Sorry I didn't upload yesterday. It was a Monday and you know how Monday's go.

Here we go! The last chapter! Buckle your seatbelts, kiddies! It's gonna be a bit bumpy!

Ward's first reaction is to run to Skye.

Her scream is loud...painful. Raina's covering her eyes and doubling over in pain. Ward feels liquid dripping from his ears-blood, undoubtedly-and his leg is killing him, but he could care less.

He grabs her hand, and she's still screaming her heart out. He's never seen (heard) anything like it. The glass around the room is shattering and latching into the bodies of the four beings in the room.

Ward looks over at her father, and he's smirking as if he just won a war. It makes him feel sick-the monster has joy from Skye's suffering. He then spares a glance at Raina, and he can't tell if she's dead or if she's just unconscious. He doesn't care.

He continues to clutch at Skye's hand, hoping to give her human contact reassurance. She doesn't seem to react at all, and he's starting to scream as well. "Help her!" he screams at the monster.

"It's going just as it should. Looks like she'll be even more powerful than me." The monster still has that joyful gleam in his eye.

Ward begins to hear a new beeping, and he looks at the vitals to see that her heart has begun to beat once again. He breathes a sigh of relief, and let's his head hang down.

And then she stops screaming.

Her eyes fly open, but it's not her eyes. They're glowing white, and he doesn't see her pupils. He looks at her in horror; What happened to Skye?

Skye's body sits up quickly, ripping all of her straps, and shoots a look at Ward, and the next thing he knows, his back is hard against the wall, and he falls to the floor in pain. His vision becomes blurry, and he knows that he probably suffered from some sort of concussion.

He doesn't care.

Skye needs help, and nothing will stop that from providing that. "Skye," he cries out, "Skye, snap out of it!"

He hears a voice say, "It's helpless; she's come to the inevitable." Ward looks at her father, and he begins to stand up to tower over Skye. "My daughter, you're almost there. You're beginning to see the light."

The man is a psychopath.

Not that Ward didn't realize this earlier-it's just scarily apparent now. The monster still has that smirk, though now it's grown. He looks like a madman.

But then, his smile fades.

The monster suddenly looks scared as Skye-or, rather, Skye's body-turns to him slowly. Ward sees that she's gripping her father's hand, and he's desperately trying to pull away. His hand is turning black, as if it were completely dying. "Daughter, don't do this to me. You're feeding on the wrong man!" he wails desperately.

Ward then observes as Skye's body smirks evilly, and replies, "You are no father of mine."

The next thing Ward knows, the monster turns completely black and then turns to dust.

The girl lying on the ground begins to stir (Thank God she's not dead, he thinks.) and she's definitely not happy.

Raina looks up and Ward pulls her away from Skye's potential reach. He's not Raina's biggest fan, but he respects her enough to not want her to die. She groans in protest, but stays silent when she sees Ward put a finger to his mouth. The room is still extremely loud with all the beeping and buzzing from the machines, and Skye's body seems to be annoyed. She yanks out the cables that are in her reach, and it becomes violently quiet.

Ward holds Raina protectively, wanting nothing more than to run to Skye and tell her that everything will be alright.

Except it's not her.

She gets out of the bed, pulling off anything she was connected to angrily. He has his hand against Raina's hand to ensure she won't try to use her smart little mouth-he can tell Skye is listening. (He assumes that her glowing eyes prevent her from seeing.) After a sharp intake of breath, he can see her shoot her head to where he and Raina are sitting, and she looks at the area suspiciously. Then, she leaves the room.

Everything is deathly quiet.

"It worked!" Raina has an obvious excitement in her voice, and it angers Ward.

"Worked? She's not even close to herself! Damnit, there's not any of her left!"

Raina smirks. "Who said that she was going to stay who she was? I only said that she has a say in who she kills."

Ward's mouth is open. How could he be so stupid? Of course Raina would manipulate words to make him think that she meant something completely different.

He punches the wall hard.

Raina continues, "Though, that was a little more severe than originally anticipated. You're wrong, Grant Ward. She's too much like herself right now. All of that pent up anger for years and years is finally coming to the surface. If I were you, I'd stay out of her way for a while. If I've got the story straight, she's more mad at you than her own father, and look what happened to him." Raina points out the pile of black dust.

Ward was in too much shock to have realized earlier that she just killed someone. He doesn't even know enough about her now to know if it was her first kill, or if she'd care less about it.

He hasn't been there for her, and it breaks his heart.

Ward shoots up. He has to fix this. He turns to Raina, and asks, "How can we change her back?"

Raina laughs as if he just said something ridiculous. "It's impossible! You can't just undo biology...evolution!"

Ward clenches his teeth and shakes his head. "I refuse to believe that. There's got to be a way to bring her back. Her father's dead, there's no reason to keep her in that state!"

Raina sighs. "You agreed to this, and I told you she's gone. Skye died, Grant. This girl now...she isn't the same girl anymore. Same body, perhaps the same memories, but it's all from a different perspective. Anything from before the transformation will only seem like a distant dream."

"Except for anger?"

"Exactly. Anger, sadness, basically anything you put her through is what she's feeling. Poor girl doesn't even know why she's feeling it."

"She once said that raging wouldn't get her anywhere," he says sadly.

Raina puts her hand up to stop him. She leans down to pick up a syringe off the floor. She puts it in his hand, and closes his fingers around it. "That will put her down."

His eyes go wide in sorrow, "Down? I...I can't do that."

Raina smiles at him, and it's different. It's a genuine smile that portrays her empathy for the man. "To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what it'll do. It's designed to kill her, but it's impossible to know for sure as we've never actually tested it."

Ward grips the syringe. "I can't kill her."

Raina wraps her hand around his. "It may just put her to sleep. Maybe it'll even reverse the effects. The chemical will biologically change her cells to be weaker. Who knows? Maybe that weakness will kill her, maybe it'll bring her back. The question is: Will you take the risk?"

Before he could even think, Raina's thrown away from him, and he sees that Skye is back. He holds onto the syringe tightly, not sure what to do. She looks at him curiously, cocking her head to the side.

He wonders if she knows what he's thinking.

Skye's body approaches him slowly, as if she's not sure how to proceed. Ward takes a leap of faith and walks over to her. He takes a deep breath, and he touches her face.

She pulls back suddenly, but then she's back close to him. He's fine-there's no blackening skin-and he thinks that she doesn't want to harm him. It's as reassuring as it can possibly get for the love of his life being turned into a monster.

He glances down at the syringe, and he's never been more uncertain in his life. It's only when he carefully stares into her eyes, and he can't see her he makes his decision.

Ward plunges the syringe into her neck and gently helps her fall to the ground. Skye's shaking violently; if he didn't know better, he'd say that she's having a seizure.

He's not sure if he's joyful or worried when her eyes begin to go back to the brown they were before. She's still shaking, unresponsive, but she's turning back to her normal self.

He holds her tightly to him, hoping for a miracle.

Life gives him one.

"Grant?" he hears her whisper. He nods as he presses kisses to her hair.

He feels as she goes limp.

Coulson hasn't been sleeping. Skye's in the captivity of Hydra, and the team's nowhere near close to getting the resources they need to take back the base with at least a chance of success.

He's going over all the worst-case scenarios that could possibly be happening to Skye at that very moment. May's tried to get him to relax with promises that Skye is strong and she'll be damned if Ward let her get seriously injured.

The fact that he thinks that she's stuck there with Hydra and Ward makes him even more sick.

It's late at night when his sat phone goes off, and he jumps. The only people who would have that number is people who he's already with and-

Skye.

He jumps up and grabs the phone. It's coming from the base, and he's worried. What if it's just a ransom?

It'd be better than nothing.

He answers the phone, and he hears heavy breathing.

"Skye? Is that you?" Coulson asks hesitantly.

It's Ward that answers. "No. It's me, Sir."

Coulson's immediately angry. The bastard has Skye. Of course he would be a part.

"You need to come get Skye. Meet me outside the base in an hour. Earlier than that would be preferable-she needs medical assistance."

To say Coulson is surprised is an understatement.

It's only after he makes sure that Skye's alive and her vitals are working fine that he finally decides to get her the hell out of there.

Ward picks her up bridal style-not in a romantic way at all; she's unconscious in his arms-and begins to carry her out of the base.

He looks around and notices that all of the guards that were in this hallway are on the floor, dead. This undoubtedly means Skye killed the others. Well, that saves Coulson the trouble of fighting for the base.

Ward wills himself to carry her further, even though he feels himself weakening to the point where he thinks he may fall unconscious himself. He needs to get Skye to Coulson before that happens.

Each step is a new challenge, especially when that step is with his bad leg. He winces in pain for each of those, but he has to be strong. He has to go a little further. For Skye.

For Skye.

The phrase becomes a chant in his head for every step he takes holding her. For Skye. For Skye. For Skye, for Skye, for Skye.

It feels like it's been an eternity when he finally reaches the outside of the base and feels the sunlight reach his skin.

It's been months since Ward has felt real sunlight.

He laughs as he holds Skye tightly. It's the sun. He's never appreciated it more, and he can only smile in glee as he notices the metaphor. The sun is in the sky. The sun is in the Skye. The sun is Skye.

It's then he realizes that he doesn't need any of it. He doesn't need the sun, he doesn't need freedom, he doesn't even need Skye.

All Ward needs if for Skye to be happy.

If she was, he could live. He could live off of her happiness, even if he wasn't the one causing her to smile. She can live her life, and as long as he was in the fantasy that she was happy, he was happy.

And it scared him.

If he could describe love to someone, it would be this. The ability to let them go, to let them be their best.

Ward looks up, and the plane's hovering above him. It lands right in front of the base, and the hanger is flying open before the plane even has a shot to touch down. Coulson's running out of it as fast as he can.

"Grant Ward, you're under arrest by S.H.I.E.L.D. Put Skye down gently, and we'll proceed in restraining you."

Ward nods. He sees May running out, and he passes Skye into her arms. Coulson approaches him slowly with handcuffs, but there's no use.

Grant Ward collapses before Coulson gets close enough to use them.

It's days later and Skye still hasn't woken up.

Ward's been waiting patiently for the word that she has since he made the deal with Coulson.

Since he essentially saved Skye from what was revealed to be her father-not Hydra agents-Coulson agrees to let him talk to Skye for five minutes once she wakes up.

Sure, before and after he's still in captivity, but at least he gets the chance to speak to her. She doesn't even need to talk back. She doesn't need to react. For all he cares, she doesn't even have to listen-as long as she pretends to be. He just wants to get it off his chest before he'll most likely never see her again.

When Coulson finally informs him it's time, he shoots up from the cot and puts his hands out behind his back for the Director to cuff him without complications. Coulson complies, and he's lead out of his cell and to the infirmary.

Skye wakes up slowly to see a crowd smiling at her. "Hello, Skye," she hears Fitz say.

"Hey, baby girl," she hears from Trip. "We were worried."

She stares at all of them blankly, trying to recall everything that happened. It comes back to her slowly, and she gulps.

One by one, they all begin to leave, until it's only Lance left.

That's when she realizes he's holding her hand, and she's not sure she heard him say anything to her since she woke up. "Lance?" she chokes. She hasn't spoken in a while.

He looks up from their joint hands. "Damnit, Skye," he says, before wrapping his arms around her tightly. "I just lost Hartley; I wasn't bloody well ready to lose you too."

She purses her lips together and tries to keep the tears in. "I'm alright," she tells him. She's not blind-she's known for a while he's kind of liked her. Well, she thought it was more of a "I'm hot, you're hot, let's bang" kind of attraction, but something nonetheless.

She's not sure how to respond.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a dark figure walk into the doorway.

It's Ward.

He gives her a sad smile, and she wants to scream at him, It's not what you think; it's not what it seems like but before she can even open her mouth, he's gone.

A part of her thinks it's better that way.

There may or may not be a sequel. Just comment and let me know if you'd prefer it to stay as this ending, or if you want a happier one. Keep an eye out for more Skyeward fics by me.