When Rufus Shinra was very little his mother told him he story of his life as though it were a fairy tale.
"Once upon a time people believed that all life came from the Life Stream, a river of energy, which flowed through the Planet. From there all life came, and from there all life would return. Then one day a man discovered how to take the magic of the Life Stream and harness it to create enough power for the whole world.
Your father called this power, Mako Energy and built the Shin-ra Electric Power Company. Thanks to Shin-ra's electricity everyone could live more comfortable lives. And that's not all, Shin-ra rules the world and gives everyone safety and stability. We manufacture materia so everyone can have magic to defend themselves. Shin-ra has armies, and with the SOLIDER project you're father will have the most elite fighting force the Planet has ever seen. Then there are the Turks, they look after our affairs and protect the company from any who would hurt us. One day, it will all be yours my little prince."
Rufus had asked why anyone would want to hurt them.
In the years to come Rufus would learn that life was nothing like a fairy tail, or if it came close then Shin-ra would be considered the villains of the story.
Once upon a time, Shin-ra's Mako reactors drained the Life Stream, slowly but surely killing the Planet. When voices cried out against them they were silenced. Shin-ra raised armies, forged weapons, and created monsters to ensure that none could oppose them. The greatest of these monsters was Sephiroth, a SOLIDER created to be the ultimate warrior, an unstoppable force.
Once upon a time Sephiroth was hailed as a hero, but then one day he learned the truth about the experiments that had created him and the monster inside him took hold. He set out to destroy Shin-ra and the world along with it.
Rufus Shinra does not beleive in fairy tails, life is not a simple story and there are no heroes or villains, just people and nature. Nothing is so simple as good and evil.
Note: This is meant a Prologue to "Life Is Stronger Than Death". That fic is essentually, the story of Rufus and Turks and what made them who they are in Advent Children. I wanted it to be understandable to anyone, even if they'd never played the original game. I wrote this so that someone comepletly unfamiliar with the world might be able to get into that fic. However, I'm not sure if I'll add it to that fic as an official in story prologue because I'm not sure if people who all ready know the story would want to waste their time reading this.
This story is dedicated to a friend I just met in the hopes that I can get her into the fandom via fanfiction.