CHAPTER 5:

A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL

Vert grimaced as he stepped gingerly over a corpse, Genesis' Rapier drawn and ready. AVALANCHE and its new associates were currently sneaking through the hold of a cargo ship they had stowed away on to head to Costa del Sol, after a series of misadventures in Junon, not least of which involved Harry having to save the life of a girl called Priscilla from a beach in lower Junon. The various members of AVALANCHE had made their way onto the cargo ship, and were investigating an alert. Shelke, using her earpiece which could hack into Shinra comms, had soon identified the culprit as Sephiroth.

They crept into the engine room, to find that a Shinra guard was standing in front of the engine. After a moment, he turned around, only to slump to the ground, his head toppling off his neck.

Soon afterwards, a voice echoed around the hold, a familiar voice to Cloud and Tifa. Even Vert knew the voice from recordings, as did Shelke. "At last…after a long sleep…the time has come…" And then, a figure rose, as if from beneath the floor. Tall, muscled, and elegant, dressed in a distinctive black coat open to the chest, and wielding a long katana. Long, silver hair framed a face that was elegant, alien, and utterly cruel, vaguely effeminate, cold blue-green eyes with a reptilian slit.

Vert looked at the sword, the famed Masamune, and then muttered, "Yep, definitely compensating for something."

Sephiroth peered at him, surprised at the snark. His eyes narrowed when he saw the Rapier in Vert's hand. "Who are you? And where did you get that from?"

Vert waved cheerfully, Shelke rolling her eyes as he did so. "Hi. I'm Vert the Emerald of Deepground, you might remember Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockheart, seeing as you turned them into shish-kebabs and burned down their hometown. That's Aerith Gainsborough, a real Ancient, unlike that disturbingly sexy alien you call a mother. That's my sister Shelke the Transparent, that's Barrett Wallace, leader of AVALANCHE, that is Red XIII, one of Hojo's former specimens, and this Wutai girl who's about to puke on your boots is Yuffie Kisaragi. Say hi to Sephiroth, Yuffie."

"Hi-HUUUURRRRGGGGHHHH!" Yuffie, as it turned out, was prone to motion sickness. And despite being given a couple of ginger pills by Cloud, she still felt rather queasy, the fear and anxiety at meeting the man who had decimated much of Wutai's army not helping matters. Hence her impromptu redecoration of Sephiroth's boots with the contents of her stomach. The silver-haired former SOLDIER looked distinctly unamused.

"Anyway, as for where I got it from, it was a gift from the man who owned it last. Bloke by the name of Genesis Rhapsodos. You know, red coat, has a tendency to quote Loveless, big ol' wing protruding from his back? Used to be an arsehole, is now trying to do penance?"

After a moment, Sephiroth said, "You did not inherit your wit from him."

"That's fine."

"It was not a compliment," Sephiroth said. He looked over at Cloud and Tifa, his eyes narrowing. "Yes…you…I remember you two…"

"Do you remember Zack? My mother? Tifa's father? All those people in Nibelheim you murdered?" Cloud snarled, readying his Buster Sword.

"Should I?" Sephiroth asked in a somewhat dismissive manner.

Shelke scoffed. "It seems that Hojo's hypothesis on Jenova cell-hybridisation causing premature senility is confirmed."

"What do you know, he got another theory right," Cloud snarked. "Must be a record for him."

Sephiroth sneered. "My advent has come! I bring gifts of death to all my enemies(1)!" Suddenly, he was flying up into the air. And then, something dropped from his cloak.

A grotesque lump of meat hit the floor, and then seemed to sprout in size, becoming a grotesque, vaguely feminine figure, towering above them, with bizarre wing-like flaps of flesh. A pulsating organ in its side could have been a heart, while its head was an elongated muzzle.

"Damn, that's ugly!" Barrett snarled.

"Is that Jenova?!" Aerith demanded, backing away as the creature scrutinised them, growling.

"A Jenova creature, yes," Shelke replied calmly, or at least emotionlessly. Her eyes danced a little with fear, though. "Sephiroth, the one we have just confronted, is the specimen from Shinra HQ transformed into a puppet body. It can shed parts of itself to create monsters."

Vert, however, frowned. "Aerith…there's something going on here. This is my first true exposure to a Jenova creature. Can you sense that?"

Aerith did so, concentrating, before her eyes widened in shock. "It's not just an alien creature…it's an alien Lifestream!"

"I don't get it," Barrett said.

"It's like the Lifestream of another world in miniature, concentrated Lifestream in a single creature…" Vert said, looking at the creature. "But stagnant too, not unlike G-Substance, but different. Much older, much more stagnant…"

The Jenova creature, as if taking issue with the statements, roared, and lashed out, sending Vert flying into a wall. "Okay," Vert said, getting unsteadily to his feet. "More fighting, less conversations. I've got it."

Barrett unleashed a salvo, while the others began evading the creature's attacks. Aerith and Shelke held back and used Materia, as did Vert, and Yuffie flung her shuriken. Cloud and Tifa, along with Red XIII, got up-close and personal with their attacks. The creature roared and shrieked, attacking them however it could.

Vert, however, was frowning. "It's screaming…" he muttered. "She's screaming."

"I know!" Tifa yelled. "Every time we hit it!"

"No, this is something else…Aerith, your Limit Break, Seal Evil, can you use it?"

Aerith nodded, her eyes glowing briefly with the orange and red light of a Limit Break, before flinging her hand out. A strobing flash, and suddenly, the creature was still. "Hold your fire," Vert said.

"Whaddya mean, hold my goddamn fire?!" Barrett snarled. "This bloody thing is tryin' to kill us!"

"I know…but is it the will of Jenova…or the will of Sephiroth?" Vert asked.

"The tapes left behind by Professor Gast Faremis and Ifalna suggest that it is a moot point either way," Shelke said.

"What do you mean? Those are my parents' names!" Aerith snapped.

"Yes. They recorded a series of videos that Hojo took," Vert said. "In one of them, Ifalna said that Jenova was the one responsible for wiping out most of the Cetra, forcing some to flee to Earth, and others to seal Jenova away. But…Aerith, listen!"

Aerith could scarcely believe what she was hearing. "…She's screaming. Crying. She's under Sephiroth's control…and I can't believe I'm calling the entity who destroyed my people a she. She's not a person!"

"No…no, once she was more than that. It feels…corrupted, ancient, but…it feels a little like…Minerva." Vert took off his glasses, revealing the emerald orbs behind them, glowing with Mako. "I'm probably about to do something extremely stupid, very Gryffindor. If I start acting strangely, restrain me. But I've got a gut feeling." He met the frozen eyes of the Jenova creature, and said, quietly, "Legilimens."

A mind is not like a book to be read, Snape had admonished him during those bloody Occlumency 'lessons'. Well, they were probably Snape being given the excuse to basically rape Vert's mind, back when he was Harry Potter, which showed that Dumbledore was either stupid, malicious, or had too much faith in the Potions Master to put aside his grudge. But Vert knew that for all Snape's nature as a vicious bastard who couldn't get over a grudge against his father and what seemed to be a broken friendship with his mother, Snape was right in a few regards. The nature of the mind was one of them.

He had not only strengthened his Occlumency while isolated in containment, but had practised his Legilimency, managing to replicate the spell used after having had it used on him by Snape. It was Genesis who allowed Vert to practise on his mind, with Zack occasionally volunteering. Instead of being a vicious attack, however, Vert learned to slip into a mind subtly. He also tried not to do so: he had been on the receiving end of mental intrusion far too many times to consider using it for anything other than truly important things.

The mindscape he was entering was very different from either Genesis or Zack's. It was dark, filled with obscuring clouds. Thunderbolts and lightning (very very frightening, me, Vert thought almost madly) spiked through the clouds. He was flying, flying through the mindscape…until he came to a massive crater.

Flying to the centre, he found himself on a blasted, hot landscape, smoking and glowing. But not volcanic. No, this was like ground zero for a meteorite strike.

As he landed, he began to hear what sounded like sobbing. And then, a cold, cruel, imperious voice. Female, but it sounded almost like Sephiroth. "Why do you refuse him? Refuse our child?"

Vert approached cautiously, hearing another woman…well, it sounded like the same woman, but upset. "This is wrong…can't you see it? This is wrong? This is not my will being followed any longer…it is his own…only his own…"

Both voices were coming from behind a massive veil of smoke, their owners hidden from view. As Vert crept ever closer, he heard the first voice say, "Our instinct, our will, is the same. It is the duty of every mother to help her child."

"You are blind…he has taken our will away from us! He has turned us into base beasts…to do his will!"

"His will is what matters."

"He is VIOLATING ME!" shrieked the second voice, before the speaker degenerated into sobbing. "My mind…my will…I am allowed to have no thoughts of my own. I am Jenova! The Calamity from the Skies! The empress of all I survey! Our son…MY son, has deposed me from my rightful throne. Worse, he keeps me chained! We were left to die killing those creatures!"

Vert, managing to make his way through the smoke, came across a bizarre scene. For a moment, he thought he had stumbled across some weird BDSM roleplay, or perhaps a new twist on Princess Andromeda being tied up as an offering for Cetus. Chained to a mangled, warped rock was a woman, blue-skinned, and silver-haired, her orange eyes glowing weakly. Her face was a proud, cold beauty, one that resembled Sephiroth's. She was wearing little more than a torn shift that did nothing to cover her modesty. Open wounds covered her body, marring the possible titillation.

Facing her was the same woman, but with no wounds. Her bearing was proud and arrogant, her eyes glowing strongly and malevolently. She was dressed in elegant armour, armour that, dark in colour, reminded Vert strongly of Minerva's. But different, darker, and more menacing. Even tarnished.

"That is our duty," the first speaker, who was the woman in armour, said. "There is no oblivion for ones such as we, save for those who refuse to follow the glory of Sephiroth."

"Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but it can't be that glorious if he can't afford a bit of armour polish for you," Vert snarked. As the armoured woman whirled to face him, and the chained woman looked up, startled, he said, "Hi. I'm guessing you're both Jenova. Or rather, two distinct parts of Jenova. I need to give you names, just so I don't get confused. Now, you," he said, pointing to the chained-up one, "I'll call Damsel. And you," he pointed at the armoured one, "you are Bitch. Because you're Sephiroth's bitch. And a bitch. It's funny."

"You…you are one of the insects who was trying to kill me," Bitch said. "And an accursed Ancient!"

"Hey, I stopped that. The trying to kill you thing. Because I could hear what was probably Damsel screaming."

"Don't call me that," Damsel snarled. "I am the REAL Jenova!"

"I beg to differ," Bitch said, her eyes flicking over to Vert. "You dare intrude on my mind? You must be more stupid than I considered, Cetra."

"Well, impulsive and reckless, which amounts to the same thing in the end," Vert said. "But the thing is, while there's really two villains in control here, I'm sort of rooting for Damsel here. So, I'm going to do to you, more or less, what I did to Deepground."

"What is Deepground?" Bitch demanded.

"Exactly," Vert said, before drawing the Rapier and dashing out at her.

Bitch's eyes widened, and she formed the Masamune out of thin air just in time to block it. She flung him away with a slash of the long sword, and scowled. "Fool. This is my mind. I am in control here!"

Vert shrugged, before he slashed the Rapier at the rock Damsel was chained to. The chains shattered, and as Damsel slumped to her knees, Vert remarked, "Actually, it's hers as well. Haven't you ever heard that sharing is caring?"

"I don't care," Bitch said, lunging at Vert, and slamming the Masamune down on the Rapier, executing a series of lightning-quick strikes, driving Vert back. "Sharing is for the weak! Not for the strong!"

Shit, I've underestimated her strength, Vert thought, as some strikes got through and sliced into him. He gritted his teeth and fought through the pain.

She swatted him away, sending him flying into another rock, and then pinned him through the shoulder with the Masamune. He glared up at her as she sneered. Like son, like mother. "Any famous last words, peon?"

Vert noticed movement behind Bitch, and snarled, "Not yet."

"Not yet? Is that famous?" Bitch sneered(2). Suddenly, her eyes bulged, and she choked up a gout of black blood. She convulsed, and then turned to find Damsel standing there, Bitch's still-beating heart in her hand.

Damsel, with the air of a savage beast, bit hard into the heart, sending gouts of dark blood spurting everywhere. Bitch staggered, trying to take her heart back, but collapsed onto the smoking ground, blood drooling from her mouth. Soon, Damsel had consumed the heart, and then looked at Vert curiously. "A human…a Cetra…an Ancient who has dared to enter my mind. You are foolhardy."

"I got Sorted into Gryffindor, you tell me," Vert said, gripping the blade of the Masamune, and pulling it out. It was painful and difficult, but he managed to yank it out and hurl it away.

"So tell me, Cetra, what is to stop me from consuming your soul here and now?"

Vert tried not to stare at her virtually-naked body. No eldritch alien parasitic entity should look that hot. Even with her mouth and much of her face coated in dark gore. "A sense of gratitude? Equivalent exchange? Love?"

"Love?" Damsel asked, raising an incredulous eyebrow.

"Yeah, my former mentor was big on love and redemption," Vert said. "Turning the other cheek, that sort of thing. Personally, I'm not sure whether I have any love left in me, and my cheeks are just one big mass of scar tissue." He got shakily to his feet, staggering a little, and then said, "Okay, how about this. We want to give your son a much-needed spanking. Not the kinky kind, we're talking operant conditioning here. I think it's operant conditioning. Anyway, we're pursuing Sephiroth to stop him. Given what you said earlier, you're not part of his fan club. In fact, it sounds like he screwed you over. Maybe you want to have first dibs on the spanking."

"…You are ridiculous, insolent, and in all likelihood, insane," Damsel…no, Jenova, said. Then, a vicious smirk lit up her face. "But I think I feel like indulging in some revenge, Cetra. For the time being, we are in alliance."

"Marvellous," Vert said, a little half-heartedly. As he made to withdraw, he said, "See you in reality."

As Vert returned to himself, the Jenova creature convulsed, then began to shrink. The monstrous body began to warp and change. "What the hell did you do to it?" Barrett demanded.

"Well, had a bit of a fracas in Jenova's mind. Got rid of the Sephiroth fangirl, a separate personality, and we've got ourselves an ally of convenience," Vert said. As the creature continued shrinking, he said, "Ladies and gentlemen, and, um…mountain lions…" He looked at Red XIII. "I present to you, the Calamity from the Skies, Jenova!"

The Jenova creature had now shrunken to a human size, and had changed in appearance to a human form. The skin changed to a pale white, an unearthly paleness like a corpse or a doll. The hair was silver. And her eyes, orange and with slitted pupils. She smiled in what was theoretically a winning manner, but actually seemed merely predatory.

Aerith seemed torn between looking horrified, and exasperated. The ancient enemy of the Cetra, allying with them? Eventually, she put her face in her hands, and groaned in annoyance. It had been a very long day…

CHAPTER 5 ANNOTATIONS:

As with Harry Potter and the Cetra Heritage, Jenova is becoming a character in her own right now. She's currently an ally of convenience. Will she actually join AVALANCHE's side? You'll see. I actually came up with the Legilimency thing halfway through the chapter. I hope you like the humour in this. Vert/Harry uses it to cope and cover his insecurities. He sometimes moodswings.

Anyway, next chapter, Costa del Sol. And Hojo's about to have a Reunion he never wanted…

Review-answering time! Reishin Amara: The first time she tried that, Vert threatened to spay her with her own shuriken. _

jgkitarel: And Vert respects Cloud to a degree, because Cloud can hold himself up as a would-be SOLDIER. In fact, after Kalm, when Cloud decided to just get back up and keep going, Vert thought, damn, you're like me. As for Shelke being Vert/Harry's morality pet, well, it's actually a bit of a two-way street. Shelke had all the morality wrung out of her by Deepground. So too had Vert, but when they became friends, they kept each other's empathy alive. Vert promised to help her escape one day, something Shelke would have thought impossible, until Vert, during his decimation of Deepground, cured her stunted growth. But yes, they're like siblings and friends. And yes, Vert/Harry does have some regard for the Turks, mostly Tseng and newbies like Elena. He likes to piss off Reno, as you'll discover later. You've already had a bit of it here.

1. I based this somewhat on an infamous line of Sutekh's (or at least his minion) from Doctor Who: Pyramids of Mars: "Die. I bring Sutekh's gift of death to all humanity." This is one of the must-see stories of the Tom Baker era, by the way.

2. This exchange was based on lines delivered by the Sultan and Baron Munchausen in the Terry Gilliam film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.