Introduction:
Genre: Action-Adventure, Horror, Psychological, Romance
Premise: Ghosts and Echoes is a sequel novel to the video game Final Fantasy 7 and its own respective sequel film Advent Children. The premise of the story is that Cloud Strife suffers from chronic trauma following his life-or-death battles against Sephrioth in Final Fantasy 7 and, later, his remnants in Advent Children. After such climactic and violent confrontations Cloud Strife faces his most difficult challenge yet: existing in a world that doesn't need him. A year has passed since the Remnants' assault, and Cloud starts seeing ghosts of enemies (and new enemies) that may or may not be there. Because of this- he must make a physical and spiritual odyssey into the depths of himself and question everything he thought to be true. The stakes? An embattled life that Cloud isn't even sure he wants to continue struggling for in a post-apocalyptic world. The lingering specters of Jenova and Sephiroth and the paranoia of preventing their return, and the distrust that he can protect a world that is turning on him.
Note on the Canon: The only real canon for this sequel is Final Fantasy 7 and Advent Children. Content from Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerebus, the OVA Last Order, and the short-story collection On The Way to a Smile are known to me, but will not be considered canon. The reason for this is that it's simply too arduous of a task to keep track of every intricacy beyond FF7 and Advent Children. In a perfect world, yes, they would have fully been taken into account and integrated into Ghosts and Echoes. Concepts like Vincent leading the conflict with Deep Underground (a SOLDIER remnant) in Dirge of Cerebus is very interesting, as is the expanded lore surrounding characters like Angeal Hewley and Genesis Raphsodos and Zack Fair in Crisis Core. However, my main motivation and center of my attention for this story is on Cloud Strife. I apologize for fans looking for a true canon-friendly fanfiction to satiate their desire for more content of that is faithful.
Recommended readership: Any fans of a good action story should be able to jump right into this and enjoy it. The references to Advent Children and FF7 can be discerned along the way.
Influences: Resident Evil Novels by S.D. Perry, Halo Novels by Eric Nylund, The Road and Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny, Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson; Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic by Bioware.
Disclaimer: All rights belong to their respective content-creators. I reserve the right to delete or re-edit this story after it is published online. Please expect slow chapter releases and hiatuses. I apologize but I am a failing student who is a huge critic of my own work. Thank you for readership for being kind and considerate to my creative decisions for this story.