Epilogue: Full Circle
It was many years later before Miriam could let go of the things that had held her back for so long, like manacles on her ankles, wrists, and soul. She had moved to a little house in Sector 5. The Shin-Ra wanted to help her pay for it, but she refused. It was dirty money. Then came the checks, big fat ones that arrived every week stamped with the Shin-Ra logo and made out to "Miss Miriam Adler" for "your services to the company." 5000 Gil a week was good money.
She had taken every last one and burned them in the fireplace, watching as the flames licked over them, turning them into curling black flowers that crumbled away to nothingness. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.
This morning, Miriam came down the stairs and out the front door to get the paper. Ever since she had heard Sephiroth's name mentioned around...oh, fifteen years ago, it had become a daily habit. She was shocked to see him again after all that time. He had become a superb general apparently, standing in front of a platoon of soldiers with a long sword in his hand. After that she scoured the paper religiously to find some mention of him, but it was all about his accomplishments in the war. Which meant of course, he was killing people. There was some part of her that still couldn't accept that fact.
Five years ago, there was another shocker: The Great General Sephiroth had mysteriously disappeared. He wasn't dead though, she was sure of that. Or at least she was then. Confidence has a tendency to erode over time, like water crumbling a hole in the earth.
Upon seeing this morning's headline, she gasped and dropped her cup of coffee on the front step. It smashed to pieces with a tinkling of porcelain. Coffee seeped languidly into the newsprint causing a spreading brown stain, but nothing could obscure the screaming bold font which proclaimed:
THE GREAT SEPHIROTH RETURNS, MURDERS PRESIDENT OF SHIN-RA INC.
Authorities Still Puzzled Over Mysterious Break In
Miriam's eyes scanned the paper once, twice, thrice. The Great Sephiroth Returns. A single thought invaded her mind, something she had forgotten about until this moment. When an angel child cries...
"The whole world will hear," she whispered. She turned her face towards the starry night sky, the same sky that hung over the Black Caped Man as he fled across the plains, sword in one hand, Jenova in the other, and disappeared like a speck of eternity.
It was many years later before Miriam could let go of the things that had held her back for so long, like manacles on her ankles, wrists, and soul. She had moved to a little house in Sector 5. The Shin-Ra wanted to help her pay for it, but she refused. It was dirty money. Then came the checks, big fat ones that arrived every week stamped with the Shin-Ra logo and made out to "Miss Miriam Adler" for "your services to the company." 5000 Gil a week was good money.
She had taken every last one and burned them in the fireplace, watching as the flames licked over them, turning them into curling black flowers that crumbled away to nothingness. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.
This morning, Miriam came down the stairs and out the front door to get the paper. Ever since she had heard Sephiroth's name mentioned around...oh, fifteen years ago, it had become a daily habit. She was shocked to see him again after all that time. He had become a superb general apparently, standing in front of a platoon of soldiers with a long sword in his hand. After that she scoured the paper religiously to find some mention of him, but it was all about his accomplishments in the war. Which meant of course, he was killing people. There was some part of her that still couldn't accept that fact.
Five years ago, there was another shocker: The Great General Sephiroth had mysteriously disappeared. He wasn't dead though, she was sure of that. Or at least she was then. Confidence has a tendency to erode over time, like water crumbling a hole in the earth.
Upon seeing this morning's headline, she gasped and dropped her cup of coffee on the front step. It smashed to pieces with a tinkling of porcelain. Coffee seeped languidly into the newsprint causing a spreading brown stain, but nothing could obscure the screaming bold font which proclaimed:
THE GREAT SEPHIROTH RETURNS, MURDERS PRESIDENT OF SHIN-RA INC.
Authorities Still Puzzled Over Mysterious Break In
Miriam's eyes scanned the paper once, twice, thrice. The Great Sephiroth Returns. A single thought invaded her mind, something she had forgotten about until this moment. When an angel child cries...
"The whole world will hear," she whispered. She turned her face towards the starry night sky, the same sky that hung over the Black Caped Man as he fled across the plains, sword in one hand, Jenova in the other, and disappeared like a speck of eternity.