A/N- Hi all, well those still interested and are having a read. As you will see the title of this story has changed, as has a lot of the content. Due to the rather insurmountable amount of work I have had to attend to at Law School I found myself rather wanting for time to sort this story into something I could associate with my name and not want to cringe. If you're interest mostly all of this story have been modified, some parts extensively and given that I have provided a little prologue to give the idea of the changes I have made and plant a few little ideas, as is the reason you will probably recognise this chapter, I had to re-add it in order to update the listing. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a look over the rest, I will continue it eventually. If not I am very sorry for wasting your time.

All Along the Watchtower

Chapter 18- And the Heroes Shall Drown

It was a solemn sight, Harry mused. The Grand Hall at the Academy, the one seldom used except for initiation ceremonies and the odd political function was filled to capacity and more.

All around him where white robes, ranks of them matching his own, and a few more colourful variations from their foreign contingent. They were the retired, to the too young; to the too old for their age. Under any other circumstances it would've warmed his heart to see the future, former and current Assassins of the Order gathered. But it wasn't a happy day. He led their friends to slaughter. Excepting Jack and Russell the rest of his team where dead along with three Reapers, five Guardians, seven Ravens, five Eagles, two Rouges and four Night Blades.

It was horrible and Harry craved the bottle he and Kaden would share that night in the infirmary. It was too much knowing he was responsible for the deaths of all those people. He knew that if he had been faster, if he was stronger, a few of them may yet be alive, that Steven might still have use of his legs. Kaden was one of the lucky ones, but was shacked up for days since his performance and it would be several weeks before his body could handle the slightest flow of magic.

Harry felt fine. The devastating volleys of magic, healing of Cho and tearing of dimensions had garnered no negative reaction from his body. He felt fine, he felt better than fine. He wanted to find the Dark Lord, Harry sent him into retreat, had Voldemort stayed, Harry knew the war would be over. The fury which had taken hold and fuelled his power diminished very little in the days passed but the Council had kept him on a leash. They insisted he needed a team and they had to wait to see the full extent of the damage before they could furnish him with such. Of those who had fought, over fifty percent where severely injured and no one, except the Master and Master Dumbledore had come out completely unscathed.

Harry could acknowledge the benefit of waiting for his roster of Talons to be filled again, but he was a team in himself and would sooner take Jack and Russ out along than welcome anyone else into the firing line. He outstripped anyone including the Masters with his power and they had no right to get in the way. Only Cho kept him grounded, Harry looked for her in the crowd and when her eyes met his he smiled. She held him until he could discover the extent of her fall. It was his fault after all, according to Cho she spent hours in Heaven, hours drawing from the power and was in the process of becoming an Angel, whatever that meant. Was she like him? Was she fallen, even Allie didn't know.

No! He told himself. She was pure, she was nothing like him, he deserved the pit and she didn't.

"This is a sad day for us all. I would like my Assassins died for a reason, for a purpose higher than we can all comprehend." He said; looking over the ranks, those of the past and those of the present, some of their eyes still held the piercing glow of Element even days after the battle. "Perhaps they did but how can we know the machinations in the mind of a madman. What I can say is they died fighting for a cause they believed in, that they died so that we may live and I pray God takes them into his loving arms."

Harry could've laughed at the pitifully idealistic notion but kept his face respectfully straight as Adam continued. Most of them would soon be Angels in the Host, going from one life of service to the next.

"Nothing in this world is true and with the power we wield, everything is permitted. My brothers, my sisters who have fallen, may you live for forever in the fields of paradise. This is not the end, only the beginning of your next great adventure." Adam turned and the rest of the white robed Assassin's saluted their fallen.

"I call the Second Commander of the Assassin Training Corp, leader of the Reapers, Kaden Andrew Blackwood."

Kaden limped to the podium, supported by a brunette girl. "I stand before you to say those under my command died with honour, felling the very enemies which threaten our existence even now. Only my best survived, Richard Jackson, Cho Chang, Ross Grieg, Ryan Stevens and Draco Malfoy. Patrick O'Hagan, Colin Dempsey and Fredrick Smith fell to the enemy. Many have whispered that day was rapture, yet another defining moment in our History-" Kaden sucked in a breath and shook off the girl trying to support him even as sweat dripped from his brow. "I'm fine." He said through gritted teeth and he pushed her away. "The Council didn't want me to inform you all of this but I feel it is my duty as your leader. There is a traitor in our midst or more than one, I can't be certain. They caused this and I warn you all, regardless of standing. Be you Master, Operative, Tech, cook, janitor, teacher or Assassin there is reckoning upon us. It will shake us to the core but we will emerge from these flames tempered, not weakened. We will be stronger and you will not shake us, I will find you-" Kaden was cut off again as he almost collapsing over the podium until the girl caught him.

"I call First Commander Mei-Lin Chang." That said; Kaden limped away supported only by the girl.

The rest of the funeral was unremarkable, even as he took the stand to praise the courage and honour of those who died; he barely believed a word he said. The way they died was terrible, there was no honour in being cut down before one had a chance to live. And while he could recognize courage with which they fought, Harry could also see the misguided fanaticism. Not one person in the Assassin Training Corp questioned how they fought, why they fought or even who they killed. They didn't care so long as the world kept spinning.

He didn't see much wrong with that, but Harry didn't see much right about raising children to kill and die before they hit twenty. As noble as the cause was, Harry couldn't move past that fatal flaw. Jason Clark and Stefan Grey, two of his boys who died were only seventeen.

When Harry left the Grand Hall he felt even worse than when he first stepped in.

xxxxx

A few weeks later, when most of the wounds healed and they were finally back on their feet, Harry and Allie decided a conference was in order. Kaden had recovered quicker than expected, Harry supposed the werewolf in him did its job well and Allie was down to only one cast, she healed even faster than Kaden. Cho was better than the both of them.

"…so that the endgame, free some fallen Archangel from his cage?" Kaden asked.

Allie nodded to him and Cho; Harry was staring off out the window. "Voldemort believes it to be his destiny, the sole purpose of his family line. Which in many ways is true, the Slytherin line was corrupted when Salazar began studying the seals and was poisoned by the Fallen, doomed to fall as some would say."

"We're all doomed to fall, if we come back that's another story. They all fell at some point during their war; he just never came back fully." Harry interrupted and he leaned back on the window sill. "Simply put, we have to kill him before he kills us and try not to get killed by the Heavenly Host who wants to bring it all about."

"And if I'm right, Angels guide the Paradyne Order?" Cho asked; the information overload of the last few hours was extensive but welcome.

"No, they were created by Raphael at the beginning of the Angelic Schism. They were gifted tools, weapons of heaven which could defeat the powers of a Fallen on Earth, such as this." She trailed her fingertips along the small grey blade at her side. "But Raphael no longer guides them, they were tools and weren't needed when the Fallen were defeated. Now we are their pawns; they have no need for those without heavenly power. In a lot of ways they need us more than we need them, it's against the laws of Heaven to fall and create us so they make do."

"We're all the descendants of Angels?" Cho persisted.

Allie nodded again. "Of the original Fallen Angels, those who fell to Earth during Lucifer's rebellion against heaven. Many chose to stay on Earth and not fight, hiding from the Heavens only to be hunted down by the Paradyne Order. Some others used their power to pose as Gods and gather armies to fight Heaven but the Angels and Paradyne Order eventually threw them down to the pit where they became the Demon Lords of Hell and created the first demons. I am descended from Sataniel the Vengeful. Kaden from Nathaniel, Harry from Lasciel and your own is from Anduriel, Lucifer's second in command."

"What does that mean?" Cho asked.

"It allows us to wield the blades of their forging. Like the Devil Bringer and the blades of Hyperion." Allie said; her eyes could see through the illusion Blue Queen's magic cast and see the true form of the obsidian blade which sucked in light, lit only by crimson runes. She could feel the cold stream of malevolence the blade could inject into a willing recipient; it was abhorrent, abhorrent but useful in the right hands. "They are the tools, the five keys needed to break the final Seal, of which we have three."

Kaden sighed in annoyance. "Why aren't the Angels helping us, why do they want to bring about the end of the world? Do they realize how many will die?"

"They don't care." Harry shook his head, "To them we're nothing; they only protect us from the Fallen because God commanded it. If we die, we die, if we don't, we don't. After they hope God will notice and come back to paradise on Earth; that he will revere them for ridding the world of evil and guide them to true purpose. God charged them to protect us, to help and guide his greatest creation. Most don't see us that way, but they would never disobey God's final ruling. Some wanted to destroy us out of jealousy and refused to bow as God commanded, like Lucifer and his seventy-seven Fallen. To disobey for an Angel is unthinkable; punishable by death and being imprisoned in the lowest corners of Heaven."

"Isn't all this supposed to happen? Who are we to stop it?" Cho asked.

"No." Kaden said. "We can do this, they have their army but we have our own. I'll take our best over their best any day of the week."

"It's not that simple Kaden." Allie said. "It's all well and good getting rid of Voldemort but what about after, this will not sit well with the Archangels!" Kaden didn't understand just how powerful and vengeful the Host of Heaven could be, they would destroy the entire Order of the Element without so much as blinking.

"I don't care Allie," Harry continued for him. "Over a thousand years ago there were four pillars of magic that stood against the Fallen and Heaven. They won, they pushed them back and we can do it to! I know we can." Harry faced them all. "Two Fallen Angels and two of the most powerful pure Elementals in existence, Voldemort doesn't stand a chance! When the Angels come calling we'll have an Army that's been through hell and back and it's against their own rules for them to interfere in our world!"

"It's not that simple and you know that!" Allie said, losing her temper a touch. They could be cast down to the pit if they were caught. Harry knew that. "We don't know where the Dark Lord is, who will follow us, who will be against us, if we don't have the support of the Council we'll essentially be traitors. We need a plan, we need a support structure and we can't just dive into this half-cocked."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "You think I don't have a plan?"

xxxxx

"Allison." Adam said as they settled in the small sitting area of his office.

"Master." She replied, bowing her head in respect.

Adam sighed, "Enough of that, I've known you far too long for it to be necessary."

"Okay…Mr Blackwood." She said unsurely,

Adam chuckled, "Adam will do fine, thank you."

"Okay…Adam." She said, the name feeling awkward on her tongue. Her parents taught her to revere and respect the Masters of their Order; even if he was Kaden and Karen's Father, Allison found it hard to supress such habits.

"Now that is settled." Adam smiled. "How are you, your injuries where extensive I believe?"

"I'm fine." Allison said quietly, she had never spoken directly to Grandmaster Blackwood, not even before she died. To many the Master of the Order was a mythical figure one heard about and rarely saw, she included. "My wrist has healed and so have the cracked ribs, my side is better and my hand will be functional in a few weeks." Her fingers where still damaged but Doctor Landry didn't wanted to vanish the bones and just re-grow them, natural healing strengthened bones, magic didn't but no amount of magic would take away the horrible red scar her own blade left up her side.

"Then you will be ready for active duty soon?" He inquired.

Allison looked away; she didn't want to admit how Michael's attack affected her, how easily he had beaten her. She was once an Angel of the Lord, who stood against an Army of Demons and fought them off singlehandedly. Now she felt like a scared little girl, a scared human girl. "Yes, soon." Allison said keeping her eyes firmly concentrated on a chip in the glass coffee table, she didn't want him to see the fear in their green depths.

"Or do you wish more time to convalesce?" Adam asked. "I'm sure your mother and father would be happy to see you."

"No." She said quickly, she had been informed of her parent's move to the American Academy where her Father was now a senior instructor just short of Master. "They don't have to know, if anything happens-"

"-I understand Allison." Adam interrupted.

"Ryan knows not to tell them."

"The matter is settled then. When Doctor Landry clears you for active duty, you will take the trials the Council put forth and then you will be assigned to a squad, most likely the Talons due to their losses. You were only a month or so from graduation before so I'm positive with your new experience you will do fine. Do you have any questions?"

Allison shook her head; she remembered when Kaden took his trials after finishing his time at the Academy. They were arduous but not impossible, everyone trained hard but as many failed as passed; those who failed had a chance to re-test but most either left the Order or filled other non-combat positions, some even left the Order if they passed. "I'll be okay, is there any other reason you wanted to see me Mas-…sorry, Adam?"

"You know me to well Allison, I have a gift for you." Adam said as he got up and moved to the cabinet across his office, taking out a small case. He laid it on table between them.

"What is it?" Allison asked as she traced her hand over the chrome plate with the engraving Liber Fatali. "Fated Child?"

"Kaden is happier than I have saw him years, since Danielle left him if not longer. This is the least I could do." Adam said and he popped open the catches.

Allison lifted open the case and was astounded. "Kaden said he found it shattered." She said looking over the short gunblade, with its assault rifle handle and clear adamantine surface.

Adam nodded as her fingertips ghosted the flat of the clear blade. "He did but I took the shards and had it re-forged, unfortunately it lost its colouring in the process. I think you can take care of that."

Allison gasped when her hand grasped the handle and the adamantine blade flushed emerald as her magic was drawn from her body and twisted with the mythical crystal. "Thank you." She said as she gazed at the blade in wonder.

"I would do anything for one of my students; maybe Kaden would be good enough show you how to use your two blades effectively." Adam suggested.

Allison snapped out of her daze, remembering the staggering cost of re-forging adamantine crystal, Kaden's Thunder was actually a family heirloom. "I don't know how I can repay you, I don't have the-"

"Just live and give my son the future he deserves, that is all the payment I could ever want or need." The expense of re-forging the blade was small in comparison to the cost of his son's happiness.

Allison smiled sheepishly, "I don't know what will happen in the future Master but I have loved Kaden in life and death and nothing will change that." She assured him as she placed the emerald blade back in the case.

"Before you go, can I ask one last question?"

Allison knew exactly what the question was. "Annette and Thomas don't blame you. They love you and she looks over you every day. I often spoke to her, relived memories and she helped me get past dying and showed me a future where I could watch over Kaden and Karen as their heavenly protector. She wants you to be happy and find someone who can make you as happy as you made her and when the time comes she will see you again."

Adam looked at her with a glistening sky blue stare much too like Kaden. "Thank you."

Allison reached out and hugged the Master. Seeing him for the first time as the man he was, a man who loved his family and people and sought to protect them above all else.

Adam wrapped his large arms around her small frame as she shook with tears, a dam of anguish and pain finally breaking and dampening his suit.

"You won't let them take me will you?" She sniffed, "Please don't let them, they will imprison me, cast me down, I can't go there!"

Adam was shocked by the desperation in her tone and the scalding tears which sprung from her eyes but he decided against saying anything. He just held her like he did Karen after Harry died and when she found out she was pregnant. When she calmed he said. "I won't let them take you, I promise, no one will take my family from me. Never again."

"Thank you." She said again, tightening her grip and as unpleasant as the thought was she knew they would have the Master's support.

xxxxx

Sparks flew and lightning crackled as Harry's blade intercepted the ice blue adamantine again and he ducked low to avoid the cut of a silvery blade. Harry almost cracked a smile as his feet slid along the training mat and he rolled under another attack to bring his oversized blade around again to another series of sparks. "Are you going easy on me Commander?" Harry asked with a grin, knowing with Kaden's injuries he had a massive advantage.

Kaden raised a brow at Harry confidence and broke the lock of their blades with a heavy swing from Lightning and sparks flew again as the magical blades scraped together. "Barely out the hospital but I can still take you."

Harry lunged with the blade but Kaden sidestepped the strike completely and knocked the blade down with Lightning, letting Harry tumble by without much thought. But he recovered quickly and Harry brought around the Devil Bringer in a vicious arc, Kaden parried it off and went on the attack again spinning his twin blades in an unwavering attack once more. Sparks flew as their blades crashed together again and again.

Harry felt a thin bead of sweat drip down his brow, but Kaden was almost drenched from over-excreting himself so soon, he was paler than usual with the thin scar above his eye being redder than ever. But Harry was never one to give away an opportunity and twisted his blade. The lazy slash ricocheted off the Devil Bringer and sent Kaden's Lightening flying away.

Kaden took a step back, "I'm impressed, nice."

"Thanks," Harry said, readying his sword.

Kaden readied Thunder. "Let-"

"-you're supposed to be in bed!"

Kaden groaned and Harry laughed as Allie got in between them. "Doctor let you out on the condition that you'd take it easy!"

"I'm fine." He argued, knowing he hardly looked it.

"Give me that!" She said, pulling the crystalline blade from his grasp.

Kaden looked lost. "If it was anyone else-"

"-I know," Harry said, "You'd kick their ass, right?"

Allie stuck her tongue out at him and grabbed Kaden's arm. "You are going to bed even if I have to tie you down!" She turned to Harry. "And you still haven't spoken to Master Dumbledore, now go, or I'll tell Cho!"

"Have fun mate," Harry quipped as he watched Kaden get dragged off. In fairness even he knew Kaden shouldn't be up and around but he indulged his friend regardless. Devil Bringer was banished off to the weapon rack and walked over to get his things. He threw the towel around his shoulders and walked out of the training centre toward the central spire. Abe should be in his office, the Council was in session all afternoon and it was just after six.

Harry passed various staff on his way towards his Master's ill-used office. Abe mostly used it as somewhere he could pick-up his mail. When apprenticed to the man Harry often came back from missions and spent a few days just trying to find him. He was the most enigmatic of the Masters on the Council; before he was inducted into the Order Harry didn't even know there was another Dumbledore in the world. He had never imagined the legendary figure of Albus Dumbledore having a family at all, scarcely could he have imagined him as a child or young man either.

So it was a surprise for Harry to find the younger Dumbledore waiting in his office, sitting behind his empty desk looking irritable. "Master," Harry said, dropping his bag and the Devil Bringer to the floor and taking a seat.

"So it is Master this week?" Aberforth asked with distinct sarcasm. "You don't feel like throwing half a mile into the air today?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "I didn't mean that, I didn't even know it was you Master, I was bringing someone back from the dead at the time!"

"And you don't see anything wrong with that?" Abe questioned, drawing forward in his chair.

"No, I love Cho; I wouldn't let her die like that." Harry said definitely.

"You don't even know what you have done, do you?"

"I don't care."

"You should!" Abe almost shouted, even after years of tutelage the boy was as single minded as always. Holding no care for consequences so long as he got what he wanted, he was more like the Dark Lord and Fallen than he realised. "You are supposed to be responsible for your actions Harry; with the kind of power you hold one must have some accountability!"

"She didn't deserve to die!" Harry repeated vehemently.

"I never said she did but what gives you the right to bring people back from the dead? Who gave you the right to choose who lives and who dies? Some would consider what you did a higher crime than any the Dark Lord has committed!"

Harry shook his head. "I wouldn't be able to do that with anyone else. I tore her from Heaven Master, it was horrible but I had to do. I need her as much as you all need me. I will kill him Master but I need your support and the support of anyone you can muster."

Abe nodded to himself. "You ask for my support but you can barely acknowledge your own failings Harry, what you did was selfish beyond anything I have witnessed. I shudder to think what you will do once the Dark Lord is gone, once you are without a focus for your power."

"I'll help rebuild and then leave."

"Leave?"

"Cho wants happily ever after and I want to give that to her."

"What will happen when your children grow up? When they develop powers? When the Knights come chapping on your door? Have you even thought that far ahead?" Abe twisted the whiskers of his moustache thoughtfully. "Our truce with them will never last, it is kill or be killed between us and they would happily stab us in the back should we turn for even a second! If you become too complacent, they will find you."

Harry looked away; Abe was right he hadn't though that far ahead. Despite his encouraging start with them as 'Uncle' Harry, Zach and Isabelle still barely knew him and they hadn't barely factored into his thoughts much in the last few days. They were just so far from him now, huddled in the relative safety of the American Academy with Karen. He loved them he supposed, in the way every Father loves their children, but he still didn't have that want and need to see them he knew he should have. But they were better for it, they had John for that, Harry just needed his connection to them to remain hidden. "I've not thought that far ahead, I can't…I need to see how everything settles and I can work things out. Of course I won't leave fully, when the Order needs my help I'm only a call away but I've been fighting this war all my life, I need to learn how to live…like a normal person."

"You will never be normal Harry." Abe said simply.

"I know." Harry agreed. "But I can try, for her sake."

Abe nodded. "You have my support Harry. When the time comes you will have the Army you need. There will be a battle and it will be my last, I'm an old man and I'm tired. I don't know how my brother does it but I one way or another, this will be my last, The Council of Masters have been itching to pass my position into younger hands for a while and I think I should finally acquiesce."

"We need a plan."

"And a battlefield, of our choosing."

"We need to draw him out. All of his supporters into one final battle, we need to cripple them and make sure they can't rise again even under a new leader."

"I agree but it will be hard to convince the Council. They are looking to avoid a battle such as this." Abe reasoned, knowing his fellows on the Council did not see the merit in a hollow victory, even one which wiped out their enemy.

"It's the only way to end it. When you look at it; the Battle in the Graveyard was an amazing victory despite our losses. Estimates say we halved the Circle of Immortals even if we didn't get Stryfe or Voldemort."

Abe sighed heavily by the time reinforcements got there it was a horrible mess. The Reapers where by far the most experienced squad and had been almost halved in number while some of their brightest in the decimated Talons where gone. "I know. Our losses were grievous and added to the losses we've been sustaining while you were dead it has left the Council on an uneven footing. Even if the Dark Lord's losses are estimated to be much higher than our own the Council will still take some major convincing, this will have to be a coordinated effort from all across the globe."

"It is a risk we have to take but with me and Allie on our side we have a huge advantage, she's on par with you and the Master at least."

"Good." Abe said and he pulled open a drawer and produced a bottle of his finest whiskey. "Almost as old as I am," He said as he poured the steaming liquid.

Harry raised his glass. "To the end."