a/n This is a dark!AU for Leverage. The idea jumped in to my head and wouldn't go away. I don't think I'll ever use this again, but who knows? The idea of them as legit bad guys is scarily entertaining. *grin*

Sometimes Bad Guys are Just Bad Guys

Nathan Ford: Super Villain Potential

Nathan Ford undertstood people. He understood how and why they did things, he understood the baser motivations, and he thought anyone who ignored that was an idiot.

When Nate was five, he wanted to be a priest. Priests received trust and admiration. People did what they said just because they said it.

When Nate was ten, he stopped wanting to be a priest and wanted to be his father. Jimmy Ford was the best at what he did and it earned him respect and fear. Those were better than trust and admiration any day. Nate spent all the time he could watching his father. It was a thorough and visceral education. Then someone snitched.

When Nate was fifteen, talking to the old man through bullet proof glass and realizing how bad he would look in orange, he stopped wanting to be his father. Respect and fear were all well and good, but not worth the price of freedom.

When Nate was eighteen, he decided to have everything he wanted and he would get there with the talents he had for knowing what people would do next. He would be astounding.

When Nate was twenty-three, he was a criminal mastermind.

Sophie Deveraux: A Thousand Faces that No One Knew

The first time the little girl who would become Sophie Deveraux (and whose name was decidedly not Sophie Deveraux) conned someone, she was three. Her parents refused to by her a toy she wanted. She could barely talk, and was still having trouble with the concept of walking, which meant she fell down quite a lot, resulting in bruises. All it took was a kind policeman, some crying and showing off of said bruises, a few words, and her parents went to jail for child abuse.

Her grandmother, rich and guilty for not seeing her son and daughter-in-law's apparent evil sooner, adopted the girl.

The sixth time she conned someone, her rival of the main part in the second-year's school play was put in therapy. And the other girl was far too drugged to act, as a precaution to stop her from having another "psychotic break".

The three hundred and forty-second time she conned someone, it cost a woman her life and name, and the girl was reborn as Sophie Deveraux. It still wasn't her real name, but she liked the way it sounded, and she liked Sophie's shoes. It would do.

There were other names, other people, other treasures to possess. Still, sooner or later she always came back to Sophie. The boots alone were reason enough, she supposed.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, with how things fell out), the first time she tried to con someone and failed, it was Sophie who tried to con Nate Ford.

The two-thousand and ninety-third time she conned someone, Nate was running the game. From there, everything just got better.

Parker: Favorite Little Psychopath

Parker didn't talk about her childhood, except to stories that involved explosions and theft and blood.

Parker didn't talk about relationships, unless they had ended in bombs and burglary and knives.

Parker didn't talk about possible jobs, until Nate told her what and where and who.

Then she would grin widely and go shopping. She always said Sophie was crazy because the other woman went shopping for shoes and clothes and purses. Parker shopped for harnesses and cables, brass knuckles and shruiken, plastique explosives and C4. There was a reason Parker worked alone.

Really, the crew was lucky Nate's plans always kept her busy and entertained or there would probably be nothing left of them to find.

Nate was rather proud of that fact.

Alec Hardison: Ghost in the Machine

Data was easy. Numbers, names, dates, facts – these were easy. Governments set things up on computer systems and the internet, and people existed because the systems said they did. Who needed to kill someone when you could make them disappear in plain sight instead?

Money was boring. Electronic banks, electronic transfers, electronic cash flow – no challenge. And there were only so many times he could buy and sell countries, or mail awkward clown porn and hate mail to Russel T. Davies for killing off the Master, or leak the names of the CIA's undercover operatives in South America and the Middle East before it became mundane and repetitive.

Being found by Nate Ford was a shock – it should have been impossible. Being invited to join Nate's crew was the most exciting thing to happen to Alec Hardison in years.

He only existed when he wanted to, and if this wasn't a good enough reason, nothing was. Existing in Nate Ford's world was going to be fun.

Eliot Spencer: Death Walks in his Shadow

The name Eliot Spencer was simple and unexciting. The man Eliot Spencer was terrifying. He was the Boogeyman and the monster under the bed. He was the trail of destruction and bodies left in his wake. He was the end of the nation that almost became a liberated Croatia.

If hitters, retrieval experts, assassins, and the scariest badasses to roam the earth were the type to sit around a campfire telling scary stories, Eliot Spencer would be the center of all their tales. And his names would never be mentioned, for fear it might draw his attention.

If you could afford him, he was the best. If you couldn't afford him, you didn't try. The cost would turn out to be too steep, and paid in screams.

What no one knew was that Eliot Spencer had exactly two weak spots: a psycho and a ghost. He called them Parker and Hardison.

Nate Ford found out. And Nate Ford survived because he kept the pair happy, and Eliot Spencer was looking into new options. That was the only reason.

Leverage: To exert power or influence in order to gain an objective. To apply force and pressure at angles to move an object or objects.

Nate Ford understood people. Nate Ford understood his team. Nate Ford understood leverage.

And Nate Ford understood that, sometimes, bad guys are just bad guys.