Prologue

Grand Ward stood in Whitehall's office, shaking his head. "That was almost too easy." For all that they destroyed, I wanted to feel more fulfilled...

Kebo cracked his knuckles. "Sorry, boss. Next time I'll leave you more idiots to kill."

Ward snorted and sat down at the desk. I could get used to this. He looked up at Kebo. "Try finding me names now."

Kebo shrugged. "We can narrow down half the people in this building at least. They're pretty dead."

Ward nodded. "Feel free to take pictures if you think other offshoots will need motivation to come back to the fold. It's not HYDRA anymore, but anyone looking for HYDRA can come see me."

Kebo nodded and backed out of the room.

Grant looked around at what SHIELD had left behind. They think they're so smart. He stroked the arms of Whitehall's desk chair until he felt the catch he was looking for. I may not have known Whitehall that well, not directly, but Garrett was kind enough to share what he knew...He clicked the switch and chuckled as a tiny portion of the armrest lifted. Grant reached in and extracted the data chip. Sorry Kebo, can't trust anyone anymore.

Ward loaded the chip onto his phone and stood, crossing to the windows. He looked at the peaceful world below him. You all have no idea...He picked up the decanter of Scotch still resting on the windowsill and took a long drink. My arrogance, my anger, look what May did to us...Kara...baby, I'm so sorry. But I'm going to make this right. I'm going to get closure for both of us, and I'm going to bring the hammer down on HYDRA for what they stole from us.

And then I'll do the same for SHIELD.

Five months later...

And so I did. I channeled my rage into finding closure for us both. Those looking for HYDRA found a new head had finally grown. Easy enough to claim my place in the hierarchy. Garrett was never a subtle man, and bragged about his second-in-command to all the right...or wrong...people. My goals were slightly different than they may have anticipated, but they didn't know it until it was too late, if at all. Those that returned went after those who hadn't. So easy when you're the head of the organization to set one hive against the other. Selling the rebranding was even easier.

HAMMER.

It was appropriate since I wanted to bring the hammer down, so HYDRA became HAMMER - Homeland Allied Multinational Monitoring and Enforcement Resource. I did exactly what I'd mocked SHIELD for doing, in a far off universe where Maria Hill was about to make me Level 7. I forced it to fit, told everyone who dared ask that it was for recruitment purposes. Those who would be amenable to working for the original would be told this was another name for HYDRA. Those who wouldn't were told it was an offshoot of SHIELD.

No one ever thought it was an offshoot of SHIELD.

There were ones that I pitied, ones that reminded me of - well, myself, Kara. Lost. Looking for orders. Those agents were redirected to Coulson's SHIELD, and in such a way that it wouldn't catch anyone's attention. HAMMER is a shadow organization, for the most part, and I like it that way.

That is, for however long it continues to exist. The HYDRA hives we could handle are gone. SHIELD and the Avengers have enough intel for the rest, the missions that required more resources than I have, the personnel like Mitchell Carson who had too much tech at their disposal. I'm continually assessing SHIELD capabilities before taking our approach, and I have a good grasp of what they could handle.

I left Coulson's team for last.

Closure.

Chapter 1 - The Rubble of Our Sins

Grant Ward exhaled as he hit the roof. After all this time, this will have to be them. SHIELD 2.0 is gone...or was that HYDRA 2.0? Either way, that leaves just one team to respond to something like this. He looked up as his HAMMER team - the first ones he'd gathered, the ones he'd kept - surrounded Mack, Skye and Fitz. "It had to be you, of course," he muttered. Time to make your choice, baby, Kara's voice whispered. "Well, come on then."

Skye sent targeted shocks out to the ones closest to her. "Fitz, you've got to stabilize this building, I can feel it vibrating."

"Yeah, yeah, or you could stabilize it, 'cept you have to deal with the bad guys," Fitz muttered.

Ward assessed the situation and shot two of his men. I'm not looking for a slaughter. "Better odds now?"

Fitz and Skye both looked at him, jaws dropped.

"You just - you just shot your own men," Fitz said.

Ward rolled his eyes. "No kidding, now don't lose focus." He shrugged at his second-in-command as Skye advanced. "Sorry, Kebo, but you know there's no love lost between us." I never forgot how you mocked me...He turned his attention to Mack. "Just like I know you won't lose sight of the goal." Closure.

Mack cracked his knuckles. "Been waiting for this one. For Bobbi and for Kara."

Grant glared hotly at him. "Don't you dare say her name."

Skye kept them in her peripheral vision, flicking the other two HAMMER agents away. About time we settled this.

Mack snatched a chain from the pile of construction materials next to him. "Y'all love these half-finished buildings for your big fight. Just further for you to fall."

Ward snickered. "I guess I should be flattered you put me in the same company as Venom and Hulk, but considering how many powered people there are now, you could really be talking about anyone." Had to be a chain. I hate chains...

Mack shook his head. "Who're you tellin', I keep waiting for this to get under control." He wrapped the links around his hands. "I'll settle for getting you under control."

"Try me," Grant bit out. "I've been aching for a real fight." Closure. Finally.

"Oh, that's why you only fight girls?" Mack rounded him away from Fitz and Skye. "May, Morse...is it an M thing?"

Ward smirked. "Come closer, find out." He lashed out with a leg kick and braced for the attack.

"Fitz, any luck?" Skye called. Earthquake stabilizers turned earthquake generators by HYDRA and Ward shows up. There's some hardcore irony here...

Fitz waved Skye off. "Yes, I think we've got it, so if you could just stabilize it for a -" He blew out a breath. "And we've got the stabilizers back, building is self-supporting."

Skye exhaled and released her grip on the structure. Why the hell did Ward do that? Shot his own men to give us better odds? She looked down and watched as the remaining construction workers poured out.

"Skye, we're clear," murmured Lincoln's voice in her ear. "Just you guys."

"We're going to finish this," she promised. Once and for all. "Down in five."

Lincoln looked up, scaffolding and tarps blocking his view. "Are you sure I can't -"

"I need you down there, you're our worst case scenario." She blew out a breath, watching Mack and Ward fight across the floor. Plus you don't need to be here for this. "I'll be okay, I promise." She cut the comm and moved closer to the fray.

Mack and Ward grappled with the chain, yanking it between them as leverage.

Mack managed a laugh. "You wanted a good fight, but what did Kara want, huh? Did you even care?"

"Don't say her name!" Ward growled, eyes blazing. You don't know anything about me. He took the chain firmly in hand. "Don't you dare." He yanked the chain away from Mack, anger burning through him.

Mack looked from Ward to the chain and back again. "What in the -"

"Ward, what are you doing," Skye bit out, taking a fighting stance.

"Finishing this. Closure," Ward clarified. Finally, the end to all of it. "It's all we wanted that you wouldn't let us have."

"I mean the chain, Ward, what are you doing to that chain?" Skye looked at the length of metal glowing in his grip.

Grant followed her gaze down. What the hell? He flicked the now flaming chain. "I'm not doing anything," he whispered. I don't think I am, anyway...

Skye held out a hand. "You are. It didn't do that with Mack." She looked towards her teammate. "Did you douse it in something?"

Mack shook his head. "I picked it up out of a pile, Tremors, not it."

Just what I did not want to hear. Skye advanced slowly. "Ward. Drop the chain."

Grant flicked it again, watching the flames dance. Of course it would be a chain..."I don't feel anything - no burning, not even heat."

Skye got closer. "That's great, but I need you to put it down."

"You need me to put this down?" Ward whipped it out towards a tarp, watching with satisfaction as the material caught fire. "I don't think I want to." I may not know what this is, but I like it…He flung his arm out again and glared at Skye when the chain froze in place, a wave of air putting the tarp out. "Let it go. Now."

Skye kept her hands out. "Can't do that, Ward, you know I can't."

"What I know is you can't hold me forever." He closed his eyes, exhaling. No one ever will again. "You can't even hold me much longer." Ward started to strain against her forcefield.

Skye grimaced as he struggled. "I don't want to hold you, but you know how this goes. You still remember, don't you?" She quirked a brow. "Protocols, how to approach a powered person...how it felt to be an agent of SHIELD?"

"Screw you, Skye," he growled. "That didn't matter to any of you before, why should it matter to me now?" After all this time, there's only one way this ends. He pulled harder on the chain.

"Because I think it does," she managed. "I think part of this - the closure you want - is for all of it to go, right? If HYDRA isn't here, and you built HAMMER to take over HYDRA, all that's left is SHIELD. And SHIELD won't let you back in."

Ward grunted and turned towards her, charging the barrier. You don't have to.

Skye cried out and redoubled her efforts to contain him. "This is your way home, Ward. You want to be part of a team, our team? Put down that chain and let's figure out what the hell just happened."

Don't you lie to me. Ward ran at the barrier again. "You don't want me on your team, no one does."

"Good thing it's not their call," Coulson said, emerging from the top of the ladder. "Stand down, Skye. Grant, I want you to put the chain down. Put it down and talk to me."

Ward barked a laugh, shaking his head. And now it's closure for real. "Didn't we do this dance already?"

Coulson nodded slowly. "We did, but we both know things are different now."

Ward scoffed. "Yeah, things are different, aren't they? You're the director of SHIELD, I'm the director of HAMMER, and we both brought down HYDRA." I know you know, if you're here now. He gave a mockery of a smile. "But I'm still the bad guy. I'm still the villain." He looked around at Skye, still holding him, and Mack and Fitz on standby, ICERs in hand. "There's no team for me anymore. There's just closure, the end."

Skye looked between the two of them. Took down HYDRA? Not taking over?

Phil held out a hand. "Or a new beginning. You're right, Grant, you did take down as much of HYDRA as SHIELD did." He waved away the protests from the rest of the team. "You did good, Grant. We may not agree on the methods, but at the end of the day you accomplished good things."

"What does that matter to anyone," Ward growled. "You didn't care about that when May set me up to kill her."

The director of SHIELD shook his head. "That - that was a mistake, Grant. You made a mistake."

The chain hissed in Grant's hand. "May's mistake, not mine! She did the same damn thing as Morse, set Kara up to die. May, Morse, Simmons, everyone...any chance of the good Grant Ward winning, the little bit of light that I found -" His gaze darted to Skye and quickly away. "All that was killed, bit by bit, by your team, Coulson. I wanted to work with you, would've come back after that mission even to stay in the damn cage, but I saw nothing would change. No one wanted to see good in me. The only person who did choked on her own blood for the misfortune of caring about me."

"She did," Coulson agreed. "Kara did love you, Grant. I know she did. And it was my mistake for letting Hunter and May go rogue. Bobbi told me about the safehouse. About handing Kara over. But only after it was too late. It was my fault for not debriefing her better about her time with HYDRA, for not questioning what she might have done."

"And yet the Mockingbird still sings," Grant rasped hoarsely. Deep cover, and happy. Nearly free. "She gets to live, she and Hunter are together and it's sunshine and rainbows and -"

Mack guffawed. "You've never been around them. Obviously."

Coulson gave Mack a stern look, gesturing at Skye and Fitz. "It's not fair. You're right. It's not. But this closure you're looking for - the end to everything that stole Kara from you - will sink the world into chaos. It's not prepared for what we know."

Grant tightened his grip on the chain. "We. I'm not falling for that one again." I wanted to help, I showed you I could, and one of your precious team didn't give a damn.

Phil held his hands up. "I'm not talking about 'we' with the team, Grant. I'm talking one director to another. You relied on one person, way too much. I did too. You missed having a team. I miss our team. We have a lot in common that way."

Ward scoffed. "Please, spare me, okay? I've gotten the Coulson special too many times. Common ground, sympathy, open ear, willing to help and work with me." He smirked. If you only knew. "And yet I'm still -" He blinked as he lowered his arm, stumbling as Skye's grip on him disappeared.

Coulson raised a brow. "Still what?"

Grant flicked the chain experimentally. You let me loose? He looked over to see Mack and Fitz with their ICERs lowered.

"Did anyone ever tell you about your grandfather, Grant?" The director questioned. "Your mother's side. Carter Slade."

Grant chuckled. A myth. A ghost. "We didn't talk about the Slade bloodline. Father was far too good for that line of hooligans and riffraff. That's all I ever heard, that I should've been a Slade and not a Ward."

The director nodded towards the chain. "You should have been. The Slade genetics are powered, Grant. And I think that you are too."

Ward shook his head. "No, that can't be true." How the hell can that be?

"Can't it? Maybe you showed something when you were younger - scared them all. Bullies are usually motivated by fear. It would make sense then, right?" Coulson raised an eyebrow. "Pushing you so hard, Tommy constantly being cowed and beaten so he wouldn't find that same fire."

I just wanted to blow out the candle...Ward shook his head. "No, get out of my head, don't -"

Phil held out his hand. "Don't you want to know? You wanted closure - how about you get more than closure for Kara with HYDRA? What if you could get real closure for why they did what they did. Did they ever tell you why?"

"How did you -" Ward winced, shook his head. "They wouldn't tell me, just said I was a freak, always had been."

"But you told yourself it was enough that they admitted the torture they put you through. Told yourself why didn't matter." Coulson shook his head. "But you didn't blow them up for closure. You blew them up from anger. Because why was the question the whole time."

Tommy...Grant shuddered, the chain rattling. He looked down at the sound. Fire's gone.

Coulson finished moving towards him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I think we found that answer, Grant. Let's see if we can find some others."

Grant looked across the rooftop, fallen HAMMER agents scattered around him. All I wanted was closure, and I was so damn close...He looked at the chain in his hand and sighed. But that fire...I need to know. He caught the distrust in the team's eyes. "I assume I'm to be cuffed?"

Coulson shook his head. "We all know how skilled you are, Grant." He pulled a metal bracelet from his pocket. "This should look familiar."

Grant glanced at Skye before he nodded. "Yes, sir, quite familiar." Sir? Back to that, are we? He looked around again, exhaling roughly, and held out his wrist. "Go ahead." Better than being cuffed again.

Coulson gave his team a meaningful look as he snapped the tracker on. "I expect as Mr. Ward is giving his cooperation, you will all be equally respectful to him."

"Not a bloody chance," Fitz muttered. Mack clapped a hand on his shoulder and squeezed, glaring at Ward.

"Then I expect you'll stay out of each other's way, at the very least," the director conceded. "Though you all might want to hear what I have to say." He gestured to the side of the roof, where the quinjet ramp appeared. "Shall we?"

Do I have a choice? Grant took a deep breath and stepped on board. "So, do you go on all your team's missions with a tracking cuff in your pocket, Phil?"

Coulson chuckled while the rest of the team looked at Ward, scandalized by his casualness. "You never know when you might find an asset or a flexible enemy."

"Which category do I fall under at this point?" Ward quirked a brow curiously. I'd love to hear that answer.

"I hope to figure that out," the director offered honestly. "What do you think?"

I think this can't be happening. Grant looked around him at his former team, all studiously looking away. Powered? Me? He took one of the jumpseats and shrugged. "I'd say a good part of that answer depends on you."

Coulson handed him a data pad. "Carter Slade, also known as Phantom Rider. Brother Lincoln, son Hamilton...grandson, you."

"How did nobody say anything?" Ward raised a brow. "Not in any evaluations, never mentioned by a doctor." Powered. Gifted. Indexed.

"Because no one would find a record of your real maternal lineage," the director explained. "Your SHIELD background bio was...creatively rewritten by Garrett. It took a lot of digging to find those records." He shrugged. "To be honest, we think your father was the first one to try to erase them, Garrett just had to finish the job."

Ward snorted. "Can't say I'm surprised by that." Though I bet you were...He cut his eyes to the director. "What I am surprised by is why you bothered to find out."

Coulson cleared his throat. "I guess I needed a new puzzle to figure out."

Boredom, then. Grant looked down at the pad to hide the hurt in his eyes. "Well. Let's finish putting the pieces together and I'll be on my way again." Happily. He fought not to look at Skye. Pieces solving a puzzle...

Phil nodded. "That's the plan. Let us do the usual indexing, and you're free to go."

Ward scoffed lightly. Let's call a spade a spade. "You mean I'm free to be monitored on the outside."

The director shrugged. "Still not a cell or a memory wipe, so I think we'll consider it a good compromise."

"Why isn't it a wipe?" Fitz demanded. "He - what he did -" Fitz frowned in frustration, shaking his head. "Why not?"

"Because every HYDRA target that we had intel on that was cleared before we got there?" Coulson looked at the engineer steadily. "Was HAMMER. That's what Ward's been doing, Fitz. While we were..." The director cleared his throat. "...otherwise occupied, HAMMER was trying to keep HYDRA from growing that new head by pretending to be the new head."

Fitz sat back, jaw agape.

What the hell? Skye's eyes shot to Ward from the co-pilot's seat. "Is that true?"

Ward kept his eyes on the pad. Like it matters to any of you.

"AC?" Skye turned her attention to her director. How is this possible?

Coulson watched Ward carefully. "I've had May running the intel we've gotten about how those HYDRA hives went down. Every op came back to HAMMER."

May tossed Skye a pad across the cockpit.

Coulson continued. "And on a few occasions, HAMMER was our backup." He glanced at his former specialist, leaving the nature of those ops unspoken.

All Skye's solo or small strike ops. Ward still refused to look up. The unmarked black ops gear her team uses was helpful in that regard.

Skye started to flip through the intel, biting her lip as she noticed the patterns. Backup, huh? She looked back at Ward and swallowed a sigh.

"And why would you bother to do that?" Lincoln asked.

"Closure," Grant answered evenly. "That's all I've been looking for." I just want to know my job is done.

May brought the Quinjet into the hangar, opening the ramp without a word. She gave Coulson and Ward a nod of acknowledgment before making her exit.

Ward waited until the rest of the team had filed out and only he and Coulson remained. "Thank you for that."

Coulson stood. "Thank you, for keeping her safe. For keeping us safe."

Grant stood with a sad smile he'd never let the rest of them see. "I told you - I never wanted to leave the team, before or after the Fall." I told you I was still a part of the team, that we could work together...but I was delusional. He cleared his throat. "I'll head to the lab."

Coulson watched as Ward walked into the base, shoulders squared against an attack. He sighed and followed.

A.N.: This is my first venture into multi-chapter AoS fic, please be gentle! I will always Stand with Ward, and I hope you'll follow along with me while I do. Please let me know if you enjoyed this!