Chapter Seven (Where My Demons Hide)
"I cannot believe that we can't find her." Coulson grumbled. "We turn around for just one minute and she's gone."
Bobbi sighed, "And these ruins seem to go on forever." she said. "There's no telling to where she could be now. And if that thing that attacked Whitehall and killed those two Hydra agents is still around, she could be in trouble."
Coulson grimaced, quickening his pace around the fallen ruins, "I don't even want to think about that." he said. "I don't want to lose anyone today, especially Skye. It's my fault that we lost sight of her."
"Don't blame yourself for this." Bobbi said. "She's around here somewhere, we just have to keep looking. She's probably looking for us as well. Most likely, she took a wrong turn in the fallen building we were in when our backs were turned and she got lost. I still don't see why these ruins seem endless when the island itself is pretty small."
"Must be some kind of outside illusion." Coulson said. "Makes the island look like nothing to the outside, but on the inside it's much bigger and more elaborate."
"Like the TARDIS?" Bobbi asked.
Coulson frowned, "The what now?" he asked, clearly confused by her question.
Bobbi sighed, "Never mind, forget that I asked that. But Skye couldn't have gone that far, she'll have to be around here somewhere."
"If that thing didn't get her." Coulson muttered.
"If we haven't seen it, then maybe it's not around. Or it just had a big grudge against Whitehall and the two Hydra guards for some God forsaken reason."
"Why would a supposed monster have a grudge against Hydra?" Coulson asked.
"Maybe they created it, or found it and did something to it knowing them." Bobbi said. "And then it developed a hatred towards them and wanted to kill them."
"Well it won't be killing Whitehall anytime soon." Coulson said. "He's going in one of the Vaults until he can be interrogated thoroughly. We'll find Skye and get finished up here, then we'll go back to the Playground."
Bobbi nodded, not saying anything else.
The two agents kept walking, weaving in and out around the fallen remains of the ruins, hoping that they could find Skye soon.
(Not Too Far Away)
Skye didn't run far after the shadowy, masked figure had told her to run. Her ankle hurt like hell, and that didn't help her running. Plus, she kind of wanted to see why the figure seemed like he had a grudge against her father. She hid a safe distance from them, peering out from behind a fallen statue.
She could see what the two beings were doing, but they were just out of earshot. She couldn't make out a word that they were saying.
The Doctor snarled, "Ward. What the hell are you doing here?" he growled. "How in the hell did you get here? I don't see another jet."
"That doesn't matter." Ward spat back.
"Well what matters is that you let her get away." he said. "Why keep me from her? Why 'protect' her? She hates your guts. Why do something for her?" he asked.
Ward grimaced, "Because I don't want to see her get hurt." he said. "I don't care how she feels about me, I don't."
"But you're keeping her from her family."
"You are not her family!" Ward snapped. "You heard her, she doesn't want to go with her. She told you several times, over and over. You may be her blood, but you are sure as hell not her family."
"So when does relationship beat blood?" the Doctor asked. "Because I thought that it was blood that made a family."
"Blood doesn't make family, and I should know that. My family was sure as hell not my family. They beat me, bullied me. The only family I had was my younger brother and sister. Blood does not define family." Ward snarled. "And Skye has a family, and that's Coulson's team."
"That's not her name!" the Doctor screamed.
"But you are not her family! Her family is with her team!"
"A family that you are no longer part of!" the Doctor exclaimed. "You had your chance and you blew it for Hydra."
"I was never Hydra!" Ward roared, his voice becoming distorted again.
"Sure you were. Now get the hell out of here, you have no say in this matter. She won't choose you over me, she sees you as a monster. And now, you really are one." the Doctor teased. "Go back to the hell you came from." He turned away and started to walk away, but a demonic growl stopped him.
He stopped dead in his tracks, "Damn, I let myself go too far again." he muttered as a practical blade of shadow shot past his ear. The Doctor dropped to the ground, dodging another projectile that would've surely taken off his head.
He jumped up and spun around, seeing the black beast standing in front of him once again. "You've really got to learn how to control that anger of your again." he teased.
The beast that was once Ward snarled, slowly approaching the Kree. Shadows started to swirl around the both of them, starting to surround the Kree's feet.
Skye watched in pure horror as the beast that had took place of the man that had saved her moments before lunged towards her father, shadows following it.
Her father fell to the ground, the shadows creeping upon his body and wrapping around his limbs, leaving him defenceless. She watched as her father was slowly raised into the air.
The beast approached the Doctor, bone-chilling growls echoing through the stagnant air. Skye's stomach froze as one of the black masses shot from the ground and drove straight through her father's chest. She trembled in fear of the monster and at the sight of her father slumping over in the tendrils' grasp, most likely dead, blood running down his ruffled, button-up shirt.
A bright light then enveloped the beast and her most likely dead father, concealing them from Skye's sight. She shielded her eyes as the light grew brighter then died off quickly. As she looked back over to the scene, she saw that her father was gone and the beast was as well, the man was back, lying most likely unconscious on the ground.
Without thinking she ran out from behind the cover of the fallen statue and ran towards the fallen man. He was on his back, eyes wide open. She checked for a pulse and found that he was alive, even though clearly unconscious with his eyes wide open somehow.
She frowned. Wasn't the man's eyes glowing bright red just earlier when he had told her to run? Now they were a soft, dark brown. Something fluttered in her chest, she knew these eyes.
The rest of the man's face was still hidden by the half-mask and the hood. Skye reached out a trembling hand and removed the mask. She dropped the mask quickly, and scampered back at what she saw. "W-Ward?!" she exclaimed.
She shook trying to take everything in. Ward was the man that had protected her from her crazy father? Ward was the one that somehow had turned into that monster she had saw and then had seemingly killed her father? What had happened to him?
Suddenly Ward shot up, fear in his eyes as he saw Skye. He scampered back, trembling, "No, no, Skye… You can't see me like this…. Not now… I'm a monster…. No…" he muttered.
She started to reach out towards Ward, "W-Grant, tell me, what's going on." she said as calmly as she could at the moment. "Please."
Ward shook his head frantically, "No… Not now… You can't see me like this…. Please forgive me…" And then he just blinked out of sight, gone, darkness melting into the grass of Attilan.
Skye stared in disbelief at the spot that Ward had just been sitting. He had just disappeared, but how? Skye still trembled. She had no clue what was happening. Something happened to Ward in the time he was gone, but what?
The fear in his eyes reminded her of the Berserker Incident. Something was wrong, and she was afraid to know what it was. He clearly didn't want her to see him like how he was, and he made sure of that.
But how was Ward the monster she had just seen murder her father? Nothing made sense to her at the moment. Skye just sat there in the grass, surrounded by the fallen ruins of Attilan. She stared at the ground, numb. She didn't even hear Coulson and Bobbi calling her name, headed towards her.
Author's Note: I don't own AoS, Marvel does. So that happened. Ward confronts the Doctor and seems to kill him with a shadow construct through the chest. Skye then finds out that Ward was the monster. Ward disappears out of sight when he realizes that Skye saw what happened, fearing for himself. Whitehall's captured and the Doctor seems to be dead? So what's next? I don't know. (Even though I have a really good thought of how to make the story go even further.) Keep reading and please favorite, follow, and/or review! ~AwakeAndAliveSpartan.
