The Forgotten Hero

Chapter 16

                Night has fallen and only one light was on in the building. Verna was awake while the rest were asleep. She looked worriedly down the hall. She heard some shouting coming from Rufus’s bedroom – it turned out that’s where she was earlier that day. Her feet softly trudged on the wooden floor as she slowly opened the door leading to his room.

                Rufus was sleeping in his bed. His face was contorted in an expression of pain. Verna knitted her eyebrows together as she stepped in. He must be having a bad dream. She held her hands against her chest as she determined if she should wake him up or not.

He heard gun shots go off. It was his shotgun that he wielded with one arm. He practiced shooting against the target. After hitting the target in various fatal zones he lowered the gun. Rufus turned around and stopped as a sudden migraine erupted through his mind.

                He fell to his knees and clutched his head at the sudden pain. Rufus looked up seeing his mother standing over him. How did she get so tall? He looked down at his hands, when were they so small? He was a child again.

                “Rufus, dear, did you have a nightmare?” his mother sounded. “Don’t fret precious I’m here. Step away from the window. Go…” Her voice shifted multiple times as if it were playing from a scratched CD. “Go back to sleep.”

                Rufus followed his mother down the hallway. He was unsure what was going on. It was as if his memory was distorted. He looked at the different paintings depicting the different events in his life. His eyes narrowed, he was safe from the pain and truth and choices and other poisons that were in life. No, none of it existed when he was a child. He looked back up at his mother. No one cared about him like she did.

                Closing his eyes, Rufus took a deep breath. However they soon snapped open at the sound of running feet. A gunshot went off and a scream sounded. It came from his childish lips. Before him laid the corpse of his mother, as he held onto her hand. Blood was splattered over his clothing. It was the time he witnessed his mother’s death. His innocent world shattered.

                He felt tears weld up in his eyes. If his father saw him crying he would be furious with him. Rufus stood up suddenly and ran away from his mother’s dead body. An annoying ringing ran through his head. He must have had some damage to his ear from the gunshot. Still, he annoyed that and ran. He ran as fast as he could through Midgar. He didn’t slow down for a second.

                His eyes dashed from person to person. A prostitute groaned in delight as a man picked her up. Other people were fighting. These streets were filthy and filled with the underbelly of Midgar’s scum. Rufus closed his eyes and kept running. He didn’t want to see any of it! None of it!

                Rufus tripped and fell. An ow escaped from his lips and echoed off of the walls of an alley way he stumbled into. The boy lied on the ground, breathing heavily. His father would yell at him if he returned, but there was nothing Rufus could do. Sitting up, Rufus held onto his legs tightly as he sobbed uncontrollably into them. He just wanted to go back to sleep and wake up from this nightmare.

                Looking up, Rufus was no longer a boy. He was a young man. It was only a couple of years before the present day. He glanced at his father who was staring at him coldly. Ah, it was when he came back after saving the Turks from their ultimate death. However, he couldn’t betray the Turks. Not after one of them found him after his mother died and comforted him more than his father ever did.

                His father shouted something about power and death. Rufus didn’t care. If the Turks were killed it’d be like counting bodies like sheep, there would be an endless amount of fatalities. The Turks wouldn’t give up without a fight, and that would cause the rhythms of the war drums to begin their beat. Innocent people would get caught up in an internal Shin-Ra war.

                Rufus closed his eyes in aggravation as he moved some hair out of his face. Upon reopening them Sephiroth was standing in front of him.

                “I want you to kill the president of Shin-Ra,” Rufus spoke automatically. He had no control over his body in this hellish of a dream. “His plan in destroying Sector 7 is going too far. He’s getting backed into a corner and he doesn’t know how to handle things anymore. He’s the terrorist in all of this.”

                Sephiroth narrowed his eyes, “Why do you want me to kill your father.”

                “You have no business in that,” Rufus replied. “I’ve given the information that is only needed.”

                “In what way do I not have any business?” A voice sounded from Rufus. He turned around seeing the very girl that he was keeping an eye on. “If I recall correctly Sephiroth could very well put everyone’s life in danger, including mine. Not only that, but he nearly strangled me while I was in Kalm. Therefore, I have a score to settle with him.”

                She turned her back to him, “That’s dangerous.” He mused using the same words she used for him when he had his back to her. Only now did he realize that she said that to him because --.

                “I was stabbed in the back,” She said softly. He envisioned the scar on her back. “Both figuratively and literally. The first guy I actually had feelings for me was after my father. He manipulated me to try and get information out about my father, but I didn’t know anything.”

                Rufus wanted to reach out towards her, but he restrained himself. Even if it was a dream he wouldn’t do such a thing. For now, he had to find out who her father was and who stabbed her in the back. He looked up ceiling, but looked down after she screamed.

                His eyes widened, everything was crashing around him. Her body lied on the floor, dead. He looked around frantically. Everything was ending before his very eyes. The world was coming to an end. His eyes met those of Sephiroth’s  before everything faded to black.

“Sir!” A distant voice sounded. “President?” He tried opening his eyes, but they felt like lead. “Rufus!” He slowly opened his eyes. A female’s shape slowly took focus. Her face was filled with worry. It was Verna. “I heard you shout, is everything okay?”

                “Fine,” Rufus sat up realizing she woke him up from the dream of his enemies and his choices. They were one in the same, but he tried to isolate them.

                “I was worried I’d have to voice some reason into your sleeping self,” Verna sighed.

                Rufus looked at her. She did save him from himself. The dream was a horrible one. He only wished she woke him up sooner. Still, nothing could be done. He glanced over at the clock. It was early in the morning, 2AM.

                “Why are you still awake?” Rufus questioned.

                “I couldn’t sleep,” Verna replied simply. “I’ve been growing more and more anxious lately.”

                Rufus raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

                “I don’t have any of my medicine for my anxiety,” Verna laughed lightly. “If I don’t get any soon I’ll start having some panic attacks.”

                Rufus narrowed his eyes. That was something he didn’t know. Still, he could use her medical records to try and locate her father or whoever stabbed her. His mind flashed back to the end of his nightmare. No, for now he had to focus on Sephiroth. But, he would get her medications before he started his search again.

--A/N—

I wanted to write a chapter before March 21, 2013, since I’m going out of town that day. I’ll be back on Sunday. Anyways, I haven’t really been able to play FF7 lately, too much school work. So…I figured I’d put in this chapter with a small bit of Rufus’s past. If you couldn’t tell it was heavily influenced by A Perfect Circle’s “Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums.”