Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2023: Week 30

The Fifth Act is a gen time-travel Final Fantasy VII fanfiction by Sinnatious. The main story follows Cloud Strife after he accidentally time travels from after the destruction of Midgar to the early days of the Wutai war. He decides the best way to prevent future calamities is to destroy Sephiroth, Jenova, and Hojo, but his attempts to do so lead him to be unexpectedly close to the SOLDIER program and its three stars.

Members of the Final Fantasy VII fandom often consider The Fifth Act as a notable, classic fanfiction. Different communities of readers describe the fanfic differently, with the story commonly described as a Peggy Sue plot, a subversion of Peggy Sue stories, and/or a time travel fix-it.

A tie-in expanded universe for The Fifth Act has also been created by Sinnatious and other authors. The bulk of this expanded universe is comprised of short gift fics, which are a mix of side-scenes that fit in with the main story and alternate universe prompts.