Disclaimer: I own nothing; Harry Potter and the elements of his universe all belong to J.K.Rowling. Firefly/Serenity and the elements of its universe all belong to Joss Whedon. I'm just borrowing the characters to play with for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.

CHAPTER NINE – Blue Sun Rising

"Blue Sun?" Mal asked curiously. "And how is that any more specific than saying you wanted to steal from the Alliance?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Every evil empire always has one big gigantic evil corporation to do their dirty work. I think it's pretty obvious that you don't get much bigger than Blue Sun."

"This isn't good and evil, Harry." Mal argued. "You can't just decide that anything that big must be evil, nor that we must be good. We steal. That is called a crime. Some might even say that makes us criminals. And criminals don't make for very good 'good guys.'"

Harry frowned but let the Captain say his piece. "Captain, may I speak freely?"

"Please."

"I'm well aware that the largest employer in the entire universe is Blue Sun. I'm also well aware a hell of a lot of the people who work in the factories and stores and all the outlets on every distant god forsaken moon lucky enough to be blessed with a super-store, all of those people are not bad. They're just making enough to get by if they're lucky. But you have to realize how many honey-pots they've dipped their fingers into. How much of the Alliance is controlled by Blue Sun's interest, how many times the government needs to privatize and uses Blue Sun, or the corporation needs sanctioning and uses the government. I'm not looking for destruction. I'm thinking a proper little robbery with no casualties, and preferably no knowledge that they were even robbed. Because if we piss them off, that goes straight to the top of the feds, not the little annoying managers and divisions we'd be rankling if we pilfered the Alliance. I merely want the satisfaction of knowing we got the better of them, and perhaps even leaving the door open to doing it again."

"That's exactly the reason I'm not a fan of that target. We get pinched, we'll wish we'd just been robbing the feds. Why Blue Sun?" Mal asked. "What's changed to make you want to choose them now?"

Harry glanced at River and asked the Captain, "Have you ever come across men who wear bright blue gloves?"

River gasped and the Captain turned to look at her. "River?"

River shook her head resisting the impulse to sing 'two by two, hands of blue.'

Harry continued. "Odds are you'd be dead if you had. They're usually the clean-up crew for Blue Sun's research and development department. A department which is protected and granted immunity from the government for just about everything they do. Including, I would wager, testing on unwilling human subjects."

"Are you saying that's…?" Mal asked incredulously looking at River.

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. But River and I both saw men wearing those gloves in her head. And most people don't survive after seeing that."

"And just how would you know this?" Mal inquired accusingly.

Harry shrugged. "I've searched a lot of records I shouldn't. I have a rough idea how corrupt governments work. I saw a couple agents leave a building once. These were not compassionate men. The entire fourth floor was corpses that bled out their eyes and ears."

River seemed to have an idea of what Harry was talking about as she cringed a little.

Harry shrugged. "The sorts of things that have been done to River and perpetrated by the Alliance don't pass public committees. The committees merely fund private research. You know, come to think of it, I'd say it's pretty likely Blue Sun's R and D are the ones who developed the Pax and thought that was safe too."

Mal seemed to be considering it.

"Look," Harry explained. "I'm not sold on them completely as a target, but I'd definitely like to look into what they got, what's easy to steal, and what we can get away with. But mainly, I know," Harry smiled deviously. "I've never gone for them, and they sure as hell deserve it."

River seemed to be frowning. "Why haven't you ever gone for them?"

Harry shrugged. "I know this may come as a shock to you all, but I'm not really a thief or criminal. I will steal or commit the occasional crime when it's for my purpose. But until I saw them in your head, I never had a reason to. As odd as it sounds to you, I don't go looking for trouble. I just follow the clues I have and they never led me to Blue Sun, which I just wrote off as a typical giant corporation with its head up its own arse."

"And the image in my head was a clue?" River asked skeptically.

Harry smiled. "Actually, it's more you, and the fact that it was in your head that was a clue. And I thought you might appreciate venting a bit by stealing from them."

"I'm a clue to you?" River asked Harry angrily.

"You're weird," Harry stated. "Or peculiar, or odd, or whatever kind, gentle euphemism you would prefer."

"Exhibiting bughouse friendly tendencies, please," River corrected.

"Bughouse friendly it is," Harry parroted with a small salute.

"Alright, Harry," Mal agreed. "You keep coming up with some sort of plan to rob Blue Sun, and I'll keep my ear open for any jobs we could pick up. I need more details from you before I can call your idea dangerous, stupid, and flat out refuse it."

"Well as long as you've got an open mind," Harry nodded. "That's all I can ask for, right?"

"I'm sorry, Harry," the communicator with the artificial intelligence of Mr. Universe argued back. "I've looked, but they're completely locked in from this side. It's not closed off, just one-way. There is no way to get me in without it being noticed. I could slip in something small and then open a door big enough for me, but crossing the barrier would set off every alarm they have. And even if I manage to get control fast enough and wipe the logs of me, the alarm will have sounded and they'll know their network was compromised."

Harry shook his head. "You're honestly telling me, that you cannot breach their network? This is beyond the scope of your abilities?"

"Oh, I can breach it, don't get me wrong, just not without it being noticed. I'm good at what I do, but this is one you've got to do."

"What do I got to do?"

"Harry, once I'm in, I can open up and send out everything we need. You just have to get me inside first. I'm pretty sure you're going to want to fly solo on this one and erase your own tracks. Once we dump a clone on the inside, we're golden. I just can't get inside quietly."

"So you want me to break into Blue Sun's security substation and physically link you with one of their internal trusted systems? Just so we can figure out what to steal?"

"If you could reach a mainframe that would be even better."

"Oh this gets shinier all the time."

"Don't tell me the great Harry is fretting or reluctant? Can this be true?"

Harry shook his head and smiled. "Naw, I just figured I should complain a while. River's head seems to indicate these buggers are much worse than I thought. Which means they very well could be the ones who keep managing to dig up my name."

"There's the Harry I know and abhor," Mr. Universe chided back.

"Think you can hole yourself in there and help me open up my own franchise?"

"Let's wait and see what the inside looks like because they're already as tight as the Alliance from the outside looking in."

Harry nodded. "Is there a station here in Persephone?"

You could hear the grin in Mr. Universe's voice. "There just happens to be a tech substation with one of the satellite mainframes."

"Oh joy," Harry sarcastically replied. "Alright then. Plan it out. We'll go later tonight. Make sure you get me a picture and some aerial shots."

"You going to be able to get away? And leave River?"

"Yup. Going to use the cloak at the substation, so I might as well use it to make sure I'm not noticed leaving this boat."

"If you say so," Mr. Universe replied skeptically. "Don't mess up things here, Harry. I like these guys."

"I do too. And don't worry so much. I'll be careful."

River was dreading more of this, but knew she had to do it. She wondered if it would ever feel less sickening, and more routine like something normal people might have to deal with too. Reliving murders that she could only hope she didn't perpetrate herself. No matter how little difference that makes to the victims, for some reason, it was important to River. She wasn't sure when it happened, but at some point being open and vulnerable to Harry stopped being so horrifying and was almost comforting to her.

River sure as hell was going to do everything in her power to keep Harry from finding that out.

She sighed loudly and lay back onto the bed. "I'm ready."

Harry nodded and turned to Simon, who had insisted on being present. "This is going to be boring but probably oddly stressful for you. Do us both a favor and don't interfere."

Simon narrowed his eyes and did his best to look menacing.

"Don't worry," River called out from her prone position. "He'll be good."

Simon kept up his stern face.

Harry smothered his amusement and proceeded to ignore Simon. "Relax yourself. Clear your mind. This will be just like last time." Harry glanced over at Simon, staring him down to make sure he wasn't going to be getting in the way. Harry watched River's chest rise up and down in a very steady, paced rhythmic pattern. He felt her mind relax as she began to inch towards sleep, and he began to quietly mumble the Master-Apprentice mental link. Halfway through the incantation Harry was shook violently by a wide-eyed Dr. Tam.

"What are you doing?" Harry angrily whispered.

"What the tzao gao was that? You were mumbling gibberish!" Simon exclaimed as he eyed Harry and wondered if slapping him might help.

"It wasn't gibberish," River slowly replied in her still-relaxed position. "It was some crude dialect of Latin."

Harry hadn't realized how aware River was and answered with surprise. "Yeah… what she said."

"Were you channeling a spirit or something?" Simon asked looking at Harry warily.

Harry snorted. "No I wasn't channeling any spirits. I was just sort of chanting a little mantra. It's not quite as strong as the triggers you've used on your little sister," Harry shook his head in disappointment. "The big difference is that it's my training and discipline that makes and controls them. It's how I connect."

Simon was reluctant, but saw his sister looked pretty relaxed. "I don't know about this…"

"Just," Harry shook his head. "Just don't interrupt me. Nor shake either of us out of our trance, unless it's more important than helping your sister, okay?"

"Simon!" River snapped. She was having enough trouble fighting her own desire to put this off for later or perhaps never. She didn't need Simon urging her right now. "If you want to stay, you're going to behave."

Simon nodded his assent, not trusting his sister alone with Harry at the moment.

Harry squeezed River's hand and she took the signal. She relaxed herself again and quickly arrived at the state of consciousness Harry was looking for. Harry tried to mumble quieter this time, but was forced to enunciate many occasional sounds and in particular the final word "Legilimens!"

Already knowing where to go, Harry found himself on the dusty path near the sparsely wooded area. Harry spotted the exact same tree that had been there before and was surprised to see River sitting on the first branch, a good nine feet off the ground. Harry looked up and saw she was smiling.

"You're figuring your way around here pretty quick," Harry stated.

River shrugged and fell backwards off the branch, hooking her legs on the branch as she spun around. She reached up with her hands and grabbed onto the branch swinging her legs underneath her and back over the branch. She did a couple of loops building up momentum before dismounting with a back flip and landing smoothly. She'd flung out her arms to keep her balance, and then lifted them up in a bow to the imaginary judges.

Harry gave her a small, quiet pattering of applause. "Bravo. Was that a conscious choice to look graceful or simply innate style?"

"What can I say?" River breathed on her nails and buffed them on her shirt. "I'm just innately graceful. I know it must be a blow to your own oafish ego."

Harry took her challenge and crouched down for a moment before shooting almost ten feet straight up into the air. He twisted and turned his body into two full back flips and a three-sixty landing smoothly without even using his arms to balance himself.

"Show off," River pouted.

Harry grinned. "We're in your mind, River. Belief makes all the difference. If I believe I'm graceful and can jump a dozen feet into the air, then I can do it, look it, and act it, regardless of any actual physical limitations."

River slowly began to grow taller and taller until she was about twice the height of Harry.

Harry nodded. "This is an idea you really need to simply take and accept as fact: You are in control of your mind. Things can be done to it, and right now, I'm sort of acting as security guard, but you are the boss of your mind. None of the stuff in here, the memories, the triggers, or even me, gets the final say."

River tilted her head, assessing the value of Harry's words.

"You gotta be king of your castle before you can… be…"

"Please Harry," River interrupted. "Your metaphors are horrible. I get the point. Don't work too hard coming up with something that rhymes."

Harry grumbled to himself. "My metaphors aren't that bad."

River said nothing, but Harry swore her eyes were twinkling at him. River politely asked, "So what are we doing here? Another big black pustule from magma hell?"

Harry shrugged. "If you like. Or we can try somewhere else. Could be better, could be worse. Won't know until you try."

"Do you remember the third room you showed me?" River asked. "The one I recognized?"

Harry nodded.

"Did you see everything I did?"

Harry nodded.

"Did you feel anything?"

Harry looked at her curiously. "What do you mean?"

"I felt emotions there," River explained. "Emotions that weren't mine. I don't know if they were yours or the memories', but… I felt them."

"You want to try there?" Harry clarified.

River nodded resolutely.

"You know, from the looks of things, I'm guessing that one's a lot more likely to be worse, than it is to be better."

"I want to find out why I remember that one."

"Alright," Harry stated. "You let me know if or when you want out." Harry grabbed River's hand and they appeared in the cross between an underground doctor's office and a dungeon. The chair in front of them had a series of leather straps hanging off to the side and metal braces that were used to lock people in and prevent them from moving.

"River?" Harry asked.

River was tilting her head staring at a simple table over to the side, completely oblivious to Harry.

"River!" Harry called louder. When she still hadn't responded, Harry moved in front of her and held her face in his hands. "River," Harry said quieter and calmer. "Stay with me here."

River seemed to snap out of her concentration and noticed Harry there. She asked curiously, "Do you feel it? Do you feel this place affecting you?"

Harry shook his head. "For me this is just another place."

"This is different," River said looking around the room. "It's like the room is alive. Are we in a memory?"

Harry shrugged. "Yes and no. You said you remembered this place and more than likely your mind created it that way. The rocks in the lava may have been a place someone else created. Memories are not only movie clips you watch play out. They can be emotions, words, smells, sounds, just about anything." Harry looked down and kicked some of the thin layer of blood off to the side. "I'm guessing something pretty traumatic happened in here, and that's why you remember a blood-covered floor."

"It wasn't always like this," River stated looking down. "I remember it looking clean too." River closed her eyes and tried to wish the blood away. Immediately, she heard loud screeching, drilling, and sawing. River looked down and saw the blood hadn't responded to her mental desires. She gasped and stepped back. "It wouldn't change."

Harry was watching her closely. "What wouldn't?"

"The blood, the floor," River mumbled franticly. "I wished the floor clean. I wished the blood away. And it wouldn't change. It was loud, screaming, and fighting me."

Harry nodded. "You don't know this place yet. What makes you so sure you can command it?"

"This is my mind!" River insisted wildly. "I make the rules! I decide what happens where!"

Harry looked at the floor. "This is your mind. And your mind made this room. Until you know why you made it, you can't destroy it."

"Yes I can!" The petulant young woman argued. "I won't let some bad memories control me!"

"How do you know they're bad?"

River stopped in confusion and stared at Harry, the unasked question clear in her eyes.

"How do you know the memories are bad?" Harry explained. "You don't even know what they are. It could be you performed miracles saving people here playing doctor. Maybe there's a cranberry juice leak and this isn't blood on the floor. You don't know your own mind, and until you do, you won't be able to overcome what your mind has already made or assimilated."

"Well then how do I get to know it?"

Harry looked around the room for any hints or clues. "I think you need to face up to the memories in here and realize why this room exists. And I don't think the memories here are going to be pretty."

"I thought you said this could be cranberry juice?"

"I said that it could be, but it's not. This is blood." Harry said bending down, rubbing the viscous liquid between his fingers. "But I doubt this place has been randomly constructed. You made it this way possibly to remind yourself, to protect yourself, or some other reason. I don't know why. And while it's true, you're the boss of your own mind, you were also the boss when this place became whatever it is now."

"So are we looking for big black floating pustules?"

Harry shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. Remember that one was likely implanted, not made or created yourself. Is there anything in here calling out to you? Feeling like more than it appears?"

River pointed at the table she'd been staring at earlier. "I can feel that table."

Harry nodded and took River by the hand. "Let's see what it has to say." Harry placed both of his hands on the table and River copied his motions.

In another jarring change of scenery, River found herself trapped inside her own body. She was sitting in a chair with her legs tucked up against her chest. She was guessing she was about sixteen given her body's development, but River found she had no control over how she moved. She was just rocking back and forth on her tailbone and heels.

A man in a white lab coat walked into the room, and sat himself in the empty chair River was facing towards. He settled himself and crossed his legs off to the side. He held up his clipboard so that River couldn't read it.

She heard Harry's voice but couldn't see him. "I'm right here, River. You're not alone."

"Miss Tam," the man in the white coat with a nametag reading Dr. Wetzner. "How are you feeling?"

River's head began to twitch, as if her lower jaw was jerking up to the left. She could feel how drugged her body was and she slowly managed to reply, "Mercurial."

"That's to be expected," the doctor nodded paying little attention to her as he read her charts. "And it will be painful when the morphine wears off."

Inside River was seething with rage. She was unable to do anything but observe as she began fidgeting in place. She weakly asked, "Si- Simon?"

"River," the doctor condescendingly explained. "Your brother is an extremely busy man. If you were in any real danger we would have your parents and brother immediately notified. But this is simply a routine process. Now have you noticed any out of the ordinary responses to external stimuli? Things like hunger, thirst, anger, happiness, or sexual urges?"

River seemed to nod franticly, though she struggled with the words. "Sl- slow. Everything. Everything's slow."

"Excellent," Dr. Wetzner assured in a less than enthusiastic response. "Let's see how you respond to controlled stimuli." The doctor got up and walked straight into a dark shadowed area.

"I'm still here, River," Harry's voice called out, trying to soothe the girl. "We're going to have to see this at some point, so I'm going to let the memory play out." Harry hushed up once more as the doctor came out from the shadows wheeling in a television monitor with some recording equipment.

"Here we go, River," the doctor explained. "Let's just see if you can spot anything out of the ordinary in these videos." The doctor turned on the screen, and bent down to program the sequence according to his notations. He double-checked his numbers and hit play. Standing up out of the way, he began to observe River. She was staring, entranced at the screen. The screen was just snow and static mixed in with brief repeated patterns flashing brightly. It lit up River's face in an odd foreboding light.

The doctor quickly realized something was wrong. "That's not the right video!" He bent down towards the device double checking that he'd programmed in the right stop points and chapters, completely oblivious to River's continued fascination with the unnatural video. He was trying a few other codes when River's shadow blocked his light and Dr. Wetzner realized she was standing right behind him.

"You shouldn't watch," River's voice sounded hollow and distant. Inside her body, even the conscious River trapped in her younger body was in an uncontrolled trance. She was no longer twitchy or fidgeting as she maintained her stare at the video screen, paying little attention to the man on the ground by the cart.

Dr. Wetzner spun around in fright. "Miss Tam! You need to sit back down, right this instant!"

"You watched us without permission." She continued. "You watched them. You watched me." She finally moved her eyes away from the screen and looked down at him. She whispered out the last two words, "No more."

Dr. Wetzner threw his arms up to protect himself, only for the small girl to pull on his left arm twist it over her shoulder and snap it cleanly at the elbow. She then struck with her left hand in a small fist. Her index and pinkie fingers extended as she viciously stabbed both of his eyes, piercing the balls and sending fluid spurting out all over herself.

The doctor was flailing and shrieking about as guards and men wearing blue gloves streamed into the room.

River looked down at the doctor and added, "You're too loud." A hard stomp of her bare foot right on his throat made a loud echoing crack. The abrupt end to his screaming left an eerie limited silence in the room as several large men tackled her to the ground. One of the men with blue gloves injected a glowing substance into her arm and calmly remarked, "I think we can safely call this a success."

"Indeed," another man in blue gloves agreed before everything went black and River slumped into unconsciousness.

"You okay?" Harry asked from River's right.

The girl looked up and at Harry before spinning around and realizing she was back in the room with the blood covered floor. She looked all around the room in confusion.

Harry whistled loudly and snapped his fingers. "River!"

"What?" she exclaimed turning back to Harry.

"Are… you… okay?" Harry repeated slowly enunciating each word.

"I…" she stumbled. "I don't know. I think so."

Harry watched her warily, and contemplated breaking the link and waking them now. "You seemed to take watching that better than I expected. Do you want to try another?"

"What do you mean watching that? What was so worrisome about that?"

Harry stopped and began thinking furiously. "Hang on. Were you not conscious inside your own body there? I could've sworn I sensed your observations, but they went a bit… stale when you got violent."

River looked at Harry as the enormity of what happened began to come back to her. She remembered her cold detachment killing the man and felt confusion more than anything. "Oh… oh wow."

"Did watching that video trigger you?" Harry asked hopefully.

River just nodded as she processed what had happened.

Harry nodded. "This makes things easier."

River frowned. "What do you mean?"

"It's just like it was for me to…" Harry's excitement at a breakthrough in research brought him back to his old days and her nearly blurted out 'speak parseltongue.' Harry quickly collected himself and explained, "What I meant was that simply replaying the memory triggers the effects here in your mind. We can unlock everything and trigger everything in here without any actual physical consequences out in the real world."

River nodded. "Making it possible for me to contain any potential danger I would be to others."

"Exactly," Harry explained. "And it's a step towards being capable of triggering the effects yourself, when you want to in the outside world."

River almost smiled happily as she looked around the room again. Her vision blurred and flashed as she looked up into the lights. She saw a number of children running happily, stomping on flowers and bunnies, killing them. She heard the sounds of sawing and drilling, and she felt herself wince as she realized the drilling was in her head as she was strapped face down. She could feel the warm blood pooling on the back of her neck and spilling down to the ground she was staring at. She saw Kaylee naked, in the heat of passion. She saw a blonde girl her age, smiling sadly as she stared right through River.

River lurched forward with a loud gasp, sitting up in the bed.

"Relax, River!" Harry called out, squeezing her hand. "Relax! You're here, you're safe."

"I'm right here, River," Simon assured her, holding her other hand. "You're okay. You're going to be fine."

River panted for just a few seconds and caught her breath. She looked over at her brother and frowned. "I know that."

Simon looked at Harry helpfully, before remembering he was Harry. "Well… good. Because you are."

Harry snickered and told River. "You seemed to slip into a daze in that place, and I thought we'd done enough for the night. That's why I snapped the link. You made good progress."

"Really?" Simon asked with a touch of disbelief.

Harry nodded at him. "Yup. Good news. But let's get some food and water. And then she's probably going to want to go to bed."

River nodded as she stood up a bit unsteady on her feet. She looked at the clock, "That was four hours again?"

Harry sighed and headed towards the kitchen. "Yup."

River and Simon followed right behind him. Simon asked her, "Good news? So what happened?"

River cheerfully explained, "I stabbed a doctor's eyes out, and broke his neck with my bare foot."

Simon looked at his sister uncertainly. "Well… that's great, I suppose?"

"No Simon," River chided. "That's horrible. I mean, maybe not so bad that I killed one of the people messing with me, but the murdering and watching gruesome things like that. That's not especially comforting. No, the good news was the discovery that we can figure all these things out inside my mind. And I'm less likely to accidentally stab your eyeballs out too."

Simon couldn't help but admit, "That… that is good news."

"I thought so," Harry agreed munching on a protein bar.

Harry finished off his second protein bar and followed River to her bunk to get ready for bed. They dropped off Simon and wished him a good night, and settled themselves back at the bridge. While River drifted off to sleep, Harry and Mr. Universe were silently playing chess. Oddly enough, they were both equally rubbish at the game and neither one ever consistently won.

Harry managed to force a stalemate again and looked up deciding River was thoroughly asleep. He looked out the door and crept over towards her quietly. He watched her body rise up and down as she inhaled and exhaled. He put his hand up to her back and whispered a stunning spell. Knowing time was a factor, he cast two more stunners, a silencing charm, and an old ward he remembered from when he'd modified it for his own purpose: a muggle-repelling charm. Harry was always fond of using his wizard-repelling charm whenever he could. And he always loved it that his wife would often wear a counter that would attract wizards. Together when they'd go out sometimes, a wave of dizziness, confusion, and vomiting would often surround them.

Now that Harry was convinced River wouldn't wake up, and no one would make it back here to check on her, he reached into one of his coat pockets and pulled out his knapsack. He went inside one of the secured pockets and withdrew one of his prized possessions. Harry knew the invisibility cloak wasn't the one his father had left him, but he'd accumulated several more in the years after Hogwarts. Knowing how rare they were, this very well could have actually been one of his. Harry packed up the rest of the stuff and slung the cloak over his head, making himself disappear from view. He silenced his shoes and crept out the hallway. There were no signs of anyone up. He hurried his way to the back and snuck out the smaller cargo bay door. He rushed across the empty street in the dark and entered a small alcove between buildings. He tapped on his communicator.

"Okay, I'm away from the damn ship now," Harry complained into the open air. "Give me the aerial shots and some coordinates."

"Do you even realize how long a grav boot is supposed to last?" Mr. Universe's voice replied, pulling up the pictures and placing them on the screen. "They don't just go bad like that. And you know stuff breaks around you an awful lot."

"My apparating onto the ship didn't break that."

"If you weren't so damn lazy in the first place then maybe I could agree with you," Mr. Universe replied. "And that's why, for now, you need to keep as much wonky away from the ship as you can."

"I never should have mentioned that word in front of you." Harry said shaking his head. "And I've apparated onto plenty of ships before."

"Never a firefly though," Mr. Universe replied. "For all you know, none of those ships before even had grav boots."

"Yes they did."

"Okay fine, they did," Mr. Universe agreed. "But you were just guessing there. Maybe it's like you said, you've 385 years of bad luck still to work through."

"384 now," Harry whined.

"Whatever. All I'm saying is don't invite trouble you don't have to."

Harry closed his eyes visualizing and remembering the map and coordinates. With barely a sound, he disapparated. He popped back in, covered in his invisibility cloak, across the street from the tech substation. Harry walked up to the door, saw the security guard sitting at his desk watching television, and silently entered the building. Harry slowly let the door close, unable to stop the slight woosh sound when it sealed shut.

The guard snapped his head up and saw nothing in the slightest out of the ordinary. He gave it a second's thought and went back to his television.

Harry snuck around behind the guard and saw they had sensors for everything to get in the secured primary entrance. Taking Mr. Universe's advice, Harry stunned the guard, muted all the alarms here, and cast an illusion of the monitors on to themselves.

He hurried his way through the entrance and towards a back security elevator. Using a code Mr. Universe claimed to have bought off the public network, Harry was able to descend to the bottom floor for authorized personnel only. "Hey, I was thinking," Harry remarked into the seemingly empty elevator. "Couldn't you just grab some chessmaster program or something and be much better at chess?"

Mr. Universe seemed amused at the sorts of things on Harry's mind when he was doing all the crimes and the felonies. "Yes, I easily could. But then I would beat you with no effort every time."

"Oh, right," Harry realized as they arrived at the bottom floor. "Don't do that."

Harry continued down invisible and silenced as Mr. Universe gave him directions of left and right. Harry passed a few people and just stayed out of their way, trying not to draw any attention. Finally they reached a thick metal door with an airlock and warnings all across it. Harry knocked on the door, wondering what had Mr. Universe so excited.

The door slid open and revealed a half dozen heavily armed and very dangerous people standing at attention, staring at the door warily.

"So that's why," Harry mumbled as the lead big scary man stuck his head out the door and looked down the hall both ways. Harry maneuvered his way around the man and sent out a stunning curse at the first guy's unprotected back. Armed guard number one fell forward out of the room unconscious.

Immediately, Harry fell to the ground, as the other men sprung into motion. He cast a spell on himself protecting his body from physical attacks. Underneath his cover of invisibility, Harry systematically began stunning every man in the room, starting with the armed ones. Unable to see him, or have any idea what they were dealing with, they all quickly fell to Harry's magical onslaught. Smiling and panting at the rush of adrenaline, Harry took a moment to enjoy his lopsided victory.

"Well, that was a bit disappointing," Mr. Universe called out realizing Harry had decisively and easily won.

Any further comment was cut off by the sound of a woman shrieking, "Call an ambulance! He's not breathing!"

Harry cursed having forgotten the man lying unconscious halfway out into the hall. He lifted up the communication device and ordered, "You better get in there and delete this video fast!"

Mr. Universe hurriedly instructed Harry into going down to the first terminal with direct access to the satellite-linked mainframe hub in front of them. Harry had to strip the casing open, connecting and syncing in the communication device, and then yanking the plug on the whole thing, forcing a reset. Harry did as instructed and while it was booting back up, Harry snuck around the people. He hoped no one had left after seeing what happened here. He moved the man in and quietly shut and locked the door. He quickly made his way around the room stunning the five people who had come running at the call for help. He lined up everyone in the room and petrified them. As he walked down the line, he ennervated them all. Still invisible and drowsy, he forcefully incanted, "Obliviate!"

Immediately everyone's eyes relaxed and glazed over. Harry pointed to the middle-aged man losing his hair wearing the nametag Robert Jaa. Harry took advantage of the suggestibility of the spell and explained. "You were all having a laugh as you dared Bobby here to call in a fake hospital alert. Otherwise, it's business as usual."

"I'm in, you're good." Harry's communicator and the overhead speakers echoed back in unison. Harry grinned and hurried over towards the first terminal. He replaced the lid and put everything back to normal. He gathered up his communicator and stayed invisible as he walked calmly back up to the front. He sucked in his stomach hunched against the wall as a pair of emergency medical technicians ran right past him.

"I hope you've already erased the video," Harry mumbled quietly.

"I have," the communicator replied. "By my count, you need only erase one more memory."

Harry nodded, though there wasn't much point to that as he was invisible.

He got back to the front desk and looked behind it. He canceled his illusion and saw numerous lights blinking and flaring indicating tripped alarms. Harry petrified the guard and ennervated him. "Obliviate," Harry began before explaining, "You had a bad dream and accidentally set off every alarm. There are medics on the bottom floor, but everything else you triggered while playing in your sleep."

The glaze over his eyes waning away, the guard's eyes popped wide suddenly and he snapped into action. He made sure all the alarms were turned back off and no one else would know about his dangerous nap on the job. Satisfied, Harry removed the muting charm from the area too, and then the invisible man disappeared leaving only the barely audible pop of displaced air as evidence of his existence.

Harry reappeared in the same alcove. He held his invisibility cloak tighter and scurried up to Serenity. A whispered 'alohomora' and he quietly made his way back through the ship. He encountered no one on his path back to the bridge. As he took down his muggle-repelling charm, Harry realized there wasn't a single ward, charm, detector, or anything magical at all protecting any part of that tech substation. He was a little disappointed as this strongly supported the idea that Blue Sun wasn't aware of magic either. Part of Harry was still holding out hope for a more definite sign of the wizarding world, but the big bad empire's big bad wolf not being protected from it, or with it, points pretty strongly towards the idea that they're really all gone.

Harry cast a small scourgify on the cloak just for good measure, put it back in its special place in his knapsack, and shoved that back into his coat pocket. He sat in the chair calming down some, as he probed River's consciousness. There wasn't any, thankfully as she was still stunned. Harry was slowly and subtly feeding her slight ennervates, being careful not to give her enough to wake her up, merely counter the effects of the stunners. Sadly, his control was slipping a bit and he filled her head and body with energy enough to make her shoot up in surprise.

River's eyes were wide but unseeing as she looked around the still dark room. She wiped the crust from the corners of her eyes and saw Harry looking at her curiously.

"Sleep well?" Harry asked with a hopeful smile.

River frowned as she nodded her head. "Like a log."

Harry held in his happy dance and looked genuinely pleased for her. "If you're ready to get up, I'm ready to crash. I'm pretty tired."

"Didn't you eat two protein bars?"

Harry held up his communicator. "It's all that chess I've been playing. It's a good workout for my massive brain muscles."

Mr. Universe's chuckles could be heard even through Harry's hand, as he tried to muffle the artificial intelligence.

River just looked at Harry oddly and said, "Fine. It's all yours."

Harry happily jumped into the still warm cot.

"Hey, you know," River suggested. "We should play chess some time."

"Sure," Harry nodded as he rolled over. "But I should warn you, I'm pretty good."

Trying to muffle Mr. Universe this time would have been an exercise in futility.