A Midgar afternoon. Its skies pitch black and highlighted with streaks of the green glow coming from the Mako reactors. The pollution wasn't so heavy today, therefore the thick clouds that clung to the city were thin, and one could see out to the edges of the plate and a bit beyond. In reality it wasn't that much of a rare sight, considering that buildings had always blocked the way. But still, the air had a different smell this day. Taking a moment to pull her heavy backpack from slipping from her shoulder Netzach once again began her journey home, which was in Sector five, and her current location was just outside her schoolyard in sector four. She sighed, this was the second time this week she had missed the school bus home. Meaning there was a good walk ahead of her. Not that it was considerably a long walk, but when feeling lazy one doesn't want to walk at all.

And she couldn't phone for a ride either, she had spent her "phone gil" on munchies at school, and unlike other children Netzach didn't carry a cell phone. Her parents didn't see what a 12 year old would need with such a thing. She grumbled, "Sure could use it now."

Therefore at defeat Netzach just began to drag herself home. It would take her perhaps thirty minutes or so. Her mother would be furious with her when she arrived home. And then lecture her on the importance of catching the bus home, or keeping gil on her to call if need be. It almost wanted to make her walk slowly, as if to avoid such a conflict, but as fate would have it, it slowly began to rain, spitting became a downpour. Her small frame was engulfed with water and her snow white hair stuck to her face. Her mother wouldn't be pleased; her school uniform would have to be washed. It was a good thing she had a couple of spares.

Netzach somewhat stood out amongst others, her white hair was one of her unique features she had acquired from her father, along with her green eyes that were naturally cat like, however Netzach had found a way with much concentration to widen her pupils to make them look "ordinary", however a tinge of a glow always made her… different. Although she learnt to work around it. She made good friends at school. They had come to accept her as she was, or so it seemed. Netzach always kept her eyes open for backstabbers. It was obvious. Netzach didn't like to be made fun of or picked on. She had a lot of that in earlier school years.

Sighing, the young girl decided to get out of the rain. There had been unusual weather in Midgar these days. Rain storms that would last for 30 minutes or so, and then suddenly stop. She heard rumors going around it was because the mako reactors were damaging the environment. Polluting the air and the earth itself, and thus causing all of this strange weather. Taking shelter in a convenience store Netzach found her self staring at the back familiar face,

"Hey Zack" she said as she walked up beside him. "What you doing here?"

Zack was one of her fathers highest of SOLDIERS, first class. He had gotten to know her family much since her father and Zack had become "good friends" or buddies it seemed. He had been in her life since well before she could remember.

"I should ask you the same question missy." He retorted.

"Escaping from the rain." She put it simply enough, Zack looked out the window. "Pretty nasty shit out there eh?" Zack always seemed to not care if Netzach was around when he swore. She didn't really care either, he just never said it in front of her when her parents where around. Beside she knew if she were to ever say such words in front of anyone, including Zack, she would get a swift kick in the ass.

He shrugged. "Need a lift home? I got the bike, you'll still get wet but you'll get home faster?" Netzach smiled. Zack was a speed demon, but a good driver. Even her father would admit to that. It was always fun to ride on the back of his bike. "Cool!" She exclaimed.

"Cool… I just got some lights put onto the bike, it's spifftastic now, lights of the roads!" Zack beamed, his bike was his baby and he put almost every penny ShinRa paid him into it.

"What color?"

"You'll see."

The two left the shop to face the rain again. Some people were huddling under the covered areas whereas many others carried umbrellas or simply didn't care and just let themselves get covered in rain.

The two turned a corner and she saw Zack's bike on the curve. He grabbed his helmet and plopped it on Netzach's head.

"Do I have to wear this thing? Its' heavy."

"You know the rules." Was all he said as he mounted his bike. "C'mon, hop on." The young girl smiled and then pursued to climb up on the bike, when settled Zack flicked on his new lights that were a bright blue and they did in fact light up the area around him.

She smiled. "Nice!"

"Alright, next stop, ze park madam!" Netzach gave a smirk and soon they were buzzing around the streets of Midgar.

The traffic didn't seem to bother the young man. He just drove in and out of the vehicles. And the rain tried to catch up with them, or so it seemed. The ride to her house she hardly got wet because of how fast Zack was driving. Speed demon indeed. He probably wasn't even watching how fast he was going. When they arrived however the rain did catch up to them. Netzach was getting soaked. She took the helmet off and offered it back to Zack.

"You wanna come dry up?" she simply asked.

The SOLDIER looked at the girl and shrugged. "Nah! I got to go meet up with Cloud and a few others. Got a mission to go help your old man." This was nothing new. Zack was usually called in whenever to help out her father. He trusted him. So Zack has been many a times pulled into duty from his vacations and days off.

The girl was curious however of the new name. "Who's Cloud?"

"Ahhh just a newbie we got, he's pretty cool though. Maybe one day I'll introduce you two. He is kinda shy."

Netzach smiled. "Well alright, thanks for the ride Zack!" The SOLDIER nodded and started up his bike again and took off, going even faster then he was before.

The young girl walked through her door and literally dropped all of her stuff, bag and coat and all on the floor. She was tired and was quite thankful today was Friday. Leaving her things behind to dampen the floor, she headed towards the kitchen, and found her mother there talking on the phone.

She automatically knew who her mother was talking to and she darted towards the phone. "Is that Dad?" she said with a smile on her face. "Can I talk to him? Please?"

"In a second honey…." Malliah, obviously Netzachs' mother, was a lovely woman with locks of brown hair that reached down just slightly past her shoulders, blue eyes, and a slim trim, which she exorcized everyday to maintain. However she was ageing and it had shown through the slight increase of wrinkles on her face. Although Netzach could never see them, they were obviously there through her mothers eyes. "Heh yea she just got home. Just a second. Netzach don't leave your things on the floor, go pick them up."

"But I want to talk to Dad!"

"In a moment, go pick your stuff up."

And with a huff she did as she was told. The young girl wandered back over to the door and picked her bag and coat up off the floor and then proceeded to lug them upstairs and into her room. Once she had flung them onto her bed however she ran back downstairs to listen in on the conversation between her mom and dad over the phone.

And upon reaching said destination it was obvious that something her father had said was quite funny since it had her mother laughing out loud over the phone. "Really now? I never thought Scarlet of all people would ever… but then again."

Netzach strolled into the kitchen again, knowing full well that there wasn't anything her mother could send her away to do, everything was put away. "Can I talk to Dad now?"

Malliah looked down at her daughter and smiled. "Your bratling wants to talk to you."

"Mooom!"

Malliah looked up again to the window holding up her finger to suggest to Netzach she only needed one more second, which in Netzachs mind meant perhaps another hour. She loved her mom, but she was always on the phone and it was one of the things that bothered her.

'I will…. I love you to. Here's the kid."

Netzach grabbed the phone as her mother passed it to her. Malliah went back to cleaning the kitchen as her daughter wandered off into the living room with the cordless phone in hand.

"Hey" came a rather smooth and cool voice from the other end.

"Dad, when are you coming home?"

"Heh soon."

"When's soon?"

"Soon enough Netzach. There are still some other things I have to take care of while I'm here. I'll bring you something back"

The girl sighed and plunked herself down on the sofa, flicking the TV on and keeping the volume low, she turned to the cartoon network which was currently showing it's usual after school cartoons which contained one of talking Chocobo and moogle , another of a super hero team fighting off dangerous villain's right in Midgar.

"Ok…." She couldn't refuse presents. But what child could? "I can wait a bit longer." It made her feel a bit better. The idea of gifts, her father had always had good taste and always picked out the most strangest of things form his journeys. Well strange to the common Midgarian.

"That's my girl." It seemed like he was smiling when he said that, his tone perked up a bit. But then again she really couldn't see him, thus she really didn't know. "How's school?"

"Schools fine. Today we had a weird history lesson."

"Oh? And what was your lesson all about today?"

"It was about the Watuian war. And you came up a few times. Ms. Gripton says we have a test on it in about two weeks."

"I see…." Her father seemed distant for a second. She always had known that he didn't want her to know much about his past, but his past was history. The Watuian war only ended about thirteen years ago. And already it was an important mark in history since it was the war that not only brought glory to Sephiroth but also to his employer, ShinRa. Back in the day, even before Sephiroths time, ShinRa was a weapons company, a rather large one. Eventually it expanded and introduced Mako power to the world. But it seemingly got greedy and started to construct Mako reactors everywhere. ShinRa wanted to put one in Watui, but when they said no, and after many disputes later, ShinRa declared war on the Watuian people. Or so she had learnt so far. At least from her family, her teacher had told her a slightly different story. From the text book it was considered that ShinRa only wanted to better Watui, but the people of that strange land attacked a group of ShinRa employees that were just merely relaxing, therefore the war was nothing more then a vendetta of sorts. Either way it seemed like a meaningless war in Netzachs' mind.

"Ms. Gripton says I'm not allowed to cheat and beat answers out of you, so I have to study like everyone else."

"She did, did she?"

"Yep, other then that schools boring."

Sephiroth seemed to smile at her response. 'You won't say that when your out in the real world."

"Yes I will."

"Heh, anyways I have to go, take care of yourself and your mom ok?"

"Ok, you take care to. Love you Dad."

The two had hung up, and it was always the same ending to each conversation, she would say she loved him and he would say "ditto." She knew her father cared, and really she didn't need it to be said to her. It was just their way of things it seemed. Soon after it fell almost silent in the house. Netzach had spent the next hour or so watching cartoons. While her mother was busy finishing off cleaning the kitchen and started to preparedinner. However she grew tired of the television and wandered off to the kitchen.

"Go wash up" was her greeting. "Dinners almost done." Netzach rolled her eyes and started up the stairs towards the bathroom. The girl quickly washed her hands and ran back down the stairs to sit down at the dinner table.

"How about a movie after super? It's Friday after all."

"Cool!"

"Thought you'd like that." Malliah smiled and then sat herself down at the table. The two ate with much conversation surrounding them. The only silence they had all night between them was when the movie was put on. Except for Netzachs laughter of course. It was a comedy the two watched. One that Netzach knew her father if he where there, would arch an eye brow at.

After awhile it was getting late. Netzach was rushed off to bed, and luckily for Malliah her daughter didn't put up much of a fight. She was tired and she succumbed willingly to her mothers demands. Bed to her seemed like a nice idea at this point in time. Unfortunately she knew she wouldn't get much sleep that night as her mother was called off on an emergency phone call to the hospital. Another patient to be saved Netzach figured. But she would eventually fell asleep regardless. And Malliah made sure to double lock the doors and swore she would be home in no time at all. Somehow her mother always came through, she was always home when she woke up for school the next morning. At least she was home for most of the evening.

(oooooooooOooooooooo)

The weekend was good. Her mother had spent a lot of time with her. And they talked a lot and watched movies, and it was just a overall good weekend. But tonight Netzach twisted and turned around in her sleep. Nothing felt right about this night. It was late and it was then she woke up to a knocking on the door. She started to creep down the stairs but carefully took hold of the railing. Who the hell was making such a racket at this time of night? If her father did return from his mission… but no. He had keys. Unless it was her mother and she just forgotten her keys to the house. Would explain the loud knocking. It would wake anyone up.

The young girl walked over to the door. "Who is it!?" she asked. There was no answer but only lights. Like flashlights coming through the window. But no answer. The girl was baffled by this, and it didn't feel right. It was strange the emotions coming over her. Fear, thrill, anger. All in that one moment. It was a push almost. To what direction she did not know.

The attack was sudden. The door was broken down and the young girl screamed. She scrambled up the stairs. Her legs only being caught by that of the men that had invaded her household. "GET OFF ME!!" she bellowed. She tried to kick them off of her. But it was no use.

"Brave little girl." Came a voice. It belonged to a man who covered his face in shadow. But it wasn't that voice that concerned her. It was the whimper that came from the living room. The guard had pulled her off of the railing. "Guard?" she questioned. She looked carefully at their uniforms. ShinRa. But why?

"You're probably asking yourself as why?"

Netzach was horrified. They must of pulled her quietly out of bed. Before Netzach could even know. "Wondering how you didn't even hear anything aren't you?" Netzach was out of breath, her eyes were beginning to be stained with tears. Why would anyone do this?

"My father will-"

"Your father is dead."

"What?" it barely came out of her mouth, that word.

"Kill the mother, and take the child."

Malliah could barely talk she was beaten so badly. But she managed to speak up a little bit. "Please… don't take my daughter."

The man laughed and as he did he walked over to Malliah and let his appearance come into full view. "And why not?" He said as he leaned down to her level, since she could barely maintain herself while standing. "I must say you and Sephiroth did an amazing job on producing this… beautiful specimen."

"Damn you Hojo." Her voice was breaking up. She couldn't move.

In the meantime the SOLDIERS (third class mind you) had gripped on tightly to the young girl.

"MOM!" the girl faught to strick free to only claim a small victory as she ran to her mother. Malliah put her arms around her and clung on tightly to her daughter. She may have been weak at the time, and badly beaten, but if anything she had the strength to hold onto her daughter. One last time.

"It's ok." She said, but Malliah wasn't a fool. She knew what was going to happen. Her tears merged with her blood. "It's alright."

"I don't understand." Netzach whispered. Her hands feel soflty onto her back afraid to hurt her from all the wounds they had inflicted upon her. "Why… why are they doing this?"

"No one ever does understand."

Hojo sighed. "Just like the last one. Shoot her!"

"NOOOO!!" the young girl screamed, "Noo!! Please don't!!"

Hojo smirked the entire time.

"MOOOM!!!

A guard took his gun and aimed it at Malliah.

"Watch this little girl. It will good for educational purposes."

Netzach tried to get away from the scientists grip but he was also backed up by another guard. Her hand reached out, trying to get as close as she could. She screamed again. Crying, in only just mere seconds her life had changed. It was silent, then a loud BANG! And then… nothing. Just the sniffles and the sound of a child crying in the silence of the night.

"Why?" she received no answer. Netzach didn't even struggle when the guard picked her up. That image of her mother going limp was the only thing through her mind at the moment. It was on a loop tape or so it seemed.

And it played on and on, even when her surroundings changed from a truck to the ShinRa building to a dark room. Her world was shattered. And there was nothing left of it now.