Materia
A Final Fantasy VII Fanfiction
By Micster
This is my first Fanfiction so please have a read and review.
Disclaimer: As is traditional I have to state that I own none of the original characters, locations etc. used in the FFVII game. Those are all owned by Square and are used without consent but for no profit. Yellow 'light' materia is my idea.
Prologue: Meteor
Cloud Strife and his party was thrown backwards and forwards as their ship was thrown about by the winds. The remains of the highwind were not holding out well against the supernatural storm generated by the battle between Meteor and Holy.
In the disarray, no one noticed Cloud's pack tear open and spill its contents out onto the deck. All eyes were focused on the awesome scene unfolding before them, all of the adventurers were hoping and praying that holy would save the day. The light was reflected in Cloud's mako eyes as he griped the rail at the side of the ship tightly.
"Come on," he murmured through gritted teeth.
He was knocked over as Yuffie fell into him.
"Sorry." Yuffie was far too worried to add her usual "Gawd" at the end.
Cloud got back to his feet. He urged holy on with all of his willpower, if it failed to stop meteor, then all that he and his friends had done would have been in vain.
Fighting Shinra all over the world,
Training against various strange creatures,
All of their questing for materia and weapons,
The epic final battles with Sephiroth,
Aeris's ultimate sacrifice,
All of it would be wasted if meteor succeeded in striking the planet. No life would survive this time. As the lifestream began to converge from all of the parts of the planet and light the sky with a new colour to add to the red of meteor and the white of holy, a name and a face flashed through Cloud's head.
"Aeris."
Under the red, white and green glows the three pieces of materia were invisible as they rolled from Cloud's bag and fell off of the side of the ship, lost in the air and falling towards the ground.
~ ~ ~
The rags that Iona Versalis wore were were torn and she was bleeding from shrapnel from the battlefield of Midgar. Her long bright red hair was in a mess and her bright mako eyes were clouded behind tears. She had left it late to leave; now she was regretting her decision. The moans of the injured around her were working on her mind.
She stumbled on, away from Meteor. It had taken everything she had. Not that Iona had much to begin with. She was just a bright but poor girl from the sector 4 slums in her early twenties. Her family had always been poor as far back as she could remember.
She turned to face the Armageddon behind her again. A scream formed in her mind as she thought of her parents, trapped beneath the rubble of their measly home. She had taken her younger brothers and began to run. She knew then that it was pointless. When meteor hits, it doesn't matter where you are. Around her people stood and stared up at their impending annihilation. They waited for death, there was nowhere to run or hide.
The tornadoes were beginning to form as Iona tried to force her was through the crowds of panicking people that were making last minute dashes for the exits.
"I don't want to die!" screamed her younger brother above the roar of the wind and the crowds. He was only about twelve and had large eyes that never failed to get people to do things for him. Now he was being genuine for once. "I'm too young to die, Iona, do something!"
She remembered looking back at Roan's eyes. She felt helpless to save her brother. There was only one way out now. She grimaced at the memory of what she had done. "Close your eyes Roan, you too Quinn." Quinn closed his blue eyes tight and Roan put his hands over his eyes. They had no idea what their sister was planning but didn't want to disobey her. Her tone of voice scared them; they had never heard her speak like that before.
She unsheathed her sword, muttered for forgiveness and began to hack her way through the crowd of panicking civilians. Most of them had already gone insane and were rushing about blindly, those with more sense moved out of her way. Her control was excellent and she moved quickly thanks to her speed plus materia. She didn't want to kill anyone, but this was the only way that she and her brothers were going to escape the city in time.
'What have I become?' she asked herself now.
"Follow my voice!" she had shouted to them.
The two boys followed behind her, she turned to check if they were okay. And made a terrible mistake. Her sword hit a frightened little girl, slashing her across the chest, The girl looked about seven or eight and let out a quick scream before dropping dead. Iona felt sad, but carried on.
"Shirley!"
Iona looked to the side to see a middle-aged man sobbing over the body of the child. His uniform and sword marked him out as a member of SOLDIER, the former army of the Shinra corporation. "You will pay for this! I will end your existence before that damned meteor can!"
He drew a sword and began to fight his way over to her. Dead bodies littered the ground everywhere as the man was consumed by bloodlust. "You killed my only daughter, my last reason to try to run," he sobbed as he came up to Iona.
"Roan, Quinn, LOOK OUT!"
It was too late, she saw the image of Roan's head, hands still held over his eyes as the sword struck it, his blood was added to the river already on the ground. The horrifying image ran through her eyes a few more times.
"NOOO!"
Quinn saw this and ran off into the crowd, the fear was all too clear in his eyes. The small by with short black hair was soon lost amidst the chaos. Iona cursed herself; she had only undertaken these drastic measures to save her brothers, now Roan was dead.
"QUINN!" she screamed, but he was long gone.
Roan was dead, her parents were dead and Quinn was lost. It was just her and the man amidst the crowd of terrified people. The roar of Meteor was deafening, conversation was now impossible, Iona had nothing to say anyway. Her whole world had been destroyed in the last few hours and she tried to clutch to her own sanity as she focused at the man standing in front of her. In the centre of the city on top of the plate, the forces were strong enough to tear buildings apart; remnants of the Shinra headquarters were raining down around her. The ground shook especially strongly as the pillar holding up the place above sector 3 began to crumble.
Lost amidst this she saw that she had cleared a path to the gate out of the city. She turned and ran.
And ran.
And ran.
So here she was. Her sword hung weakly by her side the blood slowly drying. What had she done? Iona dropped her sword and fell to her scarred knees. She lifted back her head and shouted to the sky,
"What have I done?"
She had thought nothing mattered, everyone was about to die anyway, but then holy had appeared. The strong white glow now lit up the fields. 'What is this?' she had thought. Now that she had damned herself the world might not end after all? Could all those people she had just killed have gone on to live if she had not killed them? Were their deaths needless?
Now she held up her hands and could see that they were also stained with blood. In her misery she looked over to see the city being torn up ever more then before. The shock made Iona stand up and stare at the new development open mouthed. This new power didn't care about the city or the people; it was only interested in protecting the planet. It didn't care about her or her brother; she would still have died if it weren't for her regrettable actions. She would have still been inside the city, being buffeted by winds or roasted alive. Iona looked and saw where she had fought her way out of the city; a building collapsed onto the panicking crowd and mutilated bodies.
A new colour suddenly began to emerge from the ground, one of the Mako reactors exploded at that point and suddenly everything was green.
Iona looked at her sword where she had cast it aside, her pink 'speed plus' materia and yellow 'light' materia were still in their slots. Both were very low levels and were the family's most valuable possessions, reminders of better times for her parents.
'But now they have gone. Off to heaven or to join the lifestream or whatever happens to the mind when someone dies.'
As the green tendrils merged with holy and Meteor began to crack, Iona held her breath. She had not been able to run very far before she ran out of breath so was close enough to feel the heat as the holy/lifestream team destroyed meteor.
In the sudden silence that followed Iona and all of the survivors around her were in shock, had meteor really just been destroyed?
Iona heard three soft thuds behind her but ignored them, then there was a sudden spontaneous cheer from all of the survivors. Everyone was singing and dancing.
"It's finally over!"
"Meteor is no more!"
"Rejoice!"
"We survived! What was that thing that saved us?"
"Three cheers for the lifestream!"
Iona stood there, unable to join in their celebrations. The sky cleared and the full extent of the damage became visible. She could not smile while the blood of innocents was on her hands, especially for her selfish motives of her and her brothers' survival.
'I must make up for my crimes,' she thought. 'I will not be able to rest until I have made up for what I have done.
Then her eyes spotted the three pieces of materia that had landed next to her sword; she picked them up and examined them.
One was green,
One was clear,
And one was red.
Chapter One: Aftermath
Barret Wallace stared open mouthed at the scene of devastation that lay before them.
"I hated Midgar, Shinra and their %&*#ing mako reactors," he announced to his friends. "But even I realised that blowing up the no.1 reactor was not the right way to go about sortin' the problem out. This," he pointed to the ruins with his gunarm. "Is far worse then anything we ever did."
The group had made their way over from their crash site towards the city. Cloud Strife noticed that the once barren expanse that went on for miles in all directions from the city was now punctured with small clumps of grass. He picked up a piece of metal that was lying on the ground beside him. Through the grime he could just make out a few words: 'Shinra corporation – Mako reactor no.3.'
"We have to go down there and help the survivors," announced Tifa Lockheart.
"I know we should do something, but…" They all turned to face Yuffie Kisargi, the youngest and most energetic of their small and strange group.
"Don't we deserve a rest or something, we did just save the world and all, you guys?" Cloud glared at her.
"Look these people are in trouble, they need help," reasoned their leader.
"We need to get them food, shelter and medical supplies," began Nanaki already thinking ahead. "We have to split up and try to muster help from across the world, it would probably be best for us to all head back to our home towns."
"But these people need help now," added Tifa, gesturing at the milling crowd of refugees. "I'm going to see what I can do with my restore materia. How about it Cloud?"
They all turned to Cloud.
"I have no real home town anymore anyway," Vincent Valentine added.
Cloud looked at all of their waiting faces, and felt glad that he was the leader of the group. "Fine, we'll split up to try to organise teams to help the survivors. All of you head for your home towns, Barret stop by the Gold Saucer too, Cait Sith or Reeve you sort out Junon and Vincent, go to Costa del sol." Cloud imagined an image of Vincent on a beech sunbathing, and almost laughed at how ludicrous it was.
"Tifa and I will try to help the people here now, Niebleheim doesn't have the resources to help much."
"The Chocobo stables are not far from here, you can ride on our chocobos," suggested Tifa.
"Not those ^*#%ing birds again," moaned Cid Highwind, the captain of what had once been their ship.
They all remembered the experiences Cid had had trying to raise and ride a chocobo of his own before they went off to fight Sephiroph. He had not had a very pleasant time of it, the chocobo was constantly pecking him and he used to fall off a lot when learning how to ride her. Now his Chocobo 'Shera' was being looked after by Tifa.
The rest of the group agreed with Cloud's plan although Vincent was not very thrilled by his destination.
Six figures headed off towards the East, following the trail of refugees in the direction of Kalm and the Chocobo stables, while two figures rushed down towards the city to help those in need.
~ ~ ~
Iona had filled up the five spaces on her sword with her five pieces of materia and was now recognised as being 'in charge' of the new community. She was trying her best to help people, the mastered 'cure' and 'all' materia she had found were worth a fortune but she chose to use them to help the injured. She walked around the new town of tents made of clothing and old buildings located on the inside of what was once sector 4. All of the plates had fallen and so not much of the city was left, but the people were resourceful. This new town had been dubbed 'Neo-Midgar' but was in a far worse state then even the worst slums from old Midgar.
As Iona saw the hundreds of people who she had saved by using her materia nestling in their new homes she called over her deputy.
"Olton!" She watched as the dark man came running over to her. He was wearing a badly damaged suit and his glasses were bent out of shape. Despite this he was smiling. "Have there been any reports of my brother yet?"
"I'm afraid not Iona, all of the people here are keeping their eyes open for any sign of a boy matching the description you gave us but we are not finding anything."
All of the people Iona has saved were very grateful, she was the first one to look for the injured and cast cure spells on them. Once she had encountered raiders and she and her party had to fight them off, so now her 'officers' all carried materia, for self-defence of course.
This was thanks to the materia shop they had found. Iona was overjoyed at all of the 'cure' materia she had found and now they all felt safer wandering the streets looking for injured survivors. Now they could defend themselves properly.
"Look at that!" Olton suddenly exclaimed. Iona turned to see what her favourite helper was pointing at.
In a small clearing where no rubble had fallen a small flower was growing. Iona ran over to it. "A flower growing in Midgar? This is unheard of! Everyone have a look at this! This is a symbol of what we are aiming to achieve."
A few people had gathered around their unofficial leader. The flower was small and sickly but was nevertheless alive. "This is truly a new age for the planet and all of its people. If a flower can grow in Midgar then anything is possible, let this symbol give you hope."
Olton set up a small ring of wire from the debris and put it down around the flower. "It's beautiful," whispered one of the survivors. A few others turned and walked away, muttering 'sentimental rubbish.' While there was still a small crowd Iona made an announcement.
"Everyone, I'm going off into sector 3 to search for more survivors, I'm leaving Olton in charge here."
"Are you sure?" he asked concerned. "Do you want some bodyguards?"
She smiled at him. "Don't worry, I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself. Besides I feel that you will need all of the help you can get against the raiders."
Over recent days raiders had been becoming even more of a serious problem as people returned from the nearby countryside and found they had nothing. When large numbers of people feel they have nothing to loose in the ruins of a city with no force of law, no one was safe.
"Well," he replied. "Good luck to you, we all hope to see you again soon. Come back okay, I still owe you my life."
The reactions of the people Iona saved differed immensely. Most were very grateful. Iona introduced them to the fledgling community and let them decide what to do with their lives. Some were less grateful and wandered off. A sizeable number had gone mad from the experiences they had undergone. Most of these were depressed and would not stop crying or were paralysed and unable to do anything. Iona tried to organise other survivors to look after these but resources were running low and some were sceptical about the 'efficiency' of saving them. A few were actively violent towards her. As she was a proficient fighter she was able to knock them back down and cure herself. Some, like Olton who was one of the first she had saved, couldn't thank her enough and wanted to repay her. These became her 'officers'; she sent them out to help more injured people and gave them materia for the job. Some of these people were disloyal and ran off with the materia, but most felt a genuine gratitude towards the kind-hearted girl with long red hair.
A few others had gathered to wish her a safe journey. "Don't worry," she responded. "I'll be fine, just look after yourselves and help others. I'll start up a new town in every sector, soon this area will be busy with life again."
There were some heartfelt goodbyes as Iona walked away and disappeared round a corner.
"Come on everyone, lets get back to work. It's what she wants so let's get to it!"
~ ~ ~
As she walked along the remains of a once well walked path, dodging the concrete rubble and various steel wrecks scattered about the place, Iona examined the five pieces of materia on her sword. All of them were different colours and so made her sword look somewhat festive. She remembered what she had done with this very sword during a moment of panic a short while ago and shuddered, then turned back to the materia. One was clear, mastered 'all' materia which had fallen from the sky. She had used her only link to link it to her mastered green 'cure' materia also a gift from above. She now used them to cure many people at a time. The next piece was her yellow 'light' materia; she had not used it in a while as it was only useful for lighting the way in the dark. She knew that she would need it tonight though. Further along was her pink 'speed plus' materia, it was a low level so only gave her a minor boost but it had saved her life in the past.
Finally her attention came to the red piece of materia on the last slot on her sword. Iona had never even seen a summon materia before, let alone used one but she knew all about them. This one seemed very powerful.
She picked it out of her sword to examine it further, she closed her eyes for a moment and an unfamiliar name came into her mind. She had never heard of this summon before.
'Knights of the Round'
So why does Iona have mako eyes?
This is the current First part. What do you think of it? Read and review or send an e-mail to