A Steamboat Named Disaster

FFVII; Zack x Cloud; Rating: T, Genre: Romance/Action/Adventure

Summary: [AU, ZxC; very loosely Titanic-inspired] A stowaway is looking for freedom and an escape from what little he remembers of a troubled life; a sailor is looking for adventure and something worth the risk of taking his most dangerous journey yet. An ocean vessel brings them together, and not even its imminent demise can tear them apart after they've found each other. But there is more than one obstacle that this pair must face, not to mention the superhuman Sephiroth on the loose… One can only hope that love will conquer the challenges that Zack and Cloud will endure.

A/N (also known as bullshit commentary that you are welcome to skip): I am going to address several points to eliminate any confusion on your part.

a.) You don't need to have seen the 1997 movie Titanic to understand this. At all. It started out as a kind of FFVII adaptation to the film plot, but then it grew into a life of its own, and that premise is now only a setting and minor plot inclusion.

b.) SLASH. ← THIS STORY WILL BE IT. I'm not sure how you got here without knowing that, though… Warnings will be designated as appropriate per chapter.

c.) Don't expect rapid-fire delivery. I'm a horrible procrastinator, and there is a possibility that I'll just abandon this like a bad habit. D: But I'll try not to. You guys are going to keep me motivated, aren't you? AREN'T YOU?!

Shameless promotion: For exclusive news of how updates are coming along for this story, and access to other great FFVII fiction, please visit (the- seventh- heaven .proboards .c o m) minus spaces, obviously. It's a great forum, we have lots of fun, and…well, I'm there. What more can you ask for?

(!!TL;DR version!!: don't need to have seen the DiCaprio film, there's probably going to be man-sex, I'm a lazy bastard, join the-seventh-heaven.)

Please enjoy the prologue and, I hope, much more to come.

~Yours truly, Galenchia

Standard disclaimer applies: I don't own Final Fantasy VII or any related characters, logos, concepts, rights to any paraphernalia, etc.

spopococ is my fantastic beta-reader; thank her for the ease of reading. Any errors are my own.

WARNINGS: None for the Prologue.

Prologue

Zack Fair's mother could attest to the fact that, above all else, Zack had always been an adventure-seeker. She could not, however, pinpoint what exactly it was that Zack was venturing to find.

And neither could Zack. He'd always felt a pull to go farther, jump higher, expand his horizons. He reasoned that when he'd finally found whatever would fill this void from completion, he'd know, and finally be able to settle down as his mother wanted.

He was a few days short of his twenty-sixth birthday and had only stayed at home for a little less than three months when he barged into the living room while his mother had been knitting a scarf. He'd then proceeded to inform the woman that he had been appointed as first-mate under Captain Angeal Hewley, his long-term mentor, on the five-star steamboat Shinra's first voyage from the peaceful town of Kalm to the excitement of Costa del Sol.

She really shouldn't have been surprised.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Specimen A09 was sitting quietly in his cell when the ruckus broke out.

"What's going on?!" someone yelled down the hallway.

"I-it's Sephiroth!" a female lab assistant replied from a doorway, looking more than a little disoriented. "He took off suddenly. The Professor is furious!"

The man who had inquired swore loudly. "I knew that Sephiroth was a walking time-bomb. But fucking Hojo just wouldn't listen and terminate the experiment. …What?!"

The woman was weeping something awful, her mascara slipping down her face along with the tears.

"Lucrecia, what is it?!"

"Sephiroth…" she offered as way of explanation, "Before he left, he said that he was going to destroy this facility."

Neither listener – A09 nor the lab-worker – needed to be told twice: Both knew that the superhuman Sephiroth was more than capable of such a thing.

The lab employees tore down the hallway, whether to run for their endangered lives or attempt to protect their careers' work from Sephiroth's wrath, the specimen did not know, nor did he care. Cloud – as all except Hojo referred to him (the insane scientist seemed to believe that Cloud was not worthy of a name rather than a code; nothing like his magnum opus Sephiroth) had been waiting for this opportunity. This was the chance for which he'd been waiting.

Freedom.

He could taste it.

A nail had come loose from somewhere, a week or so back, and by some twist of fate found itself kicked over to where a pale hand, doubtlessly so from a lack of sun exposure, had delicately picked it up from between the bars as though it were made of gold. It was slender and sharp, and he had the distinct impression that it could knock the tumbler out of place and disengage the locking mechanism of his cell door.

PING.

The lock sprung open, and the coast was clear for his impromptu escape. Cloud never thought that he'd be thanking Sephiroth for anything, but…

Well, he was in no position to look a gift chocobo in the mouth, to say the least. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him down the hallway and towards the nearest door that looked like an exit. Little did he know that neither his life nor the life of a cheerful sailor would ever be the same, as he passed through the portal from his cold, sterile prison, to the warm green world outside.

A/N: Never fear: if all goes as planned, this will be uploaded simultaneously with Chapter 1. Galenchia now comes with 15% less wait time, lolz.