Start Date: June 17, 2024
Windwillow
Final Fantasy VII: The Next Horizon
Part One: The Sun and Moon Scheme
Once, long ago, there had been a Keeper of the Balance, a wise and just being who had watched over the worlds and sought to keep both Light and Darkness balanced, Yang and Yin, the two forces that comprised the entire universe. As time passed, however, the mortal Keeper passed away and left his charge to the two immortal beings that he'd taken under his wing: Sol, the sun god, and Luna, the goddess of the moon. Unlike their master, however, Sol and Luna were far from balanced. Sometimes they took their job seriously, but as much of creation was so tilted towards good or evil it wasn't hard to justify summarily wiping out whole solar systems by playing Roshambo or flipping a coin.
They hadn't been asleep for about a century or two before the duo decided to take their charge back up. When they found that so many worlds were blossoming they'd balanced it out by destroying a number of them, though no matter where they looked it seemed like the worlds themselves had begun to flourish while also retaining an element of chaos that made judgment far more difficult to determine. Sol and Luna had to pass judgment seriously now, rather than playing Roshambo to determine the fate of worlds. And they weren't terribly pleased about it either. Frequent arguments broke out between Sol and Luna, each time over how much good was too good. Luna's position was one of moderation, though Sol seemed to be getting more gleeful by the year as he watched the worlds advance into broad, sunlit uplands. The arguments often became violent and several of the worlds they were supposed to be judging ended up in the way of their battles and wound up being destroyed anyway.
Time continued to pass and judgments became more and more arbitrary, sometimes decided with the flip of a coin, and others simply written off for being too positive or overly negative. With the worlds' negativity out of balance Luna consistently wracked her brains on how to restore the multiverse's peace. At a certain point even games began to become tiring, simple discussions stretching out into long philosophical wars. One of the worlds that they were examining was Gaia. While Sol was proud of the progress being made in that world, Luna had grown consistently more and more disgruntled with his flagrant disregard for the simple fact that they had to make some worlds worse. By the time the argument had extended through nearly five years, Luna finally called an end to it and slammed her fist on the world map.
"You're honestly telling me that these people are balanced?!" Luna snarled. Gaia had been at peace for ten years since Shinra's collapse, minus a few assorted incidents and the Andromeda War. Other than that the world was at a point in time where there was no war and no strife, just happiness and hope for a world even better than the one that they'd fought to create for themselves. "Everything's sunshine and rainbows, and here you are trying to sugarcoat it!"
"We destroyed a couple dozen last year, right? What's wrong with leaving the folks a bit more time to develop?" Sol chirped as he put his arms behind his head. The need to destroy didn't strike him quite as potently as it did his companion, primarily because Sol saw so much potential in the people of Gaia and wanted to give them more time to mature. If they got good enough, then Gaia might be worth keeping for good. "I'm sure something bad will happen eventually."
Luna slammed her fists down hard on the table, jarring it and nearly cracking it while startling her partner. "Eventually? Eventually? To hell with eventually!" she hissed. Luna didn't share Sol's optimistic outlook, not by a country mile. She knew that it was their job to judge and find worth in the worlds, and now that Gaia had gone for over a decade without problems it seemed clear that the balance had been upset. "We have a job to do, you little dimwit! It's time to pull the plug and nuke 'em! Every world needs to have balance, and this isn't balanced, you damned idiot!"
"Well, aren't you feeling boorish!" cackled Sol. "I'm sure we can just nudge 'em a bit and things will start going downhill."
"Nudge, huh... Excellent idea. Why bother with total devastation when all we need to do is stir the pot and make them do the work for us?" Luna sneered, leaning back in her seat and throwing her arm over her chair. Sometimes it wasn't necessary to totally destroy a world. Instead, if they could stir up some chaos then the balance would right itself. "If you recall, a decade or so back there was quite the uproar because of that fellow... Zeff... something..."
"Sephiroth," Sol groaned. "His name was Sephiroth."
"Yeah, whatever. Why not bring him back in and wreak some havoc?" Luna asked slyly. "Let's give him a shot at mucking everything up... maybe eighty/twenty?"
"Ugh... another game..." muttered Sol. "It's bad enough we let the pirates skate by, but now we need to deal with these guys? What do you propose?"
Luna slumped back in her seat and materialized a bottle of mineral water, took a chug, and slapped it down on the table. "Say we give him the chance to take over the world, like he's been trying to for the last... how many games?" she groaned. While she hadn't been watching too attentively during the Jenova and Andromeda Wars, Luna had peeked in and checked on Jenova's progress several times throughout the centuries. "If he wants to reverse his fate, all it would take is to reverse that Lifestream thing," she chuckled. "I say we give him a good shot at taking over the world this time... Eighty percent yes, twenty percent no."
"And you mean to do this how, precisely?" Sol droned.
"It isn't complicated. Teach him how to steal the Planet, push him a bit, and then sit back and watch to see what happens. We'll give him an overwhelming advantage and send the little sucker on his way," Luna chortled. It would be great fun watching their proxy kick up dirt across the world of Gaia. And if he succeeded? The balance would be reset and the two gods could move on to other worlds. "They'll still have a shot, yeah, but that isn't the point. If they beat this dude up again we'll give 'em a couple more centuries to figure out some way to cause a war or something."
"And if they fail?" asked an increasingly intrigued Sol.
"Then they go down in flames and Zeff what's-his-face gets to start mucking up the rest of the universe," snickered Luna. "He wins, our job gets a lot easier. That bitch Jenova saved us a lot of time and effort... before she picked the wrong world to muck with..." she groaned, burying her face in her hands. Jenova's interference with Gaia had been her death knell. Because the Creator offshoot was so effective at fomenting chaos, her demise set back the balance of the galaxy by several centuries. "This brat could be Jenova lite for all we know. Not as twisted as the original, but he'd get the job done."
"You realize that the little son of a bitch is even more mucked up than Jenova was?" chuckled Sol. "This guy's just a senseless sadist."
"All the better, right?" Luna chirped. She cackled wildly and began to cycle through plans for what would happen if Sephiroth triumphed. Would he become a second Jenova, traveling the stars to cause chaos and mayhem? If that were the case, then it certainly filled their qualifications. The more havoc the worlds endured, the greater the rewards they would receive if they managed to conquer them. Gaia had won two wars, but it wouldn't be enough to justify giving them special treatment. "If they actually manage to screw with our best horse, they win and they get to survive! Otherwise, the world goes kaboom and we all get on with our lives..."
"And how should we give these folks a twenty percent chance, then?" Sol asked coolly.
"They manage well enough," Luna shrugged. She grabbed her water, took another chug, and when it was finally empty she crunched it to bits. While Luna hadn't watched the Andromeda War personally, she'd kept it on her back burner as a side project and was dismayed at how perfectly the world of Gaia bounced back from Andromeda's attack. "As long as we don't interfere they've always managed to pull it off up till now. Twenty percent chance they don't die. Sound fun?"
"Ha! You're on!" laughed Sol.
Chapter One: A New Peace
Scene One
Ten years after the Jenova War, five years after the Andromeda War, Barret's life had lulled into a sweet, simple quietness. The advent of artificial souls had led to an explosion of flora and fauna all across the world and Kalm was no exception. What was once an isolated dot on the map had expanded considerably, taking up much of the area around where it had used to repose and now stretching to include the chocobo farm. Kalm's borders had expanded considerably, and with the artificial souls inserted into the ground whole ecosystems had begun to sprout. Rivers ran, and as time went by more forests had been planted. By transplanting wildlife from across the Planet the village had transformed into a much more cheerful place in an area that had not-so-long-ago been in close proximity to the most desolate wasteland on Gaia. They weren't the only ones, of course, but they were some of the first prototype projects.
Barret had long ago lost projects for simple gardens to the massive renovation and had slowly drifted off from an environmental advocate to - of all things - a gardener with an extensive collection of herbs, fruits, and vegetables, all of which he harvested using his own mighty strength. His true challenge, however, was raising Marlene. She'd gone from fourth grade to middle school, now being fourteen years old and blossoming with potential. Sadly, however, the potential of a teenager seemed to be almost more than poor Barret could manage.
With Marlene now a budding young woman she started to become somewhat rebellious, not in particularly difficult ways but still a stern change from the innocent child she had been during the previous wars. She'd passed the age of braces and into the era of her first bra, something that Barret had nearly had a heart attack trying to buy for her. Marlene had started listening to different music, watching different television programs, and in every way imaginable she was changing from his sweet innocent daughter into what would one day become a vibrant young woman.
Elmyra had helped raise her, but even she was getting up in age as the years passed. She was nearly fifty years old and her health had begun to wane somewhat. Her energy just wasn't what it used to be and she'd entered menopause. Perhaps more than anything she'd begun to pine for her daughter, the sweet daughter she'd helped raise into adulthood and the same amazing young woman who had saved the entire world out of her own sheer kindness despite being murdered by her nemesis. Although Elmyra had plenty to do helping to raise Marlene, and even if she was a member of both the book club and a church group, her life seemed to have been going downhill for the last near-decade of her life. Losing Aerith had been a crushing blow, one that she'd never quite recovered from. Now that she was nearing the midpoint of her life Elmyra often thought of her daughter, dreamed of the woman she should have been and deserved to be.
Scene Two
Barret's new garden was quite extensive and covered almost a quarter of his home's surface area. He grew all sorts of things there, ranging from herbs to vegetables and fruits, but knew that he didn't have it in him to handle the whole mess alone. Even so, asking Marlene would be a bit much to ask of the girl - she had her own life now, a life that he had little part in, it seemed. He wiped the sweat from his brow as he walked out the door to see Marlene to school, though when he saw who she was with his blood immediately boiled. The boy was the same age as his daughter was, blonde haired wearing a plain pair of slacks and a red-t-shirt, but Barret immediately narrowed in on him as Public Enemy Number One. As he watched the boy and Marlene talk, exchanging laughs and smiles, Barret angrily stormed towards them but was suddenly caught by the back of his shirt and dragged backwards by a particularly irritated Elmyra.
"Fool. You need to let nature take its course sooner or later," Elmyra scolded.
"But I like real nature... not romance..." whimpered Barret.
Staring into his friend's fiery eyes, though, Barret eventually realized that he didn't have a place in interfering with Marlene's love life and sadly hung his head and sighed. He knew that if Dyne were there, he would agree: let the girl live her life, the same way he and his wife had lived theirs prior to Corel's collapse. Dyne would certainly never accept smothering his daughter and her friends. What right would he have to deny her happiness? If anything, it would be worse than maiming whoever tried to woo her.
"Ugh... I'm being too overprotective, aren't I?" Barret groaned.
"In a word? Yes!" insisted Elmyra. "She's fourteen. She can take care of herself."
"You... You're... You're right, dammit..." Barret groaned. "I'm going to go water some stuff... before I splatter that kid on the pavement..."
As Barret sulked away Elmyra looked on as Marlene and the blonde talked and laughed, and she couldn't help but smile. She hadn't seen a girl in middle school for the last twenty years, and she could scarcely remember Aerith's escapades two decades later. Then again, that was the problem... Aerith. She'd been thinking about her daughter for the last several months, tried to remember how it felt to be her mother... but she was getting on in years and the memories had begun to fade. Ten years she'd been gone. It felt more like ten thousand years.
Aerith's absence had worn her down for over a decade, but as she thought more and more it became even harder. Elmyra had contributed her memories of Aerith to the artificial soul program and had planted a cylinder herself in her yard, but that only made the pain worse knowing that her feelings for her daughter were now somewhere deep inside the earth. Did she know that she'd given the Planet her memories? Would she even care, or could she see them at all? If the answer was no to all three questions, it certainly made the whole situation seem much more pointless.
Biting her lip, Elmyra tightened her fists and thought back to the last time she'd dreamed of Aerith, the last time she'd seen her cherubic face. As her emotions overtook her Elmyra's fingernails dug too deep into her palm and blood dripped from between her fingers. Shocked, she hurried to wipe the blood up with a handkerchief but as she withdrew it she saw a certain person in her peripheral vision and immediately pivoted to find... no one. With a shake of her head Elmyra cleaned her hand and headed back inside the house to wait for Marlene to return from school.
The other half of Marlene's conversation was with a young fourteen-year-old named Scott Glade, a classmate of hers that she'd had since third grade. In that time they'd often talked, sometimes played together and every so often he would stay over at her house. It was only recently, however, that their friendship had begun to feel... off. As she talked and laughed with Scott, the conversation advancing into issues of future intentions, Marlene slowly felt a strange sensation in the center of her chest and, as she laid her hands on her heart, she suddenly gasped.
"Are... You okay?" Scott asked worriedly.
"M-Me? I'm fine!" Marlene chirped, turning to leave. "I'll see you at school tomorrow, okay?"
Marlene quickly turned and ran away from her friend, skipping two steps at a time as she headed towards home. It was a foreign sensation, a small ember inside her heart. It was either the beginnings of love or indigestion... a thought which Marlene immediately put out of her mind. There had to be another explanation. She'd known him for six years and nothing like this had ever happened. All she'd done was speak with him, shoot the breeze... There was nothing different. Could it really all begin so quickly...?
Okay, think rationally. It wasn't indigestion... and it can't be love, right? He and I have talked lots of times. So what changed? We were talking about the same stuff as always... but the more he spoke the warmer I felt... God. What the hell is wrong with me...?
As she ran at full speed back home Marlene barely opened the door, more slamming it open than peacefully opening it. She immediately barreled past both Elmyra and Barret, made a beeline for her room, and when she entered Marlene immediately slammed the door shut and jumped on the bed. With a strong red blush on her face Marlene grabbed her pillow, turned on her face, and screamed into it loud enough that the noise echoed even downstairs.
"I never knew that puberty would suck this bad..." Barret droned as he took a cup of coffee and put it to his lips. The door opened and Elmyra hurried inside but when she closed the door Barret moved to wave at her but suddenly stopped when he saw the dried blood on her hand. "Hey! You alright?!" he choked. "That blood-" Elmyra curtly stepped past Barret, touching him softly on the shoulder and pushing him back, leaving him even more confused.
Once she'd recovered Elmyra loaded the dishes from the day's workings into the dishwasher and shut it tightly. She took in a deep breath, exhaled, and as she did so a small marking on her left arm began to glow. The Esper Brand shone brightly and, in a flash of light, the dishwasher started itself up and began to run. As the tingling faded she quietly fondled the small tattoo, an ornate design that was designed to run household appliances and sighed.
Esper Brands feel so different... It's almost like I'm using magic like Aerith did... But, Aerith was never an Esper like Hana is. What would it have been like to raise her is she was...? Ha ha... On second thought, I'll pass on that. Hana's so difficult that if she and Hana mixed into a single child I wouldn't be able to raise her. But... I would still give my right arm to have Aerith back...
After going to bed Elmyra settled in and drifted off to sleep, but the whole night she couldn't help but toss and turn. She'd thought so much about Marlene, of her struggles growing up, and inevitably those thoughts had drifted into memories of Aerith. As her writhing reached a fever pitch she opened her eyes and watched as a spectral Aerith materialized on the side of her bed, smiling at her. Elmyra immediately jolted and reached for her daughter, but quickly realized that it had been a dream and returned back to sleep with a tear in her eye.
She had no idea that Aerith really was watching her, from a corner of the room where Elmyra wasn't able to see her. Her daughter had her own concerns about the workings of the world and she'd wanted to see her mother again, even if just for a moment's time. The memories she had of her time with Elmyra made her happy again, reliving them through the lens of the artificial souls that she'd put into the Planet. And yet it felt so hollow, like she was watching a movie that she couldn't quite get into. In the end, it was almost more painful than pleasant...
Scene Three
He'd been there for nearly a decade. Save for a brief respite Sephiroth had remained sealed and chained inside the deepest depths of the Lifestream. It was a dank, hopeless abyss that he resided in, with years having gone by without water or light. All he had to look at was the dim light of a single candle. Ten long years had never broken his spirit, but it had weakened it considerably. The hopelessness of captivity, the darkness he'd wrought on himself, made him hate them all even more than he'd ever had when he was alive. While staring at the dim candlelight an almost entranced Sephiroth quietly contemplated his fate, cursed them all, and despite all his pride for a moment - a single moment - he felt a tiny twinge of regret. Then the hatred returned in full and he shut his eyes in shame, just long enough to hear the candle explode into a large bonfire. Sephiroth opened his eyes and found that he had two visitors, two visitors he'd never seen before and didn't particularly want.
"Let me out!" Sephiroth roared.
"So the mighty Sephiroth has resorted to begging, eh?" chuckled Sol. "I expected better."
"It was a moment of weakness and nothing more, a moment that you'll never see again," Sephiroth spat spitefully. "Leave me be." Again he shut his eyes tight, but upon seeing through his dim vision that the bonfire remained lit he again opened his eyes and glared at the two deities with an unspeakable amount of hate. "I said to go!" he hissed. "I don't want any of your pathetic pity!"
With one snap of her fingers Luna's power reverberated throughout the room, a thin shock wave of energy that immediately shattered Sephiroth's chains and dropped him to his knees breathing heavily. To be free again was an unbelievable feeling, an instant high that nearly caused his adrenaline to go into overdrive. When Sephiroth stared back up at his savior, he bit his tongue and watched as the iron seal to his prison was wrenched from its place and tossed aside.
"Would you like one last bite at the apple?" Luna asked cheerfully.
"Why should I trust you two?" scowled Sephiroth, weakly stumbling to his feet. He massaged his aching wrists, the same limbs that for ten years had been bound tight in shackles. The iron had been enchanted to be stronger than Mythril and tighter than a garrote, meant to squeeze the life out of his wrists and ankles as punishment for his sins. Minerva had taken great care to ensure that Sephiroth would never escape and made the punishment as painful as possible for maximum effect. "What's your angle?"
"If the Lifestream ever turned in reverse, it would be so simple to hijack it," Sol said with a wicked smirk. This immediately caught Sephiroth's attention and he feebly grabbed onto the door of the prison and dragged himself from his cage. "We know just how to do it, and you're free to try it if you agree to cause as much damage to the world as you can," he sneered. When Sephiroth's eyes lit up Sol snapped his fingers and immediately the spawn of Jenova changed from his ragged prison attire into his true clothing and the Masamune formed between his fingers.
"Go on..." Sephiroth murmured. "I'm listening."
"The Lifestream is a positive source. All you need to do to reverse it is to poison it with so much hatred and suffering that it can't continue on its normal course. Fill its veins with so much torture and the whole thing turns on its head and becomes yours," Luna chuckled. "Torture the living, kill 'em, and when they get down below you can easily seize control for yourself. The folks up top developed something called 'artificial souls' that we find quite deplorable. Corrupt them and you can create a small army of the undead."
"Artificial souls operate under a simple principle. Because the Lifesteam, a conglomeration of memories and emotions, is drained, all they need to do is inject those into the Planet and they can restore it. They've restored much of your world already, but since it's so blatantly heretical," Sol sneered, "we've decided to let you step in. In the nightmares of the living rest so many wicked beasts, memories and fears that can create the ultimate terror. As a matter of fact, there are several particular souls that you might like to hijack... The loved ones of the living who sent you here..."
"Good in theory," Sephiroth mumbled, "but that bitch Minerva would never let it happen."
With a devilish smile Luna snapped her fingers, causing the incarnation of the Lifestream to manifest before them all. Another snap of her fingers shackled her in chains, wrists and ankles, and hurled her inside Sephiroth's former prison, where she was bound and rendered unable to escape. Though the will of the Lifestream struggled and fought with all the might in her divine body, Sephiroth's brutal punishment now chained her to the wall with just as much intensity as she'd dealt to Sephiroth.
"Does that mean that we have a deal," Luna laughed, "or do you intend on rejecting our offer?"
"I'll... be glad to be of service," Sephiroth sneered.
As Luna led Sephiroth out of his prison, Sol pulled up a chair and sat parallel to the bound Minerva. He quietly turned to her, and with a soft smirk he closely examined the bound deity. Minerva bit her lip in fury as she stared back at the sun god's blithe demeanor, the overconfidence of his powers having given him more hubris than the people he claimed to judge. Were the tables turned, Sol wouldn't be nearly as smug.
"It's your fault that you're in this position. You allowed that heresy and now you have to pay for it," Sol chuckled, leaning back in his seat and summoning a bottle of mineral water to his hand. As he took a chug of it, the sun god kept his eye carefully locked onto Minerva's own, certain to stoke her fury and make her punishment all the more poignant. "Because you've interrupted the delicate balance of darkness and light, we've come to even the scales."
"You're nothing but ghouls," scowled Minerva.
"Ghouls, eh?" Sol asked mockingly. He laid a hand to his face and broke out in raucous laughter and waved his hand, causing a view screen to appear on the wall of the prison. Minerva grunted out a curse and again began to struggle against her bonds, only for Sol to snap his fingers and cause the bindings to tighten. "You're not wrong," he sneered. "But this is above your pay grade now. We'll let you watch and enjoy the show so you won't be bored."
"You two can go-" Minerva choked.
"You don't need to say it," snickered Sol. "I'd rather you not use such foul language with me."
Scene Four
It had been a long night, contemplating her emotions. By the time Marlene woke up she had nearly run out of time to get to school, so she frantically threw her clothes on, ran out the door, and dashed off to school, barely even acknowledging her father and Elmyra. She dashed two steps at a time in a desperate attempt to make it to class on time and, when she arrived, Scott was already waiting for her. An awkward smile crossed her face as she nearly swooned, but quickly dismissed the emotions as a lack of breakfast.
"Thank you for waiting for me!" chirped Marlene as she haggardly stumbled towards her classmate.
"I'll wait as long as it takes," Scott shrugged, to Marlene's delight.
They quickly hurried off to homeroom together, where they made it just in time. The teacher briskly took attendance and detailed to the students where they would be going for each period. Marlene found, to her amazement and joy, that she was scheduled to be with Scott in History Class. She let out a weak cheer under her breath, and when the teacher stared her down she sheepishly shrugged her shoulders and playfully stuck out her tongue, which only irked him more. History Class was generally one of the dryer courses, a bunch of dates and times with incomprehensible names thrown out that no one could pronounce. Today, however, Marlene got a special leg up in that they were studying Meteorfall. Given that she was so intimately involved in the event she thought that the day would be a walk in the park, but a certain event only soured the day beyond repair and ruined her time with Scott.
"Meteorfall took place ten years ago, and was the moment when Gaia was in its most dire straits. The corrupt Shinra corporation had run the world for decades, and one of their worst experiments started the descent of a massive gravity-elemental spell known as Meteor," the teacher explained. "There were, however, a group of brave men and women who saved the world, eight in all."
"Nine..." Marlene mumbled, so slightly that she thought she wouldn't be heard.
"We actually have a survivor present during Meteorfall, one Marlene Wallace," the teacher beamed, gesturing towards a still gloomy Marlene. The teenager took notice quickly and perked up her head at the teacher's words, though she knew that being acknowledged by itself was far from a reward. She'd endured a decade of self-loathing and didn't necessarily want to revisit her pain. "Would you like to tell us the story of what happened during that day, Miss Wallace?"
Marlene startled at the suggestion but eventually rose from her chair and cleared her throat, prepared to give an impassioned diatribe on how her father had saved the world... but she intended to say that there were nine of them. Aerith was the one who was most important. Without her none of them would be breathing and the Planet would be cracked open like a walnut, giving Sephiroth access to its full life force and damning the remainder of the galaxy for all time.
"I-I was in Kalm during Meteorfall, and I saw the Meteor descending from my stepmother's window. It was really scary, but we pulled it off!" she chirped, though she quickly averted her eyes. The more she thought the less enthusiastic she was about Aerith's sacrifice. One of the reasons that the flower girl and given her life was for Marlene, a fact that burdened the girl with a nearly unbearable weight. "But I have something I want to say: There were nine people who saved the world."
"Liar!" spat a heckler in the back of the room. "The book says there were eight, so there were eight!"
Swallowing her indignation, Marlene attempted to ignore the heckler. Still, she couldn't and when her anger finally got the better of her she stormed to the back of the room, stood above the heckler, reared back and slapped him hard in the face. "If you want to forget Aerith, you're mucking with me, you asshole!" Marlene roared. She suddenly felt a hard hand clap on her shoulder and spun around to see the teacher glaring down at her, and Marlene immediately realized that she'd made a mistake.
"You're dismissed, Miss Wallace," the teacher said curtly.
"D-Dismissed?" Marlene squeaked. "What does that even mean?"
"You're dismissed for the rest of the day," scolded the teacher, to Marlene's horror. "Grab your books and go home."
Though she cast a desperate look to Scott, Marlene quickly realized that the fight was lost, she grabbed her books, and stormed away from the classroom nearly in tears. The heckler, who rubbed the vicious wound that the girl had inflicted, whimpered weakly and slumped in his seat. He'd always been a real son of a bitch, all through the years that Marlene had known him. It was just because he insulted Aerith that Marlene had lost her composure.
"There were eight of them, right? They're called AVALANCHE," the heckler sighed. "There weren't nine."
"The ninth was a flower girl named Aerith Gainsborough," the teacher snapped, "and without her we'd all be dead."
"But... Why aren't we talking about her?" asked Scott.
"She isn't in the curriculum," shrugged the teacher. "As long as it isn't in the book, it doesn't matter. The school didn't see it fit to discuss a dead woman in a children's class. She isn't terribly important."
Although this satisfied most of the class, it didn't do anything to tamper down on Scott's anger, and as his eye twitched and he nearly snapped his pencil in half the young man only barely managed to hold his tongue. His affection for Marlene, by then not yet romantic, filled the boy with fury at the teacher's blitheness towards Marlene's feelings. He knew that, if he had the power, he would punish them both quite potently. Dashing home alternating between tears and fury, Marlene again slammed the door open and charged up to her room. Again she slammed the door behind her, and again she locked the door, leaped onto the bed, and screamed into her pillow. When she'd finally gathered herself the young girl lifted herself from her seat and eyed a photograph on her bedside table, a picture she'd taken of herself and AVALANCHE shortly after Meteorfall. All of them, herself included, were already wearing their pink ribbons.
"I guess I shouldn't judge when they don't know all the facts..." Marlene grumbled. It didn't take long, however, for the rage to come surging back, with a heated blood lust to kick some ass and take some names. She'd never liked the little prick anyway. He'd always been a thorn in her side, all the way since elementary school, but now that he'd grown some hair on his chest the boy thought that he was invincible now. "But I'm going to give that heckler the worst day of his miserable life when I see him next time!"
Outside of Marlene's room both Barret and Elmyra had gathered around the door and listened intently as she sputtered insults and death curses, though she eventually tapered off and they heard no more noise from Marlene's room. They exchanged a brief glance, shared their concerns with the looks in their eyes, and contemplated what to do next. Seeing their daughter in pain is more than any parent can take.
"Can I-" Barret croaked.
"You may not," Elmyra said curtly. "Leave her be."
With a weak whimper Barret slunk off to water his garden, leaving Elmyra to stare longingly at Marlene's door. She knew that the girl was suffering, even if she didn't know from what. Elmyra remembered Aerith react exactly the same way whenever a friend upset her, and also recalled that she'd had to drag her daughter in to apologize to their parents while the child nursed a shiner on their head. She quietly left to her own room and plopped down on the bed, and when she eyed a picture of Aerith tears began to well up in her eyes.
Scene Five
No place on the Planet felt more aftershocks from the Andromeda War than Junon. The vicious attack by Zeromus had literally ripped it to shreds and thrown it into the sea, so rebuilding was the most titanic task of the after-war years. Despite the problems, however, Junon rebounded by the next year to some degree. Actually completing the renovation, however, took another full year. For decades Junon had essentially been a military base that happened to have a town attached to it. Now, with the war over and prosperity restored, it seemed prudent to upgrade the city once and for all. First they had to pick up the pieces of Zeromus' assault, of course... It was an amazingly difficult task retrieving the materials that had been thrown to the bottom of the sea, and much of it was lost forever.
In its new iteration, Junon had become a bustling center of trade for the entire eastern continent. With airship travel becoming commonplace the usage of the ports eventually tapered off, but they remained active to supplement the air courier services and continued to operate by transferring people and products from the eastern continent to the western continent. Junon, for the first time in its history, slowly became more and more residential. The renovation redesigned the WRO's base considerably and streamlined it, meaning that there was more space for civilians. By the end of the first year after the war Junon had expanded and now included more highly developed skyscrapers resembling those of Edge. Not only that, but with an influx of workers to restore the city more and more residential areas began to pop up that eventually led into the development of suburbs.
Reeve had been grievously wounded during Zeromus' vicious attack and had been bedridden for nearly the entire first year of renovation. During this time Rufus and the Turks stepped in to help organize the rebuilding, though Rufus frustrated Reeve by demanding a fee for every month that the Turks would work for the WRO. Although he was spiteful of Rufus' actions Reeve couldn't argue with results and was forced to dig into the organization's coffers to pay the exorbitant cost that Rufus charged. By the end of the renovation Junon had changed considerably. Its buildings began to resemble the more technologically advanced structures of Edge and the building of suburbs had brought more and more civilians into the city to restore it to its former glory. The advent of commercial airship travel also meant that Junon had even more ways to export and import materials, and given that they had very little to export the city had begun to become the transportation hub of Gaia instead.
Scene Six
Reeve's office was, as always, full of documents ready to be looked over and stamped; ten years after Meteorfall had never changed that. He sat slumped in his seat examining one such piece of paper and sighed. During the attack by Zeromus he'd taken a brutal blow and now had a deep scar on the right side of his face as well as bad burns on a large portion of his body. Now that he'd officially been elected as Junon's governor in addition to his position as head of the WRO, even Reeve had begun to tire. Still, Rufus and the Turks really stepped up to fill his shoes during the reconstruction and he now had them on the payroll as independent contractors.
He was the least of his problems, however. For centuries mankind had believed that it was the sole source of life in the universe. Conventional science and nearly every religion held that humanity alone was aware and sentient across all the stars in the sky. It was when they received a strange radio transmission, however, that everything began to fall apart. It occurred only six months earlier, when the WRO radio network picked up a strange signal from a distant star.
"Do not fear. We come in peace. We shall arrive one day soon so that our civilizations can mingle once more. As our blue star shines, so too does yours. The day is coming where the people of Gaia and our race shall intermingle and become a single, cohesive unit. We come in peace, and we shall return soon. Please be prepared for our arrival and welcome us. It is our greatest wish that we give you the blessing of interstellar travel. You shall become a part of a whole, rather than isolated dot in the stars. We await our first meeting and bid you well."
Almost immediately the world had split into two camps, those who welcomed the extraterrestrials and those who opposed them, believing that they came to conquer Gaia and enslave mankind. Some held that they ought to prepare for peaceful negotiations, while others desired to prepare a way to fight back against them. It was with the second major problem that this became a very real possibility. At around the same time as the extraterrestrials' message, the atom was split for the first time and nuclear science had become a possibility. While it offered a great chance to discontinue the use of fossil fuels, which the WRO and other nations used as their core power source, it also created the threat of a massive nuclear meltdown that would render the Planet simply uninhabitable. One camp wanted to explore the possibilities of the nuclear energy usage, but the other believed that it was simply too dangerous.
The issues mingled with the idea that the extraterrestrials posed a vital threat to the Planet. There were some circles that called for the weaponization of nuclear energy as a means to fight back against what they believed to be invaders dedicated to conquering Gaia. They had learned nothing from the onslaught of WEAPON ten years earlier, forgotten the power of the Planet's wrath. Would the Planet not strike back? Somehow, in some way, the blessing that they'd received in the aftermath of Meteorfall could be taken back... a horrifying concept, indeed. Thus the world had been completely divided on not just one but two crises, whether nuclear power should be used as a weapon or even used at all. With the entire Planet split into several factions, Reeve and the WRO faced the worst threat they had faced in a decade, or perhaps ever. There was a real threat of secession and anarchy. If the world was so divided on two issues at once, what would the outcome be when they did arrive? It was an issue that had wracked Reeve's brains and gnawed at his sanity for six agonizing months. There didn't seem to be a solution that would satisfy all the bickering factions.
Scene Seven
"There are so many proposals that it's making my head spin. I can't support this new science and I certainly oppose its weaponization, but I can't just dismiss the idea altogether..." groaned Reeve, his face in his hands as he agonized over his choices. "I may be head of the WRO, but as governor of Junon I have to answer to the legislature, which draws from popular opinion... Even if we oppose it, others don't, and if entire nations secede from the WRO anarchy will ensue and when they arrive they'll find us in such a panic that they might actually put us out of our misery."
"It's quite the quandary," remarked Albert, the congressman with who Reeve was meeting with.
"The situation is nearly at critical levels. Half the world champions nuclear energy, the other is equally adamant at keeping coal and oil. Corel is firmly in the latter camp, but other governments like Edge and Junon are adamantly in the former," bemoaned Reeve. "I'm getting battered from every angle and I'm nearly at my breaking point... And with that son of a bitch Rufus supporting it, that's an even bigger threat!"
"The overwhelming majority of our citizens want to research nuclear power, with a good portion in the camp of weaponization," Albert sighed. "You can't put it off forever. Either approve it or don't. There isn't an in between any longer."
"Nuclear energy is bad news, and super weapons are even worse! If we fumble with this garbage even a sliver then everything collapses and the world is ruined!" shouted Reeve. "As head of the WRO, I can't allow this to go forward under any circumstances!"
"Several countries are already prepared to offer a vote of no confidence. While most nations oppose it, several support it, such that the idea of secession has been proposed!" Albert grieved, to Reeve's horror. He quietly reclined in his seat and took a deep sip of his coffee with a grimace on his face, himself being in the camp of welcoming their new visitors and realizing that they had no chance of survival if they tried to fight them. "The issue can't be dismissed out of hand. You need to call a session to determine our official stance."
"Weaponization is stupid. If they can cross the stars to come here, they can obliterate us in an instant! They either come in peace or we're all dead meat, it doesn't matter if we try and kill them first!" Reeve snarled, slamming his fist on the desk and nearly shattering it. His coffee cup itself went flying and stained his suit, something that further irritated Reeve. "We need to prepare for first contact and unite the world into a single unit, just like we did with the World Regenesis Organization!"
"I may agree, but panic has already begun to spread across Gaia. Several cities want to form their own governments," moaned Albert. "If a consensus isn't reached then the only logical outcome is anarchy. Despite our positions, it needs to be put up for a popular vote."
"The issue is closed!" Reeve shouted as he pounded both fists on his desk.
"Then we have a schism," Albert shrugged. "All you're doing is worsening the issue. Think about it for a bit and get back to me."
As Albert left the room Reeve slumped in his chair and threw back his head in frustration, soon loosing an appropriately loud curse. It wasn't like that was his only problems. "Humanity's gone mad again..." he groaned. "And she isn't something I can ignore, either. If that girl goes out of control she might kill us all before the aliens do." When his phone rang Reeve furiously snatched it from the receiver and shouted, "I already know who this is, and I won't bicker about this with an independent contractor! You have zero right to argue this!"
"I'm not working independently any longer... I've decided to throw in my support with the pro-nuclear faction," Rufus said coolly. "Unless we develop this technology space travel is impossible, and you already have one of your friends breathing fire up your ass about it."
"I know, I know! But the other issues are even worse! I need you to-" Reeve began.
"-I'm not spending my resources to babysit that brat," snarled Rufus. "Figure it out yourself."
Rufus slammed down his phone, leaving a very stressed Reeve to let out another foul curse. "One race is just as dangerous as the other... That damned Esper is too dangerous to leave to her own devices..." he groaned. He grabbed a tissue and began to wipe away the coffee stains from his suit, but of course was largely unsuccessful. "We shouldn't have to make those two deal with her as well. God, what a mess. Hana was bad enough..."
Scene Eight
While the corporation that develops Esper Brands has remained officially neutral on the issue of nuclear energy, a schism had developed between Cid and Carbuncle on the issue. Cid supported nuclear energy, Carbuncle opposed it, with Shera attempting to mediate both sides to a truce. Cid's concern was reaching the Moon successfully, while Carbuncle insisted that nuclear power was too dangerous to deal with. Not only that, but Cid and Shera were also in disagreement on the issue of extraterrestrials. Shera supported working with them, while Cid saw them as too much of a threat, and Carbuncle was neutral in that matter. Inside the Shera, Cid sat in the conference room smoking and reading the latest newspaper, and the news wasn't what he wanted to hear.
"Damned Reeve..." he cursed. "He's still blocking the initiative. What a blockhead."
"Don't yell at your friend, dear," sighed Shera, who sat next to him drinking tea.
"Even if he is my friend, I got the right to be angry!" Cid shot back. "And his other position is pissing me off too!"
"They aren't dangerous, Cid!" insisted Shera.
"Well, if they can cross the damn stars they can blow us up too!" spat Cid.
"If they are dangerous, wouldn't we need a way to fight back?" protested Shera. "If both sides become hostile it will be war, and we won't win it."
"It isn't whether they're dangerous or not!" Cid roared. He grabbed his cigarette and crushed it to ashes in his hand. "Super weapons are a bad idea! If mankind tries to recreate WEAPON, we'll all kill ourselves before the aliens do! Taking them on is outright ridiculous!"
"So we should all be equal," Shera said testily.
"If they can get here, they can kill us!" Cid shrieked. In his mind, the extraterrestrials were a threat to all of the Planet, but he knew that trying to take them on with their own super weapon would be hubris on a scale that even Shinra would have dared to tangle with. "We aren't equal and we need to find a way to defend ourselves, not kill everyone on the damned Planet! Keep from being killed, don't kill!"
"That makes no sense!" snarled Shera.
Carbuncle quietly entered the conference room while Cid and Shera bickered, and took up a seat between them with a cup of coffee. "Remember, Shera: You're supposed to be the reasonable one," she said curtly.
"Your reasoning is yours, I got mine!" yelled Cid.
"One slight miscalculation and the Planet becomes uninhabitable," growled Carbuncle. "It's just as dangerous as when we used Mako."
"That threatened the Planet's survival! Nuclear energy is clean and efficient! Not just for space travel, but for commercial shipping too!" argued Cid. "That efficiency outweighs your 'miscalculation' theory and it wouldn't be as bad as Mako!"
"Both points have merit, but they need to be balanced," insisted Shera.
"You won't agree with me! Why should I agree with her?!" snarled Cid.
"The danger isn't their weapons, it's the destabilization they would cause!" Shera shot back. "Unless steps are taken to prepare Gaia for first contact, the danger of being obliterated pales in comparison to the chaos of being shown how inferior we are."
"If neither of you compromise, why should I?!" snapped Carbuncle.
"I got decades of logic on my side!" snarled Cid. "All you have is paranoia!"
"It's not paranoia, you twit, it's common sense!" Carbuncle shot back.
The two rise from their seats and grabbed onto each other's vests, tugging at them as they continued to argue. As Cid and Carbuncle continued to bicker, Shera slumped back in her chair and put a hand to her face. "Unless there's a bigger issue to deal with, then not coming to a conclusion is just as dangerous as making the wrong conclusion," Shera groaned. "Does Reeve even have a chance of bridging the gap...?
Author's Notes
The general idea here is to publish this in January, but as I write this might come later. This project is far less ambitious than my previous FFVII piece, and won't take more than eight or so chapters. I liked Sol and Luna so much in my One Piece story that I felt compelled to add them to the FFVII universe as well. Hopefully that isn't a mistake. As in my previous fic, they'll be just as petulant and childish as they were there.
Before I came up with nuclear energy and extraterrestrials my first thought was for the problem to be the disuse of fossil fuels and the usage of humans as batteries with Esper Brands. Then I thought a bit and realized how colossally stupid that was, so I changed it. Like with all my previous works this is all improvised chapter by chapter, so your guess is as good as mine as to where we're headed.
Also, Sephiroth! I finally decided to bring the sucker into the fold. That probably won't be the only fan service here, so I'll leave that up to your imaginations. You probably ought to figure it out anyway. Please read, enjoy, and review! Hopefully good, but if it's negative it means that I just suck. Go wild.