Disclaimer: Square-Enix owns Final Fantasy VII… If I did, Sephiroth would not be such a complete dumbass…
Notes: The three bears tale was told to a friend by his father when he was little; I claim no responsibility… The title is a huge clue on the ending, or maybe 'beginning' is the correct term… Mwahahahahahahaha… I'll be quiet now…
PROJECT MAIDEN
Phase 0: Inspiration
Step 0: Idea
"Destroy…" I need to learn to tune Mother out of my thoughts… She distracts me too easily. "Devour." Something tells me I do not want to know…
Now, where was I…?
Oh, yes… What to do about that Chocobo-head… He always manages to 'barely' defeat me. This is—what?—the third time that he's managed to beat me. ME, the silver-haired SOLDIER; me, the Terror of Wutai; me, a demigod among mortals…
How does this keep happening?!
"Death."
Mother has a very strange obsession with words starting with 'D,' doesn't She? Nevermind… It is of no importance…
How can a pathetic Chocobo-head manage to defeat me every single time? First time, he surprised me by impaling my backside. Then, he survived Masamune's bloodlust; a feat I believed impossible…
The second time, I thought I could control him mentally and physically… Those Jenova cells in his blood should have made him worship my existence, but he fought the pleasant control… I mutated my partially formed new body into a weapon, but he destroyed it… Five years of work and energy. Gone!
And his most recent victory? Against a new body formed from Jenova cells and remnant tissues… This body was even better than my original. It did not even work up a sweat. Yet, he managed to survive being impaled, again.
Every bloody time.
"Dental floss."
I'm not even going to ask.
"For the thousandth time, Marlene, I don't know any bedtime stories!" Blond hair swishes as he shakes his head… I wonder why the brunette would think he would make a good parent. He is a Chocobo-head after all.
"Pwease?"
He rubs the skin between his sapphire eyes. "Fine… There were three bears; they caught on fire. The end."
The child looks up, brown eyes filling with tears. "That's not a good story!"
"Ugh… I don't know any bedtime stories!"
Marlene grins up at her keeper; she may have me beaten in the evil grin department. "Okay, then I'll tell you one."
Funny… The Chocobo-head looks scared… Has this happened before?
"The Lady was pretty and kind. Everyone loved her." This is not happening.
"When the Lady became an adult, she began to sell flowers. Flowers only grew at her church and at the Lady's home… One day, the Lady met a man named Cloud. Cloud had fallen through the roof of her church and onto the Lady's precious flowers." Funny, I think Zack did something stupid like that…
"To make up for it, Cloud decided to protect the Lady. The Lady led Cloud through the slums as he protected her from the vicious monsters…" Even I know the Cetra's name…
"They eventually made it through to Wall Market, but found that Cloud's friend, Tifa, had been taken by an evil man. To save her, the Lady and Cloud had to sneak into the evil man's house by wearing pretty dresses and makeup."
Hmm, I wonder if Cloud remembers the time before that?
"The Lady, Cloud, and Tifa eventually made it to Sector Seven where Cloud and Tifa lived… But the evil Shinra were going to destroy it. Tifa asked the Lady to protect a little girl named Marlene and the Lady did." Did she just refer to herself in the third person? And they think I'm crazy.
"While taking the little girl to her home, the Lady was stopped by Shinra's most evil force, the Turks. In exchange for Marlene's safety, the Lady allowed the Turks to take her to the Shinra Headquarters.
"Cloud, Tifa, and their leader, Barret, learned of what had happened to the Lady and went to rescue her. They climbed a Golden Shiny Wire of Hope to the Shinra headquarters. There, they rescued the Lady…" I think I deserve some credit; I'm the one that had the cell door unlocked, afterall.
"But, they also learned that an evil force had returned. Sephiroth. Sephiroth was created in a terrible experiment by the Shinra Company. When he found out, he began to hate Shinra. And then, over time, he began to hate everything." Funny, I thought I pretty much just went on a killing spree for the fun…
"The Lady and her new friends began a journey to stop Sephiroth. Sephiroth wanted to take the Lifestream away from the Planet…" Like the Planet is using it for anything useful.
"Eventually, the Lady left her friends, so that she could try a new strategy. Rather than attack Sephiroth directly, the Lady summoned Holy in the Forgotten City of the Ancients."
… Could have sworn I killed her first…
"Sephiroth tried to stop Holy from being summoned, so he murdered the Lady… But it was too late. Sephiroth was forced to use his energy to stop Holy, so that he could injure the Planet greatly with Meteor."
… This is starting to get scary… How does a six-year-old know so much? Chocobo-head couldn't have told her…
"The Lady's friends, along with Shinra, managed to defeat Sephiroth… Meteor hurtled towards the Planet and Holy was free to stop it… But Holy only caused more destruction.
"The Lady, despite death, used the Lifestream to push Meteor and Holy away from the Planet."
Pardon?
"And because of the Lady and all of those who fought, this Planet is still here… It's Lifestream still flowing…"
… I was defeated by a dead girl in a pink dress… This must be a cosmic joke…
I've been watching this child for a while now… Why would she know about things she's never heard or seen? What is she?
Marlene never manages to sleep well at night. She always tosses and turns, as if fighting the reality in her mind.
She sat bolt upright in her bed, her eyes bulging in her eyes. A scream escapes her lips. Instantly, Tifa's arms are around the child. "Marlene, are you okay? It was just a bad dream…
"I-I don' know… It was horrible."
The woman slowly rocked the small girl, making 'shh' noises.
"It was h-ho-horrible, Tifa! You were a cat…" My head tilts, and an eyebrow rises. I suppose she is cat-like…
"Cloud was wearing a skirt!" I cross my legs. Not the first time, I suppose…
"Dad had a breakdown at someplace with a bunch of red lights…" I really don't want to know…
"A-a-and everyone was worshipping Lady Aerith…" My head tilts to the other side. Why would anyone want to worship her? I'm a much better deity.
"B-but they all were fighting about it! It's like they were obsessed with Aerithism!"
Blink.
Blink. Blink.
Tifa gently strokes the girl's hair. "There, there, everything's fine now…"
"Then, Sephiroth came back and he—"
An explosion sounds outside the window. Both ladies turned their heads towards the noise. The door slams open, a Chocobo-head carrying a sleepy boy. "Tifa, we have to go. Now."
The small family rushes out of the bedroom. I leap from my perch on the dresser, landing gracefully on the floor. Out of the window, I can see the eruption of chaos and cannot help smiling at the scene. "Wonder what took Deep Ground so long…"
My mako green eyes watch people running through the streets. As I turn my eyes downward, silver-hair falls into my face. A smirk spreads across my lips. "Fighting… Over Aerithism… Interesting idea…"
Review if you'd like.
And yes… I am a slacker…