"Hey, Big Guy. Sun's getting real low," Natasha said, her eyes never leaving Bruce's.
Noting that his eyes were focussed on her, she continued by raising her hand, palm out towards him. Slowly, Bruce's hand came up to mimic hers, their palms close but not touching. As soon as his hand was in the correct position, Natasha moved hers, slowly, deliberately. This time, her arm was down, her forearm pointing towards Bruce, her palm up.
Almost unconsciously, Bruce mimicked her, ending with the back of his hand resting on her palm. With his hand in that position, Natasha slowly moved her hand away and up to touch two points on his forearm before drawing her fingers along his palm and coming off with a flick from his middle finger.
Instantly, Bruce's face relaxed even more than it already was and he began swaying slightly. A small smile graced Natasha's face and she nodded almost imperceptibly.
"Alright, Bruce, I want you to focus on my finger," she said, holding one up in front of his face. As soon as she saw his eyes zeroing in on it, she continued. "When I snap my fingers, you'll wake up and remember everything."
She waited a count, two and then snapped.
Bruce blinked continuously for nearly half a minute even as he shook his head. It looked remarkedly like he was trying to wake himself up after a long sleep.
"Bruce?" Jennifer asked from where she was sitting a little apart from the two.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm good. Just ... just give me a minute," Bruce replied.
"The Lullaby seems to be taking," Nat commented. "How do you feel?"
"Yeah, good. Kinda strange actually," Bruce said and Nat could tell that he was looking inwards. "The Hulk ... he's ... this is the quietest that I've ever felt him. It's as though he's ... distant? Asleep, maybe?"
Bruce finished with a shake of his head.
"That's good," Nat stated. "That is what we're going for here."
"True, but it's one thing to do it here," and Bruce gestured to the beach that they were sitting on, the soft, gentle lap of the waves not far away. Here, they were totally alone and there wasn't a threat for hundreds of miles at the very least. "And quite another out there."
"Which is why we're practicing here," Jennifer chimed in. "We've got to make sure that there's extra options for calming the Hulk down, especially if I'm not there or there isn't some of Harry's special juice on hand."
"Yeah, I know," Bruce replied. "It's just, the Hulk and I, we're still not used to relying on others. Don't get me wrong, we love being a part of the Avengers, this group but after so many years of being on the run, alone with everyone after me, us, it's still challenging to let others in."
"You let me in," Jennifer stated.
"You're my cousin," Bruce smiled. "Even the Hulk acknowledges you as family, as being safe, someone he can trust."
"So, now we've got to make sure that he and you trust me as well," Nat interjected. "I think it's time that we try the Lullaby with the Hulk directly."
A slight shifting of the sand was enough for Nat to know that Jennifer had just shifted into her She-Hulk form.
"Alright," Bruce sighed. "I did agree to this and it's not like I can hurt anyone here."
After unbuttoning his shirt, Bruce threw it over to where he'd left his shoes and socks earlier. She watched as he closed his eyes and took a couple of steps back. Great green veins emerged along the side of Bruce's neck and his head tipped back.
The Hulk was coming out and Natasha braced herself for the challenge to come: seeing if the hypnotic suggestion that she'd put in Bruce transferred over to the Hulk.
ooo00ooo
Harry shrugged into his blue-grey dragonhide cloak, its hood hanging down his back and settled it correctly on his shoulders. Taking a couple of steps forward, he looked at himself in the mirror, turning slightly so that it was easier to see his left side.
High up on his left arm was a new addition. Primarily, it was the stylised 'A' of the Avengers done in red, but with a red circle around it, white filling the space inside. Harry nodded in satisfaction.
"That's good work, Gimpy," Harry said to the anxiously waiting House Elf. "And the cloak looks as good as new, too."
His cloak had needed some minor repairs and cleaning after all of the various battles and skirmishes that he'd been involved in. It was good to once again have it looking as good as the day that Charlie Weasley had given it to him.
"Gimpy lives to serve, Master Harry, Sir," the little elf replied.
"It does look good," Steve commented. "And once they're on all of our uniforms, it'll look as though we're actually all part of the same team."
"You get to convince Tony to paint one on his armour," Harry grinned at Steve via the mirror.
"A good leader knows when to delegate," Steve countered.
"Pepper!" they decided in unison, a beat later.
The sound of urgent footsteps interrupted them and Harry spun about to face the door. Maria was the first through it, with Bobbi hot on her heels.
"Harry," Maria said, focussing on him instantly. "We've just had a message from Coulson. It's about Skye."
ooo00ooo
Mage arrived in a swirl of multicoloured light and looked around with a sigh of relief. Directly in front of him was the Bus, the great modified Globemaster aircraft that S.H.I.E.L.D. had converted for its use. Sitting just to one side was a quinjet.
Really, it was a miracle that he'd arrived at the correct place at all. After portkeying back to the Tower, Harry had used Jarvis' satellite feeds to get a good look at exactly where Coulson and his team were located just outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico. He'd then made a portkey to that location based off of simply that image. As far as he knew, no one'd ever attempted a portkey journey like that before.
The fact that it had worked was something to consider the ramifications of later. Right now, there were much more important matters to deal with.
Noting that the rear ramp to the Bus was already lowered, Mage didn't hesitate in striding up it, his footsteps announcing his arrival and causing Coulson and May to turn towards him, the latter having drawn her sidearm in the process.
"Mage," Phil greeted. "I didn't expect you here."
Mage gave the man a nonplussed look, not that he could see it with Mage's obscuris spell in place, hiding his face.
"You messaged that Skye had been kidnapped," Mage stated. "What can you tell me?"
"Mage," May greeted.
"May," Mage returned, although his gaze never left Phil's face.
"Approximately four hours ago, the Bus was intercepted mid-air by a HYDRA team led by Grant Ward," Coulson relayed. "There were half a dozen quinjets making combat not an option. Once they boarded, their objective was to capture a person that we were protecting by the name of Raina, as well as an object of extra-terrestrial origin."
"If they were the objective, then why was Skye taken?" Mage questioned.
"We don't know," May replied. "Our best guess is that Skye was a bonus. I had the impression that it was only Ward who wanted her, so it's likely that he had a different mission in mind."
"Whatever the reason, with Ward having her, it's fair to assume that Skye is still alive," Coulson stated, before continuing at Mage's cock of the head. "Ward's been fascinated with Skye ever since he met her."
"Skye does not return whatever 'feelings' Ward has for her," May assured Mage.
Mage nodded his head in thanks.
"I'm guessing that it's safe to assume that Skye's being held with this Raina person and this object?" Mage asked. "What's so special about them? Why would HYDRA mount a special operation to take them?"
Coulson sighed and looked at May who gave him a tiny nod.
"As I mentioned, the object, the Obelisk, is alien. Kree, to be precise," Coulson explained. "It's also known as a Diviner, although what it divines, we're not sure. What we do know is that it's reputed to be able to unlock some kind of power and it's that power that HYDRA wants. Whenever the Obelisk is touched, alien writing appears on it. At least, that's what we thought it was."
"Writing?" Mage interrupted. "Circles and lines?"
Coulson blinked, glanced at May and focussed intently on Mage.
"Exactly circles and lines. How did you know about it?" he asked.
"Skye," Mage shrugged. "She drew a little of it when we were on vacation; asked me if it was a magical language. Obviously, it wasn't."
"Huh, she didn't mention that," Coulson stated.
"No. She didn't," May agreed and there was something in her voice that told Mage that May wasn't happy about Skye telling Mage S.H.I.E.L.D. secrets without the proper authorisation.
"So, what's so special about this writing?" Mage asked.
"As I said, it's Kree," Coulson said, "the same species from which the serum was derived to bring me back after I was stabbed in the heart at the Battle of New York. Skye was also given some of it after being shot. The difference is that, where the serum eventually gave me an almost uncontrollable compulsion to draw that writing, it didn't affect Skye at all, apart from the obvious – healing her."
"Our assumption is that Skye's part-Kree," May stated bluntly.
Mage blinked at her.
"Skye's part alien?" Mage repeated incredulously.
When May did nothing but simply stare back at him, Mage was forced to seriously consider the possibility. Exactly how Skye could be half-alien wasn't one that he could even attempt to fathom. But then, he himself was considered a half-blood – his father a pureblood, his mother, a muggleborn – so on an intellectual level, at least, he could understand the concept.
And then something that had been bugging him ever since Harry'd met Skye finally clicked. If Skye was half-alien, then it was no wonder that the spell that he'd been using to separate alien matter from Earth-based things went wonky when it encountered Skye. She was from both!
"Okay, I can see that," Mage stated, causing the two in front of him to share a look once again, something that they seemed to do all too often.
"So, what's the significance of the writing?" Mage asked. "Some kind of special instructions?"
"Not quite," Coulson said with a half-smile. "It took us a while, but we eventually worked out that it's a map. A map of a hidden Kree city."
"And let me guess, this hidden city is here in San Juan," Mage stated.
"Good guess," May confirmed.
"So why Raina? What's her part in all this?" Mage asked.
"Only someone with Kree ancestry can touch the Obelisk without dying," May replied. "And Raina can hold the Obelisk."
"We believe that there's a temple of some kind in the Kree City that, when the Obelisk is placed there, releases the power that it contains," Coulson said.
"So, our job is to stop this Obelisk from getting to the Kree temple as well as rescuing Skye," Mage stated.
"Exactly," May agreed.
"So, what's the plan?" Mage asked.
ooo00ooo
Houses, buildings, parks, people – they all rushed by below him but he took little to no notice of any of them.
From up here, high above the City of San Juan, Mage had only one objective: locate Skye and by extension, the HYDRA base that she was being held in. Those below were oblivious to the fact that he was there, as they should be, considering that both he and his new Lightning Bolt broom were both disillusioned.
If any had been able to see him, though, they would have noted that Mage flew in a perfectly straight line. There was no search pattern, no back and forth, but then, there didn't need to be. Not so long ago, Harry had given Skye a pendant, a magical pendant. And one of the enchantments on said pendant was a locator charm that was tied to Harry's Head of House Potter ring. Using it, Harry could find Skye anywhere and right now, it was pulling him straight across the city.
Finally, he slowed. The charm was telling him that he'd found the right place.
The building was three stories tall and surrounded by elaborate gardens. The fact that Mage could see men toting guns also confirmed that he was in the right place. He circled it slowly, once, twice, three times, ensuring that he got a good look at it, including the best way in.
Then, ignoring the pressing desire to charge right in, Mage turned his broom around, leant low over the handle and sped back to his allies.
ooo00ooo
"Here," Mage stated, pointing to the exact spot on the map of San Juan that was on the big screen of the Bus' command centre where HYDRA's 'base' could be found.
"Why there?" Simmons asked. "That's no where near the fort with the only viable entry to the Kree City."
"Can we superimpose a map of the Kree City over the map of San Juan?" Coulson asked.
A moment later, a red schematic appeared over the blue city outline, a pulsing green dot indicating where HYDRA was based.
"That answers that question," May stated. "They're basically sitting on top of the Kree temple."
"But why? It's not like they can drill through a couple of hundred metres of volcanic rock," Trip pointed out.
"We could, with a plasma drill," Fitz stated.
"And if we have that tech, then so does HYDRA," Simmons finished.
"At least we now know their plan," Coulson stated. "It doesn't change ours. FitzSimmons, Trip, your job is to get some explosives into the Kree City and destroy the area around the temple."
"We're gonna have to do it old school," Trip said. "We know that tech doesn't work down there. Thankfully, I've got a bunch of Grandad's old Howling Commandos gear here. I'm pretty sure that there's some old timers in there that we can use. It'll mean that we can't set them off remotely, it'll have to be set them and run."
"What about Mack?" Simmons asked.
"We lost one of our team, Mack, down there," Coulson explained, seeing Mage's confused tilt of the head. "We think that the City's taken him over somehow, using him like a drone or something to protect itself."
"If you see him, either avoid him or incapacitate him," Coulson said.
"That didn't work out so well last time," May commented. "He's stronger than any of us and that City's enhanced him somehow. The Icers don't even knock him out."
Mage fished into one of his belt pockets and pulled out a handful of small balls, not unlike marbles.
"Here, just in case," Mage said, handing them over. "Just smash them at his feet. They'll release an airborne potion that will cause him to go into a daydreamlike-state. Should give you enough time to get away or knock him out permanently."
"How do they work?" Fitz asked, taking the balls and looking at them curiously.
"Magic," Mage replied, cutting off the scientist's inquisitiveness in order to get the strategy planning over with quickly enough so that they could get to rescuing Skye and taking out the bad guys that much sooner.
"May, Mage," Coulson continued. "The three of us will take the quinjet and go in through the roof and work our way down. We find Skye, stop the drill and get the Obelisk and Raina back."
Nods all round indicated that the team was ready. A heartbeat later, they split up, each heading to get whatever equipment that they knew that they'd need.
ooo00ooo
Skye followed Ward through the house, her eyes darting about, taking it all in. Her hands were bound in front of her and there were two soldiers three steps behind her, just a little too far back for her to attack if she lashed out with her feet. Not that she would do that, no, there was no point at the moment, she was too well guarded right now. Later, though ...
"I see that May's been teaching you well," Ward commented. "Checking exits, the placement of enemies, the weapons, strategizing. How's your marksmanship these days?"
"Why don't you give me a gun and find out?" Skye snarked.
Ward, of course, ignored her comment.
"Why am I here?" she asked, hoping to keep the man talking and gain some intel.
"I'm keeping a promise," Ward replied as they reached a pair of double doors and he cut the zip ties around her wrist off.
Skye shot a curious glance at him, wondering what the promise was and who it was made to. And then Ward opened the door and she got her answer.
The man seated across the room rose at their entrance. He straightened and smoothed his old, brown suit before he swung his hands about, obviously unsure whether to put them behind his back or keep them at his sides or even put them in front of him. He was tall and his dark brown hair was greying around his temples. She'd seen that face before, but only in a picture. Cal, she knew his name was.
Her father.
"I'm sure that you two have a lot of catching up to do," Ward said, not that Skye even registered it.
"Look at that, the way you tilt your head," Cal said, staring at her. "Is it nature or nurture, I wonder? Your mother did the same thing. I promised myself I wouldn't get emotional."
Skye could only stare at the man. She'd dreamt of meeting this man, her father her whole life. It was what led her to being so good at computers, to be such a good hacker and eventually to S.H.I.E.L.D. Everything had been geared towards trying to find her parents and here he was. If only she hadn't found out that he was a monster, a killer. If only that wasn't true.
"I've waited so long for this moment," Cal continued. "Let's start again. Hi. I'm Cal. I'm your father. Would you like to sit down?"
Skye felt her head shake. She didn't know what to think, what to feel but sitting was definitely not on that list.
"Right, me neither," Cal agreed. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me."
"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me?" an incredulous Skye repeated. "Are you serious? I was kidnapped off of a plane at gunpoint! That's all you have to say?"
"You're right. I'm sorry," Call said, reaching out towards her. "I'm just a little nervous. This is a big moment. Father. Daughter. Meeting for the first time. Well, not the first time. Obviously. But after a long time. Ever since you were taken from me. I've been dreaming of this moment every day since. I had it all planned. It was going to be perfect. Those little almond cookies. Flowers maybe. Not like this. Not here. My God, you are beautiful. Well, I don't know what you know about me ..."
"I know that you're a monster. A killer. A trail of death wherever you go," Skye interrupted.
"Those are all true," Cal replied and Skye had to give him points for honesty. "But you have to understand. You were taken from me. My little girl was taken from me. You. It was the worst day of my life. You were taken. I wasn't careless. I didn't lose you. You were taken! You were stolen from me! I had nothing and I was doing everything that I could to get my family back together again. Back in one piece, back to how it's supposed to be."
Skye took half a step back, trying to process everything, trying not to show as much fear as she was really feeling due to his intensity, the anger that she could see bubbling to the surface.
"I wasn't always like this," Cal continued, calming somewhat as he sat on a nearby chair. "You were born in China. Your mother was Chinese. I was a doctor there with Doctors Without Borders. You see, my Chinese wasn't very good and your mother used to come in and translate for me. I worked in a clinic, people liked me. We were so happy. I liked myself."
"So, what happened?" Skye asked.
"Soldiers came. Called themselves S.H.I.E.L.D. and took you," Cal replied.
"HYDRA. They were HYDRA, not S.H.I.E.L.D.," Skye corrected.
Cal simply shrugged at the difference.
"This is the thing that I wanted to say," he continued, rising. "I'm sorry that I couldn't be there for you. That I couldn't protect you. That I couldn't teach you about the stars or read you bedtime stories or sing you to sleep. I know that I'm a terrible disappointment, but I'm here now. I'll always be here now. And everything that is about to happen is supposed to happen. I'm going to take care of you."
"Then get me out of here," Skye said, hoping to use his ... protective father routine to her advantage.
"Oh, I can't do that," Cal replied. "No, you're right where you need to be. This is your destiny."
ooo00ooo
Skye was still reeling from everything that she'd learnt from Cal, from her f... – no she couldn't bring herself to even think the word – even as she was being led ... somewhere.
Finally, finally, she'd learnt what happened to her mother, and by extension, her father.
Her mother had been special. She apparently had a gift, whatever that meant, although it sounded as though it was genetic and that Skye, herself had one as well (at least according to Cal). Whatever it was that made her mother special, it had meant that Whitehall had come and taken her away and experimented on her, cut her to pieces, took her organs and blood and left her lying in a ditch for Cal to find. It was that, combined with losing his only child that had sent Cal over the edge. It was why Cal had declared that this was the 'best day ever' – the day he got his daughter back and the day that he was determined to kill Whitehall for what he'd done.
Like Skye herself, Cal had become obsessed with finding his family and putting it back together. Everything that he'd done had been to that end and while Skye couldn't condone his methods, in a way a small part of her, a part that she simply couldn't deny, had understood.
Ahead of her, she could see Cal, Ward and Raina, all surrounded by HYDRA thugs and beyond them, Whitehall, the leader of this faction of HYDRA. Forcefully, Skye shoved every one of those thoughts deep inside. She'd deal with them later. Right now, she had more important things to deal with. Like staying alive and getting out of here.
"Ah, finally," Whitehall greeted as Skye came to stand in line with the other three. "Each of you have played a part in bringing us here today. Although I'm uncertain of your place in all of this."
Skye stared back defiantly at the man, unwilling to even dignify him with an answer.
"But I have my suspicions," Whitehall continued. "You see, I know who your mother was and exactly how special she was. My question is, what is your gift? Is it as wonderful as your mothers? Well, we shall see, won't we?"
A gesture from him had a HYDRA soldier approaching with a container that Skye recognised. The lid was flipped back to reveal the strange metal Obelisk.
"Pick it up," Whitehall instructed.
Skye continued to stare defiantly back at him, daring him to make her. From the corner of her eye, though, she saw Cal give her a nod, a nod that could only mean one thing. You're like your mother, he seemed to say, it'll be alright.
And then Skye moved. Taking a determined step forward, she reached in and grasped the Obelisk and lifted it up. When nothing happened, no strange black crust forming over her entire body to kill her, she relaxed slightly.
Her relaxation was enough to have the guards shift slightly. Enough for her to see, thanks to May's training, that they weren't as on-guard as they'd been moments before.
And then she struck.
Twisting about, Skye stuck the Obelisk onto the neck of the nearest guard. Cal spun about, slashing the neck of one guard with a scalpel that Skye didn't know he had and twisting himself about a second guard to use as a shield. Ward, too, moved, knocking down two guards before coming up with a gun pointed at a third.
Unfortunately, the other nine guards in the room stepped forward, their own guns up and pointing. Whitehall merely raised a hand, halting them from shooting.
"Yes. You are special, aren't you," Whitehall said to Skye. "And your gift will be understood soon enough. Of course, experimentation will be required."
A signal from him had Raina stepping forward and taking the Obelisk from Skye and returning it to its case. Obviously, she'd thrown in her lot with Whitehall.
"Raina, take the Diviner to the basement so that it's ready as soon as we break through into the City below," Whitehall instructed. "And secure these three until later."
Skye glared at the man even as she felt her arms being yanked backwards and her hands zip tied together once more.
ooo00ooo
Mage was getting frustrated. This was taking too long. The plasma drill, they knew, had to be in the basement. And they'd landed on the roof. Exactly which level Skye was on, he wasn't sure – his Potter Head ring could give him direction but not distance.
Already, he, Coulson and May had taken out a couple of dozen HYDRA agents but there were uncounted more between here and their objective.
Ducking his head around the corner, Mage took note of the soldier before quickly pulling back. Four shots slammed into the wall that he was hiding behind, chipping plaster off with every hit.
"Serpensortia!" he whispered, twice, pointing at the ground in front of him.
The boa constrictors that he'd summoned hissed violently at the unexpectedness of their appearance.
"§There is an enemy around the corner. Please restrain him for me§," Mage told them.
That was enough to have the two snakes slithering around the corner. Their appearance did not go unnoticed, as evidenced by the startled screams.
With a smile, Mage stepped around the corner and stunned not only the man that he knew was there but also the soldier creeping up the hallway. A pair of bludgeoners aimed at their arms ensured that, even if they managed to wake, they would stay out of the fight.
Gunfire from below caught Mage's attention and he stepped across to the banister and looked down. May, it seemed, had found half a dozen HDYRA agents to play with. Deciding to lend a hand, he focussed on the statues that the men were using as cover. Some simple animation spells were enough to give them something else to worry about.
ooo00ooo
Movement ahead of him was enough to have Coulson pause in his descent, his gun up and ready. Crouching a little lower allowed him to see further down the steps to the floor below.
There were two men there – Whitehall closer to Coulson but facing down the hallway and Cal further away. Cal appeared to be unarmed as he advanced towards the HYDRA leader, a murderous look on his face. Considering the distance, though, and the fact that Whitehall was raising his arm, a gun steady in it, told Coulson that there was no way that Cal was going to reach his target before getting killed.
Knowing that Cal was Skye's father, Coulson couldn't allow him to be killed, regardless of the many deaths that he was responsible for. Instead, he shot first, dropping Whitehall where he stood.
Cal stopped in obvious shock, staring between Whitehall and Coulson.
"What did you do?" Cal exclaimed, clearly deranged. "You killed him! He was mine and you killed him!"
"You're welcome?" Coulson replied as he took the last few steps down onto the floor.
Apparently, though, that had been the wrong thing to say. With a roar, Cal charged straight at Coulson, tackled him around the middle and bore him through a nearby door.
Coulson ended up on his back, Cal on top of him, his fists whipping backwards and forwards, punching Coulson harder and harder with every hit.
Coulson fought back, flipping the bigger man off, up and over Coulson's head. Cal, though, simply spun back around and jumped to his feet. Coulson scrambled to his own and had to promptly duck a fist. A short, sharp jab to Cal's ribs seemed to do nothing and Coulson had to dance backwards.
Cal advanced, swinging wildly and it was all Coulson could do to twist, spin away from or block every hit. He danced around him, turned and kicked, hitting Cal in the stomach, making him stumble backwards and double over slightly.
Using that small advantage, Coulson leapt, wrapping his legs around the other man's neck and hitting him over and over, trying to knock him out by a combination of lack of air and brute force.
Unfortunately, Cal had other ideas, grabbing Coulson and slamming him back down onto the floor, causing Coulson's breath to leave him. That was enough advantage to have Cal punching Coulson over and over again, pressing his advantage.
"Stop it! Stop it!"
The words barely penetrated Coulson's hearing through the ringing in his ears.
"Stop or I'll shoot!" Then, "Dad!"
That did it and Cal sat back. Coulson was dazed. He knew that Skye had arrived. And she'd stopped Cal. As he attempted to gather himself he could hear the two speaking.
"He took something from me," Cal said.
"No," Skye replied. "Get up and get away from him."
"You have to finish what we started," Cal said.
"No, I don't," Skye disagreed. "I'm not going down there. I'm not going to change or transform or whatever the hell you think is going to happen. Now, leave. I'm giving you this one chance."
"Okay. I'll leave," Can said. "But just remember, once it happens, once you become what you were always meant to be, no one will accept you. No one will understand. No one but me. Change is terrifying. But I love you. I will always love you, Daisy."
For some reason, in his semi-daze, Coulson latched on to the fact that Cal had called Skye 'Daisy'. That was important, but he couldn't work out why right then. And then Skye was there, leaning over him, cradling his head, crying over him.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I stopped him. I stopped him but it's not enough," Skye was babbling, not even attempting to listen to what he was trying to say. "I'm going to fix this. I'm going to find the Obelisk. I'm going to make sure that it doesn't get down there and make things worse. I'm going to fix this."
And then she was gone, running from the room.
"No, Skye!" Coulson coughed, but she didn't stop or come back.
ooo00ooo
Mage burst into the basement from one door, just as Coulson stumbled in from the other.
"We're too late," May stated from where she stood over hole in the ground.
It was only about one metre in diameter but all three knew that it went several hundred metres down.
"Skye?" Coulson asked.
"She's down there," Mage replied, feeling the pull on his ring.
"She's not supposed to be down there," May pointed out.
"She thinks that she's 'fixing things'," Coulson frowned.
"I'm going after her," Mage stated.
And then, before either of the other two could reply, he jumped.
ooo00ooo
The crackle of the comm piece in her ear told May that she was about to receive a communication from the other team seconds before it arrived.
"May, Coulson, this is Triplett. The explosives are in place and set for detonation in three minutes."
"Trip, you need to stop those timers," May said urgently. "Both Skye and Mage are still down there."
"Damn," was all she heard before the line went dead.
ooo00ooo
Wind whipped at him, making his robe flap despite the wandless feather-light charm that he'd applied to himself. Currently, his wand was pointed straight down, firing cushioning charm after cushioning charm. This may not have been the safest way down, but it sure was the fastest.
Finally, after what felt like minutes but was surely a lot less, Mage landed, his knees bent, one arm down to steady himself. Taking quick stock of his body, he was surprised to find that he'd come out of that little stunt unscathed.
A flick of his wand produced a ball of light. A second spell had it charmed to hover just above him, regardless of where he went. That took care of the light problem. Now it was simply working out how to find his way around down here.
The location charm helped. Somewhat. However, it only gave a direction, regardless of any walls that might be in the way.
Mage took off at a jog. Twice, he needed to double back. Finally, a great grinding sound ahead of him told him that he was close. Instantly, he shot off, sprinting as hard as he could.
There. Up ahead, he could see a great block of stone moving in towards a curved wall. Mage arrived a fraction of a second too late, just as it sealed shut. Slamming his fist on it in frustration, he chose a direction and ran. If there was one entrance to this temple – which he guessed had to be behind the curved wall – then surely, there'd be others.
A second indent showed where another door was. Unfortunately, he was too late to reach that one either. Nor was he in time to reach the third.
A flash of movement up ahead as he rounded a curve increased his speed. But while the body ahead of him managed to slip through the crack of the stone block door before it closed, Mage wasn't so lucky. He was locked out.
Skidding to a halt, Mage drew his wand and approached the first door, a determined expression on his face.
ooo00ooo
Skye found herself in a circular room with stone walls. In the very centre was a pedestal, also made of stone, a bright circle of light coming from some unknown source shone down on it like a spotlight. Across the room stood Raina, the Obelisk in her hands.
"It's over, Raina. Give me the Obelisk," Skye demanded.
"My life. Our whole lives have been leading to this one moment," Raina stated.
"Sorry, I don't buy into the whole 'this is your destiny' thing," Skye shot back, her gun steady on Raina.
"You've got it all wrong. Everyone's got it all wrong. This," Raina said, lofting the Obelisk slightly to emphasise it, "doesn't destroy lives. It gives life. New life. We finally get to find out what we become."
"I'm happy as I am, thank you," Skye replied.
Suddenly, the Obelisk began glowing, highlighting the glyphs on its side in red. Then it simply floated up and out of Raina's hands.
"Make it stop!" Skye demanded.
"I can't," Raina replied. "Even if I wanted to. Which I don't."
The Obelisk floated across the room to come to land on the pedestal. Behind them, the great stone doors began to close.
"If you want to leave, now's your chance," Raina suggested. "But you won't. You're like me. Curious to see what we'll become."
And then the decision was taken out of Skye's hands as the last of the great stone doors sealed, but not before Trip managed to slip in through the last one.
"What are you doing here?" Skye asked him.
"Rescuing you," Trip replied as though that was obvious.
The instant that the final door had sealed, the Obelisk split from the top, opening like a petal to reveal a dozen or so blue crystals.
"What's supposed to happen?" Trip asked as all three of them stared at the Obelisk and its crystals.
"I don't know," Skye replied absently.
"Something beautiful," Raina corrected.
And then a great gust of compressed gas shot out from the crystals, engulfing the three of them and knocking them backwards.
And that's when Skye felt it. A black ... something, a crust began forming on her body, encasing her from her feet upwards. Across the room, Raina was undergoing the same phenomenon. As it moved up her body, Skye could feel her heartrate skyrocket and panic set in.
"Oh, God! Oh, God! Trip!" she cried, her gun falling from her hand.
Trip, it seemed was unaffected. At her cry, he looked at her and Skye saw him looking around in desperation.
As the black crust swept up her neck and towards her face, the very last thing that Skye saw was Trip completing a spinning kick, his aim the Obelisk and its crystals.