FicWad

Chapter Eleven: The Things Nightmares Are Made Of

It was a windy day in the later part of November. A hell of a storm had been kicking up for quite sometime, splashing against the windows outside. The worst part is that it was rush out and the citizens of New York City had to drive in it. Hail began to come down just at this moment, making the driving conditions more perilous yet.

Harry sat high above the city in a clock tower, lost in his thoughts, not really paying all that much attention to the world around him. It had been a couple of weeks since his blow up and he had spent a fair bit of his time, deep in meditation. Truthfully, perhaps he had been under a lot of pressure lately and said some things to his brothers that he really did not mean, but considering what he had seen in an alternate reality, Harry felt that he had a good reason to be so upset. In time, he would perhaps apologize, but for right now, Harry needed to figure out who he was and how far he could go. The fact that Harry was not sure where he would go, was rather unnerving to say the least.

A loud clap of thunder broke Harry’s concentration slightly, and he watched the lightning whip across the sky. The storm raged on but Harry concentrated hard, moving back to his meditation and seconds later, Harry could slightly feel his communication mirror heating up. He attempted to ignore it, just in case it was one of his brothers was trying to contact him. Harry simply was not ready to talk to them, not now at least.

“Harry, I know you’re there and you’re avoiding us, but please pick up, this is an emergency, we really need your help,” echoed the voice of Leo from behind the mirror. “You can be difficult later, bro, but we need help.”

Quickly, Harry removed the mirror for his pocket, if this was half as serious as Leo was playing it up as always. With a weary, but anxious look etched in his eyes, Harry faced his oldest brother for the first time since that nice.

“What’s this emergency, Leonardo?” asked Harry in a calm, diplomatic tone of voice.

“The storm going on, has somehow caused the water to wash into the lair, flooding us out, it was so sudden, one minute we were sitting there and the next minute, the run off just swept in,” explained Leo quickly. “We all got out, don’t worry, but we have to find some place to go, until we can pump the lair out.”

“Yes, you know you’ll always welcomed to stay at the Potter Residence, all five of you,” said Harry calmly.

“Of course Harry, we don’t want to intrude, but it’s only for a few days and perhaps you should know, that Master Splinter’s also in a really bad way,” said Leo in a grim voice and that caused Harry to almost drop the mirror.

“What, what’s wrong with Master Splinter?” asked Harry, in a bit of concern appearing in his voice.

“Well, Don thinks he has a slight heart attack, his breathing is very shallow, it’s lucky we were there to help him, because he wouldn’t have made it out on his own,” said Leo and Harry nodded. “We’re at the warehouse, but the Battle Shell’s uses as the keys and the remote to it were swept up in the flood as well.”

“Stay right there, I’ll figure out a way to get you there, tell Master Splinter to hang on, I’ll be there as soon as I can,” said Harry, as he quickly shoved the mirror away, putting away his fears about facing his family, because quite frankly, they needed his help and if Harry had been in that situation, they would have most certainly done the same for him.

A couple of moments later, Harry went through the alleyway that was the quickest point from the clock tower to the warehouse, but as he peered around the corner, his blood ran cold.

“No,” whispered Harry, as he saw Leo, Don, Mikey, Raph, and Master Splinter dragged from the warehouse in iron shackles by some shady looking government agents. His entire family looked like they had been taken by surprise and subdued rather quickly. Clenching his fist, Harry leaned forward, in an attempt to listen in.

“These creatures thought they could evade us forever, but we proved differently when we flushed them out of their hiding place,” remarked one government agents.

“Yes, these things, whatever they are, will be locked up for their role in the murder of Oroku Saki,” added one of the governments, as the Turtles and Master Splinter were violently dragged away. Raph attempted to fight off his attackers, but a well placed cattle prod stalled the hot tempered reptile’s attempts right in his tracks. “We’ll find out what they are and their human associate will also be brought in for his role in the Oroku Saki murder.”

Harry clenched his fists, before he slowly removed a shuriken, if he aimed his shot right, he could have caused a diversion and got them out of there. It was a small chance that it would completely succeed, but given the grave situation in mind, Harry had to do it. Harry held up the shuriken, but a hand grabbed him on the arm, stopping him. Quickly, Harry turned around but thankfully it was only Ginny standing behind him.

“Harry, I saw what happened on the Muggle news, they found the lair and they’re after you next,” commented Ginny breathlessly. “Thank Salazar I caught you in time, I saw a few people on the roof, no doubt they’re expecting you to come to their aid.”

“I can’t leave without them, I have to do something to save them,” said Harry and Ginny just grabbed his hand consolingly.

“I know and we will, we just got to step back until the heat’s off just a little bit,” said Ginny calmly. “Then we’ll be able to easily save them, but right now, they look a bit too alert, don’t you think?”

“Yes, Ginny, of course, there look like there leaving now, I think I can get a tracking charm on from over here,” muttered Harry and he carefully aimed his hand, as his family was hauled in the back of the government van, as the agents began to set off one by one, as the vehicles drove off down the street. “Ginny, let’s go, but be careful, some people might still be lurking around.”

Ginny nodded in agreement, before the two carefully crept from the shadows, and Harry looked up. Sometime was off, there was a sudden inability to connect with his own tracking charm.

A dagger that sailed right towards Harry’s head caught his attention. Narrowly, he avoided it, before he pivoted around, to see a small army of ninjas standing slowly moving around them. Ginny looked absolutely confused, but Harry recognized and feared what he saw.

“Ninjas, but they don’t look anything like the Foot,” muttered Ginny. “Harry?

“I know them, but explanations later, right now we’re in for a hell of a fight,” said Harry urgently, as one of the ninjas sprung into the air and aimed his sword down at Ginny’s skull, but Harry quickly punched him out of mid air, causing him to go down to the ground. Ginny dodged an attack, before she swept the legs of her attacker out from underneath him, before Harry gave her a boost into the air, allowing her to come down feet first onto the head of both of the ninjas. One of the ninjas had swung its blade at Harry but Harry dodged, causing the assassin’s blade to swipe against the wall. Turning around, Harry impacted his opponent in the face, before magically propelling him right at Ginny’s opponent. Quickly, Harry flew right through the air with the greatest of ease, with a somersault and stuck it right to the side of his opponent. The assassin stabbed a staff towards Harry but he was blown off of his feet, as Harry watched Ginny summon her opponent’s sword in the sheath right through his back.

One of the ninjas waved the others over, and they seemed to surround Ginny. Quickly, Harry sprung right in front of his girlfriend to help her fight her deadly adversaries back. Ginny flung one right into the wall, where Harry broke the sword of his opponent. A vicious kick shattered his opponent’s jaw, sending blood everywhere. Ginny looked relieved but her eyes widened.

“Harry!” yelled Ginny, but it was too late, as a razor sharp arrow pierced Harry’s hip! Harry winced, looking around for the assassin who attacked him, but dropped, blood splashing to the ground. Ginny quickly shot a spell forward, backing one of the ninjas off from Harry, before she caught Harry before he was to land on the ground. “Hang on Harry, I’m getting you out of here, you need medical attention badly.”

“No Ginny, run, save yourself,” said Harry in a bit of a delirious tone of voice from the blood loss but Ginny just ignored Harry, before she attempted to drag him off, his gimp leg dragging behind him. The ninjas stalked the two, but Ginny had one of Harry’s exploding shurikens. As she helped Harry climb the ladder towards the roof, she flicked it downwards. It impacted the street, the explosion trigging a more explosive effect by hitting a gas line underneath the street, causing a massive explosion. “Good Ginny, a bit extreme, but at least we got them off their backs…”

“Don’t speak too soon, Harry,” said Ginny in a grim voice, as she spotted a trio of assassins, descending the roof, katanas at the ready, as they began to stalk the two.

Harry looked up, staggering forward, before he collapsed down, blood dripping from the wound he suffered. Quickly, he jabbed his hand down towards the roof, right where his would be attackers were standing. A rumbling sound and the ninjas crashed through the roof, landing hard. Ginny extended her hand forward and helped Harry to his feet, his leg buckling slightly.

“There will be more on the way, we need to go, now,” muttered Harry and Ginny wasted no time in conjuring a grappling hook tied to a rope. She magically swung the rope, before it latched onto the rooftop adjacent from their position. Waving her wand, Ginny tightly wrapped the rope around the ledge. Quickly, she helped Harry over the ledge of the roof, as he climbed over, before grabbing onto the rope and began to climb over, hand over hand, to the other roof. This would have been much easier had he had his Firebolt, but unfortunately, they had to make due with more primitive methods of transportation. Ginny looked over her shoulder, to ensure the coast was clear, before she also copied Harry’s movements.

From below, a malignant figure standing in the shadows watched as Harry and Ginny quickly made their way across. His wand was aimed, as he watched Harry safely pull himself to the building on the other side. With the Boy-Who-Lived across, the figure aimed his wand upwards.

Harry pulled himself up, as lighting whipped across the sky and he blinked, he could have sworn it stopped raining all together sometime around when he had left the clock tower. Before he could dwell on this much, Harry saw a slicing spell whirl through the air, towards the rope.

“GINNY, WATCH OUT!” yelled Harry urgently but the spell sliced the rope, causing it to snap. Harry lunged forward and reached for Ginny, but she plummeted out of his reach, screaming in terror as she fell. Harry watched in despair as he saw Ginny slam hard into the pavement. His heart sank as he saw blood splatter upwards from where Ginny had landed. Quickly, Harry leapt down from the rooftop before he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, right towards the motionless form of his beloved.

Harry reached down and gently rolled her over, she let out a very shallow breath, before she withered to the ground, not moving any longer. In numb shock, Harry cradled Ginny’s form in his arm, his eyes widened in horror, not believing what he seen, his worst fear, his very worst having played out before his eyes but laughter, sickening, pleasured laughter, brought Harry out of his grief and he looked up, to see a hooded figure standing off in the distance.

“She died because of your inability to do what was necessary, hero,” commented the hooded figure. “It was your fault and…”

Harry let Ginny down gently, before he rushed forward and punched this hooded figure with all the force he could muster directly in the face. The hooded figure dropped to the ground, his hood falling backwards, but he slowly rose to his feet, before looking right at Harry, who stepped back in absolute shock and a small amount of fear.

“That really won’t bring her back,” replied Nega-Harry in a casual tone of voice.

“YOU!” yelled Harry angrily, before he rushed forward to attack his evil counterpart from a mirror dimension, but he dodged the attack, and quickly grabbed Harry by the shirt, before he flipped Harry to the ground. Nega-Harry stepped back and charged forward, before he impacted a soccer kick right in Harry’s ribs. Harry rolled over as Nega-Harry callously stood on the back of his downed adversary.

“Please, don’t embarrass yourself,” chastised Nega-Harry in a slightly bored tone, as he grabbed the back of the head of the benevolent version of the Boy-Who-Lived, forcing his face into the concrete. “As I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted, your inability to properly utilize your power caused the death of your beloved girlfriend. The same inability that allowed your brothers and sensei to be hauled off to a government agency, do you think the same thing would have happened in my dimension? No, of course not and you allowed Voldemort to take over, because you’re weak.”

“Why?” demanded Harry but Nega-Harry refused to let up on his grip of his foe for a second.

“Certain lessons needed to be imparted upon you, hero,” replied Nega-Harry. “The fact remains that you allowed your enemies and the rest of the world far too my leeway, too much freedom, too much choice. You should have forced them under your foot, before Voldemort had become the problem he was. I just sped up the process of Ginny’s demise, it was better off for her, she would have been killed or worse, by someone. It also served as a wake up call for you, that in the end, your way of handling your enemies and the world around you is a failure. You failed to save Daphne and Theodore and now Ginny was taken away from you, because of your utter inability to exert control.”

Harry had heard more than enough. Quickly, he concentrated hard and managed to blast his adversary back. To his feet, he rushed forward, but his evil counterpart was on his feet. A punch was swung but it was deflected by his enemy. Another punch attempted from Harry was also avoid in a casual and quite bored manner. Spinning uppercut was blocked and Harry’s arm was caught. A pained grunt left Harry, as his alternate mirror universe counter part twisted his arm. Seconds later, the young wizard and ninja was flipped to the ground. Harry staggered to his feet and Nega-Harry reached forward, wrapping his hands around the throat of Harry. In a blink, Harry was pushed right into a window. The glass shattered from the window, as he struggled for breath, with his counterpart trying to magically crush Harry’s windpipe.

“So, one final lesson hero, you only brought the sorrow that you felt today upon yourself, but since I am fair and I just, I shall put you out of your misery,” said Nega-Harry but Harry managed to pull a piece of broken glass off of his sleeve. He felt the air leaving him but in a flash, he stabbed his evil counter part directly in the right eye with the glass.

Nega-Harry staggered backwards, clutching his right eye, blood dripping to the ground, before Harry rushed forward and caught his covering opponent right in the face with a fist. Another blow knocked Nega-Harry backwards, but he rolled underneath, before he sprung up from his back, right over Harry. The hand was over the eye of Nega-Harry as he stood in a battle stance.

“I must admit, I didn’t know you had it in you,” taunted Nega-Harry. “So, let’s settle this matter right now, wizard to wizard. Warrior to warrior. Man to man. Potter to Potter. To the death.”

“If I’m going, you’re going with me,” said Harry, as he sprung forward, but his evil counterpart caught the leg, before he twisted it and slammed Harry against the ground. The benevolent Boy-Who-Lived pulled himself up, but was struck right in the face with a sickening kick. He fell to the ground, swelling over his eye before another kick impacted his face. Harry was lifted off the ground and flung magically into the wall. He looked up with a dazed expression and a lung puncturing curse just barely missed, he instinctively moved, before he flung a shuriken right at Nega-Harry. The malevolent Boy-Who-Lived lazily blasted it back at Harry, causing a small explosion to blow him backwards.

Quickly, he was pulled to his feet and Nega-Harry threw Harry hard right into the stone wall outside of a park. Harry rolled over, as blood dripped from the wall where he connected and he turned around, just in time to see his opponent’s fist crash into his face. Rolling over, Harry fired a decapitating curse right at his opponent, but Nega-Harry tossed it aside, before he rolled forward. Harry slid out of the way but Nega-Harry turned around and impacted Harry right in the chest with a punch, just as he regained his bearings. The evil mirror counterpart would not let up, as Harry was flung up into the air, before he crashed down to the ground. Barely, he crawled over, catching sight of a dusty copy of the newspaper. The words looked rather scrambled and incoherent, not making sense at all but this mattered little, as Harry found himself having to dodge a vicious kick right to the side of his head. Quickly, Harry pulled himself back to his feet, before he flung a couple of smoke bombs to the ground, but the second they connected, his malevolent counterpart banished the smoke back into Harry’s face.

Harry gagged, staggering back, blinded by the cloud of smoke and was blasted full force with a kick. The impact sent Harry into the park gates, breaking them open.

“Haven’t you realized this yet, hero?” asked Nega-Harry in a bored tone of voice, as he reared back his wand before a burning curse was blasted towards Harry, who just barely managed to block it with a shield charm, but this was just a ploy to lower Harry’s defenses for a kick to the face. “Everything you can do, I can do better, and everything you are unable to do because you are weak, I have perfected.”

A large black bolt of magical energy blasted directly towards Harry. It sliced through his best shield and caused him to fly backwards right at the base of a statue. Harry struggled to breath, the impact was like getting struck in the chest with a moving van, as his evil counterpart rushed forward, in an attempt to skewer Harry with a sword made of pure magical energy. Instinctively, Harry dodged the attack and the sword vaporized the part of the statue where it connected. Harry dropped down and blinked. He could have sworn he saw the anxious, faint, face of Ginny in the distance, but a second later, he had not seen it. Nega-Harry moved forward and knocked him to the ground. Harry hit with a thud and his enemy attempted to smother the good Boy-Who-Lived. Quickly, Harry managed to use his feet to fling his opponent backwards. Gracefully Nega-Harry landed on his feet and in a blink of an eye, threw a dagger right at his counterpart. Harry was pierced in the right arm by the dagger and he winced, as his mirror counterpart rushed forward the attack. At the last second, the efforts of that assault was just avoided by the narrow of margins.

Both warriors stood face to face, with Harry favoring his right arm, but at least his leg injury had healed from earlier. He had little time to figure out how, as his malevolent counterpart rushed forward, katana drawn. Harry sprung out of the way and on top of the statue, favoring his arm. Nega-Harry followed suit, as Harry conjured a Kusari-Gama. Swinging the chain, the sickle end whipped forward. The katana deflected it backwards. Another chain whip and another deflection, but on the third whip, Harry flung it off to the side. The sickle stuck into the statue and Harry quickly jumped down, giving a mighty tug, pulling the statue over with Nega-Harry on top. The evil mirror counterpart bailed at the last second, avoiding going down, but Harry used the cover of darkness to circle around his opponent.

Spinning around, both versions of the Boy-Who-Lived stared each other down. Nega-Harry raised his katana and sprung up into the air at Harry, but Harry quickly removed a shuriken, tossing it at his opponent. His opponent attempted to deflect it with sword, which released a flame charm right into the face of Nega-Harry. The mirror evil dropped to the ground as Harry rolled forward, gripping a piece of concrete from the destroyed statue. An attempt to crush Nega-Harry’s skull did not quite pan out, a cloud of acid was conjured and blasted right at the stone, eating right through it. Quickly, Harry regained his footing and shot a net made of razor wire wandlessly at his opponent. Effortlessly the effort was deflected, slicing the net into bits as both versions of the Boy-Who-Lived stood at a standstill.

Nega-Harry pulled his arm back and Harry quickly put a silencing spell, blocking out the heavy effects of the sonic vibration spell. Windows shattered, but Harry’s hearing was unaffected but not his face as his twisted reflection kicked him in the face with full force. Then, the downed Boy-Who-Lived was hoisted up in the air and blasted backwards. With a thud, Harry just barely managed to cushion his fall and seconds later, a banishing charm sent him crashing to the ground. With a twisted smirk, his reflection hoisted Harry off the ground.

“No girlfriend to kiss it and make it feel better, hero,” said Nega-Harry in a triumphant tone but seconds later, a vicious, magically enhanced kick, cracked the malevolent Boy-Who-Lived directly in the face, dropping him to the ground.

Incensed, Harry rushed forward and knocked his opponent backwards with a punch. Another punch was blocked and Harry’s arm was shoved back, but quickly, he summoned a nearby axe towards him. With swift voice, Harry swung and his twisted distortion dodged the attack, the axe blade splitting off. On the rebound, Harry jabbed the axe handle into the chest of his enemy. He reared back and cracked the axe handle right across the head of his opponent. Nega-Harry staggered but before he rebound, the axe handle smashed directly into his skull again, dropping him to the ground. The wooden axe handle transfigured into a razor sharp sword and the Boy-Who-Lived prepared to eliminate the murderer of his beloved. The sword was just a split second away from coming down right in the skull of the ultimate mirror evil, but Harry stopped when he caught something rather interesting in his surroundings.

In an instant, Harry threw his weapon to the side, all the small inconsistencies of his environment tonight making sense.

“I see everything clearly, you’re not the real architect behind what happened today,” said Harry softly.

“What are you going on about?” asked Nega-Harry, as he pulled himself to his feet. “You had the chance to destroy me and you passed upon it. Perhaps seeing your girl’s brains splattered on the pavement made you lose it, hero?”

“No, listen to me, what I’ve seen today, it’s not what it seems,” responded Harry, as he sat cross legged in front of his opponent. “Someone used horrific visions to shield what truly was happened, my true enemies have yet to reveal themselves.”

“And what if you’re wrong?” challenged Nega-Harry, as he raised a katana right over his head, but Harry did not move or blink.

“Then so be it,” said Harry as he watched the sword come down into the top of the head, with the scene around him quickly becoming distorted, fading into oblivion.

Cyclones of pure mystical energy appeared around the area where Harry was sitting. Slowly, the young warrior opened his eyes, to see it was sitting in an astral projection of a field surrounded by a large mountainous region. At that moment, the five Foot Mystics began to slowly levitate from the ground, circling the Boy-Who-Lived. The each represented five elements, earth, wind, fire, water, and metal, as their staffs illuminated, as they floated above Harry.

“This one is more powerful than we had foreseen,” commented the Water Foot Mystic.

“It matters little, he is only one against our five, there is no conceivable way he could beat us,” said the Fire Foot Mystic in a forceful voice, as they aimed their staffs and sent multi colored bursts of light, representing their elements, with Harry dodging them, as the Foot Mystics circled around here.

“Nothing but a crude representation of reality, a vivid nightmare,” muttered Harry, as he avoided being trapped in a water bubble, as they shot high powered bursts of mystical energy right towards him.

“Yes, but one that you can die in, as soon your heart will give out in the real world,” taunted the Metal Foot Mystic but Harry just avoided his attacks. “There is no way you can defeat us, what could you do to fight our power?”

“Absolutely nothing,” said Harry suddenly, as he sat down and began to meditate, as the Foot Mystics circled him. “It’s mind over matter, this is my mind and in here you don’t matter.”

The Foot Mystics shot their mystical spells right at Harry, but a large dome shielded Harry from harm. The dome began to extend outwards, pushing the energy back towards the Foot Mystics. Their own magical energy reflected back towards them and all five gave anguished shrieks as they were promptly blasted from Harry’s mind.

In the real world, Harry opened his eyes, finding that he was lying in his own bed. He felt a bit weak and feverish, as if he was recovering from a bad case of the flu. The first sight he was greeted with was the relieved face of Ginny and Harry felt relief wash over him. He knew she was safe when he figured that it was a nightmarish astral plane projection but still seeing it was nice.

“Hi Ginny,” remarked Harry weakly.

“Harry, I’m glad you’re safe, I thought for a moment you stopped breathing,” said Ginny, as she clutched Harry’s hand, almost afraid that he’d slip away. “I thought I lost you this time.”

“I did too,” answered Harry and Ginny looked at Harry curiously, but Harry quickly evaded the subject. “Exactly how did I get back there?”

“Well Lily, Hailey, and I were rather worried that you didn’t return, so I decided to call you on the mirror, but there was no answer, I tracked you to the clock tower where I found you in a catatonic state,” explained Ginny. “I got you back here, but no matter what we did, we couldn’t snap you out of your state.”

“You nearly did, I saw your face within the nightmarish visions that I had to fight,” said Harry. “The Foot Mystics nearly destroyed me, lucky I managed to put everything together in time.”

“Foot Mystics?” exclaimed Ginny in an absolutely mortified voice. “The Foot…but the Shredder’s…”

“I know, Ginny, he is and I’m as confused by this as you are,” replied Harry in a weary voice. “Be ready for anything, if they can do this much damage on a mystical level, who knows what the Foot’s next strike will be like.”

Meanwhile, in a temple deep within the recently reconstructed Foot Tower, the five Foot Mystics watched Harry and Ginny from a mystical window, before they dropped it, just as the doors of the temple were forced open.

“Fools, another failure!” thundered the voice of the adopted daughter of Oroku Saki, Karai stalked in, to face off against the Foot Mystics, who just turned to face their employer.

“Mistress Karai, we were unable to destroy the one known as Harry Potter as you intended, but we managed to location useful information from the boy’s mind for our next assault,” announced the Fire Foot Mystic.

“And yet, you recklessly revealed your presence to Potter!” snapped Karai, as she glared at the Foot Mystics.

“The Shredder had more respect for our powers,” said the Water Foot Mystic.

“I don’t respect you and I certainly do not fear you,” said Karai shortly, as she removed a silver pendant, waving it front of the Mystics. “As long as I have the Heart of Tengu, your magic is mine to direct as I see fit.”

“Yes Mistress Karai, we serve whomever holds the Heart of Tengu,” chanted the Five Foot Mystics dully.

“And I have no further need for your parlor tricks, as the next time I attack, it will surely not be an illusion,” continued Karai, as she held up her right arm, which was adorned with the gauntlet of the Shredder. “I will hunt down those who murdered my father and they will all pay with their lives.”