The sun overhead was warm and bright, ruling over the clear blue sky. The field of green grass and flowers stretched out as far as the eye could see. A cool breeze swept past, bringing with it the sweet smells of summer. Not too far off stood a young woman in a pale summer dress. She held a hand to her hat, keeping the wind from blowing it away as the other was held to a tall yellow feathered creature. She laughed, both in joy and sudden suspensful fright as the bird fed from her palm. The wind in her soft brown hair, her green eyes alight with life. Never before had he seen such a beautiful sight. Would he ever see it again?

"Commissioner?"

The Commissioner, Reeve Tuesti, was immediately brought out of his reverie and returned his attention to the uniform clad man standing in front of his desk. By the look on his face, he must have called him several times to no reply. Reeve straightened himself in his chair, at a loss of what to say. He wasn't sure how long he'd been tuned out, or when the man had entered. It didn't do well for his image to be sitting around with a distant expression.

"Er, I apologize," He stammered after searching his mind for something better to say, to which he failed.

"Yes... you wanted to see me?" The uniformed man questioned, looking somewhat concerned for the man sitting at the desk.

"Ah, yes," Reeve's mind was slowly grasping the situation. "Yes, I was meaning to ask how the actions in North Corel were progressing."

"Yes sir, the operations in the town are successfully going as planned. The Reactor has been completely demolished and is being properly disposed of as we speak. It should be entirely cleared in a matter of days."

Although his mind was still somewhat slowed, as though he'd woken up from a dream, Reeve put on his practiced face of stern listening as the man explained how the preparations and other tasks were being carried out. He had placed several files on his desk to further add to the other charts and photos.

"Good," Murmured Reeve, slowly leafing through the documents. "Very good." His voice was distant. "Finally something good is going our way…"

"After this, we'll continue onto the Mako Reactor in Nibelheim, as planned."

A moment passed. Reeve's eyes had stopped moving over the files and had gone unfocused. Snapping back, he set down the files and set his hands casually on the desk, lacing his fingers together in thought. The reporting officer was looking at the man with slight concern, it wasn't often their Commissioner seemed taken up by other things. Reeve offered a simple laugh, brushing away any questions the officer may have been thinking.

"Very well then, thank you for the report."

"Sir," The man saluted, turned on his heel and exited the room.

Reeve remained straight and alert in his chair until the door closed behind the officer. He let out a short breath, his head lowering to look down at his file covered desk. Report upon report lay strewn in an unorganized manner. He hadn't had time to get through them after returning from his small meeting in Edge. The WRO was successfully dismantling the mako reactors scattered across the world and removing any toxicity of the life stream from the surrounding area. It seemed to be improving as much of the geostigma was dissipating. But was it enough? He often wondered this.

He glanced over to the map tacked to the wall at his left before standing from his chair and crossing the room. Reeve perused the many locations of the satellite photograph of the world geography. It was recent, taken only days before and already differences in vegitation and activity could be seen. Everywhere except…

Reeve placed a hand on the large circular mass of gray that had once been a thriving city; a city that had been the start of the mess the planet was in now. This place was beyond any hope of immediate recovery. It would take years for it to return to its former self. Perhaps not the city, but the life around it. The ground was gray, cracked and dead, not so much as a weed grew from it's soil. The sky was more often than not covered by clouds, as though this place, due to it's past, had lost it's privilege to bask in the warm rays of the sun.

And yet, a new life had started only a stone's throw away from this place. The people had moved on as best they could, through all their losses and had scraped out a living for themselves.

"So life could still survive even there."

Reeve had spent most of his time traveling around the world supervising many of the WRO's operations, it had been a while since he had taken afew days to regain some sense of much needed relaxation. But, being the leader of a world run organization meant never really leaving work, as he was constantly bombarded by reports from many of his employees. This kept his mind pondering on something either way.

Lately, he had found himself lost to memories long since past, in a time where relative peace blanketed the planet. When he was working for ShinRa, a guilded time of profit. A look of bitterness came over Reeve as this thought emerged. While he knew it wasn't entirely his fault, he felt he had a hand in landing them all in the current state of affairs. He'd been assigned the role of creating the mako reactors. The life stream sucking machines that made life for man easier. He felt it was his obligation as WRO to set things right again. His hand turned into a fist and gave the wall a firm rap on the Midgar scan when the door creaked open.

"May I come in?" A soft voice broke the stiff silence of the room. Reeve looked over to see the partial face of a young woman looking into the room from beyond the threshold.

"Ah, Leanna." He greeted, thankful to have a distraction from his sudden line of thought. "Please, come in. You don't have to knock."

"Well, I can't just barge in here, you might have been having a meeting." The girl used her shoulder to push open the door, holding a small tray with a steaming mug and a small bowl of packaged creamers and sugar. She crossed the empty space of room to his workdesk and set down the tray.

"I made some fresh coffee and you have privilege of the first cup." She announced as she set the tray onto the table, careful not to obscure any documents, though it was rather difficult.

"Hmm, just what I think I need." Agreed Reeve as he approached the desk and took the cup. After taking a slow sip, he let out a sigh, further strengthening his will to relax.

"I was beginning to worry," Spoke the young woman, looking rather shy at the thought of saying such. "I mean, I know you're busy and you had to run to a meeting, but it was so sudden. You even canceled all your other appointments. Is everything all right?"

Reeve seemed slightly stunned by her words, but all the same chuckled at this, pausing a moment as though to think it over before placing his free hand atop his assistance's head. "Everything's fine. I just felt it was more important than listening to adults argue with one another."

Leanna looked as though there were no higher praise in existence. "Might I ask who it was?"

Reeve took in a breath and set down the cup. "A young boy. The one under the care of our friend in Edge. He was wanting to join the WRO."

"A boy? What did you tell him?"

"No, of course. He told me all that had happened to him, and while I feel I'm in debt to him, I couldn't let him join. Perhaps there is some other way he could help but...not the way adults take care of things."

A short moment of silence passed, they could hear the goings on of the courtyard outside the curtained windows. Birds chirrping, voices carrying on. It was then Reeve assessed something after looking closely at the young woman's face.

"…Leanna, have you been feeling well?" He asked, his voice hinting concern as he slid is hand beneath her chin, angling her face upwards. Leanna looked at Reeve with a puzzled expression.

"Feeling well?" She returned the question, unable to understand what he was implying.

"It just seems that you've lost…a bit of color, is all." He expressed.

"Have I?" Leanna looked as though this statement was something awful.

"It's nothing bad." Reeve quickly replied, not wanting to cause her an alarm. "You must just be exhausted from all that's been happening."

"But I feel fine." She assured him with an uncertain smile. Reeve looked at her for another few seconds before smiling himself, though he felt it was half hearted. Leanna did indeed look as though she had lost a fair amount of color, if that was even possible. Something seemed to be fading from those violet eyes. Was it just a trick of the light, or were they indeed becoming more dim with each passing day?

Leanna mimicked Reeve and placed a hand beneath his chin. "I think you're the one who's been losing a bit of color." She asserted with a warming smile. "I'm glad you've decided to take several days leave from work. You need rest. They can manage on their own. They are adults, after all." She added the last with a lighter air.

Reeve took Leanna's hand in his. It wasn't cold, per say, but it wasn't entirely warm. "I'm sure they can." His smile was confident at this. Leanna looked more cheerily at the expression on Reeve's face. "Why don't you go outside. Get some fresh air." He suggested. "You've done enough work in here." He released her hand.

Withdrawing it, Leanna looked out the window behind them through the partially opened curtains. The sun flooded the cobblestone street outside, the fountain in the water glimmered as it reflected the clear sky and bright sun. Leanna took a moment to think this over before agreeing.

Several minutes later, Reeve lingered at his window, watching as his assistant, and in a strange way, daughter, stand near the fountain to admire its construction, as well as speak with a couple of women.

How long had it been since she was merely a passing thought in his mind. Three years now since the first time she'd opened her eyes, four years including the pre-planning. Sometimes he could hardly believe such a creation ever came from his hands. Cait Sith had been easy enough to create, being small in size and only serving function as moving communication. Leanna was much more complex. Though outside she was a young woman, with soft features, tan hair and kind eyes, she was entirely artificial. Well, perhaps not entirely.

The room seemed to melt away as Reeve's mind went back in time all those years ago.

11/6/11

Hello readers! New and old! Thank you for reading my story! Now I realize I'm probably going a bit out on a limb here but yes, Reeve Tuesti is indeed the main character of this fanfiction. How often does that happen, eh? I don't even know where it came from. 3 AM, couldn't sleep. Just started typing. Now this isn't the same story I typed up several years ago. I decided to go through again and give it a good revamp. Some new ideas tossed in here and there and hopefully it'll all go together rather well. It's not going to be long, more of a series of flashbacks really. And yes, there will be an OC involved.

Now don't run away! If you've read this far you should hinder a guess at just what this fanfic is going to involve. There won't be any great adventuring but instead it's going to shed some light on my Final Fantasy OC Leanna, as well as Reeve's history. I don't recall much from Final Fantasy 7 so I'm going to leave 'plot placement' details kind of vague so you can just guess what happens when.

So hopefully you'll enjoy my story! If you do, and you love Final Fantasy XIII, and Team NORA, head on over to my profile and read my other fanfic I'm also writing! See you in the next chapter!