Disclaimer: Final Fantasy Belongs to Square Enix. Harry Potter to JK Rowling.
Author's notes: Beware, for here there be dragons. This is all Fosfor's fault. All of it. Damn you, Fos!
-o-o-o-
Burning emerald eyes stared in defiance against the mocking laughter that echoed off the lips in front of him. Around him, he could feel the palatable anger of his comrades, of his friends surging. There was no moment of shoring resolve, there was no need to steady their nerves. Beneath them lay the broken remnants of three goddesses. Below them lay the twisted creations forged from their stolen power.
Before them now, stood all that remained. The mad man who had stolen the very life's blood of this world's magic and made it his own. Floating in the air in a twisted mockery of angelic divinity, with his lips split into a grin of pure, smug, self assured madness he was within their grasp at last. In his eyes, there wasn't even the slightest measure of fear or worry as he let his twisted laughter fill the air.
Around him, he could almost feel the weapons drawn, and the thrumming, comforting hum of magic pulsing hungrily to be unleashed. His own fingers gripped tight on his blades, the twin Gladiuses as he felt the steadying pulse of the warm gem he bore beneath his shirt. This would be the end, there would be no retreat, there would be no escape for the mad man.
Here, the mad abomination named Kefka would fall and die.
A small part of Harry Potter wondered, if only for a moment, just what it was his old friends, on his old world would be doing now, safe and secure as they were. Far away from the troubles of worlds in war, planets dying and the men that dared to become gods. Probably studying, or enjoying a bright summer's day, marveling at the wonders of magic, never comprehending the horrors it could unleash.
"So far… you've all come so far, fighting struggling…?" The grinning creature shook his head as he lightly twisted his body this way and that. "And that poor, poor Triad… just went and smashed them all to pieces didn't you? But, HA! That wasn't enough, was it!? Didn't I tell you before? It's MINE! All MINE!"
"We will stop you, Kefka. We won't let anyone else suffer under your madness!" Harry smiled faintly for a moment at Terra Bradford's declaration, the pulse of her magic filling the air as the Illumina shone in her hand, its light standing defiantly against the twisted mockery that Kefka exuded.
"My two little toys, thinking they can stop me…" Kefka shook his head, grinning as he let off a cackle of amusement as his eyes flicked between Terra and then Harry himself. "Oh, don't you remember all the fun we had together? All those screams, all that DESTRUCTION!"
A frown marred his face as he shook his head, a sudden anger flashing across his features. "Then you had to go and break my precious little gifts… Now you silly, silly things think you can defy me. I MADE you what you are today!"
"Made us?" Harry's voice growled out, anger flashing across his eyes as he could feel the pulse of Bahamut's roar on the wind, crying out for release. "You made nothing! You tried to destroy us! And you FAILED!"
A twisting pulse of anger flashed again across Kefka's face as his attention turned riveted onto the man. "Oh, oh, oh! Little Harry's forgotten already who taught him so much about magic hmm!? Who taught him to fight to kill… Naughty naughty little toy! Trying to pretend you're not all mine, no matt-!"
The exploding scream of Bahamut's cry erupted into the air as the grand Esper was made manifest by the call of Harry's power, a blast of destructive power blasting into the man, cutting off his words in mid sentence. When it cleared, the godling floated, singed, but apparently none the worse for wear. Save for a growing expression of fury rippling across his face, only to have his words cut off before they could leave his lips.
"You stole EVERYTHING from me for over five years you fucking bastard! Shoving it all down, trapped where I couldn't feel, where I couldn't remember…" The anger burning in those emerald eyes only seemed to grow with each passing moment, as he hissed angrily passed his lips. "You stole my life… My dreams, my hopes… And I'm going to rip them back no matter what!"
"Dreams… Hopes… Lives… Bah! Little things that come and go without meaning or purpose! I'll show you the truth when I bring them crashing down around you!" Then, the battle was joined, and all those thoughts and words melted before the wicked heat of battle.
-o-o-o-
The sigh of relief that rippled through their lips as the mad man's still laughing body crumpled to dust lasted only a moment before suddenly they could feel things change, and a sharp, sickening realization hit Harry. Before he could bring his thoughts to words, there as a sharp, audible crack, as suddenly they could feel the tower suddenly, violently begin to shake. All around them, they could see it, as it began to slowly crumple back into the miss matched debris Kefka had forged his tower from.
Magic. They'd just killed the bearer of the stolen essence of this world's magic. They'd destroyed it, and without it, everything that it imbued, everything it touched was being robbed of its power. He lurched forward, pushing towards the others even as he could feel something, suddenly pulling on him. "What in the bloody hell…?"
"Harry!" Terra's voice called out, echoed moments later by others as the man in question could see the looks of growing horror written on their faces, even as Terra's father pulsed into view, freeing himself from his decaying magicite. "What's happening?!"
"Magic is leaving." Harry said it before Maduin could open his mouth with a sudden quiet certainty that brought everyone's eyes immediately onto him. "All of this world's magic... That's the price to pay for defeating Kefka. The espers can't stay any longer..."
"Harry...?" There was a moment of worry, flashing across the girl's eyes as a slowly dawning look of horror began to etch itself across her face. "Then..."
For a moment, Harry said nothing, staring back into the horror etched eyes of the half esper girl who'd experienced an almost frighteningly similar fate as his own. Gone now was that frightened confused girl who had been forced to come to grips with everything that she was, everything she'd been forced to do. In her place, the confidant young woman who had fought at his side blade and magic singing in the desperate battle for peace.
As he stared into those beautiful blue eyes, he could feel the way his own lips drew back into a smile, he felt for a moment, his mind flashing back in a sudden, vivid recollection. The soft touch of her skin, the feeling of her warmth, her embrace, and the taste of her lips on his. That simple, perfect moment of intimacy as he offered her that simple, soft little smile as his eyes conveyed more than his words ever could.
Then an instant later, his eyes flashed from hers, and he took a moment to study the rest of their group, his friends, for one last time. Etching every detail he could into his mind. Burning their faces into his memories as he could feel the sudden stabbing weight of that horrible realization that he'd never see his friends again.
Locke Cole, the whimsical treasure hunter, always ready with a joke and often comically exaggerated reactions who'd helped rescue them both after they'd first been freed from the slave crowns that had forced them into the Empire's service. The man who'd grown into a kind of older brother to the two former weapons, over protective almost to a fault. A nod was all he could manage, along with a soft, bittersweet smile that lasted only a moment before he moved his eyes again.
Celes Chere. Still echoing the aloof but curious girl who'd stolen his first kiss when he was nothing more than than a mindless slave to the empire even as she leaned into Locke. For a moment, there was an instant of silence, a moment that stretched into endless seconds where his face stood impassive. Finally, the slightest of nods was given, and a look flashed across his that earned him a sudden release of tension from the woman and a grateful nod in return.
As his eyes then met Shadow, the ninja gave him only the slightest of nods, bowing his head in a quiet acknowledgment Harry's eyes moved on. There was a stiff snap to attention, as Cyan Garamonde, ever the the stalwart knight raised his sword in a quiet salute. Next to him, the young girl Relm could meet his eyes only for a moment, before she turned her glistening eyes into the robes of her grandfather, as the old blue mage nodded his head quietly back to the young man even as he enfolded the girl in his arms.
The royal twins stood in mute shock, as for a moment, to Harry they looked more alike than they had the entire time he'd known them. Next to them, the wild boy Gau seemed equally confused as he glanced over at the hulking Umaro, the beast just as confused as he was, and the tight faced moogle, Mog, who simply nodded back to the Harry. Setzer, the high flying gambler and pirate that he was, barely seemed to bat a lash as he nodded back to him, and with a slight grin on his face, he nodded his head meaningfully towards the pack of cards tucked into Harry's robes.
After a quick flash towards the enigmatic mimic Gogo, again his eyes returned to Terra before he would finally complete the sentence she couldn't bring herself to.
"The magic that anchored me here is leaving too." There was a bitter sweet smile on his lips as he lifted one Gladius up, and offered a quiet salute to his comrades, and before any protests could leave their lips his body was engulfed in a sudden emerald glow. "Ah well, it was brilliant while it lasted."
The various warriors could only watch in a kind of resigned horror as a pulsing miasma of emerald energy suddenly exploded around him and enfolding him in its embrace and rapidly began to shrink back down. As they watched, the glowing shards of magicite begin to flow up from the various Returners, several vanishing to dust, even as six glowed with a sudden, fierce light and rocketed forward into the green flux before it vanished entirely. When it was done, with glistening eyes, Terra ignored the way it felt as if she was being torn apart from inside as her esper powers were slowly being ripped away.
"Come on, follow me!" With that, she transformed for what she knew would be the final time, and started to flash back down the paths of the tower, her friends and comrades that still remained, following hot on her heels.
-o-o-o-
A sudden explosion of emerald energy spread across the waiting yard of number 4 Privet Drive, a pulsing surge of green hues writhing about, before withdrawing to drop the dusky robed form of a twenty one year old Harry Potter. For a moment, the man lay there, still and unmoving, before a low groan of pain escaped his lips. "Ow."
It was then, he noticed the wide eyed stare of a vaguely familiar figure watching him as he slowly shifted himself around and sat up with a grunt. "Well, at least that was more comfortable than the way there. Mrs... Um... Figg I think it was? Sorry my memory's a bit hazy."
"...J-j-james... Potter?!" The woman stuttered out in wide eyed disbelief as she stared at the young man in front of her.
Frowning slightly, Harry groaned just a bit and shook his head. "Merlin, I know I look like my father and everything, but..." Suddenly a thought occurred to him as he narrowed those emerald eyes on the woman. "Wait... how the bloody hell did you know what he looked like?!"
"H-h-harry?!" Arabella Figg stared at the young man in front of her, a young man who was most assuredly not a 14 year old boy as Harry Potter was supposed to be. "But... But.. you CAN'T be Harry!"
"Well, all things considered, that's who I was last I checked." Harry carefully resheathed his blades and sighed as he slowly stood up and carefully looked around. "Joy. Back 'home' as it were."
"What... What's going on?"