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Early Morning: February 26, 2190 AI
Seven year old Virginia Maxwell got up early one morning, knowing something was wrong. She was the heiress to a family of Guardian Avatars, so the girl had perception that was above the average human. It felt like something had happened to her father, but he was still sleeping at the time. Then, she figured it out, her father wouldn't be coming home again. Once he left for his job, he would never return to their little town.
"Why is he gonna leave me and my mommy?" she asked, "I thought he loved us. There's got to be a reason why he's leaving, but I can't sense it. It's up to me, I guess, I'll make sure he comes home to us tonight." With that, the girl began stuffing some clothes and special toys into her duffle bag. She would go with her Daddy to work, she'd been to that place once before when it was "Take Your Daughter to Work Day", and force him to come home. If necessary, she would stay a few days to talk sense into him. At least Virginia would know the reason why her Daddy was leaving her, she was sort of a "Daddy's Little Girl".
Eating a light breakfast, the girl waited by the door, her blue eyes never leaving the stairs. She ran her hands through her brown hair, hoping it wasn't too much of a mess. For her mother was the one who combed it every morning, since she had so much of it. Then she hoped her white blouse wasn't stained, for one of the men her dad worked with would probably start a fight over it, she remembered they didn't like one another. Virginia played a little with her purple skirt, straightening it out over and over again, to look pretty.
Finally, she saw her father come downstairs, wearing a tan coat and floppy hat. Like her, he had blue eyes and brown hair. Virginia was proud of looking like her father, she admired him so much. As long as she could remember, he was her inspiration for learning to shoot an ARM. Werner Maxwell had even brought his daughter into the yard so she could practice firing his. They would spend plenty of time together when he returned home from work, and when he had his vacations. The poor guy didn't even get weekends off, that's how overworked he got. A few times, he even stayed at his place of work for days. Not that his daughter knew what exactly he did, only that he was working very hard on something. It made Virginia a little sad, how long was he leaving for that she would get the feeling that he was never coming home again?
When Werner finished his breakfast, he left the house quietly. Virginia followed without making a sound, so he wouldn't notice her and send her back. After they'd left town, Werner pulled out his Teleport Orb, and began to concentrate. His daughter got herself caught in the field of the Orb's magic, and was taken along with him. What she saw when they reappeared after the jump, almost made her freak out.
There was a forest, a real forest. Sure she'd seen some sparse trees all around, and maybe one or two little forests in the area near Boot Hill. But this was an honest to Raftina giant forest, the ones her mom told her about in legends. And in front of them was what appeared to be a giant tree, only made out of metal and shaped by human hands. Virginia wanted to shriek, she was surprised to see something like that now.
"Another day, another tireless job. Duran better not be slouching off with his porn magazines again. And I hope Leehalt can behave for one day at least, he was in a pretty bad mood yesterday after our little meeting. I still can't believe Elliot got the go ahead with that project of his, a human being made from our Filgaian Essence. I thought the others would blow a gasket when he proposed playing God. Well, I for one think it might be good for him and Jet, after all his wife died so long ago that he was never able to give his son a younger brother or sister to play with," Werner said, more to himself than to anyone else. Virginia didn't know what it all meant. What were porn magazines anyway? And what was that about playing God?
She whispered, "Daddy, what's going on? Where are we? This isn't the place you worked at when you took me with you that one day. Did you change jobs? And why aren't you coming home?" Werner, shocked to hear her voice, turned back very quickly. There he saw his only child, tears in her eyes, standing in a small patch of flowers. She ran to him, crying at the top of her lungs, and allowed him to take her in his arms. The girl smiled as he held her body close to his. But she could also tell he wasn't happy.
Werner gave Virginia the eye. "Young lady, why did you follow me? Of course I'm coming home, but this little project I'm working on will take me about a week of constant vigilance. No one can leave while we're working on it. But once it's all over, then I'm coming right back to Boot Hill to be with you and your mother. And this place isn't the same one because we had to move our work to a much larger place. You see, we need more room to complete some experiments. Now then, let's take you right back home, your mother is going to be so worried when she finds out you're gone." But just then, Virginia wiggled free of him. She ran on ahead, trying to keep her father from catching her. Werner gave her the eye, for she'd run out of the range of his Teleport Orb. If he used it now, he wouldn't be able to bring her with him, and she'd be lost.
"I left her a note," she stated, "She knows I'm with you, and we'll be back when I can make you go home. I'm staying. I miss you when you go to work, and I really don't want to be alone anymore. The other kids are so mean to me, just because I'm not like them." For unlike most girls her age, Virginia was into ARMs rather than dolls and makeup. Sad, seven and eight year olds into makeup already. And the boys didn't play with her because she was a girl. That stuff Werner, his brother Tesla, and sister-in-law Shalte knew about, but the true reason was only known to Virginia and her mother, Ekatrina. One of the favorite games of the kids was "Heroes of the Past", where they'd play various games relating to the deaths of the "Demon Callers", known as Shamans. But there was one little problem with that, the Shamans never called a Demon. They were calling on Guardians for protection, and were blamed for what happened by the scared masses. Few escaped, and one of those was Ekatrina's ancestor. Poor Virginia didn't want to play a game where the goal was to kill her own people, so the boys thought she was just a scared little girl on the inside.
"Ok, but just for one day. Tomorrow, you're going back to Boot Hill, and I'll straighten everything out with your mother when we get there," Werner sternly told her. Virginia smiled, she would find a way to stay longer. Werner wasn't as small as she was, it would be easy to find a hiding place in a building this size.
- - - -
Teefa's Last Words…
It's the start of a trilogy, all about what would happen if Virginia was there at Yggdrasil. My new excuse for some Jet/Virginia romance, of course not in this story.
Something funny happened to me today, though. Well, I was playing Final Fantasy Tactics, and one of the random thieves I fought was named Beatrice. Scarily enough, I had named my entire party after the Wild ARMs 3 cast. So Jet the Thief went and cleaved her with his knife, as Virginia the White Mage followed to protect him with her magic. Then, in a battle not too long after, I came across a Knight named Fred, you know like in Suikoden 3. And finally, when I fought with Malak (yes, that's the guy's real name, and I think it's pronounced the same too), there was a random Ninja named Benedict (similar to his last name if you want to note it). Reminds me of that time I did a Tales of Destiny parody, and one of the random Oracles was named Hugo. Then he was beating on the Ninja I'd named Rutee, just like when they kicked his butt in Belcrant. Father attacks daughter, daughter lays the smackdown for the death of her brother. You know, the Tingel family from FFT is just like the Gilchrist/Katrea family from ToD.
The dates on top of the chapter correspond with my AI (After Immigration Ship) callender that I wrote out in order to make the flow of the story read easier. Since this only is about a week's time long, several chapters may have to take place at different times in one day. But some days might get skipped, since there is some downtime between major plot events.