Chapter Seven (The Knife is Turning Now)

(Two Days Later)

Ward walked down the hall towards the kitchen once again, clutching his head as another headache gripped it. He seemed to have a headache at every waking moment, ones that made him nauseated and disoriented. It even made spots dance on the edge of his vision, but he tried to ignore them.

And he hadn't told anyone about these headaches. They had been going on since his episode the other day, something else he hadn't told anyone else about. He lumbered into the kitchen, hoping that drinking some water would help.

Ward reached the fridge and about fell over when a wave of vertigo hit him like a ton of bricks. He grabbed onto the handles of the massive fridge to hold himself up as his world began to spin.

"What… The hell?" he slurred as he struggled to keep himself up. He fell to the ground with a thud as his hands slipped off of the fridge's handles. As he fell, white-hot pain lanced through his right side. But he couldn't scream out.

His disoriented eyes drifted down to his side, widening as he saw bright red blood staining his white shirt on his side. Shot? He had been shot? But how? He had heard nothing.

The room continued to spin as the pain in Ward's side continued to grow and grow. He heard muffled talking from outside of the kitchen. It sounded like Skye, Fitz, and Hunter to him. Hell, he really didn't know. His eyes were trained on no point in particular as the three agents came in and stopped in fear at the sight of the fallen Ward.

"Ward!" Skye exclaimed, seeing Ward slumped against the fridge, sweat glistening on his paling face. His eyes were also widened in pain and he was breathing heavily.

"Is he hurt?" Hunter asked.

"I think he fell." Fitz added, worry in his voice.

Skye's face took on a worried look as she approached Ward, "Ward, are you okay?"

Ward continued to be silent, but his eyes shrunk in fear as Skye's shape distorted and when she became clear again, there was a gun pointed towards him. He held his arms up the best he could, "D-Don't shoot me…" he stammered. "Already… Blood…"

Skye's face fell, "Why would we? Wait, blood?" she asked, looking around the kitchen. "There's no blood, Ward."

But Ward didn't hear any of this, he was trapped in some other world. He watched in fear and in pain as Skye approached him closer, the gun pointed at his head and a slight smile on her face, "Never turn your back on the enemy. You told me that." she said. "This is what you get for being Hydra scum, asshole."

Ward froze as he heard a gunshot and screamed, but heard something else.

"Grant! Snap out of it!"

He blinked, the vision of the gun-wielding Skye vanishing into thin air. He realized that Skye was shaking him. "S-Skye?" he stammered. Shaking his head, Ward bolted to his feet only to stumble again. But Skye supported him.

Skye looked him in the eyes, his wild and weak-looking eyes, holding onto his shoulders, "Grant, are you okay?" she asked calmly. "I sent Fitz and Hunter to go get Coulson, Simmons, and med agents."

Ward's wild eyes frisked Skye. His body was shaking and it still felt to him as though the world was spinning. "The blood." he said. "You're not covered by the blood."

Skye's face paled, "What blood?" she asked. She looked him up and down, "Ward, there's no blood on you. We found you lying on the floor. You started screaming about not shooting you and blood." She lowered her voice, "Are you sure that you're okay?"

Ward pushed Skye away from him, "Skye, I'm fine. Now leave me alone like I told you." he growled weakly. He went to turn around, but his vision distorted again and he fell to the ground, everything going black.

Skye's eyes widened and she quickly crouched down to Ward's side. "Ward! Grant!" she exclaimed, shaking him She felt for a pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when she felt his rapid pulse. He had only passed out.

She looked him over, knowing that Ward was losing his mind. Just like Coulson had said. But it was worse though, 'cause it was affecting him physically as well. She gulped, "Help! Grant passed out!" she screamed. "Hurry the hell up!"


(Later)

Coulson took a breath and looked to Simmons for an answer to what was wrong with Ward. Skye and May stood by him and Fitz stood by Simmons. The others were elsewhere for the time being.

"Simmons, what's wrong with him?" he asked.

Simmons shrugged, "I really don't know, sir." she replied. "Everything points to that he simply passed out from exhaustion, like he hasn't slept for the past few days. But what Skye, Hunter, and Fitz said about him screaming…" She trailed off, looking to the unconscious Ward that laid in the bed on the opposite side of the glass.

"That sounds like a hallucination. Something about Skye shooting him." she continued. Simmons looked to Skye, "What did he do after Fitz and Hunter left him?"

"He snapped out of it, kind of." Skye explained. "He claimed that he was okay, but after he asked about 'the blood'. Like he had been hurt or something. But he wasn't. He turned to leave and collapsed. I don't know what it was." She gulped, "If he was hallucinating, then I think it was about the time I shot him. I'm not convinced otherwise. Memories are returning."

"Dammit." Coulson spat, running his hand through his hair. "It's worse than I thought."

Fitz raised an eyebrow and looked towards the Director, "What did you originally think, sir?" he asked.

"I've only told Skye this, 'cause I wanted to make sure. But this confirms it. Even though it's worse than I thought. Skye and I believe that Hydra has gotten their hands on TAHITI technology somehow." Coulson explained.

May looked to Coulson, her face fallen, "Phil, this is serious. Why didn't you tell us?" she asked.

"Only because I wanted to make sure." Coulson repeated. "But it's sure this time."

"TAHITI?" Simmons questioned. "As in that thing that erases memories?"

Coulson nodded, "Specific memories. It's possible that Hydra got a hold of a machine and used it to erase Ward's memories of Hydra. And then they threw him back at us. But it's backfiring.

TAHITI was never stable. There were a lot of ,uh , well, subjects that went insane from violent hallucinations and delusions spawning from the memories trying to break through the ice." Coulson continued. "It's highly likely that Ward's going through this and it's even affecting him physically as well. So this is a dire situation that needs to be fixed now. Before he goes completely insane. Or remembers what he needs to for him to turn against us again."

Fitz frowned, looking to the unconscious Ward along with everyone else. A heavy feeling of fear settled into his stomach. He looked back to Coulson, "Uh, and how do you do that?" he asked.

Coulson's face fell, paling in color, "I have no damn idea."


Author's Note: I don't own AoS, Marvel does. So Ward's 'condition' is taking a turn for the worse as some of the more violent memories are starting to rise to the surface in hallucinations. And they're affecting him physically in a way. Kind of like a somatoform disorder, since there's no physical cause of the pain. Can the team help him before it's too late? Keep reading and PLEASE favorite, follow, and/or review! ~AwakeAndAliveSpartan.