Questions of Fate

Prologue

Stillness. Stillness and soft blue light. That was all she had known for thirty-three years. All she had known since she sealed herself away here to escape her shame. A stillness, an emptiness, that stretched on forever. Her heartbeat had slowed until it matched the Planet's and the darkness of sleep had descended upon her. But something had changed.

Her stillness had been invaded by a tiny, yet insistent breeze that coiled about her ankles and tugged at her hair as if prodding her to wake. To nerves that had not felt anything for so long it was like a static charge. Out of a sudden, burning curiosity, she opened her eyes. What met her gaze was not what she had expected.

Gone were the azure walls of the crystal that had been both her home and her prison. Gone was the darkness of the cave beyond, replaced with a much deeper darkness-- one that lay heavy all around her and clung to her body as she moved.

For the first time in the decades since her slumber had begun, she flexed her sleep-heavy muscles and moved. It felt strange. She'd almost forgot how it felt to move.

She searched the darkness around her, eyes attempting to pierce the blackness, looking for an indication of where she was. She could feel a power, a presence, all around her. Not Chaos, not Omega, but something else. Something infinitely more powerful.

As she considered her situation she felt the breeze strengthen, growing until it seemed to push her forward. Something that felt like viscous water swirled around her ankles and light seeped steadily into the darkness. Bright, greenish-blue light that whirled and danced around her in strands.

She still could not see. The light illuminated her, but not her surroundings, which remained an abyss of inky blackness. Her blue-green eyes swept the seemingly endless space. How had she got here? Where was 'here'?

"You are on the brink of entering the Lifestream," a resonant, melodious, female voice declared, echoing around the void. "I have brought you here to speak to you... Lucrecia Crescent."

Lucrecia spun on her heel, turning to face the sudden blast of white-gold light that erupted behind her. Shielding her eyes, she watched as the light dimmed and a figure appeared. Clad in shining golden armour and draped in milky white linen was a tall, imposing woman, her long, flaxen hair drifting on the wind. Blue eyes that glowed with magic gazed into Lucrecia's. In one hand she held a massive shield, its surface shimmering blue, and in the other clutched a long spear that was as decorative as it was deadly.

"Minerva..." Lucrecia whispered in awe.

The Goddess inclined her head in acknowledgment and began to speak, though her mouth never moved. Her voice seemed to come from all around them-- above them, below them, from the dark and from the light. It rumbled through Lucrecia like thunder.

"You are the mother of the Nightmare, are you not?"

Lucrecia gulped. Was that what all of this was about? What her son-- her little Sephiroth-- had become?

"You have seen what he has become. What he has tried to accomplish. Those he has destroyed."

She thought of Cloud, of Aerith. "Am I to be punished?" Lucrecia asked, cursing the way her voice wavered. "Punished for simply bringing a child into the world?"

"A child you willingly made into an experiment." Minerva's tone went cold and reprimanding. "You and Hojo made him what he is." The Goddess paused, her expression softening again, much to Lucrecia's relief. "But no... You are not here to be punished."

Lucrecia wasn't embarrassed to admit she'd recoiled when the Deity had scolded her. Swallowing her adrenaline she found her voice again-- willing her pulse to slow.

"Then why am I here?" she asked.

"You are in a unique position," the Goddess replied. "You could change the fate of thousands with one simple choice. You could make a hero out of a monster."

Lucrecia bit her lip and watched Minerva's eyes as they studied her. There was no judgment in her gaze; no bitterness. Only compassion and curiosity. Lucrecia considered the Goddess' words. How could she change what had already gone so wrong? Her son was dead; his spirit in thrall to an ancient evil. Genesis, the man her son had loved with all his being, was sealed away beneath Midgar. Gast's daughter was dead, as were Zack, Angeal, her son's three remnants. Geostigma had wreaked havoc on the world, and the Tsviets-- innocent children driven to insanity-- had been slaughtered. And the bloodbath had been perpetrated by none other than... Gods, Vincent. The man she had betrayed and abandoned.

And then there was Cloud. The boy who had been strong enough to stand up to her son, and whose mind was now shattered beyond repair.

"What is this 'simple choice'?" Lucrecia asked, shifting uncomfortably.

"The choice between doing what is right or what is easy." Minerva smiled.

The Lifestream stirred around Lucrecia, washing against her in waves, growing stronger and stronger. It tugged at her legs and her dress, and she wobbled unsteadily.

"How will I know which is which?" she asked.

"You are a mother," Minerva replied simply. "I trust that you will know."

As the swirling energy around her seethed yet stronger, Lucrecia began to feel things-- hear things-- memories perhaps. A town burned around her, the screams of the dying pierced her head like knives. Smoke filled her nostrils and stung her eyes. Then, through the flames, she saw him. Her son. Tall and slender, his silver hair cascading down his back-- drifting on thermals. Slitted teal eyes glowed amidst the inferno, brimming with alien malevolence.

"Sephiroth!"

The shout came from Lucrecia's right and she looked to see a loping, black-haired teenager dodge out from the burning wreck of the Inn. This was Nibelheim. The beginning of the Nightmare.

The scene dissolved, replaced with a cool, wet, dimly-lit forest. White trees shone around her, throwing eerie crystalline light onto every surface. Water seemed to drip from everywhere.

Lucrecia jumped when a young man sprinted up next to her, his mako-blue eyes wide with fear. Damp flaxen hair framed a pale face. Just as the boy's identity registered in her mind she heard the snap of leather in the wind.

Before her was a massive structure; black, curving masts reaching up to the sky as if in prayer. Pools of water reflected the bright light of the trees, casting sparkling rays on the girl kneeling at its center.

Lucrecia's eyes caught movement, the flash of light on steel, and then a gush of crimson. Once again she saw her son, this time with Masamune pierced through the chest of the last Cetra on the planet. The youth's-- Cloud's-- scream of grief and denial was the last thing Lucrecia heard before the scene changed again. The glowing trees and rivulets of blood swirled away like smoke, replaced with a freezing blackness. An all consuming maelstrom tossed her skirt and hair and nearly blew her over. The indigo darkness was split with forking bolts of lightning. Thunder and the roar of the wind deafened her. People ran all around her-- some were civilians, some were Shinra personnel. An evacuation was in progress. Hesitently, Lucrecia looked up.

There, hanging in the sky at the center of the storm, was a deep scarlet orb. Meteor.

Lucrecia watched as the top of the Shinra tower began to tear itself apart-- chunks of steel, concrete, and polyresin, and clouds of shattered glass and rebar swirled around like a tornado. This was what he had summoned. This was his legacy.

The scene dissolved and vanished and Lucrecia felt as if she were falling. Spinning and tumbling through the darkness, she found herself hearing things; snippets of the past. Some were familiar, others were someone else's memories.

Hold still, boy! I'm not finished! ... Come with us, Seph ... I can't ... Hojo, get off me! ... Quit struggling, Lucrecia. We will make history ... Where is my son? I want to see him ... I'll come back for you. I promise ... Vincent, I'm so sorry ... Burn it to the ground ... Infinite in mystery is the Gift of the Goddess ... Your mother's name was Jenova, and she's dead ...

With the howling sound of a gunshot, Lucrecia stopped. She was on her feet once more in the black void, thigh-deep in the Lifestream and standing before the Goddess Minerva. She was still dizzy, though she'd never really been falling.

"Whichever choice you make, none of the events I showed you will come to pass," Minerva intoned. "You must decide whether the ends justify the means."

"Where am I going?" Lucrecia asked as she felt herself moving-- once more falling into the glow beneath her.

"It is less a question of where, and more a question of when."

Minerva disappeared and Lucrecia plummeted. Greenish-white light engulfed her, twining about her body until it was so bright that her eyes burned and watered. Still she fell, feeling stranger and stranger, air roaring past her ears-- or was that something else? Once again she heard voices. Voices, traffic, the growl of raw mako rushing through a reactor's pipes.

After what seemed like an eternity her descent began to slow and she felt something solid beneath her-- cushy and soft, like a mattress. There was a pillow beneath her head; the air still, stale, and climate-controlled around her. Her eyes refused to open, even as the light dimmed to nothing. Her body felt heavy and weary, almost jet-lagged, and her attempts at movement were sluggish. As she felt herself drifting off to sleep, she saw a face in her mind's eye. Long black hair, a crimson cloak, golden claws.

"Vincent?" she muttered, and the last thing she noticed was that her voice sounded younger.