The Avenger’s Soul

Skye's POV

I spent the later half of my morning laying in bed, trying to think of how to proceed now that Ward had begun "training" me to become a field agent. Apparently, Coulson had told Ward that he thought I could turn out to be a great agent; though I had a feeling it had more to do with his conversation with Fury. I knew Nick had spoken to him about not damaging The Bus again and it looked like he hadn't mentioned my powers to Coulson yet; which I found both relieving and irritating at the same time, but had asked him to recruit me as he had been trying for a while now.

I was glad to not have to worry about everyone mistrusting me, but it also meant that I now had to pretend to be a complete dunce while Ward taught me skills that I already knew.

It also had the added unpleasantness of serving as one giant reminder of everything I had gone through with Hydra's trainers. I was finding it extremely hard to breath after my very first morning session with Ward; not because it had been physically exhausting, but because I kept getting nasty flashbacks every time I closed my eyes.

I sighed heavily as I got out of bed; purposefully making sure to be late for our next round.

I walked down the spiral staircase as slowly as possible, watching Ward hitting the punching bag he had set up. He looked up at me and halted.

"You know, you're late," he said. Even though I had knowingly been late, I couldn't help cringing, as I remembered what used to happen if I was ever late to a session with my Hydra trainers.

"I'm tired from the mornings workout. I thought I was joining Shield, not 24 hour fitness," I snapped back, slightly enjoying being able to act like the normal rookies I had watched being trained separately from me - ya know, the ones who had actually volunteered and wanted to be there.

I stepped up to the punching bag and Ward stood next to me.

"It's called relative strength training, starting with the basics." I rolled my eyes as Ward took my hand and fixed the tape I had intentionally messed up putting on. I had been taught very well that it was important to pay attention to the small details when going undercover; as they were usually what got a person caught. I was finding it harder and harder not to slip up though, not used to having to factor in things like friends and emotions.

"And next time you do 15 push-ups for every minute you're late." Ward looked at me as he dropped my wrist and picked up the other one, waiting to see how I would respond.

"Fine, Mr. Fun Machine. Whatever you say!" I said as sarcastically as I could, not noticing the sudden gleam of lust that had flashed across Ward's face at my words.

He stopped messing with the tape on my hands and took a fighting position facing the bag. "Stand here," he pulled his hands up high, near his face, "and jab, cross, like this."

I waited impatiently as he showed me how he wanted me to hit. All I wanted to do was punch right through the bag, but alas, I couldn't...for now. Least not while someone was watching.

"10 minutes," he told me as he backed up and let me move in closer.

I hit the bag, for the first time in my life, trying not to hit it as hard as I could.

"You know the hardest part about boxing?"

"Getting punched in the face?" I said smirking as I thought of how satisfying it would be to do just that to him right now.

"Keeping your hands up." Not when you have super strength and killer stamina!

I looked over into the lab. Both Fitz and Simmons were wearing lab coats. Fitz had an aerosol can in his hands and was spraying it -showing a laser line, as Simmons looked at Ward and I.

I continued to hit the bag; pretending to be weak, as Ward walked around to stand on the opposite side of the bag and held it for me.

"There will come a moment when you have to commit to this or bail. Every field agent has a defining moment. Ask Coulson. When you have to make the hard call to either dedicate yourself to this or to curl up in a ball and run."

I stopped hitting and looked at Ward with a playful grin.

"How can you run if you're curled up in a ball?" I said as I went back to hitting, trying to not think over the defining moments of my life - all of which involved Hydra.

"It's my job as your S.O.to make sure you don't die before then," Ward responded grimly.

I needed a serious distraction in order to refocus my brain as I continued to punch; a little harder this time. "So what's yours, Agent Ward?"

"10 minutes," Ward said, looking at his watch, trying to ignore my question. I could sense he didn't want to talk about it - so of course, I asked again.

"Your defining moment?" He stayed silent so I stopped hitting. "Come on, tell me. I want to know." There was a long pause so I went back to punching. "I can get Coulson to give you some of that truth serum. You could spill your little heart out to me again." I smirked as I remembered how he had turned to putty in my hands.

"You mean my level one overshare that miraculously got you to cooperate?" He can't take the credit for my cooperation,
considering it had nothing to do with him at all; though I had quite enjoyed being given the opportunity to watch him squirm! "I hate to tell you this, rookie, but we don't have a truth serum," he added on, trying to save face.

I snickered inwardly at this; knowing exactly what he was trying to do. I knew for a fact that it existed, since Hydra had used it on me several times.

There was a ding overhead and May's voice came over the speakers. "Changing course, briefing in three."

Fitz-Simmons, Ward, and I all walked up the stairs as May continued to speak over the Intercom.

"Shield 616 with new orders. Set for Colorado air field north."

We headed to the living room area of the plane; where Fitz-Simmons took seats on a couch as Ward and I stayed standing. A few minutes later Coulson entered from the opposite side of the room and explained the situation.

It turned out that a Shield transport had been attacked while carrying a priority red protected asset; a Canadian physicist named Dr. Franklin Hall, who was apparently Fitz-Simmons's chemical kinetics advisor a few years back. Even better than that, was the news that the people who had attacked the transport team were supposedly invisible.

"Wait, invisible?" I said, laughing in amusement. "Cool!" If only that was one of my powers. I could have used it to escape from Hydra a long time ago...

I looked at Ward, who clearly shared none of my humor or excitement. I dropped the smile from my face. "But terrible," I added.

********************************************

"Dr. Hall was an asset?" I asked Coulson after we had touched down in Sterling, Colorado and as were walking down a dark street.

"One of a few select scientists Shield has been protecting, people our enemies would love to get their hands on. We keep them hidden, keep them on the move," Coulson explained to me.

"Which is why Fitz and I were so lucky to have him," said Simmons.

"And, what does priority red mean?" I asked, though pretty sure I knew the answer but wanting to give my newbie routine more fuel to add to the fire.

Coulson glanced at me as we all paused where we stood. "It means security should have been..." His words trail off as we heard the groaning of metal. We looked up to see one of the SUVS inside a tree.

"Heavy..." Coulson finished saying.

Since I didn't really know what to do with myself at the moment, I stood off and watched as Coulson and May went to go speak with the driver; who was still alive, but had gotten banged up in the crash, while Fitz and Simmons did something sciency as they scanned the area with their tech.

"Fitz, what am I seeing here?" Simmons suddenly called out, grabbing all of our attention.

Well, I'm not wearing the full-spectrum goggles I designed, so – no clue," Fitz responded.

We all slowly wandered over to where Simmons stood.

"No, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, don't move!" she cried out when we got close. She looked down at the ground in front of Fitz's feet. "Wait a second." She then picked up some rocks off the road and threw them into the air where they gather together swirling all around each other like a tornado.

"What in the hell?" I exclaimed.

"I think the electro-static field scanner activated some...thing," Simmons said, smiling.

Everyone ducked as the batch of rock and dirt went flying every which way, taking out one of the lights as it did so.

Fitz-Simmons finally managed to stop it and it all died out. Simmons bent down to the ground and picked some sort of small sphere up off the ground using tweezers.

"That did all this," she said, holding it out to Coulson.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Something big," said Coulson.

********************************************

"Either someone cracked our comm system or Dr. Hall's movements leaked from inside Shield," I heard Coulson telling May once we were back on The Bus.

"You really think we have a mole?" May asked.

My ears perked up to this so I turned my head to listen - but didn't look at them.

"I think you should go through the communication logs, rule it out. We'll work the tractor tread that we found on the scene."

I leaned back from the table. "I can do that, instead of pull-ups. I can upload an image of the tread pattern and check to see if there's any sort of –" I got interrupted by none other than Ward.

"Already done. Matched it to a 2010 model. Found a list of purchasers within a 500 mile radius. Narrowed down to those with priors, financial troubles or propensity for risk-taking." Ward pulled out what he found on a screen in the lab. He hit a button on his tablet and pointed. "Three suspects."

"Who may have sold their construction equipment to the kidnappers. We'll ask, said Coulson.

Ward exited the room, soon followed by Coulson.

"Hey."

I turned my attention to May. She dropped a giant binder into my waiting arms.

"Do you want me to bench press this?" I said laughing.

"Read it. Every communication out of HQ since they decided to transfer Dr. Hall."

May walked away, leaving me shocked at the size of the binder.

"Hang in there, doc. It's gonna be awhile."

I began to sift through the binder as Coulson and Ward went to go track down our three suspects.

I then joined Fitz-Simmons in the lab as they went over their news about what had caused the damage to the transport team.

"Gravitonium. It's so extremely rare that most people didn't believe it existed , much less the theory that an isolated positive charge –" Simmons was saying.

"Would turn the flow from isotropic –" Fitz continued.

I stopped them. "Guys, non-scientist here. How does the device work again?"

Fitz looked over to Simmons for help, she complied. She got out of her seat and walked to the picture of the atom on the monitor; going into school teacher mode as she explained how Gravitonium distorts gravity fields within itself, causing an undulating amorphous shape.

I was still confused by the end of her explanation but I did manage to grasp that the substance or whatever it was, was able to randomly change the rules of gravity around it.

"Yeah, and guess which genius published every theory about gravitonium and possible applications, years ago," Simmons stated. The pieces were starting to click into place.

"Dr. Franklin Hall," I stated.

"Yes. Correct. And Dr. Hall attended the University of Cambridge at the same time as Ian Quinn," Fitz-Simmons said. Coulson and Ward had managed to learn that it was Ian Quinn who had been behind the kidnapping.

I headed up the stairs, towards where I heard Coulson and Ward talking. May and Fitz-Simmons joined and we all converged in the Planning Room, everyone worrying about how we were supposed to get into Quinn's compound without a large Shield strike force or a man inside.

"He's got Neodymium laser fencing surrounding the property," Ward was saying.

"They'll never allow a strike force into Malta. Plus, this weekend, Quinn Worldwide's got its annual shareholders gathering. We'd risk global outrage, but –" said Coulson.

"If we go in alone –" May said.

"Shield can disavow us, claim ignorance," Coulson said, nodding.

I laughed at Fitz's suggestion of getting a monkey to slip through the sensors and disable the fence's power source with his adorable little hands.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, quickly punching buttons.

"I could go in," I suggested, not that anyone seemed to hear...

"Drop me in the hills outside of Valletta. I'll spend a few weeks establishing a cover, gathering intel –" Ward suggested.

"Hall doesn't have a few weeks," said Coulson, shooting down that plan.

"And to restate, any agent of Shield caught on Maltese soil can be shot to death with bullets –" Simmons restated.

I had been leaning against the wall, but now I stood up straighter and tried again.

"Not me. I could go in!" They all finally looked at me.

"Skye, this is serious," Ward rolled his eyes, scoffing. I crossed my arms. He really needs to stop underestimating me!

"Wait," Coulson said, looking at me as he walked closer. "What are you saying?"

"Well, I'm not an agent of Shield, so I could go in without breaking all these stupid rules," I waved a hand around as I pulled my phone back up and continued typing.

"International laws," Simmons clarified.

"This isn't something you can hack, Skye!" Ward said.

"Did you hear the deadly lasers part? Without a brave monkey –" Why's he so fixated on a monkey?!

"You said you could go in with a man inside," I pointed out.

"And you want to be that man?" May looked at me in surprise. It was times like this that I wished they knew what I could do. It was almost offensive the way they kept assuming I wasn't capable of doing anything.

"Fitz-Simmons loved the guy, and he needs help. They could be torturing him, or worse, making him do strength-training." I shot Ward a look at this then went back to typing on my phone.

"But you don't have the background or clearance or experience with any of this," said Ward, walking away from the table to stand closer to me. I may not have the clearance, but I have the background and experience for sure!

"I know," I said, pretending that he was right as I held up my phone to show them the screen. "But I've got an invitation!" I smirked as everyone stared at me. I looked back at the screen. "Well, technically it's an e-vite."

3rd Party POV

"Are you worried about her safety or her loyalty?" Coulson asked as Ward argued with him over the decision to send Skye on a covert op.

"Both. Who knows how many protocols she violated," Ward said.

"That's her job. Ignore protocol, find connections and back doors that nobody else can see. Something else is bother you," Coulson stated.

Ward sighed and walked a few paces away.

"She's holding back, sir. She says she wants to be an agent, but she won't commit. She doesn't listen, makes jokes. She's hiding something. She only seems to truly be trying when she thinks no one is watching."

"Were you hard on her?" Coulson said, raising his brows.

"Sure. I tried playing nice, too. I need a new strategy."

"Try no strategy. Stop thinking like an operative, start thinking like a person. Maybe Skye will let that person help her."

"Help her what?"

"Help her think like an operative."

Skye's POV

"Now, again, slowly, what's first?" Ward said, gritting his teeth in frustration as he pointed a gun at me. I looked at his wrist then took a hold of it as I spun myself so that Ward's gun arm was over my shoulder and my back to his chest. I wasn't going to make this easy for him though, considering his current attitude towards me.

"And then?" he asked.

"Then? Things are moving too quickly. I'm a proper southern girl. You'll make me untidy!" I said jokingly using a southern accent. In reality, I knew at least 30 different ways I could have disarmed him, but when his attitude was increasingly sour towards me, I wasn't going to help him by doing it right. In fact, by giving him such a hard time, I was actually making him a better teacher - so when you think about it, he should be thanking me!

Ward let out a sigh as he took my hand and placed it on top of his holding the gun. "Twist the thumb, palm the barrel. You're gonna die and leave us hanging out to dry, you know that? You're going in with no self-defense skills –" I should knock him on his ass and teach him a lesson!

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve," I said with a smirk.

"You need muscle memory, fundamentals, the tools to turn yourself –"

"Into a whole bag of tools?" I finished for him. I already am.

"How did you learn computer science without committing yourself to it?" I was forced to sit in a locked room for hours and hours without food or water until I finally learned to hack the lock open or complete whatever new task Hydra had set me...

"C.S. comes naturally to me. I'm sorry I'm not a naturally whatever you are," I said, not telling him the real explanation.

This made him angry as I knew it would. "You think this came naturally? I had a brother who beat the crap out of me, me and my little brother, for nothing. For eating a piece of his birthday cake. I had to learn to protect us, the way I am trying to protect you."

For once, I didn't have anything flippant to say.

"That was my moment. You asked."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to push." There was a moment where we just stared at each other. However, I broke the tension by holding up Ward's gun. "But I did manage to take this."

Ward tried to cover up how impressed he was as he took the gun from me.

"Getting the gun is one thing. Pulling the trigger, that is another."

He once again pointed the gun at my chest. I tried not to remember all the times I had been shot in the past.

********************************************

"The perimeter is surrounded by a 20 foot high neodymium laser grid. Touch it and you're toast," Fitz said when we had all reconvened in the Planning Room.

"Dead toast. The only way to disable the grid is to crack the system and trigger a reboot. This would give the team three seconds to cross. Of course Quinn's too smart to allow any wireless access on his property," responded Coulson.

"That's where I come in," I stated.

Simmons opened a case that was sitting on the table.

"Yes, working compact – holds up under x-ray," Simmons said.

"Desert Rose, to match your complexion," said Fitz.

I smiled at him.

"But, oh, what's this?" he showed me the mirror of the compact, it now had five red dots on it.

"A read out, okay?" The lights switched from five red on the left side to five green on the right side.

"Turns green if you're in close enough proximity to a computer to gain wireless access."

"When it does you just drop this nearby and walk out. We'll do the rest. Easy as pie." I'm not a scientist, but I''m not a total idiot! Hydra may not have ever let me out on any actual missions or undercover assignments, but that didn't mean they hadn't drilled into me exactly how to handle various scenarios and tech equipment.

"Or it will be, if you stick to the plan," said Ward, racking his gun and causing a distinct click.

"Got it. Plan, green, drop, walk...pie." I held out my hand as Fitz gave me the compact.

"All right team, suit up," Coulson said.

********************************************

In-Line Comments

- Let me know what you think so far! And if anyone has any preference to which Avenger Soulmate Skye should run into later on when she's at the hub let me know! I'm thinking maybe Steve; and or Bucky, since he could be showing him around the place or Tony/Natasha or Clint - or all of them there for various reasons?