A/N – Woohoo! Thanks to libsrevenge for the review; I'll try to add a bit more background to the story, but bear with me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 7...if I did, then all of my characters would have their own part in the compilation. :)

Chapter 4

Gaia: what was once the largest (and first) planet to sustain human life in all of mankind's history was now a giant ball of glass floating in the pitch black of outer space; the funny thing is that it was the human race that destroyed it. It's an extremely long and tiresome story, so here's the shortened and simpler version of it: About 1,500 years ago (1,490 years to be exact), a rebel group sprang up on the home world of humans and waged war against anyone who didn't join with them. That period in time was known as The Tragedy, and lasted for ten long years. And out of desperation, the planet's current government at the time ordered something that could be seen as completely insane: a planetary bombardment.

Sadly enough, this plan was carried out by the letter. Twelve Behemoth-class battlecruisers left the already doomed planet's orbit – holding only important figures in the government, mind you – and launched 3,000 high-powered nuclear warheads at the planet's surface; for those of you who think that sounds like enough to destroy the crust, then here's a fact: it was found that only 500 warheads fired at strategic positions would cause enough overall damage to the planet to destroy it. What they did was completely unnecessary and genocidal in nature.

12.2 billion innocent people were killed by the assault, leaving nothing in the ways of civilization, vegetation, or wildlife of any kind standing… just to take out a small group of two hundred genetically enhanced people.

Now looking at the globe of post-nuked glass, Rollin felt sorry for them…and strangely enough, wondered if the government they had worked for wouldn't have hesitated to do the same thing.

He would never know.

As the transport sped ever closer to the planet's surface, everyone checked and double-checked their gear for the trek. They would have to use oxygen tanks and gas masks this time, since combat armor was out of the issue for this mission – half inch humanoid shells used by normal army grunts in battles, armed with recyclable life support and battery packs on the back; the batteries themselves could last up to a week if kept running non-stop, and the reserves usually lasted another two and a half days approximately. Unfortunately for them, there were none on board the ship; it wasn't a problem for them, however.

The spacecraft began to shake due to the turbulence of entering the atmosphere, leaving them with enough time to make sure they left nothing important to the mission behind. Rollin pulled out a locket and opened it up, revealing two pictures: the first was a group photo of his immediate family as of when he was six, and the other a picture of his parents when they were at their prime; it brought him back to the day that he finally realized that his dad would never let him help when he had to finish a job in the workshop, or be able to hear his mom's almost unnaturally beautiful voice, or be able to see the both of them ever again. Snapping himself out of the trance like phase, he latched the locket so it would dangle around his neck loosely; this wasn't the time for him to zone out.

"Heads up, people: forty-five seconds until we're planet-side." Michael noted to the rest of his squad over the intercom, "When we land, we'll be about a kilometer away from the objective. No reason to rush this…got that?" everyone nodded in agreement, and the intercom switched off.

As most soldiers say, battles (or war in general) are filled with long periods of maddening silence and unrest, and short bouts of insanity caused by fighting that can either make or break a person. When a long engagement with the enemy occurs, then a person's resolve is truly put to the test; that single factor can mean the difference between survival and complete annihilation. For them, they were almost always stuck with the long engagements and survived, either miraculously or without even breaking a sweat – never in between those two.

Of course, that just made them stronger…much stronger than any other army grunt, oddly enough.

The platform lowered, letting in what little light could get through the clouds of thick debris that had yet to settle. The squad hurried out of the ship and into the vast wasteland that was once the pinnacle and home of the human race. The radiation had faded and half-lived to a safe level long ago, but they still wanted to be inside the facility in question as quickly as possible – without overexerting themselves in the process. About a kilometer of trekking later, they found a lone cave in a rough chain of mountains.

"I guess this is the place." Lloyd muttered to himself rather loudly, and started towards the dark cavern in front of them. They followed him inside, and as Michael said, there was the door to their objective.

"Now, all we have to do is—" Michael started, but was cut off by the airlock opening on its own, "…never mind." They entered the airlock, and found a foreign sight for anyone who had never seen the world before its destruction.

"Holy shit." Drammer exclaimed slowly, shocked at the sight before him: stasis tubes extending to the other side of the room from wall to wall, leaving a small pathway in the middle of the room for the former residents of this place. Inside the tubes were people – not animals, not alien beings, but human beings no older than they were, floating in a glowing green liquid. Rollin tilted his head inquisitively.

"What are these?" he asked, and Michael shook his head.

"These are SOLDIERs." He answered, and Rollin looked at him, confused, "Mako-enhanced humans; they used to use this technique on their elite fighters, but," he moved closer to one of the tubes and ran his hand down the glass as if trying to contact it, "I thought they had stopped the practice thousands of years ago." The younger man was still somewhat confused at the concept, "Come take a look."

Rollin walked over to one of the other holding tanks that was occupied, and looked for himself: the woman's face was blank and expressionless, had hair down to her elbows, and even though her body wasn't covered in the least bit, he wasn't affected by the sight; he had been around the infirmary long enough to be used to the sight. He leaned in to get a closer look at her face, and the woman's eyes shot wide open. They weren't filled with fear as he expected them to be, but with longing for a much simpler life…not to mention an unnatural glow. Her eyes locked gazes with his.

'We're alike…you and I.' he heard resounding in his mind, though her lips weren't moving at all. Was this what Michael was talking about when he spoke of the Cetra?

"Are you…a Cetra?" he asked, not realizing that he said it out loud; he would probably be seen as crazy by everyone else because of it. He saw the lady's eyes flicker a little bit brighter, before giving away to physical unconsciousness again. He slammed his fist against the glass in anger.

"Hey Rollin: don't go crazy on us now." Jack joked, as he was given a glare by the sergeant. As they walked further inside, they found file cabinets in the next room. Angela opened them up, pulling out a file with her name on the tab.

"Strange…why would they have files on us here?" she pondered, pulling out more files and handing them off to their respective owners. Everyone had a file by the time she was through – papers on their enrollment, training, military experience, and the like. However, in Rollin and Michael's folders were papers on classified information: by the looks of it, notes and results on some sort of experiment; no one else had these papers, mind you – just the two.

"Any idea what these are?" Michael asked Rollin, who was already starting to make connections with the information in these pages. Only a few names stood out: the names of important scientists in history mostly comprised it anyway.

"Hmm…" he pondered, still scanning more thoroughly. More names were popping out of the text at him, not to mention the paragraphs on experimental genetic enhancement; that was probably what they were put through. Finally, three names seemed to jump out at him: Jenova, Sephiroth, and Cetra.

Stranger still, the third was used to describe him in an abstract way.

'Was this what she meant?' he wondered to himself, not expecting an answer.

"…Not sure." He stated, and continued on to the next room. This room was the largest out of what they had seen, and had only the door that they had used to get in. At the opposite side of the room was a giant half-circle of metal paneling, with a control panel in front of it – a teleporter? Almost trance like, he walked over to the control panel and started flipping switches.

"Wait!" Michael tried to warn him, but was too late; the machine roared to life, shaking the entire room with enough force to start an earthquake outside. The area inside the half-ring opened up into a gargantuan rift, and sucked Rollin into its depths. The chamber began to collapse, and the squad had no choice but to escape.

A/N – If you are wondering "is the Final Fantasy 7 bit starting anytime soon?" then the answer is yes: this is where it all begins to follow the game's timeline. Reviews are much like cookies to me: they're good...simply put. :)

Until the next chapter,

Lloyd Redgrave