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That, and the fact that not a single individual among them had even tried to surrender was disturbing in the extreme, not just to Harry but to everyone involved. It had already begun to create rumors among the media that the Chitauri had been some kind of hive mind, mere drones sent into battle by a higher caste or something like that.
Eventually, the discussion wound down, and the specifics of the wording of the document from the Skrull perspective began. That took another few hours, to the point that most of the leaders in the room began to be a little antsy, and Jean and Emma parted ways back in Camelot. After an intense make-out session, anyway. Enough to put a spring in Emma's steps as she went back to work, and Jean went to spend time with her babies.
Regardless, the politicians and Len'Dok finally finished the document. The signing would be official and public, taking place at Fortress Mars the next morning. This would be recorded live and broadcast around the world. Mary Jane and Dr. Doom's fiancé had warned that a lot of the countries who had been attacked, particularly from the force under Ebony Maw's control, would probably still not be happy with the Skrull, but most of their anger was apparently centered on the Chitauri. The news that the Mad Titan had conquered the Skrull Empire and forced them to join the invasion had garnered some sympathy from the various news agencies. Sympathy that Mary Jane had a whole cavalcade of online operators working to keep growing, and which would be reinforced by signing an official peace treaty.
Len'Dok cut the communication at that point, and the various leaders finished their glasses of wine, stood up, shook hands, and made for the teleportation doorways. A few of them asked to stop in at the Gardens to look around first, which Harry was fine with. They were met at the door into the conference room by Steve and Piotr, who were serving as guides today. Piotr took the Russian and Chinese representatives to view the gardens while the French, British, and American representatives conversed quietly among themselves as Steve led them to the teleportation array.
Dr. Doom remained in his seat, still sipping at his wine, and Harry, after handing off the other guests to his two aides for the day, moved back to the table, sitting across from him and picking up his own wine glass. The two of them sat in silence for a few moments, and then Doom spoke. "It is always interesting to see how people act when given or having taken great power. You were powerful before, and yet now, you are far more than you once were. You're a Titan, just as much as Thanos was. You could have browbeaten nearly everyone here into giving you whatever you wanted. You could have used your Titan Aura to overawe not only the other leaders but the Fleet Overlord, too. You did not. I could feel you reining it in from the moment we met."
This was a statement, an observation, not a question. Doom had been around Harry long enough to understand that was not his way of doing things. Yet Harry still answered. "I think one of the greatest lessons of power that everyone should learn is when not to use it."
Doom snorted at that, then murmured, "Is that why you also haven't made an attempt to take over the world? Given how popular you and the Custodes are, you could do so, and many a country would applaud you for it. Their people would loudly acclaim you as their new sovereign."
"You would not. We would come into direct conflict on that, I'm certain. And while I don't want that kind of direct conflict, I also believe that competition breeds excellence."
"In that at least we are agreed," Doom snorted again, gesturing out to the bulkhead with his wineglass.
Harry paused, staring at the man. "So, does that mean that you will start to build your empire in space then?"
"Perhaps. My country is doing quite well at the moment, but if I am to build an empire out there, then I would need both men and material to create it and advisors to leave in positions of power behind me. That last could be created certainly, but for all the fact that my country has greatly expanded thanks to the Eurasian War, we are still a small population, and with wildly differing educational levels from urban to suburban environments."
Doom smiled thinly under his mask. "We will eventually grow, and we will eventually take to the stars on our own merits. Unlike the French, British and Chinese, who are more than willing to let the EDF do the heavy lifting there or beg for access, I am practically American in my desire to build my own military presence in space. Would you object?" he asked, almost challenging Harry.
That was a challenge Harry did not take up, simply chuckling in response. "See my previous answer, Doom. Furthermore, I believe I can trust you not to make the mistakes of many sci-fi books and allow piracy or similar issues to arise if you do create your own spaceships, so I have no objections. So long as we keep our Nonaggression treaties, of course."
"That has served both of us quite well, and I see no reason to discard it currently." Doom let that caveat sit there between them, knowing his own nature might eventually bring him into direct conflict with Harry, yet finding himself not looking forward to it. The challenge, certainly, but the actual battle, no. Harry had been a good ally, even a good… friend, a word that Doom was not used to using since they had rescued Doom's mother from eternal damnation. And it was not as if Doom did not already have other challenges worthy of his intelligence and drive.
He was unwilling to admit that, however, and quickly changed the subject, asking, "And speaking of nonaggression treaties, I could not help but notice that the Inhumans did not take part in repulsing this invasion."
"True, but we didn't really need their help in space, although we could have used some more help on the ground to keep the casualties down. They will face sanctions in terms of trade and getting access to the new colony… although I'm not certain that is the right term, considering it's going to be their new homeland from now on. Regardless, they will not be taking possession of it for quite a bit now."
Doom nodded in approval at that. "If they cannot be bothered to fight for this star system, why should you hand over any segment of it to them?"
Harry refilled Doom's glass from the fire whiskey, noting absently that it had become quite a favorite of the man. "Moving on to other topics, I received the invitation to your wedding today. I understand it will be the event of the season?"
"So Paris tells me. I was more concerned with the historical scope of it. This will be the biggest social event in central Europe in decades," Doom said without a hint of modesty.
"… And I also have been told that you invited Susan but none of the rest of the Fantastic Four," Harry said, trying hard not to keep a grin from his face.
Doom laughed quietly at that. "While I might have foregone direct confrontations with Reed Richards, that does not mean that I enjoy being around the man. Whereas Susan is quite delightful and, strangely enough, has somehow become a friend to Paris without either of them bringing it to my attention. I merely took advantage of that situation."
Harry laughed at that, reflecting internally that he was also very grateful that Doom hadn't asked him to be his best man. That would have been interesting but also awkward in many ways, showing a closeness between them that, despite their respectful treatment of one another and several moments like this one, did not truly exist. Instead, Harry knew that Doom's best man was a Latverian, an elderly gentleman who had become the mayor of Latveria's capital and had something of a history with Doctor Doom.
Set for timesharing the whiskey, speaking quietly about the invasion and the social upheavals it had caused. Doom was particularly interested in how it would affect religion going forward. Organized religion had taken several blows recently, which many in power in certain religions had not taken well to. Harry was more interested in how it had affected America and France. There was a lot more respect for veterans in both places that Harry was happy to see, and an overall shift in how the common civilian in both nations viewed their military.
Eventually, however, Ororo and Jean arrived, the two women entering carrying Jean's children. The twins instantly began to reach toward Harry, with Harry feeling a tug on him as if they were trying to pull him out of his chair with magic. "Sorry to interrupt, but the babies wanted their Daddy, and unfortunately, Harry, you're coming up on your next meeting. So best to get in a bit of toddler time now."
Harry stood up obligingly and moved towards the women, making faces at the kids, who began to giggle in the way of babies.
Seeing this, Doom stood, bowing grandly toward Ororo, who was taking a break from the reconstruction projects, and the redheaded woman, saying, "I do believe that is my signal to leave. Do be dressed appropriately when you come to my wedding, Potter. I know I need not worry about the ladies. I do not want anything to go wrong with it. It would set a bad precedent for the marriage to come."
"Or you could stay around? You might need the practice eventually," Harry tossed back, taking Sirius in his arms and sitting Rachel on his shoulder, where the baby promptly reached up and grabbed at his hair, cooing in delight.
"That is what Doom Bots are for… Or can be repurposed for anyway," Doom said, exiting the room. Harry at least did him the courtesy of waiting until he was well out of earshot before starting to laugh, shaking his head ruefully.
Scene break
At the same time that the meeting in Babylon was winding down, most of the Custodes had been given time off. With access to a worldwide system of near-instant transportation, it was no wonder that many of the Custodes, X-Men, FF, and their other allies had spread out in wildly disparate areas. Scott and Rogue had gone to Australia for the surfing. Piotr and Amara had gone to Vietnam for a several-day trip. They had bought motorcycles to get around and stopped to sleep in a magically enlarged tent wherever they wished to paint the scenes they came upon. Others had spread across America and Europe in ones and twos.
Steve and his two girlfriends, a thought that still disturbed him on many levels, had decided to go into DC to take in the sights as the reconstruction project continued. Now they were walking down one of the main streets arm in arm, a fact that caused the normally redoubtable Captain America to flush as he wondered what they looked like to anyone watching.
If my mother could see me now, she would tan my hide for being a two-timer. But… well, I do like them both, and they seem to have buried the hatchet somehow. I wish I knew precisely how that happened, but I have no clue. A few months ago, they were circling around me like tomcats clawing at one another each time one tried to flirt with me. Then, a month ago, that disappeared, and they started working together. Against me, most of the time. Ugh. Women. I have to wonder how Harry handles four women at once, and I swear you need to be a telepath to understand them at all!
Betsy squeezed the arm she was holding onto, getting Steve's attention. "Look, we're coming up on Capital Hill."
"I know. However, with so few of the office buildings having been repaired yet, it still looks like a battlefield. I'm just grateful that we're moving people in slowly. It would have been a disaster trying to return the civvies to the city before we had housing for them. To say nothing of cleaning up the bodies," Steve lamented, shaking his head. "I've fought in cities dozens of times in my life, and regardless of the weapons used, it's always a bloody affair. I can't argue with the idea of prioritizing places with historical importance, but I wish we could be doing more."
"We've done enough," Carol shook her head wryly. "Lots of resources, hundreds of construction droids… You've seen the protests on them, right? How they're taking jobs away from real people?"
As Steve snorted at that, Betsy continued her crisp British accent a stark contrast to Carol's mellow Midwest one. "To say nothing of Potter and the rest of the magicals. However, that's also caused problems. I didn't think there were that many Catholics in France, and the growing protests in America about how the federal government has 'Fallen to worshipping the magic of the Devil' have been hilarious. Funny how none of those protests actually come close to Washington or Paris."
"Can you blame them?" Steve snorted as they came around a pile of rubble and saw the Washington Monument ahead of them. Unlike a significant portion of the city they had been traveling through, the Washington Monument had been magically repaired. It and the Lincoln Memorial were both back to normal, pristine, almost after Ororo had repaired it. There were even a few dozen food carts around. Where they came from Steve didn't know, but they were doing a brisk business from the hundreds of workers working with the construction droids.
There were dozens of other such areas, most of which were located around the city's historic sites. With those sites taken care of, housing had priority, so the majority of the human effort was focused on that area. But men and women were also still clearing out and identifying bodies throughout the city even now, days after the last Chitauri had been hunted down.
The three of them were traveling incognito at the moment, something that Carol ruefully pointed out was "Just a little too easy to pull off. Honestly, Steve, your face should be bringing us a lot of attention if Betsy's isn't. I'm not complaining, but do so few people notice the face rather than the outfit?"
"Such is the way of things," Betsy said philosophically. "I personally am not going to quibble."
"And I would say both of you are getting enough attention from my fellow man, regardless," Steve stated, twitching his head towards a crew of construction workers. All of them were staring at Betsy and Carol, their eyes locked on their rears.
"Eh, well, they're just looking. No harm in that." Carol shrugged.
"Right, and it's honestly the same sort of thing Carol mentioned a moment ago. I doubt those men would remember what I looked like beyond maybe the purple hair and my cracking rear."
Steve smiled, pulling out the arm that Betsy was holding to reach up and play with her purple locks for a moment. "It is quite memorable. The purple hair, I mean, not your rear. Although that is nice, too."
Betsy flushed, reflecting internally that while Steve would never be entirely at ease with flirting in public, he did have a way with words. "Have there been any more problems with the locals?" She asked in a way to change the subject before Steve became embarrassed again.
The two Americans sighed, with Carol scowling slightly. There had been a lot of issues with the displaced civilians, with gang members and other criminals trying to take advantage of the situation in various ways. It had fallen on the military and the tattered remnants of the police force to try to keep order. There'd also been a great deal of vandalism, groups of civilians trying to make their own way back into the city, stealing from houses, leaving graffiti in places and so forth. "Of course. That kind of thing will continue for a while, I'm certain. But the military and civilian police have done a pretty good job of shutting actual violence down."
"And the fact that the president has declared that this is still a state of emergency until repairs to Washington have been completed and people are being allowed to move back in," Carol reminded the others. "Until that happens, any civilians making trouble answer to military justice. Without that, it would be illegal for the military police to help the regular police keep order."
Steve nodded reluctantly at that. He wasn't exactly a fan of that, but he understood the necessity. The city was now on the mend, and maybe, just maybe, with the criminal element having caused so much trouble during this upheaval and so many of them… paying for it, perhaps a lot of the city's problems he'd seen in the news would be gone as well. A man can dream, can't he?
Carol saw something red in the sky and turned, watching as the Scarlet Witch flew through a series of burnt-out buildings. As she went, a cheer rose from many of the construction workers, and the young woman paused to wave back, looking extremely sheepish to Steve's eyes. She then dumped her present burden, several hundred tons worth of construction material, in neat little piles before rocketing back up into the sky and away.
"Well, we can safely say that the city is on the mend, but it won't be finished anytime soon."
"Any progress is good progress. Paris is worse in a way because there, the military didn't try to stop people from going home, and now they're dealing with a lot of people who are homeless who refuse to leave until their homes are repaired and are demanding food and water. Those riots are a lot more violent too, although there isn't nearly as much gun violence as with the civilians from Washington."
Steve grunted at that and then asked politely if the two girls wanted anything to eat. They did, and the three of them moved over to one of the nearby food carts, then circled the area, drawing some looks but mostly being left alone by the off-duty workers.
Rebuilding and healing were still ongoing, but eventually, the physical wounds would be healed, at least. The mental ones, those Steve wasn't so certain about.
Scene break
Repair and humanitarian efforts took nearly a month to complete in Paris, Washington, and Russia. China would still take many months to repair what could be repaired, which did not include the center of the cities hit by the Mandarin's ill-fated nuclear option. However, China had agreed to hold a celebration to repel the invasion, despite that. This included the Avalon Empire.
Thus, nearly a month after the invasion ended, Harry and Jean watched the Orbital Drop Marines perform a parade in Fortress Mars's atrium. The two of them stood alongside thousands of others pulled from the savage land and Fortress Mars itself as below them on the floor of the atrium, the Orbital Drop Marines conducted a parade.
The Avalon Empire had yet to create a national anthem, and a series of selected songs played as the review continued, starting with a new song from America called 'Hey Brother'. This should've made the parade seem a little strange, but the feelings of this and other songs chosen came across quite well. Jean was not the only person crying in the audience.
There was something very special about this parade, as well as all the others that were going around the world. No effort had been made to fill in the gaps in the units making up those marches.
Here, a squad marched with holes in their parade formation. Here, an entire unit was gone, leaving a gaping hole in the larger formation as their comrades marched on. This was especially true for this particular parade.
The Orbital Drop Marines had been the tip of the spear of the human reaction to the invasion, and that spear tip had been badly blunted. In Washington, two out of every five Oh Damns who took part in the battle had died, and their command structure, in particular, had taken a pounding. In Paris, the casualties had been even worse. Three out of every five Orbital Drop Marines involved in that battle had died, with the other two being wounded in some fashion. By the time the order to pull out and let the French take over entirely, the surviving Oh Damns had been down to less than a platoon from the starting size of three companies.
This performance hadn't been Harry's idea. He had thought the pain of the losses was still too raw to allow something like this. But Sam, Steve, and many of the commanders the world over had liked the idea when Sean had thought it up. The numbers were just that: dry and anecdotal. Stories and tales were closer, but there was almost something visceral in seeing a parade like this with missing men and women. It made the losses far more real.
The response that Harry was getting from Mary Jane and others who were watching the impact this was having on the local civilian populations was mixed but generally extremely positive. Most particularly in America, where the parade had occurred the day before. Time zones were a thing, after all.
The normal American's view of the military had shifted quite drastically since the days of Steve Rogers and World War II. The Korean War had started it, a war that America could not say it had really won but had merely tied. Then came the Cold War, the peace movement and Vietnam, the Cuban missile crisis and so forth, eroding the feelings of patriotism equaling support of the troops in America.
This was no longer the case, at least for the vast majority of Americans. America had been invaded on their own soil, in their own capital, for the first time since the era of sail ended. And although they needed help, the American military had not been found wanting. Now, they saw the cost that their soldiers had paid, and it was leaving an impression. There was a great deal of pride but also a grim determination to never let something like this happen again and to support their troops to prevent it.
China had needed to rebuild not only its cities and infrastructure but also its pride in itself, which had taken a distinct pounding both in the manner of its invasion and how its leader had reacted to it. As a result, their parades not only featured military personnel but also included emergency responders, doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel. It made for a much stranger and longer series of parades, but Dennis was extremely upbeat about what it said about China's overall thoughts on the war. He gleefully pointed to the strange lack of CCP colors throughout the parade and what that could mean for the future, as well as how much the Chinese had taken to thanking the Avalon Empire and the Asgardians for their help. Indeed, several Asgardians had been personally invited to view the parade in Beijing. The social upheaval would continue, but perhaps in a more positive direction.
Russia once more was different. Being invaded and throwing those invaders out was something central to how Russians saw themselves —an 'us against them' and 'we cannot lose' type of outlook. This had been proven once again. They had been invaded and turned the invaders aside. The Russians were not so pleased about needing to admit they'd needed help, but neither could they argue that they had gotten some that was even more important than America's help in WW2 with the lend-lease agreement. More importantly, they had also regained their pride in themselves as a nation, not just on the military side of things, but as a people, something that had been severely trampled upon during the Eurasian War and how they had been dupes of the Dire Wraiths.
While French thoughts on the military hadn't changed significantly, the perception of France as a global military power had changed drastically. Thanks to how they had been forced to surrender to the Nazis so quickly, a lot of the public around the world thought of the French as weak, as people who would rather surrender than fight. Any true historian knew that was so much hogwash, but that had been the impression.
No longer.
Paris had been reclaimed almost entirely by French hands, and they had even demanded that the last of the Orbital Drop Marines retreat (those who hadn't been medically evacced) and that Ben Grimm and the rest of the Custodes on hand leave the city. Ben and the others argue, but with the portals all closed, they had agreed that house to house clearing could be left to the French. And they had paid for it, but the French had been the ones to liberate Paris yet again... if with help once more.
And that was only the major parades, the ones happening in the cities that had been the center of the invasion and which had suffered so tremendously. Harry wasn't really certain if Debrecen should be among that number, considering that Doctor Doom's prisoner, Gamora, who he had talked to several times at this point and who would be remaining the Doctor's guest for quite some time to come, had treated the city and its civilians with such kid gloves.
Regardless, there was a parade there, too, along with one in India, Burma, Bangladesh, Germany, and many other countries. Every nation that had sent men off to war was holding a parade today or the local equivalent. Time zones were a thing, after all.
Harry had sent representatives to each and every parade going on. Hela went to China along with Danielle and Skadi. Colossus, Amara, and Thunderbird went to Russia, while Ben Grimm and the Fantastic Four went to Paris and so forth. Even Wendy, the leader of the snatchers, had gone. Kitty Pryde and her parents had joined Ororo in India. Harry and Jean would join them presently, and he was already looking forward to Jean, Emma, and himself joining them in India and exploring the subcontinent for a few days with the Prydes, whose family atmosphere Harry always enjoyed just as much as being around Melody and the kids.
Hela may or may not join them, as she was going to spend time with her family. A family whose patriarch and matriarch Harry had met in the physical world with their own minds this time, for the first time barely three days ago when Loki had woken up.
Flashback:
Harry stood outside the same cage that Loki had been occupying ever since Danielle had delivered his wife's soul into his body, wondering idly how this was going to go. "I know you're awake, Loki. We have numerous sensors which are telling us that you are so please don't insult our intelligence by trying to play dead or something."
It was not Loki's voice that answered first. Instead, it was a female voice coming from his mouth, a strong alto. "You'll have to forgive my husband," that voice said, adding a possessive tone to that word that Harry had to smile at even as he wondered if this was some kind of trick. "Trickery and deceit come easily to him, especially when he is in a cage, cornered as he is now. And more especially when he must admit his faults to others. That oddly is something he has in common with all too many people, man and woman alike, regardless of race."
"Some of that sounded good, but who exactly am I speaking to right now?"
"That Sigyn's voice, precisely the same tone heard in my mind when I commune with her," Dani said.
She, Fenrir and Hela were also there, although the rest of the high command were still busy elsewhere on other projects. Steve, for example, was meeting with the Winter Soldier and speaking to Charles about how to help Bucky Barnes through the indoctrination he had undergone. Ororo was meeting with various teachers in the Savage Lands to talk about yet another request to enlarge the school structure there. Work continued on, even with family drama like this in the making.
"That is well and good, but do we know if this is really Sigyn? Has she taken over Loki's body then?" Fenrir growled.
"We're actually cohabitating in the strangest use of the term that has probably ever been," Loki said, his own voice now rather than that of his wife. "It is actually quite crowded in here and not at all pleasant. I feel somewhat bloated. A feeling that I have not felt since I lost a wager and had to turn into a female horse for, shall we say…"
"Ah yes, Father, thank you, I believe we are all familiar with that particular tale. Although many of us still wonder why Sleipnir was not resurrected and used in the Shadow's games like so many of us," Hela said sadly. "Thanks to the Shadows messing with my mind even more thoroughly than most of our people, I have very few memories of him I can trust, but those few I do have are pleasant, and I would have liked to get to know Sleipnir more."
"… Yes, well, while I had put plans in motion to save my wife, there was a limit to how many such plans I could make. Especially in your case, as you were still holed up in Niflheim and did not participate in the final battle. Indeed, to the best of my knowledge, you should not have been a part of the agreement at all. Your service to Death should have kept the Shadows from affecting you, but I suppose that the Shadow Scum were able to do so because Niflheim is such an intrinsic part of the Yggdrasil system," Loki answered with a shake of her head.
"So it is not just the fact that you have your wife's soul within your body, but we are expected to believe that your memories have returned entirely to you? This seems too good to be true," Hela scowled, although internally, she was doing flips. Dani had mentioned her thoughts on the items in Sigyn's loghouse being symbols of Loki's memories, but until now, Hela hadn't held out hope those memories would also return when Sigyn's soul came into contact with Loki's.
At that, Loki finally stood up from where he had been slumping in his bed. Moving towards the bars, he gripped them with both hands, staring through them at Harry, then around at Fenrir, Hela and Danielle. His lips quirked as if he was fighting the urge to make a snarky comment.
He didn't and instead shook his head. "Given how much power I can sense coming off of you, Harry Potter, I would be a fool to try and tangle with you physically. I made a deal with one Titan, and I reckon my survival of that is a very good thing, which can mostly be laid at your feet. Of course, we don't get news in here, so I cannot be entirely certain, but…"
Loki's voice suddenly shifted, as did his entire stance, becoming almost feminine despite the fact he was a man and still wearing the clothing he had been caught in. "Enough, husband. You have more important things to do than to let you try and convince everyone that you are far smarter and wiser than you truly are. Save such things for later. I wish to return to my body first. Harry Potter Danielle once carried a weapon made by my hand in my realm within her body, and I like to think I gave her good advice. And now I am going to give you some. A single body cannot hold two souls, no matter how malleable those souls may be for very long. Especially souls of such power as my husband and I. Take us to my body so that the stasis upon it can be removed, and I can be back home within or else I am rather afraid magical mishaps will occur."
Harry frowned a bit, looking over at Hela. "Do we trust him?"
"Trust but verify. I believe that is my mother speaking just now, and I believe that was my erstwhile father a moment ago. I would prefer something else from both of them to know that he is truly his own man again before we release him from this cage and some means of magically making certain that he cannot somehow escape," Hela answered, with Fenrir growling in agreement.
Loki looked at her, and his body tone changed again, becoming masculine once more. Loki then took several steps back away from the cage doors and bowed his head towards her, even sweeping his hand along the floor in a courtly manner. "My dear daughter, I am sorry for how I treated you. I am sorry for failing you and your brothers, and I am sorry that I insulted you as I did while under the influence of the last vestiges of the Shadows. My wife has told me as much as she could about the war in Asgard against their influence, and I wish that I had been there to take part in some measure. I was not, and although I can blame that on the Shadows influencing my personality, I think even that would ring hollow. Please accept my forgiveness, and know that even if you do not ever acknowledge me as your father in the future, I am proud of the woman you have become."
For a moment, no one spoke, simply looking at Hela, and then she finally nodded. "Some kind of anti-magic inhibitor on him, Harry, I still would not like him to try and run off. But I do not believe he will any longer. It seems as if my mother is a very good influence on him."
"I try to be, but inside his body like this, my abilities to do so are quite more limited than I would like," Sigyn stated as Loki's body language once more shifted.
Harry let Loki out of the cage and then led him to where they had moved the coffin-encased body of his wife. Harry was in no way willing to take Loki into Camelot for this, after all.
When it came down to it, it was almost anti-climactic from Harry's perspective how easily Loki removed the crystal containing his wife. He simply leaned down, pressing his forehead into it, and breathing out slowly. His breath became almost blue-white for a moment, engulfing the crystal. And then the crystal shattered, leaving Sigyn's body lying there immaculate.
Almost instantly, however, Sigyn's body began to collapse, but Loki was already in motion. He leaned down, kissing the comatose form of his wife.
Once more, there was a tremendous thrum in the air, a feeling of weight as Loki's body lit up. Then, an image of Sigyn's form overlapped his, before being drawn into her body. It was not a fast process, and the magic continued to ebb and flow as the image slowly shifted from Loki's body to her physical one.
But eventually, several hours after they had started, Sigyn's eyes opened. Her hand rose up, clasping the back of Loki's head as all Loki's energy seemed to leave him. She caught him, slowly rolling and setting him down to the side on the table her crystal coffin had been sitting on. "That…" she rasped, her voice hoarse with disuse, "That was not an experience I would ever willingly go through again."
"M, mother?" Hela asked tremulously, almost sounding like a little girl. "Is that really you?"
Beside her, Fenrir also looked on in shock and no small amount of longing. Like Hela, his memories had been twisted, erased and changed by Those Who Watch Above in Shadow. But he still had some few memories of this woman, her scent in particular one that, even through the Shadows' deprivations, he associated with safety and warmth.
"It is indeed, and with a physical body once more. Ugh, I feel weak as a week-old kitten, but it is indeed I." Sigyn made to sit up, only to fall back, what strength she'd used to roll her husband to lay beside her leaving the woman. Hela quickly moved forward, helping her to stand up, as Harry followed, calling for some food.
Later, the two godlings ate voraciously as Hela and Fenrir sat nearby, plying them with questions. Both of them had their full memories from the time before the Shadows came. Hela ate it up, acting more like a young woman rather than the determined queen of Niflheim Harry had gotten to know. Not that he didn't like this version, of course. Fenrir had also lost much of his wild edge, and his traitorous tail was wagging so wildly it was all Harry could do to not point it out and laugh at the change that had come over the young wolf.
All of this had settled Harry's concerns about Loki trying to pull some trick. He wasn't certain what to do with him at this point, but he was at least certain the Trickster God wasn't going to be their enemy anytime soon.
"So, were you able to get your transformation powers back when you undid the crystal?" Harry asked during a lull in the conversation.
"Alas, Titan, no, I will not." Loki had taken to addressing Harry like that for some reason. Harry was uncertain if it was a dig or a compliment and knew that very uncertainty was probably part of the reason why Loki was doing it. He seemed to delight in such speech, even when imparting tales from his family's past. "Once used to power such an enchantment, a deific power is used up, never to return." Loki smiled then, taking Sigyn's hand in his own. "Yet I would do it all over again if I had to in order to save my wife."
Sigyn smiled at that, doing so in such a way that Harry thought of her appellation 'the Victorious Wife' once more. Then Loki turned to him, and Harry felt a frisson of concern going down his spine despite his new Titan form. "And speaking of family. What are your intentions towards our daughter, Harry Potter?"
End flashback
The music in the background changed, bringing Harry back to the here and now. He shook his head, staring down at the marching ODMs, hearing the faint shouts and cheers, as well as the subdued crying coming from too many wives and children whose fathers would never come home again. As he did, Harry fell to brooding about the nature of arrogance of both Thanos's and Harry's own. If I had only figured out the Titan Ritual earlier, if only I had gone through it the moment Strange and I were finished going over it, then I could have…
"Stop that," Jean practically hissed angrily into his ear, jerking Harry out of his thoughts once more. "Harry, don't beat yourself up on what ifs, and don't you dare denigrate the sacrifice of these men by thinking their sacrifice was meaningless! You made mistakes, yes, but putting your trust in the Custodes and the ODMs was not one of them. It was war, and in war, people die. If I'm not allowed to beat myself up about not stopping the Mandarin from launching those nukes, like you, Hela, Ororo and even Emma told me I couldn't this morning for the fortieth time at least, you can't beat yourself up about not being omnipotent, alright?"
"No… not alright," Harry said, shaking his head although he was smiling somewhat crookedly at his redheaded wife as he said it, so she didn't grab his danglies in a telekinetic death grip. "But I will try to remember that, my love."
With that, Harry put his arm around her, ruffling Rachel's hair as he did, taking Sirius in his hands. The boy, who had been looking restless, calmed down, grabbing at Harry's brightly colored handkerchief from the breast pocket in his suit, pulling it out and biting toothlessly onto it.
Harry chuckled at that, gently rocking the boy as he turned his attention back to his troops, thinking about the future.
Scene break
"Hmmm…" Harry murmured, leaning back in his office in the Magical Minds headquarters as he stared down at some of the paperwork in front of him. This was not actually paperwork for Magical Minds. For this paperwork, Harry was wearing his Imperial hat, as he liked to call it, acting as head of the Avalon Empire and the commander-in-chief of the Earth Defense Force. Because these papers were official requests from the United States for access to space. Not to enlarge their base on Fortress Mars, which they were already in the process of selling back to the EDF because they simply could not truly make use of it in a meaningful way outside of training their infantry in zero-g. Something that was of very limited utility. No, this form was a request to buy access time to his technology so the US could build their own space station.
And not just a space station, but a construction yard. The Americans want to build their own space fleet. But they want to do so by having me build it for them. A part of me admires their… what is that Jewish word that Ben used recently, chutzpah? Yes, that's it. And another part of me admires the fact that they want to be in a position to defend themselves. But this is just not going to happen.
Eventually, Harry felt the Earth Defense Force would transform into a space-going arm of the United Nations, with himself remaining as commander but the rest of the world's governments funding it in different ways. To a large extent, the various smaller polities like the European Union and the SARU South American Resource Union were already doing so in an informal manner. With China signing on to the Asian one, the Asiatic Conglomerate would undoubtedly join them in doing so. However, allowing the various governments to have their own space-based militaries was simply not going to happen.
I respect the American military more than any of the others, even Britain's. They're truly the best in large-scale fleet maneuvers, keeping large fleets maintained, handling logistics, and providing training. But much like everyone else, the Americans have personal axes to grind with their fellow nations. And more importantly, the other nations would view that idea with varying levels of horror. China, France and Russia in particular, who just happen to slowly be building up how much aid they're giving the EDF.
They can send more men to join the Earth Defense Force and the ODMs. Both of them are in need of a lot more men. The OH Damns are still at barely company-level strength, and the next batch of recruits won't be ready for another three months. And with our plans for the first human-built starships moving forward, that's going to open up a lot of jobs and opportunities in the construction sector.
Briefly writing out a polite yet firm rejection letter to the request, Harry turned his mind back to those plans. The idea of creating a human fleet in space wasn't exactly a new one. Reed, Carol, and a large majority of her think tank had been busily working on designs for some time. However, with Forge taking charge and pushing forward on the engineering side of things, and the Long Voyager serving as an example of what was possible, those plans had been moving forward far more rapidly. Indeed, the construction yard to build the ships in question was almost complete, with construction over Fortress Mars nearing its end.
The idea was to pair the concept of the Ravens with a capital ship capable of defending itself. This, plus the examples of the Kree and Skrull superdreadnoughts, had pushed Forge and Reed to design an equivalent of a supercarrier-dreadnought hybrid. It would be built to launch fighters at extended ranges and also to fight at long range on its own while taking one hell of a pounding. The ship also had onboard repair capabilities.
Forge and Reed both understood that humanity would never be able to match the quantity of any enemy fleet they tangled with. Therefore, they had to grossly exceed the quality. Survivability was also a major priority. Thankfully, they had access to Harry's magic, or rather Kitty's runic arrays, since Ororo's young apprentice had basically moved into Fortress Mars along with Polaris at this point. So, despite the numerous objectives the hybrid ships needed to meet, humanity could indeed make ships that were the equivalent of four or five of their enemies.
And once we have a fleet of our own here in Sol, we can release our existing stolen fleet for diplomatic and survey missions. I know Reed wants his own personal ship. I'm actually inclined to give it to him given some of the things I can understand about his experiments in light refraction, faster-than-light communication over galactic distances, and the impact on various chemical and metallurgical products when created in Zero G. He's not the only one though, and I know Carol said something about being embarrassed recently on a date with Steve when some scientist or other came up and literally begged on hands and knees for a chance to explore space beyond the solar system. That must've been quite a sight.
Looking at the 3D image of the supercarrier, Harry's fingers began to flash on a control panel, the image shifting under his command before noting some interesting features and some areas where he had questions, the fingers of his other hand typing away a message, showing a level of multitasking that he had not previously had before his Titan Form transformation.
The fact it was also four in the morning and he had left Jean, Ororo and Emma all comatose from a night of lovemaking was also a sign of the sheer vitality that being a Titan gave him. Harry had also discovered he was able to speedread far, far faster than even Hermione at her best had ever been able to. His typing speed also exceeded his computer's ability to keep up with it, and he'd been forced to have a specially reinforced one built.
For once, Harry was actually dealing with more of the paperwork and the organizational aspect than even Sage.
The mutant with the supercomputer for a brain had instantly noticed this. Sage then told Harry quite cheerfully that she was going on vacation. Told him, not informed her employer, and that in a tone that told Harry that trying to argue would've been a very bad idea.
But Harry wasn't going to do so in any event, even if he knew that he couldn't handle Sage's workload. Of everyone who worked behind the scenes, Sage and Sir Dennis were the two who were the most indispensable to the rise of the Avalon Empire. Frankly, if Sage had told him that she wanted a small minor moon for herself, complete with beaches, sun, and nude serving boys, Harry would have moved heaven and earth to get it for her.
Similarly, Dennis was going to be passing on his spymaster position to Mystique for now. He would remain as the Asian liaison, which had always been his particular bailiwick, and he would still be in charge of recruiting. But Mystique would be taking over running the overall organization. An organization they still had no specific name for, something that Harry had left cheerfully blank for now.
For a moment, Harry stopped working, his hands once more becoming visible to the normal human eye as he paused typing and stared into space, thinking about how far they had come. Earth was now protected against further alien invasion, humanity was more united, and the mutant issue was no longer uppermost in everyone's minds. That, perhaps more even than defending Earth against several alien invasions, was something Harry was extremely proud of. Of course, there were bigots still on both sides, but after the invasion, after the Eurasian war, after the numerous times the Custodes Mundi helped defend the planet, the only real area where mutants were still seen as a major social issue was in the Middle East. That quagmire Harry knew would take decades, centuries, perhaps, to figure out, let alone to try and change. But, perhaps in the near future, I'll have time to devote to it.
Harry shook his head and looked back at his screen, noticing that the PC had caught up with his typing again. But before he could get back to work, Mary Jane poked her head in and then sighed, shook her head and pushed the door open. A moment later, the redhead strode inside with the confidence and poise that Harry knew Ororo, and Emma took great delight in seeing in the young redhead from New York. The fact that she was wearing an extremely formal dress, however, was what caused Harry to blink.
"I knew it! I knew you would forget the time once you got into work, boss. I don't care how much you can do or how fast, there will always be something more to grab your attention. But not today!" Mary Jane said, tapping her watch meaningfully. "You have someplace to be, remember? Heck, all of us have someplace to be."
Harry blinked again, then turned to look at the clock before rising and moving over the desk so fast that Mary Jane lost track of him for a second. He took her hand gently and gently tugged her towards the door. "You're right. We do need to get a move on. I'll take us right to the portal in Australia. Ororo and the others should be ready to head through to meet with Hela soon, so you can join them there. And don't worry," he said, his lips corking into a wry smile. "Despite the fact that this is going to be my fourth wedding, I know all too well how not to offend my wife-to-be."
Scene break
"And you still won't remove the mask?" Ororo asked, her tone teasing as she held Hela's hair up for Jean. "And if I did not know you were a goddess, sister, I would be most jealous of your hair as I know you do barely anything with it normally unless one of us is in the baths with you."
"Hah, that just shows that I am good at understanding how to take advantage of the kindness of others," Hela answered, humming in delight at the dual feelings of Ororo's fingers through her hair and MJ and Kitty giving her a last-minute manicure. "And no, I will not remove my mask until my Seidr Man and I officially go to bed together as man and wife."
MJ and Kitty had declared her nails unworthy of the rest of Hela's current outfit when they had joined the rest of the women in their current boudoir. Said boudoir was part of the halls of Hel, Hela's home in Niflheim. The actual ceremony would be happening in Valhalla, but given how easy it was to transport from one dimension to another here in the boughs of Yggdrasil, there was no reason to stay in Asgard until right before the ceremony began.
A ceremony that Hela had hoped to see for months, a ceremony she yearned for after helping her sisters-in-love through their own: a wedding. A wedding, moreover, where Odin would be officiating, and her parents (her parents! A thought she still had trouble believing was real) would also be there. By the Fates, I thought I would remain a spinster for decades more. If Thanos was still alive, I might be tempted to send him a thank you basket for sending Loki back to Earth. It would be loaded with a mixture of poison and enchantments designed to make his life both short and uncomfortable, but I might still be tempted to send it in the first place.
Hela currently wore a traditional Norse wedding dress, red blouse and skirt paired with white sleeves. Her neckline and the sleeves were marked by immensely intricate stitching. Her mask was now white as well, contrasting only slightly to her skin. Hela wore only one piece of jewelry: a single necklace of silver and bronze.
Ororo was dressed similarly, except she was all in white, which offset her rich black skin to magnificent effect. Jean and Emma had opted to dress in more normal modern-day dresses. But as chief bridesmaid, Ororo had agreed to follow the overall wedding tradition and the deep crimson color of the dress stood out strongly on her skin. Thankfully, having women involved in the wedding had been somewhat easy to add in as having bridesmaids at all was the only aspect of modern-day weddings that Hela had kept while they were designing the ceremony.
"Nervous?" Jean asked, leaning down to give Hela a kiss on her collarbone, causing Hela to both smile and gently push the redhead away, for propriety's sake, although the sentiment was very appreciated. "It was just the hormones for my pregnancy talking, but I sure as hell was nervous walking down that aisle. Nervous so much about Harry, or our relationship or anything like that. We'd been living in the same set of rooms for months by that point. But the whole ceremony, all those people looking at me…"
"For my part, I did not feel nervous about the ceremony. The whole idea of actually being married was… disturbing to me. For so long, I had been trained to think of the company first, the family's money first, and then myself and my happiness. The very idea of actually being able to marry someone who I generally liked was a strange one to me. I enjoyed it quite a lot when it came to it. But leading up to the wedding, that was a strange time for me," Emma admitted.
The blonde woman was leaning against the door jamb, having arrived with several bottles of her family's best wine and spirits and had been starkly trading barbs with Hela up to this point. But now Emma smiled faintly at Hela. "I don't think you have that kind of baggage. And, although I will deny I ever said this to anyone bar Harry if any of you mention it in public, I think I am looking forward to calling you a sister-wife Hela."
Hela smiled at that, nodding her head towards Emma. The two of them still had their little moments, but generally speaking, they'd grown to love and cherish one another, just as Hela had Ororo and Jean. Now Hela looked up at Ororo, one eyebrow rising under her mask as she asked the woman who was easily the central not woman in the relationship, "And you? Were you nervous? I must admit that I was somewhat nervous about my role in your wedding. I'd never officiated one before, after all."
Ororo laughed quietly, shaking her head. "When I was young and on the Serengeti plains, I officiated several weddings and nearby tribes. It's not my business on that score. I was… Ambivalent about making my wedding a political statement, although I was right on board for making it a social one if that makes any sense. Regardless, I believe that you will perform magnificently, my dear, just as you did on that day, so if you needed reassurance, there you are."
Snorting at that, Hela leaned further back in her chair, letting Mary Jane and Cordelia do her nails. The moment was ruined, however, when Emma said, "Hah! Hela is not feeling nervous. She's horny as hell! Can you imagine how any of us would've been if we'd been forced to flirt and just take things so slowly for months? Frankly, I'm surprised she's not ruining that little dress of hers right now with…"
Thankfully, Ororo had finished holding up Hela's hair by the sport, and a quick silencing spell halted Emma's words in place. The laughter from all of the other women caused Hela to blush rosily behind her mask. Yet she did not gainsay Emma's words.
About an hour later, the wedding bride's party departed from Hel with Hela's faithful wolf beside them. Garm walked us along beside her, his wounds during the battle with Santos having long since healed. Hela gently rested one hand on top of his head, and the two of them moved towards the door. There, Hela met with Fenrir, Loki and her mother. Occasionally, Hela still had trouble calling Loki 'Father' yet she was slowly getting used to the idea. She exchanged hand clasps with him and a brief but heartfelt hug with Sigyn, whose eyes gleamed with pride.
"I could wish we could've waited a bit longer for me to measure the true metal of your man," Loki grumbled, shaking his head as Hela and Sigyn exchanged hugs and cheek kisses. "This haste is unseemly."
"I have been waiting for this for months, and if you did not think that I would be taking advantage of your presence here as quickly as possible, you are a madman," Hela said, despite the fact that this gave Emma a perfect opportunity to say the dreaded words of 'I told you so!' Behind her.
Sigyn joined the laughter that occurred then, but Loki did not, sadly shaking his head and looking at his daughter. "You're certain this is what you want? I realize that I am not in a position to tell you what to do, but I just wish to be certain that you are certain in your own mind. You have never struck me as the type to share, and now you are entering into a…"
'Relationship with not one man, but one man and three other women. We are not a traditional harem. We are a multi-relationship, Loki. Harry might be the center of it," along with Ororo, Hela added mentally. "But we are all equals. Yes, I will have to share Harry's time and his affections. But I have had months to get used to that, as well as to fall in love with the other ladies." She turned and gave Emma Jean and Ororo such a look that had two of the three blushing, and Ororo simply chuckling quietly, looking back at her, a certain eagerness in her own eyes that said Hela's pulse to racing. Turning back, she gave Loki a faint smile. "I thank you for being concerned about my welfare, but I am a grown woman, and I know my mind. This is what I want."
Loki stared back at her, then shrugged and gestured with his head towards the door. If he was feeling any further regrets or perhaps anger at the fact that he would have so little time to get to know her before she turned from his daughter into someone else's wife, he did not mention it. "In that case, Garm, Fenrir, if you would do the honors?"
Of the two siblings, Fenrir still had the most issues with their father, although he followed Sigyn around like a lost puppy quite often. But this was one order that Fenrir had no trouble obeying. He and Garm moved towards the doors leading into Valhalla and muscled them open with their heads and shoulders.
As they did, the cacophonous noise of men and women chattering to one another faded, and the drumbeat began. Those who had been standing around the area quickly moved, forming two square blocks. No one sat. Instead, they stood, peering over one another's heads toward the incoming family of Loki and Sigyn as they moved forward. The hall had been cleaned from top to bottom, and now, as the ceremony began, the normal torches changed color. Instead of the normal flame, they became almost white, like tiny stars lit the hallway from one end to another, giving everything an ethereal cast.
Lining the way were the rest of the Asgardians, along with many of the chosen Asatru. All were dressed in their finest clothing, with Freya, in particular, looking exceedingly happy and dressed to kill as she stood to one side of Danielle, with Skadi on the young woman's other side. Whatever they'd been talking about had once more put a blush on the younger twosome's faces and a smug smile on Freya's. Baldur stood across from his mother with his brother Thor, both of whom looked warily on Loki. Thor was looking at Loki that way because he thought Loki was a danger to himself… or any of the others, rather. Since Loki had been allowed to interact with the Asgardians once more, Loki had taken to pranking Thor and Odin both as often as he could get away with it.
"One of my chief duties as the trickster God is to poke fun and deflate egos, and what better target for such things is there than the Thunderer and Lord Odin, God of Kings?" He would often say. The fact that this was his way of bonding with the rest of his estranged family was somewhat lost on Thor when he was dealing with his clothing being turned into a dress and his beard, which had finally begun to grow in once more, trying to crawl up his face and blind him.
Baldur, on the other hand, had simply not quite yet reconciled the reality of Loki's position within the royal family of Asgard and the one that the Shadows had embedded into all of their minds. There was still a large part of his mind that saw his estranged half-brother rather than his estranged uncle. Even if Baldur did enjoy Loki's sense of humor.
Among the Asgardians were much of the rest of the Custodes, but they were not alone. Piotr sat behind Melody and several of the kids, those whom Hela was particularly close with. Father Garnoff sat with Rahne, the wolf girl having a complicated expression on her face, while the Russian Orthodox priest simply took everything in, neither judging nor doing anything. There were even a few house elves sitting around the kids, and although a few of them were exchanging glares with several of the Alfar who served Odin, two of them were holding the babies, who were also surprisingly taking it all in. Or it would have been surprising, as most babies would not react well to the tumble and the strange atmosphere, but these two had small, minor silencing spells on them.
With that in place, Sirius and Rachel seemed to be doing quite well from Sigyn's perspective, and she took a special moment to wave at her pseudo-grandchildren, getting a wave from little Rachel in turn. Next to her, Loki made a point of maintaining eye contact with both of his nephews and then winking at them.
Hela had no eyes whatsoever for the rest of the crowd. No, her eyes were locked in an emerald gaze, and her heart was once again attempting to do a hundred-meter dash.
Harry stood decked out in his own traditional wedding outfit, and it truly showed what a change during his Titan Transformation, his height and his breadth of shoulder. Yet that was only part of it. No, it was the love, the welcome and the raw desire that Hela saw in those eyes that took her breath away. Oh yes, Mama, my Seidr Man, mine, mine! I want this one.
For his part, Harry was utterly stunned. While it Hela's outfit was nowhere near as sensual as some of the dresses she had worn on their dates previously, the severity of it merely highlighted her uniqueness in a way that those dresses had not. The warmth in her tiny smile, the way her eyes caught his behind her mask, her hair, her face, the way she strode, commanding, no, demanding attention like a queen of all she surveyed, all of it caused Harry's mouth to go dry, and his heart to decide that today was a day to imitate a Formula 500 car. I would think something like God is blessed, but that would be far too on point at the moment, a small part of his mind thought. The rest of his mind was lost in the moment and what it entailed for the future.
Almost robotically, Harry held out her hand to Hela, finally able to throw off the spell that her arrival had put on him as she touched his hand with her own. They linked fingers before they turned to look at Odin, who, as he had said he would, presided over the wedding.
For an endless moment, the two of them stared into one another's eyes, lost in their mutual emotions. Then, as one, they turned to Lord Odin, and the ceremony began, binding the last of Harry's wives to him in holy matrimony.
There were other challenges to come. Other enemies to fight. But from now until the end of days, Harry would not face them alone. He would always have his wives by his side, come what may, the foundation of what they had all built together. And for now, that was enough.
FIN