Disclaimer: I own neither the Child of the Virus story, the [Prototype] games, the Mass Effect series, nor the Harry Potter series. Damn that is a lot of stuff to crossover.

A/N: It is highly recommended that you have played someof the Mass Effect games, the [Prototype] games, or read Child of the Virus before you read this in order to understand some of the earlier terms.

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Chapter 1

John, or at least the exact replica of John sans Eezo and Loa symbiote, appeared outside of an atmosphere above a planet. This planet, from his perspective, looked suspiciously like the Earth from when he was younger. He push such observations out of his mind when he noted that he was about to be in an unprepared re-entry.

He had to quickly adapt his biology to a thick carapace to survive the harsh re-entry angle at which he was thrown into the planet's atmosphere. John's clone had not the time to correct the trajectory, nor did it to do more than cover itself with the thick carapace to streamline its body to reduce friction, thus reduce the heat upon its body.

The descent ended relatively quickly, relative to past re-entry descent at least, wherein the sapient virus ended the decent with a very destructive crater in the hard-packed earth. He started the process of converting his biomass to a form that could use the oh-so wonderfully useful process that was commonly known as photosynthesis, and taking nutrients from the ground as needed. He took it one step further, though - he specialized it so that he needn't waste the excess Oxygen. He made the process more specialized than normally found in nature, so that he could make the process as efficient as possible.

In no time at all, relative to an Immortal Virus anyway, he was the size of an older sapling. What struck him as odd about the entire thing though, was that there was yet to be anything that came near his tree form. Normally, there would be something, or someone, curious enough to come close enough for his tendrils to reach out and consume.

Eventually, as time dragged onward, John had generated enough biomass to create himself a neural network underneath himself, which added some autonomy. Then, he created some basic sensory organs so that he could better sense his surroundings, and the signals that these sensory organs produced was sent to his neural network to better process what said signals meant.

He considered his surroundings, and was perturbed. Surely, if he landed on a planet that had sentient life, as this appeared to have, something would have noticed that he had fallen from the sky and investigated. Regardless, it was what it was, he found himself in the center of a forest clearing, and in the distance he could make out the sight of houses from the visual sensors he had made at the tip of his "branches".

The houses looked like a normal suburban setting, or at least from what 'his' memories told him. It suggested to him that it was Earth, and that they were at least past the Industrial Revolution in the tech timeline. It was reassuring that he was back with the Humans, and not in a totally backward universe. He had no idea what 'his' late experiment did. He did make a mental note to never do it, or something similar, again.

He had no desire to explore outward at that time, as he was happy with the slow life of a tree. He estimated that it was at least eight years since he had landed on the planet, and the ground, previously a crater, was morphed back into a normal looking clearing. He was the main cause for the terraformation of the small sample of land through subtle manipulation. After-all, it wouldn't do to announce this tree as anything alien, despite being black. It was at the end of this time, when it was summer time by his estimation, that a child had wandered into his domain.

The child looked unkempt, scrawny, had round taped glasses resting on his face, and wore worn out cloths too sizes too big to be acceptable. He had black untamed hair, vibrant green eyes and was obviously malnourished. The boy had in his hands a beat up book, and on close examination of the book it was revealed to be a science textbook with a notepad between the pages. Overall, the boy looked like a stark contrast to what he expected children to look like in a suburban setting, especially with a downtrodden look about him. He did not like that look on a child.

John made a quick decision, and put the hastily-made plan into action. His sight sensors were naturally already hidden, so he didn't bother with them, but what he did do was produce some fruits. These were not normal fruits, where normally they would provide for a way of spreading seeds, and provide some base sugars for those seeds. No, these were seedless fruits that were designed, by John, to provide the best nutrients for the boy that stumbled across his domain. He had made sure to remove the Blacklight virus, aka himself, from the fruit. Even though he had complete control over whatever Blacklight infected material does, it wouldn't hurt to be extra cautious.

He watched as the boy checked out the immediate area, and nod to himself. John couldn't help but be a little prideful of the fact that the boy approved of his clearing, despite not knowing the boy in the slightest. The boy cautiously walked over to the black intimidating tree that was the bulk of John's biomass. John was impressed that the boy seemed to know that he was not exactly what his appearance proposed to be.

The boy seemed satisfied that nothing had happened when he got within a reasonable distance, and proceeded to sit down between two of his roots, shaped in something akin to the back of a bean bag chair. The boy was again suspicious of the shape of his 'natural' seat, but after a while the boy just shook his head and sighed. "It's just a tree, Harry. You're just being paranoid. How could they bugger with a tree?" He, the boy, said, then sighed. It looked like the boy had begun to go over whatever it was he had planned when he set out for a search of peace.

To make sure that Harry had noticed the, admittedly, strange fruit, he let go of a fully grown one to fall just beside him. The fruit, which he had come up with on the fly, was the shape of an apple, but the colouring was too wrong for it to be an apple. Where the skin of an apple was red, this had black skin with a smattering of red design. On the inside was blood red, and there was no core. In hindsight, he realised that the fruit did not look edible to a normal person. To a starving person, though, they would probably eat it. His theory was proven true not a moment later.

Harry eyed the strange fruit in his hand, and thought it would be a very bad idea to eat some strange fruit from a strange tree out in the middle of a clearing. For all he knew the fruit was deadly, but his grumbling stomach and hunger pains reminded him that it was worth the risk if he got to eat his fill.

The fruit tasted delicious to his hunger-addled brain, like the finest of delicacies that could not be described fully by his nine-year-old, although impressive, vocabulary; His teacher would be impressed with his effort if he had tried.

In no time at all, he had eaten the entire fruit, and was saddened that there were no seeds he could use to grow more of the tree he took as his sound shelter. Then, Harry attempted to climb the tree to get at some of the other strange fruit. He could tell, in a general sense, which ones to go for, as the one that fell was black with red patterns, while others were lighter shades, with black patterns.

Oddly, climbing the tree was an easy feat for the slim, weak boy. Well, relatively speaking. It was still slightly exhausting to expound his energy towards the effort of hauling his body up. Though, he had the strange feeling that expending that energy would be worth it to get to the ripe fruit on the tree.

After gathering what he assumed to be an acceptable amount to fill his small stomach, namely three more than he had already ate, he settled back down in the small niche in the roots that he claimed for himself. He quickly got back to that which he had set out to do, all the while he was snacking on the delicious and surprisingly filling fruit. He made a mental note to study the fruit later, and his own actions to see if they were poisonous. Or, somehow, worse.

After that first day, Harry had made it a point to go there any time he could, for his quiet time.

On the fourth visit from the boy named Harry, John had another form there, that was in the shape of a black and red wolf cub, at about two years old. What could he say? He liked the black and red colour scheme.

After setting up the his tree, and essentially his first base of biomass production, to be mostly autonomous so as it needed little attention from him, he then transferred most of his focus to be inside the wolf form.

Despite being quite small at the approximate size of an average two year old wolf, he was heavy enough to be twice that of an average human, so as to be able to transform into various things at need. Scientifically speaking, that should not have been possible, as even heavy metals in that volume wouldn't be as heavy as his wolf form. John didn't really care that he casually broke the laws of physics. If anyone had called him out on that fact, he would just reply with, "If you are trying to enforce your laws on a fundamental aspect of the universe, then clearly you do not understand said aspect." John thought it was funny, but unfortunately for him no-one would call him out on it, as they wouldn't notice.

Harry, quite understandably, was in wonderment at having the wolf pup come up to him after he had gathered a few blackfruit - as he had begun calling the weird fruit - and sat down. The oddly colored wolf stared at him for a few moments, before it walked up to him, and liked his face before settling down beside him. It was small, which led him to believe it was just a pup. Though, he figured that if it were only a pup, then it would stand to reason that not only would it get a lot bigger, but that there would be a momma around. At that thought, he started to worry.

His worries were unfounded however, and as time passed with no mother around and a very amiable wolf cub beside him, he calmed. His calmed nerves did not stop him from being aware of his surroundings, though; it never hurt anyone to err on the side of caution.

Harry finally opened up the book he took to read and did as he intended to do when he set out for his quiet clearing.

After a few visits more to the Black Tree, each time the black wolf cub having been there waiting and Harry feeding some of the Black Fruit to the wolf, something had attacked them. As soon as John had sensed the aggressive animal, his wolf form had risen to attention toward the area the animal was in. Seeing that it was found out, the animal had bound across the clearing for what it thought to be an easy prey of a young boy and smallish dog. It couldn't be further from the truth.

John had met the animal, now identified as a few wolves in a pack, and had bit the first wolf's throat out. The second and third wolves went for the sides of John's form, and Harry unexpectedly had joined in on the fight, wanting to help. He thought that the other wolves would kill his newfound and only friend without help. The third wolf had veered off towards Harry upon sensing his approach, and left the strange-smelling black wolf and its pack-mate to fight.

Harry had felt fear grip his young heart when the grey wolf had bound after him with his new friend occupied. He realized that it was a stupid idea to confront the wolves when he belatedly realized his friend was doing fine and would have fought them off easily. Though, that was who he was, he would die for his only friend; he couldn't let his only sense of companionship and happiness die. Another extraordinary thing had happened upon the strong feelings felt by Harry; the wolf that ran towards him had been blown backward and with a sickening crunch had landed upon the ground a ways away. It did not get back up.

Harry stared at the unmoving body that was a very hostile wolf in shock. He was brought out of the state by a soft wine, and wetness on his hand. He looked down to see his friend and smiled wryly, raking shaky hands over the head of the black wolf cub. He realized that he couldn't just keep referring to the wolf as such, especially as they had just fought together. He read in one of his books that there was a certain camaraderie between people that fought together, and wondered if that applied to animal/human pairs too. "You need a name," Harry said to the black wolf, looking into the eerily intelligent looking eyes. He had said it more to himself than to the being he was looking at, but as if in answer, the dog-sized wolf cub had cocked its head to the side. "Would you like that? Would you like me to give you a name?" After a moment, while Harry was thinking he was being an idiot, the wolf nodded, likcking its chaps and looking off to the side where the other wolves were.

Without warning the wolf walked away towards its grey counterparts, before grabbing hold with its mouth and dragging them towards the black tree. It left the first wolf at the base of the tree before repeating the process two other times, only pausing to look at the one Harry had mysteriously managed to blow back.

Slightly mystified at the actions of his unnamed (to him) friend, he sat back in his normal spot, and watched. While he was watching, he thought of a name for the strange wolf. Decision made, he named him when the cub was finished and Harry had his attention. "Anubis, I think I'll call you Anubis, would you like that?" He asked him, all the while scratching behind the wolf's ears.

Harry got the idea from the subject they were studying in school, and after watching how the wolf both had the look of the god, and how it handled the dead, he decided to call his new friend that.

His eerily intelligent friend liked the name, and gave a nod. Harry thought he saw a flicker of a few emotions cross on the newly dubbed Anubis' face, but he didn't pay much attention to it, having been too pleased with Anubis liking his new name.

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After dealing with the first two wolves, John had watched in bemusement as his boy (when did the boy become his?) at first stood stock still at the rapidly approaching wolf and then the grey wolf was thrown backward by an invisible force. It looked like an invisible version of himself had uppercut the wolf, or an invisible version of a biotic throw hit it, the way that it flew through the air. He noted that his boy was staring at the animal in shock, so he assumed that he didn't know what had happened. He would have to investigate that later.

Perhaps he could acquire some of Harry's DNA later?

He had approached Harry cautiously, in hopes that the shocked boy wouldn't think him a threat and end up like the other wolf. He had wholeheartedly agreed with the prospect of being named by his boy, because then psychology dictated that he would be a lot closer to the boy. That was, if his boy wasn't a sociopath. He doubted it from his previous actions, but if his looks were anything to go by, it was a possibility.

Deciding to let Harry think of a name, he had wandered off to collect some precious, precious biomass for the Home Tree's 'storage'. Waste not, want not, as the saying went. 'Course, he couldn't absorb the bodies while Harry was around, at least not yet, but he could later when his boy left.

When he was finished, Harry had the name picked out for him, and he had agreed readily with the name. Afterward, when he realised that he didn't have a name for the form he took to meet the boy, he decided to name the wolf form 'Anubis'. Besides, the name fit for more reasons than Harry could possibly know. God of the dead and afterlife, indeed.

After that decision, he let the feeling of Harry's fingers scratching behind his ears take over, and he let his thoughts dwindle away.

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A/N: I probably screwed a few things up, and have a few inconsistencies, but I'm too... something - to look over it at the moment and I really wanted to upload it right now. Anyway, please review! I love hearing what you all have to say, no matter really what was said. Feedback is important! For the readers of my other stories, no, they are not dead, I just lost my inspiration for them at the moment. Even if they were, I don't think I've ever impersonatedFrankensteinyet...