Sanctuary

A fanfic by Iridal

House of Sorrow

But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
Assailed the monarch's high estate.
(Ah, let us mourn! - for never morrow
Shall dawn upon him desolate!)
And round about his home, the glory
That blushed and bloomed
Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.

The Haunted Palace - by Edgar Allen Poe

Rufus Shinra had exited the recently landed helicopter with a soft sigh of exasperation, as well as just a hint of sentimentality. The birds high up in the trees of Nibelheim chirped melodically, and the distant roars of the dragons from the solitary mountain peaks echoed faintly around him, adding to the picturesque quaintness of the small mako factory town.

It was hard to believe that this town was destroyed not so long ago, burned into ruins by the same madman who had raised such a terror back on the Junon ferry - killing a good fifty or so of his Marines in the process...

He and his associates had survived the incident, however. Ironically enough, Sephiroth had been forced from the ship by the very same members of the terrorist organization that Shinra, Inc. sought to crush. The insane SOLDIER was driven off by their 'formidable' presence, flying off to the distant resort coast they traveled towards.

Although the ferry limped along in the wake of the airborne madman, Rufus lived up to his word and did not spend more than five minutes on that sunny shore, opting instead to board a waiting helicopter with secretary and execs in tow and fly to his first tour stop. The few days they had spent in the Mt. Corel region were thankfully uneventful, although the reports that came to him of AVALANCHE being thrown into the Corel Prison were satisfying enough.

The inspection done - and the huge materia within accounted for - his entourage continued onward, their tiny helicopter straining to gain altitude over the majestic peaks of Mt. Nibel, when the turbulent mountain winds forced the copter down just outside of Nibelheim. Although no one was hurt, the vehicle had obviously seen better days, and until a mechanic saw to it and repaired the damages wrought by their rough landing, he and his retinue were stuck in town.

"And how long will it take you to repair the helicopter, Mr...?"

"Norton." The grease-covered repairman stood and futilely wiped his oil soaked hands on his equally filthy jumpsuit before addressing Rufus. "Well...it'd normally be an easy job, considering that the rear blades were just bent a little from the fierce tailwind y'all got caught in...but comin' down in the trees like you did, you scraped up the underside and poked a hole damn near into the fuel tank. It's a wonder it didn't blow!"

"Yes, yes...we survived," Rufus agreed impatiently, smoothing back a rebellious lock of hair with a restless gesture. "But how long to repair it?"

'Norton' laughed hoarsely, his foul breath wafting even as far as Aislinn, who stood safely behind Rufus' slender frame. "Not for a damn while, Mr. President. The belly can be patched up, though it won't be pretty, but the fuel tank is punctured, so the whole damn thing needs to be replaced, and we ain't got the part here." He smiled, displaying a row of uneven tobacco-stained teeth. "I'd say it'll be about a week or so before this baby will be flying again."

"Wonderful..." Rufus gave an exasperated sigh, but managed a tight smile in thanks nonetheless. "Come along, Aislinn," he murmured to the young woman as he lead the way back to the others that they had left waiting in the inn.

Aislinn hurried along beside him, casting a fretful glance as they crossed the town square. "This must be an awful delay to your plans, Rufus. Now everything will be behind because you're stuck wasting time here."

He chuckled. "I wouldn't call it time wasted. There are some things I wanted to look into that I could complete while I am here."

"Oh? Such as?"

Rufus stopped in the center of the square, his back to the water tower as he pointed to the gloom shrouded mansion hidden behind a dark iron fence at the edge of town. "That is what I wanted to look into." He dropped his hand, his eyes wandering thoughtfully over the ancient manse. "It's part of the Shinra family holdings, of course, but there is so much myth and mystery surrounding it. I've always wanted to take a look into it personally...without the information filtered through the biases and corruptions of Shinra's pet scientists."

She too gazed at the lot, grown over with wild-looking trees and climbing ivy. "I heard that this is where Sephiroth first went mad."

"Yes, that's what I heard as well," Rufus agreed. "And that is what I shall see for myself while Palmer and the rest are off making arrangements."

"You can't go in there by yourself!" Her look was almost scandalized by that statement. "What if something happened to you?"

Rufus smirked in reply, continuing on toward his rooms in the inn as he threw his retort back over his shoulder to her. "I assure you, Ms. Corliss...I am quite capable of taking care of myself..."

Three figures slowly slinked into the edges of town, leaving their stolen vehicle safely hidden in the tangle of wilderness beyond. The twilight of approaching dusk turning the outlines of their forms to distinctive silhouettes - the rotund shape of the leader flanked by the lanky forms of his henchmen. "Well boys," he growled around his ever-present cigar, "it looks like our luck is changing."

His lackeys could only grin and nod their agreement.

Not long after dawn visited the sleepy little hamlet, the bright eye of the sun found Rufus hidden within the mansion's cobweb-covered rooms, currently picking through the dust-shrouded furnishings on the upper floor. Painstaking time was spent scouring each room for artifacts of the past...anything to satisfy his overwhelming curiosity about the place.

It had, after all, been part of his family's holdings a few generations ago, but the sudden push by the Shinra scientists to experiment with the biological entity they discovered a few decades past gave the long empty home into their diabolical little hands. The official reports he had read carefully covered up the facts, easily covering their side-research by playing up to the scientific apathy of the executives. In fact, the only seemingly straightforward data came from Professor Gast and his assistants concerning the Cetra and his involvement with the JENOVA project. As long as company backed research was completed and profit rolled in, no one in Midgar seemed too enthused to delve too deeply into Hojo's doings.

An odd sound reached his ears, drawing his attention from his musings to focus on the main level of the mansion. It almost seemed like a door slamming open, but he couldn't be sure. Straining his senses, he sought to ascertain what made the brief racket downstairs, but no further sounds issued forth. The entire estate seemed breathlessly silent, as if half-afraid to dislodge any restless spirits of the past into the light of day.

It might have been the wind, he thought, dismissing the occurrence as beneath any further notice, not possibly knowing what could it have really been...

The sun glided majestically across the horizon, creating fanciful pictures in the azure sky. Fat, fluffy clouds scudded by the dramatic peaks of Mt. Nibel and inspired a burst of artistic creativity in Aislinn as she sought for ways to pass her time stuck in the quaint mountain town. The concept of time escaped her completely as she sketched and painted the landscape, seeking to capture the surroundings on canvas before its fleeting beauty drifted away forever.

It wasn't until a not-so-polite hacking cough behind her ripped her from her reverie that she again became aware of where she was. The secretary jerked around to face 'Norton', the gruff mechanic. "Um...can I help you, sir?" A quick glance at the sky again told her it was late afternoon - she had been lost in her painting for hours.

"Yeah...yer one 'a Mr. Shinra's people, ain't ya?"

Aislinn nodded, privately wondering if by some miracle of God the helicopter was repaired and they could continue on their journey. "Yes, I'm his secretary. Can I help you?"

The mechanic spat a disgusting wad of something brown and gooey - most likely chewing tobacco - and grinned. "Yup. Tell Mr. Shinra he's in luck. I found the parts we needed to patch up your copter." He paused almost dramatically, and his gap-toothed grin widened. "It's in Rocket Town, and it'll be here in a month."

"A month?!" she exclaimed. "But you said a week!"

'Norton' chuckled. "Well, I thought we had a fuel tank in stock, but we don't. Rocket Town's got one, but it'll take awhile to ship it....AND it'll cost extra, since there's shipping the part, and extra labor..." His estimation drifted off, as his eyes lit up in what looked like simple greed. "An' I need the cash up front."

She eyed the man with distaste. Aislinn was well aware that she was somewhat sheltered, especially compared to the average Shinra employee, but they were over a barrel transportation-wise - and he knew it too. Otherwise he wouldn't have dared to increase the cost of the repair to a Shinra vehicle. "I can't really approve that, you know. Only Mr. Shinra can, and he's...disposed at the moment."

He shrugged, the grin diminished but still there. "Well, he knows where to find me. I won't send away for the parts until I'm paid." With a grunt, he left jauntily to return to his workshop, probably already counting the extra gil in his mind.

The gathering shadows in the gloomy hallways and cobwebbed rooms sent Rufus' unbidden thoughts back to the past...the past better off unremembered...

In his memories, he could recall a summer when he was young - barely old enough to be sent to formal schooling - and his family 'vacationed' in Nibelheim. At least, his mother told him at the time it was a vacation, but looking back as an adult, he could see that his father probably only went for the sole reasons of checking up on the ultimate SOLDIER experiment that Sephiroth was the center of and to parade his young family in front of the locals to bolster public opinion.

Yes, he was quite young at that time, and his mother carefully shielded him from the deprivations of his father. She was adamant that he would never know of the lies - the adultery - the....abuse.

In Midgar at the time, Rufus and his mother slept in a different wing from his father. He knew nothing different, and so didn't worry his young mind about it. But in the eerie old mansion that President Shinra took his new family did not have the room to accommidate that luxery, so in the night he would hear the beatings...and his mother crying for seemingly an eternity afterward.

"You couldn't leave her alone, not even for a night, could you, old man?" he muttered. He stood before a portrait done of his now - forever - absent father, hung in the bedroom where the President had stayed nearly two decades ago. "Did you detest our presence that much? She must have loved you to put up with it silently for so long, yet you could only answer that devotion with a hatred and a raised fist?!"

The man in the portrait only smiled in response. The gaudy red suit looked immaculate, with two rows of neat little golden buttons and a white rosebud tucked almost mockingly in a buttonhole. The dirty blond mustache quirked his mouth into an almost obscene grin, as if the thought of causing so much pain even now amused him to no end.

The picture was maddening when paired with the fact that he would never hear these words that needed to be said for so long.

Rufus shook his fair head. "She took a blind eye to everything that you did, no matter how low and despicable. And once her duty to you was through - once your precious heir was born, you sent her from you in disgrace." His face twisted into a snarl at the portrait on the wall. "You used her! You used US!"

With a surge of anger-born strength, he ripped the canvas from the dusty wall and hurled it into the corner. As it crashed into the floor, the ancient frame splintered and the painting tumbled into a heap. With a deep, shaky breath, he visibly tried to pull his normally controlled emotions back into order, dragging them back down under the normal cold, calm exterior he was known for. "I just want you to know I'll always hate you," he sighed as the last of his emotions were locked away once more.

"Well, feelings like that certainly seem understandable," a soft voice from the doorway said. "All things considering."

As Rufus whipped around to see who it was that intruded on something so personal, Aislinn could only give a soft, sympathetic smile.