Nadia's first words when she saw the city that had been their home before her birth were, "I do not understand."

"Nor I daughter. Even if the planet had became habitable again this makes no sense. The buildings are in too good a shape. Heck even the grass appears to be cut. There is also no debris. Someone is caring for it."

The grass he mentioned was more of a blue-green color than the usual Earth grass, but looked similar otherwise. The buildings look like they may be some form of white stone.

Garnok said, "I would like to look around first, if you don't mind."

The captain turned to him. "Not particularly, but could you explain why?"

"The only people that should be able to find this place are either people that never left or people that were sent back, or possibly elves that were sent back."

"You think the other Atlantians put together a ship and told some of the first elves we modified to go back and fix our world?"

Garnok shrugged. "I do not know. I just thought it might be best to start with someone who is different, in case it is elves and they somehow hold a grudge. I know if I was bound by magic for generations I would. I'm also the most expendable. I'm old, and have no essential skills. Samantha is, to be fair, my peer in my chosen art, and there are many on this ship who have learned at what I thought an impossible pace. I ask to do this."

Fleur said, "The air seems fine. Both our ships agree to that."

Moody said, "I'll go as well. I don't really look Atlantian."

"Actually," Nadia said, "Skin color varied in native Atlantians as well. You could pass, except for the magical eye and leg. There may be technology here that would help us regenerate that if you wished it."

"I'll still go, as to the leg, if the cost isn't too high, I'd probably take you up on that."

"But not the eye?" queried Nadia.

"The eye has saved my life more times than I can count. That I'm keeping." He grinned.

The captain said, "I'm okay with you two heading out. Stay within sight of the ship for the first fifteen minutes. Take communicators as well, but in the event those don't work for some reason then send a patronus before exploring inside."

After they left the captain asked, "What about the other cities? I don't recall seeing anything remotely this good of shape in our descent."

Lafiel said, "My ship says this is the only intact city it scanned."

Fleur added, "Nautilus reported the same."

"So whatever it is, spared, or kept up one city among all. Perhaps it is not elves. Perhaps it is what happened to us?"

Nadia said, "I doubt it. Being frozen under all that ice actually helped a great deal to preserve things. I may not have been able to control it much, but I could sense we were mostly being used to keep the Ice from crashing down, which required very little active magic. Had we had to protect a city exposed to the elements we would have burned out long ago."

Moody hobbled along as they explored the neatly fitted white stone streets. From time to time he could see trees and such. All trimmed to perfection. The buildings also looked to be in top shape, even if he thought the strange triangular windows more than a bit odd. He said, "My eye can't see into any of the buildings."

"That is no accident," Garnok mused. "There is some level of magic running through the buildings. It doesn't appear to be threatening, though that may change if we try to break in one. The trees and such do not have the same feel. Even if magic is sustaining the buildings, the trees are being trimmed by someone."

Suddenly a transparent image of an ancient elf appeared, save instead of the short stature of a house elf she looked closer to their own height and even had long graying hair.

She suddenly said something in a language they didn't know. She seemed annoyed with them.

Moody pressed the button on his communicator. "I'm not sure if you can see what we are seeing, but it seems we found one of the ones responsible for the city."

The old elf looked at them in annoyance, but listened closely as they spoke, appearing to try to puzzle out their words.

Nadia responded to Moody, "I will try to speak with her. Just press the send button when she is done talking."

In Atlantian Nadia said, "Hello, my name is Nadia. It is good to meet you. If you like I can join you there. I would very much like to meet you."

The elder elf responded in the same language, "Come back have you? We have toiled for long, so many generations, and you come back now. Erith not know what to do."

Nadia asked, "Would you permit myself and my friend Lafiel to meet with you? Also, do you need anything? We have food and medicine."

"Ye may come. I need nothing. The great machine takes care of me." The last bit seemed more of a curse than anything.

Nadia and Lafiel slipped on their flight suits and then their normal clothes before exiting out the same airlock Moody and Garnok did.

They then flew up in the air and several minutes later landed next to the rest.

Nadia touched down first, bowing deeply to the old elf.

Lafiel bowed shallowly, but still very respectfully. Nadia spoke first.

"Lafiel does not know this language, but she is a fast learner. I will translate."

Erith pointed to Nadia. "You be one of the ones that gave us this eternal duty!"

Nadia responded. "I, myself, did not, yet I expect my people did. On my honor, if we can help we will do so."

"Then release me. Let me die."

Nadia's eyes widened.

Lafiel was reading the translation from her tablet. Her eyes widened a second later.

Nadia said, "I'm so very sorry to hear you say that. Please tell us your story. If you want, you can come to our ship and you can tell all of us. If after everything you still wish this, I will do so. I was trapped once too, and I can understand preferring death to it. I was not given the chance to choose death and then these people saved me."

Erith said, "Not much to tell. Your kind changed us; charged us with the eternal duty to care for this place. We not even allowed to reproduce, but must journey back to Earth to obtain new help, to subject them to the same bindings, and when the time comes to put one in the machine."

Lafiel said in halting Atlantian, "Do you know how to free yourselves from the compulsion?"

Erith sighed sadly. "Of course we not know. We compelled never to try."

"Then we will try," responded Lafiel after a bit of work with her tablet.

"Erith cannot help you." Erith vanished into thin air.

They met back in the Nautilus. Captain Nemo summarized, "So, it seems my people have created something quite foul if it still works and is still compelling. This has to be addressed, since I wouldn't put it past people to decide what a great idea it is to keep this thing going or even expand it."

"Many would," Daphne agreed.

Garnok said, "Agreed. Even if you didn't think the Elves deserved their freedom, such foul magics can be all too readily turned against others. What I wonder is did they activate something here, or did they bring it back with them? It's bound to have some defenses regardless, and there is a good chance the elves will be commanded to try to kill us if we get too close, well that or process us, and I'd rather be dead."

Lafiel, "Agreed, but we must not fail."

Garnok said, "I believe it is likely located towards the middle of the city, likely underground. I'm going to suggest we start with those spider bot things. Let them explore and map out what we can. Nadia, I'm assuming the Blue Water has no record of this?"

"It doesn't, which makes me think it was built after we were imprisoned and brought back here. I have been working on querying it about how one would build such a thing. It is a most unpleasant experience, but I have a few possible designs."

"We will need to go over them," Garnok said gently.

"I will allow it, but you must agree to permit erasure of that knowledge, either via the Blue Water or via a well done obliviate spell. I intend to have it erased from my memory as well. I can't delete knowledge from the Blue Water, but I fully intend to lock it as much as possible and set it to self destruct with my death. This must not be repeated."

Garnok was dubious if you could fully erase such mistakes without repeating them but even he agreed that attempted to erase the knowledge of how such a thing was done, and ideally getting any elves to promise not to advertise that such a thing was even possible, was a good idea.

They found a copy of the original cities map in the blue water and updated it with information from the maintenance spiders. Their sensors found a set of underground rooms not on the original map. They turned out not to be in the center but in the northeast quadrant.

It looked like whoever modified this or directed it to be modified took advantage of the space left behind by the old Atlantis underground library of knowledge, which they had carted off to Earth by this time. The space was still bigger, but it was obviously less excavation that would have been required elsewhere.

They found a way down, almost by accident. Nymphadora tripped over apparently nothing, but it led them to find the fine line that indicated a hidden access door. It was an oddly thick hidden door, but with Moody's help she managed to levitate the heavy stone block to the side to expose a ladder down into the depths.

They radioed in their find and started down the ladder. Tonks went first and then kept her wand on standby in case Moody needed help, but he hobbled down just fine on his own. They soon came to a room filled with crystal coffins. Each contained a house elf that appeared to have died from old age.

"There must be close to a thousand here," Tonks said. "Look, some of them are double stacked. Why would they do this?"

Moody said quietly, "My guess is their orders probably restrict what they can do. They could do this."

They passed rooms full of boxes and machines in various states of repair. They even passed a kitchen of sorts, but still saw no one, until they entered the next room. It had ceilings that were at least twenty foot high and endless catwalks. At the end, seemingly shoved in an x pattern into a great machine was Erith.

Cobwebs hung off the aged elf's frame. Her eyes, clearly unused to physically opening creaked open even as her mouth haltingly said, "So, you have come."

"Let us get you out of there," Nymphadora said.

"You cannot without killing me, and without me, the machine will try to pull one of you into it. If you are serious, you must destroy this place. Quickly, before the others come back from their trip to Earth for more slaves. Quickly. Make this end."

"We will," they promised.

Moody got the others to come. Team Blue came with an army of spiders that was quickly cutting a runic pattern into the floor.

Moody asked, "How much time do we have?"

"The machine does not see what you are doing as a threat yet. I am blocking it, but when you feed that array magic it will notice. Whomever activates that array will die. The machine will not let you finish charging it."

Garnok looked up from where he was inspecting the spiders work. He said, "I will do this. I know a few tricks that I always wanted to use someday. Go now. Get out."

Samantha exclaimed, "No, you can't do it."

"But I can. I'm one of the few that knows how to create life fire, let alone use it to activate a ward set. It will work. I promise"

Lafiel walked up to him and bowed deeply. It was the first time she had ever done so. She said softly, "I am part of the Humankind Empire Abh. I vow to do my part to help your people become part as well, and to insure they are treated well. I will add a marker to our family tomb for you. You will not be forgotten."

Garnok said softly, "Thank you, and let Ragnok know how I died."

"I will."

Captain Nemo saluted him and Nadia hugged him tightly. Each volunteered to take his place. He told Nemo, "You lack the power I think to do this, but have much left to teach. Go teach it in my place."

Then to Nadia he said, "While I have no doubt you could destroy this place with your gem, you are yet young, physically at least. Teach what you have learned. Maybe have a family. Do your part to prevent a repeat of this tragedy."

Nadia let him go, and they quietly walked out followed by the spiders. As they got to the exit each helped the next levitate out. When they were all nearly back to the ship, Team blue formed a massive shield in front of them. Nemo said into his communicator, "We are safe."

Far underground Garnok used a spell that was ancient even for goblin standards. Life fire was typically used either to end ones own suffering or to protect another. It is this second use he hoped for. By destroying this abomination he hoped to free the remaining elves that were probably going to arrive soon, as well as provide a place for his own people. He reached inside removing all the limits his goblin body placed on his magic and smiled, even as his body started to burn. He then knelt and shot all of his power into the array, even as multiple beams sliced into his body. His smile grew as he saw it reach activation potential and the room and the surrounding complex flashed to plasma, leaving only a deep crater and spewing debris across the entire city.

Nadia modified each of their memories, removing how such a thing might be made from each, before removing it from herself. The elves that would be returning, likely with dozens of new elves would still be affected. It remained to be seen if they could be helped.

Their next task, now that they knew the planet should be reasonably safe, was to open the expanded space the fairies had made their home in. They flew off, beginning to look for places to make new homes. Every now and then a few would come back and peer at what the others were doing, but overall they seemed content.

After that they began trying to repair the damage they did to the city. They ended up delaying that to build flying barges to haul stone in from a quarry they found with the aid of Blue Water's records. The barges were built to run using the combined power of Team Blue, but in the end they were little more than a fancy version of what Lafiel had used to get out of the Ball at Hogwarts, when she was stuck there with Moody and Tonks.

They were only returning with their first blocks when the cargo ship they passed in Planar Space landed near the wreckage.

The older elves immediately seemed to panic, before some of them started repairing the city themselves. The crew of the Nautilus went down to meet them. They zeroed in and walked up to Nadia.

"How may we serve great one?" Their voices were slightly robotic.

"Tell me about your journey? Did you bring more elves?"

"We did. We brought one hundred more house elves just like Erith commanded us to."

"Please bring them here."

Around them cages, each filled with five elves started appearing. Each cage had runes inscribed in them. All the elves looked terrified. Suddenly Harry saw a particular elf. "Dobby!" he called.

"Master Harry Potter sir!"

Harry immediately used his wand to sever the locks on that cage, releasing the elves.

The taller high elf near Nadia seemed to be the leader. He said, "What will we do? The machine. Erith tells us to bring elves. Now elves are free and we have no Erith; no Machine. What will we do?"

Nadia asked kindly, "What do you want to do?"

The other elves were all gathered round in groups, trying to figure out what was going on.

The true elf Nadia was speaking to said, "Nelly not know."

"Well, we plan to try to fix the damage to the city and get these new arrivals some food. Would you like to help with that?"

"Nelly helps."

Hermione, Lafiel and Harry pulled Dobby to the side. Hermione asked, "Dobby what are you doing here?"

"Dobby be meeting with elves that maybe want to go with the great Harry Potter, and then Dobby fall asleep. Wakeup in strange cage, then here."

"Dobby, you did good. I'm glad you are here. I'm totally surprised, but glad. If we are able to do it, would you like to have your form returned to what it was?"

He pointed to Nelly. "We would also like to remove any bindings on your behavior if we can. Is that something you want?"

Dobby jumped up and down on the heals of his toes, but didn't say anything.

Lafiel said, "I'm guessing somewhere in your magic prevent you from helping to undo what was done to your race."

Dobby suddenly froze.

She continued, "Would you be able to help those like Nelly? They have been controlled for such a long time."

Dobby gives all the evidence of thinking about this for a minute or two before popping away to another group of elves who after some wild explanation from Dobby pop around Nelly and weave their hands around them until the high elf is surrounded by a ball of magic.

Seconds later the ball pops, leaving Nelly apparently unchanged. Dobby and his group repeats this for each of the six others.

Nelly walks up to Dobby and hugs him and then all the ones who helped. The others do as well. They then start repeating what Dobby did, but to the house elves, but seem to run out of energy after the third one is healed and transformed.

Nelly with the help of a transformed Dobby walks over to the Atlantian group. "Will you help us finish? Will you help us free them?"

Nadia said softly, "We will. My people made a horrible mistake when they did this. Myself and my father are all that is left. These are the decedents of my people and humans. We will help you. How can we help?"

"Lend me your magic." Nadia hesitated, but held out her hand to the old elf and willed a part of her magic into the elf who instantly looked stronger. Dobby and Harry did the same, and soon enough everyone had lent what strength they could to the elves. The house elves continued to be healed. This happened twice more until everyone was done.

Nelly came back to the group along with many of the new elves including Dobby. He said. "I thank you, but what now?"

"First," Lafiel said. "I wish to have a member of our team tell you about Garnok. He sacrificed himself to take out the machine that was." She turned to Samantha. "Samantha would you like to start?"

"Of course. Would you and your friends do me the honor of showing Garnok as he was in life."

Lafiel linked hands with the other and for a time, Garnok walked again. Each took turns telling them stories of what they remembered of the old goblin.

Nadia's Blue Water glowed softly recording their informal ceremony for all time. It ended with their combined memory recreating the scene, voices and all. When they were done Nadia pulled a large diamond from her pocket and called on the Blue Water once more, transferring a copy of the recording by magic to the gemstone, and imbuing it with the necessary structure to be able to recall it. The gem held a faint blue glow when she finished.

Nadia held out the gem to Nelly. She said softly, "This crystal contains a copy of everything today. Just feed it a trickle of magic and a small recreation will be projected. A larger group should be able to replicate it perfectly. I know it in no way can ever make up for what happened to you, let alone our failure to properly bury all those elves. We were afraid to hesitate given Erith's concerns."

Nelly said, speaking for the others, "You were fortunate. Erith taught of the many times elves tried to stop the machine. For all that Erith taught us, and those like her that had gone before, at best elves might have seconds of free will to act. The machine quickly sensed our free will, trough out bond with it and killed us. To have all of those who have passed before us join in Erith and Garnok's victory is an honor we could not have asked for, even if it was unintentional. You have our thanks. We will turn the crater into a memorial before covering it and building a park on the surface. Will you stay and do your part for our memorial?"

"We will," they all agreed. In the days that followed they all worked together bringing in fresh stone, drawing runes, both with the Nautilus's maintenance spiders and often by hand. The original elves that had been maintaining all this had surprising skills with runes. The runic scheme they had come up with together was quite simple. It's had only had three purposes. First to preserve the site. Second so that anyone who wished could see the original memories stored it the crystal Nadia made. Nadia's crystal became a part of it.

The final part was to place memories of the construction of this monument as well as the final ward lighting. The elves were capable of creating magical bonds, either permanent or temporary. The final ward lighting began with members of the Nautilus expedition interspersed with elves, each with several fairies sitting on each shoulder. It was by far the largest magical link in memory. Even the Blue Water knew of no such event as the combined energy of over a hundred magical beings flowed to power and consecrate a memorial of freedom from slavery and new beginnings.

A few days later Nelly asked, "What are your plans now?"

Lafiel said, "We had hoped that Atlantis could hold the magical population of the Earth, but would understand if you wanted it to yourself. You could keep making trips and bringing elves here. It would be a place you would be safe. Well elves and Fairies I suppose. I think they like the place."

"You would do that for us?" asked Nelly.

Nadia said, "Yes. Though I was not involved, my people were. We owe you much."

"What do you want? Not just this. All of it." asked Nelly.

Lafiel answered, "I'm from about a thousand years into the future. I had hoped to return and maybe bring the magicals to my time with me, or within a few decades of it at least."

"Why?"

"What do you mean?"

Nelly asked, "Why does so many people have to travel in time?"

"We'll we had hoped to remove the Veil around this planet, and that can't be done till we reach my time, to avoid further disrupting time. It is also somewhat unsettling."

"Elves come here. Magic peoples come here. Veil can be tolerated until that day. Some elves may want to live alone, but there is space. When all is ready, you walk to future with the people who wish to go."

"I don't know how to do that."

"It simpler for few than many no? Veil can wait."

Lafiel laughed. "Yes, I suppose it could."

Nelly grinned.

Nadia said, "We will help you repair the city. I ask that you be very careful with who knows about how you were controlled. I don't want to see this happen ever again. I worry a little that the memorial points to it being possible."

Nelly said, "Erith told us. The great machine kept records. We were far too trusting. We teach to not forge permanent bonds so easily. All of our bonds to you were temporary."

Dobby, even in full high elf form looked sad. He new clothes fit him well, but he seemed too skinny. Harry said, "I don't mind Dobby. I never wanted a servant, though I hope I still have a friend."

Dobby gave Harry a hug saying, "Dobby always be your friend."

Lafielle asked, "Would it be possible for us to study your time space generators? Do you have the equipment to make more correctly?"

Apparently they did. The cargo ship had almost all that still existed of Atlantian automated production. They supplied the raw material and had them first replicate the equipment twice over for parts of the city.

It seemed that over the centuries the elves had learned how to improve the Space Time Bubble generators from the early Atlantian model they used to come to Earth. Spreading such knowledge was probably not what their original Atlantian masters had in mind, but it seemed each controller of the machine had some leeway, and spreading technological knowledge was allowed, so of course the elves did so flagrantly, in the hopes of finding some more exploitable hole in the programming.

After they completed the new bubble generators, including updated ones for the cargo ship, they replicated new fusion engines for Nautilus. It was a tight fit but worked. The existing magical engine was left in place and much of the area the Fairies expanded space used was instead adapted. To free up more space, the x-y router and equipment they brought was left in Atlantis. This freed up an area for a second expanded smaller expanded space to place one set of the automated manufacturing equipment.

Lafiel worried about their new plan. It was the best they could come up with, and everyone on the Nautilus, save for the faeries was committed to the long haul. Most of their plan meant simply relocating the magical world here. It seemed fitting since they were children of Atlantis.

This would require building several ships, but mostly it would require a lot of trips and would likely never be fully complete as new muggle borns were born on Earth. The plan to create anti matter factories was scrapped, or at least delayed. The fusion reactor design they were using were adequate, and far less likely to lead to an arms race, or worse, if they made the smallest mistake.

Everyone coming would have to be under the new government, which was expected to come under the Empire's control when they released the veil in Lafiel's time. This was the part that worried her. She liked these people but she feared she would end up being the cause of conflict not the solution.

They hoped to limit the time jumps of those moving forward to smaller more controller periods of approximately fifty years, followed by half a year or so each to learn about the changes to the world. Everyone agreed that this was a far safer approach, and it gave them a chance to at least touch base and learn about the changes that had happened to Atlantis. She hoped that when the day come, all the peoples and races on Atlantis would accept being a member of the Humankind Empire Abh. She had said that she expected there would be multiple promotions to the peerage not long after they removed the Veil, so as to represent all the people's of this world and she promised to represent them fairly to the Empress.

She told them, that unless they requested another, she would be honored to serve as this worlds representative on into the future. It would mean giving up any chance to rule the empire, but there were others who would do well there. She thought she had enough work to do here.

She further intended to spend the last twenty or so years here before they caught up in time. During that time she hoped to supervise the creation of a new class of warship, using the best of magical and traditional sciences. That would be the time they likely finally built antimatter plants.

Building ships of war could be considered treasonous, though she felt the threat facing them justified the risk, and she was fairly sure the Empress trusted her enough to at least listen to her reasons. Also, the war, like it or not, was their war. The United Mankind disliked anything that was not like them, and this whole planet would be as not like them as possible.

They would have regular people as well. You couldn't exactly offer the children a new world to live on without expecting some of the adults to be interested as well. They also needed them. Not every job required magic. She just doubted the United Mankind's philosophy was likely to appeal to many muggle born parents.

They had to be ready. Maintaining a large fleet for a thousand years was not possible. The risk to the timeline was far too high, not to mention the resources, but seven capital ships, and more importantly the infrastructure to make more, that should be doable without drawing attention.

The only other problem was this system was technically in what would be the domain of the United Mankind, though only just. They had annexed this systems closest neighbor, the Hyde system close to nine years before she had taken her journey. She hadn't kept up on all the current details but it was certainly better to be here than further in territory of a likely enemy. The Sord here probably only had less strategic value than the one in the Hyde system because this system didn't appear to have a life supporting planet, let alone the garden world that actually was here.

She recalled the Hyde system in part because she knew she had been scheduled to go on a trip under her Mother's command to pick up one Jinto Linn, a recently promoted member to Abh Nobility that was in the ruling line for the Hyde system.

There was so much to do, and the problem of forward time travel was still not solved, not really. They had ideas, but none had proved workable yet. It wouldn't be so bad, if it were not for the prophecy. She would miss her people dearly, but she could not. No, she would not fail them.