A/N

Some minor CA2 spoilers, but I think it's pretty safe. SHIELD has spoiled more.

As far as jails go, this had to be one of the better ones. Not that she's been in any before, but any jails she had seen on TV weren't nearly as nice as this one. That didn't make the fact that she was in a jail any better, though. And the fact that this one wasn't even called a jail is kind of stupid, but what could she do about it? All she could do was sit around. Sit around in The Fridge, as it was called. Ironically, her cell had a really nice ventilation system and was never too cold.

Despite the decent accommodation she had in the cell, she yearned for her old life. She yearned for her dingy van and her laptop that she won in a bet and, most importantly, her freedom and the fight for it. It was one of those days where she just wanted to use something electronic. Even a simple game of Angry Birds would satisfy her a bit. She sat on her bed crossed-legged and sighed, resting her head against the cool cement wall.

But c'est la vie. That's how the cookie crumbles. She had already been dealt a rough hand in life, so why should it have stopped a few months ago, when the whole mess began?

When random Mike Peterson and his powers stumbled onto the scene and she saw him as an in. He was what she was waiting for. Okay, so she played him a bit when she offered to help him. She let him believe that she had his best interests in mind. And while she never wanted him or his son to die or anything dramatic, her life's work came first. She needed a way to get to SHIELD and Mike Peterson was the way.

Unfortunately, things didn't go the way she planned. Oh, who was she kidding? She barely had a plan. Things just didn't go the way she would have liked. They never did. She was basically kidnapped from her van by random a SHIELD team as she was in the middle of recording her weekly Rising Tide messages. The SHIELD team's leader and main interrogator was an older man named Agent Hudson, and there was also a woman named Agent Sylvester who may have been pretty once upon a time, but now didn't look nice at all. The SHIELD team had no patience for a Rising Tide hacker who wouldn't cooperate and was more sarcastic than someone in her position should be. Considering she actually had nothing on them and they had surveillance on Mike Peterson, they sent her to face a SHIELD review board.

The review board consisted of a bunch of stern-faced old people dressed in spiffy suits. She was sentenced to five years in The Fridge for her devious hacking deeds as a member of Rising Tide. And before she knew it, she was being hauled to a cell on the seventeenth floor. Her precious van was locked up somewhere in New York, which she would get back when her term was up. Only four and a half more years to go.

"The paper, Skye," a Fridge guard said gruffly. Normal prisoners would be called by their last names, but considering she didn't have one, everyone called her just Skye. She obviously wasn't a dangerous criminal like some Fridge tenants were. She had heard stories from other prisoners around her who had been there for a while. Crazed people with outrageous powers were floors below her in cramped cells, unable to escape. At least her cell was somewhat spacious and comfortable. But being a safe criminal meant she got others perks too. Semi-decent food, a few books to read, and her favourite thing: a newspaper. It was brought to her by a guard daily, after it had been meticulously read through in case of hidden messages or something suspicious. Not that she ever expected a message. Her boyfriend Miles wouldn't think of putting a message in something so archaic as a printed newspaper. Miles' style would be leaving a cryptic comment on a blog or a tweet or something.

"Thanks," Skye said to the guard, taking the newspaper through the small slot in the heavy door that locked her in.

She lay down on her little cot and opened the paper. Most of the time, the news was boring. Did she really care about some stupid politician doing crack cocaine behind closed doors? No. Did she really care about which sports team beat which, or how many Olympic events were rigged? No. Sure it was news worthy and she didn't mind reading though it as she had nothing better to do, but Skye honestly didn't care.

Today, however, the paper held some information that she was very, very interested in. The cover picture caught her attention right away. It was a shot of three gigantic flying aircrafts in the sky. There was smoke and fire coming off of them. There was also a picture of a blurry figure that was apparently identified as old war hero Captain America. Skye gasped to herself as she read through the article.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of useful information there. Three secret helicariers were apparently compromised and Captain America had to take them down. But Skye knew what this meant. She knew those helicarriers were SHIELD's and she knew that Captain America was involved with the Avengers, so there may be a whole lot more to this story than the paper knew. The fact that the helicarriers were compromised, provided the article was correct, means that there's someone out there that wants SHIELD controlled or taken down. Skye tried to control her smile, as she knew there were surveillance cameras in her room, but she was sure that she knew what was going on, even if the newspapers didn't. The Rising Tide was finally rising to the position they always intended to hold.

Things were changing. Skye just had to wait now.

A/N

Hi! So this is my first attempt at SHIELD fanfiction. I know this chapter is short, but it's like a prologue thing so the chapters will get longer. I intend to update at least once a week. We'll see how quickly I can crank out chapters. Anyways, thanks for reading and hope you come back!