I own nothing. Least of all this.
18) THE ZYGONS
Fic Title: "We Are The Underground"
Accompanying Song: "I'm Dangerous" by The EverLove
The world was ending.
What else was new?
Ted Tonks snorted. It wasn't the first time he'd seen a place dear to him ripped to shreds by forces beyond his comprehension. The first time, it had been by science. Cold, calculating, and utterly disdainful of life. The second, and now the third, it was by magic. Blazing, raging, and as full of life as science was void. But the end result was the same. The things that he loved were in danger. And he was fairly certain that there was little he could do to protect them.
Just like the first time.
Many, many years ago, when he was but eight Earth years old, he had lived on an entirely different world. Not just another planet, or even another galaxy. No, it had been a completely different universe, one that the doors to had long since been closed to. For him, and all those like him.
They had been happy there, relatively. There were wars, true, and there was sickness. But they had been mostly content to live as they did, with only the occasional disturbance. But all that had changed when the War began.
The only War actually worth being called a War. The Last, Great Time War, between the abominations created on the accursed world of Skaro, the Daleks. And the indifferent, arrogant, residents of the planet known as Gallifrey. Those who ruled Time itself based on nothing but their whims, and dared to call themselves Lords. And their battles had ripped holes in the very fabric of reality itself.
At first, neither side had used time-travel. It was agreed that, between the cold fury of the Daleks and the arrogance of the Time Lords, the results would simply be too dangerous. That was, until the Time Lords broke the agreement. And then everything had fallen apart.
And once it began, it never slowed or stopped. Ted didn't remember much of that time; he had, after all, been just a kid. His planet hadn't even been involved in the War up until that fateful day; as neutral as the rest of the galaxy. But because the Daleks underestimated the Time Lords' willingness to let innocents die to achieve victory, their entire world had been burned from the sky itself. He and his family had been among the very few to escape with their lives, much less their possessions. They had been forced to watch the entire battle, dying and resurrecting within that accursed bubble of Time as each force strove for mastery over the other. And when it was all over, and both sides had retreated to lick their wounds, that was when it happened.
The Time Lock activated. And what few survivors there were of the Zygon race were hurled into the abyss.
Of those survivors, only one ship had arrived in this dimension. At least, that they had been able to find. They had identified the nearest life-supporting planet as this reality's version of Earth, and had immediately set course, hoping the sentients would be advanced enough to assist in repairing the severe damage done to their vessel.
Alas, no such luck. It appeared that this world was a few decades behind the one they had left; not that their version of Earth was much closer to their level of advancement. Ted snorted once more. As if their precious innovations had been able to stand against the Daleks, much less the Time Lords.
In the end, they had seen no other option than to blend into the human population. What few children there were left were immediately made the top priority; if they were going to survive on this world long enough to see their ship repaired some indeterminate time in the future, they would have to ensure there were descendants. And, after quite a bit of calculation, they had been horrified to learn that if said descendants were going to come from anywhere, it would have to be with intermarrying with the humans. There were simply not enough true Zygons left to keep the population alive beyond a few more generations; and if they were to go the route of isolation, and the hoped for technology was developed in time to save them all, there was still no guarantee that they would be able to find other Zygons out there to continue to rebuild with. To say nothing of the genetic instabilities that would come from that course of action.
No, it would have to be the other option. Hiding in plain sight was easy for a shapeshifting race, and the fact that apparently there were very few other-worldly visitors to this Earth meant there was practically no one looking for them, much less any to notice if certain things just didn't quite add up.
The Zygon children immediately began to be drilled on human culture and Earth history, specifically focused around the island they had managed to find a home on. They were told, on no uncertain terms, that they would be expected to grow up in the human way, going through the same sort of schools and making the same sorts of friends. And in the end, they would choose a mate from the human population, one preferably at home with the concept of life from other worlds, and willing to assist them in their quest to find a way home.
During the school year, the Zygon children would do as little as possible to attract attention. They were each sent to a different education center, so as to cover as wide a range as possible, as well as avoid any suspicions from the government. When possible, an adult Zygon would get themselves into a position of authority at the designated schools as a last protection, should the unthinkable happen and one of the children be seriously injured, or worse, found out. Their survival was paramount to none else, aside from maybe their escape ship itself.
And during the summer, every member of the community would retreat into the shadows, inserting themselves ever deeper into the humans' developing intelligence and technology grid. So it was, that when a certain letter arrived for one "Ted Tonks, Crashed Zygon Spaceship, Baskerville, England", all available information on the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry" was readily made accessible.
Really, it was pitiful what passed for secrecy to these magic-wielders. Obliviation erased only the memories of living things, and did absolutely nothing to technology but scramble it. Easily reversible for the Zygons. Security recordings and electronic documents could never truly be lost, and every single one from around the entire globe in the last three years was now locked permanently into the Zygons' database.
Once the Zygon leaders were assured that the letter was neither a hoax, nor a threat of revelation to the outside world, there was really only one acceptable course of action. Ted was packed off to Platform 9 ¾ on September 1st, with nary a single soul to mind him. The world of magic was one the Zygons could not afford to overlook. If the technology required for their endeavors would not exist for some time yet, perhaps there was a way to magically repair their ship. To say nothing of the possibilities associated with magical DNA manipulation.
Due to his utter loyalty to his cause (namely, the survival of his race), Ted had been sorted into Hufflepuff almost immediately. He immediately began to search for the information requested by his elders, all the while doing his best to blend into the background. Upon learning that anything electronic reacted violently to magic, he turned to the fields of Potions and Healing. It was a great relief to the Zygon leaders to learn that the methods used by the magical world seemed to have no negative effect on Zygon physiology, magical gene or no magical gene. That there was a readymade excuse to snoop under the guise of another in the form of Polyjuice Potion was a tremendous discovery as well. It allowed Ted an excellent opportunity to set up both an intelligence network and a somewhat black-market, all the while keeping his cover. A few temporary alliances were made here and there, mostly to gain access to things he could not otherwise obtain, or in the rare case he needed an actual alibi to avoid having the same face seen in two spots at once. It was on one of those rare occasions he was introduced to Andromeda Black.
She was a student of Healing, much like him. And also like him, she was utterly loyal to the concept of family. That in itself was enough to impress Ted, especially in a Slytherin, a House renown for its tendency to stab even the closest of friends in the back. But what really drew him to her was her intelligence. It took a mere three meetings, two of those under someone else's face, for her to work out that he was the true driving force behind certain shady deals on Hogwarts' black-market. After an interrogation of her cousin Sirius on the source of some of his prank ingredients, she had effectively trapped Ted into divulging at least some of his secrets to her, in the understanding that she wanted nothing more than a position in his network.
Ted wasn't about to settle for giving such a remarkable witch something as little as that.
Within the month, she was his second-in-command, as well as his undercover girlfriend. Secret meetings were so much easier to pull off when one could arrive wearing someone else's face every single time. The fact that Andromeda's position in Slytherin shot up due to her seeming "in" with the Moriarty of Hogwarts was just icing on the cake. It was only once they discovered through Ted's network that a certain fate was planned for all three Black sisters that their plans for the future were thrown into disarray.
Deciding that for once, his loyalties lay more to the witch he wanted to spend his life with than with his brethren, he disclosed every single secret he had to Andromeda under an Unbreakable Oath. After he was done, he fully expected her to pack up and leave him behind to marry the other Rebastan Lestrange, the brother to Bellatrix's fiancé. She surprised him be declaring that as far as she was concerned, he and Sirius were her only family, and she would stick by him. They were married Christmas break of their Seventh year, and once the Black family had done their screeching and hollering, upon graduation they immediately began working at St. Mungo's.
That is, until they found out Andromeda was expecting.
Up until that point, the coming war had barely registered to the Zygons. Why should they bother? They could hide far better than any others, especially when there was no one to look for them. But the child…the offspring of a Zygon and a witch…that certainly set their attention firmly on the wizarding world. And on exactly what the consequences could be should the Tonks family choose the wrong side.
There was really only one thing to do: Andromeda took a leave of absence, and was immediately hidden by the Zygons. Ted, no matter how much he would have liked to follow, was forced to remain at St. Mungo's. As the only first-hand source of information on the war, as well as the casualties, it had to be that way. And if a few experimental genetic procedures were tried on the produced corpses, well, what was the harm?
It was only once young Nymphadora was born that Andromeda and Ted switched positions. The war was really beginning to ramp up, and while no one would dare attack a Black (disowned or not), a Muggle-born was still a target. To seal the matter, certain breakthroughs in genetic alterations of base Zygon DNA were coming faster every day, and as the only truly magical off-worlder, Ted's own DNA and blood were needed for comparison.
The very first time Nymphadora was caught masquerading around as a young Zygon, the resulting celebration by the head scientists might as well have come from legend. Apparently, she had inherited a magical condition known as "Metamorphism", allowing her to go even further beyond a Zygon's natural copying abilities and change any aspect of her appearance at will (with enough practice). Once it was discovered the condition had been documented for centuries, speculation of other surviving Zygon ships landing in the past and choosing the same course of action as they had began to rear its head. If there had been any others, what had happened to them? As far as could be determined, Nymphadora was the only known Metamorphagus on the entire planet. Had the earlier survivors simply blended into society completely, knowing the odds of repairing their vessel were miniscule? Or had they been found out and deliberately targeted? There was just no way to tell for certain, the records long since lost.
Things were further thrown into chaos when the final breakthrough was achieved: inserting the magical gene into an adult Zygon. To avoid the current unpleasantness in the magical world, the test-subject was allowed to go back to his normal occupation and life, doing nothing to draw attention. There would be no magical training for him until much later, if at all. No, his job was considerably simpler: produce an offspring, and then compare the results to the ones already obtained.
One year later, and the job was done. But for Ted Tonks, the hard part was just beginning. The child could not be raised in the normal world: while lacking in full Metamorphism, it had already been confirmed to have the magical gene. And the Zygon leaders were unwilling to risk having two of their precious descendants in such proximity to each other, meaning the Tonks family would be unable to raise them. In the end, a somewhat risky course of action was decided on. Andromeda was currently the healer for one Molly Weasley, pregnant with twins. The fact that only one of the children was expected to live, while regrettable, played perfectly into their hands. And so it was that, when the expected event occurred, Ted-as-Andromeda removed the stillborn babe…and replaced it. The Zygon child did as Zygon children do, and upon grasping his new brother's hand, forged the telepathic link required for permanent copying. The Weasley family praised the unexpected miracle, and blessed the Tonks family profusely. Thus was the continued presence of the Zygons in the wizarding world assured.
Fast forward a number of years. The Dark Lord was destroyed, and the war finished. Nymphadora went to Hogwarts, as had her father and mother before her. She knew the truth of her heritage, of course, and as such was trained to be on the lookout for other genetic samples that the Zygons had as yet failed to obtain. Once she entered service as an Auror, and began meeting magical things of the more exotic variety, her task became ridiculously simple. Vampires, Acromantula, Werewolves, these and more she acquired, the resulting information compiled and sent back to the Zygon leaders at every opportunity. The Weasley child, however, was kept in the dark. The best kind of spy was the kind that didn't even know it was one, after all. And the information shared by the twins over their telepathic link was recorded for all Zygons to use.
No more magical Zygons were created or born after that. The calculations had been run for the maximum number of magicals that could travel on the escape ship without the odds of something disastrous happening, and the maximum had (for now) been reached. The Zygons' full attention was turned to the normal world, and instigation of the required developments in technology began in earnest.
And then the unthinkable happened: the Dark Lord from the previous magical war had, somehow, found a way to come back from the dead. And knowing full well that the both He and his followers held no love for magical "creatures", as they would no doubt be labeled, the Zygon command decided that, at least for the time, it would be wise to withdraw entirely from the magical world.
Ted sighed, and leaned back in his chair. The replacement for the Weasley twin was already in place; Polyjuice potion really worked wonders when it came to faking deaths. His own potioned and mind-controlled double was also ready for deployment. All that remained now was to explain the situation to Nymphadora, and her husband the werewolf. Yet another development the Zygons had been ecstatic to see; a child with the genetics of a Zygon, a pureblood witch, and a magical creature was something they would dearly like to get their hands on. The survival of the parents was now a top priority, one that Ted had absolutely no problem with. Andromeda either, for that matter. Once their deaths were successfully faked, they would be taken to Baskerville, there to remain in seclusion until the war was over, one way or the other. Should things end poorly, well, the ship was almost spaceworthy once more. And should things turn out to be fine, there were hundreds of other magical communities scattered across the globe. Ones whose methods of magic may be a bit more compatible with technology. An undercover assignment was likely, for everyone involved with the magical side of things.
But that was in the future. This was the present.
And Ted Tonks had a very long explanation to give to a certain werewolf.