Earth-200007, C.E. 1036
The wards trembled, as if they were doors being struck by a battering ram, and essentially, they were. They were not failing as a result of deception or innovation, but through sheer, brute force. It was dawn, after a long night, but it seemed that one way or another, they would all be resting soon.
"Are you confident in this plan?" Helga asked.
"No." Rowena ran her fingers over the amulet- the Eye of Agamotto. The stone within, greener somehow than even emerald, flickered in response.
"My favorite kind of plan." Godric chucked "Well, if we die, it'll be quick." His bravado was mostly a show, Rowena knew, a front he put on to bolster himself and those around him. It was what they needed right now. Though she hoped that her secret weapon would end this, there was no guarantee, not with magic as powerful and capricious as this.
The wards shattered, and Rowena flinched back as if she herself had been slapped. She'd put so much time and magic into Hogwarts' protections that in a way, they were connected to her. Godric put a hand on her shoulder and sent her a bolstering look "You've got this." He said.
Rowena nodded and stepped forward. Appearing from the morning fog to meet her was the Goddess of Death- Hela. She was more terrifying than Rowena had imagined. She was tall, elegant, yet with horns like a beast branching up from her head. Her armor- green and black with silver inlays- was sculpted to her unlike any material she knew of. Worst of all, though, were her eyes. They glowed a sickly green, and Rowena felt her spirit quail at her gaze. Her mere look alone was almost enough to kill. "So you would like to be the first to die?" Hela asked, her voice reverberating as if spoken in the entrance hall and was filled with hatred and malice like poison. "You will earn no tails for your bravery. One does not remember the first maggot one steps on."
And suddenly, Rowena was filled with fury. How dare she? How dare she? This woman, this monster, killed as she pleased, and tortured as she pleased. She'd seen kids, her students trembling and crying from nightmares, or worse memories of what had been done to their families. She had killed her family, her students.
She had killed her friend.
"We are not maggots." Rowena hissed. The stone glowed brightly, vibrantly green and Hela's expression flickered. Quick like lightning, she whipped her hand up- it sparked with magical power. She was too fast, Rowena realized. She was going to die.
But then Godric was in front of her and intercepted the beam of green light with his body. She did not have time to mourn. "Uair, cluinn mo thoil!" She shouted, holding the amulet up. Suddenly, the Goddess' motions were slowed, as if caught in honey, even though Rowena knew she could move as fast as the eye could see. "Ceangailte gu bàrth!" She chanted, runes cast in green formed around the goddess, locked in midair. Trails of magic wound down her Rowena's arm, but she paid it no mind. "Slabhraidh airson sìorraidheachd!" She rotated the amulet, and then let it go. It jerked forward and then hung rigidly in the air, as if it had been pulled into place by a magnet.
Then, magic spread from the amulet, forming a translucent pane around it before angling out towards the nearest runes. She held her breath, terrified that the slightest disruption would break the spell. As it took shape, Rowena realized it looked almost like a crystal, with each face anchored by its one set of symbols seemingly engraved on the face. Without fanfare, the magic stopped spreading. The goddess' crystalline prison was sealed.
Rowena let out a breath and only then noticed Helga kneeling next to their fallen friend. She was crying, but only silently.
"We won." Helga said.
"We did." Rowena looked down. At least… his death had been painless, and heroic. Merlin, of course Godric would die sacrificing himself to safe the world. Of course. "But we've… lost too many friends today."
Helga nodded wordlessly. Then, after a moment of silence asked "What are we going to do with it."
Rowena looked back up at the goddess, her expression frozen in a rictus of deadly fury. "I have an idea."
"You always have an idea." Helga chuckled wetly. "But if its half as good as this one, I'm sure it'll do."
Helga's question was not a simple one. While Rowena's magic was quite unbreakable from the inside (after all, how could someone frozen in time act to break the spell?), it would be easy to disrupt from outside, even by accident. That meant that the top priority was to prevent anyone from accessing it.
There was only one place that came to mind, a location that was already viewed with suspicion and fear by all who knew of it. One place where no one dared tread on pain of death.
"We'll hide it near the Veil."
"The Veil?" Helga gaped "But its…"
"The most feared location in all the isles?" Rowena supplied "Perfect, is it not?"
Helga hummed in thought, and they were both grateful for the distraction the problem had given. "I suppose. But… you know people."
"I do."
"Eventually someone is going to go looking. No tomb, no matter how sacred, goes unraided. You know this."
"I do. Some fool with go sniffing. For wealth, or power, or fame, or immortality." Rowena conceded "No prison is perfect. And one day, someone will disturb it, no matter how deep we bury her." Helga sighed mournfully, and Rowena took her hand comfortingly. "Best we can do is forestall. For a century, five centuries. Perhaps a millennia if we're lucky. And we hope that the world we leave behind will be better prepared than we were."
-----
It was with some relief that Stephen noted that they were on the right path, and soon enough events would be out of his hands. For better or worse, his work would be done.
But not quite yet.
Thanos had immediately selected him as his next target. While Stephen could certainly keep him at bay for a time, the outcome was never in doubt. He had batted back his most powerful techniques, he had shattered the mirror dimension and saw through his illusions, summoning him to his hand with the space stone.
It had been a horrifying moment. He knew he was going to lose, but this was too soon. If the timing of this fight here wasn't exquisitely precise, then all would be lost. Thankfully, his team intervened. More specifically, the Hulk. It didn't take Thanos long to get the upper hand against him, but the distraction gave Spider-man the opportunity to snag him away and onto a nearby building.
"You okay man?" He asked, sounding far to young to be in this fight. Stephen didn't have time to question it. He looked down at his hand- bruised- and limped stiffly to his feet. He'd have to push through it. On the ground, the Hulk had been pummeled to the ground.
Stephen shook his head. There was only one way this was going to end. Already, the destruction was spreading. Every time Thanos used the power stone, it cute slices through New York. Stephen leapt from the roof and drifted to the ground with the help of his cloak. He unlocked the Eye of Agamotto with a swift motion of his hands, and green energy swirled down his arm. But Thanos had been ready for him, and Stephen found himself frozen in place, unable to move, hardly even able to breathe. The space stone glowed brightly, tauntingly, in the gauntlet.
Stephen's duel with Thanos, while not conclusive, had given the remaining Avengers time to rally and attack in force. This mean that he had a front row seat to the spectacle of his teammates being systematically destroyed. Pietro Maximoff got a few hits in, before joining Stephen in being frozen in place by the space stone. The reality stone turned Barnes, Belova, and the Wasp to rock. Some, like Steve Rogers, were given the honor of being personally beaten into the ground. The core Avengers were followed by the reserves- Stark drones, Sorcerers, the Dora Milaje. The power stone ripped through the machines like butter and fried out the sorcerers' magic as they tried to bind him, leaving them on the ground clutching their heads in agony. The elite Wakandan guard was turned to soap bubbles.
Thanos started making his way towards Stephen, but was harried by the trio of Stark, T'Challa, and Spider-man. They were determined and tenacious. Stark cannibalized his suit for offensive power, and Spider-man pushed himself to his utter limits trying to hold the titan back. It was the opening Strange had been waiting for- Thanos' concentration had lapsed just enough for him to worm his way free.
While he could attempt to trap Thanos in a frozen moment of time, he'd already seen how that would end. Thanos would break free, but only through drastic measures, by creating a black hole that would destroy the planet. It would prolong the fight, but it wasn't worth the price.
No, he couldn't win this fight, but he could reverse the damage it had caused. Around them, as Thanos finally disposed of Stark, nearly killing him in the process, Stephen reversed the flow of time. Fires died out and building reassembled themselves. People returned to life.
He didn't stop, even as Thanos approached, patiently waiting for him to finish.
"An interesting choice." He remarked "But certainly not one I will argue with."
It was the only way, Stephen told himself. It was the only way to save everyone.
-----
Carol touched down. By all rights she shouldn't have received the signal that had sent her here. It was only because she had ensured that she could be reached by this ship in particular, one that she had piloted once and that she knew to be in the possession of friends.
She hadn't expected to trace the signal back to Xandar, and she certainly hadn't expected to find the planet in ruins. She looked down at her wrist communicator, letting the message resolve after being distorted by faster than light travel.
Thanos is after infinity stones, Asgard is the next target. -Thor
-----
Wanda clutched the pendant protectively, and Harry frowned with worry. Since she'd looked into Ebony Maw's mind, she'd been acting off. He couldn't exactly blame her. The stakes could hardly be higher, and she had seen his plan, and what he had already done, firsthand. She had seen the carnage that had left Asgard the husk it was, and so much more.
If Thanos won, he'd destroy half of all life in the universe. If Strange and the Avengers lost on Earth, then they were all that stood between him and that goal. Harry wasn't sure how they possibly could. The odds seemed insurmountable.
But it wasn't his first time standing against insurmountable odds. He'd jumped down a pit to face a basilisk with no backup. He'd fought a dark lord as a child, several times. He was well used to putting himself into impossible situations. It was something his friends- from both worlds- tore their hair out over, his recklessness and lack of a sense self-preservation. But even so, it allowed him to keep a cool head now, even with the weight of the universe crushing down on him. Perhaps they were right, and he did put his life at risk unnecessarily. But sometimes it was necessary.
"What are you thinking?" Natasha asked.
"He's thinking that he's going to die." Wanda said.
Natasha paled. "Well, not for certain." Harry amended "But it's a possibility."
"You're disturbingly blasé about it." Shuri told him.
"Yeah, after the first few times, near death experiences sort of lose their edge." Harry said carelessly "The important thing is to stop Thanos. So if we've got any ideas…"
"All out attack, all at once, as soon as he's visible." Natasha said, "Overwhelm him before he knows what's happening."
"Sounds reckless. I like it." Harry nodded.
"Of course you would." Natasha rolled her eyes. "If he has the time stone, that presents some… problems."
"Is it even possible for us to win, if he can just reset whenever he starts to lose?" Skye asked.
Harry shook his head. "It depends on how he's using it. But if he has it on a simple loop, there are ways around it." He recalled Stephen's explanation of the stone's abilities, and how he'd set up a loop with Dormamu, letting himself be killed over and over again "Killing him would reset the loop, but knocking him out wouldn't. Destroying the time stone, or the gauntlet, or stealing the stones from him would work as well."
"But it has to be fast, right?" Skye probed.
"Yeah, if he has time to see it coming, he can reset the timeline and avoid it." Harry nodded "Unless we can keep him from using the stone."
"I will attempt to suppress his mind, using my stone." Wanda said. Harry knew first-hand the power of the mind stone, but also knew that it wasn't irresistible. "You should use that opportunity to take the gauntlet from him."
Harry nodded, looked around and with a few flicks of his wand began sculpting the landscape around them. In their last battle they'd been arriving on enemy territory, but this time they would be springing the trap. Out of the rubble of Asgard, Harry constructed barricades, trenches, and bunkers to shelter in, and tunnels to escape through. Shuri too had made preparations, all across the ruined city were tiny drones. They would be on the lookout for any surprises and would be on hand for kamikaze attacks if needed.
It was a good plan, but somehow Harry doubted it would be so easy. Even his successful plans rarely survived contact with the enemy, and he'd have to improvise and… ride a dragon out of Gringotts or go on a wild apparation tour across North America.
They were as ready as they would ever be by the time the portal appeared. Their time was up. Harry could hardly hear anything over the thunderous beat of his heart. Thanos stepped through, five infinity stones rested securely in his gauntlet, and the green magic of the time stone trailed around his wrist. They only had one shot at this.
Now. Harry heard Wanda whisper in his mind, as if Thanos might be able to overhear even that. Wanda's locket snapped open, and the mind stone shone fiercely within it. Thanos staggered, and Wanda fell to her knees. The others sprang into motion. Harry did try simply summoning the stones out of the gauntlet by gauntlet itself, constructed from the same sort of magical metal is Mjolnir, resisted him. No, it wasn't that easy to swipe an infinity stone, they needed that glove off. Shuri landed next to Thanos and began pulling at the glove, Harry moved to help her.
Then Wanda started screaming. Harry whipped his head to her and saw the tears streaming down her face. Thanos' arm thrashed, sending Shuri staggering back while he regained his foot. It wasn't enough. Harry pointed his wand at Thanos. "Imperio."
Harry gasped, nearly toppling back at the ferocity of the battle he had dived into. Wanda was vicious and relentless, using every bit of her will to shackle Thanos' mind, to bring him down. But Thanos… he was different.
Or rather, oddly familiar. When arrayed against punishment and power and the insurmountable, he simply said no. He would not bow. He would not kneel. He would not give up. Not now, not ever.
Now he knew that their plan was flawed, but it was too late to back out now. Harry threw himself against Thanos' mind, and together, through gritted teeth and tears, he and Wanda tried leash chains around the thrashing beast, but the entire time, the battle rest on a razor's edge.
Then something happened, something that none of them, not even Thanos, could have foreseen. Light began to rain down on them like a torrential downpour, like they were in the epicenter of some sort of storm. Harry didn't have the mental capacity to understand what this meant, not until Thor materialized next to them, wielding a massive battle-axe. The weapon was powerful, he could feel it even at that distance, and it sparked with electricity. Harry couldn't even bring himself to speak as Thor looked around at the wreckage of his home. Shock, and then indescribable grief, and then rage took his expression in turns. Then, with an agonized, vicious cry, Thor leapt into the air and swung his axe down in an arc that intercepted with Thanos' head.
With a dull thunk, the axe made contact and Harry's connection to Thanos' mind was brutally severed. He looked at Thor with horror, knowing exactly what was about to happen. The temporal magic that even now wound its way around Thanos' wrist was going to reset the timeline.
-----
Loop #2
Thanos seemed to have anticipated their plan, and Harry wondered if this wasn't his first loop. Though it wasn't impossible that he was just well prepared. He'd walked through the portal with his gauntlet raised, the soul stone alight in its slot. Harry apparated in front of Wanda, and his cloak cut through magic of the soul stone, leaving a wake that spared Wanda. Imperceptibly, Wanda and Harry shared a glance and nodded. The plan was still on. Even if this was a loop, there had to be a reason that Thanos was forced to reset, so they could only hope to force him into an unwinnable position.
Now.
"Imperio."
Thunk.
-----
Loop #3
Wanda went flying back with the force of the space stone, and immediately their plan was wrecked. There was no doubt in Harry's mind, Thanos had looped. Shuri took off to retrieve her, and Harry pivoted tactics on a dime. Mind control hadn't worked, so it was time for raw attack.
He blasted the ground between them and accelerated the shrapnel that streaked towards Thanos. It was stopped at once by the space stone and then was sent whizzing back at Harry in turn, but he was already onto the next attack. The ground beneath Thanos vanished, and the titan was sent toppling over. Then Harry unvanished the ground, trapping him within the stone. He apparated away from the shrapnel, but that was enough time for Thanos to recover, the stone he was trapped in exploded, sending debris flying in all directions. Harry shield charm scatted it easily, while Skye protected Nat with a sonic blast.
Thanos glanced at them and grinned, seeing easier prey. Shit. It was time to reveal another card in his hand. The two women rolled away as a beam of purple energy just missed them, and before Thanos could follow it up with a more thorough attack, Loki's statue socked him across the jaw.
However many times Thanos had fought this battle, he clearly hadn't expected that. Thanos may have the time stone, but did he have Harry's wild luck and improv? Thanos, reflexively disintegrated the statue's upper body with the power stone, but the arms remained, and even disembodied they levitated in the air and continued to fight as the rest of the statue reformed. Harry whipped his wand, creating a glowing rope of magic that he'd modelled after the sorcerers. He brandished his wand and wrapped the cord firmly around Thanos' gauntlet. Simultaneously, Skye blasted him back with a powerful sonic boom. Combined, their efforts sent Thanos, sprawling to the ground. "NOW!" Harry shouted, his voice almost breaking from sheer volume. This might be their only chance.
Shuri landed heavily behind them; Wanda was breathless but unharmed in her arms. Skye and Natasha grabbed at the gauntlet, while Loki's statue restrained his other hand and Harry's cords of magic struggled against the gauntlet, fighting to prevent Thanos from flexing his fingers and activating the stones. But Harry had underestimated Thanos' raw, physical strength. The statue would have been enough to hold most of the Avengers down, but not him. He ripped his off hand through the stone hands that bound it, leaving gravel floating, reforming in the air. Soon they would be repaired, but not soon enough. He sharply jabbed at Skye, who raised her vibranium gauntlets to deflect the blow. She went falling back, unhurt but off balance by the sheer force imparted. Natasha thrust a spear she'd acquired from Covus Glaive, and it sliced through the armor in Thanos' side, drawing blood. Thanos responded by incinerating her in purple fire. Until she was ashes, until she was dead.
Until their daughter was dead.
"No." Harry said "Try again."
Pop. He apparated right in front of Thanos, floating in the air, the tip of his wand inches from his face, one of the few places on his body not covered in golden armor. It was a terrible position in many ways, leaving Harry himself exposed to a counterattack that the glow of the power stone told him was coming. In all likelihood, he was about to be incinerated just as thoroughly as Nat had been.
But Harry didn't intend on surviving. He intended to kill. "Avada Kedavra" He whispered. Harry knew that to cast an unforgivable, you had to mean it. You had to, in your very core, want this person to die.
Harry wanted it, perhaps as much as he'd ever wanted anything. Had had long been hesitant to use this curse. He'd always had it in his back pocket, a heavy weight, something he dreaded the prospect using. But with Nat dead, their daughter dead, he didn't much care about the consequences of using such magic, about his soul, about anything other than making sure that this never happened.
The curse struck true. Thanos died.
-----
Loop #4
Loki's statue was obliterated before it could even get a hit in, and the pieces were sent flying in all directions by the space stone so that they had no chance of reforming anytime soon.
Shit, Harry realized, he'd done this already.
Thanos proceeded to deflect Skye's sonic blast. For a moment, Harry's heart froze, seeing just how vulnerable Skye and Nat were in that moment. But instead of killing them, Thanos merely used the soul stone to render them comatose. Thanos turned to him "Message received, Harry Potter." He said "I will not kill your friends. They will remain unconscious until this battle is over."
Harry nodded, wondering what might have happened to cause Thanos to make such a promise. After a moment of considering what he might do if anyone here died, he realized he had a pretty good idea. "Just curious." He asked "How many loops has it been?"
"Four." Thanos grinned "Fun isn't something one considers when balancing the universe. But I have to say, I'm going to enjoy this."
The ground beneath Harry exploded. He tumbled back, mostly protected by his suit, and rolled seamlessly back to his feet. Shuri and Wanda had reengaged to keep Thanos off him. Wanda launched a massive barrage of rubble that streaked towards him from all directions, but Thanos flung both them and the debris back with an explosive blast of purple fire. Shuri crashed, little worse for wear, but Wanda had hit her head against the ground, and was slow to recover. He hoped she was okay, but he couldn't afford to check. He needed to intervene now, so Harry chose his next tactic- transfiguration.
With a flick of his wand, Thanos' gauntlet arm began to turn to stone. Human transfiguration was difficult, but Harry was persistent, and the transformation rapidly spread. With his gauntlet hand frozen, Thanos touched the reality stone with his free hand to activate it. Harry's knees nearly buckled at the power that surged against his magic, and the will behind it. He remembered the battle of wills he'd fought against Voldemort in the graveyard. Harry'd had the advantage against his enemy that night, but this… this felt like hitting his head against a wall. Pitting his magic directly against the ultimate source of magic felt like grabbing fire, and pitting his will against Thanos' felt like fighting a mirror.
As their struggle continued, Thanos' flesh returned to normal, and Harry felt something… off. He crumpled to the ground, but not from exhaustion. His body… was melting. The closest Harry had felt to this was when Lockheart had removed the bones from his arm, expect now even his very flesh began to decohere. If it weren't for his magic's valiant efforts to sustain him, he would be dead now, dead. But he couldn't stop fighting, he put everything into it, inch by inch stopping the bleeding until they were in something of a stalemate. Harry just had to hope that someone would intervene soon, because he didn't know how much longer he could hold on.
And then, miraculously, the magic lifted. Harry willed his magic to slowly reform his body. Wanda was beside him, a trickle of blood running down her cheek. But she wasn't the one who had saved him. No, that had been Thor. He was wielding an impressive new axe and his old hammer, and he had friends- some Asgardians he knew, and some aliens he did not. Along with Shuri, they gave Thanos enough to deal with, and gave Harry a breather, a chance to literally put himself together.
"Go." Harry managed.
"Even if it risks the mind stone?" Wanda asked, though he knew at least part of her reticence was reluctance to leave his side while he was injured.
"We have to put all our cards on the table." Harry told her. Wanda nodded and joined the fray, but notably in a subsidiary role. She kept her distance and supported her allies, lifting them out of the way, deflecting attacks, and harrying him with her telekinesis. But she never let Thanos get close, and whenever he made a move on her the others would intervene in force to keep him distracted. Even with her help, though, Harry could see that they weren't going to win this fight, not without him. One by one, through blaster fire and weapon blows, Thanos systematically picked off Harry's impromptu teammates. He kept to his word by leaving them as partially transfigured statues, or sending them flying into the distance, or simply rendering them unconscious with the soul stone, rather than killing them outright.
By the time Harry was ready, their team had thinned considerably. He apparated up to the fight. "Keep Wanda safe, at all costs." Harry barked to Thor and Shuri. Then, with a thin lipped grin, he asked Thor "Mind if I borrow the hammer?" The Asgardian looked ashen at what had happened to his home, but he nodded with an identical grim smile.
Unspoken was Harry's request that they stay away. They both knew how much damage Harry could do with that hammer.
As an opener, Harry conjured a torrent of water that crashed towards Thanos. It was a classic play, using the water to conduct electricity, but Thanos might not have even needed the time stone to see it. The water disappeared as soon as it came, transformed into a cloud of bubbles. Harry would work with that, transforming them in turn into needles that he whipped at Thanos, simultaneously sending a bolt of electricity his way using Mjolnir. The lightning was deflected by a shield, while the needles slipped through a portal that opened behind Harry. He apparated to the side, letting the whizz harmlessly by.
After spinning Mjolnir to part a gout of flames sent his way, Harry conjured three beams identical to the spell he had used to harass Ebony Maw so effectively. They swarmed around Thanos like hornets, and each time he deflected them they arced back for another pass. They were bloody effective, and basically piloted themselves after he'd set them up. To add to the chaos, he transformed a pair of rocks into makeshift, stone wolves. They leapt at Thanos, who kicked one of them back with a crunch. But just like the statue of Loki, the wolf was reforming even as its twin made its own lunge that Thanos tossed back, before using the reality stone to turn the construct to dust.
Of course, Harry knew that none of this would defeat him. But it was all working well enough at keep him occupied. All the while, Harry marshalled his magic, willing it into the hammer, charging up. Mjolnir soaked up Harry's magic eagerly, to the point where it was a struggle to keep it from discharging itself prematurely.
It was only when the hammer was almost unbearably hot, and the runes encrusted on it glowed, did Harry unleash its power. He aimed it at the gauntlet, with the idea that if he could dislodge the infinity stones before he killed Thanos, he could break the time loop.
He may have telegraphed his attack too much. Just a tad. Because as Harry launched the blindingly bright bolt at Thanos, he activated the space and power stones. The bolt struck the barrier he had formed, and Harry realized too late what was about to happen. The inferno burst against the barrier- which bent and buckled, but did not break- and funneled outward, strait at him. Too drained from exertion, Harry couldn't marshal the focus to apparate away, instead he conjured the strongest shield he could muster and braced himself as the power equivalent to a hydrogen bomb was directed at him.
He… didn't die, at least not right away. Harry knew this because he was in extreme pain. Then he felt an impact- and yes, more pain, but somehow, he still wasn't dead. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt. It was like the cruciatus, but more visceral. He wasn't in agony because of a spell, he was in agony because his bones were shattered, his arm was bent and twisted, his leg was cut off at the knee, because nearly every inch of his skin was charred. He was only alive because of how much magic he'd funneled into that shield, and how much effort Tony had put into his suit, and probably because he was damn lucky.
It would be so easy to give up and let death take him. He was up against unending punishment and unstoppable power, he was fighting against the insurmountable, and he was in so, so, so much pain.
When faced with all of this, Harry did what he had always done. He said no.
Already, his magic was working at knitting his broken body back together. With a burst of will and focus, Harry accelerated the process, and with each second his body healed just a bit more and the pain became just a bit easier to bear. Thanos probably thought he was dead, Harry thought deliriously. That gave him an advantage. He just needed to make sure that when he returned, he came back with a vengeance.