3818/Not in Kansas Anymore

Not in Kansas Anymore
Date of Scene:	07 February 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Skye confronts May and Clint about the information she learned SHIELD had on herself.. and brings them up to date on Rising Tide's actions.
Cast of Characters:	Quake, Hawkeye (Barton), Melinda May

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Quake has posed:
Skye had spent the rest of the evening where the next strike had been lain out for them all only half paying attention. Inside, her guts were roiling with anger and anxiety. Karl was right - they could have faked the index, but they had no need to. All answers pointed to Fury knew. He'd known from the day they'd nabbed her. Tracked her down. Hell, they'd always known where she was. She just wasn't sure how or why.

She was sure that she was too angry to think straight.

Skye had made a show of 'downing' several drinks while she was there. In truth, she spilled them. She dumped them into a plant. Put them in Mile's glass - he was too far gone to notice. And as soon as she coudl get pictures off of the tablet, she did so, tucking it into the garbage bin in the bathroom before taking her leave. She wasn't about to take anything that anyone in Rising Tide gave her home with her. She might be livid with SHIELD, but she wasn't dumb either.

Later that evening she sends a message to Clint and May via Oracle:

>>have information you need. Ready to walk from SHIELD. Want it, I'll bring it, but no guarantees after that.

The message was terse.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
After Darcy's visit Clint had gone back on limited duty at SHIELD doing the odd task that he could drop at a moment's notice if a summons came. It also let him look into the mystery bow with the help of Fitz and Simmons, so far they'd found nothing. Clint was heading home when Skye's message came, he had a look while driving and almost crashed. "What the fuck?" he says as he pulls over to the side of the road to fire a message back.

What to say? He didn't want to get too far into things by message, even if it was secured by Oracle, so he fires back a quick message to both Skye and May.

>> Same place as last time.

Then drove the rest of the way home to pace anxiously and wait.

Melinda May has posed:
May was not driving when she received the message, but as soon as she did, she headed out to where she keeps her Ducati. It takes her a moment of thinking to remember where 'same place' is, but once she does, she's off.

Arriving a good few minutes after Clint, this time instead of letting herself in, she knocks. I know, what a concept, right? But, no food this time. She figured that this was too important to waste time stopping for takeout.

Quake has posed:
Skye is, predicatably, the last to arrive. And by all accounts, she's a mess. Bristling with excess energy, and looking like she's about to rain piss and vinegar down upon everyone and anyone.

Depsite the nearness of Gino's she's not stopped for food either. She doesn't even make a pretence at knocking, letting herself in with her key and closing the door behind her.

The pair get a sullen and angry look from the young woman.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint turns from his pacing when May enters, "Hey," he greets the other agent before adding needlessly. "She hasn't come yet. You get that part about her being ready to walk? What the hell right? Think the job's getting to her?" he's just full of questions it seems.

When Skye enters, he turns towards the door and worry rules his features as he takes in the state of her. "Skye," he says as he crosses the distance between them and tries to pull her into a hug. "What happened?"

Melinda May has posed:
May just shakes her head at Clint's questions. "I don't know." But she is sure that they're going to find out. And, sure enough, when Skye gets here with her own personal angry-cloud, May's almost positive that something Not Good (tm) has happened. She can wait for the couple to have a moment between them, though. They've earned at least that much. So, she takes the moment to go pour glasses of water for everyone.

Quake has posed:
When Clint makes to hug her, she sidesteps and brushes his hands aside.

"Did you know? Were you part of it? Some great recruit Skye joke so she wouldn't find out all the bullshit?"

May is included in the angry spate of words, though once the woman has left the room, Skye shakes her head. "Dammit, Hotshot. The whole time. I've been lied to the whole fucking time. Tell me you weren't part of it." The please in her voice implied. She doesn't want it to be true. Doesn't want him to have been part of the entire lie of her life, especially these last months.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint's face goes from worried to confused when Skye sidesteps and pushes his hands away. When she tells them why, he adds surprised to the list of expressions he's worn in the last few minutes. "What? Whoa! Where is this coming from? What lies?" he asks casting a look to May to see if she had any idea what Skye was talking about.

Melinda May has posed:
May misses some of the words, but Skye's angry tone is unmistakeable so she returns promptly. "Tell us what you've found, Skye." She has an almost sinking feeling that she can guess what Skye's discovered, but it'd still be only a guess. Though, of all things, she'd not expect the kid to take it out on Clint of all people. So, yeah, she's hoping for some kind of explanation here.

Quake has posed:
Of course he wasn't part of it. Of course he wasn't.

The relief from Skye is palpable and the look she gives him is apologetic and hurt at the same time.

*Now* she moves to hug him, burying her face against him. "They fucked my entire life over. The whole time. The whole time they've known about me. The bastards. They fucking.."

She blinks back angry tears and extricates herself from Clint, to take out her laptop and show them both exactly what it is she's found.

The pictures she pulls up are of files. On her. Dating back to her birth. Including several mentions of SHEILD operatives involved in incidents around her. Several deaths. And the bit that perhaps Clint will understand most, the point where SHIELD directives explicitly set it up that she wouldn't ever be adopted out. Had deliberately siphoned her through a series of foster homes until she'd been put in the group home she'd eventually run away from.

"That," she says flatly, and throws herself into a corner of the couch, refusing to look at either of them.

Melinda May has posed:
May leans over Clint's shoulder to see what's on the laptop, and it doesn't take very long at her for her to start muttering curses in Mandarin, switching over to Vietnamese then Japanese the further she reads. Then, without so much as acknowledging the other two, she pulls her phone and dials a number.

"Fury. We need to talk." And she hangs up again. Her voice and expression are in complete lockdown, which Clint might recognize as May being absolutely LIVID.

Quake has posed:
Skye just shrugs now. "Don't even know what to say to that. I finally find a place I think maybe I can believe in, and find out they're why I can't trust anyone. I don't know what to do."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint is stunned and relieved when Skye gives him that hug, he holds her tight when she buries her face against him. "What?" he says still not fully grasping what was said. It all seemed so crazy. He lets go when she pulls away, though he slide his hand into hers briefly to squeeze her hand, then he steps back to let her get the laptop, casting another look to May. When the laptop is brought up he leans forward to have a look, taking the glass of water May had prepared while he does. He reads through the file in silence, the hairs on the back of his neck rising. This was nuts. "Skye, where did you get this?" he asks, hoping that maybe it was just a forgery.

May's call to Fury puts that hope in question.

"Wait. May, Is this real?" he asks her.

Though Skye's words have him moving to stand beside the couch. "We'll figure this out," he promises her before looking over at May. "So what's going on here?"

Melinda May has posed:
May shakes her head at Clint's question. "I don't know for sure. I know I've never seen any of that before, and the only one who can prove that it's real or fake is Fury." And no matter which way this pans out, she's REALLY angry. Whether or not she can justifiably aim that anger at Fury remains to be seen. "One way or another, I'm going to get to the bottom of that information."

Quake has posed:
"It's above level 8 clearance," Skye says finally. "Most of it is redacted. Not sure why those bits aren't. I think they used the stuff we stole to begin unencrypting it. They saved that one just for me."

She exhales and leans forward, burying her head in her hands before sweeping her fingers through her hair in frustration.

I don't even know if Fury knows this is one of the files they stole yet. I don't know if I even care. My whole life is this fucking lie. And SHIELD is behind it. How do you come back from that?"

She shrugs, and gives them both a weak, deflated look. "Show must go on, though, huh? I know what their next move is now. It's not pretty. Part of me thinks SHIELD can just go rot for all I care."

Another of those long exhales that leaves her shaking her head, and flipping the laptop closed so that she doesn't have to look at it anymore. "Just wouldn't like myself if I let them. Fucking hate myself right now."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint looks at May. "So, it might be real then?" he asks before shaking his head. Wow. SHIELD was way more fucked up than he thought if it was.

"I got nothing on how you go on after this," Clint says to Skye as he seeks her hand with his own. "I'd probably have bailed by now, but, whatever happens, I'm here," he says looking at her.

At the mention of the Rising Tide's plan, he nods, "So, what are they doing?" If Skye still wanted to stop it after all of this, it had to be bad.

Melinda May has posed:
"If Fury admits to all of that," May gestures toward the laptop, "Then I agree with you that SHIELD can go rot. That is NOT what I signed up to do." But, there's another, more pressing matter at hand, the reason that Skye is bothering to talk with them at all. Clint's already asked the important question, so she waits for Skye's answer even though she's dreading what it's going to be.

Quake has posed:
Skye doesn't even bother with preamble. She wants it done. At this point she's too wore for clever, and too unhappy to care otherwise. "They're planning a stroke on the world wide web. All communcations portals. All data networks. All data transfer. They're going after it all. Don't ask me how precisely. We all have our bit to play in it. Nobody has the full piece. I know what the Stark hack was for now. To see how well we all could play with one antoher with only bits of the puzzle in our hands."

She gives a wry little laugh. "Oh, AFter this, I'm moving to head of the Rising Tide. Nice, huh?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Jesus, they can do that?" Clint asks when the plan is laid out. He knew that hackers at Skye's level could do some scary shit but taking down the whole net. "Holy shit," he says. "So, what do you know about your part of the attack? Is there some way to trace the others?" he asks the agent in him taking over. He glances back to May to see if she has any questions he forgot.

He turns back to Skye, "They want you to lead them? Definitely don't tell Fury that until we sort out the other thing."

Melinda May has posed:
That's ... apocalyptically bad. "That'll take down air traffic control, power grids, emergency services, everything. Skye, regardless of whether or not SHIELD has truly been messing with your life as if you were some sort of toy, that can NOT be allowed to happen. It could mean fatalities in the thousands. Every day." She starts for the door. "I'll go tell Fury about it now. Do you want me to also ask about your file while I'm at it?"

Quake has posed:
"I know how bad it is," Skye says quietly. "I can't stop it. I can try, but there's too many of us. Too many folks already buying into the myth. Saffron's death clinched it. They believe SHIELD is responsible and they're buying in. They want that choas. They want people to see just how bad it can get. Then they're going to rebuild it."

The ephemeral they.

"I... need to think about my report to Fury. But he should know what's going on."

She doesn't asnwer about her file.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint blinks, he knew it was bad, but not people dying by the thousands bad. "Shit, we need to stop this," he says before nodding to May. "Yeah, tell Fury and ask about the file," he says answering for Skye and himself both. With everything at stake maybe it was just all noise, but he needed to know and suspected that Skye did too. "We'll get these guys, but I need to know everything you do about the op."

Melinda May has posed:
May nods to Clint, but then looks at Skye again to get her final yes or no on asking Fury about that redacted file. "If either of you need anything else, you know how to reach me."

Unless someone stops her, she's out the door and gone.

Quake has posed:
"I need to think about it first," Skye says quietly. "I'll let you know."

Nodding to May, "Thanks. For dealing with this. Wanted to make sure he got the information. asn't sure if I could."

And she needed to know about the other.