Leopold Fitz lay still on the infirmary table, wet eyes staring though the open door at the motionless corpses of his once-superior officers.

Dead. They were just bodies now, unable to protect him any more, and the same fate had probably befallen Skye, Ward, Tripplet and…oh, Jemma, he was so sorry.

He'd woken up about twenty seven minutes ago, but didn't know how long ago he, May and Coulson had been shot, the latter two lethally. If he analysed the bodies closer he could probably work it out, but that was more Jemma's field of expertise, and he had a…thing about dead bodies, especially those of people he considered friends.

The constant ticking of the room's clock behind him seemed to be the only sound his mind could process after a while. It had quickly overshadowed the sound of the many stupid Hydra soldiers marching to god-knows-where, and Garrett's occasional vile laughter.

He could barely remember what had happened, only a blinding, agonising pain in his lower body, and the abrupt shock of when it suddenly ceased. Although he was terrified and confused, he quickly realised what had happened to him, it was obvious, really. That's why Garrent had left the door wide open, to let him see his friends' dead bodies, and to taunt him with the fact that escape would be easy, but so difficult for him.

He was now just another scientific asset for Hydra. There was no point trying to deny the inevitable, there was nothing to fight for anymore. No S.H.I.E.L.D., no 'greater good', no…no Jemma to protect and be protected by.

"Hey, Sleeping Beauty!" Fitz flinched at the sudden, merry outburst near him, causing him to whack his head on the sharp edge of the bed. "Now, now, there's no time to be stupid like that, we need you healed up fast so you can work for us!"

Fitz managed to muster up all of his energy to raise his head and spit in Garret's eye, just as he was in the middle of a sentence.

"Well, I say 'heal', it's not like you'll be able to walk again, obviously. But, you know, what good's a dead scientist to Hy-"

Fitz didn't make any noise when the hit came, nor did he react when Garrett grabbed his shoulders and roughly shook him, causing him to bang his head on the wall again. He managed to clench his teeth and stay silent, even though he could feel his stupid, emotional eyes watering. Damn it…Coulson would be ashamed…I'm useless…

His self-loathing thoughts were interrupted by another voice, a voice he wished he'd never heard in the current situation.

"Sorry Fitz, but if you wanna see Simmons again, then stuff like that isn't allowed without her getting hurt." Ward? Oh no, no, no…

"W-Ward?" he managed to choke out even though his lungs felt like they were on fire, or was that his heart? He was to tired to be able to tell, or care. He tried to reach out towards the slightly blurred figure that he knew was the man they'd befriended and appreciated on the Bus. "N-no…"

"As much as this is a completely heartfelt reunion…" - there was Garrett's voice again, the sound of it made Fitz want to punch something, even though he knew that would probably only result in his broken hand- "I would say it's time for a nap, don't you agree?"

Fitz continued his agonising staring contest with his ex-protector even as he saw Garrett's fist swing towards him in his peripheral vision, and the darkness drowned him.

Jemma Simmons awoke with an enormous headache and slightly blurred vision, which of course, was completely ordinary, considering the fact that she'd blacked out…somehow or other, she couldn't remember, which also wasn't unusual. What she did find odd was the fact that she was still alive, considering the circumstances, either that or heaven looked surprisingly like one of the confinement rooms in HQ.

Why was she there? Had Tripp managed to defeat all of the Hydra agents after hand and the other agents had all been killed and she'd been knocked out? Maybe Coulson had managed to defeat Hand, and then they could go back to the Bus, and she could be with…

Fitz!

Where was he? Had he been imprisoned by Hydra too? She didn't doubt it, if they needed her then they'd need him to. They were useful when they worked apart, but they could create wonders when they were together.

But not for Hydra, no. Nothing could ever convince her to join the wretched gang of Nazis, she'd rather die.

She was startled when the door swung open and Ward stepped inside, a strange look on his face that she couldn't discern his emotions from.

"Ward," she breathed a sigh of relief, "you escaped from the Hydra soldiers? Wonderful, we need to-"

"Not so fast, princess." Wait, Garrett? What did he mean, was he worried around more Hydra agents outside?

"Ward, what's go-"

"Listen, sweetheart," -that didn't sound like the Garrett they knew-, "I'd love to stay and chat but I've got work to do. Ward, let her down easy, would 'ya?"

Simmons stared in confusion as Garrett sauntered out, barking several orders at the surrounding agents, who obeyed without hesitation. Her breathing quickened when Ward locked the door and turned towards her.

"Ward, tell me what's going on," Jemma breathed, raising to her feet, despite her tiredness and wariness, "Tell me!"

"Simmons, I've been working for Hydra all along," said Ward, obviously trying to ignore Jemma's quiet inhale of horror and the fact that she was backing away from him like he was a monster, "It…it was all lies, I'm not your friend, or your protector, or..I've never been your teammate, it was an act."

There was a tense pause as Simmons struggled to breathe properly.

"You're evil." Simmons whispered after a while. She refused to look at him, instead focusing her eyes on a small, almost undetectable crack in the wall, "We should never have trusted you, you betray- wait..." her eyes shot to him, "where's Fitz? And Coulson? What did you do to them?!" Jemma was almost screaming at him by this point, hands balled into fists and a deadly glare that could have burned a hole through his skull with its venom.

"...May, Coulson, and Tripp are dead, Skye is imprisoned, and Fitz is…also imprisoned." Ward seemed hesitant, but she didn't care why.

"How…how could you?!" Jemma shoved Ward several times, uncaring of the consequences, her only goal to hurt him as much as she could. But she was incredibly relieved that Fitz and Skye were alive.

"Simmons! Hey, hey, Jemma!" Ward raised his hands in slight surrender, to get her to stop hitting him and to show that he wasn't going to hurt her. "It wasn't my choice, I didn't kill them, that was the other agents, not me, Jemma!"

"You don't get to call me that, you…you…Get out!"

"Simmons, I'm so-"

"Get out, now!" Jemma cried, giving Ward a final hard shove towards the door.

"Okay, alright!" Ward sighed as he quickly unlocked the door and stepped outside, locking it again.

Ward is a traitor, he's been Hydra all along.

Shut up, it wasn't his fault!

He never cared for you!

Why do I still care for him?

Skye clutched at her head, hot tears dripping down the bridge of her nose to splash down on her lap. She continued to talk to herself, assuring her self that it wasn't Ward's fault one minute, and damning him to the lowest level of hell the next.

Why would you do this, Ward? How could you?

The voices were now screaming, trying to make her listen, before she realised that it was her that was screaming, screaming at the world and all its cruelties.

Skye didn't even know if the rest of the team were alive. All she remembered was that before she could detonate the explosion, Ward had spun around and restrained her in a headlock, before injecting some kind of liquid from a syringe into her neck. As she'd blacked out, several gunshots and a scream could be heard, but it was unclear who it belonged to.

The empty room echoed every scream, making it seem like the rest of the team were screaming at her.

'I'm disappointed, Skye, I thought we could rely on you and you let us down!"

"Skye, I thought you were our friend!"

"From the start I knew we shouldn't have trusted you."

"I can't believe you, Skye, we were teammates and this is how you repay us?!"

Shut up, shut up!

It was all her fault, she shouldn't have fallen for Ward's lies, it was all her fault…