Being an incredibly fast reader had its merits, like how when I was 10, I read the entire Harry Potter series in barely a fortnight. But being a reader of my calibre was drawn out and tiring when the reading material was endless.

I was reading any and all communication from the Rising Tide, something I spend ages trying to find. It was mostly hate against the government and governmental agencies which each strangely a large number of spelling errors. 

I look over at Ward who is seething in anger, trying to play it cool. Ward was most usually stone-faced and would show minimal emotion. But this guy was different and I had a feeling it had something to do with Skye.

"Guy's hiding behind platitudes. He's dirty. I can feel it." Ward voiced his frustration.

"Scrubbed clean, actually. Nothing much on him. He's got no family records, his apartment is under an alias and he plays a lot of "Minecraft" where he runs a rather nasty mob."

"Yikes," my eyes widen.

"Is it – is it zombie?" Fitz exclaims with a slight tone of fear in his voice.

"Zombie pigmen." Simmons grimaces.

Okay fine, I'll admit. My knowledge of Minecraft is limited but I can read in Simmons tone that you would not want to be on the other side of that. Fitz and Simmons share a look of seriousness that both Ward and I do not get.

"Keep looking." Ward proclaims after having put up with too much fun.

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As I walk into the planning room, I couldn't notice that Skye wasn't there. I didn't mind, actually, I was quite happy with it. I miraculously could feel the pressure and feelings for Skye building up in my abdomen and were getting ready to implode.

"It appears Centipede is responsible for Mr Chan's kidnapping." Coulson leads.

"First L.A., now Hong Kong. What kind of organization are we dealing with?" Ward questions.

"International, well-financed and interested in creating a super-soldier. They're becoming more and more like super villains with each passing day"

"Oh-oh, does that make us superheroes?" Fitz excitedly jumps in.

"Damn straight it does, might as well sign us up for the Avengers," I joked. 

Coulson then felt an insane need to interject after sly eye contact with May. For a super spy, Coulson really needed to learn to keep his mannerisms in check.

"Let's hope finding Mr Chan will provide some answers. Using the account information Mr Lydon gave us, S.H.I.E.L.D. H.Q. believes he's being held here." Coulson says.

"Any ideas what Centipede wants with Chan?" May asks.

"Hard to say, but Elle thinks that considering he's pyrokinetic –" Fitz begins.

"There's a good chance his genetics could stabilize the Extremis element of the Centipede serum." I try to explain myself.

Fitz holds his hands together making a ball with them: "Keep their test subjects from going..."

"Boom!" Simmons vocalises and Fitz moves his hands apart like an explosion at her word.

"If Mr Chan is Centipede's lab rat, we need to get there before the experiment's over." Coulson heroically says.

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The tension in the planning room was reaching insurmountable heights, between Miles and Ward and Skye and I. Especially now that Coulson and May were in trouble. Comparatively to earlier when I couldn't even look at Skye, currently I couldn't keep my eyes off her while she was working on the monitor even if I couldn't decipher whether I was angry or just betrayed.

"The entire facility's been locked down." Simmons worriedly states.

"Are you sure about this?" Fitz says.

"No," states Ward monotonously.

I look over at Miles who's whispering to Skye about how he thought what we did was thrilling, but she wouldn't give him the time of day.

"The alarms disconnected the system from all exterior servers," Skye says.

"Can you fix it or not?" Ward says.

"Yes, but you've got to get me onsite," Skye says.

Both Ward and Miles are noticeably upset about this, talk about a love triangle. Two white knights wanting to keep the damsel safe.

"No way."

"Not a chance."

The two men share a look over the top of Skye's head.

"You're a hacker, Skye, not Seal Team Six," Miles seems outraged.

"No," she turns her head and looks at Ward, "But he is." Skye points at Ward.

Once again Ward and Miles share a look.

"I hate to tell you but I'm going too," I step in. "The guy's off his goard and can do all kind of things with fire, including burn people. I'm going."

"Great, now I've got to babysit the two of you" Ward complains before walking out.

"Say that again when I'm treating your third-degree burns," I scream out after him.

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I enter a room of the computer area behind Skye and she turns around.

"Are you going to talk to me?" Skye asks.

"What do you mean? We're on a mission, want to talk about my dinner plans or the weather?" I respond, knowing exactly what she really means.

"You know what I mean Elle." It kind of sucks because I was starting to think she did know me, suppose not. 

"My friends call me Elle, you've lost that right"

"I'm sorry but what I did wasn't that bad, I mean everything's going to work out" Skye tried to defend herself.

"Everything's not okay Skye, you lied to me"

"About something I wanted to keep private"

"You're not even going to excuse yourself for it?" I was getting more and more agitated with her as more emotions kept rising up.

"You're meant to be my friend, why won't you forgive me?"

"I don't care about Miles, he's your business. You lied to me" I was nearing tears for the second time today. 

"It wasn't just you"

"Yes, it was. I asked you point blank and you lied. The missions we do, I need to trust the people I'm with, otherwise, it doesn't work."

"You know what else doesn't work? Currently you two. Skye get to work" Ward had finally gotten fed up with our argument, I was kind of happy because I was about to start balling. It was a bad habit to tear up in many cases of confrontation.

I look over at Ward and sensed a twitch so I looked down at his hand and saw an array of red from burning.

"How'd you get that, let me treat it," I said, causing Skye to look at his hand and back up at me with a look of concern.

"He'll be okay Skye, now you, sit down," I directed to Ward. He tried to avoid it and not listen to me but he was faced with no choice when I slammed him down to the floor.

I pull out my first aid kit and start cleaning and wrapping up the wound which was surprisingly difficult when Ward kept trying to stand up. Once I was finished, he had no issues bouncing straight up.

Skye listens and starts rapidly typing while I step back.

"How long is this gonna take?" Ward frustratedly lets out.

"Done," she exclaims before getting out of the chair and starts to walk off as Ward shoots an impressed look to her back and I follow him, subconsciously rolling my eyes at his attraction to the hacker.

"Doors are unlocked." We hear from Coulson over comms.

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After listening to Coulson talking to Chan, and unfortunately, he was long gone, the explosion was being directed to the roof. This meant that we were running very fast, away. Finally, we reached outside the building, crossed the street and as we looked behind us and see two flaming jets erupt above the building.

"Skye managed to extract some files from the building's mainframe," Ward said, however, I was too wound up after the explosion. "It's not much but it could get us a fix on Centipede."

"Maybe," Coulson said. 

Coulson seemed off, but it felt familiar, almost identical to how I felt only a while back she was feeling the same things regarding Dr Hall.

"You can't save someone from themselves, sir." I softly told him.

"You can if you get to them early enough," he solemnly responds before he looks down from the building to Ward and then over to Skye. Skye can only look at him a moment before she has to look down and away, ashamed.

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I was in the middle of reading a book when I hear a knock on my bunk and to my surprise, Coulson was standing in the doorway.

"Can I see you in my office?"

"Yeah, sure." I became anxious almost immediately as I walked past Fitz and Simmons talking in the lounge. 

"See you guys, I'm dead," before they could answer, I had disappeared and they looked at each other in confusion.

"Everything okay, sir?" I said nervously when I walked in and took a seat.

"You know I admire you?"

"No, but I do know everything about me being here is suspicious"

"You care about everyone, even May whom you haven't especially bonded with. You have the greater good at the forefront of your mind, so it's not just the team you care for," Coulson complemented.

"Have I done something wrong?"

"That's what you're getting from this"

"You tell me I can move things with my mind, I can't. That I'm a hero everyone knows and loves, I'm not." I was fed up with his avoidance.

"What would you say if I told you it's confidential?"

"That it's total bullshit considering it's about me and you can absolutely tell me," my voice began to rise.

"Do you trust me?"

"Do I?" I really didn't know. "I want to but you have to give me something, you know?" I responded.

"How about I do," Coulson turns around and unlocks a locked draw. From the chair I was sitting in, I tried to reach up to see its contents but came up empty.

In front of me, he placed an exquisite ring. It was beautiful, had a slight element of intrigue and right in the centre sat a Ruby that shined reflectively against the light and back at me.

"What is it?" I picked up the ring and look back up at Coulson.

"All I can give you, I hope you can trust me now"

Giving away trust was hard, especially when you work in a governmental organisation where peoples secrets have secrets and while I didn't totally trust Coulson, the ring was a token I was willing to accept.

"I can, but you know this isn't going to save you forever"

With that, I get up and walk out of his office with the ring on my left pointer finger, fiddling with it with my thumb.

Fitz turned around at the sound of the door opening and was sitting facing me when I walked out.

"What did he want?"

"I don't know," I said despite hating when people spoke ominously.

"Weird, is everything okay?"

"For now"

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I'm not sure whether I said thank you for 1k (don't worry I definitely kept track), but today I hit 2k! Thank you guys so much.

Please, please, please leave comments on stuff you'd like me to change or adapt on. If you think it, say it. 

Also if you're confused about anything, comment it and I'll try and clarify it (I mean obviously not key plot points).

Love,
Izzy