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[Emissary] Chapter 23 - Heart to Heart
🕑 Added 2024-05-17 05:58:40 +0000 UTCAN: If you want to join my Discord server, you can do it at https://discord.gg/x7xdd53WqE
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Chapter 23 - Heart to Heart
The surviving members of the Justice League of America and Europe had gathered at the Watchtower in the morning after the attacks to discuss their next course of action. In particular, they were debating what to do with Professor Hamilton and Doctor Moon. After all, they didn’t have the legal right to punish them. But handing them over to the authorities would be useless too, since Cadmus was part of the government itself.
As hours passed and their discussion bore no fruit, the heroes decided to call it a day and leave the Watchtower. However, in the wake of the recent assassination attempts on their lives, neither of them went back to their homes alone.
Ralph and Sue Dibny crashed at Flash’s place, Hal Jordan went to the hospital to replace John Stewart in protecting the wounded Hawkgirl and Animal Man, and Superman went with the Javelin to Earth in order to bring Supergirl with him to the Watchtower.
Evening came, and Harry found himself alone with four Kryptonians at the Watchtower: Superman, Supergirl, Power Girl, and the little girl, Astrid.
“I can only thank God that Cadmus had not sent their agents after you too,” Superman told his cousin while they were watching Power Girl play a puzzle game with the little girl. “I don’t know what I would have done if…”
As Superman trailed off, Supergirl patted him on the shoulder.
“All is well when it ends well,” she tried to comfort him.
“But it didn’t end well,” Superman said in a downcast voice. “Captain Atom and Rocket Red are dead, and Hawkgirl and Animal Man are in critical condition.”
“Ah! Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that, I meant-” Supergirl quickly started rambling with a hasty apology.
“I know what you mean, don’t worry. I’m also glad that you, Ma, and Pa are safe.”
At that moment, the sound of Apparition made the four Kryptonians in the Watchtower’s Monitor Room turn their heads towards Harry, who suddenly teleported into the room.
“What’s with that...stone bowl?” Supergirl asked curiously.
Harry made the large stone bowl he was carrying in his hand float by casting a Levitation Spell on it. And it was just in time because only a second later, Astrid left Power Girl and their puzzle game and flew into his arms, almost throwing him down to the floor.
Astrid had gained consciousness only a day ago. Although she was intelligent and understood by now that Power Girl was going to take care of her together with Harry, she was still far more attached to him than to her. Harry had spent only half an hour away from her, but the little girl was overjoyed to see him return.
He could only laugh helplessly at how clingy she was.
‘It can’t be helped. Mentally, she is not that different from a baby,’ Harry thought as he slowly put her down.
Luckily, Astrid didn’t insist on him holding her in his arms, but she did grab him by the leg of his pants, staying close to him.
Now that his good arm was free again, he conjured a wooden single-leg circular table that was wide enough for the large stone bowl to fit comfortably on top of it.
Levitating the bowl onto the table, Harry told Superman and Supergirl:
“This is a Pensieve. It is a magical device that allows one to watch someone else’s memories.”
The Elder Wand appeared in his hand, and he placed its tip on his temple, removing what appeared to be a long and thin stream of silvery liquid from his head. Placing it into the Pensieve, it seemed to turn into a cloudy gas, filling the entire bowl.
As the three grown-up Kryptonians stepped closer to the circular table, he told them:
“These are the memories that I extracted from Professor Hamilton’s head. Before you dive in, I need to tell you something. I know there have been trust issues between us in the past, especially after Batman’s unfortunate death-”
“That’s not the case anymore," Superman said. “You saved our lives today. If it wasn’t for you most of us would have been dead today.”
Harry shrugged his shoulders.
“I hope you will think the same after you finish watching Hamilton’s memories. You will find it hard to believe what you’re about to see… If Wonder Woman were here, you could have used her Lasso of Truth on me to serve as proof that I haven’t tampered with those memories. But, currently, I have no way of proving that I’m telling the truth. It will all come down to whether you trust me or not.”
The little girl flew up, getting close to the Pensieve too, very curious to see what was in it, but Harry pulled her back before she could touch the cloudy substance within.
“No, Astrid, this isn’t good for you.”
Unfortunately, she was adamant about touching it, and Harry’s physical strength was no match for Kryptonian’s, even if she was only a little girl.
“Look, Astrid. Look here!” he said and a teddy bear suddenly appeared in his hand out of thin air.
She glanced at the teddy bear for a second, but then she turned her attention back to the Pensieve, seemingly uninterested in the plushie. But when the teddy bear appeared to come to life and jumped off Harry’s hand and started running away, Astrid forgot all about the Pensieve and broke into a run, chasing after the plushie.
Power Girl and Supergirl cracked a smile at Harry’s method of distracting Astrid, but they soon became serious again.
“So, how does this work?” Supergirl asked as she looked at the silvery liquid in the stone bowl.
Superman had hammered into her the concept that magic could be dangerous, even to their kind, so she couldn’t help being wary of it.
Sensing her apprehension, Harry explained:
“Just get close and submerge your face into the Pensieve. At first, you’ll feel as if you’re falling into a chasm, but don’t worry; you won’t get hurt. It’s an imaginary world. Nothing that happens there can hurt you. You will be like a ghost, invisible to everyone in the memory and unable to interact with any of them. Only a spectator.”
Superman and Supergirl glanced at each other for a few moments, but when Power Girl took the initiative to submerge her face into the Pensieve, they followed suit too. Fortunately, the stone bowl was large enough for all three of them.
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Superman, Power Girl, and Supergirl watched the collection of memories that Harry had extracted with Legilimency from Professor Hamilton’s mind.
They watched Darkseid’s invasion from a few years ago. They watched how his Parademons killed hundreds of innocents. They watched how Superman himself, brainwashed by Darkseid, reaped the lives of many US soldiers, destroyed tanks and armoured vehicles, and demolished entire buildings filled with people.
They watched it all happen from the perspective of a weak and powerless human, cowering in fear at the destruction sowed by godlike beings.
Then, the memory changed, and they saw how Power Girl’s doctor from Star Labs shared the results of her tests and Power Girl’s DNA with Professor Hamilton.
They watched how Hamilton started working on cloning Power Girl, thus bringing Astrid into existence.
Lastly, they watched how Superman came to Hamilton one day, in the morning, asking for his help with decrypting Batman’s hard drive. They watched how the professor copied all the data about the heroes and the contingency plans that Batman had created to take out the Justice League before sending it to Amanda Waller. Finally, he deleted all the files on the Heroes from the hard drive before returning it to Superman.
When the three of them finished watching Hamilton’s memories and raised their heads from the Pensieve, they were silent for several very long seconds.
Superman, in particular, appeared to be shaken by what he had just seen. He had always known that Batman had trust issues, but he had never imagined that he would go so far as to create plans to annihilate the Justice League, his own teammates and friends.
“I doomed us all…” Superman muttered as he looked at his hands. “It was my fault!”
“You had no way of knowing what was on that hard drive. It’s not your fault, Superman,” Supergirl said, trying to console him.
“I gave that hard drive to Hamilton because I wanted to dig out dirt on Emissary. If I hadn’t-” He clenched his fists in helpless anger and self-loathing. “It’s my fault that Captain Atom and Rocket Red were killed!”
Guilt was eating at him. He felt as if their blood was on his hands.
“You couldn’t have known Hamilton betrayed us,” Power Girl said. “For so many years, he had been one of your most trusted allies. He had helped you master your powers, and he even saved your life in the past, didn’t he? You couldn’t have seen this coming.”
At that moment, Harry came back into the Monitor Room alone.
“Where is Astrid?” Power Girl asked, afraid that leaving her alone would result in a disaster.
“You’ve been inside the Pensieve for a good while. It’s night in the US now so she fell asleep.”
It was the first time that the young clone had fallen asleep since she was rescued from Cadmus’ base.
“Now that you know exactly who is behind Cadmus, what do you plan on doing with Hamilton and the other guy?” Harry asked.
Superman frowned in thought. “The situation is much worse than we thought,” he said.
At first, due to the fact that Amanda Waller was the leader of Cadmus, Superman thought that Cadmus was most likely just a secret, off-the-books branch of the CIA. But Hamilton’s memories revealed the fact that Project Cadmus’ support was far more powerful: the president of the United States himself was directly involved in its creation.
“There’s nothing we can do about it,” Supergirl gave them her two cents. “We can’t hold them captive, or else we’d just prove that the government was right to fear us. We can’t take the law into our hands.”
“Supergirl is right,” Superman said.
Harry pinched the bridge of his nose.
“You do realise that they won’t be prosecuted, right? They won’t get even a slap on the wrist,” he pointed out.
“If you have a better solution, I’m all ears,” Superman said helplessly.
Harry remained silent. Oh, he did have a solution. A just, final, and perfect solution. But he knew better than to try telling the Justice League his real thoughts.
“We may have no other choice than to release these two… however, we’ll show the president and the UN too that the Justice League isn’t to be messed with,” Superman said, his voice filled with determination.
“What do you have in mind?” Power Girl asked.
“They killed two of our own today. I won’t allow something like that to ever happen again. It’s time for us to expand. We’ll get new members, not just from the USA or Europe but from all over the world. If the government or the United Nations want to get rid of us, we’ll just have to become so big and powerful that they would be discouraged just at the thought of attempting anything.”
“Does that mean you’ll finally let me join the Justice League too?” Supergirl asked, making him smile at her excitement.
“Yes, Kara, from now on, you’re a member of the Justice League too. I’m extending the same invitation to you too,” Superman said, turning towards Harry.
But Harry shook his head.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to refuse. If you ever need my help, I will lend a hand. But I won’t be a regular member.”
Superman didn’t insist. He didn’t have the face to do that considering that it was only a few weeks ago that he kicked Emissary out of the Justice League.
“...I understand. But if you change your mind, you will always be welcome here, at the Watchtower. What about you, Power Girl?”
Power Girl shook her head in the negative too.
“I haven’t solved the problem with my powers yet,” she said. “Aside from that, I have a company to lead, and now I’ve suddenly become a mother too… I don’t think I’ll have free time for anything else.”
“You’re taking this surprisingly well,” Supergirl remarked. “I would’ve probably freaked out if someone had cloned me.”
“I freaked out too at first,” Power Girl admitted. “It still feels strange to see a younger version of myself walking around… but Harry made a good point: she didn’t ask to be created. It’s not her fault she was brought into this world. And if I’m not going to take care of her, who will?”
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Seeing as it was late, Harry and Power Girl retired to the room that had served as Harry’s accommodation back when he used to be a member of the Justice League.
They could have teleported home, to his underground fortress in France, but decided against it because they didn’t want the little girl to wake up.
Now, the two of them were lying on a second bed that he had conjured with magic. However, they couldn’t fall asleep.
Harry could have solved that issue for himself easily by Stunning himself with a spell. It was a habit that he had developed back in his first life, during his many years spent warring against Voldemort’s forces and chasing him around the world. But he could tell that something was weighing on Kara’s mind. He didn’t feel good about going to sleep and ignoring her plight.
“Can't sleep? What’s on your mind?”
Having cast a Silencing Spell on their bed, they weren't worried about waking Astrid up.
“Everything,” she replied. “The government trying to have us killed, Astrid being my clone, Captain Atom dying… and us not even being able to do anything about it. Superman actually took Doctor Moon and Professor Hamilton back to Earth.”
“We can’t do anything about those that we have lost. But I’ll do my best to make sure we don’t lose any more of our friends,” Harry said softly, hugging her closer to him.
Placing her head on Harry’s chest, Kara let out a sigh of comfort as she draped her arm and leg over his body.
“I’m going to kill all the members of Cadmus soon.”
That declaration made Power Girl stiffen in his arms.
“We both know that Superman handing those two over to the authorities will mean nothing. Superman himself knows that too. So, basically, those two will walk away scot-free after planning out and orchestrating the deaths of Captain Atom and Rocket Red. And they would’ve killed many more of you if luck had not been on our side.”
Power Girl’s first reaction was to feel revolted by the idea and tell him that they were supposed to be heroes. That they weren’t supposed to kill.
But she couldn’t say a word.
It was exactly as he said: Hamilton and everyone else in Cadmus were going to walk away scot-free because everything they did was sanctioned by the president of the United States himself. They were not going to be prosecuted for the atrocities they had committed.
“I don’t know what we’re supposed to do,” Kara said quietly. “I don’t know how the Justice League is supposed to respond to the government’s actions. We are supposed to be a beacon of hope for people, not inspire fear and terror. We are supposed to protect the Earth from alien invaders and keep the innocent safe from those who wish them harm. But how can we do that when the government and the United Nations are against us?”
“I don’t have an answer to that either,” Harry said. “I think that Superman’s plan to turn the Justice League into an extremely powerful organisation filled with metahumans from all over the world isn’t bad, but sooner or later, that will inadvertently escalate into a messy outright war with the governments of the world.”
When Power Girl didn’t say anything in response, Harry continued:
“As a hero, my hands would be tied. But I’m not a hero. I am Death’s Emissary.”
Kara sat up and looked at him searchingly.
“I noticed this before, but we haven’t really had the chance to talk about it… How are you so casual about killing people?”
Fearing that Harry might misunderstand her intentions, she added quickly:
“I’m not trying to hold you accountable or anything like that! I’m just wondering, how did you not lose yourself? You don’t seem like a psychopath to me, and I’ve seen you show genuine empathy for people more than once. How do you stay sane? How do you draw the line? How do you decide who gets to live and who gets to die?”
Harry sat up too and rested with his back against the bed’s headboard.
“It is said that people can't recall anything from before the age of 3 or that their memories from that time aren't real. Scientists call it infantile amnesia. But, to this day, I still remember how my parents were killed by a Dark Lord. Think of him as a mass murderer with magical powers. Do you wish to see it? Look into my eyes, Kara.”
She was momentarily thrown off by the seemingly random thing he had just said but her eyes involuntarily sought his. Then, she was pulled into Harry’s mind, watching a memory through his own eyes.
It wasn’t like what she had experienced in the Pensieve. To her, it felt as if she were Harry. She didn’t just see what he saw; she could feel his emotions at that time and hear his thoughts too.
“Harry, mama loves you. Dada loves you. Harry, be safe. Be strong,” a young woman with red hair whispered tearfully.
“Avada Kedavra!” a scream was heard from another room.
Then, the door was opened, and a hooded silhouette stepped in.
The woman, Harry’s mother, quickly stood up and put herself between the intruder and the crib.
"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" she pleaded.
The cloaked man raised his wand and said:
"Stand aside, you silly girl... Stand aside, now...."
"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead!"
The man tried to physically move her out of the way, but she wouldn’t let him.
"Not Harry! Please... have mercy... have mercy…”
“Avada Kedavra!”
A flash of green erupted, and the young woman collapsed to the floor lifelessly. Then, the man aimed his wand at Harry’s forehead and cast the same spell one more time.
Another flash of green erupted, and Power Girl suddenly found herself thrown out of the memory.
Wide-eyed and with a hand covering her mouth, she looked at him speechless.
“He failed to kill me. Before she died, my mother cast a spell, using her own life to protect me. Her sacrifice allowed me to survive the Killing Curse, and the spell was sent back to him, killing him instead. That’s how I became famous in my first world. That’s how everyone came to know me as the Boy Who Lived.”
“But Voldemort—that was his name—wasn't truly dead. I spent the next 13 years of my life haunted by his ghost. Then his followers resurrected him, and my life became hell again. One by one, the people I loved died at his hands or at the hands of his followers. Sympathy, mercifulness, kindness? Those notions vanished from my mind the moment that the Weasleys, a big family who treated me as if I were one of their own, died too. They were all murdered by Voldemort and his followers. Adults and children alike, my friends and my second family... they were trapped inside their own home and set ablaze. They were burned alive.”
“I spent the rest of my life, up until the age of 40, hunting him and his followers down. Hundreds of his Death Eaters lost their lives at my hands, and I killed him three times too. In the end, I had to commit suicide in order to stop him from resurrecting.” (1)
“...I don’t know what to say…” Kara said, shaken by what he had just shared with her.
“I am not expecting you to say anything,” Harry said calmly. “You asked what made me become the person I am today, so I’m just telling you the truth.”
“Anyway, none of what I went through in my first life would have happened if Voldemort’s followers had all been killed as they deserved after they were arrested. Many of them escaped by bribing the judges or acting as if they had been mind-controlled the entire time. Those who were punished, well, they weren’t given the death penalty. They were just imprisoned.”
“Remember what I told you yesterday when you asked me why I killed Faust? Showing kindness to the enemy is no different than being cruel to yourself. I don’t believe in second chances. After reaching adulthood, most people don’t change. Not enough, and almost never for the better.”
“That’s a very cynical way to look at life,” she said.
“Is it, though? I’ve lived for over 500 years. I’ve rarely been proved wrong in this regard.”
“But it did happen once in a while, didn’t it? There had to have been cases when people genuinely changed their ways,” Power Girl pointed out.
“That may have been the case. But let me ask you this, Kara: What is more important to you? The life of a criminal who will most likely just go back to committing the same crimes all over again instead of reforming, or the lives of dozens of other people that may be lost should the criminal not change his ways? I don’t know about you, but for me, the answer is clear. I will kill the criminal because he deserves to die anyway; why should I endanger the lives of many other innocents by letting the criminal live?”
Before Kara could reply, Harry also added:
“And before you ask who gives me the right to kill them, Death does. I am Death’s Emissary. Killing those who deserve to die is in my job’s description. If Death had not agreed with my actions, they would have long since stripped me of my powers.”
Power Girl wasn’t actually antagonising him by asking all those questions. She was just playing the devil’s advocate, trying to understand him better.
“But how do you decide who gets to live and who gets to die? You aren’t infallible; you’re still just human in the end,” Kara said.
”An eye for an eye and a life for a life. I’ve never killed an innocent person. Not even once. Sure, sometimes there are attenuating circumstances. Things are not always black and white in life. That’s where my Legilimency comes into play. They can’t hide their thoughts from me. Did they kill in self-defence? Did the person they killed deserve to die? Their secrets, their hidden emotions, and their intentions are all bare in front of me.”
“Is it alright for a human to hold this much power?” Power Girl wondered.
“Is a Kryptonian really asking me that question?” he asked back jokingly.
She couldn’t find anything to retort to that.
“Touche.”
Harry shrugged his shoulders as he said: “Power never got to my head. I don’t have delusions of grandeur because I know exactly who I am and who I am not. And I know that, above me, there is Death. Should I ever become corrupted by power, Death will be there to snuff out my life.”
Kara let out a sigh and came to sit next to Harry too, leaning against his shoulder. To say that she agreed with everything he said would be a lie. But now she understood him a lot more than before.
“I don’t think I’d be able to act the same way you do. I don’t think I have it in me to kill people left and right,” she said. “I fear that the moment I take that step, something will change irreversibly. The line between what is right and what is wrong will become blurred…I am afraid that it will be like a slippery slope, and I don’t know if I will be able to stop myself.”
“I never asked you to do any of that,” Harry said, caressing her short hair gently. “If you can understand why I do the things I do, and if you can put your trust in me, I don’t want anything else.”
“I think I can do that. I want to do that, especially now that we have Astrid in our lives. We’re in this together,” she said.
“Hoho, is that a marriage proposal I’m hearing?”
She started giggling. “Why, mister, don’t tell me you got cold feet now!”
He chuckled too and kissed the crown of her head.
“No, you’re right. We’re in this together.”
With the serious talk out of the way, Harry and Kara continued chatting for a long time. It was not often that the two of them got to have such intimate, heart-to-heart moments, so they treasured every second of it.
Eventually, she brought up a new subject:
“About your arm, maybe we could ask Wonder Woman for help?”
“Wonder Woman? What can she do about it?” he asked in surprise.
“I don’t think she can do anything by herself. But she lives on a magical island blessed by her gods. Maybe you could find the magical plants you need for your potion on Themyscira.”
“That’s… that’s actually a brilliant idea! I didn’t even think of it. I could kiss you right now!” he said in excitement.
Kara didn’t speak, she acted. She cupped his face in her hands and pressed her lips against his, giving him a lingering kiss.
“You’re welcome,” she said cheekily once she broke the kiss, making Harry chuckle at her.
“But what are we going to do about Astrid? I don’t know how large their island is, but it could take us days or even weeks to find the plants I need, assuming they exist in the first place. And what about your company?”
“I was actually thinking about taking Astrid with us and going to the Amazons’ island. As for my company, I could still go to work with your Portkeys.”
“Wait, why did you want to take her there?” he asked.
She hesitated for a few seconds, trying to find the right words before speaking:
“Astrid is…dangerous. We can’t let her interact with normal people. She doesn’t even understand her own strength; she could kill someone effortlessly. But I don’t think it would be healthy to keep her locked inside the house for months or, worse, years. She needs to be around people—and not just you and me but other people too. The Amazons are all superhumans, and they are warriors. It would be much safer with them.”
Harry couldn’t disagree with her when he recalled how earlier that day Astrid sent an entire couch flying at him when she just tried to move it aside to get her ball back.
“The only problem is that Diana’s people, well, they hate men,” Kara added awkwardly. "I mean they really hate them, to the point where they'll try to kill you if you set foot on their island."
“...That’s going to be a problem, alright. Astrid won’t leave my side,” Harry said. “But Wonder Woman owes me a favour. Maybe we can work something out.” (2)
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AN: no action in this chapter but I felt it was necessary for Harry and Power Girl to have a heart-to-heart moment and deepen their understanding of each other. It was mostly about Harry this time but, do not worry, Power Girl will address her mental block soon too, solving the problems that are holding her back and making her powers unstable.
(1) That was Harry's first life in [Back? Not Really]. His life was canon up until the Battle of Hogwarts. From that point onwards, everything changed.
(2) Wonder Woman owes Harry a favour after he created the bezoar and healed the King of Kasnia.
Comments
Hadrian v.E.
I think it's perfectly reasonable to criticise Harry's performance during his battle against Doomsday. He has lived for half a millennium, yet his strongest battle spell is still Dao? Why hadn't he discovered other or developed his own spells? For the proposed global JL, Superman obviously can't be the leader—he's too incompetent. He's weak against mind control and—despite what he, Kara, and Karen tell him—really was responsible for the devastating murders and heavy injuries against members of JLs America and Europe. Why don't Harry make an example out of the top ARGUS personnel by placing their decapitated heads on the Resolute Desk? Since the agency is supposed to be so hush hush, the U.S. government can't easily admit to its existence and sinister actions. But of course, before doing so, he needs to extract confessions out of them or find a way to transcribe their memories to video files as insurance. Is Karen supposed to be such a pansy? Either way, it's high time for more Diana screentime. Karen, at least currently, is so boring. She honestly should be in a wheelchair at best for being so arrogant as to not resolve her power failures ASAP.
Afterdark230
Well done! This chapter was more even keel. Less rollercoastery when emotions are displayed. I like it!
Sciny
Ohohoho Wonder Woman is back? Good chapter. Can't wait for Waller to croak.
