AN: The following five prompts all go together as one long AU story, united only by each prompt being a color. Trust me, this is totally not going where you think it is, but I hope you'll enjoy anyway. I plan on updating very quickly with these so that no one gets lost.

ZEN

7. Colors -- Yellow

He'd never thought yellow could be so ugly, but this was. The whole world had been bathed in it, as if the sun had burned away every other color. He found himself mentally reciting colors as he trudged through the endless desert. He made a game of it, finding colors for every letter of the alphabet.

Aquamarine. Blue. Cerulean. Dusty rose.

He wasn't sure that last one counted, but he was way too hot to care. Despite the grey clouds, the Wasteland was as hot as its name implied. He considered taking off his jacket, but knew he'd just end up abandoning it if he did. He might need it during the night. There was no telling how cold it would get.

Emerald. Forest green.

What he wouldn't give for a forest right now. Did Venjix have to destroy everything? Couldn't he have left a conveniently placed oasis or something?

Green.

He thought that was probably a bit of a cop-out, since he'd just said forest green, but the only other Gs he could think of were yellows or greys, neither of which seemed appealing given the landscape.

Hot pink. Indigo. Jungle green.

Okay, he really needed to get away from the greens. But his vision was blurring and there was sand in his shoes making his steps heavy and awkward, and if that weren't enough his lack of food and sleep during his last few days in the Corinth were swiftly catching up to him. He stumbled and fell into a sandbank. He didn't get up.


Well, that was disappointing.

Tenaya watched the spot where the human had fallen for several moments, wondering if he would rise. Venjix had detected him leaving the dome and, naturally, was curious as to why anyone would do something so clearly suicidal after barely surviving the end of the world. He'd sent Tenaya to watch the human for two reasons: if need be she could approach him without inciting fear, and she needed more information about humans if she was going to infiltrate the dome.

She sighed. She sincerely doubted Venjix would accept this outcome. She couldn't learn much from observing him if he was dead, which meant she would have to make contact. Suppressing a shudder, she ran across the dunes.


Birds outside his window -- that was Ziggy's first conscious thought and was followed very quickly by the realization that he hadn't heard birds outside his window since before the world ended.

He sat up and the sound stopped. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust. A fire burned beside him, but not close enough that he was in danger, giving light to the small cave. He could feel the cave's mouth behind him, wind blowing faintly past. From the darkness and cold encroaching on the cavern he assumed it was night already. Across the fire was a girl, squatting in the dust, her arms resting on her knees and an expression of quiet interest on her face.

"Hi," he said, unable to think of anything else.

"You passed out," she said and with a flick of her wrist tossed something to him over the flames. He caught it awkwardly against his chest and saw that it was a dehydrated nutrition bar. He'd had quite a few of them in Corinth. They were cheaper than real food and in the city's early days he'd spent whole weeks eating nothing else.

"Thanks," he said, wishing Benny had thought to give him a few before he left. But then, Benny hadn't thought of much except the way out and that had been a big enough risk for the man to take. If Ziggy died from starvation or dehydration in the Wasteland, it was better than being torn apart by the cartels.

The girl shrugged one shoulder as he tore the silver wrapping from the bar. He took a bite quickly, wincing as the smell filled his nostrils. It would have been a fine smell if it weren't for one quality -- Ziggy thought it came from whatever made the bar a dull off-yellow color -- that made it seem like the bar had just gone bad.

He swallowed quickly and said, "I'm Ziggy."

"Tenaya."

He smiled. He'd always liked people with odd names, they were less inclined to mock him for his.

"What are you doing out here?"

She raised an eyebrow. "The world ended. What do you think I'm doing out here?"

"Well, you haven't resorted to cannibalism and for that I'm grateful."

She stared at him for a moment before smiling slightly. He grinned back.