Can you read my mind?
"So, which of you am I talking to right now?" she asked, flatly.
"It doesn't work that way," he said with exasperation.
"Do you tell him stuff about me, or does he just know it because you know it?"
"Never thought about that," he said. "I sense him more when there is Kree tech around."
"Can you read my mind?" she asked, then smiled. "What color is my underwear?"
Coulson chuckled.
"More like a heightened awareness or something. Stars...galaxies, I'm not sure how it's supposed to help me, considering we're subterranean."
They were wedged in between two carved stone walls. The tomb was probably 25 feet underground. Coulson had triggered one of the traps when he had (a little stubbornly, if he were being honest with himself) proceeded before listening to Skye's warning, because he was tired of fielding questions and had wanted to tune her out.
"He was hunting me down, right?" she asked, watching him feel along the walls.
Yes, he was. They knew that much. Coulson had learned about the alien with persistent digging, and also a nice, long-overdue confrontation with Fury.
"Yes, Coulson, you ran TAHITI, who else would I trust that to? Well, I needed you, what with HYDRA in every corner, my ace in the hole. The Nova Corps? How the hell do you know about that, and don't give me some vague Frank Sinatra, Rat Pack-ass, sounding response. Was it the girl? Yeah, I know she has a name. Look, we cut a deal, the Kree sent sentries to scout Earth, we didn't want a full-scale invasion on our hands. Not before we had the Avengers in place. Yeah, we were invaded, but it bought us some time, Coulson. It bought us *time*."
The Guest House drug had done more than just revive him. There was someone else swimming around inside him now.
"Hey, Ms. Weakness Finder, want to lend a hand?" he interrupted with aggravation, wanting to cancel his own thoughts.
She shut her eyes for a moment. "There's no vegetation down here," she answered, shaking her head. "And anyway, when are you going to figure out that wristwatch thing?"
Coulson looked down at the watch on his right arm. Fury had coughed it up. The alien had worn it when he was passing for a human. It looked like a Casio from the 80s, digital display. Pretty cheezy way to disguise alien tech, if you asked him. Why couldn't it look like a vintage '61 Rolex Cosmograph 'Paul Newman'? Shame, really.
"We did come down here to find something Kree, right?" she added.
True.
A light went on in his head. He looked at the indentations in the walls, mounded in sand, shaved off when they'd dropped down to seal them in. He ran his finger along a crease, it came loose, he began brushing at the wall.
Skye realized what he'd seen, there was something drawn in the walls. She walked toward it when he'd wiped more away, put her finger in the depression that screamed out to her.
"I think you need to put your 'rad' timepiece in this slot," she mentioned.
He walked over to her. Sure enough, it was in the same shape. He shrugged, fitted his wrist to the wall.
Nothing happened.
Skye said, "Maybe if you yell, 'I have the power!'," laughing and snorting a bit at her own joke.
Coulson pulled his arm away from the wall, but it wouldn't budge. He pulled harder, grabbed it with his other arm. "Skye, Skye! Something's happening!"
She reached for him, as he pulled his arm away from the wall and smirked.
"Syke."
"You didn't just do that," she stared. "Tell me that you didn't just..."
Coulson stopped listening and turned to look at the wall. The crevices were turning a pale, electric green. It was coursing, pulsing, making its way through the wall as the room groaned.
"This does not sound good," Coulson said.
The energy was moving more quickly now, crossing the floor under their feet, running up through the ceiling. Coulson looked up when the ceiling began to rumble. They glanced at one another as the ceiling began to slide down. There wasn't much time.
"Phil," she said, slowly. "Put...the...watch...back in the wall."
He was already running to the wall, placed the watch back in, waited a few seconds.
"No good," he said, shaking his head. He tried it again. There was nothing left to do, nothing to prop against the walls, no weaknesses to exploit. Just Skye, standing there, as the ceiling lowered. He couldn't stand it. They'd been making jokes a few seconds before, but after all the close calls, she knew all his secrets, she didn't care, he could live in a world without secrets now. He couldn't lose her.
Not after he'd just really found her.
She had instinctively already started to crouch. She grabbed him and smiled, closing her eyes, serenely. Well, dammit, he wasn't doing meditation these days! He pushed his arm against the ceiling above them, his hand touching the energy coursing through its nooks and crannies, the pressure on his arm unbearable.
"No," he said. It was unfair. A thought inside said: Command. "Stop!!!" he yelled, the fury building up in him coming out, the wall above crumbling around him from the force exerted against it, rocks falling around them as the ceiling receded, covering them in debris and dust.
He pushed out of the rubble, and began to search, dig, panicked.
"Skye?..Skye!!!?"
She was unconscious, he ran a hand over her forehead, knew she was alive. Just knew. How?
He picked her up gently, looked out beyond the debris, the cloud of dust. The wall was gone. There was a giant chamber open on the other side, waiting. The same pale light running all through it.
He laid her gently down on a slab, made sure she was okay, breathing. Then looked over the control panel at the center of the rock formation. There was the watch shape again. No way.
The characters covering everything, it was a language, he knew it.
"Okay," he said aloud. "Talk." He crossed his arms.
An image came up on the monitor above the control panel. An alien, distorted face. It began speaking, in a voice he couldn't understand.
The thought was: Ask the watch.
Coulson wasn't sure, but he didn't have anything to loose. "Translate?" he said hesitantly to the watch.
"Now that's ironic," Skye said, walking over to him slowly.
"You alright?" he asked. She nodded, put her arm around his waist, looking up at the screen with him.
"Supreme Intelligence Directive 424: Terminate all operations. Destroy technology. Hide among them. We are compromised. The One is here. Await orders."
Skye said, "I want to get out of here, now."
Coulson knew why. Raina had told her. She was that 'One'.
"Okay," he said, "Let's go."
The thought said, Get the suit first. No, Coulson told himself. Don't be an idiot, the thought replied. "How?" he said aloud. His eyes looked over to the the watch shape housed in the control panel. Not doing it, he told himself.
Skye's face blanched, "He's talking to you, isn't he?"
"Yeah," Coulson said.
"How do you know he's not trying to keep me here?" she asked. "That is his mission, right?"
"I can't say that," Coulson whispered to himself.
"Phil! Stop talking to him and talk to me!"
"He says," Phil looked at her apologetically, "That your underwear is purple, with little blue flowers on it. Sorry."
"Okay, then," she replied.