Chapter 19: Transformation
"Your eye transformed?" Charles asked. "Without the dragon trying to take control?"
"Yes." Harry responded.
Harry had come to the professor's study almost immediately after his little fight with Scott. He would have to experiment to figure out why it had happened and how and doing that alone would not be wise.
Charles stared at him across the table. "The dragon should have recovered most of its strength, by now." His brows were furrowed. "Are you positive that it was you who caused the transformation and not the dragon?"
"I mean, I don't know." Harry closed his eyes and thought back on the moment. "It certainly seemed like it was me."
Harry tapped his temple and went inside of his mind once more. The walls of energy still held strong, the hole that had been there previously was gone, mended over. Not a single sound could be heard coming from the barrier.
"It asked me how I did it, so I presume it was me who did it."
"Hmm."
The doors to the study opened and Hank walked in with a notepad in hand. He nodded towards Charles and then turned his attention to Harry.
"What were you feeling before your transformation?" Hank asked.
Harry had to think for a moment. There had been many emotions flying about in that instance.
"Uh… Depressed, frustrated, and angry."
Hank nodded as he started writing his answer down onto his notepad.
"It might have been triggered by your emotions, or it might have to do with the progress you've been making with your mind."
"From what you've told us and based on the results of your tests." Hank closed the notepad as he focused his full attention on Harry. "Your cell's evolution is governed by circumstance, stimulation and this 'key'."
Harry nodded as the doctor continued.
"The dragon is currently in possession of this key, but in the end, this entity is a part of you. A slightly insane and homicidal part, but a part nonetheless."
"What are you getting at, Hank?" The professor asked. "This is all something we already know."
"What if the key isn't in the possession of the dragon, but the dragon actually is the key?" Hank said.
"Now, keep in mind that this is all just one big theory, but if this in indeed true, then it would mean that the entity can be confirmed to be a product of your mutation instead of a foreign entity."
"And why is that an important distinction?" Harry asked. What did it matter if the thing inside of his head was from his mutation or some outside entity?
"Because assimilating something that is inherently a part of you is easier than fusing with another entity." Charles said quietly. Then he turned to look at him. "That means that our previous plan of destroying it is no longer the best possible choice."
"If it's the key, destroying it would mean the loss of a large part of my mutation." Harry said out loud and realized the implications.
He had grown quite fond of his powers in the year that he had been in possession of them. Not only was he physically stronger, tougher, had more stamina and could regenerate from almost any wound imaginable. His mind had also been steadily growing stronger, providing him with a far stronger memory.
"Correct, if the key truly is the core of your mutation, destroying the dragon would mean destroying the key." Hank said. "That would mean that your mutation would weaken considerably, if not outright strip you of all your powers."
"But, now that the previously distant possibility of controlling this dragon isn't as far away as before, you can grow even more powerful." Hank concluded.
"The dragon is the key… That means that its body is the manifestation of it?" Harry asked.
"Presumably." Hank answered.
"When I transformed, there was a hole in the walls that contain it." Harry thought out loud. "It was big enough to only show its right eye, and that's exactly the part that transformed."
Hank had opened his notepad once again and was furiously scrawling text into it.
"Your mind has grown strong enough in strength that you can already modify the walls I've left there?" Charles asked in surprise. "With your progression, it should have taken years for you to reach that level."
"I guess so." Harry said. "Let me try to replicate the process again."
Harry delved into his mind before either man got the chance to say anything.
The same orange-red mindscape greeted him upon entry. The almost translucently white walls of energy Charles had constructed stood firm in one corner of it.
He moved closer to them but made sure to stop before he got too close.
'Okay, here we go.' Harry thought as he began to concentrate. He began to think of what he wanted to happen, for there to be a small hole within the walls.
He concentrated hard for a minute or two but felt and saw no change in the walls in front of him. They were too strong for him to break or mold.
"Okay, what the fuck is this?" He had clearly been able to form a small hole in the walls just thirty minutes ago, so why wasn't it working right now?
No matter what he tried or how hard he concentrated, nothing happened. Not even a slight crack.
He stopped when it was clear that his current approach wasn't working. The walls were still too strong for him to break, which only made the strength of the dragon even more menacing, considering it had been able to breach them.
It had probably been able to adapt to the walls around it within days thanks to the key.
And wasn't that slowly becoming annoying. Each new thing he learned about his mutation pertained to this key. Harry wasn't completely clear on the benefits the key granted to his mutation, but it obviously made it possible for the cells to evolve in a certain direction the holder of said key wanted them to.
It also made the adaption process faster, making it easier for one to grow.
It had been pressing on his shoulders for the past year. How could he even hope to be able to defeat the dragon when all it had to do was use the key to expedite its own growth.
Now, though? Now he had a chance, and he wasn't about to give up.
For the next ten or so minutes, Harry tried every conceivable method he could think of to try and create a hole in the wall. Nothing worked.
It was glaringly obvious by now that his methods weren't going to work. His mind wasn't strong enough to break the walls which had been created by a telepath with decades of training and experience under his belt.
'Maybe I'm thinking about it all wrong.' The professor had said that it should have taken him much more than a single year to be able to breach his walls. Maybe the goal wasn't to breach the walls, but to gain access to the dragon without it gaining access to him.
Charles had told him about the possibility of doing something like that. In theory, if Harry was able to establish such a connection, it would circumvent the walls without letting the dragon out and endangering himself.
Before, it had all been speculation, as there had been no indication that Harry was capable of doing something like that. Hence the reason they had almost entirely scrapped the idea of gaining control of the dragon within the past year.
Now, there existed a possibility, and that was all that he needed.
He concentrated on the image of the dragon inside of his memories. Specifically, its wings. The vivid picture of the leathery wings covered in translucent white-blue scales came into the forefront of his mind's eye.
Shortly afterwards, he heard a distinctive rumbling in front of him and looked at the walls. They were opening up and shortly afterwards, the exact same pair of wings he had imagined burst out of the hole. They were massive, easily the size of a small building.
"HOW!?" The rumbling voice of the dragon once again echoed the same question as before.
The wings had completely appeared outside of the walls, and the dragon was trying to use that to fly itself out of the cage. It didn't get the chance to even flap them once, though, as the walls quickly closed themselves around the base of the wings.
As the walls closed around the base of the wings, Harry felt something growing out of his back. He looked back and saw that the exact same pair of wings had appeared on his back as the dragon's, but much smaller.
Though, they were still quite big. Big enough to cover him from head to toe if he wrapped them around himself, and that's exactly what he did.
It seemed like they were scaled to his body to match his physique perfectly. Harry was so deep in wonder that he didn't even notice the images playing outside of his mindscape.
He unraveled the wings and broke out of the makeshift cocoon he had been in and started walking towards the walls.
The whispers returned, the voice small and almost indistinct but growing louder and clearer with each step he took.
As he stood directly in front of the walls, the voice was saying unintelligible words, complete gibberish.
Harry decided to focus on the image of the serpentine-like draconic eyes of the thing trapped in front of him. Shortly thereafter, two holes appeared in the wall, revealing the eyes of the dragon glaring at him with murderous intent.
Harry felt how his own eyes transformed to match those of the thing in front of him.
"How does it feel?" He asked. "To have someone take parts of you?"
Its response was a loud growl, echoing out amongst his mindscape.
"Have fun while it lasts." Its voice rumbled. "It won't last long!"
"Oh, I'll make sure that it lasts forever."
With that, Harry left his mind and came back into the outside world. The sight that greeted him was different from when he had entered his mind.
Charles was backed up against the wall, Hank was in his transformed form and Logan was standing next to him with his claws extended. Everyone was looking at him cautiously.
"Harry?" Charles asked him slowly as he noticed his eyes opening.
"It worked." Harry said and spread his wings. That caused a flinch from Logan who almost attacked him right then but held himself back at the last moment. "I transformed without letting it take my mind."
As he spread his wings, he couldn't help but notice that his hoodie and shirt were torn and laying on the floor underneath him. He reached to the base of his wings with his hand and noticed that it was like they had grown out of his back.
"I need to take notes." Hank said as he transformed back into his human form. "This is interesting."
Suddenly, Harry felt that the wings were starting to disappear. Not even a minute after he had exited his mind, they were gone. He assumed that his eyes had also gone back to normal.
"Did you do that intentionally?" Charles asked Harry as he came back to his desk.
"No, it seems like there's a time limit to them." Harry answered as he took a quick peek back into his mind. The holes in the walls were gone, and the wings were inside of them once more.
"Nonetheless, this is great news." Hank said as he came close to Harry, he seemed to be inspecting his back. "If you would allow it, I would run a few tests to ascertain the nature of this process."
"Sure." Harry said. It wouldn't hurt to find out more about his current capabilities and limits. Not to mention how the process actually worked.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Alphapanda
Alphapanda Didn't get a chap out yesterday, had a massive headache, so sorry about that. Anyways, here ya go.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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