The Avenger’s Soul

Skye's POV

"We need to talk," I looked over at Fitz. We were hanging out on one of the couches in the main cabin of the plane, waiting for Simmons to finish extracting some sort of intel from a Shield operative we had just gone to rescue in Siberia.

"Sure, what's up?" I asked him.

"I know." Well that wasn't vague at all!

"Know what?"

"Who you are!" I glanced over at Fitz, to see him staring at me with an excited gleam in his eyes.

"Well yeah, Fitz. We've been stuck on a plane for the last few weeks getting to know each other! I'd be hurt if you still didn't know me by now!"

"I - no, that's not what I meant! I mean, I know who you are!" He exclaimed. Where the hell was he going with this?!

"Yeah...we just went over that fact?" I said, tilting my head to the side in confusion.

"Oh my, I - I, well...what I'm trying to say is...I was thinking about how you jumped out of the plane to save Simmons the other day, and it finally dawned on me that you just jumped out without a parachute! Now, at first I didn't think much of it, but the more I thought about it, the more things started to make sense!" I frowned as Fitz rambled; a lump forming in my stomach as I anticipated his next words with dread.

"You're Angel! The girl who helped Mike Peterson save all those people! You have wings!" Fitz looked like a little kid in a candy store as he stared at me; well what I imagined one would look like, not having ever been to a candy store before...

I silently contemplated whether or not Fitz would fall for whatever excuse I could come up with, but as the seconds ticked by and I couldn't think of anything to explain how else Simmons and I would have survived a fall from that high without a parachute, I gave up; knowing that Fitz was smart enough to know if I was lying.

"My name is Skye, not Angel!" I finally said, crossing my arms and glaring at him. His grin widened as he bounced up and down on the couch. I could practically see the gears shifting in his brain as his mind raced with who knows how many crazy ideas. "Before you get too excited, I'm not using my powers right now, and I would really appreciate if you didn't tell anyone on the team about my wings! Coulson knows already, but I don't want anyone else to! Especially Simmons! Got that! You of all people should know what she's like...I refuse to be poked and prodded and treated like her latest pet project, alright! And the same goes for you! So, congratulations, you now know the truth - now forget it!" I grumbled. He frowned, opening his mouth to say something before changing his mind. He slowly nodded, and I sighed in relief.

"Okayyy, but only for now, and only because you're right about Simmons wanting to examine you - and I don't think that's a good idea. She's always been obsessed with new medical breakthroughs and your enhanced healing would send her down the path to becoming one of those crazed scientists - so I'll keep your secret for the time being, but I have so many questions! How do your wings work? Do they just appear? Does it hurt? Do you have super strength? How much weight can you lift -" He asked question after question, not bothering to stop and let me answer any of them. I smiled briefly at his enthusiasm and excitement, but I didn't like talking about my powers as it usually led to thoughts of Hydra.

Fortunately for me, Coulson stepped into the room and interrupted Fitz's long list of queries.

"Do you need me to analyze the data?" Fitz asked, turning to face Coulson.

"That won't be necessary," he replied.

"If it's encrypted, I can mine the chip for him," I added, standing up.

Coulson barely glanced at me as he kept his expression neutral.

"I'm afraid this mission's classified," he told us as May, Ward, and Simmons walked into the living room area to listen as well. "Clearance Level 8," he informed us.

"Uh..." What the hell does that mean?

"Ah," said Simmons, nodding that at least she understood whatever that meant.

Coulson turned around and walked in the opposite direction. Fitz-Simmons also turned to head back to their lab. I stared around as everyone seemed to go back to what they were doing - while I was still confused.

"Wait, what? He can just shut us out of the process like that?"

Ward stopped walking away and listened as Fitz explained things to me.

"Well, he did say the mission was Level 8." That totally makes sense now...not!

"And, we're not. So we can't know about it," Simmons said, shrugging.

"Right, but this is normally the part where we all stand around the holocom and learn about stuff. I mean, aren't we all, on the same team?" I said, still not understanding.

"No need to get started on one of your socialist riffs," Fitz said with his hands out in front of him. I glared at Fitz as I noticed May smirking.

"Shield's whole infrastructure is based on the hierarchy and compartmentalization of intelligence," Simmons stated as she and Fitz started off again. I stared at their backs.

"Every agent can't have the intel on every mission. Makes the entire organization vulnerable," said Ward.

"Okay fine, but if I just fought my way out of an underground Siberian prison, I'd kind of want to know what for!" I said, feeling sympathetic towards the agent we had just extracted from Siberia.

"Coulson's got you used to the plane, the way we do missions here. The Hub, is different," May cut in.

"The Hub? What's The Hub?" Am I ever going to understand all of their wacko lingo?!

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I looked down at The Bus, now parked inside what looked like a building.

"Wow," I mumbled to myself as I glanced over to the side and hurried to catch up with everyone else as they strode through some sort of entryway and down a hallway.

"I didn't realize Big Brother was this big!" I exclaimed when I finally caught up with them.

"Oh, this is nothing. Wait until you see The Triskelion!" Simmons told me.

"Everyone's wearing the same suit. Someone tell me why, please," I commented. It looked bizarre. It was like watching penguins waddling around in the desert.

We walked up to some sort of reception desk and everyone but me grabbed badges.

"Do I get one?" I said.

Coulson pointed to the bracelet wrapped around my wrist.

"That's your badge, which means you've got a long way to go to even make Level 1," he stated. I frowned but nodded.

"Copy that. Does that also mean no access to any computers here whatsoever? I could run a search on the redacted Shield file on my parents!" I whispered to him.

"Skye..." Coulson sighed as he glanced at me.

"But it just, it seems like the place they'd keep them, right?" I pressed.

"I'll look into it. But right now we've got more pressing matters at hand," he said as everyone stopped in front of a man.

"Agent Sitwell," Coulson greeted.

"Agent Coulson. Good to see you feeling better," the man said, shaking Coulson's hand. "Agent Hand's waiting for you in the Situation Room."

"And she doesn't like to wait," Coulson cut in.

"So you know her!" Agent Sitdown; or whatever his name was, said.

"Only her reputation," said Coulson as we reached a doorway. "After you."

"Your Level 7s can join us in the briefing," he added as everyone started to step up to the scanning device on the side of the door.

I glanced over to see Fitz-Simmons at the back; looking on with awe.

"Victoria Hand..."

"Is here!" Fitz finished saying for Simmons.

I made my way towards the door, but my bracelet, along with the limb attached to said bracelet, was magnetized to a plate on the door. I looked up with confusion as Fitz-Simmons looked slightly embarrassed.

"Ouch," Fitz commented.

The doors began to close as I still tried to free myself - the doors opening again as Coulson reappeared

"Is this your subtle way of saying I can't come with?" I said, gesturing to my current state.

"We'll be back," he told me.

"Wha...?" I scoffed and turned to look at Fitz-Simmons.

"We should probably head over to the tech corridor," Fitz slowly said.

Simmons rolled her eyes with excitement.

"Oh, I can't wait to see the new chem-kit." I blinked in surprise as they started off through the door.

"I don't think it likes me here..." I growled under my breath - not that anyone was there to hear me...

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"I found a localized EMP, plus a few other party favors!" Fitz called out to Simmons and I a half hour later as he went to carry his cart through one of the automatic sliding doors. "Oh, come on. What the...open." I grinned as I watched his cart get stuck. "It's stuck!" He cried out as Coulson, May, and Ward arrived to see what was happening. "The cart's stuck!" I giggled, finding his predicament extremely hilarious.

I heard him grunting and groaning as he used his hands on one side of the door, trying to pry them open. He finally managed to get them open a bit and turned to go back to push the cart - only to find that they had closed as soon as he had let them go.

"What the hell?!? Who designed this?!? In The Hub, of all places!" My laugh echoed through the hall as we all watched him struggle. I was starting to feel better about my incident with my bracelet. Clearly I wasn't the only one who the doors here had issues with.

Fitz huffed loudly as he was able to push the cart out from between the doors, but lost his balance in the attempt, and I clapped a hand to my mouth, barely containing my chuckles as he got to his feet to find the doors had closed in his face.

"Oh, that's..." Fitz declared, throwing his hands up in irritation as we all stared at him still trapped behind the door.

I giggled again as I went to go help him - until something made me stop dead in my tracks. I'd recognize those blue eyes anywhere...they were the first blue eyes I had ever seen after all...Crap! What the hell was he doing here! My heart pounded in my chest as my eyes slid over to see the person standing next to Steve. I guess they managed to find each other after all...I am so screwed! I held my breath in as I quickly opened the door for Fitz, using his body as a human shield to block me from sight; hoping desperately that Steve and Bucky had not noticed me yet.

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"Hey, is this what you wanted?" I asked Fitz as I knocked on the open door to his bunk; where he and Simmons were packing his stuff. He had been selected to join Ward on a covert op. "Also, what is this?" I said, holding up the small black bag.

"Oh, Fitz. A full sized mag pouch?" Simmons said, raising her brow at her partner.

"Just one of the many tactical decisions I've had to make already," Fitz told her with a shrug.

"Hmm," Simmons said.

"And Ward said we needed it," added Fitz.

I raised my hands up in acquiescence as I handed over the bag to him and walked off to the Planning Room to join the others as we met up one last time before Ward and Fitz headed out on their mission. I sent Ward a thumbs up and a smile as he walked off; only getting an eye roll and a nod of acknowledgement in return. I waited till the others had filed out before speaking to Coulson.

"Does this feel okay to you? Shouldn't we be going with them?"

"The people who put these ops together are the best of the best. They know what they're doing," Coulson stated, walking out and leaving me alone. I sighed, not liking this setup one bit. I decided to keep Simmons company as she oversaw a group of men who were traipsing in and out of her and Fitz's lab.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no!" She was crying out when I entered; grabbing the Night-Night gun that some random soldier was setting down carelessly. "Please be careful."

I watched as she took the gun and moved it to a better spot.

"Can you imagine what Fitz would do if the Night-Night gun was broken when he came back?" She said, looking over to me. "Surely he'll be okay out there, right?" I shrugged, not wanting to tell her that I had a bad feeling about all of this.

"Well, Agent May is Level 7," I told her, turning to stare at May as she suddenly appeared in the lab as well. "Maybe she can give us an update on their mission." I frowned as May glanced up from her tablet to glare at me in irritation. "Does that mean that you do know something and you can't tell us or that you don't know anything?" I asked her.

She just stared at me in that lovely May way of hers. Hehe, that rhymes...I’m such a dork...

"Which non-expression is this?" I quipped.

"We know what we're supposed to," she said. "When we have more information, we'll react." She turned her attention back to her tablet as I went back to working on the laptop I had in front of me now; doing my best to distract myself from thinking about what Steve and Bucky were doing at the Hub. I absentmindedly scratched two of my scars as I messed around on the computer.

"All right, clear out. I need to run some diagnostics then reboot," I heard May say. I looked up as she walked past Simmons and I, thinking she was talking to the soldiers.

"That means you two. Off," she clarified. I closed the laptop as Simmons grabbed her stuff.

"You guys may be okay with being in the dark, but I'm not into it. I need answers. And I know just the person who has them," I whispered to Simmons as we exited.

"Who?" Simmons asked, giving me a worried look.

"Coulson. I'm obviously talking about Coulson," I reassured her.

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"Hey. Fancy seeing you here!" I called out to Coulson as I chased him down at The Hub.

"Skye, I told you I'd look into the file about your parents," Coulson sighed in frustration.

"No, I know. That's not why I'm here. I wanted to know more about Ward and Fitz's mission. Simmons is seriously starting to unravel without Fitz!"

We looked over to see Simmons hurrying along the hallway trying to catch up to us.

"I know it's hard to hear but you don't have clearance," Coulson told me, his eyes softening the slightest bit.

"But I have eyes," I responded, hurriedly moving so that I was standing in front of him and stopping him from walking. "I saw six squads in full tactical gear, three crates of RPGs, and a full crew of analysts head to operations. Are you really telling me that has nothing to do with Ward and Fitz's mission? If I'm right give me a signal by not saying anything," I said, joking at the end to lighten the mood.

"Trust the system," Coulson said, stepping around me and walking off. I let him go with a shocked look as I sighed and crossed my arms; Simmons appearing next to me with a smile.

"How did it go?"

"Nothing. He's acting like a robot version of himself right now!" I exclaimed. "If we want the truth, we've got to get it ourselves!" I declared, scratching my scars distractedly as I failed to notice the hidden pairs of eyes that were on us.

"Okay. How would you suggest..." Simmons paused as she saw me already nodding my head at her. "Oh, wait. No. No."

"Yes!" I told her.

"No! I can't be a part of your bad girl shenanigans. I like following the rules and doing what's expected of me. It makes me feel nice!" I rolled my eyes at her.

"Simmons, wake up! Ward and Fitz went on a top-secret, two man operation and look," I pointedly glanced at the men in tactical gear walking among us. "There are more men. And either it's a bigger deal and they're not telling us, or something went wrong out there. And maybe there's nothing we can do to help but we’ve got to know if there is. What if they're injured or being tortured somewhere right now?" I wouldn't be able to handle it if anything happened to Ward and Fitz that I could have helped prevent!

"Fitz. Tortured?" The thought seemed to rouse her attention.

"Believe me, it's not an experience I'd recommend he have..." I mumbled under my breath, giving her a pointed look, glad to see that she hadn't heard me.

"What exactly do you have in mind?" she asked.

Steve’s POV

I was leading Bucky down the halls of one of Shield’s main bases, pointing out the few pieces of new technology that I actually knew how to explain. I smiled, happy to have him back in my life now. We turned a corner and I felt Bucky’s back bump into mine as I froze in my tracks. It was her! I resisted the urge to pinch myself and confirm that I was indeed awake as I stared at my, well our, soulmate. What was she doing here!

Bucky and I frowned as we watched the members of her group pass through one of the doorways, only for her to be magnetically stopped by some sort of bracelet that she had wrapped around her wrist. What was that? And why was it stopping her from going through? I nudged Bucky as we both continued to stare at her in shock and amazement. Her face had haunted our dreams for the last six months; causing me to blush red whenever I thought of her, Bucky, and I together.

We silently observed as she huffed and pouted in the most adorable fashion before eventually joining two of her friends while they waited outside. One of them, the guy, walked off and came back with a cart full of tech stuff.

Bucky and I grinned widely as we watched the man struggle over and over to get his cart through the sliding glass doors. It was quite funny! My heart raced as I heard my soulmate’s laugh echoing through the hall towards Bucky and I. It was the most angelic sound I had ever heard...she truly was everything her nickname claimed her to be. An Angel.

I had been surprised when Tony had played back news footage a few weeks back of her and some hooded stranger saving several people from a burning building. Unfortunately, that was the one and only sighting of our soulmate that he had managed to find in the last six months - and until now, we had no idea where she was or how to find her. But suddenly, here she was!

We followed her as she made her way over to a large plane, but paused as she entered; knowing we would not be able to get away with following her that far. I shared a look with Bucky as we waited nervously for her to reappear; squabbling over the best way to approach our soulmate.

When she finally exited the plane though, she was moving so quickly that even with our super speed, we had a hard time catching up with her - the both of us panicked when we lost track of her. I sighed in relief as I finally spotted her a few minutes later, talking to the young women she had been with earlier.

Bucky and I glanced at one another with worry as we overheard part of their conversation. It sounded like our soulmate was worried about some friends of theirs. I felt a sense of pride swell in my chest, though, at her clear determination and desire to help. I growled and stepped forward, however, when I heard her muttering about torture not being fun; guessing that she was thinking about what Hydra had done to her.

She hadn’t talked to any of us about her experience with Hydra; but our own was enough to know that whatever it had been, wasn’t good. I didn’t want to wait any longer to talk to her, but I felt a hand stop me and looked over to Bucky in confusion.

“Not yet,” he said. I frowned but stepped back into the shadows. Why did Bucky want to wait? It had to be killing him as much as me - being so close to our soulmate and yet so far! So why had he stopped me?

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In-Line Comments

- let me know if you want me to try and work in any of her other soulmates into the second part of this episode!
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