Skye’s Origins

I’m an Inhuman?

For a moment, Skye couldn’t wrap her head around it.

Wait a second…

Alien blood flows through my body… No, I have alien genes?

Then my father and mother must be…

"Your father is American. Your mother is Chinese… an Inhuman, not the one from two thousand years ago."

There was no pity in Old Wang’s eyes, nor any envy. Only a serenity as vast as the starry sky.

His broad chest could accommodate dozens, hundreds of races—even the entire World of Warcraft. Naturally, it could accommodate Inhumans too.

Old Wang placed his left hand over Skye’s left hand, gently stroking and kneading it. So soft and smooth. "You inherited your father’s intelligence and your mother’s beauty. East and West combined, with exceptional looks—you perfectly avoided their flaws… You are the favored child of God and the Jade Emperor, the darling of the Virgin Mary and the Queen Mother of the West."

Mixing two pantheons together would get you beaten to death, Wang… Skye’s mind was a tangled mess.

Right now, she just wanted some peace and quiet.

Ever since Old Wang had begun telling the story, she had vaguely guessed something. But guessing and hearing him say it himself were two different things.

Fortunately, Old Wang had long taught her about aliens, so she was not overly concerned about that part.

Her greatest obsession was her parents.

"Wang…"

Skye hesitated for several minutes before speaking with difficulty. "How much do you know about my parents… Are they… still alive?"

"Your father is an extraordinary doctor, and a scientist with outstanding achievements in pharmaceuticals. Your mother is the leader of the Inhumans, the guide of all Inhumans, and a living encyclopedia of Inhuman history."

Old Wang sighed, clearly sympathizing with this good girl’s tragic circumstances. "Let me tell you a story."

He rubbed Skye’s head and began to narrate.

The story began during World War II.

In Chaves, Portugal, Hydra found the Obelisk in a hidden cave, and Whitehall began researching it.

He and Red Skull believed the Obelisk possessed the power to "explain death itself," because anyone who touched it would turn into black stone and embrace death… All one could say was that ignorance was the original sin.

Whitehall ordered his men to capture large numbers of people and make them pick up the Obelisk, hoping to uncover its secrets that way. Everyone failed, until he found a Chinese woman:

Jia Ying.

After a fierce struggle, Jia Ying touched the Obelisk—but she did not die.

Instead, the Obelisk changed. Amid dazzling streams of light, strange and incomprehensible patterns emerged.

Whitehall intended to study Jia Ying like a lab rat.

But at that moment, Red Skull vanished, and Hydra was defeated.

Agent Carter and the Howling Commandos captured Whitehall and took away everything connected to the experiment:

The Obelisk, and Jia Ying.

For forty-four years, S.H.I.E.L.D. continued researching the Obelisk while closely monitoring and protecting Jia Ying.

At some unknown point during those long years—perhaps before World War II, perhaps afterward—the genes in Jia Ying’s body were activated. She gained the ability to "drain life." As long as she kept absorbing life, she would never die.

She contacted other Inhumans and gradually became their leader.

When Inhuman elders neared death, they would let her drain their lives to sustain her immortality.

One day, Jia Ying met a man named "Cal Zabo." They soon became a couple and had Skye.

Not long afterward, Hydra found Jia Ying once again.

With the permission of former S.H.I.E.L.D. director and Hydra head Alexander Pierce, Whitehall was released. By dissecting Jia Ying and transplanting her organs into himself, he regained his youth.

Jia Ying, already reduced to pieces of flesh, was thrown away like garbage. Later, Carl gathered her remains and stitched them back together.

In a village in Hunan, China, Jia Ying slowly came back to life after absorbing a vast amount of life force. Everyone in that village died afterward. On the surface, it seemed they had died because Jia Ying drained their lives, but in truth, Hydra had massacred them.

S.H.I.E.L.D. discovered Jia Ying’s secret and, for some reason, took Skye away. But during their escape, Skye’s parents came after them.

Skye became an orphan.

For the following decade or so, Carl and Jia Ying kept searching for Skye.

Jia Ying mobilized the Inhumans’ power. Because she had been dismembered and her daughter taken from her, her heart was filled with hatred for Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D.

Carl felt the same.

Even now.

It was clearly a sad and despairing story, yet it sounded very calm coming from Old Wang.

He had kept the account as simple as possible, trying to lessen Skye’s pain.

But Skye was clearly far stronger than he had imagined.

After hearing the story, she fell completely silent.

The story was simple, yet harrowing. It involved too much information, as well as human nature and evil.

What kind of person would dissect another human being alive and perform organ transplants—and actually succeed in 1989, when medical conditions were far from ideal?

And what kind of person would gather countless pieces of a corpse and stitch them together bit by bit, just as "Abercrombie" had done to his wife "Elissa" in Old Wang’s story?

After someone who had endured boundless suffering came back from the dead, how would her personality and emotions change? Would she, like the resurrected "Elissa," have become some disgusting stitched-together monstrosity?

Over those long years, what had her father and mother gone through in their search for her?

Skye didn’t know.

But she knew that the man named "Whitehall" had to die.

She also knew that parents were parents.

People always said that raising a child mattered more than giving birth to one, without considering the pain biological parents endured and the love they had for their children.

Unless they had no other choice, no one would willingly abandon their child. And she had not been abandoned—she had been taken.

Putting herself in their shoes, she could imagine her father and mother’s pain, but it was only imagination.

Their pain was ten, a hundred times worse than anything she could imagine.

If she had lived well over these past years, perhaps she would have long forgotten her biological parents.

But the truth was that although she had been adopted several times, every experience had been unpleasant. Those miserable experiences had made her understand one thing better than anyone else:

A child with a mother is a treasure.

In her mother’s embrace, happiness never ends.

No matter how many mistakes they had made or how many sins they had committed, they were still her parents.

Other than Old Wang, they were her last warmth, her safest haven.

"Wang, do you know where they are?" Skye looked up at him, tears streaming down her face.

"I don’t know, but someone does."

Old Wang smiled gently and wiped away Skye’s tears. "Come on. I’ll take you to embrace the future that belongs to you… When we return, we’ll find Whitehall and bring him to your father and mother. I think that will be the best gift for our meeting."

"Where are we going?"

"Puerto Rico. San Juan."

Thanks to "I Am Darkness" for the 500 reward, "Eating Hot Pot Without Diarrhea" for the 100 reward, and "Ares27" for the 900 reward.