The weight was what Skye felt first. Dark, black stone covered her entire body and Skye could feel every ounce of the heavy material. She was starting to wonder how she was still standing upright. The darkness covered her, squeezed her in tight until she felt like she couldn't breathe any longer. She was terrified and nervous. Skye didn't want to leave Trip stuck in that little room with Raina. "I am not going to die like this," she thought to herself. "I have to save Trip."

And just like that, the stone surrounding her crumbled to pieces, flying in every direction. She let herself breathe in as she fought to keep her body standing. Every part of her wanted nothing more than to collapse on the ground beneath her. She felt relived and for a brief moment a smile crossed her face. She had survived. Skye glanced down at her hands, her body. No damage from the stone that trapped her seemed visible until Skye looked up.

Trip's stone covered body sat before her, a solemn look still imprinted upon his face. Tears sprang to Skye's eyes as she waited or him to emerge like she did. But Skye didn't get to wait very long. The walls around her began to shake as the ceiling began to crumble in. Her heart jumped into her throat as Trip's rocky features crumbled in front of her. The man she had grown close to, one of her best friends, a member of her SHIELD family, gone. Just like that.

Skye took one last look at the broken pieces of Trip's body, letting her eyes close tight in an effort to hold back the tears, before running out of the small room.

Skye thought that would be the worst moment of her life, watching her friend die in front of her. She was starting to think that being trapped in a glass box, separated from her friends, was becoming a close second. Sure, they all came by and did their best to cheer her up, but Skye was aching to get out and get back into the field. She felt fine. Everything was fine.

Until Fitz came to tell her that her bloodwork was different. That it wasn't normal; it wasn't human. Skye could feel the fear rising inside her: from her heart the feeling spread through her chest, into her throat until she felt like her whole body was shaking. It wasn't just her body though.

The lamp behind her burst, causing glass to shatter everywhere and sparks to go flying. Fitz remained standing on the other side of Skye's glass box for just a moment before coming in to help. Tears came streaming down Skye's face.

"Something's wrong with me." Her voice was quiet, coming out broken as she held onto Fitz who had hugged her tight.

"Nothing's wrong with you," Fitz's sure voice came ringing through her ears. "You're just different now, that's all."

- - -

Now, Skye thought, the worst must be behind me. Everything is fine.

Lady Sif was back on earth and while Skye wanted to be nerding out over the Asgardian and asking endless questions about Thor, she couldn't get her thoughts together.

Control. Control. Control.

The only word running through her mind. Skye knew that she was different now, but she felt she didn't have to be as long as she kept it under control. She still looked the same on the outside. She just had to pretend she was the same on the inside.

"Skye," Coulson's voice broke through her anxiety focused state. "You and Bobbi go track down that Kree. Be careful. He's dangerous."

They're always dangerous, Skye thought to herself as she took off running with Bobbi.

The two of them had tracked the Kree to a local hospital, finding themselves trapped with him in a supply closet. Skye watched as the blue man before her turned back into a pink flesh color. Her eyes went wide as she froze in fear. Bobbi ran straight toward the Kree, fearless. Skye hovered back toward the door.

Control. Control. Control.

The Kree threw Bobbi across the room and Skye flinched as her body collided with a nearby table. Skye hastily pulled her gun on the Kree, panic rising in her chest. She tried to calm her nerves but it was no use. Skye could feel the gun in her hand shaking almost as fast as her heart was beating. The room around them shook fiercely as the panic in Skye's chest rose. She couldn't stop it.

Skye fell to the ground as one of the closet shelves toppled over on top of her. Her eyes darted back and forth between Bobbi's unconscious body and the Kree man who was now staring at her. The Kree didn't stare for long. Taking a breath, he jumped over the toppled shelf and ran out the door. Skye watched his escape nervously. She was half relieved to see him go, but she knew that Coulson and Sif would not be happy.

Going back to base, Skye took several breaths to calm her nerves. Everyone thought it was just a freak earthquake. No one thought it was her. No one was blaming her. But Skye was blaming herself. How could she have been so stupid? The guilt of hurting Bobbi and not helping her stop the Kree was rising in her chest.

- - -

The team did catch the Kree though. Sif's memory was returned. All was well for a moment. Barely a moment.

"We must find all the remaining diviners and anyone else who transformed in the temple." Vin-Tak, the Kree prisoner, told Coulson.

The words shook Skye to her core. She could feel the shaking extend outside of herself. A glass of water trembled out of the corner of her eye and she hoped no one else would notice.

Coulson, Sif, May, and the Kree continued to chatter back and forth but Skye couldn't fully follow the conversation. Her eyes darted everywhere in a panic. Kree warrior slave? Destroy the transformed? What would all this mean for her? Skye could hear ringing in her ears as she tried hard to control the shaking feeling inside of her.

"Skye?" Coulson's voice broke through the ringing. "What do you remember?"

"Was anyone else with you?" Sif stepped towards her. "What did you see?"

"I... I..." Skye stammered for the words. "Nothing, nothing!" She quickly tried to get them off her back.

"You must understand," said Vin-Tak, "on the surface level nothing may have changed but buried inside, these creatures are weapons."

That was it. Skye couldn't hold it in any longer. She was a weapon. She steadied herself long enough to hold back a sob, but she couldn't stop the shaking any longer.

Skye felt the quakes radiate off of her. She would have been relieved to get rid of the pent up buzzing inside of her if it had not caused the whole bunker to start shaking.

Skye took in a shaky breath, trying hard to avoid the eyes staring at her. She knew if she looked up, there would be no more secrets. That she would have to come clean. That she would have to be put down.

"Skye," Coulson move toward her. "What's doing this?"

"I am." The voice that left Skye was barely a whisper.

"We must take her." Lady Sif states. "She will be safe on Asgard."

"No, she must be put down!" Vin-Tak lunges for Skye, just as Bobbi uses his own device against him, removing his memory entirely.

Despite all these happenings May takes Skye and removes her from the room. May only has one train of thought: Protect Skye.

May hurries Skye down the stairs and into the old cell they used to put Ward in.

"Skye, breathe, okay? You can control it."

The words from May were useless. Skye was in tears, the base was shaking. Skye felt like her whole being was about to explode. The buzzing in her brain wasn't stopping and Skye wasn't sure she even knew how to make it stop. She panicked and reached for the icer attached to May's hip.

One shot and this will all go away.

Skye didn't think twice. She shot it right at her chest and instantly felt a chill surround her. The world went black, but at least it wasn't shaking.

- - -

After losing it with the team and almost bringing the entire base crumbling to the ground, after icing herself in an effort to save her team, and after hours with Dr. Garner trying to gain control of these powers, Skye felt a little R&R might not be so bad. Sure, she didn't really want to be out of the field and separated from her family, but having the time to learn about her powers and control them might be beneficial in the long run. Besides, spending her days in a roomy cabin had to be better than sitting in the vibranium room by herself trying not to scare her teammates.

Skye spent her days wearing the gloves Jemma had made her, playing card games she had found in one of the closets, and video chatting with the team back at base. Every once in a while, Skye would take the gloves off just to see if anything had changed with her powers. Once, she even figured out how to make shapes with the water running from the sink. Coulson had told her not to go outside so she settled for gazing out the window for hours at a time. She was surround by trees. They were too tall for her liking. Too skinny.

These days, her mind always wandered back to the oak tree in Ohio. How its branches twisted towards the sky and the trunk of it just got wider and wider. She thought of all the days she and Lincoln used to spend there. Skye was starting to get lonely in the cabin by herself, but the memories were a constant stream of company.

Her favorite memory wasn't an elaborate one. It was years ago, probably one of the last times she had seen him before she joined the Rising Tide. It was late, probably closer to early in the morning. The stars were all out and she and Lincoln were sprawled out on an old blanket Lincoln had brought.

"Look! There's Orion's belt." Lincoln pointed up at the sky before dragging it through the air. "I wonder where the Little Dipper is..."

"The Little Dipper?" Skye had asked. "Why don't you want to find the Big Dipper? It's the important one."

Lincoln nodded thoughtfully. "True. But it wouldn't be called the Big Dipper without the Little Dipper now would it? Even the little things have purpose, Skye."

She turned her head towards him shocked. Her face softened once she saw the look on his face. He looked so calm, so peaceful. Nothing like the frazzled mess he had been the past few weeks.

"You'll have a big purpose one day, Linc," Sky whispered up at the night sky.

"So will you." Lincoln smiled towards her then.

They both laid there in silence then, just looking up at the stars above them and hoping that whatever purpose they would have in the future would involve the other.

Skye sighed at the memory now. She couldn't even see the stars with all these tall trees in her way. She debated going outside just for a quick peek when Skye gets a call from May.

"May! I'm so glad you called I've been going crazy..."

"You need to get out of there, Skye. They're coming. It's not safe."

"Not safe..." Skye gets cut off with the click of the phone hanging up.

The sound of helicopter blades whirring stopped her in her tracks. They were coming for her. Skye panicked but knew she couldn't stay in the cabin for long. Throwing open the door, she ran out into the woods in hopes of outrunning the agents coming after her.

One agent caught up to her but she fought him off, watching nervously as he fell to the ground. Without thinking, Skye grabbed the icer off the agent's belt and shot him with it. Please stay down, she thought to herself.

Skye was about to run off again when she heard two things: a gun shot and Bobbi's voice piercing through the trees.

But Bobbi was too late. Skye turned around and with all her strength, all the pent up earthquakes and anger inside of her, she shook the forest around her. Trees got knocked back, the agent who tried to shoot her was tossed away, and Bobbi... well, Bobbi got hit, too.

Skye watched in agony as the little forest around her crumpled into chaos.

"Gordon," Skye whispered, "help me."

And just like that the man with no eyes appeared next to her in a flash of purple and blue. He smiled at her gently before taking her arm and whooshing her away. Skye was passed out long before they made their arrival. The world was black again, but not like it was in the temple. This darkness was lighter somehow, more welcoming.

Skye dreamed of her team, her family. She dreamed of the little boy by the oak tree, her sky friend. She dreamed of the boy who had given her a name. She dreamed of the teenager she never got to talk to that day in the park. Lastly, she dreamed of the stars and the way they shined so brightly through the branches that night.

A purpose, Skye thought to herself as her dream continued. The Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. They both have a purpose.

- - -

Skye awoke with a start in a strange room, two pieces of cloth covering the more personal areas of herself. The first thing she noticed were the candles: so many, all twinkling about the room. They reminded Skye of the stars in her dream. Her focus turned to the needles sticking out from various parts of her body.

Where am I? Skye thought to herself.

Gordon appeared by her side, explaining that she had been here two days; that they were healing her.

And then, he walked in.

The tall, blond appeared almost out of nowhere, talking nonsense about popcorn and healing. There was something so familiar about him. Gordon was telling her that he had to leave, but that she was in good hands. Her mind was mush and darting from one thought to another.

The blond's voice finally broke through her confused haze. "I've been here by your side since the moment you got here."

Skye looked at the man confused. "Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought..." His voice trailed for a moment before his blue eyes met hers.

"I'm Lincoln. Your transitioner."

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OH MY HEAVENS THIS CHAPTER IS SO LONG I'M SORRY! I hope you guys liked it though. It was actually really fun to write :)