The Spy and the Painting
by J. Merrick
Chapter Six
Natasha immediately felt her guard raise as a decidedly feminine figure stepped out of the veil. Looking at the manifestation of Death was not what she had expected, although it did cause the knot that had been slowly growing in her stomach to slam itself shut.
Death looked serene, almost bored as it lazily walked out and stretched. Harry looked none to amused, piercing it with a glare. Death chuckled at him.
"Harry, my dear, how nice to see you again," it spoke with a voice that defied description. It was silkly, it was lustful, it was dangerous, it was encouraging, it was soft, it was piercing. Natasha immediately felt an almost territorial urge to rush over and protect Harry, even though she knew that the reality of the situation was that Harry should be the one protecting her.
Those thoughts and feeling confused her.
"Hello, Death," Harry responded flatly, his arms crossed. His lack of response caused Death to almost pout for a second before giving off a small laugh.
"Oh Harry, how I have missed your face," Death laughed, before she turned and saw Natasha. With an inhuman quickness she pounced towards Natasha, settling before her and speaking in her impossible voice, "Oh you brought me a present?"
Natasha, against all better judgement, looked Death in the eye. Unlike Harry's eyes which were captivating, inviting, and powerful; Death's eyes were completely black, a blackness that seemed to stretch for miles into a void. Natasha felt in that instant her entire soul being laid bare as it gave a gleeful cackle.
"Oh aren't you beautiful," Death crooned, running an icy finger down Natasha's face. Natasha was horrified to find out that she couldn't move. Panic quietly crept down her spine as Death continued to talk, "And you've given me so much, my little Black Widow!"
Death turned around and spoke to Harry as her hand continued to caress Natasha's face, "You brought me something who's dripping so much red! I forgive you for running away from me, Harry dear."
"ENOUGH," Harry roared, dust rattling off the ceiling as the timbre of his voice cut through the air, "I'm not here to play games with you Death."
"Oh isn't he sexy when he thinks he's in charge?" Death commented to Natasha as it finally dropped it's hand from her face. Natasha let out a breath that she didn't know she had been holding as the being turning away from her. It was one thing for part of her soul to be on display for Harry, but having her entire ledger read in a heartbeat by Death was nauseating.
She wanted to curl into a little ball and cry, but the absolute fury that she saw in Harry's eyes calmed her for the briefest of seconds that she needed to recompose herself as Death sauntered over to her Master.
"Have I made you mad, Master?" Death asked, a heavy tone of insinuation in it's voice. Once again, Natasha felt territorial.
"Why is Tom Riddle alive?" Harry asked, power and anger radiating from his voice.
"Oh little Thomas?" was the laughing answer, "I was growing weak Master, and with a magical person alive again I needed to make up for the lack of souls you had been providing me. Who better than the one most scared of me?"
"You killed the entire Wizarding World," Harry intoned back, fury dripping from his words, "I would think that the ledger was clear."
"But you didn't provide them you worthless sack of flesh," Death spit back at Harry, her voice overpowering the chamber they were in, "The ledger still drips with red, and only when you clear it will I free you of your responsibility."
"Then you should tell me how to clear it," Harry growled, causing a shiver to go down her spine.
She was compromised. There was no denying it.
"Where would the fun be in that, Master?" Death cackled, walking back towards the Veil, "You two are cute together. The one that owns my ledger, and the one whose existence drips in red. Have fun with Thomas, I feel him growing stronger by the death…"
Death faded into the Veil, with a final look over her shoulder with a wink at Harry and a glare at Natasha.
"What did she mean by 'growing strong by the death?'" Natasha asked Harry after a moment. She heard him sigh as he brought his hand to his head.
"I don't know," Harry answered after a moment, "But Death is only in a good mood when it is having souls delivered."
He paused , a worried look suddenly coming over his face, "Your friends went to go take Him on, didn't they?"
Natasha nodded as she connected the dots in her head, "Death plans for them to die."
"Not if I have anything do to about it," Harry growled as he grabbed Natasha's hand and they went running back out of the corridors.
X X X
Nick Fury was anxious. While he normally wasn't a calm man, his subordinates displayed outright terror at every brief they gave him now.
A bright light had emanated before all communications with the Avengers were lost. A bright golden bubble had encircled the area that they were in, and they couldn't get any reconnaissance in or out. They were effectively in a communications black out.
He didn't like this. Nick Fury was a man that liked being in control, and right now he was so far out of control that his hands were shaking. Oh he had other options to consider, but they all sucked. The only other option he had that lent him any amount of control was his B-Team, his Not-Quite-Ready-To-Be-Avengers. They were unproven in every sense of the word, and he knew that sending them in now would almost certainly be with knowing he was probably sending them to their deaths.
There were the Weapon-X cast offs, and the scattered remains of the X-Men, but with the collateral damage rising he didn't want their breed of insanity injected into the mix. As it was the last time he had conscripted Wade Wilson into SHIELD Agent Hill had threatened to not only quit but turn Government Witness.
Barring Agent Romanoff and Potter getting a hold of him (another option that held distaste in his mouth as he trusted Potter at the moment as far as he could throw him), his final option was sending SHIELD operatives in with untested, experimental weapons. Fury knew in his head that the death count from that would be in the millions.
He stopped in his tracks as his brain recycled back to Weapon-X. There was one person that he could call, one that owed him a favor whether he knew it or not. It was risky, but it was the only option he had that he felt comfortable with.
He turned to Agent Hill, and leaned down to speak into her ear so that only she could hear him.
"Activate Project Wolverine," Fury stated, "And prepare my jet. It's time I got hands on."
As Fury strode away he didn't see Agent Hill's wide eyed acknowledgment before she snapped to his instructions.
X X X
Harry and Natasha stood about fifty feet away from where the bright, golden dome has touching the ground.
"Of course," Harry groused, rubbing his jaw from where Natasha had slugged him after apparating the pair of them without warning again, "He wants me to announce my entrance."
"Do you think you would be able to get me in without him knowing?" Natasha asked, a plan starting to form in her head. Harry considered her for a second.
"By all rights, yes," Harry said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a shimmering cloak, "If Death gave Tommy any super powers above his normal ones, no, but..."
He contemplated the cloak again for a second before continuing, "I am the Master of Death, and any of my tools should be beyond what Death itself can override. Theoretically. It's worth a shot."
"The only consequence is death," Natasha said with a small smile, which faded when she saw Harry didn't meet the joke with a smile or laugh of his own. Instead, his mouth drew taught.
"There are worse things than death, Natasha," he said quietly. He closed his eyes, breathed in deeply, shook his head, and reset his face.
"One last time, you can turn back now," Harry said, offering the cloak to Natasha. She took it without hesitation, giving him a smirk.
"What does this do?" she asked, moving it in her hands.
"It's an invisibility cloak," Harry said, "Will literally hide you from Death, with the big D. With it on Tommy shouldn't be able to detect you. Even though he's been revived, I'm pretty sure that if you stab him in the throat he'll be out of commission long enough to drop his guard."
"So, you blast in and distract him," Natasha picked up, "While I sneak in and neutralize him."
"Right, once you do that, we grab your friends and get on out," Harry finished, "I'd prefer to finish him off then and there, but I'm more worried about getting your friends to safety first."
"How do you know they're still alive?" Natasha questioned quietly.
"You know why," Harry responded, tapping his index finger on her temple, "He wants to make a show of it to me."
"Harry," Natasha started, at an almost whisper, "Before we do this, I need you to answer me this question honestly."
Harry raised his eyebrow, waiting for her to go on.
"What did the full prophecy say," Natasha leveled, "I've been in your head, I know when you're lying. I know you know it. I want to know what it says."
"Why," Harry replied shortly.
"Because I'm curious," she said shortly, "And if I'm about to risk my life for this, I want to know what I have to do to clear your ledger."
"Why," he said again, looking her in the eyes.
"Remind me after this is over the answer that properly," she said, echoing his words from earlier.
Harry closed his eyes as if summoning up a distant memory, and then started reciting the words, "Death will come at the beckoning of its master, till the ledger is clear. And he that has mocked Death shall be its master, till the ledger is clear. Death will release its master, when the ledger is clear. But only by a sacrifice, will the ledger ever be clear."
The pair were silent for a minute before Natasha broke the silence.
"That couldn't be more vague," she said with a smile. This time, Harry smiled back.
"It usually is," Harry replied, "If you can figure out how to clear the ledger, let me know. Now, ready?"
"Yes," Natasha replied, giving Harry a smile. He turned around and Natasha could feel him gathering his power around him.
She slipped the cloak around herself, wondering if Harry could still pull from her thoughts.
X X X
Fury walked up to the shack in the woods that his helicopter had dropped him off at. The man inside would be about as happy to see him as Dr. Banner had been to see Agent Romanoff. One didn't go to a shack in the middle of the woods in the middle of Canada if they wanted the Director of SHIELD knocking at their door.
Fury looked at the security detachment that had gone with them, dismissing them back into the helicopter with a look. If he didn't approach this alone, it would blow up in his face.
He took one step onto the porch before he heard the cocking of a gun.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't have your good eye join the other one," a voice that sounded like it had been soaked in whiskey, dragged through gravel, and smoked till it bled sounded.
"Because guns aren't your style Logan," Fury said, not showing any emotion, "And you owe me a favor."
"I don't owe you anything," the voice, Logan, answered, "You can get Wilson."
"Wilson doesn't have the delicate touch that I need right now," Fury answered, pulling a cigar out from his coat, "You do. So drop the gun and come with me."
"You're a real ass Fury," Logan said as he walked into the light, dropping the shotgun, "Don't think I've ever heard someone describe my touch as delicate before though."
Fury snorted.
"What's the mission?"
X X X
Voldemort looked at the group of characters that were before him. They were all wheezing in pain, the effects of spell damage readily apparent.
"A man that is nothing but an experiment," he started, his own voice sounded foreign to his own ears after being pulled from his non-existence as he addressed the group, "A man that is an experiment gone wrong, a man with exceptional vision, and a man that can create trinkets."
He paused before shooting a spell at the green abomination that the others though of as 'the Hulk.' He had learned quickly that the creature healed extraordinarily quick.
"In your world you're the best there is to offer," he said, his voice barely a whisper, "But compared to the power of Lord Voldemort you're nothing but children."
He swept his hand out as he walked towards the one that was referred to as 'Captain.'
"I'm so very weak right now, and yet I captured you so easily," he breathed, "Your powers nothing to the fraction of mine. But fear not, your deaths shall allow Lord Voldemort to once again rise to take back what was wrongfully taken from me."
Suddenly, a giant white column shot up in the distance, showing that his wards had been broken.
"Ah, and here comes your executioner!" he laughed, "My good friend Harry Potter."
He turned to the group of muggles that had stood toe to toe with his Inferi.
"You might all plead for death now, but I've experienced something much worse, and I will be bringing it to your world.
End Chapter Six
Author's Notes: Thus marks the beginning of the next major arc of this story, that dealing with Harry and Voldemort. Of course, Natasha is right there in the background as well...
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