It's a weird world (part 1)
Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Marvel™.
The pitter-patter of delicate, feminine feet caused Grant Ward to rise from his stupor, caused by blood loss. "Ah, Raina. It's you, witch," he neutrally told the Afro-American woman, as she rushed by holding Whitehall's glowing obelisk in her hands. "Whose lives have you messed up today?"
Raina chuckled. She remembered Grant from the time that John Garrett was still alive. She had handled him easy back then, and she could handle him just as easily now – not that she needed to. Odds are, S.H.I.E.L.D. was going to capture and execute him – or Hydra would – any minute now, or perhaps he would die from blood loss on his own. Still, she could not resist kicking him while he was down – she was that sort of a girl, after all.
"I," she spoke, half tartly and half proudly, "am on my way to embrace my destiny! The Diviner, the Obelisk, it will at last give me the glorious future that I seek!"
Ward looked at her, even as he rose into a halfway standing position. "What future? Please! Raina, speaking as a monster to a witch, you have no future for you have no present or past. Skye now, also had no past, but she has friends on her side, she has a present and a future – in S.H.I.E.L.D. You have none of that, and the glowing pyramid, obelisk, column, whatever – it will not change things any. You have just jealousy of Skye. She is the one with the destiny. I'm not."
Once more, for an uncountable time her life, Raina felt tears start to accumulate in her eyes. Damn it, she had succeeded at last! She gotten the Diviner, she was about to become glorious and great and powerful (she was already beautiful, after all), a mere man like Grant Ward should be at her feet already, not looking down on her (and not just literally), with a look of pity mixed with amusement on her face. She had put it behind her, damn it!
"You're wrong," she hissed, doing her best not to cry – this was her day of triumph. "Once I go through the rite and acquire my power you will bow before me!"
Now Grant's face lost any amusement and became dead serious – emphasis on dead. "Never," he said simply. "I did that for John, let's be honest here, but he's dead and gone. You and your potion – you killed the man, leaving behind a thing to inhabit his dead body. Maybe the Obelisk will make you strong enough to kill me, maybe I will die anyways, but I will not bow to you. Neither will Coulson, for all of his faults, or May, let alone Skye. You've reached the end of your road, witch, and all you have acquired there is jealousy." Grant snorted; it was not a very happy sound. "Now I, let's be honest, has done more bad things than good, things that I will regret, but you know? I lived. I have done things. I fought for and against both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra. Few others have done this. People will remember me for this – at least for a while, for better or for worse. That is what I have acquired. What about you?"
"I?" Raina took a deep breath. "I? I..." she trailed away. "I have done nothing grand, nothing special. I – was a con artist, then I met Cal, who taught me everything I know, who introduced me to Garrett and you – remember? – who... who doesn't care at all about me, but just about his wife and daughter, Daisy, who you know as Skye... She does have everything, I got nothing but my – my jealousy, and my hope that things will be different, will be better after I go through terrigenesis. Why did you take it away from me?" Now she did feel like weeping.
"Because," Grant exhaled, "because I'm not a good man – I admit. John, Garrett, he trained me to be a monster, and so you were not wrong when you called me one. Skye, she is not one, but it does not matter – I forgive you for calling her a monster too. I – also apologize for mocking you. A new life does sound like a very good thing. Perhaps this glowing obelisk will give me one too? What do you think?"
Raina stared at the man as if he suddenly sprouted a second head or something along those lines without the Obelisk's power. "...No one ever apologized to me before," she spoke finally. "Not even Cal, not even your cohorts at the agency. Perhaps the Diviner can give you a new life. But more likely it'll kill you."
"Then Coulson and the rest of his team can use my petrified corpse for target practice, or as a coat rack, or whatever," Grant shrugged, as he began to usher Raina in her initial direction, while leaning on her – slightly. (Which was good, because he was heavy, and she – not so strong.) "I lived a very...exciting life, I'm not afraid of death. In part because I suspect that between my parents, the schools they sent me to, S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra and etc., Hell will be no challenge at all. Why, me and John used to joke that when one of us will go down under, he will wait for the other, and together we'll bust out of it-"
"You're such a man," Raina said, feeling very strange on the inside. Someone was sharing a joke with her. No one had shared a joke with her before – not even Cal. (But then again, Cal's sense of humour was something else, and in such a bad way that Raina actually did not want a piece of it.)
Together now, Grant and Raina began to descend into the alien temple.
TBC