WARD

Ward rolled onto his back on the cot and flung his arm over his eyes. He wasn't ready for another day in this place, wished May would take a day off. He swallowed, felt the pain in his throat. May's blow to the neck had been an unexpected twist. He should have seen that coming. Battling with the Cavalry had never been on his agenda. At first, he'd just deflected her blows, tried to reason with her, but she just wouldn't stop and he'd gotten carried away admittedly. He shook his head as he remembered – what he'd done, what he'd said.

Now, on the days when she came in, which were more frequent after the initial few weeks, it just wasn't in him anymore to defend himself. He just put his arms up to cover his head and let her have at it. Most days after she left, his whole body ached. He'd thought they'd at least be interrogating him by now, but maybe they were waiting for him to get his voice back, if that ever happened.

They weren't telling him anything; he was curious about Fitz's condition, worried about Skye, concerned about Simmons, knowing she'd be a wreck over Fitz. He knew they all hated him; the few times he saw any of them, he could see it in their eyes, the disgust with which they looked at him, the loathing. That hurt, but it's not like he could blame any of them. He was grateful for Trip; at least he kept May somewhat under control, stopped her before she got too carried away. They'd exchange a glance now and then, he and Trip, and the pity in Trip's eyes killed him.

He heard the slot in the door open and his food tray being pushed through. He didn't have much of an appetite these days, but he knew he had to eat to keep his strength up. He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the cot, dropping his head into his hands. Headache, but he knew it would be pointless to try to get an aspirin. He caught the edge of the food tray with his foot and pulled it towards him.

COULSON

Coulson sat at his desk, reviewing the report spread out before him. Skye had taken all the pieces of information they had and compiled it the best she could, but it was still looking like a jigsaw puzzle to him. Pierce…Sitwell…Garrett…Ward. Ward. Every time the name popped into his head, he scowled. Of the members of the team, Skye was the most angry – well, May too, but at least she was working on her anger, even if only through her almost daily "punching bag" sessions in which Ward served as the bag.

But Skye, she was angry, full of rage. Coulson was worried about her, at the hate she spewed every time the topic of Ward came up. It was good to be in touch with your feelings, but it was better to try to work through them. He had hoped that tasking her with compiling the data would give her mind somewhere else to go for a while. Looking at the pages in front of him, though, her anger even bared itself there – photos of Ward defaced in one way or another – a swastika here, a large black X through his face there. He shook his head to clear it and moved some of the pages around on the desk. A jigsaw puzzle…but how did all the pieces fit together?

"Sir." He looked up to see Koenig at the door. "You have a visitor."

"A visitor—" His jaw dropped when she walked into his office, sat in one of the chairs on the other side of his desk.

"Phil," she said.

"Huh." That was all he could manage to say. He tried to close his mouth, but found that he just couldn't, so he sat there, feeling stupid, thoughts whizzing around in his head. Was he hallucinating? Maybe he should call May in, tell her he was really losing it, that Project TAHITI was finally making him bonkers.

"Phil," she said again.

"Vic." He tried to regain his composure, closed his eyes, squeezed them tight, then opened them again. "Huh. You're still here. But Ward—"

"That's why I'm here," Hand said. "To collect my agent."

"Your agent. I don't understand."

"Ward's one of mine," she said. "He was working for me, under Fury's direction, to gather intel on Garrett."

Coulson slumped back in his chair, his jaw dropping open again. "Huh."

HAND

"Fury had a hunch," she explained. "Several years ago. He wasn't sure WHAT exactly, but something was amiss in the ranks of SHIELD. So he created a task force, and put me in charge of it. Ward was on my team. Maria Hill vetted him and brought him to my attention. Someone with marks like his, you don't just toss him out in the field. There were some discrepancies in his file, and when she started looking into them, things didn't add up. We had his family history, of which you're aware." Coulson nodded. "We had a probation order, a no contact order with his family, school transcripts from Eton Hill Military School; he graduated at 18. He came to the SHIELD Academy at 21. When Hill contacted the school, something didn't sit right with her. For one thing, all the reports in his school transcript had one name on them – Weaver – an associate of Garrett's. The other thing is where Ward was for the three years between when he graduated from Eton Hill and when he was accepted into SHIELD."

"So I met with him at the Academy. Asked him point-blank where he'd been since graduating from Eton, that something wasn't adding up. The kid looked scared. Genuinely. You know Garrett as well as I do."

"Yeah, he was always a bit uh—" Coulson struggled to find the word.

"Off-balance, Phil," said Hand. "I think that's the term you're looking for."

"Yes."

"So it took a while, but I got him to talk, and what he told me was a little…a LOT…disturbing." She reached across the table and put a finger on a page that was from Ward's personnel file. "See this?" Coulson picked up the page and scanned it. "Grant Ward never went back to Eton Hill after he was in juvenile detention," she continued. "Garrett visited him there, told him that his brother wanted him tried as an adult and he was facing 15-20 years in prison, that he wouldn't see the light of day again until he was in this 30s. He told this 15-year-old boy that he worked for a secret government organization called SHIELD and that we needed people like him."

"He promised him power and strength of character, said he'd turn him into a man and rid him of his weaknesses. He then dumped Ward in the middle of the wilderness in Wyoming and turned him into a survivalist, forcing him to survive or die. Garrett was that kid's only contact with the outside world for five years. When he didn't live up to Garrett's expectation, he told him he was weak and he beat him until he got the message. He essentially brainwashed and conditioned and trained Grant Ward into the ultimate fighting and killing machine, then disclosed to him that he actually worked for Hydra inside SHIELD."

"Ward had no idea that he'd been granted probation after the house fire, no idea there was a no contact order, no idea that he'd supposedly graduated with high honors from Eton Hill. The probation officer that had been assigned to him – an associate of Garrett's also. Ward supposedly reported to his PO every week and displayed model behavior, according to the probation records. That was all news to Ward." She smiled at Coulson. "He actually sat in front of me dumbfounded, a bit like you're looking right now."

"Garrett thought he had it all worked out. But what Garrett didn't take into account is that unlike himself, Ward isn't a psychopath or a narcissist. Killing doesn't come easy for him; it's not something he enjoys doing, and he actually tries to avoid it all costs. And once he learned the history of what Hydra actually was, the principles it was founded on, and what its intentions are, he wanted nothing to do with it. So throughout his time at the Academy, he went through a deconditioning program and he trained with my team. When he graduated, Garrett became his SO, just as Garrett planned, but just as we planned as well. We've been aware of Garrett's actions all along."

"Fury's hunch, our task force, now we knew what we were up against – Hydra – but we still didn't know how deep it was. Ward wasn't the only one out there, there are others on other teams. Hydra had people in our ranks, but we had people in their ranks too. Not as extensively as they did, but a few."

"But—Thomas Nash—"

"Thomas Nash was working for Garrett. He was not an innocent man. Ward had to maintain his cover, and he had to hold onto Garrett's trust which was starting to wane. Garrett could see that Ward was becoming close to your team; he considered it a weakness, and he was starting to doubt Ward's loyalty."

"So Thomas Nash…"

"…was a low-level Hydra operative who was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Hand smiled, let down a little bit of her edge. "I know all of this is a lot to take in, Phil. But until Hydra outed themselves, Fury didn't know who we could trust. I'm sorry."

"No, I get it," said Coulson. "I just. Ward— I guess I'm just having a hard time reconciling some of the things he's done. He tried to kill FitzSimmons."

"Yes, I'd forgotten about that. They were at the airfield, and one of Garrett's men spotted them. So he sent Ward and Deathlok to capture them. He had two options when he found them – kill them or bring them on the plane. With Mike Peterson there with him, he couldn't let them go without blowing his cover. So he did what he had to do and brought them onto the Bus alive."

"But he threw them off the bus, into the ocean."

"Yes," said Hand, leaning forward in her chair. "In a medical bay pod that was designed to float, knowing that someone would be looking for them. He gave them the best chance at survival that he could under the circumstances. Garrett had ordered him to kill them. If he kept them on the Bus, Garrett would have killed them if he didn't." She sat back in her chair.

"But Skye."

"Yes, Skye. The 084. She was an unexpected surprise. Once she joined the team, things became a little more complicated for him because he needed to protect her. The trip to decrypt the hard drive. It was never intended to go the way it did. We didn't expect Skye to turn him in like she did, but we could have dealt with that. Deathlok showing up; that we weren't prepared for. We'd thought we'd cemented Ward's loyalty, but I think Garrett was coming more and more unhinged by that point."

"That's why when you wanted to get on the plane, we allowed it. Ward knew you'd get Skye off the Bus, so we had Hill stall him to get you on board. That wasn't really your plan, but ours."

"He shot Lola!" Coulson stammered. He took a deep breath before continuing. "Sorry. Why did he come after us if he was in on the plan for us to escape?"

"I assume because Deathlok was on the plane as well. He had to maintain his cover and probably also wanted to see with his own eyes that you got OFF the plane."

"Ok." Coulson shook his head, then looked up at Hand. "Alright, what about Erik Koenig?"

Hand gave him a crooked smile. "Did you autopsy him?"

"Well, Simmons examined him. Ward almost sliced through the poor guy's neck."

"Yes, she examined him," said Hand. "But did she autopsy him?"

"No," replied Coulson. "I guess—"

"Call Agent Koenig in here."

"Vic, that's a different Koenig," said Coulson, reaching for the phone. "It's his brother."

"Call him in." Coulson did so, and a few moments later, Billy Koenig appeared in the doorway. Hand beckoned for him to enter.

"Agent Koenig," she said. "Arc Protocol 5-23-42."

"Of course, ma'am," Koenig replied with a smile. He bent over at the waist, bring a handing to his ear, and a "hatch" opened on the top of his head, exposing a mechanical brainpan.

"Huh," said Coulson.

"Koenig," explained Hand, "this one, the one at Providence, and others–are a model of android specifically designed for Fury by Stark Industries. Ward wouldn't have known the deactivation code, so he'd have had to rely on the kill switch, which is located in the neck area, actually pretty deep under the skin." She looked back at Koenig, who was still bent over with his "brain" exposed. "5-23-42 clear."

Koenig closed his head and stood up, smiling at Hand. "Will that be all, ma'am?"

"Yes, thank you."

Coulson sat back, a bewildered look on his face.

"Has Ward told you anything about Skye?" Hand asked. "Anything at all? In my last communication with him, he was trying to find out what Raina knew about Skye because we knew she knew SOMEthing."

"No, he hasn't said much of anything." A sheepish look crossed Coulson's face. "May fractured his larynx; he's—"

"Great." Hand closed her eyes for a moment, then met Coulson's gaze. "Can you have someone retrieve Ward please? We need to know what he knows."