Grant Ward was sitting alone in his cell, his hands placed over his eyes. He had been sitting in this room for several days, and the only thing he could think of was a four-letter word that was the embodiment of pure evil:

Nazi.

This is what Skye had compared him to for his actions with HYDRA. He was, as she had stated, self-obsessed with following orders, and that's what the Nazis did: they had followed Hitler blindly into doing his bidding, claiming the lives of 6 million European Jews and millions more as a result of World War II. They didn't care, they just wanted stability, structure, order, no matter the cost.

And that's exactly what Ward did: he followed Garrett blindly, just because he wanted stability, structure, and order in a life that provided none. He didn't care what he did or who he killed to accomplish that. He had done everything that Garrett had told him to do because he had saved him from a life as a prisoner.

But now, he was gone. Coulson had killed him. And here he was, sitting in a cell, several-hundred feet below ground, a prisoner.

Ward knew that he was beyond redemption. He had murdered countless S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, including Victoria Hand, Eric Koenig, and two agents from his own team: Leopold Fitz and Jemma Simmons.

"Oh God," he sighed, thinking back to the events of that day.

"Ward, just turn around!" Fitz called out to him behind the glass door.

"Think about this, what you're doing!" Simmons begged.

"I know that you care about us, Ward!" Fitz shouted.

Ward stood there for a few moments in complete silence, then, without turning around, he said "You're right. I do."

He turned to face the two of them and said "That's a weakness."

He pulled back the switch that released the cargo-hold from the Bus, and, as the wind from the outside started picking up at the high altitude, Fitz and Simmons were banging their hands on the glass and begging for him to save them, but no noise came out of their mouths. Ward watched with a solemn expression as his teammates fell into the ocean to their deaths.

"No!" Ward shouted, and he punched the steel wall behind him. When he pulled his fist back, he saw that his knuckles were bleeding. Garrett had taught him to disconnect the pain so that he wouldn't feel it, but he was irrelevant at this point. Besides, no amount of resistance to physical pain could compensate for the utter dread that consumed his soul.

Nazi.

For all of his life, all he did was listen to Garrett. He did everything he was told to do, just like a slave. He was never truly loyal to HYDRA, Centipede, or even S.H.I.E.L.D., only him.

And now, he was paying the price.

Did he really owe Garrett? He took him out of juvenile detention, but then he dumped him in the woods for six months by himself. He had taught himself to survive, not him. Why was he so intent on obeying Garrett's words? He could not find the answer, but if there was one thing that he taught him that actually meant something, it was to trust only in himself.

And that's exactly what he didn't do. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he chose to trust Garrett over himself.

He never liked HYDRA, that was certain. But he had a certain soft-spot for S.H.I.E.L.D. They treated him with respect and trust, something that he had betrayed. He agreed with their ideals, but he agreed with Garrett more. But the one thing that made him truly appreciate S.H.I.E.L.D. was that his team was like the one thing that he never properly had: family.

Coulson, May, Fitz, Simmons, and Skye were all like his family. They never betrayed him until after he betrayed them. They all had each others' backs, no matter the situation. They had dealt with assassins, gods, 0-8-4's, and pretty much everything out of the ordinary. Sometimes, he liked it when he was fighting alongside Coulson, but that was not his mission. His mission was to spy on Coulson and find out what brought him back to life so that Garrett could use whatever it was on himself to extend his life.

Now, he was dead. It was absolutely pointless to follow through in the first place. And Ward would've given up if it hadn't been for one thing:

Skye.

From the moment when he and Coulson found her in her van on her computer, he knew that he had strong feelings for her. This escalated when he became her S.O. and she became his trainee and an agent. They grew closer with every mission, and he knew he was in love with her. Ward was about ready to stop his involvement in HYDRA altogether and reveal who the Clairvoyant was when Quinn shot her through the stomach, nearly killing her. He was absolutely furious at Garrett and nearly killed Quinn, but he knew what the mission was: to get Coulson desperate enough to find whatever it was that brought him back to life so that they could save Skye. Then, when Fitz and Simmons were trying to recreate the GH325 using DNA samples from Skye and Coulson, Ward brought the information to Garrett and he was able to recreate it. It drove him completely insane.

If he wasn't insane already, that is.

However, in the back of his mind, Ward was not sure why Coulson had suffered severe effects from the GH325 but Skye didn't. Perhaps it had something to do with her being an 0-8-4...

He didn't know why. It seemed that Raina knew, but he didn't know where she was.

But all of that didn't matter. The only thing that did was Skye. But even if he had a chance for redemption, she would never forgive him. No one would. She had called him a serial killer and a "disgusting, back-stabbing traitor." These were true, yes, but he wished to right his wrongs because he knew better now. He would resolve to do whatever was necessary in order to regain his lost trust and honor. He would become a good man again and win back Skye's heart.

Ward would re-become an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.