Final Fantasy VII 100 Word Challenge

Title: Species
Characters: Sephiroth
Rating: G but disturbing
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

The containment tubes lined the hall in two neat rows like soldiers, glimmering with antiseptic perfection. Inside each one, a single creature: Hojo's precious specimens. Most were monsters from far-flung places, fed a steady diet of chemical cocktails to monitor their effects on already-unstable cellular structures, but there were chocobos, dogs, cats, rats, creatures that defied description or that no longer had a description to speak of. Each had a label with its number, species, and what was being done to it.

Project Sephiroth walked calmly past all of them to the last containment tube, and was wordlessly sealed inside.

Title: He's Been Taking Zack Lessons
Characters: Sephiroth, Cloud
Rating: PG
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100
Author's Note: For prompt: 2 AM.

2:15 AM. The clock's readout glowed poison-green, Mako green, as if to mock him. Sephiroth ruthlessly stifled the urge to throw the thing against the wall. No Cloud tonight.

"There's a camera watching my door, but the tapes are erased at 2 AM every night. Come before then."

"Yes, sir- ....Sephiroth."

Sephiroth had just about convinced himself to go back to sleep when a rap on his window sent him upright. Cloud stood precariously on the ledge dressed in Soldier climbing-gear, sweat-matted despite the chill air.

"Hey," he said breathlessly when Sephiroth pulled him inside. "Sorry I'm late."

Sephiroth smiled.





Title: Breathe, Marlene, Breathe
Characters: Marlene, (sort of) Cloud
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100
Author's Note: For prompt: dialogue only.

"Cloud Cloud Cloud you're back it's been aaaaaages and I've drawn all sorts of pictures like the one of Aeris in the church and it almost made Tifa cry but then she didn't but she hugged me a long time and said I was a good kid but all I did was draw a picture and I'll show it to you oh and Papa called he said to say hi if I saw you and I told him of course I was gonna see you even if it's been aaaaages also Mister Rude is here and he made chocolate cookies!"





Title: A Very Special Mission
Characters: Sephiroth, Internet-me
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100
Author's Note: for prompt: self insertion.

Midgar was really no place for a moogle. I'd known that, but I'd accepted this Very Important Mission anyway. So here I was, being chased by young men in much better shape than I, and I turned a corner and ran face-first into something with all the give of a brick wall.

"General Sephiroth, sir!" The MPs snapped to attention, and I looked up to see someone familiar (and bewildered): indeed, the Silver General. I hopped to my feet and presented him with the Sacred Moogle Hat.

"General, for services rendered, I am proud to make you an Honorary Moogle!"

Title: Flawless
Characters: Hojo, lilSeph
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100
Author's Note: He lusts after knowledge, you see. ...Even so, I think I need to go soak my brain in bleach now.

Hojo makes an absent, pleased noise, turning Project S's arm up to admire the muscle tone. Five years since his birth, and S is already a fine, strong specimen, thanks to the mako injections. He is flawless, his body strong enough to withstand rigorous testing, and his hair- Hojo can't resist a touch- fine silver silk.

He's learned so much already, but the more Hojo studies the boy, the more he finds, and the more he hungers.

"So like his mother," Hojo mutters, tilting the boy's head to the side.

"My mother?" S asks.

Hojo hesitates only a moment. "Jenova."

Title: Triage
Characters: Cid, Ratchet
Series: FFVII/Transformers G1
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

Cid shoved the useless metal sheet over the side of the medical berth and hopped back inside the chassis it used to protect. The ruined metal groaned around him, shredded by a direct hit from a laser cannon, and before him, Ratchet's spark chamber leaked light from a long and wicked crack.

" Ain't you ever heard of triage?" the medic grunted, his chest cavity shaking with the effort of speaking. "Go help someone who's got a chance of living."

"You shut up," Cid snarled. "If I can fix a broken rocket, I can fix a robot with delusions of heroism."





Title: Fire and Shadow
Characters: Ravage, Nanaki
Series: FFVII/Transformers G1
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

Ravage slunk past the chaos of the Autobots' medbay, and the sentimental fools were none the wiser. The Decepticons were so close to victory that they could taste it: all that remained was this final infiltration, to steal a final weapon. Ravage closed in on his goal, every sense alert and focused.

He turned a corner and received a fireball right to the snout, overloading his sensors to near-shutdown. "You're good, I'll admit," his attacker snarled, padding slowly into view. "But I'm better."

In the hallway leading to the Black Materia, Ravage and Nanaki faced each other as warriors.






Title: Never Roam Alone
Characters: Aeris, Optimus Prime, Jazz
Series: FFVII/Transformers G1
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

Aeris rolled her mother's materia back and forth in her hands, too quiet for such a lively girl. Optimus let her lean back against his hip and was quietly surprised at how comfortable he was to have the fragile human there.

"Will you watch over Cloud?" she asked.

"I will," he answered sadly.

"And Sephiroth? It's really not his fault."

"I'll... do what I can."

"Thank you." Aeris smiled at him, her eyes too bright, and slipped from his lap to run soundlessly out the door.

Follow her, he ordered over a private channel, and Jazz sent back an affirmative.






Title: Roll For It
Characters: Aeris, Sephiroth, Cloud, Yuffie, Vincent
Series: FFVII/Dungeons and Dragons
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

"You look up and see your enemy descending from on high. Roll to dodge."

The dice rattled, rolled, and settled on the fate of the party's cleric.

"Noooo!" Aeris wailed. "Critical fail!"

"That's a hit for twenty-one damage," Sephiroth reported without looking up at his sheet.

"I'm dead." Aeris groaned and thumped her head on the table. "Screw clerics, next time I'm rolling a paladin." She glared at Sephiroth. "And for the record, you suck!"

Cloud patted her. "Don't worry," he assured her. "We'll avenge the hell out of you." Yuffie nodded agreement as Vincent popped open another Mountain Dew.






Title: Healing Gift
Characters: Alanna, Cloud, Aeris
Series: FFVII/Song of the Lioness
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100


Violet power flowed through Alanna, flooding Cloud's body with the healing power she'd developed over her career as King Jonathan's Champion. Cloud writhed and shook under her hands, his eyes blank and glowing with unnatural blue-green power.

"I don't know if I can-" she gasped, feeling herself falling into the magic-sick warrior along with her Gift. The Black God would take him soon, she thought despairingly.

Pale, thin hands clasped over hers; Alanna raised her eyes to meet Aeris's much calmer ones. The younger woman's near-translucent magic twined with Alanna's, and together they lifted Cloud's soul out of the dark.






Title: Heroes
Characters: Sora, Hojo
Series: FFVII/Kingdom Hearts
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

Oathkeeper cleaved through the massive Shadow, and Sora pushed on with a shout of challenge against the darkness that pressed in on all sides. The office building was swarming with Heartless, and its halls were so featureless Sora feared they were lost until Goofy found the glass elevator Cloud had spoken of.

They rode it up and up, and burst out into a sterile room with two occupants. One was encased in a mako tube; the other pushed his glasses up his nose with an irritated scowl. "Who are you?"

"It's over, Hojo!" Sora challenged. "We're here to rescue Sephiroth!"

Title: The Value of Sidequests
Characters: Vimes, Cloud
Series: FFVII/Discworld
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

People did not seek out Watchmen at bars. Bars were where Watchmen went to not be Watchmen. People who wanted a Watchman went to their headquarters, where their complaint would be duly noted and ignored. All through the proper channels.

The blond man sliding into Vimes' booth didn't know the rules. "I need your help," he stated.

"Door's that way," Vimes grunted.

Cloud pulled out a bottle of the kind of drink that cost a year's wages just to smell, and plunked it on the table. Suddenly he had Vimes' attention.

"I'm looking for a man in a black cape."






Title: Death and Life
Characters: Death, Aeris, Zack
Series: FFVII/Discworld
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

The ginger-haired girl looked rather put out to be dead, which was a common reaction- though not, Death reflected, among victims of murder. DON'T BE AFRAID, MISS, he began, and Aeris smiled up at him with no trace of fear.

"I'm not afraid," she said. "First things first- where's Zack? We've got a lot to do."

Death blinked, nonplussed, as Aeris reached in and between and pulled forth the soul of a young man five years dead and proceeded to scold him to within an inch of his afterlife.

I MAY, the personification conceded, BE IN OVER MY HEAD HERE.






Title: Cut the String
Characters: Granny Weatherwax, Sephiroth
Series: FFVII/Discworld
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

Granny Weatherwax regarded the thing shaped like a young man with the kind of cool detachment that sent most intelligent monsters off on some hereto-forgotten errand. "Mother, is it?"

"It was your kind that trapped Mother," the Something answered. "I've come to repay the debt."

Granny narrowed her eyes. "I know you."

Jenova swung Sephiroth's arm. The sword sang.

"Boy," Granny said loudly, "if she was a Cetra, why would she kill her own kind?"

The sword halted in midair, then dropped as Sephiroth clutched his head. Granny Weatherwax pressed a palm to his heart, helping him fight the infection.

Title: Select New Game
Characters: Sari, Optimus Prime, Cloud implied
Series: FFVII/Transformers: Animated
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

"Well. This is just Prime."

Optimus leaned over the back of the couch, morosely watching the small screen as it continued to show the Decepticons establish the reign of terror over Midgar. "I don't like it," he grumbled. "Video game or not, those are still people in there, and we can't do anything to help them. Or help Jazz."

His Autobots hung their heads, shamed, but Sari had never been one to indulge in angst. "Maybe you can't," she said tartly. "But I can."

She picked up the controls, and against her chest, the Key glowed.

"Let's wake up Cloud."

Title: Everyone's A Critic
Characters: Megatron and President Shinra
Series: FFVII/Transformers: Animated - and I apologize for all this. XD
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

Parts of Midgar were still belching green-black smoke (only the Plate parts, too- why couldn't the invaders have blown up the under-Plate, where there wasn't anything important?) when President Shinra went out to negotiate the cessation of hostilities against his profit margin- ahem- his fair city.

"I am to understand," the lead warmech rumbled, glaring down at him, "that you are in charge?"

Shinra puffed out his chest. "I am President Shinra, yes. All you see is my doing."

Megatron's cannon spoke, and left a final smoking crater where the President used to be.

"I hate it," the tyrant snarled.

Title: Fights You Just Don't Pick
Characters: Sephiroth and Sentinel Prime
Series: FFVII/Transformers: Animated
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

For a warmech, which Sephiroth historically had an antagonistic relationship with, Jazz was quite pleasant company. Unfortunately, he came with an associate.

"Now see here," Sentinel Prime announced, squinting down his massive chin at the General, "I don't know how you less-evolved creatures do things here, but I'm in command now, so why don't you-"

Sephiroth's voice was cold enough to freeze a star. "Why don't you shove your preconceptions somewhere unhygenic. I have a job to do and you're in the way."

Sentinel spluttered, but not even he would try his luck against the ice in the General's eyes.

Title: Just Three Days
Characters: Cloud/Tobias
Series: FFVII/Animorphs
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

“So, just to recap.” It wasn’t the first time Cloud had talked to a bird, but not even chocobos usually answered back. “There’s an evil alien in General Sephiroth’s head, making him do all that stuff.”

[Crazy as it sounds,] said the hawk’s voice in his head, [I’m afraid so.]

Cloud nodded determinedly. “But we can get it out of his head, we just have to keep him trapped for three days.”

[Keep him out of the Kandrona pool,] Tobias agreed with a ruffle of his feathers.

Cloud cast a dubious glance at the reinforced library door. “Right. No problem.”





Title: Who Rules the Roost?
Characters: Bo Obama, a chocobo
Series: FFVII/current events
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

The man they’d gotten to look after Bo while his People were away was nice enough. He was generous with food and treats, and once he’d gotten the man trained in the ways of belly-rubs, Bo had no complaints about Cloud Strife.

The problem was, the man was a package deal.

“Wurf?”

“Wark!”

Bo danced around the giant warbird, and the gold shifted around to keep him in view. “Arf!” he exclaimed, and went in for a lightning-quick nip on its ankle.

”Waaark!”

The chocobo was faster. Bo yelped and sped to Cloud, throbbing from the peck to the head.





Title: Sometimes, It Blows Up In Your Face
Characters: Hojo, Kremzeek
Series: FFVII/Transformers (G1)
Rating: G
Team: Avalanche
Word Count: 100

No cloud without a silver lining, that was Hojo’s motto. The alien warmechs were annoying, destructive, and distracting, but their tech was nothing to be sneezed at. Why, with only a fraction of the advanced science they wielded, he could…

...well, he was getting ahead of himself. First he had to open this complicated lock on the box he’d stolen- borrowed, with subterfuge- more or less from the aliens’ front doorstep. Just one more wire, and...

The lid popped open. A streak of jagged yellow light leaped free.

“Kremzeek!” it shrieked.

Hojo screamed like a little girl and fell backwards.

Title: Strange Night
Pairing/Characters: Cloud
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100
Author's Note: A bit more Dia de las Muertas than Halloween, but enh.

Dusk, and two candles burned side by side in the church window. Cloud lit a third and set it in its holder by the others, a silver taper too-tall and awkward beside the black and pink pillars already spilling their light generously over the sill.

Harvest Night was supposed to be the night when ghosts walked the world to visit their loved ones. Cloud was not superstitious, but he knew better than most that hope came in strange forms. He kept his vigil by candlelight, and in their glow imagined that his own loved ones were coming to see him.

Title: Say Yes to the Dress
Pairing/Characters: Cloud, Aeris, Tifa
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100
Author's Note: Playing around in sekrit!girl!Cloud'verse again, first explored here.

Cloud had known it was a bad idea even before Aeris got that devilish twinkle in her eye, but she'd been focused on rescuing Tifa from Don Corneo. Now, wearing the first (and last, she swore) dress of her life and standing before her childhood friend, Cloud had never more wanted to sink into the floor.

With the truth out, Cloud expected anger, outright rejection. She didn't expect Tifa's slow, appreciative grin. "You look fantastic, Cloud," she purred.

"That's what I told her!" Aeris put in, and the two exchanged grins.

Cloud groaned. "I never should have introduced you two."






Title: Ghost in the Machine
Pairing/Characters: Cloud, Sephiroth
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100

Four years after the explosion, the Gongagan air still smelled like scorched metal and mako. Cloud put his head in his hands and breathed in the barren taint of it.

I attacked Aeris. Aeris is gone.

He felt rather than saw the presence of his constant shadow beside him. "It wasn't you," Sephiroth's ghost murmured, casting an insubstantial hand over Cloud's knee. "You know that."

Cloud shuddered. "I'm staying right here. Where I can't hurt anyone else."

"Cloud, no." Sephiroth leaned against him, hair falling like spidersilk over them both. "I feel my not-self near her. She's in terrible danger."

Title: Cloud's Last Order
Pairing/Characters: Sephiroth, Zack, Cloud
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100

"Leave," the General ordered, heavy with fatigue. Zack reluctantly turned to leave Sephiroth to his solitude and his endless journals. He was almost out the door before he realized Cloud wasn't with him.

"No sir," the blond was saying- stubborn to the core.

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed dangerously. "That was an order, cadet."

Cloud only flinched a fraction. "I know. I'll accept any punishment you want. Just-" He leaned forward, one hand outstretched, just shy of touching the general's own. "You shouldn't be alone right now," he pleaded.

Without a word, Sephiroth allowed Cloud to take the journal from his hand.





Title: Oread
Pairing/Characters: Vincent, Sephiroth
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100

Despite its harshness, Mount Nibel had sheltered them both, taught them lessons they needed. For Vincent, who longed for the safety of a coffin and the solace of his nightmares, he learned that living in the world was a greater penance than withdrawing from it. As for the fey child he'd stolen and raised as his own- what lessons he'd learned from the mountain, Vincent had no way of knowing.

"Father," said Sephiroth, slipping his little hand into Vincent's claw without fear. "It's time to leave the mountain."

Though he feared, Vincent allowed the wild, wise boy to lead him.





Title: On That Day, Five Years Ago
Pairing/Characters: Cloud, Tifa
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100

"Tifa," Cloud whispered, gripping the edge of the bed. "You almost died that day. Your memory- is probably messed up. That's why you don't remember me being there."

Tifa shook her head. "I don't know, Cloud. I remember a lot of things clearly." She placed a hand over her hidden scar. "Do you remember- at all- a Soldier named Zack?"

Outside, the Kalm night was breathlessly silent. Cloud rocked back, glowing eyes shut tight. "Zack. Zack? I... know that name. Somehow. -Why can't I remember?"

"Don't force it." Tifa caught his hand. "We'll figure it out together. Little by little."





Title: Guardian Angel
Pairing/Characters: Aeris/Zack
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100

Aeris fell into the Ancients' crystal heart- and into a pair of warm arms holding her tight before she could be swept away. "Zack," she breathed.

"Hey." Rough with emotion, the voice of Zack's shade sounded all too real. "Sorry about this."

"You idiot." Aeris watched her tears crystallize and spiral away into the Lifestream. "If I'd known Mom's materia would bring you back, I would have prayed to it before."

"Well, it's not quite like that. I'm still dead. By the way, on the count of three, dodge. One, two-"

Aeris snapped back to reality- and evaded her death.

Title: Yes Sir Ma'am Sir
Pairing/Characters: Sephiroth, Cloud, Zack/Aeris
Team: Avalanche
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 100
Author's Note: I had a little too much fun with these. ^_^;;; This one is a bit AU.

( By the time her boys were settled... )






Title: You Either Got It Or You Don't
Pairing/Characters: Reno, Rude, Rufus/OC
Team: Avalanche
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 100

( This party sucks. )





Title: Mechanically Inclined
Pairing/Characters: Cid/Vincent
Team: Avalanche
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 100

( Though he was no slouch... )





Title: ...*And* I'm Happy To See You
Pairing/Characters: Zack/Cloud
Team: Avalanche
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 100

( Cloud shifted his bag of groceries... )

Title: A Study in Contrasts
Pairing/Characters: Cid/Vincent
Team: Avalanche
Rating: PG-13, sexual themes
Word Count: 100
Author's Note: *perv perv perv*

( Cid. Are you...? )

Title: Bitter Over Sweet
Pairing/Characters: Rude/Tifa
Team: Avalanche
Rating: R, sexual themes
Word Count: 100

( Tifa leaned back with a sigh... )

Title: A Plethora of Pushpins
Pairing/Characters: The Silver Angels, Midgar's premier Sephiroth fanclub
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100

The Weekly Gaia News's article claimed that Sephiroth had been sighted flipping burgers in Mideel; a website claimed he'd been kidnapped by Wutaians as a love slave for their princess. Val frowned, unconvinced, but gamely stuck two pushpins in the appropriate places on her giant wall map. From the floor, Jeanne silently passed up another printout: a grainy photo of a snow-veiled, long-haired ghost.

Val stabbed the Northern Continent through the heart with another pushpin, then stepped back to count them all. "Let's face it," she told Jeanne. "If even half these reports are true, Sephiroth has a hundred clones."






Title: The Healer
Pairing/Characters: Aeris, two OCs
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100

Hope is rare in the slums. For the young mother soft-footing it up to a quiet house in the early morning hours, her toddler clutched in her arms, hope is a painful thing, clawing at her throat and heart.

"Please," she whispers to the girl at the door. "I've heard the rumors- everyone has- but I wouldn't ask for myself. My baby's so sick, and nothing's helped..."

"Come inside," Aeris tells her, and ushers woman and ill child past her; as she closes the door, she looks out into the garden, green eyes sad and worried and much too old.

Title: Ascent of the Heart
Pairing/Characters: Tifa
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 128
Author's Note: First line from The Llewellyn Tarot Companion.

Nibel is the highest mountain on the continent, and on my last visit it was hidden in mist, creating an atmosphere to conjure legends and hold back time. I told myself some of the old stories as I began my ascent, and by 'happily ever after' I could no longer see the false Nibelheim for the wreaths of mist.

I had ascended Mt. Nibel for the first time at twelve, training with Zangan. Then again at twenty, chasing Sephiroth; and now at twenty-five I challenged the mountain alone. The caverns and climbs I knew from my childhood carried me upward, more solid than my memories of them, until I reached the summit and touched the endless sky. The prodigal daughter had returned.

Nibel heim: Cloud's home, and mine.





Title: Sheol of Dragons
Pairing/Characters: Unnamed Soldiers
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 106
Author's Note: First line from Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett.

This is where the dragons went.

It is bitter cold at the top of the world, and before them the Crater slopes down into a darkness that even their glowing eyes cannot penetrate. The site of the planet's first Crisis gives up no secrets to them, except this: this is a place of doom and sorrow.

They know this. This is the site of the Reunion, where most of their brothers-in-arms were cut down, and their murderer-General was slain in his turn. They are the last, save for Cloud Strife.

One by one, the last remaining Soldiers turn away. They've seen all they needed to see.

Title: Late-Night Intellectual Discussions
Pairing/Characters: Cloud and his company
Team: Avalanche
Rating: PG
Word Count: 100

"Bikinis."

"No, totally boxers."

"He's too uptight for that. I think it's briefs. Tighty-whiteys all the way."

"What, no way. That man goes commando."

"The hell he does!"

"He does! You ever see panty lines on his ass?"

"Leather doesn't show panty lines, idiot." The sun-browned erstwhile ringleader leaned over the top bunk to grin at the shorter boy below. "What d'you think, Strife?"

Cloud glanced up from his manual. "What?"

"Not even listening," his bunkmate complained theatrically. "The General. Boxers or briefs? Or au naturel?"

Cloud flushed scarlet and hid behind his manual; the other troopers cracked up laughing.




Title: Best Girlfriend Ever
Pairing/Characters: Zack, Aeris
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100
Author's Note: Admit it. You'd wear them too.

"Look at this," Zack crowed, tugging an article of clothing free.

Aeris rolled her eyes and tugged his arm. "Zack, stop fondling the kids' underwear."

"But!" Zack pouted at her, though he went along willingly out of the clothing store. "It was Transformers-themed underwear! That's so cool!"

Aeris couldn't help a fond grin. "I don't think they would have fit you."

"If they made adult sizes, I would totally wear them."

Aeris laughed at him, but when Zack's birthday came, she presented him with three pairs of Zack-sized underwear painstakingly (if inexpertly) painted with the visages of his favorite Transformers.




Title: Violence in Pink
Pairing/Characters:
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100

Reno had been thrown through plenty of windows, but this trip was a doozy. Dragging himself up on his elbow amid broken glass and what felt like some serious bruising, Reno squinted up at the blurred figure above him. "You sleep in your unmentionables, princess?"

"Don't make me get the Buster, Reno." Tifa scowled down at him, a vision in soft pink panties and matching T-shirt. "And you can tell Rufus that if he ever pulls this stunt again, I will personally kick his ass."

Reno flashed an apologetic grin and fled. Tifa was a terror, girly undies and all.

Title: Ex-Soldier, S Class
Pairing/Characters: Barret, Sephiroth
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100
Author's Note: Inspired by a YouTube vid that I can't find anymore.

The train rocked to a shuddering, screeching halt, and the troopers approached at a bored jog to check the passengers' IDs as they disembarked. They never saw the terrorists coming until it was too late.

Barret waved to their fifth member, perched at the train's roof hatch. "C'mon, newcomer- follow me." As he left the station, the newest Avalanche member leaped from the train and landed hard on the walkway alongside. Two more faceless troopers moved in and skidded to a halt when they spotted the silver spectre before them.

Ex-General Sephiroth lifted his sword: time to go to work.

Title: Snow Leopard
Pairing/Characters: Sephiroth, Aeris, Cloud
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100
Author's Note: All three follow this fic.

If you wanted to escape Shinra, the place to be was the northern continent. There was no Mako here, nothing to exploit. The environment was too harsh for most people, the solitude all-encompassing.

It suited Sephiroth down to the ground. He'd go out early, wearing only his leathers (no matter how much Aeris fussed), and return hours later encrusted in ice and snow. He claimed he didn't feel the cold, but he never protested when Cloud wrapped him in chocobo-down blankets and cuddled him warm, occasionally stroking the fine fuzz beginning to grow in on the shell of his ear.




Title: Paradise Deferred
Pairing/Characters: Aeris
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100

Aeris stood on the front step, thick tail wrapped around her in a vain attempt to keep off the cold. The sun was just rising, and with its light came a call that rang distant-sweet in her mind. Aeris's ancestors- her family- was waiting for her to the sunlit east, to welcome her forever to her own Promised Land.

But her other family was waiting for her too. Her boys, and her dear girl- they still needed her, with a precious urgency that the dead couldn't match.

"Just a little longer," she told the voices, and firmly shut the door.





Title: Cannot Be Caged
Pairing/Characters: Tseng, Rude, Sephiroth, Aeris
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100

Tseng lashed his tail at himself, annoyed and worried. He hadn't thought much beyond finding their quarry in this snowswept wasteland; even with Reno and Rude with him, Tseng knew he'd never force the lost General to go with them. Just find him first.

Rude nudged him, prompting Tseng to look up. For a moment he didn't recognize the figure he saw, though his companion was clearly Aer- the Ancient. Only the General had hair like that, but there was a new wildness in his eyes, in the set of his furred ears and the lash of his spotted tail.