A/N: Hey guys, so sorry that I've taken so long to update this! It might be a while before the next chapter is posted as well because my laptop had to go back and my memory stick holds nothing. That also applies to my other fics as their updates are on the hard drive. Hopefully it won't be too long!
Thank you to Missjsmac, Patricia (guest), bellapaige88 and ajanji14 for you reviews! They mean a lot! :3
UPDATE: Thank you to LisaMichelle25 for being the Beta for this story :)
DISCLAIMER: I only own this storyline.
Ward's head was throbbing when he woke from the induced sleep. Shaking his head did nothing to clear the foggy haze left on his mind, and his thoughts felt slow and sluggish. It hurt to think too much.
The room around him, though gradually coming into focus, confused him. Was it dark, or was his sight all blurry? He tried to think back to how he got here, but his memories seemed to be locked away, the key in someone else's hands. Was this what it was like to be at the complete mercy of someone? Ward eventually decided that he didn't like it.
Also, wasn't there someone else supposed to be with him? Yes, he was sure of it, but who? Female, perhaps? He felt quite protective, or was that just the way he felt about everyone who was with him? He couldn't be sure.
I need…facts. He tried to slip back into his training, but it was like donning a pair of pants that were now a bit small. Not impossible, but incredibly difficult. Where am I?
He looked around, blinking several times in an effort to see clearly, and it partially worked. He could see that he was in quite a small room, with a wooden floor and plainly painted walls. A blinking red light in the top right corner drew notice to the camera situated there. One camera? No…no, there'd be more.
The door couldn't be seen from his position, and it was then that Ward noticed how he was trussed. His arms were raised over his head, shackled to chains that hung from the ceiling, and his feet could barely scrape the floor. Well, I can see that comfort is their MO. He strained against his bonds to no avail. Who's holding me here anyway?
As though his thoughts were read, the door opened behind him. Heavy, deliberate footsteps landed, stopped to close the door, and then sounded again until the dark-skinned woman entered Ward's field of vision. Not that he was seeing anything particularly well. He could barely distinguish the difference between her eyes. They were different colours, right?
She cocked her head to her right, as though contemplating his existence. Ward attempted glaring at first, but struggled to keep eye contact and this seemed to amuse her greatly. Resorting to a blank stare, or as blank as he could make it, Ward kept his visual focus on the wall in front of him. The woman's mouth twisted in his peripheral vision and she moved to stand directly in front of him.
A hard slap was quickly admitted to Ward's left cheek. "The next time you try to ignore me, your dear companion suffers the consequences."
There was someone with me! Ward managed to pick up through the fuzzy stinging sensation. He filed that information away in his new Confirmed Facts box.
The confusion that filled his mind now was due to the difference in clarity of the woman's voice and his surroundings. Oh good, my ears still work. Ward thought, until he realised that the footsteps on the floorboards in the room were much more amplified than the footsteps in the basement. Gah, is anything simple anymore?!
"What do you remember?" the woman spoke again, her tone less threatening than before, but no less clear.
As clear as a bell…heh. Ward mused before he racked his memory storage system for anything relating to his current predicament. Or anything in general, really. "Nothing's clear." He said finally, his own diction painfully pathetic in comparison with hers.
"Good…that's good." She praised, and Ward felt a surge of happiness and pride before an instant reaction of disgust at himself dragged him out of those feelings. Something similar had happened to him before, and it had been devastating for him. But what was it? "Then we'll begin."
Ward's eyebrows creased in worry. Why was she so happy? He was tied up, for God's sake…oh. She'd tied him up. Her behaviour made sense now. Another file.
The woman brought a hand up to her chest height, holding a leather stick. Ward's befuddled mind could barely make sense of its material, let alone what the item was actually called, but a shiver of revulsion ran up his spine when he saw it. "What is my name?" she asked, trailing it up Ward's neck, drifting over his Adam's apple.
The answer jumped instantaneously to the forefront of Ward's mind, as though the mere mention of the topic had unlocked it. "Ruta Svitryte." He said. His voice almost sounded robotic, and that worried him.
Ruta nodded in satisfaction. She dragged the tip of the stick down his chest, following its trail with her eyes before flicking her gaze back up to his. "What is your name?"
"Grant Douglas Ward." Came the reply, just as quick.
"And who are you loyal to?"
The simple question opened the gate to a torrent of memories. Flashes of his childhood; meeting Garrett; living in the Wyoming wilderness; S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy; meeting Coulson and the rest of his team; meeting Skye; falling for Skye. These happier memories were quickly overshadowed by what happened after Hydra rose from the shadows. Freeing Garrett; killing good men and women; terrifying others; threatening Skye; hurting May; nearly killing FitzSimmons; Garrett's death; the Vault; burning his home; hiding his family; Skye shooting him.
And yet…he had done good. He had kept his promises to both Skye and Agent 33; and had saved May, Trip, the cowboy and the two Koenigs when he ordered their release.
Ruta appeared to be waiting patiently, but the hard edge around her eyes betrayed her temperament. She isn't used to waiting to get what she wanted.
Who was he loyal to? "No one." He eventually answered. What he was loyal to, however, is a different question entirely.
A knock on Coulson's office door ensnared the Director's attention from the hologram computer system that was hovering around him. Calling out, "I'll be a minute!" he filed away his latest research and tapped the top of Fury's toolbox. It slid into its hole, the desk leaving no trace of it ever being there.
Satisfied that it was safe to do so, he strode to the door and opened it to find Hunter standing there, his fist raised to knock. Beckoning the man inside, Coulson moved to lean against the front of his desk. "You do know that I heard you the first time you knocked?" he said by way of greeting.
"Well you took so long to open the door, I thought you might've forgotten I was waiting." Hunter quipped back, leaning against the open door frame. "And I just came to tell you that May called. She and Skye are on their way back, but she thought that perhaps Skye would need some increased and discreet monitoring when they arrive."
"Skye doesn't know anything about this, does she?" Coulson was already contemplating regulating Skye's freedom, if only for what she would do to look for Ward.
"No, May said she was asleep. Hence 'discreet'."
"Ah." The Director nodded. "Anything else?"
"She may have mentioned that something she said about Ward could encourage Skye to look for him." Hunter was well aware of what Ward had done, and he was doing his job as an agent, but for Christ's sake, Skye loved the guy! And it was obvious that he was trying to change, he just needed more of a chance to succeed.
"Okay. Thanks, Hunter." With a nod, the agent was dismissed and Coulson turned his attentions to organise the monitoring that his Deputy felt was necessary.
"Skye." A soft voice cut through the haze of sleep on Skye's mind, comforting in contrast with the troubles plaguing her. "Skye, we're back. You need to wake up."
A loud sigh escaped her, her arms stretching to their limit and nearly hitting May in the face. "Grant…" she murmured, snuggling back against the door. May's face creased with worry.
With a sigh, she got out of the SUV and marched around the front to open Skye's door, the young agent nearly toppling out at the loss of support. Righting herself, she appeared more awake. However, she gave May a flat look to convey how unimpressed she was with her S.O.'s actions.
"You know the last time I slept, I was technically knocked out?" she said, more harshly than she intended. But hey, she was dead tired.
"You can sleep when you get to your bunk." May replied, not falling for the age old trick of 'carry me to my bed'. She turned and walked away, amused at the grumblings of her rookie as she slid out of the passenger seat. Her amusement grew when she heard the car door being slammed shut, the complaining getting quieter as Skye stomped off to her bunk.
"May!" a familiar voice called from the hangar door. Turning, she saw Coulson standing in the middle of the frame, his hand raised in greeting. She smiled and quickly made her way over to him, weaving around other agents scurrying about with their respective tasks.
"Did you do what I asked?" May asked in a low voice once she was within a close enough range. Coulson nodded with a sigh. "I know it feels like we're violating her privacy–"
"We are." Coulson wearily interrupted as he started walking down the long corridor of The Playground.
"But we don't know what it is that we're dealing with." May continued, a little annoyed by the interruption as she moved to catch up.
"We're dealing with Skye!"
"She's not the Skye we knew, not anymore. All of us have changed." When Coulson stopped in his tracks, and devastating expression of sadness on his face, May halted in front of him. "We need to find out more about her new abilities and whether or not she can control them. I'm terrified of what will happen to her if she can't."
"And Ward." Coulson added softly. May nodded her confirmation. "What did you say to her that you thought would be encouraging?"
May sighed tiredly. "I said that Ward may be one of the few people who could truly understand her struggles."
Coulson nodded in acceptance and continued to lead the way to his office. "That may well be the case. As you said, we've all changed."
"Regardless, and as much as it pains me, we can barely trust Skye now. She's a good agent and a good person, but her powers are unpredictable, and bringing someone else in that we don't trust is a bad call. Even if they do love each other."
Coulson remained silent to this until he was sat behind his desk in his office with the door closed. With an overdramatic sigh, he sunk down into it. "So how do you suggest we monitor her computer access discreetly? I have cameras facing her door, and the rest of the base is already covered with security. But if she's admitted to herself that she loves Ward, and seems to be healing from San Juan–"
"Baby steps, Phil. Don't get ahead of yourself." May warned. Her tone was almost threatening, and her expression completed the effect.
The Director acknowledged her statements with a conceding hand in her direction, but persevered in finishing his point. "She may be inclined now to begin looking for him." May's expression morphed at his words, but it wasn't encouraging.
"Hmm." Was all she said, before moving to sit on the edge of his desk.
"Hmm?" he repeated, asking for elaboration.
"Hmm." She confirmed, denying him his satisfaction. She was deep in thought to solve the problem, and talking didn't help her concentration.
"I will not ask again." The steely, melodious voice promised, but even after multiple attempts to beat, burn and seduce answers out of him, it was still chillingly clear. Ward had found a few hours in, that no matter what was done to him, he couldn't drift off to sleep. This was despite his failing vision. His exhausted, drugged and tortured state was the primary contributor to this condition, and Ward had to rely on his hearing to determine where Ruta was.
A slap to his left temple shook him out of his reverie. "What did I tell you would happen to your companion if you ignored me?" she said in a low voice, her enthusiasm increasing. Ward internally groaned. He had only slipped up one time before, and he'd sworn not to do it again. Ruta seemed to relish giving this mental torture to him. With all the mistreatment that he'd suffered at her hand still so fresh in his mind, the possibilities for a woman in the hands of equally immoral men filled Ward's head with anguish. He felt incredibly guilty that he had pulled Agent 33 down to his level of Hell, but the foremost thought he was making was Thank God it's not Skye.
"That Agent 33 would suffer the consequences." He stuttered out. He was happy to give her any answer that he deemed completely harmless to Skye, or FitzSimmons, or S.H.I.E.L.D. as a whole. It meant less pain to go through, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could hold out for.
"Correct." Ruta purred, beginning a steady, studious walk around his body. "So, you can only imagine what she must be about to have done to her. Perhaps the men will see fit to enjoy themselves this time around." She paused, to let her words sink in, and chuckled at the fury that consumed the man in front of her. "Struggle all you want, Grant Ward. It will not help her, and it will not help you." Stopping in front of him again, she sighed as though it disappointed her. "Sentimentality is such a weakness in humans. However, it is very enjoyable to exploit." Ruta took a few steps back to take in his entire form. "I wonder if we should bring in…Skye." She mused, speaking just loud enough for Ward to hear, and this time laughed openly at his fear-stricken expression.
Her amusement was cut off by shouts from beyond the room, accompanied by the sound of objects hitting skin. Without another word, Ruta stormed from the room.
Is it S.H.I.E.L.D.? The government? Or is Agent 33 escaping? Ward thought in panic. He desperately hoped that it was the government, and in force. After his 'rescue', he would most likely be handed back over to S.H.I.E.L.D. As horrible as they had been in their treatments towards him, what Ruta had done was a thousand times worse. However, if it was S.H.I.E.L.D., Skye would be walking right into Ruta's grasp. The thought made him shudder.
Please, 33, if it's you, run to S.H.I.E.L.D. Get yourself somewhere safe.
A/N: Well, what did you think? I'd really like to know what you all thought of it! :)
Sorry that my next updates will be a while in coming, but I'll make them worth it :3