A/N sorry if this chapters a bit short, I had a hard time getting it done, nevertheless it is important. I want to thank everyone who's reviewed me so far, especially if you've reviewed multiple times. I hope everyone's enjoying this as I'm enjoying writing it, um. Yeah I guess that's it, oh and Obviously I don't own anything save for my original characters, and I'm not making money off this, so don't sue, as I'm phenomenally broke.

Project Guardian

Chapter 5: Shadows, Specters and Secrets

He could hear the sound of exercise weights hitting each other down the hall. The weight room was busy today. That wasn't really a surprise, there wasn't much else to do while on residential duty in Atlantis. The Sabretooths were currently monitoring the control room and the Black Knights were breaking in their brand new Tempest brooms. Which left Procyon and his fellow Redhawks with an inordinate amount of leisure time, at least until their shift started.

Which is exactly why the young Auror was down on the exercise mats, stretching his limbs in preparation, nor was he the only one. He paused for a moment to watch Ami and Fleur going through their respective aerobics routines. The two were as different as night and day. On the one hand you had Ami. She was living up to her reputation as an adrenaline junkie. She had snubbed the gym's parallel bars and balance beam. Instead, she was up in the rafters, swinging and flipping between them. Then, there was Fleur, who was doing a very slow and languid routine, stretching each and every muscle like a cat. She was like no woman he'd ever seen before. Procyon was amused to see that he wasn't the only one who had stopped to watch her either.

He walked across the mat towards a line of clay statues in metal armor. He touched each of the six of them in turn with the tip of his wand. Awakening each of the golems so that he could perform his own practice. As he touched each of them their masonry eyes glowed red and a hollow growl escaped from their earthen lips. He stepped onto the mat as they circled him, slashing the arm threateningly with their swords.

Procyon glanced around, making sure that no one in the vicinity would be hurt by his next action. He raised his wand into the air and cried "Umbrageo!" Immediately a number of lights extinguished and others brightened, blanketing the whole room in shades and shadows.

Procyon smirked, the only show of emotion he let himself betray. He glanced at his reflection in the helmet of the golem in front of him. He watched as his tan colored eyes turned a deep black, black as his name, black as the shadows. "Let's play."

The golems charged in, swords raised high, a muddy roar on their lips. Procyon ducked under the first blow, dodged the second and the third. He leaned back and kicked at the wrist of one of the golems, the sword flew out of the golem's hands and up into the air. It landed point down in the mat, Procyon grabbed the hilt and raised the sword just in time to parry a blow. He got to his feet and slashed around wildly, forcing the golems back and giving him some room to breathe.

He cleared his mind and jump at one of the Golem's landing in it's shadow. Before the statue warrior had time to react the shadow rose up to envelop him, sliding over his body like oozing oil. In a blink he was gone and the shadow was back on the floor as if nothing had happened.

The golems looked around stupidly. Procyon was nowhere to be found. He climbed out of the shadow and had just raised his sword to strike…

"CODE BLACK! CODE BLACK!" Procyon jumped about three feet in the air and dropped the sword with a loud clang.

All around him the Redhawks were mobilizing, streaming out of the common and into the main hallway.

"What's going on?" Ron shouted over the noise of the sirens.

"Code Black." Harry yelled back, as the lot of them charged down the hallways.

"What's Code Black mean?"

"Black is an intruder." John told the red head.

"Hey! I take offense at that!" Procyon shot back.

"Joke later, catch bad guy now!" Collins snapped.

"HEY YOU! GET BACK HERE!" Suddenly a small man dressed all in black came sprinting around the corner. He took one look at the group of Aurors charging towards him and took a flying leap at the wall. There was a flash of liquid black and he disappeared.

"Oh shite!" Procyon spat as he charged forward and leaped into the shadow after him. If this guy's a shadowmancer, then I'm the only one who can catch him.

It was undeniably cold inside the shadow realm, and the longer one stayed inside of it, the harder it was to get someone out… unless you were a shadowmancer, like Procyon. As he traveled through the vortex, he struggled to keep the terrible memories from surfacing, it was lucky he had as much practice as he did at this, otherwise he might be overcome with the grief of his past. Up ahead, he could see a light, that was his exit point. Light struck his eyes again as he left the shadow-port, just behind the intruder.

"Stop!" He shouted as the spy took off running again "Damn it!" There was a crash as the spy ran smack into Ginny. Before the nurse could react, the spy turned and flung her through her own shadow before leaping in the shadow of a nearby weapons locker.

"This is Procyon!" Black spoke through the communications spell. "He's heading toward the out-port, down the third R&D corridor, I'm going to try and shadow chase him, but cut him off, if you can." He cut the comm link and stepped into the shadow.

Ami heard the communication from Procyon through her own spell. She also knew she was the closest to the out-port. The spy was heading straight for her. It was time for another one of her patented crazy stunts. She threw her broom down and it floated at mount height. She leaped onto and balanced on it for a moment, lying as flat as possible along the broom's shaft. She raced along the corridors to the port room, at an insane speed, eyes narrowed to catch every detail. She banked around a ninety-degree corner, fortunately all personnel were busy chasing down the intruder, so the way was clear.

She arrived at the port just as the intruder jumped out of her shadow. He looked around for a moment, looked at the activated port, then looked back at Ami, as if he was calculating his odds of getting to the portal before she could draw her wand. She immediately informed him of the odds by having her wand in hand faster than he could blink. "Try it, I dare you." She said, stepping closer to him. He stepped closer to the portal, she didn't move, but there was a smirk on her face and a glint in her eye he didn't entirely like, or trust.

He made his move, taking a flying leap at the portal.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"Stupefy!" Ami looked up to see Black, with his wand pointed at the now stunned and petrified intruder.

"Full Body Bind." She commented, looking impressed. "Nice one."

"It may be, but you can't argue with a classic Stun spell." He returned with a half grin. He turned to regard the incapacitated prisoner. "Still, as he can shadow-port, a few extra precautions would not be remiss. "Ferula" Strong cables shot out of his wand and bound the unconscious man from the neck down. "Mobilicorpus" The prone body floated in the air and followed Procyon and Ami as the walked back to Redhawk Commons. Somebody must have realized the threat had passed, because the sirens stopped suddenly.

"Ginny's gone missing." Harry reported to Collins, as the rest of Redhawk was stepping into the room.

"Ginny's missing?" Ron repeated. "Oh man, she's probably been kidnapped!"

"She's not been kidnapped." Black grunted as he walked in with Ami, followed in by the floating form of their intruder. "She's just trapped in a shadow."

"She's what?"

By way of answer, Procyon stepped over to Ron's shadow, reached into it, and after fishing around a bit, withdrew a pale-skinned hand, then an arm, then with a tug, the rest of Ginny fell out of the shadow, landing on the floor with a thump. She had a dazed look on her face and was shaking uncontrollably.

"C-c-c-cold." Ginny shivered. "It w-w-w-was so c-c-c-cold." Harry and Ron pulled her to her feet and pushed her towards the fireplace, conjuring about a dozen blankets at the same time.

"Alright." Jack sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "What in the bloody hell just happened?"

"We were invaded." Black said simply. "The intruder is a Shadow Elementalist, also known as a shadowmancer. That's how he was able to bypass the myriad of security systems this island no doubt has, as it's near impossible to keep a Shadowmancer out of someplace he wants to go, as long as he's in range, and there's something that casts a shadow where he's heading." He smirked wryly. "I used to use it to break into my Professors' offices and filch test answers."

Collins lit another cigar. "What kind of range are we talking here?"

Black shrugged. "Assuming that Shadow is the only element Chuckles has access to, and that is far more likely than not, a mile."

"That means he must have jumped here from a ship." Ramirez noted. "It's several miles from here to the nearest shore."

"That ships bound to be long gone, unfortunately." Collins noted, blowing smoke out of his nose. "That must've been why he was heading to an out-port."

"I think," Said Harry, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "The question is; how did he know how to find the island and, once he got here, how did he know his way around?"

"Good question Harry," Asher said with a sigh, "I just wish we knew an answer."

"Is it possible that we could have a traitor amongst us?" Tonks asked, a pink eyebrow raised in a quizzical manner.

"It's a possibility." Collins admitted. "But, I'd rather not go around accusing people until we have more proof."

"Well, it's no one in this room, I can assure you." Ami said with conviction. The others, save for Collins, shot her a quizzical look, silently asking her how she could be so sure. She smiled, and didn't answer their unspoken questions.

"We'll worry about the mole possibility later, for now we have a prisoner to deal with." Collins inhaled on the cigar and exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Black, is there anything you can do to ensure that this guy can't jump out of here."

Black thought for a minute. "There is, it's not completely fool proof, but it's better than nothing." He stood up and arched his back. "However, I will need Ron, Harry, Asher, John and Ramirez to help me."

They looked wary but agreed to help. Black nodded and cast the Body Levitation charm on the still unresponsive prisoner. He signaled the five of them to follow behind him. They headed through the Atlantean maze, down into the dungeon which, up till now had been completely empty. They stopped at a weapons locker and they each, except Black, chose a bladed weapon, and none of them, except Black, knew why.

"Are you sure we should trust him Harry?" Ron muttered as they marched down the corridor. "He's an Elementalist, and a Shadow elementalist at that, everyone knows Elemency is a Dark Art."

"So is Parseltongue, Ron." Harry responded, looking pointedly back at his friend. "He hasn't given us any reason not to trust him-"

"-Or any reason to trust him, at that." Ron interrupted

"He saved Ginny, and he is an Auror." Harry reminded him. "Besides Ron, how many of your wizard prejudices have been proven completely false at least once?"

Ron sighed and rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine. But, remember Harry, Shadowmancers created the Dementors."

They were led into a cell of the dungeon. It was completely windowless, there weren't even bars on the door. Black lowered the prisoner to the floor and pointed his wand into the air. "Lumos Solem!" Instantly a bright globe of light appeared, in one corner of the room. Each of the five men around him cringed away.

"Did you have to make it so bloody bright?" Ron cried.

"Brighter the light, the deeper the shadow." Procyon responded cryptically. "I'm going to need each of you to stand in front of the wall, about a foot or so away, yes that's it." They each stood near the walls positioned so that they cast a large shadow behind them. "Good now, hold out the weapons you're holding." Each of them hefted the various weapons so that they too were casting shadows against the wall.

At this point Black went and touched each of the five shadows, muttering to himself. When he stepped away they were all shocked, (and Ron Especially) to see white, glowing eyes of light form on each of the shadows. When they each stepped away, their shadows remained where they were, swinging the weapons they held, expertly.

"Shadow Golems." Procyon explained, as the five shadows leaped upon the shadow of the prisoner, hacking it into little black pieces until nothing remained. "They'll prevent him from porting out since now there are no normal shadows for him to leave through and nothing he can use to create his own golems."

Ron shuddered visibly as he watched his own shadow prowl around the walls of the cell, and when he turned to look behind him, only to realize that he no longer had a shadow.

"Don't worry Ron," Procyon said with a wry grin. "Your shadow will return once a new light source hits your body." Ron didn't look all that reassured.

They left the cell, and their shadows did return. Harry, for his part, was rather reassured that there would be far less of a chance that the prisoner could escape now.

*****************

Blaise Zabini sat atop a desk in a room of the Scottish castle that she and the remaining Death Eaters were using as a home base, she was idly polishing her nails a lurid green color as the person kneeling before her gave his report. Behind her, MacDougal stood, slightly in the shadows. The large redheaded Scotsman had a deep frown on his face.

"It went as you said." The kneeling figure continued. "The Aurors were so distracted by your intruder that they never saw me slip out of the Control Chamber and down into the vaults. I was able to take the item your requested, Blaise. …However, your man was captured."

Blaise allowed a small sigh to escape her lips. "It is unfortunate to lose someone with talents such as his, I'll admit, but other than that particular gift he was no great loss. He can't give them any useful information, and he was meant to be a distraction after all. If he had made it away from the compound all the better, but he did not." She breathed lightly on her nails and lazily examined her handiwork. "But I digress. We got what we needed, let the Guardians have the shadow walker. We don't need him to get inside the compound, as we have you on the inside."

The informant smiled slightly as he handed over a small unassuming package. Blaise accepted the package with a nod, then gestured for the young man to leave. After the Mole had left the chamber she stood up and left through a side antechamber.

"Did you get the package?" A high and chillingly cold voice asked from the shadows.

Blaise kneeled and lowered her face so the speaker could not see the look of utter revulsion on her face. "Yes Lord, it was just delivered into my hands moments ago." She carefully schooled her face into a completely blank expression so she could look up. "Everything is going according to plan. …Lord Voldemort."

Out of the shadows Voldemort came, a far cry from the evil snake-like being he had been before his second defeat at the hands of Harry Potter, Voldemort now looked far more human than he had been, rather like the man Tom Riddle would have become had his hideous physical transformation had never taken place. Nevertheless, despite his too-handsome features there was no mistaking the evil that resonated from his dark heart like a black aura, despite the silvery-blue light his body now gave off.

Voldemort surveyed his ghost form and the ectoplasm dripping off the walls where he'd made his entrance, with disgust. It wasn't a real body, but at least he was able to communicate this time. He turned to his kneeling servant. "Let me see the item, Zabini."

Blaise opened the brown parcel and withdrew a shining gem. A crystal made completely of silver metal. Voldemort's face split into an evil grin when he saw the artifact. "The Soulstone." He cackled. "At last." He floated closer, examining each and every facet with unrestrained glee. "I wish I could touch it myself, imagine the power! But soon, oh yes soon." He cackled again and Blaise felt a shiver run down her spine and back up again.

Finally Voldemort finished his little power-rant. "Very well, Blaise. You may go now, put the Stone in a safe place, if anything happens to it, I will be most displeased."

Blaise bowed her head. "Of course, My Lord." As if you can threaten me. What are you going to do? Use the Cruciatus Curse on me? You can't even hold a wand anymore. Worthless specter. As she left the chamber she reached in to the brown package and withdrew the second item she'd asked for, but her 'master' didn't know she had. It was a small bottle, about the size of her palm, carved from emerald and covered in silver filigree that formed twisted-looking runes. The stopper was shaped like a gruesome skull and made of heavy pewter. She smiled as she gazed down at it. A little extra insurance. She thought to herself. Just in case.