----prologue in the works, will be added when finished----
Act One
Potential (& a Warning)
The Commander, dressed in red, paced back and forth in front of the fresh-off-the-bus cadets as he spoke.
“So, you’ve all made it this far. You’ve risen out of the muck known as the army and made it to the rank of SOLDIER cadet. Think your trials are over? Think again! You may think you've gone through Hell and back to get here, but let me tell you, haven't even seen the road leading to it yet!”
He paused in the middle of the line and surveyed them--all randomly-clad and as-yet uniformless--and then continued pacing.
“Of the one hundred of you, only thirty of you will even make it into SOLDIER. Of those thirty, only ten will make Second Class. Of those ten, only one of you will make it to First Class. Just one. And then that one will have to constantly prove himself so he doesn’t get demoted back to Second or Third Class, which is what happens to most men who make it that far. Put simply, one of you will have a one in ten chance of becoming First Class and staying there. Which means that the rest o’ you stinking maggots’ names will be forgotten, lost forever, and you’ll all be failures. Harsh as that sounds, that's the reality of things here at the Shin-Ra SOLDIER Academy. If you're disheartened by the odds, then get your ass back on that bus, because you're not welcome here.”
In the shadows of a nearby building, a man with short, spiky, dark-blue hair rolled his sapphire-colored eyes.
“He gives that exact same speech every year…”
“Never mind that,” the man standing next to him said. He had shoulder-length, dark green hair tied back into a low ponytail and similarly colored eyes. “See any hopefuls, Aki?”
“Well, I can tell who the lost causes are. Numbers one through thirty have that look of hopelessness on them. Some of them’ll be gone tomorrow. What about you, Jethro? Anything promising that you can see?”
“No, not really. Maybe none of--hullo, what’s this?”
The Commander, who had walked to the end of the line, had stopped in front of the last cadet and was staring at them hard.
“…This is some sort of sick and tasteless joke, right?” the Commander said.
“I don't hear anyone laughing, sir,” the cadet said, their voice clearly feminine.
The two men in the shadows jumped at the voice.
“Wh--…It can’t be!” Aki gasped.
“Is she suicidal?!” Jethro said, shocked.
The Commander glared at the maroon-haired cadet.
“Listen, the Academy doesn’t accept women. I don’t care how you got here, who gave you the recommendation, or who you’re related to, just leave. Now.”
The cadet narrowed her brown-gray eyes into a death glare, but didn’t move.
“I said LEAVE!”
“…blink,” she whispered. She seemed to break up and disappear.
Aki and Jethro stared confusedly.
“What the hell was that?” Aki asked. Jethro just shrugged and continued to stare.
A third man, who had been silently leaning against the wall of the building, watched the action closely, almost expectantly.
Suddenly, behind the Commander, there was a glimmer in the air, and the cadet rematerialized where the glimmer had been. Then, with an attack so blindingly fast that not even the First Class SOLDIERS (Aki, Jethro, and the silent man) saw it, she pinned the Commander to the ground with one arm and began to cast some sort of spell in the other. The spell was a small black and red orb.
“That spell…’Death’…” Jethro shook his head. “Incredible…She’s actually fought in enough battles to raise a Destruct Materia to its third level…Shit, I know First Classmen who haven't done that yet...”
Aki was struck speechless, as he was one of those First Classmen Jethro had been refering to, even though he had been in SOLDIER most of his adult life. The silent man remained silent, but raised his eyebrows and tilted his head in slight shock and respect. He continued to watch the scene intensely, as he was, for the first time in a long, long time, interested in something.
She continued to hold the spell, but she aimed it at the pinned Commander’s head. He began to make a noise akin to a whimper.
“Does the Academy accept women now, sir?” she asked.
“Y…Y-Y-Yes…” the Commander stuttered.
The cadet smiled and ended the spell without casting it and released him. Afterwards, she returned to her spot in line amid the stares of the other cadets.
Aki and Jethro were also staring. The third man stopped leaning against the wall and began to walk away. He stopped for a moment and looked over his shoulder at the other two First Class SOLDIERS, who were still staring speechlessly at the woman.
“…This one is promising,” he said with a hint of a smile before continuing.
Jethro blinked and turned toward the other man, who was already climbing into the vehicle that would take him out of town for his next assignment.
“…Aki?”
“Yeah.” Aki turned to face his companion. “I heard it. He actually opened his mouth and said something about one of the cadets. What’s more, it was a compliment!”
“I’ve heard that, in all seven years that First Class-men have been coming to look for hopefuls, he’s never said a word…Hmm…” Jethro smiled. “This could get interesting.”
Aki watched the vehicle carrying the other First Class SOLDIER speed off. “…Or ugly,” he added.
***
The female cadet opened the door to Lambda Squad’s barrack. A man old enough to be her grandfather looked up from his book, an ancient dog-eared tome wth a faded title reading "Of Mice and Men".
“…Guess you’re lucky number thirteen…” he said dully before he continued reading.
A boy not a day over thirteen jumped off his bed and went to greet her.
“Hey! Welcome to Squad Lambda!” he said enthusiastically as he shook her hand.
“…Otherwise known as the Freak Show.” This had come from a redhead who was sitting on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed on the far wall.
“…Or the Hopeless Troop,” said the blond man sitting next to the redhead. The two of them had their hands linked. “So, what’s your story?” he asked.
At her look of puzzlement, the extremely short man who was lying on the floor doing a seek-and-find looked up.
“Oh, you didn’t know? They put you in Lambda if they don’t expect or want you to make it because you don’t fit their profile of a member of SOLDIER. All the hopefuls go to Alpha and Omega.” With that, the dwarf returned to his seek-and-find.
The female cadet shrugged.
“Guess we’ll just have to prove ‘them’ wrong then, won’t we?” She surveyed the room. “So…what’re you guys’ names?”
The twelve men stared at her as if she had just dropped from the sky, so she explained, “If were going to be stuck in this skank-hole together, we should at least know each others’ names.”
“…”
The thirteen-year-old smiled. “Name’s Robert Smithing, but you can call me Robbie. I guess I‘m in here ‘cause I‘m only a kid.”
The old man continued reading, and without looking up said, “Mitch Jones. I’m seventy-two.”
“…Sakaguchi Jiro. And I’m a dwarf,” the dwarf said.
“James O’Connell. Call me Jamie…They stuck me in here because I’m…” The redhead paused to choose a word. “…homosexual.”
“And I’m Ashley Batiste III. Ash for short…I’m Jamie’s lover,” said the man Jamie was holding hands with.
A freakishly large man with black hair and a goatee who had been standing silently in the corner said, “…I’m Ivan. Ivan Marks. And I’m, in the words of our oh-so-kind Commander, a ‘giant’.”
“And I be Raine. Nickodemus Raine. But, since you don’t follow the Dark Lord Zathor, you can call me Nick,” a man in a fetal position said before he returned to his ‘conversation’ with ’Brother Constantine’. She blinked a few times, and then tried her best to ignore the loopy man.
A man with eyes that stared at everything but saw nothing said, “Tokioka Natori. Pleased to meet you.”
A brunette with a notepad wrote, ‘Nomura Seto. Excuse the notepad. I’m mute,’ then showed it to her. After that he handed it to the person on the bunk below him, who, under what Seto had written, scribbled, ‘And I’m deaf. Kitase Haku. PS, I can read lips, but I don’t know sign language, so don’t bother.’
A person with a blank expression slurred, “Danny…D.J…that’s me…”
The cadet looked concerned; something was most definitely off about him. A man who had been standing next to her leaned in and whispered, “He suffered a severe case of mako poisoning when he was a kid, and he’s never quite recovered. By the way, I’m Kosuke. Yamanaka Kosuke. I’m stuck in here because I’m not what one would call ‘athletic’”.
“So, who are you?” Jamie asked.
“Me? I’m Hannah. Hannah Tenofski. And I’m here for the obvious reason that I’m a woman.” She looked around, her expression darkening as she did so. “That’s odd…this barrack is designed for six people, but there’s thirteen of us in here…”
“What’s wrong with that?” Robbie asked.
“That means, even if we double up, someone gets the floor,” Mitch said.
“……”
Hannah got a look that would've been perfect for a cartoonist to stick a light bulb over.
“I’ll go talk to the Commander.”
“He’s not gonna listen,” Ivan said.
Hannah shrugged. “Then I won’t let him sleep until he does listen.”
With that, Hannah turned and left the grungy, one-room barrack.
***
The First Class SOLDIER stirred, awakened by the sounds of an argument. He rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but the argument just drew closer and got louder. He growled and climbed out of bed.
'Damn…I just fell asleep…'
He pulled on a shirt and grabbed his sword. He was going to slaughter whoever had started this argument.
He walked out of his private apartment, down the hall (he passed many other First Class-men and Officers who, like him, had been awakened by the disturbance, and, like him, were ready to tear meat), and down three flights of stairs.
Aki and Jethro, who shared an apartment and who were also awakened by the fight, met him at the doors that lead out onto the street. Aki carried a handgun, and Jethro carried a halberd.
“Woke you up, too?” Aki said groggily to the First Class-man.
“Who the hell could sleep through this?” he said. He drew his sword and threw the scabbard to the side.
Jethro yawned. “I’m with you.”
The three of them, the swordsman in the lead, walked out the doors and onto the mostly silent streets of Upper Junon.
The Commander was yelling at a cadet. The three moved closer to the fight so they could see what was going on. Then the cadet started yelling back.
Jethro blinked. “…It’s her. The one you said was promising,” he said to the swordsman.
“Oh, gods…” Aki mumbled as he rolled his eyes.
'…That woman…What on Earth could they be fighting about this late at night?!' The swordsman thought.
The Commander was trying to walk away, but she wouldn’t let him.
'For the love of HOLY, just drop it and let everyone get some sleep…'
Finally, the walking argument stopped in front of him. (Aki and Jethro backed off to get out of the range of their comrade’s long sword, just in case he snapped and swung it.)
“What do you mean, suck it up?! I went to all the other squads’ barracks, and none of them have this problem! Why the hell would you put thirteen people in a six-person barrack?!”
The First Class swordsman glared at the candidate.
'That’s what this is about? Doesn’t she know that they put too few beds in Lambda on purpose so they’ll quit and save everyone’s time and their own money?!'
The Commander rolled his eyes. “Listen, how many times do I have to tell you, it’s not my problem!”
“Then whose problem is it?! Mine, for being born without testicles, or is it the Company’s, for being cheap?!”
“Keep it down! People are trying to sleep!”
“Y’know what?! SO AM I! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HARD IT IS TO FIT THREE PEOPLE ON A SINGLE-SIZED BED!?!”
The female SOLDIER cadet took a moment to catch her breath, and then started yelling again.
“FINE! I’LL JUST GO AND TAKE THE EXTRA BEDS FROM THE OTHER SQUADS!!!”
“YOU CAN’T DO THAT!!!”
“JUST WATCH ME!!!”
She turned and started to stomp off, but stopped and turned back to the Commander.
“DON’T THINK THAT THE COMPANY WON’T HEAR ABOUT THE DISCRIMIATION AND MISTREATMENT YOU GIVE TO ANYONE EVEN SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT THAT YOU!!!”
That’s when she noticed the First Class-man glaring at her with narrow eyes.
“AND WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GLARING AT!!?” she screamed angrily.
All of Junon fell silent. Those who had been watching the argument gulped in fear. The Commander made the sign of the cross.
The First Class-man clenched his fists. Nobody talked to him like that. Nobody.
Aki and Jethro were silently glad they had backed away, for they thought that he was going to shred her into pieces with that abnormally long sword of his.
The seconds ticked by like hours. Finally, after a few tense moments and a silent glaring contest beween Hannah and the swordsman, the First Class swordsman scoffed and went back inside, where he picked up his scabbard before going back upstairs.
All the spectators released the breaths they had been holding in sighs of relief, and then went to bed themselves.
Aki and Jethro also relaxed, and then they followed their fellow First Classman and went back inside.
“That was close…” Jethro said.
“Told you it could get ugly,” Aki said
When they were out of earshot, the Commander turned toward Hannah.
“You dumbass! You’re lucky Sephiroth didn’t kill you!” he hissed angrily.
At her look of confusion at the name, the Commander stared.
“Don’t you know who he is?!” he whispered loudly, flabbergasted.
Hannah only looked more confused.
“…Should I?” she asked.
