4152/Changeling: Beginnings

Changeling: Beginnings
Date of Scene:	26 March 2018
Location:	Triskelion, New York City
Synopsis:	Be careful what you ask for. Skye learns exactly how far Director Fury has gone to protect her, and allows Skye to call in her debts. On her terms. Thus it begins.
Cast of Characters:	Quake, Nick Fury

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Quake has posed:
Armed with full knowledge of her own Index File, Skye waited nearly a full day before marching herself to Director Fury's office. Well, she went home and slept on it. That almost counts as a full day. Almost.

But now she had information. And some specific questions. And demands. Well, requests. She just happens to think she deserves what she's requesting given what she's read of her past and what she's done for SHIELD - and, no, it's not another promotion.

Of course she didn't make an appointment. That wasn't in character for the girl. It wouldn't have just been a tipoff, she likely would have gotten a no, or, worse, an appointment next week - a pointed message that not only was Fury not at her beck and call (not that Skye thought he was), but that she was still just an Agent (she almost said Junior Agent) and he was still the Director of Operations and there was a certain order of precedence. If she didn't ask, they both got to treat the situation accordingly and ignore the rules to suit their needs. It wasn't like Skye followed most of the rules anyway, and given this was going to be a very unorthodox visit, the less things on official record about it, the better.

An utterly calm Skye presents herself at Fury's office making a very calm, but insistent demand that she see the Director now.

Nick Fury has posed:
    Fury was currently located in the Ready Room. He is seated at the chair on the far side of the table near the front of the room. The screen fades, as the sound also fades. Shaking his head, Fury curses in some foreign language Skye was not familiar with. Or was it Extraterrestrial? Hard to tell.

    "Dammit. Come in."Turning the chair to look at Skye as the door opens at his command, Fury says, "What is it this time Agent Johnson? The world ending again? The Security Council seems to have all the answers...perhaps you should talk to them?" Uh oh, he was in a bad mood. A very bad mood, as he curses again. This time in a language Skye UNDERSTANDS perfectly.

Quake has posed:
Skye stands in the doorway long enough to give Fury a 'no fucks given' look of her own. Totally a language he can understand as well. "Oh, the Security Council doesn't want to hear what I have to say to you. Hell, you don't want to hear what I have to say to you."

And as she says that she gives back to Fury the gesture he'd made to her when he'd released her from SHIELD custody after the Tidepool takedown. It's a subtle gesture she hides behind another, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair back from her face. The message: I'm here to talk about that. And we might not want this recorded.

Other than that, though, it all looks like situation normal. A typical Skkye has come to have a *discussion* with Fury and vent her spleen. Well, okay.. she's also come to confess before, but generally the opinion was Agent Skye Johnson spent a lot of time arguing with Director Fury and one of these days he was likely going to fire her. There was a betting pool somewhere on that..

Stepping fully into the ready room now, she closes the door behind her. Reminding herself that she needed to get a few jamming devices of her own. If R&D wouldn't do it, maybe Oracle would help.. hrm.

Nick Fury has posed:
    Fury grumbles, pulls out a cigar from the inner folds of his jacket, cuts off the tip, and lights it with a very cool looking lighter that probably does 15 other things besides lighting his cigars. Taking a deep inhale, Fury exhales, sighs, and shakes his head. "I never want to hear what you have to say Skye. You never bring me good news."

    Putting his boots up on the table, Fury regards the woman for a few seconds as she makes her motions and signals. Pressing something on the lighter, Fury says, "Secure. You can speak what you need to without us being watched." He "underhand" tosses the lighter at Skye, and takes another drag of the cigar. "What's up Agent?".

Quake has posed:
Skye grins, catching the lighter one-handed, mid-air as it lofts towards her.

"Yeah yeah. Harbinger of doom. Nothing but bad news. Yada yada. Don't like me. Whatever."

Now that that's out of the way, Skye allows herself something of a grin. She already knows this will go one of two ways: she'll get the truth, or lies. Both come with valuable side amounts of information. She's fairly certain which one she'll get, but the element of possible surprise still exists.

"I'm keeping this, by the way," she tells him as she both pockets it, and takes a seat. "Figure enough time has passed we can revisit that talk we didn't have about my Index File. And what's up with the Security Council? Are we still putting out fires from all the international laws I supposedly broke?"

Supposedly. She says it like it's really all a matter of interpretation as to whether or not she'd broken laws. The fact that she did so as a legitimate agent of state aside, she'd still broken them.

Nick Fury has posed:
    "Indeed." Fury cracks a smile, and leans back while his feet rest on the table. The smoke from the cigar semi-obstructing this smile of course. "Bad news follows you like the snoke from a cigar." Fury holds up his stogie. "Anyway, that's all smoke in a breeze."

    "That was a present. R&D. Good to have Fitz and Simmons back. You know what they are like. If you press the button more than once though, don't be looking down the pipe if you know what I mean. Fitz has all the specs. It'll jam even Kree sophisticated surveillance equipment."

    Fury snorts, shakes his head, and says, "Those idiots have no idea what is really going on. If they weren't tied to the purse strings, they would be left out to dry. Nuthin' Skye, it's just, they think they run things. S'all."

Quake has posed:
Skye nods, and gives a one-shouldered shrug. "Keeps people from looking at us too hard. They're louder than we are." The purse strings part, though, that always was a pain. Money did bad things to people. She'd seen how it had decimated the intentions of groups. Witness the Rising Tide. They might have been less than legitmate, but their intent had always been good - until the Benefactor started throwing money at Miles. After that, their entire mandate had shifted to become exactly what they purported to be against in so many respects.

"Noted about R&D. I was just thinking I needed to march myself down there and pick up one of these things." One of these things she wasn't supposed to know about. Then again, maybe that was part of the Level 4 handbook: Security Jammers, how to recognize and use them. Skye wasn't sure. She hadn't got the handbook, and she'd figured out they existed long ago.

"Well, if the Council can be ignored, I'd like to talk about my file. What it actually said. And why SHIELD moved me around like they did." She might not be furious with the man anymore, but she couldn't hide some of the lingering resentment and hurt over her denied childhood and lack of family. Even if there was some serendipitous irony to her now calling SHIELD her family. "And when did you know who I was?"

Nick Fury has posed:
    "Yeah, we are louder than anyone. Makes me get all worried inside sometimes." Fury frowns, and drops his feet from the table. Tapping the ashes from the cigar, Fury takes a moment to absorb what Skye was saying. Standing up, he moves to window and looks out over New York, his right hand hung up to the middle of his back while the left hand held the cigar.

    "Your file is unique, Ms. Johnson." Not Agent. That was on purpose. Fury never did ANYTHING not on purpose. He was distancing SHIELD a bit from her file. Interesting. "SHIELD..." As in Fury "....made a few decisions regarding you, considering your...background."

    What did that mean? "I knew who you were since the first day that file came across my desk." The light from the cigar as Fury places it in his mouth and inhales reflects off the window.

Quake has posed:
"Pfffft," Skye remarks without any attempt at respect for the Security Council. "Suits."

As he moves about the room, her attention remains on him. When he uses Ms., not Agent, she gets the message. Not just about the distancing, but the off-record. That there's more here than maybe is even in the file, which only gives her some pause as she thinks on that.

"Wait, I meant when did you know I was the baby in that file. You mean something else, don't you?"

Nick Fury has posed:
    Looking over his shoulder, Fury looks at Skye. The look on his face was...what was that look? It was something Skye had never seen before...emotion? "Look, a lot of things were done, that we can't hide from." A pause. "I knew you were the baby in that file, almost as soon as I read it. Took me a bit, but I got there."

    Fury sighs. "Hiding...not forever anyway." Was that more to himself? "There is something you need to know, some things about your genetic marker, that we need to discuss."

    Looking back over the landscape, Fury takes another puff. "Skye...you are not who you think you are. You will need to speak to Simmons...she can help. I will unlock that from your file, as soon as you are ready. You have a very specific set of genetic markers. Specific...well, you will understand when you see it. I have kept it hidden, at Level 10."

Quake has posed:
Skye blanches.

She'd made it as far as she'd been picked up on the radar by SHIELD and the decision was made to recruit her, not turn her in, and some background check had pulled up that she and this kid were one and the same. She expected that she'd get some answer like: Before we picked you up we suspected, but I knew for certain once we got you here..

Ad it hit her. All those effing tests they'd done when she'd arrived. 'Oh, noting but a routine physical Ms. Johnson. All the Agents get one. Saves us in the end - identifying bodies and all. haha, sorry, industry joke there. No, just making sure you're healthy and things are on record in case we need to do anything medically down the road...'

No, really, to identify the bodies. But that was when. Somewhere between background check and decision to take her in under SHIELD, and those tests, that file had resurfaced, tagged with her name. Because.. and here was what had her blanching.. something about her genetics.

Now, Skye wasn't a scientist, but even she knew what that meant. And since they'd not started her on some preventative or reparative therapy, coupled with that Level 10 (What the Ever Loving Fuck? There was a level 10?!?!?), Skye was hit with a huge dose of unexpected reality.

"I'm not.." She swallowed back the word 'human'. She just couldn't say it.

Nick Fury has posed:
    Fury remains silent for a few moments, letting it all sink in. His eyes were looking out over New York, and yet, reflected in the bullet proof glass. His breathing was steady and rhythmic as Skye goes over it in her mind. Letting here run it through the gauntlet, Fury doesn't speak, at least not until she does. The smoke from his cigar adding to the ambience of the revelation.

    "Yes. You are human Skye. We all are. Never doubt that. You just have...potential." Fury looks back over his left shoulder at her one more time. "You've been through a lot. This is the next chapter. I have not told anyone, not even Fitz, Simmons, the Security Council, Agent Hill, Barton...no one. Do you understand?"

Quake has posed:
It's a slow, almost absent nod he gets from the young woman. All the answers she'd been given and not given, but both she and Fury now both knew.

"Those blood tests," she can't help herself from saying. Confirming what she already knew. She just couldn't help herself.

"So it's up to me, then. When the shit hits the fan and we figure it out." Another nod, this time to herself. He might say she's human, that they're all human, but she'd lived in this world as much as he, and she knew how mutants and others were treated. "Funny. I came in here to ask.." - demand, it's Skye after all - ".. you help me find out who I was. I figured I was owed some parents out of this, even if they were dead. I didn't see this coming."

It was like the Spanish Inquisition. Nobody expected it.

Her eyes close and she exhales heavily. "I.. I need to know." Eyes opening, knowing that after this, the list of who knows is going to grow from just herself and Fury, Skye nods her thanks for the discretion that was taken. That Maria Hill wasn't in the list, even, was significant. "I'd like to tell Clint myself, if you don't mind? But after that.." Another exhale. "Who do you think needs to know. We go from there."

Nick Fury has posed:
    "Yes." Those blood tests. "It is up to you." Fury turns to face Skye, the cigar hagning out of his mouth. Puff, puff. "You are owed a lot Skye. You already have all your answers, even if you haven't quite realised it yet. After everything that has happened, you have full control over your destiny. No secrets."

    "THis is your ball, and your court, Agent Johnson." Interesting. AGENT. "I hope you make the right call. I will support what you decide." Fury turns around, and returns to looking out the window. "If that is all?"

Quake has posed:
It's obvious that Skye is still quite shaken by the information she's received.

"I'd like the afternoon off to think about this. Before I got to R&D."

She could just be talking about the lighter, but both she and Fury know she means before this opens wide. Well, wider. There are some few, only, who will be invited to the table of it. When there are more answers, she'll decide how far it goes.

Her trademark grin is put back in place, if weaker and more watery than usual. "You can tell Hill, but not the Council."

And rising, she makes her way to the door, pausing there, asking in return, "Anything else, sir?"

Sir. If he can use Ms. as a message, she can return the favour. Her thanks in that single utterance.

Nick Fury has posed:
    Looking out at the view, Fury doesn't look at Skye. "Take all the time you need, Agent Johnson. You have earned more than a little time off. Might I suggest you take someone special on R&R, and have a deep, intimate discussion about the future?" It was hard to tell if Fury was joking or serious. He was serious about time off though.

    "I have already authorised a little extra leave time." Fury puffs on the cigar. "We all need a little time away..." Fury hums, almost too low for Skye to hear.

    "No. That is all." Fury waits a moment, and says, "Be careful Skye. Secrets have a way of coming back on those we care about." Fury then gets lost in the moment, remembering...