A mouse roaring

Disclaimer: no one of the characters are mine, but belong to their respective owners.

Note: this story contains spoilers.

"So, where's your friend? Skye, or Daisy? What is her name?" Grant Ward asked Simmons, only it was not him – just more of computer coding, no doubt. Radcliffe was a genius, which made it only more depressing and strange that he decided to include Hydra in his world – as far as Jemma Simmons could honestly remember, the man showed no indication of getting involved with Hydra, or being involved with it, period.

"She has went to see Phil Coulson," she finally replied, with some reluctance: the similarity to their, 'real' Grant Ward was uncanny, but none of this was real, no one here was real, it was all…Jemma did not know what it all was actually, not anymore.

The extractor was not working, and this was bad.

"Coulson," Grant nodded thoughtfully. "Is he her boyfriend? The name sounds familiar somehow…"

"…No," Jemma carefully said, "he is, he was, someone that we knew. Your friends at Hydra have brainwashed him-"

"Bleep," Grant muttered, looking suddenly seriously exhausted, emotionally so. "This is very bad. If she cannot break the programming, she can be hurt, and if she can then this Mr. Coulson will be hurt; let us go. You have an idea where to find them?"

"Yes!" Jemma said brightly.

"Let's go," Grant muttered.

Jemma hesitated. "I promised the director that he'll meet the two of you and so he will, and so you will meet him – both of you, even if I have to physically carry you around, okay? Now, where did your friend go to meet her – who, exactly, again?"

"The director of what?" Jemma blinked.

"Of resistance, I believe, though some people like to think that it is the last remnant of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Grant muttered.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. is gone."

"Yes, but some ghost of it remains, I suppose," Grant muttered, before adding, rather hastily, (especially for him): "But don't worry, there are no such things of ghosts."

"Mm," Jemma muttered neutrally, not willing to go down the memory lane to when she and the real Grant Ward were working on the same side, on the Bus, and dealing with some cases that were certainly ghostly, (though with a scientific explanation, of course). "Have you ever heard the name of Aida?"

"Mm," Grant echoed her, "you know, it does sound kind of familiar; do you have her photo?"

"No," Jemma shook her head in regret: somehow, the idea of S.H.I.E.L.D. actually needing a photo of Aida, (or of Radcliffe himself, for that matter), never came up even when the mess with Ivanov and his Watchdogs began. "What about the name of Agnes?"

"Are you talking about Madame Hydra, our supreme leader?" Grant blinked.

"…?!" Jemma just stared.

"Here," Grant paused at the door – he was about to let himself and Jemma out to their new car – and leafed through a pile of newspapers and magazines on the nearby table. "See?"

Jemma did see. It was Aida, or Agnes – Radcliffe's human girlfriend or the robot one; she did not care – draped over Fitz. Jemma's Fitz. In a very possessive and feminine way.

Something clicked in Jemma, something that she did not like to acknowledge. "Who does she think she is?" she roared, feeling as if she could shake the entirety of the framework with her rage. "That two-penny, ha'penny, three-penny Rita Repulsa rip-off?! I shall BREAK her – by God and by Devil, I take you, Grant Douglas Ward, as my witness – I shall BREAK this self-proclaimed Madame Hydra and make her regret as to what she has done! I SWEAR this!"

"It is acknowledged," Grant replied simply…and all of Jemma's sudden surge of fury and power vanished instantly, just by looking at the man: the last time he had looked at her like this was back in the Arctic, when she tried to kill him with a splinter bomb; she failed, and Grant Ward, 'their' Grant Ward…he didn't kill. He just looked at her like this, in a very peculiar manner, and somehow, somehow, it made Jemma feel very, very badly. In a regretful sort of way, which was worse.

…It would only be much later that Jemma Simmons will realize that in those moments Grant Ward acknowledged her as kin with these looks, a fellow monster of wrath. This will not be a happy epiphany at all, and the circumstances will not be very pleasant either. But it will be much later, and right now, she and Grant just rode to the school where Coulson taught, in uneasy, unhappy, and heavy silence.

/ / /

…When they arrived, fortunately, both Daisy and Coulson were there, but that was probably the only good thing. Coulson seemed to be curled onto himself, looking very old, and small, and frail, completely unlike the man that Jemma learned to know and respect on the Bus and beyond. Daisy did not appear to be much better, but then again, Jemma did not think that she was much better than Daisy was, so-

"Ahem," Grant said politely, startling Daisy at least. "I see that you have found your friend?"

"Yes," Daisy nodded, as she shifted around and faced Grant flat on. "This is Coulson – Phil Coulson. "He is a friend of ours, did Jemma tell you this?"

"No, not really, she was kind of distracted by the newspapers," Grant matched Daisy stare for stare. "Is, uh, Leo Fitz a friend of yours as well?"

"More like Jemma's special someone," Daisy muttered, clearly thinking some unhappy thoughts of her own. "She, she and Leo, they used to do each other like crazy."

Once again, Jemma saw red. True, she and Leo did do each other all over the S.H.I.E.L.D. base back in the real life, before the entire mess with the LMDs, the framework, and Holden Radcliffe, but Daisy did not really have to tell this to anyone, Ward or Coulson, for that matter…

"Ah," Grant nodded thoughtfully, "I see. This is why she swore that she's going to break Madame Hydra - and I believe her."

Daisy's gaze switched to Jemma instead; now the Englishwoman just wanted to be elsewhere: Daisy's own gaze could be terrifying, ever since she returned after their misadventure with the Ghost Rider.

"We're not crazy," Daisy told quietly to Grant Ward, switching her attention back to him. "We're not delusional, we're-"

"Grant. Daisy. Jemma," Coulson spoke up suddenly. "I remember. I remember everything."

"You do, do you?" Grant sounded peculiar, more like his old Hydra self than this framework quiet and subdued self that Jemma had heard from him throughout this wretched evening. "Indeed? And what do you remember?"

Before either Daisy or Jemma could spring to Coulson's defence, Grant himself suddenly stiffened and shifted his position, looking less peculiar, (in a predatory sort of way), and more protective. "Director," he said, looking at the tall, powerful, broad-shouldered man who emerged from the darkness of this wretched night. "This is unexpected. How'd you find us so quickly?"

"I had you tracked, agent Ward, for you and your friends have been very helpful to us, and I honestly don't want anything bad to happen to you – to any of you," Jeffrey Mace replied, flanked by several men armed with formidable-looking guns. "And on that note, who are your new friends?"

"Not mine, director," Ward's voice was nowhere as perky as Mace's was, "but Skye here is a friend of Lincoln," (and Daisy paled), "of sorts, and Mr. Coulson here is a friend of hers, as is Jemma Simmons over there. She swore by God and Devil that she'll break Madame Hydra, you know?"

"Um," Jemma ardently wished that her extractor had worked. This really was not how she and Daisy imagined their rescue mission would go, and – everything. "Can we talk about Phil Coulson instead? He's unwell, he needs help-"

"Yes he does," Jeffrey Mace agreed, looking at Coulson as if the man was a particularly odd or interesting stranger, and – nothing more. "Agent Ward, you think that your girlfriend can help?"

"Kara is with Lincoln," Grant bit out in reply. "But yes, she shall."

There was a pause in the conversation that no one seemed to want to fill, so off did they all go to whatever hideout S.H.I.E.L.D. had in this universe, instead.

TBC