Two heads spun to look at Ward. His fake knee was news to them.
"Why, How, When?" Simmons stuttered.
"About five years ago, I was captured on a black ops mission and, well, cutting a long story short, they kneecapped me. Nat came in to get me out and when the hospital released me she held a gun to a friend's head and demanded that he fix my knee."
"Why Vibranium though?" She asked.
"It was what he had on hand at the time."
"But if it is so rare why make it into a knee?"
"Because there was only enough left to make a knee. There is now no spare Vibranium left in the world."
"So where's the rest of it?" Fitz asked.
"Why don't you ask Coulson?"
"Ask Coulson what?" Colson asked, entering the Lab. He had spotted the excited faces and postures on the cameras and knew they had found something.
"Where the rest of the world's Vibranium is?"
"What do you mean the rest?"
"The stuff that isn't making up Ward's knee."
"You have a Vibranium knee?"
"Wait, you didn't even tell Coulson?"
"As I said. It was a black ops mission."
"So Coulson, where is the rest of the world's supply of Vibranium? And how do you know where it is?"
"I know where it is because, what we believed to be the entire quantity of Vibranium, was made into a very special shield, which belongs to Captain Rodgers." He answered, giving Ward a very pointed look.
"Wait a second." Simmons demanded. She turned to look at Ward. "Are you trying to tell me that your left knee is made from the same stuff Howard Stark used to make Captain America's shield?"
"Which would mean your knee is designed and built by Tony Stark?" Fitz added.
"And you're telling us it's just a knee?" Simmons finished.
"It's just a knee. And guy's, the only people who know about this are in this room, Nat, Hawkeye, Tony Stark and Director Fury."
It was that point Fitz noticed Skye was being very quiet.
"You knew?" He accused.
"Yes. Well sort of. I knew it had been replaced but I didn't know what with or when. I didn't even know why."
"Why are we talking about Vibranium anyway?"
"We have discovered the compound that caused all of those people to burn is called Eridine. It's rare. We don't know what it looks like or how it works, but it Vibranium reacts to it. It heats up. We have also learned it takes the smallest amount to cover a sizable area." Simmons informed him.
"We also don't know how to stop it." Fitz added.
"Ok. Well keep looking. We need to find out what it looks like and how to stop it. Ward. My Office."
"AND YOU DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO TELL ME? I AM YOUR SUPERVISING OFFICER!" Coulson yelled at Ward when he had sat in the chair facing his desk.
"I couldn't tell you. It was a level 10 classified black ops mission. And to be honest: I try to forget about it as much as I can."
"Tell me about it now."
"It was the Bahrain operation five years ago."
"I read that file. Two agents were sent in to retrieve information. One came out and one was captured. The captured agent managed to escape six months later and make it back to the nearest S.H.I.E.L.D HQ. Might I add that agent was unhurt."
"Secure the office and I will tell you everything."
Coulson picked up a remote and pressed a button. There were various clicks and bangs as Coulson aerial office was locked down.
"Lockdown Complete" The mechanical voice confirmed.
"Speak. Coulson demanded.
"That file is a lie concocted by Director Fury to hide the truth from HYDRA. I was the agent that was caught. Torture doesn't cover what they did to me. I was chained to a chair for four days. They decided that I was uncomfortable in the chair and decided to paint a smiley face on my knee using bullets as a brush to make me more comfortable. After the first four bullets there really isn't anything left to destroy, except ligaments, so the last four were just for fun. I was electrocuted multiple times, which usually isn't so bad, but they secured me to a metal table and half submerged me in a tank of water while they did it. The worst part was the waterboarding."
"So how did you get out?"
"I'm not entirely sure. It's all a little fuzzy still. I do know that they were waterboarding me and Nat burst through the door followed by the Director himself. Apparently they were both wearing head cameras. Next thing I know is I was laid on my side and Nat was holding me there while Fury was yelling at me."
"Do you know what happened?"
"Yeah. When Nat burst through the door the people holding me captive knocked the chair I was in over. The cloth covering my face stayed put and basically gagged me. By the time Nat had taken the men out I had drowned."
"You died?" Coulson asked, face paling.
"Yeah. Grand total of three times now. I have come to the conclusion that dying isn't so bad. Its being revived that kills you, anyway, Nat brought me back through CPR. When I came to she was holding me on my side so I could cough the water and resulting foam out of my lungs. They gave me a couple of minutes to sit up before Fury hoisted me onto his shoulder and between them they got me out of there. They took me to a hospital in London where I found out I would never walk again. Which was problematic because of the work I was doing for S.H.I.E.L.D within HYDRA. When I was stable enough to move, Nat transferred me to the USA where we went to see Stark. She held a gun to his head and told him to make me walk again. She gave him a brief outline of my importance to S.H.I.E.L.D and he agreed to help."
"Why did he choose the scraps of Vibranium he had over everything else?"
"Vibranium doesn't show up on X-rays, so if Garrett ever needed to X-ray me he wouldn't see it was a re-constructed metal knee. Stark also made the knee so my Medusa microchip implanted in my shoulder could be moved into it, and if my body were scanned it wouldn't show up."
"Why would they have checked you for one?"
"They found out about the programme. They realised there was a spy in their organisation with personal information and any information relevant to their mission on a microchip imbedded in their shoulder. When I returned to HYDRA they scanned me to make sure I wasn't the spy."
"So why does the file say you were captured for six months?"
"That's how long it took me to recover in a secret facility."