The SWORD and the SHIELD
“You wanna break into the Citadel?” Gideon frowned. “The most heavily secured place on the planet.”
“I know you wanna break in there too.” Mace replied. “You’ve got people in there you wanna break out. Doctor Simmons for example.”
“You’re well informed.” Gideon nodded. “But I’m sure you’re aware that I’m not exactly flush in manpower.”
“No but you are flush in money and you’ve got the Hydra intel that can give us a chance at getting in and out of that godforsaken death trap.” Mace stated. “And I have the manpower to get the job done. So whaddya say Gideon? You in or out?”
---
Kara wrapped her knuckles on the door. When it opened she was met by Dean Williams who looked surprised to see her.
“Is Stephanie home?” Kara asked.
“Hey we haven’t done anything.” Dean insisted. “We’ve kept our noses clean like we said we would.”
“I’m not hear about anything like that.” Kara assured. “I need Stephanie’s help.” Dean sighed and motioned for her to come in. Stephanie was sitting at the kitchen table and frowned when she saw Kara.
“Why is SHIELD at my door?” Stephanie demanded.
“Because we need your help.” Kara answered. “Did your father ever work with a man called Taskmaster?”
“I think he hired him for a job maybe once or twice.” Stephanie said.
“Well he’s got some of our team.” Kara stated. “I need your help getting them back. I also need you to help me get a certain item somewhere safe that he can’t get to it.”
“What’s the item?” Stephanie asked.
“A book.” Kara answered.
“Not the Darkhold?” Stephanie frowned.
“You know what that is?” Kara raised an eyebrow.
“My father sought it out once until he learned what it was.” Stephanie said. “A book of infinite knowledge with a history of driving it’s users mad. How did it wind up in SHIELD’s possession?”
“We found the people in possession of it.” Kara answered.
“I gotta ask. Why come to me?” Stephanie said, crossing her arms.
“Because I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with this book for a week now.” Kara stated. “I tried destroying it but that didn’t take. I can’t give it to the government and I need somewhere it won’t be discovered by some random idiot like it was last time. I thought your father might’ve had some secret hiding place nobody knew about.”
“None that I knew about.” Stephanie said. “But I think I might have an idea that’ll solve your problem.”
“Great.” Kara sighed in relief. “You can tell me when we get to base.”
---
To say Ward was apprehensive about Gideon being on the base was an understatement. From what he knew, the man was a zealot hell bent on bringing a monster from another planet to earth as a tool to use against Hydra. But as they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so he was willing to work with him.
“Agent Ward. Agent Skye.” Gideon greeted as he and Mace, followed by Stephanie Malick, JT James, Giyera, and much to Daisy’s surprise, Lincoln. “I hope you don’t mind I brought a few inhumans with me. For my own personal security.”
“No issue at all.” Mace replied. “So how’re we gonna go about doing this?”
“It’ll need to be a small team.” Gideon stated. “And we’ll need to have a pilot on standby who can get the team in and out.”
“We’ve got plenty of agents who can do the job.” Mace assured.
“If it’s all the same I’m gonna send these four along with you.” Gideon stated. “To make sure the team’s looking out for our interests as well.”
“Sounds fair.” Mace shrugged.
---
Kara and Stephanie returned to the base where T-800 was waiting with the Darkhold.
“How’s Daisy and Simmons?” Kara asked.
“Both of their vitals are stable.” T-800 stated.
“I thought you said Ward got captured.” Stephanie frowned.
“He did.” Kara nodded. “This is an LMD. Radcliffe reprogrammed it to help us. We’ve been calling him T-800.”
“Looks just like him.” Stephanie mused.
“So what was your idea?” Kara asked.
“Do you remember the monolith for the world Hive was trapped on?” Stephanie asked.
“Yeah.” Kara nodded. “Not sure how that would help. It was destroyed when we took down the Hydra castle.”
“Yes but the monolith had pieces carved out of it.” Stephanie said. “Pieces locked in vaults owned by the leaders of Hydra like Strucker. We get one of those pieces, we can send the book to Maveth.”
“...where nobody’s gonna find it.” Kara realized. “Hive killed everyone there so if we send the book to Maveth, it’ll be out of anyone’s reach forever.”
“And even if anyone on Maveth was still alive the monolith’s destroyed.” Stephanie added. “They’d have no way to get here.”
“So where do we find Strucker’s Vault?” Kara asked.
---
“Where’re we going?” Daisy asked as Ward drove them down the road through a suburban neighborhood.
“You said that in the real world your parents weren’t around.” Ward explained. “Cal had his memories erased and Jiaying betrayed you. Well since Mace and Malick don’t need us for the planning of this break in, I thought you might want the chance to see what life is like here.”
“Wait are you taking me to see my parents?” Daisy’s eyebrows shot up.
“You said I helped reunite you with your father in the real world but it didn't exactly end well.” Ward shrugged. “I guess I was thinking this could be a do-over.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Daisy said softly.
“You’ve done a lot for me.” Ward replied. “In here and in the real world. I figure it’s the least I can do.” They arrived at the house and walked up to the front door. Ward rapped his knuckles on the wood and a few moments later, it opened to reveal a much greyer looking Jiaying than Daisy remembered.
“Grant, Daisy.” Jiaying greeted. “What a surprise. To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“Skye was just missing you guys so we decided to drop by.” Ward smiled. “And don’t worry we made sure we weren’t tailed by any Hydra drones.”
“Good.” Jiaying smiled as she wrapped Daisy in a hug. Daisy felt tears welling up in her eyes as she felt her mother’s arms around her.
“Hi Mom.” she said. Jiaying led them inside where Cal was sitting at the table reading a book.”
“Daisy!” he greeted excitedly. “Oh this is a wonderful surprise! I wish I’d known you were coming I would’ve made dinner.”
“It’s okay Dad.” Daisy chuckled. She couldn’t recall ever calling Cal ‘Dad’ but here it felt right.
“Why don’t Cal and I make something for us to eat.” Ward suggested. Daisy watched as Ward and her father went into the kitchen and right then she made a decision. She decided she wouldn’t tell them about the mission to the Citadel. There was no reason to worry them. And she just wanted to enjoy this one afternoon as a family.
---
Phil was passing out blankets and supplies to the civilians around the base when he heard someone come up behind him. He turned around to see Lincoln with a box of medical supplies.
“We brought these in case they’d help.” Lincoln stated.
“Oh thanks.” Phil smiled. “It’s Lincoln right?”
“Yeah Lincoln Campbell.” Lincoln nodded. “How’d you know?”
“Mace mentioned you.” Phil answered. “Said you were an informant on Gideon?”
“Yeah but don’t go spreading that around.” Lincoln said. “How’d you end up here?”
“Skye and Ward brought me in.” Phil answered. “How bout you?”
“I worked with Daisy and her mother.” Lincoln replied. “I was assigned to be Jiaying’s eyes in SWORD when they learned what Gideon was planning to do.”
“What is this thing Gideon wants to bring back anyway?” Phil asked curiously.
“From what Jiaying says, the devil.” Lincoln answered. “Supposedly it has the power to control the minds of the inhumans, make them his puppets.”
“Can’t imagine why Gideon would wanna bring something like that back.” Coulson said.
“You and me both.” Lincoln nodded.
---
Kara and Stephanie entered Strucker’s vault and turned on the lights. Stephanie walked over to a safe and punched in the code. Inside was a small stone rectangular prism inside a glass case. She removed the prism from the safe and placed it on one of the boxes in the vault.
“Now what?” Kara asked.
“We wait for it to turn liquid.” Stephanie answered. “Then we take it out, put it on the book, and wait for it to turn to liquid again.” Almost as if on command, the stone turned liquid for a few seconds before reforming. Kara quickly pulled out the Darkhold while Stephanie removed the prism from the glass case and placed it on under the book. They waited for about a minute, standing back as far as they could, until the prism turned to liquid and the book fell through the portal. Then the prism reformed and just like that, the book was gone. Out of their reach forever.
“Well I guess that’s that.” Kara chuckled.
“That’s that.” Stephanie nodded. “So what are you gonna do now?”
“Well now that the Darkhold’s gone, I’ll make sure SHIELD fulfills it’s obligations to the world while the team’s in the Framework.” Kara answered. “The Darkhold may no longer be a factor but there are still other threats to manage.”
“I wish you the best of luck with that.” Stephanie replied.