Isle of Dogs
London, England
January 6h
2023 A.D.
"Come on! Keep moving!" Lincoln yelled.
Hundreds of people were charging past him, heading towards the boats that were lining the Thames River. They were pouring as many people onto them as humanly possible then recklessly charging down the river and out into the channel.
There had been several collisions already but it didn't stop the ships for steading themselves and carrying on. The explosions and monstrous roars in the distances were enough to take all hesitation away from the frightened masses.
Just across from him, his sister Amelia was also trying desperately to keep order but also squeeze people into every space available.
Something suddenly caught his eye in the distance.
"Oh shit!" he blurted, "Amelia! Tell me that isn't who I think it is!"
Amelia turned and looked in the same direction. It was exactly who he through it was.
Aurora, Athena, Harry, Hugo and everyone else that was supposed to be long gone by now were bolting down the street, away from the boats.
"What the hell are they doing?!" Amelia yelled.
"I'll get em. Stay here!"
Lincoln charged off in their direction.
Warehouse
Albus stared at his hand in disbelief. It wasn't like before when he had been attacked by the Cleric's and pumped full of electricity to disrupt his abilities. This time they were simply gone.
"What the hell did you do to me?!"
"I'm sorry it had to come to this Albus, I truly am," Voldemort said casually, "but it's not like you would have just welcomed me with open arms now is?"
He waited but could see that Albus still wanted an answer.
"I had to borrow a piece of your soul."
"You..." Albus breathed but could continue.
"It also happened to be the piece that gave you your abilities. Your father, well, our father now I suppose, destroyed my soul and unfortunately you can stay in this world without some kind of anchor."
Albus looked down at his own chest, half expecting to see a great gaping hole or something.
"Don't look so surprised Albus. The Prophecy told you this would happen, besides...what's are brothers for?" he smiled.
"You are not my brother!" Albus hissed through his teeth.
"Really? Do you have another twin around here somewhere?" he laughed, "we're two of a kind Albus. I know everything you know, I feel everything you feel and I can do everything that you can...and a lot that you can't. I'm the Colossus now."
"How is this possible?"
"Oh come on Al, dad must have told you the story. After I hit him with the killing curse in the forest. He was in the train station with that old manipulative, bearded bastard. I was there...he saw me..."
For some reason these memories seemed to actually be painful for him. His eyes narrowed and actually looked like they were filled with sadness.
"That kind of pain...it went beyond words...I screamed and begged for help...for mercy...for anything. I wanted them to kill me...just to make it stop..." rage overtook his face, "but they didn't...they just walked away and left me there. Started having a nice little chat about how pathetic I was! So much for that legendary Gryffindor kindness!"
Albus suddenly understood. His brother, the man that was staring straight at him was in fact the fragment of soul that had been living inside his father since the day he received the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. The piece that was never allowed to crossover from this world to the next. He had simply been left, trapped inside the membrane between worlds until today.
The day that he had been reborn.
"How...how did you escape?" Albus breathed.
"Oh it wasn't easy. But, you know, once the pain goes away, you realize just where you are and...it's incredible. You can see everything in that place. This world...all the others...eight years of wondering around in that place, eventually you start to figure things out. You get to understand the balance..." he knelt down in front of Albus again, "see the day that you were born, the scales were tipped. And so, I was able to come back and add some counterweight. For every light, there is a dark, every death, a life, blah, blah, blah...I guess that why we were made to be twins."
"Fuck you! You're not my family!"
Voldemort sighed, "Al, I don't wanna fight you. You know the Prophecy as well as I do. If we don't stand united, this whole world will suffer...and I don't want that."
"Bullshit!"
"Hey! I've been in the limbo between life and death for eight years and spent a lot longer than that as nothing more than a parasite! It changes your perceptive. Purebloods, half-bloods, you really think I give a shit about that anymore? No, my eyes are open. I'm looking at the bigger picture now and that picture includes you!"
"Really? Does that picture capture my good side?"
Voldemort burst into laughter, "Oh God, I'm so glad that I inherited your sense of humor! See, things have changed...I'm more like you now than I am me!"
"Yeah well, I'm not to fond of myself right now."
"Well, we can change that. You wanted to change the world...that's exactly what I'm trying to do!"
"Like this?! With those things out there!" Albus barked.
"Oh, them? They're just lackeys! When you hire manual labor to build you a house, you don't invite them to live with you once it's finished! Nah, I'll get rid of them as soon as I don't need them anymore," he smiled.
"You're insane!"
"Oh please, you're the one that's been doing the bad things for the greater good! Sometimes you gotta do bad things to make sure that worse things don't happen...you remember telling Athena that? Speaking of which, where is she? I really wanna meet her...and Aurora," he grinned.
"You some much as go near her -"
"And you'll do what? Shout at me? Call me nasty names? I don't think you fully appreciate the situation you're in right now...and besides, I don't need to go near her...she'll come to me."
A cold chill went down Al's spine, "no...she..."
"You know I'm telling the truth Al. You know as well as I do, that she's already on her way here..." he was looking deep into Albus's eyes, "you know what her problem is? She loves you too much. She is going to put your child in danger just because she can't stand the idea of loosing you."
Albus felt ill. He was right. She had done it before, valued his life over their babies and now she was going to do it again.
"Now, I have given very clear orders that she be unharmed. You think I want to hurt her? She's carrying my nephew...but if she is determined to throw herself into danger, there's not much that I can do..."
He knew what he was doing and he hated it. He was trying to bribe Albus into joining him and worst of all, it was working.
"What do you want from me?"
"I want you to follow your destiny. Work with me, instead of against me. You can be like Harry, getting a whole bunch of his friends killed just because he was too stubborn to let go of his pride or consider that maybe his views of right and wrong were inaccurate or you can be The Colossus again and help me make this world the way it should be...I can give you back your abilities..."
Albus laughed in contempt, "so...you'll just hand me back my abilities if I join you?"
"Well...I'll need some proof that you're on my team before that happens."
"What proof?"
Voldemort sent a dark look into Albus's eyes, "tell me everything you know about Sophia...and I want you to get her here...I'm just dying to see her again."
Sophia had admitted to meeting Tom Riddle but she had never elaborated on what exactly happened during that meeting. What could he possible want with her? Or maybe it wasn't her that he wanted at all...
He wanted the Cajun.
"You took a snap shot of my memories...shouldn't you already know where she is?"
"Well, I would know if you did...but you don't. No, I mean, I want you to find her. Lets face it, you're the only person she'll come out of hiding to see."
"What do you want with her?" Albus asked.
"That's between me and her," he shot back quickly.
Albus thought for a second. He had to protect Aurora and the baby and deep down he knew there was only one way to make sure of that. If he wasn't here, then there was no reason for her to be either. Albus was never going to be the one that decided the end of the war, it was Athena. As long as she and Aurora were alive, then the world still had a chance.
"Well in that case, as your brother, I highly recommend that you kill me right now because I'm not gonna stop until I have burned you down and this time, you'll stay dead!" Albus growled.
Voldemorts lip curled and his face changed to that of frustration, "you know, I wouldn't have minded letting you keep your abilities if I could just rip that fucking stubborn streak of yours out instead!" he hissed.
"If you don't kill me now, I'll make you regret it!"
Voldemorts eyes flashed with rage, "Fine! You wanna die? Allow me to oblige!"
Suddenly his right arm turned back into the black tar that made up his body, stretched out and redefined itself as a razor sharp black sword.
"I offer you the whole world and you spit it back in my face!" he roared, raising the sword above his head, "last words?"
"SUCK MY -"
A huge blue light erupted around the room and several streams of lightning struck Voldemort in the chest, sending him smashing through the wall. The bat-creatures shrieked and charged but were hit by gun fire as James, Aurora, Scorpius and Athena moved into the room.
The Death Eaters around them started firing back curses and hexes but Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were already there, shielding the others while they returned fire.
Two of the Death Eaters were struck in the chest by spells while the others bolted from the room to find cover.
Aurora and Harry rushed over to Albus.
"Are you all right?!" she asked frantically.
"He took my abilities we have go!" Albus said, as they helped him to his feet.
"He took your powers?! How?!" Harry blurted looking shocked.
"We have to leave now!" Albus yelled as they rushed to the nearest door.
James was forced to prop Albus up. Although he still couldn't feel any kind of pain, his body was weak and his legs continued to crumble under him.
Outside, Lynx, Hugo, Lily, Violet and Rose were fighting off other cloaked men that seemed to almost be coming out of the woodwork. If they were still using their old tactics then they must have had the Dark Mark somewhere on their bodies and had used it to signal the others.
Albus had been unconscious when he was brought there and had no idea that the place was so big. It must have been some kind of industrial warehouse or shipping facility because it seemed to stretch for miles in all directions.
"Lynx, get outside and get us some transport! Anything!" Aurora shouted.
Lynx nodded as the rest of them laid down a wave of cover fire for her. She chucked her weapon to Hugo and then bolted off down a corridor with spells shooting past. She suddenly dived through the air, transforming into her White Tiger form, giving her more than enough speed and agility to escape the fire fight.
Bullets and spells ricocheted all over the place as they collided with shield charms and we sent spinning away.
Suddenly a spell skimmed Hugo's chest. It didn't cause any damage but managed to knock the pin out of one of his grenades. He yanked it away from his body as quickly as he could and tossed it away.
"GRENADE!"
Everyone, Death Eaters included hit the deck as the explosion rocked the entire building. Smoke and dusted filled the whole place and that terrible ringing sound took over everyone's eardrums.
James still had his arm around Albus and was desperately dragging him away. He pushed himself through a set of double doors to escape the dust. They were now in another long narrow corridor that led away from the large room where they had found Albus.
The sound and blue light of Athena's lightning bolts erupted again followed quickly by gun fire and yelling.
"Come on!" James said pulling Albus down the corridor.
"No! I'm not leaving without -"
"We're not leaving them! They know the way out, you don't! Now come on!" James yelled and the two took off down the corridor.
Albus stumbled several times, as his weak legs gave out on him. They pushed through another set of doors that led to a fire escape stairway as more sounds of spell and gunfire echoed around them. They hobbled down as quickly as they could looking for the exit to get back outside.
Finally, James spotted the large set of doors that they had entered through. They ran towards it as quickly as they could and moved back outside. Just as they did, Lynx pulled up in a busted up Minivan. All the windows had been blasted out and there were several large dents along it's side.
Explosions and sounds of hellish fighting were all around them while the dark London skyline was filling with smoke from fires in the distance.
Suddenly, Rose, Scorpius, Athena, Violet, Ron, Hermione and Ginny burst out of a side door about thirty feet away from the Minivan. James and Lynx immediately ran over to them while Albus struggled to keep up under his own steam.
"Where are the others?!" James demanded.
"I don't know, we got split up!" Hugo said quickly.
"Shit!" Albus growled, "gimmi your gun!"
"Albus, you can barley walk!" Ron argued.
"Gimmi your fucking weapon! I'm not leaving Aurora!"
"Fine, then I'm coming with you!" Scorpius yelled, checking his ammo.
"Me too," James agreed.
"And me," Hugo said.
"All right, the rest of you stay here in case they get past us!" Albus ordered, taking Violets M41A rifle and checking the clip.
The three of them headed back into the warehouse, with Albus limping and using the walls for support. He was pretty sure that his ankle was broken but he didn't have time to wonder about why he couldn't feel any pain at the moment.
"Split up. Everyone meet back outside in five minutes!" Albus said, moving off down a corridor as James, Scorpius and Hugo did the same if different directions.
All of them were completely unaware that Harry was only twenty feet above their heads.
He was alone, moving through the rooms as carefully and as quickly as possible. His wand was shaking in hand and he was doing his best to make sure that he didn't breath too loudly. He pushed his way through a door and into a short corridor. Suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks and stayed as quiet as he could.
He could hear footsteps approaching.
He readied his wand. He would only have time to send off a single spell before anyone else in the area was alerted to his position. He waited as the steps got closer and closer.
He saw a human shaped shadow move across the floor in front of him, about to come around the corner. He had to act.
He jumped out from his cover with his wand aimed but managed to stop himself for firing.
"Harry!" Aurora shrieked lowering her wand.
"You scared me half to death!" Harry breathed, his heart thundering inside his chest.
"Wheres Albus?" Aurora asked quickly.
"I don't know. I saw James pulling him away, maybe he got out."
"Come on, we have to find him!"
Harry moved in front of her, checking around before leading the way. They moved through another door that led to a large open room. On the far side were windows that showed the courtyard entrance to the building. They were close to the exit.
"Harry, do me a favor," Aurora said quietly.
"Sure."
"Give my regards to Dumbledore."
At that moment, Albus limped through a set of double doors next to them, just in time to see Aurora raise her wand at Harry's chest and say: "Avada Kedavra!"
Green light lit up the room and the spell struck Harry straight in the chest sending him flying through the air. He thumped to the ground, his emerald eyes still wide as if the color of the spell had been burned into them.
The only movement Albus made was to fall to his knees. His face was nothing but shock. He seemed unable to comprehend what had just happened.
"Ah, don't worry Albus, you'll see him soon enough," she grinned evilly and said in a pitying voice before aiming her wand at him.
Suddenly she slumped over in pain, holding her chest with one hand and still trying to aim the wand with the other.
"NO! Aurora...don't spoil this!" she hissed angrily at herself.
Suddenly the back tar erupted from her mouth like a fountain and spilled out all over the floor. She vomited it by the gallon until there was nothing left inside of her. Aurora fell to the floor out cold, her skin pale white.
He had possessed her body and used her to kill Harry but she had resisted him when he tried to do the same to Albus.
The puddle of tar started to reform in the center of the room. First his head reshaped, then arms and a torso, then legs. Soon the blackness started to fade and change back into his skin and tailored suit.
A heavy bang from nowhere rang out and Voldemort's head exploded into a splatter of goo.
Lincoln can out of nowhere, pumping round after round off from the shotgun in his hands until he had blasted the humanoid constructs back into liquid. Suddenly the puddle began to disappear, seeping through the cracks in the floor and down into the room below.
Albus continued to stare blankly at the bodies of his father and the woman he loved.
Lincoln ran straight over to Harry, placed his fingers on his throat and felt for a pulse but there wasn't one. He was gone.
He moved over to Aurora and did the same.
"She's alive! Albus, help me get her up!" he said quickly.
But Albus didn't budge. He just sat there, staring at the lifeless open eyes of his father.
Lincoln ran over to him and grabbed his head, shaking him out of his dazed, "Albus! Look at me!" he did, "he's gone but Aurora's not! We have to go now!" he shot back over to Aurora and picked her up off the floor. Her body was like a rag doll.
Suddenly an explosion from outside shattered all the windows sending glass everywhere. Gun fire and shots of blue lightning rang out. The others were under attack.
Albus pulled himself to his feet. He took one last look at his father before turning away and following Lincoln out of the building.
