Disclaimer: I do not own The Avegers or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. they both belong to MArvel or Joss Wedon, one of the two.

Credit due to Ozhawk for writing this chapter. This is a continuation of chapter 37 of The Crackship Armada, which is her fic. If you haven't read it I recomd you do. It isn't neccassary to understand what is happening in the fic., but that doesn't make The Crackship Armada any less awsome.

"Bring it down, Skye!" Coulson ordered in her comm, and she gritted her teeth. The ground tremored and she sucked up the power and redirected it, sending it into the ancient fortress, this time above ground, where they'd found another Divining chamber. There was no Obelisk this time, thank God. Watching another friend die would destroy her.

"Wait, my sister's in there!" a voice yelled, and then Skye was suddenly knocked off her feet, by something moving so fast it blurred.

"I can't stop it now!" she shouted at the man now crouched over her. Her eyes widened as she recognised him; he'd been on TV lately quite a lot, and that white hair was pretty distinctive.

"Quicksilver?" she said in astonishment. What was the speedster Avenger doing here?

Light blue eyes examined her curiously, and then he lifted a hand to touch his comm. "Wanda? You okay, Wanda!" he must have had a response, because he sagged with relief. "You're damn lucky she's all right, missy."

Pietro examined the girl at his feet. A pretty creature, small and slight, dark hair tumbling around her. And hellishly dangerous, he suspected, because she'd quite clearly caused the quake that was even now crumbling the ancient temple hidden in the jungles of Laos to dust. Possibly his soulmate.

"You stay right there," he pressed a firm hand on her hip when she attempted to rise. "They sent me to try and stop you because I could get to you quickest, but the others will be here in a minute."

"Mine too…" oh God, I have to warn Coulson. She reached up a hand to her ear, but Quicksilver intercepted it.

"Oh no you don't."

"But I…" a large hand curled around her wrist and yanked her to her feet.

"Don't make me hurt you," he warned. "You might be my soulmate but my duty comes first until I'm sure you're not a danger to my team, or my sister."

"I – what? Soulmate?" Skye stared.

"Oh." He looked disappointed. "Your words aren't Wait, my sister's in there?"

"Yes – wait, is that what you shouted?"

Her dark eyes were very wide as she stared up at him, and she looked very young and vulnerable. Except Pietro knew she was a scant few weeks younger than he was. His mark had appeared when he was just a baby, across his stomach, and the pain of it had brought him awake screaming in the night, according this mother.

Plus, earthquakes. He tightened his grip on her arm. Trust no one. No one but Wanda – and, slowly, the other Avengers. "Who are you?"

"My name is Skye," she responded immediately. "You're Pietro, aren't you?"

He nodded. "If you know who I am, you know I can break your neck before you can scream," he warned softly. "Don't try me."

Skye nodded, frightened by his grim expression. The Maximoff twins were very private people, but they'd given a few interviews in which it was strongly implied, if never outright stated, that they'd been imprisoned, tortured and experimented on by HYDRA.

Somehow, she'd never thought that her soulmate would be threatening to kill her within a minute of meeting her, though.

"Let go of her!" it was Coulson's voice. Skye turned her head to see him coming up over the rise, gun in hand, but he never even had the chance to threaten Pietro, because in an instant Quicksilver was behind her, thickly muscled forearm across her throat lifting her off her feet.

Coulson froze, his mouth dropping open, and a low voice nearby said;

"Well, well, look who's back from the dead."

Hawkeye stepped out of the trees, arrow nocked and pointed at Coulson. A deeply unimpressed look on his face. "I heard rumours. Didn't want to believe you'd really try to keep this from us for this long." He flicked a glance at Pietro. "Stand down. If she's one of Coulson's, she's on our side."

"That's good, because she's my soulmate."

"Really!" Hawkeye grinned. "Well, how about we leave you two alone to get acquainted and Phil and I go to see some people who are going to be very upset? You're going to love Cap's I-Am-Disappointed face," he told Phil as the two of them walked away.

Pietro had eased Skye down and loosened his grip the moment Hawkeye gave him the all-clear. She whirled around now and jabbed her finger into his chest.

"You asshole, what a way to treat your soulmate!"

He grinned sheepishly, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants. Skye couldn't help but look at the way the action made the fabric tighten across his lean hips. Wow, Pietro was built. The grey-and-blue stretchy top he was wearing did very nice things for his chest and shoulders as well. Somehow her hand stayed on his chest, flattening out from the poking finger. She looked up to his eyes and caught him looking down her top.

"I'm sorry," Pietro said guiltily.

"For being an asshole or for getting caught looking at the goods?"

"Both?" He pulled his hands out of his pockets and reached out, cupping her arms gently at the elbows. Rather to his surprise, she let him pull her closer.

"I have a known weakness for assholes," Skye confessed.

"Yeah?" he raised one hand to her cheek, a little disturbed to note that it was shaking slightly. "Well from now on I'm the only asshole for you, all right?"

She wanted to argue, to make a lippy retort, but he did that thing again where he moved faster than she could see and suddenly his mouth was pressing against hers.

Skye had to take several deep breaths when he let her go. "I won't be a blushing fainty-maiden for you," she warned.

"Good. I don't want one." This time when his lips met hers, it was a very long time before they came up for air.