Chapter 69 - Agent Skye and The Avengers Intiative by marysuepoots

Summary:What if Skye was in The Avengers? What if they stumble upon a Terrigen crystal, and suddenly Skye is not so human after all..

One of Skye's top worries used to be keeping her sex life with Black Widow a secret, but strange killer crystals have surfaced and a tesseract has opened a portal to an Asguardian with a god complex and suddenly Skye has more things to worry about. Things like a man who can turn into the green giant whenever he throws a tantrum, an icicle from the 40s, her disgruntled former employer and goldilocks with a magical mystical hammer.

Notes:This fic reads better when read after the prequel 'Natalie Rushman Is Not A Babysitter', but to catch you up Skye was first hired by Tony, but then picked up by SHIELD and added to Coulson's team because of her 0-8-4 status. Oh and Natasha and Coulson had used 'Baby' as her security code name, but for some mysterious reason it has become her agent name too...

Please enjoy!

** TR: potentially triggering threatening sexually implicit comments made by Rumlow towards Skye **

Chapter 1Chapter Text "They're the deadliest team in S.H.I.E.L.D ops," Fitz said, dropping his voice to sound foreboding as the dim firelight illuminated his face. He'd gathered a crowd of other Academy cadets, huddling in under blankets by the fire, "They go in for the kill. Silent, lethal. No extraction plans."

They shuddered as the night wind swept through the camp, whistling through the trees.

"Hawkeye," Fitz said reverently, "Death from above. His arrows kill swift and quick. You'd never see him coming, until it's too late."

Simmons rolled her eyes but shut the book in her lap to lean forward and listen.

"Black Widow," he continued, "Femme fatale. The kiss of death. The most confirmed kills of any assassin known to date, and that's just the confirmed ones. I've seen it with my own eyes, she can snap a neck with one pinkie finger."

He held up his pinkie and grinned as another cadet shivered.

"And Agent Baby -"

Jemma burst into laughter, hardly able to cover her mouth to stop the hiccups from escaping as she slapped a hand over her chest. He scowled,

"What? Simmons? What's so funny?"

"Agent Baby?" she exclaimed, patting him on the back, "Oh Fitz, someone's got to be pulling your leg."

He scowled deeply, glaring into the firelight as chuckles broke out among the group, any attempt to regain their attention lost. His protests that Agent Baby was a real agent that worked with the Black Widow fell on deaf ears.

"You'll see," he muttered, "Mess with Agent Baby and you'll have deadly assassins in your room at night."

***

"Agent Baby, what's your 20?" Natasha ordered through comms, she paced the floor, ignoring the curious looks the pilot was giving her.

It was only supposed to be a simple object retrieval and recovery mission, to go in and grab a hard drive that had been left behind in a mission by one of the idiots in Strike Team 4. Coulson had chosen it as a training exercise for Skye, and Natasha been benched by a few broken ribs and a stab wound from a standard 'catch and release' operation last week.

The secret base was supposed to be empty, but now Skye was in there with Clint and Bobbi, surrounded by unexpected hostiles, and she was stuck in the Quinjet doing nothing.

"West corner, infiltrating now," Skye answered back. Her voice sounded steady, so at least she wasn't panicking.

"You've got a patrol down the east corridor," Nat informed her, "If you move now, and quick, you can slip in unnoticed. Do not engage unless necessary."

"Copy that."

"Do you have your firearm?"

They didn't need to have a visual on Skye to know she was rolling her eyes, "No, I threw it in the trash the first chance I could. Yes I still have my firearm. I'm approaching the door now, Coulson can you unlock from there?"

"Done," Coulson said, and they saw the figure they now confirmed was Skye enter a dark spot on their radar.

"She'll be fine," Coulson assured Natasha, "Clint's covering her back, and Bobbi is securing the exit. The situation isn't FUBAR yet, we have a handle on it."

Natasha couldn't help her nervous chewing of her lip, "I should have pushed her harder in the gym," she muttered, "She's not ready for multiple assailants."

"She's already puked all over our nice new mats during your training sessions," Coulson reminded her, "You've done what you can, and she's proved herself well. She's ready."

Nat only clenched her jaw, she knew he was right and that in the last six months Skye had come along exceptionally well but that wasn't much of a reassurance when most agents had been training for years.

The next part of the mission seemed to go smoothly, with Skye confirming she had the drive, and only a short scuffle on the exit that Skye confirmed she'd made it out of intact. Still, Natasha resumed her pacing until the doors to the Quinjet opened to them team in one piece.

Skye was beaming from ear to ear, despite the blood trickling from her nose or the bruise blooming on her cheekbone.

"I did good!" she announced with glee, as soon as she saw Natasha. Natasha immediately moved forward, her fingers grasping her chin to examine her nose for a break and check her eyes for a concussion.

"She did great," Bobbi confirmed, unclipping her rifle from beside them, "Three against one and she made it out fine."

Nat nodded, appeased that Skye didn't look too hurt. Skye unclipped her helmet, hair tousled by the movement, and she had to sweep her long bangs out of her eyes.

"You and your little protest bangs," Natasha teased, ruffling up her fringe. Skye scowled, trying to pry her hands away. Nat still remembered the morning Skye had arrived for training with bangs cut into her hair, after Sitwell had told her there should only be a few regulated hairstyles for woman and that bangs were strictly forbidden. 

"You've got the drive?" Coulson reminded her, not hiding his little smile as he looked at the two of them.

"Of course," Skye smiled, pulling a hard drive out of her pocket. Before she seemed to remember something, and turned to her backpack, "There was also something really weird down there in the office. I picked it up because it looked creepy as balls."

"I don't think that's an expression," Clint chimed in, coming to join their small gathering.

"Whatever," Skye dismissed, but pulled out a notebook and plopped it onto the table. Coulson frowned at it as she turned over pages and pages of weird lines and circles. Natasha narrowed her eyes as she caught the sign of recognition in Coulson's eyes, and the slight downturn of his lips.

"And there was this," Skye continued, pulling out a blue shining crystal, dotted with some type of dark metal from her jacket pocket, "I think it's an 0-8-4. Could be dangerous."

"Then why the hell did you put it in your pocket!?" Clint said, almost tearing his hair out in exasperation.

"I was careful," Skye hissed.

Coulson eyed it sceptically, "We'll need to send that to the labs," he said, "Get it someplace secure, could you please take it, Dr. Kravitz?"

"Right away, sir."

Dr Kravitz pulled on a pair of surgical gloves and a lock box, carefully taking the crystal from Skye. She deposited it in the Dr's hands, but as soon as she did his eyes flew wide, and Skye watched in horror as his hand slowly began to turn to stone, it crept up his arms and his chest.

"What's happening!?" he gasped, but soon his entire body was turned to ash and stone. Natasha immediate jerked Skye backwards, yanking her by the back of her tactical vest as far as they could get from the object in the dead man's hands.

"That, that didn't happen to me," Skye gasped, voice shaky with shock, examining her body for any hint of stone.

"Nat, I'm going to need you to step away from Skye," Coulson said, voice grave and eyes full of hurt as he watched Skye's rising panic. Natasha wanted to protest, but stepped back to give Skye a wide berth, eyes never leaving her body.

"What's happening?" Skye breathed out.

"We don't know whether the crystal has long lasting effects," he said, "In the meantime I need you to take deep breaths for me, Skye, everything will be okay."

Skye nodded, knowing that was a false hope and struggling not to look at the doctor turned to stone. She'd held that crystal for a good twenty minutes, and the doctor died in ten seconds.

Natasha looked like she'd completely shut down, she'd returned to one of the jumpseats and was staring into space, avoiding looking at her as the quinjet continued on his course back to the Helicarrier. Skye was routed to the spot, desperate to go comfort her or be comforted, as tears sprang into her eyes.

It was a tense ride, Coulson paging the Helicarrier to inform them that they had a potential biohazard on board. When they arrived it was to a commotion of scientists in hazmats suits, ordering them into quarantine and moving in a robot to pluck the crystal from their dead colleagues hands, all the while waiting to see if Skye would join his fate.

***

"That was stupid!" Nat growled, kicking out at her ribs. Skye barely managed to duck, but the lethal agent's foot still clipped her in the side, winding her as she rolled out of the way.

"I know," Skye wheezed. Usually, Nat held back in their sparring, allowing Skye to practice her moves and exploit openings, but she evidently had a point to make today.

"And reckless," Nat spat, and Skye barely ducked a right hook, although she could now move light on her feet as Nat launched at her with a kick and a fast jab to her already injured side. She figured she wasn't going to get a hit in but was determined not to go down in the first ten seconds.

Nat sprang up, feet first and Skye knew to hit the ground and duck low to avoid having her climb up her body, Nat didn't usually spring that on her but today was apparently the day she threw her in the deep end. She grabbed Nat's hips when she leapt closer and pull back into a backward roll, launching her over her head so that Skye slammed back on top. Bobbi had taught her that, but it didn't do enough to catch her off guard. Suddenly finding herself flat on her back, thighs squeezing her side and Nat's elbow coming up to press her against windpipe.

"You could have died," she seethed, lips turned into a snarl that made Skye's stomach drop from nerves. She knew Natasha would be angry with her, but she hadn't anticipated this ferocity.

"But I didn't," she said in weak defence, her voice smaller as she grappled with Nat's arm before tapping out with a resounding slap to her forearm.

Nat let her go abruptly and she all but collapsed to the mat.

"Get up," Nat ordered, "You want to be an agent, so get up."

Skye would usually complain or crack a joke to lighten the mood when Natasha came down hard on her, but Nat's eyes were daring and closed off and so she clambered to her feet without a word.

She didn't wait for her to catch her breath, whirling on her in an instant. She tried to get hit in, but Nat swatted her away like a fly, grabbing her elbow to pin her arm to her back. She was elbowed in the stomach, before her legs were swept out from under her, and she fell harshly to her knees. Skye tried to grab Nat's ankle to throw her off balance, but she didn't fall for it, instead wrapping her arm around her head in headlock, arm around her neck to choke her.

She tried not to panic, moving to slam her elbow back into Nat's stomach, but she stepped out of the way and Skye's other arm was still trapped up painfully behind her back. She grappled with Nat's arm, but her hold only tightened until her airways restricted.

"Romanoff! Take a walk," someone barked in the distance.

Skye didn't like that she felt relieved as Nat released the pressure and she could choke in a few breaths. Nat adjusted her hand wraps, her chest was heaving with anger as she stared Skye down, before her face wiped of all emotion entirely and she hopped out of the ring without a word.

Skye flopped back onto the mat, staring at the ceiling fans as they slowly turned, pushing down her hurt as Natasha walked away.

A hand appeared in front of her. She looked up to see Clint smiling grimly at her and she let him pull her to her feet.

"She's just upset," Clint assured her, "Give her time."

Skye nodded, looking at her hand wraps in defeat, "Yeah I think I kind of got that from the ass kicking."

Clint smiled sheepishly, "You did almost die, kid," he said, "Tash doesn't like losing people, but she'll come around." 

Skye sighed, "Did Coulson say anything more about what the hell that thing was?"

Clint rubbed the back of his neck, "That's classified. And pretty heavily too. Whatever it is, it's got them spooked."

**

Nat didn't show up to train Skye for the rest of the week, and so she fell into step with the other Level 2 trainees. Fury had needed her to do some intel gathering on some guy named Banner, but other than that she was free to train.

She'd been appropriately disciplined for the incident, with heaps of paperwork, and a new training module on biohazards and more assignments to write and even a warning added to her tally. Plus, the dressing down from Coulson and the meeting Fury scheduled into her diary that she was dreading.

She ran through the circuit course, pushing herself through her paces behind the other agents. They tended to give her a wider berth, since she was associated with the Black Widow and spent time with high-ranking SHIELD agents. It didn't help that her file was heavily classified if you tried to look into it, even her lack of a surname caused a stir.

There was also the rumour that she was the 'harbinger of death' or some bullshit because of the crystal incident and the leaked recordings from the ex-agent Lumley 'wherever she goes, death follows' speech. The investigation hadn't led much further than that yet, to her utter disappointment. All she got was a dead village, a potential monster, and even more questions.

She was so lost in thought as she attempted another pull-up, that she didn't see Rumlow until he was right in front of her, pushing her stomach until she had to drop back from the bar. She hopped down, concern building as he sneered down at her, backing her into the brick pillar that was suddenly too behind her.

"Agent Baby," he purred, and she felt bile rise up at the way he leered at her.

"Don't call me that," she snapped, "It's Agent Skye to you."

He chuckled darkly, "But isn't that what all the higher ups have been calling you, baby?"

She spat at him, and tried to dodge away, but he punched an arm out onto the brick wall by her head, caging her in.

"Let me go."

He continued, undeterred, "I'm glad Fury's finally decided to keep some more eye candy around. Romanoff is a treat, but SHIELD can always do with more. I bet you slept your way to the top-"

 "Hey!" came a shout from the doorway and the tension left Skye's shoulders as Natasha glared at Rumlow, "Leave her alone, asshole."

He scowled at Skye once more, shaking his head, before pushing away from the wall and slouching away, unfazed by Natasha's murderous gaze that followed him all the way down the hall.

"What was that about?" Natasha frowned at her once he was gone, "Was Rumlow intimidating you?"

Skye tried to shrug it off, although of course Nat would see through it, "It's nothing."

"That wasn't nothing," Nat argued, narrowing her eyes, "Don't lie to me, Baby."

Skye had been suspecting that Natasha had been pushing for 'Agent Baby' as her moniker for the exact reason of calling her baby any time she liked, and they both pretended that was a perfectly normal thing to do.

She had a love-hate relationship with the title.

Skye huffed as she explained, "Rumlow doesn't like that I skipped the academy and all the procedures to end up on your strike team. I mean I get it, I kind of did jump the ranks. So, its fine. It's not like I can change that and make them like me, especially not if you keep coming to my rescue."

Nat mulled it over in her mind, "Don't let them treat you like shit though."

She gave Nat an unimpressed look, "I'll try not to."

Nat jerked her head, indicating for Skye to follow her down the corridor. She shouldered her bag, hurrying after her.

"I'm still mad at you," Nat said, staring intently at the side of her face.

"I know."

Nat was still staring at her, and Skye couldn't help the way her mouth went dry as she was suddenly pushed her into a dark corner, a blindspot for the surveillance cameras. Her back hit the wall, Natasha's nose inches from her own.

It was familiar enough, but still sent a singing thrill through her veins as Nat's mouth found its way over hers. Skye could feel the driving force behind her lips, a firm and demanding pressure Nat didn't usually use with her. She pushed back all the same, sliding her tongue over Nat's, shuddering as felt teeth pressing gently into her bottom lip, and Nat's hand slid to her neck.

They weren't dating, and both were adamant that they could be a no strings attached deal, when really there was a web of strings that clearly obscured their collective common sense.

It was just occasional, casual sex, between friends (of course it was).

"I'm really mad at you," Nat repeated, lips finding Skye's neck. Skye hissed when she felt the harsh scrape of teeth against her tender flesh.

"How do you want me to explain this?" Skye hissed, knowing that there would be a mark as Nat continued to suck at the spot, sucking the tender skin between her teeth.

"Not my problem."

In Skye's defence the sex was really good

She tried to not to shiver as Nat's voice drawled, lips brushing the shell of her ear.

Her hand slipped under the back of Skye's training leggings, digging into the small of her back as she pressed closer, her other hand pressing her close by the hip. Tongue brushing along the junction at her ear.

"Not here," Skye urged in a whisper, hands coming to rest on her shoulders, not quite asserting enough pressure to actually push Nat away. She nodded.

"My room's closest."

**

Skye tried not to notice the bruises littering Nat's back as she shrugged on her bra, turning to narrow her eyes at Skye when she caught her staring.

"Don't worry, none of that was you."

"Didn't think it was."

She did.

"Get dressed," Natasha all but ordered, "You've got your meeting with Fury to worry about."

Skye groaned, before moving her hands to her tender neck with a start, "Shit."

Nat only smirked. Skye had tried to get her back in revenge, but she'd been held back easily, Natasha not one to give away control, and especially not during what could only be described as angry sex. Skye wasn't opposed to making her angry again if this was going to be the consequence. Although she might need a day or two to recuperate.

Something small plonked into her lap and Skye examined the concealer with a raised eyebrow, "I don't think we're quite the same shade."

"I know," Nat shrugged, "It's yours. I took it from your room at The Tower."

"Well thanks for being a creepy stalker," Skye muttered, examining her neck through the tiny mirror. It was worse than she'd hoped – a smattering of deep blotches from her jawline and down her neck to disappear under her collar.

"Did you have to make me your personal chew toy?" she remarked.

"Don't pretend you didn't like it."

"Yeah well, thanks to you I've got to go meet with the big boss in five minutes looking like I've slept with the entire base."

She ignored the hint of jealousy that she could swear flashed across her teammates' face. She was likely imagining it. There were no feelings of jealousy to be had, they were only teammates with extra incentives.

She knew this could turn out dangerous. She knew what the handle of Black Widow meant, she may not have before, but she did now that she was in SHIELD. Not that it would stop her from flirting with fire.

"Leave when no-one can see you," Nat reminded her as she walked to the door, "You might want to hurry though. You're already late."

Skye glanced to the clock, "Aw hell."

**

"You're late."

Skye glanced to the clock on Fury's office wall, seeing she was a whole ten minutes late.

"Sorry, sir," she swallowed nervously, shutting the door behind her. It closed with a defined click, sealing her into the room to face his disapproving stare.

"Take a seat," he said, gesturing to the leather chair in front of his pristine oak desk.

"Yes, sir."

He let himself indulge in a smile at her nerves.

She tried not to feel small as she sank into the plush, oversized chair, tempted to swivel her legs like a child.

"What do these mean to you?" he asked, pressing forward a few scattered pages. She frowned, picking up the photos as she examined the strange mix of lines and circles scrawled on the page. It was the same as in that notebook, but they were carved into a wall, and on a desk in marker pen.

"I'm not sure…" Skye frowned, before she shrugged, "I mean it kind of looks like a circuit board if you ask me. These are different from that notebook, where did you get this?"

"That's classified," Fury deflected, he squinted at her, "None of these rings any bells?"

"Should it?" Skye raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms as she leant back in the chair, "Because I saw the look on Coulson's face when I brought out that notebook. You know what this is or at least something about it. Maybe I have a right to know since I almost died. Did you know this would be in that office? Is that why you had us go back there?"

"I sent you back for the hard drive," Fury asserted, "If I can recall it was you who went against every single rule in the handbook and picked up an unidentified object without orders. I could have you court marshalled for less."

"But you won't," Skye narrowed her eyes, "Because you want to know what this is just as much as I do."

"Don't get too cocky with me, Agent," he glared, "You are not privy to all the information in play here, so don't go digging around in files you shouldn't," he jabbed a finger at the pictures, "Take another look."

She bit her tongue, but glanced back down to the photos, frowning as she tried to think of what he was going for.

"I don't know," she repeated, "I guess it could be some kind of language, or encryption system or like a map of some kind. It's nothing I've ever seen before. All I know is it was down there with that stupid crystal."

"You didn't see a name on the wall of the office? Any indication of who was studying this? Anything else we should know about?"

"Nothing that wasn't in my extensive debrief report," she bit back, rubbing a finger over her temple in thought, "It seemed kind of normal. Creepy, but normal, just some scientific study some whacko was doing."

"Mm," he said, "And are you feeling well?"

"Well, I haven't turned to stone so far," she said, "So that's good."

"It is," he agreed, and sat back in his chair, "Did you know we lost another agent to the damn thing?"

She shook her head.

"So far that's a 2 in 3 chance of sudden death," he raised an eyebrow, "Seems kind of strange that you didn't, don't you think?"

"Obviously," Skye sulked, not sure where he was going with this, "I have no idea why it didn't affect me. Maybe it's something to do with my parents and Hunan and me being an 0-8-4."

He nodded, "I have my suspicions."

"Maybe I should come on board," she offered, "It could be connected, and if I can touch it without dying that kind of seems like a plus."

"Perhaps," he said, and narrowed his eyes, "But I've got my eye on you. Don't think that I won't know if you meddle in this without my direct authority, understood?"

She looked down to the desk, unable not to feel the weight of his reprimand, "Understood, sir."

He nodded, "Good, you are dismissed."

She hurried out of the chair, almost to the door when he spoke up again.

"And Agent Skye?"

She turned on her heel, not wanting to be rude.

"Yes sir?"

"You might want to get those checked out," he said gesturing to her neck, "I've heard black widow bites can be fatal."

Her entire body heated immediately, face burning molten as it reached even the tips of her ears. She was barely able to squeak out, "Yes sir."

She couldn't get out of his office fast enough.

**

"All personnel, the evacuation order has been confirmed."

Skye glanced up from her computer in the comms room at the sound of the tanoy speaker. She didn't know they even had that. She'd been working on tapping into some Russian Interference, Bobbi glanced at her warily from where she'd been translating. Agent Davis and Agent Keller dropped their paperwork to their desks with a resonating smack.

The red lights flipped on, flooding the room in the ominous hue.

"I repeat to all SHIELD personnel, the order to evacuate has been confirmed."

"We need to go," Bobbi said immediately, dragging her up from her desk. Skye tried to grab for her laptop, but Bobbi slapped her hand away, "This is serious. Everyone out! Now!"

"Proceed to your dedicated vehicles. This is not a drill."

"What's happening?" Skye asked, letting Bobbi pull her to the closest emergency exit.

"I don't know," she muttered.

"Where's Clint?"

"He's in the main control room, with the tesseract-" she stopped as soon as she saw Skye's expression, "No, no we have to go. He'll handle himself."

But Skye was already paging in on her walkie, "Barton? Barton come in."

"Go for Barton."

"This is Agent Skye, what's your status?"

"I'm fine," he replied, "For god's sake Skye don't do anything stupid. Get out of the damn building. That's an order, agent."

Bobbi was still dragging her up for the fire escape, but she dug her heels in, "We can't leave him behind. He's in the thick of it, what if he needs help, I-"

Perhaps it was for the best that Bobbi was a quick thinker, and an excellent strategist.

She pulled her fist and punched Skye directly on her temple.

"Forgive me," she muttered, heaving Skye's unconscious body over her shoulder, "But I don't want The Black Widow to add me to her list of confirmed kills."

She got her out just in time for the ground to swallow up the entire campus and Fury was declaring war with a god.

Chapter 2Summary:Skye meets the first Avengers, and makes a new friend in Steve

Chapter TextSkye bit her fingernails, ignoring Coulson's disapproving frown, staring at the grainy footage on the screen in front of her. They were in Command, and Natasha was at least a few hundred miles away in some creepy Russian warehouse below them.

She was grateful that at least Natasha had been away during the whole 'massive SHIELD station gets swallowed up by a giant sinkhole' incident, Skye's head still pounded from Bobbi's right hook (she was still grumpy about that). It didn't seem that Natasha was doing much better - she hadn't imagined that when they obtained visuals on her mission Natasha would literally be tied to a chair by the bad guys she was supposed to be interrogating.

Skye flinched violently as one dressed in military garb punched her across the face.

"Is she letting herself get tortured!?" she gasped, mouth open as she looked to Coulson.

He shrugged, face impassive if not mildly condescending, "What part of a 'catch and release' mission did you not understand?"

"The part where someone gets tortured!"

She couldn't get over how calm Coulson was, especially with Natasha tied to a chair and being tortured.

"She's very good at it," he said simply.

"This is insane, Coulson," Skye glared at him, "You do realise that? This is like crimes against humanity bad."

"Look I know how it seems-" he started, and Skye scoffed, but he held up a finger. She held her tongue, although she refused to withhold her anger, "This is part of Natasha's espionage repertoire, it's what she does best. It's extremely effective and she knows exactly what she's doing. She knows she can get out of this whenever she needs to before it gets out of hand. You try telling her not to do it and she won't listen."

The Russian man on the screen grabbed Natasha's jaw and one of them was reaching for pliers, Skye closed her eyes, "You say you're the good guys," she accused, venom seeping into her voice, "I can't watch this."

"We'll discuss this later," Coulson promised, "Can you dial the number?"

Skye nodded, eager to get Natasha out of whatever that was. She dialled the number onto Coulson's phone, routing it through the signal she'd tracked earlier. At least watching the Russians scramble in fear by Coulson's over exaggerated threats felt like some vindication.

"We need you to come in."

"Are you kidding? I'm working," Natasha's voice came through the line, and she sounded annoyed. Coulson rose an eyebrow to Skye who huffed and crossed her arms.

"This takes precedence."

"I'm in the middle of an interrogation," she argued, "This moron is giving me everything. You can't pull me out this right now."

Skye almost found it in her to laugh as the Russian general looked flummoxed. She could admit on some level that she understood what Natasha was doing, but it didn't make it morally okay.

"Natasha, Barton's been compromised."

The silence was loud as Natasha processed the information, and the footage was clear enough for Skye to see how Natasha stiffened, even tied to the chair as she was.

"Let me put you on hold."

"See?" Coulson said, turning to her as the sounds of the men yelling and a chair breaking came down the line.

Skye scowled, watching as Natasha beat their asses, "Still insane."

The fight was over in exactly ten seconds, and Natasha primly picked up her shoes.

"Where is Barton now?" she asked.

"We don't know."

"But he's alive?"

"We think so," Coulson confirmed. Natasha's shoulders slumped in small relief.

"And Skye?"

"She's with me."

Natasha nodded.

"Can she see me?"

"Yes."

Skye could swear she could see a smile on Natasha's face.

"Tell her to stop worrying about me, those idiots tortured like pre-schoolers."

"That doesn't make me feel any better!" Skye yelled loud enough for the line to pick her up.

"We'll talk when I get back," she promised.

"I'm gonna need you to go pay someone else a visit first," Coulson interjected, "Dr Banner. Calcutta."

"Oh god."

The line went dead.

"What's so bad about a doctor?" Skye frowned, spinning in her chair to give Coulson her full attention.

"He turns very big, and very green."

"The Hulk?? That is so cool," Skye grinned, tampering down her enthusiasm when Coulson gave her his best unimpressed face, "But terrible for the guy, really terrible…can't wait to meet him."

"I'm sure that'll be a highly disastrous meeting," Coulson sighed, "Unfortunately you and I are off to pay your former employer a visit first."

"Oh, he's going to love that," Skye beamed, "I bet he misses me terribly."

**

"I thought you weren't allowed to mess with my JARVIS anymore," Tony pouted, pointing an accusing finger at Skye as soon as the elevator doors opened.

They'd clearly interrupted them, as he had a glass of champagne in his hand, glaring as Pepper rushed to her feet.

Skye held up her hands in surrender, her phone which she'd used to override his protocols still clutched in her hand, and said sweetly, "I don't remember agreeing to that."

"I'm pretty sure there's a lengthy legal document that says otherwise," he rebutted, "Now if you don't mind we were having a very nice traitor free-"

"Oh, stop it," Pepper admonished, "Come on in, Phil. Skye, it's good to see you." Pepper greeted enthusiastically, beaming at the pair of them, and gesturing them into the room.

"Oh, so we're on first name basis with both of them, are we?" Tony grumbled, finally getting to his feet.

"We're celebrating," Pepper ignored him, gesturing to her champagne.

"I'm afraid we can't stay," Coulson smiled placatingly.

"I'm afraid I agree," Tony muttered.

"We need you to look this over, as soon as possible," Coulson said, handing Pepper over the documents. Skye had briefed him on Tony not liking being handed things.

"Official consulting hours are between eight and five, every other Thursday," Stark narrowed his eyes, gesturing to the document.

"You're gonna wanna take a look," Skye promised, "Whole base blew to shit the other day cos of this."

Coulson shot her a disapproving look, but a smirk curled on Stark's lip, and he raised an eyebrow, "Is that so?" he said, and eyed her critically, "And where's your suit, Agent Number 2?"

Coulson cleared his throat, "Classified information aside, this is of upmost importance," he urged, "Lives depend on it."

"Well, who am I to say no to that," Stark remarked, and waved a dismissive hand at them all as he took the document from Pepper, "Go entertain yourselves elsewhere."

Pepper rolled her eyes as Stark opened up a hologram to read the info on the Tesseract and the Avengers, "I thought the Avengers initiative was scrapped!" Stark called over his shoulder.

"Change of plans," Coulson said.

"Well," Pepper announced, "Since it looks like you've got a lot of homework to do, I'll take the jet to DC tonight."

"Tommorow," Stark rebutted.

"Tonight," she turned to them both, "Any chance you can swing by La Guardia?"

"We can drop you off," Coulson agreed, as Pepper gathered her things.

"So, Skye," Pepper continued, once ready, leaving Stark to sulk and ponder in the background, "SHIELD seems to be suiting you well."

"Yeah it's great, you know, it's nice to be doing something to help people. And Coulson's a really good mentor."

"I try," Coulson said humbly, pressing the button to bring them to the lower floors.

"Well either way, I'm glad to see you're well," she said, shooting Skye a knowing smile, "How's Natalie, by the way?"

Skye couldn't help the blush that rose to her cheeks, Coulson could clearly see it through the reflection of the elevator, she cleared her throat, "She's good, yeah."

"That's good."

"Mm."

The elevator could not go down fast enough.

**

"I gotta say. It's an honor to meet you, officially."

Skye was bemused as she watched Coulson completely flounder over Steve Rogers, and not just the 'oh you're my boss' kind of awkward flustered, but the 'oh my god you're my number one celebrity crush' type of flustered. He was fangirling.

She didn't know whether to laugh or cringe.

"I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping. I mean, I was, I was present, while you were unconscious from, well, the ice…"

Definitely cringe. The poor guy couldn't look more uncomfortable with the attention.

"Woah there Mr Enthusiasm. You might wanna slow the roll a bit," Skye swooped in, offering Steve a warm smile. She'd never been a huge Captain America fan anyway – the 1940s was far too old for her. She leant closer to him, miming her hand up to her face like a stage whisper, "Excuse him. He doesn't normally act like a total dork. Well, most of the time."

Steve nodded, eyes assessing her cautiously, but his smile was thankful, and his head tilted curiously.

"Well, I hope I'm the man for the job," he said modestly, "Seems as though I'm held in high regard."

"Well, you are the great 'Captain America'," Skye grinned, emphasising his title with exaggerated jazz hands. She succeeded in getting him to smile a little more, and she could tell he was a little more at ease with the teasing rather than Coulson's admiration. Her chest bloomed with pride.

"I'm not sure that's a title I'm really suited for anymore," Steve admitted, abashed.

"Oh no, you are still Captain America, absolutely," Coulson disagreed eagerly, "You know, we made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input."

Skye bit her lip, sharing a knowing look with Steve – who had an amused twinkle in his eye, despite his respectful expression.

"The uniform?" he questioned politely, "Aren't the stars and stripes a little...old-fashioned?"

"Everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old-fashioned," Coulson explained seriously.

Steve looked to Skye for confirmation, and she shrugged, "At least you'll look pretty."

His mouth opened as if to reply, but he closed it again, seemingly lost for words.

"I'm sorry, I meant dashingly handsome and appropriately patriotic," she reassured, "I mean, why have a superhero name without a superhero suit?"

He appraised her again, "You got a superhero suit, too?"

Skye scoffed, waving him away, although she blushed at the notion, "Oh no I'm just a desk lackey, who throws a punch. Sometimes."

He seemed to want to say something, but hesitated. Skye titled her head.

"Let me guess," she said, "You're wondering if woman are allowed to do that now?"

He looked down, caught, "I'm very glad that you are," he said, obviously wanting to let her know that he didn't disapprove of it, "I knew some real ass kicking dames in my day."

Skye beamed. She liked this guy a lot.

"Just wait until you meet Agent Natasha Romanoff."

**

Skye bounced on the balls of her feet, eyes running over Natasha for injuries as soon as the quinjet opened and she was striding over the tarmac of the Helicarrier. Her face was unmarred, which was surprising but relieving. Natasha nodded at them, eyes lingering only slightly on Skye before turning to smile in greeting at Steve.

"Agent Romanoff," Coulson introduced them, "Captain Rogers."

"Ma'am," Steve nodded deferentially.

"Hi," Natasha returned casually.

Skye bit back a smile.

Natasha's eyes slid over to hers, eyes promising to make good on that talk later, so Skye braced for a dismissal, "They need you on the Bridge, they're starting the face trace."

Skye sighed internally, but nodded respectfully, "If they've got Sitwell working on it they'll need all they help they can get."

Coulson followed her out, leaving Natasha to handle the superhero.

**

"Find anything yet?"

Skye jumped at Natasha's low voice at her shoulder, glancing up from the workstation she'd kicked Sitwell off of. The bridge was bustling with activity, and although she felt the stern gaze of Fury and Hill on her back, no-one had objected. Yet. Well, Sitwell was sulking but screw him he didn't like her hair.

"Nothing yet," Skye sighed in reply.

She analysed Natasha's face – she was crouched on the platform, leaning down to talk to her.

"He'll be fine," Skye reassured, talking lowly but leaning into Natasha so she could hear.

"I know."

"Good."

From the platform above Coulson sidled up to Deputy Hill, hands clasped in front of him as they surveyed the room. 

"Bets are in," Coulson said, jerking his head at where Skye and Natasha had their heads pressed together, throwing a wink at Maria.

"What's your vote then?" she asked, and her lips pinched tighter, but her eyes were amused.

"Give it a couple of months," Coulson shrugged, "Romanoff just needs to realise she has serious feelings."

Maria nodded her head, "Speaking of, how has 'Agent Baby' been? I'm a little surprised to see her here."

"Well, she's not a huge fan of the moniker," Coulson smirked, "But she's coming along well. She keeps up with them, and it's been good for Natasha to take someone under her wing."

"I'll say," Maria scoffed, eyeing the pair that were practically gazing into each other's eyes.

"So where at we at with finding this guy and the Tesseract?"

Banner's voice snapped Coulson and Hill back to the task at hand.

His voice carried above the rest of the noise, reaching Skye down below. Skye thought the man sounded a little disgruntled. It tore her gaze away from Natasha's, which was probably a good thing if they wanted to be at least somewhat covert. She looked up, eyeing the man in a crumpled brown suit.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet," Skye replied, turning to reply to who she assumed was Dr Banner, "Cell phones... laptops, if it's connected to a satellite, I've got eyes on it."

He frowned, "You'll have to narrow your field. How many Spectrometers do you have access to? You should-"

"Hack into every lab's Spectrometer and make an algorithm calibrated to check for gamma rays based on cluster recognition?" Skye finished for him.

He shut his mouth, rendered speechless. Skye smirked. She caught Steve smiling in bemusement in the background.

"…Yeah, in other words." Banner said, "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Agent Skye," Skye said, "Pleasure to meet you Doctor Banner."

"Likewise," he said, eyes full of curiosity. He frowned, gesturing to the blue uniforms around them and then her, "So…you didn't get a space suit, Agent Skye?"

Skye beamed, kicking her legs up on the chair next to her.

"I'm too cool for a uniform, but I made my own modifications," she gestured to her denim jacket, the one she'd iron pressed patches of the SHIELD logo onto both upper arms, "Pretty rad, right?"

"Right," he nodded, clearly a little taken aback by her candidness. She turned back to her screen, algorithm flagging up an alert.

"Even with all this," Natasha sighed, breaking the lingering awkwardness, "It still might not be enough to find them in time-"

"I got him!" Skye interrupted, leaning forward in her seat to double check. She pulled the visual of the guy onto the screens, "Germany. Dudes defo got creepy. How much alien hair gel do you think he uses?" 

"Agent Skye, please stay on task."

Director Fury's voice boomed down toward them, and she sheepishly looked up to where he was stood with his hands on his hips, staring down at her. She cleared her throat, realising that the eyes of most of the Bridge were on her.

"I've got him in Stuttgart, Germany," Skye continued, "28, um, co-nig-stra…ber?"

"Königstraße," Natasha corrected, "He's not exactly hiding."

"And Barton's there," Skye caught eyes with Natasha, before looking to the rest of the room, "Wonder why he chose there? There's gotta be something there for the space dude."

Fury nodded, "Good work, Agent Skye. Find what you can on the place."

Skye preened under the praise, although she did try to hide it at least a little, "Yes sir."

"Well, Cap." Fury announced, turning to the worried man, "Looks like you're up."

Steve straightened, breathing deeply. His eyes briefly slid over to Skye, she wasn't sure why he was looking to her for any kind of authority, but she shot him a smile and a thumbs up. He nodded.

The guy was jacked, he'd be fine. At least he got to have the fun, whilst she'd most likely be benched on the Bridge, listening to Sitwell complain for hours. She couldn't wait.

Chapter 3Notes:Been gone a while, oops. Quit my job, travelled the world, the usual.

Chapter TextSkye swung her legs over the side of the table, watching as Natasha checked her pistols and widow bites, ready to run back up for Captain's ambush of Loki. She bit her lip, fingers drumming against the table as she thought of the best way to persuade Natasha to let her come.

"You know, I could co-pilot?" Skye tried, "You may want the extra pair of eyes-"

"No," Natasha replied calmly, as she assembled a pistol in what Skye knew must be a record time for pistol assemblers. She was barely even looking at what her hands were doing as she levelled Skye with disapproving eyes.

"Well, Steve seems to like me so-"

"No."

"I could-"

"No."

Skye scowled, blowing out air in a long huff.

Natasha rolled her eyes, "You don't even know how to fly, Skye," she said measuredly, "And I'm pretty sure Coulson is looking for you right now."

"Coulson's always looking for me."

"Only because you like to hide from him," Natasha pointed out, before she gave in, putting down the widow bite in her hand to give the agent her full attention, "Look Skye, whilst I appreciate your desire to help, this is beyond your current skill level."

"Fine," Skye sulked, "I'll be on the ship like a good little agent, being seen and not heard, while you go fight the cool space aliens." She resisted the urge to pout, but only barely.

Natasha snorted, "As if you'd ever be quiet for that long."

"Not the point."

Natasha finished strapping the guns into her holsters, Skye watching as she patted herself down for all the necessary places. Natasha need only glance at Skye's hesitant expression before reading her mind,

"What do you want now?"

"Who says I want anything?" she quickly defended, but Natasha saw the longing glance she gave one of the widow bites on the table. Sighing, she picked a spare set from the case and threw them at Skye. Luckily Skye caught them in both hands.

"Break it and I'll break you."

Skye's face morphed into a smirk, "Tempting."

"Romanoff to the bridge," Hill's voice filtered through the speakers, "We're going wheels up in five."

"That's my cue," Natasha spun on her heel, "Don't shoot yourself while I'm gone."

Skye threw a salute to her retreating form, eyes straying a little further down than was professional, "I'll do my best, ma'am!"

She sighed, hopping down off the bench to go avoid Coulson somewhere else.

**

Skye spun around in the office chair, watching as Bruce studied his algorithms carefully.

"Whatever you want to ask about me controlling the Hulk, for the love of God please just ask," Banner muttered, not taking his eyes off his work, "You're practically bursting with questions, I can tell. You're not very subtle, Agent Skye."

"Caught," Skye sighed, raising her hands in surrender, "But it's really less of a SHIELD question, and more of a personal curiosity."

"Oh well, that's so much better," Banner muttered sarcastically, looking up to raise an eyebrow at her, "Well?"

"So, I was wondering," Skye began, leaning forward, "Do you know where those little purple shorts come from? I mean it's quite considerate of the Hulk, really, giving you a bit of modesty and all. And the colour contrast, he's quite the fashionista."

"You…want to know why the Hulk chose purple?"

"No," Skye disagreed, "Well, yes, but it's more cause your physical body shapeshifting into the Hulk kinda makes sense? Like in a very cool sci-fi way, but the shorts too? It just kinda seems left field. You don't know why?"

"Funnily enough The Hulk is not very talkative," Banner rebuked, "He tends to be preoccupied with death and destruction."

"And being fabulous," Skye added with a smirk.

He hesitated, shaking his head in what Skye could tell was mild exasperation, "How long have you been an agent?"

"About six months," Skye shrugged.

"Oh so, right after you graduated middle school?"

Skye faked being offended, but really her face broke into a grin at the jab, "Yeah, just before you entered your retirement home, Grandpa Hulk."

"Grandpa Hulk?" Banner repeated, before he let out an amused huff, "Jesus Christ kid, you get to 45 and teenagers think you're on your death bed."

Skye smiled sweetly, rising to pat him sympathetically on the back, "Maybe you've got a few years yet."

"Ha, ha," Banner remarked, "Do you wanna keep distracting the adults or do you wanna help?"

"Sure, I'm no doctor of nuclear whatever, but I can mess with code for a while," Skye conceded, hopping onto a counter, "What've you got for me?"

It was a much more pleasant distraction to keep Bruce company than to pace around on the Bridge, and when Coulson stuck his head in, he didn't order her away. She figured it was because she was 'keeping an eye on Bruce', but she didn't think he needed a guard. Maybe just a friend.

**

"Who's that?" Banner frowned.

Skye turned to look in his direction, and it was hard to miss the twenty-armed guards marching one strangely dressed man.

Skye's heart skipped a beat, and she felt her palms getting clammy as the guy stared at her and Banner, everything about his smile and eyes screaming serial killer. She shivered, especially when his eyes locked on hers, seeming to last forever despite being marched along. His head tilting as he studied her before his face broke into an even more sinister smile. His stare seemed to linger uncomfortably, raising the hairs on the back of her neck.

She swallowed, turning to Banner as Loki rounded the corner. He shot her a half-hearted smile, "I'd recommend you stay away from that guy."

"Yeah…"

**

"What's new, AC?" Skye asked, skip in her step to keep up with Coulson as he frowned down at his iPad, walking fast toward the main control area. He turned the screen so she could see the display, the creepy guy was pacing calmly in a wide cell, guarded by several agents with guns.

"We're letting our 'God of Mischief' stew in the holding cell we built for Banner," he explained, "Should hold him while we find out his play."

Skye nodded, "No sign of Clint?"

Coulson shook his head gravely, "No. I'm suspicious of this as a distraction tactic, but until we find Loki's motive we're still running blind."

They were already coming up to the main room – they could see the group of special agents looking worse for wear in their chairs. Natasha turned as they approached, tired smile for Skye as she came near.

Skye frowned, "Who's the gymbro?" she asked, pointing to the buff blonde dude in a cape, as the rest of the morose looking group of superheroes looked up, "Why's he wearing a cape?"

"It is not a cape my lady," the man said, turning to her from his observation of the deck, "But a regal gown."

"Huh, cool," she nodded, before turning to the group, and jerking to the man with her thumb, "So who is he?"

"My name is Thor of Asgard," the man, Thor, said, puffing out his chest as he did so, "I am here to retrieve my brother and return him and his sceptre to our home realm."

Skye crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes, "Well your brother has pinocchioed one of my friends. Care to get him back?"

"I am not sure what that term means?" Thor questioned.

"She means he enslaved one of our agents to do his bidding," Commander Hill chimed in from the controls, "Any idea what he's planning?"

"He has an army of Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"More aliens?" Skye scoffed at the same time as Steve's incredulous "An army? From outer space?"

"Yes, aliens! Green wiggly things from outer space, get with the program," Tony said, arms spread for his grand entrance, "He means to use our good scientist friend to open a portal, for said evil underlings to overthrow the earth, and he needs the Iridium your good friend Agent Barton stole to stabilise it," the group turned to him with unamused looks, "Yes, you can applaud now."

"I'll applaud when the aliens are all gone," Steve deadpanned.

"I'll applaud when Tony realises he's not the only genius in the room," Skye said.

"Absurd," Tony remarked, turning to face Skye and Natasha, "Oh, would you look at that it's like a reunion," Tony said, "Only I seem to remember you two-"

"So if Loki has what he needs to stabilise the portal, why not open it?" Natasha interrupted.

Tony smiled, twinkle in his eye, but clapped his hands together, "He needs a high energy power source to kick start the cube." 

"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Banner added.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunnelling effect," Tony countered.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet…."

Skye tuned them out as they talked science, turning her attention instead to slide on top of the desk next to Natasha's chair, her feet resting on the empty chair.

"You okay?" she asked quietly. Natasha gave her a glare, but nodded and lied, "Fine."

Skye raised an eyebrow to argue but was interrupted by a barked order, "Agent Skye, out."

She turned in indignation to the director, "But I'm helping with the search-"

"And you can help from the Comms room. There's a file waiting for you."

He gave her a hard stare, glaring very effectively with his eye, and she resigned to standing up.

"Yes, sir," she sighed, grabbing her tablet from the table.

"Can't she stay?" she heard Steve ask behind her.

"Level 5 and above only," Fury said.

She could feel Steve's discontent even as she fled the room.

**

It was well past midnight, but Skye couldn't sleep. She huddled further into her - well, Natasha's - black hoodie, as she shuffled into the common area with a yawn. It was a very comfy hoodie, and it still smelt faintly like the superspy's favourite perfume. She wondered how long it would be before Natasha demanded it back.

She went over to the drinks machine on autopilot, getting herself her usual nightly hot chocolate, quietly humming a tune under her breath.

"So that's how that thing works."

Skye just about jumped out of her skin, her body jerking so suddenly she almost spilt her drink. She spun around, clutching her chest as she caught eyes with Steve Rogers. He was smiling at her tiredly from the table.

"Jesus dude, you scared me," She laughed, still a little shaky from the adrenaline surge that had shot just through her, before glancing to the clock on the wall, "What are you doing up at 4am?" 

"I could ask you the same thing."

Skye smiled, stretching with a yawn, "They've got me in a bunk with Agent Tarmin. She snores, and I mean, like, really loud."

It was partly true. Tarmin did snore like a lawn mower mowing nails, but it was more her bad dreams that kept her awake, and she had a bad habit of coding to distract herself. Natasha would spew some bullshit about blue light and sleep cycles or something. 

Steve smiled, "I remember a few recruits like that. Buck used to talk in his sleep sometimes. Dugan used to stink something fierce."

Skye laughed, "Silent but deadly I bet," she turned back to the machine, finishing her fresh hot chocolate, "What did you want to drink?"

"I just wanted a coffee," Steve confessed, "But I didn't realise even drinks were complicated now."

"I'll make you one," Skye offered, "Americano? Cappuccino? Mocha? Macchiato?" She smiled at Steve's lost expression, "Flat white it is. It's pretty easy, you just gotta press a few buttons, they're all labelled."

"I couldn't find any buttons?"

"Ah," Skye nodded, "Come ere I'll show you what a touch screen is, grandpa."

"I'm not much older than you," Steve grumbled, but willingly came over.

He frowned after her brief explanation, concentrating very hard, "Well how will I know if it's a touch screen if it's always blank?"

Skye shrugged, "Sometimes you just have to tap everything and see if it works."

"Won't I look stupid?" Steve asked, narrowing his eyes, "You're having me on."

Skye laughed, "I promise I'm not. Sometimes when you go to a public restroom everyone is karate chopping the taps to find out how the turn on – sometimes it's just a foot pedal. It is a little ridiculous now I think about it. Even some toilets flush with a hand sensor, you have to wave at it. "

Steve laughed, "You're joking, right?"

"Nope."

He shook his head, "All this wonderful technology and that's how you use it? What's wrong with the old chain and pull?"

"You should see what Stark's tower has," Skye said, leading him back to the table with her mug of hot chocolate, "I swear the building even tracks your heartbeat."

He joined her, smiling over the lip of his mug, sighing as he finally got his caffeine hit, "This is much better than the ration coffee I last had."

Skye smiled, taking her own sip, not wanting to press him about the war. Seemed like a sore topic.

"So Skye, tell me about you?" Steve asked, "I hear a New York accent in you."

"I grew up in Hell's Kitchen," Skye said, "It's like the one area in Manhattan no one wants to go. It even has its own superhero now."

"Clinton and Midtown West?" Steve asked, "Between 34th and 57th?"

"Oh my god yeah, exactly."

"So not everything has changed," Steve smiled, "We called it Hell's Kitchen too. There used to be this Newspaper Store on 37th, run by this grumpy man-"

"Mr Argyle!" Skye added, "The bastard hated me. Always thought I was up to no good, I mean I was, but that's beside the point."

"I got beat up a few times in the alley behind it," Steve confessed, "Back when I was skinny and scrawny and too bold for my own good."

Skye chuckled, "They should put up a plaque, 'Captain America was beat up here.' It'd be really inspiring."

"So, did you live in one of those flats down the road? I used to be in 71B? Near the orphanage, or well I guess it used to be, not sure if you still have those-"

"St Agnes." Skye replied quietly, her smile tight and unconvincing, judging by Steve's expression. She tapped the edge of her mug with her nails, "Bet Sister Margerita was still a bitch, even then. She's probably dead now though. Been a while since I was there."

"That's where you lived?" Steve asked, eyes full of annoying sympathy.

Skye shrugged, brushing it off, "Yeah, yeah sob story and all." 

"Sob story?"

Skye tilted her head, "You seen any reality TV since you defrosted?"

Steve shook his head, "I don't believe so..?"

Skye grinned, "I'll go get my tablet, you stay right there."

"Yes ma'am…." Steve said in a daze, eyes following where Skye was running off with a skip in her step. Perhaps there was still good to be found in this strange, modern world. He'll have to ask Skye how to turn off the moving pictures in his room when she gets back.

Chapter 4Notes:Sorry folks, took a while to figure out the canon diverging+ sticking canon moments but I hope you enjoy!

Chapter TextNatasha ran through some mental exercises in her head, stretching out her shoulders as she approached the team common area. She felt rough, eyes still a little glazed and head stuffy from a restless night, but she needed to be awake. Clint was still out there, and Fury hadn't made any moves with Loki yet. Maybe Skye was already awake, and she could bring her a coffee how she liked it, jampacked with far too much sugar-

She froze, hand on her gun. There were two people already in the kitchen. Cautious, she walked silently into the room. She let out a breath as she recognised them, releasing the tension in her shoulders but not relaxing the frown on her face.

Skye was curled up on the couch, her head resting on Captain Rogers' shoulder. His breath fanned over her hair as he slept, and she pulled her knees in closer.

Natasha scowled, going over to make her coffee with silent footsteps. She should always be level-headed and sensible, but a dark shroud of…something was hard to shake. She forced herself to focus on the brew and not Captain America's arms around her teammate.

It didn't matter who her teammates spent time with. Let alone a rookie with – she stormed out of the room, downing her coffee before heading to the punching bags below deck.

**

"Team bonding without us are we?"

Skye jerked awake, quickly shuffling sway from Steve - who's shoulder she'd just been using as a pillow. She tried to tame her hair, a blush rising to her cheeks at being caught in the potentially compromising position. They must've fallen asleep sometime after the third episode of America's Got Talent.

Stark was looking at them, fake annoyance on his face but there was clearly amusement in his eyes. It was definitely Stark who had interrupted their peaceful slumber. Steve calmly cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck at the awkward situation as he straightened up. The others were all fully dressed, Thor openly staring at them, while Banner busied himself with the fruit bowl on the counter.

She caught eyes with Natasha, heart plummeting at the stoney expression on her face. Natasha was lingering in the doorway, arms crossed and clearly unamused. Skye bit her lip, wondering how she could reclaim this situation now. But what situation? They'd only fallen asleep on the coach. Still, Natasha looked at her so coldly she couldn't help something in her stomach wilting a little.

"Couldn't sleep," She muttered as a feeble excuse, "I was introducing Steve to reality TV."

"Well, you two lovebirds can go get dressed," Stark said, "There's work to be done!"

**

"Really thought we'd be making better progress than this by now," Stark sulked, prodding a few more bits of code on his screen uselessly, "I could have flown all the way to the moon twice in the time this thing has done anything even remotely useful."

"Well, it'll take weeks to process all the gamma readings consistent with the Tesseract with the current search," Bruce interjected, musing over his readings of the sceptre.

"Alright, Debbie Downer," Stark huffed, before picking up a plate from the large continental spread he'd somehow made appear, wafting it under Skye's face, "Croissant?" Skye eyed it suspiciously, as he shook the plate forward at her, "What, SHIELD got you on Romanoff's pain-no-chocolat diet?"

"That was bad," Skye scoffed, but took one and tore into it, "Even for you."

"I'm flattered," Tony said dryly, before turning and lobbing one at Bruce. It slapped him in the back of the head with a dull thunk, "No hulk reflexes? No going green?"

Bruce shot him an unimpressed look, "Nope, just plain old Bruce."

"Shame," Tony said, but thankfully lapsed into silence so Skye could pretend she was making any progress on the SHIELD assigned tasks she had open on her laptop in front of her, instead of what she was actually doing to find Clint. He wasn't cropping up in her facial recognition scans, but that wasn't surprising since he knew how to evade CCTV almost as well as Natasha did.

 "Why didn't it kill you?" Tony asked out of the blue, pulling her out of her hyper fixation on the screen.

 "Huh?"

"Says here you almost got killed because you were touching no-touchy touchy things," he raised an eyebrow, "Still the problem child I see."

Skye narrowed her eyes, "That's not easily accessible information, maybe you should stay out of SHIELD's servers before the big boss catches on."

He waved off her concern, "Well I'm pretty sure the Big Boss is doing more than fiddling his taxes," he said, swivelling his screen around to show her, "Exhibit A, running bio-weapon simulations on human-killing crystals and oh, B, studying Tesseract energy a suspicious amount for a company not interested in clean energy."

"You think he wants the Tesseract so that he can build a weapon?"

"We don't think that" Steve said, emerging through the doorway, to plop something heavy and metal down on the table, "We know."

"Ooh Captain's been a naughty boy," Stark grinned, picking up the Hydra assault rifle, "Where'd get this?"

"Weapons cache in storage on level 2," Steve frowned, his mouth set in a hard line, "He's hoarding Hydra tech."

"Told you so," Stark smirked, flashing his screens of SHIELD confidential files to Steve, whose jaw (somehow) managed to wind itself even tighter in annoyance at Stark's breezy attitude.

"Hydra? Wait, that floor is locked," Skye frowned, "How'd you get in? When?"

"Last night."

"Wait, that's why you couldn't sleep?" Skye said, exasperated, "Does anyone tell me anything? Seems kind of important to mention Cap."

"I thought you were loyal to SHIELD, agent Skye."

"Well, I'm not an idiot who trusts them completely!"

"Be that as it may Agent Skye," Fury barked from the doorway, "But that is not an excuse to rig a damn malware attack!"

Skye jumped, whirling toward him, annoyance building in her chest unbidden, as if it was simmering under the surface – or jumping into her from all theother annoyance feelings buzzing around the room from literally everyone. Seems it wasn't just her who had a bad night's sleep.

She glared back at Fury.

"What! Don't give me that glary face, that wasn'tme! It was obviously Stark," she defended, arms crossed, "I wouldn't cheat and use an AI bug. I don't need to."

"Um, it's called being resourceful-" Stark sassed.

"I don't care who or what or how," Fury cut him off, "What are you playing at?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Stark rebutted, showing Fury the screen, "Phase 1: retrieve Tesseract, Phase 2: weapons of mass destruction, what's Phase 3? Nuke the planet? Conquer the galaxy? Summon Hades?"

"I was wrong, Director," Steve said bitterly, "The world hasn't changed one bit if you're jumping the

gun to create more ways to kill each other. SHIELD? Hydra? What's the difference?"

"The difference," Fury started sternly, "Is that I'm not trying to kill people, I'm trying to save them. You think the Gods of Asgard are the only aliens out there? We're outmanned and outgunned."

"The drawings…" Skye realised, her fears confirmed when Fury's one eye glared at her intensely, a warning, "You knew about them. From way before that mission. They're not from Earth, at all, are they?"

"Outside," he ordered, jerking his head to the doorway. She hesitated, eyeing the other three powder-kegs nervously. He narrowed his eye, "Don't make me pull rank, agent."

Faced with little option than to be fired, or worse, taken off of Natasha's team, Skye followed him out of the door like a lost kitten.

"Agent Skye, need I remind you that you are not a part of the Avengers?" Fury scowled, as soon as they were out of earshot, "Neither are you above Level 2 clearance."

"Respectfully, the world is ending," Skye argued, "And these guys do not get along, sir."

"Be that as it may," he huffed, "You are not to get involved. Your job is to run tech communications, not interfere."

"Come on," Skye urged, "I'm not saying I'm qualified, but Banner doesn't even want to be here. Steve is in way over his head and like, the tiktok dances, away from a panic attack. Thor is too close to Loki to risk seriously hurting him if things go wrong. Stark is an arrogant self-obsessed egomaniac, as per usual, and Natasha is too worried about Clint to play babysitter to your bunch of superheroes."

Fury raised an eyebrow.

"I might as well be team Captain," Skye huffed.

Fury barked a short laugh.

"Don't flatter yourself," he said, "I put you on Coulson's team and I can damn well take you off of it. You are dismissed."

Skye set her jaw but knew when to back down (most of the time), and swiftly turned on her heel.

**

"Hey!" Skye called after Natasha's quickly retreating form, "Hey! Wait up!"

She had to practically sprint down the endlessly grey corridors of the stupid huge helicarrier to catch up to Natasha. The spy didn't even look over her shoulder, just kept striding down the level to the staircases at the end. 

"Hang on, are you going down to talk to Loki?" Skye accused, scuttling after her down the stairs to the lower levels, finally falling into step with Natasha, damn she walks fast, "Are you sure that's a good idea, I mean-"

Natasha finally turned to acknowledge her, face strictly professional, "Do you have anything important to report to me, Agent Skye?"

Skye was a little taken aback, but she could recall the cold face she'd woken up to.

"Come on Nat," Skye scowled, "Stop freezing me out. I'm only trying to get to know the team, it's not a bad idea considering how none of them trust each other. Not even you. I mean, maybe especially you. They need someone who isn't so…" she faltered, not wanting offend Natasha, "Someone more like a civilian."

Natasha raised an eyebrow, "Your observation has been noted."

She continued striding down the steps, all the way to the lowest levels at the belly of the ship. Skye cursed under her breath, hurrying down after her.

"Nat," Skye practically begged, "Look it's not – Rogers isn't even my type. He's just like a lost little puppy. He needs a friend."

Natasha didn't acknowledge her, just kept going down the stairs.

"We're the same team! Please, I just want to help."

They reach a door with an excessive amount of warning signs and yellow and black striped paint. Skye immediately stepped to block the card reader, just to get Natasha to face her. Natasha glared at her with surprising ferocity.

"Move out of my way."

Skye crossed her arms over, "No. Talk to me. Nothing happened between Steve and I, but I'm sorry for how it looked."

"I don't care," Natasha shrugged, "Now. Move."

Skye held her ground.

"Move, Agent. This is important to information retrieval and doesn't concern you. Get out of my way."

"Not until you-"

"God, Skye. Why don't you grow up and be an actual agent for once in your life?" she growled, "The mission comes before whatever personal issues you've got going on. You know you're only on the team because Fury needed babysitters who would be willing to take on a frankly underwhelming 084. So go on, make a few 'friends', whilst I work to get my one competent team member back."

Skye felt like the air had just been knocked out of her. That hurt. 

Natasha shouldered her out of the way and beeped her pass to the door. It went green and slid open for her. Skye didn't gather herself in time to slip in after her, knowing that it wouldn't work for her. Her pass was as pathetic as she was.

**

"Agent Romanoff said you had something for me?" Skye asked Coulson, trying her best to keep the sulk out of her voice.

Coulson shot her an apologetic smile from the empty desk, dropping a stack of paperwork on the table in front of her.

"He wants you to run scans on all social media channels to find any mention of the Loki incident and soften the blow as much as possible for PR. Get started on the clean-up and identifying the dead whilst we work on finding the Tesseract," he indicated to the large stack of paper, "And write it down for records."

Skye looked at the pile with disdain.

"Yes, sir," she sighed.

He clapped her on the shoulder, "Thank you Agent Skye," he said, "I promise once the threats over we'll be back to normal."

She nodded, slumping into the chair and plucking the first sheet of paper from the top. Although as soon as Coulson was gone she pulled up the CCTV feed of the containment room. As expected Natasha was interrogating an intrigued, stupidly smug Loki.

"I wanna know what you've done to Agent Barton," she asked calmly, letting a slip of desperation colour her voice. Skye knew it was likely an act but she couldn't help the worry gnawing at her gut for Clint – for both of them, really.

"I'd say I expanded his mind," Loki replied smugly. Skye wanted to kick him hard in the nuts.

"And once you've won?" Natasha probed. Skye could tell this was an attempt to get Loki to reveal his plan, "Once you're king of the mountain. What happens to his mind?"

"Is this love, Agent Romanoff?" Loki deflected the answer.

"Love is for children. I owe him a debt," Natasha answered coolly. Skye swallowed, she knew Natasha had a skewed view on such things, but it still pained her to think that despite everything Skye would be held at arm's length. What debt did Natasha owe her? If there was none, did she truly mean nothing? But it wasn't important, what was important was getting Loki to talk. To draw him in to her trap.

Loki sat down on the single chair in his cell, the wolfish smile on his face, "Tell me."

Skye fully expected Natasha to avoid the question entirely, but to her great surprise she spoke. She must know this was being recorded and watched by at least a few agents, probably Maria and most definitely Fury.

"Before I worked for SHIELD, I uh...well, I made a name for myself," Natasha admitted, "I have a very specific skillset. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call."

Skye knew this already, although it wasn't something Natasha was usually forthright about, she'd read a very redacted version on the files she'd hacked. Still, Skye can't help but think Natasha must be lying about not caring who she used it on, or maybe denying it. She had a conscience, she just hadn't had a choice.

"And what will you do if I vow to spare him?"

"Not let you out."

Skye let out a snort, catching a few disapproving eyes around The Bridge. Loki still hadn't really revealed a plan at all, Skye frowned, wondering how on earth Nat meaned to get anything useful out of the God. Even if he did seem keen to show-off.

"Ah, no. But I like this. Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man?"

Urgh, creep.

"Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian... or was."

"Oh, but surely you don't hold just one man close to your heart?" Loki smirked, "Are you not afraid that I can take everyone from you, Romanoff? I hear the girl is quite…special."

He looked directly at the camera. Skye's heart shot into her throat. Surely he couldn't know that she was watching. She felt a horrible shiver of dread settle over her, the longer is eyes seemed to linger. Natasha didn't say anything, just frowned up at him as if she didn't know what he was talking about.

"I do love how primitive you humans are," Loki continued in the silence, "So unaware of the universe, so vulnerable, so utterly stupid. Give me your crystal and I'll show you what true power even a weak little earthling can hold."

"Everyone who touched it died," Natasha deadpanned, "You think we'll hand it over to you?"

"Ah yes, but not everyone. 'Wherever she goes, death follows'," Loki continued smugly, and Skye's heart was pounding. Of course, he could be playing them, but he knew. He knew something. "Ironic, isn't it Romanoff? I feel that title should be given to you."

Natasha tensed her jaw as if angry with him, "I've left that in the past, Loki."

"You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers," Loki taunted, "You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away. Sao Paulo? The Hospital Fire? Dreykov's daughter?"

Skye swallowed, seeing the way Natasha did visibly react at the mention of that. She didn't want to imagine the horrors that haunted Natasha's past.

"I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you! Slowly. Intimately. In every way he knows you fear! And when he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"

Natasha turned around, seemingly distraught but Skye could see her hesitate, her shoulders hunch just enough to give the impression of sadness, she could only just make out Natasha's reply of, "You're a monster."

Loki laughed, "No, you brought the monsters."

Natasha turned around, wiping her face as if it had never shown fear, "So, Banner... that's your play."

To her credit, Loki looked shocked, "What?"

Natasha was already walking away, speaking into comms, "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the Lab. I'm on my way, send in Thor," she said, and paused for a second, "And someone needs to keep an eye on Skye."

Skye slumped in her chair, aware of at least a few pairs of eyes looking her way. Hill gestured to an agent on her right, who marched up to Skye, taking a seat next to her. They sat in silence, but he was still her 'not to so subtle guard dog'.

She was contemplating getting a coffee, when another agent came to join her merry band of bodyguards, this one wore shades. She rolled her eyes, this one was stoic, as though he'd never laughed a day in his life.

"I'm here to escort Agent Skye back to her bunk."

Her other babysitter shrugged, and she rose from her chair with a sigh, calculating whether she could get the slip on the guy and hide in the closet or something. He seemed intent on ignoring her though, just stared straight ahead. A briefcase was swinging by his side.

They reached the metal staircase to descent to the barracks level, but the agent kept walking. She frowned, not sure whether she was still supposed to follow or not.

"Uh dude," she began, hurrying to keep pace with him, "That's not the way to my bunk."

Instead of replying he simply grabbed her upper arm, hard enough to bruise, "Woah, dude!"

They stopped in front of the door to the containment levels. Skye froze, the agent's reader buzzed them through. She hesitated but the agent dragged her through.

"Nice of you to join our little party," Loki drawled, his back turned away from the door. She shrugged her arm out of the agent's grip, he took of his shades, revealing the same unnaturally blue eyes as Clint had. He stood to attention like the perfect little evil lapdog.

She took a step backwards, "Oh don't run away so soon," he turned with a smile, "We were just getting to know each other."

"I want nothing to do with you," Skye snarled, crossing her arms and keeping as far away from him as possible.

"Oh, but you do," he smiled, "The door is unlocked. I won't stop you. Neither will he."

Skye hesitated. Leaving would be the wise thing, but all she could feel was anger. Anger at Natasha freezing her out, angry at Fury and Hill and everyone who acted like she didn't deserve the truth.

"Sick of Fury's little secret games, mm?" Loki goaded when he saw she made no move to leave, "I mean really, do any of you mortals have any idea what that is?"

The agent flipped open the box, his face blank as if all personality had been stripped from him. The dirty blue crystal shone even under the dim fluorescent light, it called to something within her, something in her blood.

"Obviously not," Skye rolled her eyes, despite the growing sense of dread she was feeling, "That's why it was in a locked box."

His mouth curled into a snarling smile, and he eyed the crystal with admiration, "I have not seen a Terrigen crystal in centuries," he said, "Ghastly things really, highly illegal substances. The All-father destroyed every single one he came across. He didn't see the beauty in the Kree's experiments."

"Experiments?"

"Little monsters made for war," Loki smiled, "They failed in every single species except humankind. You are so weak and feeble, but all it takes," he seemed tensed for something fascinating, and Skye made for the door, "…is a little nudge."

The case fell open, and the crystal tumbled toward the ground.

**

Up in the lab, Natasha's head was pounding. They were all arguing like school children, she was just supposed to get Banner to a secure location to prevent this exact thing from happening. Rogers and Stark were at each other like a married couple, and even she was being accused.

Natasha suddenly felt a chill sweep down her back, alike the moment when a sniper sight lands on her body. Something was wrong. And it wasn't just Banner's rising temper.

"Where's Skye?" she asked, a sense of calm washing over her as her mind sprung to action. They were still arguing, although Fury turned to her with a questioning brow.

"Where is Skye?" she repeated.

He shook his head, "I don't know, she should be on The Bridge. Hill was keeping an eye on her."

"Something's not right."

She turned around, catching the camera trained on Loki, only to see him pressed up against the glass. Fogging it up like a child at the zoo. Her heart plummeted, outside two lumps of rock stood in the shape of people. One crumbled into ash.

Behind her Tony was exclaiming about something, something bad, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the screen, something was wrong, terribly wrong-

Her body jerked, feet suddenly on unstable ground.

A shock ripped through the aircraft, she ducked for cover, glass raining down smashed out windows. Her stomach plummeted as the floor gave out beneath them all, launching her through the lab's floors. Sparks flying around her, as she hit the ground with a hard thump. Agony shut through her foot as she fought to clear her vision. The ship was still trembling from the force of the explosion.

And next to her was Banner.

He was turning green.

**

Skye's world burst.

It was in her heart, in her head. She had only been thinking that she had to get out, had to fight her way out of the cocoon, but then the energy, the terrible agony of the shaking rippling through her body wouldn't stop.

She felt shards of glass cut into her skin, the ground shaking around her. Sparks from the lights pouring down upon her. She was destroying everything, but she couldn't stop. She couldn't stop.

"Well, that'll certainly do it," Loki voice carried over, sounding distant, but far too close. He shrugged, stepping out of the shattered remains of his supposedly impenetrable cage.

Skye knelt to her knees, desperately trying to stop the shaking, the constant shaking- Loki was walking away. The containment pod was in pieces. What was wrong with her? What did she do?

"No!" she managed to wheeze, throwing an arm out, a gust of energy tossed him up and into a wall. Herhead, her head was so full, and she was tearing the ship apart and out of the sky. She couldn't even celebrate as Loki's body crumpled to the ground.

She had to make it stop before she killed everyone on board. Tears slid down her face as she hunched over, trying to force oxygen through her lungs. She took deep breaths, trying to channel the calm that Nat had been training her. It worked a little, the ship no longer felt like it was hurtling out of the sky. The floor still trembled beneath her hands, but the walls weren't crumbling.

She counted another deep breath.

"Skye?"

She lifted her head at the sound of Coulson's voice over the Pandemonium. Relief flooded her body at the familiar face,

"Coulson, I'm sorry, I don't know what's happening," she gasped.

She staggered to her feet, wobbling and unsure whether it was her or the ground shaking. Coulson's familiar worried frown stared back at her.

 "Coulson I don't know how to stop this, but Loki escaped and-"

She stuttered, the words stolen in a gasp. An intense pressure suddenly knocked into her back, her whole body tensing at the impact of the punch. She frowned, wondering who had punched her. Coulson vanished into thin air.

"Wha-" the wind felt knocked out of her. She couldn't breathe. Her throat felt clogged. The world stopped shaking around her. A strange sense of calm washing over her.

She looked down.

The sharp end of a blade was sticking out of her abdomen. Time seemed to slow as she stared down at it, hands coming up in shock. That wasn't normal.

Her body jerked forward, the blade wrenching backwards through her back. She rasped, the air stolen from her lungs. She fell backward, clutching her abdomen in shock, warm, sticky blood beginning to coat her fingers. A soft body caught her, lowering her to the ground. She caught the edge of a green and gold cloak in her rapidly blurring vision.

She tried to say something, but blood pooled in her mouth, choking her.

"Such a shame."

Loki stepped over her body.

**

Natasha cursed, hobbling along the corridors as the ship finally began to stabilise. Whatever had hit the plane, was powerful.

She paused at the entrance to the stairwell.

Skye or Clint?

Natasha cursed, her heart thundered but there wasn't time to debate. She took off in sprint full speed to where Clint was last spotted. Strategically eliminating an enemy threat would be a better advantage than launching a rescue mission for someone who could well be fine.

She focused on Clint, heart full as he turned on her as if he didn't know who she was. She raised her fist.

**

It was deadly quiet in the containment floor, shattered glass splintered across the floor. The lights dimmed periodically, the emergency red swathing the room in a deep colour, illuminating Skye as she struggled to pull herself toward the door.

"Help," She gasped, head fuzzy, but she knew she had to get to the door, had to get someone's attention, "He-help!"

She wanted to lay down. She was so tired.

So tired.

**

Natasha didn't wait for Clint's medical team to arrive, mind set on finding the other errant team member. She hurried down the steps, heart pounding in her chest as she seemed to be getting closer to the epicentre of the explosion the closer to the containment room she got.

Loki was already gone. Disappeared with his sceptre. And Skye had been in there with him before the explosion.

 She heaved the containment door open, stumbling over –

"Oh my god," Natasha gasped, dropping low to gather Skye's limp body into her arms, "No, no, no. Stay with me. Stay with me. It's okay. You'll be okay. Just – stay with me."

She pressed her hand down on the wound frantically, trying to slap Skye awake but she was too pale.

"I need urgent medical on the containment level, Agent Skye is down, I repeat Agent Skye is down," Natasha called over comms, blood coating her cheek where she pressed the earpiece in.

Her hands were covered in blood, pressing as hard as she could against the wound. Her pulse was weak, but it was there. It was there.

"You are stronger than this, agent Skye," Natasha growled, "You hear me?"

She was so pale, so pale and cold underneath the warm gush of blood over Natasha's fingers. She felt numb. Loki had taken everything.

The medics bustled in, setting down medical kits and a stretcher beside them. Her vision was tunnelled, her hearing muffled, all she could focus on was stemming the blood flow.

Hands try to pry her away, but she panicked, holding down more firmly on Skye's wound.

"Natasha you have to let her go."

It was Coulson. He broke through the numbing silence, his hands coming to rest over hers, "They need to take her away," Coulson urged softly, heart achingly soft, "You have to let her go."

She let go.

Series this work belongs to:← Previous Work Part 2 of The Multiverse of Quack

This is an ongoing work so any future chapters the author posts will be on ao3