History Blurb

Listen to my story

All the people and friends that you have lost, and faded dreams are never truly gone. Life continues unabated--It evokes a sickle memory that seems to fade but never truly leaves you. Like in the busy streets of midgar with cars packed as the snow falls gently on a Feburary afternoon. We remember-

We remember the platforms that used to block the sun from the slums (destroyed by Meteor), and we remember ShinRa wiped from the face of the planet along with the rebuilding era. We remember new buildings springing forth from the cold ground with greater emphasis on freedom and choice. More importantly we remember an old decaying slum where poverty was eliminated and new neighborhoods were generated.

What we don't remember from the history that we were told was Rikelus J. Deverell's role in it.

Rikelus J. Deverell grew up the illegitimate son of President ShinRa and Professor Hojo's lab assistant Beatrice. He was part of the infants who were experimented on with cellular tissue that ShinRa believed to be from the guiding light of knowlespole-only later would it be known that the calamity from the skies (jenova) was not a Cetra. Infact, some of the science notes claim that many of the scientist's minds betrayed them during those several months. The memories of the crew and notes were very fuzzy except for two prominent scientists that rose through the ranks. Professor Gast and Professor Hojo.

The President offered the child (Rikelus) to Commander Fenix J. Deverell of ShinRa's special forces. Rikelus adopted Fenix's last name and was raised by one of the greatest tacticians in ShinRa since Davoren J. Murdock. Rikelus witnessed the first blast from the Sister Ray as it exterminated all life on a single island near Wutai. On that day nobody dare cross the city of Midgar or the ShinRa Electric Power Company. Growing up he found himself in constant competition with Sephiroth until one day they were shipped over to dispatch Wutai ground forces.

ShinRa was trying to buy the loyalty of the leaders of Wutai with materia. The shipments were raided by a thief-so we went looking for the stones which in turn were material as payment for their co-operation. In one year we never found anyone who traded with the thief-one day down by the river I saw a young girl playing with a piece of materia casting thunder spells. The thief had been discarding them at the mouth of the creek. I was very young in my military training and could not fathom the reasons behind the thief's logic.

Why take them to just discard them? He saw it as good sport-the thing I began to understand about humans is some cannot be bought, bullied, reasoned, negotiated, or manipulated. Some humans are not looking for sex, love, money, or power; but, they simply just want to watch the world burn.

So--We burned the town to the ground until there was nowhere left to hide---ten years later Godo became the warlord to the town and rebelled against the ShinRa company and formed Wutai from its ashes. This was the first of many lessons I learned as a SOLDIER.

However my indentured servitude to the company was cut short one fateful day in Nibelheim. I arrived to see that my comrade's actions had taken a turn for the worse. I had always considered myself a monster-but what I witnessed there in the raging fires was much worse than any label I put on myself. I saw pure anarchy and cast aside my rank in the morning along with my ambitions of returning to ShinRa. I promised a friend that I'm going to go and lead a normal life, but I can't. I try, I really do, but I just can't. I've lost too much, seen too much, done too much that I regret and would give anything to change... I can't go back. I'm so fixated on going back to normal, to the way things were, but I can't ever seem to get there. It's not until I'm lying awake one night, tangled in sheets and trying to slow the pounding of my heart after another nightmare, that I realize why I can't. I don't really have a normal to go back to...and it scares me.

I realize that for some of us, were not normal...we never were. So that's one less thing that keeps me awake at night. Although I do miss the traveling, the friends, popping the corks on the bottles after a big victory; but never the exhaustion and pain. I'll forever go on, as the hero who won the war, and didn't even fire a single shot. It wasn't the surviving the battles part that killed me, It's waking up every morning and knowing that the meaning of justice can change from one day to the next is what makes you think twice about your occupation

The World is fickle, it constantly evolves and changes as long as we remain loyal to our mission and ourselves we don't need anything else to believe in. Rikelus Deverell was at the fork in the road, what was it going to be...