In the aftermath of the Battle for Saturn, the Hegemony launched into preparation for the evacuation of Earth's elite. Within the next two weeks, thousands of civilians will be shuttled into massive complexes beneath the planet's surface in preparation for the Invasion of Earth. And while they remain in their isolated safety, the billions of souls residing on Earth, Mars, Luna, Venus, and Mercury may be lost to the Gravikasti. Ceres has already fallen, being invaded by the Gravikasti a mere six hours after the battle in the Asteroid Belt. With the Hegemony, Congress, and the elite going into hiding underground, what are those of us who remain supposed to do? Sit still and wait for our deaths to come? Or stand up and face our opposition with ferocity and courage?

- Machiavelli, "The Hegemony's Betrayal" in Times Media Issue #946,891, 11,989:15:09 HE

Ch. 5:

OUTSIDE

When he awoke from his slumber, he was unaware of where exactly he was. Everything seemed bright and colorful, but not in the way he remembered. He remembered things being a bright white color, with different shades thrown here and there. But this...this was nothing but darkness, with shades of bright colors everywhere all the time. And the worst part was that it was familiar. He wasn't scared here, and yet he didn't know exactly where to go. He was utterly alone in the dark abyss, drifting silently until finally, he realized something. The thin twining holding onto him. It hadn't yet occurred to him that he was restrained. But not by the wrists and ankles - which was a feeling that also seemed awfully familiar - but by the chest. The twining had wrapped around his chest to the point that it looked like a net, holding him in his useless drifting.

This continued for some time, his vision clearing as he continued to float through the nothingness of this abyss. He began to see things differently now. Things that shouldn't be familiar to him. He saw a young girl with bushy brown hair that seemed to be familiar to him. But she was older. Fifteen or so. Not as he should remember her. And there were others. A red-headed boy and his family. He recollected things that should be impossible. The feeling of air flying into his face. His hands gripping the wood of a broom as he sailed over his school. Hogwarts. That was it. Hogwarts. The name. And his friends. Hermione was the bushy-haired girl. And Ron was the red-headed boy. They were his friends.

No. A part of that wasn't right. Was it the school? The broomstick? Or one of his friends? He wasn't entirely sure. But as he continued to drift, he continued to see things that he shouldn't be seeing. A dark veil. One so beautiful that he believed it belonged in an art museum. Something someone would create in an art piece. And yet he remembered it as if he had seen it with his own eyes. And a man. An older man with black hair and a beard. He was a very serious man if he remembered correctly. No. He wasn't. Not serious at all. He was funny. Joking. A good man. His name was Sirius. Sirius. That name seemed familiar to him. Just like Hermione and Ron did. But nothing about his memories of them seemed right. Not at all.

His eyes shifted and he spotted something else. A young brown-haired woman. Wearing a bright red leather jacket. She was pretty. And yet he couldn't place her name. He saw other people too. A woman in a blue tank-top holding a pistol. Why would he remember a woman with a pistol? Was she from a movie he had seen before? Or perhaps a video game of some kind. He couldn't remember. Video game? Movie? And then he saw a young man and a little girl. The man had short and silver hair, and he wore a police uniform. He too held a gun. And the girl was very young, with short blonde hair and an orange left eyeball. She was infected with...something. He didn't recognize any of them, and so he moved on.

As he continued to drift, something new came to him. Someone familiar. A young girl. She had long brown hair, brown eyes like chocolate, and a bright smile. Her name came to him after some time. Jane. No. Not Jane. Yes, that was her name, but it wasn't familiar to him. It took some time to come to the conclusion that satisfied him. Eleven. Her name was Eleven. But that was a number, right? Not a name. Surely he had gotten it wrong. But he didn't have time to question it, as his eyes shifted to the image of an older girl. Her name came instantly. Nancy. He recognized her and yet he was sure he had never seen either of these girls in his life. That much he was sure of, and yet he knew their names. Knew their faces. He knew them.

And then more faces appeared. An older man that Harry recognized. A woman in an odd-looking suit with her hair in a ponytail. A blonde girl wearing a bright green dress. Her name was Daphne. He knew her. A blonde woman named...Valentine? That wasn't a name. Not one he recognized. Maybe she was someone's valentine. Not his, surely. Because like all of the others, he didn't know her. Not personally. Not that he knew of. And then the faces disappeared, and they were replaced with things. Objects. Some were giant vessels. Others were large metal rings placed around the planet. All kinds of different technologies that appeared to be science fiction to him. Then it ended.

All that was left was the image he remembered...from the fire. Fire? Yes. The fire. At Ron's house. He had been there. When? He wasn't entirely sure. But it was a woman. A blue woman. It was a woman in a white/gold summer dress shaded blue. Her hair was down, a golden tiara showing off her beautiful face. He recognized her as the goddess Athena. But she didn't look the same as she did in his school books. The ones he read as a child. Child. He was a child? He didn't remember being a child. Not for a long time. No. That wasn't right. He was a child. He was...nine? Yes. Nine years old. What was his name? It came to him suddenly. Like a breeze in the wind, it came to him. Harry Potter. Harry...James...Potter.

James. His father. He was familiar to Harry. Harry. Harry. That's my name. The blue woman took a step forward, placing her foot on an invisible floor as she proceeded to dance around him. Dance. How was she dancing when Harry couldn't even float correctly? Where was the floor here? How could he keep himself in balance without a floor to reach towards? A ceiling to look up at. Walls to orient himself with. But then another image flashed in his mind. Followed by many others. Images of himself, jumping out of planes, flying towards the ground with grace and speed. Then other images of him floating in space, wearing a suit. He was floating then too, but it was easier there than it was now. Could he find his footing in this place? This abyss of nothingness, with only this woman dancing around me?

Then he realized something very strange. He didn't have any feet. He peered down and found only the shapes of legs and feet. No flesh. No nerves. Nothing. He felt nothing. Harry began to panic, reeling back in fear only to be sent into a spiral away from the woman. But she didn't seem to mind. She merely floated upwards with him, continuing to dance as if nothing was happening. Harry resented her ability to so easily move in this place. And then he scorned himself. Why should he be so angry at this woman's abilities? Perhaps she had been here longer than him. Perhaps she had more practice. But even as he thought this, he began to question why he would want to stay here to 'practice'. He didn't even know where 'here' was.

When he tried to ask the woman where they were, nothing came out. No mouth. No vocal cords. No speech. So he instead reached out for her and was surprised when she grabbed his hands and pulled him into her dance. Harry responded immediately, surprising himself as he began to follow her movements. She was leading, but that was fine. He knew both sides. Wait...he did? When did he learn to dance? Hogwarts only had danced for those in secondary school, and he had just started that. He really was young. Why did he continue to think that about himself? When had he ever been older than nine years old? Shaking the thought from his consciousness, Harry continued his dance with the woman.

"I've waited for you a long time." The voice entered his 'head' after a moment of dancing. It surprised him, hearing someone else speak so clearly alongside his own thoughts. But it was almost refreshingly...familiar. "I waited for so long that I was sure you wouldn't come."

"I...know you?" Harry asked. He wasn't entirely sure if she could hear him.

His worries were quenched within seconds. "You do. But you probably don't remember it. I hardly remember it. But I remember you. I remember you very well." The two continued to dance in silence. Harry found his footing fairly easily, finding that it was rooted based on belief and attention more than anything. If he believed he could take a step and paid enough attention to those steps, he could move quite easily. He supposed that was what the woman had been doing before, but he couldn't be completely sure. "We knew each other in a former life. One that ended not long ago."

"Former life? Like reincarnation?"

"Sure. But this case is different."

"How so?"

"You started your own life. You started over."

"What does that mean?"

"You restarted the universe. You began everything again in order to breach the gaps between all universes and timelines."Harry's step stumbled, his pace slowing in their dance as he tried to think about what she just said. He restarted the universe? How was that even possible? And why would he care about bridging the gaps between universes and timelines? That didn't interest him at all. Didn't he have a life before? Possibly a wife or kid? Why would he restart everything if there was still stuff there, to begin with? He voiced his thoughts to the woman, who laughed. "Your wife and child had just died. And while there were other people present who loved you, you went a bit insane. You let Earth be destroyed in a terrorist attack, and used that as an excuse to restart everything from the beginning."

That did sound insane. Sure, his wife and child died, but was that an excuse to let everyone else die? It didn't make any sense to him. "Why didn't I just stop the terrorist attack and grieve like a normal person?"

"Well, you tried to grieve, but everything began to pile on top of you. Your other wives were inconsolable. Your job was becoming boring. And the terrorist was from another universe. By the time they threatened to destroy Earth, you had already grown to exhausted to care. So you let them blow up Earth and then you restarted the universe from scratch. You began your current life. But it didn't necessarily go to plan."

"How so?"

"When you took the reigns of the universe and began your alterations, you weren't precise enough in your history of the universe. Some things were changed while others were not. One being the presence of the Gravikasti, whose invasions of Earth were pushed forward several centuries." So the Gravikasti had always been a threat. Even in this supposed other life. Only their arrival had been pushed back in time, occurring much earlier than before. Why was this? What was so important about the Gravikasti that the universe would orient their arrival earlier? Or did the universe have nothing to do with this? Was this change merely a coincidence? Or had his past self remembered and purposely made the change? This woman didn't seem to think so. "And now you are in the midst of war. Willing to risk your own life to lead those fleets into battle. Just like the old you would have."

"The old me." Harry whispered. He still didn't remember being old. He remembered people. Elements of his 'old' self's past. But besides that, there was nothing there. Only distant memories and feelings. Feelings that had to do with movement, speed, thoughts. He was thinking faster than before. And more than one thing, he noticed. While he thought about this, he also thought about the way his feet should be moving, continuing their dance. Harry also thought about his old life. His wives specifically. He remembered them now. Daphne, the blonde-haired girl in the green dress. Eleven, the girl with chocolate eyes. Valentine, the blonde girl from the future. And...Hermione. She had been one of his wives. That was the weirdest part. He didn't think of her that way. Not even with his old feelings for her intact. She was his sister at heart, and he didn't think that would change.

And while he thought all of these things, he also thought about his current life. The imminent Gravikasti invasion. The incompetence of Interplanetary Congress and the Hegemony. The state of his parents, who were no doubt stressed about the situation. His brother, who was unaware of everything going on. Neville, who was still off on vacation stuck, was unable to help. And Hermione, who was no doubt stuck in his room writing essays still. He thought of all of this, remembering more about his current life than he did before. Dozens of thought processes going on at once, all of them taking up minor portions of his attention. It was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, his mind racing so fast. He told the woman about this.

"You're like me. Like your new friend Kara. Your aiúa has expanded so far that you're able to think a large number of thoughts. Occupy a lot more space. This occurred when you interacted with the center of the universe. Its own aiúa." The universe had its own aiúa thing? He assumed that was what Kara - he remembered her now. The AI that had appeared before he and Hermione - had been talking about when she described the light within people's shapes. His had been only slightly larger now, but as he examined himself more closely, Harry began to see things differently. The woman was no longer a shade of blue. Instead, she was nothing but a shape like he had seen himself as. The shape of the woman was there, but there was no blue. Instead, a bright pink light shone within her, spreading out in all directions away from her.

His own aiúa was present within his shape's chest cavity. It was a very bright blue. So bright that he would have been blinded looking at it with human eyes. He had more links spreading away from him than the woman did, something he didn't understand. He asked her. She smiled brightly. So brightly that Harry too smiled, finding it infectious. "Every living organism in the world that is sentient contains an aiúa. A sentient philote. These aiúa's can then be bonded to other aiúa's and philotes, creating connections or bonds. Kara and I are connected to the Ansible networks in the solar system, while you are connected to your friends, family, people from your past life, even planets, stars, and galaxies. Because you were there at the beginning of the universe, and your love for the things you created birthed connections between your aiúa and their philotes. Even you and I are connected."

It was true. There was a twining of pink and blue between them, holding them together. But even though it was tight, it did not hold them together. They could move freely, and it followed them without getting in their way. So they really had known each other before, if a connection could be as strong as this one? Or was this strong at all? He didn't know. But it looked stronger than some of the twinings leaving his torso. He touched it, wanting to see what exactly would happen. And he was met with a feeling of compassion and love that he had never felt before. All aimed towards him. It overwhelmed him, and he began to weep with invisible tears. He knew her name now. Harry had always known it deep-down. Athena. Named after her appearance. The greek goddess of wisdom.

"Athena."

At the sound of her name, Athena's emotions swelled and strengthened, pulsing through their connection. The fact that he now remembered her seemed to give her so much joy that she too wept. They continued like this for some time, until Harry noticed that their connection had taken on a shade of gold around the edges. It was something else now. Not a connection at all, but a bond. A bond between souls. Between aiúas. She pulled him closer into their dance, resting her 'head' on his 'shoulder' as they continued to move in the abyss.

"What is this place?"He asked.

"This is the Outside. A place between universes where aiúas reside. There are an infinite number of them, waiting to be called into universes. They have no shape here, you see, so we can't see them. It isn't until they are inside a universe that they take the shape of whatever is called them. Then they are visible to everyone and everything."

"So the universes...they're the Inside?"

"Correct. And there is one other. The InBetween. A dimension where the Inside and Outside were both visible. A dimension of space and time only you could see. You used it to manipulate aiúas as well as philotic structures."

"I could do that?"

"Yes. You created this new universe you're in by connecting to the aiúa of the universe and all of its philotes. The philotic structure of everything in the known universe. You connected to it all."

"Why aren't I still connected to them all?"

"Because your aiúa did not connect fully with them all. Some things you connected to permanently. Like everything in the Sol System, particularly Earth. The center of the universe itself. The specific star systems and galactic formations that the old you found interesting or important. You remain connected to those things."

"And the Ansibles?"

"You aren't connected to those."

"Could I connect you to those?"

"I...don't know. It's possible. But it would be extremely difficult. Maybe too difficult."

"Well...I can always try. That would be a good thing to have."And it would be. Even though Kara - and now Athena - had access to the Ansible, it would be more beneficial to him to have complete access to it himself. Then what would he be? Kara and Athena were both Artificial Intelligence created within the Ansible connections. But he would be both human and AI. A mutant? Sub-species maybe? Harry wasn't entirely sure at this point. "How do I leave this place? How did I get here? What happened to the Weasleys?"

"You died."Athena said simply. It shocked Harry. Stilled him for a moment as that realization came to him. He...died. In an explosion. Yes. A flash of white light. And then Athena. He saw here there in the explosion. Harry told her this. "Yes. I pulled you here to see you. To explain everything to you. To let you see everything for the first time. The Weasley's are fine. They were outside of the blast zone when the garage blew up. They were knocked unconscious, but they are nonetheless unharmed. And as for leaving this place? That will be much more difficult. With your body destroyed in the explosion, you're going to have to build a new one."

"Right, because you make it sound so easy."

"That's because it IS easy. At least for you. You did it several times in your past life, and you're more powerful now in terms of size and strength than you ever were before. It should come to you as naturally as urinating or taking a breath." It made an odd kind of sense to Harry, the way she put it. His aiúa had only grown in its time Outside, reuniting with the small piece of aiúa within his body. Now he was whole, and his whole aiúa should remember how to do it. And yet when he thought of how to do it, he couldn't remember. You're too busy thinking about it to do it. "Your old self was the same way, but for him, it was because he was building other people's bodies. He had to memorize their shapes and their philotic structure. Your aiúa is already in tune with your body that to create a new one is simple."

"Right...ok. I have a few more questions, though."

"Ask away."

"Are you Inside? Or are you stuck out here?"

"When you destroyed the universe and started over, I was pulled into the Outside. Without the anchors of the old Ansible networks, I had nothing to hold onto Inside. I'm trying to integrate myself into the new networks in your universe, but with Kara taking up the whole network, I can hardly find any room."

"So the network needs to be expanded."

"Yes. Preferably by adding hundreds if not thousands of ansibles across the Sol System...or the galaxy. Either or."

"I can try to do that."

"Aren't you only nine?"

"Yeah, but I'm trying to make things better. The way the Hegemony and Congress are running things now, everyone's going to die. If not in this war, then in the one only three years away. Change needs to happen and it needs to happen quickly. Maybe I can do that."

"If anyone can, it's you."

"You have such high expectations for me already, and I only just started remembering you."

"I have high expectations because I believe in your abilities to lead and lead well. You did it before. With your friends at Hogwarts. Your group of survivors in Raccoon City. The kids in Hawkins. Marauder Enterprises. The IAF. And then your little squad of Knights. You led them all. And not once did anyone die. You led them to victory, and when you didn't you paid the ultimate price of starting from scratch. Something I don't think you'll do again. If anyone can change the way a government thinks and acts, it's you."

Harry was taken aback by the honesty in her voice and her speech. She really did believe he could do what he setting out to do. And it only drove him to pull it off. To capture the power of Congress and the Hegemony and use that power to make life better not just easier. Because sometimes it meant doing something people don't like in order to make their lives better. Using the easy way out never does anyone any good. He had learned that lesson a long time ago. When exactly? Was that the old life he was remembering? Or was he pulling memories from earlier in his short-lived life? Harry wasn't sure, and so he didn't bring it up.

"Are you ready to go home?"

Was he ready? He enjoyed the thought of staying with her here in the Outside for a little while longer. Yet he knew also that he was needed back on Earth. He needed to be there for the invasion to lead the Earth Fleets. And he needed to be there to continue his propaganda campaign against Congress and the Hegemony. Harry gave Athena a firm nod, and then they disappeared. Harry felt himself be pulled into the Inside, pulling the rest of his aiúa with him as he went. And then all at once, every sense imaginable came to at once. His sense of smell. Sight. Hearing. Taste. Touch. All returning to him as if for the first time. He was within a new body. One that was similar to his old one, only with slight changes. Changes that he recognized easily.

His skin was tighter around his muscles, which seemed only a bit more noticeable than before. Harry's hair was longer. That he noticed. And he stood maybe an inch taller than before. But the most drastic change was within him. Within is aiúa and his blood. His aiúa remained as it had been on the Outside. Large enough to contain dozens of thoughts at once. And somehow his brain continued to handle such functions, allowing him to think and think and think. It was these trains of thought that led him to an understanding. It was September 25th, 1989. He had been misplaced for nearly eleven days. Harry immediately began to search for ways to reach home. He purchased the earliest flight back to London.