Maveth (part 1)

Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Marvel™.

Note: this story contains spoilers.

The time for masks was over. Thomas hated him. Grant had done his best to help his baby brother, to impress him, and it did not work. Thomas was still very much a Ward, he had failed to impress him, to save him – Thomas was still a fractured, damaged man with all of the viciousness and cunning of a weasel – a giant weasel, say, but a weasel nonetheless. It hurt. Grant was a success as an assassin (and perhaps a blackguard too), but as a human being? This was bad; this was as bad as Kara Lynn was, and for now? Grant did not know how to fix it, and because Thomas was family, Grant did not really want to fix it – and maybe he should not.

You are just useful, and now, your brother – he is even more useful... Coulson spoke that about Christian, not Thomas, but it did not matter in the end. Back then, Grant had no intention of going back to his family's mercies (neither had Thomas, for that matter), and so he finally had his closure with Christian and their parents, leaving Thomas to be free – or so he thought. He was wrong. Coulson did learn that Thomas was alive; he decided that he will be of use to him, and Thomas, his own fear of Grant riding him hard, complied.

Grant had not decided if he was going to kill Thomas yet or just beat the crap out of him, as he had done so in the past – it did not matter. In fact, so many things did not matter anymore, that somehow Grant's numbness had become a pain – a new pain of some sort, (and Grant knew about pain – he had both dealt it and received it, thanks to Garrett).

And speaking of knowledge...Grant was aware that Leo had been starring at him ever since they have arrived at the alien planet. So, of course, had been the other men, but only because he was their leader, at least in Malick's absence, and between Garrett, Whitehall, and Bakshi, Grant knew exactly how an average Hydra minion thought (very little) and behaved (ready to betray the weak for the sake of the strong, unless brainwashing was involved...and Grant wasn't sure that it wasn't involved – Malick was more like Whitehall than John, though he tried to lie otherwise). True to John's predictions, Malick planned to buy Grant; before he could sell him – or rather, for the moment, he assumed that he already bought Grant with his little speech (did he give one to the younger von Strucker too before giving him over to Grant?) and this was why Grant was on this alien planet of fun – frankly, this rated about as high on his fun list, as the Zabos' fun-fun fish pills were.

However, none of the above involved Leo Fitz for the obvious reasons, so: "What?" Grant spoke, forcing himself to look into the younger man's eyes, for it hurt, for they reminded him of the sea into which he had dumped him and Simmons, and never mind whether or not the pod was supposed to float. "Your friends are already coming for you, you know? Malick is not as smart as he thinks he is, once they are finished moping the floor with him they'll reactivate the portal and get you out."

"What about you?" Leo blinked.

"What about me?" Grant shrugged. "Either you will shoot me, or leave me behind, to save face and pretend that you're heroes-"

"No, that's you – Bobbi told us how you pretended to be a hero with Palamas."

"Ok, and?"

"And what?"

"What's your point? Coulson has already tried to do something like this; he even dragged my last immediate living relative into it. Let's hear your spin on my problem while we're at it."

Leo fell silent – a thoughtful sort of silence. "Does it bother you?" he finally spoke, re-establishing eye contact. "That you have wasted your life serving Garrett? Do you regret it?"

"John was the one who brought me into Hydra, into S.H.I.E.L.D.," Grant immediately replied. "So no. What I do regret is that I had to give up everything for his sake – I owed it to him, but I do regret it, and I will regret it for the rest of my life, most likely."

"Ward," Leo said gravely, "you realize that the problem isn't that you threw us out of the plane – is that you threw us out of the plane. We were a team, Grant!"

"Yes, well, thanks to Garrett I had very different – and wrong – ideas about how a team worked," Grant shrugged. "And when I finally realized it, it was too late. And then Kara Lynn happened and was starting to think of retiring with her and living the rest of my life as a family man, but I misjudged Morse and Kara Lynn paid the price. Others always paid the price for my mistakes. Well, enough!"

"Exactly!" Coulson agreed, as he finished subduing (well, taking down and killing, actually), the last of Hydra soldiers (Malick's version). "It's time to end this, Ward."

"Ok," the latter nodded. "Still, you've been fighting and killing them for the last hour or so – want to take a breather so that it would be a fairer fight?"

"You've been aware of him doing this?" Leo indicated the last of Hydra's downed soldiers.

"Yes."

"And you didn't say anything because-?"

"Aren't you and the director friends and co-workers?"

"Yes," Leo rubbed the back of his head. "I meant, why haven't you tried to interfere with them – I mean, with Coulson?"

"Why should I?"

"'Cause you're Hydra, because you came here to-" Fitz paused. "Say, why is Hydra interested in Will?"

"The Hydra is here because its' initial leader got exiled here via a Monolith – or a bunch of small ones," Grant shrugged. "Malick claims that the man – or a woman, but I've a feeling that it's a man – is gifted, or even an InHuman. You sure that it isn't the same guy?"

There was a pause and Fitz groaned. "No, I'm sure; I checked the records and all. Mr. Will is a real person...I mean, Hydra would not be putting a fake biography of him beforehand-"

"I don't know – Malick knew about Simmons before he met me," Grant shrugged, "you really should talk to him before Skye and Cavalry go through him-"

"She goes by Daisy now-" Leo began and stopped, when Grant gave him a look. "Anyways, she said that you're not a robot, you do care – you just care too much, so you try not to care at all-"

Grant stared down at Leo from his superior height, looking unimpressed. "What difference does it make? And I'm not saying this because Phil is about to shoot me, anyhow."

"That's right, I am," the older man nodded, sourly – he did not expect to be ignored. "Fitz, you already tried appealing to his better nature – he doesn't have any-"

"So what?" Fitz whirled around, not very happy with the director too. "Yes, I took a gamble with Ward and lost, but at least I took it! And what's more, you did not care that I took it – you still put Grant into solitary and pumped him for information, while not telling me that Jemma was spying for Hydra. You knew that I was loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D., but you still withheld the info! Coulson, is it just me, or are you still deciding what is best for S.H.I.E.L.D. and for everyone in it by yourself? You've been compromised, director, and it isn't Grant Ward's doing, not entirely!"

Coulson sagged – the last words of the younger man had clearly hurt him deeply. "You're wrong, Leo Fitz," he said quietly, almost painfully. "You were wrong when you assumed that your heroics were necessary – they weren't. You got hurt, Jemma Simmons got hurt, and I thought that you learned this. Apparently you did not, as you would rather try to redeem Ward despite all the evidence to the contrary, because it would make you look good. This is not the sort of attitude that the agency needs: I will not debrief you, in part because S.H.I.E.L.D. needs you, your knowledge and intelligence, but if you would rather be dramatic instead, then maybe it's time for your priorities to be changed; maybe it would be better for you to find work elsewhere, before your dramatics hurt both you and someone else. S.H.I.E.L.D. employs people on a voluntary basis, it hires only those who are happy to be there, and since you clearly are not, then maybe something should change – your attitude, your position in S.H.I.E.L.D., take your pick. But as for you-" he turned to Grant, only to find the bigger man much closer to him and Leo than before the director (or ex-director) of S.H.I.E.L.D. and his scientist (one of them, at any rate) got into each other's face.

"No," the specialist (S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra, who knew) spoke and grabbed Coulson's hand and firearm in a very strong grip of his own. It was Phil's own hand, not the robotic prosthetic, so Phil used this development to punch Grant a couple of times with the prosthetic in question – once, twice, but even as Grant staggered back, he ripped the weapon out of Coulson's grip, painfully too, and...threw it away, before grabbing the prosthetic and ripping it off the stump at the point of attachment. The backlash was painful enough for Coulson to momentarily stop his assault, and Grant used this opening fully to hit the older man – in the face, in the torso, punching him with one hand, gripping him and keeping him on his feet with another, until-

"Stop," Leo said very firmly.

Unexpectedly, Grant stopped.

"Thank you," Leo said next and nothing more. The pause stretched, not that Coulson minded it – he came off worse in his fight with Grant, the younger man was not a cyborg, but his punches still hurt, a lot.

"Fine," Leo finally broke the silence. "Ward, Grant, this actually proves my point – you're more than just a killer, 'cause otherwise, you wouldn't have listened to me."

"You got the gun-"

"I doubt that I would've been able to kill you quickly enough to save Phil," Leo shrugged, and put the weapon in question back onto the sandy soil of the planet. "Now what?"

"You tell me – us," Grant pointed out. "You're the man with the local knowledge – where is the man-InHuman-eldritch horror in question supposed to be?"

"I was trying to engage you further in a philosophical discussion," Leo blinked, sounding half-sheepish and half-embarrassed, "but your question is good too. I was kind of following your lead, since you were supposed to be the leader-"

"I was following your guidance, figuring that you were just stalling for the time until your teammates arrived, until they did," Grant countered, pointing at Coulson.

"No, I was the only one to make it before the new portal closed," Coulson confessed, carefully not looking at either of the two people.

"It'll be still several hours before Malick opens the portal – if he wins, which I doubt," Grant shrugged. "Any suggestions?"

"We might as well look for Will while we're at it," Leo grunted. "Director, can you remember where you ended up before you saw us and the Hydra soldiers and followed?"

"Yes," Coulson replied in the same carefully controlled and bland voice. "I can."

There was another uncomfortable pause. "I'll show it to you," Coulson confessed, "but can I have my arm back?"

"Sure," Leo said brightly, "but I'll be able to reattach it only once we're back on Earth."

"Fine," Coulson grumbled. "Follow me."

And the trio left, leaving behind the remains of Malick's Hydra soldiers...

TBC

AN2 – no one is trying to bash anyone, but tensions were already high, and the fact that for the next while they are stranded on an alien planet makes things worse.