Demolishing Bridges (Part One of Academy Team AU)

"I demolish my bridges behind me - then there is no choice but forward."

-Fridtjof Nansen

Skye was dreading this meeting. All she wanted to do was play with her laptop for the precious few hours that she should have free, but nope, Nick Fury was not having that.

Okay, so maybe it was not actually Nick Fury. Skye had been at SHIELD Communications Academy for a couple months and had yet to see the guy. Some of the older students claimed that he came for graduation. Usually. Unless the world was ending or other worlds were ending ours or something.

It was not Nick Fury really but a representative who came in and declared that the different academies were going to be teaming up. Twice a week until graduation, Skye was going to be joined by an Operations recruit and a Sci-Tech one to complete assignments, train together and "build bonds".

When Skye took the deal AC had given her between an anti-technology bracelet with a lifetime of SHIELD surveillance guaranteed and going through the SHIELD Academy, she did not really think she would like it. But she had. Well, for the most part.

She liked being a part of something, and she did kind of feel like the Academy was becoming home.

Which terrified her of course. Nothing good had ever come from feeling that way.

But Coulson really grew on her. He visited multiple times when he could and even set her up in the Academy when she first arrived. Skye wondered if that was what it was like to have a parent drop you off a school. She supposed she would never know.

She really liked the effortless relationship she had formed with Coulson. She liked his style. She could not shake the feeling that he was hiding something from her though. He said he would check out her redacted file, claimed weeks later he found nothing, but Skye thought he had been acting strangely ever since. That was when he pushed her to join SHIELD with his ultimatum, and Skye could not help but think it was connected.

She was wary at first of the other students because she assumed she was going to be surrounded by a bunch of spoiled kids reaping the benefits of nepotism, but she was so glad to be so wrong. Already Skye had made a ton of friends.

She was a little disappointed at just how bad most of the Comms students were though. None of them were anywhere near her or Miles' level, and that sucked. She had hoped to be surrounded by genius hackers who were future Tony Starks.

(Someone did say that Tony Stark also would make an appearance for graduation, and Skye was starting to wonder if it was all just rumors.)

But Skye was just glad she found a place. She liked belonging to something.

What she did not like were the Sci-Tech and Ops students. Sci-Tech was full of babbling nerds who thought themselves too good to talk to the lowly Comms students. She had been reminded multiple times by the Sci-Tech students she met that Comms was the easiest program to get into. Ugh.

She saw the Operations students less because there was little crossover in their fields, but she had seen enough. At least Sci-Tech had a right to be arrogant what with their PHDs and child prodigy-ness, Ops was just a bunch of brainless bullies who also thought they were better than Comms as far as Skye could tell.

Skye did not see the point in forcing them to work together, especially since so many Ops cadets washed out. Maybe her Ops teammate would be one of them.

Skye slipped into the auditorium that held all the year one cadets from the different academies. She slid into a seat in the back because almost all of the seats were taken already. Why was everyone so early to everything here?

Anne Weaver, the head of Sci-Tech, was at the podium already. Skye barely had sat down before the speech began. Importance of teamwork. Importance of community. An effort to cut down on inter-academy segregation. We are all one SHIELD.

Then she became naming the teams. Skye fidgeted in her seat as she waited for her name to be called, and when it finally was, she wished she could go back to waiting.

"Team 84: Cadets Skye from Communications, Fitzsimmons from Sci-Tech and Grant Ward from Operations."

Someone was clearly out to get her. This could not be her team! What the hell, world?

She had never met Fitzsimmons or Grant Ward, but she had heard stories about both of them. Fitzsimmons was apparently such a genius even by Sci-Tech standards that he refused to work with anyone else. Apparently no one was smart enough for him, and Skye hated the thought of dealing with that kind of arrogance. Or dealing with a guy who she would not even understand what he was saying half the time because his IQ was like more than the entirety of Operations combined.

Grant Ward was likely the lesser of the two evils there. Maybe. Skye was not sure yet. All she knew of him was that he was antisocial, weird but also really, really good. He did not even talk to other Operations people, and yet Skye was supposed to work with him for years?

Skye forced herself to stand up and walk to the meeting point as she scanned the room to see if she could spy her new teammates.

Another team had already been announced, so it was hard to guess who were Fitzsimmons and Ward and who was Teams 85 and 86.

Skye sighed to herself as she went towards the designated meeting spot. She almost stopped short upon noticing the three people standing there.

Two were clearly Sci-Tech since they did not have the build or ensemble that Ops students did. A boy and a girl maybe a year or two older than Skye. 17? 18? The two of them were chattering away to each other and purposely ignoring the third member leaning up against the wall and staring blankly ahead of him.

Strangely, he was the one who gave Skye pause. It was obvious he was Operations. All black outfit, crew cut, tall, muscles everywhere.

He was also absurdly handsome. Skye was trying really hard to think of a time she had seen a more attractive guy outside of TV- or, hell, even on TV- and just could not. What even.

Tentatively, Skye approached the group. The Sci-Tech students quieted down when they noticed her, but the Ops guy's stare was still a thousand miles away. Skye cleared her throat awkwardly to get Ops Guy to focus on her. It worked, but he still seemed distant somehow. Now she had all three students' attention, and she fought to seem confident.

It was like the first day of school all over again.

She gave them a blinding smile and faced the Sci-Tech kids. "So which one of you is Fitzsimmons?" She thought he was a guy, but maybe Fitzsimmons was actually the last name of the girl…?

"Fitz," the girl said cheerily as she pointed to her friend. Skye almost sighed in relief at the fact that she seemed upbeat and nice enough for a Sci-Tech student.

"Simmons," the boy said a little surlier than his partner but still not rudely as he in turn pointed back at the girl. "I'm engineering, and she's biochem."

Okay, so Fitzsimmons were two people. Her team of three was actually a team of four. Wait, did that mean that when people said "Fitzsimmons refuse to work with anyone else", they actually meant "Fitz and Simmons are such partners that no one else works with them"? Because that was a very different message. Also, very good for Skye because that meant they probably were not that bad.

"And you must be Grant Ward," Skye said as she turned towards their last member. He fixed her with an intense stare that made her heartbeat pick up before looking away and grunting in agreement.

Well, at least Fitzsimmons were better than expected.

"Hi," she said with a grin. She was going to make the best of this if it killed her.

"You're Skye then," Fitz said quickly before she could properly introduce herself. "Agent Weaver said that was your name."

"But she only gave your first name. What's your last name?" Simmons asked. "Oh, I forgot my full name. Yes, I am Jemma Simmons, and he's Leopold Fitz-"

"Don't call me Leopold," Fitz continued for her. "I go by Fitz."

"Sometimes he will go by Leo though. But we both prefer Fitz and Simmons respectively," Simmons added while Fitz nodded.

They were so perfectly in sync that it was terrifying.

"Uhh," Skye began unsurely. What was it they asked again?

"Your last name?" Fitz prompted. Both of the Sci-Tech students cocked their heads to the side in tandem as they watched her.

Skye bit back the instinctive reply that she did not have a last name. She did not want to talk about something so personal with people she did not know. She would rather they did not ask her questions. Fitzsimmons seemed nosy enough to do so if given a mystery to solve.

"Skye Avery," she answered. Coulson said she was going to have to create a last name for herself before entering the Academy. She did not want to use Poots, so she chose a new one. Avery was the name of the female agent that Coulson mentioned who dropped her off at the orphanage, and it was a common enough name.

Coulson had looked sad when she told him her choice of fake last name. Skye had tried not to think about that.

Their fourth teammate had been quiet so far, so Skye almost jumped when he broke his silence.

Ward raised his eyes to scrutinize her for a second before narrowing his eyes. "What's your real name?" He blurted out in a low voice. He went rigid immediately after like the words had just slipped out before he could stop them.

Skye froze. For a second, she forgot to breath. Distantly, she was aware of Fitzsimmons mockingly chiding Ward for his abrupt and seemingly stupid question. His jaw tightened, and he looked away again.

But now Skye was the one observing him carefully. There was something about his question, like he knew that Skye was an identity created by her, which was impossible. Except maybe it was not that, but Ward just saw something in her that said she was hiding something.

She was. It was not that she was hiding "Mary Sue Poots" really nor was Skye not her real name in all the ways that mattered to her, but she was hiding a redacted file, a whole lot of unanswered questions and a bit of a checkered past. Coulson knew the truth- and likely knew more than her if her suspicious were correct- but he and she hid most of it from SHIELD for her safety as Coulson told her.

But now Skye was suspicious. There was something off about how he saw through her like that, something off about Grant Ward in general. She just assumed he was weird and that was the end of it, but now she really looked at him even as she plastered a new smile on her face and brushed the question off.

Fitz slapped Ward across the back as he teased him, and Skye saw the repressed flinch that came with the contact. Fitz missed it as he started whispering with Simmons, but Skye stared at Ward in his confusion. No way Tiny Sci-Tech hurt Big Bad Ops. Her interest was piqued now.

Ward met her eyes for a moment. He stiffened for a second before abruptly brushing past her and towards the location where they would pick up their first assignment. "Let's get this over with," he muttered.

Fitzsimmons did not seem to like his attitude if their frowns were any indication of their feelings, but they followed him anyway.

And in that moment, Skye was sure she was not the only one hiding something.

For the prompts "interrogation" and "training" for Skyeward Month Day One.

For readers of Know Your Enemy, writing this has no baring on when I update. It's been in my head forever and only took an hour. If anything, it probably helps me work out my writer's block.

This is an AU I always intended to post after I completed KYE, but the show kind of ruined that for me. It's an Academy AU that takes place right after Ward leaves Wyoming and is dealing with the adjustment after complete social isolation and his new status as a Hydra plant/Garrett's secret student. It also deals with Skye uncovering her 084 origins. Thought instead of the long fic I suppose I'll never write, I would just post connected oneshots in this universe I already created for the different Skyeward Month prompts.

Let me know what you think :)