Blood of the Covenant |1| The Dark Waters Series (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

Chapter Twenty-One: Ragtag

Skye had never really had the experiences of a normal childhood. When you never stayed anywhere for too long because a secret organisation you'd never even heard of was moving you from home to home for your protection, you didn't exactly end up with the greatest track record for settling in and making friends. So she'd never experienced what it felt like to sit in someone's bedroom, doing research while watching the TV with friends. Until now.

Admittedly, the friends were FitzSimmons, more family at this point, and the research was trying to locate the Bus their ex-friend Ward had hijacked, and the bedroom was in fact a motel room, but the vibe was similar. Oh, and the TV they were watching wasn't cartoons or a music channel, but a news report on the violent murder of a drug lord in Colombia, committed by another ex-friend of theirs, the supersoldier working under coercion for Hydra, Mike Peterson. But hey, at least the beds were comfy.

"Eyewitnesses claim the assailant smashed through several walls before killing Colombia's most notorious drug lord—Alejandro Castillo, a.k.a. El Dogo. Speculation continues as to whether this superhuman assassination was carried out by a man, a monster, or a machine." The screen filled with a security camera image of Mike Peterson, instantly recognisable.

Fitz sighed heavily, shutting off the TV. "The correct answer," he told the black screen, "is D—all of the above." He turned to the women, both of whom were sitting amidst several files and papers—the resources and notes from their research. "What the hell is Deathlok doing in Bogota?"

"And why would he kill a drug lord with known ties to Hydra?" Simmons asked.

"Well, if they really are in Colombia, then Garrett and our hijacked plane might not be in American airspace," Skye pointed out, typing rapidly on her laptop. "I have to expand our search."

A knock came at the door, and it opened to reveal Coulson. Behind him, they could see Genevieve sat cross-legged on the end of a bed with May standing next to her, both of them looking at a large pad of paper on an easel. "Guys, you want to come in here for a minute?"

Skye and FitzSimmons followed him through into the other room, taking seats on the bed. At a closer look, the pad had one large circle on it, surrounded by several smaller circles. It looked a little like a flower, if regular flower petals had writing on them. The central circle was empty, but the others were labelled: Ward & Garrett; Clairvoyant; Hydra; Quinn; Deathlok; The Bus; GH-325; Skye's Hard Drive; and the Centipede Serum.

"So this is basically everything we've been dealing with in the last year," Genevieve explained, pointing to the outer circles. "And this—" She pointed to the larger, central circle. "—connects them all."

Coulson wrote the word 'Cybertek' in the central circle, then started to connect the outer circles. "Cybertek built Deathlok, shipped items to Quinn, who was working for the Clairvoyant, who turned out to be Garrett, who planted Ward on our Bus, because he wanted to know why I didn't stay dead." He winced, looking over the jagged lines. "Should've drawn another chart for this part."

"No, I get it," Fitz assured him. "Garrett's been developing the Centipede serum all this time."

"Yes," Coulson nodded.

"And he wants GH-325 as its final ingredient, a way to stabilise and regenerate his Centipede soldiers," Simmons continued.

"And it's why Ward came back for the hard drive," May added. "It had all of your research about Coulson and Genevieve. It's all on there."

"But that's not the only thing on there," Genevieve finished. "Skye left them a little surprise. What'd you call it, a horse?"

"A Trojan horse," Skye corrected. "It's been slowly mapping every system they've uploaded it to."