tony sympathised, whatever May went through scarred her. He could understand, listening intently. “Bahrain… we had a lead on an Enhanced. We followed it up, and… there was this little girl, around Skye’s age at that time, four or five. She had powers, she could control people’s will.”

Melinda swallowed thickly. “I-I had to shoot her, and I keep thinking, ‘what if that was my baby?’ ‘What if that was Skye?’” She drank her tea, not minding it burning her lips. She’d have a killer ulcer in two days time. “Everyone at SHIELD.. they made me ‘The Cavalry.’ I fucking despise that name. That was my second worst moment.”

Tony put a hand on Melinda’s shoulder, squeezing firmly but gently. “Thank you, Melinda. Don’t say anything else, I understand. How about I wrap up here and I order in late morning pizza?” He suggested. Melinda thought that sounded decent, especially if the way Skye’s eyes lit up was any indication.

“I’m gonna go get Fitzsimmons’s cute butts up- wait-“ She slid to a stop from her jump up, turning towards Tony, who smirked knowingly. “Kiddo, I’m pan, you’re all good. Hey, if you’re ever stuck on gifts, us nerds love toys.” He advised half-serious. Skye grinned, running off. He shook his head knowingly, glancing to Melinda. “First crushes, huh?”

“Phil was my first actually, and only. Couldn’t imagine being with anyone else. Phil had… three girlfriends. We’re still friends with one of them.” Melinda remembered softly. Audrey was a damn prize, and a hell of a lot of fun to be around.

“That the cellist?” Tony asked lightly. “He talked about it while we were up there, the ex. Told me he had a wife too, he’s lucky to have you.” He said, thinking of Pepper. It must have shown on his face because Melinda snickered in amusement.

“Miss Potts? I’ve seen the way you look at her. My advice Tony, let her in.” She stalked off, satisfied with her efforts. Tony hummed in recognition, going to order the pizza.

Hours later, Fitzsimmons, Skye, Phil and Melinda, Tony and Ward were laying around the room in various positions, stuffed with pizza. Ward liked pineapple on pizza, which Skye found gross, when the bell went off.

“Jiminy Cricket!” Jemma yelped, bouncing up, alarmed at the sudden sound. Skye looked over to her friend with no small sense of amusement. “Did you actually just say ‘Jiminy Cricket?” Jemma went aghast, flushing. “It’s a valid expression!”

“Shit, that was the incident tracker!” Tony swore, jumping up. “J, pull that up on the holograph. Fitz, Simmons, come here and help.”

The pair flew up, bouncing up to help.

“Oh my god!” Simmons exclaimed, checking the updates from the Belgian police network, uploaded to every intelligence network in the West.

“Ten million dollars in diamonds was stolen from US Military disguised as a protest group today. We need to get over there!” Simmons exclaimed.

“Not right now you three. Mr Peterson needs you, we’ll take the Bus while you guys handle back-end. Skye can you check-“

“Security cameras? You got it.” Skye murmured, already running to fire up her laptop. “Am I on this one sir?” Ward asked from his position on his couch, massaging his head. Food comas mixed with a hangover wasn’t exactly beneficial to intel work.

“You’ll be with us on the ground, yes. Mel, are you going to fire up the BUS?” Phil asked. Melinda smirked, already heading to shower. “Do you even have to ask, Phil?” Tony drew up the scanners and the police feed, beginning to sift through data to send the Bus.

Skye got ready, making sure her laptop was charged and changing into comfortable clothes before heading to the hangar.

The Bus was beautiful, sleek and black. Skye marvelled at its exterior as everyone came to admire it for a moment. “My God, it’s huge!” Jemma exclaimed, looking at the cockpit with awe. Fitz was eyeing the lab inside the hangar, its walkway open.

“And this, my friends is what good money can buy.” Tony clapped Phil on the back. “We’ll be right thereon comms while you three track the scene. God I can’t wait to tour that thing.”

“Cockpit’s mine.” May stated, walking in. Phil turned to Tony, bringing him into a hug. “Thanks Tony. Means a lot.” The words said silently flittered between the two, Tony and Phil’s respect for each other solidified. “It’s nothing, Phil. The most I can do for a genuine friend of mine. And I don’t have a lot of them right now, apart from, you know, you guys, Pepper, Rhodey and Happy.” Phil raised an eyebrow knowingly, patting Tony’s shoulder. “Yeah, Banner was right huh? Don’t worry about it, we’ll rebuild better.” With that he turned to the Bus, walking inside. Skye hugged Fitz and Simmons, keeping the flush on her face hidden from them as she did so. “I’ll see you guys soon. Keep tabs on us, yeah?”

“Hi, I’m Jemma!” The British girl greeted, helping Skye pick her folders back up from the ground earnestly. Skye swallowed, she was cute, and the boy behind her too. “I-I’m Skye. Uh, Skye Coulson.” She greeted gently, bending over to pick up her binder.

Jemma gestured to the boy behind her. “That’s Fitz. He’s shy, so can you just give him a moment or two? We’ve only had each other the past month.” Skye could see that, the two were tight-knit, like they were soul-bound. She smirked, giving a two-finger salute to the guy. “Waddup bro? I’m Skye!”

The boy gave a small wave, he was nervous, shoulders hunched and protective. Skye remembered the bullies at her old school and winced, she knew what that could do to someone.

“H-Hi, I-I’m Leo.” Fitz greeted, stuttering anxiously. Skye gestured to his shoulders, asking if she could hug herself close to him. “O-oh sure, Jemma!” He cried out in alarm, though pleasant as Skye squeezed herself against him.

“Oh Fitz, we’ve got a new friend! And she’s taken to you quite obviously.” Jemma cackled, throwing her arm around Skye’s shoulder.

This was going to be a beautiful friendship.

“Naturally. Stay safe out there Skye.” Jemma warned softly.

The data came through as Skye and Phil stood at the table, watching the security feeds. “Wait wait stop, now!” Skye urged, freezing as she recognised the person, swallowing hard. “D-Dad, is that- is that Aunt Akela?” She whispered, a lump building in her throat.

Aunt Akela used to babysit her when she was little. She’d disappeared when Skye was fifteen, and they hadn’t heard from her since. She’d been a wreck for weeks, she’d missed the fun they used to have, having Disney marathons every Monday and making pancakes on Fridays. “I think it is. But how? She was assumed dead after-“

“You know her?” Tony’s voice came through the comms. Skye sniffed, hand over her mouth. “Y-yeah, she-she used to babysit me, but she disappeared. How is this-how is this possible?” She croaked. “I don’t know, but we’re going to find out. Can we track her last known location? We’re on course to Belgium, but we’re going to need to be pre-emptive.”

“Of course,” Tony replied, fingers flying over his keyboard as he brought up contacts. “I’m currently patched into NSA satellites with permission, what should I be looking for?”

“Check camera patterns around the routes into small towns in Belgium, ones with hotels near the entrances. They’re easy hole-up locations.”

“I think I got something. Woman matching her description entered a nearby hotel at 11:38 last night.” Tony murmured, drafting over the information. Skye looked it over with bated breath, looking to Phil. “Dad, I’ll go in my van, I have an idea.”

Melinda walked into the room, having heard everything through comms. “Phil, Akela might not be the person you remember. It’s been nearly six years. And Skye, take more than an ICER.” She advised. Skye raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Mom, you’re not suggesting she’s enhanced? Like reading minds? Could she always do that and you just never told me? That would explain how-“ At the look from Melinda she turned to get ready, grabbing a .45.

Ward was found working out in the Hangar, much to Skye’s disapproval. She sensed something off about the guy, and watched silently for a few moments. There was a vicious ferocity to his attacks, like a feral animal ready to bite. He was animalistic in every sense of the word, and it set her on edge. She bit back a growl, calling down to him.

“You and Dad are in the truck, checking out a hotel. I’ll be nearby in my van.”

She called. That guy gave her a bad feeling, and Skye was going to wait until she could release her own animal on him, her hackles raised and ready.

On location, Skye set up her gear, her desktops flaring up as she opened her programs. She decided to run basic hash tools and some pingers so she could jack some Wi-Fi connections.

“Skye? Where are you…” Akela’s voice hummed thoughtfully. The young agent was taking vacation from missions for a while, babysitting Skye while Coulson and May were on a mission.

Skye giggled from her place behind the sofa, muffling it with her mouth.

“Well, she must have gotten lost then, however am I going to tell Coulson? I wonder, where could my favourite bug be?” Akela turned the corner quickly, seeing Skye squeal, laughing as she picked the little girl up, bouncing her on Akela’s hip. “You found me!” The little one pouted, and Akela practically felt the glow radiating off of her.

“That’s right little bug! Time for lunch kiddo!” Akela hoisted Skye up onto a seat, preparing some food. “When will Mama and Papa be back?” Skye asked curiously, her head cocked to the side.

Akela shrugged, handing Skye a bowl of pasta. “Not sure Skye, but I’ll make sure to tell them what a good girl you were, you got that? And I definitely didn’t give you ice-cream earlier, right?” Akela watched Skye nod earnestly, hands on her hips as she picked up the phone. It was Coulson.

“Sir?” She picked up the phone, away from Skye for a moment. “Akela! Thank God. We’re in Bahrain… Mel… something happened to her.” Akela’s blood ran cold, swallowing the lump that appeared in her throat. “Is-Is she okay?”

“She’s fine physically, but mentally… Akela, I’ve never seen her this bad. I’ve called Andrew, maybe we can get her therapy.. how’s Skye?” Phil needed something to distract him at that moment, crouched with his wife on the jet. She had been staring into space for the last half hour, and he was worried. At the mention of Skye she pricked up, however, which he took as a good sign.

“She’s been good as gold. I was playing hide-and-seek with her not five minutes ago.” Akela stated. Phil watched Mel’s eyes light up a fraction, keeping a steady hand on her back. She opened her mouth, seemingly trying to get something out. “Can-Can you keep her up until we get back?” Melinda asked hoarsely. “I-I wanna see her.”

“Sure thing, Agent May.” Akela hung up the phone, heading over to Skye. “Hey little bug. Your mommy’s had something upsetting happen to her today, so when she gets back I’m going to need you to give her a big hug, okay?” Skye was intuitive, she knew it was bad, but she had to be a big girl for Mama. She sniffled a little, but steeled her resolve. “I’ll give her the biggest hug ever!”

Akela chuckled sadly. “That you will kiddo, that you will.”

Skye wiped a tear off her face as Phil and Ward talked to the woman in the hotel, and on confirmation of Akela being in it Skye prepared herself. She was going to do something very stupid, and it was a big gamble.

“She’s my angel. She told me I had a tumour the first day she was here you know. Saved my life.” Skye froze. How did Akela know? Had she been Enhanced?

She hacked into a nearby stream, watching someone looking at her van. “What the hell?..” Skye murmured, the X-ray function turning on. As she waved her hand, the woman on screen did too. Who was watching her?

“Guys, we have someone with eyes on me! I got a stream up looking right at my van!” Skye called, checking her wing-mirror, her breath knocked from her. “It’s Akela. But where’s the camera?” She had no time to think, as the van Akela was in began speeding up.

Skye’s breath hitched, and she slid into her seat, narrowly starting the ignition and dodging the oncoming T-bone. “Shit!”

“Akela, stop!” She called out her window, but Akela didn’t look her way. She growled in frustration, Tony’s voice in the background. “No, that can’t be possible, that would mean…”

He was looking at the livestream, checking the refraction and the reflections of the glass in Akela’s windshield, checking for any camera. “Holy shit…”

“Tony, what the hell is it?” Skye demanded, Akela now in pursuit as Skye tore through the city, hoping to find her dad and Ward before Akela got her. “Skye, the camera. It’s in her eye. Hang on…”

A wall of text appeared on the livestream, and Simmons read it out. “Skye… she’s been told to eliminate you.”

“She’s got orders.” Melinda called through the comms channel, realising the enormity of the situation. “Skye, I don’t think she’s willing with this. Try and contain her, capture if you can.” She urged, already running to warm up the Bus’s engines.

Skye drove up the street, noting her dad and Ward on the street waving her over. She looked in her wing-mirror, Akela still after her. She looked at the barricade up ahead and a plan formed in her mind.

She moved into a brace position, her back pressed tightly against her seat, her arms straight and hands clenched on the wheel.

“Dad, catch us!” She yelled, slamming on her brake and throwing the van into neutral. As the brakes squealed, Akela’s van slammed into hers, throwing Skye against the wheel, her head pounding suddenly as she felt the wheels slide, her van tipping over.

“No no no!” She cried out, the van tipping onto its side.

Smoking, the two vehicles came to a stop. “Skye!” Phil called, running towards her van, heart in his chest. A hand shot up from the window, and he sighed in relief. “I’m okay… just… a killer headache… I think…” Skye pulled herself out of the truck, into her father’s arms.

She struggled for breath, looking at Akela’s van. “Dad… what just happened?” She asked, horrified.

Phil didn’t have an answer, and he wanted them. Now.

Chapter Text

They pulled Akela’s unconscious form from the wreckage and dragged her back to the Bus, where they looked over her injuries. “Phil, what, in all hell, is that?” Tony gestured to Akela’s eye on the x-ray he’d taken. “That is a micro-cam in her eye, recording and streaming everything she does, and she gets orders from it.” He continued, swiping a diagram onto the screen.

“So she’s Enhanced now?” Phil looked over the complicated schematics in horror. Whatever happened all those years ago, Akela had gone through hell. And now she was stealing diamonds. That deal wouldn’t have gone through, so what would they do about that?

“Skye, anything you can do?” Phil asked her. She was sat with her hand on her mouth, shoulders hunched and her knee tapping. “I don’t know. The stream is on a secure network, and if it’s recording there’s years to go through. I can’t even access the actual tech without getting at her eye, and that’s Simmons’s thing.” She slid her laptop onto the table, opening a few programs.

“I could see if I can hijack it, it’s just a matter of slipping in without the administrator of the stream noticing.” She explained, the only thing on the footage being darkness.

“I’m gonna go talk to her.” Phil decided, heading away.

Skye tapped her foot on the floor, biting her lip. Would this be worth it? “Hey Tony? Could you check the recent purchases for SHIELD in the last few days? Just a hunch.”

He obliged, going through streams of data and deciding to attack the agent registry, finding a weakness in the maintenance folders. “What are we looking for here?”

Skye sighed. “I think this is Centipede. We stole those cases from Cybertek and they had the exact same implants in. Then Mike turns up with that thing on his arm? I think this is all coming together in one massive thing, but I don’t want to say yet until it’s confirmed.” Skye could see the pieces fitting like a puzzle, and the picture it was painting wasn’t a good one. Soldiers, enhanced like no other and used as warriors in more wars.

Akela woke with a screaming headache, pounding in the back of her head, her eyes fluttering open to see Coulson in the seat opposite her. Shit! She rolled herself over to the other side of her bunk, bolting upright. “I can’t look at you.” She spoke urgently.

“I know. We X-rayed you. What the hell happened Akela?” Phil questioned softly. “I didn’t trust my team is what. If I’d listened to you- it doesn’t matter now anyway, they’re dead. Was at the bottom of a copper mine for the better part of four years, then I got dug out by the bastards who did this to me.”

She picked at some lint on her trousers, analysing the room for a way out. She was in a tower, overlooking the entirety of New York City. “That’s what I’m here to talk about. One of my team, Simmons, would like to operate on you. There’s- there’s a lot you and I need to catch up on.”

That much Akela could tell, and there was something different about her mentor, he seemed tired, barely keeping up. “We can talk once this thing is out of me.” She paused for a moment, daring to turn her head a little. “How’s Skye?”

Phil smiled. “She’s grown so much. She’s become such a good agent. Well, I think- I’ll explain later.” That was cryptic. “We noticed a self-destruct feature in the prosthetic. What was your objective?”

“Pay off a tech buyer. Someone stole a suitcase of their tech- wait.” She put two and two together, resisting the urge to whirl around. “That was you wasn’t it? We’re in Stark Tower! Why are we here?” She demanded, wanting to gape at the realisation.

“That we can talk about once we’ve gotten that eye out of you. Look down, we’ll bring you to the lab.” She obliged, a swoop of elation drifting through her.

Skye was putting together a dossier, Cybertek and Centipede were connected, the manifolds she’d gone through from SHIELD had purchases from higher-ups of certain bits of technology from Cybertek itself, and she was willing to bet they had their own experiments up and running.

Her eyes flittered over her work, fingers tapping on the table. “Shit.” She cursed lightly, prompting Tony to look over. “Yeah, I’d say that about covers it.” He summed up, patting her on the back. “You know, Fury’s SHIELD during the Chitauri were experimenting with Tesseract tech to make weapons? They were going to use it as a nuclear deterrent, which I would agree with, it not for the fact that talking does the job just as well.”

“Doesn’t surprise me. Our SHIELD will be better. The Tesseract will be locked away, secure, and it won’t be used for weaponry this time. If we can find a way to destroy it, we will.” Skye was adamant that the Tesseract be used for nothing else, she would have to look into who retrieved it in the end.

“Destroy what now?” Ward entered the room, an ICER at his waist.

Tony watched him warily. The guy was hiding something and both he and Skye knew it. “The Tesseract. It shouldn’t exist, and after Hydra, you would think Fury would have learned not to screw with this stuff.” Skye watched for his reaction nonchalantly, she wanted to see how he’d react.

“Yeah well, Fury’s a paranoid bastard, and for good reason. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve a kick in the ass though.” Damn. He’d given nothing away. Skye mentally kicked herself, she’d have to wait and see what he’d do next.

“What do you think? Cybertek, Centipede, all of it? Think it’s connected?” There, a twitch in his eyebrow. He knew something. It wasn’t enough to act on, but it was a start. She was thankful he didn’t notice. “Looks like it to me. It’s well put together intel. Remind me why you didn’t go to Intel?”

“Because Ops was the best fit for me. I met Fitz and Simmons in the Sci-Ops sector though. Didn’t see you there.” She probed. Ward gave a wry smirk. “I went out on assignment for a year or so. I graduated a while back.” God that was smooth, Skye cursed, holding back a growl.

Akela was put under, and with her eye opened Simmons was able to start the operation. She was thankful they had general anaesthetic here, though it was Stark Tower so she shouldn’t be surprised.

A knock on the door startled her, and she looked out of the corner of her eye to see Mr Peterson standing in the doorway. “Hi.” He greeted softly.

“You’re not meant to be in the operating room you know.” Simmons reprimanded, gesturing towards the gloves. “Put those on if you’re going to be in here.”

He obliged, approaching the table with a medical mask. “Who’s this?”

“Akela Amador, unwilling Centipede agent. She was captured a few years ago and fitted with a prosthetic eye that’s been streaming her every move to someone. She was also Coulson’s protégé.” Jemma elaborated. “Poor woman.”

Mike looked over the unconscious woman. He could truly empathise, he’d been through the Centipede program. He felt a kinship towards the woman, and he knew he’d be there to help her. “You guys are working on Centipede aren’t you? How can I help?”

“I’m not the one that organises those sorts of things Mr Peterson, I’m a biochemist. Go to Coulson for that. Anyhow, thank you for the company.”

Mike approved of this woman. “Your name? Please, call me Mike.”

“Simmons. Jemma Simmons.” She’d always wanted to pull that move, and evidently Mike knew it too, chuckling. “Do all British agents do that or is it just you and Bond. Is Bond real?”

Jemma laughed aloud, glad she wasn’t holding anything at that moment, concentrating on Akela’s optic nerve. “I wouldn’t know. Mike, I’m gonna need your help with this. I’m about to pull out Akela’s eye, and when I do, I’m going to put it on a plate. You’re going to slam a protective case on top of it, and it will then explode.” She urged. He grabbed the case, standing at the ready.

Jemma severed Akela’s optic nerve, slamming it down on the plate. Mike capped the plate just as the eye exploded, smoke rising out of the top. “Oh thank God.” Jemma chuckled in relief, wiping her brow. “I’m gonna close up here. I think Fitz is in the tech lab fiddling with the schematics.”

“I’ll go see him then if I’m doing the rounds. See you around!” Mike bade her goodbye, heading out of the room.

“Steve Rogers, meet Agent John Garrett. Garrett, this is Cap.” Nick introduced the two to each other. Steve didn’t like Garrett’s smarmy grin, he seemed lecherous. “Is this really necessary Fury. I should be going after Stark right now, and ending this!” He demanded petulantly.

“You two need to work together because Garrett knows Coulson, inside and out. You know Stark, so make it work. I’m tired of them outthinking me. Me, motherfucker, Nicholas J. Fury! Goddamn.” With that, Fury shuffled out of the apartment silently, to the two men’s relief.

“Well Cap, this will be interesting, always wanted to shoot at fish in a barrel.” Steve sighed, this was all he had to work with?

Garrett knew Rogers was underestimating him, working exactly to plan. He hadn’t factored this into account, but he’d take it. If Phil wouldn’t come to him, it was time for Johnny boy to go a huntin’.

He stepped out into the corridor, giving the Captain time to cope. “Son, are you in position?” He called through his comms, hoping the kid would pick up. God, he was still a boy wasn’t he? Malleable and weak, just like that idiot brother of his.

“Yes sir. It’s just gotten… really strange here.” Ward was supremely understating things, this crew was crazy, and it just seemed to ramp up the further he got with them. He thanked himself for having the sense to get out of the Tower before this call, at a nearby coffee place.

“Why don’t we meet at the rendezvous point and you can tell me all about it?”

Skye watched the cameras as Ward left the coffee shop. Who was he on the phone with, and where was he going? “JARVIS, do you have access to the New York camera network? I’m gonna need access.”

“Unfortunately Miss Coulson, legalities require me to keep myself out of the government surveillance networks, as do my protocols. If I may, ma’am, I believe you’ll be able to do it on your own. Just be careful.” Skye warmed up from the AI dude’s encouragement, she needed it. Especially since the Rising Tide, she’d just been a teenager, a stupid, naïve kid. She hoped she was better now, no more lives would be lost because of her. Those agents wouldn’t have died for nothing.

She started by breaking into the CIA registry. Their servers were overpowered by hers when she sent a barrage of pings to a specific one, allowing her access. Skye’s home was here, in the rivers of code she could see swirling around her.

She’d need to call someone soon enough, just to make sure there were no red flags being raised. Luckily, security guards were easily duped most of the time.

“What are you doing?” Her dad’s voice made her jump, stopping her in her tracks. “Ward left the building, took a phone call in a Starbucks then promptly buggered off somewhere. I’m trying to track him. You and I both know he can’t be trusted.” She explained. Phil got it, sidling in beside her. He had no idea what she was doing, but he knew his daughter was one of the best hackers in the Academy, maybe even this part of the coast.

“Can you trace his phone call?” He asked attentively, maybe there was audio on that they could use. Skye sighed. “Nope, it was a burner, probably a pay as you go. He’s probably destroyed the SIM by now, and binned it, so that’s useless. SIMs hold all user data too, so contacts are gone too.”

“Damn. How did you get access to the cameras?” He didn’t like asking, he knew Skye broke laws with her breaking. At least at this point the laws they were bending were at least to help the world from Fury’s SHIELD.

“You don’t wanna know. Some social manipulation, some brute-forcing, but no specifics, I won’t get you in more trouble than we’ll inevitably be in when we go to the other agencies with this.” He could agree with that. The dossiers alone would be damning evidence. He wondered for a moment about some of the missions he’d been on. They seemed off.

“I’m gonna go start a new file on something. If you find anything, update me.” Skye watched her father go with no small sense of trepidation, old missions got to him and her mother more often than they’d like, and Bahrain didn’t need mentioning at this point.

“Guys, I got something!” Tony called through less than an hour later, fiddling with a pad. “Cybertek was working with old Mikey, so I looked into them. A major benefactor of their services is currently one Ian Quinn, billionaire and douchebag, I’d know, I’ve met him. He’s scum, the lowest of the low, and Stane was the lowest for me.”

“He’s a private investor in over twelve companies isn’t he?” Skye asked curiously. “The Rising Tide had me hack one of his dummy companies. He was holding over 15 million in shares in one of those alone, like some sort of business angel crap. One’s a mining company in Malta, full of worker abuse violations, he’s awful. You think he’s the mastermind behind this?”

Tony shrugged. He’d dealt with under-the-table people like Quinn before, and something felt off about this. “Quinn doesn’t go for small firms. He attacks larger companies with lawsuits, creates cabals of other large companies and uses niche market manipulation to force the other companies to back down, why is he buying tech all of a sudden? I think we should have a little talk with him.”

Skye huffed, rolling her shoulders. “That won’t be possible, the guy lives in Malta. Tax haven, remember? SHIELD doesn’t even have jurisdiction there, we won’t even scratch the surface.”

“I can pull a few strings. I got a guy.” Tony’s expression turned grim. He wasn’t going to like this one bit. All the team agreed, trusting him. This felt wrong, but it was worth it, at least he hoped.

Fitz was working with Akela’s eye implant when Mike came in. “Hey Fitz, you good?” The man was smiling warmly, and Fitz could see the man resembling a fuzzy bear if not for the gel ignite implant on his arm. Nevertheless, he returned the gesture. “Yeah, I’m working on the eye implant, trying to get data out of it. As far as I can tell, it blew itself just after being disconnected from Akela, but the recording components were left basically untouched, so I can gather the data from there.”

“I don’t know what you just said, but I think it’s positive?” Mike tried gently. He wasn’t an engineer, but it seemed okay, and Mike was at least okay with knowing that. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Um, how good are you with computers?” Fitz asked, slightly distracted.

“Oh, uh, I can use an Excel spreadsheet if that’s good?” Mike’s expertise with computers was basic, probably civilian by the other guys’ here’s standards. “That’s actually more than most people, okay, can you open up the diagnostic application and open up some recording software?”

Fury sighed. He’d been called on location because of these anomalous lightning occurrences, and none of his scientists could figure out what was causing it.

They’d traced the cause back to some firehouse workers, and Fury had immediately quarantined the place, no firemen got out.

There had already been three flashes, and if the slight static starting to build in the air was anything to go by, the charges were heating up the air, and all the firemen would be dead by morning. Such a waste.

“Hill, be prepared to raze the area. This must not get out to a civilian population. And take the Chitauri helmet with you, but do not touch it!”

Sacrifices had to be made for the greater good. The Chitauri helmet could be used as a good preventative measure.

“Sir, if I may, what are you planning to do with-“ Maria was interrupted by a sharp glare from Nick.

“Did I ask you to question me, Agent Hill? Do as I requested. I have to go attend to Rogers. Message me when it’s done.”

Tony landed in Pozzalo, Malta just an ocean’s length away on a rooftop.

“So, Tony Stark, eh? What brings you to my humble domain?” A smoky voice called from its place in the shadows. Tony sighed. “I need to cash in that favour you owe me. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t have any other choice.”

“Yeah? The Rider don’t take many favours you know.” Tony scowled, his shoulders squared. “Blaze, I don’t care you have that demon inside you. I made both of you that deal. All I need is help getting into Malta and figuring out Ian Quinn’s plan. Then you and the Ghost can go screw yourselves for all I care.”

A puff of smoke blew from the darkness for a moment, the distinct sound of a metal bat grating on the brick wall was heard before the man drew himself up, revealing a grizzled man, a couple inches taller than Tony. “Alright Tones. Just this once, then we’re paid off. Come and see us once in a while?”

“You know it pal. Get on the road, go on, go.” He dodged the hug Johnny was about to give him, knowing the man’s tendency to nearly crush his ribs. Johnny laughed, a motorcycle blazing into existence, swinging his legs around it. “The deal is done, the Merchant of Death releases us from our bond, let us ride, brother.”

Tony watched the Rider leave with relief. He hoped he never had to meet one of them again.

Chapter Text

Chapter Seven:

Ward had returned to the Tower a day later, and Skye made sure the team avoided him, or at least remained courteous around him, so as not to make him suspicious. She suspected he wasn’t the best at social cues, so she could use that.

“Had a nice time out?” She asked, walking alongside him. She needed to check on Mike and Akela, see how they were doing. Ward shrugged, looking away from her in an attempt to be nonchalant. “It was okay, why do you ask?” Skye thought about her reply for a moment, speaking. “Just curious, you know, you’re so stiff, Agent Grant Ward, I can shoot a squirrel with a sniper rifle fifteen miles away.”

Ward scoffed, rolling his eyes. “I do not sound like that.” Just for a moment, they were able to pretend they were normal, walking towards the Bus hangar. “But no seriously.” Skye stated, leaning on a railing that led to a small set of stairs down to the plane.

“I went to a café, okay? I found a nice place down on Third that’s not too wrecked.” Damn he was good.

They were headed to Malta. Tony had somehow gained them access beyond Ian Quinn’s walls, and it just so happened that Skye,  Jemma and Fitz’s mentor, a professor named Frank had been kidnapped, leading right back to Quinn. “Awfully convenient, no?” Skye asked as she checked the profile. “Grade-A rich douchebag, old college buddy, this stinks of conspiracy.” She explained to Fitz and Simmons, who upon confused looks got a brief explanation.

“Who’s your buddy that got us access?” Skye questioned curiously to Tony, who frowned darkly. Okay… she thought, backing off.

She joined her dad in poring over the map.

“We’ll need access past Quinn’s firewall if we ever hope to get on the base; he appears to have a laser sensor wall nearly 20 feet high. Anyone who tries going through that gets cooked.” Phil points out, the blueprint of the map brought up on the holographic tech Tony had installed, pointing out several key areas Skye could see were marked as entry points by percentage of success.

“I could write some code that could work as an infiltration bug, latch onto an employee’s device and go from there?”

Phil shook his head. “No, we need someone on the inside to disable it, look, it has a self-maintained generator, we’d need an EMP pulse to get it shut down.”

Skye bit her lip, shoulders hunched as she thought. But- no, I can’t.. that was the worst cover I have ever… I don’t-

“I could contact some of the Rising Tide.” She bit out harshly, despising the option. “They still owe me favours.”

“Skye-“ Phil began, only for Skye to interrupt him. “Dad, I will not ever, ever, EVER go undercover with them again. They were liars.” She assured him, running a hand through her hair. “Just one favour, that’s all. I need to make a few calls?” He let her go with a sigh, hoping this wouldn’t end badly.

~

“Help me!” A scream came from an unknown laboratory in the Maldives, a woman by the name of Hannah terrified of herself as chaos erupted around her.

“Jesus. Wonder why Fury had us lookin’ after this broad, huh?” Garrett sneered from behind plexiglass, Rogers beside him. Oh, the Star Spangled Ass was hilarious to wind up, watching the muscled super-soldier’s arms tense. Oh, Johnny Boy was jelly!

“She’s not a broad, she’s Enhanced, and dangerous. Fury sent us here to burn the experiment if it got out of hand. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices, and people are going to die. This will save people.” Bullshit! John cackled in his head, ol’ Cappy was just as twisted as John, he could see it. He truly bought into his own hype, oh, what a joy!

“I’m not stoppin’ ya!” John chuckled, starting to walk away when a rift opened, a grimy, bearded man staring straight through the glass from the other room, a dark portal behind him. Silently, he screamed, and Rogers slammed the button. In a moment, the room flashed with light, and in an instant the lights flooded back on.

Nothing was left but ash. A single tear rolled down Rogers’ face before he walked away. John couldn’t say he had any of that weakness left.

Outside, Steve looked down at the photo of Peggy he kept in his compass. “Not a good soldier, but a good man.” He whispered.

It felt wrong, but oh so right. This was good, this was keeping the world under control, SHIELD was right, other Enhanced were dangerous.

~

Malta was beautiful, Melinda thought. Shame it was a tax haven. She watched the blueprint from the Bus as Skye rolled in in a black taxi, her digital pass preventing her from being fried on entry.

“Skye?” She tested the comms, hearing some slight backscatter.

“We’re good!” Skye spoke through, wandering up to the pavilion in a nice pink dress that clung to her nicely. She was going as her alias, Skyenet, to impress Quinn himself so she had time to slip into the building and disable security.

“Are you nearing the courtyard yet?” Melinda asked. Skye approached the field, full of people. “Aand it’s a party. Great. Where would the hostage be?” She questioned quietly, wandering around pillars trying to catch sight of Quinn.

“Around the other side of the island, the basement level. It’s under three underground floors, so the nearest exit is round the cliff-face. Could you make it that far?” Melinda asked. Skye checked the horizon of the field, lined by bushes, looking up at the balconies, having a horrible, yet amusing idea. “Yeah, I think so.”

“What are you thinking!” Melinda asked shortly, knowing her daughter. “Oh you know, just parkour in a dress.” Skye muttered, checking there was nobody around her. She tic-taced up the wall, gripping a ledge and vaulting over onto a balcony, slipping into the corridors.

“I’m in, second floor.” She murmured, hand to her earpiece as she skulked through the corridors. “Tell me where I need to go for the signal scan.”

She couldn’t see much interior security, so that was a good bet, though she wasn’t watching her corners, needing to take shortcuts in her work, breaking into as quiet of a run as she could get.

“Signal’s strongest northwest, you gotta get that barrier down Skye, or it’s all over.” Melinda reminded her, and Skye grunted, pushing herself as fast as she could go. She broke out into a sprint when someone rounded a corner, bumping off of them and falling to the floor. The next moment, they were gone. “What the hell was that?” She demanded, trying to look at her assailant, only for them to have disappeared.

“Skye? What happened?” Melinda asked, Tony listening in carefully after Skye’s exclamation.  “Someone bumped into me, next thing I know they’re gone! Is there any more movement on this floor?” Melinda checked the scanners, frowning. “Nothing on this floor, just keep going.” Tony looked away pointedly, working on the extraction plan, Melinda noticing. He knew something, and she was going to get to the heart of it.

Skye continued onward, feeling a strange sense settle on her shoulders, trickling up her spine like a cold shower. “Okay, reached the northwest wing, I’m getting in a room and hunkering… down.”

There stood Ian Quinn himself, lounging on a settee, his head snapping towards her. “Hey, how did you get in here?” She froze, trying to get herself to relax, her heart in her throat for moments before she slipped into her hacker persona, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m Skyenet. You know, Rising Tide? I got an invite here, for a meeting they told me?”

“A meeting, yes, right! It pertains to the freedom of information the Rising Tide goes by. See, a friend of mine and I have been working on a fantastic invention of ours, and we want you to report on it.” Skye couldn’t believe it, this was the opening they’d been looking for!

~

“Holy shit.” Melinda cursed, and Tony leaned over to hear better. Fitz-Simmons were on the edges of their seats, eager to watch. “Oh my goodness, it’s Frank!” Simmons murmured, her hands going to clasp over her mouth. “She’ll get him out, she’s the Cavalry’s daughter.”

“Don’t ever call me that.” May hissed reflexively, Akela nodding sagely at Fitz-Simmons. “She means it. I saw the aftermath.” Fitz took it as a learning moment, and they moved on, watching Skye’s dot, stationary in the room.

“Come on… come on…” Fitz begged, watching the signal grabber bounce up node by node, when finally the bar blinked green. “Yes! Skye, up to you now!” He said quietly.

“Phil, go, go!” Melinda called through her comm. Where Phil, Ward and Mike were waiting on the shore, they entered the threshold, Mike running straight towards the courtyard. “We’re in, see you on the flip-side!”

“Phil, Skye’s with Quinn, you need to get her out, now!” Melinda urged, itching to go down there herself and fight the man herself “Got it, interest applies?” He joked. When he heard silence on the line, he straightened. “Ward, I’m going to get Skye, you handle the outer combatants.”

Ward couldn’t believe his luck, he was able to fulfil another objective on Garrett’s list, feeling the device in his pocket humming, nodding grimly as a show of ‘faith’ to Coulson. “I’ll handle it sir,” he gruffed out, running off to join Mike.

~

“So, what is this thing you’re working on?” Skye asked, swallowing dryly, Quinn sliding his arm around her shoulders. She felt distinctly uncomfortable, but pressed on anyway, letting him guide her. “Well, my friend, you won’t know him, Professor Franklin Hall, he’s been working on a theoretical metallic element we’ve been theorising for years, we call it Gravitonium. This element is a goddamn goldmine Skyenet, this is going to boost my stocks astronomically!”

Skye gave her best smile to him, feeling his hand slide lower and moving it back up, led down a series of halls and lower down into the compound. “Where are we going?” She asked, well aware of the fading service in her comms device.

She was brought into a room in the basement, where a balding man in glasses she recognised sat on a chair. This was Fitz-Simmons’ Professor Hall! She masked her sudden surprise with a raise of her eyebrow, looking to Quinn. “Is this your friend?” She asked daintily, knowing damn well she was pushing the act.

“Skyenet, meet Doctor Franklin Hall, SHIELD Professor and college buddy of mine.” She shook his hand softly but firmly, turning to Quinn. “Hey Quinn, you got any persimmons around here? They’re my favourite fruit, but apples or mongos fits too.” She sent a look Hall’s way, hoping he got the message.

It seemed he did, and Quinn turned to look around. “I can get one of my maids to fetch one for you if you like, they’re native.” He bragged, Skye smiling at Quinn. “Be a dear please? Get one for me.”

Quinn nodded, starting to walk out of the lab. “Okay! You two play nice, I’ve got a presentation to give now, so behave yourselves kids.”

As soon as he left the room, Skye whipped around to Hall. “Professor, you got that?”

“Yeah of course I- Skye, what are you doing here? This isn’t one of your Academy pranks, this is seriou-“ Skye stopped him, gesturing to the machine behind the glass, big, silver and towering over them. “I know Doc, why do you think I’m here? Dad’s taken us on a mission, we’re getting you out.” She urged, looking for exits. There was only one, and it was back where they came. “Shit,” Skye summarised, reaching for her phone.

“Your Dad? But he was dead-“

“Long story Doc, point is we’re her now. Okay, I got signal, I’m shooting off a message to Mom and then we can get-“

“I’m not coming! I started this, I gotta finish it.” Hall said resolutely, turning to the plexiglass. Skye realised what his plan was, backing away slowly. “Doc, don’t do this!” She warned, worried for her professor.

“I have to Skye, I’m sorry.” Hall grabbed a nearby gun, aiming at the plexiglass.

She dived for the door, yanking it open as the machine crashed to life, warping sounds roaring from it. She clutched her ear, her comm whirring. She needed to get to the surface.

~

The ground quaked, and Phil frowned. “What the-“ Their comms blared with interference, and the three men bent over in pain before it cleared. “What was that, Mel?” He demanded, finding his footing once again.

“No idea, the island’s just begun shaking!” Melinda called through the line. “We see that, what’s happening?”

“The island’s gaining its own gravity field sir! It’s… accessing SHIELD files…” Fitz’s fingers flew over the keyboard, tapping away using the intrusion program Skye had left in their case files.

“Gravitonium! Of course, the Professor lectured us Sci students on its theoretical uses!” Simmons interjected, throwing it up on the overhead display.

“Guys?” Skye’s voice reappeared through the comms, hurried and frayed. “The Professor activated a thing, it’s shaking stuff!” She called through, stumbling up the steps.

“We know, we’re bringing in extraction!” Melinda called, rushing to the Bus cockpit, strapping in as they took off from the field they’d parked in.

Phil and Ward rushed towards the villa, Mike already in the fray combatting security guards, and Phil raised his ICER, shooting a nearby guard and looking to Ward. “I’m going to find Skye, you help Mike!” He called over. Ward nodded dramatically. “Copy, Sir. Mike, heads up!” He called over, and Phil rushed towards the villa.

“Skye!” Phil saw his daughter in a small living area, trying to keep her balance. “Shit, Dad! This entire island’s about to go, we have to get out of here!” She managed to cross over to the other side, the quaking reaching her bones. “Not before we shut this thing down, Fitz, any ideas?”

“It needs a catalyst of opposite mass sir! The island is going to go, the tectonic plates are under huge pressure, the water should be enough to stop it!” Fitz called through the comms, the shaking getting worse even off ground, the turbulence from the Gravitonium making the Bus’s mass shake.

“Hall. We need to go back and get him, we can blow the room!” Skye enthused, Phil shaking his head. “No, Skye, it’s too late for him, you heard Fitz!” She felt her heart seize, panicking. “Wait what? No, Dad we can save him!” She cried out. Phil grimaced. “I’ll get him, you get to extraction!” He ordered, heading towards the stairwell.

Ward chased a security guard round the courtyard, running into Quinn’s entourage. “Quinn! Stop this!” He ordered, aiming his pistol at the billionaire.

“I can’t stop it! That idiot Hall initiated this. Guards, get him!” Quinn ordered.

Ward sighed. “Come on then!” He growled.

He met the first guard with a jab to his neck, catching the second with a block and moving into his guard, pivoting and elbowing the second in the face, turning and aiming his gun, putting a bullet in his face, turning to the first and kicking him away.

Ward noticed Quinn hurrying away, twisting another guard into a headlock and snapping his neck, letting the body fall to the ground as he hurried up to Quinn. The team could never find out about this.

He grabbed Quinn, stepping closer to the man. “The Clairvoyant says hello.” He slipped a USB out of his pocket, dropping it into Quinn’s hand and turning him away.

Phase One of the plan was finished.

“Hall!” Phil entered the room, immediately flipping onto the wall, gravity rotated thanks to the Gravitonium. He felt a painful pulse strike up his arm, groaning. “Mr Coulson! I’m sorry, I truly am.” Phil got up. “You can still fix this, you can come with us. This entire island is about to implode.”

“With me in it. Quinn isn’t going to stop, I can at least take this away from him.” Hall turned towards the mirror, blasting it with a gun. “No!” Phil called, running to the door and vaulting in, gravity returning to normal as he slammed it shut.

The ground rumbled, and Phil watched as Hall fell into the gravitonium, and the island roared in disapproval.

“Hostage is gone, getting to extraction.” He groaned, running back up the stairs.

They all made it back to the Bus, the water rising around the island just as the cargo plane rose into the ground. Tony floated in the air, the Mark 47 suit glinting in the sunlight and noted a fiery shimmer staring back up at him. Ghost Rider nodded slowly, before driving away and off the island, the entire landmass being drowned in water, the gravitational anomaly collapsing the ground in on itself, and with a small implosion, the island sank into the water, and the rumbling faded away, left with an empty expanse of blue ocean.

“Holy shit,” Skye summed up their thoughts in a single sentence, “Did everyone get off that island?” She asked. Coulson gestured towards all the boats and yachts, speeding away. “Looks like it. We finish the mission?” He looked at Ward, bloodied and tired. “What happened to you?”

“Chased after Quinn’s guard. Too many of them, and this big guy, had to blow his face off to get out.” That didn’t sound like Ward, specialist that he was.

“I’m going to take a nap.” Skye announced, walking out of the cockpit.

Melinda and Phil shared a concerned look between each other, looking to their daughter as she exited.

“She just needs time.” Phil said, knowing she was going to mourn with Fitz and Simmons.

~

Somewhere across the Pacific, a device started whirring, exploding in a fabric pocket, and ice crawled up his thigh with a sharp crackle.

Chapter Text

Something was going wrong, Skye could practically feel it. For the past week, suspected powered individuals were being disappeared by SHIELD, and it felt off.

Her mom and dad were acting secretive, and the trip they'd taken abroad in preparation for the raid on Quinn's estate wasn't being discussed. She decided to dig into it, see what was going on.

She skulked around Ward like usual, hoping to catch him out on something. She and her mom had both had a go at trying to get him to open up, but nothing was working.

She looked over the file on Hannah Baker, a fuel plant worker in Ohio. She winced Ohio, home of the religious. Skye had had bad experiences with religion when she'd accidentally spent time in an orphanage due to a mistake in SHIELD's files. Her parents had gotten her back a month later, but it had been one of the worst months of her life.

Baker had been whisked away by SHIELD after suspected telekinesis emerged in her, and even perusing the Index there was no mention of her. It was like she'd just vanished into thin air, and it worried Skye.

She checked the wound on her shoulder, bruised from the cuts of the glass that they'd managed to get out. Still stung though.

"Hey." She greeted Fitz, Mike and Akela in the lab, sliding in amongst them as Fitz analysed something.

"Hey to you too." Fitz greeted, pulling over a hooked magnifying glass to inspect some machinery. "Ooh, what's this you're working on?" She asked lightly. She noted it was one of the drones and gasped, she liked them. The little bugs were like hers, Simmons and Fitz's children in a way, they'd all collaborated together to make them.

"What happened to Grumpy?" She demanded with a pout, crossing her arms. "You know he hates being out of commission." Akela raised an eyebrow at Skye. "Kid, you better not have forgotten those manners." Skye shrunk under her aunt's gaze, chuckling. "Sorry."

"He got hit by that EMP during the raid on the lab, something shorted out his circuits, poor kid." Fitz stated, sticking out his tongue as he went in close with a fuse torch.

"His core is here with me, Miss Coulson, I would not worry." JARVIS's voice came through the speakers in the Tower. She heard an additional chirp of frustration beside JARVIS and giggled. "Hey to you too kiddo. Rest easy yeah?"

She turned to Akela. "Hey, I know you're not on-duty yet, but Mom and Dad have been trailing round me and avoiding the questions on where they went. Can you trail them please, find out what they know?"

Akela groaned. "I'd say trust your dad, kid-" She saw Skye pulling the puppy eyes on her, wide and brown, glittering in the light and groaned, her head sinking lower. "Fine. You owe me shawarma, Stark says it's good." Skye would definitely do that, but first she was going to get on with the case.

~

"Skye!" Melinda called as she found her daughter walking towards the kitchen table with her laptop. "We have an ongoing incident at SHIELD Logistics Academy, Weaver called us before Fury's guys could get on it. I think she believes us."

Skye gasped, snapping her laptop close. "Is Dad coming too?" Melinda nodded, and Akela entered from the shadows. "What's this about SHIELD Academy? I'm coming by the way, don't try to stop me."

"Me too!" Fitz called, Jemma joining him in affirmation. May saw all the team assembled and breathed. "Fine, fine, Mike stays here though, he's still training, you understand?" Mike understood, the lab raid he'd almost been put out for a day despite his enhancements. Even with his superpowers, he was still vulnerable to the bullets he tanked.

Even Ward was tagging along. Akela was looking forward to antagonising him, there was something familiar and just plain wrong about the guy.

~

"Sir? What do you want us to do with the quarantine zone?" Maria asked Fury. She watched her boss's reaction carefully. She so badly wanted to help these people, but SHIELD's full attention was on containing the Chitauri virus from that helmet. That mixed with the reports coming in from Agent Garrett about the Baker woman's death was concerning. He'd immolated the lab, along with whatever had been in there with Baker, hopefully forever.

"Cleanse it. Those firefighters were the start, this will spread over the entire world if we aren't careful. Zone off the town and keep anyone and everyone away from it. When the last inhabitant is dead, decontaminate it and burn it." Fury wondered why decades of hard work was only now going down the drain. It had all started with Coulson and his family going missing; now it was all going to hell.

He really wished Carol was here for advice. He had the distinct feeling he'd made a wrong turn somewhere, and he was so sick of being the last one to help. There were so little options left, but he couldn't come out and say that, it would undermine his secrecy.

Hell, he had even been using the Star Spangled Asshole as nothing less than a weapon; Rogers wasn't exactly fulfilled in the smarts department.

Goddamn them all. Goddamn everyone to hell.

~

"…Oh my God." Simmons was horrified, not deigning to touch the iced-over husk of Donnie Gill. "You said this was the second incident? What was the first?" Phil questioned.

"An incident in the pool with his friend, Jack. He managed to pull him out of the pool with a mop, and since these are the only two affected, we're thinking it's a targeted attack. None of the others show signs of symptoms, and with just the two…"

Phil grimaced. "Do we have suspects?"

"We did, but they passed the lie detector tests, the alibis lined up with security cameras, and they didn't have sufficient proof. However, we have begun to analyse the tech if Agent Fitz wants to help take a look? You too Agent Skye." Agent Weaver stated, trusting the girl and her parents, something was afoot in SHIELD and she didn't like it.

Skye and Fitz got to work on the device. It was reminiscent of a gas grenade, Vietnam era but high-tech and filled, as Fitz had told her, with some form of particle gas that caused a cryostasis effect in a person's cellular biology.

~

"It's Quinn tech." Skye scowled. "Again. After the raid you'd think he would have stayed away, I mean, what was his objective with this?" She was showing hers and Fitz's diagnostic work to her dad, going through Quinn's accounts she'd managed to get from his villa when they'd raided it, trying to figure out where in time he'd bought out Gill.

"Well, the ice tech could be used for a cryogenic freezing mechanic allowing for easier kidnap methods, but that would fail because of metabolic freezing temperature, which would kill the recipient-"

"Guys!" Simmons' call came from behind them, turning to see Gill's iced over husk beginning to glow, its icy shell cracking in places, revealing frostbitten cheeks and an eye taken out and bled dry by the lack of moisture, completely gone.

"Get down!" Akela screamed, pulling her niece down to the ground as the husk suddenly shattered, exploding in a misty burst as icy fractals smashed against the walls, chairs and windows.

Donnie stood in the middle of the hall, confused. Skye looked up at him, looking in horror at the young man now awake and scared. "Hey, hey! Gill, right?" She called, getting up slowly.

"Skye, stay down!" Akela ordered, Skye refusing to listen as she rose to her feet.

"W-What happened to me?" He asked, looking down at his hands. Oh, God, his hands were bright blue! They were icy and mist rose from them. "The-the device, oh my God!"

"Hey, you'll be okay." Skye cut through his confusion, starting to approach. "I don't think I can touch you, but I'm right here. I'm Skye, right? You're Donnie Gill." She announced, holding her hands up peacefully. This guy needed help, he didn't need to panic further, and from what little she'd read on psychology in tense situations, she knew everyone needed to remain as calm as possible.

"I-If this worked then you have to know about the bomb…" he murmured in confusion. Akela and Coulson at the mention of a bomb slid out their ICERs, aiming point-blank at Gill. "What bomb?"

"Th-the bomb he was having Zack and me make, he- Quinn, he asked us to-"

At that moment, Weaver's radio sounded off. "Incident in Dorm Number 432, I repeat 432!" Donnie's head snapped to the radio, stammering. "That-that's my dorm room! The bomb, i-it's gotta be Zack, I gotta-" He took a step forward, stumbling to the ground and falling to his knees.

"I feel sick… my head is fuzzy…"

"Hey, the hell? Guys, there's a tornado forming over your location, it's right over the dorms, it's an ice-storm!" Tony piped up over their comms unit. "I need access to the Academy comms system, now!"

Donnie could feel it, the ice in the air building, the particles whizzing through the clouds as their moisture buzzed into his head, the slick wet building on his icy arms as he clutched the ground like a haven.

"Get everybody out…" He moaned weakly, collapsing to the floor in a dead faint.

Weaver hurried to the doors, watching as a superstorm faded into view just maybe a dozen miles above their head,  encompassing the entire Academy, turning to the team. "Get Donnie out of here! We'll handle the bomb!"

Melinda grabbed her daughter's shoulder. "Skye, with me! Simmons, help us get Gill to the bus, then we'll handle the device!"

"We'll handle the device!" Phil called over the sudden ruckus as thunder boomed outside the auditorium, hail smashing a nearby window and nearly impaling Ward. Skye wouldn't admit she felt a tiny glimmer of pleasure at that, turning and running with her mother from the room, hauling Gill with Simmons, Gill wrapped around their shoulders.

~

"How long has it been since you worked with a team, Akela?" Phil shouted over the noise of the storm, barely dodging a flying signpost as they struggled against the wind, Ward lagging behind them. Akela grunted. "I don't know, six years, I think?" She replied, just managing to reach the campus stairs. "I don't think about it!"

Even with one eye, she was still fantastically co-ordinated, her eye-patch making her look formidable in the wind. "You look like Fury!" Coulson commented smarmily as they barged into the dormitory building. Akela chuckled bitterly. "Please don't compare me to that paranoid old bastard." She replied, just as much snark in her tone.

"Fair enough."

"Keep moving." Ward muttered, moving past them. Coulson and Akela continue onward, up the stairs, the wind getting stronger as student screams started to be heard.

"Shit, the dorms are being destroyed!" Ward called, stating the obvious as plaster flew past his head.

Akela saw a young lady trapped under her collapsed bedpost, her dorm completely destroyed and ran to her.

"Oh crap. Hey," She stated to the girl, getting her to look up. "What's your name? I need you to work with me." Fuck, what was she doing? She couldn't work with people, it had always been a problem with her and trying to empathise with people.

"M-Marie…" The girl shuddered, and Akela saw a wooden pike sticking into her side. "Crap, okay… Marie, this is going to hurt, okay, but we're gonna lift this bed off of you!" She took Mary's hand, hoping she was doing this right.

"Squeeze my hand on one, two, THREE!" She called, Coulson helping to lift the bedframe from Marie's legs. Thankfully, and to Akela's profound relief they weren't crushed, just cut up. Now for the protrusion in her hip.

"Coulson! I'm going to carry her back to the Bus for medical!" She called out, taking Marie's arm and draping it over her shoulder, making sure the wooden pike didn't move and splinter inside her. Coulson grimaced at the wound. "We'll handle the bomb!"

~

Back in the Bus, Melinda was grunting with the effort of flying the Bus over the storm. It was the only way they were getting in, and Donnie was currently in the panic room, knocked out.

"Mom!" Daisy radioed. "Aunt Akela's got a wounded girl, we gotta get in that eye!"

Truth be told, Skye was terrified, rattled out of her bones and Fitzsimmons seemed the same, strapped into their seats tightly.

May grunted, pulling the Bus above the nebula as she dove into the core, pushing her plane as carefully as she could, ignoring Tony cursing in her ear. She could see Akela on the ground, signing something to her. Coulson… bomb… dealing. The woman beside her was bleeding heavily, and May had to hover above ground, hail hitting the windscreen, the sides of the plane loudly, like miniature bombs going off.

~

Coulson stepped into the room, the young man talked about by Weaver standing over the bomb. "You can't help me! Quinn abandoned us!... He said he was going to help us!" Ward pulled up his ICER, held back by Coulson. "Help you how?"

"This grant was the way out from under my uncle! He gave me this connection, if I failed… he'd disown me!" Coulson could see the layers to this young man, motioning to Ward to put his gun down. "We can help you!" The man shook his head.

"No… you can't!"

"What's your name?" Phil was going to try to get through to the man or die trying, holstering his ICER. "Zack!" He replied. Phil could work with that.

"We can shut this down, Zack! We can get you help!" He called out.

Zack was frozen stiff, he was being offered help. "I-I can't destroy it!" He yelled over the furore of the hurricane. Ward pushed him aside and into Coulson, taking a grenade from his belt and clipping it to the device. As soon as he pulled the pin, he pushed Coulson and Zack. "Go, go, get the hell gone!" He yelled pushing them all down the stairs as the grenade exploded, ripping through the plaster of the dorm walls.

~

The storm cleared soon after that, the damage to the Academy thankfully not too disastrous, things that could be fixed, even the blown up dorm wing.

"You realise you'll have to face consequences for this?" Coulson asked Zack when they met up with the Bus.

"Of course sir, I-"

"Which is why you'll be brought to the Island in Manhattan, a secure prison where you'll be held for a year, maybe a few months if you get out on good behaviour." Coulson continued. Zack was confused, why Manhattan, he'd asked, only to get this answer. "We're going to be taking Donnie with us. I promise with my life, he will be safe, you can call him, and I promise you he is okay, just changed."

Zack was relieved, at least he'd be close to his best friend. As he went with Weaver, the agent turned to Phil. "Fury will be, well, furious about this." Phil sighed. "Let him be, Sigourney. I've washed my hands of him. You could too, declare the Academy as a separate organisation, legitimise under a different rulebook."

Weaver shook her head. "No. You and I still believe in the ideals of SHIELD. Don't lie to me Phil, we've been friends for too long. Just call me when it happens." She walked away, and Phil hummed, slightly confused. He turned away, walking towards his office.

~

Donnie could feel the ice within him swirling, almost tinkling like glass shards. Raising his hand, mist rose in a dust cloud in front of him, swirling like wind. He chuckled in awe, his eyes wide as he watched the ice form in mid-air, held by the moisture in the air.

Even his hair had become a snowy white, his eyes turned a light snowy blue.

If he willed himself to, his skin, his form would return to normal, but this was exhilarating.

Chapter Text

Chapter 9

The attack on the Academy left a thick mist covering the area. “You were colluding with Coulson!” Fury roared, Agent Weaver standing tall. “You let go, Director. There’s no control any more.” She replied. She watched the vein pulse in his temple. “Look at you! You’re angry, and you’re desperate!”

“Of course I am!” Fury returned, snapping at her. “I have a rogue agent on the loose and his daughter is a goddamned hacking prodigy! She could be anywhere in our files, and you let them get away!”

Weaver looked to Hill, tilting her head. “And you still follow him? What happened to integrity Maria?” She asked, raising her arms. Maria returned a cold, hard look. She might bot agree with Fury, but she’d be damned if she’d let Weaver diminish her. “I have integrity, Weaver, it’s you who gave it up.”

“To protect my students?” Weaver questioned. “Any time.”

“Sir?” Sitwell requested from nearby. “Garrett and Rogers have eliminated the experiment. It got out of control.” Fury sucked on his teeth, hands on his hips. “Motherfucker.” He cursed, pivoting on his heels and marching back towards the Quinjet.

“Maria.” Weaver called as Hill turned to follow Fury. “Anything seems off, you leave. Us agents look after our own.”

Maria considered her words, her shoulders relaxing a slight amount, then turning to follow Fury. At least Weaver had been able to plant the seed of doubt there.

She turned to the damage the ice-storm had made, sighing. The dorm building would have to be completely reconstructed, and she would have to begin fortifying against Fury.

~

"Poor Donnie." Skye sympathised with the guy and his boyfriend, talking amongst Jemma and Fitz as they worked. There had been whispers of Centipede in SHIELD backscatter, and Skye was getting increasingly concerned about the pick-up coming from Phoenix.

"Yeah, kid took a lightning bolt straight to the face." Akela muttered, tuning the radio she had hooked up to their software so they could record some of the output.

"*fszzzt* breakout at- *fzzt* prisoner has escaped!" Skye leapt up, already working on tracing the call, coming from near a prison there. "Get Dad, now." She said to Akela, saving the audio recording to a new case file and already working on possible APBs in the area.

"Skye? What's up?" Phil questioned, walking into what Fitzsimmons dubbed 'The War Room.' Skye had managed to grab the most recent pictures sent to the federal office of the escaped convict. "Suspected Enhanced at a prison breakout in Phoenix, I think it might be Centipede." Phil grimaced, the project had been blown wide open after Mike's testimony, and Tony was helping dig through the metaphorical wreckage of their history.

"Edgar Poe." Skye brought up on the monitor. Guy was a textbook crackpot, and from his record he was definitely one who she wouldn’t mind being gone from the world. “This guy being broken out by Centipede of all things? Stinks of conspiracy, and someone with deep pockets.” The others had to agree, and Coulson looked through some of the extra CCTV footage from the prison the days before. Edgar had gotten a visitor within that period, and so he checked the footage.

“Hey, I recognise her.” Mike piped up, stumped at the sight before him. “That’s Raina, the um, the woman that recruited me for Centipede.” Skye frowned, zooming in. “Facial recognition scans indicate no ID, no records, not even a goddamn driver’s license. The only people capable of that are people like me. She’s good.” Melinda noted a tinge of curiosity in her daughter’s voice, raising an eyebrow.

“Looks like they were involved in a recent Fury SHIELD raid, with a guy named Chan Ho Yin. He was an Enhanced on the Index.”

“Was, past tense?” Ward questioned, and Skye’s gaze shot to him again, calculating. She had to get something needled out of him soon. Phil answered. “Dead after an explosion in a nature lab dedicated to, you guessed it, centipedes. And seems like they solved the combustion problem.” He commented, pointing out the super-soldiers on screen.

“This is.. Comprehensive.” Fitz muttered, the sheer size of the operation was serious, and with the technology in play it could shift the world’s balance dramatically. “We have to get to the bottom of this. I’ll run back-end from here with Tony. Everyone else to the Bus.” He stopped when he saw the disbelieving looks Phil and Melinda were giving him, holding his hands up. “Sorry, didn’t mean to boss you, I meant- um, you should get to the Bus.” Phil smirked, patting him on the back and walking out.

Skye squeezed Fitz’s shoulders, smirking. “I’m never letting you forget this!” She sung, ruffling his hair and running out. “Oh Skye, wha- come on!” He protested, his cheeks red with embarrassment. He got to work, a crimson flush adorning his cheeks.

~

“This goes so much deeper than we expected.” Skye had compiled all the information on Centipede, the missing possible Enhanced and SHIELD into one mega-file she liked to call the Triad. “These Enhanced are going missing faster than we can get to them, Centipede’s advancing their super-soldiers, and I’m getting rumour that an entire town in Ohio’s been quarantined because of something alien.

Coulson grimaced. “SHIELD must have something to do with that. For now we need to focus on Po. If he’s building super-soldiers, this is bad.” Skye checked local law enforcement around the area, combing through the data. “Law says they lost sight of the chopper somewhere over South Carolina, so high bet they’re heading further west. Desert?”

“Looks like it, geological data shows canyons and hills out in Nevada that they might head towards, but it would take days to go through all of that landmass.” Jemma groaned, looking at the holo-board in front of her.

“Their files are digital right? If so they might be sending it between different data centres, and if they’re doing that I’d bet they have their own private cloud?” Fitz theorised, Skye tacking on. “So their uploads will be sending out ping based on server latency, you got it! I can set up an algorithm to check signal pings based on time and longitude, and then I might be able to set up a localised search area we can search the range for?”

“Get on that Skye, I’ll go over the rest of the incident reports from the last week, narrow down which could be Fury’s operations.” Melinda said, walking off. “We all have our jobs,” Phil said, “Get to it.”

~

Ward fingered his communicator. He’d been observing Coulson’s team for weeks, and not once had he managed to glean information about what happened to the man.

What’s more, he noted the bond between everyone. His folks had broken him, and ever since he BURNED DOWN THE HOUSE- saved Thomas, he’d had nothing to do with him, especially not Him.

So when Garrett saved him, he’d been grateful, owed everything to him. But with Coulson’s team, it was different, they owed each other nothing, and liked each other. He didn’t know how to feel about it, but he knew he wanted at least a small part of it. That he could forgive himself for.

“Agent Ward, is there a reason you’re not working?” Coulson called to him from the Hangar, Ward considering it for a moment. “Sir,” he began. “Have you ever owed someone everything you are?” Phil frowned, tapping away at his pad.

“Where’s this coming from Ward? If I can ask.” Ward shrugged. “I’m working on the profiles of these soldiers, and all of them have perfect records. My past is.. Rocky, as you know, and Garrett got me out of that. I owe him everything, but these men owe no-one anything. What possible reason do they have for accepting the program?”

Coulson hummed, thinking. “Well, why does one do anything? For me, my reason is to protect my family, so I do this. Money, maybe, for providing for themselves and others they might need to care for, or maybe they’re rogue. Extenuating circumstances mean anything can happen to anyone. You feeling alright?”

Ward shook his head. “Just.. Never got loyalty. Always thought someone would want something from you sir.”

Coulson frowned, reaching across the way and placing his hand on Ward’s shoulder. “Not everyone will want something from you Agent Ward.” He advised, walking off. Ward decided to think on that later, returning to his work.

Did he really owe EVERYTHING to Garrett? Owed him his life sure, but that debt had been fulfilled a long time ago.

~

“Got a signal!” Skye and Fitz said in synchronicity, fist bumping as they brought the team back together. The mood dimmed as they revealed what they found.

“We were searching radio frequencies when we found a gap in the SHIELD frequencies, with some white noise in between. We recorded it, and we really need you guys to listen.”

The recording played, and they heard a voice come through on the radio. “Now listen to me! The Clairvoyant wants Quinn, Raina and Mr Po on this op, and if any of you deny, we will leave you for dead. Is that clear?” Sitwell’s voice came from the recording.

“Yes sir!” A group of soldiers could be heard, and the recording ended. “We managed to break into a private security firm’s software, and picked up these transmissions from an APC in the Phoenix area.”

“That was Agent Sitwell.” Melinda growled. “That little weasel’s working for Quinn? And who’s this Clairvoyant?” She demanded. Ward surprisingly piped up.

“It’s a name I’ve heard from Garrett. He never told me who it was.” After a few hours of thinking, Ward came to the conclusion that Garrett was using him, molded him. He’d make his own story from now on, and that began with dumping Garrett.

“”And you didn’t report it to a superior?” Coulson asked, wary. Ward shrugged. “Couldn’t run the risk it was an actual agent thing. Besides, I owed Garrett my life. I’ve got no reason to hide.” A half-truth was good enough for Ward at this point, and he was lucky Coulson accepted it.

“Point is,” Skye interrupted, “We triangulated the position the broadcast came from, used satellites, and they’ve gone straight into the Mojave. Historical reports say that there’s an abandoned atomic bomb test site out there. That’s very much something to worry about.”

“She’s right Phil.” Melinda said. “If this is Centipede, we have a chance at capturing the ringleaders.” Phil agreed. “Everyone, we converge on this location yesterday. Tony, you got a suit?”

“You kidding me?” Tony’s voice came over the comms, a hint of excitement in his voice. “I have several, but my new baby will do just the job. Meet you there in an hour.”

Melinda headed to the cockpit. “Bet 20 I’ll beat you there.” She dryly challenged. Tony scoffed. “Oh, in your dreams Mrs May, you’re on.”

~

They reached the site as evening hit, and Tony met them there. “Mark 22, already?” Phil questioned in awe, looking at the sleek new design, and the bolt like eye design. “Yep, like my new toy?” Tony asked, showing off a little.

“Enough of the garage show Tony, focus.” Melinda chided, sending a fond but deprecating grin at her husband.

The base was definitively set up, the harsh glare of LED lights displaying several super soldier stations, with the Centipede serum pack protruding from their arms.

“Alright G.I Joe, you’re with me.” Tony snarked to Ward, clapping him on the back. Ward grunted. “Ow.” And followed after him sullenly. Skye pulled out her phone, hacking into Tony’s monitor.

She pulled up a dialogue box.

WATCH HIM. HE’S NOT RIGHT.

Skye, Phil and Melinda began their approach into the base, taking cover behind the saloon. “You have that antiserum Simmons magicked up?” Melinda asked Phil, who brought it from his pack. “Good. Let me handle the soldiers, you find this Raina woman and Po.”

“Got it.” Phil gave her a quick kiss, Skye raising an eyebrow before they both began their sneak-around to the centre house. So predictable, Skye thought as they approached.

BOOM!

~

Today had not been a good day for Raina. First Quinn refused to show up to the Mojave, asking why it was in his best interest when he was still on the run from the Maltese authorities for what happened on the island.

Then the Clairvoyant told her they’d been discovered, so the loose end of Po had to be tied up, and now she was laying in a pile of shrapnel, cuts all up her arms and legs.

The Memory Bed stood to her right, thankfully undamaged.

Iron Man and the man the Clairvoyant called Phil Coulson were right there in front of her! This was an opportunity!

“Wait wait wait! Before you shoot me, you wanna know what this does?”

“Not particularly.” Coulson said. Raina hummed, leaning against it casually. “Oh, but Agent Coulson, don’t you want your memories of Tahiti to unfold?” Coulson raised his gun. “I already have those memories. Who are you and how do you know my name?”

Raina stopped short. “Wait, the Clairvoyant said you wouldn’t have your memories! You have them? You have to tell me!” She screamed, rushing towards Coulson. Tony put out his arm, Raina struggling against it. “Tell me Agent Coulson, I need it!”

“No.” He said shortly, a crash from outside making them look out the window, Melinda flying through a nearby wooden home.

~

Melinda’s spine went up in sparks of pain, and she choked on a plume of dust as she pulled herself up. The super soldier in front of her was ferocious, and as Skye went for it, it slapped her aside like a piece of paper, smacking her into a fake bar counter.

“Skye!” She called out, moving to get her daughter, the super soldier intercepting her. She growled, launching her foot directly into his crotch and watching as he crumpled with a dim pop and a squeal.

CRACK!

A backhand sent her reeling, her arm roaring in agony as wooden shards ripped right through her bicep, cuts and splinters digging into her muscles. “Fuck!” She screamed, about to be hit when Agent Ward came in from no-where, tackling the super-soldier.

Just then, the other super soldier began to move again.

~

“Take me with you, and I’ll give you the deactivation serum!” Raina bargained, Tony raising an eyebrow beneath his mask. “Is this bitch serious?” He questioned.

Phil frowned. He could work with this, holding out his hand. “Deal.” He didn’t tell her she’d be in a custom cell. “Give me the counter-serum.” He ordered.

Raina from her confines slipped a hand down her purse, bringing out a ziploc bag of five vials. Coulson took two, holding them. “Knock her out.” He ordered Tony, who did so gratefully.

He ran outside, into the saloon where the fight was ongoing. “Ward, pin that bastard down!” He called, Ward tangling with his soldier. The agent clocked the guy round the jaw, holding his neck in a chokehold, Phil jamming the serum into the soldier via syringe. He collapsed almost instantly, his eye bursting as the bomb inside it blew out his brains.

Melinda crawled away as she watched the soldier she’d had crawl back up, stumbling towards her. She saw Phil in the corner of her eye, and nodded to him. He moved, and on cue she lunged, sweeping the soldier’s leg, and in unison, Phil and Melinda slammed him to the ground, pinning his arms and jamming the antiserum in. As they heard the dull THUNK of his brains exploding, they ran to Skye.

She had a cut along her face, and her legs were badly scraped, but she seemed relatively okay. She groaned, easing herself up as her body protested. “Ow..” She whimpered, shaking it off.

“Skye..” Melinda murmured softly. Skye turned to her parents, groaning. “Mom.. That seriously hurt.” She spluttered darkly. Phil slid his arms under his daughter, picking her up in a bridal carry.

“Let’s get you back to the Bus huh Angel Eyes?” He murmured softly, leaving the wreckage behind.

~

After they were all checked out by Fitz and Simmons, they were cleared, apart from May, who now sat with her arm in a cast. Skye had turned in early, and Phil and Melinda sat opposite her.

“She could have been really hurt today.” Melinda murmured. “I’m regretting letting her in the field.” Her heart had been in her throat as soon as she saw Skye’s limp body crash into the bar, and she wanted to hold her daughter tight and never let her go.

“Yeah I know.” Phil murmured. “But she trains for this, so hard, and our baby’s an adult now May. We have to let her help.” He hated it too, but he’d seen Skye’s determination, scouted her at the Academy and had her specially assigned to him so he could look over her.

“Just..” Melinda bit her lip, rubbing her daughter’s forehead. “You’re right.” She sighed. “Come on.” Phil took her in his arms, and led her from the room so Skye could sleep.

Chapter Text

Chapter 10:

Raina was brought in to Tony’s new containment module. Rudimentary, but it worked, and under a special UN clause involving an Enhanced person, they’d agreed that she was to be kept under legal lock and key.

Tony had seen how she’d reacted to Coulson, and knew there was a story there, one he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out about. So naturally, he went down to find out.

“So,” He murmured as he walked into the room early that morning, a couple days after they’d taken her in. “Little lady, I’m sure you imagine just how deep the shit you’re in.” He started, clasping his hands together.

“Tony Stark,” she replied cooly. “I have to say, this was a kink in our plan.” She moved up from the solitary bed she laid in, curling her legs into herself casually. “But I’m sure you know all about kinks.” She smirked.

“You got jokes,” Tony admitted. “But you’re also trying the honeypot route, and I’ve learned not to trust that. So, let’s be straight with each other.” Raina straightened, bolt upright.

“Who’s the Clairvoyant?” He asked. Raina smirked. “A man far beyond your comprehension. He has powers that allow him to see everything, even you. But the one man he couldn’t see is Coulson. What happened to him after death. He certainly wasn’t supposed to have his memories. Why does he?”

It sounded suspiciously like espionage to Tony. Anyone with a decent clearance level had access to certain information in SHIELD, even he knew that. This stunk of corruption. “How deep does it go?” He snapped. Raina lifted an eyebrow. “I beg your pardon?”

“The corruption in SHIELD, how deep does it go? Who are they?” Raina leaned forward, cool as a cucumber. “Now that Tony, can I call you Tony? Is the question.” She chuckled lightly, leaning back. “I have to admit, I have my doubts about the Clairvoyant.” She admitted.

“Yeah?” Tony inquired, amused at the cat-and-mouse game. Raina spoke again. “Enough to propose a deal with Agent Coulson.” It was easy enough to guess what she wanted. “I’m afraid that’s all for today Raina, you’ve given me plenty.” He groaned, standing up. He was only thirty-five, but he was truly feeling his age.

“Wait!” Raina begged. “Please, just something! Coulson has the answers I need!” He left her behind in her cell, wandering off to find Phil, maybe have a morning martini.

~

“She give you anything?” Phil asked as Melinda sat, her cast almost off after healing for a while. “Enough. She really wants a deal with you Phil, but for god knows what end I don’t.” He said, moving to his in-house bar.

“Drinks? This early?” Melinda smirked. Tony placed a hand to his heart, mock affront written on his face. “It isn’t early Mel, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying get me a bourbon.” She smirked. Tony hummed, grabbing a scotch and a bourbon, pouring them out.

“The corruption is the Clairvoyant.” Tony declared. “This guy, whoever he is? He doesn’t have powers, he has SHIELD clearance.”

“How do you know?” Phil asked. Tony hummed. “Well, I have experience with espionage. Does the name Natalie Rushman mean anything to you?” Phil winced. He hasn’t approved the op, even protested going on it. None of that had felt ethical. “I need to apologise again for that.” He said.

Tony waved it off. “It was your job.” Phil shook his head slowly. “Yes it was, but that tazing threat that Fury had me do wasn’t right. I should have objected to it.” Tony stopped slowly, turning to look fully at Phil. “I’m sorry.” Phil apologised, and Tony slowly reached over the aisle. “Thanks Agent.” He croaked.

~

Skye was training in the gym when Ward walked in. She was training with Mike, who was pulling his punches so he wouldn’t damage her. The moment she saw Ward she stopped, holding her hand up. She was sick of the games.

“What are you Agent Ward? You skulk about the place, only tell when it occurs to you, and you say cryptic things. Sure that’s our job, but something’s off about you.” Something deep inside Ward stirred an anger Skye had never known, and some form of recognition.

“I literally just walked in.” Ward protested dryly, throwing down his gym gear. Skye set her jaw. “You’re hiding something. It’s something important, and if it jeopardises this team, I will hunt you. But if you don’t, on the mat. I want a spar.”

Ward knew she’d been tailing him, she was good. He was getting a little irked by it actually, as he’d started putting down the pieces to out Garrett. “Alright. If you beat me, I tell you.” Skye’s resolve only grew, and she stepped onto the mat barefoot.

Ward was going to fight dirty, she’d seen his tactics and knew his file. As he too joined her, Mike watched the two of them, sensing some raw fear from Skye, and plain confidence from Ward.

“Go!” He called, and Skye leapt at Ward. She screamed, and raised her foot in a high kick, and as Ward ducked her thigh shifting, she felt him elbow her leg, dropping her to the floor with a thud that echoed down her spine. “Fuck!”

She rolled out of the way of his ground punch, taking satisfaction in the way he groaned in pain, before stepping into her stance and elbowing his back, seeing him launch into a tackle, bowling her onto her back. As he went for a punch to her kidneys, she kneed him in the crotch, kicking herself off of him and crawling out from under him.

They were like two lions fighting for the pride, feral and predatory, Skye launching herself on Ward and throwing herself into a leg lock, which pinned Ward to the ground.

A crack signalled his foot dislocating Skye’s nose, her growl as she straddled his back and pinned his face to the floor victorious.

They were both bloody and raw. They’d broken the rules of sparring, but Ward had to uphold his deal. It worked in his favour though. “Alright. I’ll show you my secret. Only if you come with me first, then I promise you can show your parents.” Skye frowned, lifting off of him. “How do I know you’ll keep your word.”

“Because I’m giving you this.” He brought his gun out of his gym bag, handing it to her. “It’s loaded, 50 cal. Rounds.” He offered. “I do anything untoward, you can put a bullet in my head, then we’ll both be happy.”

Skye took it. “You know, me and Mom are alike in more than one way. I hate guns, but if I need one I’ll take it.” She slipped it in her belt pocket, concealing it with a jacket.

“Skye, you’ve had bad ideas before,” Mike reminded her, “But this is the mother of all of them!” He warned. Skye turned to him. “Bad ideas can sometimes have successful outcomes. Mike, let me do this. Go to my parents if so, but this is happening.”

She was out of the room before Mike could protest, and he groaned as Ward left the room with her. He was gonna tell. He walked off upstairs, knowing JARVIS had caught it. “Hey J, send that footage up if you can.”

“I’ve already forwarded it to Tony, Mr Peterson. Thank you for looking out for her.” The AI had grown fond of the girl if that was possible. Mike shrugged. “She’d do the same for us. Her heart’s too big for her own good.”

“That we can agree on.” JARVIS replied.

~

“Will you tell me anything before we get to this second location?” Skye interrogated lightly as she slid behind Ward on the motorcycle. She concealed the gun with her jacket, keeping it pressed into his spine.

“A deal’s a deal Mini Coulson.” Ward smirked. It was funny winding her up, or it would be if this weren’t his bargaining chip. If worst came to worst he could take Skye hostage and ward the rest of the team off from her. He liked the sound of that.

It took an hour, but he brought them to an apartment outside of Brooklyn, looking abandoned. “In.” He ordered, not taking no for an answer as Skye grimaced. She kept the gun at his eye level as they walked in, making sure he knew.

He was like a caged animal, Skye noted, and watched as he brought her through into what was the sitting room. Filled with plans and papers, which immediately set her off. “What is this Ward? What the hell did you do?”

“It wasn’t just me.” He revealed. “I’ve been working with the Clairvoyant. Who also happens to be Garrett.” Skye stepped back, aiming her pistol and bringing out her phone. “Move a muscle and I shoot.” She told him, messaging her dad about the threat.

“I know you’re not that thick Ward.” Skye growled. “What’s your play?”

Ward leaned against his coffee counter. “I want to be my own man. I want all of my info, everywhere gone, and I want you to leave me alone.” Skye scoffed. “You? Fuck no Ward, you know why? Because I get the feeling you’d do something horrible if you were let loose.”

Ward shrugged. “You don’t know that.” He lied smoothly, knowing damn well what he planned to do for himself, Skye’s phone pinging. “They’ve got me. Anything else you wanna add while we’re here?”

“Nah, I think I’ll leave that to you to figure out.” He chuckled. Skye didn’t notice the flashbang he’d dropped at his feet until the last moment, clamping her ears shut and squeezing her eyes closed, dropping to the floor.

~

Skye had set her phone to an automatic call when she’d arrived at the apartment. They’d heard everything, and on the way Phil was cursing himself. Ward had asked him about control before, was this what he meant? It felt like he’d let a trapped wolf out of its cave, and now it was free to hunt.

“What did I say about trust Phil?” Tony asked as he flew in his suit. “I didn’t trust that guy, none of us did.” Phil knew that, he hadn’t himself. “I wanted to see what he’d do, I didn’t think he’d do this. He’s supposed to be trained for God’s sake!” He grimaced, Melinda in the back seat in her tactical gear.

“And Garrett’s the Clairvoyant?” She hissed. “Knew that bastard wasn’t the same after the Amazon.” There was too large a gap since he’d been MIA.

“Seems like Ward dropped him off the deep end for what, for independence?” Tony asked. Coulson replied angrily. “I forget you didn’t read his file. Abusive rich parents and another psychopath of a brother, Garrett recruited him. There’s something that’s just not right there, but it makes sense he’d want freedom.”

“Freedom to do what?” Melinda demanded as they pulled up to the apartment in Skye’s GPS, dashing inside to find her dazed on the ground.

Skye shook herself awake, feeling something wet trailing down her left ear, dazed as she was helped up by her mom. “Wha..?” She stuttered, blinking and seeing black spots as she stood on shaky legs.

“Skye?” Phil asked slowly, seeing the blood trailing down her ear. “She might have a damaged eardrum.” Melinda spotted the exploded flashbang at Skye’s foot. “I can see why. I’m going after him, at least I can try tracking him down.”

Phil let her go, and radioed through to Tony. “Back her up from up high, make sure you get a pin on where he might go.” He ordered, picking Skye up in a damsel carry and walking her to the car. “I gotcha Angel Eyes, just rest.” He comforted her

Melinda followed after Ward, and chased him across the rooftops, new bruises and scrapes running up her body as she ran. “Tony, anything?” She called through the comms.

~

“Holy shit.” Phil stopped, looking at the plans again. They had photos of his family. Ward had orders to get Phil and the girls’ info on TAHITI, but Ward had been unsuccessful, so he ran. He called through the comms to Tony. “Tony, get Melinda out of there, Ward’s going to try to get the TAHITI intel!”

“You serious? Got it Phil, you get Skye back to the Tower, I’ll deal with Ward.” Tony changed his angle, jetting down in front of Melinda. “Melinda stop! This is Ward’s plan!” She stopped, her cast throbbing, staring at Tony angrily. “He flashbanged Skye, Tony, what else should I do?”

“Dammit Melinda, he wants one of you injured so Phil  goes back to TAHITI!” Tony exclaimed. “Garrett knows about TAHITI, he wants to know how Phil came back.” Melinda set her jaw, and Tony practically hear the anger thrumming in her veins. “I swear to God, I’ll help you hunt him down.” He swore.

Melinda stared into the distance, Ward long gone and pulled her rage back inside her chest, letting it simmer. “Take me home Tony.” She growled, getting into Tony’s arms.

He flew her back, and they rushed to the infirmary, where Skye’s ear had stopped bleeding. “He burst your eardrum.” Jemma murmured softly as she shifted off of the medical bed. “There’s a chance it might heal, but it’s likely you’ll never regain full hearing in this ear. You have to be more careful Skye, I can’t keep watching you get hurt like this.” She scolded softly. Skye hugged Jemma.

“Alright. For you.” Skye joked, watching as Jemma’s nose wrinkled perfectly. Her ear hurt like hell, but Jemma’s smile made it all worth it.

“We collected all we could from Ward’s safehouse.” Phil said. “But we need to talk.” Skye cringed. “The ‘I’m not mad, just disappointed’ speech?” She knew she’d spoken wrong when Phil’s eyebrows creased. “Oh no, I’m both. That was so stupid Skye, we taught you better. Especially that goading him, what were you thinking? We weren’t there to protect you! If you weren’t an adult I’d be tempted to ground you.”

“Hello?” Skye’s cheeks went blotchy, tears brimming in her eyes as she stood up. “Ward was fucking creepy Dad! Skulking around, talking vague and acting like he had secrets to hide! I was sick of him being a stalker and decided I wanted him to just be honest for once!”

“Then why didn’t you come to us? To me! We would have helped you, if you’d just talked about it?” Melinda butted in. “Hell, he’s been creeping on me too, I understand but Skye, while you are an agent, we are still your parents, and that was the most reckless move you’ve pulled yet.”

“He’s been creeping on you? Both of you? And you didn’t tell me?” Phil asked, hurt. Melinda set her jaw. “J didn’t think he’d do it to Skye, I thought he was focused on me. Next time Phil, I’ll kill him.”

Skye raised her hand. “I mean, same? I thought he’d only do it to me, and as long as he wasn’t creeping on the other girls it’d be fine?”

“You’re both too selfless for your own good, you know that?” Coulson murmured softly, bringing them both into a hug. “Next time tell me, I’d have dealt with him myself.”

The family hugged for what seemed like an hour, just letting time pass them by.

~

Elsewhere, a coded transmission began to send, and a suited man’s phone buzzed.

NEED TO BRING IN THE BIG GUNS. I’D OWE YOU.

Chapter Text

Rogers hurried along. Hydra was everywhere. Fury was stubborn enough to think he could save SHIELD, but it all had to burn. Garrett, everyone Fury had him work with was HYDRA, and everything had to go.

Natasha rushed alongside him. When Fury had told her Phil was alive, but he’d run away from them, she’d gotten angry. Why would her trainer run from them, after everything they’d been though? Would she ever see Melinda again?

She trusted Steve, but more and more he wound her up. James Buchanan Barnes was the Winter Soldier, the shadow assassin working for the Red Room across the past eighty years. The Soldat she knew, who trained the girls there to kill, to manipulate, back to haunt her.

And every time he lectured her for stealing, for lying and manipulating she rolled her eyes.  ‘Тупой ублюдок’ she thought to herself, naïve and stupid was his exact description in her mind. She could use him to get out of this mess.

She bit her lip, thinking about how to contact Phil. If she knew him, she was building something new, underground. First opportunity she got she’d slip away to a payphone.

She followed Rogers along. Natasha had thought that if she followed Steve, she’d be wiping more of the red from her ledger. She’d soon seen just how pig-headed he actually was, and wondered if there was anything to what Fury had said he was.

At least it wasn’t Stark, she mused. She knew that report had been bullshit, she just needed a way to get straight to Stark’s centre, to make him truly understand the gravity of his situation. Somewhere along the way though, his selflessness surprised her, but she’d gone through with the report anyway.

He took too many risks, didn’t play well with the team and was constantly proving points Natasha so desperately wanted to ignore. So she rejected any chance of building a bridge with him.

She regretted that now. “This is where I was made.” Rogers said with that stupid nostalgic grin on his face. She just said nothing, and moved away from him to find signal.

~

Skye was nursing a furious headache pounding at the back of her skull, wincing. She could feel her ear pulsing and felt it gingerly. Just inflamed, she told herself, dragging herself out of bed.

She was working through Garrett’s connections, noting Quinn as a major benefactor in his plans, gritting her teeth. “Jem? Am I missing something here?” She asked Jemma from nearby within the lab, who came to look over Skye’s laptop.

“I don’t know what you’re looking for.” Jemma admitted. Skye pointed out the links on the board she’d made, sighing. “We worked out the source of funding, Quinn obviously. Centipede is Garrett’s pet project. What I can’t work out is, to who’s benefit? What use does Garrett have for super soldiers when one trained group of agents can do what one soldier does ten times better?”

One minute later, Skye stopped, an alarm pinging up on her laptop. “Uh… what?” She murmured, seeing a Forbidden User error message. She slammed her finger down on the intercom button. “Dad, get in here, now!” She urged.

“What, who is it?” Jemma asked in alarm. Skye grimaced, logging out of all her stored documents and setting up the file lock, executing the program and locking her hard drive, screenshotting the user alert. “The Black Widow.” Skye muttered, to Jemma’s alarm.

~

“Why now?” Coulson sighed as he examined the screenshot. ‘Spider’s webs are stronger than a SHIELD.’ “Where did the broadcast come from?” He knew Natasha, of course he did, he’d helped Maria and Clint train her to their side. Her one flaw was her manipulative nature, and this was just another scheme.

“The email was traced back to an IP in Jersey. Locality includes a Camp LeHigh? An old military base from the 40s. Why’s she there of all places?” Skye asked. Phil groaned. “It’s where Captain America was made.” Skye looked over, frowning. “She’s with HIM.”

Fitz was working nearby on tracing Ward when an alarm pinged. He was tapped into the SHIELD artillery database when a red alert came up on his notifications. “Oh shite! Coulson, SHIELD’s just fired a bunker buster missile!” He cried out, rushing his laptop to them and setting it beside Skye’s.

“Everyone to the BUS!” Coulson ordered through the intercom, both Skye and Fitz grabbing their laptops. “It’s heading to Jersey!” Skye exclaimed. Coulson wondered just what the hell Natasha had gotten herself into this time, especially calling for help in a place like that base.

Once everyone was on the BUS, the others were given the run-down, everyone getting strapped into their places. “The missile’s almost there!” Fitz called as loud as he could, watching helplessly as it got closer to its target. Two Avengers were about to be murdered, and he could do nothing about it.

“What’s going on? Why is SHIELD firing at one of their own?” Jemma questioned meekly. It wasn’t like the organisation they’d known, turning against one another. Coulson had no answer for her, but they kept going anyway.

Melinda flew the BUS as fast as she was allowed to push it in the airspace, dodging as many public flight plans as the navigator was allowing.

~

They reached it too late, STRIKE aircraft crawling over Camp LeHigh. It didn't make sense, Coulson thought. Why were they turning on each other?

"Keep away from the STRIKE teams, look for Romanov on the roadways." He ordered his team.

They split off, and Melinda headed for the least surveyed roadway from Camp Lehigh. She suspected it would be the southwest exit onto the highway, the quickest and quietest way out of the situation Nat would have found herself in.

She reached a spot in the forest with an abandoned Jeep, jump-start by the look of the dash, and muddy boot-prints on the passenger side. This reeked of Nat's business and Melinda leaned against the bumper, waiting for her.

Not ten minutes later, the bloodied spy emerged from the bushes, the crimson liquid trailing down her head and staining the jacket she wore. Melinda could see they weren't major injuries, and knew Nat could take care of herself, didn't stop her concern.

"Nat." She greeted coldly. "You have thirty seconds to explain just what the hell you think you're doing." Nat sighed, approaching the Jeep and leaning on the bumper, gritting her teeth. "Mel, it's Hydra. They're in SHIELD, they're me, fuck-"

"HYDRA? They're dead-" Mel was interrupted by Natasha hissing, "No, they're NOT. They've been hiding in SHIELD since the damn 60s Mel, we've been following their fucking orders!" Melinda wasn't shaken by much, but this was a blow. If even Natasha had taken it hard, this was bad.

"I'm calling Phil." Melinda stated, with no argument to be made. Natasha stopped short. "Call Phil I'll knock you out." Melinda turned to her old friend. "Excuse me?" She started, raising her shoulders slightly, squaring them. "He can't know, he can't know any of it." Natasha muttered.

"That's Fury talking through you," Melinda retorted. "Secrecy breaks trust, and he's broken mine."

Natasha slowly switched on her wristlets, electricity buzzing at a low level.

"Fury cared for me Mel, you couldn't possibly understand."

"I understand plenty, you're just looking out for number one." Melinde replied. Natasha cooked her head sadly. "Isn't everyone?" She lunged for Melinda, who dodge the first swipe in favour of a punch to Natasha's hip.

Natasha grunted, blocking Melinda's next swipe with her forearm, twisting and jabbing Melinda's chest, only to be blocked on her second and shoved back, before Melinda chambered a kick, her boot bruising Natasha's stomach as the redheaded spy went tumbling back.

"Shit, Mel,  Natasha grunted, just barely able to sidestep Melinda's next kick and grabbing her leg, kicking out Melinda's back leg and dropping her to the floor. She crawled onto Melinda's thighs, locking her down on the ground.

Melinda grabbed a handful of dirt, throwing it in Natasha's face before rotating her hold, ending up on top of Natasha as she spluttered. "Give up!" Melinda demanded angrily, catching Natasha's swipe at her face. "I can't!" Melinda raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"The Soldier, he's here, he's real, he's hunting me, LET ME GO!" Melinda had never seen Natasha this afraid before, watching as the woman underneath her thrashed. Within that moment, Melinda gripped Natasha's head, slamming it into the ground and knocking her out.

Melinda slung Natasha over her shoulder, grimacing at her old friend's weight. Carrying her back towards the others, she raised her comm. "I have Romanoff.  Coming back to exfil."

~

HE had to find Bucky. Hadn't Bucky been dead for decades? How long had SHIELD been lying to him? Or HYDRA for that matter? How had no-one noticed? No-one cared, he decided.

Garrett was a traitor too. He was in league with Coulson, surely. Was Coulson HYDRA too? Was that what this was about? What was Coulson's angle here?

No matter. Everyone was against him, and if Steve had to be the only one to stand up to this tyranny, so be it. First though, he had to find Bucky.

He crawled out of the wreckage of his old mitary base. Coulson and his family would pay for joining HYDRA in due time, he thought as he walked away.

~

Coulson stood over Natasha as she woke up. Melinda had told him that Nat had been truly terrified by this Winter Soldier figure. Something was wrong here.

Natasha stirred, and came face to face with her former handler.

"Phil." She greeted in a still tone. Steve and Fury had suspected Coulson was HYDRA. Natasha wouldn't give any other parts of her to another fascist regime.

"Come to torture the device's location from me? Tell Pierce he's not getting it." Natasha snarled. Coulson tilted his head curiously. “Who do you mean Pierce? Secretary Pierce? Tell us what’s going on Nat. May said you were terrified.”

Natasha’s brow furrowed. Just what was Pierce playing at. “Weren’t you the one that sent the Winter Soldier after us, you HYDRA prick?” Coulson blanched and Natasha knew something was wrong. “Nat, we’re not HYDRA! If we were, then why the hell did you call us?” Natasha’s memories before the explosion were hazy at best, but she could guess at her motivation. “Everything’s going wrong, Phil. I just need- I just need some stability.” She murmured, and it hurt Coulson to see his old agent so broken.

“Nat, listen to me. How long has HYDRA been in SHIELD?” Phil questioned urgently, Natasha’s head snapping up at once. “Oh, shit. Phil, decades, but you gotta let me go, they’re gonna launch Project Insight, let me GO!” Natasha struggled against her bonds. Phil froze. He’d heard of Insight, but that had been theoretical, surely the Council would have struck that down-

“Nat, listen to me. We will help you, but you gotta tell us where they’re launching them from.”

All his worst fears were confirmed when Natasha almost whispered. “The Triskelion.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 12: Taking a Stand

Phil was on the warpath. Insight was a bastardised project that was never meant to be.

"Tony, get your ass in gear, right now." He ordered. "Three helicarriers are about to launch from the Triskelion, I need you to put them down, permanently!" Tony nodded. "Phil, if I'd known-"

"Save the guilt for later, we have to stop this. We have to stop Pierce, we have to stop the Soldier." Tony nodded in response, tapping his wrist bracslets, calling Mark 34 to his side, silver and sleek.

"You change your colour scheme?" Phil asked as Tony's faceplate slammed into place, the armour forming around him like a blanket. "Funny, it's new, haven't had the time to paint it yet." Tony replies. Coulson watched as he ignited his repulsors, jumping off the balcony.

"You better have some new bells and whistles on that thing Tony." Coulson called through comms.

He rushed to the Bus, the team already geared up. "Dad, Insight's coming online!" Skye called. "Ten hours till lift-off, Rogers sighted near the Lincoln Station line!" She clarified. Phil set his jaw, hailing Melinda, sat in the cockpit. "Mel, anyway you can add more juice to the Bus's thrusters?"

"Only if you want to burn them out Phil." She replied. Phil looked at Skye and Fitzsimmons, Mike and Akela joining them on-board, to Phil's surprise.

"Who authorised you?" He asked the pair. "We did." Mike replied. "This is all hands on deck, right? We can help." Phil nodded. "Do what you can, follow our orders." He said.

Simmons looked beseechingly at him. "Sir, a lot of people are going to die, tell May to burn out the thrusters!"

"She's right sir!" Fitz agreed. "I'll fix the damn things if we survive this!" Phil agreed with them, hailing Melinda again. "Mel, do it. Everyone, strap in!"

~

As the Bus accelerated, they began their approach to the Triskelion. "Dad?" Skye called. "They're lifting off!" At that, Phil rushed to the window. Three Helicarriers rumbled as they soared into the skies, and Phil felt his veins run cold.

"Tony? What are you doing out there?" He called through the comms.

-

Tony flew under the Helicarriers, attaching as many remote detonation mines as he could to the hulls. "I'm working on it! JARVIS is fighting this damned algorithm, we're trying to shut off the guns here before they even warm up!"

On the security cameras, Natasha was preparing a parachute. "Phil, they'll need boots on the ground! I'm going down, make an entrance for me!" Mike began walking. "I'll come with, watch your back." Phil looked towards Mike, determined.

"You two keep each other safe until we get there." He ordered. Mike did a quick salute, his photo of Ace settled in his pocket. He ran towards the loading bay, vaulting to join Natasha. "For the record, I don't trust you, but we can work together." He told her.

"Fine by me." She hit the ramp button, watching it descend, and together they jumped.

Tony watched through the cameras as Natasha jumped. You stay safe out there Nat. He thought, before stopping himself. Wait, what?

He put the thought out of his mind for the moment, not wanting to confront it at that moment. He'd just finished applying the mines when JARVIS hailed him. "Sir, the algorithm has been thoroughly disabled. I must say I'm rather proud of myself on this one Sir."

"Hit it J-" Before he could finish his sentence, a shockwave rang from the second Helicarrier, frying Tony's electrics. "Shit! Phil, I'm going down!" Nat froze. The Soldier. She looked to Mike, who began running. The Super Soldier serum in his veins pushed him, jumping for the suit. "I got him!"

MIke caught the suit just in time, and somehow the metal alloy felt weightless to him. "Damn Tony, what's this thing made of?"

"Gold-titanium alloy, thanks for asking!" Tony yelled. "J, snap out of it bud!" He called, getting no response as Mike brought them to the ground safely, Natasha rushing to meet them. As Tony rebooted the system, he was met with JARVIS's worried tones.

"Are you alright sir? Helicarriers are now deactivated permanently. Shall I blow them now sir?" Tony's helmet flipped up as he looked towards the carriers. "Fourth of July J." JARVIS took that as his cue, and in perfect synchronicity, the Helicarrier hulls blew, shrapnel blasting away in multiple shockwaves that knocked the trio to the ground.

"Shit.." Natasha groaned. Her forehead was bleeding, wonderful. She really needed a concussion right about now.

~

"Okay, that's our move, go, go, go!" Coulson ordered. The BUS settled on the Triskelion rooftop, and the team rushed out, all in gear. "No ICERS, treat everyone as hostile until proven." He ordered. Even Melinda had a gun.

They wound down the stairwell, hearing gunshots and death around them. "It's a slaughter out there." Skye realised. She and Melinda looked at each other. "Mom, I need to get to Pierce's office. I can shut the rest of this down from here. Maybe we can level the building?"

Everyone considered the ramifications of that for a moment. Coulson sighed. "Fury's SHIELD, HYDRA, all of it goes. Our SHIELD has to be better. Let's not level this place until we've sorted friend from foe."

They head towards the command deck, where the World Security Council was held hostage. One Gideon Malick was suspiciously missing, Coulson noticed, but he could worry about that later.

As they burst in, the STRIKE team trained their guns on them. Coulson and May were faster, putting a bullet in Rumlow's head before he could give an order and ducking behind cover.

"Agent Coulson? What a surprise, I heard you were dead." Pierce called across the cacophony of bullets. May growled, sliding under a desk and kicking out the STRIKE teams' legs, letting Phil headshot them with efficiency. "You heard wrong."

"You know, when I saw those Helicarriers blow up, I knew it couldn't be Nick. There was someone else just beyond the curtain.

A helicopter's rotors sounded nearby, and Phil would have been pleased if he wasn't exactly happy with Fury right now.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Skye chirped from beside her parents, tilting her head towards Fitzsimmons. "Get to work on the biometric locks, I'll keep these guys company." She stated.

"Got it," The duo acknowledged as they ebgan filtering through the information they needed. The entire room was at a standby as Nicholas J. Fury himself strode through the doors. "Well if it isn't my two favourite pains in the ass." He grumbled.

Phil simply didn't acknowledge Fury, keeping his gun trained on Pierce. "Your eye." May ordered Fury, who turned his gaze to her, raising an eyebrow. She raised hers in return, smirking. Sufficiently cowed, he walked towards the biometric lock.

"Sir, all the information's been filtered." Fitz informed. "We can save SHIELD's secrets, while burning HYDRA's." Coulson turned to Fitz. "Save the Index, and protect any agent files we have. We all have families here, we have to protect them. The rest you can burn."

"The hell are you doing, Phil?" Fury questioned, irritated. Phil faced him fully, his gaze hardened with steel. "Turns out this new me holds one hell of a grudge. I remember all of it. TAHITI, everything."

"And we're wiping this slate clean." Melinda murmured.

At gunpoint, Fury and Pierce unlocked their last classified files, and the second they were uplladed to the cloud, Phil shot Pierce point blank.

"Motherfucker!" Fury started, alarmed by the gunshots. Phil turned his gun on Fury, stopping for a moment. "I'm gonna give you one last chance," he decided, tilting his gun back towards the chopper. "You get out your own way, we'll get ours."

Fury stood there for a moment. "I'm truly sorrh I failed you, Phil." He murmured, walking away. As soon as he'd left, he turned to the team. "Let's blow this place."

"Wait!" Natasha's voice came through the comms.

-

She'd clawed her way from the rubble, her head wound throbbing. She saw Tony setting mines outside the Triskelion, looking to an exhausted Mike and Akela. She looked around, fallen SHIELD, HYDRA agents around her, some still fighting.

"T-Tony-" She gasped, getting his attention. He turned to her, listening closely. "You need to get yourself, Mike and Akela out of here. The Soldier has every countermeasure against you." She pleaded.

"I'm not leaving you," Argued Tony. "Get on my back, we'll run-"

"Not an option for me Tony," She rebutted, "It's okay. I have to face this." She placed a hand on his armour. "Now get the hell gone Tin Can."

"You get out safe Tiny Dancer." He told her, taking Mike and Akela's shoulders before flying them up to the Quinjet.

She heard Phil's voice, ordering them to blow the place. "Wait!" She protested. "The Soldier is here. He can't be alllowed to live." She heard commotion through the line, and Coulson replied. "Romanoff, you can't seriously be thinking about that no-"

"He's their tool, Phil! You take down HYDRA, they'll go scurrying and take him with them, I'm putting him down!" She rushed towards the Potomac, debris floating in the lake as the helicarrier remains fell from the sky.

And there he was, the Soldat himself, stood on what was left of a comms tower. Without hesitation, she dove into the river, swimming towards it. The Soldier's feet hammered on the stairs as he thundered down towards her. As she climbed to stable ground, another set of hands joined hers.

"Rogers, the he-" She was interrupted by the Soldier's metal arm, ducking underneath it and swiping her knife from her pocket, slashing his hip. She was smacked in the face by the Soldier's other hand, falling back.

"Can't let you hurt Bucky!" Steve protested. So it was a three-on-one then. She dodged the Soldier's next hit, sidestepping into a kick from Rogers, who then bashed his shield into the Soldier.

"Goddammit Rogers, you have no idea what he did to me!" She snarled, clawing at the Soldier's face.

THUMP went his fist into her gut, Nat stumbling back winded. "He's my FRIEND!" Steve roared back. As he threw a southpaw, she ducked under it, jamming her Widow Bites into his thigh. "Fuck you, so was I!" She declared, climbing up Rogers's torso, only for him to throw her off, landing in the watee with a spasm of pain jolting down her spine.

The last thing she saw before blacking out was the Soldier, grappling with Steve, with both men plunging off the opposite end of the Helicarrier. Serves you right, she thought as her consciousness faded.

~

"Nat!" Tony saw Natasha fall off the Helicarrier, his suit jetting off towards her before he could think, his body moving before his mind did. He dove into the water, finding her floating on the surface unconscious.

He hooked his arms under hers, moving her into a bridal carry as he lifted them from the river.

The rest of the team had exfiltrated to the Quinjet. He flew as fast as his suit could carry him, just slipping onto the ramp in time for it to close.

"Mel, get us the hell out of here!" Phil ordered, Tony setting Natasha on the table in front of them. "She went and fought those stupid idiots on the Helicarrier. Rogers threw her into the Potomac without a second thought." He said, remembering what she'd yelled before she'd been thrown overboard.

"The Soldier did something to her, she wanted payback." He told them. Coulson looked over Natasha as Simmons began to work on her. "She's proved herself today." He turned to Fitz. "Ready to blow the building?" He asked. Fotz hovered his finger over his laptop's Enter key. "On your word sir." Coulson nodded grimly. "Blow it to hell."

FItz pressed Enter. As they looked out the windows, the Triskelion imploded, fire and smoke erupting from every corner as the building fell to rubble.

"What now?" Skye asked, lost for words. Phil found he had the answer. "Now we rebuild. Our way." He knew today would have consequences, but they'd face them gladly.

As they flew into the distance back to Manhattan, the world reeled at all that was revealed. SHIELD agents everywhere began to doubt what they were working towards, and with HYDRA flushed from the shadows, the war was brought into the light.

Chapter Text

Natasha woke in a hospital bed. Her wrists were free. She didn't know whether to be relieved, afraid or uncomfortable with that development.

She had one hell of a headache. Trying to move, she felt a stab of pain rush through her brain, falling back into the duvet. "Shit!" Her vision was hazy, and bile rose in the back of her throat, just leaning over the bed before a bucket was under her.

"Jesus Nat, don't DO that!" Tony exclaimed, sat by her bedside. Natasha was now intimately aware of how vulnerable she was. Having emptied her guts, she observed Tony cautiously. "Why are you here?" She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.

"Because I didn't think you should wake up alone after what you just went through." There was what Natasha thought was a flicker of understanding in those hazel eyes of his, and in that moment she wondered how she'd miscalculated who he was so badly.

"I was wrong about you, you know," she murmured. "On the file, I mean." Tony hummed. "Not entirely. Egoistic, was it? I don't like admitting it but.. I can be very full of myself."

Natasha didn't know what to do with that level of sincerity. Should she share something of her own? "I.. I don't know how to be really, truly myself around people. Comes with the job, you know?" She reached out tentatively.

"Yeah I got that," Tony replied sharply. Natasha glared at him, "If you didn't want me sharing-!" Tony stammered. "Wait, wait, that wasn't what I meant, I-" He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Foot in mouth again, I'm sorry." He apologised. "I just- I'm trying so hard with you people, you know that?" He sighed, and Natasha wondered how a man in his mid-thirties could look so world-weary.

"I know. I don't know what you want me to do with that." She replied, cautious. Tony patted her thigh, and she found the touch not unwelcome. "Just- get better." He began to leave, but Natasha grabbed his hand. “Wait-“ She started, unsure of how to word what she was about to say. “If this is some pity party-“

“It’s not.” He replied. “I think we both know neither of us are strangers to pity.” He stood stiff, contemplating. “Y’know, I’ve heard what the Red Room did to girls like you, Nat. You ever want to talk, I promise you I’m here.” With that he left the room, and Natasha felt like utter shit.

She’d been winter herself, how was she reduced to this? She had been the nightmares men dreamed about, and here she was on the verge of tears because of just how simply wrong she’d gotten things.

~

Sifting through the pure bullshit that had been left from cleaning house wasn’t something Phil was enjoying. Cover-up upon cover-up and nothing was explained in the files Fitz had siphoned from the Triskelion. The public was up in arms about a lot of the secrets that had been revealed, some of the Index had been revealed, at least, the most dangerous ones had, and Phil was 99% certain Fury was keeping the DOD from ramming themselves right into Phil’s business for some reason, and he really didn’t care for the reason.

Melinda took a seat beside him, nursing chamomile tea. Rubbing his back, she looked over the files with him. He winced at the cut on her head. She’d taken a bad bash back in Triskelion command, and he felt even more guilty about it now. “Don’t give me that look,” Melinda reprimanded. “The kicked puppy one. We get injured, it’s part of the job.” Phil sighed. “I know, doesn’t mean I have to like it. Whenever one of us gets injured, it’s like…”

“Like a bad shock to the system.” Melinda finished from where he trailed off. “That’s why we have training, and that’s why we practice. Put ourselves at as little risk as we can get.”

They continued rifling through the files when they got to an incident report, from a small town in Ohio. It was dated a month back.

-

12/7/2014

INCIDENT LOG 14

Agent #######

The Chitauri virus has spread through half of the town. Despite the mandated quarantine, we have had hiccups with the locals, some aggrieved civilians and rioters attempted an assault on mobile command. Work on cure is slow, recommended we open case to more scientist figures. Virus too dangerous to contain, must eradicate before spread gets worse.

-

“What the fuck?” Melinda swore, combing through the notes. Phil was thinking much the same thing. An alien virus unleashed on an entire town and nobody had taken notice? It was literally causing magnetic storms in the area, and nearly a thousand people were dead from it already. “What’s Fury been playing at?” It made his head hurt, and panic run through him. This virus sounded deadly at best and catastrophic at worst. Those classifications he considered important, though he was much more focused on the current problem on the table in front of him.

“Phil..” Melinda showed him another file. “They’re saying it’s already mutating.” Phil paled. “Tell the team to get containment suits on, we’re going to Ohio.” Melinda nodded, rushing away. Looking at the images attached, he just knew something terrible was developing.

Fitzsimmons, Skye and Akela met them at the Bus. Tony would be hanging back with Mike to provide support. “Dad, what’s going on?” Skye demanded. “Mom said something about an alien virus?” Phil nodded grimly, sharing the files with the group as May headed straight for the cockpit. “It’s bad, you guys. Fury shut down an entire town, made it a black site. A group of firefighters found a Chitauri helmet. It ended up transmitting a deadly virus that has so far killed a thousand people using electromagnetic pulses.”

Firz and Simmons looked fascinated, but horrified by the prospect. “Sir, that’s.. Awful.” Simmons murmured. Phil nodded. “And recent files say it’s begun to mutate. We have no idea what we’re walking into out there, and we need to be extremely cautious with this.”

"Containment suits it is." Akela muttered, turning towards the bay. At Coulson's raised eyebrow, she countered, "Bio always works, right?" Phil remembered the missions he'd run with her and nodded. He regretted coining that phrase so much.

Skye headed down towards the bay with Akela. "First time on a mission with you." She commented. Akela raised an eyebrow. "You coming with, Mini Coulson? Last I saw you, you were a little bug."

Skye scoffed. "Please, that was eleven years ago. You know I'm twenty-one now, right?"

"And yet you'll always be the little bug I babysitted." Akela joked fondly. Skye checked the seal on her suit. "Yeah, I'm the bug covering your ass." Akela put a hand over Skye's arm. "Hey, don't get cocky, okay?"

Skye shrugged. "It's not cocky, it's confident." She slipped on her containment suit, visor flickering on.

Akela looked to May. "She grew up fast," She commented. May looked back at her daughter. "She did. I blame that on me," Akela saw the guilt on May's features and stepped forward. "Bahrain was not your fault, you were allowed to be depressed, as long as you pulled back out."

May bit her lip. She remembered the year where she'd been unable to touch Skye for fear of seeing her with a bullet in her chest, bleeding out and dead. It had taken years of therapy, and still Melinda shut down sometimes.

"I know." Was all she replied.

~

They touched down in Ohio under the cover of dark night. It was an hour until they arrived at the edge of town, a blue glow penetrating the darkness. "What the hell..?" Skye murmured. Fitz and Simmons reached for their oxygen filters, prompting the others to do the same.

They crested the hill, a cobalt spiral oozing from the ground into the sky. "Coulson, you said this virus had mutated, not how much.. this is..." Simmons began.

"Fascinating." Simmons said.

"Horrifying." Fitz murmured.

The pair glanced at each other, out of sync for just the briefest of moments. The group continued into town, kitted up in their protective suits. Jemma's Geiger counter clicked.

"No radiation?" She murmured, confused. What she was seeing, and what she was reasing on the counter didn't make sense. "Then what..." Blue, glowing spores littered the air, shifting around them. It made Skye's skin crawl.

They could hear the wind. The wind wasn't right. Whisperw carried through distance. Reaching out, a hundred times a second, reaching, reaching, reaching- Coulson caught himself. "Everyone stop." He ordered. The team halted almost instantaneously.

"Phil, those voices-" Melinda felt wrong. There was something about this that she didn't think she'd ever fully comprehend. "I know." He confirmed, turning to the team. "We've never encountered this before. Filter out everything except this team, that is an order, is that clear?"

"Yes sir!" The team chorused. As they walked, Jemma took out a pocket-knife, severing a cerulean root. Almost immediately, the air stilled, then a scream scraped the landscape, shrill and pained, the roots retracting back towards the mass.

Beings shuffled from the ruins. Chitinous skin, dulled, baggy eyes lacking pupils, bug-like sclera peering at them. The remaining tatters of clothes hung to their forms, scaly claws extending from what used to be fingers.

Coulson raised his gun. The team did the same, wary. "What are they?" Akela was horrified, had they been people? Before Coulson could answer, the brood shrieked, yanking towards them at unholy speed.

Phil fired, and one fell. Gunfire hailed the street as the team began downing the brood. "Coulson, we've woken a fucking hive!" Akela shouted over the thunder of bullets. "More like a pack of mutts!" Melinda replied. The abominations lit the street a sickening aquamarine, the mass at the centre of town pulsating and throbbing, a misshapen heart reaching for the abyss.

SKKRITCH!

Melinda roared, a mutt's claws sinking into her shoulder. "Mom!" Skye called out, tearing the mutt from her mother's form and slamming a volley of bullets into the mutt's cranium. "Everyone out!" Coulson took the team into a side alley. It was dirty, with brown gunk painting the walls, biomass slithering up the bricks.

Skye and Phil carried Melinda as best they could, Phil's finger on his comm. "Tony, we need the Bus, right now." Above them, a storm crackled, ozone burning as lightning tore the sky.

"Phil, something's jamming the signal, I can't remote it!" Tony warned, fingers flying over his keyboard keys furiously. "Your best bet is getting out of range!" Fitz looked to Coulson at that. "Sir, that's at least a mile out, and we don't have that time!"

Skye tended to Melinda, worried over the brown gunk oozing from the scratch wounds, a fever breaking out on her forehead. "You're alright Mom, just hold on." She comforted. Looking to Phil, tears glinted in Skye's eyes.

Poking his head from the alley, he saw an abandoned car. It looked damaged, but just enough that it was still good to drive. "Everyone to that car!" He ordered. Slobbering and rabid scratches filled the alleyway, the mutts hot on their heels.

Jemma felt a mutt at her heels, screaming. Seconds later, crack went its skull. Fitz pulled her towards the car, bundling her in and then Skye before getting in himself.

Phil put Melinda in the passenger seat, hopping into the driver's seat and locking the doors.

He only had seconds to hotwire the car, but to his utter relief, it started. "Everybody hold on!" He ordered. They sped off, and out of the city.

"What the fuck were those things?" Jemma exclaimed. Akela shook her head from the boot. "They looked like Chitauri, but..not."

"The memo mentioned a Chitauri helmet infecting people, it's what started the outbreak." Coulson murmured grimly, getting on the comm with Tony.

"Wait, but that means.." Skye whispered to Fitz and Jemma. "Do you think those things used to be... people."

The car went silent, and they mulled in the horror.

"Get the hell to the field off of Route 81 Coulson, Bus's set down right that way!" Tony ordered. Phil sped up, pushing the car as fast as it would go. "Prep the medbay Tony, Melinda doesn't have long!" He replied, pulling into the field. They'd long ago left the mutts, but now they had a different problem.

Melinda had gone pale, and she was barely clinging on to consciousness. "Mel?" Phil offered as he lifted her into the Bus. "Phil.. Phil.. look after her.." Melinda tried.

"What?" Phil said, looking towards Skye. "No, no you'll be alright Mel, don't do what I did, don't leave us- I-"

Tony spoke up. "Phil, there's a hyperbaric chamber in the lab, get her in right now!" Phil rushed Melinda into the lab, and Jemma helped set her in, turning on the machine. They watched, and with sighs of relief, the team watched as Melinda breathed easier.

"Phil, I've called Helen Cho, she's bringing the Cradle, but.. if what you said is true..."

"She's been infected." Skye croaked, terror soaking into her bones.

Chapter Text

Chapter 14: Bunker

Melinda wasn't doing well. She was feverish, a cold sweat breaking over her body.

She could feel things growing under her skin, her body changing. Her throat felt dry, and she was weak.

"Mom, eyes on me." Skye affirmed, though her eyes gave away her fear. Melinda was isolated in a medical isolation room, Helen Cho and the other doctors geared in biohazard suits, trying their best to work on her, the Cradle letting out frequent alarms and beeps.

"What is it?" He asked, heart feeling like it was in his throat. He wanted to throw up, but held strong in front of Skye. "The Cradle can't eliminate the foreign material. Whatever it is is fighting back, and worse, it's trying to copy the healing effects. I'm sorry, we have to take her off it."

"Helen, you can't do that!" Tony argued even as Cho pulled the plug. "I have one hundred thousand other patients who use this machine Tony. As a professional and a friend, I'm shutting it off."

The team watched helplessly as she disconnected the rest of the Cradle. "I am so very, truly sorry."

"What are we gonna do?" Skye was having a hard time keeping herself together. She'd lost her dad once before, now she was gonna lose her mom. Phil watched as Melinda struggles to breathe, brown, pus-like gunk forcing her veins to protrude from her arms.

He gathered his thoughts. What did Fury do to him eight months ago? He remembered a mountain-top, something about Istanbul. "Bumpy, but could have been worse." He murmured. Skye looked over at him, tears threatening to spill.

"What?" Had her father lost his mind? It seemed quite the contrary, as Coulson turned to Tony. "When I was dead," Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Fitzsimmons cringe. "They brought me into the mountains. They have a bunker, a passcode. They called it the Guest House, I think. Could you look through some databases, try and find it?"

Tony looked through the perspex at Melinda's prone form. "I'm on it Phil. She'll come back to you." He left the room, and Phil turned to Fitzsimmons. "Study this damned thing, figure out what it is and if it can be killed." With one last look at Melinda, he and Fitzsimmons left the room.

Skye swallowed the bitter lump in her throat. "You come back to us," she didn't notice Melinda's mouth moving as she turned her back. "B-bigger, grow bigger, complete the Spire, complete the Spire-" Black.

~

"Dammit, where is it!" Tony growled. Looking through metadata just wasn't helping, he needed something tangible. "Phil, do you have any ideas what the mountains looked like?"

Coulson was racking his brain. "Tony, I was practically dead, come on!" He remembered a valley.

"There was a dirt clearing and a river, a, a valley of sorts, mountains in a near perfect circle!" Tony clapped his hands, "Oh thank fuck! J, use the satellites, find any relating landmarks, right now!"

"Already on it Sir," JARVIS chirped. He'd grown fond of the Coulson family, and was determined no harm would come to them. Fields of data flew by him, soaring through hyperlinks and code like he were a zephyr through clouds.

Skye joined him in his work, fingers racing across the keyboard, searching for any mention of the 'Guest House.'

"This isn't fucking working!" She growled, tempted to throw her laptop to the ground before stopping, fingers tense as she raised them to her scalp. "JARVIS, with my help how fast can you break Fury's Level Ten?" She urged.

"With assistance I can be in within two hours," JARVIS answered,"But it would send out a breach alarm to anyone above Level Eight still working for SHIELD." Skye was desperate at this moment in time. "Let's do it."

The security cameras flickered. It was just a moment, but it was enough. Tony noticed, ans watched as a crystal began to grow from Melinda's hand. "It's feeding off the electricity," He realised. Phil watched as Melinda's prone form shuddered. "We can't lose her," He was helpless watching her suffer. Tony was entirely sympathetic to the man's plight. "And we won't, but all electrics in the bay must be shut off."

"We won't have visual-" Coulson began to argue, but Tony stopped him. "This THING will spread fastee if we don't. We have a virus on our hands here." The severity in Tony's voice made Phil waver. They were pushing their resources to their limits here.

"Do it," Phil decided, dread pooling in his gut. "She'd do it for us," It sat horribly, and all he could do was hope she'd pull through.

~

"This is horrifying," Jemma breathed to herself. "This-this thing is like a fungus, but worse, it's like it has its own mind." Fitz was looking over the specifications he'd printed out for contaiment. "It takes over its host and uses them as an intrusion vector, like-like a computer virus," Fitz agreed.

Jemma continued analysing the blood samples that had been pulled from Melinda. "It's sending out some form of biotic signal, like this strain is reaching out to the origin location." Jemma had never seen anything like this, and she'd studied ophiocordyceps. She knew that if that made the leap to humanity they were doomed, what could an alien cordyceps do to them?

"It's working with its host though," Fitz observed. "Not just overtaking it, but it's finetuning it as well, look." He observed the biostrand pulsing, becoming wiry and sinewy, like a mstallic form of vein. Akela was with them, all three in hazard containment suits in case the sample broke out.

"It's like a symbiotic relationship then," Akela concluded. She wasn't much use in a lab except for muscle, but she'd always fostered an interest in physics, mechanical and otherwise.

"Exactly," Fitz replied, scanning for traces of any familiar Earth compounds in the biocehmistry of the sample. "This thing's reading compounds, gravitational axis, creating biological databases," He realised, "It's mapping the planet."

"For what?" Akela's hackles were suddenly raised, approaching the sample. "You said it's sending out pulses? You think it could be a signal?" At her question, Fitzsimmons stilled. "To where though?" Fitz stammered. "The Chitauri were defeated!"

"From what we saw!" Akela argued back. "That could have been one fleet out of hundreds, we don't know!" Both scientists were paper-white at this point, and the implications settled around the room.

They had no time to tell anyone else though, as Skye ran into the room. "We have a hit, wheels up in five!"

The team broke into a sprint towards the Bus, Akela filling in for Melinda in the cockpit. "You good to fly?" Coulson checked.

"My cybernetics weren't the only thing I got in captivity." She replied, the turbines beginning to roar. "Get locked in, I'll be pushing max speed." Throughout the Bus, everybody strapped in. Tony flew alongside them, the suit at full throttle.

Skye and Coulson sat together over the roar of the engines. "She has to be okay," Skye murmured. Coulson took her hand, squeezing it. "She will be. She has to be."

While they were sat together, Fitzsimmons were on the other side of the room, also strapped in. "Poor May. Poor Skye and Coulson," Simmons fretted. She was going to have nightmares for weeks on end about May's shifting form, the swollen nodules under her skin oozing pus, the glowing residue from the crystals burrowing out from her bones.

Jemma was determined to fix this, any way she knew how.

~

It was silent on the mountain ridge. Coulson approached the door. Corroded steel, four times taller than the average person, tough enough to withstand a nuclear blast. A singular camera pointed at the group.

"How was the drive from Istanbul?" A voice blared from the intercom. "Bumpy but quiet," Coulson replied. He'd remembered it after a few hours of trying. Racking his brain had been difficult, eight months of lost memory to make up for.

The door slid open. Two armed guards met them, in full protective gear. "There are no visits on the roster today." The blond one stated calmly, finger hovering over his gun's safety.

"We have an emergency with one of our own." Coulson explained, hoping it would be enough. He needed to make sure he got what was inside this bunker.

"You have them with you?" The other guard questioned. Coulson shook his head. "Quarantined. She might be contagious." The guards looked at each other. "Fine, but once you have what you need, we're leaving." Skye balked at that.

"Why?" She couldn't believe the pair would just abandon their posts like that. "SHIELD is gone. We were stationed here by Fury, and he's out too. I'm sure as hell not staying around here for nothing." The blond guard stated.

"Then come work for us." Coulson offered. "Mr Stark here is bankrolling us." Iron Man stood nearby, armour dull against the grey of the sky. "Why?" The other guard questioned. "We're what SHIELD should have been. We're protecting people, not hiding from them." Skye reasoned. "Or at least, we're trying."

That seemed good enough for the pair. "Come on in. What is it you're looking for?"

"GH-325." Even the taste of the words in his mouth felt sour, but Coulson pressed on. The brunet guard stopped, examining him in full for the first time. "I remember you." He began. "About a year back, you came in, critical condition. Fury brought you back from the dead," The brunet guard was in awe, holding out his hand.

"I'm Tony. Tony Masters." He introduced himself. Coulson noted the respect given and gave Masters's hand a firm shake. "Thank you Agent. Please, if we could hurry?" Masters agreed fully. Skye walked along the blond agent, at the same frantic pace.

"How about you, what's your name?" She asked. "Jacob. Black." He muttered. Skye snorted. "Like-?"

"Like Twilight, yeah," He sighed. "Mom was a Mormon." Skye noted the heavy sigh in his voice, softening. "I'm sorry," Jacob sighed. "It's fine,  car crash a couple years ago,"

Skye placed a hand on his shoulder. "Still, it hurts you."

The vault hissed open with a squeak from the hinges, depressurising. "Fury kept this under wraps for thirty years." Masters murmured. Coulson felt something vaguely familiar about that, frowning. Opening the door he stepped inside.

~

Tubes and wires, tubes and wires everywhere. That is all Coulson could see. That and the glowing cabinet. "Shit," he whispered hoarsely. Pulling his gun, he proceeded to clear the room. He stopped when he came across a name. "Yon-Rogg..." He knew the name. From the Danvers Incident.

"How did he die, do you know?" Coulson asked Masters. The other man shrugged, looking over the blue-skinned corpse analytically. "Nape torsion, someone hung him. Poor bastard." Coulson examined Masters for a second. "You figured that out in seconds."

Masters seemed nonchalant about it.

"Photographic memory, it's all in my personnel file." There was more to it than that, Coulson could tell, but right now wasn't the time to question him. Melinda was dying.

~

The Strand was in the Gap. It was in the Air. The Air flowed through Concrete. It needed data. Analytics, analyse, analysing.

Energy. It had found energy. It Tapped on the Energy, pulling.

The Lights turned Off. The Lights turned On. Interesting.

What was This, the Strand mused.

It could feel a rush, a flicker here and there. An uptick, a down beat.

Pulsing, pulsing, pulsing a million miles a minute.

Tony's eyes flicked to the remote console on his helmet. “JARVIS buddy, what’s going on?” He was reading energy fluctuations from the Tower, and he was lucky he even got signal in the bunker. “Sir, the- virus- searching my systems-“ He could glean enough that he knew it was an emergency. “Oh, fuck, we have to pull out, right now!” He alerted the rest of the team. “Coulson!” He tried to reach Phil through comms.

“What’s going on?” Skye demanded, her tone worried and her nerves starting to fray. “The virus infecting your mom is reading the Tower like a damned book, we need to get back there before it infects the entirety of New York.” He turned to the rest of the team. “Everybody evacuate, now!” Tony ordered in lieu of Coulson not being there.

“I’m getting Dad!” Skye protested, running towards the GH-325 chamber. “Skye!” Simmons reached, Fitz grabbing her. “We have to trust her Simmons, come on!” He urged. He didn’t like leaving her behind as much as she did, but Skye had already rushed in. “I’m on pilot seat.” Akela vouched, she had a feeling Coulson wouldn’t be in the right headspace.

They began to evacuate as quick as possible, Tony working his way through his systems. “This goddamned thing is reading everything! It’s like it’s actually learning, whatever it is is communicating with that Spire back in Ohio.” The closer he got to the surface, the signal was coming back. “Sir, I’ve locked off the quarantine area, everybody in the Tower has been evacuated and Helen Cho and her doctors have been sent home. Sir.. I hate to recommend Situation Zero, but-“

“That’s a negative with Melinda still in the building Jay, scrap that thought now.” Tony would not be letting his new close friend die, especially not to the fucking aliens he thought he’d killed during the New York Incident.

The second he reached the surface, his repulsors flared and he blasted into the air. “Jay, bring up security camera footage now!”

-

“Dad!” Skye bolted into the room, double-taking at the Kree body in the room. “That- okay, never mind, Dad, the virus is taking over the Tower, we gotta go.” She urged, approaching.

"Melinda," Coulson realised, grabbing a full box of GH-325, Masters attaching Semtex C4 to the walls. "Blowing the place after we leave." Phil found he agreed with that idea.

"Smart, now let's go."

Masters fell behind a little, but he caught up by the time they reached the entrance. "Three minutes to blow!" Rushing up the ramp, the ground began to go beneath them.

"Shit, the mines!" Jacob called. Skye was almost there, but she wasn't going to make it in time.

Jacob made his decision. He leapt off the ramp, grabbing her. "Jason, what the hell?" She screeched, only for her to throw her onto the ramp as the Bus began to lift off.

"Jacob!" Skye screamed, but as the ramp closed, she could no longer see him.

"No! No, you don't get to do that!" She scrabbled at the ramp, then rushing to the window.

KRRK-BOOOM!

"NO!"

A shockwave wobbled the Bus, but Akela grit her teeth. "I don't think so buddy, work with me!" She growled, pushing the Bus to full throttle.

Skye sunk to the floor. "Wh-why did he do that?" She croaked. "He-he didn't even know me..." Jemma kneeled beside Skye, bringing her in close. "I don't think we'll ever know. Skye, come on darling, get up." Jemma slowly pulled Skye to her feet.

"Your Mum needs help, Skye. Can you keep going? For her, remember?" Jemma spoke softly. Skye's shoulders shook, but she soon steeled herself, sniffling. She wiped her cheeks.

"That serum," she focused on the box of vials in Phil's hands. "They can help her?"

"We don't know," Phil murmured hoarsely. "But we have to try."

-

It was dawn when the Bus landed on the Tower balcony. “Stay behind me and any sign of mutts you run and leave me behind.” Coulson ordered. Skye moved to say something, but Phil stopped her. “Like hell you’re staying Skye, I will have Fitzsimmons drag you out if I have to.” She shut her mouth, an impetuous rage at him building in her chest. She formed up even so.

The main entrance was clear, but the further they got into the Tower, strange blue sparks lit up the air. The team were all glad they were wearing their gas masks, continuing onwards. Theykept hearing distorted whispers, almost repetitive in nature. Phil wondered if their perceptions were different, recognising one particular echo. “Let the girl go, Melinda. Let the girl go.” Shit. “Mel, stop torturing yourself,” He murmured into thin air, hoping she could hear him.

Drip, drip, drip. Brown, pustule like nodes spewed up the walls of the medical ward. “Nobody touch that liquid. Tony, do you have anything that can burn this stuff?” Tony looked towards Coulson.”I do, but I don’t think you wanna do that right now Phil. Melinda is at the centre of this shit, what if killing it kills her?” Once again reminded of the ramifications of the horrors spreading through the Tower, they entered the quarantined room.

Fitz retched in his gas mask. Melinda was pale and sallow, pustules of glowing blue liquid protruding from her shoulders, from her legs and arms. Crystals stabbed outwards from her gut, and she shuddered weakly with every new development. Coulson looked towards the lights. “It’s been feeding off of the electricity all this time!” He realised. Drawing his gun, he fired at the lights, Masters holding the box of GH serum in his hands as they rushed towards her

“C’mon Mel.” Phil worried, loading the serum into a syringe and stabbing it into her shoulder. She shook, seizing up as she lurched to the side, throwing up blue, glowing bile. But then, something miraculous began to happen. The blue crystals began to recede, pustules being fought back against by her white blood cells, her paleness becoming tan and healthy once again, her cheeks no longer pale and sallow, but full of life and returned to full roundness.

As the serum burned away the virus, Melinda relaxed. Skye watched in amazement as all of her mother’s wounds healed in minutes, cuts and gashes from the crystals healing as Melinda heaved once again, vomiting all of the rest of the virus out of her. “Oh thank God,” Phil breathed a great sigh of relief, hugging his wife, who coughed weakly, looking at everyone. “Phil.. What…” She remembered everything that happened.

“Oh.” Phil picked Melinda up. “I’m gonna take you to bed so you can sleep, yeah? You did so good Mel.” He murmured. Skye approached, putting her forehead to her mother’s. “I’m so glad you’re not dead.” Skye croaked. Melinda nuzzled her daughter’s cheek with her nose weakly. “So am I tiànxin.” She murmured. Skye sniffled, watching as Phil took Melinda back to their quarters. “Right,” Tony huffed.”Everybody out of the ward, we’re going to burn every inch of this shit to atoms.” He ordered.

Everyone left, and Tony got a ping from JARVIS. “Sir, it has read a lot of our files. Including the old weapon blueprints.” Tony paled. That was bad. If the virus reported back to the Spire, that damned abomination would learn quicker than anything. That adaptation could be the end of the human species. Fucking Chitauri.

-

 Jemma and Fitz brought Skye to the couch. “How are you feeling?” Fitz checked in, rubbing her shoulder. Simmons was on the other side of Skye, holding her hand. Skye sniffled. “B-bette, b-but today was really stressful.” Simmons could understand that, letting Skye lay her head on Jemma’s lap. Fitz had her legs on his lap, and the two made sure she was comfortable.

“Psychology suggests close contact with loved ones and friends reduces psychological trauma,” Jemma explained at Skye’s inquisitorial look. “So Fitz and I came up with an idea. Cuddle piles, where at the end of every day we can work out our stresses with each other just by snuggling up.’ Skye hummed, liking the feeling of Jemma’s hands running through her hair. It felt nice, no other reason really.

“We should definitely do this as much as we can,” Skye chuckled. “Were your hands always so strong Fitz?” She asked to the man massaging her thigh. “It’s all his tinkering, he is very dextrous.” At Skye’s open mouth, Jemma leapt to cover up her mistake. “W-wait, n-not like that-!” Too late, Skye and Fitz were both roaring with laughter, practically shaking from their belly laughs, and Simmons whined as she covered her crimson cheeks with her hands. “Oh, gosh…” Simmons huffed.

All three young agents soon fell asleep on the couch, where Akela found them an hour later. Smirking, she brought out the new phone Tony had bought for her. “Blackmail..” She grinned to herself, taking a photo. Before she left she covered them all with a blanket, noting the soft smiles on their faces. “They don’t even realise,” She said softly, leaving them be, turning off the light on her way out. “G’night you three.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 15: Investigation

Melinda felt like shit. Blinking, she wiped sleep from her eyes and grimaced at how bad she must look. She had hives across her skin and Skye sat at her bedside, jumping to alert when she noticed her mother waking up.

"Mom! Holy shit, you're awake, wait, let me go get Dad!" Melinda ripped the IV out of her arm and threw herself over the side of the bed, almost falling to the floor as her knees buckled under her weight-

"Shit!" She grimaced and forced herself up, forcing herself to not mind the burn running through her thighs.

"Whoa whoa, Mom, stop!" Skye just about caught her, pushing her back down to the bed.

"Skye, let me up." Melinda wasn't taking shit today. She wanted out of this bed and needed to move about.

"She's not gonna do that." Phil's voice floated over, and Melinda was lying to herself if she said she hadn't missed his voice.

"Phil, please," Phil shook his head. "You might look fine, but you're not. You had internal bleeding from the hives and burn marks up and down your body, you're staying put."

Melinda grumbled. "At least bring me something to work on." Skye took her mom's hand, and Melinda held it. "We can bring you the leads on Ward, as long as your butt doesn't move from that bed for at least the next twenty four hours."

"Deal." She told Phil.

Phil brought her the paperwork and Melinda began working. Phil kept tabs on her throughout all of it, either present with her or through the security cameras.

-

“It’s miraculous really, she’s completely healed like nothing ever happened, if we analysed this it could cure so much, we could honestly-“ Simmons’ mind was running a mile a minute, which Skye was quick to put a stop to.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea Jemma,” she spoke up. Jemma looked over. “Skye, imagine how many people this drug could help! Imagine how many diseases we could cure just with a single injection, the cellular regeneration is nothing like we’ve ever seen before-“

“Jemma, that stuff was locked away for a reason, I think it was a very good one too.” She’d seen her mother seize up when she’d been injected with that stuff, Skye thought she would’ve choked on her own vomit had she not lurched forward like that. The awful look of horror as the pustules spewed out of her and then the slam back onto the bed had been enough to give her day terrors.

“But Skye!” Jemma was very quickly sent a look by Fitz, and she backed off. “Maybe you’re right.” Jemma couldn’t help but simmer in it though, she could understand Skye’s fear, but it didn’t stop the scientific curiosity.

“The only thing that matters right now is that Melinda’s okay I think.” Fitz mediated between the two women and Skye huffed. “Yeah, for how long?” She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with that fucking serum.

“Skye-“

“I need some air,” Skye stood up abruptly, and left the room. Simmons held her head in her hands. “I feel like I just made everything a whole lot worse.” She murmured. Fitz sighed. “It’s tough almost losing someone you love Jem, she’s going through pure hell right now.”

Skye stood outside on the balcony when Tony approached. “You’re going through it huh kiddo?” The older man asked. Skye bit her lip. “She’s alive, Tony, but at what cost? What’s that serum doing to her? I’m so scared, what if it kills her anyway and this was just preventing it, what if I lose her again? I don’t wanna lose my mom-!” Tony scooped her up in a hug, holding her tight to him.

“Hey, hey. Bug, calm it.” He soothed. “Your mom’s fine, she’s with your dad, want the camera feed?” Skye shook her head, wrinkling her nose a bit. “Head out of the gutter,” Hypocrite much, Tony supposed, but he focused on Skye. “You and I are going to investigate the Bunker and that drug, I promise, but first thing’s first we focus on what the hell we’re doing about Ward and this virus monster.”

“O-okay.” Skye sniffled, kicking herself mentally. She cleared her thoughts, her game face now on.

“What do we focus on first?”

-

Natasha wandered into the sparring area. There was a boxing ring and some padded bags ready to hit. Wrapping her fingers she tested her limbs, getting into the groove.

Her hits became rapid, various martial arts movements cycling through from krav to tae chi to silat, all of it flooding back. Perfect recall, and yet Natasha was still kicking herself.

She’d prided herself on being the perfect spy and somehow she’d been manipulated by Fury.

Duck in out kick, piroutte kick roll back kick- and she slammed her foot into the bag.

“You’ll break the bag that way,” Akela commented from across the gym. Natasha huffed, shoulders dropping. “Maybe I wanna break something for once.”

Akela wanders up, stepping into the ring. “Come on.” Natasha thinks she’s nuts, wanting to spar with her. “I’m well aware I’m outclassed, but I can hear the cogs in your brain going ninety miles a minute. You either come in here so I can kick your ass, or you come in here so you can kick mine. Either way, you gotta hit something.”

Natasha slid under the ring. “Where’d Coulson pick you up?” She went in for a jab, Akela dodging and returning with her own front kick.

The women bolted around each other, punch after kick after spin and it was like a deadly flurry. A hand smacked away a strike to the neck shortly followed by a slam to the gut, blocked-

“Some mine, had a tracker in my eye. Where’d Melinda pick you up?” Akela challenged.

“Thought everyone knew my story-“ Natasha grunted, caught off guard by a hook kick. Her jaw stung, good.

“Classified, Fury’s orders.” Akela snapped and Natasha leapt over a kick, using the momentum to kick Akela back against the ropes. “Mother Russia herself, blew up Dreykov’s daughter and I was free.” She snarled.

“Don’t look very free to me Widow.” Akela returned. The two women bared their teeth, then grinned. “I like you,” Natasha murmured honestly. “I think so too.” Akela returned. “Round two, come on.” She pumped up her fists again and Natasha grinned.

“Careful, I might actually start having FUN!”

-

“It started from the Chitauri and then cross transmitted like a prion.” Simmons explained as her, Skye and Tony worked on tracing the virus. “If so, then it is indeed some type of alien proto-prion in and of itself, or a protomolecule.” She circled the name on the virtual board.

“Naming it’s all well and good, how do we put the spirit back in Pandora’s box?” Skye asked. “Thing is, I’m not so sure we can.” Simmons answered. “This virus is starting to break down technological barriers and is learning from what it can reach. For weeks it’s been creating this spire.”

The picture of the spire, almost as big as Stark Tower penetrated the sky and Tony stared at it. Alien carvings and writings coldly and mechanically etched into the walls, and yet growing like a human body still. It was just wrong.

“So you’re saying this thing possibly feeds off of entropy itself?” Skye considers. “Possibly, as with all things it still adheres to the rules of physics, just changes them to suit its own goals. Thermodynamics, perhaps.” Simmons agrees.

“When subjected to extreme heat, the radiation it feeds on is blocked.” Fitz entered the room. “The deep clean of May’s hospital room showed that this thing van be burned, can be hurt, but something on this scale would have me recommending nuclear bombs if not for the immediate risk to human life.”

The sudden silence in the room was deafening, and everybody took a moment. “We’re gonna need fire.” Skye breathed.

Tony huffed. Johnny and him were square. If he asked for another favour he would have a debt. “I might have an idea, but it’s something I don’t want to share.”

“Not how this works Tony,” Skye argued. “Either share with the team or it doesn’t happen.” Tony balled his fists. “There is a guy I know with certain abilities. He saved me when I was younger and more stupid. We’re square as of a few weeks ago but if I do this I owe a literal demon a deal.”

“A demon?” Simmons gapes. “What, as in actual Heaven, Hell demon kind of-!”

“Yes, that kind.” Tony snapped. “You see why I don’t want to do it?”

Skye bit her lip. “There must be another way then. We’ll keep searching, nobody sells their soul here.” She was nervous. What she had seen was a threat to human life itself, and she worried their small team wasn’t enough to stop this.

“Now that this is out there we can co-ordinate with the CDC and the World Health Organisation.” Coulson wandered in. “I’ve already sent them backup copies of what we’ve already found and we’ll update on our theories as we go.”

“Good. Where are we on the Ward situation?”

“Theorising on what he might want. Freedom can’t be his only angle, but we came across this.” Skye threw him a file. “A bank account tied to Von Strucker was recently emptied out in the Caymans, lost track of it through several dummy accounts before I couldn’t follow.” Coulson looked through it, frowning. “This is millions of dollars, all this for freedom?” Coulson murmured.

“Doesn’t sit right with me either.” Skye rubbed her arms. “Mom okay?”

“Keeping busy. Keeps trying to get up and walk around, at this point I may as well just let her.”

“She’ll pop her stitches!” Skye’s voice was suddenly panicked, and Coulson huffed. “I know, but your mother knows how to take care of herself. Take a breath.”

Skye sniffled. “I don’t know of I’m doing this right Dad.” She admitted. “I-I’m trying to call the shots but I don’t think I’m ready.”

“Then let me take over from here, you did good.”  He hugged her, and they got back to working.

-

Raina stood by Quinn, watching from behind the glass as the man they were experimenting on twitched. “Super soldiers, with no need for technology.” She mused. “Biological evolution on a scale unheard of.” Quinn agreed. “Imagine what we could do if we harness this, the goddamned profit we could make! Imagine, cures for cancer, lipedema, diabetes, all for people to buy from us,”

“We could also make ourselves a nice little army,” She watched suddenly as the man turned to her, snapped to her really, blue eyes glowing. Her innards curled with disgust, what a vile abomination. Not like the evolution she hoped to under-go.

The man began to roar and slam on the glass. “Shit shit shit, cut it out, get it gone!” Flames roared throughout the experiment lab, burning the man to a crisp and Raina sighed. “If we can get it under control.” This thing couldn’t be controlled, but she needed the funding.

“Bring in the next one!” Raina wondered how many more men they could go through. There weren’t that many left out on the streets at night after all.

-

Melinda walked through the halls. She was recovering slowly, working through the files on Ward and Garrett. She was very aware of her stitches aching, and the dull throb of her head.

“God, stop it!” She snarled, ready to throw something at the voices until she whirled and saw Natasha.

“You wanna talk about it?” Natasha said after a moment. Melinda growled. “Not unless you can do something about the fucking whispering.”

“Whispering?” Natasha was now very alert.

“Been hearing these voices ever since I woke up. ‘The Work, can’t stop the Work,’ it’s the remnants of whatever it was trying to do to me, I’m clear of it and all, but something’s bugging me.” Melinda can’t stop thinking about whatever it was it was trying to build, trying to experiment with.

“What’s the Work?” Natasha asked warily, easing her way towards the knife drawer. “It’s trying to build something. It’s taking us apart, using biomass to build power.” Melinda scratched at her rashes until Natasha slapped her hands away. “Top that. You saw it?”

“Only vague fragments, and it wasn’t telling me, it was using me. It’s like I was ripped out of my own body, I couldn’t breathe but I could see, I could hear but not smell, I didn’t have my body.” Melinda shook her head, it hurt to think about.

“What is it trying to build?” Natasha asked urgently. “I don’t know!” Melinda growled back.

“Okay. You’re good though?”

“Good enough.” Melinda answered. “Apart from the stitches I’m fully healed.” Natasha took a closer look at her mentor’s wound. “Good.” The tone surprised Melinda and she frowned. “What?”

-

“Garrett?” Ward walked into the apartment. The walls were covered in scribbles, precise lines and circles creating something he had no chance of deciphering.

“Ah, there you are son, come help me with this!” What. The. Fuck.

Garrett was covered in blood, carving into himself the exact same scribbles. “C’mon son, it’s like you’re looking at a dead guy!”