Chapter 17: The Beginning of the End

Hello again! It's been too long I know, but exams are a thing.  This chapter was written over the past few months (shit has it been that long?) so I have been writing, just not as much.  Just a heads up, once I finish I'm going to go back and edit, to shorten those seriously long chapters back in the day. Just thought I'd let you know.

Enjoy!

LittlePond

Chapter 17: The Beginning of the End

This wasn't HYDRA.

Come to think of it, none of HYDRA was what I believed this days.

Ever since Fitz-Simmons fell they locked me in the Interrogation Room until I calmed down. Once I had, they filled me in on what they planned to do; sell the Centipede tech to the American military. Which was a waste of time.

It was all part of Garrett's plan, a plan I would've heard about before he'd taken GH-325.

Yeah, I know, 'didn't that kind of blow up?'

No- HYDRA recreated it, thanks to Raina's genius. I didn't know why; no one told me much since Fitz-Simmons. Which was why I stood by Quinn and Raina in the Bus' lab since I would rather be with them than Deathlok, who was essentially a zombie Iron Man.

"What the hell is Garrett doing?" Quinn grumbled, grey strands of hair complementing the shade of his suit. I leaned on the lab bench northeast of them, since that was the minimum distance I could handle without wanting to throttle him.

"He's flexing his new muscles," Raina chirped, arms around her tiny waist, "He has our research flowing through his veins."

I couldn't hear enough of that snake charmer voice, despite everything, there was a mysticism about it that was addicting.

Quinn scoffed, "Because he took our miracle drug. When we land at Cybertek, military brass and investors are expecting a demonstration, and I promised them indestructible super soldiers not disposable ones."

Raina looked over at Garrett, who had begun to carve glass madly with a large nail. I told you he'd gone nuts.

"With HYDRA in the mix, we won't lack for volunteers," she answered, staring at the leader, "And if we run out, our Incentives program should fill the ranks."

Once again, another program that I had no clue about that seemed to have a huge role. "Our Incentives program? The hell is that?" I asked, choking on my voice.

Quinn's mouth curved like a hairpin, "Don't you know? Aren't you S.H.A.D.O?"

I sighed and jumped off the bench, the echo sounding too much like Simmons' sneakers. "Turns out they don't tell me much." Quinn chuckled, rubbing his chin as he left the room.

Raina turned to me, making the room feel too small and my neck begin to itch. "Well, allow me to tell you about that sample of yours." The itch grew too large and my nails screeched against skin.

"Believe it or not, I found a very specific allele, one I've seen only twice."

The scientist side of my brain was interested but the remainder was far more suspicious. This was the same woman who practically materialised a needle to analyse my blood.

I made my way out, hoping I could get away from this woman as soon as possible. I wished had May was present; Raina would've been unconscious a while ago, and Quinn no longer breathing.

As I passed underneath the arch Raina gripped my wrist with surprising strength for a woman of such extreme petiteness.

"Don't you want to know what you'll become?"

The pilot over the PA announced we had landed.

I didn't want to go with them. I wanted to go back to the Bus, track where Fitz-Simmons were and save their asses. Tell them I was sorry, tell them my questioning. Yet here I was, walking through with the halls with HYDRA as gunfire sounded in the distance.

No doubt the team had found us and were trying to take us down, which I honestly hoped would happen.

Ward and Deathlok already made their way over to the demonstration room and deemed the coast clear as Garrett and I went over. I stood in front, aiming my gun around each corner as we advanced, after all, S.H.I.E.L.D could be waiting on the other side.

Garrett remained behind me, his gun at his side unarmed; I had no idea how he could stroll through the facility with such tranquility, it was a war zone.

The walls reminded me of the HYDRA base where my mission had begun, and I was busy thinking about the crazy poetic justice and overdose of cliches that that served so I didn't see Coulson until my head collided with his chest.

Idiot.

His eyes widened impossibly as he realised it was me, and his skin paled 5 shades so he looked more grey than alive. "Kennedy? I thought you were with Fitz-Simmons." His hand wrapped around my right shoulder, paternal aura enveloping me for a quick millisecond before his eyes fell on the Clairvoyant behind me.

I had nothing to say, so as he stepped back all I could manage as an unintelligent, "Uhhhh."

Garrett on the other hand, didn't recognise the gravity of the situation. His eyes lit up and his smile squawked, "Coulson! I'm not surprised to see you here."

Coulson's gaze flicked between Garrett and I, trying to come up with a reason to explain why he was seeing what he was. "Kennedy, why are you with him?"

"She hasn't told you yet?" Garrett muffled through the hand over his mouth.

That seemed to be the catalyst for Coulson's theories, his left hand accompanied his gun. "Kennedy..."

"That's not my name!"

My words reverberated around the pearl walls, staining them like blood on snow. I shook my head, willing away the shame that had come crashing down, "I'm not even a brunette." Coulson's persona changed; his shoulders hunched up and his knuckles grew tighter. "Then who are you?"

I hung my head even lower. Behind me Garrett shook with silent laughter.

"Aurelia Tempest."

Coulson's gun lifted at the unfamiliar quality of my name, "Am I supposed to know that name? Because I don't."

My exhale escaped with a pinch of laughter, a benign variation of the original. My eyes creased with turmoil and turning my head in the extinct winds I lifted my head up to see the empire fall.

"You might know me better as S.H.A.D.O."

God, it felt good to get that off my shoulders. But so much had changed; the girl who pierced S.H.I.E.L.D was gone, and the female now would be looked upon as a traitor for not ending the team's lives when I had the chance.

Coulson left his body and lifted the gun like a new machine, well oiled and inhumanly precise. His eyes were a pair of irons hot from the fire. The gun aimed between my eyebrows, unwavering.

At the sight of the tunnel I was usually on the opposite end of, I swallowed another breath, hoping the measly inhale wasn't my last- Coulson's expression was bloodthirsty.

I wondered if I killed any he loved- probably.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't put a bullet in your head right now."

"She's been brainwashed!"

I had no idea what Garrett was thinking; it was quite an excuse to get me out of this.

"What? No I haven't." It was only after I said this I realised I wouldn't know either way, but confusion had clouded my mind like liquid valium and my cognitive abilities had been compromised since Coulson barged in.

Garrett revealed the shining bone sticking out of his gums, glinting with drug-induced madness. "They brainwashed you, Aurelia."

Any thoughts of the gun aimed at my head were out of the question at this point.

He seemed so persistent to persuade me of this contention only a psychotic would believe. I rolled my eyes; he was mad after all, or excessively high at the very least. Of the latter I had dealt with. "No they didn't. Why would I believe you anyway?"

Garrett's back straightened, his pride of being one with the anonymous drug ridding the creases in his spine. "I have no allegiance to HYDRA, I can see everything; the past, present and what is yet to be."

"I think you mean the past, present and future, you nut-job."

Coulson who had been silent, bewildered at the scene before him, lowered his gun. Not completely, but it wobbled in it's certainty all the same. Maybe he was becoming mad too. Maybe it was contagious! Maybe I was the only sane one left.

"I am setting you free, Aurelia," Garrett continued, "it must happen before the rest of your story. Have you ever heard of the Winter Soldier?"

At the mention of the unfamiliar name I gripped my firearm tighter. The Clairvoyant shrugged and pressed on.

"He's another HYDRA assassin, brainwashed in the same methods as you. When Whitehall found you in that town, a lovely idea popped into his head; what would happen if we raised you to believe that HYDRA's beliefs were S.H.I.E.L.D's? Of course, you were newborn, so it would be simple. And when you started going on missions, you eventually learnt the truth, and when that happened, they'd wash it out. "

The files; how different they'd been to my briefings.

The dreams; the things the ghosts of my past had said. They seemed so bizarre at the time, but it was clicking together now. Maybe I was going mad too.

A dream, or memory, creaked it's way into my mind.

Sokovia. Von Strucker. A woman named Dr. Hird.

The electric hive placed over my head. My skin cooled at the memory of restraints over my wrists, ankles, neck and waist.

"Beautiful," Von Strucker had sighed as he watched me writhe.'

"You remember that at least, don't you?" Garrett chuckled, his mouth creaking into a smile like muscles that he never used. "I can see you remembering it."

"So you're saying that-"

"You killed all of those agents in the name of their own beliefs. It's rather beautiful when you think about it."

Oh. Shit.

What have I done?

Behind me, Coulson lowered his uncertain gun, the machine wobbling freely like a leaf during a hurricane. His knuckles had become white as a blank page, as blank as my mind had been when Whitehall found me.

"Ke- Aurelia, I'm putting the gun away now."