A/N: I hope this brainchild of mine works out! I couldn't stand it when Zack died in Crisis Core!
Warning: Slightly AU-ish and the pairing will be either GenesisxOC or ZackxOC, depending on story development and reader reviews. Full of violence, blood, Materia and Mako, plus some extra bits made up...Violence is, obviously, inevitable.
I do not own any of the Final Fantasy characters, names or places. However, I do own all my OCs, and demand that they are not used without permission. Anyway, If I owned FF, Zack would be alive and well, as would Genesis.
Zack Fair. Who was he? Do we really know? We know that he was SOLDIER Rank One, and that he had been the student of Angeal Hewley. We know that he was the second owner of the Buster Sword, which has become Cloud Strife's signature weapon. And we know from records that Zack Fair was present when Sephiroth went insane, destroying the town of Nibelheim. But what happened after Zack was gunned down, after Shinra destroyed the last person trained by Angeal? Most accounts, including Cloud Strife's, say that he died. According to Cloud, he was pulled into the Lifestream by the spirit of Angeal. However, one living person knows the true story. To find it, you need to ask him. Who is this man?
That question's answer was exactly what a young woman from the town of Kalm wanted to find out. When Cloud Strife left Kalm's small inn, she did as well. However, she headed somewhere else. Who is this girl, you ask? Well, this girl is me. My name is Shin'rana Soldir, and I'm searching for the truth about Zack Fair. When I first heard of him, I merely heard his name, spoken of with fear. I had always been inquisitive, and I dug around for more information. When Cloud appeared in Kalm's inn, run by my uncle, I immediately recognized the Buster Sword. I paid close attention to the mercenary, perking up my ears when ever I heard a z sound. I only heard one thing, however. Cloud whispered it to himself, just before leaving.
"What would Zack think of me now?"
I remember how I had wondered just how hard the blond man's life had been. Mine wasn't the best story on the planet either. My parents were long dead. Shinra operatives had killed them both while I huddled in a closet. What drove me insane about Shinra was that my name, Shin'rana Soldir, sounded far too much like Shinra SOLDIER. I had hidden, shivering, in that closet for hours. My uncle found me about twenty minutes before the entire town was "neutralized". I ended up working for him in the inn. I had spent several years scrounging tips, hiding them away from my money-grubbing uncle. I counted up my total money count. 800 gil. Holy Gaia.
That was more money than I had ever held in my life. I packed my meager bags with some stolen pants and other clothes, put my money in a bag, hid it in my pack, and slipped out my bottom-floor window once all the patrons had fallen asleep. So it was that I began my harrowing journey, with a knife on my belt and a pack on my back. Each step I took, I convinced myself, was one step closer to finding Zack's story. The legendary warrior intrigued me beyond imagining, and I still wasn't sure why. I didn't even know what the man looked liked, save for the fact that his hair was spiky and black and his eyes a bright green-blue color.
After about a month of traveling, I entered a small town. Never one for slyness, I walked right up to the first man I saw and asked him, point-blank, if he had heard of Zack Fair. He stared at me, nodding. He told me that he had heard the name, but that a stranger with red hair and a nasty disposition had passed through a few weeks ago and told him that he knew what had happened to Zack Fair. The workman was goggling at me with wide brown eyes, as if I were not human.
I don't exactly look normal, of course. Eyes the color of a new-minted gold piece do that. My spiny hair, which I could never tame, was cropped short, a black color that had a slight gray tinge. It made me look as though I had covered my head in old ashes. I was tall, for a girl. About six foot at the age of twenty-four, to be exact. I was fairly well curved in all the right places, but I wore baggy clothes, both for ease of movement and for camouflage purposes.
I had thanked the man and taken off in the direction he had indicated, not stopping to think about anything other that the redheaded stranger. I found him about three days later in the middle of a rainstorm, in a cave to the side of the road. I had followed the smell of smoke, and found it issuing from the cave mouth. I entered to find a man I had heard about in stories, usually portrayed as a villain. He was indeed redheaded, and his cold, hard eyes were electric blue-green. I recognized him, even though I had never once laid eyes on the man. Even wrapped in a thick black cloak instead of a scarlet trench coat, he was quite clearly Genesis Rhapsodos. He looked up at me, his eyes widening slightly. He spoke in a deep, velvety voice with a core of steel, like the sheathed claws of a cat.
"Who are you?"
I straightened, holding up my hands to show that I was weaponless.
"My name is Shin'rana Soldir. No need to ask your, name, Genesis Rhapsodos."
He raised one red eyebrow. "You know me? Any you say your name is Shin'rana Soldir?"
I nodded, matching his green eyes with my golden ones. "That is correct. Before you say anything else, my name has nothing to do with the organization Shinra or the military corps SOLDIER. I want nothing to do with either group."
"Why have you come here, and how did you find me?"
"I followed the scent of smoke, and I have been walking across the land to find someone who knows what I believe you do."
He frowned. "And what, pray, is that?"
I took a deep breath. This was it. "I need to know about Zack Fair, and the circumstances surrounding his death."
That got a reaction out of the former SOLDIER. "Zack Fair?"
"Yes. His death doesn't seem right to me. I don't believe that someone trained by Angeal Hewley would go down without much of a fight."
Genesis stood up, walking over to me. "I see. Hmmm. You're right. Angeal's puppy wouldn't give up that easily. The Zack that Angeal trained would have taken out half that legion before going down."
He continued, watching me brush mud off my pants. "You seem perfectly trustworthy. I don't detect any deceit or malice in you. Please," He gestured to a rock near the fire, "Have a seat. I know enough not to allow a woman to stand whilst I am still seated."
"Thank you."
He sat on the rock opposite me. "Zack is alive."
"What?"
"Were he dead, I would not be here. The Goddess saved him. When Cloud saw him drawn into the Lifestream by Angeal, he actually saw Angeal pulling Zack in just before he died. This saved Zack's life. He was frozen in the Lifestream, a kind of suspended animation, if you will. He had remained this way for almost three of the years of this plane of existence when I came upon his frozen body and suspended mind. You must understand."
He looked me directly in the eyes, and a shiver of something raced down my spine.
"By this time, I was long dead."
"But-"
"I am trying to explain. Please."
"Sorry. Please continue, Genesis."
"My body was dead, but, like Angeal, I remained as a spirit in the Lifestream. My wandering mind came across Zack, floating as if asleep. Still, I knew he should be dead. He was covered in bullet wounds and blood, but he was still breathing. His sword, Angeal's sword, was missing."
"What did you do?"
"I went to the Goddess. Yes, Shin'rana, she does exist. She changed me. She reversed the monstrous blood within my body, the disease I had been given by Hojo."
At this point, he clenched his fists, his leather gloves squeaking. I didn't question him further, but let him continue to speak. His voice shook ever so slightly as he recounted what had happened.
"The degradation process of my body had gone so far before my death that my hair had turned white, and my skin ashen. I had a single black wing, and I was powerful beyond belief. However...Zack killed me."
I gasped. If Zack had killed Genesis, then how was he here? He answered my question without me even voicing it.
"I begged the Goddess to save Zack. I told her that true bravery and light existed in him, that his strength of mind and pure will-"
"Will?"
"His willpower. He was so strong in this regard that I would not hesitate to call it anything less than a Will of Fire. Zack's will burned like an unstoppable flame, his loyalty to those he loved surpassing all but his wish to become a hero. Shinra has smeared the name of Zack Fair, and the name of Angeal Hewley. Of Genesis Rhapsodos, what they speak of me is almost always true. I was once a terrible person, self-serving and unkind. In Angeal's words to me, I was a jerk. Zack knew me back then. When I died by his hand, my thinking changed. True, I was no longer alive. A mere spirit, floating in the lifestream. Still, if I were ever to live again, I would be a changed man. I told the Goddess that Zack had his whole life ahead of him, if only she would allow him to live again."
"And as she listened to me, she decided Zack's and my inextricably twined fates. She told me that my request would be granted, but she said, 'Genesis Rhapsodos. Before you came to be in the Lifestream, you were cold, cruel, and cared for no one but yourself. Now, this man Zack Fair...He has changed you into what you should truly have been. Your compassion for this warrior, who should by all the laws of Gaia be dead, as you are, has shown me that he is as much you as you are him. You shall both be returned to the land of the living. You must find each other, and together destroy those who threaten the sanctity of the world.'"
"Her last remark as I felt myself becoming more earthbound puzzled me, until now. She said, "Genesis...I will return you to your original state of being, without fear of degradation. You will meet a human in a rainstorm, golden eyed and ashen haired, who will be essential to your quest. To find Zack, you will need the One with an Evil Name, the One with the Heart of Dragons.' I believe, looking at you now, that you are that One. Your name invokes Shinra and SOLDIER, yet the tears pooling in your eyes suggest that you have a heart filled with love and warmth. The mere fact that you are a woman with only a belt knife traveling alone and untrained in a land like ours...that suggests the most powerful heart of all. If you are willing, Shin'rana, we may travel together, find Zack Fair, and destroy Shinra and SOLDIER."
I reached a hand to my face. It was true, my eyes were full of large, wet tears. Anyone with a heart would at least have been touched by Genesis' story, but it gave me a full-blown meltdown. I began sobbing into my hands, and barely registerd Genesis laying his hand on my shoulder, which was shaking with the force of my racking sobs. My body was inexplicably overloading with grief for which I had no reason beyond the truth. When I finally stopped crying, drying my eyes on an offered handkerchief, I looked up at Genesis.
"You..want..me? To come with you?"
"Yes."
"But, but I'm absolutely useless! All I can do is clean, cook, and serve drinks to taverngoers!"
Genesis gave me a surprisingly warm grin, his long earring glinting in the firelight. "Easy enough to fix. I can train you like a member of SOLDIER, so that you know their ways. I can assume that, perhaps, a little Mako would not be a mistake to give you, either. That way, you could use Materia."
"You would train me?"
"As much as I could, anyway. I don't know what weapon you would be best with, nor what your Materia affinity would be if you were infused with a little Mako. My affinity is Fire, and my Rapier Sword-" he gesture to the long, bright red sword leaned on a nearby wall, " Is a one of a kind weapon. Perhaps I can start with hand-to hand."
I looked at the man in awe. I stood, drawing myself up to my full height, which was not much shorter than Genesis. I squared my shoulders and looked straight into his pale, bright-eyed face.
"Genesis Rhapsodos, I, Shin'rana Soldir, pledge my allegiance to you and your cause, being allowed to be trained by you. I give you my consent to infuse my body with Mako energy so that I may learn the use of Materia. As your student, I will help you to find Zack Fair, wherever he may be, and to destroy the organizations Shinra and SOLDIER."
He nodded. "Good. Let us rest here for the night, and set out at dawn."
A/N: yes, this is a short first chapter, more of a prologue. If I get good reviews on it, I will consider expanding it! Let me know if you like the idea!
Golden Lioness
