General Aden sat solemly in a chair. He was in a quiet room occupied by no one but himself. No one called him General any longer. The war was over.
We have won. His quiet thoughts making no intrusion on the silence floating about the room. I must start a new life. We army people are no longer needed.
He scooted his chair back, standing abruptly and militarily. He walked briskly to the front door, and stood their hesiteiting. His hand grasped the gleeming knob.
I must start over. He opened the door and a blast of warm air smashed into him. He blinked his eyes a few times and took a step past the threshold of the door.
He looked right and left, watching children run and play in the streets.
Children. He thought mildly. Just a few years ago there were none. He watched as a couple walked down the busy street, hand in hand.
He walked down the street, following in the flow of people, and slowly made his way to the park. He quickly found himself a small hill and sat against one of its sides, looking up at the sky.
He looked at the clouds, the first time that he could remember ever looking at them. Since his childhood he had been born and raised a fighting man. Everyone he knew had. But now everyone seemed to be getting a real life. Except me. He thought coldly.
The clouds looked so peaceful. He tore his eyes away from the beautiful objects and looked out across the park. So many people were playing and having fun.
He watched as a few girls three some kind of disc around. It seemed to float and hang in the air. Inginuity. That's what described his race. It was only a few years ago that they had developed the most advanced weaponary ever seen. The materia. But now they were putting their creative minds to different uses.
He had had his eye upon a girl when he was only a boy, but he doubted he would ever click with her. Besides, she's probably already found a man to settle down with.
He got up from his resting place slowly, resolving to find her. To find Joulee.
He paced through the streets, his eyes for the first time taking in the scenery, and the faces. So many faces. All were knew to him. He had never taken the time to remember a face, for he thought that it would die and leave him like all the rest.
However, after only a few hours, he found himself back at home, his search had been for nothing.
"I have lost this battle." He said outloud, speaking to no one but himself, "But I will not loose the war."
---
Joulee sat in the park, plucking the pettles from a small flower, thinking of things past. She sat by a well built man, who seemed to be eyeing the girls sitting in a circle down the path aways.
She noticed this, and plucked the last pettle. She knew that ever since the war had started her life had gone down hill.
She had lost the only one she had ever been close to, her parents having died at a young age. He gone away to war. Like all the rest of them. And now she had settled down with a man, a man that paid no heed to her, and gave her no respect.
A typical Cetra who had dodged the draft and thought so highly of himself afterward. She looked out over the crowd of people, trying to pick out someone who might be right for her.
But the search was never easy, and she had been for so long. Since before the war ever ended. Her mind flashed back to a memory from childhood.
((-Flash-))
A field of lushious green grass wavered slightly in the small breeze. Joulee lay relaxed next to her soon to be husband. Or at least that was how she looked at it.
His name was Aden. She recalled.
Aden tickled her a little and the small Joulee laughed and rolled over, trying not so hard to escape the wonderful feeling of pure joy.
Aden chuckled as wall, grabbing her gently and rolling her back over, tickling her slightly on her bare toes.
Joulee giggled again, and ruffled Aden's hair.
"You know, I'm getting it cut tomarrow." He said blantly.
"Why?"
"I'm goin to the military. To fight in the war."
Joulee suddenly found herself clinging to him. "No! You can't got Aden! Please..."
"Why not?" His inquisitive voice rang out in pure ignorance.
"Because, everyone I know that has gone to the war-" She choked back a sob.
"What?"
"They're gone. All of them."
He looked at her, raising an eyebrow slightly. She had always told him she was alone, but never why.
"Are you making up excuses to make me stay?" He asked, his voice somewhat less imposing this time.
"No!" She yelled, hugging him tightly. "I don't want you to go!"
"But I gotta get famous! And then I can come back and everyone will notice."
"What if you don't come back."
"I will."
"Promise?"
"..."
"Come on, you gotta promise!"
"Alright, I promise..."
((-Flash-))
She watched another burly man stride down the walkway. He looked up at her briefly, and then continued walking. The face seemed to strike a tone of resemblance in her mind. Yet, she just sat there and watched him walk off.
He turned around once more, looking at her for a moment longer. He stood their frozen for a minute, and then continued walking.
---
Aden continued to have haunting dreams that night about the girl he had seen in the park.
She was so lovely, so fresh.
He knew he wanted her, but did that mean abandoning his search for Joulee? And that guy she was with.
He decided to sleep on it and drifted quietly off.
---
A sudden rap on the door awoke Aden, his military training was wearing off. Everyday he seemed to wake up later and later.
Maybe I'm just getting old. He thought as he struggled to put some pants on.
Another rap.
"I'm coming!" He yelled as one foot got stuck and he began to hop around on one foot, trying to get the stubborn pants on.
The knock was louder this time and longer.
"I'm coming!!" He yelled again. But as he struggled with the pants he accidently fell over, and the door suddenly burst open.
The young girl from the park stood in the door way, looking down on Aden, who had one leg in the pants, and the other half way in.
Aden turned a bright red as he struggled to get up and out of sight, all while trying to get the pants on. And Joulee turned red as well, giggling in amusment.
After a few minutes Aden reappeared fully dressed in front of Joulee.
"Can I help you miss?" He asked polietly, instantly recognizing her as the girl from yesterday, but no more.
"I was, just wondering...Oh I'm not to sure... I just saw you at the park yesterday, and you caught my attention."
"Oh, I uh see..." He said, his face going somewhat red again.
"You look familiar." She said, slowly walking around him, inspecting him carefully.
He simply looked back at her quizickly.
"You just remind me of someone I once knew." She sighed.
"As do you..." He said after a moment, starring into her deep eyes.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Aden." He said reluctenly after a moment.
"Really?" She asked, eyeing him some more.
"And your name?"
"Joulee." She said somewhat quicker.
He tried not to let the surprise show on his face.
Perhaps this her her! He thought gleefully.
"Mind if I come in?" She asked.
"Oh! Of course! Come in come in!" He replied quickly. He showed her to the sofa and gave her sat her down. He sat in the chair opposite it.
"I don't suppose you knew someone by my name when you were a childhood?" Aden jump started the conversation.
"Actually I did...And you? Did you know someone named Joulee?"
"Yes, infact I did."
"Then perhaps, we are they." She said after a moment.
He suddenly got up, and sat down next to her, but not sittin to closely so as not to make her uncomforatable. But she instantly scooted closer.
"You're really him aren't you?"
Aden simply tickled her lightly.
She giggled throwing her arms about him and grasping him in a hug.
Tears streaked her face as she kissed him on the cheek.
"You never came back!" She said, punching him lightly in the shoulder.
"I'm here now aren't I?" Aden asked, gripping her in his own arms.
"Yes, and I suppose that's all that matters."
---
Aden and Joulee lay in bed together. It had been more than a year since their fateful reunion. And now they were living together. Marrie din unison.
"I love you Aden." She whispered into the night.
"I love you too sweety." Aden had relaxed more than ten times in that single year than he had relaxed the six years after the war. His mood was almost always light now, and a smile was almost always seen on his face.
They had moved to a friendly neighborhood and had built a house of their own.
"What are we going to call her?" She suddenly asked, piercing the night with the question.
"I don't know." He replied softly, thinking inwardly of names to call her.
"We still have a few more months." She stated, starring at the ceiling.
Aden rested his hand on her belly. It had become more and more round, yet he hadn't found her any less attractive. Sometimes he thought himself strange for that, but knew that inside her belly was a beautiful baby girl waiting to be born.
"Have you heard about the New Ones?" He asked, breaking the silence once again.
"Of course." She said somewhat groggily.
"They say that they're building their own city."
"I know."
"Midgar they're calling it."
"Midgar?"
"Yes, seems somewhat bland if you ask me."
"Yea..."
"We still have to think of a name..."
"I love you honey..."
"I love you too..."
---
Simon was furious. He couldn't believe what the council was doing.
He stomped around the bridge of his ship furiously.
"DAMNIT!!" He yelled, bashing his fist into the wall.
The coucil had decided his race had become to powerful and must be put into check.
He had told them countless times they were a race of peace, and that they would never harm anyone. But the council had made their own species, one that could utilize the Mako and the Lifestream on the Planet.
But he knew deep down they hadn't made the interaction work to its fullest, but none-the-less, it could still pose a major problem in the evolution of the Cetra.
He smashed his fist into the bulkhead again.
They had already started settling on the Planet. Building their own city.
Midgar.
A technological center for this new unnamed race. It was said to be a lower breed of himself and his people.
He had watched the viewscreen for countless hours. Monitoring his precious Cetra. They're calling them the New Ones. He thought dully. Perhaps they think they will have to fight them too? He wasn't sure.
He wasn't sure of anything anymore.
But suddenly an idea popped into his head.
"I will live with them!" He spoke it aloud, although not meaning to.
"I will go live with my Cetra. And I will help them make it through! I will see this project works, and that my people learn peace from my Cetra."
"Sir, that's not advisable." One of his crewmen stated blatently.
"I know what's advisable and what's not. I am the advisor. I will decide what to do and what not to do. And I must stop the council from reuning so many centuries of research."
The crewman nodde slightly and backed away a step.
"My Cetra aren't meant to be a fighting race, and I'm not sure if they are willing any more. They were programmed to fight the first war, but they have evolved past that."
He stopped for a breath.
Then he pointed to a figure. "Roulig! Ready my personal pod!"
"Yes!" Roulig slipped away and began preperations.
"This will of course be against the Council, so anyone not willing to help with this note it in your logs and you can stay confined to your quarters until we are either captured or until we win this little scrimage."
No one moved.
"All right then. Perhaps I will see you later. Perhaps not. I may die down there, and if I do, I want you all to carry on my research. Please, for me. And for the Cetra."
Still no one budged.
And then Roulig stepped out of the crowd.
"It's ready sir."
"Thank you Roulig."
"Yes Sir."
Simon quickly moved forward and opened the hatch to his pod, and then stepped slowly through.
"Goodbye." He said, as it closed.
The launch bay seeled itself, and then opened to space.
The ship blasted out and toward the Planet.
The atmosphere burned at it, trying to stop it. But, it penetrated through.
Then it struck the surface, making a small crater. A scar perhaps. But it would heal.
The hatched opened, and Simon stepped out, smelling the beautiful air for the first time in more than 7 years.
---
"I believe we have a name for her." Joulee addressed the happy doctor. Aden had his hand around Joulee's waist, a smile on his face as well.
"Oh really?" The doctor asked, looking at the happy couple. It reminded him of himself and his own wife. "What is it?"
"Aeris."
We have won. His quiet thoughts making no intrusion on the silence floating about the room. I must start a new life. We army people are no longer needed.
He scooted his chair back, standing abruptly and militarily. He walked briskly to the front door, and stood their hesiteiting. His hand grasped the gleeming knob.
I must start over. He opened the door and a blast of warm air smashed into him. He blinked his eyes a few times and took a step past the threshold of the door.
He looked right and left, watching children run and play in the streets.
Children. He thought mildly. Just a few years ago there were none. He watched as a couple walked down the busy street, hand in hand.
He walked down the street, following in the flow of people, and slowly made his way to the park. He quickly found himself a small hill and sat against one of its sides, looking up at the sky.
He looked at the clouds, the first time that he could remember ever looking at them. Since his childhood he had been born and raised a fighting man. Everyone he knew had. But now everyone seemed to be getting a real life. Except me. He thought coldly.
The clouds looked so peaceful. He tore his eyes away from the beautiful objects and looked out across the park. So many people were playing and having fun.
He watched as a few girls three some kind of disc around. It seemed to float and hang in the air. Inginuity. That's what described his race. It was only a few years ago that they had developed the most advanced weaponary ever seen. The materia. But now they were putting their creative minds to different uses.
He had had his eye upon a girl when he was only a boy, but he doubted he would ever click with her. Besides, she's probably already found a man to settle down with.
He got up from his resting place slowly, resolving to find her. To find Joulee.
He paced through the streets, his eyes for the first time taking in the scenery, and the faces. So many faces. All were knew to him. He had never taken the time to remember a face, for he thought that it would die and leave him like all the rest.
However, after only a few hours, he found himself back at home, his search had been for nothing.
"I have lost this battle." He said outloud, speaking to no one but himself, "But I will not loose the war."
---
Joulee sat in the park, plucking the pettles from a small flower, thinking of things past. She sat by a well built man, who seemed to be eyeing the girls sitting in a circle down the path aways.
She noticed this, and plucked the last pettle. She knew that ever since the war had started her life had gone down hill.
She had lost the only one she had ever been close to, her parents having died at a young age. He gone away to war. Like all the rest of them. And now she had settled down with a man, a man that paid no heed to her, and gave her no respect.
A typical Cetra who had dodged the draft and thought so highly of himself afterward. She looked out over the crowd of people, trying to pick out someone who might be right for her.
But the search was never easy, and she had been for so long. Since before the war ever ended. Her mind flashed back to a memory from childhood.
((-Flash-))
A field of lushious green grass wavered slightly in the small breeze. Joulee lay relaxed next to her soon to be husband. Or at least that was how she looked at it.
His name was Aden. She recalled.
Aden tickled her a little and the small Joulee laughed and rolled over, trying not so hard to escape the wonderful feeling of pure joy.
Aden chuckled as wall, grabbing her gently and rolling her back over, tickling her slightly on her bare toes.
Joulee giggled again, and ruffled Aden's hair.
"You know, I'm getting it cut tomarrow." He said blantly.
"Why?"
"I'm goin to the military. To fight in the war."
Joulee suddenly found herself clinging to him. "No! You can't got Aden! Please..."
"Why not?" His inquisitive voice rang out in pure ignorance.
"Because, everyone I know that has gone to the war-" She choked back a sob.
"What?"
"They're gone. All of them."
He looked at her, raising an eyebrow slightly. She had always told him she was alone, but never why.
"Are you making up excuses to make me stay?" He asked, his voice somewhat less imposing this time.
"No!" She yelled, hugging him tightly. "I don't want you to go!"
"But I gotta get famous! And then I can come back and everyone will notice."
"What if you don't come back."
"I will."
"Promise?"
"..."
"Come on, you gotta promise!"
"Alright, I promise..."
((-Flash-))
She watched another burly man stride down the walkway. He looked up at her briefly, and then continued walking. The face seemed to strike a tone of resemblance in her mind. Yet, she just sat there and watched him walk off.
He turned around once more, looking at her for a moment longer. He stood their frozen for a minute, and then continued walking.
---
Aden continued to have haunting dreams that night about the girl he had seen in the park.
She was so lovely, so fresh.
He knew he wanted her, but did that mean abandoning his search for Joulee? And that guy she was with.
He decided to sleep on it and drifted quietly off.
---
A sudden rap on the door awoke Aden, his military training was wearing off. Everyday he seemed to wake up later and later.
Maybe I'm just getting old. He thought as he struggled to put some pants on.
Another rap.
"I'm coming!" He yelled as one foot got stuck and he began to hop around on one foot, trying to get the stubborn pants on.
The knock was louder this time and longer.
"I'm coming!!" He yelled again. But as he struggled with the pants he accidently fell over, and the door suddenly burst open.
The young girl from the park stood in the door way, looking down on Aden, who had one leg in the pants, and the other half way in.
Aden turned a bright red as he struggled to get up and out of sight, all while trying to get the pants on. And Joulee turned red as well, giggling in amusment.
After a few minutes Aden reappeared fully dressed in front of Joulee.
"Can I help you miss?" He asked polietly, instantly recognizing her as the girl from yesterday, but no more.
"I was, just wondering...Oh I'm not to sure... I just saw you at the park yesterday, and you caught my attention."
"Oh, I uh see..." He said, his face going somewhat red again.
"You look familiar." She said, slowly walking around him, inspecting him carefully.
He simply looked back at her quizickly.
"You just remind me of someone I once knew." She sighed.
"As do you..." He said after a moment, starring into her deep eyes.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Aden." He said reluctenly after a moment.
"Really?" She asked, eyeing him some more.
"And your name?"
"Joulee." She said somewhat quicker.
He tried not to let the surprise show on his face.
Perhaps this her her! He thought gleefully.
"Mind if I come in?" She asked.
"Oh! Of course! Come in come in!" He replied quickly. He showed her to the sofa and gave her sat her down. He sat in the chair opposite it.
"I don't suppose you knew someone by my name when you were a childhood?" Aden jump started the conversation.
"Actually I did...And you? Did you know someone named Joulee?"
"Yes, infact I did."
"Then perhaps, we are they." She said after a moment.
He suddenly got up, and sat down next to her, but not sittin to closely so as not to make her uncomforatable. But she instantly scooted closer.
"You're really him aren't you?"
Aden simply tickled her lightly.
She giggled throwing her arms about him and grasping him in a hug.
Tears streaked her face as she kissed him on the cheek.
"You never came back!" She said, punching him lightly in the shoulder.
"I'm here now aren't I?" Aden asked, gripping her in his own arms.
"Yes, and I suppose that's all that matters."
---
Aden and Joulee lay in bed together. It had been more than a year since their fateful reunion. And now they were living together. Marrie din unison.
"I love you Aden." She whispered into the night.
"I love you too sweety." Aden had relaxed more than ten times in that single year than he had relaxed the six years after the war. His mood was almost always light now, and a smile was almost always seen on his face.
They had moved to a friendly neighborhood and had built a house of their own.
"What are we going to call her?" She suddenly asked, piercing the night with the question.
"I don't know." He replied softly, thinking inwardly of names to call her.
"We still have a few more months." She stated, starring at the ceiling.
Aden rested his hand on her belly. It had become more and more round, yet he hadn't found her any less attractive. Sometimes he thought himself strange for that, but knew that inside her belly was a beautiful baby girl waiting to be born.
"Have you heard about the New Ones?" He asked, breaking the silence once again.
"Of course." She said somewhat groggily.
"They say that they're building their own city."
"I know."
"Midgar they're calling it."
"Midgar?"
"Yes, seems somewhat bland if you ask me."
"Yea..."
"We still have to think of a name..."
"I love you honey..."
"I love you too..."
---
Simon was furious. He couldn't believe what the council was doing.
He stomped around the bridge of his ship furiously.
"DAMNIT!!" He yelled, bashing his fist into the wall.
The coucil had decided his race had become to powerful and must be put into check.
He had told them countless times they were a race of peace, and that they would never harm anyone. But the council had made their own species, one that could utilize the Mako and the Lifestream on the Planet.
But he knew deep down they hadn't made the interaction work to its fullest, but none-the-less, it could still pose a major problem in the evolution of the Cetra.
He smashed his fist into the bulkhead again.
They had already started settling on the Planet. Building their own city.
Midgar.
A technological center for this new unnamed race. It was said to be a lower breed of himself and his people.
He had watched the viewscreen for countless hours. Monitoring his precious Cetra. They're calling them the New Ones. He thought dully. Perhaps they think they will have to fight them too? He wasn't sure.
He wasn't sure of anything anymore.
But suddenly an idea popped into his head.
"I will live with them!" He spoke it aloud, although not meaning to.
"I will go live with my Cetra. And I will help them make it through! I will see this project works, and that my people learn peace from my Cetra."
"Sir, that's not advisable." One of his crewmen stated blatently.
"I know what's advisable and what's not. I am the advisor. I will decide what to do and what not to do. And I must stop the council from reuning so many centuries of research."
The crewman nodde slightly and backed away a step.
"My Cetra aren't meant to be a fighting race, and I'm not sure if they are willing any more. They were programmed to fight the first war, but they have evolved past that."
He stopped for a breath.
Then he pointed to a figure. "Roulig! Ready my personal pod!"
"Yes!" Roulig slipped away and began preperations.
"This will of course be against the Council, so anyone not willing to help with this note it in your logs and you can stay confined to your quarters until we are either captured or until we win this little scrimage."
No one moved.
"All right then. Perhaps I will see you later. Perhaps not. I may die down there, and if I do, I want you all to carry on my research. Please, for me. And for the Cetra."
Still no one budged.
And then Roulig stepped out of the crowd.
"It's ready sir."
"Thank you Roulig."
"Yes Sir."
Simon quickly moved forward and opened the hatch to his pod, and then stepped slowly through.
"Goodbye." He said, as it closed.
The launch bay seeled itself, and then opened to space.
The ship blasted out and toward the Planet.
The atmosphere burned at it, trying to stop it. But, it penetrated through.
Then it struck the surface, making a small crater. A scar perhaps. But it would heal.
The hatched opened, and Simon stepped out, smelling the beautiful air for the first time in more than 7 years.
---
"I believe we have a name for her." Joulee addressed the happy doctor. Aden had his hand around Joulee's waist, a smile on his face as well.
"Oh really?" The doctor asked, looking at the happy couple. It reminded him of himself and his own wife. "What is it?"
"Aeris."
