Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING.
Author's Note: I was sifting through a generator thing just for fun and the mini prompt it gave me was Tseng/President Shinra/PG/Illusion. Now while I'm not writing a yaoi, which is what the generator was for, I was looking for interesting character angles. I hope this is decent!
Devil of a Man
Is this what I was hired for?
I gazed upon the roaring flames with surprise. Everything seemed like a blur. The screams filled my ears and the scent of burning flesh singed the inside of my nostrils.
Why was I even here?
These people had done no wrong. They only wanted to protect their homeland from the venomous snake that was Shinra. The lush green fields and the beautiful river that flowed through this town were stained. The fields were burning and the river was dyed red with blood. The blood of the innocent. The blood I spilled under direct orders from President Shinra himself.
He was a devil of a man. Ordering around the assassinations of perfectly good people. Commanding the destruction of an innocent nation. He even went so far as to deceive the people by sending me in. Me, a native of the land to gain their trust.
I was a fool for following those orders. Now my homeland was destroyed. The people had accepted us at first, eager to work out a peace treaty and avoid this unnecessary bloodshed. Was it too much to ask to go along with it? Was it too much to ask for peace?
Apparently so. The devil grew bored with their praise for peace. He advertised the locals as vicious, bloodthirsty savages. He rallied the support of the unknowing pawns. Pawns kept locked under his thumb. He controlled the media, he controlled the airways, he controlled their lives, he controlled almost the entire world, and yet he wasn't satisfied.
The screams ceased. I prayed they all hid deep within the mountain, but I knew the truth. A handful would survive if they were lucky. He wanted to make them into an example. A few resistance groups were rising, but nothing the Turks couldn't handle. No. He had to make a spectacle of these people.
But who am I to accuse him of such horrors? I'm the one who went along with these orders. I knew what would happen. I knew how he was. I took this job, knowing full well what it would do to me. Maybe I'm the true devil in this equation; deceiving family and friend alike for the betterment of the Company. I lie to myself every morning, and I lie to myself every night. I lie and say that I'll make this a better place, that tomorrow I'll stop the mindless violence. Then I step into the offices.
And the cold crisp air changes me.
The mako eyes, infecting the very souls of those around them. The neatly pressed suits, hiding the ugly nature of the person wearing them. Everyone was a murderer of some sort.
I can almost see myself in those dancing flames, burning and corroding along with my peers. But maybe what I saw was the old me; what I would've been had I stayed like my mother wished me to. I saw my innocence fade away in those flames. I was a mere shell of the man I once was.
Now, I was nothing more than a devil. A devil, bereft of home and devoid of life. My soul, taken and slaughtered by my own dark devotions.
I was weak. So very, very weak.