Prologue

A thick mist shrouded the area surrounding the Northern Crater, and anyone could have been excused for being unable to find the large scar upon the planet.

Fortunately, these people investigating were not just anyone – they were the Turks, perhaps more formerly known as the Investigation Division of the General Affairs Department of the Shinra Electric Power Company. The Turks were the best in their field, and nothing would slip by them, not even the secrets which lay within the Northern Crater.

Reno, a young red-haired individual, stared lazily at the controls of the Shinra helicopter, his mind wandering as he waited for any sort of response from Tseng and Elena, who were investigating within the Crater itself.

"Wow… look at this!" Elena said, her voice coming in amongst the hiss of static on the chopper's radio.

"Pay dirt." Scoffed Tseng, his confident voice coming into Reno's ears through a large pair of headphones.

"Not a pretty sight, is it?" Whispered the female member of the small group. Reno rolled his eyes, drumming on the arm rest of his chair with one hand.

"Reno! The chopper!" Tseng barked, shaking the Turk pilot out of his daydream.

"You got it." He replied, his voice showing definite signs of fatigue.

Placing both hands on the control stick, Reno tilted it to the right, causing the chopper to bank towards the right. Pushing a little forward on the stick also caused the helicopter to descend, further into the Crater.

Reno looked out of the pilot's side window, and struggled to see anything at all, asides from mist and rain. Pressing his face to the glass, he could just about make out two shadowy figures running towards the chopper.

Then, as he least expected it, two shots rang out in quick succession, loud and clear; whoever the shooters were, they were close. One of the bullets smashed into the very window Reno was looking out of, causing him to leap backwards in shock.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he yelped, trying to make out where Tseng and Elena were, exactly. Another shot was heard, shortly followed by Elena, asking Reno to hurry.

He opened the sliding door on the side of the chopper, shielding his eyes from rain using one hand.

"Reno!" yelped Elena as she ran towards him, pursued by three men, whose faces were obscured by the mist. Reno gulped – Tseng was nowhere to be seen.

"Who the hell is that?" he asked, his voice surprisingly calm given the less-than-comfortable situation.

Elena's pace increased, and just as she was a few feet from the chopper, another shot rang out, and with it, she fell down, a splatter of red shooting from a newly opened wound on her back, and the woman dropped the gory mess that looked something like a human head.

"Elena!" roared the red-haired man, rushing forwards to her side. Several more shots were fired, one missing Reno by only a hair's length, as he looked at Elena with an expression of worry. The woman nodded towards the head, and then looked back at her teammate.

"G…get out!" moaned Elena, her eyes weak with pain. Reno nodded reluctantly, cursing as he did so, leaping back into the pilot's seat and groping for the controls.

"D…dammit!" he roared, smashing an angry fist against the control board, his eyes hot with rage. How could he have left Elena there? And where was Tseng?

Reno pulled back on the control stick, lifting the chopper out of the Crater, several shots flying towards the vehicle even as he did this. He knew that going out of the helicopter would have only meant his death or capture as well, but something inside him was screaming, telling him he shouldn't have left Elena.

And those men… he thought, as the Crater faded even further into the distance. He hadn't got a look in at their faces, but they did hold themselves a little like…

No. Don't even go there, Reno. He snapped subconsciously, his eyes now lined with tears, as he flew further and further away from Elena and Tseng.

The Lifestream. That's what we call the river of Life that circles our planet, giving Life to the world and everything in it.

The Shinra Electric Power Company discovered a way to use the Lifestream as an energy source. Because of Shinra's energy, we were able to live very comfortable lives…but wasn't that because we were taking away from the planet's Life?

A lot of people thought so. Shinra used their power to try and stop anybody who got in their way. Shinra had a special group of warriors called SOLDIER, and all of the SOLDIERs had Jenova cells put inside them.

Jenova was a calamity that fell from the sky a long, long time ago and tried to destroy the planet.

Anyway… there was one SOLDIER named Sephiroth, who was better than the rest. But, when he found out about the terrible experiments that made him, he began to hate Shinra. And then, over time, he began to hate everything – Shinra, and the people against them.

Sephiroth, who hated the planet so much, wanted to make it go away… and the people who tried to stop him. There were a lot of battles.

For every battle, there was more sadness. Someone I love went back to the Lifestream, too. And then, it came. The chosen day.

In the end, the planet itself had to make the battle stop for good. The planet used the Lifestream as a weapon.

And when it burst out the earth, all the fighting… all the pain and sadness… everything was washed away.

"Sadness was the price to see it end."

It's been two years since they told me that…