AN: This is my answer to Yashodoa's Fan Fiction Challenge 'Female Cloud'. I had told her months ago in a PM that I would answer it, and I had sadly gotten, well side tracked on my other stories. Oh well. Anyway, here it is, the first Chapter to this weird little fusion of a fan fic.
AN2: This is also a crossover/fusion. It is crossovered/fused with Valkyrie Profile. See I told you it would be a little weird.
AN3: Expect out of characterness at times, and with having things not go as they did in the game, any of them, for this is an AU plus a fusion/crossover. And it is a massive one at that. Come on, Cloud's a female in this for crying out loud, and I'm mixing Final Fantasy VII with Valkyrie Profile in this fic for God's sake! Canon need not apply here. In fact I'll say it now "Canon? What is this Canon you speak of? I know not of this Canon!"
AN4: This is now Version 2.0. For, while looking back on this, I could see that I had rushed things in this chapter as well as the next one, so I'm fixing a few mistakes I had made here and there. Also, I've rethought a lot about where I was going to go in and with this, and about some of the pairing/pairings, so this is now going to go in an entirely new direction then what I was originally going to go.
AN5: Version 3.0, mainly due to some comments made by City of Dis and my trying to get a little more in character with a few of my characters, especially Barret in chapter three.
AN6: Please disregard all other FFVII games, movies, plots and plans in this fic. Crisis Core DID NOT happen in this fic, as awesome as that game was, and Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus will not happen in this fic as well for that matter. Hell, even the core FFVII game and Valkyrie Profile are getting a swift kick in the plot line as well in this fic for that matter.
Disclaimer: I do not own the intellectual property that is Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy VII, any of its sequels and or prequels, any of their associated characters, locations, items, ideas, or anything else that may be associated with them. Those belong to each of their own respective copyright owners. I do not own the intellectual property that is Valkyrie Profile, any of its sequels and or prequels, or any of their associated characters, locations, items, ideas, or anything else that may be associated with them. Those belong to each of their own respective copyright owners. I do not own any of the intellectual properties that are other fictional persons, places or things. Those belong to each of their own respective copyright owners. I do not own any real person, place or thing. Those belong to either themselves, in the case of a person, or their real life current true owners in case of a place or object. What I do own is any and every original person, place or thing, used in here as well as the story its self. Those very few things are mine. And that's all that ever will be mine.
FINAL FANTASY PROFILE
CHAPTER ONE
WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?
Nibelheim: The Shin-Ra Mansion: about five years ago
Hojo was sitting in the basement of the so called 'Shin-Ra Mansion' and he was currently staring at the scene that the monitor was showing him with a very blank expression. He had repeatedly watched this scene over and over again, and now he had one question and one question only to ask about it, and it was the one single question that had stayed with him throughout each and every time that he had watched this scene since the very first time he had seen it.
"How?" That was all that Hojo softly whispered to himself in a very quiet and questioning tone of voice. "How did she do it?" Hojo then rhetorically asked aloud in a somewhat louder voice to no one yet again. And, just like every other time that he had asked himself this question in the past three months, Hojo had found no ready answer available for himself.
At first it had seemed absurd, laughable even, that his son and his greatest scientific achievement ever had been killed, and by an ordinary everyday female grunt, one that was not even a member of the elite SOLDIER unit, but instead by one that was just your average everyday ordinary grunt. But that was exactly what had happened, and it was really kind of insulting to him at first. For if his son and his greatest scientific experiment ever had to have been killed, it should have been by the best of the best at the least. Or so was Hojo's line of thought about that particular subject.
But then, after he had looked into her file, which he had immediately done after he had first seen her stab his son with that fallen SOLDIER's sword, and then after having seen her survive being skewered through her chest by Sephiroth's sword and then having seen her grab it and using it to launch his son down into the reactor's core, he had investigated her thoroughly, because his curiosity had been peaked, if for no other reason. And what he found had surprised him. A very rare event in his mind.
It seemed that she was that surviving First Class's pet project. He had seen something in her, and he had wanted her to make it into SOLDIER. And she was routinely denied the chance. Oh she had the skills to make it all right, but she seemed to have been denied entry solely due to her gender.
"The fools." Hojo had hissed after he had read the report on the woman, well the girl really, whom had killed his son. "She would have been a great asset to SOLDIER. Now she will become an even greater asset to me." Hojo had exclaimed while he laughed manically.
That had been three months ago, and Hojo hadn't been disappointed with his results with her yet. He was however slightly disappointed with his results with the male member of SOLDIER he had at his disposal. It seemed that his previous treatment of both Mako and Jenova cells he had had when he had been a member of SOLDIER had given him a slight case of immunity to the, treatment, to which he had devised for him.
Shaking his head to clear it from the disappointment he felt, he then turned to the unconscious woman that was so responsive to his treatment. 'If this works, she will be perfect.' Hojo thought as he fingered the box he was holding.
"Prepare specimen B for the procedure." Hojo said aloud with authority extremely evident in his voice to his subordinates.
The Shin-Ra Mansion: Nibelheim: about four and a half years ago
Hojo sighed very heavily with regret, for it seemed that his last experiment on the girl had been just a wee bit too much. 'And after she had shown such promise as well.' Hojo thought to himself. Inside of that box had been the crystallized consciousness of a very powerful being. It wasn't a Materia or anything even close to that. From what he could surmise from his studies on the object from the site where he had found it, it was a prison for the spirit of a very powerful being. And when he tried to fuse that being with his female subject, she had become comatose, and even now she had yet to awaken.
'What a waste. What an absolute waste of two very valuable resources.' Hojo then thought to himself with true regret. In his mind, he had destroyed two very valuable recourses of his due to some poor planning on his part. A truly unforgivable sin on his part in his mind.
"Sigh, they are both failures." Hojo suddenly and dramatically exclaimed aloud. "Take them both to the storage room and don't let me see them again." Hojo ordered one of his subordinates. The man immediately nodded in reply and then he did as he was instructed.
The Shin-Ra Mansion: Nibelheim: about one and a half years ago
Zack Fair smiled a feral smile. Today, today he would be free. He had finally awoken from his drug induced slumber about a week ago, but yet his captors, whom were also his former employers, had yet to realize this very important fact. He had since studied the lay out of the room, plus he had clocked the time table, one that stupidly had never changed, of his captors' daily routine, and he had also very carefully observed his immediate, visible surroundings.
For instance, he knew from a newspaper that a scientist had left on a table in the room, that he had been a prisoner where ever he now was for over three and a half years. But yet he felt no debilitations from not being free or even being able to move for that long. He surmised that it must be from the fact that he was literally encased in liquid Mako.
Cloud on the other hand…, well she seemed to be a little out of it, to put it mildly. Very mildly that is. She seemed to lapse in and out of consciousness, which was something that worried him greatly. Maybe she had been experimented on? They did seem to be in a lab. No matter, he'd get both of them out of here. There was no way that he'd let these Shin-Ra bastards hold him and his precious student prisoner here any longer.
And then finally it was time for their daily feeding. And they needed to open the tube which contained each of them to deposit the food into each of their food dispensers. It was a fatal flaw in their prison's design as the man who was sent to feed them had suddenly discovered for himself when Zack grabbed him by the throat and then he had quickly snapped his neck.
Zack was out in an instant, and he immediately got Cloud out of her tube as well and he had then laid her out on the table. After quickly checking the hall to see in anyone had noticed anything, he then went to their equipment lockers.
"So nice of them to save our things." Zack muttered with some dark humor evident in his voice as he dressed and put on his Shinra Alpha and then grabbing his beloved Buster Sword. Then he looked for Cloud's clothes, but he then found out that they were all still a torn and bloody mess. And it was with some very old blood at that. After grimacing with no small amount of disgust, he quickly looked inside the next locker, and he then had found a godsend inside it. Inside of it was a complete SOLDIER uniform. But it was one of an older make though. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and not to mention that the stuff looked like it had been here for even longer then they had, he immediately put the old fashioned uniform on Cloud, along with an old Shinra Beta wrist armor. And then he grabbed the weapon that was in the locker and whistled.
It was a very old Breaker Sword, and it was one that was in almost shop new shape as well. This was the sword that the Buster Sword had been modeled after. It was slightly smaller then the Buster Sword, and where the Buster Sword was all hard, sharp, flat edges, the Breaker Sword was all smooth, sleek curves. And to top it all off, instead of its Materia slots being empty like the Shinra Beta's were. All four of its single slots were filled with green Materia, Restore, Fire, Ice and Lightning. All of the Materia were almost totally immature it seemed, but that was just fine by him.
"Cloud will love this thing when she wakes up." Zack whispered as he attached the Breaker Sword to her back, and then picking her up into a firemen's carry, he hefted his Buster Sword one in one hand and smiled. "It's time for us to take our leave."
On the outskirts of Midgr: about six months ago
"Ok, this is no longer any fun." Zack pissilly muttered out as he had just run out of running room for Cloud and himself. Oh sure, compared to him, or any other decent member of SOLDIER, even a third class one, the guys that were chasing after him were a total joke. But by their sheer numbers, he knew that he was fucked. So he had been fighting a retreating battle, and now he was out of room to retreat, for there was a giant cliff standing in his path. Hiding Cloud among some rocks to protect her from the coming battle, for she had chosen a little while ago to lapse into unconscious yet again, he readied his Buster Sword and waited for his opponents.
And they did not disappoint him in the slightest with their opening tactics. Under the cover of gun fire, which he had blocked with his very large sword, a group of grunts closed in with electrified batons, ready to smite him.
Smiling, for now the gunners could not fire upon him without hitting their own allies, or so he had thought, he sliced the first three men to come at him with a horizontal left swing while saying "Well today IS a good day to die, don't you agree?" And then, as he readied himself for a backhand swing, a single shot rang out from high within the trees, missing his heart, but getting him good and deep in his left lung.
Coughing up a mouth full of blood, he said "Heh, a sniper. Good job, but I'm still taking all of you with me!" and then, as if he was possessed by a berserker God of War, Zack was slicing up the baton wielders left, right and center.
As the last man left near him fell, Zack, due to his massive blood loss and fatigue, faltered, giving enough time for the sniper to unload four more shots into Zack's chest.
After Zack fell, the two grunts with guns whom had hung back during the fighting then came forward and shot him point blank in the chest a few times for good measure, and then one of them asked the other
"Hey, wasn't there supposed to be a second one with this guy?"
"Yeah, there was. But I heard that one is totally out of it. Mako poisoning or something like that. I doubt that that one has long to live at all. He must have dropped her off somewhere or she died or something. Anyway, it's not our problem anymore." The second one said in reply.
"True." Was the first one's response as he shrugged and then they left the bloody scene.
In Cloud's mindscape: about five years ago
Cloud could barely recall anything that had happened to her since her fight with Sephiroth. She remembered being picked up by some Shin-Ra grunts, and she could remember then being put into a tank of pure liquid Mako, and then the last thing she could remember was her apparently being prepped for surgery. And now this. She was alone, in a void of pure blackness, and she felt so cold and tired.
As she looked around herself, she saw something, a pin-prick of white, way off in the distance. With nothing else to do, Cloud headed towards it.
In Cloud's mindscape: about three years ago
Cloud was so tired. She did not know what was going on any more. She did not know anything any more, all she knew was she needed to make it to that white light. As she looked up, she was utterly surprised to see that she had made it.
The white light that was illuminating her dark universe was a giant glowing crystal. The crystal was totally clear, and inside of it she could see a woman with long dark hair in purple armor with a halberd in her right hand.
Cloud immediately knew that this woman, whomever she was, held the answers to where she was, and what had happened to her. She also knew that she had to get her out of the crystal to be able to ask her any questions. Looking back and forth from the crystal to her bare hands, she spoke aloud in a raspy voice for the first time in a long while, "This will take a while."
In Cloud's mindscape: about two years ago
Cloud's hands were a bloody mess as she struggled to remove the last few centimeters of crystal between her and the woman whom was trapped inside the crystal. And then she had done it. She had reached the woman. And as her bloody hand touched the trapped woman's breast, Cloud's vision was suddenly filled with white and her body was overflowed with pain as she screamed and then passed out.
In Cloud's mindscape: about two years ago: an undetermined amount of time later
Cloud awoke to a woman shouting "WAKE UP DAMN IT!!!" into her left ear.
"Ow, ow, ow… my ear!" Cloud mumbled as she awoke. Looking up at the dark haired woman in purple armor, Cloud asked "Who are you? Where are we? And why is my memory like Swiss Cheese? I mean I can hardly even remember my own name at the moment."
The strange woman sighed and replied with "My name is Hrist. We are in what is currently left of your mind. And as to your stated memory problems, I would guess that they came from when I was put into here."
"What do you mean by 'Put into here'?" Cloud suspiciously asked.
"Well…, um…, the last thing I remember was being ambushed by that wicked, crazy, wizard Lezard." Hrist started and then she paused for a moment, causing Cloud to ask
"Um why'd you stop? Why'd that guy want to ambush you, and why'd he put you in here with me?"
"I was trying to think on how to say this. Well for one, he didn't put me in here with you." Hrist started when Cloud asked
"Huh? Then who did?"
"That I do not know." Hrist stated, and then she told Cloud "Whomever did so is only known to us in this sea of chaos that you call your memories." She said while waving her hands out to the darkness now that surrounded them. "I was killed and my essence was trapped in a soul stone. But I do know for a fact that Lezard never got to do anything with it, for both of my sisters had showed up as I was being put into the stone. The last thing that my spirit saw before I was totally trapped inside the soul stone was my sister Lenneth striking Lezard through his heart with her sword."
"Um, so why did he do that to you?" Cloud curiously asked.
"There's no real good way to explain this. I was a Valkyrie." Hrist told Cloud.
"Um, what's that?" Cloud asked with the utmost seriousness.
Hrist stared at the young woman in front of her like she had grown a second or possibly more heads, and then she asked "You do not know what a Valkyrie is?"
"Nope, never heard of them." Cloud stated.
Hrist just stared wide eyed at the young blond woman sitting on the ground before her and then she muttered "How long, just how long have I been trapped inside that rock, that the world has forgotten all about us?" Then shaking her head, she told Cloud "A Valkyrie is, was a Goddess. We were, the recruiters, I guess you could say for the army of the Gods. We were called 'The Chooser of the Slain' for those that we found worthy, we then took into our own essence until we released them in Asgard, the Realm of the Gods."
"Um, ok, but that doesn't really explain why that guy killed you and then trapped your soul." Cloud interrupted.
"That fool was obsessed with becoming a God. He thought if he could trap my soul and then thoroughly examine it, that he could then find the key he needed to become a Deity himself." Hrist stated. "The man was a true fool, but he also was a powerful one."
"Um, ok. Then how did you end up here? You said this is my mind, right? Then why am I trapped here as well?" Cloud asked of Hrist.
"That I do not know. All I know is that our answers lay out there." Hrist said, sweeping her hands out at the vast field darkness around them.
"Ok." Cloud said while being a little weirded out by all of this.
"So are you ready to go out and find out the answers to your questions?" Hrist asked, offering Cloud her hand.
Cloud took Hrist's hand and said as she helped her up while saying "I guess."
In Cloud's mindscape: about a year and a half a ago
Hrist was not at all pleased with the picture that Cloud's fragmented memories had showed her. And even less pleasing was the fact that she had recently and accidentally discovered on her own.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M ABSORBING YOU?" Cloud had shrieked at Hrist after being told that.
"Just what I said." Hrist dryly replied as she shook the ringing out of her ears. "What ever has been done to us, it is slowly turning you into what I used to be."
"Well what will happen to us then?" Cloud nervously asked.
"I truly do not know." Hrist said while looking down and shaking her head. "I truly just do not know."
"So, um, what do we do about it?" Cloud then asked of Hrist.
"I start training you." Hrist said with a smile. An evil smile. One that Cloud could remember seeing on someone else whenever they had a new thing to teach her, and it was a very painful thing for her to learn.
Gulping, Cloud then asked "Um, so when do we start?"
"Now." Hrist said evenly.
Sighing, Cloud huffed out "I thought so."
EAN: Ok, in the next chapter Cloud finally gets out of her damn head, and we find out just what truly happens to Zack. I bet you guys can guess what happens to him though. And the next chapter will cover until the start of the game, I think. Oh and Yashodoa, what did you think of it? Hopefully you liked it.