The Three Kings: Strike
Disclaimer (1): Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Studios, and TV Tokyo. Harry Potter is owned by J. K. Rowling, Bloomsbury Publishing, Arthur A. Levine Books, and Warner Bros. Please support the official releases.
Disclaimer (2): XO belongs to Beyoncé Knowles.
Warning: Mentions of mass murder, violence, suicide, gore, alcoholism, smoking, sexual situations, unsafe sex, PTSD flashbacks, child abuse, loss of consent, and nudity.
Chapter 20: Diversion
It's raining in London. Keith stares out the window of the muggle bar, watching the droplets hitting the pavement, his fingers clutching at the glass in his hands. It's water. Keith can't remember drinking something non-alcoholic in months, but Mook had to yank his beer out of his grasp the moment that the bartender had set it on the table.
"We need you sober," she'd said, and Keith had almost fought her on it but he didn't have the energy. Kitamori had downed it instead, the effects of whatever the Department had done to her making it impossible for her to get drunk, and offered him her water as a shitty compromise.
He and Kitamori had finally talked about their history in bed with one another, but Keith had barely been able to comprehend it at the time. She'd said that attraction as her main basis for wanting to fuck him, something about a thing for blondes. But then she'd mentioned that she'd never actually slept with anyone outside of mission parameters or Department orders before and Keith had wanted to throw up.
The idea that he'd been her first one hundred percent consensual relationship was beyond fucked up. The fact that she'd wanted it to be with him was almost impossible to believe. But Kitamori had promised to be honest with all of them going forward, even if what she was going to tell them made Keith want to be violently ill.
Pegasus deserved nothing more than what he'd gotten, he thinks as he looks across the street and focuses on the old red telephone box on the other side of the road. Somewhere miles below their feet was Gara Grindelwald, another woman who'd been taken and abused by Pegasus. Keith glances at Kitamori, who's been green and pasty since they got here. I'd be in the same shape if I'd been through what she had.
It hits Keith just then, barrelling through his foggy memories of his actual life, that he'd probably been born in the same tunnels that Grindelwald was being kept in. His shaking hands make the glass that he'd holding clatter against the wood of their table.
"Everyone ready?" Mook asks the team. Beside her, a bewitched muggle radio chirps out the Confederation broadcast, mentioning that the delegations were being seated and that the conference would be starting soon. Keith doesn't know what Bakura and his mages have planned, but the tip that they'd gotten from Meron Tadesse told them that something would be happening during the speeches. "We've got an hour - maybe less. So let's go."
Coppermine leaves some muggle money on the table to pay the owner as Mook leads them outside. They cross the street at the intersection and head toward the old telephone box.
Scott pulls open the box's door, which is missing several panes of glass, and they all stuff themselves inside. Kitamori reaches for the ancient looking receiver, holding it in her hand for a moment before dialing the number.
"Six… Two… Four…" she mutters under her breath, "Four… Two…"
The dial whirls back into place and a cool female voice rings out from inside the telephone box itself.
"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."
"1-0-1-4 override," Kitamori says calmly and Keith silently prays that no one has gotten around to changing all the codes just yet.
For a beat, nothing happens. But then the female voice spoke again, "Britain thanks you for your service, Plant #1,014. Please be advised that the Ministry of Magic closes in one hour," and there is nothing out of the ordinary when the telephone box shudders and slowly descends into the ground.
After about a minute in total darkness, a ring of light shines around their feet, widens, and rises slowly up their bodies. Keith's eyes water at the sudden brightness as the British Ministry of Magic is revealed.
"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant day," the woman's voice says again as they exit the telephone box. Mook leads the charge, walking briskly across the main walkway, past the floo arrivals and departures line, and the Fountain of Magical Brethren, before joining the throng of witches and wizards making their way to the golden gates at the far end of the hall.
"Hey! Hey! Excuse me!" Shouts the badly shaven wizarding sitting at the security desk. Keith ducks his head and ignores him, "Hey! You're supposed to check in when you use the guest entrance! Hey! "
They don't stop moving. As Mook said, they don't have time to deal with the proper procedures. Besides, if Kitamori's override hadn't informed the security guard not to stop them, then something had happened on the Department's side. Keith has a bad feeling about this.
"Excuse me," an Auror with bright pink hair descends upon them, exuding all the bravado of someone who just passed their exams. "You're going to have to come with me."
Scott steps forward, throwing on a Dutch accent and transitioning into a persona that Mook had described as a foreign government official.
"Sorry. My mistake," the Plant says, flashing a fake ID that labeled him as a member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. "We have an appointment in the courtroom downstairs. I should have the paperwork here…" Scott fumbles for something in his pocket, dumping scraps of parchment onto the floor. "Oh, goodness. I mistake-"
He bends down at the same time as the Auror girl, who's just trying to help. But Scott is too quick for her, firing off a quick Imperius Curse and catching the Auror in the chest. The girl blinks, her rapidly changing eyes shifting in confusion as she tries to fight it, before succumbing to the control. Keith is kind of amazed watching the whole thing; despite everything, he'd never actually expected Scott to be anything other than this weird robotic figure that always stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Mook.
"There's been a misunderstanding," Scott says, his voice returning to its natural, dull monotone. "Tell the security guard, Auror…"
"Tonks," the girl supplies, in a dreamy tone.
"Auror Tonks. Move along," Scott says.
Auror Tonks stands up and drifts toward the security guard, presumably giving him some kind of explanation. Keith follows the rest of them into the elevator, pulling the golden gates shut before anyone follows them in.
That does keep anyone from piling at the moment the doors open on the third floor, the cool female voice ringing out, "Level Three, Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, incorporating the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, Obliviator Headquarters, and Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee." Keith is pressed into the far corner by an overweight witch with a ridiculous looking green hat that seemed to contain a live niffler. He glances over at Mook, who's wearing an equally uncomfortable expression at the half-naked ninety year old man just to her left. Keith almost catches Scott glaring at the wizard and wonders if there was any truth to Mook's admission that the kid was in love with her.
It doesn't stop there. Once the naked man leaves, they're joined by a group of goblins who pressed their heads together and whispered conspiringly on the fourth floor, a conglomerate of foreign wizards on the fifth, and some poor kid who looks like he'd just been put together after a splinching on the sixth. They all clear out by the time the female voice says, " Level eight, Magical Maintenance, Wizarding Examinations Authority, Department of Magical Education, and Public Information Services," and Keith lets out a breath that he didn't know that he was holding.
When the gate closes, he spots Kitamori clutching at the railing around them, looking pale as a ghost. He watches as she bites down on his lip so hard that blood trickles down her chin.
"Control," Kitamori whispers to herself. " Control ."
Her eyelids flutter shut, tilts her head to the side and cracks her neck. When she opens her eyes again, Keith realizes that he's not looking at Reiko Kitamori anymore.
" Level nine, Department of Mysteries. "
The gate swings back and Kiyoshi walks out.
The Department of Mysteries had branches in nearly every Ministry around the world. In America, there was the Archives. Plants and Seedlings were trained in the French Gardens. Her in Britain were the Labs, the secret underground facility to test the very limits of wizarding magic itself.
The entrance was at the end of a long dark hall lined with torches that emitted a strange white-blue light. The door swings open and a pair of Unspeakables rush out, their wands held aloft.
Keith barely has time to think, We've been made, before Kitamori palms two of her wands and fires off a pair of silent Killing Curses.
Meron Tadesse had set them up with a black market wand dealer in Peru before sending them off to London. The man had no talent for making wands, but he could match them to wizards like nothing Keith had ever seen before. Keith himself had walked away with an elm wand, with a backup made of willow strapped to his ankle. Coppermine had been paired with two Alders, while Mook and Scott had both gotten mahogany and yew each.
On the other hand, Kitamori had requested four - something that had made the dealer nearly bulk at the thought. But in the end, she'd taken two blackthorn wands, one made of fir, and a final made of hawthorn. As she'd later explained, Kitamori had always had multiple wands on her person once she joined up with the Head, using them for different purposes.
Kitamori slides her two blackthorn wands back into her hip holsters, barely blinking as she steps over the corpses of the two men she'd just killed. Scott pauses to examine them for a second before he says, "I recognize them. Plant #85,521M and Plant #85,482. They were in the same batch as I was."
Mook swears as they all line up on either side of the door, preparing for a breach. Keith grips his wand tightly. Coppermine slowly turns the knob, waits for a second, and then rushes inside.
The black circular foyer is empty, lit only by the shivering blue torches. They press together, back to back with their wands pointed outwards, as the main door shuts on its own and leaves them in near complete darkness. A tremendous rumbling noise echoed around them, the candles moving lightly to the left, as the walls began to rotate.
Keith hears Kitamori shout out, "Override 1-0-1-4!" But it does nothing to stop the defensive spell from activating. If anything, the wall seems to rotate faster, the flames around them blurring together to form neon blue lines, before screeching to a sudden stop.
"They knew we were coming," Mook mutters. She turns to Kitamori, "I thought that you said that your Override codes would work?''
"I said that I hoped they would. Clearly, Hendrix figured out that I was still alive and had gone off the book," Kitamori snaps back, mentioning the Head of the Department of Mysteries like it wasn't anything at all - and hadn't that been a mind fuck when Kitamori had explained just who they were working for.
"So what now?" Coppermine asks, sounding as nervous as Keith feels.
"We have to try each door, one by one," Kitamori says, her eyes flicking between the dozen or so choices. "There should be connecting doors within each room."
"You got any idea which one she'll be in?" Keith asks.
Kitamori shakes her head, "I'm hoping Time, but there's no guarantee."
The first room they enter clearly doesn't study time. The walls and ceiling are pitch black, twinkling with stars from far off universes. In the center of the room was a massive replica of the Earth, spinning in an endless circle of blue oceans and white clouds. Moving around it in curving epicycles were the different planets of their system: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, and the Sun, and all of those that followed. They'd even included the newest world to be discovered, Pluto, which had caused a buzz in the astronomical crowd about five years ago.
The floor was littered with corpses. Some lay face down in pools of their own blood, others leaning against the walls, their mouths twisted in their final grimace of pain. One unlucky soul had been thrown into the model Sun, his body now a blackened husk of smoldering ashes.
"What…?" Coppermine breathes, his eyes wide with shock.
Keith swallows, thinking of the two Plants that Kitamori had killed on the way in. What if they hadn't been attacking us? What if they had been running?
"We need to keep moving," Mook says, pointing at a far wall where a door, surrounded by starlight, appears out of thin air. They make their way across the floor and suddenly, the planets move out of alignment, heedlessly knocking the bodies around as they pass by. The massive orbs swirl around them dramatically before sliding back into the center. Except now, instead of the Earth being at the center as it should be, the planets - Earth included - start to rotate around the Sun.
Before Keith can ask a question, they're through the door.
This room was a dimly lit and large beyond comprehension, shaped like a massive amphitheater with stone steps descending towards the pit. A raised dais stood in the center of the room, where a large archway that looked so created and ancient that Keith was incredible that it was still standing. Hanging from the arch was a dark black curtain that seemed to move ever so slightly despite the stillness in the air.
There were more dead Unspeakables in here too, lining the stone steps and surrounding the archway. They bore no marks on them, no sign of the vicious slaughter in the other room. Instead, every single one of them seemed to be reaching for the thing on the central dais, their faces seemingly at peace.
A whisper, some strange voice, seemed to echo around the room and Keith had the strangest feeling that someone was on the other side of the archway, fingers pressing against the curtain with feather light touches. He swallows hard and thinks he hears the twin brother that he never got to know, hissing, I'm here. I'm right here. Reach for me. Come to me. I've missed you…
"What is that thing?" Scott asks, sounding horribly shaken as fear cuts through his Plant training like a knife through butter. Keith looks over just in time to see Mook press her hand into his, muttering something into his ear. She looks just as terrified as Scott and just as grey as Kitamori, who's frozen to the spot.
The only one that looks unaffected is Pete. The boy frowns, stepping forward to examine the archway, "It looks… like a rip in the fabric of the world…" He leans down and touches the ancient stone of the dais, "This place, it's ancient. It couldn't have been here when the Ministry was built."
"You're right," comes a voice from behind and Keith turns to see a man sitting on the top row of the stone steps, picking at his dark robes. The man looks just as entranced by the archway as Keith is. "The Veil has been here a long, long time and the Ministry was constructed around it. But to call it a Rip… No. It's not Rip, only a pale imitation of one."
"Bode?" Kitamori asks, springing free of her stupor. "Broderick Bode?"
Keith's eyes widen. Pegasus had said that they'd given Gara to a man named Bode. How the fuck is he still alive?
"Kiyoshi," Bode says, a sad smile on his face. He stood up and began his descent downwards. Bode was a man in his seventies, with lank grey hair that framed his gloomy-looking face. But his eyes were different, staring them down with unblinking focus. "I was under the impression that you were dead."
"You've been misinformed, I'm afraid," Kitamori tells him.
"Are you here to kill me?" Bode asks.
Kitamori raises an eyebrow, "Do you really think that, if I was here to kill you, that I'd let you know that?"
Bode's lips twitch, "No, I guess not. Have you come to join us, my dear?"
"Join you?" Kitamori tilts her head to the side in confusion. Her hands slide back to her wand holsters and Keith follows suit. There's no way that this guy was left alive by accident.
Bode gingerly steps onto the dais where they are grouped together, his mouth thinning as he looked at them. The light illuminating the archway throws his wrinkled face into sharp relief, aging him nearly a hundred years. His unbroken stare draws Keith's gaze to his eyes, then to the lines of his forehead, where he spots one that looks like an old scar. It incircles Bode's like a halo.
Everyone else seems to tense, so he's not the only one who's noticed it.
"Yes. Join us. The Department of Mysteries needs a fresh start, so those who are loyal must pass through the Veil. Except..." Bode's grandfather-like smile seems to fade, replaced by hesitation. He looks at his hands. They're covered in blood. "...Some weren't loyal. So I had to… I was ordered to…:
Kiyoshi drops the act first, pointing her fir wand at Bode, "Where's Gara Grindelwald?"
Bode tries to go for his wand, but Kitamori is too fast and disarms him. His wand flies to the other side of the amphitheater and echoes as it clatters on the stone. Bode snarls, showing off rotting black teeth and launches himself at them without regard to his own safety.
Bode moves like a man possessed, his body contorting in ways that it never should have been able to catch Kitamori off guard as they fought. Keith and Coppermine reach in to pry the old man off of her, but Bode sinks his teeth into Coppermine's arm and pulls, taking a chunk of flesh with him. Keith throws Bode against a wall so hard that he hears bones crack. Grey liquid seeps out of Bode's ears and his feet twitch every so often.
Coppermine goes to one knee, clutching his bleeding arm. He fumbles for his wand, using it to cauterize his wound. Mook approaches Bode's broken form, her wand at the ready, and crouches down to start going through his pockets for anything useful.
"What the fuck?" Coppermine hisses, unable to take his eyes off of Bode.
"Reprogrammed," Scott answers. "They carved out his brain and replaced everything that he was with something else. Look," the Plant points at Bode's body, which seems to be trying to get up and attack despite the injuries that it's sustained.
"Anyone who's been reprogrammed as a kill code implanted into their subconscious," Kitamori explains, still trying to catch her breath. "Bode probably didn't even realize what he was doing."
"What if they did that to your friend?" Coppermine asks her as Mook returns, holding a single key that she'd found in Bode's pocket.
"Then I owe it to her to put her down myself," she answers. Mook tosses her the key and Kitamori catches it midair, turning it over in her hands to read the inscription. " Love ."
"The stories about this place always talked about a room that was kept locked at all times because what was being studied inside was too powerful," Keith says. "If Bode has that key-"
"Then she's in there," Kitamori says, looking determined.
"We should get going," Mook frowns, searching around for an exit. On the other side of the amphitheater, a half dozen doors appear, melting out of the stone wall. "Well, that wasn't creepy at all…"
They leave Bode where he lays, his brain slowly sliding out of his ears, and climb the stone benches on the other side of the room. When they get to the doors, Kitamori picks one at random and slides the key into the lock. Something heavy slides into place and the door opens on its own.
Whatever Keith was expecting, it wasn't this.
Instead of the dark room surround the Veil or the starlight space containing a dozen celestial bodies, the Lab division dedicated to the study of love looks more like a temple than anything else. The room was brightly lit, with massive white pillars stretched up on either side of the room. The ceiling had been enchanted to look like the sky on a sunny day and a warm breeze with the scent of early spring flowers filled the air. On the walls were moving frescoes showing a man and a woman intertwined in acts of love: embracing their children, kissing for the first time, a newly wedded couple in their marriage bed.
It's the same couple over and over again. They both have red hair, though the husband's was a shade or two darker. They have five children: three girls and two boys, all with the man's auburn hair. The eldest, a woman who is the spitting image of her father, wears a suit of armor and a flowing cloak of yellow and gold over her shoulders. She turns to look at the intruders, smirks cruelly, and toys with the sword strapped to her hip.
In the center of the room is a small square pool. Instead of water, the liquid inside has a mother-of-pearl sheen with steam that rises in a series of swirls. The mist gives off a subtle smell, simultaneously reminding Keith of owl's feathers, overly sweet coffee, and greasy eggs with orange juice. He swallows hard and steps away.
"Amortentia," Scott answers. "The most powerful love potion in the world."
Keith briefly wonders what the Plant smells, but given the way Scott keeps looking at Mook, he doesn't really have to guess.
"This is the House of Sidonia, one of the original Roman families to possess wizarding magic," Kitamori says, completely unprompted. "I mean, the frescoes are different and don't even get me started on the statues, but the design for this room is based on the house they have in the Forum Romanum ."
"What does that mean?" Mook asks.
Kitamori frowns, "It means that if Pegasus missed a hint this fucking big , then he's an even bigger idiot than I thought." When Mook makes a noise of confusion, she says, "I'll explain later."
Kitamori wanders around for a moment, taking in the entire spectacle, before coming to stand at the four statues at the front of the temple. They depict four people, two women and two men.
"Darkness and Light," Keith says, reading the inscription on the middle pair. 'Darkness' was a naked woman carved out of black marble, while the man was equally as unclothed and sculpted out of white stone. When Keith moved to the left, the second male statue was labeled 'Chaos,' shaped from a massive opal and armored in obsidian. The final woman, constructed out of diamond and amber, was described as 'Order.'
"The Sidonia's have statues of their notable ancestors like Pompilia Sidonia, not these four," Kitamori ponders. "Who are they? Why are they here?"
"Isn't this a temple?" Asks Coppermine, who's moved over to where they're standing. "Maybe they're gods?"
Keith almost argues - old habits dry hard - but then sees the logic in it, "Couldn't worship be considered a form of love?"
"Still, I've never heard of these four before," Kitamori frowns. She shakes her head, "If this is House Sidonia, then there should be lower levels. Come on."
Kitamori leads them through the back of the temple, lighting the torches on the wall along the way. She finds a winding staircase that dips underground and walks into the most secure dungeons in the world.
Keith refuses to look at the cages. He can only guess what he will find if he does: the remnants of those that have created a hundred Horcruxes, bodies that have had other people's souls injected into them, the bits and pieces of people who have been Splinched across time. He keeps his eyes forward and blocks out the sound until they reach the final cell.
Kitamori lets out a sound so desperate, so inhuman, and falls to the ground.
Gara is old, her face lined with each and every one of the hundred and thirty-six years that she's been alive. Her head is bald with dark brown spots covering wrinkled skin and eyes that are filmed over with cataracts. Gara's bone-thin fingers shake uncontrollably and she doesn't respond the first few times that Kitamori calls her name.
When she does eventually turn, Gara doesn't recognize her old friend's voice.
"It's Reiko. I'm Reiko," Kitamori tells her, pressing her forehead against the bars. Tears stream down her face, uncontrollable and unstoppable. "Gara, please. Please ."
"Reiko?" Gara asks, her voice a breathy whisper. "Is it… Is it you?"
Gellert Grindelwald's twin sister crawls forward on her hands and knees, the small scraps of clothing that she's been given tearing against the uneven stone floor. When she reaches the bar, Gara reaches through them and cups Kitamori's face, "You're here. You're… you're here… I thought…"
"I'm sorry. I'm so, so…" Kitamori hiccups, clutching at Gara's hands. "I tried to visit you, but Hendrix wouldn't let me."
"And watch me grow old? To wither away?" Gara shakes her head. "It would have been better if you have forgotten me entirely."
"You're the most beautiful sight I've seen in a hundred years," Kitamori says, and all Keith can hear is the unspoken, desperate I love you that goes unsaid.
"Why have you come, Reiko? And who…" Gara tilts her head to the side. "Who are your four companions?"
Mook steps forward and introduces them, making sure to lend Gara her hands when the old woman asks for something to touch. When she gets to Keith, Gara stops and whispers, "You're Trista Latner's boy."
Keith swallows hard, "Yeah. You knew her?"
Gara nods, "Latner used to come to me for advice, in the beginning. When she knew that Dumbledore's legacy project was getting shut down, she offered to swap my daughter with your brother to keep her safe from Pegasus. What happened to your twin? She never told me."
Keith retracts his hands, "I killed him. During the Seedling Program."
Gara hisses, the air escaping her lungs whistling through her missing teeth, "Bitch."
"Pegasus is dead," Kitamori confirms. "And we found your daughter."
" Amelia ?" Gara gasps. "You found…?"
Keith nods even though Gara can't see them, remembering their last few months searching through muggle adoption records. After she'd picked Pegasus's brain apart, Kitamori had become suspicious of how quickly Blaine Garrish had been able to locate Tom Riddle after he and Latner had disposed of Gara's daughter. Figuring that they would have to drop Amelia Grindelwald at the same orphanage that they found him, Scott and Mook had gone undercover to steal the documents that they needed to find the lost girl.
"I'm getting you out," Kitamori says, standing and pointing her fir wand at the cage. " Alohomora ."
The locking spell sparked, fighting the charm for a moment before finally clicking open. The bars dissolved into the ground and, for the first time in centuries, Gara Grindelwald was free.
The old woman stares openly, "Reiko? I…? I don't think that this is-"
"We're going to take down the Department!" Coppermine says, sounding excited. "After you, Reiko says that we're going to head to Nurmengard to get your brother and-"
Gara interrupts him, "I can't… I can't fight. I'm too old, too weak…"
"We can fix that. Trust me," Kitamori says. "Gara, please. Come with me."
"Reiko, I haven't… I don't know…" Gara whimpers, her face unnaturally pale with sagging cheeks and unfocused eyes. It makes Keith realizes that she probably hasn't left her cage in decades.
"I can carry you," Keith offers. Gara shallows hard, nods, and reaches upwards.
Gara Grindelwald is feather light in Keith's arms, her fingers clutching at his shirt so gently as she buried her face in his shoulder. Every so often, she peeks out from where she's hiding, her nose twitching at the change in smell.
"We're still underground," Gara says when they reach the top of the steps. Keith is confused for a moment before remembering that the sky above was actually an enchanted ceiling.
"Yeah," he answers. "How can you tell?"
"I always heard the wind at night, but I never…" Gara seems to stall, her mouth hanging uselessly for a moment before she continues, "I never heard the weather change. No storms. No rain. No..." she pauses again. "Where am I?"
"The Labs," he tells her.
"Britain?" She says, surprised. Then she seems to sober, her nose pressing into Keith's collar, "Bode always put on different accents. I never knew…"
When they step out into the temple's main hall, they're not alone.
Keith recognizes the man that stands before them. He had dark, slicked back hair and appeared to be no older than thirty. Keith had first seen him during the fight in William's Abbey all those months ago but remembered him most recently from his mother's notes that the Millennium Spellbook had revealed. He tightens his grip around Gara. This is his father.
"Blaine Garrish," the old woman whispers. "I fucking hate him."
Keith can't help but agree.
Garrish starts to clap, a toothy grin on his face, "Well done, Kiyoshi. Well done indeed. I didn't think that you'd have it in you, but once again, you manage to outdo yourself. I'm impressed." Kitamori braces herself for a fight, but Garrish throws up his hands in surrender, "Now, now. None of that. I'm here to congratulate you. You've accomplished your mission. You can come home now, Kiyoshi."
Keith's head isn't the only one that snaps over to Kitamori. Fear coursed through his veins. If this was a setup… he thinks, Then we're fucked if we have to fight her.
"What are you talking about?" Kitamori hisses and her response is nowhere near as relieving as it should be.
Garrish clicks his tongue, "Come on, Kiyoshi. Did you honestly believe that Helena sent you on this mission just to rid the Department of one corrupt staff member? If she wanted Pegasus dead, she could have given that order at any time. Instead, she sent you on this overly complicated mission where you were almost guaranteed to betray her." Garrish snorts, "Do you seriously think that we didn't see what you intended to do?"
Kitamori shifts in her stance, edging forward to put herself in between Garrish and the team. Both of her battle wands are in her hands.
"The Department of Mysteries is corrupt, an imitation of what it used to be. It needed to be torn down so that those doing the real work could do so without being distracted by all of this," Garrish gestures vaguely at the temple around him. "Now, we never expected that you would use mages to do your dirty work, but we never had a doubt that this would end with information about the Department's more… forbidden projects being strewn across the floor of the Confederation."
"You created the Plant program!" Kitamori shouted. "You're responsible for most of what Bakura and Atem are using to destroy this place!"
Garrish shrugs, "It made sense at the time. It doesn't matter now. You've done wonderfully, girl. You can come home now."
Someone taps on Keith's mental shields, subtly asking permission to send him a message. At first he thinks that it's Mook or even Kitamori, but the memory that he receives is not from either of them. It's of a young Gara, staring at a scoreboard that shows her Plant code in the number one position. He feels the pride that she'd felt in that moment, the overwhelming sense of victory.
Then, Gara immediately digs through Keith's own memories. She showed him and his brother inside the Bell Jar with Trista Latner outside, aging them back and forth. Keith nods, throwing up his shields one more time, and feels Gara's hand slide to his hip, grasping at the elm wand that he has holstered there.
"If you're here to kill me, you could at least do me the honour of being honest," Kitamori sneers at Garrish. "Helena values loyalty over everything else. She's not about to welcome me home after I betrayed her." Then she smirks, "Just like she's going to do with you."
Garrish rolls his eyes and brandishes his wand, "Really, girl? You want to fight me? I created the program that taught you everything you know."
Garrish lashes out, firing a silent Killing Curse and Kitamori defends, the resulting explosion shaking the marble pillars of the courtyard and cracking the tile floor around the room. Keith barely has any time to react before Garrish moves, smashing through the shields that Mook and Coppermine are trying to put up with curse after curse.
"Keith! Take her! Take her and run!" Kitamori shouts and Keith bolts for the exit. Gara uses his wand and fires blindly at the wall, blasting open one of the doors. He sprints into the circular entrance hall, slamming the door behind him.
As the defensive wall begins to spin, Keith is ambushed by three Plants. He drops Gara on the ground, moving as quickly as he can to fend them off, scrounging for the yew wand at his ankle. He frees it, firing off a quick series of curses that catch one of the Plants in the throat and another in the chest. Blood splatters across the floor as Gara, old and weak, kills the third with a quick flash of green.
Keith doesn't have time to think. He scoops Gara up off the ground and she swears colourfully, making him aware of her now broken hip. But that doesn't stop her from urging him on, through another set of doors and back into the depths of the Department.
The next room has a series of lamps hanging on gold chains from a low ceiling and an enormous tank in the centre of the room. Keith rushes passed it, barely catching the slimy, cauliflower looking fish that inhabited it and running kicking open one of the doors in the back. He stops cold when he finally gets inside.
The Time Room was one of the smaller rooms in the Labs, with its walls lined with clocks, set to different times from varying places around the world. It was also intended to be one of the more beautiful ones, with the multicoloured dancing lights flitting around the room. In the centre was the Bell Jar, a huge crystal structure that contained a single hummingbird. Keith watches as the bird hatches from its egg, aged until it hung on the cusp of death, and then reverted back to its shell.
Keith feels sick. I was born because of this room.
"Keith, please," Gara whispers in his arms. "Please, I can't walk, I need you to-"
Memories flood into his mind, images of Latner's blank face as she scribbles down notes, ink splattered across her face as she shifts him back and forth. Once, she'd pushed him past beyond his own conception just to see what would happen. Keith doesn't remember much of what happened, only that for just that moment, he hadn't been Keith Howard. He'd been someone else, with a life and a name and a set of memories that were his but weren't.
He grinds his teeth together, refusing to let it overtake him, and trudges forward. Keith sets Gara down on a desk nearby and faces the Bell Jar, this thing straight out of his nightmares, and thinks, Fuck you.
He rushes forward and slams his entire body weight into the Jar, knocking it off balance. Keith does it again and the Jar rocks back and forth. Fuck you, he thinks again and makes his final charge.
The Bell Jar falls to the floor, the crystal casing shattering into thousands of tiny pieces. The hummingbird takes flight for the first time in its life, buzzing around the room and bumping into clocks. Keith turns to Gara, remembering all of the times that Latner had done this to him, and thinks, Fuck you in particular, bitch.
He sets Gara into the oozing green liquid, controlling the flow of its power like he'd seen Latner do a thousand times. Gara twists, her back arching in pain, as the magic of the Bell Jar courses through her. Her skin flushes with colour, the muscles under her skin bulging out as blonde hair erupts from her head. The silvery film disappears from her eyes, revealing her bright blue irises.
Keith pulls her out of it just in time. Gara's breathes, using her lungs to their fullest capacity for the first time in decades. When she grabs at Keith's arms, her grip is so strong and her voice is clear. He can barely believe that this is happening.
"Keith," Gara says, pulling back and picking up his fallen wand. "We have to go."
He nods, getting to his feet and unable to believe his eyes. Keith offers her his coat and she pulls it over her shoulders, covering herself as the old shreds of her clothing falls to pieces. Her gaze is hard when she looks toward the door and Keith remembers that Gara Grindelwald was ranked as being better than Kitamori. She twists on the spot and disappears, apparating silently and leaving him in the dust.
Reiko apparates, flashing back into existence in the air behind Garrish. But he's ready for her, his wand aimed over his shoulder. She just manages to get her guard up before he blinds her with a flash of light. Reiko twists, rolls, and apparates away, but not before Garrish reaches out and grabs her arm.
Shit! Shit! She screams as she tries to blast him away when they land. Garrish blocks her, kicks out with his leg and slams it into Mook's stomach, knocking the witch back onto the floor and breaking her bones. Then Garrish pulls a knife from his belt and throws it dead on, catching Pete in the right shoulder and forcing him to drop his wand. He blocks Reiko's punch and tosses her into Scott, who nearly slices her in half with the call of "Diffindo! "
Reiko stumbles to her feet, wheezing. Beside her, Scott looks dazed and confused. Garrish takes the time to gloat.
"I always knew that it would come to this, Kiyoshi," Garrish drawls, head tilting to the side. "I knew from the moment Helena gave you this stupid mission of yours. I was always going to be the one to kill you."
"We're not dead yet, asshole," Mook grunts and lashes out, a wicked purple light slashing through the air. Garrish banishes it and blasts her across the room. Mook's head cracks against the fresco and her eyes flutter shut.
Scott shouts, wild and raw, and rushes to her, skidding to a halt beside Mook. Reiko doesn't dare look, doesn't take her eyes off of Garrish for a minute because the moment she does he's going to strike.
"Did you really think that you could get away with it? If you'd just gone down the Department like you were supposed to, it would have solved all of our problems," Garrish hisses. "Instead, you had to get attached," he glances at Pete and Reiko has never felt fear like this before, "and I had to come in to clean up your damn mess!"
Desperate to keep him talking, Reiko blurts out, "You're one to talk about getting attached, though. Aren't you, Aloc Flint?"
Garrish pauses in his advance.
"How did you…?" He tries to ask.
Reiko smirks, "I really do like history, you dumbass. It's not just an aspect of the Kiyoshi character that she helped me develop all those years ago. I figured it out all on my own, just like I figured out who Helena Hendrix actually is."
Garrish snarls at her but says nothing.
"Aloc Flint, a founding member of the original Confederation of Wizards and former leader of the Coalition of Sacred Brothers, goes missing shortly after the enactment of the Statute of Secrecy," Reiko says, quoting from Bathilda Bagshot's A History of Magic. "No one knows what happened - no one outside of the newly formed Department of Mysteries at least. Because our records show that Aloc Flint is the first Assistant Director of the Department. I guess that was actually back when people consciously made a choice to abandon their families to join the Department and weren't just kidnapped against their will ."
"How did you realize that it was me?" Garrish questions her, his voice harsh and cold. Behind him, Reiko sees Mook's eyes flicker open and a rush of relief floods through her.
Reiko continues talking because they all need a few seconds to regroup, "Believe it or not, the mages helped finally put the pieces together for me. Turns out, one of them has the power to see your real name or something like that." Reiko shrugs, "Apparently, you ran into him in William's Abbey."
Reiko continues on, "But what would make someone of your stature abandon everything to take the place of assistant in an up jumped organization like the Department of fucking Mysteries. Even the promise of a long life on anti-aging potions couldn't have been enough. No, you had to have the real thing. And back then, there was only one thing that you could do to ensure that you'd get access to her divine weapon."
Reiko grins, "You married Helena, didn't you?"
Garrish doesn't answer, but that's all the confirmation that she needs.
"Not out of love, of course. Helena Hendrix doesn't value something as frivolous and whimsical as romantic love anymore. Love didn't keep Emeric from going mad on the power of the Elder Wand all those centuries ago," Reiko points to the frescos on the wall portraying the happy family that Helena used to have. "You married her to ensure her loyalty and for her to ensure yours. But you betrayed her like I did. So how long do you think she's going to keep you around after you've killed me?''
"I've been loyal -" Garrish starts, but Reiko doesn't let him finish.
" You fucked Latner! You had kids with her and you think that Helena didn't care?" Reiko laughs at him, "You're as stupid as Pegasus was!"
Garrish stays silent for a minute before swallowing, "Did you tell them? Did you tell the mages who Helena really is?"
"Don't need to. They're smart as hell. They'll figure it out for themselves," Reiko shrugs. Her back finally hits the wall behind her. She's cornered. Fuck.
"Well, then. I guess we're done here then," Garrish says, raising his wand. " Avada- "
A loud, echoing crack sounded out inside the temple, banging off the walls. Standing dramatically in front of the four statues, her cloak blowing in the enchanted wind and her eyes like chips of ice, was Gara Grindelwald.
Garrish's eyes widen, "Oh fu -"
Gara's wand slashes through the air faster than anything that Reiko's seen before, throwing curse after curse, bombarding Garrish with everything she's got. He can barely get a shield up before Gara tears it down. Garrish keeps having to backup, further and further, until he's right at the edge of the Amortentia pool. He makes the foolhardy mistake of looking over his shoulder before Gara hits him with a blast, sending him falling back into the potion.
Garrish stays under for all of two seconds before he breaches the surface, clawing madly at the sides and hauling himself back out onto the temple floor. Reiko moves to end it, but Gara blocks her with a gentle touch on her wrist.
"It's already over," she tells Reiko. And it is.
Garrish is sobbing, his chest heaving with each breath he takes. He curls in on himself, the mother-of-pearl sheen of the Amortentia covering his body and weighing him down.
"Helga!" He screams, the words ripping themselves out of his throat. "Helga, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, I love you!"
"What's happening?" Keith says, appearing in a crack beside Reiko, sounding just as confused as she is. "Is he… Is he talking about Helga fuckingHufflepuff?"
Reiko nods, "Also known as Perenelle Flamel and Helena Hendrix, Head of the Department of Mysteries."
"Amortentia doesn't cause love. It either creates powerful infatuation or," Gara motions towards Garrish to explain what's going on, "amplifies what's already there to an unhealthy amount."
"And if you cheated on someone you love…" Pete puts two and two together. "Oh, fuck…"
Garrish takes out his wand and kneels before the pool, crying, "I didn't mean to! I didn't mean- I love you so much! Helga! Helga! "
Garrish points his wand at his chest and fires point blank, his body ripped open in a flash of green and a cloud of red mist.
"The things we do for love," Gara says.
Reiko looks around at her team. Scott hovers protectively over Mook, the two so engrossed in each other that nothing else seemed to matter. Pete, who'd been Reiko's friend and cared for her enough to follow her into hell, stumbles to his feet. There was Keith, who'd loved Ryou Andrews and mourned his death as if the boy had been his son. Then there was Reiko herself, who'd betrayed everything that had once mattered to protect the daughter of the love of her life.
Aloc Flint, who'd given four hundred years of his life to an affectionless marriage, floats heartless in a pool of the most powerful love potion in the world, contained within a temple dedicated to his wife's first husband and only soulmate.
The things we do for love, indeed, Reiko thinks as finally understands why the door to this room was always locked. Gara's fingers entwine with her's and she has never felt so scared and so powerless in her life.
"For over four hundred years this Confederation has stood by while the Department of Mysteries committed atrocity after atrocity, " the voice of the red-headed mage comes over the dented muggle radio that Tilla has set up against a wooden crate. She lights up a cigarette and sits across the way on a metal cart that their hotel's restaurant staff use to transport cardboard down to the garbage room. " Your silence has been complicity in government sanctioned genocide. So before you can talk about us holding an ax over your head, I want you to see the blood on your hands. Then, and only then, can you look me in the eye and tell me that we didn't have to go to such extremes just to get you to," the station bleeps out the girl's explicative, " listen to us for once. "
The British wizarding news station (which Tilla is pretty sure is controlled by the Daily Prophet, which is controlled by the Ministry, which is controlled by the Confederation, and on and on until it reaches Helga fucking Hufflepuff apparently) calls in their anchors to discuss the issue. The witch and wizard argue back and forth as to whether or not the Minister of Magic should bend to the mage's demands, all while pointing the blame securely on the Department of Mysteries.
The end of an era, Tilla thinks, raising her cigarette to her lips and leaning back against the cold brick of the alley wall. Good riddance.
"Ma'am?"
Tilla glances toward the entrance to see Depre standing there, wearing his muggle disguise. He looks as awkward in the loose t-shirt and jeans as she feels in her orange sundress and jacket. She misses her robes. They didn't show off so much skin.
"You should be resting up in the hotel room," Depre says as he approaches. When he gets close enough, he frowns at the cigarette in her mouth. "Those are unhealthy."
"Tell me something I don't know," she sighs and drops it on the ground, stamping it out with her foot. "Kitamori and Grindelwald were having a heart to heart and I didn't want to interrupt. And you've already seen to healing me up - good job on getting rid of the head trauma, by the way. Besides," she motions toward the radio, "the wizarding world is exploding. I didn't want to miss it."
Depre joins her on the cart, pressing his thigh against hers, and listens to the radio in comforting silence. Every so often, the switches back to the mages speech, providing hair-raising quotations like, " The war on mages ends today, " and " You seem to be under the misguided impression that we are here to help you. "
"Say what you want about them, but those two really know how to draw in a crowd," Tilla muses. Beside her, Depre offers a blink. She's learned over the years that that signals his agreement. "You really think that that Bakura kid broke into every single Gringotts bank in the world?"
"I would like to say that it's unlikely, but…" Depre pauses, thinking his words through, "if he really is the Thief King of legend, then I wouldn't put anything passed him."
Tilla snorts, "You know, the Thief King used to be my favourite hero growing up. My mother read me that legend so often that I swear she had it memorized." Then reality catches up with her and she remembers, "I guess that memory is fake, too. Merlin, this is so fucked up."
"During our training as Plants, they used to give us lessons on various legends and stories, to help us blend in with wizarding society better," Depre says. "Perhaps you got the same training and your memory of your mother is just an after effect of it."
There's a tightness to his lips that expresses anger, a tick in his jaw that betrayed his discomfort at the subject. Tilla looks at him and sees the twenty-one-year-old kid that he is. How much as the Department taken from us? She wonders. Could we ever get it back?
"What's your name?" She asks as the radio station goes on commercial break. Depre looks at her, his stare unblinking and focused - a sign of confusion. "I know that they gave you the name Depre Scott when you were assigned to me five years ago, so it couldn't actually be your name. I'm just wondering what…" Tilla trails off, her throat closing up. Fuck, why did I never think to ask earlier? Did he ever remember what it was?
It takes a couple of minutes for him to answer. By then, the new anchors are back and answering letters that have been flying in since the mages left the Confederation.
"Jonathon," Depre says. "There's an 'o' at the end, instead of a second 'a.' I don't remember my last name."
"Jonathon?" Tilla repeats back. She squints at him, "No offence, but you don't look like a Jonathon."
"I don't feel like a Jonathon," Depre answers, sounding surprisingly tired. "Do you… remember your name?" When Tilla shakes her head, he asks, "Do you want to?"
"I don't know," she says truthfully. Tilla turns to him, "Would you ever want to go looking for your family?"
Depre licks his lips and Tilla tries to ignore how that small gesture makes her heart race.
"I never thought that it would be a possibility," Depre tells her.
"And now?"
He says nothing, leaning forward to listen to the radio again. One of the anchors, the witch who's usually the voice of calm on this show, is crying hysterically. Tilla wants to roll her eyes, but instead pulls out the box of cigarettes and lights up another.
To her shock, Depre doesn't call her on it. Instead, he motions for her to pass him one. Tilla offers the box and his fingers brush hers as he picks one. She watches as he places it between his lips and lights it with the tip of his wand.
The smoke sends Depre into a coughing fit. He spits the cigarette onto the ground, bending over to get the crap out of his lungs. And Tilla thinks that it's the most absurd thing in the world. Honest and genuine laughter spills out of her and when Depre looks up at her, she can see the hint of a smile on his lips.
I love him, she finally allows herself to think. That admission is all it takes for Tilla to cup Depre's face in her hands and bring her mouth to his.
He is absolutely wrecked when she pulls back, his eyes wide with shock and his jaw hanging open. For a second, Tilla thinks that she should apologize, that maybe she'd gotten it all wrong. But then Depre kisses her, hot and desperate, his fingers fisting in her hair as years of passion shatter whatever training the Department forced him to endure to strip him of his personhood, his humanity. And Tilla kisses him back just as intensely because this is the only real thing that she knows about herself and she's not about to let the Department take it from her too.
They stand and Depre presses his mouth to her neck, sucking bruises into her throat as he pushes her back into the opposing wall. Tilla knocks the crate that supports the radio with her foot. The station suddenly jumps to some muggle pop song and Depre palms her tits through the stupid sundress that she's wearing to the sound of " ~Baby love me lights out, You can turn my lights out~ ."
"Condom?" Tilla whispers when he pulls away.
Depre's voice sounds shredded when he says, "I don't… I'm sterile, though. They do it to everyone before-"
She undoes the button on his jeans and pulls his cock out as he hikes one of her legs around his hip. Depre kisses her as he slides home, pulling away to breathe against her lips. His face is the most expressive that Tilla has ever seen, his eyes warm pools of brown. When he moves inside her, she feels whole She feels loved.
Depre comes before she does, pulling out and dropping to his knees, pressing his face between Tilla's legs and licking her until she sees stars. She slides to the floor, her legs like jelly, and pulls Depre into a hug, pressing a kiss to his temple.
"I love you," she tells him, not expecting to hear it back.
It's a pleasant surprise when she does.
Hello again!
I'd like to thank those who reviewed for the last chapter: green lilah, Rita Mu, dragomira, InsanityByDefinition, Moonfirekitsune, Eliphas-Chaos, Safiruu, Tz342, anita15, Hollow Mashiro, and Dana Sto Helit. You guys are awesome!
This is going to be the last chapter before the Epilogue - which has already been written. I will post it after I get out a few more chapters of Resist finished and at least one short story for Compilation.
In the final chapter of Strike you can expect love and family, a house and a home.
Until next time,
AlcatrazOutpatient