Previously on Project Insider: The Recruitment:

"Sir," She says in a calmer voice, "If what the intel we gathered is true and her father really is involved we need to tell her. If she does manage to get undercover, she will definitely run into him and there will be questions that she won't have the answer to. We cannot send her in blind like this."

"We can and we will." Fury's voice is firm with no room for objections. "I have said this before and I will say it again, I know what I'm doing. She signed up for this willingly and she knows that there are secrets that come with the job even if they are being kept from her."

Hill bites her tongue to stop herself from making another objection.

"Yes, sir." She says stiffly.

Chapter 7

On the other side of the door, Skye opens up the lengthy file and thumbs through all the different pages. Most of the people on file are unfamiliar to her, which she finds herself being grateful for, while others spark recognition.

Flipping to the next page, Agent Jasper Sitwell's face stares at her from the file in her hand. Skye's eyes widen in shock. The team often worked with Sitwell and was—still is—someone that Coulson trusted.

God, we met him at the HUB, we actually spoke to him, the bastard, Skye thinks angrily. I really should applaud Jemma on shooting him. Too bad it was an ICER.

The door Skye had been leaning against suddenly opens causing her to stumble forward. Quickly regaining her composure, she looks up to see Commander Hill walk out of Fury's office with a fire in her eyes.

"Everything alright with the recruits?" Skye asks tentatively. The amount of times she saw that same look on Coulson's face could be counted on one hand but for each time he was not happy with something. The first time she saw it was when Grant and Fitz had been sent on the South Ossetia mission with no extraction, and the second was when Fury said that she was being transferred.

"Yes," Hill recomposes herself. "Fury's just reminded me of certain protocols that need being looked at. Now if you'll follow me, I'll give you a tour of the Triskelion."

Hill walks over to the elevator and goes through the open doors leaving Skye to follow suit. She presses the button with a ten on it which lights up at the touch.

"The Triskelion is broken up into fifty floors. Level 10 is also the ground floor, its where we entered. It's the main floor so there the cafeteria is there as well as the medical wing, offices, main control room, and security. Below that are the archives and the weapons armory. Next ten floors are the training rooms and the shooting ranges. They all specialize in different areas of training and you'll find most of the recruits there. Then there's the labs above it, operations, and then the top floor where the higher ups have their offices."

The elevator dings and the door opens to the main floor. As if they had never left, agents continue to walk to and from holding their briefcases and guns. They walk out of the elevator and walk across the open floor to the other side and through a wide hallway. Along the way, many of the passing agents give a respectful nod towards Hill.

"This wing is where the cafeteria is located," She points to a large door on their right. Through the small windows, Skye can make out agents milling around the tables and casually conversing. The specialists, however, she could easily tell apart for they were the ones quietly sitting down, eyes always roaming.

As they keep walking, Hill points out the large medical ward and the offices which contrast drastically from one another. Medical is bustling with doctors and nurses ushering patients and pulling the occasional stretcher while the offices are just….offices. To be more precise, Skye observes, they are more like cubicles crammed together with a closed off room in the corner.

"Agent May worked here for a period of time, you know." Hill says at Skye's face of surprise. How can something so normal looking be in somewhere so abnormal?

"What? Why?" May hadn't been in the field in a while, she knows, but the Calvary, on desk duty?

"After Bahrain happened she requested to be transferred here. It wasn't healthy for her to continue being in the field anyway so I couldn't say no."

"What happened in Bahrain that made her into the Calvary?"

"Don't call her that," Hill says sharply. "And to answer your question, I don't know. I don't even think Phil knows. But whatever did happen there, it changed her."

There is a lapse of silence before Hill continues the tour of the main floor. As they pass the control room, Skye's eyes light up in excitement at all the mainframes and monitors. However, none of that could compare to her reaction upon seeing the IT department; Hill almost had to drag her away so they could move on to the next floor.

They are now in one of the many training rooms observing the new recruits. The shouts of, what Skye can only describe as, "encouragements disguised as incentives" from the trainers ring throughout the room followed by grunts of effort from the recruits.

Out of the corner of her eye, Skye can see Sitwell approaching. Immediately she tenses as does Agent Hill.

"Commander," Sitwell says, "I heard you were with the director. Is there any new missions I should know about?"

Ugh, Skye thinks resentfully, this is one of the people trying to take down something created by good people. To think we trusted the lying bas—

"None that concerns you, Agent," Hill voice is as smooth and calm as ever. One would never know that she too was boiling with anger. "That is, unless you want to take over doing all the paperwork involving the new recruits?"

"I think not, ma'am." Sitwell says with the fakest laugh Skye has ever heard.

"Hold on," Sitwell turns to Skye who manages to mask her disdain in time, "Aren't you the consultant on Coulson's team?"

"Not anymore," Hill answers for her and she lets out a small sigh of relief, "She was transferred here and Fury decided to make her an agent."

"Really?" Sitwell's eyes light up with curiosity and something else that Skye can't place. "Well, welcome to the Triskelion. I'm Jasper Sitwell" He extends his hand which Skye reluctantly takes. "I'm afraid I never got your name."

At seeing Hill give her a small nod, she plasters as much of a convincing smile on her face.

"Skye Johnson, my previous team worked with you briefly on some of our missions." Skye notices that this is the first time she has used her real name. She also can't help but notice that she is telling a Hydra agent of all people first. "I'm afraid that we never had the chance to meet at the HUB those months ago."

"Ah yes, I don't remember seeing you there." He wouldn't have, Skye thinks. He never saw her because her stupid internet nanny at the time prevented her from going into certain areas of the HUB. He would have seen her when she and Jemma had been trying to find out more about the South Ossetia mission but thankfully Simmons had shot him with the ICER.

"Well it was a pleasure meeting you, Johnson." With a nod to Hill he turns around and exits the room. When he is finally out of sight, Skye feels her muscles slowly begin to relax.

"I was looking through the file you gave me and I saw that Sitwell is," She looks around, "Well, that he's one of them."

"It surprised us, too. Unfortunately there are many others like him. I know it's a shock, he used to work closely with Coulson and he gave your team intel."

"But that's the thing," Skye says quietly, "He gave us intel. And from everything you've just told me, Hydra is using SHIELD by working behind them. How much of that intel was false? How many of the missions we've gone on have been for Hydra?"

"I honestly don't know. We've been trying to limit their access to ops but it's hard to prevent them from it without arousing suspicion."

"Simmons, the biochemist on the team, she shot him with an ICER when we went to the HUB." Skye says proudly.

"I know, I got an email from him saying that I should court martial her." Hill says with a smirk. "Best thing I had heard that day. Remind me to give her my regards."

"Speaking of regards, why aren't I allowed to speak with my team?"

"Communications of SHIELD quinjets and the like are being closely monitored by Hydra. When you finally gain Pierce's trust and you are inside Hydra they'll know that you were in close communication with them. They'll doubt you and your loyalty and you'll be compromised."

The SAT phone Coulson gave her, an ever present reminder of those she left, feels heavier in her pocket.

"How deep inside SHIELD are they exactly?"

"Deep. There's at least one member of Hydra in each department. Things have been pretty quiet the last couple of weeks so we suspect that they're planning something big. That's why we need you, Skye. To help stop them once and for all." Hill breaks their gaze and beckons Skye to follow her down the hallway once more.

Skye sucks in a breath and hurries to keep up with her. Ignoring the recruits who are blissfully unaware of them she asks for the millionth time to herself

Can I really do this, can I really fool all of these people, all of these trained agents?

"So where are you taking me next?" Skye breaks the seriousness in the air.

"Your apartment."

"My apartment?" Skye had never given any thought as to where she would be lodging for the next weeks to come. She had just assumed that they would put her in some bunker somewhere.

"Yes, we couldn't very well have it look like you came out of nowhere."

Xx Linebreaker xX

After a short drive, Skye finds herself standing in what will now be her new home for the time being. It was spacious with a simple open floor plan that contained a small kitchen and living room. One hallway led to a bedroom and bath while another hallway led to what Skye assumed was either a guest room or office space

Agent Hill had left a few minutes earlier to let Skye familiarize herself with the apartment. . All of her things had been stacked neatly in the center of the room next to the simple furnishings where Skye promptly plopped herself on. Even though the place had been well furnished, she couldn't help but notice that everything seemed so naked. There was nothing to suggest that a person had lived there.

Upon closer inspection of the apartment, Skye found that the other hallway led to an office contained a desk with a state of the art computer propped upon it, the refrigerator was fully stocked, and much to her mortification, a gun-not an ICER-lay lying in one of the drawers in her bedroom.

With a sigh that showed she had accepted her new life, Skye began to strip out of her outer clothes so that she could just sleep. She knew it was only noon but she was just so tired. When her jacket drops to the floor, it lets out a loud thump that echoes in the bare room. Puzzled, she crouches next to the jacket and extracts the source of the heavy noise; the SAT phone.

Skye bites her lip and stares at it for what seems like hours until getting up with the SAT phone in hand. She is about to throw it at the wall to destroy all evidence of it until something stops her.

Wait, you may not use it to contact Coulson but you might need it. Just in case.

And with reluctance and a final stare, she opens a drawer from the dresser across her bed and places the one reminder of her old life deep inside it. It doesn't fail to cross her mind that it sits right next to the gun.

AN: So I haven't updated in a while and for that I am so so so sorry. I get really bad writers block that leaves me in a slump 24/7 and on top of that I am trying to focus on school. I don't know when the next update will be but just know that I do not want to give up on this story.

Love (in the time of Hydra),

Hannah