Piczo

A woman's voice came over the come unit. Aurian pulled off her glove, revealing a finely crafted silver metal arm. As she sunk the hand into the metal of the terminal, another screen popped open. A blonde woman with blue eyes, wearing a blue ship-suit looked at Aurian through the screen, half smiling.

"Perhaps. Their lasers and missiles do more than Space pirate's do. Still can't read the markings?" the last comment was directed to her A.I. the figure on his screen shook his head. "Our shields are half dead." Aurian told the other woman cheerfully. "Half of our stabilizers are gon-" the ship shook again and Aurian had a hard time keeping her arm from pulling out as she fell.

"4 are gone now." The A.I. muttered, "out of 6."

"And they've disabled and or destroyed most of our guns." Aurian appeared to think. "I think you're help would be most welcome, Hunter Aran." Aran's smile broadened as she got out of the chair and opened a cabinet. Inside was her Chozo Armor, a high-tech suit of some unknown metal that allowed her to be the main Galactic Federation killer of the race known as Space Pirates, with Aurian in second. The colors of her suit matched her ship, orange, red and yellow, with green lights and visor.

"Join me out side?" Aran asked. Aurian's reply was to give her a very fanged smile, a joking salute, and head for the airlock. Aran's image disappeared as Aurian pulled her hand out or the terminal.

"Try not to shoot either of us when we're out there." Aurian instructed her A.I. as the armband began to spread into her own suit of armor, black, silver and gold, with a pair of mechanical wings that were half open, with no membrane yet. Where Aran's suit had green lights, Aurian's had bright purple and her visor was of the same color.

"Shoot a Samus?" her A.I. said in mock horror. "There wouldn't be anything left of me after Fed got a hold of me if I did!" Aurian chuckled somewhat darkly at this as she stood by the airlock.

"Put a connection to yourself in my helmet." She told him as she keyed open the lock. The teen on the screen nodded. On the inside of her helmet, a small window opened with his face in it. Samus Aurian Datenshi stepped through the spiral doorway as the ship shook yet again, ready to leave and join Samus Aran in killing aliens.

You've altered your suit." Aran told Aurian as she came out of her ship. The metal frames of wings on the back of Aurian's suit flared into life, a purple field filling the spaces between bone-wings as membrane.

"Nope. It's always been like this," Aurian replied as she lunged with a glowing red sword at one of the swerving ships, and went through the hull. "Check the energy signature. It’s the same as yours." Aran did so, and found that Aurian was right, the energy given off by her suit was the same, and had the little pattern that marked it as Chozo make.

Aurian burst through the other side of that ships hull, followed by a gout of flame. Obviously, the engine room was gone, and as soon as Aurian entered another ship's hull, the previous one blew up. Aran sighed, and readied her plasma beam, then joined the older woman in the fight.

"I would not recommend sticking your hand out of a crashing ship when it's going through the atmosphere. The shields are a little slow in that case." Aurian told the other Hunter. Aran saw that Aurian was holding her right hand in her lap, and that the metal was peeled back and most of the skin was gone from her hand.

"I thought you would have Healed that already. Is you're magic not working?" Aran asked. She didn't understand Aurian or her magic, but it was rather obvious that something was wrong.

"I'm trying." Aurian said, even though it didn't really look like she was doing something, her voice sounded a little pre-occupied. The skin on her hand slowly crept back up to her finger tips and metal followed that a little more quickly. Aurian let out a sigh and slumped against the tree, closing her eyes. "It shouldn't have taken that much energy."

"Perhaps it has to do with the planets weird energy fields." Aran said.

"Something else too. I saw a few buildings on the way down. They were burning, and had a clear cut area near by." Aurian opened her eyes. "I suspect pirates."

"Damn." Aran swore. She started to walk off, when paused and looked back at Aurian, who was pulling herself up wit the help of the tree.

"I'll be along shortly. Don't worry. Head for the smoke, and then take a left. That'll take you to the clear-cut area." Aran started off again. "And please give me more than six minutes to get off the planet if you do have to destroy it!" Aurian added.

Aran waved in acknowledgment as she entered the dense forest. Aurian sat back down, rather heavily and tilted her head back to the tree.

"Maybe not so shortly." She whispered to herself.

After a while of sitting against the tree and regaining energy, Aurian stood. After standing unsteadily for a moment, she made her way through the forest. Aran's trail was not hard to miss, the path was littered with broken branches, and as she got closer to the village, or what remained of it, bodies of Space Pirates and the marks of battle appeared on the trees and ground.

Soon Aurian was at the village out skirts, and spotted pirates. Running after them, she was too busy to notice the teen falling from the sky a few houses over.

He had been lying on his bed, tired of listening to his cousin Dudley's cheap gaming music, of his uncle's complaints, of his aunts sniffs and frosty glares and went up to his room and tried to sleep. He had fallen asleep too; until he felt the rush of air that said he was falling, and looked down to see that he was falling. And not in any place he knew, he was about 3 yards above the ground, and he could see that most of the buildings were burning, burnt, or completely destroyed.(ever played mech assault? Think of when the apposing mech is destroyed.. the game says destoryyyed and it sounds really cool.. that kind of destroyed)

Harry hit the ground and rolled, and found he was wearing his robes, and had his wand in hand. he then heard sounds of battle, strange creature's cries, and gunfire, although the guns sounded nothing like the ones from his home.

So Harry stood, and gingerly made his way toward the sounds, and peeked around a building.

What he saw was a tall, metal covered figure with its back to him, facing off with two large, skinny-headed creatures that smelled terrible. One shrieked in its strange, guttural language as it launched its self at the metal figure, a blade on its arm, while the other readied a gun. The armored person suddenly had a weapon it its hand, and beheaded the first creature as the second fired. Gout of flame exploded from the person's other hand, which diddn't look to much like a hand anymore, swallowing the bolt and most of the creature with a hiss.

Harry backed up as a fountain of black, smelly blood came from the first creature's neck as its headless body fell. He didn't want to know which was 'right' or which was a 'good guy'! He didn't want to be in another dangerous situation, as this place seemed to be more dangerous than his home, with dementors, death-eaters, were-wolves, and Voldemort's return, so he turned and ran. Harry was so occupied with these thoughts that he didn't see the charred pole until he tripped, and his wand flew out of his hand, and he suddenly had some trouble breathing.

Harry heard footsteps, clanking ones, draw near him, but he was too weak to try to stand. The black metal feet walked over to his wand, and the armored person bent to pick up his wand, and then turned and walked to him. Harry felt cold, smooth fingers move his hair above his ear and then he heard a strange voice speak a stranger language. An answer came from behind him, and he heard another set of footsteps before he blacked out.

For a little while, i shall be switching between Harry and Aurian point-of-veiws. at least until harry understands what Aurian says, and visa versa. so it'll go Aurian, Harry, Aurian for this chapt... and will go over the stuff previously mentioned... in the last one, Harry felt cold fingers move some of his hair, and in this one Aurian is gunna move his hair

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It was a short young man, of around 16 cycles. As she watched, he tripped and fell, a small stick with high energy ratings flying out of his hand. Messy black hair, now dirty black robes and out dated glasses, he was obviously not from this time, so she walked passed him and gingerly picked up the stick. It was smooth, and had a kind of handle at one end. Plus, it didn't sting like something with the high amount of energy it had should sting. In fact, it didn't do anything at all. Aurian then walked back over to the boy (by her standards) and knelt. Emerald green eyes, probably bright looking if he was completely conscious, and a small, jagged scar above his left eyebrow. Turning him slightly, she brushed the hair back from his ears. Curved, shell like, defiantly human.

"Aran, looks like I found a live one." Aurian told her former mentor aloud.

"Human?" Aran walked out of the ruined building behind the boy and over to Aurian.

"Yep. And out he goes!" She glanced at Aran. "Just fainted. And I didn't do it. Notice the faint traces of colored fog? I think this town was gassed." Aurian showed the stick to Aran. "This is his; it's got the same odd energy." She then slung the boy over her shoulder and stood. Unlike Aran's, her suit doesn't have those big ball thingies on her shoulders like the Viara (the orange one that protects against heat) suit does, so the unconscious boy was probably not too uncomfortable.

"Which ship should we put him in?" Aran asked Aurian as she followed the black Hunter to the place where the ships had landed.

"Which ship has extra cabins?" Aurian asked, smiling inside her helm.

"Yours." Aran replied.

"That’s your answer!" Aurian said happily,keying open the airlock of her ship just as the boy stirred.

"Eh? Ier lle kuile(1)?" It was the black armored person he had seen kill the two creatures, and walking behind him was an orange and red one with almost the same armor. The helm turned towards him, and he saw that it had a purple visor, and no sign of anything underneath.

"Where am I?" Harry asked him. The orange armored person waved and walked off into the forest as Harry was carried, unanswered, into a metal corridor. Another pause and he was carried into a room and was set gently down with all the deliberate carefulness that came with one who had a lot of strength and had to be careful to be gentle, on a bunk. Then he stood back, and tapped something on the side of his helm, which looked more like a helmet now.

"Not that great at Old Terra speak." He said. Some thing was odd with his speech, as if he hadn't used this language for a long time, a thick, strange accent that Harry couldn't place.

"Where am I?" Harry asked clearly.

"No know name of planet. Follow Pirate sign, and this," one arm was waved to indicate the room and beyond, "is my star-ship." Pirates was obviously being used as a shortened name for some thing, and not with much affection, but it didn't ring any bells to Harry, and he made it clear that he didn't know what they where.

"When was it last? At home?" The Armored man suddenly asked worry tingeing his voice, for all that it sounded like it was coming out of a can.

"1986(2), and it was in London, on Earth. Why?" Harry asked, suddenly worried. The man sat down in a chair that Harry was sure hadn't been there a second earlier.

"Fwau(3)! Scored Randa(4), eh?" the man said in a mixture of languages with a whistle added in the mix. He the stood and clapped Harry on the shoulder. "Guess what? Lot of 'bad new' for you, kid. Terra is un-live, and it the future. Last I checked…" the man removed his hand and tapped the side of his helmet again. "It ... standard... 4685." Harry gaped at him. Something beeped inside the man's helm, and he sighed, heading for the spiral doorway.

"Got go now, but Ed keep you company." He was already at the door in no more than 3 strides.

" Ed?" Harry asked, still a little shocked.

" ED!" this came out as a shout down the hall. Some footsteps and a quiet conversation before a short boy entered. His face said he was probably around 16, but his height said no to that. He wore a long blue shirt with a belt and soft, leather looking boots.

"Teach him standard!" the man shouted in the room before leaving the boys together.

(1) i couldn't figure out how to do an alter laguage for Standard, so Aurian speaks in elven. its Are you awake?

(2) made it up. couldn't think of a time so i chose a little before she wrote the books.

(3) this is not Elven, but the Cat-speech used in 'The Book of Night With Moon' by Diane Duane. it means Hell, Heck and/or Crap

(4) couldn't find twentieth, so used score(a score is twenty) and randa is century. i won't be murdering any more languages for a while, so no yelling! my delicate band-geek ears can't take it!

"Teach him Standard!" the man yelled as he ran down the hall, leaving Harry with a short teen.

"Soo… You're Ed?" Harry asked the boy. He nodded.

"Yep. Edward Elric. Though Ed's better." Ed offered Harry his hand, and Harry shook it. It was rather cold through the gloves.

"Harry Potter." Ed reclaimed his hand.

"Alright Harry, Hunter Aurian wants me to teach you Standard." Ed pulls up a chair and sits.

"So his name's Aurian?" Harry asked. Ed started to laugh. "What?"

"HIS!" Ed got out, but said no more. When he stopped laughing, he continued. "Oh well, if Aurian hasn't told you, then I won't either." Ed stood, and walked over to a small panel above a strange thing that looked like a microwave.

"I've got a few ways to teach you." Ed opened the panel and stuck his hand inside. "I can teach you the way you would have learned a Foreign Language in a classroom, had you gone to a regular school, sleep-teach(1) or give you an Implant." Ed's entire arm was in the cupboard, which didn't look too deep. "Check that. Aurian's better at giving Implants, if you want one."

"Whoa! Wait up for a sec. Aurian told me it was year, when he last checked, 4685. Has stuff really changed that fast?" Harry interrupted. Ed gives him a Look, then burst out laughing.

"When Aurian last checked!" Ed laughed. "That’s the last time Fed sent the Colored Hunter an assignment! And we were out of Fed's reach during the time it was sent, so it was old! It's now Standard year… 4899." Ed pulled out a sheet of metal about the size of a clipboard. "4900 tomorrow." About to put the sheet back, he paused and looked at it again. "Damn. It's one of those nights, too. Does this planet have a moon?" Ed put the sheet back, obviously forgetting about Harry's Language problems, and pulled open a screen and keyboard from the wall. Keys clicked as Ed typed, windows opening and closing. Harry got up and stood behind him.

"CRAP!" Ed shouted suddenly. "Scanners aren't leaving the atmosphere. Either the strange field or the clouds are carrying strange minerals…"Ed leans slightly back, and thinks. "I wonder if Aran's scanners will reach…"

"Aran? Is that the orange one?" Harry asked. Ed jumped, he really had forgotten about Harry.

"Yah." Ed rubbed his head, and then asked." Did you decide which learning style you wanted to try?"

"Uh," Harry hadn't really given it much though; he'd been watching Ed. "What's 'sleep teach'?"

"You go to sleep, I put headphones one you, and you listen to it subconsciously while you are asleep. It works!" Ed protested at Harry's dubious look.

"And an Implant?"

"Either one of us attaches this little metal thingy to your head, or Aurian does some magic thing with your mind. I dunno what it is exactly, but the information is there." The lights began to dim and Ed stood. "The lights are Aurian's way of keeping Time, so it's getting late. The Hunter keeps the lights on a 24-hour schedule that keeps in track with the Terra seasons, or what the season would be if there was still an atmosphere." Ed scratched his head. "Did storms for a while too. But it's around dusk now, so its time to sleep. Aurian will be back tomorrow." Ed slipped out of the room, and the door closed. Harry sat on the bunk and looked dispassionately at the small pillow and thin blanket. Oh well, he'd slept under worse.

Harry woke warm, much to his surprise. Sitting up, he realized it was still kind of 'dark' in the room. No sign of what time it was, as Aurian apparently hated clocks, so Harry got up and walked to the door.(he slept in his robes) It immediately opened and showed him a hallway, all metal, but with a darker silver floor than the walls and ceiling. But no signs, nor signs of Ed or Aurian. So Harry took a left. After passing several closed doors and other halls, Harry found himself in the lower part of a large room. An entire wall was covered with screens, some static, some showed scenery, while others showed an orange ship. One, however, was a moving view with creatures and weapons. As Harry watched, the view would shoot, slash with glowing blades of many colors, or do a combination of shooting and slashing. Although, once one of the creature did get too close, and a metal clad foot came down on the base of its neck and shoulder.

"Ah. You're awake." Harry turned to see Ed sitting at a consol, wearing a red tunic this time. "Aurian said you'd sleep a while."

"Sleep while? It looks like it’s the same time as last night…"

"That’s because it is, but around 24 hours later, Aurian's on the way back." Ed said, and the moving screen waved at them while firing off red beams into the surrounding creatures with the other hand. This was Aurian, and had obviously been listening to them.

"Oh." Harry said, and as soon as the word was out of his mouth the ship began to shake. Aurian's area began to shake as well, and some words that were obviously swearing came over the com link. Aurian broke into a run, ignoring more creatures as he continued to swear.

"Aran's going to blow the planet again. Get the ship ready to leave." Aurian cut the link.

"Harry, find a seat." Ed hadn't moved, but his voice sounded like it was elsewhere. "This is going to get worse for you before it gets better." His voice dropped. "And I hope Aurian bets back before we get to see what phase the moon is in…" Harry chose to ignore this comment, and find a seat.

"Seats over there." This was a different voice, a man's, and defiantly coming from above. Harry looked up and saw the black metal figure that belonged to Hunter Aurian walking over to lean on a rail in the upper half of the room. The black armor was no longer clean; in fact, part of one arm had no armor, and was dripping crimson and silvery blood onto the floor. Aurian saw him staring and looked at the offending arm. Harry also saw that not all of the silver tracings were liquid, but some were on the skin of his arm.

"Aurian! Is it a crescent moon tonight? The scanners aren't reaching outside the atmosphere." Ed called, but yet again, his voice seemed to come from everywhere, not just from where he was sitting.

"It is, but the planet won't be here when it rises. Ready to take off?" Aurian asked. Ed nodded. "Good. Then do so." Ed keyed something and the ship shook a little more than it did in the quake earlier. Harry saw the trees drop, and smoke rise up from beneath the view.

"Harry is it?" Harry turned, and then almost fell over as he was that Aurian was not up on the higher level, but beside him.

"Yes. Harry Potter."

"Hmm..." Aurian looks at him while rubbing his upper arm. Harry looked, and saw that his fingers ended in claws, not fingernails. Aurian say that he was staring, and then looked at his hand. As Harry watched, Aurian stiffened as if concentrating and the claws and cuts disappeared. Then Aurian wobbled as if suddenly weak and sat rather heavily on the ground.

"Did you decide how to learn?" Aurian's voice was tired. "An implant would be fastest. Then talking would be easy."

"Implant." Harry said. Aurian sighed, and stood.

"It'll have to wait until tomorrow, at least. Too drained to do either at the moment." Aurian disappeared for a second, and as Harry looked for him, he heard a soft laugh from above, and Aurian was standing on the higher level of the room. "Stay in your room tonight. It'll be dangerous to wander the halls." As Aurian said this, Harry felt like something picked him up around the stomach. When he blinked, both he and Ed were standing in his room, and the sound of coughing could be heard through the shutting door.

"Aurian over did it again." Ed sighed.

"Hm?" Harry was zoning out.

"Aurian has limits on how much power is usable in one day. Usually it's more than what's required for a small Healing, small Fire, an Illusion and Teleportation. The strange field must be messing with Aurian's Magic." Ed appeared thoughtful. Harry almost dozed off before Ed spoke again.

"Harry, you stink."

"What was that for?"

"No, seriously, you stink. Go take a shower." Ed still looked link he was thinking.

"And where would the shower be?" Harry started to get annoyed that Ed kept forgetting that he didn't know stuff.

"Oh! It's right over there." Ed indicated a tall door, a 'regular' one, meaning it had a knob and hinges.

"Thanks."

When Harry finished his shower, it was almost too dark to see inside his room, so he didn't notice that Ed wasn't there. And Harry was still tired, so he just went immediately to bed.

"Well, I think it would be best to remove that language barrier." Aurian shed her right glove and held her hand by his temple. "It works better if you do the same. You'll feel like... a line is opened in your head. Please don't follow it." Harry hesitantly raised his hand to her temple. "Touch." Aurian placed a finger on his, and he did likewise. Aurian immediately felt a tendril of his consciousness reach out and pushed it back. It was inevitable that he would see some of her memories and that she would see most of his, but she didn't want to give him enough time to go too deep.

"Remember what I said about the link?" Harry started, and Aurian sighed. While her voice sounded androgonous, on the side of sounding male, with or without her armor, she could do nothing about her mind-voice, which was cold, nearly emotionless, and definitely female. Because they were linked, Harry heard both her voice and her mental one. His shock was on the top of his mind, and Aurian dove lightly beneath it and farther into his mind, ignoring the images that flowed past her until she reached the stage where any normal child would have begun to speak. But the memory wasn't there. Puzzled, Aurian drifted up, and finally found the memory where he learned to speak. Hefting her 'package' which was of her learning languages, but overwritten so that it seemed like it was Harry who had done the learning, she planted the knowledge in the memory. Now came her least favorite part, getting out of a mind. While she could just yank herself out, that tended to leave bits of her behind and take bits of the mind with her, and it was painful. So Aurian had to 'float' up, and like in actual water, Aurian does not float well. So whether she liked it or not, Aurian always got a good look at the person's past as she came out. Aurian say the relatives, the flying letters, the one called Lord Voldemort when he was part of Quill (I think that’s him...), the Stone, the Basilisk and the Riddle phantom. There was the Hippogriff, the shape shifter that was his god-father, the Quiddich world Cup, the Death-eaters, the Tri-wizard tournament, the Hungarian horntail, the mer-people, the Maze, the death of Cedric, then the rebirth of the so-called Dark-Lord and the death of a man called Crouch. After those was another school year, ended with the gaining of the Prophesy and another death, this time of his god-father. Finally, Aurian reached the present, and was instantly pulled back into her mind because Harry had triggered a memory flow.

"-Get out of there!" Aurian yelled in both his ears and his mind. Harry reeled and opened his eyes. Aurian was slouched in the chair, almost transparent pale, and glaring at him.

"I do believe I said not to follow that path. I said that because you would find yourself in my mind, and trigger memories. When I got back out of your mind, I was pulled into the not-so-pleasant memories from my past. Listen next time, Boy-who-lived" Aurian used that name on purpose, knowing it cut to him. She was not too happy, and obviously shaken.