Eiyu
Author: Xerphena
Beta: Kitty
Disclaimer: I own jack shit.
Main Characters: Harry Potter, Voldemort, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Loki, OC (Reine), Ron, Hermione, Draco, OC (Cider/ Death)
Harry Potter was frustrated. The kind of frustrated that comes when you have tried to do something for so long, and despite your greatest efforts, you still fall flat on your face.
After years of fighting against the dark forces, rounding up all of Voldemort's supporters and dealing with those dabbling in the dark arts, he still fell to its power. Of course, it may have been understandable, he didn't even have to imagine how many times aurors had died or been injured because of the forces they fought against. Moody was the perfect example.
However, he didn't even die a hero's death; no epic battle, no fight to the finish in which he was over whelmed by the forces of the other wizard. Technically, Amaieran wasn't even a wizard, she was a veela. Or, that's what they thought she was.
During the various ministry meetings and court cases she appeared at, male and female wizards alike began falling head over heels for the woman. She, of course, appeared flustered by this fact, and was quick to apologize and immediately turned off whatever allure she had swirling around her.
It's not like that was the only thing that pulled people towards her, she was a gorgeous woman of her own right. Olive skin, clear and unblemished, gorgeous curves and a tight waist, coupled with her round butt and large bosom. That was just her body, her face was a sight to behold; high cheekbones and large full lips. Her eyes, wide and cute, turned almost dangerous with the dark eye shadow that she put on just perfectly. All this was framed in a curtain of wavy dark brown hair with not a single strand out of place.
Of course, Harry didn't take much notice to it, in any other way than a passing attraction. He was, after all, engaged to Ginny with a baby on the way. However, Draco was held back by none of these… urges. He and Harry had become friends in a sense, and although Draco wasn't an auror, seeing the stuck up blond around the workplace wasn't unfamiliar. He worked in the ministry, a similar position to his late father. He often visited Harry though, asking questions about what to do about this and that and what he was doing. Harry predicted it was probably because the blond was lonely, as not many people liked him… considering his rather unfavourable background.
But, moving back to Amaieran, she seemed so innocent. Or maybe she didn't, and they were just oblivious to her. Beauty often hides the beast, one might assume.
All these thoughts tumbled around Harry's head as he sat in front of his fireplace, sipping on a glass of fire whiskey. His face was red from tears and his glasses lay on the table beside the chair.
They hadn't suspected that she wasn't the innocent sweet girl they all saw on the surface. They all assumed that she was just beautiful… they assumed this until the time came where she destroyed their world and took everyone down with it. All Harry fought for was destroyed, brought down by a muggle army of all things.
Surprisingly, the ultimate cause of all this was caused by a dear friend of his. Bill Weasley and his act to protect the muggles. Soon, small groups of people had knowledge of the wizarding world and of course weapons were produced to defeat them, as was human nature. All this, coupled with the spark that was Amaieran, caused the explosion that destroyed everything Harry held dear.
Harry stood up slowly, waved his wand and the wine glass disappeared, presumably somewhere to be washed. He made his way up the stairs to go to bed, he placed the elder wand on the nightstand along side the stone. They both appeared to him, even after numerous attempts to destroy the objects. He fell asleep swiftly.
The night passed silently, until the sound of creaking stairs could be heard radiating throughout the house and a figure entered the room. The figure was a beautiful woman, the same one Harry had worried about, the same one who changed and destroyed his life, the same one that would end it.
From the beside table she took the stone and wand, from the closet she found the cloak… and for good measure, slit his throat and death took Harry Potter as his own.
-0-
One might assume death would be painful, if you went to hell. Or peaceful and warm, if you went to heaven. But, Harry had to say it felt sort of like a hospital; cold and distant. When he opened his eyes, he was faced with a world of white. Normally, it might be blinding but Harry supposed being dead made it impossible to be blinded.
He sat up and was reminded of the place he met up with Dumbledore. A large empty white expanse, only this time it didn't look like Kings Cross station. Instead, it looked like nothing.
Harry pushed himself up to his feet, wobbling a little bit as he stood but eventually steadied out. He felt dizzy and had to stand still for a while. He tried walking, only to find that it was like wading through molasses. His legs didn't want to listen to him and when they did, they moved excruciatingly slowly.
He had no idea how long he walked for; minutes, hours. It appeared that time moved differently in this world. Sometimes he'd spin around, after hearing some footsteps, only to see that they were an echo from the past. Perhaps even from the future.
The longer he walked, the dizzier he felt, and he soon noticed that he wasn't getting anywhere, all he found was more of the vast white expanse. After an indiscernible amount of time, he fell asleep, his head resting against the white floor and eyes drifting closed into a peaceful sleep.
-0-
But, as fate appeared to have it, he wouldn't be allowed to sleep for very long. Images and colours passed through his mind, shapes he couldn't identify, and words he couldn't quite understand, almost as if they were speaking gibberish.
He suddenly felt himself being jolted away, and finally heard words he could understand; "POTTER! WAKE UP! POTTER!"
He opened his eyes and they met bright red ones. "EEP!" He jerked back as he recognized the face of someone he had never wished to see again… and from the looks of things, the feeling was mutual.
"Finally decided to grace us with your conscious presence, Potter? I was previously excited that another poor sap had appeared in this world, but, upon learning it was you, I was disappointed." Tom spoke with aggravated short tones and glared whole heartedly at Harry.
"Voldemort!" The man chuckled a little bit and shook his head. "Brilliant deduction Potter, how long did it take for you to come up with that?"
"But… but… you're dead!" Voldemort visibly sighed, continuing to glare at Harry. "Again, brilliant. I suppose I should give you an explanation.
"Once I realized that the prophecy was still going to be fufilled, despite my attempts to kill you as a baby, I came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to have… a back up plan. Of course, I very much doubted that I would need it, but, it appears that your luck followed through right to the end. The plan was as follows. Should all my horcruxes be destroyed, the soul fragments within them would all travel to this place. Then, should I die, my soul would come here to become whole again."
Harry nodded in understanding and looked around the white expanse, "So, where are we?"
Voldemort sighed, presumably somewhat annoyed by all the questions, " 'Here' is relative. Not even really a place, more like an idea. But, if one would give it a name, it would be limbo or purgatory."
Harry looked at Voldemort, "I didn't think those existed. I thought they were just muggle religious ideas." Tom nodded, "They are. But, they are the few pieces of muggle religion that are actually… accurate. But, this isn't the type of purgatory they believe in. It isn't some waiting room for paradise. Instead, this a place in between worlds, or more correctly, realities."
Harry looked confused again and Voldemort gave him an exasperated look, "I have put many years of research into this topic. Basically, our universe is but one in a series of many other realities. They all affect one another, but, they never touch, therefore there is this space between them. Most theorists refer to this area as the void."
Voldemort stared at Harry until he nodded slowly, "I think I understand. So we are in the stuff that keeps the realities from touching, but also keeps them from flying off into nothingness."
"Very good Potter, you get an O." Harry rolled his eyes, "I have another question."
"Of course you do."
"What's a reality? Are they like alternative universes, or what?"
"…where did you hear about alternative universes?"
"Hermione wanted to go to a muggle science convention thing, I don't really know, but Ron wouldn't go with her, so she asked me. It was really cool, they talked about alternative universes and quantum physics… although I have forgotten most of what I learned."
Voldemort chuckled a little bit, "Some realties are alternate. But, some others are completely different universes involving totally different species that don't come from the same trunk universe."
"Trunk universe?"
"Yes, like a tree, the trunk universe is the similar ancestor for all other universes. In other words, the universe that all other alternate universes spring from."
"Okay… I understand... so, you're nicer than before." Voldemort shrugged a shoulder.
"I guess being alone for a long time does that to you. Also, my soul is whole now, which is good for 'making me nicer'. Also, I can't kill you here so why bother being cruel… unless of course you ask stupid questions."
Harry looked indignant at that, "What do you mean stupid questions? All my questions are pure gold."
Voldemort burst out laughing and didn't stop for a few minutes, "You make me laugh Potter. But, now I have a question for you."
Harry looked shocked at this, "What do you want to know?" he asked suspiciously, not fully trusting the dark lord, despite his mention of not being able to kill him.
"I want to know how you got here, what sort of necromancy were you dipping into before you died?"
"None! I haven't done any form of dark magic since you died. I have no clue how I got here."
"Well, either you're lying to me, or some serious stuff is afoot. You cannot simply come here, your soul has a specific place it is supposed to travel to, and here is not that place. I had spent nearly a year doing rituals and various spells, just to change the place of arrival. Then another 3 months making sure all my horcruxes would follow suit. Frankly, it was almost more work than it's worth. Not only that, but making sure the soul filter was dissolved was one hell of a ritual."
"Soul filter?"
"The souls of wizards and witches are reincarnate. Normally all your memories are deleted, and the process of doing this is called the soul filter."
"So what you're saying is that it's impossible for me to be here?"
"Well no, not really, considering that you are here. But how this happened is eluding me… I would like to put some research into the topic, but considering that I cannot get a hold of any books on the subject, that is impossible."
"Oh, so do you have any ideas? Any at all?"
Voldemort sighed bodily and shook his head, "None that aren't completely ludicrous, no."
"Well, Hermione told me that once you have exercised all possible options, then the impossible must be possible."
"It's not that the idea is impossible, but, more that it's completely insane."
"Come on, it can't be that dumb."
Voldemort looked off into the distance, "death."
"Pardon?"
"Death, he could possibly send you here without all the rituals."
"Do you mean the guy in the story of the three brothers? I didn't think he was real."
"Nor did I, but as I got further into my studies of the elder wand, it appeared that he was more of a character than meets the eye."
"Hmm. So, what, do we try asking death?"
"That classifies as a stupid question Potter. No! You can't just ask death! First of all, he'd kill us, or me at least for being here, and secondly, yeah, let's just send him an owl message! Sure he'd answer!"
"…how would he kill you, you're already dead?" Harry asked, but regretted it instantly once Voldemort gave him a fiery glare.
"Potter, what did I say about stupid questions?" He said this very slowly.
"No to ask them." Harry said carefully.
"Good, now stop asking them!"
-0-
Voldemort was busy pacing around, a little ways from where Harry sat. Harry was quite bored and relaxed on his back, looking up at the ceiling, or sky, or nothingness, he didn't really know what it was. The white glared into his eyes and he couldn't look at it for very long.
"Oi! I have another question." Voldemort stopped pacing, Harry saw him visibly sigh, before spinning around to face him. "Yes, Potter?"
"How can you stand looking at all this bright white? It hurts my eyes and stuff."
"This place is full of Psychic Atomic Particles, I explained this already."
"I know, the particles that change form depending on the thoughts of those around it. What does it matter?"
"Just imagine the place looking different, it will change to whatever you imagine."
Soon, the whiteness was replaced by the green grass and a bright blue sky, he recognized the place as his quidditch field. He smiled happily as he was able to feel the wind going through his hair.
-0-
Harry was surprised that he and Voldemort didn't fight too much. He expected fist fights to be breaking out every day, except for the fact that days didn't exist here. But, apparently Voldemort was completely content with hanging about on his own. He usually hung out in a small building that he apparently imagined up. Harry had no idea what was inside, but was usually very curious.
Harry put away the book he had been reading… well, re-reading. He was only able to imagine up books he'd already read. He walked over to the building and knocked on the door.
Voldemort answered the door, and glared at Harry, "What do you want Potter?"
"Nothing, I'm just curious about your little structure here." Harry said with a shrug.
"Well, I'm not letting you in, so leave me be." Voldemort said trying to close the door on Harry, who stopped it with his foot.
"Come on, I want to know what's inside!" Harry said with a grin, only for it to falter when Voldemort gave him a fully heated glare.
"I said no Potter! Now, go away before I decided to test how much pain you can feel in this place!" The door was quickly shut in his face.
Harry never bothered Tom in his little structure again.
-0-
Neither one of them had any idea how much time had passed. It felt like forever, but they couldn't be sure.
Harry was sick and tired of this place though. He was bored and Voldemort wasn't the best of company. He was also sure he was hearing voices, he had been hearing them for a long time now; little snippets of what might have been words in an unknown language. The voice typically sounded male, but, he couldn't be sure. He hadn't told Voldemort, something told him that if the man found out it would piss him off to no end.
He couldn't help but feel the voice was important somehow, and that maybe it had a message for him. But, what?
-0-
Tony Stark didn't like this at all. But, of course he just had to do it. Nick Fury was a pain in his ass. Always making him do things he didn't want to do, or making him build things for S.H.E.I.L.D. He was essentially like a nagging parent.
Although, the science experiments often made good excuses to go and visit Bruce, that guy was cool. He liked Bruce a lot, you know, when he wasn't a big green rage monster.
He also saw Steve a lot. Even though he wasn't quite as cool as his science bro, the captain had his good qualities. Like, carrying things around for him. That was useful as hell.
Tony finished learning about some deadly diseases so he could do the research that Fury wanted him to do. Frankly, the amount of things the man wanted researched was aggravating. But, none of them fit the description he was looking for.
Attacking people out of love. Heightened testosterone/estrogen, dopamine serotonin and oxytocin. He knew of diseases that would raise some of these, but not all of them at once. What the hell was this anyway? All he knew was that it was taking the world by storm.
AN/: I know there isn't much Avengers stuff as of yet. That is more of the secondary fandom… but here you go, I really like this actually and it is much longer than the other one… so yeah. Here ya go.