Chapter 36: Ozymandias, King of Kings
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
-Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ozymandias"
Skye's heartbeat was even. The lingering sense of doom had not abated, merely curled up in the pit of her stomach waiting to spring up her throat and steal her breath. But that did not matter.
The Skye who stood out of sight of the southwest entrance of Hydra's headquarters was focused and determined- and unhindered by her personal feelings, the way May had taught her.
Maybe if she told herself that enough, Skye would begin to believe her own thoughts.
Still, she felt a calm wash over her, her feelings at odds with her circumstances. Somehow putting her life on the line was easier than facing the tangled mess of her love life, all the questions May had asked her and all the answers she did not have. Most of all, preparing to cut off the head of Hydra was far simpler than dealing with Grant's disappointment when she dismissed the possibility of leaving SHIELD.
Truthfully, Skye loved Grant with a dizzying mix of desire and desperation and devotion, but SHIELD had become a part of her. Skye could no more leave her badge behind than she could separate her soul from her body.
Skye needed to be "part of something bigger", the way Coulson always put it. She needed that purpose and she needed that outlet for her desire to help people. And Grant needed more than just Skye, even if he didn't realize it.
If they were to run away from it all, they would probably be very happy and very unfulfilled at the same time. Besides, Grant needed someone like Fitz in his life to broaden his social circle, and Agent Kara once they saved her. Grant could not continue to live as if his world hinged on one person; Skye had Grant's best interests in heart, but it was would be all too easy for Grant to fill his Garrett-shaped hole with her if they ran away from it all.
Skye knew all of this, but that didn't change that Grant clearly didn't get it and May's words echoed in her head reminding her that carving out a place for Grant in SHIELD may be impossible.
Skye clenched her fists and let out a deep breath. That was tomorrow's problem because today she needed to go kick some ass.
Grant punched in the code for the southwest exit and pushed it open to face the barrels of five guns. Upon verifying who had emerged from Hydra's HQ, the SHIELD team lowered their weapons, albeit more slowly in the case of the Cavalry and Morse. Grant shot them a dry look.
"I hope you're not planning to keep me waiting all night," he said.
Skye smirked and blew a loose strand of hair out of her face. "And here I was thinking how can someone be so arrogant and so slow at the same time?"
Before Grant could reply to her teasing, Skye's cheeks darkened as she muttered, "Shut up, Fitz" seemingly into the air and Hunter barked out a laugh.
Grant raised his eyebrows, "Where's my comms unit? I'm obviously missing out on Fitz's sparkling wit."
Coulson handed it over while the Cavalry watched, her unreadable expression somehow containing more disapproval than the private school teachers that berated Grant throughout his childhood for "acting out". Earlier, the group had wasted a full five minutes debating whether Grant should get comms hooked up to SHIELD's system, despite how impractical executing a mission like this would be without Grant connected to the team. May was the most vocally opposed, naturally.
Grant smirked at her as he inserted his comms unit into his ear.
More pressing than seeing May bristle- which was apparently too much to hope for- was the desire to remove Fitz's specialty contacts the second he could. He had insisted on it. Efficiently removing the contacts, Grant blinked a few times to clear his vision before handing them to Skye for safe keeping.
"Time to go to work," Skye said as she sidled up to him.
A quick glance around assured Grant that the others had wordlessly paired up as agreed. Morse and Hunter would raid Hydra's collection of weapons, Coulson and the Cavalry were targeting the apparent bombs first and then Whitehall himself, and Skye and Grant were set to hack into the mainframe and acquire any secrets that Grant may not be privy to as well as disable Hydra's communications.
Grant thought it was dumb that he wasn't on the bomb squad, but he also wasn't about to argue with a plan that left him alone with Skye. Coulson and the Cavalry being positioned to kill Whitehall was just a plus. Grant just had to make sure he arrived during the resulting chaos to save Kara.
"You all have your orders," Coulson said. "Check in every 10 minutes or I'll sic Melinda on you." The SHIELD director cast a fond look towards his partner.
Despite it being an opportune moment to make another wonderfully cutting remark about Grant's untrustworthiness, the Cavalry actually smiled instead in a rare showing of affection.
It was creepier than Whitehall had been while interrogating Grant.
Skye reached out and squeezed Grant's hand. "Ready to go, partner?"
Grant gave into a moment of weakness to picture that morning when Skye had curled into his side and resisted waking up, hiding a grin into Grant's skin. Grant had been struck by an indescribable feeling. There was warmth blooming in his chest, but more than that, Grant had been content. Nowhere he longed to be, nothing he wanted to do, Grant had been satisfied with his life and himself. He had not known that was possible.
Would he ever be ready?
Grant strode out of the room in the direction of the computer room. "Waiting in you, rookie."
The only snag they hit on their trip to the computer room hit was a couple of unfortunate Hydra agents stationed outside their destination.
Grant blocked Skye's path and pulled her with him tight against the wall to peer around the corner. They had to keep moving or risk other agents stumbling across them.
Grant raised his sidearm and whispered to Skye, "The shots may alert additional forces."
From her position crouched beside him, Skye glanced at the clueless agents guarding the door. She shook her head.
Grant raised his brows.
"No killing," she hissed.
Grant's expression turned incredulous. "Years I work for Hydra and you consider all our lives forfeit and now that it's actually useful for me you care?"
"We kill only in self-defense," Skye insisted. Not that that had always been her policy with regard to Hydra agents, but between the revelations of Agent Kara's situation and how Grant himself wound up working for the terrorist organization, she couldn't stomach any unnecessary deaths.
"Even if we knock them out, they'll likely wake up before we finish dismantling the base," Grant countered. "We're wasting time-"
"Yes, we are." Skye didn't let him finish and instead darted around the corner to ambush the two guards before they had a chance to raise the alarm.
She delivered a swift punch that robbed the first guard of consciousness before the second could even utter a word.
As his companion fell, the Hydra agent let out a startled, and unprofessional, yelp as he raised his gun. Skye disarmed him before he could threaten her and used his own gun to whack him on the side of the head.
"I want it on record that I was against this," Grant said as he opened the door to the computer room and quickly determined no one was inside.
Skye wasted no time getting her fingers on the keyboard. "Just throw them in a closet or something and let the master work, superspy."
Grant snorted but did as she said.
After he finished securing the unconscious Hydra agents and locking them away, Grant activated his comms unit. "Beta team checking in. We're on site."
"Copy that, Beta," Coulson's voice echoed in her ear. "Delta, check in."
"Delta team good to go," Bobbi said.
Skye tuned it all out as she breezed through the firewalls pathetically attempting to keep her out and plugged in the drive to collect the files she selected. But as the minutes dragged on, Skye found herself biting her lip.
"What's wrong?" Grant asked once he sensed her unease.
"Not sure," Skye admitted. "But the security is too weak. I had a harder time with the routine hacks I did with the Rising Tide."
Grant drew closer and peered over her shoulder. After a second of scrutiny, he grabbed her arm. "We need to go."
Skye didn't even hesitate as she allowed him to pull her towards the exit. "What's going on?"
Grant ignored her. He released her arm and activated his earpiece. "We've been compromised," he announced over the channel.
"What, already? What did you do?" Hunter grumbled.
"What happened?" Coulson asked.
"Not Skye and me," Grant answered as he peered out the cracked door into the deserted hallway, "All of us. They know someone is going to infiltrate the base."
"How do you know?" May demanded.
"The information Skye was pulling, it's false," frustration was creeping into Grant's voice as he indicated with his head that they should move out. "The base locations, the drop zones, all of it is wrong, but I know this is the central computer. Whitehall must have been expecting someone would try to access the mainframe."
The hallway was empty, but Skye's pulse raced in response to Grant's agitation.
"The one thing I don't get," Grant muttered as he scanned the area, "Is why the computers are so protected. It's like Whitehall knew Skye…"
"Grant?" Skye prompted when he left the sentence incomplete.
Grant looked pained. "Kara," he offered, as if in answer, but his response only left Skye more confused.
They turned the corner with their weapons raised, but two guns and their admittedly impressive combat skills paled in comparison to the several dozen armed Hydra agents that emerged as they made their way into the room.
"Agent Ward," Whitehall greeted. "How good of you to join us." His words were directed at Grant but his eerie gaze focused on Skye.
Grant noticed, too. He shifted to pointlessly block Skye from him. Whitehall gave a toothless smile at the gesture, as if the display was amusing and childish and of so little consequence to him that he could enjoy the entertainment it provided.
"I had so hoped you would join us willingly, but this played out as I expected." Whitehall laced his fingers together, unperturbed by the unwavering barrel of Grant's gun directed at him. "When Agent 33 first informed me of your… preoccupation, I anticipated your futile rebellion."
Preoccupation. Like the full spectrum of human emotion was oh so quaint to him.
"Play along, Skye, Ward," Coulson's voice rang out over the comms before everything went silent. The team must have cut them out to not distract them.
Skye did not even need to glance at Grant to know that his expression betrayed nothing.
But Skye's eyes did cut to Kara Lynn Palamas, who outwardly showed no signs that she recognized the breach of trust she had committed against her closest companion. Grant never looked away from Whitehall. He acted as though the revelation was to be expected.
Which, as Skye considered it, it was. If Hydra could eradicate Kara's loyalty to SHIELD ideals and replace it with a commitment to world domination, why did Skye think that her devotion to Grant would stand up against her fidelity to Whitehall?
Whitehall's lips quirked up in something that could maybe pass as a smile; he stared right through Skye. "You, however, were the piece of the puzzle I never anticipated."
If possible, Grant somehow grew even stiller.
"Daisy Johnson," Whitehall mused, "It's been so long since I've heard that name."
For a second, Skye was too startled to know what to think. How did Whitehall even know her birth name? But then she recalled a seemingly inconsequential moment, at a party, surrounded by Rodchenko's affluent guests…
"Who's this, baby?" Agent 33 asked sweetly in a voice louder than the ones Skye and Grant had been using. Skye realized that they were probably posing as husband and wife, which made sense since that was what Skye and Hunter were doing as well. It grated her a little anyway. Besides, Agent 33's show forced all of them to get into character.
"Daisy Johnson," Skye introduced as she held out her hand. She had figured her birth name was unknown enough to get away with. Daisy felt like a different identity to her anyway.
Agent 33 shook it.
Skye didn't know what to think, she didn't know why it mattered, but now she was cursing her own stupidity. It had felt so meaningless at the time, nothing compared to her inner turmoil over her affair with a Hydra agent and the questioning gazes of her colleagues as they struggled to understand how she knew the infamous Agent Grant Ward.
Skye's glare hardened. "I'd say it's a pleasure, but I don't mind being rude to Nazi terrorists."
Whitehall continued to give her his creepy parody of a smile. "We can skip the pleasantries if you prefer. I was merely remarking on how fortuitous it is, after years of searching for you."
Skye furrowed her brow. Grant may as well be made out of stone beside her.
"Look, I don't who you think I am, crazy," Skye said, "But you're not going to be thinking it is 'fortuitous' we met for much longer."
Whitehall actually laughed before he uttered words that chilled her to the bone.
"Your mother had the same fire when I first started with her. Unfortunately for her, her gift only protected her for so long. I had so hoped you'd be more of a challenge, but you had disappeared by the time I finished with her."
Dimly, Skye heard Grant's words from ages ago echo in her mind.
"Whatever you're imagining, it's not even scratching the surface. You have no idea what Whitehall does to people who are… special in his opinion. He once experimented on a woman for a week taking her apart, removing her organs and parts until there was almost nothing left."
Was that her mother? Or was her mother just one of many? Was that to be Skye?
Whitehall was demanding she and Grant be secured, commanding the agents remain alert around Grant because he was one of the most dangerous killers Whitehall had ever encountered.
"Skye?" Grant whispered under his breath, somehow cutting through the roaring in her ears. She knew he was worried about her, enraged on her behalf even, but Skye had shut down.
She allowed the Hydra cronies to tie her to a chair without protest. Everything was white noise.
Grant would say he was following Skye's lead as he lowered his weapon and let his former colleagues wrap him up like a present for Whitehall to devour later, but Skye wasn't doing much in the way of leading since Whitehall's disturbing proclamation.
Whitehall's promise that Grant would soon comply did not faze him. It was always a possibility that Whitehall would try as much, and Grant had a few tricks up his sleeves yet. So Grant gave a murderous smirk and considered his next move.
A boom rattled the base and interrupted Whitehall's gloating.
"What was that?" Whitehall asked, his gaze piercing Grant.
Grant smirk widened. "Sounds like you've got company. I'm hurt, I thought we were the only party guests special enough to be invited."
Whitehall evaluated him and dismissed the possibility to Grant would talk. He barked orders and fled with most of his lackeys to face the intruders.
Kara visibly hesitated, glancing uncertainly at Whitehall's back as the Hydra leader departed. Mind made up, she drew closer to Grant's now bound form.
"Grant," she spoke urgently under her breath. Grant knew better than to expect remorse or loyalty, so her next words barely stung. "It's going to be okay. Dr. Whitehall will fix this, you'll see." She glanced at Skye, who seemed worryingly catatonic still. "It's her fault, I know. You didn't know better. Dr. Whitehall told me about them, they're monsters."
Kara smiled in a way that only someone completely delusional could in their situation. "Everything will go back to normal when Dr. Whitehall finishes with her and helps you. We'll be partners again."
Grant hoped his grimace passed as a smile when he responded truthfully, "You're right. We'll be partners again soon."
She lit up as he had known she would, but Grant was hollow, emptied out by the past few weeks.
Kara cupped his cheek in her hand and rubbed her thumb across his skin in an attempted gesture of comfort before she followed the path of the man who had robbed her of everything.
That left Grant with the three stodges who were to be his and Skye's guards. Grant appraised them lazily as he deliberated how he wanted to play this.
"Don't suppose you'd let me go," Grant tried sardonically. He just needed the opening.
"How dare even joke, traitor!" Andrews, a man of little importance and little intelligence, said in response.
"Traitor," Grant mused aloud, like he was tasting the word on his tongue and found it unpalatable.
"Don't play dumb," Andrews' slightly less moronic companion Chang said. "We know what you did."
Grant cocked his head to the side. "And what did I supposedly do?"
The last idiot snorted. "You show up here with a SHIELD agent and you want to pretend like it's nothing."
Bingo. Thank you, LaMarcus. "One girl and you act like I brought Director Coulson to our doorstep. I'm not working with SHIELD," Grant scoffed. "I'm just working against Whitehall."
"You may as well be working with SHIELD if you're against Whitehall," Andrews argued.
"Whitehall isn't Hydra. He's allowed his obsession with alien tech blind him. He's no longer focused on Hydra's needs," Grant said, passion infused in every word. "John saw this and sought to return our focus to gaining the advantage over SHIELD and wiping out anyone who would stand in the way of Hydra's path to greatness, so Whitehall killed him."
"Whitehall said you killed Garrett because you fell in love with that SHIELD whore," Andrews sneered.
Grant didn't care what Skye said, Andrews was a dead man.
Grant did not dare look in Skye's direction, not that she was likely to give him anything, eerily silent as she was at the moment.
"You think I would kill Garrett?" Grant asked, his tone as even as his steady heartbeat. "Why would I do that? I've been loyal to him for most of my life. Whitehall's the one who was always trying to drive a wedge between us."
Andrews looked uncertain now. Grant's reputation may not win him any favors for likableness, but everyone knew of his staunch devotion to John.
"I'm not about to throw my lot in with someone who killed my mentor, doesn't appreciate the necessity of Hydra's ascension"- okay, maybe he was laying it on a bit thick- "and can barely hold a gun."
Grant leveled them all with a look. "I don't respect anyone who sits in a comfy chair while the real men take action on the field." Grant nodded at the three of them, and as expected, their chests swelled up with pride, manly men that they were.
For a second, Grant imagined 'real man' Andrews facing off against the Cavalry and struggled to keep up the act.
Chang leaned over to whisper something to Andrews and LaMarcus. All three men drew back as they deliberated. Not a single eye was on Grant as he made his move.
It was honestly sad how fast they went down, not that making them question their loyalty to their supreme leader was any more difficult to achieve.
"One of the best trained killers" and Whitehall couldn't be bothered to assign more than three morons to watch Grant. He couldn't decide if he was grateful or insulted.
"It's like he wanted me to escape," Grant mumbled to himself and the earpiece that was still activated. "At least give me a challenge."
Grant knelt by Skye's side and made quick work of her ties. He glanced at her and felt his heart constrict. Her eyes were lifeless in a way he had never seen. He squeezed her thigh as he stood.
"We have to move quickly," he said to her as he led the way to the door. His hand went up to his ear as he did. "Fitz, what's going on?"
There was a brief pause as Fitz unmuted their earpieces before Grant got his answer.
"Bobbi and Hunter set off some of the more attention-grabbing items in Hydra's arsenal to draw Whitehall out," the engineer responded. "Are you both okay?"
"We're fine," Grant said. He checked the sidearms Andrews and Chang had for number of rounds and debated whether he should hand Skye LaMarcus' given her state of mind. "I'm getting Skye out of here."
"I'm not going," a soft voice said.
Grant paused and looked back at her. She stared at the door behind Grant and refused to meet his eyes.
"Skye," he began.
"I said I'm not leaving here," she said as she turned her impressive glare on him. "Not while that monster's still alive." Skye hugged herself as she turned her gaze towards the floor.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
"Coulson and May are distracting Hydra agents on the east wing," Simmons reported. "But they are still planning to eliminate Whitehall."
"Maybe you should return to base with Ward," Trip added, lighthearted tone absent for once.
Skye's only reaction to those words was to deactivate her earpiece and look to Grant expectantly.
Against his better judgement, Grant followed her lead. Clearly the other field agents were occupied and the others could only offer advice that Skye seemed dead set on ignoring. None of them were in any position to help Grant.
"Where would Whitehall be?" Skye demanded. Her once dull eyes had lit up in rage and Grant's sense of unease grew.
"I don't know-"
"Liar," Skye hissed. She unfolded her arms with deliberate slowness. "Don't you dare lie to me right now."
Grant dropped all pretenses. "You're in no condition to go after Whitehall and the squadron of Hydra agents he has guarding him."
Skye flexed her fingers at her sides. "I feel fine."
"You know what I mean," Grant said.
Skye straightened. "If you won't help me, I'll find him on my own."
Grant holstered his weapons as he scrutinized her. Subtly, he widened his stance. "I'm not going to let you go after Whitehall so emotionally compromised that you get yourself killed."
Skye stared at the floor once more, clearly torn.
Grant took the opportunity to raise his hand to his comms unit. "Fitz," he called out.
Before he could utter another word, Skye snarled, "Out of my way."
Skye's hand flew up and Grant was hurtling through the air before he could process the movement. He collided with the wall and crumbled into a heap on the floor. His ears rung but he someone managed to hear the crunch of Skye's earpiece under the heel of her boot.
As his vision darkened, Grant couldn't decide if the whispered apology was imagined or not.
"Ward!" Fitz's overly concerned voice was the first to filter in as Grant struggled towards consciousness.
"Ward, do you copy?" That was Coulson, annoyingly calm and unflappable.
His name echoing in his ears, Grant painstakingly worked his way back towards consciousness. He couldn't have been out that long. He blinked a couple times and ignored the chorus of SHIELD agents asking what happened; that would be annoying while he was in his best of moods- a state that rarely occurred and couldn't be more out of reach in the present as the memories of why exactly he was sprawled on the ground of Hydra's headquarters returned.
Skye hadn't knocked him hard enough to justify the wooziness he felt, but the shock to his system combined with the stress of the last few days made the process of getting to his feet a sluggish, uncoordinated mess that he was glad no one was around to witness.
But, with the strident determination he was known for, Grant was on his feet and running out the door in a minute.
"Agent Skye, Ward, do you copy?" Coulson asked once more.
Ward activated his ear piece only somewhat begrudgingly to answer, "Coulson."
"Ward," Coulson said, sounding almost relieved, "What's your status?"
Grant huffed to himself, "It's a long story that involves me ending up unconscious on the floor."
"Where's Skye?" May demanded.
"She's the reason I was on the floor," Grant admitted with a dry twist of his lips. There was a beat of silence during which time Grant assumed the agents were processing that, and for once, he didn't want to drag out the answers. "She used her powers on me when I tried to stop her from going after Whitehall."
Grant was glad that the SHIELD agents had all heard what transpired earlier. He had no desire to repeat Whitehall's cruel taunts to Skye in explanation of her quest for revenge.
Grant imagined the Cavalry and Coulson were likely debating amongst themselves with the comms off, but all he heard was Coulson's response.
"Where are you?"
"I'm moving to intercept Whitehall," Grant replied. "He's got to be going to the hangar if he's not with you."
"We're on our way," Coulson said as soon as Grant finished speaking. "Agents Morse and Hunter, secure the weapons and be ready in case we need backup."
It was that moment the shaking started.
His instincts screaming at him otherwise, Grant ran towards the chaos. Twice, he stumbled when a particularly forceful quake rocked the base, but propelled by his desperation, Grant made it to the hangar in record time.
It was complete pandemonium, and at the center of all was Skye.
Grant spied Kara crouched against a column watching the show. He saw her rise as if to make her way to protect Whitehall but the shaking was too much, and she was forced to grab the wall once more for balance. She was close enough that Grant stumbled in her direction; no matter how this ended, Kara would be devastated.
Before he could make it more than two steps towards her, however, the base shook with enough force to send Grant careening into the wall.
"You want to see my gift?" Skye shrieked, amidst the debris of the crumbling base.
"You like to play with special people?"
"Skye!" Grant shouted, a hopeless attempt to get her attention.
Skye did not react, but then again Grant could barely hear his own hoarse voice over the maelstrom surrounding them.
Grant had known for some time that Skye was capable and dangerous when the situation called for it, but he had never seen her as deadly. That was a word reserved for monsters like Grant; Skye was the only brightness in his life, the person who would argue for the lives of Hydra agents and look at Grant and see something other than a lost cause.
But she had always been a mess of contradictions, and while Skye was all those great things, she was also proving to be able to bring Daniel Whitehall to his knees with one hand outstretched.
"You feel that?" Skye asked, hair whipping wildly around her. "I could crush your heart." As if to prove her point, Skye clenched her raised fist and Whitehall crumbled further at her feet. "Still feel meeting me is fortuitous?!"
Grant was reminded of what he had told Skye the night before, that it's not the power someone has that makes them a monster, it's how they use it. That was true and even if Skye delivered a long overdue death to Whitehall, she wouldn't be a monster. But Grant also knew that when she woke up from her vengeful fury, Skye would never be able to use her powers without thinking of this moment, of how destructive her powers could be. It would poison all the attempts she had made to come to terms with her abilities.
Grant raised his sidearm. Kara would never forgive him, she would never let Grant near her again, but he had no choice if he wanted to prevent Skye from doing something she'd regret. He lined up his shot.
Whitehall's head exploded and he toppled over. The chaos quieted so suddenly that Grant felt off balance before the world resume once more.
"No!" came Kara's shrill cry of despair.
Grant lunged towards her and wrapped his arms around her chest, restraining her arms in the process. Instead of lashing out, Kara actually crumbled against Grant sobbing. Her tears left wet trails on his neck as he absent-mindedly tried to soothe her.
Most of his focus was on the man across the hangar who had dealt the fatal blow to Whitehall.
"Coulson?" Skye croaked as she stared at the man who may as well have been her father. "I…"
Coulson approached her without any apparent wariness as the Cavalry took out the remaining Hydra agents.
Skye collapsed, exhausted and shocked but not angry that she had been robbed of her revenge. Coulson knelt beside her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. He whispered something that Grant could not make out before he drew her into a hug.
Grant's eyes met Coulson's over Skye's shoulder, and Grant felt a weird sense of understanding pass between them. Coulson understood that Skye couldn't kill Whitehall, not like that. He likely saw that Grant had made to cross Whitehall off himself. He may have even understood that killing Whitehall would have cost Grant Kara.
Grant shook off the disturbing thoughts that almost made him grateful towards the asshole who had him tortured and focused on the woman in his arms instead. She was still mumbling about Whitehall and whimpering against his neck.
"It's going to be okay, partner," Grant whispered.
"No, no, no," Kara shook her head wildly, "Dr. Whitehall's gone and you're working for the man who took him from me."
Grant mustered a smirk, though she wouldn't see it with her head buried into his shoulder. "You really think I'd join SHIELD?"
Kara drew back just enough to meet his eyes with hope.
Grant wiped her tears away. "Trust me." Grant eyed a sleek quinjet that was undamaged by the onslaught Skye had unleashed and then breathed words into Kara's ear.
Across the room, Coulson helped Skye shakily stand. Skye was a fighter though and every second that passed seemed to fill her with more strength. Grant admired that about her; Skye knew anguish and loss and devastation but she didn't know hopelessness.
"Let's reconvene with Bobbi and Hunter," Coulson said.
Skye nodded, slightly distracted, but she accepted the gesture of support from the Cavalry when the other woman squeezed her arm. Coulson observed the two with undisguised affection. The very picture of family.
Grant's heart seized. Time had run out.
"Ward," Coulson addressed him next. "Which direction is the weapons facility from here?"
Skye went rigid and then spun around, apparently completely unaware that he had been here all along.
Grant did not allow that complete disregard to bother him, nor did he dwell on Skye's preoccupation with the way he held Kara. Even the unspoken apology in her eyes failed to move him. None of it mattered anymore.
Grant pointed towards a thick, steel door with a small window made of bullet-proof glass. "That way."
Even the Cavalry moved without hesitation. Coulson activated his earpiece as he approached the door, followed by Skye and Melinda May. Grant trailed behind them with Kara at his side.
"Bobbi, Hunter," Coulson said, "We're moving to you. Be ready in ten; I'm eager to say goodbye to this place once and for all."
"Copy that, oh fearless leader," Hunter drawled.
"We're just finishing the inventory of the items," Morse added.
The Cavalry had just crossed the threshold when Grant slammed his hand on the activation key to trigger the door's lockdown.
All three SHIELD agents whirled towards them, but with the door shut between them, Grant knew they were helpless to stop him.
"Go," Grant said to Kara, and she took off as they had discussed.
He lingered at the door and watched Skye bang her hands on the door, her mouth moving furiously and soundlessly. Without her earpiece, she had no way of communicating with him.
Grant tensed when he saw her raise her hands, but she had exhausted herself earlier and the door barely shook. That only made the blows she rained down on the door more furious.
"Ward, what are you doing?" Coulson's voice asked calmly over the line.
The others chimed in asking what was going on while May just glared, unsurprised at the turn of events.
Still, Grant only had eyes for Skye. She was irate, pounding pointlessly on the door. Too strung out to realize she would have better luck hacking the system.
Grant tried to memorize her face, the way her hair fell on her shoulders and how she worried her lip in frustration. It was almost perverse to consider her beautiful in that moment, but Grant knew that nothing and no one could be half as lovely as Skye was without trying. His chest constricted with the knowledge that he wouldn't get one more smile before he left.
He surrendered to a moment of weakness, mouthing three words he could never give voice to and just for her eyes. He saw the moment she understood, her fury bled away to desperation, but Grant was already spinning around to join Kara in the quinjet.
Grant ignored the recriminations and demands from the SHIELD agents and focused on the one other person whose opinion mattered.
"Fitz," he said as he ducked into the quinjet. "Get a pen and paper. Write this down."
Grant buckled himself in beside Kara as he rattled off all the relevant information that he could think of- coordinates, names, dropboxes, secrets that could cut off at least a couple heads of Hydra.
When he finished his list, Coulson took the opportunity to cut in.
"Ward, think this through," he said. "We can help you and Agent Palamas."
Grant scoffed. "I'm not going to let you lock me away and play around in my brain again, director. Thanks, but no thanks."
"Ward, please don't do this," Fitz implored quietly, harder to ignore than Couson and the others' loud protests.
Grant's hand hesitated in the process of firing up the plane. The silence was so profound that Grant could hear his own heavy breathing in the comms. Kara stared at him in anticipation, even though she had no way of knowing what was being said on the line. Grant could feel the weight of everyone's expectations, potent and unrelenting.
"Fitz," he finally said. "You're still an idiot who trusts too easily."
Grant yanked the earpiece out, threw it to the floor, and crushed it beneath his boot before Fitz could utter another word. The scattered pieces of the comms unit and the lost signal served as a reminder to Grant that there was no going back as he took the plane into the air.
The cockpit was silent as he put as much distance as he could manage between them and the dismantled Hydra headquarters with all it represented.
"Where to now?" Kara said. She stared at him resolutely, as if he held all the answers in a world that no longer made sense.
"I don't know," Grant answered truthfully. "Wherever we want."
Kara's smile was slow, hesitant as though she expected to be penalized for it, but it was there. And that was something.
"I've always wanted to go to Mexico," she said tentatively. She played with her hair and kept her head down but gazed at him out of the corner of her eye.
Grant's smirk was forced- each second took him farther and farther away from Skye, John was a bullet-riddled body in the basement of SHIELD's headquarters, and Kara looked at him like she did not believe she had a right to want to go to Mexico- but it was there.
Grant's smirk was there. Kara's smile was there. There were no S.O.'s. There was no SHIELD. There was no Hydra. There were no strings.
The sky was clear ahead of them.
"Mexico it is."
I don't even know if anyone still cares about this story, but every now and then I got a notification that someone reviewed and it reminded me some people still want to know what happens. Hope this was worth the wait for whoever is still reading; I haven't given up on finishing this, and I still know exactly what will happen. Everything's planned out, albeit not yet written.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I can't really describe how happy you make me feel. I wrote something every time I read that someone missed me/the story or had just discovered it and was hoping to see what happened. You all are truly wonderful.
Also, I set up a lot of things in earlier chapters to come back into play (like in this chapter and in the next couple); I'll try to remind readers as I did here with the flashbacks, but apologies for any confusion.
