Final Fantasy Oneshots and Drabbles

Plotting with Poison: FFVII

"To hell with that little rat"

Rufus grumbled to himself and twisted a coin through his hand. He was in a mood, and it wasn't a good one. Firstly, the president's office was stupid cold. The idiots working for him hadn't fixed the GLARING hole in the ceiling that had been caused by Cloud and the rest of his posse.

Now drafts blew in 24/7 and it wasn't helping to chill his nerves.

There was also the issue of Sephiroth running amok across the entire hellish continent. He was the other ex-SOLDIER Rufus wanted in his clutches for reasons. Not because Sephiroth had killed his father, mind you.

On the contrary, he had wanted the old man dead for years.

No, Rufus needed the "One-Winged Angel" (Pssht, what a joke) as a bargaining chip. Hissing under his breath, he ripped a drawer open, and pulled out a glass vial with a bubbling, green liquid inside.

He had found this little gift on his desk this morning with a hastily scribbled note next to it that read "This is an incredibly potent poison made from the cells of something that you don't have clearance to know about. Use it to get rid of someone annoying. Preferably yourself. -Hojo."

"I don't have clearance, Hojo?" Rufus snickered mockingly to himself. He laughed out loud. "It's JENOVA cells! How stupid does he think I am?" Throwing the poison aside, he slumped back and rolled his eyes. He hated the slimy scientist as much as any...layman did, but Hojo was a maniacal genius and he was very valuable to his father's... no his company.

Killing him would be a waste of time, and letting him go would be even worse. Too many people to assassinate, and too many loose ends to tie up.

But, if he gifted a... certain superhuman ex-SOLDIER to Hojo as a test subject, the vile scientist could be persuaded to stay. It wasn't usually Rufus's style to not shoot someone he hated on the spot but that would definitely not win public favor. For now, the best option was bribery.

For now.

The question was, how was he going to get both Sephiroth and that urchin, Cloud, back in his possession?

A bark distracted Rufus from his brooding and he looked up to see his guard dog, Umbra, making a commotion. It was pawing at the window and barking at some bird preening itself outside the glass.

The second the bird saw the huge violet hound howling at it, it flew off, spooked. Umbra watched it go, then turned around and stuck its head in Rufus's lap, whining for attention.

Rufus rolled his eyes again and stroked the dog on its head. "I don't suppose you have any ideas, do you?" He muttered, as Umbra licked his hand. "No of course not. I'm talking to a dog!"

Umbra began to whine again,, when it suddenly glanced up, staring at the west wall, its tail lashing. Rufus followed its gaze. "What are you looking at?" He snapped, as the dog walked around the front of his desk, slinking down on its haunches.

That's when two wererats ran into the room, somehow completely escaping the security at his door. They were fighting each other, with the larger rat mauling the smaller one.

Umbra's howl drowned out Rufus's shriek as the dog pounced on one of the monsters. It crunched down on the creature, and barked, excited for a yummy snack.

Rufus tried not to vomit and whipped out his shotgun, shooting the other wererat before it did anything. "I need to fire way, way more people." He hissed, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. Umbra pranced over to him, the rat tail hanging out of its mouth.

"Spit. That. Out." Rufus snapped. The dog twisted its head and swallowed the rat tail, staring at him with an excited look in its eyes. "That's disgusting." He grumbled, throwing his shotgun on the desk. "What was even the point of-"

A thought dawned in his mind, something small, but something interesting nonetheless. Rufus, intrigued, sat back down, and began drumming his fingers on the wood. "Trapped like rats in a cage..." He muttered.

Then he slammed his hands down, causing Umbra to look up from chasing the second rat, which was limping considerably due to the bullet wound, and Umbra was just playing with it. "Of course! The rats were the key! If I can lure Cloud into a trap, the "One Wined Angel" will follow suit! It's genius!" He started laughing maniacally, until Umbra barked, and bumped his arm, just as another draft blew in and the second wererat hid behind a curtain.

Rufus stopped cackling, and immediately dove back into thought. "Of course. Sephiroth is Hojo's only success story. I need something to... pacify him with, or he'll probably wipe out my army. But with what- " He stopped, and looked over at the poison he had thrown aside.

Upon opening the small vial, the stench of the poison was so vile made Rufus gag, and he covered his mouth with his sleeve. The second Umbra smelled it, the dog whimpered and hid behind Rufus, cowering down. "That's disgusting. Just like its owner." He hissed to himself.

A drop of the liquid fell onto the desk, and burned a hole straight through to the ground. "Well, it ruins mahogany. That's interesting." Rufus muttered, muffled through his jacket. He pulled out one of the bullets for his shotgun, cracked it open, and poured a bit of the poison inside.

The metal didn't corrode. Rufus loaded the bullet back into his shotgun and immediately corked the poison, before the smell killed him. "Now what?" He mused, before glancing at the slowly moving second wererat which had wandered out for behind the curtain.

Without another word, he shot it.

The creature squealed, and as Rufus watched, its body began to melt and burn away. WIthin seconds, the monster was nothing more than a charred puddle. Umbra whimpered again, but Rufus was elated.

"Well, Hojo, you've done extremely adequate work for once." He snickered, putting his gun down. "Imagine what this can do to two ex SOLDIERS. Oh I'm going to relish those screams. Especially Cloud's."

He stood up and walked over to the door. "Come, Umbra. We must prepare for my victory."

******

Alternate title: Evil brat kills mice and complains for 1K words.

I don't exactly like Rufus, but granted he's a better villain than Hojo, so he's not that bad. (And it's now canon he's a good dog dad)

Did you know my original draft was going to have Rufus kill one of his soldiers? I decided that was a little out of character, since even though he's a jerk, he can't exactly be a jerk to the people he's paying.

Sephiroth is still the best villain though, you can't even FIGHT me on that. (He's my favorite character, if that wasn't completely obvious :')

Anyway, vote, comment, ask me questions, do whatever. Have a nice day/night.