Author's Note: So this is where the clips become a story. The first two chapters - consider them an odd sort of prologue I am experimenting with. This is going to be not so much a redemption fic, so much as a character exploration fic. And how do we discover our true selves? Through suffering. Fitz and Ward whump. Minimal team.
Fitz wished, not for the first time, that he hadn't been asked to go into the field. He wished, probably for the hundred thousandth and fifty sixth time, that he'd told Coulson and Gonzalez to suck it when the asked if he would break into HYDRA's network, which had to be done on site because apparently they were starting to wise up to the fact that open networks and wireless were easily hacked.
If Skye was around, he would've volunteered her, and he wouldn't have felt evenly marginally sexist about it. Skye was a trained field operative – first by the marginally psychotic Grant Ward, and then by the incredibly psychotic Melinda May. She had a much better grasp on network hacking and encryption than he did (she outsmarted SHIELD for a while as the Rising Tide, after all), and more importantly? She had magic goddamn powers. She was a one woman army in every sense of the word.
But noooo….they couldn't send the Golden Child of SHIELD into the lion's den. Nope. In his less charitable moods, Fitz wondered when everyone else became expendable in the pursuit of locating and protecting Skye. So instead, being the last person who understood the complex system of networking and firewalls and mind boggling amounts of encryption surrounding HYDRA's base system, Fitz got to go instead.
He ducked around another corner, swinging his backpack onto his back as he ran back towards the other exit he'd memorized during the briefing.
Something ricocheted off the wall by his head and he darted right – HYDRA seemed to have developed their own version of the Night, Night Gun, which he supposed he should be grateful for. Instead of killing him outright with a bullet to the back of the head, they would stun him, capture him, and then slowly torture him to death.
"Exit compromised, May, get me out here!" he snapped through the comm link. Broken static and an impatient May crackled over the ear piece, and Fitz growled in disgust. No more field ops. He hated them. He hated them, he hated them, hatehatehatehatehated. The only one that hadn't gone to hell was the one he'd gone on with Ward back in the early days of the team, when they disliked each other for totally different reasons.
"There he goes!"
"After him!"
"Don't let him leave the building alive!"
That last one Fitz found particularly reassuring. At least they might kill him up front instead of slow death by torture.
He turned another sharp corner and flung open the first door he found unlocked and ran face first in to someone else. The very last person in the world that he wanted to see.
"Fitz?"
Grant Ward looked even more surprised to see him, if that was even possible.
"Are all those sirens for you?" Grant asked. He looked genuinely surprised.
"Like you didn't know," Fitz spat back, glad that no trace of his stutter was heard.
Ward shrugged, dropping his gun to his side, his other arm behind his back. "I assumed they were for us. I thought I was pretty good about not tripping any of the alarms though."
Fitz scowled. "Us?" he repeated.
"Let's go," Ward said, and started off in the other direction. "If they're chasing you, then that exit is no good. This way." He jerked his head to indicate he should come along.
"You can't honestly think I'm going to follow you?" Fitz protested.
"At least for a little while, unless you go back the way you came, which is right into HYDRA's main security forces," Ward pointed out evenly. "Your choice, but we're going this way."
Fitz hesitated briefly, mentally cursing that Ward was right and really, his only option for survival was to follow the rogue agent. He trotted after him, keeping a safe distance away just in case this was just another attempt at killing him.
The very definition of the phrase "the devil you know".
"Why do you referring to yourself in plural?" Fitz asked, voice hardly more than a hiss. "Finally snapped for good?"
Ward glanced back over his shoulder, one corner of his mouth quirked in a condescending scowl. "Now, now, be nice. And I say us because I'm not alone."
Fitz pulled up sharply. "Who else is here?"
"Keep up, Fitz," Ward said, not answering. "And say hi to Fitz."
A small head popped up over Ward's shoulder, and Fitz was so shocked that he almost plowed straight into Ward's back as he abruptly stopped. The girl couldn't have been older than four or five, and she was small enough that Fitz hadn't seen her when he ran into Ward in the first place. Except, if he was carrying her in front like that, he couldn't have missed her, and he didn't shift her to his back once they were walking.
"What are you doing with a kid?" Fitz sputtered. "What are you even doing here?"
"Short version?" Ward asked, cautiously peering around the corner. Satisfied the coast was clear, he started moving forwards again, and Fitz had to run to keep up. Those extra five inches Ward had on him were all leg. "I'm kidnapping her."
"Kidnapping?!" Fitz echoed.
"There's a longer version, too. If we live, I'll explain."
Fitz worked his jaw several times, but decided on saying nothing. He wasn't a complete idiot – whatever Ward was up to, he was trying just as hard to avoid the HYDRA special ops teams as he was, which means he was working against them. However the child was involved, it couldn't be good.
"There they are!"
"Shit," Ward swore, ducking and spinning around so fast he and Fitz almost smashed heads. "New plan."
Several blasts from the redesigned Night, Night Gun skimmed over their heads, barely missing them. Ward hunched low, one hand wrapped around the girl and the other on his gun.
"Take her." Ward shoved the girl into Fitz's arms, not even waiting for him to confirm he had her before turning back towards the encroaching agents. He fired three shots and Fitz heard three thumps.
The girl barely weighed anything, and Fitz could feel her ribs through too thin clothes. This close, he could smell she hadn't been bathed in a while, and she'd recently been crying.
"You got her?" Ward asked, not risking looking back at Fitz. He kept on alert, his eyes constantly sweeping back and forth, searching for the next threat. "If you can't carry her, tell me now, but I'd like to keep both hands free."
Fitz nodded mutely, before realizing Ward wasn't looking at him. "Yeah, yeah…I got her." He held her tighter, and she squeezed her thin arms around his neck.
"Let's go."
This time Fitz didn't even hesitate. He followed closely on Ward's heels, stepping over the bodies of the fallen HYDRA agents. HYDRA might be using the Night, Night guns, but Ward still had bullets.
"Good to know I'm not the only friend you tried to kill," Fitz muttered.
"You take things way too personally," Ward said. He swept another room, gesturing for Fitz to follow.
There wasn't a warning. There were no shouts to freeze or to surrender. Ward suddenly turned on him and shoved him violently to the side, seconds later collapsing to the ground, unconscious.
The girl whimpered against his neck, and suddenly she was gone. Vanished. He could still feel the weight of her against his chest, her arms around his neck, but she had disappeared.
She's a gifted person…Fitz realized belatedly. He raised his hands immediately, feeling the girl cling to him with her legs around his waist and her arms tightening to keep herself from falling.
Out of thin air, a team of six heavily armed HYDRA commandos melted into view, as if using the same cloaking technology as the quinjets.
"Well isn't this a double bonus?" one man mused, pulling his combat glasses off his face.
The man was distinguished looking, and if Jemma had been with him, 'posh' might've been the word she used. He looked closer to a corporate CEO than a foot soldier, hair graying at the temples and otherwise, almost blue black. His eyes, on the other hand, reminded him of a wolf – calculating and predatory. "I was hoping to just capture Coulson's favorite lab monkey, and I instead get HYDRA's wayward son."
Fitz felt his heart beating wildly against his ribcage, and could feel the girl shaking against him. He prayed she stayed silent and invisible where she was.
"Mr. Fitz, I believe you have something of ours," the man said, smiling pleasantly. His accent sounded less German, leaning more towards Austrian. In Fitz's head, all HYDRA agents sounded like the Nazis.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Fitz managed, swallowing convulsively.
"We know Ward took her from her cell," the man said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And he would never leave her behind."
Fitz shook his head. "I'm a computer person. I don't know what you're talking about."
The man glanced down at Ward's crumpled form. "We were trying to hit her," he said, predatory gaze flicking towards where the girl huddled against Fitz's chest, quaking. "But Ward has always been a bit of a wild card. Unpredictable. Unstable. I suppose it makes sense, given what Garrett put him through. But I'd always hoped that he would realize his compliance would be rewarded. Last chance, Mr. Fitz. Release her, and I'll let you scurry back to your precious Director Coulson. I can always come back for you later."
Fitz braced himself, sucking in a defiant breath between clenched teeth. "Never."
The man sighed. "Fine. Have it your way." He turned his face to the side, talking into a radio attached to his shoulder. "Alert the team they have another volunteer."
Fitz had barely any time to register what he could possibly mean when something sharp struck his arm. He didn't even hear the gun fire.
The effect was disturbingly fast – Fitz didn't even feel himself fall.
The last thing he heard was uncontrollable, terrified sobbing …and wondered what the little girl knew that he didn't.
He was about to find out.
ta da! What do you think? Read and review if you have ideas, thoughts, well wishes...I love hearing back from others!