Time heals all things. Fifty groups, each sending back beautiful photographs every day. 006's delusions gradually weakened.
Only then did Bella bring up the matter of John Winchester and Adam Winchester.
As long as Adam stayed clear of Heaven and Hell's affairs, Weyland Corporation had more than enough clout to protect a single ordinary person.
In Bella's assessment, the Winchester terrors, along with every angel and demon in play, operated strictly by the principle of secrecy. They spent their days lurking in rural small towns, stirring up trouble in the shadows. That alone proved they were actively avoiding major cities.
Keep Adam Winchester hidden in New York, one of the largest metropolitan areas on the planet, and the odds of catching the attention of angels or demons were negligibly small. If an archangel decided to descend personally, well, there wasn't much Bella could do about that.
After conferring with 006, Bella decided to preserve the summer camp permanently. Adam Winchester would serve as its camp leader. As for the cover story, how to make it airtight, and how to keep the young campers' parents and relatives from asking inconvenient questions, that was a job for the subordinates.
006's ordeal defied any simple "blessing in disguise" description. He had been forcibly awakened to a trace of superhuman ability: electrokinesis, the power to control lightning.
The lightning itself was potent. The problem was that 006 possessed no magic, no mutant powers, no psionic energy, and no other form of supernatural fuel to draw on. Put simply, he had no mana pool. Every time he channeled lightning, what he burned through was his own life force.
He wouldn't survive even a couple of uses before it killed him.
Bella's psionic energy was incompatible with his body. As for Kamar-Taj's methods, without the Ancient One's approval, Bella couldn't pass them on.
The only option she could think of was to follow Natasha's precedent: inject 006 with a bioengineered virus specifically calibrated to his physiology, boosting his maximum life force. What came after that was anyone's guess.
The Zeus memories offered 006 himself almost no practical advantage. His mind understood everything perfectly now, but his body refused to cooperate.
No matter how fast his mind worked, his body simply couldn't keep up.
All those memories, and he couldn't use a single one.
Bella, on the other hand, reaped enormous rewards from their extended conversations over the course of more than ten days. From the 1st-circle Lesser Lightning Orb, to the 2nd-circle Lightning Whip, to the 3rd-circle Lightning Bolt, Mind Trap, and Mind Schism, the 4th-circle Dimensional Anchor, and the 5th-circle Banishment, Suppress Mind Schism, and Mind Crush, a spell that surpassed even her existing Mind Blast, she mastered them all.
Calypso and Zeus weren't even in the same league. If Bella had received the divine memories directly, the gains would have been far greater. Having 006 as an intermediary meant much of the intuitive understanding and deeper insight was lost in translation.
006's breakdown served as a wake-up call for Bella. The undercurrent in Odin's words, that unmistakable sense that a new era was about to dawn, added urgency to everything.
The Millennium War between Heaven and Hell wasn't an ending. It was a beginning.
Under persistent pressure from both 006 and Gavin Banks, Bella finally agreed to merge Weyland Corporation and Yutani Corporation.
She had been remotely controlling both companies, and frankly, it was exhausting. Resources were being wasted. Operational efficiency was well below expectations.
Weyland boasted a deep bench of cutting-edge talent, with advanced research in medicine, biology, astronomy, and energy. Every time the Vankos, father and son, transmitted another tranche of data from the Cybertronian spacecraft, Weyland's technological capabilities leapt forward by another margin.
Cybertronian technology wasn't a perfect fit for Earth, but Weyland's breakthroughs in several key disciplines now surpassed the current state of the art by at least fifty years.
The achievements were significant. So were the risks. Corporate espionage was rampant. Intelligence agents from various nations kept materializing near Weyland's scientists, attempting to recruit them and steal their research.
006 was an outstanding operative and an exceptionally capable manager, but he lacked institutional depth. Mercenaries who accepted his pay would just as readily accept a higher bid. Constrained by the company's corporate framework, he was rapidly losing his grip on his own scientists.
Yutani, and the Assassin Brotherhood behind it, could fill that gap.
Trying to buy off assassins who fought for ideals and freedom with mere money was a losing proposition. Brotherhood operatives embedded within Weyland could suppress the mounting instability.
Yutani Corporation had another advantage. Through Bella's remote guidance and Mustached Max's networking, they had previously acquired a substantial portfolio of factories, subsidiary companies, and research facilities from Shingen Yashida.
Shingen's attitude had been something along the lines of "better to sell it to friendly outsiders than leave it to my own household." He'd rather dump the family's industrial assets on Yutani Corporation at a discount, pocket the cash to fund his syndicate, than let his saintly, doe-eyed daughter inherit a single yen.
Yutani had picked up a bargain. Those factories and workers were exactly what Weyland needed. The two companies complemented each other perfectly.
Bella gave her final approval. Weyland acquired Yutani Corporation in a buyout, and the merged entity became Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
After exchanging the passphrase "Nothing is true, everything is permitted," 006 was formally inducted into the Assassin Brotherhood.
He was roughly the same age as William Miles, but his reputation in the wider intelligence world dwarfed the old man's by a considerable margin.
Still, to maintain balance between the two sides, his rank within the Brotherhood was set just below William Miles and above Gavin Banks.
Post-merger, the power structure crystallized: Bella controlled the Assassin Brotherhood, and the Assassin Brotherhood controlled Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
The newly merged Weyland-Yutani Corporation employed over sixty thousand people. Nearly eight thousand held legitimate firearms permits as security personnel. It operated more than a hundred subsidiaries. Steel mills, pharmaceutical plants, chemical factories, oil fields, mines, refineries, weapons manufacturing facilities, and research laboratories in every major discipline, scattered across every corner of the globe.
The merger generated a tidal wave of integration work. Without a solid six months, things weren't going to settle down. Bella delegated the entire transition to her people. You all wanted this merger so badly? Then you deal with it.
Natasha was being dragged from one assignment to the next by S.H.I.E.L.D. like a conscript. Bella genuinely worried.
Through a combination of gentle persuasion and firm insistence, she convinced Natasha to submit a transfer request to a desk position. Dropping from a Level 6 field agent to a Level 5 desk agent stung a little, but Bella had zero interest in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal politics. She held firm, and Natasha made the switch.
After that, Bella took her wife to Arendelle.
Earth was complicated. But on Vanaheim, no one was watching. They were expecting a child now. Bella felt it was time to give Natasha a proper wedding.
Seven days after their return to Arendelle, the palace began hosting their wedding ceremony and coronation.
Even counting all the little animals, Arendelle's total population barely reached twenty thousand. The numbers were modest, but the atmosphere was electric.
Bilbo Baggins loved a good party. Bella appointed him Court Steward.
The hobbit, dressed in what looked like a pair of overalls, a round cap perched on his head, bustled back and forth across the palace grounds making sure everything was in order.