Agent Phil Coulson could read people well. Really, really well. So when the Harry Potter he had met only three days prior suddenly started acting like he had a new lease on life the previous day, he knew something was up. Today Harry had decided he wanted to try something new. Phil suggested a place down by the ocean, hoping the brit would appreciate a fish and chips shop he had found no more than 1 kilometre from where they had first met. The fish would be different from what he was used to, but maybe he opened up a little more.
"This is great! Thanks agent Coulson. Haven't had fish and chips for what feels like years!" Harry enthused. He was aware the agent was trying to get on his good side and at the moment he was tempted to let the man in. The warning he had received from Yao about his inability to trust and letting people in was something he took to heart. He needed to, to save them.
Coulson just nodded, seeing the younger man in front of him was deep in thought. He'd noted the pained looks, visible only to the trained eye. His trained eye in this case. He decided to let Harry come to a decision on his own. This would gain him some measure of trust at least. He had seen the dramatic change in Harry's behaviour, like something he had lost was suddenly found.
He had been charged with finding out more about Harry Potter and since neither facial recognition nor his name ended up getting any usable results, he was going to have to get the information the hard way.
Harry was just finishing up when he seemed to come to a decision. "Let's walk to the scene. I'm assuming you brought me here in hopes that I would give you some info. I'm ready to show some trust if you are ready to show me some." Gone was the care-free Harry Potter to be replaced by the Agent, that Coulson thought him to be.
"Sure thing, Agent Potter." Phil said watching him carefully, looking for a response. Nothing. He was either used to the idea of being called Agent or was trained to let people believe what they wanted to hear. Both of them knew what he was doing and both of them realised this was a first step. Both showing some respect to the other and both knowing that they were far away from seeing eye-to-eye.
They walked on the beach to the demarcated area still closed off to the public. Coulson took out his badge for the agent standing at the entry who allowed them access. The scientists were still around testing samples and scanning for radiation. He spoke to one of the men and they quickly cleared out anyone without highest clearance. Meaning it was only Coulson and Harry standing at the sight of the scorched earth.
"Do you believe in destiny?" Harry asked as he stared at the spot where he had incinerated the remains of his enemy.
"Destiny? The force that controls us and ensures we have no actual free will besides the most mundane of choices? No. I believe in a higher power though. Leading us to choices that we freely make ourselves." and Coulson truly did believe that. "Making the hard choice over the easy one because it's the right thing to do, is what makes a normal man into, at least, a good man."
"You sound like someone I once knew. Long gone from the world, but missed by so many…" Harry trailed off not knowing where to begin.
"Okay, listen. I know that something has changed and that you are hesitant to bring it up. As a show of trust…" he pressed a finger to his ear. "Coulson, requesting permission to go black for a while. Intel gathering and…" he looked at Harry "… assessment of potential asset." Coulson listened to his earbud for a couple of seconds and replied "Negative, all is green. Confirmation code: Delta, Zebra, five, six, two, niner. Please confirm?" Coulson nodded then and said "Thank you. Coulson out."
He removed his earpiece and showed Harry as he switched off the communications device. Followed by his cell phone, from which he took the battery before putting them on a table the techs were working on. Then he walked up the dune with Harry following him up. He then sat down. It was almost mid-day and the heat was getting to him. Harry handed him a bottle of water Coulson didn't even see him carrying. Looking at it strangely, noticing the condensation on the bottle he looked at Harry, cracked open the bottle and drank.
Harry just smirked. "I'm not the bad-guy." He turned his head and nodded at the scorched earth. "He was."
Coulson took a moment to digest this. Some pieces of the puzzle seemed to slip together in his mind. "You were part of what happened here, weren't you?"
"Kind of. I've been told by, shall we call them, higher powers, that I am meant to be where I am." Harry signed. "Something big is coming. I don't know what that is, but I was informed that placing my trust in someone would be very important. Someone who has secrets I should respect until I can provide a way for those secrets to be kept." Harry stared at Coulson. "Are you the person I'm supposed to trust with the life of an entire world?"
"I don't understand." Coulson said in confusion.
"What I am about to tell you will be just a small test of the trust I can place in you. How you handle the information will determine if I give you my complete trust." Harry looked at him seriously.
Coulson knew that something was going to happen, but that gaining Harry's trust might very well mean the difference between life and death. If not for him, maybe for countless others. It's a chance he'd have to take. "Okay." was all he said, but seriously.
Gone was the fake smile. Harry could sense that Coulson was going to take what he tells him seriously.
"I come from a different world. A world where one monster caused a total global disaster using manipulation and the power he was born with. His goal was to end all life of those he considered weak and undeserving. People like you. People that did not have our gifts. Not knowing the consequences of his actions he started a nuclear war that made the planet unsupportive of life. I have certain skills and abilities that allowed me to survive even when all I wanted to do was die and be with my loved ones." here Harry took a moment as visions of his past flowed by him and he had to physically pull himself back to reality with a shake.
Coulson wasn't sure he wanted to believe what he was hearing. But for some reason he could not seem to look at this broken man and see anything but the truth in the lines of his face. "He was coming here wasn't he?" It was more of a statement.
Harry nodded and continued "All I wanted was to avenge my people. My friends. My loved ones. But it took years and by the time I had found a way to defeat him there was no-one left to save and all I had was vengeance. At first I had worked with my government, people like me, but they didn't take the threat as seriously as they should have, using me for their own gain and destroying political rivals through financial and tactical manipulation. They fed me false information and kept me in the dark about their true plans and manipulated me to do their will. All the while I was fighting for what I thought they needed, to save the world.
"By the time our governments fell, it was too late. He had gained too much power and was seemingly unstoppable. Years of fighting, planning, and more loss than I can stand later, I had finally managed to track his weakness down. When I found him he was, at first, unaware of my presence. I didn't know what he was doing, but I waited for the right moment and when I saw it, I attacked. We fought and after a while I finally beat him, but I was too late. Whatever he was doing was triggered and I found myself lying right over there." Harry pointed over his shoulder to the dune behind him.
"When I came too, I found his body lying on the ground and I destroyed it." Harry pointed at the scorched spot, his gaze still on the ocean. The waves still calmed him some and right now he needed all the calm he could get.
There was a moment's silence as Coulson absorbed all this. It was unbelievable, but all the info they had and couldn't find proved his point. No facial recognition, because he had not been in this world before. The bizarrely different energy signatures. Harry's personal skill set and the unexplainable tech. All could point to an alternate reality.
"Okay," Coulson said, "I believe you."
"Just like that?" Harry asked, mild shock showing in his eyes. Coulson loved this part.
"Yup, just like that." He didn't need to inform Harry of why he believed him. Just that he did.
"So what happens now?" Harry asked still a little dumbfounded.
"Any chance you can tell me who these higher powers are?" Coulson asked.
"Sorry, I'm just a pawn of destiny. Where I'm from prophesies are real and from my understanding and experience, immutable." Harry said.
"I don't believe in destiny." Coulson reminded him.
"Tell me how that works out for you." Harry replied flippantly. "I have it under good authority that getting more information than I already have will basically doom our endeavours to save more lives."
"Are you sure?" Coulson would hate to tell Fury that more information was bad.
"Trust me." Harry replied with a bit of a cocky smile.
"I was afraid you'd say that. You know, you're not making my life any easier." Coulson replied with a wry smile.
"Wasn't trying to." Harry replied. They chatted on and Harry was still skirting around subjects, while trying to find out more about Coulson's agency.
A short while later, Coulson said, "Our time is almost up."
"Not quite yet." Harry put a hand on his shoulder. "There's one more thing I need to tell you."
"There's more?" Coulson was almost afraid of the answer when Harry smiled at him like a shark.
"Yup." Turn around is fair play after all. "What I'm about to share with you is between just us. Let's call it another test."
Coulson checked his watch. "We really are almost out of time. Any longer and they will come looking for us."
"Will you trust me?" Harry said holding out his hand as if to shake.
Coulson looked at it and the grin on Harry's face. "I really don't want to when you look at me like that, but I do Harry. I trust you." And with that he took Harry's hand.
And then they disappeared.