The Academy

Chapter 13

Skye woke up the next morning to an authoritative knock on her door. She ran her fingers through her hair as she rolled out of bed and walked to her door. She opened it up and Fury was looking down at her. "It's time for you to try the machine again. I know I said every two months, but because you're only here for nine months total, we're gonna do it every month."

Skye nodded and held up one finger, signaling for him to wait a minute. She walked back into her room and quickly threw on a change of clothes and met him outside. He led her down a few corridors until they reached the room with the lie detector. He fastened her into the chair like last time and cleared his throat. "Half of them you have to lie, got it?" Skye nodded and Fury asked the first question. "Name?"

"Grant Ward," she replied and the readings only spiked a slight amount.

"Age?"

"26," it was the truth.

"Nationality?"

"Obviously I'm 100% Irish," she rolled her eyes. The readings didn't spike at all and Fury was surprised.

"You're stranded on an island and a box washes up on the shore. What's in that box?"

Skye thought for a moment, deciding not to do the same answer as last time. "Probably pancakes."

"What's the difference between an egg and a rock?"

Skye rolled her eyes. "This question again? One is edible and one's a weapon."

"What's the relationship you have with your team?"

"They're my family," she answered without a moment of hesitation, "I would take a bullet for any one of them and all of them. I already have."

Fury nodded, not even needing to look at the readings to know she was telling the truth. "One last question. You're not a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. When Agents Ward and Coulson found you, you were trying to hack S.H.I.E.L.D. Have you given up or are you still trying to hack us and betray us all? And are you dedicated to help protect everyone who needs protecting?"

"I found everything I was looking for. When I tried hacking S.H.I.E.L.D, I was looking for information on my family. Instead I have my team and they're so much better. So yes, I've given up trying to hack S.H.I.E.L.D and I'm completely dedicated to helping protect people from things they aren't ready to know about."

Fury, satisfied with the answer, nodded his head and unhooked her from the machine. "You did well. I only caught you lying once."

"I've been trying to tell you," Skye rolled her eyes as she placed her hands on her hips, "the only teacher I need is Agent Ward. He's a great teacher."

Fury looked at her suspiciously and then nodded. "I agree. But the arrangement still stands, nine months. You've only got seven months to go."

Skye rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Fine."

She opened the door to leave and stepped back into the hallway, shutting the door behind her. She walked back into her room and climbed into her uniform. Once she zipped up her suit, she headed down to the obstacle course. Noticing that she had the gym all to herself, she smiled. She took a deep breath, standing at the starting line and hit a big red button, starting the timer.

She took off in a run and bolted towards the rock wall. She scaled it quickly, twisted over the top and jumped down to the ground landing on her feet. She took off towards the barbed wire and army crawled underneath it, only gaining one small scratch from it. She popped up on the other side and made her way to the tightrope, she walked across the rope, gripping it with her toes and then ran to the brick wall. Her small fingers found a few grooves to hold on to and she scaled the wall, only fumbling once. She jumped off the top of the wall and landed on a trampoline. As soon as her feet hit the net, she flipped off and ran towards the rope at the end of the course. She hopped onto the knot at the bottom and gripped the rope with her toes to climb to the top. She rung the bell and the clock stopped.