So, my first try on a longer story regarding FF7. Basically, it is going to be about Rufus and Tifa. And maybe a bit TsengxElena, but I don't know about that, yet.
The story starts about half a year after Advent Children, but as far as I am planning it, the main storyline will take place about half a year later.
Be warned, I am not a native speaker, but I'll try to do my best.
By the way, in case you don't know, couldn't have guessed or just might want to sue me: I own none of the characters of this story, they all belong to Square Universe. Nor do I intend to make any money out of this story.
If you do want to sue me: it's not worth it. I barely own my computer.
Edit: Here, I am thanking Sorceress Damia for beta-reading this story and helping me with all grammatical problems and for adding some suggestions which really spice the story up (I think so, you go on and judge ^^). So, over the next few weeks, the chapters will be corrected.
Thanks a million, Damia!!!!
Chapter One: A New Policy
Tseng entered the break room and turned to the coffee machine, not even looking around him. Rufus had decided to stop coming to the room and locked himself up in his office again. And he didn't like it. He wasn't about to admit it but it hurt him. After all his years of service, and all they had been through; after all the time they had spent at his side, the long period of suffering after the explosion and -most recently, just when he had seemed to have recovered, the infection with Geostigma.
In the background, Reno was laughing at something; he heard Elena's hesitant laugh and felt his heart twist. He had never believed he should hear that sound again. Though, it had been over half a year now. Though the nights when he awoke sweating with fright were growing less. Still, he would do it all over again if he had to.
He pushed the button, half leaning to the wall, and listened to the noise the machine made as it slowly set to work. He was far too gloomy for his own good. The day had been exhausting again. The only highlight had been when Heidegger and Scarlet had left Rufus' office infuriated only half an hour ago. Scarlet had shouted at Tseng, demanding to know if he couldn't get the boy to listen to at least a bit of common sense. Perhaps Scarlet had forgotten that everyone else and most of all she, too, were aging. But even if Rufus had still been a teenager, even if he hadn't shut everyone out and gone back to scheming, there had never been a way to force him to do anything he didn't want to do, anyway.
Tseng thought of the piles of paperwork that still needed attention. One thing for sure, rebuilding a civilisation took far more work than destroying one.
The noise of boiling water drowned the voices behind him as he was thinking. If he told them about Scarlet and Heidegger, Reno would laugh his head off, Rude's glasses would gleam a bit brighter, and Elena would smile, just a little bit. But that smile would be worth it.
He took a mug from the cupboard and the pot of fresh coffee from the machine.
"You can make two of them." The voice was soft and followed by a lean frame that entered the room, hesitant.
Without a comment, Tseng took another mug from the cupboard and filled it with coffee before he took one up and handed the other to Rufus.
In silence, both of them went to the arrangement of couches around the low glass table; Tseng sitting down first, in his habitual place, and Rufus moving around the table to the armchair that had been placed there several ages ago for him.
The talk of the other three Turks abruptly stopped as he sat down, Reno's face broke into a mixture of delight and puzzlement, Rude's glasses tilted just a bit and Elena's eyes studied the white form before they travelled to Tseng's, as if they needed reassurance. Tseng leaned back, sipping at his coffee.
Rufus was holding the mug in both hands, looking into the dark liquid. He didn't like coffee.
"About half an hour ago, Scarlet and Heidegger came stalking from Rufus' office." Tseng started thoughtfully and took another sip. The other three had focussed their attention on him again, Reno sucking at a beer bottle. Only Elena's eyes were wandering back to Rufus from time to time. Rufus carefully brought the mug against his lips as Tseng went on.
Their reactions were just as he had predicted them, and he felt a jolt as he studied the small smile on Elena's lips. Rufus sipped at his coffee again, a smile venturing over his lips. "I told them I would change our policy." A smirk crossed his features. "Tseng, you might better double my security staff."
"They took it that badly?" Reno asked, somehow managing to create a sentence between bottle and mouth. "They've got to be used to it by now, don't they?"
So he had finished scheming. "I see." Tseng murmured. In his head two and two were adding up. And quite much in the way he had hoped they would, but never believed they could. No wonder Scarlet and Heidegger had been infuriated. "So we haven't been collecting those patents and Hojo's results for nothing."
Rufus looked up, gave some sort of a nod, and dropped the bomb almost casually. "Shin-Ra will be going green."
Silence. Three pairs of eyes were searching their boss's face for any hints of a joke. There was none. Tseng took a sip at his coffee and hid a smile. He had been around the heir nearly since the boy's mid-teens. He was used to having brilliant (and not quite so brilliant) ideas dropped upon him. But this one was certainly worth the long phase of self-centred brooding. It was ingenious.
Meanwhile the voices of his three subordinates rose in an uproar. Rufus was leaning back, a satisfied smirk crossing his lips as he interrupted their protest. "You are asking the wrong question. It is not 'why?' but 'why not?'" His hand travelled around the mug, the vapour winding around his fingers as he did so. "Power plants other than mako reactors have to be built anyway. Why spend millions of gil on antiquated technology with a degree of efficiency scarcely above 20 % if we've got technologies at our hands that are far more efficient? Why pay millions of gil for oil plants, or oil itself, if sun and wind won't charge us? Oil's going to be finished sometime; wind and sun won't. That is, not in the next few million years."
Silence again. Three pairs of eyes were staring at him and Rufus was clearly enjoying it. "Going green is the most profitable option, and thus suggesting itself. Really" Rufus gave a condescending laugh and flicked his hair. "All those tree huggers are stupid digging for oil."
Silence for several moments, before Rufus broke it, in a low voice: "Besides, we – I – Shin-Ra owes it to the planet." He vortexed the vapour with his index finger and lifted his head to meet Tseng's eyes. His co-workers might have been stunned by his words, but it wasn't until Tseng's eyes did not meet with two perfectly blue ones that he became as stunned as them.
"Shachou, excuse me, but what is wrong with your eye?"
About one month after the Kadaj-incident, the iris of his eye - the one that had been infected with Geostigma - had slowly started changing from its restored light blue first, to a lighter blue which faded, until eventually no colour had been left and the blood shone through.
Just for a second, Tseng's eyes trailed to the right hand which was holding the mug again. He had always been pale, but even the fair light couldn't blur the white blotch on the back of his hand with the rest of his skin, though it did blur it with the whitewashed walls and the pristine white of his clothes.
In the same moment, his eyes were back on Rufus', but he saw that the other had noticed his distraction. The edges of the mouth twisted up in a short smile, too short to tell whether it had been contemptuous. It was time for contacts, then, at last.
"Well… at least it will make Shin-Ra popular for a change", Elena remarked.
"Mattaku! I'm so going to love watching the price for oil plants crash when we sell ours!" Reno laughed. "Gaia! That'll be a laugh!"
"Scarlet actually shouted at me that my father would be turning in his grave if he knew."
Reno raised his half empty bottle. "Well, then, this is to your father turning in his grave!"
The smirk on Rufus' face was snide as he, too, lifted his mug. "To the old man, turning in his grave."
"To Shin-Ra, going green." Elena was lifting her glass of water.
"Shin-Ra." Rude's glass was half empty.
Tseng raised his mug, thoughtfully. "To repaying the planet."
So, this is the first chapter. I plan to get Rufus in quite a lot of trouble through his new policy which should bring him, through several unfortunate circumstances, into Tifa's company.
As you may have noticed, I revived Scarlet and Heidegger. I am in need of some villains and I thought it a bit nicer to give that part to someone who is already known.
I'd be very happy about reviews in any case ^^
Thanks a lot ^^