Mission 54: Spirit of Christmas
Zack sighed, who ever said that death was the end of one's difficulties. Oh no, he was neck deep in the troubles of mundane desires, and they were not even his own desires.
Normal girls would have run away screaming if they stumbled upon a ghost in a deserted part of the city, but those two were far from being ordinary girls. "You're a spirit, it's Christmas Eve, therefore you are a Christmas Sprit and you need to give us presents!" That was their logic.
Try as he might to explain that he was just a regular spirit, the girls wouldn't listen to Zack and kept demanding presents.
"Don't forget that it's better to give than to receive," not even the presence of a second ghost bothered the girls, when Aerith arrived with her advice.
The two girls grinned, "you heard her!" "Yeah, give us presents!"
Zack sighed and Aerith laughed. "Why don't we show them some kindness, it might work wonders," the cetra suggested.
"Alright, I'll give you each one present," Zack agreed.
"Do you promise?" The light haired girl asked.
"Promise!" Zack gave the girls one of his usual carefree grins.
Then the sisters smiled evilly. "We'll hold you to that promise," the dark haired one spoke.
Zack knew he was doomed, and if not him, somebody was. Thus it began; Zack went to get presents for the two crazy girls he had randomly encountered. Didn't they know they should be sleeping at home at that hour and letting ghosts do their haunting in peace?
Zack started working on his mission, he snuck into the Turks' office, which was very easy for a ghost, and made his way to Reno's desk, the redhead was his first target. Next came the tricky part, using his standard edition ghost powers, Zack possessed Reno and prepared to leave.
"Where do you think you're going?" Elena pulled Reno's hair, dragging him back into the office. She wanted Reno to leave so she could be alone with Tseng when he came back, but the leader had entrusted her with the task of babysitting the redhead and she didn't want to fail her duty. The only way Reno could be allowed to leave was if he received a mission request and went out to work.
"Ow, ow, ow! Sorry, there's just this place I need to go to, so you'll have to excuse me. Please don't tell anyone I left, okay? Thanks!" It was Zack who spoke but he was in Reno's body, using Reno's voice, while Reno remained temporarily unconscious.
Elena gasped and dashed to Tseng's desk, opening the drawer where she knew he kept an extra gun. "Who are you?"
Zack stared at Elena in surprise through Reno's eyes. "I'm Reno of the Turks. I'm your ally, remember?"
"You said sorry, excuse me, please and thanks. It takes a lot more than hair pulling to get either of those words out of Reno, let alone all of them one after another. You are not Reno." Elena continued aiming the gun at the apparent impostor.
Zack started to worry, he didn't mean for Reno to get killed, though he wasn't exactly taking the redhead towards the safest place. "Don't shoot, I'll tell you the truth," Zack let go of Reno, revealing his ghostly appearance to Elena.
"You're a ghost," Elena calmly observed.
"Aren't you scared?" What was the world coming to if no one was afraid of ghosts anymore?
"Not really, when I was little they couldn't talk me into stop believing in ghosts so I was taught to not be afraid of them instead. I knew they were real! But you seem harmless enough." Elena nodded to herself, if only her father and sister could see that she was right.
"What's going on..." Reno was suffering from a post-possession hangover and wasn't done recovering, but he miraculously became fully alert when he saw the ghostly Zack. "A ghost! Cool! Hey Elena, where's the vacuum cleaner? I saw a ghost be captured inside a vacuum cleaner on TV! I know there's a vacuum around here somewhere, Tseng was using it the other day."
Zack sighed, "is it too much to ask that you give yourself as a gift to a random girl so she may learn the meaning of Christmas and all that stuff, so I can keep my promise and be done with it?"
"Huh?" Reno blinked in confusion.
"I thought so..." Zack was ready to leave and try to teach those girls the meaning of Christmas in some other way. Maybe Aerith could talk them into asking for scarves or candy canes or something else instead of men for their presents.
"Wait Mr. Ghost!" Elena brought a mission form over. "If you want Reno to do anything, especially go off on a mission, all you need to do is fill out this from."
"What are you up to trying to get me more work?" Reno didn't like where this was going.
"Ghosts have no gil anyway," Zack pointed out.
"I'll cover the costs, since it's Christmas Eve and all," Elena offered.
"That's very kind of you, thanks!" Zack accepted the offer.
But Reno wasn't pleased with how things were going, "don't I get a say in this?"
"No!" Elena snapped. This was just what she needed. Rude's mission, which involved dressing up as Rudolf the red nose reindeer, would not end anytime soon; but Tseng's shift as a mall Santa Claus would soon be over, and she had finished being a toy maker elf hours ago so they would have the office to themselves when Tseng returned. They still had to be at Shinra during Christmas Eve, but at least they would spend some time alone together; hence why Elena wanted Reno to leave, even if it meant forcing him to become a present for some random girl.
Zack grinned victoriously after the paper work was done. "You're a present," he told Reno. "Now let's get you gift wrapped so I can give you to that girl and get on with my life, er... afterlife I mean."
"Wait a minute that's not fair!" Reno followed Zack out of the office complaining.
"Zack Fair is always fair," the ghost replied.
Reno kept arguing the whole way and asking over and over. "Is she cute? Is she? She better be... She is pretty, right? Or at least sane... isn't she?"
Zack refused to answer, the girl was pretty, but she was scary and there was something off about her. He wondered if she was even human... and he still needed to get a present for the other girl.
End of Mission 54
In case you didn't catch it, the girl who wanted Reno as her present is the same one that shows up every now and then in this story. She is the body of thoughts made from the love of all the Reno fan girls. What she's really asking for is a fan service gift for all the fan girls who created her (and of course she herself will also enjoy it).
Since it's for all the fan girls, it's not really that much of a selfish request, so Aerith allowed it. Oh yes, Aerith knew all along, she caught on to the girls' identities right away. XD The sister of the Reno fan girl body of thoughts is a similar being, but she was made from the thoughts of the fan girls of a different bishounen.
I made a Zack Christmas layout and Snow commented that we needed presents, to go with the Christmas layout and all. It evolved into fangirling... er I mean... into a conversation about getting presents from Zack and this story is what came out of it. Credits to Snow for the plot bunny. Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII.