Author's Note: When I got the idea for this storyI asked myself a few questions.

What kind of person would Grant Ward be if he had been found by Coulson, rather than Garrett?

What would have happened if Ward had been the "master of his own fate" rather than be manipulated by Garrett from the start?

This story is how I envisioned the tv show to go if he had been the master of his own fate from the start. Let's see how far we can take this. Plans are just to go and take this idea as far as I can, and more importantly with your, the readers help, as far as we can. Reviews, ideas and any feedback is always appreciated!

Now, wheels up in 3,2,1.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

Master of My Own Fate

Chapter I - Beginnings

The first beams of sunlight were appearing into the horizon as a new morning was beginning at S.H.I.E.L.D's super secret base; The Hub. Regardless of the early hour, the base was swarmed by people running errands, and delivering paperwork. Some agents were rushing into their mission briefings, while others were just waking up or hitting the dojo to practice their martial arts techniques. Scientists were running tests and experimenting, while engineers worked on numerous top secret, cutting edge inventions to help the Agents on their missions. Everything pointed towards another normal day at S.H.I.E.L.D. Just another day at the office.

However for Agent Coulson it was not "Just another day at the office." Today was the day that the kid he had found from the woods, almost exactly 5 years ago would finally graduate from S.H.I.E.L.D Academy of Operations. This was the day that Grant Ward would become a S.H.I.E.L.D Agent. All that was left was the formal ceremony in which every cadet would receive their badge and would sign the Non-Disclosure Agreement, agreeing to keep all S.H.I.E.L.D intel and other sensitive data secret from the public.

The ceremony was due to start at 7:00AM, in one of the conference halls at The Hub, and Coulson was already late. He had come back from an operation late last night, and had - breaking his habits - overslept his alarms and was now running for dear life towards Conference Room 84.

A couple sets of stairs, an elevator ride and a whole lot of running and sverving past other agents later Coulson finally made it to the ceremony.

"And now our final graduating Cadet, the Academy's prodigy Grant Ward!" The ceremony master, Agent Noah Wilkinson announced to the microphone, just as Coulson opened the door. A fairly tall man, with black hair slicked back, a muscular build, and hazel brown eyes was walking up to the front of the room where Wilkinson was waiting for him. Both of the men wore matching black suits, complete with a black tie.

"Congratulations, you made it Ward." Noah said, while handing Grant his badge.

"Thank you, sir." Ward replied with a small nod as an expression of gratitude.

He took his newly earned badge, and signed the Non-Disclosure Agreement and turned back to walk to his seat, accompanied by a standing ovation from the other Cadets of his class. Namely, Antoine Triplett who was whistling like he was in a desperate need for a taxi.

"Now everyone, you have received a call for arms into your cellphones. Within the text will be your new Superior Agent's name, and your first assignment. Good luck in the field." Noah said, signaling everyone to head off to their new jobs, after all, ceremonies at S.H.I.E.L.D never lasted long.

"So, where'd you get 'signed to ?" Triplett inquired immediately after Noah finished speaking, while they were making their way out of the room. Before Ward could answer his friend, another man spoke.

"He was assigned to my team." Coulson said with his signature smile.

"Coulson! You made it!" Ward exclaimed.

"I wouldn't have missed it for a billion dollars." Coulson replied, congratulating Ward with a gift of his own.

"What is this?" Ward asked, looking at the package handed to him. It was a decent size black box, with no logo or writing on top of it. Just large enough to fit a pistol into, or maybe some sort of necklace, he really had no idea as he studied the box.

"That's for you to find out. Open it whenever you feel like it. Now we should probably get going, our ride is waiting and we already have an operation picked." Coulson stated.

"Of course, sir." Ward replied. "If you could just give me a minute." He then asked.

"Go ahead." Coulson said, understanding the situation at hand all too well, and giving Ward some space, by moving away so he could have peace.

Ward turned towards Triplett, now Agent Triplett, who had been silently waiting and watching from the sidelines.

"Im going to miss you, bud." Ward said to Trip.

"Ima miss yo' stupid ass too bro, until we meet again." Triplett replied and gave Ward a man hug.

"See you on the other side, Agent Triplett." Ward said.

"See ya on the other side, Agent Ward." Triplett repeated before heading away.

Ward sighed at the goodbye. Antoine had been like family to him during Academy. They had been roommates since day one, and they both had similar backgrounds. Now Ward didn't know when he'd see the man again, but the bittersweetness of the goodbye was quickly given away at the promise of a new exciting adventure as a Field Agent, in Coulson's team. And so with pride and anticipation in his chest, Ward made his way to Coulson and said,

"Let's get this show on the road."

:*:

Ward had met Fitz and Simmons, the top two graduates of Engineering and Biochemistry respectively, and was informed that they would be the team's scientists. He also met their Pilot, and second Field agent, Melinda May, whom he had heard a lot of stories about, back at the academy.

They had all settled onto the Bus, and were called into Mission Briefing.

"Our first operation is an extraction of a possibly valuable asset, but also possibly a huge danger to S.H.I.E.L.D" Coulson started. Scanning his gaze through everyone's eyes to see their reactions.

"So are we talking some kind of scientist right?" Ward threw in, a bit over excited about his first mission. In reply he got a firm look from Coulson and five words.

"No. A hacker, named: Skye."

Author's Note: That's us done for the first chapter. It's a bit on the shorter side of things, but it will serve okay for a start. I want to clear a few things before I end things for this chapter, the first of which being that this story will always be updated, unless I Spesificaly state otherwise.

*SPOILERS ABOUT THE PAIRINGS*

Secondly, not all the pairings are decided, and to be honest none of the pairings will be set in stone throughout my story.

Meaning, if two people get together it doesn't mean they will stay together for the whole story and much less does it mean that they automatically will be together in the end.

Im a fan of happy endings, but I favor a good, less predictable story to a story that has every single relationship set in stone, but on the other hand I dont want you guys to think that this means that I will just for the sake of a seriously lame plot twist (Marvel, pun intended at you with the whole Captain America is actually Hydra thing.) break a relationship, dont worry I wont.