Chapter Six

Panic and fear. The feelings were his own. At least he guessed they were his own. They made sense when thought about. There was an empath in his house and there was the threat she was playing his emotions, even more so there was the strong likelihood that he wouldn't even notice.

It was as though he'd noticed in the month Barbara had been playing him, dulling the emotion behind the loss of his family and driving him forward to destroy the Company. They were all things Harry was a little happy that had been done, which he wasn't entirely sure was because of his own emotion or if Barbara had implanted the emotion too.

It was all confusing, it was all terrifying and it all drove home the point that he needed to be apt in Occlumency.

Harry too a breath and, again, tried to dull his emotions, clearing his mind. He remembered Snape and his lessons and he hoped that since he saw the man in a partial new light that his lessons might be taken. But it was hard. He was working off emotion that was tinged with emotion and it worked counter to what he was trying to achieve, which was washing himself of all emotion and clearing his mind.

For all the confidence he had, Harry wasn't really too sure this would work. Occlumency worked by protecting the mind against mental intrusion, but this was emotional manipulation; for all he knew it could work on a biological front and not mental. But there was one thing he had noticed. His mind had been feeling in the gap between rouge emotions. If he got a better control of his mind then it would be possible that he would see discrepancies and note when he was being manipulated.

It all hinged on him getting mental barriers up and running.

Another breath and Harry could feel something. It was a bubble of sorts but there were holes in it. A thought, fortifying the thing and Harry felt as another layer covered the first, covering the holes in particular. He felt over the barrier, looking for the holes in particular and started covering them up. It was slow work and he could feel as the hours pass, but when he was done he found that it was as though he hadn't been doing any work. There were still holes in his barriers.

Did that mean he was that bad at forming barriers or Barbara was still working him?

Harry let out a sigh. It was almost impossible to tell. The man stood and turned on the spot, disappearing and reappearing in the slightly chilly air. He began his walk into an internet café and began talking to a man by the name of Leland Holden who had been working with Harry for quite the fee, getting him accustomed to the more elementary workings of a computer and the internet.

Though Leland Holden didn't quite know it, the pair had been working to get an up-to-date path towards to Germany and Montreal with Harry's Apparating range in mind. Leland was right and there was no magic. He had searched for the past month and found none, that meant the international laws restricting Apparition on that scale. Breathing room for travel.

Today would be the last time they met because Harry didn't entirely like being in his own home anymore. There was too much doubt and he didn't entirely trust Barbara now, made more so because he remembered James' word. To be particular about who he trusted.

The thought came with its own baggage. Time travel. It was a beautiful concept and infinitely useful, but the fallout would be nearly impossible to account for. Cause and effect, made worse since he didn't really know the rules with regard.

In his home universe time travel was stable. You weren't truly changing anything but doing something which already had been done, but here, there was the possibility that that wasn't true. James had spoken of events he didn't remember and that he was searching for the cause of a paradox.

That meant time was unstable in this universe and that meant unpredictable. The future could be changed and it might lead to his future self being killed. Best tread carefully. Or was that careful tread the reason his future self could get killed?

Harry ran a hand over his face and shook his head. He wasn't going to think about it. James was dealing with the future while Harry handled this. Right now getting his wand was paramount, then he would deal with the Company. He didn't know how yet, but finding out everything would be easier when he eventually had his wand.

Peter was important to that and that meant finding the man who was maybe in Montreal.

"Thank you again, Leland. Your help has been appreciated."

The man gave Harry a small smile before the wizard left, entering an alley and turning on the spot. He appeared outside the house and was confused as he was meant by the tantalising scent of breakfast.

"Harry," said Barbara. "You're back."

"And you're making yourself comfortable in my house," said Harry.

"Your house won't let me out," she said. Harry's brows rose. "Which you didn't particularly know." Barbara frowned. "Or you knew? Man. Your emotions are hard to read. But you don't believe me." She sighed. "Harry. What I did to you wasn't personal. I've been living looking over my shoulder the last ten years of my life and I need some relief. You were confident you could take them down that I thought I could give you direction."

"That you're talking like that without remorse is worrying," said Harry. "You're controlling people. Making them do things against their will."

"It's never against their will," she said.

"Is that because you make it so?" asked Harry.

"No," she said, sounding annoyed. "I give people confidence to do stuff things they want to do and if it works in my favour." She shrugged. "All the better. I'm amoral. I get that, but you can't blame me for fighting for survival."

"Honestly, I can't," said Harry. "But being used was something I never liked. But you've woven your spell well enough that I actually care about you enough to feel the need to protect you. Which is why we're just going to stop. You're going to stop speaking and I'm going to take you to Germany so I can have a moment of piece without worrying that you might be working me with your power."

"You know this is what they want, right?" she asked. "They pull this shtick with every person I meet. They tell them to be wary of me because they're scared of me gathering allies. They know that I could destroy them given enough people on my side. Harry, I can help you."

"Through controlling people? Through enthralling them?"

"To fight a beast, one needs to become a beast," she said. "I'm doing what's needed."

Harry sighed. There was definitely logic to the thought, but in becoming a beast it would be hard to tell when one crossed the line. The road to hell was paved with good intentions after all and often times the work towards the greater good often lead to the most evil committed.

"An hour and the we leave," he said. He turned on the spot and appeared in his room, taking a seat and trying to clear his mind, washing away all emotion.

The trip an hour later took three points of Apparition before Harry had Barbara in front of a wealthy looking estate, the slight sound of conversation within.

"You want to come in?" she asked the just as quickly let up her hands. "It was the polite thing to ask," she said before she sighed. "You don't like me right now but given what you're planning to do and how strongly you feel towards them. You might soon be doing what I'm doing. Don't allow yourself to feel guilty by playing down to their level."

"Good bye, Barbara."

"Bye, Harry," she said. Harry reached into his pockets and pulled out a few set of pictures, looking at the first and concentrating before turning on the spot. Eight Apparitions in total before he was in Montreal and Adam was leaning against a wall, looking, for all intents and purposes, as though he were waiting for Harry.

"How did you find me?"

Adam handed over the comic he hand in his hands and Harry read the title: 7th Wonders: The Man with the Scar.

"It seems we have some work to do," the man said, the statement mirroring what was being said on the comic.

"This world is crazy," Harry muttered, his words too already written in the comic on the last page.

He hated seers, didn't think much of them beyond being riddle prone psychopaths, but this form of clairvoyance sure was useful.

"You know something like this might be useful," said Harry, following in Adam's stead. "A cheat sheet of sorts." Not to mention it might help him understand the future. The thing seemed to be depicting the month which had passed, just after the conversation with his future self and until now. It was eerily accurate.

"That's the only copy I've been able to find," said Adam. "The other was killed five months ago before he could finish that particular set. I was hoping that he had released another, maybe it might make what we're trying to achieve easier."

"What are we trying to achieve?" asked Harry. "I know what I am, but I'm still not sure about your end goals."

"Right now," said Adam. "Saving the world. The future. I wouldn't mind destroying the Company, starting everything anew."

"Saving the world," said Harry. "Focus on that part. What is going on? What have you been doing for the last month?"

"Looking for Peter and then looking for you," he said. "I wasn't able to succeed in the former, but after finding that comic the latter would have been easier but unproductive. That whole thing with Barbara did you good."

Harry frowned in distaste.

"Messed you up as hell, but I'm not really a nurturer and if I tried it would have taken twice as long to get you to the place she put you in a month."

"Can we stop talking about her?" asked Harry, feeling intensely uncomfortable.

"Right. Empath. Nasty people to work with. Sorry. Saving the world," he said. "When I found you I started reaching out. Collecting info from any contact that's still alive or still in the know. Managed to get a few that a worrying. The Company's planning something big."

Adam turned left into a street and Harry noticed they were moving towards the seedier parts of the city.

"Bad big," the man continued. "Peter was the first step and Barbara too for that matter. The Company has been slowly trying to take out all the people who could stop their plans one way or another."

"What is it they're planning though?"

"Releasing a virus," said Adam. "They call it the Shanti virus and supposedly its very fast working. It can take out people like us, inhibit their abilities before slowly killing them, but they've gotten it to the point where it might wipe out most of the world's population; and guess who they're using to develop it."

"Why would I know?"

"Because you know his daughter."

"Barbara's father? How is he connected to all this?"

"Come Harry," said Adam. "You're smart. How do you think they were able to find her? She was looking for someone in their care, they probably got a hint that someone was looking into them and traced it back to her."

"Why?" asked Harry. "Why would anyone be willing to do this?"

Adam shrugged, looking floundered. "Power? Is that what drives almost everyone. They destroy the world and start it anew then they can make everything in their own image. Rebuild the world the way they want it."

"We have to stop this," Harry said. "But how do we even do that?"

Adam stopped in front of a storage warehouse, pulling out a key from his pocket and opening it to reveal a mess of boxes from various companies.

"All subsidiaries of the Company," said Adam. "With everything we could want information wise. But it's analogue, which means sifting through piles of data to find our likeliest data, genetic engineers."

Harry sighed. "I was an Auror," he muttered to himself, pulling off his coat. "I can look through piles of files."

He felt something of a pang as he thought that Hermione would have loved to be doing this, but that pang was oddly dulled. Harry liked that a little because it meant he wasn't too bogged down by emotion and he could focus on the future.

He picked up a box and started moving through it, looking over a few of the Company agents. The boxes was highly enlightening. From the information he got a rough estimate to how the Company worked; they had primarily used a one of us one of them approach to partnerships. What they called an evolved human and a normal human working together.

Memories started filtering in and Harry became aware of Barbara's words, that half of the men which had approached her at the bar would likely be unpowered.

The approach though was primarily used for field agents. The development department had none of that, instead there were people working together. Harry focused on those files, a woman who had microscopic vision and had been studying bacteria, another who could understand every minutia of a biological organism she touched and a woman who had an instinctive knowledge for biology.

"This is her," said Adam as Harry showed him the file of the woman. Victoria Pratt. The file listed all of her work, how she had been working on something to nullify abilities, how to give people abilities—a particular piece that was heavily redacted—and something she called strain 138. "I remember her. She's one of the founders of the Company. Met her a few times when she wanted to study the properties of my blood. Does that give us a location?"

"A whole host of locations," said Harry, paging through the files. "At least twenty. Either she's moving around a lot or we're getting buried in information."

"Give me a second?" said Adam. "I have someone who can find people. I'll call and make a request."

Harry nodded and returned to the reading again. The Company was a lot bigger than he had imagine it, ingrained in how this world worked. He looked particularly at a biological weapon that had been in the works for some time, Barbara's father as a figurehead in that project. The files showed the Company making deals in a few countries before a man by the name of Henry Straus had stolen the weapon and tried to sell it in Tanzania.

It wasn't all bad, though. Which confused Harry a lot. Between creating weapons they were also research cures for cancers, better medicine with regard to incurable viruses. It seemed as though the Company wasn't too sure why it existed. Training some people, while tagging others like dogs.

Destroying this would be nearly impossible. But under the right odds, Harry could turn it. Gather all the resources that the Company held and make them his own, that meant taking down their top powers.

"Got it," said Adam, interrupting the wizard as he started to get his mind in order, trying to think about the most likely strategy that might let his achieve his goals. "Maine," he said. "Can you teleport us there?"

"I'll need pictures," said Harry. "A route to get us there."

Adam nodded, a slight grin to him. "I'll get working on that while you stay here. Need anything?"

"Food," said Harry. "Anything, really."

Adam nodded and left. Harry returned compiling most of what he'd read through. First were the companies and the Company's control. He would have to research them at another time and see if their heads knew what they were funding. He would also have to look into something called Midas, which constituted major funding to the Company and its substituents. Second were all the bases. The files were incomplete, unfortunately and only told Harry about two, the Primatech facility and another located in Alaska.

Both had high-end security and would require him to have his wand before attempting anything. Apparating when there was a spray of bullets directed his way was something that would sooner get him killed than get him what he wanted.

Wand first then trying to take over the Company, if that doesn't work then he could try and destabilise it. Take away their weapons.

On that topic Harry began actively searching for their best assets. Again there was reference to Midas. It seemed that Midas was a person. Then there was Kaito Nakamura who could see probabilities, making himself a great predictive means of any venture that might get then more money or any threats. Then there was Angela Petrelli.

Harry stopped at the last. He looked over the files and it said that Angela Petrelli was able to see the future in her dreams. Peter's mother could see the future and Harry wasn't entirely sure if the man knew. Peter's mother worked or had worked for the Company. Going by her age, she would have worked for the Company in its prime, round about the time Harry had gotten arrested.

The emotions were dulled but no less the anger was there. That was the clearest route to answers on why he had been arrested, but it would mean burning a bridge.

Then there was Julian Dumont, a man who could clone himself and now formed a majority of the Company's army.

Once he saved the world from the virus, that would be his first target. The Midas, after which it would be the people who would be expecting him.

"Got the pictures," said Adam.

"Let's save the world," said Harry.

Adam grinned.