It was 6:42 p.m. on Wednesday. This would be exactly 48 hours since Riot had possessed Ward. It was currently Wednesday morning, and Riot was feasting on Ward's dark memories.
Ward was a troubled young man from an unhappy family. A young man without his own beliefs, he was brought into the world of espionage due to his exceptional talent. His mentor, however, was not someone who could save him. On the contrary, the Hydra spy and S.H.I.E.D. Level 8 agent, Garrett, was a very… interesting person.
Riot saw Ward's deeper memories. He saw that due to family issues, Ward chose to burn down his own home. He was subsequently sued by his entire family and locked up in a juvenile detention center. Garrett, who saw his potential, then led his S.H.I.E.L.D. team to raid the detention center and violently took him out. Step by step, he psychologically manipulated Ward, telling him that his family didn't want him to live and that he was the only one who could protect him…
Father. This was what Riot sensed Ward longed for in his memories.
Riot didn't understand what this "father" thing was, but it was very clear that to completely control the man in front of it, the role of a father was essential.
And so, Riot began to interfere with Ward's dreams.
Ward had a dream about Garrett, the man who was like a father to him. He recalled everything, especially the day Garrett told him that S.H.I.E.L.D. had decided to recruit him. Garrett gave him a test.
"Kill your dog."
It was an incredibly simple request, yet it was something Ward couldn't do. He had been abandoned by his family and left to survive in the wilderness by Garrett, with only this dog by his side. Only this dog would never leave him, and now, Garrett wanted him to kill it.
Ward couldn't do it.
Looking at the dog he had raised for several years, Ward took a deep breath and fired a shot into the sky. He hoped his dog would leave safely and never come back. In the end, he was unwilling to go against his true nature and harm his friend.
He watched the dog leave and breathed a sigh of relief.
Then came the sound of a sniper rifle.
"You didn't do it."
"Garrett" appeared in front of Ward. After a moment of silence, Ward let out a helpless sigh, but Garrett didn't seem to mind, waving Ward over to sit down at his wilderness survival camp. He then said, "You know, Ward, what am I most satisfied with about you?"
"I… I don't know."
"I taught you how to protect yourself. You fought for your freedom, but that freedom needs power to protect it."
"Garrett" told Ward his thoughts: "Because of this, to protect your own freedom, you need to get rid of anyone who might stand in your way."
"But Billy isn't…"
"If you and it were both starving, can you be sure your dog would never attack you?" "Garrett" looked at him, staring intently: "When you would rather starve to death than eat it, can you guarantee that it won't betray you and eventually tear into your body?"
"I…"
Ward hesitated. He was sure he was good to Billy, but could he really be sure that Billy would always trust him?
He couldn't.
Ward woke up, turned off his alarm, and went to the bathroom to wash his face. He looked at himself in the mirror. He seemed especially different today. Garrett appeared in the mirror and said to Ward, "Protect your freedom, my child."
"Protect your freedom, Ward."
Ward took a deep breath. He felt like he had changed in some way, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He went to the gym and began training frantically. On a whim, he turned on the nearby TV. As he worked out, the TV began to broadcast another heroic deed of Spider-Man. He started to think about what he would do if Spider-Man became someone who interfered with his freedom.
A person must live freely. A person can only gain freedom with enough power. In other words, freedom only belongs to those who have power—this is the true meaning of Hydra. People voluntarily give up their freedom in exchange for safety, submitting to those with power. In the end, only those with power have freedom.
But since the age of superheroes began, freedom no longer belonged to those who were "powerful" in the traditional sense.
These extraordinary individuals became the new people with power. Some chose to satisfy their desires, while others chose to help people. But no one chose to stand with Hydra. On the contrary, everyone else became a "problem" for Hydra.
What would he do if Spider-Man interfered with his freedom?
Ward was silent, only thinking about ways to deal with Spider-Man.
The most effective way to deal with Spider-Man was, without a doubt, to gain more power than him and then defeat him.
Gaining more power than Spider-Man…
"This power is within your grasp."
Ward heard Garrett's voice again and was pondering its meaning when he suddenly heard footsteps. He turned to see Melinda, who had just woken up. He just nodded and continued hitting the punching bag. Melinda made herself a cup of coffee and then asked, "You look a little out of it."
"Do I?"
As Ward spoke, he hit the punching bag with his fist: "I'm just thinking that we are encountering more and more superhumans and all sorts of other strange things. One day, we will encounter an enemy we can't defeat. What will we do then? The Avengers won't be with us every time."
"That's why we exist. Maybe we're not a match for those superhumans, but we can build a barrier between them and ordinary people. Even if it's not very helpful, at least we tried." Coulson also woke up and showed them a tablet in his hand: "Fitz taught me how to use this thing yesterday… To be honest, I'm still not very good at it, but it basically allows us to see the locations where the symbiotes are sending signals."
"They're still sending signals?"
"Yes," Coulson answered Ward: "Not just them, the symbiote that Director Fury froze has also been sending signals. They probably won't be back for another two days, so we're on our own until then."
"What about the symbiote that escaped?"
"No news."
Ward nodded, a look of understanding on his face: "So all the symbiotes are sending signals, but the one that escaped hasn't said anything."
"So what are they sending?"