Daisy's POV
"5:30 on the dot every morning," I heard Jemma say as she stood over my shoulder as I sat watching a live feed of Ward. "But there's no clock, no light, no way he can know what time it is."
"You've been watching him?" I asked, slightly surprised.
"Every day before I left, every day since I got back. I don't know how you do it, going down there, talking to him," she commented. I frowned. Being in the same room as him made my skin crawl.
"Sacrifices we make for valuable intel, right?" I told her with a shrug, trying to play it off.
"Yeah," she replied, seeing right through me considering she had just gotten back from her own assignment.
"Jemma Simmons, undercover at HYDRA," I said, shaking my head.
Simmons gave me a shy smile.
"I thought I was a dead woman at least four times," she confessed.
"I'm glad you're not," I replied.
"Me too."
We shared a smile then look back at the monitor.
"Be careful with him, Daisy."
Before I could respond, the door behind us opened.
"I am," I reassured her as we spotted a very pissed off looking May enter the area shrugging on her jacket and heard an alarm sounding out.
"What's happening?" I asked worriedly.
"There's been an attack on the U. N."
*****
"No, this is HDYRA looking for revenge. Best guess, Daniel Whitehall had his people impersonate Shied to put the world's attention back on us," Coulson informed us as he pulled down a coffee mug from the shelves in the kitchen area.
"So much for staying in the shadows," I said.
He held up the mug he's holding, which had a picture of "Grumpy Cat" with the words "I hate Mondays" on it.
"Somebody bring this from home?" He asked, not that anybody answered. "I want you two scouring government channels, see what we're up against," he instructed Trip and I.
"On it, sir," Trip replied. I turned to follow him out but Coulson stopped me.
"Daisy, this means the alien writing –" he started to say.
"Back burner," I finished for him with a nod.
"Just until we get this under control."
*****
"Mr. Beckers, if you want to welcome Shield at your borders with open arms, be my guest, but this infestation needs to be exterminated," Christian Ward was saying on the tv monitor.
"Guess being a douche-bag runs in the family," I commented as I crossed my arms.
"Are you surprised?" Coulson asked with raised eyebrows. He turned away from the TV heading back to his desk.
"Ward's brother never cared about Shield before," I commented.
"Not openly," Coulson hinted.
"Yeah, but Hunter said that Talbot was working with a Senator who had deep pockets. You think it's him?" I asked.
"I do," Coulson confirmed. He picked up his tablet and hit a button. The TV screens were swept aside for a map of the globe which showed small blue dots. He walked back around the desk to stand next to me. "Months rebuilding and this is Shield. Few operatives here, not many more out there. If Senator Ward's proposal passes –"
"It'll be a witch hunt," I completed his sentence. I couldn't help but think about Nat, Clint, Bucky, and Steve. I was just glad that wherever they were, they were safe for the time being. Everyone had been messaging me a lot lately but after the news about my parents being alive and seeing that temple, I had been avoiding them. I was also starting to have my suspicions about why they always seemed to be able to sense my emotions. It was well known that soulmates were usually able to do that with one another but like the most soulmates anyone had ever been recorded having was maybe 6 and there were at least 9 potential candidates in my mind and I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that it might be a possibility. I didn't have any soulmarks and even if my scars HAD once indeed been soul words I would have no way of ever finding out what they had said...it was a stupid idea...I mean ME? Soulmates with the Avengers? Pshh...in what universe!
"Every military organization on the planet will have a license to kick our operatives' doors down and shoot them on the spot. I can't let that happen," Coulson stated as he looked over to me. I hesitated a moment, the spoke.
"I'll talk to Ward, see if he has any intel on his brother," I started to turn away.
"And Daisy..." I turned back to look at Coulson. "Keep the focus on his family, not yours."
I nodded then walked out.
*****
"We need to talk about your brother," I told Ward.
"Which one?" He asked.
"Your older brother, the Senator," I answered.
"Christian." His face hardened and he stepped away from me, turning his back looking irritated. "Why? What happened?"
"Just need basic information. Habits, places he frequently visits, stuff like that," I said, dodging the question.
He took a deep breath and still seemed irritated.
"You need to stay away from him. He's not what he seems. He always has an angle, and if he thinks that you can lead him to me –" Ward said, I interrupted him.
"This isn't about you."
"Isn't it? Don't you remember what happened at the well, what he made me do? He gets joy from one thing, hurting people." His face changed, he no longer looked irritated, now he looked worried. "So, tell me, please, does he know I'm here?"
"Not how it works, Ward. You answer my questions, remember?" I reminded him.
"And I always do. I always tell you the truth, but if Christian knows that I'm here –" He seemed to be becoming frantic.
"You always tell me the truth?" I said, crossing my arms and glaring at him.
"Yes." I scoffed at this. "I promised you I'd never lie to you, and I haven't." I nodded my head not looking at him. When I finally looked up he broke eye contact looking away as if a thought came to him. "What's this really about?"
"I need information about your brother, people, connections," I said, trying to steer the conversation back on track.
"Is this about your parents? Cause I wasn't lying about them. Your father is alive, and he's –"
"He's a murderer. You forgot to mention that detail!" I exclaimed angrily.
He gave me a knowing smile and nodded his head.
"You found him."
Suddenly there was a beeping noise and the wall turned opaque between them. I turned around quickly to see Coulson standing on the steps holding a tablet.
"He didn't give us what we needed on his brother!" I complained.
"Trust me, he gave us more than you think. And you're slipping off track, Daisy. Stay on mission." He turned and went up the steps leaving me standing there feeling guilty.
*****
"You're back," Ward said, slightly surprised as I walked back down the steps a few hours later. "Camera's off. Does Coulson know that –" Ward started to ask, noticing the light on the camera was not currently on.
"Coulson's out. He cut us off last time, but now nobody's watching." I set the tablet down on the stand next to the chair in the room but I remained standing. "Just you and me."
Ward smiled, clearly pleased.
"Is Coulson talking to Christian?" He asked. This thought seemed to cause Ward to become frantic. "You can't trust him. He'll smile, bare his soul, it is all manipulation. He is a master at it." He sighed and started pacing. "Look, I know what I am. But my brother..." He sighed again, staring at me. "He's worse. I'm telling you the truth. You see that now, don't you? I never lied about your father. You just didn't give me the chance to tell you –"
"I know. But I'm giving you the chance now. And I want to know everything," I said, walking closer towards the yellow line. I was sick of my racing thoughts. I had to know, good or bad.
"Your father killed people, yes. But everything he did, Daisy, he did because he loved you. I can't fault him for that," Ward said.
I looked away from him for a moment at these words as he smiled at me a bit.
"The people who died on Santorini Island, they weren't villagers. They were HYDRA agents," Ward informed me.
I stood up straighter, feeling hopeful for the first time as I thought back to the bodies at the temple I had just visited. Was it possible they were Hydra as well? I had to focus on squishing my hopes though as I remembered that either way, they had all been butchered by someone incredibly powerful. How could that be a good thing in any way?
"They had managed to find you and your mother," Ward continued. (Technically it's mothers, if you've read my DC story you'd know that Zeus has 3 soulmates and so they decided to mix all of their blood together and this Thalia was born - so she's not a half-blood like other people in the Percy Jackson series are, she's a full on goddess with the powers of 4 godly parents not just like ur normal 2 ppl having a child)
I smiled just a bit, in spite of myself.
"My mother? Is she alive, too?" I asked hopefully. Remembering that he had said parents as in plural earlier.
"I don't know, I'm sorry. There were reports of three women there that day, it's unclear which, if any of them, were your mother, it's speculated that they were just nurses or maids helping to take care of you, which would lead me to believe that she might have died in childbirth," Ward replied. "Anyways, when father realized you were gone, he lost it. Tore up the whole village and everyone in it." (Ok sorry for the continued notes but I figured I'd add some more background - basically Zeus and the others were just visiting the island for the day, they wanted to show baby Thalia what the human world looked like just once before they took her back to Olympus to raise her - since ya know the gods are supposed to stay in Olympus and rarely visit earth and all that jazz. So what started out as a site seeing day trip turned into a kidnapping by Hydra followed by the gods unleashing their anger out. I was thinking - for those who have again read the DC story of changing their original intentions. So I'm that story the character gets raised by an abusive foster father and brother which helps disguise her god-scent from creatures that would want to hunt her the same way Percy's mom married his step-father to help him. But I'm thinking now it technically doesn't make sense to have it to where they wld have wanted to keep this Thalia and not that version in Olympus with them - and I also decided the other day that I wanted to explain her doppelgängers not through normal multiverse concepts but basically use her powers as an explanation - since I was working on how I wanted to write out the crossover chapter and realized that it would be cool to have her dad explain to her that she shouldn't feel guilty for killing another version of herself (spoiler alert) because yes it was a living breathing person but it was just as if Loki had made an illusion of himself but then brought it to solid life; and then sent different copies into the universe to find and help her soulmates - since she was stuck with Hydra and had no way of escaping and or finding them with her marks scarred) anyways that's a long explanation I'm just kind of writing my thoughts out as they come to me right now and would love to hear what y'all think. Back to the story!
"How? What is he?" I asked Ward, wide-eyed.
"Whatever he is, he lost his daughter and he cracked. But now he wants to put his family back together. I can help with that. I can take you to him," Ward said.
"How? Where is he?" I demanded to know.
"I've got connections. People I can talk to will track him –" Ward said.
"What connections? What people? Raina's gone!" I exclaimed.
He chuckled at this.
"I'm resourceful."
"Then tell me what you know," I demanded, stepping up close to the partition separating us, pleading with tears in my eyes. "Isn't there anything else?" He stared at me for a long moment. "Please, Ward."
"No. But we can find him, together," said Ward with a big sincere smile. "I promise you."
"Thank you for telling me everything you know.," I told him. He gave me another pleased smile. "It's time we get you out of here." He lifted his eyebrows looking pleasantly surprised.
"Really?"
"Really," I nodded, anticipating his next reaction with joy. My face hardened as I stared at him coldly. "You're being transferred, Ward. Your brother wants you in his custody and we're gonna give him exactly what he wants."
Ward's face turned from a pleasantly surprised smile to a frightened surprised look.
*****
"I struck a deal with the Senator. He'll reverse his anti-Shield proposal in exchange for his brother," Coulson said as he filled May in on his plan through her comm unit.
"Long time coming," I heard her say on the other end of the line. "And Daisy?" She asked.
"I got everything I needed," I told her.
"Good. We'll touch down in Belgium soon, try to get to Beckers before Whitehall's team does," May said.
"I don't have to remind you that if he's killed the U.N. will come after us no matter what the Senator says or does," Coulson stated.
"We'll be in touch.," was May's response.
*****
"Vincent Beckers is Julien's grandfather. We believe the HYDRA connection stayed very much alive," Simmons informed Coulson a little while later after we had made the connection.
"We found travel records for Beckers and Whitehall –" I added.
"They coincided at least 12 times over the past five years," Trip finished for me, glancing at Fitz and Mack who were also in the room.
"That doesn't make sense," Fitz commented.
"Yeah, why would HYDRA be targeting one of their own operatives?" Mack asked.
Realization dawned on Coulson's face.
"We've been played. Get May on the line. They need to reroute to our safe house in Bruges.
*****
Summary - Coulson hands over Ward to his brother but he manages to escape while he's in transport - and they lost 6 shield agents during the ambush so Coulson is scrambling seeing as they don't have the man power they did before Hydra revealed itself.
AN - this was a short chapter so I decided to use most of it to get out more background story and fill you all in on what's going on in my head plot wise so I can get your opinions - also I wanted to ask whether y'all would prefer if I updated both my dc and this story once I get to the crossover or whether I should start a 3rd book once I get there that would basically take off where those two stories end? Or like I could also alternatively split it into 3 different tracks so like only update this with the avenger stuff keep the dc to that story and then only do crossover episodes in a 3rd book? I just thought it wld be cool to just make it all into one story where she's sometimes with everyone and other times helping out one specific team in one universe/skipping back and forth cuz it's not like the dc hero's can just up and stop protecting their cities etc and Vice versa. But yeah so basically just trying to get an idea of whether ppl are cool with there being a 3rd separate book or want me to keep it all in this one specifically - I can worry about the DC story with the readers of that since I know not everyone is reading both - tho I mean the whole point of a crossover/merge into one story is to combine the audiences 🤷🏽♀️ anyways let me know your thoughts! Sorry for all the rambling!