Chapter One (The Flames of Hope)

(Seven Months After the Events at San Juan.)

Skye sighed, looking out the window of the small diner she now called her workplace. It was a meager job, but it was better than nothing. She had left Coulson and the team about five months ago, after Coulson had went crazy trying to train Skye into some sort of living weapon to use against Hydra.

Seven months ago, something had happened to her inside the alien temple. A few days after that, seismic events kept happening wherever she was. She later found out that it was her herself causing the activity.

And once Coulson found this out, he became obsessed over trying to make Skye learn how to use these newfound abilities to fight against Hydra. But it became way too much for Skye to handle, so she had left the entire team behind without even saying goodbye.

She found a small town in Kentucky to settle in, where she found a job at a small diner under an alias. Life had been pretty good for the past five months, so far.

She was cleaning off a table when she saw the men, all four in black suits. They kept eying her. Skye frowned, finding this strange. But she kept on with her usual business, trying not to attract attention to her. She kept glancing at them, seeing what they were doing. She almost froze, seeing the outline of guns underneath two of the mens' suit jackets.

Skye approached one of her coworkers, "Hey, Laura?" she asked.

"Yeah, Eliza?" Laura asked. "What's up?"

"Can you cover my one table real quick?" Skye asked. "I've got to take a, um, restroom break real fast. Won't take me long."

Laura nodded, 'Sure, no problem." she said, smiling.

"Thanks!" Skye slipped out of the main diner room and towards the bathrooms. But she didn't go towards the bathroom, but slipped out the back door instead and into the back alley.

The men noticed this and left their booth and quickly followed her route.

"You're not going anywhere." one of them said once they had Skye cornered in the alley. They all pointed guns at her.

"Let me guess." she said. "Hydra?"

"How did you know?" another said with a smile.

"Knew someone would be after me eventually. And you're not SHIELD." Skye said. "Now get the hell away from me."

"Sorry, babe, can't do that. We have orders to take you in, no matter the cost."

Skye raised an eyebrow, "Creepy. And I'm not going with Hydra. Now get away."

"It's useless." one said. "We know you can't do anything without taking down a building with you."

"I don't know where you heard that from." Skye said. "But I've improved since the last Hydra encounter I had months ago."

She thrusted out her hand towards the ground underneath one of them. The ground rumbled beneath him and crumbled. He screamed as he fell through the hole and into nothing.

"See?"

"Enough games, love." another growled, his accent clearly British. "Surrender now, or we will have plenty of backup to come and kill you."

"I'm so scared." Skye teased, making the ground rumble beneath the men. "Really, I am."

The men charged towards her. She dodged out of the way and caused the ground to crumbled underneath another one of them. He disappeared out of sight as he fell screaming into the abyss of the Earth.

The look on the faces of the two remaining men told Skye that they clearly had underestimated her. And this pleased her. Hopefully they would run and she could return to what she was doing.

But the men didn't back down, they started to fire their guns at her. Skye dropped to the ground to dodge them, but one bullet grazed her cheek. She grimaced as she felt the skin rip open and the blood start to bubble up on her skin.

As the men approached her, she held her hands out. The ground rumbled beneath them, harder than Skye had wished, and ripped open. They disappeared under the Earth with two blood-curdling screams.

Skye gulped, pulling herself. She felt sick to her stomach, she had killed those four men. But they were Hydra, so that shouldn't matter, should it? She didn't know. But at least they weren't after her anymore. Well, not until she turned around.

"There she is!"

Skye spun around, seeing five more Hydra goons running towards her. Her stomach dropped, she couldn't possibly do anything to protect herself without leveling a building or two. The seismic activity that would have to be created to stop all of them would be way too much, innocent lives would be taken.

She braced herself, expecting bullets to fly through her, but they never came. Instead, she felt the air heat around her. And out of nowhere, a column of fire shot towards the five men. The fire engulfed the men, incinerating them to nothing.

As the fire disappeared into thin air as fast as it came, Skye saw all that remained of the men were charred ashes on the cracked, concrete ground. Heaps of melted, twisted metal laid near them. Skye figured that it was the mens' guns. Or what was left of the mens' guns.

But what had created the fire? Skye was scared and confused. How could fire possibly come out of nowhere? And the fact that the fire had targeted her five attackers scared her. Did someone use the fire to kill her? But how?
Then she heard the gruff voice that stopped time around her.

"Skye!" it cried. "Are you alright?!"

Skye's stomach froze as she saw Ward of all people appear in the alley. But it wasn't the sight of the man she hadn't seen in seven months that frightened her. It was the fact that Ward's arms were on fire. "Ward?" she croaked out.

Dark red flames specked with black and orange sparks, different from any flames that Skye had ever seen, danced up and down Ward's arms. As the man approached her, the flames snuffed out. But Ward's jacketed arms showed no signs of ever being on fire, they were perfectly fine.

"W-Ward?" she stammered. "What? How? Why the hell are you here?" she asked.

Ward looked behind him nervously, "Skye, there's no time. There's people after us. Please just trust me and come with me. I'll explain everything when I can."

"Why should I go with you?!" Skye exclaimed. "You'll just kidnap me again!"

"Skye, no I won't." Ward said softly. "I promise."

"You were just on freaking fire, Ward!" Skye yelled. "Why would I go with you?!"
"You just made the ground crumble underneath someone." Ward stated. "Please, we're in danger. I'll explain everything when I can. There is people after us. Both Hydra and SHIELD. Neither of us is safe here."

"S-SHIELD?!" Skye exclaimed.

"Just trust me." Ward pleaded. "I'll tell you later."
Skye gulped. And she said the one word that she'd never thought that she would ever say to the man again, "F-Fine."

Author's Note: I don't own AoS, Marvel does. New story! I hope this works. Well, we know that Skye is Quake, and I keep hoping that Ward is somehow Hellfire (or at least some version of him). Everything will be explained next chapter, I promise. I hope you enjoy! Keep reading and please favorite, follow, and/or review! ~AwakeAndAliveSpartan.