Edge of Creation (A FF7 Fanfic)

First Mission

"Ow! Zack, you're hurting me!" I said, trying to wriggle free of the head lock Zack had me.

"What? Oh sorry." He replied, loosening his grip some. Just what I wanted. I quickly lifted his arm, twisting my body out his grip. I then punched his shoulder with my free hand, causing him lose his balance. I then forced him to ground, both of his arms behind his back in my hold, "I can't believe you fell for that. Three times now." I chuckled, watching the man squirm in the dirt.

"You serious? Again! Ack!" He said as I pulled his arms higher, "you're gonna rip my arms off!" He whined. I laughed some and helped him to his feet, "You know, when you asked me to spar with you I didn't think I'd be on the ground so much." He said, rubbing his shoulder, "goddamn you can put some force behind those punches. That's good."

I smiled, "well I am the only girl here. Gotta prove I can hang with the guys right?"

"Well yeah but you aren't trying to kill me!" He said, "I think you dislocated my shoulder..."

My smiled quickly faded, "oh no I'm sorry. Are you okay?" I said, attempting to tend his arm. Zack chuckled slightly and before I could even blink he had me in another head lock, "Gotcha." He said as I tried to break free.

"Yule Noykin?" I heard a voice call. Zack released me from the head lock as we both looked up to see a soldier approaching us, "We have a mission for you. Some reports have come in about some kind of creature terrorizing a town. Last group we sent didn't come back with many survivors. This turned into a first class job pretty quick. Higher ups thought this would be a good first mission for you. Take a few minutes to get packed and there'll be a carriage waiting for you at the entrance" he explained before walking away.

"Oh your first mission! Nice!" Zack said, giving me a pat on the back, "hey if you don't come back, I get your room." He joked, walking with me to my room. I laughed some, "Speaking of rooms, where's Sephiroths? I've never seen leaving the dorms." I asked. Zack shrugged, "Eh even I don't know. He's probably somewhere close to Hojo so he can keep and eye on him."

"Hojo?" I asked, not quite remembering where I had heard the name. "Yeah. The craziest scientist dude? You've probably see him a few times during your mako treatment. He doesn't come out much. Just stays cooped up in his lab mostly. Guys kinda weird if you ask me." Zack explained, opening the door for me.

"Huh, doesn't ring a bell." I said, leading Zack to my room. The small room had slowly began to fill with clutter and a pile of dirty clothes was starting to form at the foot of my bed, "you seriously still have this?" Zack asked, unpinning a paper from my wall, "dude I drew this months ago!"

Zack was holding a poorly drawn picture of the group. He had drawn the picture one day while we were together, the entire group picking fun at how badly the picture was drawn, "of course. I love my banana hands." I teased, "I told you those are you guns!" He said, putting the picture on my desk, "why do you have a random rock?" He asked, picking up a small pebble I had on my desk.

"Oh, Seph gave that to me from one of his missions." I explained, reloading my pistols. I had chosen a pistols as my weapon of choice, taking extra days to train to be able to duel wield them, "he got you a rock?" He asked.

"Yeah, hold it up to the light. It sparkles. I think it's pretty." I told him, watching as Zack tried to shine the light on the rock so it would sparkle, "I guess it's cool." He said, placing it back on my desk.

"Well, looks like I'm all ready then." I said, holstering my guns to my hips. Zack opened the door for me, both of us making our way to the awaiting carriage.

"Hey, I may want your room, but seriously come back. It'd suck to lose you so soon." Zack said, putting his arm around my shoulders, "and just between us, I think it'd seriously mess with Sephiroth if you didn't. I know he's kind of cold but I can tell he cares about you. We all do." He told me, giving me one last squeeze ,"alright get out of here. Good luck." He said, walking away as I climbed into the back of the carriage.