The Avenger’s Soul

Natasha's POV

I squeezed in after Clint as we made our way through the vents at The Hub. I grumbled, not preferring this particular mode of transport but letting Clint drag me along out of sheer boredom. The last six months had been torture for me, well all of us...finding our soulmate - only to have her disappear on us! It was driving Clint, Tony, and I crazy that we hadn't been able to track her down after all this time - except for one measly recording of her saving a bunch of people from a burning building down in LA; which had both warmed my heart and made it race in fear. What if Hydra managed to locate my, our, soulmate before we could!

And why the hell could two master assassins and a tech genius not track her down! Someone had to be helping her! It was clear that she; like me, had spent her childhood being raised in a very controlled environment; and I knew from personal experience, that she should have made more than a few mistakes by now if she was truly on her own. It had taken me several years to start getting used to life on the outside; let alone how to properly cover my tracks when I didn't want to be followed!

Skye’s POV

"Okay, you have the flash drive. Go," I instructed Simmons, motioning for her to enter through the door I was not allowed past. "I programmed it with a decoy crawler. It'll use my browser history to simulate my usual online activity, so while Shield thinks I'm trolling Reddit and Facebook with the laptop they gave me –" I started to say, my voice now reaching her on the other side of the glass door through our earpieces.

"You'll be hacking the files for Ward and Fitz's mission," Simmons finished for me.

"Right. And remember, once you plug it in you'll only have about –"

"Three minutes before Shield catches on."

"Do you realize that you keep finishing my sent –"

"Your sentences. I know, I'm sorry. Bad habit." I rolled my eyes at her but let the matter go, as I smiled awkwardly towards two people who had just rounded the corner.

"This is actually a bit thrilling," I heard Simmons say in a hushed but excited tone; not noticing that the two people who I had smiled at had stopped in their tracks and were now staring at me with wide-eyed expressions.

"Ah, good. I'm glad. Now we've just got to figure out a way to get the panel open!" I told her, still oblivious to the fact that I was now being watched - but now, by four pairs of eyes, not two.

"Don't worry, I made a special something. It's what we do," Simmons reassured me.

I couldn't see her, but I could hear the whirring sound of the panel opening up on the wall.

"All done."

"Really? Wow, okay. Uh, now just find a USB port!" I exclaimed, so focused on the task at hand to realize that I had an audience listening carefully to everything I said; two of whom had super hearing and were able to listen in on Simmons' side of the conversation as well.

"Okay," I heard Simmons confirm. I waited with baited breath, sucking in a gasp as I heard a man's voice speaking in the background of her feed.

"Agent Simmons?"

"It's fine. Just play it cool!" I advised her, sensing that she was probably panicking.

"Hello, Mr. Agent Sitwell, sir. May I help you?" I rolled my eyes at her attempt to play it cool as I continued to listen in.

"Call me Jasper."

"Uh, what brings you to this restricted hallway so late at night?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"No, don't."

"Simmons, focus. Just make up an excuse!" I cried out in exasperation. Though I had to remind myself that I had been just as nervous as her when I had been caught by Ian Quinn a few weeks back.

"I was just on my way to the loo. I could swear it was two rights and a left, but is that it here?" I listened to her tell Agent Situp, or well, or whatever it was.

"That's a wall panel. Why are you accessing it?"

"Don't spiral. Just say something. Anything," I prompted.

"You certainly have a gorgeous head, don't you?" Did she really just say that?! I hissed under my breath, not knowing that anyone had heard me.

"I like men that are about my height but heavier than me." She did not just say that! I growled out in disbelief.

"Stop talking. Stop!" I cried out, forgetting to keep my voice down.

"Agent Simmons, do you have authorization to access that panel?"

"Say yes. Yes you do!" I whisper-yelled into my earpiece.

"Oh! Y-of course."

"Great, yeah," I mumbled. We are so going to get caught and sent to Gitmo!

"Of course. Um, I certainly have it right here in my bag - He's on to me!" I heard Simmons say.

"Stop talking! He can hear you!" I bounced on the balls of my feet as I barely managed to contain my emotions.

"Are you on comms with someone? This is Agent Sitwell, I need an escort." I groaned loudly as I heard the man on Simmons end.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Simmons voice echoed in my ears - as did the sound of her Night-Night gun.

"Oh my God! Oh, my God!" I yelled as my eyes widened in disbelief. Please tell me she didn't do what I think she did!

"Okay, okay," I heard her muttering to herself.

"I've definitely shot Agent Sitwell. Good, good, good," she rambled nervously to me as she walked back into my line of sight. "Was that all right?" I stared at her incredulously.

"That was terrible. You are terrible at this. That was a total meltdown! And here I thought I was bad at lying!"

"The Night-Night gun was right there, and I –" she paused taking a deep gasping breath.

"We need help. You need to go get May!" I told her.

"May?! No!"

"Listen, that flash drive will only give me a few minutes of access to The Hub's mainframe to find out what happened to our boys so just go and get May, okay?" I told her. "Just tell her it was an accident."

"I'm going to be court-martialed!" She declared as she started off towards the plane to get May.

"I hope this -" I started to say as I sighed heavily and turned around.

"- works..." my body tensed up as I finally realized I had company...and not just anyone...I'd recognize that bright red hair anywhere - it was Natasha; and she wasn't alone.

"W-what are, what are you doing here?" I said, coughing nervously as I slowly backed away from Natasha and Clint. I froze as I stumbled into a third body.

"You, y-you're here?" I stared into Steve's insanely blue eyes for who knows how long before finally coming to my senses. I twisted myself around and started off in the opposite direction, only to find myself blocked again; this time by Bucky.

"Okay, you guys really need to stop doing that!" I mumbled as I stumbled backwards once more. I looked up at all four of them, shifting uncomfortably as they stood hovering over me in silence. "Seriously, somebody say something!" I said eventually. I fidgeted with my hands, not knowing what to do with them.

"Um, h-how've you been?" Clint asked, scratching the side of his head.

"Good, fine - great! Yeah, I'm doing really well? No, that wasn't a question, that was a statement. I'm doing just swell! Perfectly swell; and isn't that such an interesting word! Crap, I’m totally rambling! Wait, did I say that out loud? I’m such an idiot - shit I said that out loud too...I'm sorry about just disappearing like that - I didn't mean to upset any of you or make anyone feel like I didn't appreciate all your help...because I did! I really did! But...um, I, well...I just needed a change of scenery I guess, I don't know - h-how have you been?" I cursed silently as random words began tumbling out of my mouth.

"So, are we just going to ignore the fact that you and your friend just shot a Shield Agent?" Steve said harshly. Well I guess I shouldn't have expected any less from Captain America - the national poster boy for following the rules!

"Oh, yeah, that? That was just a - a huge misunderstanding! Nothing to worry yourselves over - oh, look, there's Simmons with Agent May! I-I'm just gonna go see if they need any help!" I babbled, turning to dart off. But Simmons and May were too fast and unfortunately, reached me far sooner than I could get to them...

"Oh, wow! You're...wow!" Simmons exclaimed, staring in awe at Steve, Bucky, Natasha, and Clint.

I tilted my head in confusion as everyone glanced at me as if they were waiting for something.

"Oh! Right! Introductions! How remiss of me! Um, Simmons, May...this is Steve, Bucky, Natasha, and Clint...Steve, Bucky, Natasha, Clint, meet Jemma and Agent May!" I said, awkwardly. I didn't know if May and I were on good enough terms for me to use her first name so I opted for not risking it.

"Well, I see the Cavalry has finally met the original Cavalry," Natasha commented as she looked between me and May. I frowned at her, wishing she hadn't brought that up; seeing how May glanced up sharply at her when she said this. She is so going to murder me and dump my body in a ditch; assuming Shield, or Hydra, or Steve (and the others), or the agent Simmons shot, didn't get to me first!

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

"All right, boys. Let's find out where you really are!" I said as I opened my laptop 15 minutes later in the privacy of the room Natasha and May had led us to after Steve and Bucky had properly hid the unconscious agent from sight.

I scratched one of my scars as I glanced up to  see Natasha staring at me apologetically. I glared at her, still peeved that she had ended up telling May all about how I had met/saved her and the other wackos - meaning that now May also knew about me and my powers. Ugh, that's three people too many! At least Simmons hadn't heard them...I was still paranoid that she would want to experiment on me...

I shook my head and focused on the numbers and letters rolling across my screen before the menu page popped up. The options were: Current Missions; Ops Analysis; Tech; Classified Data L5; Classified Data L4; Redacted Documents; Facility Systems; and Mission Archive. I clicked on the Current Missions tab and then made way through another series of options before finally landing on the file that I was looking for. I checked my phone to see that I only had 1 minute and 11 seconds left. I continued to scroll through until there were only 46 seconds left by the time I managed to narrow down the search parameters to the correct date.

"Okay. There it is...if I could just access the raw file!" I whispered to myself as I located the redacted document I had shown Coulson the other day. I sighed and looked at my phone again, 34 seconds. "Oh crap. I don't have any time." My personal search would have to wait...

I stared at the computer for a couple of seconds then started hitting keys quickly as I hunted down the information on Ward and Fitz's mission.

There were some beeping noises coming from the computer as the map on the screen lit up areas in green with red triangles. Then one of the blue areas lit up and a pop-up appeared over it. It said: 2 MAN INFIL TEAM; TIMETABLE: 08:00; EXTRACTION: -

"Oh my God..." I declared, sitting back in my chair, completely stunned. "No extraction! Excuse me everyone while I go and chase down that fearless leader of ours, Coul -"

I blinked in surprise as May strode over and shut down my laptop; grabbing me by the arm as she all but dragged me out of the room and into the hallway before I could so much as finish my sentence.

"What the hell, May!" I cried out, yanking my arm out of her grasp; no longer caring if I used my super strength to aid me in the task - seeing as she knew now.

"You cannot mention Coulson's name to anyone who is not a direct member of our team!" I stared at her with a blank look on my face.

"Why the hell not? Everyone here is Shield!" She gave me one of her patented May glares before responding.

"That's classified to non-agents," she said, stoically.

"Fine, then I'll just be on my marry way, though here's a thought - maybe I'll just run down the halls shouting his name and someone else will give me a straight answer!" I said; half joking.

"This is not a joking matter Skye! Shield keeps secrets for a reason! Steve and Bucky, and Tony, especially Tony - they can never know that Coulson is still alive! And neither can Natasha or Clint; as much as I wish it weren't so."

"What do you mean, 'still alive'?! None of them know that Coulson is alive? Are you telling me that they think he's dead! And does that mean everyone thinks he's dead? How is that even possible?" I could barely comprehend what she was telling me. How could Coulson be dead to the world when he was traipsing all over the world with us on missions? This was making no sense!

"Look, I don't have time to explain the mystery that is Nick Fury and his crazy way of doing things - right now, I just need you to swear that you will not let Steve, Bucky, Tony, Natasha, or Clint, or anyone else for that matter, know that Coulson is alive and breathing! Ok?"

"Ok, geesh, I promise! It's not like I'm buddy buddy with them and we all the time! I met them once six months ago and then again today - which for the record, I'm not exactly thrilled about!"

May glanced at me in surprise.

"Wait, so Natasha was right? She told me you've been hiding from her and the others for the past few months; but I told her she was crazy to think you didn't want anything to do with them. But she was right? Why don't you want to talk to them, Skye? I mean I can't imagine what it'd be like to have more than one, I’m sure it’s a lot to get used to, but come on! You have to face them at some point! Coulson makes me want to stab myself at times, but even I would never think to avoid him for more than a few weeks! How can you do that to them? To yourself?"

"No I don't; and not that it's any of your business, but I just don't get why they want to get to know me so bad! I mean I know Fury wants me to work with them eventually but I keep telling him I don't want to! I'm not like them! They are heroes, I'm not...and hold up, what the hell are you even talking about! I'm not harming them or myself by choosing to not associate myself with them! I'm just some random girl who helped them out in a pinch!" I forced myself to stop talking as I was working myself up into a fit. I scratched my scars in irritation as several of them burned.

"You don't know, do you?" May said slowly and quietly.

"Don't know what? What else am I missing? I think this trip to The Hub has made it clear that there are a lot of things I don't know, so you gotta be more specific, May!" I grumbled. She just glanced at me, shaking her head.

"It's not my place to say..."

I rolled my eyes, throwing my hands up in frustration.

"Fine, well feel free to fill me in if you ever change your mind! I'm going to go find Coulson now like I initially planned. You going to stop me?" I glared at her as I crossed my arms.

"No, so long as you remember to keep Coulson's existence a secret," she said, her face back to her normal unbreakable stone.

"Whatever, I already said I would. I'll just add it to my ever growing list of secrets!" I stalked off down the hallway, gritting my teeth and ignoring the heat from my scars as I strode into Coulson's office and informed him that there was no extraction team for Ward and Fitz.

"What did I tell you?" Coulson looked rightfully pissed, as did I.

"You told me to trust the system. And the system sent Ward and Fitz in there to die!"

Natasha's POV

Steve, Bucky, Clint, and I watched as Skye; as our soulmate was now apparently going by the name of, typed on her laptop, sharing the occasional glance between one another. We were all preoccupied with thoughts of our mutual soulmate and it wasn't until she declared there was no extraction team for her friends, that we were brought out of our fantasies and back to reality.

I frowned as May suddenly grabbed my soulmate by the arm and dragged her out of the room. May might be one of the few people in this world that I trusted, but no way was she treating my soulmate roughly!

I could tell that Steve and Bucky were about to follow, but I motioned for them to keep Simmons company; in case she decided to shoot anymore agents while unsupervised, while Clint and I snuck back into the vent system to do what we did best - spy.

"Clint, I don't think that Skye knows who were are...she may not even know what a soulmate is! How could we not have thought about that being a possibility before now! It would explain everything! I mean I doubt Hydra bothered to explain the concept of soulmates to her! And who knows how long they’ve had her!”

"Well yeah, Natasha, but how could she not recognize our words?! They are written all over her skin! That has too mean something to her even if she doesn’t understand the concept!” Clint asked. I shrugged.

"Maybe they are on her back or somewhere else she can’t see? I don't know! But either way, it doesn't seem like she knows we are her soulmates! What do we do? Should we tell the others? And what was that about Coulson being alive? When I get my hands on that man he is definitely going to wish he really was dead! I can't believe he wouldn't tell us he was still alive! I mean it's us!"

"Natasha, you know Fury, I'm guessing he has a good reason for not letting us in on that secret, or at least he better! Otherwise he's gonna get an earful from me! And I don't know, I don't think we should tell Tony...least not until we have more information. Skye seems to be working with Shield now, and Tony is notorious for being unable to keep a secret, I don't want to risk Hydra finding her again...plus, you know the others wont like that she’s working for Shield! It’s dangerous! And I don’t like it either, but if she really doesn’t know who we are, then she’s certainly not going to like everyone telling her not to join the fight against Hydra! She’d probably run away again...” I nodded slowly, seeing the sense in what he said.

Skye's POV

"I told you I'd get answers about your family!" Coulson said exasperatedly.

"That's not what I was looking for! I was trying to find out what was happening with Ward and Fitz," I clarified.

"That's a classified operation."

"It's a suicide mission! I saw it all, the troop placements, the aerial assault. Once Ward and Fitz disable that device there's going to be a huge attack on that compound, with no extraction plan, and you hid that from us!" I glared over at him as we walked back into The Hub.

Coulson finally seemed to lose his calm, grabbing me by the arm and pushing me into an open room.

"I didn't hide anything from you. You don't have the clearance to know that."

"Is that really what Shield's all about? Level 5’s are more expendable than Level 8? Is that all we are, just a number to you? If so, Fury will never get me on board..."

"Are you done?"

"I don't know, am I?"

"If Shield keeps a secret from you it's for a good reason!"

"So they can hold all the secrets? Like, I don't know - just off the top of my head, the fact that everyone thinks you are dead?!"

"Don't interrupt. You just hacked a Level 8 secure server, saw operational plans that you have no context for. If details get out, the whole operation could be compromised. Lives could be lost, Ward and Fitz among them," Coulson exclaimed, his wide-eyed expression the only hint I received that I had shocked him with my recently discovered knowledge about him.

"I know! Those are two people we care about. On the plane, you're always telling me to think outside the box, so I went off book 'cause I was trying to watch their backs!" I told him.

"Our team can go off book because there is a book. A Hub. An organization watching our backs. You claim you want to be a part of that, a Shield agent. Do you?"

"Yes!" I huffed; extremely frustrated. I may not want to join Tony and the others as Fury wanted, but I did want to become an agent at the very least..

"Because someday, I may have to trust you with a secret, and I need to know that you can keep it."

"Well I am keeping the fact that you are alive a secret now, so I think that should count for something!"

Coulson started to walk away.

“Can I ask you one question?”

Coulson stopped walking away, turning to face me.

“What?”

“Did you know, there was no extraction plan for Ward and Fitz?”

He stared at me for a beat.

“That's classified.”

He turned and walked out. I couldn’t be sure, but I got the feeling he hadn’t known...

Clint’s POV

Natasha and I met up with Coulson as he stormed into the control room where Agent Hand was currently located. I watched his face pale as he glanced at the two of us; knowing we would soon be chewing him out for letting us believe that he had died.

“Agent Sitwell is in the infirmary. Apparently a member of your team rendered him unconscious,” Hand said as the three of us entered.

“A misunderstanding. I'll handle the matter internally,” Coulson replied.

“Tranquilizing an agent does not qualify as a misunderstanding!”

“You're right. But being told there's an extraction team in place when, in fact, there isn't, that does. I'm Level 8. I'm entitled to information regarding the welfare of my team. You should have told me!”

“Seemed I didn't have to. And what would that have changed, Agent Coulson? You yourself have designed dozens of operations like this. You know how this works.”

“Usually with an extraction plan,” Coulson pointed out.

I kept my mouth shut. Natasha and I preferred to work alone and never needed an extraction plan, but we were also aware of the fact that none was being provided for us...

I found myself getting angry that my soulmate’s team members had been sent on a mission not knowing this fact. I had been receiving strong emotions from Skye through our soul bond since the moment she had said my, our, words, and mostly what I felt was her worry and fear for her friends - amongst other things - things that sent my pulse racing late at night...

It had quickly become clear that my amazing soulmate had a huge heart. If she was worried, than that meant I was worried. It was almost unbelievable; considering how little time I had spent with her, and the fact I barely knew her; but I didn’t want her getting hurt anymore than she already had during her time with Hydra.

If Hand was willing to send these two agents in with no extraction plan, how soon was it before she was sending Skye; my soulmate, into unknown danger with no backup?! That was not going to happen!

“Barton, Romanoff, you never have an extraction plan!” Hand exclaimed, waving her hand at Natasha and I.

“Yeah, but we know that going in!” I growled angrily at her, causing her eyes to widen slightly in fear. I was extremely intimidating when angry; a fact I was very proud of.

“Agent Fitz is unproven in the field, and knowing would've caused him to lose focus or courage!” she said, trying to defend her actions.

“That should've been my call!” Coulson stated.

“I wasn't sure you'd comply. You team includes an electronically tagged non-agent who is notorious for leaking secrets, which reminds me, how did you get this information again?” I hissed in fury at her mention of my soulmate.

“I know what the safety of a thousand men is worth. I know the importance of taking the Overkill device out of play. But I also know my men, and what they're worth! The decision to go in should have been theirs to make,” Coulson said, furiously.

“Perhaps. But you need to trust the system, Agent Coulson.”

She turned and walked away; leaving the three of us seething with rage. That women had no survival instincts if she thought she could get away with pissing off two assassins and Coulson...

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

Skye’s POV

“You got information, now we react,” May said, nodding approvingly to me as she, Simmons, and I met up in the cargo hold of The Bus as it began to take off.

“We're gonna get our guys!” I said, happily.

“Somebody has to,” said May, rolling her eyes.

“What about the Shield assault?” Simmons asked.

“We won't interfere. You don't need a battalion for an extraction. Three can pull it off,” May told her.

“Four is better.”

We all quickly looked up to see Coulson standing on the walkway area above the cargo hold, looking down at us with a little grin.

“You're in? I thought we all have to be Level 8 to discuss this?” I said.

“We're not discussing anything,” said Coulson, raising his brows.

I smirked and shared a pleased look with Simmons and May.

3rd Person POV

“It's the extraction team!” Fitz cried out in excitement as he and Ward watched The Bus hovering above their heads.

“Better. It's The Cavalry!” Ward declared, not knowing just how accurate his statement was.

Skye’s POV

“You know, for a second there I thought I'd have to find a new supervising officer!” I said as I reentered the cargo hold; punching Ward’s arm “lightly”.

“Sorry to disappoint!” he replied with a smirk. I rolled my eyes at him. “Truth is, I was in good hands,” he added, glancing over towards Fitz. Aww, they bro bonded! How sweet!

I headed up to my bunk and spent the next few hours sitting on my bed with my pillow in my lap; lost in thought.

I glanced up as I heard footsteps approach, to find that Coulson was standing in my doorway.

“Hey. I was thinking about today, and I'm really sorry –” I hurried to tell him.

“I just wanted to let you know that I didn't forget about what you asked me back at The Hub,” he said. I stared at him, confused.

“Um, what do you mean?”

“The un-redacted file about your past. I found it.”

I sucked in a shaky breath and scooted closer to the edge of the bed.

“Oh. W-what did it say?”

“The document wasn't about you directly. It was about the person who dropped you off at the orphanage. Turns out, it was a Shield agent.” I stared at him.

“A Shield agent?”

I stood up; looking at him; feeling a whole range of mixed emotions.

“Why? I mean, who? What does that mean? I –”

“The agent was unidentified. We don't know if she was your mother or if she just found you on a doorstep.” I paused as his words registered.

“Mother?” I couldn’t help smiling at this word. “It was a woman?”

“I put in a request to dig further into the files for any related materials, but right now that's all I have. I'm sorry.”

I shook my head a bit.

“Sorry? Thank you!” I leaned forward, wrapping my arms around his neck, hugging him. “Thank you so much!”

Coulson's face was hard to read as he let out a deep sigh. I broke the hug, giving him a hopeful look, which he returned with a small smile before exiting.

I flopped back down on my bed, getting lost in a whole new set of thoughts.

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

In-Line Comments

- Hope you liked the new POVs! Wasn’t sure how they turned out.
- If it wasn’t clear, I was hinting that Coulson and May are soulmates! Hope people like that idea?
- As always, comment, like, and follow!