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Warning- some mild language
"Checkmate,"
Ward sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes, "I can't believe you just sacrificed your castle like that.
"You're just bitter because you fell for it," Fitz jeered, crunching his pretzels in the most annoying way possible. Ward just sighed again and looked away, unwilling to submit to the engineer's taunts.
Fitz stood, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think that I'll go do maintenance on the weapons that I designed and you'll be using in a couple of days," He said proudly, strutting away. Ward bit back a laugh shaking his head as he swept the chess pieces back into the box.
"You let him win," A new voice hissed as a slender body dropped down into Fitz's vacated seat across from Ward.
"Relax, Simmons, what he doesn't know won't hurt him." Ward soothed but the English woman was not easily calmed.
"It doesn't matter! You can't keep giving him that false sense of security!"
Ward looked up at her, "There's nothing wrong with that. The guy just needs some confidence to help him regain his cognitive skill."
Simmons shook her head, "He can't keep thinking that his cognitive functions are back to normal or he will stop pushing himself."
"Give him time and it will return to normal. Nothing's going to happen if he remains frustrated and unconfident." Ward replied impatiently.
"Oh, so you're the doctor now?" Simmons fumed and Ward pressed his lips together. Simmons rarely got worked up at anyone but Fitz but lately, she had only gotten worked up about Fitz's condition and couldn't really take it out on him, so she made Ward her new verbal punching bag whenever she got frustrated. He supposed he did deserve it after all. What happened to Fitz was his fault.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Skye asked as she approached them, still in her tank and shorts from training.
"Nothing." Simmons forced a smile, "I better go check up on Fitz." She left quickly and Ward finished packing up the chess set."
Skye sank down on the seat next to Ward, "What was that all about?"
"Nothing," He echoed Simmons, walking to the cabinet to put away the game.
"Ward…"
He returned to the couch, leaning over and stealing a kiss from her, "I've got it under control."
"Not that you would say otherwise," She mumbled from around his mouth. She pulled away to take a long sip from her bottle of water.
Coulson had finally allowed Ward to spend a few hours of the day outside of the Cage to train, collect profiles of Hydra agents and go over the plan with the rest of the team. If he got done early, he was allowed free time as long as he still wore the "house arrest" bracelet. Ward wasn't sure what it prevented him from doing and he had no intention of finding out.
"So what do you want to do?" He asked Skye.
"Take a shower. Sorry, but I'm all sweaty. But I think Trip's looking for someone to spar with. He's still down in the cargo hold." Skye got up but Ward pulled her down again so he could slip in another kiss.
"Are you going to come visit me tonight?" He asked, winding his fingers through her tresses.
She laughed and kissed his temple before pulling away, "Awh, are you scared of the monsters under your bed?" She slipped out of his grasp and sauntered off to her bunk.
"You still worried about Skye?" Trip panted, dodging Ward's upwards hook.
"Aren't you?" Ward grabbed Trip's arm and flipped him onto his back but Trip's leg shot out and caught Ward behind the knees.
"Not really. The girl can handle herself. Don't worry, I've kept up with her training." Trip said, straightening up, bumping fists with Ward before resuming their spar.
Ward grimaced, "it's not that. She's….too gentle. Hesitant to hurt people. She sees the good in everyone."
Trip swung and Ward blocked, "You're saying she's naïve?"
"No. Too eager to believe that no one is truly evil."
It was Trip's turn to grimace, "She's changed, man. After you… She's more focused, Harder. More distant and doubtful. I hate to say it man, but you've taught her that some people really are evil."
Ward found himself on his back with the other specialist standing over him. Ward took the hand offered to him and jumped up.
"She says it's the job but…"
"It's me." Ward said, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Triplett clapped him on the back, handing him a towel, "It's for the better," He said, "either way, it'll help with the job. She hasn't changed drastically; it's more like she…matured."
"Hey, Antoine, man." Ward said suddenly, looking straight into Garrett's other protégé's face, "Tthanks for taking on her training and… replacing me on the team."
Triplett glanced sideways at him and laughed, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't replace no one. I'm just an add on, bonus feature. No one can replace you."
"All the same-,"
"Don't worry about it, Golden Boy, it's my pleasure." Trip said good naturedly. Ward saw his eyes flick in the direction of the lab for the fifth time since he had arrived down there.
"She's great, isn't she?" Ward said casually and Trip turned sheepishly back to him.
Ward slung the towel over the railing and began to roll up the mats, "Not to discourage you, but Fitz did call dibs."
"Although in the end, it is Simmons' decision to make," a very female voice said from the balcony and the two specialists looked up to see Skye, hair still damp, leaning over the edge to look down at them.
"How long have you been standing there?" Trip asked suspiciously.
"I just got here," she reassured them and Ward noticed that she didn't specify.
He began to climb the stairs, "I should go shower and continue my prison sentence. Thanks for the workout," He called down to Triplett who saluted him.
The next two days were filled with last minute plan changes, checking and rechecking their weapons and equipment and run-throughs. Fitzsimmons spent the entire day cooped up in the lab and Coulson and Trip were constantly going back and forth between the Bus and Delmore's base to check in on their troops and update them on any plan changes. Skye was glued to her laptop 24/7 with the exception of when she was going over combat maneuvers with either Ward or Triplett. May and Ward spent the majority of their time monitoring the comings and goings of the agents at the Hydra base through outside cameras. The night before the raid, Coulson called the team together for one last run-through before dismissing them to their bunks to catch a few hours' rest before setting out in the early hours of the morning.
Before allowing himself to drift off, Ward ran through the plan in his head. Satisfied that he was prepared, he rolled over onto his side and closed his eyes. Before he could actually fall asleep however, the door to the Cage opened, bathing the dark room in warm light before the door was shut quickly.
"Hey, scoot over," Skye whispered and Ward opened his eyes a slit and groaned, complying.
"What are you doing? We're supposed to be sleeping."
He felt Skye slip under the sheets," That's what I came here to do. Why do you always think I want to have sex with you?"
"I- Jesus, why are your feet so cold?" He pulled his legs as far away from hers as the cot would allow but she only snuggled closer.
"I walked barefoot over here."
"Barefoot?" He raised an eyebrow and she frowned back at him.
"Of course, I don't wear shoes to bed. Now, shhh time to sleep." She put a finger to his lips.
He grumbled, "That's what I was trying to do before you came in."
Skye rolled onto her back, "I thought you liked me coming in here."
Ward just sighed and threw an arm around her, wincing slightly as her cold toes touched his ankles, "Also, for the record, I still don't like the idea of you going in with us-,"
Skye ran her cold feet up his legs and he shut up.
"May, get Skye to the control room now! Fitzsimmons, what's going on? They knew we were coming!" Coulson yelled into his comms unit. Him, Ward, May, Triplett and Skye ducked as another explosion sounded overhead, bringing more dust and flakes of wall and ceiling onto them.
"It looks like there was a mole in Agent Delmore's people! She shot Delmore and she's disappeared, sir!" Fitz said anguished.
"Damn. Well, there's nothing we can do about her now. Is Agent Delmore okay?" Coulson asked. Ward cracked open the door to the closet they were hiding in.
"Clear!" He ushered May and Skye through the door. Skye caught his eye and gave him a small comforting smile and he nodded tensely, grabbing her wrist and squeezing it briefly before letting her go, his stomach in knots. He rarely ever got this nervous during missions but then again, he rarely ever had this much to lose.
"May and Skye, you're clear but hurry! Delmore should be okay, the bullet went clean through." Simmons' voice was high, the way it was whenever she was under a certain amount of strain.
Trip turned to Coulson, alarmed, "I thought they were armed with ICERs?"
"Clearly, they ditched those for actual guns. They're ruthless. ICERs won't always do the job for them." Ward said, checking his magazine yet again, "Either way, the plan remains the same- don't get shot."
"We're in."
Ward let out a breath at the sound of May's voice.
"It's going to take me a couple minutes to shut down they system. I'm also retrieving files- screw it, I'll just take the whole hard drive." Skye rattled off.
The men waited in baited breaths for Skye's next word.
"There's a group of ten headed your way, sir, and they're throwing open doors. They know you're in there and they want to find you," Fitz warned.
"May, you've got a couple men coming towards you. Sounds like they're trying to radio the guards that were in the control room." Simmons chirped.
Coulson turned to Ward, "What's your take?"
Ward glanced around at their surroundings, taking in the spacious closet, "We take them in here. Get behind the shelf and be ready to push, sir. Trip, I want you buy the door. The second the last guy gets in here, slam it shut."
Coulson and Triplett nodded, taking their designated places. Ward stood with his back to the wall opposite to the door, ICER drawn.
The door burst open and the soldiers flooded in, shouting at Ward, their attention focused solely on him. Ward flicked his eyes to Coulson and suddenly, the shelf was falling over, burying five men underneath its heavy frame and contents. Trip and Ward made quick work of the rest of the group.
"Coulson!" Simmons shouted, her voice panicked at the same time Skye swore loudly into comms.
"Bad news, I accidentally activated a trigger in their system so if they don't already know I'm here, well, they do now." The hacktivist yelled.
"Please tell me there isn't an automatic lock down procedure that's been triggered also-," Coulson said, but Skye sighed, frustrated.
"I'm working against it now but it's going to take time-,"
"Fitzsimmons call in back up!" Coulson ordered, then turning to his specialists, "we need to get to May and Skye now-,"
Ward couldn't agree more.
"Back-up's three minutes out. There's been a delay because of Delmore."
"Shit. That gives them ten minutes to fully infiltrate the base." Triplett muttered, kicking a nearby soldier that was beginning to stir.
Fitz called to them urgently, his accent thick, "You'd better go to Control now, it looks like there's a platoon of soldiers closing in on your location-,"
Ward flung open the door, taking out a few random soldiers lingering in the hallway before beckoning his team and racing down the hallway. Thankfully, they reached Skye and May without encountering more than a couple of soldiers on their way.
"Jesus," Trip breathed upon arriving at control. May had bound close to eight control room agents together in the far corner while the floor was littered with soldiers bearing the blue markings of dendrotoxins.
Ward raked his eyes over Skye, looking for any sign of injury. Thankfully, he found none.
"How long?" Coulson panted and Skye looked up from her computer screen for a split second.
"Three minutes to fight off this program, two to shut down the system."
May glanced around the room, "we don't have that much time. I say we abort."
Coulson shook his head, "No, if we leave now then we might not be able to make it out."
Ward agreed, "We need this win." All eyes turned to focus on him, even Skye's.
Finally Trip spoke up, "We're too far in to go back. We stay and fight this out."
"Fitz, are the explosives rigged and ready to blow?"
The engineer responded immediately, "Ready whenever you are."
May sighed, accepting the final decsions, "The moment you see a significant inflow of soldiers, take them out, Fitz."
"No! That's murder, you can't just blow them up-," Skye argued but May silenced her with a glare.
"It's us or it's them and I'd much rather it be us."
"Brace yourselves-," Simmons warned and Ward and Trip ran out to meet the first soldiers that straggled into the corridor.
Five more men arrived in the hallway and May came out to join them.
"Anytime now, Fitz!" Ward yelled, bringing a man's head down onto his knee before grabbing an CIER and incapacitating two more men.
"Hold on, that's strange… Simmons, do you see this?"
Ward saw Triplett throw a man over his shoulder the same way he had been thrown just a couple of days ago during their sparring session. Trip cast Ward a look, complete with a small somber shake of his head.
"Fitz, now! Blow those explosives NOW!" Ward yelled. They weren't going to last much longer with this many soldiers coming in at them.
"Activating in three, two-,"
Ward threw a guy in front of him, using him as a shield before dropping to the ground, covering his head.
"-One!"
A deafening roar filled the hallway as the ground shook violently. Ward felt pieces of plaster and ceiling fall on his back. Rolling away, he quickly got up but was met by a punch in the face, followed by a sharp kick to his ribs. He bent over double, clutching the tender spot where he repeatedly kept getting injured. He sustained another blow to the head before his attacker was suddenly thrown backward. Keeping a hand over his ribs, he looked up to see his assailant on the ground, tendrils of blue crawling along his jaw and neck. Ward glanced over his shoulder to see Skye still holding the ICER straight away from her body with both hands, panting slightly. Her eyes met his and she nodded slightly before dropping the gun and resuming her work on the computer. Most of the men were out cold and Trip and May were dragging them off to the side. Both had cuts and fresh bruises peppering their exposed skin but looked otherwise unharmed. Coulson was bent over Skye's chair, watching her progress over her shoulder.
"We're in," Skye announced, "shutting down the system now and beginning ambush phase one."
"Good." May wiped blood off the corner of her mouth with her sleeve, "Fitzsimmons you got that?"
Silence.
"Fitz?" Ward tried but the silence over their comms dragged on. He turned to Coulson, his concern reflected in the Director's face.
"They're missing a car. It must have disappeared between the time when we first got here and now, AC-."
"I'll go," Ward said immediately. He saw doubt cross Coulson and May's faces and hurried to convince them, "I'm faster than Trip and May needs to be here,"
"Coulson," Skye prompted urgently and the Director nodded reluctantly.
"Hurry."
Ward nodded, "Yes sir." He knew Coulson was taking a big risk, a blind leap of faith placing everyone and everything at risk while an ex-Hydra agent that he didn't fully trust raced out of his sight to save the other half of Coulson's team.
"You better go quick before more come," Trip warned, throwing him an extra CIER and set of car keys he plucked from a fallen soldier.
Ward nodded again, caught the gun and keys and ran. Getting out of the bunker was relatively easy since most of the doors had been sealed off, trapping Hydra agents behind them. Back up was already streaking in, taking care of any extra agents that avoided the lock-in.
The drive took him a long four minutes, driving as fast as the borrowed vehicle would go to a clearing in the woods that housed the surveillance van. The first thing he saw were the bodies of SHIELD agents assigned to make sure this exact thing wouldn't happen to Fitzsimmons. Not stopping to see if the bodies were dead or just unconscious, Ward proceeded slowly around the van, taking out the Hydra agents standing lookout with a silenced gunshot.
Then he rapped on the back door of the van and one side opened, "Almost done, Ralph-," Ward grabbed the man's outstretched arm and pulled him out of the car, giving him a good blow to the head on the way down.
"Stop."
Ward looked up, locking his eyes first on Fitz, who was gagged and tied up in a corner, then on Simmons who was being held at gunpoint.
"Easy," Ward holstered his ICER, holding up both hands. The man turned to point his gun directly at the center of Ward's forehead while pushing Simmons away from him. She caught herself against the screens position on the wall of the van.
"Work." The man barked and Simmons gulped, beginning to swipe and tap on the screens.
"What's going on?" Ward asked evenly, looking back at the man. Simmons covered a whimper with one hand over her mouth.
"Just a little counter surveillance… among other things." The man replied maliciously.
In one swift move, Ward disarmed the man and flipped him over his shoulder onto the ground next to his partner, shooting him in the head for good measure.
"You really shouldn't keep your arm outstretched like that," Ward quipped.
"Ward," Simmons' voice was pained and he whipped around to see what caused her tone. She looked at him, her eyes wide, finger pointed to Fitz. Ward let his eyes travel over the engineer. He wasn't just gagged and tied up. He was tied up to a bomb.
"Son of a bitch," Ward whispered, "Detonator?"
"On him," Simmons said shakily, looking at the man Ward had just wrestled out of the van, "Oh, god…"
Ward looked at her sternly, "I need you to go get it. Be very gently." He climbed into the van and reached to Fitz's mouth to remove the tape but stopped when he saw the wires protruding out of it.
Simmons handed Ward the detonator and he instructed her to get comms back up and running while her eyes glistened with unshed tears.
"What are you going to do?" She asked.
"What I do best," He muttered, placing his ICER on the table next to Simmons. Then he pulled out his trusty kit and pocketknife from a pocket in his cargo pants and set to work on Fitz."
"You're an engineer. You know what to do. Or, in this case, what not to do."
It took Ward close to three minutes to fully disarm the bomb. By then, Simmons had already updated the team about their situation.
"All done, it's completely disarmed. I'm going to take the tap off you now," He reached for the duct tape but Fitz's eyes widened and he gave a muffled shout. Ward heard Simmons' shriek and the last thing he felt was a sharp blow to the back of his head before everything turned black.
Hate to be a tease but I have special plans for the next chapter… Thanks again for reading and review please!