and they called it...

P A P E R M A D N E S S

v 5.0 | 3:41 AM

This story or short novel (I can't figure out which it is) belongs to me and my creative mind. However, most of the characters, names, and places mentioned all belong to their respective companies, so don't yell at me for copyright infringements! If it offends you in any manner, sorry, and if it doesn't, then don't complain. Remember, things in italics represent what a person is thinking, or the telling of past events.

Enjoy...
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Final Fantasy: A Lasting Impression: Part 2

"I worry for her though, even if she can find her targets and begin her mission, what proof do I have that she will go through with it? She had the option to be totally loyal and unsociable, or to be social and be influenced by society. I can only hope she doesn't get any ideas about not doing her mission, having TWO failures at my hands would make me very upset..."

-Hojo, day 3832

Seraph again hesitated while she walked down the patient halls, she still wasn't sure about this path of hers. She had earlier asked about the room Cleric was in, and a nurse at the front office told her to come here and go to room 182B. Determined to get her mission over with, she walked down the hallway again counting the room numbers until 182B was the next one. She looked at the door, catching her reflection in the glass. She could immediately see that she was nervous, her face becoming slightly moist with sweat. She wiped her face with the arm of her black jacket she recently bought at a small, but well provided clothing store. Along with her black pants and white dress shirt, she looked like any other woman out in the cold weather. She saw Cleric inside on the hospital bed watching some news of the robbery on the television on the only table filled with cards and the such. Seraph finally shook herself and steeled her mind for what she did next, she opened the door and walked in.

"Aw, enough of the interviews you...oh!" Cleric looked at her, flushed with embarrassment. "Oh, so very sorry for starting up like that, its just these reporters have been swarming me for...wait, do I know you? Yes, you were from the Materia Keeper that night with Regina singing! What brings you here?"

Seraph paused a nervous moment, trying to think of something to say to him. "I...I just came to see if you wanted to talk to someone other than officials or reporters."

"Well, what do you want to hear?"

"Anything! What you had for lunch, hospital rumors, anything you feel like taking about!"

"Okay...I'll tell you that damned thief must be mad trying to steal Materia from the foundation, especially with all the military Police and those ex-SOLDIER. I'll also tell you that she wouldn't have gotten away if it weren't for that grenade, in reality it hit me square in the shoulder and I caught the full blast. The papers only printed that it was a close call because they don't believe that I could have survived a direct hit by a grenade."

"Ah, but you did say the foundation, right? You mean the Materia Foundation? I was working there late when I heard some racket outside my office, maybe it was the thief?"

"Perhaps, but you said you work at the foundation? I just got hired there as a security guard just a few days back, and after this they'll probably make me head security chief! Figures, my pop always said that luck has a way of throwing you around when you don't need it, now it will cost me months in bills to pay this off. You know what, I just realized I never introduced myself! I am Cleric Strife, son of the former AVALANCHE member Cloud Strife, and you are?"

"My name is Seraph Escali, daughter of the scientists Lucrecia and Jothenel formerly of Shinra, pleased to meet your acquaintance Mr. Cleric."

"Just Cleric, please."

"And you can call me just Seraph."

"Seraph...that is a lovely name, a warrior angel from heaven of the highest rank. My name is the same as a holyman, it would seem both our parents have a taste for religious names, eh?"

"About our parents, Cleric, may I ask what your father does now? He doesn't have any Shinra left to fight, does he?"

"No, he lives at home and sometimes helps at the docks loading and unloading cargo. Mother runs a bar called 7th Heaven in our home, she makes most of the money we earn. She told me once that our home was once the Shinra Executive Beach house, funny that my dad lives in the house his enemies lived in! What do your parents do now?"

"My mother left my father years ago, they couldn't get along with each other due to differences in their morals. She still works, probably in some research center in North Corel or Rocket Town. Father continues working with others in the old Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim, you wouldn't believe the stuff they have down there."

"Sorry about your mother, shouldn't have mentioned it."

"Don't be! I brought up that discussion, remember?"

The door to the room opened and two doctors came in, interrupting their conversation as they began getting Cleric's bed ready to move.

"Sorry miss, Cleric is due for another operation soon, and we need to get him to the OR and prep him."

"Okay." Seraph said. "I guess I'll see you some other time then Cleric, goodbye."

"Later!" Cleric called back as they wheeled his bed down the halls to an elevator.

Good, now that I've got his trust, it will be only a matter of time before his parents and all their friends die by my hands...

*****

Seraph was happy, happy to the point of shouting out with joy. She finally found out the location of her first targets, it had to be Costa del Sol! However, she became increasingly agitated as she realized that she didn't have the money for a trip to Costa Del Sol. She looked at the guides for ferry rides and Airship trips to there, but they all numbers several hundred gil too much to spend and to live here at once. Seraph angrily stomped around, she could at last get her mission underway and she was being held back by MONEY...Cleric was certainly right about luck being an enemy when it was worst. She walked to her closet and pulled out her katana, she looked at the leather-bound hilt and decorated swordguard.

I may lack money to get there by a job's pay, but there are always weekend trips to the mountains to fight the monsters there. That is my only option, also it will help sharpen my edge even further for Cloud and that massive sword of his...

*****

Seraph was working hard at her job, trying to get as much of the never-ending paperwork finished with before her workday was over with. She hated her current position, paperwork was becoming rapidly dull and repetitive and she was so close to the huge Materia she could SENSE it in her minds eye. She stamped another paper document and put it onto a pile of other documents in the 'out' box for the aides to come and collect to file away. Again, for the hundredth time today, her phone rang and she had to set up another meeting with some company bigwig in Junon Harbor. After the raid by Yuffie, all of the businesses that ordered the Materia were all screaming at her to get the Materia back and to the shipping yards. Seraph had to deal with simple annoying requests that the Materia be sent to people threatening to sue the company to get the Materia. She always wondered why they yelled at her, she was only the secretary and had nothing to do with the security of the shipment. Let them yell at the president, he was the one ultimately responsible for the Materia being shipped out. Suddenly her intercom buzzed on.

"Ms. Escali, please report to the office immediately."

Speak of the devil, I wonder what garbage he has for me this time...

Seraph stood up from her cluttered desk and walked back to the massive double doors leading to the vice-executive's office and opened up the doors.

"Ms. Escali, glad to see you, please have a seat."

Seraph sat down in a small, uncomfortable wood chair, and the vice-executive faced her sitting on a massively overstuffed chair. He was a perfect example of the young, outstanding men in society, in his mid twenties, with a chiseled face and perfect body. Any woman would have fallen for his looks at first glance, but Seraph found him completely disgusting physically and socially. He may have the looks, but inside his soul was as corrupt as Shinra was, and his intelligence was even lower.

"Ms. Escali, you have been with us for, what, a few months now? You have been working very well at your current position, the paperwork streaming through here as never been so quickly dealt with before. With all that skill you have gotten here, any position in this business would seem like a good one for yourself. Tell me, if you could have any position here, any position at all, what would you do?"

"Well...I would want to work at...the Materia handling department."

"I see...that place is filled with scientists constantly working round the clock to uncover the mysteries of materia orbs. Because of your excellent record with us, I am tempted to let you take up a training course in that field as a scientist. Now before you say yes, you must realize it would come out of your usual pay, around a seven percent cut, and you would be doing mostly paperwork and class training. With THAT in mind, would you still say yes?"

"Of course, Sir! I would be glad to have such an opportunity!"

"Glad to hear it, Ms. Escali. The training course is starting in three weeks from tomorrow and lasts for seven weeks total. If you do good enough, you may be hired on as a scientist or one of their top secretariats. You also will be with other students and workers looking for that job as well, so good luck at it, Ms. Escali."

"Thank you Sir, I will do my utmost best!"

Of course I'll do my best, with this benefit I can soon get the codes to the huge Materia and get the for Hojo...

Chapter 5: Combat Training

"Seraph is special indeed, with the skills of any master swordsman like second nature to her, not even Sephiroth could best her. She opted to get a custom-made sword from somewhere, not accepting Sephiroth's sister blade the Murasame. I can see the advantages, a six-foot sword isn't easily concealed." Hojo, day 4198

Seraph continued through the heavily forested mountains of the Midgar range, looking for any monsters to fight with. The cover of branches over the trail and the bright light shining through the cracks of the branches gave the forest a mystical quality, something Seraph didn't expect here. She nervously rubbed the leather strips on the hilt of her sword, feeling the tough, worn-out texture against her fingers. She adjusted the trenchcoat she wore again, trying to get it to settle on her shoulders rather than her neck. Before she left her home in Nibelheim for Kolodia, Hojo had presented her with a going-away present.

"Wait Seraph! Take these clothes with you."

"Farewell, Seraph..."

Seraph was wearing that very set of clothes Hojo gave her when she left, and she found it very tough to move around in them. She lifted her arms, and they could barely go higher than her shoulders thanks to the oversized shoulder guards. The boots made her feet look twice their size, and she had trouble keeping them from hitting each other as she walked. The shirt was a size too big and the trousers were too stiff and small, making it tough to move her legs.

Well, my brother obviously got over these problems, so I will too...

Seraph shrugged again, trying to readjust the trenchcoat for the hundredth time. Suddenly the trees overhead began rustling, and Seraph sprung into her battle position, sword in hand, there was no wind to move the trees around. She looked up at the branches of the trees, and she saw something that looked like a small, wingless turkey standing on a branch, regarding her with red eyes. Seraph almost laughed at the tiny creature, but it made a horrific screech and leapt down from the tree branch, racing at her with its scaled feet. The creature leapt up and made a dive at Seraph's face, but she was already swinging her sword around to block the creature. The turkey creature screamed out incoherently as Seraph's sword cut a deep gash into its neck, blue blood streaming over its body. Seraph didn't wait for anything, her sword already coming down with tremendous force, cutting through the creatures body and killing it.

Well, that was no challenge for me...if this is all there is available here then I will be in some serious trouble...

Suddenly all the branches overhead began shaking, but the noise was much louder and it looked like the entire forest was moving. Seraph looked around to see branches covered in the turkey creatures, all of them squawking and prodding each other. They all then screeched out in a deafening single roar, and they all descended to the forest floor and raced for Seraph.

"Oh crap..." Seraph muttered as she readied her sword for another fight.

She began her battle, her sword a blue-silver blur as it raced across the winds, cutting through bodies with each swing. Magic was flaring around, fiery trails forming and incinerating the creature's bodies with effective power. Seraph dashed around, using all her skills for all they were worth, cutting, casting, and hitting the swarms as they came to her. She noticed as her battle lengthened, her blood began racing faster and faster, her heart pumping so violently it felt like an earthquake in her chest. Her skills were improving as a battle fury set upon her, the creatures were becoming so simple to deal with. Soon Seraph became so involved in the combat, her body seemed a separate entity from her mind, she felt she could see everywhere. The creatures were beginning to thin out, but she kept up her blood-driven rampage anyway. The last minute of the battle against the creatures was most interesting to her, she felt an uncontrollable power rise within her body and take control, this feeling was what master warriors called 'the breaking limit'. Seraph's body began surging with wind and air, and the winds began swirling around her, forming into a tornado of white energy. The tornado swept across the creatures, rendering them to pieces or flinging them away to be bashed into rocks or ground, ridding the forest of the menace to her. Once her 'breaking limit' was over with, she felt her entire body return to normal, and she collapsed onto the ground. Seraph tried to stand her ground, hardly believing that the tornado, which killed most of those demon creatures, came from her own internal energy. Suddenly her body seized up, and she fell to the ground again in utter pain and agony, the results of her wounds, injuries, and a severe withdrawl of energy from the 'breaking limit'. She gripped her sword as best she could and whispered an enchantment to the green stone set in her sword hilt, and green waves of energy coursed through her body, rejuvenating it somewhat. Again she whispered the enchantment, and the restoration energy filled her up with more healing power, and her wounds began closing up and fading away. After doing that spell many times more, she finally felt as she did before the fight, but tired from casting all those spells.

By the Gods, yes! This battle did me good indeed, I can feel all the skills I learned in Nibelheim returning, and even my Materia seems to have improved some. I finally got to see what kind of a 'breaking limit' I had within me, and it turned out to be VERY powerful. I had better write this down for Hojo in a letter...

Seraph pulled out a paper pad and an ink pencil and began writing of her experiences fighting the monsters in the forest. She later learned that they were called psykeys, bird-like monsters that always traveled in large packs and were very territorial. Once Seraph was done writing, she put the paper pad, covered in patches of her blood and that of the psykeys, back into her trenchcoat pocket. She even discovered that during the fight, the trenchcoat found a suitable place to settle on her shoulders to make it seem like nothing was there. Once again Seraph began walking through the forest, looking for more creatures to fight.

*****

During the evening hours of the last weekend day, Seraph returned from the mountains in her small rented motor truck. She slowly walked into her apartment and climbed the stairs to her room, and dropped all her weapons and war clothing to the floor and moved for her bedroom. She walked to her bed and collapsed onto the soft blankets and firm mattress, falling asleep instantly.

This past weekend was brutal, I never went through that much training in so short a period of time, but it did me good in the end. I have gained much battle experience, my swordsmanship has improved greatly, even my Materia became slightly stronger and more potent, but they are far from being mastered. I even got around 600 gil for the monster's kills, mostly through selling their remains at shops and other places. If I keep this up for another few months I will have enough to get a ticket for passage to Costa Del Sol...

Chapter 6: Friendship, missions, and Betrayal

"Today the mercenary Yuffie finally came back to the mansion with one of the huge Materia. I questioned her about the other three, and she angrily said that my daughter hadn't given her the codes for the Materia Foundation vaults. As agreed, I gave her the other fifteen thousand gil for her services, making her total twenty-five thousand. Yuffie told me she would be willing to get the other three, but she forced me to up the payment to thirty grand a piece because of the increased risk involved. She left as soon as our discussion was over, but she gave me a number to call once Seraph had the codes to the vault.

- Hojo, day 6103

"By the Gods, just how much paper does this company go though each day?" Seraph muttered.

She was amazed, after the Materia that was stolen was retrieved two weeks later, the amount of paperwork seemed to double. The missing Materia was found inside a small hotel room in downtown Kolodia, and the military police were busy looking for the woman who rented the room, a ms. Keesha Iridia. Seraph chuckled when she saw the report on the evening news, she knew that this Keesha was really Yuffie under one of her many alter-identities. But now her humor towards the recovery of the Materia was growing less and less as the paper piles on her desk grew larger.

"Ms. Escali," Another secretary spoke from another desk, "Vice-executive Bryant has requested that you get the Materia transfer documents typed and sent out by the end of the day."

"WHAT!? How can he expect me to do three days worth of work in less than one?"

"Don't shoot the messenger, please!"

No, I would rather shoot him instead...

In the middle of their conversation, a series of bells rang through the intercom system, announcing the start of the company lunch break. The people in the workplace all stood and filed out of the offices and out for their lunch, but Seraph still sat at her desk working on the transfer documents. The office area grew quiet as the people all left, and Seraph as grateful for the silence, the office was always loud with dozens of phone conversations and machines writing out paper documents. Only the sounds of her fingers striking the keyboard for her typing machine were evident. Seraph heard the sound of heavy shoes walking on the thinly carpeted aisles, but she paid them no attention until they stopped right behind her. Seraph turned in her chair, expecting some manager or paperboy to be handing her more files to go through, but instead she saw a familiar set of eyes under a pair of glasses.

"Huh? Cleric?"

"Yeah, its me. Didn't expect me out of the hospital so soon did you?"

"Well, no. Didn't you have three broken ribs and a number of lacerations and the such? How did you recover so fast, it would have taken months of recovery and healing."

"My parents heard about the incident and they both visited me while I was recovering after the surgery. While they were with me, they brought me a gift for being 'so very brave and courageous in the line of fire'."

"Wait...did they-"

"Yes, they gave me one of their mastered Materia from their battles in the northern crater against Sephiroth, a mastered restore! Needless to say, I used it to heal my ribs and cuts instantly, and I walked out of the hospital with my parents, they even opted to pay for the operation and the other bills!"

"That’s wonderful, Cleric! But why did you come here, you didn't come all this way to tell me about your recovery, did you?"

"No...I was wondering that maybe...you might want to go out for lunch or something."

"Well..."

Dummy, agree with him! This is the only way you can find out more about his parents and even their friends!

"...Alright. Let’s go! I know a good place to get a cold drink!"

Seraph stood up and they both walked out of the Materia Foundation building and into the busy midday streets. Seraph grabbed Cleric's arm and began pulling him towards the Dragon's Tear, hoping to try more of their drinks other than the water.

"Hey, hey now! I can move on my own just as well as the next guy! Why are you in such a rush to get there, can this place be that good?"

"Dunno, I've only been there once and the rest is based on pure opinion, besides I know a person who works there. Ever heard of the Dragon's Tear Bar?"

Cleric stopped in his tracks, looking at Seraph with concerned eyes.

"Seraph, do you know WHAT kind of a place that is? That bar has been the center of thirteen murders and countless crime scenes ever since it opened a year ago. From what the media has to say that place is a haven for any criminal, outcast, and mercenary in the entire Midgar region!"

"So? The time I went there only four people were present playing cards and betting on the Gold Saucer Races on the television. Don't tell me you're afraid of a few bad nuts...hee hee!"

"Ah, what the hell, lets go."

Cleric and Seraph both walked to the bar without any other interruptions, but once they entered the bar Seraph did a double take. Sitting in the most open seat at the bar was Yuffie dressed in the same stealth clothes she wore during her raid on the Foundation. Cleric saw Seraph stare at Yuffie, and when his eyes followed her gaze to the woman at the bar, and her eyes met his, Cleric's reflexes kicked in. He dashed forwards to grab Yuffie, but she had already leapt up and used the open rooftop supports to swing over Cleric's head and out the door. Cleric turned around to tell Seraph to go back to the foundation, but he didn't see her anywhere.

Blast it all! No time to deal with an uninformed Seraph right now, gotta catch that thief!

Cleric ran outside, and he quickly saw the thief in her black outfit running to the foundation building. He doubled his speed, and ran to the foundation to stop the thief from striking again.

*****

"So...*huff* you have the codes with ya! *puff*"

"Yes, the codes are simple, really. *gasp* Enter in the codeword 'airetam', Materia spelled backwards, then enter in the numbers '5-3-77-25-1' at the second door. *huff* Once in, the huge Materia are in three separate containers in the open and you can get out through the fire-escape in the back. I will wait for you there *heave* and pick you up in my rented motor vehicle and take you as far at the city border in the vehicle, then we both go on foot."

"Good, but why are you coming?"

"My mission doesn't require me to stay here any longer, and I really don't think it would be too wise anyways."

"Alright *pant*, but make it snappy!"

With those lasts words, Yuffie dashed into the foundation building, and Seraph ran further still to the company parking lots to get her motor vehicle. She had to dash back to her apartment and get her stuff and get back in the time for Yuffie to break the codes and get the huge Materia...

Yuffie leapt across a hallway entrance and threw another grenade down the foundation halls, and the explosion tore apart three more guards and scorched the walls black. She opened up her shuriken and used it to smash the doorknob off the door farther down the battle-damaged hall so it opened freely. The corridors were all buried in direction signs, and she had been racing through hallways and office rooms towards the Materia storage yards. Another guard leapt in front of her, firing his gun uselessly at her steel-like clothing suit. Yuffie threw her shuriken, and it whirled through the air and impaled one of its razor sharp points into the man's neck, killing him quickly. She pulled the weapon out and readied it for any other foolish guards...

Seraph pulled her sword out of her closet and got her bag with the two Materia inside it. She pulled the Materia out, and put the two green crystals into the holsters on the sword hilt and also in her hairband on her head. Afterwords, she dresseed herself up in her war clothing of Sephiroth and packed her other clothes into a backpack she his under her trenchcoat. Seraph made a check to see that the Materia were working in order by setting her room ablaze with a middle-class fire spell. Seraph dashed out of her bedroom, grabbed her bag full of gil and set her front room on fire as well, before running out of the room and down the stairs. She pulled the fire alarm on her way, and a shrill scream flared through the halls and emergency sprinklers came on in the halls, dousing the floor with water...

Yuffie punched in the final code for the door leading to the Materia storage room, and pushed the heavy foor open with some difficulty. She ducked inside and closed the heavy door from the inside just as the guards arrived, forcing them to waste precious seconds opening it again. Yuffie grabbed the three huge Materia in the storage room and put them into her backpack just as the door slid open with many angry guards behind them. The guards all began firing, the heavy bullets slamming into Yuffie as she ran for the fire escape. Yuffie winced in pain as a bullet found a weak part of her cloth armor, tearing through it and burrowing into her shoulder. She ignored the pain and continued running, but the guards noticed her reaction to the bullet wound and concentrated on her joints. By the time she opened the door and leapt into the waiting motor vehicle, she was bleeding from half a dozen wounds on her back and legs. As the truck sped off, one guard whom she recognized fired one round that hit her on the side of her unprotected head, and her world spun away into darkness and pain...

Seraph punched the accelerator, and the small motor truck lurched down the parking lot when she heard her glass window shatter. She turned to see Yuffie's head covered in thick blood and hair, a bullet had passed through her skull far enough away to not kill her right away, but enough to kill soon. Seraph raised one of her hands to the wound and chanted a cure spell to help deal with the critical injury, but the wound was too much for her inexperienced Materia to handle. Seraph felt Yuffie's hand fall on her shoulder, and her voice in surprising strength began to speak.

"Seraph...I got the...*cough*...three huge Materia...*gasp*...for ya...*cough*...tell father that...*ack*...I fought with...honor... ..."

Seraph felt Yuffie's hand go limp on her shoulder, and her body slumped down in the seat of the motor vehicle. Seraph slowly removed Yuffie's hand and put it on her lap, and Seraph wiped the tears forming in her eyes and progressed out of Kolodia into the wilderness.

*****

"Dammit! Did you get any ID on the escape car yet?"

"Coming in now, sir. The car was a rental picked up in the upper class commercial district about three months ago. The owner is a woman named Seraph Escali, age 16, height-"

"WHAT!! What did you say the woman's name was!?"

"S-sir, the name was S-seraph Escali, age 16, height 6'0", employed...at the Materia Foundation as a Materia specialist."

"So...she was really a criminal...Seraph. Quick, get the-"

Cleric suddenly let loose with a loud sneeze, interrupting his orders. He wiped his nose and sniffed, wondering why his allergies were acting up now of all times.

"Call up the Military police and inform them of the robbery, also get them to send out people from SOLDIER to hunt her down before she reaches the mountains. Go and get the ol' Shinra Helicopter ready for flight, I will go and find her myself if necessary."

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