So You're the One
Disclaimer and Notes in Chapter One.
Chapter Thirty-Five
"Do we have an agreement, Doctor?" Baron von Strucker asked the mysterious man he knew only as 'Cal'.
"Yes." Cal agreed, exchanging a look with the woman by his side. Von Strucker didn't know much about the woman with the ruined face, except that she had once been with HYDRA and her allegiance seemed to have shifted to the mysterious doctor.
The baron knew even less about him. Only that he'd had a grudge again Daniel Whitehall and that he was the father of the Avenger known as Quake. It was that information that made him valuable to von Strucker, especially along with the information that she had been born human but had come into her powers during the incident that had caused Whitehall his life. But apparently, while she had been human, her father was not and von Strucker knew to treat him with caution.
Cal made no pretences about being aligned with HYDRA and von Strucker respected that. One didn't have to be HYDRA to be an ally and at the moment, his purpose and Cal's over-lapped. Though, he was sure that they would each inevitably try to betray the other.
"So you will help me apprehend the woman they call Quake." Von Strucker pressed. He remembered the dark-haired Avengers fascinating power and everything he had since learnt about her had shown him that she would make a most fascinating subject. Especially the fact that she was allegedly pregnant, which formed the basis of his deal with Cal.
After all, working together would be problematic when they both wanted the same thing and had different long-term plans. However, the current situation had allowed them to come to an agreement.
"Yes and then, once my daughter is delivered of her child, she will be released into my care," Cal reminded him, "and you can do what you wish with the child."
It wasn't the perfect arrangement, really von Strucker would rather have both mother and child to experiment on. However, the in-womb child of a Gifted subject was too good to pass up. He'd come upon the twins in their youth and had been able to learn so much from them, but an infant! That would make the best subject of all.
Particularly given the mother's history. The Baron had a few artefacts of interest and he was interested in seeing how young a subject could be brought into their abilities and what the effect would be. No, this child was the specimen he had been dreaming of, and it was worth sacrificing his chance to experiment on the mother. Besides, he was still hopeful he could betray Cal when the time came and keep both mother and child.
"You do have a plan for taking care of the Avengers, I assume?" Cal commented, reminding von Strucker of the one obstacle in their way.
The Avengers Tower was heavily guarded and Quake, or Daisy as Cal called her, never seemed to leave on her own, and von Strucker had had people watching the Tower for months hoping to catch her on her own.
However, von Strucker was used to overcoming obstacles and he had been putting a plan into action. He needed to distract the Avengers long enough to whisk Daisy away permanently. He knew they'd come after her, but he had confidence in his ability to keep her hidden for a very long time.
Coulson frowned as he received information from one of his field agents in Italy. "Ok, well at least that's one more Hydra threat out of the way. Do you need back-up? Send the information to the Playground then."
"Problem?" Skye asked as she entered his office.
"Just another mysterious HYDRA cell that had been disabled and left for S.H.I.E.L.D. to clean up." Coulson told her.
Skye made a face. "Ward."
"There's no way of knowing for sure, but I think so." Coulson agreed. This was the 8th HYDRA cell that had been taken down by an unknown agent in the last four months. There was no message of any kind left behind, but Coulson still had the gut feeling that Ward was behind it.
Whoever was doing this was obviously an expert and was working solo and seemed to have extreme methods, from the reports Coulson had received. All of which added up to be the work of Grant Ward. Ward had been one of the best specialist agents S.H.I.E.L.D had ever trained, which was what made him so dangerous both as a HYDRA agent and as solo agent. Perhaps even more so as a solo agent, because at least when Ward had been HYDRA, someone else was calling the shots and since Ward had proven to be a bit mentally unstable… Well, left to his own devices, he was a bomb waiting to go off.
"At least he's not tagging them 'for Coulson' anymore." Skye pointed out, leaning against the door. "And he's stayed out of our way for months."
"Yes." Coulson agreed. They hadn't seen him or heard from since Austria and for Skye's sake, he was glad. For his own… The fact that Grant Ward was free was concerning. He might be 'helping' them, but Coulson would never consider the other man an ally.
"Do you think he and Cal are still working together?" Skye asked with a sigh, unconsciously rubbing her stomach.
"No." Coulson told her. "Everything points to a one-man operation. Also, Cal was last spotted in Greece and at the time, he was only accompanied by Agent 33. I think we can assume that he and Ward have parted ways."
"Thank goodness for small mercies." Skye muttered.
Coulson wasn't 100% that was actually a good thing, but he refrained from saying it out loud. As unstable as Ward was, he'd shown a reluctance to harm Skye and Coulson knew that he at least believed he had Skye's best interests at heart. Coulson wasn't sure the same could be said about Cal and he worried that Cal on his own would be even more unpredictable and possibly even more dangerous. However, he didn't want to worry Skye, so he kept that thought to himself.
"You know that we won't let either of get anywhere near you," he promised Skye.
She smiled. "I know. I'd complain, but I appreciate that everyone cares about me and the baby and the reality is that my psycho father is out there somewhere and that one day he will try and come for me." She made a face. "I can just hope that Ward has at least moved on and that he won't be our problem any longer, because one psycho after me is about all I can handle."