Plan 6

Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to their respective owners.

And so it came to pass that Grant Ward had finally fallen in battle and ended up in Hell, in its' vestibule, 'cause honestly? The way that his life has come and gone? Anything else was highly unlikely, alas. Between the crowds of miserable people, the musty, stinking atmosphere, the misshapen and armed natives, the bizarre landscape and etc, Grant felt very much as he did on most of his missions, including the obvious lack of backup, though he did feel refreshed ever since he had stopped living...period.

"The old maps were true, that planet was the right place to go to," Grant nodded to himself and began to look around. Several well-armed natives (cough, let's just call them demons and be done with it), were already showing an interest in him, and were approaching him slowly, just to ensure that he fell in with the rest of the queue that marched to their eternal damnation. Grant didn't doubt that he did belong there, but right now? He had much more important people to think about than just himself.

"Excuse me," he spoke politely to one of the demons in question. "I'm looking for a woman. Her name is Kara Lynn Palamas, and she may, or may not, have a scar on her face. She might be around here. Did you see her?"

The demon blinked and stopped, clearly thinking this over. Apparently, he was not unlike Kaminsky or the other low-level Hydra agents – not big on thinking, that is. Grant's statement clearly caught him flat-footed, and-

"Grant!" Kara Lynn yelled as she ran at him (into him, really) from the gloom. She tackled him and grabbed onto him – hard. "You came for me!"

"Of course I did," Grant nodded, as the two of them carefully sat down onto the rocky floor of the underworld. "I promised you and I'm going to keep this promise, no matter what."

"Oh Grant, you always kept your promises, at least to me," Kara Lynn giggled. "You didn't always choose the best or the smartest way to carry them out, but did it you have." She paused and added. "And I will always pay you back – I will always carry out on my promises to you, I swear. Now let us get out of here – the populace here is either boring or annoying, the atmosphere stinks, and the service is obnoxious. Shall we?" She got onto her feet, followed by Grant.

"Yes," the big agent nodded, "but for honesty's sake I'm thinking that the opposite side has already made you a counteroffer?" he pointed to some figures (located at a respectful distance) that looked more angelic than demonic, and were given a wide berth by the others.

"You mean let you go in exchange for cleansing and Paradise?" Kara Lynn grimaced, as the two of them began to move 'against the current', to the exit (or the entrance, depending the P.O.V.) "If I hadn't met you, if I had been just a puppet of Hydra, or S.H.I.E.L.D., or whoever, I just might've taken it. But I met you – you were the one who saw me as a person, the one who tried to rescue me, who rescued me, who gave me hope and made me whole."

"I failed with Bobbi Morse-"

"Morse is going to get hers, I just know it," Kara grimaced. "Now let's get out of here – together."

"Glad to," Grant nodded amiably back in reply, when one of the demons finally stood in their path.

"Go back," the otherworldly equivalent of a foot soldier spoke in a hollow voice, even as he prodded Kara with a pitchfork. Startled, Kara Lynn yelped – apparently, these things did hurt.

Grant looked at the otherworldly entity with a very displeased look – and then he hit it.

/

One obligatory fight scene later...

Well, actually it was not much of a fight scene – more of Grant's latest opponent going down with one punch. Yes, it was an otherworldly demonic entity, but Grant was having a bad life lately, Kara really was the only good thing going for him, and seeing her get hurt...well, he had knocked-out, or even killed, people with a single blow, especially when he had been working for Hydra. And S.H.I.E.L.D. Been there, done that, rescued people too. Right now, he was rescuing Kara – the two of them were moving towards the entrance/exit from the underworld, and even though there was no pursuit going behind them, the going was still slow, and both Grant and Kara opted to keep quiet, to save their breath for breathing, not talking, for they were busy enough as it was.

And things, to be honest, were not very good. The road appeared to grow steeper and worse by the moment, the exit/entrance seemed to grow blurry and indistinct, and if Grant would have been on his own, he might have stopped and even went back – for John, but there was Kara. Yes, sometimes she literally rode on his back, but only that they both could utilize his superior height: when it was necessary, Kara got off him, climbed onto a ledge and pulled him upwards, helping him, helping them both to move on. Considering that she did not have any problems in guiding him upwards and forwards, Grant could not help but feel that maybe the problem was he – not their path. Maybe he should let Kara Lynn go – maybe she could get there on her own.

No. They were a team. Maybe a wrong one, an incorrect one, but still a team. They were making progress after all, so maybe they will make it? Together? Or perhaps they will fail together, and that suck, but they will still be together. After months of S.H.I.E.L.D. cell, after months of post-Kara loneliness (well, partial loneliness, but still), he is not about to let her go, uh-uh. Maybe it is selfish, but he already has died for her, so that he would bring her back, (rather than John), and that is what exactly he was going to do – they were going to do. Together.

"There is still time to change your mind," Grant hears someone speak. He blinks: at last, they are at the exit, but there is a figure, an angelic figure, blocking the path. Grant can take the new arrival on, he shall, he is just tired, and he needs a moment to recover his strength. The ball is in Kara's court now, once more. He hopes-

"No," Kara says firmly, sounding rightfully angry, sounding as if she is standing on her own two feet. "You were wrong. I was right. Grant came back for me. We made it out. Together. Now here you are, looking like some sort of a Bobbi rip-off and are trying to offer me a deal? Get away from us and let us pass or we will pass through you. Got it?"

"You don't know what you're getting. You know what you are giving up-"

"Maybe we'll be able to win it back once more," Kara shrugged. "Anyways, are you going to let us pass?"

"It's your choice," the angelic figure moved aside, revealing the exit/entrance into 'the real life' from the underworld. "Are you ready?"

Grant and Kara exchanged looks. Oddly, Grant no longer felt tired though neither did he feel hostile towards the angelic figure. "As we'll ever be. Kara?" he turned to his partner.

"Agreed," the female ex-agent nodded, and together they walked into the sunlight.