The Simple Things

Authors note: I am a very big fan of Final Fantasy VII. I love the characters, the relationships, the story, all the fan submissions that lie on Elfwood and here at Fanfiction.net. I love the slash ship pairings people come up with. I love to read about all the theories, end even create my own. EyesonFF.net has introduced me to many people like myself who are deeply in love with this game. With all of the games Square and S-E have made. I myself has created many fan fictions( two chapter ones going well, but not finished yet). I'm dying for the next hour to come up, and geocities will again let me go onto their site so I can read 'Snow fields' for I have heard it is extremely good. I have a mad obsession with Zack (Zack Flame as I call him) ,Gongaga is my favorite location in the whole world of Final Fantasy VII. The idea that Advent Children will have Vincent in it made my heart race…But, as much as I love this game, love these characters, I cannot own them. Nothing you read in here is mine. (except for the places not inside the game, the characters that I mention that were never said). I have made altercations to certain things. I have created places that probably never existed in Final Fantasy VII ( or, as I convince myself, never said they existed). People who helped to shape so and so, and yet so and so never said a thing about them. I like to keep these characters as my own, and, if you were to ever use them in a fan fiction, credit me. As much as I love all these things, I hate copy cats. Hate stealers. If I find you have taken my characters, or places and not credited me, I will no longer post such fan fictions as this up again. Thanks.

-Introduction-

I remember it as if it were yesterday. The blood, the tears, the pain. All the world, spinning about me. Everything crashing down. Our world shattered like glass, and I was left to pick up the pieces of an old life. Being cut and torn and sliced open with every piece my pale and already blood stained fingers touched. Every passing moment, ever memory, it sliced into my body like a million shards of ice. A million tiny daggers wishing to gut me. To rip out my spin. To reef out my every pleasant thought in till all that was left was… that moment. Those moments. The dismal look of my future…

Everything was…

Everything was…

Black.

Black as night. A thick, wet velvet. Suffocating. Covering me. Consuming me in till I couldn't breath in the sweet scent of freedom. I couldn't taste the chocolate covered sweetness of life. Of youth. Of my teen years…

I cried. And I kicked. I screamed, I sobbed, I cursed, I threw things, I thrashed. No use. They ignored me. No attention for the one wishing to be seen. For the little child in the corner. For the little girl wanting to be set free for her prison. For all the books and the walls sliding out to revile concoctions I could never understand.

No. Never. They wouldn't allow it. I was taught to read. To write. To do arithmetic. I became as intelligent as anyone you might find in Shinra. Maybe even the presidents son. I was never allowed to eat anything un-healthy. I trained as hard and as mercilessly as those in SOLDIER were trained. I was never allowed sleep if my work wasn't finished. I was never allowed to see the sun…

To feel the rain. I had read about it. Such a pleasant thing. The professor. He never let me finish that book. Lies. Fiction, he called it. Bitter, evil things put into lies that would make me as blind and as ignorant as the next person. I mustn't be like them.

I mustn't feel the rain…

So…I was moved from my prison. My little room, no windows, a locked door. Moved down to the basement, where those from Shinra dwelt. The professor, ever cruel to me, among them. I became interested in a woman there. Lucrecia was her name. Lovely. A diamond.

No. I was the diamond. The professor always called me that. 'My little diamond,'.

But she was…

A polished diamond. Cut and shaped and shined and set in a gorges golden band. While I was merely…A diamond in the rough. And ugly diamond. And ugly woman.

I was very plain. Very simple looking. Not sharp and wonderful like this woman. Long, mousy brown hair, pulled back into a lovely tail on the top of her head, and tied with a deep crimson ribbon. Her face was a peaches and cream sort of color, not the pale yellow mine had become from lack of sun. Her cheeks always held a light pink color, and her lips a deep burgundy. Makeup. She didn't need it. She was gorgeous. Smelling ever sweet of roses (or, so she said that was the scent).

She had… an admirer of sorts. I saw him often. A man much prettier then the Professor. Jet black hair in a scruffy, short sort of way. It gave him a loving, but dangerous look I admired. He was slim, but muscular and strong. Always dressed in a blue suit. Always a sharp look about him. I admired him, as I did Lucrecia. Hojo sensed this ,I am sure, for he was soon sent away from my new basement prison.

He would never truly look at me. Lucretia wouldn't either. Only the professor. Muttering 'my lovely diamond' to me. I was… 14.

Lucretia… She and the Professor were expecting a baby. I had read a bit out the emotion of love. They did not fit that description. The professor said he felt no emotion towards Lucretia, and she was merely going to be his test subject. Well, what she had in her. A child, born to Hojo and Lucretia, and injected with the cells of Gast's discovery. Jenova Project they call it. I… have seen a picture. They kept it in the mountains. They didn't wish for it to escape the mansions lab.

But… concerning Hojo and Lucretia…

Hojo's a horrid man. He lied to her. He pretended to hold the emotion of love. He pretended to be taken with her. Lucretia fell for it. Vincent told her his feelings for her, I suppose, one evening. She was crying in the hallway. I watched from behind my secret room. The poor woman. Torn between two men. Poor Vincent.

After a few weeks, Vincent came for me. He spoke to me, when Lucretia and Hojo had gone to the Shinra building, in Midgar. I remember…

He asked me…

If I had ever been outside.

Upon learning that I had not, and only being 14...He did something I shall never forget, and the Professor would hate him for.

He had been soaked when he came to me, and I had wished to touch the rain water on his clothing. I had not, wishing not to touch such a substance as that from the outside… My heart yearned to do so, very badly. It hurt.

I never… understood… But he had taken me by the hand, a smile on his lovely face. He pulled me from my little bed, dragging me though the horrid basement, where they hid all the bodies of failed experiments. I had been blindfolded when coming down here. Hojo had not wished me to even see light for a second. Now, I could see the skulls of little animals called dogs, and the bodies of half decomposed cats set into a box. I felt…

Cold?

I don't know what I felt.

He pulled me up the many stairs, and looked back, smiling.

Perhaps… he wished to anger Hojo, his lovers love. Perhaps I was a means of revenge.

We went up, in till he stood on the first step.

"What's you name?" He asked, having realized he didn't know.

I…

"Don't…know…"

His eyes had widened. I think he felt… sorrow? Sympathy? I could not tell you. I do not know.

"You don't know? But-I thought Hojo called you something. Crystal or…"

"diamond…It is merely my…pet name. He has pet names for all of the animals in the basement halls."

I used to have nightmares about that. About all those dead creatures with pet names. Would I be like them?

"Aren't you his daughter? Sister?"

"If I am, he treats me unlike one. He feels no…love towards me at all. Or, perhaps, the love of a scientist towards his research."

Vincent's eyes had widened.

"you're an experiment?!"

I remember looking at my coarse black shoes then. The leather scratched. They had been a pair of Lucretia's old shoes. Boots. They were to big. I hadn't known what to reply.

I had heard Vincent's apology, saying he didn't mean to hurt me or offend me in any way. He couldn't understand why I was a research project.

I found myself being forced to look up, the cold, slippery fingers placed under my chin.

Had I shivered then? I cannot remember.

"Sorry, Diamond. Do you wish to return to the basement? If being loyal to Hojo is your goal, it would be best…"

"Is…is this rain?"

I had placed my hand on his wet hair, on his shoulder and his cheek. He didn't seem to mind. He had smiled, nodding.

"May I… am I honorable enough to touch it?"

Had he laughed?

"Of course. Come on."

I remember it… perfectly. The perfect feeling. It was… breath taking. I had heard much music down in the basement. Lucretia had played some soft romance songs for me. Gentle harps, and violins. Pianos. This rain… It felt…

A million times better then the love songs.

A million times better then the soft sounds vibrating through my bones.

I had found myself, standing on the front step of the mansion, staring out into the brightness. Into the streaks that were what Vincent had claimed, rain drops.

He had my hand still, out in the rain, looking back at me with a wide grin. I didn't understand why. Suddenly I was being pulled forward, and Vincent was running backwards, pulling. The first drop of rain that touched me I had gasped. Not out of pain, but of fright.

He had laughed. I remember.

"see? Isn't it wonderful?"

He pulled me along, through the gate and into the tiled ground of the town square, near the well.

"Pr-professor will not approve of this!"

And he had laughed again. I think that's when I realized what he had done with me. When he began to swing me about, in a playful manner. He 26, and I 14.

Time passed, soon evening came and we were soaked to the bone. I needed to be returned to my prison, despite my desire to stay forever in the rain. Vincent needed to check on Gast. He returned me, to my prison.

We had… sat for a moment.

"Vincent…You loved Lucretia… didn't you?"

Vincent suddenly had gone stiff, eyes closed, shaking a little under his soppy clothing.

"Why…Why are you letting her love Hojo?…"

"If she is happy then... I don't mind.

He had then took my wet clothes and left. I moped away the wet, and slept with a smile.

Months passed. Vincent wouldn't look at me, and Hojo never left again.

As time went, Hojo found it a horrid wait, that of waiting for his child to be born.

Hojo realizes the first injection of Jenova was a frailer. Not enough had been placed in Lucretia. He again planted more cells into her. Almost… and over injection.

Vincent had learned of this. Lucretia had become very ill, you see, and had collapsed on many occasions. Vincent had been furious… So…

He had…come to Hojo's lab. I had been at the desk, but I could still hear their yells. Their shouts of anger. Silently I sat, listening…

"I'm against it! Why experiments on humans!?"

"She and I are both scientists!!"

"Shinra shall hear of this!"

"The Shinra already know Vincent!"

Lucretia… I had… lost all love of her. All desire to be like her. She loved a man of evil intentions… He told me things. Things I never would say, for I never wished to be like the little animals. Decomposing in boxes stored away.

And so… it went on. A child was born to Lucretia and Hojo. That child's name was… Sephiroth.

Vincent soon heard of the injections in this child, and the things that were going to be done to him. He…

He was…

Hojo…

Shot him…

They had gotten themselves into a heated argument. Shouting and bickering. Hojo wasn't one to be turned down. He took the gun from his lab coat and…

I can still remember…How his body…twisted…How it fell. The blood… The tears I spilled. My scream, not being heard by Hojo. I had… come to… love Vincent. I think it was love… Or a friendship. Both things I… would never have again.

I had been ordered to clean up the mess. Lock the door. Fetch tools. I ran, like a dog may for his master, and did as I was told. Vincent's pale, blood stained body had been lifted to the table, and…

And…

And soon, he had been injected with cells of Jenova. Altered. Stress and pain would cause him to mutate. It was… horrible. I hated Hojo. I wanted to attack him, but it would be useless. He had that gun… And the knives…

So I stood, in the corner, watching. Soon it was all finished. Soon Hojo's horrid task was completed. He un shackled Vincent from the table, sewed him back up…and…

Beckoned to me. Lucretia had packed everything. I would put on the bandana, and be led through the building… out to the truck which would take me to Shinra with Hojo.

"My precious diamond, it will be marvelous! You will be with me forever! Helping me with my experiments! With my child!"

"D-diamond…Is that my name?"

He wouldn't answer. Refused to answer. So I had refused to move…

He had scolded me, called me worthless, called me names, said horrid things…

Soon he had me on the floor, bloody and beaten. Black and blue. Sore. Pain rung in every inch of my battered body. He wouldn't stop in till I was in his mercy. In till I went with him…

But my eyes were fixed on the battered form of Vincent and…

I didn't move…

And I woke up…days latter…To find myself in the basement alone…Weak and weary. Vincent had gone…I was…alone…All…

Alone…

Somehow I had found myself with Hojo's gun, wandering out into the storage room where the coffins of new human experiments were. I lifted the lid to one, ready to pull myself in…

There was…Vincent…