A/N – I need to improve my mood a bit and I might not have time to post, so I spoil you even more. Though, I don't know if you deserve such a lengthy chapter, 10k words or so.
o-0-o
Harry gathered all of the loose strands of his hair, tying them into a ponytail, he stepped out of the changing room. He now remembered well, why he had hated to wear full plate armor, inside of it was hot, plates of armor loved to move into uncomfortable spots and he couldn't scratch any of aching spots. So he gratefully and quickly changed it for more comfortable clothes that consisted of a pair of loose sweatpants, t-shirt and over it a hoodie with Xavier's logo on the back of it.
"You know that you look good?" Rahne asked when she joined him.
"You're not the first one that told me so," he said with a smile.
"It's still truth and nothing will change it."
"Well, there's that," he said and saw Danielle walk towards them "What was that power that you had used on those mercenaries?"
"Telepathy in a way, I can use the greatest and the most secret fears that people have," she said and smiled nastily. "I just showed them what they feared the most."
"Can you see something in me?" he asked as they walked to the briefing room.
She looked at him and he saw her narrow her eyes. "No," she finally said "There is nothing in you that I could use. I can tell that you have a mind, but it throws me away.
"Good," he smiled. "I have magical protection against anything coming towards my mind."
"Sounds cool," she said and at the same time doors in front of them opened. When they stepped into the room they saw Sean Cassidy, sitting inside and waiting for them. He seemed to have a smile on his lips, but Harry knew that a smile was not equal to a smile. As he looked at this one, he could tell that it was a friendly one.
"As you know White Queen isn't your team leader, I'm the new one," Sean said when they sat down on the other side of the table. "Sorry for doing it without any warning, but there was no time for it and I didn't want to lose your focus before this exercise."
"No problem," Harry said as he took a better look at Sean, he could see toughness in him, one that didn't bode too well for ones that would cross him. Hardy frowned as he tried to recall something about person in front of him, he knew that he had heard about him from someone. "You work for SHIELD, don't you," he finally asked after a moment.
"Among many other agencies," Sean said, Harry could tell that he was not happy with how much he knew. "But my past is the least important worry for you, as I wish to discuss with you what you did wrong and what you did correct during that session in Danger Room. As well as how you can improve."
"It's already better than it was with White Queen," Rahne said from her spot and Harry looked at her. "She only told us about what we did wrong and that was it. She didn't even mention how we can improve."
"Everybody has his own style of leadership, some are better and some are worse than others."
Harry nodded at those words as he heard them in a multitude of versions from his dad or uncle. As he looked at Sean he felt more at ease than he ever felt when he was close or on his own with Emma Frost, it was not that he was afraid of her. He simply disliked her and an aura she had around herself.
"From what I had seen you only made a couple of mistakes that could be dangerous," Sean said bringing Harry out of his musings. "You decision to separate wasn't the worst one you could have done, but it was a risky one."
"Than what we were supposed to do?" Danielle asked "They were attacking us and we didn't have a choice."
"Did you think about getting earpieces and using wireless radio? One that is a common equipment for all of X-Men."
"No," they chorused, causing him to smile.
"Exactly. While it wouldn't be a huge help, it would still help you in a way and you would be able to find each other more easily. You will need to get used to it, but it is a thing that you should do easily, from my experience I know that's a matter of getting used to the feeling of having something in your ear."
They nodded and saw him smile in a way that didn't bode them too well. He walked to the wall and activated a display hidden inside. "Since we had agreed on what was your biggest mistake, let's get to analyzing it from the very beginning to the very end of it." he said making them groan. Harry was hungry and wanted to rest and as he looked at the girls he saw that they wanted to the same thing.
o-0-o
Natasha Romanov crouched behind a large evergreen bush and took a look around, she was on top of a large hill and in front of her was spread a huge valley, from two sides framed by the tall peaks of nearby Carpathian Mountains. Slopes of them were covered in thick, old, almost ancient forests that were a dangerous area for one that didn't know how to avoid large predators. From her place she could hear roars of bears that were living there. However for ones that knew how to do so, they were a safe haven and hideout, one where they could hide and await for their target.
As her gaze swept over those peaks, she could recognize some that she had seen from different side and passes between them that she had crossed during one of her numerous missions. For a moment her gaze darted to the sky above, black and covered in hundreds of stars, but immediately it went back to the peaks she was watching.
Her gaze slipped from those high peaks onto the floor of the valley in the middle, it was a meadow, covered in some parts of it in a sparse forest, with a couple of streams flowing lazily through it and a small lake at one end of it. It looked just like one of small valleys placed between peaks of mountains.
She placed binoculars in front of her eyes and her gaze once again swept over the landscape. Well, that was worth a try, she thought and set her binoculars to infrared vision. Instead of a plain, normal looking landscape she could see faint ripples in the the air, they weren't natural and on her lips appeared a smirk when she saw that they weren't one time occurrence, but were happening at regular intervals.
"Well, well, it seems that it is were it was the last time I was looking for it." she said as she lowered them and felt a faint pop to her far right.
She froze in place, trying not to make the slightest sound or move. It was a wizard, she thought, so they either upgraded security or are lucky, she thought and waited.
She waited without move for five, almost ten minutes. She kept her breathing even and her heart didn't even quickened as she waited. She froze as if she was a part of the landscape, not a human being.
Her gaze slowly darted towards the area where she had heard the noise, she could see a completely undisturbed forest, but she knew well that wizards had means of disappearing out of view. Her gaze slipped over the easiest approach to the spot where she was and she looked at the ground and leaves covering it. She could see some of them being moved and some of them snapping.
It seems that they are as predictable as they were in the past, she thought before she jammed her dart gun out of its holster and depressed the trigger. With a soft pop dart flew out of it and slammed into invisible object that was walking towards her. It threw it onto the ground and revealed where exactly it was.
She waited a moment for the tranquilizer to take effect and walked forward, she slipped gun back into its holster and kneeled in front of the thing that was laying on the ground.
"Well," she said and moved her hands across the thing that was laying on the ground. She was looking for his or her wand to disarm them, she smiled when she found a small stick that was too even to be a twig. "Sloppy work," she commented "Probably was bored and wanted to have fun."
She stood up and looked around, if one is here, there might be a second one, she thought and looked for a good perch to watch the area. She removed dart from one that it hit and walked away from him. He was going to remain tranquilized for more than half an hour, so she had time to hide. Also her job was done, if he was here, she was right about the location of her target.
Now she just needed to get out of the forest and cross the border that was running across peaks of the mountain range in front of her. Her eyes kept sweeping over the forest as she quickly walked, even if she was doing it quickly, she was making sure not to make a lot of noise.
o-0-o
"I heard that you have a new leader," Warren said with a smile when Harry and the rest of the team managed to drag themselves to the Quite Lounge. One of few places that quickly became his favorite ones inside of the Institute. Fire roaring in the fireplace calmed his nerves and allowed him to focus on things.
"We have," Rahne said and winced slightly. "Although as I look at him, it feels that White Queen wasn't that bad."
"Oh?"
"Danger Room training session," Harry said. "I'm used to training and crazy teachers, but it was a different experience."
"Are you getting lazy?" Warren asked and Harry glared at him.
"Warren, do not test my patience," Harry said, summoned himself a bottle of water, took a sip from it and looked at Warren. "He took a lot of pleasure from pointing out all of our mistakes and how we could have avoided them."
"He needs to get to your mind and sometimes you need to be direct to get to someone."
"Subtlety is a word unknown to him," Danielle said as she was looking for a more comfortable spot in her armchair. "He was very direct in how he explained what we did wrong and how we could have avoided it."
"You will get used to him," Warren said with a smile. "Also if you even dream about joining one of actual teams, you will need to train more."
"Tell that to my poor muscles," Harry sighed. "I didn't even know that there are so many of them and so many of them can ache at the same time."
"You were brought up on Asgard, where you most likely trained in several types of martial arts and you still complain about sore muscles?"
"Yes, I do that," Harry said and paused for a moment, thinking how to explain what he wanted to say. "I'm used to training, even exhaustive one, but normally any of tutors or teachers there knew some limits in how far he or she was willing to push us."
"Life isn't fair, little cousin," Warren chuckled softly and added more seriously "Especially for us, mutants."
"Why it is not fair especially for us?"
"Because we aren't generally liked by the society," Danielle said. "Most of students either ran away from their families out of their free volition or were forced to flee persecution. You, Warren and Rahne are more of an exception. You all have families that accept you and where you can go when you wish to, my family was killed because of my powers. Most of other people that you will find here had the same experience."
"Oh," Harry said, shocked by those words, he knew from his dad and uncle that it wasn't going to be all rosy, but he didn't know that it was going to be that bad.
"But don't get so gloomy," Warren said and Harry looked in his direction "It's bad, but it is getting better than it was just a couple of years ago. And much better than it was in the nineties or so."
"Okay," Harry nodded and sipped some more water. "I must say that I like being here."
"Let me guess," Warren said, getting his attention. "You like it because you are just another person, not a person that everybody bows to or show respect."
"How?"
"He is the sole son of Warren Worthington II, one of the richest people on Earth," Rahne said. "So I think that he knows how people tend to behave around you or someone in power."
"Yeah," Harry said and looked at Warren "Dad mentioned that you were my cousin, but he didn't mention the fact that you were from such family."
"He probably forgot about it," Warren said and looked at him. "Aren't you tired?"
When Warren said those words Harry realized how tired he was, he stiffening out a massive yawn, glowered at his cousin and walked to his room. Even on Asgard he rarely felt so tired as not many pushed him that hard and had so little mercy to not stop it when they were almost laying on the ground, panting.
o-0-o
Harry was finishing packing his bag when he saw Cyclops walk towards him. He came to like this mutant, so he didn't instantly get edgy as he was getting when he saw White Queen getting close to him. She was a cold woman, he could tell that she had disliked him for something that he didn't know about.
"I know from Sunspot that you are supposed to know how to fly planes." Cyclops said when he stood in front of his desk.
"Yes," Harry said with a grin. "That was one of many things I learned on Asgard."
"Good," Cyclops said. "Do you know where is briefing room in the X-Men part of the building?"
"Yes."
"I will meet you there on let's say Saturday afternoon and teach you a couple of things about our planes," Cyclops said and gave him a flash drive. "I think that you can guess what is hidden on this stick."
"Yes." Harry smiled. "Technical data that I need to remember for those flying lessons, don't I?"
"That would be right, you will find there everything about the plane that we use," Cyclops said and looked at him, light shining across ruby glasses. "While I don't expect you to know everything inside of it, it would be a good thing for you to learn it."
"I should manage to do that."
"Even with all the homework you are being given and team training?" Cyclops arched an eyebrow.
"Yes," Harry smiled, threw the stick into the bag and looked at Cyclops. "I did harder things than read few dozens of pages in a three-day time."
"If you say so." Cyclops said, he nodded and left older mutant to his own musings. He was curious of what was hidden on the data stick as he already had a pretty good idea of what to expect, so he couldn't wait for the classes to end so that he could spend some time digging through all this data.
o-0-o
The moment the classes ended Harry hurried to his room, fished out of his bad data stick given to him by Cyclops and plugged it into his laptop. He was curious what was hidden there, he grabbed his laptop and plopped down on his bed.
It took a while for laptop to load up all of the files that were hidden on the stick, but when they were loaded, on Harry's lips appeared a smile. "So Blackbird," he said to himself and opened the first file, his eyes slipped over the schematics of it and landed on details. When he saw how fast it was he whistled quietly.
He was used to fast flyers, but this was on a completely different level than most of things that he had flown. They were a bit slower than this, but much nimbler and agile.
"What are you doing?" Bobby asked as he entered the room.
"Looking through blueprints of Blackbird," Harry said, his attention still focused on the images in front of him, not on his friend. "And they are amazing."
"Who would expect to see a Prince of Asgard getting excited over some of our primitive human technology," Bobby chuckled
"What I can do when it is amazing?"
"But still, I bet it is primitive compared to what you have access to on Asgard."
"In a way, yes," Harry said after a moment "But should it stop me from saying that something is good?"
"I guess no, it's just that I'm surprised."
"Happens," he shrugged off. "It's still darn good and I wonder how it will fly."
"As good as it looks," Bobby said. "Just be careful when Cyclops is going to set difficulty of simulation to the highest level."
"Because it will get nasty?"
"You could say so," Sunspot said and sat down on his bed. "Since you were brought up on Asgard, do you know other languages than English and one used on Asgard?"
"A couple," Harry said and frowned "From ones that you should know, I know some German, Latin, Portuguese, Greek, Russian and I think that's all that I know."
"You learned all of them out of boredom?"
"More along the line of uncle suggesting that they can be useful as it seems that I'm going to spend a lot of time on Earth and I still don't have access to Allspeak or All-Tongue. Not to mention that some of things on Asgard are written in Latin or Greek, which forced me to learn them."
"What's that?" Bobby asked. "All-Tongue, it sounds weird," he said after a moment, as if tasting the word.
Harry was silent for a moment, wondering how to explain it in a way that would be the easiest one. "Ability to speak in one language, whatever it is and being understood by everybody around you. Kind of nice, especially when you want to be understood."
"Yeah, but I guess it can be annoying."
"Very," he laughed. "Especially when you don't want to be heard by too many people."
"So I guess that you enjoy being here?" Bobby asked.
"Yes," Harry flashed a smile "But now let me read the whole thing that Cyclops gave me."
Bobby nodded and let Harry fully submerge in data about Blackbird, his eyes swept over numbers and blueprints, studying them and trying to remember all data that there was. He was used to learning a lot of things, but as he looked at the images and their descriptions, he felt a bit overwhelmed.
o-0-o
Maria Hill looked at the map of Eastern Europe, than her gaze switched to Natasha Romanov. "How sure are you that this is the place where Durmstrang is at the moment?" She finally asked.
"As sure as I can be," Natasha said "I didn't enter the protective bubble around it as it would tell them that there was someone approaching, but it is there."
Maria was silent as she looked at the map. Of all places, why does it need to be in Romania, she thought. Finally she nodded and once again looked at Natasha. "How hard it would be to find this Karkaroff?"
"He is one that when he wants to is almost impossible to track down, and he never or almost never leaves his school."
"School which is full of children and teens," Maria said and winced as possible consequences flashed through her mind, she was not going to order an attack on this school, unless she was insane. "So any direct attack at it is a political suicide and I don't fancy losing my head."
Natasha only nodded in confirmation, making Maria's gaze focus on a detailed map of Eastern Europe. "How easily he would be convinced to get out of his hiding and get captured?"
"As easily as Fury would be."
"So he is a dead-end as I'm not insane enough to order an attack on a school full of children, especially now as everybody is looking at us," Maria said, looked at the map and tapped her finger on it. "I want you to go there and try to get whatever you can from your old contacts."
"Moscow?" Natasha asked as she read the name that was written under the spot she was pointing at.
"Yes, the UK I'm going to leave alone, at least for the time being as Nick mentioned something about taking care of it," Maria said and looked at Natasha. "You are one that knows Russia the best and one that can get the most out of it, so I want you to go there and learn as much as you can."
"Of course," Natasha said and walked out of the room, leaving Maria alone and allowing her to freely think about the whole situation. She looked at the map and tried to imagine how placement of forced looked like. If he is there, than someone is most likely in Kiev and Warsaw or Kiev and Minsk, she thought and paused for a moment. But than, the question is what is his main goal to reach, he wants to stay out of the way, so he does a darn good job, but why there.
She walked to her laptop and looked for a detailed map of Romania with things of importance marked on it, she quickly added to it current position of Durmstrang and smiled when she saw where it was. Well, that's a brave or foolish man, she thought and tapped her earpiece. "Get me overhead photos of all valleys in the Carpathian Mountains, full spectrum ones." She said and sat down behind her desk. It was going to be an interesting time and if she was right about that valley, even deadly.
o-0-o
Harry looked around the simulator of Blackbird with some curiosity, controls looked similar enough for him to know what was what. He only needed to get used to different symbols and names, but that was the least of his worries. "It seems spacious," he said as he looked at Cyclops. "For the first time I have all the space I need and there is still room for second pilot. Usually planes on Asgard are designed in a different way."
"Beast designed it or at least redesigned," Cyclops said, taking second seat. "So he tried to make it as user friendly as possible. Sometimes we need to spend hours inside, so he wanted to make as comfortable as he could. Anyways, do you know what is what?"
"Yes," Harry said, placing his hands on the controls.
"Good," Cyclops smiled. "Than let's see how good you are." He turned to a console set in the back of the simulator. "It is set to pretty normal, so it shouldn't be too hard for you."
"Too hard?"
"In some of the nastier ones I and Beast set several things like malfunctioning engine and so on."
"Lovely," Harry snorted and focused on the controls. He didn't expect such creativity on the part of Cyclops.
o-0-o
"Not bad," Cyclops said as he watched Harry execute one of harder maneuvers in simulator of Blackbird. He knows how to fly and Banshee was right about the fact that he is natural in the air, Cyclops thought. "But normally you need to watch out your tail as you can loose a finn or two and without them flying is hard."
"I know," Harry said without diverting his eyes from displays and controls. Which earned him a couple more points in Cyclops book. "It's just that on Asgard I'm used to faster maneuvers and more agile planes."
"I can see that in your moves. You make too many small corrections of your flight path. As if you were accustomed to plane reacting immediately to what you do. Try to relax and do not correct them so much."
Harry nodded and moves became a little smoother, without plane moving in all directions as he tried to correct mistakes that were nonexistent.
"Better, much better," Cyclops nodded as he watched moves of the plane. "Now something like few more hours and we can go on a ride in real one."
"Why so long?" Harry pouted as he steered the plane into a steep dive, controls blinking as he cruised through the air, each second bringing him closer and closer to the ground. With a sharp jerk of joystick he exited the dive and entered an even path of flight.
"Because I want to be sure that you know how to fly it and I don't want to crash into the ground," Cyclops said. "And you need more experience, how many hours did you fly recently?"
"Maybe four or so," Harry said after a moment of thought.
"Not enough," Cyclops said after a moment. "In last six months I flew something like eighty or so hours and much more as second pilot or when teaching other how to use planes. You need to fly to stay in shape, by the way what type of plane do you have on Asgard?"
"Something the size of this one, but slower, yet with better acceleration and heavily armed."
"Heavily armed?" Cyclops asked with raised eyebrow.
"One turret on underbelly with plasma cannon and two cannons facing forward, also ability to carry eight people, two bays for weapons in wings and quite a lot of external attachment points."
"Nice plane," Cyclops whistled. "Is there any chance for you to get it here?"
"Without getting attention or with being chased by a horde of planes?" Harry asked.
"Preferably the first one."
"Not any time soon. As normally it would be simply sent through Bifrost and it would be seen by everybody."
"We can work without it," Cyclops said. "It's just that having another plane would be nice."
"I know how do you feel."
"Going back to simulation," Cyclops pressed several buttons and watched as it changed. "It's the hardest one, I wonder how you are going to deal with it."
o-0-o
Harry dragged himself back into his room once the whole training session in the simulator was done, he felt as if something decided to jump up and down inside of his head. He thought that he was used to hard training when on Asgard, but there they knew the word mercy, to some extend, here it was almost forgotten.
He quickly changed into his pyjamas and closed his eyes hoping for a moment of rest and peace. The moment he fell asleep he landed in a world covered in a thick layer of mist. He looked around, in the distance he could see faint outlines of a large tree that was calling him, summoning him to itself.
He slowly walked forward, looking around, he didn't have good feelings about this whole situation and being here. Where am I, he thought as his eyes scanned the mist, excluding the thick, almost milk-like mist he didn't see anything. Even if he wasn't seeing a thing, he had other senses and they were screaming in danger.
He heard a loud howl straight ahead and he almost jumped out of his skin, it was piercing and so low that it rattled his bones. He wasn't afraid of wolves, but this one made him scared and afraid of whatever was a cause of it.
He took a couple of steps forward and at him pounced a huge white and gray wolf, he reacted instinctively and in his left hand appeared a shield onto which he took the impact of the wolf. It was so strong that he didn't stop it and both of them landed on the ground, wolf's head just inches away from his throat.
"Don't die," he whispered to himself and used his free hand to keep snapping jaws of the wolf away from his head. He grunted from the exertion, but he managed to push it away and get some breathing room. "The hell you are?" He asked as he let go of his shield and used both hands to throw the wolf of himself and away.
The wolf didn't pounce again at him, instead bowed its head and turned into mist.
His eyes widened when he saw it. "Magic," he whispered to himself. "That wasn't a real wolf, but a construct of magic."
"Very good," said ethereal voice that came from nowhere and everywhere, it was full of power and mighty. "You passed the first test, now you need to find the tree and the answer you seek will be revealed to you there."
"I do not seek any answer!" he shouted at the thing that said those words.
"Do not tempt the Fate, Prince of Asgard," voice said, making him shudder from its power and anger. "You are nothing compared to us, we are older and far more powerful than you are. We remember the time when Asgard was young and your grandfather wasn't even born."
Those words made him pale in fear as he realized how old the things speaking to him were, he summoned Tyrfing to his hand and gritting his teeth he walked forward. His eyes were sweeping over the mist that surrounded him. Trying to pierce it and see what was hidden behind it.
That wolf hurt his pride and he didn't want to be once again surprised by such thing, he heard claws scrapping the stone behind him. He turned to face that direction, yet he didn't see a thing.
His eyes scanned the mist, trying to see if there was coming anything at him. He didn't see a single thing, so he turned around and started to walk towards the tree that he was seeing in the distance.
The tree seemed to be right in front of him, yet it felt for him as if he spent hours walking to it, when he finally stopped in front of it he saw the biggest tree he had seen, it was massive. As he looked upwards he couldn't see the top of it and most of the upper branches of it were hidden by the mist. There was a body hanged on the trunk of it, rope wrapped around its throat was an old and bloodied one.
His eyes widened when he saw the thing that was hanged on the trunk of it, it was a corpse of an Æsir. It's hair white from age, on his head was placed a crown, he was holding in his hands a golden gauntlet with spots for gems to be placed in it. His fingers were like claws around it, as if they didn't want to lose it.
"Grandfather?" he weakly asked when he finally recognized who was hanged on the tree. It was his grandfather, Odin, yet this was a different one, this one was devoid of any energy and weak.
"Yes, this is your grandfather," said a woman that appeared in front of the tree, she looked truly beautiful, in deep green gown covered in runes that flower across it, golden jewelry adoring her wrists and neck. Her hair were black and long, reaching below her waist. "But this is also one of many possible fates of Asgard and the whole Nine Realms, one that can happen or cannot, depending on your and your family choices."
"Who are you, and how did you get into my mind?"
The being in front of him laughed. "Child, you know who I am and I'm more than able to walk through the mind of your grandfather as if it was a walk in the garden, so your defenses, while formidable are nothing to me."
"What do you want from me?" he asked, pushing fear deep into the back of his mind.
"Now train and do not ignore signs of things to come, that you will see," she said and smiled nastily. "Wake up."
He was about to say something when the thing ended and he woke up back in the real world. With a scream he sat up in his bed, sweat covering his whole body as he shivered in cold and his heart was beating extremely fast, he could almost hear it trashing inside of his chest. For a moment he simply sat there in total darkness as he wait for the shivers to go away.
"Bad dream?" Roberto asked as he sat up in his own bed on the other side of the room. "Your scream woke me up."
"More along the lines of freaky one," Harry said.
"Freaky dream that made you scream in fear?"
"Fine," he sighed. "Mix of bad and freaky." He checked the time on his phone and cringed, it was too early to do anything useful. "Night," he muttered and dragged quilt to cover his shivering form, wings wrapped around his upper body, their feathers providing another layer of warm and soft insulation against the cold.
o-0-o
Warren walked into the part of the mansion used by X-Men when he heard the sound of fists hitting the punching bag in one of training rooms. He frowned as he from what he knew it was supposed to be empty as one team was away, checking something for Professor, while the second was relaxing.
He stopped trying to see from where exactly the noise was comimg and he walked there, he stopped in front of the doors that weren't fully closed. He could see his cousin inside of the room, punching the bag, his torso bare and covered in sweat, his hairs turned into long, messy strands that were dripping with sweat.
It made him worried as from what he knew his dear cousin was not a person to drive himself into exhaustion and here he was on the best way to do so. Also as Warren looked at Harry's form, he could see some determination that made him a bit afraid of what was going on with Harry and inside of Harry's mind.
"What are you doing here at this hour?" Warren asked, stepping into the room.
"Training," Harry said without stopping what he was doing. "I need to do it."
"You know that you are going to exhaust yourself and tomorrow you will be useless."
"And?" Harry asked as he finally stopped and turned to look at Warren.
"And there is no point in doing so," he said as he walked to his cousin and looked at him, "You won't prove anything by it and only get exhausted. Believe me, I did the same thing when I was younger and more foolish than I am now."
"I need to do it."
"You don't need anything," Warren said, placing his hand on Harry's shoulder and making him look into his eyes. "Not anything, you need air to breath and energy to keep living, but everything else you don't need to do or have. You can do whatever you want to do, so now get rest and go to sleep. Tomorrow there is also a day."
He could see Harry fight with himself, but after a moment he nodded and sighed. "I guess that you are right, it's just that something unsettled me."
"But it is not a reason to drive yourself into exhaustion," Warren said and pushed Harry towards the exit. "Do I need to make sure that you get to your own room or are you going to do it on your own?"
"You don't need," Harry smiled. "I know my way around the Institute well enough."
"Good." Warren smiled in return. "Now scram and good-night."
o-0-o
It was perfect silence when Odin and Freyr were in the council chamber, excluding them, inside of it was a pair of guards at the doors leading into the room. The rest of the council left the room earlier, leaving the two of them alone and undisturbed. Odin's eyes were focused on one of many hunting tapestries adorning the walls, he finally stopped looking at it and his gaze slipped to Freyr.
"How sure are you of it being true?" Odin asked.
"As sure as I can be," Freyr said. "From what I spoke with Heimdall he said that he isn't dead, so it suggests that he is alive, in one form or another."
Odin was silent for a moment as he looked at his cousin. "I had thought that he was killed by the spell he had used on the wife of my son. How it is that he is still alive?"
"He cheated Death in a very crude and primitive way," Freyr said with an unpleasant sneer on his face, one that told more about his feelings that his flat voice. "He split his soul into several parts and hid them away from each other."
Odin growled at those words. "I want him brought to Asgard to see the justice, nobody will get away with murdering my daughter-in-law and an attempt to murder my grandson."
"Of course, Sire," Freyr said, bowing his head lightly. "I will ask Wolf Prince Hrimhari to lead the hunt. I would have done it personally, but I'm supposed to negotiate with Kree."
"Kree can wait for some time," Odin said dismissively and looked at Freyr. "I will explain to their ambassador why they need to wait and they will understand that. He cannot."
Freyr bowed his head. "I will do it at once," he said and walked out of the chamber, leaving Odin alone in the room.
There was a change coming, he could feel it as other great players were rising stakes and for the first time in ages in the Vault there were two Infinity Gems. Even if he wasn't going to admit that the stone set in his son scepter was a Mind Stone, he could feel its power. Which meant that someone caused them to end up in his possession, his eyes widened when he realized who it was.
"Thanos," he whispered and through the chamber passed a cold blow of wind. "The Mad Titan comes and wants to find them."
o-0-o
Fury tilted his head as he listened to the rambling of General Ross, he never had a high opinion about him and his recent idea only confirmed his suspicions that he was an idiot and one that shouldn't be placed in charge of any of sensitive project, neither he should be allowed to see classified data.
"No," he said and Ross looked at him. "I won't accept this project, do I need to remind you about the agreement we had signed with Magneto to avoid all-out civil war with mutants. War that we weren't able to win and now there is even smaller chance."
"But they can be an advantage over our enemies," Ross said. "So we need to use them in one way or another and this is the best approach."
"Yes, they can be an advantage," Fury said and saw Ross perk up. "But this project is a direct violation of the agreement with Magneto and experiments on children or teenagers aren't a thing I will approve."
"Magneto is a terrorist and we need them to unlock their full potential!" Ross shouted, but calmed down the moment Fury looked at him. While a powerful person, here Ron was still just a guest and could be thrown out of the room the moment Fury had enough of him.
"My answer is no," Fury said and looked at Ross. "We need to convince them to help us, not force them to do so."
"Very well," Ross said as he got up. "The Committee on Armed Services will hear about your lack of approval for this project."
Fury snorted in amusement and looked at Ross. "I don't answer to the Senate, unless something has changed the only person that can order me is the President and I don't think he is insane enough to break an agreement without a good reason."
Ross didn't say a word, instead charged out of the office. Fury had a really bad feeling about this idiot and his lust for power and fame. His previous attempt ended with Hulk about this one the feelings he had were worse, much worse.
"He wouldn't do that, would he?" Fury asked himself as he turned around and looked at the Potomac River. If he does it, the fallout will be terrible, he thought and shuddered, Worthington will be all over the media and Magneto might decide that the agreement was broken and its time to once again start his campaign.
o-0-o
"It's too quiet," Loki said as he stood on the balcony of the Avengers Tower, he still didn't know how he was convinced to join this group, but he was forced to agree that they were a likeable bunch.
"Yes," Hawkeye said as he joined him. "As if something was about to happen."
"Fury is chasing Death Eaters all over the Europe and he might have poked the wrong tree with this move," Loki said as he looked at the sky, he could tell that there was a storm brewing on the horizon. Question was when it would happen and how badly it would hit the world or the universe.
"What do you mean by that?"
"He might force them to unite, assuming that he won't catch all of them during his first attempt and it seems like so," he said, twirling his scepter. "Or worse, he might force them to consider allying with HYDRA or some other organization that lurks in the shadows, just waiting for any mistake."
"What are you going to do about them?"
"About them, I will do nothing," he said with a sly smile, "But I'm going to do a thing I should have done long time ago."
"That is?"
"Teach my dear nephew some more of magic and introduce him to true battle magic. I think that he is more than ready to learn something more than basic manipulation of energy."
"Manipulation of energy?" Hawkeye asked. "I was always taught that magic is a thing that is impossible to explain."
Loki laughed at those words. "It is manipulation of energy, either it comes from your mind, which is easier, but more exhausting or you call it from the environment."
"So how are wizards changing shapes of things or changing things from one form to another?"
"Energy comes from their mind and body," he said and paused, wondering how to explain it "If there is a pillar of fire launched at you, it is far easier to send it back, than it is to change let's say a needle into a matchstick. With fire, you just need to change direction where energy flows, while with a matchstick and a needle you need energy from your body to change metal into wood and later add missing material."
Hawkeye nodded in understanding. "I think that I know what do you mean, previously we had only contact with our normal wizards, not even the Sorcerer Supreme and they didn't know how to explain it."
"Asgard is far older than your whole civilization, we had time to develop and understand the theory behind the magic and many other things," Loki said. "Better part of spells used by wizards, if not most of them come from what we and other pantheons had taught humans in the past. They had adopted and changed them to suit their needs, but the most basic forms are coming from the spells taught by us."
"Runes?"
"Yes," he smiled. "Creation of my father, or at least in their final form. Probably the most deadly form of magic we had ever developed or came across during our conquests."
"Because you don't know when they will activate?"
"Among other things," he said and glanced at Hawkeye. "When did you learn about them?"
"Missions for SHIELD in the mountains of Norway, almost every single tomb or cave there is full of them."
"There are ways to safely disable them, or at least weak ones. I will show them to you when I will get back."
"Where are you going?"
"To Xavier's, I wasted more than enough time and someone needs to teach him," Loki said and disappeared in a vortex of energy. He stepped out of it in the office of Charles Xavier and looked around, he didn't plan to arrive here. He looked around and saw Xavier sitting behind the desk with a look that said that he expected his arrival. "How did I land here?" He asked looking at Xavier.
"I pulled you here," Xavier said. "I need to speak about something with you, something that worries me, I discovered it when I looked into the mind of your nephew and there are several other things that I would like to speak about with you."
Loki narrowed his eyes. "Tell me that you did it without his agreement and you are dead."
"I did it with his permission, I never invade mind of person without his or her permission," Xavier said. "You should know that the mind is the most sacred thing that every being, no matter his age, skin color or race, has."
"Yes," Loki nodded, conjured for himself a comfortable armchair and sat down. His gaze swiped over the gardens spread behind the office, he could see some of the students there doing their assignments and relaxing. It lingered there for a moment and focused back on Xavier's "So what is so important that you had pulled me here?"
"Do you know that there was a leech in the mind of your nephew? I know that you are more subtle and better in magic than Thor, so I want to talk about this with you."
Loki was silent for a moment, but than nodded. "I suspected that there was something, but I couldn't find it. I guess that you had removed it."
"I did, it was something so vile and dangerous that I had seen only once or twice."
His eyes narrowed when he heard those words. "I see, I guess that you had removed it from his mind, permanently at that?"
"Of course," Xavier said and winced. "It took a lot of my effort as it didn't want to go away, but I removed it out of his mind."
"Good, as if I'm right about what it was, it is a remnant of one that attempted to murder him."
"Wanda told me the same thing, but that is not a reason why I am in need of talking with you. It is something entirely else and I would say more dire."
"You speak like my father when he doesn't like something," Loki chuckled softly and looked at Professor Xavier, he couldn't feel any lies coming from him, so he only prepared for what was to come.
"Harry has changed, something in him I would have said, snapped and made him more determined," Xavier said and looked at Loki. "Logan and Warren found him a couple of time training well into the night, as if something shook him. Do you have any idea what was it?"
He was silent for a moment as he tried to think who could have been the one to shake him so badly. "I have a couple of ideas, each and every single one of them worse than the previous one. If I was to guess, I would say that it was done by Them."
"Them?" Xavier asked "I'm not an inhabitant or citizen of Asgard, so something obvious to you, isn't obvious to me."
"My bad," Loki said in apology "Spinners of Fate would be the best name to name ones or one that did this."
"Who are they?"
"Ones that can change the fate of Asgard and even with all of our magic and technology we can't do anything to them. For most of the time they spin the yarn and do nothing, but from time to time they advise us."
"And this was a hint from them?" Xavier asked
"It could have been, I was going to show Harry some of more battle oriented magic, so I might as well do it and talk with him about the whole thing with them," Loki said and looked at Xavier's "Do you have any idea where is he?"
"Most likely somewhere around the school as now it is a time for break and he should be moving around. If you want, you can take him and find yourself a quiet spot for teaching him magic."
Loki nodded in agreement and disappeared in another vortex of energy. This time he didn't get pulled by someone to a different location and stepped out of it right behind Harry. Who jumped up and turned around.
"Uncle," Harry said, lightly bowing his head. "I didn't expect to see you here."
"Someone needs to teach you magic and your father isn't the God of Magic," Loki said and saw as on Harry's face appeared a wide smile. "Yes, I'm going to teach you more powerful magic and maybe the last part of shape-shifting wouldn't be bad." He said with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Really?" Harry asked, excitement and curiosity gleaming in his eyes.
"Yes," Loki smiled. "Were you trying to meditate as much as you could?"
"Kind of," Harry said, shuffling his feet uncomfortably.
"Which means none," Loki said and saw Harry's cheeks turn red "So I think that we will start from shape-shifting," Loki summoned for themselves a portal and stepping through it they were send to a small clearing in the forests surrounding Xavier's.
"Where are we?" Harry asked looking around, he was such for a moment, until he realized where they were. "We are in the forests behind the school."
"Very good," Loki smiled and sat down on the ground, motioning Harry to join him there. When Harry sat down he looked into his eyes. "Did you have any idea when you were last meditating what is your second form?"
"Something furry, large and with fangs," Harry saw, his brows furrowing. "White fur and red eyes."
Loki looked at Harry, not sure if he heard it right. "How sure you are of this red eyes and white fur?"
"As sure as I can be."
"Well, ice wolf of Jotunheim, it seems, is your second form," he said and summoned a thick scroll, he placed it on the ground and saw Harry's gaze dart towards it. "It's a scroll with data about them and their traits and habits, so that you can better understand changing into one."
"So what can I expect from it?" Harry asked.
"Sharp fangs, even sharper senses than you have now, silent step and something special for your bites," he smirked. "But now, start on your meditation as it will take you maybe an hour or two to finally get the form and before you get it, we won't start on battle magic training."
Harry pouted, but seeing his expression nodded and closed his eyes, starting to control his breath and heartbeat.
o-0-o
Two hours later Loki glanced at the sun that was slowly moving across the sky and later glanced back at Harry. He could tell that he was almost done, the question being how soon he would change.
He heard a soft pop and looked at the spot where used to be his nephew, he was gone and in his place was a large pup of an ice wolf, it was whole four feet tall and most of its snow white fur was still soft, not a thick, hard fur of a mature wolf. It sat there, looked expectantly at him, human intelligence gleaming in its red eyes, it's fluffy tail beating the ground behind. "Good job," Loki said and the wolf looked at him. "You just changed into your animal form, now let's see if you can change back."
Wolf in front of him closed its eyes. After a moment shook its head and whined softly. He smiled and sent towards it a beam of energy that changed him back into his human body.
"For the first time you did well," Loki said reassuringly as he saw Harry look at him, "Now do it once more, try to change back into your normal form as well."
Harry closed his eyes for a moment and changed into the wolf, he ran around him and changed back to his normal form. Loki smiled lightly when he saw his expression after he successfully changed to a normal form.
"It seems that you know how to do it," Loki said and looked at Harry. "We need to talk about that dream you had, Professor X told me about your behavior and it is strange." At those words Harry glared at him, "Don't glare at me, I'm an older one and I can help you with it, so what did you see in that dream?"
For next couple of minutes Harry was telling him his dream and with each moment lump of ice in his stomach was growing. He had a bad feeling about this from the very beginning, but now it was getting worse with each moment. He managed to keep his features straight and looked at Harry. "Don't worry about them and what they had told you, it's nothing to worry about and," Loki placed his hand on Harry's forehead, muttered a couple of words in Norse and saw another set of runes form around his eyes and make swirls on the left side of his head and neck get bigger and darker. "This should make lurking in your memories and mind a very unpleasant adventure for anybody that attempts it."
"So what now?" Harry asked.
"Battle magic training," Loki said and summoned his scepter. "I only showed you how to create blasts of pure force, right?"
Harry only nodded at those words.
"Than I think it is a good idea to start more serious magic, you can choose from ice, lightning, fire or wind magic."
"Lightning," Harry grinned. "I'm supposed to know something from it."
"Another God of Thunder in the making," Loki muttered, but nodded. It was going to be a couple of interesting hours for him. Even if he was only going to introduce Harry to this branch of magic, his father domain may awake inside of him, which would make this an interesting experience.
Loki collected his thoughts and looked at Harry. "Lightning is the easiest one for you to control and master, so let's start with it. Normally I wouldn't do it, but this will help you," he said and pointed his hand at the sky which quickly got covered in black, stormy clouds, "It's harder to create element when you can't draw from the environment."
"So what I am supposed to do?" Harry asked.
"Try to channel a lightning bolt from those clouds to yourself or your sword, I would suggest sword as it won't blow up or fry you," Loki said. "Also it will be a more stable thing than you."
Harry nodded and soon in his hand that was pointing into the air was gleaming blade of Tyrfing, Loki could smell ozone in the air and that meant that the lightning was to strike something. He was right as moments later a white bolt of energy shot from the sky and slammed into Tyrfing.
"Very good," Loki smiled looking at the blade pulsing with energy. "Now release the energy,"
Harry smirked and that told him to place some sort of barrier between the two of them. He did it just in time as a bolt of energy flew from Harry's sword and in his direction, but was stopped by the barrier. He destroyed the barrier and looked at his nephew, it was going to be a long, long day.
o-0-o
Amelia Bones was a patient person, but even her patience had some limits and she was trying not to explode as she looked at this disgusting toad that invited herself into her office. She took a long sip of firewhiskey, placed the tumbler back on her desk and finally looked at Umbridge. "No," she said "I won't do that."
"But the Boy-Who-Lived is our national hero and he needs to be rescued," Umbridge said "He doesn't deserve to live with those brutes, he needs to be brought up in a wizarding family."
Amelia sighed and tilted her head, wondering if the toad in front of her was insane or power-hungry or both of those things. "Mr Undersecretary," she finally said, forcing herself not to smile protectively "He is on the other side of the ocean and we don't have jurisdiction there, and even if we had, I would strong advise against it. He is son of Thor and Asgard won't take kindly kidnapping of their Prince."
"Asgard which is just a myth," Umbridge sneered. "So we do not need to fear reaction of some brutes, also that Thor that was in the Ministry was a fake one."
Amelia sighed and poured herself another glass of firewhiskey, she was against drinking when on duty, but she needed it to stay sane. She took a long sip of it, enjoying its taste and warmth, she placed the tumbler back on her desk and tried to formulate kind reply that wouldn't insult anybody.
"Was he a fake one?" she mused. "He had blown a hole in a couple of walls and he can fly, so we can assume that he was a true one. Also you are only an undersecretary with no power over me, so get out of my office!"
Umbridge face turned into a beautiful shade of purple as she tried to comprehend what Amelia just told her. "Did you-"
"Yes, I did. Get out of my office! Now!"
"Cornelius will learn about it!" Umbridge shouted before storming out of the office. Amelia only snorted at those words.
She locked doors with a simple spell and walked to the fireplace that was in the corner, she threw a pinch of Floo powder into them and said. "Albus Dumbledore office, Hogwarts."
She stepped out of the Floo in a very familiar looking office in Hogwarts, Dumbledore sitting behind his desk and Fawkes on his perch. "How may I help you?" Dumbledore asked.
"Fudge is getting insane," she said and sighed. "He wants to hunt down Harry Potter, both of us know that he doesn't want to be hunted down and his family will violently oppose it."
"Indeed, this is a problem." Dumbledore said and conjured for her an armchair. "There are some things at play that you do not know about, but might prove crucial for you to understand what is going on."
She looked at him and nodded, by now I should have get used to him doing something behind everybody's back, she thought and focused on what he was saying. She only arched her eyebrow a couple of times at some of his more crazy revelations.
"So you are preparing an exchange programme with Xavier's school, not that I have anything against it, and do that behind the Ministry back?" She finally asked
"Yes," he admitted "I wouldn't have done it, but-"
"But the Ministry is full of fools," she finished. "So you want to avoid possible troubles and you are not going to mention it to Fudge."
"Among other things," he said. "Harry Potter is at the moment at that school and it needs to remain as a secret. I know that his uncle would be more than able of smashing into pieces anybody that would threaten him, but the risk is still great."
"I understand, do you want me to divert attention from it?"
"No," he shook his head. "The smaller amount of people suspects that there is something like that, the better. I need to speak with heads of houses, so I think that we need to end our meeting."
She wanted to protest for a moment, but than nodded and walked to the Floo. It seemed that she had a rat to catch and Fudge to amuse, both of which were going to be interesting.
o-0-o
"It's kind of quiet without Harald, isn't it?" Atalanta said as she blocked Ulf's strike, they were sparring under the watchful gaze of Sif who was standing to the side.
"Yes," Ulf said as an axe in his hand twirled and she almost didn't block the strike. "I came to like him and now it is way too silent without him."
"At least your ego can get once again inflated," she chuckled. "He managed to beat you in almost all of your spars."
"There's that," he smiled and sent another strike towards her, forcing her to dodge it. "The truth be told, he is good and knows how to use his sword."
She rolled away from Ulf and looked at him, she smirked as she slipped her kopis back into its scabbard and reached for her two wicked hunting knives. While she was getting better with her sword, she still preferred her knives and her smirk widened when she saw Ulf gulp in fear.
"Ready for the second round?" she sweetly asked before charging straight at him.
"Yes," he said as he grabbed with his left hand a shield and waited for her strikes. Her knives flashed and he only had a miniscule amount of time to move his shield in an attempt to block them. "Sloppy, are we?" He said when her knives screeched across the steel covering his shield, sending showers of sparks in every direction.
"In your dreams, maybe," she smiled and jumped away, watching for any opening or mistake that she could use. She saw him move his right leg forward too much and she smirked when she saw it, her daggers flashed and she flew towards him.
The next thing she remembered was getting hit by the shield in the face and being thrown onto the ground by the force behind it. She saw an axe being placed at her throat and grinning Ulf standing to her side.
"How did you do it?" She asked him as she pushed away the blade and sat up.
"You got caught by a simple feint," Sif said as she joined them. "If you were more focused you would have seen that he moved his feet forward intentionally, counting on you falling for it."
Atalanta muttered a couple of things under her breath and nodded, she grabbed Ulf's hand and used it to stand up. She picked up from the ground her knives and placed them back in their scabbards. "So what now?" she asked looking at Sif.
"More training," Goddess of War said. "You are getting better, but not good enough for my taste and you should have spotted this trap."
Atalanta ans Ulf groaned, but after a second nodded as they both knew and learned in a not so pleasant way that arguing with Sif meant running around the Citadel until she decided it was enough or something equally boring and tiring.
o-0-o
Reviews:
SeanHicks4 – This is a matter that is always a questionable one, but generally normal longbow will fire a bigger arrow than a composite bow, while it's true that they don't need to be as big as longbows they have some limits. Also remember that she is shorter than he is, by not much, but still and he can use a bigger bow than she can. Which means that he has a bigger draw weight. Grammar and word choices, I know, but I AM not a native speaker of English so let me live.
UnitedOsprey1991 – Killing yourself sounds like a stupid idea and it was one of the worst ideas in the whole series, so I decided to remove it out of the way. He will have enough of near death experiences even without it and he doesn't need a link with Voldemort, not that Voldemort would be able to do a lot inside of Harry's mind, not to mention that when in full defense mode t would turn him into an insane person. Wolves aren't Hedwig, she is one thing and they are another, treat them like a pair of furry bodyguards that can sniff out almost every assasin.