I had so many ideas for this fic, and then I didn't know quite what to do with a lot of them. I hope this works out well enough.

Warning: If you've watched what's happened in AoS in season 3, know I'm ignoring all of it (aside from the potential of Skye's power, and the FitzSimmons... though since I'd already decided on both of those before they ever happened on screen, I suppose it's not too much). I really don't like where the show seems to be going right now, hope it'll get better later on. Still, for the purpose of this piece there's no Lash, no 'Inhuman-spree', the monolith was destroyed before anyone ever ended trapped on the other side and there's no ACTU (I really, really don't like that b...woman).

Next point in the list, originally Skye's pairing was supposed to be a secret, only hinted at. Then I began getting a lot of ideas for them and decided to give them their own short fic, aside from this one, a sort of companion, if you will... then, as I was writing this chapter, they began slipping more and more into the story, until I decided it just might be easier to do it all in one single piece (there's also the fact that I had no idea what to call the other fic). So, consider this my official announcement regarding Skye's pairing for the Nightingale verse (because, since it's all about matches here, this pairing shall hold for the rest of the series). I asked for months on your opinions, only one person gave me a straight answer. You know who you are dear, I hope you'll enjoy this. It's official now: Skyeward!

Now, please read and I hope you'll enjoy.

Butterflies

Always a time comes to step out of the shadows and into the light.

xXx 3rd Person POV xXx

The members of the Avengers Initiative were doing their best to help local authorities and other SHIELD Agents evacuate as many people from the Eastern side of Puerto Rico as possible. They knew the main focus was in San Juan, though they didn't quite understand why. All they knew (because Stark had hacked SHIELD… again) was that a highly classified event had taken place there eight years prior, and it had involved at least two high-ranked SHIELD Agents.

They had pretty much managed to empty San Juan and its neighboring towns when suddenly they all felt it, the ground shifting beneath their feet, just a second before a violent earthquake began.

"Is that…?" Captain America, in full uniform, began, rushing to get back on his feet (the shaking had been harsh enough to send him sprawling).

"They've activated the weapon!" Iron Man called, turning in the direction JARVIS told him the shaking was originating from.

"You should really stop saying that before someone decks you Stark." Hawkeye told him in a very no-nonsense tone.

The billionaire didn't understand. What was the problem with calling a weapon exactly that?

In the end the shaking was enough to make the people who'd been stubborn about staying home, decide to get away too. The Avengers left the proper authorities to handle the rest of the evacuation, while they followed Iron Man to the epicenter of the earthquake.

What they found they couldn't have ever imagined. The Caterpillars were standing right there. Melinda May/Cavalry and Mike Peterson/Cyborg looked much like they'd seen them before, in wide-stances; they seemed to know well enough how to keep standing even though the shaking was bad enough in that area they should all be in the ground. But it was with the others that the true surprises started:

The Maximoff twins were looking quite different than they had before. With the boy dressed in a long-sleeved sweatshirt in shades of blue and with details in white, dark-blue tight-pants and sneakers; his hair no longer looked pale blonde, but shockingly white. Then there was the girl, in a short black dress, red-leather jacket with sleeves to her elbows, black-leather arm-guards, dark-leather boots and black long-socks to just below her knees; her hair was auburn and her whole body seemed to be almost glowing red. They also stood near the center of the tremors with seemingly no problem whatsoever (they couldn't know Wanda/Scarlet Witch was using her own gift to keep her stable, while Pietro/Quicksilver was pretty much vibrating himself at the same rhythm as the earthquake).

Finally right on the epicenter of the disaster stood the last three members of the Caterpillars (at least of those currently in Puerto Rico, as a couple of others were still in New York). And the differences from how they had looked before, to their looks then, were even more noticeable than with any of the others. The man, Luke Serrure/Maverick (Luka Hvedrungr/Loki) was dressed fully in black leather (pants, jacket, boots); her black hair was slicked back and he was no longer wearing any glasses to hide his emerald green eyes. He laid against a wall, almost casually, as if nothing at all were happening around him. Arianna Johnson/Nightingale (Silbhé Kinross-Salani) was standing by his side, her attire mixing all shades of purple: a lavender long-sleeved tunic, dark-violet short-sleeved long dress with a slit down the front, mauve fingerless gloves and suede boots that went above her knees; her hair was still pulled back in a ponytail, but her face was clear, showing hazel eyes. She stood beside her teammate and husband, looking as much at ease as he did, not shaking at all.

The last member of the group was before the other two, a knee to the ground and both hands, palm open, pressed to the earth. The earth-stopped shaking a moment before she got on her feet and they could all see she was wearing black-jeans, a long black-leather jacket, fully closed and black-leather boots; her hair too was in a ponytail, but her face was free, showing her chocolate brown eyes; also, most noticeably, she wasn't wearing gloves anymore. That was her, the real her, regardless of the names: Daisy Johnson, Skye Kinross-Salani…

"Wha…?!" None of the Avengers seemed to know what to say.

"I am Quake." She announced, no hesitation.

"You're gifted…" Banner breathed out as he realized it, couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it before. "You're all gifted."

"Like my sister said, she's Quake." Arianna took over the introductions. "I am Nightingale, and you can call him Maverick. The twins: Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. And, of course, you've seen Cyborg and Cavalry before."

Of course, Melinda didn't have any special abilities, but it wasn't like she needed them. There was a reason why she was considered an Elite, right there with Coulson and Hill (Fury's right and left hands… his good eyes); just like Nicholas Fury, Kathryn Adler and Sharon Carter had been during the first generation, the one responsible for the founding of SHIELD (the three had been the first team to be formed, lead by the first Directors).

Thor and Sif reacted to the girl announcing herself as Nightingale, but they were the only ones, and no one noticed it at all.

Before Stark could wind himself up or something enough to do or say anything at all, what they were waiting for finally happened: a dark hole opened in the sky.

A low bell sounded and Maverick promptly answered the call on his comm. He said a few words in answer and then turned to his team.

"We were right." He announced. "Similar holes have just opened in the sky above Hunan, China; Sokovia and Krasnoyarsk Kai, Russia. Our allies are ready to handle things in those locations. Which means we need to take care of this one."

"Did the plan work?" Quake asked, taking deep breath and swallowing an energy elixir that had been designed specifically to help her recover quickly after using her powers to a large scale (it meant that eventually she would crash and sleep for more than twelve hours in a row… but it was definitely worth it).

"It did." Nightingale nodded, getting off her own comm. "Dr. Foster just confirmed that the readings on this portal and higher than those in the others. Malekith is coming to us."

"Perfect, then lets get this party started!" Quake announced.

As if that were some kind of signal, aliens began pouring out of the hole, and into their planet. The battle(s) had begun.

xXx Nightingale's POV xXx

It was the kind of event we'd been training our whole lives for… and yet, once we were there, once it was happening, we realized we weren't ready for it, at all.

We'd been training for thirteen years, had had our powers for right, been agents for seven and part (and leaders) of the Caterpillars for five. We'd fought against humans, mutants, metas and inhumans, had faced supremacists, insane bastards and almost every single attempt at rebuilding Hydra. We were theoretically prepared for a future confrontation with Asgard (we weren't so naïve as to believe they wouldn't one day find Loki and come for him… and no one was taking my husband from me).

And yet, we weren't ready for what was happening right then. Because that fight, it wasn't just a mission, a skirmish, a battle… it was war.

We didn't have a plan, per say, not beyond calling enough attention to pull the 'big bad' to us. However, some things were obvious enough. My love would be handling Malekith, I'd be close enough to him to provide back-up as needed; and the rest of the team around, ready to help is necessary, but mostly taking care of most of the aliens.

The Avengers were there too, of course, but I wasn't actually counting them. If they helped, that was good, but I wasn't counting on them. None of them (except AC, if we counted him as part of that group) had given us a reason to trust them with our backs.

"Listen everyone." I called into our personal comm. line before I could think better of it. "This is it, there's no going back now. We're going all out."

"No more holding back." I heard Maverick agreeing. "The Chitauri will have no mercy on you, return the favor."

"No more Secret Warriors." Quake sealed. "It's time the world knows who we are."

"Caterpillars!" The twins called in unison.

Everyone echoed the sentiment, even Melinda; and for a second it sounded exactly like 'Butterflies'…

xXx 3rd Person POV xXx

The battle was long, and more than a little insane. The Caterpillars doing crazy stunt, which nearly gave more than one of the Avengers a heart-attack.

Like when Scarlet Witch ended in an intersection, with Chitauri approaching her from every direction. She began firing hexes almost without aiming anymore. Captain America went in her direction, intending to back her up, particularly as he'd seen an alien approaching her from what appeared to be her blind-spot. Only for her to charge yet another hex and move to shoot, straight at the Captain! He was about to yell at her, but in the last moment Quicksilver seemed to appear out of nowhere, pulling his sister to a side, just enough to dodge the attack from the approaching Chitauri, before twisting her around, so the moment her hex was actually fired, it hit the enemy straight on.

To most the whole things would have seemed like an accident, some big cosmic coincidence… but Steve Rogers had fought a war. He'd gone into battle with the same group of men, the Howling Commandoes, enough time to reach a moment where it was almost like they all knew what the others were going to do next. That was exactly the kind of report the Caterpillars had.

The next great shock came to Iron Man and, to a lesser degree, Hawkeye. The Cavalry had been running across rooftops, windowsills and other such, stopping every so often to shoot aliens down. It'd been obvious she'd eventually run out of 'ground', especially as she approached the downtown area and the open-park. Hawkeye made a signal in her direction, just in case she hadn't realized it, but she just smiled at him before mumbling something into her comm. Quake… she'd just called the name of her team-mate.

Iron Man flew around a corner just into to see Melida May, the Cavalry, run straight off the edge of a four-story building. His speed was too much to allow him to change direction and get there in time to stop the woman's fall; he knew that, and yet he still tried. The attempt sent him into a half-controlled spiral. By the time he managed to right himself again, he realized there wasn't an agent-shaped splatter mark on the cement, instead the Cavalry was half-crouched on thin air! A look down revealed the source to be one of the Agent Johnsons, Quake, who had both hands extended in the direction the team-mate; she was doing something with her powers that was keeping her up.

At some pre-arranged signal from the Cavalry, Quake upped the intensity of her powers, allowing her team-mate to shoot up, straight into the path of one of the chitauri chariots, right on time for the agent to get herself on it. She then took over the flying chariot, leading a number of aliens on a merry chase; before eventually making them all crash, either against each other or a cliff-face. She just managed to throw herself off the thing right on time, landing on a roll in yet another rooftop, close to the Marina, where Cyborg was holding his ground.

After what he'd just witnessed, Iron Man felt the need to get on steady ground, just for a moment. And he'd thought he was insane!

Minutes later he found himself using his weapons from behind a couple of cars which had been blown up sideways at some point and were serving as barricades. Hawkeye, Black Widow and even Agent (Coulson) right there with him.

"Those baby agents are going to give me a heart-attack, I swear." Stark complained eventually.

Romanoff rolled her eyes without stopping her own moves; though his words seemed to at least called the men's attention.

"What did they do now?" Coulson asked, already having an idea.

So Stark told them, about what he'd witnessed. They all knew about what the twins had done, already, Rogers had been unable to keep it to himself. The shocking part, at least to the self-named genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist, was how not-surprised Agent looked.

"Usually the Johnsons are the ones teaming up to pull off that kind of stunts." AC admitted with a shrug. "Though it probably shouldn't be surprising, with Nightingale busy being Maverick's back-up against Malekith."

"I thought Point-Break and his 'amigos' were supposed to deal with the creepy alien warlord." Stark blurted out, somewhat confused.

Coulson shrugged, he wasn't about to explain what some of the Caterpillars were capable of; and the fact that they took the safety of their world to seriously it was unlikely they would ever be willing to leave it someone else's hands.

"Just like Budapest, all over again." Hawkeye commented at some point.

"At least our backup is already onsite." Black Widow stated with a shrug.

"What back-up?" Iron Man demanded, not understanding the comment.

"Are you really that blind Stark?" Coulson asked before he could stop himself.

"Them? Really?!" Stark either couldn't believe it, or he just refused to.

Romanoff and Barton looked at each other and then shook their heads. They knew Stark didn't understand; but he was so against the Caterpillars, and the Johnsons in particular that no matter what they told him, how much they explained things, it'd be pointless in the end. He'd never understand how truly amazing the sisters (the whole team, but especially those two) were. Everything they'd done, not just for the two of the, but for many others in SHIELD. May might have been the only one to directly request to be placed in their team after they'd saved her… but that didn't mean there weren't others who didn't owe their lives to them too, who wouldn't do everything to help them given the chance.

There were some, like Agent Bobbi Morse, aka Mockingbird and her husband, former mercenary Lance Hunter, who'd tried to join the team going to do battle in San Juan, but they weren't allowed to, the best they could do was be part of the team helping civilians, ready to go in if the worst happened and the Caterpillars and Avengers failed.

The battle continued then. There were a few more insane stunts, mostly from the Maximoff twins and the Johnson sisters, a couple more from the Cavalry. Even Iron Man seemed to want to give it a try when he decided the best way to take down a Leviathan was to do a Jonah and get inside the 'belly of the beast' to take it down.

Then came the message none of them were expecting.

"Children!" It was Darcy Lewis-Coulson's voice, practically screaming over the comms from her position with the team of Agents waiting on ground, yet away from the battle.

"What…?!" For a second no one quite understood what she meant, they didn't want to.

"There are children trapped inside a daycare." Darcy stated grimly. "We have no way of getting to them, and the building has been hit enough times… it's coming down any moment now…"

"Is there any chance of the Gifted teleporters might come give us a hand?" AC asked, already suspecting/fearing the answer.

"Even Nightcrawler couldn't poof all the way from Russia." Darcy stated.

Everyone wanted to do something to help, anything; and ye they couldn't. Not only because they didn't have the necessary powers to get the children out and away from the battlefield unharmed; but because they couldn't stop fighting right then.

"I'll do it." A voice announced, unexpectedly.

It took a couple of seconds to realize it had been the shorter (and older) of the Johnson sisters who'd spoken.

"Nightingale!" Several of her teammates called.

"Are you a teleporter?" Captain America asked, taking advantage of the fact that someone (Darcy) had apparently linked their channels.

"No." Nightingale answered honestly, even as she continued her own fight. "Not really. I can do some things… but it's nowhere near enough to get those kids out."

"Then wha…?" Stark began.

"What I can do is make sure they're safe." She went on. "But for that I need someone to take my place right now!"

Not everyone had eyes on her right then, so they couldn't know what she meant; however, for those who did, it was pretty obvious. Maverick and Nightingale were standing side by side, fighting a huge stone-like monster, a Kursed he'd called it; which was the only thing standing between them and Malekith.

Most would think there was no way someone as small as Nightingale were actually managing much against Kursed, but they only needed to see her, see them, fight for a handful of seconds, and they'd understand. Maverick was the only one fighting the monster directly, but his wife, she was an extra pair of eyes, hands and feet, she was his protector, his shield; fluid, unbreakable and unstoppable. Whenever it seemed like Maverick was letting himself open to some kind of attack, she'd suddenly be there; whenever the Kursed attempted to attack from what could be considered a blind-spot of his opponent, she'd block him and somehow manage to push him back, even if it was only a little; it was always enough to keep them going.

No one could be quite sure how the decision was made, but in the end it was Quake who took Nightingale's place, a second before the small woman threw himself straight at the monster, burying her biggest knife as deep as she could into the Kursed's neck, before flipping backwards and off him, straight into the path of its claws, or so it seemed.

None of the Caterpillars moved, they didn't even blinked; however, the Avengers' couldn't help the drowned exclamation as the young woman vanished into thin air a fraction of a second before vicious claws would have been buried in her.

"I'm with the children." They could all hear her through the comms a second later, she was panting, but otherwise sounded fine.

A handful of minutes later Steve Rogers managed to free himself enough he decided to go and make sure Nightingale and the children were alright. What he found wasn't quite what he'd been expecting.

He'd noticed the humming in his ear, of course, the quiet singing, but hadn't made what should probably have been an obvious connection. He reached what looked like it was/had been a daycare, and found a building that seemed to be about to fully collapse. The windows were all shattered and the supports seemed to have mostly broken, the roof half caved-in. And then there was she, one of the Caterpillar leaders: Nightingale was standing in the middle of the room, hands raised above her head, palms open; it almost seemed as if she were holding the piece of fallen roof up, all on her own. And yet the Captain's eyesight was good enough that he could see there was something in between her hands and the stone, like a semi-translucent film, with hints of white and lilac in it. Some kind of shield…?

"We need to find a way to get these children out!" The Captain practically yelled into his comm.

"That's… not a good idea Captain." Nightingale told him, panting a bit.

The children, all gathered around her, sitting on the ground, along with the two women who were probably in charge of them, continued the quiet singing even when she stopped.

"Ma'am this is really not a time for pride or…" The blonde began.

"Pride?!" She snorted. "You believe me so petty, that I would refuse an order merely out of pride, or spite or… that I would put children's, innocent's lives…" She shook her head. "You don't know me Captain Rogers, you ought not judge me…" Her eyes narrowed a bit. "The children are safer here, with me, that they would be out there, until Malekith and the Chitauri have been defeated. You cannot guarantee their safety until the threat has been eliminated."

"And you can?" He was still doubting her.

The confirmation came in a most unexpected way, as a chitauri seemed to come out of nowhere; it'd shot straight at the daycare before Captain America could so anything about it, before he could even voice a warning. And yet none of it was necessary, the discharge that came from the alien's gun, impacted against something that was invisible at first sight, but when hit revealed ripples in the same white and lilac as the transparent film Rogers had seen earlier in between Nightingale's hands and the huge rock.

There was definitely a shield in place. And it wasn't only holding the caved-in roof away from the civilians, but it was also surrounding them, keeping them safe from attacks. He noticed something else a second later, as he turned to look at the young agent again: a drop of blood was falling from her nose. He didn't say a word about it, there was no need; he knew, instinctively, what it meant: they were running out of time.

Nightingale had felt that attack, as if it'd hit her on her own skin. Had felt the burn, just for a moment, but it was enough. She wouldn't be able to keep the shield up for much longer, time was running out.

"Everyone, I think we need to finish this battle, sooner rather than later." Captain America said seriously into his comm. "For all of our sakes."

"Guys." They weren't expecting to hear Darcy again. "Jane says that the portals are shifting. They can be closed… but they won't until the anchor keeping them open is gone."

"And let me guess, Malekith is that anchor." Hawkeye called in return.

"Bingo!" Darcy replied, with fake cheeriness.

"Then it's time to end this, once and for all." Thor stated, voice full of authority.

"We cannot get to Malekith until we've gotten rid of that monster." Sif reminded him.

"You leave him to me." Quake called with sudden conviction.

"I suggest you all brace yourselves." Maverick suggested.

They all did, and yet when the vibrations came, they were still more than most ever imagined possible; even those fighting blocks away from the main confrontation.

Those that were close enough could see the moment Maverick pulled all of the Kursed's attention onto him, keeping him busy with what appeared like an endless attack. Eventually the monster become completely furious, as well as blind to anything that isn't the man before him. That's its mistake, because Quake chooses that very moment to drop from a catwalk above him to land straight on the creature's shoulders. For a handful of seconds she looks like a cowgirl in a rodeo; holding onto the monster no matter how hard he tries to buck her off. She refuses to let go, no matter what, she won't lose.

The brunette lets out a wordless cry as she sits on what passes for the monster, taking hold of its head with both hands, and then she's pushing as much power as she can into it.

The earth shakes, not quite as violently as it did before the battle actually began; but that's because Quake's focus isn't the Earth on that moment, but the monster beneath her; which is shaking much more violently than the world ever has.

Iron Man comes to a realization right then: that young woman has enough power to cause an Earthquake that would probably be a straight out 9.5, possibly even higher (which, prehistoric and possibly biblical events aside, had never happened). She had all that power… and yet she hadn't gone crazy with it, or hurt anyone; she protected people, she was a hero… and he'd spent the last week calling her a weapon, treating her like a threat. Never mind that he hadn't known that Quake was a person. Tony Stark hardly ever regretted the way he treated other people, but in that moment he certainly did.

It took almost a full minute, when they all heard a very loud crack. Some couldn't help but think that was probably how a mountain would sound if it were to break. A moment later it was as if the Kursed had blown up.

However, it was not all good, no one (except probably Quake herself) had stopped to consider what effect her powers would have once she'd won. The Kursed broke into pieces and the remains of the energy blew up like an explosion, shooting not just the pieces of the monster but also the young woman herself, who crashed against a nearby building, a wall pretty much crumbling above her.

"Skye!" The voices of all but one Caterpillar called in horror.

"SISTER!" That was Maverick.

"'m a'right brother…" The gifted girl muttered as she managed with some effort to sit up.

The relief had barely been felt when she was falling limp to the side.

Maverick was by her side in an instant. A quick check revealed that she was alive, her pulse was there, but somewhat weak, she seemed to have some micro-fractures, judging by the contusions that could be seen on her skin (it wasn't the first time her powers turned against her). The truly worrying part were the holes in her flank, small, but all together bleeding heavily.

"Maverick!" Cavalry called in a demanding tone.

"She's alive, unconscious and hurt." Maverick enlisted. "Contusions, quite probably some micro-fractures in her hands and arms; and there are shrapnel wounds in her right flank."

"Trickster!" Sif called quietly as she went to kneel on the young agent's other side. "Go, deal with Malekith."

"She's my blood-sister…" Loki began, not taking his eyes off-her. "I must keep her safe…"

"I will make sure nothing happens to her." Sif assured him. "You need to go and help the others finish this battle. Only then can the healers be called."

The sorcerer knew she was right. Even if he didn't understand why Sif was being so kind and so accommodating. He'd his priorities straight: his match was busy and approaching the end of her endurance fast, judging by the way his own levels were being affected; their blood-sister was unconscious and badly hurt. The only way they'd get the help they needed was by ending the battle, and for that Malekith needed to die. It was an easy decision to make.

Thor seemed to be able to sense, somehow, the moment Maverick teleported to where he was trying to fight Malekith; he moved to the side just in time for the sorcerer to appear, a set of ice daggers already in hand and swiping in the dark elf's direction. Malekith managed to dodge the first knife, if barely, though the second nicked him on the neck before breaking. Loki didn't allow that to stop him, he threw the blade still in his hand at the villain, ignoring the shattering as he moved aside to allow for Thor to take a shot again, while conjuring a spear made of ice (such weapons were easier for him to call on, thanks to his Jotun blood, than metal ones).

Loki had long since moved past the fact that he was Jotun by birth, as well as the son of Laufey. His new family had helped him. It also helped that, as fact as Earth and humans were concerned, Frost Giants were non-entities, he was simply a man with a gift with ice, and he wasn't even the only one, so…

And so the battle went on.

xXx Nightingale's POV xXx

I could feel the drop of blood as it slid down my chin, could even taste the hint of it from when it had passed my lips. At first one of the women working with the children had made sure to clean the drops of blood from my face every so often; but the longer we stayed there the more unsettled the children became, and their responsibility was to them more than it'd ever be to me. I was quite alright with that; in the end we were all there for the kids.

It was some time, but eventually I felt cloth on my chin, my lips, someone was cleaning me up. It still took me several seconds to realize someone was calling to me.

"Nightingale…? Agent Johnson…? Arianna!"

I blinked several times, fighting against the drowsiness that was ever so slowly taking me over, making sure the shield was still holding, before finally turning my attention to the figure standing right in front of me:

"B-obbi…" It took me a moment or so to find my voice, my mouth was dry. "Wha-t a… what are you doing here?"

"Darcy told us about the children." The blonde agent commented before offering me some water. "Some of us decided we just needed to come and help."

"Too dangerous…" I began.

"Not so much anymore." The Mockingbird assured me. "Most of the aliens have been eliminated already. We have FitzSimmons's dwarves with us, to help warn us in case of a threat, and a dozen agents, including Lance, Trip, Darcy, Phil and myself ready to defend the children."

I noticed someone else as she said that, someone she hadn't mentioned, standing at the back of the group, watching me with a quiet intensity that was very characteristic of him. I didn't say a word to him, just looking away, as if I'd never seen him; it was better, for all of us, that way.

It took me a moment longer to fully process the implication of everything that had just been said. Apparently at some point I began focusing so deeply on the shield, on keeping it up, on making my energy last as long as possible… that I'd completely lost track of time and reality. That wasn't a good thing. Even if it'd allowed me to last longer, anything could have happened, to my team, my friends, my family… and I wouldn't have known.

I was about to call on my comm. for the Caterpillars to report when I was distracted by Darcy's arrival.

"Hey girl!" She called, going to stand right beside me. "What do you say we take these children off your hands and get them to safety?"

"They're too many, you will need to make two, maybe three trips." I pointed.

"I know." Darcy nodded. "We're ready."

I let a beat or so pass, before speaking again.

"Hurry Darcy…" I said very softly. "I don't know how much longer I can hold on…"

"I know girl…" Her voice turned very quiet as she said that, I could only imagine how I must look in that moment, judging by the concern in her expression. "It's almost over. I promise."

They divided the children as necessary, one of the nurses going with each of the groups. It took a little while, but eventually there were just half a dozen children and one adult left; and only because the previous group had been too numerous already for them to go as well.

In the lapsed time I'd learnt of the recent developments, including my sister being injured in the aftermath of her defeating the Kursed; as well as the fact that my husband was working with Thor to bring down Malekith. I didn't like it; particularly I didn't like not being able to help them, but there was nothing I could do about that. I needed to focus on my own task…

"Nightingale watch out!"

I didn't know who issued the warning, but it came almost too late. The last supports of the building gave way and suddenly it was all coming upon me. There was no way I could hold up that much weight, not even if I'd been at a 100% (which I certainly wasn't). So I did the only thing I could, I expelled all the power I'd left, using it to throw the last people inside the building out; thankfully, they were already standing by the door, which helped. An instant later the shield vanished and a building fell on me.

xXx 3rd Person POV xXx

"Cyborg!" May's voice boomed across the comms. "Get Maverick out of there now!"

It'd all happened so suddenly, that Thor hadn't known quite to do. One moment he was hearing the Captain America call that there was an Agent down, Agent Johnson… which seemed like a lot of bad luck, considering the other agent Johnson was down as well. The next instant the man by his side, codenamed Maverick had stumbled away from the fight for several steps before collapsing abruptly, like a puppet with the strings cut off.

Thor didn't understand what was going on, but he knew that whatever it was, it wasn't good. So, after seeing the enhanced man taking the body of the unconscious black-haired agent over his shoulder, the Asgardian prince threw himself once again into battle.

The battle didn't last much longer, thankfully. Thor and Maverick fighting together had managed to weaken the dark-elf enough that with a few more well-placed attacks, the villain was down.

"The portal is closing!" Several voices called at the same time.

"So are the ones in China, Russia and Sokovia." Cyborg informed them, just having received the information himself.

"We won…" Several voices murmured in a mix of joy a relief.

"Well, don't just stand there people!" Melinda May seemed to decide it was the moment to take charge of things. "The Johnsons need medical attention, pronto!"

Everyone got moving instantly. The Warriors Three had, thankfully, already been working on moving all the debris. They'd found Arianna at the bottom, body curled into a fetal position, and surprisingly enough, aside from an obvious injury to the back of her head and marks of earlier wounds on other parts of her body, she seemed to be alright. No broken bones, no major injuries. Even the blow to the head, Phil checked her over, having some first-aid training, and after a couple of minutes announced that aside from a concussion, nothing seemed to be wrong.

Daisy was a bit worse for wear. Sif had managed to staunch the bleeding some, but she'd still lost a considerable amount of blood and would need to be treated soon.

"Someone would like to explain how he ended unconscious?" Iron Man demanded as he landed.

He'd seen the man collapse and couldn't help but freeze, with Rogers in his ear calling for one Agent down, and then seeing another, he hadn't know where to go, what to do. He hated that. And, as was usual, Tony Stark hid his fear behind sarcasm and irritating quips.

The Cavalry opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it, instead turning to look at Pietro, who was carrying the unconscious Quake while his sister watched from the side, Cyborg was still carrying Maverick, and May herself refused Sif's help before picking Nightingale up. It wasn't like she needed any help, the girl was way too light, had always been, and May had never been sure if it was because of the blood cancer or something else altogether. It wasn't like it'd ever mattered much either.

"They're bound, aren't they?" The words, surprisingly enough, came from Thor.

Most looked at him oddly; all but two people: Sif, whose expression showed she was beginning to connect the dots, probably more of them than they would prefer; and May, who went stiff.

"I wasn't sure at first." Thor went on. "But it's so obvious now. The way they fight, the way they move, even the way they stand in relation to each other. That's why he collapsed… because she was knocked unconscious."

"What does one thing have to do with the other?" Stark demanded, angry because he couldn't understand what was going on.

"They're married." Rogers offered, he remembered that particular conversation with Agent Johnson in the helicarrier.

"I am married!" Stark snapped, offended. "Doesn't mean I'm gonna swoon if Pepper does. Not that Pepper has ever swooned… exactly, but still."

"No, you don't understand…" Thor began, then broke off, seemingly unable to find the words to explain things.

"It goes beyond marriage." Sif clarified. "Or at least any form of marriage midgardians may know. Even beyond the usual asgardian marriages. It's an ancient ceremony very few enter nowadays." She made a pause, looking at the smaller Johnson and the black-haired sorcerer in turn. "We call the people who share such bonds a match; and they become one through the Ancient Vows. They're much like wedding vows, except they carry power, the kind that will bind two souls."

"Like a magical version of 'till death do you part'?" Banner (he'd stopped being the Hulk at some point) inquired, curious.

"More like 'to the end of time'." Sif corrected. "This kind of vow… it cannot be broken, not by time, or space, not even death. It will last until the universe comes to an end."

The shock that followed that revelation was absolute.

"Who in their sane minds would do something like that?" Lance Hunter blurted out before he could stop himself. "I mean, yeah man I certainly love my wife in this life, but who says I'll love her in the next?!"

"And who says she'll love you?!" Trip snorted.

Bobbi (the aforementioned wife) just rolled her eyes.

"That's why it's so rare." The grimmest of the Warriors 3, Hogun, stated quietly. "Few people are willing to make that sort of commitment. Even for one life, when it's one as long as ours, it can be a daunting prospect, to promise to love the same person for thousands of years…" He made a pause before adding: "It is said, however, that the rewards of entering such a bond are beyond anything that can be imagined."

Stark still didn't understand; in fact, most of those present didn't, though there was at least one who couldn't help but wonder…

xXx Nightingale's POV xXx

The first thing I realized when I woke up, was that I wasn't home. I wasn't in any place I'd ever called home (which, at some point, had come to include not only the two Salani Manors, in Maine and in Wales, but also the apartment my sister and I'd shared while attending Norwich University in Vermont, the set of apartments the team shared in the Triskellion and on the Argonaut, as well as SHIELD's top-secret Retreat). So, I had no idea where I was, other than it was a bed in a big bedroom, a whole wall seemed to be made completely of glass. The only thing that kept me from going ballistic the moment I recovered consciousness, was the pair of jade green eyes looking straight into my own hazel ones. My Maverick was right there in bed with me. We'd both been stripped down to our underclothes and while neither of us knew where we were, we were together, anything else we could deal with…

The same thought entered our heads at the same time:

"Skye!" We cried out.

In less than a minute Loki had conjured pants for himself and a simple sundress for myself; and the fact that he couldn't conjure anything else was a graphic demonstration of just how weakened the two of us still were. Still we needed to find our sister and, knowing we wouldn't be able to teleport, we were soon out of the bedroom and looking around, following our respective connections to her.

We found her a couple of minutes later, drinking a cup of what looked like tea in a kitchen… she winced the moment her eyes laid on us.

"I'm sorry…" She began, apologetic. "I didn't think you'd wake up for an hour or so, yet."

"Are you alright?" I asked her, hurrying to her side. "You were hurt…"

"I was, as were you." She reminded me. "We're both alright now. Raina sent Galen to treat us, and anyone else that might need it."

I knew who Galen was, a young boy, Greek, one of the youngest Inhumans to have gone through terrigenesis, he was a healer, the best that had been seen in all of their history.

A lot had changed since Jiaying's passing. The Elders were no longer the ones to decide who would go through the change. Instead the option was opened to everyone who had proven they were mature enough to accept the change and deal with the consequences. The Elders could only stop a terrigenesis taking place when they'd proofed that a particular person was too unbalanced or something else. It hadn't happened yet.

"So, everything's alright then?" My love inquired, arms crossed across his chest, showing how much he didn't believe that.

Skye nodded, and I could see she was trying to work out what made him distrust that, aside from the obvious. I couldn't understand how even after that hell of a battle the Aesir hadn't realized who Maverick truly was; but they obviously hadn't, otherwise we'd have had a whole different conflict on our hands… which hadn't happened.

"If so, why aren't we home?" I challenged. "Why are we… here. Wherever here might be…"

"Stark Tower." Skye revealed with a sigh.

I had no words to reply to that, I mean, really?! We didn't like Stark (or at least we hadn't until… the day before) and suddenly we were staying at his place instead of our own (whichever of our places)? Something was very wrong with that…

"Why are we really here?" I insisted, finally. "Why aren't we at the Argonaut? Or the Triskellion? Or even the Retreat?"

"Because I'm here." A new, unexpected voice called from behind.

"Mama Kathryn!" Her name slipped from my lips before I fully processed what I was saying.

It was until then that I fully realized why that was so wrong. Mama Kathryn wasn't supposed to be there, she wasn't supposed to be anywhere near SHIELD, for our safety, but especially for her own. After all, as far as most of the world was concerned, she was dead.

It was one of the greatest tragedies to have ever happened in SHIELD. When the Co-Director, Kathryn Adler, the Sphinx, had been assassinated during a diplomatic mission with the heads of several intelligence agencies around the world. The group had met in Malta to discuss the most recent attempt to reform Hydra which had, again, been stopped by us (Caterpillars). The problem was that the government in that country refused to declare the people involved in the attempt, and Hydra as a whole, as terrorists, which granted them protection. It'd be until much later that the truth would come out, the fact that certain people in high echelons of society and with important political power in that country subscribed to the ideals of Hydra… the death of Ian Quinn had thrown a spanner into their plans, but it wouldn't be enough to stop them fully… and then came the assassinations.

As far as the world was concerned, half of the leaders present in that meeting had been killed. The only survivors having been those who either supported Hydra or had at least chosen to remain neutral. Director Adler (Mama Kathryn) had been listed among the deceased…

Reality, though, was a bit different. Because we (her family) had known the attack has coming, and we were prepared. Mama Kathryn had survived the attack, but was forced to fake her death. Awful as that was, the fact that she would have to keep the distance from us all, it was still better than the alternative. It'd also allowed her to go off-book as she found those responsible for the assassinations.

An investigation that had lasted over a year had eventually lead Mama Kathryn to the last person they could have ever expected. The one behind the latest attempt to rebuild Hydra… and quite possibly every attempt since Whitehall: Alexander Pierce…

Papa Nick hadn't believed it at first, refused to believe that the man who'd made him and Mama Kathryn directors, their friend, one of few people who'd been present at their wedding! (He'd been a witness, in fact), of the very few who knew about my sister and I, would do something like that: order Mama Kathryn's assassination, knowing what she meant to Papa Nick… yet there had just been too much overwhelming proof.

Mama Kathryn's own shock had been such that she'd made a mistake. Pierce had found her… and yet before he could finish the job, he was dead. Thanks to the help of one man, the last person Pierce ever expected to be on her side…

That had been a couple of years prior. A lot of protocols had been put in place to keep Pierce's death a secret, while Mama Kathryn took over from him as a way of keeping an eye on everyone that might be in on his dark plans. Since the World Security Council were big on secrecy and not being together anywhere, for their own safety, it wasn't hard to manage… until that moment.

As it happened Mama Kathryn simply loved us, her family, too much to stay away after what had happened in San Juan. She'd piloted a quinjet herself to the Argonaut (and given more than one person the scare of their lives). Papa Nicholas had sent her (and us) to Stark Tower in an attempt to keep us safe, as much as we might consider the helicarrier as one of our homes, we'd no way of knowing how much the people on-board could actually be trusted. We'd seen it happen before, good people doing bad things; all could be achieved with the right 'incentive'…

"I know this wasn't part of the plan." Mama Kathryn said after embracing both my husband and myself tightly. "But I just couldn't stay away, not after hearing what happened in Puerto Rico… the mere thought of you all injured… It was too much, I couldn't stay away anymore."

"It'll be alright, mama." Skye assured her with a smile. "It's not the end of the world." She grinned. "I mean, we're all alive right?"

"Right." We all nodded.

"Then we can deal with the rest." Skye decided.

And we would deal with it, there simply was no other acceptable option.

xXx Skye's POV xXx

I don't believe in fairytales, never have, though I realize that there have been times when my life's seemed like one… either that or a bloody soap-opera.

I knew, by the time I was four years old, that life wasn't perfect, and that children's stories were just that, lies told to children, none of them true. I'd been moved from foster family to foster family every two or three months… the one time I'd dared call a woman mom I was sent back to St. Agnes the next day. The bottom-line: no one wanted me. I didn't even know where I came from, had no birth-certificate aside from the one St. Agnes had given me after some unknown woman left me with them.

And then she appeared: Ms. Salani was unlike any woman I might have met before. She told me straight out that she knew SHIELD was responsible for me ending at St. Agnes, and that while the Agent to leave me there, had done so with the intention of keeping me safe from some terrible tragedy that had happened in the place of my birth, in the Hunan Province, in China… she could see I wasn't happy. So she offered me another option: to join her family. I said yes, of course I did, and as thankful as I was for what she'd told me of my own past, I didn't fully believe that she would be any different from all the other foster mothers I'd had to that point, that she might want to keep me.

Silbhé was… a surprise. When Ms. Salani signed my papers she'd told me I'd have a sister, but I never expected someone who could have been my twin. She was barely five or so months older than me, and so small she actually seemed younger at first sight. It wasn't the first time I had a foster sister, but the first time she liked me. And I liked her… She was my first true friend.

Three months later, the greatest shock: Silbhé was sick. I'd known for a while that something had to be wrong, it couldn't be normal for a girl our age to be getting sick all the time. And then a doctor said it: leukemia… cancer. For a wild moment I shook with fear, wondering if I'd be blamed for it. It'd happened before, with another foster family. One of the girls in the house had had bad food poisoning and I was blamed for it, though I never truly understood why.

I could see the doubt in Mr. Salani (I later found out that wasn't actually his name) at the idea of keeping me in that moment. I was expecting it already, of course they'd rather focus on their real daughter… and then, what I wasn't expecting. Silbhé practically wrapped herself around me, refusing to let me go. Calling me her sister… It became official a few days later; and I decided a new life deserved a new name: I became Skye Kinross-Salani.

I took my place as sister very seriously. Silbhé might be older than me, but she was sick, and so I did all I could to look after her. Make sure she ate, slept as much as she needed to, took her medicines; I did my best to distract her when she was feeling badly, and it was no burden, I enjoyed it. I had a family, what wasn't there to enjoy?

I was about to turn nine when the news were official: Silbhé'd gone into remission. She wasn't exactly healed, but certainly much better than she'd been in almost five years, and I was thankful for that. By that point I'd also learnt some of the family truths: like the fact that Ms. Salani wasn't truly Silbhé's mom, but her paternal aunt, that her parents had died in the lapse of a year, in awful circumstances, that both Ms. Salani and her husband were spies (and didn't that inspire hundreds of fantasies in my child-mind…).

A year after Silbhé went into remission, our training began. At first it was only because Mama and Papa (they'd chosen me, so of course they were my mama and papa) insisted Silbhé and I ought to know how to defend ourselves; though soon enough we decided we wanted to be just like them: agents… heroes.

There were a few hiccups along the way, of course. Like when we were eleven and an alien-prince appeared in our garden. I didn't know at first, it'd been one of the few times I'd left my sister on her own (she just loved so much sitting in the rose-patch, in our garden, while I much preferred losing myself a bit in computers, even at that age). Still, she told me everything, about that first quick meeting, then when the Chinese flute appeared for her (which made sounds like those of her favorite birds, the nightingales), and then when she finally convinced him to agree to meet me.

We were sisters, and the best of friends, there had never been any secrets between us. And yet we told our parents nothing. Oh, they knew there was a boy, called Luka, who'd sometimes drop by and play with us for a little while… but they never actually met him. They were busy, working with SHIELD, it wasn't rare for Silbhé and I to be on our own. We never felt bad about that.

Then Silbhé turned fourteen, and the cancer returned. Those were the three most terrifying months of my life. I always knew she wouldn't agree to the harsher treatments, that she wouldn't want to spend her last months in a bed, in hospital, away from her roses and the nightingales… still, I refused to just give up. I was still just learning to hack, to crack systems, yet that didn't stop me. I got tips from everyone I could, particularly a girl whose screen-name was TaserQueen, she was talented, and when she learnt why I wanted to learn to hack, she helped me a lot. I hacked the bases of every lab I could think of, trying to find something that might save Silbhé, or at least give her more time…

In the end it was Loki (Luka's real identity) who saved us all. I have to admit I hadn't fully believed that he was a god, from a world called Asgard… I knew he was gifted, but then again he wasn't the only one. And then I saw the bracelets he'd created… I saw my sister smiling at me, when just the night before I'd been so sure she wouldn't wake up again (I'd cried myself to sleep thinking that). I never doubted him again after that.

We didn't tell mama and papa what had saved Silbhé, letting them just see it as a miracle. We didn't think they'd understand, especially not papa. He didn't like gifted people… which wasn't really surprising considering the things that people like Magneto and his Brotherhood had done over the years.

I was 11 going on 12 when I underwent the ritual that made Silbhé and I blood-sisters. Of course, back then it'd seemed a bit like some good fun, a bit like a way of making a promise to ourselves and to each other that we'd always be sisters… I was 16 going on 17 when I realized that ritual had done more than just left a scar on the palm of my hand, and that I truly loved Silbhé as a sister, more than anyone else who could claim to be my family, including my birth-parents. (Years later I'd undergo the ritual yet again, making Loki my blood-brother; they became my truest family, the only I'd ever need.)

It'd begun easy enough, when we were 16. We'd gotten our bachelor degrees (two each), and we'd finished our training. We were ready to join our parents in SHIELD, be agents… Papa said no. Silbhé said that it was normal, he was being overprotective, was afraid of sending us out on a mission and having something happen to us… but I had been training for too long, had been wishing and dreaming of being an agent for too long to be reasonable. My sister knew that, and so we made a plan, a way of proving our parents we were ready to be Agents of SHIELD…

It was until the two of us, and a girl called Raina we met in our travels, found ourselves trapped inside a sealed, underground temple in San Juan Puerto Rico, that I admitted we probably weren't as ready as I wanted to believe we were, and that things might not be as simple as they'd seemed when we first decided to solve the cold-case that had brought me first to St. Agnes, and eventually into the Kinross-Salani family…

When I first met my birth-parents… it probably wasn't ideal, my sister was hurt, I was suddenly a gifted, and I wasn't quite sure which of them terrified me more. And yet, they were my parents, they had the answers to so many questions I'd been asking myself my whole life. And of course things had to go wrong. I didn't notice at first. I believed them when they told me that Silbhé was still recovering, and I could use that time getting to know my parents, and my peers. There was a boy who'd recently gone through the mist, just like us, though in more controlled circumstances. His name was Lincoln and he was kind of my mother's protégé. I liked him, he taught me a lot about being Inhuman, about that place, Afterlife; almost as much as my mother did…

When Raina first told me that something was wrong, I didn't believe her. My father had warned me that she wasn't a good person, and I'd already seen how obsessed she was with the gifted and being one herself. Something that wasn't helped by her own change, or the fact that said change included having her whole body covered in thorns. And yet, eventually I could see it, the way everyone kept doing all they could to put distance between me and my sister. I didn't know if it was the fact that they didn't trust SHIELD, that they were too xenophobic (ironic considering that we were the ones with alien blood…) or if they were simply beyond jealous of the connection I had with Silbhé.

When the moment came to make my choice, however, when my so-called mother threatened my sister, the decision was easy to make. I chose the person who'd been by my side, unconditionally, for the last thirteen years… then I called to the sky, using the words Loki had taught me, calling to him for help. He got us out of there and back home.

The aftermath was a mess, though good things came from it too. Papa loved us, I'd always known that, and yet in that moment, with him accepting gifted, because we were such, accepting Loki without hesitation, because he'd saved Silbhé, and later all the things to keep us safe, and which would eventually help many others like us… that was when I truly saw his own choice being made, the moment he chose us above everything he'd supported and believed in for decades, above SHIELD.

There were more consequences of course. We needed to stay in the Retreat for months as we got used to all the ways things had changed since the terri-genesis, particularly our powers. And, if that weren't enough, we entered a confrontation against a crazy-scientist called Whitehall, who'd taken Lincoln and was using him as a lab-rat. We, of course, couldn't allow that, and I think my birth-parents might have been counting on that. They took advantage of it, the moment my sister stepped away from me to help our friend, Gordon took me.

I was absolutely livid by the time I made it to Afterlife, and only the fact that the teleportation left me more than a bit dizzy kept me from taking the whole place down in my fury. In the end it wasn't necessary, my so-called mother was just getting into her stride, spinning a story about how I'd survived against all odds with Whitehall and the wannabe-Hydra minions around… when my sister suddenly stepped out of my shadows, ready to do battle, and she wasn't alone, Lincoln was with her too.

That was the first time I killed. When Gordon used my sister's distraction to try and kill her, I knew I needed to protect her, to stop him, and I only had one chance… I couldn't hesitate, and couldn't hold back. He was dead in an instant. That was just the start, everyone went absolutely crazy and soon we were all fighting for our lives.

Later on Loki explained to me that my mother, Jiaying, had no soul. Whitehall (or whatever his name might have been at the time) had killed her back when I was a baby, and while my father's intervention and her own power allowed her to recover, her soul was long gone back then. Without a soul she couldn't truly reason, or feel, she just followed the instincts that had ruled her at the time of her 'death': the fear to Whitehall and Hydra (which had somehow extended to include SHIELD), the companionship with my father, and the need to get me back… Still, none of that could ever make me forget the fact that my birth-mother tried to kill me; or the moment when my sister stepped in between us, a human shield. Jiaying tried to use her power against Silbhé, but she simply had no idea who she was going against, or whose protection my sister had. Her attempt at killing my sister, meant her own death in the end.

Then my father died. The drugs he'd used on himself, to make himself faster stronger and better able to face against other gifted, it also destroyed him. I cannot say I love him, not really; Nick Fury is my papa, and he will always be… and yet if it weren't for Carl Johnson I probably would have never been born… I also realized he loved me, and he'd loved my mother, he just hadn't been able to show it the right way. The last thing he gave me, the one I never expected, was my name, the name he'd given me at birth and which I hadn't known: Daisy Johnson. It became part of me, as both my middle-name and the alternate identity I began using as an agent.

It was something we discovered once we went back home. Everyone knew what had happened in the Arctic, with Whitehall and his group. There was no way to hide that we'd been responsible for that. And so we got what we wanted in the end, my sister and I became agents, with the names of Arianna and Daisy Johnson…

Some people say our choices change our lives, every choice… I made the choice to be a Kinross-Salani, to be an Agent, and then to be a Caterpillar… I know that if I'd chosen different in any of those occasions, my life would have been entirely different, and as hard as some things might be, I cannot regret it.

I especially cannot regret the fact that it brought me to the love of my life…

I felt more than actually heard the moment the sliding door into my temporary bedroom opened. It'd been a couple of days since the battle(s) and Stark had given us free-reign of what, according to the blueprints had once been one of the guest-apartments… each actually spanned a whole floor. We Caterpillars, with the addition of Mama, were sharing the 78th floor in that moment. Each of the Avengers (with the particular exception of Clint and Natasha and Darcy and Phil who, as married couples shared) had been given a floor of their own as well. I'd also heard that the Warriors Three had returned to Asgard with the Tesseract, while Thor and Sif had chosen to stay for a while longer.

Their decision made me nervous and I knew I wasn't the only one. We were all waiting to see if they'd discovered Maverick's true identity or not… at first it'd seemed like not, and yet… Loki was my brother, had been for a long while (officially only for the last five years, but in my mind and heart he'd been such at least since he'd saved my sister against all hope); as such, I couldn't believe someone could call him brother and then not recognize him.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" A male, husky voice called, its owner standing just inside the room, the door having already closed behind him. "I thought we weren't supposed to meet anywhere that hadn't been completely secured by all of you."

"We've secured this place." I informed him calmly, without leaving my place beside the window, eyes on the city outside. "I warned both Stark and JARVIS the moment I learnt we were staying here for an indeterminate amount of time. The moment you pressed our floor number my programs kicked in. I get the dump of all the feeds in this floor, not Stark." I couldn't help but smile. "So, he has you entering the elevator, he can probably guess what floor you ended up on, since you disappeared and all that… but it's not like there isn't a perfectly good reason for you to be here. Everyone who helped us in San Juan has been by to see us at least once; or if not Silbhé and I, they've come to see mama, to see if she's truly alive…"

"I wasn't expecting that one." He admitted quietly, finally walking into the room.

"None of us were." I assured him.

"It might make things harder in the long run." He pointed out.

"It might." I agreed. "But we'll deal with it." I shrugged. "In any case, I didn't call you here to talk about my mother, or about your secret mission, I called you here…"

That was about as far as I got with my rant, as I suddenly found myself being spun around and immediately afterwards pressed against the wall, right beside the window, a pair of strong hands holding me in place as a mouth practically ravaged mine.

My reaction was immediate as I wound my arms around his neck, kissing him for all I was worth. I'd hated, having to see him standing at the back of the groups, unable to approach, unable to touch. I'd almost died… both my sister and I had, and while she had the comfort of having her match by her side, his hand seemingly always in hers… I couldn't have the same. Couldn't because the love of my life was busy working a top-secret mission (so top-secret there were no records of it anywhere, and only five people even knew the mission even existed). He was a great agent, and one day he'd probably be a hero… but in that moment I hated that I couldn't just go to him and kiss him silly whenever I wanted. It was extremely frustrating.

Hopefully that would come to an end someday… hopefully the mission would end and we'd be alright, finally allowed to walk in public hand in hand, to kiss if we so wished, to have the world see how much we loved each other…

"Robot…" The nickname came out of my lips in a half-groan, half-moan as his mouth sucked on my neck, my whole body growing hotter at the contact.

"There's that blasted nickname again." He pretended to be annoyed, though I couldn't help but think he just looked too cute. "You'll never let go of it, will you?"

"No." I smiled mischievously at him, I knew he didn't mind the nickname as much as he pretended to. Still my voice turned a tad more solemn, and a lot more heartfelt as I added. "I'm never letting you go."

No, I was never letting go of my Robot. It was hard enough, for our relationship to be what it was in that moment, a secret that at times seemed even more tightly guarded than his mission as a double-agent. Except I hoped (we all did) that his mission would come to an end someday, hopefully soon, and in that same vein I hoped our relationship wouldn't, ever.

It wasn't easy, having a lover almost no one knows even exist. We couldn't go out on dates, could only meet in the utmost secrecy and every once in a while. My pessimistic side also reminded me that if something ever happened to him I probably wouldn't know, because as far as most of the world was concerned, I was nothing to him…

Except he was everything to me. I still remembered the first time I'd seen him. Natasha pointed him out to us as a candidate for the Caterpillars, mentioning how good his scores were… but we were still finding ourselves as a team, and we weren't sure most agents were ready to work with gifted like us. We also knew that he preferred working solo.

Months later he almost got killed in a black ops mission and we happened to be in the area, managed to save his life. It all went well, except for the part where he remembered more than he should have (considering he'd been shot and half bleeding out at the time), he'd also noticed more than we'd have preferred, from someone we didn't know. He asked his colleagues about us, and when that didn't work, began investigating us himself.

I would complain about it, especially about all the things he ended finding out (I hadn't fully coded all our files back then, a few things were still in the servers, reports on a number of our missions, including the comments Hawkeye and Black Widow had made after what had happened in Budapest); except, if it weren't for him, we probably wouldn't have found out about the plot to assassinate mama on time. He was the one who found out, he saved her life…

That was what got me interested in him in the first place. At first it was a matter of pride, wanting to know what kind of man could find so much about us, and about a plot against my mother, when none of us had discovered it before (when so much could have gone so wrong if he hadn't known, hadn't been there). The more I learnt about him, the more I liked him.

Our ending up in bed wasn't exactly planned. He'd had another mission, it ended badly. It was completely coincidental that I was there after he finished his report. I could see there was something wrong with him… felt this unexpected need to help him, somehow. Hours later we'd finished a bottle of very good vodka (courtesy of Natasha), and had drunken sex in my bunk. I considered leaving in the morning, before he woke up (I'd been out for drinks with Natasha before, had learnt how to hold my liquor), but it somehow didn't seem right; it was probably one of the best decisions I ever made (right up there with the two times I chose my sister, and when I offered Loki to become his blood-sister as well).

I knew we couldn't have the kind of relationship most people would expect, we both did. It was simply too dangerous, for both of us; as it would have made me a target, as well as his pressure point, and that couldn't be allowed. However, I refused to give up completely, there was just something about him… even years later I couldn't tell what exactly it was.

So we went down the road of the secret relationship. My parents didn't like it, Papa especially was quite vocal about it, and I know mama believed it wouldn't last long, that we wouldn't be able to take the strain… but we did. I just know our relationship isn't like most. We're committed, both to our missions and to each other. Things won't be easy, but we'll do it, because what we have is worth any sacrifice, any effort, any fight…

So, in the end I might not really believe in fairy-tales… but I still hope I… we, will get to have our happy ending…

xXx Nightingale's POV xXx

There was a number of agents walking around in what made the sitting-room of our apartments. Most of them were there to see Mama Kathryn, since none other than us family had known she was alive. Even then no one knew what had happened exactly, two years ago. It was better that way, for everyone involved.

"Silbhé…?" I heard a male voice calling behind me.

"Lincoln!" I wasn't expecting him.

Somehow, despite the fact that Skye had told me Galen was around, and that it was obvious the Inhumans would never let him leave Afterlife alone, not only because he was too valuable, but also because he was so young and innocent and needed to have someone to protect him, and who better than one of the two leaders of their people?

"How are you?" I asked him as the surprise passed. "How did things go in China?"

"Those aliens were no threat to the full might of our people." He assured me. "Thanks to Raina's warnings we were prepared before their arrival, the children and elders were sent to a secondary location for their protection while the rest of us handled the battle." He let out a breath. "Raina, of course, refused to go with the Elders, I thought they were going to have a fit, at the prospect of both of us being at the front-lines… and yet we wouldn't be dissuaded. In the end her presence saved several lives with last second warnings…"

"That's good." I nodded. "I'm glad you are all doing alright."

It was almost odd, to think of the Inhumans as allies after our rocky beginnings… after all, Jiaying had tried to kill me every single time we'd seen each other, and only my bond to Loki had saved me in the end. However, nothing could be more shocking than our good friendship with Raina, considering how she'd been when we'd first met her. So obsessed with what she could become, with her own destiny, I cringed to think how far she might have gone… maybe it was a good thing that we'd all ended in that temple in San Juan when we did.

"I'm looking for Skye…" The blonde said, looking around.

"Oh…" I couldn't help but scratch the back of my head as I tried, and fail, to think of a good way to explain things. "I'm afraid that my sister is… otherwise engaged at the moment."

Beside me my beloved snorted, though thankfully only inside our heads. Lincoln really didn't need to hear him and realize what I was trying to be polite about… and I really didn't need to think about my sister having sex!

"Raina wanted me to give her a message, said it was of vital importance." Lincoln explained. "And those are her words, not mine."

A message from one of the most powerful precogs in our world? I shivered only thinking about it.

"If you cannot wait for her, you may give me the message, I promise to share it with her when I see her later today." I offered.

"The plane to China leaves in an hour, so I really cannot stay." Lincoln shrugged slightly. "I probably should have tried to find her earlier, but after making sure Galen was alright your parents insisted on a debrief, and then offered to allow me to sit in the debriefs of the team-leaders for the other battles…"

"It's alright, I understand." I assured him.

"Your duty to your people comes first." Maverick added, perfectly calm. "It's how it should be, with a leader such as yourself."

"You know, there are days I wish Skye had made a different choice, she should be the leader of the Inhumans, not Raina and I." Lincoln admitted almost wistfully. "Then there are days when I cannot imagine myself doing anything other than what I am right now… There was a time when I thought I'd one day be a doctor, dedicate myself to looking after others. And I suppose in a way I'm doing that, and yet at the same time I'm managing so much more…"

"Things are the way they're supposed to be." Loki stated.

"You and Raina are the right people for the job, Lincoln, you always were." I assured him. "You know Skye wouldn't have stayed, not after everything that happened… and I'm not talking just about Jiaying. You know the Inhumans in ways she… we never will. And Raina… well we both know how things are on that end. My sister… she's an agent, that's what we've both wanted to be since we were ten years old… Maybe things would have been different, if she'd never been taken as a baby, if my family had never adopted her… but I cannot say I regret it either. She's my sister and I love her."

"Each of you… each of us," My match corrected himself after a beat. "We are where we're meant to be. Never doubt that."

Lincoln nodded, seemingly gaining more confident just from our confidence.

"Still, don't forget to visit sometime, I'm sure some people would love to see you again." The blonde told us. "Raina and I certainly would love to."

"You said there was a message…" Loki reminded him, just in case.

"Yes, of course." Lincoln seemed to take a moment to focus hard before he began reciting: "Out of the shadows and into the light, the seven headed snake will rise. The Knight and the Princess, together the darkness will fight, warriors in gray against a centennial enemy's might. Bullets and blades, blood and tears, only the Songstress's favor can change the dark tide."

Neither my love nor I had the slightest idea what to say to that. The beginning was obvious enough, the mission Skye's lover was involved in would come to a head… of course Skye would be involved, it was only to be expected… and yet, I had no idea what to think about the last line. A fight? Death? Grief? But of whom? I refused to even contemplate the idea of losing my sister to death, and while her lover wasn't exactly a friend, I knew she loved him deeply… what then could any of us do to help? I had no idea, but I knew simply letting things be wasn't an option, it would never be.

*We'll find a way.* My match assured me in the privacy of our bond. *No matter what happens, we'll always be there for our sister, and for those she loves. Always.*

*Always.* I agreed wholeheartedly.

xXx

The moment we'd all been waiting for came later than I'd expected, though sooner than I'd hoped (though considering a part of me kept hoping the moment would never come, I suppose any time would have been too soon).

We were in our floor, my sister and I sat side by side on the bench of the piano Stark had had brought to us (and how exactly he knew I played I hadn't the slightest idea...), Skye had her own guitar and were practicing some tunes, nothing formal, not quite. We'd had visitors earlier, as had become pretty common in the weeks since we'd been leaving there, but most had already left by that point. It actually took me a ridiculous amount of time to realize that there were only two 'guests' left in the floor, and just who they were: Thor and Sif.

It was the tension in my match that gave it away. Skye realized what was going on the moment I stopped following her accords. And then mama Kathryn turned our way from her spot on the living room, when she noticed the sudden silence.

"Is there anything else you need?" My husband asked, concealing his anxiety behind a mask of easy politeness.

"I would like to talk to you." The blonde Asgardian stated a bit hesitantly.

"If this is concerning your return to Asgard, shouldn't you be talking to Stark, or Rogers?" Loki suggested blankly. "They're part of your team after all."

"I wish to talk to you," Thor insisted. "And the topic is a bit more personal than that."

"I don't see what kind of personal topic of conversation we could have in common..." Loki insisted, his edges beginning to show.

"I think we both know that's not true, brother..." And there it was, the moment of truth.

Silence was thick and heavy for a handful of seconds that seemed to last forever, only to be broken in the most unexpected manner...

"I knew it!" Skye cried out unexpectedly, before dissolving into giggles.

"What...?!" We all turned to look at her.

"I knew there was no way someone could call you brother at some point, and later on fail to recognize you, no matter how much you appeared to have changed, brother." Skye explained, purposefully emphasizing the word 'brother' more the second time. "You're kinda unique in every way, you know?"

"I know." Loki smiled at her warmly before turning dubious eyes to the Aesir. "So you've discovered me then, what do you expect to gain from that?"

"Are you happy, Loki?" The blonde inquired quietly.

The question took us all by surprise, especially me. I'd been so ready for a fight. I didn't even notice it but at some point I'd teleported from the piano bench to my match's side, and a hand was already on the concealed blade I always carried with me (a lesson Natasha had imparted: never, ever, be unarmed).

"I am." My love finally answered, after what seemed like forever. "I have a wife and a sister, I have friends, a team that trusts me to have their backs, on and off the battlefield... I have everything I could have ever wished for..."

And he'd found it away from Asgard, away from the brother who claimed to love him yet hadn't truly understood him in hundreds of years... I could see the moment the realization and then the acceptance filled the blonde, the pain in his eyes...

"That's all I've ever wanted." Thor whispered after the longest time. "I may never have been the brother you needed, or deserved, but I did love you Loki, I still do."

For a moment no one moved, and then my love nodded. It probably wasn't what the blonde would have preferred... but Loki wasn't going back to Asgard, we all knew that, and even Thor accepted it. Perhaps, in time, we could all be friends.

"And you Sif?" My love asked, turning to the goddess of war with challenge in his eyes.

"Me...?" She shrugged. "You remind me of someone I knew a thousand years ago, a friend... but it's been so long, I might have confused you with someone else."

There was something about her words, beyond the insinuation that she wouldn't be saying anything about my Maverick's true origins, but I couldn't fully grasp what it might be. I was missing something, and wasn't sure I liked it... then, for a fraction of a second I got a crazy idea, of a younger, golden haired Sif, laughing with my love, as if they were the best of friends... I pushed it aside almost as soon as it came, the mere thought was absolutely insane.

It would be several years and over a century's worth of memories later that I realized some things weren't quite as insane as they might first seem...

We didn't come out of that meeting being all friends, or anything like this, such a thing would have been impossible. But we knew that Thor and Sif knew the truth, and were willing to let us be. A part of me wondered if they'd still be thinking that when they learnt the truth about the Inhumans... they might not have any interest in being cannon-fodder for the Kree war (something we all agreed with), but there was no way of knowing how understanding the Aesir might be... I didn't hold much hope for Odin, after the way he'd (mis)treated my love.

xXx

At the end of the summer things seemed to finally improve enough for us to leave Stark's Tower (which had been officially renamed as Avenger's Tower). Thor moved in, along with his intended, Dr. Jane Foster, on the same day we were moving out (the floor would remain ours, according to Stark, in case we ever needed a place to stay in New York).

I wasn't that surprised when he approached us right as we were about to leave, what I wasn't expecting, was when he went straight to me, instead of Loki. He embraced me, tightly for a human, yet so very carefully for someone with his strength, almost as if I were made of spun-glass or something equally fragile.

"Thor!" Both our matches called at the same time in a mix of shock and disbelief.

"Congratulations..." He told me with a most heartfelt smile, before placing a small cloth-bag in my hands. "Mother sends you this..."

Loki went to stand beside me, I could sense he was as confused by the whole thing as I was. And then I opened the bag and let the contents fall onto the palm of my hand. It was a piece of red cord, shaped into a bracelet, with an amber stone. The thing that struck me, though... it was much too small to fit me. It was actually barely big enough for a...

I almost dropped the gift as I brought both hands to my mouth in an attempt to drown the gasp as a instinct inside me connected the dots.

My beloved didn't say a word, his right hand was suddenly on my belly and I could feel his magic probing inside me; more importantly, I could sense, through him, the moment it connected with another energy...

"Oh Spirits!" I couldn't drown the exclamation the second time.

I was pregnant... I was pregnant and Lady Frigg knew... Lady Frigg knew about the baby, which meant she knew about me, and about my Maverick... and suddenly it was just too much. I almost blacked out. Was only half aware as my husband scooped me into his arms and carried me to the living room, Thor and Jane following. Jane sounded particularly cross as she berated Thor for springing something like that on us without warning, and how exactly had he known I was pregnant when apparently we hadn't?

"I'm alright..." I whispered after several seconds. "It was just a bit of a shock."

"Are you sure?" Jane asked quietly. "I'm sorry that he sprung that on you. If I'd known that was his intention..."

"It's quite alright." I assured her, assured them both. "It's probably a good thing I know now, before I go back to the field or something. Spirits know how long it'd have taken me to realize I was pregnant if it weren't for... this."

After the cancer, and the fact that it was still in my blood... I'd been warned by my doctor of the likelihood (or lack thereof) of ever having children. It was something both Loki and I'd known and accepted even before getting married. Which was why the idea of me being pregnant took us so much by surprise, except...

"I think I've seen her." I blurted out before I could stop myself.

"What?" No one was expecting that, not even my match.

"The dream I had last night." I told them quietly. "I can only remember pieces of it, sort of like snapshots or something... I remember a red-haired baby in a little white dress, a little girl with auburn hair and chocolate eyes in a flowered dress and a green sweater, sitting in my rose-garden, a teenager with long dark auburn hair and eyes of an impossible color, in a red and white dress, surrounded by fire..."

"Do you have the Sight?" Thor asked me, curious.

"I... no." I shook my head. "Not at all. And yet, I've also never remembered my dreams with such clarity, even if they're just snippets..."

There was no way to know for sure, but my instincts told me I was right, I'd seen my daughter, the very same I was carrying in that moment, my baby girl, my...

"Rose..." I breathed out the moment I thought it.

Loki nodded, knowing immediately what I was thinking, though Thor and Jane seemed a bit lost.

"That will be her name," I elaborated. "Rose Salani-Hvedrungr."

xXx 3rd Person POV xXx

Months passed, and a great many things began changing, slowly at first, and faster later on. Ace had been getting into trouble, both at school and around home; Mike feared that it might be because of his constant absence, and asked for some leave so he might be closer to his boy, be there for him. Ace was a teenager, and a boy his age needed his father, after all. Silbhé and Skye stood and told him to take as long as he needed.

That was just the start.

The Caterpillars got a particularly interesting visit from the leaders of the X-Men, shortly after returning to their secret base, which had a top secret number in SHIELD's databases, but most people called simply 'The Cocoon'. At first the sisters had thought the two men were there to talk in person about the recent alien invasion. There had thankfully been no loses among their people, though the girls had heard that Rogue had gone so deeply into the feral mindset it took a few days for her to fully get back out, and Phoenix had exhausted herself so much she was in a near-coma for almost a week. Yet afterwards everyone had been just fine.

As it turned out, and while Xavier was quite interested in coordinating some training sessions between the different teams, Lehnsherr had something else in mind: the twins. Pietro and Wanda Maximoff... there was something about them that seemed to almost pain the mutant. In the end it was Charles who explained: Erik'd had a wife at one point, many years earlier: Magda Maximoff, whom he'd met in the camps, in the forties, and been married to for a little over five years. She'd given him three children: a girl, who died shortly before her fifth birthday, in a fire, while they were living in Ukraine. And then there were the twins, Erik hadn't even known about them until they were in their twenties. They'd gone missing sometime during the 80's and by the early nineties were presumed dead. The crucial detail? They had the exact same names and powers as Pietro and Wanda.

It took a while to negotiate that one. But after pushing Magneto into accepting that whatever odd miracle might have happened, they most definitely weren't the same twins he'd known in the past; they agreed to spend some time in Westchester, getting to know both men as well as their team. It was a good plan, all things considered.

Then came Silbhé's pregnancy. While the decision to keep her off the field was made from the moment they all knew what was going on, neither of them realized that wouldn't be enough until near the end of her first trimester. After a fainting spell and a near-miscarriage, the pregnancy was declared high-risk. One of the doctors had gone as far as suggesting termination, for the mother's own health, but Silbhé refused even thinking about it.

Privately Thor assured them that if Nightingale kept the little charmed-bracelet her mother had spun, it would help keep both her and the baby safe. However, it was better if she took no unnecessary risks. The decision was an easy one to make and Silbhé took leave as well; with her and Loki moving back to Salani manor in Maine. Where they'd state until Rose was born and old enough to be safe.

And just like that, Skye and Melinda were all that was left of the Caterpillars. With six months still to go before Peter and Gwen could join them, Skye had begun to believe that they'd have to scratch the team as a whole, when her parents had a serious talk to her.

After three kidnap attempts on Kathryn Adler, Director Fury had decided something needed to be done. Apparently their refusal to discuss how the Sphinx had gone from 'presumed dead' to 'perfectly alive' had pushed some people into believing that SHIELD, or at least Fury, had a way to bring back the dead. They intended to kidnap Kathryn to prove it. So Fury needed to keep her safe, without making it obvious.

The plan was made. A new team would be formed, tasked with the mission of recovering all that had been left behind after the battles against the chitauri. Biological remains, tech, everything, it was simply too dangerous to be left in the hands of the unknowing, or worse, possible HYDRA-hopefuls. The mission was officially given to Kathryn Adler (it was the excuse to keep her away from SHIELD bases and on the move), with Phil Coulson as her second. Melinda would be their pilot, as well as Kathryn's bodyguard. Skye was a field-agent, and they all knew her gifts might prove useful. FitzSimmons had asked for a chance to join, a request which had been approved. Still, it was decided that another field agent was needed. No one knew for sure how it happened, but John Garrett heard about the team being formed and pushed forth the name of one of his subordinates as a candidate, the man? Grant Ward.

And so the new team came to be, the new mission began.

The team chose China for their first stop as they went on their new mission, as it was a place they already knew and it was a safe and controlled environment to allow FitzSimmons and Agent Ward to get used to their new duties. At first it'd seemed like Ward might have trouble adapting to the change in duties; since he'd been a specialist, and the one who favored solo ops too. And yet he fit very well with the team, soon he was training with Skye and sometimes Melinda in the mornings, teasing FitzSimmons about their crazy antics and even their relationship (which was supposed to be a secret, so of course everyone knew by the end of the first week), he would also play battleship with Skye (he could never win, no matter how hard he tried).

The visit also allowed Skye to visit with those whom a part of her still saw as her people (and she knew that, were it to ever become necessary, she would protect them as such). It allowed FitzSimmons and Ward to realize where Skye's gift came from, and they all accepted her without reservations; something she was deeply thankful for.

They were leaving when Raina approached her unexpectedly.

"What is it?" Skye inquired, she didn't even need to look at the older Inhuman to know there was something she really wanted to say.

"The day you've been both expecting and dreading is coming." Raina stated without delay. "You know what it is I speak of."

"I know." Skye nodded quietly, unable to keep her eyes from straying in the direction of a certain someone, standing by the ramp into the Zephyr One. "Will he be alright?"

"You worry for his life but not yours?" Raina asked, though they both already knew the answer, still, it needed to be said.

"He's my life." Skye stated without hesitation.

"Then know that when the time comes, when you feel like you're about to drown, all you need to do is call out, your plea will be answered."

Raina didn't say anymore, nor did she give a chance for Skye to make any questions, request any sort of clarification, she had already turned around and was walking away by the time the words had fully registered in the mind of one at least some of the Inhumans still saw as their rightful ruler, their Queen.

Raina stood beside Lincoln as they both watched the Zephyr One rise. Neither of them said a word as the vessel took to the air and soon enough disappeared in the distance. It was until a little while afterwards, when most of the Inhumans still living in Afterlife had returned to their duties, that the blonde finally turned to look at the woman by his side, with her face, head and arms covered in fine thorns.

"Will you tell me now?" He asked her, intrigue coloring his voice. "Why all the mystery? All the rhymes and the cryptic messages? Your gift is to see the future, but until a few months ago I've never known you to use metaphors to pass on your messages."

"That's because I don't need such methods to do so." Raina answered honestly. "My visions are pretty straight-forward, at least as long as I can recognize the things I'm seeing. I don't always know the people, or even the places, but that's why we have people to help us. This case... this is different. It needed to be handled with a more... delicate hand, so-to-speak."

"Why?" He still didn't understand. "If you know of trouble coming Skye's way, why not just tell her and be done with it?"

"Because if I tell her, she just might end up provoking things, either that or something much worse..." Raina revealed in a whisper. "It's like with Skye's sister, the one they call Nightingale. My second vision ever, after the one I had about Skye, and about the shared pieces of our destiny, was about her... such a wondrous creature she is..."

"Creature...?" Lincoln knew her choice of word was important.

"She's not human, not really." Raina explained. "Humanity is just s shell or... a cocoon... how fitting, the name their team has chosen. They all are, in their own ways, caterpillars, waiting for the right moment to become who they're truly meant to be. Nightingale is one such case, I've known that almost from the start... I saw her, her husband, her daughters... such an amazing family. Yet even now, she's just beginning to tap into that. There's so much more to come her way, pain and joy both, and so much love..."

"And about Skye?"

"She has her own destiny to fulfill." She looked at the man by her side as smiled at him. "I know there have been times when you've doubted. Our position, her choice, the whole line of events that brought us to where we are, but believe me when I tell you we're each of us where we're supposed to be..."

"I believe you." He assured her immediately. "I trust you."

"I know you do. And back to Skye... It's my duty as her angel, as both messenger and protector, to keep her and those she holds in her heart, safe. I knew telling her things outright wouldn't be right, not in this way. But in this manner... she'll know what to do, when the time comes."

"And then?"

"And then it'll be out of our hands..."

She said that, and even then, Raina couldn't help herself, she had to make sure. She'd spent the past nine months exploring all possibilities, calculating all possible outcomes, before imparting the messages she decided would allow for the best possible solution to what was coming. The final one had been imparted that day, and as she acknowledged that, she allowed her gift to fixate on Skye and push her mind forth, visions taking shape in the back of her mind:

Time passing, missions, the team growing closer, taking risks, saving lives...

Stolen kisses and secret moments in the shadows, a love as passionate as it is dangerous...

One night the lovers lay together on a bed that should be much too small for two people, and yet the ones on it seemed to either not notice or simply not care at all. He falls asleep, arms secure around her and shortly before succumbing herself, she begins to whisper words, something akin to a prayer she appears to have long memorized:

"I promise you that from this day on, you will be my only one. I shall look at no other the way I look at you, I shall think of no other the way I think about you, I shall talk to no other the way I talk to you, I shall desire no other the way I desire you, and I shall lay with no other the way I lay with you. I shall be with no other for you are now and forever shall be my one and only; my friend, my lover, my partner, my match…"

The fated message appears in screens all around the world: "Out of the Shadows and Into the Light. Hydra" Some expect it to be a massacre, yet it's anything but. Instead it's a war. SHIELD is ready, they've known for years the confrontation was coming, ever since some of their own first tried to have the Sphinx killed; if all goes well, they hope it'll be the last time Hydra will be able to threaten the world.

One betrayal that hurts more than any other. A man turning his back on the team that had become a family over the past few months. And it's only made worse when a girl decides to follow him, seemingly choosing him above SHIELD, her friends and her own family. No one except her missing family knowing the truth, the work he's been doing for years, as a double-agent. Her own turning hadn't been planned, but it's also not completely unexpected, they all knew she how much she loved him.

One battle, in many ways more terrible and vicious than any before. Decisions are made, sides are chosen, sacrifices made...

An agent, former mentor, traitor, points a gun at a girl, threatening her life, upon finding out her true allegiances, she refuses to back down.

A shot rings out, and yet the bullet doesn't hit her, instead it hits him. Him... her partner, her lover, her match...

"GRANT!" Her voice screams, as the earth shakes and screams along with her.

It's too late for the traitor then, no time to shoot again, not even to run, as the Inhuman Queen unleashes the full force of her fury on him, his body tearing itself apart without him able to do anything to stop it, or even plea for a mercy that will never come.

Then she's kneeling beside the man, the bullet still in his stomach, blood pulling beneath them both. She doesn't care, all she wants to do is find a way to save him, no matter the cost.

"I love you..." He whispers through blood tinted lips.

It's the first time those words have ever left his lips, he'd never dared say them before; and in that moment she knows that without a miracle they will never get the chance to live their love the way they deserve too, out of the shadows, in the light. And then, it's an instinct, as chocolate eyes turn to the sky and a voice calls out loud and clear:

"Sister!"

Back in China, in the present, Raina smiled. It was done.

So I went more into the whole Hydra did than I ever planned... especially considering I have yet to get into that in the main timeline, but I suppose it just couldn't be helped.

The ending... I'm not even sure what I think about it, but after weeks of trying to work it out, this is what I came up with, and I liked it. I still had a couple more ideas, but they didn't quite fit. I think it turned out well enough anyway, I hope you'll think the same.

If there's something concerning the Skyeward pairing you'd like to see in the main timeline, let me know. You're still on time.

Plans right now are to write one, possibly two more AUs for this set, then I'm tackling the next part of the main series. Tentative title right now is 'Fate and Destiny' and that story will be much longer than Nexus, possibly even longer than Nightingale, it'll focus on the events of Captain America, and a few other things that have been building up. I hope to be well into that before CA3 comes out.

For those who might not know, an original work of mine is right now on Inkitt. org, participating on the contest Dreamlands, first place gets a publishing offer. I hope some of you might go read my story, it's called "Krystel - Book 1: Blue", leave a review and, hopefully, vote for me. I live for writing, and this might help me get a good start on publishing in English (I have a novel in Spanish, though the sales aren't going as well as I'd hoped). Anyway, thank you in advance to all who might pop over there.

Constructive criticism is, as always, very welcome. I hope you've enjoyed this.

See ya around!