A/N: I'm in the mood for Final Fantasy VII because I've been recently led there by my Youtube Channel. So, here's a story for you all because we all probably needed it. There's another one, Vendetta Fiasco, but it's actually being rewritten (again!) for the sake of a better story. The elements will remain the same, just a bit of character development, a few changes about the plot of his story, and it'll be posted. Now if I could only get to writing the other half so I could get started, but with work always taking over, I don't have the time. There's a lot of stories I want to continue doing but life likes to pull be back. Sorry and I hope you enjoy this story!
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII belongs to Square Enix, my original character belongs to me!
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The Ozymandias Complex
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It was a terrible sight to behold.
Even as the sky was full of rain, the great fire still rose high and blackened the already dark sky. People were running, some screaming and sobbing as they watched helplessly from where they stood. However, there was only a few people left with their composure, no matter how badly shaken, and they held their wits together when they were being ordered by a traveler who had only recently began to stay in their small community.
"Take as many of the injured as you can, lead the others away from the fire, and find someone with a truck or wagon to carry enough water!"
Zangan turned away from the group as he looked back towards the burning pyre. An airship carrying military personel had fallen from the sky, and he could only guess that this was another tactic pulled by the people of Wutai to scare Shinra off with threats that they could be everywhere. Zangan sadly shook his head, the poor bastards being used as bloody messages to the damned company who began the messy and bloody business of war.
And he knew for a fact that Shinra wouldn't easily fall back just because a few airships full of young soldiers that had yet to face war were being blown out of the sky. In fact, they would just use this as a propaganda to enlist more eager young men in the name of avenging all those killed by the barbaric Wutainese.
Such was the nature of war.
"Oh, Gods," Zangan's ears perked when he heard a woman gasp from somewhere in front of him. "There's a child!"
He whipped his head towards the giant metal airship, and sure enough a small silhouette of a child was seen. Wasting no time to wonder why in the world there was kid on board and praying that he could just prevent one life from becoming nothing but ash, he leapt forward and dove inside the burning airship. Avoiding the wisps of fire, Zangan tore off his red cloak as he came closer to the tiny child.
"Little one!" he called out over the roar of the fire.
A little girl, he noted, turned her head towards his direction slowly and was met with wide, dazed, and confused blue eyes that shone brightly from the fire surrounding them. Her short blond hair was caked with blood, probably from a head injury when the airship had crashed, and the soot from the charred ash around them. Remaining eye contact and holding his breath to not look at the burnt bodies and intake the scent of burning flesh, Zangan came closer and crouched down when the space became a bit tight.
"Come here!" he ordered as he found that he could come no closer without the risk of getting burned himself. "I'm going to get you out, now please come over to me!"
With seemingly great effort, the little girl crawled on her hands and knees towards Zangan, coming closer with the old martial artist's encouragement. When she finally was within reach, he pulled her closer to shield the poor girl from the heat and fire. He nearly froze when he heard the signs of a tell tale groaning of metal, and he could assume the whole airship would collapse when the metal beams keeping the whole place semi-stable would lose grip of their places. With great haste, and sadness when he thought he could look around for more survivors, Zangan quickly made for escape out of the burning ship.
His heart nearly skipped a beat when he heard a great crash behind him, and so with a mighty leap, he bursted out the fiery entrance and escaped just in time for the airship to crumble behind him.
Zangan rolled to the ground, using his body as a shield when he felt a great heat explode from behind him and winced when his nervs sang of pain from the exposure. They were quickly calmed when he felt water thrown over him a couple of times. With that, Zangan slowly sat up with the tiny girl still pressed against his chest.
"Someone take the girl to a doctor." the older man coughed as watched someone, a woman, pluck the girl out of his arms. "Everyone, back to the fire!"
As the townspeople worked hard to take out the burning airship that slowly died down when the rain began to come down a little harder, Zangan watched the sole survivor as she stared at the airship in silent shock while clutching onto the woman carrying her away to safety.
'Poor thing,' Zangan thought as he turned away. 'But at least one life was spared.'
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xOx
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I hated planes.
I sat on the seat away from the window, and stared straight the black screen in front of me. I had always been afraid of planes ever since my stupid uncle would have me watch those actions movies (that were awesome) which always involved some bad guy hijacking a plane, or someone who didn't know how a fly drive the damn thing, and even worse, a malfunction that could go wrong and send us all to oblivion.
God, I hated planes.
"You okay there?"
I reluctantly pulled my eyes away from the screen and turned to the man standing on my aisle as he was putting away his luggage. He offered a smile when he finished and I tucked my legs in when he scooted in and took a seat next to the window.
"Fine." I muttered quietly as I stared back to the black screen.
"You don't like planes much, do you?" I could hear the smile in his voice and felt myself flush in embarrassment. "You're just like my oldest son, in fact, you look to be around his age. He just started his first semester in college, you know."
I turned to the older man he pulled out a round, tin, and thin can out of the pocket of his black trench coat and pulled out what looked to be a honey-colored block for him to pop in his mouth. Vaguely, I wondered if it was medicine or candy, could me the former considering the guy looked pretty old with his near white hair and winkled and pale face.
"He would always plead to go by car, and even though everyone told him that he was likely to be killed by a car and less so by a plane, he was persistent." he laughed as he put away his thin can.
I couldn't help but smile because that was exactly what I had always done when I begged for my parents that we should travel by car and not on those flying death traps. They literally had tried to drag me on a plane while I kicked and screamed when I was just a child, and we ended up getting kicked off the plane because I was such an unruly child. Years went by and I matured, but I still kicked up a bit of a fuss when it came to air travel.
"I watched a lot of movies involving plane crashes, explosions, and hijacking." I told the old man.
The man laughed and waved a single digit finger at me. "See! That's what happens when you watch those movies! I told my son, Craig, he shouldn't watch those or else it'll haunt him for the rest of his life, and I always make sure to remind him. Heck, even after I die, I'm going to leave behind a recorder that says 'I told you so~' in my Will for him."
I couldn't stop myself from bursting out into giggling laughter. The gentleman raised his hand for me to shake with.
"Allen Lezler." he introduced himself.
"Luka Mercer." I replied.
"Now, Luka, let me tell ya how many times my son got us kicked out of a plane..."
The unease I felt earlier when I stepped inside the plan began to subside and turn into good mirth the more stories I heard about Craig, Allen's son. I laughed at the idea Allen proposed when I should meet up with his son for some drinks so we could talk about phobia against planes.
It wasn't long when the captain announced that our plane would be taking off soon. A couple attendants would brightly smile down at people and ask them to put away their electronic devices until after take-off. I leaned back in my chair and stared at the black screen. After some few minutes, there was another announcement and the plane came to life.
I wanted to sink into my chair and disappear. The plane hadn't taken off and already I was starting to shake with the trembling climbing up my arm, to my shoulders, and down to my quaking knees. I suddenly felt something cool cover over my hand, and I opened my eyes (never realizing they were closed), and looked over to see the older gentleman resting a hand over my own as he gazed out the window.
With a small hint of embarrassment, I held onto his hand and closed my eyes tightly when the plane began to move in faster pace while my ears started to ring.
…
I slightly started awake, my eyes blinking to awareness. I looked around and felt dread once more when I realized I was still on the plane.
'I can't believe I fell asleep.' I thought as I sunk back to my seat and noticed the screen in front of me was playing movies. I looked beside me to Allen and noted he was fast asleep with his pillow wrapped securely around his neck to prevent aching joints. Lucky. I looked down to our joined hands.
Deciding that I would entertain myself rather than think about being a few miles up in the air, I pulled out my headphones and connected to the television and traveled the internet to watch some interesting videos or movies.
My fingers paused when I caught sight of something familiar.
'Is that...?' a smile drew upon my lips as I stared at the picture on the screen.
Final Fantasy VII, a series that one of my two cousins obsessed about. Looking at the title screen made me think about all the times I had spent with them as they played on their game console with the original PSX game, watched the movie, played a terrible sequel, and cried over the prequel. The story was pretty interesting, along with the characters and their development that I kind of liked it. Still, I didn't let the whole thing control my life since I had better things to do than admire non-existent characters.
Finding something else related to the Final Fantasy series, I clicked on the video, slunk back in my chair, and relaxed as the music played.
Too busy watching the interesting video, I didn't notice an attendant nervously walking up to another who had been in the middle of serving drinks. There was hush whispers of concern that the serving attendant apologized to the person before leaving with the first attendant. Not long after they disappeared, another flight attendant was making through the open aisles with haste, apologizing to some when they called for his attention while he continued to hurry past to the back section.
It was then that something felt wrong to the people. Some of them having observed, noticed the nervousness in the staff's behavior as they went off.
And things were off indeed.
The covers for the section where the attendants had held for the passengers was violently pushed aside, most of the people looking back to see a panicked attendant making a run for the front—
A force greater than flight turbulence shook the whole plane, causing everyone to shout in surprise, half of which that fell out of their seats and very few having jumped so high they crashed their heads into the ceiling.
Back to one seat in particular, my headphones had flown right off from the violent tremor, and I looked around in surprise to see many people looking just as shocked.
"What's happening?!" I heard Allen beside me demand, having been startled awake from the noise and sudden movement.
"I, I dunno!" I said.
"Hey!" someone shouted to one of the fallen attendants. "Hey, what's going on?!"
"Everyone, please, you have to remained seated and secure yourselves!" one of the attendants shouted as they knelt by an unconscious attendant.
"What was that?"
"What just happened back there?!"
And there was another tremor, but much more forceful than the last. This time, people screamed while few bodies hit the roof of the plane. I gaped in horror when one man's head suddenly twisted in odd angle when he harshly slammed against the roof before falling back on the chairs, his body sprawled over the people seated.
Oh, God, it was happening, I thought with horror. Just as that thought came across, the plane started to turn to an unnatural angle. My body was pressing against the buckle of my seat, and I was trying to sink back to my chair but gravity was not being a friend to us all at that moment.
And then I heard it.
The sound of an airplane falling out of the sky and nose-diving towards the earth.
Allen was holding man hand, our fingers laced together as we prepared to die. My heart was racing, my hair was flying all around me, and the noise filling my eardrums couldn't listen to my screams.
And I closed my eyes just as I heard an explosion and felt fire all around me.
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xOx
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It was very early in the morning when the fire finally died away into nothing but black smoke, the people were exhausted but relieved that the fire didn't spread to their homes. It would take a few weeks for Shinra to send people to check which airship missing, the identity and number of the people of board, and...
Zangan entered the clinic that was overflowing with patients. People injured from burns, others volunteering to help others with food and blankets, and few offering comfort to the catatonic ones. Gazing over them, his eyes locked on one certain child. Maneuvering around them, he made way to the little girl that he had saved hours earlier from the airship collapsing on her. Finally reaching the little quiet one, he took a seat next to the girl.
The martial artist wasn't great with kids. He knew they were still growing up, still learning something new as time went on, and they simply didn't understand much, but he still found himself a little irritated when surrounded by noisy and destructive children.
This girl was quiet, much too quiet for him to feel a new sense of wariness.
"You're a very lucky one, you know." Zangan told her as he gazed around once again. "I didn't think there was any survivors, but at least you came out okay."
She didn't say anything, her bandaged head bowed as she looked at her one hands.
"What's wrong?" Zangan asked her, but he had a feeling what her answer was.
"... I was holding his hand..." she whispered as she stared at her dirty and empty hand. "His hand was right there... and now it's gone."
Bowing his head, Zangan slowly rested his large and calloused hand over her small cranium, mindful of her injuried that she could have sustained from the crash.
"I'm very sorry, little one. I regret that I couldn't save more that could have been trapped inside the airship with you."
Slowly, she raised her eyes to him and they looked almost blank. The pitiful state of her clothes that was covered in soot, dirt, and blood littering all over her just made Zangan feel more guilty.
To add more salt on the open wound, she had lost whomever she had been with at in the airship. She was probably on board because she must have been the daughter of some soldier, a high-ranking officer, or some engineer that worked maintenance on the ship.
Lives lost in a senseless war.
"What's your name, little one?" he asked, trying to change the subject rather than focus on the horror of what had happened tonight. "My name is Zangan. I travel all over the world and teach people to fight with honor and discipline."
From the mention of his name, her eyes widened a little, which piqued his curiosity. Had his name really gotten around that it became well known so even a child could recognize it?
While it gave him a small hint of pride at the thought, the logical part of his mind told him it would bode well if some awful sorts of characters caught wind of it. Thinking to ask her later, he encouraged her to introduce herself; besides, he didn't want to leave her alone in the case that she too might fall in a state of shock like some of the people.
She looked at him with careful consideration for a long moment, her blue eyes taking in everything from his facial features to the traveling attire he wore. The little one, so tiny that she shouldn't be away from home and certainly not coming out of a horrific crash that meant to take away her life just to send threats to a company, swallowed her dry mouth. She looked down at her dirty open hands and murmured her name quietly that Zangan almost missed it.
"Luka."