Authors Note: Check out the note at the end of the previous chapter, two scenes got shifted here, and cut the two lines after the second news report dialogue, since the report itself implies enough. And yes this is now a 'full' story in my head, instead of a two, or as now, three-shot.
May 12th 2012
Floating. That's what she felt.
Floating in a cool and yet warm darkness, with only the soft steady drum of her heart for company. The Drum of a heartbeat, and the soft whispering from the doorway where she couldn't make out what was being said, not when she was revelling in the lack of pain.
She knew what was actually happening.
An Asgardian Doctor, who had been here since some time before she woke, was using a healing stone or something. She didn't quite catch what had been told to her in her few moments of lucidness.
It had to be used on her, for ten minutes every six hours, until her body refused to heal anymore from its help, and to work properly, she could not have any contact with anything, except that which she wore – and even that had to be Asgardian in nature, as normal earth clothing materials would absorb too much of the energy the healing stone gave off, and disintegrate or something.
Which found her floating above the bed, wearing a light garment Thor had brought, drifting in and out of consciousness.
And for those ten minutes she would be like this, the pain that had her screaming, unable to sleep, would be eased and she could try for sleep.
Hours after the battle, she'd awoken to pain, and that was all she could remember, unable to return to a land of bliss until the stone was used for the first time, going from one extreme to another knocking her out.
Almost an hour since it had been activated, she'd awoken to Fury telling her about her injuries, although he didn't know the extent. For all of five minutes she'd been pain-free, before the numbing side-effects of the stone wore off.
Every use of it since, the numbing effect would take effect for shorter periods, and the pain would only take minutes to return to the same level it had been, and she would no longer be lucid, lost in a world of pain.
Every use, she'd be drifting, between a lucid state and dreaming.
Wondering when the healing energies would mean light wouldn't be a part of that pain, healing the nerve optics in her eyes. It wasn't that she was blind... it just hurt to see.
Wondering how long before she could make a sound that wasn't a scream, a pitiful reflexive moan. How long before the healing to her voice box stopped being about the damage done from screaming so much, to about the damage sustained in the battle.
Wondering if all the stone was doing, was just holding back the rising tide of pain, something she suspected precisely because the period of numbness got shorter with each use. How long before it stopped working altogether, and someone would decide to end it...
Wondering if she wanted them to.
Outside the Make-shift ICU, Skye's friends and family were all sat in a corner, worn out as they waited for the Asgardian whose name escaped them, to finish speaking with Thor and Natasha.
"Thor, once this session is over, I was hoping I could take some readings of Mjolnir... while placed on her chest."
"For what purpose?" Thor spoke.
"I'm still detecting large amounts of static electricity, despite my efforts. Something within her system is building up a charge, and I'm, hoping, Mjolnir can do something."
"You think it was a side effect of the recharge blasts?" Natasha asked.
"Think, yes, but I do not have the equipment here to determine whether that is the true source, not without testing the theory by trying to use Mjolnir as a constant equalizing force..."
Natasha's watch beeped, and the three looked in as the Asgardian medical technology gently lowered Skye down to the bed, and levitated the blanket back over her.
Then the glass door opened, and as much as she wished to go in, until the static charge was drained, it was too dangerous.
Not when the last few times, the Asgardian doctor had been shocked by at least eight hundred volts of electricity. Deadly if it hit you wrong, unless you're from Asgard.
And it wasn't building up because of the Healing Stone, as Thor named it.
Thor stood a few feet away, and stretched out holding Mjolnir, gently and slowly lowered it onto Skye's chest. Within inches, static began to discharge in short bursts, growing in intensity as the hammer got closer, until the hammer was in contact, and the light show ceased. Thor let go, wishing the hammer not to crush the girls' chest, simply stay in physical contact – to move with her breathing. Unlike the time with Loki, when he wished it immobile.
"Doctor?" She asked from the doorway.
The Doctor picked up a medical tablet, and hummed as he cross referenced it with a bit of earth tech. "As I thought, the Hammer is draining the static away... But I'm concerned... If my calculations are correct, then that last burst we saw," He looked up, "was around one thousand volts, to use your terms."
Natasha stared at her sister, wondering what that meant. "How long will..."
"At this rate... a few hours."
Natasha blinked, and wondered how many volts that would be if it all discharged at once, as it had every time it went for the Doctor.
And she wondered why Skye wasn't already fried.
He smiled. "There is no longer any charge building up within her. I'd like to keep her isolated as we have until I am sure that it does not return, but I have high hopes that the Healing Stone," He rolled his eyes, as that was the name Thor spoke when they had looked blank at their medical terminology, "Can finally treat the injuries themselves, instead of just treating the symptoms."
Natasha nodded, and left to tell the rest.
June 5th 2012
"So... When am I free to get out of here?"
Agent Thirteen, aka Sharon Carter, just stared hard at the girl. "It's only been a month, and you've still got extensive healing to do. Now, that, stone, whatever it did, has obviously given your body a boost, as you're healing quicker than I thought it would... if it keeps up? Two weeks- AH! Two weeks minimum, Mary."
Skye settled down with a pout, and hid the jolt of pain from the scars on her back twisting.
"If it slows down, you could have anywhere from two weeks to two months before I'll even think about releasing you."
Skye just groaned.
June 19th 2012
Unlike the usual, Natasha was driving within the legal limits, for two reasons. One, it was Skye's car, not her own, so the handling was a little different than she was used to, so until, well. And Second, she was delaying as much as reasonably possible, and Skye seemed to accept her driving right on the speed limit, but Natasha doubted Skye wouldn't be suspicious if she went any slower.
Even so, she was happy to get as much alone time with Skye, as most of the girls recovery – once the Asgardian confirmed that she could have visitors – she hadn't had the time to be alone and just talk. There was always a visitor, Whether it was Fury to get an update, Sharon to do her round of checks, Barton with the twins, or any of the others, like Steve who'd been surprised at how young she was, impressing him more than he had been upon realising she was effectively sacrificing herself to give them a better chance.
And to her sad realisation, ever since Skye had gotten into her whole 'Midnight' persona six months ago, they'd not had any private moments, just the two of them.
That was why she'd had the others go on ahead to the Safe house they'd set up for the occasion, to get things ready while the two did something that was exceedingly rare, now that Skye was being released.
Two weeks on the dot, although Sharon had shared that the pace of her healing had been steadily slowing down, although the rate of decrease was small enough that even now, she only had a week left to heal. The both of them had pleaded hard, since Sharon's revised release date was well after Natasha had to return to duty. Now, The pair had two whole weeks before then, and Natasha had assured the doc she would make sure Skye got her bed rest for most of it.
Natasha had fought hard, because even now, she could see that the main healing was yet to start.
As hard as it was to see the physical injuries, it hurt her worse to see how badly it had affected Skye mentally.
To hear the girl trying to scream words out, a plea. And to her horror, she was sure that that plea was to release her from pain in the one way that no doctor would, the one way the assassin could.
Even as tears continued to track down, not knowing when they'd started, she kept her eyes on the road, only glancing occasionally at her passenger.
She'd just been released. She could see now, the healing stone had fixed her eyesight, and though the damage to her voice box would never be fully healed, it was far enough she could talk normally with only a slight huskiness creeping in.
Even as she leant her head against the sill of the passenger door window, her hair draped over and outside, the wind whipping it about, she let her eyes just stay open, taking in the light that no longer pained her.
Not to say she was without pain.
The position was uncomfortable, and though the burns themselves no longer hurt, around them... on the edges of the entire web of burns that matched her uniforms' exoskeleton supports, they hurt a lot, and being hunched made it worse just below her right armpit, and were pulled on the otherside.
Idly, her fingers lightly ran over the scarring on her palms, the first of the burns to have begun to heal over.
Since the Lightning had followed the exoskeleton support web, it hadn't burned her hands that bad, drawn to the reactors in her wrist gauntlets with only small amounts travelling to where she had palmed her repulsors for the fight, and the light contact the back of her hands had when held up at an angle, touching the gauntlets slightly.
She'd looked at them in the bathroom, and couldn't help but compare them to an intricate tattoo of a tree that had been trimmed into the shape, branches ending not far from the main 'trunk' that itself outlined the web, and at Y or X junctions, between three, four or more pieces, the burns spread out a bit more, interconnecting each 'line'.
Given just how much voltage they theorised had been in those lightning blasts, she knew why the doctor's said she apparently had a higher natural resistance. They'd even heard of one guy who once tried to commit suicide by grabbing onto powerlines, but felt nothing, because his body was naturally able to insulate the inner, burnable layers of flesh and the electricity just passed along the outermost layer, like he was wearing a faraday cage.
She wasn't even near that level, but close enough that her skin didn't melt off, just burned as though from a much, much lower voltage.
And that wasn't the actual case, although that could have been what happened if at all, had the exoskeleton struts been electrically conductive, or the outer layer of her uniform been so.
Hindsight was good.
And It told her she shouldn't have been there.
She couldn't imagine being able to do it again. Being able to even pretend to be the persona she'd tried to become.
"I can't do it." She whispered. "I can't be her."
September 23rd, 2012
"How is she?" Pepper asked, looking into the apartment in Stark Tower they'd assigned to her, despite the girl's protests.
At the door, she stood with Steve Rogers, who had made a point to come by every so often. Though she hadn't had a hand in saving his life directly, he felt he owed her something, not just respect, for having the guts to join them.
And as he'd gotten close enough to Natasha to call her his friend, and vice-versa, he'd learned enough about the girl to feel a sense of responsibility to see to her recovery beyond that which came from being her acknowledged superior officer in the fight, and not a small amount of guilt. He couldn't help the doubts make him think he should have sent her away.
"Physically, she's... healed." He was hesitant to use that word, as she wasn't, but she was as far her body would go in healing the physical damage. "Spends a lot of time in the gym, regaining what she'd lost while recovering. Doing well, she's already put two stone back on. All muscle. But between Stark and I, we barely manage to get her out when she's hitting her limits of stamina."
"She's overdoing it?"
"No." He surprised her, "Well, she's perilously close, in my opinion, but not over the line yet."
"I thought she was giving up the whole, wanting to be a superhero thing?"
"I thought so too... I mean, she wont even look at the new version of her suit Tony dropped off. She even stepped back from opening the box, when Tony brought it over and told her what was inside. I'd guess, she doesn't want to be 'Midnight' anymore... No word yet on the rest." HE sighed, "Honestly, I'm more worried about certain other things."
"Like what?"
He pulled Pepper away, and asked, "You've known her longer..." he licked his lips as he glanced at the now-closed door, and back, "What's the longest time she spent living in one place in a single stretch?"
Pepper was about to answer, when there was a loud crash from the communal kitchen area, a second of silence, then a very young male voice calling out, "I didn't do it!"
October 16th 2012
Calming down from her regular evening heavy workout, she wiped the sweat from her forehead with one hand, whilst resetting the weight machine for a lighter load, then resumed, this time the smaller weight giving her a warm-down routine.
A large TV in the background played a news report, about the latest rumour over the so-called Avengers on a mission, although this one was started because Tony Stark had been seen in his suit somewhere in Spain, and at this point everyone 'knew' that his own missions usually were in the Middle-east, where he either worked alone (no one knew she ran remote backup on some of them), or with 'War Machine' on Joint Missions with the Armed forces (which she stayed out of.)
Last time, it had been because the Cap was seen in his iconic uniform – only slightly changed since the Battle of New York, retaining the stars-and-stripes color scheme – on a mission in France, and those photos had been leaked by the people also in them, because they wanted to show the world that they had shook hands with Captain America. Despite the whole 'America, yeah!' theme he had going, which made him not quite as popular in some places that were sort-of-pro-america, the French had great respect for the guy for being willing to work with the Maquis during the war. Hell, many in Europe thought low of America, for trying to paint themselves as the sole military power to matter fighting the nazi's in various media, while venerating the actual war veterans who were soldiers and fought hard. So it made sense, that they'd ignore his waving the flag simply because of who he was and what he'd done no matter the uniform he wore back then.
She listened idly, as she idly dropped down one on the weight, and focussed on trying to go slow, the lighter load making it easy to go too fast.
And then, while holding that weight, part of the news report filtered into her head.
"-An anonymous source claims. When we spoke to Mr Stark, who has become the team's unofficial spokesman, he refused to comment on the Unknown Avenger, and whether or not she has recovered and will be returning to duty."
She blinked, grabbed a remote, and thankfully for pause-and-rewind-live-TV, caught the start of that segment.
"In related news... As ever many of our viewers continue to send well-wishes to the mysterious seventh Avenger who was injured during the Battle, however we received reports that she is fully recovered, and an answer as to just why Thor was directing his lightning attacks at her, explaining both why her weapons were gained effectiveness and why she collapsed at the end. Apparently, the lightning attack was to charge up her flight and weapons systems with pure electrical energy, and that those systems are powered by Arc Reactor Technology, whom our intelligent viewers will know is technology developed by Tony Stark aka Iron Man. The reason for these attacks to be necessary, is because the arc reactors in her suit are a much lower-capacity models, and the Avengers learned sometime prior to the battle, that Thor's signature lightning attack recharges them, an Anonymous source claims."
She shut it off, and stared hard at the far wall.
The only people who knew those details, wouldn't have leaked that, anonymous or not.
Fury had orders to keep quite regarding Natasha, Barton and her own part in the battle, aside from the fact that those two – who hadn't covered their faces – had indeed been there, and refused to comment on their status in S.H.I.E.L.D.
Every Agent in S.H.I.E.L.D. with the access to that information was loyal to Fury on a very personal level, so they were out.
And Outside S.H.I.E.L.D., only the Avengers and Pepper knew, and only pieces at that.
She quickly changed and charged into the Avengers' lounge area and passed by the kids, who were listening intently to Sharon, a regular at the Tower.
She'd felt the look from the agent, filled with emotions and questions, but this was important. She continued on without pause into the room she'd only been in twice in her months here.
"Jarvis!"
"I've already begun to investigate, Miss Skye." Jarvis spoke. "So far, Stark Industries and Avengers tower servers appear to be clean of any unauthorised access to that information."
She sat in front of a computer station, and immediately began to hack S.H.I.E.L.D. to get answers herself, only acknowledging the AI with a loaded 'humm'.
The AI could read a lot from her much-reduced vocabulary.
"Miss Skye, you have a call from Director Fury, on an Encrypted Line. Shall I patch him through?"
"Tell him to call back in ten minutes." She replied, she didn't want her friend to persuade her not to look...
"What have you found out?" Fury asked, eight minutes later. He had been waiting to call, but he was surprised at being called back, so made a quite logical conclusion.
"You've been hacked. I kept telling you your current RSA encryption needs an overhaul..."
Fury sighed. "I know, you've been telling me for the last year, but the network security department kept telling me that it was practically unbreakable, that all the hackers in the world that were capable of breaking it, were already working for us. I didn't want to out you, so I didn't pursue it any harder."
"Well I'm not giving them any choice in the matter." Skye replied.
"Mary-"
"No. Don't even. Whoever hacked you, they leaked information that was only kept in certain places of your archives... and if they could get to that, then they have the skill to get much more personal information on me."
"You're worried it's the organization, and they'll eventually..."
"No, not them, but that whoever did hack you? I need to find out who and where they are, why and what else they found out, before either S.H.I.E.L.D. or someone else gets there first. And since to track them I'll be looking at your security systems, I may as well force an upgrade of them on you while I'm at it."
He frowned, "Upgrading will take time..."
Silence was his answer.
"You've already programmed a new RSA encryption." He realised. "I knew you were good but..."
"Not that good. I had help... remember who I have hacking competitions with, please. I brought it up with him after the second time I told you to get it fixed."
He chuckled, knowing that the only person who could develop an improved RSA encryption would be the AI.
October 18th 2012
S.H.I.E.L.D. Triskelion Headquarters
She almost fidgeted, the suit making her scars itch.
"Nervous for your first day?" Steve asked, going with the cover story they were using for her visit to the Triskelion, where she was a Level One Administrator. He would be hanging around as covert backup, under the pretense of visiting Agents he'd gotten close to from working with them in the last few months.
Before she'd arrived, she'd hacked a little fault into some of the systems, so although the 'secure' ID readers picked up her contact lenses and accepted her false ID entry as a level one fresh 'off the boat' from the Scitech Academy, Reception would assign her someone already cleared since a fault with the elevator's security systems meant they weren't updated with new security clearance promotions – although demotions would apply.
A little good timing, and Steve, who was cleared as Level 8, arrived in time to hear about it, and offered to escort her up, and drop her off on his way to visiting said agents before going to a debriefing with Fury.
"Nah, just... at the Academy, you know, for Science and Technology, the dress code was quite lax... I'm not used to these Men-in-black suits."
"Itchy?" He asked, knowing why. She nodded.
"Oh, I envy you your uniform. Looks comfortable." She looked at the Blue S.H.I.E.L.D. color themed uniform, with the silver accents.
"It is."
"Floor 18, Protocol Administration." The voice of the elevator spoke.
"Your floor, Miss Abrahms." He waved her out, and then took lead down the maze of corridor, and somehow managed to affix a layered look to him, covering the fact that he did know where he was going with a face of supposedly-false confidence, wherein at first glance someone would think he knew where he was but a second look would 'reveal' he didn't.
Skye couldn't help the momentary envious look, or the moment of confusion because in her experience, he was a terrible liar.
"Hi, Stacy Abrahms?"
Skye nodded, and settled into her new booth... and realised how difficult this would be around people.
"I'm Agent May, in charge of this office. I wasn't aware of your transfer until this morning, so please excuse the desk. I understand you already have work assigned."
Skye nodded as the older female agent directed someone to clearing away the personal effects, and gave her a confused look.
The woman didn't look like the others in the office. She looked uncomfortable in the business suit, as uncomfortable as herself, in the same manner. Probably a Field-retired agent, she guessed, and her own injury of whatever kind made her itch.
Melinda stood at her own booth, and gazed in the direction of the new assistant.
She'd spotted the scarring immediately despite the subdued lighting of the office and the thick makeup attempting to hide it, along with the fact that the girl looked like the suit was making her itchy. Also, the girl didn't speak... though given the scars she spotted were the ones around the girls' eyes, down her nose, mouth and down onto her neck, she guessed the girl just kept her speech to a minimum for comfort.
Though the eyes... Melinda knew her own, discomfort, of the same type, had been spotted by the girl.
She was good at hiding it, so Melinda was curious about this girl... there was, something... something almost, familiar.
Then she realised her scrutiny was being noticed, and made the poor girl incredibly nervous.
She kept her breathing level with all her might, as she worked her hack in pieces, switching to do actual administration work that, my god it was so tedious...
Then she received a message, and closed the hack, stood up and went over to Agent May, thinking the woman would probably want to be notified.
"Agent May? The Tech support D-"
"I know," Agent May held up a hand, glancing at a copy of the message she'd been CC'd. "You're dismissed." She spoke, with a subtle smile she gave all newbies, one that they wouldn't conscious spot, though subconscious-
She paused, noticing that the girl actually spotted it as the smile she got back was a definite return-smile.
Her curiosity was piqued even more, and couldn't help stare as the girl left.
She thought it over, and added 'Arrived with Captain America' as one, realising there was a touch too much familiarity between the two, so it wasn't simply the Cap being his typical gentlemanly self helping a new girl get to work while security fixed... hmm.
She turned away, and set herself to work of a sort she hadn't done in a while.
Fury sighed as he was notified by Skye's custom program... and he called the agent that triggered it.
"Agent May. Go secure."
"Director Fury? Secure." The agent spoke up, surprise clear in the woman's tone.
"Why are you looking into a level one administrator fresh off the boat?"
"Sir, she piqued my curioisity... she doens't want like a simple computer expert fresh from the academy, and new people aren't assi... work... wait, how do you know about that..."
He sighed, "What Miss Abrahms is doing is both classified and none of your concern, so please stop your investigation."
"This is highly irregular..." The woman noted, her tone telling him she was ceasing her impromptu investigation.
"Noted."
He put the phone down, and hoped to high hell May didn't do anything else, and that her actions weren't noticed by the mole he was still unable to locate, a fact that continued to make him worry, and that was without the recent hack.
"Done." Skye grinned a few hours later. "Jarvis?"
"I've already begun a trace."
"We done?" Rogers asked.
"Not quite." Skye answered.
"Yes." Jarvis replied at the same time, then seemingly to answer the unspoken question of why Skye said no, "The Network will take three minutes to reboot with the new protocol."
Skye sighed, giving Rogers doubts to that being why. "What is it?"
With a sigh, she answered, "I need to wipe the information from the database before the Network comes back online with the new protocols, and without my usual methods it will be noticed if I don't do it now. Fury gave me the go ahead..."
"Fine. Do it and lets get out of here."
October 19th 2012
"Miss Skye, I have encountered a highly secure system preventing me from continuing the trace." Jarvis spoke quietly.
Moving away from the window of the New York Skyline at 4am, she passed by the two kids, passed out on her bed as was usual, and walking through the somewhat-creepy empty hallway and lounge of the Avengers Tower, she entered the command centre and sat at the workstation as it finished booting up and preloaded to start her hack.
"What have you got so far?"
"The server appears to be owned by an old friend of yours, from New Haven, I believe."
She blinked as the record came up on the main screen, even as she started to break through the security.
A moment later, she was in and found locally-stored files, emails containing the intel that had been hacked from shield, and at the bottom of the short message it was attached to, the signature...
"Okay, what the hell is 'The Rising Tide'?"
October 26th 2012
It had started as just a wild idea, but now it had snowballed into an opportunity.
No Field work required. She's just work from her... from her RV.
She blinked as she realised that it had been, months, since she'd made the Tower her home.
But it wasn't. It was Avengers Tower, headquarters for the group led jointly by both Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, even though they also had missions separately, Tony's ongoing efforts in the middle east, pretty much an extension from his original mission to clean up the mess left by Stane's sales of Stark Weapons Tech to terrorist groups, and Steve's work for S.H.I.E.L.D. wherever it took him.
She was distracting herself now.
She looked up into Tony's Office, and glanced at the text message from Natasha, who had offered her encouragement.
It was time to step up, but not as the spy/superhero she'd pretended to be, but as herself, a hacker that saw the chance to do good. Even if it was a whole convoluted mess.
Entering the office, she approached the man who looked up curiously.
"Skye? What's up?"
"I'm leaving. And I don't know when I'll be back."
October 30th 2012
Tony had convinced her to stay until after Halloween, as it would take a while for them to build up a cover for her, even if the plan was to wipe it once she was in.
The kids had done most of the convincing, because this was the first Halloween where they weren't going to just be staying in to watch seasonal films with Natasha, or Sharon, or Jarvis, or anything like that.
This was their first Trick-or-Treating, and they wanted to be awesome.
Which was why she was here, creating their costumes by hand, because she couldn't find a Hawkeye or Black Widow outfit that them.
And they were going to wear masks that made them look like their adult counterparts – who were going to be in uniform themselves, as guides.
No amount of Skye protesting at that, in the likely-hood of the public hearing about it, could stop the proud agents from going ahead with it.
October 31st 2012
Chaos.
Normally, it felt natural on this night, but tonight, some of the costumes weren't fake, but real.
Too bad that only two of the real ones were on the side of angels, and they hadn't anticipated needing their real weapons.
As Natasha broke one guy's arm, and Barton swiped a gun from another and put two bullets in him, the twins huddled in a corner, the agents having placed themselves between the twins and the attackers.
That didn't stop one guy from trying to get around the busy pair to get to the kids it had been obvious the agents were protecting.
Which is what Skye had arrived to, having given in to the demands to wear her uniform for the one reason that could work.
And with full-power arc reactors in her upgraded gauntlets, as well as in her flight pack with the same acceleration and top end capabilities as Iron Man, They didn't see her coming from above... and on landing, all they saw was the bright burst of light from her palms, as she engaged her palm repulsor's in their intense heat-generating attack mode.
On landing, kids huddled in her arms, too frightened from what happened to squeal in delight from the flight, she'd let the kids down and quickly took off at a run into the nearest toilet, where she threw up all the candy she'd ate that night.
She soon felt Pepper's arm across her back, hand rubbing in circles.
Her kids had been in danger, so she'd responded, like any mother would in feeling, though quite different in act. But once they were safe, and she came out of her angry funk, she'd been hit with all the memories from the last time she'd worn the uniform... and only Natasha's calls to get the kids to the Tower had given her enough focus to do just that.
Now, the memories, and the pain was overwhelming.
Her stomach tried to expel even more quantities of food and stomach acid, but there was little left.
November 1st 2012
Coulson, his eyes as he became distant, the beat of his heart stopped cold by the fact it had been torn in two.
Feeling the impact as her thrusters gave out during the battle, and she'd crashed, and then while stunned from the crash, been stabbed by Chitauri with those slim weapons she herself had used earlier on.
The Impact of a Chitauri heavy weapon, half-destroying her flight pack which had already been banged up, the shot burning through the armor-like suit it formed around her torso.
Thor's Lightning, charging her arc reactors, but also burning her.
In the safe house turned makeshift hospital, the constant agony.
And she didn't realise she was speaking aloud, as in her nightmare she remembered trying to scream out, "Let Me Die!"
Coulson.
Crashed
Stabbed
Shot
Burned
Agony
Pain
Pain
"Let me die!"
Natasha ran as fast as she could, heart beating a mile a minute, frightened by the words that everyone in the tower could hear.
Reaching the door, she found it was locked, and she couldn't open it.
Screams.
"Let me Die!"
Steve pulled her aside, and gave the door a good kick, breaking the door, then let her run in.
She found her little sister, thrashing, spasming in remembered pain, eyes shut yet tears came thick and fast, screaming out the words with gasps.
She grabbed hold tight of the girl, holding her down by weight of her own body, and withstood the screaming in her earhole as she whispered to her that she was there, it was over, the pain was gone.
How she wished that was true.
But it wasn't not by a long shot.
February 9th 2013
Washington D.C.
She ran.
She ran as fast as she could.
She ran until she was ready to collapse, and had to accept her running partner's help back to her temporary apartment.
"Come on, 'Stacy'." Steve spoke, helping her inside.
She hoped to god she didn't have to keep this up for long, couldn't wait to leave, head to the west coast, and just be Skye, Mother to twins and Skilled Hacker of highly-secure systems again.
Then he told her the words she'd been waiting for.
"It's all done. Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Absolutely."
"You wont get to see us for a long while." He pointed out.
Something inside of her broke... or maybe she was already broken, but hadn't realised it yet. She looked at him, and what came out was like a slap in the face to both of them, even though it was true.
"Every time I look at you, Bruce, Tony, Barton, Natasha... I see Coulson, dead, his heart torn in two. I see my own failure to act. I see myself crashing to the ground. I see myself being stabbed by aliens. Shot at by aliens. I see myself asking a god to fry my body, and I feel that pain, as though it was happening right now. I feel all that pain I was in during recovery... all at once, and I can't stand to look at you because it hurts too much. And though I tried to hide it, everywhere I looked, was a reminder of what happened, what we lost, and what happened to me."
He paled further as she went on, and when she ended, all he could ask was, "Why did you wait until now to leave?"
She looked out into the garden, where the twins were playing, being looked after by a neighbour – who'd already been vetted by her.
"Because they loved it. Living with Superheroes? The only reason they didn't kick up a fuss about leaving in the end, was because of... of Halloween."
With a sigh, he put a hand on her shoulder, and she held in the shudder, remembering the first time he'd done it, to catch her as she collapsed once the battle was over. He must have felt it, as he immediately put some distance between them.
"I... I can't. Not even for them. They think I was a superhero, and thought it was some awesome adventure I was on. And for a while, it had been. I was Midnight, an awesome Secret Agent Superhero Avenger, I was being courted for recruitment by a Genius Billionaire playboy philanthropist superhero and the head of a large, world-wide network of military soldiers and super spies. I had a uniform designed and built by the first, and using it infiltrated a high-security base of the second... and was offered a place on the Avengers. I thought I was ready. But I wasn't, not by a long shot. That... character they saw? I'm not her."
"You are, or you wouldn't be alive today."
It felt like a slap.
She sent one last look at him, and it was such a hollow, empty look that he couldn't help stepping back, even as her words chilled him to the core.
"She died in that battle. And its better for everyone that you don't try to bring her back. You won't like the results."
February 12th 2013
"Mom, what ya doing?" Tasha asked as she sidled up to her mom and hugged her from behind, though careful not to cause an interruption in her mom's typing.
"Just a little hack, hun." She replied, glancing at her daughter from the corner of her eye as the girl slowly crept over a shoulder, staring intently at the screen.
"Am Hungry."
"There's crisps in the cupboard. See if Clint wants anything, okay?"
Tasha nodded, and gave her mom a quick kiss, then moved off.
She sent the girl a knowing smirk, even as she logged out of the system, and started an upload of the data, and wrote an e-mail alerting her contact in the Rising Tide about the info.
An hour later, they replied, asking her to release the data herself.
Time to be a 'Hacktivist'.
February 18th 2013
She grinned at the voice playing out on her comm. System.
"You wouldn't have happened upon that data on my servers, would you?"
"Who, me?" She asked. "I didn't touch your servers."
"How, then?"
"Just because you nor Tony couldn't reach them, didn't mean S.H.I.E.L.D. were oblivious to the situation... although, they didn't know about how A.I.M. fit into the whole thing until he told them."
"You logged into S.H.I.E.L.D. and leaked it from there." Jarvis guessed.
"I hacked and leaked that info from S.H.I.E.L.D." She replied, "And it was a lot more difficult this time."
"Why? You built their current encryption, and I only had minimal input. You could access their entire systems without being detected, why leave a trail that they could follow to the Rising Tide?
"To do that exactly... Fury doesn't know I'm part of the Rising Tide. He knows that the data was taken from his servers anyway, I didn't want him to think I betrayed him when the only thing pointing to S.H.I.E.L.D. being hacked is the data being out there, with no record as to how. He'd know it was me."
"So you had to hack in in such a way they'd know there was a hack before you leaked the data." Jarvis finished. He asked the all-important bit. "And why didn't you tell him what you're doing from the start? Or tell him now?"
She looked away, "I don't want him to think I'm ready for field work again..."
On the TV, the news was in the middle of a report.
"And although rumour continues to spread about an anonymous group as being responsible for the recent leak regarding Advanced Idea Mechanics' apparent part in the recent scandal over the arrest of Vice President-"
Authors Note: And so ends Midnight Skye. No really, the next story will be almost all Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. so I'll put putting it in that cat, instead of as a crossover with Avengers.
Open to suggestions for a better name for this story, and a name for the next, since the series is called 'Midnight'.