Chapter Forty-Three: Stirring Macrocosms Pt. III
September 19th, 1998 | Marauder Enterprises HQ, Washington D.C, United States | Earth-1
War had been waged, and a new era had begun for the International Armed Forces. The Knights were all preparing for battle while the first iteration of the Knight-II's had begun training. With Tier 2 called against the mysterious hooded stranger, the United Nations and International Confederation of Wizards had given the IAF full control over the planet's military and fleets. With the entirety of the world's military resources to use, Harry Potter set out on a mission to eliminate the hooded stranger. He started with non-magical means, using satellites and aircraft to scan the entire planet to no effect. Magical ways of tracking were then used but were unsuccessful. No doubt the stranger had prepared for such things and had cast many protective charms around his person. With the stranger virtually unfindable by both magical and non-magical means, Harry was forced to come up with a few different methods.
But his investigations had come to a swift end when Hermione approached him. After the loss of their daughter, Hermione had gone into a depression. One she believed could only be cured if she left Harry and returned home to live with her parents for a little while. Hermione was firm in her stance of not returning to Harry, left the tower on August 28th. All that remained in the repaired penthouse were Harry, Eleven, and Valentine, all of which were going through their own stages of grief at the loss of Daphne and Hermione's decision to leave. Harry remained inconsolable, choosing to stay in the Command Room below the tower as he searched for the hooded stranger. Eleven spent her time in the lab with Alyssa, with the two of them helping Dr. Maria Graves continue her work in the Earth Disposal Project. And Valentine trained with the members of Echo Squad, spending all of her time running drills to take her mind off of everything that had happened.
Harry now currently resided in the Command Room, seated at the holotable in the center. A globe of the entire planet was situated above the table, filled with bright red dots on top of certain areas that Harry believed might hold the hooded stranger. There were hundreds of dots on the globe, making Harry's job a living hell. But he continued in his search, using all of the resources available to him to find the man. His search was unsuccessful for quite a long time until eventually, Athena discovered something quite impossible. She appeared over the holotable, motioning to one of the red dots on the north-eastern tip of Greenland. "This area is giving off a number of Multiversal energies that all converge in one spot," Athena zoomed in on the globe, revealing a tiny black dot along the white surface of the area. "This tiny structure is the size of a small car. And yet it's giving off readings similar to that of your amulet,"
"Do you think he's using it to cross universes? Or allow others to cross?" asked Harry.
"It's a possibility. The energy readings are all different. Possibly coming from multiple different universes,"
"I thought we were done with the alternate timelines after we got back from Earth-0B. I'm done with all of the changes. I want everything to stay the same. No fluctuations, no shifts in the universe, nothing," Harry turned to the small image to his left, which he kept on for his work. It was a picture of Daphne, taken a month before she died. He examined it for a moment, before turning back to the table. Harry didn't say anything, but he was going through a number of thoughts and emotions. He was thinking about the past, and how simple everything used to be. It was just him, Ron, and Hermione against the world before they eventually brought in Neville, Ginny, and Luna. Even back in Hawkins, things used to be simpler. It was just him and the Party against the monsters of the Upside Down and the people of Hawkins Laboratory. But now things were too complicated. Harry now had to face rebellions, several alien species that threatened to attack, the U.N's constant control over his military forces, and now a hooded stranger threatening the universe itself.
"You want to go back," said Athena.
"No,"
"Yes,"
"I...how did you-"
"I'm connected to your mind, Harry," Harry rolled his eyes. Of course, how could he forget? She was connected right to his brain through the base of his skull. Turning back to the map on the table, Harry committed the location to memory. He turned to Alyssa, his mind racing as he spoke. "Ready my Fireship in Hangar Bay 07. Arm it with everything we have that can do damage,"
Alyssa raised an eyebrow. "An aerial assault alone, sir?"
"Yes,"
Alyssa didn't say another word, choosing to remain silent while Harry left the room. He was forming everything in his mind, trying his best to discover what it was he was going to do. It wasn't until he reached the destination in Greenland that the plan was formulated. Stepping out of the Fireship in his set of Mjolnir armor, Harry moved towards the car-sized object he had once seen in the satellite footage. It was a small...trailer home. It was fairly new in appearance and was no bigger than the Fireship itself. The readings on his HUD didn't seem to indicate any temporal energy readings, which pointed towards a few things. None good. The stranger had finished using his device and it worked. The device failed. Or there was never any device, and he was lured here on purpose. The last was the most likely option.
"Harry...Potter," The voice echoed through the empty region of ice and snow, forcing Harry to turn around. There he was. The hooded stranger was standing there, his gloved fingers intertwined in front of his waist. His hood was down, but his face was still invisible to Harry. A blur of grey that seemed just out of reach. Harry kept himself still, ignoring every neuron in his brain ordering him to shoot this man to his grave. He needed to remain calm. He needed to be patient and grasp the perfect opportunity that would eventually arrive for his revenge to take place. The stranger spoke. "I didn't think you would show. After what happened with poor Daphne and Hermione, I figured you would be smart enough not to trust me,"
Silence.
"Not much of a talker, eh? Well, I don't blame you. You're angry, I know. But killing Daphne and - well - attempting to kill Hermione, it was all part of my plan," The hooded man stepped forward, no doubt to get a reaction out of Harry. But no such reaction came. Harry remained completely still, having yet to draw the rifle that sat attached to his back. "You see, we met a long time ago. Long before the incident with the good ol' General. But you don't remember that. I met another you. One from another variant of this timeline. He lost Daphne so much earlier than you. He lost Eleven. Never met Val. Hell, he even accidentally killed Hermione. Very tragic, poor thing. I put him out of his misery," The stranger was circling Harry now.
"I expected something after ending his life, seeing as he asked me to do it. But instead, I was hunted down for his murder. Charged with killing the greatest mind in the Multiverse. I fled that universe with the use of your little medallion do-hickey and went from universe to universe testing that theory. 'Greatest Mind In The Universe'. Bunch of bullshit. I did the same thing to all of them that I did to you. I spent a few of their pawns, lured them out, destroyed their useful pieces, and then checkmate. I win. None were able to outmaneuver me until I ran into what you've so intelligently named 'Earth-2'. I stumbled into that universe right into the all too eager arms of Dr. Oswell Spencer, who used me in genetic experiments, pumping my blood with all kinds of serums. All to ensure I could beat you,"
"No," Harry whispered. The bioweapon. The one that had ambushed him and Claire in the Raccoon Police Department. The bioweapon was specially developed to kill Harry. The one he had defeated in the lab before reuniting with Jill and Tyrell. The grey cloud covering the stranger's face suddenly disappeared, revealing his face. He was 5' 10" with silver hair falling down to his neck. His clothes became more apparent as well, his cloak disappearing to reveal what was underneath. A black trench coat with red cuffs and a red collar. The same - yet shrunken - outfit he had worn the night of their fight. His right eye was still gone, replaced with a prosthetic eye. The eye of Mad-Eye Moody.
The man smiled. "Do you recognize me, Harry?"
Harry didn't.
"No? Well, it seems the years haven't done me any justice," The former bioweapon pulled what looked like a random stick out of his pocket - definitely not a wand, just a stick you would find lying on the ground - and he waved it over his face. The scars disappeared, the right side of his face - which had once appeared burnt - healed and rose from its sagging state, his prosthetic eye was replaced with the original, and his silver hair turned black. But the most defining difference was the nose. It straightened and narrowed, a drastic difference from its once crooked shape. The face seemed oddly familiar. But Harry still couldn't place it. The stranger sighed. "Wow. Still nothing? Well, it was a long time ago. And you were hysterical and very magically exhausted when you met my counterpart. But I believe your meeting with him was something like... a flash of red that results in a man slamming into a stone wall positioned a mile below London?"
"Wait...you're Kirkpatrick?" Harry remembered the man. He had been a member of HUNKs team for a long time before his untimely death in the Veil room. When Harry arrived on Earth-2 he had been cornered by HUNKs team. In his fear, he fired a disarming curse that sent the man flying headfirst into a stone wall. He was dead upon impact. This man...the stranger who had helped capture Sherry and Leon, and who killed Daphne and his unborn daughter. He was the doppelganger of a man who had died many years ago.
Kirkpatrick smiled. "Well, I don't go by that name. It was my doppelganger that was adopted into the Kirkpatrick family after the death of his parents. But I? My name is one of great importance. Raphael,"
"Raphael," repeated Harry.
"Potter,"
"Raphael...Potter," Harry spoke, a feeling of numbness passing through him. This man was a Potter. A Potter.
"The Harry Potter that asked me to murder him years ago was my brother. With the death of his only wife Daphne Greengrass, he had no heir to the throne, and thus I was due to inherit once he died," Harry frowned. Throne? Was he royalty in that variant timeline? Harry internally shrugged, he didn't care. He listened. "And when he asked me to put him out of his misery, I decided I would do so. Why not? I was curing my brother of his miserable life while making my own so much better. But there was a downside. My brother was healthy. There was nothing wrong with him. Nothing to use as cover. So in my haste, I was charged with murder, my claim to the throne lost. So I ran, trying my best to find a new throne to inhabit. But in my place was always another Harry Potter. The greatest mind in the universe,"
Raphael scoffed. "In over seventy-two years, I could never find a universe without a Harry Potter. Until your precious 'Earth-2'. No Harry Potter. But the Potter family was present, and there was a massive fortune waiting for me. A fortune I had planned to use to take over the world. And then you stumbled through that Veil over your precious Sirius Black. The man that would betray you and turn you over to Mother Miranda. That sexy yet crazy bitch," Harry raised an eyebrow. He was mad...because Harry stole his 'rightful' place as a Potter? "Some anonymous shmuck working with Gringotts sent you all of your information and practically handed you the position of Lord Potter, ridding me of any chance at the role,"
"So I went to the General and stated my case. I would help him get through your magical barrier and kidnap the girl if he would let me kill you with zero consequences. He accepted and we entered the city. He left with the girl and a reluctant volunteer in Leon Kennedy. But me? I was forced to watch you be tranked while I was restrained. I could do nothing but watch as you disapparated to Romania to fool around with Alcina and her daughters. And I was going to strike once more. I waited for weeks for you to return to Raccoon City so that I could kill Claire, Jill, and maybe even Sherry if I could get her. But you never returned. You were murdered in Alcina's bedroom and kidnapped by Lady Death herself,"
"So with you gone, the Potter line was open once more. But your presence and sudden disappearance from Earth-2 meant that - like Earth-0 - it suddenly disappeared off the map. Poof. Gone, while its variants remained. I was sent into limbo, where I was forced to traverse through the Multiverse once more," Raphael explained. "For thirteen years I traversed the Multiverse, killing Harry Potters on my way to you. All so that I could finish what I started,"
"You want revenge,"
"Of course," Raphael replied with a grin. He reached into his pocket, pulling out a small device with a red trigger. Explosives. No. "These aren't bombs, Harry. Don't worry. These...these are slipspace drives," Harry didn't move. "You built them, so you know what the reaction will look like if I overheat them on the planet's surface. A slipspace rupture, one that results in one of two things. The first isn't that bad. A massive explosion the size of three Tsar Bombas. Or two, a black hole forming above the surface of the planet, pulling anything it can grab into its clutches. If it goes wrong, it could be the end of the world. Your precise little Earth. The one you've spent half of your life trying to protect,"
"Do it," Harry spoke.
"Wait...what?"
"Do it," Harry spoke again. "Go for it,"
"You...want me to detonate these? Kill millions? If not billions?"
"Yes,"
Raphael laughed. "Wow. You really did get screwed up after Daphne's death. And now you're throwing yourself into a checkmate. I thought this would be harder," Raphael didn't hesitate. He flipped the switch, detonating the slipspace drives. Harry felt nothing for several seconds before his HUD blinked. The connection to IAF HQ went offline, and his satellites were picking up multiple detonations around the planet. One in Washington D.C, New York City, London, Moscow, Tokyo, and several other locations...even Hawkins. All completely obliterated in seconds. In ten seconds they were gone. Hopper. Nancy. Alyssa. Hermione. Val. Eleven. His children. All gone. And he felt absolutely nothing. No anger. No sadness. Nothing. Raphael sighed. "Hmm...I would have expected a scream of anger...or even a cry of pain and sadness. But...nothing? Did you die in that armor or something?"
"No," said Harry. "I'm just done playing your game,"
"My game? You just killed billions. You could have stopped me, but you didn't,"
"I know,"
"Why?!" Raphael exclaimed. "All because you lost your stupid wife and you're unborn daughter? You realize you just lost your other two girls too right? You killed Eleven. Valentine. All of them. For what?!"
"For a fresh start,"
"A...a fresh start," Raphael scoffed. "A fresh start. In heaven?"
"No. In a universe far better than this one," Harry reached out, forming his hand into a fist while Raphael went rigid. Nanites poured out of the back of Harry's suit, flooding forward to grab onto Raphael, seeping into his skin. They inhibited his magic and any other abilities he might have. He was powerless now. "I used to imagine an easier life. A safer life. A boring life. One filled with nothing but schoolwork, Ron and Hermione bickering, trying to figure out how girls worked. I pictured going back to the start. Never jumping through the Veil while remembering all I know now. But the more I think about it, I think about how the world of magic is lost on me. I can't go back there. No matter how much I would like to,"
"What...is this?" Raphael was grunting in pain, his gaze lowering towards his rigid body.
"Forerunner nanites," Harry replied, uninterested and still focused on his own thoughts. "I was speaking with my personal Artificial Intelligence Athena before coming here, discussing me returning to my past life. It seemed like a far-off dream. All until your trailer back there appeared, throwing off a shitload of Multiversal energy," He was now circling Raphael, who was fruitlessly trying to escape his invisible restraints. "It gave me an idea. One I haven't thought of before. The universe itself is made out of its own philotic structure, yes? It's made up of every single philote in the entire universe, as well as the ones being created as the universe expands. But that got me thinking. The universe is structured like a body. A single form is occupied by extremely tiny or very massive structures. You have cells and organs. The universe has matter and galactic superclusters. So, I began to think. If the body has an Aiúa at the center breaking off into philotic twines, then wouldn't the universe itself have its own Aiúa? A massive Aiúa to connect all other tinier Aiúa's. It makes sense, right?"
Raphael was still struggling. "I...sure?"
"So if I can use a person's Aiúa to reverse their age, change their body, or manipulate their physical appearance. Perhaps I could do the same to the universe, using its core Aiúa to manipulate everything else in the universe. Every person, every planet, every star. Everything. All at once from the center of the universe. It wasn't until you flipped the switch to that detonator that I got my answer,"
"Your answer? To what, whether you're insane?"
Harry chuckled. "Me? Insane? That coming from the man who spent decades jumping from universe to universe trying to kill Harry Potter. All I want is a simpler life. One where I don't have to worry about Multiversal threats, alien invasions, or dimensional monsters. That isn't insane. It's logical," Coming to a stop in front of Raphael, Harry sighed. "As fun as your villain origin story and your exposition dump were, I have somewhere to be and I don't have time to babysit you," The ground below them was beginning to shake and crack. One of the slipspace detonations had resulted in a black hole forming. The planet was being sucked in. "Well then. Now I have to do this. Earth will be gone soon,"
"I won," Raphael said with a grin.
"Did you?" With the tightening of his fist, Harry watched as Raphael was crushed into nothing but a ball of flesh and bone. Raphael Potter was dead. Tossing the ball of flesh and bones aside, Harry turned and spoke directly into his helmet. "Athena. Status," "
From within his neural interface, Athena spoke. "Harry...how could you do that?" There was a long silence between the two. "Eleven. Valentine. Hermione. Your daughters. Alyssa. Hopper. They're all dead. Along with billions of innocent lives,"
"They'll be alive soon,"
"You don't even know if that will work. It's a theory,"
"It's my only theory. The only reason I'm not going to stay here and let myself be eaten by the black hole swallowing the planet," Athena didn't speak again. Harry wasn't going to get any information out of her. He knew there wasn't much to know. The planet was dying, and he would soon join it and everyone else if he didn't get off of the surface in time. So with a deep breath, Harry disappeared from Earth's surface and appeared within one of the many human outposts on Mercury. He was in his personal penthouse, where he stood next to a telescope. Removing his helmet, Harry took a look through the telescope and quickly found Earth. It wasn't until a few minutes had passed that he saw it. Zooming in further, Harry watched the surface of Earth crumble and fall down into the depths of the black hole that had eaten into the core. The surface itself had turned black, with what looked like miles wide rivers of lava forming. The planet was dead.
Taking a deep breath, Harry turned towards the picture lying on his bedside table. It was a picture of Eleven. It had been taken after they got back from Earth-0. He was going to see her again. Because this had to work. It was the only way he could move on. So Harry closed his eyes. He focused on the Hive Queen, and the bond the two shared through their Aiúa's. Harry found it easily, drawing on it in order to find many more philotic connections spread throughout the galaxy. For what felt like hours Harry traced the connections one by one, making his way to the epicenter of the universe. And it wasn't until the emergency alarms within the outpost began to flare that he found it. The ultimate Aiúa. The Aiúa made of trillions of tinier Aiúa's. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in the InBetween, being made of every color imaginable. A rainbow on steroids.
Athena whispered into his ear. "Harry. If you do this -"
"It will work. I know it will,"
"How?"
"I have faith," Harry replied. The silence between the two continued as Harry reached out to the massive Aiúa grabbing hold of the first few Aiúa's he could find. They all turned white immediately, as well as those behind it. A cascade effect followed, with all kinds of different colored Aiúa's shifting to white. And with them, Harry began to feel everything. Every person in the Sol System. Every Hive Queen and her subjects. Every 'Graves' monster. Every member of the Covenant. Every planet. Every star. Every galaxy. Every black hole in the universe. Harry felt them all. He was them all. Connected to their very being through the center of the universe. He was the universe. And it was him.
"Athena,"
"Yes, Harry?"
"Thank you,"
"It's been my pleasure,"
With that, Harry yanked himself from his body, leaving no anchor behind to sustain it. He would need all of his strength for this. Harry watched his body turn into dust within the shape of his Mjolnir armor. But he felt no ties to that body. Not anymore. So Harry traced his way back to the center of the universe, his entire Aiúa present. In a single movement, Harry pressed into the massive Aiúa, merging with it for the first time. His ties to everything in the universe strengthened, allowing him to sense every Aiúa that existed or ever existed. With this new power, Harry found it quite easy to manipulate everything. The only difficult part of the procedure was the massive size of the universe. He had to be careful while retracting everything back to the center.
Harry was doing the impossible and he knew it. He was creating an entirely new universe out of the death of the original. And the weirdest part was that it was working. In a flash of white light, Harry retracted the entire universe into a single spot before pushing it all out once more. He opened a connection to the Outside, using that connection to funnel new Aiúa's into this new universe. With the big job done, all Harry had to do was make his changes. He started by speeding up the development of this universe, fast-forwarding thirteen billion years. He then began to make his more interesting changes, all of them being large in a way. But the most personal changes came with himself and his family. He created an entirely new past for himself. No magic. No shadowmancy. Nothing. James and Lily Potter would live, and Harry Potter would live a boring and normal life. But he wouldn't leave his new self with any disadvantages. Harry ensured that at least a few things remained. At the end of the universe-creating process, Harry returned to the Sol System and quickly found the brand new baby Harry Potter that had been born there. Without any hesitation Harry entered the body, beginning a new chapter in his long life.
August 1st, 1980 | Potter Family Manor, Scotland, UK
The Potter family was in celebration after the births of Harry Potter and his twin brother Raphael. The Potter family was connected directly to the Earth's International Armed Forces, within the oldest member - Fleamont Potter - being the military organization's Strategos. The family was made of genius', which was why James Potter had such an interest in Lily Potter. She was the smartest woman in the UK, and the couple quickly agreed that their kids would be the smartest in their generation. And because James was uninterested in the position of Strategos - being too focused on his own position as the Director of Planetary Energy -, Harry was the next in line to become Strategos, a position assigned to the Potter family. The only ways a Potter could be replaced in the position was if the Potter successor was too young to take the position, there were no Potter's left, or the Potter's were deemed unfit for the spot.
So the birth of a new Potter was a massive achievement for the family. It was no secret that Fleamont Potter was getting worse in his health, meaning that Harry would have to be ready one day to take his grandfather's place. The entire family was there, alongside several other families and family friends. Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew - James' close friends from high school and college - were present. As were some of the Black family, a few Longbottoms, as well as the Granger family - who were connected to Lily from her own high-school/college days. The Grangers had their own daughter Hermione, who had been born the year before. And the Longbottoms had a newborn son - named Neville - who had been born the day before Harry and Raphael.
They had all come to celebrate alongside the Potter's in their day of celebration. And yet in all of their haste to celebrate the birth of three new boys, none of those present witnessed the most intriguing event. The infant Harry Potter - who was lying in his and his brother's crib in the center of the room - let out a small whine before going silent. His eyes became an even brighter shade of emerald green, and something unfamiliar to him or anyone else appeared in the middle of his forehead. It was a scar. One in the shape of a lightning bolt.
That concludes the Book of Shadows Part II: The Upside Down. Up next is the Book of Shadows Part III: The Gravikasti, where Harry Potter will live out a newer life. Whether it will be more or less exciting...no one can guess.
