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Secret Lair
–Damian Hawthorne–
He groaned with his eyes closed, turning on the bed and putting his feet on the flooring, which was heated, as he woke up from his very comfortable nap, far too soon, for his liking. Sometimes, the perk that is needing a fraction of a normal human's sleep was also a con, especially since he wanted to stay in bed longer.
Alas, there was no off switch for that. His brain was done flushing all the chemical buildup accumulated from staying awake for a day. He also lamented the loss of a true sleep cycle that was governed by the fall and rise of the sun, along with temperatures and whatnot. As he was now? He could sleep for a couple of hours, and then comfortably stay awake for at least one day without even feeling a wink of sleep encroaching.
Shaking his head, he freshened up and, after taking a look at the time, put on some casual clothes and disappeared. In smooth motion, he arrived in the portal room, despite him being unable to use portals yet, and in another, not as smooth, motion, teleported directly on top of the London Sanctum, ready to disturb Master Corven once more.
He had finally gotten in writing that he could use the terrace garden as an entry point into the Sanctum, provided that it was not wartime, and appropriate wards were not being used. If that were the case, though, his teleportation attempt would be rebuffed, and he would gently but firmly be bounced off the wards. Thankfully, that was not the case right now.
So, with the beginning of a jaunty whistle on his lips, he turned around and was about to use the roof entrance, only to freeze mid step, seeing the Ancient One, smiling and tending to one of the plants right next to the door.
The plant itself was magical, as it sent out yellow motes of light into the air, only for them to pop as they hit an invisible wall of sorts. He straightened up a second later, greeting the Sorcerer Supreme.
"What can I do for you, Ancient One?"
She smiled at him, and he groaned internally at what was about to happen, letting the magic take hold as he was, violently, teleported into the Sanctum, into a comfortable chair with two empty cups waiting on a small wooden table.
The stereotypical setting for a we have to talk conversation that promised to be no less uncomfortable than the one reserved for lovers.
"I foresaw this particular conversation coming a while ago." He snorted at the a while ago bit. When it came to her and her generous use of the Time Stone, a while ago could range from centuries ago to a few years ago to yesterday. The future was in flux and yet, this woman was the best human possible to navigate the river of time using the Time Stone.
To this day, he still got a little freaked out when he pondered the implications of the Ancient One not just peering through timelines but actually living through her counterpart's lives and then just shut the entire thing down as if it was just a simulation and not a possible future world with thoughts, emotions, feelings and decisions that might make or unmake the world.
"I see," He said, taking a sip from the tea that magically appeared in the cup, which tasted exquisite as expected, before continuing, "I recently met my biological family. The Hawthornes."
He peered up at her, mid sip, to see a carefully crafted blank mask on her face, which was what he expected but just wanted to check if she showed any reaction to the revelation, "The meeting aside, I had a bunch of questions that could not be answered without asking someone ancient enough to be alive at the forming of said pacts."
The Ancient One's face of realisation, as if she was having this conversation for the first time and not for the nth time really disturbed him for some reason. It made him feel as if he was talking to a not quite real person, instead of someone living, breathing human who reacted. It was a really sad thing, to be robbed of the ability to experience new things, to look at something in reality and not feel the dulled sensations of having done exactly that a number of times beforehand.
"So, you are talking about the Statute treaties." She began and then paused, likely having seen his reaction a dozen times before. How in the world could one have a normal conversation with someone like the Ancient One without being reminded of her abilities was beyond him.
She then sighed, another action that was premeditated, "I assume you are uncomfortable talking to me about this?"
His silence was telling.
"Very well. I will have all the relevant information transferred to the Sanctum's library in a week's time. Our Librarian is quite possessive of the extensive collection, and let's just say that he is thorough and focused enough that not even I, as the Sorcerer Supreme, can order him to skip through his usual procedures." She said before heading to the door.
The question came to the forefront of his mind and with that came the question. Why she had chosen to walk out instead of just snapping her fingers and teleporting out of the room?
"Why bother?" Even so, he asked the question. Despite knowing that this was all just a play that was being played out in reality, instead of in her mind, he asked the question. The existential crisis was getting strong in the room but the question was something he would like an answer to.
It was funny. He came here to shed some light on the obvious cooperation happening between multiple governments, magical and non magical both, all so that magic as a phenomenon remained hidden from the common populace. To see if gaining the information could net him some advantage when he inevitably began making inroads with the spy world of the non magical world, i.e., SHIELD or SHIELDRA, if one was being pedantic.
Instead, what he got was a minor existential crisis and a sudden aversion to associating or basing his decisions based on his conversation with the Ancient One, a central figure to the magical world on Earth, a seemingly all powerful entity that has held back entities that would love nothing than to violate the entire Planet in essence and in reality.
She turned around but said nothing, waiting for him to elaborate, which was just another ruse since she probably knew how this entire thing went. Still, to humor her, he spoke.
"Why even come here? When you knew all too well that it will go nowhere. You could have just as easily let me approach Corven and not put me in this spiraling thought cycle."
She then turned fully and looked at him with a slight smile on her face, further confusing him because here he was, trying to have a conversation about something that was ringing alarm bells in his mind and she was standing there, smiling, "I have lived for a long time, Mr.Hawthorne and I suspect you know about the truth more than most so trust me when I say this, all things happen for a reason. You may not understand it right now or even at all, but always keep that in mind. It has served me well and I suspect you will need it just as much as I did when I had just taken my first step."
With that, she dissolved into sand, just like the time she infiltrated his lair and told him about a critical security flaw he had not patched into the wards. Just like that time as well, she left, leaving him with more questions than answers.
With that incredibly useless and quite confusing encounter, he stood up with a sigh and just showed himself out, not finding Corven anywhere, and if the man did not come confront him for just waltzing into the Sanctum and roaming about unauthorised, then it meant Corven was at least somewhat aware of events and had chosen not to interfere.
He did not know what to think of that.
On one hand, he was a member of an organisation that could not have a clearer structure of hierarchy if they tried, with the Ancient One being at the top, with Kamar Taj sort of serving as her cult, with the appropriate cult following.
On the other hand, he liked to think he had somewhat of a special bond with the crazy old man that was the Sanctum Master, and some part of him hoped that going to the man would help resolve his internal turmoil, something that had chosen an incredibly unfortunate time to rear its ugly head.
He only had 5 weeks till the iconic train arrived at the magical platform and he couldn't commit to the act, which was already going to be incredibly stressful, if some of the stray thoughts in his mind included dropping off the face of the world for a couple of years, in a mad rush to chase some hypothetical level of strength before coming out and taking the world by storm.
Like some corny power fantasy character with equally cliché training arcs.
Taking a deep breath, he realised that he was walking through the streets just outside the London Sanctum, which was also a busy shopping district, chock full of tourists, consumers and people just passing through.
Exhaling, he stopped himself from actively casting a notice me not charm on his person before walking through the streets, and to his astonishment, he realised that this was actually his first time he was walking through normal streets, full of normal non magical people, without some sort of magic that affected everyone's perception of him in some way.
The realisation made him pause for a bit as he realised just how fixated he was on the magical world, its problems, its solutions, its people and how he could better integrate, or rather, protect himself from the magical world, not realising that there was a world outside that was just as if not more dangerous than that.
Shaking his head, he let the evening sun fall on his face as he continued walking, the very act of putting one step in front of the other helping calm him down a bit, as he replayed their very first interaction in this reality, where she had come to his cave, barging in and playing along with his ploy to make good tea with ingredients that he did not have access to at the time.
His actions during his stay there. His actions after leaving the cave. Meeting Newt Scamander, his pocket dimension full of preserved magical wonders, leaving that behind, coming here, finding his place, stumbling onto Harry, helping Harry, building his base, getting into a fight with Dumbledore, getting his ass kicked seven days to sunday by Wakandan magi-tech, to burying that Horcrux in a hopefully inaccessible space, to meeting his biological family….to today.
Stepping to the side, smiling as he let a pregnant lady cross with two toddlers, he mused on his actions until now.
Safe to say, he had been through some crazy stuff and yet, he knew there was far more to come. He might be powerful for his age, he might have some extra knowledge crammed into his head, he might have a very potent body/magic combo but even with all of that, he could definitely conclude that he was a nobody.
A nobody with a ton of crazy stuff in his future.
That brought a smile on his face, as he prepared to head into a remote place before going back home. He had a lot of pent up energy to do something, and he had tons to channel that energy into, only for his smile to freeze on his face, his magic sensing something he had not sensed since he first left the cave on a daring(at the time) quest to investigate a source of magical unrest, just outside the forest.
"Vampire," He hissed under his breath, as he tensed, his neck on a swivel as he tried to locate the source of the offending piece of magic. Failing that, he powerwalked for a few minutes, the scent of that magic annoyingly clinging to his senses as he finally found an alley and slipped into it.
He had definitely spooked some people by the expression on his face, which definitely did not match his age, as he felt his aggression reach new highs, the very thought of those pests being active near him setting off something fierce within him.
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