Kenosis
Kenosis: Christian term for the renunciation of the divine nature.
Full Summary: From abused child locked in an understairs cupboard, to saviour of the Wizarding word, to being trapped in a bloody paperweight, it was fair to say Hemlock Potter had taken quite the journey in life. With her memory foggy, bound to a green Orb etched with the Deathly Hallows symbol, and being summoned at will by a silver haired behemoth of a man, it appears that journey was only just beginning. Now she just had to figure out a way to get home... Shame the First-Class SOLDIERS had no intention of letting Hemlock out of their grasp. Strong AU. Sephiroth/Fem!Harry/Genesis/Angeal. Zack/Cloud. Strong M.
Prologue:
Fire In The Hole
No One's P.O.V
The orb was unlike any other Materia found in Midgar. No bigger than a clenched fist of a small child, it emanated a gentle light contrarily soft as it was almost blinding, eddying in a hot and heady green miasma of the whirling magic contained inside. It shined, it shimmered, and it sat there innocently, and, perhaps, its largest difference was etched upon its face, black as night under the harsh and sickly fluorescent glow of the Shinra lab, a crude symbol drawn in coal coloured smoke.
A line in a circle in a triangle.
The President of the Shinra electric power company, a short and stout man with thinning blond hair and mustacho in a neatly pressed suit and tie lined with black stripes, edged closer to the contained Materia resting under barrier on the pedestal.
The lone artefact in the relatively small lab.
"And you can assure me this is it?"
The white-coat scientist, weatherworn and old as he was uneasy, clasping nervously at his lapels to keep his sweaty, shaking hands steady, nodded enthusiastically.
"It was discovered a month ago in the Northern Crater dig site, right by where Specimen Jenova was excavated. How the original archaeological team missed it at all is a wonder of-"
With a sharp and short no drivel glare shot over a pin striped shoulder to the scientist, the old man cut himself off, burying his fingers deeper into the starched cotton of his coat to hide the peek in his trembling limbs.
President Shinra could do that to a man.
Make him feel as helpless as a babe at breast again, with all the mercy of being stared down at by a salivating rabid wolf.
"Yes, sir. This is it."
Leaning in closer, skin lit by warm and gentle green light, the President of Shinra eyed the orb before him, eye gleaming, moustache twitching in the closest proximity the man could come to smiling.
"And have you transcribed anymore of the texts we discovered on the cave wall?"
A cough, and yet the scientist's voice still broke pathetically under the pressure. Squeaky, squawky, pitiful.
"As much as we are able to. The Ancients' language has long been lost to us, and full translation has proven… Difficult."
Almost drawn in too by the light, the scientist sidled up to the President's side, voice dropping even if its pitch impossibly climbed higher.
"Many of the Ancients vernacular could be interchangeable in a chronological sense. Then, now, and will were one single word that was indistinguishable from one another. Either this Materia is the weapon that held back the Calamity and sealed it away, it used to be the one and is no longer, or it will be in a prophetic sense. Possibly, it became the Materia after defeating the Calamity. My favourite theory is the prospect that is was originally an Ancient itself-"
President Shinra scoffed and dismissively waved his hands.
"Spare me the details. I only want the results, and you do have those don't you? I did not come all the way here for a history lesson."
The air grew heavy as the scientist shuffled, frail hands plunging into his pockets, digging deep, perhaps hoping to find bravery in their depths.
He only found used tissue.
"I um… Uh, I'm afraid we-… We haven't had much success there, Sir."
Another glare, another shudder, another scramble for platitudes.
"Every subject we have used to try and use the Summon have… Perished before completion. Our investigations have concluded that the aptitude needed to correctly activate the Materia is astronomically high-... unprecedentedly high. The human body, Sir, is just too frail for the strain the Materia causes. I fear no mere human could do it. The instantaneous disintegration of the subject on a cellular level shows the needed magical activation is too high, and the cost to the physical form enormously substantial. The subjects simply… Liquefy before the magic has even mounted high enough to Summon."
Silence, the quiet hum of bright cold lighting, the churn of a computer hard drive, the slap of a hand wiping at a clammy forehead.
The President smiled coolly, calmly, cruelly.
"No mere human, you say?"
He turned on his expensive heel, ignoring the stuttering of the scientist, heading for the exit of the lab with the slap of his shoes on clean metal flooring. It sounded like a heart in cardiac arrest.
"My SOLDIERS are due back on the Wutai frontline in the next week. I want that Materia packed and ready to go long before then. In fact-"
He paused by the door, by the security console, turning to scowl at the snivelling scientist still dithering by the pedestal holding the lone asset of the room.
"I want that Materia handed over to the General by tomorrow night. Tell him it is a Healing Materia, tell him it's a Cure, tell him it stops nightmares or creates supplies, I care not. Just tell him whatever is needed to be told to ensure he will try to use it on the frontline."
The President's hollow gaze drifted to the Orb.
"I want to see if the money and effort I spent on finding this blasted thing was worth it. Do I make myself clear?"
A frantic nod.
"Yes, Sir!"
The President of Shinra swiftly swiped his pass and left the heavily guarded lab, just as the scientist's knees knocked together and threatened to fall.
Swivelling to the Orb, the old man in thin rimmed glasses wavered.
"Let's hope for both our sakes you actually do something other than making human smoothies, or we'll both be thrown back into that crater we dug you out from."
The Materia, of course, said nothing. The magic simply swirled on inside languidly, peacefully, almost as if it were slumbering.
The scientist sighed and scuttled for the closest computer, plucking out the equipment notices and registers for the SOLDIER department.
Finding the correct itinerary under the right name, Sephiroth, for the excursion to Wutai scheduled for the next week, the man added on a single small line at the end of a small list.
The General typically packed light. Hopefully he would not notice the addition until he had left already.
One Healing Materia.
A.N: I will be honest. I'm facing a bit of the dreaded writer's block at the moment, and this is the only thing that has gotten through that so far lol. I am trying to work through it though, and in the mean time I hope this is something you enjoy while I do so.
As always, thank you for taking the time out to read this, I hope you all liked it, and if you could, don't forget to drop a review. I love hearing from you all! And hopefully, if luck I'm lucky, I'll get out of this funk soon lol.