Christmas morning, a day that all three of the Weasley children had been dreading. Normally this day was one they had been looking forward to all year, they got to come home from school, sleep in ... at least until their mother came pounding on their door for them to get up. Most of the time Bill and Charlie would come home and they would be a family.
This year though, everything was different... because they were different.
Sitting on Zack's bed, Reno and Zack both sat watching out the window as their mother went out to greet their two older brothers from the safe point. With the rise of Voldemort once more, wards had been set up around the house preventing anyone from apperating in or out. Now if anyone wanted to get into the Burrow, they appeared a good quarter mile away out in the field.
"What do you think yo... Think they will flip their lid?" Turning his attention from the window, Zack looked over the red headed Turk turned twin brother. "I don't know, Bill might be more understanding. He does do all that curse breaking, I'm sure somewhere there was mention of Midgar..." If Dumbledore didn't even know about Midgar, they would really be pushing for the ancient cultures of this world to know about them.
"Who are we kidding Reno..." Zack turned to look back out the window, watching warily as his mother stopped just shy of the house turning to talk to their two eldest brothers. His stomach felt like a weight had been dropped into it and was slowly pulling the whole of his insides down to his feet. "Mom doesn't really believe us, even with everything right in front of her face..." it looked like she is doing this just to humor them, Dumbledore and the Malfoy's he knew did believe them.
Wasn't that a scary thought, Lucius Malfoy actually believe them where his own mother didn't. The thought of a mother brought Zack's mind back to an important family member that he had lost when he was only four years old. "Wonder whatever happened to my brother." Being pulled out of his own musing, Reno glanced over to Zack. This had been the first time he had ever heard Zack mention anything about a sibling. He knew of his parents and the fight they had had which had sent Zack running for Midgar and SOLDIER, but never any mention about a brother. "Do you know where he went?" Zack scrunched his nose slightly, trying to think back that far. "Mom never talked about him much, I used to ask her but she would just clam up and not say a word. I finally found out from one of my friends parents that he had been put on death row in Midgar years ago. No one had gotten word if the execution had actually happened, they just all assumed he was dead."
Reno turned away, not really knowing what to say. He had personally over the years put many a man into the Midgar jail, most of which ended up on death row, there was no telling if Zack's brother had been one of them. "Do you know what he was sent there for?" He could remember most of the reason the people he had taken in had been sent there. Most of the time it was always for big things, like blowing up a reactor or killing a board member. Tilting his head, looking so much like his namesake, Zack tried to remember what his brother had been sent in for. "They said his friend was kidnapped and he went to hunt him down, he ended up killing everyone that had taken his friend."
Wow that sounds an awful lot like Katana's... Reno's brain stuttered to a halt, aquamarine eyes really looking over Angeal's puppy. "No way... What was his fire name Zack?"
Seeing that look in Reno's eyes, Zack instantly became suspicious, he knew something. "I always called him Balto..." Oh fuck me Zack was Katana's brother! He knew exactly what had happened to Katana, or at least he had up until his own death. "Your brother... as far as I know lived to a ripe old age out in Kalm."
Looking up Reno jerked back not expecting to have puppy two inches from his face. "How do you know that Reno?" He knew it! Reno did know something about his brother! Reaching up Reno shoved Zack away, never having liked it when people were that close to him, Rufus being the exception. "Yeah, well I knew him as Katana, best damn swordsman aside from Bossman in the Turks."
Zack sat back eyes wide, his brother had been at Shinra the entire time and he had never known about it?! "He..he was a Turk?"
"Yes, he was my partner." Cissnei was standing in the doorway, arms folded under her breast. "The two of us were members of a special force within the Turks. His sword skills were legendary in Gongaga and they attracted Veld's attention when he killed all those kidnappers. He gave him a choice, the chair or the Turks..."
So it was true, his only brother had been at Shinra the entire time and he never knew it. But, if Balto was a Turk, why hadn't he come and found him...surely he would have realized who he was, wouldn't he? They were the only family named Fair in Gongaga...
"Why didn't he ever come find me? If he was a Turk he surely would have known..." Cissnei shook her head, moving to sit down with the two boys. "Katana made it a point to never deal with SOLDIER, he only ever dealt with Sephiroth but that was because well... Sephiroth growing up was more Turk than SOLDIER."
Turning his head away, Zack bit his lower lip trying to keep the emotions at bay. It hurt to know that if either of them had simply looked they would have been able to find each other again. "So what happened to him?" Reaching out Cissnei rubbed his back gently, absently glancing out the window seeing their siblings and mother moving back into the house. "When the Turks fell apart with the "death" of Veld, he went into hiding like the rest of us. He knew he couldn't go back to Gongaga, instead went to Kalm, bought a house there and married a pretty little thing. No one saw him again until Meteor fall when he came back to help get people out of Midgar. He told us that he had just become a dad not that long ago, to a little boy he named Zackary."
Tears slowly started to drip down Zack's cheek. Balto had named his son after him? Why would his brother do that unless he knew... "Did... did Balto know?" Cissnei nodded slowly, her own unshed tears making her eyes blur. "I had stopped in Kalm to refuel and he saw the helicopter and was standing next to me when Reno called it in."
Katana had been devastated, she could still hear his scream in her head learning that his brother had been in SOLDIER the entire time, and had just been gunned down by the military.
Reaching out Reno pulled both to him. It seemed like each of them over the course of their awakening had hit this point. Looking back and realizing that everything they had once known, once loved... was gone. All that they had now was each other and their memories, there weren't even materia anymore that held the memories of people.
He was thankful everyday that Rude had been brought back, the quiet Turk was his best friend, a stone that anchored him when life felt like it was going to sweep him away. Everyone that was back thankfully had someone that they could turn to. Tseng had Cloud, Sephiroth had Genesis, Zack and Angeal had each other. He had Rude and Rufus and the girls had each other. Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz and Lazard were about as close to family as you could get and so had fallen to each other for comfort.
Laying his head against Zack's, Reno allowed his eyes to fall shut, trying to tune the rest of the world out.
"So what do you think caused the change mom?" Bill sat down at the dining room table. It was still early and so far none of the siblings had stirred it would seem. Charlie sat down beside him, fingers absently playing with one of his newest burns. The dragons had started to become restless in the past year, as if they sensed that something was coming, something big. It was becoming a real chore not to end up KFC around them as they were all more inclined to spitting fireballs at you.
"I don't know, but it is getting out of hand, young Harry especially." Molly took a seat across from her boys, absently playing with a cup of tea. To both boys across from her, that was enough of a sign that she was worried more than anything. It was one of her little signs, but a sign nonetheless. "None of them look like they did at the beginning of term, I don't even recognize my children anymore. They don't even go by their names anymore, they have given themselves new names and they only really respond to them."
New names? Bill and Charlie sent each other identical confused looks. "What exactly are they calling themselves now?" Bill was almost afraid to ask, there were some pretty bizarre names out in their world. "Zack, Reno and Cissnei." Well those weren't so bad, other than Reno being a little bit odd since wasn't that a town in the states? That big gambling city that muggles were always talking about.
"Hey you talking shit about me again yo?" yo? Twisting in his chair, Bills eyebrows vanished up into his hairline. While yes their family was very well known for their red hair, the color red on what had to be one of the twins was a little extreme even for them. Everything about him just radiated lazy and sloppy from the way he talked to the clothes he wore.
"George, I thought you would still be asleep." George?! THAT WAS GEORGE?!
Honestly he thought he had seen everything over the years, but this, no that couldn't be George. Everything about this kid in front of him was just wrong for his brother, he didn't even see any of George in him.
Shrugging Reno snagged a roll from one of the bread baskets and leaned up against the counter. "We're actually all awake yo, Zack and Cissnei are up talking about Balto. Sup Bill, Charlie. How's your girlfriend doing?" Pulling himself out of his shock Bill mentally shook himself. "She is doing good, her english is getting better."
Nodding slightly Reno tilted his head slightly and looked up. "I heard that! Don't make me come up there and kick your ass puppy." Charlie looked over to Bill who simply shrugged, so it seemed like neither of them had heard anything.
"Aww but Reno we love you... and your phone is going off."
"Fuck... Answer it yo!" Reno bolted for the stairs, there was only a few people that called him, one of them would have his ass if he didn't pick up.
Molly sighed sadly taking a sip of her now cold tea. "It is like that with all of them, they can hear things whispered from across the house, they can see things farther than any of us can. Fred is now strong enough he can pick your father up over his head with one hand."
"Do you think it might be some type of new curse? Maybe the Dark lord is trying something." Charlie laid his arms on the table. He was just as disturbed by the changes in George as it appeared Bill and his mother were. "They were all tested for curses a few months ago, nothing was found, they aren't the only ones though." Reaching into a stack of Daily Prophet's, Molly pulled out a copy of the latest witches weekly. Normally she didn't read this trash but this issue had caught her eye. It was hard not to when the front had her children's pictures on it.
Taking the offered gossip rag from his mother, Bill laid it out on the table between himself and Charlie. The front cover was composed of moving images of several children from Hogwarts, many easily recognizable as both knew them. "Hogwarts transformations, hot or not you tell us." Charlie rolled his eyes at the title, what was it with all these witch magazines and the corny titles and giving a shit if a guy was hot. "With the transformations of students at Hogwarts, we at witches weekly ask if they looked better pre or post... Really?" Now needing to see this for himself Bill flipped to the specified page, seeing that they were full page spreads for each person. Naturally it seemed that the twins were the first page being one of the easiest to print since the two were previously so identical that even their mother couldn't tell them apart. The difference the new images showed was startling to say the least. "Fred d doesn't.."
"He doesn't look anything like he used to, he doesn't even look like a Weasley." Charlie noted leaning over his brothers shoulder. Reaching over the eldest Weasley's shoulder Charlie began to flip through the pictures, stopping on certain ones that the two personally knew. "There is just no way..." They were looking at the picture of what at one point had been Neville, how in the hell did such a timid small boy become that walking behemoth." Before the Bill could flip to the next page, a small tinkling could be heard through the house alerting them to another person appearing at the apparition point. "Mom... were you expecting someone else?"
Molly shook her head as she pulled her wand from it's spot hidden in the sleeve of her dress. Taking the cue both elder Weasley's stood drawing their own wands, if they were expecting no one else and their father wasn't due back from the Ministry for another hour it was enough to put all of them on alert.
Hearing the small tinkling sound had the three reincarnates above sitting up and taking notice, three pairs of mako enhanced eyes turned towards port spot. "Zack what do your elf eye..ow yo!" Reno rubbed the back of his head, glaring darkly at Cissnei. The brunette returned the glare, sometimes Reno's sense of humor had the most inappropriate time to show itself. "Zack?" Squinting slightly against the early morning light Zack's groan turned into a growl. "Percy..."
An: OMG please forgive me for taking so long on this, for some reason after the move my plot General just up and died and this chapter has taken MONTHS to write even as short as it is. Hopefully with this new change will help me in pulling my plot General out of the dark. Do NOT expect daily updates again, I think that is one reason my General just up and said fuck you all, but I promise I will try and get more updates for all my stories.
So please Review, you know I love them and they really really do help.