THIS AFTERNOON IN THE GARDEN.
Mariella had been at Balamb for four years now. She was still considered an underclassman, and when they were assigning duties for SeeD missions, she was usually stuck with something like support or medic at the base camp, if she was assigned at all. But Mariella didn't mind. She wasn't a soldier by nature, and in the last few months, as things got stranger and stranger, she was beginning to doubt that she was meant to be a SeeD at all. She didn't like violence. She wanted to know how to defend herself, but going off to kill the sorceress, their classmates betraying them, and now the great war hero Sephiroth alive and well--it was a lot to deal with. Mariella didn't flatter herself that she was all that emotionally well equipped.
There was one thing she was good at, however, and that was materia. She was one of the school's youngest and brightest white mages, though she had to admit she had little interest in offensive or defensive materia--she just wanted to cast spells that would make people happy. Twice a week, you could find her in the medbay with the younger children, testing out a new materia she had synthesized to produce ephemeral, fluttering butterflies made of incandescent light; or one that showered down in a glimmering spray on the patients. Her teachers said they were pretty, but useless (much like Mariella herself, she thought with no small pang in her chest), but she always said--how could it be useless if it made someone happy?
Several of the materia labs were still under repair from the Galbadian invasion, and the remaining ones required a staff member present at all times when a student was working with the materials. Ever since Kalina's mishap back in July, the faculty had really cracked down on any student working in the labs after hours; even upperclassmen were under tighter scrutiny. Mariella's project had to be worked on in short bursts when she could guarantee the lab was empty but a staff member was present; it was a tricky matter of timing. She'd been working on the spell for nearly a month now, since before they'd sent the mission to the North. It was almost done. Her swordsmanship TA, Instructor Rosenheim, had agreed to sit in for a few hours while she worked and he graded papers, coughing gently into a monogrammed handkerchief every few minutes. Mariella asked if he had a cold--she knew the perfect spell to get rid of a cold! But Instructor Rosenheim merely waved her off, and she returned to her work.
The idea was simple: Balamb needed a little more cheer. Shelinda and Maria's party had been a good start, but everything was so doom-and-gloom lately it seemed like fear and sadness had settled right into everyone's bones. Mariella was a devotee of Mognet movies, and she knew no better source for uplifting messages and reassurance that things work out in the end than a good Mognet marathon. All she wanted to do was create three-dimensional holograms of some of the characters to cheer up people around the school. It wouldn't be too difficult, really, though she had hit a snag in writing just the right chemical formula to make the holograms really life-like. But she'd figure it out.
Instructor Rosenheim began coughing again and excused himself to step outside, just as a bird crashed against the window. Mariella yelped in surprise and her sleeve caught on a beaker, dashing it and its bluish contents all over the floor. The pigeon was squawking desperately, caught in the half-open window pane, and Mariella briefly weighed the loss of the chemical with the loss of the bird's life before running to the window, trying to soothe the terrified animal. Her tiny fingers made quick work of the jammed window lock, swinging it the rest of the way open, and the bird wasted no time on racing into the room--and directly into her elaborate set up of towers and tubes. Disoriented and terrified, it crashed between the glass vials and knocked over scales and petri dishes. Materia orbs scattered all over the floor and unfinished alchemical substances poured over them, mingling in dangerous combinations. A thick, purplish steam began to rise from the mess on the floor. Mariella screamed and ran for the bird, trying to shoo it away as she pulled on thick rubber gloves with her teeth.
But it was no use. When she finally got it out of the window again and turned around, the purple mist had swelled and spread as if some great vent under the school were belching it out in massive, violet breaths. Mariella coughed and opened the rest of the windows along the wall, then ran to the door and flung it wide, shouting for Instructor Rosenheim as the mist poured out behind her. She caught a brief glimpse of the courtyard and the hall outside, students glancing up from their books or their lunches to see what the commotion was. Several began running towards her, but she had no time to explain before the smoke cascaded past her and enveloped them, too. Mariella's eyes stung and the world began to waver uncertainly, before it tipped completely over and she passed out.