Chapter Eight

Dark Nation padded quietly along side Rufus observing his every move. Rufus leaned against the corner of the building breathing hard clutching his shotgun. The day had started fairly well, that was until a group of unknown people attacked his car. The few guards with him were severely injured or dead. Unfortunately, he was unfamiliar with Junon's layout.

Rufus had arrived in Junon about a week ago, but had been busy with meetings and such the entire time he didn't truly have anytime to look around. It was getting to be late and the meeting was put on break for an hour and he figured that he would leave the meeting building to go get something to eat but, that plan was obviously shattered to pieces with the current attack.

He slowly and carefully peeked his head around the corner, one of the men was approaching. He grinned as the man came around the corner and met the butt of his shotgun. The guy crumbled to the ground and Rufus grabbed his weapon, throwing it behind a trash bin. The sound of footsteps echoed in his ear, glancing down at his companion and giving a brief nod. The beast crouched, then quickly motioned towards him, a soft light embraced Rufus then vanished quickly from sight. He darted out from the building firing into the unsuspecting men, they returned fire some of the bullets harmlessly bouncing off the barrier. One of the men, shielded by a few of the others made a brief motion of his hand and Rufus was struck by a sudden rush of cold air, bracing himself as much as possible before he was pelted with a shower of ice. The others took the distraction to rush him, however they were quickly intercepted by Dark Nation who had leapt upon one of them biting them firmly on the neck. The men stopped their rush attack retreating some. Rufus stepped back ready to fire upon the crowd, but noticed a large vehicle approaching. The Shinra logo plastered on the side brought him a sigh of relief. Quickly, a dozen or so guards bursted out surrounding the enemies with fully loaded machine guns. Rufus lowered his shotgun as a Captain quickly approached him.

He turned his head glaring at the man as he saluted, "What took you so long?"

The man dropped his salute, "Sorry sir, there's quite a bit of road construction we had to go around it."

Rufus pushed some of his hair out of his face, watching as friend and foe alike were tended. A woman motioned to one of the dead guards and he was taken away. She then noticed Rufus looking at her and quickly took the moment to run over and checked his wounds, holding a hand over one of the bleeding areas her hand began glowing a faint green the wound slowly knitting back together.

Content with the woman's work he looked back to at Captain, "These men were ill-prepared I hope this situation doesn't happen in the future."

Again the man saluted, "My apologizes, sir. It won't happen again sir."

Even though the guys hat blocked most of his face he could tell his eyes were glaring at him. It wasn't as though Rufus really cared though, he walked away to the new vehicle that awaited him climbing inside he leaned his head against the back of the seat.

The driver looked back at him, "Sir?"

He kept his eyes close and motioned with his hand, "Just, take me home. I need to rest."

Trudging up to his temporary home he quickly stripped down and got into bed. He found himself staring at the ceiling, unable to go to sleep at the moment. Pushing today's events into the back of his mind for later he focused on the silence around him and eventually found sleep.

--

Rufus laid in a comfortable sleep, lulled there by the sounds of city ambience. His PHS that sat quietly on his table rang disturbing him from his slumber. Glancing over at the table something gnawed at his stomach telling him this wasn't a normal call. A disoriented hand grabbed it and turned it on he slowly put it to his ear.

"...Yes?" his voice calm.

"Sir? Sorry to disturb you so late, but there's been an incident at HQ. We belief that it was raided by Sephiroth. The Jenova specimen is missing, but luckily there doesn't seem to be many casualties..." the voice on the other end trailed off.

"Have you sent out a search team? Is there any contamination spilt?" his groggy sleep ridden body quickly jolted awake.

"Well we have sent out the search team but nothing has turned up it is as though both of them vanished. There was no contamination plenty of damage but within the week we should have everything cleaned up and back to normal."

"So why are you calling me at this forsaken hour? The president should still be there." he glared annoyed at his covers.

"It's the president, he's been killed."

Rufus stopped everything, thinking over and over what the man said to him. Dead. His father was dead. How long had he waited for this moment, but now that it came...

"I see. I will be there shortly have a helicopter sent to pick me up." he turned off the PHS setting it down he stared blankly at the floor.

Getting dressed quickly he left the room and decided on taking the stairs to the roof. His father was dead...his father was dead...his father...was dead. Was he happy? It didn't feel like it, was he upset? He couldn't tell anymore, what was he feeling? Nothing? Was this the end of years of abuse? Did it even still continue? Everything was over, and he didn't care in the least bit. Not a single tear was shed for him. Not a smile reached his face on his accession to presidency. He felt nothing as he opened the door to the rooftop. Watching the helicopter touch down and the guards rush over to quickly help him inside. He sat down on the leather seat watching blankly out the window. The city lights quickly disappeared from sight replaced by utter darkness. The torment was over, and Shinra was finally his, finally he got all he wanted.

Well father, it's my turn now. I'll show you how to truly run this world.

They landed in Midgar within the hour, Rufus quickly stepped out seeing unfamiliar people quickly running outside. Palmer ran up gasping and panting looking extremely scared.

"T-the president was killed he...!" he stuttered out.

"So...Sephiroth was actually here...by the way..." he turned his attention away from Palmer who ran to the helicopter seeking shelter to the five that approached him.

"Who are you guys?"

Afternote: Well, I'm finally done. I like this chapter I like the way it turned out. So ends this story...finally. Thank you to all my reviewers. I think I would have stopped posting if I wouldn't have had you. Now I finally have time to work on my original stories. If I ever decide to write another fanfic, I think I'd like to do it for FF6, or 9...because I think that 7 is over...done? Funny, it's really easy to write for but it's not my favorite. I prefer ff6...but ANYWAY. THANK YOU ALL!