Being the 'village orphan' sucked. Normally it wouldn't be too much of a problem, except this was Nibelhiem. A place that was so remote that the villagers distrusted anyone who's grandparents hadn't been born, raised and died there at the very least. A place where your role was pretty much determined by whatever job your parents could get, and where the odds of being able to leave were next to zero.

And if you were an orphan of unknown parentage...well, you were lucky when someone took pity on you to the point you were able to survive.

Goddess bless Mama Strife. She was the only person who allowed her to stay in her home free of charge without being all snide about it.

Prue knew exactly how she came to be in Nibelhiem, and why no one wanted her around. It wasn't exactly a village secret.

Her mother came to find her father, a high-ranked Turk agent who had been stationed as a guard for one of the scientists. She left the village less than a day later after a heated argument, but not before leaving her infant daughter behind in her father's care.

That would have been fine, if not for the fact that less than a year later her father was killed in an accident.

Prue didn't like thinking about the early years, before the ShinRa scientists left. Some of them were nice, but there were a few she remembered a little too well. And not in a good way.

Just thinking of that troll Hojo gave her the shivers.

Today Prue was going to explore the mansion outside town. It was off-limits to the children, but the adults never did care what she did with her time so long as she wasn't causing trouble. If she died in the mountains they would likely be thrilled. Well, everyone except Mama Strife and her son Cloud. They cared about her at least, even if she was mostly a big sister figure who did her best to protect Cloud from the other kids.

She had explored the place before, but today was the day she investigated the basement. She was finally tall enough to reach the hidden indent she had noticed and she was confident she could pick any lock she found. She had a lot of practice at this point, besides she had the combination to the safe upstairs just in case.

Prue carefully pushed the button, and was pleased when the hidden door opened.

It was a good thing she had a lot of practice fighting monsters at this point. The mansion was practically litered with them, to her annoyance.

By the time she reached the final door, she frowned. She had a bad feeling about the safe upstairs...there were some weird runes that said something other than the keys would be inside, and she didn't think she would be able to fight against whatever else was in there.

Sighing, she was about to head back up when she felt something take over. It wasn't the first time something like this had happened, but it was still weird. She didn't try to fight it though...it had never once steered her wrong and it was the reason she had lived long enough to be taken in by Mama Strife.

Her eyes began to glow from an internal light, as she faced the lock...and began to sing. It wasn't very loud, far from it... she had gotten really good at singing so low no one else could hear it unless they were right next to her. More than a few bullies had run afoul of her humming. For some reason it acted as a makeshift materia, not that she could ever figure out why.

She felt satisfaction when she heard the lock 'click' and the door swing open with a little help.

What she found almost made her wish she hadn't bothered. It was a crypt!

Prue sighed.

"Great...here I was hoping for something interesting and what do I get? A basement full of dead bodies...maybe one of them will be worth looting," she said disappointed.

The first three coffins were empty... not that she was surprised. She remembered that the scientists here experimented with Mako, which meant the bodies would last after a couple of years. Worse, it often meant they took their items with them.

It was the one in the middle that would give her a heart attack.

There was a body... a shockingly well preserved one considering the mansion had been left empty for as long as she could remember.

It was a man with long black hair, long eyelashes, pale skin and a lot of red and black. There was a gold claw on his left hand and something about him screamed 'dangerous'. He was tall too...even in the coffin he practically took up most of the space and the thing had to be at least six feet long.

It was the strangest thing though...she would swear she knew him. Like she had met him before a very long time ago, but she couldn't remember how or when. She would have remembered someone like him.

Prue didn't know why she did it, when everything in her told her to run like hell the opposite direction. She reached out to the man inside the coffin...only for his eyes to spring open and him to flow out of it that was too smooth to be human.

"Who... are you?" he rasped.

Prue fell back on her ass in shock. She wanted to ask if he was a vampire, but that was ridiculous.

"You... how are you even alive?! No one's been in this mansion besides me for years! And I only ever came in here to raid the place!" she demanded.

His eyes widened slightly.

"How long?"

"The ShinRa scientists left about seven or eight years ago. Assholes didn't even bother to take me with them, even though they took Sephiroth," said Prue in annoyance. "Hojo is such an asshole."

The man growled at Hojo's name.

"Why would you expect them to take you with them?"

Prue scowled.

"Because the villagers never let me live down the fact my mother basically dumped me on my father and left. According to the mayor, he was some high-ranking Turk stationed here to guard one of the scientists, except he died in an accident. They kept me with Sephiroth after that, despite the fact Hojo wasn't happy about it. Then they up and left without warning, and I was left behind with the innkeeper until I was old enough to fend for myself. If Mama Strife hadn't taken me in, I likely wouldn't have lasted another year," said Prue.

He stared at her, eyes wide in absolute shock.

"Zophie?" he said slowly.

"My name is Prudence, but everyone who gives a damn calls me Prue."

He shook his head.

"Your full name is Zophiel Prudence Valentine. Though Lucrecia said that Zophiel was too easy to misspell, so everyone called you Prue," he said.

She stared at him.

"How do you know my last name? No one ever calls me that anymore!" she demanded upset. It had been so long since she was known as anything other than Prue Strife. Or "the Prude" as the boys in the town called her.

He slowly, carefully reached out for her. She was so upset she couldn't really find it in her to pull back. Feeling a warm hand on her head made her want to cry.

"I know your name...because I was the one to give it to you. Lucrecia felt it would be far less cruel if you were given my last name," he said gently. "We joked that at least this way Sephiroth would grow up knowing what it was like to have an older sister, since you were almost a year old when Lucrecia told me she was pregnant."

"What...?" said Prue.

"My little Zophie... I'm so sorry. I never thought they would abandon you like this when I confronted Hojo about what he was doing to Lucrecia and Sephiroth. If I had known what Hojo would do, I would have asked Veld to come and get you just in case."

Prue couldn't take much anymore. Today had been a very trying day, and she just broke down crying. It really didn't help when the man... her father... pulled her into an awkward hug. It felt so warm and familiar that she just cried harder.

Prue was so happy to finally meet her father that she really didn't mind the offer of training. Master Zangan was simply too expensive for the small family to handle, never mind the fact he didn't take students until they were at least ten.

However the look on Vincent's face when Cloud managed to follow his big sister into the mansion and almost got brained by a flying chair had been hilarious.

Either way Vincent ended up with two baby chocobos (as he affectionately called Prue and Cloud) that followed his every word eagerly. They were all too happy to come up every day to train until they were both exhausted.

It really didn't help that Cloud's hair reminded him strongly of a chocobo. The pouting expression on his face was so amusing that Vincent couldn't help but call him that whenever given the opportunity.

Prue... she truly was his daughter. She took to Turk training just as quickly as he had once he hit his stride, though her ability to use materia was superior to his own by several leagues. It was only her lack of access to any that kept her from decimating him in their sparring practice.

The two siblings soaked up his teachings like a sponge, though Cloud seemed to favor swords instead of guns or martial arts. A pity Vincent wasn't much for that particular weapon. He would be doing Cloud a disservice if he did try to train him.

It seemed like no time at all that Prue's fourteenth birthday came around.

She was far too eager to leave, and not because she wanted to find Sephiroth.

"I swear to Minerva if one more of those hormone driven hicks bothers me for a date I am going to put holes in them!" hissed Prue. "Just because I bloomed earlier than the other girls and don't show the same signs of inbreeding suddenly they think I'm worth their time!"

Vincent snorted at that statement. Considering the small size of Nibelhiem, inbreeding was a foregone conclusion. Particularly since the villagers were so insolated they tended to kick out fresh blood. By this point everyone in the village safe for the Strifes was related to each other by a couple degrees at least.

"What do their mothers think?"

"Oh they're all 'properly horrified', but I can clearly tell the adults almost hope I fall for one of them so I can begin training as a 'proper housewife'. Apparently I give the mayor's daughter Tifa ideas about leaving which he is not thrilled with," said Prue dryly. "That man is a total menace and is a major supporter of keeping outsiders as far from his 'precious' daughter as he possibly can."

Vincent chuckled.

At fourteen Prue was very attractive for a girl her age. She had a very distinctive bust that was far above what was available among the other girls in her age, a figure most would happily kill for that was neither too skinny or too round, and features that were 'foreign' to the village. Her hair, which she had originally kept short in a show of solidarity with Cloud now flowed down her back almost to her waist. She rarely bothered to do more than braid it a bit to keep it out of her face during training though she did style her bangs so that if she pulled her hair back just the right way she bore a striking resemblance to his old photo as a Turk.

In fact Prue idolized him so much that she now wore a rough copy of his current outfit, just modified for a more feminine figure. There would be no doubt who her father was if anyone saw them.

"I heard some interesting rumors around the village lately," said Vincent, with open amusement. "Something about how several of your admirers have been caught in a less than appropriate position with far too few clothes on."

Prue looked vindictively smug. Mostly because she didn't hear a single hint of her father's disapproval for using her hard earned skills as a future Turk to make it appear as if her more annoying 'suitors' were actually gay. In such a closed off community like Nibelhiem, it was a taboo to the point that even hinting in that direction would get you cast out in a hurry, or given cold looks until the day you died.

It was essentially social suicide and the odds of them living it down were pretty damn low. Served them right for getting so handsy with her.

The fact remained that Prue was like a wild chocobo ready to bolt out the gate. The small town of Nibelhiem had grown far too closed in for her, and she was finally old enough to make the trip to Midgard.

Vincent had been hunting around the area, saving up what gil he could. There was no point in keeping his daughter in this place...she needed a chance to spread her wings and fly.

Besides, she was very eager to find her missing "little brother". As much as she loved Cloud, there was no denying how protective she was of Sephiroth. The very idea of him being in Hojo's claws made her skin crawl something fierce. She just hoped he still remembered her.

She barely remembered Lucrecia. Thankfully Vincent had been able to help her scrounge up a few half-forgotten memories of the woman.

Even at such a young age, she had an incredible memory. One of the few things that had stuck was the lullaby Lucrecia was always humming while rubbing her pregnant stomach. A lullaby that, through no fault of her own, she never got to sing directly to her son.

Vincent had recognized it immediately when she started humming it after Cloud got a spectacular bruise and a nasty concussion. He was the one to give her the lyrics she had forgotten.

"I have something for you."

He pulled out a sack of gil and gear for any proper traveler. Like potions and an ether or two.

Prue lit up when she saw it.

"You're old enough and as ready as you can be. And Cloud has already agreed to share the letters you send with me. As much as I wish to keep you close, this place would only stifle your true talents to the point they would be completely wasted," said Vincent. He also pulled out a gun...it was so old it was practically an antique. "I am also giving you this. Should something happen, I want you to find Veld and show him this. If he asks you where you got it..."

"I'll tell him I was searching for information on my father and stumbled across an old gun that looked similiar to the only photo I managed to find of him, and wanted to know if it was his," said Prue without a second thought.

The irony being she wasn't actually lying about that story. She HAD found Vincent's gun stashed in Lucrecia's old room in a small space under the bed. She just hadn't known it was Vincent's until he told her. It had been Vincent who managed to track down one of the rare photos of himself from before things went to hell. It was before Prue came to Nibelhiem though.

Cloud was rather quiet. He knew his sister couldn't stay in the village forever, but he never thought the day she would leave would come so soon. Prue made sure to kiss him firmly on the cheek as she got onto the truck.

"I promise I'll write...and once you come to Midgard you'll never be rid of me, little brother."

She did not look back once Nibelhiem was firmly in the back of the window. She would not miss that horrible place.