Twisting the Truth Doesn't Make It Real

Chapter 8

-Present Day-

"AC, I need to talk with you," demanded Skye as she half-threw open the door to the operations center. There wasn't an active operation running at the moment, so she knew her sudden appearance wouldn't actually disrupt anything important. Likely, AC was reviewing whatever mission had just ended. He usually reviewed the information in the operations center because he had full access to everything from there. It didn't matter though; this was more important.

In her search for Coulson, the entirety of the situation at hand had finally finished sinking in. As she'd wondered the halls, anxiety had started settling in, causing her stomach to churn uncomfortably. And she knew from experience that the sensation wouldn't go away until they'd figured out exactly what was going on in that prison and how Ward played into it.

Stepping into the operations room, Skye cut off whatever she was about to say next, nearly biting her tongue (literally) in the process. She'd expected AC to be alone or maybe with May, though more likely she'd expected him to be alone. Usually there was no one up by now. Clearly though, she'd over-estimated everyone's ability to sleep normally.

Not only did AC shoot her an expectant look as she barged through the doors, but so did Bobbi, May, and Hunter. Well, okay, Hunter looked like he might have been asleep the way his head snapped forward like a spring loaded toy. That and he was blinking at her in a half awake fashion that said he had probably been sleeping.

The idea of coming back later crossed Skye's mind for half a second, but she knew it wasn't possible. They were maybe 48 hours away from another kidnapping. Maybe. If they wanted to find out what was going on and get Ward out, they needed to already be inside when that went down. Which meant they needed to move fast.

"Skye?" prompted Coulson, drawing her attention to him rather than the room as a whole. The rest didn't matter anyway- it was AC she needed to speak with. "Did you need something?"

"Yeah," confirmed Skye, waving her thick file a bit. "I think there's something going on with Ward. Something bad."

Immediately, she felt the air in the room shift from curious to resistant. It wasn't a surprise and Skye mentally reminded herself of that. Ward was a criminal and she'd never dispute that. But that didn't mean he deserved to be tortured by Hydra and she definitely didn't want him in Hydra's hands if what she'd found was true. Besides, there was also his disappearance at 14 and subsequent absence from the grid until he popped up at S.H.I.E.L.D.. She'd look into that once they had Ward back in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody though.

"Skye-" started Coulson, but she cut him off with a raised hand.

"There's something going on in that prison, AC," stated Skye firmly, setting her file down hard on the table. "Ward's-"

"Being dealt with as he need to be," stated Phil firmly, holding up his hand to cut Skye off. "I told you not to worry about Ward anymore. He isn't going to escape."

"I'm not worried about him escaping," stated Skye firmly, doing her best to keep her voice steady and frustration at bay. She knew this was going to be a fight, but AC was reasonable. She could convince him. "I think they're doing something bad to him."

"Nothing he doesn't deserve," muttered May, crossing her arms in her standard unhappy look.

Skye had to take a deep breath to keep herself calm. She knew this would be hard, she just needed to show him the evidence. Evidence helped. Flipping open the folder, Skye pulled out the first document she felt he needed to see- the door and camera logs. "Look, someone has been removing him from his cell in the middle of the night on random days, drugging him, and dragging him to some unlisted level of the prison-"