Chapter Fifty-One

A/N: Hey guys! I'm so sorry this one took me so much longer than usual, I've been swamped lately and I'm sick as a dog, which always makes it hard to be productive. Thanks for your patience and I hope you like the chapter! 😄❤️❤️

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After I helped Fitz rewire the weapons, I left to meet back up with Grant. He was outside the Situation Room, and he came over as soon as I was in sight.

"How'd it go?" he asked.

"Fine. Coulson's taking out the things on Garrett's tail as we speak."

Grant nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked. "You've been acting really weird lately."

"I'm fine Slater. Don't worry."

"Uh huh. Sure. I'm going to let it drop for right now, since we're quite possibly fighting for our lives against the clairvoyant. But once this is over, we're gonna have a long conversation."

Before Grant could say anything, Fitz and Phil came in and headed for Skye. We joined them, catching Skye after her coding explanation.

"It should only take me a minute more to decipher."

"Can I ask the obvious question?" asked Garrett, coming into the room. "What the hell?"

"We don't know," admitted Phil. "We don't even know where our plane is headed."

"Oh I saw your trajectory. You're being tractor-beamed straight to the Hub. Those drones were launched out of there for sure."

Coulson paused for half a second, then said: "Victoria Hand."

"Hand? Can't be," said Fitz.

"I never liked her," I muttered, shaking my head. It all fit.

"Can't be what?" asked Garrett.

"The clairvoyant," answered Skye.

"I though we arrested him."

"I don't believe the man we have is custody is the clairvoyant," said Phil. "I think he's an unwitting decoy meant to end our investigation."

"That's a lot of trouble to go through for a red herring, don't you think?" asked Garrett.

"Because the clairvoyant is a SHIELD agent," Phil finished, hitting Garrett with out bombshell discovery. "Using high-level clearance to stay ahead of us, make it seem like she's got psychic abilities."

"She? You think Victoria Hand's the clairvoyant?" asked Garrett, looking shocked. Phil nodded.

Garrett tried to defend her, and Phil tried to convince him otherwise.

"Her actions prove she's not the clairvoyant, right?" asked Garrett finally. "I mean, if she's been hiding in plain sight all this time, why reveal herself now?"

"Guys," interrupted Skye, turning my attention away from Garrett and to the big screen where Skye was decoding the message. Slowly, the spinning letters formed a message.

OUT OF THE SHADOWS. INTO THE LIGHT.

Skye kept going, revealing a third, shorter code. One by one, the letters spun into place, until we got the full message:

HYDRA.

It felt like the room was spinning. I stumbled back into Grant, then looked up at him in horror.

"Slater, you okay?" he asked, looking worried. Was I okay? I sure as hell didn't feel okay.

Slowly, I shook my head. "No. No, I'm not. We saw this coming. Remember? On the Helicarrier before the Battle of New York! We were going to dig into it, learn code and hacking and make sure something like this didn't happen, but we both forgot. Grant, we let this happen!"

"Samantha, you can't blame yourself. I doubt we would've found anything this big. We'd probably still be trying to learn the difference in ones and zeroes right now! Please don't blame yourself."

I shook my head, trying to clear it. I felt incredibly guilty, but Grant was right. Feeling bad about the past wasn't going to fix anything, and my team needed me. I could wallow in guilt later.

I took a deep breath and tuned back in as Skye spoke up.

"It was sent from a SHIELD source. It's gotta be some sort of activation signal to Hydra members withing SHIELD."

"Hand must be one of them," said Phil grimly.

"Okay, stop, stop," said Fitz, putting his hands up. "What does that mean? In SHIELD?"

"Targeting level-eight agents, seizing power," answered Garrett. "Wonder how deep it goes."

"The signal's everywhere," announced Skye. "Deep."

Garrett suggested jumping plane, but we all quickly agreed that wasn't an option. Simmons and Tripp were both at the Hub, and we had to save them. We were going to fly right into the belly of the beast.

Phil had gone to get May, who was still in containment, and they were going to try calling Fury. While they were in the cockpit, the rest of us had to wait in the plane's lounge. There wasn't much for us to do yet, but I was confident that would change soon enough.

After a minute, I felt the plane land. I glanced at Grant.

"Here we go," I muttered to him. He just nodded, looking worse than I did. "Hey, it'll be okay. We'll get through this together."

I was trying to reassure him, but it didn't look like it helped. After another minute of waiting, the plane lurched to the side.

"They're taking out our guns," announced Garrett.

"May better hurry up," mumbled Skye.

Less than ten seconds later, we heard gunfire ripping apart our plane.

"Get down!" yelled Grant, tackling me to the floor. We stayed as low as possible as bullets shattered the glass around us. I was praying nobody got hit.

After a few seconds, I saw Phil and May come through the door to the cockpit in a crouch.

"We need to move!" Phil yelled.

"Down the ladder to the cargo hold!" I yelled, pointing to the hatch next to Phil and May.

They went through first, and slowly, the rest of us followed. May had been grazed by a bullet in the cockpit, but the rest of us managed to make it downstairs without getting shot.

"Everyone okay?" I asked. I got varying degrees of head nods, which was a relief.

"How'd the call to Fury go?" asked Garrett. Phil and May shared a look before May spoke up.

"Fury's dead."

Everyone started talking and yelling at once. I was shocked. How could he be dead? He was the director!

"It's true," said Phil loudly, making everybody shut up. "We'll have to deal with it, but for now, we need to focus on keeping this team alive and getting Simmons and Tripp. So gear up."

I shook my head, trying to clear it. It honestly didn't seem real. How could he be dead?

I took a deep breath. I'd have a lot to deal with when this was over, but not now. Now, Phil was right. We had more immediate problems to deal with.

I suited up in all my Specialist gear, then helped the rest of the team who still weren't familiar with field gear. Fitz sabotaged the hydraulics on the plane so that no one could just open the door and walk in, but they'd still find a way eventually. We needed another way off the plane, and fast.

Skye was backing up all our files on a flash drive so we could scrub the plane's memory banks and keep everything out of Hydra's hands, and I was helping Fitz and Garrett buy her as much time as possible.

We were going to booby trap every square inch of floor we could find.

"Does this feel at all like Home Alone to you?" I asked as I rigged a swinging trap at the top of the stairs.

"Maybe if Kevin McCallister had explosives," Garrett chimed in from the floor below.

"Hey, we're ready to move," said Grant, poking his head out of the lab.

"Great. I just finished," I said, smiling proudly. The smile quickly faded though, when I realized I needed to use the stairs I'd just bobby trapped to get back to ground level.

"Slater? Everything okay?" asked Grant, calling up. Garrett and Fitz had already moved out, but Grant was waiting for me.

"Yeah, totally... uh, do you think you could catch me if I jumped over the railing?"

"Yes, but why-"

"Great! Catch!" I yelled, not letting him finish his question before I went over the railing. I honestly didn't want to explain how I'd trapped myself, since he'd never let me forget it.

For the record, I advise against flinging yourself over a railing and trusting somebody to catch you. Grant and I are trained professionals. Don't try this at home.

I was weightless for half a second before I landed safely in Grant's arms.

"Thanks for the catch," I said, giving him a big smile.

"Well I wasn't about to let you hit the ground. But a little more warning might be nice next time," he said as he set me down.

"I'll keep that in mind." I headed into the lab, hoping he'd follow and forget his questioning. Unfortunately, he saw the booby trap on the stairs and put the pieces together himself.

"Hold on, did you trap yourself on the second floor?" he asked as we walked through the lab.

"Maybe."

"Slater, how many years have you been doing this again?"

"Oh shut up. At least I didn't turn my entire face blue."

Grant rolled his eyes, but he was still chuckling when we caught up with the others, until Garrett gave him a strange look. Then his poker face was immediately back.

"So do we have a plan to get out of here?" I asked.

"Yes," started Fitz, holding up a small device. "I call it the Mouse Hole. It'll open a hole up in the plane and then we can drop down and out."

"Perfect." I smiled, clapping Fitz on the back. "I knew we could count on our resident genius."

"Oh, uh, well..." Fitz blushed, clearly not sure what else to say. Eventually he just gave up and went to set up the Mouse Hole.

"So what's the plan from here again?" I asked.

"Agents Ward and Skye are going to take out the base's systems, most importantly their control of our plane, while the rest of us rescue Agents Simmons and Tripp," said Phil.

I felt my heart clench to hear I wasn't paired up with Grant. In the middle of all this crap, we needed each other.

"Wait, Coulson, do you think the four of you would be enough to save Simmons and Tripp? Grant and Skye might need backup."

"You want to go with them?"

"I think I should, yeah."

Phil considered for a minute, then nodded. "Alright. Plan stays the same, but you go with Ward and Skye."

I couldn't keep a slight smile off my face. I was just so relieved!

"Thanks," I said, nodding. Phil gave me a small, quick smile.

"Alright, we're ready to go," said Fitz, standing up.

As he removed the newly-cut metal, we heard a loud BANG! from the hanger.

"And not a moment too soon," added Phil.

"Go time," I said, nudging Grant with my shoulder.

"Stay close," he muttered back.

"Will do." With that, we dropped through the Mouse Hole and our of the plane. We were officially in Hydra-held territory. As I landed on the floor underneath the plane, I said a quick prayer, hoping we would all make it out intact.