You ain't Heavy

Disclaimer

The characters andsettings mentioned, belong entirely to Square-Enix.

10pm, Shinra Headquarters

What in the world went wrong? How…how could it be…that, the empire forged by my hands, could be destroyed by the very creator? Rufus Shinra laughed at the irony. A wave of searing agony engulfed his battered body and sent him in fits of blood spattering coughs. Just hours ago, he stood tall, overlooking Midgar from his office. The blast from the Omega Weapon sent him and what was left of his office, plummeting to the ground in a mesh of twisted metal and smoking concrete. It was undeniably unarguable for one to presume him dead at the sheer impact of the blast and the height he had fallen.

Somehow, he survived. Upon impact of the blast, he was sent careening to the other end of his office and into a stairwell that sheltered him from most of the falling debris.

Just a little more, there's light a few metres above you, Rufus. Either you die among the fallen or you live to die another day. He groaned inwardly, his determination was ebbing away slowly and he resorted to talking to himself as a form of encouragement. Rufus pushed against the concrete and dug his nails into the dirt, trying to free himself out of the maze of acrid smoke and debris. Blood dripped from his left forehead, its source, and a large gash near the hairline. For the first time since anyone knew, the New Age President Rufus Shinra bled. His bleached white overcoat was now covered in dirt and grime, tattered and worn. His face was hardened as if he had been through suffering all his life.

Damn! Cursed foot's stuck! Rufus tugged at the blood covered right leg, trying to free it from an iron support, which wedged his foot at a horrible angle. He numbed his thoughts of all pain that was coursing though his body and focused on freeing his injured foot, but to no avail. How nice! I'm going to die here…all alone, again. Nobody's going to hear my last words or be there till the end. What a fitting ending to what I had been. He started to contemplate. Rufus Shinra was a stuck-up moron with no life and an old man with an iron leash. What a damned fool he was! Oh, how the powerful had fallen. If this is justice…I'll just have to accept my fate. Blood drained, cold and shivering, Rufus, succumbed to the darkness of exhaustion and acceptance of his fate. He let nature take him wherever it may lead him to.

11.30pm Shinra Headquarters

My throat felt as sore as the day I drank piping hot coffee for the first time – chugging it down. The President was sure to be somewhere…alive. He could not be dead, no matter how much Rude would force me to accept. My childhood friend cannot die as such! Just because I'm a Turk and I work for Rufus does not mean our relationship was strictly business.

My father was scientist working…no, slaving for his old man (as he calls him) since Old Shinra started building his 'reign of tyranny'. Dad goes to work, his son would be somewhere wandering around the Shinra mansion in Nibelhiem with a redhead rogue wreaking havoc. God knows…how many times we escaped the mansion regardless of the regiments of security guards infesting the place, mostly to play with the street kids. It was the only form of relief from Rufus' rigid lifestyle. A girl I vaguely remember, buried deep as a fragment of my treasured memories, would introduce him to the neighbourhood kids, Lockheart, I think her name was. It's been so long…It was so uplifting to see him even enjoying himself for once. After that, it would have to be back to books filled with useless economics and other business crap.

I can say that I was the only person who understood him besides his mother.

Poor guy didn't know what the role of President would do to him. All of those department heads hounding him like bulldogs, persuading him to accept their ideas, for the sake of the Corporation…as they say. That's why so many had misunderstood the cold hard shell of the outside for a soul. In fact, the Presidential role had driven him almost insane and was eating him alive. I knew he was still the same guy he was before, a good-spirited friend who would escape amongst us common citizens for an adventure or two.

My hands were bloodied- mine of course. Driven by a mad race against time to find him among fifty tonnes of wreckage. No matter how long I'll take…hours, days, months or years… I'll find him. Turning every framework, lifting huge slabs of concrete, I looked and called for the one whom I called- friend. I inhaled heavily and my stomach heaved with anxiety and nausea whenever I overturned mangled corpses, whispering desperate prayers, hoping that Rufus did not share the same fate.

Then I saw a rather large recess, made by debris that piled over each other, forming some sort of roof. Something was glimmering softly in the pale moonlight. Walking towards it, sudden realization took me by force. Rufus would never go anywhere without his double-barrel shotgun.

Sensing he was somewhere around, I called out, drawing out my last reserves of energy in hope to find him. I frantically rummaged through bits of here and there and went though the recess trying to locate him and I did. He was there, unconscious in a position that indicated that he tried to free himself from the fallen structures. His right arm limply outstretched towards me, and his face was slightly burnt, pale and hardened with suffering. I had to know if he was alive. I leaned forward and my trained ears detected breathing, faint but at least he was still alive. Thank heavens he was under the stairwell, I don't want to know what would become of him if he were in any other place. Just thinking of the unfortunate that I uncovered filled me with more strength and determination.

Flicking my fiery strands from my drenched face, I went to remove the framework that trapped his blood-caked foot. Thank God there was some form of a lever nearby. For the first time in so many years, I had spoken to the Divine above for protection and appreciation.

9pm, Somewhere in Sector 6

I came round to experience the most awful throbbing of my head and numbness in my right leg. I felt as if I had gotten into one of those bar fights I had seen with Reno, years ago. Then I realized, I got blasted by a Weapon, fell 50 over storeys from my office and got wedged between the wreckage. No wonder it felt as if Meteor had struck me full force. How the heck I survived?

My eyes started to focus, painfully, to a faint yellow glow that I could make out as a humble, still flame of a half-burnt candle. The air was slightly musky and damp, unlike the sterile, clean air that I had gotten use to breathing. I could detect a faint dripping sound onto wet ground and knew I was somewhere out in the open. I was in some kind of alley, most likely still in Midgar judging from the way the electrical pipes ran and the nearby sounds of generators. How did I get here? I tried to stand up but was held down by another bout of pain that shot up my spine, and then I felt someone grasp my right arm.

"Do not stand, sir…" A voice I remembered so well told me very firmly. Ah…it was Reno. "You broke your right leg in a few places when a part of the framework fell on it. I got it roughly bandaged so it'll last for the moment, sir. Other than that, you lost quite some blood so you'd feel very weak."

Even though I wanted to protest, I quietly obeyed my makeshift doctor's instructions. I reached to touch one side of my hear where blood was flowing out from earlier on, and was met with a coarse cloth that passed for a makeshift bandage. Even that little bit of exertion made me breathless.

"Reno."

"Yes, sir?"

"If I may ask, where are we?"

"Oh, in Sector 6 sir. We cannot go into the inns for we may be discovered, so we're currently in an isolated part of the area. I assure you, sir, that we may not be discovered here."

That explained the musky surroundings. I shall have to get used to it. I closed my eyes for a while, thinking of what to do with my current position. Where shall I go on next? Well, the only people I have left were probably the Turks. I had lost my title, my power…my stronghold. I guess…it's finally time to step down. Yes…it's now.

New Age President Rufus Shinra has ceased to live from this very moment. A new chapter must be written, but no more in blood. My history had been dyed crimson far too long. I must start off from those rather amazing days in Nibelhiem, almost a lifetime ago…

Chapter 1

Sidelines...

It's been awhile since I've written fanfiction. I guess the FFVII:AC movie really drew me some freshinspiration.

This is a rated K+ fic for mild swearing and NOTHING else over the limit, i repeat, NOTHING else. The relationship between Rufus and Reno is kept in a brotherly sort of way.

Anything wrong with the story, (eg. facts, spellings...), please, kindly inform me so i can make changes.

A.C.