Darkness—

After being hit directly by the Weapon’s attack, Rufus Shinra laughed as he began to slip away in the darkness.

The Weapon was a monster that lay dormant within the Planet. After its attack hit close towards the President’s office, the blast had knocked Rufus to the floor. An explosion followed within the Shinra Building afterwards and the metal materials that formed the ceiling fell crashing through the floor next to him. He rolled his body underneath a desk to avoid all the falling debris. He was prepared for death the moment he saw the Weapon’s fire heading directly towards him. However, the moment the impact knocked him to the floor, anger welled inside him. He was angry at himself for accepting death. What does it mean? Why didn’t he want to die? His anger calmed him down. The Weapon might attack again. He had to escape quickly.

As Rufus looked for some means of escape, his eye caught sight of a small switch engraved with the letter, ‘L’.

It was located underneath the desk so that it was hidden away from view. It must be for some emergency use if it’s placed here. Perhaps it will be of use in this situation. Rufus pressed it without hesitation. The part of the floor he was lying back on disappeared with a “Gatan” and he found himself falling about one metre downwards. He lands on a hard sloping floor and began sliding down it. In the end, I still think I’m going to die. And not only that, it looks like I’m going to die inside an air duct that runs around the building’s walls and floors. It’s ridiculous. What would everyone think once they found my corpse? Right in the middle of a battle in which the Planet’s life was at stake, the President of the very Shinra Company that had the power to fight with the enemy dies. Inside an air duct. Ha. Such a jest. It’s a pity I can’t see myself now. But what is it with this air duct? There’s no reason why it should be built at such an abrupt angle. And that L switch— Rufus suddenly remembered a conversation he had with his father twenty years ago. He finally raised his voice and laughed.

It was when he was only five years old. Young Rufus had woken up in the middle of the night and noticed his father was back home – which was rare. Knowing he might get scolded and be made to go back to bed he went out but to his surprise, his father seemed to be in a very good mood and showed him a blueprint. It was a blueprint of the the President’s Office at the top floor and how it was to be modified.

“What do you think? This is the room where I give out orders to the world.”

“Amazing.”

Rufus pretended to show his interest while he did his best to read something from the plans. He had to make his father praise how clever he was. But he couldn’t read anything and only said what was on his mind.

“Father, where’s the escape route?”

His father couldn’t understand what Rufus was thinking.

“Escape route? What?”

“If the enemy attacked, you need someway to escape.”

“Ah—”

Realizing what his son meant, the father continued, “Shinra Company has no enemies. Even if there were, the President’s Office is on the seventeenth floor. No one would be able to attack there.”

“Mr. Palmer said the enemy can attack from space.”

“Palmer said that?”

The father’s eyebrows frowned deeply. It was a sign he was angry. Palmer, who lead the Space Development Division, could be in for some trouble later. But Palmer told him that being scolded was part of his job so all will be fine. As long as as I haven’t made him angry at me, I don’t care. But it looks like I have.

“Father, I’m sorry. I’m kind of sleepy.”

“Listen, Rufus. It’s as you say—” continued President Shinra, ignoring his son. “I will have an escape route built in case the enemy attacks. But let me make this clear, Rufus. I won’t use it. It will be for you once you become president. Of course, there’s no guarantee you will take my place.”

“Father—”

“Ha. Escape? Me?”

“Father, I’m sorry.”

“Why do you apologise? Are you admitting your idea was wrong?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re such a simple-minded one!”

There was nothing else that Rufus could think off when he looked at the plan apart from an escape route.

“We will mark out the escape route with something that really stands out. “L”. Don’t forget it now. ‘L’ for “Loser.”

And Rufus was thankful. Thankful for what he did when he was five years old.

The seemingly never ending long chute that lead all the way down to the ground floor from the President’s Office gave enough time to think back through one’s life. All the trivial memories that had been forgotten were revived one after the other. When Rufus realised that they were all linked to his father, he realised that he too was just another male— Another boy. A boy that just wanted to surpass his father and be praised but didn’t know how to express his feelings and in the end, all he got from his father was being scolded and ignored. However, the fact that such an experience lead him to the now seemed to be more hilarious than any other joke he’s heard in his life. In the darkness he laughed wholeheartedly.

The escape chute ended abruptly and Rufus found himself sliding into a bright room surrounded by white walls. It wasn’t a very big room but Rufus didn’t stop until he hit the wall opposite the chute.

“Yikes!”

Rufus laughed again at the pitiful sound he made. He noticed some of his rib bones had broken but he couldn’t stop laughing. He continued to laugh, remaining in a pose that he would have found too disgraceful to show anyone when he hit the wall. However, his fractures eventually pulled him back to reality.

With his body still aching slightly from the escape route, Rufus turned to survey the room. It was approximately five square metres in size with white walls. Next to the chute’s exit was a plain bed that reminded one of the hospital. The linen was high quality but clearly it hasn’t been used for a very long time. The whole wall on the right was used as a closet. To the left was what looked like a door made from steel. While bearing the pain, Rufus tried to get crawl closer to it and looked over its structure. There wasn’t a handle or signs of any traps. It had a small panel which seemed to be where the door was controlled from. But Rufus had no idea what the passkey could be and neither did he have the strength for trial and error. He gave up opening the door and turned to face the closet, getting up and dragging his feet towards it.

I’m in such a state I just can’t bear to be seen by anyone. The closet doors opened easily. Inside were sterilised boxes made by Shinra. He reached for the bottom shelf—that was as far as he could reach—and pulled a box out. Engraved on the lid were the words, “For L”.

“Ha.”

Seeing the engraving made Rufus laugh with his nose up. Again, he couldn’t suppress the laughter that welled up from within him but laughing made his ribs hurt. He managed to open the lid by keeping his laughter down. As he expected, inside were potions and other medicines from the pharmacy. Avoiding the deterioated magical items that may have turned into poison, he took some of the painkillers and waited for it to take effect to relief his body. His eyes were focused on the giant ‘L’ on the ceiling.

“Don’t make me laugh any more, dad.”

After absorbing the painkillers, he waited for the haziness to go away. He was right in choosing to use a Shelter while using the medicines from the pharmacy. But at the same time, he felt extremely irritated. Soon, Rufus went to the control panel on the door and supporting himself against the wall, he tried entering a number of passkeys. It all ended up in nothing. It was the medicine’s fault that he couldn’t concentrate on cracking the passkey but, it was also he himself who decided to take the medicine in the first place.

* * *

Rude and Reno were in the wrecked President’s Office.

“No one’s here.”

“Yeah.”

“You’ve checked carefully three times?”

“Everywhere.”

“So he’s alive.”

“But where could he be?”

There were a few girders that seemed to have fallen from the ceiling onto the floor. They focused on searching under them carefully, making sure Rufus wasn’t under them.

“So— where else?”

With the Meteo closing in, a powerful storm was blowing. The Turks ignored the Meteo and continued their search for Rufus. The rescue party had made their rounds but they never received any reports of Rufus being found.

Rude and Reno went through an inconspicious door located further in from the entrance on the first floor of the Shinra building and checked the Executives Only Emergency Room that lead half way into the ground. The previous President Shinra’s habits meant it was built very simple. It was sturdy but had no decorations at all – not even a single painting. Exposed steel girders can be seen on the ceiling, walls, floor – everywhere.

“Nothing here. Lets go, Rude.”

“Wait.”

Rude stopped Reno and pointed to part of a wall.

“The colour’s different.”

* * *

Rufus stood next to the control panel and stared at the keys numbered zero to nine. He knew all he had to do was try every combination possible but it was an impractical thought. He will probably lose track half way through his trial and error. He had to think of an more efficient way of cracking it. The passkey may have a certain meaning linked to it. But then he thought that his father would never do something like that because to him, it was meaningless. He had already tried the meaningful numbers that both he and his father knew—his mother’s birthday and the day she died—none of them unlocked the door.

He didn’t know how long he’s been in the room. All that mattered to him was that he was still alive and Meteor was still in the skies. In other words, their operation to use the Sister Ray had failed and Sephiroth was still in the Northern Crater. In that case, sooner or later Meteor will impact with the Planet and he will die.

Rufus thought about death. So my spirit will become one with the Lifestream that courses through this Planet. I wonder if father will be there too. Does consciousness have a shape? No, such a powerful flow of energy would shatter the consciousness of any single human being easily.

“Ah, I see now.”

He smiled as he came to realise what it would mean if the Planet was going to disappear. A moment later he took the small bottle of painkillers from his white suit’s pocket. He put three pills in his mouth, grinded them with his teeth and stared at the control panel.

“Ha.”

Even if he was going to die, he didn’t want to die in such a room. He entered the combinations that never came to mind when he had first entered the room and gazed the control panel. He knew by entering such numbers in anticipation, he was admiting defeat to his father. But this was no time for pride.

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