Chapter Nineteen: Frankenstein's Monster


"I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other."

-Mary Shelly, Frankenstein


To say things were tense would be a massive understatement, yet Skye still felt better than she had for weeks. She had Coulson's support and was not hiding anymore secrets, which was lifted such a weight off her back that she could almost consider herself content. She did not feel as good as she did before she discovered her mystery man was Grant Ward, but she would take what she could get.

Simmons was stiff when they interacted, and she avoided Skye as much as she could otherwise. She was not lashing out or anything. Skye sensed that she was more hurt than infuriated. Still, it pained Skye because she missed having her friend, and it was even worse because Skye knew their newfound distance was not because of her powers or something she could not control. No, the reason Simmons ran away from her at every opportunity was all Skye's fault.

Another issue with her strained relationship with Simmons was that poor Fitz was stuck in the middle of it all. His loyalty to and longstanding friendship with Simmons clashed with his bond with Skye. The funny thing was that Fitz did not feel betrayed at all by what Skye had done. In fact, he had a very different outlook on the situation.

A day after the briefing where all was revealed, Skye walked through the base after training in desperate need of a drink of water. She headed towards the kitchen as she wiped the sweat off her forehead with her shirt.

She passed Trip on her way. He was as friendly as always, but Skye could tell he was biting his tongue to stop from asking about what went down after the briefing. It warmed Skye's heart that he seemed more anxious for her than angered at the secrecy. Considering his connection with John Garrett, Skye supposed that made sense.

So far she had been able to put off all the questions by directing the others to Coulson. Skye was not sure what he was telling them, but nobody was treating her like a traitor. Skye could live with that, and her gratefulness towards Coulson increased. When Skye entered the kitchen though, she stopped short.

Fitz and Simmons were sitting down laughing about something and both froze upon seeing her.

"Hey guys," Skye said cheerfully in an attempt to diffuse the awkwardness. Simmons frowned slightly and said nothing.

Fitz cast a worried look at Simmons before speaking. "Hey Skye."

Simmons abruptly stood and spoke tightly to Fitz, "I need to check the test results on the molecular composition of the samples." With that, she left quickly. Skye thought Simmons glanced at her before disappearing, but she was not sure.

Skye gritted her teeth, frustrated and guilty all at once. "Well, I guess I'll be going then." She spun on her heels to make a hasty retreat and save herself from more rejection.

Fitz caught her before she could reach the door. He stumbled out of his chair gracelessly and said, "Wait, Skye! I have to talk to you."

"What is it, Fitz?" She asked grumpily. It was not fair to take her irritation out on Fitz, but it was bubbling to the surface uncontrollably.

Fitz faltered slightly in the face of her impatience but then pressed on. "About umm you know, I think Coulson's wrong. There's got to be something else going on-"

"Fitz," Skye hurriedly interrupted. She looked around feeling a little paranoid. "We can't talk about it."

"I know, I know, but you don't believe that he was just using us, right? There has to be some other explanation."

"I don't know," Skye hedged. She was afraid to say anything else, especially while out in the open. "I mean this is what he's supposed to be good at, manipulating people and lying. What do we really know about him anyway?"

"We know enough," Fitz said stubbornly.

Skye did not agree with him, they definitely did not know enough about Grant Ward to decide anything. But as she thought about it, she did wonder. There were some things he had said that she had not paid attention to at the time and now kept reverberating in her head. It was getting hard to ignore all the thoughts of Grant.

Skye wanted to tell him that knew how he felt. She had the same burning need to have her faith justified, to have everything that had become so muddled explained away. She was on thin ice though after her actions, so she said nothing like that. "We can't talk about this," was all that came out instead as she turned and left.

Fitz had not brought it up again, and Skye was glad. It was easier to deal with Coulson who did not seem to think there was anything more than Grant working an angle for Garrett than it was to listen to Fitz think otherwise.

Skye had been trying to avoid all reminders of Grant. Several times over the past couple weeks she had booted up her laptop and accessed Grant's SHIELD files only to stop short of reading them. She just did not want to see the list of his crimes, the lies he told. Considering that trying to play the ignorance is bliss card was what caused the massive misunderstandings and her current predicament, Skye could admit to herself that it was a bad idea not to at least do her research this time.

Of course, everything that could have gone wrong had already, so what was the harm really?

Skye was content to put all thoughts of Grant Ward out of her mind for the time being. Her association with him had strained her relationship with Simmons, nearly got her fired and gave Coulson a reason to doubt her loyalty. Clearly this was not something she should think on. That did little to stop her wandering thoughts though, especially when Fitz gave her a meaningful look, and she just knew what he wanted to say.

When Skye slipped into the meeting room, she noticed that this time she was the last one to arrive.

Coulson jumped right into the mission details. "We've just received word that Hydra is going to attack a facility believed to be related to the Guest House. Both were secret research facilities affiliated with the SSR and then SHIELD but are strictly off the books." Coulson played a bit on his tablet and produced images of the facility. "My sources indicate that similar research is being conducting in the Side Door as was done in the Guest House. Which is to say it's pretty messy stuff."

He paused for a moment to give significant looks to those in the know about just what that implied. So Hydra was still after the GH formula and looking for it by pursuing obscure leads like this one. Skye could not help but think that there was no way Grant had told anyone about the fact that she had the formula in her then. This was proof of that. Why else would they be running around in circles for the slightest chance of finding a connection to the Guest House?

"Hang on a second," Hunter spoke up. "Is this place seriously called 'Side Door' and the other was the 'Guest House'?" Everyone turned to stare at him. "I'm not the only who finds this hilarious, right?" No one answered him, though Coulson sent Hunter an amused look.

"What can you tell us about the Guest House?" Bobbi asked. "You encountered it on a previous mission, right?"

"Those mission details are classified," Coulson said smoothly. Bobbi's face tightened at the response even as she remained silent. "But suffice to say the contents of the facility were incredibly dangerous and would not be safe in Hydra's hands. Luckily, the Guest House was blown up and buried its secrets with it. Less luckily, it appears that Hydra has discovered Side Door and opened the possibility of similar research falling into the wrong hands."

Hunter snickered slightly at the name again, but Skye did not find any of this funny. Coulson was right, if this place was anything like the Guest House, then Hydra could not be allowed to take control of its resources. Skye suddenly remembered her silent promise to Dr. Streiten to ensure that the GH formula was kept safe and straightened up. "So are we going to intercept them or what?"

Coulson smiled slightly at her enthusiasm. "Might not be that simple. The attack is too soon to cut them off, but we may be able to destroy the facility before they can access it." Coulson tucked his tablet to his chest and turned his gaze to the right of Skye. "Trip, you trained under Garrett. How confident are you in setting up explosives on site?"

Trip shrugged a little. "I didn't get the full training in explosives that Ward did." Skye forced herself not to tense at the name. "It's not my specialty."

"I can do it," Hunter cut in. "Between the two of us and Fitz, it shouldn't be a problem."

Coulson looked to the engineer. "Are you comfortable going into the field again?" Fitz nodded seriously. "Okay, now we need another field agent to cover you."

"I'll go," Bobbi volunteered.

"I would prefer someone with more knowledge of the Guest House for this one." Bobbi bristled slightly, probably because Coulson was the one keeping her in the dark about the Guest House to begin with. But Skye understood at once, Coulson wanted someone else in the know about the GH formula on the team. "I have another mission for you, Agent Morse."

"I can go," Skye said. She felt a personal stock in keeping the GH formula from Hydra anyway.

Coulson hesitated. "There's a slight chance that Hydra may send one of its higher ranking agents. If you fail to blow the facility up in time, you may need to engage."

Hunter raised an eyebrow, "Since when has that stopped us?"

Realization dawned on Skye. Coulson thought that since Grant interrogated Fitzsimmons about the drug, he might be on this mission. He would not say anything since doing so would reveal Skye's connection to Grant, but he was worried about sending her in for it.

"I can handle anything Hydra sends our way," Skye told him confidently. It was just needless worry, she probably would not see Grant anyway. Even as she thought that, Skye could not help but hope that she would see him. It had not even been a full month since they slept together, but she missed him. She knew she should not but knowing that changed nothing.

Besides, Skye had something to prove. She could not let Coulson think she was any less of an agent because of her past with Grant. It was over, whatever she thought they had. It would not affect her missions.

Coulson inclined his head. "Okay then, you leave in ten minutes."


When they arrived at the Side Door, it seemed like they were able to beat Hydra to it. There were no sounds of gunfire or screaming or douchebags in black suits- or any of the other typical signs that Hydra was around.

Fitz was able to open the door quickly enough. "When we were at the Guest House, a voice asked us for a password," he told them. There had been no response when they attempted to reach the people inside. The implication hung heavy over their heads, Hydra may have already come and gone and killed anyone inside.

The place seemed deserted when they walked in. It was an eerie underground facility that Fitz confirmed was much like the Guest House. The lights flickered ominously and added to the effect.

Skye took point, her gun up as she scanned the room. Fitz was right behind her, followed by Hunter and with Trip bringing up the rear.

"Clear," Skye announced to the others as she finished assessing the room. She remained alert with her sidearm poised. She had a bad feeling about all this. Maybe it was the gloomy lighting or the fact that they had not encountered anyone yet, but Skye felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise.

They reached a room with an open rectangular space as if there should be a door. On either side, there were hallways. The group paused for a second to consider their options.

"Want to start with the main room or the hallways?" Skye asked everyone.

"The main room," Trip said. "It's likely to contain the research, and we can see if Hydra beat us here."

"We'll need to set up the halls with the explosives afterwards," Hunter said.

Decided, Skye moved forward to enter the room with Fitz so close behind her that he brushed her back. The second she crossed into the room, however, a whirling noise sounded. Skye had just enough time to grab Fitz and fall forward into the room before a thick wall of glass cut them off from Hunter and Trip. Her knees bore the brunt of the impact as she crashed to the ground.

"What the hell…" Fitz was mumbled. He was sprawled clumsily on the floor, but Skye shook off the throbbing in her knees and was already up and looking around for threats. The noise was not loud, but it could have alerted someone- if there was anyone around to alert. She was now slightly more concerned that the room might attack her though.

When she did not sense anything, Skye turned to Trip and Hunter. Hunter was sporting a rather unattractive expression of shock while Trip was prodding at the glass. The way their mouths were moving told Skye that the glass was dense enough to be soundproof. It was probably bulletproof, too.

The good news was that Skye and Fitz were the best suited to get them out of a technological trap like this one. The bad news was they ended up divided. She had faith in Trip and Hunter on their own though, both were skilled and smart. Well, at least Trip was smart. Skye looked down at Fitz and worried for them. If someone skilled from Hydra was here or they faced a whole team, it would be up to Skye alone to protect him.

Fitz stood and approached the glass. He squinted at it and observed their teammates lips' movements before turning to Skye. "I think they want to go set up the bombs now."

Skye nodded to the others and mouthed exaggeratedly back to the two, "We'll get the research. You do the bombs."

Slightly reluctantly, the two of them turned away and took the left passageway. Skye gave her focus to Fitz, "Look for the research first or a way to open this stupid thing?" Skye said the last bit with a light knock on the glass.

"Shouldn't be too hard to recalibrate any system between the two of us, and we don't want to deactivate the door before we search the room," Fitz said thoughtfully.

Skye faced the room fully and decided "room" was really a misnomer. There appeared to be multiple back rooms and connected corridors. Basically, there were plenty of places to hide life or death research. "Needle in a haystack first. Got it," she said with a sigh. "Let's get to work."

"I'll focus on this area if you want to do a sweep of the back area," Fitz suggested.

Skye directed him to call out if he saw any trouble and forced down any concern over leaving Fitz alone. She would return quickly. Besides, he had an absurdly tough glass door and her to stand between him and any potential threats.

Skye began to comb the narrow corridors taking care to silence her footsteps just in case. Given they triggered some kind of booby trap meant to trap intruders, Skye did not think anyone else was around, but experience made her cautious anyway.

She was glad for her caution a moment later as she heard voices and rustling sounds coming from one of the rooms. The door was slightly ajar, and Skye approached silently with her gun raised. She paused to listen and get a feel of what she was dealing with.

"Let me handle this," a woman's voice was saying. Her tone was torn between frustration and concern, as if it was an old argument but one that worried her still. "I can't believe he even sent you out. You're in no condition to be on a mission."

Likely Hydra. Two enemies, one either injured or somehow otherwise incapacitated. Skye breathed a soundless huff of relief. She could handle this.

"I'm fine," a man growled in return. Skye froze for several reasons. She thought the voice sounded familiar, but it was difficult to say with just two words distorted so heavily by rage. But it sounded deadly and infuriated in a way that reminded Skye of her father when he lost control. That was not an auspicious thought.

It sent shivers up Skye's spine, and she suddenly realized his partner might have been referring to mental instability as the reason why he was considered incapable of being on a mission. That was really bad. Crazy people were always dangerous, but crazy Hydra people topped Skye's list of people to avoid at all costs. Skye would just have to ambush them without hesitation when she made her move so as not to give them a chance to react.

She contemplated striking immediately but decided she would rather wait and see if they gave up any intel in their conversations first.

"You're not fine," the woman seemed more exasperated now. "I don't know what's been going on with you, but you're definitely not fine. First you start messing up easy missions, then you suddenly became so obsessed with making up for lost time that you run several assignments per day. I know something put you off your game. Is that why Garrett did… whatever this is to you?"

Garrett, as in John Garrett? Skye turned rigid because she was pretty sure she realized where she had heard the man's voice before.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Grant screamed at the woman.

Skye's heart pounded. She could not move. Grant was here. It seemed like forever since she last saw him and all she wanted to do was peek around the corner and catch a glimpse of him.

But there was something off with him apparently as well. Something maybe Garrett did to him. Skye was having a hard time following the conversation.

He sounded terrifying though. Unstable, even. Skye had thought his anger on the plane when they were escaping AIM was jarring, but it was nothing compared to what she was hearing now.

Skye could not be sure whether this was actually his real personality, which he had hidden to get close to her as part of some scheme for Garrett, or if it was a reaction to whatever had maybe happened to him. She was leaning more towards the latter. The one thing people could all agree on when it came to Grant was that he was a competent spy. It was hard to believe anyone who sounded so irrational could be as cool-headed and tactical as Grant would need to be to gain that reputation.

Skye needed to go. She did not think she could face him, especially not outnumbered while she needed to protect Fitz. She wanted to hear more though and could not bring herself to walk away just yet.

"I don't know what I'm talking about?" The woman was speaking again before Skye could make a decision. "You disappear after sparring several days ago and no one hears from you. Garrett tells everyone you're doing some sort of training exercise as if the idea of you needing training isn't laughable. Then you return just before today's mission acting like an entirely different person!" The woman was getting upset now. "I'm seriously starting to wonder if you're on drugs at this point."

"Shut up, Kara," Grant snarled. Kara as in Kara Lynn Palamas, Skye wondered with dread. She and Fitz could not take on Grant and Agent 33 alone. Even with Hunter and Trip it was not a match she was certain of.

"I needed this. I had forgotten my purpose, and John was helping me," Grant continued. He sounded no less furious than before, but there also seemed to be some desperation bleeding into his tone. To convince himself? To get Agent 33 to let it go? "I deserved it for forgetting myself."

"Deserved what? Are you listening to yourself right now?" Agent 33 demanded, echoing Skye's thoughts. What the hell was going on? Something about Grant's words was twisting her stomach into knots.

Footsteps sounded behind Skye, and she turned horrified to see Fitz heading her way.

"Skye," he called. "I think someone's here." It was not overly loud, but Skye cringed all the same. She barely turned back around in time to get punched in the face.

At the same time, she heard Grant speak irately, "You've got to be kidding me."

Skye did not have any time to consider Grant's reaction though. Her gun went flying as her opponent disarmed her. She fell backwards and hurried towards a shocked Fitz without ever letting her gaze leave Agent 33. She needed to prioritize guarding Fitz. She was unarmed now though, but worst case scenario she could use her powers to stop any incoming bullets.

Though they were underground in a facility liable to fall on them and she had a shaky grasp on her so called gift… Skye was really hoping worst case scenario did not happen.

Agent 33 pointed a gun towards Skye and ruined any optimistic thoughts she harbored. Skye did not even have a chance to draw her second sidearm. She raised a hand in preparation of the bullet in an attempt to ward off the other woman's shots. But before Agent 33 could fire, a hand grasped her wrist in a bruising grip.

"Drop it," Grant barked. His focus was entirely on his partner, and Skye could not help but be disappointed. He was avoiding looking at her.

Forcibly calm, Agent 33 told him quietly and firmly, "Ward, you're hurting me."

Grant ripped his hand off of her and backed away while mumbling curses. He began running his fingers through his hair jerkily as he turned away from everyone. He was nightmarishly incensed and slightly disgusted for some reason. The skin of Agent 33's wrist was a furious red from his grip. Suddenly, he punched the wall rather pointlessly.

Skye took in Grant's appearance more than a little concerned. Mostly she was worried for Fitz and her, he seemed unstable and looking for an excuse to fight. She could see why Agent 33 thought he was not fit to be on a mission. He was nothing like his usual collected self.

There was a small part of her that she squashed ruthlessly that said her anxiety was also because something was clearly very wrong with Grant.

His hair was sticking up in odds directions, and he had more facial hair than she had ever seen him sport. The bags under his red-rimmed eyes added to the disheveled, unbalanced look.

Agent 33 shared her unease it seemed. Grant's outburst just made the other woman more wary- and more concerned. Fitz shifted uncomfortably behind her mirroring their restlessness.

In all the ways Skye imagined reuniting with Grant again, she never expected anything like this. Just what had Garrett done to him?


I bet most of you can guess what Garrett's present was now. Some of you predicted it already. So Skye and Ward have reunited and there's more to come. I had to cut this off early. I had several more hundred words but nowhere to stop the chapter. I wanted to get this out before the finale, which I'm worried about to be honest. The show's been disappointing me a bit lately, and I wanted to make sure I updated in case it killed my inspiration. Sorry for the lack of Grant POV, it didn't work for this one, but we'll get his thoughts next chapter.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed/followed/favorited. You keep me motivated where the show does not anymore. Please leave feedback if you're interested in this story, I'd love to know what you guys think and I'm a little worried about this chapter :)