Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy VII: Shadowed Illusions, Final Destination ❯ Prologue

When Sephiroth was threatening the world the first time, Nibelheim wasn't the only town he had burned. To top off Sephiroth's pain of finding his “truth”, he wanted to experiment the poisonous Mako Energy, but the target wasn't easily given to him. The target was the daughter of a Soldier officer, Chaos Rilik, and an undercover ShinRa employee, Namta Rilik. Her name was Salira. But, Sephiroth wasn't the only problem to this family, ShinRa too. Namta Rilik was an old Avalanche member, hence the reason she was under cover at ShinRa.

It wasn't long before the old “President Shinra” and his Turks came into the scene, about a month before that very city that the Rilik family lived in burnt down. The wanna-be-head Turk, Reno, was the one who realized Namta's position and consulted the president about it. Soon enough, she and the family were hunted down.

However, Sephiroth's “team” was first. One reason of Sephiroth's attack to take the girl, was for revenge, not only to try and use her as an experiment. Sephiroth, at the time, knew of Chaos' hatred toward him, and with that, he was displeased. The maniac ended up burning the town just to get his wish, killing everyone including Chaos. The only survivors of the fire were Namta and her daughter, Salira, only at the age of two.

The two were forced to run out of the city's flames to survive. Within minutes, Sephiroth had caught up with the remaining family near a stream. Namta was catching her breath from running so much to protect her child, and wouldn't let her go. Protective, the mother would not allow Sephiroth to take the girl, no matter what he said or was thinking to do. Eventually, Sephiroth grew impatient and rammed his blade into Namta, causing her to die while she tried to have Salira run away.

At the same time, part of the same supposable “team” on this mission came after Sephiroth to stop him, including Cloud Strife. But before they showed up, Namta was dead, and Sephiroth vanished with the girl. Cloud never realized what child Sephiroth had took until he returned to camp, when he heard about the family that was killed and slaughtered.

Cloud knew the family quite well, being good friends with Chaos in the early days of Soldier and occasionally getting paired with him on small missions and such. And was disappointed about the tragic loss.

 

Later that night, in the middle of a Midgar Sector, Sephiroth went to experiment with the girl for his own twisted reasons. Only two people had known about Sephiroth's presence and where he was, Lance Likeru and Rosalynn Kitra. Sephiroth injected Salira with Jenova Cells, or Mako Energy, into her body with a shot. A little more then half of it was injected in her, when Sephiroth's team members, Lance and Rosalynn , called him to something else that happened. A whole shot would have killed the girl, Sephiroth was aware of it, he wanted to finish it, but he had to attend the issue elsewhere.

Salira was left alone in the same alley. The small girl appeared sick because of the cells in her body. Luckily, someone had passed by and noticed her. This person happened to be Aeris, the flower girl. Aeris brought the girl to a safer place, an orphanage that wasn't run by ShinRa, since she wasn't able to care for her.

 

By Salira's third week into the orphanage, she made only one friend, Eric. And it continued to be that way for the rest of the time even. The two got along well, and always were together. Eric managed to be Salira's “older brother” when older and other orphans decided to harm her in anyway. He, as some would say, liked her, though was shy to show it at the time, and vice-versa.

The day Salira turned six, Eric, being eight, was adopted, leaving Salira alone. One week went by, and she couldn't bare it anymore, thus she left the orphanage. She had no friends, the others would always harm her and tease her in a way she hated, so it really made no difference.

Eventually, she got tired of running around and rests in a small, narrow alley. To her luck, the legendary hero, Cloud Strife, happened to be walking by in the very alley, and soon spotted her. Salira immediately hid once she was aware of his presence, deeper into the junk that was piled up around the alley. Cloud gives no trouble in finding her. She was familiar to him, he just wasn't aware on who the child once belonged too, for it was at least three to four years since the incident with Sephiroth.

As Cloud got the girl to calm down and trust him, he slowly began to ask questions about her, Salira truthfully answered. He heard the facts as they were told and put the puzzle together. Cloud, himself, explained to the girl who he was in relation to her father. After the small talk, Strife promises the girl he would care for her and adopt her. In which, he did so.

 

As years passed, the child grew up in Strife's legend, and soon her own. Knowing of the fact with, now, NeoShinRa being the newest ShinRa company, the Strife family takes cautious decisions. And now it seems that Salira is in the middle of many things as she later sees. However, though living through all in the past, she doesn't remember anything before the orphanage, and the memories of it, and Eric too, are very faint.