Wizard with a Mutation : Chapter 19

Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don't mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP. 

Winters Manor, London, Magical Britain [1980]

–Scott Winters–

"Whoa!" He exclaimed as they finally reached the end of those damned stairs and came across a giant underground space, flush with ceilings and made with brown tiles on all sides, including the ceiling. 

"It was made by your mother," His neck snapped to the side as Nathaniel finally said something about his parents, the one thing he didn't know a thing about.

"What?!"

Nathaniel sighed, "Look, this is going to be a long story and full of shocks so please keep the questions to a minimum." Right after Nathaniel finished speaking, there was a beeping sound that echoed all around the cave.

"It's done. Let's go now," Nathaniel took a step forward and he had to choke back a gasp as the entire space lit up veins of blue energy that criss-crossed across the entire space, before converging at the bottom of…a ship?

He tentatively followed Nathaniel, taking ginger steps, making sure to avoid the glowing blue veins, "What is that?"

"That….is your mother's ship. I've tried to repair it over the years with the manuals I was given but it has proven to be an impossible task to do it while keeping it hidden. Maybe you can have more success with it."

Nathaniel's words rang in his mind. His mother's ship?

"What do you mean my mother's ship? And why is it spitting out glowing blue energy? What, was my mother an alien?" He couldn't help but shout hysterically, his voice echoing in the gigantic cave they were in. His whole life, he wanted these answers….

"Look, Scott, let me tell you the full story before you faint out of shock. I didn't think an ArchMage would be this weak, to be defeated by mental shock rather than by magic."

He opened his mouth to reply and closed it several times before just following in silence, his mind racing towards the worst possibilities.

He was an alien? Was he some sort of vanguard for future invasions? Was he even human anymore? How could he use magic if he was an alien?

"Put your hand there," He was brought out of his thoughts by Nathaniel's commanding tone as he gestured to a small rectangular panel that he could swear was not there when they started walking. Nathaniel was waiting by the side of a similar panel on the other side, with his palm poised to be placed on top of the glowing blue, translucent panel.

"Okay," he muttered as he placed his palm on the panel, looking to the side as Nathaniel did the same, both the panels glowing slightly as a result. He felt a slight static feeling on his palm as the same blue veins crisscrossed across the panel, leading straight down and back into the ship, which was massive and very much futuristic looking.

His theory about him being an alien, or worse, some sort of half alien half wizard bastard came roaring back into his mind.

"Access granted. Welcome: Scott Winters, Nathaniel Winters." A robotic voice jerked him out of his thoughts as he looked at an invisible shield appearing right at the edge of the panels before it dissipated.

"Before your mind runs itself into the ground, let me assure you, your mother was human. Just a different kind of human. Your father was Nathan Winters, my younger brother."

He nodded along, not wanting to interrupt the only source of information he had about his parents.

"Your mother, she was not from…around here. She was different, powerful, vastly more powerful than any person I have ever met. My brother met her when she had just come to Earth, and had found herself in the icy winters of Norway, where Nathan used to go for fun because there would be no one but him there, giving him full freedom." Nathaniel spoke with a touch of nostalgia in his voice.

"Betty," Nathaniel turned to him, "Your mother's name was Betty, never knew her last name. She married my brother and had you, someone with the potential to surpass even Betty."

"Wh-What are you saying? What do you mean she was more powerful than anyone on the planet? How could she have remained unknown then? You said she was human but different, how different?"

"Your mother was a wizard, but somehow more. Even I don't know the whole story but I do know that she was the reason you were born as you were and….she was also the reason I lost my brother, your father." Nathaniel spoke in a somber tone as they crossed the threshold and neared the ship's bay which had opened on its own.

He stopped himself from asking yet another question that would not be answered.

"I've never been granted access to the things that mattered in the ship's memory. It was always meant for you and you alone. Go, the ship will guide you on what to do. Your inheritance…is waiting."

For some reason, the room darkened at those words and he looked at the ship. It seemed so tall now, so out of reach, the stairs on the platform so steep to climb.

"I'll be waiting outside," Nathaniel said before stepping out of the boundary of the ship. He nodded at the man, and entered the ship, curious as to what it had in store for him.

One thing was clear though, he might have yearned for these answers for most of his adult life and yet, when the time came, when the answers were plausibly within reach, he didn't feel so excited about them.

All he could feel was apprehension, worry, and anxiety about the whole thing, especially after he was told that his mother was the reason his father was dead. Was she even alive?

Well, only moving forward would help, so he took the first step and immediately steadied himself as the landing bay moved up on its own.

He could not see inside as the door had some sort of blue glowing shield. The stairs deposited him right near the door, and he hesitated as his hand hovered about the blue shield. Bracing himself, he put his hand on the door and was surprised to find it passed through.

Taking a step through, he found himself passing the door and entering the ship, his brows furrowed in confusion as all he saw was a nice living room with a burning fireplace in the center, with an old nobility living room feeling.

"Greetings, Scott Winters." The same robotic voice echoed throughout the room as he immediately took out his wand and looked around, trying to stop the speakers or even any invisible spirit that could be speaking.

He had encountered those before, even though they could not harm anyone on their own, only use their voice to speak.

"Who is it? Come out." He spoke out loud, with his magic pressing down on the area in a trick he learned from Charles. It created a physical pressure on the area using one's own magic power and could only be countered by the same curtain of magic with magic surpassing his own. It helped to immediately identify any creature or wizard in range who was weaker than him.

It had worked multiple times when people were under advanced variations of the Disillusionment charm or any Invisibility potion but to his surprise, he found nothing. Even the fire in the fireplace didn't waver for a second.

"I am Athena. My purpose is to…"

_____xx____

Outside the ship, underneath the Winters Manor

Nathaniel sighed as he saw the ship close on its own before the giant shield reappeared around it, protecting it from anything his magic could throw at it.

Yes, even the Killing Curse. He was not ashamed to admit that when he got the news that his brother was dead, because of that otherworlder, he had, in a fit of rage and grief, cast the Killing Curse on this same ship, in a bid to destroy the last remaining trace of that woman's existence.

He couldn't even bear to look at his own nephew but he couldn't destroy his brother's legacy so he sent the boy away, paying all his expenses to a contact he had in MACUSA, as long as the boy never came back to London.

Well, that was when he was a minor and also not an Archmage. Now that he had grown into who he was, there was no one who could control him. His mother's genes had also been clearly passed down as the boy could do magic that none on the planet could.

Since the boy was here anyway, might as well fulfill the purpose of the ship and get the damned thing out of his home because while he might have mellowed out over the years, and thought deeply about the entire incident, his anger at the woman was still not gone and he would prefer to have that thing out of his home, as soon as possible.

Timing the clock, he sat down on a platform that appeared beneath him as soon as he tried to sit down, glowing the same blue as the shield that covered the entire ship.

"Athena, will he be fine? In all these years, you've never told me what the inheritance actually is." He spoke out loud as the shield rippled in front of him, emitting a familiar robotic noise.

"Designation : Nathaniel Winters. Scott Winters is the designated Inheritance candidate of this pod. I can guarantee zero physical harm but mental harm is not within my parameters."

He sighed once again, leaning back as the back part of the bench materialised behind him. The first time it happened, he had freaked out and scanned the entire thing using all the spells he could find but now that it had been over two deceased, he was used to the things that Athena did, things that could be classified as miracles or very advanced form of magic in the Magical World.

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