A/N: This is a dark fiction with major character bashing and disturbing themes. Think of it like an insane moralist or a God getting retribution for those who commit evil. A world in black and white not grey hence its title. Criticism welcomed.
'Vengeance is Mine, and retribution, In due time their foot will slip; For the day of their calamity is near, And the impending things are hastening upon them.' Deuteronomy 32:35
Chapter One: The Liar
He watched from the shadows. Never interfering with human affairs as none of it was his business. After all, he was thousands of years old and his time on this Planet was slowly coming to an end.
The daily doings of humanity hardly fazed him. The last hundred years of his life had been peculiar to say the least. He had seen perhaps one of the greatest empires rise up from the ground itself. Rise up and in its short century reign, had nearly brought the Planet to an end.
He had no need to fear, Gaia would have its vengeance, but clearly it had one last task for him to complete.
Punish them it whispered into the depths of his mind.
They are all connected. They killed my last daughter and plan to hurt the next. They must be punished. Their blood must spill. They must be sacrificed.
He had seen the future too. Aerith's body sliding down a monster's blade, the mako reactors slowly turning Gaia into an empty husk just as blood left the body. The glowing blue army that would try to awaken Omega, Meteor, all of it.
It was time he showed them the error of their ways.
For the first time in almost two thousand years, the son of the fallen Calamity left the confines of Ancient city. He would be known as Vengeance.
It had taken some consideration, but he was free to pick off whom who chose at will. And he decided he would pick off the ones who worked in the shadows just as he did. One by one. From weakest threat to strongest. A warning of what was to come.
The girl he had kept his eye on for quite some time was on a mission in Gongaga. A flighty little thing who looked as if a winter's storm could blow her away. Turks were masters of disguises and her appearance made her opponents underestimate her.
Today she was alone. Her partner in crime was equally guilty, but his punishment would be more than what she was to be given. The blood on his hands was far worse or would be. He hadn't exactly committed that particular heinous act just yet.
He watched her from the tree tops, doe eyed bitch she was. Flaming red hair, hazel eyes and a voice of false sincerity. She had the mouth of the liar. How he hated liars.
He waited until she was out of the town when he jumped in front of her. It startled her and she was quick to harness her weapon.
"Who are you?" She questioned, completely wary and eyes narrowing for a challenge. Foolish child. She couldn't see him since he was cloaked in black and his hood pulled over far enough to cover most of his face.
He cleared his throat and decided he would indulge her. A final symphony before she was taken away to everything she had known.
"There is beauty in truth, even if it's painful. Those who lie, twist life so that it looks tasty to the lazy, brilliant to the ignorant, and powerful to the weak. But lies only strengthen our defects. They don't teach anything, help anything, fix anything or cure anything. Nor do they develop one's character, one's mind, one's heart or one's soul."
Her eyes widened a little. Uncomprehending his meaning. Before she could open her smart mouth, he moved before she could even register what was happening and hit the pressure point on the back of her neck.
Cissnei was cloaked in darkness.
It was several hours before she awoke. Tied up by the wrists in ancient city like a virgin for the sacrifice. He waited quietly while she stirred and regained consciousness.
She groaned a little when she saw him sitting in front of her and watched her with curiosity. Perhaps she found his appearance intriguing since he had decided to reveal himself to her. She would be dead soon anyway.
"Y-you look a lot like..."
"A lot like Sephiroth?"
Swallowing hard, nervously she nodded and slightly struggled in her restraints. Probably testing to see if there was a possibility she could get out of them.
Amused by the creature's pathetic attempts, he indulged her.
"I suppose I would. Of course I don't keep my hair as long as he. Too much of a hassle, but yes our appearances would be similar. We share a mother in a sense. Or at least I did before she was infected by the Calamity's virus. The first one to fall she was."
The lady Turk raised her eyebrows in surprise and a little bit of confusion.
He offered her a thin smile.
"Let us not dawdle with my irrelevant origins. This is about you and why you are here. You have lived a life of falsehood and deceit. Of cruelty and lies. I profane the mouth of liars. Your actions have caused devastation to those who are innocent and indirectly have contributed to wounding the Planet. The Company in which you serve has harmed the Planet and in your lies and hypocrisy you serve them. Guilty by association."
Cissnei remained silent. Clearly she felt as if she had been taken captive by a maniac, but she didn't want to say the wrong thing to stir him. Instead she spat on the ground.
"Do what you want with me. The Turks will come after me and..."
He cut her off with a single finger pressed to her lips.
"Oh I intend for that to happen and I will pick them off one by one. I was planning to send you back to them, piece by rotting piece. A gift for Veld. He doesn't think too clearly when he is angry."
He had to give the Turk credit. She was afraid now, but she tried her best not to show it. Instead she opted to ask the question they always ask before they meet their fate.
"Why are you doing this?"
He didn't disappoint.
"An eye for an eye. You hurt the Planet. You and your friends must suffer in return." And with that he pressed his hand to her head and brought her within the cusp of various unwanted memories and things of the past.
Cissnei found herself standing in a dusty bare room. Within it was a woman with red hair and brown eyes panting in childbirth. She looked so young too.
"This was your mother it seems."
She turned sharply and saw the man who captured her standing next to her. His gaze was entirely focused on the woman groaning in pain.
"How is that so? Where am I?"
He didn't look at her, but he answered her nonetheless.
"In your past. With memories of yours and memories of those around you. It is the very essence of the lifestream. It flows in your spirit energy, in your dreams, in your DNA." He trailed off and watched as the young woman retched from the pain of childbirth and cry out.
Cissnei found herself rooted to the spot, unsure of what to say. Instead her eyes turned to the screaming woman and the people that came into the room. They walked right through her and watched in detached interest as her mother was forced to give birth alone. She froze when she recognized one of the men in the room, in all his Turk suit glory, a much younger looking Veld.
There was some old woman in the room ready to get the baby, but offered no help to the woman giving birth.
"You're mother was a poor Mideelian woman who happened to get pregnant from the Mayor's wealthy son. He died I believe while your mother was pregnant. Drowned under suspicious circumstances. They were hoping for a son so they let your mother live until..."
Cissnei winced as a squalling newborn slipped out from between the woman's thighs and the supposed midwife went to wrap the child. Much to Cissnei's horror and shock, Veld came over to the whimpering woman as she closed her legs and tried to crawl away and shot her point blank in the head.
"It's a girl," the midwife said grimly.
One of the men in the room spat.
"A girl? I have no use for a girl. All this waiting for nothing. You, Turk, dispose of the child."
The scene switched and Cissnei found herself in darkness. Her captor was still next to her though.
"Born in grief from the start Ella Comtesse and betrayed by the very man who gave you your purpose and identity. I can see his memories in the lifestream. Routine mission from one of President Shin-Ra's friends. Your father was a rapist and your grandfather didn't want your mother ruining his reputation. Veld was ordered to dispose of your mother once you were born and you of course if you were born a girl. He did just that."
Cissnei watched as Veld took her small firmly wrapped body and threw it down a well. The extensive layers that the midwife had wrapped her in were what had saved her life including the soft mud she had fallen into. It was a passing traveller who heard her hungry dying wails a few days later and retrieved her little newborn body and brought her to the Mideel orphanage.
Fresh tears leaked down her face.
"I-I don't understand. Did he not recognize me in the orphanage when he singled me out all those years ago?"
Vengeance stared at her. Indifferent to her tears.
"Oh he recognized you alright. Took your survival as a sign from the Gods and decided you were a little warrior in the making. A survivor."
Cissnei saw herself again. A thin malnourished child the matron had named Ella. Cuts and scrapes and bruises all over her legs and arms. She had beaten children much bigger than her for food, for respect. She was in trouble for killing one now and Veld was talking to her about the new life she was to have under Shin-Ra and how she was going to go to Junon Military Academy to become a Turk.
"All of this set up. It was a test of strength to see if you had what it took to become a Turk. And it started out with you being a child killer. Why don't I give you glimpses of that other child's life you took?"
She was about to protest when scenes flashed before her eyes along with feelings of pain, dread and despair. She saw the other girl, raped and abused by her family until being cast into the orphanage. The abuse and rape continued until the girl was twelve and Cissnei had ended her life.
She buried her face in her hands. Vengeance looked down upon her with heavy lidded eyes, unmoved by her remorse. He was a little surprised she snapped this early into this little interrogation. He supposed seeing the fate of the mother she had never known, her origins and finding out the Commander of the Turks was the cause of all her problems was enough to shock her into the miserable existence she had been living.
Unperturbed, Vengeance continued on.
"The bloodlust didn't stop there. No. Your crimes are many. You did what your Commander did to other people and their families."
And in her mind he replayed memories and images of all the missions she had completed, but with the point of view and feelings of others she had hurt. She had killed daughters of traitors as a warning against their ways, unfeeling to their hopes and dreams.
'I didn't have a choice' she reasoned.
'I was just doing my job'
Her captor did not look upon her with pity. His eyes were condemning.
'You always had a choice Ella Comtesse. And what poor choices you made. I will not profane my tongue by calling you the name you have chosen for yourself. A name you do not deserve. Cissnei implies freedom for those who have none. You my dear, decided to stay in your chains. You learned to love them not break them.'
More despair filled her veins and she saw things, terrible things she had committed and things that she hadn't committed yet, but would commit in the future.
"He was your friend. Your lover at some point and how horribly you betrayed him. Leaving him to rot in those labs. To die in on the cliffs. At this point it hasn't been done yet, but you betrayed him with false hope. Gave him keys to his prison and told the Shin-Ra army where he was. You decided your heinous loyalty to your Company was more important than this hero's life. A hero you could have saved."
Cissnei fell down on her knees and wailed as she watched Zack bleed to death on the edge of the cliff. It was true. All of it. She had helped cover up Nibelheim. She had allowed Zack to endure torture for all those years and in the interests of keeping Aerith under Shin-Ra's radar, she had sown the seeds for Zack's execution.
She wasn't sure how her Captor made her stand, but he did. Her body defying all gravity and being painfully forced to stand on her legs.
"Don't start your denial now. It wasn't just in the best interests of Shin-Ra that you allowed Zack to die. No, it was to punish that Ancient. To see her eyes wilt in the pain Zack had inflicted on you for rejecting you. Now that you have seen your future decisions, can you tell me, was it worth it?"
Cissnei couldn't answer. Her resolve, her strength, her Turk training was crumbling within her. She felt as if she was going to throw up. As if her organs were going to splatter on the floor. She felt so sick.
"Born in grief and raised in hate. And to think you were proud of what you were, but as you can see from your many victims, you were nothing but a monster. And you are insignificant now."
He knew she was barely hearing his insults. Her mind breaking over all these revelations. It was time to put the creature out of her misery.
It would be quick, but painful.
"Goodbye Ella Comtesse. It is time you returned back to the Planet."
With that he touched her forehead and sent a vicious, but slow shock of electricity through her system. He was slowly cooking her alive.
Her screams echoed through the caverns, but only the flora and fauna of Gaia were witnesses to her anguished cries. She died thereafter and Vengeance felt a sense of smugness as he felt her soul and life force disappear. Back where it belonged.
Grabbing his sword, he cut off her head for that is the way traitors must go.
It was time to deliver his present.