Chapter One
The city of Midgar was comparable to a man who suffered from dissociative identity disorder. On one side, it was a bright, bustling city, full of hope and dreams, and the supposedly righteous Shinra Corporation. On the other side, it was a dark, dismal pit hole of crime, where people eked out a horrible existence, fighting to survive from day to day. Many people had come to this city, for various reasons, money, dreams, honor, and so many more all compressed into one eternally cloud covered city. Most of the people in this city had travelled far and wide to come to this supposed city of opportunities.
I had never been given such a choice. I had no desire to come to this city; there was too much stuff to do back home. People to see, work to do. Hell, if I had a choice, I wouldn't have come to this world, but when a case requires me to go to one of the so-called untouched worlds, I would go. It was a paycheck.
Things had started simply enough. I had been employed the usual means, via the cops. There had been a murder, and they needed a Speaker. I answered the call, and trundled out to the crime scene. A few questions later, and I was trundling off to the library, to find out what they knew about something called materia and something called Shinra, with a green orb found at the crime scene in my pocket. Nothing. There was nothing to be found in the largest library on my home world. So I told the police that I was hopping a shuttle to The Library; I knew I needed to find out what materia was so that the victim could rest in peace. The Library was a literal planet library, the largest in the universe. It would take many, many years to read every book contained within. I luckily knew a few of the librarians, and they eventually got me the right books.
There were only three. In a library that contained millions upon millions of books, millennia of lore from across the universe, there were only three texts on materia. For good reason too. It turned out that materia were these small little gems that allowed one to use what was termed as 'magic' in the texts. In addition, they were also only found on a small little world in a region of the galaxy where travel was outlawed. Which raised the question… why was travel outlawed there, and why had the murderer told the victim that they were going to return the materia to its home world before killing him? How had the victim originally gotten the materia? Why had the green orb found at the crime scene been left behind? What or who was Shinra? Shinra was in none of the books.
I took careful note of the planet's coordinates, and checked out the books, pondering the course of action I could take. It had already been a few days, and already the police were hammering at me to bring them information. It turned out they had no leads on the killer, and were depending on me to give them some more leads as the official Speaker for the case. I told them to give me a few days, and then quickly explained to the chief what was going on, along with my cunning plan.
He told me it was stupid, and illegal. I took offense to the stupid. It was the only way we were going to get any more leads on this murder, I told him. He reminded me that it was illegal to go to this galaxy. I reminded him that that fact alone made it a good place for the perp to hide. We argued for a few minutes, before he finally gave in. The only condition was that I had to keep him updated while I went into the no-travel zone.
The trip took a few days, after a few days of arranging for travel. I had to find someone who would actually take me out to that planet. Thank whatever higher power there is for blackmail and old friends. Jay wasn't happy to be ferrying me out there, but he did. Eventually. At the time, I had made a note to pay him double what I usually pay him for ferrying me around. I had enough money saved up to do so, and if this trip payed off, I could probably pay him a little more.
I never would pay Jay Sanders, or his family for what he had done for me. His body was lying on the bottom of an ocean, along with the ship. As we traveled into the travel prohibited galaxy, cruising towards the planet, we were attacked. Jay tried to get away, bless his soul, but it wasn't good enough. We crashed. I don't even know how I survived, but survive I did, dragging my battered body out of the ocean. I'm glad we were near the shore. Otherwise, I too, would have met my end.
For what seemed the longest time, I lay on the beach, panting and coughing out my lungs. I wasn't even sure what attacked us; I couldn't see it. That had been one of the most frightening things: being attacked, and not being able to see or defend myself, stuck in a metal tube racing through the galaxy. I never wanted to feel that helpless ever again, nor get stuck in such a place. Despite the odds, I had survived the crash. What else had survived the crash and subsequent swim had been surveyed later; I had a feeling that it wouldn't be a wise idea to linger. I would have to mourn for Jay Sanders later, when I wasn't on this dismal beach.
So I dragged my soggy rear away from the beach, and staggered to the nearest town. I would learn later, after I had woken up from my collapse, that it was called Kalm. I stayed there for a few weeks, recovering from the crash. I had been hurt worse than I had thought, both physically and mentally. Jay was gone, one of my oldest and dearest friends swept out of my life like someone putting out a match. The calls I tried to make to the police chief failed; the water had damaged my phone beyond repair, and there were no phones here that could reach so far. I was stuck on a world that I had only read about, in three measly, old books. There were times that I cried, when I was alone in the small room the local innkeeper was letting me stay in. There were times when I fumed, and times when I ranted and raved about the indignity of the entire situation. There were times when I moped, feeling sorry for myself and mourning Jay's death. This, I thought to myself, wasn't how it was supposed to go at all.
The only good thing was that I was slowly learning about the things I had come to this world searching for. Evidently, Shinra was a corporation that controlled most of this world. The company had it's own army, it's own city, produced most of the energy in the world and was the head honcho in this world. There were mixed opinions on that last fact. I heard every opinion one could hear about a political group, from reverent praise to the most scathing insults. It was like being at home.
Materia, on the other hand, was still a bit of a mystery. I mean, someone vaguely explained it to me, but there wasn't much materia around. There was a small shop, but they wouldn't let me examine my wares. The shopkeeper was still too wary of the way I had appeared out of nowhere, and of the rumors that had followed me. The crash hadn't gone unnoticed, and neither had the fact that I had appeared in town at the same time. The only thing I was grateful for was the fact that no one had come to take me away, or had given my presence away. From what some people had said, it would be a very bad thing if Shinra had come calling for me.
The green orb that I had picked up off the crime scene was no help either. From what I had found out, it was some sort of materia, but I couldn't get it to work, nor could anyone who I asked. It was an odd little thing that I kept on my person, both as a connection to my purpose in this world, and as a link to sanity. I might not be able to reach the police, but I could at the very least continue the investigation to the best of my ability. If I didn't, it would be an insult to Jay, who had died to get me here.
As I worked to put together what I had learned about the murder and the circumstances surrounding it, I earned my keep as best as I could. I helped people find lost objects, solved a few cases when I could. I took up whatever job I could to earn money, which was called "gil" here. When I first came to Kalm, I knew nothing of this strange world. By the time I left, I thought I knew the basics.
My journey to Midgar was due to necessity. The people of Kalm were growing suspicious of me, especially with the newest rumors that were spreading. I had remained rather neutral on the subject of Shinra, but it was clear I wasn't an overt fan. The looks from the townspeople that urged me to leave their town behind. My attitude and my personality didn't make me appeal to the townsfolk either. I don't think that they'd ever met a speaker before, and I was well aware of the reactions of the normal folks of my home world had to me. Speakers generally got a large berth by all people, except coppers or those who were in need of a Speaker's service.
There was another reason though. Recently, a man passed through town, telling a story. A story I was most interested in. It seemed that there was going to be some serious stuff going down in Midgar soon, about Shinra. A resistance had arisen; a group called AVALANCHE was gathering. If we wanted to save the Planet, the man told me over a bottle of beer, we would join this group and stop Shinra's raping of the Planet. I nodded politely, and let him go on his way. If what he said was true, there would be a chance that any investigation I made into Shinra would be dealt with viciously, due to the possible threat. If I wanted to figure out why the victim had been murdered, I would have to start my investigation soon.
Thus, I gathered up my supplies, gave my thanks and some gil to the innkeeper for letting stay for so long, and left. It took me a day and a half to make it to Midgar, the city of Shinra. The city of DID, as I liked to call it. I quickly learned, to my dismay, that the guards would not let me up on what they called the plate. So I wandered the slums for a few days, fighting my way through, and eventually ended up at a bar.
It was a good bar, for such a seedy area. The drinks were good, the barkeep was nice, and there was a cute little girl running about. It cheered me immensely to see such cheer in this dismal excuse for a city. I drank slowly, sitting in a dark corner and listened to the constant thrum of conversation. The atmosphere reminded me of a bar I haunted back on my world, a thought that was quickly quashed as memories rose up from the pit of my mind. There were more important things to think and worry about.
The chaotic peace of the bar was soon interrupted. A large roar, from far in the distance, ripped through the bar as the bar shook. Many people made mad grab for the beers, cussing and wondering what the hell that was. Unfortunately, I had been taking a sip at the time, and there was now a large spill on my jacket. Grumbling to myself, I quickly rose and staggered to the bathroom, taking some napkins with me so I could make an attempt to rescue my jacket. I was fond of this jacket; I'd had it with me for some time.
As I made frantic swipes at the potential stain, I could hear the buzz, and vaguely a news report being made over the bar's television. I had waited too long; AVALANCHE had attacked, and now my investigation would be even harder. Great. Just… great. Evidently, a mako reactor had been bombed, and thousands of people had been hurt or killed, with the mako reactor rendered inoperable for the moment. I could already feel the headache starting to pulse, which was uncool. I was still drunk; I wasn't supposed to get a headache until the morning after.
I snorted quietly at my horrid joke and continued my rescue attempts. None of my attention was given to anything outside of the bathroom, and the minutes flew by. A half an hour must have passed at least while I tried to rescue my jacket. My attempts were rather inhibited by the small space of the room, and the fact that I was more than a little tipsy. I had been hitting the booze tonight, and I already had plans to go drink some more after I cleaned my jacket, to try to erase the memory of the attack on Shinra, until morning at the earliest.
The jacket was carefully examined one last time. There was only the slightest mark to suggest that something had been spilled on it, which I considered to be a bang up job. With a smarmy grin, I slung my jacket back on, took care of business and slowly moved back out to the bar. I was in desperate need of some more booze.
To my disappointment, I never did get more booze that night. What I did get, was an unpleasant surprise.
While I had been rescuing my jacket, the bar had been cleared out, and some new patrons admitted. The booze, and my focus on my jacket, had evidently blocked out my perception of what was going on in the other room. So, when I exited the bathroom with all the grace a semi-drunk woman can, I was immediately stopped.
There were several people in the room, but the first one to register was the man who towered over me, the little girl from before balanced on his shoulder. He easily dwarfed me, and the look of extreme pissed off-ness on his face immediately scared me out of my wits. The fact that he had what appeared to be a gun instead of a right hand registered a moment later, and I almost vacated myself. I definitely would have done so if I hadn't already taken care of business.
"Who the fuck're you?" the man bellowed, leaning down into my personal space. The terrifying gun arm swung over to point in my direction. Little mewls of terror spilled out of my mouth, little parts of phrases as I began to babble mindlessly. "What's your damn name," he interrupted.
"Carol Duyar," I stammered out. "I'm a Speaker, I just came here for a drink, I'm just investigating Shinra…"
That was the wrong thing to say. The worst thing I could have said in that situation. The man's eyes narrowed as he stared down at me. I felt like a piece of raw meat, being sized up at market. "What for?" He demanded.
"There's been a murder, and Shinra's name came up…" I choked out, sweating bullets. "I must find the murderer, but I need more information on Shinra!" There was a strong inclination to bury myself in my jacket and try to disappear. I didn't want to be here, I really didn't want to be here. Irrationally, a part of mind started to insist that if I closed by eyes, everything would be better, but another part insisted that I keep my eyes open, just in case there was a chance to dodge whatever attack might or might not come.
"That so?" The man's tone of voice held a subtle threat; if I was lying, my intestines would be kissing the air. My head nodded violently in agreement. Just let me go, I thought desperately. Just let me go.
Alas, I was not let go. The man's hand that was still a hand came thumping down on my shoulder. His hand was so large that it practically covered where the stain had been. "You ever heard of AVALANCHE?"
Disclaimer: I own no part of Final Fantasy 7, or any other concepts that might appear in this story. The only thing that might belong to me is Carol.
Notes: This is a little bit of an experiment for me. I want to see if I can stick with something and actually finish it. Critques would be nice, but I understand if you're too busy. Thanks for reading.