My grand attempt at an FF7 fanfic:

(Dis)claimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 7, Advent Children, Before Crisis, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, nor all the myriad Shinra execs and employees, nor the Avalanche groupies (save one, I think), nor all the other names contained in this story. I only own a few OCs and my imagination.


He was not like his father. Heck. He wasn't even like anyone at all.

When he was born, he did not even cry, it was said. Come to think of it, no one ever had seen him cry. But then, I guess it would not be fair if were I to continue without introducing him.

Shinra. It means "god-net" – and in fact President Shinra was a self-styled god. He ruled over a commercial machine and developed it from a weapons manufacturing company into a formidable electric power conglomerate. He was then able to raise armies, sway the populace, and even usurp political power.

And it was all made possible by money.

In fact, it was President Shinra's money that won him a wife. (This was way back when Shinra was still developing weaponry.) She was beautiful, with long ebony tresses and smart eyes. Very smart eyes. She conceived a child (a son!) before she ventured to stab the most powerful man with a thin Wutai-fashioned knife. She – they had just discovered that she was a hired assassin – died of course; the Turks, Shinra's Black Hand, saw to that. After that sorry incident, the president declared war against Lord Godo of Wutai.

And so we turn to his son, named Rufus.

He was not like his father. Heck. He wasn't even like anyone at all.


(Author's Note)

As stated in the summary, this story is based on BC, but (sorry for those who'd like to stick as much as possible to the canon events) I've introduced a number of changes with regards to the timeline and a bit of plot as well. For example: this story is set before Episode 2 of BC (wherein the Mako Cannon was captured by AVALANCHE), but here I have Sephiroth and the investigation team sulking in Nibelheim. Well, I'll mention no more for now, for the sake of spoiler-haters. So, my apologies for canon-lovers... but, well, this is fanfiction after all.

Have fun!