Disclaimer: Anything you recognize – be it character, location, idea or line – belongs to others; I may be playing with them but I make no profit from this.
When Worlds Collide
A Whole Lot of Yelling
Seifer noticed at once that the combatants laying in wait for them weren't in uniform, but acted like cohesive troops anyway: "SEEDs!" he realized with surprise. Though in truth, they were so young they might be just cadets.
Someone must have sent them... but who? And why? Questions that would likely remain without answers.
"Let's cross back," ordered Itachi tersely, but it was not to be: a tall woman with a crest of blood red hair threw a Quake their way and the slight earthquake reduced the Window to a narrow crack, to the twins' loud alarm.
Harry's eyes narrowed: how could they possibly know what to expect from the Window? Was there anyone who had control over such a natural and unpredictable phenomenon? Or was it just luck? More daunting questions they had no time for right then.
As if the woman's spell was a signal, the inexperienced SEEDs on the street launched themselves forward, two teams on each of their sides, obviously determined to engage them.
The three Guardians split up without delay, Scar and Seifer predictably moving towards opposite ends of the street to face one row of fighters each, while Itachi scanned the situation to find the quickest and safest route to get Harry out of the line of fire. He had the Summoner over his shoulders and was running up a nearby wall before Harry could even realize it.
It was a three-storey building with bow windows and elaborate wrought iron railings; they stopped behind the cover of the ornamental gargoyles on the roof edge, the bullets thrown at them by the closest snipers rendered ineffectual by the stone decorations and the ninja's nonchalant skill in equal measure.
That was the typical compromise they agreed to: Harry would not fight and needlessly endanger himself, but he would not be forced from the battlefield – and the chance to help his Guardians – entirely.
Laying down on the cold roof, Itachi and the Summoner peered down at the battle, ready to lend a hand if needed.
Unexpectedly, the red-headed twins proved just as capable of reacting promptly as the Guardians themselves: each of them was sided up to one Guardian, the grim focus they were bringing to the battle hidden behind manic grins.
The one next to Seifer was juggling a bright green bag and while the blond assessed the threats running at them again – their first charge had been disrupted by his Quake and less then half had proved experienced enough to still be standing afterwards – the wizard called out in fake cheerfulness: "Do have a sweet, my good people! I insist!"
He threw the content of his bag in the air and sugar-covered fruity treats of some sort rained everywhere; he jabbed his wand quickly and repeatedly, making them vanish in twos or threes.
"Good thing I learned Madam Pomphrey's dosing charms for unconscious patients," he muttered as an aside, busy spelling the sweets directly into their opponents' stomachs.
Seifer released another Quake to explode under the attackers' feet and readied a widespread Firaga.
He noticed, however, that even the three who'd managed to stay on their feet were faltering: a short young woman with a sober eye-patch sprouted boils all over, a muscled man with a morning star grimaced in pain for no apparent reason and the third one, a thin and tanned teenager martial artist, stared in horror as bat-like creatures made of snot tore their way out of his nose; the downed ones started screaming for the same reason or because their clothes were morphing into insects or snakes.
"Sugar Hexes," explained the wizard with grim satisfaction. "A Galleon the bag, if you're interested!"
Meanwhile his brother had judged the hidden and not-so-hidden snipers a bigger threat than the openly attacking combatants, so after casting a few disarming and tripping hexes at the fighters, without so much success as he'd hoped, he'd teleported himself onto a roof with a loud cracking technique.
That left Scar to handle the other wave of attacking cadets on his own and he swivelled just in time to raise a Shell against the first barrage of magical attacks and parry the physical ones, impressing the hell out of the one shooter of their party when he batted each and every bullet out of thin air with a blade he'd snatched from an unlucky knives-wielder: practice with Itachi's shuriken was paying off.
Then he charged his arm and destroyed a good portion of the street, leaving the young fighters bleeding, broken and in total disarray.
Without delay, he ran up the nearest wall (a trick he'd learned from Itachi) and to the red-head's side: the wizard had found tougher nuts than he'd expected and his useless left arm was a testimony to the fact that his magic couldn't stop bullets. He was nonetheless relying heavily on shields and moving little, except to teleport randomly all over the roofs with the customary loud cracks.
As young as they were, though, their ambushers were still SEED cadets and well trained to track a target's movements, even when apparently unpredictable; by the time Scar got to him and started instructing him on how to exploit the battlefield for cover, the red-head had already been nailed by several paramagic attacks, which his shield had been effective against, and more than one bullet, which had left him gasping with pain and unable to joke.
Seifer, for his part, moved swiftly among the opponents on the ground, knocking them out as quickly as he could and ensuring they were well and truly out of commission by breaking legs or arms and swiping up their Potions.
He was fast enough that despite the best efforts of the two combatants still fighting, only one Thundaga hit him squarely; he ignored the stiffness it left in his muscles with practised ease.
The red-headed wizard with him wasn't as lucky, or as well-trained; a pretty Blue Witch with short brown hair focused on him and her Sonic Waves kept disorienting him while her Laser attacks were doing a number on him. When a shooter abandoned the roofs, jumping down onto the street and redirecting his attention on him, the wizard went down at once and didn't get up.
Seeing this, Seifer switched his next attack to his No Mercy Limit Break, casting a fire spell onto the smart shooter, then spinning his gunblade around, focusing energy into it and taking a few steps back to gain the best angle for his attack: with an upward slash-motion, he launched circular blades of energy off, watching for a moment as the blast flew through the fighter and continued on towards the sky, leaving behind an explosion of flames that reduced the young man to a collapsed, moaning heap.
The brown-haired Blue Witch, the last one standing, looked frightened but determined; spying Scar on his way down with the other red-head in his arms, however, Seifer decided to ignore her and focused on his wizard partner.
The Ishvalan kicked the young woman unconscious and laid the second wizard beside his brother, checking that they were still only unconscious, if injured.
Itachi and Harry landed lightly next to them, looking unhappy.
The Summoner started healing the two red-heads, rather impressed by how they'd handled themselves despite their obvious lack of training; Itachi focused on his fellow Guardians instead.
"Military's blocking off virtually any road," he informed them, monotonously. "Young fighters, likely cadets, are stationed all over the area. I noticed messengers being dispatched and attempts at radio communications. More experienced SEEDs are likely on their way."
"We could try the sewers," proposed Seifer, wiping sweat off his brow distractedly. "Wouldn't be the first time strike teams or rebel groups use them, they're a veritable maze of tunnels. I should be able to find my way down there, though."
"They'll likely expect it," pointed out Itachi.
"We'll have the advantage in contained spaces," retorted the blond. "They'll have to come at us in small groups."
"Agreed."
"Let's go, then," said Harry, raising from where he'd been feeding Potions to the unconscious wizards. "Fred and George should be fine, but they'll be out for a while yet."
Nodding in acknowledgement, Scar and Itachi swung the two red-heads over their shoulders and Seifer took point, leading them quickly down darkened alleys and in and out of bars, warehouses and even a couple flats, where oblivious people sat around their evening meals while they slipped through their bedroom windows and up to the roofs or down to backstreets.
The fuzzy rain kept them company as they weaved in and out of the shadows around the pools of brightness city lights cast onto asphalt and stone.
They were almost at the entry point Seifer was aiming for, outside the Presidential Residence, when a jeep full of soldiers blocked their path.
"There they are! Get them!"
Readying themselves with bit-off curses, the Guardians spread out in a loose half-circle; Harry backed against a wall, dragging the still unconscious wizards with him.
Before any blow could be exchanged, an abrupt change in the air pressure heralded the arrival of an unexpected player.
Four impressive swords fell from the sky and embedded themselves in the street, shocking the blue-clad soldiers into dropping their weapons and making Seifer groan out loud.
Gilgamesh rose slowly from a crouch, the red of his outfit and make-up starker than usual against the dark greyness of Deling City, making the Guardians feel as if they were pushed out of the fight entirely by a strong wind. He grabbed the longest of the four swords quivering where they were impaled and slashed with it, leaving the faint impression of a green radial stroke against the back of their eyelids.
All of the soldiers crumbled, cut into pieces.
"You thrice-damned menace!" exploded Seifer, glaring up at the towering, demonic-looking figure. "Must you always meddle into other people's business!"
"SHUT UP!" bellowed Gilgamesh so loudly that the twins were startled awake with low moans. The attention of every party of soldiers in the neighbourhood was caught and they all converged onto their position, yelling excitedly at each other.
"Now look at what you did!" hissed Seifer, slashing his gunblade through the air ineffectively. "You bloody imbecile!"
"What...? Wait, who the hell are you?" asked Fred (or possibly George), groggy and bewildered.
"What the hell are you?" asked his twin at the same time, just as baffled.
"Never mind that now, let's get away before we have to fight the entire Galbadian Army!" grumbled a furious Scar.
Heedless of their irritation as well as its source, Gilgamesh didn't bother with hiding or lowering his voice. "You have returned!" he proclaimed in a shout. "And your Pilgrimage is drawing to a close!"
Practically, Itachi started to raise shields and was quickly imitated by his friends: they feared they would not be able to escape the strange being before the soldiers got to them.
"It is a glorious day! The Walker of Time is about to find his path and so are you!" rambled Gilgamesh loudly.
He pointed his arm at Harry with great drama. "I am observing you!" he half-yelled. "The Walker of Time is seeking powerful allies and the technological advances the hidden East can give him! But you! You have found your allies, but your destination is not clear to your eyes! Yet! He will confront the Sorceress that hunts him and you shall face your Nightmare!" he finished ominously.
"Hyne! You're a headache and a half, you are!" grumbled Seifer, rubbing his forehead.
A group of Galbadian soldiers either more ambitious or simply faster than the rest had come within range and raised their rifles. They were led by a broad-shouldered man with a red uniform instead of a blue one: he pointed at the demonic giant and bellowed: "Fire!"
That, even more than the volley of bullets that grazed him, seemed to catch Gilgamesh's attention. Turning to frown at the soldiers, he threw a hand out to another of the swords that were still embedded around him and slashed at them, lighting-quick.
When the red impression of his slice faded, however, the soldiers didn't look much worse for wear.
"Huh...? Should have used Masamune..." he muttered, peering at the sword crossly.
"Shoot him! Get him down!" bellowed the red-clad Galbadian again and was promptly obeyed.
Offended, Gilgamesh drew itself up to its full height – admittedly impressive – and yelled: "Fools! You face the mightiest of swordsmen! You face ME! GILGAMESH! I will turn you into onion rings!"
Seifer didn't bother to stifle his snort and the twins laughed outright.
More soldiers arrived at a run and took up position beside their comrades.
Scoffing, the overdramatic being turned his back on them all – somehow managing to stop the bullets in mid-air – and proclaimed grandly: "Go now, young Summoner! I shall deal with the nuisances in your path!"
Not willing to look a gift horse in the mouth, Harry and the others ran for the entryway to the sewers and hastily lowered themselves down.
While they were doing so, they heard Gilgamesh shout: "Enough expository banter! Now we fight like men! And ladies! And ladies who dress like men!"
In the last glimpse Harry had of him, he was pointing dramatically at one of the soldiers, who even hidden under his (or possibly her) anonymous armour looked embarrassed.
Seeing Seifer about to open his mouth, Scar told him firmly: "Don't even ask."
The sewers were several degrees colder than above ground and predictably humid. They were, however, far less dark and smelly that Harry had expected.
The sounds of yelling and shooting above quickly faded, replaced by the dripping and sloshing of water.
The plain tunnels looked well maintained and a small cluster of red bats fluttered up in a corner, proving the existence of a healthy ecosystem in the underground area. They fluttered in agitation at their passing, but didn't get close.
Seifer got his bearings quickly and led the way confidently, thoughts of taking this opportunity to restock some of his paramagic dancing in his mind. He knew there were natural Esuna and Life springs in the area; if he could remember where the draw points were...
They had moved only a few turns in when a quivering shadow stood in their path, radiating hostility.
In the dim light, it resolved slowly into a child with long, wild black hair and cruel purple eyes. He was vibrating with energy like a tightly coiled spring.
"You... are the ones..." he whispered eerily, his low voice echoing in the empty tunnels.
He was clad in shorts held by odd suspenders and a black, sleeveless, high neck pullover that left his midriff bare; his feet were also bare, except for a black bandage around his right heel and calf. The skin tone of one of his arms and legs was different from the rest of him, as if they'd been attached to his body at a later date.
He gave an overall impression of fragility and youngness, yet something in him screamed of anything but 'child'.
Scar and Itachi recognized him at once for what he was and stepped forth aggressively, falling into their stances.
His cruel grin widened into a feral growl and the two wizards beside Harry shivered, unconsciously taking a few steps back.
"Let us pass, homunculus!" ordered Scar, venom in his voice.
"I'm going to kill you ALL!" replied the creature, ending in a savage shout.
To their utter shock, he clapped his hands before his chest, forming a circle with his arms, and blue energy crackled from him abruptly, dancing along his limbs. He threw his hands to the ground with a gleeful shout and an Alchemic Circle blared for an instant bright blue before exploding the tiles of the floor into huge spikes intent on skewering his opponents.
The six of them barely managed to jump or apparate away before being pierced.
"How can it use Alchemy?" exclaimed Scar in shock.
The homunculus was running at them in a half crouch, keeping himself low on the floor. "I'll teach you to threaten my mommy!" he raged.
"What?!"
Seifer grabbed Harry and swung him around and down a side passage. It was almost entirely occupied by flowing water, but it was the work of a moment to noisily drag a rusty ladder over and throw it across the canal to get to the ledge on the other side.
"Oi! Red-heads!" he yelled. "With me!"
The twins did not waste time in following him and Scar hastily destroyed the passage they'd just cleared, pushing the resulting boulders in the way to cover their retreat.
Itachi was busy keeping the short homunculus engaged. The child-looking creature had transmuted himself a couple of short, deadly blades and was holding his own against the ninja; kunai met blade again and again with resounding clangs and flying sparks as they danced around each other in close combat.
With snap judgement, Scar set himself to trap the fight within a contained area, destroying the entrances to any nearby tunnels. The last thing they needed was for the creature to escape into a maze and become a shadow among shadows, forever a threat of ambush past the next corner.
Itachi and he would work on a way out for themselves later.
The fight wove in and out of the smoke and debris Scar's systematic destruction was causing; the ninja had no difficulty keeping the homunculus at bay. Despite his amazing strength and speed, the creature was obviously self-taught when it came to martial arts: he relied almost exclusively on instinct and natural talent and the Guardian was slowly but surely wearying him down.
Very slowly.
The homunculus' endurance and powers of recuperation were astounding and Scar clenched his teeth: drawn-out physical struggles were not Itachi's strong point. He'd have to relieve his fellow Guardian soon...
Or maybe not.
A fireball exploded unexpectedly from the ninja's fast fingers and a screech of pain echoed in the destroyed area. Scar smirked.
The lithe body of the homunculus flew through the remnants of dust and smoke after a vicious blow to his midsection. A furious scream tore from his twisting body and when he impacted the wall, with enough force to leave a shallow crater, he screamed again, more in fury than pain.
Itachi was perfectly still, holding his form effortlessly; waiting.
The homunculus sprung to his feet with a bellow: "I will KILL you!"
A crackling blue energy signalled another Alchemic transmutation; he launched himself off the wall with the speed and force of a projectile and deadly spikes of rock tore out of the wall to flank him.
Itachi broke the huge spikes; Scar intercepted the homunculus and swung him around, throwing him violently into another wall.
With a broken cough, the creature got himself to his feet once more. "I won't... let... you..."
He glared at them through his long black bangs, fury and hatred positively radiating from him. "I won't LET you!"
"Let us... do what?" asked Itachi in a perfectly controlled, level voice. The softness of his tone almost made Scar wince.
In contrast, the homunculus' cry was loud, childish, ravaged with rage; almost feral. "You want to harm my mommy!"
That caught both Guardians by surprise.
"What? That's ridiculous!" blurted Scar, genuinely stupefied. The creature truly thought it had a mother?
"Liars!" the homunculus yelled, utterly furious. He clenched his fists at his side, arms rigid and back straight, glaring at them. "She told me! You... you horrible... SEEDs! You want to kill her!"
Itachi frowned minutely. "We are not SEEDs," he said in clipped tones.
"LIARS!" the creature raged at them. "Murderers! I won't let you!"
"We're not..."
"My mommy doesn't lie!" the homunculus screeched, drowning out the ninja's cool denial. He pointed at them accusingly: "You're SEEDs! You want her dead! I won't let you harm her!"
He took off at a run towards them, then, swooping in a controlled slide over the wet pavement, he clapped his hands loudly in a Circle, electricity dancing at his fingertips and arching off him along the water, while he used his momentum to spin and launch a powerful kick from underneath them.
Scar and Itachi reacted together, jumping away and then moving back as one, seamlessly, against the threat. A precise hit from the ninja, a potent kick from the Ishvalan, and the homunculus was flying through the air again, his body discomposed, yet landing gathered and coiled, ready to launch himself off again.
And again.
The amount of physical punishment the homunculus was enduring was bordering on absurd, yet his speed and strength didn't diminish in the least.
On the other hand, he had yet to land a hit on either Guardian.
His random bursts of Alchemic attacks were the only serious concern. The sheer unpredictability of what he could do made him dangerous; however, no matter how skilled and deadly the child-looking creature was, he was also prone to losing control and descend into violent fits of temper.
Scar exploded the floor beneath his feet and Itachi threw a chakra-laden fiery dragon above his head at the same time; caught between the powerful attacks, the homunculus jerked and moaned in pain, crumbling, then gasped and cried and scrambled to get himself away and somewhere safer.
Dust settled slowly and the two Guardians faced him once more, tall and composed in the middle of a disaster area that threatened to collapse onto them all at any next blow to its structure. The homunculus was whining softly and breathing laboriously, tensed, forcing himself up into a half-crouch, one leg extended to the side, hands lightly supporting him.
"I won't let you hurt my mommy!" he yelled again, irrationally and burst into sobs. "I won't! I won't!"
"We have no reason to," pointed out Itachi, opposing his perfect, cool rationality to the unreasoning behaviour of his foe, with the same imperturbability as when he opposed his hits with an unflawed guard.
Scar was much less composed. "You don't have a mother, you wretched abomination!" he shouted, blowing up a sidewall and raining detritus over the small figure vibrating with rage.
A low rumble started running along the ceiling of the abused tunnels, threatening a rockslide.
"LIES!" the homunculus shrieked. "She's my mommy! Mine! MINE! And you won't get her! I WILL KILL YOU!"
He lunged at them again, with twice as much fury and a lot less coordination than earlier, which made him harder to deal with: like a rabid animal, thought Scar, curling his lips in disgust.
Laconically, Itachi ordered: "Trap and hold."
With understanding born of familiarity, Scar worked out his friend's plan at once and promptly launched into a flurry of attacks that gave the homunculus no quarter, putting all of his strength and speed into the task of corralling him into a corner where Itachi could nail him with an overwhelming attack, like he'd done to the one in the Forest.
He barely had the time to be glad of his foresight in fighting him in a contained area, before the advantage was voided: feeling trapped, the homunculus turned and ran at full speed towards the wall, neither stopping nor ricocheting off it like they expected, but rather – to their shock – merging with it.
Yet another impossible ability the creature was unexpectedly displaying.
His body fused with the stone fluidly, taking on the look and consistence of the wall he was about to pass through; he paused halfway through, one arm and his head still out, to whip his long, wild hair around and glare one last time: "I. Will. Kill. You. All!" he shouted and disappeared into the stone.
Scar cursed heartily. "Now what?"
Itachi's countenance showed nothing of the irritation he had to be feeling.
He disappeared his kunai somewhere on his person and made his way silently to a water wheel spinning lazily some way off. "Now, we find Harry," he said quietly and jumped on the wheel with light grace, letting it transport him over until he could easily move onto a beam and disappear further down the tunnel.
Scar kicked some rubble with a last curse, for good measure, then followed him, stalking like an angry jaguar.
Meanwhile, Harry and the others were having some problems of their own. Though Seifer classed them more like annoyances than actual threats.
His plan had been to lead Harry and the wizards through the sewers and out of the city as quickly as possible, but he hadn't counted on Creeps slowing them down so much. Every corner they turned seemed to be hiding a couple of the eerie things, creeping around like shadows, slinking into their path, stretching their disproportionate fingers with unnerving greed.
It was a damn infestation!
Granted, they weren't much of a challenge. The twin wizards had been beyond shocked when a Thunder had exploded over them right after the eerie black monster had been defeated, but once they'd got with the program, they had been just as efficient at dealing with the nuisances as Harry and Seifer, which was good. It was also good that the Creeps in the area were low-level. Seifer knew all too well how much damage the damn things could inflict when on the brink of death. At least none of them had cast Heartbreak – that attack was a pain in the ass he didn't want to deal with.
Still, they were slowing them down and that was just too irritating for words.
"Change of plans," he announced with a glare into nothing. "Let's use the canals rather than the tunnels. They don't like to touch water, they won't follow us there. We'll end up wet and dirty with disgustingly slimy things, but better than the alternative."
"Seconded," said Harry at once.
"Wet and slimy is not a problem!" chimed in George with a too wide smile.
The twin wizards, it turned out, had a lot of experience with icky stuff. They knew spells to keep anything off their skin and robes.
"When you like to play around with Potions and ingredients as much as we do, this kind of domestic spells are a must!" commented Fred lightly.
"Plus, Mum would have skinned us alive if we didn't learn to pick up after ourselves," added his brother sagely.
"And being the geniuses that we are..."
"...we figured out pretty soon that not making a mess is quicker and less tiring than cleaning it up afterwards!"
"Brilliant," was Harry's fervent comment. He was totally going to learn those spells – it'd make his Alchemist dabbling much less messy.
Seifer's idea worked and they managed to pick up speed and make good progress towards the exit he knew would lead them out into the plains – but suddenly a rust covered, slightly stinky ladder before them disappeared with a pop in a cloud of white smoke, leaving in its place a crouched, grey-clad human figure. The head and face were completely covered by an adherent black cloth with an attached metallic plate showing a musical note and a snake-like neck-cloth was wrapped around his throat.
"What the...!"
In their surprise, the four splashed a lot of dirty water around as they stumbled back a few steps and gripped each other for balance.
Slowly and with an overdramatic scraping sound, the masked man drew a curved blade from a scabbard on his back. Seifer rolled his eyes and brandished Hyperion, sloshing to step in front of Harry.
Then. Then! Two more pops with a side dish of white smoke flared behind them. Two other men in the same hooded masks and patterned neck-cloths were suddenly there, both sporting the musical note on their plates; their grey tunics flowed around their legs as they raised menacingly to their feet and their tight cloth belts supported a whip and a nunchaku respectively. They were standing on the water, cool as cucumbers.
Seifer cursed, recognizing the skilled fighters in grey from the Battle in the Forest: he snapped out a terse warning and stepped back closer to the Summoner, fighting his instinct to launch himself into battle because he was the only one there to protect Harry this time. Fred and George let out dismayed groans and raised their wands, closing ranks, while Harry started twirling his Rod in a pattern for speed boosting. Peach-coloured impressions of translucent watches flared briefly around the four, granting them all the odd, deceitful impression that the world was slowing down around them.
Before the fight broke out in earnest, three more combatants arrived at a run from a tunnel in the direction where the exit should be, one of them with a massive wolf on his heels. They were similarly dressed, but with different symbols on their metal plaques; two quickly flanked the still-crouched fighter who'd appeared first, while the third and tallest flared his fingers in handsigns Itachi often used and vanished mid-step, only to reappear on the other side of the assembled group, pivoting into a fighting stance.
"Dammit!" grumbled Seifer and snapped a Protect around Harry just as the six grey-clad ninjas attacked, and three more spilled into the tunnel, drawing their weapons.
With quick, sure slashes, the Guardian took care of the two who reached them first, despite the disadvantage of being below them and in the water; then cursed loudly as the snarling wolf and his vicious partner closed in on him, their teeth and claws and spiked boots testing his reflexes to his limits in a pandemonium of splashes and thuds and yells.
A grenade went off, courtesy of the Summoner, scattering the incoming rearguard, then as soon as they'd collected themselves somewhat, it went off again, in true Harry style, this time with an Ice component to the explosion that left all three bleeding and shivering.
On the other side of the battlefield, one of the grey-clad, music-note-marked fighters was down, his nunchaku in splinters and vicious, minuscule wooden birds battering him in swoops like military aircraft formations. The other two ninja crowded the twins aggressively, but strangely enough, the red-heads were quickly gaining the upper hand: they'd dealt with the water somehow and without that impediment, the restricted space in which the fighting was taking place worked in their favour.
The enemies were amazingly skilled combatants, but unfamiliar with each other's styles: they kept getting in their partner's way as they both tried to attack at the same time; Fred and George, on the other hand, might have been only mediocre fighters, but the way they coordinated their movements with nothing more than half a look, as if they could read each other's mind as easily as breathing, made them formidable opponents.
They weren't two wizards: they were a single unit with four arms, four legs, two quick wands and a whole lot of creative ideas – soon enough, uncontrolled laughter, oddly swollen joints and pulsing sting marks were plaguing their enemies.
A thunder exploded loudly around Seifer and a pained howl echoed along with the rumbling as electricity coursed the wolf's nerves, incapacitating him. A gunblade shot point-blank downed Seifer's other attacker and almost at once, green-tinged bubbles of magic swirled around him and through him, as Harry healed what scrapes and bruises he'd collected.
"Do you think there are others around?" asked the Summoner, slightly worried about his missing Guardians.
"Let's not stick around to find out," replied Seifer grimly and herded his charges off, carelessly stepping over the tentacled, oddly-spotted and, in places, oozing victims of Fred and George's creativity. He barely stopped to knock the only stirring one unconscious.
They sped down a corridor and waded a shallow canal, turned around and back from a rusty, collapsed ladder and hurried left, then left again, until Seifer recognized the two connected water wheels he'd been looking for, then down a few steps and up again on the other side and if he remembered correctly, the next turn right would be the last but one...
"Stop!" yelled Harry unexpectedly.
"What?!" barked Seifer, spinning around, gunblade at the ready.
But it wasn't an enemy the Summoner was pointing at: it was a Window.
It shined with soft sunlight beyond well-maintained wrought iron gates that probably indicated a sluice. A slight, moss-scented breeze was moving from the warmer atmosphere beyond into the cool underground they were in.
The twins ran to it at once, peering through and whooping.
"I can see Hogwarts!" cried George (or possibly Fred) in undisguised relief. "Let's go, quickly!"
Harry scowled. "We have to find my Guardians first! I'm not leaving them behind."
"Let's protect the passage," suggested Seifer, all too aware of the precarious nature of the Windows. "Make sure no-one but us can go through, and any fighting doesn't come too close."
"Good point," nodded Harry fervently and they set to ward the corner.
There was also a swirling, evanescently pink draw point hidden nearby. Seifer tested it and smiled in satisfaction: "Esuna!" he identified, promptly replenishing his stock.
"Alright," called out one of the twins. "We've added every ward Bill taught us. Nothing should be able to cross-"
An explosion of rubble tore through a wall, rocks sliding and tumbling across the passage and right into their warded corner, making them yelp; there was smoke and dust blinding them and heavy rubble flying past their ears... and two tall figures calmly stepping through the chaos as if on a stroll in a park.
"The homunculus escaped us," said the figure on the left, resolving itself into Itachi, somehow clearly audible despite the pandemonium around them.
"Finding it is going to be a pain," grumbled Scar, by his side, radiating anger from every tense muscle. "This place is a maze, and guess what? It can walk through walls."
"Riiight..." drawled Harry, gaping through the goggles he'd pulled on when the smoke had started spreading.
Seifer half-chocked on a laugh. He moved out of the warded corner, questions bubbling up, but the surprises weren't over.
"Furthermore, he seems convinced that we are attempting to harm his mother," added Itachi with a very slight frown. "I find it disturbing – how could he have come upon information about us that would lead him to such a conclusion?"
"Leaving aside the fact that it's a homunculus, its having a mother is ludicrous," added Scar in a disgusted tone.
"Why would he think we're out to kill his mother?" asked one of the twins in bewilderment.
"Because we're SEEDs, apparently."
"What?" Harry's jaw dropped. "Seriously?"
"Wait, go back to the 'passing through walls' thing..." said Seifer.
As the two Guardians summarized their skirmish with the strange homunculus, the dust and debris slowly settled all around them, leaving the six in the middle of a devastated, but at last quiet, area. The soft sounds of the water sloshing around new obstacles – rocks and pieces fallen into its path – and dripping from the walls onto which it had been splashed up, rose to fill the silence while they pondered on the information.
"Well," said Fred (or George) faintly after a while. "At least our wards are as good as we thought. Some stuff passed the outer layers, but none of the rubble got all the way through." He gestured to the Window behind them, still quietly open on a sunny afternoon somewhere entirely else.
That was true. If poor consolation.
"Alright. Focus," said Harry sternly. "We need to find the homunculus. How are we going to track him in this labyrinth? The corridors and streams are all alike – and filled with monsters to boot."
"Do we have to...?" started Seifer.
"YES!"
The blond Guardian raised his hands in mock surrender.
"He might come to us. He attacked us twice while we were looking for you," pointed out Itachi.
Scar nodded along: "Blitz attacks - darting in and out again, taking refuge through walls we cannot easily pass."
"We will have to find a way to contain it if we want answers," added Itachi coolly.
"Which we do," agreed Harry with a sigh. "At the very least we need to find out who could possibly have known enough about us to describe us to him..."
"There's a chance he's from the Galbadian Garden," muttered Seifer, old shame rising in him at the thought of the red building. He pushed it down determinedly. That was a different life.
"What makes you think that?" asked Itachi neutrally – not doubting Seifer's knowledge of this world, nor his intuition, but curious nonetheless.
"Any information the Sorceress has on SEEDs likely comes from a Garden. It's the headquarters of her enemies, after all. It makes sense that she would send an undercover agent there and what better option than a child who's not a child? The one in Galbadia is considered a part of the local military, rather than an independent mercenary-only force, so now that she's in charge here, it's part of her military. She controls it. When I was sent to take it over... some of the students followed her – followed me – out of loyalty to their country. Any dissenter either fell to mind control quickly or..."
He swallowed, unable to complete the thought.
Itachi had no such qualms: "They were locked up out of the way, tortured for information, the usual."
Harry shivered; Seifer made a horrible face, images of D District rising along with bile in his mouth, but didn't say anything. There wasn't anything to say.
"In any case, the homunculus must have gained its knowledge of SEEDs there."
"Still doesn't explain why us..." frowned Harry.
Seifer shrugged. "Might just be that we look like SEEDs. Or how he thinks SEEDs look. Or something."
"My, my. You sure have a lot of theories," said a soft, low, woman's voice.
They turned in surprise, weapons appearing in their hands as if by magic. Harry felt Scar, beside him, start and gasp out a curse, but he regained control quickly, muttering: "Impossible." Seifer whistled softly.
She was tall, willowy and dark, with skin as pale as moonlight and incredibly long, wawy hair, blacker than the dead of night. The mark of a homunculus was tattooed over her left breast, as red as her lipstick. Her black dress left her shoulders bared and showed off her luscious figure, ending with a small flare mid-calf. High-heeled boots and long black gloves completed her outfit.
She made no sign of having noticed their reactions.
Beside her, another creature was grinning like a loon: it was short – barely reached her waist – bald and fat, with deformed features and thick, gorilla-like arms. He, too, was dressed in black, pants and a vest and a belt.
Even Itachi frowned minutely. How had they not noticed them arrive?
"I'm hungry," the shorter creature rasped in an oddly soft, droning voice, baring an array of teeth. "Can I eat them?"
Harry gaped: he couldn't help it. He had seen a number of strange creatures in his travels, but this one left him inexplicably uneasy. Its eyes were little round, white holes: completely blank, void of any emotion or intelligence.
The two made a strange tableau – tall, gorgeous woman and squat, big-nosed monster – yet somehow… they fit.
The Summoner's eyes were drawn every few moments to the odd red markings on the two newcomers' shoulders and arms, which gave him the unnerving feeling some Runes did, of almost but not quite understanding their meaning. He was sure he'd end up with a headache if he could find the time to puzzle them out.
An unwelcome head of wild hair framing purple eyes popped out from behind the woman, glaring at them.
"There they are!" yelled the child-homunculus, pointing dramatically. "KILL THEM!"
Seifer and Scar groaned openly.
The woman sighed deeply, flicking a lock of her luxurious mane away from her face. She had unnaturally long nails under her black gloves.
"They want to hurt my mommy!" the homunculus insisted, whimpering pitifully.
"Poor baby," she cooed coolly, making her disinterest in the situation obvious. "We should kill them, then, hm?"
"YES!"
The fat creature shifted its weight and wailed softly: "Can I eat them now?"
It was, quite literally, salivating, noted Harry with disgust. A disproportionately long tongue licked the creature's lips and teeth eagerly, displaying its ouroboros mark.
"Just make it quick," said its woman-like companion quietly, closing her eyes as if bored.
With a cry of mingled glee and eagerness, the fat homunculus lunged at its prey.
Guardians and Summoner scattered with practised ease.
The way it moved was as disconcerting as the rest of it. It wobbled, swinging its too-long arms like a gorilla, but at the same time, it ran with full speed. And the way its bared teeth seemed to grow in size and brightness as it drew closer was nothing short of unnerving.
A brief, violent clash with Scar repelled him and Seifer threw out a Fira for good measure, which managed to scorch the child-homunculus too. The two hissed and raged, but even as they backed off, they were already healing.
"Let's lure them away from the Window," murmured Seifer, not taking his eyes off them.
"Good idea."
Harry exchanged a meaningful look over his shoulder with Fred and George, who quickly took up position before the Window, determined to protect it.
Unfortunately, this drew the attention of the child-homunculus and his purple eyes went impossibly wide when he caught sight of the sun-drenched square of Otherness.
"NO!" he yelled and took off at a run, not towards the Summoner and his Guardians, but towards the wizards.
Scar and Seifer moved to intercept him but weren't quick enough and the creature jumped or bent, crawled or leaped to avoid them.
"You will not escape into another world like that man!" the homunculus shouted.
Startled, the Guardians faltered in their attack.
"What man?" asked Harry, puzzled.
"The BASTARD who made my mommy cry!" the homunculus spat with fury and disgust. "Voldemort!"
Everybody froze.
"I'm going to eat you!" came a rumbling, eager announcement from behind them and with a snarl, Scar turned to kick the fat homunculus, leaving the other five to gape at the completely unexpected declaration of the child-homunculus.
For his part, he didn't appear to notice their shock and just ranted on: "I will kill him if he returns! Nobody hurts my mommy!"
He slammed himself against the shield the twins had raised and started raging: "No! You will not run away! I'll kill you! You can't hurt my mommy! You're just like him! He made her cry! Bastard! No no no no!"
"Boy, but you're annoying," grumbled Harry, as the two wizards, somewhat overcoming their shock, started firing curses at the raving homunculus, while Seifer turned to support Scar against the other two – barely raising Hyperion in time to block the woman-like creature's unnatural long, flexible claws, which to his shock and fury, turned out to be sharp enough to mark his blade.
She smirked at him, smug and cruel and utterly beautiful in a vaguely horrific way. With a growl of pure rage, he lunged at her and the battle was on.
The hexes and curses of the twins didn't seem to have much of an effect on the irate homunculus, who only stopped hammering the shield with his fist to whirl and spit at Harry: "You can't get at her! You won't escape! I will stop you!"
Harry sighed impatiently: "You know, kid, you've got a serious case of confusion!"
"You won't make my mommy cry!"
"I don't even know who your mom is!" screamed Harry in frustration.
"My mommy is the best Sorceress of all time!"
"Oh, great," spat Seifer, who had, apparently, been blasted back right in time to catch the declaration.
Harry swung his Rod into the woman-homunculus' belly right as she clawed through Seifer's Protego, long blueish slashes flaring and disappearing in the wake of her fingernails.
Seifer cut her in half, discharging a blast of his gunblade into her body, and she screamed as she collapsed.
"The Sorceress is in league with Voldemort?" he asked in disbelief, barely paying attention to the fight anymore.
"Well, was rather than is, I gather," corrected Harry, feeling a bit dazed. "But still."
"So it would seem," agreed Itachi, carelessly throwing the homunculus' body as far away as he could. It was already twitching to repair the damage they'd inflicted on it, gasping and coughing all the time.
"Unbelievable!" hissed Seifer.
Fred and George's voices rose in a string of nonsensical words that raised an opaque curtain around their corner, then cut off abruptly and Harry guessed they'd cast some sort of silencing ward.
The child-homunculus realized the Window was safely beyond his reach and proceeded to throw a tantrum.
"This is all your fault!" he bellowed and jumped on Harry, somehow producing a blade in mid-lunge.
Itachi was a blur as he threw the creature back and followed up with a powerful attack, blowing the homunculus over Scar's and his two opponents' heads and sending him to crash somewhere down the darkened tunnel.
Harry did not waste time worrying about him: the other two enemies were attacking again.
Hands joined in a combined fist, the fat homunculus tried to hammer Itachi straight in the stomach; the Guardian was no longer there however, and the fist impacted nothing but tiled floor, raising a cloud of dust and tile fragments. Its companion slashed through it, tearing stone and tiles apart as if they were cloth and forcing the Guardians to dodge her hits rather than retaliate.
Easily able to see thanks to his goggles, Harry almost wished the dust and smoke were blinding him. The creature advancing on him was disgusting, saliva dripping from its lolling tongue and hands clenching and unclenching in a greedy grasp.
Itachi appeared out of nowhere, flanking Seifer who was shielding the Summoner with his body; a roar of rage came from an invisible Scar, hidden somewhere in the whitish smoke, quickly followed by a cry of pain from the female homunculus.
"Let's split!" called out Harry and using his Rod as a pole, vaulted over the fat homunculus, startling it, then started running away from the Window, knowing the creature had pivoted to hunt him.
As he expected, he hadn't gone five steps before Itachi was by his side, running backwards and yet keeping pace while flowing through handsigns to throw small fire attacks against their pursuer.
The fat homunculus roared in glee and opened its mouth impossibly wide, swallowing the fireballs.
Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Seifer grabbing the woman-homunculus by the waist and dragging her away down a corridor to the right, Scar keeping her claws busy with a flurry of hits.
Turning sharply to the left, the Summoner dashed away, Itachi keeping himself between Harry and the homunculus in hot pursuit.
When he found a crossroad of tunnels with a huge wheel, he put up a burst of speed and ducked behind the shelter of the slowly turning gear.
Stopping to face their foe, Itachi flashed his kunai briefly and tore through the homunculus' flesh with almost no resistance. The creature's arms fell to the ground, neatly cut, and it screamed. The severed limbs crumbled into black ashes, but it made little difference: blood-red lightning coursed over the stumps and under their very eyes, the arms reformed, skeletal bones sprouting and lengthening, muscles and fat covering them, skin enveloping the renewed limbs.
Itachi jumped back to join the Summoner and quickly raised the scant water of the channel in a protective, thin wall.
With a frown of great displeasure, the homunculus shook itself all over, like a dog getting rid of excess water, and launched itself at them once more.
Harry narrowed his eyes behind his goggles and evaluated speeds and distances. A small bomb soared from his hand in a graceful arc and fell right before the running homunculus' feet, exploding on impact. It blew the creature up and straight into the ceiling.
For a long moment, nothing moved except pieces of the homunculus falling here and there in bloody messes. Then the torn flesh quivered and, as if attracted by an irresistible force, pulled together piece by piece, getting stuck in a deformed lump that slowly, with a rasping sound, pushed itself into its original form. Red lighting ran up and down the lump, shaping it further, until the homunculus stood once again fully healed before them.
Itachi didn't let it discompose him and simply threw an explosive tag wrapped around a kunai straight at the reforming homunculus. It blew up again, and again, it pulled itself together.
Another explosive tag sailed through the air and impacted the creature's shoulder, blowing its left side entirely apart. Blood spurted everywhere. Nervous red energy set to fix the damage.
Oddly calm, Harry readied another bomb, recalling Dumbledore's advice: The only way to kill a homunculus is by expending all of the power that was granted to them, leaving them unable to revive themselves once they have been killed...
Alright then. Slow and gruesome it was.
Itachi's thoughts had clearly followed a similar path. "Attrition," the Guardian said laconically and Harry nodded.
With quick, smooth moves of his Rod, the Summoner drew an insubstantial clock in the air above the homunculus' head, then cast the particular twist that would Slow it down – something he was rather proud of, since he hadn't known it was possible to mimic this particular monster's ability until Seifer had assured him so and he'd had to work out how to do it all on his own. Ethereal chains wrapped around the image of the clock before it sank into their attacker, drawing a confused roar from it.
"What… did… you… do…?"
Its question came out as a drawn-out bellow and its face frowned in anger and confusion. Its every movement slowed down until it looked like it was moving through treacle rather than simple air. Harry smiled.
Bomb followed exploding tag and jutsu followed grenade in an almost choreographed sequence, a finely timed barrage: sometimes destroying parts of the homunculus, sometimes simply blowing it back, but never giving it a moment's rest.
The glutton however kept advancing with drawn-out determination, always changing the angle of attack, always being stopped and hurt, always regenerating and charging again, unstoppable. It was like it didn't even feel their hits.
Except… it did feel them. It wasn't evident, especially with the fading effects of Harry's Slow still hampering it, but its attacks were neither as ferocious nor as potent as they'd been at first. The homunculus kept regenerating itself, red lighting scouring its body again and again in an almost continuous flow of slight discharges, but the reforming of body parts was slower and slower and the homunculus almost looked… diminished.
Their strategy was working.
It was costly, though.
Even though they were taking no hits, keeping up the barrage of explosions was taxing, especially to Itachi, who'd already been fighting quite a lot; not to mention, their supply of various explosives was dwindling to dangerously low levels.
Harry was almost to the point of admitting they should give up, when Itachi threw their only remaining Supreme Gem – a strange, smelly piece of orangey porous rock which exploded on impact with a devastating blast; and suddenly, something seemed to break inside the homunculus and an inhuman cry, ear-splitting and wrathfully desperate, erupted from somewhere around its stomach.
Confused, the glutton stumbled and coughed and finally vomited up a broken cup. It was a lovely piece of craftsmanship, golden and etched and elegantly shaped, but in miserable condition. Something black and disgusting was oozing from it, desecrating its beauty.
Paying little attention to it, Harry threw out his last two bombs at once, after having hastily tied them together with a Poison Fang.
It was, at long last, enough.
The homunculus was no longer recovering: a few, weak flares of the red lighting burst here or there, but they quickly waned into nothingness. Acridic venom was burning a path through the ravaged body. Instead of pulling itself together, the deformed mass of flesh was liquefying into a red ooze.
The last drop plopped to the ground, and all was still: the miserable thing was no more.
With tired sighs and no little disgust at having to wade through the remains of the battle, Harry and Itachi made their way slowly back to the others. The lack of screaming or rumble seemed to indicate that the battle was over for them too…
Sure enough, Scar and Seifer were panting and bleeding from a number of long gashes all over their bodies, most of their clothes in tatters, but the woman-like homunculus lay broken at their feet, slowly oozing into a pool of nasty red.
"Scarface had a trick up his sleeve," Seifer informed them cheerfully. "Locked her into immobility, believe it or not."
Scar replied to their surprised glances with a rigid shrug: "It was a one-time thing," he bit out through clenched teeth and would say no more.
Worried by Scar's stony silence, Harry tentatively put a hand on his arm, but the Ishvalan shrugged him off, eyes clouded with too many emotions to discern. Seifer intercepted Harry's eyes and gave him a grimace and a shake of the head. Leave it be, he mouthed and the Summoner hesitantly obeyed.
Whatever had spooked Scar, it wasn't the time to discuss it.
"A blessing, let me tell you. Before he did his mumbo-jumbo, I wasn't sure we'd get out with our eyes in their proper place. Damn woman was like a crazy cat," grumbled Seifer, rummaging for Potions and throwing a couple to the others too. "Claws sharper than blades, and an attitude to go with it. Gah! Good thing I'd found a spring of Esuna earlier, who knows what that cat had in her claws?" he prattled on, keeping attention on himself to give Scar a chance to brood in peace. "And look at this! My blade, my precious blade!" he wailed, caressing the scarred Hyperion dramatically.
Harry could only laugh.
"Did you think you could get rid of me so easily?"
The annoying, childish voice silenced them abruptly. Hissed groans of frustration greeted the less-than-welcome reappearance of the child homunculus, who stood straight in their path, fairly vibrating with tension and repressed fury.
Harry patiently ignored the way his Guardians pushed him back and behind the shelter of their bodies and tuned out whatever the creature was shouting cockily. Enough was enough! He closed his eyes, focusing inward: it was time to bring things to an end.
Grimly, the three Guardians serrated their ranks, betraying nothing of their worry, ready to take on the indestructible enemy again and again, if necessary. But Harry was fed up with the entire situation.
"I've had it with this!" he whispered grimly.
He planted himself firmly on the ground and opened his arms wide in a gesture that was both prayer and welcome, then with a deep breath he sank into the half-meditative state that helped him contact his Aeons.
They were all eager to be called, as usual, and quickly making his choice, he twirled his Rod in a coaxing move, feeling grimly satisfied at the greenish evanescent globules of energy bubbling into existence all around him.
When the luminescent Circles Harry never really paid any mind to appeared on the ground around him, the homunculus yelped and jumped back, then jumped away again, and again, yelling indignantly.
"What... a Trasmutation Circle?" the strange eyes were widening in alarm. "You... you're not SEEDs! You're like that bastard Elric!"
A loud clap of his hands and a blue flash made his Alchemy flare and he slammed his hands on a wall. "It's not fair!" he screamed. Huge cones burst out of the rock, somewhat shielding him.
The Summoner paid him no mind. Globes of light shot up towards the distant sky from all around Harry and the homunculus scowled, shouting defiantly: "Whatever you're trying to do, it won't work!"
Harry ignored him, and instead slashed his Rod decisively downwards and to the right, lowering himself on one knee, at the ready. Behind him, the ground suddenly iced over and huge ice prisms grew out of it, towering over the Summoner and his Guardians like imposing cliffs, while a chilly wind ruffled their clothes. Evidently, the Aeon had decided to manifest as a Queen of Ice this time.
Harry could never be quite sure how it would come out, but no matter what its choice was, it was always devastating.
A streak of white light fell through the atmosphere and crashed into the huge ice crystals, breaking them into a thousand sharp icicles that shot towards the homunculus unerringly, dodging allies and rock formations easily and shooting straight at the foe, as if they had a mind of their own.
Then the tunnel seemed to almost fade into blackness all around them, when the enormous creature of ice and rock stood slowly behind its Summoner, dwarfing him with its majestic potency. Its pupil-less eyes were solid azure sapphires, its snowy cloak a whiff of icy wind drifting around them, cold but not unpleasant, not for them.
Their enemy was another matter.
The walls the homunculus tried to merge with crumbled under the deceptively delicate fist of the Queen of Ice. Thwarting his futile attempts at escape, the Aeon trapped the homunculus in an ice casing, congealing him in an unnatural pose.
A moment of suspended, icy wait, then the ice splintered with a thunderous noise, cracking into terribly sharp shards and tumbling down onto the captive enemy's body, torturing it over and over, indifferent to his screams, and later, his squeaks.
Then the majestic Aeon dissolved into nothingness, returning to the non-space where only Harry could feel it, reassurance flowing down their bond along with satisfaction for a job well done.
And silence reigned.
The half-destroyed tunnel seemed claustrophobically smaller all of a sudden. Harry wavered, tiredness slamming into him like a physical blow, and only Seifer's solid arms kept him upright. Itachi was still perfectly alert, but nonetheless grey with fatigue; Scar hovered by his side, ready to support him if needed.
The small, broken body of the child-homunculus was collapsed in a heap on the floor, crying weakly, sobbing for his 'mommy' even as it slowly liquefied into red ooze.
They left him there without a care.
When they got back to the shielded area where the Window waited, they found Fred and George in a right state.
The huge, multi-legged body of a Grand Mantis lay beyond them, the narrow tail still curved forward over its broken back, its venomous stinger posed for a strike it would never launch. Clearly, the wizards' wards had not affected it, but they'd managed to handle it.
Seifer whistled in admiration. Grand Mantises weren't easy for beginners – especially magic-oriented beginners.
"Well done," commented Scar soberly.
The twins were visibly shaken.
"Our... our magic!" one of them forced out. "It didn't work anymore!" It was a horrified wail, the gasp of a lost and frightened child.
Perplexed by their reaction, the Guardians nevertheless nodded in understanding: "Silence," they explained. "It's a status that removes the victim's energy source and speech, which prevents them from casting..."
The twins shuddered visibly and recoiled. "They can block our magic?" they cried, horrified.
"Here," said Harry, rummaging in one of his many satchels and handing out bracelets of braided leaves – they were a dusty dark green and smelled funny. Nestled within the wooden clasp were tiny obsidian gems.
"Tamarind?" wondered George dubiously. The spicy aroma was close but not quite right.
Harry shook his head: "Echo Herbs. If infused, they cure the status; in this form, and if properly anchored by obsidian, they protect the wearer."
Still pale as ghosts, the two wizards gathered the bracelets and examined them closely, eyes lit up with speculative relief: no doubt their shop would soon carry similar items.
"Can we go back home, now?" they asked in a rather pitiful tone.
They immediately recovered: "I mean, not that I'm not having fun," assured one.
"Whole other world. Whew. It's great!" nodded his brother with fake enthusiasm.
"Stuff for many a future night when we won't have to pay for our own Firewhiskey!"
"But, you know. Too much of a good thing..."
Harry laughed weakly.
The people at Hogwarts were loud in their relief at seeing them returned safely. Their disappearance from Diagon Alley had caused a panic, it seemed. Few bothered to wonder how and why they emerged from the Forbidden Forest by the school, rather than in London, and they offered no explanation.
Fred and George were the heroes of the hour and with great relief, the Summoner and his Guardians left them to bask in the squealing admiration of the students (and to sell their products while they were at it).
"So..." drawled Harry, off to one side in the privacy granted them by everybody's attention being elsewhere.
"Voldemort can move through worlds," said Seifer. "Ain't that a lark?"
"So can the homunculi," pointed out Scar, less than happily. "They're everywhere."
"It wasn't coincidence that we crossed right where that homunculus was laying in wait," said Itachi.
"And we know what that means..." sighed Scar.
Less then pleased but more or less reconciled with the idea, Harry grasped his Rod. It was humming encouragingly again.
"I guess I've found my path," he commented with light sarcasm.
"Come on," said Seifer with a grimace. "Let's go in and tell the old geezer that you'll gracefully accept his offer of support..."