Chapter 8.5

It was an hour later that Harry Black, with a pair of stylish, prescription sunglasses, walked out of the transport room and onto the floor of one of the labs. The EPN would be able to accommodate the connection between his real body and the copy. People looked at him strangely, since Harry never wore sunglasses, let alone inside. He'd long ago charmed his eyes with his personal tinting magic, which meant he never had any issues with flashes of light. The clone, however, had no such spells on him and he needed the glasses to see correctly.

Harry felt a little strange. So far his tests revealed that his body was responding as it should. He could feel everything and he could hear, see and smell everything he should. It was just strange to know how powerless he was in his current form. He knew he had power in his real body, but something about the clone meant that it had no innate magic of its own. Harry wondered about that as he strolled to the ice-cream stand. He wanted to see if he could taste through the connection.

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that life and magic had a correlation. The body had no real life, no soul, no thoughts and memories. It was simply a copy. That's about as far as Harry got before everything went black.

He suddenly sat upright. His clone must have either been killed or knocked out. He quickly got up and apparated to where his clone had just been. Cooper, the only one who knew what Harry was up to, followed closely behind him.

"Sir?" Cooper asked, as he spotted Harry looking around.

"I've just been clone-jacked." Harry said, as he continued trying to spot something.

Cooper was instantly on his Comm and Harry felt the tell-tale feeling of disillusionment being cast on himself. "Cooper here." he said into his Comm. "We have an attempted kidnapping of Black Prime in Harmony. Repeat, we have hostiles in Harmony!"

It had only been seconds, but Harry's clone was nowhere to be found. He cast a couple of spells and finally picked up a trail. It seemed that whoever had taken the body had quickly spirited it away to the residential area. That was a good idea, as it was the most trafficked area in Harmony. It would be difficult for a wolf to track unknown enemies through there, unless they had very outlandish odours.

Harry was following the magic he had used to create the glasses, when a full squadron of wolves appeared around him. "Oh, come on, guys!" Harry complained. The wolves knew where he was, even if he was invisible. That was just another development from R&D. Bill's own design. Keyed magic. You cast a spell while focussing on keying a tiny ward stone that you carried with you into it, and anyone that had the same, linked ward stones, could see through the magic. The link magic was what made this a new development. Bill had loved learning how to utilise it, even if Harry was still the best at it. The wolves had all opted to use the moonstones they wore for the wolf transformation for this.

"Sorry, sir." one of the wolves said. "Standard protocol."

"Just…" Harry sighed. "Stay behind me. I'm already disillusioned, after all."

"Yes, sir." the same wolf said as the wolves disillusioned as well.

Harry kept on following the magic until he reached a large sky-scraper. It was one of the first residential blocks and was full of magic. Fortunately the magic Harry was following was his own. That made this situation much simpler. Whoever took the body probably didn't think to dispel the glasses, since it was only Harry's magic on them. They would only realise something was wrong when or if they tried to wake him up, if the clone wasn't dead.

"They are on the tenth floor." Harry said, as he activated his flight harness, the wolves following suit. They got to the indicated floor and Harry started flying around. "When we get in there, you'll see another me. Ignore the copy. It's an experiment and you are not to mention it on any official reports. This is top secret stuff."

The wolves grunted affirmatively as Harry found the particular apartment where he now detected a group of people. "There's six of them. Three bodies on the floor and what seems to be a sleeping infant." one of the wolves reported. He had a pair of glasses on and Harry suspected they were x-ray capable.

"They likely hitched a ride with a new resident and took them captive." Cooper suggested. Such things were not unheard of. The problem was, only hitwizards and Unspeakables used those kinds of tactics, to get into difficult to infiltrate places. "We need to take them alive. Jones, get a Caco in there." Cooper directed. Since he'd called in the squad, it was considered his operation. 'Caco' was what the wolves had started calling the Cacodaemon. Some of them preferred 'Demon'.

"Um, guys." Harry said. "Not to step on any toes here, but it's my body in there. I'm running this operation."

"Sir-" Cooper started.

"No!" Harry all but shouted. "I've had enough of this bullshit!" he fumed. "I let you all dictate what I do, when I do it and I keep on having to take a back-seat when it comes to my own security." he glared at a slightly paler Cooper. "I'm ordering you and the wolves to stay out here."

"I'm sorry sir," Cooper denied, "but I'm not here under your orders."

One of Harry's eyes twitched, before he closed them both and took a shaky breath. It took him a minute but he finally calmed down enough to think. "Fine." he relented through clenched teeth. "You can come, but the other wolves are backup. This is my mission, so I'm taking point." He'd had enough. He was going to have to make a change. The only reason he was relenting now, was because there was a child involved.

"Of course, sir." Cooper nodded. He turned to the other wolves. "You heard the man. You're backup. Take up positions that will allow for quick infiltration should something go wrong." He would have continued, but Harry was already flying towards the building. "Jones, you know what to do." Cooper said as he quickly shot after Harry, around the corner of the building, likely looking for a landing location, or parking lot. It wasn't unheard of in Harmony for parking lots to be located on higher floors, considering the flying vehicles.

Harry was still frustrated, but he needed to know what was going on and didn't want these people getting away with infiltrating his home. Harry found the parking structure and used that as his point of ingress.

He was still following his magic, when Cooper placed an urgent hand on his shoulder, squeezing. "Wards." he said. Harry was instantly grateful to the man for following. Of course these people were prepared. Harry pulled out his cards from an inner pocket and flipped through them, until he came to one marked 'Cacodaemon'. It wasn't very imaginative, but he had named the scouting devices himself, so he felt justified in using their actual names.

Expelling the controller and tiny aerial scouting vehicle, Harry quickly pulled up the display and almost kicked himself for not setting up a HUD for controlling these. It would be infinitely simpler to control it with thought. He'd get to that another time, though.

"That's still the old model." Cooper murmured softly, even as Harry flew the tiny device through the detection ward. It was such a small thing that the ward would need to be sensitive enough to pick up ants, which was unlikely. The best part was that the Cacodaemon was connected and propelled via power it received through a laser-beam. This meant that it shouldn't pick up as magic infiltrating their wards, which was one of the reasons it had been designed this way.

"I keep on intending to upgrade my equipment, but I tend to get too busy." Harry admitted. "Sorry about earlier." he finally said.

"It's not a problem, sir." Cooper said. "Frankly, I'm surprised it took you this long to get pissed off."

"I'm usually in more control of my emotions." Harry said, as he flew the Cacodaemon underneath a door, only to be stopped by a ward protecting against entry. "Huh, they've got it blocked." he said, even as he set a relay and portkeyd the Caco through the ward, by way of the relay.

"Not good enough to stop your tech." Cooper smirked.

"Well, this is kind of what this was invented for isn't it?" Harry said.

The inside of the flat was comfortably furnished and stylishly decorated. The Cacodaemon was slowly approaching one of the bedrooms, where he felt his conjured glasses, while Harry checked out the rest of the flat, to ensure that they weren't missing anyone.

"They're in that bedroom?" Cooper asked, seeing that Harry had gone directly to that bedroom, before changing direction to scout.

"It's where I'm sensing my magic." Harry confirmed.

The quick scouting mission revealed something shocking. The current occupants were tied up and unconscious in the second bedroom, where a baby was sleeping peacefully in a crib close to the parents. The fact that they were there didn't shock Harry. Who they were, however, did. "Draco bloody Malfoy!" Harry exclaimed.

"The lost Malfoy heir?" Cooper asked.

"They only call him that because he refused his title and left his family." Harry said. It had been a welcome change for Harry to find out the boy had completely turned his life around. He'd even married a muggleborn from Hufflepuff house. His father had obviously objected and Draco had left the family, for her sake. "We have to get the family out first." he decided. Who knew how long they had been kept unconscious?

"Should we get the rest of the squad involved, Sir? They can set up the containment field so long?" Cooper asked.

Harry sighed. "Fine." he allowed. "But let's see who we're working with first." he decided.

He flew the Cacodaemon underneath the main bedroom door and found that the only magics on it were silencing. Considering the other wards on the property, that made sense. Inside the room, he saw six people dressed in what would, for magicals raised in the magical world, look like normal muggle clothing, along with his clone.

"- are we supposed to get the information from the boy if you hex his brains out?!" one of the men were saying angrily, as he pointed at the unmoving body on the floor.

"I just hit him with a stunner!" one of the other men defended himself. He seemed better dressed than the rest. Likely, he was the one that was usually sent on retrieval missions in the muggle world. From their tactics, the spells used and their language, it seemed that someone in Britain was missing Harry Black. Or, at least, someone had recruited someone from Britain.

"Then why is he just lying there with his eyes open?" the first man asked again.

"Cooper, take charge of the Caco." Harry said, passing the control over to Cooper. "I will distract them with the clone while your people extract the family."

"Be careful." Cooper said.

"I'm invisible and out here with you." Harry said. "I could hardly be safer."

Harry pulled out the HUD, mounted it and activated it.

He instantly saw through the eyes of the clone, and started blinking rapidly, to lubricate the eyes that had been left open, for some reason. "Did you have to pry and leave my eyes open?" he asked the six men standing around him.

"Oh good, you're not brain-dead." one of the men sighed in relief.

"Can't get answers from a corpse." another said.

"Corpse?" Harry asked.

"That's what you'll be kid, if you don't give us answers." the same man smirked, with an evil grin on his face.

"Why aren't you in Lupin Penitentiary?" Harry asked the man, as he made to stand up, only to be hit by multiple spells to hold him in place and keep him from moving.

"First, we need to know how to get back to Britain." The first man who had spoken asked. He seemed to be a leader. "Where on Earth are we?" he asked. They'd not had much time to look around, but they had no idea where they had been sent off to. They were informed of the mission by their client and had gone to someone that they suspected went wherever all the magicals Harry Black had been recruiting, went. Draco Malfoy tended to visit his mother on weekends, while his muggleborn wife went to visit her own family. It was while Draco exited the Three Broomsticks, where he and his mother usually met, when they intercepted him, having watched his routine for a few weeks.

After that it was a simple process for the seventh member of their team to transfigure them into things Draco usually had on him. A wedding band, both shoelaces, a jacket… things like that. Transfigurations of this sort didn't usually last very long, unless a potion was drunk which extended the effects on willing subjects. Having done that, all they needed to do was wait for the first of their team to revert, who would then free the rest and hopefully, if they were in a good position, secure it and set to work on their true objective: Capturing Harry Black.

They had been warned that it was not a simple task and that it had been attempted in the past, which was why they had taken their time to set things up, to be as secure as they could. They would not attempt to charm him. They would not use any intricate plans with many moving parts. They would observe and plan. It had only taken a few hours for a bit of information to come to light, one of their number being quite good at extracting information subtly. Harry Black had a sweet-tooth and had a favourite ice-cream vendor, where he could be seen at least once a week.

It was pure luck that one of them had spotted him as they were on their way to set up surveillance on location. Their Comm guy had found it quite funny that they were using Comms for surveillance on the person who had invented the magical technology. It wasn't illegal or even unusual for people to own more than one. Some people simply preferred keeping personal and business lines. Some people liked to have a few. Supposedly, the Minister of Magic had ten, with one secretary keeping an eye on one, each.

The biggest reason, however, for owning more than one, was because every Comm came with a transport box. You could rent more boxes, but it was actually just cheaper to own multiple Comms. That opinion might change once the Comms finished their 'trial period' and started being billed like any other cellular company would, even if they would be cheaper.

It was a disappointment, for the hit wizards currently looking at the downed Harry Black, to realise that they couldn't use the Comms to transport transfigured people. Something about the magic on the Comm refused to transport transfigured items. It was actually not so much a failure, as it was designed that way on purpose. It was a security feature. If someone could transfigure a venomous snake and send it to someone unsuspecting, it would not turn out well for anyone. That was also the reason why you could only send something with an image of what was in the box. No image, no transport. Nothing living or with certain detectable magics either. Except for certain people, of course.

"We're on Earth?" Harry asked, as he manually connected to the Cacodaemon controller and sent magic through the Cacodaemon to unbind his clone. "That's better." he said, as he sat upright, ignoring the startled looks from the men in the room.

"Don't be daft boy!" one of the men snarled. "One move and you'll never see anyone you love again."

"I'm assuming that you were sent here with orders to interrogate and kill me, then?" Harry asked, casually.

"Our orders are none of your concern." the original man said. "And answer the question. How do we get back to Britain? Where are we?" he said, waving his wand subtly, indicating he would resort to violence if necessary.

"You're currently on Harmony." Harry said. "And the only way you are getting back to Britain, is in the custody of the wolves."

"We'll see about that." the evil-looking one said, smirking again. "We do have Harry Black as a bargaining chip, after all."

"Do you?" Harry asked, smirking back.

"You did check that it was him, right?" the leader asked the one who had captured Harry.

"The only magic on him is on his glasses and something in his head." their surveillance guy said. "The glasses are conjured. Not even a tracking charm on him."

"What's in his head?" another one asked. He was quite young and looking uncertain about their target, considering he looked quite relaxed and apparently he could cast magic without a wand. The spells he had cast on his person should have stopped any magic from leaving his form for at least a few hours. That was the only reason he was in this group to begin with. The magic blocking spells of his family was an advantage any mercenary group would find useful, even if it couldn't block the unforgivables, it still made it very difficult to cast normal spells.

"I can't tell." the Comm guy said again. "It's protected like anything Marauders Inc. produce."

"What's in your head, kid?" the leader asked. He was acting calm, but he was seeing the signs too.

"The control mechanism for this particular clone." Harry said.

"Like, a copy?" one of the men asked. It was the same younger one who had spoken earlier.

"Watch a lot of movies, do you?" Harry asked with another smirk. He'd forgotten all the movies that included subjects like cloning. "And yes, something like that."

"What is he talking about?" the seeming leader asked.

"He's saying he's not really Harry Black." the younger man said.

"No, I didn't." Harry said. "I'm Harry Black. I'm just not really in the body you have there." he clarified.

The younger man seemed to realise what this meant. "We need to get out of here!" he insisted.

"What are you on about?" the evil looking one asked, even as the leader and four of the others instantly started casting detection magics.

"If he's controlling that body from another location, he's already told people that his clone was attacked." the younger one said. "Hell, he knows what we look like!" he said, looking at Harry in a cross between awe and fear. No man should be as capable as this young man.

"The hostages are gone." one of the men reported.

"Impossible!" the leader exclaimed. He'd set up the wards to detect intruders himself. The tied up family couldn't have freed themselves from their magical restraints either.

"And yet, your hostages are safe, this home is surrounded by Wolves and our wards have been set up around yours." Harry said. "I would have loved to take care of you myself, but you were keeping a mother from their baby. That's going to cost you; Madam Bones is not the forgiving sort when it comes to children." he finished before the real Harry activated the remote recall function of the Cacodaemon, portkeying the Clone to Harry's side, where he was placed under disillusionment as well.

They watched through the Cacodaemon, as panic took root in the would-be kidnappers. "Why do they always come for me?" Harry asked.

"Would you prefer that they take one of your wives?" Cooper asked, holding his own x-ray glasses in front of one eye, so that he could watch the wolves infiltrate. There was a trick active which would stop them, if anyone was powerful enough to break their wards to Portkey out.

It turned out to be a prudent preparation, when all six of the men vanished just before the wolves could reach them, one of their number obviously being a curse breaker or ward specialist. Harry had to give it to the men; they were well prepared. They were not ready to face the wolves, though. The portkey had easily been intercepted and diverted into a storage card.

OOO

The team of infiltrators appeared in a cell, with no visible doors or windows.

"Where did you take us?" the leader demanded of their warding guy.

"Not here." the man replied. He'd been sent to find an alternate extraction location, while the Comm guy had gone to find the location and to set up his equipment. He'd found a secluded place, where it seemed the construction of a tunnel into the ravine the town was built in, had stopped for whatever reason. It was both boarded up and abandoned. The few monitoring charms placed at the entrance was simple to bypass for these people.

"So… they got us." the leader stated, as he slumped.

"I told you it was a bad idea to go after Harry Black." a gruff sounding man, with a nose-ring and shaved head said. "Every team sent to find him either can't or vanishes."

The leader looked angry for a moment, but sighed in defeat, before saying aloud. "Fine, you caught us. What happens now?"

Harry's voice came from everywhere simultaneously, "That depends."

"On what?" the man asked.

"What were your plans?" Harry asked.

"We're mercenaries, kid." the man said. "We do what we must, if the pay is right."

"What was my head worth?" Harry asked.

"Our mission was capture, not kill." the man said, before looking at the evil looking one. "Dodge is our interrogator. His job is looking evil and getting people to listen and not do something stupid."

"Like trying to get away." said evil-looking man said, suddenly not looking all that evil. His scruffy, unkempt appearance made him look like a homeless person. The only thing that wouldn't let you make the mistake of thinking he was homeless, were his eyes. They were sharp and aware. They were the eyes of a predator.

"And the baby?" Harry asked.

"Well taken care of." the leader assured. "We just knocked the parents out before we brought you in. They were meant to be out for only a few minutes while we got you to tell us how to get out of here."

There was silence as Harry made a call to confirm what he was being told. It turned out it was accurate. They had even gone as far as assuring the parents that they would not let anything happen to the baby, letting the parents put up their own protections around the infant. It wasn't an easy pill to swallow, but they had no other choice and had gone with it, if only to ensure the safety of their baby. They had not answered any questions about how to get back to Britain, besides telling them that there were only official, protected routes, which both surprised and impressed Harry. Good on Draco.

"It checks out." Harry's voice came back, much to the relieved sighs of the mercenaries. "You still infiltrated Harmony and took some of our people hostage. That's both impressive and damning."

"Listen, kid." the leader said. "I'm the one who took this mission. My team had no choice in the matter. If you need to blame someone, blame me, but let them go. They have families and lives to go back to."

"Not me." the nose-ring guy said. "I haven't got a damn thing waiting on me."

"Shut it, Mac!" the leader said, before looking at the ceiling. "Listen, the man is an idiot. He's loyal, but an idiot. Just, let my men go and I'll go to prison, no questions asked."

In the control room, sat Harry with Cooper, Daniels, Remus, Sirius and a few other people. "What do you guys think?" he asked.

"They've got potential." Daniels said, knowing how Harry thought. The men were mercenaries, but they had a code, even if they didn't admit it outright. The testimony of the Malfoy couple had made that point clear.

"Are you insane!?" Sirius exploded. "They tried to kidnap Harry!"

"And they would have failed, if it was actually him." Cooper said.

Sirius narrowed his eyes at Harry's bodyguard, but finally sighed and nodded. "Of course not, but we can't let people get away with trying." he countered.

"Who said anything about letting people get away with it?" Harry asked. "I'm currently thinking that whoever sent these people, just sent me the very group who would return the favour." he turned back to the monitor and pressed the button allowing him to be heard. "What do you say? A contract for a contract. Maybe even future work?"

"What did you have in mind?" the leader asked, hope colouring his words.

"First off, what's your name?" Harry asked.

"Williams." the man said. "Kaden Williams."

OOO

From there, things had gone swimmingly. The Mercenary group had quickly agreed to work for the wolves, on a contract basis, and to bring the people who had taken out the contract on Harry, to Harmony… That was, until they found out who it was that had taken out the contract.

Macusa had apparently gotten wind of the Stargate program. It was something that Harry had suspected might happen at some point, so plans had been made to counter them. How they knew of Harry's involvement however, was still a mystery. Likely they had followed someone home and used a truth potion on them, along with obliviation.

The contract would still counter that, though, so Harry suspected that he was seen outside the SGC by someone invisible, or the people who had been trying to interrogate one of the people involved with the Stargate Program had found a Comm on their person and knew enough to figure out it wasn't a normal cell phone. Magical scans would detect it, but most magicals would try to specifically not scan muggle equipment, to avoid damaging something and drawing attention.

Either way, they weren't going to go on the offensive against an entire magical government, so they decided to simply up security and put up some wards around the SGC. Protection against magical interference became a necessity for all the hardware, but the stickers were simple enough to spread and place, for the security it brought to the base.

Harry was actually a little embarrassed. He'd protected the SGC from infiltration from the Stargate's side, but not from the planets' side. It was obviously a weakness he should have taken into consideration, considering how easily Hathor had gained entry.

Wards were set and security was stepped up at the SGC and Harmony suddenly had an influx of new residents. They were mostly based out of the military district, but they were given quarters and flats comparable to what they had back on Earth. That was obviously not a long-term solution, since people couldn't bring their entire family and extended family along with them, but for those still on the military payroll, not much changed, except for where they bunked.

Access to the majority of Harmony was still restricted for most of the soldiers, but a few exceptions were made, especially for the SG teams. General Hammond was very happy that his family had been offered a place in Harmony, which they had accepted a while back. Harmony was probably one of the safest places in the Milky Way, with all the more advanced magicals calling it home, and especially with what Hammond had discovered about their capabilities, since being introduced to the enigmatic young man.

OOO

"So, how are the troops settling in?" Harry asked General Hammond as they sat down for a cup of coffee at the General's house, after a magical team of movers had picked up and delivered the general's house in Harmony, leaving a copied decoy behind.

"They don't seem to be having issues with the change." Hammond confided. "Are you sure you want the men here?" he asked.

"No better place for them." Harry said.

"And your secrecy?" Hammond pressed. He had no delusions about the specifics of their mission getting out at some point, but he needed to take care of his people.

"I told you General, Macusa found out about the Stargate Program and my helping you." Harry said. "They already tried to have me abducted. Actually hiring one of the best magical Mercenary companies out there to bring me in. The only option we had was getting as many of your people out of the line of fire and putting up the protections we did at the entrance to the SGC."

"I did enjoy hearing that Colonel Maybourne was unable to enter the facility." Hammond said with a satisfied smile. It had only happened a day or two after the wards were set up. Colonel Maybourne or the NID had stood outside the entrance, looking conflicted for all of ten seconds, before he turned around and left again.

"I never liked that man anyway." Harry scoffed.

"You and I agree on that, then." Hammond said. "So, I'm taking it you're going back to your research and that Mister Krum will continue to help SG-1?" he asked, realising that Harry was just visiting to ensure he was getting situated. The moving people had done a wonderful job and he hadn't detected anything out of place. He was given a plot near the forest and his back yard looked at an all-natural scene of greenery and life, with a lake just visible through the tree-line. He could hear the sounds of nature in the forest, with insects, birds and some unidentified sounds he'd not yet figured out.

He had been given full permission to explore Harmony, but he was not given a vehicle, since he didn't have a licence for a flying vehicle of any sort yet. No matter the fact that he was in the air force and could fly fighter jets. Knowing how the locals navigated things and how this form of flight worked would still need to be tested. After that, Harry suspected he'd likely be one of the best drivers in Harmony, considering his experience.

"Victor is a powerful wizard and one of the best people you could have on the team." Harry said. "His reflexes and battle-ready attitude will likely help him connect with everyone except for Daniel. Durmstrang was slightly militaristic, having physical education and classes that focussed more on attack than defence, with a lot of focus on discipline."

"Sounds like the kind of people you should be recruiting for the wolves." Hammond noted.

"You'd be surprised how many people we have from there." Harry agreed. "Most of the mundane-born magicals end up working for one of the divisions of Marauders Inc., since the established powers in the magical world tends to favour the older magical families for employment first. For all that we don't have any racism based on skin colour, there's still a lot of people that are way too concerned with the purity of one's blood and looking down on people who have creature heritages."

"Like Veela?" Hammond asked.

Harry looked thoughtful for a moment. "You really liked Fleur didn't you?" he asked. He'd noted the general jumping on the subject whenever the opportunity arose.

The general had the decency to chuckle at that. "I do feel like I owe the lady a bit of gratitude, after she rescued the entire SGC from being taken over by Hathor." he admitted.

"I'll have a barbeque at some point." Harry offered. "Then we can invite the team and do something like a welcoming party."

Daniel was now also living in Harmony, with his wife and their son. They visited Kasuf often and the Abydosians had even opened trade with Harmony, supplying their mined Naquadah for resources only Harmony could provide. Air purifiers that required no electricity for their infirmary, magical protections from too much sun, ward stones to protect larger crops and so forth. Conditions were much better for the people of Abydos and while Harry didn't want to make the people reliant on them, he didn't want to do nothing for them either. The only way to justify that, was to trade with them, or to relocate them.

Sam still had her house, but she seldom went there, since she preferred to spend her off time with Doctor Pike. Those two had become fast friends and had even joined Harry's girls for a girls' night out on an occasion or two. Pike had soon requested a new contract for Sam, since she was still limited with what she could discuss with her.

Bringing Sam into the fold was more easily said than done, since every answer just raised more questions. That was still an ongoing mission, but Sam was at least given access to their magical database of knowledge, so she could start answering her own questions by use of a simple search function on their server, where most of their books of knowledge had now been digitized.

Jack also visited Harmony often and Harry had chuckled when he once saw the man in a fishing getup, pole over his shoulder as he marched towards the forest, where he'd noted the same lake as General Hammond had. He'd not had the heart to tell the man that the fish that were there were protected from being poached. They were a vital part of the ecosystem, according to Neville, not part of the food-chain. Fortunately, it was the act of fishing, not catching anything, that mattered to the man.

Another person who had moved to Harmony was Doctor Janet Fraiser, one of the doctors from the SGC. The moment that everyone had started signing contracts, she'd started making requests to visit Harmony, to learn about their medical capabilities. These days, when she was not at the SGC, she was at Harmony General, speaking with the medical researchers there and learning what she could about magical maladies and cures.

Doctor Fraser's adopted daughter, Cassandra, was flourishing in school. Classes weren't as full on Harmony as her previous school had been and more personal attention could be given to the individual. She was still behind in her studies, especially when compared to those her age, but she was no slouch and was catching up quickly. Doctor Fraiser was very proud of her progress. She'd even made a few friends, one who was a mundane girl her age and two magical boys, one their age and one a year younger.

Most of the SG teams had visited Harmony at some point, as part of an effort to get them to connect with the magicals they were working with. That turned out to have been a good idea, as most of the SG teams had ended up forming their own paintball teams in The Paintball Dungeon. It wasn't really a dungeon, but it could be set to one of many landscapes and scenarios, including an actual dungeon environment, which had been a big attraction, since attacking illusionary monsters for points in a dungeon was apparently a boat-load of fun. Especially for people familiar with computer games and RPG games involving that sort of thing. Thus 'The Paintball Dungeon'.

The teams that challenged them had learned the hard way that, even though they only had two magicals on their teams, military training and strategy carried the day more often than not, when you relied too much on the spells that were allowed in the field. Once the SG teams learned how to counter and protect from the directed and delayed magics, they started having fun and it worked as a very successful team-building exercise. The simulated damage from the paintball games somehow brought the teams closer together, since they were forced to protect each other as best they could. One less man on your team meant the opposition had the advantage.

The rules of the game had finally been set and agreed to, and a Paintball League was formed in the magical world, much like the Quiddich League, or the similarly newly formed Lightsaber League. The Lightsaber League was mostly set as a yearly tournament with points earned throughout the year for participation in events that tested skill and fitness. The points would then determine if you could enter and your starting position in the next tournament. Harry didn't pretend that he knew all the rules. He wasn't interested in participating, though he had been asked to be present for the next tournament, as the person who 'invented' the lightsabers they were using. He was still debating going.

Finishing his cup of coffee, after some lighter topics were covered, Harry said goodbye to the General and left to go back to his research.

OOO

He had finally achieved what he wanted to. A magical relay, built right into the ring he wore on his right hand, the one with the laser. It took a principle from the Asgard's subspace transmitters, which had been a reasonably small device, using crystal controllers for the actual communication and a Naquadah construct to establish the link, so was reasonably stable around magic, but Harry had long been working on making the devices smaller, for the express purpose of allowing much further reach with his Cacodaemon. His didn't need special programs and Naquadah either. His used his own crystal tech and a newly created Apparition spell.

If they no longer needed all those relays and they could channel magic directly through a subspace link, they could upgrade the Eudaemon's Cacodaemon to cast spells directly from the controller, from anywhere in the StellarNet, with no need to consider line of sight. It wasn't like they really needed that, since their enemies had yet to figure that little trick out, but Harry knew it wouldn't work forever. The bad guys weren't sitting around waiting to be arrested, after all. They were planning on ways to fight back.

Also, Apparition wasn't a spell to begin with, as much as a magical phenomenon created through application of will and power. It was basically wandless magic, like an Animagus transformation. Why it didn't fall under the category of wandless magic, Harry never did understand.

Either way, creating the link wasn't a problem, he'd known how to apparate for years. The problem had been establishing and maintaining the connection permanently, at first. For some reason the magic started and stopped as soon as Harry tried to connect the ring currently on his finger to the one on the other side of the lab.

His breakthrough had him laughing, when he finally discovered the issue. Much like the wormholes created by the Stargate, once the transmission of, well… anything, stopped, the connection closed. His solution? Lasers. Specifically, his favourite application of blue diamond lasers.

Harry's first tests had been difficult, until he realised he didn't need to redesign the wheel. He simply needed to put two blue diamonds into mirrored chambers and start the subspace connection from inside one and connect it to the other. Unlike his previous lasers, this one wasn't a laser at all, since there was no opening. The intent behind the magic, though, was to send the magical light between the two locations through the subspace window, aka the pinprick created by magic for apparition to take place, inside a tiny vacuum in the centre of both the tiny diamonds.

What that amounted to, was that Harry had what looked like two tiny grey pebbles, which were actually the outside of the mirror chambers, inside which two spell-like effects were taking place inside the blue diamonds: a lumos and what Harry now called an Anchored Subspace Window. Mundane people would likely call it the event horizon of a wormhole. Magicals would likely call it an apparition window or hole, even if they knew that apparition went through subspace, which they didn't, so nobody would ever argue… until he told Hermione and she begged the information out of him. He'd make it fun, though. She never got anything for free these days, and she returned the favour when she created something new. It was just what their little game had turned into over the years.

The test was a complete success and Harry crowed in delight, having been working on this specific application for a while. Fortunately it seemed that the other part of the wormhole principle didn't apply. Unlike the Stargate, the connection went both ways.

Now he had two devices, connected through the light from the lumos flowing between the two Anchored Subspace Windows in a never-ending flow, even after the Lumos spell ended, since the light would never escape. Also, unlike the Stargate, the subspace window, or apparition window, didn't have a wrong side to enter, just a pinprick that could be entered from any direction, so there truly was no loss, as the window permanently stayed open, waiting for the light to stop flowing through, which it never would.

Harry had been worried that the magical light would trap magic in the mirrored chamber, like his laser storage worked, but it seemed that the fact that the light never left the diamonds, meant that the magic was capable of moving through the windows based on intent and exit normally, as if the link was just another conduit for magic. He wondered why that was though, since it really shouldn't have worked that easily. After a bit of frustrating research, he realised it was likely something to do with the intent behind the creation. Magic wasn't just a power-source, after all. It was alive. His scientific mind kept on banging against that fact on occasions like these.

Having applied his theory successfully, he put the other connection in another ring and placed it on his clone's finger, before he started making another set of Anchored Subspace Windows, or ASWs.

OOO

"Hi Sam!" Harry greeted with a smile directed at both the mechanical engineers, Samantha Carter and Samantha Pike, both preferring to go by Sam.

"Hi." they chorused, before Pike continued. "And then the light gets trapped, along with the magic loaded into the special laser light, into the mirror box." she finished.

"So, the containment cards work as a never-ending reflection, capturing magically charged light through a one-way mirror initially, releasing the charge in the opposite direction through a mirror which becomes clear glass?" Sam asked.

"Exactly." Pike said. "And that way, anything that can be portkeyd, can be stored."

"But portkeys work on a destination." Sam countered. "How does the light capture it and how do you prevent the portkey from simply completing the trip it was initially trying to make when released?" she asked.

"You've been doing your homework." Harry said, with a nod and smile. "Portkeys would normally have that problem, except that I set my destination to the laser's beam. When I use this function to intercept other portkeys, we have to setup another device and then block portkey travel before release. It works my way, then. When the laser escapes the mirror chamber, it hits a solid object and the Portkey reaches its destination, or the only destination it can. It's a little bit more complicated for living beings, since there is a spell you need to cast before storing people. Normally that spell would only last a few minutes, but the Portkey magic and part of how the storage discs are made extends that feature indefinitely."

"So you've run into issues and needed to adjust your technology to compensate already?" Sam asked.

"Pretty much." Harry shrugged. "I've made mistakes in the past and I'm not an idiot who doesn't learn, even if my friends and family act like I only make mistakes, from how they treat me." He scowled at Pike, after that.

"Suck it up." Pike said unrepentantly. "Until you've figured out how to copy your whole mind into a copy like those aliens, you're too valuable to loose. Even then, I suspect there are one or two people who would be… disappointed at your death." she smirked at him.

"Copying is easy." Harry said, accepting her normal sense of humour. "It's ensuring everything goes back where it's supposed to that's the problem. That and avoiding the loss of magic, considering clones don't have magic, apparently." He waved his hand and the second set of ASWs he had just finished producing floated out of his pocket and landed before Pike.

"You did something amazing again, didn't you?" Pike asked, after looking at the two small grey spheres, comfortably seated and held in place in a display case with a glass cover.

"How can you tell?" Sam asked, looking for any indication of what the small spheres did, or were doing.

"It's him." Pike said, as she picked up the display case and looked critically at the spheres. "He also looks way too pleased with himself." She narrowed her eyes and placed it down, before opening it and picking up one of the spheres. "It's a mirror chamber, like you used to make for testing new laser tech, but there's nowhere for the light to escape..." she pondered aloud as she turned the sphere around, inspecting it. She then looked between the one and then the other. "You made two. Usually, you'd make one of a device and then we'd discuss application and roll-out, so I have to assume this is a bonded pair of something…"

Pike continued her inspection for a while, before shrugging and placing it back in the case, closing it again. "Fine, you got me. What are these?" she relented, with a sigh and a roll of her eyes.

"Anchored Subspace Windows." Harry said.

Sam frowned at that, with Pike right there with her. "I don't understand." Sam said.

"In that box, you've technically got two connected Stargates." Harry finished proudly.

"Wormholes!" Pike said excitedly. "You've figured out how to turn your apparition into a spell, didn't you!?"

"You're way too smart Sam." Harry complimented Pike.

Sam was slightly jealous of the woman for getting the answer so quickly. "I still don't understand." she admitted.

"Subspace transmitters is what the Asgard use for communication over large distances instantly, taking from the principle that the Stargates work on." Pike explained. "Harry was working with them when he scanned the systems they were using and realised that what they call Subspace, his people have been using for hundreds of years for apparition."

"Wait, hold on." Sam interrupted. "You're telling me that magicals have been using the equivalent of Stargate wormholes to go places?" she asked incredulously. She knew that the Stargate went through subspace, after all. Well, theoretically.

"Exactly." Pike confirmed. "Either way, the only way the Asgard know how to send anything besides communication through subspace is with a Stargate. Harry easily modified Prometheus to Portkey through a subspace transmitter, once he had figured out how to use it to send one of his special laser beams through the connection."

"You say easy, I say a week of intricate rune carving on a magically reinforced Tungsten Carbide hull." Harry said. "It was a pain, even though it was worth it, to have both my tech and an Asgard Hyperdrive on Prometheus."

"So, just two? Not four?" Pike asked, looking at the orbs again. She knew most of this already after all.

"You're thinking about how Stargates only go one way?" Harry asked. At Pike's nod, he continued. "Stargates are limited in that way, but I created the magic for this. It goes both ways." he explained.

"Ah." Pike nodded. "Bi-directional instant… magical communication?" she asked.

"That's the beauty." Harry agreed. "No more relays."

"Oh, thank god!" Pike said. "We can finally stop needing to send Eudaemon to planets before missions." If they could send just one of these along with the teams and keep the other on base, they'd have permanent communication. Perhaps the SGC could send these through on their MALPs and use them as a relay. The MALP is a scouting vehicle with cameras and sensors, for things like gravity, breathable air, temperature and so forth.

"What's happening?" Sam asked. She had no idea how the conversation went from Stargates, bi-directional magical… oh. "You're saying these devices are universally capable of instant communication. Both ways?" she asked.

"Got it in one, Sam." Harry agreed.

"How long can they stay active?" Pike asked.

"They're active now." Harry said. "As far as I can tell… they'll stay active permanently."

Sam looked incredulously at Harry. "How?" she asked.

Harry just smirked at her, before turning to Pike. "Care to have the minions test and confirm?" he asked. He didn't used to call the scientists they had at R&D minions, but he knew he'd get the best reaction from Pike that way.

"Sure thing, boss." Pike said, smirking. Harry tended to bring his new toys to her, so that she could delegate what jobs she didn't want to handle herself. "I've got a couple of things I'd like to test with these. Then I've got a couple of mundane tests and ideas for the minions to verify."

"Radiation leaks and standard stuff, I'm assuming?" Harry asked.

"Pretty much." Pike agreed.

"It's suspended in diamond, so no matter should be able to integrate, not that it could get to the event horizon, in or out." Harry theorised. "The opening is also very small, so even when exposed to the worst forms of radiation, it should be safe."

"Except for the fact that apparition takes larger objects through that tiny hole." Pike countered with a pointed look. "You're also hoping for communication to go through this, but it's going to block radiation? How are you expecting to use this, then?"

"I don't know." Harry said, cocking his head to the side. He knew the Comms would work through this, but he doubted their non-magical radios would. As for radiation, there were many different kinds and the worst kinds should be safe, since the opening was very small and inside a very dense substance. He still believed that the magical diamond would be a very good conductor for magical signals, but he didn't know everything he'd need to test for. "That's why I've got you!"

"Maybe I can help?" Sam offered. This was huge. Like, universally huge. "If this is safe, it could be one of the most amazing discoveries, or applications of your technology to date."

"Wait until you see what he designed this for." Pike chuckled.

"You know?" Harry asked.

"No, but knowing you, it's something completely mundane." Pike said. "Remember your original use for the spell storage laser and how that turned into Project Black Light and the storage cards?"

"Point made." Harry allowed. "And, I don't know that I'd say it's mundane." he said, lifting a hand and levitating the box again.

Pike noted the look on his face and the magic. It was Sam that spoke first, though. "You were capable of levitation before, though."

"In my own body, maybe." Harry said with a smirk.

"That's the clone?" Pike asked, in shock. Her brilliant mind was already connecting the dots and it took her only a few seconds before her eyes shone with recognition. "You are using one of these things to channel your magic to your clone!" she said excitedly, indicating to the floating ASWs.

"Clone?" Sam asked.

"Top secret, Sam." Harry said. "But don't worry, I'm not playing with genetics… not on this level, anyway. The Asgard made me a clone to play and test some theories with."

"You had the eyes fixed?" Pike asked, knowing that it had been an issue before. She was still shocked, but addressed the difference, since that was why she hadn't noticed it was the clone.

"I modified the lenses of my eyes to be the same as my real body." Harry corrected. "Having a clone is very useful for testing purposes."

"How long have you been playing with this, and what's happened to your real body?" Sam asked. Harry was shocked to see real concern on her face.

"Don't worry, Sam." Harry said quickly. "This is a form of remote control. I'm technically body-jacking the clone."

"He only recently discovered the limitation with the clone." Pike said. "It has no direct magic, like his own body." She turned to Harry. "Enough stalling. I'm right, right?" she asked.

"There is an Anchored Subspace Window, or ASW, connecting my body to the clone." Harry finally relented, lifting a hand and making a ring, very similar to his normal one, appear. "I'm capable of everything I was before, along with a new, permanent connection to this clone. I should be able to use it anywhere in this Galaxy, if my theory is correct. I'll be using the clone for a few days, to see how everything tests."

"Your real body…" Pike started.

"Daphne is taking care of it and watching the clone through a connected system." Harry said. He looked off to the side and smiled. "She says 'hi', by the way."

"You can communicate between both bodies?" Sam asked.

"Well, I'm not going to set up a connection I can't disconnect from, am I?" Harry scoffed. "How stupid would I have to be? I'm completely aware of everything that is happening around my real body."

"Why this, though?" Sam asked. "I mean, what are you trying to achieve?"

"The Asgard." Pike said, with narrowed eyes. "You're trying to bring them completely back from the brink."

"Well, their bodies may not be able to do everything ours can, but I've been informed that they weren't much different from us about thirty thousand years ago." Harry said. "If we can put their bodies to sleep or in suspended animation, while connecting them to more lasting bodies, they could achieve the immortality they were going for, all while having the full mortal experience."

"At least, until Pansy has sorted them out." Pike interjected.

"I'm not sure they have enough genetic diversity left to procreate normally." Harry denied. "A bit of genetic manipulation, though, and we could likely create a hybrid body for them, capable of reproduction, all while maintaining their mental faculties and then we just produce another remote control clone system and Bob's your uncle!"

"Have you discussed this with them?" Sam asked.

"I'm going to head over to them in a couple of days." Harry said. "I was just doing a test run. Best to put our best foot forward with quantifiable evidence, yeah?"

OOO

Harry spent some time to create an artificial body for Samantha, or alternate Sam. The process didn't take too long, but Harry had to test a few things first and he needed Pansy's help to create the body correctly. He didn't want to be too familiar with her body, since Sam was his teammate, but ended up having to connect to it a few times to test that everything was working.

Harry then went to the alternate timeline with his girls and spent a couple of days there, setting up a few protections and upgrading the teams and their gear. He hadn't made any promises, but told them that he'd outfit them with one space capable vehicle with some of his weapons, to help protect the planet, as long as they supplied the materials. He'd not be giving them access to his strongest weapons, only Samantha would be keyed into the wards to control the ship and they'd not respond if used on any nation on Earth, except in self-defence. It was a necessary evil. He knew the General would follow orders, if he was instructed to order Samantha to attack other nations, but with her as the only one that could, they'd have to think twice before making her turn against her own moral compass, and she wasn't in the military.

While he was doing that, Bill was taking the Sphere to Mars, to have a few teams start setting up a whole new Harmony, for their version of the SGC to use as a secure location. No mundane people went with them from their reality, since they didn't want to risk entropic cascade failures. Having the experience and not needing to setup a whole community, entertainment and all the bells and whistles, meant that the team had everything in place in just a few days, including the CITA devices, irrigation, a field for crops that kept well, a magical storage place for harvests and other foodstuffs and finally an enlarged barracks. It was plain, but after the General went through their newly installed Transport Tunnel, he was shocked, but also very happily surprised. He immediately sent people through to start setting up anything else they might need and to start storing anything they might need, should they need to send people there more permanently.

Harry also set up the Cradle, the device which would protect Samantha's real body and allow her to connect to the one in Harmony on the other side of the Quantum Mirror. After everything was setup, they went back through the Mirror, having done everything they could think of to give the alternate Earth a better chance at avoiding being taken over by their Goa'uld again… Or at least, what remained of them. Their initial visit had apparently made quite a change and the Goa'uld had been very quiet, giving them much needed time to rest and prepare.

OOO

When Harry arrived in the Prometheus, Thor had been astounded to find out Harry was actually a clone, being operated all the way from Harmony. The idea of remote-controlling a body had intrigued him and it took them only a few days to set everything up for Thor to use a clone, made ready for him by Harry and his own people.

Thor was now enclosed in an Asgard device which would leave his body in suspended animation and connected to a new breed of clone, made possible through Pansy's research and the application of the Asgard in charge of researching the solution to their health problems. The clone looked more human, was larger and definitely male, even if it was bald. The strange black eyes and grey skin was still present, though. Seeing those eyes on a more human face made Harry shudder, but he understood it was probably just a natural development in the Asgard physiology.

The magical control mechanism was put in place and activated and the clone's eyes blinked. "Interesting." Thor's more normal voice said. "I can feel the influence of the body's physiology on my own mind. I see what you meant about feedback." he said, looking at Harry.

"I still feel pain when I get hurt in the clone, even if the pain disappears when I disconnect." Harry confirmed. "The body is real, after all. I wanted to ensure I react normally to any influences, so the connection is quite comprehensive."

Thor nodded at that and lifted his hands, inspecting the stronger hands. "It will be some time before I am used to using a larger body." he noted.

"You'll need a bigger bed as well, most likely." Harry said, with some humour.

"You still require rest?" Thor asked Harry. He knew Harry went off with his people, but he had hoped it was to accompany them, rather than a need.

"While my real body is very still, my mind is very active." Harry said. "I don't know about your people, but our human minds need rest."

"We rest as well." Thor allowed. "I was hoping that the body, or some magical function, could allow for more productivity." The Replicators were not completely wiped from existence, after all. Thor was quite busy, these days.

"It's that kind of thinking that put your people in their current predicament." Harry said. "Trying to overcome mortality and your own limitations drove your species to the brink of extinction. I suggest you accept your limitations, rather than dooming yourselves in other ways."

"We are aware of our mistakes." Thor said. "We will not fail this way again. I was merely inquiring if there was a way for me to be more active until the Replicator threat has been completely eliminated."

"Delegate." Harry said. Thor didn't respond to that, but Harry could plainly see that Thor was disappointed, likely thinking that Harry didn't understand. "I also get the impulse to be involved with everything, but it's simply not humanly possible to do everything and be everywhere."

"Except, you are currently in two places, different galaxies even, proving that you could, potentially, be in as many places as you want to be." Thor said. "Also, I am not human."

"Fair enough." Harry allowed. "I don't know enough about your physiology to tell you how to handle your bodies, but do me a favour, and take time to rest. You may be a powerful Asgard commander, but your mind and your body needs rest, so don't push it."

Thor nodded at that, before finally getting up and starting to move about. It shocked Harry how quickly Thor had gotten used to the new body, until he remembered that Thor likely had a lot of experience acclimating to new bodies.

"This feels very natural." Thor complimented, as he stood upright and looked around the room, no doubt seeing things from a new perspective made things strange. The fragility of his 'natural' body would likely leave him weary of falling from any kind of height. "How did you come up with this idea?" he asked.

"I was making a new targeting system, trying to catch up with you guys actually." Harry said, referring to their phenomenal targeting systems. "I had realised that another item I used, which interfaces with the mind directly, would be able to take information more quickly than manual input and created a mental tethering device. Jack really enjoys our training sessions using it."

"So, your targeting system allowed for direct interface using magical means to technological weapons?" Thor asked, looking down at the ring his new clone wore, which connected to the body that housed his actual consciousness.

"Some are, some are more magical, like the force weapons I made for you." Harry said. "I'm not spreading this technology, though, don't worry."

"I was not worried about your use of your own technology." Thor said. "I was wondering how we will reproduce this effect, if we do not possess your means."

"Let's discuss that for a bit." Harry said.

The conversation wasn't a long one. Thor needed to test the body for a bit, before Harry would start helping them mass-produce anything. He already had the ability to produce magical effects, which would just require power, but he needed to be sure that there were no other down-sides, things that he couldn't take into consideration since he didn't have enough information. Until that time, he'd leave them with the one linked body. Whoever got in the stasis chamber would be able to test the connection and see the results of Harry's latest breakthrough for themselves.

In return, Harry asked for a bit of information on their cloning technology and for a bit more info on how their stasis fields worked, since it was their specific technology which would allow the original body to be preserved, while allowing the mind to be active. The information Harry gained would go a long way toward ensuring the longevity of his own people, buying years for people with only days to live. Even if they didn't end up using the capabilities this gave them, it would still be valuable information to own.

Besides, if he could use this technology and set it up right, he might be able to protect their own people, by keeping their real bodies in a safe location. No risk for them. Total devastation to the enemy. He couldn't wait to start on his next project. Charlie would go ape-shit.