Inspired by the challenge set down by Acolyte of the Blood Moon. What if Harry was the reincarnation of a certain green-eyed SOLDIER? Hopefully fast updates, if people like it.
Never a Memory...
"Be careful Harry."
The young General offered Sirius a smile, knowing that the older man was worried. He knew that being with them right now was taking a lot out of him, the SOLDIER still not fully recovered from helping Hermione leveling her Materia. The end result of three days work though was worth the pain: eight new Comets to spread amongst them, and while Hermione had taken most of them for some sort of Materia combo, Harry and Zack had both been given a newly birthed each for their very own. Harry vaguely remembered the combination the young woman was attempting, but he remembered it used with Fire instead of Comet. If she could pull it off, she could clear a battlefield by herself.
Draco had been sent back to his family the night before, his cover that he was trying to break into Grimmauld Place. As one of the only possible heirs after Sirius' death, he had the best chance to take it away from Harry, or at least that would be his story. His father, a broken man after Azkaban, would believe him. He just had to make sure he didn't go before the Dark Lord. Just in case though, Zack had taught him how to use the one Materia they'd given him, an Exit. The SOLDIER had taken to stashing the newly birthed Exits at different locations, including Grimmauld, the Burrow, Hogsmeade, and a few other places. They had all figured out how to hone in on the unpaired Exits, though that had taken a few days practice.
"How careful can we be, yo?" The others blinked as Ron chimed in, the red head sporting a cynical look on his face. "We're goin' looking for danger. Best we can do is hope to get lucky."
The older man frowned at this, leaning against the stairwell. "Then just try not to take too many obvious risks," he offered.
"I can only promise to try."
"Harry, we should get moving," Hermione urged, eyes narrowed as she glanced out of the cracked-open door. "Something doesn't feel right," she whispered, staring into every shadow that crept up towards the house suspiciously. Even as early in the morning as it was, it was far too quiet out there.
On alert now, the trio peaked out, slowly edging their way out into the street together, fanning out only enough to keep them from all being hit if someone was aiming for them. SOLDIER senses used to be so finely tuned that everything put together created what could almost be called a sixth sense. They didn't have that now, but every instinct was screaming that something was about to bite them. Something with teeth.
They relaxed a bit after a minute, Hermione frowning. "Maybe I was wron-" She was cut off by a curse, the red light screaming past them by bare inches. The trio went on the offense at once, diving away from each other to make sure they had room, wands and swords coming out to play as a swarm of dark robes and silver masks emerged from the shadows. Harry cursed under his breathe as he rolled away from a spell, sword singing out and slicing almost delicately across the throat of the nearest Death Eater. They hadn't said Voldemort. Was something else Taboo now that they missed? Death Eaters, or Malfoy or something? He didn't know, but with fire and death flying about, he didn't have time to wonder.
They would later be surprised to find that Ron had tallied almost as many 'kills' as the SOLDIER pair, the young red head a whirling dervish of magic and metal, spells flying even as he bashed the Death Eaters with his EMR. Five bodies were already on the ground, still twitching from the electricity that flowed through their bodies. Compared to the limbs that were scattered about, Ron's victims got off light. Minor calcification of the joints can be fixed by the healers, but a missing arm was forever.
"Get back inside Sirius!" Hermione yelled, hair flying as she twirled around, blocking a spell with the Rapier even as she tried to inch closer to her allies. "We need to get out of here," she snapped, back to back to Harry, the popping in the bushes signalling more fighters approaching. "Ron, hurry!" Acting on instinct, the Turk dove towards them, grabbing Hermione's hand. With a pop of their own, the trio were gone, off on an adventure of their own design.
In the door to Grimmauld place, just within the wards of the Fidelius, Sirius sighed, relaxing his grip from where he had spintered the wood of the door frame. "Good Luck, SOLDIERs," he offered quietly before slipping inside. It would be a few hours before he could leave himself, with the enemy scattered about, picking of their arms and allies.
~~~...~~~...~~~
"So, you've been busy Hermione."
The young woman blushed but didn't stop her work as she partially buried a Shield Materia into the ground, the magical wards that should hide them already up. This configuration was an old Wutain design, allowing the ring of Shields and M Shields to sustain themselves once activated. "It's been a long summer," she offered in explanation, dusting her hands off as she stood back up. Considering how complicated the know of Materia and metal and magic was, that was all the explanation needed. A twist of will and magic, and the Materia ring flickered to life, a seemingly fragile bubble of magic that shielded them from the rest of the world.
The General smiled, impressed with her work, his memories reminding him as to how long it had taken Genesis to learn this set. But once learned, it had helped to secure their camps, and had given his SOLDIERs the extra few minutes they needed during a camp raid to retaliate. "Come inside, we have planning to do," he ordered gently, holding open the flap of the tent for her. The woman had truly outdone herself in preparing for this trip, her red bag stuffed with everything they'd ever need.
Inside, their ginger friend was already setting up a map of England over the kitchen table, a radio playing softly in the background. The Ministry was rattling off names of witches and wizards already captured. Harry clenched his jaw as he recognized one as a young Muggleborn from Ravenclaw. There was nothing they could do at the time, but it didn't make it any less galling.
Any idea where they might be holding them?" he asked after the list stopped playing.
Ron shook his head after a second. "There are a few places, like the holding cells in the Ministry itself, but that would be suicide to try and crack, yo."
"Suicide or not, we may need to make a plan to get in." Harry held up a hand as the pair started to protest. "We need information. Vo- He may have ordered more than just His name to be Tabooed. And if we could free those already captured, it would a blow to Death Eater's pride." he frowned as he stared at the map, fingers tracing over the circled areas where they knew held wizarding homes or settlements. "I suspect that, the Headmaster's name may be Tabooed as well, or someone else that we don't know at the moment. How else could they have known to ambush us when we were under the Fidelius?"
"You have a good point, but getting into the Ministry will be tricky." A delicate finger traced over the known entrances to the Ministry, hazel eyes narrowing. "We know of the entrance here," the telephone box, "and here," the broken window with the dummies, "and I suspect this one here," a public bathroom, "but they will all be heavily guarded."
A sly grin. The other too held back a shudder and how much it transformed his face into that of Sephiroth's. "Any chance you have Polyjuice in that Bag of Holding?"
Hermione laughed, and her friends were equally startled as to how similar she sounded to Genesis. "No, but I think we have something better." She heft the bag up, burying her arm into it up to her shoulder. "May I present, a new evolution in Materia over the centuries, the Disguise Materia?"
Grins all around. "Well, I think we can work with this."
Question: Which would you prefer, a shorter chapter like this one that I can release every week or so, or a longer chapter that may take a month at best?