Marlene Wallace

Marlene Wallace is a major non-playable character in Final Fantasy VII. In the storyline of the game, Marlene is four years old. She takes it upon herself to care for Tifa Lockheart's 7th Heaven bar when Tifa joins Cloud Strife and Barret Wallace on an AVALANCHE mission. She considers Barret to be her father, while she is actually the daughter of Dyne and Eleanor, childhood friends of Barret's. Barret had taken Marlene in as his own daughter after his friend Dyne, his hometown Corel, and loved ones were destroyed by Shin-Ra troops. As Marlene was less than a year old when her town was burned to the ground and her mother was killed, she has no memory of her biological parents. This fact prompted her father Dyne to commit suicide rather than try to take her away from Barret.

The game follows to a point where another of the lead characters, Aerith, gives herself to the Turks in replacement for Marlene's safety. Marlene is later held ransom by the Shin-Ra spy Cait Sith to force Cloud to cooperate with him on their journey to the Temple of the Ancients. She is later left with Elmyra, Aerith's adoptive mother.

Marlene also appears in the CG film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children as a major character, now 6 years old. Unlike many of the other children in the film, she is unaffected by Geostigma. It can be noticed that in the film she is wearing her hair similar to how Aerith wore hers.