Summary:

Here I try to represent a little what, in my mind, Hive's danger could have really been…

Comments are greatly appreciated: please, let me know what you think!

Chapter:

As it took possession of human minds, Hive became more and more powerful and euphoric. It was a drug in both directions: from Hive to humanity and from humanity to Hive.

But Hive had a score to settle with Shield: they stole Daisy from It, so It was planning to assault Shield base, and talked about it with Giyera.

"Before I go there, they need some… preparation." Hive said.

"What kind of preparation?"

"I need to settle myself near them, within a mile radius, to have the possibility to penetrate their minds. After a week of my 'treatment', be sure their thoughts will be so messed up that it will be a piece of cake entering in the base and destroying everybody and everything there.

They took Daisy away from me and I want her back.

I also believe that they should be 'educated'.

I respect very much the one who gave me this body.

Grant Ward was strong, resilient, a perfect host.

I have access to all his memories and I know how he desperately tried to do better, meeting only hatred and hostility from those who proclaim themselves defenders, shields both for humanity and for every individual man. If they had helped him, we wouldn't have been here, right now.

I really have to thank them. They provided me not only the way to return, but also the mean!

The cliché is once more confirmed: the greatest Hydra's ally is Shield!

This has been possible thanks to their hypocrisy, which has led them to consider themselves superior to others, more worthy, more pure, more valuable. They continue to keep all weapons they find, instead of destroying them: they are men of war, not peace.

Grant Ward, alone and lost in the maze of his sick mind, believed to be worthless: for this reason he threw his life away.

He was subjected during all his life to the worst kind of brainwashing: the one that leads you to think you don't worth anything and that nothing is worth anything, accordingly.

Now I will make them try a little brain-messing and we will see if they are better than him!"

So it disguised Itself and took up residence in one of the few houses in the remote village where the secret base of Shield was located.

Ward was inside, dreading what would happen soon enough…

That night was the beginning of hell for the base's inhabitants.

Hive's objectives were mainly the human commanders and scientists of the base: Coulson, May, Mack, Fitz, Simmons and Lincoln, but It didn't spare the other humans.

It hit also Skye, to punish her for her betrayal, even if she couldn't have done anything about that.

It didn't care: she had to know who was in charge!

It knew all the bonds that tied them: for example he knew the trust Coulson had for May, the devotion May had for Coulson, the adoration Fitz and Simmons had for each other, the loyalty Mack had for everybody, the love Lincoln had for Daisy, and her affection towards him…

So it started working right on those bonds, to destroy them.

Fitz and Simmons were conducting an analysis on a strange and diffused meningitis outbreak: at the beginning of the disease, all the media advertised regularly on it, trying to help in isolating it. But, with the passing by of time... nothing more was heard, because the contagion had spread to the authorities, the police, the local governments, and all said authorities became progressively controlled by Hive, that made them cover everything up.

But then Shield was involved by more pressing matters: Hive began infesting their sleep with nightmares so terrible to leave them horrified and deadly scared of the possibility of falling back asleep.

May dreamed more and more of the little girl in Bahrain, that she was her and Ward's daughter, with long black hair and a pair of eyes exactly equal to his: she killed her shooting at her and then Ward discovered the fact and then he became mad at her, accusing her to be a monster, to be a degenerate mother, an unworthy woman, and beating the crap out of her… Then the little girl returned as a zombie and killed her…

Other nightmares involved Coulson and him giving her the order to suicide, because she had became a burden to the team… and she was torn between obedience and self-preservation…

And again… she dreamed about killing him…

Coulson dreamed more and more about his act of killing Ward hollowing his chest, but Ward only the first time was integer; the second time he was already decomposing, and Coulson was forced to squeeze an already putrefied chest, teeming with worms, that climbed up his hand, his arm, his neck and then up his face and into his eyes ... and there he always woke up screaming!

Other times he dreamed of Rosalind, that he himself was aiming at her neck pulling the trigger and she once more was bleeding in his arms, for his own fault, this time.

Other times he dreamed of Skye embracing Ward, kissing him, making love with him, and then raising and saying: "You always tried to separate us, but we were destined together! You didn't help him when he needed it, you didn't give him a second chance. You killed him. So you deserve to die!" and sending against him a shockwave that destroyed him like she did with Malick…

Fitz dreamed of Simmons in Will's arms, alone in their bunker on Maveth, making love and laughing at him. Then Will progressively transformed in a monstrous tentacled Hive, and Simmons was at first horrified, but then Hive transformed again in Ward, in so an astonishingly handsome Ward so that Simmons couldn't resist him, and embraced him and kissed him… but then again he transformed in Hive and engulfed her with its tentacles and its parasites and killed her. The only thing remaining of her was her own skeleton.

Other dreams implied Fitz captured by Hive and sacrificed on one of its horrible altars.

Simmons dreamed of Fitz, of him swayed by Hive, becoming crazy and trying to kill her, and so she was forced to defend herself with extreme means. She also dreamed about the spreading of the meningitis to a worldwide diffusion, mankind transformed to a mass of puppets obeying only to Hive, cold, distant from one another, the relationships between people almost non-existent: parents indifferent to their kids and vice versa, couples divided, voluntary associations and social assistance dissolved, friendships untied… like a mass of robots, like a mass of de-cerebrated.

Mack dreams were probably the worst of all. He dreamed of Armageddon, of Apocalypse: all the nations of the world battling one against the other, the tension increasing day by day, the governments taking desperate measures in desperate times, and then using all the weapons at their disposal to defeat the enemies, bringing the Earth to self-destruction through chemical, biological and nuclear warfare.

Lincoln dreamed of Daisy betraying him with Hive: he saw the two of them having sex in front of him, and he was becoming crazy with jealousy. Then Hive made Daisy hit him, and she enjoyed that. Hive was also torturing him saying that Itself was the only one who could give Daisy what she really wanted, that bond, that sense of belonging, that happiness that he wouldn't ever be able to give her. And Lincoln saw himself starting drinking again, and then going out for a car drive with Daisy, and then being involved in a terrible car crash in which Daisy died. He saw himself with her lifeless and bloody body in his arms, calling her name and crying.

Daisy, or Skye, probably was having the worse nightmares ever. She saw herself hurting all the people she loved: Coulson, killed with a sniper rifle like the one she used against Donnie Gill; May, beaten to death with the same techniques she taught her; Fitz strangled against the wall; Simmons stabbed with syringes and scalpels; Lincoln destroyed with a shockwave; Mack, with his heart ripped away from his own chest…

She dreamed also about Ward: he was accusing her to be the responsible for all his evil actions. He reproached her that, if she didn't shoot him, he never would have met Kara and, in a chain of events, he wouldn't ever have gone to Maveth and brought back Hive. Also, she saw herself saying to him that he didn't try suicide hard enough, only to see himself grabbing a pistol and shooting himself in the head, then getting up only to cut deeply his wrists, and then running against the walls… and so on, in a horrible succession of suicide attempts… She always woke up screaming!

This situation led to an awful period of sleep deprivation for all of them: their thoughts became foggy, their bodies weak and their wills feeble. But Coulson wasn't stupid, and he suspected what was going on, even if he hadn't any idea of what to do about that assault. After several hours of brainstorming he had indeed a good idea: Hive's mind was the result of thousands of minds fused together, so if they could stir all those memories and bring them out of place with the memory machine, for sure Hive would fall in a great confusion, weakening him.

The idea was good, but to work it implied Hive to be reachable, and It, instead, remained hidden in the shadows.

Moreover, Hive had access to all their thoughts and became aware of this plan, making it useless.

Hive was becoming impatient: Shield was dangerous, always struggling to find a flaw to exploit, and it had to be finished quickly.

So It started with the second part of the plan, which consisted in putting everyone against the other.

It made May starting to suspect Coulson to be infected and to face him in the open, while Coulson thought the same about May: they ended up fighting against each other and Coulson, in spite of his cybernetic hand and of the fact he was heavily armed, was getting the worse of it. May was beating him to death, without any remorse in the world. She even appeared to enjoy that!

The same was happening between Fitz and Simmons: Hive infiltrated their mind and Simmons poisoned Fitz, while Fitz took a more physical approach, simply slapping and beating her until he fell unconscious on the ground due to the poison.

Mack had been segregated in a room, because he was trying to kill everybody with his axe!

Skye was already in a containment unit, and Lincoln quickly was thrown in another, because he was messing up with all the electric systems.

All the other agents were fighting against each other or trying suicide and in all this mess Hive had the possibility to enter the base without being noticed.

Ward, inside of It, was horrified by the overall spectacle, but hadn't any idea how to stop it.

So he tried the unthinkable: the only one remained lucid was Simmons, because she already accomplished Hive's mission to defeat Fitz. So Ward concentrated deeply, over all the pain he continuously was suffering, and fused his mind with hers. Evidently, he could use some of Hive's powers!

The sensation she felt was to be catapulted from the mess of the base to a very quiet place, like an empty church, with solar rays pouring through the coloured windows at sunset.

There she found herself face to face with Ward, but a Ward chained to the wall, with his chest bared, suffering, heavy breathing, battered and barely able to raise his head and watch her in the eyes.

It seemed every word he spoke required a huge will's effort to be pronounced.

"Jemma…"

"Ward?! What the hell are you doing here?"

"Jemma… listen to me… we are running out of time… You have to destroy my body… Please…. Please… Jemma…"

"Destroy you body? And how I am supposed to do that?

I am out of my mind! I have just poisoned Fitz!

And I cannot understand why I'm here and not finishing him like Hive commanded me to do!

How much I love it!

Why can I think of my own, by the way?" she seemed almost hysteric.

"I know… I know, Jemma… I am protecting you against It…"

"Ha! Trying to confound me like you have always done?

…

Ward?

…

Ward?"

But he was fainting in front of her, only the shackles keeping him upright.

She approached him and shacked him and gave him light slaps on the cheeks.

"Ward! Ward! Wake up!"

And he with great effort managed to reopen his eyes.

"Jemma… Isn't there… any Terrigenesis Crystal… around…?

I know Skye… stole everyone of them… but maybe…

Oh, you should have seen… how carefully… Hive… stayed away… from them!"

That appeared to puzzle her mind but then she answered:

"Yeah, I have one of them in the lab, to experiment on it…"

Ward perked up at this:

"Good… good!

Go… and grab it… then throw it at me…

It should… pulverize my body… forcing… Hive… to manifest… Itself…

In that moment… you have to… to burn It… with… with whatever weapon… you have…

Attract It… to the containment unit… fill it with inflammable gas… close the door… and set the fire…

Hive has… to be returned… to the hellfire… It belongs to…"

"But so you will die!

You want to sacrifice yourself?

I cannot believe that.

You must have some angle…"

"You think… I wanna… live like this?"

"I don't believe you.

Ward?

Ward?"

But he definitely had lost consciousness and she found herself back in the base.

Had she to believe him? He was her enemy, he tortured her… but he didn't give the impression he was lying.

Moreover, she had to do something about Hive: she was the only one that could do something. She was the only one that seemed… free. How could that be possible?

In that moment she saw, in the monitors, Hive entering the base.

It was now or never.

She ran to the lab, grabbed the Terrigenesis Crystal and returned to see that Hive was directed towards the area that held the containment modules. Daisy was kept prisoner there and Hive knew it.

Simmons kept approaching and assisted to a chilling scene between the two of them: Hive freed Daisy and she was humbly kneeling in front of It, begging It desperately to take her back!

But Simmons wasn't surprised: she had just experimented what mental control meant, how much trust, reliance, confidence, belonging it implied… so it wasn't surprising that Daisy wanted to rejoin all of that… it was too good!

Hive reached for a panting Daisy, caressing languidly and openhandedly her cheek, but then withdrew with a jerk and a shocked expression on its face:

"I can't."

"Why? Why not?"

"That creature… it made you… impervious!"

"Please… Just…"

"I'm sorry, Daisy."

After that Daisy was seized by such a deep rage, such a unbearable anger that she screamed like she never screamed in all her life, overwhelmed by pure wrath, her eyes filled with hatred and only one goal in her mind: make Hive suffer like she was suffering, inflicting on It the same pain she was enduring.

And then Simmons assisted to one of the fiercer fights she ever saw: Daisy used all her powers to destroy Hive in a furious battle made of hurls against the wall, heavy objects thrown, kicks, punches, blocking and pinning, until Daisy took a knife and stabbed Hive multiple times!

But Hive remained indifferent, as if she was hitting someone else, as if It did not feel any pain!

Daisy was shocked, so she began receding and started throwing at It several shockwaves that broke all Its bones, but Hive, unblinking, regenerated Itself continuously.

At the end, taking advantage of a moment of distraction, It hit her head making her faint and throwing her in a free containment unit, closing her up.

"Never turn your back on the enemy." It commented.

Simmons knew she had to react fast, so she ran towards Hive while It was still distracted, threw the Crystal at Its feet and retreated immediately, to take shelter from the mist.

Hive remained dumbstruck for an instant, unable to react fast, but had enough time to say:

"Woman… what are you doing?

What have you done?

Why couldn't I see you coming?"

Then It screamed in pain, while the cocoon progressively covered Ward's body, starting from the feet up the legs, the torso, the arms and finally the head.

In that moment all felt quiet and all the humans mentally controlled found themselves free.

May stopped herself from beating Coulson just in time not to kill him, Mack stopped trying to use the axe, and all the other agents stopped to be suicide or homicide maniacs.

Has been Hive defeated so easily?