Fountain of Memories

Chapter 3: The Girl With White Hair

Diclaimer: I don't own any Final Fantasy 7 characters and I'm not getting any money from this, please don't rub my nose in this fact.

The morning sun shone down on the 9 people sitting on the beach. Eight of them were looking at Aurora expectantly. She cleared her throat nervously and began.

She had spent the early part of her life living in an apartment with her mother and father. Her parents worked for ShinRa, her father as a SOLDIER, meaning he was rarely around, and her mother as some kind of office worker.

Her mother had looked after her when she wasn't working, but at all other times Aurora had been left to her own devices. Usually she would leave the apartment to play with the children of the other employees in the corridors of what the others had deduced to be the ShinRa building above Midgar.

She remembered being taken to see Professor Hojo, who put needles in her and did strange tests on her while her mother held her hand. Aurora's memories of her father were hazy, he hadn't been around very much, but one of the things she did speak of was a time when the whole family had gone out of Midgar for a picnic, and she remembered being thrown into the air, screaming and laughing to be caught by a pair of strong arms belonging to someone who laughed with her.

Then, when she was about 10 years old, she remembered her mother begging her father not to go on a mission he had been given by ShinRa. Her father had told her mother that he had to go. His job in SOLDIER was his life, and he would do whatever ShinRa demanded of him. It was the only time Aurora could remember her parents arguing, or as close as they ever came to it.

During her father's absence, her mother became more and more depressed and saddened, until finally, 6 months later, message arrived that her father had died.

Aurora couldn't remember a funeral, although she remembered a blonde haired man visiting, and her mother crying sadly on his shoulder. He seemed very sad too, as if he had just lost a loved one.

About a year after this, Aurora was awoken by a strange green glow coming from her mother's room. Sneaking to the door, she saw her father standing over her mother's prone form, his sword held high above his head. He was the source of the glow, and seemed to be fighting a battle that Aurora couldn't see.

Finally he gasped, and lowered the weapon and between gritted teeth he told her mother to go far away where he couldn't find her, so that 'She' couldn't hurt her. Her father disappeared in a flash of green light, and her mother had began to sob.

That night, Aurora was bundled into warm clothes, and by morning they were aboard a boat which had left from a place with a huge gun above it. Aurora hadn't been told where it was going, only that it was somewhere new. A storm brewed up that night and the boat they had been travelling on had been sunk.

Aurora and her mother had washed up on this shore, and had lived here together quite happily until about 5 years ago when her mother had caught a strange illness, and had died. Aurora had lived alone ever since, with no one to talk to, and no one to help her.

The others were silent for a time, digesting all this information about this sad girls life.

Cloud looked up frowning, 'You're father was a SOLDIER? Can you remember what his name was?'

Aurora looked thoughtful for a moment, 'I remember it began with an 'S', but that's all. My mother' name was Namaya.' She added helpfully.

'How come you can't remember your father's name when you were nearly 10 when he left?' Tifa asked

Aurora shrugged, 'I never asked, and besides most people just called him 'sir'.'

The sound of a helicopter coming closer, caused all thoughts to be discarded as they all jumped up and waved frantically in the direction of the small dot which was steadily getting closer.

* * *

The blue sea sped quickly beneath them as the helicopter headed towards Junon. Aurora peered out of the window to watch her home of 9 years disappear on the horizon.

'Goodbye Mother…' She whispered, before turning to face forward again.

All of the others were chattering excitedly at the prospect of seeing their loved ones again, but Aurora wondered what awaited her when she reached the place of her birth. She remembered the name Junon, it was the place where her and mother had caught the boat on that night 9 years ago.

When the land came into view, Aurora noticed that things had changed quite a lot. Gone was the huge gun, and the city above. Junon was a sprawling city now, which sparkled in the sunlight, as windows and metal reflected their light.

People awaited them at the port. A young girl ran into Barret's arms, crying and talking so fast that Aurora couldn't hear her. Tifa hugged a young girl who was dressed in a waitresses uniform, and also hugged the young girl with Barret. Reeve was met by several people in dark blue uniforms. Two children, and a dark haired woman wearing a lab coat leapt on Cid, while several strangely dressed people welcomed Red. Yuffie yelled joyfully and ran into the arms of a tall dark haired man.

Aurora wandered off to stare out at the ocean over a railing nearby. She felt someone come and stand beside her, and looked around. It was Vincent.

'Is there nobody here to meet you Vincent?' She asked timidly.

Vincent shook his head sadly, 'No, the only other person who I considered friend enough to welcome me home, died some time ago.'

'Who was this other person?'

Vincent stared out over the sea as the wind made his dark hair dance about his face and head, 'Her name was Lucrecia. She was Sephiroth's mother.'

Aurora frowned suddenly, 'Sephiroth? That was what Cloud shouted out when he first saw me. Who is Sephiroth?'

'He was the result of an experiment to combine human with a being known as Jenova. He went insane and tried to take over the world under Jenova's control.'

'Why was he made part Jenova?' Aurora asked, still frowning.

'Professor Hojo wanted to create a super soldier, a perfect fighting machine so he combined the Jenova cells with a human foetus,' Vincent sighed at Aurora's blank look, 'A baby, while it was still in it's mother's wo….tummy.' Obviously hasn't had certain things explained to her, he thought. I suppose her mother never saw much point, living alone with her on an island.

'And Cloud thought I was Sephiroth?' She said. Something at the back of her mind was trying to get her attention.

Vincent nodded, 'You do look a lot like him, and from what Cloud suffered through what Sephiroth did to a friend of ours…'

'What did he do?' Aurora asked, eyes alight with curiosity.

'We were after Sephiroth because of the plans he had to take over the world. I was in it to get back at Professor Hojo for what he did to Lucrecia. One of our companions, a Cetra named Aeris, sacrificed herself to save us all. She was murdered by Sephiroth.' Vincent's face looked bleak and turned back to his study of the sea, 'That was 5 years ago now, but Cloud's never really got over it.'

Aurora looked sad for a moment, 'My mother died 5 years ago. She got sick, and I couldn't cure her.'

Vincent sighed, 'We've all lost people over these past 10 years.' He saw the others begin to make their way away from the dock, and motioned Aurora to follow. Vincent caught a glimpse of movement in the corner of his eye and swung around. There was nothing there. Frowning, Vincent turned and strode after the others.

A cloaked figure watched them go.

* * *

Linus entered the small apartment and peered around.

'Seph? Seph are you here?' The boy called gently. He could hear someone sobbing quietly.

Walking over towards the window, he saw the younger boy hunched up in the corner, tears running down his face.

Linus sat down in front of him and sighed, 'It wasn't your fault Seph, Rufus shouldn't have been being mean to Namaya and Charlotte. He deserved what he got.'

Seph raised his face, 'But I didn't mean to hurt him like that Linus. I…I just pushed him, and he went flying.'

'Don't worry, Rufus is just a little snot. Even his mam and papa don't like him.' Linus said disdainfully. His personal view of Rufus went a little further than that. Linus would quite happily throw the kid out of a 30th floor window.

Seph sniffed, dejectedly, 'Hojo thinks that I did good! I thought he was going to tell me off but he just laughed and said that it was good that I was 'improving'. What did he mean Linus?' The older boy handed him a tissue which he blew his nose on, loudly.

'Hojo's just weird. He took me to his lab again the other day, and there's a lady up there in one of those see-through cage thingy's he has. I saw the monster-man too. He was lying in one of the cages, he has a claw!' Linus said, playing with the blind.

Seph nodded, 'Yeah, she's a nice lady. She has pretty greeny-blue eyes. Hojo said she was called Specimen A but she told me that her name was Ilfana when Hojo wasn't looking.'

Linus smiled at the other boy, his upset at hurting Rufus apparently dissipated, 'C'mon let's go and play with the others Seph.'

The younger boy nodded, and stood up and followed his brother out into the corridor.

Authors Notes: Hmmm well I hope I managed to reveal a lot more in that chapter. Please r&r if you havn't already because I get quite depressed when I feel I'm not appreciated. Anyone who might have been reading my other stories, I apologise but I have taken them down to redo them. On the basis that they weren't getting anymore reviews despite the extra chapters, I decided they needed to be changed. For now I'm going to focus on this story, but only if I get some nice reviews, else I'll have to go away and eat large amounts of ice-cream to cheer myself up k? LOL.