Disclaimer: - I don't own anything I am just playing in respective sandboxes.

Warnings: - Dark story, violent, horror and other scary things. Mature scenes all in the name of plot. Future chapters will contain any warnings as and when they are needed. But as much as there is dark, there will be light good stuff because everything is about balance.

This story is going to be AU, have a female Harry and soulbonds. It is an idea that I really want to explore - but looking at it from an angle in how they could and would complicate people's lives. This is going to be a slow-burn and yes I am going to be exploring different types of relationships. But there is a plot to the story as well.

I am inspired by a lot of different things, stories I have read both published and within the fanfiction world, films, TV series, mythology and well everything.

The timeline is a little different to fit a little better for the plot, will not be Canon Compliant, and will be drawing on the MCU as a whole as well as marvel comics, any and all possible TV series connected.

Please note that all mistakes are mine and mine alone and I am learning to improve my skill every day. I am also cross-posting this story on A03 under the username Phantom_Queen. It does have a few more chapters but I am currently making a few edits within them so have decided to post on here as well.

XXX

Prologue:-

Her skin prickled and itched.

She scratched at her arms.

She couldn't reach it.

No matter how hard she scratched, she couldn't reach it.

"You're going to make yourself bleed," a soft voice said, breaking the silence.

She stopped scratching, taking a step closer to the fire and its roaring flames.

"I'm fine."

It was a lie. Lie. Lie. Lie.

She wasn't okay, she wasn't sure she would ever be fine again.

The flames hissed, and wood crackled, and the smell was...comforting.

She could barely feel the heat.

She was so fucking cold.

It had crept inside her, burrowed deep and was rooting.

Twisting vines of thorns and ice, and darkness and...Death.

And yet as much as she was cold, she was hot, burning and wild and itching, rippling with power.

Don't think about it!

She was so fucking cold.

How, how could she be cold when it felt like she was about to self-combust at a moments notice?

They were warring inside of her, she could feel it. The energy, the magic. Whirling around like a vortex...hot and cold. Something new and ancient.

She felt a stranger in her own skin. A stranger in her own soul.

Something was prowling, in the corner of her mind, huffing and puffing.

It kneaded her mind, claws piercing her soul.

She winced at the sharp, biting pain.

Something was wrong with her, she was defective.

And yet...it felt right.

A chain around her neck vibrated and warmed and hummed. She could feel the familiar feel of wood in her hands, and she didn't need to look down to know what it was.

It thrummed through her, to her soul.

She could feel it vibrating through her, a gentle trickle that seemed to push the cold and darkness back.

Her magic purred, her soul sang.

Mine. Mine. Mine. Home. Home. Home.

A haunting melody.

Yet she found it comforting. She found it gave her strength.

They always came to her, no matter how far away, no matter how many times she had destroyed them.

They returned.

She wasn't sure, but a little part of her whispered they had saved her life.

And the implications of that terrified her.

Don't think about it.

"You're leaving, aren't you?"

She turned from the fire.

Brown eyes burned into her, a swirl of fear and understanding pressing along her skin.

Was she leaving?

Yes. It's the only way.

"It's the only way to stop them," she answered.

A fiery determination spreading through her as though she had living Fiendfyre filling her veins.

"When?"

She could see the pain in her friends' eyes, in both of them as they sat there in silence, watching her.

She wished, wished she could make it go away. With a wave of her wand and all be well again.

But that only happened in the fairytales.

And her life had never been a fairytale.

"Tonight. You've seen the files. You've seen my memories - as disjointed as they are. You know it has to be tonight."

"You don't have to do this alone," blue eyes looked up at her, urging her to see she wasn't alone.

She wouldn't trade them in the world. They had stood by her so many times, had kept her sane and had saved her life, just as she had saved theirs.

But when it came down to facing whatever fate threw at her in the end, she had always faced it alone...those final battles, those last moments it had just been her and her enemies because that was all she had ever known. When the dust had settled, when it mattered most, and the earth stood still, she was always the one standing apart from the crowd...Alone, with blood-covered hands and tears in her eyes.

She had always been different a freak that never fitted in.

And now...now she was even more so, and she didn't know what to do.

So she was running.

Running, throwing herself into the next fight, just as she had after the dust had settled previously, because if she stopped and let everything sink in, then she wasn't sure she would ever be able to crawl out of the darkness that was clawing at her now.

She smiled sadly, "I know, and I need you. I need you both but not on the battlefield. I need to fight this fight on a different playing field."

"What do you want us to do?" her friend asked, her tone brooked no argument. Holly could see the determined tilt in the head, and the crease in the brow that she had learnt long ago meant not to stand in the way of the woman sitting before her.

"I want you to start preparing. Start getting others ready. Find out what you can, you work the Ministry. I work the ground. And hopefully, between the three of us, we can see a pattern. We can track them and end them before any more lives are lost."

A snort drew her eyes, "You mean before the shit storm hits."

His statement was followed by a slap on the head, and hissed words, "Ow! Bloody hell woman!"

Even now, years later they hadn't changed.

Holly doubted they ever would, and she wanted to relish in those cherished memories.

There was hesitation in the voice, uncertainty, "Where are you going to go?"

She didn't know. And that was probably for the best, for the time being.

"I don't know," she answered.

"Promise me you will stay safe."

"I will do my best. I will keep in touch."

She looked at them.

Memorising their faces, every detail.

She wasn't sure when she would next see them, and that hurt. A lot.

It made her hesitate.

She couldn't afford to hesitate.

She couldn't afford to be weak.

She was goblin forged steel.

She was magic.

She was small but mighty.

A curt nod of her head was all the indication she gave before she apparated out of their house, and into the darkness.

XXX

Note: - It has been a while since I have posted anything. At all. The last seventeen months have been...life changing...and finding the time to focus on writing, focusing on anything really has been a struggle, with everything going on, between symptoms of my actual illness and side-effects of my medication.

Previous stories are not abandoned, but I am going to have to take some time to re-work them and find the voice of the stories again.