Angeal Hewley

'''This is not FF7 canon. Well, some of it is. Most of it is not. This is mostly me trying to keep my notes straight. Spoilers abound.'''

Born 1968

SOLDIER First Class

Former Colonel in the Shinra army

Killed in Action, 1993

Early Life
The first success of Project Gillian, Angeal was born using an inverted method of Project Sephiroth. The ova of his mother, Gillian Hewley, were infused with Jenova and then fertilized externally by an unknown donor. She was then implanted with the embryo. Like Lucrecia, she was given mako herself, but not Jenova. A much bigger woman than Lucrecia, Gillian was able to vaginally birth Angeal- who was a much smaller baby than Sephiroth at about 8lbs. Although she did not suffer from toxemia, she did hemorrhage. Hollander was able to save her life, but only by performing a partial hysterectomy- removing her uterus, but leaving her ovaries intact. Because of this, she was not able to bear any more children.

Angeal grew up in Banora with his mother and adoptive father, who died when Angeal was still very young. Like many families in Banora, Angeal did not have much in the way of material wealth as a child. Angeal frequently pillaged "dumb apples" throughout the year to help keep himself and his mother fed. Even then, his sense of honor was very strong, and he never took apples from the orchards belonging to the family of his best friend; Genesis Rhapsodos. While his childhood was not easy, it was not unhappy. He did not want for love or devotion from his small family, and he had many friends within the village.

SOLDIER
Although he did not know it at the time, Angeal- and his friend Genesis- were both bred and born to be SOLDIERs. They were not the first recruits by any means, but they and Sephiroth were among the first to be genetically engineered from birth to be living weapons. Angeal, wanting to honor his father and also to help support his mother, joined the military as soon as he was of age. Genesis would join at the same time, but for different reasons. In the military the class divide was eliminated, and both of them were put in the same unit.

During training, they encountered a young man known only as "Sephiroth". The three of them would become good friends.

The Clone Wars
Although Angeal was not injured in the memorable incident in the training room, Genesis' injury triggered a breakdown in Angeal's body as well. When Genesis defected to assist Hollander in finding a cure for his degredation, Angeal went after him as best he could within the boundaries of his duty as a SOLDIER. Later, however, he defected himself, hoping to protect and aid his best friend.

Angeal did not react well to the information in Professor Hollander's files. However, he managed to cope rather better than Genesis. Angeal did his best to remain loyal to his friends and troops, even if his faith in Shinra had been profoundly weakened. He did his best to bear up and carry on despite the mysterious illness eating away at his body. Although Angeal was suffering from an illness similar to Genesis, his only out ward symptom was a double white wing protruding from his right shoulder.Professor Hollander described their illness as "degrading". In truth, Angeal's body had turned on itself, his immune system attacking its own tissue for no reason that anyone could discover. His very genetic code became unstable, allowing him to graft portions of it onto other people and creatures and in doing so, bend them to his will. Indeed, most of Angeal's troops began to exhibit superficial physical similarities to him, as if they were all related by blood in some way. (The erroneously named " Angeal Copies".) The troops, who were already loyal to their commanding officers, required no underhanded methods in order to get them to carry out orders. Unwilling to leave their commander to his fate, Angeal's troops followed him even as he defected and struck out on his own in an attempt to a) leave Shirna and b) save his best friend.

Death and Legacy
Convinced that he was doing more harm than good, and constantly "infecting" more and more people and creatures with this compromised DNA, Angeal began to despair that he would be able to correct the mess that had resulted in his and Genesis' defection. Although Sephiroth and Zack did their best to help, it was not enough. In the end- ill and badly wounded- Angeal begged his friends to leave him to his fate. Unwilling to leave his commander to die, Zack refused to leave. Not wanting Zack to risk both his life and his career for his sake, Angeal attacked Zack, forcing him to defend himself. The wounds he received were not critical, but he died shortly after the fight. Many viewed his death as suicide; feeling that it was within Angeal's character to spare those he loved more pain by taking his own life. In truth, he died of his illness, his body simply shutting down after so much stress and abuse on an already compromised system. Before breathing his last, Angeal bequeathed his family's buster sword to his Captain, Zack Fair, charging him to stay true to his ideals and to his sense of honor.

A holographic simulation of Angeal still exists within the database of the Shinra training simulator. However, it is currently locked and therefore inaccessible to those without administrative access.