Disclaimer: Nope, don't own.
Author's Note: I'm sure it's possible I'll get some nasty and negative responses for what happens in this chapter. Please, feel free to discuss them with me in comments/reviews, private messages or on my tumbler (alkenifanfiction). In close-in divergence AUs, I like to work with the raw materials the show gives me and sometimes that means it's just eminently more practical to do things in the fic I wouldn't have done had I been writing the show.
Even flames are welcome, if you feel you must flame me. BUT, bear in mind that all flames will be used to roast marshmallows.
Thanks as ever to Riley Holden/Colormeblue for beta-reading
Out of The Shadows and Into the Light
By Alkeni
Chapter 8: Brain Freeze
Fitz's Lab, The Playground
October 8th, 2014
"This is really the sort of work Jemma should be doing," Fitz muttered.
As it was, with Jemma being god knew where - though Fitz was fairly certain Ward knew where that was - well, there wasn't much to work with. You couldn't be as smart as he was and work side by side with a biochemist of Jemma's caliber without picking up on a lot of the basic principles. But he was working in a relative information vacuum. They had no real idea how Donnie Gill's powers worked. Obviously they were related to the ice-machine, somehow its' abilities had been transferred into him, but in terms of how it actually froze someone...
Without an idea of how it worked, coming up with some sort of response to it, a way to contain Donnie's abilities or render them temporarily inert was... difficult.
"That's true," Mack said from his position next to him, "but she's not here, and you know how she thinks better than anyone else. So if anyone here can approach the problem the way she would..."
Fitz scoffed, "If you knew Jemma like I do, you'd know that no one can know how she thinks." That wasn't entirely true, Fitz had to concede, but still, sometimes it was very hard to figure out what she was thinking when it came to anything but science.
Which, he supposed, was rather the core of the problem.
"Regardless," Fitz said, stepping back from the equipment and throwing up his hands in disgust, "I have nothing." And he really didn't have any idea how to respond to all this. "I just can't see Donnie volunteering to join Hydra when they come knocking." Fitz said, walking over to where he was working - still - on the disassembleable ICER.
He'd been working on the project on and off for months, whenever he could spare an hour or when he was stuck on something else and needed to clear his thoughts. The problem was, as it turned out, that Fitz was too good of an engineer. He picked up the pieces of his latest attempt, looking them over for a moment and tossing them aside without another word. Complete rubbish.
"I'm not sure Hydra's big on giving people choices. It's probably one of those join or die sort of things," Mack observed, "I mean, you told me about those bombs in people's eyes that Garrett used in his super-soldiers. Sounds to me like Hydra likes to be sure they can control their people."
Fitz started to reply with the obvious - that Hydra would have to capture Donnie first to implant him with a camera and bomb, which was unlikely given his new powers - when two things occurred to him: Donnie was in fact at the Sandbox, where Hydra had to have had people. So it was entirely possible that they could have fit him with a bomb.
The second thing that occurred to him was that if they did have a bomb in Donnie's head, complete with a camera like Mike Peterson and the rest of the Centipede soldiers had, Hydra would already have him. But... the specifics weren't Mack's point. The point was that Hydra was perfectly willing to coerce people into following them.
"I suppose that's true." And Donnie was... well, he'd let himself be tricked and manipulated into helping someone for the wrong reasons. Hydra might be able to exploit that. Again, Fitz had trouble believing Donnie would go that far - it was one thing to want to sell technology to Ian Quinn given that his public reputation had been nearly spotless at the time - and quite another to willingly work for the so-called 'Nazi Death Cult' that was Hydra.
Don't let Coulson hear you call them that. Skye and Lance Hunter had both referred to Hydra as Nazis once, at separate times, in Director Coulson's range of hearing. The Director had proceeded to give them (and everyone else in the same room) a thorough and detailed lecture on why Hydra wasn't Nazi, and how assuming that they were was a bad idea and made fighting Hydra more difficult.
Returning his attention back to the ICER, he brought up the design schematic on his tablet. The problem was that he'd designed the ICER too well the first time he'd made it. He'd made it fit together so perfectly, made it so well-engineered, that it was very difficult for someone to disassemble and then reassemble without a great deal of expensive equipment and expertise in engineering.
In order to make the ICER dissassemble-able, it had to be made of discrete parts that could separate. Which weakened the over structural integrity of the device - it was impossible for it to not have weak points at the spots where it could be taken apart. Moreover, the inside of the gun was changed by that very same problem - discrete parts that could be removed and then put back together;
And so far, he hadn't been able to get a disassemble-able ICER to fire the incredibly delicate bullets it was designed to. At least, not without the bullet exploding in the chamber.
"Why do you keep fiddling with that design?" Mack asked, looking over Fitz's shoulder curiously. "I mean, the version you have works great."
"It works perfectly," Fitz countered. "But this isn't to address any sort of design flaw. It's about...well, apparently Ward likes to be able to disassemble his gun. Something about doing to helps him focus or whatever. I don't really get it. Must be some sort of specialist thing." Fitz wasn't really self-aware enough to make the connection between Ward's desire to be able to disassemble and then reassemble a weapon was the same kind of thing as his own penchant for doing advanced mathematical equations and engineering puzzles in his head.
"It's mostly a project I work on when I need to take a break from something that's giving me trouble or when I have a spare hour. I thought it would be pretty easy to make. At this point... oh bloody hell, I'm still working on it at this point because I'm going to prove this thing can work effectively this way."
"Maybe I can help?" Mack suggested, "I mean, you've been knocking your head against this brick wall for what, months?"
"Something like that," Fitz agreed sullenly.
"What you probably need then is a fresh pair of eyes on the project. Fresh brain too. Not saying I'm as good as you are with the technical stuff, but I do know what I'm doing." Mack held out a hand for the tablet, and after a long moment, Fitz handed it to him.
Mack did know his stuff, after all. Maybe he would be a good pair of fresh eyes on the problem, or at least provide a different perspective. At the very least, there was no way Mack could make the whole project more difficult.
Maribel Del Mar, Morocco
October 9th, 2014
If Donnie Gill was trying to avoid attracting the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, freezing an entire ship in place in the water somehow seemed to Skye to not be a good idea. Especially a ship on the North African coast. Idly, Skye wondered how the local Moroccans were reacting to this strange and sudden development.
But he'd gone and done it and now they were here, and Hydra was either also here or right behind them.
"Ward, I want you to stay up top." May ordered. "Keep your eyes open for Hydra and cover us when we need to make an exit. Skye, Hunter, you're with me. We're going into the ship to find Gill."
"Got it." Grant replied over the comms.
"There's not a lot of room for any margin of error," May said. "Somehow, I don't think Hydra is going to be inclined to take no for an answer when it comes to Gill."
"It's not as if the old S.H.I.E.L.D. would have taken no either," Grant pointed out. "One way or the other, they'd have brought him in."
"If we don't bring him in, Hydra brings him in... or kills him." May replied.
"And I, for one, would rather Hydra not have this guy working for them. If I want to be frozen solid by someone's touch, I could just go looking for my ex-wife." Hunter added,"So can we get moving?"
"Let's," Skye agreed. This wasn't going to end with Donnie Gill dying. He'd screwed up, made some bad choices... but he sure as hell didn't deserve to die. He deserved a chance to try and make something of his life. How much he could do that while having the power to freeze things at his touch was a different question entirely.
"May has no idea how right she is." Grant voice came in low over the secondary channel she'd hacked into her comm unit and his. The advantage of running comms was that she had free access to all the equipment. Skye had had a brainwave a week ago: if they ever ran into a situation in the field where Grant's knowledge of Hydra would help, give them an immediately useful insight, he couldn't exactly share that information on an open channel.
So she'd hacked a secondary frequency into their comm units. She'd taken a page out of Hydra's book and hidden it between and underneath ordinary channels. It was only really any good over short distances, so it wasn't viable in a situation where Skye was running comms from far away or back at the Playground or something, but it was an improvement over the previous situation.
Grant's voice had come in scratchy and distorted, some fuzz playing into the channel. As she followed May and Hunter further into the Mirabel Del Mar, Skye made a mental note to see if she couldn't fix that.
They'd almost made it towards a door to the lower levels when she heard two quickfire shots ring out from May's gun. Once again, Skye was reminded that May was just that good. She'd barely seen the door open before May was dropping the Hydra agents.
"Coulson, we're not alone." May said, raising one hand to her earpiece. The gesture must've been because of some kind of muscle memory - it wasn't as if she needed to do that, thanks to the fancy hardware FitzSimmons had designed.
"No, we're definitely not," Grant added over the main channel. "I count... ten more guys, at least. And one of them in a fancy suit. Looks familiar."
"The guy from the meeting with Creel?" Skye guessed. If they could get him along with saving Donnie, that would be a major boost. Maybe they could even figure out what the hell it was that Hydra wanted with that... thing. And what the hell it even was.
A disturbing thought occurred to Skye - the last time they'd seen this guy, Raina had been there. As far as she was concerned, with the team's crazy luck, Raina was going to end up here too. I don't think we need a damn wildcard in this mess.
"It's him." Grant confirmed.
"The priority is Gill." Coulson said. "We get him out of here now before Hydra can get him. If we get the guy running the operation, that's an added bonus, but don't risk the primary objective."
"Snag Mr. Freeze, leave the bastard in the suit for if we can swing it. Sounds like a plan," Hunter observed dryly. May just shot him a dirty look, and then they were inside the ship.
The ship's innards were a mess of narrow stairways, pipes and tubing along the walls, catwalks, walkways, and ladders There had to be more than just this for a ship to actually, you know, carry stuff, but if there was, Skye wasn't seeing it.
"Skye, you're point. Hunter, you take the rear," May gave the order quietly. Surprisingly, Hunter didn't have any snarky commentary to add. Well, he was a professional mercenary.
They were operating blind, trying to find Donnie inside the ship. Finally Skye found him as she reached an overhanging catwalk some distance away from the position Donnie held: an entrance to a cluster of pipes - somewhere he could easily get lost.
Standing in front of Donnie, her back to them, was some woman standing firm and confident. She looked familiar. And then Skye heard her voice, echoing off the metal walls.
"Minds like ours... they need to be used."
Oh my god. Simmons. Simmons was Hydra.
Wait, no fuck- that doesn't even make the slightest bit of-
And then it clicked. Grant knew where she was. And she hadn't pressed, just like she said she wouldn't. But Grant must have been helping her prepare for undercover. Coulson didn't know just how good Grant had been at undercover, but he did know Grant's official S.H.I.E.L.D. record.
Skye watched, somewhat stunned, as she heard May and Hunter approach, taking up positions nearby, also with an eye on Simmons and Donnie.
"I'm tired of being used!" Donnie said grimly, his jaw set. His tone was tense, held tightly - like one light push and he'd snap. Donnie was dangerous.
Being hunted like an animal can do that. Being put in a cage in the Sandbox can too, I'm guessing. Besides, this was Hydra recruiting him. Or so he thought.
What the hell was Coulson thinking sending Simmons undercover? She can't lie; she can't do any 'bad girl shenanigans!' Grant was good, but could he really teach someone how to lie for undercover in... how much teaching time had he even had?
Now that she knew it was Simmons, she could get that it wasn't confidence in her stance. It was fear. Nerves.
She was afraid that Donnie would freeze her.
As they kept watching, Simmons took a small breath and started talking, her voice level, calm, soothing - or at least an attempt at it. "Take a deep breath and clear your mind."
Maribel Del Mar, Morocco
October 9th, 2014
"Take a deep breath and clear your mind."
Shit. Ward knew exactly what that meant. And he recognized the voice coming in over the main comms: Simmons. There was no reason for Simmons - and what the hell was Hydra doing putting Simmons into the field like this, a complete misuse of her talents as a scientist - to use those words unless she'd been coached and she'd only be coached to say them if they were going to useful.
Which means that Hydra brainwashed Gill at the Sandbox. Which means his programming is still in place. Weaker, maybe frayed since he managed to get away, but as long as it's still there, there's no way around it for her.
"Surrender and you will find meaning."
Removing one hand from his rifle, Ward reached up to just inside his collar and fiddled with the comm device Skye had given him so they could speak on the secondary channel. Once the channel was switched on, he spoke in a low, urgent voice.
"Skye, you can't let Simmons finish. Those are the phrases Hydra uses to activate underlying brainwashing programming. Donnie's already been brainwashed and they're trying to bring him in!" He knew Skye wouldn't be able to say anything back
"Surrender and you will findpeace." Simmons continued, her voice still calm, level. Seriously, who the hell came up with these trigger phrases anyway?
"Take a deep breath,"Simmons went on.
"Skye, we don't exactly have a lot of time here! Stop her! Somehow!" If she could just... make noise, throw them off somehow-
The sound of a bullet ringing out, bouncing off metal broke through the comms.
"Please tell me that wasn't you trying to shoot Simmons!" Ward hissed.
"I wasn't aiming to hit!" Skye replied, her voice coming over the main channel.
Before Ward could respond, he saw Hydra move. The man from the meet with Creel was already heading in and more Hydra personnel were swarming onto the boat.
Fuck again.
Switching back to the main channel quickly, Ward spoke, both hands on his rifle again. "May, Skye, Hunter, you're about to have company. Hydra's moving in. Keep Simmons' cover if you can." Extracting her would be easier said than done at this point.
"And just how do you propose we do that?" Hunter snarked.
"Shooting at her and missing seems like a pretty good bet," May replied flatly. "Nice work, Skye."
"Well, we had to interrupt them somehow. That seemed the best idea. But can someone explain to me what the hell is going on with her!? What was Coulson thinking!"
Maribel Del Mar, Morocco
October 9th, 2014
"Coulson was thinking that we needed someone inside Hydra's R&D." May replied calmly as she started moving. "And if we're going to stop Donnie from freezing more than Simmons's jacket, we need to move. Now."
May's words jolted Skye out of her half-frozen shock. The combined surprises of seeing Simmons there, and then the revelation that Donnie was brainwashed...
Could they even get him away from Hydra?
Yeah, we will. Hydra couldn't win this one. They'd already done enough to him. We'll just have to - what was it called? Skye was on her feet and running after May as she wracked her brain, trying to find the right word. Deprogramming? That sounded right.
They'd have to deprogram him somehow.
As they ran after Donnie who was now running after Simmons, Skye watched May take careful aim with her pistol and shoot into one of the steam pipes, bursting a hole and venting steam right in front of Donnie.t only held him up for seconds though, as he touched the pipe and froze it solid, ice creeping across quickly. It was both cool and terrifying to see the guy's powers in action like this but at least this time he wasn't almost freezing Simmons.
"I'm going to reiterate May's order," Coulson's voice said over the comms from the Bus, flying cloaked somewhere over their heads. He'd been listening to the main channel the whole time, but he hadn't said anything. "Maintaining Simmons's cover is as much as priority as stopping Hydra from taking Donnie."
"As much? What the hell? Donnie's innocent, we can't just let Hydra take him!" Innocent and brainwashed. Godamnit, if only she could tell Coulson what Grant had just told her. But she couldn't - there was no way to 'suddenly get' this idea.
"We need her inside Hydra. She's why we know about Donnie in the first place."
Maribel Del Mar, Morocco
October 9th, 2014
It was all Ward could do to avoid shooting the Hydra soldiers and go in to help Skye and the others. Practically speaking, it was a bad idea. Hydra had too many many agents, and if they had Donnie on their side... Ward really didn't like the idea of turning into a human Popsicle.
And there was the risk of Simmons getting caught in the crossfire or Hydra getting suspicious of she didn't get shot. Ward was a good shot. He could shoot someone in a non-lethal place easily but there was always risk of complications, especially with a sniper rifle like the one that he was holding.
The Hydra agents he was watching started to move and, from around the corner, more arrived, led by the man in the suit. Then Simmons... and then Donnie.
"Hydra is back on the top and they have the target. Repeat, they have Donnie. He's coming with them, and it looks like he's coming without restraint." Does Coulson even know that Hydra has brainwashing capabilities? If he started shooting, this could only go badly. Hydra was going to get Donnie. That was the only option.
Briefly, Ward contemplated shooting the gifted scientist, the crosshairs of his scope settling over Donnie's chest. But he dropped that idea in seconds. Coulson would probably be accepting of it, in the end. He'd been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for decades. Coulson knew how it worked, knew what specialists did. Ward doubted the Director would be happy about it, but...
But Skye on the other hand. No. Skye wouldn't want it done. And that's what was most important. It was a risk, but Donnie was a brainwashing victim and, unlike Creel, he hadn't ever made a free choice to work for Hydra.
"We can't let Hydra have him. If he's chosen them, then he's the enemy." Coulson said flatly. "Take him out." If Skye had any verbal reaction to the news, it was drowned out over the sound of the three inside the boat running towards the exit.
"I don't think it's that simple sir. And if I start shooting, this could go bad for Simmons." Ward replied, resisting the order. "May, where are you?" If May and the others came at them from the rear, they had a chance of pulling this off, of getting Donnie and keeping Simmons's cover intact (without risking her life too much in the process).
"We're stuck inside! Donnie's frozen the door in place!" Skye shouted as he heard metal banging on the door.
Ward didn't let anything show physically, his finger still on the trigger as the man in the suit said something to Donnie in a low voice. The scientist walked towards the edge of the boat and held his hands over it. Ice started to grow, a tiny patch spreading across the boat. He was freezing the entire thing solid, and the ice seemed to be expanding faster the farther it spread, like some impossible mirror opposite of a raging inferno.
Skye and the others - they'll freeze to death!
Any hesitancy to shoot was gone. But he didn't need to kill Donnie. Like almost any gifted, it seemed his powers replied on concentration and he wouldn't be able to concentrate when a bullet hit his shoulder and sent him falling into the water under the concussive force of the hit. It might even stop Hydra from taking him in long enough for them to find him.
But most importantly...
Ward lined up his shot with Donnie's shoulder and fired, watching the bullet connect and sending the man spinning off the boat and into the Mediterranean.
Most importantly, it would save Skye. Skye, May and Hunter.