The village of Last Haven (known to its inhabitants as 'Ultimo Refugio') was nestled deep within the Amazon, up against a small nameless tributary of the great river. Witches, wizards, and other magical beings from across the continent had taken refuge there for decades, both from the ravages of Hydra and from the oppressive control of the Order.
That ended today.
When Harry arrived, flames had already been spreading through the surrounding rainforest. People were fleeing, but it was not for Harry to save them. His team could, and was, getting as many people out as possible. Harry had one job, distract Death and give his friends time. To that end, he set himself up in the middle of the village square and waited. He wouldn't have to wait long. Hela cut through the town like a knife through butter, and quickly noticed Harry, sitting at his conjured table with a chair open for her. "Ah, Death." He called. "I was expecting you."
"You!" Hela snarled, her palm lighting up to level a killing curse at him. "I'll-"
Hela's shadow stepped into her, instantly silencing her. "Ah, Harry." Said Death. "Have you reconsidered my offer?"
"I've thought about it." Harry admitted, and that, at least, was the truth. "I've realized that there are some benefits to communication. We do have a common enemy, after all."
Death sidled up to the table and sat across from him. As subtly as he could manage, he began to quicken their pace of time relative to the outside world. At this moment, Neville and Hermione were setting up wards to prevent any communication from entering the area. "We do." Death said. "We could end this very quickly, Harry. All you have to do is say the word."
Hook, line, sinker. Harry thought grimly. He was surprised at how easy it was for him to fool Death- considering she was an omnipotent Goddess. Perhaps being restricted to the mortal world had limited her. He could ask her, but he doubted she'd be willing to share and he wasn't going to risk tipping her off.
"As you know, I have concerns. Given our history." He said slowly. "But… I see how the world is suffering, how my friends are suffering. I want to end it." He gestured with his hand, and Death caught sight of the green magic snaking around his wrist.
"Harry Potter, you are looping time right now." She said severely. "You do not trust me, do you?"
"Of course I don't." He scoffed. "I need an insurance policy in case you try to kill me. Are you saying that you trust me? You shouldn't."
"Anything I tell you, you could activate the loop and use against me." She realized, as if for the first time.
"If that were my plan, showing you my arm would have been a poor way to go about it." Harry said, trying to keep the conversation going. "Now you know what I have up my sleeve." He grinned cheekily.
"Cute." She muttered. "So have you had enough of hiding away with your little girlfriends, while I lay waste to this world?"
"Perhaps." Harry smiled coyly. With a wave of his hand, he summoned teacups on saucers, filled with piping hot tea. "Tea?"
-----
Tony laid on his couch, data pad in hand, fiddling idly. He wished he could be as relaxed as he appeared, but the nebulous knowledge that something could happen at any moment kept him on edge. Daisy Johnson hadn't given him any specifics about what their plan was, not even when it would happen. It made sense from a safety perspective, but it played hell with Tony's nerves.
Perhaps he should have hooked up with that researcher who'd been tossing him hints. She'd been easy on the eyes certainly, but he was too pre-occupied with work to be tempted. Besides, if the attack happened, he'd rather not be caught with his pants down (literally or figuratively).
He nearly fell out of his couch when he heard an explosion. The facility was well protected, Asgardian enchantments would prevent wizards from teleporting in, but that didn't mean someone couldn't break in the old fashion way. He'd expected the plan to be a bit more… subtle, but he wasn't going to complain.
"Sir, should I activate Arnold?" Jarvis piped in. That was the name he'd given his latest project- the suit he'd planned to betray Hydra with.
"Have it ready for the road." Tony said. "Don't want to be premature here."
Another explosion. Now that it was closer, however, it sounded more like thunder. He heard the sound of Hydra weapons firing, and the distant shouts of men.
"The disturbance is drawing closer." Jarvis noted. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to activate-"
"Fine." Tony sighed. "Get it-"
At that moment, someone crashed through his roof- a tall bearded… Viking? An imposing battle axe was embedded in the ground next to him. A man bearing one of Tony's Iron Man suits charged in after him, landing on the Viking-man and pummeling him with his fists.
"Now!" Tony shouted, and on cue the pieces of his own suit assembled around his arm, and then the rest of his body. Tony charged up a repulsor blast, and the Hydra soldier, thinking Tony was on his side, didn't think to dodge the point-blank shot. It cracked through the armor around his head, and he slumped over dead.
"Stark!" The bearded man boomed, rising and crushing Tony in a hug.
"Uh, who are you?"
"Oh, right. You don't remember." He shook his head. "I'm Thor."
"Wait, Thor as in the Norse God of Thunder?" Tony pointed. "As in Hela's-" At that moment, a portal opened. Both Tony and Thor whirled around.
"Tony Stark." A dark-skinned woman said in a distinctive accent he couldn't place. "You- wait, Thor, what are you doing here?"
"I got sidetracked. Nice suit, by the way."
"Thank you!" Tony preened. "You know, I made it myself."
"Showoff." The woman muttered, rolling her eyes.
"And who are you?" Tony asked, feeling like a broken record.
"Call me Shuri." The woman said. Two more women entered the portal on her heels. "These are my friends- Sk- Daisy Johnson and… the Ancient One."
"The Ancient One?" Tony was mystified, but he turned his attention to the woman he'd been in contact with. "You weren't kidding when you said you had friends. Wakandans, Thor? Really?"
"You don't know the half of it." Daisy said. "Wizards, Sorcerers, Asgardians, mutants, and more. You name it, we've got it."
Tony nodded, taking it all in as quickly as his impressive intellect allowed. Apparently, he'd just become apart of something much bigger. As intimidating as it was, it was also incredibly exciting, like he'd landed in exactly the right place at the right time. "What's the plan, where do you need me?"
"I need your lab." Shuri said. "I very urgently need to make a compound."
"I'm your protection detail." Daisy said. "And the Ancient One…"
"I will be severing this building from the world around it, enfolding it into a pocket dimension while keeping a temporary doorway to its original location." She said. "Don't mind me."
"Okay." Tony said, shaking himself. It was better not to think about it. "What about Bloodaxe over here?"
"He's just stopping by." Shuri gave him the side-eye. "Right, Thor?"
Thor cuffed Tony on the shoulder. "We will talk later Stark, I think we have much catching up to do. Away!" Thor shouted, and then he was off, literally leaping into the air from whence he came.
Shuri turned back to Tony, and grinned excitedly. "Let's do this."
-----
In unison, the guns were ripped from the Hydra soldiers' hands, rotating in the air to aim at their former wielders. Some stared in shock, a few tried to flee, one even attempted to wrestle his gun back to him. They all met the same fate, vaporized as so many of their victims had been.
"You're enjoying this too much, father." Wanda said.
"Hardly." Her father replied. "You know how many of our people they've killed. If anything, this is mercy." Wanda did agree with him. Every Hydra agent could die, as far as she was concerned. She was just unnerved by how… gleeful her father was at the death and destruction. Perhaps before she wouldn't have bat an eye. Now, while she could see the necessity of it, she couldn't revel in the killing. Harry had clearly been a good influence on her.
At the edge of her vision, she spotted a speck leaping at her. She caught it with her magic, letting it twist in the air. Ah, Pym's technology. With a flick of her fingers, she sent the miniaturized man flying into the cement, leaving a nasty crack and a tiny blood smear at the site of impact.
Wanda, there are mutants beneath you.
She glanced around. The naked eye could only see nondescript buildings, much like the rest of the facility. However, the relentless pace of Hydra soldiers, both crawling out of the buildings and porting in from elsewhere indicated they were near something of importance. Moreover, Wanda could feel the protective enchantments beneath them. This must be the prison complex that Stark had informed them of. "Charles has located mutants in the prison beneath us." Wanda relayed.
Her dad grinned viciously. "We'll free them all and destroy anyone who stands in our way."
-----
Any hopes that Natasha had of their plan running smoothly had been immediately dashed. No, Hydra hadn't put up that much of a fight, and that was part of the problem. With everyone cutting through resistance like a knife through butter, it quickly became a free-for-all. Thor had rampaged through the city, picking fights with any enemy that crossed his eye. The mutants had abandoned the plan and run headlong into the underground prison. Natasha had demanded to know what Wanda was thinking. She'd been apologetic but had explained there was no stopping it.
She wished Harry were here. He thrived in chaos like this. She'd just have to make do. It was still going well, but there was a risk that once Hydra brought in their heavy hitters that this could become a disaster. She had reserves to deploy, and she was committed to keeping them on the sidelines until they were needed.
"We're setting up the perimeter now- uh oh, I know that look sis." Yelena teased. She'd been helping Natasha coordinate this mess, insofar as it could be coordinated. "No one's listening to you."
Natasha rolled her eyes. "As if they ever." Her team, at least, followed her orders. She had a report with Clint, Hill, and Yelena, and the other resistance fighters that she'd taken command of followed their lead. The problem was everyone else.
"They usually do." Yelena patted her arm patronizingly. "You're very scary and intimidating."
Natasha was about to snipe back when she noticed a glint in the distance. She instantly opened a portal in front of them and jumped through it, right on top of their would-be sniper. She hadn't been expecting the reverse ambush, nor could she best Natasha in hand-to-hand combat.
"You know, its really fucked up that this timeline just decided to merge the Red Room into Hydra." Yelena noted, gun drawn as she scanned around them. Natasha rushed to her, shielding them both with a mandala as a shot ricochetted off the magical shield. She created a portal that opened beneath their assailant, dropping her on top of the other woman they'd downed.
Yelena didn't hesitate, levelling her pistol at the woman's head and taking her out before she could recover. Natasha winced, and she slightly regretted handling these women so ruthlessly. She had once been in their position, as had Yelena. In the other world, they had freed them all from the Red Room's brainwashing and they'd gotten to live normal lives.
These women hadn't been brainwashed the way the Red Room had for their Widows-Hydra had reserved that only for their enhanced assets- but Natasha knew just how heavy the manipulation and indoctrination was. But then, most of the men Hydra was throwing at them were also conscripts. It wasn't any different. Their enemies would use any tool they had at hand, and they couldn't afford to be soft. The world where Harry had freed those women had been at peace and secure. They were at war, and war is hell.
"I hate how wide open we are. Can we go back?" Yelena grumbled. They had been meant to set up a temporary headquarters on the ground, but that plan had to be scuttled. They weren't secure enough.
"We were probably surrounded back there." Natasha grunted. "We need to stay on the move, pick them off one by one." She activated her comms. "We've got snipers over our old position. Link up with each other and take them individually."
"Roger that." Clint's voice crackled through. "Took out a few already. I can cover you."
"After you, sis." Yelena deferred. Natasha sighed internally; she wasn't looking forward to this.
-----
Armin Zola flitted from one sector to the next furiously. Even at his accelerated rate of thought, it shocked him how quickly the situation had fallen apart on every front. He suspected a mole, and a highly placed one at that. The entire city had been overrun in minutes, and an army of mutants had broken into the prison block. They'd been caught completely flat footed, with their elite units scattered across the globe. It frankly didn't make sense. He'd thought that their enemies had been crushed, and that the rest of this was merely cleanup. Where was this force coming from? How was it so large, varied, and capable?
Why had he not been warned that this was a possibility? He fumed. Hela had always been tight lipped with information, but in the past few weeks, she'd become even more so. Everything was relayed through Erics now, much to Zola's chagrin. It didn't matter, though, that Zola had been kept in the dark. If the facility fell, it would be his fault and Hela would have all their hides if they survived to tell the tale.
Zola stewed with patient rage. He was safe, for the moment. His server was housed beneath the prison, and so far, only the upper levels had been breached. The mutants would find nothing of use there, only deserters and civilians rounded up for the next batch of testing. He could afford to wait for a concerted counterattack. He put out the call for reinforcements from all corners, even from Hela. He knew better than to leave her out of the loop, though shockingly there was no response from her, despite the urgency he'd placed on the message. Other groups returned the call, pledging aid- an army of Hydra soldiers, a battalion of enhanced assassins, Iron Men, drones, and of course the ace up their sleeve- Binary. At the proper time, he'd teleport them in simultaneously for a full counter assault.
He cued them up like a conductor preparing his orchestra. Three, two, one.
-----
Lily detected the exact moment when the battle shifted.
She'd managed to shmooze her way into one of the staging areas, with T'Chone and Septimius in tow. It was a mixed group of witches, sorcerers, and Asgardians, and none of them wanted to question their presence there. After all she was the daughter of the Harry Potter- who was becoming almost a mythical figure among the rank and file. If Lily used a bit of that luster for her own purposes… well, it was for a good cause.
On speaker, they could hear several conversations going at once. Neville had just given an update on the town of Last Haven. The situation there seemed to be well in hand, with no action coming from the town itself. That was probably good, she assured herself. She could also hear her mom speaking in a tense, no-nonsense tone. Apparently, things weren't going so smoothly for her- she was frustrated that everyone had thrown away the plan, and she was in a tough battle against a group of snipers. Shuri's voice broke in momentarily, to announce that she'd begun work on the compound that would break Hydra's brainwashing. Occasionally, there was a reference to fighting 'underground' or 'in the prison' but it was hard to keep track of.
Then, suddenly, everything became hard to keep track of. Half a dozen voices overlapped, each one as urgent as the last. After a few seconds of chaos, her mom's voice came in loud and decisive over the speaker. "They've called in reinforcements, its time to commit ours. Follow the plan for God's sake! Red team to me. Blue team to the prison. Yellow team- evacuate people as needed. Romanoff out."
Sorcerers opened portals, and the occupants of the room streamed through them. Lily shared a look with T'Chone, who nodded. Then she glanced back at Septimius. He looked nervous, and she took pity on him. "You can stay, Sep." She said.
"No." He shook his head. "I'm going with you." T'Chone clapped him on the shoulder.
It was surprisingly easy for them to slip in behind. No one was there to stop them on their end of the portal, and no one on the other end was keeping an eye out for some rebellious teens getting where they shouldn't be. It took Lily a few moments to gather her bearings. They were underground, in a massive pit lined with metal walls and walkways. From their vantage point, the opening to the surface seemed distant, casting dim beams of light onto them. Looking below, the pit continued to drop off into darkness. There were no cells lining the walls, flat metal and shadowed corridors burrowing into the sides.
Around them were the flashes of Hydra's weaponry, the sounds of gunfire, and the crashes, explosions, and shouts of battle. The levels above them were complete chaos. The walkways and paneling had been ripped from their foundations and turned into a maelstrom. Dozens of Hydra soldiers were impaled on metal spikes, while dozens more were firing ineffectually at the swirling, advancing mass as it devoured them one by one.
Suddenly, the entire complex was bathed in a flash of golden light. The mass of metal exploded, sending shrapnel raining down. Lily was quick with a shield charm, which deflected the fragments that had been sent towards them, but many weren't so lucky. She heard a cry from nearby, and the portal that had taken them here flickered dark. Shit. Her dad had taught them how to apparate and had given them emergency portkeys, but she wasn't sure if they would work down here. That portal might have been their only way out. In the air above them, it became clear what had caused the explosion- a woman wreathed in golden light.
"Binary." Septimius said, in fear and awe. Hydra's purifying flame, meant to burn out magic wherever it hid. But Lily knew that she was more than that. Carol Danvers was Harry's friend, and part of why they were doing this was to save her. Ropes of black magic wrapped around Binary's body, and after a few moments of struggle, she broke free with a burst of light. Binary charged at her attacker, who deflected her off course and into the wall. Lily couldn't see the action clearly, but she knew it had to be Wanda.
"We should go." T'Chone said softly. He had a spear in one hand and his wand in the other. He gestured with his spear to a nearby corridor. Whatever lay within was probably better than being collateral damage in the titanic battle between Carol Danvers and Wanda Maximoff.
"Homenum Revelio." She whispered, Neville had taught them this particular spell. Her spell revealed the outlines of 5 presences at the end of the hall. They could be friendly, but if so they were being awfully quiet. The three teens looked at each other, and silently agreed to go in wands blazing.
"I have a trick dad taught me." T'Chone said softly. "You two follow up with stunners at the signal.
"What signal?" Septimius asked.
"Lumos maxima!" T'Chone shouted, and his wand burst into light, illuminating the corridor as if in noontime sun. The shapes of 5 hydra soldiers became clear to them. They'd seemed to have taken cover when reinforcements had come and were momentarily stunned by the sudden bright light. Lily and Septimius took advantage, peppering them with stunners- they never even got a shot off.
"Well, that was easy." T'Chone said, creeping towards the unconscious men. His wand now illuminated the room with a far more modest intensity.
"Don't jinx it." Septimius warned, bringing up the rear and keeping a careful eye behind them.
There was sudden banging at the end of the hall, which Lily could now see housed a heavy metal door. "Hey! Is someone out there?" A muffled voice called.
"Yes!" T'Chone called back. "Hold on, we'll get you out!" He looked back to Lily and Septimius. "How do we get them out?" Lily herself was stumped. Her dad had taught them how to vanish objects, but she hadn't tried anything remotely at this scale. Blowing up the door just seemed reckless.
Septimius rolled his eyes. "Sometimes, it's really obvious you never went to school. Alohamora." Just like that, the door swung open.
"It worked! You can come out!" Lily called. It took a minute for one of the occupants of the cells to take them up on her offer. He edged past the doorway carefully, his body poised in a defensive stance, tense and ready to leap to action at the slightest provocation.
He was their age, a brown-haired boy with cautious eyes. His clothes were ragged and torn, and while he was very muscular (now wasn't the time!) his skin was marred with scars. She wondered what he'd gone through here. The sight of three teens his own age did a lot to relax him, however, and he called back to his companions. "I think they're good!"
Two more followed him, a pale, blond girl and a dark-skinned boy. "Who are you?" The girl asked guardedly. They each introduced themselves and gave the briefest of backstories possible. 'We're magical. Our dad's leading a resistance group and we're here to get you out.' As they talked, the caution bled out of the ex-captives, slowly being replaced by hope.
"You can get us out of here?" The black boy asked. Lily scratched the back of her head ruefully.
"Our ride back kind of got destroyed." T'Chone said. "But we'll find another way."
"Yeah, absolutely." Lily tried to stay upbeat. "What are your names, do you have any abilities?" She kind of thought they did. Their banging on the door had been loud, perhaps they had enhanced strength?
"Well, my name's Peter." The brunette boy said. "And these are my friends, Gwen and Miles. We have abilities but-" He paused. "-it's a little hard to explain."