P r o l o g u e

Selling flowers was how she made a living. Most people couldn't believe it, but it's true. She's been doing it for eight years and was quite happy with the results. It paid the rent and bought her groceries and so on. Plus, it made her happy, tending to these beautiful flowers. These flowers have done so much for her over the years. It provided her a source of income, a way to pass time, and serves as something that truly brings her happiness. The only thing it didn't do was keep her hidden from Shinra.

Ever since childhood, Shinra has been searching for her and her childhood memories were marred with frequent midnight escapes with her mother. They moved frequently to keep Shinra away from their objective and as she grew older, she knew it has taken a heavy toll on her mother, who at the age of thirty started having gray hairs and wrinkles around her eyes. When she neared the age of sixteen and her mother turned forty-four, she left. She and her mother found a beautiful home on the outskirts of Sector Five, away from the grim and danger of the city. There, her mother looked at peace amongst a garden of flowers that could never have survived in the city. The place made her mother so happy, she just couldn't take the thought of forcing her to leave once Shinra come after them again. It took a great amount of will power, but she packed some belongings and left during the middle of the night, leaving an apologetic letter for her mother before turning her back on the house.

To this day, she wondered if her mother could ever forgive her.

Sadly, life waits for no one, so she brought herself out of her memories and smiled at the blooms growing at her feet. Reaching forward to touch a silky petal with her hand, she felt a chill go down her spine. She's been feeling that a lot lately, an unreasonably cold chill despite the warm weather. It seems that she'll have to move once again. She really didn't want to. This was her favorite place yet. In this empty church, her flowers had no trouble blooming and because the building was abandoned long ago, no one comes by. She thought she was careful this time, making sure to only sell her flowers in far away places and only returning in the cover of night. It has been weeks since her last encounter with Shinra, and she thought her extra precautions would keep her safe. Somehow, they managed to find her like they always do. It made her sad to think that she would have to leave her lovely flowers again, but she had no choice.

Tonight, she will leave. As she brought her head up in search of comfort from the sun, her eyes closed awaiting the warm rays of light to warm her skin, she felt nothing. She opened her eyes to realize that the sun was hidden behind dark, ominous clouds.

It was as if the Planet was warning her.

Her stomach turned and tightened at the sight. She has eluded Shinra many times before, narrowly, but successfully. She owed it all to a combination of her planning and mostly luck.

It seems that luck is not on her side this time around.

She could have left then and there, however she didn't do so. For some reason, she decided to wait until night fall. No matter how much her body wanted to flee right at that moment, she couldn't ignore the tug of her heart. Maybe it was the flowers that pulled at her so, but she knew it wasn't true.

Yes, she will wait until nightfall because she feels the gravity of the Planet holding her back. "A little while longer, just wait a little while longer," came the whispers in the wind. She will wait.

He didn't know why he stayed so long this time. He's a mercenary, always wandering about looking for new jobs and opportunities. He does a little bit of everything in search of enough money to allow him to go elsewhere. Usually, he only stays for a week, at most a week-and-a-half. Today, however, will mark his his stay to be exactly two-and-a-half weeks. Why is he lingering? He's done nearly all he can do and his pockets were heavy with gil. Maybe it was because he liked the thought of staying.

In Soldier, there never was a day where he could settle down in one spot for very long. Because of missions, he had to travel the world and leave familiar places behind. That was why he wanted to join Soldier in the first place. To get out of the little mountain village that was his hometown. Well, that and one other reason, though he couldn't quite think of that reason.

He's sort of glad though. Being here relieves him of those headaches he got frequently before. How a place like this, all car exhaust and dirty streets soothed his headache, he didn't know but it did. For years, he had painful headaches and migraines. Before he left Soldier, he was told it was only a side-effect from the Mako in his system and it will fade as the years go by. That wasn't entirely true, but then again, Shinra doctors aren't all that reliable. They always seemed more like mad scientists in disguise to him because of how thrilled they look whenever an injured Soldier gets sent to the infirmary.

He's glad he left. Despite how Soldiers were discovered by a doctor experimentally injecting a man ,who was near death, with a dose of Mako, and the need for the doctors to continually conduct experiments on Soldiers to better understand them, he never really grew used to their presence. He healed fast enough, for it was one of the advantages of becoming a Soldier, to avoid going to the infirmary for physical injuries, but his headaches had him coming back time and time again to figure out the cause. That meant many encounters with doctors who were quite perplexed at his condition. Finally, he thought, as a way to not ruin their reputation, they labeled him as to having a defect that was out of their control before becoming a Soldier, which caused "difficulties adjusting to Mako treatments resulting in chronic head pain" despite that they were the ones who found him fit to be made into a first class Soldier in the first place.

Because of this, he willingly left Shinra and started his life as a mercenary soon after.

So, maybe it wasn't the location that rid him of his headache but really his headache finally fading away after all these years. He has no reason to stay, now that he thinks about it.

Tonight, he decided. He will leave tonight.

He glanced wearily at the cloudy sky and figured he should leave before it starts raining. No, he'll wait until nightfall.

He was used to walking in the rain.

A/N

Okay guys, this is a prologue to my first Clerith story :) Reviews are very much welcomed and I do not own Final Fantasy or anything like that. Leave behind your thoughts and questions too. I can't guarantee that I will answer your questions, but it's nice to know them in preparation for the next chapter. I'm sorry for any spelling mistakes/ grammatical errors so if you find one (or ten to hundred of them) be sure to tell me and I'll try to get them fixed as soon as possible. I plan to update this every week or so but do know that reviewing helps me think up ideas faster!