Chapter 240: Selfdom

28^th September 2012, New York City

(Natasha Romanoff POV)

Maybe she could convince Tony to hire him and Hill as intelligence managers for the Avengers when they start taking more missions? The billionaire genius might not like them very much, but he did respect them, and he would probably get a kick out of ordering them around as their boss.

Natasha didn’t know what the future held, but if she learned one thing from this debacle, it was the fact that Jasmine Sayre was vicious, and that she would aim where it hurt the most, if someone annoyed her enough. She hoped that she would not be going against that woman anytime soon. As that would probably not end well for her or her team. Thankfully, the woman was still cordial with them for now and Natasha hoped that things would stay that way.

4^th October 2012, New York City

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

It was a few days after my confrontation with Fury and his lot, and I have to say, things couldn’t have gone better. Truthfully, I was completely fine with letting SHIELD be and watching as it destroyed itself on its own, but damn, I really underestimated how damaging my actions were to the organization.

In the end, I was responsible for very little. For some insane reason, Fury chose to attack me head on. I honestly didn’t understand why, since I scared the living hell out of him when he confronted me alongside Xavier, when I erased Wanda’s criminal records and her time in psychiatric confinement. He shouldn’t have even tried to confront me without a viable plan of trapping me somehow. Damn, I knew that he was desperate but not suicidal.

Still, his little plan backfired completely. His obvious ploy to entrap me and record me confessing to his alleged crimes were very obvious, and all it took was a little probing before he accidentally said that he would plant some evidence just to arrest me. Add in the fact that I got Alfred to break into his network and get the damn video evidence that he had planned on using on me. It’s only fair, after all.

Add in the fact that both him, and his agents, well, the entire agency, really, ended up looking very incompetent. They were taken out by a civilian woman with pepper spray and a taser. That’s it. Of course, no one knew of my capabilities, but everything looked natural on camera. As if I was some poor woman who was stumbling her way out to escape the evil agents that want to hunt her down, until being saved by the hero, Spider-Man.

Speaking of the spider themed hero, I was very surprised to see him this soon. I have to say that he arrived at a very opportune moment, since I had planned on releasing a flashbang to blind everyone, before running inside and entering the bathroom, to portal away from. It would have provided a very distinctive escape and would have showed the world that SHIELD couldn’t track a single civilian in the middle of the city.

However, Peter Parker’s arrival simplified things immensely. He just saved me, took the attention all to himself, allowing me to escape without any issues. I just went inside the building he put me in and teleported out.

And not only did he help me escape, but he also embarrassed SHIELD even more by beating some of their best enhanced agents, taking out Shocker, Bullseye, Cyclops, Rhino and Electro. It was impressive and the entire city seemed to take the teenaged hero a little more seriously.

Nevertheless, the boy did help me, and I always pay my debts. I asked Alfred to hack an insurance company to offer the two Parkers Ben Parker’s life insurance and I made the kid a spider suit out of vibranium and adamantium to protect him, with a few extra features, like the HUD being connected to a miniaturized computer in his suit.

For some reason, technology in general, started to come naturally to me after the ritual. It wasn’t like I was completely against tech in general – Alfred and my entire company were proof of that – but it didn’t come instinctually to me. I always preferred to use my magic to solve problems. It’s not like I am ignorant, but I was a mage; magic was in my blood. However, now, it was as easy as breathing, especially alongside my new telekinesis that is so precise that I could control molecules at a time, my transmutation, and conjuration abilities, it just became easier to create machines by instinct. I never would have imagined using my powers to make tech.

Magic and technology were just opposite. One uses the natural laws of reality, and the other one routinely breaks them. They were just incompatible. But for some reason, for all the bullshit cosmic energy could do, it seemed to integrate seamlessly with technology in general. It was odd, and I had plans to experiment with it later. All in all, the Spider suit, in all, took me around twenty minutes to complete. That’s it. It would have taken me days before the ritual, if not weeks to come up with something like that on such short notice.

Additionally, I was completely surprised when I found out that Ben Parker had died during the invasion. It was a hero’s death, sure, but as far as I knew, Spider-Man, was born out of the guilt Peter Parker felt when his uncle died because of his actions. That was part of the hero’s origins, part of his very core. So, it was nice to see Peter being a hero without the guilt over his uncle’s death crushing him all the time, making him make moronic decisions, and take unnecessary risks. I could see him becoming a true hero in a few years, after getting a little more experience, and maybe even joining the Avengers.

The boy was bright enough for Stark to take an interest in, and Rogers would love his uncompromising moral compass. And with him and his aunt not struggling financially, the boy wouldn’t need to worry about getting money, and would get to enjoy whatever’s left of his innocence and his childhood until it’s stripped away by this unforgiving world.

Because Spider-Man’s life will never be easy. He will struggle and fail. He will feel despair and sadness. He will fight impossible odds against opponents completely out of his league, just because it’s right. It was foolish, altruistic, and sometimes suicidal, but it was also good and kind. There were very few people who would get powers like Peter Parker’s, at that age, and choose to use them to help people. I admired that, but I needed to be careful that he wouldn’t take it too far. He will need a mentor, someone who could understand his teenager crap, and also kept him grounded during fights. I honestly couldn't think of anyone from the top of my head, but I’ll keep searching, because the kid had too much potential for it to be squandered.

As for now, I was just sitting in the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade, drinking some tea. This time, I chose a remote location entirely and just went to Scotland. I missed Hogwarts a bit, and during my time as a teacher in the other universe, it felt odd having the castle be so empty, so lifeless.

Don’t get me wrong, the castle there was very magical, and had a limited intelligence to it, but it was mostly a magical effect caused by the constant output of children’s magic during their stay there. It was more like an enchantment than an actual living being.

Considering that my Hogwarts, is my daughter, it was like watching a corpse being animated in front of me. I smiled as I could see the castle from the village. I hoped that she was doing well. I wanted to visit her, but it wasn’t time to do so. I wanted to see what the castle could do, now that she was unbound and free to do as she wished.

Plus, a niggling part of me wondered if she would even recognize me. I was no longer a witch, by definition. I didn’t absorb the energy absorbed by the Earth anymore, but the energy that makes up the universe. I was something different, something more, and I didn’t want to meet her and see no recognition in her eyes, as she treated me like a stranger. It was better that I stayed away, for her sake and for mine.

I sat down in the pub and listened to the conversations around me. People were making jokes about Nathan’s administration being practically led by Granger. The muggleborns who kept showing their support for the bitch, saying that she was the way for the future, and for equality. Some were clamoring for Rose to return and take over for her brother.

What surprised me the most were the talks of a bill banning the ownerships of House Elves entirely, which was completely ridiculous. They pretended to do it to show support to the small creatures, but that was obviously a ploy to get rid of one of the main advantages of the magical nobility, that used the elves in all sorts of unpaid manual labor. Instead, to keep their businesses open, they would need to hire wizards and witches, which was a lot more expensive, considering that they would have to pay salaries and so on, which means that all prices would very likely go up in magical Britain, should that happen.

And worst of all, the elves would die off without masters to support their magic. Elves were incompatible to the land’s magic and needed a buffer to use it without withering and dying, which came at the form of their masters. It was why elves feared being free and would serve with a lot of enthusiasm.

Honestly, the history of the house elves is a sad one. It all started with a few light elves from Alfheim being banished to Earth. Their magic was just incompatible to Earth’s, so they slowly withered and died. However, they still had descendants, who had descendants. The population grew exponentially, since the lifetime of a single elf without any magic was barely more than two years at most. Add in the fact that with the constant inbreeding, they lost their beautiful appearance and slowly started to resemble the house elves we see today. The mages of the time became aware of the creatures that slowly became an infestation and decided against slaughtering them all by finding a way to stabilize their magic by bonding to a wizard. The elves stopped having so many children, and they decided to fanatically serve the wizarding families to repay that debt.

Granger’s little bill would be akin to a genocide that would kill every house elf on the planet just for political gain. It was a magical crisis in a way, and it would serve as a test for Rose. She’ll have to deal with things like this all the time when she comes into her role as the next Queen of Avalon fully and I will admit to being a little miffed with her for forcing me to explain things to her parents to accept the position, knowing that I was desperate about filling it. The crisis was coming, and I needed to make sure that the world wouldn’t be fully dependent on me anymore, in case something happens.

Suddenly, I felt a very powerful influx of cosmic energy come near and slowly walk towards the door. That didn’t bode well at all. In the end, the moment that the source of the cosmic energy entered the pub, I recognized it. It was an elderly man with a white beard. He looked around until meeting my eyes, smiled at me, and walked towards my table.

I wasn’t fooled by his appearance. I could tell that it was just a shell that contained a fragment of his power. I watched as the man arrived in front of me and asked, “Hello, is this seat taken? I believe we have a lot to talk about.”

It seems that Ego has arrived on Earth.

Alright, this is it, we're finally caught up to the current events of the story. This means that there will be no more mass uploads. I generally post four chapters a week, on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursdays and Fridays. I tend to be consistent (I have been for more than a year now) but I will let you know if I miss an upload day.

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