The Avenger’s Soul

3rd Person POV

"I don't know. But something will turn up. We just have to stay positive," Jemma was saying as she tried to reassure Fitz. The team had arrived back only to realize they couldn't find anyone - that Skye and Ward and May had all left and there was no sign of Agent Koenig.

"For Coulson, yeah. I know. He's had a rough go of it," Fitz replied.

"Yeah. Between Garrett and May and seeing Audrey and...pancakes," she suddenly said.

She stopped walking with the last word, Fitz did as well and stared at her.

"Coulson's upset about pancakes now?"

"That's one way to cheer everyone up a bit, don't you think? I'll see if we have any in stock," she rushed off while Fitz walked off in the opposite direction.

As Fitz rounded a corner and went down another hallway he passed by one of the windows enjoying the mountain in the daytime scene it showed. He passed by an open door, stopped and turned to look back in there. The window in there was showing a night time scene.

"Night? Day?" Fitz wondered allowed as he walked into the room and suddenly spotted a trail of glowing gold light that led to a nail file that was sticking out of the window.

At the same time as Jemma and Fitz had walked off, Coulson's was staring out lost in thought as Trip approached him.

"Sir, you're an expert on analysis. I can see you running scenarios in your head, so what do you got?" He asked.

"Best case, Agent Koenig knows something we don't. He took a team, kept us in the dark for our safety.

"Worst case scenario?" Trip asked raising his brows.

"We've had a wolf in the herd the whole time," Coulson replied with a frown at the same time as Fitz revealed Skye's message burned into the wall and Jemma's scream permeated the halls as she stumbled across Eric Koenig's body.

*****

Skye's POV

I stood in the lab on the Bus typing on my computer as I watched out of the corner of my eye as Ward used black spray paint to cover up the Shield logo on one of the SUV's.

He looked over at me with a smile and I forced myself to return it with one of my own. I was still fighting the urge to be sick. I can't believe I hadn't realized sooner that Ward and Garret were Hydra! And then of course I kept beating myself up over the fact that when I finally had I had gotten so swept up with helping the avengers that I hadn't checked to see if the team had gotten my message and by the time I had returned to Shield it had been too late and I hadn't remembered...

Once Ward turned away I unplugged the hard drive from my laptop and started rummaging around the cabinets.

"Fitz keeps the candy under his bunk," I heard Ward say from behind me. "What are you up to?" I put on another fake smile.

"I'm just looking for the sat-phone to call the team, make sure everyone's all right, no one's blown up," I told him.

"I've got the phone. I just talked to Coulson a little while ago," he said.

"You did?" I sincerely doubted that.

"Yeah, sorry. Should have told you. They're okay but the sooner we get to the location to decrypt that drive –" he started to say.

"The sooner we can rendezvous with the team," I finished. This was all about the stupid drive. I was guessing Ward and Garret wanted what was on it.

"Exactly," Ward said, smiling at me. Now that I knew the truth I could see right past all of his actions. It all seemed so fake now. Ugh I had been so stupid!

"Seemed like a smart play at the time," I said as I walked away from the cabinets, noticing Ward frown as he searched inside to see what else might be in there. "Geo-locking the drive. I didn't think it would backfire on us." I walked back over to my laptop.

"It hasn't backfired. The drive is supposed to be impossible to crack. He stood next to me looking over my shoulder for a second and I fought the urge to punch him. "Pretty specific coordinates, though. You could have picked anywhere in the world. Why a random diner in L.A.?"

"It was already built into my encryption. Never changed it. But it's fitting. It's where I met Mike Peterson," I told him. "It's where this whole Shield roller coaster started. Plus, tactically, what do you look for in a jobsite?"

"Public places, lots of people, multiple exits," Ward rattled off.

"Yep. Figured if I ever got in trouble, I'd be safe there."

"Oh, you'll be plenty safe." He stood up from where he had been leaning against a table and walked closer to me. I gave a soft chuckle as he wrapped his arms around me but again had to resist the urge to punch him in the face as his hand slid into the back of my pants under my shirt pulling out the gun I had tucked away there. "This, however, is not the answer."

"What's the matter? A girl can't defend herself?" I sniped back. Not that I needed a gun to punch him in the face...

"In this situation, the last thing we can afford is to get pinched on a concealed weapons charge," he replied.

"You're right, again. Couldn't find any rounds anyway."

"Hey. We're are gonna be okay." I nodded at him as he walked over to me again. "I promise, until this thing is over...I'm not going to let you out of my sight," he said while hugging me. That didn't reassure me one bit. The only positive thing about this was that neither Ward or Garret seemed to realize my prior connection to Hydra or that a certain Hydra scientist was dying to recapture me.

*****

3rd Person POV

"He died approximately 10 hours ago of asphyxiation. After May left the premises. A thin wire was used to strangle him. His trachea is crushed, partially sliced through, so it was done in a hurry." Jemma paused for a moment then continued, but when she did her voice wasn't as steady and held sadness. "Based on the angle of the lacerations the killer was at least 6'2" Hearing this Fitz had to turn away, Ward was the only person at Providence that fit that height bill. "And strong enough to...lift him into..." Jemma paused again collecting herself, now when she spoke it was with anger. "Ward did this."

Everyone jumped when there was a loud crash. Fitz had grabbed a metal dining tray and was using it to bash a table with. He picked up a container holding cooking utensils as Simmons hurried over to him and he threw it.

"Fitz!" He began to kick and hit the refridgerator as Simmons tried to pull on his arms to stop him.

"No, no, no!" She cried out.

Coulson hurried over to try and subdue him as well. Fitz seems to calm a bit when Coulson spoke.

"Okay, okay!" Both Coulson and Simmons put a hand on Fitz to calm and console him. "We need to hold it together. Listen...All that anger, all that pain, you need to hold it in and focus it on Skye. She's alive. And she just walked out of here hand in hand with someone she knows is a murderer. Because she's playing him, just like he played us." Coulson was trying to focus on being the calm leader that his team needed but on the inside he felt his heart clenching with worry over the young girl he had quickly come to love and care for like a daughter. He was also worrying about what might happen to her if anyone in Hydra realized that Skye was "Angel" "We have to fix the communications. We have to track that plane. Can you do that?" Coulson asked Fitz.

Fitz let out a sigh then made eye contact with Coulson, slowly nodding his head and turning away. When Coulson spoke next it was clear to everyone in the room that he was barely holding in his own rage.

"Good. If I know Skye, she's got a plan. And we're gonna find her before Ward figures out what that is!"

*****

Skye's POV

"I can't remember the last time I sat in a restaurant," I said out loud though inwardly I was remembering sitting next to Steve and Clint at the Internet cafe a while back.

"I know. It's been all tubes, tunnels and plane food," Ward said.

"Maybe I will get pie for dessert," I mumbled as I couldn't help but smile as I remembered the fact that my new album was currently being released to the world and had been appropriately named "American Pie" I figured I would use Steve's chat nickname as the album name.

"Dessert? I was hoping we'd be done by the time I finished coffee," Ward complained.

"Do you have any idea how long it'll take to decrypt this drive?" I said as I pulled out my laptop.

"For you? I figured 10 minutes."

"Not even close. The GPS will take a hot second to calibrate but I'm working on a laptop. So even at three cycles per byte there are still terabytes of data –" I rambled off, not quite lying but also not quite telling the truth.

"Spare me the details. Give me the timeframe," Ward said as he rolled his eyes as I predicted.

"An hour would be a miracle," I answered.

"Coulson needs this yesterday," he told me. Bullshit! I thought to myself.

"My laptop's not a time machine, Ward. That's the science," I simply replied. Man did I want to punch him in the face!

"Guess we're having dessert," Ward said with a heavy sigh.

*****

"You're staring again," I pointed out as I continued to type on my laptop and tried to ignore the way my skin was crawling at the sensation of him watching me.

“I'm not allowed to do that?” Ward asked as he smiled and looked away.

“I told you, it's a complicated hack,” I replied, knowing why he was really staring at me. I turned my laptop toward him so he could look at the screen.

“You've mistaken my admiration for impatience,” Ward said as he turned the laptop back towards me.

“No, it's impatience,” I corrected him as I rolled my eyes and tried to stay calm.

“Okay. Sorry. Didn't mean to stress you out.”

“Maybe you should duck outside. Try again on the sat-phone, just to make sure,” I told him.

“No. We stick together and we stick to the plan. The sooner you decrypt this hard drive...”

“The sooner we get to them,” I finished for him, knowing that the chances of that happening were slim. I was just hoping he didn’t try to kill me once he got what he wanted. It was true that even if he did, I’d survive but that didn’t mean I wanted for things to play out like that… “I heard you twice the first time.”

He smiled at me but seems to be picking up my hostility, which I was having trouble hiding. Did I mention I wanted to punch him in the face? Better yet, kick him somewhere the sun don’t shine…I stared at my laptop as a message popped up: LOCATION INVALID; ACCESS DENIED.

“Are you all right?” Ward asked as he reached across the table and put his hand on my arm. I resisted the urge to shake it off. “You look nervous.”

“How can you tell, superspy?” I asked.

“Staying unnaturally still to keep from fidgeting, maintaining eye contact to give the impression of confidence. What's wrong?” He listed. I inwardly groaned. Ugh, Coulson was right about me wearing my emotions on my face. I really needed to fix that.

“The last time I was in this booth I was sitting across from Mike Peterson. A good man and now he's a murderer. And we are FBI's most wanted,” I answered as I removed my arm from his grip. As I did so the door opened and I could tell from the reflection across the room that two cops had just walked in. “It's just like any moment something could go horribly wrong,” I finished saying as Ward nodded his understanding.

“Relax. You're doing great,” he told me.

“Hiding what I'm thinking and feeling it doesn't come as easy for me as it does for you,” I said, trying not to put to much anger behind my words.

“Well, it comes with experience.”

“Yeah, I guess it does,” I said with a sigh as I noticed him pull out a menu from the table and pretend to be looking at it as he kept an eye on the cops.