Chapter 1
The day I found Light was a special day, looking back two years afterwards. I was twelve years old, and I was bored out of my mind, sitting on the couch and staring at my feet, trying to make myself grow roots..
"Mommy! I want to play outside," I whined.
"Daddy's almost home," she said. My mother was very pretty. She had dark hair that came to her back. She would put it up in a bun most days. But I loved her eyes most of all. Her eyes were green. "We're about to eat."
"But I want to play outside!" I complained again. She sighed and threw down a pan she had been carrying.
"Fine. Ten minutes, Sen."
"Thank you!" I screeched as I ran outside with my short legs.
"Ten minutes!" she called after me.
It was raining. I purposely splashed in the puddles, forgetting how angry my mom would be when I came home with such dirty clothes. I made a little game out of it. Splash left, splash right. Splash forward, splash back. I didn't pay attention to my surroundings, and soon enough, I had no idea where I was. All I knew was what my dad had told me years ago. What I had pretty much always known. Midgar, which was where we lived, was split into two parts. One was an upper city on a plate, a land of steel high up supported by pillars below. Then there were the areas of the ground that never got to see daylight because of the plate. These slums were full of life even though it was a chaotic and scary place.
We lived on the upper city, in one of the best sectors in Midgar. My father had a good job at the Shinra Electric Company, and we led very comfortable lives. But whenever I asked him about other people, he would say that not everyone was as lucky as us, and we should therefore be very thankful to the planet.
At that moment, there was a great explosion.
Buildings started to crumble, ruins started to fall. And we were in the slums.
The upper plate started to crack, and started to fall down. Everyone was screaming and pushing. I don't remember much of that moment, everything was such a blur. I think I got hit in the head with something, because I remember falling and blacking out.
"Hey." Someone was shaking me. "Hey. Wake up." There was pain. Groaning. Then there were screams. Cries of pain and desperation. Then, there was light.
"Uh?" I opened my eyes and blinked in confusion. In front of me knelt a boy. He was dirty and filthy. There was a large scrape on his lower left cheek. His skin was pale. His clothes were old and torn. He stunk. His hair was blond, white-blond, and kind of hung in his face. But his eyes. His eyes were beautiful, even more beautiful than my mother's. They were deep, sea blue, and towards the iris they were bright-green. They had a kind of strange glow to them.
"Get up." He stood up and pulled me up.
"Ow… my head…"
"Yeah. You got hit." He swiped my head and showed me some blood. "But you got lucky." I looked around us and gasped. Bodies were littered everywhere. They scared me. I was scared of everything back then.
"They're dead!" I cried. "They're all dead!"
"Don't look at them." He turned me away from them. "We should get out of here." He grabbed my hand and started to pull me in a different direction. Then he turned around to me. "You're no slum kid."
"No. I'm Sen." I pointed to the level above ground. "I live up there."
He made a mental calculation.
"Sector four?"
I nodded.
"How old are you?"
"Twelve."
"Hm. Okay. Let's go to your home. It should still be there." He tried to pull me along again, but I froze.
"Why… wouldn't it be there?"
He stared at me. "They blew up sector seven."
"What? Who?"
"AVALANCHE. They say AVALANCHE did it." He shook his head. "I thought that they were the good guys. But… I don't know why they would do that."
I gripped his hand tightly. I clung to his arm. I didn't want to lose him. I had no idea what I would do if I did. Maybe just curl up in a ball and die.
"Let's go." He started running. He was very fast. My short, skinny legs couldn't keep up. He was dragging me. There were many more bodies.
"Don't look!" he called from the front. I turned my head away.
My legs were hurting, but I didn't care. I wanted to get away from all this hurt, sadness and death.
"Right there!" I yelled. "That's my house!"
He stopped. I skidded to a halt. Screaming, crying, and wailing people were searching for their loved ones. I saw my mother, pacing back and forth in front of our house, a frantic look on her face.
"Mommy!"
I ran towards her, him running after me.
"Sen!" Mom cried. She ran towards me and scooped me into her arms. Tears were running over her face. "Oh, honey! Honey, I thought you were dead!" She kissed me all over my head. "I told you ten minutes!" She set me down and looked at him. "And who is this?"
"I don't have a name," he said indifferently, his beautiful eyes flashing from me to my mom to the people running around in a panic.
"Mommy, Mommy, he saved my life," I whispered in her ear as I clutched her arm like I had clutched his a few minutes earlier.
"Really?" She rushed forwards and hugged him too, despite the filth and smell. "Thank you so much for saving my baby!"
"I didn't really do that much," he said, shrugging. His eyes were still darting all over the place. "She got knocked out."
"Do you have a home?" she asked him as she ran a hand through his dirty hair.
"I did," he said. "But it got crushed by the upper city. I lived in the slums."
"Don't you have a house to live in?"
"I don't remember," he muttered. He looked angry.
"Mommy!" I ran back to her and pulled on her sleeve. "Can we keep him?"
"Would you like that?" Mom asked him. "You're very dirty, we should get you cleaned up."
"I guess…" he said slowly.
"Yay!" I yelled. I hugged him, getting my clothes even dirtier, if that was possible. "We'll be best friends! You can be my big brother! Are you sure you don't have a name?"
"I don't remember my name," he said again.
"Can I give you a name? Please?" I popped my face right in front of his.
"I guess…"
"Hmm!" I started thinking as Mommy led us inside. "How 'bout…" I got a smile on my face. "Light?"
"Light?" He seemed a bit confused. "Uhm… okay. Fine with me."
And so, Light was "born." But with birth comes also death. My dad was in Sector 7. He died with hundreds of others. Because of AVALANCHE, they told us. And thus, my mom grew to hate AVALANCHE. Light remained a supporter of AVALANCHE because he thought his brother was in AVALANCHE. I remained neutral, because I didn't really understand what was going on.
But I would soon. Sooner than I thought.