Chapter 25: Price of Freedom.

Harry knew that this conversation was inevitable, even though he didn't want to have it. Still, he took a few steps towards hopefully being able to talk to his daughter in a mostly civil manner. The young man made his ways through the hallways of the Shining Light Foundation building. Pausing in front of Claire's door, he braced himself for the potential eruption to come.

The last he heard, as of three days ago, was that Claire was resting but Harry sensed that she was milking this just a little bit. After what she went through, Harry did not blame her for wanting to postpone the inevitable conversation between the two of them. Harry would have done the same thing had the situation been reversed, that much he could say for sure. The wizard took a half of a step forward and decided to be the one to take the plunge.

He looked at the door to her room; Claire had led a rough life, starting with her conception oddly enough. Now Harry was standing on the other side of the door. It was not often that he was struck speechless but there were instances such as this one, where he did not really know what to say.

So, when one does not know what to say, it was best to go out and say it, and worry about the consequences later.

He knocked on the door gently.

"Come in," a tired and reluctant voice said from the other side of the door.

Harry made his way to the room and he saw Claire standing there. Her face was pale and there were black rings underneath her eyes, but she was looking mostly calm. Although Harry saw a haunted look in her eyes that he often saw in his own eyes based on what happened in a past life.

"So, it happened again. I got in over my head, and did something stupid," Claire said to Harry before he said anything. "Guess you and Mom were right, but that doesn't mean that you should keep me out of the loop."

"No, it doesn't, but you shouldn't have been trying to listen at the door like that," Harry told his daughter in a firm voice but she rolled her eyes at him.

"What would you have done at that age?" Claire protested and Harry did not answer which gave Claire all of the information she needed. Harry pressed on.

"Your brain patterns are as they should be, Granny left nothing behind, it appears that the brain washing has been reversed," Harry said.

"I didn't completely go through some what of the girls did, Granny didn't want to break my mind like theirs, because she needed me lucid….I was bait," Claire informed her father and she watched him with imploring eyes. "You know that, right?"

"Yes, I do," Harry said as he leaned towards him. "You remember Hope, don't you?"

"Yeah, I like her. She was here, visiting me pretty much every hour, even the hours that I was out of it," Claire replied with a slight smile. "The Phoenix Force, that's what they're after."

"So you know?" Harry asked raising an eyebrow at her.

"I know far more than you give me credit for," Claire said casually.

"You know far more than you should," Harry corrected her and Claire shrugged.

'Then again, that's one of the ways that she takes after you,' Kara told him.

Harry hated when his wife brought up such a good point but that was a good point. Never the less, he had to focus on what was going to be a problematic situation and that was Darkseid's repeated attempts to grab onto the Phoenix Force.

"So Claire…."

"She didn't see that much, however we did."

The girl in the scarlet robes turned up. There was the same haunted look burned into her eyes, but Harry was pretty happy to see that other than that one look, she was in as good of a shape as one could expect given her circumstances.

"Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch…."

"So Hope told you," Wanda interjected, it was hard to look this version of Harry Potter in the eye given what she shared with the version she knew. He was a stabilizing anchor in her life during a time that she really needed one. She was also kind of the reason that he ended up being brought to her reality in the first place as well.

Harry looked her and the other girl, who remained silent. "Yes, she did but…."

"That bitch thinks that she's going to take over," Laura growled as her claws nearly popped and she was hungry to stab her in the throat. "She's going to try and discredit you. Discredit all heroes."

'In other words, they're going to make another play at implementing the VRA,' Chloe suggested to him lightly. 'It's all over the news and there are demonstrations that are calling for the Justice League…..there have been disasters all over the world, and the League has been….well they're being blamed for not saving people.'

'For fuck's sake, not this bullshit again,' Harry growled, feeling he wanted to smash his head into the wall.

'Do you want me to get your mother on the line….you technically have...like..three of them, you know? But I mean the one who has Congressional Power and might be able to stall this for as long as possible,' Chloe advised him.

'Yes, please,' Harry said to Chloe graciously. 'Meanwhile, I'm going after Granny, because if I find her, it's going to lead me to Darkseid. And if he's gone, this ends.'

'Well, you're going straight for the top but are you sure it's not going to blow up in your face…'

Harry turned on the news and saw the protests.

"The Justice League should be outlawed, my daughter died in a bombing and where was the League to save her!…"

'We're heroes, not gods!' Diana yelled furiously.

'It's Darkseid's game, he's trying to discredit people, the VRA didn't go through after multiple failures so he's making one last ditch effort to see that it does.'

"I might have an idea where Granny is," Wanda said and Harry slowly rotated on the spot as he turned to face her. He raised an eyebrow and she decided that it was best to elaborate. "She's….well she's holed up somewhere, but I can…..I can bring you there. I remember it, she had Laura and I there for months."

Laura growled in anger which also flashed through her eyes, and caused her claws to pop out with a snikt. "And I need to thank her for that."

She had already been used as a weapon before in her life. To have it happen to her again? Well it was going to be a huge problem between her and whoever did it to her, which she was going to take extremely personally. Now it was time to settle the score and she looked forward to doing so, hopefully by ripping out Granny's throat with her teeth and she hoped that Harry destroyed Darkseid as well. It was his alternate counterpart and Laura's father that fought the hardest but in the end, they were destroyed by the darkness.

"So, you know how personal this is for me, don't you?"

Harry turned towards the red head who was walking shoulder to shoulder with him. Tess was dressed in a sleek black body suit and ready for action. Harry reached forward and grabbed her hand.

"Yes, I know it's personal. I have to ask though, are you going to be thinking with your head or your heart when you go in there?" Harry asked Tess and she watched him with an unblinking gaze.

"I know what's at stake Harry, I'll be by your side and I've got your back," Tess said firmly but in addition to her powers, she had a few other surprises. She wanted this, there was a part of her that would always be uneasy unless she finished it and settled the issue between herself and Granny Goodness. "The Justice League…."

"The League isn't the issue right now. We need to go to the root of the problem and all roads down that front lead to Darkseid," Harry told her and she nodded. "If we eliminate him, then there's not that much of a problem."

'Easier said than done,' Harry thought to himself and he kept those thoughts away from the rest of the bond mates. He was ready for action. He focused his eyes, then used his heat vision to cut the bolts of the lock, which allowed him entrance.

Harry could not help but think that he was walking into the lion's den or maybe a snake pit, potentially both. Yet, no matter what, he had to step in there; he realized that there was far more on the line than he initially thought. It was now or never, do or die for him.

'Well the moment of truth,' Harry mused as he made his way down the hallway. It was quiet, too quiet, which never was an ideal situation.

"There's a chance that Granny has moved," Tess commented and Harry looked over his shoulder towards her. She threw up her hands and shrugged. "I know but…."

"I know where you're coming from Tess, and I agree, it's possible, it's very possible," Harry commented as he looked over his shoulder. He heard music, eerie, monotonous music. Again.

'That rhyme, that rhyme….that's what she's using to brain wash them,' Harry thought as he raised his eyebrow and the young man moved closer to the source.

Harry stopped and his instincts kicked in.

"Not going to fall for it," Harry hissed and he pulled back the rug to reveal switch underneath the floor.

"Oh, clever, but not clever enough, Granny," Tess said as she looked at the room. "The walls are rigged too, if we touch them, we're going to cause the floor to collapse."

"Right, and there are sensors if we use our powers," Harry remarked to her but he pulled out a portable device. "We're just going to have to do this the old fashion way. Chloe, you're up."

'Gotcha,' Chloe commented in eager anticipation, one could almost see her rubbing her hands together with glee. 'Let's see how good the security of this orphanage really is.'

'Too good,' Kara offered. 'I'm doing scouting above, so far no signs of hostility, but we all know how much that can change in a heartbeat.'

'Right, of course,' Harry said absentmindedly as he kept his eyes peeled for any potential skullduggery. 'You and Karen are keeping an eye from above as Tess and I are moving in from the inside. And the League are in position, although they've got to move carefully.'

'Of course, we are,' Diana stated from afar.

'Keep on it, and everything will be….'

"You are protecting her. You will give us to her."

Tess stood up straighter, chills ran down her spine and slowly but surely the woman turned around to see a group of girls standing there, intense glares in their eyes.

'Of course….of course this happens,' Tess thought to herself as she shook her head. 'These girls….they're here.'

'Stay sharp,' Harry warned her and there was a sense that Tess was looking at him with a pained expression.

'What do you think I've been doing all of this time?' Tess thought but she had a weapon and she had an army of teenage girls facing her.

"You will deliver the one known as Hope to us and we may spare your lives," one of the girls stated in a far bolder voice than she should have had. She was a juvenile delinquent who had been given a second chance by Granny and taught a new way thanks to her tender loving care. There was a sense that all of them got that second chance. "I don't care who you are. I don't care what you can do. But you're going to hand her over to us."

Tess was not afraid of this bold declaration, in fact she was smiling. "Really, Granny has to send a bunch of teenyboppers to do her dirty work now?"

"We are to be taken seriously!" one of the girls snapped as her eyes flashed with anger and the other girls stood even straighter.

One of the girls tried to attack Tess but she dodged it and tripped the girl up like she was nothing.

These girls did not have powers; they were standard weapons to be used. Harry bound three of them just like that in a blink of an eye. The Shining Light Foundation would be getting a few more guests later on tonight but right now Harry just watched them as they fell to the ground.

'They're just a distraction,' Barda commented, as she was searching for Granny in her own way. She had a feeling that gargoyle was pretty close. 'Granny's Elite Guard will be coming for you, especially after you captured one of hers.'

Tess pinched the neck of one of the girls which caused her to slump on the ground.

'Thanks for the tip,' Tess commented as Harry and herself continued to duke it out with these girls with the battle being short and ugly.

Hope showed up on the scene, she knew it in her mind that all of them were after her and while she could not help but feel that she was walking into a trap; she might be the key to end this, or at least set it up so that Harry could end it. There were a number of tense emotions that were going through her head, far too many for an average teenage girl to handle but somehow, she was able to keep a clear enough head to figure out what she needed to do next.

'Okay, okay, you can certainly do this, I hope,' Hope thought to herself, she couldn't help but note the irony of that statement considering her name.

She lifted her hand towards the door but she paused and stopped. She could not help but think that she was walking into a trap.

"Gotcha!"

Someone shoved a bag over her head. This statement caused Hope to freak out about as much as one would expect. Her eyes glowed and she felt a burst of power flow through her body!

"NO, NO ONE WILL LOCK ME A CAGE EVER AGAIN!" Hope screamed as she smashed the group of Furies down with one furious telekinetic attack.

"Subdue her, or you will be subdued forever!" Granny shouted, losing her kindly demeanor and looking like an extremely angry and ill tempered bulldog. She held a cane and smacked one of the girls in the shins causing them to go forward.

Hope dodged the attacks but a blonde blur came from the air and smacked one of Granny's goons in the back of the head.

"Oh, not so tough," Kara commented and Karen went hand to hand with another one of the Elite Guard members. She blocked a kick and then turned around, nailing her with a back hand punch of her own.

"Yeah, no offense, but I thought these Elite Guard….would be….I don't know, a bit more Elite," Karen suggested with a shrug.

"One would think that, but they're luring you into a false sense of security!" Barda commented as she smashed one of them down and then grabbed another in a front facelock cradle before slamming her down onto her knee. She dodged another attack and kneed her in the back of the head.

"Barda, my darling, how good to see you a…ARGH!"

"Cram it witch!" Barda snapped as she choked Granny down to the ground. In this vessel, she was a frail old lady, or that was the impression that she gave.

"No, really, did I teach you to be….you have forsaken us you nasty little girl, after all that Granny has done for…."

Barda curb stomped her onto the ground. Granny did strengthen this vessel a little bit although she was reminded that even in her standard form, Granny Goodness was not known for her strong hand to hand abilities.

"You're not going to win," Barda said through gritted teeth as she grabbed Granny by the throat once more and Kara and Karen continued to make short work of her Elite guard.

"But my dear, sweet dumpling, even if you kill me, I'll die knowing that I've already have," Granny muttered with a twisted grin, a few teeth loosened as blood dripped from her lower lip.

"What do you mean by that remark?" Barda demanded, her hands were this close to wrapping around her throat again and choking her to death it but Granny looked at her, with a grin that slowly widened across her face.

"Oh, Darkseid does not tolerate failure and he feels that Earth isn't a planet that deserves to last much longer for it has failed on the galactic scale," Granny told her, her grin got even wider as more blood splashed from her lips. Her teeth were severely loosened, to the point where her smile was really twisted. "It's coming, my sweet darling, even you cannot stop what is to come."

"The end," Harry breathed as he showed up and he saw Granny look up at him.

"You have tried to face the master, but even you cannot hope to defeat him. You are nothing but a flawed last ditch attempt to stop him, two entirely flawed halves crammed together in a whole that is even more flawed," Granny taunted him with malice. She watched him, her twisted and utterly broken smile wide across her face. "Darkseid is out of your league, child. If you believe that you can beat him. You must be more deluded then both of your broken parts."

Kara stomped Granny's head before she could continue to run her mouth further.

"Yeah...well...we might be deluded, but we're never going to stop fighting!" Kara cried to Granny as her eyes flared up and the woman stepped back.

"I couldn't have said it better myself," Harry told Granny. "You don't get what we're capable of. You've never gotten what we're capable of."

"The League has lost favor with the World. The world is going to fall into hopelessness and despair there is no hope! There is only Darkseid!" Granny told them weakly as she stared up at them. This vessel was getting closer and closer to reaching its expiration point but as long as she could look up at them, she would do so with thinly veiled contempt.

"You'd be surprised how much we're capable of," Harry said as he looked in her eyes. "I'm not convinced you've ever gotten that."

"Perhaps, but….you're merely a child," Granny said to him.

"I've been branded as a child for years. By people who don't understand what I've been through," Harry said coolly. "I want you to understand this. From this moment in time, Granny Goodness. Understand that as long as I breathe. As long as blood pumps through my body. I'll keep fighting. As long as there is still one person left in the world worth saving, I will keep fighting. I will keep fighting until my final breath. I will keep fighting beyond the point of sanity. I WILL DEFEAT DARKSEID! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"

Harry smashed Granny over the skull with the energy scythe. He doubted that he could kill this one but he was sure that it broke the control she had over the vessel which was already dead the moment she opened her heart to Granny.

There was one sinister whisper that echoed through his head.

'You have no chance, child.'

Harry disagreed with it but he had never been one to conform to expectations.

Harry heard this one thought that resounded from the words of Darkseid. The words that he had no hope.

A while ago, he might have doubted himself but there was something about the fact that this would be his ultimate test. It was extremely interesting to say the very least, the young man watched with nerves resounding through the back of his head.

'You have no chance child.'

Harry Potter smiled, he had heard them mock him as being a child, like he did not understand. Both sides of himself in fact, had met those who had thought that they weren't ready but the fact of the matter was that he had ceased being a child a long time ago. There was a certain sense of responsibility that Harry was ready to undertake. His green eyes flashed and a huge smile went over his face.

"You're thinking about what you have to do now," Wanda commented as she showed up to join him. She wished that she could be out on the field but her powers were extremely weak at the moment. "He fought bravely but in the end. Even he got crushed by Darkseid."

Wanda smiled sadly at him after saying that but Harry shook his head.

"I know….I know but I'm not him. I'm not just Harry Potter. At least I'm not the one that you knew," Harry muttered as he looked out the window and saw the setting sun. He watched it, admiring the beauty.

"And we'll see the sun set many more times as long as you never give up."

Tess turned up to join Harry.

"LuthorCorp, it's the furthest thing from my mind right now. Harrison….well I'm not going to say that he can have it, but really when you think about everything that happened, losing that company isn't the worst thing that can happen," Tess suggested as she sat down next to Harry.

"You're lucky that you got away from her unscathed," Wanda said.

"I wouldn't call my current state exactly unscathed," Tess remarked dryly and Wanda had to shrug, that was an extremely valid point.

"True," Wanda agreed, there was tension that was going throughout her tone. There was a few seconds where she paused and then she got even tenser.

"It's a shame that I didn't get to rip her throat out but the fact that you beat her good. That's good enough for me," Laura said as she turned up. Her healing factor wasn't working properly. She sat down on the chair beside them.

"What are we waiting for?"

"Hope," Harry offered absentmindedly.

"The Phoenix Force is acting weird," Hope commented as she showed up. "It's almost like….well it's incomplete, I think my mother only gave me half of it."

Wanda knew Jean very well, considering the relationship that they had with their realities version of Harry. She knew the power that she could be capable of and also knew how she lost control very easily. "Where is the other part them?"

Harry frowned, there were a lot of things that were not adding up for him. Perhaps he was being a bit paranoid, in fact it was likely that he was being a lot paranoid. Yet, one should not confuse being paranoid for being prepared and that was what Harry was doing.

"When was the last time you saw your mother?" Harry asked and she turned towards him, nervously.

"It was….about a month before I woke up here….it was when he was rolling through," Hope informed him.

"Darkseid….might have corrupted a part of the Phoenix Force and didn't even know it," Harry said as he let out a breath. Hope's eyes widened at the thought of him corrupting something like the Phoenix Force.

She looked absolutely terrified out of her mind. It seemed so wrong that something like that happened but yet….yet it seemed obvious that it something she couldn't control. She felt a disconnect and her stomach curled in misery.

"Am I in any danger?" Hope asked Harry and he reached out, grabbing her hand then squeezing it reassuringly.

"Until Darkseid is finished off, we're all in danger," Harry told her and there was a second where Hope nodded her head. Her eyes went wide as she offered a deep breath and watched him.

"Yeah, I….I guessed that," Hope commented, she never felt so….well she never felt so hopeless, which was the ultimate irony given her name.

"Yes, you should have," Harry agreed, he did not mean to upset her. Hell, something like that, it had a potential of upsetting himself. He was just absolutely pants at comforting people. "Don't worry. We're going to figure this out, in fact we already are working on it."

"With Granny gone, Darkseid is going to make a move sooner rather than later," Barda said as she stepped forward. "And he's going to make that move, maybe a bit before he's ready."

Harry nodded, that was the game after all, he wanted to lure Darkseid out into the open so he could deal with him. The problem was there that Harry could tell that if Darkseid tried something, it would be all over just like that. Just as soon as the fingers snapped, it would be over.

Making him step into the light, that was a problem.

"The final test, the question is are you ready?"

Death was standing there next to Harry. Harry looked over his shoulder towards her.

"I feel like all life hinges on my ability to either win or lose this next battle with Darkseid," Harry told her.

"Not to put any pressure on you, but that's because it does," Death told Harry and there was a few seconds where both of them stared the other down.

"No, pressure or anything," Harry commented and Death smiled at him.

"Just remember if you lose, all hope is lost," Death said briskly. "We know what that means."

If Darkseid gets his hands on the Phoenix Force, well everything was done. Harry knew and he understood.

Slade Wilson was not going to give up his goals, after the VRA fell through to the floor. He thought that was more of a minor setback than anything. He was not going to fail, not in the slightest. He was going to win the day, he was going to win the next battle. That was what someone like him did, he won through strength and he had power.

Right now he walked up to the podium. The last rally did not go as planned but now with the world watching him, he was about ready to make his next move. Slade reached the microphone, it was in perfect working order.

"The Justice League once again made matters worse, by taking out an entire building to stop a group of super powered thugs," Slade lectured as he popped up several images on the screen. "I know some of you are prone to hero worship but the fact of the matter is, you can't deny that the League has caused more problems than they have caused solutions."

There was a sense that everyone present had their eyes on Slade.

"They need to be held accountable, just like the police, the army, and everyone else," Slade commented as he cracked his knuckles and watched the crowd and the members of the press buzzing around him.

"Mr. Wilson? Lois Lane here, of Daily Planet Communications."

'Ah yes, Sam Lane's trouble making daughter, of course she would be here,' Slade thought with disdain. What he wouldn't give to wrap his hands around her throat and squeeze the life out of her or worse, but he must remain calm and must not cave into his rage.

"Yes, Miss Lane, what is it?" Slade asked, there was an amount of faux politeness in his voice. There was a quality present in his vocal tone that more or less spelled out exactly what he wanted to do to her if he was able to get away with it.

"Well, I was wondering what your intentions truly are with the VRA? I mean, it's more or less been killed at both a political and civilian level, as the problems that it would have caused has been covered more or less ad nauseam in the press. Yet, here you are trying to resurrect it. Again," Lois inquired.

"My intentions are to create a safer world for us all, including reporters," Slade answered briskly, although people like that who questioned the United States government and their intentions, were cockroaches that should be eradicated.

"The Price of Freedom is a high one, but where do we draw the line? You seem to be trying to remove our civil liberties for some hidden purpose," Lois asked as she eyed Slade. "Are you intending to put these people into camps, thinking that all of the problems of the world will go away?"

"I feel that these people would team up with the Government and stand together, it would solve a lot of problems," Slade said, he appeared to be flustered, but only for a few seconds.

Lois could tell that she had Slade trapped in a corner and she was not going to let him dig himself out of it any time soon.

"Are you certain that you're not covering up your own past failures?" Lois asked him and Slade's eye narrowed towards her, a dangerous glint in it.

"What are you trying to…."

"Your son died in the meteor shower of 2005. When your team tried to respond to the crisis," Lois reminded him. "The heroes couldn't save him but the heroes cannot save everyone. The fact that they exist allows people to sleep a bit more soundly in their beds."

"Not all of us sleep as soundly, Miss Lane," Slade commented as he craned his neck forward. One son was physically and mentally disfigured in that Meteor Shower and the other one was dead. His daughter lost partial vision in one of her eyes as well.

"Maybe not, but not a lot of us sleep soundly without the government breathing down our necks and checking to make sure our pillows are up to regulation," Lois said with a smile on her face.

"Oh! I'll sleep soundly, when we actually move this plot along! God! Yak yak yak yak yak both of your arguments are nothing but circular debate!"

There was someone standing above them and Lois looked up into the sky in direction that the voice was coming from, there was a small amount of nerves that was going over her body. Her heart skipped another beat as she held her head up and took a careful look at the newest arrival to the party.

He was dressed in a black and red bodysuit, with sunken in white eyes. He dropped down onto the ground and held a pair of swords in his hands and he saw that the guards were going to go to him.

"No! Don't tase me! bro!" Deadpool yelled as he dodged the attacks by flipping backwards landing on his feet he tossed a grenade at them in a low underhand as if he was bowling. "And boom goes the dynamite!"

The ground beneath them exploded and Deadpool, without any care in the world and not even bothering to look back. Stabbed one running up behind him in the stomach then drew the blade upwards gutting him.

"Oh, don't be worried! They're nameless, faceless extras," Deadpool commented as he pulled the sword out from out of the guts of his hapless, nonimportant victim. "Sure my good friend Mr. Cobblepot, would like me to remember every one of them has a mother. Well, actually it would depend on which version of Ozzy in which continuity, we're talking about, but I'll send all of the body parts back, intact. Swear to god, and hope to die or rather Slade does."

"What do you want?"

"What do I want you non Rob Liefled created two-bit Deadpool mockery?!" Deadpool asked as he walked forward. "I want an entire hard drive of Golden Girls nude fakes and Slash Fiction, but I'd settle for your head on a platter."

Deadpool closed the distance and grabbed Slade but he was able to fight him off.

"Hey! We've got to save something for the next chapter! Not so rough!" Deadpool cried out as he shot Slade in the knee cap. He went down in a heap. "Bang! Down! Heel boy! Good dog!"

Deadpool kicked Slade in the ribs and forced him onto his knees.

"Who hired you?" Slade asked him.

"Well that is the seven point three billion dollar question, isn't it?" Deadpool commented. "It might be the most brilliant scheme ever and it's funny that you should ask that."

Deadpool paused and he waved his hand.

"That's your cue," Deadpool added.

To Be Continued in the Next Chapter.