CHAPTER 4:

EMERGENCE

Tseng, current leader of the Department of Administrative Research, or the 'Turks', peered at the written report Rude had submitted, the man himself sitting on a nearby chair, alongside his partner and friend Reno, with Cissnei sitting on a different chair. Rude tended to be laconic in both speech and prose, but when it came to detailed reports, it was better to give him time to write up a report if Tseng or one of the executives didn't need it urgently. An hour later, the report was delivered to him, and Tseng studied it.

It made for only mildly interesting reading, but something about these newcomers nagged at him. "Rude, what would you say that the attitude between this…Harry Potter, and Aerith, would be?"

"Chivalrous. Protective. And also towards his daughter. I saw no family resemblance, though. Some small attraction to Aerith, but willing to keep his distance. Probably because of their short acquaintance, and Zack."

"Curious," Tseng observed.

"Yeesh, some white knight interfering in our plans?" Reno asked, slouching in his chair. "We already had to work around Zack protecting Aerith, not to mention that version of AVALANCHE coming after her. Where do you think they come from, partner?"

"Unknown. Their accent is…unusual. I have not heard it before," Rude said. "Harry lacked epicanthic folds around his eyes, so the possibility of them being Wutai agents is lessened."

"The President and/or Hojo would order us to bring her in if she's being targeted by Wutai, prior directives notwithstanding," Tseng said. "Did you get anything from anyone else?"

Rude shook his head, and Cissnei scoffed. "Many people in the slums tend to clam up when Turks are sniffing around, as you know, sir, not unless we go in disguise. There's no love lost between most of the Undercity and Shinra. And Aerith means a lot to the people of the Sector 5 Slums, especially Leaf House. Even my friends and contacts in the slums will only tell me so much. These two have probably only just arrived in the area. Though that begs the question, where did they come from?"

"Where indeed?" Tseng mused out loud. "And why end up in the Sector 5 Slums? That being said, for now, this Harry Potter and his daughter are not priority surveillance targets. Aerith is. If either or both of them are in her company, use every reasonable opportunity to get intelligence." His eyes flicked over to Reno. "And when you are put back on the surveillance roster, Reno, do not antagonise them. We don't know enough about Potter to make a detailed threat assessment of him."

"Or of the girl," Rude said. Tseng's gaze snapped back to him, and the dark-skinned man explained. "When I spoke with her, I got the feeling I was being watched. And not by her father, either. I can't explain it, save for a gut feeling. But it seemed to come from her, or…inside her, for want of a better term."

"…Seriously? Some little brat wearing sunglasses has got you spooked, partner?" Reno asked. Rude shot him a glare, and Reno held up his hands in surrender, conceding that his partner's instincts were usually spot-on.

"If I may elaborate," Rude said, "the sensation was not unlike that of a Summon from a Summoning Materia. I did not see any on her person, nor did I see a Summon present. But all I can say is that there is something to that girl that had my instincts warning me."

"Very well," Tseng said. "But I want as much intel as we can get on them both without provoking them. We're already dealing with Fujihito's lunacy at this time, never mind Wutai's sabre-rattling, and, of course, Zack and that trooper he's dragging along with him. And that's without going into whatever mission the President, Heidegger, or Scarlet may drop into our laps, never mind Hojo. Until the situation changes, or we get orders from above, surveillance only. And Reno, if I have you on surveillance duty, don't cause trouble. We don't want a repeat of the felafel stand incident."

"For fuck's sake, Boss, it was one time!" Reno protested.

"One time, at a time when the Turks don't need any further damage to their reputations, not after what happened with Verdot," Tseng said pointedly, albeit with a wry smile touching his lips. "Yet that little mess had you make Palmer look graceful by comparison."

"Bullshit! That guy drinks tea with butter in it! Butter!" Reno made retching noises. "And he thinks that's cultured? He has all the culture and grace of a one-legged Chocobo wading through that swamp near the Mythril Mines! He'd probably smell as bad if he didn't slather himself with that cologne!"

"I'll pretend I did not hear you denigrating one of our esteemed executives, and with such a mangled metaphor to boot," Tseng said, though his smirk, and those on the faces of the other Turks, belied what they actually thought. He smothered it quickly, just in case, even if he was sure that the other executives wouldn't begrudge them mocking Palmer. The main reason the President kept him on staff was that he was a cousin, and one whose family had helped fund Shinra's rise(1).

"In any case, we have enough on our plates for now," Tseng continued. "While we will keep surveillance on him on a low-key level, and dig up information on him, do so discreetly, and do not provoke him. We did not become the organisation with a reputation such as ours being sloppy and unprofessional. We may not yet move against Harry Potter yet, nor may we ever. But we need to know as much as we can. That way, should our superiors express an interest in him, we already have something of a dossier to present to them. The same goes for his child. I want this made clear to any other field agents who have work that may bring them to Sector 5 or wherever these two turn up, with or without Aerith. We only make a move against them if necessary, or on direct orders from a superior, understood?"

They all nodded with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Tseng just hoped things wouldn't escalate. An unknown was bad enough, but when their superiors in this building were, with the exception of Reeve Tuesti, as greedy, capricious, or even insane as they were, well, even without what had happened previous, Tseng knew how tenuous their positions could be. He could only hope that this interloper wouldn't cause trouble for Aerith…

Mirielle looked at Harry as he recounted their story (he nearly omitted Aerith's admission of what she was, but Aerith said Mirielle and her granddaughter knew). After the trio got back, the dumpy old woman had inveigled them into having dinner that evening at a café. "At least it was Rude and not that brat Reno. Rude and Cissnei are okay for Turks. And I heard Elena's joined the Turks."

"Elena?" Aerith asked. "That girl who used to do bartending in that bar in Wall Market? Blonde, a bit short-tempered?"

"Yeah, that's the one. Brat's had a chip on her shoulder about her older sister being better than her, from what I hear," Mirielle said.

"You know a lot about this place," Harry said.

"I keep my eyes open, my ears to the ground, and my mouth shut. Besides, old ladies tend to be inconspicuous, especially to young 'uns who don't keep their eyes open," Mirielle said. "Whereas my fool of a granddaughter tends to bring attention to herself."

"Kyrie's all right," Aerith said.

"Aerith, she's a good friend to you, and she's got a good heart underneath it all, but at times, she's a selfish little brat who doesn't think about consequences," Mirielle retorted.

Harry frowned even as he swallowed his latest bite of food. "It's scary how much power Shinra has here, never mind the rest of the world. I'm just glad Rude was reasonable and polite, despite the name."

"Hey, that just shows you're sane, and don't swallow the sewage Shinra pumps out as propaganda," Mirielle said. "And the thing about the Turks is that even the nice ones are still Shinra's spooks. If the top brass of Shinra ordered them to do something really nasty, they'd do it. True, you could say the same thing about SOLDIER, but SOLDIER is mostly sent out for stuff you'd expect troopers to deal with, either war, peacekeeping, or security stuff. The Turks, on the other hand, does shady stuff SOLDIER would never touch, in theory, anyway. They wouldn't have sent the likes of Genesis to do an assassination, for example, or to bodyguard one of the top brass, let alone Sephiroth."

"Genesis…Zack mentioned him," Aerith mused, even as Harry and Delphi tensed for a different reason. "He went rogue, though Zack didn't tell me the details."

"Yeah, well, most of the famous members of SOLDIER either died or went rogue," Mirielle said. "Sephiroth died in some hush-hush mission that went south five years back, not to mention the fact that Genesis and Angeal supposedly went AWOL. And your boyfriend didn't even become that famous, outside of Shinra. Actually, I met Genesis once years ago. We got into a spirited debate about LOVELESS. Apparently he loved quoting it too much. I personally think he was a pretentious pretty boy, myself…"

After the meal, Delphi begged Aerith to meet them in the Expanded Trunk. The brown-haired young woman eventually agreed. Harry was sure it was something serious. Delphi, despite her age, had something of a surprising maturity about her at times. She knew better than to pester adults with trivia, or at least adults she barely knew. Around Harry, and around his friends, she was more relaxed.

The source of the maturity and intelligence, though, well, Harry had his suspicions. Aside from being modified both before and after birth, there was her guardian angel. He had taught her much, counselled her when Harry couldn't. Where Harry failed or at least lacked as a parent, the guardian angel helped cover the gaps.

Aerith had marvelled at the interior of the Expanded Trunk when they entered. She hadn't actually been in it before, and looked bemused at Harry and Delphi referring to it jokingly as their TARDIS. Then again, pop-culture references didn't work across dimensions.

"Delphi, what's the matter?" Aerith said, squatting down to meet the young girl's eye level after they had convened in the living room of the Expanded Trunk, panelled with dark wood, and with bookshelves, a TV, and a fireplace. "Why ask me to come here?"

"…He wants to meet you. Properly, I mean," Delphi said. "My…guardian angel."

Harry noted the tension in the air suddenly increasing, along with his own worries. "Are you sure, Delphi?" he asked. "Manifesting him drains your magic."

"I'll be sleeping during it, and he will only manifest a basic illusion of himself, not physically," Delphi said. "He taught me that stuff, and many others." Her eyes, no longer covered by sunglasses, looked to her in concern. "I'm sorry he scared you before, but…we'd just been attacked before coming here, and he didn't react because neither Dad or I were their targets. He was angry, at them, and at himself. So he was…what was the word he used? Hy-per-vig-il-ant?"

"As long as he isn't belligerent now," Aerith said. "Given your story, I could understand it. But…this guardian angel…what is he? Who is he? I've heard the story, but…he has links to this world, doesn't he?"

"He'll explain," Delphi said, sitting on the lounge, before lying on it. "This just drains my magic less." She looked to Aerith, and shot a sad smile. "Don't be scared."

Harry could tell Aerith was, at least a little, or at least nervous. He couldn't blame her. Delphi's guardian angel was intimidating, even when you didn't take into account his slaughtering the Death Eaters. He felt nervous himself. And not just at the guardian angel's intimidating appearance and demeanour. Whenever the guardian angel manifested himself, it drained Delphi's magic. Manifesting himself as an illusion rather than as a solid ghost of sorts (Hermione likened that form to a Servant from the Nasuverse, a Japanese franchise she got Harry into) drained it least, thankfully. But he was still worried.

As Delphi closed her eyes, dark smoke seemed to swirl around her, moving away from her, and coalescing into a shape. One familiar to Harry…and, if he had guess given what he had heard earlier, to Aerith as well. Indeed, her gasp of surprise was one of recognition.

The guardian angel was tall, muscular, his frame clad in black, leathery trousers and a coat, open at the chest and with pauldrons on his shoulders. He wielded a ridiculously long and thin sword, like an overly long katana…or an odachi.

But those were only part of his intimidating, even panic-inducing aura. His features were beautiful, even alien, looking vaguely feminine, framed by silvery hair that reached his waist. His eyes were an icy blue, with reptilian slits, his lips touched almost perpetually by a smirk.

He looked like a fallen angel, one who had fallen from grace, that eerie, alien beauty only contributing to that impression. An aura of raw power seemed to come off him in waves, but more than that. A strange serenity emanated from him too, not truly peaceful, but rather, some apex predator so assured of his power, he viewed nothing as a threat.

And when Aerith spoke his name, he knew she recognised him. She probably had never met the man, but by now, Harry knew he was famous on this world. Or infamous, depending.

In a tone of fear, awe, apprehension…and yet, curiosity, Aerith said, "Sephiroth."

The apparition chuckled, his voice a low, gentle baritone that had the confident purr of a powerful warrior, and yet was a stoic near-monotone. "At your service, Aerith Gainsborough…"

CHAPTER 4 ANNOTATIONS:

So, Turks have been conversing, so have the heroes…and the big reveal has come.

Now, I wanted to humanise the Turks somewhat in keeping with the remake. I hope I succeeded in that scene.

I think the character of Mirielle Dudley, aka the Angel of the Slums, is one of the better ones invented for the remake. She's fun, funny, sassy, and altruistic. She'll be playing a minor but important role in this fic.

And the big reveal. Well, let's face it, the signs were there, and blatantly obvious. But keep in mind, this is NOT the canon Sephiroth by this point. This is basically is good, or rather, human part that the canon Sephiroth and Jenova split off. He would have dissolved into the Lifestream had it not been for Voldemort's summoning. More details will be in the next chapter.

1. Palmer's background seems vague, so I thought I'd use Team Four Star's take on him as inspiration (where he's President Shinra's cousin and got in thanks to nepotism), and do a similar take. I mean, he's a complete incompetent, so why would he be put in charge of something like the space program? He was probably shuffled sideways into the position after the failure of said space program.