Chapter One: The Spirit of Christmas

"Do you ever get the feeling we're just sort of running about in circles?" Rufus asked.

Reeve turned his head slightly, and nodded. "Well what do you mean?"

Rufus fiddled with an ornament that he was busy trying to fish a hook through. He stood in the shadow of a massive Christmas tree. Reeve was steadying the ladder that set him two stories above the ground. Scarlet was on a similar one across from him, with Tseng supporting.

"Just this whole Christmas thing. We get together, spend a week decorating, and then after one day of actually enjoying it we pack it all up and wait for another year," Rufus sighed. "Seems like rather a waste."

"Ow!" Scarlet exclaimed as she poked herself with one of the hooks.

She swayed slightly on the ladder. Tseng doubled his grip on the ladder but he still found it hard to control. Reeve left Rufus's side and helped Tseng. Scarlet seemed to stop breathing as the ladder finally stopped shifting.

"My goodness," she sighed. "That scared the hell out of me."

Rufus began to chuckle. "You see this is what I'm talking about. Poor Scarlet could have been seriously injured trying to decorate this tree."

Tseng and Reeve exchanged wry glances. Clearly the near serious injury of their colleague was not fertile ground for high comedy. Rufus grabbed another ornament from the 2nd floor landing, which the height of his ladder was parallel with, and he returned to decorating his side of the massive Christmas Tree.

"So you have a problem with Christmas?" Reeve asked, folding his arms.

"I don't have a problem, per se," Rufus replied. "It's a nice enough holiday, it's just that you can only hear Gesu Bambino so many times before you want to slit your wrists."

"Well you file taxes every year. Why not stop that for one year simply because it comes around a lot?" Reeve asked skeptically.

"Don't give me that attitude," Rufus clicked his tongue in annoyance. "I'm just saying I don't like having to do this same song and dance every…"

But as Rufus slid his arm to a far branch, his ladder began to sway. Reeve rushed over to try and support it, but it was too late. The ladder fell over and Rufus was flung to the floor. He felt his head hit the soft arms of Tseng who had attempted to catch him, but the damage was done. He was knocked out cold.

---

"This is a fine way to spend a Christmas," Locke complained as he sat in a room in Figaro Castle.

The mechanical fortress had submerged, but due to frostbitten conditions had been stuck where it was, just a few miles from the Serpent Trench.

"Don't complain," Edgar chastised. "We have food, water, and we're in a castle. I'm sure you can find some way to occupy your time."

"But it's not 'Christmas'," Locke replied. "Where are the presents? The yule log? The mistletoe?"

"Our world has been destroyed and all you can think about is that you won't get to celebrate Christmas?" Edgar asked in disbelief.

"He's not the only one," Celes sighed dreamily. "Even the Empire made a big deal about Christmas. It was the only day we got off. Snow outside of Vector, the entire city covered in Garland…"

"The Captains would always wear those silly Santa hats and get drunk," Terra added.

"Well, I'll hope you don't mind if I don't invite the Legion to stay for tea, only I think some of them still want to kill us," Edgar laughed.

"Well we gotta do something!" Relm chimed in. "Santa can't go underground."

"I'll see what I can do," Edgar said, walking off.

"Okay let's snap out of it," Cyan said.

"What's that?" Locke asked.

"Snap out of it," Cyan repeated, handing Locke a ginger snap.

"What's this?" Locke asked.

"Wake up!" Cyan shouted.

---

"I'm awake!" Rufus shouted, raising his head, slamming it against something hard and plastic, and knocking himself back down into a soft bed which felt strangely familiar. It wasn't his own though.

He rubbed his head and slowly opened his eyes. He looked around and saw that he was laying in a hospital bed, in the hospital wing of the Shinra Tower. The large plastic thing he had hit was a monitor that was positioned just above him.

"Sir, are you alright?" Reeve asked.

"How's that? What happened?" Rufus asked.

"You banged your head sir. Fell two stories from that ladder. If Tseng hadn't caught you, you'd probably be in a lot worse condition," Scarlet shuddered at the thought.

"Where's he?" Rufus asked.

"He's being treated," Reeve replied.

"He's injured? Is it bad?" Rufus cried.

"He broke his arm catching you. Force of the fall and such," Reeve nodded. "He'll be okay though."

"Jeez…" Rufus grunted. He laid back in bed. "That sucks. What a lousy way to spend…"

But he was asleep before they could hear the remainder of his sentence.