Second Chances
By Freddyfrmelmst
Disclaimer: I Don't own Agents of SHIELD, the MCU, or Heroes. Written for Fun Not Profit.
Thanks to MarvelMatt who Beta'ed this Chapter and help me flesh out the idea
"Cherish the Past. Embrace the Present. Fight the Future"
Grant Ward had heard that particular phrase several years ago from a movie, and it had never made any real sense to him until, 'The Vision' (as he liked to call it), came.
First 'The Vision' came.
And then they came.
Now, he was fighting the future with everything he had.
/
Sitting in an interview room with Agent Hill, Ward was keeping his face blank while smirking on the inside, knowing that he was about to blow Coulson's and Hill's mind, and on Fury's orders no less.
It was the little things like that, that he had learned to treasure over the years.
"Agent Hill, why was I pulled out of Paris?" Ward asked, keeping his straight face intact.
"For that Agent Ward, you will have to ask Agent Coulson", Hill told him, in a flat voice.
Ward turned his gaze away from the Deputy Director and turned towards the shadowy corner of the room, where he knew Coulson would be standing.
"Well Agent Coulson, are you going to come out and tell me why I am being reassigned, or will I need to alert The Avengers to the fact that you are still alive?" The smirk on his face became full grown, "I do so hope it's the latter, if just so I can see just what Natasha will do to you", Grant said, revelling in their reactions.
Hill spluttered in confusion, as Coulson stepped into the light, with a sheepish smile plastered on his face.
"So much for my grand entrance", he muttered.
"How the hell did you know he was alive? No one below a Level 8 clearance should have access to that information", Hill demanded, rising to her feet.
Smiling, Ward stood up to match her, using his height advantage to rise above her, getting into her face.
"I'm sorry Agent Hill, but as per the standing orders of Director Fury, that is need to know information, and you, do not need to know"
Hill glared at him, with an intensity that would've wilted a lesser man, as if trying to will him to answer, only for Ward's smile to revert from a normal smile to something more resembling what Nat called his 'evil smirk' before she stomped out of the room.
"That was more a lot fun than it should've been", Ward commented, still smirking, as Coulson motioned for him to follow.
Coulson just laughed.
"Agent Ward … I think, that you will fit in just fine with my team"
"Well then Sir … I'll look forward to it"
/
It was two days later when the newly promoted Level 7 Agent Ward walked onto The Bus for the first time, and he immediately noticed the two scientists huddled over the lab table, obviously working on one of their projects.
"Erm … Fitzsimmons?"
"Fitz", commented the young lady pointing to the young man, her English accent flowing through her words.
"Simmons", smiled the young man as he pointed to the young lady, a light Scottish brogue tilting his words, "I'm engineering and she's biochem"
"I'm Agent Ward", he introduced himself, offering his hand, along with a small smile.
"I suppose you will need your comms unit tuned in?" Fitz asked.
"Nope. Got a new model, care of The Thinker. Brand new. Adaptive interface, no need for retuning", Ward smiled as he reached into his pocket and pulled what looked like a cell phone's SIM card.
Fitz froze for a second, The Thinker was SHIELD's worst kept secret as far as tech was concerned. He was the man every SHIELD techie tried (and dreamed) to be.
"Oh …. well okay then", Fitz mumbled under his breath, as he turned away, pouting that he wouldn't be able to show off a little to the team specialist.
"I'm going to stow my gear. I'll be back down to speak to you both in a few minutes", he offered them another smile, attempting to appear reassuring, as he headed for the stairs.
As he walked away he heard Simmons speaking to her partner, "Well he was quite nice for a specialist wasn't he?"
/
As Ward dropped his gear onto his bunk, he felt a weird feeling come over him.
Home.
He was home.
Despite everything that he had seen and everything that he had done since he'd received his vision, he knew that this place was home for him.
"Grant, glad to see you found everything alright"
Ward turned to find his friend Hiro standing just inside his Bunk.
"Seems like things are falling into place. Hiro make sure Mika knows what to do. I'm going to blow their minds with what I've got on Skye. Do you have what I asked for?"
Hiro smirked and handed over a file folder and two small framed pictures.
"Everything you need for this mission is in there Grant", Hiro smiled as Grant took the file from him.
"Great. Tell Peter, next time we hit New York, beer and pizza are on me"
"Poker night it is then", smiled Hiro as he teleported away leaving Grant alone again in his bunk.
"Agent Ward! Are you in there?" Called out Coulson.
"Yes Sir. I'm just dropping my gear and getting some info from a contact about someone out west they thought I should know about"
"Maybe we can look into them after we are done with our mission", Coulson offered him another smile.
"Sure boss. It's just a little background on a Rising Tide hacker that might be of some use to us", Ward told him, as he passed him the folder and let him see what he had on Skye.
Coulson stopped dead in his tracks as he read through the file.
"Where did you get all this?"
"Can't tell you that Sir. I've already sent a request to Director Fury to have you and the team read in but until I hear it from the Big Boss Man himself, I can't say"
Coulson nodded.
"I appreciate that you are willing to read the team into what you have going on instead of just me. It shows a level of trust I wasn't expecting from someone of your, err … reputation"
Ward's face took on a serious look as the two men, the team's leader and his new second in command, locked eyes.
"Agent Coulson I can honestly tell you. Not too long ago I was every bit of the broken, hardened man that you expected me to be. I had an awakening the likes of which you wouldn't believe and I found that I had no choice but to let people in and they became like a family to me. And I'll admit that it helped me to deal with the interpersonal side of things", Ward admitted, his honesty shining through to the older man.
/
"Hope your gear is stowed. Wheels up in five", came the soft yet firm voice of Agent Melina May AKA The Calvary, as she breezed past them on her way to the cockpit.
"Any chance your awakening could give you some insight into helping me get her to open up?" Coulson asked semi-seriously.
"A bottle of tequila and night at Chip n' Dales?" Ward answered with a straight face.
Coulson let out a quick laugh.
/
"How will you come at us? From the air? From the ground? How will you silence us this time? How can you? The truth is in the wind. It's everywhere. You cannot stop The Rising Tide. You will not find us. You will never see our faces. But rest assured... We will rise against those who shield us from the truth. And nothing... nothing can stop us in the..."
Skye froze as the door to her van was suddenly flung open and she saw the two suits.
One that was seriously smoking hot, but looked like his face was made of stone, and the other, older man that had a shit eating grin on his face.
"Hey … what up?" Was all she asked, before she had a black bag thrown over her head and was handcuffed, before being forcibly dragged from her van.
/
As the hood was pulled off Skye found herself inside an interrogation room.
"Forgive the lack of finesse, but Agent Ward here has a bit of history with your group, The Rising Tide"
"I don't know what-", Skye tried to speak before Ward cut her off.
"Okay, there are two ways we can do this-", Ward began before she returned the favour, cutting him off in turn.
"Is one of them the easy way?" Skye asked with more than a little attitude, apparently confidence was supposed to be key in these types of scenarios.
"No"
"Oh", Skye replied, swallowing down as images of waterboarding and electro shocks ran through her mind.
Ward gave a little smile as he sat in front of her and set a folder on the table.
"Let's just see what we know about you", Ward told her as he opened the folder he'd given to Coulson not two hours before.
"Alias Skye. Known cyberterrorist-"
"Hacktivist", she protested, only for the two men to ignore her.
"-for The Rising Tide. Born July 2nd 1988, in the Hunan Province, China. Named Daisy Johnson by her Parents Dr Calvin and Jiaying Johnson, American and Chinese respectively. Mother supposedly killed in an attack on the village where her parents were carrying out humanitarian aid work. The attack was committed by a remnant faction of the organisation known as HYDRA. In the aftermath of the attack you were taken to an orphanage by a SHIELD agent, her identity's classified. It was there that you were given the name of Mary Sue Poots"
Ward looked up at Skye's face, unsurprised to find her stunned expression.
"Mary Sue Poots? I understand why you go by Skye", he turned briefly to face Coulson, "who ever thought of that name should be shot", before turning back to the woman across the table from him, "your only known Rising Tide associates are Miles Lydon, your ex-boyfriend who currently resides in Texas, and David Linus Lieberman, AKA Micro, AKA Microchip, current whereabouts unknown"
He gave her a few minutes of stunned silence to help her process the influx of information, he had, after all, just given her exactly what she was after, what she'd spent her entire life searching for, "Skye, we are here because we need your help"
Skye was ignoring both of them, eying the file in front of him like a man dying of thirst would eye a glass of water, following it with her eyes as he casually moved it about.
Ward slid the folder over to her, before reaching over to her handcuffs and unlocking them.
"Why don't you take a few minutes to read that over and then we will talk again", Ward told her, standing as he motioned for Coulson to leave the room with him.
Once they were out of the room and the door sealed shut behind them, Coulson looked at Ward, intrigue written all over his face.
"Why did you give her all that information?"
"She is looking for her identity and where she comes from. She is hacking SHIELD because she thinks we have the answers to who she is. If we show her that we aren't hiding things from her and that we really need her help, it will buy us the good will we need to actually get her to help us", Ward explained as they moved to the monitoring station.
Coulson smiled.
"I'm glad to see that you are seeing things the same way I am Agent Ward. It's nice to see someone else that can think outside the box for this kind of thing", the older man smiled to himself, "Maybe we should try your awakening on a few of the other agents I know. It might open up some of the other avenues that we aren't using"
A morose look fell over the specialist's face, "I really wouldn't recommend that Sir"
/
7 Years Earlier
Grant Ward slept fitfully in his New York City apartment, his soft moans filling the air as he tossed and turned.
Unbeknownst to him, 'The Being' silently appeared next to his bed, looking over him.
"Well kid, you were never a true believer, so I really hope you find a better path this way. A lot of people had such high hopes for you. This time, I do hope you can prove yourself worthy of what they believed. Excelsior ever upwards Grant Ward"
'The Being' whispered as he laid his hand on Ward's forehead and the information he would need flew into his mind. The being made a further gesture and a golden orb appeared above his sleeping form before lowering itself as it sank into his body.
The being vanished and Grant Ward awoke with a cry of "Boss! No!", as he sat up, his chest heaving.
Ward bolted into his bathroom where he threw up. His mind was filled with memories of things that hadn't happened yet. And it had scared him.
As he threw some cold water on his face Grant looked in the mirror. The kid he saw looking back at him eyes pleading don't let what you saw happen to us.
/
Ward sat back down across from Skye.
"Now then Skye. As you can see we know a great deal about you. We are asking for your help to track down the Hooded Man from the video you shot not because we want to imprison him or hurt him. We want to help him." Ward stated.
He looked Skye dead in the eye cutting off her eye roll.
"I'm not trying to make SHIELD out to be the end all and be all of Goodness Skye. There are people out there that want to use empowered and gifted people for their own ends. Since the Avengers have shown up a race has started to find these people. If we don't someone who isn't as interested in protecting people will and then by hook or by crook they will make him do things that will get other people hurt. We don't want to see that happen."
Ward told her his eyes never leaving hers all the time looking at her as if he was staring into her soul.
Is it hot in here or is it just me. Skye couldn't help thinking as the Agent's eyes stared into her own.
"Why do you want him?" Skye couldn't help but ask him.
Ward leaned back a bit and closed his eyes.
"Do you remember about 6-7 years ago the explosion over New York?" Ward asked.
Skye nodded.
"It was caused by a man with abilities he could generate nuclear power from his own body. But he couldn't control it. This was a man that never wanted to harm anyone. But because he couldn't control his own powers he almost levelled Manhattan with a thermonuclear blast."
"He was a good man that lost his wife to cancer. His grief and emotions overwhelmed him until boom." Ward explained to her.
Skye was shocked never expected to be learning about superhumans from some nameless government toolbag.
"So what you killed him?" Skye asked trying to force herself to rein in her emotions.
"No Skye he reached a point of critical mass and another gifted person who had the power to fly grabbed him and flew him away from the city and that man saved millions of lives. No one will ever know. He was a hero that died to protect his little girl."
Skye was stunned she could tell that the man who died was his friend.
"So why do you want my help?" Skye asked.
Ward took a deep breath and focused himself.
"Because Centipede is just the next in a long line of attempts to create superhumans. I saw one attempt up close and personal. It worked for some. For others it cause mutations that had good Men and Women begging for a bullet."
"Your hooded friend is in danger and we want to help him. Think about it. I will be back in a few minutes for your answer." Ward stood up and walked out of the room not looking back at her.
Skye could see the pain in the Agent's eyes. He had seen things she could now only imagine.
/
Coulson and team looked on the monitors as Ward left the cell. None of them could say a word. Coulson had asked them if they knew anything about Ward or what he could be talking about only Simmons had any idea she heard of a Rouge Experiment that was destroyed trying to create Super Soldiers but she had taken it as a cautionary tale more then fact.
"So I know you are all wondering what I was talking about." Ward stated as he joined them in the command room.
"You have our interest piqued Agent Ward." Agent May answered.
Ward nodded. "I have submitted a request to Director Fury to have the team read it on this and once he ok's it I will explain everything." Ward told them with a small smile. A first step in earning their trust the right way this time.
/
7 years earlier.
Grant tossed back some aspirin as his head ached with information. Whatever had caused his vision had also left him with an ability and the knowledge of how to use it and where to find a few others like him.
Now he just needed to figure out where to begin.