Disclaimer: Usually I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so this time as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am not making any money off of this story or any of the other stories I have written.
AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter 64: Threat Removal
Taliesin stared at the transparent black shield of shimmering magic that encased the sunken ruins of Azkaban Island and the prison that had once sat atop of it from the cockpit of Seastar (one of the three Pisces suits that he'd recently warded) while a wary Seth shifted inside of the dive suit that Taliesin was wearing. He could feel the tainted magic contaminating the surrounding water even through the hull of the suit; the unnatural coldness generated by the surviving dementors seeping through the specialized wards that encased the ruins. Littered throughout the warded ruins, were a plethora of deceased sea creature carcasses in varying states of decay.
"Are you certain that it will be safe for us to pass through the shield surrounding the ruins?" Trowa demanded from where he sat in Seastar's pilot seat.
"Yes; that particular ward was specifically designed to hold the dementors inside of Azkaban Prison in order to keep them away from the general populous rather than to prevent people from visiting the island. The only way the dementors could leave the island was if the ward was lifted by a witch or wizard. The foul creatures were usually content to stay on the island because they were constantly provided a steady diet of human souls by the government."
"Using prisoners to feed demonic creatures is unjust and unethical," Wufei ranted from the nearby Riverstar (another of the warded Pisces suits).
"You won't hear any arguments from me, Wufei," Taliesin retorted absently as he watched a school of fish swerve wide to avoid getting too close to the containment ward; the drastic drop in the water temperature in the vicinity of the ward more enough to warn them away. "I have no plans to use dementors as prison guards or to keep any of the foul things alive; they are unnatural perversions that are nearly as dangerous as the basilisk lurking somewhere inside the ruins."
"How long are we just going to sit here staring at the underwater graveyard?" Heero demanded from the passenger seat directly beside Taliesin; his discomfort with the current mission obvious.
"Trowa, circle the entire ruins once; take us right up next to the ward but don't let the suit pass through it yet. I want to get a good look at the entire battlefield before we charge in. Everyone else, hold your positions!"
Trowa nodded a silent acknowledgement even as he nudged Seastar closer to the visible shield before he cut to the side to follow the contours of the ward while the cameras all remained focused on the indistinct landscape that could be seen through the transparent dome. Taliesin's eyes easily picked out the occasional cloaked form of a dementor hovering languidly in the water just a scant few inches away from the containment ward – the demons obviously lying in wait for some hapless creature to pass too closely to the ward. They had barely completed half of their circuit when they witnessed one such dementor stealing the soul of a starfish that had wandered far too close to the ruins.
Taliesin shuddered over the display but refused to look away from the monitor as his eyes moved beyond the feeding dementor to study the crumbled landscape and prison ruins beyond the creature. The young monarch could feel Heero tensing beside him and he knew that he had been bothered by the sight of the dementor feeding; though only a few others aside from Taliesin and his remaining brothers would have recognized his brother's discomfort for what it was. He was pretty certain that the Gundam pilot was currently recalling Taliesin's memory of his third year when the dementors had nearly succeeded in taking his, his godfather's, and Hermione's souls.
The young king shoved the unnecessary ruminations out of his mind as he refocused his attention on his current task; surveying the battlefield and counting their opponents. He also noted the fact that none of the dementors appeared to have noticed their presence despite the fact that they were practically right up against the barrier. Taliesin wondered if that was because the wards on the suit shielded their presence or if it was because of the ward that surrounded the remains of the former prison. After giving the matter some thought, he determined that it was probably a combination of both.
Once they had completed an entire circuit around the ruins, Taliesin sat back and considered what he had seen and compared it to what he knew about the prison. After a few minutes, Taliesin opened up the comm. link to address the entire group once more, "There are eighty-eight dementors scattered about the ruins with more potentially hiding within the ruins themselves. The old ministry records indicated that the last known dementor count was roughly two hundred sixty-three. That leaves approximately one hundred seventy-five dementors unaccounted for."
"We do know that some of the dementors were destroyed by non-magicals during the Purges; however, there are no records of just how many of them were eliminated. It is also possible that some of the dementors died due to the steady decline in magic over the course of the last two or three centuries; if they are dependent upon magic to live. The only thing we know for certain is that the dementors were and still are unable to reproduce; meaning that there is no way for them to have increased their numbers beyond the original two hundred sixty-three."
"So what's da plan, boss man?" Duo inquired with forced cheerfulness from Coralstar (one of the three warded Cancer suits).
"First, we need to determine if the buster rifles can destroy the dementors," Taliesin replied as he frowned at the image of the nearest dementor on the main monitor. "Riverstar, if you'll select a relatively isolated target for the test? Everyone else, pull back and shift your position to ten meters above the height of the dome."
"Mission accepted," Wufei replied he maneuvered Riverstar closer to the ward in order to get a clear shot at his chosen target and activated the suits transformation from amphibious mode to mobile suit mode.
"Ah, man; I wanted ta take da first shot," Duo childishly complained and Taliesin fought the urge to roll his eyes in response to the long-haired pilot's complaint; he was well used to his brother's immaturity cropping up at the most inappropriate times.
"Target acquired; priming modified buster rifle now," Wufei stated as he aimed the right arm of the suit as the suit's built in buster rifle extended out from the center of the propeller blades on the end of the arm.
A bright globe of light formed on the tip of the magically modified rifle (specialized runes added to their cases and nozzles to allow them to be fired safely under water) just before a new window opened up on Seastar's monitor as Wufei shunted them the feed from his camera so that they could observe the test from multiple angles. Taliesin leaned forward and caught his lower lip between his teeth as the beam of destructive energy from the weapon cut through the water, pierced the wards surrounding the ruins, and incinerated the target with a small explosion.
"Target has been successfully eliminated," Wufei needlessly reported as soon as the sand and debris that had been stirred up by the attack settled enough to confirm that the dementor had been eliminated.
"Good job," Taliesin murmured in reply. "Everyone move forward and spread out around the dome; maintain current depth and monitor the field for any signs that the other dementors took notice of the creature's destruction."
The next ten minutes passed by with agonizing slowness as those inside of all six magically altered amphibious suits monitored the dementors that were scattered amongst the rocks and ruins. At the end of those ten minutes, it became fairly clear that the dementors had either not noticed or not cared that one of their brethren had just been annihilated. The lack of reaction from the other dementors was both good and bad; good because it meant they were less likely to swarm the suits but bad because it meant it would be harder to draw them all out.
"Trowa, maneuver us so that we're sitting directly above the entrance into the prison ruins and transform Seastar into suit mode," Taliesin instructed before he opened the comm. link once more to address the others. "Everyone, pick your first five targets and prepare to start firing on my mark. Make sure to keep track of each and every dementor that you destroy; I don't want a single one of those foul demons left alive by the time we're finished here."
Five clear replies of acceptance rang out across the link as Trowa finished maneuvering Seastar into position and shifted the underwater war machine into suit mode before he stated, "We are in position."
Taliesin murmured an acknowledgement as he undid his seatbelt and stood up before he cast a modified Bubblehead Charm over the door to the suit. He then spent a couple of minutes checking the integrity of the bubble that formed over the door before he addressed Trowa once more.
"Open the door and be prepared to close it quickly in the event that the bubble pops under the pressure."
All three young men tensed as the suit's door slid open and water began rapidly pressing into the cockpit as it strained against the flexible shield of magic that separated the three of them from the full weight of the ocean. Taliesin let out a soft sigh of relief when the bubble held up against the pressure despite the fact that it had been stretched by the sheer weight of the water at their current depth. Knowing that the strain could potentially break the bubble at any moment, the young monarch brought his wand up again and took several precious seconds to immerse himself in his happiest memories.
"Expecto Patronum," Taliesin whispered with heartfelt determination.
The moment the last syllable fell from his lips, a silver stag poured forth from the tip of his wand. His patronus took two steps forward before it morphed into a ghostly replica of his wolf form as it passed through the modified Bubblehead Charm. The winged wolf dropped down through the water as smoothly as if it had been gliding through the air and soon landed lightly in front of the only entrance into the prison ruins below; effectively cutting off the dementor's only escape route.
"Fire at will!" Taliesin ordered into the comm. link as he dropped back down into his seat. "Trowa, close the door and prepare to take out the dementors that attempt to retreat into the ruins."
Flashes of heat and light soon lit up the murky depths as the other five suits eliminated their selected targets in quick succession before they began to systematically target the rest of the dementors. As soon as Seastar's door had sealed itself once more, Taliesin canceled the bubble shield and vanished the water that had leaked into the suit. At the same time, Trowa began firing on the dementors that were withdrawing from the edges of the wards in response to the rising temperatures from the multiple explosions and buster rifle discharges.
The young mage kept a careful watch on the darkened threshold of what had once been the grand entrance to the magical prison; its bronze doors flung wide open and half crumpled from the attack that had sunk both the island and the prison over four hundred years earlier. His eyes straining for any sign of Nagini so he could warn the others to pull away in the event that the basilisk attempted to attack them. In front of the entryway, his new wolf patronus paced back and forth as it snapped at the dementors that were attempting to flee into the depths of the ruins to escape certain death.
It would take less than three minutes for all eighty-seven of the remaining dementors that had been outside of the ruins to be destroyed. Another two minutes would then be spent searching for any indication that even one of the demons had escaped the blitz (Taliesin not discounting the possibility that he might have miscounted the number of dementors he had seen). Once the grounds had been declared dementor free, Taliesin used the outside speakers to verbally send his patronus into the ruins in order to flush out any dementors that had been hiding within.
Over the course of the next half an hour, the silvery winged wolf would drive another seventy-two dementors out of the ruins in groups of threes and fours and each pilot would take turns firing on the demons in order to allow the water around them to cool down in between groups. That left a total of one hundred three dementors unaccounted for or already destroyed during the Purges or during the Decline (the latter referring to the steady loss of magic in the wake of the Purges).
Of Nagini, there had been no sign; which meant that the basilisk was holed up somewhere inside of the ruins or it had left the prison in search of food.
"Quatre, Zechs; I want the two of you to guard the entrance while the rest of us move in and search the ruins for the basilisk and any additional dementors that might be lurking inside of the ruins," Taliesin instructed as soon as the silt and sand settled on the ocean floor once more.
"Roger that," Zechs replied from the cockpit of Oceanstar (the final warded Pisces suit).
"Understood, Taliesin," Quatre replied from Sandstar (another Cancer suit) a heartbeat later.
"Take us down through the ward, Trowa."
Seastar slowly sank through the ward just seconds after Taliesin had given his order. Coralstar, Riverstar, and Reefstar (the final Cancer suit piloted by Brian) followed in short order. The four amphibious suits converged on the ocean floor just outside the entrance of the ruins less than a minute later with Seastar taking the lead. Trowa engaged the search lights on the front of the suit and shined them into the darkened interior of the prison so he could search for any sign of the basilisk while Heero and Taliesin both closed their eyes.
The reason why they were not searching as well was to prevent all three of them from being petrified at the same time in the event that the killing magic of the basilisk's eyes could penetrate the wards on the suit. Taliesin had wanted to be the one sitting in the pilot's seat because of that but he'd been overridden by all of his brothers, his wife, and the rest of the individuals that had been selected as part of the Azkaban attack force. Their reasoning? They needed Taliesin to be fully functional and capable of performing magic to counter any petrifications that occurred once the basilisk was located.
He was also the king and his brothers and wife refused to allow him to take needless risks that would place the newly reborn wizarding nation of New Avalon in jeopardy.
"The entrance is all clear; there are no signs of the basilisk, missing dementors, or the three dark lords that potentially still exist in some form," Trowa announced just two minutes later.
"Proceed as planned," Taliesin instructed as he opened his eyes and used the laptop that was attached to the back of the pilot's chair to pull up the prison blueprints.
A twisting red line drawn onto the digital copy of the map marked the magically reinforced escape route that had been built into the prison's design to allow any guards to escape the prison in case of structural damage. The prison cells had no such protection and had, in fact, been designed to collapse in on themselves in order to terminate the prisoners on the top four floors of the tower (where the more dangerous criminals had been housed). The rest of the prison cells were designed to block their occupants into tiny pockets for later retrieval; meaning that the prisoners in them would be trapped until a guard let them out.
The tower's design was intended to prevent prisoners from escaping during an all out attack on the island prison while allowing the guards to escape relatively unharmed. Those same protections were what saw the prison and the island it had been built upon sinking when the muggles had bombed the prison centuries earlier. Any prisoners that were not killed in the initial attack or when the building collapsed in on itself would have drowned or suffocated not long after the island sank since there were no guards to release them from the low security cells.
In other words, the ruins of Azkaban Prison were nothing more than a tomb filled with the bones of murderers, rapists, petty criminals, and political adversaries that may or may not have been wrongfully imprisoned.
That's only if their bones had been preserved. There was a fifty/fifty chance that the prison had been flooded and that time and the ocean had dissolved the bones over the past four and a half centuries. Whether or not they found any intact skeletons or partial skeletons, Taliesin had no intention of using the D.N.A. of those former criminals to clone additional wizards and witches. They already had a wide enough gene pool to work with from those remains that had been collected from various magical locations all throughout the former British Isles. He would, on the other hand, identify any bones found to make a record of them before he reburied them or incinerated them.
Taliesin refocused on the map as he firmly brought his attention back to the matter at hand instead of dwelling on what he would be doing once the ruins had been cleared of hostile entities. As Seastar moved deeper into the darkened interior of the former prison, the young monarch engaged the suit's sonar and thermal-infrared system to scan the ruins for the presence of the basilisk.
Over the course of the next hour, their small group rounded up and destroyed another fifteen dementors that had been hidden deep within the ruins. Taliesin suspected that those particular dementors had been either been chased deeper into ruins by his patronus or they'd been too deeply hidden for his patronus to find. Their small group had only found them thanks to the thermal-infrared scanner picking up on the unnatural pockets of icy cold as they moved deeper. Disposing of those creatures had been a bit tricky since they didn't want to accidentally bring the rest of the ruins down on their heads by destroying the essential rune work that had preserved the tunnel they were traveling through.
Of the basilisk, there had still been no sign but Taliesin had plenty of reasons to believe that it was still here; one of which was the wards that protected the prison. Specifically, the ward that controlled the temperature within several designated areas such as the warden's office and the barracks; both of which were protected by the same runes that insured there was an escape route out of the ruins. The ward regulating the temperature (designed to mitigate the chill that dementors produced) would have been very appealing to a cold blooded creature such as Nagini.
Another reason why Taliesin believed the creature was still in the area was the small nexus of ley lines that converged beneath the ruins. Without that nexus drawing magic into the area, the creature would have either died or fled to seek out a more hospital lair with a high concentration of magic in which to entrench itself. That was also the same reason why the dementors had both survived and remained trapped within the wards that prevented them from leaving.
The only question was whether or not Tom Riddle, Gellert Grindelwald, or Albus Dumbledore had also survived in some form. Their horcruxes would have tethered their spirits to the living world but that alone would not have prevented their spirits or bodies from breaking down over the past several centuries. The only thing their horcruxes would have done was allow for the broken pieces of their souls to be revived to full power through possession (similar to how he'd hitched a ride on the back of Quirrell's head) or dark rituals (such as the one that had given Voldemort a new body at the end of Taliesin's fourth year).
It was possible that all three dark wizards had possessed sea creatures in order to survive but possessed creatures tended to die fairly quickly under the stress of having a human soul (or a fraction of a human soul) forced into them. There was also a distinct shortage of hosts available within the immediate area due to the presence of both the dementors and the basilisk. In fact, the only potential host that wouldn't have died within months of being possessed was Nagini and the only spirit compatible with the basilisk was Tom's due to the horcrux tied to the creature. And even then, the basilisk's body would not have been able to contain his spirit for more than five years, maximum.
"We've reached the entrance to the warden's office," Trowa announced after they had dropped down two levels.
"Proceed as planned," Taliesin murmured a second time in response as he and Heero once again closed their eyes as Trowa eased the suit forward to scan for Nagini or other hostile presence.
"All clear," Trowa stated a few minutes later.
"Pull back and continue on to the barracks," Taliesin instructed after he opened his eyes to scan his laptop display. He then cast a glance at the suit's main monitors to inspect the small office as Trowa carefully backed out of the room before shifting further down the hall. He then engaged the comm. link to order, "Brian, secure the warden's office as a fall back point and keep our escape route clear of hostiles. Once the room is secure, sweep it for any items of interest."
"Roger that," Brian replied as he cut away from the others and entered the room that Trowa had just exited.
As they headed deeper into the ruins, Taliesin checked the video feeds coming in from those who were stationed outside of the ruins and the dementor wards; checking for any indication that Nagini had made an appearance outside of the former prison. Once he was certain that the basilisk was not going to sneak up behind them (or on those outside), he refocused his attention on his current surroundings as they descended onto the barracks level. They found themselves in an antechamber soon after that and ran into their first major hitch; the hallways leading to the multiple sleeping quarters and the route down to the dementor holding cells had all been blocked off.
"There's not enough clearance for the suits to squeeze through the debris," Trowa declared after he had shifted forward to inspect the four hallways leading out of the antechamber (three leading to the sleeping quarters and one leading down to the bowels of the prison).
"I thought the wards would prevent the escape route and the guard barracks from being damaged to this extent," Heero growled from the seat beside Taliesin.
"Under normal circumstances, they would have," Taliesin replied with a frown. "However, there are ways to circumvent any ward and if a section of the runes powering the wards had been compromised either right before or right after the island was sunk, it would have caused a partial collapse of the system. It is also possible that the wards were not strong enough to completely withstand the missiles that sank the island. We already knew that some of the old wards had either been deactivated or they malfunctioned since the emergency tunnels are flooded with water."
"I don't like it," Heero muttered as he scowled at the monitors. He then activated the comm. link to address the rest of the team. "Everyone spread out and secure the perimeter; we'll assess the structural integrity of the tunnel before we resume searching for our primary target."
"Trowa, take us closer and focus the exterior cameras on the tunnel arches of each hallway; I need to get a closer look at the rune clusters carved into the stone on each of them," Taliesin instructed as he pulled up the notes he'd taken on the interior wards (including the schematics for the runes). "Heero; can you launch the ROVs and send them into all four tunnels to determine how far the wreckage extends in each direction?"
"What exactly are you hoping to find?" Trowa asked as he maneuvered Seastar into position and angled the suit's exterior lights and cameras towards the closet hallway; which happened to be the entrance arch of the escape tunnel.
"I need to find out if all of the protective wards have been comprised or if it was just a partial collapse of the wards on this section of the prison so I can determine whether or not it is safe to venture deeper into the ruins."
Taliesin had barely started inspecting the arch when a commotion broke out off to the left where Duo had been moving Coralstar passed one of the blocked hallways. The external audio sensors briefly picked up the sound of something heavy scraping against stone followed by a loud, metal crunch was heard just before Coralstar went shooting across the room to slam into the wall followed a massive and fast moving streak of dark green. The twin impact of the suit hitting the wall and the basilisk slamming into the suit seconds later shook the entire ruins and knocked several large chunks of stone and mortar crashing to the floor where it shook the prison and kicked up a cloud of sea sand that obscured their vision.
"I found da damn…" Duo started to report once he'd recovered from the unexpected attack before he suddenly cut off mid-sentence; the suit either malfunctioning despite the wards or Duo was knocked out of commission by Nagini.
"Son of a…" Taliesin cursed under his breath as the basilisk began snapping and biting at the downed suit in an attempt to envenom its prey while at the same time wrapping its body around the suit multiple times to crush it. Heero's hand was roughly shoved over Taliesin's face a split second later while the worried and furious monarch began issuing orders right and left.
"Trowa, hold fast to your position and prime your buster rifle in the event that we are offered a clean shot. Wufei, switch to your beam swords and aim for the eyes. Brian, prepare for a potentially injured and angry two ton snake to flee in your direction once we've engaged the beast! Coralstar, report! Coralstar? Coralstar, can you hear me at all? Damn it all. Quatre, can you get a read on Duo and his co-pilots?"
"They are alive but their emotions are extremely faint; as if they are very far away or behind some kind of dampening barrier," Quatre replied while the others offered up terse acknowledgements of their orders.
"Thank you, Quatre; from the sounds of it, all three of them have been petrified. Zechs, contact the extraction team and tell them to send their first team to your position and hold until I give the all clear. Heero, you can remove your hand now; my eyes are closed."
'The Spawn of the Damned is truly repulsive, I can sense its wrongness deep in my scales just from looking upon its cursed form,' Seth hissed in Taliesin's ear after the snake had shifted higher in response to the changes he'd sensed in Taliesin's heart rate the moment the basilisk had made an appearance. Taliesin didn't bother to respond back to the cobra as he instead focused on following the sounds of the battle so he could keep track of what was going on.
The next forty minutes were the longest minutes in Taliesin's life as he sat impotently in the passenger seat of Seastar and listened to his family and friends battle the larger than expected basilisk; Nagini had reached a size that was near double that of the basilisk from the Chamber of Secrets. The ruins took a heavy beating during the fight; the stones above and below their feet shifting, snapping, and crumbling apart each time the basilisk or one of the suits were slammed into the wall. The sound of deadly fangs scraping against the exterior of the suits filled his ears nearly as frequently as the sound of stones thumbing against stone each time another fraction of the ruins was shaken loose.
Several times, Taliesin found himself thankful for the existence of Cushioning Charms each time that Seastar or one of the other suits were knocked about by the Basilisk's flailing body or knocked sideways by fast sinking blocks of stone (mostly just the other two suits since Trowa kept back out of the fight for the most part). Overtop of it all, Harry could hear the curses of Wufei and Trowa as his two brothers sought to first blind the monster (to remove its deadliest weapon) and ultimately kill the thing.
He would later swear up and down that he'd heard Heero's teeth grinding together in sheer frustration throughout the entire battle as the once Perfect Soldier was forced to sit this fight out (only prepared to take control of the suit in the event that Trowa was petrified).
At the end of those forty minutes, the basilisk's death throes would shake free several more sections of the damaged prison before the beast's carcass finally stilled. The killing blow had been a pair of beam swords through the left eye; the blow struck by Wufei's co-pilot after Wufei had been petrified in the process of destroying the creature's right eye. The man, whose name Harry couldn't recall at the moment (only knowing the man was one of the Royal Guards), had in turn been petrified as well. He'd sacrificed himself to land the killing blow in a move of sheer recklessness.
It rather reminded Taliesin of himself and he let out a soft chuckle at that though before he shook his head and engaged the comm. link once more to report, "The basilisk has been successfully eliminated; casualties are currently limited to five petrifications, minor external damage to Seastar, major damage to Riverstar and Coralstar, extensive structural damage to the antechamber where the basilisk had been found, and minor damage to Commander Gryffindor's tooth enamel due to excessive grinding."
The green-eyed king took a moment to eye the now dead basilisk while those listening to his report chuckled at Heero's expense in response to Taliesin's quip about his teeth before he continued, "Please send in the extraction team to retrieve the two damaged suits and their petrified pilots. We will also need the retrieval team to fetch the carcass and transport it to the surface for immediate disposal once the extraction team has successfully removed our out of commission comrades."
"Roger that, extraction team is on the move; ETA to current location is ten minutes," Zechs replied promptly less than five seconds later. "Retrieval team is now en route to the ruins and should arrive within the hour."
"Let me know when they arrive."
"Understood."
Taliesin then turned his attention to his laptop in order to confirm that Wolfstar and Grimstar were both in position inside of the warded stretch of beach where the two sentient suits would be incinerating Nagini's entire corpse to both insure the destruction of the horcrux and to prevent any of the deadly basilisk's venom and D.N.A. from falling into the wrong hands. One preserved basilisk carcass was more than enough to have on hand to remind future generations of the darker side of the magical world.
"What is our next move?" Heero inquired once Taliesin had finished checking on the suits.
"We wait for Riverstar, Coralstar, and the basilisk to be removed and then we continue hunting the remaining eighty-eight dementors and search for any sign of our missing dark lords," Taliesin replied as he briefly glanced in his brother's direction. "Once we've cleared as much of the ruins as possible, we'll send in the sweeper teams to remove every piece of salvage possible before we pull out and destroy the ward runes as we leave; which will allow us to obliterate the place entirely to reduce the risk that even a single dementor remains locked in one of the inaccessible potions of the ruins."
"Are you going to stay here for the duration of the clean up?" Trowa asked from the pilot's seat after he finished running a thorough systems check on Seastar to insure that the integrity of the suit had not been compromised.
"No, I will only stay until we find Dumbledore, Riddle, and Grindelwald or proof that they died during the collapse of the prison. Once I know what happened to those three, and deal with them if they yet live, I will return to New Avalon until the ruins have been stripped of salvage so that I can dismantle the wards."
Trowa grunted out an acknowledgement as he shifted Seastar across the antechamber in order to get a clearer visual on the badly damaged Coralstar. All three brothers would wince the moment they got a good look at the damage done to the magically reinforced aquatic suit by the Nagini's fangs; the basilisk's natural resistance to magic allowing it to partially penetrate the wards on the suit. Aside from the dents and gouges, there were scorch marks from where the creature's potent venom had partially burnt the metal before the surrounding water had diluted the venom enough to partially neutralize it but the cockpit appeared to have remained unbreeched.
"Trowa, eject the vial of Zero's anti-venom tears that we prepared in the event that someone was bit by the basilisk and break it open to allow the tears to dissipate in the water to counteract any venom in the water," Taliesin ordered as felt a little concerned about the mere possibility (small though it was) that someone could extract traces of the venom from the water or that it might cause irreparable harm to any aquatic life that happened to 'breath' in any of the venom.
Less than two minutes later, Taliesin watched as the strange tears of his animagus form slowly spread out from the shattered vial in a small cloud of individual tears that would slowly dissolve in the water over the course of the next two hours. Seastar was then turned towards the task of clearing a path from the downed Coralstar to the exit so that the extraction team would have fewer obstacles in their way when they arrived. Riverstar, piloted by Wufei's second co-pilot, would lend a hand once the man had secured his petrified teammates and run a systems check on the suit.
The extraction team would arrive about six minutes after they'd started clearing a path and with the addition of the four newly arrived suits (none of them magically reinforced), they were able to quickly clear away the worst of the debris that had been choking the antechamber. Taliesin then watched as Coralstar was carefully towed out between two of the suits while Riverstar left under its own power. Worry for those who had been petrified filled the young mage for several minutes before he forced himself to focus on the task at hand.
To start, he had Trowa truss the basilisk's carcass up with steel cable to prevent more venom from leaking out of its mouth (using the cable to seal the beast's mouth shut) and to provide a means of transport. Taliesin had been forced to tune out a steady litany of curses and fouls descriptions from Seth throughout the entire process. The cobra also made several complaints that Taliesin had not been the one to dispatch the monster but Taliesin ignored those as well. Once the basilisk's body had been prepared, Trowa moved over to inspect the area from where the basilisk had appeared.
What they found was a partially hidden entrance into a large burrow-like cavity that had been formed by knocking out the wall of several sleeping quarters and was just large enough to house the entire length of the dead basilisk. There was also a deep bed of old shed skins that were in various states of decay and what looked like six petrified dementors that must have attempted to steal the basilisk's soul at some point. Taliesin was torn between destroying the remains of the petrified dementors and taking them back to New Avalon so that they could be studied before eventually being placed on display in the future magical museum.
He would eventually decide to take them back to the castle since studying the foul demons could potentially net them more information about where the monstrosities had come from in order to prevent more of them from being recreated. It was also a good idea to save at least one of them for the museum so that future generations could see what a dementor actually looked like without the need to rely upon written descriptions or hand drawn renditions in a book. That was pretty much the same reason why he intended to display the Chamber of Secret's basilisk remains in a restricted section of the museum under specialized wards that would destroy the carcass if someone attempted to breech the wards.
After they had finished inspecting the basilisk's nest (searching for other items of interest or even another exit) Trowa moved Seastar back out into the antechamber and returned to the arch leading deeper into the ruins so that Taliesin could resume his inspection of the ward runes on each of the collapsed hallways. By the time the retrieval team arrived some forty-five minutes after the basilisk's death, Taliesin had determined that the wards were intact, the halls each only blocked for roughly six meters, and that the debris blocking the tunnel was not a result of the tunnel collapsing.
There were three potential theories as to how it got there; one was that the rush of water filling the ruins as the island sank pushed the debris into a choke point (the hallways). Another was that the basilisk had shoved them into the tunnel when it was making its nest. And the last theory was that one of the three dark lords present during the Fall of Azkaban might have blocked the tunnel in order to keep the basilisk or the dementors out of the lower levels.
Taliesin was not certain which theory he preferred to be true, though he was leaning towards the first one.
Further exploration of the ruins was temporarily placed on hold in order to help the retrieval team to extract the basilisk's carcass from the ruins; the sheer length of the beast making it difficult to maneuver through the twists and turns of the underwater escape tunnel. Once the carcass was out of the ruins and on its way to the surface where it would promptly be destroyed by the two sentient suits, Taliesin ordered the search teams to be brought down to search through the upper levels for salvage since the largest threat had been removed. Additional units were also called in to search the outer ruins for any trace of the missing dementors under Quatre's supervision while Zechs would join the others inside.
Trowa took Seastar back down into the ruins the moment the basilisk corpse could no longer be seen and Taliesin only half paid attention to their surroundings as they returned to the barrack's antechamber; the rest of his attention on his laptop as he monitored the transport of the basilisk. It wasn't that he didn't trust those transporting the carcass to the surface (because he did); he was just worried that one of his various enemies might attempt to steal it. Not that any one outside their group knew what they were up to at the moment.
Still, he'd learned the hard way that it was best to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
They would make a small pit-stop in the Warden's Office to check in with Brian and let him know he'd be supervising the salvage search on the upper levels before they continued downwards. Upon reaching the damaged antechamber, Trowa would carefully search the perimeter for any hidden alcove like that which the basilisk's nest. They ended up finding another three petrified dementors that had been wedged into one of the collapsed corridors that led to a group of former sleeping quarters. That meant that the total number of unaccounted for dementors was down to seventy-nine.
After determining that there were no more half concealed chambers leading off of the antechamber (outside of the corridors leading to the other two wings of sleeping quarters) and insuring that there were no live dementors lying in wait, they returned to the tunnel leading into the depths of the prison. Trowa would then trade places with Heero so he could take a brief break while Heero began the tedious process of clearing their way forward. Taliesin continued to split his attention between monitoring their surroundings underwater and the progress the retrieval team was making towards the surface with their burden.
Behind them, Zechs in Oceanstar would perform a similar task in one of the other hallways in order to make it a little easier for the salvage team to check those rooms once they reached that level. The debris would be transported to the surface in order to reduce the chances of anyone getting hurt if the huge piles of broken stones shifted for any reason since not all of the suits had protective wards on them. Clearing out the rubble would also mean fewer hiding places for dementors or other dangerous creatures (including the three missing dark lords).
The moment Nagini's corpse reached the surface some two hours after it had been removed from the Ruins of Azkaban, Taliesin slipped into his mind and followed his mental connection to Wolfstar after providing Heero and Trowa with a short heads-up so they wouldn't accidentally pull him back. His consciousness then integrated itself into the wolf-like suit's core in such a way that he became Wolfstar and therefore had complete control of the suit despite his body being contained in Seastar at the moment.
The wizard-wolf-suit patiently waited as the basilisk's carcass was hauled up onto the beach. Beside him-them, Grimstar stirred restlessly until Taliesin-Wolfstar growled out a sharp warning that had the more feral suit settling down; he-they could not risk the three-headed suit trying to destroy Nagini's body outside of the wards. It took nearly an hour for the entire carcass to be hauled up onto the beach and coiled up in the center of the warded stretch of land; the dead weight of the humongous beast unwieldy and difficult to handle out of the water.
Once Nagini's remains were in place, the retrieval team scampered out of the wards and moved well back as Taliesin-Wolfstar gave Grimstar a mental nudge to let it know that it could 'attack' the corpse.
Taliesin felt Grimstar pull on his magic through their connection and for a brief moment he was pulled separate from Wolfstar before they re-merged in the same instant that the center head bathed Nagini's corpse in searing hot flames. He-they quickly shifted backwards as the flames tumbled over the sides of the thick scales that made up the basilisk's skin; the magical flames turning the sand beneath the beast into molten glass even as the carcass began to burn. The longer that Grimstar breathed out flames, the hotter the fire burned as the feral dog-suit focused intently on the burning basilisk.
Ten minutes into the process, a small shockwave of magic exploded out of the creature and Taliesin-Wolfstar crouched down low to the ground as the wild magic released upon the horcrux's death crashed into him-them before flowing past him-them to splash harmlessly against the wards. The wizard-wolf-suit lifted his-their nose and howled in triumph knowing that the last of Tom's Riddle's horcruxes had been destroyed.
He-they would be cut off mid-song when a second, larger shockwave exploded from the embers of Nagini's corpse. This time, he-they were knocked off his-their feet by the force of the blast and slammed up against the wards. Shaking his-their head, Taliesin-Wolfstar cleared the stars from his-their sight as he-they climbed back up onto to his-their feet in time to see the rest of the basilisk vanish in a curl of rancid green smoke. Cocking his-their head to the side, Taliesin-Wolfstar eyed the now dying flames as Grimstar's flames cut off while he-they tried to determine what had happened.
After a few minutes, Taliesin-Wolfstar came to the conclusion that the first shockwave was the horcrux and the second was a release of the basilisk's magic. He-they then focused on the cooling glass and ashes that was all that remained of Nagini as he-they watched Grimstar paw at the mess until it had solidified into the shape of a rough ball. A snort escaped from the wizard-wolf-suit over the antics of the feral suit. After watching for another few minutes, he-they sat up and channeled magic through the amplifier that still sat in the center of his-their chest.
The remains of the basilisk, glass, and several pounds of sand disappeared the moment the powerful beam of magic brushed up against them; Taliesin-Wolfstar had used a Vanishing Spell to erase every last trace of Nagini's remains.
Task complete, Taliesin untangled his consciousness from Wolfstar and sent feelings of praise to both sentient suits before he returned to his body. He remained in his mindscape long enough to rewatch the memory of the basilisk's destruction in order to test his theory on why there had been two shockwaves. He again determined that the second shockwave must have been Nagini's magic (basilisk's were creature of pure magic) since he doubted that Voldemort would have made his familiar a horcrux twice over.
The young monarch would leave his mindscape a few seconds later to find Heero beside him once more while Trowa took a turn removing rubble from the tunnel. He took a few minutes to determine that they were approximately halfway through the blockage (care had to be taken to insure that they didn't end up buried in debris) before he turned his attention to the laptop in front of him.
"Status?" Heero demanded as he turned towards Taliesin the moment the wizard moved.
"The basilisk was successfully cremated, the horcrux destroyed, and the ashes vanished," Taliesin absently replied as he checked the thermal feeds for any indications that there were any live dementors nearby. "Of course, I'm certain that you already knew that because you and I both know that you watched the entire process. And that means that you weren't actually asking about the basilisk and were instead mother-henning me because Wolfstar and I were knocked off our feet by the destruction of the last horcrux."
"If the second shockwave was the result of the horcrux being destroyed, then what was the first one from?" Trowa asked as he carefully cut through a large slab of stone and mortar in order to remove it in sections.
"Actually, the first one was from the destruction of the horcrux; the second one was the release of the basilisk's magic – they are, after all, creatures of pure magic like phoenixes and its magic simply exploded outwards when its body was destroyed."
"You don't think it could have been two horcruxes?"
"No, Nagini was the last horcrux Riddle made and if he'd been desperate enough to make another, then both shockwaves would have been the same size."
"What about the possibility that the rest of his soul had possessed the basilisk in order to survive?" Heero inquired with a slight frown. "Like the locket possessed Treize? Wouldn't the destruction of whatever remained of his soul have caused a shockwave as well?"
"Potentially," Taliesin agreed with a slight frown. "If that were true though, then we would have noticed Nagini fighting more like a human and less like a snake."
"Maybe if he'd only been in there for a few years but we're talking centuries and there's no telling just how insane he would have gone during that time," Trowa pointed out.
"No, he would not have stayed down here if he possessed his familiar; he'd have gotten out and made his way to Hogwarts or Riddle Mansion," Taliesin countered after thinking about it for a moment. "There is also the fact that a body is only meant to house one soul and the basilisk would have slowly decayed from the inside out the moment he forced his soul into it. Nagini's body might have lasted far longer than a human body or a non-magical creature but it would have eventually begun to break down."
"Then how is it possible to turn a living creature or being into a horcrux for another?" Heero asked with a frown.
"Because the soul shard is dormant at the time that it is tied to a vessel in order to prevent it from automatically seeking to possess any living being it comes into contact with; otherwise it might try to possess its creator."
"And if you're wrong?" Trowa challenged as he twisted around to meet Taliesin's gaze over the pilot's seat.
"Then there's one less dark lord I have to worry about hunting down," Taliesin quipped with smirk.
Both of his brothers snorted in response to his semi-smart-mouthed remark but otherwise didn't comment on it; they both knew it was the truth. A comfortable near silence would settle over the trio inside of Seastar at that point; the only sound filling the cockpit the sound of clicking computer keys, the soft beeps of various machinery, and the occasional echoing sound of stone striking stone coming from the speakers as each one of them got caught up in their assigned task.
"We're through," Trowa announced over two hours later; his voice unexpectedly cutting through the soft buzzing hum of background noises like a gunshot in a thriving forest.
"The path forward has been cleared; preparing to resume the search for hostiles lurking within the lower levels," Heero declared as he activated the comm. unit to let the others know that they were proceeding with the mission.
"Oceanstar will be on your six," Zechs replied as he left off clearing debris out of the antechamber and maneuvered his suit into position behind Seastar to stand in as their backup due to Riverstar and Coralstar being out of commission.
"Understood," Heero replied before he deactivated the comm. unit.
It would take them close to an hour and a half to reach the bottom most level of the former prison; the former dementor holding cells where the dementors had been housed when they weren't actively torturing prisoners. Like the Warden's Office and the barracks, the holding cells for the dementors had not collapsed in on themselves; the entire level secured with the same wards that protected the escape route. The reason for that had been to allow the Ministry to reclaim their pet soul-suckers even if the prison had been lost; theoretically, at least.
The most startling difference, for those exploring the ruins, was the fact that the hold cells were completely free of water unlike the rest of the ruins. That large source of oxygen (extracted from the very water by the wards – the same wards that no longer worked on the upper levels), largely explained how Nagini had managed to survive beneath the ocean for four centuries. Though, Taliesin also knew that basilisks were semi-aquatic creatures due to their amphibious ancestry and could therefore live in water for extended periods of time.
The assortment of bones (most of them human in nature, though there were also sea creature bones present as well) that were scattered across the floor of the circular room or stacked haphazardly against the walls were a silent testament of the large-scale battle that Fred and George's portrait had indicated took place within the prison before it had been destroyed. The fact that there were also several petrified individuals (including another seven dementors) indicated that Nagini had been involved in the fight or had intended to devour the survivors.
"How did you want to proceed, Taliesin?" Trowa inquired as he settled Seastar on the floor of the short hallway at the base of the stairs that had brought them down to the holding cell level; the aquatic suit not really intended for use outside of the water.
"We'll split up and continue on foot; four to search through individual cells and two to pilot the suits in case something goes wrong. So, the two of you will have to flip a coin to decide which one of you will be going with me and which one will stay here."
"I'm going," Heero stubbornly insisted without giving Trowa a chance to even think about volunteering. He then engaged the comm. unit once more to order, "Zechs, you and one of your passengers need to suit up and prepare to continue the search on foot."
"Roger that, Heero."
"I will use my patronus to herd any living dementors we find in your direction so that they can be disposed of," Taliesin informed Trowa as he retrieved the helmet for his dive suit and began fastening it into place the moment he made certain that Seth was out of the way.
"Will it be safe to kill them through the wards holding back the water or should we back up and allow them to enter the water before we fire on them?" Trowa asked in response as he checked the status of Seastar's weapons.
"In the water; I have no idea if the heat of the buster rifles will affect the wards and there is a chance that the barrier holding back the water might interfere with your aim."
Trowa silently acknowledged the unspoken warning since a stray shot from the powerful buster rifle could theoretically bring the rest of the prison down around their ears. Taliesin then slid out of his seat once more to recast the modified Bubblehead Charm over the door to the suit to make his and Heero's exit a little less complicated. Once they were on the ground, Taliesin left Heero standing guard by the archway leading into the holding cells while he performed the standard version of the Bubblehead Charm (a rather difficult task to accomplish underwater) and carefully secured it over the door to Oceanstar's cockpit.
As soon as the large bubble had attached itself to the suit, Taliesin reinforced it with several spells before he used his dive suit's radio to tell Zechs that he was clear to exit. The young mage kept his wand out as the cockpit door slowly opened just in case the bubble failed. The moment it became clear that the bubble would hold, he made his way back to Heero while they waited for Zechs and one of his co-pilots to join them.
The four of them would then slip through the wards keeping the ocean from claiming the holding cells.
The first thing they noticed as they stepped out of the water was the significant increase in temperature; a clear indication that there wasn't a single living dementor in the area. The second thing they noted was the eerie silence that filled the underwater air-chamber; the only sounds their external microphones picked up were the sounds of their dive boots striking the stone floor with each step they took. The third and final thing that caught their attention was the flickering light coming from the first cell on their left (something that they had not noticed until they stepped through the wards).
Dread pooled in Taliesin's belly as he immediately realized that the flickering light (a fire his mind supplied) indicated that someone had survived the fall of Azkaban. And the only wizards he knew that could have had a means of escaping death and also been magically strong enough to survive the passing of over four centuries were Tom Riddle, Albus Dumbledore, and Gellert Grindelwald. Knowing that he was the only one who could safely face any one of the three dark lords, Taliesin silently ordered Zechs and his co-pilot to guard the only exit before he carefully approached the occupied cell with Heero at his back.
He couldn't risk one of the dark lords slipping up to the surface and disappearing to who knew where once they realized they could escape their present prison. He was also fully prepared to end up in an all out magical duel against one of his past tormenters (Grindelwald being lumped in there due to his connection to Dumbledore).
It was therefore something of a shock when instead of finding a dark lord eager to flay him alive; he found two corpses and a petrified wizard situated around a cheerful flame of Gubraithian Fire burning away in a stone bowl that had obviously been transfigured from a chunk of stone. Once he'd recovered, Taliesin quickly noted the lived-in look of the cell; stone cookware laid out beside the enchanted fire, a stone bed loaded with comfort and cushioning charms, a crude stone cistern filled with an inch of what was obviously conjured water, and the tiles of the floor around the fire worn smooth from friction.
Moving closer to the dead and frozen occupants in order to identify them, Taliesin found himself shocked a second time when he finally recognized the two corpses as Albus Dumbledore and Tom Riddle. He didn't recognize the third wizard in the room but suspected that it was Grindelwald based upon the identities of the other two. Of all the various scenarios he had envisioned, he had not really believed that all three would already be dead when he finally found them. Oh, sure, he'd hoped and prayed they would be but ultimately he had been certain he would need to fight them.
"Are all three of them dead?" Heero demanded once he'd finished cataloging the contents of the cell.
"Grindelwald is most likely still alive despite his current state; providing the dementors hadn't removed his soul prior to Nagini petrifying him," Taliesin replied as he forced himself to focus on their mission. "The other two are definitely dead though. I have trouble believing that Tom could actually survive without his heart and lungs. His spirit might have fled from Azkaban but I don't think it did since his soul would have been vulnerable to the dementors in its weakened state and they would have been drawn to what was left of his soul the moment they sensed it near them."
"What do you think killed Dumbledore? And how long do you think those two have been dead?" Heero asked; the lack of comment on Taliesin's hypothesis an indication that he agreed with his logic.
A couple of quick diagnostic spells provided the answers to both questions and that information left Taliesin shaking his head in disbelief even as he answered, "Riddle has been dead for four hundred and sixteen years and Dumbledore died of starvation two hundred and ninety-five years ago."
"Are you implying that he managed to survive down here for close to two centuries but died because he suddenly ran out of food?"
"One of the universal laws of magic is that food can not be conjured nor can non-edible substances be transfigured into edible substances. Trapped down here as he was with the dementors and Nagini, he would have had a very limited supply of food since what the dementors didn't kill outside of the ruins, the basilisk would have killed inside. And the food stores within the prison's larders would have been very limited and ruined the moment the storerooms were submerged in water."
"That still doesn't explain how he survived for as long as he did. Nor does it explain why these two appear to be the only corpses present while the rest of the dead have long since been reduced to skeletons."
"That right there is your answer," Zechs grimly pointed out. "Every single skeleton out here was expertly stripped of the flesh because the flesh was striped from their bones; not because the flesh turned to dust with time."
"I think I'm going to be sick," Taliesin breathed as he immediately realized that Zechs was implying that Dumbledore had cannibalized the corpses of the dead in order to prolong his life until he ran out of bodies to strip.
"An ignoble end for an ignoble man," Quatre solemnly intoned as he joined in discussion.
"Come on, let's finish clearing this level and get out of here; I, for one, am sick of the scenery," Heero stated as he reached out with the intent of dragging Taliesin away from the macabre tomb that they had stumbled into.
"There's a couple of things I have to do first," Taliesin stated as he slipped free of Heero's hold and approached the stone bowl flames of Gubraithian Fire.
Using his wand, he carefully summoned a couple of large stones, transfigured them into glass, and encased both bowl and flames in a sealed sphere of glass so that it could be safely transported to the surface. He then collected all of the wands; going so far as to pry Grindelwald's wand from his petrified hand. The last item he claimed was the Peverell Ring from Dumbledore's corpse as he recalled Everard's portrait mentioning the artifact on a few occasions. Once he had everything, he followed Heero out of the room so they could start searching the rest of the cells.
Hours later, as Heero piloted Seastar towards the surface; Taliesin felt a great weight slowly slide off his shoulders as he realized that the inescapable destiny that had followed him from his past when he had been banished into the future had finally been fulfilled.
He was now free to live out his dreams.
A tender smile curled the corners of his lips up as his thoughts immediately turned to his wife and the children.
Now that was a destiny he was more than willing to embrace.
Notes:
* ROV(s) – Remote Operated Vehicle(s); used in under water exploration
AN: It took me almost a full year to get it done but the final chapter of this story is finally finished. You have no idea just how difficult this chapter was to write. There were times when I'd sit and stare at the screen for hours with a completely blank mind each time I attempted to work on it. Other times, I'd be lucky to scratch out a complete sentence rather than just a word or two. It was beyond frustrating because I knew where it needed to go but the words just wouldn't come.
And then, once I had a breakthrough, my muse swallowed my plot whole and regurgitated something that only half resembled what I'd originally had planned. I had bits and pieces of this awesome fight in the back of my mind as Taliesin faced Riddle, Dumbledore, and Grindelwald in the bowels of Azkaban. There would have been world shattering dialogue and desperate denial and then BAM the end.
Instead, we have the anticlimactic revelation that Nagini removed Grindelwald from the equation and that Dumbledore had killed off Riddle (most likely in retaliation or because he didn't want to share the only food source) before he slowly starved to death after he'd turned cannibal in an attempt to survive. Quatre said it best; an ignoble end for an ignoble man.
Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone who stuck with me while [im]patiently waiting for this chapter to get written; I hope it was worth the wait. I don't know when I will get around to writing the epilogue in order to wrap up loose ends. It will take a while though because my next task is to go back to chapter one and start editing the entire story in order to clean up a few places that need fixing, weed out any grammar or spelling mistakes I missed, and remove the unnecessary author's notes that no longer apply (such as those with update promises).
I also have to reacquaint myself with the story-line because I've forgotten so much of what has happened in this story. And before anyone claims I'm just making excuses, please remember that this story is well over 500,000 words long (NOT counting the author's notes) and that I've also written over 3 million words combined on other stories since I first started posting this story. And no, you did not read that wrong nor am I exaggerating; I have written over 3 million words worth of FanFiction since I posted the first chapter of Banished Destiny in 2012.
Don't believe me? Add up the current word counts for those stories posted/updated after July of 2012 and you should get a number somewhere in the ball park of 2 million and I still have over 200 chapters worth of stuff that will never be posted and 130 chapters ready for posting; each chapter averaging around 5,000 words. And for the record, I have well over 3 million words posted on this site (though a portion of that is in author's notes).
Anyway, I will be keeping track of my revision progress and the epilogue progress on my author's page so you'll know where things stand for this story. You can also expect updates on the existing chapters to take place in groups of five when I do update the chapters. You may or may not want to re-read the story once I start because I do plan to fix quite a few things. That said, if you don't want to undertake such a daunting task, I will summarize the changes I made once I post the epilogue for those that don't want to re-read a monster story. =) ~ Jenn