The Avenger’s Soul

Skye's POV

"How much longer?" Ward asked with a sigh.

"Half hour," I told him.

"You said that a half hour ago," he complained.

"Weren't you the one who told me to relax?" I said as I noticed one of the cops looking over at us.

"Those cops over there keep looking at us," Ward said as he tried to discretely hide his face.

"They're just checking out the waitress. They don't know you're pretending to be someone you're not," I told him, trying not to let my emotions get the better of me this time.

"Yeah, all right. Who am I pretending to be?" Ward asked.

"My impatient boyfriend," I replied, trying not to shudder at the idea and instead let my mind drift off to thoughts about dating a certain blonde super soldier who's birthday it was today. Judging from the emotions I had been feeling from him since midnight he had definitely liked the birthday album I made him and I could also tell the other avengers had liked the songs as well. I just wish I was able to use whatever empathic ability I seemed to have on Ward so I could tell what was going on with his emotions. I occasionally was able to pick up on what other people were feeling but it always seemed strongest with the avengers and lucifer for some reason but maybe that was because his powers seemed to have an emotional link as well what with his obsession over people's desires.

"I like that cover," he replied and I resisted the impulse to gag at the expression on his face as he looked me up and down. He then looked out the window and his smile dropped as he saw a police car cruise past the diner. I looked nervously out the window seeing that Ward had noticed and tried to distract him.

"What's the longest you've been undercover? Like, deep undercover?" I asked him.

"Uh, 16 months," he replied but I could tell his focus was still on the cops.

"When was that?"

"Mm, about 5 years outside of the academy. I posed as a Russian Attaché at the Embassy in Warsaw."

"That's got to be so hard, living a double life like that. Getting close to people only to turn on them," I scoffed as I stared at him. "I don't know how Garrett did it."

"Garrett?" He asked.

"Think about all that time he spent as your S.O. Getting to know you, being your mentor. Only to lie to your face, betray you like that," I commented, barely controlling my anger. He'd look so much better with my fist in his face.

"It was, uh, difficult to accept. But thankfully that's over," he said looking down.

"Because you took care of him," I said, staring at him hard.

Ward stared back at me clearly taken aback for a long moment then looked around the diner and leaned in toward me.

"Can we not discuss this right now?"

"If you had one more moment before you shot him in the back of the head so heroically, if he was sitting right here and you could say anything you want, what would you say?" I asked with a wicked smile on my face.

He'" was now giving me a worried expression.

"Skye."

"Would you say he's disgusting? Would you tell him he's a disgusting, backstabbing traitor?" I hissed out. His face turned even more serious as mine was. "Or to rot in hell?" I continued, wondering if I could ask Lucifer to make that happen.

"What are you doing?" Ward asked, trying to give me a smile.

"I'm just trying to have an honest conversation for once," I told him as I leaned back in my chair.

Ward glanced around the diner and saw the police officers that kept glancing at us were now standing by a table. One of them was speaking to the people seated there and was pointing at the door asking them to leave.

"They're starting to clear people out. We should go," he said, starting to get up.

"No, I think I'm good here," I replied, refusing to budge as I started typing on my keyboard as he leaned in close.

"Skye, we've been made. Come on."

"No." I turned my laptop toward him to show him what I was working on. There was an emergency dispatch notice on my screen showing a picture of Ward. It said: GRANT WARD has known connections to the Shield agency. Suspect should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. Extensive combat training. Suspect WARD is a wanted fugitive, terrorist protocol should be followed.

"I tipped them off," I told him enjoying the shocked expression on his face. "Hail Hydra."

A police officer rounded the corner, gun drawn.

"You two, show me your hands! Now! Get 'em up! Out of the booth, nice and slow."

I followed his instructions, still enjoying the look on Ward's face.

"All right, turn around. "Hands on your head," the officer instructed.

"Just be careful, he's armed!" I warned him.

I looked at Ward as the two of us turned our backs to the officers, Ward just staring at me. One of the officers grabbed Ward's hand as another took mine. As soon as the officer tried to get a hold of Ward though he twisted out of his grip and the fight was on. While Ward fought the officers I shoved my laptop into my backpack and ran out of the diner. Three cops were trying to hold onto Ward but he saw me escaping.

"Skye!" I heard him call out.

I ran out of the diner and over to police officers just getting out of their patrol car.

"Officers! I surrender! Arrest me!" I told them.

"Slow down, ma'am. What are you talking about?" The officer said.

"No, no. I am an Agent of Shield, a wanted fugitive, take me in!" The two officers gave each other a disbelieving look so I shoved one of them in the chest. "Come on! What are you doing?!? Get me out of here!" I shouted.

"That's it! Come on!"

They roughly grabbed me and pushed me against the trunk of the car.

"I'll do whatever you want me to –" I told them.

"Skye!" I closed my eyes in fear as I heard Ward shouting. I looked back to see him holding his gun pointed at the officers. He fired and took them both down and I hurried to get behind the wheel of the cruiser.

"Skye! Don't run!" Ward called out. I rolled my eyes. If it wasn't for the fact we were in public I would have just flown off but that wasn't a current option.

"You don't understand!" He tried telling me.

I started the car and peeled out just as he got to the handle of the door.

"I'm not trying to hurt you!" He shouted.

I looked in the rear view mirror as Ward's exasperated form grew smaller. I looked back forward and saw a man standing in the road. He gave a big leap and I looked up to see him land on the hood of the car. It was Mike Peterson. He punched in the windshield and grabbed me by my throat before yanking me out of the car.

*****

I could hear voices arguing as I finally began to wake up. I blinked my eyes and looked around and found that I was back on the Bus.

“Well he was wrong. We have her. And once she gives us a location, we'll be off!” Ward was saying.

“Yeah, that's not gonna happen!” I told him.

They both looked over at me as I stood up. Ward glanced at Mike then back to me.

“Take a walk. I can handle this,” he told Mike.

“Can you? You haven't so far,” I told him crossing my arms and glaring at him.

Mike looked down losing focus, getting a message from Garrett.

“Garrett says you have five minutes.”

“I can explain!” Ward said the minute Mike had left.

I walked up to him and punched him in the face and then in the stomach, just barely managing to hold back my super strength from damaging him too badly.

“You lying bastard! Son of a bitch! You lying –“ I punched him in the face again and then grabbed his shirt and shoved him backwards. He gripped my wrists trying to contain my anger.

“Stop. Stop. Stop! Calm down!” He said holding me tight. “Okay? Okay? It's over. You can't win!” He told me. I frowned, I could easily use my fire powers to burn him and then fly out of the plane but then Hydra would know for sure that “Angel” and Skye were the same person and as much as I didn’t want to stick around at the moment, I also didn’t want Whitehall coming after me again. Whatever Ward and Garret had planned for me paled in comparison to what Whitehall would do if he got ahold of me again.

I stopped struggling for a second at that thought.

“Okay?” Ward asked unsure.

I leaned my head back then thrust it forward knocking into his face with my forehead.

“Ow!” Ward cried out and I smirked in satisfaction as he wrangled me up again pitter my hands behind my back. He then cuffed one of my hands to the railing of the spiral staircase.

“Stop,” Ward said as he went into the lab and got a towel for his bloody nose.

“All this time, everything we've been through. Why? How could you?” I shouted at him.

“I was on a mission. It wasn't personal,” he said as he stared at me.

“It wasn't" – you did not just say that. "It wasn't personal"?!?” I yelled as I went to strike him again but got pulled back by the handcuffs. I scowled down at them wanting to rip them off but again, it was too dangerous to use my powers in front of him. I was just lucky he hadn’t seemed to question the fact I had used my wings in front of him when jumped out of the plane the first time I had found out he was Hydra but my guess was he had been too distracted to give it much thought and I didn’t want to give him a reason to start thinking about it.

“Skye, listen to me,” he said, lowering his voice to a soft, almost pleading tone.

“God! You might actually believe that. You – that is – that is the twisted logic that they teach you when you sign up to be a Nazi!” I yelled at him.

He made an unhappy face at that.

“Stop. Wait. I'm not a Nazi!”

“Yes, you are. That's exactly what you are. It's in the Shield handbook, chapter one. The Red Skull, founder of Hydra, was a big, fat freaking Nazi!” I shouted.

“That has nothing to do with today.”

“You know, you always had that Hitler youth look to you. So it's really not that surprising,” I commented.

“It's not like that. I'm a spy. I had a job!” He tried to explain.

“You've killed I don't know how many people. You gonna kill me now?” I said as I stepped back.

“No. I would never hurt you!” He tried to say.

“Once I crack the drive, are you just gonna shoot me like you did with Thomas Nash, or are you gonna have someone else do it, like you did with Quinn?”

“I didn't know that was gonna happen. That was all Garrett!” Ward shouted.

“Oh, of course it was Garrett's fault. That was part of the mission, right? You were just gonna kick back and watch me bleed until it's your turn to pull the trigger!” I shouted right back.

He pointed at himself seeming to be genuinely hurt by my words.

“You think I had a part in that? That I would let that happen to you? You know how I feel about you, Skye!” He walked in one step closer and I shook my head disbelieving what I was hearing.

“Wait. So, even though you've been lying, to everyone about everything, you're saying that your feelings for me –“

“They're real, Skye,” he walked in even closer and took my face into his hands. “They always have been.” He looked at me gently and I took a sharp breath, my eyes going wide.

“I'm gonna throw up!” I said as I felt my stomach churn and I moved quickly out of his embrace. His face showed hurt and I could feel my eyes filling with tears as I moved as far away from him as my cuffs would let me but I refused to cry in front of him. I had never let Hydra crack me in the past and I refused to do so now.

“Do you – do you think this has been easy for me? Do you have any idea how hard it was? The sacrifices, the decisions I had to make? But I made them. Because that's what I do. I'm a survivor!” Ward said as he once again tried to explain himself.

“You are a serial killer. And you know what? You were right about one thing. I wouldn't like the real you,” I told him.

“Someday...someday, you'll understand,” he said looking down.

“No. I won't. And I will never, ever give you what you want!” I told him as I sat down on the stairs.

*****

I sat staring at the cuffs as I contemplated whether I could risk yanking them off and trying to bust out of this place without them discovering my powers but before I could, Mike and Ward walked back up to me.

“Time's up. You can tell me where to unlock the drive – Or you can tell him,” Ward told me as he nodded over to Mike.

I stared at Ward for a moment then turned my attention to Mike.

“Mike...Please. I know you don't want to do this!” I told him.

“It's not up to me.”

“Yes it is. I don't care what they did to you. You're still Mike Peterson. You're still a father. You have a son!” I told him.

“Who I left in your hands. I asked you to look after him, Skye. Where is he now?” Mike asked me angrily.

“He's with his aunt, under the protection of a Shield team!” I told him thinking about the photo of Ace that I had included in the videos for Steve’s birthday.

“And what is Shield today? Hydra can hurt my son anytime they want, and if I get any funny ideas about rescuing him – they push a little button and blow a hole in my skull!” Mike said.

“Fitz-Simmons will figure out a way –“ I tried to say but he cut me off.

“No! There's no way out of this, Skye.” He stepped in real close looking down at me trying to intimidate me but I wasn’t going to let him. “Tell us how to unlock the drive.”

“No,” I told him.

“Damn it, Skye!” Ward exclaimed. He had been leaning against the door and stood up straight walking over toward us.

“You could've shot me back in Italy, but you didn't. They made Quinn do it because there's still good in you, Mike, and I don't think you're gonna hurt me!” I told Mike.

Mile took a deep breath staring at me.

“You're right. I won't hurt you.” He turned toward Ward and shot something out of his arm band. It hit Ward in the chest and I heard a whirring sound as Ward grunted in pain. He fell down to the floor on his back clutching his chest.

“What – what – what did you do to him?” I asked in shock.

“I stopped his heart.”