I found the poem featured in this chapter at allpoetry . com . All of its rights belong to DarknesInvadesMe (Leala Scott), the author of this poem.
Just to give you an idea: during the flashbacks, when Coulson and May adopt Leo and Skye, they already had adopted Jemma, Trip and Grant (in that order). And since there's no information on Fitz's family, I took the liberty of shaking things up.
"Read me this story?" Skye asked, walking to Leo who was sitting on the couch.
"I don't…" Leo sat up straight and looked at his sister who was doing her best to trick him into saying yes - and she succeeded. "Ugh, fine, come here."
Skye smiled and skipped to take a seat at the couch as well. "You're the bestest brother ever, you know, Leo?"
Leo and Skye couldn't be more different. They were like water and wine, a sunny day and a thunderstorm, an olive and an arrow. But some things about their past were the same. First of all, they barely remembered their birth family; secondly, their so-called birth family was destroyed by HYDRA; and lastly, it was because of SHIELD that they met their new family.
The boy flipped the book open and began reading, "Thousands of years ago in ancient China, there lived a beautiful young woman named Mulan. She lived with her parents and a dog named Little Brother. Mulan's father had once been a great warrior, but his leg had been injured in battle. As an only child, Mulan felt responsible for upholding the family honor. One day, a man arrived with terrible news from the Emperor. The Huns, China's enemy, had invaded."
"Look Mama," Leopold babbled, showing his mother the paper he had been scribbling on.
Maeve took the paper and nodded, "Very good, Leo. You've got them all right."
The boy grinned and gave her the pencil, "Gimme more."
Three-year-old Leo loved numbers. At his age he could already counted to one hundred, having perfect understanding of all the numbers. Maeve didn't pressure her son to be a brilliant mathematician. In fact, it was him who pressed his mom to give him elementary arithmetic operations to solve. Maeve took the pencil and wrote a few more basic operations. She put the paper before Leo, gave him back the pencil and got up once the doorbell rang.
She stroked her son's hair, telling him, "Do those. I'll just go and check the door."
Maeve opened the door with a smile, but as soon as her eyes met the man standing outside her door, her smile faded away and her face assumed a look of terror. She tried to close the door, but the man pressed his palm flat on the door, gently pushing it open.
"Go away, Devin."
"Let me in, Maeve," he ordered, pushing the door open and proving Maeve that she was powerless against him. "I came to see Leopold."
"You- how do-"
Maeve couldn't find the words to speak. She had met Devin during the Saint Patrick's Day celebrations. Their stomachs were filled with sweet beer, which had lowered their inhibitions enough that neither of them could stop everything that happened that night. Despite having had an one-night stand, Devin had been enchanted by Maeve and had found her later. They had dated briefly, before his behavior turned strange, and before Maeve got pregnant. From that day on it was their downfall. Maeve couldn't tell why Devin had become so different, but it wasn't certainly all because of the unplanned pregnancy.
He had suddenly disappeared out her life – now their lives – and Maeve had had to give up her pianist career in the orchestra. She found herself alone with a little baby to care for. As she looked down at the boy in her arms, she realized she'd never be alone anymore. She'd always have her son. Devin had never seen Leopold, not even once. In fact, he didn't even know Maeve was expecting a boy, let alone did he know his name.
"You are not here to see anyone. Get out," Maeve sternly ordered, pushing him out the door.
"I've heard he's brilliant," Devin smiled in a twisted way as he spoke.
"Out!" she yelled louder.
Devin pulled out of a gun and shot Maeve in the throat. She fell on the floor, blood pooling around her. The man walked in, stepping callously over Maeve's body and her blood, and found Leo.
"Hello, Leo, it's Daddy." The boy looked up, clueless. Devin picked him up in arms and told him in a low voice, "You are so smart, Leo. We need little boys like you."
SHIELD had no idea of what that facility was. Well, did they know it was HYDRA's because there were drawings of their characteristic symbol on the walls of the long, white halls. What the Agency failed to know was what HYDRA used that compound building, three stories below the surface, for. There wasn't anyone around as they walked stealthily in line, trampling along the halls. There wasn't even a sound. Upon reaching another door, one agent signaled with his head at another one, and the two opened the door and walked in.
"All clear," one of them said in a low voice, lowering his gun.
The agents continued to patrol through the building, in search of anything or anyone. Eventually they found a massive lab room, bigger than those that SHIELD had. The air was heavy and warm, and they could hear muffled breathing coming from somewhere in the lab. As they looked around, the agents found dozens of people hiding a storage room attached to the main room.
"Holy…" an agent mumbled as he peeked through the small glass window on the door.
The hostages were crumpled up against the wall, terrified. They had no idea if those people were good or were there to hurt them.
A HYDRA operative walked into the lab and dropped a gas grenade. It began filling the lab with a toxic fume before SHIELD could fire a bullet. The agents wheezed and coughed blood as the gas evolved the air. A few SHIELD agents covered their noses and mouths in the crook of their arms as they kicked down the storage room door and pulled people out of the lab. Those who stayed behind in the lab bled, coughed and died, their faces melting off because of the toxic gas.
Warriors in shiny armor start to wither.
As the Hydra starts to slither.
Their skin slowly melting off.
The dark fog giving them a blood cough.
Once far away from that lab, the few remaining SHIELD agents began asking the people they rescued what that facility was built for. It turned out it was an operations base of HYDRA and they had been kidnapped to invent and build weapons of mass destruction for the organization. Among the prisoners was a little boy, three years old, looking around with his thumb stuck in his mouth.
"What's your name, little man?" a SHIELD agent asked, stooping down before the toddler.
The boy took his thumb out of his mouth with a popping sound. "Leo."
"What are you doing here, Leo?"
He shrugged, "I'm smart."
The man sighed and carried Leo in his arms, leading the prisoners out of the HYDRA building.
Skye – Daisy back then - woke her parents with loud screeches. Cal jumped out of bed swiftly, rushing to his daughter. Daisy's face was red and big tears rushed down her face.
"Hey, hey, what's the matter, baby girl?" he cooed, picking her up.
The baby gasped, feeling short on breath, and let out another loud cry. The man felt his insides ripping to bits. He cuddled Daisy to his chest and rocked her body, making shushing sounds. Cal wondered how come Jiaying couldn't hear their daughter cry. The woman was very much awake, tightly gripping the bed sheets. She could sense something very bad was approaching. Daisy crying like that was just another sign.
Calvin sang, "There is a flower within my heart, Daisy, Daisy, planted one day by a glancing dart, planted by Daisy Bell. Whether she loves me or loves me not sometimes it's hard to tell. Yet I am longing to share the lot of beautiful Daisy Bell."
Battle cries sound off in a dark foggy haze.
Upon seven heads they gaze.
With a slice they remove one head.
Stump spurting the acidic blood they all dread.
Jiaying tossed in bed when she heard what sounded heavy steps outside the window. She could hear the friction of their boots on the gravel ground. Jiaying's pulse ramped up. The time has come, she told herself. She pulled the bed sheets back and sat on the edge of the bed, straining to hear. But her heart pounded too loudly and her breathing was harsh. Jiaying slipped into her clothes and walked to the window. She looked outside. There was no one there, yet her heart wouldn't settle. Something wasn't right; she could feel eyes on her.
Weapon, her mind screamed, I need a weapon! She darted toward the bedside table. Like always, Cal had left his pocket knife there. Jiaying slid her fingers around the grip, appalled by how much her hands shook. That was when she saw the shadow of a person creeping in the wall in front of her. She whipped around, a gasp breaking from her lips as she threw a glance back at the window. A man was staring at her.
Daisy, Cal - that was her next thought. She rushed to the nursery room, finding Cal sitting on the rocking chair with Daisy in his arms. The two slept quietly and undisturbed. She figured she'd walk outside alone. After all, those people were there for her. If they knew about Daisy, they'd want to take her too. Jiaying sighed in relief as she realized that her baby girl would be alright if no one knew about her.
The HYDRA agents took Jiaying to Austria where Reinhardt waited for her and the other villagers he ordered to be taken to him. He experimented on her, removed everything he could from her, and then ordered one of his followers to dispose of her body. He dumped her in the Hunan Province again. When Cal found his wife's body, he went into a murderous rage and slaughtered everyone in the village. SHIELD found a massacred village and the cries of a baby.
On that particular day in November when Coulson and May arrived home, the two were edgy and hiding something from one another. Trip, seven-years-old then, and Jemma, two, were sleeping, all thanks to Mimi. Grant, the still traumatized six-year-old, waited awake for his parents to get home. Coulson had to lay by his side for a few minutes until the poor boy's heart settled and he fell asleep. Even though their three children were already sleeping, the day had been anything but smooth and Coulson was exhausted. His only thought was of his bed and his wife in his embrace, but his sleepiness died out once he entered the bedroom and May quickly hid whatever file she was reading.
"I don't have clearance for that?" he asked, undoing his tie.
May sighed and showed him the file, tossing it to the end of the bed. "This file was in my desk."
Coulson swallowed at that but didn't let on his secret. He opened the file and read the most important details: Leopold Fitz, 5 years old, Scottish, found in a HYDRA lab two years earlier, pending adoption, fifteen failed adoptions up till now. All the families that had taken him, all fifteen, had returned him only a few weeks later. They all reported that Leo was absurdly smart and that he somehow made them uncomfortable and left them with the feeling they could never be able to cope with the little boy's intelligence.
Coulson returned the file to his wife and said, "I've got one too."
"So you know about him already?"
He cocked his head, "Not exactly." Coulson gestured that he was going to get the file and once he returned to the bedroom he showed it to May, "I got this one."
"Skye, no surname," May read, "changed orphanages five times already."
Skye was born Daisy Johnson in the Hunan Province of China, but once she was put into the adoption system, two years before, her name changed multiple times; she was Willow Scott in Massachusetts, Heather Evans in Ohio, Ivy Lewis in Maryland, Violet Baker in New Jersey, Mary Sue Poots in New York. SHIELD had her bouncing from orphanage to orphanage as if she was a hot potato. But unlike Leo, no one had even made the effort to adopt her: whether it was because she had the misfortune to be sick the day a couple visited, whether it was because of her Asian features, or maybe it was because she was three years old but had a mouth that moved faster than the speed of light.
At that moment Coulson and May realized that the reason they had been given Leo's and Skye's files wasn't only because SHIELD wanted them to adopt the kids. The Agency had screwed up big time with the two cases.
It is far too long before they take note.
Far too busy trying to gloat.
Two more heads have grown from it's throat.
Bodies now lay in a huge heap to rot and bloat.
Down the river Styx is where they float.
SHIELD failed to see that HYDRA, at least a small independent branch of their supporters, was growing freely, abducting people and forcing them to build weaponry. Leo was collateral damage; he had no fault in anything: he didn't choose to be smarter than anyone else, let alone choose to have a father who was a HYDRA devotee. SHIELD failed to see that their enemy was experimenting on people. It cost Skye her whole family: her mother died and her father went insane.
"So, which one do we adopt?" Coulson asked softly.
"Everyone in the plaza bowed to Mulan, too. The Emperor asked her to stay on as his adviser, but Mulan knew it was time to return to her family. At home, Mulan presented her father with a sword given to her by the Emperor." Leo flipped to the last page, "'The greatest gift and honor is having you for a daughter,' her father said, 'I've missed you so.'"
"Mulan was so cool," Skye said, receiving the book back from her brother.
"Well," Leo smiled, "You're pretty cool too. When you want to be."
Skye giggled and nudged her brother in the side, "You're cool too, Leopoldio."
"Hey!" he grumbled, "That's not funny, Doctor Nugent."
Maybe Leo and Skye weren't that different after all.
So, there it is, the chapter everyone was waiting for. What were your thoughts on it?