Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Cetra Reunion ❯ Legends Live On ( Chapter 1 )

Legends Live On

A small sigh escaped the lips of the scrawny man who lay under the pile of rubble. Dirty and dellusional, this man had not seen the light of day since the moment he had ended up here, which, of course was not suprising. Though he had to commend the infernal creature that had sent him to this shallow grave, for in doing so it had actually saved his life. Meteor, which had wrecked havoc on the upper levels of Midgar had barely missed this figure. It was a miracle he was still alive.

However, there was nothing good about this situation, he thought, as another painful gasp escaped his lips. His legs had been crushed under steel plates which had fallen from above, and his chest had been pinned to the ground by a crossbeam that had decided that it would be in the best intrest of everyone to land where it had, to the man's great discomfort. His breathing was laboured, heavy and deep, he had survived for a week down here, barely, with the aid of water that dripped down from a leaky pipe above, a pipe ruined by Diamond Weapon's devestating attack. The man remembered it all too clearly.

A voice bellowed through the loud speaker to the right of the office desk, in the ceiling.

"Sir, we have problems!" the voice boomed. The president of the Shinra Electric Power Company sighed, the voice belonged to none other than Heideggar, the head of the warfare department and the Turks. The president pushed the intercom button.

"Yes, Heideggar? What is your concern?" the president asked, the level of annoyance at being pulled away from his paper work, clearly showing in his tone.

"It is a disaster! It is heading this way. It is huge and it...well, I am afraid to say that your days of being the president will be short lived Mr. Rufus!" the voice said, "Gya-ha-ha-ha!"

The connection suddenly faltered and was cut completely. President Rufus Shinra brushed his hand through his hair, a habit of his that reflected his vanity. He rose from his seat and walked to the window to look out.

"Damn you Heideggar!" Rufus spat to no-one in particular, suprised at being betrayed by someone in his board of directors.

The windows were polished to a fine sheen and as such, reflected the presidents image, he had to strain to see past his irresistable self, to what lay beyond. A large creature stood, facing Midgar, with large missiles on it's shoulders aimed at the Shinra building. Rufus' narrow eyes looked inquiringly then rose in shock. It was Diamond Weapon and it had come to take his life.

A nimbus of light formed around the creature's shoulders as it gathered in the rays of sunlight that directly hit it's metallic carapace. The light focused into small bolts, yet big enough to completely wipe out the top of the Shinra building. The beast took aim and fired.

Rufus let out a yell of hysteria as the bolts sped his way, gathering power and speed as they did, soaring over the land to strike directly into the top most part of the Shinra Building, Rufus' office. Rufus ran towards his office desk, executing a low slide that cleared the bottom of the desk and allowed him access to a grate. He gripped it in his hands, pulling futiley at it, wishing that it would open.

As the first bolt screeched past the building, shattering the glass windows on the right side, and melting everything within its range, the grate flew open and Rufus slid down, just in time as the building exploded into a million pieces of shrapnel which dropped as soon as the air that held it dispersed. Rufus fell at a high speed, while flames rushed down the tunnel behind him, threatening to consume him if he faltered. The sides of the ventalation shaft which Rufus was using for his escape were made of metal that was spaced wide enough to fit a man of average build. Rufus was a man of average height, sporting narrow green eyes and head of golden hair that was brushed back in one of the local styles of Junon. He wore a trenchcoat of white, void of any symbols over a blue wollen pollar neck and black pants. Black boots on his feet were the only other things he wore.

His descent slowed as the vent curved to become like a slide. He slid down it some way until it dropped out from under him, sending him falling towards the slums of Sector 6, where the garbage of Midgar was dumped. The ground rushed up to meet him as explosions were heard above and he landed with an audible "oof". Shrapnel rained down around him and he lay back, catching his breath, hoping that the deadly metal missed him. He allowed himself to breathe in a large amount of air, to catch his breath and closed his eyes, but as he did so, he missed seeing a large crossbeam fall his way, which landed on some garbage that was higher than him, rolling down to land atop him and pin him to the ground. He opened his eyes wide and let out a shout of pain. Rufus struggled, moving his legs and arms to try to free himself, but there was nothing he could do. He was officially stuck and the irony of the situation was that the petitions and grievances asking him to clean the slums, and remove the plates had become his downfall and the place that his citizens most despised was to become his place of final rest.

Rufus opened his eyes and gasped in another lungful of breath as the debris shifted and dust stirred to life around him. He thought he had heard a noise and turned his head slightly to allow him to hear better. Then the sound came again, followed by more dust stirring. It was a human voice, a voice that belonged to someone who had survived.

"Is anyone out there?" the voice called. Rufus strained to reply but could only manage a gurgle which resembled nothing less than the language of the goblins from the Goblin Islands. The voice called again and this time he screamed out. The sound was restrained again, but was satisfactory as the voice recognised it to belong to someone who lived.

"Are you alright?" the voice asked. The person paused awhile and without hearing a response spoke again. "Don't worry! We will get you out of here!"

As the sound of the voice neared, Rufus lapsed into a state of unconsciousness. He was exhausted from the amount of time he had spent down here and could hold out no longer. The man who had called to him approached over a piece of large metal which had once been the title plate of the Shinra building, now faded beyond recognition, though it was now useful as a ramp. The man decended to where Rufus lay in a coma and called some other men over. All were in a blue uniform save one who wore red. They were all Shinra soldiers who had survived the attack of Holy and Meteor.

"Jesus, look at this place," one man said, as he looked around.

"It would take a miracle to rebuild Midgar!" exclaimed another.

"Midgar is not going to be rebuilt," said the unit captain, "Shinra is no more, we have no funds left to do so," he seemed to sigh as he said this, but then he snapped out of his reverie and ordered the men to conduct the removal of the debris from Rufus' body.

It took all six men who were present to remove the crossbeam from Rufus' chest and the metal plates from his legs, but once done it took but two to load him onto a stretcher that lay nearby and cart him to the outer districts of Midgar, and to a helicopter that waited to take them back to Junon. Rufus would be cured and he would be returned to the head of Shinra, though it had lost quite an amount of its power. It was still the biggest company in the world, and it would quickly gain control again, the captain of the Junon unit knew it would be so. A smile crossed his lips as the thought of power crossed his mind. Saviour to the President - Head of Warfare. Now that Heideggar was out of the way, there was nothing stopping this captain ascending to a seat of power within Rufus' board of directors.