Hellfire
Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Marvel™.
Note: this story contains character deaths.
The man was bound, both hand and foot, in some heavy, almost customized, chains. Overwhelmingly big on many an average person, on him they appeared to be somewhere between not big enough and just right.
The man was bound, motionless.
Occasionally he would shift, not so much as to make himself comfortable – the chains that bound the cuffs were also connected to the wall behind him (and there was nothing else in his cell), so he could not make himself comfortable at all – but he would still shift.
A door opened, and two men stepped through. The one of the left was Lance Hunter, a grimmer and older version of the once easy-going mercenary, who lost his old nature a long time before he lost his dignity and most of his S.H.I.E.L.D. underlings and coworkers to Grant Ward's Hydra. When capturing him and Bobbi Morse, a long time ago, Grant had broken him, not through pain, but through pleasure, giving him multiple orgasms (admittedly stimulated) as often as he could, while Bobbi watched – and eventually he released them both.
Both Hunter and Morse survived, but their relationship did not. Bobbi left Hunter and S.H.I.E.L.D. for good, undergoing the T.A.H.I.T.I. to mend her broken heart, while Hunter became Ward's sworn enemy and one of the more dedicated S.H.I.E.L.D. agents ever.
Ward did not care. He knew who the physically better man was, and that was good enough for him. Let Lance climb the cloudy peaks, he once said, as he showed the smaller man the finger and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. Lance Hunter had lost it back then and tried to kill Grant – as he always did – and Grant defeated him once more, for the more they fought, the sloppier Lance appeared to become, which was good for the course of Hydra-
Ward did not care. He had gone caring about most things a long time ago.
The one on the right was Phil Coulson, and he did not change at all, save that he had finally replaced his missing arm with a cybernetic one – a gift from both Fitz and Mack, no doubt. (They still had not found Jemma Simmons, though Leo did not give up hope – but Ward did not care.) Otherwise, Coulson was still the same.
"Ward," he said evenly without any fake good cheer that he had used on the younger man before. "We meet again."
Ward said nothing. Both Coulson and his protégés, (Hunter and Johnson, never Skye, never again), tended to talk, a bit too much, in Ward's opinion. Ward did not care, but he found this sort of thing useful on occasion. He also knew that Coulson, at least, knew about his opinion and did not care much about it, which was just as Ward wanted – and with enough time, Ward tended to get what he wanted. He wanted Coulson to stop treating him as an insignificant, second-rate enemy – and it worked. He wanted Coulson to realize that he was dealing with a leader of men rather than just a skilled assassin – and it worked. He wanted to realize that making Grant Ward into his enemy was a monumentally bad idea – and it worked.
And why was he here? Because just a brief while ago Grant Ward decided to be captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. after seasons of combat – and it worked.
"Do you know why you're here?" Coulson continued nonchalantly.
"Why am I not stone?" Grant finally spoke, gathering all of his wits together – Coulson was more cunning than a fox and still the smarter man out of the two (even if Hunter was in the equation, which he was not). "I am not an alien like those Secret Warriors are!"
(Speaking of Secret Warriors, Grant had noticed some shadows out of corner of his eye – it was probably them, Johnson and her lieutenant, Lincoln. Ward did not care. He had feelings for Johnson once – but that was a long time ago. Whatever feelings he had for her had died back then. Johnson never realized this, of course – she was more stubborn than even Hunter was, perhaps because unlike Hunter she was not an asshat. She was many things, but not an asshat. Ward did not care. Johnson could believe whatever she wanted to – their paths had diverged a long time ago, if they ever had been on the same page. He doubted that now.)
"...Yes, you sort of are," Coulson admitted, looking almost embarrassed. "When a rogue faction of Inhumans tried to destroy the world – you were too busy torturing Morse at that time to realize that, of course – the crystals, their bioweapon got into the sea, into sea fish and into fish-based products that people ate and used."
"Another glorious victory for S.H.I.E.L.D.," Ward spoke up to stay in character that he had created for Coulson. "The main threat dealt with and a lot of new ones left behind to provide the organization for years with work. Bravo!" He twitched as if to clap his hands, forgetting about the restraints.
"You bastard," Hunter growled. Ward did not care about him, so he made eye contact with him, and as always Hunter looked away: he could not endure Ward's gaze, but then again, few people could, not even in Hydra.
"...Anyways," Coulson sighed, drawing Ward's attention back to himself, "people had been ingesting alien substances for a while now, and the results are beginning to show. You – are one of those results."
"...that's not a reason not to shoot me," Ward shrugged. He was almost ready, but he could use Coulson talking for another five minutes or so.
"No, it's not," Coulson agreed, deceptively mildly, before lashing out at the younger man – verbally at this point. "Grant, you had a chance to become a good man, perhaps even a hero! What you did instead was to become a monster, a Hydra agent of the old school!"
"I had – at first – just some grass-root Neo-Nazis under my control, few reluctant allies at AIM, and a need to keep Strucker and List happy," Ward replied in a raspy voice, unused to talking. "Of course I had to fall back onto the old school to make it work. Why am I here?"
"You didn't have to fall back onto the old school of anything; you didn't have to join Hydra in the first place," Coulson snapped. "All of what happened happened by your own choosing!"
"Not this," Ward lied. "I would rather just shoot you on sight; you would rather shoot me on sight, so why am I here, again?" he was almost done with the whole thing, including Coulson, so he would rather not here the older man rant.
"Because out of all the Hydra forces that you have mastered, this time, you were one of the few that survived," Hunter ground out. "Between the fish products and the human-Inhuman inbreeding going on for a long time, you had just enough alien DNA to survive and to gain powers."
"So you're going to shoot me here?" Ward shrugged. "You really like unnecessarily complex plans here at S.H.I.E.L.D."
"No you idiot!" Coulson snapped. "You're an Inhuman now, not just a man! You may have powers – useful powers – powers that can be used to make the world a better place, not worse! You have one final last chance to make something out of yourself other than a bloodthirsty killer and thug! A murderer!"
"I have powers," Ward replied thoughtfully, playing along for one final time. "That would mean what? Working under S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Quake? Or Daisy? What is the name she has nowadays, anyways...?"
"It means working in her division, under her supervision, nothing more," Coulson ground out, sounding about as unhappy as Ward usually did for the first time. (Usually he hid his feelings better.) "Whatever you thought you once had with her had died, killed by your actions - again. Do not try to hurt her with your delusions, Ward, or else you will be shot-"
Coulson did not finish. In a blaze of hellfire Ward's restraints melted away, and as the younger man rose to his feet, he drove his flaming hands into Hunter and Coulson, setting them afore, both flesh and clothing.
"You won't have to worry about that, sir," Ward, or rather – Hellfire, smiled a jagged-tooth grin. "I just wanted to know her name."
As the corpses twisted and cracked, Hellfire reached for the dropped ICER of Coulson, even as fire alarms went off drenching everything, including him with water, covering the cell with steam that obscured the view – but not fast enough for a wave of vibration to surge through the cell, slamming into Hellfire and carrying him away – into the back wall, and out of sight.
"Phil, Phil, are you okay?" agent Quake – also known as Skye – rushed into the room, followed by her loyal shadow, Lincoln. "Hunter was right – that animal should've been shot right then and there."
A shot is fired – from an ICER. That is usually harmless, (well, relatively harmless), for this is an electricity-based stun gun – not a real one. Usually. When it is discharged into three or so inches of water, the situation is different. Especially for Lincoln, whose own Inhuman powers are already electricity-based and should not be used in water.
"Yiii!"
Lincoln 'discharges'. Violently. It is Skye's turn to be blown off her feet and slammed into the opposite wall. Lincoln is not so lucky. He just goes splat.
Shaken and hurt, but still alive, Skye looked around. Someone crawled out of fog – and it's Ward, Grant, Hellfire, her 'robot'. His gaze, lately emotionless and black, flat and cold, is currently glowing with an unholy red light, making the T-1000 jokes (jokes that had been made a long time ago, a time when they were innocent and happy) look particularly unfunny.
"Ward," Skye croaked, as she tried to fire off another wave of vibrations – this time to no effect. She is still a powerful warrior, a force to be reckoned, but her old, her first S.O. was always better than she was in a melee combat. His hands, burned with fire, clump upon her throat with an unexpected strength. "Please. Robot..."
Hellfire gazed at her. He remembered her - the woman that he thought had loved at first, but now feels nothing at all what so ever. What he had felt for Kara Lynn was true love, but he failed to realize it before it was too late, and now Kara Lynn is gone forever – all he can do now is to make a pyre out of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s bones. "Good-bye, Rookie," he said calmly. "You should've killed me a long time ago instead." With the last ounce of strength he snapped her neck – before collapsing himself, dead at last after a life of sorrow.
...In less than twenty minutes other agents began to arrive – but it was too late. All they had now had were several corpses; each one damaged beyond resurrection, and even cloning would not probably work. It was not exactly a disaster, (though Quake was one of the candidates to succeed Hill and Fury as S.H.I.E.L.D. leaders, so her death does through S.H.I.E.L.D. politics into some disarray, as do the deaths of Hunter and Coulson), but it is a tragedy; some agents (like Dr. Fitz, who has never fully recovered after the loss of his friend and lab partner, Jemma Simmons) have to be put onto a suicide watch – but as a whole S.H.I.E.L.D. goes on.
...Still, the Golden age that S.H.I.E.L.D. was supposed to have after Hydra had fallen at last feels somewhat tarnished, all the same.
End
Author's Notes
...Yes, there's no doubt – this sort of thing will never come to pass; odds are, Grant will die by himself, abandoned and alone, or will find redemption and return to S.H.I.E.L.D. as a better, redeemed man, but right now? The long odds favor the first version, and here is where Hellfire comes in.
Hellfire was a character in the Secret Warriors' story arc; a character, who joined Fury's elite group of agents with powers to battle Skrulls, Leviathan, Hydra, but eventually betrayed his team to Hydra but tried to fudge the odds so that agent Quake, also known as Daisy, could survive. Gee, wonder whom he sounds like? Yes, like Ward, save that Hellfire was able to manifest flames and use them to explode things (somewhat similarly to how Gambit from X-men can), and a while ago there were rumors of Grant developing some sort of flame-related powers in S3. Hellfire, hello, let us make things go whoosh!
...Needless to say, this will be very bad news, for by now Grant has moved beyond S.H.I.E.L.D. and beyond Skye due to Kara Lynn's death; he has no ties with them and will not do their jobs for them, not anymore. By now, he has fully signed onto team Hydra, which is monumentally stupid – right now, Hydra is little more than grass-root Neo-Nazis, who'll probably sell out Ward to Coulson or anyone else due to a minimal reward or threat and are simply no match for S.H.I.E.L.D. Ward too will not do anything good for Hydra – whatever else he is, a leader he is not. He will either become a hero once more or die as a villain, alone; because "Agents" seem to have designated him as a main villain of the show, odds are on the last option; but if he does, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s victory over him will be costly, including to the main cast until the bitter end.