24. Result Of Brain Scan
"Office! Now!" May said as she climbed the stairs and got out of Vault D
"Good luck with that" Grant chuckled quietly as her head fell back in a prayer of patience. Hoping up she glared at him so fiercely he had a moment's doubt when a particularly unsettling smile crept on her lips.
"So" she began as she backed out to the other side of the Inertial Confinement Laser Barrier, "Do you want May to come back and break your knee caps, or will you shut up"
"I will take the second option," Grant said
"Excellent see you tomorrow you poor poor sod" Skye smiled a little after which she brought back the barrier.
"Yeah see you tomorrow," Grant said as Skye walked out of Vault D.
'Thankfully I sensed May entering the Vault D otherwise she wouldn't just be shouting but definitely attacking me which could have exposed my powers. Well, at least I know Skye still has positive feelings for Grant Ward but do I have those feelings as well. I liked Skye's bubbly character but she didn't have any of it from season 2 onwards. Well since May trained her character had also affected her and Grant Ward didn't help much. Let's see if I can help her retain her original character.' Grant thought as he closed his eyes and started to meditate.
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Over the week Ward's mind was dissected by Fitz as he got all he can from it. Brain scan was also part of the experiment's so he did more brain scans and compiled a report for Coulson and the team.
Right now Coulson along with May, Skye, Trip, and Fitz were in Coulson's office along with Grant Ward who was standing in a corner. Fitz has asked Coulson to let Ward see the result of his experiment. Fitz has passed each one of them a folder which shows his finding.
Everyone quietening at once to hear his results. His research was exhaustive and even though Skye knew he was summarising and putting a lot of things into layman's terms for his audience, she still only caught about one word of ten.
Skimming over the rapt listeners around her, she saw everyone had the same carefully blank expression as her and took comfort knowing she wasn't the only one not keeping up with the class.
After several minutes Fitz's voice was interrupted by Trip.
"Fitz my man, I know you are dumbing it down for us but it's still not properly clear what you want to show us." Trip said.
"I will make it easier then. This is an image of a brain scan of a completely average person." Fitz explained in clipped tones, taking one of the glossy visual aids from his report.
"Is this one of ours?" asked Trip to which Fitz nodded his head and pointed towards Skye, "It's Skye's brain scan"
"Hey!" Skye protested rather weakly when she saw May's glare at her.
'Completely Average? That's rude' Skye thought in her mind.
"Right then the second one is the brain scan that Skye got for me for the dark web which according to her belongs to a brainwashed person, here is the brain scan of a mass murderer we currently hold in The Sandbox, as well scans of two separate individuals, one a diagnosed psychopath and another patient with an extreme case of bipolar disorder."
After each description, Fitz laid a next to multicolored photo image on the table next to Skye's own Brain Scan. The agents present either leaned over to look or rifled through the stack of papers in their folders to find the corresponding images.
"The variation of color intensity and location signifies part of the brain that are not working properly, are overactive or have been altered. Technically all of these scans should look similar to Skye's " Fitz explained.
"Ha! I know that's right!" Skye crowed as the other 4 people in the room looked at her with different levels of amusement.
Pulling out his final images, Fitz placed five new pictures below the first set and stepped back to let Coulson and the others to have a look. Their eyes each scanned each brain pattern in turn and then each looked up to consider Fitz. The Scots waited expectantly as a hopeful teacher does on a normally problem student who shows signs of redemption.
"While the second set of images closely resembles the ones placed, the difference are enough for me to say definitively that they from another set of participants," Coulson said to which Fitz nodded tightly.
"In other words, the scan of 10 different people are laying on this table right now?" May asked.
"Yes," Coulson said after few minutes after looking at the images and nodding once again.
"Six," said Fitz when the Director's eyes were back on him.
"Six?" Coulson questioned as he dropped his gaze to the glossy photos shining back at him.
"Subjects yes," Fitz answered stepping close to the table and motioning at the second set, "These five here? All Ward."
This news caused Skye and Trip to take a step forward towards the table. Each of Ward's scans was matched with a near mirror image above it. From Skye's normal, to brainwashed, Psychopath, Bipolar, and mass murders, while in some cases the intensity and placement were slightly off the wide range of behavior was closely linked to its control group.
"How is the possible?" Trip asked with shock clear in his voice.
"I can't testify to being a specialist in the field, but it's my educated opinion that Garrett's treatment and years of conditioning on Grant Ward caused a kind of brainwashing or mind alteration. While his tactics took longer and said tactics would take a certain kind of target, the results would be longer lasting and nearly impossible to detect. The results though, are just as effective, and all the more insidious in their nature." Fitz stated.
At this point, Fitz's eyes flicked to where Ward stood beside Skye. Following his gaze, she was surprised to see instead of looking livid, he was looking down as if remembering events from his past. She was starting to feel the first breaths of relief when Fitz kept going, causing that easy breath to stall in her chest.
"This is disconcerting don't you think?"