Dealing with Your Demons

Robbie Reyes didn't need Agent Phil Coulson to tell him he'd screwed up.

After all, it was his uncle that got kidnapped by a crazy ghost lady that the Rider could have fried without even trying.

Except he wasn't there.

He had decided that letting the Rider burn the last member of the Fifth Street Locos was more important than seeing his uncle safely out of there.

Or maybe he hadn't decided, maybe the Rider had talked him into it.

The prison was full of guys with blood on their hands and it riled the Rider up to no end to be denied his duty of burning them. It was only Robbie's will to see getting Tío out through and the reminders from Agent Mackenzie that allowed them to walk in without getting down to business. But on the way out… on the way out there was no S.H.I.E.L.D. agent threatening to put him under if he saw a flicker of flame and no ghosts to fry, Tío was just an easy walk away from the S.H.I.E.L.D. quinnjet, and the Loco was right there with nothing to protect him from them.

He'd never admit it to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but when the vengeance was personal, it was near impossible to keep the Rider contained because Robbie wanted them to burn. Normally, he didn't really feel anything about the Rider's kills. Those people had earned what they got. Whether that was a side-effect of being possessed by the Rider or the fact that Robbie himself just didn't care… he didn't like to think about that. But when it was personal, when he was doing it for Gabe, he couldn't chain up the Rider long because those whispers in his ear that they deserve it, let 'em burn were far too in-sync with his own thoughts.

And now?

Now Tío was who the hell knows where with a ghost lady that could make him die of fright and Gabe… Gabe might not even be safe because the shooting that put him in a wheelchair and made Robbie spontaneously combust was a hit. The only reason he hadn't known to be worried for his little brother sooner was that he'd never let any of the other Locos talk, just scream for a second or two. And worse yet, he didn't even have any leads on the hit other than the fact that it existed because he'd been too eager to let the Rider work back then and the one from today didn't have the answer. With the way things were, he wasn't sure he could keep Gabe in the dark anymore, not if he wanted his little brother to be safe.

He'd screwed up and he knew it.

Robbie just hoped that S.H.I.E.L.D. could help him fix it because he knew they would be the ones forced to deal with him if the Rider went on rampage to avenge Gabe or Tío.


Author's Note

So I've finally stepped into the Marvel Cinematic Universe of fanfiction. I'm totally loving the 4th season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Ghost Rider and after watching episode 5 and the preview for 6, I wanted to write a little something Ghost Rider, so there's this. Daisy did say that Robbie was sulking elsewhere when May found her.