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batsutousaiTitle: Twin Blades
Fandoms: Harry Potter & Final Fantasy X
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
batsutousai
Beta:tsuki_no_suzu
Rating: M/R
Pairings: Harry/Tidus (with a side of practically everybody/Harry)
Warnings: OoC, AU, playboy!Harry, NON-SPARKLY-vampire!Harry
Summary: Harry was shunned by his own people because of a bitter vampire and continued living long after England was just a pile of rubble. He watches his world become Spira and finally sets out again to save the world.
Disclaim Her: This story uses characters and settings owned by J.K. Rowling, her publishers and Square Enix. No money is being made from the creation of this fanfic, and no copywrite infringement is intended.
-0-
Forgotten Fayth
-0-
The trip to Luca was much calmer than their trip to Kilika, and it didn't take long for Harry to become cheerful again. He and Tidus had a mock duel on the deck before supper and Harry soundly defeated the boy, but Tidus did learn a couple of things from fighting against someone else, and when they had a second duel after supper, he didn't get beat quite as badly.
"Where did you learn how to fight with a sword?" Tidus asked as the two took a break at the bow.
"Here and there," Harry replied with a shrug. "I learned with one sword first then, after getting my arse handed to me by a gent who used two swords, I trained myself in that art." Harry grinned. "Fought the bastard again after a few years and beat him. He gave me his swords as a gift." He nodded at the two swords on his back.
"Cool," Tidus decided. "You're a really good teacher, you know? When Auron gave me my sword he just told me to follow my instincts." He grimaced.
Harry chuckled. "Instincts can help in a tight spot, but if you want to truly improve, you usually have to have someone around who can teach you," he said, then shrugged. "And thanks. Never taught the sword to anyone before."
"No?" Tidus cocked his head to one side. "But, you've taught before?"
Harry grinned. "Well, I taught a couple of idiots how to use a gun at one point," he admitted. "But I also taught a bunch of friends magic at one point."
"Eh?" Tidus jerked up. "You can use magic? Like Lulu?"
Harry snorted. "Some," he agreed. "I know a few black spells, and a few white spells. Magic's really useful when you're in a tight spot. Or if you're alone and your opponent is a flyer. Wakka wouldn't have any trouble with a flyer, and Kimahri can jump high enough to hit it, but you and I would have to use magic on it, or hit it as it's hitting us."
"So you learned some magic?" Tidus asked.
Harry nodded. "Pretty much. And I learned the healing spells because I tend to travel on my own a lot and don't always have a potion handy."
"Could you teach me a couple of spells?"
Harry considered the boy. "Planning to go off on your own?"
Tidus shrugged. "When we get to Luca, who knows. But, even if I do stay with Yuna and them, there's nothing wrong with having a back-up mage, right?"
Harry laughed. "How right you are! Well, I can teach you a few spells, sure. If you want to learn anything fire-based, however, you'll have to ask Lulu."
Tidus grinned. "You really don't like fire."
Harry shuddered. "Yeah, you laugh now. If you'd been almost burned at the stake, you wouldn't like it either!"
"Ew. Sorry."
Harry shrugged. "Ah. It was years ago," he said, then pushed away from the railing. "How about we get you started on lightning, hm?"
Tidus blinked. "Why lightning?"
Harry grinned madly. "I love lightning."
Tidus laughed.
-0-0-0-
Lulu found him on the railing of the bow after Tidus had gone down to bed. "Do you never sleep?"
Harry glanced over at her. "Not as much as you lot do, no."
Lulu hummed and leaned against the railing. Harry rather studiously avoided looking at her after he realised how her position pushed her breasts up even more. Lulu chuckled at him then said, "You really are trying to behave yourself, aren't you?"
Harry grunted and kicked his legs against the railing.
Lulu chuckled again and stopped leaning against the railing. "I'm sorry," she said after a moment.
Harry glanced over at her. "For teasing me?" he asked lightly.
Lulu rose an eyebrow at him, making him grin. "For setting fire on you."
"Ah..." Harry looked back out over the sea. "Tidus told you?"
"I heard, actually," she replied. "From the upper deck."
Harry glanced behind them and nodded. "I always forget how well sound travels on these boats," he commented, then shrugged. "You didn't know."
"All the same," she said.
Harry inclined his head in acceptance.
They stayed silent for almost half an hour before Harry said, "You should go in. Get some sleep."
Lulu glanced over at him. "And you?"
Harry shrugged. "Oh, I'll sleep eventually. Maybe."
"Hmmm... Good night, then."
"Good night, lovely Lulu!" Harry called back cheerfully.
Lulu just shook her head and left.
-0-0-0-
Harry got woken the next morning by a grinning Tidus. "Lulu said to come get you up," he said to Harry's disgruntled look.
Harry sighed. It figured. "Yeah, yeah. How much longer until we reach Luca?"
"Mmm... An hour, I think," Tidus replied, stepping back to let Harry get up. "Hey, that's a nasty scar."
Harry glanced over his shoulder at the web-like scar on his back. "Remember when I told you I almost got burned at the stake?" Tidus nodded, understanding dawning. "Yeah, that's the scar."
"Sorry," the boy said softly.
Harry shrugged and pulled his shirt on. "Eh. Old history, like I said."
"...did it hurt?"
Harry chuckled. "Are you kidding?" he said. "Hurt like hell. Wouldn't suggest trying it, personally. In fact, I'd suggest staying away from fire all together." He waggled his eyebrows with a grin.
Tidus couldn't help but smile back. "I'll keep that in mind," he promised, then walked with Harry up to the deck, where they met up with Yuna, Lulu and Kimahri.
"Where's Wakka?" Harry inquired, taking the roll Yuna handed him with a grateful smile.
"Coaching," Lulu offered, then glanced at Tidus. "Shouldn't you be down there?"
Tidus groaned. "I already know how to play blitzball," he complained. "And Wakka has held three of these meetings already. Each time, he says the same thing."
"You know, I seem to recall someone once saying there is no 'I' in 'team'," Harry said, then glanced over at Tidus. "I know you hate the meetings, Tidus, but they're as much for team unity as they are for going over the game. It's doubly important that you go, because none of them have ever played with you before. Even if they've never played with you, the least you can do is assure them that you'll be there when it counts."
Tidus sighed. "Yes, sir," he said, then turned and walked down to the cabin where the meeting was being held.
"Impressive," Lulu commented, making Harry roll his eyes and Yuna laugh.
Yuna bumped shoulders with him and said, "We might have to warn Wakka that Harry makes a better captain."
Harry cocked an eyebrow. "Me? Play blitzball? Oh, Merlin no."
"Don't tell me you're afraid of water, too," Lulu said drily.
Harry chuckled. "No, not water," he said. "But that doesn't mean I really want to half drown to play a game under water."
"But... They don't," Yuna said, then looked at her two guardians. "Do they?"
"Not with the spells," Lulu agreed.
"That's true," Harry agreed. "But that doesn't make me anymore willing."
"Hum. Well, I can't say I disagree with you," Yuna decided, then seemed to realise something. "Wait, if you're not afraid of water, what are you afraid of?"
Harry grinned at her. "Wood."
"Wood?"
Harry nodded emphatically. "Have you ever gotten a splinter in you bum? It hurts!"
Yuna blinked at him, then started giggling.
Harry waggled his eyebrows at her. "Think it's funny, eh?"
"How did you get a splinter in your butt?" Yuna demanded.
Harry coughed and glanced at where Lulu and Kimahri were still watching them. "I don't think I'm allowed to say," he said mock seriously. "The lovely Lulu might set fire to me again."
"Lulu wouldn't do that!" Yuna declared, glancing back at her guardian to make sure.
Harry chuckled. "Well, not set fire to me, then. But I don't think she or Kimahri would be pleased with me. It would ruin your innocence."
"How would it–"
"Yuna," Kimahri said.
"Yup, sorry, Yuna," Harry said. "I promise I'll tell you when you're older."
"But– That's not fair!" Yuna complained.
Harry leaned over and kissed her cheek, then ducked the spear that almost hit his neck. "That's my cue," he said, and hurried off to the other end of the ship, chuckling. Behind him, Kimahri decided it wasn't worth trying to stick the dark-hair swordsman and stopped chasing him.
Harry shook his head in amusement and looked up at the approaching city. He smiled at the place fondly. "Ah, Luca," he murmured. "Even after one thousand years, you haven't changed a bit."
-0-0-0-
Actually, Luca had changed a fair bit. While the city had never used as much machina as Zanarkand or Bevelle had, they had still used some, and, other than the blitzball stadium, it was all gone. No more vehicles zipping through the streets or machina on the street corners that could tell you where to go for such-and-such shop.
There also, Harry was amused to note, was not an armed escort. Because Harry had lived in Zanarkand during the Machina Wars, he was one of the enemy, as far as the people of Bevelle were concerned, even when he travelled as a diplomat to blitzball games – as he had been wont to do when the war got to be too much – in Luca. Because of that, every time he'd ever been to Luca, they had sent a guard to follow him around everywhere.
Now, however, he was free to see the city at his leisure. So he checked the times for the games, got a promise from Yuna to save him a seat in the stands, and hurried off to do just that, with the chance of a snack on the way, of course.
He was running late for the game and running for the stadium when he saw a strange party escorting Yuna. The summoner didn't look distressed, but Harry didn't see Lulu or Kimahri anywhere, either, and that bothered him. So he skipped over. "Yuna! You're supposed to be saving me a seat!"
Yuna and the men with her all looked over. "Harr–" the summoner tried, but one of the men covered her mouth with his hand and started moving off quicker, leaving his friend to point a gun at him.
Harry cocked an eyebrow at the gun, then pulled out his own, which he'd conjured bullets for during the last night on the ship, just in case. The man paused when he saw that Harry had his own guns, and Harry took the chance to run at him.
As soon as the man started firing, Harry jumped into the air and hoped the people around him were smart enough to get down. Mid-air, he started firing his own guns, smiling grimly as the man went down.
Landing hard, he ran after Yuna and her last captor, noticing they were headed for the docks. On his way, he put his guns away, not wanting to chance hitting Yuna, and loosened his twin swords so he could draw them faster.
He reached them just as they were shoving Yuna on a boat at dock. He heard them shouting in a language he didn't recognise and sped up, pulling out his swords.
He jumped on board before the men could get Yuna into the underside of the boat. He hit one of the men with his sword and used his other sword to cast Thunder on the man holding Yuna.
As Harry put his swords away, Yuna walked over, looking relieved. "Thanks," she said.
Harry nodded and kicked the man he'd gotten with his sword over so he could see his face. It only took a moment to recognise the swirled eyes, though he hadn't seen many during the wars. "Al Bhed?" he murmured. "What could they want with you?"
"Yuna!" Tidus shouted from behind them, and Harry turned to see the boy standing on the dock with Lulu and Kimahri, all three out of breath.
Harry cocked an eyebrow at them as Lulu helped Yuna back onto the dock. "Where were you three?" he asked.
Tidus laughed nervously, while Kimahri looked like someone had kicked his favourite dog, or something. Lulu just shook her head at them.
"So," Harry said, hopping back onto the dock, "would someone like to tell me why the Al Bhed ran off with Yuna?"
"Oh! Lulu, the game!" Tidus said, eyes wide.
Lulu nodded and sent a spell up into the air. When Harry started tapping his foot, she said, "The only motive we know of is that the Al Bhed asked the Aurochs to throw the game if they wanted Yuna returned safely."
Harry glanced back at the boat he'd been on. "Hm. Why not shove her in the locker room, then? No, don't answer that," he added when he saw Tidus start to open his mouth. The boy smiled sheepishly.
"Yuna safe. Kimahri grateful," Kimahri said roughly.
Harry shrugged and nodded.
"How did you know I was in trouble?" Yuna asked. "They were trying to act natural."
"What's to say I wasn't too?" Harry replied easily.
Yuna rolled her eyes. "You were tense, like you were expecting them to run."
Harry grinned. "Ooh, good eye! Actually, it was Kimahri's lack that tipped me off. He follows you everywhere. And if he's not the one following you around, lovely Lulu is." He shrugged.
Lulu's eyes widened with realization. "You're the one that brought down that Al Bhed on the walkway?" Harry nodded. "That didn't look like any sword or magic wound I've ever seen."
Harry pulled out a gun from behind his back. "I found ammo," he explained, then put it back. "Swords are good for fighting up close, and magic's good from a distance, but magic takes extra time." He shrugged. "Anyway, I like my guns."
"I thought they were just for show?" Yuna said with a worried frown.
Harry snorted. "No, I just told Wakka that so he'd shut up."
"But... Yevon..."
Harry sighed. "Lady Yuna, don't tell me you're about to preach to me about the words of a dead guy, too."
Yuna blinked. "...guy?" she asked.
"Eh?" Harry rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah. Yu Yevon, leader of Zanarkand during the Machina Wars. That's who you lot get your rules from, right? He was against machina."
"But, Zanarkand was a machina city!" Yuna said.
Harry's lips twisted with a bitter smile. "Zanarkand was a summoner's city," he said. "Yes, the city had a lot of machina in it, but they didn't believe in waging war with machina. Bevelle waged war with machina. S'why it's called the Machina Wars, because that's what Bevelle used and they were the stronger power in the war."
"That's an interesting bit of history, assuming it's actually true," Lulu said drily.
Harry shrugged. "Hey, that's just how I learned it."
"We should go make sure Wakka's okay," Tidus cut in. To Harry's curious look, he said, "He got pretty beat up while holding off to make sure Yuna was okay."
"Ah." Harry nodded in understanding. "Well then, let's go check on him. And show him that Yuna's just fine."
-0-0-0-
Wakka had yelled a bit, but was clearly relieved to see that Yuna was okay. They left Lulu to watch over the headstrong blitzer and Kimahri and Harry walked with Yuna up to the stands, where they got to watch Tidus lead the way in demolishing the Goers.
At the end of the game, while the Aurochs' stands were still cheering, fiends appeared all over the stadium. Harry and Kimahri were both on their feet in seconds, cutting down the monsters that had attacked their section of the stands, with Lulu staying back by Yuna and using spells to deal with any fiend that got too close.
In the pool, Tidus and Wakka battled with water fiends until they made their way out onto the stands. There, they cut their way to a figure in a red coat, who fought with the same apparent level of skill that Harry did.
Maester Seymour Guado eventually called an aeon to finish off the fiends in the stadium, giving the small groups of fighters in the stands a moment to rest.
Once all the fiends were gone, Yuna's party met up with Wakka, who was scratching the back of his head and looking bemused. "Tidus and I ran into Sir Auron," he said. "Said to meet him at the exit to the Mi'ihen Highroad tomorrow morning, ya?"
"Really? Sir Auron?" Yuna asked, looking excited.
Lulu sort of sighed. "Well, if we're to meet them tomorrow, we might as well find a bed for the night. I suppose there's time for some sightseeing, as well."
"Really?!" Yuna squeaked.
Harry chuckled. "You're such a small-town girl," he said.
Yuna looked over at him, biting her lip. "Are you going to leave us now, Harry?"
Harry blinked, surprised. "I'm not sure. The question really is, do you lot still want me around?" He directed his question mostly at Lulu and Kimahri, who were the two most likely to tell him to sod off.
Yuna turned to Lulu and Kimahri. "Please can't he come?"
Lulu sighed. "Do you intend to make him your guardian?"
Yuna blinked, then looked back at Harry. "Would you like to be my guardian? Please?"
Harry smiled, recalling his first real thought about the summoner, which was how adorable she was. "Sure."
Yuna's eyes lit up and she hugged him. "Thank you, Harry!"
He laughed a little nervously. "But, uh, is it okay if I meet up with you lot up at the Highroad? It's been a while since I was last in these parts, and I want to check something."
"We could go tomorrow," Yuna said.
Harry shook his head. "No point on you lot coming with me on what might very well be a wild chocobo chase. Anyway, I move faster by myself." He smiled to take the bite out of his words.
"What are you looking for?" Wakka asked.
Harry just smiled and clapped Wakka on the back. "See you all tomorrow!" he called, then hurried off.
At the entrance to what had once been simply known as the Highroad, Harry set off towards a string of islands that had once been home to a prosperous small town, Junon, which the people from Zanarkand that had moved to Besaid helped rebuild after one of Bevelle's missiles they had been testing missed. As thanks for their help, the people of that small town had a temple built for Zanarkand's summoners, which housed a fayth of protection, as it were. She granted Carbuncle to those she found worthy.
Harry wanted to see if the temple was still standing. From what he'd heard about a summoner's journey, that city was completely passed by. Harry wasn't sure if that was because the temple was in ruins, or if Carbuncle was considered useless. The Zanarkand summoners Harry had known had loved Carbuncle, because she could cast Protect and Shell on an entire party, without taking away the magic of the summoner, leaving said summoner free to cast their own spells from behind the protective barriers.
Harry reached the string of islands shortly after the sun had set and stared out over the ruined buildings. "Junon..." he whispered to the ruins, feeling pain anew. He'd lived in Junon for almost twenty years after it had been rebuilt, just as he'd lived in Zanarkand and a few other small villages along the coast, where Bevelle didn't look too closely at who was visiting. He'd also spent some time on Besaid, but it had only been a few months, and the town had been in about the same area as the current village.
Harry eventually shook the shock from his mind and started out into the ruins, climbing around crumbling buildings and over shattered roads. He made it to the second island, where the temple had been, without more than one or two mishaps. There, he found a way to get into the temple and hurried through the ruined Trials, which the Zanarkand summoners seemed so fond of. The room outside the Fayth's Chamber was riddled with cracks and he had to step carefully to keep from falling through the hole. He didn't have much hope for the fayth's crystal.
Harry was quite surprised to find that Carbuncle's fayth was still active, however. As soon as he entered the room, the small girl he'd only seen once before appeared above the crystal. She blinked at him for a moment, taking in the distinctive weapons only one man had ever carried, and then said, "Lord Harry?"
Harry grimaced at his old title – only Lords could be given diplomat status, so Yu Yevon had made their resident vampire just that, figuring that having a diplomat that didn't die very easily would be a boon in their troubled world. "Hey, Cary," he replied, finding the name the people of Zanarkand had used for the fayth somewhere in the back of his head. He certainly didn't remember what she'd been called before becoming a fayth.
She smiled. "You're still alive! We'd wondered, after the war, when you didn't show back up again."
Harry nodded and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of her. "I did send Yu a transmission that I was planning to sleep for a while."
"Oh, yes, I suppose you did..." When he cocked an amused eyebrow, the young fayth blushed and said, "Alexander was standing guard when he got it."
"Ah..." Harry nodded. The aeons had been a wonderful thing on the battlefield, even against their stronger opponents, as they were able to communicate with each other instantly. Harry, having never cared to try and train to be a summoner, hadn't had that same ability, so when he'd gone underground, he'd had to send a note to the nearest summoner to let Yevon know. At that point in the war, Harry was mostly staying to the south of the fighting, since he wasn't really useful on the battlefield as it had been made, so it hadn't mattered.
"So, wait, you've been asleep for one thousand years?!"
Harry chuckled. "Yes."
"But, why?! We needed you!"
Harry looked away. "I was tired, Cary. Merlin, I'd been awake and running around for more than one thousand years, at that point." He ran a hand through his hair and looked back at the girl. "I was killed more times that I cared to keep track of, usually because of one of those fucking 'diplomatic missions' Yu was always sending me on! I got so tired of seeing the kids I'd helped raise at the orphanage go out and get killed. I just wanted to sleep." He ran a hand down his face, irritated to find it was shaking. "Damnit!"
Cary hunkered down over her crystal, watching him with wide eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered when it seemed Harry had finished yelling.
Harry closed his eyes and knocked his head against the wall behind him. "What happened?" he asked.
"Lord Yu used the final solution."
Harry jerked forward. "Before, or after Bevelle's? I heard Zanarkand was destroyed..."
"Before," Cary whispered. "But... something went wrong. Lord Yu made the shell to protect him for the summoning, because everyone else was gone, even you." Harry looked away. "He programmed it somehow, set it to destroy anything attacking him. But, he lost control. The shell destroyed Zanarkand after Bevelle. And he couldn't stop it. Lady Yunalesca tried, but..." The girl started crying, and Harry wished, more than ever, that they'd never made children into fayth. It had been one of the cruellest practises of the people of Zanarkand when they started losing and decided they needed more aeons.
Harry rubbed tiredly at his face. "Yu, what did you do?" he whispered to his old friend. They'd had their arguments, just as Harry had once had with another best friend, but they'd always been friends, no matter how many times Yu sent Harry into certain death.
"Lord Yu is Sin," Cary told him, gathering herself again.
Harry jerked back and slammed his head into the wall behind him, barely recognising the pain. "Yu is that... That monster?!"
Cary nodded.
"What about my little lily?" he asked desperately of Yunalesca, who he'd helped raise while Yu had been too busy with the war, since her mother had died in childbirth.
Cary looked away. "She faced Sin, with Zaon, and he tore them apart. She..."
"She died," Harry said hollowly.
Cary nodded. "Odin and Alexander say her ghost haunts the stadium, where summoners go to get the Final Aeon in hopes of finishing Sin."
Harry nodded.
"I'm sorry," the girl whispered.
Harry shook his head. "It's not your fault, kiddo."
Cary giggled and Harry blinked at her in surprise. "You haven't called any of us that since before we became fayth."
Harry grimaced. "Yeah? I still hold out that you should have waited until you were older."
Cary just giggled some more.
Harry sighed. "So, was Yu the one to destroy Junon, then?"
Cary nodded. "Yeah. About... Oh, probably about six hundred years ago. No one ever bothered to come in here afterwards. You're the first person I've seen since."
Harry grunted. "Do you care if I try and bring a summoner by? Tomorrow afternoon, I should think."
Cary's eyes lit up. "I can be useful again?"
Harry smiled at her sadly. "Oh, Cary, you've always been useful. But, yes, I'll make sure Yuna uses you."
Cary smiled. "Thank you, Lord Harry."
Harry sighed. "And, please, for the love of Zanarkand, don't tell her what I am."
Cary's eyes lit with mischief. "Or who you are?"
"Yes, that too."
"Just me?"
Harry eyed the fayth grumpily. "Cary, I mean it."
Cary pouted. "Aw, but Lord Harry!"
Harry rolled his eyes. "As far as they know, I'm just another human. Though," his eyes lit up, "that delicious little blond boy knows I'm something more. I sort of talked about Zanarkand with him. Oh! Hey, did Yu magically find a way around the time paradox? Because Tidus is from Zanarkand."
"Tidus?" Cary repeated.
Harry nodded. "Yeah."
Cary coughed uncomfortably. "Lord Harry, do you remember that final resort?"
Harry nodded again. "The dream Zanarkand."
Cary shuffled her feet a bit, then said, "Tidus is from there."
Harry blinked a couple of times, then jumped to his feet. "I drank from a dream?! Bloody hell! Why didn't I go into bloodlust?!"
"You..." Cary giggled. "You drank blood from him?"
Harry glared at the girl. "Of course I did. He's cute. And he was the nearest person."
Cary giggled some more.
Harry huffed. "All right, brat, how come I didn't kill half the population of Besaid in bloodlust? Surely you bloody fayth have an answer?"
Cary covered her mouth, eyes bright, and shrugged. "Uhm... Well, Bahamut says that when they decided to summon him to this world, they had Sin bring him, and something about Sin changed him a bit. So he's kind of half-dream, half-real. It's...complicated."
"Bahamut?" Harry asked, deciding he'd figure out the Tidus problem later. "I don't remember a Bahamut."
Cary shook her head. "Nuh-uh. You'll kill me if I tell you."
"Cary, I can't kill you," Harry replied.
But Cary shook her head again. "You'll start yelling again and–"
"Cary."
The girl shrunk down in a ball against her crystal. "Bahamut is James," she finally said.
Harry felt his blood run cold and closed his eyes. "Why did my son become a fayth?" he asked quietly.
Cary flinched. "It's not..." She shrank back when Harry looked up at her. "It's your grandson," she whispered. "His dad stopped him from becoming part of the wall, but he died in the last fight, and James was just sort of left to make his own way. They wanted to put a fayth in Bevelle and he volunteered. He says... he did it so he could see you..." she finished, tears in her eyes.
Harry turned and walked out of the room, kicking at rubble. If he'd known sleeping would make his grandson become a fayth, he would have never done it. He'd always respected the men and women who became fayth, though he'd hated that they felt the need to do it, but he couldn't wrap his mind around letting kids do it. It was one of the things he and Yu had always fought about.
"Damnit, James," Harry whispered, not sure if he was cursing his son, or the grandson he'd never known. His son had returned to Zanarkand when he was seventeen, while Harry remained down south, where he liked it better. He'd gotten word shortly before he'd decided to sleep that his son's wife was expecting, but the fighting had gotten so bad at that point that Yu had stopped the ships going between the two halves of the world, so Harry couldn't get up north to see his family, and James couldn't come down to visit. Not without someone dying seven or eight times in the process, and Harry had never passed his curse on to the few kids he'd had during his long life.
Without even realising it, Harry's feet had led him to the stone building he'd lived in during his time in Junon. Walking in through the crumbling door, he looked around. Everything was just as he'd left it, albeit rather crumbly. He stepped over to a sphere on a side table and activated it. The picture was fuzzy, but there was his son, smiling at him with his wife, Anna. There were also pictures of Yunalesca and her boyfriend, Zaon, who had been from Bevelle. (Yu had about killed the boy when he finally found out about the relationship, but Harry had been there to drag the furious man away and talk him down.)
Harry put the sphere back on the table, throat tight. The sphere had been on the last boat to the south before Yu decided to change them all into war boats against Bevelle. Harry remembered advising his friend against cutting off the communication between their two halves of the world, but Yu had added, only to Harry, that he was also recalling the ships so Bevelle would hopefully never discover the secret of the world being round, or that they had people from Zanarkand living on the islands of southern Spira.
"We sacrificed so much," Harry whispered to the sphere. Almost half of Zanarkand's population had become fayth to keep their home alive, while others were completely cut off from friends and family to keep them safe. "But it's never enough."
Harry stretched out on his couch, deciding it wasn't worth braving the stairs, and stared at the pictures of his family standing atop the sphere, waving at him like they hadn't a care in the world.
-0-0-0-0-0-
A/N: Hmmm... Some of that was rather unexpected, even to your dear author. Ah, well.
I know that, if Harry's scar of his back is really that impressive, Lulu or someone should have mentioned it while he was running around without a shirt on in Kilika, but I couldn't find a way to fix that part of the chapter, so let's just pretend Harry had a spell on it or something that keeps people from noticing it, usually. ^.^"
~Bats ^.^x
Chapters:
1 - Washed Up |||2 - Forgotten Fayth ||| 3 - The Broken Town
4 - The Abyss ||| 5 - Depth ||| 6 - Ghosts
7 - Maybes Are Nevers ||| 8 - Extremes ||| 9 - Regret
10 - Fred ||| 11 - Vampyre ||| 12 - Blood
..
Fandoms: Harry Potter & Final Fantasy X
Author:
batsutousaiBeta:
tsuki_no_suzuRating: M/R
Pairings: Harry/Tidus (with a side of practically everybody/Harry)
Warnings: OoC, AU, playboy!Harry, NON-SPARKLY-vampire!Harry
Summary: Harry was shunned by his own people because of a bitter vampire and continued living long after England was just a pile of rubble. He watches his world become Spira and finally sets out again to save the world.
Disclaim Her: This story uses characters and settings owned by J.K. Rowling, her publishers and Square Enix. No money is being made from the creation of this fanfic, and no copywrite infringement is intended.
Forgotten Fayth
-0-
The trip to Luca was much calmer than their trip to Kilika, and it didn't take long for Harry to become cheerful again. He and Tidus had a mock duel on the deck before supper and Harry soundly defeated the boy, but Tidus did learn a couple of things from fighting against someone else, and when they had a second duel after supper, he didn't get beat quite as badly.
"Where did you learn how to fight with a sword?" Tidus asked as the two took a break at the bow.
"Here and there," Harry replied with a shrug. "I learned with one sword first then, after getting my arse handed to me by a gent who used two swords, I trained myself in that art." Harry grinned. "Fought the bastard again after a few years and beat him. He gave me his swords as a gift." He nodded at the two swords on his back.
"Cool," Tidus decided. "You're a really good teacher, you know? When Auron gave me my sword he just told me to follow my instincts." He grimaced.
Harry chuckled. "Instincts can help in a tight spot, but if you want to truly improve, you usually have to have someone around who can teach you," he said, then shrugged. "And thanks. Never taught the sword to anyone before."
"No?" Tidus cocked his head to one side. "But, you've taught before?"
Harry grinned. "Well, I taught a couple of idiots how to use a gun at one point," he admitted. "But I also taught a bunch of friends magic at one point."
"Eh?" Tidus jerked up. "You can use magic? Like Lulu?"
Harry snorted. "Some," he agreed. "I know a few black spells, and a few white spells. Magic's really useful when you're in a tight spot. Or if you're alone and your opponent is a flyer. Wakka wouldn't have any trouble with a flyer, and Kimahri can jump high enough to hit it, but you and I would have to use magic on it, or hit it as it's hitting us."
"So you learned some magic?" Tidus asked.
Harry nodded. "Pretty much. And I learned the healing spells because I tend to travel on my own a lot and don't always have a potion handy."
"Could you teach me a couple of spells?"
Harry considered the boy. "Planning to go off on your own?"
Tidus shrugged. "When we get to Luca, who knows. But, even if I do stay with Yuna and them, there's nothing wrong with having a back-up mage, right?"
Harry laughed. "How right you are! Well, I can teach you a few spells, sure. If you want to learn anything fire-based, however, you'll have to ask Lulu."
Tidus grinned. "You really don't like fire."
Harry shuddered. "Yeah, you laugh now. If you'd been almost burned at the stake, you wouldn't like it either!"
"Ew. Sorry."
Harry shrugged. "Ah. It was years ago," he said, then pushed away from the railing. "How about we get you started on lightning, hm?"
Tidus blinked. "Why lightning?"
Harry grinned madly. "I love lightning."
Tidus laughed.
Lulu found him on the railing of the bow after Tidus had gone down to bed. "Do you never sleep?"
Harry glanced over at her. "Not as much as you lot do, no."
Lulu hummed and leaned against the railing. Harry rather studiously avoided looking at her after he realised how her position pushed her breasts up even more. Lulu chuckled at him then said, "You really are trying to behave yourself, aren't you?"
Harry grunted and kicked his legs against the railing.
Lulu chuckled again and stopped leaning against the railing. "I'm sorry," she said after a moment.
Harry glanced over at her. "For teasing me?" he asked lightly.
Lulu rose an eyebrow at him, making him grin. "For setting fire on you."
"Ah..." Harry looked back out over the sea. "Tidus told you?"
"I heard, actually," she replied. "From the upper deck."
Harry glanced behind them and nodded. "I always forget how well sound travels on these boats," he commented, then shrugged. "You didn't know."
"All the same," she said.
Harry inclined his head in acceptance.
They stayed silent for almost half an hour before Harry said, "You should go in. Get some sleep."
Lulu glanced over at him. "And you?"
Harry shrugged. "Oh, I'll sleep eventually. Maybe."
"Hmmm... Good night, then."
"Good night, lovely Lulu!" Harry called back cheerfully.
Lulu just shook her head and left.
Harry got woken the next morning by a grinning Tidus. "Lulu said to come get you up," he said to Harry's disgruntled look.
Harry sighed. It figured. "Yeah, yeah. How much longer until we reach Luca?"
"Mmm... An hour, I think," Tidus replied, stepping back to let Harry get up. "Hey, that's a nasty scar."
Harry glanced over his shoulder at the web-like scar on his back. "Remember when I told you I almost got burned at the stake?" Tidus nodded, understanding dawning. "Yeah, that's the scar."
"Sorry," the boy said softly.
Harry shrugged and pulled his shirt on. "Eh. Old history, like I said."
"...did it hurt?"
Harry chuckled. "Are you kidding?" he said. "Hurt like hell. Wouldn't suggest trying it, personally. In fact, I'd suggest staying away from fire all together." He waggled his eyebrows with a grin.
Tidus couldn't help but smile back. "I'll keep that in mind," he promised, then walked with Harry up to the deck, where they met up with Yuna, Lulu and Kimahri.
"Where's Wakka?" Harry inquired, taking the roll Yuna handed him with a grateful smile.
"Coaching," Lulu offered, then glanced at Tidus. "Shouldn't you be down there?"
Tidus groaned. "I already know how to play blitzball," he complained. "And Wakka has held three of these meetings already. Each time, he says the same thing."
"You know, I seem to recall someone once saying there is no 'I' in 'team'," Harry said, then glanced over at Tidus. "I know you hate the meetings, Tidus, but they're as much for team unity as they are for going over the game. It's doubly important that you go, because none of them have ever played with you before. Even if they've never played with you, the least you can do is assure them that you'll be there when it counts."
Tidus sighed. "Yes, sir," he said, then turned and walked down to the cabin where the meeting was being held.
"Impressive," Lulu commented, making Harry roll his eyes and Yuna laugh.
Yuna bumped shoulders with him and said, "We might have to warn Wakka that Harry makes a better captain."
Harry cocked an eyebrow. "Me? Play blitzball? Oh, Merlin no."
"Don't tell me you're afraid of water, too," Lulu said drily.
Harry chuckled. "No, not water," he said. "But that doesn't mean I really want to half drown to play a game under water."
"But... They don't," Yuna said, then looked at her two guardians. "Do they?"
"Not with the spells," Lulu agreed.
"That's true," Harry agreed. "But that doesn't make me anymore willing."
"Hum. Well, I can't say I disagree with you," Yuna decided, then seemed to realise something. "Wait, if you're not afraid of water, what are you afraid of?"
Harry grinned at her. "Wood."
"Wood?"
Harry nodded emphatically. "Have you ever gotten a splinter in you bum? It hurts!"
Yuna blinked at him, then started giggling.
Harry waggled his eyebrows at her. "Think it's funny, eh?"
"How did you get a splinter in your butt?" Yuna demanded.
Harry coughed and glanced at where Lulu and Kimahri were still watching them. "I don't think I'm allowed to say," he said mock seriously. "The lovely Lulu might set fire to me again."
"Lulu wouldn't do that!" Yuna declared, glancing back at her guardian to make sure.
Harry chuckled. "Well, not set fire to me, then. But I don't think she or Kimahri would be pleased with me. It would ruin your innocence."
"How would it–"
"Yuna," Kimahri said.
"Yup, sorry, Yuna," Harry said. "I promise I'll tell you when you're older."
"But– That's not fair!" Yuna complained.
Harry leaned over and kissed her cheek, then ducked the spear that almost hit his neck. "That's my cue," he said, and hurried off to the other end of the ship, chuckling. Behind him, Kimahri decided it wasn't worth trying to stick the dark-hair swordsman and stopped chasing him.
Harry shook his head in amusement and looked up at the approaching city. He smiled at the place fondly. "Ah, Luca," he murmured. "Even after one thousand years, you haven't changed a bit."
Actually, Luca had changed a fair bit. While the city had never used as much machina as Zanarkand or Bevelle had, they had still used some, and, other than the blitzball stadium, it was all gone. No more vehicles zipping through the streets or machina on the street corners that could tell you where to go for such-and-such shop.
There also, Harry was amused to note, was not an armed escort. Because Harry had lived in Zanarkand during the Machina Wars, he was one of the enemy, as far as the people of Bevelle were concerned, even when he travelled as a diplomat to blitzball games – as he had been wont to do when the war got to be too much – in Luca. Because of that, every time he'd ever been to Luca, they had sent a guard to follow him around everywhere.
Now, however, he was free to see the city at his leisure. So he checked the times for the games, got a promise from Yuna to save him a seat in the stands, and hurried off to do just that, with the chance of a snack on the way, of course.
He was running late for the game and running for the stadium when he saw a strange party escorting Yuna. The summoner didn't look distressed, but Harry didn't see Lulu or Kimahri anywhere, either, and that bothered him. So he skipped over. "Yuna! You're supposed to be saving me a seat!"
Yuna and the men with her all looked over. "Harr–" the summoner tried, but one of the men covered her mouth with his hand and started moving off quicker, leaving his friend to point a gun at him.
Harry cocked an eyebrow at the gun, then pulled out his own, which he'd conjured bullets for during the last night on the ship, just in case. The man paused when he saw that Harry had his own guns, and Harry took the chance to run at him.
As soon as the man started firing, Harry jumped into the air and hoped the people around him were smart enough to get down. Mid-air, he started firing his own guns, smiling grimly as the man went down.
Landing hard, he ran after Yuna and her last captor, noticing they were headed for the docks. On his way, he put his guns away, not wanting to chance hitting Yuna, and loosened his twin swords so he could draw them faster.
He reached them just as they were shoving Yuna on a boat at dock. He heard them shouting in a language he didn't recognise and sped up, pulling out his swords.
He jumped on board before the men could get Yuna into the underside of the boat. He hit one of the men with his sword and used his other sword to cast Thunder on the man holding Yuna.
As Harry put his swords away, Yuna walked over, looking relieved. "Thanks," she said.
Harry nodded and kicked the man he'd gotten with his sword over so he could see his face. It only took a moment to recognise the swirled eyes, though he hadn't seen many during the wars. "Al Bhed?" he murmured. "What could they want with you?"
"Yuna!" Tidus shouted from behind them, and Harry turned to see the boy standing on the dock with Lulu and Kimahri, all three out of breath.
Harry cocked an eyebrow at them as Lulu helped Yuna back onto the dock. "Where were you three?" he asked.
Tidus laughed nervously, while Kimahri looked like someone had kicked his favourite dog, or something. Lulu just shook her head at them.
"So," Harry said, hopping back onto the dock, "would someone like to tell me why the Al Bhed ran off with Yuna?"
"Oh! Lulu, the game!" Tidus said, eyes wide.
Lulu nodded and sent a spell up into the air. When Harry started tapping his foot, she said, "The only motive we know of is that the Al Bhed asked the Aurochs to throw the game if they wanted Yuna returned safely."
Harry glanced back at the boat he'd been on. "Hm. Why not shove her in the locker room, then? No, don't answer that," he added when he saw Tidus start to open his mouth. The boy smiled sheepishly.
"Yuna safe. Kimahri grateful," Kimahri said roughly.
Harry shrugged and nodded.
"How did you know I was in trouble?" Yuna asked. "They were trying to act natural."
"What's to say I wasn't too?" Harry replied easily.
Yuna rolled her eyes. "You were tense, like you were expecting them to run."
Harry grinned. "Ooh, good eye! Actually, it was Kimahri's lack that tipped me off. He follows you everywhere. And if he's not the one following you around, lovely Lulu is." He shrugged.
Lulu's eyes widened with realization. "You're the one that brought down that Al Bhed on the walkway?" Harry nodded. "That didn't look like any sword or magic wound I've ever seen."
Harry pulled out a gun from behind his back. "I found ammo," he explained, then put it back. "Swords are good for fighting up close, and magic's good from a distance, but magic takes extra time." He shrugged. "Anyway, I like my guns."
"I thought they were just for show?" Yuna said with a worried frown.
Harry snorted. "No, I just told Wakka that so he'd shut up."
"But... Yevon..."
Harry sighed. "Lady Yuna, don't tell me you're about to preach to me about the words of a dead guy, too."
Yuna blinked. "...guy?" she asked.
"Eh?" Harry rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah. Yu Yevon, leader of Zanarkand during the Machina Wars. That's who you lot get your rules from, right? He was against machina."
"But, Zanarkand was a machina city!" Yuna said.
Harry's lips twisted with a bitter smile. "Zanarkand was a summoner's city," he said. "Yes, the city had a lot of machina in it, but they didn't believe in waging war with machina. Bevelle waged war with machina. S'why it's called the Machina Wars, because that's what Bevelle used and they were the stronger power in the war."
"That's an interesting bit of history, assuming it's actually true," Lulu said drily.
Harry shrugged. "Hey, that's just how I learned it."
"We should go make sure Wakka's okay," Tidus cut in. To Harry's curious look, he said, "He got pretty beat up while holding off to make sure Yuna was okay."
"Ah." Harry nodded in understanding. "Well then, let's go check on him. And show him that Yuna's just fine."
Wakka had yelled a bit, but was clearly relieved to see that Yuna was okay. They left Lulu to watch over the headstrong blitzer and Kimahri and Harry walked with Yuna up to the stands, where they got to watch Tidus lead the way in demolishing the Goers.
At the end of the game, while the Aurochs' stands were still cheering, fiends appeared all over the stadium. Harry and Kimahri were both on their feet in seconds, cutting down the monsters that had attacked their section of the stands, with Lulu staying back by Yuna and using spells to deal with any fiend that got too close.
In the pool, Tidus and Wakka battled with water fiends until they made their way out onto the stands. There, they cut their way to a figure in a red coat, who fought with the same apparent level of skill that Harry did.
Maester Seymour Guado eventually called an aeon to finish off the fiends in the stadium, giving the small groups of fighters in the stands a moment to rest.
Once all the fiends were gone, Yuna's party met up with Wakka, who was scratching the back of his head and looking bemused. "Tidus and I ran into Sir Auron," he said. "Said to meet him at the exit to the Mi'ihen Highroad tomorrow morning, ya?"
"Really? Sir Auron?" Yuna asked, looking excited.
Lulu sort of sighed. "Well, if we're to meet them tomorrow, we might as well find a bed for the night. I suppose there's time for some sightseeing, as well."
"Really?!" Yuna squeaked.
Harry chuckled. "You're such a small-town girl," he said.
Yuna looked over at him, biting her lip. "Are you going to leave us now, Harry?"
Harry blinked, surprised. "I'm not sure. The question really is, do you lot still want me around?" He directed his question mostly at Lulu and Kimahri, who were the two most likely to tell him to sod off.
Yuna turned to Lulu and Kimahri. "Please can't he come?"
Lulu sighed. "Do you intend to make him your guardian?"
Yuna blinked, then looked back at Harry. "Would you like to be my guardian? Please?"
Harry smiled, recalling his first real thought about the summoner, which was how adorable she was. "Sure."
Yuna's eyes lit up and she hugged him. "Thank you, Harry!"
He laughed a little nervously. "But, uh, is it okay if I meet up with you lot up at the Highroad? It's been a while since I was last in these parts, and I want to check something."
"We could go tomorrow," Yuna said.
Harry shook his head. "No point on you lot coming with me on what might very well be a wild chocobo chase. Anyway, I move faster by myself." He smiled to take the bite out of his words.
"What are you looking for?" Wakka asked.
Harry just smiled and clapped Wakka on the back. "See you all tomorrow!" he called, then hurried off.
At the entrance to what had once been simply known as the Highroad, Harry set off towards a string of islands that had once been home to a prosperous small town, Junon, which the people from Zanarkand that had moved to Besaid helped rebuild after one of Bevelle's missiles they had been testing missed. As thanks for their help, the people of that small town had a temple built for Zanarkand's summoners, which housed a fayth of protection, as it were. She granted Carbuncle to those she found worthy.
Harry wanted to see if the temple was still standing. From what he'd heard about a summoner's journey, that city was completely passed by. Harry wasn't sure if that was because the temple was in ruins, or if Carbuncle was considered useless. The Zanarkand summoners Harry had known had loved Carbuncle, because she could cast Protect and Shell on an entire party, without taking away the magic of the summoner, leaving said summoner free to cast their own spells from behind the protective barriers.
Harry reached the string of islands shortly after the sun had set and stared out over the ruined buildings. "Junon..." he whispered to the ruins, feeling pain anew. He'd lived in Junon for almost twenty years after it had been rebuilt, just as he'd lived in Zanarkand and a few other small villages along the coast, where Bevelle didn't look too closely at who was visiting. He'd also spent some time on Besaid, but it had only been a few months, and the town had been in about the same area as the current village.
Harry eventually shook the shock from his mind and started out into the ruins, climbing around crumbling buildings and over shattered roads. He made it to the second island, where the temple had been, without more than one or two mishaps. There, he found a way to get into the temple and hurried through the ruined Trials, which the Zanarkand summoners seemed so fond of. The room outside the Fayth's Chamber was riddled with cracks and he had to step carefully to keep from falling through the hole. He didn't have much hope for the fayth's crystal.
Harry was quite surprised to find that Carbuncle's fayth was still active, however. As soon as he entered the room, the small girl he'd only seen once before appeared above the crystal. She blinked at him for a moment, taking in the distinctive weapons only one man had ever carried, and then said, "Lord Harry?"
Harry grimaced at his old title – only Lords could be given diplomat status, so Yu Yevon had made their resident vampire just that, figuring that having a diplomat that didn't die very easily would be a boon in their troubled world. "Hey, Cary," he replied, finding the name the people of Zanarkand had used for the fayth somewhere in the back of his head. He certainly didn't remember what she'd been called before becoming a fayth.
She smiled. "You're still alive! We'd wondered, after the war, when you didn't show back up again."
Harry nodded and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of her. "I did send Yu a transmission that I was planning to sleep for a while."
"Oh, yes, I suppose you did..." When he cocked an amused eyebrow, the young fayth blushed and said, "Alexander was standing guard when he got it."
"Ah..." Harry nodded. The aeons had been a wonderful thing on the battlefield, even against their stronger opponents, as they were able to communicate with each other instantly. Harry, having never cared to try and train to be a summoner, hadn't had that same ability, so when he'd gone underground, he'd had to send a note to the nearest summoner to let Yevon know. At that point in the war, Harry was mostly staying to the south of the fighting, since he wasn't really useful on the battlefield as it had been made, so it hadn't mattered.
"So, wait, you've been asleep for one thousand years?!"
Harry chuckled. "Yes."
"But, why?! We needed you!"
Harry looked away. "I was tired, Cary. Merlin, I'd been awake and running around for more than one thousand years, at that point." He ran a hand through his hair and looked back at the girl. "I was killed more times that I cared to keep track of, usually because of one of those fucking 'diplomatic missions' Yu was always sending me on! I got so tired of seeing the kids I'd helped raise at the orphanage go out and get killed. I just wanted to sleep." He ran a hand down his face, irritated to find it was shaking. "Damnit!"
Cary hunkered down over her crystal, watching him with wide eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered when it seemed Harry had finished yelling.
Harry closed his eyes and knocked his head against the wall behind him. "What happened?" he asked.
"Lord Yu used the final solution."
Harry jerked forward. "Before, or after Bevelle's? I heard Zanarkand was destroyed..."
"Before," Cary whispered. "But... something went wrong. Lord Yu made the shell to protect him for the summoning, because everyone else was gone, even you." Harry looked away. "He programmed it somehow, set it to destroy anything attacking him. But, he lost control. The shell destroyed Zanarkand after Bevelle. And he couldn't stop it. Lady Yunalesca tried, but..." The girl started crying, and Harry wished, more than ever, that they'd never made children into fayth. It had been one of the cruellest practises of the people of Zanarkand when they started losing and decided they needed more aeons.
Harry rubbed tiredly at his face. "Yu, what did you do?" he whispered to his old friend. They'd had their arguments, just as Harry had once had with another best friend, but they'd always been friends, no matter how many times Yu sent Harry into certain death.
"Lord Yu is Sin," Cary told him, gathering herself again.
Harry jerked back and slammed his head into the wall behind him, barely recognising the pain. "Yu is that... That monster?!"
Cary nodded.
"What about my little lily?" he asked desperately of Yunalesca, who he'd helped raise while Yu had been too busy with the war, since her mother had died in childbirth.
Cary looked away. "She faced Sin, with Zaon, and he tore them apart. She..."
"She died," Harry said hollowly.
Cary nodded. "Odin and Alexander say her ghost haunts the stadium, where summoners go to get the Final Aeon in hopes of finishing Sin."
Harry nodded.
"I'm sorry," the girl whispered.
Harry shook his head. "It's not your fault, kiddo."
Cary giggled and Harry blinked at her in surprise. "You haven't called any of us that since before we became fayth."
Harry grimaced. "Yeah? I still hold out that you should have waited until you were older."
Cary just giggled some more.
Harry sighed. "So, was Yu the one to destroy Junon, then?"
Cary nodded. "Yeah. About... Oh, probably about six hundred years ago. No one ever bothered to come in here afterwards. You're the first person I've seen since."
Harry grunted. "Do you care if I try and bring a summoner by? Tomorrow afternoon, I should think."
Cary's eyes lit up. "I can be useful again?"
Harry smiled at her sadly. "Oh, Cary, you've always been useful. But, yes, I'll make sure Yuna uses you."
Cary smiled. "Thank you, Lord Harry."
Harry sighed. "And, please, for the love of Zanarkand, don't tell her what I am."
Cary's eyes lit with mischief. "Or who you are?"
"Yes, that too."
"Just me?"
Harry eyed the fayth grumpily. "Cary, I mean it."
Cary pouted. "Aw, but Lord Harry!"
Harry rolled his eyes. "As far as they know, I'm just another human. Though," his eyes lit up, "that delicious little blond boy knows I'm something more. I sort of talked about Zanarkand with him. Oh! Hey, did Yu magically find a way around the time paradox? Because Tidus is from Zanarkand."
"Tidus?" Cary repeated.
Harry nodded. "Yeah."
Cary coughed uncomfortably. "Lord Harry, do you remember that final resort?"
Harry nodded again. "The dream Zanarkand."
Cary shuffled her feet a bit, then said, "Tidus is from there."
Harry blinked a couple of times, then jumped to his feet. "I drank from a dream?! Bloody hell! Why didn't I go into bloodlust?!"
"You..." Cary giggled. "You drank blood from him?"
Harry glared at the girl. "Of course I did. He's cute. And he was the nearest person."
Cary giggled some more.
Harry huffed. "All right, brat, how come I didn't kill half the population of Besaid in bloodlust? Surely you bloody fayth have an answer?"
Cary covered her mouth, eyes bright, and shrugged. "Uhm... Well, Bahamut says that when they decided to summon him to this world, they had Sin bring him, and something about Sin changed him a bit. So he's kind of half-dream, half-real. It's...complicated."
"Bahamut?" Harry asked, deciding he'd figure out the Tidus problem later. "I don't remember a Bahamut."
Cary shook her head. "Nuh-uh. You'll kill me if I tell you."
"Cary, I can't kill you," Harry replied.
But Cary shook her head again. "You'll start yelling again and–"
"Cary."
The girl shrunk down in a ball against her crystal. "Bahamut is James," she finally said.
Harry felt his blood run cold and closed his eyes. "Why did my son become a fayth?" he asked quietly.
Cary flinched. "It's not..." She shrank back when Harry looked up at her. "It's your grandson," she whispered. "His dad stopped him from becoming part of the wall, but he died in the last fight, and James was just sort of left to make his own way. They wanted to put a fayth in Bevelle and he volunteered. He says... he did it so he could see you..." she finished, tears in her eyes.
Harry turned and walked out of the room, kicking at rubble. If he'd known sleeping would make his grandson become a fayth, he would have never done it. He'd always respected the men and women who became fayth, though he'd hated that they felt the need to do it, but he couldn't wrap his mind around letting kids do it. It was one of the things he and Yu had always fought about.
"Damnit, James," Harry whispered, not sure if he was cursing his son, or the grandson he'd never known. His son had returned to Zanarkand when he was seventeen, while Harry remained down south, where he liked it better. He'd gotten word shortly before he'd decided to sleep that his son's wife was expecting, but the fighting had gotten so bad at that point that Yu had stopped the ships going between the two halves of the world, so Harry couldn't get up north to see his family, and James couldn't come down to visit. Not without someone dying seven or eight times in the process, and Harry had never passed his curse on to the few kids he'd had during his long life.
Without even realising it, Harry's feet had led him to the stone building he'd lived in during his time in Junon. Walking in through the crumbling door, he looked around. Everything was just as he'd left it, albeit rather crumbly. He stepped over to a sphere on a side table and activated it. The picture was fuzzy, but there was his son, smiling at him with his wife, Anna. There were also pictures of Yunalesca and her boyfriend, Zaon, who had been from Bevelle. (Yu had about killed the boy when he finally found out about the relationship, but Harry had been there to drag the furious man away and talk him down.)
Harry put the sphere back on the table, throat tight. The sphere had been on the last boat to the south before Yu decided to change them all into war boats against Bevelle. Harry remembered advising his friend against cutting off the communication between their two halves of the world, but Yu had added, only to Harry, that he was also recalling the ships so Bevelle would hopefully never discover the secret of the world being round, or that they had people from Zanarkand living on the islands of southern Spira.
"We sacrificed so much," Harry whispered to the sphere. Almost half of Zanarkand's population had become fayth to keep their home alive, while others were completely cut off from friends and family to keep them safe. "But it's never enough."
Harry stretched out on his couch, deciding it wasn't worth braving the stairs, and stared at the pictures of his family standing atop the sphere, waving at him like they hadn't a care in the world.
A/N: Hmmm... Some of that was rather unexpected, even to your dear author. Ah, well.
I know that, if Harry's scar of his back is really that impressive, Lulu or someone should have mentioned it while he was running around without a shirt on in Kilika, but I couldn't find a way to fix that part of the chapter, so let's just pretend Harry had a spell on it or something that keeps people from noticing it, usually. ^.^"
~Bats ^.^x
1 - Washed Up |||
4 - The Abyss ||| 5 - Depth ||| 6 - Ghosts
7 - Maybes Are Nevers ||| 8 - Extremes ||| 9 - Regret
10 - Fred ||| 11 - Vampyre ||| 12 - Blood
..
*points to icon*
Date: 31/1/10 00:43 (UTC)I know that I do not comment nearly often enough on your stories, but I saw the comment before me and I was appalled because you deserve so much more than that...mediocre joke.
You are a wonderful author that I have been following and reading since the beginning of Abandon (*looks it up real quick* wow, that dates me and makes me sound like a stalker because of over 5 years of voraciously consuming your stories).
Anyways, I know that I do not tell you how much I love your stories often enough. You make the lurker in me emerge, and you should know that does not do that very often. It is just that you are that amazing of an author.
You have a since of humor that I adore, and your characters are so interesting and alive. Your dialogue is always a pleasure to read, because you can literally *hear* the voices in your head.
Also, just because I do not say it often enough:
Thank you so much for sharing! ^_^
Re: *points to icon*
Date: 31/1/10 01:02 (UTC)Yeah... I keep getting things like that. One of the dangers of posting publicly, I suppose... I just mark them as spam and delete them.
Re: *points to icon*
Date: 31/1/10 01:36 (UTC)