tw: mentions of sexual assault, not descriptive, brief.
Also, if anyone is the victim of sexual assault, I hope you are finding the help you need to get through. If you are in need of resources, https://www.rainn.org/ is a good one.
Asia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting her face form a neutral look; with a slight hint of displeasure, before reopening them and turning to look at the man who had sat down beside her. She looked at him with disdain but didn't allow it to show. Why the hell, of all places, had he sat beside her? His girlfriend was sitting awkwardly across from them, looking around like a scared, caged animal, eyes all wide, hands fidgeting, as if she were about to bolt. Not that she could bolt anywhere. They were high above the clouds still, headed to who knows where.
"What do you want?" she asked his coldly, gaze flickering over towards the front of the plane again, then back at Ward with a narrow of her eyes. He couldn't be trusted, she wouldn't make that mistake again.
"Just a friendly conversation, Monroe. Something wrong with that?" He asked her casually, leaning back in his seat, not grinning for once. He seemed to actually be studying her, which was surprising. Looking for weaknesses, probably, she mused. Though, and she knew Ward knew this as well, her biggest weakness was sitting up in the cockpit of the plane. So what really had brought him here? Did he just want to get under her skin? Was he just playing games? Probably, knowing him as well as she did. He had always been good at manipulation. Always.
So yea, there was something wrong with that. There was a lot of things wrong with it. Though he looked the exact same, this was not the Ward she had once known. This was not the same man who matched her toe to toe in school. This was not the person she could trust with anything. This was not the one she could call up, in any city, at any time, and he would be there within the day. Even if he looked exactly like him.
Asia had to admit it was difficult, not to fall in her old way of behavior around him. Even for someone as adept in her field as she was, it was still very difficult when she had spent so much of her life with this man sitting beside her. He was still using the same aftershave he always had been since he was young, she could smell it on him.
"Nothing friendly about any conversation you and I will ever have," She muttered back, linking her hands in front of her, gazing over at him, just barely, through her heavy black lashes. He was looking back at her, trying to gauge her reaction, just as she had been with him. "Any friendship we had left when you joined Hydra."
"I feel like I've said this a million times, but," he said with a sigh, "I wasn't loyal to Hydra. I was loyal to Garrett. There's a big difference, Monroe. And I thought you, of all people, would understand something like that." Asia wasn't entirely sure what that meant, and she didn't really feel like unpacking it right there. She knew he would try and trick her, twist her words and her thoughts, spin her to see him in a positive light again. She wouldn't allow it to happen.
She turned and looked him full on for a moment, face still flat, emotionless. There would be no expression for him to read. She would be just as cold as the ice that dripped through her veins now. "Fine. Have that your way, I'm not going to argue. Any friendship we had left when you dropped our teammates out of a plane. It left when your father-figure told me he had my sister kept captive for years and that he killed my parents. It left when you left me alone with --" His name caught in her throat. Ian Quinn. He was still the monster under her bed. The thing she hid so deeply inside of her. She realized anger was getting the best of her. She turned to face forward again, staring at the wall directly in front of her, taking imperceptible breaths in and out through her nose. There he was. He had almost done it. He had almost gotten to her, gotten under her skin. She had almost let him in.
But then again, telling Ward things meant nothing to her. As long as she didn't care what he thought (which she didn't), and as long as he knew that whatever information he got from her could never be held above her, then who the hell cared? She didn't have anything he could use against her that he didn't already know. Anything she told him, he would know couldn't be used as ammunition. So she turned and smiled at him. "It ended when you left me with Ian Quinn," she said flatly, staring him in the eyes. She didn't let the tears behind her eyes push through for him to see as the memories she had been suppressing came forward once she said his name.
Ward watched her for a moment, his brows creasing as he looked at her, gaze switching in between her eyes, looking for a tell that she was feeding him a line of bullshit. But, as well as he knew her, as well as he knew about the little shake her left eye did whenever she lied, he saw no signs. Whatever she had said, she had meant.
She stared up at him with glassy eyes as her mind took her back to that place. The Lab, clean, white, pristine, as he had stood over her, that terrible, glinting grin on his cracked lips. She swallowed, closing her eyes and shooing the memories of hands grabbing, clothes tearing, unwanted touching, far, far to the deep, buried recesses of her mind. She had locked it back there for a reason, and Grant Ward wasn't going to be the one that made her relive the worst day of her entire life all over again .
"What did he do to you?" Ward asked quietly, as if he were afraid his voice would crack if he spoke louder that a whisper. He looked at her and she thought he looked....mad. And a little bit sad. Regretful, maybe. Emotions she recognized, but hadn't seen on his face in a long, long time. Like he actually cared about the answer. Internally, she rolled her eyes.
So she let the words out, as she stood up and brushed past him. "He raped me, Ward," the words fell heavy on his ears, and then she was gone. Asia marched up to the cockpit and booted Hunter out of her seat, tucking herself into the scoop chair, reaching over and linking her fingers through Leo's. There it was. She had told someone. She had told someone, and it hadn't completely destroyed her. She wouldn't allow something that someone else did destroy her.
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So it wasn't long before they made the discovery that List had found a way to track the Teleporter. But because of that, Ward also knew they were after Skye. Asia didn't really want him getting anywhere close to her. Granted, it didn't look like Kara was all too stoked about the idea either.
"Why would Hydra want Skye?" Kara asked, arms crossed over her chest as her gaze flicked around the room, going from face to face, searching for an answer.
Asia cut in before anything could accidentally be given away. "No idea. Wouldn't your boyfriend know a little more about that?" She quipped, raising an eyebrow in question, smirking at the sour look that slipped over Kara's face for a moment.
"Well, best we follow them, yea?" Hunter suggested quickly, nodding at Coulson as Leo typed away at the keys by the screen displaying Mike's vision. It appeared they were heading into an old, brick office building. It was dusty on the inside, as if it hadn't actually be utilized as a workspace for years now.
"That is the plan," Coulson said with a nod. "Either way, we get to someone we want, whether its Hydra, or the Teleporter who has been taking people." Asia nodded, climbing back into the Captain's seat and taking them down into the city, finding a nearby building to park the Quinnjet on, where they could leave it before they went in.
"Sir, Skye's here!" Leo said excitedly as Asia rushed to his side, looking at the feed in front of her, adjusting the straps on her bulletproof vest as she did.
And there she was. Skye. Her best friend, long brown hair flowing around her, wearing a leather jacket, standing beside her father, looking at Mike with shock written all over her face. Asia felt like she could almost feel her, hear her. Like they had their own Quantum Entanglement that everyone was talking about now. She needed to get in there. Her fingers were twitching, heart racing.
"Where is she?" Coulson asked, loading his gun. No Icers on this mission folks, only the real deal. Asia slipped two into her holsters, adjusting the ties on her wristlets.
"10th floor, sir," Leo replied after tapping the keys a couple times.
"Is that the same Skye who shot you three times?" Kara asked Ward in what she certainly thought was a quiet tone, but everyone on the plane absolutely definitely heard her.
"Four," Ward muttered back, cocking his gun and testing the sites. Asia cocked her head at him, giving him a warning gaze.
"Don't," Coulson said, pointing at him warningly, verbally expressing everything Asia had just given him in a look. "Don't even think about it. Your job is to keep Hydra off of us. I'll find Skye, Asia you keep point on me," Coulson instructed. Asia nodded quickly at him, adjusting her vest one last time, pulling her hair up into a high ponytail. She was ready to go, for sure. "Alright, everyone let's move out," he instructed, and one by one they filed out of the plane, leaving Leo behind to monitor them from Mike's live feed.
Asia looked around the hallway, gun raised, as they entered. Dusty boot prints covered the floor, leading forward into the dimly lit hallway. But if Hydra or Skye was here, they had moved out already. Coulson made the sign for them to keep proceeding forward, so they did so. As they made it up several flights of stairs, Leo's voice crackled to life over their intercoms.
"Um, Deathlok's feed is down," he said, slightly nervously, tapping at the keys, trying to bring the stream back to life. As the rest of the team rounded the corner, they saw Mike's body lying on the ground, unmoving. Coulson and Asia moved forward, with Ward flanking behind, making their way towards his body. "Um, I think someone is trying to hack in," Leo continued as he typed away. Asia could hear each keystroke and she moved along with his rapidity.
She heard footsteps and on a dime, whirled, firing two shots into the upper chest of a Hydra agent, downing him with a wet thud. Asia turned to look back at Coulson and saw another agent behind him. Suddenly, the agent dressed in all black fell to the ground. Asia whirled around to face Ward, standing there, gun raised, smoke still drifting from the tip. She looked at him for a moment, unblinking, then nodded.
Mike let out a groan as they approached, and Asia noticed another body lying nearby as well. A man with sandy blonde hair, eyes shut, looking as if he had just been hit and hit hard. "I think he's protecting Skye," Mike nodded towards the other guy. "Packs a mean spark, if you catch my drift," he looked specifically at Asia as he spoke the words. Another powered person. Electricity. There was a moment where Asia couldn't look away from him. She was wondering who he was, how he became how he was. If he could teach her more.
But there was no time to stop and think, they had to continue on. "We're going to keep moving forward. Radio if you need help?" Coulson asked Mike after they had made sure he was just fine. Mike agreed, and so, onward they continued, up another flight of stairs and an even higher level. Talk about cardio.
As they made it into another hallway, they found themselves faced with more Hydra soldiers. Honestly, with the three of them there, the fight was like a cakewalk. Asia took out two quickly, using the momentum of her body as she swung off one to collide his head with that of the other, knocking them both out cold. She double tapped each quickly, just to be safe. She and Ward tag-teamed another man, Ward crouching down as she ran off his back like a ramp, launching herself at another agent and snapping his neck efficiently. It reminded her, just ever so slightly, of old times.
When the three of them looked up, Skye was standing in the hall, mouth wide open, staring at them in shock. "Skye!" Asia called out, rushing forward to pull her friend into a tight hug. Skye started to rush towards her, too, when suddenly the Teleporter appeared between them, grabbing Skye and yanking her close. In a blink, before Asia even had the chance to form a plan, Skye was gone again. No trace left behind.
She turned to face Coulson, a look of sorrow and concern on her face that was matched equally in his. They had almost had her. "We were so close," she said quietly, glancing back at where Skye had disappeared from.
Suddenly, the elevator door dinged open. All three agents raised their guns, but lowered them, as Kara and Hunter limped out. Hunter's arm was wrapped over Kara's shoulder and there was a huge splotch of blood on his left side. He looked hurt, bad.
"What happened?" Asia asked, rushing forward and helping take the weight off of Kara, studying his body, carefully moving the shirt but not so much that it would hurt him worse.
"Ahh, you know. Nothing but a flesh wound," Hunter joked, then wheezed as the laugh caught in his throat, pain racing up and down his spine.
"It's a bad one," Kara said, looking at Asia, eyes flashing with concern as she shook her head ever so slightly.
"Yea, we need to get him out of here," Asia looked over her shoulder at Coulson, sneakily sliding a hand under Hunter's shirt and letting a trail of ice run over the wound, temporarily sealing enough to stop the blood flow. He winced and she quickly withdrew her hand, looking at the ruby red blood on her fingertips. "If we don't get Hunter some care soon, there won't be any Hunter left to care for." He frowned at her, rolling his eyes, and she fought the urge to elbow him.
Ward sighed, turning to look at Coulson. "Deathlok is down and Hydra is storming the building. Right now, we're out manned, out gunned, and Fitz is our only backup. But it's your call, sir."
Coulson looked over at Asia, thinking about Ward's term of "out gunned," thinking that he wasn't all too correct. Coulson knew the cards he held in his hand. If he asked, he had a feeling Asia could take out the remaining Hydra members for them. Freeze them all. But, he needed to keep his cards close, and enemies closer. And get Hunter out. It was time to make a tactical play.