10

"Harry, we've put this off for long enough." Amara said as she marched into the infirmary. Behind her were Dani and Lorna.

Hank McCoy took one look at the determined trio and vanished with nary a peep.

"Traitor." Harry hissed at the empty space.

"Enough stalling. I know I'm suffering still, and that means you are still suffering as well." Amara said sternly. "We need to do the soul bonding."

"You're sure about this?" He asked with a worried look.

"Very sure, I've had over a month to consider it. We all have." Amara said firmly.

"All?" Harry asked in a slight panic.

"Yes Harry, all. You are a great friend. Personally I want the romance. Dani is open to it. But more importantly we want to help you especially after all you have done for us." Lorna said as she walked over and wrapped her arms around him.

"But what about Bobby? Or Alex?"

"They want me. They have been fighting over me since they met me. It was cute at first, but now I can't walk into a room with the two of them without the pair of them whipping it out and getting into it!" She threw her hands up in exasperation. "Neither of them are mature enough yet, I already screwed Alex out of a decent relationship, I'm trying to set that up again. Bobby… Bobby is still a teenager at heart, he needs to find some girls to sow his oats with."

"Sounds… complicated."

"Welcome to the X-Men." Dani giggled.

"But seriously, all three of you? I have never linked more than one person before. It may change the way you feel for each other. You may find yourselves attracted to each other or you may find yourselves thinking of each other as sisters." Harry tried to reason.

"Will it take away our free will?" Lorna asked.

"Definitely not."

"Will it force us to enter a relationship with each other or you?"

"No."

"Then the choice is ours and will still be ours after the bonding… joining… whatever!" She said in slight exasperation. "Now stop stalling and get on with it. Every second you wait is a second longer that Amara suffers."

"Wait for us!"

The four adults turned to see the Stepford Cuckoos and Laura enter with Emma and Logan behind.

"You want a joint ceremony?" Harry asked with a smile. "Because there isn't really a ceremony, you know."

"We want to join with you as well." Celeste declared.

Harry looked at Emma and Logan in surprise.

"Yes, we spent the past few days arguing with them. Not that Logan was much help." Emma scowled at the oft-feral man.

Logan just shrugged. "It was hard enough getting her to come here to the mansion, this is something she seems to really want."

"Personally I object to having my girls anywhere near X-23."

"'Laura', Emma. Let's not have this conversation again." Harry warned. It was clear that Emma did not trust Laura at all. Scott had already had to have words with Emma about how she treated her.

"Although it would be beneficial for Laura to bond with someone other than Logan, the members of the bond tend to have a subconscious influence on each other, and Logan's feral side is substantially more powerful than the rest of him." Harry mused. "But what's your reason, Laura?"

"I… want to have… happiness, a romance… but I only trust you." She said with her trademark frown. "I don't know how to have them, but maybe you could teach me."

"You don't trust Logan?" Harry asked, slightly shocked.

"I do, but… not the same way." She admitted.

"Sounds to me like she already has a crush on you, Harry." Dani smirked.

"Not helping Dani." Harry groaned.

"Yes she is." Lorna corrected. "For this to work, we need to be brutally honest with each other. I think it's obvious Laura has feelings for Harry, but she doesn't realise that they are romantic and doesn't know what to do with them. If she bonds her soul to Harry's we can all help her."

"You're actually going along with this?" Harry asked in pure disbelief.

"We knew what we were getting into when we approached you. Amara has been discussing her idea with us for a few weeks, even Jean was backing her up." Dani explained. "We knew that there would be others, we were encouraged to find others… we weren't expecting volunteers though." She frowned at the four teenage girls.

"We hear everything, but we can choose not to listen." The Three-In-One said together. Emma looked shocked at that admission.

Harry looked to Laura.

"I also hear everything." She said blandly.

"Ain't that the truth." Logan grunted.

"So why do you three want to bond with Harry?" Lorna asked.

"No one else will understand us." Celeste stated.

"No one else will accept us together." Mindee scowled. "And not take advantage of us."

"We hear everything." Phoebe re-iterated with a fair amount of annoyance.

"We feel whatever the other feels." Celeste said with a hint of sadness.

"But we also feel drawn to Harry." They stated as one.

"Yeah, that bit doesn't surprise me. I feel the drawn to them as well." Harry admitted.

"What?!" Emma asked surprised and slightly angry. "What does that mean?" She demanded.

"For some reason they have some of Jean's phoenix essence in them. I am a companion to phoenixes, they are drawn to me and I am drawn to them."

"So they are not going to be your 'Angels of Death' or something equally macabre?" Emma checked.

"What! Hell no!" Harry was waving his hands frantically in denial. "No, the only one I've met who comes close is Logan. He reminds me of my Dad who did play a similar role. Although it was really just to use fear and terror to subdue evil wizards."

"No thanks, Bub." Logan growled. "Once was enough." He still had to deal with nightmares about Apocalypse.

"Don't worry, that was millions of years ago. I was only fourteen at the time, and I wasn't really Death then either. That happened later, when I was fifteen."

Unfortunately this didn't seem to appease Emma who was standing with the highly unusual expression of being gobsmacked at Harry's brief history of his childhood.

"You were killing people at fourteen?" She asked.

"No, fifteen. I was pretending to be Death at fourteen. It was this whole thing we did to put fear in the current Dark Lord. He was desperate for immortality and power and enjoyed killing non-magicals for sport."

"History lesson later, bonding now!" Dani interrupted impatiently. "The suspense is killing me!"

"Fine, form a line." Harry sighed indicating they should stand side by side next to one of the beds. "You first Amara, lie down. Now, I am going to be pulling your soul from your body so I can work on it, try not to be too alarmed."

Amara's eyes widened comically but she suddenly slumped as Harry placed a hand flat on her chest and glowed. The others watched as Harry raised his hand pulling the ethereal form of Amara with it.

It was slightly disturbing as there was a fist-sized hole in her chest where her heart should be.

And she was naked.

"Not bad."

Dani instantly grabbed Logan and teleported him out. The look of displeasure on Lorna's face promised retribution.

Amara was currently giving Harry a fish-eyed expression. To which Harry just grinned. "You have the easy part, I have to force part of my soul out of my body, not easy at all!" Harry told them. "Ok, stick your hand in my chest." He instructed. "Can you feel that warmth?" Amara nodded, being unable to speak. "That's my soul, you need to keep a hold of it when I put you back in your body."

Suddenly another ethereal hand emerged from Harry's chest. It was a disfigured hand, missing a thumb… it was practically a skeleton.

"Harry…" Emma gasped even as Laura's claws could be heard popping out.

"Relax, that's my soul." Harry assured him, he was rewarded with the sound of Laura retracting her claws. Harry's soul reached into Amara's and held tight. "Hold on now, I'm going to put you back in your body, don't let go of my soul."

Gently Harry pushed Amara's ghost like form back into her body, as his soul retracted taking a strand of Amara with it and she held a strand of his. Her body gasped as she awoke and the image of the souls faded.

"That was so weird." She breathed.

"How are you feeling?" Harry asked.

"Ok. Good even. My chest and head don't feel so heavy."

"That's our souls helping each other. I feel a bit better as well." Harry admitted.

"But not completely?" Lorna asked with concern.

"I've had about fifteen soul mates. The damage you saw to Amara's chest was from when Antonio died and it ripped at her soul, the damage to my hand was… just a fraction of what my soul looks like." He shuddered.

"It looked… like a corpse." Emma grimaced.

"An apt description." Harry nodded sadly. "My soul is dying, all the bonds that have torn at it made it unstable. One of the reasons Jean prodded you into doing this is because without help my soul would have fragmented, that would be very bad."

"So you can die?" Emma asked.

"No. My soul would still be around but it would be… lost, I would have no moral compass, no compassion, sympathy, empathy… I would be the spectre of death that people actually fear. My soul won't die, but it will remain in a state of 'dying'."

"But us bonding with you helps with that, right?" Dani asked.

"Definitely. It would have taken millions of more years for my soul to collapse, but even with just Amara I feel a bit better."

"Then stop dawdling. Amara, get off that bed or budge over!" Dani ordered.

As Harry performed the same procedure with Dani they saw that her soul was a perfect image of her body with no damage, likewise with Lorna.

"I feel even better." Amara said with a curious smile. "Am I supposed to?"

"Considering how great I feel, I'd say yes." Dani was practically bouncing around like a five year on a sugar high.

"Huh, must be the additional bonds." Harry mused.

"You don't know?" Emma asked incredulously. "I thought you were the Master of Souls!"

Harry just shrugged. "Just because I can do all sorts of things with souls, doesn't mean I have done everything. I have never done this before."

"But I would say that those four should definitely link with Harry to get the best results." Lorna noted as she indicated the four clones.

"Ok, Laura first, you three are going to be complicated." He told the Cuckoos.

Laura calmly lay down on the now vacated bed.

There was a gasp of horror as they saw just how bad the damage was to her soul. Part of her head was missing along with her heart and her hands were gone, replaced with her claws.

It was clear that Laura was beginning to panic.

"Easy." Harry soothed. "This is a representation of what you look like now. But you will change as you experience more and learn more about life and as our souls help heal yours." He assured her. "Now, grab my soul and let's get you started on life." He told her with a kind smile.

Laura sat up once she was back in her body. Tears started streaming down her face and she began to switch between giggling and sobbing.

Lorna and Amara rushed forward to hug and console her but Harry erected a barrier between them and stepped forwards himself pulling her into a hug.

They soon understood why he did it when Laura suddenly became enraged and began slashing at everything with her claws, even Harry, but he still held on.

"Emma, what's happening?" Dani asked worriedly.

"She appears to be suffering with a multitude of conflicting emotions, it's like a big mass of instruments with no rhythm or melody, just chaos." She frowned.

"Fawkes!" Harry called out, the phoenix flashed in and landed on Laura's shoulder where it began to sing softly.

Slowly Laura began to calm down and she relaxed, sinking into Harry's chest as she exhausted herself emotionally.

When things seemed settled Lorna spoke up softly. "What was that Harry?"

"All her memories… they had no emotional context for her. Something happened when they bonded. She experienced all the emotions that her memories should have had." Emma answered, her eyes where swollen, the White Queen's emotional barriers at breaking point.

"She gonna be ok?" Dani asked.

"She'll be fine, she just needs to learn to adjust and come to grips with emotions." Harry assured them. Harry lay the now sleeping Laura back down on the bed as Fawkes continued to sing.

"Are you sure you still want to do this?" Harry asked the triplets. "I'm guessing you will experience something similar."

"We had emotions once." Phoebe said.

"When we were Five-In-One." Celeste added.

"We want them again." Mindee finished.

Harry nodded understandingly. He turned and conjured three mattresses on the floor with the heads at the centre and the feet pointing outwards.

"Ok, you only have one soul between you, and you each hold a piece of it and that piece is connected to the others. I am going to connect each soul piece to my soul."

The girls nodded as they lay down.

As Harry went round each girl connecting to their soul, the others noticed that their souls were much fainter than their own, but also were golden instead of white and seemed to be fairly intact… just bald.

"Much better." The girls said as one as a smile graced their faces.

Emma let out a very happy sigh. "Now I know what was missing." The tear that had been threatening to fall finally escaped down her cheek. "Please keep them happy." She almost pleaded of Harry.

"Trust me." Harry said simply. He turned to look at Fawkes who was watching them with avid interest. "You want to explain why these three share a Phoenix soul?" He demanded of the bird.

To the amusement of the assembled, Fawkes trilled and shrugged.

"Are there anymore?"

Fawkes nodded his head.

"Well go and get them then. I assume they need training."

Fawkes did what only could be described as 'grumped' before he flamed out.

"Well?" Dani asked as she reappeared having collected Logan.

"I was wrong, they don't have some of Jean's essence, they actually are Phoenixes. Or a Phoenix, at least." Harry sighed.

"They're immortal?" Emma asked.

"True immortals, like me." Harry confirmed. "I won't need to send their souls on later, they won't descend into madness." He grinned.

"What's the alternative… not a true immortal?" Logan asked.

"Erm… well, you, Emma, Laura and Amara are immortal. As long as your souls are in your bodies your bodies will continue to live… barring someone trying to murder you. But in a few thousand years your souls will suffer, kind of lose its grasp on reality. The human mortal soul is not meant to stay on this plane of existence forever."

"We're going to go mad?" Amara asked worriedly.

"Not for a long, long time, and when that time comes I can send you on gently and the madness will leave you as you pass on." Harry assured her.

"What makes us 'immortal'?" Logan asked.

"For you and Laura, it's your healing ability. It will keep you going by constantly upgrading your cells and replacing them. Age is just another disease.

"For Amara and Emma, it has to do with their ability to change the make up of their bodies, by switching to their alternate forms and back again they sort of refresh their cells."

"But we could theoretically live forever?" Amara asked.

"Theoretically." Harry agreed.

"How'd the Trips' become a Phoenix?" Logan asked.

"Damned if I know." Harry snorted. "It'll be easier to ask Jean when she grows up."

At this point Fawkes returned with a passenger.

"Logan? Emma? What the hell?!" Rachel Summers asked.

"Should have seen that one coming." Logan groaned.

"You're Scott and Jean's kid?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, who the hell are you?" She demanded. "Wait… you're that nut job who was on the news claiming to be Death."

"'Nut job'? Been a long time since someone called me that." Harry smirked. "Short version. You're a Phoenix, the triplets are a Phoenix, the kidnapping bird is a Phoenix, your mother is a Phoenix. The kidnapping bird is your new tutor, Jean will be helping when she grows up."

"Grows up?"

"Ask us later kid." Logan chuckled.

"Girls, you ok to begin training with Fawkes?" Harry asked the Cuckoos. But he noticed they were sitting there staring at him. "Girls?"

Harry and Emma moved towards them quickly.

"They are in a trance." Emma stated.

"Oh… oh!" Harry exclaimed. "The bond let them bypass my mental defences. They are actually in my mind."

"How could you not tell and why don't they just leave." Emma queried.

"Well, my mind is a big place, I have millions of years experience and memories, it's like trying to tell if a small space rock makes it to the surface of the sun, you actually have to actively track it."

"But the dragon-"

"Defends it, but the dragon recognised them as part of me due to the bond. Now they are lost in my mind."

"How do we get them out?" Lorna asked.

"Give me a few minutes, just because I wasn't aware they had gotten in doesn't mean I can't track them." Harry sat down crossed legged and stared back at the Cuckoos.

"Can someone please explain what the hell is going on?" Rachel demanded again, angrily.

"Everything Harry told you is the truth, kid." Logan frowned.

"That me and the creepy clones are Phoenixes? I already know what I am."

Fawkes took the opportunity to cuff her head with his wing.

"Ow! Stupid bird." She rubbed her head vigorously.

Fawkes began squawking at her, clearly irritated.

"Why is this bird… how is this bird talking to me?" She asked in shock.

"No idea, he only talks to Harry and Jean usually." Logan shrugged.

"Hey Harry, oh hi guys." MJ greeted as she appeared with Jeanie in Her arms and a very pregnant Jessica Jones at her side.

"MJ! Jeanie!" Dani gushed as she rushed over to steal a giggling Jean from MJ. Jean was a lot bigger now at nearly two years in physical age.

MJ just smiled and turned to Jessica. "And now you know where to look for babysitters."

Jessica returned the smile but it was clear she was nervous.

"Harry's a little occupied at the moment, we did the soul bonding, Laura and the Cuckoos wanted to bond with him as well, but the Triplets sort of got lost in his mind." Lorna explained.

"Oh, will he be long?"

"Already done." Harry spoke up. "What have we learnt?" He asked the Cuckoos.

"Leave a trail of breadcrumbs." Celeste scowled.

"You have far too much empty space in your head." Mindee added causing the other two to giggle.

"I love having emotions again." Phoebe sighed happily.

In the background Emma gave a sad smile. She was still connected to her girls, even if they wouldn't acknowledge it.

Noticing the two new arrivals with Jean, Harry sent the triplets to re-introduce Rachel to her mother.

"So, what can I do for you lovely ladies?" Harry asked as he approached Jessica and Mary Jane.

"I suggested that Jessica ask you to be her doctor."

Harry looked at Jessica expectantly.

"You really made the Lily Charm?" Jessica asked nervously.

"I did. For my adopted sister who I saved from an attempted rape." Harry said seriously.

He was suddenly crushed in a hug by a pregnant woman. Harry just calmly returned the hug. It was clear to him what had gotten her so upset, she didn't need to tell him.

"Can you give it to all women?"

"Not by myself. I need to make more witches so they can go out and do it." Harry said sadly. "You could be one of them." He offered.

"Really?" She asked as she pulled back to look at him.

"Yeah, but you need to help me do something very difficult."

She recoiled in apprehension.

"When I make you a witch, you will be able to teleport to anyone you know. You need to take me to the man who hurt you. I need to kill him."

"What?" This was slightly confusing.

"It's his job, Jess." Logan spoke up clearly. "Its who he is. He removes the evil from the world permanently. But if you're going to do this, you should take Luke with you."

"Luke Cage?" Harry asked. "Your husband."

"Not yet, but… he is mine." She smiled fondly.

"Ok, Logan, go get Luke."

"Do I have to?" Jessica asked as she began to shake.

"No. Your husband knows this man?"

"Luke, yes, and he's not my husband. Yet." She added firmly.

"Haven't been to a wedding in a long time. Don't make me wait too long." He winked. Then he grew serious again. "You should be the one to take me to him. You should be the one to witness his death."

"But he has mind control powers." She whispered.

"And Jeanie made sure you were protected from them, remember?" Logan said as he appeared with Luke Cage.

"Doc." Luke greeted.

"Good to see you again."

"Now, what's this about you killing the Purple Man?"

"He's a fucking rapist. He should have been killed the second he was discovered. So that's what I'm going to do." Harry hissed angrily startling Jessica and Luke with his ferocity. "Jessica is going to take me to him and I wanted you to accompany us, for comfort."

"I'm all for killing the bastard, but are you sure we should?" Luke asked carefully. "I'm just thinking of the fact that Captain America pulled me off him when I was pounding him to crap back on the prison island."

"Depends on why you were going to kill him. For justice or to sate your rage."

"Bit of both I guess."

"Yeah, well this guy pisses me off and I never met him. But this is my duty, one of the reasons I was sent to this world. The bastard is evil and I will end him." Harry growled. He then switched to a happy smile shocking Jessica and Luke slightly. "But first, lets get you magic'd up!"

He then stepped forward without warning and placed a hand over Luke's chest. Luke did his best not to flinch. "What?" He asked. "Wait! What the hell?!" He asked as Harry's hand began to glow.

"Relax Luke, he's making you into a wizard, like us." Logan assured him.

"Unbreakable skin isn't enough?"

Logan suddenly teleported in front of him but behind Harry. "When your sprog comes out, wouldn't you want the ability to reach him at any time?"

"Yeah… I guess." Luke admitted. "Wait… 'him'?"

"No idea, just picked a gender." He shrugged.

"You don't know? I can tell you if you want." Harry offered.

"I don't know, what about the surprise?" Jessica asked.

"Trust me, better to be prepared." Harry smiled as he finished up with Luke. "Dani, take him and teach him the basics whilst I magic up Jessica." He called over to the Native American who was still playing with Jean.

"Hey! Watch the hands!" Luke snapped as Harry placed his hand over Jessica's heart.

Dani rolled her eyes. "Relax big guy. You should have expected that after doing it to you."

"Yeah, but there are reasons for not touching her other than me being a jealous bastard." He explained as he kept a close eye on Jessica.

"The way MJ is telling it, she's going to ask Harry to be her doctor, deliver the baby."

"What? She never told me."

"Something tells me that MJ is more of a driving force than just introducing them." Dani laughed.

"You guys really trust him, huh?" He sighed.

"Yeah, let's face it, he can kill all of us without trying, but instead he takes care of us and helps us… I dunno, achieve stuff." She shrugged. "Ok, come on, need to get you teleporting."

Meanwhile Harry was working on Jessica.

"Why aren't you married yet?" Harry asked Jessica.

"The usual, money, time, he hasn't had the guts to ask me yet." She said with an airy wave of her hand as she tried to ignore Harry's hand over her chest.

"Ahh." Harry smiled in understanding. "Well, I can happily provide you with whatever you need for a wedding… just not the groom. Won't cost you a penny. I'm fairly certain that amongst the mansion residents we can also get you to your honeymoon free of charge."

"Really? Well… um… I er…"

"Should discuss this with your potential husband and get back to me." Harry finished as he removed his hand. "But you would be doing me a big favour by letting us help with the decorating and stuff. It would give the recently magic'd a chance to practice the more aesthetic side of their powers, like conjuration."

"I promise to think about it." She told him sincerely.

"Good, now Luke is over there practicing. See, he's got that ball of light there? You need to do the same, focus on the feeling of me putting the magic into you and call it up and imagine your finger lighting up like E.T."

"I don't think I'm cut out to be a killer." Luke said as he sat down somewhat shakily on a couch Harry had conjured in the Infirmary.

"You're not supposed to be. But I am certain you could if you had to. If the need was right." Harry assured him.

"Thank you for letting me deal with the body, you were right, I needed that." Jessica said sincerely as she snuggled into Luke's side.

"I regret that I have a lot of experience in these things." Harry said sadly.

"I'll do it." Jessica said suddenly. "I'll even help run the clinic or whatever you set up."

"What you talking about, Baby?"

"Harry asked me to use my new magic to apply the Lily Charm to women who want it. It gives me peace of mind so I can't not help others by giving it to them."

Luke could only nod in understanding.

"I don't have any details yet but, an idea and willing people is always the first step." Harry told her. "I just need to find a building to work out of."

"Will you be our baby doctor?" She asked.

"I would be very happy to. I haven't delivered a baby in millions of years!" Harry smiled.

Luke frowned. "You do remember how, right?"

"One of the… perks… or flaws (depending on your point of view) of immortality is perfect recall. I remember everything." Harry assured them.

"Do you need to do any exams?" Jessica asked.

"Not really, I can tell everything is hunky-dory from here. Would you like to see the baby?" Harry asked with an excited grin. "It will reveal the sex." He warned.

"You mean like an ultra-sound?" She asked.

"Ultra-sound? You still use those?" Harry scoffed. "Nah, I can show you exactly what she looks like."

"She!"

"What? No, I mean he! Or she! It?" Harry backpedalled lamely.

"Wow… a little girl." Luke said in shocked awe as he stared into nothing.

Harry buried his head in his hands in mortification. He couldn't believe he had screwed up.

"Relax Harry, we would probably have asked anyway." Jessica reassured him.

Harry didn't respond except to wave a hand at Jessica.

She gasped as in front of them a 3D image of their baby appeared. "Oh my god! Luke, look!"

"I'm looking, Baby." Luke assured her, just as awed.

"Oh wow! She's gorgeous." Jessica gushed.

Harry waved a hand erasing the image.

"Aww, can't we watch some more?" Jessica whined.

Harry smirked. "Sure you can. When you manage to do it yourself."

"Isn't that special healing magic?" She asked.

"Magic is just magic. It is raw power. We are what shapes the power, we do it by generally willing it." Harry explained. "Back in my world, when magical children were small and young they would do what we would call 'accidental magic'. If they wanted a cookie from the top shelf, the jar would appear in their hands, cupboards that had favourite toys locked away suddenly opened. All because they wanted it."

"It can't be that simple, there must be some sort of technique or starting point." She argued.

Harry nodded. "There is, to a degree. You start with feeling your magic, like you do for making a light or teleporting… by the way, don't forget about the light you can make, you wouldn't believe the amount of times I am down here at night and find someone stumbling around in the dark looking for the light switch." He grumped. "Anyway, you need to focus your magic into what you want. You want to see your baby, so focus the magic on your womb and to where you want the image to be displayed."

"What if I accidentally affect the baby, what if I teleport it out of me?" She asked worriedly.

"Magic isn't just power, it has a form of intelligence. It knows what is not supposed to happen. You would have to be very specific and forceful in trying to accomplish something like that. It's why spells for healing or physical combat require more focus and power.

"I can replace limbs, when I first met Shiro he was missing both legs, I replaced them in minutes. But both of you combined couldn't do it, it takes at least five magicals to replace a full limb."

"Wow." Jessica muttered.

"Yep! Now, get focusing, Luke you too. This spell is also good for diagnosing things like bullet wounds or broken bones. Just focus your magic and ask it to show you your body." Harry vanished the armchair he had been relaxing in before heading to the door where he paused. "Actually, you might want to go home and do it. You shouldn't be able to damage yourself but I have known people to accidentally target the wrong areas and give people an eyeful."

Both Luke and Jessica stared at him wide eyed, it took Luke a few seconds to realise his wife had vanished before he followed.