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Hadrian Peverell, formally known as Harry Potter, walked through the halls of HQ. Not very original, but what exactly could one name the home base of the Master of Death and his legion of multi-dimensional reapers?
His boots clicked on the tiled floor as he navigated his way to his office. He nodded to reapers as he passed, returning greetings and occasionally answering a question. When he finally reached the door to his office, he glanced at his assistant, Kanade, who was acting as a sentinel from her own desk. “Good morning, Kanade. Anything urgent I need to know about?”
Kanade gazed at him with blank, golden eyes and said, with an unfairly straight face, “There is no such thing as morning.”
Hadrian felt his eyebrow twitch, and he cursed the deity that had talked him into letting the girl gain administrative experience as his assistant before she was put in charge of her own division. “Well, seeing as I’m the boss, and I just came in from my, supposedly, 12 hours off, we will count this as morning.”
The girl nodded slightly. “As you wish, boss.”
Green eyes closed slightly in exasperation and he fought the urge to rub at the bridge of his nose. “And the answer to my question?” He hinted. The girl blinked. He blinked. Golden eyes held steady. He took a breath. “Anything urgent?”
Kanade’s eyes widened slightly in understanding and he could practically see the train in her head hopping from one track to another that was moving in a completely different direction. She looked down at the papers in front of her and began shuffling. After consulting a notebook and a few different sheets, she raised her head and shook it negatively. “No, sir. Nothing urgent for you to address. There are some files on your desk for you to go over, and the personnel files for the new trainee class of reapers.”
Hadrian let out a silent sigh and thanked the abyss that all was quiet. “Thank you, Kanade. I’ll let you know if I need anything.” He stepped inside and shut the door behind him. He was halfway to his desk when he stopped mid-stride. He twisted his body slightly so he could look at the door and he cocked his head. Had his assistant been wearing cat ears and whiskers painted on her face? ...Must be some sort of fad the younger reapers were doing. He had vague memories of his own classmates from his mortal days dressing up to resemble their favorite fiction characters. Shrugging off the odd occurrence, he set his mind to defeating his eternal enemy: paperwork.
Several hours later he heard a knock at his door. Praising the abyss, he looked up and called out in utter relief “Come in.”
The door cracked open and Kanade poked her head in. Yes, he had been correct earlier. She was, in fact, wearing a pair of black cat ears and had whiskers painted on her face. Blinking, he shook off the validation of his earlier observation and focused on what she was telling him. “Sir, Reaper Spears is here to see you.”
Hoping that his absolute elation at being able to set his paperwork aside for the moment did not show on his face, he nodded to his assistant. “Thank you, Kanade. You can send him in.”
Her head disappeared and he glanced down to finish scanning the document he had been reading before signing it and placing it in the pile of paperwork to be sent to that particular division. Looking up, he saw Reaper William T. Spears walking towards him, his usual scowl present on his feature.
Smiling, Hadrian greeted the reaper. “Good morning, William. How are you?”
William tilted his head slightly and his eyebrows furrowed. “There is no such thing as morning in Death’s Domain.” He said.
Hadrian’s eyebrow twitched erratically for several seconds before he was able to calm the muscles in his face enough to get it to stop. He let out a deep, burdened sigh and motioned for the reaper to take a seat. “What can I do for you, William?”
William straightened his back and pushed his silver frames further up his nose. “I would like to speak with you about Reaper Sutcliff and Reaper Knox.”
The Master of Death nodded along absently as Reaper Spears went into his bi-monthly diatribe about the two mischievous and troublemaking reapers in his division. He let his mind wander as he nodded and answered correctly in all of the right places. Maybe he should transfer the two out of William’s division. Abyss knows he’d been pushing for it long enough. Maybe he should bring in the twins? The dark-haired reaper would be begging for his original troublemakers back before the first decade was up.
And speaking of troublemaking.. Was Spears wearing a ghost tie-pin? On an orange tie? Spears wearing a ghost and fall colors, Kanade wearing cat ears and whiskers.. No, oh no. The date couldn’t have gotten away from him again!
William T. Spears stopped his report on the two major sources of head, neck, and posterior pain as he saw his superior’s eyes widened. He had never gotten that much of a reaction out of the Master of Death with any of his previous reports. Was something finally going to be done about the two? His curly-haired superior started pushing papers around, obviously looking for something. He held up a paper and glanced over. “No.. oh no no no.” he murmured.
William’s eyebrows furrowed in concern. His superior pushed papers to the side, causing several piles to fall to the floor. William couldn’t suppress a wince. In his experience, when paperwork hit the floor, it bred faster. The Master of Death shot up out of his seat. “No, no! This can’t be! I did NOT lose track this badly!” He ran around his desk and stuck his head out of his office door. William heard him ask his assistant what day it was. When his assistant replied, he whirled around and nearly slammed the door shut, bracing against it with his back. He had not been aware that denizens of Death’s Domain could get that pale. “Sir? Are you.. Okay?” He asked hesitantly. He usually tried to avoid finding out about the business of others, but he was starting to feel a bit concerned about his boss.
His boss shook his head, and when green eyes lifted to meet his own dark ones, he could see a trace of fear in the fluorescent orbs. “No, William. I’m not okay. I lost track of the day. Today, on Earth, on all Earths, is Halloween.”
William cocked his head slightly. He himself had known this, having donned a tacky tie pin that he would not normally go anywhere near. Several of his coworkers had all come in costume, including every insulting media version of grim reapers in existence.
“No, you don’t understand. It’s Halloween. Something always happens on Halloween. Every year since I was one in my mortal life. And I forgot. I forgot about it this year! Do you know what happens when I forget about it?” He was concerned to hear the slight note of hysteria in his superior’s voice.
He opened his mouth to inquire when, suddenly, the emergency alarms sounded throughout Headquarters. The sounds of hundreds of reapers running echoed through the halls. He watched his superior’s eyes close in what looked to be utter dismay as his assistant knocked on the door. “Sir! There’s an emergency! We have hundreds of millions of incoming souls! It looks like half of a universe died at the same time!”
William was later sworn to secrecy about seeing Hadrian Peverell, Master of Death and Leader of the Reapers, burst into tears.
Five years later, Hadrian collapsed into his chair and his forehead hit his desk. “Finally.. We are finally done..” He sighed.
For five years, every reaper for a particular dimension had pulled double shifts. Reapers had been pulled on rotation from divisions that oversaw other dimensions to help with the overflow. Such an influx of souls was unheard of. Half of a universe didn’t just die at one time! There was an order and balance to nature. A world might die at one time and cause a few days of havoc. Every few millennia a star will collapse in on itself and end a solar system, possibly one other nearby soon after, depending on the size of the star and the proximity of the other system, but never half of an entire universe! But finally, after half a decade, the overflow had been resolved and everything could run on its normal schedule.
Groaning, he forced himself to sit up. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and took a sip from his coffee cup. It was true that the caffeine could no longer affect him, but the drink made him feel better, damn it! He glanced down at his desk and choked on his coffee. Setting his cup to the side, he wiped his mouth as he stared at the calendar on his desk.
“No.. oh no.” He whispered. He experienced the odd feeling of his face going pale as he began to shake. “Not again..” he whimpered, his eyes locked onto the calendar on his desk. Circled several times in red, with reminders every day leading up to it, was the date October 31st. He had forgotten again!
Looking around desperately, he tried to find a place to hide. He was not ready to deal with this again! He had just finished dealing with the fallout of the last time he’d forgotten about that accursed day, and now he’d done it again just a meager five years later!
He dove under his desk as a knock sounded on his door. Curling up, he put his hands over his head, closed his eyes, and prayed as he had never prayed before. His prayers were, predictably, unanswered as his assistant spoke urgently through the door. “Sir! It’s an emergency! Hundreds of millions of souls have disappeared! A count is still being done, but it looks like all of the souls from that rush a few years ago are gone! What should we do? Sir? Sir, I know you’re in there!” Tears ran helplessly down his face.
Thanos and Tony Stark both stood in a large, marble room. They were both being guarded by, if the beings were to be believed, reapers. When Tony appeared in Death’s Domain, which he later learned from his guards, and had seen Thanos there, he had immediately attacked. He had gotten several good hits in, and taken a few himself though he’d never admit to it, before they’d been pulled apart. Three men and a woman, all wearing glasses and carrying odd weapons, had pulled them apart and explained everything to them once they were calmed down.
Apparently when people died, their souls usually made the journey to Death’s Domain where they were processed and ushered along to the afterlife. He had managed to find out that occasionally a soul didn’t come when it was supposed to and a reaper would have to go fetch it, but other than mass killings, those instances weren’t terribly common. Usually, the reapers would’ve received notice that a soul was on it’s way and there would be a reaper waiting, but due to an emergency it was a bit more of a madhouse than usual.
“What kind of emergency would make reapers panic?” Tony asked curiously. As far as he was aware, reapers were dead. What else could be done?
A redheaded woman in a black pantsuit and an umbrella sighed. “Five years ago there was a mass influx of souls. Hundreds of millions flooded in at one time! It took all of us that oversee this dimension as well as reapers on loan from other divisions these last five years just to process them all! And then they all disappeared!”
Here is where Thanos spoke up. “Yes, five years ago I gathered all five infinity stones and sacrificed half of the population in order to save the remaining half. With resources so finite, I wanted to give all of the worlds a chance to continue to thrive without driving themselves to starvation and destruction.”
The reapers stared at the giant man in shock. The woman frowned slightly, her eyebrows furrowing. “And.. do you know why they disappeared from here?”
Tony cut in. “That would be me! Iron Man, Avenger, one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! We Avengers and some friends were not okay with what Chins here did and we gathered the infinity stones in order to get everyone back and then defeat him.” He explained, motioning toward Thanos at the last part of his explanation. “Unfortunately, to defeat him and make sure nothing like that could happen again, I signed up for this little meet and greet.”
The reapers looked at each other and Tony could tell they were having a conversation with their expressions. Finally, the woman turned to the two. Wait here, don’t move, and no more fighting. I’ll be back shortly.” And with that she turned and walked out and another reaper came in to replace her as a guard not a minute later.
After about twenty minutes the door opened and the redheaded reaper appeared with another, Tony guessed, reaper. The new one was shorter by a few inches and had long, white hair and golden eyes. She was wearing tiger striped ears and had whiskers painted on her face. “Hello, I am Kanade. Please follow me.” She said before turning and heading back out.
Tony and Thanos looked at each other before following the small woman out. Tony was practically vibrating with questions as they followed her through ornately carved marble halls, but something about her made him bite his tongue for the moment. He had eternity to ask questions, he could wait a few more minutes.
Kanade came to a pair of large, black marble doors with a symbol carved into them. There was a triangle with a circle inside, half carved into each door, and a line going down the center of the triangle. Skulls, scythes, and different symbols of death were all carved around the outside of the door. Overall, it gave off a very foreboding feeling.
The reaper knocked on the door and then opened it, leading them just inside. “Sir, here they are.”
The voice of a young man spoke up. “Thank you, Kanade. You may return to your work.” The white haired reaper nodded and then walked out, closing the door behind her.
Tony finally got a look at the owner of the office. He did look, in fact, like a young man in his early twenties. He had long, curly black hair tied up in a ponytail and luminous green eyes. He wore a green button down shirt and a black and silver striped tie. The young man motioned to the two chair in front of his desk. The two dead enemies walked forward and sat down.
Green eyes gazed at the two for several long moments as the young man evaluated them before he spoke. “I am Hadrian Peverell, Master of Death, Head of the Reapers, and basically the boss of this place. I was told that you, Thanos,” He said, pointing to the purple being, “are responsible for the influx of souls we received five years ago while you, Tony Stark, Iron Man,” He continued, pointing at Tony, “are the reason for the disappearance of said souls. I want the story. Now.” He sat back and folded his hands on the desk in front of him.
The two told their tale, interrupting each other and taking pot shots where they could like proper enemies, but after a couple hours, both sides of the story were told in full.
After thinking about it for several minutes, Hadrian leaned forward and looked straight into Thanos’ eyes. “You. Are. An. Idiot.” He said bluntly. Thanos opened his mouth to argue, but the curly-haired reaper powered on. “One, you had no right to make that call for an entire universe. There is a check and balance put into place by the cosmos themselves. Not only that, but you are one very small, very young, and very stupid being who had neither the power nor the wisdom to make that kind of decision. You had no way of knowing the long-term consequences that sort of mass extermination could have on the cosmic balance or on the souls of those you ‘sacrificed.’ “ He said that last word sarcastically. Tony could practically hear the quotes.
Snickering, Tony was set to enjoy watching the tongue-lashing when fiery green eyes landed on him. “And you. Since when do two wrongs make a right? Did you even think about the souls you were calling back?! Nevermind the paperwork and the years of work wasted, these souls were at rest, already processed and enjoying their rewards in the afterlife when you yanked them out and called them back! You have no idea what sort of life the vast majority are going back to, or if they even wanted to go back! Those who survived had a small, finite amount of years they needed to live before they could regain what they had lost. You are just as bad as he is!” Tony shrunk down into his seat.
Hadrian sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he leaned back in his seat, trying to figure out where to start. The two sufficiently cowed males stayed silently hunched in their seats as he tried to think. He couldn’t bring the spirits back, if two wrongs didn’t make a right, three would certainly cause a disaster of epic proportions! Not to mention the paperwork that was already piled up from the initial influx and now the mass exodus. Just the thought of it was enough to give him a migraine and make his fingers and wrist ache.
...Wait a second.. He looked up at the two and grinned maniacally. He saw two sets of eyes widen in terror as the men started to shake. His smile widened. He knew just what to do.
Hadrian Peverell, formally known as Harry Potter, walked through the halls of HQ. Not very original, but what exactly could one name the home base of the Master of Death and his legion of multi-dimensional reapers?
His boots clicked on the tiled floor as he navigated his way to his office. He nodded to reapers as he passed, returning greetings and occasionally answering a question. He came to a stop in front of a set of doors with a set of scales carved into it, half of the scale carved into the black marble door on the left, and the other half on the white marble door on the right. He pushed the doors open and entered cheerfully with a bounce in his step. “Good morning!” He greeted the two inhabitants of the room.
Thanos and Tony both looked up, circles under their eyes and shoulders slouched in the kind of ache that can only be achieved through countless hours of staying in the same position. “I wasn’t aware there was a morning here.” Tony snarked, rubbing a hand down his face.
Hadrian grinned at the two. “How is all of that paperwork coming along?” He asked.
“I’m not even a quarter of the way through. At this rate, it’s going to take at least another fifty years to catch up.” Thanos reported, setting down his pen and stretching his arms above his head, causing his back to crack obscenely in several places.
Tony groaned. “This side isn’t much better.” He said, banging his forehead against the paper-covered desk. “I swear, this makes me appreciate all of those years of Pepper doing my paperwork even more.”
Hadrian nodded cheerfully. “Well, maybe this will make the two of you think before either of you try to ‘Fix the Universe’ again!” He replied happily. “By the way, Happy Halloween!” He said, tossing Thanos a pair of bunny ears and Tony a pair of deer antlers before he turned around and walked back out, several eagle feathers braided into his hair.
It was All Hallow’s Eve, the night that the veil between the World of the Living and Death’s Domain was thinnest, and Harry had to work. Thank the abyss that this year, at least, he remembered.