FFOmega

Part II: Crimson Rain

Chapter 4

Lucius was having a bad day.

The Dark Lord had made the man the leader of the vampire campaign, and that showed a level of trust that made the blonde quite happy with himself. However, he had been turned to guard duty at the time, as the vampires were a lot more agile and able to stop any imposing force with fierce lack of discrimination. For it was imperative that the Dark Lord not be interrupted at the current time.

After all, he was mid-Demon summon.

…Again.

Lucius found it quite comical, privately of course, that the so called "Dark Ruler" couldn't summon a demon, nonetheless become a Halfling. Lucius found this all the more interesting in the case that Lucius should decide to revolt. The man whom he had served with such abandon and loyalty, barring claiming Imperius when caught, of course, would be easy pickings with the troops behind Lucius, and the simple act of divesting the other man of his wand.

But he was, after all, loyal. Thus why these thoughts never entered Lucius' mind…publicly.

No, he saved such thoughts for his own room in what had been set up as his own personal fortress. The place he was at the time was under a special Fidelius comprised of several parts. Anyone who didn't already know where the place was before the spell was cast would have to collect all the scraps of parchment comprising the note detailing the location of the place. It was installed as a safeguard for the Dark Lord upon realizing that he had enemies. More enemies than he initially thought.

He became aware of the sound of footsteps in the distance. He dropped low, fingering his dragon heartstring wand he always kept in his hand when going into deep tangents within his own mind, and shuffled to the side into the shadows. The footsteps drew closer, and he slowly raised his wand to intercept them. However, as the figure walked into sight, Lucius found himself being stared at as if he was standing under a bright light instead of hidden in the deepest shadows he could find.

"I will do you no harm. I am simply here to help your seemingly incompetent 'Master' finally work out something that was adolescent work a mere 2 centuries ago." Something about the cynicism in the voice of the man before Lucius made him nod. That, and the ethereal aura surrounding him making the man appear there, but not. Lucius could even swear he could just see through the man before him if he squinted his eyes.

Stalking through the door with his footsteps echoing much too loudly to be normal, the door slammed behind him, and Lucius was left staring at the door as it closed in his face. Something significant had just transpired and he had no idea why he knew that.

-----

Kyoto had been at his weekly karaoke meeting when he paused in the middle of his rendition of "Kung-Fu Fighting" as a feeling bolted through his body. Something was wrong, very wrong, and it was causing his hand to shake as he held the microphone before it simply tipped out of his hand and landed on the floor, causes the speaker to emit a loud, high-pitched sound, and when the people that had been in the audience opened their eyes and uncovered their ears, he was gone.

-----

Harry and Blaise sat in the car staring up at the night sky, increasingly bored. They were supposed to be Lulu's "lookout", but the woman was more than capable of taking care of herself as far as what she was doing went, leaving the pair bored. Blaise was drawing pictures in the sky with sparks that would stay suspended in the sky once shot. Harry for his own part was having fun trying to guess what it was she was drawing before the picture was completed, which infuriated Blaise to no end since several times he was right much too early, even before the spark-created picture even began to take shape, making her have to wipe the sparks clear and figure out something else to draw.

Harry got a call on his phone and the caller hung up after the 1st ring. This was meant to be a signal from whoever was out to their lookout that they had gotten close to finishing what they were doing. Harry glanced down at the phone which Baretta had apparently pulled from a time/space pocket from a tear he hadn't even created yet. So in some weird way, the phones were from the future, what time, none of them were sure of. Not even Baretta.

Which left the question of…exactly how they had cellular service in the first place. And how a company that potentially wasn't even created yet, was being alerted to the calls they made.

Suddenly Harry's eyes went blank, and his mouth opened in a silent scream. Blaise stared at him before the feedback through her link with him hit her, and her vision went out from the pain that was passing through her. She rolled out of the car door and stumbled around the car and pulled open Harry's door. He fell out and landed in a heap, before Blaise fell down to him and rolled him over. His eyes were dull and if it was possible, she'd say his entire body was pulsing. It wasn't a shake, and it wasn't consistent enough to be a kind of vibration, it was like his whole body would pulse to some rhythm she couldn't understand.

However, before she could figure out what to do, there was shouting and bright lights from the building Lulu had gone into, and the number of voices ensured them that something was wrong.

"This woman has horrible timing." Harry groaned out, before standing unsteadily.

---

The castle of Hogwarts was under attack.

It was a very interesting development.

Before, it was heralded as a fortress, "No one would dare attack Hogwarts" they said.

And here they were, locking the doors, doubling up the wards, and sticking every child who wasn't fifth-year and over in the dungeons.

Or trying. Cleo was proving an old saying, you can't beat what you can't catch. And she had evaded capture so long they gave up looking for her.

The Defense classes were standing in front of the large doors that lead into the castle, weapons out and fighting stances in place. Something big was going on, and none of them knew what, all they knew was the perimeter wards sounded and they were all put in lockdown until the Headmaster arrived looking grave. Ms. Madison and Mr. Long had rallied them all together, and within moments they were out on the defensive, weapons, wands, and the like ready.

Ernie and Justin, along with a group of 5th years they had taken under their wing, were stationed atop the castle, on sniping duty. They had placed a spot of land under a heavy cushioning charm if they needed to join the melee, and they each had a bracelet that Ms. Madison had Enchanted with a slow-fall spell so they could descend slow enough to take some cover shots should they need to drop into the fray of a fight.

Dean was leaning on his War-Axe, strapping on the armor Mr. Long had made and Ms. Madison had enchanted for several people. It had very heavy damage-reduction and shielding spells woven into the material. Dean's was a hunter green with golden runes running along it, which was actually the same color scheme as his axe was beginning to take.

His hair was in cornrows again, but holding the ponytail of braids at the back was a golden band. It was the emergency band that the more melee-intensive were given. It had a short-duration shield spell that would block physical and magical damage, although the killing curse would still get through. It was solid in composition, and would form a dome around the activator, that would cut through anything the dome would otherwise divide, be it landscape, or other people.

It would last for as long as the user's magic would, and then it would act as an emergency portkey back into the castle, to allow the thusly exhausted, magically, fighter to rest. They were stocked with several potions that would spike their adrenaline, and restore magical energy to them. They had a downside that was a hell of a come-down off of the slight high they gave, leaving the user in an actual deficit, magically, and physically exhausted.

Ms. Madison stood at the front of the group. Her weapons were in her hands as her hood blew behind her. She was wearing armor she hadn't touched in many years, pushing a decade in fact. It was hidden under a black cloak that's hood was being held back. There were runes all along the lining of the entire cloak, that were done in a blood red color.

She had warned Mr. Long when she had pulled the cloak out of the metal casing it, and the armor she wore beneath it, were help in. She wouldn't be available for classes for the next week, assuming there were any. And assuming any of them survived the coming battle. The enchantments done on the cloak was an effort that was her life's work. She had begun it while still in school, and even up until the last time she had worn the cloak, was nowhere near done. The rune work was exceptional to the point of being prodigious in design. Hermione had caught a glimpse and actually fainted.

The runes were woven into the fabric of the cloak with unicorn mane hairs soaked in the woman's blood mixed with that of the unicorn the hairs came from. There were other steps to this, but no one but she would ever know about them. The runic scheme on the armor and most importantly the robe itself was a closely guarded secret for good reason. It took the idea of the potions all the children were given to a whole other level.

They pushed her body to superhuman levels. Agility, strength, dexterity, senses, hand-eye coordination, visual processing, everything. The cloak did all of this, but the downside was, the time she spent in this state burned her body's energy reserves badly. Her body would run on everything it had while in this state, and eat at any spare energy it could get. The first of the body functions it would literally shut down to keep her active was her ability to feel pain, or touch at all. It would take a good while before she could get back into full health.

The last time she had used the cloak, before the armor beneath it was completed, or the full runic scheme on the current cloak was done, she had lost 15 pounds in the 30 minutes she had been in her hyper-state, and had the shakes for over a week.

The armor beneath was a whole other story. It was laced with charms to the point that she was reduced to naught but a muggle, magically, as every ounce of her magic went to powering the armor. It was as near indestructible as any single thing could possibly be as far as she knew, but moved like silk.

This had taken a lot of runic work on her part, as she had actually had to use dragon tears, a very rare, super-acidic compound, to make the grooves for the runes. She had then filled the grooves with her blood and actually used a set of chemicals to crystallize it. The armor was then superheated with dragon flames until it was on the verge of melting, before the final runes were done. The runes locked the armor into an eternal liquid-like state. It was then shaped into the pieces that were needed, and once they had settled it was almost like a fabric, but when touched, felt similar to what she assumed holding a piece of fabric made of water would feel like.

The armor had runes along the arms that kept a permanent speed charm on her arms for fast weapon movement. The body held a set of runes that cast a hardening charm as well as a perimeter shielding charm on her. The back held a hidden rune set that set a perimeter ward around her, allowing her to identify who was around her, even if she couldn't see them. Her feet held light-footed charms, the legs a charm that would allow her to jump higher, further, and kick harder. Finally, the circlet across the top of her head narrowed her eyesight to make her able to see much further when she focuseds her eyes on something far away, and when not focused, extends her peripheral vision.

It was an amazing set of armor, and if the drawbacks weren't so steep, it would make her a fortune. But the creation of the armor alone had decreased her lifespan immediately by 40 years. This wouldn't have been a big issue, considering the fact that witches of her magical ability tended to live around 150 years. However, the first use of the armor had dropped her lifespan by another 20, but even worse, had actually permanently dropped her magical ability.

And as the rumbling of the advancing adversaries coming toward the school echoed toward them through the forest, she realized how long she would have to be in they hyper-state her armor allowed. And she prayed that she would be able to get her magic back at all once it was over. But having magic did her no good if she didn't survive long enough to use it, so she was willing to risk it.

She tossed the Shield katana into the ground, before pulling out her wand. Pulling the hood up and over her head before casting a sticking charm on it, she handed it to Mr. Long as he stepped up next to her. It would be the last spell she would cast for the day, she knew it. He took her wand, and waited as she picked her katana back up, and he cast quick sharpening charms on her weapons before turning to her.

"If it gets bad, I want you to activate the Insurance Portkey. You won't have magic to power the shield, so it will bypass that and immediately put you into the castle. Promise me, Angel. I won't see you dying out here."

She didn't say a word, simply nodded before turning and walking away from him to stand by herself.

"Dammit girl, I don't know what goes through your head. Brilliant, but how can you be…So. Damned. Stupid?"

---

Kyoto had found Harry rather quickly, and Baretta had moseyed on in, looking for every bit a cowboy as he sported a large gray fedora. Blaise had geared herself up in her fighting gear, her hair pulled back and up. She knew a fight was coming, she could feel it radiating off of Harry. He was dressed in his usual black clothes, boots, gloves and coat, the large sword strapped to his back. Lulu was producing a small ball of fire above her hand before snapping it away and producing a ball of ice, and going down the elemental chart before beginning again.

They all knew something was going on, somewhere in the back of their minds. But it was confirmed when Kyoto tied his hair atop his head, snapped his fingers, and Baretta reached into his rip and pulled out a huge duffle bag. Lulu tried to muffle a laugh at how feminine Kyoto looked with his hair back, but he heard her and narrowed his eyes, before turning back to what he was doing.

He dropped the bag on the ground, and stooped down and opened it. It was full of weapons, all types, and some that looked either incredibly old, or advanced it was doubtful they were from the current time period. "Something big has happened. And it's headed toward your old school. So we're headed there too. Why? Cause I like trouble. Trouble and I are having an affair and I can't get enough of her. She does this thing with her tongue…wow. But you're all too young for this conversation."

Lulu raised an eyebrow, Harry turned away and grabbed the white backpack that was near Blaise, and Blaise pecked him on the cheek before jumping on his back. Harry tossed the sword to Baretta, who placed it in the duffle bag and tossed it back in the rip. With a slight bend of his knees, Harry took off running toward the ledge that they had been standing at, before leaping off into the distance.

Baretta opened up his rip and stepped through, muttering "I got shit to do. Meet you there."

Kyoto turned to Lulu, sneered at her, before leaping straight up. She stared up as he disappeared from her line of sight, and then huffed and pouted. She threw her scythes down and folded her arms like a small child having a tantrum. Kyoto landed moments later and gave her a light slap to the back of her head, before pointing down to the scythes. Lulu picked them up, only to have Kyoto snatch them from her. He turned his back to her, and motioned for her to jump on. She got a running start and jumped, just to have him move out of the way, leaving her to fall on the ground.

"Don't laugh at the person giving you a ride, bitch." He muttered, before lifting her up off the ground, placing her on his back, and setting his feet. He reached back to "adjust" her on his back, giving him two handfuls of her behind. She hit him on the head, and he laughed to himself as she laughed out loud.

"But you make such a pretty girl, albeit flat-chested."

"Ha ha. And I guess you have more than enough in that area for the both of us. Care to share?" He muttered sardonically.

"Sure, grab some any time you want." She answered into his ear, before actually biting it. He rolled his eyes, despite it being impossible for anyone to know he did so, before adjusting her on his back again, this time with a grip on her legs instead. "Awww…but I do wonder, what would your name be if you were a girl?"

She laughed to herself before he muttered "Kasumi." She stared at the back of his head before suddenly they were rocketing through the sky.

It wasn't much, but she knew she was making some progress away from being completely hated by the man she was riding on the back of. It was shameless flirting on her part that he seemed very good in countering, but his heart wasn't in it, which was odd, one is usually not turned down when they have an amazing hourglass figure, and prance about all day in a leather cat-suit and a bikini top underneath, but that was exactly what had happened.

As they descended on to the next rooftop roughly a few hundred yards from their point of takeoff, which she knew he would just jump off of once more, she muttered to him, "Speed up, I wanna beat Harry and Blaise. Pedal to the metal, Kasumi-chan!"

He was silent for a moment through the next jump up. It wasn't until they were high up in the sky that he replied. "Bitch, I will drop you." There was a laugh in his voice though, as he reached back and spanked her behind. "Don't get too comfortable, once we get there, you're on your own. I may not hate you as much anymore, but I won't play Captain Save-A-Ho."

She bit his ear again, and laughed for a good mile as they joked back and forth.

---

"Hello. I'm Baretta, and I've been drinking for…longer than most of you have been alive."

"Hello Baretta" the crowd answered back, as the man in his gray duster stood at the podium.

"I love alcohol. Its delicious. Clear, dark, sweet, sour, strong, shit...isopropyl. I love alcohol. In fact, I think I'll have some now." He pulled out a large bottle of Bacardi, and tilted his head back, guzzling it like water. He looked down at the stunned faces of the people in front of him. "Oh don't worry, I have manners. I bought enough for the whole class." And he pulled out a stack of paper cups from seemingly nowhere. He then set them to the side and poured the cups full.

"Help yourself." His alarm on his watch suddenly went off. "Seems I have to be going, I'll just leave the bottle right here, I have one more stop to make. Thank you all, and goodbye."

And with that Baretta walked out of the building, smiling to himself, patting the sign that had drawn him in on the way before musing to himself, "I love Alcoholics Anonymous meetings."

And he laughed to himself as the echo of stampeding feet, shouts of "the bottle's mine!" and the sound of about 30 people falling off "the wagon" wandered out of the building behind him.

"I'm such an asshole. I love it." He muttered before opening a rip and disappearing through it to his last stop before the school.

---

Auror Nymphadora Tonks was existing in a haze. She had been called off on a long-term assignment with the Unspeakables early in the summer. It was unexpected, and what was worse, she was incapable of contacting anyone to inform them. So just after her revelation to Harry about what was going on with her feelings, she is pulled off to a mission that she wasn't even allowed to maintain her memories of. And now, here she is, standing before the doors to Hogwarts, awaiting the incoming siege, and feeling as if the castle weighed less than her thoughts.

Upon her stationing, she ran right to the school, looking to find Harry. Immediately on arrival, she was filled in on the months that Harry had had since Tonks had been called away by an unlikely source, that of Jamie Zabini. Her heart cracked as Jamie spoke fondly of the boy, and her daughter, and their relationship. However, the information concerning Bellatrix, Kyoto's turning of Harry, and his saving of Bellatrix's life had rocked Tonks' world's foundation to the core.

The fact that he was Turned into a half-demon left her world turned on its ear, and garnered conflicting emotions in the woman. She was a Black by birth, and they were far from the purest of blood, despite what they said, her aunt Narcissa's Veela blood proved that, but she had been raised to fear Demons, as had most if not all of proper Wizarding culture. If Albus Dumbledore said something was evil, and to be feared and untouched, then you damn well feared and didn't touch it.

And more-over, she couldn't figure out how she felt about Harry. To hear the things that had occurred since she had last seen him, was as if hearing all her long held beliefs were backwards all along.

She stared off into the distance from her post, allowing the thoughts to process through her head as she twirled her wand in her hand, awaiting the incoming fight. "Wherever you are, Harry, I hope you're safe."

---

"I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys-R-Us Kid, there's a million toys up in this bitch, that I can play with!" Baretta was in a very good mood. He was in his element. The fact that said element happened to be a black market gun depot in a warehouse district run entirely by the Mob was all for the better, in his eyes. People in glass houses don't throw stones. And organizations who become infamous for making people who run their mouths disappear, don't ask you why you're asking to buy a high-powered sniper rifle at 4 in the morning.

And that made Baretta quite happy.

"You know that's not how that song goes, right?"

Happy evaporated the moment the depot's current attendant inquired the man's knowledge. However, no more words were said as the large case was slid across the table.

Baretta dropped it into the shopping cart he was pushing, and also paid for a box of .44 magnum bullets, .45 colt longs, a .357 magnum, a pearl-handled chrome .38 Special with assorted bullets, a slew of armor-piercing rounds and a retractable baton. A bit of looking around in the large area of not-completely illegal wares, and he found a few other interesting things to buy. He walked out with his armory-purchases, as well as a nail gun, a welding torch, 50 yards of duct tape, 50 yards of rope, 10 yards of razor wire, and last but not least, an extra large bag of Cheetos.

Opening the bag delicately as he pushed the cart to an alley, where he opened a rip and placed it all in his sub-space compartment, Baretta continued to sing, bobbing his head side to side as he opened a movement rip to get to the school. "From Glocks and .9s, to Colt .45s, it's the greatest toy store there is! I don't wanna grow up, 'cause baby if I did! I couldn't be a Toys-R-Us Kid!"

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