4146/Trust Has To Go Both Ways

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Trust Has To Go Both Ways
Date of Scene: 25 March 2018
Location: Unknown
Synopsis: Skye has earned a place in Oracle's world; it's a risk, but one they are both willing to take.
Cast of Characters: Oracle, Quake




Oracle has posed:
The data file that was sent to Oracle to decrypt wasn't scrubbed entirely clean -- purposefully. And Barbara is well aware that it was a choice. She doesn't trust easily, but she also knows that Skye can and will keep secrets that need keeping. Even from her own boss -- she proved that when she asked ORACLE and not Fury to make sure that her friend got out of the Rising Tide safely. Which Babs made sure of.

She's taking a chance. It's a big one, because if she's wrong it's going to put her on all the wrong people's radar. And worse, her identity to could lead to other people's identities. But ... certain other people are taking risks as well, and she believes this one well worth taking. So she arrives at the coffee shop in Gotham near the university, and she takes a seat near the back. When Skye walks into the place, Barbara texts her with "Far left, at the back. Redhead." She's not wearing a costume this time.... and she's not a complete unknown if you watch any of the society pages.

Quake has posed:
The meet site was pretty generic. Coffee shops abounded everywhere. Nothing new there. Skye had been holding off confronting Director Fury with her thoughts and suspicions until Oracle had had a chance to get back to her with the details of what was actually in Skye's encrypted Index File. When the meet invitation came, Skye was both glad and nervous.

What if Fury was just truly a dick? What if Skye had truly thrown in with assholes? What if her decision to remain at SHIELD and trust that there were reasons for what had been done to her was nothign but her being a fool?

There were enough 'what ifs' about the whole matter that she'd not slept well the night before, and had shown up early. Early enough that the buzz in her pocket, and the text that caused it were blinked at.

'Far left, at the back.'

Skye hasn't expected to not be the first one here. Of course she gets her coffee first, and a danish to munch on as well. Not that Skye was hungry, but the facade should always be kept up. Nothing like looking like two old friends meeting for a chat and not some clandestine little meeting.

Now, Skye usually wasn't a society pages person, but since the Rising Tide thing, she'd been a lot more aware and savvy of all things in the public eye, and when she finally orients towards the directions given to her to find her table, she's truly perplexed at seeing Barbara Gordon there. Enough so that she stops for a second and reassesses before boldly heading to the table and sitting down.

"Either I've rudely invited myself to your table, or what you found is pretty bad. And uh, hi?" A slightly awed note to the tone of her voice, things clearly being realigned in her mind about certain things and coming up duly impressed.

Oracle has posed:
Barbara sips from the large cup of coffee in front of her, a chocolate danish nibbled on but still sitting in front of her. She watches the other woman with a pair of wary blue eyes and as Skye sits down, she smiles very faintly. "Oh, it's... I suppose one should say it's in the eye of the beholder," she comments on the information she's found. The redhead slides the thumb drive across the table.

"You asked me why you didn't know I even existed before... and I told you it was because I wasn't sure you'd have my back. I'm trusting you to have it now." Barbara Gordon, daughter of Gotham Police Commissioner Jim Gordon and more recently in the society pages, the steady date of the eldest Wayne ward. "My father has spent years working with a guy with ears and a cape." She grins just a little bit. "He doesn't know that I work with the same guys... and some others. I'd appreciate it if you kept //that// from your bosses. It's... important."

Quake has posed:
Skye's plate is put down, and she reaches for the thumbdrive in the same motion, even before she's pulled the strap from her laptop bag over her shoulders and pulled the laptop out.

"Heh. You'd be surprised the number of things only my boss knows. And the ones he still doesn't. So far as he's concerned we've been working with a nueter-gendered genius. I mean, they're my people and all, but he hired me to think outside that bloody box the automatons live in and know when to open my mouth and when not to."

So to speak. Skye really didn't have profanity filters, or a great sense of when not to lambast someone who pissed her off. But as far as secrets went, or making on the fly decisions that could definitely get her fired - or worse - Skye was a great judge of character.

"Guess everyone has secrets, huh? Not everyone took finding out I was DarkSky so well."

Her laptop is set up as she speaks, and once it is, she slips the thumbdrive in to be read.

Oracle has posed:
"Let's just say that if certain people find out who Oracle is? The Bat problem it will cause is going to pale next to the Kryptonian scowl," Barbara murmurs. She actually looks a little bit abashed at that. "Or the Amazonian one." She shrugs. "You run with your Norse guys, I'll run with the Greek ones. We'll just cover all of their asses. Deal?" There's a wicked twinkle as she watches Skye boot up. But she gets a little more serious.

"You asked me to decrypt this outside of SHIELD's view. The dates indicate that it's highly probable that you're the child in question. I can keep digging if that's what you want. But I have to tell you... sometimes it's honestly better not to."

Quake has posed:
Skye smirks, waiting for the decryption to load - which isn't long - though likely for reasons Barbara would understand, Skye doesn't immediately rush to read what is there. "Hey, I didn't even mention the O word at this table."

The smirk is a short-lived thing, replaced by a shrug and a wry twist of Skye's lips. "I've already thought pretty much all the worst things that might be in there. Frankly, I need the answers. I'm putting my life on the line for these people. Making decisions about people like you and ..." She stops herself. "Actually, those are the least reasons I need to know. Don't you get it? I don't know who I am. Or why SHIELD took such an interest in me that they made sure I never had a family. I don't know if they knew who I was before or after they snagged me. I can ask Fury that myself. Just.. why? Why did they make this great gaping hole in my life? It's eating away at me. I don't know who I am."

Oracle has posed:
Barbara understands far more than Skye might realize. She nods slowly and then observes quietly, "It appears to have everything to do with your safety from Hydra. It must have made for a crap life, moving around like that, though." Her lips firm into a thin line for a moment. "When you read that, you might want to think pretty hard about it. If what they were concerned about is correct, you really could be opening a can of worms that are just better left sealed. But it's your life and your call. I can't say what I'd do in your shoes."

Setting her cup down, she observes softly, "For what it's worth? Despite the tendency of suspicion that my colleague tends to keep.... I do what I do because someone has to watch the watchers. You're putting your life on the line for an organization that has apparently done its level best to keep you safe. I don't think your faith is misplaced. It doesn't really look like they can tell you much."

Quake has posed:
Skye sighs and rubs the bridge of her nose, eyes closed momentarily.

That whole Tidepool thing? If it was Hydra, odds that they aren't looking into me more fully? And if what I suspect is true, they may have been involved in what the Rising Tide was up to. Which means it's only a matter of how long until they unencrypt everything in that file and know who I am too."

She gives Barbara a helpless look.

"I'm fucked either way, but safer if I know what's in there. And then when I talk to Fury, if it's what you say, then we can work together to keep me safer." She actually sounds relieved to hear that her gut instinct had paid off in the end. "And tell me much? Like who I am? Maybe not? But it's a start."

Slowly, she begins reading her file.

Oracle has posed:
Barbara simply nods, and she leaves Skye to read the file silently. The redhead watches the comings and goings of the students as she nibbles on her pastry. There is little she can really add to the infomation that's already there in black and white.

Quake has posed:
It's.. a lot to take in. But the gist of it all comes back to Barbara's assessment of the thing: SHIELD had been protecting her. It did leave some question as to whether or not SHIELD had some off the record files on her, or if it had been deemed enough to merely try and protect her as a child. It certainly raised the question of if they hadn't looked into her further since, why not.

The thumbdrive is removed from the laptop, and the file is scrubbed from her machine, the number of overwrites excessive even for Skye.

"I guess I fucked them up a bit when I ran. I mean, here I am and all, but it could have gone badly when I fell off the radar."

She exhales heavily and nods. "Thanks for that. It gives me some things to think about."

Oracle has posed:
Barbara shrugs slightly, drinking the last of her coffee. "Well.... you might have screwed things up a bit when you ran, //but// it also took you off the grid for a while. SO... the ultimate goal was still being served," she points out. "I do think you'll need to decide if you can trust them or not. Choosing to trust doesn't mean you have to be blind about it. They may or may not have any more information than this. Hard to say." She smiles a little. "It's kind of one of those things that makes people like me take great care. But now... you know where to find me, and you know I have the resources to help you if you need it. Keep me gender-neutral to fury and his cohorts." She winks. "I don't like being vulnerable to the alphabet soup agencies... it's why I've wiped everything they ever had, not only on me but on Batman, Superman, and a few other people."

Oracle has posed:
At least anything that's remotely to be considered "evidence." The rest? Eh. Not worth wiping.

Quake has posed:
Skye smirks, her mouth settling over a crooked line of amusement. "I used to think I was careful before. People like you scare me."

Well, in some ways people like herself scared her. She'd joined them. Voluntarily even. Skye had gone from someone who lived out of a van and moved about the city frequently to avoid being tracked by pings alone, outing secrets, to someone who took other people's secrets and defended them. Who took other people's secrets and stopped them from doing harm.

Like Clint had told her Coulson had told him, Skye had become SHIELD. Not just an Agent, but the line of defense between those who couldn't protect themselves and those who would do them harm. A literal SHIELD.

It was all a rather bit humbling.

The overwrites of information done, Skye closes the lid to her laptop, and moves it aside to within reach if needed again, but out of the way for conversation for now. The thumb drive sits tucked neatly into her bra.

Reaching for her coffee, Skye observes, "Yeah. Totally know how to find out. Oh, had to burn that phone you gave me. We were on an op and things went sideways. Needed a quick mobile hotspot I could throw a scrambler through. I know you said it was good for three calls, but I figured you'd understand I had it destroyed after that one."

She sips her still hot coffee - not that Barbara might know what a rarity that is.

"So.. is that your subtle way of you scrubbed our systems, too? Well, I guess dusted is probably the better word, huh, if you've left the shit that doesn't really matter. And yeah, see, that's the thing, folks get overzealous about that all. In your case total removal is a red flag. Supes has a file, and I am poking about and notice it's suddenly not there? Brain goes 'danger Will Robinson!', but I'm looking at listen files and it's there and I'm not picking it apart for something specific I know should be there?"

Skye shrugs.

"I might be bugged by a niggle of 'wasn't there a bit in there about..' but I'm more likely to think maybe I imagined it, or maybe a file got corrupted or something than to think straight off someone has been in and wiped things."

Of course, then Skye smirks ever so much more fully. "Unless you're me. I'm a tad paranoid. If I think I remember something in a place and it's not there, that's like a great big sign saying KEEP OUT and I never really did take those at face value."

In short, Skye's the type who would dig deeper, but she also knows she's something of the exception in that regard.

"I think I already decided they're worth trusting," Skye murmurs taking another sip before setting her coffee mug down, hands still wrapped about the mug. "I mean, not sure where I'd go otherwise, even if my friend" - Genus - "would take me, I'm not that person anymore. I like who I am at SHIELD. I like knowing I make a difference. A real difference."

"I had a long talk with god moment after I found myself in those files. The whole mission I had to sit with why was I doing all this, and were they worth me putting my life on the line for knowing they had secrets about me that they'd kept hidden from even me. And when all was said and done I kept coming back to the same thing: I couldn't believe it wasn't for a good reason. I couldn't think what the reason might be, but I had to believe there was one."

Skye shrugs, and gives a wry expression.

"Decided SHIELD was still worth dying for. That what I believed there, and who I was there, what I'd become, was worth dying for."

Then the young woman laughs. "Oh god that sounds like I not only drank the kool aid but I'm wearing a funny dress and standing on street corners on Saturday handing out pamphlets."

Oracle has posed:
Barbara finds herself amused when Skye admits that "people like you" scare her. "There really aren't very many people like me, Skye," she confesses with a small smile. She doesn't sound arrogant about it, simply quietly confident of her own abilities and assured of her own skill. Comfortable in her skin, as it were.

"Dusted is a good word," the woman who is Oracle agrees on a laugh. "I have no need to remove the things that any really good hacker could find. It's the things that could //prove// someone's identity that's important. People like Fury? They can //know// anything they want -- if they can't //prove// it, they've got no leverage." She toys with her cup. "I guess in the end, that's the thing that makes me dangerous. But make no mistake there are protocols to remove me from the equation if I were to suddenly go Evil too. The Bat is nothing if not thorough to a fault," she tells Skye softly. And interestingly enough, she doesn't seem to view that threat to herself as a threat at all -- more as a promise that if she should ever get out of control, there are checks and balances.

"You don't sound like a converted cult member," Barbara assures her. "You sound like a hero." She shrugs just a little. "It sneaks up on you. You start doing it for whatever reasons -- you want the adventure, you want a piece of information, you want to help someone specific. And once you have your foot in the door, the whole picture starts to become visible. It's not always a pretty one. Compromise is an unfortunate requirement sometimes because //sometimes// you have to keep a secret or betray a confidence so that the people who can't fight for themselves have a chance to keep on." There's a faint smile that flashes a dimple. "How the bloody hell do you think //I// got into this? I thought I was so smart and when Batman came looking for whoever was trying to hack him, I realized that what he did was a //necessary// thing. So I said I'd help, and here I am. People don't like his methods. But it works for Gotham, for all the people who need what he does what my father and the GCPD can't do."

Quake has posed:
"Foot in the door she says," Skye snorts. "More like 'hey you can join us or you can reconsider our offer from your nice little four by six cell for the next 10 to 20'. Not sure if Fury pegged me as someone who'd take the offer from the start or if he figured he'd have to let me cool my heels in a cell before I'd change my mind."

She shakes her head remembering her 'recruitment', amused now that it was far enough in her past. She'd come a far way as an agent since then, and looking back along her history with SHIELD it still struck her how much trust Fury had put in her from the start. Certainly from points where if he'd been wrong about her the damage she could have done would have been near irreparable. Still could be irreparable.

Only she and Fury knew precisely how much access she had, or that she'd had that access since even before she'd even been a full agent.

If Skye were going to hang herself, she'd been given the yards of rope to hang herself with... Only....

Only she wasn't that person.

She might have been a Rising Tide hacker, but she wasn't that person.

"A hero, huh?" Skye's nose crinkles as she says it. "I don't know. I mean, aren't heroes people who go out and save the world in spectacular ways? I'm just someone who does what needs doing because I can do it when other people can't. No fancy getup or - okay, I have a codename, but not sure that counts."

Riiiight, Skye. Look who you're talking to.

"I like my job. I mean, I never felt this way with the Rising Tide. Sure, there was all this adrenaline and stuff, but it wasn't the same. They'd cut a bitch to save their own skin. Everything was all surface with them. Saying they were doing good when all they were doing was.. well, I don't know. Some of it was good. Or I thought it was."

She ponders that. "Maybe I just wanted to believe it was good. I didn't have anything else. I needed to believe what I was doing made a difference." Her mug is lifted back to her lips again, but not yet sipped from. "And yeah, I know... 'so what's the difference between then and now, Skye? How do you know you're not just needing to believe you're doing good?'.."

Skye grins over the edge of her mug, murmuring as she goes for that sip now, "I know because I wouldn't have died for any of them, but I would for the people I work with now."

Oracle has posed:
Barbara lets Skye talk through it on her own because maybe the other woman hasn't ever had reason to really think it all through in the way she's doing right this moment. But it makes the redhead smile as she sips from her coffee cup. "Which is the only reason you now know what perhaps four other people in the world know for certain, Skye." Well, perhaps a few more, but they're all Bats. Oracle's identity is an extremely well-guarded secret. Her Bat family, Superman, and Power Girl are the only people who know for certain. "And the reason that I wanted to talk in person instead of just sending you the thumb drive. I've got something beginning, and I think you'd be a good fit. But your gig with SHIELD may have you too busy. And it //would// require you to keep your side gig with me quiet. It's a field operations position. Would you be interested or shall we call ourselves even?"

Quake has posed:
Skye's soft grin over the edge of her coffee mug carries all the way to her eyes, the gleam in them giving away that she gets the honour of it all. Hackers didn't give away their identities lightly, let alone ones with histories like Oracle. Skye is pleased she's been included in the circle.

The rest of the offer has her pausing, mug sipped from, finally, then set down; all covering for Skye needing to think through what she's hearing.

A side gig.. apart from SHIELD. More secrets to hold..

She almost asks what kind of gig - not just as a stall, but also so she can appraise if a yes would be a conflict of interest, or something she shouldn't keep from SHIELD.

And then she laughs at herself, knowing whatever it is, considering the source and what they share, it's safe to say yes. It might be a dangerous gig, but it was safe to say yes.

"Interested?" Skye's answer comes with a grin, and snark. "Do bears shit in the woods?"

Oracle has posed:
"I honestly have no idea," Barbara retorts drily. "I'm a city girl." She winks.

Her laugh is genuine though. "I'm working with a team of ladies -- not a huge team at this moment -- to tackle some of the things that larger organizations put on the lower-priority list. Things like drugs rolling into the Gotham area are coming out of Madripoor and I want to send a team in to //persuade//," said with a wrinkle of the nose, "the guy heading up the operation that he doesn't want to ship here anymore." She studies Skye with a thoughtful expression. "Power Girl and the former Lady Blackhawk have shown some interest in this as well. Although I don't know," she adds in a rueful tone. "With PG on board, she's kind of a one-woman wrecking crew." She laughs. "But if you tell her to stand there and look pretty so you and Lady Blackhawk can hit some things, I bet she will. She finds it amusing that they stare so much."

Quake has posed:
Barbara's answer gets a laugh from Skye. "Me either. Haven't even been to the zoo. But I heard it in a movie once. Thought it was pretty damned funny."

The offer is listened to, Skye picking at her danish while she's told about the organization. "Sounds like a little bit of a fucktard if you ask me. All of them, actually." Not that she really believes the drug problem is going to go away easily or just like that. Not when there are just too many other things contributing to it.

It's a road she could have gone down if she hadn't picked up hacking so easily. Drugs or sex trade. Most runaways like herself went one of those routes, if not both. Skye was an exception in more ways than one.

"Power Girl and Lady Blackhawk, huh? Heh. So, what, do I have to pick some superhero name to join?" She laughs, though. "And hey, I'm willing to let them do the fighting. I mean, I think pulling my ICER might get a few complaints filed with SHIELD."

Skye is used to being overlooked in a fight. She's used it to her advantage more than once in the past. People just don't expect the IT girl to do the things she does. Mind you, she's started to blow that reputation out of the water as well. At the very least, now when people ask her to help get their passwords, it's usually friends, and they're almost always joking.

Oracle has posed:
"Nah, no superhero names needed. I don't even think Zinda uses Lady B anymore." Barbara tilts her head. "I think you'd fit well with the kind of ass-kicking they want to do. If you meet them and you or they decide you don't suit, well" She grins. "I only recommend you don't let your identity get around because Fury might scowl at you. And then shut you down or something. But overall, honestly, Zinda has just really missed the Blackhawks and is looking for a group to run with. I'm just tech support for that."

Quake has posed:
Skye listens with a grin, still picking at her pastry.

"I don't know. I'm almost kind of digging the idea of a superhero name now. I'll think about it."

The rest she nods at. "Oh, I'm not telling Fury. Let him figure it out on his own. I already give him enough access to things he wouldn't have without me without handing him that." She's almost smug thinking about it all. Making him work for it, for a change, if only because she'd be involved intimately with the group.

Skye lived for small, smug victories like that.

"And yeah, sure. I'll meet with them. I mean, they have you, so what I can do is probably mostly covered in that respect, but I have a few other skills." Including some mad outside the box thinking and her Agent training wasn't too shabby either.

"Anything I should know about them, or be looking for while I wait for contact?"

Oracle has posed:
"Nothing that I can think of" Barbara grins slightly. "I think you'll definitely like Zinda. She's kinda like how I imagine Captain America to be, actually. Talks about things like "butter mah biscuits" when she's impressed... Her bad words make me laugh." There's that dimple again. "Just keep my real name out of all of it. And I'll let them know you're interested in helping out."

Quake has posed:
"Oh god," Skye chokes back a laugh. "You're kidding me, right? Butter her biscuits? Have you met me? I swear like a fucking sailor."

The laugh relaxes into a smile. "No worries. Oracle found me after the truth about the Rising Tide fiasco was revealed." It was close enough to the truth. "All is good. And I look forward to meeting her."