AN: new chapter up
Chapter 5 - The Gradivus Dilemma (I)
Sounds of plasma beams smashing against the walls filled the air as a group of 20 MOA robots fired their rifle-heads at two Warframes.
"Take cover!" Harry shouted through a transmission from inside Valkyr, pulling the other Warframe behind the safety provided by the tall and wide pillars in the Simulacrum.
"What are you doing? Can't you see them firing at us?" he asked in annoyance.
"I'm acting exactly how most rescue targets act in missions," a dark-skinned boy replied from inside an Excalibur warframe, all the while trying to hold back his snickers.
Harry peeked around the corner but was forced to quickly pull back as a plasma bullet almost nailed him in the head.
"Can you hear their footsteps?" the other boy asked. "They're getting closer."
The clanking sound made by the bipedal MOA's feet against the Simulacrum's floor was, as he said, getting increasingly close.
"I'm not deaf; I can hear it," Harry shot back.
"Tick-tock. Tick-tock."
Hearing the clock sounds made by Karim, Harry would have slapped him at that moment if it were possible to smack someone through a holographic transmission. But he could not afford to get distracted now. Judging by the sound of their footsteps, the MOA robots were only a few steps away from catching them.
Gritting his teeth, Harry came out of the cover and slid across the floor for two meters before bullet-jumping into the air, well over four meters high, right above the group of robots.
A deafening Warcry erupted from Valkyr, and the robots' movements slowed to a crawl, looking as if they had been trapped in a slow-motion movie.
"Use your Paralysis, Harry!" Karim instructed over the transmission.
"I know!"
Due to her Warcry's slowing debuff, the MOAs were just raising their heads, trying to aim their rifles at her when Valkyr landed in their midst.
The Warframe let out another loud battle cry as she stomped her left foot into the Simulacrum's floor with great power. A burst of blue energy erupted from her body as a portion of her energy shield smashed into the surrounding robots.
Already sluggish from the earlier Warcry, the MOA were now Paralysed by the shield's explosion before being pulled toward Valkyr as if caught in a vacuum.
Completely stunned by the two crowd control abilities, the robots were unable to do anything but watch as Valkyr suddenly turned into a whirlwind of death, violently tearing through them with her Venka claws.
Karim let out a wolf whistle as he projected his body outside his Excalibur and clapped his hands, impressed.
"Bravo!"
Harry didn't know whether the boy was being serious or if he was mocking him.
"Man, you sure did a number on them. . ." Karim said as he watched the Simulacrum disintegrate the remains of the robots into specks of light. "If I didn't know any better, I'd be tempted to think you've been a Tenno for years."
"Stop fooling around," Harry said, letting out a sigh.
"Look, I may like to joke around most of the time, but I'm serious when it comes to matters related to combat."
Harry projected his body outside of Valkyr as well and crossed his arms to his chest.
"Really?" he said sceptically. "Then what was that earlier? You shouted to attract their attention, and you even almost got yourself killed by trying to step out from behind the cover."
Karim snickered a little at that last bit.
"Believe it or not, I was just trying to make the exercise more realistic. That's exactly what some of our rescue targets behave like in missions. I swear to the void, some people are so dumb, I'm often debating if they deserve to be rescued or if I should leave them to their fate."
The Tenno cleared his throat, and the look of amusement receded from his face as he spoke to Harry in a serious voice:
"We started training you less than a week ago, but you've already mastered our Warframes' parkour movement. Sliding, rolling, flipping, backflipping, bullet jumping, wall latching, wall running, and gliding. . ."
"Other than talking to Suda, there's not much else for me to do in the relay. I've been spending the entire day in the Simulacrum," Harry said nonchalantly.
"You were a regular person until two weeks ago. Even a genius wouldn't master these movements so quickly. Even more, the way you bullet jumped into the air to avoid becoming a stationary target for the enemy while casting Valkyr's Warcry—that's a move only veterans know how to do. I've seen other Tenno when they just woke up from their cryo-sleep... it often takes them weeks to remember how to do this sort of thing. But you're telling me that you learnt how to do it in half the time?" Karim said, giving him a pointed look.
When Harry didn't reply, Karim pressed on with another question:
"You never stopped the Transference between you and Valkyr, did you? That's the only explanation for your ridiculous rate of improvement."
As Harry remained silent, the dark-skinned boy groaned and ran a hand through his short curly hair.
"Is the Lotus going to give you grief because of me?" Harry asked eventually, feeling bad at the thought that he had caused him problems.
"This isn't about me or the Lotus, dude," Karim answered. "Diving so deep and for so long into Transference is incredibly dangerous! We told you so many times before that when we use Transference, our minds meld with that of our Warframes! Do you have any idea how risky it is what you're doing? You could go mad! You could lose your sense of self! You could become a psychopath or turn into a mindless killing machine just like the Warframe you're supposed to control! There are such cases among the Tenno too!"
By the end of his rant, Karim had raised his voice to the point where he was almost shouting.
Without Harry ordering her to do so, Valkyr in front of him and let out a threatening growl at Karim, making the boy involuntarily take a step back.
Harry put his hand on his Warframe's forearm and said:
"It's alright, Valkyr, he means well."
"Look at you, you're even talking to her," Karim said with a deadpan.
But, to Karim's surprise, Valkyr seemed to understand Harry's words. Her threatening growls stopped, and she walked back behind Harry.
"I will admit, I did continue my Transference with her," Harry said sincerely. "But you don't have to worry about me. I have it under control."
Karim took off his red-tinted glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose.
"Yeah, right. Your Valkyr is acting no different from Angie's Excalibur Umbra now. . ." he said, blowing out a long sigh. "Sorry, I don't mean to nag you like that. I just get the feeling that you don't really understand the gravity of your situation and how close you are to the edge of the abyss."
"I understand what you mean," Harry said. "But I've been meditating daily. I've been clearing my mind. I do have a little bit of training when it comes to organising my mind."
At Karim's unconvinced look, he said:
"I know I'm playing a dangerous game. The first week of Transference was truly terrible. I did feel like I was at the point of breaking. Valkyr's memories aren't exactly roses and sunshine either. . . but what choice do I have? Put yourself in my shoes; what would you do if you were me?"
The Tenno became silent.
"Until two weeks ago, I was in school, playing chess, going to classes, and worrying about exams. But then I met an evil god in the Void, I got tortured, I almost died, and then I ended up 20,000 years in the future. To make matters worse, Galen also destroyed my wand, my only means of protecting myself."
"Man, you're in a relay. Other than the relay's security, there are also dozens of Tenno here at any time of the day, sometimes even hundreds. This is literally one of the safest places in the origin system. Nobody is going to attack you here," said Karim.
Harry wasn't impressed by that claim. Hogwarts was also, allegedly, the safest place in Great Britain, yet he had nearly died there every year, sometimes more than once a semester.
"So you say. But what if Cephalon Suda were to suddenly lose her interest in me and she stopped supporting me?" Harry asked calmly. "Or what if Lotus changed her mind and decided that I'm dangerous? What if you, the Tenno, came to the conclusion that I should be eliminated? What then? Who would protect me then? How would I survive then?"
Karim couldn't find a retort to that. Deep down, he knew that Harry's worries were not unfounded, especially regarding the Tenno.
"I know that delving so deep into Valkyr's mind is dangerous. Even I can tell that. But I've been taking breaks. And I've been meditating. Knowing how to turn off the Transference is very helpful. Delving too deep into her memories is a hazard waiting to happen; I understand that too. But it's a risk that I need to take. I don't have the luxury of going slow and steady. If I don't become strong, I may not even live long enough to go mad."
⁂
Karim's guess had been right on the money: although Harry had learnt how to cancel his Transference with Valkyr from their very first day of training, he decided not to do that.
He did take breaks, interrupting his connection with Valkyr once in a while to meditate and clear his head with the meagre Occlumency skills he obtained from the slimy Potions Teacher's torture sessions disguised as "teaching," but, generally, he spent most of his day and night connected to Valyr.
The risks of delving too deep into Transference were just as Karim said, but the gains from it made it worthwhile. Thanks to his deep Transference with Valkyr, it took Harry just one week to acquire combat skills and fighting instincts that he would otherwise have needed months or years to gain by himself. He might have never even become that proficient after training for a lifetime if he had been alone. The benefits of melding his mind with that of his Warframe were unquestionable. In the situation where everything was uncertain and he was stranded in a futuristic, dystopian future, he needed every bit of strength he could get.
More importantly, his encounter with his doppelganger a few days ago, the eldritch horror from the Void, in the bathroom of his living quarters, had terrified him more than words could tell. Just remembering that moment made a burning, phantom pain start pulsing in his forehead and biceps, the two places where the Man in the Wall had touched him.
The void creature's touch had left no visible marks on his skin, but whenever he overused his Void powers or spent too much time inside Valkyr's memories, those two spots burnt as if he were being branded by a searing hot iron. More than ever before, Harry felt the desperate need to grow stronger. Not even his encounter with Voldemort in his fourth year had terrified him as much as the thing that he had faced in the Void after stepping through the Veil of Death.
With Karim being called on a mission, Harry decided to take a break and leave the virtual world of the Sanctuary.
"Thank you for letting me use your Simulacrum, Simaris," Harry said politely.
"I have no need for your thanks, Tenno," the Cephalon said. "This is an investment on my part. I await the day you finally contribute to the Sanctuary."
". . . Right. I will start doing that the moment they let me out of the relay," Harry said.
And with that, he left Cephalon Simaris' Sanctuary and wandered through the relay, walking aimlessly. Valkyr walked alongside him too, following him faithfully wherever he went.
Arriving in the main lobby of the relay, he sat on a bench, and Valkyr sat down next to him too.
Although he had been living in the Larunda Relay for two weeks now, he was still not accustomed to his surroundings. Warframes, people in advanced combat suits, cyborgs, robots, drones, Cephalons, and even regular individuals in tribal clothing; it was such a strange assortment of beings that he could not get used to it. It felt alien. The fact that he lived in a gigantic space city that orbited planet Mercury didn't help in making him feel at home either.
He felt out of place. He didn't belong there. He was from an entirely different time, from a society that didn't even have cellphones, let alone holograms or cyborgs.
Anxiety surged within him whenever he was reminded of the full extent of how utterly screwed he was.
However, before that feeling of anxiety could devolve into panic, as always, as though she could hear his thoughts and sense his emotions, Valkyr made a low, quiet, moaning sound, one that Harry had once heard tigers make when he visited the zoo with the Dursleys as a child. It sounded rather terrifying to hear such a noise up close, but Harry found himself smiling at Valkyr.
"You're like a big cat, aren't you?" he asked as he turned his attention to her.
Due to their continuous Transference, Valkyr was not the only one who could sense his emotions and mental state; it was a two-way road. Harry could sense hers as well.
At that moment, the cat-like Warframe was in a state of contentment, happiness even. It was odd because, in the first week, the only things he could sense from Valkyr were either rage and killing intent or emptiness. However, the range of her emotions seemed to expand with every passing day.
In the next moment, Harry was startled to see the Warframe reaching out for his hand. She took his hand in hers, and she held it gently, taking great care not to injure him with her sharp claws. She turned it face up and face down a few times and poked at his palm softly with her index finger's claw, tilting her head as if she were studying him.
Harry chuckled at her curious behaviour and wrapped his fingers around her hand, showing her how humans held hands. At his gesture, a rather scary, purr-like sound came from Valkyr, and Harry sensed her feelings of happiness rising in intensity even more than before, to the point that they started bleeding into his psyche.
If someone had told him a month ago that he would travel twenty thousand years into the future, end up in a space city on Mercury, and hold hands with a violent, allegedly mindless killing machine, Harry would have told them to lay off the Firewhisky and go to bed. Yet there he was, in a reality that was even stranger than his wildest dreams.
⁂
Days passed, and Harry didn't allow himself any time to rest and relax. Every day, he would be in Simaris' Simulacrum, training with Valkyr or practicing his control over his powers.
The three Tenno he had become acquainted with were busy people, but they did make time to visit him once a day, at least one of them.
That day, Angie, the young Tenno girl with long pink hair, was watching him train in the use of his Void powers without the aid of Valkyr.
Every once in a while, her eyes would dart to the Warframe that used to be hers.
Standing next to Angie with her clawed fingers clenched into fists, Valkyr was shifting her weight from one foot to the other, and various quiet growling and groaning sounds would come out from her whenever Harry looked like he was in a perilous situation.
'She's no different than my Umbra now…'
Angie understood that after gaining that level of sentience, no other Tenno except for Harry would be able to control Valkyr. Valkyr would not allow another Tenno in her mind in the same way that her Excalibur Umbra did not accept anyone's mental touch except for hers.
'My Umbra is still way cooler than hers!' she told herself, but she couldn't fully suppress the envy and annoyance bubbling in her heart because Valkyr was supposed to be hers.
The girl let out a sigh.
'No use crying over spilt milk. It's my fault for losing her. . . I shouldn't have taken her on a spy mission. At least, thanks to Harry, Valkyr didn't get killed and cut to pieces by Salad V.'
"How did I do?" Harry Void Dashed to her at that moment and asked.
Caught up in her thoughts, Angie had lost track of him and forgot that she was supposed to evaluate his performance.
"It was passable," she said, nodding her head with an air of self-importance.
"You didn't even watch, did you?" Harry asked.
"O-Of course I did! What do you take me for?!"
Harry sighed. "It's alright, I'll go summon another group."
Angie flushed. "I told you it's not necessary! Hmpf!" she said and made a sound, crossing her arms to her chest.
But the girl dropped her act after a few moments and spoke:
"In all seriousness, for someone who got his void powers not even 3 weeks ago, you are doing fine. No, you're doing more than fine. . . But I couldn't help but notice one thing. Why are you always fighting against MOAs? You've never spawned any Corpus Crewmen or Grineer Lancers or any other humanoid enemies. Not even once."
It was in these kinds of moments that Angie's behaviour contrasted greatly with her innocent and childish appearance, reminding Harry of the fact that, despite their young looks, all Tenno were far older and more experienced than him.
"If I were to guess, it's because you can't bring yourself to kill people. Am I wrong?"
When Harry didn't reply, she sniffed.
"Looks like I'm right on the money. Listen up, Harry, I'm saying this for your own good. I don't know how it was in your timeline, in the place where you were born, but, in this world, that half-baked determination of yours will get you killed. In this world, nobody gets to live without getting their hands dirty. If you want to live, you have to harden your heart. Be realistic. You won't be facing only robots in combat once you leave Larunda Relay. People, monsters, clones, and robots. . . all kinds of enemies would be out to get you. You have to-"
Angie stopped her monologue as she received a transmission.
"Yes, Galen? What do you need?" she asked.
"Angie. A large-scale conflict is about to break out on Mars between Corpus and Grineer. I need you here asap!"
"A full war?! What happened?! Are the Grineer crazy?!"
"They are crazy, you got that right," Galen said. "Corpus spies and archaeologists happened to discover a cache of Warframes that are in cryosleep on Sedna. They are Warframes that had been buried deep beneath the ground at the end of the Old War. Even Lotus did not have any records of them."
Sedna was a dwarf planet and the most distant celestial body from the Sun. It was under Grineer occupation. The fact that the Corpus had not only infiltrated that place but even unearthed and stolen such valuable things, a cache of Warframes, was reason enough for the Grineer to declare war.
The sound of explosions rang in the background, and Galen's face stiffened.
"The Grineer Galleon ships are here! I have to go."
"Galen!" Angie shouted. But the transmission was cut. "Sorry, Harry, I have to go!"
Without any further explanation, Angie flew towards the console with a Void Dash and logged out of the Simulacrum.
⁂
Unaware of the chaos that would soon engulf the entirety of the Origin System, Harry carried on as usual. He trained in Cephalon Simiaris' Simulacrum for a few more hours until noon, when his appointment with Cephalon Suda was scheduled.
That being said, Harry had underestimated how deep Cephalon Suda's hunger for knowledge was, and now he was in the middle of being grilled for his lack of it.
"I am bewildered by the fact that you do not possess information on such important topics," Cephalon Suda said.
"I was just 11 when I went to the Wizarding World. Everything Muggle-related just slipped out of my mind," Harry said defensively. "The Wizarding World was an isolated society."
Cephalon Suda actually let out a sigh.
"But you must have at least a general idea, don't you?"
"Kind of?" Harry said hesitatingly. "I seem to remember there were around 170 states when I was in primary school. But then, there was a big revolution at the end of the 1980s, and a large country split into a dozen or more smaller states. I was too young back then, and the political situation was too much for me to fully understand. Then, there were also countries that the world at large didn't recognise."
Cephalon Suda was not content with just some vague, general knowledge about the past. Other than practicing his Void Magic and combat with Valkyr, Harry would go to Suda every day and tell her everything he knew about life in his timeline.
The cephalon asked him about the political and social situation, things about the infrastructure, behavioural patterns of the population, the food that they ate, the drinks they consumed, the state of the medical field, art, military, games and leisure time, celebrities, the climate, names of cars, planes, people, cities, states, rivers, mountains, and so on and so forth—she left no stone unturned. She even made him try to draw the borders of the countries on Earth that he remembered.
Considering that Cephalon Suda was providing him with a place to sleep, food, clothes, and protection from outside factors, Harry was deeply indebted to her. So he did not complain even though she was testing his patience with her obsessive desire to collect data.
Aware of the limitations of the flesh, the Cephalon stopped with her questions after a few hours when she noticed his focus starting to drop.
Instead, she brought up another subject, one that was of great interest to Harry as well.
"Regarding the reconstruction of your wand, I regret to inform you that it remains unfeasible with my current technological capabilities. It is an outcome I had not anticipated. I have conducted 27 attempts to clone the creature from which your wand's core originated—the Phoenix—but all have resulted in failure. The cause remains unknown."
Somehow, Harry was not surprised to hear that, and Suda picked up on it.
"Have you predicted this outcome?" she asked.
"To say that I predicted it would be a stretch. Your technology is amazing, but I had a feeling even you wouldn't be able to replicate magic that easily," Harry admitted. "The Phoenix is an immortal creature, one that always resurrects from its ashes. It was one of the most mystical and majestic creatures back in my time."
"I understand. Although I was unable to reconstruct your wand, I have taken the liberty of designing alternative models for you to evaluate," Suda stated.
At that moment, a human member of her syndicate entered, carrying a large, silvery briefcase. He placed it on the table before Harry, whose eyes widened in surprise.
"I cannot determine whether these possess any magical properties. However, to maximise the likelihood of success, I commissioned the creation of wands using holly as the primary wood, each embedded with a core derived from noteworthy creatures found on Earth and Venus. The materials utilised include Kubrow whiskers, Nephil Vasca Kavat whiskers, Mergoo tail feathers, Virmink heartstrings, Sawgaw feathers, and more. A comprehensive list is available should you require it."
Following Suda's suggestion, Harry tried the wands in the briefcase one by one, giving them all a swish. Unfortunately, all 25 wands turned out to be failures.
"I'm sorry, I don't think any of the creatures you used were magical," Harry said.
The wands didn't just not fit him, but they showed no reaction either. It was as if they were dead, mundane objects.
"I don't even know if it's possible for anyone but a wandmaker to create wands. It is a secret, mysterious type of magic that I know nothing about. Wandmakers in the Wizarding World had to spend years studying the art before they became proficient in it and decades to master it. . . you know, we could solve this problem quite easily if only you allowed me to return to Earth."
"You are not being detained here, Harry. You are free to depart from Larunda Relay at any time of your choosing," Cephalon Suda stated.
"You know what I mean," Harry sighed. "Yes, I'm free to go, but that's only as long as I leave Valkyr behind. But I can't do that. Even though I am confident in my Void Powers now, I don't want to be separated from her. What's the reason you won't let me take Valkyr out with me now? You should know that I've become very good at using my Warframe and her powers. You can't give me the pretext that I would get captured easily anymore."
"It was never merely a pretext. From the outset, it has been one of the two primary reasons Lotus was unwilling to grant your release alongside Valkyr. The second reason is that you remain an unknown variable to the Tenno. They require additional time to determine whether you can be trusted. Furthermore, with the war that had just erupted between Corpus and Grineer, it would be far too dangerous to venture outside the relay."
Cephalon Suda's words made him frown. If this had been the old Harry, before he crossed the Veil of Death, he would have reacted with anger. He wasn't known for his calmness. But he was no longer the same person. The life-and-death encounter with the Man in the Wall, the severity of his circumstances—being stranded 20,000 years into a futuristic, dystopian reality—and the deep dive into Valkyr's mind, experiencing her traumatic memories, had unknowingly changed him.
"What if there was a way for me to create a magical creature out of nothing?" he asked in a calm voice.
"I am intrigued. Could you please elaborate?"
"I just remembered a fact about a magical species of serpents. The Ashwinder," Harry said.
It was a lie. He had suspected that he might not be allowed to leave Larunda Relay even after he gained control of his Void Power and mastered his Warframe, so he had prepared for it in advance.
"I do not possess any data on such a creature," the Cephalon said, her cube of light glowing brighter, betraying her curiosity.
Harry smiled. Hook, line, and sinker.
"It was a magical serpent that was born from the remains of a magical fire that was allowed to burn unchecked. Born from the embers of the dying magical fire, the Ashwinders would slither to a cold and secret place to lay their eggs. After laying their eggs, they would only live for one more hour before they would die, turning into ash."
"How fascinating!" Cephalon Suda remarked. "Observing the entire cycle of such a creature—its birth, life, and death—would be an intriguing and captivating experience. Yet, I wonder: what value could you derive from the body of a creature that disintegrates into ash upon death? Could its ashes serve as the core for a magical wand?"
"The Ashwinders that are born from eggs rather than a magical fire have a longer lifespan than the others," Harry explained. "Even the ones born directly from the fire could be frozen over and have their fangs extracted. I don't know if their fangs are magical enough to serve as the core of a wand, but I think it's worth a shot. Would you help me?"
"I am not opposed to assisting with this experiment, but there appears to be a missing key element: how do you intend to conjure a magical fire?" Suda enquired.
At her question, Harry chanted in a clear voice:
"Incendio."
Cephalon Suda's cube glowed brighter than ever before, and several drones and two human members of her Syndicate came into the room, beginning to scan the ball of fire in his hand with great interest.
"I was under the assumption that a wand was necessary to cast spells," the cephalon said in surprise.
"I don't know if it's 100% magic or if it's the power of the Void," Harry admitted frankly. "But Galen gifted me this amp to help channel my Void powers a week ago," he said and showed her the bracelet-like gauntlet around his wrist. "So I got the idea of trying to conjure some flames with it."
The ball of fire in his palm disappeared as he continued speaking:
"I tried casting other spells too, but other than creating light, I can't do anything else."
"Lumos," he said, and a sphere of light the size of a ping-pong ball appeared at the tip of his index finger.
Before Harry could further rope the Cephalon into his scheme, another Suda member walked inside.
"Lady Suda, Mister Darvo requests an emergency audience with you."
"What is the emergency?" she asked.
"One of his valuable associates has just gone MIA on Mars. Mister Darvo has lost all contact with him."
Cephalon Sudan let out a rare groan.
"Allow me to guess: did that rogue Grineer manage to get himself in trouble once more?"
"That is indeed the case," her subordinate replied. "However, in light of recent events, one could not blame him for it. Nobody expected such a violent war to suddenly erupt between Grineer and Corpus."
It was rare for Suda to show such human-like emotion in her voice, so Harry could not help his curiosity:
"What Grineer? I didn't know Mister Darvo worked with them."
"His name is Clem. He is a member of the Steel Meridian Syndicate, an organisation formed by Grineer defectors," Suda explained. Anticipating his next question, she continued, "Most Grineer are bioengineered to obey the commands of their Twin Queens, but occasionally, some clones are born with a genetic flaw that grants them the capacity for self-determination. Clem is one such individual as well. He and Mister Darvo have formed a close-knit relationship that goes beyond that of contractor and contractee, bordering on the realm of friendship."
AN: For those of you who wish to support me, you can find Chapters 6, 7, and 8 ahead of schedule on ptr on, at /grumpywolf.
Check out my other Harry Potter fics and HP crossovers:
- [Living for Tomorrow]: AU, older Harry. Harry/Fleur pairing.
- [The Nexus]: Harry Potter/Nier Automata (it is a Sci-Fi, post-apocalyptic fic)
- [Emissary]: Harry Potter/Justice League (Harry Potter/Powergirl pairing)
PS: If you are also a fan of Naruto, I have quite a few other fics for you:
- [Samsara]: Naruto/Bleach (my newest fic, Naruto/Rangiku pairing)
- [Orcbane]: Naruto/World of Warcraft (Naruto/Sylvanas)
- [Hope in Ruination] Naruto/League of Legends (Naruto/Ahri)
- [Eclipsed]: Naruto/Justice League (Naruto/Starfire/Supergirl throuple)
- [The Renegade]: Naruto/Konan. Complete
Until next time!