I do not own Harry Potter and Avengers, this is fan fiction.
"Top of the morning to you, Lord Potter." Harry was taken back by being greeted by Nick Fury as he was having breakfast down in the mess hall. He could only think one reason for Nick Fury greeting him like that. Natasha was having a her breakfast too, but she was also having fun seeing her partner's reaction.
She of course knew his real name, after all she tried to recruit him. She had done an extensive background check. "I swear how is it that Hawkeye always takes such a long time to finish his breakfast with a big mouth like he has." Natasha could not help but to also question how could he work were he did if he always seem to divulge secret information so easily?
Hawkeye finally decided to go down for breakfast, only to see Reaper finish his and get up as he entered the mess hall. "Tell me one good reason why I should not flay you open?" Hawkeye was surprised by the greeting from his old circus friend. "Cause I am your friend. To what do I owe such greetings from my old friend?"
Harry teleported right next to him and grabbed him by the throat. "You told personal information to the damned cyclops. That is what you did wrong. The last thing I want is that bastard knowing more than he should." Hawkeye tried to free himself from his grip and told him that he never mentioned wanting to keep personal information away from their leader.
"Alright, if you want to play it like that. The two can play that game. Enjoy your breakfast skippy . " Hawkeye began to glare at him." Hey, that is a low blow. " Harry walked out of the mess hall as did Natasha. She had a smile on her face." Skippy? There is a tale there and I am sure it is a funny one. " Hawkeye wished he had kept his big mouth shut.
Harry put on his usual gear and walked towards the meeting room. Natasha asked about the story behind the nickname. When they were both seated he began telling a story from the past." As you may know I was one of the few people that graduated from the taskmaster's circus, Hawkeye was also. The circus provided some pretty decent food, but Hawkeye got bored with it pretty fast. "
Nick was listening trying to remained unnoticed." So he decided to go out to eat at some of the best restaurants of Paris. The circus moved around all over the world, when he began doing that it was in France. He would eat and before the waitress got back with the bill, he escaped and did not pay it. He skipped so many times that the taskmaster began to call him Skippy ."
Natasha saw the reason he would not like to be reminded. "the number of restaurants that went broke because of him made it almost impossible for anyone with a bow to get any decent reservations. This happened to end when someone posted a fake story saying that he was dead."
Nick decided to join the conversation. "Actually that was one of the things he asked in order to let us recruit him. You are not kidding about the amount of money he owed. Now mind telling me why did you not introduce yourself with your birth name?"
Harry looked at him and smiled. "You never asked." Harry knew it was a cheap answer but he did hate him for keeping his friend as a human popsicle and making Peggy suffer like she did. Let alone what he did to Jasmine later while they were still dating.
"Your mission is now a simple one. You are to find and kill a group of AIM soldiers who are killing a great number of people in commuter transit vehicles. We have no idea how they are doing it or why. But we do know that the victims are left looking like mummies. " Nick put on the photos of the remains of several victims.
" If you are wondering the victims in those pictures are women around 25 years old. " Harry got up and began to look at their hands and faces. He did not like what he saw, not one bit." I have a suspicion on how they were killed, but it should not be possible in this day and age. "
Nick asked for him to tell the reason, no matter how ridiculous he felt they would think. They needed to know what he was thinking was the cause. " This by the looks of it is the work of a life force transfusion, in other words someone stole these people's youth. You can tell by the hands and the eyes."
Nick asked how could they do something like that, "Life force is a type of energy. If they could extract it, store it and later use it. It would prove to be quite the business. A virtual fountain of youth accessible to the highest bidder. The hand show they have to have some sort of machine or tubing to transfer the energy. The marks are where the tunes were placed in. Sedate, attach the tubes and suck the victims dry. "
Natasha asked why he said it should not be possible for anyone to use it." Because the last person to develop such a horrible thing is not supposed to be alive, this looks like the work of the life leech, a machine built by an old enemy of mine. The Red Skull build it to use on concentration camps during the last years of the war. "
Harry expected many things to continue in this day and age, but he did not expect to see one of the horrible inventions of his second most hated enemy. Could it be the Red Skull found a way to return from the dead? Or was it some fool that found the blueprints and wanted to make a quick profit?
"Since you seem to know what it might be, do you need something as a protective gear? I can only guess the sedative is airborne, likely in the form of a gas. If so you already have something that can help. But do you need something else? "
Harry got up and looked at Black Widow, " Maybe that you let me handle this alone. " Natasha got up and glared at him." We work together, I might see something you miss. I do not frighten so easily from seeing such grotesque scenes. Do not presume because I am a woman I would be so easily perturbed."
Harry only worried if she saw him fight in full force, would she find him disgusting like so many of the survivors of the concentration camps had told him. "Then we leave as soon as we are told where was the last place this happened."
Nick told hit it happened in Prague. The two left the office and headed towards their waiting jet. As they took off Natasha saw something that she never saw before. There was a dark aura around Harry. It was almost as if there was a shadow of darkness surrounding him. "I hope you do not mind but when I find who built and is using this thing, they will not live long so if you want to question them do so quickly."
The two landed and headed towards the scenes of the last incident. No question about it, this was indeed the work of the leech. Using the aura around him he focused it in his eyes and ears. He began to see and hear the souls of the dead that still lingered. "What caused you to die? Tell me what this person looked like?"
The ghosts began to him everything that happened before and after their deaths. He promised their untimely death would be avenged. It seem to make the ghosts relax a little, almost waiting for him to keep his word.
"Reaper who are you talking to? " Harry told her the souls of the victims." They just told me everything that happened, and Nick is wrong it was not simply AIM, but in reality it was HYDRA." Natasha asked if he was certain. He told her the symbol on their mask and clothing was unmistakable.
Harry took off running towards the service tunnels. Natasha followed right behind as he saw him make a pair of fists. The life leech was not something small, and they would not be able to move it around so easily. It took him thirty minutes to find the next group of sedated victims.
He saw the metal tendrils coming towards the intended victims. He sent a force of lightning to them that cause them to be destroyed. He punched a wall and there was the machine. As grotesque as ever and he was reminded of the war all over again. He punched a whole on the side and saw the canister was empty. He concentrated and filled it with hate.
Natasha could not understand why he hated this thing so much. As they moved the bodies of the unconscious people to a safer area. She asked him why he remembered this skull looking machine. "Steve Rogers was not the only one to find love during the war, I did as well. Except mine did not die of old age and a broken heart. A machine like this killed her."
"Tell me about her. It might make you feel better. " Harry told her it could also open old wounds." She was a German nurse. She and her family had just evaded being sent to the camps or so she believed Eve was a kind, sweet woman. She had beautiful red hair and the most loving outlook in life. She was forced to go to the camps or her entire family would be killed. "
" This thing doesn't know to distinguish between friend or foe. Once on it will attack anyone or anything that has life. Thanks to her we found several of the camps locations. I begged her to hide, to stop looking for more camps, but she did not listen. She wanted to rescue as many people as possible. I don't know what happened to her family, only know that a sister of hers lived in somewhere in Russia. "
Natasha could not believe it. Eve was very well known to her, and not many of her family survived the treatment from the lying bastards. It was a Russian military unit that saved them from the execution grounds. Of the entire family she was the only survivor. Eve was her long dead aunt. "They didn't keep their word. Her family died in pain Reaper. I should know this woman you mentioned was my Aunt."
"But how us it that you are still young? " Natasha told him they did experiments on her, it changed her body somehow and made her age extremely slow. For every year she would only age a minute." I can not remember how many times I saw people around me age to old men and die as time went by and I could only see the looks of jealous rage that they had in their eyes. "
Sure enough the idiots made the mistake of touching the canister. They went mad with the sheer hate in the canister. They killed each other in the most horrible ways possible, and in the end only one survived by plucking his own eyes out with a bayonet. They walked towards the destroyed machine and the mutilated corpses of the HYDRA soldiers.
"So you survived by making yourself blind. You see something new everyday. Tell me where are the plans for the life leech and I will make your death painless, don't tell me and I will make you suffer as I extract the information from your soon to be empty husk. "
The soldier did not cared how he died, he told them just to make the nightmarish memories be over. True to his words, he broke his neck quickly, so quick that the dead man felt nothing at all. " Looks like we are going to Russia. Who would believe that they are in the Saint Petersburg Cathedral."
Natasha saw Harry in a different light from that moment on. Yes he was skilled, wise and powerful, but they never noticed that he was also in a great deal of emotional pain, and if those wounds could be seen by the naked eye, he would have deep scars all over his body. Wounds that she felt the desire of healing.
The plane took off and so did her affection towards her mysterious partner. She had felt an attraction to be sure, but now she knew that indeed she was in love, and for once in her life she accepted it at long last. At long last she would have a lover that she would not have to see wither away as time went by.
"Harry what would you say I show you around? I know a lovely Cafe near the Cathedral. " Harry agreed to that almost laughing as he said that it would make finding the plans that easier of they looked like a pair of tourist." It seems we have a date then, I know we will have a lot of fun. "