Last Last Chance

Chapter One

"Director, I believe we've come up with a solution," Jemma Simmons started saying.

"In theory, at least," piped in Leo Fitz, her friend, sort-of boyfriend, and partner-in-crime.

"And you're going to hate it," she added.

"In practice. And in theory, for that matter."

Director Phil Coulson held his hands up. The two scientists were exhausting when they got like this, and he was exhausted enough already by current events. "Just...out with it, please. I can't possibly hate your solution more than I hate the idea of Hive taking over the world."

"I would reserve judgment on that, sir," Simmons said, taking one of the seats in front of Coulson's desk. Fitz took the other, then started spreading out sheets from the folder he'd been carrying all over the director's desk. He really didn't need to bother. For the most part, the papers he was pulling out were all charts and numbers of the sort of super-science that really only FitzSimmons could comprehend. Coulson scrambled to make sure his other paperwork, which he'd only just gotten into some semblance of order, didn't fall victim to the young man's enthusiasm.

Though, now that he thought about it, "enthusiastic" wasn't the word he'd use to describe FitzSimmons at that moment. "Determined dread" seemed more like it. Like people sentenced to death, but determined to go out with their dignity intact.

"Everything we know about Hive has told us that he is indestructible because he possesses the bodies of the dead, and even if we were to destroy one body, he would just jump, or perhaps slither, to the nearest available human corpse," Simmons said.

"Yes, and the planet Earth has no shortage of corpses, so he's more or less immortal," Coulson finished.

"But we had this idea..." she began, hesitated, then looked to Fitz for help delivering the blow.

He picked up where she left off immediately. "We think we should try to trap him in a living body."

"Interesting," the director admitted, "but why would Hive jump into a living body? We have no evidence to suggest that's even possible."

The scientists glanced at each other again, silently communicating. They'd discussed it, and they had agreed the best approach would be to feed Coulson a little information at a time until he was able to jump to the conclusion himself, so he wouldn't be able to blame either of them for thinking of it. They needed to nudge it along further.

"He wouldn't, but you see," Simmons slid a picture forward of what looked like Grant Ward in excellent health, but both the date stamped on the bottom and the fashion choices told him it was Hive. "Hive seems to have healed all the damage you..." She coughed and then tried again. "Hive has healed all the damage done to Ward's body that caused his death."

"And Daisy tells us he has access to not only all of Ward's knowledge, but also his thoughts and feelings. This leads us to believe that whatever thing it is..." Fitz stopped, looking a bit helpless. He was a man of science, most comfortable thinking and speaking of things he could experience with any or all of his five senses. He was much less experienced with the ephemeral, but he plowed on, regardless. "Call it a soul or whatever you want. Whatever it is or was that made Ward...Ward. We believe it's still in there. The only thing keeping him dead, so far as we're able to tell, is the lack of a heartbeat."

Coulson ground his teeth together. He understood what FitzSimmons was saying now, and they had been right. He hated every possible bit of what they were proposing. "Just to make sure I have this right, you're suggesting we somehow get close enough to Hive to restart Grant Ward's heart, thereby trapping Hive in Ward's very much alive body."

"In theory," Fitz said again.

"So we would be replacing the global threat that Hive represents with a more manageable threat like Ward."

"Except we wouldn't be able to kill him again, at least not any time soon. We have no idea what the effects would be of trapping Hive in Ward. Our best guess is that Hive would slowly, well, I suppose the best way to put it would be to say it would slowly break down into its component parts and die, but even if we're right about that, we don't know how long that would take, and killing Ward, or even allowing him to die, before that happened would most likely just release Hive all over again," Simmons explained.

"So my choices are Hive, the Inhuman monster who can't be killed, or-"

"Or Grant Ward, the psychotic assassin who is inhuman in a whole different way," said a voice from the doorway.

All three of them looked toward the doorway, surprised to see Daisy there, leaning against the door frame with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Who we also wouldn't be able to kill," Fitz helpfully added. Daisy glared at him.

"Looks like I'm not the only one who hates this plan," Coulson said.

Daisy didn't react to the lightness of his tone. "I don't know how long you've been talking. I don't know how you even think any plan to bring him back could possibly work, but I know that if you think it's a good idea, you're almost as crazy as him. And I want no part of it."

She turned and disappeared down the hallway, shaking hopefully only with rage and not with the need to cause an earthquake that might level the Playground. Fitz rose to go after her, but Simmons stilled him with a hand on his arm, and he returned reluctantly to his seat.

"We need to finish this conversation first, Fitz. There's no point arguing with her if the director decides it can't or shouldn't be done. If it can, we need more of a plan to present to her so she'll be forced to listen to reason."

"Don't get comfortable. You'll probably need to speak to her sooner than you think," Coulson said. "I assume you'll need someone to get close to Hive to restart his heart? You can't do it from a distance. I'm guessing you'll design some gizmo that will hopefully do the trick, and you'll need someone to plant it on him?"

Fitz and Simmons looked at each other. Coulson had guessed their tenuous plan correctly, and they looked back at him and nodded.

"Thought so. There's exactly one person we know that has even half a chance of getting that close to him without getting her mind taken over. Whatever Lash did to her, along with freeing her from Hive's influence, he seems to have made her immune. If there's a snowball's chance in hell of this working, that snowball's name is Daisy." Coulson gathered the papers Fitz had strewn over his desk and put them back in the folder they'd come from before handing it all over to the other man. "So go talk to her."

Fitz took the folder, nodded to Simmons, and then set off after Daisy. Given her direction and the mood they'd put her in, her destination wasn't hard to guess. He found her quickly in an otherwise empty training room, beating the hell out of a sandbag that he guessed she was picturing as Ward. Or possibly him, Simmons, or Coulson. Maybe all of them.

"You remember that time when Ward turned away from you like a coward, admitted that he cared about you and Simmons, that you mattered, and then dumped you into the ocean to die? That's the guy you want back."

"I don't want—"

"And like you said, we can't kill him, and we damn sure can't release him on the population, so what? It'd be back to Vault D with him, if we're lucky, if whatever you're planning works. He'd be our responsibility for as long as he lives. Our own personal Hannibal Lecter."

"As far as I know, Ward never ate anyone," Fitz argued, trying to bring some light into the conversation.

"Hive did. Who knows? Maybe Ward got a taste for it. I wouldn't put it past him."

Except, of course, that she would put it past him. There was still that annoying small voice inside her that never wanted to leave that beautiful, idyllic time (in hindsight, at least), when it was just the six of them on The Bus. That voice was an idiot, and she lashed out further against the punching bag because she couldn't shut it up. She couldn't even shut up Fitz.

Fitz fought the urge to roll his eyes. "Fine. Ward dines on human flesh and rots down in Vault D, occasionally forcing you to talk to him if we want valuable information, and to top it all off, he suddenly starts calling you Clarice. You're right. That's much worse than Hive extinguishing human life on this planet."

"I didn't say that," Daisy replied, hitting the bag at the wrong angle and grimacing. She hit it again, harder. "I said-"

"You said you'll have no part in the best plan we've got because your hurt feelings are more important than all our lives and the lives of the rest of the human race." He paused. "Well, you didn't say that, but it is what you're saying."

"No, I'm saying get someone else. If you have to do it, fine, we do what we have to do. But there are better people to be involved than me. Lincoln's got the electricity. Maybe he can use it to restart his heart. You want to plant something on him? Send Yo-Yo. She's so fast she can be in and out before anyone knows what's happening."

"Two excellent strategies," Fitz agreed, taking a seat on a nearby bench. "Of course, we can't depend on either of them to work because Hive can take over their minds, while yours is safe." He winced as Daisy pummeled the bag. Now he was sure she was picturing him.

"Damn it, Fitz!" she yelled, giving up on the bag and going to join him on the small bench. Her pulse was sky-high just from the conversation. She didn't need to add a workout to that. "Stop being so logical! Stop acting like I'm the crazy one because I don't want to help resurrect the guy who ripped out my heart and almost killed my friends."

He locked eyes with her as she sat down next to him. "You want less logical? Fine. Let's leave the world out of it for a moment. Ward almost drowned me and left me with deficits that kept me locked up in my own mind for months. If he's in Hive still, which we believe he is, then even though it's not even close to the same thing, no one understands better than me what that must be like." He took a deep breath to calm himself, then went on. "Ward was a traitorous bastard who committed a mountain of crimes that he probably wouldn't be able to make up for if he lived a thousand years, if he even wanted to. But can you look me in the eyes right now and tell me that you believe he deserves to suffer for an eternity, trapped inside his own body, trapped inside Hive? He hurt you so badly that he doesn't deserve a second of peace from now until the end of time, or at least until someone else finds a way to stop Hive. You can tell me all that, and you can mean it?"

Now Daisy could understand why Ward wouldn't look at FitzSimmons before completing the control sequence that was meant to send them to their death. If he'd looked into their eyes, maybe he would have faltered. Like she did.

She looked away from Fitz's earnest blue eyes. "What do you need me to do?"