Disclaimer: Not mine. Just the freakin' plot and the freakin' prequel and the freakin' OCs.
Hmph.
To you, perhaps, I may be nothing more than a young president of an electric power company. Not a big deal after all, yes? There's Mr. Dalhart of Western Powers Inc., a philanthropist who helped the destitute people of North Corel by providing cheap electricity into their homes. There's also Mr. Shane of General Coalition, Inc., who is said to be capable of buying the whole of Mideel, should he wish to. And there's Mr. Carlton of Carlton Inc., who has just recently proposed to make Nibelheim a city. (I have no idea why he has an interest in such a town.) So you might think that I am not really that special.
But then, if you do know my story, (and that you would know were you conscious ten to five years ago), then you might consider me worse – a washed-out has-been.
Hmph. Yes. There was a time when I, Rufus Shinra, President of Shinra Electric Company, ruled the world.
So I might as well tell you my rise and fall… and return, if you would call it that.
Some among you probably still remember the old Shinra, as established by my father about half a century ago. It began as a weapons manufacturer. And with monsters roaming all around Gaia, weaponry was in great demand. And so President Shinra (Senior) amassed great capital and ventured to the power supply business, building Mako reactors to absorb the Planet's force and convert it into a usable form of energy. That of course led to more profits. The President thus grew from just another businessman into the most powerful man on the Planet. He raised private armies, gained the trust of the general public, and built a towering city – Midgar – over the wreck of eight towns and made it the capital of a great eco-socio-political empire.
His empire.
But there were those who opposed him. Those who were educated in Cosmo Canyon believed that Mako reactors suck the life-force of the Planet itself, leaving it to rot and die. In their alarm they formed an organization – AVALANCHE – and vowed to, as their name signifies, act as the Planet's avenging hand against the Shinra.
Shinra Inc., however, had belligerent branches. MPs, troopers, mechanized guards, and so on. But two of the company's arms were prominent: the Shinra Department of Administrative Research (more known as the Turks) and SOLDIER. Both were composed of Mako-enhanced beings – but SOLDIERs, in addition, had the cells of Jenova, an alien who crashed into the Planet about two millennia ago, injected into them. So AVALANCHE developed their own super-warriors: the Ravens, who were capable of displaying superhuman strength and regenerative abilities.
So I leave it up to you to picture how much damage was done during those days.
Oh, have I forgotten to tell you that it was I who provided AVALANCHE with the means to fight Shinra?
Yes, yes… I know what you are thinking. How did I have the grit to go against my own father? Simple.
Power.
My father was a fool. He was like a toad, perched on a rock, opening his mouth, shooting his tongue, making money and accumulating money for the sake of gaining even more money. No wonder he grew to be rotund.
But I disagreed with his policies. How could someone turn his back from dominion when the world was practically begging to be taken?
Taken – by me.
My father (the title disgusts me up to this day) had power, alright. But he did not know how to use it. He only wanted more money.
I simply wanted more. Hmph. Even though I was but seventeen back then, I already desired the world.
And I was willing to do anything to have it.
Even if it meant staining my hands with the old man's dirty, filthy blood, reeking with the horrid scent of money.
So I provided AVALANCHE with funds, hoping that they would kill the old man off. And at the same time, I headed to Nibelheim to convince Sephiroth to defect and fight for me.
Sephiroth, the Nightmare Incarnate? Oh yes. To you children, he might just be a name of terror, lurking hidden in the shadows, ready to haunt your most macabre dreams. But once he was a man, and a great warrior – Shinra's finest, to be exact. General of the Army, Hero of the Wutai War, all sorts of honor bestowed upon him. And to have Sephiroth in your team… that was an assurance of victory.
So I set forth to the little backwater settlement, where Sephiroth was sent to investigate on a reactor breakdown. And then…
Hmm. Hm hmmm hm hm hm.
Why am I sniggering? Well, let us just say that Destiny made my path rather amusing… rather interesting.
Ah, but I am getting ahead of myself.
You see, I met a wild gunman back then. Well, gunwoman, if you are gender-conscious. (Though I don't believe it would matter; she acted much like a man anyway.)
She was called Ysselle. Ysselle Blaze, if I remember rightly.
Oh, she was not a great beauty, in case you are wondering. But she did have smart eyes.
Very smart eyes.
…Like mine, as some would say.
To give credit where credit's due, this Ysselle aided me in my journey. Why? I had no idea. She claimed that she was bored of being alone in the wild. She had skills as a markswoman, guide, and – at need – cook and, hmmm, comedienne. So she was not bad company, all in all. We were a battle team, she as mentor and I as charge. She taught me how to survive, after all. In fact, you could go so far even to say that I even grew fond of her, in a fashion.
Though she was a fool, as many humans are wont to be. I remember that time in Mt. Corel. We encountered a Weissmeister, a giant red robot far beyond our level. And do you know what she did?
She risked her life (and got battered) to give me a chance to escape.
Hmph. Foolish.
But she survived. She self- regenerated. How? I did not know back then.
But I am straying. At length we made it into Nibelheim. I had an audience with Sephiroth. However, much to my… chagrin, he did not defect. But he did give me a dark hint about my past.
About my mother.
And Wutai.
Which I investigated at once, together with the gunwoman, Ysselle, who had decided to go wherever I go. We went to Wutai. I confronted Lord Godo Kisaragi. And I found out –
– the truth.
My mother was one Kyuuka Saya, an assassin sent by Wutai to kill my father. An assassin who only ventured to kill the old man after giving birth to me. An assassin who failed. An assassin who ignited the Wutai War.
And Ysselle was her sister's child, who hated the Shinra ever since her mother died out of grief.
And did I already mention that she was an AVALANCHE Raven, sent to spy on me and kill me, by that treacherous Fuhito's orders?
Hmph. She never knew that I was her cousin, though. The knowledge clouded her judgment. She fled.
And when we met again, it was at Junon, when I directed AVALANCHE to seize the Mako Cannon and aim at Midgar, to humiliate my father.
And, foolish as she was, she tried to stop me.
But…
Hmph.
I fought her.
She had the upper hand. She had a Summon, a black panther, who shielded her from attack. But I found the chink in her armor. I shot the Summon.
But – she gained a tempo.
She could have killed me back then. Yet – she failed. Somehow, she failed.
So I killed her.
And, foolish as she was, she gave me her gun, her Summon, her blessing, and made one last request: to take care of a certain family.
Our remaining cousins. In Junon.
Fool. She was a trusting fool. She was a damned fool.
…Hmph.
But that battle had been fruitless; Sephiroth, the SOLDIER I hoped would fight for me, forced AVALANCHE to retreat.
Some destiny.
So it took me another five years to actually gain the power I had so desired to win.
And the funny thing was that it was Sephiroth who killed my old man for me.
At last, the world was mine.
At last.
But there was work to be done still, as my throne was not yet set on solid ground. A second AVALANCHE had risen, composed of Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockheart, Barret Wallace – those you now call the Heroes. They also seemed to disagree with Shinra and the way we functioned.
And there was also the Nightmare, Sephiroth, who thought it was a good idea to summon Meteor and doom the world.
And there were the WEAPONs, the wrath of the Planet set loose to obliterate all that the Planet considered filth.
…including us.
For better or for worse AVALANCHE managed to slip through our hands, and in fact they landed on Midgar to fight us one last time. But they were not my major concern in the end: Sephiroth and WEAPON were. I had the Mako Cannon, rechristened as the Sister Ray, transferred to Midgar. We aimed for Sephiroth at the Northern Crater. We aimed at the approaching WEAPON.
We fired.
Sephiroth's Barrier was broken.
The WEAPON was impaled.
But the Sister Ray, our grandest display of power, did not stop its counterattack.
A barrage of fire bombarded the Shinra Building, the seat of my power in Midgar.
And there, in a flash of blinding light, I fell.
Shinra fell.
All power… was gone.
And do you know what saved me that day? It was Ysselle's Summon, whom I had renamed Dark Nation.
Hmph. Destiny. She played with us all.
After all, such is our fate, we being but foolish humans.
Ah…
So in that day I lost the power that had taken years for me to gain. I could only watch as Meteor ruined Midgar. I could only watch as the Mako reactors were shut down, never to be used again. I could only watch as the Stigma spread throughout Gaia.
And all my power, all my contacts, all my men? All gone.
Save for the Turks.
The same Turks I have tried to destroy five years ago. Ironic.
And then, I realized that perhaps I ought to have been more foolish as well.
But, well, what's done is done. At least now Shinra is back – with oil as our energy source. We no longer exercise a monopoly over the world, but, well, we are doing fine.
Hmph. For now. Perhaps it wouldn't be long before someone from Cosmo Canyon would declare that burning fossil fuel would release excessive amounts of carbon into the air, corroding the ozone layer and letting large amounts of ultraviolet energy seep through.
Hmph. See? Humans are such fools.
But not to worry. The Planet seemed to have found a solution for that – in history. History repeats itself, after all.
So go ahead. Maybe you are right. Maybe I am just another young president of an electric company. Hmph. Maybe I am even just but a nostalgic fool.
But I am a busy nostalgic fool. I am working on how to rebuild things right now.
Oh, and that reminds me. I have some kids in Junon to visit later.
Consider yourself dismissed.