Summary:

In this fan fiction James doesn't compare. There's no need of another Hellfire.
About Hive… I had the impression that, episode after episode, It progressively deflated, like a balloon forgotten after a party. At first, It was terrible, terrifying also, with all that threatening about true power... I thought It would remain also in the fourth season, to have enough time to develop Its enormous potentiality! But, as they proceeded into the narrative It lost in intensity becoming grotesque. The scene when they trap It in the unit of containment seemed really ridiculous to me!
How was that possible? A deity, who lived thousands of years, with extraordinary powers, dominating an entire advanced civilization like a god, put in the sack in no time?
But of course! How could It resist the great Shield, the great Coulson?
I had the impression they were in a rush to complete the season, that they needed to clean up, like when you remain too long in a restaurant and the waiters start to clear the tables and expect you to leave quickly…
I had the impression they miscalculated the timings and the end of the season took them by surprise…

Did you have the same impression?

Chapter:

The destruction of Hydra, due to the revelations made by Malick on his deathbed, should have been greeted with cheers and celebrations; instead Skye's loss eclipsed that huge success.

Everyone was concerned about her - especially Coulson, May, Mack and Lincoln - wondering what Hive could have done to her.

Everyone was struggling trying to imagine what plan could It have in store for them, and for Earth.

For sure they knew that, on Maveth, Hive made an entire – advanced – civilization adore Itself like a god, making them build monstrous altars; then It provoked a civil war that ended in the destruction of the entire population.

They knew It could drive anybody mad.

They knew It could sway inhumans and transform them in Its slaves.

But they would have soon discovered that the reality was beyond any worst scenario they could ever have imagined.

In Hive's new secret place

After Shield found them in the polluted town, they had to move away. Hive was pissed about that, and communicated that to Skye, who was becoming paler and weaker, due to the blood Doctor Radcliffe was draining from her to try to reproduce the Kree experiment.

But her sacrifices would soon be rewarded with a brilliant result.

In the meanwhile, Giyera entrapped twelve Watchdogs in an alley and captured them, bringing them back to their secret place.

Hive chose their bandmaster, a tall man with curled red hairs and blue eyes, and closed him in a container, while the others were bound in shackles and forced to watch. At that point Doctor Radcliffe released in the container a gaseous compound, made out of the little amount of Kree blood they could save, Skye's blood and the Terrigenesis crystals, through a pipe. They could hear for a few instants the Watchdog's bandmaster struggle, but soon everything was silent and they could only wait.

Giyera approached quietly Hive, whispering in Its ear that he found an interesting tool in one of the ATCU's facilities: a nuclear warhead.

"Why don't we use it to spread the compound around the world?"

Hive turned its face to Giyera, looking at him like he had grown another head, and said:

"Don't be ridiculous!

Have you any idea of how much energy is released by a nuclear reaction, of how high the temperature can go?

How do you think a gallon or so of compound could resist to such an explosion?

It is biological! It would be burned up in a nanosecond!

And even if it wasn't biological, nothing can resist such a blast in a radius of several miles!"

Giyera bowed his head.

"No" continued Hive.

"We have to be subtle, sneaky.

To achieve the goal, the transformed people must appear absolutely normal, unchanged: the only change will be in their mind. They will obey me, and only me, thoroughly. I will mentally control any one of them.

In such a way, we will quietly spread the disease and nobody will realize what's happening, until it is too late."

At hearing this, Ward felt his skin coming out in goose bumps. He focused his attention, trying to push away the continuous pain he was immersed in, to try concentrating.

"The scattering of the infection must follow the same modality as a virus, through direct contagion."

"But in this way it will be extremely slow!" exclaimed Giyera.

"Don't underestimate the power of exponential growth!

Think: if each of our swayed new inhumans will be able to infect a thousand of humans, in about three passages we will be able to infect a billion people."

"Ok. But somebody will notice this. Shield, for example."

"It is absolutely realistic that some people will realize what is happening. I am keeping a close eye on Shield for this reason. But, if the infection is subtle, they will arrive too late, or at least we will have enough time to infect powerful people, that will cover us. We have to exploit their social infrastructure! Mind that, when a body is infected, I take over it, controlling it completely: they will be all appendices of me. Moreover, it's almost impossible to detach the parasites, once they take possession of a body."

"I see. But the spreading of the disease, as you described it, will only infect big cities, densely populated areas, places with a great concentration of people, while it will leave almost clean little towns and isolated places, in which the resistance could start."

"You're right. But when I will be connected with all those people, I will have a very clear map of the world and I will easily individuate such "clean" places, as you define them. Then, having so many infectors at my disposal, and having I the power on atmospheric phenomenons, I will spread such a huge amount of parasites in the wind, in the waters, in the aqueducts, in the rain and on the ground, that nobody will remain untouched!

By the way, don't worry for my mental health: each time a mind connects to the hive, my power increases, like adding a server to a computer network.

Earth will be ours in a month, two tops.

Earth will be a kingdom of peace, of harmony, where everybody will share a common goal and a unique thinking, for the greater good. My greater good!

This is true power."

Giyera remained pensive for a moment, then exclaimed:

"Impressive!"

In that moment Doctor Radcliffe attracted their attention: noises could be heard from the container. The transformation had taken place. It remained only to verify it.

Giyera opened the container and the Watchdog bandmaster exited, without whatsoever sign of change. Inside there weren't traces of cocoons or other fragments at all, but the bandmaster fixed immediately and directly his stare on Hive, without flinching. Hive mentally gave him the order to infect the remaining eleven Watchdogs and he turned towards them, raised his hands and a flow of parasites left the tips of his hands, reaching the eleven and engulfing them. They froze for a few seconds, and then regained focus. Their eyes had become vitreous, inexpressive, but other than that no change could be detected.

They turned immediately their stares on Hive.

And It, slowly, said them these words:

"Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. Diffuse my cure to every creature. Whoever accepts it and is baptized will be saved, but whoever refuses it will be condemned."

Giyera said them: "Come with me. I will deliver you to metropolises, airports, train and subway stations, stadiums, big malls…"

Hive nodded, contemplating the group leaving the base, but in the meanwhile it was inspecting Doctor Radcliffe thoughts. In fact, the doctor was having a flash of inspiration and Hive was curious to know what it was.

Radcliffe felt that Hive's words where disturbingly similar to the ones Jesus said to his twelve apostles, at the end of the Gospel.

And Its emissaries were exactly twelve…

Then another though crossed Radcliffe's mind: "Satan always tries to ape, to imitate God like a monkey."

And then it clicked in the doctor's mind what Hive's true origin was, and, consequently, what Its intentions really were, but he hadn't time to dwell upon his discovery much, because Hive made him pass out an instant later.