A Labor of Love Prologue
By Meriko Robert
She remembered the lifestream answering her plea for help, whirling coils and spirals of the misty green energy rising up from all over the planet to aid Holy in its battle against Meteor. One ultimate magic against the other, raging in a titanic deadlock above Midgar, and the very soul of the planet racing in to decide the battle.
Her last task...her last duty. Protect the planet, and then find the Promised Land once your tasks were completed. Her last task...her last duty. Completed...
...no...
?
...not complete, my Guardian...not complete...
Jenova has been destroyed. All those who schemed against the planet are dead. Holy was called. Meteor was banished. It is finished. Her last task...her last duty. Finished...
...one more task...one more duty...one last labor of love...
Labor?
...awaken, my Guardian...
...of love?
...my Daughter...
Awareness gradually seeped back into a shell long abandoned...the weight of flesh and bone settled upon her, chill and damp made themselves known along the length of her body. Her limbs thrashed feebly, but she found no floor to rise from, nor walls to strike. She was floating. Eyes were forced open with great effort and then shut immediately against a blinding radiance. Squinting, she gradually was able to focus on the crystalline walls of a cavern, light from above glittering across the gentle surface of the tiny lake she floated in. Rolling heavily in the water, she laboriously made her way towards the closest shore with awkward strokes.
The sandy shore rose gradually, or she would have not been able to find strength enough to pull herself out of the water. Palms flat on the shore, elbows locked against their trembling, she half-sat, half-lay on the sand, trying to catch her breath. Dress, jacket, and hair all seemed saturated with the weight of an entire ocean, pulling her constantly down towards the sand. Exhausted, her elbows buckled and she collapsed into the gritty embrace of the ground, welcoming the darkness that swept over her mind's eye.
.