IMPORTANT NOTE, PLEASE READ! The votes have been cast and it was overwhelmingly in the favour of Cloud/Harry. HOWEVER! Some of you seem to be under the mistaken impression that I will be turning this into Porn at a later date. I assure you, this will not be happening. It will be subtle. Very subtle so that each of you readers can take the pairing any which way you wish, brothers/bestfriends/lovers. I'm not all that fussed, because quite frankly, both Cloud and Harry have more important things to worry about like a war. There may be slash with some other characters but it will mostly be background. If you have complaints, kindly sign in to give them, that way I can reply to you and settle whatever issues you may have, I would rather not air my dirty laundry here for all to see. Thank you for reading.

BEYOND THE EMERALD DAWN

CHAPTER FIVE

"Oh no! Please Mr General Sir! Please don't rip my arms off and shove them down my throat in a desperate attempt to silence my irritating mincy, bitchy whining!"

Zack coughed violently into his paper-cup of coffee (Enhanced sneakily with a lot of powdered Hypers.) hastily biting on his lower lip to hide the huge grin that was threatening to split his face as his advanced hearing caught the tail end of his 'younger brother's' too-quiet mutterings as he doodled on one of the 'important' documents Palmer Junior has given to him for Cloud. Harry had read through it, thought about it, read it through again and then promptly started to draw a number of little comics featuring Richard Palmer getting brutally murdered by Cloud, Scarlet and Rufus engaging in various sexual acts under the table, Cid and Reno arguing over cigarette brands while Reeve in the foreground tossed back aspirin like they were Smarties only to get squished into a human sandwich by Harry and Zack once he was in a drug induced Happy Place.

Needless to say, anyone with enhancements in the room was finding it difficult to keep a straight face as they heard Harry narrating his comics too softly for any of the board members to hear properly. (Reeve had a very good idea what was happening, Harry usually bounded over to show him the drawings like an excited child. He had to admit he found them very amusing.)

"Lieutenant!" Palmer barked from the other side of the room, Harry held up a hand,

"Gimme a sec!" he called as he put the finishing touches onto the aspirin bottle in Reeve's hand before looking up, "Yah?"

"Where's Strife?" The Blond demanded, his brown eyes narrowing on the dark haired Lieutenant as he leaned back with a grin,

"He should be eatin' breakfast, then again, stubborn pillock's probably in the War Room pouring over maps and old R.T.O. reports." Was the ever-so blasé reply.

Palmer reddened violently, that colour couldn't have been good for his blood pressure, Harry thought absently as he watched the older man swell in anger. Personally Harry likened it to bloating of his Aunt Marge in his Third Year but the blond was just too prissy for that. But it would be funny to see him turn into one of those long thin balloons they use to make animals at children's parties as opposed to the round ones they usually have. A few years ago he would have been angry, resigned, slightly intimidated at the sight of the man's face, knowing that he was supposedly a superior officer. But... Harry didn't care any more. It was rather amusing, no one in the room cared at all about this pathetic example of the human race.

Whatever Palmer jr had been about to splutter out was rather beheaded when one of the tenser members of AVALANCHE asked the billion Gil question.

"Where is that Bastard?" growled the familiar voice of Barret Wallace, the gunarmed commander of the Corel Security forces was practically frothing at the mouth at the thought of one of his most hated and feared enemies out and about again, alive. Barret did not want Sephiroth any where near Corel, North, South, East or West. He wanted him gone and away from Marlene, AVALANCHE, his city and his people. He didn't want the silver haired male anywhere near Cloud in the slightest.

Reeve sighed from where he was leaning against the large pane of glass that functioned as a window over 80 percent of South Corel as he looked over the room. "Sephiroth is being escorted through the underground mining tunnels from the medical facility on the East side; he should already be in the lift on his way up here." The tired looking official explained looking a trifle ill at the prospect of coming face to face with the white haired man instead of through the Prank-Happy cat Cait Sith.

All the Generals should be present for this little 'meet and greet' thing that Palmer had planned, everyone except the main attraction, The General, Cloud Strife. Harry had taken his spot after demanding that the blond use the day to take care of himself, get some sleep and for Merlin's sake, eat something! As such, he was present as the only Lieutenant General there save Halley Lesant, who was technically a Lieutenant Colonel to Cid whom was sat beside the surprisingly tall brunette pilot. Zack thought it would be a good idea to have more than one familiar face for Sephiroth to see when he walked in and both Zack, Reno, Halley, Rude and Tsang used to play cards together in the airhanger, occasionally Zack would get Sephiroth to join in too back before the Nibelheim incident. Halley was determined to get that 30 gil Seph owed her from their last game. If only to remind him that there were no hard feelings between them and that nothing had changed, except maybe now she wouldn't flirt with him non-stop, despite the many times he told her he was gay.

The board table was very long, something which everyone was very grateful for as with the AVALANCHE members, Turks and ShinRa board members, the tensions were running high along with some peoples tempers. Along the right side of the table furthest away from the door sat Harry, beside him was Zack, then Halley, Cid, Tifa, Barret and lastly an empty seat which everyone assumed would be taken by Cloud –who was obviously a no-show. Behind them, Vincent was leaning against the wall with Nanaki beside him, sat on his haunches giving the room a calm level-golden stare with Takao curled up at his side, peaceably unconcerned. Opposite the seated AVALANCHE members was Rufus, Scarlet, Reno –who had his feet up on the table prompting Scarlet's hand to twitch toward her gun every now and again. Rude had opted to do a Vincent and lean against the wall so he could move faster if anyone present should prove to be a threat.

Barret began to twitch his fingers caressing his gun arm rather spastically, obviously a product of stress at the thought of the man who almost destroyed a planet entering into the same room. Harry sighed and flicked a finger in Barret's direction, applying a sticking charm to his chair and to some of the tigger mechanisms in his gun, knowing the hotheaded black man; he would start trying an assassination attempt the moment Whitey-chan stepped into the room. Something which neither Harry nor Zack were about to allow, Halley would have a hissy fit too.

"Barret, honey, calm down. We need Shiroi-chan to be in one piece if he's to have any attempt as saving our goddamn planet." Harry pointed out his voice hardening from the syrupy sweet tone he used to start into a dark growl as he glared at Barret. He never had gotten along with the black man or Tifa, there was just something about them that reminded him too closely of Ron and Hermione, Tifa certainly wasn't a know-it-all but there was still a vibe about her that made Harry edgy, as for Barret, he wasn't jealous but he was certainly overprotective and short tempered and close-minded enough to do Ron proud. No. Stop, stop thinking about them, they aren't part of your life any more. Harry took a deep breath and expelled those thoughts from his mind with a touch of Occlumency and looked up at the door snicked open and Yuffie's Lieutenant General stepped in, bowing formally, a hand resting across his chest in a Wutaian salute.

"General Ma'am." He greeted softly to the older woman who nodded regally toward the red head. "President sir, mission complete. General Sephiroth sir, this way please."

The red head stepped aside to allow the much taller white haired male into the room, Sephiroth looked almost exactly the same as the last time Zack had seen him, the only difference any of the AVALANCHE members saw was that his eyes were a light jade green colour, almost the same shade as an apple, his pupils were round instead of the feline or reptilian slit they once were when under JENOVA's control.

The reaction was near instantaneous, everyone in AVALANCHE and the Turks went stiff, Halley however reacted with her usual lack of tact or common sense:

"You still owe me 30 Gil White-ass. Pay me later." She declared eyeing him coolly with the same expression that practically declared to Zack that the moment there were no ShinRa eyes watching them, she would be all over Sephiroth like a rash to see if he was alright. If was just the sort of girl she was, in front of the higher-ups she was a bitch, around everyone else she was like a female version of Zack and Cid combined –without the chain-smoking.

Sephiroth nodded, "And you owe me 40 Gil. Pay me later." He declared smoothly prompting a laugh from the woman as she leaned back in her seat, shooting Reno a smirk that had his blue eyes twinkling like crazy as a smirk of his own threatened to split his face.

"ENOUGH!" Richard Palmer shouted, face still red from Harry's callous treatment of him earlier, as he tried to claw some sort of attention toward himself.

Sephiroth inclined his head slightly, face icy-blank, he nodded politely to the Lieutenant General who had escorted him in, Zack arching an eyebrow as he caught the slight touch of a smile hidden within his friend's apple eyes. Apparently the diminutive Wutaian had managed to crack the shell of the Ice prince enough for Seph to actually take a liking to him. The red head nodded, everything about him impassive, damn that was a good poker face, as he closed the door behind him and moved to stand behind Yuffie who smiled brightly at him, prompting an ever so slight glint of amusement in the male's eyes.

Reeve was the one who bit the bullet first.

"General Sephiroth, I would say welcome but I doubt you would believe the sincerity of my words after reading the reports of... well everything since the Nibelheim mission." The black haired male began with a slightly pained expression upon his face. "Have you familiarised yourself with the records of this war?"

Sephiroth nodded, "Yes. I must say I was surprised to hear of Wutai's involvement. Godo was not the type of man to forgive or forget."

Yuffie snorted, "He isn't." She stated. "Father has nothing to do with Wutai's involvement in this war." The Wutaian warrior Princess declared, slate grey/green eyes narrowing upon Richard Palmer, well aware of his racism and distain for her and Wutai. The woman broke off and returned to staring Sephiroth down. "You've read the mission files, we have no choice. We're still losing. We are not so stupid that we can't see when we need to band together if the human race is to survive on this Cetra Forsaken mudball."

Harry snorted scowling out of the window, "You can say that again. Bastards." He growled referring to the Cetra.

"Indeed." Sephiroth mused glancing at Harry with no small amount of curiosity and bemusement.

"If we can get to the point of this meeting gentlemen." Palmer bit out, obviously trying his hardest to reign in his temper, everyone nodded and returned to their official capacities, Harry continued drawing but could feel Zack fidgeting ever so slightly, his leg practically vibrating under the table.

"Alright, we're met Mr Tall-Dark-And-Vitamin-D-Deficient," Yuffie, Zack and Halley giggled at Harry's blasé words while Sephiroth merely arched an eyebrow in bemusement, "Why don't you tell us exactly why you've summoned us away from the Front Lines in this dangerous time of war."

Palmer blustered, muttering under his breath about Harry's impunity and arrogance reminding the black haired Lieutenant of Minister Fudge from way back in the day of when he used to be on Earth, he suppressed the inane urge to start laughing in the blond's bucktoothed face (though not as pronounced as his father's dentistry issues, thank Merlin.)

"General Sephiroth will be joining you at the Front lines, as such, Mr Palmer believed it prudent to introduce you so no one attacked him under a misguided belief that Hojo had somehow managed to clone the man who you once fought against and set him loose." Rufus ShinRa broke in smoothly, regarding each of those present on the other side of the long meeting table, pointedly ignoring Palmer's simpering on his left, gauging each other reactions and body language.

"Which is why Lieutenant General Sinclair will be transferred under General Sephiroth's command." Palmer abruptly interrupted, bringing startled, horrified and incredulous looks from those assembled, along with a sharp glare from the Sinclair brothers, Valentine, Reno and Rufus whom had not been informed of such a transfer and was now more than slightly pissed off that someone was attempting to steal power from right under him. It may have been true to ShinRa style but that was one thing that Rufus was trying to end.

"Strife already has two Lieutenant Generals, he has no need for two. Sinclair knows the terrain better than Lau and the troops will listen to him until they respect General Sephiroth." Palmer pointed out, true, they were very valid points, but that still didn't change the main shadowed objective, tear down Strife's support from the inside. Remove the linchpins and the whole thing will fall apart. Harry was currently preventing the General from slipping into depression and insanity along with Zack and a few other people from AVALANCHE. Palmer was trying to isolate him, destroy him. The afore mentioned blond obviously never noticed Harry's eyes darkening nor the slight gleam of homicidal desires enter into Zack's.

"No."

"W-What!" The blond spluttered at the cold refusal. Rufus began to rub at his temples as Reeve flopped into the seat beside him muttering about Advil, alas, another one of the volatile Palmer-Sinclair spats that had become a more common betting sport than even the Chocobo races of the Golden Saucer once were. Sinclair was the crowd favourite and guaranteed win.

"I am not moving from General Strife's command. No offence to General Sephiroth, I'm sure he's an excellent combatant and superior officer from what my brother had told me, but I am not going anywhere. My loyalty is to Cloud, first and foremost, ShinRa is only a secondary footnote at best. Deal with it."

"How sweet." Palmer sneered,

Harry bared his teeth in a twisted grin, "Isn't it just."

"Can we get back to the matter at hand?" Rufus broke in before it dissolved into fisty-cuffs, he and the Turks were some of the few that knew of Harry's origins and therefore his Gryffindor Nature of solving problems with fists instead of the ShinRa/Slytherin approach of subterfuge. "Since we're all here, we may as well go over the current state of affairs. General Kisaragi, General Sinclair, how goes events on the Wutai front?"

Yuffie got to her feet and leaned over the large map that was plastered to the table under a pane of glass –due to their habit of scribbling on it with dry-wipe markers, which she demonstrated by pulling one out of somewhere Rufus really didn't want to contemplate.

"We've moved the majority of the population to the South-East encampment, as many non-combatants as possible; the current capitol is finally being used to its Military maximum." She explained marking off the area in which the citizens of Wutai had been moved. Shooting a glare at ShinRa as they had been the ones to refuse the assistance in moving the people, claiming it was a waste of resources in dangerous times when they needed everything they could get, Yuffie knew it but it didn't lessen any of the resentful feelings that bubbled within her. "Currently both Zack and I have forces stretched out across the peninsula," She explained streaking a thick red line in a curve following the North and Western front of the peninsula. "My father has Leviathan patrolling the waters, taking care of anything that Hojo may send at us through the water, so far three Half-Spawn have been taken down. Much less than last year, I believe that Hojo is either running out of resources, or he's pooling what he has for something big."

"Something big." Sephiroth stated, drawing all attention to him, "It's not his style to just keep pounding away at any resistance. If the first three or four hits don't work-"

"He draws back and gathers what he has left for the deciding blow. The winning one." Harry broke in, his voice absent, eyes distant as memories from the lab began to surface; Hojo's combat skills greatly resembled his torture techniques. Small scale attacks to gauge the opponents strength, two large scale ones that if they don't work, resources get pooled and then he completely obliterates what stands between him.

"Yes." The white haired male committed, his eyes strangely intent on the younger of the Sinclair brothers, Zack had never mentioned having siblings, in fact, he had once expressed a wish to have them when he first took a young cadet under his wing, dimly, Sephiroth remembered catching sight of his Lieutenant beside someone with the brightest hair he had ever seen. The General gave Zack a sharp look indicating that they would be taking later, Zack simply arched an eyebrow and smirked to himself as he got to his feet.

"From what I've got from my R.T.O. contact, the level of attacks has been easing up on all the frontlines save the Rocket-North Corel Plains area. In fact, the level of combat seemed to be increasing in specific the Rocket area. Either Hojo's attempting to overwhelm what forces we have there or he's preparing for an even larger scale strike by moving all his forces to the places in question." He explained pointing to each pertinent location.

"Or it's a serious case of misdirection." Vincent intoned, voicing a possibility no one wanted to contemplate.

There was something fishy about the Jenova records in Harry opinion.

Everything about Jenova was fishy to him as a matter of fact. The black haired Lieutenant General was currently seated in his favourite little café in the South Corel District, his laptop in front of him, a mug of sweet hot chocolate with marshmallows –somewhat gooey from sitting too long in the hot liquid, on his left and a plate with a cinnamon Danish on his right.

He was hacking into ShinRa. Reno would have been so proud of him.

"Harry, kiddo, what cha doin'?" Zack asked brightly plunking himself down beside his younger brother, making a grab for the cinnamon Danish on his right only to have the cake-fork narrowly miss his hand and have the shorter black haired male calmly shove the whole thing in his mouth, chewing with little difficulty and swallowing it whole. Much to Zack's morbid fascination and the newly arrived Sephiroth's great disgust.

"Hacking ShinRa files." Harry explained, licking pastry crumbs from his lips, not bothering to look at the black haired male as his fingers fairly flew across the keyboard.

Zack chuckled gesturing to the waitress for his usual, "Reno would be so proud." He crowed with pride. Harry merely smirked slightly,

"Any particular reason why you're here? I thought you preferred Tifa's Seventh Heaven for you lunch."

"Seph was getting' antsy about you, he knew you weren't my brother and let's be honest, anyone with enhancements like his can tell you're not quite all right. Claims you have a similar feeling about you as Jenova." Zack explained as the waitress returned with his Latte and three double chocolate chip muffins. Harry paused, his fingers hovering slightly as he looked sharply at Zack and then to Sephiroth.

"'Similar feeling'? Care to elaborate General?" He asked sharply, causing Sephiroth to bristle slightly at the unspoken hostility/threat in the younger male's voice.

"You have the same feeling about you as she did. Only not as... twisted. Darker, your feeling isn't as domineering as hers was, it is strong and very confident, almost compelling but you are careful about it. You exert a conscious control over it to ensure you do not take control over those around you." Sephiroth explained while Harry's eyes widened fractionally.

He had learned that as his magic grew he could pressure some people to his will, much like Dumbledore had done by spreading his Legilimency influence and magic through large crowds of people, tugging on their emotions. Harry had never even attempted it; he refused to tear away people's free will like that. But that wasn't what had him going; he too had noticed that Jenova felt similar in a way to him, similar but not there. Her power was merely a more potent version of Voldemort's.

Harry jerked in horror as he jumped to his feet, "Of course." He breathed, "The stone, Merlin, oh god! Merlin!" Harry exclaimed before taking off at a run, he needed to speak to Vincent. Now.

Sephiroth and Zack exchanged looks, "What was that about?" Sephiroth demanded, Zack shrugged, muffin wrapper dangling from between his teeth.

"Haven't a clue." He stated before snagging Harry's hot chocolate and taking a swing, "Blegh! Too sweet." He complained pulling a face at the marshmallows that had melted into the chocolaty beverage.

Sephiroth's eyebrow arched.

"Yes, it was about 39 –possibly 40-years-ago that Gast found Jenova."

Harry paced up and down the small Wutaian garden set up at a small restaurant in the North, Yuffie's Lieutenant had family who owned it and allowed her and her subordinates to use the garden to just sit back and relax. Which was where he found Yuffie, Vincent and Ryuu, the Ninja General comfortably nestled into Vincent's lap as he read to her in her native language, Ryuu sat a little further away with his back to them looking over the pond so as not to intrude upon their peace.

The younger red head took his duties toward his Princess very seriously; he was usually silent and had a way of fading into the background so as not to disrupt the Lady Princess's happiness. In a way, Harry wished that Ryuu had been in the Order acting as his guard back on earth, the red head was deadly, but extremely unobtrusive, which was probably why Vincent was comfortable enough with his presence to be so intimate with Yuffie.

When Harry had burst into the garden all three were instantly on their feet and the red head had already situated himself in front of Vincent and Yuffie who were distance attackers, sword half drawn, eyes narrowed intently before he recognised his fellow Lieutenant and bowed formerly, sheathing his sword and retreating back to his position in front of the water.

Vincent frowned curiously, "Why are you asking about Jenova now?" He pondered while Yuffie merely remained silent, leaning against him and watching the other boy whom was only a few years younger than herself.

"Something Sephiroth said, it got me thinking. Jenova, there's something about her that just... it tastes familiar. I'd noticed it before but I just didn't know what to make of it until he told me that I felt similar to her, his enhancements give him the ability to sense Lifestream much in the same way you, me, Cloud and a few of the others can. He could sense the difference between myself and others, said I felt similar. It got me thinking,

"Voldemort, the man who sent me here, said that a long time ago criminals and Dark Witches and Wizards were banished from our planet in much the same way I was. I think Jenova may have been a Dark witch far more powerful and dangerous than Voldemort or Grindelwald ever were. It would explain why Jenova feels so familiar to me; I've been exposed to Voldemort's Magic since I was a child, which can also account for why Sephiroth noticed the similarities between us and why I can block the Cetra from torturing Cloud. My magic is much heavier than their influence and I can block them out by simply existing." Harry theorised. "She has always taken a strong interest in me whenever we were brought into contact at Hojo's lab, she was always asking about my origins, I think she knows where I'm from and... and I still have a link to my old planet. The prophesy or the Scar link. Either way, the path is still open between Gaia and Earth. If Jenova managed to ooze herself to Earth she can absorb the ambient magic and mako there and return here to finish her work."

"Could we use this to our advantage?" Yuffie asked, frowning, this certainly put a new spin on things. Jenova was from Harry's world and it was her magic that allowed her to control Sephiroth and poison Aerith's mother and all those poor people Hojo had been experimenting on. No wonder Cloud was out of his little blond head, he was fighting battles on all fronts, the physical and the mental. The dampening affect Chaos had on Vincent was probably the only thing preventing the Cetra was trying to destroy the Jenova Remnants within him like they would undoubtedly try with Sephiroth in the future.

Harry shook his head finally sitting down, "I don't know. All I know is that this war is on its way out, once it's finished... I have to return to Earth.

"The Prophesy will have to be completed."

And Chapter Five completed! Hee, Bet none of you ever considered the fact that Jenova was from Harry's world ne? Well. All except for one very smart cookie who figured it out in Chapter three. 8) Raven will be updated sooner or later. Have no fear.

Araceil