The Game of Life (Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy)

Chapter One

Special thanks to pastellisse because she's such a sweetheart and is so fun to fangirl with~

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Chapter One: Lily

Breathe in; breathe out.

"Hey, Zack?" You asked him as you carefully stripped him of his armor. The button on his suit had gotten jammed, so you had to remove the plates manually. The bloodied and misshapen pieces of steel were a bit difficult to peel off, as they weren't made for being broken easily. But Cloud, Ven, and Roxas all pitched in to help you take the pieces off while Yuffie wiped blood off of Zack's face and body. It was only when his armor was fully removed that you saw that pieces of shrapnel were sticking out of his pale body in some places.

"Remember how you told me that I'd be calm if someone came in with a bullet lodged in their chest?" You laughed bitterly as you discarded the last piece of his armor. "I could really use that sense of calm right now."

If Zack were conscious, he would've told you not to worry, and that you were going to be fine. He would show you his perfect pearly whites and reach up to ruffle your hair, no matter how much it hurt him. He would tell you that it was okay, and then joke about how STELLA would give him a prosthetic leg, and maybe even plastic surgery to restore his former "good looks". He'd ease your tension in a second.

But he wasn't conscious.

"[Name]?" Cloud snapped you out of it, and when you looked up at him, you saw your emotions mirrored in his eyes.

"Sterilize your hands first!" You slapped Roxas' hands away as you saw that he was trying to poke at one of Zack's many wounds. "All of you. Go grab some medical gloves, masks, and two bottles of Isopropyl alcohol for us to use. You guys shouldn't even consider touching a wounded person's body and helping out with a surgical procedure without sterilizing your hands and putting on medical masks."

You sighed while pinching the bridge of your nose, then grabbed your surgical eye loupes and turned the light on. You placed the battery in your pocket then received your gloves and mask and put them on.

"...Well?" You stared at the four before you, who just put their gloves and masks on then stood there, looking at you until you gave them further instruction. "Do you guys not know how to sterilize?" You were so stressed that you were snapping at all the little things that they were doing incorrectly, but you were only acting that way to cover up how nervous you felt.

"Hey, you're the medic here, [Name]..." Ven said, shrugging.

You rolled your eyes, uncapped one of the bottles of alcohol, then poured a generous amount of it over both of your hands and shook them off.

"Hey [Name], I think you forgot to put in his IV and hook him up to the vitals monitor," Cloud noted once you all had sterilized your hands. You nodded at Yuffie absentmindedly in response, silently asking her to get an IV for you. You began to feel even more nervous- how could you have forgotten to put in his IV and turn on the monitor? You chided yourself as you wrapped a tourniquet just above his elbow. Your movements were shaky even as you hung the IV bag on the pole, and when you actually poked in the needle, you almost missed his vein, which caused Yuffie to give you a sympathetic look. You grabbed the wire from the monitor and turned it on, then put the pulse oximeter on the pointer finger of his left hand and watched as the display blinked and came to life.

Temperature: 82.4˚F

Blood Pressure: 100/80

Pulse: 52 bpm