Author's Notes: So, I'm really concerned seeing the promo for the next AoS ep, about whatever Ward is going to do that has Coulson on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Current theory is that Ward is going after Audrey, mainly for the reasons which had me write this fic in the first place – namely, that he would be stupid not to. Also, the writers will have to get rid of Audrey if they ever want to go anywhere with their Coulsalind storyline. (It's not like they can bring Audrey as a regular love interest, since that actress is busy with her own show.) If my theory is right, the Philharmonic ship is going to sink hard and fast... just like every other ship on that show. (Poor FitzSimmons.) Anyone else have any theories?

To xpurplexbutterflyx – May had been on vacation, since that's where we left her at the end of Season 2, and obviously, we didn't know where Simmons was at that point. But my story cast is probably large enough without them, so I think I'll leave their storylines alone for this one.

CHAPTER FIVE

A group of sulky Avengers sat around the undeniably pleasant lake in no state of mind to fully appreciate its beauty. Whether their thoughts on the subject were positive or negative, everyone was pretty wrapped up in the revelations of the day. "My ex-boyfriend is a zombie robot and the director of a vigilante spy network," Audrey summed up, "and he may have also gone crazy. Is there anything else I should know?" She rounded on Mack, who happened to be the nearest SHIELD agent.

"Probably, but you'll have to talk with the Director about that."

Her head swiveled to Randolph on her other side. "And you. I thought you were my friend. My weird, inappropriate friend, but a pretty decent guy anyway. Is no one I know human anymore?"

The Asgardian smiled wanly. "Of course I'm your friend. I just saved you from Hydra, didn't I? I call that friendship."

"Did you? What happened at the orchestra? Is everyone okay?"

He turned an appealing look toward the SHIELD agents. "Ah, I don't really know what happened when we left..."

Bobbi held up her hands to calm down Audrey. "Everyone's fine. Hydra doesn't have any use for them. They only wanted you."

"Why now? Phil and I have been separated for years, and Hydra's been fighting SHIELD for nearly that long."

"Ward." Her lips tightened as she recalled painful memories of her own time with Hydra, and Ward in particular. "Ward just became the new head of Hydra, so he's changing up their strategy and attacking individual agents. What's more, his own girlfriend just died, so he probably thinks it's only fair to take out his anger on the woman Coulson loves."

"Loves? If he loved me, why didn't he tell me he was alive? He was in Portland , literally standing right next to me, and he still didn't tell me. He let me think I was just hallucinating."

This caused some rumbles amongst the others as some thought she was kind of an idiot for not questioning the hallucination and others defended her, insisting that it probably made sense in context. "Look," Fitz said, waving them all quiet. "I was there. I was the only other person here who was in Portland then. Here's what I got out of it: After SHIELD fell and we all got to safety, the very first thing that Agent Coulson did was drop everything to go rescue you. I asked him why he didn't tell you, and he said he meant to one day. Just like I know he meant to tell the rest of you Avengers, because he said so to Lady Sif."

"Lady Sif was here?" queried Thor.

"Yeah, a couple times. Oh, and another thing." This was to Audrey again. "Portland was one of two times I've ever seen Coulson cry. I think he thought I wasn't looking. The other time wasn't girl-related, it was just after he was tortured, and, oh, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt an Avenger. I just talk a lot sometimes. And interrupt. A lot."

"Do not give it a thought. However, Wanda Maximoff may not have been wrong to bring up the, uh, other matter." He shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny of the group. "Do not misunderstand me; I would not hastily reach the same decision that she did, but..." He cleared his throat. "But I live in a world of magic, one far more advanced than yours. I have seen things come back from the dead before. They are never as they once were, and it never ends well."

Darcy patted him on the arm. "Maybe things are different on earth. We're more open-minded. We don't think that people are evil just because they come back from the dead. Haven't you ever seen Twilight?"

This particular example was not well received. Most snorted or rolled their eyes. Tony said, "Like Thor said, it never ends well. Seriously, though, I don't care if he's alive, dead, or undead. I care that he lied to us. Everything we went through together meant nothing to him, and he was willing to let us suffer just to go along with some plan of Fury's that he didn't quite understand."

"He was following orders," Barton protested.

"Maybe at first, although I still have a problem with that, but definitely not now. Who's Director of SHIELD, anyway: Fury or Coulson? SHIELD people?"

The SHIELD people looked a little confused but generally agreed, "Coulson?"

"But they're really the same person, aren't they? No feelings, no attachments. Just getting the job done. Coulson just hides it better by acting nice and polite."

Those same SHIELD people were back on sure footing with this accusation, and Hunter said, "I know it may seem like that to you, but he's definitely attached to us. He may hide things from us sometimes, but he'd do anything for us."

"What about his last team?"

"Wha'da ya mean?"

Tony pointed around at the assembled agents. "You all look fairly young, while he's an older guy. I assume you haven't been in SHIELD as long as he has, right? So, he must've had other teams before you."

"I guess."

"Does he talk about them? Do they get together at Christmas? Do you even know any of their names?"

This took them all aback for a moment, but Fitz finally said, "Garrett. He worked with John Garrett for a while. He trained Akela Amador." He was ticking them off on his fingers as he spoke, but he had to stop there. "See, that's two names."

"Yeah, sounds like he really knows how to make friends."

"Well, we're different," Fitz snapped. "We're family. We were with him through the whole Hydra uprising and the fake SHIELD takeover... Actually, that was just me and Simmons. Okay, stop glaring. I don't want Iron Man glaring at me. I want you to like me and maybe show me your lab sometime."

Unimpressed, Stark continued to glare. He held this expression until Fitz wound down into quiet, embarrassed mumbling. "I will happily show you my lab if you say something mean about Coulson right now."

Compelled by his overwhelming love of cutting edge technology, Fitz answered without missing a beat, "Well, he can be pretty aloof sometimes. Except when he's intruding into other people's problems."

"Good man."

"Fitz!" an open-mouthed Bobbi exclaimed.

"What?" he defended. "It's true. And you were part of the coup, so clearly you also recognize that despite being a good guy in general, he does has his flaws. There's nothing wrong with admitting that. He'd say so himself."

Mack shook his head in tired confusion. "This conversation took a hard left turn." He didn't hear anything that ne necessarily disagreed with, so he left it at that.

"And a very unprofessional one," Natasha added with a frown. "I think I'm glad I got out of SHIELD when I did, if this is how unsupportive everyone is."

"Can't we all just be happy that Coulson's alive?" Barton chimed in. "I don't see why we need this big controversy. He's a good guy, and he's not dead. That's enough for me."

Darcy unnecessarily raised a hand to ask for permission to speak. No one granted it, but she spoke anyway. "Was he a good guy?" she asked. "'Cause, I basically just remember him stealing my iPod. Also, how do you know Zombie Coulson is at all the same as Human Coulson?"

"You just said the exact opposite of thing like three minutes ago."

She shrugged apologetically and adjusted her glasses. "It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, and I only just now remembered the iPod."

"You got it back," Clint snapped. "I know. I was in New Mexico then, too."

"Okay, so what is he like now?" Audrey asked, causing everyone to fall respectfully if temporarily silent. There was a general unspoken consensus that she had the most at stake here. "I can't even tell if his own team likes him or not, or if SHIELD trusts him or not, and I don't have much else to go on."

Everyone considered this briefly until Mike Peterson showed up. Until then, he'd been a vaguely menacing presence in the background of the conversation, but at that point, he decided it was time to weigh in on the debate. "How about his actions? Hi. I know most of you don't know who I am..."

"Another cyborg," Professor Randolph observed.

"Right, well, if it's okay, I'd like to tell you my story, which Director Coulson has been a big part of." He received a wide range of expressions on the curious-to-disinterested spectrum, but no one silenced him. He had their full attention starting with his next sentence. "I was recruited into a supersoldier program by a group called Centipede, where they injected me with a modified version of the Extremis serum."

Stark, Pepper, and Rhodey flinched the most noticeably, since they'd been the ones dealing with the original serum, but everyone regarded Mike a little more warily after that and listened a little more closely to what he was saying.

"Don't worry; the serum's been neutralized. I'm completely stable, though I wasn't always. I was a bit on the destructive side, but Coulson managed to talk me down while his team found a way to bring me in without killing me."

Tony was less than completely blown away so far, and he was actually a little more hostile now that the mention of Extremis was out there. Mike was definitely not helping his case. "Just because the man didn't kill you doesn't make him a saint."

"Afterwards, I wanted to join SHIELD," Mike continued without missing a beat, "so he put in a good word for me at the Academy."

"I'll bet he did. Superpowered guy like you..."

"But then he told me to think twice before joining. Yes, SHIELD wanted to use me just like Centipede wanted to use me. They saw me more as an asset than a person, except for Coulson. He pulled me aside and told me that even though I was doing a good job, I needed to reconsider before signing on for good, since unlike most SHIELD agents, I have a son to think of. But at the same time we were having this talk, my son was being kidnapped by Centipede. They wanted to trade him for Coulson."

Here, he hung his head a little, and he took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm not proud of it, but I agreed. I lied to get Coulson to the meeting point, but when he realized what was happening, of course he agreed to go through with it anyway. I... I tried to go back for him, to save him, but Centipede only caught me, too. Then they kidnapped my son again and used him as leverage to get me to work for them."

"Coulson got out, though," Darcy said a little anxiously, unused to stories with this much kidnapping.

"Eventually," Mike allowed, "his team rescued him, but only after Centipede spent time torturing him for information. I was fighting the team for a while for Centipede, which turned out to be Hydra. Then the team rescued my son again, and the new Director Coulson offered me a job as an Agent of SHIELD. Later, when he was being hunted by their people," He gestured at Bobbi and Mack, who tensed a little, "I was one of the few people he called on for help, because for some reason he decided he could trust me."

"Did you turn him in?"

"Of course not. Phil Coulson saved my life and saved my son's life, even when I repaid his kindness with betrayal, and then he put his faith in me again, even though that makes absolutely no sense. And now it makes no sense that some of you are talking about killing this man."

Jane waved a hand to get everyone's attention while they were all pondering what Mike had said. "Wait, hold on. Death didn't give Coulson superpowers, right?" A few people confirmed this, and she winced. "Well, then, he must have put a bug on someone, but either way, he's probably listening to this conversation right now. When he first came to the cabin, he knew exactly when to walk in, and he responded to a question that Audrey asked pretty quietly and away from the door."

Fitz was nodding since she started talking. "Oh, that's our ear pieces. When he sent me to pick up Audrey, he wanted to hear what was happening."

"I assume neither of you turned them off?"

"I didn't. I don't know if he did. It's on a one-way feed, but I would assume that he did not. Among his many other faults, he has absolutely no respect for other people's privacy." He raised his voice on the last few words and then jabbed a finger into his ear to turn off his comm.

Hunter gave him a superior smirk, having said nothing offensive himself for once, an Fitz made a face in reply. "It's okay, mate. Coulson knows you're just mad 'cause he dragged you out of the lab."

"I think I might have a lead on the monolith," he muttered, and then more defensively added, "Hey, don't you all look at me like that. This time, I'm sure that..."

His words trailed off as the Scarlet Witch stormed back to the group with her watchdog a few steps behind. "Vision has convinced me that there is a fair way to solve our disagreement." She paused, consciously or unconsciously to give weight to his words. "I will read your director's mind to determine whether or not he poses a threat. If he is truly still as he was before his death, I will say nothing more about it. If, however, he has been consumed by the forces of darkness..." She looked back at Vision who nodded slowly and firmly.

"I will kill him myself," the android announced, speaking for the first time since he arrived in the cabin, his somber voice lending weight to the words.

The SHIELD agents shuffled uncomfortably for a few moments before Hunter begrudgingly said, "That seems fair... right?" His eyes darted around to the others, none of whom seemed to want to be responsible for the issue. "I mean, we know he's not controlled by forces of darkness, or whatever, and we wouldn't want him if he were."

There was still silence until Coulson himself strolled out of the cabin with Daisy. "Sounds fair to me, too."

"Are you still monitoring this conversation?" Hunter demanded. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. Sorry." He gave Hunter an apologetic smile that didn't actually look too apologetic, and he pulled his earpiece out, switched it off, and tucked it into a pocket. He turned to face Wanda, squaring his shoulders as he prepared himself for whatever happened next. "How do we do this?"

"Phil..." Audrey started to warn, reaching in his direction but not nearly close enough to touch him.

"Hunter's right. I have absolutely nothing to worry about."

Wanda approached cautiously, muscles coiled as she prepared to strike at the slightest sign of duplicity. "You needn't do anything. Just wait, and it will be over soon."

He looked like he might've said something else, but at that moment, Wanda raised her hand to his temple, the irises of her eyes flashing a bright crimson before she shut her eyes and scrunched her face in concentration. Coulson mirrored her expression, and soon both of them started to stiffen in pain.

"What is this?" murmured the mind reader as both of them started to shake, eyes still squeezed shut.

Daisy pressed a hand against Coulson's back to steady him. "Guys, is this normal?"

None of the Avengers could answer that question, since none were too familiar with Wanda's powers themselves, so Daisy only got helpless shrugs in reply.

Meanwhile, the pain of the two mentally-linked people mounted until Wanda, hugging her own body and doubling over, dropped forward with a scream. Vision caught her before she could hit the ground. Coulson sagged back against Daisy, who firmly kept him upright as he bit back most of his own cries. A slight whimper escaped from his throat, but most people were too focused on Wanda to notice.

Everyone watched her anxiously as she blinked tear-filled eyes and her face settled back into the hate she'd shown earlier. She craned her neck up to face Vision and finally pronounced her judgment. The whole lake seemed to have fallen silent, not just the people who listened with baited breath. Slowly, deliberately, so that there could be no possible mistake, Wanda said two words.

"Kill him."