Chapter 201: Torch

Chapter 201: Torch

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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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9th March 2012, New York City

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

Rose gasped for a second, "This was your plan, wasn't it? You've always wanted this. It's why you disappeared from the wizarding world and faked your death. You want to disappear." Read latest chapters at nov(e)lbin.com Only

"It's time for the world to lose its babysitter, Rose. It's time for you to become self sufficient. You don't need me anymore. You're starting to catch up to the rest of the universe. You're ready."

Before she could respond, Selene's phone bleeped and she read a message, "Morrigan, someone is trying to hack our company servers."

I groaned inwardly. Will this day ever end?

I summoned her phone to get a better look at the details of the hacking. Alfred, the virtual intelligence I had created before my travel back in time, would be enough to put a stop to any overly ambitious organization that wanted to access our servers. Honestly, there was nothing incriminating on there, or actually sensitive. But there were the scripts to a lot of movies, TV shows, and the early drafts of a few books that could affect the company if they were leaked.

Alfred's main goal was to manage the business aspect of the media conglomeration that Selene manages. He stopped a few ambitious hackers from getting through our servers, along with a few intelligence agencies, American or foreign, but he only gave us a notification after the attack was thwarted. The fact that he's saying that someone was currently hacking our servers would be because something was different. I looked more closely and saw that the attacking script was learning, changing itself trying to worm its way in. It was remarkably close to Alfred's own code. But it didn't have the flair that came with a human consciousness. It was too robust, too structured and logical. We were dealing with another virtual intelligence and the only one who would attempt something like this, on my company no less, would be Tony Stark.

I closed my eyes and started scrying for him and as I expected, Tony was up trying to get as much information as possible about me. I stopped scrying and sighed in exasperation, "Sorry, girls. I need to take care of something. I'll be right back."

I stood up and teleport to the room Stark was in. The man was so engrossed in the computer screen in front of him, that I coughed to get his attention. The billionaire actually jumped back in terror and let out a distinctly feminine shriek. I stifled a chuckled and looked at him with one eyebrow raised, "Seriously, Stark. You didn't even last a single day before trying to hack me?"

The billionaire nodded and I continued, "But Fury's clean, Hill is also clean, so was Coulson and so are Barton and Romanoff. So don't worry about it. But the word security council are mostly in their pocket. I think the Secretary Pierce is the current leader of the organization. Why do you think I leaked the meeting with the council and Fury, along with their identities. It's an easy way to get the governments to investigate their actions. Hydra will start to fall and SHIELD is probably going to go down with it."

Tony sighed in relief, "And Dad was responsible for all of this?"

I shrugged again, "It wasn't entirely his fault. After Margaret Sayre 'died', I took another identity and joined SHIELD the moment it was founded. I worked there for a few years, and actually became one of the main scientists there, along with Hank Pym. We told your father that operation Paperclip was a monumentally stupid idea. But Pym was a rival of your father's and Howard was pretty sexist back in the day, so he ignored us. Soon after, I left, and Hank did a few years later after his wife died."

The billionaire started to get angry, "And you did nothing after that? You didn't think to stop Hydra?"

I snorted, "Kid, I deal with the big things, and by big things, I mean doing my best so that no idiot tries to blow up the planet or destroy realities. I make sure that mutants don't destroy the planet, or that the mages don't reveal themselves and start a world war, or that sorcerers don't destroy the fabric of reality, that no idiot summons a demon lord that would rip apart the planet and suck the souls everyone involved. For fuck's sake, I left the eternals unsupervised for a decade because they're almost as old as me, and one of them joins the Manhattan project and helps them create the atom bomb. Sure, sometimes, if I'm bored, I make sure that organizations don't make too much damage, like I tried to do when I joined SHIELD. But if the people in charge don't want my help, I leave. I have better things to do than stopping them from making stupid decisions. And your father made a lot of stupid decisions, especially in the way he raised you. But his idiocy with his dealings with SHIELD are what got him, and your mother killed."

Tony Stark froze at my words, "What did you just say?"

I stayed silent at this, and he continued, "tell me, what happened to my parents? Who killed my mom?"

There was no harm in pointing him to the right direction, "Hydra did. Your father was dangerous, but he was also a golden goose for SHIELD, or more appropriately for Hydra. He tried to recreate the super soldier serum that he was so obsessed with, and Hydra wanted it. They got their best assassin, the Winter Soldier, a brainwashed friend of Rogers that they saved and turned into their little puppet. He killed your parents and took the serum your father was working on. Fortunately, the serum made the recipients dangerously unstable, so they froze the test subjects somewhere in Russia."

"Hydra killed my parents?"

I nodded. He stood up and tried to punch me, "And you did nothing?"

I caught the punch easily and raised an eyebrow, "It's not my place to do anything about it plus I had far bigger problems to deal with at the time. Not to mention that the only thing I could have done would be to personally kill every single Hydra agent in the world and while I could do this, I would be targeted as a serial killer by every intelligence agency in the world. I would rather no one know of my existence, as I thrive in the shadows, and if I'm dealing with a serious threat, they'll probably think I'd be responsible and target me anyway. You mortals think yourself so advanced, so grown up, that you don't deserve my oversight, or my protection. It's why I'm retiring in the first place. Every single aspect of my role has been divided onto different group. I pass the torch onto you, the Avengers. You are now in charge in dealing with technology based threats and aliens that go past Odin's protections of the planet. I'm done fighting for you. I have a much bigger problem ahead of me, and I don't have time for your foolishness. If you choose to quit your role without any replacements, I will not step in to save you anymore. You're on your own."

Tony tried to punch me again. This time I dodged, but the man yelled out, "And you said they were your friends!!"

I calmly answered him, "You're so angry with me. But you, yourself, are doing nothing about the main problem. You could try targeting Hydra. I have already started their downfall starting with the world security council. You can either wallow in your betrayal, in your despair, or you could find the people responsible and make them pay. I just gave you a start and the direction. Whether you choose to do this alone, or with your team, will be your choice. As I said, I'm washing my hands of this. This is your father's doing, it would be poetic for his son to fix his mistakes."

I teleport back to my mansion, leaving a confused billionaire. I was barely gone for ten minutes, and the girls were still sitting around, talking. I sit back down on the sofa, "Sorry girls, Stark was being annoying. Now, where were we? Oh, right! What have you girls been up to while I was gone?"