This is your Chance
A Rufus Shinra story
-- Chapter One –
"…Where… am I…?
…This feeling…
I'm floating…?
But…
the building…
This light…
It…
Am I dead…?"
The light was a pale green, with a slight glow, almost as if he had dove head first into a Mako Fountain. At least that's what it looked like to his blue eyes, which seemed to have trouble focusing.
Temporarily.
"…What? Temporarily? Who is there…" He had given up on keeping his eyes open, the unusuallong lashes, at least on a man, drifting down. He was tired… so tired…
Yes. Until a suitable decision has been made for your existence.
The voice was both near and far away at the same time. He knew it, yet it was a stranger all the same. Both male and female. "Where am I? Am I dead? The building –"
It collapsed.
"It collapsed…?" Even as he questioned, he was not very surprised.
Yes… You survived the shots… and you tried to escape to the lower floors… but just as you did, the building collapsed in on itself. There was a bit of amusement in the voice, as if it was contemplating a human surviving a WEAPON's attack.
"So I'm…"
Dead... at least right now. You know, if you ask the Planet for forgiveness, you just may get a second chance.
"A second chance? At life?" There was disbelief in the black velvet voice.
Yes. Maybe, if you ask…
"I don't ask anyone for forgiveness. I can stand on my own. If I'm dead, I'm dead. It doesn't matter to anyone or thing." It was an automatic response for him.
It matters to someone… a number of people…
"Impossible." He scoffed. "No one—"
Have you forgotten your only friends? Your only family?
"My only…" He paused, thinking about that. "The Turks?"
Yes. They care. They're searching for you. Even with his eyes closed, an imaged flashed through his mind. A pile of rubble. Elena slumped on the rocks, face in her hands. Reno standing above her, hand on her shoulder as silent tears fan down his face. Rude, his glass in his hand, head bent. Tseng stood separately, staring off into the distance, his face stoic, but there was rage and grief in his dark eyes. Sadness.
The voice chuckled at the sheer shock that came over the floating man. "But… why? Since when did they ever care about me?"
More people care than you think. Do you want to float forever in the stream of life?
"… I… I don't know…"
Give it a try. Go on, ask for forgiveness. You'll be given a second chance.
"But I'm just as terrible as my father, maybe worse; why do I deserve a second living?"
You can change. Your father did not ask. He did not believe in the Planet.
"Nor do I. Nothing has been proven to me that the Planet is of existence as they say. It is dirt and rock and Mako. That is all." Yet even as he said it, he wavered, something that was new to him. He never wavered in his beliefs.
If the Planet did not exist as it were, you would not be consciously awake right now... the Planet is holding you together. Just ask… Try.
"I really don't…" He sighed. "Fine. I'll trust you. What do I say?"
Merely admit to your sin and beg for forgiveness. Then if the Planet feels you deserve a second living it will be awarded to you.
"How do I know this will work?"
Maybe if you weren't stubborn for once. A chuckle.
"Fine. Planet, I have come to realize now that I have committed wrong – My plans of world domination have subsided, I no longer wish to purge within your body and steal what little life remains within you. I have committed sin and I wish to be forgiven and given another chance." There was impatience in his voice.
…
"Well, did it work? I don't feel any different."
Are you asking for exoneration?
"Yes… Please… I wish to be forgiven. Forgive me Planet for my poisonous antics. I wish to live again." The scene kept playing over in over in his mind, of the Turks grieving for him. For him!
…
…
…
So be it, you shall be granted a second prospect upon life. However, shall you forsake the chance given to you, you will not be forgiven again.
"I… I understand…"
Now, make worth of yourself… Live again, Rufus Jeanathyn Shinra. Don't forget – This is your chance.