Prince of Asgard

by Drakenn

New Mexico was not the first time Asgard came to Earth in modern history, it happened earlier and in the Old World. Now consequences of it start to appear and it might change the history. I don't own HP or Avengers or any other thing used. May contain bad grammar. It's not a nice world, you have been warned.

39. End of Weapon X

Hawkeye looked around and for the first time he had troubles believing the fact that there were no more enemies to be killed, no more people shooting at him and trying to kill him. It felt like something crazy, something that was impossible to happen.

"It is over," he finally said, shouldering his bow. "All of them are dead."

"Not all," Banshee said. "Just most of them, the rest is probably hiding and probably quite well, so we will need to search it, room by room and find every single one of them."

"Which means weeks more of clearing the thing and catching everybody."

"Yes," Banshee said with a wince. "They will hide in various places and we can expect them to jump at us without any warning and we need to check it room by room."

Hawkeye nodded and picked up a spare quiver full of arrows and walked into the darkness. "We can start it now, we will do it sooner."

He heard Banshee grumble something, but then join him.

o-0-o

Rhodes watched as the form of Durmstrang grew in size as they returned from their mission of chasing away those few planes that wanted to have fun. He was happy by the performance of his new toy, it was working as promised or even better.

"We have new orders," his exec said. "Director Fury wants us to land and prepare for taking in mutants that require medical attention. They are setting up a field hospital, but it will take them an hour or two."

"I understand," he said. "Did he suggested a spot or should I choose it?"

"He suggested," she said and he nodded. "It is besides the first helicarrier."

"Helm, take us there."

He heard the acknowledgement of his order and almost immediately helicarrier started to slow down and shed her altitude as it got closer to the ground. From her underbelly extended massive landing legs and the moment she slammed into the ground, through the whole ship passed a light tremor that shook everything.

o-0-o

Freyr cut open the fabric of reality and stepped out of the Nevernever and into the land of Asgard, he was immediately met by the gray walls and gray buildings with tall towers spaced every few dozens of meters. On top of those towers were walking guards with massive rifles, ready to hit and kill any target they were asked to kill.

It was the main slave camp in Asgard, one where slaves were brought in before being distributed to the businesses and owners that bought them. It was also the biggest prison outside of the Capitol and one of the best defended places on Asgard, escape out of it was almost impossible and even if someone escaped, he landed in the middle of the deadliest forests of Asgard, one that would kill an unprepared person in a nick of a moment.

o-0-o

Mikhail Sokolov was scared, scared of everything. In his whole fifteen years of life he never ever felt so much fear as now when he was cuffed and on Asgard. He could see other people as scared as he was, even staff members were pale. Around them he could see Æsir warriors standing tall in their pitch black armors and spears in hands. They looked tall and imposing, as well as dangerous with their faces hidden behind helmets and masks that revealed only eyes.

They were formed into columns and led to a large building that seemed to be made out of rough stone, as he entered it he could see that staff members and girls were led somewhere else. They entered into a large rectangular room with eighty doors on the other end of it, in front of those doors stood guards with spears and shields.

"Form into eighty lines, each in front of one door," one of guards said.

Mikhail looked at his peers, who just shrugged and did it. He walked forward to the outermost doors to the left and as he faced them he felt dread spread over his body, dread and fear. Dread and fear of the future.

"You, come inside," one of guards said in his direction.

He walked forward and stepped into a small square room, in the middle of which was a desk with an Æsir behind it and two more standing guard.

"Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sokolov?" Æsir asked

"Yes."

"Sit down," Æsir said and handed him a small vial. "Drink it."

He looked at them, questions in his eyes.

"Truth serum," Æsir explained. "You will be unable to lie when answering questions."

He looked at the vial and later at the Æsir. "No."

"If you have nothing to hide, you won't have issues with drinking it."

He looked at it and with a nod drunk it, the moment it touched his skin he felt the need to speak truth.

"Did you participate willingly in an organization named Weapon X?"

"N… Yes," he said and Æsir nodded.

"Than I, Leif Ragnarson, in the name of the Allfather Odin Børson sentence you to a lifetime of slavery on Asgard," Æsir said and motioned for two guards to grab Mikhail. "You know what to do with them."

Mikhail tried to protest, but guards lifted him by his shoulders and not caring about the protests carried across the room and threw through the doors. He flew through them and landed in the next next room. It was an elongated concrete room with a set of eighty tables bolted to the floor across it and eighty doors leading into and out of the room. Around each table stood three Æsir, dressed completely black and looking dangerous.

He landed on the floor and almost immediately felt strong hands grabbing him from the ground and lifting into the air. He was forced to stand straight and his shackles were removed.

"Undress or we will do it," one of them said. "Choice is yours."

He looked at him and later at two more that held him, he could tell that he didn't have a chance against them and they could force him to do whatever they wanted him to do, so he nodded. "I will do it."

Æsir smiled thinly and those holding him released their hold on his arms and allowed him freedom of moves. He undressed slowly, taking as much time as possible.

"Underwear too," Æsir barked indicating his boxer briefs.

"No," Mikhail said in defiance.

Guards grabbed him by his shoulders, while one in front of him pulled down his underwear in one move. Then one of them pulled out a long knife and grabbed a handful of his hair. Mikhail tried to kick the guard behind to set himself free, yet achieved nothing and one shaving him didn't care about it. Locks of his precious golden hair fell onto the floor around him. He tried to struggle, yet the only thing he got was guards not paying any attention to him or his attempts to escape them. After a moment they stopped and moved him onto a table bolted down to the floor.

He heard noise and saw three of his peers being thrown into the room, they were immediately grabbed by the Æsir who started to do the same things as they did to him. Yet with much more struggle as they saw his fate.

He felt cuffs closing around his wrists and ankles and the next moment he was completely immobilized and unable to move.

"How old are you?" Guard asked

"Fifteen."

Guard didn't say a word, only wrote a thing on a tablet he was holding and looked at the one standing to his other side. Mikhail followed the gaze and screamed in fear when he saw the Æsir hold branding iron that was glowing hot. Guard caught his head, immobilized it between his hands and at the same time iron got closer to Mikhail's face.

Mikhail watched in fear as it moved closer and closer to him, he gulped in fear as it stopped above his face. Then it moved sharply and the next thing he remembered was pain, burning, searing pain like no other he ever felt. He roared in pain as the sign burned out in his cheek, marking him as someone's possession and no longer a free being.

He felt the pain go away, but it did it only for the briefest moment, as the branding iron slammed into his forearm, burning out another sign in his skin. When it was done guards unchained him from the table and threw into the next room, as if he wasn't a living breathing being, but a thing that could be thrown around. He landed on a rough stone floor, sitting up he looked at his forearm and saw a triskelion burned out in his skin, triskelion that stood out against the pale skin of his arm. He touched his cheek and felt one more shape burned in his skin, he hissed when his fingers touched it, it hurt. Shaking his head to get over the pain he looked around and saw that it was a large rectangular room. In the middle there were several dozens of low tables and desks, purpose of which was completely unknown to him and if he was going to be honest with himself, he didn't want to know what was it.

He tried to walk forward, but almost momentarily stopped as he slammed into a force field and was unable to move any further. Unable to walk around the room, he tried to look at it as closely as he could, watching out for any details he could find. He discovered that his pen, was a simple rectangle inside of a room marked with runes and with several drains placed in the floor, it was roughly ten by ten meters and he could see several more around it.

For the next two hours he sat in it, watching as more people were thrown into the room, completely naked, all of them male with brands on their cheeks and forearms and hair cut short. He was shocked the most by the youngest students that for the most part curled into balls and sobbed quietly.

His body couldn't control itself for any longer and he was forced to relieve himself, he got to the closest drain and holding his willy with one hand, he pointed it in the direction of a drain and sighed in relief as a large stream of piss left him and flowed into the drain. Normally he wouldn't do it in front of others and in such place, but he needed it badly. It seemed that his was the one that broke the rest from their stupor as they also followed him and soon there was heard a sound of piss flowing down the pipes. As he finished relieving himself a group of warriors of Asgard entered the room, he looked at them and saw that ones walking in the middle of the group looked less like warriors, but more like Healers. They were still dressed in blacks, but instead of shields and spears they carried bags and he saw Healers at Durmstrang carry similar ones.

He watched as they unpacked their bags and finally sat down behind their desks before one of them, one with a red band around his arm stood up and walked closer to the pens. "All of you are slaves and you took part in torturing our prince. As such you don't deserve to have ability to breed or even to be free." healer said and paused for a moment. "You will be sorted and depending on where you will be sorted you might be sterilized, attempts at fighting are futile and you will achieve nothing excluding more pain for you."

Mikhail gulped and looked around, he could see that most of other students were as scared as he was, yet he could see some that seemed ready to fight for their freedom, even if they were unable to get out of the pen and all around were armed and armored guards. Guards that didn't care about them or their lives too much.

Healer snapped his fingers and guards rushed towards pens.

o-0-o

Ilya Karpov was a sixteen years old student of Durmstrang, he tried to back away from the border of the pen and get away from the warriors that were walking towards them. He pushed few younger students into their path, but the only thing he achieved was giving himself just few more seconds as they were dragged out of it, one by one, guards not paying attention to their attempts of fighting back or protests. He tried to get away from guards when he felt strong hands clamp down on his arms and carry him out of the pen and towards those low tables and desks where were healers. Guards placed him on the table and with ruthless and silent efficiency chained him to it, not letting him make any moves.

Healer got up from the desk and looked at him. "Six feet and few inches, a lot of muscles, sixteen years of age," he said, trailing his fingers along Ilya's arms and legs. "Healthy and no illnesses, will do quite well in the mines or on the fields, yes, that will do, sterilization and not much else." Healer said before reaching for a marker that was laying on his desk and leaving a chain of letters on Ilya's chest. "Unchain him and throw into the next room."

Guards nodded and before Ilya could say a single word they freed him from his shackles, grasped by his shoulders and carried across the room, before throwing through the doors. When he passed them he was almost immediately grasped by a pair of warriors that dragged him with them and tied to a low table, before doing it they forced him to spread his legs. However before they did it, he had a second to look around and he noticed a small pen in the corner of the room and some dried blood on the low table and around it. When it was done the Healer walked towards him and glanced at the marks that were on his chest.

"Vasectomy," healer said after a glance at those marks. "Should be done quite quickly and easily."

Ilya tried to struggle against the chains, but the only thing he got was an annoyed look from the healer who reached out for a small syringe and the next thing that he felt was a short flare of a stinging pain when the needle pierced his skin, followed by the numbness around his crotch. Healer looked at him and muttered something under his breath, so quietly that Ilya had issues understanding what was said, then he reached to a small tray laying to the side and picked up a short scalpel, it's blade dull silver and gleaming lightly.

Ilya watched in horror as healer grasped his crotch and quickly made two shallow cuts in it, cuts that gave access to the things hidden inside of it. He could only be the witness to the healer swiftly cutting the cord that allowed semen to leave his balls, in its place went an artificial connection that would only allow testosterone to enter the body and let it develop muscles and bones. Once it was done healer quickly stitched back the wounds and placed his hand on them, before whispering a word and making them heal on their own.

"He is done," Healer said and snapped his fingers at the warriors that in the meantime were catching other students thrown into the room and were quickly herding them into the pen where they waited for their turn. While watching what would be their fate.

Warriors unchained Ilya and threw him into the next room.

o-0-o

!Jump in time to the point when they were brought to Asgard.!

o-0-o

Ilse Koch looked around, scared and unsure of what was going around her, at Durmstrang she was used to being on top and having everybody follow her orders as if they were words from God or more proper would be Marx and Lenin. While she preferred to think about herself as a queen, she was also aware how her rivals called her, Bitch of Durmstrang, title that made her laugh whenever she heard it. However now she was thrown out of balance as in her seventeen years of life never experienced something like that, she was pushed by guards and forced to walk faster. She glared at them, but their faces were covered by masks that only revealed eyes, cold and lacking any empathy for her or her situation.

"Move faster," one of them barked and moments later she felt shaft of his spear slam into her back.

"Fuck you!" she spat at him as she tried to walk, chains kept her standing, but the pain was still there.

The guard just ignored her and turned his attention to other girls that were slow in his opinion. When they entered the building chains connecting them were removed, but their individual shackles were still in place. She took a quick look around and saw that they were in a simple, rectangular room with a dim light provided by a couple of small lamps. Everything was purely utilitarian, there were no fancy decorations or expensive materials. Just plain metals and stones. On the other side of the room she could see outlines of dozens of doors, in front of them guards with shields and spears.

"Form into lines, one in front of each door," guard with a plume of hair at the top of his helmet said, there were also several silver and gold elements on his armor.

"You don't have a right to force us," she snarled, firmly planting her feet on the ground.

Guard just moved and the next thing she remembered was pain that spread all over her back, previously she was tied with others that supported her. Here she was alone and she fell onto the floor like a sack of potatoes. "Get up," he said, grasping her by the shoulders and hauling her.

She spat at him, but he didn't even notice it and walked her to one of multiple doors and briefly stopped, to look at the rest of girls. "You see," he said. "You move on your own or we will move you, choice is yours, but I suggest that you make a decision, quickly."

Then he opened the door and pushed her inside, she landed on her knees in front of a desk with a sole Æsir sitting behind it and a pair of warriors standing behind him like a pair of guardian statues. She got up and looked at him.

"Ilse Koch?" He asked.

"Yes," she spat.

"Sit down," he said, indicating the chair in front of his desk.

"No," she said and made him smirk.

"Fine," he said and looked at one of his guards who walked to her and dragged to the chair, his gauntleted hands not allowing her to get away. One that was on the other side of the desk pulled out a small vial, opened it, looked inside and looked at the guard that stood behind her. Guard pressed his fingers against sides of her face and with second hand reached for the vial before pouring all of it down her throat. She almost immediately felt a desire to speak truth and truth only. "Did you willingly participate in the organization known as Weapon X?"

"Yes, I did."

"Than I, Bjarni Erikson, in the name of the Allfather Odin Børson, sentence you to a lifetime of slavery on Asgard," he said and looked at the warriors. "You know what to do with them."

They brutally lifted her by the shoulders and threw through the door, when she landed on the other side. Looking around she saw dozen or so of girls tied to the tables that were in the room, they were naked and around them were walking Æsir.

She tried to get away from it when she felt hands clamp down on her arms and haul her up, at the same time her shackles were removed. One of them grasped both of her hands, while the other reached out for a knife and started to rip open her clothes, quickly cutting through the material. Once she was out of clothes she felt someone grasp her precious black hair that soon started to fall onto the ground around her. As soon as her hair were cut she was hauled by guards onto the table and swiftly chained to it.

"Your age?" one of them asked.

"Seventeen," she said, potion still having an effect on her.

He nodded and wrote a thing on a tablet he was holding before looking at one of other Æsir in the room, one that was holding a branding iron. She felt hands grasp her head and immobilize it, while person with branding iron walked to her. She screamed in fear as she watched the iron stop above her face before being pressed into her cheek. Her previous scream of fear and terror turned into one of pain as her skin sizzled and a mark was being burnt out in it. She thought that it was over when it was removed from her cheek, but she was wrong as moments later it slammed into her forearm and left another mark.

She was unchained from the table, lifted by the guards and thrown through the door on the other side of it. When she landed on the ground she could see that she was in a large room, with several dozens of low tables and desks. Close to her were several of her followers who looked even worse than she did, few had large bruises and one even had a shallow cut on her arm.

She didn't have much time to think as soon into the room filled in dozens of warriors of Asgard and healers. Their forms clad in blacks and only their eyes visible from beyond their masks that covered rest of their faces. For a moment they unpacked their gear before one of them stood up and looked over the girls. "All of you are slaves and you took part in torturing our prince. As such you don't deserve to have ability to breed or even to be free." healer said and paused for a moment. "You will be sorted and you will be sterilized, attempts at fighting are futile and you will achieve nothing excluding more pain for you."

She paled and pushed her followers to the front, they could be sacrificed to give her a chance to escape and live. However it didn't give her much as warriors dragged them one by one and she only bought herself a couple of minutes as soon it was her turn.

She felt a pair of hands grasp her by her arms and haul with themselves, not caring about her protests or attempts to fight. Without any ceremonies she was placed on the table and soon shackles were keeping her in place. Æsir that looked like a Healer walked to her and looked at her. "Seventeen years old," he said, looking at her. "A lot of muscle mass for a girl, almost six feet tall and body too bulky for work in entertainment," he said, his hands trailing along her arms and legs, briefly going over her breasts. "Farming or work in one of estates will be the best, yes, estates it is." He reached for a marker and quickly scribbled a chain of letters and signs on her chest and abdomen. "Sterilization is all she needs and should be a decent worker for farming and as a servant." He snapped his fingers, shackles were removed and she was once more grasped by warriors who carried her to one of many doors at the other end of the room

She flew through the doors and landed on the other side of them, strong hands grasped her and hauled her up. It also gave her a view of the whole room and she wished she didn't see it. To the bloodied table placed in a depression in the middle of the room was chained one of her followers, she was unconscious and two healers were working on her. Ilse wanted to throw up when she saw one of healers reach into the incision made on her follower's body and pull out an egg-shaped object covered in blood, she recognised it as one of ovaries, she watched with some sick fascination as the second healer pulled out second ovary. They talked briefly between each other before one of them reached for a scalpel and severed the ovary from the rest of the body. At that moment she threw up as guards dragged her into a pen where few more girls were kept. Time for her dragged out excruciatingly slowly as she watched her companions being sterilized one by one. When it was her turn to be sterilized she didn't feel a single thing, she was simply numb and devoid of emotions, she had seen her share of cruelties when she helped Weapon X, but causing someone pain was so much different to being on the receiving end of it.

She let them tie her to the table and didn't fight back, one of healers looked at the signs covering her and nodded. "So remove ovaries and don't care about scars," he said and she gulped as she felt him touch her by her pussy and trail his finger up. "Should be straightforward enough," he said.

She didn't say a single word as they injected her with anesthesia and she was barely aware of what was going on when she felt scalpels piercing her skin and digging into the flesh below. When she woke up she felt a faint pain around her abdomen and when she looked there she saw a couple of fresh scars.

o-0-o

Mikhail felt hands of a guard grasp him and drag to one of the tables, he was quickly chained to it and a Healer walked to him. "Fifteen years old," he said and trailed his fingers across Mikhail's body. "Young, perfectly proportional body and no blemishes or scars. Could be send anywhere, but mines will destroy the body and it is too good for it," he said and paused. "Farming for a year or two and then one of resorts could get him, not good enough body to send him outright to one of them. Yes, that works."

Healer reached for a marker and quickly scribbled chain of letters on Mikhail's chest and looked at the guards who removed his shackles and dragged across the room. He landed in a small room with a pen in the corner, table in the middle and a Healer and a pair of warriors waiting for him. Before he had a chance to say a word he was placed on the table, tied to it and he felt a scalpel piercing the skin. Once the healer was done, Mikhail was removed from the table and thrown into the next room.

o-0-o

Victor Krum looked in worry at the Æsir which handed him a vial of truth serum, he drunk it quickly and the extremely familiar compelling to speak truth washed over him. He took a lot of this serum during various international Quidditch competitions where it was used to check for cheating, taking drugs and other unfair moves and everybody was forced to pass it, no matter their age. Many protested against it, but the ICQ lost their patience after *famous* Quidditch Cups of 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986 and 1990 during which most of eastern teams were full of drugs, potions and any other thing that could help them win.

"Did you willingly participate in the organization known as Weapon X?" Æsir asked.

"No, I didn't," Victor said, truth forced out of his lips.

"Did you know about its existence?"

"Everybody in Durmstrang knew about it, Headmaster was one of its leaders and everybody was encouraged to help them and to do whatever they wanted us to do."

"Why did you decide to stay out of it?"

"Because it would be caught by the routine checks done during sports matches and before them," he said with a shrug. "So I wanted to stay as far from it as possible."

Æsir nodded and glanced at his guards, one of which walked to Victor and removed his shackles. "You are free to go, you won't be able to leave Asgard for few more days, but inside of it you can do and go wherever you want."

"Why can't I leave it now?" Victor asked, rubbing his wrists to get the blood flowing.

"Because Durmstrang will be no more. We made sure not to leave a single thing behind," Æsir said. "Your personal possessions will be given to you as that's your right to have them, but the rest will get obliterated."

"What about my education?"

"His Highness Prince Loki is making arrangements to accommodate the needs of those that are innocent," Æsir said, pulled out a small piece of paper and wrote several lines of text on it. "Give it to any guards outside, they will show you to quarters that you can use."

"Thank you," Victor said and took the paper from the hand of the Æsir on the other side of the table.

With the paper in hand, he walked out of the room and out of the building, at the entrance he talked with one of guards who showed him to a place where his new quarters were, away from the prison complex, in a small town that grew in the vicinity of the prison.

o-0-o

!Jump back in time to the moment when we left Ilya!

o-0-o

Ilya flew through the doors and landed on a hard, unforgiving floor. He looked around and saw that once again he was in a small room, inside of it yet another table and a trio of Æsir. Two of them grabbed him and tied to the table, while the third one prepared something that looked like a tool to make tattoos. Ilya watched as the tool was placed over inside of his wrist, he felt a bit of stinging pain when it dig into his skin, leaving miniscule amounts of ink behind. The moment it was done he could see a line of numbers on his wrist.

"That's your identification number," Æsir said. "Your name doesn't matter here, nor does the surname, just this."

Ilya dumbly nodded, recent experiences being too much for his mind that didn't want to cooperate and wanted to forget all of this.

Guards released him from his shackles and threw into the next room. It was a spacious hall, with dozens, if not hundreds of crude cots and gray bundles at the end of each. Some of them were already occupied, however the majority was still free. Around the room were circling several Æsir with a large cauldron full of something and an even larger basket of bread.

"Choose your cot and wait for your meal," one of Æsir that stood on guard said.

He nodded and walked to one of cots, grateful that he wasn't thrown or hauled across the room, his body suffered enough and probably would suffer even more. He plopped down on it and grabbed the bundle, inside he found quite a thick woolen blanket, a tank top and a very loose and simple set of plain shorts. He put them on, in an attempt to regain some dignity and honor, it was bruised enough by being thrown around and sterilized. As he sat there he could see more and more people being thrown into the room, most of them as disorientated as he was, if not more. He was grateful when food made its way to him and his position, in his eyes appeared hunger as he watched an Æsir pour him a bowl full of thick soup and later hand him a loaf of bread.

o-0-o

Loki stood on one of the uncountable terraces of the Citadel, a goblet of mead in his hand, he nodded when he saw Holler approach him, he knew that this Æsir would need to talk with him, sooner rather than later. "From what I saw, my cousin brought the cargo with him," Loki said and Holler nodded.

"Indeed, he did," Holler said. "It took a bit of time, but those that took part in that vile group are now slaves, the rest were given the quarters you chose for them."

"So how many were innocent?"

"Five thousands, mostly younger ones."

"So eight thousand slaves from the students and thirteen hundred from the staff, in total ninety-three hundred," Loki mused. "Not the worst raid, probably one of better ones excluding all out invasions of civilizations that decided to ignore agreements and deals they made with us."

"Indeed," Holler nodded. "How soon should the auction be held?"

"The usual time is in a week," Loki mused and looked at Holler. "Normally I would wait, but since they took part in the kidnapping of my nephew and tortured other beings I will say, go ahead and on the day after tomorrow will be a good day."

"What about prices?"

"Usually they go for something like fifty queens for a male, forty for a female and twenty for children," Loki said and thought for a moment. "They are a bit younger than the average slaves we catch, but they aren't children under our law."

"Seventy and sixty?" Holler suggested. "Many will attempt to get them, so we can push for a higher price."

"Indeed," Loki nodded and looked at Holler. "You did good and once a free estate shows up, you will receive it with all of the things that come with it."

"Thank you, Your Highness," Holler said with a bow of his head and walked away, thus leaving Loki to his musings.

Loki looked at the goblet he was holding as an idea crawled into his mind. "Harry's estate," he said softly. "It needs to be checked as nobody really paid attention to it once he got Tyr's lands, which was over six years ago."

He finished the mead and walked into the palace to get his hands on the supposed governor of Harry's estates, one that should govern them and if they were doing a sloppy work, well, they would no longer be a governor. Finding the governor proved to be a far tougher task than he imagine, but after several long moments he managed to track down the governor. The governor was a quite tall man with a decent musculature, fair hair and unnerving red eyes, he went by the name of Forseti Ulfson.

"How may I help you, Your Highness," he asked, the moment Loki approached him.

"I would like to discuss with you the state in which are estates of my nephew, Prince Harald," Loki said

"Then perhaps we will go to my study, here at the Citadel? I have all the ledgers and data there, so I will give you confirmed data" Forseti suggested.

Loki nodded and followed Forseti into latter's study, a once spacious room, now mostly filled with hundred of shelves full of paper copies of documents and ledgers. However that was only the first impression and greatly misleading one, even if there was a lot of them and they filled a fair amount of space, there was just enough space for comfortable work. There was a large desk, covered in stacks of papers and a large holographic display in one of its corners, a coffee table and a couple of comfortable armchairs around it, all of it was made out of perfectly polished wood and even if simple in its design it was obvious that it wasn't cheap.

"I apologize for the chaos, but harvests just ended and I didn't have time to go over all of the reports," Forseti said apologetically as with a wave of his hand three stacks of papers formed into a single, much taller one and flew across the room onto one of shelves.

"No need to apologize," Loki said, taking one of seats around the desk. "I know how demanding this can be and I'm sure that my visit doesn't help too much."

Forseti chuckled under his breath before snapping his fingers and summoning one of servants, one that appeared without a single sound, placed a tray with several glasses and a large carafe of ale on the desk, poured them ale into those glasses and disappeared. "So estates of your nephew, Prince Harald," Forseti said and reached for one of papers, he took a quick look at it and focused on Loki. "He received Lordship of the West March, Jarldom of Södermars and Black Forest. Two titles that are both important strategically, but also generate a hefty income."

"Indeed," Loki said. "While the jarldom was governed by one of my father's intendant, West March was owned by my not sorely missed uncle, Tyr."

"As always you are right, Your Highness," Forseti said and yet again consulted the piece of paper he was holding. "While the jarldom generates over three thousands crown of income per year, his lordship manages to get just under five hundred."

Loki hissed and looked at Forseti. "Please tell me that it is thanks to my idiotic uncle."

"It is. He was one that believed in getting as much money as quickly as possible, not caring about the future. Slaves were overworked, no new investments were being made and capital town of Stenhus looked worse than a city after a serious battle. I fixed what could be fixed with the resources I had," Forseti said and looked at Loki. "However without a lot of new slaves and even more extensive investments it will not be able to generate more than a thousand."

"How many slaves will be sufficient to deal with the most imminent issue?"

"Three hundred will get that done, seven hundred will be enough for minor expansion, fifteen hundred would be able to cover our needs and start on repairing the infrastructure that fell into the state of disrepair."

"You should be able to get what you need," Loki said and Forseti looked at him. "On the day after tomorrow there will be a large auction of fresh stock, so you should be able to get what you need, all of them are of the best quality and are physically fit."

"I might even personally visit the auction," Forseti said. "However this will solve just one of issues, second will take much more to get fixed."

"How long?"

"Few dozens of years," Forseti said with a shrug. "I can get slaves or money right away, but I need to rebuild the whole damn place from the ground and people aren't that willing to settle in the lands that belonged to your uncle. However that's not a surprise, taxes far higher than the suggested level and no visible improvements that would justify them."

"My uncle was an idiot," Loki said with a shake of his head. "An arrogant idiot that thought that he was the best and that everybody should kneel in front of him. Everybody knew that he would have a spectacular fall, sooner rather than later and he had bravery to challenge my father in front of the whole court."

"Maybe he was an idiot," Forseti quietly said and Loki looked at him. "However he was not a total dunderhead, he managed to hoard away large amounts of money, money that now is extremely useful as I attempt to fix the mess."

"How much?"

"Five millions crowns."

Loki's jaw almost dropped at those words, it was enough to buy a battleship and maybe even her escorts. Nobles usually kept most of their money flowing, but some wanted to hoard it and those were the results. It also explained why uprooting the whole damned network of agents, contacts and spies was so hard, they had time, money and protection that let them get good covers. "Did you check every single hole where money could be squeezed? If he hoarded that much, more is also a possibility."

"I'm in the process of doing it, but the administrative center is a maze and finding things inside of it is tough," Forseti said and looked at Loki. "However that can wait, so Your Highness, could we return to the topic of his estates?"

"Naturally."

Forseti was silent for a moment as he sorted through the papers. "Here is it," he said as he pulled out a ledger from below the stacks of other papers. "His Highness' estates are quite large and they consist of five hundred centuria, giving in total one hundred thousand of jugera. Södermars and Black Forests take an area of hundred centuria and there are five thousand slaves working on the fields and maintaining the infrastructure."

"Five thousand slaves?" Loki mused "That's a lot and there is rarely so many on much bigger estates."

"Indeed, but this region is a bit unique," Forseti said. "Your Highness, you should know why it is kept inside of the royal family, massive plantations of mulberry trees and production of silk, which is worker intense. There are also several vineyards and orchards that also require a lot of labor, not to mention wineries and whole infrastructure that supports it."

"Which makes it a rather profitable place to own," Loki said and Forseti nodded.

"A very profitable, but also dependant on the market," he said and consulted the ledger. "West March can get a much bigger profit for a much smaller amount of work. According to surveys it is a prime place to farm corn, wheat and establish pastures, not that it is bad for any other crops or plants."

"How much investments would be needed to get it started and generating money?" Loki asked.

"Machinery is being bought as we speak, I have survey teams look for spots to establish new estates and once I have more slaves I should be able to get most of the work done in twelve months or so, maybe even less."

"Good, so how big of a profit we are talking about?"

"There are around thirty to forty thousand jugera that can be farmed," Forseti said and paused. "Now we will use around two or three thousand, so perhaps ten, twenty electrum queens per each, maybe thirty, but not much more. Taxes and fees are lowered as much as possible, so perhaps three or four hundred crowns out of them. It should be better with the next year, but this one will be a bad one."

"Why didn't you start fixing the issue sooner?" Loki asked. "Harald was granted that lordship over five years ago and that is plenty of time to start fixing it."

"I spent over three years removing intendants placed by the previous owner and two more trying to make some sense out of his records that didn't really existed so I needed to start from scratch. I also wanted to stabilize the whole thing before making new investments."

"Fair enough," Loki said and finished his ale. "Thank you for your answers," he said and walked towards door out of the room. "I would have liked some more, but those were satisfactory and I am sure that his estates are in good hands."

He saw Forseti bow to him and with a nod of acknowledgement he left the study, his mind focused on the future and things he needed to do as to let Asgard enjoy the peace it did for last few centuries. Only fighting was away from the core worlds and usually was victorious.

o-0-o

Time on Asgard passed extremely slow for them as they didn't have a single thing to do and they mostly slept or tried to kill the time, it felt as if every second lasted for hours and hours for years. Mikhail looked at the ceiling in an attempt to sleep for few more hours when doors leading into the hall where they were kept opened and through them entered dozens of warriors of Asgard, warriors that spread out across the room and started to bind everybody, shackles were put onto their hands and soon it was his turn. He felt hands drag him of the cot, while second warrior grasped his hands and in few trained moves put on shackles, before connecting them to shackles that were on the hands of other slaves.

When all of them were bound with each other they were herded out of the room and as they entered onto the sunlight every single one of them winced from the light, in their quarters there was nearly constant dimness. Here, bright light slammed into their eyes and blinded them for a brief moment, causing many to stumble, yet none fell as chains kept them in place and they were forced by guards to move faster and faster. He felt as if they marched for hours when they arrived in front of a large complex of tents with a something akin to a stage in the middle.

Guards stopped their whole group before they entered the complex and one of them looked over them. "The most important moment for you in your whole worthless life is here," he said. "Auction, it will decide about your fate on Asgard and how well treated you will be. So behave and do not cause troubles and you will get good positions, that is good for a slave, if not mines are always waiting for more hands to help in mining precious ores."

After those words, but before they could shake themselves out of the shock they were quickly herded into those tents around the stage, as they entered them Mikhail easily noticed that they opened onto the stage and they would be able to see everything happening there. He looked around and saw that inside there were several stone blocks placed in the floor and on each block there were several large metal rings. He saw one of guards approach him, holding a long piece of a chain, one end of it was attached to the block, while at the other end there was a band that was wrapped around his ankle. Once it was secured, shackles binding his hands were removed, not that it gave him much freedom.

He sat there, on the ground and looked around as everybody else was being bound to the blocks. Once everybody was tied and unable to run away onto the area of the complex entered people that looked like buyers. They chatted between each other and from time to time pointing at the slaves around them. Mikhael felt as if he was just a commodity, not a sentient being that had some rights. It lasted for several minutes before a sound of the horn was heard and as if on cue everybody that was watching them hurried to the stage and took places around it.

He watched with some sick fascination as ten slaves were brought from one of tents and led onto the stage, they were quickly and brutally undressed before being chained to it. Guards didn't care about their protests and there were even some nods of appreciation from the crowd at the sight of the struggle.

"Ten fit males," an Æsir that was standing on the stage said passing between slaves and pointing at them and their muscles and other assets. "Aged between thirteen and twenty, can be used for any kind of work, whether it is in a bathhouse, brothel or on the fields. Starting price for each is seventy queens, all of them are sterilized and ready for work."

Mikhael watched as the auction started and prices were increased, once slaves were sold they were grabbed by guards and led to a tent where in pens they would wait for everybody else that was bought by their new owner. In that manner the auction continued with more and more slaves being sold with each moment, it was the moment when siblings or lovers that both were slaves were brutally separated from each other and for the rest of their lives they wouldn't see each other. On his lips appeared a thin smile when he saw Ilse brought onto the stage and presented to the crowd of buyers. However soon it was his turn and he didn't fight when he was brought onto the stage and violently undressed, alongside several more slaves, showing their whole bodies to the world and presenting their advantages and assets, while also revealing any defects that could otherwise be hidden.

"Fifteen slaves," one leading the auction said. "Aged fifteen and sixteen, suggested field of work is bathhouse, brothel or on the fields, as you can see all of them are of perfect proportions and are physically appealing. They are sterilized and ready to work right away. Starting price is seventy-five queens."

Mikhail didn't pay any attention to the auction or what was going around him, he felt numb, not feeling any emotions, after past few days and nothing would change it, he only moved when he felt guard force him to walk and lead him off the stage and into one of the pens in those tents. Nobody paid them any attention until the auction ended, then into the tent entered a couple of Æsir, one of them carrying something that looked like a branding iron.

They set up a place to work and one of warriors reached into the pen, grabbed the nearest slave and forced him to kneel in front of one with branding iron, while second warrior immobilized his head and then the glowing branding iron was pressed into the so far unmarked cheek of the slave, resulting in a roar of pain that was soon followed by a smell of burning flesh and screams from other tents as slavers went about their job of branding new slaves of each owner with their personal sigil.

Mikhail was dragged out of the pen and forced to kneel on the same spot where each and every new slave was forced to kneel before the slaver, when his knees touched the ground he could feel wetness and a strong smell of piss, as the warrior immobilized his head it hit him that everybody pissed themselves during this thing and that nobody paid any attention to the fact that they would be covered in it. He felt his bladder losing control over its content and emptying itself onto the ground below him, at the same time slaver pressed the brand into his second cheek, the moment it burned the flesh he roared in pain. Once everybody was branded, without giving a chance to get their bearings straight they were herded out of the tent and out of the camp, to their new place of work.

o-0-o

Ilya looked around as the transport ship onto which they were loaded landed and doors opened, he could see that they were on something that resembled a large farm and around he could see several people with the same markings of slaves, however he also noticed Æsir that were freebor, some were overseers, while some were workers, but it was obvious they had completely different and far more respectable duties. In the distance he could see massive fields of corn and wheat, just waiting to be harvested.

A couple overseers walked towards them, whips and clubs at their belts, as he looked at them he had a feeling that they knew what to do with those things on their belts and wouldn't hesitate to use them. "Hurry up!" One of them shouted entering the ship and pushing them out of the it. Ilya moved forward and barely avoided a strike of a whip that flew past him and smacked across the back of a girl to his side. She yelped in pain, yet somehow she was able to stand and move forward. With even more strikes of whips and clubs they were herded into a narrow, yet long building, entering the building they saw bunk beds, three tiers high, by the doors there were several cupboards with drawers, probably for clothes and at the end of the room there were several shower stalls and toilets, all of them packed as tightly as possible.

"This is your new home," overseer said, blocking doors behind them. "You have twenty minutes to get dressed, once it's over you start to work. Clothes are in the cupboards, sanitary facilities at the end of the room. You have three meals per day and each day you work for fourteen hours."

Ilya wanted to growl, but he learned that any open opposition would end at least with bruises, if not more serious injuries. They nodded and overseer disappeared from the room, letting them get dressed. The moment he was gone all of them rushed to cupboards to get their clothes. Ilya snatched the first bundle he could get his hands on and finding a free corner he quickly opened it and found a plain shirt, loose shorts and boots that looked somewhat durable and comfortable. It seemed as if their life would be spent only on working from dawn to dusk, without any comforts and without any pay.

At the same time Ilse finished dressing and followed the rest of her group towards their new place of work, she ended in a place that looked like a vineyard with thick branches bending under the weight of grapes visible from the complex of buildings.

Mikhail looked around as overseer explained to them that even if they were bought by one of the biggest brothels on Asgard their work wouldn't be any easier, they would do the chores, work in the bathhouse, while learning the art of pleasure and trying to make their bodies as appealing as possible.

o-0-o

The C-130 that was carrying Harry touched down in the USA on a runway in an air base that was the closest one from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. It was decided as the safest place for him to heal. Weapon X had many allies and supporters that could have decided to finish the job started by their surgeons. So once he was loaded into an ambulance and rushed there, he should be fine, but nobody knew how badly he was injured.

So nobody was taking any chances and he was rushed there as quickly as possible, every minute was precious and when in transit he was in the biggest danger. Behind the walls of the hospital with several dozens of the nastiest dogs Fury could get his hands on, the danger was nonexistent.

o-0-o

Loki appeared on the helicarrier's bridge occupied by Fury and was almost immediately greeted by guns and rifles being pointed right at his face. He raised his hands to show that he had no weapons and that he wasn't a threat. "Easy, easy," he said. "I'm not armed."

"Let him go," Fury said and the guards stepped aside, their weapons still pointed in his of Loki. "What news do you bring?"

"The Durmstrang students are sorted and we will send you back those that are innocent, the question is what to do with them. There are a lot of them and they need to be spread out."

"Scatter to the other schools of magic?" Fury suggested. "The western ones will gladly take more students, I should be able to get four of them to take them in. Question is how many of them you have."

"Five thousand or so, so split them evenly among those schools?"

"Yes, otherwise it will be too much of an issue for them to integrate into their new environments and will be causing problems for us. Hogwarts needs an influx of fresh blood to open it up and make it a better place."

Loki nodded and paused to look out of the window. He used this moment to gather his thoughts and put what he knew in order. "Hogwarts is a more complicated issue than just this one factor, while the influx of fresh blood won't hurt and the cleansing of Weapon X agents didn't either, it needs to be modernized. Not brutally fast and not forcefully, but it needs to or otherwise it will get eaten by the other schools and will breed only trouble."

"I know, that's why I didn't kill Dumbledore, even if he hates change, he is too intelligent not to notice how bad his position will get the moment he opposes them too much," Fury said and sighed. "He has too much power for my tastes, while he should be powerful, he is too powerful. If you or I held as much power as he does, we would get eaten alive."

"The truth is that we don't have a single competent choice for those positions that would follow us and do what we want or wouldn't do stupid things," Loki said and paused. "There is Sirius Black, but he isn't the best choice and he is the one that helps manage Harry's account at Gringotts. While his younger brother is officially dead and Amelia Bones is running magical division of MI-13."

"Which means no good and trusted wizards for us," Fury summed up. "I could blackmail one into working with us, but it is an exercise in futility, they will eat my hand and snap the leash as soon as possible. So I won't even try and Stephen said that he won't play their game of politics."

"I wouldn't have played it if I wasn't forced to, they are like children squabbling over a jar of cookies and how to steal them," Loki said and shook his head. "I've played this game with Sidhe, Chitauri, Vanir, Alf, Elder Gods, demigods, Skyfathers and hundreds of other beings. I have over ten centuries of experience and I can't understand their politics."

"Not only you, I also have the same problem with them," Fury said and paused. "The comparison to children fits them well enough, though Harry would have disagreed with it, as most children would."

"They would have," Loki said and tilted his head. "Where is he?"

"Probably in the States, I had a plane on standby and since his death would cause a lot of issues, he was loaded onto it and sent to the US. Weapon X did something to him, so I'm not in the mood to take any chances with him."

"Security?"

"The very best I can get, they will hate me for assigning them to stand guard, while the rest have a more exciting job, but they will do it and they will stop everything that tries to kill him. So he is as safe as it can get."

"Who would attempt to kill him?" Loki asked and frowned. "My father made it explicitly clear to other beings what will happen if any of their agents find themselves too close to Harry and they know that he will do as he said."

"Plenty of things on Earth would do it happily," Fury said and shook his head. "Corporations for samples of his blood to develop cures, other agencies to show that they can get away with it and other groups simply because they can."

"With blood they would only fail, our immunity to poisons and illness is a bit different and blood is one of many things that connected to the grand scheme of things. It's like having just a chassis of a car without everything inside of it."

"In other words useless," Fury said and walked to the window. "Do you have any wishes about this building?"

Loki followed Fury's gaze and it came to rest on the massive form of the Durmstrang Institute. "Just make it gone, how you achieve it, I don't care, just do so."

Fury nodded and sighed. "If it was in the middle of the wilderness and away from civilization I would have ordered nukes' launch onto it. But here, it is in the middle of Europe and the closest village is fifty kilometers or so away, maybe even closer. So could you use your magic to bring it down?"

"I could," Loki nodded and smiled viciously. "I lacked the opportunity to blow up something big and here you just offered it."

"I will pass you a message when I'm ready," Fury said and paused. "This thing is a maze and they are still rounding up those that hid well or got out of the trap. I don't want this to grow once again, so all of their people need to be eliminated."

"It is the only choice," Loki nodded in agreement and his eyes hardened. "No trial, just execution and burying them in an unmarked mass grave?"

"Or burying them at the bottom of an ocean, just so that nobody can find them, I won't risk a trial as they know too much and the evidence that I have would require revealing what I truly know and it would be bad."

Loki hummed quietly and nodded. "So by burying them at the bottom of the sea you solve both of those issues. Neat, clean and practical, the way I like it." He paced along the window, gathering his thoughts. "What do you plan to do with the Ministry?"

"Nothing," Fury said and laughed. "They are tripping on their own feet and will kill themselves without a single helping hand to do the deed."

Loki nodded and paused. "What about when Harry goes to Hogwarts? They might be an issue, especially since their laws don't like any half-bloods and they might pull that argument for my nephew. Nobody sane would do it as he is a Prince of Asgard and that means that by our law he is an Æsir, besides we inherit in male lines so he is an Æsir based on that too."

"Tell that to those idiots and they will name you a traitor, idiot and one that should keep his nose out of their mess," Fury snarled. "When the war with Voldemort was at its peak we relied on every other kind of troops than their aurors that did nothing, or at least most of them did nothing. If I had a say, all of them would have been hanged, but somehow none was."

"Which suggests that corruption there, is rampant," Loki said thoughtfully. "Which is both good and bad, assuming that you want to do bribes."

"No!" Fury cut in. "They won't see a single coin from me, I don't want to waste money on those idiots, I will sooner hang all of them by their balls and carve an eagle on their backs than do that."

"If you don't see a reason to replace them, than I suggest that you forget your disagreements with Dumbledore and use him and his influence to play hell on Fudge as otherwise we won't get far."

"I buried the hatchet and I think that he knows why I want to have him on my side."

"If he doesn't know, I will explain it to him," Loki said and looked around. "I should get going as my brother still doesn't know about Harry and what happened to him, but he might suspect something with me being here for so long."

"And his rage is a terrible one," Fury finished

"Indeed," Loki agreed. "Last time when something hurt him so badly we had class five hurricanes smashing into the city for weeks."

Fury paled at those words. "I will find a way to get you a message when we need your services, now go and try to appease your brother."

Loki bowed his head and with a snap of fingers was gone from Earth.

o-0-o

Jack O'Neill picked up the phone placed in front of him and listened for a moment, then he nodded and looked at Robby. "They have him and Russia is withdrawing their troops from the borders."

Robby breathed out in relief, as did the rest of the officers gathered in the room. "So no world war and we can safely withdraw our troops since our goals are achieved."

"I would wait a while," Jack said quietly. "Fury still has his assets there and two of them cost fifty billion, so they might have retreated, just to play possum and catch us with our pants down."

"Or wait for the moment we show them an opening to use," some other officer murmured. "I would wait for information from Director Fury that his goals are achieved and he doesn't need our support."

"I agree, after all he was the one that asked us for support to carry out the operation, even if it was the President who suggested that we launch this exercise."

"How long do you think it will take Fury to finish what he is doing?"

"A couple of days," Robby said. "From what I know he is just searching the castle and making sure that he does everything he wanted to."

Jack nodded and turned to look at a map with updates on the Russian troops' positions which were slowly moving away from the border and deeper into the country.

o-0-o

Bobby looked at Danielle and Rahne and could tell that they were as unsure of what was going on as he was, he was just much better at hiding it. He could tell that they were a bit uneasy with all of the armed and armored guards that were around them.

"Easy," he whispered, seeing their discomfort. "They are here to protect, not to harm."

"I know," Danielle said and sighed. "I just don't like armed men too much."

"They killed your parents?"

"Yes," she said. "So I don't trust them too much and they make me feel uneasy."

He nodded and focused on walking, they passed several more sets of guards and one very thorough check to see if they were who they claimed to be. Finally after all of these they were ushered into the room Harry was.

Bobby's eyes widened when he saw the amount of bandages covering Harry's body and the amount of machinery that kept him alive. He had heard that the damage done by Weapon X was extensive, but this was on a completely different level and he didn't expect it to look so bad. Now it made sense why the security was so tight and why nobody was taking any chances.

"Who did it?" Rahne asked. "I mean I saw him after that fight at the Institute, but here he looks so much worse."

"Weapon X," Bobby spat viciously. "A secret programme whose goal was to create a superweapon, a mutant that would be capable of doing things even for normal mutants can't. If he wasn't freed, I don't even want to think how bad the damage would be, he should be okay, the question is how long it will take for him to lick his wounds."

"Give him a couple of weeks and he will be running around," someone said, all of them jumped up in shock and slowly turned around.

"Your Highness," Bobby said when he recognized Loki. "How sure are you that he will recover so soon?"

"He is too stubborn to die or lay in bed for longer than he thinks is enough. If not for the amount of drugs pushed into him, he would have probably already tried to move," Loki said and shrugged. "We are hard to kill and the things done to him weren't life threatening, dangerous and crude, but not life threatening and the surgeons did a good job of removing their effects."

"What things?" Bobby asked and looked at the girls that weren't sure if they wanted to stay in the room. "You can leave, I don't think that Prince Loki will mind."

They looked at them and walked out of the room.

"Fail-safe protocols," Loki said and shook his head. "They didn't want their captives to get away from them, or at least those precious in their mind so they installed devices that can create an impulse that can kill, or at least paralyze, its host in them. He had two of them and when removing one they almost triggered the second, we use something similar on certain prisoners and slaves, but it won't kill them, just cause pain."

"They wanted him to stay inside of their base," Bobby quietly said and glanced at the sleeping form of his friend. "Who else was rescued out of Weapon X's hands alongside him? I know that Professor X said that there will be new mutants at the Institute, but he didn't say who or how many."

Loki was silent for a moment and then looked at him. "A few hundred, two Omega class beings inside and the rest your average mutants. They will be flown to the USA in a couple of days, but SHIELD wants to make sure that there is nothing inside of them that can be a threat to you and that they are healthy, or at least their body is healthy, their minds are something that will take a lot of time to heal."

"Two Omega class beings?" Bobby arched an eyebrow. "I know only about two such mutants."

"They are cousins and they need to develop their powers, also there are a lot more of them, just not in the mortal world," Loki said and paused. "That would be a couple hour lecture, so we can talk about it when we have more time as I need to hurry or my brother will find me and he can't learn that Harry was injured, we don't want that to happen."

"Of course," Bobby nodded and turned to look at Harry's sleeping form, the silence of the room interrupted by the noise of the machinery keeping him alive. "Get well," he whispered before slipping out of the room.

o-0-o

Natasha Romanoff stood silently and watched as a couple of excavators dug out a hole in the ground, she had seen it being done in the past when she worked for the Red Room and even if it was inhuman she had to agree that it worked well. She knew what was going to happen next and she could smell Death in the air, eager to claim more souls.

The moment the hole was deep enough she nodded at the operators of those machines and whispered into her radio. "Bring them here."

She looked around and felt some kind of weird irony, it was so peaceful and clean here, so friendly, yet there were things about to happen that would make even the bravest lose their confidence and courage. She saw a group of grim looking agents lead cuffed people with pieces of cloth tied over their eyes. She pulled her pistol out of its holster, checked for one last time that everything was in order and walked towards the pit.

When she approached the group that stopped at its edge, she could feel the tension in the air, tension and something more, something hard to describe, linger with it. As if nature knew what would happen next. She looked at the sky and whispered a couple of words. "Bozhe, prosti menya*"

Natasha held her gun comfortably and walked to the first person with tied eyes and cuffed hands, she stopped behind them and placed her gun at the base of their skull. She held her breath and squeezed the trigger, the sharp sound of a gunshot echoed across the valley and the body in front of her went limp and fell into the pit. She walked to the next person and did the same, she did it for every single person that stood alongside the edge. In total there were exactly a hundred and eleven people, a hundred and eleven people that were deemed too dangerous by SHIELD to live, a hundred and eleven people that committed every imaginable crime that would give them a death penalty. Beings that shouldn't even be called humans for what they had done and for what they could have done if allowed to live.

As she saw their bodies fall into the pit she didn't feel even an ounce of compassion for them, in her mind they didn't deserve to live as the things they did reminded her about her own horrible past and what she had suffered at the hands of the Soviet Union and its agents. Things she wanted to forget and these events brought them out of the corners of her mind and made her want to have revenge on anyone that fell so low as to experiment on humans.

She fired the last shot and walked away from the pit, letting the agents bury the corpses in a mass grave that wouldn't be even marked and would be an unknown place of an execution for future generations to find.

o-0-o

Loki stepped out of a portal on top of a limestone cliff and looked around, Olympians always knew how to impress guests, a huge complex of buildings was in front of him and as he looked at the sea below he could see a couple of triremes anchored to a pier. Drawing his gaze away from the pier, he focused on the complex of buildings in front of him. They were tall and graceful with colonnades running along the front of them and shining white marble used as the construction material. Between him and the buildings he could see sculptures of various Graeco-Roman gods, inhabitants of Olympus, Zeus, Poseidon, Hecate and many more, and various orchards of fruit trees and vineyard running in even lines, between them paths covered in fine white sand.

Walking slowly down the path he could see more and more details of the building in front of him, hundreds of sculptures placed between columns. The columns around the entrance were in fact sculptures, sculptures of Hecate if he was not mistaken. He was also able to see dozens if not hundreds of mosaics covered walls at the ground level, with each step bringing him closer, he was able to see the mastery of those that had done them. The things depicted on them seemed as if they were alive, not in stone, glass, clay and gems.

When he approached the building he looked up and saw the motto of this institution engraved on a portico in golden letters "Lux in tenebris lucet**", he smiled as he read it, it was a fitting one and it was connected with teaching magic. He stepped under it and felt as if he had passed through a thin layer of water, those were the outermost wards of the complex and he felt them probe him checking who he was.

He stopped in front of the doors leading into the building and struck them once with his scepter, pushing them open as he stepped inside, into the cool hallways of the institution, away from the warmth of the day. It felt like a paradise compared to the scorching sun outside. He looked around for a moment, trying to remember where to find the one with whom he needed to speak. Walking quickly he ignored the looks he was receiving from the students and instead focused on the goal he had in mind.

It took him over fifteen minutes to get to his target, the Headmaster's office, whose title if he remembered correctly was Igemon***, he waved his hand, the bronze doors of the office flew open and he stepped into the room. The office was a large circular room with bookshelves lining its walls, filled with numerous ancient scrolls and books, there were also several weapon cases placed between them. In the middle of it all a desk with a perch for a bird was placed, on the perch was sitting an overgrown eagle and behind the desk was seated the person he wanted to speak with.

Igemon was a man in his middle thirties or forties, or at least he was, guessing by his physical appearance which when it came to long living beings was misleading. He wasn't a tall person, but the thing that got everybody's attention were his eyes, golden and keen. His hair were as black as night at its peak and cut short. He was clean shaved and dressed in a purple tunic with an elaborately decorated and embroidered purple toga over it.

"Prince Loki of Asgard," he said. "How can I help you?"

"Igemon Hyllus," Loki said with a smile sitting on a chair he had conjured for himself. "I believe I can help you, but I would need to speak with the one that has the final say in the matters of the Olympian Academy of Magic."

"Her?" Hyllus asked. "I do not summon her unless I don't have other choices available."

"Yes, her," Loki said with a wide grin. "I can ask mother to drag her here, but it would be troublesome and we both know that you have means of communication with her. Also if I'm not mistaken I felt Athena and Poseidon somewhere on the campus, so don't play a fool with me and pretend that you are an independent leader."

Hyllus nodded and rubbed his chin. "Assuming that I would ask her to come here, what would I get from this?"

"Something that will make you feel that summoning her is a good idea."

"Fine," Hyllus said, loudly exhaling, Loki felt the buildup of magic that dispersed into the air. "She is coming."

"Perfect," he nodded, pouring himself a goblet of wine. "As otherwise it would be time wasted for me and that is something I don't like, I can tell you that it is connected with my nephew and your cousin, but mostly my nephew."

"The Son of Thor about which they can't fall silent on Olympus?" Hyllus asked. "I have heard enough of those rumors and gossips, even my father can't fall silent about this new Prince of Asgard and I would really like it if they found a new topic to speak about."

"The same one," Loki said and looked at the corner of the room where he felt godly energy form a human form. "Lady Hecate, thank you for coming," he said in that direction.

Hecate was over six feet tall with silver hair and black eyes glowing with power and knowledge of magic, even if she was only dressed in a long dark dress and without a single weapon, Loki knew she was a dangerous person. "Prince Loki, how can I help you?"

"Durmstrang was destroyed," he said and heard a gasp of surprise from Hyllus, while Hecate only nodded. "Those that had dabbled with the dark arts or worked with Weapon X are now our slaves, but there is a large group that needs to be spread out to other schools and watched over. The plan upon which we had agreed is that they will be divided between four schools, one of them being this."

"I don't see a single issue with this plan, as far as I am concerned, you can do it," Hecate said. "If you want them being given a blank slate, you can count on it as I'm not one to judge them on things they had seen or were forced to do. I did plenty of them in the past and your uncle allowed me to join the ranks of Olympians."

Loki nodded and glanced at Hyllus, who just shrugged. "If she is all for doing it, then I don't have much to say."

"Perfect," Loki said. "I will get them sent here in a moment, as I'm about to head to Asgard and deal with some other things."

"Before you depart, Your Highness, how many of them should we receive?"

"Around a quarter thirteen hundred."

Hyllus nodded and Loki left the place with a snap of his fingers and a feeling of a job well done.

o-0-o

Rhodes stood on Valiant's bridgeas she moved away from Durmstrang and rose into the air, her massive engines providing an obscene amounts of power and thrust. Every other plane was gone and there was not even a hint of the presence of several thousand people. The mutants were on their way to the USA and now it was his job to make sure that everything would he removed and not a single trace be left behind.

There was a flash of light and something small appeared above Durmstrang, something that looked roughly humanoid in shape, he knew that it was Loki and was curious what the Prince of Lies, The Trickster God, would do.

There was a flash of light and a ball so black that was impossible to look at appeared above Durmstrang, he saw that pieces of Durmstrang started to fly towards it, parts of the roof first, then the blocks that made up the walls and then everything else. It looked surreal to watch the castle being slowly eaten, with each moment the ball grew, consuming more and more of the castle, taking with itself every single of its pieces. When all of it was gone the ball disappeared in a flash of light and in another flash of light Loki was gone, only to appear on Valiant's bridge.

"The castle is done," Loki said. "I know that this ship has batteries of railguns, so you could use them to collapse the tunnels. It will be a lot easier to do as you can target their weak points, while I would need to use spells to blanket the whole area."

Rhodes nodded and turned to look at his staff, moments later Valiant moved and flew towards the spot above the remnants of Durmstrang. When she was there, the railguns placed alongside her belly swivelled and once they acquired their targets they started to fire. At first those were shots to confirm that they were properly targeted, but after a moment they switched to fully automatic fire, hundreds of bullets ripped the ground and slammed into the concrete and steel of the tunnels hidden below.

He stood on the bridge and watched as the tunnels started to collapse in on themselves, the damage done by that fighting that happened inside them quickening the process and soon there were clouds of dust rising into the air. It would take a few more hours to ensure that everything was destroyed, but it was worth the trouble.

o-0-o

Loki looked at his father and tried not to sigh, lying to Thor had seemed like a fine idea, until now that is. "How are we going to explain to my dear brother what happened to Harry?" he finally asked.

"You will do it," Odin said. "You were the one that decided to keep it hidden from him, while I can understand your reasoning, it was also your choice and now you need to face its consequences."

Loki paled at those words and looked at Odin. "Father, do you want to see me being killed? Thor isn't the most reasonable person and he might kill me in his rage. Which is a bad, really bad thing for my health and I would prefer to be alive."

"As I said, you did it, now you need to feel its consequences."

Loki sighed and walked out of Odin's study, he had doubts about surviving the next couple of hours. He walked around the Citadel, looking for Thor. "Brother, we need to talk," he said, finding Thor in his chambers.

"About what?" Thor asked.

"About a certain accident that might… might have happened to Harry."

"What accident?" Thor growled To be continued...

o-0-o

*God, forgive me

**The light that shines in the darkness.

***Viceroy

A/N:

Treatment of slaves, yes, it is brutal and cruel, but fear is a great tool of control and their pride and confidence need to be shattered, so they did this, also in the minds of any Asgardian or for that matter citizen of any country or realm with strong monarchy, they deserve such cruel treatment. They raised their hands at a member of royal family, or their organization did it, which means that they can be treated as trash and forced to make things nobody would do.

Also brutalizing them means that they will be mentally broken far sooner, which means far lower risk of any nasty rebellion or uprising which are a nightmare to deal with. So slaves that are treated like animals get broken quickly, which means not many rebellions which means happy society and happy bureaucrats as otherwise task force would need to be created and that costs money.

Castration is the easiest solution to making sure that they don't get children, at that age? Because by that point our body is mostly done with puberty and that means muscle development and when you want a good miner he needs muscles.

Also in many societies slaves were less precious than good warhorses as getting slaves meant simply a raid at a neighbour, a good warhorse meant years of carefully breeding and training, not to mention that you needed a whole stable of them as there was a good chance that it would get killed during battle so spares were needed. A good example are winged hussars from 17-18th century, each was taking four horses with him when he was going onto a campaign. Human on top of a horse is a small target and armored, so unless you get lucky or are close you won't injure him seriously by firing at him. Firing at the horse is a far easier task, it is large and is usually not armored and far more vulnerable to pain. So maintaining horses used for war is a far more expensive thing than having slaves, so usually aristocrats didn't paid any attention to the treatment of their slaves.

On top of that is that the sooner you show them that they don't mean a thing the sooner they will submit and accept their fate, thing that makes everybody's life easier as rebellions are bad and tiresome.

And last, but not least, they did one of the most severely punished crimes in any monarchy, helped in one way or another to keep imprisoned and torture person that is second in line to the throne. So even if normally someone would feel some remorse, this single things makes them be worth less than the air they breathe. Which means pain, suffering and generally being treated far worse than even other slaves. Look at the talk between Loki and one other Æsir few chapters back, they mentioned the cruelest approach.

All of this was inspired by probably the best fantasy book I read, Achaja by Andrzej Ziemiański.

SHIELD's action, yes, it is a plain and simple murder, but if they dragged them to courts and presented charges, they would cause a lot of noise and a lot of secret data would need to be revealed as well as identities of agents could be leaked, not to mention division of society as a lot of people would defend those Weapon X employers. Also if they buried them in marked grave they risk that they will be treated as martyrs, which is bad. Setting them free is stupid as they will do what they did, just for someone else, imprisonment is not a good option as they can earn their freedom after some time or can be freed. So mass grave and simple execution is the neatest and safest solution for SHIELD, not to mention that it makes it far easier to hide, Carpathians are full of various graves, cemeteries, former battlefields and hundreds of other things, so one more body with a hole in the back of its head will be mostly ignored.

Treatment of Durmstrang students, there shouldn't be any moles, but they could slip and if they keep them as a group, bad things will grow, so spreading them gives them a chance to start their education with a blank slate and forget what they had done or seen.

School of magic made by Olympus, logic behind it is really simple. If Loki can create a school of magic and Asgard is willing to protect it, well, we shouldn't be worse and have our own to show that we can be as good as they are or even better.

o-0-o

Reviews:

WhiteEagle1985 - Truth is that she is an annoyance for Loki, as he doesn't have any qualms against being very persuasive when he needs to be. SHIELD is occupied with a certain threat that is a far more dangerous and makes even Weapon X look as something not that important.