After reading a lot of FFVII fanfics and watching the Crisis Core, Before Crisis and Final Fantasy VII online walkthroughs (just getting started on Dirge of Cerberus) I decided to get a start on this. It's definitely not a self-insert, that's for sure. So, a few things to clear up before we start this:

Zack is alive. Yup, our favorite puppy is going to be alive. Also, we're going to have two new party member (who are canon characters don't worry). Most of you will recognize one of them while the more hardcore ones will recognize the other. Hopefully, you enjoy their presence in the story.

One of the pairings for this is going to be CloudxOC. Yup. You heard me... CloudxOC. So for all those who don't like CanonxOC pairings, I suggest that you press the back button now. I'm not going to rag about your choice of pairings, but if your OTP pairing is CloudxTifa or CloudxAerith, then I have a feeling you aren't going to like this. Though if you're a ZackxAerith supporter, stick around.

Anyways, I think that's it. So now on to the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII. I do, however, own the poor sap who has lost her memories and is a complete fish out of water in her current situation.

Edit: Just changed Samantha's name to Rosalyn. This is the only time I will drastically change a character's name like this.

Prologue - Memories

"...I... don't want to... see any more... I don't want to hear... any more..."

"...I don't want to remember..."

"...banish... memories..."

Those were the last words I remember as my mind faded into dark oblivion. Were these fragmented words, the last thing that I could ever recall important? I'm not sure... but I think they were. My mind tried to pierce the words together over and over again, attempting to make sense of them before I finally gave up and let the darkness overtake me once more.

I had the feeling that I've been drifting in and out of consciousness. I was vaguely aware that I should get up, but both my mind and body refused to do that. It felt as if my limbs were made of lead and my mind had a tendency of shutting down on me whenever I tried to form a coherent thought.

The terrain beneath me was rough and digging into my skin. I knew that wherever I was lying, it wasn't safe for me. But with my body refusing to cooperate with me, there wasn't a lot I could do but just lie on the ground wherever I was.

It wasn't the most comfortable thing and it certainly was not safe, but what else could I do? I couldn't move and there wasn't a lot you could do if you were immobile.

Just as I was about to resign myself to being stuck in this limbo for either as long as it took for me to get my act together or for something to come along and eat me, I heard someone's voice cut through the haze of my jumbled up thoughts.

"Hey, are you okay?"

For a moment I thought I was hearing things. But then I realized that whoever spoke was real and not some figment of my imagination when someone - most likely the owner of the voice - began shaking me.

"You know, this isn't the best place to take a nap. Monsters tend to wander around this area and you kind of strike me as being a free meal with the way you're lying on the ground like that."

The owner of the voice was male, that much I was sure of.

"Ngh..." Not exactly a confirmation that I was okay but it was better than having him think I was dead and trying to give me a proper burial as a result. I imagined that being buried alive wasn't very fun.

Focusing my will power and whatever strength I had into my limbs, I forced myself off the ground and on to my knees. Before I could push myself up even further into a sitting position, my arms decided to give out beneath me and I found myself falling forward and the dirt road rushing up to meet my face. I would have probably smashed my chin open or broken my nose had a pair of strong arms caught me as I fell.

"Easy, easy. If you're injured, you shouldn't force yourself up like that."

"Ngh... guh..." The fact that I still couldn't say anything was embarrassing, but I couldn't bring myself to care at the moment.

Wanting to sit up on my own, I raised my hands and gripped the person's wrists, digging my nails into their flesh and using them as support instead. The person seemed to have an idea of what I wanted to do so instead of just waiting for me take forever to sit up, they helped me sit back up on my knees.

As soon as I was comfortable, I found myself staring into the rugged visage of a man who I estimated to be in his early twenties. He had long spiky black hair that went past his shoulders with one dark lock falling over his face. There was an x-shaped scar across one of his cheeks, which made him look like someone you would not want to mess with but that wasn't what caught my attention.

It was his eyes that drew me in.

His eyes were a bright blue, like the vast endless sky. In fact, if I didn't know any better I would say that they were glowing.

...

Or maybe they were glowing. The longer I stared at those vast pools of blue, the more certain I became of that fact.

I also realized that the longer he stared at me, the more he acted as if he saw a ghost. His blue eyes were wide, his face rapidly draining of colour and becoming an unhealthy shade of white and by the little choking sounds he was making, I was certain he wanted to say something but wasn't sure exactly what.

We weren't getting anywhere, so I decided to try and snap him out of the daze he seemed to be in.

"Is..." Oh good, I could talk. Even if I was slurring. "Is... th-there... something... on... m-my... face?"

His expression not even a second later told me that what I had said was the equivalent of taking an extremely sharp blade and stabbing him through the heart with it.

For the first time in his life, Zack Fair couldn't bring himself to look at the bright side of things, to optimistically think that things would eventually get better. Dragging a catatonic Cloud around and avoiding ShinRa -who seemed to have ears everywhere- troops intent on gunning him down would put a damper on anyone's outlook on life. Having to be on the look out for the renegade Genesis and his clones on top of that? It was enough to drive anyone into a fit of insanity.

Insanity.

The image of his former General flashed across his mind.

Sephiroth...

More images from when everything went to hell in a hand basket began to attack him.

Memories of a town burning, the bodies of the innocent villagers lining up the streets with their flesh slashed to ribbons, a badly injured Tifa lying at the bottom of the stairwell of the reactor, waking up to Hojo's sick and twisted grin and being told that they were now under his jurisdiction and that no one would come looking for them since they were known to the rest of the world as KIA...

And Rosalyn. Rosalyn who was nowhere to be seen when he woke up.

He hoped that wherever she was right now, she was alive and alright. He knew better than to hope that she was safe.

Zack immediately shut his train of thought down right there. He didn't need to think about that. Not now. He needed to be strong for Cloud and allowing himself to get lost within the memories of his stay in the Nibelheim Manor was counter-productive to getting him and his best friend out of this mess.

Re-focusing his attention on the road, he did a double take and swore when he saw the figure lying across the path. He slammed down on the breaks , desperately praying to the Planet that he wouldn't hit the person as he swerved the bike to the side to minimize the chances of impact. After what felt like an eternity -though in reality it had probably been several seconds- the bike finally came to a stop... about several inches from the figure.

The ex-First Class SOLDIER hadn't realized that he had been holding his breath until he let it out that he hadn't run over the person. Slowly, he got off the bike and bent down to see who he had nearly run over.

"Watch the motorcycle for me, 'kay Cloud?" He told his friend, ruffling the younger man's golden spikes. "I have to check up on the person I nearly ran over. Common courtesy, especially after I nearly hit them."

Cloud didn't say anything, his glowing mako eyes staring blankly ahead.

He immediately identified the person as being female. She wasn't very tall, around the 5'2 and 5'1 range. She was wearing a sleeveless white hoodie with a dark blue shirt underneath. She also had on a pair of beige shorts that came down to about her knees and on her feet she was wearing a pair of dark brown combat boots.

Zack lifted up the girl's hand to check her pulse. He also placed his fingers around her neck, just to double check. Her pulse was slow, but other than that she was alive.

Putting a hand on her shoulder, he began to gently shake her.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked.

There was no reply but he could have sworn that he saw a twitch. That was a good sign.

"You know, this isn't the best place to take a nap. Monsters tend to wander around this area and you kind of strike me as being a free meal with the way you're lying on the ground like that." Zack decided to take the high ground and not mention that he had nearly missed seeing her and nearly ran her over as a result.

It wasn't very loud, but his hypersensitive hearing picked up a faint groaning sound. "Ngh..."

The girl's eyes slowly opened, revealing them to be a rich chocolate brown colour. Not paying attention to him (or not completely aware that he was there) the girl pushed herself up. Part way through she collapsed and he caught her before she could fall face first into the rocky path.

"Easy, easy. If you're injured, you shouldn't force yourself up like that." He said, putting his hands on her shoulders to stabilize her.

"Ngh... guh..." Was the response he got.

Her nails dug into his arms as she continued her attempts of sitting up on her own. After a few minutes, when it was obvious that she wasn't going to manage it by herself, Zack shifted his position to help her up. When she was finally sitting up on her knees by herself, she lifted up her head to stare at him.

She had medium length black hair that reached past her shoulders and bangs swept towards the left side of her face. Her brown eyes stared at him, blank and glazed over and not really focused on anything. She blinked several times, but that was it.

The moment he saw the girl's face, he could have sworn his heart stop. He also stopped breathing several times and had to keep reminding himself that he needed to inhale and exhale so that he wouldn't faint from lack of oxygen - not that SOLDIERS needed to breathe as often as the average human but they still needed to breathe.

Her face... there... it wasn't possible...

But they had the same eye shape, similar face structure, and similar hair...

She looked so much like Rosalyn that he had to look away just to prevent himself from breaking down right then and there.

The resemblance between them was so strong that the girl in front of him and his only remaining friend -other than Cloud- couldn't be anything other than sisters.

And Rosalyn had said that she had a little sister.

During their stay forced stay in Nibelheim, Rosalyn, to try and keep some semblance of their spirits up, had talked fondly about a little sister who was nine years younger than her. A little sister who was therefore two years younger than Cloud and four years younger than him. A little sister who she hadn't seen for years, when she had been forced to join the SOLDIER program against her own wishes.

A little sister who she had forgotten about after becoming a SOLDIER, thanks to the alien cells coursing through her body and messing with her memories.

And now here he was, looking into the glazed and unfocused gaze of a girl who looked so much like his friend; one of many that he had failed.

"Is..." His head shot up when he heard the girl speak for the first time. "Is... th-there... something... on... m-my... face?"

Her words were like a sharp slap to the face and Zack forced himself to look into her eyes.

"...no." The ex-SOLDIER said slowly, doing his best to ensure that his voice wouldn't crack. "There isn't. You just resemble someone I know."

"...oh."

There was an awkward silence as the girl stared ahead at the ground and Zack tried to figure out how to start the conversation back up.

"So, uh..." Zack scratched the back of his head. "What's your name? I mean, we've been talking for a few minutes but we haven't gotten each others' names yet."

He held out a black gloved hand.

"The name is-" Zack paused when he remembered that he was a fugitive running away from the very company he had used to work for.

What was he doing? He couldn't go around introducing himself to everyone, especially with ShinRa on the look out for him. And considering just how fast they acted when he and Cloud broke out of the Nibelheim manor...

"...your name?" The girl's quiet voice pierced through his thoughts.

"It's... uh-" Great, what was he supposed to say now? He couldn't back out since he already started introducing himself. Zack could lie about his name and give her a fake alias, but he didn't feel comfortable doing that.

"If you're not sure, take a chance. Nothing ever gets done by hesitating or staying in one place just because you don't know what's ahead of you."

Rosalyn's voice rang clear as a bell in his head.

Zack wasn't sure this was one of those times, but he figured that it was too late to take back his words. And years of listening to Angeal's lectures of dreams and honour made it that he found lying about anything nearly impossible.

"Zack Fair. The name's Zack Fair." He finally said. "And you?"

The girl who could only be Rosalyn's younger sister stared at the hand he was holding out towards her blankly before looking up at him.

"I..." She paused. "...I don't know. I don't remember."

Finally done this chapter! Anyways, not much going on since this is just the beginning, there isn't a lot going on. The MC, however, has met the two heroes of Crisis Core and the original game, so that's something right?

Also, who is Rosalyn? A character that is very important to the plot of this story.

This is the first time I've written a FFVII story and in First POV. Hopefully, I get it right.