THE NEW CETRA HERITAGE: IMAGO

EPISODE 2:

COLD LANDS AND COLDER HEARTS

I can't see where you're coming from,

But I know just what you're running from,

And what matters ain't who's the baddest but

The ones who stop you from falling from your ladder.

-Short Change Heroes, by The Heavy

CHAPTER 6:

THE GREAT GLACIER

I am curled up alone in my prison. It's so dark in here, so very, very dark. I am alone. I will always be alone.

I remember screams. A green light. Pain. A pain that sears at my soul. Faces of all kinds. Cold night. And now, this. This eternity of misery.

I have been here for a very long time. Almost an eternity in the cold and the dark. I don't even know my name any more.

Suddenly, the prison shakes. Everything around me begins to heat up. I begin screaming, but there is nobody to hear. And then, suddenly, oblivion.

But not for long.

I emerge from my prison, a womb of rock and stone. I find myself assuming a strange shape, but one suited to my grandeur. But something is wrong with the air. The Lifestream here, as it curls around the wound created by my arrival…it is so alien…so different.

No, it's not fair! I saved them! I undertook the Last Sanction, I unleashed the Gatherer and his Herald to harvest the survivors, make them become one with me so that we may find another world to continue…a shining future, where there had been none at all. And I arrived here, where there's already life(1)?

I couldn't do it again. Even if I was physically able to make the long trek across the dark, I couldn't do it again. My sanity was hanging by threads. In truth, it had already snapped.

I had made hard decisions before. I will again. As the native people approach, I know what I must do. In life, there is always the consumed and the consumer. The food and the eater.

The prey, and the predator.

First, I am subtle, entrancing them with illusions, before infecting them with my cells. Then, when they begin to fight back, I turn them and animals into my warriors. They had no right to resist! I had earned the right to survive! I must survive! Or else it meant nothing!

Battles waged. Battles won. Battles lost. The Cetra manage to stop me, my main mass, even when so many of my cells are scattered across the world in the form of monsters. They named me Jeh-Nohva, Calamity from the Skies. And their punishment was to be the cruellest of them all.

They wanted to entomb me, once more, in a prison of stone.

I screamed and struggled, as, without remorse, they sealed me into the rock. And in the darkness, time and isolation erodes at my sanity and memories until all that's left is I, and the desire to consume.

Then, after what felt like an eternity, the light of day once more. I exchanged one prison for another, rock and stone for glass and drugged oxygenated liquid. They take parts of me piecemeal, while I stare at them. Eventually, I learn the language of a new world, separated from that of the Cetra not by distance but by time. Of scientists, of electricity, of Shinra. I learn the names of my tormentors: Hojo, Gast, Lucrezia…

And then, they give me new children. Genesis, Angeal…Sephiroth…

I feel Nibelheim burn from a distance, and find it good. I meet my son, properly, for the first time. But he believes me to be an Ancient, a Cetra. I am so much more than they are.

I watch him being attacked by a boy with spiky blond hair. I feel the strange sensation of having my head removed by Sephiroth. During another confrontation with the boy, we fall into the depths of the Mako Reactor…

…And there, I try to take control. Only to find that, in his madness, Sephiroth has a strength far beyond anything I have encountered. And I am so much less than I once was…

…Except that's not quite who I am, am I?

Oh, Mother…what did they do to you?


I grew up in a cage, while scientists poked and prodded at me. I've…made my peace with that. But I never forget. I remember the perpetual leer on Hojo's face. He enjoyed having power over me and my mother. I remember him occasionally drugging my mother, and taking her away. I'm not sure what he did, but I have my suspicions(2).

My mother…that was the worst thing about that whole ordeal. Not the pain of the experiments and endless sample-taking. I could see her dying in her eyes, as the life and vitality drained out of them. Only a small ember remained by the time we finally escaped, her desperate desire to protect me finally fuelling a Limit Break that destroyed all monitors and security devices within the Shinra labs. She beat back the troopers sent to stop our escape with Limit Break after Limit Break, even though she was forcing these Limit Breaks to occur. And to do so ruined the body.

We got to a train, and took it down. It was at the terminus at Sector Seven that my mother began to succumb, blood trickling from every orifice. I knew she was dying, and while she told me that she was returning to the Planet, I didn't want her to die!

I lost a mother that day. And while I gained a new one…it was still perhaps the worst day of my life.


I didn't learn my name until I went to school. I was called Freak or Boy. It was only then that I was told my name was Harry Potter.

I lived in a cupboard under the stairs. They told me my parents were worthless, useless, and so was I. I had to earn my keep. They made me work like a servant. No, a slave. A servant gets paid.

They kept me oppressed. They continually told me there was no such thing as magic, exploding at me if I dared to even hint at contradicting them.

I know the truth now. They were liars. Vicious, petty liars. I was a hero, and so were my parents. But…I was a hero because I lived when my parents didn't. I was a hero to a world that left me in the worst situation. They may have been my relatives, but they were also selfish, evil, and petty. So what does that say about those who left me there?

Well, given that I was thrown into Hell on Earth, all for cleaning up the trash of their world, not much. Made into a weapon, made to watch my friends die because of bad decisions, and made to rot away.


Harry woke with a pained groan, only to find himself cold, and covered in snow. He ached all over, though thankfully, he didn't seem to have any broken bones. Just bruises and a cut or two. As he got to his feet, he realised he wasn't alone. Aerith was sprawled in the snow not far from him, while that Turk woman, Elena, was a little further away.

But where was Luna?

He soon got his answer when, out of the snowstorm around them, Luna flew in, on a pair of white wings. He stared, as she came in to land gracefully, like an angel. "Luna…since when did you have wings?" Harry asked, understandably perturbed.

"Since my Reunion," Luna said as her wings faded. "I've been scouting ahead. There's some shelter not far from here we can use. I did so quickly, I didn't want you all to succumb to the cold."

Harry nodded, before rousing Aerith, while Luna roused Elena. Elena needed little persuading to join them at the shelter with little fuss. She was outnumbered three to one, and she was up against a Jenova hybrid as well.

Once inside the small cave, Elena hugged herself, shivering, and swearing softly to herself. "Why did you try to help me?" she asked.

"I have a 'saving people thing', as one of my old friends put it," Harry said, his face falling at the memory of Hermione, who had said that. Dead on the grounds of Hogwarts. "Turns me into a chivalrous idiot. Anyway, you're out of your depth. I killed many people, but out of revenge. Not out of callousness. I only stunned those idiot soldiers you had with you too. Of course, if they killed anyone I cared about…"

"You go postal?" Elena asked.

"Oh, even worse." Harry chuckled mirthlessly. "Anyway, why the hell does Shinra want a Cetra?"

"They want the Promised Land," Aerith said. "Shinra makes its money by converting the very lifeforce of the Planet, the Lifestream, into electricity. The problem is, they are draining the very life out of the Planet, and trust me, the Planet is more than a little annoyed at that. The Promised Land is, supposedly, a land rich with Mako Energy, the physical manifestation of the Lifestream. But Shinra have got it wrong. They think it's a physical place. In truth, the Ancients viewed the Promised Land as their reward for helping cultivate the Lifestream…to join with it when their time has come."

Elena stared at Aerith. "You're lying," she said in a quietly accusatory tone.

"Or maybe you're just a corporate drone who has been indoctrinated by Shinra's bullshit," Harry remarked.

"Like hell I am! AVALANCHE are terrorists! They bombed the Mako Reactors, killed dozens of people!" Elena snapped.

"And how many more died when Reno triggered the collapse of the Sector 7 Plate?" Aerith asked, quietly, but with a hidden edge in her tone.

Elena couldn't make a comeback to that. Luna then gently patted the young Turk's hand. "Don't worry. Your goals and ours should coincide, anyway. I mean, don't you guys want to stop Sephiroth too?"

"If he succeeds in his quest, it's Game Over," Harry said. "I'd think that Shinra would put a premium on self-preservation at the very least."

Elena looked out of the cave, before scowling. "That storm's not letting up for a while. Fine, then. Just tell me what you know…"


Elena scoffed as Harry, Luna, and Aerith finished their story. "You know, after hearing this guy's story," Elena indicated Harry, "I think your story about the Promised Land is a lot more plausible. Another world?"

Suddenly, the two red Materia on Luna's wrist bangle flared (Luna having presumably taken one of them from Harry after their battle with Jenova), and a pair of figures emerged. "I know it is true because I spent centuries there," Nicholas Flamel said.

"Who the hell are you?" Elena demanded.

"We were Summon beings from this world. Surely you recognise the Materia that hold our essence?" Flamel asked, indicating Luna's bangle. "On this world, I was known as Ixion."

"And I was Valefor," Perenelle Flamel added.

"Ixion and Valefor…two of the legendary Summons, thought to be lost," Elena murmured, almost in awe.

Nicholas Flamel nodded. "We left this world during the Cetra Exodus to the world where Harry and Luna were born. Some centuries ago, we adopted, with permission, the identities of our former masters, Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel, noted alchemists who were rumoured to have developed the Philosopher's Stone, an alchemic catalyst thought to turn base metals into gold, and create the Elixir of Life, the source of immortality."

"We were thought to be immortal because of the Stone, and we pretended that our Materia were our Stones," Perenelle added.

"During Harry's first year at Hogwarts, I agreed to a plan by Albus Dumbledore to try and lure Voldemort, the evil wizard targeting Harry, out of hiding. I also wished to withdraw from wizarding society, and fake our deaths. Dumbledore announced that we would be stopping taking the Elixir of Life, and that we had destroyed the Philosopher's Stone to avoid it falling into the wrong hands. But we had made other arrangements. We disappeared quietly into society, being able to change our forms to some extent. However, when news came of the disastrous final battle, we wondered whether we should come out of hiding. We began investigating discreetly. A few years after your imprisonment, Harry, we came across what seemed to be coalescing Jenova cells. We were wary, but when Luna showed her commitment to saving your life, we decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. Luna felt like Jenova, but with none of the malice."

"So we worked together to break you out," Luna said cheerfully. "I'm sorry I took so long, but my Reunion took a long time. The magic thrown about during the final battle hindered my ability to regenerate."

"At least you came back for me," Harry muttered. "Nobody else did if they were still alive. They thought not giving me the Kiss was the best bit of gratitude for saving their worthless arses they could show. Malfoy even showed up to gloat. I threw my toilet bucket at him, and told him he was full of shit, adding some more to him wouldn't make much of a difference. He took exception to that, but it was worth the bruised ribs. He can't kick to save his life, otherwise my ribs'd be broken. That's the gratitude I get for saving his arse and that of his mother, though she at least seemed to be sorry about me being in Azkaban."

"Draco Malfoy covered in urine and crap?" Luna laughed. "I will pay you for you to show me that memory. I can make a Pensieve later."

Elena looked at Luna, and then Harry, and then at the Flamels, before putting her head in her hands. "Either your insanity is infectious, or else I hit my head harder than I thought landing after that impromptu bit of snow-boarding. Two Summon beings who masqueraded as wizards on another world, another one who's a fucking Jenova creature with a tenuous grasp on reality, and one who is an escaped fugitive, and half-crazy."

Aerith, taking pity on the young Turk, asked, "Is Tseng all right?"

Elena scowled. "No thanks to you. He's in a coma. They're not sure if he'll ever wake up."

"He was attacked by Sephiroth, he told us," Aerith said.

"So you say, but I don't believe the associate of known terrorists."

"This coming from the woman who willingly joined an organisation dedicated to assassination and murder," Aerith replied acidly. "I only asked about Tseng because he was the closest thing I had to a friend at Shinra. Well, that and Zack."

"Zack? I've heard of him. Some former SOLDIER turned traitor. Tseng apparently tried to make sure your letters reached him, but the army gunned him down," Elena remarked.

"I know he's dead. Luna told me." Aerith looked over at Elena. "You…liked him, didn't you?"

"You could say that, though I couldn't work up the courage to talk to him about it. Besides, I'm sure Shinra has some clause or other against office relationships," Elena said with a mirthless chuckle. After a moment, Elena asked Aerith, "Why join up with AVALANCHE, though? I mean, avoiding Shinra's one thing. I sort of understand that. But joining up with terrorists? You DO know what AVALANCHE nearly did even before Barrett took over? Hell, if anything, he's tame by comparison. And I don't say that lightly."

Aerith gave Elena a look. "AVALANCHE didn't take my mother from me. AVALANCHE didn't experiment on me. When I first met Cloud, he helped me up and bought one of my flowers. When we arrived at Sector 7 and found out that Shinra was about to destroy the pillar, Tifa and Cloud's first thoughts were to tell the people to evacuate, and had me get Barrett's daughter out of there. I can't speak as much for Barrett or for the others with him, but Cloud and Tifa are good people. And I know Tifa actually gave a damn about the people who died in the explosions AVALANCHE caused. But if the Planet dies because of Shinra's predations, what then? Even you should be worried: you could be out of a job if it happens in your lifetime."

In the uncomfortable silence that followed, Luna looked out of the cave. "The storm's passing," she remarked. "Literally, anyway. Come on." And with that, the cheerful Jenova hybrid left, the Flamels vanishing into her Materia, though not without Luna offering a parting shot. "Or do you want to stay with the wrackspurt infestation?"

Harry sighed, before getting up to follow, Aerith and Elena doing so too. But Luna was right. Even if the storm had passed literally, there was still a metaphorical one on the horizon…

CHAPTER 6 ANNOTATIONS:

Most of this chapter was taken from either Chapter 7 of Harry Potter and the Cetra Heritage, or else Chapter 21, with some alterations. Luna is having dreams of Jenova's rather tragic past, as speculated by me in that work.

Now, I've made the decision that, instead of posting in five-chapter episodes, this time, I will post in one chapter increments. Otherwise, I may never get this done. As it is, I'm lucky to have gotten this one out for my first anniversary update. For this update, however, fans of Final Fantasy VII will get a treat, with an update for Holiday (the fourth story and second interquel for the Cetra Heritage Saga) as well as a new crossover idea that has caught my eye…

Review-answering time! Akuma-Heika: Harry's being snarky and bitter. Given what Dumbledore does in canon, he's somewhat justified. And Vincent is implied not to be locked into his coffin, that his seclusion is self-imposed.

Reishin Amara: This isn't going to be a harem fic. So wipe the drool away.

The following annotations were copied and pasted (with minor editing) from Harry Potter and the Cetra Heritage

1. One wonders, if Omega succeeded in transplanting the Lifestream onto another world, what would happen to the life already there? I'd assume there'd be safeguards, but still…

2. I wouldn't put it past Hojo to attempt to rape Ifalna, partly because he's a psychopath who delights in causing misery to others, and partly because he probably wants another Cetra test subject to work on. This is a guy who subjected Lucrezia and their unborn child to infection with Jenova cells. I left the wording somewhat ambiguous, though, so I'll let you make up your mind.

CHAPTER 6 SOUNDTRACK:

Over Flashback Falls Without a Barrel: Who Am I? (FTG)

The Great Glacier: Buried in Snow (FTG). What else am I going to use but the theme from the actual game?