AUTHOR'S NOTE:
All right people!!! Reviews!!! Okay…this is story number five…
Look, read and review, okay?
E-mail me at: sm_scales (at) yahoo.com
At= @ sign
Okay…fanfiction.net did not yell at me for leaving a dedication…so I am re-dedicating all of my stories now to the people that they were originally meant for. Take a look, if you care to.
By the way, this story is for Angel. I hope that someday you can choose to realize I don't want to date you, but be your friend. It is tough, but I hope you can choose the truth someday…
*****
These fools…
Why do they bother fighting Shinra? It does not make sense. Can't they see that Mako power is the way of the future, the way of taking over this world? Why do they just try and try to fight progress?
It does not make sense.
Little that this group does makes much sense.
Argh, another stupid tree branch for the cat/mog to run into. Of the day's annoyances…
I turn the mog's head upward to avoid the branch…and what's that?
Surrounding the branch I see a backdrop field of black, punctuated with millions of little white specks.
Stars?
Woah…its been a long time since I last saw those things. Several years in fact. I am, after all, the Shinra executive in charge of urban management. I am far too busy trying to keep Midgar running smoothly to really bother looking up at something so trivial as stars anyway.
Wait…
Are there fireflies also?
Fireflies…
I thought they had all died out when Midgar was built. Well, at least around here they were. Who knew they still managed to survive? Crazy insects. I need to remember to ask Hojo if he wants some to experiment on.
The specks of light flash on and off, mixing and mingling with the stars themselves…dancing with them really. My eyes through the mog just watch them for what must be hours, just swirling and swooping, without a single care in the world.
Wow…these little things…no brains, no soul, no real purpose whatsoever…and yet they are so fascinating to watch.
Why?
Wait, stop. I have to remember: I am here to spy on the party for Shinra, not to gaze at the wildlife. Yet…
They are beautiful. Like little nightlights, swarming all over me, and all around me, all above me, and all beneath me. Just enveloping me in their warm glow.
Is this why they fight? Cloud, Aeris and the others? Is this why AVALANCHE is willing to die for the planet? Because of…these…fireflies?
I disengage myself from the equipment that allows me to mentally control the cat and mog. I look around, and see the surrounding confines of the Shinra headquarters. Just…white and black walls. Cold, impersonal metal walls. A soulless machine designed to suck the soul out of everything it can for a profit. I glance at the window behind the stool where I am sitting, and I can only see a cloudy darkness, broken by neon signs advertising various products made by Shinra Inc. The buildings are all run down and empty, like the hundreds of jobless masses that are wondering the streets below.
A sudden insight flashes into my soul: when was the last time I saw something alive down here, something alive other than people? When was the last time I saw a rose, or a cardinal, or even just the light dancing of fireflies?
I can't remember.
Is this place, this soulless place, where I really want to be?
Is this really what I am fighting for?
A machine that just wants to enslave the world, and destroy the natural beauty inherit within in? Seeing the world through that cat and mog's eyes is the first time I have seen natural sunlight in…
In…
I can't remember.
Is this Midgar what I want to run my life, until it fully consumes me?
I flex my hands for a moment, then reengage the gear.
Instantly, I am back in the world outside, the world where the fireflies and stars dance together, in a never ending waltz.
Okay…
Do I want to be a member of Shinra, one of many in a soulless army, spying on this party of heroes…or do I want to be a member of this party of heroes, someone who wishes to save the soul of the planet itself and all of her creatures, spying on Shinra?
I want…
I want to save the planet.
-fin