Talent - Leo Fitz (AOS)

p r o l o g u e

Marseille, France. 2006.

She was walking back from the gym when she first felt that something was wrong.

You always had to be careful on the streets of Marseille, but this cautious feeling she felt was different to what she had felt before.

At first it was the sleek and shiny black car parked beside a run-down block of apartments, and then it was the man in a dark suit and equally dark shades who passed her on the street, but what tipped it all off was the young woman standing outside her door, briefcase in hand.

She considered making a run for it, whatever it was she running from, but she slid a hand underneath her jacket and felt the rough handle of her knife and it gave her comfort. She was afraid of few things, mostly because she knew she could defend herself.

So she walked towards the woman.

"Sophie Bouchard?" The woman asked as she approached.

"Oui," she said softly, her voice laced with caution as she stopped in front of the woman.

The woman smiled and took of her glasses, revealing her calculating blue eyes beneath, "Je m'appelle Agent Maria Hill. Parles-tu anglais?"

Sophie just nodded.

"I work for an American intelligence agency. Have you heard of S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Sophie shook her head.

"Good," Maria nodded, before looking at the door, "may I come in?"

Sophie stood there for a moment, weighing out her options. She turned to see if there were any suspicious looking cars or people nearby like there had been on their walk there, but there was none she could see. So if this lady had no immediate back-up, Sophie could definitely take her.

"Je suis inoffensif, je le promets (I'm harmless, I promise)," said the woman, Maria.

Sophie looked back at her and exhaled before nodding, feeling the shape of the knife against her waist as she walked slowly towards the door. She was still cautious, but she was not afraid.

"May I ask," she began softly, her French accent thick, "what do you want?"

Maria watched as the girl fished out her keys from a pocket of her leather jacket and began to unlock the door. She knew the girl's history, and was aware she would probably have some sort of weaponry on her, so she knew she had to be calm and careful.

"We are interested in your recruitment."

Sophie stopped then, her key still in the lock. Recruitment? They wanted her to join them? Did they know who she was?

She opened the door and reluctantly stood aside to let the woman in too.

Once the door was closed, Maria walked into the tiny room and sat down on the sofa, making herself at home quite easily. Sophie just stood there, staring her out. What was this?

"We have been following you - your work - for quite some time, Miss Bouchard. You're just out of prison, are you not?"

Sophie stood there for another moment, before walking over to the window where there was a half-filled box of cigarettes. She pulled one out of the box and put it between her lipstick stained lips, looking out the window at the empty street. She pulled out a lighter.

At her lack of response, Maria decided to continue, "we understand you have had a difficult life, but we also appreciate your great success as well. You have great ambition, great skill, and you are incredibly bright. You have all the qualities of a reputable agent, and that is something to be admired."

The woman pulled out something from her brief case. Sophie spared her a glance, before looking back out the window and putting the cigarette between her lips again, now lit.

"The French authorities gave us your file..." Maria flipped the page over, "dropped out of school at thirteen, left home and joined one of the biggest criminal organisations in the city, if not the whole country, rose to the top, you were leading some of the biggest jobs by fifteen, then began to run your own operations, stealing up to 3.4 million euros worth of money and property."

A small smile tugged at the corners of Sophie's mouth for a split second as she listened.

"You've served time, released for good behaviour, and now you're on parole for two years," Maria shut the file and put it beside her on the old sofa cushion, before pulling out her phone and putting it on the table, "but after all that, this is what we're most interested in."

Maria opened a video and pressed play. At the sound, Sophie turned her head and watched the video from afar.

It was security camera footage from one of the last heists she pulled before being arrested. She was posing as a German tourist, confused as she asked the security guard of the bank for help with some financial business. The video audio showed her speaking in fluent German to the security guard before switching to French at his lack of translation but in a German accent. It was incredibly confusing to watch if you knew she was actually French in the first place, but she was very convincing.

When the video showed her finally attacking the guard, Maria couldn't help but notice the precision, the technique, the efficiency of her combat. It was as if she was already a trained SHIELD specialist but in the video she was a sixteen year old amateur.

When the video stopped, Maria looked up at the girl who had turned back to the window.

"Where did you learn to fight like that, Miss Bouchard?"

Sophie smiled, letting the cigarette hang loose in between her fingers and turned to Maria, finally speaking, "tell me more about this S.H.I.E.L.D. you say I am so perfect for? Is it criminal?"

"No, it is an official government agency," Maria said, raising a brow.

"But it is interested in a criminal like me?"

"We are interested in your potential, Sophie. We want to help you, perhaps give you a second chance to work for something good for once. We believe you could be great."

Sophie raised her eyebrows amusedly at that, taking a final drag of the cigarette before twisting the burnt end on the window sill and leaving it there.

"Is everyone at SHIELD this naive?" She asked, leaning on the wall.

Maria smiled, "optimistic."

Sophie shrugged, "same thing, no?"

"If you come with me-"

"Who says I will come with you?"

"Do you have a job right now?" Maria asked.

Sophie narrowed her eyes, "I make ends meet."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. can give you a home, a family. And...Government contracts pay quite well, especially if you're good at your job."

It seemed that piqued Sophie's interest, "how well?"

Maria smiled. She was hooked.

After Sophie left that day with Agent Hill, with just a suitcase and a lot of remaining caution, she never looked back. The next time she would see the streets of Marseille, it would be for a mission, and she would be a very different person.