A/N: This story is based on the timeless show "Les Miserables." Although the titles are in French, the story is in English. I love the story, and I'm reading the book right now. The cast is at the bottom. The italicized words are the lyrics, and the quotes are based off of the lyrics. To hear the song, look up "Overture/Work Song".

Chanson d'Ouverture et de Travail

There was perhaps no place more desolate on all of the territory of Gaia than that which was Midgar. A bustling metropolis above, concealing the fires of Hell burning below. Below was where convicts, correctly and wrongfully condemned, carried out their sentences. That sole cause was the birth of the chain gang, a single line of convicts chained together at the ankle, holding shoulders to avoid falling. Every single day, wardens with torture tools guided that mile-long line to the graveyards to dig the graves. In the irony of this cruel, cheap labor, many of these convicts were digging their own graves.

The clinking of chains and the cracking of whips provided a steady beat in a melody of death. As the chain gang members shoved their shovels into the ground, they sang a desolate work song with dry throats, the beacon of the grim reaper.

Look down, look down, don't look 'em in the eye.

Look down, look down, you're here until you die.

One man stopped to wipe his forehead, earning him five lashes on the back of the legs. The young man protested, "The sun is strong, it's hot as Hell below!"

Look down, look down, there's twenty years to go.

Another defiant man screamed out, "I've done nothing wrong, sweet Jesus, hear my prayer!"

As the man was whipped until his body and mind finally gave out, the rest of the chain gang continued digging. It was nothing unusual, seeing a man broken in that manner.

Look down, look down, sweet Jesus doesn't care.

As he dug the grave, a man fingered a necklace around his neck, the only sign of a previous man who had died the minute he had entered this horrible place. He said to himself, "I know she'll wait, I know that she'll be true."

Look down, look down, they've all forgotten you.

A man who had stopped digging as a sign of defiance stood there as the guards held him still for a man with a whip. He snarled, "When I'm freed from here, you won't see me HERE FOR DUST!"

As he was struck to the ground, unconscious from a blow to the head from the butt of a pistol, the men continued to dig. All felt the same, but none wanted to suffer.

Look down, look down, don't look 'em in the eye.

A man with black hair screamed out with tears in his eyes, "How long will you wait, O Lord, before you let me die?" The man, very much a friend to these convicts, was shot by a malicious guard. He was taken out of the chain around his ankle and hastily dropped into the half-finished grave he was digging. Two who had finished their graves said the funeral rites and dumped the dirt onto the still body, dirty face wet with blood, sweat, and tears.

Look down, look down, you'll always be a slave.

Look down, look down, you're standing in your grave.

The man had possessed the name of Zack Fair. He had often talked of a beautiful woman who he had planned to marry and a daughter of his. He planned to reunite with them when his sentence had finished. After two years, however, he had given up on that dream. Now it would never come true.

One of the diggers had blond hair, and was considered to be a double of his friend, Zack. The man's name was Cloud Strife. He had been imprisoned for a petty crime, merely thievery, whereas Fair's crime had been assaulting a police officer. The reason he had stayed for so long had been for attempting to escape so many times. He dropped to his knees and said multiple prayers for his friend, forever gone, a victim to the cruel ways of God, who had turned his back on the people of Gaia.

Then came the cry, "Bring me prisoner 24601!"

The police inspector only came to take prisoners out of the jail, back into the real world, beginning their parole. The name of the inspector: Sephiroth. It was a simple name, one that was used as a first: as a friendly "Sephiroth," or a last: as "Inspector Sephiroth."

Proudly wearing the black uniform of the police, he possessed the gift of inhuman beauty, giving him the appearance of a fallen angel. He had long silver hair, that color since birth, and teal eyes. His eyes appeared almost catlike, and the corners of his mouth were turned up in a permanent smirk. The prisoners lowered their heads, as if in the presence of a god, which they were. Sephiroth was the divine god of the Hell these poor souls resided in.

He was more like an exiled angel, for his soul was the ugliest thing imaginable. He had possibly the most twisted sense of justice, believing that reformed people were still evil, and it was his God-given duty to eliminate them.

Strife was taken out of his chains, and he was left to mourn for his lost friend. Cloud Strife was known to be belligerent, and there were rumors that whenever a guard disappeared, it was because Strife, in an angry rage, had killed him by strangling him with the chains around his ankles. No guards dared touch the man, deemed dangerous by Sephiroth. Roughly forty years old, fifteen years older than Zack had been, he had not lost any of his strength. He had once lifted a cart off of a man it had fallen on without so much as breaking a sweat. The guards simply watched him and waited for him to come over to Sephiroth.

When Strife finally stood, hunched over from sore muscles, in front of Sephiroth, he said nothing. Sephiroth lifted Strife's chin with his nightstick and said, "Your time is up, your parole begins today. Do you know what that means?"

Strife's eyes lit up with a faint glimmer of hope. He nodded slowly and said, "Yes, Inspector, it means that I'm free." Sephiroth stared at the convict in front of him, as if he couldn't believe the man's stupidity.

"No!" he shouted. He thrust a yellow page into Strife's hand and explained, "That's your yellow ticket-of-leave. You must show it wherever you go, so they know that you are a thief."

Strife made a run for the inspector, and two guards grabbed him by the arms. Strife thrust his face as close as he could to Sephiroth's and shouted, "I stole nothing but a loaf of bread!"

Sephiroth glared at the convicts who had turned their heads up to watch the impending battle, and they quickly turned back to their work. He said, "You robbed a house!"

Strife quickly lowered his head and said quietly, "All I did was break a windowpane."

Sephiroth said nothing, and Strife continued, "My sister's son, my newborn nephew, he was close to death. We couldn't afford medicine, so it was all I could do to save his life. We were starving."

Inspector Sephiroth tucked his nightstick into the crook of his arm and said, "You're going to starve again if you don't know the meaning of the law."

Strife snapped, "I know the meaning of the nineteen years I was here, the nineteen years that I was a slave to the law."

Sephiroth held his fingers out to Strife, counting out the years for him. "You got five years for the crime you committed. The rest was for trying to run so many times." Strife inhaled sharply, and Sephiroth said, "Yes, that's right, 24601."

Strife snarled, "My name is Cloud Strife!"

Sephiroth snarled back, "And my name's Sephiroth! Don't forget that name! Don't forget me, 24601!" He walked away, and the guards let go of Strife's arms. The wardens grabbed the chains and led the chain gang away, leaving Strife alone, holding his ticket that condemned him to the life of an ex-convict.

Look down, look down, you'll always be a slave.

Look down, look down, you're standing in your grave.

A/N: So? Please review! I'm taking constructive criticism, and as promised, here is the cast list so far.

Cloud Strife:Jean Valjean

Sephiroth:Javert

Zack Fair:Chain Gang Member/Cosette's Father

Oh, and I don't own the characters or the book. All credit goes to Square Enix and Victor Hugo's Estate.