Final Fantasy VII 100 Word Challenge

Note: Apparently my brain didn't pick up on the "Fix-It" part of the prompt for four of these. But they're retcons, at least! ...don't hurt me?

Title: Coup de Gras
Characters: Cloud, Sephiroth
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Warning: Character Death

( Cut for character death )



Title: Fallen Angel
Characters: Cloud, Sephiroth
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Warning: Character Death

( Also cut for character death! Not the same character. )



Title: Promises
Characters: Zack, Cloud
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

Zack coughed out mako as he propped himself up on the floor of the lab, trying to remember what had just happened. He shook his head in and then looked up to Cloud’s tank.

The kid was as unresponsive as ever, and Zack hauled himself up to start toward Cloud’s tank to let him out too.

Footsteps and yelling voices jerked him to a halt, and he looked over his shoulder toward the door. Too close. If he wanted to get out, he had to go now.

Agonized eyes looked to Cloud.

“I’ll come back! I promise!”



Title: Successful Experiment
Characters: Zack, Cloud
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

Cloud was way too quiet, even if it was useful when they were on the run and trying to get away from the troops hunting them. The Turks hunting them even, and wasn’t that a kick to the gut? Not that he hadn’t expected it.

But Cloud was too quiet, and his hair was too pale, and his eyes looked like they’d absorbed the mako because they were way too green.

Suddenly Cloud stirred listlessly, and Zack focused on him like a hunter.

“Seph…iroth. Master…” His voice was dazed and dreamy, responding to an unheard Call.



Title: We Are- Ow!
Characters: Genesis, Zack
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

“We are…monsters.” Genesis spread his arm out to the side, echoing the dark, demonic sweep of wing that marked him as violently Other. Not even Angeal’s ever-optimistic puppy could spin this a better way.

Which was why he was taken by surprise when said puppy moved forward far too fast and delivered a rather impressive right hook to his jaw.

“Don’t say that! You’re not! You’re coming back with me, and we’re going to fix you!”

Genesis could only stare in stunned confusion as he was lifted over an armored shoulder and carted away.

Title: I Have to Say
Characters: Angeal, Genesis
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Author’s Note: I couldn’t get this song out of my head once I saw the prompt.

The trail of shell-shocked troopers, secretaries, errand boys, and even SOLDIERs alerted Angeal to the fact that something was going on. Some of them looked utterly scandalized, but most of them were at least a little aroused as well.

Considering that the trail was leading toward the First-Class offices, he had a distinct feeling about the source.

“Good morning, Genesis,” he said, standing in the doorway and eyeing his best friend cautiously

“Morning, Angeal!” He was far too chipper, when usually he was constantly bitching about the early hour. “I’m not wearing underwear today!”

…which explained it all, really.

Title: The Goddess’ Call
Characters: Genesis, Angeal
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

“Look at us, Angeal,” Genesis said, facing his friend, dark to light (only which one of them was the dark, and which the light?) with their wings outstretched in something like a warped mirror image.

“We can fix this.” But Angeal’s eyes were dark and he knew that they couldn’t, just as Genesis knew.

“The Goddess has called us to Her service, even as we die. Will you serve Her alongside me?” He knew the answer.

“…I can’t.” And so all three friends parted ways, as was fated in the words of the Goddess. It could be no other way.


Title: Life
Characters: Aeris
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

Walking through the halls of her ancestors, Aeris filled her lungs and heart and mind with the scent of the air, the feel of the cool stone under her feet and against her hand, the sound of her footsteps. She’d memorized the forest on the way here, and the birds flying and courting and singing. The taste of sap on her lips, the heady smell of it in her nose.

She would have to bow to the whim of fate soon enough and return to the Lifestream, but first she wanted one last chance to experience Life on its own.

Title: Love’s First Kiss
Characters: Zack/Cloud
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Author’s Note: …sorry this isn’t at all fluffy or happy.

Zack was still.

So still and silent, Zack shouldn’t be so quiet or so still, because he was Zack, and he was always moving and noisy and dragging him along even when he said that he didn’t want to do whatever it was.

(But really he didn’t mind, because he loved Zack and he loved being with him, even if he doubted his friend loved him that way.)

He leaned down and pressed their lips together, like a fairytale. Only love’s first kiss didn’t wake him, so maybe he wasn’t true love after all.

Title: Before it Began
Characters: Zack, Cloud, ShinRa troopers
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Warnings: Character death

( Read more... )

Title: Motivation
Characters: Yuffie
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

Here’s a secret: Yuffie hates materia. Loathes them with a burning passion that almost matches her hatred for Sephiroth and all things ShinRa.

It isn’t like she ever acts like she does, though. No, she’s the Great Materia-Hunter Yuffie! She’s the one that steals them from everyone else for her fantastic hoard of shinies! Hell, that was how she met up with everyone else: filching their materia.

But she wants to destroy every last one of those orbs of magic and laugh hysterically, for what they did to her country, to her people, to her family.

Title: Collector
Characters: Zack
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Author’s Note: This one pounced and was written before I quite knew what happened.

Zack collected people, the same way that other people might collect paintings that they liked. There wasn’t anything methodical about it; they just seemed to end up in his sphere without a single clue of how they’d arrived there, and generally ended up with absolutely no problems with the situation.

But more than the fact that people knew him, it was the way that he knew everyone back that made it so that the people he picked up stayed. Even when they questioned themselves, daily, as to just what had happened when the SOLDIER appeared in their lives.

Title: You’re So Vain
Characters: Rufus
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

Pose. Aaand flick.

Haughty smirk, secure in his superiority. Aaand flick.

Mocking laugh, as if his foes lay helpless before him. Aaand flick.

Cold look of impending Turks doom. Aaand flick.

Suave, genteel smile, the sort expected at a dinner banquet. Aaand flick.

Rufus eyed the mirror one last time. If developing this particular habit didn’t drive his father to death – or at least extreme annoyance – he didn’t know what would.

He adjusted his impeccably white suit and gathered up the documents for the upcoming meeting. With a final flick of his hair, he was out the door.

Title: Controlling Touch
Characters: Vincent/Cloud
Warnings: BDSM, whee! Not really worksafe.
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

( What does the puppet do without his strings to help him dance? )

Title: Job Qualifications
Characters: ShinRa executives, Reeve (and Cait)
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
A/N: It’s all bofoddity’s fault. Inspired by her drabble here.

“What was wrong with that guy? He seemed well-spoken and had all sorts of ideas that could help us develop Midgar into the metropolis it’s going to become.”

“You’re right. I just…We need someone special for the new Head of Urban Development. Someone who has that certain something, that will fit in well with the rest of the board.”

“…you mean someone who’s insane.”

“Well, yes.”

“Hey, how about this guy? Looks like he has what we want, and his alter ego is a stuffed cat he’s planning on turning into an actual robot.”

“Perfect!”

Title: After the End
Characters/Pairings: “Zack”/Cloud Tifa
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

“What’ll we do now?”

“I dunno. We’ve saved the world, what else is there to do?”

“Hey, we should go back to Costa del Sol, and I’ll show you how to really have fun!”

“Zaaack!”

“Come on, kid. We won’t need sexy girls to help us out, though I wouldn’t complain. Just you, me, the open beach, a big bottle of lube…”

“Zack, stop it!”

“You’re not complaining!”

“No, you’re just embarrassing.”

“You know you love me.”

“I do…”

-

Tifa watched her friend twitch in his sleep. “Come back to us, Cloud.”

--

Title: Most Obedient Servant
Characters: Cloud, other
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

It was the humans’ fault that it had taken him so long to break free of the bonds around his mind and heart, the ties that had held him to the human way of thinking when inside he’d raged and twisted to escape.

But he’d escaped the trap, left behind the tainted water and the jailers.

In the depths of the Crater Cloud cradled a black sphere, adoring smile on his face as feline eyes – that used to be so uselessly blue – looked upward through silver spikes.

“I’ve returned, Master. I’ve brought you the Black Materia.”

--

Title: Ascending
Characters: Cloud
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

When Sephiroth went insane, it took the strength and passion of a boy who had been wronged in almost all ways and then injected and twisted and altered to become far more than human in order to bring the man down. Even then, the boy needed help from those who were touched by the Planet Herself in order to ensure Sephiroth’s death.

During the peace and quiet afterward, no one wondered at the state of the boy’s mind.

When Cloud went insane, Gaia trembled and wailed at her approaching death, and humanity hailed their new God with terror.

Title: Milestones
Characters: Cloud
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

Cloud’s seventeenth birthday was spent pounding fruitlessly against the wall of the mako tube he was trapped in, yelling and screaming imprecations until the scientists got tired of him and flooded it.

He spent his eighteenth birthday staring in agony at Zack being torn apart on the operating table, before he dove in to sleep to avoid it.

He floated lifelessly through his nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first birthdays.

His twenty-second birthday found him burying a sword in a cliff with a shattered promise.

He’d expected to die alone and in agony before his twenty-third birthday passed.

He didn’t.

Title: Protected
Characters: Sephiroth
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

( Read more... )

--

Title: Inclusion
Characters: Sephiroth, Cloud mentioned
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

( Read more... )

--

Title: Freedom
Characters: Sephiroth
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

( Read more... )

--

Title: Silken
Characters: Sephiroth
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Note: One last one inspired by sitting here and happily petting my ass-length hair.

( Read more... )

Title: The End of All Things
Characters: Cloud
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Note: Title is from the Lord of the Rings books/movies.

Everyone else had died eons ago, he thought. There had been men and women, who he’d fought beside and cared for. There had been children, who had grown into adults.

He remembered Red XIII and Vincent best. Red had died from old age, and Vincent had eventually taken his own life before his demons could do the job.

Now here he stood and looked up as Omega Weapon finally spread its wings at the proper time. Gaia was dead, and it was time to bring the Lifestream to the next planet. Cloud closed his eyes, and let himself die.

--

Title: Spiritual Guide
Characters: Aeris
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

Aeris knew she was going to die in this endeavor. She would go to the holy place of her people and begin praying, her mother’s materia – Holy, not some useless trinket – clasped in folded hands.

She didn’t know whether or not her friends would find her before she died, though she thought they might.

This wasn’t something she really wanted to do. But it was the only way that Holy would find its way to the heart of the Planet; someone had to guide it there.

Someone with the soul of a Cetra.

She was that someone.

Overarching A/N: All quotes are from The Empire Strikes Back.

Title: The Formless
Characters: Aeris, Cetra
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Quote: “Luminous beings are we, not this…crude matter.” - Yoda

( Where do you go after death? )

--

Title: Belief
Characters: Zack, Cloud
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Quote: “I don’t believe it.” “That is why you fail.” – Luke and Yoda

( You have to believe in yourself. )

--

Title: Putting Him Together
Characters: Cait Sith, Barret
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Quote: “Wait a minute, I’m backward! Only an idiot like you would-” - C-3PO

( Hand me that doohicky. No, the other doohicky! )

--

Title: Acknowledgement
Characters: Tifa, Cloud
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Quote: “I love you.” “I know.” - Han and Leia

( Pulling away to protect everyone )

--

Title: Appearances Matter
Characters: Zack, Aeris
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Quote: “Who’s scruffy-looking?” - Han

( You low down, scruffy-looking...nerf-herder! )

--

Title: Disconcerting Situations
Characters: Cloud, Yuffie
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Quote: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” - Too many characters to count

( That's no moon. )

--

Title: Negotiations
Characters: Hojo, President Shinra
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Quote: “You said they’d be left under my supervision.” “I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it further.” - Lando and Vader

( Why the doors were open in the Tower...maybe. )

--

Title: All Sorts of Trouble
Characters: Cloud, Cait Sith, Tifa, mentioned Yuffie + Avalanche
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Quote: “Hurry, hurry! We’re trying to save Han from the bounty hunter!” - C-3PO

( We're off to see the wizard... )

--

Title: Imprisoned
Characters: Sephiroth/Cloud
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Quote: “There is no escape. Don’t make me destroy you.” - Vader
Additional Warning: Non-con

( Tied up with puppet strings )

--

Title: Family Ties
Characters: Sephiroth, Vincent, mentioned Cloud and Cid
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Quote: “Join me, and we can rule the galaxy as father and son.” – Vader

( Search your feelings, you know it to be true. )

Title: Confessions in Chapel
Characters: Zack/Aerith
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

( It's like Truth or Dare, only without the Dare )

--

Title: Something Unknown
Characters:Cloud, Zack, Aerith
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

( Talking with those long gone )

Title: Mea Culpa
Characters: Cloud, a surprise
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

( Mea maxima culpa )

--

Title: The Invisible Closet
Characters: Cloud, Tifa
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

( It's okay to be gay! )

--

Title: You’re No Fun Anymore
Characters: Reno
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

( But it's my only line! D= )

Title: Royalty
Characters: Yuffie
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

The formal makeup is heavy on her skin, and she can barely move in the multi-layered silk robes she’s wearing. She can barely speak, because of all the caked-on crap.

Then again, it’s not like she’s expected to speak, or move, or do anything other than sit around and look pretty. She’s the Leviathan-born Princess of Wutai, and it doesn’t matter that she wants to be out fighting monsters and stealing things.

But when the others ask her why she isn’t still at Court, she just laughs and says she’s allergic to responsibility.

--

Title: Immune Response
Characters: Hojo
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

A SOLDIER’s allergic reaction is potentially fatal.

Due to the strength of their enhanced immune systems after the treatment, and the way allergies incite the body to attack substances that otherwise wouldn’t deserve to be destroyed, it is possible for a SOLDIER’s body to almost literally rip itself apart if the allergy is strong enough.

Because of that, any SOLDIER candidate who lists any sort of allergy is automatically disqualified, even if it’s only mild at the time.

Idly Hojo looks over a list, and then crosses off a cadet with good marks. Mold. How unfortunate.

Title: The Doll Champion
Characters: Cloud
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100

Once, the Planet was threatened by the Calamity from the Heavens, and so She called Her warriors to Her. Among those warriors was Her Champion, a doll that she had created and put into the living world. The doll fought, and suffered, and though he freed himself from the false puppet strings that the Calamity tied on him, he was still a doll.

Even now, the doll Champion sleeps on, waiting until the Planet is threatened again, and he can be sent out against Her enemies.

But no one ever asked the doll if he wanted to be Her Champion.

Title: Her Son’s Mother
Characters/Pairing: Zack, Mrs. Strife, implied Zack/Cloud
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Author’s Note: Rule #8: Nominal Rule.

“So, you’re Cloud’s mom? It’s really nice to meet you, ma’am!” Of course, the fact that both Zack and Mrs. Strife were currently floating in the Lifestream did make things just a little bit awkward, because there was nothing like meeting up with your boyfriend’s mother after you were both dead.

“I have a name, you know! I’m not just his mother!” She didn’t actually seem too concerned with the boyfriend thing. Yet.

“Sorry…what is it?”

There was a short pause.

“…you know, after all these years, it seems I’ve forgotten…”

--

Title: It’s Magic…Right?
Characters: Cloud, Aeris
Team: SOLDIER
Word Count: 100
Author’s Note: Rule #153: “Mommy, why didn’t they just use a Phoenix Down on Aeris?”

Cloud cradled Aeris’ cooling body in one arm, the other frantically searching his pockets for that item, that one item that could bring a person back from the brink of death. Finally he pulled the bit of down from his pocket, where it rested warm in his fingers, and shoved it at her chest.

The familiar sparkle of copper and red light never came, the down lying innocently on her blood-soaked dress instead of dissolving away in a burst of life-giving magic.

Why…why wasn’t it working?

Why wasn’t she coming back?

Magic was always supposed to work.