Chapter One (You've Been Erased)

(Location Unknown)

"Sir, our technicians have finally gotten the machine up and running. All that's left is to test it. There's no telling how well it will work though. The specs for it were stolen from SHIELD."s no telling how well it will work though. The specs for it were stolen from SHIELD."

"Believe it or not, this program is said to work well. The Director himself was in charge of it and went through it himself. The main part of it was bringing the dead back to life and then the erasure of memories. I'm only interested in the latter right now for brainwashing. The dead will come later."

"So, how do we test it? I assume some of the prisoners?"

"Yes, that will work. There's one in particular I want erased though. Ex-Hydra agent that was embedded inside of SHIELD. Went alone for awhile and for some reason tried to take ahold of my organization. That's why he was captured.

Erase his memories of Hydra and leave him for dead. SHIELD will kill him if they find him. This is just a test run and I want to see how well it works. Targeting specific memories."

"I'll get agents to go and retrieve him. I assume you're talking about the crazy bastard, right?"

"Exactly. The one hell-bent on revenge against SHIELD. I like where he's going, but he's too weak to do so. So I don't care about him. Wipe him and throw him to the wolves. In this case, SHIELD."

"Yes, sir. And what do we do if it doesn't work? If it kills him or drives him mad? There's SHIELD reports of this machine doing so."

"But that was SHIELD's machine, not ours. Ours won't do such. But if it does, just keep going through the prisoners. They're expendable. No one will miss them. I just want a way for brainwashing to be a little more effective.

I know we use memory erasure sometimes, like with the Winter Soldier program, but it's unreliable. This machine is said to keep the memories gone. Sometimes they come back, but it's unlikely. Get the prisoner and wipe him.

Don't let him fight you. Don't underestimate him. He's deadly. A danger against Hydra. I'm not going through the trouble of brainwashing him. Destroy SHIELD with a ghost. Blah, blah, blah.

SHIELD will fall sooner or later, but it's not coming at the hands of this bastard. Get him and wipe him."

"Yes, sir."

(Elsewhere, Some Time Later)

Ward groaned as harsh, hot light filtered through his eyelids. He peeled his eyes opened and sat up, finding himself on gravel just outside of an abandoned building. His head hurt like hell and everything felt fuzzy.

He pulled himself to his feet and surveyed his surroundings. "How the hell did I get here?" he asked himself, brushing off his jacket. He couldn't remember how he got there or why he was there.

Blank. It was all blank.

Looking towards the building, Ward saw a small symbol emblazoned on the side of a door. A skull will multiple appendages. Hydra.

His stomach fell and turned to ice. Hydra? Why was he outside of a Hydra base? "Hydra? How? I don't remember…" he began. He reached for a gun, but found that he had nothing on him other than the clothes on his back.

Someone had dumped him here. But why? Ward's head hurt way too much to even think. Nothing made sense for him at the moment.

Shaking his head, Ward began to walk around the base trying to figure out anything about the reason to why he was dumped here with no memory of so. He couldn't even remember what he had been doing beforehand. There was SHIELD and then nothing.

Why did Hydra have him? He knew that he had nothing to do with Hydra. Had they captured him?

Ward groaned, gripping the back of his head as he continued to walk. After awhile, he stopped as voices began to filter through the area towards him. He hid behind a construct against the wall and listened.

"Why the hell would Hydra send us a location of all things?"

"Shut up, Hunter. I know it's weird, but stop complaining. Just listen to Coulson and get going."

"Bobbi's right. Just look for anything. I know that we're short one since May is back at base dealing with a few things, so we've got to be on guard."

"Just tell Hunter to stop talking."

Ward's stomach fell. He didn't know the first two voices, but he knew the last two. Coulson and Skye.

"Oh thank God." he muttered. "I'm not left for dead here. They found me."

Ward left his hiding place and ran towards the source of the voices. He found them in an opening in front of the abandoned base. He ran towards them and yelled.

"Coulson! Skye! I'm here!"

The four agents froze in their tracks and spun towards Ward with their guns pointed at him. Ward stopped near them, noticing anger and resentment on their faces. His eyes drifted to the guns.

"Guys?" he asked.

Coulson pointed at him with the gun, motioning towards the ground, "Get to the ground. Now." he barked harshly.

"I don't… I don't understand…" Ward said, confusion and fear lacing his voice.

"Get on the ground before I shoot you!" Coulson hissed. "Don't think that we're going to let you go again. Now drop any weapons you might have and get on the damn ground."

A dumbfounded look etched itself onto Ward's face. He looked to Skye for an answer, "Skye? What's going on?"

Hate seethed in her eyes, "Don't play dumb with me, asshole." she spat. "You know exactly what's going on."

"N-No, I don't." Ward stammered. He looked to the blonde female agent and the short-haired male agent, the ones he didn't know. "Who are these guys?"

"Like you don't know." the man spat. He was British.

"I don't! Someone tell me what the hell is going on here!" Ward exclaimed, confused out of his mind. "Why the hell are you threatening to shoot me?! I've never done anything to hurt you! What the hell is going on?!"

All Ward remembered next was a high-pitch noise and his entire body going cold. His eyelids grew heavy and he passed out unconscious onto the gravel ground.

Skye wrinkled her nose in disgust, "What was that all about?" she asked.

"Trying to play us." Bobbi scoffed. "He knew what was going on. He's playing games."

"Call for recovery and get this bastard to the Vault." Coulson ordered. "He's not running away again.

Author's Note: I don't own AoS, Marvel does. Something that popped in my head over the week. Ward's been erased of his memories of Hydra and he thinks that he's always been SHIELD. So how will that work out? Not good at all when the entire team is on your ass. I hope you enjoy! Keep reading and PLEASE favorite, follow, and/or review! ~AwakeAndAliveSpartan.