A Third Path to the Future

by Vimesenthusiast

Rescued from the Negative Zone by the Fantastic Four, Harry Potter discovers he is a mutant and decides to take up the cause of equality between mutants and humans (among other causes). How will a dimensionally displaced Harry Potter, one who is extremely intelligent, proactive and not afraid to get his hands dirty effect the marvel universe? Pairings: Harry/Jean/Ororo/others pos.

19. I Will Give Him Something to Fear

Quel surprise, I don't own marvel or Harry Potter.

Okay, confession time, this chapter was mostly finished four weeks ago, but my main editor, Jessolt had RL issues getting it back to me, Kathryn518 had some points I had to address, then I had RL issues finishing the editing. So this postponed far beyond the date I hoped to get it out to you all. Still, I hope you enjoy it, and thanks go again to Jessolt and Kathryn518 for their editing. special thanks go to Byakugan789 for aid in the meeting with the king and company.

Chapter 19 Then I Will Give Him Something to Fear!

Harry returned to Emma several hours later but had to wait while Emma once more emptied the corridor of servants as well as her sister, who had decided to take a break from her schoolwork. They had been able to bring in and clear a tutor for Cordelia, making the girl was much happier learning at home like this.

Still, Cordelia knew to stay out of Emma's way when she asked for it and she moved out onto the swimming pool area at the back of the mansion. Her personal bodyguard, of course, followed her. Cordelia was looking forward to seeing if she could tempt him with her swimsuit-clad body. She hadn't had much luck in that direction but she was having fun trying.

Thanks to the time difference, it was still early evening by the time Harry returned and they spent the rest of that night talking quietly in her office. Not only was it soundproof but the door could be locked as well and it had a computer, which she used to help with her presentation. During this presentation, she did have Harry take notes. Her face was serious as she went through all the laws that would pertain to his initial business, many of the laws that dealt with the legal/business concept of a corporation. Fun times could happen later but this was business and Harry needed to realize that business was serious.

"To change the world as you want to, you must be more important than Rockefeller ever dreamed of, bigger than Tony Stark or anyone else eventually. This business is a major part of that and you have to take it seriously."

After about three hours, they took a short break for Emma to order up some food, though Harry insisted on asking one of his house elves bring in some instead. That made a much better deal, and the two dined on a very tasty chicken gumbo with fresh bread and butter.

Emma shook her head, smiling faintly. "I would ask you how much I would have to pay one of your little helpers, Harry, but I know they feed on your magic. A pity, that. Servants who are that good and trustworthy, beyond price."

Afterwards, as they were picking at their meal, Emma began again. "Now I'd like to move on to public relations. New medicines, especially ones such as your potions, that can have such amazing effects will garner a lot of interest. Questions will be asked and you must be prepared to answer them. Are there any side effects? If there are, you must make them known immediately! Is there any chance of someone having an allergic reaction to them? You haven't gone through the normal method of being cleared and I can tell you now that there will be repercussions one way or the other. I have no doubt that people will almost certainly grab onto it, at least in the United States, and try to bring false claims against you."

Harry's eyebrows quirked into a question and Emma sighed. "There are quite a lot of people out there who think that suing someone is a great way to get rich quick. There are even some professional lawyers who specialize in those kinds of cases. Disgusting, I know, but that's human nature for you."

"Harsh," Harry replied mildly, "but I understand. The only potion that has any kind of side effect is a mild addiction and that's the pepper up potion. It cures the common cold along with giving you a pick-me-up but it's mildly addictive."

Emma nodded but kept her mind focused. "You may want to think about grabbing the bull by the horns, as it were. You need to think about coming right out and admitting your potions have magical origins. I'm not certain how but the effects are so amazing that people will be very suspicious of them. Unless you can come up with a really good lie, most of your potions have properties and effects that are just too far beyond anything else. The militaries of the world won't care much. They'll care about results. However, the moment you start selling to the public, you'll be running into a lot of skeptical people and those people will want answers. Of course, you'll also need to think about the religious backlash. Magic is still seen as a sign of the devil after all."

"That's a problem." Harry paused for a moment frowning. "For a time we won't be able to sell to both the militaries and to the public. I'd estimate at least half a year or so before we have enough product to sell to the public in any quantity." Though, I might stretch the sales to militaries to include secret agencies, or at least one in particular. I might not have liked Fury, but he certainly has a good eye for officers. "However, you're right; I can't hide the fact that my potions are magic. I've thought all along about that, to be honest. If it comes out my otherworldly origins could be enough to explain it away. I could say I found out how to make them somewhere in the Negative Zone or something like that. The full story will have to come out at some point and I've prepared myself for that eventuality, but you're right. It might be very bad indeed. I hope to circumvent that, a personal visit to the Pope perhaps before we start selling to the civilians sector.

"But I won't sell to any country that has any links to terrorists, regardless of their theology. Moreover, I'm going to practice a one strike you're out system. I have certain security systems in place." Or will, he thought to himself, once Kitty finishes her first job, I'm going to start throwing her at that that. "And if I find a single container has gone missing, is being horded, or has not being used by the people I sell it to, I will know it. If it can be at all traced back to that country or that military trying to double deal or anything like that, then all sales to that country will stop. All sales, not just military, eventually." At her horrified expression, Harry shrugged. "The potions are only the start of what I plan to be doing. I plan to, for example, start moving into the energy business, selling energy from my own reactors. My company be overseeing the defense of those as well as the upkeep. I will also sell various metals, both precious and not in the future."

"Still, if you're paid up front and then refuse to deliver, that could have a very negative effect." Emma warned. "You should probably wait to take a hard line on that as well as on the mutant rights issue until you are big enough for people to not want to double-cross you. A better way to do it would be to ask for concessions or a movement toward an equal defense under the law stance."

Harry shrugged. "I have it on good authority that a lot of people 'in the know', so to speak, are already aware of me and my abilities, although not many of them have much clue as to my agenda or any real understanding of how much my sphere of influence has expanded already. I wouldn't be thinking of stepping out into the spotlight if my power base wasn't already very secure. I think that I can get away with taking a hard line."

"I don't…" Emma paused for a moment as she mentally reviewed all the things Harry could do, all the things Harry had already done, and all she knew of his operations. Eventually, she nodded. "I don't know everything you're up to, but I have to say what I do know means you're probably right. But I can almost guarantee that there will be people out there who don't believe you and I think that you should rethink that one strike you're out thing. The three strike system would work better. You have to remember, after all, that countries aren't monolithic."

That in turn made Harry pause and he nodded in turn. "You're right, I shouldn't have to be reminded of that to be honest, people, governments, countries, none of them are monolithic. I can't paint an entire country with one color. That's what a lot of people are doing about mutants, after all. I need to get out of that habit, it was all too true where I came from, but not here." Harry was still getting used to the idea of governments that actually did their jobs, let alone the idea they could be on the same side, but that was no excuse to forget that 'people were people' everywhere.

"Which brings us right into the social aspect." Emma smiled. For the next hour she spoke about the do's and don'ts of high society, how to portray yourself, how to open up dialogue with other people and companies at social functions and via phone or electronic communications, and why the social scene was important.

She ended by saying, "The moment you can, move on the European branch of the Hellfire Club. Serious business can be conducted between people who meet there. Even with the loss of face they've suffered and the fact that none of the current members are able to meet the requirements to be a king or queen, you shouldn't underestimate its importance, especially those members that are based in continental Europe rather than the UK. Far more people are involved with the Hellfire Club both here in America and abroad than actually admit to being members or can even be identified as such. The British intelligence agency is a good one but I have no doubt that they don't know all the players."

She went into some of the many rules of the club itself, the pomp and ceremonies to be inducted into it, as well as what his duties as a king would be, which she knew he would undoubtedly become swiftly. Throughout this talk, Harry watched her, nibbling at the amazing bread the house elf Mipsy had served them. When she paused for breath, he spoke quietly. "You're hiding something, something that bothers you, more than you've shared so far with us."

Emma looked at him in surprise and Harry's cocked his head. "I've known for a while that you have some kind of plan in mind for the Hellfire Club but there is something seriously worrying you, something big. You're a little nervous, you have this little twitch of your right eyebrow that you get when you talk about something that scares you. Not often, I saw it when we first met when you were talking about Sabastian Shaw, and it only appeared once or twice, but I can see it now."

"For someone who hasn't actually known me for all that long you can read me entirely too well. Nevertheless, it's my problem. We're not at a point yet where your special talents could help me."

"Let me be the judge of that." Harry replied firmly, leaning forward. "If these are threats you can see coming," (He knew he nailed it on the head there when her right eyebrow twitched, just slightly.) "Then you need to be sharing it with me. I've been told recently that, regardless of my own thoughts on the matter, I am the leader of our little movement, and I intend to act like it. Tell me."

From anyone else, Emma would have either railed at that or simply tried to get out of it but Harry's stare pierced her and his words carried such force she eventually decided to share with him what she knew. "I have come across information about two of the inner circle of the New York Hellfire Club that concerns me. Both of them are anti-mutant and one, Pierce, is possibly the most unpredictable man I've ever met. In fact, I think he's a functional psychopath and he is a rabid anti-mutant hater. I have no idea why. I get the impression that it's very much personal with the brief glimpse of his thoughts I can catch without alerting his electronic defenses of my intrusion. I have no idea how he has done it but whatever technology he's using has gotten better since I met him. It's as if he's been testing out a product every week, something new and different, but it's always devoted to protecting his mind. I think a mental intrusion of some nature might be what has made him so hateful towards mutants but I can't be certain. I have plans already in place for him however."

That last was a white lie, actually. She knew Shaw had plans already in place but she was going to be the one to give him the nod to go ahead with them. Of course, even that nod would not be traced back to her. She was simply too good for that.

Harry nodded. "I'm not happy with the fact that you're so blasé about someone that you just described as unpredictable but all right. I see you think you have that well in hand and I won't press. I may provide you with some magical aid, another portkey for example, to augment the emergency one that's already in the necklace I gave you. Something tied to your general health perhaps." he mused thoughtfully then shook his head gesturing her to continue.

"Pierce is not the main problem. The two kings are the main problem. I told you about Shaw coming here and trying to bully his way into an alliance with man and I mentioned the young mutants he had with him?"

Harry nodded and she went on. "It turns out, he's collected several mutants, all of them young, all of them from bad families or bad situations. I'm afraid he's putting together a team much like the X-Men."

"Worrisome and, with Shaw's backing, even worse. You still have no idea about his powers?"

"Something physical is all I can think." the blond replied, shrugging her shoulders, which set her hair to bouncing for a moment. Emma took a sip of wine before continuing. "Shaw's also developed natural mental defenses such that I can't get into his mind without him knowing I've been there. I wish I could but I can't. Yet, even that isn't the main problem."

"Actually, I wouldn't even be worried about the main problem is much as I am right now if not for the fact that, thanks to my information gathering worms, I have a lot more detail on it. The other king, Buckman, is also mutant hater, though not as rabid about it as Pierce. He fears mutant kind and that fear has driven him to devote a lot of resources to what he calls Operation Sentinel. A lot of resources, I've only just become aware of how much, and it's staggering. He's literally poured almost all his liquid assets into it."

For some reason, the words Operation Sentinel sent a chill down Harry's spine and he leaned forward intently, his eyes hardening perceptively, urging her on. Emma responded quickly, feeling the force of his attention on her. "I've known for a while that Buckman's been funneling money and other resources into this project but all I could get from his mind was the person who was in charge of it without breaking through his own telepathic detection device."

She frowned angrily, trying to figure out a way to explain how those devices worked to a non-telepath. "Mental frequencies change, of course, but a person's mental frequencies only change in this very small pattern and will not change out of that pattern without external stimuli. When a telepath enters someone's mind, they change those frequencies slightly, adding their own timber to it, as it were. That can be detected, someone has come up with a way to defend the minds through some kind of electronic field, although it isn't very good. The White King's defenses, for example, sort of imitate the electrostatic defense that Ororo's mind has, which only allows her surface thoughts to be heard. Buckman's defense is nowhere near as good as Ororo's, but I can't break through it without leaving evidence."

She went on to describe the man in charge of the project, wincing internally as Harry's body language became grimmer as she did so. "If I had known anything about it, even where one of its installations was," she hastened to explain, "I would have brought you in once I learned about your invisibility. I just haven't had a target yet!"

"Is there any indication that this King meets with anyone involved in this project on a regular basis?"

"No, there is nothing to indicate that he's connected to the project at all if you're thinking about it in terms of a paper trail or something like that. Edward has not met with the man in person since the project began. I ordered my own people to look into anyone who had any interest in him at all and they were following Buckman. None of them report any kind of meeting with Trask. However, when I sense Edward's thoughts these days, I'm getting a sense of anticipation, not as if the project was ready to go right now, but as if it was coming closer to completion. I'd estimate we have at least a month before the shit hits the fan but I have no idea if that's accurate. This project is so black, I haven't found anything about it and I doubt anyone else knows anything pertinent either. Shaw certainly hasn't discovered anything. He would've shared it with me if he had. He knows that, at least in terms of the mutant haters, we are on the same side."

"More worrisome still," Harry muttered shaking his head. "Okay. I understand why you didn't bring it to my attention immediately. I'll even say that what with everything else I've had to be juggling since striking out on my own, you were right to do so. But in the future," he said looking at her, "I'll expect you to share these things with me. I'll be sharing more with you the moment we know that runic doorway upstairs works so I expect the same in turn. Try it out on Friday when you come to us before our meeting."

Emma wondered what Harry hadn't shared with her yet but shrugged off her curiosity right now to concentrate on the current issue. "I have tabs on Senator Kelly, who might be the only lead we get on this. I don't know if his mind is protected and I'm not willing to take the chance to attempt a long-distance mental attack since it would certainly warn them that someone is after them and I can't be as subtle long range as I can in person. Kelly moves in very different social circles than my family and I. The fact he rarely leaves Texas is another factor."

"The moment you get any hints, anything at all, that this project is about to go live or any hint whatsoever of where it's based, you'll tell me." Harry said, his voice commanding. "Something about this program has me very worried and I want to hit it as soon as we can, anyway we can."

Emma nodded, and the conversation then turned to the meeting with the King, covering specifics. Emma was pleasantly surprised to find that Harry already had a very good idea of what kind of deal he could wrangle from both the military and from the King about the specific set prices of his potion. He still only had a barebones understanding of the laws and what kind of deal he could demand to base his company in whatever country offered the best deal, but Emma could deal with that.

The evening ended on a high note and Emma escorted Harry back to her mother's former apartments with a smile on her face. She paused outside the doorway, looking up at him quizzically. "When should I appear on Friday for the meeting with King?"

"Show up around eleven in the morning local time UK. That way we can all spent some time together, go over our roles in the meeting, and decide how we want to play your role when we visit the King."

Before Harry could say anything else, Emma leaned in pressing her lips to his. Her hands went around his neck and, before Harry realized what was going on, she had her tongue in his mouth dueling with his. Before Harry could force her away, which despite his attraction to Emma he would have, given his promise to Ororo, Emma pulled back with a smile. "I'll see you Friday." she said impishly, turning and walking down the empty hallway, leaving Harry standing there rather stunned and bemused.

Eventually, he recovered enough to shake his head at her antics, then turned and left, this time using the runic doorway. He was impressed with how smooth it was. One moment he was walking, striding through it from the suite formally used by Emma's mother, the next moment he was walking through the room at the other end, a special use one. "These are interesting." he said aloud, smiling at Ororo who took his hand with both of hers the moment she saw him. "We might want to look into installing them elsewhere, for convenience sake if nothing else."

It was very late at night here, around one in the morning, but Ororo had been determined to wake up for Harry this time. She did not like it when he was absent from bed, she had gotten used to snuggling with him and it irked her when Harry was not there. Then too, she wanted to make certain that Emma hadn't tried anything, and from the bemused expression on Harry's face and the hint of a bit of lipstick on his lips, she evidently had. She reached up with one finger to wipe it off, then pulled him down into a deep kiss, holding it as long as she could before parting to breathe, staring at him as he spoke. "It seems Emma and I will have to have a talk. I'm still not sanguine about her joining us just yet, although I'm closer to it than I expected to be in so short a time."

"Understood." Harry said, his eyes a little wide at the sudden and rather forceful kiss, while his hands gripped her hips, his thumbs gently moving on her sides and rear in a way that set Ororo's heart to racing. "She surprised me as we were walking out, I didn't intend anything like that to happen love. In other news, I was able to get some information from her about what's been bothering her lately about the Hellfire Club. We don't have enough information to do anything about one of them but my gut reaction is it's bad."

"When has it ever been otherwise, my love," Ororo murmured, leaning her head down against one of his shoulders. She pulled away slightly after a moment, pulling him along by his hands. "Come to bed." she said firmly. "You've been running yourself ragged and I think we need a bit of a break from the outside world."

Harry went willingly but his mind was already moving forward, grappling with what he considered to be the most worrisome issue facing him, the assault on Mephisto's realm. He had several books he was going to be reading that evening but he could do that just as easily in the dark as anything else and if his Ororo, his lady of winds, wanted his presence beside her, Harry had no problems with following that idea.

They found Jean already asleep, her wild mane of flaming red hair splashed out across the pillows in a halo, sleeping on her chest with one arm underneath the pillow, the other arm and a leg falling off the side of the bed.

The two of them had barely crawled in and under the sheets before she turned murmuring sleepily and snuggling into Harry's chest. Despite it not being that long, in fact only a few days had gone by since that first night she had spent with them, Jean had become used to sleeping with the both of them and her other hand found Ororo's thigh, squeezing almost possessively.

The two older lovers shared a soft laugh at that and Harry leaned down to gently kiss Jean on the forehead. This won him a murmur and a smile before he turned to Ororo, kissing her on the lips before the two of them began to talk in quiet tones about what he had learned from Emma that evening.

OOOOOOO

It was rare indeed for Nick Fury to feel as much of a maelstrom of emotions as he was feeling right now. He was agog, elated, ecstatic, angry, and aghast all at the same time. While not anywhere near as bad as a spy within SHIELD itself would be, a terrorist spy in the US Army was still pretty bad, especially given the fact that there hadn't even been a hint of there being a spy like that before this.

It made him wonder precisely how secure SHIELD was in turn, since SHIELD drew its people from the US military and the US and Canadian secret services. Nick was fully prepared to put up with a random few that were still reporting to their old bosses. That was just the way the game was played and he, of course, had people watching their bosses in turn. All the watchers watched everyone, after all. It wasn't something you were going to simply turn off. But the idea that someone could have allegiance to a terrorist organization in his agency, especially one like this HYDRA seemed to be, that wasn't going to fly.

On the other hand, Crossbones had been on his Christmas wish list for several years now. The psychopath was just too damn good at his job. Beyond the terrorist attacks that had been definitively connected to him, Crossbones was tentatively connected to at least two dozen other attacks, ranging from assassinations via simple poisons to kidnappings and mass assaults.

On the other hand, he wasn't happy to find Harry Potter, or Mr. Wizard as he styled himself, was still flouting international law and still seemed to be cleaning up after a mess that Fury and his agency couldn't have handled. That both hurt his pride and worried him about what the loose cannon was really up to. He was happy to get Danvers and her men back make no mistake, yet her report about how and why they were rescued was,, simply a little too pat for his tastes.

The fact that Harry Potter had a truth serum that actually worked was very worrisome indeed. He hadn't seen anything like that from the wizards he dealt with during World War II but, then again, when he thought of dealing with those wizards that meant shooting at them so it wasn't a surprise that there was magic that he didn't know about. More to the point, who knew what the man could find out with a few careful magical spells, a kidnapping or two, and an application of truth serum?

His old friend Dum-Dum could read his boss like a book. "Oh, give over, Nick." Duggan laughed, looking at his boss in amusement from across Fury's desk.

Unlike the time Phoenix had dropped off her bundle o' terrorists, Duggan knew the capture of Crossbones was too important to try and sit tight on. He'd moved as fast as he could. The moment that Harry had applied the serum to Crossbones, he had begun his interrogation of the man and then quickly bundled him into one of the SHIELD special VTOLs. The plane rocketed up into the stratosphere then went supersonic, moving faster than most jets could on their way back to America.

Nor were his people idle during this. They had captured the spy stationed in the Army base and figured out how the man had been sending out his information via a small drop box that went out with the base's waste. They had also shut down Operation Ghost and had pulled literally everything related to it out with them, much to the chagrin of the base commander.

Now he Duggan shook his head. "Potter helped us big time and you know it. If not for him and Phoenix, we wouldn't know that HYDRA had gotten its tentacles into the US military. Who knows how high that goes? That's not counting what I got off of Crossbones. Who knows what more we can get off the spy, Sergeant Montoya, eventually, putting aside anything about what his indoctrination can tell us about HYDRA and its motives."

"Potter may not be an enemy, just yet. I still think he's a loose cannon but I'll agree he isn't our enemy. That's as far as I'm willing to bend. Now let's talk about what specific information you got out of Crossbones."

Duggan sighed and shook his head and pushed cross a recording of the interrogation. "You'll want to listen to this yourself boss. It's beyond disturbing and I think he represents a greater threat than HYDRA or maybe even that AIM group. Not only is this the first hint we've got that someone else is involved but it's who seems to be involved." The large man actually looked worried and… afraid?

Nick could read his friend as well as Duggan could him and he paused for a moment, looking at him searchingly. There were very few things that truly frightened Dum-Dum Duggan and not, as scuttlebutt had once put out when they were younger, because he was too stupid to feel fear. He feared death like any other man and was as brave as any sane man could be but he feared failing his duty more. Yet, now he looked worried, very worried, much more so than Nick had seen him in decades, long before SHIELD had been thought up.

Deciding to put that aside for now, he looked over at Carol. The blond field commander had been standing at attention in front of his desk, a sharp contrast to the laid back Duggan, who had pulled up a chair and was lazing back on it even as he gave his report. "Before I listen to this, do you have anything you want to add?"

The strikingly good looking honey-blond woman shrugged. "I'll be writing up a formal report of the fight that I witnessed but in a nutshell Mr. Wizard, Harry as you call him, seems to have developed a small team of operatives, all of whom have mutant powers, save one, though I could be wrong about him. They handled themselves extremely well, if not quite as professionally as I would've liked to see in a field team but that could've been simply the nature of the battle itself. It wasn't exactly a normal one after all, yet I will say this. That Phoenix woman, I have no idea what her powers are beyond telekinesis, but she's dangerous with a capital D. She caused some kind of explosion, I have no idea how, that took out all of the…well they called them golems and I didn't see anything that could gainsay that, although I'm still getting used to the idea of magic being real. Oh," she exclaimed, breaking from her ultra-formal body language to snap her fingers, "they took his backpack."

"Excuse me?" Fury said with a raised eyebrow, seeking clarification.

"The Phoenix, she had this bag. It looked only as large as my hand. Somehow though, she took the Vulture's power pack and it disappeared inside the bag. I'm not certain how that would work but I saw it with my own eyes, this thing about three feet by one shrunk to fit inside the pouch as soon as it got closed."

"I can see I'm going to be reading your report with great interest." Nick stated dryly, knowing that magic liked to break the rules of physics whenever it could.

"Realize I won't be able to give you any kind of physical description." Carol said seriously. "I don't know how they were doing it, the moment I looked away from them I couldn't remember their faces. Not even a single thing about their features, nothing about what they looked like, though I could remember their specific powers."

"Understood. Duggan reported the same thing the last time Phoenix showed up and I've had reports of similar responses in other areas." Fury replied waving his hand slightly. He wasn't at all surprised.

"Um, sir, on another matter… Has there been any further discussion about reactivating Team Skywatch? Not to put too fine a point on it, but my specialty, my interest and learning lies in that direction, not chasing down criminals, no matter how uncommon."

"No agent, there hasn't." Fury answered crisply. "We have far more duties right here on Earth than we can deal with already, looking to space is just asking for trouble."

"But sir, what about…"

"Agent Danvers," Fury said, coldly now, "that is the final word on the subject. Neither I nor the committee has the least concern over what might be out there, not given the drubbing the Fantastic Four has meted out to such threats. Nor do we have any funding to back Skywatch. Maybe in the future we will be able to come back to it, but not right now."

Carol growled low in her throat at what she considered to be gross stupidity, but nodded her head. "Yes… sir."

With that he dismissed her. When Carol was gone, Fury looked over at Duggan, who simply waved a hand at the recording. Fury looked at the disk for a moment then quickly reached out and stuck it inside his recorder, before he could think about putting it off further. Almost immediately, Crossbones' voice, deep and gravelly, yet somehow almost drugged in some fashion, came through.

The first few moments read as if he was quoting from a neo-Nazi manifesto, but then he said something that caused Fury's heart to stop. At a question from Dum-Dum the man said "All praise to white supremacy, all praise to human supremacy all praise to the Rote Schädel, who will lead us in culling the weak and debased, who leads us to our destiny!"

He leaned back, not entirely consciously, more in response to that name being spoken after so long. It brought up nightmares from World War II. How the Red Skull, as he was so aptly named, an agent of Hitler's most secret security forces, had been very close several times to turning the war against the Allied powers.

Brilliant, unscrupulous, and possessed of a passion and magnetism that made men want to follow him, the Red Skull was one of Hitler's most trusted agents and the first man to have been given the first version of the Super Soldier serum. The serum had a horrible side effect, changing his face to that of a red skull, yet he was still alive despite it, yet somehow warped mentally not just physically. More dangerous than Baron Zemo, more dangerous than even Fury's own nemesis Baron Strucker, the Red Skull was a general, a spymaster, a spy himself, an incredibly dangerous hand-to-hand combatant, marksman, master assassin, and scientist: all at a level well beyond normal.

He had come very close to toppling both the Americanand the British governments more than once, had succeeded in undermining the Russian front for several months, and had sown so much chaos and fear across Europe that he had set the war effort back months. Many European countries were still feeling the effects of his actions to this day. He had used terror like a weapon, killing hundreds and making thousands too afraid to fight against the German war machine.

It was only because of Captain America and the original Defenders team that his efforts were thwarted time and time again. And it was only Captain America's final sacrifice that stopped his most dangerous plot. The Red Skull had developed incredibly powerful bombs that he was going to bomb every city in the US, wiping out millions of people. The bombs were to be delivered by a massive flying fortress, whose defenses and ability to cloak would have made it immune to any defense.

Captain America led a task force into the secret underground hanger where the fortress was being built and armed, boarding it along with Bucky, his second in command. Bucky and most of the other men with them died but Steve Rogers, Captain America's, final act of heroism stopped the Red Skull. During a one on one battle against the Red Skull, the two of them had destroyed most of the controls for the plane and the Captain went down with the ship, directing it to crash land deep into the Arctic.

How long has the Red Skull been operating without anyone having even a hint that he's still alive!? How the hell is he still alive! He should've died with Captain America! Before the plane went down Steve reported that he noticed one of the escape pods was gone but he also said that the Red Skull had a huge piece of metal debris stuck in his chest from when cosmic cube broke out of its container. How could even a super soldier survive that!?

The recording of the interrogation continued. Duggan had naturally become even more determined and his questions came out as fast as he could ask them. He ran into several prepared mental blocks but the truth serum forced him to answer the questions regardless of prevarications. Eventually, they had the names and descriptions of several dozen specialized operatives that Crossbones had worked with, his handler, the names of ten terrorist groups that he had interacted with on behalf of his leader (all of whom had no idea they were who they were truly working for), and one location, a base in South Africa.

That made sense in a way, since that country was still under apartheid, despite national and domestic pressures to end it. In the end, however, Crossbones didn't really know very much about the Red Skull personally, what his plans were going forward, what other resources he had, or where he was truly based.

As the recording wound down, Nick kneaded his one eye, a worrying gesture that he had picked up after losing his other one, wondering what they could do with this information. "This is a gold mine." he said honestly to Duggan. "You did a damn good job getting that much out of Crossbones, I can see that. We'll see if our interrogators can work to get anything else out of him now that Potter's serum has worn off but I'm going to give them an ultimatum. If they don't get anything new out of him within a week, I'm going to put a bullet in his head."

Dum-Dum nodded without any sign of emotion. Crossbones was simply too damn dangerous to even think of keeping in a jail cell for any length of time, even on the helicarrier. The Red Skull had put in a lot of effort into Crossbones' training. The man had said at one point in the interrogation that he was being groomed as one of the Rote Schädel's new super soldiers. That probably meant that the Red Skull would try to make sure he escaped or was silenced.

They couldn't take that chance, no matter the legalities of such a move. "I'd say that's a damn good idea, boss. I got about a dozen men with me who'd volunteer to do it in a second. That man is one sick motherfucker."

Duggan wasn't just speaking about his Nazi beliefs but about his personal activities. The man was into necrophilia. He got off on killing in a very literal sense. He, seemingly also had a hidden trophy room somewhere in Dubai, rather a surprise because he didn't have any connection at all with the government there nor did the Red Skull. But what he bragged about keeping there was disturbing in the extreme.

Nick nodded, but his mind had already moved on to other things. His fingers flew over his keyboard for a moment, then he nodded again. "I'm going to put in motion operations Skeet-Shoot, Barnacle, and Zamboni."

The redheaded former body-builder didn't know what the first two operations were, though he could guess on Barnacle, but he definitely knew that last one. He grinned, has eyes alight with hope. Nick saw this and shook his head. "We might be lucky to find something but don't get your hopes up that far."

That didn't do anything for his friend's enthusiasm however, and he chuckled, not letting his own enthusiasm show. He had been planning for that operation long before the creation of SHIELD but it was only in the past few weeks that he'd had any hope of it actually succeeding. Thanks to Natasha whispering in Tony Stark's ear, they had several new scanning devices that could help them in their search. Who knew, maybe they'd get lucky and find something or, more particularly, someone.

"Eventually, I'll want you to be in a position to check in with Barnacle. That asshole is prickly enough that I want one of my senior agents to handle him but we'll see how the first overtures go. Until then, take a few days off. Then I'm going to put you and Hawkeye down in South America. We've got a lead on AIM and I want my best man to follow it up. We're just going to have to hope that the Red Skull is willing to keep silent for a while or, hopefully, hasn't heard about Crossbones having been captured, just yet. Oh, Hawkeye might bring along a tag-along. He's useful but young and inexperienced."

"What about the base in South Africa?"

Fury frowned thoughtfully then smirked. "I'll pass it on to our new 'friend' the Black Panther, that's his neck of the woods. We'll loan him some men if he asks but I don't want to step on any toes there. They sure as hell wouldn't let us in officially and unofficially we would run into a lot or resistance. He can get in and out of South Africa, I'm certain. We'll see what we can see."

"And no Duggan, you're not going to be on that team. I If I can finagle it,will be. If the Red Skull's there, I have to be there."

Eventually this operation would be abandoned, because the base in question had already been abandoned by the time the man called the Black Panther led his own men in.

OOOOOOO

Harry woke up the next day to find that Jean had somehow flopped over in her sleep so that she now slept almost entirely on him on her back, save for her head, which was nestled in the crook of Ororo's neck on his other side. Harry was able to look straight down and see a rather glorious view of the redhead's negligee clad breasts but this did nothing for the reason he actually woke up, to wit, he had to piss like a racehorse. Gently, ever so gently, he raised Jean's body off him via magic, ducking out from underneath quickly. He raced into the tower's bathroom and a moment later an "Ahhhh…" echoed out.

The sound woke up Ororo, who was waking up in any event. She smirked, looking up as Jean mumbled something, slowly falling back to land on the bed. Harry came back at that moment, shaking his head and smiling at his two ladies on the bed. "I'm going to be studying up on our target for Saturday all day today then, after our meeting with William tomorrow, will be working on our defense for same." Even covered by the wards of the castle, Harry refused to use Mephisto's name. Demon Lords had very odd powers and being able to overhear any conversation with their names in it was one of them. "What do you have planned?"

Ororo beckoned him closer. Harry leaned over, not surprised at all as Ororo pulled him down onto the bed, kissing him sweetly on the lips. This action woke up Jean, who looked up at them, smiled, and leaned in to kiss Ororo on one deep chocolate colored nipple then rising up to capture Harry's lips when Ororo gasped, letting him go.

The African woman chuckled, leaning in to kiss Jean in turn, before leaning back and sighing faintly. "I am going to be reviewing the results of the testing we did on the children and then working out in the RoR, possibly joining Shiang Chi and the boys when they exercise. I would like to work on using more of my abilities in close succession. I did not like how mentally exhausted I became during our little spar a few days ago. But I think we can spend a few minutes… waking up properly."

With that she leaned in to kiss Harry again, to which he responded eagerly. The lovers spent several minutes just kissing and gently cuddling with one another, something they all enjoyed, seeing it as part and parcel of their love. Eventually, however they had to start moving, doing so only reluctantly. As the two ladies took a shower, accompanied by much audible teasing in the form of moans and teasing phrases such as 'Ororo love, could you soap my back for me? Only if you do my legs' Harry related what he and Emma had discussed the night previously, paying particular attention to what she had related about Project Sentinel.

During that part, both of his ladies stopped their play and it was silent for a moment when he finished. The sound of the shower cut off and Jean stepped out first, her only concession to her rapidly diminishing sense of propriety a pair of hurriedly pulled on panties covered by a pair of daisy dukes that were just this side of decent.

Despite her clothing however, she was very much in work mode when the spoke. "That worries me, so much so I'm almost tempted to tell Emma to just rip what she needs from Buckman's mind and this is me saying it! Bolivar Trask is a name to conjure with, if you'll excuse the phrase, in the engineering industry. He developed the American MBT targeting system, the AEGIS targeting system, and a new engine system a few years back, though it was later pulled since the military felt it was too close to SI's jet engines and didn't want to offend their primary source of such high end toys. I also read his name once cited in a work about creating a security system based off specific heat temperatures. Targeting systems, programs, and power systems are his specific area of expertise and I really don't like the idea of what he could come up with if given unlimited resources. I hadn't heard of him being anti-mutant but that doesn't mean anything really since he hasn't published anything in… three years? Something like that anyway."

"That matches what Emma was able to find out about the man. I agree, if I thought she could get away with ripping the information out of Buckman's head, I'd tell her to take the chance. But she wouldn't and she won't. Not until she has to or is certain of Buckman's level of feeling for Paris. Paris helped her a lot initially and Emma sees her as an acquaintance, possibly even a friend, although nowhere near as close as you, Jean. Emma wants to use Paris's companies to put the word out about our potions but we will see about that. I've told her, though, that if she gets a shot at Kelly to take it or if even a hint of Trask's location, regardless of where, to call us in." Harry shrugged unhappily. "That's all we can do at the moment."

Ororo came out at that point, wearing nothing for the moment and brushing out her glorious white hair. "Indeed, but should we warn the X-men about this?"

"My gut reaction to that question is no but I can't tell you why. Charles isn't the sort to act precipitously nor is Scott, well not any longer." Harry replied, then nodded with frown. "His backers. We've known for a while that Charles has connections in the American government. He might sound them out about it and that could get back to Trask somehow, bringing more attention to him and the school."

"Or he could try to get close to Buckman somehow. They do both live in the same state, after all. It might be easy to do if he found out the location of the Hellfire Club." Jean said, taking the comb from Ororo with a smile. "I have a lot of respect for Charles. I know his telepathic power is greater than mine, as is his control, but I don't know if he's ever come up against something like the defense Emma has described that Buckman uses. Best not to chance it, especially since if we tell him and warn him off, he's almost certain to butt in anyway. He's a good man but he tends to not listen to other people when he thinks he knows best."

Harry nodded, not seeing the smiles his ladies sent his way. Harry, too, often thought he knew best and had a vision of the future that was much like the one Charles had. Yet the difference was he was proactive and also was always willing to listen as he had listened to Piotr about the morality of what he had done to the base in Russia. "That makes sense; although, it does… it does give me a good idea to get the information in the future. Not right now but maybe if we have time in the future…"

"Something else will come up beloved, believe it." Ororo replied with certainty, cupping his cheek tenderly. Harry laughed softly, nodding his head and gently laying a kiss on her palm, before smiling over at Jean, who had laughed in agreement with Ororo's comment. "Now, I believe that it is time for breakfast."

The two ladies finished dressing and the trio went down to breakfast in the dining hall. Piotr and Nikolai were both already awake, the former super-soldier candidate laughing at something, although his friend was blushing hotly, showing what kind of joke it had been. Illyana and Melody were both awake as was Anechka, talking excitedly about some adventure they were planning.

Harry made a mental note to make certain to send out a house elf to buy warm clothing for them. The warm season here in Scotland was going to end very soon and the kids would all need it. Of course, they also need regular clothing as well. None of us have had time to go out with them to buy any. House-elf made stuff is well and good but they'll all need some real clothing soon.

His thoughts were interrupted when Nikolai thrust a small packet of papers in front of him. "What's this?"

"My AAR, sir. I assumed you would want us all to write up one for the action yesterday." Nikolai said this with a faint smile on his face.

"Are you trying to tell me something, lad?" Harry asked, a wry smile on his lips.

'Kind of," the Russian redhead responded, shrugging his shoulders. "I think we could have lot of improvement in terms of communication during the actual combat, our roles, and our battle rattle."

"Battle rattle I'll agree with," Harry replied, while the others looked confused as to what that meant. "I'm going to eventually assign Jean and Kitty to that project but I've got some ideas in that direction as well. For now though, you all can work on teamwork as much as you want in your training. None of us have enough time to put into it now though, so you'll have to wait until at least sometime next week. Sorry if that offends your professional sensibilities, it does mine as well to be honest, but we just don't have the time and that's flat."

He looked over at Piotr, who had flinched slightly at the mention of the battle the other day. He walked over to the former farmer, patting him on one arm and leaning down to whisper to him. "I can tell that's bothering you, lad, sorry I wasn't available last night to talk but I'm here whenever you want to talk today. For now, remember that you helped save those SHIELD agents, that woman especially from a fate some would call worse than death. You gave those men a death in battle, far better than what Crossbones and his ilk would have done to Ms. Danvers or her fellows."

Piotr nodded, seeming to take his words to heart, turning to his food as it appeared.

Later that day, Fay and Ororo's initial impressions of the children were proven correct. They were all at different educational levels. Sergei, for example, had next to no education. While the priest had been able to find him and attempt to get out Sergei of Russia, he hadn't had the means to teach him Braille, not understanding that language himself. Fay and Ororo talked about bringing in a specialist for him but this would take time, so until then, he would have to learn all his lessons verbally.

Ivan had been with the priest for longer and was well up on his reading and writing skills in his native Russian, though science and math were sorely lacking. Jesse and James of course didn't have any real schooling, not having been born into an area where schooling was prevalent. They had basic reading skills and limited writing skills in Arabic but that was all. Once they finished learning how to read and speak English, they would have to join Sergei and Ivan.

The only one of the younger group that was where she should be going by her age was Anechka, whose mutant power had only activated a few days before she was rounded up. Up until that point, she'd had a somewhat normal childhood, though that all changed when her power activated and her parents turned on her like the rest of the community she lived in. They had also turned on one another, blaming one another for her mutation and the next few days, until she was taken away by government forces, had been a very nervous time for her.

Illyich and Mikhail were both actually well-versed, almost to their age level, and could move on quickly once they learned how to read and write English. Laynia was a little bit ahead of her developmental level and could possibly graduate high school if given the chance to test out of most of the core subjects. All they could do with her was simply test her. They would have to either bring in someone else to help teach Laynia or send her to Professors Xavier's, which was a distinct possibility.

Laynia didn't want to be part of the team and would rather try to have a normal life while still learning about her powers. She wanted to be a ballerina or possibly a scientist, if her skills couldn't take her to the professional level. What she was certain was that she wanted a normal life. Her powers to her were simply a thing she had. She would use them to defend herself and others, if she had to, but she wasn't willing to join the team and go out on missions to defend complete strangers.

OOOOOOO

Jean looked up from her work in her lab, finishing a revised plan for the power component of the plasma based sniper rifle they had 'liberated' from Russia, smiling as she saw one of the house elves show in Emma. "Hey Em, welcome to the castle. Sorry I wasn't there to greet you when you came through but you and Harry didn't set up a specific time you would be coming in today. Still, the runic doorway worked?"

The blonde moved forward, leaning over to hug Jean, smiling faintly as she leaned her head against the side of the redheads. "Good to see you in the flesh too, my friend, love the grungy mechanic look. You really make it work for you. Yes, the doorway seemed to work, for now anyway. Harry said last night we need to wait at least two weeks to see if it will work without the power he left in the runes when he carved them powering it. We'll see, I suppose, though I am certainly hopeful. Being a simple walk away from you and Harry will be extremely nice. I'm beginning to like my little sister but she certainly isn't a friend. Not quite someone I can let my hair down around, not yet, if I ever can. Family is… a touchy subject to me… and to Cordelia."

"I can understand that, given your personal history. Just don't be afraid to reach out to her. You've done a lot already from what you've said. I think that eventually you and Cordelia will be able to become a real family. Oh, and my sense of fashion, again, is none of your concern, Emma." So saying, Jean gently pushed Emma away and stood up, stretching and smiling in pleasure at a damn good day's work.

It had taken some time but she had finally been able to maximize the potential of the power unit in the sniper rifle, making it much more efficient or 'tighter', which was the way she had described this part of the project to Harry. She had also minimized it and added a way to toggle the power sent through the rifle. It could now be set to fire the normal sniper shot; several smaller, less powerful regular rounds that could come out faster; and a third setting that could allow the rifle's rounds to have penetrating power. That would take a lot of the unit's power but since the 'clip', the energy battery, could also be traded out much easier, she felt very satisfied with her day's work. Now all I need to do is figure out the multiple heat issues, dissipation, retention, and infrared. The miniaturization aspect I'm not going to touch, not with this plasma system, too much effort, too little return. Weight however, that I can do something with.

Jean put that thought to the side to look at her friend with one eyebrow raised. "I notice you didn't mention Ororo when you mentioned it would be nice to be so close by."

"No, I didn't mention her, did I? It's not as if she and I are that close Jean." Emma shrugged. "I respect her as an individual and her position but I do think I love Harry and I want to be with him. I want to push it. I have forborne to do so thus far but my patience has limits."

"I don't want to take sides Emma but I think waiting is the best thing to do." Jean began to walk Emma out of her lab, looking at her friend out of the corner of her eye. "Ororo is only looking out for Harry and herself. If she sees that you truly love Harry, then all that remains is for you and her to take the time to get to know one another. This isn't a harem, we're all equals and care for one another almost equally. I love Harry and Ororo both. If you want to join us, you'll have to love all three of us as well."

She shrugged. "I know Ororo respects you but she needs to get to know you better. For the next two days, though, we won't have time to do that. After that, we'll all sit down and talk about this, okay?"

Emma frowned. While she was certain in her own mind that she had come to love Harry, she wasn't really certain if she could do the same with Ororo. There was none of the almost instant attraction and friendship that had sprung up between her and Jean. Respect, as she said, but not love. That would take time to build and it hadn't happened yet. "No promises but I'll try not to push things too much."

Jean smiled, winding one arm with her friends as they moved down the corridor, their talk turning to other matters. "Good, now come on. I want to show you the new things we've done here since you last visited. After that, you are invited to have dinner with us up in the headmaster's suite. Trust me, the view is incredible! Harry did this thing to the stones that make them transparent, they even let in the breeze if you want it, and…"

OOOOOOO

True to his word, Harry and Piotr talked after breakfast, about right and wrong, about killing and the morality of doing so in the defense of others. Harry didn't have all the answers but the talk made Piotr feel better. After that, while Kitty began work on the lie detecting array and the others went about their own business, Harry disappeared into the library with the books he had borrowed from the Sorcerer Supreme.

Dr. Strange and his predecessors had gathered a lot of information on demon lords such as Mephisto, none of which was good. Oh, Harry had a few spells from his home dimension and a few that he had made up they could probably surprise Mephisto with but Mephisto's own powers of magic were supposed to be insanely powerful according to the recorded battles against him on Earth, let alone in his own dimension.

Illusions that can confuse even sorcerers of the level of a Sorcerer Supreme, the ability to use mind control, at least I might be good there, all sorts of magical attacks much like any normal sorcerer could and an insane level of natural magical defense, regeneration on the level beyond anything I've ever seen, teleportation, time manipulation? This guy is at least on the level of a celestial! I was able to surprise and overcome him for a moment by using a BI spell but, since they effect the environment, I doubt I could use then in Mephisto's realm, not before overcoming his mental control of it.

I could use my mutant power on the dimension itself, maybe. After all, Mephisto's dimension isn't a natural environment, it's a magical construction but that idea worries me. When I take in the magic from a person or an object, it infects me with its flavor for time. Those bloody horcrux felt foul and they were only human. Selene's power felt almost diseased so what would a demon lord's power feel like? No, I can't rely on that. And it isn't safe to assume because I'm one of the most powerful human magic users around that I can fight a demon Lord on his own ground on an even footing.

Harry knew that he was powerful, far more powerful than nearly any sorcerer, warlock, or whatever you wish to call a magic user in this reality save for Dr. Strange. Mephisto wasn't human; he was so far beyond what most humans could even conceive of that he was deeply concerned.

I never thought I say this but I think I need to seriously consider draining that jewel that Jean found for the power it could give me. It radiates a good deal more power than those gems of Cyttorak's, so I've been leery of draining it, especially since I haven't exactly needed more power lately. I wanted to save it until I really needed it. That time's come sooner than I had hoped, but, if I want to take on Mephisto on his own ground, that is the sort of power I need.

With that determination, Harry broached the subject with his lovers and Emma, who Jean had invited to try out the runic doorway tonight to join them for an early dinner. The door worked for Emma but it remained to be seen if it took power from it's paired fellow just yet.

Unlike the other two, Emma didn't really understand much about the magical aspects, though she understood corruption well enough and was deeply concerned about what draining a demon's powers could do to Harry, if it was even possible in the first place since he hadn't actually tried to drain a demon before. So she was all for it.

Ororo and Jean, on the other hand, were much more ambivalent about it. Jean spoke first. "Face it Harry, you got lucky the first time when you drained Cyttorak. He's a brute force animal. But if these gems are color-coded somehow, it might mean this one doesn't connect to him but to someone else. Someone who might be able to fight you on a more level playing field."

She was correct in this. While an inherently a magical being, Cyttorak wasn't actually all that good at using magic. He specialized in magic of the body, enhancing physical strength, endurance, bestowing shields, and armor. Moreover, it was almost a certainty this gem belonged to someone else, but Dr. Strange hadn't been much help in figuring out what a different colored gem could mean, since there was no written record of Cyttorak belonging to a pantheon. "What if this God on the other side of the jewel is able to fight you somehow when you try to drain him? Can you win that kind the fight?"

"I think I'm going to have to." Harry replied. "Fighting a Demon Lord on his own ground is, there's no other word for it, insanity. Going from what Dr. Doom told me, torturing Doom's mother is one of the hell lords's favorite pastimes, even in comparison to torturing other souls. That's not good and means we will have to fight him. In his own dimension, trying to trick or use illusions against him probably won't work, which means it will have to be a brute force approach. That's a fight, I'm afraid that as I am, we won't be able to fight him anywhere near an even footing."

Harry wished that he could talk his two ladies out of accompanying him and Doom because he was almost certain that trying to protect them was going to be one hell of a tough time. But Harry knew better than to even try that. Still, he wasn't going to go to bed this evening regardless of the outcome of this conversation as he was going to be putting together as many defenses as he possibly could for the two of them, magically speaking.

Ororo sighed, not happy at all about this but seeing the necessity. "We will be with you when you try this. I can tell that you are going to do this whatever we say. I can see the worry in your eyes. If the battle occurs on the mental plane, Jean and Emma can aid you. If the battle occurs on the physical plane, then Jean and I can aid you. If you just need an anchor to this world, as Jean did when trying to control the Phoenix aspect within her, you will have us three there."

Emma started, then looked at Ororo with sudden hope, wondering if that meant that Ororo was coming closer to allowing Emma to join their relationship. For now she kept her thoughts on the current conversation however, turning to look at Harry.

"I was actually hoping you'd volunteer for that." Harry smiled gently, taking one of Ororo's hands in his and kissing the tips of each finger in turn causing her to breathe a little deeper but she still stared at him seriously. "I think I should do this now. That way I'll have time to recover all day tomorrow before meeting Dr. Doom. After all, I don't think I'll need my powers while meeting with the King."

Ororo sighed but nodded agreement and the conversation turned to other things while they ate. After the food was cleared away, the girls followed Harry down to the Room of Requirement, where Harry changed it to the configuration where he had hidden the gem as well as the other items Jean had taken from Selene's caches. Many of the carved gemstones and jewels, for instance, had magic on them that Harry wanted to look at before draining. The room therefore was a shaped like a cross between a jeweler's display area and a high security vault.

Emma knew nothing of the danger however, merely looking around in wonder at the paintings here, as well as the eggs, the statues, and jewels. "You now, if Russia starts making waves against you politically, without outright saying what they're trying to accuse you of, you could offer to return those eggs. It would earn you a lot of goodwill since they're part of Russia's National Heritage. If they still try to make trouble for you after that, well, it would look very odd indeed. And as for the pictures, the art community would probably fall down and worship you as a deity if you sell those."

"I'm not into deification. I would think this whole venture and my unhappiness with gods trying to interfere in this world would prove that." Harry replied blandly, looking straight ahead to where the gem lay in pride of place hovering over a small plinth, surrounded by a special defense that the castle apparently had come up with it on its own via the RoR. Harry determined to study it at a later date because he was certain that a few of those runes he could see on the plinth should not really exist or, at least, not work in that configuration. Whatever it was seemed to have suspended the gem in a small globe of antigravity, visible like a ball made of some almost see-through liquid.

"Step back for a moment." Harry ordered, then reached forward into the sphere. It felt like water, yet Harry could tell that it was something else. He didn't really know what but he was able to pull out the gem and look at it thoughtfully already feeling his power starting to create that connection between himself and the object that he would use to drain it. "Wish me luck…"

OOOOOOO

Almost as soon as he concentrated on his mutant power, Harry felt himself elsewhere. He looked around, frowning, not seeing anything for a moment, but as he stood there, surrounding by gray nothingness, a strange small fog bank suddenly appeared. Several seconds passed as it got denser, several different veins of color shooting through the fog, until it coalesced into what looked like a pillar of energy with purple, white, and black motes of energy all mixed together.

"Interesting." a voice intoned, coming from everywhere around, its tone almost mechanical, yet not quite, more like incredibly disconnected, unemotional, colorless, and coldly scornful. "So Cyttorak was telling the truth. There is a being that is so arrogant as to attempt to drain our essence. Unfortunately, for you human, I am not like that musclebound buffoon. I, Balthakk, am more than capable of fighting you like this."

Almost immediately, Harry felt the power that had been slowly seeping into him from his physical connection to the gem begin to fade and almost to reverse. Harry quickly threw his will into the connection, stopping the flow of magic for a time then slowly reversing it. Yet that was only the first aspect of this battle, the next was purely mental and Harry found his mental defense unable to stop the god's words as they flowed through their mystical connection.

"Why do you fight?" the voice whispered, coming from all around Harry as well reverberating in his head. "Magic was made to conquer. Magic was made to change the world for the better, is that not what you want? To use your powers to make the world a better place? We could do great things together, you and I."

Harry grunted, fighting against the wave of mental power, which ignored his mental defenses with ease, a startling thought, yet not really surprising he would later think, since the fight had somehow transported his mental personality to Balthakk's plane. He groaned under the onslaught but did not give in.

"Why fight it? With my power, you could control the world. Control it for the better! Everyone would be happy, no one would die, the world would be as you will it! Think of the fantastic and marvelous things you could do, with my power added to yours with you as my avatar. Compared to all that, what is the price of worshiping me, Balthakk?"

The thoughts were supposed to sap Harry's will and with Balthakk's power behind them, the words began to seep into every corner of Harry's brain, slowly grinding his will under. Balthakk's ability to control the magical energies of the connection was greater than Harry's and, as an elder god, his will was inhuman. Harry soon found 'himself' (in reality his mental avatar) on his knees, groaning in pain.

Yet, even as he did so he fought back, grabbing as much of Balthakk's power as he could, funneling it into himself, using it to fight back creating a loop between them, the fight for the moment even.

OOOOOOO

Outside, there hadn't been any change at first, except for sweat appearing on Harry's brow but as the seconds passed a feeling of pressure, not gravity but something similar, slowly developed around him. Suddenly, the gem glowed yellow and purple, so bright you could see Harry's bones outlined in the hand that held it. With that light, the pressure increased tenfold, pressing down on the three girls. Emma slumped against Jean who held her up, conjuring up a telekinetic shield to batter away whatever was pressing in on them.

It seemed to work for now but the two younger girls stared over at Ororo who was simply standing there her irises slowly going from the light blue they normally were to pure white as she called forth her power. Neither could tell what she was doing but Ororo was seemingly able to push the pressure back somehow.

Suddenly, around Harry there began to form a suit of yellow armor, much less bulky than Juggernaut's, far more formfitting, as if it was made for speed rather than stopping power. It began at his feet then began to move up his body.

"Why do I think that if that fully forms, it's a bad thing?" Emma quipped, trying to hide her nervousness as she sent out a telepathic probe towards Harry, hoping to find some sign of whatever was going on. Yet, when she did so, she couldn't find anything. She knew there was something there, some kind of power looping through Harry and the gem in his hand, but she couldn't interact with it., which made her even more nervous. "I can't get to him." she muttered to Jean. "Can you?"

Jean's eyes flared with Phoenix light as she raised a hand to point to Harry for a moment, her power visible in the air as it shot forward to encompass him. Yet, even as it did so, her probe was battered aside by the pressure that was flowing from Harry's physical form and she gritted her teeth. "I can't get through." she said, canceling her attack. "I could probably break his death grip on the gem but my telepathy can't get through to whatever is going on." Normally, I'd be able to at least feel the small connection that Harry opened up between our minds, she thought, but it's like it's not there at all. "I think… I think this is some kind of magical or 'godly' version of mental projection. His mind isn't at home anymore."

"Regardless, he now needs us to be his anchors." Ororo said briskly, her power flowing around her in some way that the two younger girls couldn't define. In actuality, she had summoned up a small pressure field or her own that distorted the space around her. Later, Ororo would be unable to explain precisely how this had aided her in pushing off the presence pressing at them, but at present it didn't matter. She strode forward, grasping Harry's arm near the shoulder, squeezing hard. "We are here for you Harry, remember that."

OOOOOOO

Harry heard Ororo, somehow, and he gritted his teeth, pushing back against Balthakk's influence as hard as he could. Yet, this was Balthakk's kind of flight, mental and physical energy manipulation was his specialty. Of all the deities involved in the bet to see who could conquer/control the most of humanity, he was the one best suited to combat Harry's assault.

Harry's will was also being severely tested by the whispers in his head, which had somehow latched onto his memories and were using them against him now. "If you had more power, your friends would not have died against those demons. The demons would've fled in fear from you as they should have! Those children in Russia, do you think that saving them makes any real difference? How many children, both mutant and not, are in worse situations the world over? The first time that Book of Students you made has a name that goes from red to black and then blank, what will you do? You need more power; you need the power to control everything, to change human nature! If you had that power, perhaps Hermione would still be alive!"

Harry roared in mental agony, his hands moving to his head, as the voice began to break him slowly down, forcing him back. Hermione's death was the wound that had never healed, something he hadn't been able to move past. She hadn't died in battle or after Voldemort started his campaign. Hermione had died because she was Harry's friend and Voldemort wanted to send Harry a message. She was left helpless because Dumbledore hoped that without her, Harry would come to him for aid, because she was Harry's friend. No matter what anyone said, the guilt of that was a deep, jagged wound in his soul.

Balthakk didn't believe in physical forms, seeing them as beneath a god like himself. Yet right now, if he had a physical form, he would be smiling. A Wizard as an avatar was something that none of the others would ever be able to match and with his power backing Harry, his avatar would win the world for him.

OOOOOOO

Jean and Emma had come forward to grasp onto Harry as well but all three of the ladies were now on feeling the pressure, Ororo especially. Her own pressure field was slowly giving way, as were her knees. Jean was pushing back as hard as she could but even she was sweating now. Emma, pressed hard to Jean's side and protected by the redhead's power, was close to breaking and running.

The blonde's eyes were wide with fear, her blond hair planted against her head with sweat, unable to fight back, unable to truly grasp the powers pressing all around her, yet she was still there by Harry's side. It was the fact she felt helpless more than anything else that had Emma in such a state. Power, like money and fiscal intelligence, were turn-ons for Emma, but this was something else, the pressure wasn't coming from Harry, it was coming from something she couldn't understand, couldn't come to grips with. But it certainly could affect her.

Ororo still had strength enough to reach forward and gently turn Harry's head towards her. "Harry, come back to me, come back to us. We love you Harry, we need you here, not an avatar, just Harry." She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips, pulling back slowly.

Jean leaned forward in turn, kissing Harry's lips, murmuring. "You were my anchor when I needed it, now I'm yours when you need it! You're stronger than this, you're stronger than any damned ancient god! Hold it together, Harry, and come back to us!" Emma tried to reach up to do the same but could only manage to lean up for a moment, kissing Harry on the cheek before she collapsed, overcome by the force all around them despite Jean's protection.

Harry's body was almost entirely encased in the yellow armor, which much like Juggernauts armor, didn't actually cover his entire body, being more a set of bracers, boots, leggings, and a yellow formfitting breastplate. That breastplate was now fully formed and the process was creating some kind of metal faceplate as the ladies kissed him. But that progress halted and began to reverse slowly as they watched. "That's it, Harry," Jean exclaimed, grinning now, her entire being writhed in Phoenix fire as she leaned into his chest. "Fight it off! You're your own damn person, Harry Potter! I didn't fall in love with you just to lose you!"

OOOOOOO

Harry heard his lover's words and smiled faintly, shaking his head as Balthakk said, "What need have humans for free will when all they do is abuse it? Join me, become my voice among humanity."

"But only by being free can we truly be human!" Harry shouted, pushing back against the god's words and influence, stronger now, a sudden shove that pushed the god's attack, off balance, to use a physical metaphor.

"Every choice we make, every step we take, we create the path we stride, no one controls us, no one has the right to take our ability to think, to feel to be human away from us, no matter the reasons!" He thrust himself back to his feet; his eyes beginning to shine with power again, as his will slowly forced Balthakk's back through the loop that they had created between them.

"I've never wanted to change people like that! I've never wanted to rule, to dominate! I want to lead, not demand or control. I want people to stand beside me of their own free will because it is only then when they will put forth all of their effort! I'm no god nor would I ever want to serve one. Humanity doesn't need things like you, who want to control us, who demand we subvert our will to yours! We can create those on our own, thank you so very much."

He smiled as he said it but his will was like diamond now and Balthakk couldn't find a purchase to get in any longer. Harry slowly but surely began to apply pressure on the god's own control of his magical powers, slowly regaining control of the loop.

"So all your friends died in vain?" Balthakk tried. "What would they say if they knew you gave up the power that could've saved them, that could save other people?"

"My friends would have understood." Harry replied calmly, most of his attention now on the mental struggle going on rather than the voice still trying to get into his head. "They fought because they believed in our cause. They believed in fighting for their friends, their family with their own hands rather than letting someone else do it for them. They followed me because they trusted me, not because I was the most powerful, not because I commanded them to! Yes, I want to change the world but not as its ruler. I will be its defender, its guardian at the gates against creatures like you and anything else! I can't change human nature but I can provide an example of what humans can truly be!"

His eyes were now lit with fervor and magical power. With a mental wrench Harry regained control of the loop with that snap that was almost audible, and Balthakk groaned in agony, flinching away.

Unlike Cyttorak, Balthakk had invested more of himself in a single gem, only creating a single true connection. Balthakk had hoped this would allow him to more closely control his avatar, which would give him an advantage over his fellows. Yet, it had truly backfired. First because Selene had found his true gem and hidden it, not even trying to figure out what it was, and now with Harry. The other gems Balthakk had sequestered on this world were fakes, duplicates to throw off his fellows from what he had done. Now Balthakk grunted in agony as his powers were slowly stripped away from him.

Harry felt his body almost vibrating with the power he was taking in. Abruptly he was connected once more to his own physical body, yet that connection was tenuous at best because that physical form was somehow becoming less solid. The more magic Harry took in, the less he was able to actually connect to a physical form.

Have to throw some of this power somewhere, he thought wildly. He went down to his knees, ignoring the ladies around him for a moment as he funneled the power he was stealing from Balthakk into the ley lines. Around the world, wizards raised their heads as they felt a vast super saturation of magical potential go through the Earth itself, the ley lines trembling slightly as the power was added to its own.

Nor was that reverberation only felt on the physical plane. Many deities felt it, wondered, and worried as Balthakk screamed. He wrenched at the connection reaching through his own connection to the jewel and shattering the gem, releasing Harry from their conflict and retreating back to his own realm, greatly reduced.

Once Harry felt his body begin to stabilize, his magical core once more under control, he stopped, pulling away from the Earth and the connection forged with the ley lines under Hogwarts. Harry's body was still throbbing, like there was something tingling just under the surface, and, even without casting a spell, Harry knew he had at the least tripled his magical strength from before this battle, though he could feel other changes begin in his body, his magic going further than it ever had before to change him

Instead, his attention was taken by the more visible proof that he had won the battle. He looked down at the armor he was wearing, gently flicking it with fingertip causing a slight 'tink' sound. "Huh?" he said thoughtfully. "Well, isn't that a thing." He looked up at the trio of women who had, rather literally saved his soul. "Thank you, sincerely. If you weren't here…"

"I said we were your anchor, my Harry." Ororo said putting her hand over his mouth. "That is what partners do." He nodded faintly then woozily got to his feet, pulling Jean into a wordless hug. The two clung to one another for a moment then Ororo supported Harry as he moved towards the doorway.

Jean pulled Emma to her feet and began to follow them, the two younger women leaning on one another. The blond had been the most effected of the trio, having only woken up from her swoon as Harry finished stabilizing his core. Emma was no longer white in the face but her eyes a little wild, a mix of still present fear and growing desire thanks to the knowledge that Harry had just beaten a FUCKING GOD! She stared from Jean to Harry and Ororo. "I-is this the kind of crap you three do every day?"

"No," Jean answered faintly, most of her attention on trying to keep the two of them on their feet. "This was a little more difficult than most of the crap we run into."

"Oh. Good." Emma said weakly, her eyes now tracking, but her voice still quavering as she glanced between the three lovers.

OOOOOOO

Many beings, both in the universe/reality humanity called home and without, had felt the reverberations of Harry's battle against Balthakk. Gods and goddesses had felt that reverberation, although only the most learned, such as the sky-fathers, earth-mothers, and certain others could understand what the first meant, the massive transfer of power that signaled the death of a god and the birth of another. Yet, the second surge took many of these by surprise. After all, it was very rare for someone to deny himself godhood after he had seized the power to become such but most forgot it swiftly, feeling the Elder god still there, simply assuming that an upstart had been beaten down at great cost.

Odin looked up in shock in his personal quarters, his one remaining eye widening. His wife, Frigga, noticed this, looking at her husband. "What do you see that has shocked you so, husband?"

"Not so much see as feel, wife. I will return, I need to speak to Heimdall the all-seeing." With that, he left at a brisk walk, moving toward the Rainbow Bridge and its guardian.

Of course, Heimdall had seen him coming, though what he said was troubling. "I know why you have come lord, but I cannot tell you much of the disturbance. It has something to do with an Elder God, one of the Octoessence has lost a large portion of his power, but how I cannot say. It happened somewhere on Midgard but my sight is blocked from seeing precisely where. The wards of wherever occurred bars my eyes."

Odin frowned heavily; it would seem his own abilities as Sky-father, lord of his pantheon, were able to tell him more than Heimdall. That had the feel of the insufferable Balthakk, the one who was so disdainful of all things mortal that he didn't even bother having a corporeal form. He is so badly weakened I imagine his fellows have already moved against him, though he might still live, I know nor care not. What does matter, is how he lost so much power and if they are a threat to me and mine. Midgard is gathering too many eyes of late, too many powers whose interest they are not ready to meet. "What can you tell me about these wards that block your sight?"

That conversation told Odin some more about this new power in Midgard, but not a lot, not enough to know its position in terms of Asgard, at least. He decided that he might have to send a scout down to see what this new power was. Nor was Odin the only one who was wondering what was going on…

OOOOOOO

Steven gasped and then gasped again, going to his knees. Clea, too gasped and looked around in shock, her eyes widening in wonder and a bit of joy. Wanda clutched her head, staring at them both in confusion as she felt something she didn't have enough knowledge to understand. Then a wild thrumming filled the air as the wards, linked to the large ley line that wound its way underneath Strange's home, were almost overpowered. If not for their sheer number, they might well have been overwhelmed but, as it was, they simply soaked up the added power. "Master Clea, what, what is going on?"

Almost as soon as it began, it ended. Strange shook his head, smiling a little woozily. "In answer to your question, young Wanda, the first thing I felt was the dramatic weakening of an Elder God, one who I sometimes call for a few of my offensive spells. Then we felt someone funneling magical energy into the ley lines. Possibly, the very energy Balthakk lost or, at least, some of it. Somehow, I just know Mr. Potter is behind this. I am now looking forward to seeing him this Saturday. Hearing him explain what just happened will be most enlightening."

OOOOOOO

Hela was not a Sky-father or even an Earth-mother but the gorgeous Asgardian personification of death was also watching Harry, as she had been whenever she didn't have duties to perform. Her own scrying spells were based around her position as Asgardian goddess of Death, which allowed her to somewhat circumvent the wards that kept out Heimdall's sight. Thus, she saw everything.

Hela saw the gem and the fact it anchored a connection to an Elder God. She could even figure out who thanks to the color of the armor along with the odd purple, at least to her sight, energies playing around the gem and Harry. She watched the physical manifestation of the fight between Harry and Balthakk with great interest. Hela could not hear what the God was saying to Harry nor could she hear what the humans were saying. Her scrying spells did not come with audio, especially not going through the massively powerful and complicated wards that protected Hogwarts and then into the bizarre and even better defended RoR.

Yet even so, Hela could see the moment Harry won, when the gem crumbled as Balthakk retreated from the mortal plane greatly reduced, possibly enough so as to be a target for the others of his pantheon. She saw when Harry's body began to deteriorate from the magical energy residing within. She could almost see the seed of a new God appearing in him. Then it was gone, as Harry poured his new power into the ley lines.

She had made looking into Harry Potter a sort of personal project of hers and had been astonished, astounded, and captivated in turn. His personal history in his past dimension, which she could only view with difficulty, was not a pleasant one. Still, it told her enough of the man behind the power, and her attraction to him skyrocketed when she had felt the surge she had dared hope that Harry would transcend and would become worthy of her affections. She wanted to see if Harry was as magnificent as he seemed but she wasn't about to spend time slumming with a human like Thor so desperately wanted to do, at least according to rumor. She was a goddess; no mortal man would ever be able to satisfy her

Yet at the last moment, Harry had thrown away just enough of the power to keep himself from becoming a god, from losing his flesh and blood human form entirely. Yet at the same time, she could feel that he had changed. He wasn't an Asgardian but he was no longer merely human either. He had thrown off enough power to not become a god, to be certain, but he was now far more powerful than even the Sorcerer Supreme. It would not surprise Hela at all if it had even changed his physical form.

There was a certain hierarchy to godhood, much like demon-hood. Normal Asgardians and Grecians were the bottom rung. They were much more physically powerful than most mortals and they were essentially immune to disease. In the case of the Grecians, they could be killed in battle but were otherwise immortal. The Asgardians were merely incredibly long lived. Next were those who were the center of religions, the Sky-fathers and Earth Mothers, such as Odin and Gaia, who could take some power from their worshippers and more from those below them in the pantheon. They could also, some of them at least, exist on more than a single plane of existence. They had a physical form but that was not the sum of their being.

Next were the Elder Gods and the rather standoffish god of the Torah/Bible. They existed more as beings of pure energy than anything else, although some still had physical forms, which they retained in pocket dimensions they themselves had mostly created. Not all had, of course, but most. What really set them apart was they existed both there, as well as anywhere else they wished, without any set limit to the number of planes they could be interacting with at any given time. Of course, the amount they could concentrate on was actually limited by each individual god's ability to pay attention to multiple things at once, which varied wildly.

Thanks to being a wizard and his unique spells that could alter his body's physical ability, Harry now had more than enough magical power to be the equal of an upper rung Asgardian, like Hela herself or Thor. Yet, he was also still mortal, still flawed for some reason. At first, she couldn't understand why he hadn't taken that final step but looking down at them in her bowls image of the RoR (and wasn't that room an amazing example of Álfurinn style magic) she could see the reason.

Hela studied the trio of women with Harry, most especially the two most powerful. The connection they formed is what kept him from transcending. The avatar of the Phoenix and that chosen of Gaia... Perhaps, perhaps I need to consider if I am willing to become part of the whole rather than his sole desire. Certainly, despite not being gods, they are close enough and I have, at times, wondered what it would be like to be with a woman. That Grecian slut Aphrodite seems to like both sides of the distaff well enough. Still, let me put that thought aside for now. I may yet be able to win his affections away from them, although any overt move against them must be planned out well in advance, so as to have no connection to me. Now, how to gain an introduction…

OOOOOOO

The next day, Jean and Ororo woke up and were pleased to find Harry still in bed with them, albeit sitting up and staring at his reflection in a small mirror but that was still somewhat a relief. Harry however was pleased by the fact there was no visible change to his body from the ordeal. His muscles might be denser and he felt somewhat like he had his Magia Erebea on at a very low level but, other than that, his physical body hadn't really changed.

Neither lady was pleased by his recitation of the clash between him and Balthakk, though they were very pleased indeed to know that Balthakk had been so badly reduced. He reiterated the fact that it had been the two of them as well as Emma who had kept him going when the thing began its mental assault.

It was one thing to fight against your own demons. It was quite another to have those demons given power by an elder god and sent to traipse through your mind. Whether or not Harry would have folded and become the god's avatar was still debatable but his sanity would have surely been destroyed if the battle had continued. Still, because of the three women anchoring him, Harry had been able to win through, gaining the power he was unfortunately certain he was going to need when they quite literally invaded hell.

"Still, I am happy to report that the fight with Balthakk finally gave my naming sense enough of a kick in the ass for me to come up with another codename for myself."

Ororo smirked, running her hands over his side, marveling a little at the fact he had first fought off a god and then abandoned godhood to be with her, Jean, and Emma. She was determined to make her approval of that choice plain as soon as she could, though today and tomorrow, alas, would not let them enough time to really do that justice. "Oh, and what is your new name, my wizard?"

"I'm going to call myself Guardian from now on. It's simple, but it encompasses what I am. I guard, I protect those who cannot protect themselves, I lead others to defend themselves, and I teach so that people may be better prepared to guard one another. At the heart, that is what I am."

Ororo and Jean exchanged a glance over Harry's chest. Both of them had the thought that Harry was still selling himself short. He was much more of a leader and visionary than he gave himself credit for. Despite this, they could see the name did indeed call to a large part of Harry's personality, so they both nodded. Jean spoke for them both. "That seems a much more fitting name than Mr. Wizard, Harry. Guardian it is."

Harry grinned, which did not go away as his two ladies tried to kiss him senseless for the next half hour, before the trio reluctantly got up to join the others for breakfast. Harry was even happier to report at lunch that the power he had siphoned off had a specific taste to it which added to his repertoire. Balthakk was connected to the sorcerous equivalent of manipulating pure magic without the aid of any spoken or thought spell; rather the imagination and will of the person using the spell controlled the effect of it. After absorbing Balthakk's powers, Harry could manipulate pure magic much more easily than before, without even the aid of mentally crafting the spell he desired. In fact, Harry was so pleased he hoped this flavor remained added to his magical core, much like that of the strength enhancement he had gotten for his Magia Erebea spell from Cyttorak.

The trio got up and spent the morning with Melody and the other children as well as checking in on Dennis. Melody seemed to realize something had changed in her father but either didn't care to explain what or couldn't explain it. She merely clung to his side much more than usual, something Harry wasn't about to complain about. No one else, save Dr. Druid who knew what occurred, seemed to notice anything different.

The kids were happy to spend the day outside, and Harry, Jean, Ororo, Illyana, Piotr, and Melody played against Nikolai, his sister, and the other youngsters in a football game in the field the house elves had created over the past few days. Harry had a moment of nostalgia realizing that it was in the same place in relation to the castle as the quidditch pitch had been in his old dimension, but got over it quickly.

Dennis was still working on going through the data the computers they had scavenged from the base in Russia and had already found a few gems he wanted to share with Harry. Jean, however, had warned him to wait on that, since at the moment they had two large fishes to fry before they could turn their attention to anything else.

He also had found a lot of medical information he felt he wasn't really qualified to analyze, both about the mutant gene, and about something Doctor Phobos, who Dennis had discovered was working more for himself than the state he supposedly served, called 'Project Dvoynik'. Father Garnoff thought it might have something to do with the man's desire to siphon off mutant powers for himself but Dennis didn't know enough just yet to prove that assumption.

"On top of that, I've finally gotten some responses from my attempts to open up dialogue with old friends and associates who might be willing to pass on information." the elderly man said. He was waving one hand, which contained a fork, with such enthusiasm that he caused Illyich to duck away, scowling at him from where he sat on the ground next to him.

All the castle denizens were sitting outside today, taking advantage of the good weather while they could and the old man was holding court on one large picnic blanket while several more were spread out haphazardly around them. However, despite the nice semi-fall weather, Illyich looked dyspeptic. His team had lost the football game badly.

It turned out that Harry's skill as a seeker and hand eye coordination made him damn hard to take the ball from and Melody, who was now laying down with her head on one of Harry's thighs, was a deadly goalie, once the game was explained to her, at least. The only reason they had stayed in the game for so long was IIlyich's reflexes and speed, coupled with the extremely good goalie play of Sergei. His mutant power of sonar had made him able to read where the ball was going to go by the motion of his opponent's foot, allowing him to move in that direction even before the player's foot hit the ball.

Dennis cared nothing of that and ignored the teenager, going on excitedly. "I have tentative offers to pass on information from friends in America, FBI specifically, MI5 right here in the UK, and several others spread out in businesses the world over. My Japanese contact is still not willing to make a decision but that is more a cultural thing than anything else. I offended him greatly by going directly to him rather than to his subordinate but I didn't realize at the time he had gained a high enough position to care about such things. Still, he will be a major aid, once we prove to be someone his emperor will want to treat with."

"Why the emperor?" Emma asked quizzically. The two of them had got on splendidly once introduced and the older man was over the moon about the possibility of getting access to Frost Corp's electrical intelligence apparatus. Emma, in turn, was amazed at the man's credentials and more than a little pleased that Harry had the good sense to employ a spymaster already. "Isn't the emperor merely a figurehead?"

"Don't believe it." Dennis shook his head. "Asia is my specific area of expertise and let me tell you, the Japanese emperor has more influence behind the scenes than any Occidental is going to notice or believe. He is still revered by many, and those social duties of his, based around his being the highest authority in the Shinto religion are avenues where he can guide public opinion. While it is in no way universal, there is a lot of reverence towards the emperor from certain circles. Old time samurai families who long for the days of past glories, many of the more religious Shinto groups, and a few ex-noble families still look to the Chrysanthemum Throne. They might not do so for leadership in anything serious, but in social matters, such as the mutant issue, the royal family can make a big difference. My contact is part of the samurai caste, and he longs for the old days more than most, though I would say if he hadn't been a chosen companion of the current emperor while young, he might be the sort to want to set himself up as shogun."

"That is interesting but I trust you have been careful to not allow your contacts to know anything about who you work for?" Harry interjected, getting the conversation back to the original topic. For the most part, he was willing to let the two talk, since it was very enlightening to see the synergy of corporate espionage and international, but that was one point he wanted to be clear on.

"I haven't told anyone who I work for, though I think my Japanese contact, at least, has an idea. He's certainly on my list of those that got back to me. I haven't approached any of the men or women I would like to have work directly for us. I understood your instructions there but I would urge you to start letting me vet people as soon as possible. I'm getting rumblings of anti-mutant activities in Greece, Italy, and Egypt that are just a little too organized for my liking and another group in Asia, although that one might just be a criminal group enlisting mutants to its ranks. Still, something to watch out for, as are several other little indicators that Iron Man rip offs are spreading."

Everyone there grimaced. That genie was most definitely out of the bottle, though thankfully outside of the two examples Harry had put down in Russia, no one else seemed to have come up with working suits just yet, mainly because of the energy requirement. Harry didn't know what part of Stark's research got out that fueled the rapid development of such projects worldwide, but he was not amused by it at all. Still, they could be handled and he was going to be doing something about Stark soon. He wanted to set up a meeting between his alter ego and Ms. Potts to get her opinion on her boss. There was something there, something more than PTSD at work, and he hoped the good woman could be convinced to share it. If Harry could get Tony into his debt, there was no telling what doors that could open.

The talk continued from there, with Emma taking control, going over what she wanted everyone to be aware of before going into their meeting with the King. Eventually, it was time to get ready and the quartet excused themselves. Dennis watched them go, wondering if he should have asked to go with them. After all, he had been a loyal servant of the crown for years before Britain pulled out of Vietnam. Yet no, his loyalties were to this young man. Come what may, Harry was going to shake the world and Dennis wanted to watch as it happened.

About an hour later, Harry came down to the entrance hall to meet his ladies, having been consigned to dress himself, under several very gruesome threats from Emma to 'be presentable', in what had already been come to call 'the couples bathroom', though Harry was relieved that there weren't any other couples using it just yet,. The somewhat less ornate bathroom in the headmaster's suite was turned over to the ladies. He wore a very old fashioned tuxedo, complete with cravat, but he had drawn the line at a hat.

The ladies were simply magnificent when they came down half an hour later. First, they all actually wore makeup, something that only Emma made use of very often and even there, only a bit of lipstick. Ororo wore a formal suit made of silk with a long sheer black skirt with silver accents and a matching blouse with large loose sleeves. The bottom edges of the sleeves and skirt were embellished with bronze colored clouds, much like clouds at sunrise. She also wore bronze and silver earrings shaped into lightning bolts.

By her side, Jean wore a complicated braid going down her back, no earrings, and a green with red blouse and skirt set that covered her from neck to ankle, looking attractive, yet, somehow business like in cut. Emma wore a similar combination in white, naturally, with gold highlights which looked demure and almost virginal, yet again, somehow business like at the same time. Both dresses were markedly less colorful than Ororo's suit, emphasizing that Ororo was the senior of the trio, although why Emma had organized it that way Harry didn't know.

Emma, however, knew which of them had the most regal air and wanted to capitalize on it. Ororo wore power and majesty like a cloak and seemed to almost dominate the room with her sheer presence. Jean and Emma did the same, of course, but to a lesser extent, since Ororo had years of experience on both of them, making her impact all the greater. "Well, what do you think?"

"I think you all look magnificent, although I hope that the court physician is on hand. William's an old man and the sight of you three might be enough to stop his heart," Harry said gallantly, bowing to them all and taking Emma's hand. With his other hand, he quickly weaved a few spells over all four of them, making it so that their identities and his power to keep their identities secret would remain secret.

After telling Dennis and Shiang Chi that they were leaving, Harry and the others set off. Emma looked down at the carpet Harry was standing on as it suddenly lifted off the floor. "And this is?"

"Our mode of transportation for the day. I transferred one of my little projects from when I began teaching Kitty runes onto this carpet. I figured that this way we could arrive without looking windswept." Plus, this way no one has a hint of Emma's powers, one way or another. "Jean and I always look a little disheveled after long distance flights and even Ororo sometimes lets her hair get messed up by the wind."

"That'll do Potter, that'll do," Jean said, then dared Emma's ire by leaning in to kiss him gently on the lips, messing up her lipstick a little. "Let's get going."

Harry chuckled, as Ororo raised a shield of wind around them, keeping out the force of the wind of their passage. A second later, the carpet rose at Harry's command into the air before zooming off like a speeding bullet. Dennis and Fay Brown looked at them as they went, then turned to one another and laughed before going back out to join the rest of the castle's denizens out on the grass.

The trip down to the castle was silent for the most part, with Harry merely sitting there, preparing himself mentally for the battle to come. Jean and Emma made some small talk, but they were worried about what was going to happen soon as well. Only Ororo was confident, knowing that Harry would do as well as he could in forging their alliance with the King and realizing that as all she could ask of him.

About thirty minutes travel, much faster than any normal plane could move, found them over the sprawling city of London. The spires of the churches, the massive towers of the hotels, and other buildings all were laid out below them, wringing a whistle of awe from Emma. The view of the countryside when in flight had held no interest for her, but this, this was something else. "Now I know why you three like flying so much. Damn, this is impressive."

Jean and Ororo chuckled and agreed while Harry guided them down slightly, heading toward a corner of the back gardens of Buckingham Palace, where they landed right outside the magical wards. "Game faces on, ladies."

As soon as Harry canceled the number of spells he had used to cover them, they were challenged by two guards. These were not the red-shirted guards on show outside the castle; these were serious soldiers from the same regiment as the Gurkha company they had befriended during the battle against Selene. "Halt and be recognized, you are on royal property!"

Harry held up his hands in token of peace while the trio of men in front of them took in their clothing. They didn't lower their weapons, of course. These were combat veterans who knew their job very well but there was a slight lessening of tension as they took in the way the interlopers were dressed. "We have an appointment with the King. I believe the name might be under the moniker of Mr. Wizard."

"Wait." The corporal in charge ordered and then quickly brought out a walkie-talkie, calling it in. "Confirmed, Mr. Wizard and friends. Please follow us; the King is indeed expecting you."

The ladies moved forward but Harry stayed right where he was. "If you could, please remind the King about our little chat on the nature of the wards of this place. I really do not want to try their patience. In this particular area they would… huh… they would inverse all the hair on my body while also hitting said hair with an enlarging charm while forcing me to dance a folk dance. . Ye gods, someone had way too much time on their hands and a very odd imagination. Also, ugh."

That seemed to break the ice a bit more. Evidently, the soldiers had heard from their fellows a bit about magic being real or simply believed in it anyway for some other reason because they all chuckled while Emma and Ororo both gagged. Jean, on the other hand, merely looked around, angry she couldn't see the wards Harry was speaking of. Ororo, to her own surprise, could see a faint flicker in the air at the corner of her eyes as she looked around but couldn't understand what it was and put it out of her mind.

The corporal called it in then held up the walkie-talkie on full. The King's voice issued from it declaiming in a loud voice. "I, William the Fifth do give you welcome for this day only, so long as you intend me or any within no harm, to enter and be welcome in our palace."

Harry took a step forward and was grateful when the wards didn't try to do anything to him. Of course, at this point Harry could have shattered them with ease but he didn't know if he could put them back up later and saw no need to cause the massive amount of property damage that would result if he did so.

After that moment of amusement/tension, the group continued, moving through the grounds to the palace with the soldiers moving around them in a defensive formation. The group garnered some attention from the guards stationed around the grounds and from hundreds of tourists walking around taking pictures just outside the grounds but, on the surface, it simply looked like a group of nobles being escorted around so most of those watching didn't take much notice. One or two, stationed here by their parent agencies after the remarkable events weeks ago, did, but couldn't figure out what the odd group could mean.

Soon enough, they reached the palace and were ushered swiftly up the back way to the royal apartments, the area of the castle turned over to business. This included a small but formal sitting hall, built around a single wooden table with the King sitting at the far end. There were several men and one woman around him, two servants stationed by a far door (with one holding something on a silver platter), plus a man and a woman, obviously not part of the group around the King, standing to one side.

Looking at the people there and the general setting, Harry sent a mental nod Emma's way. Part of him had hoped this would be a simple business meeting with just him, William, and a few cronies on either side, though he winced at that using the term for his ladies. He had known that was wishful thinking but he hadn't really thought that Emma's belief that it would be ultra-formal would in fact prove the case.

And it truly was. The King was sitting on his throne, scepter of office in one hand and his actual crown on his head, something, it was publicly known, he cordially despised. He wore an equally old-style suit like Harry's, as did two men by his side, one of whom looked somewhat familiar but Harry couldn't place him. The other two men who weren't wearing courtier's formal dress however, he could.

One of the men was Captain Nabari, standing there resplendent in the Gurkha's dress uniform, with several medals including the George Cross, the Order of Merit, and Distinguished Conduct Medal, which had several bars under it. Next to him was General Mountebanks, who Harry had briefly seen after the battle with Selene. He, too, was dressed to the nines in his dress uniform along with is full array of medals, which included the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, the Distinguished Service Order with dozens of rosettes on it, several campaign specific medals much like the Captain's and, in pride of place, the Victoria Cross.

Harry paused in his perusal of the people in the room when he saw that and exchanged a nod of recognition with the older man before turning his attention to the others. There had been talk back in his old dimension of awarding him with the Victoria Cross after the guerilla war with Voldemort ended but by that point, he was already planning his little trip through the Veil and had seen no point to it.

The woman with them was dressed in an extremely severe business suit, providing a stark contrast to the rather old-fashioned formality of the others around her. Harry wondered briefly if that was a contrived effect but would soon decide that it was simply part and parcel of the woman's personality. The Iron Maiden was a moniker that Margaret Thatcher truly deserved.

Despite the formality of the atmosphere, the King's initial words were rather whimsical. "I understand from the report I received that you arrived on a flying carpet, Mr. Wizard? I don't suppose I could prevail on you to either sell me something like that or never ever be seen using it? My granddaughter is a tremendously large fan of Aladdin."

"I'll see what I can do about that Your Majesty, though selling it might be a bit much. And I have decided on a new codename, I'm Guardian now."

"Rather accurate given your chosen profession and your particular disease." The King nodded, then straightened up slightly and began more formally. "Come before us today is an ally in times of greatest peril to this realm, who without his aid we would not be sitting here today. We have thought long and hard about an appropriate gift for your actions, Mr. Potter."

The name change signified that they were now entering the formal stage of this ceremony and that it was not time to hide behind codenames, if his mode of speech and tones left any doubt. "At first we thought public recognition would be the thing to do but later thought that's you would not like this."

Harry nodded agreement, and the King went on. "Perhaps some medals, Mr. Potter?"

"I've got enough paperweights of my own, Your Majesty. I fight for people and for ideals, not fancy bits of metal." Behind Harry, Emma mentally winced at this undiplomatic statement and was tempted to send out the telepathic equivalent of a slap but she couldn't find his mind to hit.

Yet, the King merely chuckled as did the general nodding his head agreeably. Some medals were worth it, they symbolized something, but eventually the symbols no longer mattered. What kept you going where the memories, the people around you, and the knowledge you were doing what you felt was the right thing.

The King answered quickly, however. "So we had assumed and then we were reminded by our majordomo of another gift we could give you, a magic user. Something that our family has held in trust for several generations now."

He raised one hand and the steward carrying a silver tray in his outstretched hands came forward. On the tray was a parcel or small box covered by a royal blue velvet cloth. He moved forward until he stood in front of Harry and then removed the cloth revealing a large, leather-bound book. The leather was black and the pages of parchment were faded with age. Upon the cover were written three words, all in Welsh. Harry didn't know what two of them were; he couldn't read them, but the third, Crochenydd, that was a name he had seen before.

At the sight of that word, Harry almost gasped aloud, keeping himself still with difficulty. This was proof positive that one family, at least, hadn't disappeared behind the wards that had separated the wizards from the norms in this dimension, a book that looked like a family grimoire left with the royal family.

William had watched him very closely and he smiled to himself though it did not appear on his face. "Will this be sufficient recompense for your aid, Mr. Potter?"

"I would've helped you in any event Your Majesty, but I thank you for this gift," Harry said with aplomb, reaching forward to take the book.

"Very good. I understand we are also here to finalize the agreement between your corporation and my nation."

"We are indeed, Your Majesty, but given what happened after the crisis, I feel that perhaps we should renegotiate? I'm certain that by now there are other nations that would be willing to enter into negotiations with us."

"Not as many as you would think so long as you're going to push your mutant/human equal rights agenda as part of the deal." said the woman standing beside the king crisply. "I'm Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister."

She looked over at two other men who had been standing watching the events silently. "May I present the ambassadors from the Italy and France? When we hinted at the idea that you would probably be pushing your own agenda about mutant/human equality, it seemed to make most parties back away from the idea of hosting your corporation."

Emma frowned mentally, happy that Harry had remembered to open with that move but not surprised it had been countered. That was a very good opening gambit, releasing real information that would make your competitors back out of the bidding for Harry's corporation.

The ambassador from Italy shrugged and when he spoke, he confirmed that thought. "Our Russian, Greek, and German fellows have enough issues at home with other acts of racial hatred. The skinhead movement is on the rise in Germany. There is even a strong party based around neo-Nazism in their government. The Greeks are having a major issue with their economy as well as some homegrown terrorists and their general level of governmental corruption. As for the Russians, they hate mutants almost as much as they hate gays, possibly more, though the difference is slight."

"You should have heard the German embassy's doctor scream about it. He was very vocal about it, threatened to defect the last time I had lunch with my counterpart just to go somewhere where he could get his hands on some of your potions." The French ambassador, a statuesque blond whose looks and accent reminded Harry somewhat of Fleur, spoke up, a small smile on her face.

"The American doctor couldn't get his boss to agree to look into it. They don't like the idea of using your potions since they are so unknown and they don't see any way of taking over their creation. We prefer to be more pragmatic about that and, to mix English metaphors rather badly, our governments see those potions as the tip of an iceberg that they wish to be able to ride."

"Please, be seated." the King said, waving at the table in front of him. "I have no doubt this will be a long discussion."

Harry and his ladies sat at one end, with Jean on one side of the table, Emma on the other, and Ororo and Harry at the end. The King sat at the end opposite Harry along with Margaret in a simple chair next to him, though the chairs obviously did not denote any kind of special rank or status. The two ambassadors sat side-by-side on one side of the table down from Emma.

The male ambassador turned to her and asked politely, "May I ask what you're part in this is, Madame? We were told to expect the former Mr. Wizard and his allies but you are an unknown. I notice, by the way, that when we look away from any of you we can no longer bring your features to mind. That is an interesting defensive ability, one I'm certain many nations would give practically anything for, if it is something that could be taught or bought."

At Harry's nod of encouragement, Emma replied. "We are aware of many things that governments the world over would pay any price to have exclusive access to but we are also equally aware that most of it would be abused and not a one of them could be possibly trusted not to do so. We are here to discuss setting up Mr. Potter's corporation in this realm or one of yours gentlemen, nothing more just yet. That corporation will begin by selling potions and it might move on into other realms depending upon your ability to make it worth our while."

The wizard cut in smoothly here, smiling slightly at how well Emma had redirected the conversation, working with her almost like they were a skilled combat team now. However, despite his own name being known, he wasn't about to share anyone else's so he had to come up with a name for Emma on the spot and, once again, he overcame his horrible naming sense to decide, rather ironically on a gem of a name for one of his jewels. "Diamond has a point. Anything my company comes up with will be fully vetted before we release it. Many things I can do will not be released at all." In fact, the ambassadors and all the others there would later find they couldn't even talk about the abilities Harry had shown, much to their chagrin.

Emma smiled internally at the name, deciding it would do well enough for a codename. Certainly better than the White Queen, since that would hint at her involvement in the Hellfire Club.

"The initial offer by the King was to have the corporate tax remain at fifteen percent for the first fifteen years, with an agreement to raise it by one percent every year, extending that rate of taxation to any other avenues of business. I believe that, given the fact that my potions have now been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, and that they will represent a tremendous boon to medicine both on the civilian side and the military, that that should be a minimal starting amount, along with starting to ensure mutant rights under the law, making any crimes against them hate crimes, as has already been made into law here in the UK."

Those laws had been rammed through the Parliament a mere week ago, although before that, the police forces had already been acting on them. There were a lot of unhappy people because of it but thanks to both Thatcher and the King getting behind it, the law had gone through. There were still a lot of problems, both internal to the government and with public displays and violence but the government was clamping down on it as much as the police could.

The Italian winced a little but Harry couldn't tell whether or not the wince was a real emotion or a negotiating gambit. He wasn't used to reading people like this so he couldn't tell what he was seeing. "I think that my government will be willing to match or exceed that, and more than willing to throw in other incentives, but the pro-mutant stance however is a sticking point, if we could put that off for a time…?" He ended hesitantly.

"You may put off creating such laws so long as you make some concessions in that area." Harry replied, smiling thinly. "Perhaps, putting together a think tank to study the problem? Needless to say, of course, that we would be represented on said think tank and would thus have your government's permission to interact with any proven mutants that turn up in your nation? And of course, ensuring their rights under your laws will come within a year, after which, if those laws haven't gone through, then the corporation will move its headquarters elsewhere." Emma smiled slightly, not able to stop herself as she watched Harry take her advice from their discussion on Wednesday.

The Frenchwoman frowned while the Italian winced even more but it was the Frenchwoman who replied aloud. "That… that might be possible but… I don't think my government would be willing to let foreign operatives be part of such a potentially volatile situation. An advisory role, certainly, but actually interacting with our citizens, no. Instead, shall we talk about the tax cuts we are willing to offer?"

"On the contrary." Margaret stated firmly. "I believe we would be very willing to put together a think tank to look after mutant interests. Those mutants who have mutations that make them dangerous need training in how to use their powers; this is just fact. We would of course require to be represented, to watch and understand that training, but otherwise, adding a think tank like this would be an excellent idea above and beyond the laws we have already implemented. As for taxes, I think rather than fifteen percent, ten percent for twenty years as a starting point?"

"I would be willing to go to ten percent for twenty, plus free permits for producing and selling pharmaceuticals, though we would need to have our PSM okay them before actually selling them to the public. Five percent supplier's tax when you do start selling to the civilian side for the first two years, where it is normally ten percent set. On the mutant rights issue, I can agree to look into setting up a think tank to look into the actual facts of mutations and providing defense of those mutants whose mutations bring more public problems down on them. However, I don't think my government would allow any other group to oversee how we interact with our own citizens."

The discussion moved on from there, with Mrs. Thatcher taking the role of sole negotiator for the British and the two diplomats negotiating hard for their own governments against the team of Harry and Emma, aided by some small interjections from Jean and Ororo. In the end, they couldn't quite match Britain's ability to make Harry feel at home. The pro-mutant stance was indeed a sticking point but it wasn't the only one. There was also Harry's firm demand that there would be no reselling of his products to other nations or hoarding of his product and the fact he wanted it put into the agreement that any such official act would be regarded as a breach of contract.

"I understand that duplicitous people exist everywhere," Harry said, smiling faintly, but his words were serious as were his eyes. "But I refuse to let them make money off my hard work when I can stop them. There will be... defenses in place to stop anyone from actually using the potions if they are taken from the district, base, hospital or state they are sold to, but I want the governments I deal with to know I take such attempts very dimly indeed. There will also be defenses in place to stop any attempts at hoarding."

As the conversation continued on that topic it became clear they didn't believe him on the efficacy of the defenses he was making a point to not go into detail on. Eventually, they agreed and moved on to other points.

Thanks to Harry using Emma's earlier suggestion on a gradual change to mutant/normal human equality, that was less of an issue. The French diplomat was willing to open up a dialogue with Harry, regardless of the business deal, to train and make certain mutants with superpowers were not a threat to either themselves or other people so long as they had representatives watching the training. She also felt her government could agree with the idea of a think tank to look at the base issue, that of mutations marking a demarcation between homo sapiens and 'homo superior'. The Italian couldn't promise the first nor could he agree to the idea of a think tank. In terms of the deal for potions however, however, the Frenchwoman was not able to match the next sticking point.

Harry wanted to start selling directly to medical centers for the military with no more time spent on testing. The military part of that wasn't an issue but the civilian doctors they had contacted refused to sign off on letting Harry's potions through their equivalent of the FSA. They wanted to analyze the potions themselves, as well as all the ingredients, and Harry's calm assurance that they wouldn't find anything if they did was worrisome.

They were however able to hammer out deals for their countries militaries to start bringing in potions within a month, which they paid for now after an entirely different discussion which the British bowed out of, now knowing that Harry would almost certainly be working with them. Harry left this portion of the discussion to Emma, knowing he was a little too soft hearted for this portion. He wanted to sell his potions cheaply so they could be used by civilians who needed them cheaply but that really wasn't smart.

The main potions Harry was selling at present were the bone knitting potion, the nerve healing potion, the burn paste, and the blood replenishing potion. The bone knitting potion, which was a slightly weaker potion than its parent, skelegro, sold for the equivalent of one hundred twenty thousand pounds for every unit, a bargain for what it could be used for, since a single unit could be used for various levels of injury with smaller doses before running out. It couldn't replace lost bones entirely, but it could heal bones that were still there regardless of how damaged they were, which made it much more applicable to the mundane world than skelegro.

The nerve healing potion went for a two hundred thousand pounds single use, but again for what it could do that was a monstrously good price. The Burn paste was sold for one hundred sixty thousand pounds and, again, a single tin of paste could be used many times for varying levels of burns. The blood replenishing potion sold for ten thousand pounds sterling.

The two diplomats handed over initial payments for a 'small' sample to be sent to their countries, the size of which were staggering to all but Emma who smiled appreciatively at them. For a thousand units each of the bone-knitting potion, burn paste, and blood replenishing potion plus two hundred nerve-healing potions, the total came to three hundred thirty million pounds sterling from each of the two ambassadors.

Combined, that payment was much larger than the amount of money they had gotten from Harry selling his gold from his previous dimension or even the gold from the cache that Jean had raided a few weeks back. With these funds in hand, they would be able to start really moving their company forward, their personnel director could start hiring, they could start building the company's offices and the environs around it, pay for everything else they needed to modernize Hogwarts, its grounds, and hire the teachers for it as well as several other long term projects. They could even buy the gear Jean wanted for her engineering workshop.

Neither ambassador was very pleased, however, seeing these deals more as losses for their governments than anything else. Out of simple corporate taxes, the income they could've made, from even a small amount of taxation on Harry's company, would quickly have made up for the amount they just handed over but they simply could not match the non-tax related incentives Britain could. Without the leaders of their government there, they were overpowered by Thatcher's bargaining strength. Neither could waive the corporate taxes entirely like Thatcher was willing to for the first two years, which was what had made them both finally back down in the last round of bargaining. Harry had forced that through, something that Emma was so proud of she could burst.

Harry however had something to assuage their injured pride. "I realize that neither of you are happy with the way today has turned out, nor I would not like you to go away angry. It turns out that Selene, the woman that caused such havoc here in London, had several caches of items that she had collected over her lifetimes. One of them was an art collection that we are still going through, clearing it of traps and other things. Two of them, however, I believe we can safely hand over to you as gifts to your government right now."

He turned to the King. "With your permission Your Majesty, I would like to call in one of my retainers to retrieve them."

William nodded, wondering what this was going to be about and then gave his verbal permission, which allowed Harry to call in a house elf. A little house elf appeared seconds later and, as everyone stared at the little creature, Harry asked it to get two specific paintings, the names of which caused everyone there to start in shock. "Could you get the two paintings labeled Le Pigeon Aux Petits Pois, and Lovers: the Poets Garden IV and bring them here?"

A moment later the little creature was back, the two paintings held in midair by its magic so Harry could take them one at a time, handing them over to the astonished diplomats, whose eyes had widened at the names. The Picasso had initially been held in an Italian museum and went to the Italian ambassador. The Van Gogh painting went to France since it had been at the Paris Museum before the occupation.

The Frenchwoman looked at Harry with reverence in her eyes. "This is amazing, Mr. Potter. This is an item of our heritage that we had long thought lost. I assure you that if you wish to keep the dialogue open with me to return other items of such amazing antiquity; my government will be more than willing to pay an honest price for them."

Harry nodded. "As soon as we can clear them of any dangers, we will be returning them to their owners, if we can, or sell them to museums at fair prices when we cannot. When that occurs, I may call on you for a letter of introduction but we will see."

She didn't know that Emma had decided to take one of the paintings for herself and had already purchased it from Harry. She rather liked the idea of having a Rembrandt on her wall. It would certainly be a discussion piece or it could be turned into a trade item with Paris in the future. Paris was a true art aficionado and would probably react as Emma did when Emma was faced with all the gold that Jean had found in Pakistan.

Both diplomats went away with stunned smiles on their faces, despite having handed over enormous amounts of money (in the form of checks) for something that would not in fact be in their hands for another month. Still, the paintings were an amazing show of good faith and their governments would be willing to put up with the wait, since the paintings alone were worth almost, or possibly even equal to, the amount they had just handed over. The waiting period would also allow their militaries to prepare for the influx of the magnificent potions anyway and would win Harry quite a lot of goodwill with those governments as well as the people eventually.

After the two diplomats left, Harry turned back to the King smiling a little. "Now, let's continue."

Eventually, he, Emma, and Margaret Thatcher were able to hammer out an agreement that all of them were happy with. Two years tax free with a fixed corporate tax of ten percent after that for ten years rising to twenty after that by two percent per year. The two years start-up would be stretched out to include any new company Harry and his people began, though any other company would be placed under the rest of the tax deal at the point they came in. No import/export tax for five years and a fixed distribution tax for the domestic product of twelve percent.

That last alone, once Harry began to sell to the civilian sector, would gain back most of the cost they would be paying for their first two potions drops. These the King bought now: two purchases of four thousand units of every potion, the first to be given to them in a month for use in their military hospitals and field units, the second the month after. That came to two billion eight hundred million pounds, an amount that made even Harry freeze for just a moment, though Emma merely smiled approvingly.

Just as Margaret and Harry were going to seal the deal however the King spoke up. "Of course, when the time comes we will be extending most-favored-nation status to you and will expect the same in return."

That phrase caused Emma some confusion but Harry stiffened in his seat his eyes switching from the Iron Maiden to the King quickly, searching his face but his voice was mild when he addressed him. "That is an agreement between nations, Your Majesty. We are making deals for corporations now."

"Do not play games with me, Mr. Potter." William said, leaning forward intently. "You and I both know what will eventually be required. No matter what governments of the world may wish, hate crimes will always propagate against those who are different, especially unorganized minorities. There will always be those who will lash out at mutantkind, most particularly those unfortunates whose mutant powers do not allow them to defend themselves yet make them look different from others. So I ask you again, Mr. Potter, do I speak to a subject or to a king?"

Harry looked at the old man, thoughts running through his head. This conversation sort of brought to mind the combat he had with the Elder God. Harry had never wanted to dominate or to control but he did want to lead, mostly by example, and he had indeed been thinking about the problem that the King had mentioned with what he called the Israeli Initiative. So he simply murmured, "A king by my own hand, perhaps, in the future."

"Than in the future, my nation will stand with you. I assume that both of us will profit greatly from it." And in that way, William tied the future of his nation to what he, very accurately, assumed would be a rising world power. The two men nodded, agreeing to that term, which was much more binding to them than any written document could ever be.

Not forty minutes later, the deals were signed and everyone was satisfied, even Emma was smiling somewhat to herself, as the group finally got up from the table. "Well, I think that went very well, don't you? Even if you are still keeping some of your plans for the future secret." she whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

Harry shrugged. "It was a mere thought for the future, Diamond, nothing I have done so far has been to start that plan going, just yet. I'll fill you in on it when it's more than just a distant thought in my head. William really jumped the gun on that, though I have no doubt both of us will profit from it. Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment."

He left her side for a moment, moving over to the man whose features had looked so familiar to him. He had finally placed the face and he smiled, holding out a hand to shake. "Captain Britain, I'm happy to see you again. Did you get over your funk? I've also been thinking about ways I could help your sister with her eyesight and wanted to make an appointment in the next two weeks or so to stop by and see her."

Jean drifted over at that, as well as Ororo. Both of them had been impressed and had developed something of a friendship with Betsy, though. Besides calling a few times in the weeks after their battle against Selene neither of them had really had the time to follow up with her, but even that had tapered off as they both added to their workloads. Needless to say, Harry, as the busiest of the trio, hadn't either.

Captain Britain was looking grave as he looked at the man who had helped his nation and his sister. "I'm afraid that would be impossible, Mr. Potter. You see, she disappeared about three days ago. No trace at all. One moment she was in her room and the next moment she was just gone. No sign of anything coming or going on the grounds and, believe me, we went over everything with a fine toothed comb. We have no idea what happened to her."

Harry and Ororo exchanged a startled glance, while Jean frowned heavily. All three were wondering what had happened and feeling very guilty about having not gone to see Betsy before this. "I'll stop in and see if I can find any magical traces." Harry began looking back at the Captain. "I wish I could get to it right away but I have so many other things going on, in particular an agreement that I have made with a man who is rather prickly about such things, such that I cannot put it off further."

Captain Britain understood that and simply nodded. "I will receive you at our house at your earliest convenience, Mr. Potter." It was obvious, despite his attempt to keep a British style stiff upper lip, he was very worried about his missing sister.

Harry nodded and the group continued on their way exchanging worried glances, wondering what this could mean and what had happened to Betsy. For now, they were done here and left the castle with their moods worsened by the news about Betsy, yet upbeat about the future.

OOOOOOO

For the rest of that day, Harry worked on preparing himself, Jean, and Ororo for their assault on Mephisto's realm. Most of this was preparing load outs of 'battle rattle', the items they would carry into battle, so called because of the sheer amount of stuff marines and other soldiers the world round carried every day. With space expansion charms, however, they could carry a lot of stuff without rattling. Especially since, with Harry's new level of power behind those charms, they would be particularly long lasting, possibly even permanent, given the fact they were spending so much time in Hogwarts and its environs.

For Jean and Ororo, he created protective pouches containing several potions, a few burn pastes, several pepper-up potions, and several pain relievers. He also added as much Orihalcum scales as he could to Jean's outfit around the chest and back. Actually, it was basically two suits. One was the one Jean had designed with the mark of the phoenix on it in red on a gold background. This was worn over an equally skin tight suit that covered her from right above her knees up to her neck and down her arms to her elbows into which was sown the tiny Orihalcum scales, smaller than a fingernail. The unstable molecules of the suit's outer cover would aid in stopping any impact, and the Orihalcum would stop anything it couldn't or, at the very least, most things. Harry had tested his new powers on a chunk of the metal, and had been rather pleased when most of his spells hadn't left a dent.

Ororo's uniform had already had some scales added to it and Harry finished that project, protecting her just as much as he could. Harry would wear his crysis suit covered by the chest plate and vambraces he had stolen from Balthakk, which was made of the same metal as Juggernaut's armor, although not nearly as heavy. He also worked on Ororo's headpiece and Jean's mask, adding as many protective spells as he could to them to defend their heads during combat. Both women knew not to be overconfident in those defenses. The best defense was not getting hit, something their training would emphasize to everyone on the team.

After that was done, Harry sent Hedwig down to that roof in Barcelona to drop off a message, then to where he wanted to set up the dimensional gateway. In fact, he was debating whether or not to keep Hedwig utterly away from Dr. Doom from here on out, since the idea of Doom having access to her odd and, in Doom's words, uniquely excellent teleportation abilities was something Harry wasn't willing to allow. Moreover, Harry was certain Doom had a drone or other device trained on that roof and he needed to know where they would be meeting, which was an uninhabited mountain in Switzerland. Harry thought that this was good idea since Switzerland was considered neutral territory and Harry definitely didn't want the gateway anywhere near any humans.

The trio arrived by air at the place he had designated, flying up there with Dr. Strange and the portal itself from the nearest hotel, which was on an entirely different mountain, much more picturesque than and not nearly as rocky as this one. Jean however continually checked their surroundings for thinking minds, making certain no one was around while the two magic users carried the gateway.

Steven had decided to be on site for this event, just in case, as well as wanting to get the story of the events on Thursday from Mr. Potter, which he had gotten out of the younger man upon their meeting up together that morning. It had amazed and astounded him, yet in the end he found himself agreeing with Harry, that the Octoessence were gods whose ability to act in this realm needed to be sharply curtailed.

He wasn't willing to go with them through the portal but he would remain here to guard it. He and Harry had also set up a very simple method of communication in order to tell Steven when to open the portal to let them back through.

The portal was a large crudely made triangle of oak, with the runes inscribed into its surface. The wood had been chosen on purpose; oak had magical properties linking it to Earth, Water, and Spirit, making it the best wood for this kind of portal. The array of ritual runes had forced them to go with a triangle shape. Both magic users had already destroyed their notes of its creation. While it would allow an individual to enter any realm and not be bound by its laws, the reverse was also true, Mephisto and other Demon Lords/Dark/Elder gods were tough enough when forced to obey the local rules. Demon Lords, for example, were stuck into the religious shapes they resembled could be dealt with like those shapes/characters could be, gaining many of their weaknesses.

They touched down in a small snow covered clearing high up on the mountain, backed by a sheer wall of rock. On the other side was an equally sheer fall down a cliff. After Jean nodded her head to indicate no one was within eyesight of them, Steven and Harry set the portal down, making certain it would stand there by sticking it firmly to the ground with a sticking charm, after clearing the snow away.

After that, the group made small talk, with Steven talking with Ororo about his girlfriend Clea and her apprentice Wanda. Neither of them were on this trip, having been left in New York to deal with a small issue there, a rather insane sorcerer who seemed to be into blood magic and virgin sacrifice, though they had stopped his first few attempts to abscond with his 'chosen virgin'. Steven wasn't really interested in why's for such a thing but seeing as the man kept on going after the same girl, it seemed more like a jilted lover than anything else. Clea had requested that she and Wanda deal with it, though the glint in her eye when she did worried Steven ever so slightly.

Steven also wanted Ororo's advice on if he should and, if so how to, introduce Clea as well as Wanda to the wider world beyond magic. Her advice was to sit down with them both, find out what they wanted, and go from there. She also warned him to keep an eye on Wanda if they chose to let her go to school as a normal child, since her powers reacted to anger and the teenage years were tough enough without that. Once Hogwarts was set up, maybe they could teach her there, though at present it looked like they would be an elementary school, at least at first.

Jean and Harry sat at the edge of the cliff staring out over the vista and discussing cars. The trip to the hotel from Bern had been the most Harry had driven his car in a while and both had decided to drive more just for the fun of it in the future. Jean, however, wanted her own car. Probably not that one, no matter how well she was being paid for her job as chief engineer that would probably be too much money. Perhaps a McLaren MP4-12C or maybe an Aston Martin DB9, she was still undecided.

When either woman turned their heads, heavy golden chains could be seen hanging around their necks, each of these had specific charms and defensive spells on them to augment the defenses on their suits. Many of them were low-key and were already working. These protected their senses from outside interference. Harry fully expected that Mephisto would be able to create illusions that could get through, even so, but this would help.

Harry's own crysis suit had the same spells and he had already activated his Magia Erebea, further enhancing his defense with five percent of his full magical power behind it. Normally, he would add more but after he had drained as much as he could from Balthakk, his power had skyrocketed so the total amount of power charging it was more despite the percentage being smaller.

The quartet continued to make small talk while waiting for their erstwhile ally in this endeavor to arrive. Jean was the first to notice, her head coming up and turning to look Northeast towards Latveria. "He's coming over the mountains now." she said calmly. "He's got some kind of mental defense and what little of his mind I can feel is insanely regimented, in the shape of a maze with fragmented mathematical equations on the walls. That man's mental control is utterly phenomenal! I really wouldn't want to have to try to get into it."

"Good thing you don't have to." Harry replied dryly. "I wouldn't put it past Doom to have more defenses actually implanted into his mind to defend against telepaths, myself."

Ororo nodded but said nothing, staring in the same direction as the others were now. All of them waited, tense and ready but only Doom appeared in the sky, heading down towards them, his cloaking device deactivating as the armor clad man caught sight of them waiting below. Harry glanced quickly at Jean who nodded her head signaling that this was indeed Doom. She might not be able to get into his head but she could damn find it.

As soon as the man was within ten feet of Harry, he could tell that he was the real one as well. Even in the air, he moved like danger personified. His armor was different than the last time Harry had seen him. There were several dozen runic symbols scrawled here and there on its visible surface. His equipment now included several pouches around his belt, one along his left forearm, and another on a thigh. Doom also had a sword sheathed at his side.

From what Harry could see, it was a simple European-style longsword, the hilt unadorned save for what looked like a garnet or another purple gem set into the hilt right above where it went into its sheath. From the feel of it, however, it was anything but normal. Harry wondered if Doom had begun to create his own magical items or had found that sword someplace else. It certainly felt as if the spells on it were intended to strike down demons. It felt like a mix between holy spells (an area Harry had only begun to study from Strange's books since it did not exist back home) and light spells, such as the Patronus, possibly closer to the Praetorian version. Perhaps an old religious relic turned into a weapon?

Harry nodded cordially. "I see I'm not the only one going into this prepared for any eventuality. "My I ask about the sword, though? I have read your file that Reed Richards keeps on you and your physical skills are part of that but what made you choose that specific sword?"

Doom shrugged, before bowing to the two women in a regal manner, one hand sweeping along the ground. "Ladies. As for the sword, Mr. Wizard, you must allow me to keep some secrets. Might I ask in turn where you come by the armor?"

"I've decided on a new code name, which is Guardian now." Harry said blandly, not answering Doom's question about the armor. Doom struck Harry as one who would not want Elder Gods sticking their noses into human business, yet he was an opportunist and a genius, so Harry wasn't willing to share the idea of there being links to them out there.

He waved one hand towards Dr. Strange, introducing the man before saying "And this, of course, is Storm, who you have already met, and Phoenix."

Doom having heard of the Sorcerer Supreme before nodded cordially to the man, then looked over at the redhead. He noticed with amusement that his new subroutine was able to allow his helmets computer to see through the magical defenses on the woman's visage and actually record her image after he turned away while his own senses still could not recall them. "The Phoenix, a most powerful bird in mythology as well as magic. Yet are you certain that bringing these ladies along with us on this trip is advisable?"

Harry shrugged. "It wasn't my choice really, both of them insisted on coming along and I agreed with the reasons. When facing someone like this, there is no such thing as overkill."

The armor clad man shrugged as if it was of no concern of his, then looked seriously at the portal. "Were you able to decipher a way to get us there magically without us falling under the rules of that particular dimension?"

Harry smiled a little, taking this as proof that Doom had much more magical knowledge than he had first implied, yet still lacked enough knowledge to create his own portal. "Yes, it took both Dr. Strange and me an entire day and well into the night to figure out but we were able to do it."

He looked at Doom and the others seriously, going into a pre-battle briefing. Both Ororo and Jean had heard it before but still listened. "This portal will get us there and will be able to keep us from being affected by the majority of that dimension's rules, such as no electricity, the gravity, any kind of radiation, or general background assaults like changing which direction we're heading, messing with our own senses of direction, our sense of smell, or anything of that nature. It will not protect us from active spells hurled through at us."

"Understand me, this hell lord controls his realm entirely. Everything there he created, unlike the dimensions controlled by most of the other Demon Lords. He can manipulate it and use it to attack us from well out of his own sight. The moment we appear there, he'll know we're there. The only way that wouldn't be true was if something else was taking the entirety of his attention and, considering he's a Demon Lord, that something would be rather major. So when we go through, be prepared for almost instant attacks both in forms of magic and his minions. I will defend us all from much his magical attacks as I can, most particularly any kind of illusions that he tries to cast. Those in my opinion would be among his most dangerous attacks."

Doom nodded and put in his own information. "I have a device that will be able to lead me to my mother's soul signature, I suppose you could say. In this area, magic and science mix, so the terminology is a little indistinct. I, of course, will be able to deal with physical dangers. Do the two ladies have any specialties that they are bringing to this activity?"

"We can all handle physical threats well enough, though when we there we'll form a diamond formation with you on one side of me and Ororo on the other with Phoenix following behind.

The redhead spoke up then. "I'll be able to help us block mental assaults. I would suggest also that we all stay in the air as much as possible. It might make us more vulnerable to attacks from long-range enemies but it will help us not get pinned down anywhere."

Harry nodded. "I have no idea where we'll come out the other side but we will need to keep moving, keep heading in the direction your device points us, Lord Doom, or else we'll be pinned down and overwhelmed by the lesser demons that serve our target." He breathed in deeply then nodded. "I believe that is everything, ready to go?"

Doom stretched his muscles, his fingers flexing as if he was preparing for a fist fight, but his eyes, which had been following Harry's movements closely, were hard and ready. There was a deep desperation underneath that none of the others could see though, hidden behind the wellspring of his self-control. This was the best hope Doom had to getting his mother out, freeing her soul from eternal torment by the demon who had tricked her, manipulating her from the start.

Oh, he had gotten the truth of the tale out of the so-called mystic, Dizzy, eventually. Cynthia Von Doom had gone for training to better help her people and the man had eventually duped Cynthia into calling Mephisto in order to make a deal with him. She had later repented and had been tormented for it ever since, her body and soul given up to the demon who had tricked her. Now Victor would have her freed; it was a matter of honor, pride, and family.

Harry moved over to the portal, tracing a small indent that had room for a moment. For a second nothing happened. Then the air in the crude triangle standing there in the middle of the clearing began to waver, shuddering, as if reality itself had just twisted in some fashion. Following that, it became opaque before suddenly changing, showing finally the image of another realm beyond its doorway. "Once we pass through, Steven will close this behind us." Harry said quickly, pulling out what looked like a simple stone. "With this, I'll be able to tell him we're ready to go but we can't take the chance that anything will come through from the opposite direction."

They all nodded and Harry led the way through, charging forward, both hands already crackling with magical energies, followed swiftly by Ororo then Doom and lastly Jean.

The moment she was through, Dr. Strange set his own hand onto the same rune Harry had touched, shutting the portal down. He then sighed, pulled out a book from a pocket, conjured up a chair and sat down to await the outcome of this ill-advised adventure, come what may.

OOOOOOO

On the other side of the portal was a land that looked as if a normal landscape had been melted. There were large edifices around them, which the quartet of interplanar travelers could tell were buildings of some kind, made almost like that of any city on earth but they were melted, reddish brown as if they were entirely made of iron that had rusted before melting into the shapes they were in now. It was only when you looked closer at them that you could tell that the color was that of dried blood.

The sky above them was red, flecked with orange and yellow but not like a sunset because there was no sun in the sky. The light came from the sky itself, not from any one particular source. There were no clouds, though strange patches of green and dark blue could be seen in the distance.

"This place looks like something one of those Chaos Gods from that god-awful Warhammer tabletop game would think up." Jean quipped looking around them and trying to make light of the situation, while at the same time she could feel a sort of oppressiveness trying to get into her mind. Indeed, it was trying to get into all of their minds but those defenses that Harry had prepared kept almost all of its effect from touching them and Dr. Doom's own defenses kept it at bay for him. "Just so you know, if anyone shows up shouting 'blood for the blood God', I'm going to fry them."

Ororo and Harry didn't get the reference but her mild joke actually won a small chuckle from Dr. Doom. "I think that if you see anyone moving that is not us, my dear, that you should 'fry them' in any case."

The wizard nodded firmly as they all took the air. "Mephisto will already know we're here, anything you see will almost certainly be an enemy."

Jean's eyes began to crackle with power, green striations of light and fire. "Don't have to tell me twice, lover." Doom raised an eyebrow at that, glancing between Ororo and Harry for a moment, before filing it away for now.

Once in the air, they flew for a bare five minutes before they came under attack. Winged demons, looking like an artist's rendition of imps from hell that adorned many classic religious paintings, flew up from the buildings they were passing over. They spoke in some fashion but it was a constant animal jabbering that had nothing to do with any kind of intelligent dialogue that the quartet of humans could understand.

Harry didn't wait for them to be within range, flashing his hands out and shouting "Latinium Malleus!" A massive hammer made of gold and green lightning appeared, far larger than the ones Harry had created previously, smashing into the horde, attacking them from the front. Hundreds of demons died screaming under his assault, while Jean, Doom, and Ororo all began their own attacks.

For a time, they had it all their own way, most of the demons lacking any kind of long-range offensive ability, but a few of them did have the ability to toss flinging balls of greenish fire at them, which Harry blocked with his spells as often as he could. Jean began to do the same, allowing Ororo to be the offensive striking power along with Doom.

Doom's equipment was working just as well as it normally did, the repulsor blasts spot from his armored palms smashing into demons and flinging them broken out of the sky. At a simple mental command, small pieces of metal built around a small sphere in the center came out of one of the packets on his waist, circling around him and zooming forward whenever he saw a particularly dense clump of demons. When they got close enough, the metal bits exploded with stunning force to hurl demons everywhere.

Protective transparent shields had fallen down to cover his eye holes and now shot beams of concussive force, somewhat similar to Cyclops but in two distinct beams rather than one, smashing into his enemies. When one came close to try and latch onto his back, it found that his armor had other defenses. A force field kept it from actually touching the metal and, when it reared back, another field activated, this one electrical in nature, frying the little imp within seconds.

As the first wave of attackers began to come apart under their assault, the first magical attack struck as Harry had warned, from well beyond Mephisto's own ability to directly see. It was a spell of fear, made to make them afraid of anything and everything around them. It was accompanied by an illusion that tried to grab hold of each of them in turn, making it seem to each invader as if he or she was suddenly surrounded by greater devils rather than allies.

That spell shattered on Harry's magical defenses, although it took nearly all the power of the charms he had cast on Jean and Ororo to do it. Harry didn't let it go at just that, though, and shouted "Finite Incantatum!" Then he immediately began to shout out a counter-spell to the fear that was still trying to grip their minds. "Expecto Patronum!" Suddenly, all around them light began to spread, along with a feeling of goodness and wellbeing that pushed against the fear until it dissipated entirely, coming from a massive three stories tall stag that appeared in the midst of the adventurer's formation

"Well that was interesting." Doom murmured to himself, protected just as much from mental assaults as physical ones by his suit's defenses, the fear attack hadn't really affected him at all. Nor had it affected any of the others, even Ororo who was, in some ways, the least protected by her own powers of the quartet.

"I expect that was more in the way of a probing attack or maybe an instant response. Each assault will be different and I expect each successive one will be harder than the last. You're the one with the directions, Dr. Doom," Harry growled, all business now and much more serious than he normally was. "Power up that device of yours and let's get going."

Doom reached down to his pouch at his side, pulling out a spherical device as large as his gauntleted hand, holding it in the air before pointing in the direction they were supposed to go. It was built around a compass of some kind, though obviously it wasn't pointing true North. "That way."

Harry nodded then once more took the lead, with Doom falling back while still holding the device in one hand for a moment before putting it away in its protective pouch.

Ten minutes later, they came under assault again and this one lasted for much longer. This time, it was not just the flying imps but actual gargoyles, massive beasts made of stone that somehow flew, that came at them from all directions. Massive bone and stone horrors reached for them from the top of the buildings they were flying over with a flying demon of the same variety soon joined the melee. These larger foes came under special attacks from all four of the invaders. This assault was unrelenting, with more and more demons piling in despite the fact that the quartet kept moving.

Ducking and dodging two gargoyles that somehow nearly got to him, Harry spun, smashing one aside with a well-placed blow to the chest, while the sword of Gryffindor decapitated the other. Two spells shot out, smashing a group of imps back. Shouting to be heard above the clangor of battle, Harry said. "Mephisto knows we're here, like I thought, he's trying to divide our attention! I'm going to pull back; you three keep dealing with the demons so I can prepare to face any spells he tosses our way!"

Doom and Harry's two lovers nodded imperceptibly, most of their attention on their own individual battles. Doom was engaged in a close range duel with several large bone horrors, while using his eye beams to keep several more back. Jean had divided her attention already, swatting aside any of the long range fireballs the demons threw, while smashing out with jabs and blasts of telepathic power in every direction around her. Storm was untouchable in the air, using the air currents to snarl up any groups that tried to close, while her own attacks froze, slashed, blasted, or hurled demons away.

Yet, they moved into position around Harry just in time for Harry to turn his attention to a massive wave of pure flame that shot out from the ground towards them. He shouted "Aquamenti" for a moment, both stopping the flame from striking them and causing a lot of steam, which he silently banished towards the demons all around, boiling them alive. He then dove down to the ground shouting another spell to augment the first, washing out the fire and numerous demons on the ground.

At the same time, the wind picked up and lightning began to flare all around them. Ororo, pulling her attention from the demons around her, looked around, eyes narrowing dangerously. She flicked her hands from one side to the other of her body, pushing them apart. Ororo's control over the weather seemed to hold true in this plane and the attack dissipated around them, only slamming into the demons beyond her area of control.

"Well done, my lady!" Harry crowed before concentrating then slamming his hand down onto the ground below the other where the others were still fighting and shouting his "Shi Jundai!" spell.

Almost as soon as he did, he began to lose control of the spell and he canceled it with a curse, pulling back and zooming up into the air as the ground molded itself into a hand trying to reach and claw for him while around them several other spells struck. He had felt his power start to take something from the ground but it had been almost immediately counteracted by the spell coming through it trying to take over Harry's own spell. I'll have to try again to see if I can drain magic from the very weft and womb of this dimension, but for right now…

Now Harry had his hands full, canceling out the numerous illusions that suddenly appeared everywhere, this time getting through the defenses of his fellows. Harry canceled them quickly enough to offset the effect but it was a worrisome thing that Mephisto was learning to get around their defenses. That even shook Doom a little, having not expected that Mephisto would be able to so easily get through his technological and mental defenses like that, but he continued on grimly with the others, taking but a moment to send out another two dozen anti-demon smart bombs.

The mental and physical attacks came almost continuously now. Jean joined Harry in dispelling the ones that attacked the mind directly. Glowing specters, carrying what looked like strange demonic images of death, appeared. They were immaterial to the attacks of Ororo or Doom but able to be pushed back, repulsed, and torn apart by Harry's own anti-ghost spells and Jean's telepathic powers, the Phoenix power lending them that special something.

Hour after hour they continued, with Doom periodically falling back and Harry taking his place on the front line as the magical attacks abated for a moment to check their direction. "Unless Mephisto has played it smart and installed my mother somewhere far away from him, we are still moving in the right direction

"Good to know but I doubt Mephisto truly thinks us that much a threat. Given his personality, he'll want her to be there to see you die so he can do the whole evil megalomaniac gloating thing." Despite this moment of levity, Harry was still concentrating on the battle, smashing one demon that got in too close with a fist while spearing another demon through the eyes with the point of the sword of Gryffindor.

With both hands thus occupied, he had to block the next magical assault with a wave of pure magic without any gesture from his hands, which made it much more difficult. That illusion, that they were fighting their own friends and family members, stuck for a moment and he growled angrily seeing many of his dead comrades, somehow the memory of them taken from his mind or perhaps that was part of the actual spell, that they each saw someone they loved dearly dead by their own hands. Still, he was able to cancel the spell.

He moved back to take his place and Doom moved forward, also shaken by that spell, although not as much as Jean was. Her hands trembled for a moment and she almost let one of the telepathic ghost creatures through but at the last moment smashed it aside with a furious telepathic assault. "How, how dare you… RAAAAAAHHH" She screamed her rage, sounding more like a hunting bird of prey than human for a moment, her hands moving like claws now, giant claws of fire as the image of the Phoenix flared around her.

The sight actually caused the horde of demons all around them to quail and back away, despite the continued commands of their master urging them on. The Phoenix flame scorched, seared, and killed with an ease that terrified them and the light of the Life Bringer burned at their eyes.

"Magnificent." Doom murmured, taking in this show of power. "You do have a way of attracting immensely powerful women, Mr. Potter. I must admit to being both impressed and ever so mildly jealous."

Ororo laughed, the sound tinkling in the air of this hellish place in a way that was beyond bizarre yet put a smile on her lovers' faces. "Thank you for the compliment, Doctor, but I believe we have more important things to do then continued to pour honey down one another's ears."

Doom nodded regally and they moved on for once not under attack, Jean's enraged response having thrown the demons around them into disarray. "Your device should keep working," Harry informed him quietly, while readying himself for the next magical assault. His body was feeling the strain a little, though his magical reserves were almost untouched, thus far. He pulled a pouch on his belt open, which had been enlarged to several times normal size. He tossed small clear drink bulbs to the others and, as Doom caught his, explained. "They're called pepper up potions. They're supposed to cure the common cold but they also remove all feelings of exhaustion from your body."

"A rather childish name," Doom said disdainfully but lifted the bulb his ironclad mouth.

"By its very nature magic calls out to the child in those that use it. I suppose," Harry shrugged, rather whimsically. "Certainly, most of the magicals I dealt with in my home reality were childish in one way or another and, I daresay, the same is true of magic users here, though I admittedly haven't seen any sign of it in Dr. Strange. Dr. Druid, on the other hand, seems to have a fondness bordering on obsession with crossword puzzles and likes to make the words dance with his magic while doing them."

"Blood magic, demon summoning, cannibalistic rituals, virginal sacrifices?" Doom riposted dryly.

"No one ever said children were all sweetness and light, Doctor."

Moments later, they were attacked again, a horde of demons rising up from the buildings that they were flying over, as well as another spell that caused the light in the sky all around them to go out and the very shadows to start constricting around them. Even Jean's phoenix light couldn't burn that far into the darkness around them, though it kept the shadows away from her.

Doom's armor began to glow even before Harry could cast a spell. He shouted something in his native language that even Ororo couldn't make out. With one hand, he pulled out a metal object from a belt pouch, tossing it into the air where it exploded throwing a resounding "BOOOM!"

The demons that had been attacking them were blown away as Harry summoned up his light spell again, dispelling the attack. This time the attack kept coming, trying to drown the lights Harry created forcing him to pour more of his power into it. Eventually, the assault dissipated and the sky returned to normal.

It did so just in time for the quartet to realize they were about to fly face first into a mountain, which suddenly came alive, not only with demons swarming its surface but actually moving, as if it was a giant made of stone and earth, larger by far than even the largest golem Harry would ever make.

They couldn't escape it, slamming into the surface and, almost immediately, becoming surrounded by demons reaching forward with claws. Many of them were now armed with swords, axes, spears, and polearms, as well, all of them dripping green fire, which looked like a very nasty cross between poison and acid.

For a moment they fought there, unable to regain the air thanks to the press of bodies all around them, despite their powers but Ororo finally was able to raise a hand up into the air and summoned forth a phenomenal sphere of hurricane force winds that slammed all around them. Doom dispatched the demons around him with his blade, each blow killing a demon even if it wasn't a killing wound. Jean and Harry did the same with their own powers, driving them back.

Harry threw up a hasty Protego, blasting a large sword swinging demon, with a body made of bronze and what looked like diseased skin, back on its ass when it tried to charge Ororo, killing it with another spell before taking up position around the African woman. Thus protected, Ororo controlled the winds using them to push the horde back even as Mephisto in his distant castle tried to exert his power over the weather of his realm. Eventually, he would've won through but by the time he did it Ororo and the others were already in the air. The weather goddess rained down lightning on those below them as Jean did the same while Doom and Harry guarded their backs.

Once clear, they forced their way upwards high enough to fly over the mountain even as it reached for them. "That was unpleasant." Jean muttered, her eyes still alight with her power and her teeth grinding together. "You take us to the most fascinating places, Harry."

"Don't blame me for this one," Harry returned, "blame the bastard who has made a living out of stealing people souls for it."

"I intend to." Jean eyes now glinted with more than just her power; they also held a promise of retribution.

The flight continued and, thankfully, now that they were away from the massive demonic creature they weren't attacked for a few moments. Evidently, Mephisto hadn't stationed any troops here thinking that the mountain itself was defense enough. But the moment the group left its environs, the assaults continued.

The group battled onward, with Harry once again being called upon to block spells while the others took care of the physical assault. One of them had been almost a joke spell that almost caught him by surprise, intended to affect their clothing and making it attack them. Another was a teleportation spell designed to carry them back to their starting point. There were dozens of subtle spells cast at them, each one slightly tougher than the last. Harry stopped them all, his mage sight able to see the slight pulses in the underlying spell of hovering just under the surface of this dimension that signaled incoming spells. With the ongoing mystic assault, his cancellation spells getting a real workout. Only occasionally, did he join in defending against the purely physical assaults but when he did, he was even more devastating than Jean, his light emotion based assaults something that no demon could truly block and only the strongest could survive.

Now they flew over a plain, with no buildings in sight but an unending, almost boring looking surface below them. Until, that is, they took in what was actually making up the ground of that plain. From a distance, it looked like grass but close up it was thin sharp blades of red glass, interspersed with skulls and bones of those souls that had been consigned to death here. There were hundreds of them, or possibly more and their bodies had been simply scattered to the winds. Either way, it was not a sight that any of the four enjoyed.

Doom shook his head slowly. He was all for killing his enemies, seeing them flee or bow before his might but not this, this senseless torture for the sake of enjoyment. The only person he could honestly say he would enjoy torturing was Reed Richards or Mephisto himself. Jean and the others, however, merely looked horrified. What was worse for all of them was that some of them were still alive, raising their hands up feebly towards the four as they moved on.

"I thought Mephisto dealt with souls!" Jean said her voice an alloy of horror and fury. Ororo was too enraged to form words. Every time they saw someone down below, she put them out of their misery, her face growing grimmer as they flew on.

Harry shook his head. "He deals in souls but the soul and the body are connected. Once your soul is under his control, Mephisto can re-create your body and torture you that way. After all, there are so many ways to torture a person who has a physical form than an immaterial one."

"Don't make the mistake of assuming this is all for his pleasure." Doom said grimly. "There certainly is an aspect of that. In fact, I have no doubt Mephisto enjoys every second of it. But he gains power from these souls as well, from their terror and fear. It feeds him; fear is the source of his power."

"Then I will give him something to fear!" Harry said grimly, his teeth clenched and an angry twitch beginning in one cheek. The next group of demons that attacked them didn't get even within five hundred yards before he shouted out a spell. "Malleis lucis depellendam daemonia!" From all around them massive weapons of light, hammers, swords, and spears appeared and, when they struck the demons, they struck with the clap of a lightning blast to end all lightning blasts. The entire horde dissipated into ash and smoke and the four moved grimly on. Doom looked at Harry, reevaluating his magical strength upwards.

The ground itself again began to attack them, the blades of grass growing up to try and ensnare them. At same time, the very air was becoming like thick gelatin or pudding. Ororo and Harry dealt with that, while Jean and Doom concentrated on the ground attack. Soon enough the attack dissipated once more and they flew on.

For another hour they flew. Now they could see what looked like another mountain in the distance. The assaults during this time came not from minor imps or demons, but greater devils, although their numbers hadn't gone down. Doom and the others had lost count of the dead they had left in their wake, if you could call demons alive to begin with, but these were tougher than the ones that had come before them, each of them taking a little more time to kill. There were still overmatched by the quartet, however. Doom's sword and the technology of his suit were well able to deal death in short and medium ranges. Ororo could killed them from afar with her lightning blasts, storms of ice that froze them solid only to shatter them with blasts of wind, and cutting slashes of wind pressure. Phoenix was simply deadly at any range while Harry continued to battle against the spells that were now coming at them fast and furious.

It was only as they beat that initial wave off that they realized the mountain ahead of them was actually a castle, more massive than anything made by man, so massive it seemed unreal for a moment. The mountain was colored red and black, spiked, and altogether horrible looking. It was as if someone had heard of the Gothic style to sculpt every crenellation and tower with demonic figures and had taken it to the nth degree. Every one of the faces seemed to be slightly different, as if the person whose face it had been based off had died from a very specific torture. There were thousands, millions of faces everywhere they looked.

The sight was intended to inspire terror, both in the demons that worshiped him as a god and any people foolish enough to enter his realm, yet, in this instance, it failed. Those faces held no fear for the quartet that had invaded his realm this time. They only served to harden their determination to see the soul they were here for freed from his grasp, as well as any other they could wrest from him.

"So," Harry said quietly, looking at the other three and passing along another pepper-up potion. Again, a small minor spell tried to insinuate itself into their minds but Harry brushed it off quickly. The spell might've been intended to do something to the potions, but he blocked it so they tasted as normal as ever. "How exactly should we get this Demon Lord to come out and play? I favor the direct approach."

"Ring the doorbell, Guardian," Phoenix growled, her eyes blazing up even brighter with her powers. She was feeling it a little before the pepper-up potion but that seemed to aid not only her physical abilities but her mental faculties as well. Now, all four of them were ready for a fight.

Harry nodded grimly and, gathering his power, shot forth a massive spell enchanting it as his hands clenched together. "Fragor unda fortitudine!" A massive beam of power shot out from his hands, slamming into the front of the castle facing them, slagging, destroying, exploding, and shattering the façade of the castle all along this front. To the demons below its massively lofty spires, it must have seemed as if an earthquake had shattered it, the entire front of it simply collapsing in following falling down the side of the building. "Knock, knock!"

A moment later, Mephisto appeared, striding through the rubble that had previously been part of his castle, even as it repaired itself behind him at his wordless command. Some of the damage, however, didn't repair itself and he frowned, internally wondering what that spell had done to so disrupt his control over at the weft and womb of his realm in this locality.

Mephisto was a tall creature, his facial features somewhat humanlike, yet so very not, somehow perverted and vile, with slanted yellow eyes and thin, pointed face, topped with a wild mane of maroon hair. His ears were long and pointed, larger than the fantasy ideal of elves. His skin was a pinkish hue but not a healthy pink, just pale pink, like a crayon color. His hands in their gloves were long and elegant yet tipped with claws. His clothing was a formfitting red suit of leather (Harry refused to speculate on where it had come from or what animal skin had created it) and, of course, he had a flowing red cape behind him.

His normal sneer was in abeyance and his lips twitched into a ghastly parody of the smirk. "You have my attention, though I normally prefer guests to call ahead."

"We are here for the soul of my mother, Cynthia Von Doom." Doom said his voice as cold as an arctic wind. "Release her, NOW."

"Release dear Cynthia? Why should I do that?" Mephisto said, smirking even wider now. With one hand he gestured, and a woman appeared beside him.

She was dressed in rags, yet that did nothing to hide the fact she was a beautiful woman. She was tall, as tall as Doom maybe, with pale skin, curly brown hair falling to her shoulders, with long legs, and a decent bust. Her expression however made her beauty somehow horrifying. Her eyes were wide open but unseeing. Her face twisted in horrified agony, mouth opening and closing as if she would scream but her throat was too wounded to let the sound through.

"She's one of my favorites, you know," Mephisto said almost conspiratorially looking over at Harry, singling him out as the most dangerous of the invaders. "She was supposed to be my servant on your world, like those Mys-tech wizards who died so sadly recently. A Dr. Druid and the Sorcerer Supreme had a hand in that, but this one…"

His hand caressed the woman's cheek and Doom almost flung himself forward there and then as he watched his mother twitch away from the touch fearfully. "This one was supposed to be my servant and help me turn Latveria as a whole to my worship, starting with her people. A major coup and just the beginning to the souls I could have reaped once I finished… tinkering with the populace and set them loose on their neighbors."

Mephisto growled angrily, his hand no longer caressing her face but gripping her jaw. "And I have made her torture something of a personal hobby of mine ever since. She used my power, called upon me but not to control, not to take over but to (BLETCH) defend. When push came to shove, even against the Duke of that nation who had persecuted her people for years, thanks to my whispering in his ear, all I could do since he had had wretched holy man by his side 24/7, she turned aside and refused to use my power to end his life! She turned her back on me then but my bargains are not such that anyone can go back on!" He turned to them, his eyes narrowed.

"She is mine and I will not give her up her nor any of my other toys!" he gestured and suddenly be faces of the castle wall were no longer faces carved of stone but living beings, humans and other beings as well, all of them screaming in agonies too horrible for the quartet of humans to try to comprehend. "Their fear and pain is my power and my principality, I will only release one if a bargain is struck, not before."

So saying, he waved a hand over a few of the faces nearest him and from their mouths came an amorphous blob of color, with a center of yellow white light around which were layers of other colors. Harry suddenly knew those were souls but before he could do anything, Mephisto grabbed them all up into his hand, then gobbled them down like they were candy, making exaggerating 'nom, nom' noises.

Pure rage sizzled through Harry's brain and what little restraint he had in commanding the massive power he had taken from Balthakk vanished entirely. Magic power flowed off him now and, suddenly, Mephisto was no longer smiling or gloating but staring at Harry with growing alarm, only now able to connect him to the surge of power that emanated from the mortal plane two days ago.

"Keep Mephisto's followers off me," Harry grated and, without another word or even a gesture, a massive spear unformed magical power slammed into Mephisto, blasting him off his feet and away. With a roar, Harry charged after him through the air.

Behind him, all around their position, demons pulled themselves up out of the ground and the side of the building charging in, roaring at him and the other invaders. The avatar of the Phoenix, however, was full of fury as well and she, Ororo, and Doom took the battle to the demons all around them.

Doom charged for the position where his mother still crouched on the ground. He stood over her, his sword in one hand and his other hand blasting out with repulsor blasts, slaying any demon that came near. He stopped after a bit, continuing wielding only the sword and his eye beams, his free hand moving down to yet another pouch at his waist, one of the larger ones. Out came several segmented stone discs, which he began to lay out in a specific pattern around his mother. "Activate!" he shouted, and suddenly a sphere of protective magic went up around seemed to break whatever kind of influence had kept Cynthia from not seeing what was going on around her. She blinked looking up at the armor clad man standing over him with a sword slashing in one hand and the other throwing out beams of concussive force at the demons as they closed. "Victor? What are you doing here?"

"Did you think that I would let that thing hold your soul for a moment longer than I could devise?" Doom growled at her. "You are my mother and I will not allow such a thing to pass."

The woman shook herself, actually standing up and looking at herself. "Do you have something that can possibly heal me or give me some energy back?"

After emptying out his final round of smart bullets, Doom passed over a flask of something from yet another of his pouches. It wasn't a real magical potion. Doom had created it through scientific means mixing several different magical concoctions together until he achieved the desired result.

Now, all of Doom's pouches save one had been opened and he kept one eye on the magical battle occurring in the air well above them, waiting for a chance to strike.

While Ororo, Jean, and Doom were kept busy with the demons swarming towards them, Harry and Mephisto were locked in combat. Normally, Mephisto would try to use quips or jibes to throw off his opponent's stride, get into his head figuratively while his magic spells tried to do it literally. Here he couldn't. He was being pressed far too hard for that. "Godling, you did very well to hide your nature from me but I can see what you are now. You will rue the day you entered my realm. Strong you may be but here I am the only God!"

Mephisto grabbed power from dimension that was his home and his creation, hurling it at his opponent with every kind of spell under his command. Illusions, direct assaults in the form of conjured creatures, conjured fire, conjured lightning, conjured ice, darkness, and pure magic came at Harry in a near unending assault.

Harry blocked or dodged them all, slamming lightning mixed with pure magic and holy light back at the Demon Lord. Mephisto didn't even feel when the connection he had forged between his current torture victim and himself was severed by the runic circle that Doom had put out, too busy defending himself from Harry's furious assault.

He struck back and was appalled to see the few spells that got through Harry's defense shattering against his armor. The areas that weren't covered with his yellow armor, however, were able to be struck. Mephisto watched as an ice spell got through flash freezing his arm but Harry's magic actually healed himself even as he was injured, just as Mephisto's did for most of the spells had struck him. A few however he dodged almost automatically as if his instincts were telling him that those contained something that would counteract his regeneration ability.

Within minutes, both of them were feeling it, with Harry battered, bruised, and bleeding, while Mephisto was simply becoming more and more serious as the minutes flew by on the wings of their massive battle. One attack nearly ripped one of Harry's ears off despite his protective enchantments but his return spell drilled through Mephisto's shoulder. The wounds healed quickly but they broke off for just a moment, glaring at one another before charging at one another again.

The battle raged back and forth, minute after minute as time wore on and more and more demons were thrown at Harry's fellows. Ororo began to tire and pulled out her one of her own emergency pepper-up potions, gulping it down quickly, tossing the other at Doom's mother. Cynthia had thrown in with them, her own spells lashing out, nowhere near as powerful as Harry's, but she didn't aim just for the demon as a whole. She aimed for their eyes, their ears, their weak points, dealing crippling damage to more than a few.

Jean of all of them didn't feel the need for another potion just yet, her mouth locked in a tight smile. "Guardian said you called your mother a queen among women, Doctor. I'm beginning to believe you understated the case."

"Humility is one of the sovereign virtues," Doom shouted back, "so naturally I possess it." Both women laughed at that, but there was a serious air to them now. They couldn't keep this up forever and if one of them fell, the others would join them shortly.

Harry knew none of this, locked in his titanic struggle with Mephisto, as he was. The very air around them was slowly distorting due to the number of spells cast actually beginning to degrade the ancient spell that had created this dimension in the first place, eons ago. Even as he dodged a disc of blackest darkness that wailed as it went past him, a small part of Harry's mind was able to wonder what would happen to them if the dimension itself came undone. However, the spell he dodged split, each bit of darkness becoming larger than the whole had been, joined by more of their fellows fired from Mephisto's outstretched hands.

In retaliation, Harry shouted, "Fiendfyre!" He was not even concentrating, not even trying to control the spell this time, wanting it to rage and get out of control and burn Mephisto and as much of the black disks as it could.

Mephisto merely laughed and, with a wrench of his power, took control of the half-demonic spell, sending it back at Harry who stood for a moment in midair gaping as the wall of dark crimson flame reached towards him, the faces of demons and creatures from mythology reaching for him hungrily. "All right, if that's the way you want to play it!" Harry concentrated again and thrust one hand forward "Blackfyre!"

This spell, Mephisto couldn't take control of and the wall of black flame made up of howling creatures from the depths of mythology and the human soul slammed into its weaker counterpart, consuming it and moving on. Mephisto canceled it with difficulty, pouring in more power than he had ever had to do before this in a element to element battle save for one against a fellow Demon Lord. He was however too slow to dodge another spell, a light-based cutting spells taken from a book Harry had created for dealing with dark creatures more… permanently than the Patronus spell. "демонотубиствотомеч!"

Mephisto gathered his magic around his hand, raising the hand up to block. The cutting spell impacted, but Mephisto hadn't had time to get enough power to his defensive spell and Harry's sliced through Mephisto's shield before going on to take his hand off entirely right behind the thumb.

"RRHHHH," Mephisto glared at Harry, backing away slightly and looking at his hand as he willed his regeneration ability to heal the wound. It didn't respond, however, something in the wound, which he could now see was cauterized, was fighting it. It was healing but so slowly he could actually feel pain for the first time in decades. He turned to stare at Harry. "What have you done Wizard, what have you done!?"

"Release the souls in your possession willingly now or release them with your death," Harry said his voice cold and harsh. "I care not which."

Mephisto roared and charged, magical spells flinging from his hands and body with abandon, but Harry met the assault with equal force. He realized however that any brute force contest, which despite his rage Mephisto had rather cunningly made this into, that even the power he had taken from the Elder God wouldn't be enough to offset the fact that Mephisto was battling them in his own realm, which fueled and powered every gesture and spell he sent at Harry.

He grunted in agony as a spell exploded right beside his face, sending shards of red glass into the side of his hastily raised arm. Thankfully, one of his yellow armor's vambraces caught most of it, but he could feel the things sticking out of his arm right below it, having gone straight through his crysis suit. They weren't deep, but he could feel some kind of poison fighting against his healing ability.

As Mephisto created a blade of black nothingness out of the air and tried to hack at Harry with it Harry responded with his own Sword of Griffindor, casting a Praetorian spell into the blade, much like he had imbued his golems with. The sword lit up like the sun and Harry began to send his power through the spell against Mephisto letting Mephisto be pushed back towards the ground. He needed a physical surface for his power to start working, which meant he had to be on the ground.

The moment he was down, Harry began to fight two battles; one against Mephisto's physical presence in front of them and the other against Mephisto's control of the power that had been poured into his dimension. His magic power sent a bit of his consciousness into the massive, horribly complicated, horribly deep, and monstrously powerful spell that had created this entire pocket dimension, created everything around him solid or otherwise.

Immediately, he felt the power coming into him and also felt it affecting his emotions. He felt anger, he felt the need to make people afraid to feed off their fear, to see those that were close to him, their faces contorted in fear, fear he put there. Harry grimaced and with a wrench of his will stopped the flow, instead ripping and tearing at the magical spell he had been trying to drain, not wanting to let any more of that magical power into him, afraid of what it could do to him long term.

Mephisto tried to smash him down with an overhand hammer blow of pure magic as his other hand conjured up a spear of fire thrusting it towards Harry's chest but Harry's sword caught the first and his hand caught the second. The Magia Erebea technique layering around his hand died and Harry could feel his hand begin to burn under the spell and he wrenched it back, hurriedly disengaging, the damage already done, his hand now a claw of twisted and brunt flesh. Though his healing ability was already kicking in

Suddenly, Mephisto couldn't feel his dimension where it was around Harry anymore. Where there had been the ground, covered with what he rather fondly called blade grass and the bones of his victims, there was now nothing, leaving flat, cold rock for a moment before that too disappeared, leaving only a swirling nothingness below them. Mephisto gaped at the undoing of a portion of his realm, not even stopping Harry as he jumped backwards.

Once again, Harry began to exert his power calling up even more power and throwing it at Mephisto's physical body. "Drill of Light!" Hundreds, thousands of drills shot forward.

Mephisto blocked, dodged, or destroyed nearly all of them but his eyes were growing wider and wider with every second as he felt Harry's earlier intrusion into the spell of his realm rippling out now. The distortion Harry had created was now spreading, leaving Mephisto unable to draw further power from it himself, lest he cause the damage to spread beyond his domain's ability to heal itself.

Now the battle of power was even, neither able to drain anymore power from their environs but Mephisto was feeling it a little more, having become more dependent on the constant loop between him and his plane, the loss cutting into his concentration. He started to take more damage, his spells faltering at times. Another spell like the cutting spell that had taken his hand hit him in the side, only his last second dodge having saved him from being cut in half.

Mephisto screamed again, throwing Harry back with a blast of pure magic and slamming him away Into the sky with another spell which, to Harry's shock, shattered the front of his yellow armor. Pieces fell away around what looked like a fist shaped dent in the metal and Harry grunted in agony, his ribs creaking even with the Magia Erebea and crysis suit adding to his toughness.

As another spell, this one looking like some kind of cross between a purple axe and a missile, tried to impact his head, Harry returned fire. Another light based spell slammed into Mephisto's face causing him to cry out in pain, even though it wasn't very powerful. Harry pressed his advantage, getting in close and smashing Mephisto with spell after concussive spell, keeping Mephisto off balance.

The Demon Lord now had to call upon his victims, draining them utterly right now rather than as they became ripe. He couldn't get as much power from each one this way but the number of them would still give him a significant boost.

When he reached out for those souls, however, Jean struck. She had been hoping for a chance like this, something deep inside of her welling up at the sight of those souls, those little patches of light coming up from the ground heading towards Mephisto in order to feed him their power. She struck, raising up wall of force between his physical form and them.

Mephisto could've easily shattered Jean's wall, if Harry had given him even a moment of peace, but Harry wasn't. He was pressing him hard, pouring out his magical power even as he felt himself tire, felt himself slowly losing the power he had gained from his battle with Balthakk.

Even then, Mephisto might have well been able to outlast Harry and shatter the defense that Jean had thrown up between him and the souls of his victims. But Doom used a moment of calm around him to reach for his last pouch, the one on his thigh. He brought out something which he scattered over his sword before turning and, with unerring aim, throwing the blade up at the Demon Lord in the air above them. The sword struck true in Mephisto's leg, slicing into it.

He screamed in horrifying agony, trying to reach down to pull out the blade but Harry didn't let up, not knowing what Doom had done but capitalizing on it and pressing Mephisto hard. The Demon Lord fought back wildly now, real terror in his eyes, cut off from one source of power and unable to access another thanks to the Phoenix fire cutting him off from his castle and the souls there, his body racked by pain.

Harry pressed forward, throwing everything he had at Mephisto, spell after spell, formed and unformed magic, pouring out his power in an attempt to finish the Demon Lord before his regeneration ability could combat whatever Doom had done. Mephisto had millennia of experience on him but the sheer ferocity and power of Harry's assault, coupled with the pain he was in, was enough to offset that. It was touch and go until Harry bashed through with a triple spell assault, all spells Harry had created. "Aeris Hasta! Sole Arsit! Sol occidit interfectos diripiet: Dæmonium lamina!"

The first sent thousands of air spears at Mephisto from all around him. The second blinded Mephisto for a split second, bursting like a nova flare right in the Demon Lord's eyes. The third was the same sort of spell that had cut off Mephisto's hand, only this time it was a penetrating spell, like his old rifela spell. It struck and penetrated, blowing Mephisto's good arm off at the shoulder, ripping a good chunk of his upper body off on that side along with a bit of neck.

Mephisto fell from the sky thrashing in agony, his still maimed hand pawing feebly at his new wound. The moment he struck the ground Harry conjured massive lances of barbed iron slamming down into the Demon Lord. Normally Mephisto's superhuman abilities would've made metal like this unable to break his skin but now he was wounded sorely by Harry and Doom's attacks, and they pierced his body right through, pinning him to the ground like a butterfly on a piece of cork.

Harry landed across from him, breathing deeply, feeling his magic now close to exhaustion. Conjuring those spikes, which were not just iron but an amalgamation of iron and silver, a metal known to have offensive properties against demons, had taken a lot out of Harry. It was so bad, he was feeling the magic he had channeled into his Magia Erebea flowing back into him, keeping him going automatically. He breathed deeply, looking down at the Demon Lord, missing his arm, missing most of his hand despite the time since that injury, missing a chunk of his chest, yet his eyes still glimmered and he weakly thrashed against the iron rails stuck through him.

The reality displaced wizard was under no illusions. Soon enough, the demon's regeneration would be able to fight against whatever he and Doom had done to them and those metal spikes wouldn't be enough to contain him. Nor was killing Mephisto within their power, not without draining him utterly, and, given how much even a little of his dimension's magic had effected him, Harry wasn't willing to tempt it.

But he was going to wring a promise out of the creature now. He raised the sword of Gryffindor, pouring another Praetorian spell into it before holding the blade's tip right above the Mephisto's forehead. Not in position to slice the head off but in position to drive through the brain. In his current, highly weakened, almost mortal state, a blow to the brain would be one that Mephisto might not be able to recover from. It wouldn't kill him but it would severely impair him for a long time to come, even as he measured things.

"What do you want?" Mephisto snarled, defiant, yet with real fear in his eyes. Though the humans lacked the ability to slay him, he was wounded sore, weakened beyond anything he had ever been before and he had enemies among his own kind which would gladly finish the job.

"Cynthia Von Doom free of you. All the souls you currently possess, we'll have them free of you now, as well. Nor will you try to reclaim them. Moreover, a bit of advice, demon. Earth is under my protection. You will not try to influence, assault, or otherwise attempt to in any way have anything to do with the Earth that is under my protection." Harry enunciated each word clearly, his eyes brimming with his power as he tried to stave off the growing exhaustion he was feeling, rapidly approaching total magical exhaustion for the first time in years save for when he powered up High Note's heart stone. His wounds were no longer healing themselves. His ribs, in particular, were aching, along with his elbow and face, both of which had taken magical impacts in the last few moments of the fight.

They did not take away from his fearsome appearance, rather they added to it. For the first time Mephisto knew what his victims felt and he didn't like it. "I'll agree," he croaked. "Take the bitch and all the others! I will not bother her again or you or that wretched Earth!"

"Then we have an accord." Harry said, standing back up. He pulled out the stone holding the communication array with Strange, then flicked it with some of his blood, watching it flare brightly for a second before going out.

On the other side of the dimensional portal, Dr. Strange looked up as his half of the communication rune flared brightly. He hesitated a moment, wondering if he should chance it, the threat of Mephisto in all his power breaking out on Earth was a major one. Yet it was only a moment, his trust, and indeed his friendship with Potter, making him wish to bet that his young friend, his ladies, and their dubious ally had succeeded in their endeavor. He stood up, moving toward the triangle-shaped doorway and activating the portal.

As the portal opened in front of them, Ororo moved forwards, gently helping Cynthia through the portal followed quickly by Doom, then Jean with Harry coming directly after. His emerald eyes still glowing with magical power, Harry stared at Mephisto as he stepped forward into the portal and for the rest of his (admittedly short) life Mephisto would flinch occasionally as the memory of those eyes awoke in him.

Almost immediately, after the attackers had left, Mephisto's power began to slowly come back to him but it would be ages before he would be able to pull the iron and silver stakes from his person, though his other wounds would heal before that, or so he hoped. All around him he could suddenly feel the presence of other Demon Lords crowding into his dimension's exterior defenses, striking when he was weak, and he groaned aloud in agony, gathered what power he could and threw it into the defense of his realm.

OOOOOOO

The moment he was back in on Earth, Harry slumped to the ground, unconscious before his head hit the snow. His body, mind, soul, and magic were almost utterly exhausted, the last of his reserve from the Magia Erebea now keeping him alive. Jean and Ororo moved forwards quickly, checking for a pulse almost automatically and were relieved to find one immediately. Ororo then looked over at Doom and Cynthia, who were being watched by Steven, his hands glowing slightly in case of any last second betrayal. "I think our businesses concluded, Lord Doom. If you'll excuse us I think Harry needs some TLC."

For his part, Doom looked down at Harry, for a moment indeed entertaining the thought of finishing Harry off now while he was weak. He held no illusions that Harry wouldn't oppose him in the future regardless of their agreements about space travel and Harry's company. HE also had no doubt that he could overcome the two women, as magnificent as they were. It was also obvious that they were both now feeling the effects of what had probably been at least two days' worth of nonstop combat. Whereas, he had been sustained by his armor so hadn't felt the strain nearly as much. Still, it was simply a momentary thought, notwithstanding the ready and rested figure of the Sorcerer Supreme standing nearby.

Harry had dealt with him in good faith and he wasn't an enemy, just yet. Moreover, Victor Von Doom respected power and honor, and Harry had both in spades. He did not deserve to die now in his weakened state. The presence of his mother behind him, looking at him with awe, wonder, and love in her eyes also had a… persuading factor to it.

"Very well, Lady Ororo." he said, bowing to her grandly with one hand trailing on the ground for a moment in courtly fashion. "Thank you all three for your aid in this and I will allow you to depart. Let our next meeting be as hospitable as this one." he finished with more hope than real expectation. With that, he gathered his mother into his arms and took to the sky, flying up over the mountains and away toward Latveria.

Ororo stood for a moment watching him go, then nodded and hurried over to where Jean and Steven were now pulling Harry up. Jean nodded to her, one arm now supporting Harry. "His wounds aren't life threatening, he just needs some rest."

"Indeed, Mr. Potter is suffering from extreme magical exhaustion. For a wizard such as him, such a thing is life threatening if he doesn't get enough rest for his magic core to start refilling." Steven supplied. "I have removed some bits of conjured glass from a few of his wounds, cast a few healing spells, and set his elbow, which he had dislocated badly. Now, all I would recommend is to force him to rest."

"Then it's a good thing I booked us into the hotel down there when Harry was busy parking his baby." Jean chuckled, a sound soon echoed by Ororo, though Steven looked a little green around the gills as he remembered their ride up to the hotel from Bern.

The redhead turned to the Sorcerer Supreme bowing her head in his direction. "Thank you for your help on this, Doctor. I think the three of us are going to take your advice. It's been a busy week and then some, a bit of a break is just what the doctor ordered."

Steven nodded agreeably. "Think nothing of it, though I would like to hear about the entire affair later. I owed Mr. Potter for taking care of Selene when I could not leave America. Aiding him in this would not have been my chosen method of paying him back but still, you returned and were successful. That is all that matters. I will be in touch next weekend to hear the full story. Until then, take it easy, and make certain Mr. Potter does as well.

The two women agreed to that readily after which Ororo called in Clare to pop them down to the Huayra at the hotel. Dr. Strange remained there for a moment, gazing at the portal that Harry had created with his help, then raised a hand and with a powerful flame spell reduced it to ash. Another spell summoned up a wind scattering the ashes into the sky, then Steven Strange turned for home, shaking his head and chuckling quietly

End chapter

A shorter chapter than my normal ones for this story, but I didn't want to add any more fiddly bits in that would take away from the four main scenes. I also have a few combat scenes written up I could have put in, but decided not to, so as to split the next chapter evenly between Piotr and others in action, while Harry and his ladies take a well-deserved break to get closer/deal with the business side of things.

Oh, the bit about the Japanese emperor, I'm not certain if he was ever actually mentioned point blank, but I know Sunspot revered him, I would assume a certain section of the populace still do. Whether or not Harry will back said monarch, is up in the air. If he is a pragmatic royal like William, who always backs the common man against the nobles, then yes, if not then Harry will not have much to do with him by choice.

I had a lot of trouble with the Balthakk fight, primarily because it was almost entirely mental/metaphysical, which is not, to quote Austin Powers, my bag baby. The fight against Mephisto was hard too because I didn't want to do a blow by blow account, when magic users fight I think its much better to let the readers imagination do the coloring, with the writer supplying the outline.

In other news, I recently got into Transformers fanfiction (ugh with the yaoi and the MPreg and the stupidity), and I thought I could do something with that universe – not so much one generation or another, but all of them cobbled together. I will say that if I make a transformers ff, there will be no: yaoi, mascot characters, mini-cons (those little ones that add power or change into weapons) or other crap. I will also have a very clear idea of a power scale, and there will be as little deviation from it as possible. Weapons, energon usage and other things will of course matter as well. Humans will be a major part of it, they will do it the human way, but outthinking, and outmaneuvering the other bastards. but If anyone is interested, PM me, and I would be very willing to exchange ideas.

I also have ideas for Harry Potter/Star Wars, but in sober review, I felt it would be too much of a 'fix everything' sort of fanfic. I am not certain I could write it without straying into that area, unless I reuse my Harry Potter from the start of this fic, since he was rather, well, around the bend in many ways. I could have a lot of fun with that, yet on the other hand, he would sort of be OP'd… However, a Ranma/Star Wars, heh, heh. The amount of chaos he could cause! And no joining the Jedi or Sith. Anyway, I'm posting some new story ideas on my profile, check them out if you want, I'm always open to comments, and if someone sees a story they think they could write, PM me and I'd be glad to be your sounding board, since I doubt I'll get to any new stories for a long while, especially as this one is soon going to boldly go and all that.