Crisis Rewritten

Chapter 1: How It All Began

Hey guys, this is my first ff7 fanfic ever, and my first fanfic written for our everyone's favorite (pretty) mass murderer, Sephiroth! I suddenly thought of writing this fic after acquainting myself with Sephiroth's admittedly tragic backstory and how he used to be a pretty sweet guy that genuinely meant well. As it turns out, I'm a sucker for evil characters with tragic backstories, so I made this reader-insert hoping to give him a different ending. Btw, I've never played any of the games (I'm too poor to buy any of them huhuhuuuuu) so I'm just going to be basing some of the info from the ff7 wiki and will be watching playthroughs as well, so please excuse me if there are any inaccuracies.

Also, just a bit of info: reader here is born in 1983, a year after the 1st class trio (angeal, genesis, and sephiroth) is born and basically joins SOLDIER in 1995.

anyways, I hope you enjoy!

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You were only twelve years old when it all started for you.

Having been born and raised in the slums beneath the Sector 5 plate, at a tender young age, you were already no stranger to danger. It was an uncontested fact that wherever poverty lingered, crime and debauchery festered. It was even considered unusual for an inhabitant of the slums to not have dealt with some form of transgression at least once.

Although you had long known this bitter reality all too well, given your unfortunate circumstances, it seemed that Fate had decided to further hammer the point home for you-in the form of an extreme robbery case. Even as many years passed, the incident never really left your mind. It was as if it had been branded into the very cells of your brain, forbidding you from ever forgetting it. You could still recall, with vivid clarity, how you had come home to a nearly empty house. You could never forget the nauseating way your stomach had dropped as you watched your mother weep and bawl in grief.

And you could still remember how utterly helpless it had made you feel.

You had thought to yourself, Never again. Never again were you going to let any more bad things happen to your mother. Your mother-your guiding light, your rock, your shelter. Your only family. Since then, you had sworn to be stronger. Your mother had given you life . . . now, you were going to repay her in kind: your protection.

Thatwas when you remembered those posters plastered on the electric posts, thoseglossy flyers bearing the image of a particular renowned war hero-Sephiroth,you had heard his name was. Beneath his illustrated visage was a message, acall for action, written in big, bold letters:

YOU COULD BE THE NEXT TOP SOLDIER! SHINRA WANTS YOU!

SOLDIER . . . that was it. SOLDIER was going to be the answer to your problems. Considered stronger and more formidable than the ordinary Shinra mook, SOLDIERs commanded fear and respect everywhere they went. If you were to become one of them, then perhaps . . . nobody would ever think of laying a hand on you or your mother ever again.

To you, it had seemed like the perfect plan at first. You had been so excited to discuss it with two of your childhood friends, Ren and Sunny. So excited that the moment you were finally dismissed, you quickly grabbed your friends and dragged them to your hangout spot-a hill situated not too far away from Midgar.

Ren and Sunny. You first met the inseparable pair back when you were in elementary. Although they were unrelated, Ren-with his shaggy, jet-black hair; eerily pale skin; and auburn eyes-and Sunny-with her short, ebony hair; alabaster complexion; and umber-brown eyes-could be easily mistaken for siblings. It certainly didn't help that they acted the part, either.

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"______, could you at least slow down and let me catch up?!"