The power of Soldier; the power to turn the tide in any battle, defeat any enemy, save anyone who needed to be saved. Soldier, the title of heroes; at least, that's what Jay thought when he saw a Soldier member in action. During the days of his childhood, he lived in a middle of nowhere village, it was simple and small yet it was home. The name of the village escaped Jay as a child, back in those days he melded with the villagers. The villagers either farmed or just layed about, there was nothing exciting this far out of Midgar. The only thing that was noteworthy about the village was the mako spring that was a little ways out the village, children were forbidden to go but that barely stopped the braver children.
One day, a large convoy of trucks and construction vehicles paraded through the village wearing the Shinra Electric Company logo. Jay was sitting outside his small one story house when they rolled passed his house and one of the men announced they'd be building a reactor near the mako spring. The man advised that no one should approach the mako spring since their building could attract monsters so it could be considered dangerous if they approached the site. By the time Jay was seven, the reactor was finished and he remembered looking up to the lights at night, marveling how pretty their emeralds lights were. It wasn't long until the monsters came, they generally remained out of the village but that soon changed.
Jay remembered that morning, his parents were packing up and they were about to go to Midgar, he remembered walking up to the front door with his mom's hand in his. His house rumbled, the living room behind him caught fire from a hole in the ceiling. His father tried pushing him and his mother out the burning house before an explosion blew the three of them out the house. Jay's mother rolled her body around her child while his father did the same around his mother. When Jay awoke he was lying in a sticky pool under a heavy mass, the sky was red as smoke from the village. He turned his head to the right to see his father lying unnaturally still next to him, he tried to reach out and get up from under the weight on top of him but a low raspy voice stopped him.
"Stay still my son, just sit here until it's all over." Jay looked up to see his mom looking down at him, her black hair cascaded onto the ground and in his face. Her face was very pale with a thin line of blood running down from her mouth, her eyes were looking hollow like it was a battle for her to keep them open. Jay couldn't speak, it was like that explosion blew out his voice box, all he could do was stare and tighten his hands around his mother on top of him. He heard monsters running past him and his parents going after anyone who made a sound, the village was filled with the screams of the dying until it fell silent.
Slowly Jay nudged his mother a few times, but she did not respond, he tried harder but she just remained quiet. Getting up from under her, he tried shoving her lightly to wake her up but she was as still as the grave. It was in that moment that it dawned on Jay, his parents were dead and they weren't coming back. Tears started to build up in his eyes as he started to shove them roughly, almost desperately, until he started to cry. His sobs attracted a winged beast to him, its humanoid purple body was almost red with blood covering it from head to toe and its teeth had a bone in them. Snapping the bone in half the creature charged towards Jay who had no time to scream before getting eaten. His screams filled the air as the creature fell behind him cut perfectly in half from head to waist, blood splattered in front of the black mass that appeared in front of him. When he realized that the creature was dead his screams ceased and he looked up to see a silver curtain being directed from the black mass. The silver curtain swayed before it revealed two emerald eyes staring eerily into Jay's brown eyes. With no words the emerald eyes walked away from the boy deeper into the burning village.
Instinctively, Jay grabbed the black mass by the edge causing the pair of emerald eyes and the silver curtain to stop. He pointed towards his parents with a pleading expression but silver curtain started walking again making Jay let go. "They're gone, if you wish to join them, stay here, if you wish to walk out of this hell follow me and leave them behind." The words were low yet thundering to the boy, he was being forced to choose; stay with his parents and die or leave with the silver curtain and abandon them. He watched the silver curtain become fainter and fainter as it approached the flames, he then looked back to his parents whose bodies were about to catch fire. Staying for one last moment, and watching the flames consume his parents, Jay ran after the silver curtain.
Through the flames, bodies, and the ashes of his old life he remained behind the silver curtain until they reached an armored convoy that had two large men looking down at him. One was dressed in a red long overcoat with black shoulder pads, on his head was a mop of brown hair that perfectly framed his face. The other was dressed in all black with black hair brushed back and a massive sword on his back was visible from the red hilt sticking out over his shoulder and the blade out from the side of his leg.
"Sephiroth, what was the situation of your area of the mission zone, any more fiends in the vicinity?" The man with massive sword spoke in a professional tone that screamed authority in its calm voice. "All enemies have been eliminated, there is, however, one survivor." With that the silver curtain identified as Sephiroth moved to the side to reveal a burnt and torn Jay. Both the men in red and black had their eyes widened as they looked at each other for a moment before looking back towards the child. The one in black stepped forward before kneeling down to be eye level with Jay, and he adopted a fatherly tone. "Hello, my name is Angeal, can you tell me your name?" The boy stared back at him with hollow eyes, there was no light in his eyes just the void that the fire had left that used to be his life. Jay remained silent as Angeal knelt in front of him awaiting an answer. "We need to know your name so we can notify your next of kin and send you to them, surely they'll be worried when they hear of this." Still Jay remained silent, just staring into Angeal's eyes with a vacant expression. It was at that moment the man in red choose that moment to speak in his velvet voice that oozed sarcasm and arrogance.
"Maybe such a tragedy has left the boy scarred, perhaps he should've just remained with the village if he's already dead on the inside." Angeal's head whipped back to the man in red and was about to scold him for saying such things but Sephiroth chose that time to intervene. "Genesis, if he was truly dead on the inside, he wouldn't have followed me through all of it, and my word isn't enough, why not look into his eyes now?" Both Genesis and Angeal turned towards the boy to see anger in his eyes that was directed at Genesis, it seems he didn't like his comment. Before either could say anything about this recent development, Sephiroth took a step forward until he towered over Jay and looked down at him. "Now, you will tell us your name so we can send you off to your next of kin." Sephiroth's voice lacked the fatherly tone Angeal took and Genesis's arrogance, it was low and sounded like a command, one in which Jay couldn't stop himself from disobeying.
"My name is Jay Lirim, and I have no family, they were all burned away." His voice was grave yet had strength to it. Angeal and Genesis shared a look again as Sephiroth had a ghost of a smile on his face before turning on his heel and walked towards a nearby helicopter. "If that's true then Angeal will probably put you in a foster home or you can follow me and obtain the strength to stop this from happening again. If you wish for a semblance of a normal life then stay with Angeal but coming with me means there is no turning back and you will have many trials. It will be hard and I do not waste my time, so you must do everything I say to perfection or not at all." As Sephiroth boarded the helicopter, he was pleased when he felt a small body sitting next to him looking straight ahead. Angeal and Genesis boarded the helicopter across from them and looked at their friend's new follower. His eyes now burned with new purpose but there were also tears streaming from his face, no snot, or sniffles just a continuous stream that showed he mourned the loss of his old life.
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