002

[hacker]

Hi! I'm Skye.

[ Waving at the camera is Skye, hair pulled into a braid over one of her shoulders, long-sleeved shirt pulled down over her hands. ]

I guess some of you already know that. I mean, not just the people I know, but the people who I don't know I know 'cause I was here before. [ She shakes her head. ] Point being ...

I know we're all dealing with the same thing right now. These powers, manifesting out of nowhere. At first, I thought it was great. You idealize that sort of thing when you don't have it, but ... [ She bites down on her lower lip. ] I've seen some pretty messed up things since then. Not just seen, but felt. What it's like to be missing body parts, to smell my own flesh burning, to kill people. And I don't—

It's not a walk in the park for anyone, okay, I get that. I just want to know if anyone's found a way to, like, control it, or stop it.

Comments

video || private

[hacker]

[ Quickly snapped, ] You don't know what feelings are.

[ He couldn't possibly. Not when he made the choices he did. Not when he betrayed all of them, not when he murdered Victoria Hand and Thomas Nash. Whatever warped sentiments he held for her, it couldn't rightfully be called that, she was sure. As far as she was concerned, Ward was a sociopath. ]

video || private

[betrayed]

[His mouth draws into a tight line. Her words cut, just enough to earn a reaction from him.]

Is it easier for you to believe that? To think that just because I did the things I did I'm not capable of emotion? [He might struggle with identity, with figuring out where he belongs and what he's meant to do, but he is able to feel emotion. He just knows how to block some of it out so that he's better at what he needs to do.]

video || private

[hacker]

[ She wonders, privately, if that's what he does to make it easier. Clambers behind some wall. Shuts it all down. Avoids feeling anything. If that's how he rationalizes it, lives with himself. It's no easy feat. Maybe with time, with enough practice, it will be. Maybe she'll be able to wall herself off from this, too. ]

I believe it because it's true. [ She snidely bounces the words back at him. ] There's not a human bone left in your body.

video || private

[betrayed]

[His amusement comes quickly in the quirking of his lips. A silent nod of acceptance comes after that. He probably deserved that, but honestly he knows that she's just fighting against the things she can't understand. She doesn't understand how he could have done all of that, how his loyalty could have been to someone else when he did all he could to keep their team alive.

He doesn't let her words upset him, this time, though. She's trying to rationalize it, to remove anything that he might use against her. To disarm anything he might tell her as important or true, because that's what she wants to believe.]

It's okay, Skye. You don't have to believe me, but it's not going to stop me from answering you when you ask me questions.

video || private

[hacker]

[ Frustration mounts in her expression, masquerading as fury. But it's not reserved or cool or tight in the way that would indicate it's aimed at him. It's watery and wounded and trembling. Her jaw clenches tighter and tighter, coiling until she practically smashes her device as she reaches forward to terminate the feed.

Once it's off, she pulls her hands through her hair, letting out an impotent growl and flopping back on her bunk. It's wrong, that Ward is the only one answering those questions. Wrong that Ward is the one she's asking. Wrong that she feels like she can't talk to Fitzsimmons about what he's told her because they'll know where she got it from, know she's been talking to him again, know that she's been weak.

She thrashes her way to sleep that night, trying not to cry her frustration out. ]