The Forgotten Hero

Chapter 28

                “Now then…We’re faced with two issues. 1 Destroy Meteor. 2 Remove the barrier around North Cave and defeat Sephiroth. Any ideas?” Rufus glanced at his worthless managers of which were sitting. The only useful one was standing in a corner.

                “Gya haah ha ha! The first problem’s already solved!” Heidegger practically shouted. “Meteor will soon be smashed to bits! The plan is already in motion. We are collecting Huge Materia from each region.”

                “What?” Rufus narrowed his eyes. This was different from his original plan.

                Scarlet walked into the room, “Huge Materia is a high-density, special type of Materia made through a special compression process in Mako reactors. The energy extracted from it is 330 times the strength of normal Materia.” Scarlet gave out a laugh, “How about that? We will gather all the Huge Materia together and ram it into Meteor. That will cause a huge explosion, reducing Meteor literally to bits!!”

                Rufus crosses his arms, “You’re going to ram Meteor? Do you think we have the technology to do it?”

                “First things first!” Scarlet crossed her arms as well. “Right now, we’ve got to collect Huge Materia from each area.”

                Heidegger spoke up, “We’ve already collected Matera from Nibelheim. All that’s left are Corel and Fort Condor. I’ve already dispatched troops to Corel.” He gave out a loud laugh. This certainly wasn’t what he had in mind. But it seemed as if he had no choice but to go with it.

“How’d it go?” Verna looked up at Rufus as he walked into the mansion in Midgar. She was currently sitting on the stairs typing with Dark Nation at her feet.

                “Not how I expected it. They already have a plan in action, I can’t say I’m confident that it’s going to work, but there’s nothing I can do now,” Rufus spoke as he moved some hair out of his face. His eyes landed on something next to Verna, “Did the article about AVALANCHE escaping get published?”

                “It’s going out tomorrow,” Verna grinned and handed it to him. “My boss sent this to me. At the end I mocked Heidegger telling him I was there. Pretty awesome, isn’t it?”

                Rufus nodded slowly, “He’s going to be angry when he reads this tomorrow.”

                “Good,” Verna closed the lid of her laptop and stood up. “So what was your plan anyways?”

                Rufus shook his head and moved some hair out of his face, “It’s not important now. I’ll have it set up, just in case.”

A flash illuminated the sky. People screamed thinking that Meteor was finally hitting Gaia. When the light subdued, people looked up. Sobs were heard everywhere. The attempt to destroy Meteor failed miserably. If anything Meteor was just more furious. Things were becoming hopeless.

                Verna looked out the window of the tower of Midgar. She frowned. She could only hope that Rufus’s plan would work. If it didn’t people only had a few days of living left. She looked down to the floor. She was relying on Rufus a tad too much.

                “And here I am being useless,” She whispered to herself. “What good have I been? I’ve only caused trouble…”

                “Are you afraid?” Verna looked behind her to see Rufus entering the room. He stared out the window of his office.

                “What?” Verna was slightly taken aback.

                “Are you afraid of what will happen?” His eyes examined Meteor as it began descended upon Gaia.

                Verna looked back out the window, “I think everyone is. Those who are partying are doing it because they’re afraid to leave this planet with regrets. Those who are going into hiding are scared of dying and want to fight for their chance to survive.” And then Verna paused as a distant look glazed over her eyes. “And there are those who are trying to stop Meteor and Sephiroth. They are the most afraid.”

                Rufus looked over at her, he fell into that category, “What do you mean?”

                Verna crossed her arms, “They might be afraid of dying…But I think they’re more afraid of letting someone they know and care about die. They’re more afraid that they’ll never get the chance to see them again, or they’re afraid of losing what they’ve worked so hard to build. You’ve worked hard for your company and you’re probably scared of losing it.”

                Rufus looked back over to the window and let her words sink in. He allowed the words to echo off of his ear drums. What she said held some truth in it. In fact, he already came to terms with his impending death. However, he hasn’t come to terms with his workers dying. He hasn’t come to terms with AVALANCHE dying – though he hated them, he didn’t deny that what they were doing was for the best.

                “I am afraid,” He spoke. “There’s someone that I don’t want to lose.”

                Verna looked up at him sadly, “I see…” She looked back to the window – it wouldn’t be her. She was just a stupid newspaper girl that caused more trouble.

                “I don’t want you to die,” Rufus spoke softly.

                Verna felt her heart leap. She looked up at him seeing his gaze was on her. She took a tentative step towards him before she wrapped her arms around his torso. He responded by wrapping his own arms around her.

                “I love you,” He spoke into the top of her head.

                “Mmm,” Verna nodded. “I love you, too.”

                The two stayed in an embrace. The office was illuminated only by their impending doom. Meteor would hit Gaia in only a matter of days.

--A/N—

I think I have pretty much everything the game here…I did leave out some parts with AVALNCHE, but hey…I want to finish this story soon. I mean…There will be at least 30 chapters just for the game. I’m debating whether or not I want to go into Advent Children, or if I want to change the entire happenings with Rufus and what happens in the next chapter. We shall see~! You decide! Comment if you want me to go into Advent Children. And Chapter 29 is finished~!