tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29616574393573006822011-12-17T01:00:32.804+10:00Heathernoreply@blogger.comBlogger321100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-74369085178118908182030-04-07T10:39:00.004+10:002011-12-17T01:00:32.824+10:00

And hello, both to new readers and to anyone who's stumbled back to the stories after they have been down for so long!I want to say a huge "thankyou" to the readers who made the stories so popular in 2005/6. Thankyou for your emails asking for them back--I didn't answer all of them, but they were all read, and appreciated. Youguys rock. :)Also, thankyou to "leafonabreeze", who nominated this

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-29599078647120358352010-05-04T10:52:00.010+10:002010-05-06T00:19:40.048+10:00

Chapter Twenty-SevenReno remembered, now, why Raith was not here, and the memory ripped through him like a fresh wound that no painkillers could alleviate.It had sent him mad, once, that pain. Not that kind of stark raving lunacy you saw in some, no; it was the cold kind of mad that didn't seem like madness. It was the hiding, the drawing yourself inside, so you remained protected from the horror

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-36757922171324256732010-04-06T21:30:00.009+10:002010-05-05T13:51:56.575+10:00

Part One: The Importance of FamilyChapter OneChapter TwoChapter ThreePart Two: The Best of FriendsChapter FourChapter FiveChapter SixChapter SevenPart Three: The Associate of CorruptionChapter EightChapter NineChapter TenChapter ElevenChapter TwelveChapter Thirteen ~ # ~ # ~ # ~ [Raith's Story Pt 1]Part Four: The Sirocco Of ChangeChapter Fourteen ~ # ~ # ~ # ~ [Raith's Story Pt 2]Chapter

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-71849511933471535382009-05-27T16:57:00.004+10:002010-05-04T13:06:18.381+10:00

Please note: All dialogue written in this colour is quoted directly or paraphrased from Before Crisis and should not be interpreted as my own work. Some of the Shin-Ra mission storyline has come from Before Crisis. However, this is an adaptation, and not all of the Shin-Ra political storyline in this story has come from the game, but is my original content, so you won't have seen it if you've

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-91337639016016270832009-05-22T17:00:00.003+10:002009-05-27T17:45:31.085+10:00

Please note: All dialogue written in this colour is quoted directly from Before Crisis and should not be interpreted as my own work. Some of the Shin-Ra mission storyline has come from Before Crisis. However, this is an adaptation, and not all of the Shin-Ra political storyline in this story has come from the game, but is my original content, so you won't have seen it if you've played the game.Be

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-38185566499982233232009-05-20T20:31:00.008+10:002010-01-09T14:46:27.472+10:00

Please note: All dialogue written in this colour is quoted directly from Before Crisis, Crisis Core or the PAL version of Last Order and should not be interpreted as my own work. However, with apologies to any purists reading, for the Cosmo Canyon portion of this chapter, even though the dialogue is in yellow I haven't directly quoted it, but paraphrased it instead. Clearly, something was lost in

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-85656947796820014662009-01-12T22:10:00.007+10:002010-01-09T14:45:07.176+10:00

Reno knew, now, of course. He knew better. He'd fooled himself into thinking he didn't need Rude, didn't want Rude, for the same reason he later fooled himself into thinking he didn't need Raith. That he didn't need anybody.Cos it was easier to convince himself of that than come to terms with the idea that he was all but dead to the people he loved.How could he have known how wrong he was, every

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-17653991254530899652008-12-31T02:23:00.004+10:002010-01-09T14:44:19.810+10:00

Please note: While I'd previously planned to incorporate most of the scenes Reno is involved in from the BC game, I decided on a different route for the sake of the story. Nevertheless, all dialogue written in this colour is quoted directly from Before Crisis and should not be interpreted as my own work.Some of the Shin-Ra mission storyline has come from Before Crisis. However, this is an

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-66368379613535875202008-12-13T09:10:00.005+10:002008-12-31T02:28:54.405+10:00

Please note: While I'd previously planned to incorporate most of the scenes Reno is involved in from the BC game, I decided on a different route for the sake of the story. Nevertheless, all dialogue written in this colour is quoted directly from Before Crisis and should not be interpreted as my own work.Some of the Shin-Ra mission storyline has come from Before Crisis, so there are some spoilers.

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-48310644188821452532008-12-08T22:21:00.004+10:002008-12-13T14:40:22.832+10:00

Please note: While I'd previously planned to incorporate most of the scenes Reno is involved in from the BC game, I decided on a different route for the sake of the story. Nevertheless, all dialogue written in this colour is quoted directly from Before Crisis and should not be interpreted as my own work. Some of the Shin-Ra mission storyline has come from Before Crisis, so there are some spoilers

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-62517848355573862712008-10-13T23:53:00.006+10:002010-01-09T14:43:00.253+10:00

Please note: While I'd previously planned to incorporate most of the scenes Reno is involved in from the BC game, I decided on a different route for the sake of the story, partially because of logical inconsistencies that occur when BC bumps against FFVII, and partly because I don’t want the story to just be a retelling of gameplay. Nevertheless, all dialogue written in this colour is quoted

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-46562142127787937402008-10-09T16:56:00.003+10:002008-10-14T00:35:50.764+10:00

Dallas was there. Reno would have known her anywhere. She was speaking, but he couldn't comprehend at first. Then her voice came into focus. "Reno, what were you thinking?" Her voice faded, then came back again. "No, I know what you were thinking when you left, but going up against her? Why would you do that? Cloud is a big boy, he would have been fine."No, too strong even for Cloud, Reno thought

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-60090918506724130652008-10-01T01:03:00.008+10:002010-01-09T14:40:59.112+10:00

To fly... to have in his hands the controls of that 'copter, seeing the world from high above the city, hearing nothing but the sound of the rotors above his head, or communication from HQ in his earphones. It was quiet up there, nevertheless. Peaceful.To fly... he took to it like a natural, Rude said. Rude never complained when Reno pushed the 'copter to its limits. He never told him to stop. He

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-58015285910487146182008-09-28T21:54:00.005+10:002008-12-10T11:25:03.168+10:00

Funny, the little details you remembered, many years later, long after they ceased to have any real importance.Especially in times like now, when you only had the benefit of hindsight and no real way of separating true memory from stuff you'd made up in your own mind to make yourself feel better.It really was funny, the details you remembered. Rude bought Reno a new shirt, that first week they'd

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-78210605160493429732008-08-22T20:22:00.008+10:002010-01-09T14:40:16.109+10:00

If someone loses a person; a part of themselves, then that part is seemingly filled by another, what happens if the first person returns? Can three halves become one whole?Or do you have to choose?#Reno looked from Braden, to Rude, and then back to Braden again, looking for signs that he was being messed with. But, both faces were calm, if not expectant in Braden's case."You have got to be

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-10353692354737788772008-06-04T22:16:00.008+10:002010-01-09T14:39:43.799+10:00

Chapter Fourteen"How is he?"Reno heard the voice through a miasma of pain. Who was that? Tseng, he thought, but he wasn't sure. His mind was kinda... fuzzy, moving in and out of this dream-like state, going places that felt more real than the pain. Maybe that was why he was going there."Not so good." That was Rude, far away. Reno opened his eyes as much as he could, his vision swimming. There was

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-62624193356032127232008-04-22T23:48:00.007+10:002010-01-09T17:32:16.937+10:00

Note: Be aware, that from this point in the story until the end of Part Four, Raith has his own side to tell, although it is set as a different story, in first person. In order to understand some of Reno's Story, to avoid having to repeat myself, it became apparent to me that rather than being a separate story, it has become more of an extension of this one. So, in order to make complete sense

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-30086325688345919022008-03-13T14:59:00.006+10:002008-04-23T00:03:52.084+10:00

There was a saying... "As soon as you wonder if you are happy, you immediately become less so." Reno'd heard that somewhere; he couldn't, now, remember where.He had been lacking a part of himself, back then, and there were parts of his world he'd hated, but he had still been happy, for a time, even with that one thing missing. He thought so then. He still thought so, even knowing what had

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-28866333473038051882008-02-09T00:15:00.007+10:002008-03-13T15:32:31.915+10:00

There came a time in everyone's life, Reno knew, when you are offered a choice between two paths. This happened often in his own life, but there was always the Big One: that first choice which wasn't between two places to go, so much, or two actions to take, but was rather a choice between options that ended up deciding who it is you were going to be.Or who you wanted to be.The real question was,

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-54688723761104783492008-02-09T00:15:00.006+10:002008-02-24T23:50:27.750+10:00

Of course, Reno thought, he had no way of knowing, back then, that his major regret that night hadn't been, so much, that it'd been some random one-nighter. It was more that it hadn't been, and that, for the second time in his life, he'd actually felt something a little more than just the physical.Mind you, it was hard to be self-reflective when you were drunk, so he hadn't noticed anything like

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-25638190707326212842008-01-09T08:05:00.002+10:002008-02-24T00:33:42.309+10:00

Reno vaguely remembered the period that Rude was gone from his life as some of his darkest days. Darker than when his mother had died. Darker than when he'd been told his father had been killed in Wutai. Darker than the day he realised Vickie was dead and his other sister, lost to him, perhaps forever. Darker than any that had followed later.Darker, even, than this day, because no matter what

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-2959523972443393052007-12-04T22:48:00.000+10:002008-12-12T11:55:16.208+10:00

Chapter EightReno knew all about the Lifestream, of course; had known all his life. You couldn't live on Planet and not know. His father had first told him about it a long time ago, when he'd been on leave. "The Lifestream is the force that gives Planet its life," he said."How?" Reno asked."Well, when we die, that's where we go. It's kinda like breathing. Planet breathes in the Lifestream,

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-21867360833744382862007-11-22T08:11:00.000+10:002008-12-12T11:55:16.401+10:00

Reno figured he'd lost consciousness for a moment, for suddenly the pain was there again, and so was the noise. The shooting hadn't stopped. The battle still raged around him. He remembered wondering how it was there were still 'copters in the air, given the sheer mass of ground cannon when he'd landed."Reno, you fool. Why did you do that?" He knew that voice. He struggled to open his eyes and

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-26685855922725532692007-08-22T08:52:00.000+10:002007-11-22T17:25:54.620+10:00

The other thing that always perplexed Reno was why it was, if family was so important, that every time he thought he'd found one--people who loved him; somewhere to belong--something always happened to screw it all up.It took all of the fingers of one hand to count how many "families" he'd had through his life to now. First, his blood family. Then, the orphanage. Then, Rude and his Ma. Then...the

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-83862172554731677122007-06-22T19:29:00.000+10:002007-08-23T09:11:59.026+10:00

What Reno really wanted to know was how he could have kept a promise like that when he'd never had any control at all over his life. How could a five year old know what a promise even meant, let alone keep one?His father hadn't intended to die, he knew that. No one ever did. Nevertheless, it was unreasonable, and Reno never realised that until he was much older. By which time, it was too late to

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-60769051759244808362007-05-19T19:57:00.001+10:002008-12-12T11:55:16.595+10:00

Chapter Four"Medic!" Rude shouted. I'm moving, Reno thought. But no. The ground was still under him, threatening to swallow him up, or so it felt. Falling into darkness...Rude's breath was on his ear. "C'mon, buddy. Hang in there. This is nothing, man. We've been through worse than this." Then his voice sounded again, a bellow from very far away, "Fuck you sphincters for a bunch of lazy whores!

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-68033765724092692402007-04-21T17:44:00.002+10:002010-01-09T12:54:42.650+10:00

What had happened to the by who wanted to fly? Reno wondered.The answer was simple. He'd died the day his parents had, not to be reawakened until many years later, the day he found a family.But this was not yet. #Reno'd had better weeks. It wasn't so much the graffiti or garbage duty, or even the enforced "be nice to Raith", that bugged him. It was the room arrest. He couldn't stand being locked

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-19153767991125320522007-04-11T13:22:00.000+10:002007-04-21T17:52:06.186+10:00

They say, if you are dying, that your entire life flashes before your eyes in only a few seconds. "Family is important. It is everything. You must promise me, Reno, if anything happens to me, you'll look after your mother and sisters."Reno wondered if his father'd had time to see his life flash by before the mako bomb blew him into ash. Did Ma see hers as she died that night? he thought. Will I

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-91063658697952439592007-04-03T21:36:00.000+10:002007-04-13T09:08:42.417+10:00

Chapter OneThe voice came from very far away, Reno thought. "Reno. Reno!" Footsteps, drawing nearer, sounded through the noise. "Reno, are you all right? Shit. Fuck. Shit."Hands. Someone's hands. Large gloved hands. He tried to open his eyes but his eyelids wouldn't obey him. He tried to sit up, but the pain lanced through his guts like fire; embers left to smoulder and sear."Rude?" His head said

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-87164103735165213792007-04-01T11:19:00.001+10:002008-12-14T13:08:46.087+10:00

My policy:Creative Commons License:You may disseminate links or quote the stories as excerpts (under fair use, ie 5% or less), so long as they are credited to me (as "Bethgael") and a link is provided back to this site, and the legal notice on the front page is included.Please do not disseminate story excerpts or links in any place where adult content is not allowed.Please do not post in entirety

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-11669231743807666832007-04-01T11:00:00.019+10:002008-12-29T00:16:50.669+10:00

So, who are they all?Obviously, this is not a complete roll call, as yet. I will upload each new FF character picture as they are introduced into the stories, so check back often.RenoRaithRudeShin-Ra CorporationHeideggerProfessor HojoPresident ShinraReeve TuestiScarletRufus ShinraThe Turks *BradenDallasJaskKatelynKyttMaxxSherinTsengVeld*With the exception of Elena, Reno, Rude, Tseng and Veld/

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961657439357300682.post-85339162183837206322007-04-01T10:52:00.006+10:002010-01-08T18:05:40.572+10:00

The Most ImportantWell, duh. Tetsuya Nomura (and his team). The man's a genius, people.Also, mucho kudos to Tempestmir, Cee and Rhaevyn, for much help and many discussions when I got stuck on later edits for this story, as well as Raith's Story, and others.And a big hearty thankyou to anyone who comments when they read. This is not an afterthought, by the by, it really does help when you're stuck

Bethgaelnoreply@blogger.com