Prologue: The Sultry Past
ShinRa Headquarters, VP's Office; 5 years ago...
It was late-evening when Rufus recieved the fateful call in his office.
"Sir... the President is dead."
He had dropped the phone in shock, it still lay on the floor, beeping.
Tseng of the Turks had been sent up to check on the President's son, who
was assumed by most of the elite staff to be in some kind of emotional turmoil.
Instead, the leader of the Turks found himself standing in front of the former
Vice-President doing a happy jig on top of his desk. There had never even been
a wrinkled brow on the boy's forehead when he got the news.
"Oh yeah! Whoo-hoo! I'm President now!! Wahay!!"
"..."
"Oh... Tseng! I didn't see you there," Rufus grinned after finally
noticing the speechless man at his door.
"Heh heh..."
"Emotional turmoil, indeed." Was all the Turk could mutter aloud.
"What?"
"Nothing sir. Now if you're done celebrating the mysterious death of your
father, perhaps we should go investigate the details behind this event?"
"Oh... spoil my fun. Let's go, then."
*
The old President's office was eerily silent as Tseng and Rude escorted
Rufus in. Drawing their company-issued sidearms, they kept an alert and
defensive watch of every corner in the large room.
"Boys, please. Is that necessary?" Rufus sighed, irritated. He then
whipped out a very fine [and probably very expensive] shotgun from the folds of
his coat and rested it against his shoulder.
"I think I can take care of myself,"
Rude grinned to himself over the boy's weapon choice. "Top-dollar, sir?"
"You bet your salary, it is."
Tseng rolled his eyes and slowly went over to the desk where President
Shinra's body lay. There were no finger prints anywhere, no other evidence save
for the obvious... and blood everywhere. Though... not all of it was of human
origin...
"Big enough?" Rufus joind him and studied the long sword that stuck out of
his father.
"...Man. Okay, I guess it's in my best interest [yeah right] that
we go and round up who ever commitid this vile and horrible crime." He
deadpanned, still not really caring. After all, he was the President of
the company now. So who cared about the old, dead codger? Certainly not him!
"... Shall I call a helicopter up? The guilty party might be making a
break for it down on the street as we speak," Rude cut in, trying not to laugh
at the stupidly happy grin on Rufus's face.
Again, Tseng sighed and then nudged the boy. "Sir? We really should..."
"-Okay! Fine! We'll go do a quick once over!"
*
"...Who are you guys?"
"I'm Cloud, former SOLDIER First Class!"
"I'm from AVALANCHE!
"Same here!"
"...a flower girl from the slums."
"...a research specimen."
"...What a crew. Well, I'm Rufus. The President of Shinra, Inc."
"You only President, 'cause yer old man died!"
"That's right. I'll let you hear my new appointment speech. ...Old man
tried to control the world with money. It seems to have been working. The
population thought that Shinra would protect them. Work at Shinra, get your pay.
If a terrorist attacks, the Shinra army will help you. It looks perfect on the
outside. But, I do things differently. I'll control the world with fear. It
takes too much to do it like my old man. A little fear will control the minds
of the common people. There's no reason to waste money on them..."
And the rest is history... |
