AN:
Some Answers:
ZhaWarudo chapter 17 . Jun 5
The books were for the Norse in the Xenaverse. Not for Stargate. The Stargate slave will mostlikely speak Goauld.
moh999 chapter 18 . Jun 5
Not bad ideas. I could see Darrow take some intermediately skilled people from those worlds.
HughJasz chapter 18 . Jun 5
Luna will eventually make it's way to the Stargate world.
darkimortal chapter 18 . Jun 5
The ascended are definitely a force to be reckoned with…for a bunch of muggles ;)
Kulha chapter 18 . Jun 6
I'm actually trying to decide now in which time frame for Darrow to go to Stargate and build.
erozoth chapter 18 . Jun 6
That's because to an extent Darrow is actually playing around. He needs some chaos and to be seen as the guy that stands up for his people so that at least some of them will decide to follow him. One shotting people in the dark means no-one knows it happened.
ZhaWarudo chapter 18 . Jun 6
Don't know…guess just saw a lot more of Xena than Buffy. *shrug*.
frankieu chapter 18 . Jun 6
There will be some in story reasons for why the world hasn't changed much yet … but overall it's because I need it for plot reasons as you'll see in the next few chapters.
Guest chapter 18 . Jun 5
Bruh, you can't just drop that there is live action Fairy Tail and not share a link!
Dscot chapter 18 . Jun 8
Glad you're enjoying the story! Asteroid mining in any of the resource universes will be hella suspicious and will bring the gov all over his businesses. Not to mention it will crash the world economy. That is not a very good strategy in my opinion.
KratostheLycan chapter 3 . Jun 14
Yup, it's already been addressed. Pretended it's a version of Zombieland where the outbreak happens in the 80s.
Thank you all for you input it is appreciated and please don't be surprised if I 'steal' some of your suggestions.
Story inspired heavily by 'Cruel To be Kind', '12 Steps To Omnipotence', 'Rise of an Empire' and a million and one other fanfics. If you see stuff and think that it's similar to another fanfic. it's probably because we read the same story and I liked that plot line or idea.
BEWARE this is a 'Gary Stu, wish fulfillment, power fantasy type story.
Thank you for reading!
Enjoy
Chapter 19
"Eh...What?" Nick asked.
"Michael Miercuri, my father, does not exist in this reality, I have been pretending to be my own father and also I am a god from a different reality than this one." I said.
They both just looked at me confused unknowing what to say.
"I don't exist in this reality. I was born in a completely different universe than this one. I traveled here through an ability special to me."
Another moment of silence. Then Nick laughed.
"This has got to be a joke right Darrow?" he asked, his tone laced with uncertainty. Claire was gripping his arm tighter. "Some practical joke? Something gone to your head mate? You've been in your dad's liquor cabinet."
I sighed only because it was a reasonable assumption. Nothing of my magical prowess so far couldn't be achieved one way or another by a powerful wizard. It wasn't going to be easy to convince them. Luckily Cato came to my rescue.
"Darrow speaks the truth." He said firmly drawing the attention of two werewolves. "He is a god from a different universe than ours, a different reality. I have been in the farthest depths of his mind. I know all his secrets, he speaks the truth."
"This is crazy." Claire said. "You can't be serious. There are no such things as god. It doesn't make sense. Where is Michael? Does he know you are spouting such nonsense? Pulling this silly joke?" Claire insisted.
To her it must have been silly and practical joke that Michael Miercuri would never tolerate. From her point of view Michael was the rich, eccentric yet serious benefactor.
"Perhaps a demonstration is required." Cato suggested and conjured a sword and faster than the couple could react he plunged it straight into my heart.
We had talked about what types of demonstrations we could do to prove my story and slicing and dicing me had been one of the methods to prove my immortality. Personally I think the old man took a lot of joy in this one and even though to his vehement protest we had even practiced me taking on the killing curse.
Of course the killing curse was mostly smoke and mirrors since my ultimate shield would protect me as Cato concentrates the power in a practiced spot.
While Claire was shocked to his credit Nick recovered and immediately went to disarm Cato with a practiced Stupefy.
"Darrow!" Claire yelped in surprise as I simply walked over to her with the sword sticking out of my chest.
"Everyone calm down! I'm perfectly fine. Enervate." I said turning back to Cato and using my TK to help him stand again.
"As you can see I'm not in any danger. The sword does not wound me." I said while at the same time removing my dress shirt to show my bare chest "Mortal weapons and to an extent even magic does not hurt me. I am immortal."
"Excellent aim with your shot Nicholas, focused and powerful though a bit slow on the draw. You should always be prepared for dangers to your employer from outside and within, god or not." Cato said as he recovered though I could see his face suddenly contort in pain and his breathing becoming labored.
"Darrow if you would be so kind, the shot was stronger than anticipated and I'm not nearly as young as I used to be."
"Very well." I affirmed and raised my left hand and released the healing light concentrating on willing Cato's body in top shape.
"Thank you." he responded. "As you can see Darrow's magical proficiency is beyond any wizard can achieves, he does not need a wand at all and it goes beyond simple wand less proficiency it is because of his innate nature."
Cato stepped up and pulled the sword out of me. Claire who has now recovered a bit over her shock spoke up.
"You mean his nature as God."
"As a god, the THE God." Cato specified. "I can assure you Darrow is not all-mighty nor is he all-knowing as a matter of fact considering his situation he is terribly lacking in his..."
"OK, Cato. That's enough. We are not here to discuss my study habits." I stopped him before he could go on a passive aggressive rant on how I'm underachieving…in his eyes.
"So you can regenerate." Claire said. "And you are powerful in magic. That I knew. We all knew it. Nick has told us many times. That does not mean you are a god." she said firmly.
"Claire…" Nick was about to say something but I interrupted him as a blue light covered me and my clothes were restored.
"Perhaps another demonstration is needed." I paused. "I could have Cato shoot me with the killing curse to prove my immortality."
"NO!" the reaction was immediate from both of them which I kind of appreciated. Just because wasn't going to be in any danger doesn't mean I particularly wanted to get hit with that awful curse. I still felt pain and that curse packed a punch.
"I think it would be more productive if you simply show them." Cato said.
"Very well."
"Show us what?" Before she could continue their surroundings changed.
Big glass windows greeted them through which the full brunt of daylight was filling the new living room they were in.
"What happened? Where are we?" Nick asked.
"You are now in 2025 Beverly hills USA. I told you I was from a different reality. I traveled to your world with my ability and this reality is one where I have set up a home. I call this reality a research universe."
As they looked around they realized it wasn't only the big windows and daylight that was different, the living room layout and space was fundamentally changed. What greeted their views was the postmodern minimalist decorations coupled with flat screen-smart technology appliances blending in with the environment giving off an almost resort like feeling that you see in AirBnB advertisements.
"Alexa! Play Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." My voice startled the looking couple as the wall mounted dark flat screen came alive.
"Playing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." The response came from a table in the corner by the window.
"Darrow what the hell is going on?" Nick looked around confused.
"I've transported us to a different universe. The date is June 28th 2025. This is one of the first realities I've visited once I came into my ability. In my home reality and this one there is no such thing as Magic. Right now we are the only magical beings on this earth and very possibly in this whole universe." I said firmly.
"Your world is merely a story book for children turned into a movie. One which is now playing on the television right now and yes that is a TV muggle technology has advanced quite a bit." I said directing their attention to the wall.
I fast forwarded a bit to get to the world cup event.
"That's minister Fudge!" Claire said.
"Yes." I responded. "Now you may be thinking this is just footage from the world cup somehow filmed so let's fast-forward a bit." I said and skipped to the Champions choosing.
"That's Hogwarts and Dumbledore and Harry Potter!" They both said in shock. Dumbledore, Potter were unmistakable they both looked exactly as they did 'in real life'.
"Let's skip ahead and look at some of the tasks." I fast forwarded again but not a triple or even double speed, I wanted them to see the movie play out even if it was in cut scenes. "You may think that I've somehow found a way to make electronics work at Hogwarts but even you must concede the headmaster would not allow me to film such a movie."
As we watched the sped up version of the movies Claire piped up. "You're not in it. You're not one of the champions."
"That's right. Like I said this is a movie a story based on your reality. This is how events would have gone down if I never came there. You should see the fight at the end with Voldemort. It does not go well for Harry Potter." I said and sped up to the final act.
They couldn't help it they were glued to the screen, even without the context of the rest of the movie they still had the context of what happened in our tournament.
By the end they were at a loss of words again. I could feel their emotions a mixture of confusion, anger and sadness.
Before they could speak I transported us again. This time the blanket darkness of evening greeted us along with the bustle of a cars and pedestrians going about their way on a busy street.
"Darrow?" Nick said alarmed again. He didn't like being suddenly transported to a new place. While ARTY was incredibly smooth in its transport capability it could also be jarring in a sense. You blinked and you were in a new place almost like a dream.
"Calm yourself. We are in London Charing Cross Road, look around even thirty years later the place should be somewhat familiar." They both looked around taking in their surroundings.
Being transported to a new living room and told that it was a different time and place while being shown a questionable movie was one thing but being in the middle of London 2025 was completely different. I could tell their instincts were telling them something was off completely.
The fashion, the cars, the building, the way people looked and moved was eerily similar and wildly different at the same time.
"Diagon Alley." Claire suddenly said. "This is where the Leaky Cauldron is supposed to be." She said looking intently into the big windows of KFC where muggles where patiently waiting in line to get that delicious chicken.
"That's right. There is no Leaky Cauldron or Diagon Alley here since magic doesn't exits…outside of us four." I said calmly. "You can try apparating inside, or to your house or my manor and you will find that you can't since they don't exist. Well it's not quite right, the land exists but the actual houses haven't been built yet. But Diagon Alley is definitely a no go."
I saw both of them giving it a try closing their eyes in concentration when after a few moments nothing happened they stared back at me.
"Please believe me I have double and tripled checked all the known European spots as well." Cato added. "They are either all normal places or simply do not exists. The Magical community does not exist here."
They both looked at each other unsure how to continue so I took the lead.
"Now then, we can continue our discussion in the Beverly Hills mansion or we can go home and have dinner."
"I think we would like to go home."
"Excellent choice I'm quite hungry."
In another blink of an eye we were back at Miercuri estate.
"So shall we have dinner? We have a lot to talk about."
Scene Break
After spending more than half of the dinner explaining multiverse theory, parallel realities, how their world was a story…in another reality, why I couldn't go home, brushed it off as a quirk of my ability, both Cato and I managed to convince them about the different reality part.
Claire didn't believe in my godhood while Nick was still on the fence. I had sparred with Nick many times and he had seen some of my esoteric magic so he was leaning more on the divine side.
For now that was good enough.
"So I don't understand if you knew all this was going to happen why go through with it? Why Hogwarts? Why us?" she asked. Her tone left no doubt that she was still somewhat upset.
Swallowed the last piece of my beef wellington, took a sip of wine to wash it down and used the oversized napkin to wipe the corners of my mouth.
"The Multiverse is a big and scary place. My reality was normal very much like the one I just took you in. Before the accident I just told you about I was completely normal. I was muggle." I said and paused.
I'm not telling them the full story here. They don't need to know about the Xenaverse reality and its magical apples just yet.
"I wasn't sure of my full capabilities. Hell even now I'm not. I'm still evolving. So I needed a relatively safe place where I could learn magic. A place that I could understand something I recognized and admittedly I was selfish. In my reality we grew up with the Harry Potter stories. I wanted to experience the world and its adventure."
"So that's why you pretended to be an eleven year old even though you're what now… thirty three?" she asked skeptically.
I raised my hands up in surrender.
"Yes I know that sounds bad but it's not what you think. At the time it was the easiest way I could gain access to the largest repertoire of magical knowledge probably on the planet. And like I said the inner kid in me really wanted to go to Hogwarts."
"Unfortunately his nature sometimes makes him prone to ridiculous behavior." Cato chimed in. "We have been working on it."
I shot a dirty look to the mind master, unfortunately he was not wrong, he had more than once pointed out extreme tendencies, and apparently arrogance can get to my head really quickly.
'Fucking Olympians.'
I could tell Claire wasn't quite satisfied with my previous answer but her curiosity demanded she continue her line of questioning.
"And why us? Why are you being so…nice to us…to our kind?"
"Ah, well you see I never did quite like how this world treated the werewolves for something they didn't really have control over as well, like many in my reality, I am a big werewolf fan so I couldn't help myself." I said pausing for a split second.
"But most of all you are a marginalized group that I see as my best chance as recruiting to help me build my empire." And here I paused waiting to see their reaction.
As expected they Nick looked outraged. "So you've been manipulating us…to what? Turn us into your worshippers?" he asked his tone laced with anger.
"Manipulating you…yes." I said bluntly. "Turn you into worshippers? No." They both looked at me waiting for me to elaborate.
"You see in a few years I plan on moving on from this universe to a new reality one that is full of contradictions. A reality that has high technology yet primitive cultures that will be…" and here I paused searching for a right word "…amenable to me becoming their god."
"There I will build my empire hopefully one of magic and technology and as powerful as I am one god cannot do everything. Deity, wizard or mortal there are still only 24 hours in a day, there is only so much I can accomplish by myself." I said sighing.
"I need help. I need loyal people to me. The reality I have in mind has no magic so I figured since I was spending a lot of time here in the Harry Potter world I might as well try to recruit magical folks to help me. That's where you come in."
"So you want us to help you pretend to play God to some highly technological…primitive people?" Claire asked more confused than anything.
I actually chuckled.
"Right, let me explain a bit about the reality I have in mind. In that reality aliens exists. Yes I mean extraterrestrials." I said and paused.
"These aliens are parasitic snakes that can take over your body. You become trapped in your own body while the alien has complete control over you. Or at least it does over most regular humans I have no idea how it would work with magicals…anyway that's not the point."
"These aliens have advanced technology that to any primitive human and hell, even us it would seem like magic. These aliens have been ruling the Milky Way galaxy for over 50 thousand years. Some of them are even over twenty thousand years old." Their eyes went wide at that number.
I continued.
"At some point in their history they discovered primitive humanity on earth. They found that humans were much better hosts compared to the previous species they were using so naturally they used their technology to enslave humanity."
"They also used their technology to spread humanity far and wide throughout the galaxy." I said.
"Most of the aliens use the technology to pretend that they are gods for the humans. They keep the humans enslaved and for the most part at fairly primitive levels of technological and cultural development. Any time their human slaves advance too much or start questioning their master's divinity the aliens…well they take drastic measure and eliminate the threat sometimes that means cleansing the planets themselves. Broadly speaking…there are plenty of exceptions of course, not every alien is the same."
"Anyway my point is that they've been doing this for thousands of years so I hope that you can I imagine that after a such a long time the cultures there are more ingrained to worship."
"It also helps tremendously that standard practice of when an alien defeats another alien in warfare they usually take over the territory of the looser. So there is a cultural precedent in simply switching worship to new more powerful deity. I plan on taking over the territory of one of the lesser aliens and building my civilization there."
They both had incredulous looks on their faces. Claire's mouth actually opened meaning to say something then closed and opened again without any words coming out. If they didn't think I was crazy before they definitely thought it now.
Instead she turned to Cato.
"And you agree with all of this?" she asked as if not believing what she just heard.
Cato's reply was simple and swift.
"Not one bit." That actually stunned the couple even more.
"But he is adamant on that reality and I admit he makes a few good points. It's in his nature to seek out worshippers and the cultures there are predisposed to worship a deity and since he is an actual deity it kind of works out."
"Ok." Nick said throwing his hands up and slightly rubbing his temples. "Let's say everything you said is true and…it makes sense. Why go specifically there where there are bodies snatching aliens that wipe out planets? Why not somewhere like the ancient past where there are no aliens and you're the only one with magic? We know our ancestors worshipped gods, hell even some wizards were probably worshipped as gods." He asked.
"I agree." Cato immediately replied to which I rolled my eyes at him.
"Aside from the cultural predisposition which will make it easier to convert people to be my religion there is also the technology level. I'm a sci-fi fan, have been since I was a little kid. I could go play god to some ancient Greek reality but I would be stuck with the primitive technology."
"Training and educating people will take a very long, long time even if I bring advanced technology from other universes."
"Shouldn't be a problem for an immortal deity." Cato smugly interjected which made shoot him a death glare.
"Yea well I'm impatient." I said with a fake smile and continued.
"At least in my chosen reality while the culture will be primitive there will be a substrata of people that know how to use and build advanced technology. Hell, there are a wide variety of species and cultures at different technological levels which I can tap to speed up the advancement of my own civilization." I paused for a moment.
"This brings me to the last problem. You see in most realities that I've been and that I am comfortable in there simply are not that that many habitable worlds in the galaxy…or I haven't been able to find them. In the snake alien reality human habitable planets are basically a dime a dozen."
I paused for them to digest the information.
"What do you mean there aren't many habitable worlds?" Claire asked. "If they exist there and it's the same Milky Way shouldn't those worlds exist here as well?"
"Broadly speaking the ones I checked exist they just aren't habitable. I can't tell you how or why it is. It's simply how the realities are. Neither this one nor the one we visited earlier have the same worlds capable of human habitation as the ones in the alien reality. Just like in the other reality there are no magical people and here they exist."
"If I was to build an empire in that reality or another ancient Greek one to expand to the Stars humanity will have to do it the old fashioned hard way. We'll spend centuries building space habitats, thousands and thousands of years spent on terraforming planets."
"Again shouldn't be problem for an immortal." Cato interjected again.
"Yes, well it will be an absolute slog." I said annoyed.
"So I could do that or I could go to the alien snake reality, rip one of them apart, become that little culture's new god, take their technology build my empire and spread it as the dominant force in the galaxy all within the timeframe of a human lifetime…or three." I said after hesitating for a second.
I paused again to let the information sink in.
"Darrow, this is …a lot. I mean aliens, different realities, gods and empire…you've been pretending to be your own father…which seems like the least crazy thing in comparison." Nick said almost exasperated.
"I mean what do you even want us to help you with? What is our role in all of this? You said you wanted us to be loyal? To build your empire...I mean magic or not this is so bonkers I can't even see imagine how it will work or what we need to do."
"Bluntly speaking when the time comes I want your help in convincing some of your friends to move to the alien reality and help me build my kingdom. There is no magic there so it will have to be transplanted the hard way. That means people, plants, animals, soil, knowledge and much more."
Before they could protest I continued.
"Now I meant what I said, I don't want you to worship me or any such nonsense. From a cultural and religious perspective most of the people muggle or magical from the modern era are too ingrained in their beliefs to see me as a god."
"I also don't plan on forcing anyone to come over. That would be counterproductive. I would be creating an enemy where there was none before."
"So what you want us to help you manipulate our friends in going to a reality filled with body snatching aliens with spaceships just so you can play god?" Claire asked annoyed.
"Slow down there." I said in a conciliatory tone. "We are not just up and going there tomorrow. There is a plan and some preparation in the works before the reality will be secure enough for most people to move in. It will be at least a few years before I even consider it so in the meantime I mostly need your help in setting things up here."
"Before you protest." I cut her off before she could speak. "I know things might seem overly dangerous there but it won't compare to how things will be here in a few short years. The magical world will look back at Voldemort and consider these good old times."
That threw them for a spin.
"What do you mean?" Claire asked right away. "What could possibly be worse than Voldemort?"
I didn't respond right away, letting the tension build up for a bit.
"The muggles of course." Obviously they didn't quit understand what I was saying so I elaborated.
"Right now the muggle world is in the information age. You might have heard that phrase used by muggles on the telly to describe the changing world around them. Everything is becoming more connected. Information sharing is happening faster and faster through avenues such as the internet and cellphones. You've heard of the internet right?"
"The computer thing right?" Nick asked.
"Yes the computer thing." I affirmed. "Computers connected to each other worldwide sharing information. Right now it's still in its infancy in two decades it will be cranked up to 11. Devices like cellphones will be able to use the internet and share information. Every muggle will have one on them." I could see they weren't sure where I was going with this.
"Come." I said and stood. "Let's take a walk to the future."
As they were rising out of their seats I transported them back to Beverly Hills 2025 in front of a Starbucks. It wasn't evening here yet so the place was packed.
"Tell me what do you see the people inside doing?" I asked the couple.
"Drinking coffee?" Claire said reluctantly.
"Yes, they are, it is a coffee shop after all but look closer. What do you see?"
She took a moment then realization came to her.
"They're all staring at something…their cellphones?" she asked once again reluctantly.
"That's right, excellent instincts." I confirmed and took out my own phone. "This here is called a smart phone." I said showing them my Pixel 8, where the 8 was shaped to look like a G.
"Technology will advance so fast the by 2015, only two decades from our time, the vast majority of people on the planet will have one of these phones in their pockets every single second of the day." I said firmly, the notice me not and privacy charms I overlaid on us made sure we weren't disturbed or bumped into by any passerby's.
"Every single one of them will be connected through the internet with each other. These phones aren't just traditional cellphones; they can browse the internet, take videos and pictures and share them instantly with the world."
"In just two decades the world will be radically changed. There will be the rise of social media. These are websites where people willingly post videos and photos of themselves and well of anything they like to be viewed by other people, usually instantly."
Cato leaned in between the couple suddenly put his left arm around Nick and squeezed him while his right arm went around Claire and extended out.
"Squeeze in and look right there!" Cato said motioning to his extended right arm that was holding his phone in selfie mode. "Now say Whiskey!" The couple confused followed the instructions.
"Excellent! Now give me one moment I will post this on Instagram."
"Every muggle will be connected to each other, taking higher quality video and photos than anything the world has seen before. In a few years London itself for security reasons will be completely swamped with police cameras of such high quality that it will be impossible hide any crime or magic on any public street."
"All those videos, all those photos will be shared instantly with the rest of the world. The data itself will be kept on other computers in warehouses all around the world. It will be impossible to delete it."
Ding
Ding
Our attention was brought back to Cato whose phone started making the telltale signs of Instagram notifications.
"Nick, Claire come see this." He showed his phone to the couple. "I posted this on my personal Instagram page. This number here shows the number of followers I have."
"Twenty three thousand?" Nick asked.
"Yes, that is how many people are connected instantly to my page. This photo I posted is transmitted directly to them. They themselves can share it to their followers and so on. See this 14 here where the heart is? That means 14 people have seen and liked my photo." He finished saying.
"Wizardgrandpa69?" Claire asked confused. Cato actually snorted on that one. "See that is my Instagram name. It's what people have to search to find me. You see I posted a few videos of me doing some magic under the magic category just to test this whole business out and 23 thousand people liked it so much they subscribed to my page to see other videos that I might post." He paused for a moment.
"Overall a very positive experience." He suddenly said quite cheerfully. "You should see the comments speculating on how I turned a deck of cards into a rabbit some of the theories were quite wild."
"Ok Cato that's enough. You can tell them about your videos at a later date." I said bringing back the discussion to its main point.
"Cato has only 23 thousand followers other muggles have hundreds of millions of followers. All instantly knowing what they post sharing it with their friends."
"Posting photos and videos hundreds of times a day: Eating a bagel, at the stop sign, in line for the concert, check out this cool dog and the list goes on and on." I said.
Claire looked confused. "Why would anyone care about all that?"
I chuckled. "Claire I don't think you're asking the right question here." I said as I transported us back to my living room.
"Deely! Coffee and tea please!" A moment later it appeared on the table. 'Good elf.'
"You should be asking yourself if every muggle has one of these devices on them all day every day and can take high quality videos and share them instantly with the world 'What will happen to the Statute of Secrecy?'"
Both their eyes went wide at that.
"Fuck!" Nick said.
"Exactly." I confirmed.
'Now to paint the worst case scenario.'
"Let's say I kill Voldemort tomorrow. I give it 15 years until the statute is broken and the muggles find out about magic…en masse."
"What do you think will be the public and governmental reaction?" I paused. "Absolute pandemonium."
"Even if publically the western governments, where human rights are a thing, grant you protection and consider you their citizens at the very least every spy agency will want you for your capabilities. Hell they will be so paranoid they will seek to control you. And honestly so will the governments if not publically then privately."
"Religious nutjobs will try to persecute you, others might even worship you. Scientists will want to study you, doctors will want you to cure their patients and for good reason too. There are magical cures for a wide variety of muggle problems. The blood replenishing potion could save thousands of lives every year." I said and paused for a second.
"There will be immense pressure from the public to use you and magic for everyone's benefit."
"Even in the best case scenarios the execution of any reforms or agreements between the two worlds will be shit."
"How long until individuals muggles start hunting you to share your magic, to make their dreams come true, to cure their children?" I asked rhetorically.
"How long until a wizard is pushed too far and released Fiendfyre or some other stupidly destructive curse killing a whole bunch of muggles in the process? How long until someone goes werewolf hunting?" I said more ominously.
"Hell, once the technology is out there how long do you think it will take for a muggle born to use it to spill the beans in order to be internet famous?"
I could now see that they were scared. The gravity of the situation was being dawned on them.
"Those are the best case scenarios." I said solemnly. "You are heading into a brutal war and don't even know about it."
"Who do you think muggle borns will side with? You see how the upper class of pure bloods and half-bloods treat them, how they treat you."
"How do you think the establishment will react? Who will they blame first? It's going to be you and muggle borns." I said as a matter of fact.
I could see that they were quite shaken. Even though werewolves were more in tune with the muggle world it was hard to picture the future and what change technological progress would bring. But now that they've seen the power of technology first hand, seen the future firsthand the cogs were turning wildly.
I leaned back in my chair. Neither of them said anything for a few moments, thinking deeply but mostly unsure of what to say.
It was Claire that spoke up first.
"So what? You offer us salvation? We join you as your subjects?" She spoke up apprehensively.
I almost smiled but controlled myself.
"I'm offering you and those that we trust choice." I said firmly. "I won't force anyone to join that doesn't want to." I reiterated.
"I will be the God of my empire, the supreme authority and there will be advantages to being founding members of my empire both for those who join us and for you two personally."
'First the stick, now the carrot.'
"I know it's a bit hard to visualize now but I meant it when I said those aliens control the thousands of worlds and I will also have a Galaxy spanning empire. Joining me, helping me build my empire the risk is high yes but so are the rewards. You will become rulers of not planets but whole star systems. Your children, their children and their great grandchildren will never face the discrimination you've had." That definitely got Claire's attention.
"You stay here, there is only risk. At best you go back to being discriminated and earning a meager living once I move my assets away from this reality." I finished.
Silence once more.
"Fucking hell Darrow." Nick suddenly said. "You sure don't paint a rosy picture." Before he could continue Claire interrupted.
"Brian." She said. "Did you know he was going to die? Did you know about the attack?"
"No." I said firmly and stole a look to Cato. "Me being here changed things. I of course expected some form of retaliation but I did not expect this level. At most I thought the mansion was going to be targeted." I said. "For what it's worth I'm very sorry it happened. I did not want anyone of your friends to die."
Sensing and end to the discussion Nick took Claire's hand in his.
"Look Darrow…we need some time to think about this."
"Like I said earlier, you will need to make the decision here and now. You can have your office to deliberate but I can't let you go home with this information for obvious reasons."
"I know it's a big decision, life changing really, so if you decide against it then don't worry, Cato and I will re-arrange your memories to us having a long discussion on business expansion. It will be like it never happened. Take your time and discuss." I said motioning them towards his office.
Cato and I sat in mostly silence as the couple deliberated in the office. I was going over some business reports and he was reading one of the muggle newspapers.
It was after 50 minutes of emotional deliberation and intense whispered shouting that the couple came out.
We both stared and each other in silence waiting for the other to speak. Nick took the lead.
"Bloody fucking hell Darrow. We're in. For all of it. All the craziness." He said almost disbelieving himself.
"We can't deny that ever since we met you, our lives have improved. Not only ours but our friends as well." He continued.
"We owe it to them and to ourselves to give them that choice as you so put it. As long as it's their decision then we're on board." He finished more firmly.
I couldn't help but smile.
"Excellent, then we have a lot more to discuss. I'm afraid we will be burning the midnight oil this evening." I said motioning for them to sit.
Frankly I was relieved. I wasn't sure I could convince them to join me but looking into his eyes I could tell that Nick wasn't totally convinced.
Ironically he believed in my power more than Claire but he didn't like the alien body snatching Reality Empire idea that much.
"We will need to strategize on how to best present it to the rest of the pack and who can be brought in to help with operations in other realities as well what level of information to present to them." I said.
It was Claire that was the deciding factor. She convinced him. Nick loved Claire and Claire loved Nick. His basic imperative was to protect her and to an extent so was hers.
However while men are a lot more hardwired to focus on the here and now as a woman, magical or not, she can't help but have an eye on the future, hers and her families'.
So as we continued our discussion into the silent hours of the night I couldn't help but wonder if she instinctually felt the tiny spark of life slowly growing inside of her.
AN:
I never meant for this part to be its own chapter but I started writing it and it kind of just exploded on me. I hope you all don't find it too boring as it was important for me to establish at least an inkling of a reasonable reason for Nick and Claire to risk everything on Darrow.
Thank you for reading.