Mirage // Marvel Universe

Status: In Custody

Being on a quinjet again is like reliving a once-forgotten dream. Or maybe a nightmare.

It's a short flight from Atlanta, and I spend all of it in silence. Natasha knows better than to ask questions before I can meet with Nick Fury, and I know better than to dig myself into a hole by answering them.

There are four agents besides Natasha on the jet. Since coming back to SHIELD was supposed to be a choice, this much manpower is a bit overkill. I suppose the stories of my pursuits over the last three years have made me out to be more of a danger than I really am.

I never really hurt anyone... not permanently at least.

By the time we land, the evening has set in. I step off the jet with my backpack in hand, and a wave of nausea washes over me. This isn't Headquarters, the Triskelion, or even some SHIELD black site in the desert. This is the middle of the damn ocean.

When I notice that Natasha isn't by my side, I turn around. "Natasha?"

"I have another errand to run," she says dismissively. "Agent Vickers will show you to Fury."

I look to my left. An agent with bright orange hair stands at my side. Natasha offers an encouraging smile in response to my confusion, and with that, she presses a few buttons, and the ramp begins to rise.

Natasha's always been a woman of infuriatingly few words.

The agent named Vickers leads me off the tarmac and through the gallery. He hasn't looked at me since Natasha walked me out of my motel room, and not a shred of emotion has crossed his face in the last hour.

He's too young to be this desensitized. Hell, he looks younger than me.

"So, SHIELD, huh? I hear they have good dental." I say. Vickers just stares dead ahead, walking like some military drone.

In light of such a curt conversation, I look around the gallery. It's lined with desks and monitors, and everyone moves from place to place like worker bees building their hive. All this technology—this entire aircraft carrier—was built in just two or three years. Impressive.

"Fury wasn't kidding when he said he had big plans for SHIELD."

Vickers frowns, saying nothing once more.

Once up the gallery's stairs, I see a familiar silhouette overlooking the agents below. The nausea I had been feeling previously is replaced by warmth in my chest that I didn't know I had been missing.

"Coulson?" I ask, stopping in my tracks.

He turns on his heel, meeting my gaze with a small smile only he can make genuine. "Harper, long time no see."

Unlike Natasha who seemed distant upon our reunion, Coulson has no hesitation in embracing me. After three years, he's still the dorky man who decided to give a quick-tempered rookie agent a chance as a field agent.

"Yeah it has been—" I start but am cut off by another presence.

"Agent Hagino," Fury's voice calls from behind me.

I bite the inside of my cheek, trying my hardest to keep any ill-thought responses from springing forward.

"Not your agent anymore, Director," I correct, not turning to face him. Coulson gives me a look I can't quite describe. A warning maybe?

Fury, in all his black-suit regality, moves between Coulson and I. "If you thought that dropping off the face of the earth counted as a formal resignation, you'd be mistaken."

"I thought the message was clear enough."

"Hm... That it was." He turns to one of the screens half-circled around him. What I wouldn't give to get my hands on this level of technology...