Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Silent One ❯ The Chosen Ones ( Chapter 2 )

The Silent One

Chapter Two: The Chosen Ones

The sound of a door opening caused Laura to wake up. Weakly, she opened her eyes, feeling numb as always. She noticed that she was lying on a plain bed, in a small room, which appeared to be some kind of holding cell.

"So we finally meet, Silent One," the voice of a man said.

Using what strength she could muster, Laura sat up to face the man who had approached. What she saw made her gasp in both surprise and fear. It was him, dressed in his usual black leather uniform, and his 6-foot long sword at his side. His long silver hair flowed freely behind him, and his glowing eyes gazed at her fiercely; just the way he had looked in all the pictures she had seen of him. He was the great General Sephiroth, leader of the SOLDIER army, victor of Wutai, and last reported dead, according to the newspaper she worked for. Now he was very much alive, standing right before her.

He seemed to be different however, from when she last saw him. Yes, she had seen him several times before, after the Wutai War was won, but she had never spoken to him in person. Whenever she saw him, he always had a commanding presence about him. The way he smirked at her…it did not seem normal for him. He scared her.

"What…" she stammered. "W-What are you…"

"Humph. You don't seem like the type Mother would choose," he said, crossing his arms over his chest, "but yet I can sense the Black Consciousness in you."

Laura's blue eyes became wide. "You mean, you're the son that Jenova lady was talking about!?"

"Yes," Sephiroth answered, stepping closer to her. "Now, come. It is almost time."

"What?" She replied, backing up against the wall. "No way, she said you would be here to free me, she didn't say that I had to come with you!"

Sephiroth shook his head. "It seems I did not realize that you Silent Ones are all fools."

Laura clenched her fists at her sides. "I don't care what you call me. I'm not going with you! And I'm not helping Shinra either!"

Sephiroth glared at her with eyes that would have killed her right then and there if they could. He reached for his sword.

"Fine. I really don't need you to summon Meteor anyway. Now come, or it is your death."

"No," she answered defiantly. Where she had found the courage to stand up to Sephiroth, she did not know.

Sephiroth pulled out his long sword, and just as he charged at her, Laura cringed in fear. Before Sephiroth could attack, she instantly disappeared in a puff of black smoke. He immediately stopped himself before he ran into the wall.

He sheathed his sword and smirked. "Well, that was somewhat impressive."

Laura opened her eyes, wondering why she had not felt the sword through her body yet. She gasped, again, when she saw where she was. Somehow she had ended up in the middle of an open green plain. She looked off into the distance, and spotted the city of Midgar. Over where Midgar was, the land was dark and dead, whereas where she was standing the plains were alive and green.

"Oh great…" She muttered, on the verge of biting her fingernails. "Now what do I do?"

Laura could not even be sure how it was she got to the plain in the first place. It was by some sort of miracle that Sephiroth did not kill her in the first place. How she could have magically disappeared from Midgar was beyond her.

She looked to the Northeast and said to herself, "Maybe I should try to make it to Kalm."

And so she did. For hours on end, Laura walked the plains, hoping to make it to Kalm before nightfall. Many times she had to run for her life, due to monsters trying to sneak up on her and attack her. She had no weapon, and many times she thought that she would not make it to Kalm alive.

Laura stopped in the middle of her journey to rest. She had been running for hours now, in a denim skirt. She was surprised with how fast she ran through the plains and away from the monsters. When she was in school, she never had much interest in running or physical education, so she never actually attended the class. Laura had always had more of an interest in writing, so passionate about it that she applied for a job at the Midgar Post at fifteen. They were so impressed with her writing that they made her a journalist almost immediately, and she never even had to finish High School. Soon, she was traveling to other towns, interviewing and writing articles about them.

Laura let out a deep and sad sigh at the memory of when Shinra had first told her that her writing had to be changed in order for it to be printed on the newspaper. Never in her life had she felt so heartbroken. All of her precious opinions and words changed, just to make lies for the people reading them. It was as if her very soul was taken from her then, and there was nothing she could do about it. Since she no longer attended High School, she was forced to keep her job because no other work place would accept her lack of a High School diploma.

Not wanting to work herself into a state of depression, Laura Romine continued on her way to the village of Kalm. The sun had just set when she arrived, shrouding the quiet village with a blanket of darkness. It would have reminded her of Midgar if there more lights and more people.

Exhausted from all of her running, Laura was relieved to find an inn with plenty of vacancies. She entered the inn and pulled out a wad of gil that she kept in her pocket.

"Room for one?" The man at the counter asked.

"Yeah," she nodded, tiredly.

The man then handed her a key and pointed up the stairs. "Third floor, second room on the right."

Laura thanked him and made her way up the stairs. Her body and mind begged her for a bed; she had never felt so exhausted in her life. Just as she closed the door behind her, she flopped down on the soft and clean bed.

"That was very clever of you, Silent One."

Laura let out a startled cry and sat up. There, standing in the corner in the shadows, was Sephiroth, glaring down at her. Her face paled as his glowing eyes bore into her soul.

"Not clever enough," he finished.

Regaining whatever courage she had left, Laura sat up straight in her bed and answered, "What are you talking about?"

Sephiroth gave her and amused smile. "Funny, how you are so ignorant. There is only one race capable of teleportation, and it isn't the Cetra."

"Wait," she said, realization hitting her. "You mean, I did that?"

"I couldn't have done it for you."

Laura buried her face in her hands, and let out an exasperated sigh. "Alright. I have no idea what's going on except that I'm some kind of Silent One, and everyone and their mother seems to be after me. Hell! I don't even know what a Silent One is!"

Sephiroth sat down on the bed, chuckling. "I see. If you really wish to know then I will tell you. The Silent Ones were on ancient race created for one purpose: to serve Jenova. Mother created them two thousand years ago so she could take out her revenge on those Cetra and humans who betrayed her. There were very few of them, but they served their purpose well. The Silent Ones have the black blood, the blood of the Black Consciousness, which Mother gave them. Using their blood, they created the Ultimate Destructive Magic, the Black Materia in which Mother would use for her revenge."

"Black Materia?" I've never heard of such a thing."

Sephiroth continued. "But the Cetra found the Black Materia and sealed it away in a temple so that no creature would be able to use it. The Silent Ones were hunted down until they were thought to have been exterminated, but one or two lived. As for Jenova, the Cetra locked her away for two thousand years after she nearly wiped out their race. Then, thousands of years later, Professor Gast rediscovered her, and then I was produced."

"You were…produced?" Laura asked. She had always wondered why there was not much information about Sephiroth's origins whenever she had written articles about him and his accomplishments in the military.

"You are the last of the Silent Ones," he said, ignoring her question. "Descended from the last two who survived, and master of the Black Consciousness. You must aid Mother again, for her time has come."

"Ok…" she replied. "So what do you have to do with all of this?"

He gave her an arrogant smirk. "I am the one chosen by the Planet to destroy the traitors."

"What traitors?"

"The humans! Those who used Mother and kept her in that Mako Reactor! They used her and weakened her; they must pay!"

Laura trembled at the harshness of his words. His eyes burned with a glowing fire that could have set the inn aflame at his very will.

"The Black Materia can only be used if one has a sufficient amount of Spirit Energy, or if one is born with the Black Consciousness. I can very much summon Meteor on my own, but if you were to summon it, or you and I together, it would be much more powerful."

She stood up from the bed, shocked. "What!? Meteor!? You mean to say that you want me to kill everyone on the Planet!?"

Sephiroth nodded. Laura clenched her fists and shouted. "Forget it! I'm not killing anybody!"

"You don't have a choice!" Sephiroth snapped.

Laura crossed her arms and looked away from him. "You can't just make me kill someone."

Sephiroth grinned maliciously. "I wouldn't be so sure, Silent One. Your will is the will of Jenova."

"What?" She answered, turning back around to him.

"Whether you agree to aid Mother or not, you will use the Black Materia to summon Meteor."

She shook her head, sitting back on the bed. "No…"

Sephiroth laughed, sending a chill down her spine. "Regardless of what you want to do, it is pointless to try and escape. Your desire to sever Mother has already been awakened."

"Bullshit!" She exclaimed. "No one can make me do anything! I'm NOT going to kill everyone on the Planet!"

Sephiroth scoffed and shook his head. "You are such a fool. You say that you have your own will, but you don't. You could not even make your own choices under those Shinra creatures, much less Jenova. You never had your own will. You are just a puppet."

Laura's eyes flared with anger at his words and snapped, "I'll show you puppet, asshole!"

Just as she stood to strike at him (which was kind of insane on her part, he is Sephiroth after all), Sephiroth caught her wrist just as she had raised it. Before she could even raise her other arm, he had grabbed it and pulled her rather close, so close that their noses were just barely touching. Laura felt cross-eyed, so she stopped looking at his nose and looked at his eyes instead. They were a bright green and their glowed fiercely - due to the Mako enhancements all SOLDIER's received - so fierce, that Laura was not sure she could look in them anymore.

Sephiroth was also looking into her eyes. They were a deep blue color, much deeper than that of Cloud Strife's. They resembled the color of the deepest part of the ocean, although not as dark as the shade of navy in her hair.

Laura looked away from his gaze, causing him to smirk. He let go of her wrists.

"You should get some rest," he said. "We have a long way to go."

Laura laid herself on the bed, slipping off her shoes and sliding under the warm covers. At the moment she just wanted to scream, but the warmth of the bed compelled her to sleep. Just as she was about to close her eyes, she noticed Sephiroth stand up and walk towards the window. She gazed at him for a little while as he stared at the moon, wondering if he slept at all, or if he was just being a lookout soldier or something. Either way, it did not really bother her more than the fact that he was making her kill everyone. She was so frustrated that it was easy for her to close her eyes and let a long desired sleep consume her.

Laura found herself in the dark place again, cold and alone. She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering from something in between the cold and fear.

So, my child, what do you think of my son?

Laura turned angry eyes towards the darkness. "First of all, I think he's an asshole, and second of all, I'm not doing shit for you!"

A cold, emotionless laughter rang through her ears, making her wince.

Don't you see, my Silent Child? Answered the voice of Jenova. It's for the best. You'll see.

"How the hell is summoning a meteor from outer space for the best? You're going to make me kill everyone, you bitch!"

Jenova laughed again, sending more chills down her spine. Suddenly, Laura's body felt numb, as numb as she always felt when she woke up in the morning, and her attention dazed into some random area of the black void.

The humans…Jenova said in what sounded like a hum to the dazed Laura. They've taken everything from you…are you angry?

Absent mindedly, Laura nodded, her eyes looking empty and emotionless.

Don't they deserve to pay for what they've done to you? Don't they deserve to feel the pain they have caused?

"Yes…" she murmured.

Jenova sent another laugh ringing through the air. Coming back to reality, Laura tried to move, but all of her body was numb, and she could not even lift a finger. She shivered with anxiety and fear, knowing that she could not even control her own body. Every morning when she woke up, Laura had always felt numb, but not as numb as this. Then, before she could realize it, she became dazed again, her eyes loosing themselves in the darkness once more.

Now my child…you know who it is you serve. Tell me who you are.

"Laura, last descendant of the Silent Ones, Orzo and Lenai," Laura answered in a droned voice, "chosen by our creator, the Crisis from the Skies, to aid her in her search for Universal rule with the Black Consciousness, which she has kindly gifted to us."

Perfect. Now…Wake up!