Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII is the property of Square Enix. I do not own any of the characters except OCs.


The knock at the door was sudden, yet somehow not surprising, a bit like the first clap of thunder from a storm that has been building for hours. And like a storm, the sound brought about a feeling of foreboding to anyone within earshot of it.

A man and a woman, both in their late fifties, looked up from the papers they had been reading in their old armchairs as soon as they heard the pounding at the door. With a numb expression, the man rose from his creaky leather chair and began to hobble across the rotting wooden floorboards to peer through a bug-eaten hole in the door. His wife, thin and pale and skittish, wrung her hands and nervously tossed a strand of graying black hair over her shoulder.

"Who -" she began, clutching her husband's hand, which was gnarled and rough from years of hard work in the fields.

"Shh!" her husband warned, his voice choked. "Someone from Shin-Ra."

The woman's face paled and her bony hand tightened further around his. She could hardly stand that name anymore. Shin-Ra had already stolen their son away from them, enticing him with idealistic images of heroic soldiers fighting on the front lines. Then, soon after he had left home, their sixteen-year-old daughter had run away to try and bring her brother back; they hadn't seen or heard from her in almost five years. Neither one of them was even sure she was still alive.

"How I miss them," she often said to herself. "How I wish our children would return to us. Then, at least, our family would be whole again."

"Please, come in," her husband offered icily, bringing her out of her reverie. The old wooden door creaked on its rusty hinges as it swung open, revealing a young man clad in a traditional Shin-Ra SOLDIER uniform; his face was masked beneath the shadow of his protective helmet. A deep frown creased the corners of his lips, making it impossible to guess his exact age, although he seemed no older than twenty-five.

"What can we do for you, sir?" the old woman asked wearily. "If this is about taxes, we have already told the collectors we'll pay next week."

"No, ma'am..." the young man replied hesitantly. "It's... I bring a message from the Shin-Ra Corporation: SOLDIER division. Your son, Zack Fair -"

"Is he alright? Tell me he's alright!" Her hands had begun to tremble so violently that she had to clasp them against her chest to keep them still. The boy hesitated, then shook his head sadly.

"Zack Fair, age twenty-three... has been eliminated by Shin-Ra's troops. He was a fugitive, being pursued for his treason against Shin-Ra and SOLDIER." Zack's mother screamed in anguish and fell to her knees.

"NOOOO! Not my Zack! Not my baby boy! Please, no! Gods, take me instead! Take me insteeeaaad!" Zack's father sobbed and tried to help her to her feet, but she swatted his hands away, still screaming "My son! Oh, my son!..."

The young man seemed uncomfortable, unsure of what his next words should be. Finally, his voice breaking, he said, "I'm breaking orders by telling you this, but I -" He swallowed hard and then continued. "I admired Zack a lot. He was a great SOLDIER, and my mentor, and I -"

"Yo, Kunsel!" called another Shin-Ra troop just out of sight. "How long does it take to tell some traitor's folks he bit the dust? It's friggin' hot out here, and I got a date with my girl tonight!" Kunsel whirled around so furiously that the other man instantly fell silent.

"I am so sorry," Kunsel said, gingerly placing a hand on the woman's shaking shoulder. "I don't believe Zack was a traitor. I truly don't." Then, without another word, he turned on his heel and strode away, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. No one, not even the specially trained infantrymen, detected a slender figure listening from the shadows behind the old house, choking back tears of their own as they mourned in silence. Before any of them could notice, the figure had slipped away like a phantom into the emptiness of the desert.