The Wizard and the Void - Chapter Thirty-One
Author: Milady Dragon
Clint wanted to be back in the Quorum chamber so badly, but didn't dare break in, even if he could get past the wards that were protecting the inner chamber.
He wasn't a Wizard, and once his testimony was complete, he'd been ushered back outside and into the antechamber, to cool his heels until whatever the hells was going to happen, did. He absolutely hated waiting, but then Nick wasn't any better, his pacing back and forth a sure sign of his own irritation at being left out.
Jack, though, was leaning back in a seat, his ankles crossed, whistling tunelessly, as if he didn't have a care in the world.
Clint was a little jealous of his calm, but then he didn't really have someone he cared about on the proverbial hot seat in that room, and the Elf did.
The Quorum chamber was sound-proofed, so there was no way of telling what was going on within. That made it worse, because at least if there was yelling the Elf could run in to the rescue. Sure, they'd gone through every scenario they could come up with that didn't mean the shit couldn't drop on them all at any moment.
He had no idea how long they'd been waiting when one of the chamber ushers came racing out of the hall, the door closing behind her and magically resealing.
"What the fuck is going on?" Nick demanded, before the usher could leave the waiting room.
The woman didn't respond. Instead, she was out of the room like an arrow from a bow, leaving the three of them staring at each other in various shades of dismay.
"Well," Jack said, "that didn't look good."
Clint was at the door, although he knew he'd never get inside. Only Wizards were allowed, and that wasn't what he was. He was simply a really worried would-be lover, and that didn't count with the Quorum.
Although, it was when Lola came flying into the room Clint really got worried.
Dragons were always kept in a room off the meeting chamber, the better to keep distractions down to a minimum; at least, that was what Phil had said when they'd arrived earlier. The dragons were usually alright with that, but from how Lola was acting…well, things weren't going all that well. Moments later, she was joined by Skye, and by the dragons belonging to Daisy's friends Jemma and Leo…followed by a silver-blue one a little bigger than Mistress Pepper's Happy and a green and brown dragon that looked as if it could take on a full-sized eagle and be just fine. All six were upset, and not even falling into the usual dragon pile that occurs when more than one dragon was in the same room. In fact, they weren't even reacting to his presence, which was saying something.
No, something was definitely going on, and Clint wanted to know what it was.
And he wasn't the only one.
"Can't you do something, Harkness?" Nick demanded.
The Deathless snorted. "Not a Wizard."
"But you have all that magic in you…"
"Still not a Wizard." It was said sarcastically, but Clint could tell that Jack really wished he could do something, although it wasn't his husband on trial in there.
And yes, that was what Clint thought was going on. Even if Phil wasn't Clint's husband…not yet, anyway.
Phil being outed as the Dark One had been a very real threat. Who knew how many Hydra assholes were still out there, and who knew what Pierce had? It was almost inevitable that someone would accuse Phil of being the Dark One.
Clint knew how Phil felt about that. They'd talked, after everyone had left the Keep that day that the Wizard had awakened and all their options had been discussed. Phil had confided in him that he was tired of hiding, of jumping at shadows and worrying when his secret would get out. And how he really just wanted to get it all over with, so he could go on with his life and not have to look over his shoulder for anyone coming after him. Even if it meant his arrest and imprisonment.
The Elf had called bullshit on that. There was no way Phil was going to be getting out of the date he'd agreed to.
Nick began cursing quite fluently, some of the words in different languages, including Elven. The former Marcus Johnson had always been a creative swearer, and this was putting all of that talent on display. Clint couldn't blame him. He felt the exact same way, and would have been cursing as well if Nick wasn't doing such a good job of it.
Lola finally approached him, her distress evident in the whimpering noises she was making. Clint knelt down so he could take her into his arms, wanting to comfort her as much as he needed the comfort. Within moments Skye had joined them, alighting on Clint's shoulder and wrapping her tail around the base of his throat. The other dragons, strangers to him, didn't come over, but that was fine. The Elf was getting a bit too upset and having all those dragons around him would have stressed him out even more, which really said more about his state of mind than anything else.
What was going on? Obviously, it was bad, if it was affecting the dragons like this. They each had empathic links with their Wizards, and they were showing all the emotions that had to have been plaguing the people they were bonded with. If so, it was getting ugly in there, and Clint wanted nothing more than to bust down that door, magic or no, and storm in there to the rescue. Putting arrows where they'd do the most good.
Not that Phil couldn't take care of himself. It was just that Clint was feeling damned helpless.
Pounding footsteps sounded from the corridor beyond, and before he could even react the usher was back, and trailing behind her were two very young Wizards, their dragons following just behind. It was a boy and a girl, and the Elf barely had time to register their being there before the usher had the door open once more, and was motioning the pair inside, their dragons staying put at what to have been their mental direction but not looking happy about it.
Clint was up and off the floor in a heartbeat, managing to get his foot into the gap of the closing door, keeping it open. It would have slammed on it, if not for Jack, who grabbed the door in order to help to prevent it closing. "Hold it," the Deathless gritted.
Like Clint wasn't going to do exactly that.
The magic was trying very hard to seal that door, and it was just distracting enough that Clint missed the beginning of whatever the hells was going on inside that chamber.
Together, he and Jack managed to get the door open all the way, Nick helping as soon as he could get his own grip on it. He could hear yelling going on, and even before they got the door wedged open – Nick using one of his many knives to do it – Clint had his bow up and an arrow on the string.
Someone was attacking Phil and the two youngsters who'd gone in, as well as Daisy and a group of kids who were looking like they were spoiling for a fight; two of them gathered around Phil were Jemma and Leo.
That explained all the distressed dragons.
Phil had his shield up, and whatever spell the idiot attacking had used was ricocheting all over the place, but the Wizard had it well in hand, preventing the blocked magic from hitting anyone else. The Elf knew that his soon-to-be lover could take care of things, but he sent an arrow into the antagonist's shoulder anyway, just because. He might have been a kid, but that didn't mean he wasn't dangerous.
As he was falling, Clint couldn't help himself from being an asshole so he called, "So, seems like we nearly missed all the fun."
He didn't miss Phil rolling his eyes at him. That just made him smirk a little more.
There was a sudden stampede of dragons into the room, each going to their Wizard to check if they were alright. Lola actually made a chirping noise that sounded just like she was thanking Clint as she passed, joining Phil on the steps where he'd been standing, giving him all sorts of hell for what Clint had to assume was him getting into trouble without her. Phil simply chuckled, took down his shield, and gave her the loving and reassurance she so obviously wanted despite her bitching.
The tableau before them really told the tale of what had been going on in the Quorum hall. There were all those friends of Daisy's, as well as Daisy herself, standing there as if they were about to kick all sorts of ass. They must have been facing down a group of Void Masters, because there were five of them standing just to the side, the kids aimed in their direction, and Clint had to admire the sheer balls it would have taken to do something like that. Not that he hadn't expected something like that from Daisy Coulson, of course.
"Did you break that door?" Ianto inquired almost cheerfully even as he was motioning several ushers forward in order to clean up the bleeding mess of stupid on the floor. Honestly, who in their right mind attacked a Wizard right on what was basically their home turf?
"Maybe," Jack answered insouciantly, his blue cloak flapping about his legs in almost a parody of Grand Master Stephen's magical one. "Mind telling us what the hells is going on?"
"That," Grand Master Stephen pointed to the attacker, who was now being manhandled up and away by two fairly burly ushers, "is the son of King Wolfgang of Buda-Pest."
Well, fuck. That was unexpected.
Clint hadn't even known that Wolfgang had had a kid.
"Well, fuck," Nick unconsciously echoed Clint's own thoughts, "I didn't even know that bastard had a kid."
"Apparently," the Great Grand Master said dryly, "no one else did, either. However, there are some very serious questions about how he got within the chamber when he's not any sort of Wizard."
"Yeah, I doubt he broke a door like we did." Jack was being a jerk, at the same time the charm just oozed from every pore of his body. It was amazing to watch. Clint wanted to be Jack Harkness when he grew up.
"Don't worry," Ianto warned, "you'll be paying for that."
The Deathless shrugged. Clint figured that threat really didn't mean all that much to him, since he'd been around for centuries and, chances were, had amassed some sort of fortune over that period of time.
"Can we just assume this was a plant by Pierce and his Hydra cronies in case they failed to use Dad the way they wanted to?" Daisy spoke up.
"That may be," a woman stepped into the conversation. She was striking, clearly a Void Master, and from the Southern Confederacies, "but that still does not make his claims any less untrue."
"Mistress Elena," Phil said, "I'm perfectly willing to hold myself available for any judgement against me."
Oh, no…screw that.
Everyone was looking at Clint, which meant he'd said that out loud.
The Void girl – the one who'd run into the room earlier – was staring at both Clint and Nick, in a way that said she somehow recognized them both. Phil leaned over and whispered something in her ear, and the girl nodded. She tugged on the sleeve of her other kid with her, who looked just enough like her to be somehow related, and he glanced down at her. She shook her head slightly, and his eyes narrowed, but he must have agreed with what she'd told him silently.
Clint figured it was something along the lines of not giving him and Nick away as wherever it was they knew them from.
Chances were, it was something from their mercenary past…most likely Buda-Pest, if they'd been called in to rebut whatever the hells von Strucker's supposed son had said.
Which meant…oh Gods damnit. These two had to have been little kids when Wolfgang got a hold of them. The archer wanted to pull them both aside and ask if he was correct, but didn't dare at the moment. It would have to wait.
"That's bullshit, Phil," Nick spoke up, "and there's no fucking way I'm letting anyone lock you up for something your stupid, immature ass did as a kid."
"Well, technically…" Phil began.
Nick put a finger up to stop the nonsense that had been about to spew forth.
"Baron Nicholas," Mistress Elena cut in, "Master Phillip has admitted that he is the Dark One – "
"The Dark One died about eleven years ago," Nick pointed out. "I was there. I was a witness. I watched as Loki pushed a Gods damned spear through the Dark One's back and out through his chest. I was the one who arranged to have his corpse laid out in the nearest morgue. The Dark One is dead."
Mistress Elena was staring at him. So was Clint, because Nick just pretty much admitted that he'd known that Phil was the Dark One, and that he'd had something to do with his death. Really, he should have just used the name, 'Marcus Johnson', and gotten it over with, because becoming a Master Wizard meant that whoever Mistress Elena was, she wasn't stupid.
Phil looked as if he'd just had a question he'd been carrying around answered. Probably the whole, 'who took care of me after I'd died', question.
Ianto was also staring, but he had a smile on his face, as if he thoroughly approved of the message Nick was trying to convey. Grand Master Stephen was shaking his head, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing because it wasn't something he'd thought of himself.
Well, to be fair Clint hadn't either, if where Nick was going with this was what he was suspecting.
"The Dark One died on that street eleven years ago," Nick went on. "And I wasn't the only witness. I think we can honestly say that he's gone and not coming back."
Jack was laughing. But then, Nick had a point. The Dark One had been stabbed by Loki. Phil Coulson had arisen from the ashes of that death, and had made a new life for himself and the little girl he'd found during that final battle.
"Baron Nicholas," Mistress Elena said slowly, her eyes narrowed, "you cannot be suggesting…"
"I'm suggesting we let the past stay in the past. The Dark One is dead. However, Phil Coulson is living and breathing and being the best father I've ever has the pleasure of meeting. He's worked his ass off to raise Daisy, and to give her the values we want to see in the next generation. Just look at the group of friends she has." He waved his hand toward the Novices standing around Phil, as if trying to guard him from whoever would try to take him away. "This is what we need: a generation of kids who don't give a shit what kind of magic their friends have. And Phil did that, despite – or maybe because – of his own shitty childhood. Don't you think you should just forget the whole Dark One thing? Like I said, he's dead. Let's let him stay that way."
Phil was shaking his head in wonder. He had one arm around the young girl from Buda-Pest, and the other around Lola, who was leaning into her Wizard trying to support him. Clint could tell it was working; Phil seemed a little calmer, yet not quite as accepting of his fate as he'd been when they'd broken into the chamber. Which was a good thing. The Elf hadn't wanted to fight an entire roomful of Wizards just to drag him to safety.
Not that he wouldn't have done just that, if he'd needed to. And he sincerely doubted he would have been alone in anything he would have had to do to pull Phil's extremely gorgeous butt out of there.
He kept his bow at the ready, though, just in case, although he didn't have any of those enchanted arrows that Phil had given him. They'd been taken from him at the Hydra base. He was still hoping to get them back, as well as his second-favorite bow. Luckily for him, he'd left his absolute favorite back at Triskelia. He still wasn't sure what had motivated that but he was glad he had.
"You do realize," Grand Master Stephen said, "that Master Phil is still the only Void we can possibly trust right now…despite his rather colorful past?"
"He's proven himself," Ianto added. "He could have joined with Hydra, if he'd truly been the dark Wizard everyone thinks he is."
"I wouldn't have," Phil denied. "What Hydra's done…it's against natural law. Tainting and twisting the Void to their own ends and wanting to actually create another Deathless…no offense, Captain Harkness."
"None taken," the Deathless assured him. "Mainly because it's a really bad idea to try to make another me. And I'm not just saying that because – "
"Jack," Ianto said in warning. His husband just looked at him unrepentantly.
"I might have done a lot of bad things," Phil continued, "but I would never corrupt the very power that gives me my magic. And, if we're all being honest here, if what's happened to me is real, then I'm already being penalized for what the Baron says my stupid, immature ass did when I was young and very, very angry. I'll have eternity to pay for my sins."
Clint's heart broke for him. Phil was right. Anything he'd done in the past was now being paid back a thousand-fold. Someday, the Wizard would outlive even him, and that would be the day that Phil Coulson would cease to exist…
Although, Ianto had promised to be there, to help where he could. Phil wouldn't be alone, even though he'll have lost the ones he loved. He'd also promised something else…well, he'd have to see if that came to fruition.
Well, anyway, that day was far off. They had time to live their lives.
And there was still that date.
"I think we need to convene once more," Mistress Elena said.
Phil bowed his head in response. "I'll await your decision."
The Voids all made their way toward their section of the Quorum hall, and Clint could see a Privacy spell raise behind the last one.
Damnit, Clint hated waiting.