Part1 – Chapter 1 - Speculation
The effect of one man and Meteor had transcended into a distant memory fifty years on and there was nothing seriously wrong with the world anymore. Everything was peaceful, apart from the few injustices caused that needed no more than a firm slap on the wrist and a finger waved in the face to rectify. The past dreams of world peace seemed to be consolidating into one, more realistic, future. With all this happening, it was enough to make one think about the not-so-mysterious-anymore world that they occupy and what it was all coming to.
In short—life was boring...
"Do you really think that this whole ordeal is over?"
"I honestly don't know. It seems too good to be true really."
The cynical voices of the world were all converging and planning to find out what was really happening. It was like a spell had been cast over the world to behave in a less-futile way than normal—no one knew what normal was anymore; but they just assumed that it was different than what it was at the time—Not many people had this view, yet the few that did had strong enough opinions to compare to, and overthrow hundreds more people thinking the opposite if they needed to. The law-enforcement in the world didn't like the thoughts of these people, arousing more suspicion as to something going on; and one man was about to find out why, and what it was...
~oO0Oo~
The darkness of the cold winters was slowly creeping in as the wind settled on the quaint town of Icicle Inn. The temperature dropped and the skies cleared to display a myriad of stars, shimmering in the distance—a sight not to be missed by the naked eye as to be losing out you didn't see it yourself—Dr. Jules Sephier was one of those cynical people, who also didn't like 'no' as an answer and he kept studying what happened after the Lifestream destroyed Meteor fifty years previous. Was there such a place as the promise lands? He also tried to figure out how the Lifestream did what it did.
Report 11th November 2057.
Things that I have yet to have found out are driving me to complete my research earlier than I had planned. I have also had a call from my colleague at the Northern Crater saying that today they have found a strange object that seems to be "Evolved Materia" as they put it. I am intrigued by this find and am planning on travelling there myself. I need to get out anyway; I've practically been staring at the same four walls for little over a year now and it is getting a tad tiresome. Could this be what I have been looking for? I have my doubts but the strength of the speculation surrounding this object is hard not to believe in...
His colleague was a relation to the famous researcher of the depleted Shinra Co. Research department. A relation of Hojo. It was hard to trust a man with such a reputation for being sly and a bad family history, but Dr. Sephier wasn't the sort of character to judge people by their history since, 'that was in the past and there it should stay,' like he always said—the funny thing was, that totally contradicted his work; researching the past fifty years and bringing it to the future, but he didn't like to be criticized when it came to work—There was always some method in his madness and everyone seemed to agree with what he said, regardless of what their personal thoughts were. Bernard Jones, Sephier's assistant was a 27 year old, shy and subdued fellow with the physical characteristics that could make him almost identical to Hojo if it wasn't for the innocent eyes. Those deep, ice blue eyes could pierce deep into your soul if you'd let them, yet be the most comforting thing if they were caught looking at you. His temperament was different from Hojo's, more...dormant, but the arrogance and greed still lay within the depths of his soul which was something he made an ambition to diminish before he got any older—a keen follower to Sephier—as Hojo was to Gast, a proud man and a man to be proud of.
"Excuse me, Dr. Sephier? There is someone on the phone to speak with you." A tall, almost lanky woman stepped into the room and walked with a cocky hint into Dr. Sephier's office and placed the phone on his desk.
"They say it's about the E-M, whatever that may be..." Dr. Sephier looked up and looked at his makeshift receptionist.
"Thank you, Tina. That will be all." A disgusted look appeared on Tina's face, as she seemed to peer right through him. "You make it sound so formal. I'm not your slave" She scowled and walks off.
"'Tis a shame Tina...'tis a shame." He smirked and picks up the phone
"Hello, Doctor Jules Sephier speaking."
"Jules, you old goat! Still chatting up that Tina, eh?" A smile rose upon his face, "Hey there Trevor! I'm not that old! I'm just 35 years young, you know that."
"Whatever...anyway, it's not all good news I've got to tell you, well the majority of it isn't anyway." Dr. Sephier felt as if he knew what was coming yet he was anxious as to hear if his predictions were right. "We have some bad news, and some good news as always. I'm gonna start with the bad news since that is the most important." Sephier's heart sunk into his stomach, as he knew that this was something bad had to have happened for Trevor to have such a serious tone in his voice.
"Six of the researchers have..."
This can't be! How can something like this happen?
"...Been killed..."
The words seemed to be lodged in his throat prolonging their impact.
"...And the Materia is missing."
I knew this would happen—nothing was going to stop the inevitable from happening—Sooner or later something was going to go wrong since this was no ordinary materia. I didn't know what it was that was going on, but all I knew was that it wasn't good.
