* loss of wreath is a literal translation from Czech – it means the loss of virginity; by extension, the process of doing something for the first time;
This one is really long and for a big part follows s01e08 The Well. I don't plan to follow the episode in much details, make plot on my own too – obviously -, but this opportunity was way too good to pass up.
-.-.-.-
"I can't think of a single time when anything alien in human hands ended well."
Nica couldn't either. It was probably because she hadn't been around for any alien shit; certainly not thousands years ago when people of Asgard – aliens – visited the Earth and gave the origin to Norse mythology, but not even for the infamous battle of New York, which she had once been informed of as of a terrorist attack, only to have her bubble shatter.
Admittedly, when Nica had joined S.H.I.E.L.D. and had been told that Coulson had been putting together a team to examine some unnatural occurrences, she had no idea what to expect.
Working through a piles and piles of rubble post-aliens' last visit was certainly not it.
Oh yeah. She found her ass in London, where an epic battle of some supposedly good aliens including an Avenger known as Thor, the God of Thunder, with supposedly bad goblin-faced aliens had unfolded. And left a ton of material for them to go through to avoid some alien artefacts falling into the wrong hands.
Just another Tuesday for the team, apparently. Not so much for Nica, but crouching by one of the smaller piles of rubble, hands protected by thick leather gloves, she held up another piece of metal and used the spectrometer – something upgraded by apparently genius Fitz to detect alien traces – to analyse its composition. In other words, she kept her mouth shut and rolled with the situation at hand.
"I wouldn't mind getting my human hands on Thor," Skye's voice snapped Nica from her musing and she couldn't but roll her eyes. When the battle had still been on, the quinjet with the team on board on the way only to arrive late, Skye had put Thor's picture all over the monitor just in case someone hadn't seen him yet. And to reward herself with se eye-candy as she had stated. She would return to the subject of the God over and over since then. "So dreamy."
Nica would possibly agree; he was ripped, eyes bright and yet somehow wise, a majestic figure with the whole iron-like armour and the cloak, but she was more concerned about the fact that the guy was an alien, could summon lightning and at the given moment had been destroying a significant part of London.
"Sure, he's handsome, but-" Coulson sputtered, but May – the person Nica liked the second best so far, because she didn't ask any unnecessary questions and didn't feel the need to fill silence with meaningless babbling unlike someone – interrupted him.
"No. He's dreamy."
Well. Apparently, Nica lost the last ally in not caring or at least attempting not to. Awesome.
But what was even more awesome? Agent Boss Coulson announcing that the Bus was taking off immediately...
...to check out vandalism in a national park in Norway.
Despite herself, Nica's eyes flickered to Skye's as they were boarding once more; the other woman shrugged, but gave her an excited grin that caused the corners of Nica's lips curl up on instinct before she caught herself and looked away.
She would swear she heard Skye sigh, but to her own surprise, no comment was made.
Perhaps Skye was slowly understanding that her undying enthusiasm was not necessarily contagious nor it was desired. Good.
Was it though?
-.-.-
Hours later, Nica, Ward, Simmons and Coulson finally reached the point of the supposed catastrophe; a tree cut down.
To be fair, the trees in the national park remembered thousands of years and some piece of a jerk had made some serious damage, damage that hurt Nica in her soul, because being back in Europe in the woods, reminding her of her home-- that was a trial itself. She tried her best to shake off the familiar feeling and more so, the longing.
She snapped back to the present when she noticed Jemma hesitating at the bottom of the said tree, few ropes securing her as she was about to climb several metres up; due to the proximity of other trees, the top of the trunk was leaned against them, indeed needing to be climbed. Simmons didn't look very happy about it, but to Nica's surprise, Ward stood by her side, soothingly speaking to her, his voice gentle and purposely distracting her.
Huh. Perhaps Nica had read him wrong. Perhaps he wasn't that much of a calculating dick, bad-boy leather jacket aside. Only time would tell.
She made her way to the pair, scanning the surroundings of the fallen tree. There were many splinters there, some truly only enough to pierce the skin and annoy the hell out the poor bastard getting it, some were actual chunks of wood.
Deciding to examine said witnesses of the catastrophe since the actual breathing one stuttered and refused to speak to her, too anxious to talk to a young woman and preferring an experienced-looking male agent, Nica made her way to the mess, one cautious step after another, because for all she knew, these chunks of wood could be alien too.
It wouldn't surprise her. Nica doubted that anything would surprise her at this point.
"Some of these trees are thousands of years old," Jemma chatted distractedly, minding every step, her eyes flickering to the ropes securing her from time to time.
"How old exactly?" Ward coaxed her into further speaking and the scientist obliged happily, sounding truly excited and intrigued.
Nica tuned them out when a peculiar object caught her attention; more precisely, something that looked like an imprint of an object, as if... as if inside of the tree had been a home to some sort of a staff with strange ornaments. Careful not to touch it, she sidestepped it and looked up at Jemma, who was still walking up.
Nica cleared her throat, hoping not to frightened the Brit.
"Uhm, S- Ward?" she called out in the end, opting for the person on the ground.
The pair eyed her.
"Hm?"
"You think this would help us?" Nica asked nonchalantly, pointing her thumb towards the remnants of the tree.
Simmons smiled at her brightly as she reached the part of the tree from which the chunk apparently had been cut off.
"It will certainly give us a more complex picture. Wonderful."
The complex picture – read a hologamic 3D model – indeed showed them a staff upon sending scans to Fitz on the quinjet to create a simulation.
And they didn't have to look too hard for information on said staff; it apparently gave the people carrying it supernatural powers; powers of Gods, as they themselves called it while ruining whole towns and tearing through authorities standing in their way. And lastly... yesy it was of alien origin.
Well. So much for nothing surprising Nica today.
Apparently, it was time to deal with gods. Nica guessed that next time, they might actually deal with Thor himself. Afterall, the staff was Asgardian; and according to dynamic duo Fitz-Simmons, it was still missing at least two pieces.
When Nica had joined the Bus, no one had warned her she would be moonlighting as Indiana freaking Jones.
-.-.-
On their way to Seville, a heated discussion went on, one as old as time; science versus magic and higher power.
Simmons, seconded by Fitz with barely noticeable reluctance, stubbornly argued on the behalf of science. They were the Nica's ideas of nerds in love with their subject.
May and Ward rolled their eyes.
Naturally, Skye was super-excited at the idea of a magic staff and until recently, Nica would eat the stories up with nearly as much enthusiasm.
Now though... she had met people who were given powers by a dark matter from a particle accelerator, heard about the multiverse and Earths vibrating at different frequencies hence not seeing each other and she had—she had once known a man who-
Nica stopped that train of thought before she could get to thinking about other chemical- and fate-related superpowers or to wondering whether she had done something to piss off the higher power mentioned, to rob her off of--
Her musing was luckily interrupted by Coulson, who announced just why they were heading to Seville – to meet an expert on Norse mythology, one Professor Randolph.
Nica guessed that it answered the unspoken question about which side their boss was on.
Joining Coulson and Fitz-Simmons in visiting the professor, she had to admit she wavered again; once he started talking about an army of Berserks, the most powerful warriors thanks their uncontrollable rage powered by staffs of which the pair of self-proclaimed Gods had probably found a piece, Nica couldn't help falling into the trap of myths again.
She was purely enchanted as the tale was nothing short of fascinating and despite her best efforts, her mind wandered to the only place she truly didn't want it to go; to Matt. Upon touching one part of the staff alone – Thor forbid – the whole thing, the fighters were overtaken by the darkest anger and Nica... she couldn't but wonder it that happened to Matt whenever he put on the mask, the armour, taking his own equivalent of the staff – his billy clubs mainly – to his hands.
The direction of her thoughts caused her throat to close up enough for her to nearly choke and she quickly chased her mind away from those stupid parallels. Clearing her throat, she asked the logical question: "What happened to the warrior from your story?"
The professor smirked innocently. "He fell in love."
Well, shit, so much for distractions. Wasn't it what happened to Matt? Didn't he... soften around the edges, even when in vigilante mode, whenever she was around?
Fuck this. What did I do to deserve this shit for my first mission?
Nica blinked away the tears threatening to spill, not missing the side-eye the professor gave her, his head titling to side a fraction. Meeting her eyes, something resembling compassion reflected in his irises and Nica swiftly averted his gaze, glaring at the picture of the staff instead.
"With whom?" Simmons asked softly, for the first time showing more than a scientific interest.
"Humanity. Life. So much that he didn't want to go back to Asgard with the rest of the army and stayed. To prevent his weapon falling into the wrong hands, he broke it into three pieces."
There we go.
"I guess the writing wouldn't happen to say where it is?" Coulson said, more of statement than a question.
"Actually, there is something," the professor opposed, reaching for a book from one of the tall piles scattered all over his office.
All he offered them though were three verses. Not that it wasn't romantic and mysterious and all, but seeing as they were trying to stop a crazy Norse pagans' group, something more specific would come in handy.
"I was hoping less metaphors more latitude and longitude, to be honest," Coulson admitted truthfully, voicing what all of them were thinking.
Once more, the professor grinned. "Well, it does stand reason to look into old Viking routes. They might be helpful."
And with that, their private class was dismissed. Nica didn't miss the strange glint in professor's eye as they were leaving his office.
Perhaps she should have paid more attention to it and said something, before part of the team went to catacombs in the very town they happened to be to search for the artefact, ran into someone and it all resulted in cars flying through air as if they were nothing but a football ball.
-.-.-
"I swear, I only wanted to be the first to analyse the staff and prove that the Berserkers were real," the professor explained.
Momentarily locked up in one of the interrogation rooms in their custody – because he was trying to snatch the second part of the staff for himself, only to have it stolen by their nemeses from Norse pagans – he was much less smirky.
It would have been comical even, if it wasn't for religious fanatics playing Gods, smashing everything in their way, and for Ward being attached to several machines monitoring his body functions, because he had touched one of the pieces of the staff found in the catacombs and very much stolen by their enemies.
Good news – he was conscious, still breathing, his heart beating, no blood outside its usual place involved.
Bad news – his heartbeat was accelerated, there had been a short period of time when he had been unconscious and on top of everything, he was sputtering curses (and words that were simply delivered as curses) in an incredibly irritated way.
Nica jumped when he suddenly ripped his arm from one of the circular monitors, literally growling, while Simmons was only asking him about his symptoms in the most calming voice.
"What did you remember?" Fitz asked matter-of-factly and Nica's brows furrowed.
This was the first time she heard about the contact with the artefact causing a certain memory to resurface. This day just kept on giving, didn't it?
Simmons shut the live-feed from the interrogation room, earning a murder glare from the injured agent who had been watching.
"What the-"
"Your adrenalin is spiking and-"
"So WHAT?" Ward grinded his teeth, leaning forward with a clear menace in his voice. Scratch that, in his face too, in his whole posture. He seemed ready to snap something – or someone – in half.
"The memory..." Skye whispered with zero effect as everyone heard her, "was it... was it about your brother...?"
Ward's eyes narrowed in warning. "Drop it."
"Because if it was, you can tell me. We can-"
"Talk?" Ward questioned mockingly, scoffing and leaning closer to her this time. Skye instinctively retreated few inches, watching him with wide eyes. "Because that's what you do. You talk. And talk. Don't you ever get tired of your own voice?!"
Skye backed out completely, hurt casting a shadow over her expression.
Nica, on the other hand, found herself stepping forward, easing her arms from their previous position crossed on her chest, so she could interfere if Ward's unacceptable behaviour – top asshole one – escalated.
"Well, that makes much more sense," Simons quickly interrupted the fight in the making. "What you're experiencing, it's chemistry-"
"I hope so," Skye muttered, scanning Ward – still shirtless, by the way, something Nica might have feast her eyes on, hadn't it been for Ward being an utter and complete jerk – from head to toe.
"Yes, spikes in adrenocorticotropic hormone-"
"-stimulating his adrenal glands. Cortisol. Adrenalin. He's extremely stressed," Nica interjected, for a second surprising herself. She wouldn't think she still remembered that; guess they really had tortured them in physiology classes.
Seeing as everyone in the room – Fitz-Simmons duo and Skye mainly – shot her shocked looks, she wasn't the only one taken aback by her lasting knowledge. Ward was just irritated more.
"Yea-yeah. Yes. That's... correct," Simmons stuttered, her eyebrows raised, but a pleasant smile on her lips, "it's like those stories where mother is able to lift a car to save her baby-"
Right. Adrenalin. Nica had her own experience with how much it could fuel a person. And she knew it both from herself and from... from-
Why was it always that her brain found a way to go back to remembering her very dead husband?
"Stop talking, just fix this!" Ward thundered, stalking towards the poor scientist and Nica took another step forward along with Fitz.
"I wish I could. We can release some of the symptoms," Simmons tried to coax Ward, a vain effort, apparently.
Symptoms? Like assholness? Nica couldn't say she was surprised at his behaviour; whether he touched some staff or not, whether his hormones were all over the place or not, she was now certain she had judged his character right the first time. She didn't think anything would help to fix him.
"I'm going to give you some benzodiazepine-"
"Oh... good idea," Skye uttered with slight irony to her tone, observing Ward with wide eyes, shock still written all over her face as she probably couldn't believe what she was witnessing.
"A sedative?! Not gonna happen!"
Ward went to pace through the lab, shaking his head, while Fitz spoke up again.
"Be reasonable, look how you're behaving-"
Ward's head instantly snapped to Fitz who dared to call him out, crossing the distance between them in two long strides, towering above him menacingly, poking him in his sweater-cladded chest.
"Yeah? And if I'm sedated and we run into those juiced freaks who flip cars, who's gonna stop them, huh? You? You're gonna keep us safe? Or am I gonna have to save Simmons' ass? Again?"
The utter betrayal and hurt glistened in Fitz eyes, his whole body shrinking into itself, and Nica had just enough.
Oh, no you don't-- fuck YOU.
"Hey, that's enough," she paced to them, stepping between the pair, grateful she didn't have to look that high to meet Ward's eyes; brown ones, full of rage, almost familiar and yet so strange. "If you don't have this whatever in check then you wouldn't be much of use-"
A mean spark flashed in his irises, his eyebrows jumping.
"Oh? Because you have your shit together, don't you?" he chuckled darkly. "Acting all tough and in control like you're not hiding away with us, running from your past, from something breaking your poor softy-soft heart. Did you cry when it happened? Like a baby?" he mocked.
A smirk forming on his lips-- a picture of a baby-bump, her hands coated in blood--- on her belly, on Matt's torso, on his face, everywhere, sickeningly clean grey room, bright burning lights, a vial to save her from her misery---- she had to resist this, she had to hold his gaze, not to show him just how deep he cut, but she couldn't, her eyelids sliding shut, a shudder running down her spine as her chest suddenly felt tighter, her breathing nearly impossible. She couldn't breathe, she was drowning-
The scoff he released was, shockingly enough, her lifeboat; and she climbed up to it eagerly, hot rage filling her veins, freezing cold replacing it in the shortest of moments as she found her centre, as she found a way to swallow it all.
Her eyes snapped open, finding that smirking asshole still in her very much personal space. Her chin rose, inching closer to his face.
"You know what, Ward?" she challenged in low voice, attempting to show him that this conversation was over and these would be the last words exchanged. "Go fuck yourself. Might help you with that stress you have piled up."
As his nostrils flared, she side-stepped him, her boots clapping into the stunned silence like a sad applause as she left the lab and headed straight towards the interrogation room, changing direction the last moment as she met with Coulson who was just exiting it.
He spared her a curious glance and Nica could only imagine how she must have looked at that moment, not ready to face him at all.
In the distance, she heard the lab door rattle as Ward left shortly after her, his steps echoing through the hall as he headed to the garage slash gym, probably in search for the punching bag.
Too bad there was only one room where they could train; Nica sure as hell was not about to spend an extra minute with him, no matter how much she needed to hit something.
Too bad she couldn't hear Skye's utterly confused and awed voice filling the whole laboratory after they both made their leave.
"What the hell just happened?"
-.-.-
What just happened was that Nica missed their precious Norse mythology professor being outed as a thousands-of-years-old Asgardian.
Well, shit happened sometimes.
The important thing was that the prof- the alien, what the fuck-- was about to help them find the last part of the staff. His staff. Which was currently in Ireland in an old monastery; 'near God,' as one of the verses claimed.
Nica had a bit of a hard time to take it all in, but there was no time to spare as there was a growing group of religious juice-freaks fanatics looking for the last piece as well. And judging by the fact that the staff was not on its place by the time the team got there, they had been faster.
Before anyone registered what was happening, one of the crazy men emerged from behind a door and impaled their resident alien on the very staff he had been master of.
Nica felt the breath being knocked out of her chest as if she had been the one having their heart pierced.
For few terrifying beats of her own frantic heart, nothing moved and images of a different body lying on the floor in a pool of blood flooded her brain, her stomach turning and aching at the memory of herself getting impaled on a katana, stabbed by a ceramic knife passing through the safety gates of a courtroom. Her ears felt like filled with cotton, taste of bile on her tongue, burn of tears in her eyes.
And then Ward moved, grabbing the fragment of the staff, causing it to glow and rip an animal-like growl from his throat. The next thing Nica knew, two people were flying down from the small balcony they had been standing on, the railing breaking.
"Ward!" Skye cried out, jumping to her feet, swiftly followed by May – and by Nica, who instantly forgot her wobbly feet.
Rapid footsteps down the stairs echoed through the room, drowned in the rattle of the furious fight involving church pews in air and being broken on someone's back. Nica gulped when a huge piece of wood – bigger than her head – flew past her as she tucked Skye down simultaneously with May.
A body of the powered man hit the door with a thud and crack, then fell to the ground and stayed still.
The plea on Skye's lips was barely audible as everyone turned to the entrance where several people burst in; 'Please stop, this isn't you' fell on deaf ears as Ward picked up another part of the staff with a guttural roar.
Nica's heart stopped at the sight of him.
This was how she imagined the literal incarnation of the Devil being let out. And she had seen things before, scary things, raging men, villains, vigilantes, religious fanatics.
May pulled Skye backwards, herself rising along with Ward. Nica easily followed him towards the door despite her own weapons being only her fists and a pair of regular billy clubs shoved in her leg holster.
In all honesty, dread filled every inch of her being, every freaking cell, because she was about to face some really, really pissed off people, possibly super-powered. But it was what she had signed up for... sort of. More importantly, she couldn't just stand back and watch.
Gripping her batons tighter, she released a shaky, yet determined breath.
It turned out she didn't need to move as much as a finger. The rapid staccato of brutal blows from the staffs in Ward's hands took care of everything. His breaths coming shorter and shorter, hair dripping sweat, furious expression flashing through a desperate one, their opponents – his opponents – were falling one after another.
Until finally, he dropped the two fragments of the staff to the ground, falling to his knees which gave out under him. Nica, being the closest one at the moment, sprung to his side, catching his upper body before it met the floor as well. Christ, he was heavy. And really drenching in sweat. He was going to be dehydrated among many, many other things, she was sure.
"Ward? Ward!" Skye fussed and Nica, ignoring the slight smile that was trying to crawl on her lips at the obvious friendly care, cleared the field for the other woman.
It was the exact moment when three more of the group rushed through the doorway, taking in the scene in front of them.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Skye strained through her clenched teeth and Ward made a pathetic attempt at crawling after the weapons he had dropped.
May's fingers curled around his wrist. "This time, let me help," she said calmly, with authority Nica wouldn't dare to oppose.
Exchanging a glance with Nica, Agent May inconspicuously raised a corner of her lips and beckoned to the simple billy clubs in her hands.
"I'll get one of those too, what do you say?"
As the only woman who had entered carried a piece of the staff too, Nica understood that this one was May's. Which left the two remaining men to her. It seemed she was about to get her wish to punch something fulfilled.
She really hoped that their powers were wearing off quickly, otherwise she was in for several broken bones; the guys weren't huge per se, but if they had some freaky super-strength like she had just witnessed with Ward-
The blonde woman passed Nica as if she was air, throwing herself at May, who grunted when she picked up her weapons. With a deep breath and eyes on her own opponents, Nica tuned the noise of the fight behind her out.
After that, it was pure instinct.
Duck to avoid the hook. Aim for the knee. Spin and hit the head—if blocked, go for the ribs. Elbow to the back of his head when he doubles over; push kick the one behind her. Baton to the head again until he's down for good and finish the other one. How? He scrambled to his feet from the fall to his ass, groaning, but throwing a hook at her. Knock his blow down, then the other – predictable –. Uppercut-like swing of the baton. Another push-kick. One more blow to the side of his face. Ignore the blood that isn't hers. Watch him drop, still mind her surroundings. Duck when—
Nica barely ducked as the body of the blond woman was thrown in her general direction, May majestically standing there with a complete staff in her hands, looking like she just finished a warm-up. The agent slowly lowered the staff to the ground when her enemy didn't get up again, meeting Ward's tired exhausted eyes. They exchanged a silent nod.
"You are the single most beautiful thing I've seen in thousands of years," the professor's raspy voice sounded from above them from the balcony.
Nica blinked, relief settling in as the alien lived through getting fucking impaled, and checked once more on everyone on the ground floor.
All of the fanatics stayed down.
Good.
-.-.-
"Tempted?" a male voice rang above her and she winced, swiftly looking up from the complete magical staff lying on the floor.
It was a new day, the humidity and heat of Seville crawling into the church where the sun danced in the still settling dust.
The cleaning service of S.H.I.E.L.D. had arrived, momentarily in the process of arresting the members of the group, strangely large metal cuffs secured around their wrists, clicking shut and lighting up.
Nica felt the exhaustion seeping into her bones and muscles, adrenalin wearing off, her gaze magically enticed by the abandoned ancient weapon.
Now, the alien prof was standing by her side and she rose to his level, having been snapped from her thoughts. She shook her head in denial, probably easily seen through.
"What is it you hope you'd see?" he questioned, eyes searching and uncomfortably knowing.
"Nothing, professor... if I can call you that," Nica couldn't but have a dig at him. He released a sound resembling a snort and scoff at the same time. "I was just wondering how can a piece of metal light up and make someone so furious... wondering how chemistry would explain that one."
He saw all through her hastily made-up lie.
True to be told, she could imagine a piece of metal making her lose her mind and it wouldn't even have to be ancient or alien.
A ring. Her wedding ring, one she had left behind.
"Well... you seemed torn between trusting magic and trusting science. Where I come from, there are the same thing. The need to fight... it's fuelled by grieve or by anger, and sometimes, one can be the same thing too, mingling so thoroughly we can't tell the difference anymore," he mused, hypnotizing her, thousands of years of knowledge, of loving humanity, dancing in his eyes and Nica knew... Nica knew he understood, that he understood more about her than anyone on her team perhaps. "Touching this thing... nothing good comes out of it. That anger, the grief, that rage... it feeds on the darkness deeply hidden, it consumes your soul and when it boils over, it's-..."
It's like letting the Devil out.
"-nothing pretty," Nica finished easily instead, giving the professor a tight-lipped smile. "I saw."
More than once.
He shrugged, surprising her by backing out. Nica realized why, once she heard Coulson behind her shoulder.
"That's one way to put it. These guys are here to take it somewhere where it will hopefully be safe," the boss announced and Nica nodded, taking her leave as two men with a long black suitcase approached.
Just before that, she spared the professor one last glance, finding him giving her a once-over, finishing at her face and meeting her eye.
Yeah, he definitely knew more than she was comfortable with.
She just hoped that Ward, having his Hulk moment earlier when calling out everyone including her on their bullshit, had been simply improvising and in fact knew much, much less.
-----Notes:
Thoughts anyone? Next time I'm planning a cameo of someone who didn't appear inAoS, leaving the canon timeline; once again, I simply had to bring theperson in, too tempted O:-)