Harry awoke alone. He opened his eyes to a count down that he couldn't see, only sense. With only an eight hour window, even less now, the suggestion of rest seemed reckless, but then it occurred to him that Snape must've been more confident than he let on. He must've held back information that allowed him to pace their escape. He did say that timing was important. But panic crept along Harry's suspicions as he looked for Snape and called to him. Snape's side of the bed was creased, but other than that there was no sign of him.

Harry thought he'd have to make some excuse to go to the toilet, to get out of the room and search for him, when he noticed that the door to the room was slightly ajar. Disbelieving, he walked to it, reminding himself to trust nothing and no one in these circumstances. It could be a test or a trap. But when he had the knob in his hand and stood under the door frame, free as a bird, with no immediate consequences, he continued out into the hall. This time he wasn't wearing a blindfold and couldn't help but think that he wasn't supposed to be seeing this hall, or the doors to all these rooms. It had the feel of a hotel, or better yet, cabins on a cruise ship. He let his instincts move his feet forward.

He heard voices and stopped. When he concluded their conversational tones to be safe, and to be very familiar, he neared to a wide opening that had no doors, and peeked around the wall.

Snape's droll speech, softened, met him before the sight did. It took a moment for Harry to spot him seated next to the queen, with a host of guards blocking his view. He heard the queen say, "I thought you might. I can make accommodations for him, but I cannot bargain Harry's place."

"You won't have to," Snape replied. "We'll get started as soon as Harry is awake. You'll see for yourself that his magic recognizes family."

One of the guard gave a robust yell that was somewhere along the lines of an announcement, as far as Harry could tell. Everyone in the room turned to stare at him. Snape and the queen had been leaning towards one another, deep in conversation. Now they straightened. The queen wore her reinforced smile, while Snape's expression snapped closed abruptly, like a puzzle box.

He's putting away his charm, Harry thought, amazed to have seen a hint of it. He hid his own anxiousness.

"Sorry," he interrupted. "I couldn't find Snape…" He trailed off, knowing they could figure that out for themselves.

"I have not lost your friend, Mr. Potter, though he is too persuasive to keep in one place." Her eyes shifted sideways at Snape. "He has already agreed on your behalf to use magic to come and go. I thought we'd have to show him that we can find him and limit his range, but he returned on his own. I am impressed by this."

Snape said crisply, "I was not attempting to escape. At least, not without Harry."

"And you now have everything you need? There will be no more errands?"

"I believe so. Now that Harry is awake, we'll get started."

"Very well."

Harry had the feeling he'd just walked in on a hostage negotiation. He was too confused by Snape's behavior to say anything useful, so he shut up. Snape stood, making a graceful bow and left the queen smiling after him. Guards parted and he took Harry by the arm as they left the room.

"What was that all about?" Harry whispered.

Snape waited until they were back in their own room. "I left. I was permitted to apparate. It was done with an escort, but I managed to lose him, conduct my business and return, thus proving that I am trustworthy. She need not send another wizard to babysit me."

"How did you convince her to let you leave?"

"I simply told her my findings and that I require other materials. I let her scan my intention. She found nothing malicious towards herself. Others, perhaps, but my agreement to help her is very much intact."

"How much time do we have? Where'd you go?"

"We're down to an hour and a half."

That was terrifying to hear. "What? What happens if we run out of time?"

"If we run out of time, your CIUM agents calculate that none of us will make it out if we linger beyond our window. This mountain range is undergoing a barrage of assaults and acquiring fractures that will destroy its integrity and this entire shelf will collapse at a particular juncture along its Indian and Eurasian Plates."

"Holy shit. That'll effect the world, won't it?"

"Eventually."

Snape had said as much before, but now it was more impending. They didn't even know if the whole stones-like-battery-cells bit was actually going to work. Why the hell had Snape talked him into sleeping? No, Snape had forced him to sleep. He could see that now.

"Not to worry. It'll work. Our results were good, we just couldn't sustain them. The queen even told me that her health seemed improved for the time we spent inside the cavern. I've worked it out. You must trust me."

"I do," Harry insisted, to himself most of all.

"I went to your place. I retrieved the bottle. I took a few moments in your kitchen to create a replica of the talisman that you and your daughter share. I'll bind your magic to it and hopefully it will create a transfusion effect for the agent who is to cover us."

"The talisman? And that's going to be useful?" Harry couldn't help but doubt. How could a trinket trick this system into thinking the agent was part of his blood and magic?

Snape ignored him. "I went to the Ministry. I must warn you, I had to bring in a fourth party for our plan to work. He's a wizard, an auror. His presence is two-fold. He'll help me amplify the circuit I'm creating for your magic, while you focus on pumping steady levels into our mineral batteries. Also, it will be his job to shield our exit. The system will be up and running. We'll leave those stone enclosures to demonstrate that our bodies are no longer needed to fuel them. When we've shown them that everything is up and running without being inside the growths, you're to request to hold your daughter. As soon as I see her in your arms, I shall activate a remote signal that will allow us to be apparated by others, not by our own magic. The sequence of transportation is too varied, to confuse anyone who tries to follow, on purpose. You're not to do anything but wait until you are still. Others will meet you and take you to a safe space."

Harry listened, blinking away his confusion between what they'd previously discussed and the current situation. Snape had said nothing about bringing someone else in. Harry bit his tongue and followed him back down into the heart of the temple. He chalked his uneasiness up to anxiety. He trusted Snape with all of his soul. He did.

Eventually guards stepped in alongside them and they were escorted into the cavern. Instead of watching from her hidden window, the queen stood on the shore facing the growths where they worked out logistics. She lifted her hand and slowly waved as he and Snape ascended across the underground lake using those platforms that rose out of the water.

Harry couldn't tell by her composed face, but her bony shoulders held an anxious tension and he hated that this was such a momentous event for her. She was too trusting, and no good at being a villain at all. He tried to tell himself, 'She deserves what she gets. You don't mess with people's kids,' but he was past that vindictive response. He wanted to get the temple up and running, and stay running, and never have to think about this place ever again.

When they touched on the other side, Harry spotted a figure covered in a shrouding charm. It wasn't exactly hidden, but the charm gave the illusion that a black tarp or cloth covering had been thrown over a tall object, for it was very still. Too still. It had the vague shape of a person, but the rigidity of an object. A statue. This couldn't be the Ministry's agent that Snape had mentioned, could it?

"What's that," Harry gestured.

"Our fourth party. Conditions had to be met. He was only allowed to come if bound, blinded, and silenced. Don't worry, he's voluntarily under a catatonic spell. He knows what to do once I lift it."

This made sense. After all, Harry had been blindfolded and drugged to get him here. Snape seemed to be the only one smart enough to think his way around those options. But the more Harry stared at the pole-straight figure, the more he wondered if the agent really knew what he'd gotten himself into.
Damn it, these were professionals and they had the CIUM on their side, there was no point feeling sorry for anybody down here. Just get on with it, he pushed himself.

First they placed the charged stones, imbued with Harry's magic, inside each of the three chamber forming growths. Snape detected a faint current between them that circulated in a triangle formation.

"It's working."

He then took the little bottle of the stored magic that he'd picked up from Harry's condo, and dispersed it's contents between all three growths, letting it absorb into the linings and the stone cells.

"My mother's magic will act as a powerful binding agent, braid all strains of magic together, and foster a smooth blending along the circuit, as well as reinforce it."

"How do you know that? How can you be sure?" Harry asked him, hating the sound of his own worry and doubt.

Snape glared. "My mother was murdered for daring to grow magic in her womb and disallowing it to become children. In this manner, she supplied me with seven lifetimes of magic in one, where I should've had none. I would've been helpless against the weakest wizards we know, let alone able to perform the feats that I have, were it not for what she set aside for me."

His face trembled as he spoke and Harry immediately regretted pestering him. But a glimpse of heated emotion coloring Snape's brow and cheeks, confused Harry to whether he was sorry or not.

Snape's words were as confrontational as if he were holding the past itself accountable for her death.

"Each time my father impregnated her, she recycled my substance, knowing she could not allow me to be born unless I came prepared for my challenges. My father's hatred of magic interfered with his genetic contribution and he could only give her limited vessels while she could summon the most powerful souls and magic. She had to extract what she could from her own side of fertilization and pour it back through her body in order to distill what she needed. I know what these little bottles can do and I'm setting the intention. That's how I know. That's how I'm sure."

Harry nodded, accepting this with a silent swallow. "Got it. Sorry. I trust you."

Next, they sent for the children. Harry was forced to stand back as guards carried the little ones back inside the largest growth, which was grey as slate but cleared to translucency once they were placed inside.

Using his wand, Snape registered their effect on the formation. "The current just increased by fifty percent, with a hertzian measure of 164,000 Hz."

As he spoke, the cave ceiling responded with faint green tinted movement. It was as if the dark stone overhead was suddenly made of green glass in various places, but not uniformly. And someone above had turned on lights that were soft and illuminated a liquid substance trapped inside the translucent stone. This time they saw rivers of veins, carrying a chlorophyll ambiance over their heads like a circulatory system.

Harry looked down and saw through the stone window that the queen was smiling, hands folded prayerfully at her chin. The tiny light in her head emitted a visible radiance even from this distance. He thought he could feel her hope swell to relief.

"Harry, it's time to enter the one on the left."

Snape meant one of the minor, overhanging growths that were higher up and usually not visible. Harry remembered the spell he'd learned and lifted himself to the opening of the membrane that let him squeeze inside. Immediately, his world went from dark, hard and crystaline, to lit, silky, and clear. He tried not to think about the smell, which he couldn't identify and no longer wanted to. He was able to see Snape a few meters below him, as well as the queen watching from the other side.

Now that he was inside the second chamber, the opposite side across from him lit up. This hadn't happened last time. He saw that it was empty, revealing clearly a hollow space, filled with a glowing aura that awaited the next person to occupy it. His eyes shifted to the still, covered figure below. Something uneasy crawled inside his skin as he watched Snape use his wand to transport the person. Harry frowned. His magic felt agitated.

Illumination from the rock ceiling dimmed. Snape turned to Harry and shouted, "Concentrate! Keep your eye on your child."

This reminder shocked Harry back into cooperation and illumination brightened again. With his raised height, he also saw that the water below was so bright and clear that swimming things could be seen in it. The silhouettes of some very large and oddly shaped fish, he presumed, swam many meters below. He tore his attention from them, and the thought of all the wildlife those rebels were about to destroy if he and Snape were not successful, not to mention an ancient, hidden civilization that the world will never know about. He focused on Iece, cradled and unconscious in the blue child's arms.

"Stay that way, baby," he whispered to her. "Stay that way until I get you home." Don't wake up and see this weirdness around you.

Over their heads, Harry could feel the energy and magic accelerating without anymore effort on their part. As he and Snape waited to see how long it would hold, he tried not to think about how much time they had left. Snape motioned for him to stay in place. They must've waited for what seemed like ten minutes to Harry, though his sense of time was hardly any accurate gauge. Between being underground and the injections days ago, his brain had somehow lost the ability to track the seconds and minutes of his awareness. The magic and the current was holding, that's all that mattered.

Snape finally motioned for him to leave the growth. When he did, and everything continued to light up, sustained by its own momentum, they looked at one another, visibly relieved. Returning to Snape's side, Harry felt a little dizzy. His own magic was currently caught up in a blend of forces sweeping about his head, as if a part of himself had escaped his body. And truly, it had. Usually, he would have never been so aware of this uncomfortable feeling, but he was still connected to it because of amplification, and it seemed to want to pull him into a kind of velocity. It affected his balance and he stumbled as he made his way to Snape.

"What's wrong?" Snape asked.

Harry held his head. "Nothing. I'm a little dizzy." He was about to ask if the queen was convinced, and could he ask to get Iece now, but something caught his eye above. Inside the growth where the stranger had been placed, something appeared through his shadowy clothing. Something out of place, that took on a light all its own. Maybe he would've missed it, if the agent had been standing next to them in a normal setting, with normal clothes. But because he wore a set of spells that bound him in black, his shrouded figure only served to create a dark background for something that glowed around his neck.

Snape saw where he was looking. "It's just a replicated talisman, Harry. I told you that I'd made one."

Harry fixated on it. "Why's it glowing. Mine never glowed."

"Well it is now," Snape pointed out. "Look at yourself."

Indeed. Harry glanced down. Inside his shirt, the bit of salt-dough on a string had taken on phosphorous properties and emitted a purplish light. Harry pulled it out and clutched it. What did it mean?

"There has never been three of them in such a conductive environment. We've basically created a generator. Anything that can absorb magic here, will. I suspect the object is over saturated with your amplified magic and can only release it, emitting the luminous quality that we see."

No matter how calmly and rationally Snape spoke, Harry's anxiety amped with the magic racing around his head from outgrowth to outgrowth. He looked up at Iece. Her talisman was lit as well. All three were in sync.

"It's a good sign," Snape assured him. "All three of you are compatible, thanks to the calibration of the charms and my mother's contribution.

No, Harry thought. Not good enough. Against all logic, he went with his instincts and motioned with one hand to tear away the spells binding the agent above. He held the phantom Elder Wand and with one wave, destroyed the camouflage keeping him from seeing the man beneath.

Inside the transparent growth, Lucius stumbled from the force of his disguise being ripped away. He wore creased, pale blue pajamas and his hair hung in strings around his bewildered head. He stumbled back into consciousness, eyes huge with disorientation.

"Lucius!" Harry hissed.

He hardly noticed Snape tightening his voice. "Now Harry, remain calm."

Calm his ass! He speared hatred through his eyes into the stone capsule holding one confused and distraught wizard. "What is this? Why? Why is he here?"

Even with Snape answering, Harry couldn't hear him. He shook so hard with chaotic adrenaline, that Snape thought he was going to attack Lucius on the spot. To circumvent any such devastation to their plans, he pushed him swiftly against the nearest raw bed of stone. It was a move that shuffled Harry backwards, keeping him from falling, while at the same time using Snape's weight to drive him hard against the rock. Harry lay pinned, with Snape's forearm, firmly clamped over his chest.

"Don't. Do it." He snapped with precision at Harry. "Don't you dare destroy your only hope of getting your child out of here alive. I understand that the sight of him puts you back in his home that night, but you have come too far to give him anymore of your valuable life."

"Why is he here?" Harry asked through gritted teeth.

"Because we need him. Harry, trust me." He pressed hard, jarring Harry. "Trust me as you did only moments a go. As you did when you went looking for me. I would not bring this cancerous bile before your eyes, were it not the only way to complete the genetic matrix that begins and ends with him."

He didn't understand. He glared up at Lucius over Snape's shoulder. The disheveled looking wizard had spotted them and was feeling around for a way out. When it appeared that he would squeeze through the lining, Harry threw raw magic at him, as swift as a speed-ball, which not only blocked his ability to exit, but threw him against the opposite wall of the interior. "Son-of-a-bitch!" Harry yelled.

Snape grabbed both his arms to subdue him. "Harry! Don't forget who's watching."

Harry thought he meant the queen and her people, but just then, he felt the earthquake rumblings from before. The two of them froze, remembering how a portal had opened and weapons had fired. But the cavern shook and the generator of magic and frequency Snape had built remained active, illuminating the structure in its entirety.

After a few seconds, Snape said, "Our circuit of magic is too strong to let them through for the moment. No unplanned magic should be used. It's all in balance now."

Above, Lucius pressed his hands against the interior and looked at them as if he were trying to kill them with his stare. That wasn't the look Harry wanted to see. Harry wanted him suffering and horrified, but he knew that would be the reactions of a normal, sane person and there was nothing human and sane about him. The sight of him wearing a talisman that connected Harry and his daughter to the magic of their family's protection, disgusted him.

Snape shook him. "The queen stole your magic to produce a child. This place has tasted and adapted to your magic. Iece is a vessel containing your genetic magical blueprint. Through her, the mineral intelligent that resides here, has built a bridge of connectivity from you to Iece. You two serve as prime energy sources. The way the heart of this place is built, it requires three centers of independent fuel. It will reject anyone else standing in as a third because your genetic magic dominates this circuitry. Because Iece is a hybrid of yourself and Lucius, her genetic magic is like a code that allows Lucius to plug in. Without Iece, Lucius could not stand in. This circuit is based on all that you share at a blood level. He is her father, his blood trumps everyone else's as far as this structure is concerned. Even mine."

This was no time for arguing, but Harry didn't want to hear it. "You should've warned me."

"That would've given you too much time to find a way to thwart it."

"I'm never going to be rid of him." He pulled from Snape's arms.

"He's your ticket out of here. Someone has to stay behind as a power source. The stones will contain your magic but they won't provide perpetual conductivity. A wizard's magic is self-sustaining and Lucius's magic is recognized as blood-magic, because Iece is his child as well as yours. The curse is actually making this possible. He's the only one compatible with your magic, to stay behind and act as sustainable fuel. He has to take the third spot in this structure. It's a triad formation for a reason. The acoustic resonance creates a uterine effect. Energies meet and become exponentially more, similar to fertilization. The main growth acts as a womb while being fed by the smaller growths. It's fertility. It's family. My mother mimicked this enhancement of magic when she used her own uterus. All of this, from the queen, to the curse that compromises your body, is female magic. It knows that he has a place here."

"I heard you the first time." Harry sounded despondent and far away. Snape knew that he was thinking of a way to kill Lucius.

He continued holding Harry back. "The queen altered this system when she tied herself to your magic, therefore, the system will only recognize your magic and that which your magic recognizes as compatible. So, in theory, the only one who could function as a living generator for this magic, is a wizard related to you. Or more specifically, one connected to yours and Iece's specific strain of birth magic."

Harry muttered, "But that magic is based on a curse."

Snape strained holding him. Harry's rage made them both shake.

"Exactly. You had Iece based on a curse. A curse is nothing more than a program that tells magic how to take a certain form. That curse gave you your daughter. It's now a form of magic that is as valid as anything else. The queen's use of your magic, will allow this place to mediate between what is her and what is you. Her child came from your magic. The two species are already bonded in this place. I can't prove it, but I suspect that your experience with actually having a child, is somehow key here. The entire place is like the translation of reproductive structures into that of acoustic waves. Completely female. We have to introduce magic that can be no more than a few degrees in biological and magical separation to your own or this won't work. Look how well it's up and running. Now, you must forget about him and ask to hold your daughter. We're running out of time."

Harry insisted. "I don't acknowledge Lucius as family."

"Like it or not, Iece's magic does. This place does. Lucius is your only chance at getting your daughter out of here. Think of it as a hostage exchange."

Lucius had begun to shout. He pounded on the interior, the sound completely absorbed by the soft walls, and his voice was muffled. "Severus Snape! Is someone going to tell me what the hell I'm doing here?"

They ignored him and Harry looked at Snape. "But that thing lit up for you too. We don't need him. I don't want him being a part of this in any way. Iece'll be connected to the magic and he'll just infect her with his rotten brand of it. No."

Snape's voice held a deep urgency as it tried to balance on Harry's need for sensitivity. "Harry, only a wizard can power this machine that we're reviving. Not only can I not stay behind, this structure is adapted to accept him over me, because Iece is the hub around which all of this is relying upon, and he is her father. His blood connectivity is more dominant in her than anything I have to offer. Let him help you. I know you despise him, but if his magic is sacrificed in all of this, instead of yours, it may just be the best use of him that you could possibly arrive at. Especially if it allows you two to go free. I could stay, but I can't power the blends of your and Iece's magic the way he could. It's a family chemistry. Any part I can play, is done through my mother's magic."

"Stop saying that. We're not a family. He has nothing to do with my family."

"Like it or not, his blood and magic runs through your child's veins. I've created a crude replica of the talisman that the American witch gave you. This is what allows Lucius' magic to balance with your own."

"There's got to be a better way."

"There probably is, but unless you can discover it and make it feasible within the next few minutes, I think that we should stick to my plan."

Harry shook his head. How dare Lucius become a part of this? How dare he become appointed to make such a profound sacrifice for Harry and his daughter? It wasn't right. It couldn't work because it wasn't right.

"I can't let that asshole contribute to my family. He's not a part of it."

"Harry, at this moment, you are having a psychotic episode. It isn't your fault, it's the trauma. Think. This is less about Lucius than it is about saving your child. You don't care what happens to him, remember? You tried to kill him."

"It matters. He does not get to make that kind of sacrifice for her. That's something I should do. That's as good as me saying that I forgive him and accept him into this family, and I don't. I never will. He doesn't love her, he's just trying to make up for some shit he'll never be able to fix."

Snape leaned in close. Whether it was to keep those watching from seeing, Harry wasn't sure. He said, "He doesn't have a choice. I'm not giving him one. I forced him to come here. Yes, he's corrupt to the core and doesn't deserve to look at her, let alone provide exactly what we need to get out of here. He doesn't get to play hero. But when we leave, he's staying. Indefinitely."

Harry looked back up at Lucius, whose face was now red. He must've felt like being trapped in a glass jar for all his exposure, to the scrutiny and delight of others. He wasn't exactly the picture of intimidation, in his wrinkled pajamas and bare feet. For a wizard that proud, helpless humiliation was excruciating. He could've been murmuring a spell through those thin, white-lined lips as his eyes bore into Harry.

Good, Harry thought. At least you're in pain, though not nearly enough.

"If he leaves that pod now that your magic has started the circuit, the Backaal's power source will die and you won't be here to light it with your magic again. You'll be long gone. We don't know how long he'll be able to last. Likely, he'll burn out within days. He'll lose his magic attempting to use it in this manner. He'll have no time to recuperate, unless he can negotiate the function of this place with the queen."

Snape glanced up at Lucius. "That's no concern of ours. She'll see that he's needed and won't let him leave. He'll die down here. If he never contributes a damn thing to the child he forced you to bear, let him give his pitiful, no-account life, so that she can leave. We're abandoning Lucius down here."

"He knows nothing about this?"

"He knows he has to stay. He can figure the rest out. I only told him that his presence could help because Iece's predicament utilizes blood magic. Naturally, he didn't come along willingly. His magic is mostly locked from his personal use by Ministry measures. If he tries to use it, he could hurt himself. But it's still there and I'm using a number of spells to restrain him."

Snape let go of Harry, taking a moment to catch his breath. He had held back the worst of Harry's strength and turned his back as if not wanting to reveal how much it exerted him.

Harry pestered, "But what happens when we leave? What if they can't keep him imprisoned?" Harry gestured to the guards and wizards watching them from the underground shore.

"As long as he's sealed up there, he will not be able to retaliate. Your magic dominates this process. He won't be allowed to leave the chamber because the circuit will break and you won't be around to start it back up again. My mother's magic will eventually put him in a kind of stasis, if he calms down. That might buy the Backaal a bit more time. Ultimately, we can't know what all this influence is having on this system in the long run. In sustaining itself, it might just sustain him. I don't know. I don't care. It's time to collect your child."

Harry nodded, but couldn't fight the urge to glance back up at Lucius, whose face was now pale and showing fear as their steps aimed away from him.

"Can we actually abandon? Without telling him or the queen anything? I mean, what if he escapes and they have to deal with him? They're not ready for him. We can't do this to them."

Snape rounded on his heals. "Stop making excuses. This is no time for mercy to anyone. Be willing to kill for your child. These people were already doomed and gambled with the time they have left when they took her. And Lucius's time is up. Don't let him limp away or you'll never be rid of him. You're better than him, which is why you have won the right to leave and he has not. You had your trial, for almost three years. His has only begun. Can we abandon him? Yes we can! We've done our part. He gave up his life the day he touched you. Leave him in the cold black shadow of your back and spit out the infection he has used to poison any chance you have at happiness."

He stood taller and more resigned than Harry had ever seen him when he added, "I drug him here to pay you back with his life and I will see it done. You found me and begged for my help. This is it. Accept it."