Author's Note: After reading so many fanfics, I decided I wanted to attempt my own. This is my first time writing in the AoS fandom and my first time in years writing fanfiction. I'm currently a college student so I won't be promising to stick to any kind of updating schedule.
Anyways, I've always had the idea of Ward being a double agent on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s side. I know this has been done quite a few times, but I wanted to give my own spin on it. Some chapters will Since this is my first time writing AoS fanfiction, I'm sure I might accidentally make the characters OOC from time-to-time as I try to find my footing. Please bear with me! Please also note that I haven't watched the show beyond the first season (I'm a bitter Ward stan) so there's a large chance that I might get things a bit fudged up since I'm relying on Wikipedia and spoilers for anything after season one's events. Fitz won't have brain damage in this fic.
Future chapters will include flashbacks, but for now, I just want to try to establish the story as well as I can and find my footing. Other recognizable MCU characters will make their appearances in this story.
I don't have a beta so any mistakes seen are mine.
Summary: What if Ward was a double agent on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s side? AU. Ward was never Hydra. Picking up at 1x21 Ragtag. Eventual Skyeward.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Marvel, Disney, or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The fanfic title comes from the song 'Heathens' by Twenty-One Pilots.
The fewer that knew of Agent Grant Ward's mission, the better. Only a select few could know due to the sensitive matter at hand.
Grant Ward needed to bring John Garrett and his section of HYDRA down at all costs.
Being branded a traitor of the team – his family – wasn't what Ward wanted, but it was what he had to do. He had to make the team think he was a mole for HYDRA instead of the other way around. Their reactions needed to be genuine.
Phil Coulson was the only one from Team Bus that knew of Ward's mission, but he couldn't share that information with his team. It pained the man that he couldn't share the information with his team, but he had to do what was necessary. The team would understand that Ward did what had to be done when they could extract him.
There was one other person on the Bus that could figure out Ward's mission though and that was Skye. The hacktivist would dig and wouldn't rest until she had answers. Things weren't adding up since Ward's allegiance to HYDRA was revealed. Why wasn't Victoria Hand dead? Or Eric Koenig for that matter. And why were FitzSimmons rescued not long after being dropped in the ocean?
The questions were running rampant in Skye's mind and she needed answers. She had to have answers.
"Coulson!" Skye shouted as she barged into Coulson's hotel room without knocking first. "Care to tell me what this is about?" she asked as she plopped the stack of papers about Grant Ward on his desk. "There are a lot of redacted files in here about Ward. All redacted by S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Where did you find these, Skye? I thought you wiped everything." Coulson needed to find an out. He couldn't reveal Ward's mission – not yet. It was too soon. If Skye knew, the information was bound to find its way to the rest of the team. The rest of the team weren't supposed to know of Ward's supposed betrayal being fabricated by S.H.I.E.L.D. in an effort to bring down Hydra.
If it wasn't for Ward, S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn't even know about Hydra. That was a story that Coulson didn't want to get into with Skye and he planned on avoiding it at all costs.
"I did some digging. I was the one who wiped everything so I was able to go back in and retrieve the information on Ward. Explain, Coulson. I know something's up. I mean, why would Ward leave Hand and the two guards alive? Not to mention Eric Koenig was also left alive. And then FitzSimmons were rescued almost immediately after being dropped – by Ward of all people – into the ocean." Skye crossed her arms over her chest as she looked at Coulson.
Coulson rubbed at his temples and looked at some of the files Skye dug up on Ward. He knew about a lot of these missions. They were missions that only Fury had clearance access to so he didn't even want to know how Skye managed to find some of those missions. The only saving grace was that they were all blocked out.
"Is Ward really Hydra or is this some kind of ruse?" Skye asked when Coulson didn't answer her questions.
"You're not going to leave until you get answers, are you?" Coulson pointedly looked at Skye and an exasperated sigh left his lips when Skye shook her head no in response. "Alright, Skye. You can't let this information leave this room."
Skye's eyebrows laced with confusion at those words and she relaxed her posture slightly as she leaned up against the wall. "Fine, Coulson. Just tell me if Ward's really evil or not."
"No, Ward's not evil. He's not working for Hydra. He's working for S.H.I.E.L.D. as a double agent. The reason Hand and the guards were left alive was because Ward used a gun that worked just like an ICER but looked like an actual gun. Koenig was just knocked out by Ward when he got close to figuring out about Ward supposedly being Hydra. FitzSimmons were rescued when they were because Ward sent me this" Coulson took his cell phone for communications with Ward out of his pocket and showed Skye the text message Ward sent him about Fitzsimmons with coordinates and 'FitzSimmons ocean. Garrett asked me to cross them off. Only choice I had.' in the text message. "so that we could send in help and get them back to safety."
Skye moved from her position and sat down on one of the chairs, stretching her legs out and looking back over at Coulson. "Who all knows?"
"Fury, Hill, Hand, Romanoff, Barton, myself, and now you. I couldn't tell you or the rest of the team because it could compromise Ward's cover if too many people knew. Skye, we can't tell anyone else." Coulson knew that if anyone else knew, it could potentially ruin their entire plan. Ward needed to be the inside man if they had a fighting chance to bring down Hydra.
"Hold up a second, Coulson. What do you mean that Black Widow and Hawkeye knows?" Skye couldn't help the fangirl in her coming out at the mention of Romanoff and Barton knowing the truth about Ward's mission.
"That is a completely different story. Ward will be the one to tell you that when he's able to come back to S.H.I.E.L.D. For now, all I can say is that Ward is very good friends with Natasha and Clint." Coulson couldn't reveal all of the secrets to Skye and besides, he wanted to have some harmless fun in having Skye's thoughts otherwise occupied about why Ward was friends with two of the Avengers.
"Coulson, pleeeeeease," Skye pouted, sporting a ridiculous puppy dog look in her eyes and quivering her lip innocently. "I promise I won't tell anyone. Not even Ward. I'll let Ward tell me himself."
An amused expression crossed Coulson's face as he looked at the young agent sitting across from him. "I'm not going to betray Ward's trust like that, Skye. He's going to have a lot of explaining to do to the team when we rescue him and that ties into his story."
Seeing that Coulson's decision was final and nothing would change his mind, Skye stood up from where she was sitting and stretched slightly before heading to the door. "Alright, Coulson. So I can't go tell FitzSimmons the truth about Ward? Or May or Trip?"
"No, Skye. You can't. This is classified information and Fury would be ticked off if he knew that I told you the details regarding Ward's mission."
"Fine. I just want Ward to return safely. I'll go work on finding more Hydra bases." Skye left the Director's hotel room and went back to the room that she was sharing with Simmons. Skye grabbed her laptop and began digging around for Hydra bases, hoping to come up with a hit. They needed to be able to rescue Ward and help him take down Hydra. One man wouldn't be able do to that by himself, not even Ward. As strong and capable as Ward was, Skye knew that he wasn't going to be able to take down Hydra without any help. "Come on Hydra bases," she muttered to herself as she began typing away and employing various hacks she could use to find Hydra bases or at the very least, those who were known as serving Hydra.
Author's Note: Honestly this chapter is terrible. I have ideas on where I want to go with this story, but I always struggle with first chapters. I'll try to have the second chapter up by the end of the week. The next chapter will be an AU take on 1x22: Beginning of the End. This first chapter mainly sets up the story to where Skye knows that Ward is undercover.