Disclaimer: No. Not mine. Skyeward Shipper here, remember?
Note: Okay, so, as I suggested in A Different Choice, this fic will cover (more or less) the events of season 2a in the Alternate Universe of ADC. So, to recap: Ward turned on Garrett in favor of Skye, whom he is now in a relationship with. Skye knows about Ward and Garrett and Hydra, but hasn't told anyone else, out of fear they'll lock him up rather than give him the second chance she thinks he deserves. FitzSimmons were not dropped into the ocean, and Eric Koenig was not killed. Fitz did get hit with a number of bullets in the side and arm, forcing him to require surgery and undergo some physical therapy to be able to use his arm properly again. The team also managed to acquire a cloak-capable quinjet when rescuing Skye from Garrett, which is, of course, a rather big deal. It would be better to read A Different Choice before reading this, but the pertinent details of that fic are outlined above, so you don't have to.
Note 2: A Different Choice was a story that focused on Skyeward with a very tight lens – everything was, more or less, devoted to advancing the Skye and Ward storyline in one way or the other. Out of the Shadows and Into the Light will have plenty of Skyeward and Skyeward will be a main focus, but it will not be the main focus. Because of that, we will also see two additional viewpoint enter the roster in addition to Skye and Ward. I will not say now who those two will be – I'll just let you find out when it happens.
Note 3: Out of the Shadows and Into the Light starts a few months after the end of A Different Choice. Ward has made some progress by this point, though he's still got some serious issues with right and wrong and he's still very, very devoted to Skye – she's still basically the center of his universe in virtually every way. But he's not in exactly the same place he was at the end of ADC.
Thanks to Colormeblue/Reily Holden for their beta-reading services. You're a great help. ^^
Out of the Shadows and Into the Light
By Alkeni
Chapter 1: The New Hires
Ward's Bedroom, The Playground
July 24th, 2014
Grant Ward no longer had to convince himself he wasn't dreaming when he woke up with Skye in his arms. It had taken him a while, but he had eventually managed it. Well, Skye had managed it. She'd made it clear she wasn't going anywhere. That despite his past, she was with him, she was there for him, as his girlfriend and his friend, and as the person who was going to help him become a better man.
Become the man she deserves. Or at least, more of that man. Ward knew full well that he could never do anything to truly deserve Skye. She was unattainable, and he was only thankful that she chose to be with him regardless.
Another thing that had helped is that he'd woken up with at least one arm wrapped around Skye's midsection almost every morning since they'd moved to the Playground. It was usually in her bedroom but occasionally his bedroom. Of course, this room was barely his as it was – he slept in it maybe one night in five.
Not that Ward had any complaints. Opening his eyes, he looked down at Skye, the bedsheets clinging to her body as it was pressed up against his, her eyes closed and her breathing soft and even. God, he loved her so much it almost hurt. Just seeing her like this... happy, peaceful, content and trusting him enough to be here, like this...
Of course, on a purely physical level he very much enjoyed Skye's naked body being pressed up against his equally unclothed one, but that was a distinctly secondary enjoyment, as far as he was concerned. If Skye hadn't wanted sex, he wouldn't push the issue at all – so far, she'd initiated sex every time, he would never want her to feel pressured.
Then again, she's perfectly capable of not being pressured, whatever I do. Skye was never one who had a hard time expressing her feelings and opinions.
Ward just looked at her, sleeping, wanting to reach down and run his fingers through her long hair, but he resisted the urge. He was an early riser – Skye? Not so much. She'd gotten more used to it, thanks to her training and the needs of missions, but she didn't like it, and he always tried to avoid waking her up this early – just past five-thirty, the time he was always awake.
Thank you so much for that, John. He'd developed that habit to survive John's surprise visits in the early morning with minimal pain. If only I'd let that be a hint to me about just how little John cared.
Well, no... Ward refused to accept that John hadn't, in his own way, cared. Whatever John's reasons, John had helped him. Saved him. But... as Skye had told him again and again, and explained to him in great detail, John had also done more than just help him. He'd changed him, and...
And not entirely for the better...
Far from it, really.
If it hadn't been for Skye, he'd never have realized it.
One more thing to thank her for. He had so much to thank her for – for giving him a chance, for believing in him... for being the first person he'd met in a long, long time to really care about him as a person, to want to get to know him.
Ward let his head fall back onto the pillow, keeping his arm around Skye. He lay there, losing all track of time, just having her near him. Early riser or not, he wasn't going to leave any sooner than he had to. Not with Skye here. Not today anyway. Most days he got up, worked out, took a shower and was back in bed before Skye woke up, but today... he wanted to stay with her.
According to the clock, it was nearly seven when Skye finally started to stir, turning a little in the bed, her eyes opening. Ward leaned in and pressed a light kiss to her lips. "Morning." He murmured.
"Morning." She groaned back. She blinked back sleep and looked over at him, "You know, it's a little bit weird the way you sometimes just stay there after you wake up while I'm still asleep."
"How do you know I've been that awake long?" Ward asked.
"Grant, it's-" She rolled over and looked at the digital clock on the bedside, "6:58, and when was the last time you didn't wake up at 5:30?"
Grant managed a small laugh. "Point taken." Skye moved in and pressed her lips to his lightly, winding one arm around his waist. After a moment, she pulled back.
"Do we have anywhere else to be this morning?" Skye asked, "At least, right this second?"
"Nothing I can think of. Coulson's coming back from another recruiting trip this afternoon, but apart from that..." Ward shrugged. "Nothing pressing." By this point he should have expected what came next, but Skye always managed to surprise him when she pushed him onto his back and straddled his waist, the sheets falling off her body.
"Good." Skye smirked and leaned down over him, pressing her lips to his, moving her hands down his chest.
Lounge Area, The Playground
July 24th, 2014
"The governments of the world continue to do nothing about an illegal detention center operated by a terrorist organization! This so-called 'Fridge's' continued existence is a spit in the eye of every country that has moved against S.H.I.E.L.D. in the aftermath of the agency's collapse! I can't understand why we're allowing this facility to exist." Skye watched the pundit continue to rant and rave about S.H.I.E.L.D. It was still a hot topic on international news networks – hardly surprising – and an ongoing political football in the United States and most other countries. Parties and officials in power were desperately trying to prove that they were on top of the S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra problem, and opposition parties were throwing blame on the people in charge for 'letting' this happen.
Leaving aside that when they were in charge, they were just as supportive of letting S.H.I.E.L.D. do its thing. Skye had never had much respect for politicians, either as a group or individually, and the way they'd raced to dismantle and claim the pieces of S.H.I.E.L.D. that they could, while labeling it a terrorist organization right alongside Hydra wasn't doing much to endear them to her.
"Not that I'm complaining at all," Simmons started, "But I have to admit that I don't understand why no one has tried to shut down the Fridge."
"Well, there's the fact that it's kind of hard to get into it." Skye pointed out. "Agent Hand has had the place on total lockdown since she took over. And I'm not an expert, but those fusion generators she's got will run for a long time without any problem."
"Years still." Fitz interjected, looking up from his tablet. "One of my classmates at the Academy helped design them. They're top of the line, very far ahead anyone else might have."
"If any government actually wanted to devote its resources to taking down the Fridge, they could do it. Drop enough bunker busters and it would work, or throw enough manpower at the problem and they could do it." Grant disagreed. Skye turned in her chair a little to see him walking into the lounge, his shirt soaked with sweat from his workout in the gym.
"Then why haven't they, if it's that easy?" Simmons asked. "Like I said, I'm not complaining, but I don't understand. I would think Director Coulson would have ordered her to bring her people here before someone could come to try to shut it down – it's not as if the base doesn't have the room, and we're desperately short on manpower."
"Right now, the Fridge is protected because everyone sees it as Someone Else's Problem." Grant explained, walking over and muting the television. Skye could hear the capital letters in the last three words, and it only took her a second to realize what he meant.
"The Fridge is smack dab in the middle of international waters." Skye reached a hand up to push a stray hair behind her ear. "So it's no one's responsibility. No one wants to 'throw enough manpower' at it to take it down, right?"
"That would be my guess, yeah." Grant confirmed. "That and no one wants the responsibility of letting the people in the Fridge go. Apart from guys like Quinn, everyone there is either very dangerous and unstable, or stable and even more dangerous. And who else has the resources to hold the gifted people who got taken there?"
"I think this is the first time I'm happy about the Somebody Else's Problem effect." Skye commented. "Outside of like, a SEP field in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or something."
"Or a perception filter, like on Doctor Who." Simmons added brightly. Then she frowned, "I don't know. I just... I can't help but worry that it isn't a sustainable option."
"Maybe not." Coulson's voice came from the other entrance to the lounge. "But we'll have to worry about that when we get to it. Or at least, not right now. We have enough problems without having everyone inside the Fridge being loose."
Skye turned to see Coulson walking into the lounge. May was right behind him, and right behind her were three people Skye had never seen before. But she was going to guess that the Director's latest recruiting trip had worked out well this time.
"Agent Hartley." Grant nodded to one of them, a dark-haired woman that vaguely reminded Skye of Xena.
"Ward." She nodded back.
"This is Agent Hartley and her team, Agent Idaho and Lance Hunter." Coulson gestured to each of them in turn. "You've already met May, and you know Ward, Hartley." Skye watched him gestured to FitzSimmons, and then here. "And these are Agents Fitz and Simmons, our science experts, and Agent Skye, primarily Communications." Which was true. Grant had continued her training, intensifying it as they wanted, but given her skillset, she was still primarily working coms. But her skill at hacking meant she had to be in the field from time to time to, if they needed to access a computer on the inside.
"A pleasure to meet you all, I'm sure." The one called Hunter said dryly in a British accent. "Rah-rah for S.H.I.E.L.D. and all that." Even to Skye's mind, the sarcasm in that sentence was pretty off the charts. She hadn't missed the fact that AC – sorry, DC – hadn't referred to this guy as an Agent.
Looking over at Fitz and Simmons, Skye chuckled. "Someone else from the Mother Country for you to hang out with, at least?"
Grant looked over at May. "Is this the Lance Hunter who was married to Morse? The ex-SAS agent?"
"What other Lance Hunter would be working with Hartley?" May asked back dryly.
"You know my she-devil of an ex-wife?" Hunter let out a dark chuckle. "My sympathies, mate."
"I met her a few times. Operations is a pretty small world." Her boyfriend said to the Brit, then: "How'd you make it through the Fall?" Grant asked Hartley.
"My team," she gestured towards Hunter and Idaho, "and I were undercover in a weapons ring when the fall came. We had no clue who to trust, so we mostly stayed off the radar for a while, 'till Coulson here made contact. Kind of a shock to find out that he was still alive." She looked over at Coulson. "You still have to fill me in on that."
Oh trust me, that's a whole bunch of stuff you don't want to know. It was a complicated mess at best, and Skye doubted Hartley would be filled in.
"That's classified, I'm afraid." Coulson said, proving her right. Skye didn't miss the eyeroll from Hunter. She couldn't blame him, much. Despite secrets being what had brought down S.H.I.E.L.D. before, Coulson was still keeping all kinds of things secret, playing his cards really close to his chest.
She didn't distrust AC. She trusted him, and... if he was keeping secrets, it had to be for a good reason. But it still didn't sit right with her, on a very basic level. She couldn't help it. She hadn't joined the Rising Tide just to find out about her past, her parents. She'd believed in its ideas. She still believed, mostly.
She trusted Coulson, even if she didn't trust S.H.I.E.L.D., even now, especially now. But she could understand why someone else would react like that to 'it's classified'.
"Well, you seven can get to know each other. May, a word in my office?" He gestured to the stairs leading up and Skye watched the two of them walk up into his office..
Coulson's Office, The Playground
August 5th, 2014
Being called up to Coulson's office was something Ward was used to. What he wasn't used to was seeing Simmons there already, looking somewhere between terrified and determined.
"May said you needed to talk to me?"
"I did. Have a seat." Coulson gestured to the other chair next to Simmons, and Ward sat. "As I've just been explaining to Simmons, we need a set of eyes and ears in Hydra. Well, no, we need a set of eyes and ears in Hydra's science division. They took a lot of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s tech and researchers when the agency fell, and we need to be on top of what it is that they're focusing those resources on."
Ward could put the pieces together. "You want to send Simmons undercover into Hydra? Sir, that's- that's a terrible idea."
"If it was something other than needing to stay on top of their R&D, I'd want to send you in, Ward. You're the best we have on infiltration." Yes, but sending me into Hydra. Ward couldn't do that. He couldn't go into Hydra. He'd been Hydra. He couldn't... couldn't be it again. Not even pretend.
He didn't think John would have told anyone outside of his network that Ward had turned on him. It would have meant admitting defeat, failure, and seeming weak, and John hated to seem weak. But... there was a risk of being recognized. Of being asked about John's death...
Good at his job or not, there was a lot of risk of being caught, but Coulson didn't know that.
Still... what the hell was Coulson thinking? Simmons couldn't lie worth a damn, and she had no experience with undercover work.
"Sir, you can't sent Simmons in alone-"
"She won't be alone. There's another agent already in Hydra, but not R&D. They'll know Simmons is going in, but the less people who know about them, the better." Ward could understand that. Compartmentalizing the infiltration. He felt a little better, knowing Coulson wasn't sending Simmons in alone, but still. "Speaking of that, as far as anyone on this base apart from you, me, Simmons and May will be concerned, Simmons will be leaving to visit her family, taking some time away from the agency after everything that's happened."
Once again, Ward could understand that. Even if he could imagine all the ways it could go wrong on this end – especially when Fitz started getting agitated about the lack of contact, about Simmons being gone. "Why am I being read into this?"
"Because I need you to spend the next week helping Simmons get ready. I need you to teach her how to lie."
Simmons gripped the arms of her chair tightly. "Director Coulson, as much as I'm willing to do this if this is what needs to be done – I'm not sure Agent Ward can just... teach me how to lie in just a week."
Not hardly. "There were whole classes on it at the OpsAcademy." Ward confirmed, something Coulson would know full well. He'd already had a head start, thanks to his family and especially thanks to John, but every specialist had to learn how to lie, and Ward had excelled at those classes like so many others.
"I'm aware. But we don't exactly have an endless supply of options. We're barely keeping our heads above water – and the only thing that's letting us do that much is the fact that Hydra seems just as interested in regrouping as we are." Coulson let out a sigh. "We're operating blind, and we need to know the moment Hydra starts going on the offensive again."
"Sir, I will go." Simmons said. "I just-"
"You'll go if Agent Ward decides you're capable of getting in and staying alive." Coulson looked over at Ward, giving him a look. Ward could figure what he meant. A week really wasn't enough and Coulson knew it, but a crash-course... it wasn't impossible to get her somewhere. Unfortunately, that somewhere was still not very good.
But Coulson was right – they needed this intel.
"I'm not interested in sending you out there to die. If Ward thinks you can get in, then I'll send you in."
"How exactly do you plan to get her in? You can't just have her walk up to a Hydra recruiting office. Is she going as herself? Or someone else?" If Ward only had a week, these were answers he needed.
"That's classified, Ward. The less you know, the better."
"If I only have a week, then I need to know what cover story she'll be using to get in, sir. I won't have time to teach everything there is to know about going undercover."
Coulson said nothing for a moment, then nodded. "I'll have it for you tomorrow. In the mean time, get started." He looked to Simmons, and then Ward. "And I mean it. No one else knows about this. Any of it."
Lab, The Playground
August 5th, 2014
Ward followed Simmons into the lab, looking out for Fitz. They really couldn't do this here, since Fitz would be in the lab most of the time. Not finding the Scottish engineer, Ward looked over at the biochemist, who was already looking at something through a microscope.
"Where's Fitz?"
Simmons looked up from the microscope long enough to grab another slide from a rack and slide it into place. "He's in the mainframe room, helping Skye upgrade the systems. She's handling the software side, he's handling the hardware. He'll be back in a half hour or so. I just need to wrap something up here, and then we can get started with..."
"A crash-course on being undercover?" Ward suggested.
"In an evil organization bent on world domination, yes." Simmons added. She let out a nervous giggle, "Oh god, there's no way I'm going to be able to do this. Hydra's not going to put me in prison if they find out – they're going to kill me-"
"Actually," Ward interrupted, "if they find out that you're a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, they might put you in prison for a while. Try and figure out what you know, if you know the names of any other spies in their ranks." Of course, after a while at their hands, she might rather be dead. Ward didn't know what particular tactics they might use on her, but John had made sure Ward was well versed in... coercive interrogation. Ward could remember the fights he'd had with John over it... he'd never really come to accept it the way he had killing people. Not to the same degree. It was messy, usually unnecessary and... much of it reminded him far too much of what Christian and his mother put him through.
It was something he'd never really come to accept, unlike so many of John's other 'lessons'. Pain was a motivator, but torture – very, very rarely was it even useful, for most purposes.
"Agent Ward, I know you're not especially good at the reassuring people thing, so I'll just tell you, that wasn't an especially reassuring thing for you to say just now." Simmons replied, speaking quickly.
"I wasn't trying to be reassuring." Ward replied. "I was making sure you know exactly what you could be going into. You're going to be lying to everyone around you, all the time. The best way to make sure you don't slip is to focus on what could happen if you do." He watched Simmons scribble something down in a notebook then look back to the microscope. "Are you going to be done soon?"
Simmons wrote something else down, then pulled the slide away and put it back onto the tray. "Done now." She looked over at Ward and took a breath. "Okay, so... how exactly are we going to start this?"
"Not here, for one. The lab is too public." Ward gestured for her to follow him.
Vault D, The Playground
August 5th, 2014
This room wasn't originally designed as a prison cell, but it had been refurbished to be used as one. At the moment though, they didn't need it as such, since they didn't have a prisoners. But its isolated nature made it the perfect place to start Simmons' undercover lessons.
"Why are you joining Hydra?" Ward asked Simmons, raising his voice a little, speaking quickly, his tone harsh. "Why do you want to work for them?
Simmons took a step back. "I'm not 'joining' Hydra – I don't want to work for an evil-" Ward mimed shooting a gun and cut her off.
"You give an answer to that question in Hydra and you're either dead or in a cell inside of ten minutes." Ward told her in a more level tone. "Hydra's going to have a lot of questions for you, and they're going to want to know what it is that makes you want to be Hydra. Is it the money? Do Hydra's ideals appeal to you? Do you just like the idea of hurting people? What are you going to tell them? When you go undercover, the first rule is to lie as little as possible, even when someone with my training goes undercover. You need to find a reason that almost works, something that will be as true as possible.
"I am – was, I should say - relatively well paid for my services to S.H.I.E.L.D., but the private sector would always have allowed me higher remuneration. I received multiple offers a month from pharmaceutical and medical companies, think tanks, private laboratories... I imagine that this would be the case still. But money isn't what I'm after." Simmons replied quickly. "And Hydra's ideals – I still have no idea how anyone can be in favor of Hydra's plans for death and destruction across the globe."
Simmons not taking better offers would be a matter of record, if they did any digging, depending on what Coulson's plan is. Ward already had an idea of what she could say that would actually be pretty close to the truth, from what he knew of the Biochemist and the way her mind worked. And as for their pay – well, they weren't not being paid, exactly, but getting paychecks wasn't really happening anymore either. Ward could care less about that. If he needed money, he had stashes all over the country, and several in other countries.
"First of all, Hydra's ideas aren't 'death and destruction'," Ward corrected her. "You're not going to work for Evil Incorporated, where people keep track the number of babies they've killed this week or the puppies they've kicked." Ward took a breath. "Are there people in Hydra who were recruited because they liked killing people just a little too much? Because they were 'evil'? Yes. Like Kaminsky – he just liked being a brute. But Hydra is a set of ideals, not just a group dedicated to world domination. If it was just that, it would never have been able to penetrate as far as it did into S.H.I.E.L.D. How do you think even a man like Undersecretary Pierce ended up joining?"
"I- I didn't think about that." Simmons admitted. "Hydra is... Hydra is just the enemy."
"Yes. They are." Ward confirmed. "But you need to know just who you're co-workers are going to be. You need to know what you're walking into. Hydra is a lot more complicated – I spent weeks studying the Russian Consulate in Warsaw before I went in for sixteen months there. We don't have the time or the intel for that kind of prep work right now, but you need to know just what it is that you're getting into."
Simmons nodded after a moment. "I – never really thought about that, but... then again, I've never really thought about Hydra as more than the enemy, or thought about going undercover into them before today."
"That's fine. This is my job, and for the next week, it's my job to get you ready for this mission." Ward said.
"Do you really think you can? In just a week?" Simmons seemed doubtful, and he couldn't blame her.
"It depends on how well you apply yourself, in part." Ward replied. "But I think you can be ready enough. I'll have a better idea of what it will take. Today, let's just get a few things down." Ward took a breath. Simmons needed to understand what Hydra believed – Ward had always thought the true believers were idiots, but for them, that belief was the core of why they were Hydra.
"Hydra believes that the world needs order. That when people are left free, chaos reigns. They look out the window and see all the war, poverty, crime and disease and wonder 'does it really have to be that way?' Lots of people wonder that, but for Hydra, their belief is that freedom, or at least, the amount people want to have, is the problem. That the best solution for war, terrorism, crime, starvation – everything wrong with the world – is control. Take over the world, enact and enforce strict laws, and everything will be solved."
"That's..." Simmons frowned, her brow furrowing. "I can almost understand that."
"There's a reason people who joined S.H.I.E.L.D., an agency that's about protection, went Hydra. Sure, there were people like Kaminsky, but what about Sitwell. I didn't know him that well." Well, actually, that was a lie, he'd known Sitwell fairly well, comparatively, but officially, Agent Ward didn't. "But he always believed in S.H.I.E.L.D. In containing threats to keep people safe. And... well, I'm going to guess he still does, even in Federal Prison." Jasper Sitwell, along with a lot of the Hydra Loyalists who'd been at the Triskellion and hadn't gotten away, had been captured and shoved into prison. Unlike most, his trial had been highly publicized, and parts of it had even been aired by the news networks.
"This is something you're not going to like hearing – but the biggest differences between Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. are not about the fundamental goals – S.H.I.E.L.D. always was, and still is, as long as Coulson is in charge, about protection, about trying to control chaos and war and making most people's lives as peaceful and as safe as possible. Hydra wants that too. But Hydra will kill anyone who gets in the way. There's not much Hydra won't do – Project Insight was going to kill... what, millions of people, if Captain America and Romanoff and everyone else hadn't stopped it?"
Ward watched Simmons frown more. He'd made his point, he was pretty sure. Ward took a breath. "You're going into a group where a lot of people genuinely believe that what they're doing is the right thing, that they're making the world a better place. You went to work every day thinking that. Still do, right?" Ward couldn't care less about the world being a better place as a whole. Before, it had been all about Garrett, now it was about Skye, and to a lesser extent, the team. As long as Skye was safe, that's what mattered.
Skye liked Simmons. Hell, Ward liked her. Hard not to. So he was going to help make sure she got through this mission alive.
"Yes." Simmons finally said after a moment. "Although that isn't really the reason I joined S.H.I.E.L.D., initially."
"Why did you join, then?" From everything Ward knew about her, he could guess the general idea of the answer.
"I was a 17-year-old girl with two PhDs and a million questions. S.H.I.E.L.D. had the resources to help me answer them. The Academy offered me a chance at a new, truly challenging educational environment, and then staying with S.H.I.E.L.D. offered me the chance to explore question after question, answering all of them as best I can. I got to work with some of the best and brightest in my fields."
"S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't have the resources now, does it? Hydra has us outnumbered and while I don't know how much money Coulson has access to, I'll bet Hydra has more." Ward pointed out.
"That's quite likely, given the state of the lab, but I fail to see how that's-" Simmons cut herself off, her mouth open in a brief 'o' of understanding as something occurred to her. "That's my reason. You asked why I'd join Hydra, what reason I'd give them." She took a breath. "If I tossed all morality out of the window, Hydra would be the more appealing option in a lot of ways. The opportunities for research would be greater, and as you say, they would have more resources."
Ward nodded. "Then let's work on that. You need to convince Hydra that that's what's important to you – the opportunity to do the science you want to do. And that Hydra can offer it to you."
Simmons laughed a little, despite the seriousness of their discussion. "One doesn't 'do' science, Agent Ward. Science is not a verb."
Ward pointed a finger, smiling a little despite himself, "You don't get to use your Britishness against me, Simmons. That's the first rule of this, teaching you to lie thing we'll be doing for the next week." Simmons cracked a smile in response.
"Alright." Simmons paused. "You know a great deal about the way Hydra thinks, what they want. How they operate."
"Occupational hazard." Ward replied blandly, since he could hardly give her the truth. "I've been studying every scrap we can find on Hydra and the way they operate." Unsurprisingly, Simmons bought his answer. "Know your enemy, and you can defeat them."