(Two days ago)

The burning object crashed down, smashing its way through the atmosphere and ploughing into the ground, sending up a massive plume of earth and dust. A second later, the thing exploded. The ground around it vaporised as the object was consumed by a massive fireball, creating a crater at least twenty metres in diameter. Fires raged along the crater's ridge, the smoke obscuring whatever remained of the object. Nothing should have been able to survive such a catastrophic incident. But within the fiery inferno, something was stirring. Something had survived.

In an unknown location, far away from the impact site, an alarm sounded. A harassed looking man turned away from the television screen he was watching and spoke to the figure sitting next to him.

"Sir, we have a problem." On the screen, almost entirely obscured by the smoky haze, a human form was emerging from the crater.

"Oh my god…was it damaged?" The figure asked. The harassed man checked the data stream following the humanoid form on the screen in front of him.

"I'm afraid so, sir. It has lost some of its memory." The figure next to him swore loudly. Things just kept getting worse…

(The Present)

Storm hadn't expected her first mission to be exciting. She hadn't expected it to be important. And yet…she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. The boat trip to Dollet was going sooooooooo slowly. To occupy herself, she began running through some gunblade techniques Squall had taught her. Storm took great pride in Parallax, her gunblade. The blade end was longer than usual, with a picture of Griever burned into both sides. It was made of a special alloy that made it both light and strong. However, it had never been used in real combat. For this reason, Storm trained with it intensely, knowing that the day would soon come when she had to kill with it. She didn't particularly like the idea of killing, but making a successful career out of being a mercenary without killing anyone was exceptionally difficult, bordering on the impossible.

Slash, stab, duck, kick. Slice, stab, punch, slash. She ran through countless variants of these moves, the room around her blurring as she did so, until she was no longer in a small cabin on a ship, but in an alternate reality filled with demons and enemies. The adrenaline rush was exhilarating, even when it wasn't real combat. Right now, Storm's mind was fighting, not her true being. She thrust her blade forwards, stabbing at imaginary foes, ducking and weaving as she did so. Only when all her unreal enemies were utterly dismembered did she stop practising.

She collapsed onto her seat, utterly exhausted. I really shouldn't tire myself out like this, she thought to herself dully. But it had worked; there were only five minutes left until they reached Dollet. Dollet…she had only been there once before, when she was very young. She had memories of winding streets, and how her father had told her stories of when he had completed his first mission here. Stories of how Seifer had disobeyed orders and followed enemy soldiers to the communications tower, and of how this incident had lead to them being chased back down to the beach by a giant, homicidal mechanical spider.

By the time she had finished thinking this, they had arrived. Firstly, she was to meet with the leader of the scouts who had been sent to investigate the impact site near the abandoned communications tower. He was one of the few people who had actually witnessed the burning object fall from the sky. He hadn't gone with the rest of the scouts due to a leg injury, which was fortunate, since none of the men sent to investigate had come back. Then she was to investigate the impact site herself and search for the missing men.

One of her objectives was already close to completion; the captain of the scouts was already waiting for her by the docks. He limped over to her as she disembarked from the carrier ship. They saluted each other, then got straight down to business.

"What exactly did you see happen two days ago, Captain Vicks?" She asked politely. Vicks thought for a moment.

"Well, the first thing I noticed was a whistling sound. It kept getting louder, so I went outside to take a look, y'know? It looked like a shooting star…except it was red and fiery, not white and pretty. When it hit the ground, I heard this deep booming sound, like an earthquake bomb's been dropped. Of course, I reported it to my CO straight away. Thought it might have been a missile attack." He replied, still looking thoughtful. Storm nodded for him to go on, but that seemed to be it. She got up to leave.

Just as she was about to go, he spoke out, "What we told Balamb Garden…wasn't quite true. We said that nobody came back. But one man did. He was bleeding and had deep cuts all over his body. And he kept repeating the same phrase over and over."

Storm turned back to him. Finally, something new. "What did he say?" She asked. Captain Vicks took a deep breath, and then spoke.

"He said that "The angel of death came for them" over and over and over."

Storm thanked the man for the information, though it hadn't told her much she didn't already know. The only new piece of information was about the man who lived, though that hadn't made any sense at all. She turned to look at the hill nearby where the object had landed. The communications tower rose above the town like a guardian giant, its massive frame etched against the sky. That was her next destination. It was the place were her father's great adventure had begun. Was it where she would begin one too? Possibly…

How right she would be.

The path to the communications tower was long and full of twists and turns. Storm could still make out the imprints of boot heels in the dirt, signs the scouts had left behind two days earlier. She stopped, and shivered. Something was definitely amiss here. It was far too quiet. She sighed, and carried on walking. As she rounded a nearby corner, she found her first dead body.

It was a gruesome sight. Storm nearly vomited when she saw what had happened. The man lay on his back, lifeless eyes staring up into the sky. There were a number of ragged stab wounds around his chest, and the right hand side of him seemed badly burned. Already the flies were swarming around him. They say that the first time you look upon death with your own eyes, it stays with you for the rest of your life. Storm realised that now. Something was seriously wrong. Quickly, she unhooked her radio and dialled the Garden.

Immediately Squall picked up.

"Leonhart here."

"Dad!"

"Storm! What is your status! Have you found the scouts?"

"Yeah, I found one of them."

"What is his status?"

"Dead."

"What!"

"You heard me. He's dead. Request backup."

"I'm afraid that's not an option. It's in the terms of the contract. Dollet wants this incident to go as quietly as possible."

"Fine. Could you at least contact the Dollet armed forces?"

"I will try, but I can't promise anything. Look, Storm…if you want out, then…"

"No way. I have to complete this mission."

There was a sigh at the other end. Storm smiled. She knew that he knew she wouldn't give up.

"Okay. But if anything else happens, I want you out of there."

He signed off. Sighing slightly, Storm put away her radio and looked down at the corpse at her feet. He deserves a proper burial, but I don't have the time… Suddenly, Storm felt a very strange sensation. She would come to know in time what it was, but right now she had no idea that it was the feeling that she was being watched. She shrugged it off and continued her way up the slope. Some distance behind her, concealed behind a large bush, a human figure moved. Two large white wings unfurled themselves as the figure stepped out from behind the shrub. Who was this mysterious girl? Would she try to kill him too? The figure hoped not. He didn't want to have to kill anyone else.