Through A Fine Mist

I do not own anything remotely Final Fantasy, unless you talk about Dirge of Cerberus. I own the Play Station game. All I own is Willamina.

Prologue: The Beginning of Dreams

"One day, big brother, I am going to fly a ship into the stars and find a new world for us to live happily ever after, like those stories Seifer reads me." Willamina smiled happily at Squall. The beach was crowded with kids from the orphanage, laughing and playing in the soft golden sand. In her hand was a tiny robot toy that she was fixing with some tools she had filched from the store room up at the house.

"You have to go to a really special school to go flying and most people take the train to get around. No one goes up to the stars," Squall replied with the arrogant knowledge of an eight year old.

"Well, I'm going to be the first," Willamina replied hotly. "I'm going to build my own starship and fly up to the moon and I'll take all of us there to prove it." She stood up and brushed off her buttercup yellow shorts. "I'm going to go to Seifer, at least he believes that I can do it."

He watched as she stalked towards her blond friend, a spanner in one back pocket and her toy in her hand. Shaking his head, he laid back onto the towel. If anyone was ever going to go to the stars, that was most certainly going to be Willamina LionHeart.

**

"Reno."

"Reno!"

"RENO! "

The fiery red headed boy looked at his mother impatiently, eager to once more have the peace to look at the stars. The ten year old itched at the hold his mother had over him, wanting to have the freedom to wander around at night like most of the other kids that lived near him. He hated having a curfew of eight in the evening. All he wanted to do was go and watch the SOLDIERs train in the ShinRa courtyard. Reno knew that he would never be able to become on of the famous men, but he did want to be in ShinRa, the most powerful business in the whole city of Midgar. The Turks was his plan. The eyes and the stealthy arm of the ShinRa organization.

Stealth was something he could do. Spending more time on the streets than at school he learned how to be a pick pocket from the local bums, getting him to get them food and money so they could eat. The bums were a kind folk, always watching out for the kids in the neighborhood. But they did warn the kids about the ones that would take advantage of their trusting nature.

"You know, those ShinRa Turks don't take in slackers that ignore their school work, Reno," his mother scolded, knowing that that was the best way to get Reno to agree to anything. He gave her a dirty look.

"One day, those stars are going to send me something that takes away the need for homework."

**

Chapter One: Make the Stars Send Something My Way

Willamina checked the controls again, ignoring the sparking behind her. There was no reason for her Ragnarök to act like that. With hurried movements she ran several diagnostics before the whole screen flashed with alerts. Panic began to set in as the ship lurched fiercely to the left. She and the other passengers were thrown from their seats.

"Damn it, Will, what the hell is going on?" Seifer yelled as he crawled back into his seat.

"I don't know, its like she decided to stop working," she said breathlessly as she spun her chair back to the console and sitting back down.

"Well make it work!" Quistis said ferociously, unhappy with the current turn of events. She pushed back her long blond hair to glare at their pilot. The other six passengers also expressed their displeasure as the ship began to shudder and creak. Her red eyes glanced out of the window, her wavy brown bangs falling into her eyes.

"Oh. My. God!" Outside the window was a stunning kaleidescope filled with pinks, mauves and blues; bright stars twinkling innocently as the ship rolled closer and closer. The gases that made the nebula shone deceivingly with the Ragnarök diving in with unconscious enthusiasm. Purple haze encompassed the ship. They all looked at the million of bright stars that were all around and inside the purple cloud of gas. It was astonishing to see. They were all seeing a sight that none of them ever dreamed about, nor will ever see again so personally. The sheer massiveness made them appreciate all the things that they unfortunately left behind. There was no turning back from this, no going home. That was something that was beginning to become alarmingly clear. The gas cloud was enormous. No telescope, no pictures, no video footage could ever give the sight they were seeing justice. Its span was further than they could ever hope to see. There was no way to get a measure of how big it truly was. It looked as if it went on and on for who knows how long. A sudden jerk of the ship brought Willamina out of her thoughts and back to reality. Shudders and jolts of the ship caused her to lose her balance once more and fall to the floor. Thankfully the others had made use of their seat belts and were holding on with sheer panic. Grabbing onto something during the shakiness had her confused. What the hell was happening? Once the shuddering spell was over, she got to her feet before looking out of the nearest window. That was when she realized that they had begun a mad spin. The ship was careening helplessly through the Technicolor haze, and Willamina couldn't look away, not even if she tried, wide-eyed and stunned by the impossible power and vastness.

"Willy, what is that?" Zell pointed to her. Out the window, Willamina noticed the soft curve of a planet coming up. She grabbed the controls, her heart pounding in her ears. Praying to all the deities she could think of that Ragnarök would obey her commands, she wrestled against the spins force to straighten out her baby. In the other seat, Zell, one of her best friend's fought with her, using the secondary controls. Neither wanted to mar the sleek red metal if they crash landed. A furious red beeping caught their attention.

"Damn it!" she swore, her muscles straining against the force.

"What's wrong?" Selphie asked, panic causing her voice to rise.

"We're caught in the planet's gravitational pull!" Willamina cried as the controls in front of her exploded in a burst of sparks and smoke.

"Mina!" Her brother, Squall, yelled out, concern lancing through him as he began to unbuckle his seat belt. Ragnarök shuddered and groaned, still spinning. Willamina could feel the sentient part trying to helplessly follow the commands as she slumped in her seat with dazed shock.

"She's fine, Squall, get back in your seat and strap in," Zell yelled. "We're being sucked and we're going to crash on the surface." Willamina groggily sat back up, her fingers unconsciously running a surface scan.

"There's air down there, and life too," she yelled to Zell, "I can crash her down on a plain with as minimal damage as possible....I think." He stared at her with stunned disbelief. She gave him a unbelievable grin, her nervousness shining through as she turned back to the controls. Everyone behind her were talking, yelling, praying behind her, their situation finally getting to them.

The red dragon space ship shuddered and groaned as the ship sped through the planet's atmosphere, golden orange heat enveloping the nose of the ship, heating it to a ferocious temperature. Willamina's palms were sweaty, slipping off the rubber grips as the ship continued to spin. A light shined green, one that had been beeping red.

"Alright! We have port side thrusters on line, we won't be dying as we crash!" she yelled out victoriously. Throwing a smile over to her co-pilot, she began to pull the Ragnarök into a more controlled free fall, beads of perspiration pouring down the base of her neck.

"We need to lower the nose, we're a little ass heavy," Zell replied, staring at the computer screen. "There's a large plain outside a city that's on our trajectory, I think we can land there." A large explosion rocked the ship, knocking it hard. "What the hell?"

"The planet, they're firing on us!" Willamina said, her voice shaking. "Sorry, baby, guess there will be some damage after all," she said quietly, stroking the console.

"We're coming awfully close to the surface," Irvine and Rinoa said simultaneously in panic. All of them stared at the brown earth rushing towards them. Willamina rushed to put on the seat belt, her eyes showing the hysterical emotions zipping through her.

The ship's alerts voiced crazily.

Their cries of panic and their hysteria were stolen by the speed.

Ragnarök fell faster and faster.

Uncontrollable spinning.

Then...

CRASH! The red monster landed on its neck, its left arm snapping off by the sheer force of the landing. Protesting loudly, Ragnarök's body slowly crumbled to the earth, a low boom before finally resting. The Ragnarök had finally landed.

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