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Disclaimer: I do not own neither Gakuen Alice, which belongs to Tachibana Higuchi, nor Avengers, which belongs to Marvel and even less Harry Potter, which is the work of the wonderful J.K.R :) But I do own the plot and my OC characters of course.
Chapter 4: Of Gauntlets, Investigations and Trickery:
Hotaru had grown into a very beautiful woman, just as Luca had always known she would. Her black hair now reached the middle of her back, she was slim and quite tall, even though he was still three heads taller than her. His childhood friend clever violet eyes were still shining with the same mischievous way they used to when they first met, although a hint of sadness now tainted them… After their deaths, Luca and Hotaru had grown considerably closer, as close as two platonic friends could. Becoming each other's anchor, one another's family.
Losing both their best friends to Kuonji had been hard for them two. Especially for Hotaru. Mikan meant the same to Hotaru than what he used to mean to Natsume: a little light keeping them from drowning in their path of sadness and hopelessness. A help Hotaru missed when she needed it the most. After Mikan's death, Hotaru had shut everyone away from her life, except for him and her older brother, Subaru from whom she had drawn closer after the Alice Academy's Revolutions. So, losing him in the car crash that killed him and both her parents finished her. Her emotional breakdown had been horrid as she had been left alone, with no body to burry as Subaru's had mysteriously disappeared. Luca had never been more worried for someone as he had been for her back then, but eventually they managed to get threw these dark times too. It had been hard, and he had to be very patient with her, but they did it. They overcame the pain together.
The two childhood friends now lived together. After graduating from the Academy, they bought a house with a farm near Tokyo. It was vast enough, so it could contain Hotaru's impressive laboratory and a rich library.
Even though the two childhood friends would get into small fights from times to times, they were often one-sided as Hotaru was neither impressed by nor did she ever seem to be interested into responding to Luca's annoyed outbursts since she hadn't lost her bad habit of teasingly blackmailing him. Still, this hadn't prevented them from living quite harmoniously together. Except at this very instant.
"For God's sake Hotaru! Where the hell did you get this one?!"
"Lulu dear, language." his mother scolded him.
"Mother, I'll behave myself the day both of you will stop tricking me. And please! Please, stop calling me that!"
The blonde woman, who didn't seem to have aged in the last eighteen years, smiled innocently at him and beamed at Hotaru, whose lips turned up into a small smirk. Defeated, Luca headed to his farm. Even his animal friends, the traitors, he had quickly found out, were helping the Blackmail Queen. He stayed in there until his mother finally left the house. 'When those two are together, they are just so unbearable!' Kissing his mother goodbye, he opened the door to be greeted by the serious eyes of Hotaru, who, slightly frowning, had seemingly been waiting for him.
"What's wrong, Hotaru?" he asked quite worried since Hotaru never showed unease.
"I've been waiting for us to be alone to show you this." The inventor only responded.
Luca silently followed her lead to her laboratory. Once they entered it, Luca couldn't help, as always, to feel proud of her work. Between the sight of the creative inventions still in construction or finished, and the impressive computers board, he was once again hit by Hotaru's intelligence, which allowed her to make the most efficient use of her Invention Alice.
Hotaru, went straight to the computers board and began to explain:
"As you already know, Shiki asked me two years ago to create a fake Data-Base for the Academy. One that could be cracked. For cases just like these. Since I've putted in it a virus that can't be spotted, it allows me to know get back to whoever would try to or achieve to crack that Data-Base and to hack their network of computers back. Yesterday, no one else than the S.H.I.E.L.D itself, tried to and managed quite easily to get through it." she stated with a small frown.
"What were they looking for?" asked Luca, nonplussed. "The world has always trusted the Academy to apprehend wayward Alices."
"That's where it becomes weird… Two days ago, someone with an incredible amount of Alices had been captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. That same person faked a Chitauri invasion. They hacked that false base to get information about that Alice. An Alice going by the name of Mikan Sakura Yukihira." she declared, her voice trembling at the end.
Luca was thankful of the chair beside him, as he felt his knees turn to jelly.
Inside her capsule, Mikan sighed, her mind awash. She'd spent the night in tears thanks to Loki's own turbulent emotions. They were frightening as well as pitiful, but the power she felt - that was terrifying.
Mikan was too much of a coward to activate her Mind-Reading Alice to initiate her quest. If she did from her cell, she would have to expend it to the entire ship, which was a rather daunting endeavor.
The cameras and all her environment forgotten, Mikan was obvious to her awful physical state. Her eyes were red from crying, dark bags had formed underneath and her detached hair seemed to gain a life of its own as it always did when she was truly upset.
After a long night of indecision, the Alice had finally come to the conclusion that she couldn't and wouldn't associate herself with Loki. It was now clear to her that it would be the most stupid and careless decision ever. The Liesmith, as persuasive as a man could be, had been too close to fool her into releasing him out of his imprisonment. Loki was undeniably more dangerous than she had initially thought. Underestimated him was a mistake she wouldn't do twice. He nearly managed to make her forget that he had killed thousands of people (directly and indirectly) and had to be punished for that. If it meant that he had to spend the rest of his eternity in a cell, then she was OK with it. The only problem was that Loki should have been held and guarded by the Asgardians: his presence on the Earth just meant one more danger for its inhabitants. It was now urgent and necessary to move him out of the Earth and preferably all the Stones on it too. But how was she supposed to manage to do this? After all, she still had to get rid of the Infinity Gauntlet and the Necklace of Black Pearls. Although the Gauntlet was her priority, particularly since it was one of Allice's creations. This would allow her to use her Alices to inhibit its power and annihilate it. The Necklace in the other hand was a very dangerous Magical Object, a container of a very dark Spirit. The same Spirit that killed Natsume's and possessed his body after the war.
Unlike the Gauntlet, Mikan had no idea of how she was to destroy the Necklace, but she now knew where she could find information about it. When analyzing Hermione's thoughts, she had seen something quite similar to it as the bright witch was comparing the weights of threats Mikan and Loki were to the one she had experienced with a certain Vol of Mort or something like that... Maybe if she could manage to find her way to the Wizarding Society and ask her for help? But beforehand, she still had to retrieve the two artifact from S.H.I.E.L.D.
As she knew that their location wasn't the kind of information that were findable by hacking a data-base, she would have to use of her powers on Fury.
Mikan tied her long hair and prepared herself mentally to get into the battle. She still didn't feel ready to face this, but, as always, it didn't matter. She had to do it, and she would, because if she didn't, no one else would. Leaving a clone in her cell, she easily achieved to sneak out of her confinement capsule as she had activated the Invisibility and Technology-Mastering Alices to go unnoticed. Pausing her eyes one last time on Loki's capsule, their eyes locked for an instant and her heart skipped a beat.
"Goodbye, Loki.", pausing, Mikan hesitated before adding, "This is a farewell."
Surprisingly, she sensed no rage, surprise or outrage emanating from his evergreen eyes. Instead, they were shining with mocking disbelief and mere amusement. Mikan opened her mouth to ask him what was so funny before choosing to ignore him. As she excited the compound, she could sense his eyes silently following her all the way long.
With an uneasy feeling, Mikan shook her head and brought her attention back to her initial mission. She wanted to make it quick, so she could get rid of at least one of her problems. Knowing that where the Avengers were, Fury would certainly be not too far, Mikan started looking for them. Walking through the infrastructures of the Helicarrier until spotting Thor and kept following him.
Loki watched Mikan leave with a small smile. She was more of a challenge than her semblable, or rather unique in her own way. Almost endearing, yet as cunning and sharp as a knife. Though he hadn't that much time to properly observe the Little One enough to judge her completely, Loki already admired her unflinching will. Like a rose, to gather her he would have to be careful not cut himself in the process. 'I have already made this mistake last night. I won't allow it to happen again.' He could still feel the bitter taste of every truths she had thrown to his face, reminding him of his failures, pain and loneliness. The worst part? Her hazel eyes had neither shown fear nor bravery: they had been full of empathy and accusations. She had seen through his façade and touched the man in pain inside him, the same weakling he had tried to hide from everyone, especially from himself. He had to make sure such thing wouldn't happen again.
He had had the whole night to reflect on their previous exchange, which had led him to conclude that he hadn't much to worry about. He was now confident that when the time would come, she would have to find the courage to face him again as they shared more interests that she had initially thought. Indeed, noticing that her powers, Alices, were derived from Asgardian Magic, Loki had quickly put two and two together: she was a part Allice Hönirson's legacy.
Loki stood up and reached for the three books posed on his table: The Theory of the Seven Universes, The History of the Nine Realms both written by Allice himself and an annotated copy The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Each of them, priceless but alas magically encrypted, sealed secrets, spells and knowledge that could unleash incommensurable power. Knowledge that would eventually trigger her curiosity. One book though was missing to his collection, and his guess was either that either it or his Little One may be the key to decrypt those already in his possession.
All Loki needed was patience. 'What better than to beat your enemies and make them think they won?' He had the upper hand in a game way bigger than everyone thought. To think that a simple cage would arrest him had been the S.H.I.E.L.D's biggest mistake.
Natasha, Bruce, Steve and Tony were intently observing the footage on the screen below. They were all grouped around the computers board. It happened in an instant. Mikan who had been sleeping peacefully was up, awake, and practically (literally) pulling the hair out of her head.
"She's playing with us," Agent Romanoff hissed.
"She is able to lift Thor's Hammer" pointed out Steve, "I think that we can trust her, especially when even us aren't able to do the same."
This earned him an eye roll from Tony, even though Bruce nodded his agreement with Steve. His Hulk instincts told him that the woman was trustable.
"Then why is she hiding things from us? It is evident that she isn't a real prisoner and it's really starting to piss me off! It feels the same as it did with Loki last month! I don't think that the Hammer choice should influence us too much. As long as we are not aware of her plans, we have to be cautious."
"Tony is right. We still don't know how much influence she had over us, we have no idea of all the abilities she has, and we aren't even completely certain she isn't working for someone else either. She can heal herself even when she is unconscious, which make her a very resistant opponent. She is also able to take anyone's appearance and is also able to create very realistic illusions, abilities which make her even harder to be caught. Her clones are very powerful… Hell! She is even able to counter Granger's magic! How do you want us to trust her?" Natasha fought.
Thor chose that instant to enter in the room, all heads turned to him. Natasha frowned waiting for him to explain himself for leaving them without any warning the previous day. Thor looked at them a bit sheepishly before to shrug it off. Mikan, who was also there, tried to be as discreet as it was humanly possible.
"What is going on? What have I missed?"
"Well we just have discovered that our new prisoner has been playing with us since the beginning." Natasha stated coolly.
Thor froze. This woman, Mikan Sakura, reminded him way too much of Loki to his own liking, but Heimdall had been very clear about it, they had nothing to fear from her.
Mikan cringed and kicked herself mentally. How could she have been so stupid! She hadn't realized the scale of her mistake. It would be now very difficult for her to gain back their trust, if trust there had ever been... She would have to not drawn in even more attention that she had already had. She didn't want to make them her enemies.
"Lady Sakura is not an enemy. I went to Heimdall, he comforted me about her. In fact, he said that he had been keeping an eye on her for a long time. We do not have to worry about her." Thor nodded as he made his point clear.
The Alice looked at him with wide eyes. She should have guessed it sooner! Of course, Thor would not snub her! As an Asgardian himself, he knew very well the danger of the Stones and from what she had read about the Norse Gods, Heimdall was one of the wisest being in the Universe. He was an all-seeing and all-hearing man, who was able to sense anyone's soul from his Observatory. As wise as the book described him, he had reasonably advised Thor to trust her. Mikan felt a wave of gratitude run through her. She looked up to the ceiling and gave one of her brightest smiles, hoping it would reach Heimdall, and mouthed him a silent 'thank you.' and, unknown to her, the near omniscient Asgardian smiled back at her. It was all she needed, to have at least one person who trusted her. Mikan kept herself from crying again. 'Yes, I can do it and I will. For Natsume, Hotaru, Luca and anyone else. I was burdened with this task. As the owner of the Two Alices it is my duty to accomplish it. Failure is not an option!'
Natasha, who didn't seem to be very convinced by it, just sighed and let it go. Thor gave a blind trust to this man. Now that he had told him to do so, there was no way that Thor would interfere if Mikan Sakura was to do something. Bruce and Steve didn't seem to want to ask for more too, and already trusted the girl... And as for Tony, he would remain a bit vigilant but nothing more.
Steve sighed. He understood why Natacha had a hard time trusting Mikan Sakura. They had recognized in this child (yes, to him, she was still a child), both the stature of a soldier and a spy. She didn't seem to pay attention to her own stance, but it was so evident… She held her chin always up, her chest out, shoulders back and her stomach in. Mikan presented also a muscular body, she walked without making any sounds and had that feline grace and elegance only shared by women like herself or Natasha. Natasha didn't like to speak a lot about it, but like Mikan Sakura
"What are we supposed to do then?" Captain asked quietly.
"Just let her be. She has a mission to fulfil and believe me, Lady Sakura doesn't need our help for it."
The latter find herself nodding in agreement but stopped as she realized how stupid she was acting. 'Focus!' She had to find Fury. It would be easy to get her responses by reading their minds but Mikan could no more bring herself to do it, not after she had witnessed Captain America, Doctor Banner and Thor's choice to trust her. She was too sentimental for her own good… Mikan smiled nostalgically; Hotaru and Natsume did always use to remind her of it.
Mikan shook it off again and simply listened to the Avengers talk as the topic devolved into less important matters. But the banter didn't last long - Fury entered the room with Hawkeye on his heels. It was time to get down to business.
In Hotaru's laboratory, Luca was nervously pacing. Hotaru had easily managed to crack S.H.I.E.L.D's security systems, giving them open access to their entire database, including the video archives. Observing the tapes had been a task full of surprises. Allowing them to discover the nature of the Infinity Stones and unfolding the existence of more than one secret society…
It wasn't long before they started watching footages from the presumed second attack on New York as well as the current live-stream out of the Helicarrier. It had been twelve years since either of them had seen her, but there was not a single doubt between them that this was Mikan. Her once so cheerful hazel eyes had seemed empty! They also witnessed her horrifying scars, remaining traces of Mikan's cruel experience of inhuman torture. At the sight, all Hotaru's color had been drained of her face, and Luca had struggled very hard not to throw up. What could have possibly happened in twelve years to reduce Mikan to such a state? Where the hell had she been all these years? What kept her from contacting them?
Luca sighed and studied Hotaru. If she seemed to calmly handle the situation, he knew that it wasn't the case: her hands were trembling, and her eyes were dilated, fixing Mikan on the screen. The latter was calmly seated in the bed of her cell, observing distractedly her hands. They were truly puzzled by her behavior. It was clear that she didn't try to kill or hurt anyone, but what could have motivated into faking a Chitauri invasion? To infilter S.H.I.E.L.D? After all, if she still possessed her Teleportation Alice, no prison, no cage or capsule would be enough to arrest her. And what was the matter with new, impressive asset of Alices?
Luca stopped pacing.
"We have to see things by ourselves" he finally declared. "We can't possibly ignore the fact that Mikan is still alive, nor that she might be in danger, nor that she might be one to others."
Hotaru frowned at the last part, unwilling to consider the option. Of course, they had to do something about this situation and weren't to go get her without taking any precautions. They would have to make some digging first.
"We should look for more information about Mikan. She has always been a sentimental: she might have left some affairs in her grandfather's house. I wonder what had she has been doing all these years but I seriously hope that she has a good excuse to give us for letting us in the dark!"
"I think she does." Luca affirmed, "I don't think that she has forgotten us or moved on to something else. I believe her when she said that she had dismounted all the organizations who endangered the security of the Alices. Hotaru, we should keep this between us. As long as we have not cleared the situation, I don't want to risk anything like to give false hope to our friends."
She didn't respond, and returned her attention to the computers, closing the discussion. Luca understood that Hotaru was OK with it. He posed himself on a chair near his friend, waiting patiently for her to finish what she was working on. It didn't take more than eight minutes for her to collect and pack all her results before to go straight to her room. As she reached the laboratory door, she turned her head and looked at him straight in his azure eyes with a pit of excitement in her stomach:
"Pack quickly your things Luca, you have an hour before we leave."
He smiled and went to do as he had been told to.
Mikan observed distractedly the white cloud of breath escape from her mouth. She wasn't in the Helicarrier anymore. Her Mind-Reading and Soul Sucking Alices had proved themselves useful, revealing the location of both artifacts. The Gauntlet was kept in a highly secured base in Alaska, Excalibur only known by the highest members of S.H.I.E.L.D while the Necklace was stored somewhere in Africa.
The Infinity Gauntlet, explained Nicholas Flamel and Allice, was a too dangerous artefact, created for the purpose of giving to its user the ability to control the six Infinity Stones. On the contrary of the Stones, which were indestructible, the Gauntlet wasn't. A security ensured by Allice's astuteness.
To anyone looking for the Gauntlet, the first place they would think to would be Odin's Vault. Yet, Nicholas Flamel explained that the original was well kept on Earth. Still, Mikan had no idea of how it came into the possession of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The security system being less complex than the Helicarrier's, getting in and out wasn't that much of a challenge for her. So, her mind alert, and using the best combination of her Alices to remain unspotted, Mikan entered cautiously the Vault guarding the Gauntlet and headed straight to it. She took her time to contemplate the dangerous Artifact. It was bigger than what she had initially thought. Made of Vibranium, the Gauntlet was quasi-indestructible it was covered by gold leaves. Each Stone had its place neatly carved with a small fragment of the Soul Stone occupying its center.
Mikan trembled as the Gauntlet quivered at the physical contact of her bare hands posed on it. Even though the vault was icy, the metal was surprisingly warm. The Alice closed her eyes and processed into removing the fragment. Soon enough, an orange light appeared, emanating from the Artefact, of the same nature of the one that had emanated from Loki's chest; of the same shade of Mandarin orange of Mjolnir's aura; the same color of the already three fragments in her own body and her originals Alices Stones. Wasn't it funny? 'Mikan' meant 'mandarin oranges', should it only be interpreted as a very strong coincidence? An irony of fate? Had the name her father gifted her sealed her destiny? Yet, Mikan held it like an armor, with pride and dignity.
The young woman sensed the new weight of the fragment of the Soul Stone on her into the palm of her right hand. It was twice the size of the fragment that had been inserted into Loki's chest. Mikan observed it closely and couldn't help but wonder in how many pieces Allice had fragmented the Soul Stone… Closing the palm of her hand over the fragment, she gasped as she let her body absorb its incommensurate power. For a brief instant, she was embraced by an overwhelming feeling of pure bliss, and Mikan could have sworn she had recognized the same presence she had felt eight years ago. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Suddenly, shaken with uncontrollable spasms, Mikan fell on her knees with a helpless yelp. Her whole body ached and her breathing became more and more labored as she painfully gasped for air.
Free! She was finally free! An empowering sensation of earned freedom overtook her. But to which price? He is now too strong, even for her… 'It's my fault, all this is my fault! Oh god what have I done?' It had taken the release of a monster to unleash her off the chains constraining her mind. It was her duty to take him down!
Her mind clear of any hesitation, she liberated her whole powers as she pierced the air in one last cry of victory.
Too shaken to understand what had just happened, Mikan whipped the tears off her face in a hurry. Embracing herself, the young woman crawled herself up into a ball and tried in a vain attempt to calm her panicked breathing. What was any of this supposed to mean? Did these memories belong to her? Had she been hallucinating the whole time?
Eventually, after an undetermined amount of time, Mikan recomposed herself and stood up. Taking in a deep breath, she forbade herself to allow her emotions to fail her plan.
'Put yourself together! You can do it Mikan, you have no other choice but fulfill this mission!'
Closing her eyes, Mikan waited for the shaking to go away. Once she felt a satisfying level of control over her body, Mikan headed reached for the Gauntlet one more time. To restrain any possible collateral damaged, the powerful Alice created a bubble with her Barrier Alice, that would contain the concentrated energy of the process. Using her Nullification Alice to help stabilize the very excitable Vibranium. When she felt all the Gauntlet's vibrations extinguish, Mikan activated her Corrosion Alice. Her mind at its highest level of concentration, she unleashed the latter alice at an unreasonable amount, in such quantity its destructive power became too strong even for the Vibranium to resist. Inserting in it the biggest Corrosion Alice Stone she had ever created, which power was incredibly expanded by her Amplification Alice, Mikan observed the Gauntlet's magic fight her Alices as the whole room shook of its powers. Slowly but surely, Mikan's efforts overcame the spells protecting the artifact. Shattering and slightly disaggregating, the Gauntlet's bright gold color progressively disappeared.
Shallowing her confusions back, the young woman allowed herself to smile proudly at the small residues of what had been one of the most wanted Artefacts in the Universe. She felt a too short-live wave of satisfaction rise through her body as she witnessed the success of her action. It was both a big relief and a one less burden to deal with. Though she had one more mission to accomplish and the Necklace of Black Pearls was still waiting for her.
I really hope that you have enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review, constructive criticism is always welcome!
