Hello everyone! This story is originally from my one shots collection "My Family" but due to requests I decided to turn it into a separate story! I hope you guys enjoy!
Infos on story: Prison-drama, mentions of blood and gore, war, death, conflicts between countries and companies, close to real life dramas, act of violence and inhuman acts mentioned (but nothing too heavy)! A completely different Zack!ž
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but any future mentioned OC's and the plot! Square Enix owns FF7 and all it's characters!
Chapter 1: Bare your fangs
"Hey Fair! You got a letter!" a prison guard hollered as he walked outside to the open training grounds.
He passed by countless of criminals, ruthless men who branded their fists like weapons, with feral expressions on their faces as each of them continued training under the burning sun.
He walked toward one particular male though, who was lifting heavy weights in a tight fitting, sleeveless black shirt and pants. His black, spiky hair hung partially over the metallic board he was laying on, on one of his bulging arms was a tattoo with the Shinra logo and "First Class" titled on it.
"Fair! You have mud in your ears? I said you have a letter," the guard scowled irritably, watching as the young man frowned and stopped his training session.
He opened his eyes, revealing crystal almost electric blues, as he stood up to his full height, easily towering over the shorter guard, standing about (feet) tall with broad shoulders.
"I heard ya Steve," the black haired man took the folded piece of paper the guard offered him and shot him a look, "You mind? I like my privacy,"
"Oh, 'your privacy' excuse me. I didn't realize you boys have something called privacy in here!" the guard called Steve laughed but he quickly shut his mouth upon noticing how many angry men were starting to glare at him venomously, he quickly took off after that.
Fair read the letter,
"Oh my god! Um, hi there Zack! It's me remember? I'm your wife! Of course, you poor baby don't remember anything, but it's the truth! We are married and even have kids! Please come back home sweetie-"
That's where Zack Fair stopped reading it, his eyes narrowed, he crumbled the letter and threw it behind him, hitting a guard on the back of the head, "Here, throw it to the dogs, they may find it more useful,"
"Hey Fair! Who's the letter from?" Zack's fellow inmate, Barret, asked gruffly. The man was the largest one among all of the prisoners, easily towering over Zack in height and build, being as large as a building and as broad as one. Numerous tattoos covering his large, muscled arms, on his right forearm was written "Seventh Heaven".
"Tch, my so called 'wife'. Did you hear the news? Apparently I'm a father!" Zack chuckled as Barret roared with laughter, their other fellow prisoners following suit.
Zack passed them by, catching a towel thrown his way to rub off the sweat on his forehead and arms. He leisurely draped it over his shoulder, walking toward where the guards were already waiting for them to get in line. Lunch time.
"Hey, who's that?" came a cocky voice from somewhere behind Zack which made him stop and listen.
"That? What? Don't you know him? That's Zack Fair man! You shouldn't cross him if you value your life!" a nervous, more lighter male voice responded
"Hm, I bet I can take him on one-on-one no problem, huh? Doesn't look so tough to me," Zack frowned, his bangs covering his eyes as he counted the steps his supposed challenger took to get to him.
"Yo, I heard you were a big shot around here! Well, I came to take that title for me, got that punk?" Zack's frown deepened as he turned around to regard his challenger.
He was half a head shorter than Zack, light brown, messy hair, green eyes, freckles across his face and pale skin. Zack rose an eyebrow, he didn't see him around here, probably just came in. He frowned, he didn't look like he had the balls to do anything rash let alone do something so severe to get a free ticket to this place. The kid was younger than Zack, too cocky, didn't have much life experience, that innocence in his eyes didn't sit right with Zack at all. He shouldn't go too hard on him, he was just a kid.
"Look, I'm not looking for trouble. I'm hungry so I'm going to eat," Zack nodded at the younger male and was about to turn around but at the last second he ducked and grabbed the other man's wrist as his clenched fist went over Zack's shoulder, hauling him over his body and slamming him to the ground.
"Listen punk, I said I'm hungry and I'm going to eat. If you want to deal with the guards, fine by me, but don't go picking fights when play time is over," he roughly slapped the man's head as he passed him, gathering dust beneath his combat boots.
"H-hey! Are you alright James?" the same nervous, lighter voice from before said and a even smaller, thin, frail-looking boy arrived to help his friend up.
"S-shut up! I almost had him ow! Damn it!" he rubbed his aching head
"Would ya look at that, some newbie tried takin' on Zack," Barret laughed and crouched down to James' eye level to whisper in a low tone, "Listen kid, you can pretty much do anything here ya want, but if you're looking to survive your stay here, back off from Fair got that? He's not the kinda guy you wanna mess with,"
"Ugh, why? Just cuz' he can sprout some big ass words and-" Barret kicked the newcomer in the side
"Shut the fuck up! I'm one of his friends and no one bad mouths him when I'm around. Now listen and listen good, cause I ain't repeatin' myself," Barret looked briefly at Zack's retreating form
"His name's Zack Fair, he came here about four years ago, had been a goody two shoes then as they came, didn't want trouble, didn't get into any trouble." At the confused look on James Barret continued, "At least that was his attitude, when we all found out why he's sitting ducks here in this prison…let me tell ya I got the chills,"
He leaned in to whisper, "That man killed an entire division of SOLDIER, the largest one the company had to offer. Ya know at least SOLDIER right? Shinra? Ring any bells?" James could only nod mutely, in too much shock to verbally answer, "Yeah, thought so. Anyone that hasn't heard of Shinra is either an outsider or hit in the head, the most powerful electric power company in the west, east and the majority of the north. SOLDIER is their paramilitary branch but ya already know that," Barret cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably.
"See those eyes kid?" Barret asked, discreetly nodding at Zack's hard-to-miss glowing blue eyes. At James' nod, Barret whispered, "Those are the eyes of SOLDIER. A SOLDIER trademark, color of the sky. Some say those are the eyes of a killer, but that title doesn't just fit him," James would have protested if he hadn't been close to wetting his pants already.
"Anyway, that division was made up of at least a thousand of em' foot soldiers, heli's everywhere, bastards armed with guns, bazookas, bombs, swords, you name it. He was First Class, but nobody thought he would have made it-"
"Cid! Would ya stop buttin' in when I'm trying to talk damn it?!" Barret growled at his friend, glaring at the former pilot.
"Ya ain't the only good story teller ya know?" at Barret's stubborn look, the elder pilot sighed, "Yeah, yeah, knock yourself out princess," Barret rolled his eyes.
Cid Highwind, former pilot in service to Shinra, came here three years ago because he killed the murderer of his wife. An honorable, understandable thing some might say, while others viewed it as a crime. He wasn't the violent type by default, he was rough around the edges from war but otherwise he was as good as company can get.
Barret cleared his throat, "Story says, some guy was with him, his friend from the good ol' soldier days. He had been poisoned or shit like that and Zack had been looking for a way to escape from SOLDIER, tough luck I tell ya. Shinra sent their dogs after them to kill their own men. Out of over thousands of em' only one remained standing and that was Zack Fair," he shook his head
"W-what the-? B-b-but how?! T-that's impossible! Nobody can beat so many SOLDIERs!" James said alarmed, "W-wait…you said only he remained standing…w-what happened to his friend? The one from his soldier days?"
Barret shrugged, "Don't know, he never told me. He's a private guy, doesn't like to reveal too much about himself. If someone's pryin' too much, you get a fist in yer mouth or a harsh tongue lashing. Sometimes I don't know what's worse with that guy," Cid chuckled opting to follow Zack toward the line.
"How do you know t-then?"
"Tch, I tried breaking out a couple of times and found his files while I searched for the keys to freedom. He never told me why he was here, just that he killed a bunch of people. I thought he was the same as those ruthless criminals ya know, the real criminals. But he actually did a damn honorable thing out there, he's here for nothing," Barret shook his head, "Damn system and their damn laws, damn Shinra to hell! A guy like him shouldn't be here at all, too bloody good for this twisted society."
"Hold it…you said he was a goody two shoes when he first got here…what the hell changed?" James was shaking as he waited for an answer
Barret frowned deeply, standing up and rolling his shoulders, "What changed? Prison changes a person in many ways kid, it's a sick twisted world out there but in here…bah…yeah we are criminals and most of us here got blood on their hands…but they treat the rats in the sewers better than us. If a guy who murdered his wife's new husband gets beaten up and treated like shit by the guards, what do you think they did to him for slaughtering an entire elite army division of those top dog SOLDIER bastards? One of their own?"
James swallowed hard, shaking in fear as he watched Zack nod to one of the guards, walking inside the building.
"Chew on that for a while. Zack's right though, I'm damn hungry and I wanna eat somethin'," Barret said, rubbing his stomach as he and the rest followed suit to go in line.
Zack waited for Barret and Cid to finally come, he fell next to them in step, his hands in his pockets, "Thanks," he opened his glowing blue eyes and smiled at them.
"It was nothin'," Barret smirked, punching his shoulder lightly as Cid grinned.
Cid briefly looked at Zack's glowing blue eyes, "A SOLDIER trademark, no shit," before he shook his head and grabbed a tray in the cafeteria.
Thank you everyone for reading! I hope my readers from "My Family" are also reading this! Reviews are always welcome and suggestions for improvement! BTW: English is NOT my FIRST language! Any pointers on mistakes are welcome! :)
