Chapter Twelve (What is Left)
"I saw you from my window. I let you crawl inside. Your face became my shadow. You voice became my guide."
For what seemed like an eternity, the team waited in anguish to hear any good news about Skye. About two hours after she had been rushed to one of the infirmary rooms by a few medical agents and Simmons, Simmons came out to tell them the news.
"How is she?" Coulson asked.
"Is she alive?" May asked.
"She's fine." Simmons said. "The shadow whatever it was missed her heart by an inch. She's stable and she will live. She's sleeping right now but the guess is that she'll wake up probably in an hour or two. Of course, she'll be really sore and other than the fact that she lost a lot of blood and needed a transfusion, she's fine."
The team breathed a sigh of relief. Skye had risked her life to bring Ward out of whatever the hell had taken him over. And it worked, so far. Ward was currently in another infirmary room unconscious and really weak. Medical agents figured whatever the hell was wrong with him was slowly killing him.
They had him hooked up to all sorts of stuff to try to keep him stable, but in the past hour they had almost lost him. And no one knew what was wrong with him. No one knew what had made him into that monster. Only Ward knew the whole story. All the team knew was that the Obelisk was involved.
"When can we, ah, see her?" Fitz asked, speaking for everyone.
"Someone will let us know when she's awake." Simmons said. "And only three people at a time. There just can't be seven people in a room like that. And there's no telling how she will be when she wakes up."
"Come on, we'll all fit." Hunter joked.
"No, we can't, Lance." Bobbi said. "Have you seen the size of the infirmary rooms? They're small. Seven people can't all fit."
"She's right, Hunter." Trip added.
"We would be squishing each other to get in." Mack said.
"Fine." Hunter grumbled.
Coulson sighed, "Come on, there's still things we need to do." he said. "Like take care of Whitehall's body."
"He's still in there?" Hunter asked.
"We went straight into lockdown after he was killed." May said. "There wasn't time to do anything to his body."
"That's disgusting."
Coulson rolled his eyes, "Watch out, or i'll make you carry him up."
"Gross."
"Oh, what is left. I take what I can get and black out all the rest. What is left. Some words that I forget. And more I regret…"
(An Hour Later)
Hunter and Trip stood outside of the lab talking.
"Good thing Coulson got someone else to get Whitehall." Hunter said. "There's no way in hell I would touch him."
"Come on, Lance, it's just a body." Trip responded.
"A dead one, plus it's Hydra. I don't want to be touching a dead Hydra body."
"Well, you do have a poi-" Triplett was cut off by a piercing shriek followed by a scream and a crash.
Their heads whipped around and looked down the hall towards the infirmary.
"What the bloody hell?!" Hunter exclaimed. "What was that?!"
Triplett frowned, "I think we need to get there now." he stated. "That sounded like… It sounded like Ward."
"Which one?"
"The shriek."
"Oh."
"Something bad is going on, Lance." Trip continued. "Let's go, now."
Hunter nodded and the two agents ran down the hallway and stopped in the doorway of Ward's room, frozen at the sight they saw.
Ward was thrashing in the bed, three medical agents trying to restrain him. His eyes were glowing bright red again. One agent laid on the floor, unconscious bleeding from his head.
One of the agents yelled at them, trying to point to a tray, "Someone, get that syringe. Now!" he yelled.
"Help restrain him." Triplett said. "I'll get whatever the syringe is."
Hunter hesitated and then nodded, "O-Okay." he stammered, dashing over to help hold down the thrashing Ward.
Triplett ran and got the syringe of liquid and quickly handed it to one of the medical agents. The agent inserted the syringe into one of Ward's IVs and injected the liquid. Almost immediately, Ward tensed up and then relaxed. His eyes faded back to brown. Hunter and the agents let go of him and Ward passed out onto the bed.
"So, what was that?" Hunter asked.
"Yeah, that's new." Triplett added.
"He, he.. I don't know." one of the medical agents replied. "We came in to check in on him. Last time we were in here, we was still unconscious. We tried checking one of his IVs and his eyes snapped open and he did whatever the hell that was." He pointed to the unconscious agent on the floor, "Knocked Diggle clear into the wall." He looked back to the unconscious Ward, "He's, he's not human."
Hunter eyed Triplett, "We know that." he said. "Get, um, Diggle there patched up. We'll tell Coulson about this."
"I came here alone, I thought you'd gone. I left you in bones at the end of the road… I came here alone. A lonely heart. I left you in bones at the end of the road."
(Two Hours Later)
Skye groaned, peeling her eyes open to harsh, white light. She struggled to sit up in the bed she was in. God, her chest hurt. She blinked and looked around the room. Seeing that it was an infirmary room, she frowned. What the hell happened?
Then it hit her. The image of Ward's scared face imprisoned by the darkness formed in her mind. The blade of shadow going straight through her chest. She faintly remembered Ward crying out before she had slipped into unconsciousness. Did it work? Did she get him out of that mental prison? She wanted to know, but it seemed that she was stuck in the bed.
She heard a gasp. Skye frowned and looked over to the door, seeing Simmons standing there. "Jemma?" she asked.
"Oh thank God, you're awake." Simmons said, running over. "D-Do you remember what happened?" she asked, starting to check Skye's vitals.
"Slightly." Skye said. "I remember Ward fighting to escape whatever that was, I was calling out to him. Then something went through my chest and I went to the ground. I faintly remember Ward calling out before I passed out. Where is he?" she asked.
Simmons took a breath, "He's… He's not doing well."
Skye's face fell, "What?"
"He's been unconscious for a few hours now." Simmons said. "And we almost lost him once."
"Lost him? He almost died?"
Simmons nodded, "Yes. Whatever is wrong with him, it's trying to kill him. And just by looking at him you can tell he's close to death. He's pale, eyes are sunken in."
"He didn't look like that back on the island, and that was what? Two days ago?" Skye asked.
"Whatever is wrong with him, it's working fast. And we don't even know what could possibly be wrong with him. Other than the thing you said about him mumbling about the Obelisk 'changing' him, no one knows. Nothing like this has never been encountered before."
"I don't know either."
"And, he did wake up about two hours ago." Simmons said. "But briefly."
"What?"
"Medical agents were trying to check his IVs and he snapped awake and went into some kind of rage fit. He knocked one of them unconscious, and if it weren't for Hunter and Triplett being nearby and helping them hold him down and sedate him, he could've killed the agents. Whatever that beast was, it's still there." Simmons said.
Skye's stomach dropped. So Ward was still there, but partially. And the beast… it still could come back at any minute. Ward was still fighting for control of his own mind and body, and he was currently losing. And only time would tell who would win the fight.
"I'm trying to evade you. I'm trying to be kind. One, solemn night I'll take you down the barrel of my gun."
Author's Note:I don't own AoS, Marvel does. Song is 'What is Left' by Demon Hunter. So Skye's okay and awake, just sore and disoriented. But Ward's dying, the beast still trying to take complete control. Only time will tell what happens next. Keep reading and please favorite, follow, and/or review! ~AwakeAndAliveSpartan.
