Jonathan Fitz

Jonathan Alexander "Jon" Fitz is a SHIELD agent and expert hacker.

Childhood
Jonathan Fitz was born on January 9th, 1995 to William and Emily Fitz. The small family lived in William's home country of Scotland, where they intended to stay, but unexpected circumstances arose and caused them to pack up and move to the USA after about five years. The main reason behind this was a falling out between William and his brother Alistair, but they would only tell their son at the time that it was because of a better job opportunity for his father. So the family headed to California, where William was able to settle into what would turn out to be a fairly well paying job.

Growing up, Jonathan had very few friends. He was often viewed as being a rather strange kid and has always been fairly quiet, two things that made it difficult for him to bond with other children. Instead he often either spent time with his mother or would entertain himself with his big imagination and interest in an abundance of topics. This desire to learn would have served him well in a classroom, however, he was often too restless and easily distracted to pay attention.

As he got older, Jon experienced occasional bullying at school, which caused him to become even more withdrawn and less engaged in his schoolwork (which he was already struggling to understand). His grades began to slip, and while he never told his parents about the bullying, they could tell something was up. Finally, they decided something had to change. Just before he entered his freshman year of high school, they took him out of public school and instead put him in a private school in hopes that he would have a better experience there.

Sadly, the switch to private school did not go as well as Jon hoped it would. He felt more out of place than ever, and even though he managed to get his grades up a little bit, he was still behind and would later require a tutor to achieve decent grades. He still had an extremely difficult time making friends, and while he did bond with a few teens his age, the friendships never seemed to last. He simply did not have much in common with his peers, so instead he turned to a place where he did have something in common with others– online hacking groups.

Hacking Beginnings
Even though Jon struggled with school, there were many other things he had a knack for. One of his main passions was music, and he would spend much of his free time learning as many instruments as he could. Another major passion of his was hacking.

He took an interest in it through movies, as he always found the hacker characters to be extremely "cool and interesting." He began to wonder if he would be able to do the same things they did, and thus, a new pastime presented itself. He soon discovered that the real thing was a bit different from how it was portrayed in the movies but was still fascinating, and he had a natural talent for it. During this time he stumbled upon the hacktivist organization the Rising Tide, which he became loosely involved in and brought him into contact with several people who were able to help him improve his skills. This is where he met the person he would form his first true connection with– Leah Phillips.

Jon and Leah had a surprising amount of things in common, most notable of which was their interest in hacking. The two of them connected almost instantly and soon formed a bond. They lived in different states so for a long time all they could do was text and call each other, which they did quite often. They would constantly push each other to improve their skills, and to this day, Jon considers that to be a large factor in why he's so good at what he does. Eventually, through practice he became a fairly proficient hacker. Proficient enough, in fact, to catch the attention of a certain government organization.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy
As Jon became more skilled at hacking, he sometimes liked to push his limits in order to test those skills. This would often happen on days he was bored and felt like he had "nothing better to do." In the summer of 2012, during one of these moments of boredom, he took his biggest risk yet: hacking into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database. He'd heard about the organization through the Rising Tide and was simply curious if he'd be able to hack their database. . He talked it over with Leah, who warned against it. She was sure he'd get caught, but he went through with the hack anyways. In the end, Leah turned out to be right. He did manage to pull it off, but his intrusion did not go undetected (as he would soon find out).

A week later, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Jennifer Smith showed up at his door. She informed him that S.H.I.E.L.D. was actually impressed by his abilities and was interested in having him come attend the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Communications after he graduated high school. Despite his initial reservations, he accepted under one condition– they extend the same invitation to his friend.

The next fall Jon went into the academy quite confident that these next few years were going to be the best of his life. He was finally able to meet his best friend, and he was succeeding academically for the first time in his life. For now, life seemed to be perfect. Weeks passed, and Jon and Leah became more and more close, until suddenly, Jon realized that his feelings towards her had changed: he no longer just wanted to be friends. He loved her. He was terrified to mention it at first, but it didn't take her long to pick up on the change herself. To his relief, she informed him that she felt the same way, and the pair decided to try out dating. Things were going quite well, and Jon couldn't help but wonder if maybe Leah was the person he was meant to spend the rest of his life with. However, life seemed to have other plans. In January, only a few days after his nineteenth birthday, the unthinkable happened. Hydra, whose operatives had been hiding deep within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s own ranks, revealed themselves. All all facets of the organization were attacked, including the very academy Jon and Leah were attending. The couple attempted to escape, but in the process they ran into a classmate, Nathaniel Jordan, who turned out to be working with Hydra. As he tried to stop them from leaving, a firefight ensued, in which Hannah was shot. In retaliation, Jon mercilessly gunned down Nathaniel, then tried to continued the escape (now carrying Leah). After running into a squad of Hydra agents, he tried to fight his way out, but just ended up with a bullet in his torso. Jon and Leah were then left for dead and, just before Leah passed, they shared a heartfelt moment in which she told him she loved him for the first time. Several surviving S.H.I.E.L.D. agents managed to find Jon just in time to save him, but unfortunately, it was too late for Leah.

Aftermath
Two days after the attack, Jon awoke in a hospital. He was given a quick explanation about what had transpired, including the news that Leah had died and the status of other people he knew in S.H.I.E.L.D., such as his cousin, was unknown. Once he recovered enough he returned home under the careful watch of the surviving agents who had saved his life, as having been affiliated with S.H.I.E.L.D. could have made him a target.

The following months were some of the darkest of his life. The loss of his best friend (which he blamed himself for) and nearly his own life as well caused him to fall into a deep depression. He was eventually able to find a coping mechanism in music, but even then he was left in a dark place which he refused to properly address.

As summer came, he tried to figure out what the direction of his life would be now. He decided he would begin attending a local college the following fall in order to finish his education. Once fall came, however, he met someone that would drastically change the course of his life.

Amber Moore and Jon met when they began attending their first quarter of college, and they almost instantly connected. It didn't take them long to become friends as the two bonded over their individual scars and struggled. Not too long into their relationship they started dating, and everything was going well at first. Eventually, however, their problems got the better of them. The very thing that had caused them to bond ended up turning the relationship toxic to the point that both of them were more unhappy than they had been before.

Neither of them wanted to break off the relationship despite their issues, but eventually it became severe enough that Jon finally decided to end things. However, when he brought it up, Amber revealed she had become pregnant. Upon this discovery, the couple decided to put aside their differences and try to make things for the sake of their unborn child and raise him to the best of their ability.

Ryan
On July 29, 2015, Ryan Fitz was born. Jon was absolutely terrified to be father, but as soon as his baby boy was in his arms, all of those fears went away for at least a moment. From that moment on he tried his best to be the best father he could possibly be, and for once, he and Amber were happy again. For a time, things were good, but it turned out this was only the case on the surface. He didn't notice at first due to how busy he was with school, a job, and taking care of Ryan, but she was extremely detached and struggling with demons he didn't even know about. One day, he came back to their apartment and she was gone. The only explanation he ever received was a letter she left for him on the kitchen counter.

After that day, he never saw her again. He moved back in with his parents, who helped him take care of Ryan as he finished school and tried to make a living for himself.

Joining S.H.I.E.L.D.
One warm summer morning in 2016, Jon was playing with Ryan in his backyard when he was approached by a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent again. This time the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. at the time, Phil Coulson, met with him directly to offer him a chance at joining the organization again. Jon was hesitant at first (largely due to concern for Ryan), but he yet again accepted. He would continue to finish his college degree while training to become a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. He began his training the next month under Agent Daisy Johnson, who would train him in hacking along with skills he would need in the field.

A little under a year later, after months of rigorous training, Jon was officially given the status of S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

Losing his mother
Later that year, Jon was in the middle of work when he received some devastating news: his mother had been in a car crash and was in critical condition. The doctors eventually managed to stabilize her, but she wasn't waking up. She had fallen into a coma, and no one knew if she would ever wake up again. Despite that, Jon was adamant that they keep her on life support in hopes that she would wake up one day. To this day Jon remains hopeful, even though almost three years have passed.

Promotion
Since Jon wanted to continue living in California, he ended up working for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s newly established West Coast Division, under the direction of Agent Jennifer Smith, the very agent who had approached him about the academy so many years ago. She had always been impressed with his abilities, and he did no disappoint while working for her. Eventually she decided to promote him to her assistant, essentially preparing him to take over her position as Director of the communications division one day. A few other S.H.I.E.L.D. employees had some concerns with this choice, as Jon was on the younger side compared to most other agents, however, most of them trusted Agent Smith's judgement.

Personality
Jon is nothing if not an idealist. He tries to see the good in everyone, sometimes to the point that he can be blindsided when someone ends up hurting him. Nonetheless, he firmly believes that everyone, no matter what they might have done in the past, deserves a chance to change. This is a major reason why he refuses to kill, even if someone would be willing to kill him. He has killed before, though, and each time the memory of the event haunts him.

Even though he is quick to assume people are good, he still has a difficult time feeling comfortable about opening up about his life and feelings. He prefers to keep his feelings to himself even when around people he trusts, mostly because he thinks other people’s feelings are far more important than his own. He thinks if he tells people how he's feeling he'll become a "burden" and people will leave him as a result. Ironically, his overeagerness to help others and never help himself can sometimes inadvertently cause him to hurt others, instead. This will often cause him bottle up his feelings, which, when left unchecked, always leads to him lashing out at the people he cared about eventually.

Jon has extremely low self esteem and his hyper sensitivity to the criticisms others direct at him only worsen it. He is a bit of a perfectionist, so if he makes any mistake or receives even a small criticism, he will take it as confirmation that he is not good enough or is a bad person.

Even from a young age, Jon was a dreamer. He loved crafting stories in his head during more boring moments in school, and that creative mindset has continued into his adulthood. n his free time— when he has any— he enjoys writing music, poetry or even short stories as an escape of sorts. This creativity often gives him the ability to see the bigger picture in many scenarios, which, paired with his idealism, often gives him a unique perspective on some things.

Family

 * William Fitz
 * Emily Fitz
 * Ryan Fitz
 * Leopold Fitz
 * Alistair Fitz

Allies

 * Leah Phillips †
 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Daisy Johnson
 * Jemma Simmons
 * Melinda May
 * Phil Coulson †
 * Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie
 * Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez
 * Daniel Sousa
 * Jennifer Smith
 * Team Outcast
 * Mara Young
 * Penelope Klien
 * Liam Watson
 * Elias Lloyd
 * Faith Jones
 * "The Dreamer"