Seven years ago, not yet in charge of anyone, Michael Shields began to put together the idea that there was a massive criminal organization going on behind the scenes. It was little things on certain crime scenes: accidents that were just a little too perfect, small details that were usually innocuous but too many formed a coincidence. No one else believed him, of course. The murder of a state governor was not connected to the assassination of a gym leader in England, a case Shields had only heard about through a friend at Scotland Yard. 

But even then, at age 32, Shields was one of the most dedicated, hardest working agents the FBI had. He saw the connection, even if no one else did, and he followed through with his hunch. It was the sort of reckless that he would tell the agents under his command to avoid in the future, chasing faceless assassins into the nether. A career killer if he was wrong. But Shields believed he was right.

And he was. Nine months later he uncovered the name. Elysion. The faceless were still faceless, but at least he had something to call them. He was closer than anyone else had ever gotten in forty years. That was why it was dangerous.

Elysion sent an assassin the next night, having already caught wind of the FBI agent on their tail. Neptune, as Shields would later learn his name to be, failed, not counting on Shields sleeping with his gun under his pillow.  The next day he received a message on his computer, one that deleted itself before he was able to prove his theory to any of the other agents. 

Well done, Agent Shields. You live to die another day.

No one believed him, still. So he focused.

He shot through the ranks until he was division head. It meant he was mostly out of the field, but he could put agents on the case. He picked the best of those under him (as frustrating as some may have been) to hunt down the elusive group.

Blake Demirci and Kaito Ogawa were first, agents Shields had worked with before he had taken the promotion. Erik O’Malley, a boy who had followed him into the FBI, agreed to go undercover not long after joining the agency and actually managed to find a way into the leader’s good graces. Sirius Carson and Jason Scott transferred into the DC office, both with immediate approval from Shields himself, both added to the task force as soon as they arrived. Lily Valentine joined the FBI with outstanding results, and with her, Shields felt he had enough.

Erik confirmed there were only nine members of Elysion and he was one of them. After five years undercover, Erik was able to provide names, faces, everything they needed, including the name of the mastermind behind it all.

Tristan Alcott.

They had met once, in passing at a formal event in DC. Even then he had felt danger, every hair on his body standing on end. At the time he hadn’t been able to place the threat, but now it all made sense. The man had been planning his death even then.