Standard Disclaimer: I own nothing in regards to Harry Potter or Marvel. All properties therein are those of their creators. I am only a writer working on my skills with worlds and characters that I love.

Chapter Five - A Deal

Russian Steppes

Piotr Rasputin was sitting down to dinner with his grandparents and sister lamenting their circumstances. It had been a lean season, and with the snow blowing outside it was clear they were well past the time that they could have grown more food. He and his grandsires were putting on brave faces for little Illyana, but it was tough making watered down beef broth seem filling, even if she was clearly enjoying it herself.

As farmers they'd of course set food aside through the year to help in these cold months, regardless of their dry spell, but the Russian military was feeling the heat as well and like locusts they'd descended upon all of their farmsteads to raid their stores and steal their 'state food tax'. They'd not been expecting Piotr to stand against them with his newly discovered mutation, but by the time he'd managed to drive them off the military had already caused near insurmountable harm to the people of his community. At the rate things were going none of them were going to survive the winter, which probably explained why the soldiers had not returned to finish him off for standing against them. Why waste lives fighting a man that was literally bulletproof when they could just wait for him to starve instead?

The only shining light in their situation was his little sister, Illyana, the light of his family's life. She was just so happy and hopeful no matter how bad things got for them, and their entire family was committed to doing everything they could to make sure her smile never faded. Indeed, he was just mustering the energy to tell her a joke he'd heard earlier in town when there came a solid knock upon their door.

That was strange. They lived on a farmstead a ten minute drive from the nearest town, and they would have heard any of the clunky and rusted trucks of their neighbors approaching long before they were close enough to announce themselves like this. The soldiers, in kind, would certainly open fire on the house itself rather than politely knock. Who could it be? Waving his family back into the farthest corner of the small home he approached the door, took a deep breath, and yanked it open.

What he saw upon doing so was certainly odd in the extreme. A suit of armor contained in a dark green cloak with its hands held behind its back in a posture of confident ease. "Might I come in?"

The stranger's voice definitely held an accent similar to his own, but it was different in marked ways. It was smoother, more refined, perhaps from the south… Latveria? "I do not think that is a good idea."

"I assure you I mean no harm."

"Then explain why you are here."

The man's arms moved to cross over his chest. "I heard tell of a man of steel who drove away the Russians from his home. A farmer who took up arms to protect his people from tyrannical soldiers."

Before Victor's eyes his host seemed to grow a foot in height before a solid layer of steel seemed to slither out of his body to encompass every inch of exposed skin. "Such a man might not take too kindly to intruders."

Doom was not intimidated in the least. "What about someone offering that man a job and his family safe harbor out of the country?"

"What?" Piotr slimmed back down and stared at the armored man in greater confusion.

"I am Doctor Doom, King of Latveria, and I require a bodyguard for my son. We recently had an incursion into our lands that proved peaceful but the next one might not be. I figure that a metal meat shield could be useful in that case."

"I don't-"

"As I said I will grant your family safe harbor and citizenship in my lands. I have many farms that could use overseers so if your grandparents wish to work they can though they will not be obligated to."

"My sister-"

"Will be offered a place, position, and education in my house."

Piotr wavered for a moment, "The other farmsteaders here? If I leave they will be undefended."

"I suppose I can find room for them as well. Latveria has a growing agriculture economy that could always use more hands. Do we have a deal?"

The answer was never in question. Twenty minutes later and the family had packed everything that they felt they couldn't leave behind. They joined their guest on their doorstep where they expected to be carted off to some far off location. Instead he led them on a walk down the snow and ice coated paths leading from their farmstead to their neighbor's.

"Uh, your majesty? What are we doing?" The man of steel asked nervously. He had no wish to piss off his new employer with impertinence before he even started on the job.

Mercifully Doom merely looked up at him without slowing his pace and answered, "We made a deal, young man, and honor demands that I allow you to see its terms met." And so saying he led the Rasputin's door to door where he gave the people within the offer agreed upon and waited to see if they wanted to leave. It wasn't really surprising that after fifteen homes not a single one had refused. One after the other the families entered his mystic gateways into his lands until at last the five of them were the last remaining in the tundra-like environment.

"Does this meet your satisfaction?" Victor's gaze was unwavering as he waited for the answer.

Piotr nervously rustled his shoulders and said, "Yes, you have more than kept up your end." That gaze was incredibly unnerving behind its metal mask. At least when he covered his own features people could still judge his emotions.

"Not quite yet." The monarch waved his hand and a final gateway opened before them all. When the family went through they were met with both Larin and his female counterpart who managed the queen's staff.

"Mr. and Mrs. Rasputin, if you will join them they will take you to the kitchen for some food. Piotr, Illyana, come with me and I will introduce you to my son."

Piotr made a noise of confusion, "You want my sister to come as well?"

"Yes, my wife has made it clear that Harry needs more… friends."

"Friends?" Illyana began to happily bounce in place, "Yay!"

Three Years Later

It was Harry's eighth birthday party and the throne room of Doom Castle was in full festive status. Since becoming Harry's godmother (Valeria had withheld bedroom rights until Victor accepted it) Susan Richards had made it a habit of showing up out of the blue every couple weeks to spend time with Harry. More often than not she brought Valeria with her and true to the woman's prediction, she and their son had become fast friends. They were often found in his workroom building something or other out of their toys, much to the amusement of their scientist parents. Of course once Piotr and Illyana arrived the cherubic blonde was at once a part of their little friendship as well, turning their duo into a trio. Honestly they drove their families ragged with how much time they spent running around.

So when it came to the subject of birthdays, of course they ended up celebrating with each other. That meant… socializing, though when it came to Reed both the elastic man and Doom ended up passive aggressively ignoring each other, focusing on their wine and beer respectively when forced into close confines rather than attempting to acknowledge each other's presence.

This time was no different. And the two scientists were grumbling about the state of things for them as their wives chattered on like the best of friends and their children ran around joyfully screaming as they were chased in a game of super powered tag by Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm. The two were practically children in the mind so it made sense they'd get along so well with others their intellectual age. Well, at least the kids were working off the sugar high from their birthday pies. Ha! Reed had wanted to give them cake, the fool. Everyone knew that pie was superior to cake, including his son, and a birthday apple pie was just the thing Harry had desired for his special day so that was what he received.

They were all set to move on to the gift giving when it happened. Harry suddenly stopped running and physically seized in place, his body falling to the floor as his eyes rolled back in his head and black veins began bulging out of his forehead emanating from his old curse scar, carving a furrowing path down to his chin.

The children screamed, Piotr literally smashed into the room from where he'd been standing guard on the other side of the door, and as Susan and Valeria took charge of little Valeria and Illyana, Reed and Victor immediately knelt before Harry and stabilized his head and body as the seizure ran its course, their earlier animosity forgotten in the presence of such a disturbance.

"What's happening?" Valeria only barely stopped herself from shrieking the question. Seeing her little boy like that was terrifying, but she knew that the girls currently clinging to her with tears running down their faces needed her to be strong.

"I don't know." Reed frantically checked vitals, observed pupil dilation, and everything else he could think of. "I've never seen something like this before. We need to clear the room, whatever this is could be contagious."

"It's not." Victor growled as his glowing hands hovered over his son's head, "I'm not sure exactly what this is, but it's definitely magical in nature, and it's confined to his body." Immediately he swept Harry up into his arms and began sprinting for the nearest set of stairs, "Richards! On me! Colossus, watch over my wife!"

As the metal man fell into the queen's shadow as he was expected to, the elastic man followed his host at a rapid pace down eight flights of stairs until they reached a lab full of ancient tomes, runic circles, and shelves upon shelves of vials and jars. With a focused burst of will Victor erected a stone table in the center and placed his son upon it before strapping down his limbs.

"Victor, what are you doing?!"

"I don't want him hurting himself." The monarch growled as he finished his restraints and began collecting a series of vials from his shelves. "This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better."

Reed gasped, "You said you didn't know what this was!"

"That wasn't entirely true." Doom lined up his vials in a particular order and checked Harry's pulse. It was disturbingly quick. "When I first brought Harry into my home I learned that he had a shard of a blackened soul trapped within his scar. I had it removed of course, but the monks that performed the exorcism made it clear that such an occupation could, and likely would, have consequences down the line. The soul wasn't even inside him for an hour and he showed no adverse effects for years, so I'd hoped we were out of the woods, yet clearly that is not the case."

"Yet still you prepared." Reed commented, his eyes still taking in everything gathered in the space around him.

"Of course, Reed, I prepare for everything." Doom quickly downed several vials in quick succession before pouring four more down Harry's throat. Then he grabbed a particular ceramic jar, levitated himself into the air, and crossed his legs into a meditative pose. "Though it admittedly took a while to find an entity that might be of use in this situation. Richards, I need you to watch over my body for a little while."

"Where are you going?"

"To make a deal with the devil. Or rather, 'A' devil." As he finished his sentence, the world around him fell away. In its place was a wide field of eternal twilight, one where the sky was full of oddly colored stars and celestial bodies. Stars that soon began to shift, warp, and coalesce before twisting and writhing down to the ground to hover before him. Slowly a massive face began to take form before a sinister hiss rasped out, "Who dares to invade my domain?"

Standing tall before the dark god, Doom loudly proclaimed, "Dormammu, I have come to bargain."

Meanwhile

Colossus knew something was wrong when he felt the air of the throne room change. His employer's wife and her friend were combing little Valeria and Illyana's hair to calm them and seemed unaware of their surroundings. But he was looking for something now, years of living under the aegis of a strict military regime meant he was used to staying on his toes. So the moment he saw the tear open in reality beside his sister and the Queen he was already moving. "Duck!" He yelled before launching over their heads and slamming his metal covered fist into the portal just as something soft tried to come through. If the roar of outrage that followed was any indication he had done the right thing.

Any celebration was cut short however as a dozen more similar tears began to open all around them. "Get behind me!" He ordered, and the children and Valeria quickly complied. Susan however stood at his side, ready for whatever came their way. It turned out to be a swarm of goblin-looking monstrosities screaming for blood.

Meanwhile

"It has been a long time since someone has come to me for a deal." Dormammu mused as he hovered around his oddly shrouded interloper. For some reason he could not perceive the man's thoughts. "What is it that you want? And more importantly, what can you offer me?"

Inwardly Victor mused that staring into the face of a cosmic being probably should have put him more off balance. The threat to his son was having more of an effect on him than he'd first thought. So knowing how important it was to remain as emotionless as possible he said, "My child is suffering from a magical malady as a result of a former low grade possession. I wish him healed and for no further recursion of the illness."

"This is a tall order. What do you have to offer in return?"

Doom raised the jar he'd carried with him, "A shard of the blackest of souls."

In an instant Dormammu's face was less than two feet away from him as he intently examined the object. His entire being seemed to quiver with delight as he did. "It's so delightfully demented and power hungry. Convinced of its own worth and self-delusion. Oh the torments I could levy upon it. Oh the dark dreams I could force it to experience."

"Do we have a deal?"

"Oh yes, mortal. For such a prize your wish will indeed be granted."

At the same time in the mortal plane Harry's eyes came into focus once more and he began to scream.

"Harry!" Reed was at his side at once. "Lad, breath, breathe, it's okay."

"U-Uncle Reed?"

"I'm right here, son."

"I-I-It hurts!"

"I know, but just bear with it, it'll only be a little while more." Reed didn't even know if he believed the words coming out of his mouth, but he did know it was what the boy needed to hear.

Any response that the child might have made was suddenly cut off by the rapid bulging of his throat followed by a massive stream of black smoke erupting out of his lips.

Meanwhile

"Illyana!" Piotr screamed as he watched his little sister be pulled into the nearest portal. He couldn't get to her, he couldn't stop the gremlins from dragging her kicking and screaming away from them all. He and the rest of the Fantastic Four were too busy keeping the rest of the damned creatures contained in the throne room as well as protecting Queen Valeria, and their other guests. The gateway flashed with light and she was gone completely.

"Don't worry, Piotr, I got her!" The Thing called back before lowering his shoulder and charging straight through the demonic creatures like a linebacker on a direct course for who knew where.

"Ben don't, we don't know where that leads!" Susan called from behind her forcefield. Her daughter and the elder Valeria were crouched behind it along with the elder Rasputins.

"It don't matter, Susie." Ben grunted just before breaking through. "I fucked up with Doom. I was an asshole, selfish, cocky, and convinced only me and Reed mattered in the world. I failed back then. I won't fail again."

"Ben!"

Another flash of light and the Thing was gone.

Meanwhile

Doctor Doom observed the demonic being literally giggling as its spectral form coalesced around the jar he'd bargained away, like a school of sharks circling a wounded dolphin. "Is it done?"

"Indeed." Dormammu didn't even deign to look at him as he answered. "I managed to heal the damage caused and remove all traces of the habitation, but the scars will remain. They had already bonded to his aura by the time you contacted me."

"Scars?"

"You will see. Now begone." The moment the last word escaped Dormammu the hidden realm faded away and Victor found himself floating once more in the world he knew. One where Reed Richards was stressfully fretting over his clearly terrified and weeping son.

"D-D-Daddy!" Harry wailed, and in that moment Doom knew exactly how much this event had shocked the lad. He'd not called him that since he was six. At once he landed back on the floor, ripped off the restraints and pulled his son into his arms where the child finally broke down completely.

Back in the room above Johnny had had enough. He'd watched a little girl get abducted, a man he grudgingly knew to be his best friend charge into the abyss, and his sister screaming at her inability to help them. He couldn't go through to aid the stone man and leave Sue alone, but he could fry the rest of these monsters now that there were no more civilians out in the open and vulnerable

"Sue, top containment field for you and the chamber!"

"What?" His sister screamed back.

"Just do it!" When he saw her shield gain the blue translucence of her highest strength as it grew to cover both her group and the solid surfaces all around them he did the most dangerous and effective thing he could think of. He went supernova, and to the spectators watching on, the world went white.

Limbo

Belasco, the ruler of Limbo, smiled down at the weeping little girl trapped in the iron cage before him. He'd felt her latent power across the multiverse and known he just had to have her. Of course he'd had a bit of a problem locating her through the varying multitude of worlds in the cosmos, but he'd just lucked out a little bit ago when a sudden surge of dark energy had erupted into being right next to her. The combination of the two energies had finally clarified the girl's location enough to open his gateways and send his spawn in to grab her, and if they caused some chaos on that plane in the meanwhile mores the fun.

No she was his and he was more than grateful for the slow rate of time in his personal domain. A day in the human world could take months in Limbo, a month could take years, and years could take centuries. He had literally endless time to break her mind and make her his in 'every' way. Yes, he had such plans for this girl. Already he'd spent the last week flooding her body with his and Limbo's power and she was already showing physical changes. Sadly her mind was proving more stubborn than expected but he had no doubt he'd be successful in breaking it in the end.

"Hey, bub, that's a cute kid." A voice said behind him. Probably one of his lesser lords. Normally he'd smite them for interrupting his moment of triumph, but he was feeling generous so he supposed he could account for some of his henchmen's curiosity.

"Yes it is." He chuckled darkly.

"Too bad ya can't keep her."

"What?" Belasco turned and had just enough time to see an outcropping of rocky skin before his head was engulfed in a massive fist and slammed against the side of the cage, over, and over, and over again. Had he been expecting it he could have easily weathered the attack, but he'd had no time to gather his energy. As darkness finally claimed him he began to wonder if the girl had really been as worth it as he'd first thought if this was the result of taking her.

Ben Grimm stared down at the pulpy mess that had been a red haired male with devil horns of all things. The clear energy trail leading from him to Illyana proved him to be her captor so he didn't feel bad about taking him down, though he was a little sorry the wide eyed child had had to see it happen. Moving slowly so as not to scare her any more than this experience likely already had, he bent the bars of her cage apart and pulled her out into his arms. Only then did he see the ways that she'd changed. Curved horns now sprouted from her forehead, claws tipped the ends of her fingers, and her feet seemed to have been replaced with hooves. The poor girl looked to have been demonified.

"You alright, kid?"

"N-No." She whimpered as she burrowed into him. "Mr. Ben, I… I want my grandma, and I want Harry. They make me safe."

"It's alright, Illyana. I'll have you home soon." And so saying, the Thing turned right around, squared his shoulder once more, and began barreling full tilt back out the way he came. By the time he finally crossed back out of the portal that had brought him in he'd full on trampled dozens of demons over the course of days, but if the sight that greeted him on Earth was anything to go by he'd only been gone a few seconds.

The others seemed alright, and Susan was rubbing the back of a furiously gasping Johnny, but the walls, floor, and ceiling seemed to have been flash fried into glass. All over the floor dark smudges stood out and if he were any guess they were likely the bodies of those gremlins that had caused this whole mess. Only one thing Ben could think of could have caused this kind of eventuality. Huh, good for Johnny. Supernova was still a tricky move for him.

He was all set to go and congratulate him vocally when suddenly Illyana wriggled out of his arms and charged across the room shakily on her new legs. At the same time little Valeria took off from where the Rasputin elders were watching her. It soon became clear what their goal was as his eyes raised and he beheld Doom and Reed slowly coming back into the throne room with Harry between them, holding both of their hands. As the girl's barreled into their friend, relief clear on their faces, Ben audibly gasped with shock. The right side of Harry's face from forehead to chin was lined with jagged crevices of black. It looked like he'd been struck by lightning.