Garret Light

Garret Light
"This world will only make sense if I force it to!"
Biographical Information
Name	Garret Randulf Light
Nickname(s)	Morpheus
Age	33 (At Death)
Born	12th January 1967
Family	Lilian Eaves - Ex Wife, Romulus Light - Father
Physical Description
Race	Mutated Human
Gender	Male
Hair	Blond
Eyes	Green
Height	6'1
Biographical Information
Affiliation	Shinra Electric Power Company, SOLDIER, Project Morpheus
Occupation	Assistant Director of SOLDIER, Head of Loss Prevention
Place of Birth	Midgar
Favored Weapon	Handgun, Mutant Claw
Favored Materia	Mystify
Behind the Scenes
Played By	Razuun Wrexan
Voice Actor	Christian Bale

S T A T U S

Garret was finally defeated - his terrible reign of terror and manipulation drawn to an end. Having attempted to take control of Atma Weapon and manipulating SOLDIER into activating the creature, he was eventually killed by a Jenovaphage bullet fired by Baylian Ashheart, with his ex-wife's name on his lips.

It was in those final moments of clarity, freed from the terrible influence of the Calamity, that Light saw things through clear eyes. Too little, too late.

D E T A I L S

APPEARANCE

Garret was tall, handsome and stalked when he walked, sporting well-kept blond hair and striking green eyes. Due to an accident, one eye was covered with an eyepatch, and he was missing his left arm below the shoulder. Garret was typically well dressed and formally presented - until his sanity slipped and he wore naught but cargo pants and boots, allowing his hidden, mutated right arm loose.

PERSONALITY

Garret was a true idealist - but absolutely undone by the depth of his 'vision' of a SOLDIER without ego. Manipulative, conniving, malicious and vengeful, Garret gradually prioritized personal grudges over his grand vision, eventually becoming a venemous and cruel mastermind. Harbouring a very poor opinion of 'free will' and the inability for personal responsibility by the 'herd', Light harboured an intense superiority complex - jealous and conniving.

He was also, however, incredibly insecure and lonely - deeply despising his own dreams being taken away from him due to his injuries, watching 'lax' SOLDIER reach the heights he had dreamt of. Light hated his mutilation and his scars. He only ever found peace when he fell in love with Lillian Eaves, and even considered shelving his grand designs at the Planet's fate.

Ultimately, Light was an extremist who believed the ends justified the means. He was deeply paranoid and intensely deranged by the end of his life thanks to his unmedicated mutations, leading him to terrible depravities and ultimately lead what remained of his humanity to seek death ; or absolution through victory.

HOBBIES & TALENTS

Light was a keen fan of theatre , particularly ballet. He enjoyed puzzles and riddles and was an avid reader, styling himself as a scholar first and foremost.

LIKES

Garret enjoyed fine wines and cheeses, ballet, his ex-wife's company and the satisfaction of successfully accomplishing one of his many goals - especially when nobody knew he had even done anything.

DISLIKES

Light intensely disliked the limelight, and hated sympathy or pity for his condition. He detested weakness or incompetence in SOLDIER, or in any people he felt squandered their sentience with meaningless existence- viewing them as little better than chattel. Light hated being outmaneuvered or powerless.

S K I L L S

Light was extremely intelligent, capable of maintaining a long-con on Shinra for a number of years. A prodigy in every sense, he was incredibly talented at scientific pursuits as well as military tactics, and exercised regularly to maintain a fighter's physique despite his disabilities.

I N V E N T O R Y

WEAPONS

Light so rarely needed to use weapons - his mutated left arm sported enormous, shredding claws he could use against unsuspecting opponents. When forced into a duelling situation, he relied either on a personalized handgun or his old Type VI SOLDIER Sword.

MATERIA

Light was an expert with the Mystify materia, capable of turning squads of opponents against one another whilst he skirted their attacks and crippled them with poisons.

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

FAMILY

• Romulus Light - Garret's absentee father and a brilliant scientist, Romulus eventually disappeared. Light was almost certain he knew where Romulus had gone, and a large part of his motivations was in gaining his father's approval enough for him to reveal himself once more.
• Lilian Eaves - Whilst by the end of his life Lilian had grounds to utterly hate him, Light idolized his ex-wife entirely and his entire world shattered when she left him.

FRIENDS

• Heidegger

ACQUAINTANCES

• Charles Mallory
• Lazard Deusericus

ENEMIES

• Zack Fair
• Baylian Ashheart
• Alecto Sciarri

B A C K G R O U N D====History

Garret was born to a wealthy scientist named Romulus Light of the Harwell Pharmaceutical Corporation and a wealthy heiress. His father was headhunted for Shinra shortly after his fifth birthday and became suddenly very busy - with Garret often chasing after his father's attention and affection.

He was schooled to a high standard as befitting his birth; and took well to all of his studies, quickly establishing himself as a standout pupil and natural leader. Garret always saw the world through a very straightforward lens of good and evil - of right, and wrong, and was often lauded for his uncompromising approach to the dishonesty or failings of his peers and mentors alike. He was destined for success - although his heavily opinionated nature made him often unpopular.

As he reached maturity he was hand-selected by Shinra Turks for Project 0, a means of determining the best warriors and tacticians for the up-and-coming SOLDIER Program. Due to a delay in the VR Program's development, he was assigned alongside another few trailblazer candidates like Faros Arine early to Lucia Lin's Unit as a Candidate and was sent with her to Wutai on some of the earliest anti-Wutai operations conducted by SOLDIER. So great was Garret's performance as a Candidate that all knew that he would inevitably become one of the greatest SOLDIER ever.

A hostage situation unfolded at a fort near the border - the town of Doma, which had recently fallen under Shinra Control. A Crescent Unit General had taken control of the shogunate fortress and forced all of the citizens of the town into it. Though Shinra had sent envoys, the General was threatening consequences if Shinra did not withdraw from the town immediately. SOLDIER were dispatched to deal with the situation - but whilst his peers engaged the local security, Garret charged into the fort itself, wishing to free those within.

What Garret didn't know was that explosive charges had been set all throughout the fort, awaiting the trap to be sprung. The General triggered the explosives and the fort went up in flames. All of the civilians within were killed, and Garret and Faros were both gravely injured. Garret himself lost his arm beneath burning rubble and had his right eye burned out of its socket as he was dragged to safety.

Due to his extensive physical injuries, Garret was disqualified from the SOLDIER Program, causing him immense heartbreak. Languishing in a military hospital for several weeks, he eventually met with Director Lazard and his assistant, Charles Mallory. Both of them took a degree of pity on Light - much to his chagrin, but offered to hold him a position within SOLDIER as an executive. Initially Light refused - and instead sought out a contact of his father, one Doctor Dehua, who had recently made breakthroughs in regrowing tissue. He implored Dehua to help. Sure enough, Dehua 'tried', injecting Light with a strange cocktail of Jenova Cells that aimed to 'regrow' his lost limb and eye. However, they regrew in a pale mockery of their original shape - black mist took the place of skin and Garret found himself gripped by terrible nightmares. What was worse - his 'regrown' eye could only see the world through a terrifying lens of horror. Garret saw the world as hell, as liquid, smoke-like chaos. Driven half-mad by the revelation, Garret hid the 'mutation' as best he could and took Lazard up on his offer. If he could not be a SOLDIER himself, he could begin to decide who *could* be.

Garret rose quickly through the executive ladder- and maintained his own fitness throughout, refusing to allow himself to be merely a victim. Setting up the subdivision of 'Loss Prevention', Garret endeavoured to identify early the 'troublesome' character traits of SOLDIER operators that were telling of future disloyalty or problems. Garret's vision of perfection from SOLDIER became his guiding light, and anyone who did not match up to this were treated with suspicion.

He was haunted daily by nightmares and PTSD, and often had to deal with SOLDIER who deserted in the field of duty, often driven mad by their experiences. It was around then that he was introduced to new and experimental treatment into 'VR Therapy', a means of dealing with PTSD addled SOLDIER and treating their problems with VR and Chemically driven hypnosis. Deemed 'Project Morpheus', Garret quietly bought out the project for Loss Prevention, put it on the black-books to remove it from scrutiny, and invested everything he had into developing the program. He saw Project Morpheus as a means not only of dealing with PTSD-addled SOLDIER, but in forever changing their attitudes and behaviours to create the 'perfect' SOLDIER memetic template. Garret prepared a treatment for himself - and his first subject for Project Morpheus was his own mind. Garret successfully wiped his own 'trauma' from his mind, but in the process created a very different personality profile for himself.

Quickly, Garret realized he needed more subjects to test the limits of his new technology. Reaching out to Faros, who had recently gone 'native' in Wutai, leading his Unit out into the jungles and continuing the war on Wutai's own means of savagery, he made a deal to take on Faros' wounded and troubled and 'transform' them into perfect warriors for Faros' crusade. Arine sent Garret numerous wounded SOLDIER - and though many of them failed to take to the treatment and were left insane and had to be disposed of, some emerged from the treatment as perfect warriors, utterly compartmentalized from their actions the moment their 'activation phrase' was spoken. Faros, however, began to see things as ideologically distasteful, wishing for his warriors to *understand* their own savagery, not shy away from them. With his experiments threatened, Garret enlisted the aid of the 7th Unit to finally bring Arine 'to justice' - with the heavily crippled SOLDIER First Class taken out by a hit-squad of 7th Unit SOLDIER. Garret had made his first move into darkness.

Garret's own dreams at genetically altering his disability had not faded. Reaching out to the lead of the Project Chimera genetics experiment, Henrik Klamp, he offered to fund Klamp's ongoing studies into mutation. All Klamp asked in return was a means of controlling his so-far troublesome subjects. Light volunteered the Morpheus Chip - his earliest means of hooking up a subject to a constant stream of information and data, to keep them permanently suspended in altered reality born of both VR Tech and chemical intervention.

For the next few years, Garret continued his operations - aiming to create his image of the perfect SOLDIER, the SOLDIER he could never be ; and identify 'problems' in the SOLDIER Division, especially following the defections of Leonardo Volk and Lucius Grant. Given carte blanche to discover the 'rot' at the heart of the 7th Unit, Garret extended deep surveillance to numerous members of SOLDIER, including their executives. Tracking Charles Mallory, who he privately admired, he also came into awareness of Mallory's daughter, Lillian Mallory. Though at first his interest in her was purely professional, slowly he became enarmoured with this vision of purity in his murky, horrible world. Even Garret's mutated eye would only see her as a vision of light. Garret's surveillance moved from the professional to the personal. Watching Lillian, and her ongoing routines and daily life, became the one comfort and extension of human contact Garret truly had.

In the meantime, he set plans to 'remove' or discredit various SOLDIER Operators, particularly in the 7th Unit, who he found objectionable to his method and vision. Files and reports were falsified. Promotion reports and orders were re-cycled and lost. Garret tested his new technologies in order to alter the perception of those he disliked, and lead them into moments of mania to discredit or destroy them. His vision of SOLDIER could not be threatened.

However, one other executive drew his actions to light. Before she could report on his dealings, Garret arranged for a group of his personal 'sleeper agents' to kidnap and dispose of Karen Rice, an executive within SOLDIER. When she was recovered, she blew the whistle on Light - who immediately went into hiding, though managed to twist and manipulate proceedings to make it appear as though Rice was behind her own 'defection'. Quickly, Light was gaining in support throughout Shinra's elite; and his methods were proving effective. Bad SOLDIER were either removed or forced in line. Light remained in 'hiding', keeping his profile low following his near-ousting by the 7th, working behind the scenes. In his absence, Charles Mallory died of cancer - and Lilian briefly disappeared off his view.

Returned to the Company, Garret could not help but continue his obsession with Lillian. In his absence, Klamp had been discovered and killed - leaving Light without another of his projects. Instead, he invested the money in a clinic he knew Lilian was working at in the slums, hoping to finally meet her. Sure enough , he came across the young nurse, grieving her father. Slowly but surely, he worked his way into her heart; isolating her from others as best he could in order to present himself as the man he truly wished to be, rather than the monster he had become. More surprising was that when 'Evie' eventually saw his mutation, she offered to help instead of flee. For the first time in his adult life, Garret felt accepted. His view for SOLDIER had lost its luster. His grand aspirations humbled by the simpler but endlessly more engaging love he found with Evie. Though it had started a lie, it had become something real.

This all began to change, however, when the depths of Light's corruption became more and more manifest. As investigations into the Morpheus Chips were headed up by members of the Turks and SOLDIER - and a private investigation company Guardhound lead by Baylian Ashheart. Made worse for Light was when Evie began to drift away from Light and towards her old flame Baylian - leading Garret to attempt to shutter and eliminate the competition in a fit of jealousy. Attempting to 'chip' Baylian was the last straw - and steadily an attack force was mobilized whilst intelligence was gathered against him. Cornered, Light was apprehended and beaten near to death, finally imprisoned for his crimes. There was nothing now left of the aristocratic and personable face of Garret Light - his humanity burnt out by failure and betrayal, Light became akin to the monster within him.

Left in solitary confinement for a while due to the nature of his manipulations , he gradually lost his mind as he came to understand that Evie had left him forever, and he was utterly alone and without recourse. Though he entertained a few 'guests' in his confinement and even promised to give the Morpheus technology to the Turks for their own ends, he inevtiably was able to utilize several sleeper agents via a time-delay broadcast, busting him free of prison and leaving him on the run.

Weeks and months passed. Without his medicine or treatment, the mutations that had dominated his body grew - and overtook his mind. Nihilistic and destructive, Garret resolved there would be only two outcomes to his crusade. Either his might would be proven by victory, and even the terrible things he'd done would be vindicated by history ; or he would die in battle, reaching the logical conclusion of his vision. To this end, Garret enacted the final sanction of his master plan. Taking over the Atma Facility in the North Crater - a secret weapons site where the legendary Atma Weapon had been pulled out of stasis and rebuilt with technology, awaiting a means of control. Naturally, the king would not be complete without his queen - and thus he sent his agents to kidnap Evie, who he abused, raped and finally swayed beneath the noxious reality of the Morpheus Chip.

Luring SOLDIER and the Turks to Atma Facility to track him down, he took advantage of their mutual clearance in order to activate the Weapon and begin his campaign of destruction - declaring he would use the Atma Weapon to destroy SOLDIER and Midgar, and build a better world on its ruins. Utterly seized by madness and mutations, the nigh-indestructable man was nevertheless eventually felled by a single bullet - a Jenovaphage round designed to burn through any source of Jenova Cells - fired directly through his skull.

As life left him, so too did the mire that had gripped him for so long. For a few fleeting moments, Light saw clearly the pain he had wrought and the depth of his betrayal. He rasped only that they allowed Evie, via the Morpheus chip, to forget her abuse - and died, taking Morpheus, Atma and the entire sordid web of his manipulations with him.

The impact of Light's deep manipulations and deceptions can be felt to this day. Light's obsession with purity within SOLDIER nearly lead to its absolute destruction- and his terrible experiments into mind control and altered reality are lessons that cannot be quickly forgotten.

T I M E L I N E

• [Nov, 1999] - Garret lures a strike team of SOLDIER and Turks to the Northern Continent, ostensibly to confront him and deactivate his magnum opus, Atma Weapon. Unwittingly, the strike team activate Atma Weapon and eventually engage him in combat. Ultimately, Light meets his end at Baylian's hands, and his corpse is taken to R&D for analysis.

G A L L E R Y

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