Author's note: Final Fantasy 7 is one of the greatest games I've ever played. From the story line to the characters and even the music I was drawn in by it; it was a big part of my childhood. Ever since I recently thought about it again after reading about Crisis Core, I've had my imagination going. I finally decided to write an OC story for it. Here is the first chapter, and I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to leave a review or a comment on anything.

Edited: 3/16


Chapter One: The Unknown


...

Some people have said that things happened for a reason, but whether it is due to fate or something else, I wasn't so sure. In the beginning, it had seemed like pure random chance that things happened the way they did. I didn't understand it at first, but slowly everything that I was going through began to open my eyes and I got to see what was the truth for myself.

Things were lost and new things were gained.

I found myself wondering countless times if I had just made it all up, but I couldn't bring myself to say that it wasn't real. And it was real; every single bit of it. Proof enough was the angry looking pink mark that marred the skin close to my shoulder. My eyes too didn't look the same either.

And that was enough to prove to myself that I wasn't crazy. There was also still…a connection since that had happened. It still felt as if bits of the lifestream were pulsing through my veins as if I hadn't left.

Goddess, what could I do?

They all said it was a dream, a result of the coma and the medications I had been placed on from the accident. They said it would quickly wear off and everything would return to normal, and that I'd go back to being the happy, young college student that I was. And yet… not even a month after I got out of the hospital, this place, this life, it all seemed like a dream.

No. This place was the dream. Wherever I went after that, I always heard somebody whispering behind my back, mostly uttering words of pity from one to another.

"See her? Yeah, Sibyl Lasko."

"—was such a good student. Poor girl hasn't been the same since…"

The place that I used to call home didn't actually seem like home anymore and I felt more alienated from the people there than ever before. The ironic thing was that the entire time I was in that other world, my plan had always been to leave it; I had been hell-bent on getting back home. Now that I was back however, I couldn't stay. It was because that place and those people had become my home. And oh, how I missed them.

And somewhere in the back of my mind I hoped that He would come get me like he always did.

But now I was starting to doubt myself. With each passing day back in the real world, I could feel my own sanity slowly slipping from me; things were becoming so much harder. The only thing I could do was start to create a record of what it was that happened.

So I picked up a pen and began to write.

This whole entire thing had started on that day…


...

"Hey, Sib! Wait up; you're getting too far ahead!"

"I'll be fine!"

Finding another foothold in the craggy path I was following, I threw a quick glance over my shoulder to look at the other girl behind me. I could see her not too far back, ducking under some of the wayward branches, her hair plastered to her face with sweat much like mine was. Turning back around I came to a stop and took a in a deep breath of the rich air.

There I was looking over the forested mountain range stretching out as far as the eye could see. The wind was pulling at the trees, causing the mountainside to ripple like water. Spring was in the air and the world had exploded in green. I couldn't resist it one bit; hiking in the spring time was one of the things I looked forward to every year. It was when the weather was just right and not too hot or cold.

"You alright there, Emma?" I asked as I heard her approaching. The brunette girl halted at my side and was bent over catching her breath.

"You…move…way to fast. I think you left everyone behind. This is a group hike for a reason, ya know?" she said before unceremoniously plopping herself on the ground, fanning her face rapidly. "Now let's wait for the others to catch up, safety in numbers, right?"

"You're killing me, Em" I said sarcastically with a hurt expression. I laughed and patted her shoulder "Alright. We'll wait, then." I walked over and sat down on a ledge we were near and swung my boots over the edge. Smoothing out my khaki colored shorts, I took out my phone and used the screen's reflection to check my appearance. Seeing my deep brown eyes staring back, I redid my ponytail, combing my fingers through my black hair to gather the loose strands.

After a few seconds, I got up from the ledge to walk back to my friend. But just as I turned to move away, something shiny caught my eye below the ledge I was sitting at. Lowering down to a squatting position, I eyed the water that was a little ways below; there was something in it that was letting off an abnormal, sparkly green light.

"Hey Em, you should come see this" I said with my eyes still aimed at the glow.

What was it?

It was something that caught the light and made the water shimmer. Out of curiosity, I slowly lowered myself down the side of the ledge to get a closer look; with the water moving, I couldn't tell what exactly it was. I dipped my hand into the cool water and reached towards the source of the unusual glow...It was warm.

Distracted by the weird sensation covering my hand, I almost didn't notice the cries of shock from my friend.

And why was it that she was shouting?

It was because in the blink of an eye, I found myself underneath the frothy, cold water. Something had tugged on my hand, yanking me into the stream, and it wasn't letting go.

The water seemed to wrap around my body and it felt as if I was caught in a small current. I couldn't fight it; my limbs had gone completely numb for some reason and I was left unable to kick my legs or flail my arms. My lungs started to burn and the last thing I remembered hearing were frantic shouts. I could only guess afterwards that the rest of the hiking group finally caught up. My vision then grew dark, as if being lulled into sleep.


...

Dark grey clouds were the only things I could see at first; the remnants of a storm that the weather didn't predict that day. There was a field of endless flowers that stretched over the horizon and I was standing right in the middle of it. But the other thing I noticed was that I wasn't alone. Not far from where I was stood a beautiful lady with golden locks, adorned in very extravagant armor standing before me.

wondered who she was; her entire being radiated a powerful presence, one that was almost angelic. I knew that I should have felt terrified, but instead I stood in awe. As my eyes continued to stare at her, there was a small feeling that she was awfully familiar. Her eyes had drawn on me and as if to answer my question, a voice began echoing among the clouds.

"Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess." It spoke.

Rattled by the sudden noise, I shrank a little before the words registered in my mind. Shaking my head in slight confusion, I looked at her once more. "You're… the Goddess?" I whispered uncertainly. She gave me a gentle smile in response, still maintaining her veil of silence.

That one phrase clicked in my mind; I had to have been hallucinating. I remembered now where I recognized her from; she was the Goddess, Minerva, from a game I had played a few years back.

"I must have hit my head when I fell into the stream" I rationalized out loud.

A loud crash of thunder jolted me from my spot on the ground.

The Goddess then spoke gently.

"Gaia requires your assistance."

"Wait…what?" I sputtered out in confusion.

With a burst of lightening I cringed, shielding my eyes before my vision went dark again.


...

I quickly snapped my eyes back open, ignoring the fact that I was submerged in water. My first and only thought then was that I had to get out. Upon opening my eyes however, my sight was met by green light.

Or was it water?

Brushing aside that fact, I struggled to kick my way to the surface with my lungs demanding even more oxygen by the second. I had recovered some feeling in my legs now, but my body itself seemed to be really weak. After a few seconds I finally broke the surface of the water, gasping for air. I could feel my head throbbing and the air I was exposed to felt like it was burning my skin on contact.

Faintly seeing an outline of what appeared to be a shore line, I struggled to swim in that direction. Eventually the water got shallow and I was able to crawl out of its grasp. After I could only feel pebbles underneath my hands and knees, I collapsed and lay sprawled on my back in exhaustion. For some reason unknown to me, my body was fighting me with every bit of motion, even my breathing.

What was that strange dream?

While I lay on the rocky surface, I found myself looking around and trying to make sense of my surroundings. I was in a cave of some sort and a rather small one at that; I immediately judged that I would barely be able to stand up in it if I tried. The stalagmites that surrounded me were reflecting the eerie, pulsing green color that the water emitted which left me utterly confused.

"Em?" a tiny voice squeaked out. I flinched a little at its sound.

Had that come from me?

"Emma!" I tried again, speaking as loud as my exhausted body would allow.

Again the same voice reached my ears, bouncing off the cave walls. It wasn't mine, it sounded too young. I started to rationalize, thinking it was the cave that was distorting my voice. I realized that I needed to find a way out, a way to get back to everyone else; wherever I was, it wasn't anywhere familiar. My phone sadly wasn't an option. It had fallen out of my pocket somewhere in the water when I fell in.

Slowly rolling over, I tried standing up.

To my surprise, I could stand in the small cave. An even worse surprise I discovered was that my legs, no, my whole body screamed at me in protest from standing. Everything burned and ached. And to make matters worse, it seemed like my clothing had grown a dozen sizes too big. My shorts were barely being held up and my even my sports bra I had on was fitting me like a loose crop top underneath my dress of a shirt.

After discarding my shirt and even my shoes and tightening my belt as far as it would go, I managed to stand straight up. My vision, however, was shaking and I felt groggy. It was when I started getting used to moving that I realized I could hear a faint whispering all around me, echoing off the walls of the cave. I froze for a moment, thinking that someone was there with me, but the voice didn't sound…normal.

"H-hello?" I called out timidly.

There was no response to my call, but the whispering got a little louder.

I turned my head in all directions desperately trying to find the source of the voice, thinking and hoping that I wasn't really alone; it was bouncing off the rocky terrain making it hard to pinpoint where it was. I staggered forward, trying to regain control over my balance as I began trying to find the source.

My heart dropped at what I found next.

The voice only led me a few steps away to a strange green stone that lay at edge of the luminescent water. Trudging over, I reached down and scooped it up; as soon as I touched it, an unusually warm feeling coursed through it. It sounded out one last word, unclear to my ears. The voice had been coming from the stone.

It was odd, to say the least.

I appraised the stone a bit more, rubbing my fingers over the smooth surface before I decided to take it, tucking it into my pocket for safe keeping; it was small enough to be mistaken as a golf ball and hardly bulged out of my now baggy pocket.

And as soon as I put it away the cave went deathly quiet, leaving me in a deafening silence. Unnerved by this, I began searching for a way out and struck forward following the stream of water in the direction it appeared to glow less. That appeared to be my way out.

Walking alongside the water, my thoughts consumed me once more.

Had I been hallucinating?


...

After what seemed like forever, I managed to scrape my way out to the surface barely standing on my feet. Looking at the outside of it, the cave I was in was relatively small and ingrained into the side of a shallow cliff; it was almost unnoticeable from a regular point of view with the exception of the small stream flowing from it.

Peeling my gaze away from it and onto my surroundings, I finally took notice of the trees around me; there were a lot of them dotting the landscape. That would've been a good sign, except for the fact that they weren't the tall temperate forest trees I was used to. From what I could see, they were much shorter with some almost tropical in appearance. The ground that they stood also on was not the familiar hilly terrain I was on not too long ago. In fact, looking around I didn't see anything familiar.

My legs wavered slightly underneath me. Glancing up, the sky itself looked like it just finished storming, even though there weren't supposed to be any rain showers that day. A part of me began to feel that I wasn't just seeing things anymore.

"Maybe…that vision was real?" I breathed out. My head was still throbbing. Everything seemed wrong. The air seemed saturated with unknown energy. My body wasn't functioning properly and my voice still wasn't back to normal. I just wanted to go home. Struggling to move myself from the place I stood, I stumbled over to the stream I had followed out and kneeled down next to it.

Now with enough light, I was able to see my reflection.

I was horrified.

What stared back at me wasn't exactly my face. The eyes that stared back at me instead of being a rich deep brown were tainted with crimson, the color of blood. But that wasn't what my attention was focused on. It was the fact that instead of staring at the reflection of a twenty year old college student, I was looking at the gaunt face of a child with ridiculously spikey black hair.

I would have laughed at how ridiculous I my appearance was, but the shock of it was just too much. With my limbs finally giving out on me for good this time, I lost my balance.

"Not again" I moaned pitifully as I pitched forward into the gently flowing water beneath me.


...

I didn't lose consciousness this time. Instead, I was floating along with the stream with my face barely bobbing along the surface and my eyes closed to stop any water from getting in them. I wasn't happy to be back in water, but this water compared to the water in the cave was helping to wash off that burning feeling that had consumed my body.

It wasn't long before the trees began to thin out and I started feeling more sunlight cascading onto my face than before. I had managed to pull up against what felt like a fallen log in the stream; I hauled myself over it as much as I could. Unsure of what else to do after that, I remained where I was with half of my body over the log and the other half in the water.

My mind was scattered and my body was nearly comatose. I couldn't even call out for help because my lungs were too weak. Not that anyone would be around to save me. This definitely wasn't a dream anymore. I had been here too long and, hell, everything I touched felt real to me, from the water I was in to the sun on my face.

If it weren't for my current state, perhaps I might have actually enjoyed where I was.

After what seemed like a few hours, I vaguely heard a voice calling out to me. Pulling my attention to the voice, I slightly opened my eyes, turning my head in its direction, sinking part of my face into the water. My vision had become too blurry to see much and my head was still pulsing with pain.

The voices were becoming muffled, two of them now. The next thing I could see, was a small figure approaching. It knelt beside where I was, grabbing my arm and fishing me out of the water. Before I knew it, I was being scooped up and gently placed over someone's bony shoulder.

I could see the second figure approaching now. With a little more blood being rushed to my head, I briefly caught sight of who it was. It was a lean-built kid with black hair and striking blue eyes; He had to be no older than twelve. After they briefly exchanged words, both the one who had found me and his friend began moving quickly.

Zoning in and out of awareness after what felt like only a few minutes, I was able to notice a subtle scent in the air. It smelled oddly enough like something sweet, akin to apples. The person carrying me readjusted my position slightly to keep me from sliding off his shoulder; it sent a wave of pain riveting through my body. I groaned. My limbs still had that burning sensation from before and the voices of my rescuers were even more distant than ever.

"Am I dying?" I whispered before losing consciousness for the last time.


...

And that was how my story began in a world that I never thought could have truly existed.