Rise of the Champions - Chapter Fourteen
Author: Milady Dragon
Phil couldn't help but pace. He'd been doing it almost non-stop since he'd gotten the news about Loki.
He could feel the Void churning under his skin, but it wasn't fighting to be set loose. He'd been truthful when he'd explained it to Wanda, that her magic shouldn't be so overpowering that it was a struggle to keep it under control.
However, he'd been a little understating when he'd claimed that the magic should feel as if it was resting…well, that was more in his own case. The Void was such a part of him now that it was as if it was his very blood and bone, melded to him in such a way that it was like tidal forces within his body, cresting and falling like the very beating of the Void's own heart.
Yet, he never would lose control of it. Yes, it may prod him in the direction it felt he needed to go, pointing out those things that it knew about him that he wasn't aware of as yet. But there would never be that sort of chaotic outburst that Daisy, and now Wanda, would experience. The Void was his, just as he was the Void's. And he wasn't certain he could completely explain such a symbiotic relationship if he tried.
Oh, Ianto would understand. Phil was positive that the Deep Ways were the same with him, as the Void was with Phil. But anyone else wouldn't be able to grasp just how much the Void was part of him now, not even other Void Wizards. Everyone else was aware of how the Void was a part of them, and to remove it would kill them as surely as being stabbed in the heart.
With Phil, though, not even being stabbed in the heart would do it. He'd even come back from being killed by Vibranium, which was a feat unto itself.
He could hear Ianto and Stephen talking quietly, and he caught the name, Ross, but he really wasn't paying much attention. He knew they were at the tail end of their investigation of the Great Wizard, and what had been discovered had been shocking. Phil had sat in on the briefings; as Ross was a Great, Stephen had taken point on the inquiry. And, with the testimony of Ross's own daughter, now that the threat of Bruce Banner being cursed by her father was no longer being held over her head, she had become a font of information.
Jack and Toshiko were also present. They'd come with Clint, as they'd been on their mission together. The moment Phil had seen Clint, he'd known something had happened, but he'd been so relieved that his lover was home that he hadn't asked. And, when he'd given his news, Phil had known that he'd just dumped one more thing on Clint's shoulders, one more thing he hadn't needed, but that he would bear as best he could. He would ask what was wrong later, in the privacy of their own bed, where he could hold Clint through whatever explanation he would give.
His eyes sought Clint's. His lover was seated on the floor, surrounded by dragons. Lucky had pride of place, with his head on Clint's knee, while Lola was on the other side, her own eyes tracking her Wizard with concern swimming within them. Agamotto had curled around the Elf's shoulders, while Myfanwy sprawled next to Lola, close enough to touch yet far enough away to keep from encroaching onto Lucky's personal territory. It had been as if the dragons had all somehow known that Clint was upset by more than Loki being on the loose again, and wanted to comfort him.
It was adorable, but Phil wasn't in the correct state of mind to appreciate it.
Crystal wasn't in the room; Andrew was keeping her and Lockjaw occupied in the little girl's room, reading to her. Phil was grateful for his friends, because he really didn't want her to see him so upset. It would only upset her in turn, and the last thing the Wizard wanted to do was that. She'd had enough of that sort of thing in her young life already, and Crystal would only believe that she was somehow the source of it. She was getting better about that sort of thing, but they had a long way to go before she wouldn't immediately think that she'd been bad if either Phil, Clint, or Daisy had something on their minds that they were having a hard time dealing with.
He went back to pacing, his thoughts going over the preparations he was going to have to make in order to protect his family from Loki. Clint and Daisy already had Disguising charms on them, to protect them from being directly Scryed for; as did Phil himself. Hydra had managed to Scry for Daisy already, and he wasn't about to risk that occurring again.
He thought he should do the same for Crystal, even though Hydra wouldn't have had any contact with his newest daughter. Perhaps he was being overly cautious, but he'd learned that there really was no such thing. He wanted both his children safe, and he would do everything in his power to protect them.
He should also extend that protection to Daisy's friends. Hydra had known Daisy very well through Grant Ward, so they would also know who she hung around with. He would need to apply for permission from their parents in order to do that, but Phil didn't think that would be a problem. Any parent would want to make certain that their child had everything they'd need to stay safe, and the spells and charms Phil knew would do that.
Shit, he still needed to call Daisy, but she would be safe at the Wizard School. After her kidnapping by Grant Ward, the headmaster, Ian Chesterton, had gone over the wards around the grounds, tightening them up and making certain that no one unauthorized to be there wouldn't be able to just teleport in. Phil had a great deal of respect for the headmaster and his wife, Mistress Barbara Wright, and knew they would do anything they could to protect their students.
He would arrange for Daisy to bring everyone here later. For now, he had to wait.
Which was something he usually didn't mind; he could be very patient indeed. But, in this circumstance, was just too hard to do.
He let his mind go over the Keep's own wards, feeling them for any weakness and bolstering them up even where there wasn't anything wrong with them. He was so very glad he'd kept the UnPlotable spell up; he'd been planning on taking it down, now that he was more present in Wizard politics and there would be times when the Keep would need to be visited, but had decided not to while any member of Hydra was out there in the world. Gods was he glad he'd listened to his instincts in that regard. The last thing he wanted was for Loki to find him there, if the Asgardian somehow discovered his survival.
If Hydra was somehow involved in Loki's escape, then chances were he was very much aware that the Dark One had lived. Phil had no doubt that this was the case. Daniel Whitehall had gotten in to see the mad Wizard; Catherine Hale had to have known how to do it as well. Besides, this would have been an excellent plan to distract Phil, the Wizard's Guild, and the Council of Barons, to force them to use all their resources in locating Loki and leaving Hale and her daughter to do whatever they wanted.
He stopped in his tracks.
Of course.
Phil voiced his concerns that Loki was simply a distraction. "Hale must have something else planned. Something that she needs us off her trail for long enough to put into action."
Jack was nodding. If anyone would understand his assumptions, it would be the Deathless, with his centuries of experience. "That makes sense. We've been using every resource we have available in order to track down the Hales."
"And now," Clint concluded from his place on the floor, "those same resources are going to be pulled off the hunt and attention put on Loki."
Ianto cursed. "And we've played into her hands."
"We have no choice." Jack shrugged. "Of the two, everyone will see that Loki is the bigger threat. We have no proof that the Hales are even up to anything, where Loki is the most obvious danger."
"Already there are some in the Guild who think the Hydra threat is past," Stephen added. "They don't believe that the Hales being at large are a concern any longer."
"Only the Voids seem to really care," Phil said. "We want to clean our house completely, and that means locating both of them and putting them into cells where they belong. The problem with that is, the Voids only make up a quarter of the entire Guild. If the Cardinals joined us, then that would still give us only half…" That was the problem with having a Balance…the Greats, who were supposed to be that balance between the Cardinals and the Voids, would always make up about half of the Guild membership, having the same number of members as both Cardinals and Voids combined.
Thank the Gods that only a small number of Greats held to the ancient writings that claimed Cardinals and Voids were unnatural for what they could do. If it had been the entirety of Great Order…
That had been what had doomed Cardinal and Void, far in the past, before magic had been cut off from the world. The Greats had believed the rhetoric of a few, more radical, of their number, and it had doomed the Cardinals and Voids to extermination.
It was why they needed to fight that sort of thing from occurring again. It was going to be Phil's life's work, to stop the prejudice and misunderstanding held by certain Greats, until all Wizards could stand together as family. And he would do this even if it meant his final death.
"It only takes one zealot to roll the stone of belief," Toshiko replied. "Whole movements have begun with only a single person preaching their own version of truth to receptive ears."
"That…is quite poetic," Stephen commented.
She smiled, a little shyly. "Thank you. But it's no less true for the poetry."
"She does have a point," Jack said. "All throughout history are examples of one person convincing a lot of people that they're right, and whole rebellions and resistance movements have hinged on that sort of thing."
"And religions," Ianto added. "Also, look at what happened to the ancient Cardinals and Voids. They were destroyed because of what started as a single Great Wizard questioning what the two other Orders were capable of doing. Yes, it began as a power grab, but it still affects us to this day."
"Exactly." Phil didn't add that he'd just been thinking that. He didn't believe that it needed to be said, really.
From Ianto's knowing expression, he knew that his Cardinal opposite was well aware of Phil's own thoughts on the matter.
"I have a question," Clint cut in.
That had everyone looking at him, and Phil was very curious to know what he wanted to say.
"What happened to that spear Loki had?" the Elf looked vaguely nauseous at even talking about it.
Phantom pain spiked through Phil's chest and back, right where that damned spear had pierced him, sending him into that first near-death and into the arms of the Void. He rubbed his breastbone unconsciously, remembering how cold that thing had been, the magic flaring from that gemstone that had been imbedded in the hilt. When he'd come back to Marcus, with a child in tow, he hadn't even thought to ask, figuring that it had been taken care of in the aftermath. He'd thought about it from time to time, but had let it lie, believing that Master Phil Coulson wouldn't have shown so much interest in something like that and not wanting to draw too much attention to himself in the process.
Now, he had to consider he'd been wrong not to check into it.
"I confiscated it," Ianto reassured them. "After the final battle, the Guild was brought in to take control of any and all Artifacts that Loki had had with him. I got the spear, being the ranking member of the Guild at the time, but…I remember Alexander Pierce wanting to get his hands on it. Now, we know why."
"That would have been a true disaster," Jack agreed.
"Where is it now?" Phil found himself asking. He wasn't sure he sounded all that normal doing it.
Apparently, he'd failed at normal from the glances he received.
"It's in the Secure Archives room, and I'm the only one with the key," the Cardinal Wizard answered. "When I scanned it, and saw just what it could do, I thought it best to bury the thing. I wanted to destroy it, but that stone…it's something not of this world, and beyond even my power to break. Phil, perhaps you and Stephen and I may have better luck, if you wanted to make the attempt."
Phil nodded. "We can't let anyone use it again. If it's too powerful for you, the most powerful Cardinal in the world, to destroy it, then it's not an Artifact that needs to ever see the light of day again."
"Especially since it was that spear that took control of me," Clint said. Every single dragon had cuddled even closer, as if sensing his distress. "At one point, Loki had mental control over twenty-five of us, and he was using the spear to do it."
It was frankly terrifying that an Artifact had that much power was sitting in the Archives at the Wizard's Tower, even though only Ianto could get to it. Ianto Jones was one of the most honorable men Phil had had the pleasure to get to know, and he would never dream of using that damned thing, but that didn't mean it needed to still exist.
"We should do it immediately." Stephen stood. "We trust you, Ianto. But we don't trust anyone else. And, as strong as I'm sure your wards are, I think all of us know there are always ways of getting around such things if the person is determined enough."
This was true. No ward was ever completely impervious; see, Ianto finding Daisy after they'd all teleported out of Hydra's base that first time. The Keep was UnPlotable, but that didn't mean that Ianto hadn't been able to follow her from Golden Gate to Triskelia. Phil had since fine-tuned the wards, but Stephen was right: anyone determined enough could, perhaps, get around them.
There was no perfect protection, and that was a frightening thought.
Still, as much as Phil wanted to go and get this done, he really wanted to speak to Clint first. To ask him what had happened back at the traveling show that had obviously upset him. His eyes met those of his lover, their usual bright kaleidoscope of colors muted, worry and pain swimming in them.
He wanted to say 'no', that Clint was more important. He wanted to take his lover up to their room and just hold him, letting him know that he wasn't alone, that everything was going to be fine, no matter what had occurred to him that had him so bothered.
"Phil," he murmured, "I'll tell you when you get back, alright?"
Ianto's brows were drawn downward in confusion, and the Cardinal Wizard's own eyes were on Jack and Toshiko, who'd been with Clint and had to have been a witness to whatever the hells it had been to rattle the Elf so badly. Stephen was also staring at the three of them, understanding that something had gone wrong with their mission.
"Is this something we need to know?" the Great Wizard asked softly.
Clint blew out a breath. "It's…personal. I'm sorry, but I don't want to talk about it."
Phil would have been upset about it, if not for the fact that it was obvious that Clint did want to tell him about it, just not in front of anyone else. He didn't want secrets between them but, at the same time, he understood that this would always be the case, at least where Phil himself, in his position of Grand Master, was concerned. He couldn't begrudge his lover his own privacy.
Still, he also knew that they would share what they could, because they were the only ones they both could absolutely trust above all others.
Stephen nodded. "Whatever it is, I hope it works out for you, Clint."
"Thanks, that means a lot."
That wasn't just flattery on Clint's behalf, either. He really meant it. He'd had a rough childhood, and hadn't trusted easily; when Phil had first met him, the only person the Hawk had trusted was the Widow. Back then, he'd been convinced that the pair had been lovers, but that had proven to be an incorrect assumption on his part. The two mercenaries had been as close as siblings; Clint being more attracted to men, and Natasha…she'd never really showed that much of a preference in either gender.
No, the pair had simply earned each other's trust in ways that Phil really didn't know even now, although he'd overheard certain things and had inferred others. He would never dream of encroaching into their relationship and, indeed, felt the same way about Natasha as Clint did, only in a different way. The Wizard would never dream of getting between them.
"Then," he said, "perhaps we should head out and get this done. Clint, will you let Crystal know I'll be home soon? I'll also call Daisy, have her come home instead of staying over in Gateway like she'd planned." He also intended on writing letters for his daughter's friends to take home, wanting to get their parents' permission in order to weave as much protection as he could around them. He knew it couldn't be done tonight; there wasn't enough time to get word to their families and then to prepare the necessary spells and be ready to put that plan into action so soon. Plus, he had an appointment with Sir James tomorrow, and he wasn't about to put that off any longer than absolutely necessary. That poor man had suffered enough. He deserved his freedom from those curses that had been laid on him.
Later tonight, after he and his fellow Grand Masters finished this new task, he would come home, and he and Clint would talk. Something had gone on at the traveling show; it had been Carson's that his lover had chosen, and Phil suspected that going back there had raked up a lot of bad memories. He would give Clint his own time to tell him what had bothered him, and they would deal with it, together.
Until then, he had a dangerous Artifact to try and destroy.
And plans to make regarding the bastard who'd killed him.