Author's Notes: Let it be known that I enjoy the movie Minority Report. During a point in that movie the pre-cog Agatha talks to the main character and his wife about their son who went missing years before and tells them what he could have been like. This fanfic is modeled after the way she spoke to them. Which is fun. Enjoy!

Theme: Spade

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Sand Castle

From the beginning all Reeve had was good intentions. He was a caring little boy who saw how small his home town was, who saw how much better it could be. He listened to his parents and decided that one day he would help people. He would make things easier.

So here he is, and he's eight, and he's trying so hard to help people. He helps his mom cook and his father fix things. He does chores for his older neighbors and while he plays with the other kids, he thinks more about helping the adults. His dream is to help make the world a better place, so when the kids play pretend and pretend they are SOLDIERS or superheroes (is there much difference at that age), he pretends he's that everyday sort of hero. The kind that helps people cross the street and feeds the hungry and teaches a person to fish instead of just giving them one, but he's not sure what all of that means.

He's sixteen now, and he's still trying so hard to help others. The houses aren't in the best condition anymore, so he paints and repairs roofs and fixes water lines, all things he's learned from his dad. When asked he even goes as far as to baby-sit his young neighbor, a four year old boy named Zachary. They play together, Zack playing SOLDIER and the older Reeve pretended along with him, but only for the young boy. Something in the way the child smiles at him makes him sure that he is helping people, helping Zack. And somewhere along the lines he hopes he can hear the boy thank him for all the time they spent together.

He's twenty-one now, a young graduate of Junon University's college of Architectural Design and Engineering. He's so far away from the young child he'd helped out years ago, but that doesn't matter because he's still trying to hard to help people. He spends his weekends in the village below the city, helping people repair and improve their houses, and they love him for it. At last he really thinks he's doing something worth while. Maybe people like helping others, because he's just received this offer from Shin-Ra Electrical Company to help them. They want to make a city, for the poor, for those who need help, to make the world better. And he wants to, once he's done with helping the people here.

He's twenty-eight now, and he's working hard as an executive of Shin-Ra. His city was built but it doesn't seem to be helping people. That little fact breaks him. Sure, he works so very hard whenever he had the chance, trying to improve the slums but finding he wasn't allowed. They don't give him enough money to help the people, and they don't seem to care. He tries to help them out of pocket, tries to improve the slums, but his aide doesn't seem to matter to them. Still, there is some good, because that child from so long ago is now in Midgar, and every time they meet his eyes light up and he throws his arm around Reeve's shoulders in a friendly way and the man feels appreciated. For once he's not alone trying to help people, because Zack is trying too. They are helping each other help others.

He's thirty-three now, and Zack is gone, but he still tries to help. That friend who tried so hard with him went missing and a city was destroyed. He had wanted to help the survivors, and watched as another locked them away for testing instead. He's been forced to rebuild the town that stole away his best friend and he knows it isn't helping anyone. He knows the money would be better spent rebuilding his own home town, ruined by the same people who he thought would make the city beautiful and prosperous. He's a broken man with a broken dream. All that hope he'd had as a child is gone, but he doesn't stop trying at all. He can't stop trying and let down the memory of his friend.

He's thirty-eight and he's a world hero thrice over. For what he's not sure. The first time he'd just really wanted to help the people of his city, make their lives better, make their lives safe. In fact, it was the same reason every time, but under slightly different problems. A meteor, a rebirth of terror, and total destruction. But that doesn't change the fact that he couldn't help the one person he had wanted the most to save. Zack's still dead, his name going unspoken by the three of those heroes that knew him. Still Reeve tries to help the world and slowly, surely, it's working. The cities flourish and the world is so very slowly recovering. Still, he wants to do more, he wants to help people even more…

But he can't. He's only eight, on the beach with his parents building sand castles. His shovel and pail stand forgotten as he watches his dream of helping shatter in a strong wind. It seems that you can't make people homes with sand.