Turning Back the Clock

Coulson lets himself into the cockpit and leans against the wall, watching the clouds fly by while May stoically pilots the plane.

"Maybe I should learn to fly." He says conversationally. "It's not too late, right? I could learn." She lets out a tiny breath. "What do you like best? The freedom, the view-"

"The solitude." She answers simply. He nods politely.

"Got it. See you in Sweden." He says and leaves the cockpit. The tips of her lips turn up as she adjusts the controls, before she regains control of the minuscule smile and erases it from her face.

Ward is down in the lab eyeing a dendrotoxin bullet in his fingers.

"I only get one shot. And it has to knock a person back, as well as out." He's saying.

"Which is why we're perfecting this little beauty." Fitz turns with a sleek but large looking gun in his hands. ".45 caliber cartridges, semi-automatic. Each mag . . ." The Scot slips it in and locks it into place in the gun. "Contains eight therapeutic rounds of dendrotoxin."

"In case you miss." Simmons smiles from behind him and Ward turns, giving her a dirty look. "Or have multiple assailants." She presumes nervously.

Ward reaches for it but Fitz pulls it back out of reach. "Yeah, we're gonna have this new Night-Night pistol working in no time. Okay?" Fitz turns and retreats back to his desk where he begins fiddling with it.

"Great." Ward says. "One thing - we're not calling it that."

Simmons turns back from her microscope and meets Fitz's eyes clearing her throat pointedly. "Told you." She grins at him.

Fitz grimaces. "Yes we - yes we are." He says determinedly and sits down with the pistol.

"Have you seen, Skye?" Coulson asks Ward as he walks out of the lab.

"Not since weapons training." He answers passing him on the stairs up to the lounge area.

"Has she stopped saying "bang" when she pulls the trigger?" Coulson asks amused.

"Mostly. Now if she could just learn the difference between the safety release and the magazine release, we'll be making real progress." Ward says in a resigned tone as he continues up the stairs. He pauses at the top. "You know the first day we brought her on the BUS, she took my weapon off my person and disassembled it easily. I'm wondering if that was just a fluke." He rolls his eyes then escapes the room.

Coulson shakes his head, hiding his smile before glancing at the vehicles parked and locked in front of him. He walks over to the SUV and knocks on the back window. It rolls down after a second revealing Skye's smiling face.

"What's up, Phil?" He asks perkily.

"I'd prefer you not call me Phil." He requests and she looks down at her laptop.

"Okay, you're the boss . . . AC" She glances up quickly to see his reaction and he just sighs. "Just missing my van a bit, taking a little "me" time."

"I want your help with something." He says in a quiet voice. She inhales sharply and sits up straighter as if in excitement.

"Hit me with it."

"You ever rob a bank?" She frowns thoughtfully. A quick image of herself wearing dark clothes, heavy makeup and long dyed hair escaping a bank flashes across her vision quickly before she shakes her head and smiling shortly at him.

"No."

"An armored car?"

"Nope."

"How about a casino?"

"Should I be offended?" She asks him playfully.

"Somebody is stealing millions of dollars in diamonds. They've found a way to crack the security systems. I want you to figure out their exploit." He tells her and a look of understanding crosses Skye's face as she remembers what case his questions relate to, but before she can decide whether or not to tell him what she knows he turns around and heads back upstairs.

They land in Sweden shortly after AC's conversation with Skye and he briefs her and May on the case he picked at the crime scene in the subway station.

"Yesterday, twenty-five men, all military, were hired by one of the largest gem brokers in the world. They dressed the men in identical outfits, gave each one a randomly assigned briefcase, and sent them along twenty-five different routes here in Stockholm. No one knew which case contained the diamonds, but they were still stolen."

"Why the Kabuki Theater?" May asked.

"They were afraid because somebody's targeting diamonds - an armored car in Milan, a safe in Monte Carlo, and now this - over $30 mil total. Each theft occurred despite heavy security."

"They sound like inside jobs." May says.

"A lot of people share that opinion." Coulson crouches down inside the empty subway at the blood on the ground.

"You don't." Skye tells him and he glances up at her. "CCTV cameras catch any of the action?"

"FitzSimmons is checking." Coulson answers. "The system went dark for an hour. They think it was hacked."

"It was the same thieves each time?" May questions.

"Yes, but it was just one thief - a woman." Coulson explains and stands up, pacing the small space. "And she did it all with her eyes closed."

"Eyewitnesses I.D. her?"

"Black, athletic build, late twenties-early thirties."

"So you asked how she could've cracked the system." Skye says stepping forward. "I have a pitch, but it's way outside the box."

"I live outside the box." Coulson deadpans.

She gives him a skeptical look but then shakes her head to clear her focus. "There are people in the world with superpowers, right? What if this woman has ESP or something?"

"There are no credible studies that support precognition, telepathy, or extrasensory perception." May tells her and Skye has to work hard not to smile, her thoughts immediately going to Professor Xavier, Jean and Raina.

"Okay, so science says no. But this woman knew impossible things, and why did she close her eyes? That's either random or totally important. Was she listening . . . or was she reading minds?" Skye widens her eyes at the two agents in front of her, tapping the side of her head but neither of them look amused. She sighs.

"So, you want to tell us what we're really looking at here?" Coulson asks her and Skye glances at them both before sighing.

"Look, three years of memories can get a little blurry. I'm sorry I can't give you a play-by-play of how this case turns out-"

"Stop." May tells her and Skye's mouth shuts with a snap. "You know exactly what's going to happen here, but if you don't want to tell us yet, just admit that. We don't need any more secrets. We can't understand exactly what you're going through and how much thought goes into each sentence you say or action you do. But we need you to be honest with us."

Skye takes a breath before letting it out slowly. "Honestly, from what I do remember . . . you're not gonna like this case." They all stare at each other for a minute before Skye gives them a small smile and waves her phone at them. "I'm gonna go play with my phone now." She sits down as May turns to Coulson.

"Why does H.Q. want us to investigate these heists?" May asks Coulson.

"They don't. I picked this op. Any luck?" He asks Skye.

"Yep. I'm getting full bars." She says. "Which means if I was down here and twenty-five guys were in scary red masks, you know what I would do?" She stands up and shows them the photos she pulled up on her phone. "Instagram."

They reconvene back on the BUS in his office to look at the photos that Skye managed to download of the crime scene before and after the woman attacked the men in red masks on the subway.

"It's amazing." Coulson says as they flip through the photos on his big screen in his office. "Every year this part of our job gets easier. Between Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr, people are surveilling themselves."

"With many filters to choose from." Skye quips. "I could do this pretty well when I was hacking for the Rising Tide, but you guys tag and search in ways the rest of us never even dreamed of."

"I can run facial-recognition software on the photos, cross-reference them with our criminal databases." May offers Coulson, crossing her arms.

"You don't have to." Coulson stops on a picture and zooms in on the woman in the background. "That's the thief. Her name's Akela Amador." He identifies her.

"You're certain?" May confirms.

"I should be. I trained her." Coulson says solemnly. "Akela Amador was a SHIELD agent." He begins to brief them on what he knows of her as they walk downstairs and through the lounge towards the command center. "Seven years ago, she led a raid on one of Vanchat's gulags. Everyone believed that she and the other two agents on the mission were killed. I had my doubts. So I sent in a second team, just in case. They found a lot of carnage but couldn't confirm that any of it was Amador - left the possibility open."

"That's why you chose this op - when you heard about the heists." May accuses him.

"There are only a few women in the world who could pull off something so impossible. Since you're on the BUS, I thought it had to be her." Coulson explained snarkily.

"Swedish customs confirmed that Amador left the country using an alias on a Swedish passport." Ward tells them in the command center. "She flew into Belarus, bought a train ticket to a town called Zloda. I've also put together a list of individuals who could fence that many diamonds." He swipes the information from the holotable to the screen. "There's been no contact or activity." Ward says.

"Maybe she's saving them for a rainy day, buying something special." Coulson quips as he stares at the screen. "Let's focus on finding Amador." He turns to the other three.

"I'll let H.Q. know she's alive so they can assist with the manhunt."

"I'd like to hold off on that, until we know more." Coulson nods to May and she hides her surprise well. "Contact Belarus authorities. Find us a place to park the BUS." He glances at Ward. "Put together a list of inns, hotels, and pensions near Zloda. There can't be that many of them." He tells Ward. "We'll find her."

He and May both leave the command center to follow Coulson's orders.

"I'm not so special after all." Skye says out loud and Coulson turns to her with a frown. "I'm not your first protegee. Relax, I'm teasing." She says with a smile. "I know I'm not a protegee. Hell, I'm not even a real, live SHIELD agent yet."

"You two couldn't be more different." Coulson says and turns back to her picture on the screen. "Amador was smart, talented, fearless."

"Wow, there's nothing in common." Skye said sarcastically.

"Let me finish." Coulson lightly scolded her. "She didn't play well with others, found little value in teamwork. I thought I could instill those qualities in her, so I pushed her . . . maybe too hard."

"Don't blame yourself because this chick was dragged to the dark side. Whatever path she went down, whatever weird stuff she got into, not all of them were her own choices. It's up to us to bring her in, safely." Skye told him, leaving the command center. Coulson frowned thoughtfully at her words.

By the time, the plane has landed, Coulson has already gotten them transportation to Zloda. He rents out a nice white van and the team, minus May, drives into town.

"How exciting." Simmons says. "I've dreamed of visiting Zloda since I was a schoolgirl."

"Zloda, Belarus?" Fitz asks skeptically. "A dream come true? Really?"

"It's the birthplace of Nobel physicist Zhores Alferov. I mean, technically, he's from Vitebsk, but that's less than an hour from here, and I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't know that." Simmons lightly scolds her partner.

Skye can't help rolling her eyes fondly at the pair.

"Well, no, of course I know who that is, father of heterostructure transistors, thank you very much." He says proudly. "We're all well aware of that. I'm just a little bit preoccupied. Our first and only other time in the field, wasn't exactly a picnic, was it?" He reminds them nervously.

Coulson turns around in his seat at Fitz's words. "You guys are only here to search for Amador electronically. You won't even need to leave the van." He tells them.

"BUS to Short Bus." May's voice comes over the coms.

"Go for Short Bus." Ward responds as he drives.

"Next time I'll decide what we call ourselves, okay?" Coulson says quietly to Ward and he looks over, eyebrows raised and lifting a hand innocently.

"H.Q. has requested a status update."

"What'd you tell them?" Coulson asks her.

"That we're tracking a potential suspect, nothing more." May answers evenly.

"I owe you one." He says gratefully.

"More like three." She says dryly.

Eventually, they finally arrive down the street from a hostel that Coulson and Ward will check out. They gather their things and get ready to leave.

"If Amador's here, she'll have to contact her buyer. Scan for cellphone transmissions, encrypted emails, anomalous broadcast signatures. Call us if you find anything that indicates her presence." Coulson orders the younger three as he checks his gun and gets out of the van.

"Maintain radio silence unless you really need help." Ward tells them as well, opening his door.

"Well, what exactly defines 'needing help?'" Fitz calls out as Ward slips out of the driver's seat and then closes the door.

Coulson and Ward head up the street and Ward glances at his C.O. a few times before striking up conversation.

"I can only imagine how hard this must be for you, sir - betrayed by someone you trained and believed in."

Coulson turns a corner with him, constantly scanning his surroundings as they walk. "We don't have all the facts yet."

"True, but I have to assume the worst." Ward says. "That Amador sold out the other two agents on her mission. Wonder what she got in exchange." He suggests in a dark tone. Coulson sighs, his own thoughts turning towards Ward and his own status as a Hydra agent inside SHIELD.

"I don't know, but until we do, I'm not gonna assume anything." Coulson tells him.

Back in the van, Simmons and Fitz were setting things up while Skye hooked up her laptop.

"There's barely electricity in this town. Can't be too hard to find our mystery woman." Simmons commented as she worked.

"Unless she already knows we're here." Skye said solemnly, a teasing glint in her eyes.

"No, you're not suggesting some sort of precognition or telepathy because . . ." Simmons started nervously.

"I know - it doesn't exist." Skye rolled her eyes. "And not long ago, I would've dumped ESP in the "aliens and portals are for crazy people" pile. But now . . ." She left the implications before focusing on her laptop. "Found a server."

Ward's phone rings as he and Coulson walk across the street.

"Did you locate Amador?" He automatically asks.

"What? No, not yet." Skye admits. "But we've found a broadcast with some weird signal encrypted into it."

"You think Amador might be communicating on that signal?" Ward asks her.

"Maybe, but I called with an equally pressing question for you, my S.O. What are we supposed to do if we have to pee?"

Ward closes his eyes in frustration and takes a breath before responding. "You broke protocol because you need a bathroom break?"

"It was a really, really long drive, and everyone's nervous." Skye rationalizes as Fitz and Simmons both nod reassuringly at her.

"There's a container at the bottom of the blue chest." Ward tells her. Skye relays the information to the scientists and Simmons begins emptying the blue cooler until she comes upon an empty water bottle. She shows it to Skye and Fitz with a disgusted look on her face and Skye's face goes blank.

"Not the water bottle." She deadpans into the phone.

"That's the one." Comes the answer.

"Did you never learn the thing where boy parts and girl parts are different, and our parts aren't penises?" She asks sarcastically.

"Agent Coulson and I are trying to find a dangerous criminal." Ward impresses into his tone. "If there's nothing else pressing . . ."

"Well, listen, Fitz wants to know if you packed any snacks."

"Cause I'm feeling a bit peckish." He calls through the phone.

The line goes dead and Skye blinks twice in surprise. "Uh, hell-hello?" She glances down at the phone and raises her eyebrows at FitzSimmons. "He hung up." She says indignantly.

Coulson and Ward enter a small hotel and greet the older lady at the desk.

"I'm Agent Coulson, this is Agent Ward. We're looking for this young woman." He pulls out his phone with the photograph of Akela Amador.

"Oh, she's my angel." The lady says pleasantly.

"Why do you say that?" Ward asks curiously.

"She has gift - knows things." The lady says. "She told me to go to doctor. He found a tumor. I'm having surgery next week. This girl saved me." She raves at the two men. The two agents exchange dubious looks.

Meanwhile, back at the van, Fitz is having trouble with the signal Skye found.

"I can't stabilize it." Fitz sighs as he fiddles with the monitor. "There's an encrypted local signal competing."

"Mirror it over." Skye orders as she types into her laptop. "I have a couple Rising Tide exploits that might work."

Fitz pushes a few buttons and similar images show up on her screen and she immediately begins hacking the signal. "One last thing." She murmurs out loud and a loud clinking sounds from her speakers. She smiles. "Ta-da, and you're welcome." She tells FitzSimmons smugly.

At the hotel, Coulson leans over the desk. "It's very important that we talk with her." He tells the lady.

"With her gift, I'm sure she knows you're coming." The lady says ominously.

FitzSimmons and Skye lean over the monitor together staring at the video feed they found.

"Russian tv's kinda boring." Skye comments as the video shows a street where a white van is parked on the side of the road.

"That looks a bit like our van." Fitz notes as the video feed seems to be standing in the street staring at the van. The video feed transitions suddenly like x-ray vision and shows the inside of vehicle with three human figures sitting on stools and a third leaning over what looks like a desk.

"What are we looking at?" Simmons asks nervously. Fitz stands up suddenly as they all stare at the screen, the figure in the middle stands up as well and mirrors his actions as he holds out his arms and waves them in the air - just like the one on x-ray screen as well.

"Us." He realizes and the video feed shows something moving towards the van.

An engine revs loudly and something crashes into the SHIELD van, knocking over all three of them. Skye crawls into the front seat vaguely struggling through memories of her past cases and more visions of the future. She shakes her head viciously trying to control herself, words spilling from her mouth instinctively.

"Let's get out of here." She tries to start the engine only for it to turn over and sputter as she stomps her foot down on air. "Grrrr, stupid tall person." She mutters to herself. She turns in her seat quickly. "Call Coulson. Get the gun." She orders the two still tangled in each other on the floor of the van.

Simmons grabs the phone in one hand and hands the gun from the floor to Skye. The hacker closes her eyes and sighs, knowing she has to allow what's going to happen next. She glances out the window seeing Amador herself in the truck that has backed up.

"It's her." She tells the scientists and then glances down at the gun in her hands. "Safety off." She presses the wrong catch and the magazine of dendrotoxin bullets falls out. She looks nervously out the window as Amador speeds closer. "Bang?" Skye whimpers and Amador's truck smashes into the white van, knocking it off the road, down the small hill and completely over before driving off.

Coulson and Ward immediately retrieve the team and take them back to the BUS. May stands on the railing, looming over with an impassive mask on her face as FitzSimmons head for the lab and Ward and Coulson drop off the gear they salvaged from the van before making their way for the command center. May disappears into the cockpit.

Instead, Skye heads for her laptop in her bunk. She plugs in her headphones, ones that have a microphone she can speak into and then begins typing. Skye opens up some emails she hasn't used in a while and then starts a program she wrote and hadn't touched in years. She starts it up and links it to a familiar signal waiting patiently until it starts to slow and then alerts start popping up. Skye grins and types methodically as she assists her program into slipping around the massive amounts of firewalls and security that had been built up over the years around the server she's hacking into.

Finally, she finds the backdoor she's left into the five-year old coding and sends off a little notification for the other person she knows is on the other end. Within seconds, he's found her and is trying to boot her out of the system. A small chat window opens up.

IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE YOU'VE HACKED INTO MR. STARK'S SERVER, SKYNET.

Skye grins.

i needed to get his attention somehow. tell me J does he still need you to hold his hand while he hacks into government servers?

"Skynet?" A deep questioning voice comes through her headphones and Skye can't help smirking at the countermeasures JARVIS and Tony Stark are employing to her program at the same time.

"Hello Anthony." There's a long moment she can hear cursing and another softer voice in the background.

"Wow, you know with all the times we've spoken, you've always used that voice distorter. And because of the things you've mentioned over the years, I'd begun to think you were a man. But - you're a girl." He accuses her and she laughs softly.

"Woman, thank you very much. And if all goes according to plan, you'll actually get to meet me face-to-face very soon." Skye says as she starts uploading several links to files she had compiled and encrypting them onto Stark's server.

"Will we now?" He sounds very intrigued. "So what may I ask, is your purpose into hacking my servers after two years of radio silence?"

"Well for one thing, I need a place to secure some information and data that I've compiled and have you actually look something else over until I can retrieve it."

"You could've just asked." Skye rolls her eyes, imagining him pouting at her.

"You haven't been answering my emails."

"Which account did you send them to?"

"It doesn't matter. The second reason is that I've been constrained for time because I've piggybacked onto a SHIELD mobile unit for the time being."

"Really? I always got the sense that you hated them."

"I hated the secrets I thought they were keeping from me and the rest of the world. Turns out there are a few good agents I've come across and I'm . . . actually the second consultant they've hired on at the moment."

"Nu-uh. No. There's no way with your reputation and work that you'd ever attach yourself to a shady government agency. And besides, I'm the only consultant with them, and even that relationship is strained right now." He explains to her.

"Well, how about I put it to you this way: I've uncovered something so big that it will make the history books and if we don't play this correctly, we'll be on the losing side of a coming war."

There was a long and worrying pause before someone else spoke up.

"Miss. Hi, this is-"

"Dr. Banner, it's an honor to actually be speaking to you. Your work in the field of gamma radiation is fascinating. I have a few friends that have followed your work religiously and are big fans." Skye gushes to him as she types furiously, finishing up her data transfer.

"Thank you." He sounds hesitant but Skye continues on in a hurry.

"Look, I don't have a lot of time, but I respect you and your skills enough that I need you to keep these encrypted files safe for a while, Anthony."

"I really wish you wouldn't call me that." Tony says with an exaggerated sigh. "But of course I'll keep them safe."

"You can try to break the encryption all you want, if you want to peek, but I'm sure you won't be able to crack them. At least not until I unlock them myself."

"Oh, please." Tony scoffs. "You might be the best hacker I've come across but I can still run circles around you." He says as JARVIS finally manages to shut down her signature program that had been holding back the pointed attacks.

"Then why can't you catch me?" Skye says playfully as she skillfully dodges JARVIS's attempt to maneuver her out of the systems. "Look, I appreciate you doing this, but I also need you to keep an eye on something for me. I've been watching multiple moving pieces but it's getting tiring. I can't do all of this on my own." She says as she leaves a few lines of coding to protect and hide her backdoor while at the same time, drawing JARVIS and Tony's attention to her blatant motions towards his encrypted projects he's been working on with Banner.

"What else do you need Skynet?" Tony asks as he shakes his head, his hand moving through his holo-equipment as he helps JARVIS block Skyenet's moves.

"I want you to look into the company Cybertek. Some of their more expensive tech that's being sold is brilliant but is highly questionable if only for their experimentation process and where they're getting their ideas. I've checked them out and they are more shady than SHIELD is right now."

"Sure no problem, Skynet."

"Thanks, I really appreciate this. But whatever you find, be careful you don't do anything to draw their attention."

"No problem, I'll check them out and get back to you in a few days on one of your forums."

"Great, thanks Tony. It was nice meeting you Dr. Banner. Skynet out." She says and quickly exits his systems, erasing any sign that she had been there in the first place as well.

In the newly named Avengers Tower, Bruce Banner turns to Tony Stark with a questioning gaze. Tony avoids his eyes as he waves his hands over the holo-keyboard rapidly.

"JARVIS, did you get anything from her?"

"I'm sorry sir, she seems to have erased all signs of her codes and signature off our systems, yet again, except for those encrypted files she said she needed secure." Tony smiles wryly to himself.

"Damn she is good."

"Tony, who the hell was that?" Bruce asks him and Tony finally faces him.

"That, my friend, is someone I've been trying to hire onto my staff for the last eight years."

"She sounded young. And you admire her. That's unusual." Bruce thought aloud as Tony moved around him, fiddling with equipment.

"I don't admire a lot of people, but I came across Skynet on some forums about nine years ago. She'd been bragging about her skills and I challenged her to break into my systems. A year later she did it. I offered her a job and she refused. Didn't like my products or how I advertised them."

"That was-"

"Two years before I found out Stane had been dealing under the table, yeah. Then when I came out as Iron Man, she gave me a few tips on updating my security in case anyone tried to rip off ideas on how to build their own suits, and they worked. We've kept in contact over the years and I've followed her online as much as I could. The last I knew, she'd joined the Rising Tide."

"You mean that group of hacktavists that have been releasing government secrets onto the web?" Bruce sounded surprised.

"Yeah, they believe in freedom of information. But she's always been more reserved in releasing things she'd found on questionable Chinese companies or suspected Russian politicians or corrupt CEOs." 

"Well, what worries me is that, she just told us she's uncovered some sort of mass conspiracy that could lead to another war. She's apparently working with a SHIELD team right now. And Fury's been calling you trying to get ahold of us for the last few days. This could be connected." Bruce tells Tony pointedly.

Tony rolls his eyes, mumbling under his breath about stupid pirates suddenly being trustworthy as he retrieves his phone from where it's charging.

Meanwhile, back on the BUS, Ward confronts Coulson.

"Sir, Amador attacked you and your people. Whatever regard you hold for her isn't reciprocated. She just kicked us in the teeth."

"How's the team?" Coulson asks tiredly.

"Rattled. No broken bones. We're lucky she just knocked the van over, so she could get away. Probably take awhile for our folks to refocus." Ward surmised Amador's intentions in her attack.

Skye stood in the doorway and spoke up. "I think I can recover the data signature of that encrypted broadcast. I don't understand it yet, but that's how she was watching us. Give me an hour, maybe we can start watching back." She tells him excitedly.

Everyone convenes down in the lab watching as Skye cracks the encrypted signal.

"Something's wrong." She tells them as she works. "It's the same feed that was watching us in the van. Uh, put it on the big monitor." She nods at Fitz and he moves to do it.

"Maybe the lens broke when the van rammed us." Simmons theorizes.

"I hope she broke more than that." Skye snarks as she taps onto her tablet and they all face the big screen.

The screen shows Amador wiping steam off a glass.

"It's a mirror." Coulson realizes as he moves around the table. "Are we recording this?"

"Uh - we are now." Skye says after pushing a button on her tablet.

"How are we seeing this?" Coulson asks in awe at the clear video feed. "Where's the camera."

Skye begins to feel sick to her stomach as they watch the camera pan down to a small thin tool that is picked up and Amador uses a compact mirror to use the tool on herself.

"It's her eye. She's the camera." May says in surprise. FitzSimmons are half fascinated half disgusted as they watch the tool actually used on her eye, while Ward winces at the blatant display. Skye can't help as her jaw drops.

Amador blinks in the mirror and the video feed turns back into x-ray vision showing Amador's head with the machine eye inside her skull.

"It switches to backscatter when she closes her eyes." Fitz speaks up.

"You're a robot." Skye says to Ward, trying to lighten the mood. "Can you do that?" She glances up at him teasingly.

He closes his eyes in frustration before questioning the scientists on the team. "Who has tech like this?" 

"We don't - not like this. That's not small and internal, that's at least a decade ahead of anything I've seen. Though, now that I've seen it, maybe now I could approximate it. Uh, the backscatter x-ray, a micro-transceiver that somehow doesn't fry her brain, an internal power source . . ." Fitz thinks hard as Simmons shakes her head in astonishment.

"All miniaturized. Honestly, it's . . ."

"Genius." FitzSimmons conclude.

"We have to bring her in." Coulson says as he watches Amador lower the tool and the mirror.

"We have to take her out. She's a weapon." May says sharply. "I'll call H.Q. See if we can bring a task force in to help us."

"Our team can handle this." Coulson turns to her and she glances over at him an eyebrow cocked at him.

FitzSimmons step back as she moves around them and the table to stand in front of Coulson who turns back to the feed. "I get it." She says softly. "You feel responsible - maybe you pushed her too hard. But she tried to kill three members of our team."

"If she wanted us dead, we'd be dead." Coulson says solemnly.

"We got lucky. You want to risk our lives again?" May asks him.

"You told me you were ready for combat, that you had my back." Coulson argues.

"Don't ever doubt it." May says quietly but with ice in her voice. "But you are defending this girl at the expense of the team."

"Because we protect our own."

"With all due respect, sir," Ward interrupts. "She's not one of our own."

"Guys." Skye gets their attention back on the video feed. Amador is writing on a piece of paper: CAN I SLEEP?

"Why does she have to ask for permission?" Simmons questions.

There's a pause and then on the video feed: STAND BY is typed out at the bottom of Amador's vision.

"She's not being watched." Coulson thinks out loud. "She's being controlled. We have to find her." He turns back to the team. "We'll take shifts watching the feeds. Sooner or later she'll look at something that will clue us into her location."

May's face is blank as she volunteers for the first watch.

Everyone disperses from the monitor to get ready for bed. Skye checks in with Coulson before she heads to bed.

"I just wanted to give you a quick update. She's still at the hotel, so . . . and that's the update." She finishes awkwardly. Coulson looks up fondly at her as she moves into his office. "It's a pretty weird day, huh? It's like we were trapped in a van-shaped pinata." Skye says calmly.

"That should never have happened." Coulson tells her.

"It's okay. It wasn't nearly as terrible as watching mom and dad fight downstairs."

"That shouldn't have happened either." Coulson sighs glancing down at his paperwork and then back up at her. "You regret coming along? Or back I should say."

"The way things have turned out . . . no. The first few decisions in meeting you guys were pretty impulsive, even for me, though. Despite what you might think, I still don't know much about you. Except that you value really old stuff." Skye said looking at his collectibles around his office. Then she meets his gaze. "And you value me. I know you guys didn't trust me when you first brought me on, especially May and even after everything I've told you . . . but you were and are, the first person to do that in a very long time. So I happen to believe you are an excellent judge of character. I know you believe this woman deserves a second chance, and as long as you believe it enough, the rest of the team will follow you - despite May's first instincts."

Coulson smiled at her as Skye let herself out of his office, closing the door quietly behind her. He walks down the stairs to check on the video feed and finds Fitz asleep at his station.

"Fitz." The scientist wakes up groggily.

"What?"

"What happened? Where's May?"

"Uh, I don't know." Fitz answers tiredly, stifling a yawn. "She was watching the transmission. Amador must be sleeping." Fitz grabs Skye's tablet and starts tapping away at it as Coulson, alarmed and trying not to panic steps in front of the big screen.

"Play it back." He orders Fitz and the Scot stands up, standing beside him as he obeys. It takes a few moments before they see the typed in command. "There, she got another message - Todorov building." They watch intently as Fitz inputs it into the tablet before Coulson's eyes narrow at the video feed. "Wait, stop. Can you get closer on that receipt?" He asks and Fitz zooms in the picture for him. "Damn it, May." Coulson mutters as he realizes May picked up the title of the hotel on the receipt as well and took off to confront Amador. "Wake the others." Coulson tells Fitz and he nods, rushing to comply.

Holed up in a hotel room, Amador wakes suddenly as the light switch goes on and May begins to speak. She pointedly does not look in May's direction.

"Whoever's monitoring you, do they have audio?"

"No. But they'll use facial recognition to determine you're a SHIELD agent."

"So I don't have to introduce myself." May says cautiously.

"Did Coulson send you?" Amador assumes but May steps forward towards her slowly.

"No. He feels sorry for you. I don't. I'm bringing you into SHIELD. You'll get a fair trial and no one else gets hurt." She says calmly.

"You have no idea, do you?" Amador asks in a condescending tone.

"We know that you receive orders."

"Then you know that once they see you, only one of us gets to walk out of here. They built in a fail-safe." May thinks quickly as Amador finally meets her gaze. "Either I kill you . . . or they kill me."

"You should've stayed in bed." May quips but Amador's already moving towards her, bringing the gun she slept with under her pillow up to fire at her attacker.

May knocks it out of her hand easily and they trade blows at a fast rate until May shoves her into the room service cart with food and cutlery on it. Amador grabs a knife and hurls it expertly at May but she dodges it easily. So Amador closes her eyes and swings her arm around, knocking out the lamp and throwing the room into darkness, while she relies on the backscatter vision behind her closed eyelids as an advantage over May. She finds the gun at her feet and immediately tries to shoot May once more, but Coulson bursts into the room and shoots her with an ICER.

When Amador next wakes up, Coulson is sitting in a chair, watching over her. "Hello Akela. You're safe now."

It takes her a few minutes of disorientation from the drugged bullet before her brain reengages her thought process, but she immediately panics, sitting up and quickly looking away from her old boss.

"Give it a minute. I hit you with a powerful dendrotoxin."

Akela shakes her head trying to make sense of why she isn't dead yet. "There's a kill switch in my eye. Why hasn't my handler blown it yet?" She asks bewilderedly.

"As far as your handler knows, you fought Agent May, you both went down, then you got up and left the building to complete your mission." He answers her in the same calm tone May was using before.

"How?"

"We hijacked your feed." Coulson can't help the proud note in his voice seep through. "One of my agents is wearing a set of glasses mimicking your implant. Right now, it's transmitting his point of view as if it was yours." He narrates Ward wearing a suit and glasses that are hooked up to Skye's laptop while she works her magic while they drive to the Todorov building. "It even has backscatter imaging."

"I get messages from my handler." Amador tells him in a shaky voice, not daring to believe him, even as the faintest whiff of hope unfurls in her chest.

"We're receiving those as well." Coulson answers. May is standing in the command center watching from the camera feed in the Cage on the BUS as her partner speaks with Amador who is still refusing to look at him. "My agent's on his way to the Todorov building - completing your mission while we disable the fail-safe in your eye. I promise." He says softly. "They can't see you. You're okay, Akela . . . look at me." He requests.

She hesitates before slowly turning her head around to face him. She makes eye contact and slowly releases a breath.

"How long have they been monitoring you?" He asks her.

She swallows hard past the lump in her throat then responds in a quiet voice. "Years. Why are you doing this, Coulson?"

"I need to know why a prox card is worth thirty million-"

"No." She cuts him off in a low voice. "Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me?" She asks hoarsely. "Where's the 'I told you so'?"

He gives a little sigh, understanding. "That's not me anymore. I'm just glad you're alive." He tells her quietly.

She shakes her head in disbelief, still wallowing in her guilt as she looks away. "Vanchat would've never caught us if I'd done my job. I should have listened to you . . . Trusted my team the way you insisted. If I had, they might still be alive." She tries to blink the tears away but one falls insistently.

May's breath catches in her throat at the raw emotion Amador shows as she watches them. It reminds her of what Skye had said. That if she hadn't come clean to Coulson about her involvement with Fury and his secrets she would've lost his trust and respect much later and faced his anger for a long time.

Ward and Skye finally arrive at their destination. "Where are we?" Skye asks.

"Todorov Building." He squints at the people entering. "I think it's research, not military." He observes.

"Looks like a prison." Skye notes.

"We wireless yet?" He asks her and she types a few keys, waiting for the responding sounds til it finishes loading.

"Yep," she pops the last letter casually and straightens in her seat to lean forward. "Ready to detach." She says and reaches for the wire connected to the glasses, Ward is wearing. She grabs the wire behind his ear and Ward stiffens and turns quickly in his seat. "Don't look at me." Skye scolds him as she grabs his head firmly in her hand still holding the wire. "They need to think you're her." Ward practically whines as she uses both hands to unplug the wire from the glasses. "And, oh my god, super spy is ticklish." She realizes, teasing him.

Back on the plane, Coulson is still questioning Amador and hands her a water bottle.

"How did you manage to escape?"

"I didn't. Got caught in a crossfire, went down. Woke up in some half-assed triage bay, blind in this eye." She gestures to her right eye. "Spent the next four years alone in a cage at the bottom of a copper mine." She drinks gratefully from the bottle as he responds reassuringly.

"We looked for you. Heard rumors you'd been taken to Shanxi Province." He prodded her to continue.

"When a team finally came, I thought it was SHIELD at first, but . . ."

"Who were they?" Coulson asked.

"Don't know, even to this day. But they were organized. They took me to a clinic. I had multiple surgeries. Until one day, I could see out of both eyes again. I was so grateful . . . until I realized what they'd done." She finishes with a pointed look.

"Someone was watching." Coulson assumes and she nods.

"My every move. I had no idea until they sent the first message. Then the assignments started. Mostly it was, "Steal this," "Follow him," Break into there." I just tried to ignore them. But when I did, I'd get this pain. Like an electric migraine." She frowns remembering. 

"The fail-safe." Coulson titles it.

"Polite way of putting it." She nods again then looks down. "Now when I think about my years in the cage . . . I miss it. I wish I could go back, be alone, sleep in peace." Amador says bitterly taking another sip of her water as Coulson leans forward in his chair, staring at her intensely.

"I know you're tired, but I need your help." He tells her.

"If you want information on the prox card, you're out of luck." She assumes correctly.

"You can't go on missions without intel." Coulson reminds her.

"It comes in pieces - a name, an address."

Even as Amador speaks to Coulson, Skye and Ward receive the information like she explained through the glasses as words flash up in front of them.

Location confirmed. Proceed to Delta S.

"It would suck to live like this." Skye says to Ward, still sitting behind the driver's seat. "Wondering if someone's watching."

Ward ignores her, focusing on the task in front of him. "Testing backscatter." He tells her and reaches up, pushing a tiny button on the glasses and looks over at the car next to them, showing the vision through the glasses and the screen where the feed on Skye's laptop show the engine and parts of the car. He turns them off.

Skye finishes fiddling with the laptop and the tiny wireless console for the glasses. "Good to go." She tells him, leaning forward again to hand it to him and he pointedly looks away from her as he reaches around the seat for the device.

"Remember, I cant' look at you, much less help you." He tells her solemnly.

She nods, even though he can't see her. "Got it. Don't count on you for help." Skye can't help rolling her eyes at his macho superiority attitude. He gets out of the car and strolls casually towards the building. "I'll be watching." Skye mutters darkly to herself.

Meanwhile, back on the BUS Coulson stands up and starts asking the harder questions of Amador.

"Come on, Akela. You've never spoken to or met anyone in person?"

"No. Only contacts are the messages I've received from the Englishman."

"The Englishman - your handler? How do you know he's English?"

"The way he refers to certain things. He uses "lift" instead of "elevator," and "boot" instead of "trunk."

"Think about the messages." Coulson prompts her as he paces. "What else do you know about him?"

"He's late thirties, early forties." She thinks scooting up on the bed she's sitting on. "Uses dated references - "disk drive" instead of "flash drive," and "Burma" instead of "Myanmar."

"How's his typing?" Coulson asks and sits down as Amador considers the question.

"Clumsy. Makes a lot of mistakes."

"Thick fingers," Coulson surmises, "maybe heavyset."

"I forgot how good you are." Amador gives him a small smile.

Coulson doesn't flinch as Simmons voice rings in his ear through the coms.

"Sir, we're ready down here."

Skye checks in with the science twins and relays it with Ward. "Fitz and Simmons are prepped for surgery." She tells him over coms. "It should be any minute now." Ward walks into the building and heads towards security. Skye watches him intently on the screen. "Hey, remember you have man hands, so don't look when you scan the card."

"I know." He reminds her quietly. Passing his security card over the sensor, waiting for the green light and corresponding beep before walking past the security guard in the lobby.

Amador settles down in the lab of the BUS while Coulson watches her from the corner with FitzSimmons.

"Ward's on-site so we don't have much time." He warns Fitz and Simmons.

"To remove her eyeball." Fitz finishes, trying to process what he and Simmons have to do.

"Yeah, ocular surgery is not really my field of expertise." Simmons protests.

"We've got no other choice." Coulson tells them. "There's a kill switch inside Akela. Could be a poison, could be an explosive. Either way, if Ward's caught, they'll kill her instantly."

"Where are you going, sir?" Fitz as Coulson as he moves towards the lab doors.

"To find whose finger is on the trigger."

Ward heads towards a second security check point. "Approaching Delta Three." He mutters to Skye as the scanner beeps his security card through.

She watches the screen intently. "Careful! Mirror." She warns him and he turns his head away.

"Don't need your help." He mutters again and she rolls her eyes.

Coulson meets May in the command center.

"Handler's definitely local." She updates him, staring down at a map on the holotable.

"Any idea where he's transmitting from?" He asks her.

"Somewhere here." She gestures showing the colored circle on the map shown on the screen of the table. "Every time he transmits a message we get closer."

"Keep me updated on Comm 3." He tells her. "I'm headed out now."

"I'll track him down if you want to stay here and oversee the OP." May offers even as he heads for the stairs.

He turns, halting and addressing her directly. "Thank you, this one's mine. And about earlier-"

"Go." May interrupts softly. "Find the guy."

Downstairs in the lab, Simmons has all her equipment ready and nervously speaks to Amador.

"I may need your feedback during the operation, which means I have to inject a local anesthetic into your eye rather than putting you under."

"Whatever's necessary." Amador tells Simmons who looks a bit taken aback at the calm exterior the darker skinned woman is showing.

"Right." Simmons murmurs. "Let's begin, then." She says in a perky voice, turning on the light to her headpiece. She grabs the long needle and hovers over Amador's right eye, nervous and second-guessing herself until Amador reaches up and grabs her wrist.

"Let me." She reassures the younger woman and pulls her arm down steadily so the needle pierces the rounded edge of her cornea and injects the drug directly into the eye. Fitz is squeamish enough that he has to turn away, whimpering at the noises the flesh and needle make.

Skye is keeping track of Ward at the same time, seeing through the window of an office where a security guard obviously sits at his desk and computer. She and Ward wait for the handler to transmit his next message.

Target confirmed. Stand by.

Ward hides next to the wall of the window as Skye stresses. "What do they mean "target?"'

"It's never good, especially for the "target." Let's hope it's a knockout and not a kill." Ward tells her.

"You should get out of there." Skye tells him, remembering what's at the end of this mission.

"I've come this far." He reassures her. "I'll finish, whatever it takes." He peeks through the window as the next message is transmitted onto his glasses and Skye's screen.

Seduce him.

"Help." Ward whispers staring at the beefy Russian guard.

"I'm sorry, did you just say help? Because a minute ago, you said you didn't want or need my help." Skye loves throwing his words back in her face as she tries not to laugh.

"That was before they asked me to go all Mata Hari on this guy." Ward hisses at her through the coms and she covers her laughter with a coughing fit as Ward peeks through the glass again before shaking his head. "I'm just gonna knock him out."

"Ward, wait. We may need him to get through the next door. Remember? It said seduce, not kill." She reminded him with an amused look on her face.

The specialist sighed before peering through the glass one more time. "I don't think I'm his type." He whispers sharply.

"Let me see." Skye zooms in on her screen. "Cheap haircut, five 'o' clock shadow, nope. Odds are you guys play for the same team." She considers for a second then nods to herself. "You're gonna have to bromance him. Talk sports, vodka, the Victorianov Secret catalog." She teases him, listing things he can speak to with the guy. "Be friendly Agent Ward. Can you be friendly?"

Ward takes a deep breath, wanting to kill himself and Skye for witnessing this humiliation. He gathers himself and then presses his card to the scanner next to the door, walking through as the security guy stands up in surprise and speaks Russian to Ward, who stands in front of him, his stance casual and relaxed and responding easily.

"Show me your identification." The security guard demands in Russian.

"How about that game last night?" Ward asks as he pretends to search his pockets.

"Your ID?" The security guard doesn't take the bait.

"I think I left it at home." Ward admits after a large sigh and trying to keep his posture as disarming and flippant as possible. He steps forward taking a breath. "Had a wild night. Met these two Ukrainian girls . . ." Ward smirks at the guard, chuckling. "Didn't sleep much. You know how it is, right?" Ward asks the guard grinning. The guard is completely indifferent and Ward asks twice more before the grin slips from his face. "Guess not." He says in English and the guard acts immediately.

The guard swings his arm forward and Ward grabs him, turning him and throwing his head against his own desk, doing it once more so the guard is completely knocked out. Ward lets the guard slump to the ground and steps over him as Skye watches through his glasses. He puts his security card up to the scanner next to the following door once more and steps through the door, closing it behind him. He checks out the room, seeing chalk boards on all the walls, most of which has mathematical equations, formulas and graphs written on them and two men sitting at desks in the middle of the room, with typewriters in front of them. They glance at him once before going back to their typing.

"What now?" Skye asks.

He checks out all the walls, finding one dedicated to strange symbols, circles and lines and triangles in strange patterns. One that Skye recognizes immediately. The glasses seem to lighten and then take a picture.

Mission Complete. Good luck.

Is transmitted onto the glasses. 

On the BUS May is narrowing down the area where Amador's handler is sending the messages. "They just sent another message." She tells Coulson over the coms. "Coulson, he's close - only a few blocks from you. He's somewhere in Victory Square." May tells him as he strides down the street before beginning to job. "One more message should lock in his precise location."

Meanwhile, Ward walks back out of the room and notices the computer the security guard he took out was sitting at. It has a large tab open with a space to enter a password and a clock counting down the seconds til the password was needed before setting off an alarm. The clock is set for nine more seconds.

"Figured out what I needed the guard for - his password." He tells Skye.

"Maybe I can talk you through a hack - just give me a minute." Skye says, frowning down at her laptop.

It's too late though. Ward watches as the clock hits zero and the alarm blares. "No more minutes." He tells her and bends over, grabbing the security guard's gun. "Meet me on the south side of the building, asap."

"Gotcha." She gets out of the car, to hurry around towards the drivers seat.

Ward tries to be as inconspicuous as possible but he manages to draw a guard's attention and then begins to be chased by him.

Meanwhile, Simmons is working hard on Amador while Fitz cowers in a corner at the disgusting sounds of surgery, purposely not looking.

"Please tell me it's out already." He pleads as Simmons sets down a tool.

Simmons shrugs unconsciously as she considers her patient. "It's, mostly out."

"What's wrong?" Amador asks, reading her tone of voice.

"Nothing." Simmons tries reassuring her as Fitz chances a glance over. "But Dr. Fitzy needs to step in now." Simmons tells her as she pulls out the fleshy part of the eye. "This is his area of expertise not mine." Fitz can't stop staring at the small device attached to the eye. "Fitz."

The British doctor gets his attention and he straightens, walking around the table and allowing Simmons to hand off the clamp with the eye in it's grasp. He stares down at the device and wires connected. He takes a breath to settle his stomach and then begins thinking out loud.

"Alright, then. Most likely, both the power source and kill switch are located within the eye itself. So, how to disconnect without triggering the kill switch?" He considers it for a moment and then smiles. "Oh, um, I know what to do. Um," he clears his throat nervously, "I just need to clarify one thing."

Ward at the moment turns a corner and activates the backscatter as a telephone rings loudly in the empty hallway and looks into the room divided by the wall he's flattened himself against. He can see guards in what looks like a command room for security of the building. The people inside begin to move quickly as they are alerted to the danger and he starts running, shooting through the wall, at them inside.

"Ward?" Fitz's voice comes over the coms as Ward stops shooting and he snaps at the younger man.

"What?"

"You sound winded. Is this a bad time?" Fitz tries to keep his voice pleasant and even as he still holds the eye in his clamp.

"Little bit." Ward says exasperatedly as he ducks behind a small half-wall as guards run past him towards the command room.

"Well, not so good for me either, considering I'm holding a still-attached prosthetic eye that could explode at any second." He says sarcastically, even as Ward moves across the wall as guards continue running past him.

"Are the wires exposed or shielded?" Ward asks. He peeks around the half-wall to check that the guards are gone and look straight into a reflective glass that shows him clearly to Amador's handler. He panics as he orders Fitz, "Cut it now, cut the wires now!"

"What's happening?" Amador asks a little stressed.

"Oh, no problem. Ward explained the sitch." Fitz says in a strained voice as he grabs some scissors and with swift smooth movements cuts the wires and drops the eye in a circular steel container that Simmons quickly braces the top on top, just as it explodes. Simmons waits a few seconds before removing the top and reveals smoke coming out of the container. She and Fitz look inside, waving away the smoke giving out sighs of relief.

Ward, in the meantime is still moving within the building. He hesitates before dashing up some stairs. "Coming your way." He warns Skye.

She's driving slowly as she looks for him out the windshield. "I don't know what that means." She slams her hand against the driving wheel frustratedly.

Ward turns another corner as a guard starts to catch up and shoots at him. Ward glances back before shooting at a window, cracking and weakening the glass before running through it and crashing into the fragile awning and then jumping onto an empty storage container. He jumps down in front of Skye's van and she screeches to a halt. He opens the passenger door and slips inside.

"Let's go." He orders and she speeds out of there.

Coulson, on the other hand, finally makes it to the street where he and May have deduced Amador's handler is located.

"He probably left, as soon as he threw the kill switch." Coulson theorizes.

Something beeps on the holotable in front of May. "He's there, twenty meters from you." She tells him urgently.

He looks around frantically seeing a potential target before he finally sees a balding red-headed heavyset Englishman with a briefcase. Coulson crosses the street and steps in front of the Englishman's path.

"Excuse me, sir." He walks up to him.

The man looks worried as he tries not to make eye contact with Coulson, shaking his finger at him. "I'm sorry, but I'm very late."

Coulson opens his badge and shows him discretely so as not to make a scene, but he's too late, even as he says the words. "I'm with SHIELD."

"Oh, God." The man murmurs and then his right eye shorts out, blood filling his cornea and he keels over. Coulson stares down at him for a moment, processing what just happened. He meets back on the BUS with May and then, once they finally land to hand off Amador, he explains to her what he found out about her dead handler.

"He was an MI6 officer who fell off the grid years ago."

"My handler was as trapped as I was." Amador concludes.

"Which mean's the real threat's still out there." Coulson warns her. "Big SHIELD's still trying to decipher what was written on that chalkboard. Nobody's seen anything like it." He walks her through the plane, towards the ramp where there are agents waiting on them. "Couple of people might think it might be alien - possibly an equation." He pauses, turning to her. "Must be important if it's worth thirty million dollars. We'll figure it out." He finishes confidently. He glances to where she's staring at the agents who are waiting by a car and he gives her a small smile. "You'll get a fair trial." He reassures her quietly. "I plan on testifying. I know people." He says confidently even as she peers skeptically at him. "You deserve a second chance."

She shakes her head. "You already gave me one. It doesn't matter how it plays out from here. I'm free. Thank you." She says even as May steps towards them.

"Good luck." He wishes her and starts up the stairs as May moves to escort her towards the agents still at the car.

"What happened to Agent Coulson? He's different." Amador asks May.

"Well, he's loosened up a bit. He nearly died before the Battle of New York."

Amador leans closer to May's ear and asks more intently, "But what did they do to him?"

May's expression doesn't change, even as she halts in her steps at the bottom of the ramp, and turns almost curiously to her. "I'm sorry?"

Amador reads May's non-expression quickly and shakes her head as if erasing the moment. "Never mind." She steps away from May, moving quickly towards the car.

It's later, when the BUS is in the air and Coulson opens the door to the SUV, revealing Skye in the backseat with just her phone this time.

"Are you still, needing your you time?" Coulson asks with a wry smile and Skye smiles back at him.

"There's always room for A.C. Slide on in." She moves her legs towards her chest and leans against the opposite door as he crawls in and closes the door behind him.

"What's wrong with . . . Agent Coulson, or just Coulson?"

"Nothing, I guess. AC's just - way cooler." They both chuckle. Then she sobers a bit. "Cause you are - cool. Not many people would've made that call. To give Amador a second chance."

"I got one." He says staring out the front of the SUV. "Seems only fair I extend the same opportunity towards others." They're both quiet for a moment. "I see why you like it in here." Coulson tells her.

"Yeah." She smiles broadly at the familiarity. "It's kinda like my van . . . without all the bums trying to break in. I don't miss that." She glances over at him with a grin. "Plus, it helps me kind of settle into a familiar mindset." She admits sheepishly and he huffs out another laugh. "It's more peaceful here." She breathes out slowly, keeping her heart rate in mind. "It's also cool knowing that someone has my back . . . no matter what." She finishes.

"Peaceful's good." Coulson says drowsily.

It takes about five minutes for Skye to work up the courage to break the relaxing silence.

"So, I should probably warn you . . ." Coulson sighs at those words and opens his eyes, straightening in his seat.

"What did you do?" He says in that assuming tone and she fidgets under his knowing gaze before leaning forward, flipping open her phone and pushing a few buttons. A soft whine emits from the speakers.

"It's a frequency I've been using to cancel out any bugs Ward might have planted on the plane." He looks impressed for a few seconds before he nods at her to continue. "So, I figure Fury's doing everything he can to bring the Avengers together and we can all meet so I can explain more of what's coming. But I contacted Tony Stark earlier." Coulson stares at her for a moment, not blinking and she hurries on to explain herself. "He doesn't know me personally, but I've hacked into his servers before and met JARVIS all under a hacker handle. We've become - I don't know, acquaintances, friends maybe - over the years. He tries to hire me for his IT security or research department at least twice a year. Anyway, I revealed myself to him today. I encrypted and secured a bunch of files I've got specifically on Cybertek and things I've compiled to show during our meeting, onto Stark's servers. They're more secure than SHIELD at the moment and I, er, gave a few hints that those phone calls of Fury's he's deliberately not answering are more important than he thinks. I spoke with him and Dr. Banner and asked them to guard the files and information I'm hiding on his servers for me until we meet face to face."

Skye nervously shifts under Coulson's gaze until he finally blinks and opens his mouth.

"You've hacked into Tony Stark's servers?" He sounds incredulous.

"Well, yeah. He found me online when I was about seventeen. I'd been bragging about how I'd hacked into the CIA and he challenged me to break into his own servers. It took me months to poke and prod his systems enough to get a feel for how they were before writing up programs that would work around his firewalls and security. I did it all on my own and a year later, I cracked his systems. His AI found me poking around some of his weapons files and it took him and Tony Stark to toss me out of his servers. But I left a backdoor I'd written in and have visited multiple times to talk and give suggestions on his security. I had someone help me create a voice distorter and I've spoken with Tony and JARVIS over the years. I haven't contacted him in, God, maybe two years since I joined the Rising Tide."

Coulson was quiet as he considered everything Skye had told him.

"I'm still trying to get over the fact that you've hacked and made friends with JARVIS." He tells her after letting out a breath.

She smiles at him and folds her legs in a crisscross. "I just wanted to let you know that I asked him to keep my files secure and to keep an eye on something for me. Look," She holds up her hand as Coulson starts to protest. "Asking him to dig deeper into a few things for me and wait until we meet to talk about it all, was necessary. I can't do everything on my own. I'm trying to delegate as I stay focused on what's happening now, and what will happen. There are so many different moving pieces that are all connected, it's hard to keep track of them all. I need his help and I alerted him to Fury's phone calls. This just helps speed up the meeting." She told him.

Coulson looked thoughtful before nodding slowly. "You're right. You have three years of knowledge and that's overwhelming for anyone. If you need help you can ask May or I as well, you know that, don't you?"

Skye nods. "Ward is being an ass with his training, I'm gonna start meeting with May in the mornings before he gets up to join her for Tai Chi and maybe spar with her. I need to stay in shape, real shape."

"Just, make sure you come to me if you need to make any other decisions like that again. Alright?" He made sure her eyes connected with his and she nodded.

"You got it, AC." He huffed out her nickname and shifted back in his seat to rest his eyes. Skye leaned back against the door again, to do the same.

It was later that night when Fitz and Ward were playing Texas Hold'Em that Fitz had a genius plan to win . . . and cheat. He was snacking loudly on his pretzels, and staring his opponent down as if to intimidate the specialist of the team. Ward considered his Jack and Queen of Clubs with a great poker face.

"I call . . ." Then he picked up some chips and dropped them on the pot. "And raise a hundred."

Fitz hummed to himself, setting the bowl of pretzels down and picking up his cards, checking them before speaking loudly.

"You know how I know I'm gonna beat you?" He asks.

"By losing?" Ward deadpans.

Fitz throws his cards down. "You have a tell," he says staring at the specialist. "A psychological tic, that lets me know you're bluffing. If I watch you carefully," Fitz starts staring him down for a long moment as if waiting for something before repeating loudly again, "If I watch you carefully!"

"Oh, sorry. Hang on." Skye's voice comes through a coms that Fitz is wearing as well. She's sitting in her bunk, directly placed behind the lounge area where the boys are playing at the table. Skye's laptop is sitting on her thighs, and she reaches over to pick up the glasses with the backscatter still programmed into them so she can look through the wall and Ward's body to see his cards.

She hesitates for a moment before a smirk grows on her face. "You know if I do this, that not only will I see Ward's cards, but I'll see you without any clothes on?" She asks him smugly.

Fitz freezes for just a moment before he glares down at the table. "I fold. You win." He says quickly, getting up from the table and practically running away. Ward swivels his chair around so he's facing Skye's bunk with a curious frown on his face.

Skye places the glasses on and presses the backscatter button on them so they beep. She struggles to keep a straight face before sighing disappointedly at herself.

"Seriously? Why do psychotic bad guys have to be hot?" She murmurs to herself, even as she continues staring through the door at Ward.