If you want to help me financially, you can do it on https://www.patreon.com/NeverluckySMILE
At the same time that the Sentinel Project was being shut down with extreme prejudice (and magma) Mystique and Destiny had been out in the field. Technically anyway, considering this was a spy mission they weren't exactly roughing it. Indeed, they had booked one of the better hotels in Anchorage, Alaska for this mission. Irene stayed in their rooms most of the day, conversing via their communicators with Camelot, in the form of Sir Dennis, who as overall intelligence director was keenly interested in their mission, while Raven went out and got to grips with the mission.
That mission at present, as Harry had ordered, was to find Magneto. Dennis had been able to use her powers and hacking skills to find a trail of supplies leaving from Anchorage to what he thought was someplace further north, or at least he thought it was going towards the north. After a few days here Raven didn't share that opinion any longer.
As she walked back to the hotel , Raven ducked into a public restroom, going in as a scruffy dockworker, but coming out in her current guise. This time she had chosen to become a male. The persona was called Dominic Sinclair, a retired lawyer who was interested in hiking, biking, and all outdoor activities hence why 'he' was here in Alaska, along with his wife Margaret. Said wife was not nearly in as good a shape as Dominic, but was in decent enough shape to not look out of place when they went around together.
Making sure she wasn't being tailed was as simple as breathing to Raven, and as Dominic walked on, looking around the city like a tourist would, she let her mind concentrate instead on what she had discovered here. Dennis had been able to trace the supplies, high-end tech gear bought from various sources, not in bulk but in small quantities, brought together overland only to lose it in Canada.
Raven had rediscovered that trail here by physically following one of the trucks carrying one such load over several days before meeting Irene here, and had just finished placing several transmitters, which hopefully would give them an idea of where the transports were going. Those ships were all owned by different companies, ranging from Stark International to a local shipping company, but careful questioning of the crews told Raven none of them had any idea what they were shipping.
Indeed, it was there that Raven had her first real break; the crewmen couldn't think about their cargo, they simply couldn't concentrate on it at all, as if someone had put a mental block on them when it came to those supplies. Using that, Raven had questioned dozens of sailors over the past few days, discovering several other small loads of supplies. This gave her a general idea of what Magneto needed wherever the hell he was.
Wherever Magneto's held up, it's big, and really off the beaten path given the extremely eclectic list of supplies. Some of it makes me think he's setting up some kind of laboratory or at least enlarging one, some tells me he's building what amounts to a small town, the rest tells me he's out hunting in the jungle somewhere! That last at least means wherever the hell he's holed up it sure isn't north of here like Dennis thought.
Whatever the case the next part of this plan would need a lot more footwork than one individual could do. Those shipments disappeared out in the oceans, the ships returning empty. Through her careful discussions with the crews Raven knew that none of them had any memory except of making port at random docks in Russia or further down the coast in Canada.
Is it time to bring in one of the telepaths and start scanning minds? she thought. That would be a last-ditch effort, since given what I've already discovered I know at least one of Magneto's telepaths is involved in this effort, and messing with their minds in any way would tell him we're on his trail. Nonetheless it's a thought for the future, if my scanners don't give us any information.
Raven would lay odds that those shipments never touched port anywhere, rather disappearing out in the ocean somewhere. That meant that if her tracers didn't provide any more data they'd have to put actual people on the ships, or in over watch in the sky. Which would mean devoting at least four, maybe more, flyers to the task given how quickly those ships spread out the moment they left dock, which they did all within a few hours.
Still, maybe there's some kind of magic solution.
By the time that thought had wound its way through Raven's brain 'he' was back to the entrance of the hotel, nodding at the receptionist as he entered, who smiled back. The elderly couple who had rented out the newlywed suite had become a hit with the staffers thanks to tipping very well and always cleaning up their rooms before going out for the day. "Is your wife feeling better Mr. Sinclair?"
"I hope so," said Raven, her voice gravelly and almost overly masculine, yet another small bit of the total package she had taken pains with. "I've been gone all day, so I don't know if she's over her migraine. If not, I'll be calling down to cancel our dinner reservations I'm afraid."
All trite and pro forma, Raven thought as she took the stairs up to their rooms, something again which was in keeping with her current persona. At the door to their rooms, 'Dominic' fiddled with the electronic key several times, a somewhat new technology that was of course fiddly as all things were once they got out to the general public. 'He' fiddled with it deliberately however, sliding it in three times and out, each time letting 'his' knuckles smack into the door, announcing her presence and that the coast was clear.
Irene opened the door at the third attempt, smiling and gesturing her inside. Unlike Raven Irene hadn't needed to change her appearance much to slip into her character. A pair of contact lenses, some color into her hair, and that was all. As soon as the doors closed she asked, "You found something?"
"We've certainly found the next stage in the trail. Frankly I think we're where Logan and Puck disappeared." They'd known for days that Logan had gone after Magneto, and thanks to Harry questioning Charles about it had even found out why.
Moving into the sitting area, Raven again shook her head as she thought of Logan and his disappearance. "A daughter, damn, who would've thought?! I doubt she's natural, given, whatever else he's ever been, Logan's never been the type to leave by blows around. But still, that would've been a major blow to his system."
"True enough," Irene replied dryly. "Still, there hasn't been any sign of either of them in this city." The question wasn't one, since Destiny had attempted to use her powers to discover if Logan was still in the city, looking around at the near future for any sign of him, and not seeing anything.
"Despite his penchant for thinking in straight lines, Logan's pretty good at the spy game, and Puck's no slouch either, especially with anything to deal with the black market or sea travel. Still, the next leg of this portion of the investigation isn't going to be up to us. Were you able to get any further hints with your powers today?"
"Yes, I used the ship names you came up with and traced their future as far forward as two months each. Because of that, I saw the supplies being offloaded, and sketched out some descriptions of the people doing it. One of them I recognize as young Toad, your description of him was quite accurate my love. Another one is Pietro I think, though he's let his hair grow out and has developed a tan."
Raven blinked in shock at that, and Irene shrugged ignorance, not understanding how out of character that seemed for Pietro, who had always taken care of his looks and had never been an outdoorsy person. "My vision was of them and a few others that I didn't recognize offloading the shipments of one of the ships onto a submarine of all things. But I'm sorry, one part of the ocean is as alike as all the others, I could not see any landmarks we could use to narrow our search."
"There were rumors during his attacks on nuclear subs in the Atlantic a few years back that Magneto had actually absconded with a Russian sub rather than destroy it like all the others. But the Russians of course didn't want to admit it," Raven murmured. "Still, using a sub to transport goods? Those things aren't that large, their capacity is horrible. Even with the amount of secrecy on all this there are better ways to transport supplies."
"I have no idea," Irene said with a shrug. "I was then…" she looked away and Raven frowned, noticing now that her friend was trembling slightly.
"Did you have another backlash from the future changing?" Raven asked, quickly moving to help Irene towards a chair over her protests. She now noticed that one of the sofas looked disturbed, and there were a few glasses sitting empty on the tea table.
"I'm fine, it wasn't nearly as violent as it was the first time, and apparently a calming draught helps me through it. I was actually relaying what I had discovered with my powers to Dennis when it hit, and he quickly got in contact with Dr. Druid who was able to use one of Potter's portkey things in reverse to get here, with some, although he did have words with me about not bringing any along in the first place. I'm fine now, really."
"Then I'm happy once again that we followed your suggestion of putting ourselves under the auspices of the owl," Raven said with feeling, remembering how badly shaken Irene had been on the cruise ship when the last backlash from the future changing had hit her. "Any hint of what caused it?"
Irene smiled brilliantly. "More than a hint! Check the news love!"
As Raven turned to turn on the TV, Irene went on. "Potter and Frost's plans for the Sentinels have worked! Those weapons that would have been used to hunt down mutants, will no longer be used for that purpose. The Sentinels as a design are simply gone from the future, taking with it all of the dangers of misappropriation which caused several of the darker events I could see in the future. The third path into the future is stronger now, far, far stronger."
"So strong it has now made the other two main paths, Magneto's and Charles', almost fade entirely, but not quite. Xavier's path is now also almost entirely tied into it too. That means my powers of seeing the far future might become more accurate soon as the reverberations of this latest change have time to settle."
"That makes me glad that Harry's already stated he doesn't want to use your visions at all," Raven said bluntly. "Your far viewing takes way too much out of you."
"I know," Irene said with a faint smile, but it faded quickly. "From what I can see the path is still not an easy one, it is filled with violence and even war. But little of it is directed against mutant kind, save from other mutants alas. Still, mutants will no longer be in danger of extinction by the hands of our brother humans. And with the world the way it is, that is the best I could ever hope for."
Later that night Raven was not nearly as happy as her lover. After Irene had fallen asleep, she called Dr. Druid to get his opinion on what had happened. When told what Irene had told her about her episode, Dr. Druid shook his head. "Raven, she didn't have an 'episode' or whatever she wishes to call it, she had a heart attack."
When he saw Raven's panicked expression he went on hurriedly. "It wasn't a bad one, and the calming drought helped her immensely, so there shouldn't be any side effects. This time." He went on sternly. "Irene's old Raven, it's that simple, and using her powers when something like whatever this was happens shocks her body to an extent that in action looks rather like a defibrillator on high."
He shook his head slowly. "I gave her a near-to-full physical after she recovered, and while in excellent shape for her age, Irene's body is simply beginning to give out despite your help." From there the doctor went on gently, talking about ways to help Irene, but Raven barely heard them, forced to once again realize that she had a scant few years left with the woman she loved. It was a bitter pill to swallow, and having had time to get used to it made it no easier.
OOOOOOO
Leaving Emma to examine the prisoner's minds while they were unconscious, Harry first contacted Sage, asking if she needed an evac. Charles' spy however replied in the negative, she was safe enough, and had already sent out some anonymous hints to various authorities, from SHIELD to the NSA, about what Shaw and Emma had found about Buckman's role in the Sentinel Project, as well as some facts that hinted at Shaw being involved in a peripheral fashion, but nothing concrete. She did say however that she would need their help later that evening.
Harry decided to leave that in Sage's seemingly capable hands and turned back to matters at hand. He spoke to the teams, complimenting all of the Custodes and X-men on their roles in the battle, in particular the X-Men who had done magnificently.
Scott however was looking to one side even as the others responded to Harry's compliments. "What are you going to do with that?" he asked with distaste, gesturing to the body of Sebastian Shaw.
"His mind is well, gone according to Emma, I'm no expert in telepathic combat so I don't know what that exactly entails." Harry shrugged. "But his body is still alive, and I'll… dispose of it soon." He looked over at Rogue who blanched realizing where this conversation was going to go. "But I wondered if you might want to drain his powers like you did the Juggernaut? I realize that's a bit of a morally ambiguous question at this point."
Rogue looked over at Scott, who moved over quickly, enfolding her in a hug. "You don't have to if you don't want to Rogue."
"You and I both know I do," Rogue muttered into his shoulder.
Spyke and Kurt looked on, while Piotr frowned, then shrugged looking over at the others from Harry's team who all shrugged and turned. This was an internal X-Men matter, and none of them felt it appropriate to speak up.
Betsy left entirely, uninterested in the fate of Shaw's body, and not really understanding why draining a brain dead body of its power posed a moral quandary in the first place. She was much more interested in the still living, and went to aid Emma in looking into their prisoner's mental states.
Behind her Piotr and Amara moved over to a far corner of High Note's ready room, pulling together two chairs to talk quietly together. Amara leaned on Piotr's shoulder as they spoke about the recent action, with the former Russian farm boy helping her through once again having had to use her powers to kill, the fate of the semi-werewolf mutant Wolfram bothering her even though she knew the man had been a monster in many ways.
As an X-Man however Evan did have a say in this and looked over at Harry, peeling off his mask at the same time. "Since watching videos of the battle up in Montréal you lot fought in we've decided we need more firepower. The professor and Scott were debating about asking you to start kitting us out, but I assume that's in the pipeline anyway?"
Harry shrugged, and Spyke gestured toward Shaw's body. Given what Emma Frost, and Evan shivered at the thought of that ice queen of a woman, had done to the man's mind it was indeed a body, despite the fact that the chest was still rising and falling. A vegetative state in the strictest sense of the word. "Then I'd vote for Rogue to drain him. His power was incredible, and I think she could put it to much better use than he ever did."
"It's not your place to say that!" Scott said looking up from where he was hugging Rogue. "It's not any of our places! This isn't about the team this is about a moral question. This is like, it's like grave robbing, and I'm not going to order Rogue to do it, nor am I going to let anyone else browbeat her about it."
"I would vote against it, because of that," Kurt said, shaking his head. "It is disrespectful to the dead, and rather ghoulish. Whatever Shaw was in life, in death he deserves at least some respect."
The X-men were quiet for a moment, and Harry left them to it, moving over to speak quietly to Ororo, who had just come in from changing out of her uniform, having gotten some gore on it when she had killed the energy vampire Trevor Fitzroy. He told her what was going on, then gestured over to Amara and Piotr. "We'll cancel training tomorrow of course. We need to give Amara some time to recover from this, just like with Sabertooth, she'll need time to recover and I think after a fight we should make it a policy to give the team a day off if we can."
Ororo kissed Harry's jaw lightly, nodding her head. "Some time at the beach with the children will help I'm sure. There is nothing better to help you get over the unpleasant side of our calling than in the reaffirming of life. Not only does it heal the soul, but it reminds us exactly what we fight for in the first place. "
"Agreed, but we've still got to deal with the aftermath of this mission for now. I hate to ask, but could you talk to Emma, get started on anything that she took from Shaw's mind we need to move on immediately, money caches, dead-man switch scenarios, that kind of thing? I've already sent Sandman down to Emma's mansion via Cory to deal with one issue there. I'll talk to Amara for a bit, that should give Rogue enough time to think about her decision about Shaw's body, then talk to Emma about our prisoners, and follow up with Sage."
"Very well, I will take on this task for you my Harry. But tonight, if at all possible, I would like the three of us to have some time to ourselves, most importantly in bed." Ororo smiled at Harry as she stepped back, holding up the hand on which she wore her panja-style ring, which had never left her person since Harry had given it to her.
Harry nodded, his eyes soft and his mouth twitching at her little joke as he leaned forward and gently kissed her palm before watching as she walked off. Yet even as she did, a feeling of, not loneliness, but wrongness went through him. Jean… Harry missed Jean more with every passing day. Even somehow knowing that he would feel it if anything happened to her wasn't enough to remove the aching hole Jean's absence left in his life. And he knew Ororo and Emma both missed her just as much.
But life goes on, and I have other things to worry about. Harry thought with a sigh, moving over to Piotr and Amara. Thanks to Piotr laying the groundwork helping Amara both now and before they had left the Sentinel's production center however, Harry only had to give Amara a few words of encouragement this time, a sharp uptick from the time he had to comfort Amara after she had killed Sabertooth in Paris.
Surprisingly Rogue also came to a decision far faster than Harry had expected. He supposed that was a measure of her growing maturity, but wasn't about to say so aloud. "Ah'll do it. Yah all're right it does feel ghoulish, but we do need the power upgrade if'n we're gonna hang with the big boys, and frankly, Ah'm already this team's tank, anything that can help me in that, well just imagine what this guy's power could do on top of my Juggernaut strength!"
Kurt still looked dubious about the entire thing, but Evan and Scott both looked much more supportive, hugging the girl around the shoulders for a moment.
Harry gestured towards the body, and Rogue stepped forward, touching the bracelet she wore on one wrist, turning off the array that Harry had created months ago to help regulate her powers. With that done she reached down, touching Shaw's chest, closing her eyes.
It took Rogue a while, but eventually she began to feel as if she wasn't getting anything, she couldn't describe it any more accurately than that, and she stood back, shaking her head slightly. "Whatever Frost did ta his mind, it destroyed the memories which would've been transferred to me when ah drained his powers. Got to say Ah'm happy for that."
"You sure it worked?" Evan asked, only to wince as Scott glared at him, while Harry carefully hid a smile. Who would have thought Scott would ever be the more empathic in comparison to, well anyone really.
"Positive. Ah don't think Ah drained him entirely, but Ah pulled out as much as Ah could. Yah can tell he's not feeling good right now, look, he even looks weaker." Indeed, Shaw, who always looked like a robust, powerfully built man, now looked positively haggard, much of his muscle mass gone, and his skin pallid.
Harry nodded, touching her shoulder gently over her Juggernaut armor. "I know that was tough, but honestly I think you and the rest of the X-Men will find it extremely helpful in the future. Sometimes you have to do things that are distasteful for the good of the team, and I'm proud to know you were willing to do so."
Rogue nodded, and Harry left the younger men and women to recuperate, smiling slightly as he noticed Amara and Piotr were now ensconced in a loveseat. He grabbed Shaw's body, heaving it up onto his shoulders and exiting High Note out into space.
He watched as the body started to asphyxiate, waited a few more moments, his eyes cold, until the process was complete. The body was now dead to go along with the mind that once inhabited it. With that, Harry summoned up a magical shield around it, and as he had done to Selene's body in London cremated it with a fire spell, not Blackfyre this time thankfully, just a simple fire spell. With his mutant power gone Shaw's body no longer had any ability to deal with the fire that consumed it.
A moment later, Sebastian Shaw, Black King of the Hellfire Club was nothing more than ash on the solar wind. Harry stood there for a moment in the dark of space staring at where the body had been, before turning his back resolutely and heading back inside. He stopped to check in with Sage once more, then Dennis, before returning Wyatt to California and then taking Carol back to Camelot.
Being older than the others, neither of the marksmen needed to unwind as much before going back to their lives, and both had things they needed to do. In Wyatt's case, Madame Harkness was expecting him home. Johnny and Ben could not clean to save their lives, and Harkness refused to let the house elf Harry had sent to aid her do everything. He also said something about the FF having guests, but Harry didn't catch it at the time.
Carol wanted to get back to work editing the first draft of the Spacegoer's Almanac, which was her name for the learning unit her team was creating to teach people how to go about working and living in space. Given his own monstrous amount of interest in this manner, Harry had no issue with her priorities.
Indeed, he stopped in with her to go over it himself, in particular the suit, which was already entering the trial period. By the time he returned several hours had passed, and the teens had finished decompressing and were ready to head home save for Scott, who was pacing outside the infirmary where the prisoners had been stored, a small infirmary Harry had installed on High Note months back.
The two telepaths had finished the diagnosis of the prisoners, and when Harry poked his head into the room, Betsy was leaning back in her chair tiredly, looking more exhausted despite not having been working on this as long as Emma. Knowing her own limitations, the purple-haired Brit gestured to Emma to start.
Emma however shook her head, the move weary, but exultant. Indeed despite her seeming tiredness, Emma looked as if a huge weight had been removed from her shoulders. The Sentinel Project had loomed in Emma's mind, a deadly threat to her and all she held dear, now that it was gone she was feeling almost euphoric. Even having to send off Sandman to deal with a bomb in her own home, set there by Shaw several days ago, could not dent that feeling, especially considering the man behind said plan was now dead and dusted. The only thing that would make this better was if Jean was here to share in the victory…
But when she spoke, Emma ignored both her feelings of happiness, maudlin thoughts and the knowledge she had gleaned from Sebastian's mind to deal with more immediate matters. "Get Scott in here, I think he's got a right to hear this first part if anyone does."
Instantly Scott was in the room, and Harry scowled, castigating himself for not having thought about what the X-men team leader had been going through. I noticed Rogue's issue and Amara's but missed that entirely.
"How's my brother doing? Can you break whatever mental control was on him that allowed Shaw to hoodwink him? I can't imagine Alex would've gone along willingly at any point of the recruitment process, if it was anything like what we interrupted with Sam and Paige."
"We've removed what we can, and I have to say Scott that your brother has a remarkably strong will. Also, 'hoodwink'? Please." Emma replied smiling in a way that she hoped would ease Scott's tension. "He'd already begun to break a lot of the control over him or at least we think so. We assume that Shaw had Empath create an artificial loyalty to him within all of his Hellions, an emotional need for his approval and to follow his orders. But Alex had already moved that loyalty almost entirely to Polaris. It's a very personal loyalty; the two of them are lovers and have been so for months now."
Without thinking about it Scott whistled, looking over to the very pretty green haired girl. She was no Rogue but still... Way to go little bro! "All right I can see that. So does that mean as long as she's alright Alex won't attack us when he wakes up?"
"That depends on Polaris," Emma said with a sigh. "Like I said, he's moved that artificial loyalty to her, and loves her. It's an irrational sort of loyalty as love often is, but it's mixed up with the love so much I can't tell where the, call it imprinting I suppose, starts and where the actual love begins. Given time away from anyone attempting to manipulate his mind, I think it will slowly but eventually resolve itself. I think that Alex will be fine."
"And Domino?" Harry asked looking over at the other unconscious mercenary. I wonder how Nikolai is going to react when he finds out that we let her live? He was rather incensed at how he lost their brief one-on-one match in Kentucky.
"Domino was never subjected to any mental meddling, and indeed her mental defenses are such that any attempt at that would have to have been overt rather than covert," Betsy replied, having been the one to look into the older mercenary's mind. "I scanned her memories, and she was loyal to Shaw for a different reason. One we might take care of before waking her up. She apparently had a lover, a FBI analyst of some kind who was incredible at making predictions based on very little data before being targeted by someone else in the organization."
Harry nodded, conjuring chairs for him and the others before leaning back in his thoughtfully. "Were you able to pull what we need from Shaw's mind? You had me send Sandman off, is there any other hot potato we need to know about?"
"No other emergencies save for the one I've sent Sandman to take care of. But as for the rest, bolt holes, emergency reserves of funds with assumed names hidden in this or that bank, black market and criminal connections, certain 'hospitals' where his cyborg soldiers were modified, the factory where he created his weapons, which incidentally is almost fully automated. I've got all of that, and can even think of several ways to point them out to the authorities if need be."
Emma let that sink in for a moment before going on. "We'll need to decide how much you and I should go after but in my opinion we should only take over the weapons factory and the two largest money caches while leaving everything else save for his espionage network, which I assume Sage already controls. With your space-based plans, his metallurgy and mining industries won't be worth much in a year or so. And right now it would be more work than it's worth to vet it of potential internal threats. Which doesn't even consider how closely the Federal Government's going to be looking at his holdings soon enough."
"Agreed, and owning them openly would tie me into the American economy, way more than I want to be just yet," Harry murmured. "Though that doesn't touch on the Hellfire Club or its resources…"
Both of them shared rather evil grins at that, but after a moment Harry nodded. "Back to the original topic, we'll keep Domino unconscious for now. Maybe one of the things Sage needs help with tonight is finding Domino's lover. Or is he the type to bolt once he sees the news?"
"No, he's the type to stay put until he knows what's happening, and then bolt with precision. At least that's my impression from what I pulled from Domino's mind." Emma replied.
Harry nodded but with that out of the way Harry looked sharply at two telepaths. He could tell when people were trying not to talk about something unpleasant. "All right, we've had the good news, now give us the bad."
Emma winced, but nodded. "I've looked over Sunfire's mind, and I have to say it's pretty damn bad. His loyalty to Sebastian is abnormal, almost beyond anything that could have been contrived by a telepath at all. It seems as if he was given an alternate personality almost, but sifting through them I was eventually able to find the mental scars of traumatic memories, that seem to have broken him." She sighed sadly. "He had a girlfriend, you see."
"You said that once didn't you Amara, that Roberto had a girlfriend?" Harry said looking over at the Brazilian Greek.
"Yes, I didn't know either of them very well, I actually had only met them a few times, but going by what his father said they seemed serious." Amara replied, frowning slightly while beside her Betsy winced. She had just remembered that she had volunteered to look into that, but she had never actually gotten the chance, other threats and diverse events had knocked it clear out of her mind.
"The memory is of her dying, though who is involved is very muddied. The memory itself has been distorted, warped, and manipulated to a degree that is simply awful. I can't tell what's been altered and what hasn't. Worse, I'm getting a distinct impression that Roberto might have allowed this false personality to overcome his own willingly. As if the trauma of that memory was so bad he just wanted to leave everything from his past life behind."
"мой Бог (My God)," Piotr murmured shaking his head. "Will you be able to help him out of it?"
"I don't know," Emma said honestly. You'll have to get Charles up here to give his opinion on it." Jean might be able to do it if we could wait for her, but even that's doubtful. Emma thought, pushing away the sadness the thought of her missing friend/lover invoked.
Betsy spoke up hesitantly. "I've talked to Charles about his work with Xian and Steed, so I can guess what he'd say." Charles had been left behind with the other prisoners. It would have looked too suspicious to have him disappear only to show up alive and well later.
At a small gesture from Emma, Betsy continued. "Normally fixing someone's mind like this, you want them awake and conscious, helping you along, that's what's been taking Charles so long with first Xian and then Steed, neither of their minds were capable of helping the process along. We can't predict Sunspot's response to anyone's meddling with his mind, what his response to waking up surrounded by people he thinks his enemies will be, what Shaw's death will do to his mind."
She glanced at Emma then blurted out the first thing she had discovered when delving into Roberto's mind with Emma. "His new personality, it looked to Shaw as a father figure!"
"I don't know enough about telepaths myself sir, but I've read about PTSD. That's aided by being around people and places you know, family members and loved ones yes?" Amara asked. "If we can find his father or the rest of his family, would that help?"
"At times," Emma said, shaking her head. "At other times it only exacerbates it because you can't leave your old memories behind in order to calm down like you think you should and it creates a tension in your thought processes from the two mental states."
Betsy shook her head resolutely. "I think we should move Roberto into the X-mansion, and keep him there sedated for now. Charles is the only one of us who could even have a chance at this." Emma nodded agreement, she had the power but not the knowledge, and Betsy went on. "How long can you keep Sunspot asleep?"
"As long as you want," Harry said with a sigh. I know intellectually that none of us could have stopped this, that Da Costa was already under Sebastian's control long before Sebastian himself was even on our radar, but still… "We'll do what we can for him obviously."
"Polaris is in the same boat, hence why I am uncertain how Alex will eventually react," Emma said softly. "She was subjected to even more of Empath's mental distortion than Sunspot and there were some very disturbing connotations there."
"Disturbing like what Empath started priming Paige for?" Scott said angrily, cracking his knuckles, remembering what the southern girl had said about the feelings of attraction toward him Empath had begun to push into Paige's mind before Piotr and Scott had stepped in. For someone who's eye-beams were his most deadly weapon that was an incongruous act, but still the meaning was very clear. If Empath wasn't already dead Scott and Sam Guthrie would have to fight it out to see who would kill him again.
"No thankfully. There doesn't seem to be anything sexually subversive in her mind thankfully, if anything it's the opposite towards Alex. A feeling of ownership there which isn't very healthy, but again whether or not that's natural is too fine a distinction for me to see."
Scott blanched, crossing his hands together in front of his chest. "Too much information."
"You missed the part where I said it wasn't healthy didn't you?" Emma replied dryly, shaking her head before going on. "No, her mind has been twisted in an altogether different fashion. I think Polaris was being primed as a weapon against someone, possibly Magneto before Empath died. The process wasn't finished, but the scars are there, and very deep."
At that point Ororo interrupted them, having returned from her own jobs a few moments before. "Harry, everyone, Charles is on the line, he's been released and is waiting for pickup, though he also says he's being trailed. He's using the magic mirror so his communications is clear, and I thought his expertise might be needed on the topic of our prisoners."
"Right as ever Ororo," Harry said, turning to look at where Ororo stood in the doorway. "I'll set up a large mirror and we can get his view on this." Moments later he had done so, and the two telepaths present shared what they had learned with their more learned counterpart. Charles quickly agreed to look after Alex, Roberto and Polaris, whose real name was Lorna Dane. He also backed up what Betsy had said about how they'd have to go about trying to heal the damage done to them.
Betsy shook her head, sharing something that had most disturbed her about what had been done to Polaris, though Emma hadn't reacted to it much. "The worst part is, there are childhood memories in there that indicates Polaris thinks that Magneto's her father! There are definitely some connotations there of someone matching Magneto's description in her mind as a young child."
Emma nodded, shrugging her shoulders. "Again, either those memories were embedded in her so deep I haven't found the 'hook' so to speak, or they're real."
"That mystery at least we can solve easily," Charles said. "A simple blood test will be able to tell her parentage."
Harry sat bolt upright staring at the speaker where Charles' voice was coming from. "Wait, you have a copy of Magneto's blood!?" The number of magical rituals and spells that Harry could use that blood for in order to find Magneto raced across his mind, only to stop as Charles replied.
"No, just a reading of his DNA, I wanted to know if Wanda was Magneto's real daughter, or if that was something implanted."
Harry frowned, going off on a tangent for a moment. "Is she?"
"Oh yes, Wanda and Pietro are both siblings by blood, and definitely Erik's children. That family reunion is going to be one to watch from a safe distance… say… orbit," Charles replied, his tone bone dry. Despite the help she'd gotten on her control Wanda still hated both her brother and father for abandoning her, and thanks to those lessons she now had the power to make them sorry about it if she ever met them.
Harry frowned, going back to the original topic. "I wish I had a better handle about mental disciplines like telepathy. Charles, what do you recommend here?"
In the mirror Charles smiled. One of the things he liked about Harry was that he was able to admit to ignorance and ask for professional advice without losing an iota of his command authority. That command authority and some other issues which had recently cropped up, the way Harry's public persona had taken the battle to the mutant and human supremacists about their beliefs, the good he'd already accomplished for mutant/human equality including this latest adventure which, Charles knew, would have blindsided the X-men without Harry's connections, had caused an… issue that he and Scott had to talk to Harry about.
But right now, Charles simply answered the question Harry had asked. "We should keep Alex and Polaris together. It's obvious that their relationship is one of the things that was keeping them centered as Hellions, and once we start to repair Empath's evil, they'll need that link desperately. We can set them up in the mansion easily enough, though I'm afraid we'll have to figure out a way to nullify their powers for a time just in case they lash out when I wake them up."
"So you definitely do want to wake them up?" Emma asked, frowning thoughtfully, and at Harry's look she shrugged. She knew she was a powerful telepath, but her skills lay in telepathic combat, in inflicting pain and protecting herself and others rather than healing damage done. "I'm not a trained psychologist, I can make my way through a person's mind, but I can't understand how he's thinking or why. It's the same problem I ran into with Banner, only not nearly as regimented in this case."
Harry nodded, turning back to the mirror with a faint smile. "This is your show Charles."
"Yes, I want to wake them up," Charles said simply. "I want them both awake, first Alex, with Scott ready to intervene if need be, I remember Alex recognized him during the battle, so he should be able to prove we're friendly. We'll start talking him through what happened, get Alex to realize he was manipulated, then talk to him about Ms. Dane, his love for her, and use him as a go between to start making progress with Ms. Dane in turn."
Betsy and Emma shared a look and Betsy spoke up cautiously. "Polaris had no hint of the fact she was being manipulated emotionally or mentally, she honestly believes that she joined up with Sebastian out of her own free will in order to promote mutant supremacy and we can't tell if that's a false feeling or not."
"That will be difficult to dislodge, but regardless the process will need her to be a participant every step of the way," Charles replied.
"So something to inhibit her magnetic powers is a must," Harry mused. "Or maybe preparing a room with nothing metal inside? Hmm… not certain I could come up with anything that could block her powers in any kind of set time frame, I haven't come up with anything like that to use against Magneto either, and I fought him months ago."
"Not Alex's," Scott said firmly. "If something like that happened to me and I couldn't use my powers, I'd react violently however I could regardless of your reasons."
"He's your brother, so we'll go with your opinion there," Harry said with a nod. "And Sunspot?"
Both telepaths physically present actually winced visibly before Emma spoke up. "If his girlfriend is really dead, and if some of the images we saw are accurate, that will be the toughest of all because Roberto, the real Roberto Da Costa buried underneath his Hellion persona, won't want to come out."
"It will be almost as bad as Steed in a way," Betsy nodded. "So the first thing we need to do is figure out whether or not his girlfriend is alive, get in touch with his family, see what happens there and do it discreetly. I'll volunteer for that, I'm the one that should have already been following that idea up weeks back."
"I as well," Amara said. "I feel a little guilty about this too, if I had pushed Jean to look up Sunspot after we first met this might've been avoided." Piotr frowned at that and made to open his mouth but Amara smiled at him, shaking her head and he subsided reluctantly.
Harry nodded decisively. "You'll start on that the day after tomorrow, Betsy, Amara and Piotr I think this will be a mission for the three of you. For now, I think it's time to get you back to the mansion and Camelot. Scott, you'll be in charge of very publicly going down to pick up Charles alright?"
The bespectacled young man nodded, and Harry called for Cory. The house-elf popper specialist teleported the remaining Custodes first, before coming back for the prisoners. As the teens began to disappear one after another the room was silent then Charles spoke up again from where he was getting out of his wheelchair into the bed of his hotel room.
It would be at least half a day before Scott arrived to pick him up, and given his shadows and the amount of attention he and the other kidnap victims were under he couldn't just disappear. Charles sighed, rubbing one hand over his bald pate. "The public aftermath is going to be horrible won't it?"
"Not from our perspective it won't," Harry said shaking his head. "Those Sentinels killed people in that crowd, security guards and were seen to kidnap people on live television! A worse propaganda disaster for Kelly and his political agenda could not be imagined. There's going to be backlashes for it, but I don't see how anyone rational could think that a mutant was behind this. Of course, I realize that a lot of racists are irrational, but at the very least those who were heretofore undecided will take a good hard look at what fanaticism of any stripe can cause."
"There's one loose end still out there," Emma said seriously. "Buckman."
"Whatever else he is Nick Fury isn't incompetent," Harry said, shaking his head. "I'll wager by this point Buckman isn't our problem anymore."
Charles moved himself with the ease of long practice from his chair to the hotel bed, opening a telepathic link with Scott. After a moment the younger man nodded physically, and Charles turned back to the communication mirror. "If Scott and I could talk to you for a moment Harry before you go."
Harry answered in the affirmative, while Charles frowned wondering where to begin then shrugged. I'd rather do this in person, but in a way I suppose it's easier this way.
"Mutant equality has been my dream for as long as I realized that I wasn't alone with my powers, that there was a small but growing portion of humanity that were born with powers and abilities beyond the norm. I have devoted my life to it since then, and I believed for a long time that I was on the right path. I created the X-Men to be a symbol for that equality, hoping we could fight against those mutant supremacists and those hate groups out there on our own. I hoped that simply becoming an example of how to use our powers appropriately was enough, that words and noble deeds would be enough."
"I know now that it is not. You and yours Harry, have done more for the cause of mutant equality in a matter of eight months than I have done in several years. This latest mission is simply one of many examples, and though there will always be those too blinded by hate and what is different to see reality, you and your company have done even more good. At first I had hoped to retain my own and the X-Men's independence from you despite our friendship and being on the same side, but I realize now that is naïve of me.
"The X-Men and I still want to operate as an independent unit Harry, since America needs a team that can concentrate on it as much as possible while your Custodes handle issues elsewhere and possibly more importantly your plans for outer space," Scott said breaking in and waving off Cory who had been about to pop out with him.
The house-elf frowned but waited impatiently, actually hopping from one foot to another, but Scott went on unhurriedly. "But frankly you and yours have created a logistic and strategic resource that we would be fools not to tie ourselves to. And the mansion itself, with the high school nearby, can serve as a place for those teenage mutants that don't want to join either team, freeing more space at the Avalon Academy for the younger set."
Harry smiled, realizing this was simply Charles and Scott formally acknowledging a fact that had been a reality for quite some time now. "I understand and I agree, the X-Men could do a lot more good if they kept both their autonomy but were able to call upon Custodes resources. The magic arrays built into your suits are just the start, we can make those better and outfit all of you with diverse weapons and armor at this point, which I know was sort of left by the wayside after I left the mansion. I also realize that admitting things like this must've been really hard Charles, and I respect you for speaking out about it."
Charles sighed. "I'm not certain if I was ever cut out for the role I thought myself, the'leader' of mutant equality. I'm much happier dealing with, well, issues like young Xian, or with those new troubled souls. I'll leave the day-to-day running of the X-Men themselves to Scott, devote myself to those three, and the running of the mansion as a boarding house, and…"
He chuckled rather evilly for a moment. "Making certain that our newcomers keep to the high academic standards that the school for gifted youngsters is known for, for some that is going to be quite a bit of work."
Harry nodded, smiling at both men. Scott had grown in the time Harry had known him from a angst-ridden teen thrust into a position he wasn't ready for no matter how hard he worked at it, to a good man and an excellent team leader.
And Charles, Charles had just proven that whatever his faults, was not like Dumbledore, as Harry had once feared. He could learn from his mistakes, listen to other people and, just as importantly, follow someone else. Albus had always considered his own opinion and thoughts far superior to anyone else's, and the idea of him following anyone else was laughable.
Scott and Harry left to let Charles discuss with Emma as to whether or not he would need Emma's help in the future with the trio, while Scott and Harry got down to nuts and bolts about what this would mean in the future before Harry had to go off to meet Sage. While elsewhere events were proceeding apace.
OOOOOOO
Edward Buckman had been at the Hellfire Club, hidden in the king's room of the club, watching the goings on down below through the one way mirrors while a TV showed Kelly's rally directly below that. He wanted to watch the news hit the other club members, and wanted to see the rally as it went on.
He had frowned occasionally during it, shaking his head sadly. Kelly is too heavy-handed, the fix is far too obvious. What Paris would say about… That thought chopped off, and he shook his head, speaking aloud into the room. "Enough, she left me remember, she didn't care enough about her own species to see the threat mutant kind poses! I'm better off without her."
With that he turned back to continue watching as the debate went on, smiling as the Sentinels appeared. That smile slid off his face with a speed that light would have envied however as the Sentinels shouted their warnings, and moved into the crowd.
What the hell is going on! This is not anything like I was promised! Standing up quickly Edward began to pace around the small room, frowning angrily as another security guard was incinerated by a Sentinel's palm beam.. I've poured so much money into the Sentinel project. But despite how well that's been hidden, I'd have to bet heavily on that being found out, especially with incentive like this.
Whatever I do I have to leave the country now immediately! I have to figure out a way to distance myself from this fiasco whatever the Feds can find once they start looking seriously, damn Fury and SHIELD anyway! But I can't do that if I'm in jail. With that Edward turned quickly and rang the underground parking lot, ordering his driver to ready the limo.
About an hour later Edward was at the airfield on his personal plane already working his laptop, hunting down and figuring out ways to disavow knowledge of any connection between his companies and the Sentinel project. The electronic trail was easy enough to start destroying. That left the materials trail, and that would be much harder. Still Edward had several plans already thought up for that by the time his plane began to coast along the runway. Then it stopped, and the intercom went on.
"Sir, we can't get clearance to take off, we'll be waiting here for a while, so you might want to..."
"What!?" Edward shouted. He stormed up to the front of them airplane glaring at the pilots. "You know how many billions of dollars are riding on this deal, I have to get to Italy as soon as possible!" Of course Italy would just be the first part of his journey but unlike Obadiah Stane or even Sebastian Shaw, Edward had never told any of his personal workers anything about his dealings withTrask. He never took any of his workers into his confidence completely, just enough for them to perform their jobs competently.
The airplane pilot was a good man, who had been flying for over 30 years before being hired by Edward. "That's fine by us sir, but we can't get clearance, it's nothing on our end."
"Can't get clearance to leave the country, or can't get clearance to take off?" Edward asked.
"To take off, sir. Only emergency airplanes are being allowed to take off, and those are apparently being trailed by F-16's. All other planes all over America have been grounded, a blanket order from some kind of security agency."
Edward paled dramatically. "What was the name of this agency?"
At that point the copilot gasped suddenly pointing out of the windows ahead of them. Several dozen black vans had pulled up in front and around where the plane was stopped, and men in black suits which practically screamed federal agents were getting out. Others were hiding themselves behind the vans, as two men moved forward. One of them pulled out a bullhorn, putting it to his lips. "Edward Buckman? This is SHIELD, I'm agent Smith, this is Agent Jones. We'd like a word with you. Could you please exit the plane?"
OOOOOOO
Sage had swiftly gotten away from the bodyguards that Sebastian Shaw routinely set upon her, disappearing into Seattle, Washington with an ease that was well beyond what Sebastian had considered her capable of. She met Harry at a small café, and the two of them quickly disappeared from the minds of those around them, ascending into the sky. Staring around her from the top of the magic carpet, the two of them swiftly moved out of Seattle proper into the suburbs occasionally dipping down to make certain they were going in the correct direction.
"Are you sure this is the safe house where Shaw was hiding Domino's boyfriend?" Harry asked, as they flew down. The two of them had talked throughout the flight, with Harry filling Sage in on what her job would be for him, which seemed to greatly interest her.
She surprisingly didn't need any assurance that Charles was on board with Harry's long term plans now, with her working directly for Harry, saying "I calculated a 62% chance that Charles would have to eat crow and realize that you had taken his place as the presumptive leader of mutant human coexistence from him, I'm happy to hear he was able to do so."
Moreover the woman had already agreed that she wasn't much of a field agent. Certainly she was a decent hand-to-hand combatant, and a decent enough marksman, but she was far more valuable behind the scenes, and she was eager to come to grips with Harry's companies, as well as his other computer based endeavors.
"Positive, while the safe house itself is off the books entirely, Domino's visits, and her missing from the Hellion's training centers, weren't. Despite the fact that she always comes disguised, there was a marked parity between her absences and random women of the same height and general build being seen via various security cameras driving rented cars in this suburb. Moreover, the owner of this house is never seen outside, and the property is known to belong to a reclusive writer of some kind by the locals."
Sage actually smirked, her ruby red lipstick making her lips stand out in her somewhat pale face almost as much as her red-tinted glasses and flowing black hair. "I've discovered recently that's actually a red flag. Every security agency I've looked at seems to use that cover to hide people they don't want found, like some kind of default setting."
Harry nodded, and the carpet finished its downward slide coming to rest outside the door of a decently well-kept but very small house, with a larger than normal garden in the back, the furthest property back in a small, private housing area. Once on the ground Harry waved his fingers briefly, bringing up a Protego around himself and Sage, before moving to ring the doorbell.
He actually thought that the individual they were here to see and take with them would bolt out the back door. But instead the man opened the door looking rather frazzled. He was a middle-aged man, with lank black hair down to his shoulders, a decent looking face and wide shoulders, but with the look of someone more at home in front of a computer than someone at home in the outdoors.
He looked between the two of them, Harry in his Guardian persona, and Sage dressed normally, in jeans and a good blouse. He didn't seem to display any surprise, and simply nodded, before asking calmly. "Is Domino alive?"
Harry's eyebrows rose, but he nodded. "Yes, you know who we are?"
"I know of you yes, and I've known for months about Ms. Sage here and the role she plays for Sebastian. I take it that your group and the Hellions fought, and that Sebastian came out the loser?" The man's tone was relatively even though somewhat resigned.
"Pretty much," Harry said with a nod. "It's a little more complicated than that though, have you been watching the news?"
"Ahhh, so you were involved in stopping the Sentinels, interesting. And what do Domino and I need to do for you to retain our freedom together?" The man asked, making no move to invite them inside.
Harry shrugged, and replied honestly, knowing that he and Sage were still covered by the Notice-me-Not charms he had covered them with when ascending on his carpet. "Nothing, I'm not going to hold your life over Domino's head, nor am I going to use it to try and pressure her in any direction. I am going to demand that you personally move house, with the authorities no doubt going through Shaw's holdings very closely they might find hints of your whereabouts."
At the man's incredulous expression Harry elaborated. "Domino really doesn't have a skill set that is irreplaceable to me, and having her on the team might cause some friction with a few of the others. And no offense, but in terms of a valuable tool set, the same goes for you."
In fact, if Emma had shared aloud what she had found Domino had done after the battle in Kentucky 'friction' would've been an understatement. The fact the Domino had activated kill switches embedded in her teammates showed a surfeit of empathy that Harry found disturbing, and the rest of his team would find violently offensive.
Harry could understand she had acted that way thinking it was necessary to protect her lover or herself from being treated similarly, but Emma had reported that Domino also had seen it as necessary. So while he wouldn't hold it against her, he certainly wasn't willing to have her around either. They'd be watched of course but both were used to that.
The man stared between them, and Harry could almost feel the strength of his thoughts for a moment. Then he smiled and nodded. "I hear that the United Kingdom is a lovely place to live. And I think I can convince Domino to hang up the uniform. When can I see her?"
"Not just yet," Sage said. "We have one more stop, over in North Dakota."
Thanks to the speed of the flying carpet, they traveled faster than any plane could have something which caused Sage to smile, though their new passenger didn't seem to enjoy the trip nearly as much. Eventually they began to once again have to descend to look at road signs, eventually coming to one which led them to a small permanent care hospital ward, part of a far larger complex. But this one building was set a little ways away from the others, not enough to bring attention to it, just enough to put it out of mind.
"Will there be guards inside?" Harry asked as they circled the building, their passenger unconscious at present. Just because Harry wanted to do this all in one go was no reason to forget the man wasn't exactly loyal to him or his cause. Indeed, he and Domino would both be quickly ensconced in their safe house, at no time would either have access to Camelot or High Note.
"No, there will only be three doctors, two geneticists and a physician. All of them are in Shaw's pockets, but now that Shaw has been removed, some of their own dirty laundry will come out. The local police and the administration here at this hospital will take care of them in due course."
"Would they know anything that could be useful to us?" Harry asked, not liking the slight emphasis Sage put on 'dirty laundry' but not seeing any recourse.
"No, Sebastian believed in compartmentalization. None of them knew anything except that this woman they were taking care of was a mutant that may hold the genetic secret to regeneration."
Harry nodded, and the two quickly entered. Sage had pulled up the map of the building, which told them there were three rooms for the doctors, a computer lab, a regular science lab, a genetics lab, and one room devoted to the care of the patient, who was someone that Ororo would no doubt have recognized: the blonde woman she had fought during the asteroid M affair, Candra.
All three of the doctors were in a small lounge, watching the news and muttering to themselves as Harry and Sage entered. Given the number of spells Harry and Sage had on them they didn't even notice the newcomers' arrival or look up when they walked past the open doorway towards the patient's room.
Sage immediately moved over to a computer, pulling up a log as Harry moved towards the bed, frowning down at the blonde woman who had pushed Ororo so hard. He felt her pulse, which was weak but there, looked around, then actually opened one of her eyes to look at the iris, which was rolled back in her skull. "So, the mental trauma from being constantly killed is still there."
"True, whatever her body's healing ability, her mind didn't profit," Sage said somewhat coolly looking up from the computer. She had backtracked this woman's history and knew several acts Candra had committed as part of the Brotherhood that set her teeth on edge.
But when she continued she simply informed Harry of what the computers told her. "They haven't been able to get any response from her, and judging by the experiments they've done on Candra's body, she should have woken up at least a dozen times over if she was ever going to. They stopped even using anesthesia within a week of her arrival, and there's a time here, a time stamp of five days three months after she arrived. For those five days nothing was officially recorded, but I bet the cameras would tell a very different story."
Harry nodded, tapping the restraints on the woman. "And yet for all of that they were taking no chances with this woman. There's something incredibly demeaning in this, even for what amounted to a dead body. Tell me, does this state continue to use the death penalty?"
"Yes." Sage replied simply.
"Good," Harry frowned. He knew that the woman's healing ability would further help Rogue to become even stronger, but the very idea caused him to shiver. This wasn't like Sebastian Shaw, who had just been killed in a battle against them, and who had proven time and time again to be a threat. This woman had been a follower of a threat to be certain, but she had been a bit player when all is said and done, and surely had suffered enough to not allow that last ignominy. More to the point, Harry doubted Rogue would be willing to 'play vampire' again after draining Shaw.
"Is there any way we could help her mind come back?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
"No. Candra's mind's been destroyed like Emma apparently did to Sebastian, it's simply gone. She is brain dead in the strictest sense of the word. There's nothing there that could come back." Harry nodded, and then without another word raised his hand, shooting out a shield spell around the bed before filling it with fire as he had to immolate Sebastian Shaw's body.
Sage blinked in shock, quickly stepping back from the sudden outbreak of violence, then watching warily as the fire consumed bed and patient alike. Moments later, the two of them left, dropping Sage off at the mansion for the night. Harry would come back the next day to transport her to the Magical Minds headquarters, where she would begin work the very next day.
Getting her lover, Harry never learned his name and frankly didn't care, and Domino situated in their safe house took the rest of that night. Harry was thanking the resources of his group and the fact that they had the forethought to purchase several of these houses, scattered in different areas. Placing a small magical tracking device on Domino that would tell Harry if she tried to leave the county for any reason took barely a few moments, the runic array looking like a tattoo on the mercenary's lower back.
Actually convincing Domino that he didn't want to use her took longer. But Harry was adamant. Her skill set wasn't worth the internal friction having someone as willingly ruthless as her, and a former enemy to boot, would cause within the Custodes.
Her reaction was only a little bit surprising to him. She had clearly been a mercenary for so long the idea of not expecting or even wanting anything for their service was shocking to her. Beyond that she had clearly been manipulated and blackmailed so many times her resigned expression when she woke told more than any story she could have given. The idea that she was free and being told the only expectation was that she stay out of the merc business was a bargain she was more than eager to embrace after she got over her wariness.
With Domino and her lover taken care of, Harry followed Emma's directions to Shaw's secret, fully automated weapons factory. it was deep in the Adirondack Mountains, so far off the beaten path it wasn't even flyby country, the factory had been designed and built by people brought in pickup trucks of all things, and the workers killed afterwards so no one but Shaw and his first group of bruisers and most trusted Hellions, Empath and Random, had known where it was. This limited Shaw's ability to bring out the weapons, but made them nearly untraceable.
Harry took a moment to make certain there were no traps then cast a Fidelius to add even more protection. After that Harry called it a night, picking up Emma from her hotel in Austin, where she had spent an hour convincing her sister she was all right, an exercise she had found rather refreshing. The two of them joined Ororo in Camelot, where they proceeded to have their own private celebration at a job well done.
Elsewhere however, people were not so lucky as to make their own hours like that.