When Universes Collide

Ares and Harry sat in the common room alone, watching the fire. Everyone thought it best that the group split up and sleep among the four houses. Not only would they be able to get different information, but they would be able to gain the trust of the students. Spike, Ryoko, and Lina had private rooms within the Slytherin dorm. Cloud, Ares, and Roland all shared a room in the Gryffindor dorm. Willow had her own room in Ravenclaw, while Squall and Kellein shared a room. K demanded his own room, having been left to Hufflepuff, while Dagger and Yuna shared a room. K became a little more complacent about being in a house called Hufflepuff after hearing stories of Cedric Diggory, who had become the hero of Hufflepuff.

For now, most of them were sleeping. All except Ares, who sat there by the fire with Harry. They were both plagued with the same problem at the moment: Nightmares. Harry didn't have them as often as he once did, but tonight had been the exception. Ares was already out there when he came, and looking as through the fire had been his only companion. It was almost natural for the both of them, sitting there in silence. Comfortable, even. But silence is often broken, and this time it was Harry who broke it.

"Why so many?"

"I thought half of them would leave. At least."

"They exceeded your expectations, then?"

He shook his head. "No. I had lowered mine because I forgot these aren't normal people I'm getting. But it's all for the better. The more there are, the better chance we have."

"You're powerful."

"I am."

There was another short silence, which Harry once again broke. "Why are you still up?"

"Nightmares. Everyone I killed, I see at night. Every night."

"Do they ever go away?"

"No." There was a pause, then: "Yes." His look shifted, a glitter of life alighting his eyes, the red vanishing for a small moment, leaving his eyes a deep rich violet. "There's someone special in my life. And when I'm with her, the nightmares all go away. She reminds me of why I did it, and she reminds me of why I'm here. She's everything to me."

Harry smiled. "I hope I have someone like that one day."

"I think you will."

"Aren't you afraid of more? More deaths, and more nightmares?"

"I'm not fighting."

Harry narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean you're not fighting? You're the best out there. The way you talk of killing, you've been through this before. You're the only one who knows what's really going on out there."

"You think so, huh?"

Harry couldn't pin why he was getting angrier, but he had the feeling it was not what Ares said that aggravated him; it was how he said it. "Fine. You came here all your own. Tell me what's really going on."

For the first time, Ares turned to him. What Harry saw wasn't the cheery man who had originally greeted him, nor was he the being of light that had re-grown an entire field. This was the Hell Demon himself: Chaos. Ares stood, and the transformation was extreme. He became a good deal taller, his eyes filling with a red that glowed hot as flame, his face becoming more muscular around the jaws, and teeth elongating to fangs. His wings shone with a black light, reflecting that which it cast, as though the blackest midnight were but a glass shell. Were Roland there, he would have backed away, as each feather of each wing were Black Thirteen.

"This, is not my true form, but the form truest to myself." He held out a hand, which was now large and claw-like. "This form became me over the years as I fought, and I fought with those whose form was larger than my own. My grandmother, her companion... I killed them both. Once for my mother, the other for a girl. And then, there was Plague."

He returned to his original form, then went to his true form: that which he was born with. He still had the feathery hair, the soft eyes, but the wings were gone. If it weren't for the unusual coloring of both hair and eyes, Harry would have thought the figure before him to be a normal man. The man stepped forward, only a few inches taller then the boy.

"The god of demons such as I, we call the Serpent. We'd thought the Logrus was only a representation of his power, but we found it was the one himself. I've taken him over for the most part, but he still holds his own in another form, which I have yet to take under control. He has power beyond belief, and is feeding Voldemort his own power. If Voldemort wins, the Serpent will continue to feed him, and in doing so, give him the power to break beyond this world to the next. Eventually, the multiverse will not be safe. There's more than the population here on this one planet that's at stake, Harry. There's a million populations in a million universes."

Harry swallowed, gripping the arms of his chair. This was nothing like he was expecting. "But then, why me? And why them? Why not just you? Sure they're good, but..."

Ares shook his head. "Hear me, Harry. Each of those has fought in a way you do not yet know. Some of them are still on their journey. Roland's lived hundreds of years, all for the sake of the multiverse. He calls it his quest for the Tower. I could take him there, but it is the journey of his ka-tet, and theirs alone. Yuna's about to partake of a league of her journey which will shake every belief she ever held. All but one of these people has faced danger of their own, and now it's your turn. This is your journey. If not for the Serpent, this would be one you'd have to face alone. We may be able to help some, but that's all it is. After all, you have something we do not."

"That is?"

"Prophecy."

Harry looked back to the fire and considered a moment. "Besides bringing them all here, what's your purpose?"

"Those with magic or summon magic from a source have left their worlds. Because of what I am, I can act as a channel for Guardian Forces, Aeons, and Eidolons. I keep Roland and K with a full supply of ammunition, the kind which works here. I give Ryoko the energy she needs to continue with her blasts and fighting, since this place drains her. And... I return them."

"Return them?"

"If they die here, their worlds will most surely change, and not in the ways planned. Here, they will seem to die. But should one of them be unable to avoid death, they will return to the world they came from, at the time they were taken, as though they never left. They won't even remember being here."

"And if you're all that's left?"

"Then I've failed, and the multiverse will fall."